**edited to add pictures**

If you've been blog hopping tonight you'll find that most Ontario residents have their own versions of this weekends "snow dump"! The amount of snow that fell in a short amount of time was unbelievable!
I LOVE winter and snow as long as a few simple rules are followed...
- it doesn't keep me from where I need to go
- I don't have to shovel
- it falls on a weekday so the appropriate snow day is recognized (I work at one of those places that has a tendency to close)

This little barrage did not follow ANY of the rules! The weekend went something like this...

My husband's weekend:
Leaves around 4 a.m. Saturday morning to go up north to our friends cottage. Jeff (from my infamous phone call post last summer), his family and another family were already up there for March Break and he needed somebody to drive his truck, trailer and hot tub up to the cottage so they could hook it up next week. (Yes, I know, rough life..lol!)
Remainder of his weekend...some deck work, some snowmobiling, some drinking, some poker playing.
In his defence we were all invited but the kids had too much going on so I told him to go ahead and the kids and I would stay home. Why "in his defence"?? Read on...

My weekend:
9:30 Saturday morning I call Cheerleading place to see if Emily's practice is cancelled. I'm told it's not so we load up and head out (storm is nasty already at this time). We get there at 10 to find a sign on the door that says the 10 a.m. practice is CANCELLED!!

Go back home and start shovelling to try and keep ahead of the snow.

11:30 we head out to Jesse's skating lesson. First though we have to go and get a birthday gift for a party Emily's supposed to go to that night.

1:30 we go back home. By this time most roads are a mess and the 401 is basically one semi-clear lane and 2 completely snow covered ones. (Note to Mr. Transport Driver that almost barrelled over us...if I could have gotten your company name I would definitely be calling it tomorrow!)
I shovel...again.

6:00 I shovel some more...two small paths down my driveway, just enough to get out. Emily's birthday party is supposed to be from 7 to 10 (yes, very late!). By this time the snow on our court is up to the bottom of the vehicle and no plows have come by so I know if I get out of the two tracks someone else made I'm done!

6:30 I put two shovels in the van and we head out. Just as I get out onto our road I see a van further down, sitting right in the middle of the road, facing me, not going anywhere. I'm hoping he's going to move before I get there because if I stop I'll never get going again. He doesn't so I wait, still doesn't move, finally I get out to see what's going on. It turns out it's an airways transit van dropping off some of my neighbours. Driver thinks he's funny, me..not so much, finally he moves. Luckily I'm not stuck and we make it out onto what is more of a main road. It's just as bad and the next road I need has a huge hill. I get almost to the top and start spinning. I have to back all the way down the hill and try to go another way. I figure if I can make it out to the main boulevard the birthday party is just off that road and I'll be fine. My other route turns out to be worse. Emily tells me not to worry about it. She says "Mama, you can't help it, it's not your fault, if we can't get there it's ok." I was so proud of her but I.FELT.HORRIBLE! I couldn't believe I was in the city and could not get my kid to one simple little birthday party! When we went home and called, the other kids had managed to get there but the parents got stuck there!
We made popcorn, watched a movie and I still felt awful! She was fine.

Today, Emily's soccer practice was cancelled so we played outside and I started shovelling again! Thankfully my neighbour saw me and brought his snow blower over and finished it for me.

So, yes, I'm a little bitter about Tim's weekend compared to mine. I know, I told him to go. Don't worry, I'm not looking for sympathy...just doing a little venting! Isn't that why I blog?? :-)

The view out my front door Sunday morning

The snowbank along the side of the driveway

The snowbank the plows have created in the circle in the middle of our court