We lived in town, behind the Skyline Cafe, until I turned twelve years old. Anytime somebody wanted to know where we lived, Mom or Dad just said, "Right behind the ole' Skyline." Everybody knew where it was.
The minute it would start spitting snow, my brother Tim and me drove our mom crazy! "Have they cancelled yet?" "Can Dawn spend the night?" "Let's build a snowman!"
As we watched the news and waited for the cancellations, the excitement built. "Fordland cancelled. Yes! Oh, there's Mansfield. If they aren't having school, neither will we." Salem, Sarcoxie,......SEYMOUR RII SCHOOLS! Woo hoo!!'
Every year without fail on our first snow day Mom just had to go "check" the roads. So, after Dad was off to work, Mom, Tim, and Me (Jimmy wasn't born yet) loaded up in the single cab truck and went out for a drive.
I soon learned that every road lead back to the highschool parking lot. And that "checking the roads" really meant, being the first to cut cookies in the freshly fallen snow in the parking lot.
Thinking back on it, at a very young age I was the voice of reason. While we were spinning out of control, I was rolled up in a ball saying, "What if the cops come? What if we go off the parking lot and hit the light poll? If Dad finds out you're in sooo much trouble!"
During my moment of panic, Mom and Tim were laughing histerically!
Well, the cops never came. Luckily we never hit the light poll. And if dad indeed found out, Mom must not have gotten into too much trouble.
During my 6th grade year, we moved to our farm on BB Highway. Dad called it "The old home place." That's where my grandparents raised him and his 11 siblings.
We had not enjoyed a snow day until we experienced our first one on the farm. We were surrounded by wide open space and huge hills!...Sledding hills!
I believe it was our first winter there that Dad built us a wooden sled for Christmas. It looked just like one that you would see in the movies. It even had a rope in the front to steer it with. He painted it cherry red. The only bad thing about it? It weighed a million pounds! 
Okay, maybe 30 or 40 pounds. But that's really heavy for a scrawny little girl. So, Tim had the job of dragging it up the hill over and over and over.
Okay, maybe 30 or 40 pounds. But that's really heavy for a scrawny little girl. So, Tim had the job of dragging it up the hill over and over and over. We spent, what seemed like forever preparing for our sledding trip. First we put on long johns, then came the sweat pants, then coveralls. Two pairs of socks, rubber boots, stocking caps, and more socks on our hands for gloves.
We had a blast! And we knew it was time to go back to the house when we could no longer feel our feet and our sock gloves were frozen solid.
Mom always had blankets warming in the dryer for us and Dad could build a hotter fire in our wood stove than any other dad in the world!
I loved wrapping up in that staticky, brown and white striped blanket, and standing in front of the wood stove that was so hot it almost hurt, until my extremities were thawed out.
So....today's the first snow day of the winter. I woke up to about five inches on the ground and five very excited kiddo's.
They're scattered throughout the house. Each doing their own thing.
Daymond's in the bedroom playing X-Box. Devin is sitting beside me watching t.v. Dustin's in the bedroom with Daymond. Dani's tormenting the dogs. And Dakotah is probably in the bathroom making some kind of mess. While I just sit here, lost in the past.
I love my family and having lots of kids was always my dream. But what I wouldn't give to go back in time.
Just for one last snow day:)
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