What to Do When School is Out

So, with school out 2 days last week,

and it is snowing again this afternoon (3"-6" expected),

I'm about ready to order some home-schooling materials!

But we did use our time well last week. I purchased some fabric and Elizabeth cut out, sewed, and stuffed four pillows for our futon. I got to do the hand stitching after they were stuffed. I also sewed a ruffle for the futon to hide the genealogy boxes that are stored underneath.
We also did a lot of painting. I repainted all the white trim in the TV room, and painted this chest of drawers. We bought it at a garage sale several years ago, with the idea that it needed to be painted, and just had never gotten around to it. Now that room looks superb! I even had enough of the maroon floral fabric to make a slip cover for the office chair that is so comfortable to sit in, but it was BLACK.
We also touched up the paint in the room the missionaries will be moving into (on Thursday). The room is completely cleaned out and ready for them. We painted the half-wall going down the stairs. The kitchen counter has had lots of cans of paint on it this week.

The home is looking pretty good right now!

School is cancelled, again!

I think we will be getting out of school about mid-June now, as all these snow days are tacked on to the end of the school year. I know that it might be hard for our tropics-living family members to even imagine, but school wasn't cancelled for snow--it was cancelled for COLD. It is -9 this morning, with a strong north wind (wind chill of -30). But the day is sunny and bright--very deceptive!

A perfect day for Elizabeth and Alice to learn how to repaint closet doors and other trim!

Anyone tired of snow yet?

Another winter storm hit over the weekend, beginning with rain on Saturday night, then freezing rain (making all the trees look sparkly and pretty), and finally snow and wind on Sunday morning. I think church would have been cancelled, but the bishop made the mistake of calling Kevin for advice. And you know Kevin. He just looks at adverse weather conditions as a type of challenge. We went to church one time when the wind chill was -80 degrees. And the bishop is from Canada, so this doesn't faze him either.

(This is the wind-sculpted snow in the back yard.)

After Sacrament meeting, which was actually well-attended (if you count all the people who came in 10-20 minutes late), the rest of the meetings were cancelled, and the afternoon ward cancelled their meetings.

Kevin and I came home, changed into snow-shovelling clothes, and cleaned out the driveway.

We also spent quite a bit of time cleaning out the "irrigation ditches" so the slushy water could drain off the road (it was about 5 inches deep).
The snow was VERY heavy to shovel, and often would stick to the shovel. Then you have to knock it off before going for the next shovel-full. Quite a work-out for a Sunday! But it was good that we did that, because an "arctic airmass" came roaring in from the north last night and dropped the temperature down to zero.

Guess what all those slushy tracks in the road turned into!

(We hadn't realized that putting in the fence would cause a drift there.)

School was cancelled this morning, and so Alice is at one friend's house and Elizabeth at another's. Funny. I can drive the roads just fine in getting the girls to their friends, but the school district didn't think we could make it to the school (which is closer). The roads are very bumpy!

(With all the blowing snow this morning, we had sun dogs!)

I've been using the day working on all the STUFF that is contained in Deborah's bedroom, getting it ready for the missionaries to stay. She gets to go through ALL these containers when she comes home for a few weeks this summer. I don't envy her having to make all the hard decisions of what to do with it all!

we found one!!!!!

WE FOUND ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After long months of searching we finally found one. That's right, we got a Wii!

It's so much fun!

- Alice

Hydrology, Iowa-style

Ryan is studying hydrology in the islands as the emphasis for his Masters Degree. I grew up in the West where irrigating and moving water where it needs to go is an everyday part of life. Thus, when we had a nice thaw, I couldn't resist going out with a shovel and making channels so all that water could drain off into the storm sewer. It is satisfying seeing water go where you want it to go.
Kevin first dug this channel--our own version of Etretat (on the coast of Normandy).
The day after this thaw, the temperatures dropped again below zero, and any leftover water turned into ice. I was glad our area of the street didn't have that problem!

Sunrise, sunset, and in between...

...including Alice's speech as she portrayed Gerald R. Ford, in her 5th grade class.