Well we almost made it down here without mishap...

So it's Saturday night and the kids are all in bed - at least my 3
are. Mary's ADHD 11-year-old whose medication has worn off for the
night is slowly and protestingly headed in that direction too. The
threat of taking away his video games and new Nintendo DS seems to be
working though, thank goodness.

It's been a nice weekend so far. Although, we did have a slight
adventure on the way down - after a forecast that included snow up
near Grand Rapids that wasn't supposed to start until around noon, but
instead involved snow, blowing and drifting and extremely slippery
conditions the closer we got to Mary's. It was pretty bad but I took
it slow and careful and we did ok - until I took a turn about a mile
away from Mary's house and slid across the road and partially into a
ditch.

Hmm, well now what? Is pretty much what went through my head. Abby
burst into tears and started freaking out. Which then set off the
other two girls. It was somewhat scary since we were partially over
the side into the (fairly deep) ditch, but we weren't in any danger of
going further in, thank goodness.

I got the girls out of the van (Hannah immediately scooped up a
handful of fresh snow to munch on) and took stock of the situation.

One crying, blankie-clutching 6-year-old. Check.

One snow-munching, otherwise content 5-year-old. Check.

One confused but happy to be held after 2+ hours in the van almost
2-year-old. Check.

One minivan in fine running condition, with Dora the Explorer CD still
playing, however currently sitting at a very strange angle, half in a
ditch. Check.

One cell phone which very frustratingly had been giving a 'call
failed' message every time a number was dialed all day - including my
attempt to call 911 for another car I'd seen stuck in a ditch off the
freeway earlier. (Let's just say that AT&T isn't in my good graces
right now...) Check.

And one kind stranger who stopped and let me borrow his phone to call
Mary. Her hubby Dave was thankfully still home (he works 2nd shift)
and came right out. And a fire rescue person came by as well and
radioed for a wrecker to come and pull my van out. Dave had a tow
strap with him though, so they tried using the fire rescue pickup to
pull it out - and it worked! So no tow truck needed for us, although
there was definitely plenty else to keep the wreckers busy - just in
the mile trip back to Mary and Dave's house, we had to detour around
where a large truck had jacknifed and gone off the road.

But we made it. Over an hour later than originally planned and with a
few scared, confused kids, but it could've been much, much worse so I
am very thankful that it wasn't.

I should probably mention my 'bad mommy' moment too... Becca had
kicked her boots off in the van on the way. When we got stuck and I
grabbed her out of her seat, I didn't put them back on, thinking that
I would be holding her anyway and her socks were warm enough. Well
then I realized her hands were getting cold so I wanted to put her
mittens on (they were dangling from her sleeves), so without thinking
about it, I set her down so I could use both hands to get the mittens
on. It took me about 30 seconds to remember that she wasn't wearing
her boots - I scooped her back up as soon as I realized what I'd done
but her little socks were all wet. Apologizing to her profusely, I
went around to the side of the van, opened the slider, sat her in
there, fished a dry pair of socks from her overnight bag, changed her
socks, put her boots on - and then set her back down in the snow and
put her mittens on. Sigh.

So that was the big 'excitement' of this trip, so far anyway.
Thankfully there's not supposed to be snow tomorrow for the drive home
- and hopefully this forecast will hold up! :)

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