Tropical Snow

"Jae!" I woke up to Travis standing over me this morning all bright and chipper.

"What? What!" I said when I realized it was about 5:45 a.m. I was thinking "There'd better be a good reason for Travis waking me up out of my PEACEFUL slumber..."

"Get up. You've got to come see this. You may never see it again!"

I walked, eyes half open, as Travis led me through the dark. He opened the front door and turned on the light. Snow. I was unimpressed. I gave a half-hearted chuckle, shook my head, and walked back to bed thinking the whole while, "Seriously, looking at snow or sleeping. What was travis thinking?" I went back to sleep.

The phone rang an hour later. "Jae!? Have you looked outside?!!!! We are getting our snow getting ready to go outside RIGHT NOW!" I said, "Isn't it cool?" I was honestly thinking, "Seriously, I wasn't sure when I moved here whether I ever wanted to see snow again in my life." I shared Jen's enthusiasm, nevertheless. She quickly signed off so she and her husband and girls could go enjoy the snow before it was gone. I went back to sleep.

"MOM! MOM! Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom," Upon opening my eyes, Madalynn met my awake acknowledgement with, "MOM! Jillian was eating peanut butter and crackers in the living room and she got some on your purse. Here's your purse [puts purse down right in front of my face while continuing to talk 100 miles an hour]. "It snowed and the satellite doesn't work." "WAIT!!! [enter Justis] Madalynn, I think it's not just the satellite that's not working, I think the electricity is out." [Madalynn resumes as if I hadn't heard Justis]. "Well, Mom, we think the electricity is out and it snowed a LOT last night and can we go out and play in it [puppy dog eyes from all four children]. I rolled out of bed (like I was really sleeping anyway??). I walked to the front door and it was standing wide open. Someone left it open in all the excitement.

Lo and behold, there was a foot of snow on the ground and the snow was still coming down hard. I thought, "The pigs must have flown down from Kansas! It snowed in Louisiana!" I spent the rest of the morning picking up wet clothes, putting on gloves, zipping and unzipping coats and I figured out how to turn the gas fireplace on without burning the house down.

Louisiana had an all-out snow celebration today. The radio talk show hosts were taking calls and people were joyfully describing making and throwing snowballs and making snowmen and wading through the measurable snowfall. I was a little nervous about the drivers down here. You can tell most Louisiana drivers don't drive in snow very often.

I thanked God for the snow. Most people I've talked to said it was four years ago when they saw snow last here. One man who works with Travis has only seen snow six times in his life! I guess he's been through way more hurricanes than I have, though!

Travis finally got home and turned the generator on for us. We are finally defrosting a little bit. Our house was downright cold with no furnace. Most of the power is supposed to be restored tomorrow by 6:00 p.m. I hope that includes ours!

The funniest thing about this whole snow is this. Our parish was in a tornado warning Tuesday night and I had to turn my AIR CONDITIONER on that night because it was still 76 degrees in my house at 1:00 a.m.! It was VERY rainy and balmy until yesterday evening, then it got cool. Guess that Gulf moisture snuck up on that cold air!