State of Emergency

In case you have not heard, all the counties of northern Idaho (including mine, Bonner county) and eastern Washington have been declared to be in a state of emergency due to excessive snowfall. I think it is awesome. Well, the snow that is, not that we are in a state of emergency. I can only imagine what my life would be like if I were 50 years older, or lived up a mountain road that has not been plowed in days. For me, driving to work makes me kind of giddy. All I see is white and the snow is piled so high on either side of the road that it feels like I am driving through some sort of ice luge. It feels as if I am entering some crazy netherworld of snow. And then I get to campus. It is unbelievable. Snow burms along the paths are up to 15 feet high! In class on Thursday, I blazed through my lesson on active listening and then told the kids to suit up because we were going out to play. I cannot even begin to explain what it was like playing in snow like this. Just the mere act of jumping off the path into the snow was exhilarating. We raced up the snow burms, and then slid down them. We had a snowball fight, and did somersaults off railings into the snow. The only thing that was a little scary was when I would get to a point where it would be really hard to move because a limb or two was stuck so deep in the snow. It really made me think about what it would be like to get caught in an avalanche. After a long week, playing in the snow with my three kids was a great way to end it. We all needed it.

Pictures to follow soon...