The title is a direct quote from Ethan over the last few days.  My brilliant plan from earlier in the season to feed the birds with a "squirrel proof" birdfeeder was, of course, defeated by the squirrels.  So I took it down.  I was very annoyed and just thought to not do anything more about it this year.  But then I realized I’m just going to have seed sitting around for no good reason.  That’s silly.

So the last few days I’ve been throwing seed out onto the back porch and letting whoever comes have at it.  I’m not too worried about the seed spoiling because I don’t throw out very much at any given time.    It doesn’t really have time to spoil before it gets snatched up.  Of course I am feeding every squirrel in the neighborhood, but I’ve been astonished by the number of birds we get!  And as annoying as squirrels can be — they are pretty cute to watch.  It is really turning out to be a major source of entertainment for all three of us. 

But Ethan REALLY gets into the show!  Every morning he shouts out to me what every animal is doing, how many there are, what colors he sees, when they fly away, etc.  Here’s a sampling of the typical play-by-play.  And keep in mind that the exclamation marks are there for a reason.  He really gets ramped up.

"Mommy!  Birdie! Eat! Seed! Unner gwill! (under the grill) Quirrel!  Two, eight, nine! Bred (red), bown, bwack!  Birdies!  Two, free, for, fie, sick, wenen, eight, nine, ten!  Unner table!  Sly ‘way!(they flew away) Mommy, birdies go?"

"Well, maybe they heard you shouting at them and got scared."

"Huh." 

Well, the last dire prediction of 5-10" of snow (thankfully) did not come true. It was a close thing though. Apparently, snow is about the hardest thing to accurately predict because of what happened with this last storm. The weatherman explained that for there to be snow, the air has to be at least as low as 32 degrees. With this last storm, you had the following set up:

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32 degrees REALLY HIGH up where the snow formed and started falling

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34 degrees at about 5000- 6000ft. When the snow fell thru this level, the 2 degree difference was enough to melt it into rain.

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32 degrees again. But by this time the water was still rain and fell fast enough that it couldn’t turn back to snow before hitting the ground.

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As a result, we got about 6/10 of an inch of rain instead of 6" of snow! So as much as I love the snow, I was grateful. There’s no way they’d be prepared for that down here; and schools were already out for a full week because of the ice/ sleet the previous week.

Just a brief note on Christmas in Colorado.   It SNOWED!!!!! 

Every year I have prayed for a WHITE Christmas.  If we were in Oklahoma, it snowed in Colorado.  If we were in CO for Xmas, it would snow in OK (or, more likely, ICE…).  So imagine my delight to be in my native state, with my hubby and 2 year old son, and have SNOW to play in!!!!  Now, getting to CO was a bit worrisome, but it worked out just fine.  Ethan and I both got snow boots, snow pants, hats, and waterproof gloves for Christmas.  (We already had the coats.)  And then we all went outside to make a snowman.  The snow wasn’t great for snowman building, but we made it work.  What fantastically wonderful memories.  We even have pictures of the event, which I don’t know how to post.  So anyone reading this will have to trust me.

Then we came back to Oklahoma only to have a monumental ICE storm a week later.  It started last Friday, January 12 and sleeted/ iced until sometime Sunday, the 14th.  We were totally prepared to lose power for who knows how long, and not to be able to go anywhere for at least a few days.  Thankfully, at least in this part of the state, it was more sleet than freezing rain.  Still highly unpleasant; but at least it wasn’t the kind of stuff that brings down trees and power lines.  That happened farther East in OK and MO. 

Church was called off all over the place; schools have not been in session for the entire week; and they expect it to start snowing tonight and continue again until Sun/ Mon.  Expected snowfall: 5-10 inches. 

Now for anyone from… say… Colorado:  don’t get on your high horse about how the rednecks down here don’t know how to handle snow.  First of all, if you’ve never seen one of these sleet/ ice storms, you have NO IDEA how wretched it is and how IMPOSSIBLE to shovel and/ or plow.  Secondly, it’s true (in part) that they’re not prepared to handle 10" of snow.  They "never" have to, so it would be a waste of resources to have snowplows, piles of sand, etc. waiting around for decades until they are finally needed.  And third, just keep in mind that 10" to OK is going to be crippling, kind of like 26- 36" was for you a few weeks ago.  

(Haven’t I been hearing that we should all be worried about Gobal Warming?)