I'm dreaming of ... heated sidewalks?

The heck with a white Christmas. We've had a white (and oh-so-cold) Nov. 28 and 29, and I've declared that a warm place is one of my top priorities for Kevin's first Foreign Service assignment.
At BYU, a lot of the sidewalks have heating elements in them, or under them, or something. I'm thinking we really need those here. Especially at the train stations. Heck, they should heat the whole parking lot at the Mineral Station.
Nonetheless, I'm hoping it doesn't get down below zero again for a long, long time. I don't think my fingers can take it anymore.

Things I'm thankful for

I had to work tonight, and although I didn't want to, I'm thankful to have a job.
And for Kevin and Laura.
And for the gospel and everything connected to it. Of course, that's everything.
And that we got to go to the Scovilles' for Thanksgiving dinner.
And that I can play "Once There Was a Snowman" on the piano. (And the flute, too, of course, but I can play a lot of things on flute. Piano still is a bit limited.)

Well, I am a newspaper editor ...

Sunday, Laura was spelling things with magnetic letters while I was in the kitchen. She tends to leave vowels out of words, and I asked whether her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Sexton, has talked to them about vowels yet.
"No, you should tell her about them!" Laura said.

The gerbils downsize

Flower and Midnight have moved to a new, much smaller cage. The big change, other than space, is that they're no longer able to fling bedding out the sides. This apparently was their favorite pasttime, and it made for too much vacuuming and general disgustingness.
The old cage:
Notice the pile of bedding in the foreground. At least the hearth has come in handy for something, since we never use the gas fireplace.









The new cage:
It has less living area but is completely enclosed, thus complicating the rodents' attempts to drive me insane.

More of Laura's handiwork

Kevin got me a new camera for my birthday. That means Laura thinks the old camera is hers, so she's been taking random photos. Some of them have been unidentifiable, but this is a closeup she took of her backpack.

Random fact of the day

Princesses don't have bony backs. Or so Laura told me yesterday when I was trying to get her out of bed to get ready for church and commented on her bony back.

Catching up with Halloween

A spider pumpkin named Rocket, one of Laura's homework assignments


Laura as Belle


Jeepers Peepers, our wild-eyed frog jack o' lantern


JP after lighting