The Polar Vortex

Unfortunately for us, we live in the part of the country that has suffered the most from the real polar vortex this year.  The winter itself hasn't been bad when you look at snowstorms etc, but the temperatures are a different story. In the month of January, the total number of hours where the temperature was above freezing was less that 2 days. Brrr!!!

This was way back in November when the snow was exciting. If all his snow gear was white he'd look like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow man :)

Living in town last year, we didn't notice the winter being overly windy or anything, but now we live out near the sticks. Our apartment building is right on the edge of town with empty fields between us and Rochester (there might be some houses here and there, but not too much else). No buildings + open fields + gusty winds (50+ mph) = impressive snow drifts that have been growing taller and taller all winter.

Mid-January

Early-ish February (like the 7th or so)

February 21st

This has made for an especially long winter in our smallish apartment. I just cannot get myself motivated to bundle me and Russell up to go outside and play for any amount of time. High winds and low temps have made tons of wind chill advisories, and school has been cancelled for the entire state by the governor because it has been so cold. Russell would love it a little bit (he does always hold his hood down over his face as we walk into our building because the wind always blows it off his head), but I would be completely miserable. We have spent too much time huddled inside trying to keep warm and not go crazy.


We (Ben) are thinking of a name for the van. Any good suggestions?

The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back

Ok, well, not the camel, but mine, and I'm starting to feel a little heftier nowadays so maybe I'm getting close to camel or cow at least.

A couple days ago, Russell and I were going to into town to do some quick grocery shopping. We were all finished and left Wal-Mart to go home. As I got Russell all buckled in and then myself buckled in, I turned the key in the ignition and it wouldn't start.

Now this was nothing new. We have been having trouble with this over the last several months and very non-predictably. It always seems to happen at more inconvenient times than others. At first we thought it was the battery and the cold not cooperating, but we replaced the battery before the first wave of the polar vortex and nothing changed. It didn't matter how long we had been driving, which way the key was put into the ignition, it didn't matter if the car registered that the alarm had been fully disabled, prayed, etc. I could go on forever on all the ridiculous things we have tried. Anyway, after sitting in the car trying for about half an hour, Russell and I went back inside Wal-Mart. We wandered around a little longer, and when Russell had had it we went back out to the car. Lucky for us, the car decided it would start up for us. I was relieved that after wasting the hour when I was going to start doing the laundry, we could finally go home.

Then it really happened. As we were driving out the back entrance of Wal-Mart, I heard a loud sound from the back passenger tire area. My first thought was that I had hit a huge pot-hole, and had popped the tire and maybe bent the rim or even worse the axle (Don't laugh; I don't know tons about cars). I got out and checked and everything was A-ok. So, I got back in a tried to drive and I could not get the car to move. It felt like there was something stopping the tire, so I got out and tried to see if it was blocked but nothing again. So, now that I wanted to kick the car, I got back in and forced it to move by putting the pedal to the metal and I got it out to the road. When I stopped to make sure no cars were coming,  I couldn't get it to move, so once again I floored it and got the car to move very slowly. And, we crept along with the hazard lights flashing to a sketchy looking, but oh so conveniently placed, auto service center less that 500 feet away.

I was mystified about what could have happened, so once again I got out and looked at the dumb back tire and saw nothing wrong. I, of course, didn't try and get under it because I'm not sure I would have made it up from under the car. Ben snuck a call to me during the class he was teaching then, and I lost it. My patience with his car that he loves so much because they have been together so long and through so much has been a small pain in my side since I was learning to drive it.

After talking to him, I pulled myself together, got Russell inside, and the guys in the shop said they could look at it right then. While watching him drive out of the parking lot I saw what was wrong. The back tire was not turning at all. Of course, I could never know that because I couldn't drive the car and look at the tire at the same time. He told me he could fix it that day, and I found a ride home from my great visiting teacher who literally lives a couple blocks from that place.

That afternoon I started looking for a new car. We have been going back and forth for two years about getting a better car than what we had (Jimmy: 2000 Chevy Metro with 175,000 miles and Sylvia: 2003 Dodge Neon with 114000 miles, who has logged lots of miles in the past year and has had small little things come up and is super small and would be more uncomfortable to have two car seats in it than actually being pregnant twice).

We went in to Rochester for a doctor appointment yesterday afternoon and decided we would look at a dealership to see what they had. And, they had this beauty just newly arrived on their lot:

Yes, a mini-van, folks. And, barring nothing horrible comes up when we go and get it Saturday, it will be all ours. And, I will have a certified pre-owned, big, nice, new to me car to drive.

tl;dr I will never do a real one of these because I LOVE to ramble on and on and on and on and on...

Valentine's Day

This year I wanted to make our Valentine's Day celebration be more of a family affair. Russell and I talked about what Valentine's Day meant (like a 21 month old really understood the concepts I was trying to teach him).

We did a little Valentine's photo shoot, read Max's Valentine (one of Russell's favorite books) made little heart pizzas all in the days leading up to Valentine's Day.

Friday, Ben didn't have school, but still went in to work on the robot. We enjoyed a yummy toad in the hold breakfast with some strawberries and orange juice. Then my visiting teachers came, and Russell got to play. At lunch we picked up some pizzas from Kwik Trip and took them to the school for the boys working on the robot. Russell and I stayed and enjoyed lunch with Ben (and his cable tv at school). Then after Russell's nap, he watched his favorite show George, and then we had a dance party. Just me and him. He loved it! We had dinner when Ben got home, and then Ben and I spent the evening talking about names for Baby Sister. PS it was sunny all day and a little bit warmer than usual (like 10 degrees!).

The perfect Valentine's Day with my perfect chub-hearts!

Happy Birthday to me!

My birthday was several weeks ago, but I got to celebrate it for several days.

Ben, Russell, and I celebrated together the Sunday before my birthday. Church was cancelled because we had some bad weather so we spent all day together (Ben had to shovel some snow).

I decided that this year I would make everyone a 'fancy' cake. I thought I'd start off easy with mine. It was a basketball made from Reese's Pieces. I turned out ok. Russell loved picking all those Reese's Pieces off.

Then Russell and I spent the next week with Mom. We celebrated on Tuesday with her and Ben, Shannon, and girls and ate leftover birthday cake from Dad's cake and some of my own I brought.

Russell is a fan of birthdays and was waiting patiently for his cake. The next day Ben sent me some beautiful flowers. Unfortunately, the delivery person didn't ring the doorbell or knock and left them on the doorstep. The got a little frozen, but we were able to enjoy them nonetheless.

It wasn't a huge thing, but it was a great birthday celebration.

My child could be a model

Russell must have inherited his modeling skills from Mom when she was a baby. Look at this boy:

Well, maybe we need to work on his posing a little first.

He really does like Brooke quite a bit. And, sorry you are blurry, Brooke!

And, he is already taking selfies.

Hmm. We need to work on those.