Life has been overwhelmingly busy lately. I feel like I haven't had a chance to catch up on anything. So, I'm making the executive blog author decision to just write about life backwards. We're starting at the most recent and working our way back to Christmas!
This week was wild. Tuesday started like any other normal Tuesday. It was cold, but no one was saying much about snow. I walked into work and had the normal conversation with Joe, my best friend for life. 'Hey Joe, I've got to run in to town during lunch because I'm out of gas.' A little after 9:30 am, we looked out and it was just starting to snow. By 10:00, there was a soft, white layer on all the cars. At 10:15, Joe said, 'Taylor, look at that car.' There was a car trying to make it up the hill by our office, tires spinning. At 10:20, my boss ran out of a client meeting and said, 'Do you see that car? Taylor, go get London right now.' I immediately ran out and called Kurt. He informed me that school had just emailed that they were closing in an hour, so I told him I'd grab his boys and meet him at the bottom of the hill since our hill was freezing over fast. I got the kids, drove down one hill, which had me right back at our office and that was all she wrote. It was 10:40 am. Every where you looked was nothing but a huge sheet of ice. Tires were spinning on every car and we all found ourselves playing a massive game of ice skating bumper cars.
I had 3 very sweet storm troopers, an empty gas tank, and a pretty helpless situation on my hands. After about an 1.5 hours, we finally gave up, parked, and decided to at least try to get off the mountain. I had my purse and computer in one hand, and Lucas in the other. The mountain was frozen solid, so I told Knox and London to follow right behind me and to step in my snow tracks. That way if they fell down, they would slide into me.
A bit into our trek, London said, "Momma, a woman wants to hold my hand." I turned around and there was our new friend, Heather. A kid in each hand. She said I looked like I could use some help and help she did. She stayed with us for the rest of the day, helping out, entertaining kids, being an angel. I saved her in my phone as Angel Heather because that's exactly what she was to us on Tuesday. She was miracle number 1.
We made it to the fast food restaurant at the bottom of our hill and waited for most of the afternoon. Kurt was on his way to us but the calls kept getting less optimistic. One hour away, turned into two, and three, and 'I'm not sure I'll be able to make it.' Angel Heather decided to risk it to see if she could get her car down the hill. She did. I left the kids with her and sprinted up the hill, praying the whole way. Miraculously, I made it down too. Miracle 2. We dished out big squeezes and we were all on our way! I drove immediately to a gas station and had to ice pick my gas tank open! I filled up and we slowly drove along. I opted for the interstate, knowing the traffic would at least have heated the roads up a bit. Our route calls for two interstates south. We never even hit a slow down on our way home, even thought it was slow going. Both interstates inbound were zero movement parking lots. Miracle number 3. We slide down my exit ramp and made it safely to our house. Miracle number 4.
We touched base with Jill and Kurt... Kurt still hadn't moved much and was losing phone battery. Jill would be staying at the high school because no form of transportation could get to them. We called Heather. In the little over the hour it took us to drive home, she had only made it about 1/4 mile. I called to check on her the last time at 10 pm and she still hadn't made it home.
After I checked in, and promised parents (the kids and mine both) that we were safe and not going anywhere, I suited the kids up and let them enjoy the glorious, terrifying snow!
Angel Knox
Angel Lucas
Angel Lu Lu
Safe. Sound. Cold and happy.
Snow Dancing.
Defrosting.
Kurt finally made it to his house at 10 pm. Jill spent the night with 4,000 high school kids.... with no heat, no pillows, no blankets. Her stories are horrible. They were freezing. There were 40 kids stuck at London's school. I've never had such a brimming heart for teachers. They are so full of sacrificial love and compassion. Jill told me how she literally rocked on the floor holding a child with a mental condition until he could gain composure over the fact that his mom couldn't get to him. She didn't shut her eyes for the entire night. All of these teachers are heros.
We were able to face time with Jill the next morning. Her boys were holding the phone when it connected and the first thing out of her mouth was, 'Oh, I think I'm going to cry now!' My heart broke in half knowing my best friend had spent the last 24 hours with her strong, supportive face on, but the sight of her beloved children broke the need to be anything but 'momma'. We assured her the boys were okay and she filled us in that there was still no way to reach the school. She was in for the long haul. Kurt couldn't stay away, so he made it to our house by mid morning and was able to inch his way home safely.
Once we had a chance to decompress a bit, we were able to switch into fun mode. We 'ice skated' up and down the driveway and then collected a bucket of snow to make snow ice cream.
Snow cream gets London (and Momma's) total seal of approval! It was delicious!
Cheers to snow cream!
Abrupt segue to the news: Many more times that not, I am happy that we don't have cable. The news I hear is usually good news, not bad. I really like being guarded from the bad at times. Fox News released a great article about the owner of Chik-Fil-A on Hwy 280. He shut his restaurant down 'for business' during the storm, then he and his employees spent the night cooking and delivering free food to all the people stuck in their stretch of the road. They turned the restaurant into a shelter that night, then woke bright and early to cook chicken biscuits for anyone who needed food. The only thing they closed were their cash registers. The report says many people tried to pay them for food, because why would you not capitalize on the situation, but the owner and workers said that it was a blessing to help people. I love my place. I'm so proud of her people.
With an unknown amount of 'locked in' time ahead of us, I decided I could finally conquer taking down the Christmas decorations! Yes. It's almost February, but I have no issue keeping Christmas up so long! (Long live the Christmas season!!)
You'll see in later posts (but earlier, since we're working in reverse!!) that I gifted myself a turn table with my Christmas money! It's the greatest thing ever! My sweet people have been watching for good deals on classic records, so we spent our snow day with the best of the soul sisters! Something about listening to these women wail makes the world feel like it's right on it's axis. Their heartbroken songs are somehow stress relieving.
Cabin Fever set in with us wrapping christmas lights around.... well, almost anything London wanted to wrap in lights. I also was serenaded with a song entitled 'Cinderella's Baking Soda.' A late afternoon grocery run did us both a world of good!
I dropped London off at Jill's house this morning so I could get a little work done today. Everything was fine, but I was in a bit of a funk. I knew I had a boat load of work waiting on me. The roads were still really icy in places. I was just funky. I was pulling out of the driveway and saw this smiling snow man sitting on the edge of the road. I laughed at how happy he looked and then recognized how it only takes a little of a good thing to help make a major attitude adjustment. I said a heart felt thanks for being able to have my hands on my child during this whole fiasco and promised to be a 'smiling snow man' to the people I met today.
Even in the storm, there's always hope for a better tomorrow. Thanks Mr. Snowman.
