Lauren

Well, it’s all back to normal. Not exactly ‘normal’ – there are still lots of college workers on vacation, so my days in the classroom are longer this week. (Dad, my phone call will be later tonight.) Yesterday I had a smaller bunch of children which was a nice way to ease into the week, but today is rainy and icy and I think we are stuck inside for the day. Awesome.

Lloyd got back from Missouri last night. He had a wonderful time with his family, and we got to wish each other ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy New Year’ in person. Wally, of course, was the happiest to see him.

Not much else going on here. I’ll catch up with your later, ok?

I’m sorry I didn’t write much over the past several days. I had such a nice, relaxing time at my Dad’s, I really didn’t want to do a lot of work. I love hanging out with him – he knows I’m not a big talker and seems to take it pretty well. 🙂

I did a little baking while I was there. The first round was hilariously bad – I set the bowl of dough on a pan on the stove. I would turn the burner on for a second every so often to keep the spot warm…. until I forgot and left it on for a couple of minutes. Burnt dough, smelly house – sorry, Dad.

I worked on deleting a couple thousand photos off my iPad. You heard that number right. I’m not even done. I have 128 GB of memory and recovered about 8 GBs. I have no idea what GB means.

My second-to-last day was kind of cloudy, rainy and gloomy. Dad wasn’t feeling great so he rested and I got some medicine that his doctor prescribed. (He has good doctors.) Overnight, the rain turned to snow!

Dad took me to the airport and I had a blessedly uneventful trip home. We had some delays but NOTHNG like what other people experienced. Gretchen, to answer your question – yes, there were LOTS of dogs at the airport. It was amazing! I had two dogs on my flight from Montrose to Denver.

Lloyd is down in Missouri visiting his folks. His Dad is home now and seems to be doing pretty well. Thank you, Jesus! When he tells me more, I’ll tell you more.

Happy Friday!

I made it to Colorado with very minimal trouble. My foight to Denver was fine, and my flight to Montrose was just delayed by a couple of hours. My situation was very different from people who had tried to fly the day before, or who were flying to places further east. There were lots of sad people and a loooooooooong line at customer service. I count myself blessed.

I’m here with my Dad and my brother Phil, who has been here a week and is leaving tomorrow. We went to the Christmas Eve service last night which was lovely and delightful, and we’ll have church today. Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Well, preschool was called off on Thursday due to the weather. I am not sad about that one bit, but it made Wednesday a little hectic. I am not great at getting holiday things done in a timely fashion. We were getting our gifts to the children ready to send home that morning, which they actually loved. It’s fun getting a sneak peek!

The big job was to get all the furniture over to the carpet so the tiles can get waxed over the holiday. I had a map to get it all over there in the right spots, and thankfully there were still staff around who helped get it there.

Oy. Everything needs to get moved back on January 1st. Lloyd is going to be in Missouri, so this will be a bit of a trick.

In other news, Brad is here! He had some pretty significant delays due to the weather, but he made it….. just in time for our freaky cold weather. Lucky guy.

Have a great Friday, everyone!

It’s been pretty dang cold here the past couple of days, and it’s just getting colder. We didn’t make it outside yesterday because the wind chill made it below 0. (“If it’s above 0 or below 100, we go outside. There’s no bad weather – just bad clothing.” – our motto.) Today we might squeak out for a few minutes, but blizzard-y weather is coming. Lloyd’s school ended yesterday for regular reasons, but other schools are calling off/called off for tomorrow already. We will still be open, of course.

Brad, if you are reading this, I can’t find your wool coat here. I don’t know who is picking you up from the airport, but they might want to bring a bunch of blankets. (Brad arrives tomorrow night.)

Brrrr. Stay warm, everyone.

Happy Birthday, Elaine! happy Belated Birthday to me, and Happy Birthday tomorrow to Lloyd! it’s that time of year again, but it’s been pretty low-key. i had errands to run and church with the CDC kids, Lloyd is sick, and i hear that Elaine broke her arm?

I started my day with a good fire and making some bread. Then Rachel came along with me to Lincoln to do our things. She had some purchases and returns, I needed stuff for gifts for the children. It was great. I worked on the presents and then had church, then was in for the rest of the night.

I absolutely don’t know what i’m going to do about my generous friends. Beth and Rachel and Sam bought me gifts without knowing what they each bought, apparently, and they were both……..

kalimbas! I love them! we had one at school, but it was a crummy little coconut/board monstrosity that sounded terrible. These are lovely! Rachel and Sam’s has so many keys and a beautiful, soothing tone. I feel like i could open my own spa. Beth’s is pocket-sized and adorable. I am going to be so annoying with these and play them all the time!

They were at a get-together that I was too tired to attend, so i recorded a message to send. This version is speeded up so it would load to this website. Elaine, today this is for you!