I'm Officially A Winter Hater

This past Sunday was planned to be a great one. I had learned that our local community playhouse was doing "Cheaper By the Dozen" and they were offering tickets to the evening show at only $7 per ticket. I had planned to take the kids. So we drove into Omaha to line up for the discounted tickets at 3pm. Tickets went on sale at 4pm. I was expecting a line. We had gone to participate in the Wicked lottery this past spring and the line was quite long. But, this line was all of 5 people long when we arrived. I still wasn't sure what to expect, so we stayed put and stood in that short little line for what turned out to be the longest and whiny-est hour of our lives.
"I'm hungry."
"I don't feel good."
"How much longer?"
That was all I heard on constant repeat for that entire hour. But, in the end, I retained my sanity, the kids retained their lives, and we had 3 cheap tickets to that evening's show! Woo-hoo.
We headed out to the car and it was snowing. Pretty hard. Flurries had been forecast, but this was more than flurries. Probably going to end quickly and be some sort of fluke, right?
WRONG!
We headed over to Mamaw and Papaw's house for a quick dinner before we had to be back at the play. The flurries had joined together on the road to form a super shiney skating rink. Stopping was not an option, unless you ran into something. Going was also a little tricky. Our first attempt at getting back to the play resulted in me sliding nearly off the road, into a snow drift and careening into a parking lot. We had travelled a whopping 2 blocks from Mamaw and Papaw's house.
With my heart racing and adrenaline pumping, I decided we were no longer going to go to the play. Tears were shed, and we slid the 2 blocks back.

After some begging and pleading, we convinced Papaw to drive us in their 4WD vehicle to the playhouse. (Yay Papaw for your superpowers behind the wheel!) We made it and only missed about 30 minutes. The play was great. Savannah was completely engrossed and it was so fun to watch her enjoying it. Unfortunately, the play is not a lot like the movie and the father of the family dies in the end. (I don't recall Steve Martin dying in the movie. What's going on? Hollywood did not properly prepare me!) So, I was the only person in the audience sobbing at the end. But, a show that can move me to tears must be good.
Then came the exciting part of the night. We had to survive the 40 minute drive home. In the dark. And the ice. And the blowing snow (which was a surprise addition once we'd reached open country. Yay, Mother Nature!) We had been offered the option of staying the night with Mamaw and Papaw, but I had to decline. Mostly because the prospect of going to work in yesterdays clothes with the bed head that always lands upon my head, was worth risking my life to avoid.
It was the scariest drive home ever! Complete white out on ice roads. It was basically the scariest episode of ice road truckers EVER, and it was happening in a pt cruiser! With a snow plow helpfully located about 3 cm from my rear bumper! Myles and I were nervous wrecks, Savannah went to sleep. Two kiddos--completely different personalities.

Most of the story goes like this:
Me: "Crap! I can't see anything! "
Myles: "I don't feel good. "
Me: "I don't either." (going 20 mph, and glancing at rear view mirror) "Crap, there's a snow plow tailgating me!"
Myles: "He's not doing us any good behind us. Are we even on the road?"
Me: "Crap! I can't see anything!"
After that repeated over and over, we made it home. Savannah slept the whole way. I felt like I'd been driving for a week. And my back hurt from hunching over the steering wheel to try to see through the blowing snow. My hands were cramped up from the death grip they had maintained on the steering wheel. The drive usually takes us about 40 minutes. This night it took us over an hour and a half. (And now I know how long it would take to crawl from Mamaw and Papaw's house to mine.)
I'm officially a Winter Hater. Mother Nature is not my friend. Well, not until springtime. We may make up then.