More holes in her head

Charlie decided that she wanted to pierce her ears. We found a reputable place in town that does piercings and went and got it done. The whole eperience took less than 10 minutes and she is already planning what earings she wants next. Cute and fun.

Emily Turns 9

Emily had a great birthday this year. We had our family (those who are willing to claim us) over for cake and ice cream and had a really great time. I especially enjoyed the cake, which Nessa made. We decided we'd ask her to make Lily's cake this summer and then she'll have made every birthday cake in our family for a whole year. We haven't had Em's friend party yet, but we're planning to do that this month (Feb).

Compacting week 2

We continued compacting this week. Shawn and I did go out to dinner w/ friends, but we had excluded birthdays from compacting and as it was a friends's birthday we were celebrating, we felt okay about it. We chose not to go see Inkheart but are reading the book aloud instead. The girls love the story and love being read to so it's nice to read together. We also rented movies this weekend but used a gift card from a friend. We received many gift cards this Christmas and should continue to be able to do some activities/purchases for free.
So far the best strategy for us is to simply stay out of the stores. When we feel like slipping Lily keeps us on our toes. I had to convince her that it's okay to buy groceries as she wants to save ALL of our money for our trip this summer. There's no eating out/frivilous purchases with Lily in tow.

You get PAID to do that?

Sometimes I can't believe how lucky I am. I spent this morning sledding and making snow angels, having a rootbeer float and reading stories, finger painting and dancing/singing (no, my singing is still bad). I did all of this in a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers (or boots, snow pants and a coat) with 16 little smiling faces who were having a ball. I can't imagine a better job then being a preschool teacher. I get every day off my kids have (including snow days :) ) and I get to play all morning, I'm (usually) home by 12:30 AND, I get treated like a rock star whenever my kids run into me at the store/library/park. I know you all probably love your jobs as well, but except for being a parent, I just can't imagine that your job is as great as mine.
Special thanks to Dawn who told me about the job and encouraged me to apply and Dawn, Nessa, Merilee and Renee for sharing your kids/grandkids with me. They're so much fun and they really brighten my day.

1st week of Compacting

Well it's been harder this time around, probably because I know we have "extra" money in our account. all that money needs to be for our trip to Boston this summer so I am being good. My biggest problem is with all the cold we still have activities and I just don't want to cook. Still, we ignored my desire to take the kids to McDonald's Wednesday night between their cooking class and Charlie's youth group and actually made them mac and cheese- a great idea since Charlie wasn't very hungry after making pizza. Tonight they still have dance class (even though it's still about 20 below) and i REALLY don't feel like cooking. It's also "family fun night" so I'm making homemade pizza and we're playing games. Hopefully it will be a lot of fun and is totally free.

I hope you all are having a great week!

I'm Grateful

Yesterday afternoon Charlie had an orthodontist appointment. Since it was still about 35 below with a wind chill, I decided to drop her off and run a few errands so that the car would actually warm up. As I was returning to get Charlie, I saw a huge fire in our down town area. At the time I couldn't tell where it was coming from but I knew it was not far from where I'd just been. It turns out that it was an out of control fire that was taking up most of the block where the girls go to dance class. The fire started at a clothing store and burned down the block towards the dance studio. Had it happened today instead of yesterday, it would have been during Lily's dance class and She, Emily and I all would have been in the building. Our car is often parked right in front of the clothing store or one of the other stores that burned down. Chances are that we would not have been able to get back to our car with all the onlookers and fire trucks. We would have been stuck downtown until Shawn could have come and gotten us from one of the stores across the street. Had I somehow not noticed the fire, Emily would have been there without a parent, and i would be frantically trying to find her.

I'm grateful that this incident occured when the block was relatively empty and that no one was hurt. I'm grateful to our fire department and the fire departments of the surounding towns who came in and worked through the night in frigidly cold temps to save what they could. The buildings lost are a great loss to our town, but this loss has reminded me how grateful I am for my family and friends and for the first responders who work on our behalf

Little House on the Prairie

When we first made the decision to move to Minnesota, I was a little nervous. The only things I

really knew about Minnesota was from watching Little House on the Prairie, which I knew was actually filmed in Califonia. I had read the books as a kid, but I didn't remember much. I decided to read them again after we moved here, and was struck in fear by the one called The Long Cold Winter. After living here for 6 years, I decided that we really do have some global warmimg issues and those kind of frigid winters are gone. After several days witrh standing temps well below freezing for the high, -20 or more for the lows and wind chills putting us at 40 below or worse, I'm pretty sure that this is going to be our long cold winter. I hope that it warms up soon!