I am going to try to be a better blogger.

I have sucked lately. In all honesty I haven't had much to say. I've been a bit consumed by things that are taking place at our school and I haven't had much else on my mind. In our house we take turns calming each other down. It's my turn to be the one who freaks out. I go off the deep end and then Paul reels me back in. I have always liked that Paul and I don't work for the same school district. I especially appreciate it now. Hopefully the legislature won't cut funding to schools and that our school board remembers that we are a school and owe it to our kids to provide a solid education.

We all slept in today. I went to bed before 9 last night and got up around 8 this morning. That is late for me. Ellen and Carly are still sleeping. Paul got up early to fish. I'm hoping one of the girls wakes up soon - it won't be Ellen. There is a big white elephant sale in Hibbing that starts at 10. I'd be willing to take Carly with me, but I'd rather not. I will need to wake the heavy sleeper to get her to watch her sister. The potential to pick up pyrex, tacky statues, and other junk all in one big place is very alluring. I'll post my finds if I run across anything good.

Ellen and Kayla want to see the movie "17 Again" this weekend. I said I'd take them since I wouldn't mind seeing it. I'm a Zac Efron fan too. It's PG-13 but Carly wants to go too. We'll have to see about that. We'll do that this afternoon or tomorrow.

I'm going to start making noise around the house to see if anyone gets up.

It's been a while!

I'm going to blame Facebook for my lack of posting lately. I have had an account since October but never really bothered to do much with it. A couple of Paul's coworkers added me to their lists and that got me to playing around with it a bit more. I like that it's not time consuming. I ran across a high school & college classmate (Melissa McNeil) that I haven't seen since we finished college. It was so much fun to exchange some emails and to see pictures of her family. When I saw a picture of her daughter I was just amazed at how she has Missy's face from 30 years ago. It was this connection that made me appreciate the beauty of Facebook. I've been getting friend requests from some students who were in my class that are all grown up now, so it's fun to see where they are now.

I am home today with Carly. She has had a cold for over a week. On Sunday she woke up crying that her throat really hurt. She complained about it for over an hour and was really whiny about it (which is not like her). We brought her to the ER that morning - neither of the clinics were open. We were sure she'd have strep since so much of it has been going around our school. She tested negative. The doctor said that since she was there anyway that we might want to have her tested to see if she had something bacterial or viral. If she were to get worse, it might save us a trip to the clinic later in the week. So we did the test and it's a virus. She was fine yesterday at school. This morning she got up and was very crabby (that's not unusual). After she got dressed she asked if she could lie down for a while. I then took her temp and when it was approaching 100. I made a quick call to my school saying that I'd need a sub and that I'd come in until they could get one. My kids would be going to phy ed first thing in the morning. So I brought Carly in with me and got things set up for a sub, took attendance with my kids and was home by 8:35. I hate starting mornings like that and I hate that I made my school scramble to cover for me, but if I had sent Carly to school she would have been in the nurse's office by 8:45. I am glad to know that we are dealing with a virus and this will run it's course - no need to go to the clinic.

Service Master is here cleaning up - it's amazing what is standard clean up after you have a small fire in your house. This is their 4th day here. When I asked if I needed to do more decluttering before they came they said to not worry about it. Since I really didn't have time to do it, I decided to just not let it bug me that they will see just how cluttered my kitchen cabinets are - among other places.

I did take some pictures of the day the fire department came and took care of our fire in the oven. I'll post them later today. Our oven will be here tomorrow. We could have had one earlier, but the one we wanted was only available in black at the local Sears store. So we figured we could go a few more days without an oven. We've made good use of the electric griddle, panini grill, microwave, and crockpot. We've had a couple nights of take out too. I am really looking forward to having an oven again.

President's Day Weekend with Gracie & Grant

Gracie wasn't all that cooperative about picture taking this weekend. She's not meant to sit still unless she is really tired. I took this one because it reminded me of something that Carly used to do. Any time she had pants with snaps between the legs she'd immediately unsnap them and wear them undone. It was funny to see Gracie doing the same thing.

Grant in his jammies. We were ready for them on Sunday morning. On Saturday morning, Lynn & Royce got up very early to go fishing. Grant and Gracie got up an hour before we thought they would. At 6 am, I was sitting in the rocker in my pajamas with both little ones on my lap. The next day Paul and I both got up about ten minutes before they did. We got a few little jobs done and when they woke up we were ready this time. Breakfast was ready to go for both of them and we had a pot of coffee on for us - much better start to the day.

Gracie and Carly had a lot of fun together. Gracie was pretty good about finding different toys she wanted to play with and Carly was game for all of it. Gracie also really liked hanging out with Ellen and Kayla. If Gracie had a choice between me or Ellen - she always chose Ellen. Gracie was very happy go lucky while she was at our house. She has a nice little eating and sleeping schedule that makes her predictable. For the most part she'll tell you what she wants. She's a classic toddler - a little trail of messes. On Sunday before they left, Lynn & Royce were loading up the truck. I went into my bedroom to get Gracie and she was in there pulling all of the tissues out of a Kleenex box. As soon as she saw me she started shoving them back in the box. I get the feeling she has been caught doing this before.

Cute, cute, cute. I love his little round face. Grant is really a good natured baby. He's very smiley and likes to be held and played with. If he cries it's because he has a need - he's hungry, sleepy, tired, or needs to burp.

Today Carly wanted me to call Royce to see what Gracie was doing. After they left Carly said she wished that every day could be a Gracie day. Royce said that his children seemed to have survived their stay with us without too much damage, so that's good. We've been out of the toddler/baby stage for a while now. You kind of forget just how involved it is. You are busy and you do a lot of things one-handed. It all comes back to you, but you do wonder how you managed to do it every single day. I give Royce & Lynn props for doing it with two kids close together in age. Paul and I were never brave enough to take on two at a time, but we managed just fine this weekend with a lot of help from our older two. It sounds like Royce & Lynn had a nice fishing outing together too. It was a good weekend for all.

More pictures from Grant's baptism

Royce, Lynn, Grant, & Gracie after the church service.

Paul and Grant. I have a feeling these two will spend many hours in a boat together over the years.

Here's Your UMD Scoring!!!

Last night we saw the best hockey game we have seen in years. UMD has had a strong season, but we play in the toughest league in the country. So we are 5th in the WCHA and Denver is #1. On Friday night UMD lost to Denver - all of Denver's goals were on the power play, but UMD played well that night and outshot them.

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Last night UMD scored three goals in the first 15 minutes of play. They looked like national champions. They were incredible. Denver did pick up a goal at the end of the first. Even though UMD led throughout the game you were nervous because Denver was really good and every time they came down with the puck you felt like they could score. It wasn't a fluky thing that UMD won 4-2 last night. They played the stronger game. It was really exciting. One of UMD's best players is from Alexandria - Josh Meyer - a senior. He played a great game last night and I've always felt a fondness for him since he's a west central MN kid, like me.

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The arena was sold out and it's always fun when it's completely full. No one left the game early. There was a lot of cheering throughout the game. During the last minute of play everyone was out of their seats cheering the entire time. During the game the announcer wished a happy birthday to long time fan, Dick Stewart. Everyone clapped because that's just the polite thing to do. And then when the old guy in the plaid hat who sits right above the band (in the section next to ours) and always brings his UMD windsock stood up to wave to the crowd, people clapped even louder and many stood up when they saw it was his birthday. We love this guy. He's just a cute old man and a passionate fan. The student section sang the birthday song for him and he enjoyed the whole thing. This is why I love being a regular who sits in the same seat every time. Had I been on the other side of the arena, I wouldn't have had the same appreciation for that moment.

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Last night was a first for Paul. He was not happy about it at the time, but he parked in the ramp and took the skywalk to the arena. We had no choice, the lot was full. In the 30+ years that Paul has been going to games he has always parked in the lot. It was all my fault because I kept us late at the mall because I was buying underwear. Usually we are one of the first people in the arena because Paul considers "on time" to mean 60 minutes before the puck drops. It drives me crazy. After the game he is accustomed to running across an icy parking lot after the game and turning around to yell at the rest of us to "Hurry up!" If the girls and I get caught up because the young college guy decided to let an older couple through the door ahead of us (which happened last time), well we just don't know how to maneuver a crowd very well. The entrance from the skywalk is right by the section where we sit. We didn't have to walk out in the cold and we got right out of the ramp and on our way home. in no time at all. Paul says that we'll probably park in the ramp from now on. Change is good, Paul.

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We have one game left at the beginning of March - Anchorage. If they get home ice for playoffs we'll have another game in Duluth. This has really been a fun season. The team is young, so I feel like we have a few years of good hockey ahead of us.

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I'm very nervous about the storm we are supposed to get. We are in the middle of the area forecasted to get a serious ice storm. They are recommending that people put together winter survival kits and have enough food on hand to get through several days without power - I don't remember ever getting that advice before. We could get an inch of ice and have 35 mph winds. I hope that it won't be nearly as severe. I'm making a point to get a bunch of jobs done around the house and we'll be buying groceries today. If you are also in this warning - good luck!

Back on line

We pretty much lost everything on our computer - which sucks. It was stupid of us not to transfer some things over to a stick, but we didn't think it would be such a big deal.

I just got off the phone with a guy from mediacom who helped me set up my email again. It would be very helpful if you could send me an email so I can get everyone in my address book again.

sharilc@mchsi.com

Thank you!!

I'll add a couple more

baptism pictures another time. I can't the photos uploaded. I'll write a little more though. Grant's baptism was at the Lutheran church in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. One thing that surprised me as we drove into town was the number of gift shops between Royce's house and the town. He lives only a few miles from there, but there were a few shops along the way. We may have to visit in the summer and play tourist for a day.

Considering it was -15 or so that morning, the church was pretty full. Lynn's parents, her sils and nieces and nephews were there, as well as a a friend of Lynn's and her daughter. The baptism was your typical baptism. The church did give Grant a really nice little quilt which I thought was a nice touch. Lynn & Royce and the kids officially became members of the church that day too. They got a nice gift basket from the church. I thought it was charming that there were three blocks of different types of Wisconsin cheese in it.

After the service we went back to Lynn & Royce's place for brunch. The food was great. I will admit that I ate two croissants. The raspberry one was so good that I had to try the chocolate custard one too. It was equally good. Someone needs to check out those types of things. Shortly after noon we headed back up north. We had left the dog home and since it was so cold, we felt a need to check on him.

Not much else has been going on here. Paul is heading out to one of his last fire department classes. When it is over he will have a national certification meaning he would be qualified to work for any department in the country. It's good to have options. Carly brought her cash register to show & tell today. Miss Samson and I are pumping her up to bring her Sharpay wig and sing a song for next week's show & tell. Ellen's class is going ice skating tomorrow afternoon and Kayla is staying over night. I'm also taking my class skating. It should be nice out, so it will be good to get out of the school for a while.

Paul and I have the second season of "30 Rock" from Netflix, so we'll be watching that all weekend. Paul is in love with Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon. She really is awesome. We paused it the other night and saw that Liz has a little 70s statue on her desk. I love it.

Have a good weekend!