Adjusting to Winter

AHHHH!!! It is Friday night. I am finally home. I was able to leave school on time tonight and my neighbor friend took me to a new restaurant. Only a 45 min. drive from my house (that is close in North Dakota). The food was good at a reasonable price. I am back home trying to warm up from standing outside talking and saying good bye to my neighbor. We exchanged small tokens of appreciation known as early Christmas presents. I bought her a couple of things to show how much I appreciate all she has done for me this year. She took me under her wing, helped me set-up my classroom and get the kids somewhat under control. She knew exactly when I needed a break and would pop into my room at the end of the day to chat and wisk me out of town. We have become good friends. We had been talking about unusual foods when we first met. I told her I had some chocolate covered potatoe chips and I really liked them but they were hard to find. Today I opened the present she gave me and she had found chocolate covered potatoe chips!!! I offered her some but she refused to be adventurous. Oh well more for me. Hehehe.

So here I sit curled up under a blanket all cozy while the temperature drops and the clear sky shows tiny diamond stars in the sky that look so close you could reach up and grab them. I have a nice pot of hot tea and I am enjoying my chocolate covered chips. I thought about saving them and sharing them with my class or bringing them home to share with my family but they are real good. I don't think the tin will last that long. They taste a lot like Nestle Crisps. I have six more days till I am on my way home for a wirldwind break in Oregon.

Okay it is cold!!!!!

My dream house

I don't like this white stuff. It really sucks. It have been dropping below zero as low as -10 degrees. I don't like this not one bit. I am still surrendered to God and all He has planned but come on, does it really have to be this cold. I now know what I have always suspected, I do not want to live in Alaska. Yuk with winter stuff, I want to move to Florida, 80 degrees in the winter time. Yes that would be the life.

I have a heater in my classroom with a broken button. We cannot turn it off. During the warm months we had the air conditioner on and the heater on and in the afternoons we would throw open the windows just to be able to breath. The maintenance team at the school managed to turn the heater to low. So now I have a room that is 20 degrees in the morning and I run two space heaters all day. By about 3:00 we have a 70 degree room. I have finally broken out my heavy sweaters.

This week in order to walk to work, which mind you is only 500 feet, I put on a zipper-front hooded sweatshirt, a down filled coat, a scarf wrapped around my face, a ear muffs, thick gloves, leg warmers, and insulated boots. I can barely see five feet in front of me but I am warm for the most part. I could put on my footless tights under my pants but I am afraid I might be too warm during the day and I do not want to strip to unbundle in the morning and then get redressed in the evening in order to walk home. I am thankful I live in a house and that it is pretty warm. I have a draft that makes my kitchen floor cold but I only notice that when I go into the kitchen. I can avoid that most of the time.

This cold dry weather is getting to my hair. It is a frizzy mess. My students were trying to help me with suggestions of combing my hair or putting in some hairspray or gel so it is not so fly away. Then my eyes water in the cold and my mascara runs down my face so I have two black eyes when I get into the building. I also have chapped lips because the weather is dry and I have never used so much hand lotion and face lotion in my life. I feel like I am drying out and really miss the rain in Oregon. Not only my heart but my skin and hair miss it too. 20 degrees with the east wind chill factor sounds like a nice warm spot from here.

I know God has a plan but did He take into consideration I prefer heat and occasional rain to this cold snowy stuff? Right now I feel like I am a tropical flower transplanted in Antarctica. Will I survive, only God knows. LOL Well, I need to run. Tomorrow is the second parent teacher conference of the school year and I teach all day then get to stay till 8:00 pm. 13 hour days are long and very tiring. I need be beauty sleep. Sweet, warm and blessed dreams to all.

It is December!!!

I woke up yesterday to the first day of December and snow. Not much just about a half inch but it is cold and icy. It snowed a little more today. Everyone is teasing me about the snow and cold. I finally was able to pull out my warm, winter sweaters. Which, in Oregon, I would have been wearing since October. (The pic on the left is my frosted sparkly porch and the one on the right is my front yard. Yes it is snowing again.)

I worked late tonight on grades and walked home on a very cold, quiet, clear night. The snow sparkles here. The frost does too. Frost does not cover everything in a white layer here like in Oregon. On a frosty morning you walk through the grass and it just sparkles like glitter. Tonight on top of the snow that is what it looked like.

I was working on positive behavior in my classroom so we are rewarding ourselves on Friday for doing good behavior with root beer floats. They have earned a cup, root beer and 1 scoop of ice cream so far. Tomorrow is another scoop of ice cream and Friday a straw. Then in the afternoon before school gets out, we will enjoy what has been earned. Some students will not have ice cream in their floats. But it was their decisions that and no one else will have to suffer for other peoples bad choices. I am lucky my neighbor is an experienced driver in the snow. I told my students that they were lucky too because I don't drive in snow and I need to go to the store tomorrow for the root beer float party. My students don't understand why I won't drive in the snow.

I told them it was because I didn't know how. They asked me if I didn't know how to drive at all and if so why do I have a car. I explained in Oregon when it snows a couple of inches the city practically stops. That I take a bus or stay home because it is safer. I then had to explain how wet our snow was so it is very slick and how there is usually ice under the snow. I also told them I didn't have any chains and they began to laugh at me. Apparently, here you only need snow tires to get around. Well, it is 35 miles to the closest town and a long drive or walk to find anyone near the road if you wreck and need help. I don't think I will practice my winter driving for awhile.

The Bad Lands are not exactly a place with straight roads and they are not flat like the rest of the mid west. So hilly, curvy roads with deer, antelope and smaller animals runny across the road without warning. Not fun especially in the dark which is usually when I get to drive. So I am going to rely on the hospitality of my neighbors.

This week, the staff and teachers started their secret Santa. Of course, I would get the name of another new teacher so I have no idea what she likes. Today I put in her box a small stoneware trinket box with some pretty ceramic inlay. I filled it with paper clips. She was delighted. The fun part was watching her enjoy the gift and pretending not to know who gave it to her. I am looking for other little things to slip into her box. I only have till 12/17 then I will be revealed. I want to buy something nice for her when I am revealed. I don't know what that might be but I am thinking a nice scarf in her favorite color. Now comes the fun stuff, finding out her favorite color.

Well, it is late and need some sleep. I know I will sleep well tonight because the snow has driven the cows out of the neighborhood. For the last four night, I have had four cows in my yard. They arrive around 10:30 pm and mow my lawn as well as fertilize it. However they also enjoy a good scratch by rubbing various parts against the corner of my house. The very corner where the head of my bed is. Sounds like a hand saw trying to cut through my house. I have been told they are better than having buffalo around because buffalo are mean and dangerous. But do they rub their butts on my house when I am trying to sleep I wonder.