Blizzard conditions

At noon I went to Corpus Christi to start my work day in the library. I had plenty of warnings that I might be in serious need of cold adult beverages around 3pm. It was a very interesting day to say the least. It did go by fairly quickly, as every Kindergarten class (5 of them) has library on Thursday afternoon. The fun started at 12:30 and every half an hour we had a different group of kids. I'd say that every class has an unfortunate high number of kids who don't listen! One of the little boys was sent out into the hall and while I was standing out there with him he continued to mess around despite me repeatedly asking him to be quiet and to stand in the corner, etc etc. Thankfully each of the classes only have 30 minutes of library time. Emma was very excited to see me and she obviously forgot our conversation the evening before about not calling me "Mom" at school. Oh well. At least she's not getting sent out into the hallway! Despite the fact that I had one kid burst out crying because I wouldn't let him take any books (he had 2 at home overdue) and several who couldn't tell me their last names (because they don't know them) so I could get their account pulled up onto the computer screen and a whole bunch of speech impediments, I didn't need to break into the adult beverages once I arrived home. I'm not sure about Mrs. Hocking though! :-)

Speaking of arriving home, that was quite a challenge as well. When I left home to go to the school, it was just starting to do a little misting. They have been calling for a blizzard, but I have been let down many times when nothing comes our way. I suppose because I only wore a light fleece jacket on my walk to school, is the reason why it cut loose this afternoon. It snowed like crazy all afternoon, causing the school to postpone parent-teacher conferences that were to be held tonight. Unfortunately we were amongst the group of parents who have to wait until next week to get the reports. They are supposed to be at the same time next week, which falls on the day we have our Daisy Scout meeting and right at the same time. Hopefully I can get our conferences rescheduled for another time slot.

Anyway, back to our walk home. I had told Gage to come to Corpus Christi when he got out of school as I would be in the library. I was actually able to leave at 3pm, so Emma and I went out to walk towards Northridge to meet up with Gage. He was walking down the hill as we got to the crosswalk so we just waited for him. It was UGLY out! It was even worse when we turned around to walk home because we were headed right into the blowing snow. If you have ever seen the Little House on the Prairie episode when Laura has to walk home in the blizzard, well, that was Gage, Emma and I this afternoon. We seriously could not look forward because of the blowing snow. We had our heads down and every so often I would peek up to make sure we weren't going to run into anything! It was painful to look up! And, since I didn't dress appropriately, that means I didn't have a hat on and my ears were freezing. I had to take hold of both Gage and Emma's hands and drag them along so we could get home as quick as we could. Thankfully we don't have that long of a walk, but with the weather like it was, it felt like forever! We were all thankful to get home. My hair was sopping wet, as if I had just gotten out of the shower and our shoes were wet with wet socks and the fronts of our pants were all wet. The kids wanted to know right away if we would be going back out into it and I assured them that we were home for the evening. They both went right down to their bedrooms and put on their p.j.'s. They did end up changing back into warm clothes since they saw the neighbors outside playing. I let them go back outside, but they weren't out for too long. It's much better watching the weather from inside!

After I describe the weather conditions and tell you that they have shut down I-94 east of Mandan all the way to Dickinson and Highway 83 going north to Minot, you'll probably NOT be shocked to hear that Scott left this evening to go hunting. If you remember, back during the rainy day of the CROP Walk, he told me "I don't even hunt in conditions like this!" That's right, because he waits until they are worse! What a dip****! He's gone through the weekend and hopefully they don't get stuck in a snowdrift. He tells me the water is going to lock up from the freezing temperatures and the season will be done. I wasn't born yesterday Scott! I know better than that. He may not be able to hunt ducks because they are smart and headed south, but there are other species that stick around in this weather that he will continue to stalk.

The blizzard warnings are in effect until 6am and we could end up with a foot of snow. I don't know how much we have right now, but I know it's going to be a back breaking hour of shoveling the driveway after school tomorrow. I am working at the school tomorrow from 9:30a-3p, so I will have to wait until after school to shovel the walk, unless I wake up early and am so rested I just pop right out of bed and head out to do it first thing in the morning. I highly doubt that's going to happen, so I will apologize to the mailman right now. I suppose I could walk home and spend the hour from the time I drop the kids off, til the time I have to go back to the school shoveling, but I'm sure Mrs. Hocking and the rest of the kids who will be coming to the library wouldn't appreciate me smelling like a sweaty pig! I hope Mrs. Schmidt enjoys her week in sunny Florida at Disneyworld! (I should have hopped into her suitcase!) Actually, you know I love this kind of weather, but as I said earlier, I like it more when I can enjoy it from inside!