And again with the snow

This week's blizzard moved in a few hours early, as opposed to last week's pokey storm.
Either the winds weren't as strong or came from a different direction this week as I didn't hear them howling like last time. We were socked in from the word go. At about 2:30 the sky cleared and the sun shone, but it was blowing and drifting something fierce.
We rallied the kids to help clean up around the house a little, then Santa Daddy pulled out his bag an declared that being snowbound called for early presents. The reaction was everything that could be expected: squealing, clapping, and hugs for dad the hero.
The rest of the day was a total loss to Wii goodness. Wii fit will totally make me skinny and fabulous. Right?

Big Wieners

Three teams to Jr. High K-Bowl Subregional tournament; One wins it all, two don't place. Pizza buffet for lunch. Not a bad day...

Dogs are Barkin'

It's Christmas party time at the waitress job. Ran my butt off. Ready for bed. Early day tomorrow with K-Bowl kids.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

iPastor upgraded to a swell new Macbook a couple of months ago, and handed me down the old ibook. It is pretty nice still, despite the fact that we've had it since 2003 or 4 or something, which means its age is 265 in computer years. At the end of the summer I moved my stuff from my old iMac to MIL's Mini. About the time I was settled in there, I got the ibook and moved files again. Now, the hard drive is sounding decidedly tired and groany, so I am burning backup disks in hopes of avoiding a loss of data should it finally give up the ghost. I think mama needs to go shopping. Just wish mama had more money.

Couldn't have said it better myself...

As I hustled Thing 4 about getting ready this morning:

"Mom, it's night out. We don't wake up at night. I can't see the sun."

Too true, kid, too true...

Snow Day v2.0

So my district snowed out today. Things' district had a 2 hour delay. I stayed home with iPastor and he made us a lovely breakfast and we had some quality time.
Unfortunately, that was broken by the news that our neighbors lost their house to an electrical fire this morning. People and children all safe, house unlivable. And it's terribly cold today. Poop.

Snow Day!

Our evening out rocked. We had dinner at a mediocre Chinese buffet, but hey, if you can't find something to make you happy on a buffet, you're simply not trying hard enough. We then went down memory lane to see a show in the black box theatre where I misspent a good portion of my youth. The show (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change) was very good. Afterward, we planned for coffee or something, and I called one of our old profs to join us. He instead invited us over before I could get the words out of my mouth and we wound up staying out wayyyyyyyy too late around his fireside. Too much fun. He had never met our friends before, but was a charming and gracious host to them as he took us in as if we hadn't been neglectful in 20 years of sporadic contact, and never missed a beat.
Luckily for us, the weather moved in a little later than expected. We came home in fair weather, and woke to a howling blizzard. Church cancelled, and the kids and I hunkered in. The wind shrieked all day. The local radio station reports 7 inches of snow, but that can be sporadic. What I do know for sure? Remember that bar across the road that I blogged about in August that lost its roof? I'm pretty sure its still over there...
















Unfortunately, iPastor had to go in for a short shift. By the time he was to return, conditions had worsened, so he stayed safely in town with the friends we had been with the night before. We were complaining how we never saw each other, now they're probably sick of him. ;)
The kids and I did nothing but eat. I rallied them for a cleaning session that went very well, but was immediately destroyed by baking cookies and building blanket forts. What the heck. It's a snow day. I got to take a two-hour nap, what should I complain about?

Calm before the storm

The forecast for the next couple of days is not pretty, and like typical Minnesotans, everyone went shopping today.
My knowledge bowl team headed out for a new meet, and remained firmly in the middle of the pack. The power team graduated last year, and our potential remains untapped to its best advantage. The kids really seem to be having a blast, though, so it is all good.
iPastor and I are planning dinner and a show with another couple tonight. A grownup night out with no kids! I don't know quite what to do with myself... Might see some old friends in our college town (where we're headed for the evening's festivities) so who knows what the evening will bring. The weather is supposed to move in late tonight, so we should have plenty of time for fun before heading home for safety.

On the mend

Thankfully, our brand of crud seems to be relatively short-lived, and everyone appears to be on the mend with some extra fluids and extra sleep.
The forecast for the weekend is for a nasty blizzard to roll through Sunday. The teachers at school were worse than the kids. "We'll probably have snow day Monday...Get the calling tree ready...I'm going to the cities tonight so I can get snowed in there...I'm looking forward to laying on the couch watching football Sunday and prepping for NOTHING..." Good times, good times.
I am doing a bit of nesting. Got to the grocer last night and stocked up for a few days, so I'm prepping stuff now for the weekend so I don't have to worry about it. Filled the crockpot, threw together soup, life is good...

Creeping Crud

Last week Thing 4 had a little bug. He doesn't yet communicate his aches and pains with much accuracy, but he was unusually quiet and sleepy, with occasional random puking. He slept it off with no fanfare. It was therefore little surprise Monday nite to find Thing 2 hurling her guts into her wastebasket. Thing 1 and I seem to have gotten by with general yuckiness, though it explains our tendency to crawl off to bed early these past couple nights. iPastor, however reports from work that he's feeling nasty. Hopefully Thing 3 will remain untouched, but we'll wait and see. In the meantime, use plenty of hand sanitizer when you surf this way.

Help!

I've been swallowed by eBay, and I can't get out!


Boxing the latest batch of Snowbabies for shipping. Thought it was the last, but I keep finding more. The next batch is all Easter, though, so I can wait with it. Thank goodness.

I ::heart:: Shakespeare

Now I just have to convince 18 kids to do the same.

Breaking and Entering

You're not very good at this, are you?

So I blinked...

...and my weekend is gone. What the heck?

Round One

First Knowledge Bowl meet of the season was killer. The questions were much harder than those we've been practicing with, or at least more obscure. It was a good time though. iPastor came as a room helper for our team, but had the benefit of hanging with our own Thing and her team. Round two next week. Oughta be a good time.

Christmas Deco Crew Misses The Safety Meeting

Nog!

Christmas=fake egg nog in cartons in the fridge case for a month! Rock! I am happy.

Third Day Third Day

So I'm late to the party for Third Day on the Third Day, but I am STOKED that I just got notification that my cancelled concert was rescheduled!! YAY! Now I only have to wait until March...

Parent power

Small-town living leads to its own set of unique circumstances. This is how I live in a tiny town, my kid goes to school in the next, slightly larger town, and I teach in the neighboring district at a school out in the middle of nowhere, but equidistant from most of the small towns in that district. This is also how I can wind up coaching knowledge bowl for my school, and my kid is on the team for her school. I teach with a lady who lives in the larger town, but her husband teaches in ANOTHER neighboring district. Now that you're totally confused (or completely don't care) I can move on to my fascinating story about how I went to my kid's parent night to compete against her. As it was, her team beat the parent team by ONE point, but only because of their younger, quicker reflexes on the buzzer. I did get to spy out their t-shirt designs for this year (there's an unofficial competition to create the wittiest, geekiest, inside-jokiest shirts) and I think ours is cooler. Theirs is an upside-down "cheat sheet" of common recurring answers from the past; ours is various misspellings of "I'm a genius" struck through and replaced with "I'm really smart!" 'cuz we're clever like that.

Holed up

It is so very difficult for me not to crawl under my covers and hide for the next two months or so. I don't know how I wound up living in the upper midwest when I am so disenchanted with winter! Mornings aren't so bad. Somehow I can rise before the sun and push myself underway until light filters in the window. Evenings, however, drag me down. The dark creeps up on me and sneaks into my soul and pulls me under. Maybe its worse because the iPastor works evenings lately, and he's not here to balance me against the little people. Right now, the recliner is calling me to hide under a planket and turn on the TV. Must...remain...upright...