Woo Hoo--It's a SNOW DAY!

When it started snowing last night, our kids started praying for a snow day. Will even did a little snow dance--quite hilarious I must say. John woke me up about 6am to tell me our district had a two hour delay, but at 7am when I turned on the tv, they had upgraded the delay to a CLOSURE! Woo Hoo. We're all excited about having a day at home! The only bummer in it all is that John had to go to work. We all prayed for him to arrive safely (he did) and prayed for us to enjoy our day without him--the kids were really sad to say goodbye this morning. Me too. I like it best when we're all home together. We're all still adjusting to this full-time thing.

It's VERY cold outside so I don't think we'll be venturing out. Our temp right now is 16degrees...and it will continue to drop throughout the day. We only have about 3-4 inches of snow, but we're supposed to get 3-6 more inches today. The kids want to bake cookies and just veg. Sounds great to me. We stopped by the library yesterday afternoon after running a few errands and the kids have new books to read and a couple of dvds to watch. They're upstairs reading right now...and I'm not far behind them.
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UPDATE: We've had a restful, relaxing day. Baked cookies the easy way--from the dough we got from our dairy delivery service! Read some books, did some laundry, and right now the kids are upstairs watching The Electric Company. Now THAT'S a blast from the past, huh? I found a dvd yesterday at the library and my kids are glued to it. It's hilarious. HEY YOU GUUYYYSS! Remember that? I'm reliving my childhood while my kids are mesmerized. But hey, it's educational! So I'll let them watch a while longer!

Yesterday morning, I woke up and got my Sunday paper and sat down at the kitchen table with my tea to read and enjoy a slow Sunday morning. It's my favorite part of Sunday. Will stumbled into the kitchen just a few minutes after I did and asked for part of the paper. When I was his age, I did the same thing. And you know what part of the paper I wanted? The comics, of course. But not my X.5 year old. He specifically retrieves the Best Buy and Circuit City flyers EVERY week and proceeds to pore over them. Weird, huh? My kids are only in elementary school, but they have a Technology class. They're learning keyboarding, power point, and from time to time get to surf the net. When I was in high school I typed all my papers on a typewriter...using CORRECTION tape. They know nothing more than the delete key. I feel ancient when I think about that...but grateful for the role technology plays in each of our lives. Technology allows me to communicate with all of you via this blog. Cool, cool, cool!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our friends. It was so relaxing and FUN. We rode horses (just the kids) and four-wheelers and the weather was perfect. It was a perfect holiday really! The ranch they live on is beautiful and I think we explored every part of it. We saw deer and coyote and beautiful scenery everywhere we looked. We're going to go back this weekend and take our family Christmas picture!

Oh...I have a great movie recommendation for you. Last week we watched Akeelah and the Bee. It was terrific. It's about a young girl from the ghettos who shines at spelling...especially spelling bees. It was a beautiful story and the little girl will win your heart! We loved it.

Abbey and I went to Walmart this afternoon. Have I mentioned how much I dislike Walmart? I watched a documentary about the discount giant this summer and swore I'd never shop there again. One should really never say things like that unless you have an iron resolve. Walmart just opened in our town 2 months ago, and I've already been there 2-3 times. I think today was visit #4. They really are the cheapest place to shop--you know--Always Low Prices. My motto though is Always Bad Mood. Every time I leave that place I'm in a foul mood. I don't know why, but I am...just ask John. Anyway, we got what we needed and left. One thing on my list was a snow shovel. We're expecting another winter storm this week and our pitiful shovel broke during the blizzard last month. Now we're prepared!

Have you ever heard of Nooma? While at our friends last week, we watched 3 Noomas. They're short films about everyday stuff that convey a spiritual truth. I think the films are intended to be a springboard into discussion. And by the way, they are EXCELLENT. I'm hoping our small group will decide to use this format for our next semester. Really, really cool! The guy behind the idea is a Michigan pastor named Rob Bell. He also wrote a book titled "Velvet Elvis" which I'm reading right now and it is fantastic. Check it out at www.Nooma.com

I forgot to mention...

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that we STILL have snow on the ground from our blizzard last month. On Thursday, October 26, we got over 2 feet of snow in about 12 hours. It was CRAZY. At some points throughout the day, we were getting 3-5 inches PER HOUR!!! Colorado Springs was deserted...schools were closed, offices were closed, malls were closed, even the interstate was closed. We were scheduled to fly to Arkansas the next day. We were able to make it to Denver the next morning, but it took us 20 minutes just to get out of our DRIVEWAY! It was a mess! Despite our nice temps this week 50s/60s, there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground all over town, our backyard included. Not really enough to play in, but enough to remind us to be thankful for the beautiful week we're having!!!! Hope yours is nice too!

Thanksgiving!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I've posted. I've been meaning to, really I have, but time just seems to escape me these days. I've LOVED today because we've stayed home ALL day. That has got to be one of my most favorite things...I'm definitely a home-body. The kids have the week off from school. That's a first since we've lived in Colorado, and it's unfortunate that we're not traveling this year. Those two extra days would have been very nice!

Our original plans were to join my family for Thanksgiving at my sister's house, but that all changed two weeks ago. John was offered a job at Cook Communications Ministries, a Christian publishing company in Colorado Springs, and he took it! Last Monday was his first day. His official title is Developmental/Acquisitions Editor (fancy-schmancy, huh?) and he'll be part of a team working to build the book division at Cook. It's definitely a change for our family, but he's excited about it and feels like it was time for this next step. I'm happy and a little sad too. I've loved having him work from home for the last two years, and not just because he has helped me so much...I just enjoy being around him. We'd eat lunch upstairs every day, run errands on his slow days, go for Starbucks dates when the kids were in school, and prepare dinner together each night. That all came to an abrupt end last week, and I'm grieving the loss. BUT, having a consistent paycheck will be so nice. It is a blessing for us.

So instead of traveling this week, we're taking it easy at home. Some very good friends of ours are caretakers on a ranch just west of Denver and they invited us to come spend some time this week with them. We're super excited about it. They're like grandparents to our kids who ADORE them. And Kathy called this morning with a great surprise: they got two horses over the weekend--Doc and Pale. I don't know who's more excited about that...them or our kids. They're already trying to figure out who's riding which horse first and which adult they want to go with them. So, it should be fun. We're heading there after we have our traditional Blase family Thanksgiving breakfast at IHOP (in our pajamas!). The kids think it's great because they don't have to wait on everyone to get dressed to go out to breakfast! We do get some strange looks, but it's FUN, and I guarantee you my kids will remember that for their lifetime!

Are you keeping up with the Razorbacks this season? They are ROCKIN'!!! I am pumped they're on television Friday (national television!) and will be glued to the tube. At Will's class Halloween party a few weeks ago, I was talking to another mom who is new to our school this year and she mentioned they were from Missouri. When I told her I was from Arkansas, she got so excited because she and her husband are UofA alums. Sarah and I had just been to the Razorback game in Little Rock that weekend and she was in disbelief. It's been fun to have a new friend who is as crazy about them as I am...AND who lives in Colorado! I've seen her at school the last few Mondays and we always talk Razorback football! I'm thinking I could get her to go with me to a game next year! Go HOGS Go! Beat LSU!!!