How I Spent My Snow Day

Admit it. The title just called to you, right? It made you desperate to know what on earth I did on my snow day to be blog-worthy.

Ha! Sucked you in.

The snow cry arose a few days ago. The threat of possible snow sent our town into a tizzy. Stores were wiped clean of milk, eggs, and bread. After all, you may be snowbound for days. You just never know.

Here's something I’ve never understood… why is it people rush out and buy those particular things? Are they planning on making a huge batch of French toast while stuck in their houses?

Anyhow, we left school/work yesterday armed with our handy dandy phone list that would enable us to call our colleagues with the announcement school was closed. (to clarify: I am a teacher and had a list of people to call in the event of weather).

We waited and waited…

Finally! Flurries, yay!

Ten minutes later, it was done. Boo.

Flurries and sleet did resume later in the evening but….I got tired of waiting for the wonderful phone call and went to bed. While the rest of my friends were still up watching the BCS Championship and burning up the keyboard on Facebook, I was snoozing in my bed.

Evidently, I was snoozing hard. The phone rang at 11:52pm.

Or that’s what my voice mail told me anyhow.

Katie said she came in and told me the phone was ringing too but I have no recollection of that conversation.

Note to the world: anything we discuss between 11pm and 2am will not be retained in my memory.

I woke up around 5:20, turned off the alarm, and waited for the phone to ring. Instead I heard a shrill beep…..

Hmm. As I sat there trying to figure out the noise, Alex walked in and wanted to know why the security system was beeping. He said it started as soon as he opened his door.

Hey wait. Mom, did you put an alarm on my door?

Nope, but good idea!

Turned off the alarm before the siren started going, noticed I had a message, listened to it, told Alex school was canceled, and called my teammates.

Whoo hoo! No school!

Finally dozed back to sleep at 7am just in time for the girls to arrive at my bedside.

Mom, why are you still in bed? Why don’t we have school? You made us pick out our clothes last night. Why did we do that if there’s no school?

And that began my snow day.

After breakfast, the girls begged to go outside. Why, I don’t know. It was twenty degrees and there was only a dusting of snow, but off they went.

Weren’t they cute?




Yep, it lasted for perhaps fifteen minutes. The rest of the day was been spent in the house, with me, in a confined space, after only being back in school two days after an almost three week Christmas break.

Are you getting the picture?

Right at lunch time, I left Alex with the girls and headed out to buy groceries. My parents are headed to town tomorrow and would probably appreciate something to eat other than Cheerios.

So I was out shopping in the freezing cold but……I was getting out of making them lunch. Smart, huh?

A huge shopping trip later, I arrived home demanding the assistance of the kids to help unload the car. Alex showed up in a t-shirt and bare feet. In twenty degree weather. I've never seen the boy unload the car so quickly.



Shopping done. Check. Cleaning? No thank you. I’ll pass.

While avoiding the need to clean the house, I got an attack of domesticity and made yet another batch of Chex mix.



Oh, and let this picture be proof of my domestic ability. I just seldom use it….by choice.

With a fajita dinner planned, temperature outside dropping, still procrastinating about cleaning, what else is there to do?

Oh, I know. Take this



plus this



to finish up my day!

Surely my parents won’t mind if the bathrooms aren’t clean, right?

The Christmas Blur……

Yep, we were off school for two and a half weeks and I only updated twice. Yay me.

Life intervened. Things like sleeping late took precedent.

Oh wait. There was no sleeping late at my house unless you were over the age of 14.

Hmm. Let me clarify. There was no sleeping late unless you were over age 14 and less than 42. Which, if you do the math, leaves me out. Lovely.

But, things like staying in jammies all morning, reading books while snuggled on the couch, playing with toys to our hearts content, and eating dinner later than usual were more important than updating the blog.

side note: I still haven’t even done our Christmas letter. I am shooting for Valentine’s Day/Chinese New Year this year.

Let me take a moment to clarify that I took part in all the above activities except playing with toys. I drew the line at that event.

Christmas came, we saw, we conquered.

Hmm. Thinking back to Christmas Eve.

We went to Mass….and all the kids mostly behaved. Ahem.



My laptop decided get sick for 36 hours and about killed me.



Resorted to the crackberry to survive…gasp.



Stayed up late to build a “bleeping” Barbie house on Christmas Eve. Ugh. It was midnight until all was built and played with by those older than 6.





Christmas brought new kitchen appliances for a girl, a new guitar for a boy, new Barbies and Littlest Pet Shop pieces for short people, and………….marshmallow guns for all!





The New Year was upon us rather quickly. Oh, by the way, we chose to celebrate on Irish time so we could do it at 8pm. Hey, no excuses here. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Yep.

Dave and Katie departed for Pennsylvania shortly after the year began to visit his parents. So, while the cat was away, the mice played. We had Mickey D’s for breakfast, junk food for lunch, pizza for dinner, and stayed in our jammies all day.

Well, only once. But it was fun!

Now we’re back into the school groove again, complete with frigid temperatures and snow in the forecast.

Need I remind you that we live in Georgia?

“Nuf said.

Fair? What's that?

Think back to your childhood…..even if it was a long time ago. Are you there yet? Keep going back….okay, you can stop now.

If you had siblings, you can relate to my story.

When we were growing up, everything had to be perfectly fair. If someone had a cherry in their fruit cocktail, all three of us needed to have one. If someone had ice cream for dessert, all three bowls better have looked pretty equal. If someone had a cookie, the others better be allowed to also.

You get the picture. I’m sure your own kids do the same thing.

My house is no different. But today’s issue took the top prize.

The girls just had lunch. One had pizza, the other a turkey sandwich. In my quest to not clean, I gave them paper plates. The one with pizza got two plates because we know how greasy pizza can be once reheated.

We were happily eating lunch when the turkey sandwich kid noticed the pizza kid had two plates yet she only had one.

“Mommy, how come she has two plates and I only have one?”

I showed her the greasy top plate so she could understand better. Yes, I had to justify my actions. Geesh.

Turkey sandwich girl listened to my tale, paused and said,

“Well, tomorrow I am going to have pizza too.”

All that just to get two plates just like her sister? You’ve got to be kidding.

I think I’ll just give her one plate and see what she says.....

Teenage Boys.....

If you have one, you already know. But if you don’t, let me fill you in with my experience. If you have a little boy, get ready.

Teenage boys eat. He will get in the car and eat anything mom has left from lunch, eat a snack once home, and eat dinner an hour later. How?

Teenage boys don’t ever come ask questions. They text from room to room or instant message on skype. Or, they send their little sisters to ask for them.

Teenage boys don’t like to clean up. They prefer to dump their clothes in the entry way to the bedroom and step over them. Why?

Teenage boys think climbing up the side of the house is fun. Mom does not like this game.

Teenage boys wear shorts when it’s freezing outside and jeans when it’s hot. Yep.

Teenage boys have a higher average in Spanish than in English. And English is the only language spoken at home. Kinda makes you wonder…..

Teenage boys create new and exciting games. Take dodgeblock for example. This is dodgeball on steroids. Think throwing blocks instead of balls. Get the picture?

Teenage boys do projects that involve being hit by a car. Don’t worry, there was adult supervision.

Teenage boys are fun to embarrass in front of their girlfriends.

Don’t you wish you had one?

Get your own. You can’t have mine.

My Life in Instant Replay

Here are a few tidbits for your amusement…..

We were preparing for Mass on Sunday when Dave said, “Maybe we’ll sing a Latin song.

Anna Grace said, “An Aladdin song?”
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I was doing laundry (rare, I know) when I looked down and saw a suitcase in the laundry basket. Why? Was it in need of cleaning?
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The little girls went with daddy to take Katie back to college. On the way home, they saw a blimp flying over the Georgia Dome. Why, I don’t know since the dome is, well, a dome. Anyhow. When asking Abby what they saw, she paused and said, “A bleep.”
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When I was heading out to the store, Alex said he needed shampoo. “Oh, and mom? Get the kind with conditioner in it. The girl behind me in fourth block said my hair isn’t soft enough”. Huh. How does she know this? “She plays with my hair when I’m sleeping”.
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Anna Grace got on the daycare bus headed for the after school program. The owner of the center said she overheard the following while driving….
“Hey Logan, my dad ate alligator. He said it tastes like chicken.”
Why? Was this the foremost thing in her mind???
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Alex announced on the way home that he had a group Spanish project to do involving needing to create a video/dialogue for calling for first aid---all in Spanish. His group’s idea? To video tape Alex being hit by a car. Yep.
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Coming home from school, we passed a hotel that is a mile or so from our house. Abby said, “Can we go to the hotel, mom?” Uh no. “But we never get to!” Well, we live here. “But we can still go! The hotel has beds and furniture just like our house.”
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I was passing Anna Grace’s classroom and noticed the cute display on the door. The children had put brown footprints and black handprints to make reindeer. I commented to her teacher that it was adorable. Addressing Anna Grace, her teacher said, “Did mommy clean your foot really well last night?” AG said, “Nope, we didn’t even take a shower or a bath!”
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Anna Grace came out of their room for a drink of water. Next thing I heard was, "Copycat is coming too, mom".......Abby was on her way.
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Oh, and a mommy funny. I got to school and realized I had a huge hole in my sock. So I did the logical thing and stapled my sock shut. Doesn't that make sense to you???

More to come, I’m sure.