Random Monday-May 6th, 2013

Don't forget about the giveaway for the free "Ring the Bell" dvd!  You can enter here.  Also, if you're interested in entering any other giveaways or have one of your own you're hosting, there is a link-up here for giveaway that are running in May.

Last week we went from shorts and sandals to full winter gear just 2 days later.  You know, last week as in the beginning of MAY.  We had a blizzard in May, people.  I wouldn't be honest if I didn't tell you that I didn't start checking out real estate in Florida by day 2 of the snowmegeddon.  I didn't get any pictures of the snow, but here are some from other people in the area.  On Thursday and Friday, school was cancelled and on Thursday, the post office did not deliver mail.  Remember what the USPS's motto is?

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"     

I beg to differ.

I love getting deals.  Really, who doesn't?  I found this brand new with tags Luli and Me smocked romper at the local consignment shop for only $5.  It retails for about $56.  I've been dying to get one of these for Star to wear this summer, but couldn't afford one.  I may or may not have screamed in the aisle when I pulled this off the rack and saw the price tag.

We celebrated Little Man's third birthday on Saturday.  Actually, the spoiled little kid gets two birthday parties this year so this was just the first one.  The second one is next Saturday and will be a joint birthday party for Little Man, my sister's son, and my brother's daughter, who are all turning three within less than 3 weeks of each other.  The one this last Saturday was for Hubby's side of the family so, of course, we went with a John Deere theme.

I made this shirt for Little Man to wear to the John Deere party.

I made this cake for Little Man's party.  He was very annoyed that I put his toys ON the cake.

In the morning, while I was cleaning the house and getting ready for the party, my sister and her husband decided to go garage saling and asked if I would be interested in renting their three oldest kids for the morning.  I declined to pay them money for the opportunity, but offered to babysit instead.  As you can see, the morning went very well:
  

Princess is standing.  Little Man and my oldest nephew are on the floor.

 Even though I had 6 kids in my small house all morning and some of the afternoon, I still managed to get the house cleaned (it was like brushing my teeth while eating oreos, but I did it!) and get ready for the party.  Little Man basked in the attention, sang along when we sang him "Happy Birthday", thanked everyone for coming (including me) and was overall, the perfect birthday boy.

After he got over his chagrin about the toys on his cake, he loved it.  As you can see from his face, we had pizza for his birthday supper.

Princess caught a cold that started on Sunday and is having problems with her asthma.  At home, I'm pretty confident in being able to handle the nebtreatments and watching her activity level so she doesn't stop breathing or something "fun" like that.  But today, she had preschool.  Leaving my wheezing child with people who aren't familiar with how she works when she's having asthma issues or who don't understand how serious an asthma attack can quickly become, was hard, to say the least.  Maybe I'm paranoid, but I think the paranoia is pretty justified.  I have asthma and have had multiple hospitalizations (including one which involved me being in a coma for 5 days) and have nearly died from asthma attacks many times.  Maybe Princess's asthma isn't as bad as mine, but I'm not taking any chances since I know first hand how quickly things can go downhill when a person's lungs are closing up.  Asthma related deaths are MUCH more common than people realize, but it's incredibly difficult to get people to realize just how dangerous the disease is.  This is one of the things that scared me most about Princess going to school.       



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Observations On Minnesota in Winter

Minnesotans develop the "winter hunch" which is actually two different things with the same name. The first winter hunch is when people are walking outside during winter. Good posture disappears in Minnesota at this time and is replaced with hunched shoulders and a bowed head. This is partly because people are trying to shield themselves from the cold and partly because their winter jackets are so heavy that they can't stand up straight anymore.
The second winter hunch is one that most Minnesotans think they have. It goes something like this, "Uff-da, I got a hunch it's gonna snow tonight, and ya betcha we're gonna get stuck at home tomorrow." "Yup, better head to the grocery store and buy us some more lefse/flour to make lefse to get us through."

Two lane roads turn into one lane roads overnight. When the snowplow goes through, it pushes all the snow from the middle of the street onto the side of the street, creating huge mountains of snow right along where cars would normally park. This leaves little to no room for parking and definitely space for only one car to drive on the street at a time. If you're heading up a hill in winter, you better pray you don't meet someone coming down because one of you is going to have to back up, and it'll probably be you because the other guy won't be able to back UP the icy hill to let you through.

Small children disappear during the winter and are replaced by small abominable snowman-type creatures. Some theorize that this is due to the 14 layers most parents put on their child before allowing them to go outdoors in the winter.

Ya sure, ya betcha it's cold! 'Nuff said.

People who visit Minnesota in the spring bring home tales of ghosts and strange people who wear shorts when it's 48 degrees outside. A typical Minnesotan's skin only sees sunlight for about 4 months out of the year which means that after a long winter, they're literally as white as a ghost. Minnesotans are also known for thinking that any temperature over the freezing point is shorts and sandals weather.

Winter in Minnesota would be the perfect time to commit a crime. Everyone's bundled up from head to toe with only their eyes showing anyways, so a burglar could easily blend into a crowd. He also could get away without anyone being able to identify his vehicle because it would be probably be covered with snow, sand from the roads, and slush. His license plate would be covered up by the miniature snowdrifts that build up on anything that isn't completely smooth, making a positive ID practically impossible. Unless he's like that one crook I heard of on the radio the other day. He was very careful all the way through the burglary, but made one little mistake as he left. He backed into a snow bank to pull out and left a perfect imprint of his license plate in the snow, leading police straight to his door. Oops.

Occasional frostbite is nothing to get excited over. Don't try telling other Minnesotans that the tip of your pinkie got frostbitten while you were out shoveling 2 feet of snow and expect them to be impressed. It happens and it's no big deal.

When schools close for a snow day during a blizzard, it generally doesn't deter people from going anywhere. So the kids have a snow day? Load 'em up in the car and let's go shopping!

During the summer, Minnesotans talk about the road construction. During the winter, they talk about the weather. When it hits 20 below 0, Minnesotans start using the phrase, "Cold 'nuff fer ya?" liberally. At that point, most will also start wearing a knit hat outdoors as well.