Hesitant, Hopeful

I cannot believe it's already the new year. I say every year that I have no idea where the last 12 months have gone, but this year I know exactly where they went. This year has been so insane. The most insane so far, in fact. The most wonderfully, painfully insane. I wouldn't trade even a single minute of it. Even the difficult ones. It's those that teach you what you're really made of. This year, I learned I'm made a strong stuff. I'm proud of that.

It's snowing again. It snowed for several hours today, despite the weather channel saying it wouldn't. And now, it's snowing again. From our office windows at work today, I watched the snow coming down. It's so remarkably beautiful. I have never, ever seen so much snow. But, you know, this winter has been a learning experience, too. Cold weather is not all snow and fun. It can cause some weird, and often difficult, situations.

Take, for example, when I twisted my ankle last week. I was trying to walk from the car to the porch, but the walk hadn't been shoveled so there was a foot of snow. I could see Matt's footprints, where he had stepped down into the snow, and decided like a genius that I ran less risk of getting snow in my shoes (I wasn't wearing socks) if I followed in his footsteps... literally. As it turns out, his steps are longer and his gait is different. I took one wrong step, slipped a little, and twisted my foot. I just about went down, into the snow, which would have made me both hurt and angry. It's still hurting.

Or, take the fact that on Sunday our washing machine drain pipe (in the wall) overflowed and flooded half my bathroom. When the plumber came on Tuesday night, it was still clogged. Turns out the pipe had frozen. Our bathroom, where the pipes for the washer are, is on an outside wall. When it reaches into negative temps at night on a regular basis the pipes don't stand a chance. The plumber said that we could either cut a hole in the wall to let warmth into the pipes, or we could put ice melt (or water softener salt) down into the pipe to keep it from freezing/resolve any more freezes.

And, did you know it can actually be too cold to snow? My co-workers were saying that snow was a good thing because it meant the temperatures stayed up and it didn't get too cold. Um, it's already too cold if you ask me, but yeah. There's a perfect temp for snow. Not too warm, not too cold. When it gets too cold, it won't snow. That sounds crazy to me, but apparently it's a thing. For me, I'm glad it's snowing because it keeps powder on the ground and gives me traction. Almost every single day I just about take a spill in the very icy, very slippery parking lot. So snow, keep on coming!

Even still, with all the issues and the problems, I love it. I certainly wouldn't trade it for Texas (where they actually got a dusting of snow this last week, by the way). Nothing makes me feel better than to snuggle down in my bed, with my dogs, and read a book. Cold outside, snow falling; warm inside, bundled up. Utah is an amazing place.

A photo posted by kristynmarie78 (@kristynmarie78) on Dec 27, 2015 at 1:46pm PST

When I learned we were moving to Utah, the first thing I thought was "SNOW!!!" I couldn't wait to get here and get to winter so I could enjoy some real, honest to goodness snow! After all, living in both California and Texas, snow wasn't terribly regular and when it did snow it was always wet or icy. Never pretty, fluffy snow. Heck, I didn't even believe in fluffy, powdery snow. I cynically balked at the idea that snow could be powdery.