The Big Storm/Winter Wallop

So, we've got a lot of snow outside. Like 20 inches of snow. It started snowing Friday and didn't stop until late Saturday night/early Sunday. And apparently, you can't have a snow storm with out having a catchy name. One channel was calling it The Big Storm while another was calling it The Winter Wallop. Seriously. They were telling people not to go out, to stay off the roads, libraries and restaurants were closed. Pretty much every church cancelled services this morning. But lots of snow means lots of fun for Emma.

Yesterday morning around 11 we saw our neighbors across the street were out and of course Emma wanted to go play with Caroline. So we headed our for a bit. (Yes, I realize we are missing one child. I only went out for a short time to take some pictures and then came back in. Mackenzie hung out in her bouncy seat. She had just woken up and I was hoping she'd fall back asleep but she didn't.)

The top picture is Emma running to me with her snow pants, she was so anxious to get outside. Emma got stuck in a the snow by their steps, which was pretty funny. Their driveway was icy in some spots. Both Michael and Emma wiped out and I almost did. Michael brought Emma's sled over and Emma mostly just wanted to pull Caroline around. Which she did pretty easily. As she would say, "So strong!"
I took the bottom right picture as I was walking over.


Then around five, Michael needed to snowblow again, for the third time, so he and Emma headed out. The bottom left picture is the view from our living room. You couldn't see anything. Emma was very helpful and brought the mail to me as I waited in the garage. I was surprised the mail even came, our road was so snow covered. You couldn't even see it.


Then we thought it'd be a good idea to get pizza. In The Big Storm when they were saying not to go out. In our minivan. Here's Michael going to get it. As you can see, not the best road conditions.


I don't have a picture of him coming back, because he got stuck in the road right about where he is there and I had to go out and drive the car while he pushed. (Beth across the street saw us and came over and stayed with the girls. They were each in their rooms so they were okay, but that was really nice of her.) Thankfully, two city Parks and Rec trucks with plows stopped and helped it him push. It was going well enough when we saw a tow truck coming. He was coming towards us and stopped behind the two trucks. Now, they were blocking the road while helping us, but hey, there's not exactly a lot of traffic. Well, Mr. Tow Truck Driver wanted to get by. And instead of nicely saying "I've got to go get a car out of a ditch, could you please move?" He started yelling "Move Your Trucks!" Michael said they were just trying to help us. He said he didn't care. Told them to move their trucks again. They said they were trying to help. Same answer.

Not that he had to, but he could've easily turned around and gone back up the hill and around, there were other ways to get to where he had to go. Michael told him to relax. He said "What'd you say?" And started toward Michael. I think 50-year-old Mr. Meanie wanted to fight my husband. He was going nuts. He then threatened to call the cops. Okay, call the cops. What are they going to do? We're stuck in the road in front of our house. Maybe the cop will help us push. Mind you, he never once offered to help. We didn't expect him to since we didn't call him and he had somewhere to be, but he could've generically offered.

So they moved their trucks down to the cul-de-sac. He followed, and proceeded to tell them not to help us and let us get ourselves unstuck. Nice, huh? He left, the two guys came back. One had plowed the road in front of us and helped to push again but we weren't moving. The one guy said he knew Meanie because his company is contracted by the city to do their towing. He said he was going to call about him. I said I would too. They finally had to leave. A few minutes later I was in the wrong lane since that was plowed trying to get up the hill when another truck came. Great. This guy was nice he waited until I reversed out of the way then came up next to us and stopped. He said he would've pulled us up if he had a chain but he didn't. It was very nice of him to offer though. Unlike Mr. Tow Truck Driver. Eventually, I backed down the cul-de-sac and got in the driveway. Whew!

Once we got in, I immediately called the towing company. The guy who answered was very nice. I explained to him everything that happened, from Meanie's anger and impatience to starting towards Michael to telling those guys not to help us. I said I understand he was probably stressed with all the snow - to which he replied they'd been working 3 straight days - but that that wasn't an excuse. He knew who I was talking about since he'd just sent him our way and apologized many times. He thanked me for calling, said "If you don't call, there's no way for us to know." Afterward I felt bad because I don't want the driver to get fired but I definitely want him to be reprimanded. I never in my life have encountered someone that acted like that. It was so crazy.

These pictures of our deck/backyard are from today. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, it was The Big Storm/Winter Wallop, after all.


And finally, Michael and Emma playing outside after lunch today.


PS, Yes Missy, we got the pizza. :)