Snow Day, NOT!

Yesterday afternoon and evening, we got 9 inches of snow dumped on us. Luckily we were able to leave work early enough to avoid the horrible mess that was caused by a predicted, yet rather ferocious, thunder-snowstorm. Work opened at 10 o'clock this morning, daycare was opening at 9, snowblower man (my awesome neighbor) came around 8 - other than having to drive on some pretty dangerous roads, things were working out okay.

So, I checked the news station that best keeps up with school closings around 8:45 just to double check before final preparations to leave the house. Mari and I bundled up and set out around 9 for our typical white-knuckle drive out of our neighborhood. I can usually breathe a sigh of relief once we get to the main roads, but not today. It was an unpleasant ride the whole way.

Now, let me stop here and say that I only live a couple miles from my job and can get there in about 2-3 minutes in normal conditions but daycare is a few miles out of the way (still only takes about 10 minutes each way).

Anyway, back to my story....we arrived at daycare around 9:30 and the parking lot was clean and the sidewalks nicely shovelled. I thought it was a little strange that no cars were in the parking lot but I figured that no one was currently dropping off kids. We went to the "big building" (Mari's class is in the building with the grade school - which was out because they follow the same cancellation as the county schools) and it was locked and dark. I wasn't really surprised because when the "big" school is closed, often Mari's class goes down to the daycare building for part or all of the day. So I drove down there. It wasn't until I got out and tried the dark, locked door that I realized that the parking lot would not be empty if there were any teachers there. Duh!

So I called my mom to check the closings again on the computer, thinking maybe they had pushed back to open at 10. Nope. Closed. Boo. (And very unusual)

At that point, I was left with 3 options:
1. Go home and miss work. I really didn't want to miss work (or use up my time off) plus the drive back to my house was going to be bad (the return trip is mostly uphill).
2. Go home and call my neighbor to see if they could keep Mari. Again, I'd have to drive home in the nastiness and then drive back to work...a trip that would normally take less than 20 minutes but would be at least an hour today.
3. Or just take Mari to work. I wasn't feeling really good about that option but since work is basically on the way home (a little out of the way but on decent roads).....

So I picked option #3. While taking Mari to work was the lesser of the three evils, it was not without its risks (I work in a doctor's office). On the way there, we discussed leaving the patients alone, being quiet, listening well, staying at Mommy's desk, etc. Luckily, I had a couple preschool activity books in the car, Mari had Raffey, and I had packed her lunchbox well. I was still pretty apprehensive because I knew it was going to be a long day of "staying on top" of her.

So, she totally showed me up. She was awesome. She sat at my desk most of the day; did her activity sheets, drew pictures, played with my tape and highlighters and post-its, she watched Nick JR on my computer, she "helped" me with some paperwork.

She started getting wiggly around lunchtime but thought the walk to the cafeteria was awesome. She even did a quick rendition of "Stayin Alive" in the middle of the cafeteria. And she thought curly fries were a great addition to her lunch. On the way back from the cafeteria, we saw an old "friend" - one of the OR techs that had helped with her ear tubes. He's the "keeper of the teddy bears" and he talked to her for a few minutes and then disappeared for a moment, reappearing with a new teddy bear for her!

She got to help clean the fish bowls and put the beta fish back into their bowls. She got to eat chocolate cake that one of the docs had brought. She sang songs and talked to my coworkers. She made friends with our supply guy. She had an absolute blast.

Finally, about an hour before the day was over, she decided she wanted to lay down, but since we were winding down, we were able to leave the office a little early.

She fell asleep before we left the parking lot! By then the roads were completely clear.

I wouldn't want to do this every day. It was not a relaxing day, by any means. But I was very proud of Little Miss Diva for having a stellar day and really reigning herself in and behaving so well. I hope we're never stuck in another situation like this but I'm so glad that it turned out well. I was hoping for something less than a disaster and it turned out to be a fun day.

Back to normal tomorrow!