Snow Day!

Happy January! We are getting back to normal life and routines after an amazing (and much too short) trip to SoCal. Well, at least we are trying to get back to normal life! I was gearing up for my first 5 day workweek, only to be saved by a treacherous inch of snow!

Knoxville gets snow several times a winter, but it rarely sticks from what I've heard. However, we've had temps below freezing for 9 days straight (highs hovering around 25)... so the snow stuck! We knew it was supposed to start snowing Thursday, so all of us teachers were like little kids, watching out the window all day for the first flakes. We spotted them at lunch, found out Knox County closed schools an hour early (we follow Knox County closings), and everything went into a frenzy. All of the kids were picked up by 1:45, and it was officially a snow day! First of my life! We found out last night that schools would be closed today too.

So what did I do on my first snow day ever? Slept in late. Cleaned the bathroom (official Friday chore). Ate banana bread for breakfast. Caught up on blogs and started reading through the archives of one I really enjoy. Ate a disappointing yam for lunch. Read some of David McCullough's biography of Teddy Roosevelt (I love everything that man has written <3). Walked over to Borders and Food City with Scott (when it was 20.3 degrees outside). Experimented to bake my first loaf of "real bread" (not a quick bread like banana bread, but yeast-based sandwich bread). Made homemade pizza from dough we had made and frozen last week. Watched some Daily Show. Looked out the window every 20 minutes to see if the snow was still there (it is!) :-)

I'm so glad we had a snow day, especially since I have to get up early to take a Praxis (teacher certification) exam in the morning. It was nice to have a morning to rest! And next weekend is a 3 day weekend again because of MLK Day!
Celebrating in our apartment complex on Friday night
Want to go for a swim?
A new level of excitement for the War Machine! Pretty cool icicle (they are all along the front too)
Bread in progress! Mixing the dough at high speed, which made the mixer travel slowly across the counter toward the edge... very exciting.

Before baking... wondering if this is going to work. So far, so good!
Look! A real loaf of bread! Tomorrow, we'll see how it tastes :-)

All in all, a fabulous, relaxing and fairly productive snow day!