Sunday, February 2, 2014

Snow Days ~ Jan. 2014

Winter Gridlock 2014... Snowmageddon... Whatever you decide to call it, it's been an interesting week for many people around here.  I'll start out with the fun stuff.

On Wednesday, the kids and I enjoyed playing in the snow together.  (Criss was still at Home Depot, but I'll get to that later.)

 
 
They thought it was great fun jumping on the snow-covered trampoline - and throwing snow at each other.



We tried making a snowman, but the snow was too powdery.  We made snowballs the best we could, and enjoyed a family snowball fight.

 
 
Back to Tuesday, the day it all started...  The meteorologists had forecast a light dusting for our area - with no travel problems expected.  When Criss texted a little after 9 and said that they were going to send them home early, I checked the weather blog and saw that they had moved the line on the map.  They were now saying we could get about an inch of snow.  And once it started snowing, you could tell we were in a heap of trouble.

By 11:00, Criss was headed home.  Little did he know he would be in his work truck for another 16 hours, and not make it home until the afternoon of the following day.  He got stuck in a "parking lot" of cars on 65N between Valleydale and 459.  The roads everywhere had iced over less than an hour after the snow started falling.  Early the next morning (at 3 AM), he made it to Home Depot where the employees let him crash for the night (and part of the next day).

Meanwhile, the kids and I were still at school.  By the time we dismissed at 12:30, the roads were too icy for the buses to leave, and we still had about 300 kids.  Thankfully, the other half had already been picked up earlier by their parents.

Fast forward to later that afternoon.  It was obvious that it was too late for me to drive home (in the dark) on our windy back roads and hills in a minivan with two children.  Besides that, 216 (the main road between the school and our house) was closing.

The problem was that I did not have everything I would need for the kids to stay for an extended period of time at the school.  I had several problems...  no purified water for Silas (to drink and for his feeding tube formula), not enough of their "allergy-free" foods, feeding tube issues, none of Silas' medicines, and the mental list went on and on - like one giant, unsolvable logic problem.

Thankfully, the police officer that was at our school went to work to try and find us a way home - we were considered a medical priority.  One of the dads from the school, who (I believe) is also an EMT, helped get us home.  He and a relative drove us most of the way and then walked with us the rest.  For their help, we are forever grateful!


On Thursday, the snow was wet enough to build a snowman, and Criss and the kids enjoyed building a snowman and sledding down the hill in our back yard.


 

While Tuesday's weather event caught most of us unprepared, it reminds me of another event that will come unexpectedly.
 
"For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night."  I Thessalonians 5:2
 
"But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."  Matthew 24:36
 
It's one thing to be caught unprepared in the snow & ice - and another to be caught unprepared for the Lord's return.  Are you ready?
 
Janel