Snow Storm

Last week when we got all of that snow, Rob happened to be in Florida (lucky him). I was home for 4 days by myself with Leah. So when we got the snow, I was not all too happy. We had several inches on our driveway and I needed to shovel. I called Rob and asked him how to start the snow blower. He immediately told me not to use the snow blower and he would take care of it when he returned from his trip 2 days later. He said to just leave it. The snow was starting to pile up and I was nervous I wouldn't be able to get my car out of the driveway the next day for work. If Rob wasn't going to tell me how to use the snow blower, I had to resort to shoveling. Since I was by myself with Leah, I decided to bundle her up in her coat and hat and put her in her car seat in the car. I buckled her in, turned on the heat and started a Yo Gabba Gabba DVD in the car. Luckily this kept her occupied while I cleared a small path on the driveway so I could get my car out the next day.

When Rob returned home on Saturday afternoon he was going to take care of the rest of the driveway. He was excited to use the snow blower. He actually just bought it in September (when it was on sale) and it was his first opportunity to try it out. He got it started and was able to get about 25% of the driveway done and then it died out. He tried restarting it multiple times and nothing. He came storming in the house mumbling some words. I could definitely tell he was in a bad mood. (Good thing I didn't attempt to use the snow blower on my own when he was out of town, he totally would have blamed me for breaking it)!! Rob immediately started digging through drawers and whipping through files trying to find the receipt. After about 30 minutes he found it and was on his way to Lowes to return it. Lowes gave him a hard time since he purchased it in September. At first they were not going to take it back since they have a 90 day return policy. Rob argued the fact that it was our first snow fall and he would not have had the opportunity to use it before then to know it didn't work. They ended up taking it back and said they would only exchange it for the same model. Unfortunately, that model was on back order and they expected to receive a shipment in the next week or so.

Fast forward to today....a severe weather storm with 7-8 inches of snow expected and we do not have a snow blower. I left work a bit early and it took me about an hour and a half to get home. I picked Leah up and when I pulled into our driveway, we easily already had 4-5 inches of snow. Rob was not going to be happy to shovel when he got home from work. (This morning when Rob was at the train station, he accidentally slammed his thumb in the car door and he is pretty sure he broke it. His thumb is black and blue and looks horrible. He said it hurt to hold anything). After about 20 minutes of Leah and I being home our doorbell rang. Who the heck would be at our door when it is practically a blizzard outside. When I opened the door, I was greeted by an 18-19-20-something year old who introduced himself as Stan and he lived in the court down the street. He explained that he just bought a snow blower and wanted to know if we would be interested in him snow blowing our driveway for $15. It sounded like a bargain to me - I certainly didn't want to spend the evening shoveling the driveway and with Rob's thumb issue I knew he would be on board too. I told Stan I didn't have any cash on me, but to come back in an hour and I would have my husband pick up some money on his way home. Sure enough, an hour later Stan shows up and snow blows our entire driveway, the sidewalk and our walk way up to the house. We ended up giving him $25 because he did such a great job, plus it really helped us out! Depending on how much snow we get tonight, we told him we may want him to come back tomorrow.

Now that our whole night had opened up from not having to shovel, we ate dinner and decided to take Leah outside to play in the snow. This would be her first time playing in the snow. (She was too little last year). She absolutely loved it! I thought she would be a drama queen when I tried to put on her snow suit, but she actually was excited to put it on. As soon as we got outside she dove right into the snow and began picking it up and throwing it in the air. She had a blast and was just running around. Her cheeks got red fast, but it didn't seem to bother her. We went in the backyard so we could shovel a small path for Sushi and Leah wanted to do the shoveling. After being outside for about a half hour, it was definitely time to come inside. Leah did NOT want to come - she was having too much fun. We eventually got her in, but she spent the next 10 minutes just staring out the window at all of the snow. It was fun to see Leah enjoying herself so much, but I will be happy when it is all melted away!!! Come on spring!