November 14, 2011

Outside Temp: 24 F (and SNOWING!!)

What I cooked today:
Beef Pot Roast: I bought a large roast a few weeks ago, cut it in half and froze half... I defrosted the remaining half last night and tossed it into the crock pot with potatoes, carrots and onions.  It was awesome because we had dinner on the table 7 minutes after we walked in the door (I just had to make gravy).

Update:
First off, THANK YOU to all of you who wished me happy birthday today! 

The boys had a game in Denton today.  Denton is about 50 miles away, and on normal days, should take about 45 minutes from the school.  But today wasn't really a normal day. 

The weather had been snowy all day, but it's been mostly light and I wasn't all that concerned.  That'll teach me...

I left the school with Katie and Ryan around 3:30.  Ann and Greg were going to pick up Patrick and would meet us there.  We needed both cars anyway, since neither of us has a car that seats 8 (added to my list of things to do).  I drove the Aveo, since it gets better gas mileage and we didn't need the 7 seats in the van if the parents would be there.  Unfortunately, the Aveo had pretty bald tires.

So, about 10 minutes away from the school, I figured that this was a pretty stupid idea.  If I had a brain in my head, I would have stopped, called the parents and turned around. But no, I was going to support my boys and after all, how bad could it get?

As I was slowing to make the left turn at Stanford, my car started to fishtail.  Which wouldn't have been a problem, if the two big rigs were not in my way.  I would have been able to just slide into the left turn and keep going, but these stupid trucks were in my way and I had to actually stop... I mean, jeez, didn't they know to get out of my way?  So, I kept calm and just slid an extra 5-10 feet past my turn and finally came to a stop.  No problem, make the turn and keep going.  Idiot.

So, we got about 7-8 miles out of Stanford, going north, when I passed the snow plow, going the other way.  Hmmm, maybe someone was trying to tell me something.  Another 8 miles or so, and I came to the right turn to head towards Denton.  I saw it about a mile away, so I was able to slow down to about 5 mph and just slide to the right. 

No problem, except that the road was not exactly plowed.  Not to say it was bad, it wasn't... Just a little icy and a little bit of snow.  I was slowed to about 25-30 for the next 15 miles into Denton.  Fortunately, there was only two 'curves', so I handled it fine.  The part that I started to realize right about this point, was that I hadn't seen another car... for about 40 minutes.  Did they know something I didn't?

When I got into town, I realized that I needed to make a couple turns to get to the high school, but I couldn't read the street signs, so I didn't know which road to turn on.  I kept passing roads, saying 'oops, that one was probably it'.  I got to the far side of town and finally made a choice to turn.  Of course, that road was the back alley to the school, which was not only not plowed, but also had no previous cars driving on it.  I was driving my little yellow car in about a foot of snow. 

But I made it to the school, parked, and breathed a sigh of relief.  I got there around 4:50, with time to spare.

The boys game was great, but I kept looking at the door, waiting patiently for Patrick, Ann and Greg to come in.  The game started at 5:00, and still not there.  First quarter was over around 5:15, no sign of anyone yet.  The boys both played for a few minutes in the second quarter.  Halftime around 5:30, no one.  The third quarter ended around 5:40, and they finally made it!  Uh oh. The roads were really bad.

The game ended around 5:55, and the boys won!  Woo Hoo!  41-29!  That makes us 7 and 1.

They came out of the locker room and we decided to immediately head home.  We didn't want to wait for the Junior High team, just in case... After all, we did still have to feed the boys and I didn't know how long it would take to get home. 

Greg and Ann took Allen, Katie and Ryan in their big 4 wheel drive truck, and Patrick and I took Connor in our little yellow Front Wheel Drive car with bald tires.  We went first, so that they could save us if we fell into a ditch.

We drove out of Denton in the middle of major snow storm.  The snow was blowing horizontally across the road, covering the windshield.  With our brights on, we could see about 10 feet in front of us.  The road was covered in snow, with little groves where at least one car had gone before us.  The groves were in the center of the road, which made sense to us. 

So, we cruised at between 10-20 mph, vainly trying to see through the snow, just praying to keep going and not have to hit the breaks.  (If you hit the breaks, your car will lose traction and you will end up in the ditch).  About 30 minutes later, we had gone about 9 miles.  It was another 9 miles to the turn, then another 15 miles from there into Stanford.  We stopped to chat with Greg for a few seconds, making sure he was okay.  Apparently, he was having trouble staying on the road as well.

We made it to the turn and, just like that last 15 feet at the bottom of the ski slope where you slide back into the line to get on the lift, we slid gracefully (no, we did not stop at the stop sign) onto the road, and continued our trek.

Up until this point, we had passed exactly one car, which made life easier, since we could stay in the center of the road.  But, the new road was used by the truckers to get up to Fort Benton.  So, about 5-10 minutes of travelling down this road, the first big rig comes over the hill, hauling 2 tankers of gas (or something).  Ugh, now we had to get over to the side to let the truck pass. 

The storm was wavering between blowing us around on the road, and covering the road with white, making seeing the road impossible.  Every time we thought the storm might be getting better, it got worse.  And somewhere, in the back of our mind, was the fact that we had less than a 1/4 of a tank of gas.  Did I mention that I was missing a brain?

We made it into Stanford and crawled up to the stop sign to turn onto the main highway (where I'd slid earlier today).  Greg had us stop, since his de-icer was not working and he need to scrape off his windshield.  At this point, we didn't know if the highway would be better or worse, better since there might be less snow (more traffic) and worse because there might be more ice (and more traffic). 

There are 3-4 sizable hills, and with ice, it's challenging to keep traction going up the hills.  The biggest fear is that you would lose traction all together, and start rolling backwards.  While that didn't happen, there was a hill or two where we slowed and the tires could just not grip.  Did I mention that they were bald?  We've been talking about snow tires for a few days, but haven't made the actual move to get them... Silly, I know.

So, as we crested one of the hills, we noticed flashing blue lights ahead.  Sure enough, there was the highway patrol, pulled off of our side of the road, facing the same direction we were headed.  In front of him was a Fed-Ex truck, facing towards us, in the ditch.  I'm not sure exactly how he ended up in the ditch, going up hill, but he was in the ditch.  And I don't think he was getting out anytime soon. 

We crawled slowly past him, and continued our rapid pace of about 30 mph down the road.  We made it to Geyser, and we had caught up to a car in front of us.  The car was going about 15-20, and kept hitting his breaks.  Obviously, he had no idea how to drive in a snow storm.  Every time he pressed his breaks, we had to slow up, to not hit him.  But, of course, hitting our breaks made us slip a little.  After about 10 minutes, we were almost ready to pass him.  But he was kind enough to pull over and let us pass.

Around 8pm we finally pulled into Raynesford and could fill up the gas tank.  Another mile and we pulled into our driveway.  We stepped out of the car, into about 6 inches of snow. 

Breathing a big sigh of relief, we started laughing at how terrifying and how exciting it was it.  We knew we would have to drive in snow eventually, so it was good to get it out of the way.  And we knew that we had the parents behind us the whole way, in case we needed help. 

The best part may have been coming home to a warm house that smelled of Pot Roast...  And Allen even offered to do the dishes.

I can't imagine a better birthday!