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!

I Brought a Date to Our First Date

Ha! Ha! Right. No joking I really did bring a date to our first date. In my defense I was an unknowing party that it was supposed to be our first date.

So we met on Halloween and bumped into each other a few times after that because we obviously hung around the same people. Then a friend of mine invited me to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. It went something like this:

Friend, "We are having some people over for Thanksgiving, not family, just friends. Would you like to come?"

Me, "Sure, that sounds like fun who all is going to be there?" Then she lists off couples that I know but fails to mention that Jim will be there. So, I'm thinking I better bring a date so I am not the odd man out. I ask my friend that I had drove up to Michigan with from Florida to come along and be my date for Thanksgiving dinner. He was happy to oblige me.

We show up with a bottle of wine for the hostess and she gets a little flustered and asks me if I can help her in the kitchen. After taking me into the kitchen she explains that she was setting me up with Jim that I wasn't supposed to bring a date.

That would have been nice to know ahead of time. LOL Oh, well we sat down for dinner and I was seated between Jim and my date. Not really awkward at all because after all my date was really just a friend. Then after dinner my date took me home and Jim came and picked me up from home. We drove around all night talking, watched the sunrise and he took me home. (At that point we still hadn't had our first kiss.)

So, now I have a funny story to tell about how even the worst of beginnings can lead to wonderful things, 4 kids and twenty years of marriage later, I only love him more.