These People are Crazy...

Hello, from Minnesota, where my weather bug shows me the temperature outside is currently 21 degrees BELOW zero. With the windchill it is easily 40 - 45 below. Our straight temp has not dipped above zero in three days, and today won't either. You would think they might consider not sending our poor kids out to school in this frigid cold, but evidently they don't cancel here. Each morning I wake up hoping that they will consider even a delay till it warms up to a balmy Neg. 15, but it is sort of a source of pride for them from what I can gather. Minnesotans don't stop for cold temps. I am not as hardy as my friends here.

My windshield washer fluid froze up and I couldn't clean my window, so last night I tried to run it through the car wash. I figured the wash would be closed because of the cold, but it wasn't so I sat in the car wash, talking to my mom on the phone when I realized that the spray had been hitting the same spot on my windshield for a good 5 minutes. I sat there for another 5 minutes, hoping it would get unstuck, but it wasn't working. I could not pull forward, because the bar was right in front of my car, spraying the windshield, and I could not see behind because of the steam and ice. I decided my best bet was to back up and as soon as I did the water turned off and I could roll down my window to see if the door was open or closed behind me. It was open, so I reversed backward and out the door. I pulled around front and into the gas station to tell them my dilemma. My car was still very wet and now was a sheet of ice. The guy said he would reset it and I would have to drive through the car wash to get the ice off and get it dried, so I did. However, the water was not warm enough to melt the ice, and the dryer was not blowing cold, so I still have a sheet of ice on my car and it was a challenge just to open the doors this morning. Jason did go out last night and scrape all the ice off my windows, but my garage is freezing too, so I am hoping it warms up a little this weekend so I can thaw out my car.

I was not happy last night. Along with my bad car wash experience, when I got in the house I noticed the crickets I bought had died because of the cold. (The whole reason I left my warm house last night was to buy crickets for Will's gecko and frog) Then I checked our fridge in the garage that we are selling on Craig's list. The small heater we have on it did not do the trick, and the inside water filter had frozen up and broke. Frozen water was leaking out everywhere. We had a guy wanting to buy it and now we have to have it fixed first. I am cursing Minnesota today. I told Jason the next time we move, it has to be somewhere warmer.

Okay, now changing the subject, other than loathing the cold weather, we are doing great. We had a wonderful trip home to see family in Idaho over the holidays. We found a buyer for our home in Wisconsin and we sold it to the company, because our time to sell ran out and the buyers aren't wanting to close until the end of Jan. The kids are starting to settle in and get use to Minnesota. We have made some very good friends here and while it still doesn't feel like home, it is just a matter of time. I am very excited about my new calling as Primary Chorister. I know I will love that.

Jason is doing great at his job and loves the company, the people and everything about it. He got called to serve in our church as ward Employment Specialist/ Ward Welfare specialist. He will enjoy that also. The kids started back in Piano Lessons. We are looking forward to Monday being out of school. We are going to hit the zoo with some friends from the neighborhood on Monday.

Here are some pictures of our new Christmas tree that we found. It is 12 feet tall and perfect for our living room. The kids promised Grandma that they would send a picture. The helped Jas take it down and it reminded them of a book Grandma read to them over Christmas.

FAMILY TREE

KATE SIZE TREE

PIP SIZE TREE