Snow, Stuart and Staying Home!

Snow!  Finally!  Yes, we finally have some snow.  It had been predicted that we would be getting some snow overnight so everyone has been gearing up for it.  The grocery stores were mobbed!  I needed to go over to the Giant to pick up something for work and it was just crazy!  Bread and milk were scarce to be sure.  I even ran into a woman who started talking to me about what she was buying-candy and lots of it.  She said that she needed to stock up on candy you know the necesseties,  in the event that 'something should happen'.  (Though I am not totally sure what something she was talking about?!) She said that she had read that in the event that you are stuck somewhere and needed to reassure children or calm them down, candy is a good thing for that as it is something that the children don't usually get.  Interesting.  That's the first time that I've heard that candy is good for calming children down. 
Last night when I went to bed at about 11:30 the weather man was predicting that there could be as much as five inches on the ground by 8:00 am.  When I got up at 4:30 and looked out the window I was surprised to see only a small amount of snow on the ground.  I went back to bed and listened to the news and they were reporting slick driving conditions, school closings and even the closing of the federal government for the day, so I went back to sleep.  Ahhh!  It's a good day to stay in bed a little longer.  Telecommuting was definitely an option that I was going to take advatage of today.  So this is what it looked like when I got up for good shortly after seven:

These were taken from the sliding door in my kitchen.  We are expecting anywhere from 8-12 inches.

We'll see.  It is exciting though, it's the first big snow that we have had in two years.  I will update when the snow has stopped falling.

The story of Stuart. 

I keep a box of Kleenex in my car on the floor in between the two front seats.  It is convenient for me to have them there as they are easy to reach when I am driving.  The other day I noticed that the inside of my car was a mess, so  I vaccumed it out and got it nice and clean.  A day or so later, Jim and I were going to run some errands and took my car.  I got in the passenger side and noticed that there were lots of tiny pieces of tissue all over the floor on the passenger side and the tissue that was at the top of the box was pulled to the side and torn.  Jim joked that I might have a mouse in the car.  I kind of laughed it off and said that I'd call him Stuart.  I didn't think too much about it until yesterday.  I had bought a couple cases of water to bring to work and put them in the rear of the car and I noticed that there on the floor were more tiny pieces of the tissue!  I looked at the box in the front and noticed that again the top tissue was torn and pulled to the side and there were even little slash type marks in it.  When I told Jim he suggested that we put a mouse trap in there overnight.  Bella was here at the time and she got all excited about a mouse.  Then Jim suggested that the mouse might be making a nest and well, she about flipped! " A nest, babies!   How cute!  Tiny little mouse babies, can I have them?"  We asked her what she wanted them for and she replied "To feed them to my snake!"  Of coures, what else would she want to do with mice.  It's kind of strange in that she totally love animals and hates to see any animal hurt, but she completely understands that animals eating each other is part of the circle of life and it doesn't bother her at all.

That kid cracks me up!

So, is anyone else out there having a snow day today?

UPDATE: It had stopped snowing by 1:00 or so and turned to rain.  We now have less snow than we had this morning as the temperature was higher than expected and it has melted!  So much for a huge storm!  Also, Jim did set a mouse trap and put it in my car last night.  This morning he went out after Bella called and asked about the trap.  Sure enough, there was a mouse in it!  (Luckily the mouse did not survive the trap as they sometimes do!)  We did not save it for Bella to feed to Sarah as they buy their mice frozen from the pet store to help ensure that they are disease free.  Jim will put another trap in their tonight to make sure the one we caught was the only one inhabiting my car.