Snow Day!

For the past 2 days we have been bombarded by the weatherman on the news that the "big one" was coming..."the first major snow storm of the season"..."a dangerous wintery mix"...and so on. Usually I don't listen simply because we have had a couple of light snowfalls already this month and each one was supposed to be "big." This storm actually sounded a big nasty because there was a lot more ice involved than snow, so even though last night I was dead tired and still fighting off a cold/throat thing I decided to venture out in to the urban jungle and do a Costco run...with all 3 kids. As soon as I pulled in the parking lot I thought to myself, what am I thinking? The place was PACKED, I mean, full parking lot, worse than a Saturday afternoon packed. Tre' was whining because we went straight there from soccer practice and he didnt get to go home, Naya was whining because she was hungry and there are never enough samples, and the baby was in pajamas and half asleep. So I figure I treat it like a mission--make a map in my mind of the store layout, where each product I needed was, and get in and get out. I told the kids before we even went in if anyone asked for anything Christmas was cenceled (I think they believed me b/c no one asked for anything). So of course everyone and their extended family is there and puttering around and looking at every stupid random thing in the store and walking slowly--I wanted to scream at every person who stopped in front of me "Dont you realize I only have a limited amount of time before someone has a meltdown?!?!?" I must have rolled my eyes and said oh my god under my breath about 100 times. Of course within minutes Tre and Naya and fighting and pushing each other through the aisles, in between muttering to myself about what I needed I threw in the standard, "leave your brother alone," "keep your hands to yourself" "stop speaking to your sister like that." I made it to the checkout line with a full cart and no full blown fight or meltdown and thought maybe I was in the clear--I wasn't. I knew baby was getting fussy towards the end, but I figured still had a few minutes to get out. As soon as we got in line, the tears started and of course even though I triumphantly thought I was in the shortest line, I picked the one where someone was arguing that the price of oranges was 9.79 NOT 9.99 (well I dont know if thats what the problem was, but I am willing to bet it was close to being that stupid). So we arent moving and baby just lets loose. Screaming, crying, flailing in the cart--the kind of screaming that is so high pitched you ear drums actually feel pierced and you look around to see if anything is breaking. I cant take her out of the cart because my house of bread I have surrounding her may fall AND I have to get everything on the belt and pay, so of course people are looking at me like I am beating her. Needless to say, it was a very long 8 minute wait for me and about 50 other people in line. At this point I was decided that if there was not a snow storm I was personally going downtown and standing outside the newsroom with a sign (Today show style) telling the weatherman exactly what I thought of him. Well I was woken up at 530 this morning with a recorded phone call from the school district stating school was closed, so winter break started a day earlier! The weatherman got lucky this time.