It started out on a cold snowy December day. It was my wife’s birthday and we were determined to have a good day. I had gotten up a little earlier than normal to make her a cake and decorate the living room to show her that everyone knew what day it was. I had balloons tied together and taped to the wall and I had also cut out of construction paper, the words “Happy Birthday Jessica”.

My wife wakes up around 10:15 am and I am right there in her face saying, “get up, we have a birthday to celebrate”. She stumbles into the living room and her eyes lit up like the moon on a clear night. She was amazed at what I had done in such short time.

We all took showers and was preparing to go to her moms house. When I say, “we all” I mean my wife, our one year old son and I. We had gotten a phone call from her mom letting us know not to forget her sweeper. We had borrowed her sweeper two days before because ours wasn’t working for some reason. My mother-in-law also told us to listen to Hits 105.5. So we did and apparently she had called them so they could announce my wife’s birthday over the radio. We stayed home long enough to hear them then we were out the door.

My wife had just turned 18 at the time so she was now able to buy tobacco products. She was so excited that she could buy cigarettes legally. She wanted to buy something so she could show off her I.D and let everyone know she was now 18. She doesn’t smoke so I told her to buy me some dip or chewing tobacco. She was excited just because she got to use her I.D. Usually she gets very mad if I chew tobacco or dip but today she didn’t care.

We were now leaving the gas station from where she had bought the dip. Her parents live in the country so we were driving on the country roads when I had noticed that the snow plows hadn’t made it out that way yet.

I glanced over at my wife and the next thing I know we were sliding and we slid completely around and went into a ditch hitting a hill. We were in a 91 blazer so I put it in four wheel drive to try and get us out but it didn’t work. I kept trying to back up and get some speed then put it in drive and try to hopefully get an extra boost to get out of the ditch. I tried and tried but nothing seemed to work. Finally a couple of younger kids with a big 4×4 truck stopped and asked us if we were stuck. I said, “Yes”. They left after that and never came back, leaving us there in the ditch. Ten minutes later a guy from a local phone company happens to be passing by and he stopped and tried to help us push it back on the road. After repeated attempts to get my blazer on the road the man from the phone company suggested that I just keep backing up in the ditch because he said it would eventually level out. I took his advice and in about 10 minutes I was out of the ditch.