indie liz: Oklahoma Blizzard

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Oklahoma Blizzard

I have lived in Oklahoma my entire life. In fact, I have lived on the same street my entire life, minus about 6 years. Growing up, the only weather issues I remember were tornadoes. I remember one or two really bad snow storms, but that was about it. However, it seems in the past 3 years, we have had tornadoes, extreme fires, flooding, blizzards and earthquakes. Very weird if you ask me.

Since we Oklahomans are fairly new to blizzard conditions, we lose our minds a little when one occurs. It's pretty comical. The grocery stores get raided & everyone hunkers down to watch 24/7 local news coverage. It's funny watching the news reporters standing in the blizzard telling us how cold & windy it is. Allen has spent the last three winters making money clearing parking lots because we've had so much snow. It's good money, but it's not easy work. He basically works 24/7 without sleep or the comforts of home until everything is cleared. And so I become 24/7 single mom trying to entertain the kids without leaving the house. I am a homebody, but enough is enough. Here's what the kids & I have been doing during Snowpocalypse 2011. :)

Garrett keeps asking me about the lizard because the whole time we were talking about a blizzard coming, he thought we were saying lizard. He asked me how long its tail was. I'm not sure if we'll ever clear this up with him.

{Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure the kid's hair has not been brushed in three days.}

We baked a cake just for the heck of it. The kids wanted to decorate, light candles & sing happy birthday. I use the recipe on the Hershey's Cocoa box. It makes the best chocolate cake & icing. It's supposed to be a two layer cake, but since I don't like my cake crunchy with sprinkles, I let the kids do whatever they wanted to one layer & kept the other for me & Allen...if he ever gets to come home again!

I'm pretty sure I've gained back the 7 lbs I lost in January thanks to this. What the heck was I thinking making this cake when I'm trapped in the house for days?

Nothing goes better with a piece of chocolate cake than a cup of coffee.

On a normal Oklahoma snow day, I'm all for bundling the kids up and playing in it. Because on a normal Oklahoma snow day, the sun comes out & the temperature rises to a manageable level. However, this Oklahoma blizzard left us with FREEZING temps, so I'm not taking the kids out. Then I saw the most genius idea on a friend's facebook page...

Why did I not think of this? Bring the snow in! The kids have had so much fun with this the past two days.

Sydney did lots of drawing.

This is a bear scaring three girls. The bear looks pretty friendly, if you ask me. {other than being huge}

We made our annual heart ice cubes for the month of February.

I made this yummy dinner. I made it up as I went. It's kinda a lazy persons manicotti or lasagna.

{I don't measure anything, so I'm just guessing on what to tell you. I'm a no measure cook. Don't worry, there's no rules. Just do what looks right}
Boil 1 pkg Penne.
In a bowl, mix 1 small container ricotta, about 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella, 1 c Parmesan, chopped parsley, salt & pepper. Pour a little pasta water in with the cheese mixture to melt all cheeses together & create a sort of cheese sauce. Add cooked penne & mix well. Pour into casserole dish & top with marinara sauce. Then sprinkle with some mozzarella & Parmesan. Cook at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until cheese is brown & bubbly. This is delish!