Monday, February 22, 2021

SNOWPOCALYPSE 2021

I can't wait for the day when our world is not in chaos. Like seriously, can we just get a DAY? That'll be a good day. 


I'm sure you know that all of Texas was hit with a really huge, ugly winter storm last week. 

Millions of people all over the state lost power at some point. Some went days in freezing cold houses with no running water. Some had water but it was the kind that was flooding their homes from broken pipes. Some were dealing with rolling blackouts with no real rhyme or reason as to when things would shut on and off. And some managed to avoid any power outages at all. That would be us actually.

Want to know a secret? I feel extremely guilty that the world was falling apart all around us and somehow we were spared the misery. I'm pretty sure we were on the same grid as the Catholic Church nearby which was acting as a warming station too. So we never even had a blip. And I was completely prepared for the worst. After a few days of seeing most of Mckinney freezing on FB I was seriously like "I'll take a day for them! Seriously!". 

We never had anyone come stay with us although we offered it up to several of our friends if they needed it. Some ended up staying with other friends, some chose to just hunker down just so they could keep an eye on their house in case something crazy happened that needed immediate attention and some didn't want to leave a plethora of pets. (Although Charlie would have been happy for any 4 legged company.)

But it's over now. We did have some very minor pool damage but other than that, it was fairly uneventful for us.

I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I should have but it was like -3 outside and taking pictures required you to take your gloves off and out of your pockets. And that was painful. 😂

But here's what our week looked like.

Valentine's Day SNOW! We were all excited about this. It was all still new. Still fun. Still exciting.

We clearly were not prepared for snow and single-digit temps. Mason wore my red boots most of the week. Our neighbors also let us borrow some snow pants for both boys that came in CLUTCH. So thankful for neighbors who ski! haha

I climbed into the attic to get down our boogie boards that we take to the beach every year. Who knew they'd be amazing snowboards too!

Thankful for fireplaces (and goofy 10yo boys).

I took the boys up to the school to do some sledding with their friends and I was HURTING. The wind was just painful. I stayed out there for 10 minutes, snapped a pic with Matthew to prove I was there, and then went back to watch them from the car. They stayed out there for almost an hour and I do not know how they did it. Later that night when I went to wash my face, I saw that my cheeks were super red, hot to the touch and swollen! I couldn't figure out what was going on but realized it was from windburn! From being out there for 10 minutes!




This was just from the preliminary snowfall but it was just the right amount to get them whizzing down the hill.


Chuck was dying to be a part of all the fun. That dog has major FOMO. So we brought him into the culdesac with us for a while.



After all the excitement that day with the snow, we almost forgot it was Valentine's Day! I got each kid a little gift (lap desks for each, a galaxy light thing for Matthew, and a new box of canvases for Mason. He is into art right now and loves to paint.) Plus some candy...including an XL Hershey Bar which is what Matthew's face is all happy about in this picture! 😂


I posted this picture of Craig and me on social media because the beach background was looking pretty good next to all that snow and ice! Funnily enough, I was actually supposed to BE at the beach on Valentine's Day with my girlfriends but we had to reschedule for this coming weekend because of the storm. I'm so glad we did. We would have been completely stuck for days. This weekend is going to be a million times better!


The next day, we woke up to even more snow! And it really was beautiful.


Mason was back at it first thing that morning while Matthew was still asleep. Matthew will be 13 in a few months and is already in full on teen-mode. Mason, on the other hand, will always be a kid at heart. He'll wake up bright and early as long as there is something fun to do!



We managed to get a coat on Chuck finally. It was not easy.


It was a little big since it was a hand-me-down from our last dog but he sure did look cute!


Still a Master of the Side Eye.


Our pool (like everyone else's) was trying to freeze over completely. Thankfully, since our power never went out, it was able to keep running the whole time which kept the pipes from freezing up. But we still had to go out and break up the ice because...ummmm...honestly I'm not really sure why we had to do that but everyone else in Mckinney was so we did too. 😂




On Night 2, I was fully prepared for the lights to go out. I just figured it was our turn. We ate a good dinner (Craig grilled us steaks), we all showered, I poured myself a yummy margarita (this stuff is so good and it also comes in just the regular margarita flavor too) and I settled in to watch Lost while I waited. Once again, the lights never went out, our water never froze up and we felt SUPER guilty about our good fortune.

(PS: I found this at Tom Thumb in case anyone is wondering.)

After an episode of Lost, Mason came into the bedroom and wanted to watch a movie so we decided on The Mighty Ducks 2. I can still recite every word. And the 12yo me might still have a crush on Adam Banks. 😍


The next day, we checked on the pool. All the broken ice chunks had refrozen back together. The only places that weren't frozen were where two of the jets were on. There was a third too but that section froze up.


Craig got out there to beat the heck out of in his best attire. 😂


And Chuck refused the coat so I didn't bother. He loved the snow!


I wandered around the backyard to see how deep it had gotten in some parts. 


Sweet boy found his ball buried under all that snow!


I took another picture to prove that I was indeed a part of this historic event.


Matthew decided to grace us with his presence by lunchtime. Being snowed in with no school work to worry about and an Xbox is a dream for this one.


He was looking out the window for this BOBCAT!!


We have bobcats and coyote sightings all the time in our neighborhood. They run around like lost pets. I've seen one sitting up against my neighbor's garage door one morning at 7am. I saw one jump from the ground to the top of a privacy fence as I rounded a corner in my car and I've seen 1 just trotting down the middle of the street like this twice.


There has never been an instance where one has been aggressive towards a person. They don't seem to be bothered by us much. We keep our distance and they keep theirs. We do have to keep an eye on small pets in our backyards though which stresses me out.

But anyway. Back to the snow.

We had leftover snowcone syrup from this summer so a scoop of snow was all that was needed! Mason was in heaven. I thought it was gross. 🤷‍♀️


All that new snow meant more "sledding" for the boys! Mason met up with his friends and they had the best time!


Our neighborhood is FULL of 5th grade boys.


And that's about it for my snow pics! Yesterday was in the high 60s/low 70s so all of our snow has melted and it's feeling a lot more like Texas now. I'm not sure if we'll wish for snow again for the next few years! We wished for it for so long and look what happened! 😬

I spent this weekend working on a mountain of laundry and dishes. Since we DID have power all week, we tried to do our part by keeping our heat turned down, lights we weren't using off, and didn't use any big appliances like our washer/dryer and dishwasher to help conserve energy. So now we're overflowing and I swear I'm never going to catch up.

There's also this.


I've got several packages in limbo right now. Will they show up or won't they? That is the question, my friends. Matthew REALLY needs that new backpack I ordered him!! His has a giant hole in the bottom and it's not good for his laptop. Sigh. So ready for life to get back to normal. Like NORMAL normal. Will that day ever come?!

Who knows. All I know is this...


The high is 72 tomorrow. Back in the 40s next Monday. That's Texas for you!

If you are looking for a way to help all the Texans that were hit hard by this storm, here is one easy way to help out Mckinney!

The Mckinney Little Free Pantry is amazing. I'd love to volunteer with them sometime soon. I just filled out their form yesterday. They offer non-perishable food items, toiletries, and other basic items with no rules or regulations. It's just a "take what you need, leave what you can" honor system. With so many people displaced by burst pipes and water damage and grocery stores still working to restock shelves, there is a big need to keep the Pantry stocked! You can go to Amazon HERE and shop their wish list of items to help them stock the shelves. (*not an affiliate link)  It'll send the items straight to the Pantry. Such an easy way to help! (This is what I did!) If it says "Sanchez Charities", you're in the right place.

I hope we ALL have a great week this week, friends! I've got a really fun weekend coming up in Galveston with those sweet besties of mine so if you want to follow along for that, you can find me on Instagram @amandanall and on FB! Linking it all below! Happy Monday!



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4 comments

  1. Sitting next to you at church yesterday was one of the highlights of my week :) .

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  2. MAN i cannot believe all that snow, and I really can't believe you guys kept power and water the whole time! I'm glad though - what a mess.

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    1. I can't either!! Our whole neighborhood is over feeling super relieved and super guilty at the same time! 😬 Although some of the houses did still have some issues with pipes bursting. Our only damage was to a pipe in our pool equipment but it ended up being just a quick $75 fix. So thankful!!

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