What does it feel like?

I put Cora in a nice warm bath this morning before school. The only problem with nice warm baths though, is getting out into the cooler air. At this point in my life I have enough insulation to keep my teeth from chattering when I get out to dry off. But we all remember those days as kids, stepping out of the tub and as the shivering commences thinking that we will never be warm again! Well, on the days when I am feeling like an extra cool mommy, I like to put Cora's towel in the dryer while she is in the tub and get it nice and toasty warm for her. This morning I wrapped her in her cozy hooded towel and she sat on my lap to share some of the bliss with me. After a bit I asked her if she was roasting yet or if it still felt wonderful. The rest of the conversation was as follows:

Cora: I'm not roasting.

Mommy: Oh, so it feels wonderful still?

Cora: No.....it feels like LOVE.

Well, now we

all know what love feels like.

Abominable Snowman

Oh boy! It has been so long, and oh how I have missed blogging. Between working full time and not having internet at our house it has just been too much to think about. We now have a home phone and internet and I can't believe how much more connected I feel. No more phone conversations cutting in and out, no more dropped calls, no more trips to the parent's or the library just to check something out online!

So I guess the first order of business now that I am blogging again would be to tell about the AMAZING 6 foot tall snowman we built today. I wish I could find my camera so I could post a picture! The snow has been coming down all day and is perfect wet packing snow. Greg started us off with the first snow ball for the base of the snowman, and he started us off big. By the time I got outside I could see that he didn't have just any ordinary old snowman in mind!! Cora did great packing extra snow in to round it out and hold the sections together. She was also a great design director..."No dad, it's not done yet. We have more work to do!" I haven't played in the snow and had so much fun in way too long. I am so lucky to have such a great family to spend a fun day in the snow with.

Tremendous relief!

Wow! Everyone else I know has been just blogging their hearts out while I have become a recluse from the outside world. A lot has happened in a short time.

First, let's start with the fact that we have been moving in to our own house! We found a cute little rental in Palouse which is just what we wanted. When I say "moving" in I mean that it is still a work in progress. We've decided to move stuff in a little at a time to avoid the major stress of having all those boxes staring at us, just begging us to open them and get it over with. We are blessed to have a place to store our stuff free of charge, so slowly but surely is working out fine for us! Also, has anyone out there ever moved in sub-zero weather? Seriously, we've moved so much that I thought we'd done it all, but this has to be my least favorite condition for moving. *Ouch!* So cold it hurts! It has warmed up a little bit recently though and I feel another load of boxes coming soon.

Next, and actually slightly out of order, I somehow managed to skip posting about my daughter's birthday! Also, closely following that (and sort of in the middle of moving) was Thanksgiving. I think details on both of those, and pictures to correspond will have to come later.

Finally, the real reason for updating my blog today, and also the inspiration for my tremendous relief.......I passed both of the tests required to get my Washington Cosmetology license!!!!!!!!! My practical was two weeks ago. I had to drive to Fife, WA to avoid waiting until the January 25th date of the next test in Spokane. My mom went with me, and although it was slightly stressful and a minor pain in my rear-end, I survived. I got my result. An 84. Phew! Today, Greg and I drove to Spokane for the written portion of my exam. I studied for a couple of days, and continued studying on the drive up. Man was I cramming, just sure that I couldn't get enough of the facts lodged in my brain in time for my 9:30 AM appointment. They allotted me 90 minutes to answer 110 questions. I finished in 22. IT. WAS. SO. EASY. Good thing I studied eh?

I was more stressed about the whole thing than I realized. I feel like I can breathe a BIG sigh of relief!

Dancing Queen!

Cora decided a long time ago that she would be a ballerina for Halloween. GREAT! We had almost everything we needed already from hand-me-downs and such! So here is our beautiful ballerina. So precious!

We went to the branch "trunk-or-treat" on Friday night where she received plenty of loot.

On Saturday I had the opportunity to go to our adult session of Stake conference, thanks to my bro and his wife! They took Karra, Levi, and Cora trick-or-treating around Palouse. So now Cora has a bucket of treats at Grandma's house, and a bag of treats at Noni's house...lucky girl! K

arra and Levi decided to be pirates. I guess Cora was their ballerina stow-away?

I can't believe how nice it was on Halloween...50 degrees! That is unheard of here. I don't remember a Halloween when it wasn't raining, snowing, or just plain FREEZING!!!!!

All in all, a good Halloween. Cora is already planning her costume for next year!!

When I grow up

We went to a WSU Cougar volleyball game the other night (much better than Cougar football lately!). Cora always gets so excited to see Butch (the Cougar mascot). She started looking for him from the minute we arrived, and when we finally spotted him she begged me to take her over to say hi to him. She told me "I will give him knuckles mom!"

There were also cheerleaders at this game. I know how some people feel about cheerleaders, but I was one and my sister is one in the middle school. Well it must run in the blood because Cora watched them all night. She wanted to stand on my hands the way the cheerleaders did, and also informed us in a very enthusiastic way that she was going to be a cheerleader when she grew up!

Later, at home, Greg's dad asked Cora "don't you want to be a volleyball player too when you grow up?" Her answer was a very casual "yeah". Then he asked "What about a singer?" She thought about that one for a while and then replied "Grandpa, I already am a singer right now!" She sounded so surprised that he didn't realize this.....had he not heard her singing every single day for the last month? Silly grandpa!