Snow Day

Today is a snow day. No school - YAY!! Taryn is out taking photos so we should have something to show you later. It doesn't happen often, and I'd guess that we got 3-4 inches which is alot for us. It was enough for a little sledding last night and this morning. And yeah, that would be sledding down the front yards next door and into the street. But don't worry, Taryn squealed all the way down which served as a warning to any drivers coming up the street. The snow is starting to melt now, but the kids were out playing in it until they froze late last night and we have two gargantuan snowballs, one in the front and one in the back that got stuck and can't be moved. And Taryn built a cute snowman in the front yard last night who has a celery stalk nose because we didn't have any carrots.

We got some sad news that has put a damper on my mood. Last year Gib's troop asked for some families to volunteer to write to some soldiers deployed to Iraq shortly after visiting the Barn and talking with the Scouts. There was a snafu with the first guy we were assigned to write to and we were told to just keep writing and then we were given another name, but I just never really had the feeling that we had a person that we were actually writing to. I wished it hadn't gotten messed up in the first place because I just had a problem writing when I didn't who was getting it because you know how I write...it's kinda personal. So anyway, Gib and I sent about 4 letters and then we didn't send anymore when we never heard back from the guy we wrote to. I thought of it from time to time but it didn't happen. Turns out that last April, this soldier was killed by an IED in Iraq. He would have received our last letter I think in January. His mom wrote us a letter saying she was only recently able to go through his things and found our letters in his belongings, and wrote to thank us for writing to her son, that it meant alot to him that people were thinking and praying for him. I feel bad that we didn't keep it up. The company just returned home at Thanksgiving and will be visiting the troop again. I just have a really heavy heart about it all. Especially for the Sgt. Christofferson's family this Christmas. I can only pray now for his mother. If anyone else would like to add her to your prayers, her name is Michell Christofferson.