I hope the week has been going well for everyone. For some good news, we finally got our van back! It has been in the "shop" for about two weeks. We were very blessed to have the use of our friend's van while she was gone. We were getting nervous though, because I was picking up my friend Monday night at the airport and our van still wasn't done. Thankfully, the guy called Monday afternoon and said it was done. What a blessing! The mechanic(s) couldn't rebuild our transmission because it was giving them too many problems so they put in a new one. We were again blessed because the mechanic stuck to the quoted price and didn't charge us more!

After paying for the transmission on Monday, yesterday during lunch Lee called and paid off some more on our student loans. I have been waiting and wanting to make a payment for a month and a half, so it felt really nice to get another chunk chipped away at our debt.

Because of Martin Luther King, Jr. day, Lee had a four-day weekend and it was very nice. I love his job! Thursday night to kick off the weekend we watched The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Sometime this week, I "caught" the girls sitting quietly looking at books. I love it when my kids do this. Shanna is looking at a little photo album. She loves to find a picture of Lee where he is dressed up in Chinese garb.


The first day of Lee's break it snowed. Sorry Nicole, Ashley and Deb...it's kind of wimpy compared to good ol' Wisconsin and Iowa snow! After lunch we took the kids over to my friend's house and then Lee and I went bowling! We had two free games (we thought we would get free shoes too, but no) to use and it was really fun. What was very weird, we both scored the same score for each game. On both games I bowled a 117 and on both games Lee bowled a 126! So weird. Not very high scores, but at least we both broke 100.

Here are the girls, Shanna and Haley, for a trial run of playing outside later Friday afternoon. It was very cold (okay it was only about 5 degrees out) but I thought they would want to come back inside right away. I was wrong!



So we bundled them up. Of course Lee and I didn't want to go out so Lee kept an eye on them through our big front window. The boys had fun too playing in the snow.












A relaxing Saturday morning watching a movie.



Saturday afternoon I went shopping on base and later Lee did too. That evening we watched another movie, Shadow of the Thin Man. A few weeks ago we watched The Thin Man. There are a couple more movies in the series that we look forward to watching.

Sunday of course was good. I am getting acquainted with more ladies at church so that is nice! My lesson went well too. It was on agency and the need and freedom to choose. At the end I did an object lesson that the manual suggested. I put some yarn (I didn't have rope) loosely around Lee's arms. Then I put some candy in front of him. As he reached for the candy I tightened the yarn so he couldn't have it. Then I related how Satan binds us with sin and that when we try to reach for something good (the candy) it's difficult/impossible because of the bonds of sin. I think the class liked it.

The girls on Monday




Monday morning a couple of friends came over for a little play group. We enjoyed talking and overall the kids had fun playing. Monday afternoon I got the anticipated call that our van was done and after switching vehicles and kids in Rolla, Lee went home and I headed to the airport to get my friend.

I missed the inauguration yesterday. We don't have TV channels and when my sister said she was watching it on the internet I was busy getting other stuff done. Yes, history is in the making with electing the first black president, which in itself is neat and remarkable. I happen to not like Obama's agenda though, as I stated in a much earlier post. I like the government out of my life as much as possible. When I was looking through the book order forms that Clark brought home from school, I was shocked when I saw a particular children's book entitled: Barack Obama: Child of Hope, Son of Promise. I dislike the title very much! I admit, I haven't read the book. Maybe the book is about how is mother's name is Hope and he made and kept promises as a son. Maybe I'll see if this library has it and see what it's all about, but so far it doesn't seem like my kind of book.

So a couple of random things, Clark and Cal have learned another Spanish word from Lee: "bobo" or "bo bo". It means silly, crazy, funny, weird. It has been cute hearing them say "que bo bo".

I think Shanna is now differentiating between the words mommy and daddy by calling us our appropriate names. For awhile Shanna would call each of us daddy, and Haley would call Lee and I momma. Today though Shanna called me mommy and she was looking at that photo book again and pointed to the picture of Lee in Chinese garb and called him daddy.

Shanna also can climb back into her crib! She has only done it on one occasion that I know of. One time during naps, I went into the girls' room because they weren't napping. I was very confident that Shanna was out of her crib, because I may have heard her bang on the door or something. Well, when I went in Shanna was in Haley's crib! And twice yesterday Shanna was able to get out of her room. That alone is amazing because we have child door knob things on the inside of the girls' doors.

And the girls like to get the shortening and eat it. (It is now been moved out of their reach.) On Friday Haley was with me in the laundry room. Shanna came in and beckoned to Haley to follow her. I thought it was cute that Shanna wanted Haley so I decided to follow. Shanna had the shortening on the floor with the lid off and wanted Haley to participate in eating it!

And yesterday, (this one is for Haley) I was cleaning the bathrooms and left to put a rag in the laundry room. I had a surprise when I came back! While Haley was unrolling toilet paper, Shanna was putting it in the toilet. A LOT of toilet paper. Ah! Sound familiar Aunt Anna Lee? They are doing pretty well though at not getting into too many things, I just need to make sure and keep good tabs on them.

Cal took some pictures yesterday. This one I thought was kind of weird.

Maybe he will be a Hitchcock junkie someday?