Icy Fun

Happy New Year everybody!! Sorry it's taken me a while to post. I had 10 days off of work and we took that time to spend together as a family. Honestly, we did a lot of laying around & being lazy, but we all needed it. We were also able to get through a lot of the boxes and hook up with an auction company here in town. So we've already eliminated the equivalent of at least one storage container if not two. So that feels a LOT better. Once we're done with all of that, we'll focus on the house again. (But the storage costs us a lot of money, so priorities got shifted there for a bit!) But in the mean time, my house here has been taken over by boxes & tools & persian rugs... sigh. It's okay. It's all just temporary. I think I'm past my little freak out. (Hey, I think I've earned a little panic attack now & then, don't you? lol)

Anyway, during our time of laziness we played a lot of board games, the kids put together thousands of lego pieces (I'm still amazed at my boys' building prowess), played some new video games, and we watched a few new movies (mock me if you must, but I do love me some Harry Potter! lol) We also found out another piece of cuteness that this town has to offer: an ice rink! Now, I've posted before about the nice indoor skating rink that the town next door has. It's great fun. But whereas some of you midwesterners may see the constant cold of a northeast winter as a lemon, Vermonters see lemonade! As it turns out, every year the rec department floods the green space of the local park in time for the freeze and creates this massive ice rink! We happened upon it this past week & the kids took advantage of learning to play hockey with what seemed like every little boy in town.

*********The rink ************ Gavin figuring out his skates*****

*******Mark playing goalie***** ****Natalie & her new pal Griffin****

Okay, so our Kansas-ness has shown a little and I'm sad to say that I have failed my children in the skating-lesson department. I'm thinking we'll fix that soon. But they still had fun anyway! And it looks like Natalie made a new boyfriend! ;) lol Seriously, this town is so darn cute I can't hardly stand it! ;)

And on the other side of the winter fun, there's some not so good parts that we have to deal with. We're no strangers to driving in the snow & ice from growing up in St. Louis & spending the last decade in KC, but no one's perfect & sometimes that tricky black ice will sneak up on you. While I was at work, Matt & the kids were driving home from shopping and hit a patch of it on the highway. :( They spun out, hit a milemarker & ended up sliding into the median.

Whoops. But their guardian angel was looking out for them all because the mile marker hit perfectly center between the doors so that neither of the windows were broken and it absorbed that impact on the frame. The hill was pretty steep too & they could've easily rolled, but everyone was completely fine. And with another stroke of luck, this happened to all occur in the one little patch of cell-phone-hell & Matt couldn't call for help, but someone witnessed the whole thing & came to help, so a good samaritan pulled them out pretty quickly. With the exception of Matt's back seizing again and the kids being a little freaked out, everyone is totally fine. Thanking God for that!!! Looks like we need two new doors & a new running board, but no big deal. Poor little three-year-old Natalie has had the hardest time with it though I think. I called Matt on my way home from work the other day like I always do and she immediately started yelling "I WANT TO TALK TO MOOOOMMM!!!!" All she wanted to tell me was, "Mommy, make sure you dwive caefully... don't go in the ditch ok??" Sweet baby. :')