January and February are gone already and March is here. It has been an interesting winter across the globe. I read in the Daily News-Miner today that in Fairbanks, AK the first three weeks of December were the warmest ever on record, January was the fifth coldest ever, and February was the warmest in 10 years. Minnesota for the longest time had less snowfall this winter than Texas but on "leap day" was dumped on so badly that people had to stay home from work and school. Above you can see someone has made it out on skis 4 times now, which means he's becoming comfortable enough to lean, turn around, and even glide a little. I think I've made it out 8 times, excluding with him, so assuming March is nice I should meet my goal of 10 trips. Above right, the boys are waiting for their friends to arrive to take them to ice skating lessons. Twice a week for five weeks a kind friend has offered to bring our son and another woman's daughter with her own to take lessons. This has been nice because it was quite hard to bring him the six times we did since the little brother isn't quite ready to be on the ice with us yet. Our older son continues to attend preschool two afternoons a week and the teacher reports he is very well adapted and social.
Sometime in January, my husband and I took on a weekly commitment. He is teaching his 4th class (3rd different course in all) for the local university's Process Technology program. And I joined the Fairbanks Community Band. Finding the time for both leaves little time for other projects around home, but they are both very challenging and rewarding. It is always fun to meet new people, friends of friends, and just yesterday I without much effort recruited one of my favorite friends to join the band. The photo above is of us before the community service concert Suite Dreams and Winter Themes, which was held at the Pioneer Park Theatre.
These guys are the absolute best. This last week has been exhausting. My weeks normally go smoothly, without drama but each day I received a piece of news that was shocking to me ... a young friend with cancer, a leak and water damage at a friends home and rental property we watch, and several other horrible things that I won't get into. But, just as I started to get tears in my eyes at the end of the week, the little guy who is barely two says, "Mommy, don't cry anymore." His understanding of the world and language skills are about as good as the average kid twice his age. And then they both started saying, "Please take pictures of us." And I remembered I haven't been taking pictures lately. These boys are full of energy, giggles, "roars," "args," and punches. No week is too tough with their love and animation.
