Blizzards

As I type I am drinking coffee out of the mug that the girls created for me Christmas 2006. Megan contributed colorful scribbles, Rachael made a large heart that said "I Love You Mom!" and Emma drew a picture of me, with a huge pregnant belly, and herself holding my hand. I can't help but smile when I look at this mug. We have gone through a lot of mugs lately because I generally make hot chocolate for the girls when they have been out in the snow and we have had a lot of snow. Three blizzards in one season has taken it's toll on our hot chocolate supply. At the beginning of February we had 2 blizzards, 27 inches and then 19 inches, within just a few days of each other.

Everyone knew the storms were coming, so the grocery stores were packed with people when Jim went on the Feb. 4th, and most of the shelves were empty. We did get what we needed as we prepared to be snowed in. There was an excited anticipation in the air. The snow started on Friday 2/5 and school got out 2 hours early. I left work early but when I picked Bridget up from Becky's house she looked terrible. She had started a fever on Thursday but now had and awful cough and gross discharge. I called our new doctor and even though they were closing early they agreed to stay to see her. I usually don't bring the kids to the doctor until fevers have lasted a few days, because there have been too many occasions when I make lots of arrangements to get to the doctor and then get the "it's just a cold" diagnosis. With a Blizzard coming I didn't want to risk it, so we went. The doctor's office was wonderful with Bridget but we got the"it's just a cold" diagnosis.

The snow kept coming, big, fat flakes fell all night and kept falling on Saturday. Jim noticed that the power lines in our back yard were sagging under the snow-ladened branches. So he trudged out with long poles and knocked the snow off. We didn't want to risk losing power. By Sunday morning the roads still weren't plowed but the whole neighborhood was out with shovels. Jim needs hernia surgery so he stayed in with Bridget who was still feverish on the sofa. The big girls and I went out and shoveled. It took a few hours to clear the sidewalks and driveway. The girls switched to sledding on the 6 foot tall piles that we created as we cleared the driveways.

And then the plows came. We were excited to see them but a wave of dread hit me when I saw that the plow was tilted to our side of the road and sure enough he deposited most of the 27 inches on our side of the street. Our neighbors got a laugh but then came over to help me dig out the driveway. Jim came out to shovel too and I was grateful because I was losing my motivation.

They closed school for the whole week when they forecasted a 2nd blizzard for Tuesday night. Jim's manager announced that everyone was working from home all week. I tried to work from home on Monday but it is very hard to get much done at the dining room table with 4 snowed in kids getting stir crazy. My parents watched the girls on Tuesday so I could go into the office for a little while. Jim made it to his consult for hernia surgery and then brought Bridget in to the doctor for her "well" visit. She was still not better although the fever was gone. She had an ear infection so they picked up antibiotics. Bridget also had her blood drawn for lead testing. Jim said she didn't even cry. I think this is because she didn't know what was coming and Jim kept her distracted like a pro. Bridge proudly showed off her bandage that evening.

I was glad that we had one good day to get things done, before it started to snow again. This second storm was a bad one. It was colder and the winds were really strong. Jim had to go out again and clear the snow off branches on the power lines. The novelty and fun of our first Feb. blizzard was gone and none of us wanted to shovel. The big girls had lost Wii privileges during the first storm, but with a week off of school we came up with a way for them to earn it back. Jim told them they could get it back by shoveling. They were eager to play so they went out on Wednesday during the storm to shovel. I called them back in after 30 minutes or so because it just looked miserable outside. I told them we would do more later. When we all did go back out on Thursday the sun was out but I was met with lots of whining and it was not a fun experience. A plow came through that evening again depositing the majority of the snow on our side. by the time we finished shoveling, our road had  6 foot mountains of snow lining it and only one car could pass at a time.

The girls played outside in the snow quite a bit, but I never did get to take them to a good sledding hill. We either couldn't get out, or Bridget was too sick, or it was too cold and icy. When Bridget was feeling better she was eager to go out and had a blast in the tunnel that Emma built. As a joke Jim put the bike flag in to Bridget's coat one day so we wouldn't lose her in the yard.

It is now the end of February and the huge snow piles are still out front. My parking space has 3 feet of snow in it still but I got fed up with playing musical cars in the driveway and today shoveled the smaller 2 foot high snow pile that was in the space on the other side of our driveway. It is finally melting and I was hopeful to see my daffodils are peaking out of the snow and dirt.