Shaving

We don't know why, but Gerrit calls shoveling 'shaving' and he loves to 'shave'! The shovel he is holding was one I had when I was a kid that my parents gave to us this fall. He would be outside all day holding on to his shovel if we would let him. He tried to shovel the snow (which was on the grass) this weekend. We shoveled after daycare today - I should correct myself and say I shoveled and he watched holding his! It was no wonder he was cold and we were able to go inside - he wasn't doing anything!

Kissmas Time

Gerrit loves to play with the ornaments - unfortunately some have paid their dues because of it. I'm hoping we can make it the rest of the season without anymore needing to be 'retired'. Our tree all trimmed and full of lights. Yes, the star touches the ceiling - couldn't have picked a more perfect height this year! My favorite - the nativity set that Gerrit loves to look at and see baby Jesus (and of course the angle with a basketball).

Gerrit-isms

A few pictures to show you what Gerrit is like these days...

I don't know where he learned to clean the floors or why he shows interest in it because I surely have not been on my knees cleaning it!

If you look closely, you'll see Gerrit tackling the laundry

His 'ramp' for his cars - very clever!

Days After the Blizzard

We are settling in after all of the shoveling from this past week's big storm. It was the single largest snowfall we've yet to experience in Minnesota. It's been quite a transition from the mild weather we had a couple weeks ago.Gerrit's blood is still thickening as after 10 minutes outside he proclamied in a low voice "daddy I'm cold," to which I asked if he wanted to go inside and he responded "yep." As Caryn mentioned, the theater district made a new acquisition. The old snow blower lasted 26 years and served us well. We are very fortunate to have some great neighbors that have taken care of us with hand-me-down snow blowers and a lawn mower. I'll be happy to blow out the entire block with this new toy! Gerrit was fairly impressed as well.

Blizzard 2009

I will retell the happening of the past 24 hours as best I can. Most of the happenings occurred in Z-town...

When I went to bed last night the county in which my school is in was added to the "blizzard warning" which made me think we would not have school today. Just as I was to get up, the phone rang giving us the sweet, sweet message of 'no school' today! So we stayed in bed and tried to sleep a bit longer.

I called Adam around 7 30 to check in and he was trying to take care of the drifts (up to his knees in some parts) so he could bring Gerrit to daycare. Gerrit was a trooper and hung out inside while Adam worked on the driveway. He didn't see much action next door or he would've brought Gerrit there for a bit. By 8 am, Adam said forget it and gunned it to get out of the driveway. He was able to get Gerrit to daycare allowing him a bit more freedom to work on the snow and get some real work done.

Following the daycare drop off, Adam went to Bridgett's for coffee and ran into some towns people that we are aquainted with. He enjoyed his coffee and conversation until a pharmacy worker waved the men across the street. An older gentleman got his car stuck so the guys did their civic duty and helped him out. Before they knew it, the barber shop next to Bridgett's cleared out and those men came over to assist as well! Once they got the car out, they headed back to the coffee shop and asked to pull the shades so no one else could see these men inside and call them out to help!

Adam did one round of snow blowing which included the walks of the neighbors as well as our own. He had a conference call mid morning and during it, the phone rang a few times. Adam was a bit embarrassed to have all this noise in the background while talking to the big wigs in St. Paul!

In the meantime, I was knitting and enjoying morning t.v. and hoping to get my Dr. apt moved up earlier so I could go home. No such luck on the dr. apt so I ran a few errands and then to the dr. All seems well with me and the baby. I won't go into detail, but I'm progressing in the right direction.

Adam went next door to learn about the new purchase for the theater district - a new snow blower! The one the neighbors had was brand new but worked like an 'electric broom' as one of the men said. So they bought a new one and want to store it in our garage. This would mean we would be storing 3 snow blowers! We inherited the old one from the neighbors which works great on our gravel driveway and my parents gave us their old one now that they don't need it in the condo. We don't want to use that one on the gravel and ruin it. (Once we get the driveway paved in the spring, we can get rid of the old one.) Adam was trained in on the new one and it has everything automated and is just shy of hand warmers! Adam said 1.5 swipes (if that is possible) is all that is needed to clear the sidewalks it is so wide! And he only went up to level 4 for speed and said he'd need his running shoes if he were to try the highest speed! I think we will be lending out the other snow blower to friends for a while since we have the posh snow blower now. And our end of the deal? Keep the gas can full and help with the maintenance! What a deal and what great neighbors. During the inservice it was also said that Gerrit can come next door when Adam is alone and needing to take care of the snow - they are retired and can sleep whenever! So call and wake them up was the message.

Following his training, Adam met Dave D. for lunch at Bridgett's. He didn't go in either as he works in Roch too. His boys didn't have school but were at friends and his wife was stranded south last night and possibly tonight too. So both men were bachin' it today. My guess is they had dinner together tonight.

We decided it was best for me to stay here tonight instead of risk the drive home. I probably would be fine, but the wind is pretty strong and there are a lot of flat, open areas I'd be driving through. Of course, I spilled on my shirt today so I will be doing laundry tonight at Sue's (I only took 1 set of new clothes). She's out and about and I have some quiet time at her house. A bit more knitting and early bed is in store for me - its like a little vacation!

The snow has stopped, the cities got about 7.5 inches and Adam guesses they have close to a foot - hard to tell with the drifts. I see that the blizzard warning has expired which means school will be on tomorrow. Despite the cold wind chills (-20 to -30), school will go on...its Minnesota! Luckily I only have a little over a week of the 'winter driving' to and from school and then things should be a bit easier if I can be around to help with the kids if Adam tends to the snow.

What a day Adam had. I asked if he got any work done - a few phone calls and his conference call was all he had time for! He said he could never work from home - too many distractions.

I can think of all these other great things I would've been able to get done had I been home as well, but am thankful I have a great place to stay in case of bad weather. Sue takes care of me and my safety is more important than a few loads of laundry I could've gotten done today.

Update

I've been slacking, I know. I keep thinking I'll download a few pictures but the camera is never near me when I think of it and I'm too lazy to get up and get it. So here I sit, once again without my camera to download the pictures. Oh well, I've got some time so I'll update you on the latest.

Gerrit loves the 'Kissmas tree' and lights (that is how it sounds when he says Christmas). He turns them on in the house and will point out other homes that have lights. For a while there he liked to look at my nativity set by Carol Roeda. He likes looking at baby Jesus. Hopefully he'll get the whole idea of celebrating baby Jesus' birthday as the season progresses. He likes the big blow up Santa that is across the street from daycare and thinks Santa is sleeping when he's not inflated. He made a cute little paper Santa Christmas countdown on Dec. 1 and each day he glues another cotton ball on Santa's beard. I don't think he understands what happens when the beard is full, but he knows he gets to do it every day. Also, the advent box we have as a family is a big deal for him. He knows that after dinner he gets to open another door. Its been a nice way to get him to eat a bit more at dinner too! (He's not a huge dinner fan - more into breakfast.) I have a little tree in his room that has to be lit before he can go to bed as well. Its mostly decorated with sports ornaments which he enjoys looking at and pointing out the various balls/sports. I've enjoyed watching some of the Christmas specials with him too. I don't recall ever seeing the 1970s Santa is Coming to Town special that was on last night so that was fun for me too.

I currently am in the cities at my friend Sue's. We are getting hit with a blizzard in Z-town so I stayed here for fear I wouldn't be able to make the drive in the morning. I have a dr. apt tomorrow afternoon anyways, so even if we get cancelled (here's hoping), I would still need to get up here for the apt. So Adam and Gerrit are bachin' it tonight. I was able to take care of a few Christmas errands and then met up with Sue for dinner. Now we are just hanging out and watching all the school closings. I'm sure Z-town won't have school and can only hope it continues north to call off some schools in the metro. Adam took work home so he doesn't have to do the drive as Rochester is also under a blizzard warning. He can take care of the walks in the 'theater district' as a neighbor calls our houses. Basically, Adam will be doing our driveway as well as our side walk (which is a corner) and the walk of the 2 houses next to us - he can try out the 'new' snow blower we inherited from my parents. We now have 2 snow blowers so the neighbors think he can do all the work!

I'm feeling ok. The baby seems to be sitting on my bladder so I frequent the bathroom or at least have the sensation to go! I'm progressing fine and no signs one way or the other if I'll be going early. Adam has a big meeting on the 7th and a bball game on the 9th so he'd prefer not on those days! I would like a few days of my winter break before the kid comes if I have my way. I head back tomorrow to the dr. as I'm on the every week appointment schedule now.

I'm looking forward to watching Gerrit play in the snow - assuming the temps aren't too low!

Christmas Spirit

The tree is up and decorated as is the rest of the house. Gerrit finds the ornaments fascinating and wants to touch all of them. It took me a bit longer to get the ornaments on this year as I had to strategically put the soft ones near the bottom and make sure all the balls and bicycles were out of his reach! I first tried to decorate the tree with him around and soon found that it wasn't going to work. He broke one ornament and found another one that looked like a ball and thought it was fun to throw it at the tree! So I waited until nap time to finish!

When we came home yesterday, I was busy getting dinner ready and hadn't had a chance to turn the Christmas lights on in the house. Adam was home and I thought he had plugged in the Christmas tree and thought to myself - wow, he's in the Christmas spirit this year. Normally I am the one that is in charge of turning the lights on. This morning the tree was lit again. I thought, wow, Adam must really be in the spirit if he's going to take the time to light the tree in the morning (we are not awake and home long in the mornings to enjoy it).

I finally asked him if he plugged the tree in and I wanted to say how impressed I was that he was doing it lately. He said no. He unplugged them last night and that was it. We both started laughing....our little Christmas spirit is Gerrit! He figured out how to plug the lights in - we witnessed it finally when Adam unplugged the tree and Gerrit didn't like it. Here's hoping the kid doesn't electrocute himself before January!

PS - I have pictures of the tree but didn't download them yet to the computer. I thought I'd try writing this post a minute at school and it worked! (I've never been able to do it at work for some reason... probably b/c its personal and not school related???) Maybe tonight.