We went sledding after school on Monday. We had gotten just barely enough snow but I decided that since the kids get out of school early on Mondays, that we should give it a try. Check out the video!

When there's more snow, they go a lot faster. But it was fun anyway. Evan saw a young man (probably a college kid) working on building a ramp by shoveling snow into a garbage can and dumping it onto a hand-built ramp. Evan wanted to help him so he went over there to help this guy. I overheard him saying something to the young man so I asked him what he said to the guy and he said "oh, I was giving him advice"! How cute!

Evan spent about a half an hour helping this young man build the ramp. I kept thinking "I hope this guy let's Evan use the ramp!" You never know with college kids.....alas, he did. But Evan didn't get much sledding in because he spent so much time helping to build the ramp.

It was very, very cold; about 10 degrees or less. It took a long time just getting the kids layered up to go. Sashas stayed home, which was a good idea. I stayed warm most of the time but got cold toward the end. I decided to sled too and just spent the time sledding on the Radio flyer (old wooden sled), which works quite well. Katerina used the blue plastic sled but it doesn't go very fast. Neither kid likes to use the wooden sled because you can't go over ramps with it. But I think it works great.

We went home and had hot cocoa and pop corn. I love days like this!

Ketchup

January is cruising right along. Kurt took the kids and Sasha skiing last weekend and I got to have what every mom dreams of: a weekend alone! I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed that!

Not much time now, so quick recap of the last few weeks:

The kids starting swim lessons down at the Rec Center but I'm not sure they are liking it too much. The coach is nice but it's obvious this is not a team for young kids. It's all business with him. K and E are the youngest kids on the team and struggling quite a bit with the strokes. Plus, the water is really cold! I've been swimming while they swim and I have hard time staying warm so I know they do (at least Evan does). But we'll stick it out for awhile and see how it goes.

I'm loving not teaching this semester! I'm liking it so much that I'm thinking I don't want to teach anymore. I'd like to pursue other activities in my profession, like teaching the class I developed at CSU for large women....more on that later.

Because I'm not teaching, I am picking the kids up at school almost every day and they really like that. We usually stay awhile and play on the playground, even in cold weather. I am amazed that no one else does that. We are always the only kids on the playground. The cars are all lined up at the school picking up kids and then they disappear and it's like a ghost town....why not stay and let kids play for awhile? I bet most of them go home and sit and front of a tv!

Katerina likes to play football and Evan likes to play cops and robbers. I have to say I'm partial to doing something with a ball, whether it's football, basketball, tether ball, wall ball, etc. With cops and robbers I end up having to run all over the playground and I'm usually sore from triathlon training! But Evan is OK with it and just glad that we're playing outside for awhile.

It is 7:25 AM and Kurt is still asleep!!!! In all of our 15 yrs of marriage, I have never seen him sleep in this late! I wonder if I should make sure he's breathing!

The kids are sleeping too, which is late for them, but they went to bed at 10:00 PM last night. We went out to a movie with Lynne and Marshall Parks, close friends of ours. Actually, we went to dinner with them and then Marshall went home and Lynne went to the movie with us. We saw Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood. Wow! Did that ever remind me of my dad!

I will have to tell my brother to watch this movie too. Rick would love it....in fact, I could see him being "Walt" when he gets older.....

It's snowing right now and it's so pretty. A gentle falling snow....all is quiet in the house right now and I'm loving it. Daisy sleeping by my side....

Kurt and I have been talking about home-schooling someday. I'm curious about it. I can easily see the pros and cons. I never thought I'd say this (in fact, I use to be quite emphatic about never wanting to homeschool!) but the idea intrigues me. But only because I see it as a way to give my kids a very enriched education. And because the schools in Greeley have not been doing well these last few years (state testing reports). Monfort Elementary, where the kids go, has done very well but the middle and high schools have not scored well.

But Lynne thinks that home-schooled kids are "nerdy". I'm not so sure about that. Stay tuned on this issue.

Not much more to say....ta ta!

Holy Night Supper

On Saturday we went to a very special event. It is called Holy Night Supper and it was started by our close friend, Sarah Siegler, and her husband, Eric. We went to Ukraine with Eric and Sarah to adopt our children - they adopted Matthew and we adopted Katerina, both in the same orphanage outside of Lugansk, Ukraine. That was in 2002, when Katerina was 8 months old and Matthew was 14 months old.



Flash forward a few years and there we all are at the Siegler household every January on the Saturday night closest to the Russian celebration of Christmas (Jan. 7th). Sarah's grandparents were Ukrainian and they did HNS every year when she was growing up. She is continuing the tradition with her kids and we are fortunate enough to be a part of it.



So what exactly do we do at HNS? Well, Sarah prepares a meal that is similar to the traditional Ukrainian Christmas/New Year meal. And it doesn't stop there. Each food has a special meaning and there are certain rules we must follow. For example, we must wash our hands with silver coins to bring wealth into the new year. We have an empty chair at the table to represent the seat for the Christ Child that will be coming in the new year. We kiss the four corners of the table while we hold hands to indicate sharing love with all four corners of the earth....etc. It's a very special dinner and we love it.

We usually go down early enough for the kids to play and help Sarah and Eric prepare the dinner, so we have plenty of time to talk. We only see them a few times a year so there's a lot to catch up on!

After dinner, we open a few gifts and play with the kids. It's a very special time and we treasure our friendship with the Sieglers very much.

See the photos at www.dallowphotos.shutterfly.com. I'll probably write more about it later but I'm too tired to write anything now! Have more to write because the day after HNS is Grandfather Frost...another special event. More soon!

Yesterday was a typical busy weekend day. It started with me leaving at 7:45 AM to run with my friend, Brenda. I look forward to my long runs on Saturday morning so I was happy to go. Kurt stayed at the hospital the night before (on call) so he wasn't here. But since we have Sasha here and the kids are old enough to sorta take care of themselves, I can leave without getting a babysitter.

Had a nice but very cold long run. Kevin Magee showed up as well. It was snowing by the time we got back. Ran 9 miles.

Came home, showered, ate lunch, talked with kids. Sasha still asleep. Needed to prime Katerina's cabinet so went downstairs to do that. Katerina had been watching tv the entire time I was gone so I wanted her to stop watching tv, but since I was down there priming (and the tv was on), she stayed down there too. Both kids had a bad case of cabin fever!Sasha got up and joined us in the basement. Katerina wanted to walk/run on the treadmill so I let her turn it on. Mistake! She was doing fine with it, although starting to get a little too daring by standing sideways and "flying" off the end of it and then, of course, Evan comes downstairs and wants to do taht too. Before I knew it, both kids were "flying" off the end of it so we had a "discussion" and the treadmill was turned off.

We were watching What Not to Wear while I was priming the cabinet. I like that show (find it interesting and obnoxious at the same time) but wasn't sure I wanted Katerina to see it. She's at a very impressionable age and of course, all they talk about is appearance....what looks good, what doesn't....and I don't want her to think that what she wears is that important. More on that later.

After lunch and several squabbles and meltdowns between the kids, I decide we need to get them out of the house. But it's REALLY cold outside, probably around 18 degrees with wind chill colder than that. Kurt comes home and starts ranting on the house so I figure we need to get him out as well, so off we go: kids, dogs, Kurt, and me.

We walk to UNC, like we always do, and the dogs have a blast. Evan likes to run all the way around the playing fields with Daisy (and I followed him). Katerina and Kurt played catch with the football. We had a great time. I thought to myself, "only this family would be out on such a cold day just playing around"!

Evan and I came back from our short little walk and joined Kurt and Katerina for a little touch footbball. We were having a great time but the dogs got overly excited and Daisy bit Evan. It was a playful bite but there were teethmarks behind his ear (ouch!). And before that, Evan was running full-steam with the ball and he collided with Daisy who was also running full-steam in the other direction. They collided with full-force, knocking Evan to the ground. Kurt and Katerina busted out laughing and since I saw Evan laughing too, I laughed a little...but I scolded both Kurt and Katerina for not checking to see if he was ok before laughing. They didn't listen, of course. Then on the next play, Daisy dove on Evan and "accidentally" bit his head, behind the ear. We stopped playing and went home.

Kurt took Katerina over to my mom's house for her first sewing lesson! Kat got a sewing machine for Christmas. She seems to like it so far. I hope she sticks with it!Evan and I sat on the couch and read a book. He has to read 16 books over the Christmas break! He's getting better at reading but still a little behind where he should be.

I also read for awhile, something I never get to do! I'm reading a book called Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. Wow....amazing, eye-opening book....more on that later too. It's totally changing my view of Christianity.

Ok, now for the evening, which was quite eventful. First, we had spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner. I dished up a big dish from the stove and handed it to Katerina to take to the table, something I never do (give her a big dish to carry). Like any 7 yr old, she proceeds to carry it with one hand and of course, the entire pile of spaghetti with sauce slides out of the plate onto our $2000 rug. Normally, when the kids spill things, I don't get mad. There are other things they do that "get me" but not spilling things. But this time it got me. Not only did I lose my dinner (it was my plate she was carrying and I was really hungry) but spaghetti sauce can permanently stain a carpet and there was a huge pile on the carpet. I got angry and Kurt got REALLY angry. Katerina was paralyzed....she couldn't move. Kurt was yellling at her to do something, but she couldn't (and this has happened before). Long story short, we had a quiet dinner with a very sad little girl.

Next, we all went downstairs to watch Narnia. We rarely watch movies together so this was a "treat". We watched the entire movie and everyone was really into it. All of us on the couch, lights out, dogs at our feet - I love it when we're together like this!I was a little unhappy with the yet another children's tale where there's an evil woman and a loving, all-knowing, noble male figure. More on that later.

After the movie, we go upstairs to go to bed. It's after 10:00 PM and as we walk through the kitchen, Kurt suddenly says "I smell gas!" and runs to the stove, where he sees that one of the gas burners is still on. I immediately smell it too. We run to the windows and through them open. The kids are alarmed and we calmly explain to them why this is bad. But the movie had them a little spooked already and they were suddenly hyped up. The smell was really bad so i took them outside. I decided to call the fire department but Kurt argued with me, saying that it will dissipate. But there was no way I was going to shut the windows with gas in the house. So I called 911!

I've never called 911 before. I told the dispatcher that this was not an emergency but that I would like someone to come over and check the gas level in the house. He asked if we needed an ambulance, if anyone was feeling sick and I said NO! But they sent one anyway!

Before I knew it, here comes a big firetruck. I should back up and say that Katerina was absolutley horrified at the prospect of firefighters coming to our house and was shaking and crying. She is petrified of anyone with a mask on their faces. She was truly petrified, not faking it at all or dramatizing....she was seriously scared. I had to make a decision - either not call 911 and hope that the gas was gone (to save her the emotional trauma) or call them and hope she'll get through it ok. I chose the latter....just knew I couldn't sleep with windows shut and gas in the house.

She ran outside and Kurt grabbed her and took her to her room. The firefighters came and treated the situation very seriously (which made me feel better that I had called them!). They came in and walked around the house checking the co2 levels. Kurt brought Katerina out and when she saw that they did not have masks on, she calmed down a bit. One of the firefighters talked to her in a very soothing way (loved him!!!). All was well and they left.

As I always say, never a dull moment in the Dallow household!

Day One

Greetings! This is Day One of our family blog. I have very mixed feelings about family blogs so this is somewhat of a bold step for me. But I really like keeping a journal of what we do as a family and this is a more attractive way to keep one (and easier too) than simply typing everything into a Word document.

Why not hand-write a journal, you ask? Because I HATE my handwriting and because I usually have so much to say that my hand gets tired of writing. Three other reasons for blogging vs private journaling: 1) if our computer crashes, it will not be lost, 2) I can do it anywhere, and 3) I like adding pictures now and then.

Oh yeah, one more: my extended family can access it too if they want to take a peak at what we've been up to (although I probably won't give out the address for awhile; I want to make sure I will actually do this!).

I guess I could do a Facebook page but I've never used Facebook and it seems more "open to the public" than blogging. This just feels "safer" to me, for some odd reason.

And when we got back from Ukraine the 2nd time, a woman we know printed out our blog and put it into a nice binder for us to keep. I was so surprised....and it looked so nice! I thought "wow, this is a nice way to document a trip" and it will be nice for Evan and Katerina to read someday.

I'm hoping Kurt will join me in blogging some of our activities too.

Sooooo......what are we up to today, this second day of the New Year? I'm finishing a project in Katerina's room, Kurt is working, and the kids are going to the Family FunPlex this afternoon with some friends. They are very excited!

Sasha, our exchange student will be here too because school hasn't started back up yet.

Speaking of school, I can't wait for it to start on Monday! School for the kids, that is. I'm not teaching this semester - woo hoo! This will be the first semester in almost 5 years that I'm not teaching and it feels so weird (yet sooooo good). I love teaching but it's more work than anyone realizes (unless they've done it) and I stress about it a lot. I spend a lot of time making powerpoint presentations, handouts, case studies, lectures, class projects, etc, and I end up feeling like I have NO time to do anything else.

I become tired, cranky, impatient, and just not fun to be around when I'm teaching. I don't have time to volunteer at my church or school or do anything extra (other than running, which I have to do to keep my sanity) and I don't like that.

So this is the first time in many years that I'm not gainfully employed. I will be doing some consulting for the athletic team at UNC and giving some talks at Aims Community College but not teaching and I'm very excited about it.

That's enough for now....plus, Kurt needs my help carrying the yellow cabinet (that I'll be painting today for Katerina's room) up out of the basement into the breezeway.....ta ta for now!