Russian Minnesotan

Cala ready for school this morning. Once she got home, she and I headed to Target to pick up some dress pants and a nice shirt. Her class is going to have a concert tomorrow and the following day. (the parents of Cala's class are supposed to go tomorrow). We had a really nice time and thankfully it had warmed up to -5 with a -21 windchill. No problem for my Russian Minnesotan daughter. Yep! You betcha!

So no new really exciting news to report here. I guess if I looked hard enough I could find some, but uh, I am suffering from cabin fever big time! I really didn't think it would hit me too bad, but who am I kidding? I hate being cooped up... not that I'm really an outdoorsy person, but living here has made me more of one. When Spring hits, you will find me out back quite a bit, enjoying the cool temps. Then comes Summer, and even though it gets hot here, we get quite the breeze in the evenings and I really enjoy sitting on my deck during those times.

Tonight however, I wouldn't go outside for anything if I could avoid it! (and I did). Glenn took Cala to Brownies and wow was it cold. We are now under a wind chill warning, and the schools are actually delayed 2 hours tomorrow morning because of the seriousness of the situation! (windchills of near -50) I am thrilled... just wish Cala was awake when I found out so I could tell her. Of course she will more than likely sleep anyway until her little brothers go waking her up. Ugghh They will then of course come downstairs wondering why Mama wasn't already upstairs to get Cala up. (no matter how hard I try, they always wake up as I go down the hall to Cala's room, the little early birds!).

Praying for the homeless tonight. I can't begin to imagine!

Am I really going to be 37 soon?!

I don't particularly hate birthdays, I am doing fine with turning 37 this coming Sunday, February 3rd. It's the thought of being 40 in 3 years that strikes me strange!!!! I turned 30 in Russia... I remember it as if it were yesterday. We were driving down Nevsky Prospekt in our dark green Volga and listening to a cassette I cherished of country singer Tim McGraw! The song playing? "My Next Thirty Years" of course!

Never would I have imagined seven years ago that I would be living in the U.S., much less would I have imagined Minnesota!!! (it still blows my mind!) I was sure we would be in Russia for many, many moons to come! Never would I have imagined that I would be Mama to two Hispanic boys (and when I turned 30, we were 3 months from bringing Cala home).

Wow.... time does fly, time does change things. Wow....

The point of this post?! I don't know! lol Just a bit melancholy today. I told Glenn that instead of dreading my pending birthday (and I am sure it will be strange this year with all the sadness surrounding my mind), that I was going to be like the kids would be... SO, I announced today with pride and excitement in my voice- Mama's birthday is in just SIX sleeps!!!

Of course my kids think, "no fair. I wish it were my birthday!" To which I will respond, "naa naa naa naa naa naa... it's going to be mine, not yourrrrrrsssss".

Does this mean I have to change that to the right that says, "mid-30's" to actually read, "late 30's!"??????? ;op

On Saturdays we do a family "big" clean. (meaning we clean the house together). We usually stay in and today was no different.

Silly us, we were all downstairs together... all but Seth. I said, "and Seth...is doing what? Only God knows, right?" You see, the rest of us were wrapped up in cleaning downstairs when I realized Seth wasn't with us. Ethan went upstairs to find him marking on the wall with markers. The evidence was all over his face as well. sigh.... Glenn took some Spic N Span to the wall *but first had Seth do it* and it's a faint memory now. I think I will buy a Magic Eraser (normally would have had two on hand!) and see if that will finish it off.

Got to love Seth lately. He's really a mess! (Of course he wasn't happy to be sent to nap right then and there).

Let's Take His "E"

A lighter post tonight brought to you by my youngest (3 year old) son, Seth.

Our 5 year old, Ethan told a series of lies tonight. :o/ One had to do with his sister, and so we asked Seth and her to come talk to us a moment. Actually we only asked Seth to come down because he can't be trusted to stay out of stuff upstairs when no one is with him! lol

Anyway, we asked Cala more about the situation with Ethan and then said, "what would you do if this were your son?" (Not sure why we asked, we just did.) Seth was quick to respond and said, "Let's take his "E"." I said, "The E from his name?!" Seth responds, "Yes, I like his "E". I want it". HA HAAAAAAAAAAAA We all just lost it right there.

I later couldn't resist and asked Seth where would he want the "E" to go? In front of his "S" or after it. He said "after". I guess we can now call Seth, "Seeth" and our oldest son?

Well, we could go with "our son formerly known as Ethan", or leave it at "than."

Of course I right away called the grandparents. My Daddy got a real kick out of it and asked as do I, "where do kids come up with this stuff?!"

I normally do my grocery shopping on Mondays or no later than Tuesday. Well, here it is about to be Friday and I have successfully put it off all week! It's just been too cold. Tomorrow we are supposed to actually get in the teens at some point, so I am definitely having to go to the store then! After all, I can only get by with what's in the cabinets for so long! Tonight was grilled cheese (the George grill makes great ones!) and canned tomato soup.

I had to go to a "Parents Only" meeting tonight concerning Ethan going to Kindergarten in the fall. It was an informative meeting, attended by 45 people. (O.k., so being a PK my whole life- I just HAVE to count! I can't help myself! I count and then think, "wow, if we could get this crowd to church!" ha).

I can hardly wait for fall. I think Ethan is going to LOVE Kindergarten! He's loving pre-school, which here is SR (School Readiness). He wanted to go to the meeting tonight, couldn't understand why it was only for parents. :o)

*** Talked to Daddy tonight on my way home. It's just hard to know these moments will all too soon end.***

Just another cold day in the frozen tundra! We ate supper at Perkins where on Tuesday nights, kids eat free per adult purchase. Since the boys never eat enough to warrant a full meal each, they split a meal. (and order an extra drink). So, we only pay for Glenn and me. That works well, gets us out, and I just spend that much less in groceries for the week.

Cala is really missing her cousin. (I am too honestly!).

Talked to my Mama and Daddy today. Mama said Hospice said Daddy might be around 2 to 3 more months. That's really what we expected.

Thankful

Thankful today for safety while traveling to and from the airport. This afternoon, on our way back home, the radio announced there were 18 accidents in the metro today due to icy conditions. (it snowed a good part of the morning). Black ice caused a lot of trouble. We passed six such accidents and are thankful to God He protected us.

I am just a bit sad tonight- the house feels empty. HA! Funny how the difference of one or two people can do that. Life will get back to some sort of normal around here I hope in the coming days.

My heart is both here and in Florida.

Nothing Much

Nothing much going on today but staying inside from the cold. We did our normal Saturday cleaning and spent much time watching the Republican returns from Nevada and South Carolina. My parents are from South Carolina and so my brother and I watched it with extra interest.

We're praying for folks to "brave the cold" and come to church tomorrow morning. Pray with me.

The ticker to the right says it all....

If you notice my new weather ticker to the right, you'll see it's cold. As I type this, in fact, it reads -14. (yes, 14 BELOW). We spent today visiting the Global Market in the Cities. It was a really neat place and I am so glad we went! We ate lunch at a Somalian restaurant and it was really, really good! I am looking forward to getting to go back. There were neat shops from around the world.

Cala was very disappointed that there was no place from her country. :o/ I would have loved some Russian food too but hey! It was so cool eating food from a country we know so little about and meeting a Somalian man.

Yes, we about froze. The windchills have reached -30 tonight and we are for sure staying covered up. Tomorrow we plan to completely stay in the house. It's going to potentially be worse.

I told my brother he would always remember the time he was crazy enough to brave the frozen tundra of Minnesota and survived!

Brother has Come and wow it's cold....

My brother arrived safely and we are having a nice time together. It's been bitterly cold today, and as I type this, it's a nice 3 degrees. We are expected to have what has been described as "dangerously" cold weather on Saturday and Sunday- wind chills could be as low as 40 below!! Yikes. I think we will surely layer and layer for church Sunday morning. (no part of the body uncovered that's for sure).

Tomorrow we are planning to head in to the Cities to see what we can see! It should be a nice time of trying to stay warm. ha School is out tomorrow as well as Monday so Cala is thrilled to have the rest of the time to spend with her cousin.

Got to go get warm!

Brother Coming

The girls (our daughter and her cousin) really enjoyed tonight (Tuesday). Cala is a part of the Brownies and tonight they toured a nearby city's police dept. They allowed my niece to go too and both girls came back really excited! It was nice to see their enthusiasm but wow did I ever get a reality check when they came back talking about how CUTE the police officer was!!!!! They are NINE years old! Of course Mama here explained that they are waaaaaayyy too young to be talking like that! Goodness what will I have on my hands in the coming years!?

*** *** *** ***

My middle brother is coming tomorrow. He is coming to accompany our niece (our oldest brother's daughter) back to Florida on Monday. He is really in for a rude awakening when he faces a Minnesota winter! He's already said he will just stay in and hibernate while he's here. We'll see, dear brother... we'll see.

Update on Daddy: Hospice is really being a blessing as we knew it would be. Mama says today was a very busy day for everyone at home since not only did Hospice come but some out of town surprise visitors came and while there another friend showed up! Oh yes! Mama said a long time acquaintance also called and talked for quite awhile.

I am thrilled that so many are showing their love at this time. It's really a blessing to my Daddy I am sure as he is SUCH a people person!

A Couple of Pictures

It was 2 weeks ago that we took the first picture of Seth, at Daytona Beach. Then today (Friday), we took this precious picture of both boys bundled up here in Minnesota. We spent a big part of the day shopping. We called a nearby city to verify that they indeed had girls' snow boots and snow bibs in the size we needed for my niece. Praise the Lord we finally found a store that had them so she can play outside with Cala! They did just that today and had a blast! One neat thing is that the bibs are a couple of sizes larger than Cala and the boots are one size bigger so they can be used for her in the coming winters.

I am so thankful that Cala has her cousin here right now and we are all trying to get back to whatever normal is. I thought I had done well with that until a break down late tonight while alone upstairs. Oh well... I know there's bound to be much more of that.

There but for the Grace of God

I am sure by now you have heard about the 100 car pile up in Wisconsin on Sunday. The fog that day was just incredible! After we heard about the incident, we figured out we were through there an hour before this happened. Just think had we lingered a bit longer at the motel that morning or something!!!

Praise the Lord for His mercy! The fog was indeed HORRIBLE Sunday as we were traveling- visibility near zero much of the drive and in fact I said to Glenn, "I sure wish we would get out of this, see the sun even".... it did happen once we got to Minnesota :o) I saw that as a smile from God.

*** *** ***

On to our tire blew out this week- money we didn't plan to spend but God will provide. That tire could have blown out while on the road, and so I praise God that we were safely in our town here and not stranded on the interstate. (especially not in that fog!)

We indeed made it home Sunday evening right at 5:00 p.m. I have been trying to get back into the swing of things, back into my day to day routines, but alas that's hard. I'm enjoying my niece being here and am really looking forward to my brother being here next week.

Update on my Daddy: He agreed to Hospice finally and they have come this week.

On Our Way Home

This morning was terrible- the worst thing yet. I know the most terrible will be hearing, "Come on, it's time." And then the actual death of my Daddy. Today was heart wrenching. I am still not able to talk about it... just know I need your prayers.

I know I am not without hope- I can rejoice in the fact that my Daddy will soon have a new home- a heavenly one and he will be in no pain. He'll be able to walk, even be able to run! That's incredible and I rejoice in that. I still know that the human side of me is devastated at my loss... the loss of my earthly father.

I will post more when I'm able. We are traveling with our 9 year old niece along. She'll be with us for 18 days. That makes our 9 year old daughter very happy! They've talked non-stop all day.

Leaving for Minnesota this Morning

Please pray for us as we are traveling back home this morning. This will be so very hard of course. We will make it home at least by Sunday.

I will try updating along the way each night. No promises though.