Snow day pictures

A lot of snow makes the kids a little crazy.  The snow was getting so deep (and  heavy) on our roof top that I decided to shovel it off.  The pile of snow, on the ground, was too massive to just let sit there so the kids asked if they could jump in it – of course they meant from the roof top.  It looked quite safe, so I let’em go for it.  Then Paul, being a teenager, had to up the ante so he used a sled and Brenna followed.  They all spent an hour or more going up the ladder, over the roof to the other side, and jumping – no injuries (almost safer than going to the local sledding hill).

Snow/ice = no school/no internet

Having a big snow storm with lots of wet, heavy snow (Thursday into Friday) created a lot of commotion for us.  The kids got another day off school because of it, the whole family helped clear our driveway and sidewalk, there was a school ski trip for Paul’s and Brenna’s classes that was cancelled and to top it off, we haven’t had an internet service since and it’s still out – using a coffee shop service at the moment.

David was happy to have the day off, but he has a little cold and has been very touchy (ready to blow up) when asked to do small things to help with the family or even his daily chores.  There are still daily explosions for him saying he wants to go back to Ukraine or he wants to die because his life is bad, but we keep explaining he has a good life with a caring family and a God who is more loving and caring than he can imagine.  I know things are tough for him being in a new country and having bad days.  He does seem to find calmness thinking about God and having Jesus his heart, but I too forget how great God can be and how he wants me to behave or act when I’m not content.

Laryngitis.

Thinking we had a shot at having all the kids go to a full four day school week, may have been a bit silly.  Paul got laryngitis so he missed the first two days this week and Shaylin has been wanting to stay home both days also.  Kathy reminds her, unless you have a fever or are throwing up, your pretty much going to school.  Paul and Brenna actually only have three days of school because the whole school was off Monday (for presidents day) and Friday they get to go skiing at Afton Alps.  A short blog today, I have to go lay with Shaylin to see if she will fall asleep any faster having me by her side.

A Trace of Christmas

We had a trace of Christmas last Saturday by going to the Mall of America Water Park.  Early December, last year, Aunt Val’s family and our family decided not to buy a pile of Christmas gifts for the children.  Instead we agreed to spend the money on an outing, where both the families would get together, at a later date – so the water park it was.  We met at 11:00 in the morning, at the park, and stayed till 4:00.  There was a lot of fun, but of course when your wet and wondering around you get cold, so there was a lot of blue lips and goose bumps also.  It’s a small enough park that we let some the kids go off on their own, as long as they had a partner.  Sometimes we  hung out in bigger groups and did rides side by side – the lazy river was a big hit with the adults.  I didn’t think of it till now, but we could have brought small Christmas decorations or wore our Santa hats to the water park – maybe next time.

Sunday, our familyl went to church, then Paul, David and Shaylin went to their Sunday classes for second hour.  While they were at their classes,  Kathy,Brenna and myself went to teach the two year old’s.  The words ‘Teach and two year’ old doesn’t usually work too well in the same sentence – they’re attention span is rather short.  While Brenna was reading the bible story, I’m not sure if any of the seven were paying attention.  Three were reading their own books, two of the children were telling their own stories and one child walked up to Brenna and put his head on her lap, then nudged her in the belly with his head while making some kind of growling sound.  The three of us had a pretty good chuckle while Brenna was trying to read through the story.

The kids had the last four days off of school, Kathy and I hope that’s enough to have them all actually feel like going with a good heart.  Last week Shaylin was off for two days saying she was sick and David was trying to (but didn’t get to) stay home a day or two saying he was sick, some of the kids sicknesses seem to be very strange at times.  We’re going to try to get four kids to four days of school this week.

More days off of school. Really.

The kids have a couple more days off of school, Really.  I thought they have had enough time off because of cold weather, but the kids are off of school Friday because of an annual basketball game that is a couple hours drive away.  Between the children and the faculty that will be going to the game, the school is closed for the day.  Then Monday is Presidents day and the children are off of school again.  Will try to give a report on what is going on with no school going on.

A little special time

Saturday, for some reason, I woke up and felt quite sick.  After a couple hours, I went back to sleep for another four hours and felt fairly well when I woke up.  An hour later, I ate some food, I felt as good as could be.  Maybe it was lack of sleep and working too much the two previous days.  Anyway, David was itching for something to do, other than typical hang around the house stuff.  I asked if he wanted to join me, I was going to a friends apartment to do a minor house repair for them.  I thought we could stop there then, he and I, could go somewhere afterwards.  He said sure, but wanted to know what we would do for fun.  I didn’t have anything in mind but hoped we could kill some time by going to the Mall Of America.  It took about a half hour to help out my friend, we chatted a few minutes, then went to the mall.  I let David know we weren’t going to be spending much money on activities but would hang out as long as he wanted to.  We walked around for a while, of course using lots of escalators and elevators, to go to no where in specific.  We ate dinner (around seven o-clock) in the food court, pizza for him and Chinese for me, then did some more roaming.  About eight o-clock, there was a light show.  We watched it for ten minutes, but thought the music was a bit too loud for us so we left to go nowhere again.  A little after eight thirty we decided to head for the car, via of McDonald’s for some chocolate chip cookies.  It was a little special time for the two of us to be together, from the time we left the house till the time we got back it was about five hours.  Not bad for doing nothing.

I worked sixteen hours on Thursday and sixteen hours on Friday, a pretty rare instance, shouldn’t have to do that for another five years or so.

The kids heard they may have to do a make-up day or two of school, because of days off with the cold weather, now I think their happy going to school on the cold days.

Pep week – Pajamas to school.

This week, the kids’s school is having Pep week.  There are minor things throughout the days to make being at school a little more fun for the kids.  Each day has a different theme of how children may dress, for fun (only if they want to), Monday ‘s theme was pajama day.  The kids always love when they can wear their pajamas, somewhere, other than our house so that was a great day for all.  Today was miss match day, basically dress as strange as you can think.  Tomorrow is dress up in character day, a lot of last minute  ideas (trying to find costume stuff) of what they to be – reminds me of the hurry, hurry, rush, rush before going out on Halloween night…

Paul still says he’s likes playing guitar but has a hard time fitting in his practices.  He’s busy with homework and doing things with the Wednesday night youth group from church.

Brenna wrapped up basketball last week, no more getting up at six thirty for seven thirty practices.  She’s still enjoying dance class along with Shaylin.

Shaylin is on a tough diet of no sweets or carbs. hopefully just for two months – to try to clear her system.  She has been complaining about not feeling well for over six months, the diet was something a doctor thought she should try.  Kathy and I are trying to keep the tough foods out of sight for her, she does like different meats and that’s OK to have.

David is hanging in there getting off the computer when his timer goes off, and he’s done well not asking for an iPod every ten minutes – he might mention it once a day.

Happy Birthday Dad, his memory is sliding a bit, but he did remind me that he was seventy seven years old – I had to think on that one, I believe he’s right.