Welcome to AL, Spring!

You know my favorite funny scene ( I have other serious scenes I love in it too) in the movie Fireproof? When the haughty fireman guy jumps in bed when he finally gets that he was tricked into drinking hot Tobasco while Caleb drank tomato juice in a challenge! Hilarious! My kids rewound that part a few times! I didn’t laugh after the second time for I knew my time would come eventually! LOL!

Well, my moment had come this morning. First day of March snuck up on us with a huge susprise. As if just a few days ago a tournado touchdown just miles away from our house didn't prepare us for any further weather surprises.

A bit of history to clarify my point here and tie up my long winded post, please, thank you for your patience. Last nite I went out with a few of my Russian lady friends to a restaurant to celebrate International Women’s day (March 8- big holiday in the former Soviet block). We were seated at the table I’ve already sat at with our homeschool group moms a few months prior and I mentioned that the thermostat was not willing to cooperate on my last visit and suggested we move to another one. It was really cold again in that room while outside was very nice and we all wanted to enjoy our dinner and not freeze. Luckily, the manager was right there and overheard our conversation with the maître. He happily obliged immediately, jokingly stating that with sun and Tshirts today and snow tomorrow his thermostats aren’t quite apt at switching efficiently. I just stared at him and didn’t get it. What snow is he talking about? In AL? That’s how much I keep up with the news. He must have just been exaggerating to excuse his messed thermostat, I thought and watched one of my friends order hot tea. Well, little did I know that I was going to wake up the very next morning to a blanket of white snow (about 1 in) and that's when my TOMATO JUICE kicked in. So, that's what the maitre was saying!

I actually told my oldest to get lost when he thought it was super important to wake me up to inform me about this rare occurrence and to ask me where all the gloves, hats and coats went! ( i just packed them away a few days ago since it was so nice and warm for weeks now) I seriously didn’t believe him! We’ve lived in AL 2 years now and the only snow I’ve seen was last year and it lasted a whole of a 1.5 hours of light flurries, not enough to even build a snowman.

My oldest likes to inform me. I think it’s a teenager thing. As soon as I pulled up the shades I realized he was serious and I saw the girls almost barefoot and clothes on top of PJs making snowmen. Gasp! We just went thru a light cold! He also proceeded to let me know that he's checked his email (yeah! before I even check mine) not to even bother getting the crockpot into the car for the after church pot luck lunch. It was cancelled! I just couldn’t believe my luck today! Church canceled after I stayed up late laboring hard over my crockpot turkey breast because of a bit of snow. It took me a whole lot of 10 min after midnite to accomplish this dish, you know. I am not used to things being canceled because of snow, you know! Life goes on. In my country of birth I remember walking 4-5 miles to work because the snow was so bad all public transportation was limited and it was packed. But, no cell phone to call my job I walked with a coworker for hours. It took me about 30 min to get to work in a trolley or a bus, but we walked for 2 hours. We made it by 11m! But we made it! And we were expected about the time we got there, due to snow problems, you know! Our schools there hardly ever closed because of snow! Kids just trudge thru, parents have to go to work or they don't eat.

Back to good old USA, home sweet home, AL. The roads were clear but I figured the cancellation was for the best. So, a huge turkey breast smelling so yummy was my next focus! I whipped some garlicky cheese biscuits (almost as good as the Red Lobster ones), made a quick gravy and fed a hungry crew who’d already managed to build a snowman, get a few pairs of clothes wet and get really cute red cheeks and sparkles in their eyes! Oh, how little does it take to make a child happy! Teenagers-different story, but why was I going that direction again? Oh, yeah! Teenagers don't think it's cool to play in the snow. Mine just threw a snowball at his sister (keeping 2 feet from the house the whole time ) while she was trying to stack the middle part on the snowman all by herself. The whole thing collapsed when the snowball landed in her face. Tears, disappointment, anger, unjustness... He had to get shoes on and help her put it back together. It was a sight! Get the moral? You reap what you sew! HA!

I am not particularly fond of snow since I’ve had kids. It’s a pain. I thought it was horrible when I was single trying to launder the multiple layers of winter clothes in an old wringer washer after heating pots of water on the stove since hot water was a luxury from the tap. But, now with the comforts of washer and dryer it shouldn't be that daunting, should it? Wet clothes, gloves and other snow related matters… just not for a restful Sunday. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy seeing kids have fun. I am glad I wasn't even once begged to come out and help with the snowman.

But a few minutes of fun result in many minutes of clean up. After the huge b fast clean up we decided to run over (not really, it’s 4 mi away) to Kohl’s and buy a pair of snow pants (I’ve seen on sale last week) for one of the girls (2 of them already had some that they haven't outgrown totally yet) and maybe get a pair of clearanced winter boots (which we found both!) . That took a while since there were so many 75% and 90% off racks and with 4 girls (my neighbor’s girl came along and what kind of crazy woman shops with 4 girls under the age of 11 in snow, huh?) it took a while to get out of there. Actually, we didn’t do too badly considering. We walked out with a brand new set of PJ’s (each girl), snow pants and a pair of clearance winter boots. Not bad at all, considering the amount of time, effort and pleading to keep some items, it took me to narrow it down.

So, it’s 6pm now, everyone fed on a Sam’s pizza (yuck, it was horrible today), kids back from outside yet again (they were asked to build a snowman for a neighbor whose kids were all grown) and wet socks and gloves scattered all over (I know I only had 3 kids playing outside for a just a few hours, but how many gloves and wet sock do I see? Unmatched too?) and I am already thinking about going to bed and facing another school day that I hardly had time to prepare for. Oh, wait, maybe I have a friend coming over? That’s right! I almost forgot in my busyness. So, the weekend is not over. I do deserve a day’s rest after a heavy snow occurrence :) and who can stop me from making myself one? We’ll learn socializing skills tomorrow. That counts as learning, right? School kids would be out more than probably if there is still snow tomorrow on our lawn. So, we won’t be that much behind!