FREEZING TEMPERATURES

Although we had just a small teasing of snowfall lately, it has been super duper freezing cold outside and no snow yet. One thing that I recently learned about living up here in the northwest during this cold weather is that not only do you have to cover your outdoor faucets but you have to remove your garden hose from the spiket at well. In California we always left our garden hose hooked up. Not here. There was a lady on the news last night that did not do that and the weather went down to the freezing temperature and her water pipe burst and flooded her whole downstairs.

This morning when I went to sign in for my volunteer work, a teacher who also teaches at Shadow Lake Elementary (same as our school district in our town) said that the other day their propane tank burst and the school was without heat. The kids had to keep their coats and jackets on and everything else while school was in session. They were still deciding whether or not to have the kids go to school today. In all honesty, since I hit early menopause, I choose the cold weather over the hot cause when it hot here I am so miserable.

IN THE CLASSROOM

Today was my day to volunteer in the classroom. Last Friday I totally forgot about it till 11:00 at night while discussing my day with dad. Today Mimi and Emma were working on their threading all the while pretending that the ribbon they were using to thread through the netting was Repunzle's long, long hair. Amidst all of their laughing and giggling they somehow managed to get their work done.

ON OUR WAY TO SCHOOL

FASHION MODEL/SPY/ROCKSTAR

Believe it or not, every now and then Mimi likes to dress feminine. Being that it is so cold up here, she has to dress in layers which is something she is not too crazy about. She always asks "Why mom?" and I answer "Because it is not like California where it is around 75 degrees most of the time. Here it is darn near freezing temperature" Next thing I knew she was walking around with my sunglasses saying this is her fashion model/spy and rockstar look. It is most definitly never a dull moment around our house.

FOUL LANGUAGE

This morning I was showing Mimi the website her teacher Ms. Greenfield set up for the kids for online math games. Mimi said that she wanted to play a couple of the games. "OK, that's fine" I said. Next thing I heard coming out of our dear sweet little angel's mouth was "WHAT THE HELL?" In total disbelief I asked the girl to repeat the question. "What the heck?" the girl answers. Yeah right. Uh huh. Needless to say we had a long, long discussion on how to use foul language, which is never. However I was chuckling to myself on the inside. I knew the day would come but I was not quite prepared for it to be this morning.

PAPA JOHN'S PIZZA

You folks may have heard in the news a short while back about 4 Lakewood police officers who were murdered while having coffee and working on their laptops before the start of their shift. Well, yesterday and today all of the Papa John's Pizza's up here in the northwest are planning to donate all of their profits to the family members of the slain officers. Since Mimi does not have practice of any sort, Keri and I thought that it would be a great idea if we ordered pizza for the kids and they could have pizza and a Christmas movie. All went well except for the fact that outpouring generosity of us northwest people, Papa John's stopped taking orders. They cannot keep up with the demand. We still had pizza and movie even though it was not Papa John's. The kids also had a great time together like they always do.

DRUIDS GLEN

It has been colder than usual up here in the northwest. The top pictures were taken last Monday on my way home from Costco. The part of the picture where you see the sun shinning off of the lake is where the water is frozen. Monday is also the day when we get our milk and eggs delivered at 100:00 in the morning and I forgot to bring them in. No worries though, when dad got home from work in the evening, he went to get the milk and it was frozen solid. It was 19 degrees this morning. Dang it is cold outside. Meant to take a picture of Mimi and her classmates waiting outside their classroom ready to go in, but I forgot my camera. Oh well, I guess you will have to just picture it. All of the kids kind of look like the kid from "A Christmas Story" saying "I can't put my arms down!"