The Big Snow

Winter is officially no fun for me anymore. I stepped outside our front door the other night and suddenly found myself sprawled flat on my back, my head bouncing off the icy concrete steps.

And there I lay for five hours until somebody came looking for me. Well, that was my first thought, but then I remembered my cell phone and called inside for someone to come scrape me off the sidewalk.

Turns out I have a tough skull, and I only saved my back by somehow sticking both hands out behind me to break my fall.

This winter's snowfall has shattered all records for my town, with over 130 inches falling to the ground. It was fun at first, but now it's just a pain. We have six-foot snow berms surrounding our driveway, and I'm starting to wonder if my basement project is going to turn into an indoor swimming pool this spring when all the snow melts. We'll see how well the builders sealed our foundation. The roads around us are horribly bumpy with ice, and it's wreaking havoc on my tire alignment. The roof of my house has thousands of pounds of snow piled up on it. I listen at night for the creaks and groans of collapsing trusses.

I've taken lots of pictures of the snow, and of the kids playing in it, because it's definitely one for the memory books. I may not remember this last part of winter as being much fun, but my kids will look back on it as one of the best times of their lives. Sledding, building snow forts and snow men, digging tunnels and caves, having snowball fights with friends. They've packed enough memories into the past month to last a lifetime.