So this morning I hear Dane around 6:30 a.m. or so. I rolled over as usual and figured he would either go back to sleep or yell louder and I’d get up. Well, I didn’t hear anything else so I figured he went back to sleep. I finally got up at 8:00 when I heard the other two boys and when I got up, guess who was standing in the hall – all THREE boys. I asked Ryan and Christian if they helped Dane out of his crib – NOPE they say. Ryan says he’s been up forever, we’ve already watched three shows. LOL So I guess Dane knows how to climb out of his crib now. He is the youngest out of all three boys to climb out – I guess I should have expected that since he has always been the climber. Matt was ready to bring up the toddler bed immediately, but I”m making him wait a day or two. I have to get over the emotional thought of this is the last time we will have a baby sleeping in a crib. I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet! I did go in there and kind of plan out how I want to decorate though. I think I’ll be able to push my way through soon here.

We are having a big ice-storm at the moment. Apparently we are supposed to expect around 1/4 “- 1/2″ of ice accumulation, as well as high winds that will likely lead to power outages (according to the weather report). Should make things interesting! Matt is wondering if we will even have church in the morning. He is in there plugging away on his sermon, and says it would be nice to know now! LOL That’s pretty hard to predict since the temperature is wavering right around freezing. You just never know which way it is going to go. I guess only time will tell. I”m hoping we keep our power though. It has flickered a few times already.

We ended up with half a pig today. It was butchering day for several at church – they sure have a huge smooth operation set up. Anyway, one family gave us half a pig, so our freezer is stocked in the pork department for a bit. Matt went and helped with everything. I think next year we’ll buy half a cow as well. Hardly anyone around here buys meat in the grocery store – it’s a new concept to me… Guess you can’t get any fresher than this!

Well, I’m off to cook dinner.

I just found a great new web-site that I am loving. It is called Posh Points. www.dinewithoutwhine.com/poshpoints Basically it is an online trading community. When you sign-up (free) you get 15 free points (each point is equal to approx. $1). Then you can super quickly post items for sale as well. I just “bought” a Czech Crystal Ladybug Bracelet for 8 points (I thought Clara would be proud) as well as a couple e-books for 4 points each. All kinds of goodies to be found and it is just starting out – each day there seems to be more and more items posted. So go shop and unload some of your unwanted things as well. Just be careful, it’s addicting!

All right, the blizzard pictures have been posted. http://www.pastorsfamily.com/Blizzard2007/ Ryan is back in school today. It is beautiful, sunny and zero degrees. We’re supposed to get up to 12 today! However, next week calls for mid 40’s so I am sure we will have a big mess then!

C-

We are having a blizard – no joke, that is what it says when you look at the www.yahoo.com weather page. Current forecast – blizzard. It has been snowing since early this morning and is supposed to continue to snow until around midnight. Winds are 25-40 mph. Of course the kids did not have school. A couple cars have made it down the road, but essentially everyone is snowed in. The mail is not even being delivered. Matt (being the crazy guy he is…) did back the car out and turn it around forward – just in case we need to get out in an emergency. He says we would have a better chance when it is facing forward – which I am sure is true. I took pictures of that whole ordeal, and will post them later. We all bundled up and went out for a little while. The kids were dying to get into those four foot drifts. However, they soon realized that snow blowing in your face at 30 mph is really not that enjoyable. They’ll have to venture out again tomorrow when it is no longer blowing. I am guessing they won’t have school again, or at the very least it will be late. They are hoping for school for their Valentine’s Day parties. I’m thinking it is going to be a bit before we are able to dig out though. I haven’t seen a sign of a snow plow yet – I’m guessing they just wait until it is all over – there really isn’t any use even trying while it’s still snowing and blowing. So that is what is happening here. I am curious how big those drifts are going to be when it is all said and done. We’re staying warm and safe.

C-

Little things still make it apparent that we are used to city – not country – living. One of Ryan’s friends from school yesterday said, “Do you want to come over sometime? I have chickens!” Ryan’s response…”Why don’t you come to my house, I have video games.”

Speaking of country living. We’re down to four cats now. Our mama did come home again after about a month away. However, on the way home from school there was little Cry Baby dead in the road a block down from our house. There have been a lot of cars and machinery around today and I am guessing he crawled in to get warm in one. By the time spring rolls around we’ll be ready for another litter I guess. They say that’s how it goes in the country.

We did get our big snow. I will update the photo gallery in a bit here with snow pictures and basketball pictures. We ended up with about six inches and larger drifts. It looks like it will be around for awhile too since we have been lucky to get into the teens lately. The kids have played a tiny bit in it, but it is cold and the snow is powdery.

Matt is running around like crazy. He spent the majority of early week at the hospital visiting two members and doing his chaplain duties. (It happened to be his assigned week.) Unfortunately, both church members passed away yesterday. So today he is visiting the families to set-up the funeral arrangements, trying to finish up the Sunday Service plans, and plan for funerals on both Saturday and Monday.

One of the moms in my Bible Study (and her daughter is in Ryan class) couldn’t stop on the ice on Wednesday and slid right into the path of an oncoming train. Miraculously, her two children were just fine. They all had to be extracted from the car. She had to be air-lifted an hour away and rushed into surgery to remove a piece of metal from her brain. God is good and two days later she is out of ICU and will probably be coming home Monday. It really makes you realize how quick something can happen.

Well, gotta run – Time for basketball practice!
C-

Well, the poor Bears fans are in mourning today. We’re not very big football fans, but do manage to watch the Superbowl almost every year. We went to a friend’s house last night and hung out with one other family. The 10 kids had a great time together and us parents had a nice time as well. Apparently we were all worn out though… because the kids ALWAYS wake me up before 7:30 in the morning and today I woke up at 8:27 and Ryan was supposed to be to school by 8:10. OOPS… It was his first day ever being tardy. We made it there about 8:40 or so. The secretary said it was a good day to be late as it was too cold to be out. (-2).

We’re supposed to get all the way up to 9 today! Heat wave! Tomorrow 3-5 inches of snow is predicted. If we get that it will be the biggest storm so far. Unfortunately, it will probably be too cold to let the kids play in it, but it won’t be melting away either.

Dane didn’t have a potty accident at all yesterday – even at church and at the Superbowl Party, and so far today, he has been doing well too (even with underwear on!) We’re making progress. YIPPEE! He has been pooping in his diaper periodically in the morning before we get him out of bed, but during the day he goes to the toilet. I suppose if we went in his room the second we hear him in the morning instead of laying in bed for 10 minutes trying to wake up – we might have a little more success in that area.

It’s Matt’s day off. He has been taking up GameBoy Lately. He is worse then Ryan I think. LOL

C-

It’s Saturday and for once we don’t have anything major going on. Ryan had a basketball this mornign that I take him & Christian to, while Matt stayed home with Dane and worked. The rest of the day we have just been lazing around, catching up on reading the mail, newspapers, magazines, playing with the boys etc. What a nice (freezing cold out) day! Our wind chill is supposed to be -25 to -30 by this evening, so I’m glad we aren’t heading out anywhere… Although I probably should make a mad dash to the grocery store for something to take to that Superbowl Party Tomorrow… but NAH, I’m sure I can come up with something with what we have here.

Speaking of Grocery Shopping – we went last weekend and I always buy cereal when it is on sale. I can’t stand paying $3.50-$5.00 a box, so when it goes on sale for $1.50 – $2.00 a box I stock up! There have been a lot of sales lately, so I wasn’t even planning on looking at cereal this time. I didn’t go down that aisle, but then in the freezer aisle, of all places, there is this cart stacked full of one of the boy’s favorite cereals – Dora the Explorer. It really is good and healthier than a lot of the kids cereals these days. Anyway, apparently our store isn’t going to carry it anymore, so there it was on clearance for $1.00 a box! UGH. So, I didn’t even count how many boxes we got – probably 15. LOL We got home and Matt counted all our cereal boxes and we had 57 or something like that. I guess we’re set on cereal for awhile (Like until next year LOL) Hey, if a tornado comes, we can live for weeks off cereal down in our shelter – that’s where it is stored. Reassuring huh?

The kids have been saying the funniest things lately. Dane is just talking up a storm, so he always surprises us with what he says. Christian was telling us all about heaven the other night, and then about electricity the next night. He has a huge vocabularly and actually uses this big words correctly. I’m afraid I’m not going to know what he is talking about in a couple years when he learns how to read the dictionary. I was tucking Ryan in bed last night and he was using his big teddy bear as a pillow. I said “hey, your poor teddy is starting to look kinda flat from you sleeping on him.” (which he was) and Ryan says, maybe you should come up here and be my pillow and then you wouldn’t have to try to eat healthy all the time – you’d be flat. LOL I about died laughing. If only it was that simple – I’d take him up on that offer!

Well, I’m off to clean a bit, and play catch with Christian and his “Squishy Ball”.
C-