If you need me, I'll be at home. With Loghead, Gibby and the skids. For at least the next 4 days. That big purple streak on the weather map you see right in the middle of Missouri? That's me. We're expecting about 20 inches of snow.

4 years ago we were all iced in together WITHOUT POWER for 8 days! I'm kinda of a pro at this now. Fortunately, this was a predicted storm, even though it switched to "blizzard" last night. Loghead and the boys brought in 5 loads of firewood Sunday. (We do have a wood stove, so that will help if power goes out.) I've been cooking and baking since Saturday. Schools were cancelled last night, and the governor declared a state of emergency until Wednesday morning. The freezing rain woke me up at 6:30 this morning, and I've been doing some more cooking and cleaning. Last time, we had no clean clothes because I was behind on laundry when the power went out. I want to make sure we ALL have everything we need for the next few days. i've also filled every possible container with water. A few more minor tasks, and I will take a shower. During our last storm, I went 5 days without bathing- until we finally checked into a hotel simply for the sake of having a shower, and the 4 more days after that.

Princess will be snowed into her dorm. Hopefully she'll make smart decisions (but I won't hold my breath.) As long as there's power, PITA and Lazy Boye will mostly spend their time in the basement on the Xbox. They do have a friend that is here, and Loghead and I are debating trying to get that kid home before it gets really bad. I can't really afford to feed another teenager, but this kid does keep the skids in line, and they have better behavior when he is around. Honestly, I like the friend better than I like the skids most days! LOL

I will note one moment of psychotic behavior in my sense of calm- due to diet needs for Gibby and I, I hide away certain snack items for the two of us. I stocked up on things on Sunday and hid them away, for school lunches and the storm. Monday morning when I went to get things for school lunch for Gibby, boxes that were sealed shut were open and items were missing... I asked Gibby, and he said he didn't know where I had them hid. SKID! Without confronting anyone, I went out to the storage garage last night and brought in a trunk with a combination lock on it. All the snacks for me and Gibby are now literally locked away with a secret code number! Take that, nosy skid, snooping through my private stuff!