COLD!

As i sit here right now, the wind chill factor outside is -25 degrees, and our heater is working really hard to try to keep our house warmish. And also it's been snowing for three days, and the plows have completely not been able to keep up (our street hasn't been plowed yet). And so the entire city has pretty much shut down. The schools have all been closed for three days, and even the library is closed today.

It's the kind of cold where it's too cold to actually go outside, and so we're planning a day filled with snuggling up and watching movies and trying to huddle together to stay warm.

Update: And all of the city's schools have been cancelled for the next two days. So! A full week of snow days!

Snow! And doctor!

We finally got snow, and Zane is extraordinarily thrilled. He spent hours outside building a little snow fort in our front yard, and then when i got home from work, he begged to go sledding, so we went to the park near our house. He gleefully went up and down the hill while i watched until i was freezing and went to read in the car, and after another 15 minutes, he came and said, "I'm just not having fun...." And so we were just getting ready to leave when Katrina texted and said, "I'm coming sledding!" So then we stayed for another hour or so. And as we were leaving, Zane was all, "Can we go sledding again tomorrow?!" Such a weird kid. Snow is cold!

They already called (and texted and emailed and called two more phones) to say that Zane's school is cancelled for tomorrow, for a giant snowfall that we're expected to get overnight. I half expect us to get no snow at all now, because that would be par for the course, snow-day-wise. (Terrible roads? Have school. No problem at all? Snow day.) Houston and Katrina are keeping their fingers crossed that they'll have a snow day as well.

Oh! I never wrote about Houston and Katrina's doctor visit! I mean, it wasn't anything mind-blowingly interesting for the most part. Except a couple of notes.

1. Katrina and needles. Guys. She has developed herself a full-blown phobia of needles. I intentionally didn't tell her about the doctor's appointment until the day before, because as soon as i told her, he asked, "Do i need any shots?!?" I didn't know, and so for the next 20-ish hours, she worried and freaked out and annoyed everyone around her with her worries. My friend Linda sent me a screen shot of a text conversation between Katrina and Linda's daughter Ella that went like this:

Katrina - I'M KINDA FREAKING OUT
ELLA WHAT IF I NEED A FLU SHOT?
I'M NOT EVEN THERE YET AND I'M SHAKING
HELP ME
I'M IN THE FREAKING LUNCH LINE

And so when we got to the doctor's office, i immediately asked the nurse if Katrina was going to need a shot, and if so, if she could get that first, before seeing the doctor, which is one of the very best parenting decisions i've ever made. She was an absolute disaster until the shot was finished, and the entire appointment would have been horrible if she needed to wait until the end.

On the bright side, she didn't have a full-blown panic attack like she did last time she got shots, so...yay!

2. My kids are tall. Houston is 6'2" and still growing. Katrina is 5'7" and still growing.

3. Both Houston and Katrina have phenomenal eyesight. They could both read the bottom line of the eye chart without even squinting.

4. Both kids are super healthy and completely awesome. Yay!

Winter Camp!

So after having school on the incredibly icy Tuesday last week, the kids all had a snow day on Wednesday, when the roads were completely not bad at all. I'm pretty sure that the schools all got yelled at on Tuesday, so they over-reacted on Wednesday and called it when it wasn't actually necessary. The upshot of it was that the high school's exams got moved one day back, which means that their last exams are tomorrow, which kind of sucks, because instead of having the long weekend to relax, the kids have to study.

But! It was also winter camp weekend! Houston never wants to go to winter camp, so he stayed home with Juanito while Katrina, Zane, and i headed off to Camp Geneva. Katrina was over in the high school side this year, which meant that i almost never saw her, but she had fun and was sad to leave her life group. Zane had fun too - he said that he spent almost the entire Saturday outside in the snow, which is pretty much his perfect winter day. (It snowed for the first time all winter! And Zane forgot his snowpants and boots! But he didn't care!)

Beth and my group of girls are definitely getting older and more mature, which is awesome! They're also getting more drama-filled, which is ... not as awesome. But we had a fun and exhausting time.

We got home on Sunday, and Katrina, Zane, and i all immediately took naps. I slept 3 hours. Katrina slept almost 5. I'm not sure exactly how long Zane slept, but at least a couple of hours. So yes. Fun! But exhausting!

Ice and exams

Juanito called this morning and the first thing he asked was, "Do the kids have school?!" I was all, "Um, yes. It's Tuesday?" But what i didn't know was that the roads were all icy and horrible, so it was totally a legitimate question. The did, and so Katrina and Houston headed off to school and i woke up Zane and he got all ready, and just before we were going to leave for school, we got a phone call that, "Due to inclement weather, school has been closed for today." Zane was super happy, obviously.

So the first time i went outside, it was when i was on my way to work. I knew it had been icy, but everything looked normal, so i walked down the steps, stepped onto the sidewalk, and immediately my foot slid straight down the sidewalk and i almost did the splits. And then, when i tried to get up, i totally couldn't! I tried 2-3 times, but my feet just couldn't get any purchase until finally i'd slid far enough down that i was on level ground and could get up. (If there was a video of THAT, it would be hilarious. I was totally laughing at myself.) So yeah. This was the slipperiest ice i have ever, ever experienced. I'm the girl who always mocks people on movies who can't walk on ice, because it's not THAT hard, but today? Oh yeah. Two of my coworkers also wiped out, so that makes me feel better.

Exams are this week, and with Houston, that means that I am doing a LOT of studying. I don't know why he's SO BAD at studying, but he really is! I just totally taught him a semester's worth of biology. To add to the fun, Zane has a giant math interim that counts for a giant part of his trimester grade, so i am also trying to study with him.

Here is the difference between studying with each of my kids:

Houston - Swears that he's never learned any of this in class, totally pays attention as i teach him as well as i can, goofs off in spurts, but learns quickly and tries hard.

Zane - Is miserable that he has to do work, so he does the absolutely bare minimum. Seriously - if the answer is $3.50, he will write 3.5, so yes, technically he did the math right, but DUDE. It takes an additional 1 second to add the rest of that answer! He knows math and kind of likes math, but doesn't want to actually have to WRITE anything, so he does all of the work in his head, which makes it impossible to know where mistakes are made when he gets one wrong. And did i mention that he spends 3/4 of the time being distracted so that everything takes longer? BUT he knows how to do most of it, and when he didn't understand something, he did focus really well on learning how to do it. So it's not all bad.

Katrina - Carefully spends days recopying notes and filling out study guides. Studies for everything on her own, and just has me quiz her when she already basically knows all of the answers and all i have to do is say, "Yep. Good."

I know i've said it many times before, but i hate exams. 

Books and stuff

 

The awesome thing about working at the library is that i am constantly surrounded by books, so i am constantly finding books that i want to read. For the past year and a half, i have constantly had a pile of books that i've been working my way through. I read fairly quickly, but i find new books to read even more quickly. And it's GREAT! I never have that, "What should i read now?" problem, unless it's "Which of these 8 books should i read next?"

The downside of this constant stream of books is that i haven't re-read any of my books for the past year and a half. And that's not a huge problem or anything, except that i miss reading my old books. There are certain books that i have a habit of reading every year or two - "Pride and Prejudice," "Les Miserables," the Harry Potter series - and i haven't read most of them for 3 or 4 years now. I miss my friends! (I am a dork!)

So i'm not checking out any books during January. (Except for 2 - one that i've had on hold for a long time, that just came in and if i don't check it out i'll have to wait for a long time again, and the book club book for this month.) This month - and maybe next month too - is dedicated to re-reading books in my house. So far i've been re-reading the Gallagher Girls series, and i've been completely enjoying it again.

And besides that, it's mostly been homework here. Homework, homework, and more homework. 

2019!

Happy 2019! So far it's been a fairly introvert-friendly year, and therefore has so far been a pretty great year. We rang in the new year with my parents, my sister Chellie and her kids, and Beth. We played a couple of games, ending with Catch Phrase, which was absolutely hilarious and left us all laughing like crazy, which is a pretty good way to start a new year.

Beth found an app that lets you make a movie of 1-second/day videos. And so i am going to at least try to do that this year. I am positive i'll miss days, but at the very least, this makes me take more videos of my kids, which i always mean to do and which i always forget to do. PLUS i have a better phone with a better camera now, so i can actually take video!