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.

February

Today as I have been washing dishes and making food, the song June Bride has been in my head, particularly the parts about the winter months.

January, higher still, 
To the parlour window sill, February finds a drift And a storm that seems never to lift

Well, we haven't had tons of snow and nothing close to reaching our parlour window sill. There have been a few drifts, but only one small one after a little snow storm. However, we have had cold weather that seems to be sticking around.

And, this is all that has been happening around here lately.

We enjoyed a nice family candlelit dinner. We had both been wanting some lasagna, so we made up a pan of it and enjoyed it along with some heart cookies for Valentine's Day. Russell really liked having the candles. 

 We finally tried out Ben's Christmas present from Ben and Shannon: Bacon Bowls!

 There have been quite a few days where we haven't changed out of our pajamas. Russel and Meghan have both had colds the last several weeks. They have not been very chipper and Russell mostly wants to veg on the couch watching Curious George while I try to get Meghan to sleep. Anytime we've have been gone for a while, Russell asks if we can go home. He has also been asking to take naps.

Meghan has figured out how to feed herself. Now Ben and I have a chance to eat a little bit before she wants us to finish feeding her.

I am patiently waiting for the weather to warm up some because now we live close enough to the trail system that we can walk a couple blocks and be on the trails that go all over town. 

My Birthday

This is the year I turned the big 3-0. I wasn't terribly upset about it. I like birthdays, and since Ben is a good 5.5 years older than me, I never am going to be the old one. One of my friends is also turning 30 so she and my other friend (yes, I only have 2 friends here) wanted to make sure it was special. They had a little surprise party as part of our monthly book club the week before my birthday. It was fun, plus they also made it a little bit of a house warming party, too.

Then on my actual birthday, Russell and Meghan were both getting colds so they were crabby/clingy/grumpers, so naturally I also was crabby/grumpy (I was sick of people being around me, especially little sick people). My birthday was on a Wednesday, so Ben had Young Men that evening, so after we ate dinner and cake, and rushed the kids off to bed, I sat at home by myself for a couple hours. Russell and Meghan then decided to not sleep well at all for the next three nights in a row.

The friend who is not turning thirty brought lunch and came and ate it with me (and Russell and Meghan and her two girls) the next day. She wanted to make sure my birthday was extra special and had a called me up a couple days earlier insisting on bringing it. We decided that Thursday would work better because she lives out of town and would be coming in for playgroup Thursday anyway. And, she made one of my all time favorite soups, so it was even more awesome than not having to make lunch for you and the kids then clean it all up afterwards. The only bummer was that I had to clean the house before she came (dirty house because of sick kid(s) who wouldn't leave me alone).

So, that was how turning 30 was. I feel no different than when I was 29. Just a little chubbier.