ear muffs - j.crew, sunnies - stolen from papa bear, coat - old navy, sweater - j.crew, jeans - ag, boots - hunter

You know when you're definitely an adult? When something like snow stresses you out. Normally I would just run out and make snow angels and what not but when you live on a mountain without a car with four wheel drive snow equals a major headache. When it first started coming down last week we were all "yay! so pretty" but then when it started to accumulate we changed our tune to "omg! how will we ever get out." Well, get out we did, come Saturday, though there was some olympic car ice skating involved, but go back up we would not. 

After a lovely day in Charlottesville we made our way back home with our trunk filled to the brim with groceries. We don't have a TJ's or Whole Foods in our town so whenever we're in Charlottesville I go a little TJ's happy. I also stocked up on things for Birdie at Baby Gap since they were having a massive sale (finally got her a "fancy" coat, for $12!!). Well our little chariot came to a screeching, tire spinning, burnt rubber smelling stop right at the bottom of one of the inclines. So there we were with a cranky baby awake well past her bedtime, a car full of paper bags and a good half mile of uphill walking to get home. Did I mention it was pitch black? If you're wondering whether or not we are complete morons the answer is an emphatic yes. I like the sound of perpetual optimists better but why get into semantics? 

With this horrid, no good scene unfolding before our eyes what do we see appearing down the mountain but a pair of headlights! We didn't get terribly excited at first, though I think both papa bear and I were holding our breath that it was one of our neighbors. And so it was! Our favorite neighbor in fact! The one that regularly ploughs our driveway for us and picks up our mail from time to time. I repay him with cookies though I don't think the arrangement is very fair but where I lose in horse power I make up for in extra frosting so... Anyways!!! The minute he spotted us he stopped his car and ran out. He hates this weather as much as we do so of course we didn't even have to tell him what happened. Before I knew it he and papa bear had loaded all of our groceries in his truck and off we went!

He joked about his girlfriend making him watch Nicholas Sparks movies while we thanked him profusely as his beast of a truck made it's valiant way up the mountain. Birdie was mostly confused but one day I'll tell her all about how we were saved from trekking uphill in the middle of the night in the frigid cold. One day I'll tell her what a blessing a good neighbor can be. Of course she'll know all about the cookies.

So when the snow melted before this "arctic chill" we couldn't have been more thrilled. It may be cold as all get out but at least we know we can leave our home and come back to it safely. These crazy temperatures sure did bring me back to living in Russia. I was telling papa bear on monday night about how my daddy used to set his alarm for two and five am on nights such as these so that he could wake up and run the car for a few minutes to make sure we didn't lose the battery. He considered doing that for three seconds before correctly realizing that there was no way he would never do that. We finally have a baby that sleeps through the night so we hold on to those twelve hours like our life depends on it. As far as I'm concerned we're still catching up on what we missed over the course of a year. But we did take all the other necessary precautions - leaving the cold water running, leaving the heat on, closing the fireplace oh and I did run the cars for a few minutes before we went to bed. As well as check for any animals seeking shelter for the night. Twice. I didn't find any takers but my heart still ached because these wild animals are so skittish that even if they need help they're too terrified to get close. We have a cat that we feed from time to time but I haven't seen it since christmas so I hope it's ok.* Our neighbors tell us that everyone around here feeds these random stray cats so it's probably fine. That made me feel better as far as the cat's wellbeing was concerned however, I can't help but feel cheated on. I thought we had something special...