Blizzard

Playing catch-up and finally getting around to posting pictures from our crazy blizzard. Until last week I didn't know a blizzard was characterized mostly by wind speed rather than snowfall. It was definitely the most snow ever to fall here in December and even though it ruined our travel plans, it was fun to be a part of. It just KEPT snowing.

We'll start with the REALLY pretty pictures:

This is NOT our neighborhood. This is Gene & Victoria's neighborhood and this house was so perfectly White Christmas I had to snap a picture.

Still not our neighborhood, but the little mounds are normal size cars.


Ahh, now here's OUR neighborhood:

That's our buried Honda in front of our place. The side mirror sticking out gives you a point of reference on the snow fall.



In the past, we have always used our back porch table to measure snow fall.


The neighborhood digging out. It was an all-day event, but a GREAT way to get to know your neighbors. Everyone helped each other out.


I took this picture from inside my warm, snuggly house! (That's Joe just digging away!)


And the token Grayson pic, taken a few days later.

A Christmas Miracle (by Hank)

I realize that some of you have forgotten that I am a contributor to this blog, much less a member of this family. Because, upon reflection, I realized I had not even posted since before Grayson was born. I won't even go into the changes (good and bad) this event has wrought on my existence.

Before I tell the story of the Team Dickerson Christmas Miracle 2009, I would like to remind you of the Christmas Catastrophe of 2008. Click here to read about it.

This year's story started Christmas morning while the family was opening presents. By the way, guess who didn't get a single present??! Of course Grayson was showered with gifts and Mom and Dad's affection. They didn't even hang my stocking this year! (Gran, are you hearing this???)

After opening their gifts, they decided to take Grayson to play in the snow, and "oh, I guess we'll take Hank too." We went over to the field behind our house where Dad had been taking me each day to exercise. Since the snow had melted down to about a foot or so, they figured it might be OK for Grayson to play in. Whatever. On the walk over I started thinking about how I could get them to notice ME. Upon arrival, they set me free to run around and I took off like a rocket to go explore while they played out in the snow. I saw a flock of geese and headed straight for them. After scaring the geese I realized I was at the edge of a pond. Then it dawned me, yesterday when I was here I ventured out on the ice and it REALLY got Dad's attention. He was jumping up and down while yelling at me and when I came back, he hugged me and petted me like I was back from the dead. I thought a great way to get their attention again would be to venture out on the ice once more.

Grayson and Dad playing in the snow.

My plan was working perfectly until the ice gave way and I fell into the icy water. I quickly tried to swim and claw my way back on the ice, to no avail. What was worse, my family was nowhere to be seen! There I was, hanging on to the edge of the ice for dear life, while they were in all probability laughing it up with hugs, kisses, and treats in the snow. After 10 or 15 minutes, Dad finally came looking for me, thinking I had "run off for good" since I don't normally run off for that long. When he finally saw me he looked WORRIED. I was pretty pitiful, all wet, shivering, whimpering, and icicles hanging from my whiskers. Dad ran up to the edge of the pond and kept yelling at me to get out of there. And I'm just thinking, "Don't you think I tried that already?!" He yelled at me for about 5 minutes and then seemingly gave up and ran off. That's when mom showed up- without Grayson- sweet! About that time a couple of security guard guys from a nearby office building walked up too. They offered to call 911 and Mom declined. (I bet if Grayson was in this pond they would've called 911!!)

Eventually Dad got back, with some rope, and Mom ran off. (Where are these people going?) The security guards offered to bring in their amphibious ATV that is used for pond maintenance. I later found out that it wouldn't start. So after 30 minutes of hem-hawing around , me in the freezing water, and against the advice of the security guard, Dad decided to come in after me. He turned to the security guard and said,"It's just like the polar bear club, right?" He tied the rope around his waist and handed the end of it to the guard. He waded in and grabbed me. We reached the shore, and although I was thrilled, I'm not sure if Dad appreciated being soaked in icy water, even if it did mean saving the life of his firstborn son. I later learned that Mom had been on the phone with my Aunt Betsy, DVM, to see how to treat a hypothermic dog. Mom just knew this was going to mean another costly trip to the Vet and no college for Grayson. All their fears of a comatose, hypothermic dog were laid to rest when they saw me wagging my tail and pulling on the leash to chase some squirrels. After a hot shower and a nap I was back to my old self.

I would love to be able to show you a picture of me in the pond, but when Mom suggested it, Dad told her, "Go ahead, but you're going to feel bad if you take that picture and this dog dies." Let's just say that didn't give me hope for a successful rescue.




And thus ends my tale. Another eventful Christmas in the Dickerson household. I was saved from the throes of death in the icy waters; truly a Christmas Miracle.

After the rescue.

Not Me! Monday

I figure there is no excuse for not doing a Not Me! Monday when you are snowed in and have a cold, leaving you no choice but to sit around doing nothing. Not Me!, created by Mckmama, "was born out of my desire to admit some of my imperfections and reveal a few moments I'd rather forget. You may find it therapeutic to join in and do the same thing!" she says on her post today.

We were scheduled this past Saturday to fly to Little Rock, AR to spend a few days with our friends Sara and Allen (and their baby boy Ben) and her family. They live overseas and the last time we saw them was last December in South Carolina when we were both pregnant. Early in the week we knew snow was forecast for the weekend but did not pay much attention. As each day passed they kept calling for more and more snow. On Friday at noon, the news started saying it would be 8-22 inches. At that point, we did not load up and drive directly into the "Blizzard of 2009" (knowing that our flight would be canceled on Saturday). Never mind that neither of us has ever been in a blizzard, much less tried to outrun one in a car. And besides that, why did we think it would be "not too bad" to drive 15+ hours with a baby? It did not take us 4 hours to get 90 miles down the road. On said road we did not see 10 accidents in as many miles and the road was not covered completely, and I mean completely, with snow. After making the decision to turn around, we certainly were not afraid at that point that we not wouldn't get home safely because the roads were so terrible.

But alas, we did make it safely home. And we wholeheartedly praise the Lord, because just South of us on that road covered completely with snow, close to a thousand cars did get stranded that night. It was a national guard/emergency shelter kind of situation that I cannot even begin to imagine being apart of with a baby.

We are at home, snuggly warm, slowly digging out of our first Team Dickerson blizzard. We are hoping to get pictures of it tomorrow with the little boy. So far this has been impossible because it is much taller than him and powder soft; we can't sit or stand him in it. We hope everyone has a wonderful week getting ready for Christmas!

Video from Matt Chandler

Hi everyone, I am sure that many of our friends back in Texas have heard that Matt Chandler was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor on the Friday after Thanksgiving. For those of you who aren't familiar with Matt, he is currently the Pastor of The Village Church, and he has had a big impact on Ashleigh, me, and many of our friends. While Ash and I were at Texas A&M, we saw Matt preach many times at college ministry events, and we have continued to listen to his talks online. His dynamic messages are saturated with scripture and illustrate the love, hope, and freedom possible in the Christian life while also maintaining that Christian growth must be bouyed by service and sacrifice.

Matt recorded this video before he went in to surgery a couple of weeks ago. It is an amazing example of total reliance on God. If you would like to, check it out and please lift him up in your prayers.

Video from Matt

O Christmas Tree

This may be one of those posts that is boring to you, so feel free to skip if need be. Let's just all keep in mind that one of the biggest reasons we do this blog is to chronicle our lives for ourselves. That being said-

The day after Grayson's first Thanksgiving, we went to cut down a Christmas tree. This was a momentous occasion for Team Dickerson for two reasons: 1. We had never cut a tree down (especially on the side of a mountain). As far as I know, there aren't too many places to get this experience in Texas. 2. We had used a fake, pre-lit tree for the first part of our marriage, deciding we would start getting real trees once we had children. We were very excited to pick out the "perfect" tree, which although costs a fortune, was worth the experience. Plus, mom and dad were still here and joined in the fun!

We went to Snickers Gap Tree Farm in Round Hill, VA. And oh my goodness, if only it wasn't an hour plus commute from Joe's work...let's just say we wouldn't be living in a townhouse, without a yard, in the city. It's amazing out there. If you live around here, we HIGHLY recommend it for next year!


Why do I include this picture? Well, dad offered "sacrificially" to push the stroller at the beginning of the outing. It was later revealed that he stepped up for this job so that he wouldn't be the one burdened with the tree. The plan didn't work out too well when we had to hike up quite a ways to find the best tree.





Grayson tasting apple cider. He was gulping it down! This did not result in apple cider spit up 15 minutes later.


For my mother's sake, I must say, that it got a little colder on their trip than we expected and she is wearing my maternity coat from last year. It didn't appear large in person, but in this picture...well, let's just say that my mother is actually quite slim in real life!

I know this is dark, but it was his first time to see the tree finished and it captured his expression the best!

Hope your tree is "perfect" too!

Not Me! (and my husband) Monday

And here's a little Not Me! Monday for your enjoyment. Not Me! was created by MckMama to provide an outlet to admit some of the imperfections in your life from the past week. Head on over to her site to join in the fun!

I was not inspired by Jenny's quick and dirty version of Not Me! a few weeks ago and decide to do it myself.

I did not lose my 3rd driver's license since moving to Virginia.

While replacing said driver's license I did not try to pass the vision test without my glasses so as to not have that restriction officially on my license. The result of that test did not cause the DMV worker and me to laugh at my ridiculously feeble attempt.

I did not attribute my child's fever to teething and let him suffer double ear infection pain.

My husband did not cut the trunk of our Christmas tree too short so that it won't fit in conventional tree stands, and require us to do tree surgery in the living room.

My husband did not place spicy taco meat on my child's tray tonight causing him to scream in pain for several minutes.

We did not take back all of the party food from last weekend except for a Costco chocolate cake and eat it all ourselves. And we all know how big things from Costco are. Oh dear.

Happy rest of the week!

Snow!

The flurries and light dusting from Texas earlier in the week turned into about 6 inches of snow here today. We were shocked! It had been forecasted all week, which usually means it absolutely will not snow. I know my fellow teachers in the area were devastated that we got this weather over the weekend when it is pretty much useless to them. Grayson enjoyed looking at the snow out the window more than actually being in it. As you can tell in the pictures, it was still coming down pretty good when we took him outside. I forget every year how beautiful it is. And has anyone else noticed that when it snows it seems to get absolutely silent outside?