Ello! Currently on the plane on my way to new Orleans for joshs cousins wedding! Airtran has wifi on board their flights now- which is crazy and awesome. Remember when all you had were books and crying babies? (and ash trays in the arm rests? That ones before my time)

Got off to a late start this morning- Josh was up all night moving hay bails so that his help would have everything they needed, and I took Ella to Michael and kims, they have her sister, Delilah, and are watching her while were gone.. But I didn't get home till 5a. Had to finish some laundry and packing, neither of us went to bed until the sun came up! So we were supposed to get up at 8 (1hr of sleep) and leave at 9, but instead we woke up at 9:15 and left (unshowered) at 9:30- so I drove it like I stole it and we made it, checked in, parked, and even had time to eat! I told Josh not to worry, I was a professional at running late for flights.. Although I'm not so sure he enjoyed the drive ("YOUR DOING 65 IN A 35!" me: "calm downnn, I promise not to hurt you! Professional - remember?" )

unfortunately our seats are way in the back and even though I have a window seat all I see is a giant blue wind turbine thingy merbob. And the "shade" or whatever keeps falling down, there's not much of a view, but I still like the sunshine. STAY UP! (this thing falls like every 30 seconds and I keep pushing it up. I feel like I'm getting my patience tested on hidden camera)

so I'm going to meet ALL of joshs fam this weekend, everyone I was supposed to meet over Christmas but didn't bc of the snow. I've already met his parents, this will be all the sisters and brothers and cousins and aunts and so forth. I have two great dresses so I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing

Anyhow! I'M TAKING PICTURES This weekend of the two of us- we will both be showered and looking fly so I'm snapping as many as possibe- I will try to upload them soon for yall to see.

Hope your all doing well!
I'll eat some Cajun goodness for you!
Xoxo.

So!

Finally a chance to update! Man, things have been crazy here!

I have never had many issues with snow. Being from Georgia, we never get much if any.. (excluding the fluke of 93.) and when we did get some it was just enough to enjoy, then it went away quickly enough to not be a nuisance.

And then! Chicago! Snow everywhere! All the time! But, with the exception of shoveling your car out after snow plows came through, and parking being a bit of an issue, the city was prepared. The streets were plowed and salted like clockwork. The sidewalks were walkable. While it may not have always been the very best, life was always able to be carried on without much worry.

What I have been dealing with here in northern va for the past two weeks? This has just been ridiculous. There is still probably 3 ft of snow on the ground.

Let me give you a run down:
To get out of the house you have to step up about a foot onto what has become a solid ice block. The snow bulit up higher than the bottom of the door frame, so getting in or out without busting your, ahem.. Ass.. Is nearly impossible.

When you get out and walk the 20ft slippery slope to the driveway, your car isn't there. Why? Bc im at the bottom of the hill and there's no 4 wheel drive. So! There are two options: walk up to the barn which is about a quarter mile, uphill, in icy snow, or plan all your trips around when Josh may be coming or going- and enjoy your ride to the top on a John Deere usually the John Deere is my choice- unless I'm going or coming from work, in which case I usually leave when Josh is already at the barn, and get home when he has been done and home for quite sometime. And doing the walk in the dark should be a winter Olympic sport. Seriously.

i had been pretty confined to the farm for about a week or so.. No going in or out, bc even if you could get from the barn to the road, the roads were so bad you couldn't get 5 feet, and if you could (by some miracle.. But I don't think anyone tried. It was actually illegal to drive for like 5 days) nothing was open. Nothing. My work was closed for an entire week! And they never close.

So! Since no one could go in or out.. Guess who couldn't get here? The milk hauler. A nice older Mennonite  gentleman named Albert who comes and empties joshs milk tank when it gets full. Now- Albert came the night before the huge snow. Thank goodness. It took 2 tractors to pull his huge (what looks like a truck that hauls gas) tractor trailer up to the barn. That was after Josh had spent 48 hours with no sleep getting all the snow that he could cleared. Let me remind you, that was BEFORE the big snow. It may go without saying.. But he didn't make it after the big snow. And it wasn't for lack of trying. What does this mean? This means Josh had to dump out EIGHT HUNDRED GALLONS of milk. He dumped out an entire paycheck. He poured it down the drain. And what was almost as painful is knowing that those were the milkings that were hard. That was the milkings that we had to do in the thick of it, when we were cussing, and tired, and everything was so much harder bc we couldn't get anywhere and walking 5ft was a struggle. Feeding grain took forever. Spreading hay was nearly impossible. Bedding the barn was just a hope at the end of the day. All that.. Dumped.

We had two calves born during all the chaos, both were eaten by coyotes. It's has evidently never been a problem before, but I suppose with this much snow on the ground, everything is starving. 

Albert has been able to make it in since then. I am so thankful for him. He and his son Herman, really work hard to get here no matter the conditions. They'll come early and help scrape the bad spots, the turns and hills. They'll call the city to try and have roads done. They do so much. Something to be thankful for.

Things are slowly returning to normal, I've shoveled paths to the grain bins and to the calves. The doors haven't been frozen shut or open anymore, and none of the pipes have frozen. Something to be thankful for.

We've gotten tractors stuck pretty much everywhere.. The snowdrifts are awful. I think we've finally gotten them all out? The fourwheeler still won't start, and the skidloader is broken. The part that hopefully fixes it (itd uses to clean the barn. We need it!) is in the mail.. But the mail still hasn't run. Still. Like I said, ridiculous.

My work is back up and running, we reopended Friday for valentines day weekend. I worked all weekend and then got super sick on Monday and left early, came home with some sorta stomach bug, thought i might die,slept for 24 hours, woke up feeling a little better yesterday, and would say I'm back to 100% today. I don't know If it was something I ate or just exaustion. Maybe a bit of both?
Finally today I got to do things like, take the trash to the dump, go to the grocery store, the bank, and the post office. All was much needed.

So! im making it! I still have so much news about what's going on with bottling milk and all of that, but I may save that for the next update! They're calling for more snow.  
Let it be known: I hattteeee snnoowww.

Josh has been going around (jokingly, acually he's making fun of bruce springsteens version from the hati tribute) singing "We Shall Overcome" , but I think he's right. I think we will.

I love yall.
Sars