Not ranting about snow

The kids were all so excited for the snow. We had to pretend that it wasn't snowing and that we weren't going outside to play in order to get Benjamin to go down for his nap. He's gone from being terrified of the snow to being quite in love with the stuff. He's invented a sign for it and everything.

After he was asleep the girls hurried into their snow gear and trotted off to the backyard where they happily played Olympics for the duration of Benjamin's nap.

The most popular event was the luge/skeleton down the slide:

Snow ranting

School let out early today due to the impending snow storm. This time, however, their predictions were correct. Instead of waiting 6–8 hours for the first flake to drop after Rachel got off the bus the flurries began within a half hour. And they weren't lying about how quickly it would accumulate, either. We got about an inch an hour for five hours. It's been pelting us with ice pellets for the past couple of hours and we're supposed to have a "wintery mix" all night long and all day tomorrow.

Andrew left campus as soon as he heard his classes were cancelled—he didn't want to get stuck in the traffic! We had friends stuck for hours in their cars—some up to five, even seven hours. It's nuts!

Now, I'm not sure this is necessarily due to the weather. A lot of it has to do with the general panic that ensues whenever it storms here. Granted, this is a big storm for these parts. However, it was seriously not that bad when we were out walking. I know the north has snowplows and other goodies like that but honestly, it's not like it snows and then snow plows magically take it all away.

Orem, for example, has fifteen snow plows for 529 lane-miles of road to maintain. It takes constant vigilance for 15 snow plows to keep the roads clear—and even then driving on unplowed roads isn't exactly unheard of.

During the last snow storm I search high and low for any other such document for any southern city—just for comparison's sake—but I gave up after a few futile searches. Tonight, however, I honed my search terms and found the "Snow Removal and Ice Control Policy" booklet for Burlington, North Carolina.

Melt my heart

You should have seen Miriam's face light up when Rachel presented her with this valentine she made at school today:

It says:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

We are t[w]o sisters,

and I love you.

There's a picture of a rose and a violet, and of Miriam and Rachel holding hands. Miriam's reaction was beyond adorable. She gave Rachel the sweetest hug.

I live for moments like this.

Fast forward to a good hour after the kids had been put to bed and this is what you'd see:

Benjamin wandered out of his room—carrying his favourite dolly—to let me know that he was feeling lonesome in his bedroom.

That doll he's holding has gained VIP privileges in this house. We need to know where it is at all times.

I neglected to retrieve it from the doll stroller when I put Benjamin down for his nap this afternoon but I didn't think he'd mind. Little did I know how attached he'd become to this doll.

"Baby," he requested as I tucked him in.

"Here you go," I said, grabbing the Cinderella baby doll from the floor and handing it to him.

"No baby," he said, pushing Cinderella away. "Baby! Pease? Baby? Pease?" he begged.

"This is a baby," I insisted.

"No!" he cried. "Baby! Pease Baby! Pease! Pease!"

"Is this not the right baby?" I asked. "Is that the problem?"

It was the problem. The right baby is the one he's holding in the picture. We had to wander around the house to find it before he could go down for his nap. His little pleading "please, please!" was impossible to say no to.

He's just too cute for his own good.

Твоё достоянье на все времена!

The semester I spent in Russia wasn't an easy one for me—culture shock is never kind—but it was wonderful. I'll admit I felt a little out of place at first amongst the girls who ended up being my co-teachers. Michelle and Natalie had chosen to go to Russia together. They knew Staci and Emily, who'd chosen to go to Russia together. Esther and Stephanie also chose to go to Russia together. That left me and Tiffany, who was wonderful but was on a different teaching schedule, so it took a little while to get to know her.

Me and Tiffany on one of our first days at the school

Monday, Monday

So, it's ten to ten and I just remembered that I forgot to tell Rachel to go to bed. It's not like she's six years old and has to catch the bus at eight o'clock in the morning or anything like that. Oops.

She's just so quiet now. It used to be that we'd put her to bed and she'd be obnoxious until she'd finally fall asleep. Now she does what we'd call USSR in my grade three classroom (that stands for Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading—and it's funny because USSR (even though I started grade 3 in 1993 so the USSR was no longer the USSR but the Russian Federation)). Rachel, if left uninterrupted, could probably sustain reading silently all night long (and that's no exaggeration).

Miriam likes to read in bed as well—she even set up a "reading center" at the foot of her bed with a special pillow, some reading buddies, and a "library" of books to choose from—but she has self control (and a killer need for sleep) and will turn off her lamp and be fast asleep long before her sister.

Benjamin, I'm proud to say, has taken to sleeping quite well as of late (I hope I didn't just jinx myself). Last night I was having a hard time getting him to believe it was bedtime. I must have tucked him five or six times before Andrew took over. He helped Benjamin lie down, tucked him in, kissed him on the forehead, said, "Good night, Little Monkey!" and walked out of the room.

Within a minute Benjamin was sound asleep.

Tonight bedtime went a little better for me. I tucked Benjamin in and told him I was "going to go get my book" but really I was going to see how long he'd stay in bed by himself. He lasted for quite some time but eventually I heard him get out of bed, muck around in his room, and make his way to the door.

I met him at the doorway with my book in hand.

"Back to bed," I said, ushering him along.

I smiled when I saw he'd stopped to tuck in three baby dolls before coming out to see what was taking me so long. I moved the dolls out of the way, tucked him back in and settled down on the floor next to his bed with my book. I don't think I'd even turned the page before he was softly snoring (I finished the chapter anyway).

I could get used to having everyone in the house go to bed (more or less) when they're told and even when they're all crazy on sugar and/or Olympics.

New Pew

Things were shaken up at church yesterday when both the Relief Society presidency and the Young Women presidency were reorganized. Our church organizations are run with volunteer steam—from the bishop (the leader of our congregation) to the Primary presidency (that's me—the secretare-extraordinare) to the Valiant 9 teacher (that's Andrew) to the higher up officials (like the apostles) to the 80,000 missionaries worldwide—everyone donates their time.

Sometimes the callings are rather taxing—like that of the Relief Society Presidency—and other times they're pretty low-key—like that of the Sunday School Presidency (what do they even do?). It was quite obvious the Relief Society President was relieved to be excused from her position (while our newly called president looked a little nervous).

On a side note, one of the tasks the Relief Society is charged with is assisting new mothers. It seems like half the women in our ward are pregnant right now. Three women have had babies in the past month and we still have about a dozen to go before summer hits. This means that those of us in child-bearing years who are not pregnant are having to walk around being as blatantly asymptomatic as possible so as not to arouse suspicion of any underlying condition.

Seriously—on Tuesday night I got an innocent drink of water and was asked (and I quote), "Are you just thirsty or do you have an announcement to make?"

Just thirsty. Honest!

Oh, what do you do in the wintertime when it's rainy, wet, and cold?

This week, as I mentioned, has been mostly cold and rainy, which means Andrew's been taking the van to school, which means that we've been trapped at home. For the most part this has been okay because Benjamin has a nasty cold—his nose has been replaced by a mucus faucet—so we probably would have skipped playgroup anyway.

Just because we would have been staying home anyway, had we had the van, it doesn't mean that we didn't have any stir-crazy moments. Fortunately Benjamin and Miriam are both pretty good at creating long-lasting games and we can usually entertain each other until Rachel's bus finally pulls up.

Today Benjamin spent some time pushing babies around (and around and around) in strollers:

Oh, Russia

The 2014 Olympics began in Sochi, Russia, today and it's also my ten-year anniversary of teaching English in Voronezh, so I'm in the mood to celebrate.

On Tuesday I dug out the "shawl" I made in Russia when I was learning to crochet. It's a beautiful bubble-gum pink and the yarn is so incredibly soft. I wanted to make a blanket but after I eventually bought all the pink yarn at the market (a chaotic square filled with stalls and tents, merchants hawking their wares over shoddy wooden counters, children running around with cabbage leaves on their heads) they never restocked, so this is as far as I got:

Rainy Monday

We're in for a rainy week. Today rain started early this morning and didn't let up until late in the afternoon. Miriam insisted she wanted to go for a walk.

"A walk?" I asked. "But it's pouring!"

"Oh, well!" she chirped. "I'll wear boots!"

She grew too small for her sassy pink rain boots, however, so all she's left with are her winter boots. They're waterproof, though, so I thought they'd do.

Benjamin recently inherited a pair of rubber boots but they are far too big (they're barely too small for Miriam) so he also wore his winter boots (because they're only moderately too big for him). They're waterproof, so I thought they'd do.

Little did I know how much splashing the children intended to do.

Stand up!

Benjamin's method of standing up has caused more face-planting than he'd care to admit.



Sometimes he'll pop into that semi-handstand position several times before deciding to finally stand up. I'll admit that it's fun, but when your head's the size his is things can get a little unsteady.

He also has no idea how to lie down on his back and it's hilarious to watch him try. It's also something that I thought he'd have figured out by now, but I guess not. I mean, he usually sleeps on his back and he's been able to roll over in either direction basically since coming home from the hospital (so still two weeks before his due date). It's not like being on his back is foreign. It's not like he's never gotten onto his back on his own. But ask him to lie down on his back and he just can't figure it out.