Snow Snow Snow

First and Foremost .... HAPPY BIRTHDAY BECKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are great and I love you!

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So ..... Justin has been gone almost this entire week. I have actually had a gig, so I have been a working single parent this week. (A HUGE thank you to all the lovely women who helped watch my kids while I was gigging.)

While you read this I want y'all to remember that Justin is down south, hanging out with friends, and got to go to the SEC championship game (he really went down for a dental conference, but that is beside the point :-).

The opera that I have been playing in has been great! I played well and met lots of people that will be good for me to know. Imagine then how I felt when we had a MASSIVE blizzard yesterday and I am expected to drive downtown to play the show. The city closed ALL the major roads and told people not to drive anywhere. I spent the entire afternoon in tears on the phone with different people trying to figure out what to do. One of the other musicians agreed to pick me up at one of the train stations and drive me to the hall. That meant that I only needed to get to the train station. I felt like I could make it to the station in one piece so that is what we did. (talk about stress!)

The show went well and I thought that my day from hell was over ... WRONG! My new friends drove me as far south as they were going and dropped me off at the station to get back to my car. I wait about 20 minutes for the train and get on. Well absent minded, cold, tired Kira got off one stop too early. That meant that I had to wait another 20 min. for the next train, but this time I had to wait OUTSIDE in the blizzard. By the time the train came I was frozen to the core.

When I get to my car (dum, dum, duuummmm) my tire is flat!!! I decide that it has enough air in it, and there is enough snow on the ground to act as a cushion that I carefully drive to the nearest gas station. Now I spend the next 30 min. crouched down trying to fill up my tire with air. I don't know if it was the cold, or a hose that wasn't working that great, but I was literally there for 30 min. By the time I was done, I couldn't feel various parts of my body and I had a snow drift on my shoulder. The worst part is that I just finished reading "Night" by Elie Weisel and feel unbelievably guilty for even complaining!

I finally got home and relieved my helper! This is what she had to leave in ... and this gives you a pretty clear view of what the weather was like all day.

This is what it looked like this morning after the snow and wind stopped.

I don't know if you can tell or not, but those drift come up to right above my knee!! I have freakishly long legs too.

This morning I needed to drop off Becka's birthday present and get details about her trip. I decided it would be a good opportunity for me to practice driving my van in the snow. I shoveled my drive way (something I swore to Justin I would never do, but I had to get out) and got the kids bundled up. I drove to the end of the street and saw just how BAD it really was!!! I turned right around and got the truck.

Here are some pictures showing you what it looked like. The pictures just don't come close to doing the snow justice!!! I have NEVER seen this much snow before in my life!!! It was insane!

this truck was in the middle of the road at the end of my street. It is completely snowed in. When I got out of my truck to take a picture of it the wind came up really hard and I literally started to slide away from my truck, that is how much ice was on the road.

The drifts in this picture come up just about to the tops of my tires. I zoomed in to give you a little perspective!

this is a truck that was driving in front of me ... his truck was about as big as mine is.

do you see this poor boy shoveling??? The drift is to his waist!!!!!!

It came half way up the tree!!!!

So this is what pretty much all of the side roads looked like and since my van has a lowered floor because of the conversion I knew there was NO WAY I was going to get through it. (Can I hear an Amen for big 4x4 trucks??)

I made it to my concert tonight all fine and dandy and when I got home my sitter's parents came to get her. I told her to tell them to come through the garage because there was no way to get to the door. 5 minutes later I hear the sound of angels at my front door. Her dad and brother scraped my entrance for me. So anyone who wants can actually come to my door now. :-)

I sure do hope that Justin had a good time down south, playing with our friends. I promise I will only hold this over his head for a little while!

p.s. I am so distraught about the Gator's loss! I can't believe it!! It has been so long since we lost that I don't even know how to handle it! :-(