Big old honkin' storm (courtesy of my camera phone)

I have always found it difficult to capture the weather on film. But I have done my best.

Today, JB and I played in a co-ed volleyball tournament at the National Volleyball Center in Rochester. We played six matches and had a blast. Thanks for organizing this Kristen! We finished 4th out of 8 teams! Hopefully Kristen will post a photo of our team soon so I can steal it and include it on our blog. The tournament started at 8:30. At 2:00 it was over, and we headed back out to our cars, in a hurry to grab some pizza and then bunker down, as the worst of the storm was supposed to start late afternoon.

What we found was an icy mess! In my four years here, I have never seen anything like this. Apparently it rained but then the temperature dropped, and there was a layer of ice on everything! I hope you can get the idea in the pictures below (which were taken from my cell phone -- how cool is that?)

Thank goodness I wore my big winter boots (first time this year). Here I am stepping in a pile of snow that had turned to ice. This had never happened to me before. This pile of snow is a few inches thick, but I am staying right at the top of it.

Well here is crazy Brandon. Shorts and tennis shoes. Someone commented on the guy in an earlier post holding a frozen bubble while wearing a short sleeved shirt. That's Brandon too. Not sure if you can tell that the ground he is walking on is actually a layer of ice! You can also see all the chipped off ice on the ground in front of him as the guys attempted to get the car drivable.

Here is JB helping de-ice the Yuan's car!

Brandon and Kristen -- everyone had to get in on the passenger side and then push open the driver's side doors as the storm was hitting the cars from one side.

JB and I plan to just bunker down the rest of tonight as well as tomorrow. Most of the churches in the area have been cancelled. I haven't seen Christ Community announce closings yet, but we plan to just stay in and not venture out. Unfortunately, this also cancels our day in the cities with the Jones and Philips. We have rescheduled for a few weeks from now, and I am actually looking forward to a cozy day at home with my JB. It's still snowing as I write. I'll post more photos tomorrow if I dare go outside to take them!