A Classic Case of ND Guilt

As I told you last week, I was in our state's capitol for my Rural Leadership program.  And while I was there, a storm was brewing and forecasted to hit early Friday morning with freezing rain and then the afternoon with at least 7 inches of snow.

This wouldn't have been such a big deal if I was just going home on Friday afternoon.  Because once I was home, I could just snuggle in with Hubby and wait out the storm.  But Kiddo1 and I had an appointment to meet an airplane that left at 5am on Saturday morning.  The original plan was to come home on Friday, go to bed early and then leave at 3am on Saturday (we live an hour from the airport).  But with the Snow-pocalypse upon us, we knew we had to change plans.

I went home on Thursday night after our legislative social to fetch Kiddo1, her clothes, my clothes, and a suitcase of meat.  That's right.  I just said "a suitcase of meat".

I come from a family of meat producers, meat cookers and meat eaters.  We're pretty picky about our meat.  My brother and mother live in the south where they swear they can't get good meat.  So I brought some chickens, hot dogs, summer sausage and gizzards.  As well as a big jar of our local honey.  I used to have to bring a suitcase of sausage, but then my brother bought a smoker and started making his own with our great uncle's recipe.  Like I said, my family is serious about our meat!

We had deliberately not told Kiddo1 that she was going to visit Grandma because we wanted her to sleep before the trip.  So when I arrived home on Thursday night and we told her, there was much excitement for a four year old.  I told her to pack some toys in her backpack.  And, true to her nature, she packed the most random and unrelated assortment of her toys.  Mama did have to go through it and edit the toys to a few that actually made sense.  Because she would have taken a doll shoe, three legos, two wooden blocks, a birthday hat and half a bun.

So we re-packed the backpack and headed back to the Big City to spend the night.  During the night, the freezing rain began.  Kiddo1 came along to my Rural Leadership activities on Friday morning.  We stopped at the grocery store to pick up a light lunch and some travel snacks and headed back to our hotel.  I had a little girl who was VERY excited to go to the pool.

We swam for about an hour while the freezing rain turned to snow.  We finished with 10 minutes in the hot tub....ahhhhhhhh!  A nap was next on the agenda, for Kiddo1 and Mama.  Then it was back to the pool for another hour of fun before we ordered in a pizza.  It was Friday night after all!

It was a wonderful day spent with my favorite traveler!

Morning came early as we caught a shuttle from our hotel to the airport at 3:30am.  I'd like you to try and convince a four year old to take her beloved cowboy boots off and (even worse) put her beloved rabbit in a plastic box and send it into a dark hole.  And that's how going through security went at 4:15am.  Once we got on the plane, she went to sleep.  We made it through all three flights to get to Knoxville 20 minutes early!

Uncle Skip and Grandma were there to pick us up.  As Kiddo1 walked through the airport doors, she said "Mama, it's so WARM here!"  And then she rolled up her sleeves.  When we left North Dakota, the temperature was -12, we arrived to 68 degrees in Tennessee.

And as I shed my jeans and sweater for my capri pants and light t-shirt, I was guilty.  Oh-so-guilty.  I should be home fighting the cold, finding extra layers, cooking soup and knitting socks.  But instead, I'm enjoying some R&R at my mother's house.  She's cooking up a storm and I'm doing my part in eating it all.  I've got guilt, a classic case of ND guilt...