Van Natter JANUARY

Welcome to BABY ELLA! She was in a hurry to get here!

January flew by! The first 5 days were the BEST because Emily and Addie were still here. Addie cracked us up on a continual basis. One day she suddenly kept saying to her mother, "Hi! How are you, Princess?" Also got to 'enjoy' the trauma of the first beauty salon haircut. She was not a happy camper! But looked so grown up with her short bob.

Had to show this photo: Addie begged for a Junior Mint that someone was eating. We assumed she'd eaten it, but later found it stuck to the bottom of Santa's saw. Guess she showed us what she thought of that particular candy!

The rest of the month seems to have been storm after storm after storm. Then FROZEN RAIN! (Which never happens in Utah!) Then more snow. And more snow. And then some more snow.

I took this photo from my laundry room. I was fascinated by those icicles!! And in the distance you can just make out the sun through the horrible inversion. This was mid-morning. Dark and cold.

And in those freezing temperatures, Ian slipped on the ice at Maverick and messed up his hip. The doc said he'd burst the bursal sac, but after another week of utter misery he decided he also had ligament and tendon damage, and told him to take 2 weeks off work. Ian took a week then went back, but it's a painful long day for him. He can't take his pain meds and function at work. Then to add insult to injury, he broke a molar and is currently at the dentist getting that dealt with.

Also during the single digit days, minus zero nights, the water line to my washer froze. Fortunately John was able to get it thawed with minimal effort. After that I started washing daily, instead of once a week, to keep water running through it.

Got my nativities finally wrapped up and put away (I followed Annette's example and wrapped all the pieces and stashed them in storage bins, instead of in their original boxes. Takes up so much less room. 3- 25 lb. bins of nativities!!)

With that done, I turned my attention to my junk heap of a bedroom!! There were still boxes of things (like china, things we seldom use, etc) stashed in there from the remodel. I'm almost done with that project and the bedroom is looking so airy and open. But not for long. Next project is to empty the computer room - into my bedroom for now - while we revamp the room into a more workable space. Currently it's the 'junk drawer' of our house - anything we don't have a place for ends up in the computer room!! Kind of excited about that project. Once finished, the plan is to then redo our bedroom, which is always the last to get any kind of attention. We painted it 8-9 years ago and still have NOTHING on the walls!



36 years ago on January 23rd we got engaged. John NEVER forgets, the old softy!! He brought me lovely red roses. Still can't believe it's been soooo long!

Got to teach a lesson on the Holy Ghost in Relief Society. The actual talk I was assigned was Elder Nelson's, "Ask the Missionaries. They can Help!", which if you recall has pretty much NO MEAT in it. But I found some great info on the Holy Ghost and was able to work it in since there is a story in there about Jerry who hears a voice tell him to stop the boys on the bikes. Remember?? I'll post the Holy Ghost info separately. It almost started a brawl in RS!!! :-)

John has missed his little sweetheart so much. He always loves a chance to Face Time with her. He's dealing with some sciatic pain problems, which gets worse after he's shoveled all that snow. But we don't have a snow blower (every year we debate, and should have done it for sure this year!), and Ian has been out of commission most of the month due to his hip. He's gotten out to the Island a couple of times. The horrible inversion made breathing difficult and ensured that there would be no color when the sun went down.

Here's to February: month of LOVE!!