A Blast from the Past..Including 2016..

I was going through some boxes the other day and stumbled over a box of  cassette tapes that I listened to as a teenager. I am amazed that they are still with me. Considering the fact that cassette players are very hard to come by these days (lucky for me I have one in my car along with the cd player!) So I have been jamming out to mixed tapes (also another lost art) with everything from Julie de Azevedo ( think a very young Julie from the 80's) to Savage Garden, Michael Mclean, Collin Raye, Kenneth Cope...oh and a fair amount of 90's country (sigh of happiness)

We've had some pretty chilly days lately. One day last week as I was dropping the kids off at school I noticed Carmen wasn't wearing her gloves, so I gave her mine. I got home and was going through the box of gloves, hats, etc. to find another pair of gloves for myself when I stumbled over a pair that I recognized...way back when I went and lived with my Uncle Allen and Aunt Linda and cousin Karrie to have an "out of Utah" experience. Anyway I think this pair of gloves had belonged to my Uncle...I think maybe I kept them around because he passed away nearly 17 years ago and they were a good way to think of him from time to time....(another sigh of nostalgia)

Now I had to share this...because I know I will be highly entertained by it in the future. Still feeling a little pain about it now...
So it has been COLD. A very frigid nasty painful cold. Negative temperatures made possible by a Wyoming wind...or is it South/North Dakota?
Now the people of the Nebraska panhandle are really tough people. Everything continues even in the cold. Nothing shuts down. Businesses are still opened...you get the picture. The school even sent out a letter stating school would never be cancelled..but in the event you personally didn't feel good about bringing your children to school in concern for their health they didn't have a problem with that.
So on a chilly afternoon several weeks ago I went to drop Lilli off at 4-H. In the amount of time we drove home from school to the hour later when we left for 4-H the doors on the van had frozen shut (of course temperatures would do this on the day I didn't park in the garage). So I gave the door a big old pull in order to break the ice inside the door. It works 90% of the time. Well not this day. With a horrible crack I was suddenly holding the door handle in my hand. (A very mild curse word might have been spoken aloud at this point). So we all know how expensive car parts are correct? I had this horrible thought of a $200-$300 job...or worse...what if they couldn't replace the handle and had to replace the door? That runs $2-3,000...
Well much to my relief the entire job was a mere $73.16...whew. Plus it was only an hour job...and they had free soda...Nadia was in heaven. So the lesson I learned was to have the children crawl through the front door when your doors are frozen...unless your husband is there to play football player on the door!

Now I know I wrote a novel on this post...so for those of you that are here for pictures here you go...

 

 Halloween 2016. Lilli had an Achievement Girls (church group) activity and she even made cookies by herself. A girl after my own heart. She will definitely be a baker.

 Halloween Pumpkins (Take note of the one on top that says "Baby" Yes, Nadia is completely obsessed with anything and everything baby...this includes things that are small in size)

 We were at Walmart one night and decided to take pictures with Cheese. Eric and I have made some pretty significant changes to our eating habits this past year, and cheese has been one of those things removed from our diet...mostly.

 Jared would like the mozzarella

 And one of each for Lillian

Our town had a "Christmas on Broadway" (It's a major street running from our town to the next going south. It was SUPER cold so not very many people came. But we did enjoy the bonfires they had going in the streets. We got pictures with Santa. Ornaments made by an honors choir at the Middle School...and the best..real reindeer to pet. They were adorable.