Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Field Trip

Today I went on a field trip with Allen's class to the Imax theater. We saw a neat movie about dinosuars in 3D. Because I was a responsible adult (obviously they don't know me at his school) they put me in charge of Allen and another youngster that was introduced to me as "an interesting young man that needs to go to the bathroom alot. That's why [we] only gave you two kids to watch."

We all had a great time and the movie was slick. The presentation was pretty good and the content was much better than I was expecting. I had never been to an Imax movie before and just always thought of them as being equivelent to the quality of a theme ride at Disney.

And Now for Something Completely Different






Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Terrible Driving Conditions

The day started with the bus sliding to a stop on our very icy road. I immediately reassured myself that the roads must be the worst where we are and that my drive to work would not be bad. Boy was I wrong.

I am not exaggerating when I say that probably about 75-80% of the "city" road that leads to the highway I drive often was a sheet of ice. If it were not for occasional patches of pavement the car would have just slowly slid of off the road. Several instances of the car slightly gliding away from the center line toward the shoulder (and only going about 25 mph) made me think I would soon need a tow truck. I eventually made it to the highway and saw that it was clear.

...Or so I thought.

I have heard of black ice and seen plenty of road conditions that were slick and treacherous but I have never experienced driving like I had this morning.

Most of the road looked dry with only rare patches of what looked like snow. The fact is that most of the road was coated completely with a thin icy sheet. It only vaguely sparkled like new fallen snow. Most of the road was the expected dull gray.

Once again I was going about 30 mph driving past people in the ditch and a surprising number of overturned SUVs. One of the accidents looked particularly nasty and I truly hope that the passengers were okay. I eventually got to work intact.

My way home was the real challenge. Snow had been drifting as the wind picked up and the temperature is too low for salt to work and maintenance trucks had just been dropping sand. The end of my day driving was the worst I can remember. The road was still mostly ice but now worsened by the drifting snow, the sun going down, and the temperature staying so cold everything was just shades of gray. The sky and the road blended together and each side of the road was little more than a graveyard for cars that did not make it. There was a point in the road that I was worried that I would either hit one of the abandoned cars that lay facing all sorts of directions or the oncoming traffic.

I officially hate winter.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Allen Loses FIrst Tooth

It is now official: Allen has lost his first tooth as of this morning. He told me rather excitedly that his loose tooth was bleeding and he wanted some water to wash his mouth. As I gave him the cup I told him he should just pull it out. He said okay and that I needed to give him a paper towel. Just as quickly as I gave him the paper towel he had the tooth out. As I looked more carefully I noticed that the new tooth was already coming through.

On a side note Abby brought a baseball glove and tennis ball to me today and said she wanted to play baseball with me. We played catch for a while and it was great fun. Ashton, Allen, and Amber all went out to run errands and each of them got a haircut and they all look very good.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

A Week?!?!

Holy moly, it has been a week since I posted. Yikes.

My computer has been acting up and I am down to one machine so this has been a bit of a challenge to get here and update the blog. Let's get down to business.

Okay, I loved going skating with Ashton's class. It was the first time I was in skates a couple of years and I fell three times but I got warmed up and it felt really good to be on the ice again.


Many cute things have happened over the week like Ashton and Abby putting on princess costumes and singing (rather accurately) songs from a Barbie movie. It made me laugh and smile quite a bit that day.

Valentines day was a success in my estimation. The kids were each given a heart shaped box full of chocolate and a little toy. I gave Amber some truffles and some organic cotton pajamas that looked really comfy. She liked it.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Snow = No School

This has been a mini-vacation for the kids over the last couple of weeks. I think they have had fewer school days that days at home!

Tomorrow is the ice skating event for Ashton's school and I am excited and looking forward to it.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

School is Cancelled (again)

Yet another day off for the kids. It looks like the weather is coming tonight as we are supposed to get almost 10 inches of snow. I am glad I have the day off but Amber still has to go to work tomorrow.

I am looking forward to go skating with Ashton's class on Friday. We are going to the rink in Walker. Quite a distance compared to two other rinks but they must have gotten a good deal.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Cute at Church

Today Ashton was in a class with one of her best friends at church. They were told to draw a picture of themselves doing something good. Her little friend drew a picture of Ashton and herself holding hands. When Ashton saw it she said: "I think your picture is going to come true!"

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Wild Kids

I guess everyone had some extra energy to spend because when I got home right around dinner time, no one would sit still. Kids were running around and having a good time. We played together and even after I was exhausted, they were still chasing each other and laughing.

After everyone settled down a bit more Amber read to the girls and Allen read to me. He is reading at almost a third grade level, according to his teacher. He likes reading chapter books. It is surprising to see how quickly he is able to get through tougher words and sentences.