Fail, Fail, Fail ... And FINALLY a Win

Last night the skies open up and shit upon us here in Michigan. Driving home from teaching my night class, which takes 40 minutes tops if I get stuck behind idiots, took an HOUR AND FORTY FIVE MINUTES. I couldn't go any faster than 30 miles an hour the entire 20 miles I spent on the expressway. I saw more than twenty cars and three semis in ditches. As I pulled up the little hill of my driveway ... I got stuck.

After this horrible, horrible night, of course I was happy to be home, safe, and alive, but the real thing on my mind was that I NEVER BOUGHT ANY G-D SNOW BOOTS FOR JOSEPHINE. First snowfall? Sorry kid, we're not going to play in it. Major mother fail.

So we got up this morning, and she saw this in the backyard:

And I was like, okay, let's get dressed and go outside, but WAIT, we can't go explore that awesome white stuff that you are technically seeing for the first time since you were 4 months old last winter -- instead, let's get in the car and drive to a stupid store.

Except, EXCEPT ... you need some form of currency to buy things. After we got all dressed and ready, I opened my wallet to find NO DEBIT CARD. IT happens all the time because I am harried and leave it in pockets and Josephine steals it. Crap. And of course, no cash, because that's just how I roll. There was also my credit card, but I have pledged I would not use it (Jeremy is really into us being a cash-only family as part of our debt-reduction plan, and I try to honor that even though I lose my stupid debit card all the time).

Crap. So I called Jeremy to see if he had seen it around the house. He had not, but said we could meet for lunch and he would give me his. Done and done. 

We had a lovely lunch, I drove to the store, and ... Jeremy gave me his pin number, but not his debit card.

Home, meltdown, short nap, Jeremy came home and we went straight to the freakin' store. There, I saw a glorious sign: "Buy one pair of youth boots, get a pair for a dollar." 

So we got these beauties:

And these little cuties (I'm picturing her pink sweater dress I made her, white tights, and these. CUTE.):

Long story short (too late), they rang up regular price (the sale was on "fashion boots" and snow boots don't fall under that category). However, the cashier knew I wasn't messing around, and he gave me the sale price. AND I had a 20% off general merchandise coupon, so I got 20% off of that. OH YEAH.

Then we got home and rushed straight out to get the last half hour of light left in the day. And we finally got pictures, GLORIOUS pictures of the first play in the snow.

A few things:
1. YES, I'm aware that her snowpants don't match her coat even a little. The coat was a gift and the snowpants were on sale. You do what you gotta do.
2. Yes, she spent a good deal of time eating snow (you'll see a few sourpuss pictures because the snow is so cold -- but she just kept going back!), and YEAH, I let her eat snow. Get over it.
3. She is pretty cute, huh? :)

Even though I hate snow more than ... pretty much everything ever in the entire world ... Josephine cried when we brought her in the house, so it's a little harder to hate something that the bean loves so much. 

You win this time snow, but if the next kid hates snow, I'm back to hating you.