I packed up my tins that lined the ceiling of the kitchen and my avon doll/figurine collection. Todd thinks it's a little early to start packing but I'm being realistic. At most, I have four weekends in which to pack. Emily and Ben will be here for at least one of those and I won't give up time with them. I figured I'd just pack up the stuff that won't get put into use right away at the new house. I'm losing four sets of built-in shelves and about 26 feet of plate rail. I hope to have a plate rail built in the new kitchen so I can display my tin collection again. That won't happen anytime soon so what I packed up today will probably get stored in the back of a closet. Therefore it needs to be ready to go out the door first. See? I know what I'm doing : )
I quickly put together a display of Todd's pictures from today. If you want to see what a spring snowstorm in Iowa looks like, click here. If you've seen enough snow to last a lifetime, look anyway because they're very pretty.
Pamela has saltwater fish. I am so jealous. After looking at her beautiful fish, the freshwater tank in our house seems so lame. Maybe next year Todd and I can set one up as a joint Christmas present. We had some pretty cool fish for awhile but they died. I couldn't stand to get rid of C's guppies when we got the new tank so we put them in with the platys. One by one the platys have bit the dust while the guppies multiply daily. When we move I want to get a bigger tank for pretty tropical fish and leave the guppies out of it.
It snowed a whole lot again. Todd will probably fill everyone in on how his day went so all I'll say about it is he's certainly been gone a long time today. I didn't get to sleep until around 4:30am because of the wind. We have plastic on our bedroom windows and the wind was whipping that around. It was so loud it could be heard all through the house. Anyway, that prevented me from getting to sleep. The phone rang at 6 and woke me back up again. Looked out the window and couldn't see a thing because of the snow packed into the screens. That's not even a good sign. By the time I got up at 8 we already had a foot of snow on the ground. Unbelievably heavy snow. Todd took the camera to work to take pictures of it all and hopefully I'll get those posted later tonight.
There wasn't any school so C. headed outside. He hadn't been out five minutes before I heard him scream "Mom!!!" in that voice that will call in mom's from miles around. I ran to the door and the kid is literally stuck in the snow. His foot had come out of his shoe and he's freaking all over the place. I grumbled my way down the back steps wondering how in the world I'd ended up with such a panicky kid. (shut up Al!) Got to where he was and found out why he was freaking. He'd stepped on a plastic tub buried under the snow and his foot had went clear through the thing. That's why his shoe stuck and he was sure he'd cut himself on something. No major injuries but enough of a scare to convince him that being outside wasn't an option yet.
I turned on the TV and was going to settle him in to cartoons. No satellite. Oh the horrors!! Stuck at home with a 7 year old and no blasted TV!!! I tried explaining that I didn't get a snow day and he was going to have to entertain himself so I could work. By noon I was ready to grab this child whom I love so dearly (really I do) and pummel him. He was equally as disgusted with me and reminded me for the second time this week that he doesn't know why he decided to let me raise him cuz I'm so mean. I have no idea where he got the notion he chose me as a mom. I think God decided that. At any rate, in the afternoon the neighbor kid starts swarming the house (The new house has no neighbor kids!!) so I ran him off. He's probably wondering why Christopher decided to have me as a mom as well. Yes, it was a horrid day. The only good thing that really came out of it was an email exchange with Amber. Somehow I knew she'd understand why I felt like I might strip my clothes off and run screaming down the street until someone (probably Todd) would haul me off to where they make people better. Okay, that was a slight exaggeration. I'd never run naked in the snow but I did have a brief moment where I thought I might take off on a screaming run and not stop. Shades of Forrest Gump. hehe
The good news is that we've both survived the day. We still love each other. He hasn't asked to be reassigned to a new mom and I no longer think I may pummel him. Ahhhh... being a mom makes ya strong!
Todd will be home in 15 minutes. One hug from him and this awful day will be a distant memory. Of course I'll have to bemoan the injustice of it all one more time for his sake. Then the hug. Then all better. : )
It is nasty outside tonight. Probably the worst it's been all winter. Lots of heavy wet snow and high wind. Todd worked until 8pm and I knew he'd come in wet and cold. When the weather gets like this he spends a lot of time out in the elements rescuing idiots from their ditch-bound vehicles. I left the office on time tonight because of the weather so C. and I hit the door at a reasonable hour. The satellite was out so I enlisted C's help in cleaning the kitchen and preparing a large supper. I figured Todd hadn't eaten all day so we got busy making turkey breast w/gravy, mashed potatoes, baked beans, buttermilk biscuits and chocolate silk pie for dessert. My entertainment for this evening will be watching him put 10 pounds of food into a stomach that looks like it was built for 10 ounces.
Before you go, please join me for a moment of prayer to the school gods...
Dear Keeper of the School Schedule, thank you for considering our previous requests for a year round school year. Since you apparently are still mulling that over, could you please take some quick action to insure the school will hold classes tomorrow? Our youth's intelligence is in your mighty, capable hands. In educations name we pray... amen. Oh, and if you see the snow god, tell him that when I said I wanted lots of snow, I meant lots of snow in one day. Not multiple days of lots of snow. Thank you.
We went to the house today and Todd took lots of pictures. It still seems so unreal that we'll be living there a month from now. I suppose reality will set in real quick when we start packing and hauling stuff out of here. That is going to be quite a chore and probably one that will be entirely last minute.
I've lived in this house longer than any other since I left home. It's gonna be kinda hard to say goodbye to this old place just because almost all of Christopher's life is in this house. The doorway between the dining room and kitchen has his height marks from every one of his birthdays. I think I'll measure them out and replicate them somewhere in the new house. When he learned to write his name in preschool, he wrote it on a couple of walls... don't think I'll ask him to replicate that anywhere : )
