My lips are turning blue and I haven't felt my toes since 10:15

Last night I worked and on the way home stopped to get some gas. ($1.76/gallon baby! Yeah!) Once I got home I made Emily put on some shoes (she had slept in her clothes, wtg Adam!) and then I threw her in the car and made my way over the bridge, through Moline, into the heart of East Moline for Emily's FluMist appointment. That took all of five minutes once we got there so we headed back through the heart of East Moline, into Moline, over the bridge and into our warm house.

After that I made Emily add some clothes to her current ensemble. From there we all dug through the corner basket that holds all of our scarves, mittens, ear muffs and any other diddy that keeps random appendages warm, then we piled in the car and headed downtown to the Festival of Trees parade.

I am so, so kicking myself for not bringing the camera, but truth be told, I'm not sure I would have even taken any pictures because it was SO FREAKING COLD! Though we were all dressed warm, none of us had on enough clothes. We could have brought more blankets. I should have brought a couple chairs for the kids to keep them from having to sit their cold butts on the concrete.

I'm not even sure the parade was over when we left. It may have just been a very large gap between the three story Mega Hunter balloon and some local high school band. We never even got to see Santa in his souped up coupe.

When we stood to leave my but was so frozen that I didn't even notice I had to pee until I actually started moving. My feet were so cold that I literally didn't feel anything from about my mid calf down. At one point I was nervous walking for fear I may fall down and be trampled by the thousands of parade-goers (or would that be parade-leavers) behind me.

It very much reminded me of the time I worked as a receptionist at a car dealership. (My first job). One Saturday I spent about two-hours sitting on one of my feet. There was really no reason for it other than I was just comfortable sitting in that position. The problem was when I got up and started walking across the showroom floor to go to lunch. My foot and leg were so asleep that I didn't even notice that I left one shoe (a flat) behind. Someone had to point it out to me.

"Hey Amy. How come you're only wearing one shoe?"

"Oh, because I can't feel my leg past my knee."

"..."

I'm surprised I didn't end up stepping on something ridiculous like a wandering tack or meandering staple. Then I would have formed some new strain of gangrene and end up having to be fitted for a new titanium foot. My luck the new foot would be smaller than my normal shoes and I'd have to forever endear the question, "Hey Amy, How come you're only wearing one shoe?" Then I would flashback to that fateful day in the dealership where a young girl dared to find comfort at her desk on the showroom floor.

So, yeah. It was really cold at the parade.