SNOW DAZE......2014

Last week, one glorious morning we looked out our windows and it felt like we heard angels singing....there it was. THE SNOW. It had been talked about, predicted, unpredicted, schools delayed, run-to-Walmart-buy-milk-and-bread-frenzied (still not sure why we Southerners feel a life threatening need for those items in a storm)....and there it was in all its glory. Cohen (age 3) ran into the room and threw open the blinds and said in his excited little voice, "LOOK MOMMY!!!!". There was no rolling back over and going to sleep...nosireeee....everyone get dressed immediately! We are going out to build a snowman!!! ONE HOUR LATER...we were fed and dressed, yes, it took that long...(I had no idea where the warm winter hats,gloves, boots, coats and other various layers were....need I remind you it NEVER snows here...) and we were out the door. The neighborhood kids had already congregated two yards down and across the street and were in the throes of constructing a Goliath-sized snowman with the help of one of the Dads. Poor Stewart stayed behind in bed, as he wasn't feeling well. After maybe 45 minutes of "fun" Rylie trudged back up the street, back to the sanctuary of our warm home. To be fair, she was being pelted by snowballs from 6 boys and only had one other girl as her ally. Not soon after, Cohen was ready to follow suit. So we bailed and headed in for hot cocoa and the snow melted in its entirety by that afternoon. DAY 2: No school. No snow. Not even any ice. I went to run errands after a while, and Stewart went to the Dr.  because it was way too wet outside for him to work and he was getting worse, sick-wise. We were all getting a bit stir crazy, but there was nothing much to do but watch movies and eat. Eat and watch movies. Play a few games which finally ended in "YOUAREN"TPLAYINGFAIRGIVEMETHATBACK....MOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
Sigh.
DAY 3: It was official. Stewart had the flu. It had been confirmed at his appointment the day before. But today, was unlike any other day...THE SNOW WAS AWESOME!!!! There was so much wonderful beautiful white snow everywhere!!! It started the night before and many of our neighbors had been out until midnight playing in it. Meanwhile, our house had become an incubation station for the plague apparently. We were all hacking and coughing, but come heck or high water, we were going sledding in this wondrous white loveliness. By George, we were joining the masses. Stewart loaded up the sleds in his truck and mustered up his strength....we drug ourselves out to the truck like the walking dead and loaded our chipper little behinds up to go have fun, by golly. We made it to the awesome (no sarcasm here, it really was awesome) lot in our neighborhood that looked like a miniature ski slope and jumped in line with all the rosy-cheeked, bright eyed folks enjoying the slopes. By the time I extracted my phone (camera or phone?!! Do I use my camera or phone?!?!?!) from my down-filled jacket with the tiny pockets with my gloves on, then off, I managed to get a few pics of the back of Stewart's head, a bajillion miles away, with one or more of our children in his lap (but -you- can't -see -them- because- his- back- is- to- me-use-your-imagination-peeps) and then they were done. Off to the truck with Rylie and Stewart, and then Stewart slowly made his way back over. I had just mustered up enough willpower to make my way down the hill the first time (all the while envisioning mowing down the innocent children flying in front of me) when Stewart prodded me to go. So I went. I made my way back up the hill, sweating inside my too-many-layers, and Cohen was there ready to go. We loaded up and made it down, turning backwards on the way. As I threw snow at the neighbor boys passing by, I got up a bit quickly and kneed Cohen in the face.....cut to what felt like EVERY person on the hillside staring at me as I fruitlessly tried to stop the wailing (and I do mean wailing) while wiping snot away as it stuck to my glove. He was o.k., so we started up the hill, the walk of shame, as I am sure I earned parent of the year with that lovely move. We were over it...we loaded up and went for some "Fox" fun, doing doughnuts and slipping sideways in Stewart's truck, much to the chagrin of many passers-by. We made it back home, and Stewart retired to his dark/abyss/realm of Tamiflu, or the room formerly known as our bedroom. I hit the shower and when I got out.......I LOOKED around the house. As my head moved in slow motion from side to side, I saw food EVERYWHERE. Furniture was moved around, every stuffed animal in the house was visually displayed in our living room, DISHES were piled so high in the sink they WERE TOUCHING the faucet, there were trails of socks, hats, clothing, as far as the eye could see. THERE WERE CUPS EVERYWHERE>>>>WHY???? WHY???? WHY can't anyone re-use the same cup twice????!!!! SWEET MOTHER THERESA!!!!! The lyrics began in my head ...."yall gone make me loose my mind, up in here, up in here, yall gone make me act the fool up in here, up in here"...(thank you DMX for your clean radio version). WHHHHYYYYYYYY?!!!!!  Three days in and I snapped. I would never make it on Naked and Afraid. (If you haven't seen this, you should. OR maybe you shouldn't...it is kind of like a train wreck you can't look away from. Just when I thought I couldn't take anymore, I opened the washing machine and not ONE, but TWO pull ups had made it into the wash, releasing their TRILLIONS of micro minions disguised as pee-catching matter loose on my clean laundry. If you have TONS of time on your hands and think you are the calmest most patient person in the world, then please, I dare you on a warm sunny summer day when you haven't been cooped in the house for what seems like a millennium to throw just one of those bad boys (pull ups, that is) into a washer full of dark clothing. It would make the POPE curse a little. ANYHOOOO......
DAY 4: School is back in session and not a moment too soon.Today is Valentine's Day and I have managed to scrape together enough Valentines for both their classes, although I forgot to get the teachers anything...I know, terrible, right?!? They are lucky I know what day it is at this point. As I am ready to hire the exterminators to come and bomb our house or just move away and call it condemned, I drag myself to the Dr., as I too have succumbed to the bubonic black lung cough going around. First the Nurse Practitioner came in and told me I probably had the flu, even though I had the flu shot. I asked her if I could be tested to be sure. The nurse came in, who had recently had eye surgery and looked a bit like the love child of Tinkerbell and Captain Jack sparrow with her pink bedazzled home-made eye patch over one eye. Now, I am not making fun, I am just giving you a visual for what is to come. After taking my temp, blood pressure etc. She left the room and returned with one of those foot long qtips aimed at left nostril, saying "Now bear with me my depth perception is off......". Perfect ending to the SNOW DAZE;)




Prologue: No I did not have the flu...just some "virus" in which I spent the next two days in bed. Stewart and I spent Valentines night huddled in separate chairs sipping hot tea and watching Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in "Sabrina" by the fire, with our kiddos tucked in bed. It was the "perfect" Valentine date with my sweetheart:) I am so thankful to our Heavenly Father for these little blessings, the memories,  AND the beautiful snow;)