Ice storm!

Oh man. Blogging. It's just been tough for me lately. I wonder how many times I've said that in my last few posts? Probably every time! Ha. Oh well. Anyway, y'all might have heard that there was a bit of a storm throughout much of the country the last couple of days ... not that the weathermen have been talking it up or anything. Oh wait. Yes they have. We were told we were getting a "CRIPPLING AND POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC" ice storm.

Really? Crippling? Catastrophic? These are pretty serious words. We did indeed get an ice storm, though, and it's pretty crazy out there. School was cancelled yesterday and today, and I just got notification they are closed tomorrow as well. Over 10,000 homes in our county are without power - thankfully we escaped that! - and they have turned the school I work at into an emergency Red Cross shelter. Even the grass is a slick sheet of ice ... scary stuff! I took a few photos, starting yesterday when the ice was just beginning.

This is my car ... covered in ice yesterday. It's way worse today - I tried to open the driver's side door and the handle was frozen shut. Matt yanked on it a bit and finally got it to open, so that's good.

So pretty!


Aaand the rest of the photos are from today - I think we got 2-3 inches of snow today on top of our 1 inch of ice.




Oscar and I ventured to the mailbox today and it is definitely much less slippery out now - in fact, things are getting a bit slushy out there. The temp is supposed to dip pretty low tonight though, so I fear that a lot of that will freeze right back up.

An ice storm funny: in the middle of the night, Oscar woke me up because he had to go to the bathroom. I let him go outside and he pooped. I know, exciting right? Well, I didn't pick it up because it was crazy scary windy and icy out. So this morning, I went out to take care of it ... and his poop was frozen solid to the ground. Gross, right? Yet also really funny.

I did take all this extra time off to finish my very first sewing project ... and I think I will attempt to blog TWO DAYS IN A ROW to share that with you tomorrow! For all of you caught in this crazy storm with 2 feet of snow ... pleeeeease be careful and stay safe. I know a lot of people on Facebook are all "It's just snow, get over it people," but if you aren't careful in this weather, bad things happen. And that's today's Shaina PSA. :)

Chicago!

I had such a great time in Chicago this weekend! It was the great way to end my birthday week. Naturally, this will be a photo-heavy post. Deal with it!

I was very excited to finally meet Bacon this weekend. Here he is, in all of his fluffy glory!

He really is the most adorable puppy. He was on his best behavior for me, according to Lisa and Randy, and saved some of his devil dog behavior for after I went home. What a cutie! He even smiles for the camera.
Lisa and I picked up Jenny and went out to brunch at this lovely restaurant. Delish! We then met Jenn back at Lisa's apartment and started on our shopping/cupcaking journey. We first went to More, which Lisa and I had discovered on our lame chocolate tour in December. Here is a pretty photo of all the cupcakes:
And another pretty photo of Jenn taking a photo of ... me.
After that, we drove to Wicker Park for some shopping before dinner. We got out of the car and realized that we were right in front of a psychic's "office." And by office, I mean house. Jenn convinced us to get a psychic reading - a first for all of us, I believe! Here's a good photo of Jenn and Jenny in the "waiting room" i.e. living room at the psychic.
We learned lots of interesting stuff ... for example, I will have a miscarriage and Jenn has a tilted uterus, along with bad energy in zones 1-7. Fascinating stuff, really. Anyone know what zones 1-7 are? No? Me either. She did tell me that Matt will come home safe and sound, and after my first pregnancy ends in a miscarriage, I will go on to have 3 healthy babies. Interesting.

After some wandering around, we ended up at Hot Chocolate for dinner. AMAZING. We shared the garlic monkey bread appetizer with prosciutto and garlic olive oil (or something like that). Yummy!
Here's a cute photo of Jenn and Jenny!
Jenn, vamping for the camera
MMMMM dinner! I had the shrimp and grits appetizer as my entree, with a side of caramelized brussels sprouts. Everything was delicious. Yum yum yum!
I got a special birthday dessert - and it was amazing. It was something like ... an ice cream sandwich made with chocolate stout cake and chocolate ice cream, with some other stuff, and some hot chocolate fudgey sauce, and blah blah blah. Okay I really have no idea but it was literally one of the best desserts I have ever had!
Here is a not-so-great photo of me
Figuring out the bill was very complicated, so we left it to the person who understands math the most: Jenny.
The four of us (plus Bacon!) before saying goodnight. Yay! We had so much fun together...cannot wait to plan another get-together asap!
Here I am, stuck in Chicago traffic at 2pm on a Sunday. Gotta love it! Traffic is definitely one of the things I DON'T miss about living in a big city.
On my way home, I passed this farm with a gazillion windmills in Indiana. It was so neat! But very hard to photograph while driving.
And okay, don't hate me, but ... I'm at home with YET ANOTHER snow day today!!! Isn't that just crazy? This time we actually have crazy snow - there was quite a bit when I woke up this morning, and I took Oscar to play in the park. It's been snowing more and more all day, and the roads are awful. SERIOUSLY don't hate me, but I wouldn't be surprised if we had another snow day tomorrow. Crazy!
After the frolic in the snow, Oscar and I have been doing a lot of this. Enough said.
Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day!