Winter or Spring?

Yesterday, it started snowing. It snowed. And snowed. And rained and snowed.

We woke up this morning to about 30-40 cm of WET, HEAVY snow. Tree branches were broken, power lines were down. We were all up getting ready for a regular school day when our power suddenly went out. I watched out the window as 4x4 pickup trucks were barely getting down our street.

The radio station listed numerous school closures, but made no mention of any Lethbridge schools. We tried contacting the buses to see if they were running...line was busy. We tried calling the schools to see if school was canceled...no answer. So we waited. We saw buses turn into our neighbourhood, but we knew they would get stuck coming around our street. We then watched them leave...empty. No kids.

Wayne thought he would try to get to work. He made it out of the garage by about a foot, before getting stuck in the driveway. We then spent the next 1 1/2 hours shovelling just enough to get him un-stuck and down to the main road. By then, the snow had turned to rain and we were drenched. He did manage to make it to the main street which was plowed and was on his way.

We were without power for about 6 hours. All the kids got a "snow day"... the first snow day in Lethbridge since 1986!! Azia and I made some cards for a couple of hours. The boys built things with Lego. Emmy went back to bed.

It is amazing how much we (and especially the kids) rely on electricity. "Can we watch a movie?" "Can I play X-Box?" "Can I warm up the leftovers?" It made me glad that we had an "old fashion" phone that was NOT cordless, a battery/solar powered radio, big, bright windows that let in the sunshine and kept the house relatively warm. It also made me realize just how prepared (or unprepared) we are if there was a really substantial emergency. We have about a year supply of food and basic shelter (tents). Still need to store some water.

Thankfully, by early afternoon, the power was restored and the snow is slowly melting away. It will probably take a good 2-3 days to melt all of it away. The long term forcast is predicting more typical spring like weather for the rest of the week...and "shorts weather" by this time next week.

Ahhh, got to love southern Alberta!

Thankfully

Wayne has released his newest CD, "Thankfully". Of course, it is the best one yet, (although I say that with every CD he releases). There was a great article written about him HERE and after many frustrating years trying to get his product into Deseret Book, they have placed it in most of their stores and have it available on the Deseret Book website.



This album seems especially personal as he has 2 songs written about specific friends of ours. One is "The Face of Jesus", written about a little blind boy and a talk that his mom gave. They used to be in our ward and he was in nursery with Cardiff. LOVE this song. The other is "Thankfully". This had some inspiration from a family we knew quite a few years back, who lost 2 babies shortly after their births due to anacephaly. Everytime he performs these songs, you can be sure, there is not a dry-eye in the crowd.


"Duty to God", which is also on the album, was selected as part of the EFY soundtrack for the 2010 year. This is HUGE! Every youth that attends EFY receives a copy of the CD. This is a big accomplishment and an even bigger testament to Wayne's songwriting talent. He has been close to being on previous EFY albums before, but his songs have always been cut before final production. (It is not Wayne singing on the EFY version however.)

In addition to the new CD, Wayne was invited to be part of a youth conference for the Vancouver Temple region. They are anticipating 1200 youth to attend. We will be in Vancouver, BC for that at the end of April.