Winter Wonderland

It's been a busy holiday season for us already, and Christmas is still two weeks away. We spent Thanksgiving at my Brother's in Kansas, which was a lot of fun. We got to watch the kids play together, enjoy LOTS of good food (including scone Saturday courtesy of my Mom. Yummy!), and of course, have family game night. It was mostly the siblings, with others rotating, and it was Settlers of Catan, not our usual Nuts, but it was lots of fun.

The Monday after Thanksgiving we got our Christmas tree, and that Saturday was the Christmas Dinner at church. Sadly, no Jolly Old Saint Nick appeared here, but we did have our own cute little elves, and lots of great food and fellowship.

Then, Tuesday, the snow started falling. Well, some fell Monday, but it melted quickly. Tuesday, not so much. By Wednesday morning, we had at least 6 inches, and fierce winds, which made the drifts much higher. We had white-out conditions, and parts of the state even closed down main highways because of the drifts. That didn't happen here, but it was enough to cancel classes at the university, and for John's boss to tell him to stay home.

John and Timothy ventured out to play for a while, but didn't last very long. John lasted a little longer, and he cleaned off the car and shoveled the drifts away from the doors. I didn't even venture out. I wanted some pictures of Timothy playing in the snow, but didn't want to join them (especially considering Andrew was awake), so I contented myself with pictures from the windows and front door. It was a beautiful snowfall, but I much prefer enjoying it from the warmth of my home. =)

It's even colder today. John went back to work, bundled up so that only his eyes were showing. There was storytime at the library today, but we're not going. I'm going to get inventive instead, and keep my little man occupied where it's warm. =)

We are so not in Kansas (and by that I mean DC) anymore Toto...

Saturday, John and I decided to get out of the house and explore some of the local sights. Now that we're not in DC, that eliminates most museums and national monuments, but turns out there are some really fun things to see, and they're a bit more practical (especially for this area) than what we're accustomed to.

First, we headed to the local orchard. Now, I grew up down the road from a strawberry farm, and not far from several orchards. In fact, I remember several years of turning apples into apple butter, apple jelly, and dried apples to send off to various relatives. John hadn't had that experience, and we knew Timothy would get a big kick out of it. Sadly, we were a little late in the year for tractor rides, or u-pick, but we did get some nice apples, and apple cider that had been pressed that day.

When we left, since the day was still young, we decided to head down to a cheese factory we'd heard a lot about. It was everything we heard. The cheese is delicious, and it's only about half a mile from an Amish grocery, that is renowned for it's spices. Lots of good bulk items too for when I want to build up our food supply. =)

The grocery/spice store was nice, and I got some great ideas for when I need to stock up, but the cheese shop experience was what really blew my mind. I had assembled about half a dozen items, and when I went to pay for them, was informed that they only took cash or check, and I only had plastic. I was about to ask about and ATM, when the clerk said: "Oh, it's okay, put your name and address on this receipt, and you can mail us a check."

Wha-Huh? I'm sure I looked as if she was speaking a different language, because she repeated herself. I offered to go find and ATM if she wanted to hold m purchase, but she said that was okay. This worked too. Still blown away, I filled out the receipt, and we took our cheese. We wrote them a check once we got home, but I'm still a bit shocked by the whole experience. Back in DC (and pretty much anywhere else I've lived in the last several years), you had to present at least one form of ID, if not two to write a check, and they let us walk out with our cheese, trusting that we'd pay them back. It really restores my faith in human nature, so see someone trust others that much.

You want me to do what???

For those who follow our blog, it's time for the rare, and therefore anticipated post by John. (Okay, maybe it's only anticipated by my mom, and perhaps that's only because there's pics of the grand babies, but hey, that still counts in my book.)

Lately, I have been asking the question "You want me to do what?" a lot. Back to when we I landed a job working for a great University on a career status position and Margaret asked this question when I said we were moving to Iowa. Then we get here, and I find out that one of the first sets I would be building was for a show called "Reefer Madness" the musical.

Then, there was this past week. Last Sunday I had to work in the morning (as I occasionally due because of technical rehearsals being on Saturday and Sundays) Thankfully, at this job I only have to be there for the beginning and the end of the rehearsal, and not for the entire 12 hour rehearsal everyday. So, after I got off of work, I rushed over to make it for church just in time for the last hour and to participate in priesthood. Little did I know that this was the day that the Elder's quorum presidency was doing PPI's. So here I am at church, dressed in jeans and a collared shirt, being asked about my worthiness by my priesthood leader. His first question was whether I decided to dress "mormon light" for the day. I explained to him the work situation, and that it was better to wear jeans to church, than to wear a tie while running a table saw.

I did however joke with someone else that I simply figured that if you occassionaly wear jeans to church you will likely never get asked to speak in church and you will definitely never get called to a leadership position. Well, I'm still not in a leadership position, but ten minutes after I made that joke, one of the counselors in the bishopric asked me if I would speak in church. Oh well, that method has officially failed me.

I did end up having to work most evenings this last week, so I wrote a talk about fasting while sitting through dress rehearsals for "Reefer Madness". Needless to say, I got a little bit of the munchies while working on the talk.

After all was said and done, the talk went well, and other than Andrew crying the whole way through it, and Margaret having to sit with him in the lobby, it all went off without a hitch. The best part is that next week is Margaret's turn to speak in church.

In other notes, I found this hat at work this week, and brought it home and gave it to Timothy. He's worn it everywhere he's gone, evidently, including dreamland during nap time.





Also, yesterday (Saturday) we had a bit of a family outing. We left with the intent of going to the apple orchard and coming home, and we did start by going to the apple orchard where we bought several pounds of fresh apples, some fresh squeezed apple cider, and some hot apple turnovers. However, instead of heading home, we decided to extend our day trip and drove about 20 miles south to the town of Kolona, an old Amish settlement here in Iowa. Our first stop was the Twin County Dairy and cheese factory where Timothy got to watch them make cheese curds through a window, and Margaret spent 20 dollars on cheese. The kicker was that when she went to pay they said they only took cash or check, no debit or credit cards. That put us in a bind, because we almost never carry cash with the modern convenience of debit cards, and we had left the checkbook at home. We were going to leave, sadly, without our cheese, when the lady at the factory store bagged our purchase gave us a receipt and told us to simply send them a check for the amount of the purchase. Margaret and I looked at each other and said "You want us to do what"? Never before have we been so sure that we weren't in DC anymore. It really is a different, much simpler way of life here in Iowa.

We've all come down with some variation of a nasty head cold here, and I was up half the night either blowing my nose, or rocking an infant. Timothy, thankfully, slept sound and hard. He was still sleeping when John left for work this morning, so I stayed in bed and waited for him to wake me up asking for breakfast.

When he did, he was covered in some kind of sticky yellow substance. Now he's taken to sleeping under his bed, and the substance wasn't that different from the color of the carpet, so I was freaking out, thinking our carpet might be poisoning our child. Then I went downstairs, and found this:



Apparently, he decided to fix his own breakfast, and all he could reach was Daddy's powdered Gatorade on the counter...

*Sigh*... At least he did it on the day I was planning to mop the floors anyway...

Baby it's cold outside!

Well, fall has struck with a vengeance here on the prairie. After four years of mild climates in Florida and DC, I guess I've been spoiled. I've never been much for cold weather, and I'm not too fond of socks, so I always bemoan having to put away my sandals. Aside from today, it's been so cold and wet this last week or so, that it seems like we skipped the nice part of fall and went straight for the heavy stuff. Oh well, hopefully it will be nice again for a little while, if not warmer. Not that it's THAT cold. I guess... But high 50s feels a lot colder when it's raining, and you have an infant that gets cold easily. Can I tell you how eager I am for winter? *sarcastic tone*

But enough whining. On the bright side, there are plenty of things to do here as the weather turns. The mall sponsors a "Family Free Friday" the last Friday of every month, and we took advantage of it this time around. There were free carousel rides, free ice skating (We'll wait a few years for that one), and the Children's Museum was free. This was pretty cool. They have a puppet theatre, a kid-sized construction site, farm, and mini-city complete with grocery store, hospital and TV studio (I'm sure there was more, but I ducked off at that point to feed the baby). Timothy LOVED it. When I was uploading the pictures today, he remembered and excitedly told me all about it. =)

Andrew is growing by leaps and bounds. Yesterday, he rolled over 4 times! Granted, it was from tummy-to-back, which is easier than back-to-tummy, but still. It was pretty exciting! I'm a little worried what this means for my piece of mind in a few months... He loves to talk to any and all of us, and has the best smiles, especially for his big brother, whom it's clear he adores. Timothy loves this, and will crouch down to talk to him, or show him toys all the time. I'm so glad they get along so well. We'll see what happens when Andrew starts crawling... =)


Oh, and for those who've requested, I finally had my house about as clean as it's likely to get with small children underfoot, so I took some pictures. Here's a virtual tour of our digs. =)