You call THIS winter?!?

Well, we're in NC and having a wonderful visit with my family. We had Christmas #2 yesterday. It was a lot of fun exchanging gifts and having a big Christmas dinner with all the fixin's in January! The kids are all having a blast playing with the cousins, all except Savannah, who at 13 really doesn't care about anything except listening to her iPod, shopping for clothes, and playing on the computer. :-) But the rest of them are having fun, even Levi, who has a two year old cousin, only 17 days younger than him. It's double trouble....and boy are my sister-in-law and I glad we don't have twins! It takes two of us to keep track of two of them!! :-)

Anyway, about winter, or the lack of...It's in the 60's here! What's up with that?? I read in the 6-page town paper (it's so cute!) about how unseasonably warm it's been lately and that maybe it will get cooler sometime next week. It figures! So much for seeing snow! Of course, I must say, no matter how warm it is here, it's definitely cooler than it is at home! So, I'm just grateful for the reprieve.

It took us 14 hours to get here, which is about our usual. Luckily, everyone was in a good mood and no one was sick. Last year Levi started throwing up in Podunckville, South Carolina, which led to 11 of 13 family members here having a stomach virus while we were visiting. SO, we're very happy that everyone seems to be healthy...knock on wood. Knock! Knock! :-) Today we went up to the mountains to the Super Wal-Mart. It was a beautiful ride and we could see for miles because of the nice, clear day. I also found a cast iron dutch oven...yea! I've been looking for one of those for awhile. I used to have one when I was young and inexperienced and I seasoned the pot, but didn't do the lid. So, the first time I made a stew and put the lid on, the condensation caused the rust on the lid to just drip away into the stew. After it was completely done, and I found the stew full of rust, I was so upset I seriously considered just eating it. Yuck! I figured, hey, it's iron, it's good for you, right? Blah! But, alas, the smell was too awful, so I just threw it all out. Now I know better and am looking forward to using it when I get home. :-)

Ok, so let's see. Tomorrow we're going down into SC to see some friends who moved up here last summer. That will be fun. They have 4 kids, too, and all ours have someone to play with. That should keep them all occupied so we can visit! Nicky can't wait to show off his deer pictures! And, later in the week, we're going to Charlotte to a children's museum and to visit some of my cousins. Then, I think we're going to dinner one night to celebrate Nicky's birthday. And, I think that's it. We're going to this adorable little hardware store tomorrow that's an old-fashioned general store type thing. It's in this little town nearby and I just love going there. It's so neat.

Well, I guess that's it for now. If I dont' get a chance to write again while I'm here, we'll be driving home on Saturday, so pray for a safe trip for us. And, hopefully I can write again on Sunday. If not, I'll try Monday. Monday will be back -to-school day for us and back to the routine. So, we'll see. Ok, I gotta go now, cause Savannah has been sitting over my shoulder reading and correcting as I type and asking every 4 minutes if I'm done yet, so she can play!

Will write when I can. Have a wonderful week!
Blessings,
Mylinda :-)

PS-Went to Curves today! Yea!! Aren't you proud of me? Right on the wall they had this verse painted: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil. 4:13 Pretty cool that it was painted on the wall, huh? Not very "politically correct". Might just "offend" me! (Just kidding...and being sarcastic.) Aren't small towns great? See ya!