Cynicism. It’s what’s for dinner.

They called for snow. “Massive storm coming in from the west,” they said. They waxed eloquent about the high pressure and low pressure fronts. They used their bright graphics and catchy slogans and assured us that we needed to prepare. “Head to the store now!” they said.

Ha.

I scoffed. I mocked them. Because the last time they said all that? Nada. A few flakes and one day of missed school for not much more than maybe a quarter of an inch of some stuff that didn’t even stick around for the afternoon sunshine.

So I didn’t make a trip to the grocery store {or Walmart, as the case may be. The one near the foot of the mountain is just fabulous, in case you were wondering.} I didn’t stock up on milk or bread or anything, really. I spoke in patronizing tones to my kids when they eagerly speculated about an early start to the weekend in the form of a snow day. I won’t lie, I hurled insults at the perky weather channel meteorologists. I giggled when Nashville { a mere two hours from us} went ahead and cancelled school the night before when the temperatures had hovered in the 50’s all day and not a drop of precipitation in sight.

Cut to today at 11:30 a.m. and my headmaster whispering to us as we entered the lunchroom, “We’re dismissing early at 1 p.m.”

Huh. Hmm. All righty then.

I gathered my kids back in the classroom, broke the joyous news to them and started the Friday packing up process. And then what to my cynical eye should appear but snowflakes. SNOWFLAKES. Falling slowly at first and then faster and faster. Before I knew it, it looked like this…

Not bad, right? And it was melting as soon as it hit the ground. So while I was a little worried and figured I’d better stock up on a few essentials, I didn’t exactly speed over to Wally World. Actually, I couldn’t have done that even if I wanted to because the fine drivers of Chattanooga interpreted snow melting on the ground as OH DEAR LORD, I NEED TO GO TWENTY MILES AN HOUR! THE MOISTURE! THE MOISTURE! Eventually, Jason and I met up, moseyed through the aisles, all the while planning to head over to Sarah and Kyle’s for dinner.

And then we walked outside and hit the roads only to find this…

Awesome. For the record, I did not take these while driving. Jason and I started out in separate cars but it became clear pretty quick that my Honda Accord didn’t have a chance when it came to getting up the hills around The Shore House. So we left mine safely {I hope} stowed away in a parking lot and proceeded to spend the next hour and a half trying to drive what should have been two miles to our house. In Jason’s 4-Runner, we were fine. That thing took a steep curving hill like it was just another sunny day in Chatt. And Jason? Never broke a sweat. Love that man.

So dinner plans cancelled, I watched Knox romp in the snow…

…took an evening stroll with my love and my freckle-faced monster in the falling snow…

 

…and ate a heaping plate of oven baked cheese fries. Hey, walking through four inches of snow will make a girl hungry.

Truly, I am giddy with delight and surprise over the afternoon’s turn of events. See? Cynicism pays off after all. Hoping you and yours are warm and snuggly tonight!