My Life as Mama Jodi

We have been having the most amazing clouds here in Michigan over the last few weeks. Some have brought some thunderstorms. I have created a video of all the clouds I have taken over the last few weeks, the last half of the video are from this past Sunday on the way home from my inlaws. I am in awe at what a spectacular view God provided us on the way home (no storms that night either!)

So thats whats going on here in West Michigan. The tornado watch is in effect until 10 tonight. I can handle the thunder storm, I just don’t like being home without John here when we have tornado watches, as it freaks me out.

I thought I heard the door open and this is what I found when I looked outside.

Some pics of the clouds before the storm hit, and boy did it rain!

I didn’t feel a thing. I was awake at that time, but felt nothing! There was a lady that called in to one of our local news stations that said she felt it, and mentioned her street, which is a few streets over from me. Strange!

This is from WZZM 13:

WEST SALEM, Ill. (AP) - A 5.4 earthquake in Illinois has rocked people awake as far away as West Michigan and Indiana.

It surprised millions of residents unaccustomed to such a large temblor in the Midwest. Many WZZM 13 viewers have called to say they felt the tremor, noticing a rolling motion or hearing their dogs bark unexpectedly.

The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered six miles from West Salem, Illinois, and 66 miles from Evansville, Indiana.

I thought we had this taken care of last year.  Our basement has flooded yet again.  This time new holes are popping up in the middle of the floor.  Its crazy!  We have rain in our forecast for the next few days too.  UGH!  Our backyard is a mini pond right now too.   John is downstairs now trying to patch up all the holes.  I still can’t get over the fact that the people who we bought this house from lied about any leaks.  Hopefully we can get it all straightened up, and get it on the market and get it sold FAST!

I am so over winter!! Oh how I wish I could convince my hubby that its time to move out of Michigan!

This is what we had the second day of Spring

This all melted, and so I thought we were going to have our nice Spring weather. But Noooooo Mother Nature decided we needed more snow… this is what it is doing outside right now….

My back yard

And then outside our door ~ its starting to stick again… *sigh*

I want sunshine, green grass, flowers blooming. Please someone send the nice weather to Michigan!

So much for it being Spring… she decided to let the snow fall yet again!  I was just beginning to enjoy seeing the grass, and waiting for the flowers to start blooming.

Then we get this stuff… Yuck!  As you can tell we have yet to go out and shovel our walk, I don’t feel all that good, and the others are just to lazy to go out and do it.  I am so ready for this to be gone!!  Tell me why do I still live in Michigan??  LOL

I had just put all our winter stuff away too.   Now I have to dig it all back out!    So much for wearing something Springy to church tomorrow for Easter!

Seriously, it has to end… NOW! I woke up to another 2-3 inches dumped on us, with the news report of 2 - 5 more inches by 4 this afternoon. I took the kids to school, which was a slow ride as I got stuck behind someone who proceeded to go 5 mph. I know the roads are slippery, but not that slippery for you to go that slow. This would cause an accident in itself! Then off to the grocery store, made a small dent in our checkbook, stopped at the gas station filled up the truck, went through the drive thru to get my fountain pop, back into the driveway, open the door, I had one foot out the door, and down I went. I don’t know how I missed not hitting my head on the edge of the truck. I was flat on my back and my pop was all over the snowy ground. That’s what hurt the most.. LOL ~ no seriously, my back/hip/shoulder all on the left side hurts. I got all the groceries in and then loaded up on some pain meds, got out the heating pad.

We got hit yet again with a ton of snow. It was not a fun drive from school today! It took me 45 minutes, in what normally takes me 7! I went out and shoveled with the hubby tonight, so that was my workout for the day. The wet, heavy snow is the worst to shovel! I will be sore in the morning for sure!

They were predicting 6 to 12 inches to fall in the Grand Rapids area. I dare say we have the 6 inches already. I dread to see what we have once I get up in the morning.

My hubby heading to the garage to get the heavy duty shovel, so he can shovel the end of the drive way where the snow plows left all the crunchy snow.

…didn’t start out all that great. I knew the kids weren’t going to have school, as we were hit with a lovely blizzard/flash freeze the night before. And Trent’s school has started this recorded call to alert you of a “no school” day. I deliberately turned off the ringer on the phone, so I could sleep in just a bit before I got the hubby up for work. Well little did I know my hubby had the other cordless phone downstairs and had the ringer on. We got the phone call a few minutes before six saying school was closed. So I was up for the day. I noticed it was still cold in the house… we have a programmable thermostat, so I have it set for sleep mode until 5:30 at 62 degrees. Well a little after six, it still says 62 and system on. I knew something was wrong. I had my hubby look at it before he got in the shower. The furnance would kick on, just wouldn’t engage the flame for the heat.

I called the heating guys promptly at 8, only to get told the guys were in a meeting and would get back to me soon. Ugh! I waited and waited and waited, all the while seeing the temp drop in the house. Brrrr They finally called back and said they would have some one out soon, I was 3rd in line.

So here I sat with one blanket around my shoulders, an electric blanket on my legs, and another one on top of that. I was still cold! I don’t think I moved from the couch but once! And that was to go to the bathroom, and Lordy was that cold!

They finally got out to the house around 2, to find that we had a plugged intake valve. We have this disconneted right now, as we (and he) can’t get to the valve on the outside, as it is under the deck, and buried in the snow. But was told that it would be ok to leave it disconnected for now. It would just be noisy downstairs. He was here for less than 15 minutes, and charged us an arm and a leg!

The temp has finally started to climb in the house, we did get down to a very chilly 54 degrees! I am not buried under all the blankets anymore, just one. Days like this makes me really want to move out of Michigan!