Adventures in Snow Land

I should have taken it as a sign that this would be a day full of adventures from the moment Izzy fell fully clothed into the toilet. You read that correctly. I was standing there fixing my hair and the babies were both close underfoot when -- splash! -- I turned just in time to see her mid-section fully submersed in the bowl. That's right. Bring your children to me and I'll take good car of 'em. Luckily, I had a handy change of girl clothes nearby to keep the trauma level from soaring to even greater heights.

After it rained all night, it promptly began snowing all day (rain in the night and snow in the day, does that seem backwards?). I would have loved to stay nestled snug in my home, except that I was suppose to take the little ones to pre-school at 12:30. And, I had unfortunately put off writing a restaurant review until the last possible moment. If I didn't rummage up a menu and an interview this afternoon I would be in serious deadline trouble. Not the place I want to be as a freelancer in this day and age of cutbacks.

I dropped off four kiddies at pre-school and drove down 25th street to scout out restaurants. The snow fell steadily, but, as long as I took it slow, the van was handling fine. I made contact with the owner of Shin Sei and was granted an on-the-spot interview with the owner of Karen's Cafe. I decided to grab a hot chocolate and slice of chocolate cake to-go from the Sugar and Spice Cakery and then headed over to the bank to deposit a check. I had planned to spend under an hour running errands, but, with the snow, it was 2:15 by the time I approached my home. I called the pre-school carpool pick-up mom and told her not to bother getting out in the snow, I would just bring the kids home.

No sooner had I parked my van in front of the pre-school, then, I got a call from my other son's elementary school saying that Ian was ill and requiring a change of clothing and was quite upset waiting to be picked up in the office. It was 2:20 and the other kids would be out at 2:30. It was only 6 blocks each way to pick-up Ian and come back. I figured that would be the right thing to do. And, that was the right thing to do (I knew as soon as I encountered my tender tear-streaked boy that I had been right to not make him wait), but it was also the beginning of my adventures in Snow Land.

I got to the school and loaded Ian up without much worry. It just took longer than usual and my windows were severely fogged on the insides, making it hard to see. But, then, I got stuck in front of the school!!! So, I tried to call the other mom to say "pick up the kids!" But, her line was busy. After 10-minutes of tire spinning, I got out. Then, the windshield wiper on the driver's side flew off -- the icing on my adventures in Snow Land cake. I was 15-minutes late picking up the pre-school kids. They were standing outside in a snowstorm the entire time, which was awesome. And, when I got out to load them, I found myself standing in a slush covered river that completely soaked through my winter boots and filled them with water -- even more awesome.

So, my feet were then cold and soaking wet, my windows were still very fogged, the snow was still coming down, I was missing a wiper blade, and it was then that I realized the carpool mom who was suppose to pick up Ian, Manthy and Lexy didn't know I already picked up Ian. I called her house. No answer. I called the school to try to get a message to Lexy. No answer. All the time that I was making phone calls and frantically looking up numbers in my phone, I was trying to drive on slippery roads with low visibility. Finally, I delivered two pre-school kids to their homes and decided that I had no choice but to go to the school to let the mom know, rather than make her wait with her pre-schooler and infant in a snowstorm, trying to figure out where on earth my son was.

Of course, the area in front of the school was a complete mess with cars jammed and stuck in every direction. I pulled into a spot, jumped out, found said mom, delivered the news, collected two more kids, jumped into the van, and discovered that we were stuck again!!! So, I sat there trying to be patient while I was conspicuously close to the crosswalk and sticking out a little too far from the curb (making traffic even worse and the crosswalk less safe). Finally, at 3:15 enough traffic cleared out for me to manage to get unstuck without ramming another car or driving over a kid. It was then that I realized that Sophie's carpool would have dropped her off to an empty house at 3!!!

I tried to hurry home. Of course, there would be no hurrying. When I arrived I was a little surprised to discover that a full foot of snow had fallen since I left the house 3 hours earlier. Perhaps, that is why I was having so much trouble. Sophie was (luckily) waiting patiently in the backyard and not freaking out about the fact that the doors were all locked and no one was there. I took my best stab at pulling into the driveway, and, in the process, got extremely stuck -- half in the road and half in the driveway. After sloshing in my soggy boots up to the house three different times to carry in various items including two sleeping babies, I told six kids to please entertain themselves and headed back to the driveway with my snow shovel. As I started shoveling out my tires, I soon realized that I was in no condition (read: Six-months pregnant) to shovel very much of the 12-inch thick heavy snow. So, I tried to pull in again. After sliding all over the place, some young boys walking home from school offered to push me in. Bless those boys for their kindness! Together we managed to get the van pushed up into the driveway and off of the street. And, now, I'm planning to stay put for the rest of the day. And, definitely until this crazy storm stops (and I have a new wiper blade). If you will please excuse me there is (ahem) some chocolate cake upstairs with my name on it. The end.

P.S. While I was typing this, my 87-year-old neighbor used his snowblower to clear our driveway so now Brian won't have to get stuck when he pulls in at 1 a.m. I am so blessed. The end.