Now that Bret is back to work I'm getting life back on track and things in order. I love his schedule so much! Have I ever told you that?? He works 18 days straight then has 12 days off. Every month. Over and over again. I love that we have 12 whole days 12 times a year to do whatever we want. We could take 12 ten day cruises every year (if we could only afford it). We could take 12 two week vacations a year (if we only had some exotic place to go). We don't even have to think about using any vacation or sick days while planning things. Or, we can simply do nothing for 12 days every month. Its lovely. I'm not saying our whole life is all fun and games. Those 18 days that he works are challenging. For him and us girls. He is on call 24 hours a day. He is out on location most days...and nights. We don't see much of each other while he is on hitch. That is what makes his 12 days off so perfect. We literally can just sit as a family, hanging out the entire time. However, I feel like I've had a super long vacation and I'm ready to get life back to normal. Between Bret's days off in December, the girls being out of school for over 2 weeks (Christmas break was extended due to the polar arctic blizzard that blew through), Bret's January days off and finally the girls both being home sick I almost don't remember what our normal life feels like! It always takes me a day or two to get the house put back in order. Lucky for me I have the girls home until Tuesday... they'll be my cleaning slaves!
This is the first time I've turned my computer on in weeks! I found some pictures I want to share with you. I should have posted them in December but I didn't.
These pictures are from Christmas day. It was so fun spending the day just playing.
The girls got these computers for Christmas. They're kind cheesy little things but the girls play with them everyday! Maycie doesn't really know how to use it yet but Haylee is learning lots.
This picture was of Maycie Christmas night. She was so exhausted she couldn't even stay awake to read her new books.
Have I ever told you what we have to go through just to get to the bank?? Ok well its not like we're pioneers walking hundreds of miles in the snow and ice without shoes... but we have to drive to another state! Alright, its not that bad. There is not a Wells Fargo in town, the closest one is in Sidney Montana which is about 40 minutes away. There are Wells Fargo branches in ND but they're at least 2 hours away. Montana is much closer. Plus when we cross over into Montana we are in the same time zone as Utah! That's kind of exciting. We had some banking business that needed to be taken care of so I took the girls out for a fun day. Its not like there is tons to do, Sidney is a pretty small town but they have a Shopko. Its actually surprising to me that they have one there. Anyway its always nice to shop somewhere other than Walmart.
While in Sidney I noticed they were plowing the snow... into the middle of the road. This was not a big problem until you had to turn left over the huge mound of snow!
I didn't really think much of the snow mounds because in Park City they do the same thing. To get the snow out of the way, the snow plows plow everything to the center lane then a dump truck drives down the lane as a tractor scoops up the snow and fills the truck. The trucks then dump the snow in some parking lot out of town and out of the way. I figured that is what Sidney was doing. Except two days later the snow was still there. Even a week later there was still that growing strip of snow down the center lane. I'm curious to see what happens when spring arrives and it starts to melt!
Speaking of Spring... I feel like its right around the corner! I'm trying so hard to not get excited but its been warming up here. We have been in the 20s and 30s for a couple of weeks. Thats hot compared to the -45 that we were at! I know its only January and its going to get cold again, but I think I might actually survive this winter!
Ok, back to pictures.
The day before the arctic blizzard that rolled through most of the country, bringing temperatures of -45 with wind chills temps of -63, we had one lovely warm, rainy day. We went from 35 to -60 over night! But that warm-before-the-storm day, that one day, worked wonders with our flurry, sawdust snow. For the first time ever our snow would actually stick, we were able to build snowmen! The snow was perfect! Almost like Utah snow, the best snow on Earth. We had so much fun! The girls each wanted to build their own snowman so we had two.
They would help each other lift the middle section and head onto each snowman. Other than that they worked on their own.
I helped Maycie with hers because this was the first time she's ever made a snowman!
We only had one extra hat and one extra scarf to split between the two. Luckily the snowmen didn't complain!
I'm glad we had a warm day the girls could play outside before that nasty storm arrived. I know the rest of the country had ridiculously cold temps also. It was downright miserable here. It was the first time I have ever questioned my commitment to stay here. I really wanted to give up! Church was cancelled. School was cancelled. A lot of businesses closed even some of the big oil companies went on stand by because they didn't want people out in the cold. It was cold. But its over now and Spring is on its way! Right?! Only 9 weeks left!
