Posted By Colleen on January 26, 2011
8:15am – School is closed. There’s a dusting on the ground and it’s presently raining…there better be a heckuva lot more snow by 3pm.
less snow at the time of this pic then there was when I woke up 90 minutes prior
9:00am – After dropping Cooper and Nolan off at daycare, stopped at the grocery store to get a Starbucks coffee and to load up on yogurt. Not bread, milk, or toilet paper (though those aisles were looking a little thin already). Just yogurt because my family eats it by the gallon and neglected to tell me that we were completely out, so you can imagine my morning when my six-year old and three-year old addicts couldn’t get their cultured-dairy fix. I’d dare to compare their behavior to that of crack-heads. Oh, and more rechargeable batteries for the Wii remotes (and Cooper’s flashlight). All items were on sale. Go me.
10:25am – even the rain has stopped. The temperature is still hovering above freezing. Streets are merely a little wet, and I saw a salt truck driver sitting on the shoulder eating a breakfast sandwich and playing with his smartphone.
11:40am – get this weather alert:
“Weather Alert: National Weather Service: ‘Dangerous’ travel conditions during rush hour
January 26, 2011 11:27:43 AM
The National Weather Service (NWS) is warning drivers that a winter storm could create “dangerous” driving conditions during the evening rush hour.
The NWS says the heavy snow will reduce visibilities below a quarter mile and snow could accumulate at times at a rate of 2 inches per hour. The Post’s Capital Weather Gang believes the heaviest snow will fall between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. tonight. Accumulations could top 8 inches in northern and western suburbs.”
Also? Forgot that Gavin chose an obnoxious squeaky ball for the dogs while at the store, until he gave it to them just now. The ball was NOT on sale.
1:05pm – nothing is coming out of the sky yet and it’s still only 34 degrees and doesn’t even smell like snow outside anymore. If the school system had simply called for an early dismissal for the Middle and Elementary schools (high schools were already scheduled to get out early due to exams), they would all be either getting home or getting ready to come home now. Instead, I have this six-year old who is eating me out of house and home, and a dog that keeps losing her obnoxious squeaky ball under the china cabinet behind me and is growling at me to retrieve it for her. Trying to gauge if I can talk Gavin into doing both addition AND subtraction flash cards to at least say he did something constructive instead of letting his brain rot in front of the TV. The crazy part is that they keep repeating over and over that we may get upwards of 6-10 inches of snow by tomorrow morning. I suspect the sky is constipated: it wants to snow but it can’t.
Courtesy of Weatherbug.com
1:45pm – I get a birthday present delivered from my sister-in-law:
only redeeming quality is that this dude looks kinda cute
I was all, “how sweet, she sent me a nice little gift!” and I open it and it’s a canvas photo of St. Louis Blues center, David Backes. So then I was all “what the hell??? That stinker!” Now I can say with absolute conviction that my kids get their stinker attitudes from their father’s side of the family, especially since Gavin pointed and laughed at me.
Now this is a good non-stinker birthday gift (courtesy of my dad and stepmom):
how ya like them apples?
2:15pm – think I hear the cat chewing on his back nails.
2:20pm – think to myself, “man, that cat is really gnawing on his nails!” then realize that I’m hearing sleet. Or frozen rain. Or hail. Or lets just go with “wintry mix”.
3:15pm – snow has finally begun…nice, big, fat flakes. Wonder if we’ll actually get the obnoxious totals they’ve been putting up on the tv graphics. Guess time will tell.
4:15pm – Snow is maybe at an inch. Wonder if the neighbors who share my driveway bought shovels since their only one broke while digging out one of their cars during last winter’s blizzard. I suspect I will be digging out their cars again, and I should probably clear the rest of my evening to take periodic drives in my truck up and down the drive so that they don’t get stuck and block me in. That’s not to say that I suspect we’ll get more snow than any of their sedans can handle, but it took me and a different neighbor to get them out of the drive because they don’t know how to drive in the snow, period. In fact, they only seem capable of getting stuck in the snow. Although, if one of them gets stuck again, I will definitely take pictures because I can sense it will be comedy gold.
5:25pm – Two to three inches on the ground. I picked up kids, plopped them in front of the TV and shoveled. and shoveled. and shoveled some more. Cleared out a path a little wider than my wheelbase and over 40 yards long down my pipestem driveway, bitches! Know how I know it’s about 40 yards? Did ye olde 8-to-5 marching step. Thank you, band camp.
Photos to follow.
6:32pm – our county announces school will be closed tomorrow. First time all school year I’ve agreed with them. I also see an email from Gavin’s elementary school, time stamp of 5:25pm where they’re announcing school is closed TODAY. Feel free to mock.
7:04pm – lights start flickering so I plug in my cell phone in case I need it. I warn kids about the chance of power outage, which prompts Gavin to ask, “so then no TV?” I explain again how there will be no TV, lights, music, heat, “or anything” if the power goes out. Cooper gets all serious and asks, “no plates, either?” It’s always about food with that boy.
8:35pm – About four or five inches of incredibly wet snow on the ground. Kids are finally in bed and turned off most lights and powered items since the lights are still occasionally dimming and flickering. Contemplating shoveling again since it appears we still have a few hours of snow left in the system. I’m not certain that I want to re-shovel the 40-yard pipestem, but maybe I’ll at least re-shovel the deck and potty-spot for the dogs, and my immediate driveway.
10:05pm – hear a lot of yelling outside and suspect our neighbor is stuck. I’m kind of right. Instead of the inexperienced-with-snow neighbors, it’s the jerks whose dog craps on my lawn & attacks my dogs, and they park on my pipestem like they own it without offering to help clear the snow, even when they saw me shoveling alone.
Ten minutes later he’s still trying to get his pickup truck un-stuck from the snow I piled up in “his” parking spot while shoveling earlier. I admit I am full of all sorts of glee.
Category: Adventures |
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Tags: insanity, Justin travels, ramblings of a sleep-deprived woman, snow, working mom
This is a blog where I will share my adventures and mundane tasks as a work-out-of-home-mom. I now have 2 kids and my wonderful husband, so the juggling has gotten a little bit more tricky (man-on-man defense). We also have 2 dogs and 3 cats (we used to have 4) so as you can imagine, our household is pretty busy. Since I never feel like I'm being listened to, I figured I'll just start talking at the general Internet community and see what happens.