And that's my limit.

I just saw on my internet weather thingy that the high for tomorrow is supposed to be 8 degrees. That's the high, not the low. The low is a nice -1. And this darn snow won't stop!

So I think I'll buy a plane ticket to somewhere warm. I only have enough money for a one way ticket, and won't have any money when I get there, or a place to stay or anything like that, but I'll be warm and toasty. And that's really all I want right now.

Anyone wanna come?

Snow

I really don't like snow. If I never saw snow again, I wouldn't feel bad about it. But, in an effort to make the kids not hate snow like I do, I took them out to play in it. If we're going to continue living in the land of snow and ice, it's probably better that we try to figure out how to like it. Unless God decides to answer my prayers and makes it summer here all the time.

We think this video is hilarious. It could be that we're extremely easily entertained, or it could be that Ethan made us watch it 20 times, and after that many times you start to notice funny things. Like Kaitlyn's face when she says, "it's tiny". And Ethan with his snowball. He's about to throw it when Kaitlyn throws her snowball at him. It takes him a couple seconds to realize it, and then he gets distracted from throwing his snowball when he goes to smash the rest of hers. And then I'm counting, so he'll throw his snowball, and it's not until I watched the video a couple times that I realized he wasn't listening to me at all. Not even a little bit. And then Kevin in the background, going on about his "tower up to Heaven". Are you laughing already, just picturing it? No? Well, I guess it is just that we're easily entertained.

Kaitlyn . . . always so happy

Kaitlyn was having a hard time making snowballs in the powdery snow, and it made her feel delightful. She was turned away from me, so I was calling her name over and over, so I could take a picture when she finally looked. This is what I got:

And then I said, next time you need to turn with a cuter expression on your face, and then you won't look so ornery. So I got this:

And then she was still trying to be grumpy, but it wasn't fooling anyone, and she couldn't keep it up. And finally she started to laugh . . .

And then I got hungry.

Ethan's Snowball

We went outside to play in the snow today. We were going to make a snowman, but the snow was too powdery, so we had to settle for a snowball fight. Making snowballs wasn't easy either, but once I gave Ethan a big one, he kept it for the whole time we were outside.

Here he is with his snowball in one hand. I gave him another snowball to hold, and he dropped it. The gloves he was wearing were too big, so he had a hard time.

This was how he looked when he was about to throw his snowball.

And here he is with the snowball.

And here's a video. I sure wish I looked this cute all the time. Maybe if I had chubbier, rosier cheeks . . .

Christmas Concert & Other Stuff

We went to the SMCC Christmas concert earlier today. It was fabulous, but that's not surprising since we have so many talented musicians. The kids loved it, and we loved having Scott and Robin come with us. They kept Ethan happy giving him lots of Hershey's Kisses. He liked the music anyway, so we didn't have any problems.

After that we went to eat at Noodles & Company, and it was delicious. We'd never been there before, and it's always fun to try new places. They had chopsticks and chopstick helpers there, which the kids brought home with them, and played with for the rest of the afternoon. How easy it is to entertain them.

Scott helped Troy put the rest of the doors up in the basement while Robin and I visited and the kids ran amuck. It's so nice to have such helpful family members, who are always willing to help.

Then this evening we went to a birthday party for Jessica, our niece, and had some good ice cream cake. Trudy's house is all decked out for Christmas, and it made us realize how scroogey we are, since we never put lights up outside or anything. It looked so pretty, but it wasn't enough to make us want to do all the work on our house. We'll just enjoy the beauty of other people's houses. :)

I also wanted to add that if you haven't checked out the link for Josh Rosenthal that I put in a couple posts down, take a minute to do so. If you go to his myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/joshrosenthal you can hear one of his Christmas songs and it's so, so beautiful. I just love Christmas music that focuses so much on Jesus and why He came.

Night Out

Last night we went out with a few from our small group, and met with another small group. We went to dinner at Mimi's Cafe, which was delicious. And then we went to see Messiah: A Community Celebration. It was really neat! And one of the conductors was pretty awesome. He was a show by himself, basically.

We were up in the nosebleed section, and although we could see just fine, there was very little legroom. It was a great concert for what we paid, though, so I really can't complain.

MOPS

We had our last MOPS party for the year. I wish I could say that I'm done, and can relax until Christmas, but I still have next week when the other MOPS group meets. So I've gotta get the curriculum for the kids ready, and as always, help set up and clean up. At our meeting today we had Josh Rosenthal sing to us while we had brunch. I love his voice, and he has a new Christmas CD just out. I wish I would have had money to buy one while we were there.

Then we had a white elephant gift exchange. I ended up with a . . . um, thing that I don't know how to describe. It has one of those cheeseball cutter things hooked to it, which is nice because I need one. And then it's a wine bottle looking thing that you could hang for decoration.

After that I came home, and when Ethan fell asleep for his nap I layed down to read by the fireplace. I'm always cold, that's why. Then I fell asleep, and I think the phone rang, but I can't be sure. So if you called me, could you please call back again? Unless you're selling something, and if that's the case don't worry about it.

Busy

We've been pretty busy lately. On Saturday we went with Troy's family to the festival of trees. It was okay for the first couple of rows of trees. But after that they all look the same, and I don't think we even looked at half of them. It was nice to get out though, I guess.

On Sunday Troy's family had a Christmas party, and we had a yummy dinner. And then we got home just in time to see the last 15 minutes of Amazing Race, and I was disappointed it wasn't a two hour finale like it's always been.

Troy called in sick to work today because his back has been hurting, so it was nice to have him around, but it would be nicer if he could be around more and feeling well.

Besides that it seems like there are Christmas parties left and right that we (or I) am supposed to go to, concerts, and all other kinds of fun stuff. I think I'm not doing a good enough job being mean to people so they won't want me around. I am setting a goal to work harder on that--maybe that would make a good New Years resolution.

Tired Now

I thought once our basement was finished, we'd just move a few pieces of furniture in, and we'd be all set. I didn't realize how much work was still ahead of us. A lot of it is probably work that we don't necessarily have to do, but we might as well. Kaitlyn's room is really coming along, and is looking so cute.

Here is the dresser that I painted today. It used to be a light brown, but that just didn't go in her room. So we painted it black, and got some new silver knobs. We also bought the pink lamp at Ross, and found an old lampshade that we weren't using. Kaitlyn made the little hanging thing that's in the middle when she was visiting my mom one time. It goes perfect in her room.

I was going to buy Kaitlyn a nightstand, and we went to IKEA to look for one. We couldn't find anything that was just right, so we got this way cute bookcase instead (we'll figure something else out for the nightstand).


And, as a bonus today, I'm linking to a beautiful post that I just read: Finding Christmas. If you get a chance, go read it. It's a good thing to think about at the start of the Christmas season.

Spray Painting

Spray painting seems like fun when you first start. But after doing two dressers, it gets to be not as fun anymore. And I have black boogers. Now I'm tired, but I still have lots of things I need to do tonight. Who's coming over to help me?

Day 1 of Advent

We were supposed to start Advent yesterday, but just didn't get around to it, so we started today instead. The kids made an advent wreath out of construction paper. This was easier for us than going around trying to find a real advent wreath. We "lit" the first candle today, which again, was supposed to be yesterday. At least now we're all caught up. The kids also made paper chains with an activity, Christmas song, or scripture on that we'll do each day.

Our scripture for the day is:

Isaiah 7:14 (King James Version)

14Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The boys got into the hats and gloves and stuff the other day, and Ethan just looked so cute that I had to take a picture. He looks like a little elf.