Bits n Pieces

Yippeeeeeeee! We have internet at my parents place! Yahooooooo! Mel and I went over to the Spring AT&T store today and bought a modem and a 2 year plan and we have internet we can take with us wherever we go (or at least up here where we had none before). It's slower than molasses in January but I think that's because we only have between 1 and 3 bars of coverage. We're just glad there is coverage and we can check our email and I can write on the internet and so forth and so on. WoooooHooooo!

At the Spring AT&T store, we were talking about phones and ipods and blackberries and living in Eastern Europe and so forth and so on and finally the manager, who was helping us, asked us why we were in Eastern Europe. We responded with a brief description of what we do and he asked if we had a church here. Mel responded with the name of my home church and the guy standing behind him, listening to the whole conversation smiled and said, "That's MY church, too. I thought you guys looked familiar! I've seen you there before." And the manager responded, "PCA - ECA - 12 years there, graduated from there and my mother is still a teacher there!" And I responded to that with, "Oh! We were at Grace yesterday!" (Grace is the church where ECA is located.)

Small world.

I felt oh, so much more friendly toward those two Spring AT&T employees after that. I wondered if I had sounded grouchy before (what with having to buy a 2 year plan which comes up to $70 a month for 2 years and we'll only be here for 6 months and will have to leave the modem with my parents and pray they will actually USE it to communicate with us via email, skype, etc., I was kind of grouchy about the whole deal ....) You know, you never really know who you are dealing with when you are in public - who the people at the next table in the restaurant might be, or who the salesperson might be, or even who that person in the car that just cut you off or you cut off might be. It's really a very small world.

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And if I can ever get it to upload, here is a photo of my latest FO: Stirling chose the yarn, all in his "favorite colors" except for the brown, which I had already bought. This week pink is also his favorite color, but I happen to know that pink will never do according to his papa, so I'm glad these were his favorite that week. :-) I made it for him, but I'm not sure he'll ever use it. We'll see...

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Fajita salad:
2 cheese enchilada w/refried beans: Mexican food! At our favorite place for lunch up here in Woodland Park. Yum yum! Funny thing is, I told someone the first thing I wanted when we got back to the States was a good steak at Texas Road House, or maybe a half order of BBQ baby back ribs. Have we been to Texas Road House yet? No, haven't even come close to going there. But we will. One of these days. And I'm going to relish the Country Western music blaring, the peanut shells all over the place on the floor, the fresh hot rolls, and which ever entree' I decide to get. Just hasn't happened yet.

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Cold, bitter cold the last few days. It was 7 degrees F ( -14 C ) in Colorado Springs this afternoon when we left and headed home. Snow falling and blowing hither and yon, icy and slushy roads, low white clouds. So glad I have my new winter coat. Wish I'd brought my winter boots from Ukraine, but maybe I'll try and find a new pair here.

Up here in Woodland Park it was 5 degrees F ( -15 C ) directly in town. We drove on farther west and higher in elevation and the temp went down to 3 F. We drove over a slight rise, turned a corner and the temp shot up to 23 degrees! Yep - up here at 9,500 feet above sea level the temperature is 20 degrees warmer than just 2 miles away, and much warmer than 3,000 feet lower is. Inversion, I think that's what it's called. :-) The sun was shining up here all day with clear blue skies, too. But looking down the valley, piles of "whipped cream clouds" floated in and out of view. It is always so pretty - leaves the trees and grasses covered in heavy white hoar frost at cloud level. Hear a happy sigh. I love a REAL winter (gray Ukraine winters where it never gets cold enough to be really COLD and is always humid and I'm sweating in my coat - well, that can make me depressed very quickly if I don't distract myself somehow and find something beautiful to look at or be around....)

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I gave the cutest little boy a bath tonight. I'm sure it's not quite like any bath he's ever had before, and possibly his parents might not be too happy with me the next time one of them gives him a bath, but boy did I have fun and so did he. :-) :-) We ended the bath with a game of "turn off the light and try to find all your toys in the bathtub by feeling for them and trying to remember where they were when the light was on." He succeeded just fine. During the bath I did put a stop to him trying to spray me with the blow fish toy because I really didn't want to get wet myself. And I did it all wrong because I washed his hair way too soon and he still had time left to play. I encourage him to use the water pistol on the rubber ducks instead of my jeans, so he lined them up in a corner and shot them there, causing them to fall into the tub. It was great fun. I also managed to NOT get lotion all over my blouse when he lotioned himself, altho he did threaten to wipe his pretty pink lotioned hands on me. And we had a great time learning the "car wash" drying technique (his mama must not remember that one) where the towel becomes one of those strips that buff you all over really fast and make you warm again when you are standing there shivering because the water got cold before grandma could pry you out of the tub.

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Kara spent most of the day in bed or lying on the couch watching television. She actually called us this morning before we left the motel and asked if WalMart had any good crafts. I said, no, they've gotten rid of most of their stuff but Hobby Lobby has some great stuff I knew she'd enjoy doing. So, while Mel went to buy new windshield wipers at the auto supply store, I hit Hobby Lobby and went shopping. I wasn't sure what she would really like (after all, we've lived in Ukraine for 11 years and not only has she gone to college in that time, but she's married and had a child and is pregnant again and has worked and driven 1000's of miles and in some ways she is a stranger to me now). So, I bought a little bit of this and a little bit of that, all for a total of $50. Two of the items are quick cross stitch projects that she can use as gifts for her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, one is a new craft for both of us, and the other is a more complicated cross stitch that I think will come in handy if she has to stay in bed longer than 3 weeks. I also picked up a free tatted heart pattern and some thread she could use if she's interested in learning to tat (I already have a couple shuttles here). So, we'll see how it goes.

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Well, that's all for tonight. Oh, I am so glad I can post again when I want to write and post. Yea!!