Anatomy of a Snow Day

If I were a good Mommy-Blogger, I'd have about 3 dozen softly lit pictures of my rosy cheeked little darlings grinning ear to ear as they happily frollick in the snow, but, instead, you'll have to read my play-by-play of our snow day.


7:00 am: My alarm goes off.  It makes it's annoying beeping noise several times before my dreaming, sleep soaked mind sorts out what that annoying sound actually is.  Remembering the storm forecasted to hit in the wee hours of the morning, I grab the remote and turn on the tv, hoping at least for a 2 hour delay so I can get a couple more hours of sleep.  My hopes rise as I see the huge number of closings at the bottom of the tv screen, and finally, after about 10 minutes, I find the district name I'm looking for.  School is closed! YES!
7:11 am: I realize that this means that on some lovely spring day that we would normally be sleeping in, I will be dragging myself and the kids out of bed to go to school.  Oh, well, this is now, that is then.  I grab my cellphone from my purse by the bed, and text my boss to let her know that I cannot come in to work since the kids will be here all day.  I watch a few more minutes of the storm coverage on the tv, and then turn it off, and burrow happily back into my quilts.  Have I ever mentioned that sleeping in is my favorite thing to do?
7:30 am: I get up, and go downstairs to put the bag of candy I left out in the very top of the pantry.  I head back to bed.
10:30 am:  I'm awakened by the doorbell ringing.  Ok, I've actually been awakened by several things by this point-since I have kids at home, I'm trained to keep an ear open in my sleep.  I've already said "No! Do not blow up anymore balloons with the air mattress pump!" and "Stop arguing so loudly and go watch tv", or something to that effect.  Anyhow, back to being awakened by the doorbell.  The kids know they are not allowed to open the door unless it's a neighbor we know well, or my parents, but anyhow, I drag my sleepy self out of bed as I hear my son telling a neighbor kid "We can't play yet, our Mom is still in bed."  Great-now the whole neighborhood knows what a lazy person I am.
10:30 am continued:  I come downstairs, and put away the candy bag that has "miraculously" reappeared from the pantry.  From the bowl of soggy cereal and granola bar wrappers on the kitchen table, I see that the kids have gotten their own breakfast, with candy for dessert, of course.
11:00am: By this time, I've supervised the outfitting of my giddy children in their snowpants, boots, coats, gloves and hats, and I've sent them outside where three or four of the neighbor kids are waiting on them.
11:15:am: I head outside, and start shoveling snow off the walkway and driveway.  Usually this is a job I leave to my husband, but a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.  It goes pretty well, but I'm sweating and out of breath in no time.  Maybe I've worked off some of the Bottlecaps and Nerds that I shoved down my gullet last night..
11:30 am: As I'm shoveling, I think about how this reminds me of a summer day-kids laughing and yelling, our goofy dog-like cat following the children around, dogs barking, the sound of snow shovels scrapping pavement....oh wait.....scratch that last one..... Life is good!
12:30 pm: I call the reluctant, wet children inside.  We peel off all of the snow covered layers, and I throw all of the wet, snowy outer clothing into the dryer.  The cat, happy that the kids are back inside, stretches himself out in front of the space heater, warming up his snow soaked belly fur.  We eat a nice warm lunch, and I happily settle on the couch to hear the newscasters on tv freaking out about the snowy roads, warning about round two to come later tonight. Ahhhh.  Maybe we can get another day off out of this...
1:00 pm:  I realize that shoveling the now made me ravenously hungry, and eat a couple of cheese enchiladas.  My second lunch of the day.  So much for the calorie burn....
1:30 pm:  I'm starting to get a little stir crazy.  Sure, I could go clean out my closet, or clean the master bathroom, but I'm not that bored yet.  The kids, getting tired of being together all day, are complaining about having nothing to do.
2:00 pm: The monkeys are now playing Mario Kart on Wii and are arguing and nitpicking at each other about everything.  Again.   I look at the clock and think about how they normally would be at school right now, and how the house would be nice and quiet. (Of course, I would be at work right  now normally, but I forget about that small detail.) I threaten to drive them to school where they can sit and wait outside the entrance for school to open in the morning.  They ignore me, of course.
2:30 pm: Bored and lonely for some adult companionship, I get on Facebook.  Facebook has changed it's format. Again.  My live feed is no longer live.  The Recent News isn't giving me all of my feeds-unless it's really true that not a soul has posted anything in 2 hours.  Grrrrr.  I wish they'd leave it alone.  During this time I've also told my daughter to get out of the candy (I thought I put that away again?), and told my son repeatedly to get the Fritos and apple juice out of the living room.
3:00 pm: The children are debating the merits of Wii games-specifically anything my son wants to play vs the High School musical game my daughter wants to play.  I make my son put the Fritos away away for the final time.  Whining ensues.  My son loads his Nerf gun as he makes fun of the lyrics on the HSM game, my daughter, absorbed in the game, doesn't tke the bait for once.  I sit here at the computer, looking out the window, at the still, gray sky.  More snow, and blowing and drifting overnight is forecast.  I'm not sure I can do another day of this tomorrow....although a two hour delay wouldn't be so bad...  I guess I'll go clean the bathroom now.