If she had the proper words to say,

I'm eating a leftover Heavenly Strawberry Tart, and it is oh-so-good. Yum!

We had a snow day here today. The first we've seen since moving to Minot AFB, and the accumulation isn't even bad. We had 50mph+ winds this morning though, and you couldn't see a thing with the last two days' worth of snow blowing around everywhere.

Philip got up with the boys and made sure they were ready for the bus. I'd been concerned because A.J., in particular, had a heckuva lot to carry. Monday = band class, so he had his clarinet. He was wearing all his snowgear, including snowboots, so his regular shoes were in his backpack. He also had a few textbooks and binders in there from his homework last Friday. In addition to that, he had three gallon-sized bags containing health items for the school's 'Haiti Aid' drive. (Each kit contained the following: a full-sized bottle of shampoo, a full-sized bar of soap, a washcloth, a comb, a toothbrush, and a full-sized tube of toothpaste. A.J. had two entire kits, plus an extra bag with four more toothbrushes and three extra washcloths.) A.J. got it all together, and then he and Jack were out the door. Philip then came back to bed.

And within probably two minutes, the doorbell rang. (I have no idea why, since the door was unlocked.) It was Jack, and he told Philip there was no one there (meaning the bus stop). Philip was confused, as the roads here were cleared well, and it wasn't spectacularly cold or anything - 13° or so. For a moment, he thought maybe the boys had somehow just missed the bus, but he brought them back inside. He found an update station online, reflecting that their school had a delayed start... but it was stranger than we'd ever had before. It wasn't a two-hour delay like we are familiar with. No, instead school would start at 10:15 (normally at 9:00), and would end at 4:15 (usually 3:15). So the boys took off all their snowgear and got comfy for the next hour to wait.

And then the phone rang at 9:45-ish. It was the alert system for the school, letting us know that school had indeed been canceled. On the news today, it showed that most of the schools in the area had canceled much earlier, but the three base schools (two elementary and one middle school) had held out longer because the road conditions on base were perfectly fine. The entire student body could easily have made it to school, but 75% of the teachers live out in town and couldn't make it in.

So, snow day! They enjoyed a day of laziness and videogames on a weekday. They were thrilled. :-)

I've worked my elbow to death, editing pictures from our vacation this summer. There were other things I'd intended to do this weekend, but I'm ready to get them out and be done with them. My elbow really starts to ache, and when I've laid down to sleep the past two nights, it has just THROBBED.

Jack went out to get the mail late this afternoon, and when he came back inside, he begged to go play. There were a few neighborhood kids out, so he suited up in his gear, and he was off. He played for the next 45 minutes or so, and then he came to the door to get his sled. It was dark by the time he did this, so I made him come inside instead. When he did, I saw that his eyelashes were completely frosted over! He looked like an old man with really bushy eyebrows and lashes! I tried to get a pic, but it just melted SO. FAST. He thought it was pretty funny, though.

We had an easier night for dinner than I'd originally planned. I looked at making a new dinner, but the fridge was just chock-full of leftovers from the past few days, and I decided we'd use those up instead. Now we have room for more, and that's a good thing. I'm making Chicken Gumbo in two days, and I need lots of room for that.

We've been having a lot of "Game Nights" around here lately. Two Fridays ago, I introduced all the guys to Milles Bornes, a game I loved playing with my family when I was growing up. Philip and Jack won as a team in that one. (How is that possible? A.J. and I should have had the advantage with me having played the game before!) Last Tuesday, we played Sorry: Madagascar Edition. A.J. won that one, though it was close - he won by one move over me. This past Friday night, we played Uno, and it lasted forever. I can't remember who won that one... hmmm. Then Saturday night, we all stayed up very late, and we played both traditional Dominoes, and then we introduced the boys to Skip-Bo. I won at Dominoes, but Philip won at Skip-Bo. A.J. wasn't far behind, though!

The boys have really enjoyed learning new games, and it's great for me and Philip that they can finally play "real" games. I'm still hoping/waiting for the day when I can get Philip to agree to teaching them "Rats" with me - it's my favorite card game ever. Philip doesn't care for it though, so he's resisting!

I'm back to pictures for a bit now before bed. 'Night!

It is so sad that my kids are now just as good at checkers as I am. Probably better, actually. Jack just beat me (it was a close game), but there was certainly no "letting" him do it, and there hasn't been for several months now.

I feel old.

My email connection is connecting a bit slowly today. It's irritating me a bit, too.

The boys are currently playing Zingo! together in the living room. We all played it together last night for the first time, and it was engaging for all. It's a really cool game for kids. So cool, in fact, that Jack received TWO of them at his birthday party. We need to exchange the second one for something else now...

*squeeee*

The boys are in bed, and Philip and I are fixin' to break in the new HP trivia game together. I'm so excited!