Snow Days

If you've read any marriage books or even just watched Dr. Phil, you know that all of us enter into marriage with a preconceived notion of how it's supposed to work. Maybe we don't mean to be this way, but in most cases, our childhood and upbringing has caused us to think that certain things should be done a certain way. Men should take out the trash for instance! :o)

And I know that Josh did not realize when he entered the realm of teaching that snow days would be one of those things that I have set in my mind as to how it's supposed to be. You see, I come from a home of educators - my dad is a retired teacher and my mom has been teaching for 27 years. I can so vividly remember waking up early on mornings when we thought we might not have school (yes, I know...that's a bit opposite of what most kids do)! I would love just sitting on their bed with them - mom and dad would have their morning cups of coffee in hand - and we would wait for the phone call. On some days, the call would come later than the announcement on the radio, so we'd have KZNN turned up to listen to the list of cancellations. Then we'd hear it - Maries County R-2 in Belle and Bland CLOSED...Gasconade County R-2 CLOSED. Ahhh...the words a kid just loves to hear.

So what did the rest of the day look like when a family of four was able to spend time together on a snow day? What's funny is...I don't remember the details! I just remember having time to sit and eat a big breakfast together. Time to watch Regis and Kathy Lee (yes, I'm old), The Price is Right with BOB BARKER, and a few soap operas that dad probably wouldn't admit to watching with us! It was just a wonderful, laid-back day...full of nothingness.

Evidently, I married someone with the inability to just BE! :o) Josh constantly wants something to do. He can hardly just sit and do nothing. So on snow days, when I would like to just sit and watch a show together, he wants to play a game on the Wii or find a project to do around the house. I guess I shouldn't complain. I could tell him to go clean a closet and he'd do it! But for me, my preconceived notion of how a snow day should be makes me a bit irritable because I want it to be the way it was when I was a kid. I'm working on it, really I am. Since this is his 5th year of teaching, we've had 5 years of snow days together! I guess we have many more years of them to get our snow day routine in line...