Unexpected Snow Day

When my morning radio alarm went off this morning, I could not believe what I was hearing..."6-8 inches of snow expected by early afternoon." Are you kidding me? This is still March 31st....I figured the announcers must be looking at their calendars wrong and thinking that it was April Fool's day today. To my dismay, they were totally serious, and already, it was snowing outside. Big, beautiful, catch on your tongue flakes, falling to the BARE ground. Will winter never end?



The kids, all ready for school wearing their shoes and spring jackets, had to start over, digging for boots and snow pants that became buried during the warm weekend weather. Perhaps if I were to watch the news every now and then, I would be more prepared for days like these? We were finally ready to go, and everyone just barely made it to school on time, boots, snow pants, hats, mittens and all. Gee whiz....



Melissa's teacher was kind enough to call me 2 hours later, letting me know that school would be dismissed 3 hours early due to the snow (again, if I ever watched the news reports, I would have noticed this too). All the kids arrived home, happy and hungry at lunch time. Thanks to the double batch of tacos I made just the other night, I had plenty of food to feed my surprise lunch guests. The girls played outside for awhile in the wet, sticky snow. The boys and I went to open skate, leaving Alex(who was non-consenting to this plan) with the baby. I had to try my new hockey skates before my first Chicks with Sticks clinic this evening.



Growing up on figure skates, wearing hockey skates is an entirely different experience. On figure skates, the front toe pick is used for many things, like stopping, turning, skating backwards, etc. Hockey skate blades are like rocker bottom boats. The first time I turned around and started to skate backwards, I landed face first, flat on my face on the ice. Can I say, OUCH!!! At least my whole body hit the ice at the same time so that the injuries were distributed evenly amongst my entire front side. But with the first fall out of the way, at least I learned a good lesson, and I was ready to fearlessly(or maybe more smartly, cautiously) move on. Michael and two of his hockey buddies were with us(two other hockey moms and I), showing us correct technique, and egging us on a bit. Jonny and Crispy enjoyed skating around, occasionally participating in the older boys' game of tag. I think that Jonny is skating better than he did a few years ago while he was in hockey. He mentions the possibility of playing again. We decided he will skate some over the summer, and then come fall, see if he is still interested in such a huge commitment of time and energy. Hockey is not something you sign up for on a whim...you've got to be dedicated to it to make it work.



Back at home, Alex had a terrible time with the baby, and asked to "Please, please, never ask (him) to babysit Tubby again." Thomas cried the entire time I was gone, and never fell asleep. That was odd, since he had not yet had a nap today, and it was now almost 3pm! The girls had spent most of the time playing Webkinz and staying out of trouble. So, with the exception of my bookends, everyone else enjoyed their snow day.



The 2 ladies and I headed out to Edina (a 45 minute drive) in the now deemed Waconia Blizzard. Like a fool, I offered to drive this evening, and found the roads to be good on the way out, but a harrowed mess on the way back at 8pm. Most importantly, we made it all the way home to my driveway before slipping and getting stuck sideways at the narrow bottom, sandwiched between Christmas light boxes and candy cane poles. I still am not sure how I managed to get out of that mess....I guess with baby car steps back and forth, kind of like a wiggle.



Hockey clinic was a lot of fun and HARD work. I realized just how out of shape and inflexible I am as the coach ran us through many drills requiring our feet and legs to be pointing in awkward directions. On top of that, we were supposed to somehow stay balanced on those skinny rocker bottom blades too! Boy, is it tough! The best advice he gave was regarding falling: he told us to not resist the fall, or try to over correct it, but just to follow it and simply fall. I had plenty of chances to heed his advice, and I must say, it worked wonderfully! With all those pads on, I never once felt hurt, and didn't pull a single muscle trying to save myself (sacrificing all self-esteem, however!). The funniest part of the evening was our scrimmage during the last 15 minutes of class. All of us adult women were fumbling around like four year olds on the ice...it was hilarious! Being comfortable with skating, I found I could skate rather quickly to wherever I wanted to be, and beat anyone to the puck, but my total lack of stick handling skills made me entirely useless once I got there. It was tons of fun anyhow, no one broke any bones, and it will be great watching us improve. We hope to be agile enough to join a league in the fall. This clinic is a great start!