See this picture? Would you believe it was taken on January 5th, 2019?
After reflecting on the last three months of 2019, it doesn't even seem possible this was taken in the same year. Being born and raised a Michigander, I actually don’t mind the cold. Or the snow. I mean, I spent the majority of my childhood and teenage years living inside an ice rink wearing a leotard and tights. I think my body just handles it. BUT I do not deal well with polar vortexes, countless snow days, power outages, or bomb cyclones.
To say the first quarter of 2019 has given us a run for our money would be an understatement. I've been writing and rewriting this post since the middle of January - it's crazy to think I first sat down to write this on what I thought would be a rare snow day, relishing in the quiet moment I had to myself drinking hot tea and editing photos while the girls watched a movie. Sigh. So naive. February 25th marked our THIRTEENTH snow day. And on that morning I was dropping the F bomb, tossing dirty laundry out of my suitcase, and resenting Mike for packing up his to catch a flight to the west coast.
So while it may be three short days into spring, the horror of this past winter is still a very fresh chapter in our book.
Week of January 14
We woke up on Tuesday morning to a 5:30am phone call/text message alert from school to let us know we had a two hour delay. I rearranged a few things and Mike left for work thinking we had a fog delay until he got about half way out of our neighborhood to discover it was in fact an ice rink everywhere. Lily crawled into bed with me about 7:45 and not 30 seconds after I told her about the delay they called off school altogether. She was ecstatic about snow until she threw back the curtains to see a gray drizzly day. We got up, made a pot of coffee (a big one) and Lily colored while I finished rearranging my day and answered email. By 8:15 she was bored and I was scheduling a play date. We dropped Julia off at daycare, saw only 2 accidents, and returned home to await the arrival of her bestie. The two of them fully entertained themselves while I was able to keep a couple of conference calls, edit some photos, and do laundry.
Week of January 21
Lily has MLK day off and we have a play date with the Bishops who ended up with a snow day. On Tuesday I make my way to Chicago, getting delayed in the airport for five hours. I seriously consider leaving the airport to return home but I was actually getting some work done so I stayed until they got me off the ground. When I land in Chicago, the plows are having difficulty keeping the runways cleared and we follow a wall of plows to our gate.
Meanwhile back in Michigan, Lily has another two hour delay and my flight back gets cancelled. My travel agent gets me rebooked (on an earlier flight) and I make it back to Michigan before another front of weather moves through. Thursday and Friday we get slammed with snow and Lily, Mike and I head north for a ski weekend. We’re in heaven with inches and inches of fresh powder and try to put to the back of our minds the single digit temps. On our entire commute south, the radio is going on and on and on about this terrible weather we are in for. Mike and I dismiss this, noting the weather forecast is only right about 50% of the time and head into the next week SO unprepared.
Meanwhile back in Michigan, Lily has another two hour delay and my flight back gets cancelled. My travel agent gets me rebooked (on an earlier flight) and I make it back to Michigan before another front of weather moves through. Thursday and Friday we get slammed with snow and Lily, Mike and I head north for a ski weekend. We’re in heaven with inches and inches of fresh powder and try to put to the back of our minds the single digit temps. On our entire commute south, the radio is going on and on and on about this terrible weather we are in for. Mike and I dismiss this, noting the weather forecast is only right about 50% of the time and head into the next week SO unprepared.
Week of January 28
Polar Vortex 2019 moves through the Midwest. FHPS closes. Appletree closes. BDO closes. Bradford White shuts down manufacturing facilities (but Mike has vendors in town from Canada who think we're all wusses and still escapes to work each day). I'm not even sure I can put into words what a surreal experience those five days were. The weather and roads were so incredibly terrible that we were literally trapped inside the house. By the time Friday and barely above 0 degree temps rolled around, we planted ourselves at our favorite pizza place and let the kids run wild, complained to our friends over cocktails, and tipped our servers well. That same week Puxatoney Phil doesn’t see his shadow declaring an early spring - and because we have nothing to lose, we put faith in that furry little creature and hope for our sanity he's right.
Week of February 4
Hallelujah! Mother Nature appears to be taking mercy on us and we hit 50 degrees, setting records with nearly 80 degree swings in temperature. Then she's back to being a huge B and an ice storm moves through. We wake up Wednesday morning without power and we suffer in a variety of ways; another three days of school closures, the tease of getting power back for an hour, losing tree branch after tree branch after tree branch. By some miracle our power is restored in time for us to head back up north for another ski trip.
Week of February 11
More crazy weather moves through and school attempts to make it through however Lily’s bus never comes and I end up shuttling the entire bus stop off to school. The next day the district calls off school and I want to bang my head against the wall. Luckily it’s warm enough to make them go out and shovel the driveway. And thank goodness they got to attend school for Valentine’s Day festivities. To keep up with Valentine's traditions, I head to the Salted Cupcake and bump into my girlfriend. We have a much needed impromptu coffee date and catch up on the chaos of life.
More crazy weather moves through and school attempts to make it through however Lily’s bus never comes and I end up shuttling the entire bus stop off to school. The next day the district calls off school and I want to bang my head against the wall. Luckily it’s warm enough to make them go out and shovel the driveway. And thank goodness they got to attend school for Valentine’s Day festivities. To keep up with Valentine's traditions, I head to the Salted Cupcake and bump into my girlfriend. We have a much needed impromptu coffee date and catch up on the chaos of life.
Week of February 18
This week marks the FIRST full five days of school since the first week in January. I repeat - FIVE DAYS OF SCHOOL. The running joke in our household continues to be whether or not we set an alarm or just wait for that 5am wakeup call from FHPS telling us Mother Nature has screwed us over again. And I kid you not, Lily now asks each and every morning if it's a snow day. No - not a snow day? How about a two hour delay? No? You mean I have to go to school? On Thursday I board a flight to Dallas and while I'm temporarily disappointed by a cold front they are experiencing, I'm the only person in the city running around in just jeans and a sweater. High today of 55? Let me break out my flip flops! While I was in Texas for work, I made a pit stop to McKinney to visit my girlfriend Katie and her husband Drew. They paraded me around their cute little town and we were able to catch up over dinner and drinks before I had to head back to Michigan. Little did I know a bomb cyclone (apparently that's a real thing) was brewing and I'm lucky to have had my flight take off in the first place.
You may find this odd, but I'm not the biggest fan of flying. Let me rephrase, I do not like take off and landing. And yes I fly at least once a month. So I'm sure you can imagine landing in a bomb cyclone was not on my bucket list. I have experienced a multitude of bad landings - including a touch down and retake off - but this was by far one of the worst landings I've ever experienced. The poor man next to me (imagine I was sitting next to Shaquille O'Neal but not quite as tall) was gripping the seat in front of him and taking deep deep breaths in and out as we were being blown in literally every direction. The in air wifi had gone down and I had to turn my iPad sound machine on full blast so I could concentrate on something other than people freaking out. When we finally did land, it was cheering, nervous laughing, high fiving - and then cursing as we all realized our connections had been cancelled. After about twenty minutes of going back and forth with Delta and my travel agent it was clear that if I wanted to get home Sunday night it was not going to be via plane. My options were to rent a car, book the next available direct flight back to Grand Rapids (on Tuesday), fly to Laguardia and reconnect back to Grand Rapids (on Monday), or wait in the airport to see if I could get on a standby flight. They all sounded so glamorous but in the end I rented myself a nice little AWD SUV, ran through the closest Starbucks to load up on caffeine and water, and hit some of the worst roads I've ever driven on. Three and a half hours later I was settled into my own bed catching up on life with Mike. Oh. And did I mention Lily loses yet another tooth while I'm gone and the tooth fairy only has a five dollar bill in his wallet?
Week of February 25
This is the Monday I started really hating Mother Nature. And when I dropped the F bomb quite creatively. We got that 5am alert school was cancelled, Mike tagged me in and flew out to Seattle. The week flies by in a blur - I'm playing catch up from being out of the office the previous week, my calendar is packed full, eat, sleep, repeat. Thursday rolls around and by some miracle I have nothing scheduled on my calendar for the afternoon. I pick Mike up from the airport and we head straight to the bar for happy hour before grabbing the girls from daycare. When we arrive at daycare, we're told Julia has a fever and can't come back until Monday. This time I dropped the F bomb in my head. We just can't catch a break.
Week of March 4
SNOW. More snow! I get to the airport on Tuesday morning to make my way to Chicago. My flight is so far on time however the one after mine has already been cancelled and the one before mine is delayed. I grab a Starbucks and inquire about whether I can get on the delayed flight leaving at 7:30am. The gate agent is in a particularly groovy mood and she sends me on my way. I actually make it to my meeting well ahead of schedule. My travel luck only gets better on my return flight back to Michigan on Friday. Mike has the car packed and the expectation is I will be landing at 4:15pm, we will pick Lily up from daycare and meet the Bishops at Boyne Mountain. When I get myself through security, I notice the 11am flight back to Grand Rapids has been delayed and is currently in the boarding process. The gate agent must have been grateful to not have someone yelling at her about the hours long delay they've experienced and she puts me in an exit row and gets me back to Michigan by 3:00pm. After I've landed I get the notification that my originally scheduled flight has been delayed and is due back at 5:30pm. I thanks the travel gods, we pick Lily up from school, and we're off to Boyne Mountain to celebrate Lily's birthday. We spend the weekend skiing in the sunshine and dominating the water slides.
Week of March 11
Lily turns SEVEN. We celebrate with Steak and Shake and Nothing Bundt Cakes and reminisce on her crazy entrance into our world. I also make sure to complain that I walked into labor and delivery in flip flops because it was 80 degrees that year. The morning immediately following birthday celebrations, Mike catches a flight to St. Louis - it's too bad there isn't a punch card to get through security because we'd be getting something free at this point. The week flies by in a blur - me driving back and forth across the state for interviews praying there are no days of cancelled school or dreaded "come pick up your kid" calls from daycare.
We make it through the week and spend the weekend celebrating green in so many ways. Saturday we hit up Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate a birthday, immediately turn on the MSU game, rush over to watch a friend play basketball, and hunker down to watch more basketball Saturday night. Sunday (St. Patrick's Day) we change up our traditional corned beef and cabbage crock pot meal and throw it on the Traeger. It was one of the best recipes we tried yet! And even better was the corned beef hash and eggs with the leftovers.
Week of March 18
And now here we are. If you've gotten to this point, thanks for reading the saga of our life the past few months. Looking back, it's of course been crazy, but I can't help but smile at the things we've experienced. I've gotten to spend time with the girls I normally wouldn't take off. Lily's spent some quality time with her bestie. We've gotten really good at making pancakes. We've had a blast taking advantage of the snow in northern Michigan. And work? It's been challenging for both of us (in a good way). We've done our best to schedule trips so only one of us is gone at a time. This is the first week I've seen my husband for more than three consecutive days. And in less than five days, we'll be boarding a flight - TOGETHER - for vacation (ages 2 and up only...I think she's telling Diesel they're getting left behind).
Week of March 4
SNOW. More snow! I get to the airport on Tuesday morning to make my way to Chicago. My flight is so far on time however the one after mine has already been cancelled and the one before mine is delayed. I grab a Starbucks and inquire about whether I can get on the delayed flight leaving at 7:30am. The gate agent is in a particularly groovy mood and she sends me on my way. I actually make it to my meeting well ahead of schedule. My travel luck only gets better on my return flight back to Michigan on Friday. Mike has the car packed and the expectation is I will be landing at 4:15pm, we will pick Lily up from daycare and meet the Bishops at Boyne Mountain. When I get myself through security, I notice the 11am flight back to Grand Rapids has been delayed and is currently in the boarding process. The gate agent must have been grateful to not have someone yelling at her about the hours long delay they've experienced and she puts me in an exit row and gets me back to Michigan by 3:00pm. After I've landed I get the notification that my originally scheduled flight has been delayed and is due back at 5:30pm. I thanks the travel gods, we pick Lily up from school, and we're off to Boyne Mountain to celebrate Lily's birthday. We spend the weekend skiing in the sunshine and dominating the water slides.
Week of March 11
Lily turns SEVEN. We celebrate with Steak and Shake and Nothing Bundt Cakes and reminisce on her crazy entrance into our world. I also make sure to complain that I walked into labor and delivery in flip flops because it was 80 degrees that year. The morning immediately following birthday celebrations, Mike catches a flight to St. Louis - it's too bad there isn't a punch card to get through security because we'd be getting something free at this point. The week flies by in a blur - me driving back and forth across the state for interviews praying there are no days of cancelled school or dreaded "come pick up your kid" calls from daycare.
We make it through the week and spend the weekend celebrating green in so many ways. Saturday we hit up Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate a birthday, immediately turn on the MSU game, rush over to watch a friend play basketball, and hunker down to watch more basketball Saturday night. Sunday (St. Patrick's Day) we change up our traditional corned beef and cabbage crock pot meal and throw it on the Traeger. It was one of the best recipes we tried yet! And even better was the corned beef hash and eggs with the leftovers.
Week of March 18
And now here we are. If you've gotten to this point, thanks for reading the saga of our life the past few months. Looking back, it's of course been crazy, but I can't help but smile at the things we've experienced. I've gotten to spend time with the girls I normally wouldn't take off. Lily's spent some quality time with her bestie. We've gotten really good at making pancakes. We've had a blast taking advantage of the snow in northern Michigan. And work? It's been challenging for both of us (in a good way). We've done our best to schedule trips so only one of us is gone at a time. This is the first week I've seen my husband for more than three consecutive days. And in less than five days, we'll be boarding a flight - TOGETHER - for vacation (ages 2 and up only...I think she's telling Diesel they're getting left behind).
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