Our first Oklahoma ice storm

Ice storms, we have been told, are the Oklahoma version of winter. They are certainly beautiful, but make for really frightening driving conditions. They also disrupt school and church, which really disturbs our children. Ours today got us out of speaking in church, though they didn't decide to cancel church until after we were there, so we did get to take the sacrament. Derek and I were not at all broken-hearted, but our kids, who had also been asked to speak, were very disappointed. Oh, the innocence of childhood.... (We haven't told them that school might get canceled tomorrow, too.)

Michael

Tag

So, someone (Kelly Ann) has tagged me. I now have to think of interesting facts about myself (very easy, as my life is so fascinating) and find someone else to tag (much more difficult, as it appears that most of my blogging cousins have been tagged). Here goes:

The rules of the game should be posted at the beginning of each post. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves or something like that. At the end of the post each player then tags someone else and leaves them a comment, letting them know they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. Before the age of 21 I had never been on an airplane and had only traveled to Idaho, the edge of Colorado and the edge of Wyoming. I really hadn't seen much of Utah, either. Since the age of 21 I have lived in Switzerland and Austria (as a missionary), California, Arizona, South Korea and Oklahoma. I have visited Nevada, South Carolina, Florida and Mexico. That's what being a military wife will do for you. My military kids have all been on airplanes before they were 2, except Nina. She was a few months past 2 on her first flight. All of them have lived in a foreign country and 3 states. This is especially impressive for our 2-year-old.
   
2. I taught school for three years in Southern California (Fontana). I loved it! I taught 2nd grade for two years and a 2/3 combo my 3rd year. My kids are still reaping the benefits, since I own all kinds of educational toys and dozens and dozens of kid's books.
   
3. I am four and a half years older than my husband. People are generally surprised. Before I had kids everyone thought he looked older. My children have aged me, so now people just assume we are about the same age.
4. I love word games (crosswords, word finds, cryptograms, etc.) and sudoku. I can wile away hours on them if I'm not careful, especially since I find them much more enjoyable than laundry, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning toilets, etc.
5. I hate cooking. Luckily I married a man who would rather cook than starve, so we do eat meals at our house. (I'd usually rather snack enough to survive. Derek does not consider this sufficient...)
6. I started this several days ago, but got caught up in Thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas. This also required that we organize our garage (there are disadvantages to moving often -- stuff never fits the same from house to house), which has made us all (at least Derek and me) very happy. Just so you all know, we are mostly ready for Christmas, which also makes me happy.
   

Now, I have decided to tag Rhonda, as I can see that she hasn't yet been got.

David Jeffrey "DJ"

Upstaging Lil (and her hair fire)

You know, it really is true that being busy makes time go by faster. I never expected, as such a very transient parent, to find myself highly involved in PTA. I also never expected to find a PTA with 50 members at a school with 500 students (being run by about 10 of those 50 members). While getting involved has been big, I must admit I love it. I have missed school, so it's great to be part of one again. I love that the teachers know who I am and the kids recognize me and shout hello when they see me. I'm having a great time. It has kept me from blogging, though.

I've been meaning to come on for a couple of weeks now to tell of an incident at our house. Oklahoma has kind of weird weather. One day it will be a beautiful 70 degrees and the next it's barely 50. On one of those cool days Derek decided to light a fire in our fireplace. We have a gas starter, but no key, so he turned it on with pliers and proceeded to try to light it. He couldn't get a flame anywhere, but I was certain that I could smell gas. At that point we did something far less than smart and held a match in front of the starter. There we found gas. We had a flame shooting up. Scary, but it got worse. Suddenly we had flames coming out from behind the brick facade on the walls on both sides, as well as inside the fireplace. We got the gas shut off and the flames went out within a few seconds, but I'm paranoid, so we called the police station. They sent the fire department over. After running several checks they found no hot spots and no gas leaks, but they recommended that we not use the fireplace (surprise, surprise) until it is sealed.

Our kids thought it was some kind of fabulous entertainment, though. They were enchanted by the flames (we had to keep reminding them to stay back) and thrilled to have a firetruck outside the house and real firefighters inside. In fact, Jon suggested that he'd like to have them return, but Derek and I told him we'd prefer they didn't ever have occasion to. Interestingly, this all happened shortly after both of our school kids had visits from the firefighters (the very same ones who visited us), so we'd been talking about what to do in case of a fire in our house. Obviously, something didn't get through quite right, so I guess we'll have to keep talking.

Sick Weekend

Derek's Mom and Dad came to see us this weekend. The kids were so excited! (So were Derek and I.) On the way home from his drama class, Jon told me, with barely contained exhilaration, "When I get home, I get to see my grandmother!" He was all smiles when they were sitting in the living room. DJ took to them instantly. This is the first time he's seen Grandpa since before we left for Korea. Michael took a few minutes to warm up, since he had been asleep when they arrived. Unfortunately Nina was sick this weekend, so she wasn't herself. The rest of us were sick, too, so we figure Grandma and Grandpa should go home and get sick in a few days. We are very sorry about that and hope that they stay healthy. We are so glad they came and had a great time, despite our illness.

Halloween is over

While I say that with some sense of relief, I am also a bit sad. Halloween is a pure kids' holiday (at least the way we celebrate it). The anticipation, the excitement, the costuming, the partying, aaah... what fun it all is.

We had a really full week, though, so I'm a really tired mom and I think my kids are feeling it, too. (I'm glad I'm not a teacher tomorrow). We trunk-or-treated Saturday evening. The kids decorated pumpkins (with minimal assistance) and turned them all into royalty, so Derek and I built a cardboard/aluminum foil castle, which the kids also decorated, for our trunk. It turned out so cute. It's now in our garage, where the children spend a lot of time playing with it. I don't know how much longer it will hold out, but it has surely been well loved.

Today was simply crazy (in a fun, though exhausting, kind of way). Nina's party was this morning and Jon's this afternoon, so I got to go to both of them. I loved it! Though I can't imagine not staying home with my kids, I do miss teaching. It's been great to spend so much time in the schools this year. (Especially for fun stuff, like birthdays, field trips and Halloween parties.)

Nina went to Jon's party with me and then we stayed for their assembly. (Since Nina is in morning Pre-K at her school, she misses all the fun assemblies.) We waited around for Jon afterwards, because it was so near pick-up time. Then we rushed home, straightened up the house (and examined the party loot), put costumes back on and headed out to a carnival at a friend's house. It was so much fun (and a much better alternative than trick-or-treating, in my opinion). Of course, two hours into it, as we were nearing time to go home, Michael told me, "Mom, we better go to the Halloween party now." He was excited (fortunately, since you never know with Michael) to find out he was at the party.

Well, I'd best stop rambling and get some sleep -- I can definitely use it -- since tomorrow is another crazy day. I'll put together some Halloween photos one of these days, so you can see our fun.

Slides of our year in Korea (or at least the last half)

Joining the Blogging World

Since Dad's family started the Poulson Pigeon, I've been thoroughly enjoying keeping up with everyone. It's made me want to journal to share, but I don't think my entire extended family wants to read everything that's happening in my little piece of the world. So, here I am -- starting my very own blog (which I hope Derek will also occasionally contribute to), so that I can place any bit of my life on the public domain that I wish. Hopefully it will be fun!