Old Man Winter Woke Up From His Nap

We had some nice sunshine and days where a light jacket was plenty.  Then Old Man Winter decided it was time to wake up and show everyone that He isn't done.  Wednesday we had a winter storm warning.  For most of the afternoon it looked like we lived in a snow-globe.  AWANA was cancelled, streets were quiet and snow continued to fall.

When we woke up on Thursday morning we had 14 inches of snow at our house.  I got a call that our office was closed.  All the schools, including colleges were closed.  The Federal court and Post Office were closed.  We got dumped on.  A blizzard warning came into effect because of all the wind.  Yesterday morning it was -14 at our house with the windchill.  It was cold!

Fortunately by the afternoon the streets were plowed, the roads were driveable and things were back to normal.  It was still cold, but not windy.

This morning I woke and prepared for the trek to work.  This is what I saw on my dash:

Just a single 2.  It was 1 when I left my house and 3 when I got to work, so this was the average temp this morning.  Good thing I made Pioneer Woman's Corn Chowder with Chilis yesterday.  I have a feeling it will be keeping us warm today too!

Wordless Wednesday...A Girl and Her Dog

It's like Getting an A Minus

In September we decided, as a family, to get involved in the AWANA program at our church.  N is a leader in the boys group, I'm a director of the Kindergarten - 2nd grade group and all our girls attend.  It's not only a fun time as a family, it's also a mid-week check in with D & E.  We all love it.  If I had to say, it's my favorite night during the week.  It's chaotic, but it's the first activity we've been able to do as a family.  There is something about having all our girls there that makes the night seem complete.

What is so awesome is how much D & E are enjoying it.  They are memorizing their verses, making new friends, inviting their friends and just having a good time.  Not only that, but they also want to participate in all the additional activities with AWANA.  The first of those was Bible Quizzing.  The girls are quizzed on things they've learned in their books.  They could be asked to recite a verse from memory, hear a verse and have to recall where it's found in the Bible or they have to know things that aren't verses, but other work in their books like questions on why God gave us the Bible.

Bible Quizzing was always the thing that intimidated me the most.  I never did it.  So I'm totally impressed that both D & E wanted to do it.  They came early every Wednesday to practice.  It paid off!

Our girls placed 4th in their heat.  Out of 3 girl's teams, ours were the only ones to place.  They answered most of the multiple choice correctly and that was enough to put them in this place.  We are so proud of them! 

We Are Now a Family of 6

I would like to introduce you to Toby.  We welcomed him into his forever family on Friday, February 18th. 

Since Zoe has been able to talk, she's been asking for a puppy.  Every night before bed, she asks again, if she can get a puppy in one more sleep.  A couple weekends ago she did her nightly routine of asking about a puppy and I told her, as usual, that we would see.  Apparently her campaign expanded because she started asking N during the day about a puppy.  We knew it was only a matter of time and since she's sleeping through the night and we are finally out of the baby stage, we thought it would be fun to get a puppy and lose sleep all over again.

We started looking online and came across a place called Priest River Animal Rescue.  They had some Blue Heeler puppies that were absolutely sweet.  One of them caught both N's and my eye.  They called him New Year.  We inquired about him and learned that he was one of 4 puppies rescued from a home with 16 other dogs.  He had no human interaction and had to fight large, adult dogs for food.  The house was covered in dog feces and trash.  Because of this he was absolutely terrified of humans and had been in foster care for the last 8 weeks to get him used to being around people.  His story absolutely broke my heart.  Both N and I knew that this was our puppy.

Because it's a rescue shelter, you have to go through an interview process.  Those 24 hours were absolutely terrifying.  We knew he belonged with us, we just hoped the rescue volunteers knew that too!  Fortunately they did. 

We went and got him a bed, a leash, some food, dog dishes and toys.  Zoe LOVED picking out the toys.  As we were leaving they had this bin of sock monkeys.  She insisted that he HAD to have one and that he would love it.  N and I weren't convinced, but we let her get him one. 

Apparently Zoe is a dog whisperer because this monkey is his absolute favorite toy.

It's also his security blanket.  Anytime he feels a bit scared or he's getting ready to fall asleep, he has to be touching his monkey.

It is the absolute sweetest thing. 

When he arrived at our home, he was terrified and kept his tail tucked between his legs.  Now that he's been with us for 24 hours, his personality is coming out.  He's mischievious, playful, loving and terribly sweet. 

Welcome home Toby.  We've been waiting a long time for you.  Especially N who has been wanting another boy in the house for years.  He wasn't willing to wait for all the girls to turn 40 before they are allowed to get married! 

Zoe is already planning your 1st birthday party.  That is if you keep your distance from her ice cream.  She knows you're curious, but she's a little possessive of her dairy products!

I May Need To Dust It Off

I have a confession.  It's been a month since I quilted.  A month!  That's 30 days of nothing produced.  It makes me sad.

This is the first weekend in a month where we're all healthy.  It is also the first weekend in a month where when someone asks us what's on tap, we don't respond with, "we're going to Home Depot to buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that.  Maybe Bed, Bath & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have time."  (Can you name the movie?)

This weekend is going to be full of low-key, maybe some walks outside, some quilting and I'm going to try a new recipe for corn chowder that is not Weight Watcher friendly.  It's exciting to say the least.  I hope to come back on Monday with something to show off. 

Hope your weekend is as relaxing as we hope ours turns out to be.

I Guess Using Family Names Isn't In My Future

Yesterday was a great day.  I'm normally not a huge Valentine's Day fan.  N and I try to show each other love and appreciation more than once a year.  Yesterday I walked into a clean house, flowers and a card on the counter with my name on it and dinner ready to eat.  He does this randomly throughout the year, but it was a nice surprise last night simply because we're not huge Valentine's Day people. 

As I was getting in the house and looking through the mail, I found a large, white envelope with my name on it.  It was thick.  It was from Grammy.  Usually if Grammy sends you something, you know what's coming.  She'll usually call and let you know when to expect it.  This was a total surprise.  It just had my name on it.  I was completely stumped as to what it could be.

When we stayed with her at Thanksgiving one of my goals while down there was to chat with her about her family's genealogy.  She's one of those people who can tell you small details about her great-grandma that you'd never know unless stories had been passed down.  Her ancestors are from England, Wales and Scottland.  She's been to all those places a couple times.  She knows her clan's plaid.  She's not only a wealth of knowledge about family history, but she's a great story teller.  I could listen to her for hours talk about family history.

It also helps that I have a love for family history too.  My grandfather only spoke German until he went to school.  He was born in 1911.  In Idaho.  Yet when we'd try to get information on family out of him, he didn't really have any stories.  Hearing N's Grammy talk about family is fascinating to me.  She can show me cross-stitching that her mother did and pots and pans that have been in the family for years.  I love that.  Probably because my extended family isn't close. 

So when I opened the envelope yesterday I saw a family tree.  It included N's family (both his mom's and dad's), but it also included mine.  I used to just be able to go back to my great-grandparents.  They were born in the 1870's and died shortly after my mom was born.  In this packet of information that I got yesterday, it went farther back.  It included another generation and names of children and siblings.  I was dumb-founded.  All this time Grammy has been researching my family.  As I went through the records and saw the names I started to cry.  I am so blessed to have a family that loves me enough to spend time researching my past.  Thank you Grammy.  I actually don't have words to adequately express my appreciation and gratitude.  No one has ever done that for me before.

The other thing that totally struck me as I look at Zoe's family tree are the names.  Zoe's real name is after both sides of her family.  Her first name is from my family and her middle name is from N's.  I love that she shares her name with people I love(d).  As I look at N's family tree I see names like Hannah and Beverly.  Nice names that you would totally pass along. 

When you look at my family tree you see names like Wallihan and Bearnet.  Names that you so wouldn't give to your child.  Names that make sense in 1800's Germany, but not really in 2011 USA. 

I got a huge kick out of it.  It made me remember my grandpa teaching me to count in German.  Now I know why.  He wasn't a Bernard, he was a Bearnet.

I *heart* them.

This weekend was a little crazy.  Zoe has been sick with a cold.  Normally that's not too bad, but when she sleeps she gets this cough.  At night it's best if we sleep in our recliner so she's propped up.  It's not terrible, but it's also not ideal.  She gets some really good sleep, which is the only thing that will help her feel better.

D & E came this weekend for a visit.  D had her first slumber party at her friend's house.  What's even cooler about this slumber party is that it's her best friend who moved away at the start of the school year.  In a weird twist, she moved a block away from us.  I can see many weekends where D wants to hang out with her friend rather than us.  N's a little hesitant about it, but I'm all for it.  It seems like in the last few months D has gone from girl to tween and it's actually been a really smooth transition.  So far! 

What made this weekend a little crazy was that we had a wedding reception on Saturday.  Not just one we attended, but one we helped put on.  N was a valet, I was the photographer (those poor people) and we had all three girls there for 6 hours.  D snuck out to her slumber party, but Zoe and E were stuck!  I will tell you, I couldn't be more proud of our girls.  They handled it like professional wedding reception guests!  There was no whining.  There was no "how much longer!"  They just seemed to have fun.

If you have more than one child you know that getting all your kiddos on the same page, with no whining, no complaining and just being able to go with the flow is a miracle that only God can give you.  I couldn't be more blessed by those girls.  They really are amazing.  I'm not even a little biased!