What's with this weather?

Most of you already know that I picked the "coldest" winter/spring in Houston (in my short experience here) to purchase a tropical fruit tree. The winning foliage is a Mars Naval Orange tree - known for sweet, juicy fruit with low acidity. I had specific instructions to keep it inside when there is a threat of freezing temperatures (which is funny since I bought it at 11am on the coldest Saturday all year - it was only 40 degrees in the sun that day!) but by early March it should be warm enough to plant in my yard. So for two months it's been doing a do-see-do from the front yard to the garage to our living room.

I returned from Chicago on Tuesday to find low 70's, sun, and a very pleasant breeze in Humble, TX... perfect weather for planting a tropical tree :) Thanks to our friends Kevin and Kirk and my sweet husband, I went to Lowes and bought pots, dirt (who pays for dirt?!?), vegetable plants, and "moisture control beads" (for when it's super hot in July/August and ground moisture evaporates before your very eyes). A few hours outside in the beautiful weather resulted in my first garden - Roma, Beefsteak, and Grape tomatoes, red bell pepper, broccoli, thyme, mint, rosemary, and sweet basil (and the orange tree) - complete with birds chirping and sunlight filtering through the pine trees making a quaint speckled pattern on my grass. Oh the joys of spring!

Last night it got down to 36 degrees.

Right now it's raining and tonight it's supposed to be 35 degrees.

SO..... out come the beach towels and light blankets to wrap up the plants. Grace woke up to an inch of snow on the ground... apparently this weather pattern goes all the way from the Gulf up to the Great Lakes. (does anyone else feel the need to hear Al Gore's voice talking about global warming at this point?)