Sunday, March 2, 2014

WIWS: Our Attempt at Getting to Mass

I had it all planned out this morning.  No one was sick.  No one was coughing.  It wasn't actually snowing outside.

We were going to load up the van and go to Mass.

I got the kids bundled up and ready to go, because we got a few more inches of snow yesterday and outside it looks like this: 


But hey, at least the windchill wasn't bringing us down to -19 or anything crazy like it was earlier in the week, and at least my face wasn't going to feel like it was freezing off when I stepped outside.  

I was proud of our time management this morning.  There were only minor wardrobe disagreements with a certain three year old (I insisted on matching shoes, but caved to letting her wear her mermaid tail under her jacket, because in this house we choose our battles and getting that thing off of her isn't one I'm going to be fighting) and smiled when I saw we still had a whole ten minutes to get to the 9 am Mass.  It should have been enough time.

Sadie even snapped a couple pictures of me for the WIWS link up while we waited for Paul to bring the van around out of the garage.

Here I am in a Thred Up Maternity dress (oh yes my friends, not only does Thred Up have awesome non-maternity and kids clothes, they also have a maternity section that I have been known to stalk):

Please ignore the Cinderella dress and sippie cup that I apparently didn't know I was standing on.
Let's just pretend that by 8:50 am my house doesn't look like a tornado rolled through the living room
in the form of three wild little bunnies.
And here I am ready to brave the cold.  Notice my non-fleece-tight-covered-legs?  It's because I was picturing a quick dash in and out of our church.  I was not picturing shoveling snow in this outfit:

Patrick had to be in all the pictures.
And in case you were wondering here's the mermaid:

She's been pretending to be a mermaid pretty much all the time so when I saw a Ariel costume at Meijer on clearance plus and extra
15% off I knew it was exactly what Maggie, who'd been trying to squeeze into a tiny doll tail she'd found, needed.
She pretends that bean bag chair is the ocean and she and Ariel spent a lot of time swimming in it.
Here's the princess who was way too cool to smile:


Around the time the pictures were done I noticed that it was taking Paul an unusually long amount of time to get the car out.  So I glanced out the back window and saw this:


The car was stuck on a bar of ice that was under the new snow (the snow bank against the fence behind the garage keeps us from being able to back as far out as we need to be able to do get the car out easily).  After several failed attempts to get the car out on his own Paul brought me (and the kids, since they can't really stay in the house by themselves) out so that I could drive while he pushed.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

He pushed.  I drove.  We shoveled.  I wimped out and got back in the car to defrost.  He pushed and shoveled some more.  I poured kitty litter under the tires.  A neighbor came and doused the area around the tires with salt.  Another neighbor, walking home from the Mass we had now missed, began to dig too.  They all pushed the car and it stayed stuck tight.  I realized that we were missing the second Mass of the day and snapped this picture:

A little over two hours in...
Finally, with all three men pushing, it moved about a foot backwards.  And then two hours and twenty minutes after the car first became stuck, I shot out of the alley and across the street into a plowed alley and finally stopped the car to thank everyone and wait for Paul.    

Having missed the second Mass on account of weather we gave up our plans (night time Mass with Maggie and Patrick is pretty much a nightmare) and called it a day.  

It wasn't a total loss though.  The kids and I did morning prayers and the readings for Mass while we were waiting for Paul to dig the van out, and Sadie and I prayed a rosary during the first hour of sitting in the car...

Here's hoping every is happy and healthy on Wednesday and that we can actually get the van onto the road to get to Mass.

5 comments:

  1. You look great!!! I love that dress!

    Sorry about the snow troubles and the fact that you couldn't get to Mass. :( I think we're all super, super ready for spring.

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  2. UGH!!!! Well, at least you got your car out!

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  3. That dress is really cute! And UGH to the snow. I'm so sick of snow. We're about to get hit with yet another snow storm here in NJ. As soon as almost all of our snow melts and we have about enough to fill a large sods cup we get hit with more.

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  4. I've read your blog for little while, but generally don't comment. At any rate, I saw this on Haley's blog, Carrots for Michaelmas, and clicked it because I was interested for our oldest, then thought I'd share with you, too. In case you weren't already aware. Random, yes, and unrelated to this post entirely, but u don't do facebook, so this seems the best way to share ;)

    http://laceandfabric.com/Lycra-Bed-Sheet-Twin-Full-or-Queen-Bed-Autistic-Sensory-lycrabedsheet.htm

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  5. One of the good things about blogs is that there is a history. Go back and read some of your posts and look at your pictures from last summer. Some days (like today) you need to look back to remind yourself what warm weather looks like. And it IS coming .... sometime.

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I love comments and I read every single comment that comes in (and I try to respond when the little ones aren't distracting me to the point that it's impossible!). Please show kindness to each other and our family in the comment box. After all, we're all real people on the other side of the screen!