Monday was prep day for the big blizzard. The kids & I got groceries in the morning and ate lunch at the new McDonald's so they could play at the new Play Place. It's pretty nice. I know several people who have made special trips to Waverly just to go to the new Play Place. It had already started snowing, but Austin was able to make it to Des Moines in the afternoon to catch a very early morning flight on Tuesday to L.A. Tough, I know. :op
At supper on Monday night Emily made a stinging observation: "Mom, you're having a yelling day and Lincoln & I are having a cranky day." In my defense, it was only the two hours before supper that had really been bad, and that's never a great time of day anyway. Lincoln had not napped well in two days because he poked another molar through, so he was just tired and cranky in general. Austin would be gone for 2 1/2 days, and I knew we'd be stuck at home for at least that long. Then Emily asked, "Are we going to have a better day tomorrow?" I promised her we would try, and that really set the tone for the rest of the week. She held me accountable by occasionally asking, "Are we having a good day today?" And we did.
We got about 4-5" of new snow by Tuesday morning. The kids & I made Valentine cut-out cookies to decorate later in the week. As expected, school was canceled, so Emily didn't have preschool. We were both bummed. During Lincoln's nap I spent over an hour outside with the snowblower to try and clear as much as possible. The wind picked up by late afternoon and the blizzard conditions began.
It was impossible to tell how much additional snow we got because it was blowing and drifting so much. Another 3-4" had been forecasted. I went out again at nap time, this time for over 2 hours. I was very grateful for both the snowblower and the hood attachment. It was extremely slow going through the deeper drifts because it was so packed. I literally inched along at points. I think it took 30 minutes just to do one pass on the front sidewalk, which covers half a block. At that point I ran out of gas (yes, I had filled it before I started because I've been burned the last two times by not doing so). So I had to pull the gas can down the street on a sled and lug it over a snow mound and then try to pull-start the snowblower. I felt like superwomen when it started on the 5th pull! I did most of the sidewalks and as much of the driveways as I could. I left the big drift across the front porch and the 4-5 ft. high hard-packed mound from the snowplows at the end of the sidewalk for Austin just so he wouldn't feel left out. ;o)
Thursday was one of those days where you wish you could just go back to bed and start over. It was a general cranky start to the morning after the third night of me not sleeping well. The first two could be blamed on snowplows clearing the streets and hospital parking lots at 3:00am. (There is a downside to living on an emergency snow route across the street from the hospital--they clear snow early and often.) Not sure about the third.
Anyway, Austin had made it home safely the night before. Our van was scheduled to get some repair work done to one of the power sliding doors and replacing the AM radio, neither of which had been working since Christmas. Austin dropped off the van in the morning, but on the way a huge ice chunk fell off the vehicle in front of him and totally shattered the right front bumper. Great.
The original van repairs took all morning. By lunch time Emily was itching to get out of the house and go to preschool. So was I. Unfortunately, when it was time to leave, the loaner van the dealership had given us absolutely wouldn't start. And it was parked in the driveway, so the truck was blocked in the garage. I had to call the dealership and wait for them to come jump start the loaner van so I could bring Emily to preschool and then pick up our van. That loaner was such a piece of junk that Emily & I laughed out loud as we bumped our way to school. Luckily, the morning class had a late start, so everything was running late and Emily didn't miss out on anything.
After picking up our van I took it to a body shop for an estimate on the bumper. They had to snip it off and tape it together so it could go over 40 mph without flapping in the wind. The bill is going to be twice as much as the original repairs and falls just short of our insurance deductible. Superb. Thankfully, the couple who run the body shop are really nice and accommodating and will try to cut us a deal. I love the slogan on their sign: "We meet by accident." :o) This is the point in the day where I decided it might be a good idea to go back to bed. However, I still had a lot of stuff to do, so I turned to my favorite coping mechanism: an ice cold can of Diet Coke and Coconut M&M's. They make me happy. :o)Thankfully, Lincoln was back to his regular napping schedule and I actually had to wake him up after 3+ hours to get Emily from school. From there we headed directly to Waterloo to run some desperately needed errands even though it was still bitterly cold outside. After stops at banks and the bookkeeping businesses to collect bills and drop off Monster Bars, we skipped Sam's Club and went straight to Target. As soon as I had the kids settled in the cart and happiness suckers (a.k.a. DumDums) unwrapped, I realized I couldn't find my extensive shopping list. So we headed back out in the cold and found it on the front seat of the van. We made it back inside just in time for Emily to announce that she had to go potty. So we took a side trip to the restroom. By this time I was down to 10 minutes before I had to be out of the store and on our way to a hair cut appointment. That's when I decided to grab only a few of the most needed essentials. These included diapers, new toothpaste for Emily (which cost her $3), and sprinkles for decorating cookies. While in the Valentine section we also quickly grabbed some Valentine cards and treats for Emily to hand out. Nothing like shopping under pressure.
We made it out the door and to Denver in time for a desperately needed haircut for Lincoln. He has been channeling Justin Bieber and resembling a shaggy dog for quite some time now. He did relatively well and was super excited for another sucker at the end.
When we finally got home we found Austin outside tackling the snow on the corner. I think he spent more time then I did outside cleaning up the edges and chopping through to the curb. He said it was some of the hardest snow scooping he's ever done, and that's saying a lot considering he has been scooping snow since he was a little kid and survived the previous two harsh winters without any kind of snowblower.
To top off an already fun day, Austin took Emily to the Waverly-Shell Rock varsity girls basketball game. The head coach is in our small group from church and the team is pretty good this year. They've already won the conference and are ranked 14th in the state. Emily is already in awe of the high school, and after her positive experience at the UNI game, I think it was even more fun to go watch girls play. She wants to play when she gets big! She made it three minutes into the 3rd quarter before they came home. That's probably when the popcorn ran out. ;o) The game started later than normal because it was Parents' Night. Emily was very ready to go to bed and she slept hard!
1 comment:
What a week! Some of it sounds similar to mine, like the grumpy's, the not sleeping well, a husband reporting how difficult the snow was to shovel, and having fun with moms Friday morning (thanks for having us over : )!
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