Too Much of a Good Thing

Ms. Lee (Grant’ teacher) told the kids to wear their PJ’s backwards to ensure that there would be a snow day. The word must have spread and the entire Metro Atlanta’s kids must have turned their pajamas backwards and inside out. It was a week ago today. I kept watching the weather reports. I was excited. Grant was excited. Daniel was excited. Miles, well, he is always excited.

Daniel and I didn’t know how to prepare. Do we make lunches for work the next day? How do we treat it? The news people said it was going to be a lot of snow but the schools were still in session. The snow flakes started falling at 9:00 pm. School was cancelled by 10 pm. We had the day off. No way we could drive in it.

On Monday, we woke up and Atlanta was pure white.. Beautiful. We had 5 inches of snow in Grant Park. We had a huge breakfast. Needed energy….. we foraged through the skiing clothes. Took note that Grant needed a bib the next time we went skiing. Miles had Grants old stuff even if it was a little big.

Getting dressed took forever. Layers… Poor Miles. I started with his long sleeve onesie and pj pants. Then I added leg warmers (did you know they were back in style for babies and baby boys at that). I pulled on his new fleece pullover he received from his Great Grandmother – MeeMaw. Shoes….on no… what shoes could he wear? I found some! They were rain boots and they were in the bag that Godmother Jill gave to Miles. With a pair of brother’s ski socks, they fit ok. Who am I kidding, they were huge.. He walked around like a transformer – very deliberate! But he was super cute!

Poor baby.. as if that wasn’t enough! I added Grant’s old ski bib (again, too big) and a jacket that Aunt Rachael gave us. Have you seen Ralphie’s little brother on a Christmas Story? Miles probably had him beat.. He could hardly get around. He took it stride though…anything to get out of the house.

We get outside to see our whole city transformed to a winter wonderland. I could hear kids from all over the neighborhood having a great time. The neighbors were out in masses. We arrive at the park to try out Grant’s new sled. He bought it a yard sale last summer for a quarter. We thought he would never get to use it. He used it for about 5 hours on Monday. He and Daniel had a blast but Miles could only handle so much. He needed his naps. He also sledded but on less steep hills.

I assure you that while Grant’s sledding looked scary, he had a blast and didn’t get hurt. Click on the image below to see him sledding!

From Don't Hit the Tree

At one point, I was hating that I was not getting credit for all my walking. I couldn’t find my pedometer and we had walked miles all of over the hood! With the weight on my back, I wanted extra credit for that!

Tuesday came and it was a complete mess on the roads. The Kuemmerle clan stayed out another day. We walked to the restaurant with neighbors. We got to catch up on what is going on with everyone. It was a lot of fun. The next day, I braved the ice and made it to work. Daniel and the kids spent the rest of the week at home. The road in front of my house is still icy almost a week later. Southern cities can’t afford to buy expensive snow plows. Doesn’t make sense. This only happens about once every ten years.

I was on Facebook on Monday. A friend on there was shoveling snow on Monday. My comment was “why?” It will melt by tomorrow… it always does. I have learned some valuable lessons with this storm.

1. Shovel snow as early as possible before it becomes ice. Take care to shovel the road in front of my house. I can’t wait on the government to show up.

2 Always have some vacation days handy.. you might have to use them regardless if you want to.

3. Miles is nothing like Grant… he needs to go somewhere often. Miles will be ecstatic tomorrow when he goes to school. We just found out that his school will be open even though it is MLK’s holiday.