Snow Surprises

The plan was to wake up at 6:00 to give us enough time to get everyone ready and the kids on the school bus. We would then make the school's "new parent" meeting at 8:45, drive K to work, let A take the car to run a few errands, go home to clean before the movers come tomorrow (yes, tomorrow!) with our belongings, walk to the bus stop to pick up the kids, drive to K's work and finally pick him up to go home and relax.

When we woke this morning it had snowed. It kept snowing heavily. (I eyeballed it and it looks like 5 inches to me.) The last time it snowed this much was 10 years ago the Belgians say. On the first day of school for my 4 and 6 year old. On their first day to ride the bus...ever. I was a nervous wreck. (I've already mentioned this before, but we were not forewarned because we still don't have any cable hook ups yet.)

They ended up being on the bus for 2 hours while we were 8 cars behind, stuck in traffic that usually takes 10 minutes. But not today, the first day of school for my children who have only lived here for three weeks. We are aquainted with maybe 5 couples all living in different areas, so we really don't run into people we know very often, actually we haven't run into anyone we know yet. Everyone is a stranger at this point, even the bus driver, who didn't speak a lick of English (granted, I should know a lot more French) when I placed the children on the bus. If I would have known the traffic jam was right around the corner, I would have kept them in the car and driven them to school even though they were elated at the opportunity to ride the school bus...better yet, I would have taken the liberty to cancel school and kept them home.

We promised since this was their first day to ride the bus (we were more nervous than them of course) to be at school when they stepped off so they wouldn't become lost in the crowd of kids. I can't imagine a 4 year old just standing there with high schoolers exiting oblivious of the fear in her eyes as she realizes she has no clue where her classroom is located. As we continued to wait in traffic (remember this was a long time and we were unsure about whether he had other students to get from different roads), I was wondering...what are my children thinking?...are they thinking they don't ever want to ride the bus if it takes this long every day?...should I go knock on the bus door and get them?...do they need to potty yet?...good thing they went when they first got up...are they arguing?...sure hope not because sometimes when R gets mad at her, he has a look on his face like he could strangle her...hopefully he doesn't...is R making up new games for them like he usually does when they're bored?...or is J wanting to play her usual that we all get tired of: eye-spy?

My fears vanished when I arrived to school by foot (K let me out of the car early so I could run up the street to keep true to my promise) just as a cute high schooler was helping my children off the bus, and to their classrooms! Just like the staff had promised when we visited the school!

J stepped off and immediately accidentally fell in the snow while R said, "That bus took forever, now I'm late for class!" At least he has a conscience and wants to make right choices...even though sometimes we have no control of the situation like when we have snow surprises. They say school may be closed tomorrow because of ice surprises. The temperature is supposed to drop tonight. I'll keep you posted.


Sidenote: They say there was not an accident this morning, but that traffic can be horrible when it snows because people get nervous. Did I mention there are no snow plows? It might be because it doesn't snow here very often or because there are too many little speed bumps and other obstacles!