Ice

I finished the sermon prep last night at about 1:00 and headed off to bed – completely oblivious to the freezing rain outside. I had heard that it was coming, but in all honesty had thought it petered out. My bad.

I had planned on getting up at 7, but for the first time on a Sunday… ever… I slept past my alarm and woke up at about 8. And panicked because I felt like I had something to prepare. But it was all done. Everything but my sermon was at the church, waiting for me, all ready to go. (which is sometimes a rare occurance… see post on procrastination).

So I showered up and sat down at my computer to print off the sermon and I get a phone call from the church… “Pastor Katie, are we having church this morning?”

Having church? Of course we’re having church… why woud we not have… and then I looked out my window. Ice. A beautiful thin layer of ice over all the roads. It didn’t seem so bad – after all, the powerlines were fine, the trees didn’t have that amazing glaze of ice over the branches. Piece of cake. Yes, we’re having church.

I have to admit right now that deciding whether or not to have church because of bad weather is one of my most frustrating and hand-wringing parts of my job. Do I cancel and keep people safe? What if it’s not really so bad? Will I look like a wuss? I’m young, and I can get there, so we should have it, right? *sigh*.

I hopped into the “ghetto cruiser” and headed off to church. All was fine until I hit the road that our church is on. Solid ice. I think I fishtailed 3 times in 4 blocks and was unable to pull into my usual parking spot. I coasted right by it.

Outside were all of the wonderful but older faithfuls of the church, heading in for Sunday School, trying desperately to stay upright. And a terrific older man with the bag of salt, trying to get some traction on the sidewalks. And I started to wonder if I had made the right choice.

Church went beautifully. We actually had a pretty decent crowd, which surprised me. And then we had Ad Board afterwards (which would have been a p.i.t.a to reschedule). So all was good.

My photo for the day actually comes from this afternoon. My little brother called me up to take him shopping, so we met at my Babi’s house. I haven’t driven on ice like this for quite a while, so it took me much longer than expected to get there – including a few heart-pounding fishtails into the oncoming lane… without traffic oncoming – thank God! I think there were about four different close encounters of the ditch kind thoughout my travels today, but we made it to the store, and home again safely.

I had a ton of fun hanging out with DJ. I have a friend from back in Nashville who was the youngest in her family, and she always would tell me about the great things that her older siblings were doing to help her out. DJ didn’t have the best 2008 in the world… in part because of some poor decisions, but all I want to do is spoil him rotten and make sure he has the things he needs. It kind of feels like it’s part of the whole “big sister” job description. I got to thinking on the way home (on the icy roads) about when DJ was born. My other brother and I both had these cute little sweatshirts that our mom had made with puff paint. It said something like “I’m the big sister” and “I’m the big brother.” I take my job very seriously =) Tuesday will be his 21st birthday! And it makes me really happy to watch him grow up and to talk with him now as an adult.