And another thing breaks

I was going to post another super-sweet and hardly standable story about one more cute thing one of my kids did in the past couple of weeks. But by the time I got here this morning, I couldn't remember any.

See, it snowed. And when it snows, that means that Steve plows our driveway. And this morning Steve also had to go to work. Which means that he had to wake up earlier and plow before he left.

But our plow is kind of broken. It doesn't angle right. So when he was done, what was left was a three foot high bank of snow right in front of the garage doors. And the snow in front of the doors themselves were not plowed. There was a good two feet of unplowed snow in front of the doors.

Somehow, through sheer will and a really great car, Steve managed to get over that snow and up the driveway. He stuck his head in long enough to let me know that the garage door wouldn't close because of the snow, and could I fix that while I was shoveling? I thought - no big deal.

See, I had actually been planning to go shopping today. I had two different places I wanted to go, making this trip a BIG TRIP. I had gift certificates and lists of things I need. Or ok, maybe just want...

So when Nate was sleeping, I quickly stuffed Nick into his snow gear and went out to shovel. I worked up a sweatinside my parka, and did a pretty good job, if I might say so myself. And it was great because Nick loves the snow. He said so repeatedly while I was shoveling. He slid down the snow banks and tried to build a snowman (but the snow wasn't right.) He helped me shovel with his tiny little sand shovel. Nathan does not love snow, probably because it's cold and he is usually falling down face first into it - hey, those boots are hard to walk in.

But when the shoveling was done, and I tried the garage doors... well, Steve's side worked. Meaning it closed. My side... well, at first it wouldn't open. Remember, these are fancy shmancy electronic automatic garage doors. So I went to help it, lifting on the handle. And it opened most of the way. But then it wouldn't close. In fact, instead of closing, it made a really loud WRONG sound. Like the mechanism was going to explode. I checked the wheels to make sure chunks of ice weren't blocking anything. Then I pushed the button and pulled it closed. And then it stopped. And when I pushed the button to open it again, the WRONG sond happened again. but this time I couldn't open it. The door is stuck. I can pull as hard as I want, it isn't budging.

So now, even though I shoveled and have a place to go, and the kids are both awake, and I promised Nick he could pick out his own underwear, and the car is running, and the driveway is clear... we're stuck.

Because of the stupid stupid stupid garage door that JUST WON'T OPEN! I wish the machine part of it weren't on the ceiling so that I could kick it.