Once There Was a Snowman

We had our biggest snowfall of the year on Sunday night/Monday morning. Yep. The second day of spring. Ben had a snow day so,eh, whatever. I was happy to have him home.

As soon as Russell saw that there was snow piling up on the sidewalk and driveway he started asking if he could 'shoshel'. We told him we had to wait until all the snow quit falling. He wasn't happy. Monday morning, after we ate breakfast, he and Ben went outside and took care of the snow. It took two hours because it was a very heavy snow. At one point I looked out the door to see how things were going, and Ben said, "You need to come teach us how to build a snowman." I hadn't realized I was the only one in our family that knew how to build a snowman.

After Meghan woke up from her nap and we ate lunch, we went outside to build our snowman. The snow, while fairly wet, didn't pack very well. Russell and I managed to get our little snowman built. Ben held Meghan and looked for arms and eyes.

We built it right where we could see him from Russell and Meghan's bedroom so that we could check on him.

By the time we went to bed that night, his carrot nose had already fallen off. Yesterday his head had fallen off. Today half of his torso fell off and he is missing an arm. I guess that is what happens when you build a snowman and it is above freezing and windy.

 Meghan didn't like the snow. Or maybe she didn't  like it because I had put mittens on her hands inside of her little snowsuit so she couldn't get her fingers out and grab stuff to shove in her mouth.

Love Languages Follow Up

If you didn't get a chance to guess our love languages, you are too late now.

Here they are:

Ben is physical touch and quality time. No surprise there. He's always touching me and it bugs me about 50% of the time. He also can never get anything done when he is with the kids and I becuase he just wants to spend time with us. That only bugs me when I want him to get stuff done. He did really good and finished up out shower last Friday on his day off by secluding himself in the bathroom all day. Gifts was Ben's absolute last.

I, Joanna, am gifts. Quality time and acts of service tied close behind, but gifts won out overall. I really appreciate a good gift with lots of thought given to it, and even better is a surprise gift. Physical touch was my dead last one. I wasn't surprised. Of all the Scoresbys I am probably the most touchy, but still, I'm not that touchy.

So there you have it. If you want to tell us you love us, touch Ben and give me a present.

Love Languages

As a date night in (our first officially labelled date night in), we took the love languages quiz. I found a pdf that I could print out and then we both sat down and took it.

Now, I had taken it several years ago at an enrichment, so I knew what my love language was. Ben had never taken it, so he didn't know anything at all. After tallying up our own scores, we guessed what each others was.

Ben's is obvious, and I got one first guess. He is bilingual, so I had to make another guess, but that one is fairly obvious, too. It took Ben three guess to guess mine. It was a very enlightening evening in our relationship.

But, it got me thinking about what Russell and Meghan's love languages are. I would guess Russell might be a quality time especially since he had been on a spree asking us "You want a pay?????"really emphasizing the play. Meghan's is probably also quality time and also physical touch. I'm only guessing because I can never get time away from her and she always wants to be held.

So, can you guess what our love languages are? Here are your options:

1. Gifts
2. Quality Time
3. Words of Affirmation
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch

Celebrate the Cold

People here in Minnesota like to embrace and celebrate the cold weather that lingers through more of the year than it really needs to so they come up with Winter Festivals and things called SocialIce. We thought we'd do something fun and go to Rochester's SocialIce and see the ice carvings (and everyone else drinking). It Was SO SO Cold!!!! We had bundled ourselves all up, but an unexpected cold front moved through during the day so is was colder than what is when earlier when Ben had to run to church.

Russell picked the only ice carving of a moving vehicle to take a picture in front of. Surprise! It was the airport's ice carving, and was pretty cool. They had a Darth Vader and Yoda ice carving and just as we were scampering for warmth inside, Darth Vader made an appearance and scared Russell to tears.

Russell is definitely a true Minnesotan. He asks almost every day if he can go out and 'shosel' the snow. When it actually has snowed and the driveway and sidewalk need shoveling, it takes so much work to convince him that he should wait until Ben comes home to shovel with him. He has his own little shovel and has gotten to be pretty good.

First sewing project

A week ago, I tackled the first sewing project for the house: kitchen curtains. I didn't want to have regular curtains like the rest of the curtains in our house in the kitchen because all the heat vents are directly below the windows and the curtains are always billowing around when the heat is on. I didn't want that in the kitchen where the frequent messes could get all over the curtains. Luckily, I was able to find a good fabric from the stash of fabric I got from the old man in our New Brighton ward whose wife died, and he was looking to give fabric to people.

I am happy with them. They were really easy to sew, and make our kitchen nice and cozy now. And, the best part is . . . no billowing curtains.