What a Snowstorm!

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a good day to stay in and get Christmas put away (finally). We got about nine inches of snow during the night, so Steven had to do a lot of shovelling to even get out of the driveway! And then it kept snowing all morning to add to the snow of the night before. Bro. Sanders came over in the afternoon and shovelled the driveway and sidewalk just as I was getting ready to go out and do it. That was nice of him! Richard and I made it over to AF without any problems because the streets had been cleared off by 3:30. After dropping him off, I went to Macy's for a few groceries, then I came home and did some laundry and more putting things away while Steven was at the MTC greeting five new elders and two new sisters. So I got a bunch of stuff done. Then this morning, at 2:00 a.m., the phone rang--waking us up, of course. That's always scary that time of night. It turned out to be one of the new elders who had just arrived last night saying he needed to talk to Pres. Taylor. Steven told him he'd be at the MTC to talk to him in the morning (this morning), so he left at 7:00 a.m. to go to the MTC. I hope everything's all right.

Now I'm off to my hair appointment this morning, and Curves this afternoon. Good thing it's not snowing any more or I might have just wanted to stay inside!

The Trip that Didn't Happen!

I'm worn out from all that's been going on the last few days. I can't keep up with things. We got up at 5 a.m. to get ready to take Tiff to the airport at 6:00 to catch her 8:30 flight to Chicago. We were all still kind of worn out from the big happenings of last night. But a big winter storm had been forecast, so we thought we better give ourselves plenty of time to get up there. When we left shortly after 6:00, it was 42 degrees outside and raining. The snow hadn't come yet. We made good time all the way to the airport, and it didn't start snowing until just as we arrived. Everything was "go" for Tiff's flight to Chicago, so we left her there after she went through security. As we left the airport the snow was coming down in great white sheets. We hoped her plane could take off before it got too bad. Leaving the airport and driving home was not too fun because it was so snowy. We had to just kind of creep along. Well, not too long after leaving the airport, Tiff called and said the airport was closing for 45 minutes to clean off the runways. She thought she'd be okay being 45 minutes late. That still give her time to get to Midway airport, take a one hour ride on the CTA train to Union Station where she would meet up with her roommate, Alyson, have lunch, and then catch the Amtrak train at 4:05 for Mattoon. In Mattoon, Sis. Stowell was scheduled to pick them up at 6:00 and take them to Charleston. Well, the 45 min. delay turned out to be much longer. Tiff's flight, which was coming from Boise, had to turn around before landing and go back to Boise to refuel, and then fly back to Salt Lake. The 45 minute delay was turning into more like a 3 hour delay. So this was throwing off all the Chicago connections. Once Steven and I got home, I checked with Amtrak to see if Tiff could get on the 8:00 p.m. train, but it was sold out except for a $120 sleeping car ticket. So Tiff started trying different things on her end, and finally ended up with Southwest rerouting her to St. Louis tomorrow. Greg is flying to St. Louis tomorrow, so he will be there at the aiport already when she lands a couple of hours after him and he can drive her to Charleston. Tomorrow morning they can ride up to the airport with Greg's brother, Scott. In order for all this to work, one of the Southwest ladies had to go and find Tiffany's bag before it got put on the plane to Chicago, which she was able to do. So I think it worked out at well as it could have. In the meantime, Steven and I had to turn around and drive back up to Salt Lake to pick Tiff up at the airport and bring her home. It turned out to not be too bad because the snow was subsiding as we travelled north. After we got past American Fork, there was no snow to speak of. Quite different from a few hours before!

So right now, Greg and Tiff have gone to get her ring sized down a bit since it was a little too big. She plans to come home after that and, hopefully, take a nap. Then she and Lindy and I are planning to go on a "Girls' Night Out" for a little Thai food. Yum! Tiffany is glad to have an extra day at home. Maybe she can catch up on a little rest.

On our way back from the airport with Tiff, we stopped by the Barretts and played with the little girls for awhile. They were being so funny, as usual. Camden and Riley love playing with their American Girl dolls and Sidney loves trying to be one of the big girls. We discovered a new fun thing to do with her: "Tick Tock," where we swing her like a clock. She loves it and gets the biggest smile on her face.