Here are some bubbles we blew when the temps hit below zero. The bubbles kind of act like saran wrap as they start to dissolve. Pretty cool. Not so cool to be outside doing this. We could do this all week here as temps won't be above zero for at least two days. Windchill warnings go into effect at noon today until Friday. And we still have to deliver the newspaper. Yuck! We will look like a giant snowball walking house to house as we deliver. Anyone want to sub for a couple of days?

BRRRR! It is freezing here in Minnesota. Today's high is a negative 2. I wonder sometimes why we chose to live here. Thoughts of any warmer climate sound really good right now. So this is my random thought I had last week as I walked the mall for exercise. Why do people buy lattes, etc. to drink when they are walking the mall? In my twisted thinking, if you trying to get healthy, lose a little weight, why buy a drink with lots of calories? Or I saw someone sitting at a table with a package of cookies on it. And it was a regular size package that I would buy for my family, not the individual serving size. Doesn't make sense to me. Well neither does a diet that won't allow chocolate. The other sight I saw was an older gentleman carrying his ipod. I overheard him telling a friend that his son had given it to him with songs already on it. The sad part was, it seemed like he couldn't figure out how to make it work. So he carried the ipod and earbuds in his hand. Next time, I guess I'll have to be braver and offer to help. For myself, I need to remember to make sure my mp3 player is charged. I had no tunes to listen too. Lesson learned.

The tooth Fairy

I have wanted to post this for awhile. This is my tooth fairy costume that got a lot of use this year. It was a lot of fun to wear also. So I wore it to our ward trunk or treat party. I told the kids to eat all their candy, forget to brush their teeth and I would seem them in a few weeks. I wore it to a party my kids were invited to on Saturday. I wore it to pack meeting, not because it was my favorite character, but because I wanted to use my costume one more time. I handed out plastic fangs to all the kids. One two year old told me I wasn't the real tooth fairy. Then I handed out treats on Halloween. Some kids wanted money, but I said here's your candy. Then last Saturday, Mark and I went to a Toastmasters Halloween party, as the dentist and tooth fairy. We realized as we set out our food that we brought, that is fit our theme nicely. Fresh fruit and dips. I didn't even think about it as I planned. I was just tired of candy. Unfortunately, I still have some yucky Halloween candy left that no one wants to eat.

Busy lives

After reading my sister's post, I realized how life changes quicker than you realize. Our life used to be uneventful. Then we had kids. This year, our life has gotten busier with our first highschooler. We went and bought one of those big desk calendars to use because an 8x11 sheet of paper didn't cut it anymore. I'll review our recent week-end: Friday night we went to the Twin Cities to return a diversity display for Mark (related to his wood badge ticket). Then we went to the Mall of America for fun. Saturday began with driving Sam to a merit badge fair, picking up donuts for Cub Scouts who meet at our house for scouting for food, doing the paper route, running Noelle to tennis lessons, taking Noelle to the Stake center for a youth activity, going to the mall to get some things, taking scouts from one church building to the stake center for the youth activity, and going to a Toastmasters party. Sunday, I went to Albert Lea for their branch conference. Monday started with trips to each school because of a sick driver, a late bus, and I am the regular carpool driver. We are looking forward to this week-end because the scout camp-out got canceled. Yeah!!! But we still have the second round of scouting for food, pinewood derby car to finish, tennis lessons,....and life goes on. Our first snow fell today and unfortunately the lawn never got mowed before it snowed. So I guess that will not happen this year. I really don't think that it will warm up anytime soon to really be able to mow the lawn. Such is our life. But being busy is better than having nothing to do. It helps us keep our minds off of our problems and helps us appreciate all that we are blessed with in our lifes. We live in an area where there are a lot of church members. Our church leaders want to help our youth. We are close enough to drive our kids to schools. We have gas prices under $2. We have family and we have friends. The paper route gives this mom a healthy work-out on a Saturday and she earned $5.

So has begun the initiation of the parents into the life of teenagers going to high school dances. Noelle and I spent a hour or two looking for the perfect shoes to go with her hot pink dress, only to find out after we bought the shoes, that no high heels were allowed on the gym floor. So under her sparkly dress is a pair of hot pink flip flops. (I returned the shoes since she decided she wouldn't wear them anyways.) She had gone dress shopping with her dad while we were in Utah, which was a smart move if I do say so myself. Dad is better at saying "No, not that dress." Anyways, after a futile trip in Utah, she found the dress she wanted online. It was exactly what she had found in Utah, but was in her size. The kids didn't want pictures taken, but as you can see the parents overruled. It is hard to imagine that we are imbarking on a new era of life: high school. This is a great group of kids who have a lot of fun together. I have another hour and a half to stay up until it is my turn to go and pick up the kids from the dance......so I'll continue this line of thought another time.

Thoughts on an engagement ceremony

So, on Saturday our family went to our first ever, Cambodian-American Engagement Ceremony. It was interesting to see. We of course arrived a few minutes late, and joined in at the end of the procession. Everyone was walking into the house in groups of two, carrying a gift of food. The food was in pairs of two of everything: two plates of grapes, two baskets of fruit, two plates of 6-packs of Pepsi, two chickens, two pineapples, etc. We went into the house and were seated. The future groom's family on one side and the future bride's family on the other side. Then the future bride came out. She was dressed in her fancy clothes-silk skirt and white lacy top. We all clapped when she came out. The preacher spoke in both Cambodian and English. The ceremony is to bridge the two cultures. If you recall, in Cambodia the marriages are arranged. Here we get to date. So, this ceremony brings the families together. The future groom has given all the gifts of food to his future bride. Both sets of parents are asked if they give their consent for the engagement. Then the future bride and future groom both consent to being engaged. The future groom gives his future bride her ring. She then gives him a gold necklace to wear as a token of their engagement. I looked at it as a formal recognition of the couple being engaged. The ceremony takes places at the future bride's home. After that, we eat food. Which is really the best part. All the gifts that were given are used as part of the dinner for the family and friends who attended. Now on a side note, the missionaries from our ward were there cooking the egg rolls. The preacher belonged to the Church of the Nazerene. So this is truly a bridging of cultures. We have been to numerous family events and it is always amazing to me to learn more about the Cambodian culture and be one of a handful of white, English speaking people invited to attend.

Our next tourist stop

We stopped at Shoshone Falls near Twin Falls after going to the Twin Falls Temple Open House. This year the water was running over the falls. On a previous visit a couple of years ago, there was only a trickle of water.