O What A Day!!!

Yesterday, Thursday, I woke up with a clear plan for the day.
1. 8:45 AM. Back-to-back appointments at the dentist for Joel and I.
2. Drop the family back at home so Ellie could nap. Grab my list of what to buy where.
3. Shop until I almost dropped.
4. Return home for lunch.
5. 1:30 PM. Back-to-back appointments at the eye doctor for Joel and I.
6. Complete shopping.
7. Return home for late naps.
8. Eat early supper.
9. 7:00 PM Joel attend a Men Only outing with our church.
10. Kids in bed early so I could blog.

Ask me how well my plans worked. Pretty well until lunch. Then the master plan went out the window.

The dentist had CNN airing on the t.v. in the waiting room. I watched the weather report predicting 2-4 inches of snow for NYC, 4-6 inches for Boston. That could mean anything for us. We could get the 6 inches or we could get nothing. Ah, the joy that is Rhode Island weather.

Undaunted, I dropped the family at home and headed off for my 2+ hours of kid-free shopping. Over an hour later I emerged from the Christmas Tree Shop. (How do I even describe this store?! Don't let the name fool ya, they sell way more than Christmas things.) I drove across the parking lot to Stop and Shop (major supermarket chain) and noticed a few tiny sputtering flakes. "Hey, maybe we'll get some snow after all," I thought.

Half an hour later (give or take) I rushed out of Stop and Shop to see large flakes falling slowly to the ground. Hmm.. not good. Ten years of living in Rhode Island has taught me that Rhode Islanders believe all snow storms will turn into blizzards which will cause life as we know it to stop and they will be housebound for weeks. Thus they must leave work early and go buy milk and bread on their way home.

I had intended to visit another grocery store (where milk and bread are MUCH cheaper) after our eye doctor appointments. Through experience I have learned waiting a few hours may mean no milk and bread and since I had NONE of these two items in my house I decided I'd rush through Price Rite on my way home.

So, up Route 2 I schlepped. Through the snow and the traffic. I quickly navigated my way through the aisles grabbing things that were on my list. When I came out of the store the flakes were huge and falling fast. My normally 8 minute drive home took 25. This did not bode well for our drive to the eye doctor.

I arrived home in time to unload the van, put away perishables, wolf down a PB&J and suit up the kids for the trip to the eye doctor. Again, a drive that normally takes me 8 minutes took 40!! Insanity I tell you! I saw plows and sand trucks several times but none were plowing. What's up with that?!

I had planned to do a bit of shopping next door in the mall while Joel endured his eye exam. (Our optometrist is at the Sears Optical which is on one end of the mall.) Imagine my surprise to find the mall CLOSED!! For a little snow people! During the Christmas season!! It shows you just how dead that particular mall is (2 levels, on the lower level there is a dollar store, video game store, scary witches store, crazy statue store, the DMV, and a snack bar; I kid you not 75 percent of the shop spaces are empty.).

We returned to the doctor's office and waited on Joel to finish. Then the kids and I walked to the other end of the mall (through the snow) to Wal-Mart. If you have 3 kids you understand why I walked them and let Joel move the van. Anyway. I finished up my shopping that I'd wanted to do at the dollar store and we headed home.

An HOUR later we arrived home. An hour. To go 3 miles. You may recall Joel's walk home from Wal-Mart a couple of months ago. He walked the same route in the same amount of time it took us to drive it last night.

I think we were both relived to hear Joel's Man outing for church was cancelled. Instead he had the pleasure of shoveling the driveway and sidewalk leading up to our house (it's required for the mailman to deliver the mail). The boys had a great time "helping" him but I'm not sure how much fun Joel had. Thankfully it didn't snow much more during the night so he only had about an inch to contend with this morning before work.

I'm not sure what the official totals were for the snow but my yard has about four inches in it. Up to Ben's knees. = ) The kids and I played in the snow for a little while today. Or rather the boys and I played. Ellie just cried. And cried. And cried. I was surprised she cried so much. She loves being outside and brought me her coat to go out. In her defense she has about 4 teeth in varying states of coming through the gums. And she had shots last week at the pediatrician. He warned me that they might not "kick in" until this week. Yesterday she ran a low grade temperature. Hopefully tomorrow she'll be more enthusiastic about the snow.