Pushing the Bus

It was a typical Michigan January. The snow was deep and the wind was blowing. Like usual when that kind of weather hits the roads were getting some pretty good snow drifts.

Jim was home from work that day because of the weather but the kids still had school. The storm had stirred up really good about the middle of the day and by the time that we were expecting the school bus the roads were very nasty. Jim had gone out to use the snow blower to clean out the drive way and the drifts that had gotten quite big in front of our house. I was inside making supper so I didn't actually know any of this that had happened until all the excitement came in the door.

With all four kids now in school the youngest being in all day Kindergarten we had enjoyed our day and looked forward to their arrival from school. The bus was coming down our road towards the house but the drifts were to high and it became stuck just past the neighbor's house still a quarter mile from us. Jim noticed and stopped working in the driveway, grabbed his shovel and started walking down to the bus. He promptly started digging out the tires only to find that the bus was on a patch of ice too. He walked back up to the door and told the bus driver that he would give her a push to start rocking it back and forth a little.

You can imagine the excitement of the thirty kids on the bus all ranging in age from high school seniors to our little Kindergartner. Most were telling our sons that there was no way he would ever be able to move the bus. After just a few minutes they were on their way and the entire family was back at the house everyone talking over one another as they took off their snowsuits and boots to tell me what had happened.

"Mom did you see that Dad was awesome!" Alicia said as she burst through the door.

"No one thought he could do it! You should have seen their mouths hanging open as he pushed the school bus!" Justin added as he was unzipping his snowsuit.

"I told them my dad can do it he is stronger than he looks, he does construction for a living." Jacob proudly exclaimed as he was hanging up his little sister's snowsuit.

"Dad was strong! He pushed us out!" Alannah added as she wrapped her little cold arms around me and buried her cold nose in my neck giving me my usual after school hug.

"It was nothing we used to get stuck in the snow all the time and push the bus back when I was a kid." Jim said as he was coming in. "Now who wants mom to make us some hot chocolate?" he added.

I was glad everyone was excited and four years later, my children still talk about how their daddy was so strong that he pushed the school bus and how all the kids were amazed. They said all the kids were in awe and said "Don't mess with Mr. Howe he's strong." The kids insisted that I include this story in the blog.

Happy Father's Day to my fabulous, strong husband from all of us. We love you.

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there have a great day!

Happy Accidents

On my very last day of working as a temporary secretary for Waste Management outside of Sandusky, back when the boys were young, I went to pick up the babysitter and on the way home I was involved in an accident.

I was driving down the dirt road and there were corn fields on all sides and no stop sign, so I didn't stop and clipped a car. We both went into different ditches and immediately got out worried about the other. The lady (I'll call her Dee)was so sweet all worried about me and upset. We started chatting waiting for the police officer to make the report.

Dee was a neighbor to my husband's parents and knew my husband. Everything was soon taken care of with the police officer and we went our own ways. I thought I'd probably never see her again.

Then about two months later I went to go check out a church down the road from our farm house and who spots me right off the bat and grabs my hand like an old friend to introduce me to everyone in the small church, yep, it was Dee. I was mortified and embarrassed. But, she made sure those feelings didn't last long. It was moments before that feeling was replaced by the love and warmth that she and all the people at the church were giving me.

It must be about 15 years later now and Dee is still one of my closest friends. We used to love introducing each other to new people. We'd say something like "Hey Tom, I'd like you to meet my good friend Dee. We actually met by accident, we crashed into one another and became the best of friends." Now that is a conversation starter.