Finally a snow day whoooo hoooo !!!!!!!

Isn't he adorable my cute little grandson.

I am kicked back, wrapped in a snuggle blanket, toasty warm. I just finished making fry bread, one of my new favorite Native American dishes, and I am watching a movie. All this on a Monday morning. We finally are enjoying our first snow day of the season. It snowed hard on Friday and the wind picked up and the temperature has dropped. All around me there is a white out and blizzard like conditions. We are in a pocket that is just getting the tip of the storm. Although the wind is blowing the snow around, it is not white out conditions here. Just cold and windy. But no school!!!

So I am using this day off unwisely. I am lazing around and doing nothing when I should be catching up on grading and correcting papers and studying up for next week. Nope not me I am resting and being lazy and nothing or no one is going to stop me.

And now I go back to enjoying my snow day and will write to you later.

I am surviving

I came home from Oregon to below zero temps. This past Friday it was almost 40 below zero. I went out with my neighbor to dinner and a movie and caught a cold as well. Now I am cold and miserable. My students were wonderful and told me how horrible I looked today at work. Just what I needed for my self esteem. "Miss Fry you look awful.. "Miss Fry your nose is all red... "Miss Fry you sound funny.." and on and on all day. I truly would have taken the day off except there were no subs available and half the work for today was at my house for grading. What fun today was, stuffy nose, sore throat, sneezing and seventh graders.

I live under God's favor right now, one of the maintenance crew came over with the bobcat and dug out my yard. Now I have a walkway and a driveway and half my yard is snowless. I don't own a shovel and I am glad for men who are bored and need to play with their toys. Bobcats are fun little machines, I think I want to learn to play with that toy.

I need to go and figure out what I am planning for next semester which starts on Wednesday. SO I had better get planning before I fall into be exhausted. God bless and God rest.

I am back from Christmas

I left for Oregon on December 18. It took 24 hours on the train. It was a long, long ride but worth it. My sons flew in from Houston and I got to see my grandson. I had an art day with my artist sisters, visited with family and friends. It was a bitter sweet reunion. Man do I miss Oregon, my friends, family, and church. I am back now and on the home stretch. Five more months and my first teaching year is over. I am learning a lot on classroom management. I also have discovered what I already knew, I don't like teaching 7Th grade and I don't like cold weather.

Which, brings me to my homecoming in North Dakota. I arrived home on January 1, to a wonderful pile of snow. The roads are clear on the highways which is good because I had to drive to Bismarck today (1/2). We had a high today of 0 degrees F and I did what I never thought I would do, when I went in the store to get supplies after my meeting I left my car running, locked but running. I was afraid it would freeze-up if I turned it off because the car didn't have time to heat up between my meeting and the store. Half the parking lot had cars running while people shopped. It saved me time because I did not dally in the store all I could think of was my contribution to global warming and the dollars of gasoline being wasted as my car sat idling in the parking lot.

The drive to and from Bismarck was scary in spots. Not because it was slick but because the wind blew the snow around so I had very little visibility. It was like being in thick fog. I couldn't use my brights because the light reflected back from the snow blinded me. It was crazy but I am home now with a hot cup of tea, candy bar, cozy blanket, and a movie. Ahh, chocolate makes everything better. I think I am ready to begin teaching again on Monday.

My sister gave me the neatest present. She had my friend design the outside of the box for me. It is a personalized blessing box. Inside it has a tablet and a pen. I write what God has blessed me with each day and put it in the box. Then when I am homesick or down I can pull them out and remind myself not only how far I have come in my life but also how God is faithful, loving and always there for me. Coolest gift in the world. Plus the money she would have spent on Christmas presents, she donated to a special fund at church where part of the money went to digging wells in Nigeria and the other part went to gift cards for homeless teens to buy clothes. I love the idea and think that is what I want to do next year. I have a year to make everyone homemade gifts and save money to donate somewhere. We will see what I accomplish. LOL (Note to Karen, I did not use LOL as a punctuation but a note to tell you I am being funny. (LOL)).