Oh My......

Yesterday, it started snowing at about 7.45am....It was absolutely gorgeous yesterday, and I even went out with Alex in the morning and built a snowman....By evening, the snow was still coming though, and no one in this area bothers to clear the streets!! It took me almost 40 minutes to drive the ten minutes to get Thomas. We then went out to a friend's house for dinner and were there for 3 hours. It was looking sort of...blizzardy and we left around 10pm.....It took us an hour to get home (what would have been about 20 minutes) and the visibility was zero. Cars were stuck all over the place (Hello...can you say get a truck out and clear the streets????) I did a 360 in the road once and was stuck twice. We finally made it into our neighborhood, which had not been cleared all day either...we were about 30 feet from the house and the car got stuck again! This time, there was no pulling out...even though we could see the house, the kids were crying because they thought we'd "never" get home. We ended up finally leaving our car in the middle of the street and running to the house...Our car is buried in drifts this morning, the streets haven't been cleared yet, and AAA won't come until they are!!!



Wow...welcome to Minnesota!!!!



Kris

[houseelf]

Kris,



You poor thing, the weather does get to be a bit much here, doesn't it? I'm still not totally used to it, but I'm learning to drive a ***tad*** better.



I had to shovel my way into the garage last night....Hmmm....welcome back to reality.



Kelly

WOW, 4 feet...unbelievable...we didn't get close to that...I think we had 20 inches here....it was the most snow in a 24 hour period since 1965!



The only thing that bothers me about the weather is that they really don't bother to take care of any of the streets here...they sent the plows out once or twice and that's it, so all of the streets are full of chunky, bumpy, packed snow...



The kids are lovin' it though.....



I hear it's icy in minneapolis now though......



Kris

My kids want us to move to Iowa so that they can have snow but after reading your posts ... I am having second thoughts! I am becoming a total wimp here in Arizona! I am freezing today and it is 58 degrees! How embarrassing!



Hang in there Kris and Kelly! Just think of all the great memories you will have and your kids too! One of my favorite snow memories was when I was in Japan and we got four feet of snow overnight! It was incredible!!! My roommate was from Las Vegas and HATES snow! We had no shovel and we couldn't even get our door open. When we finally did, we took the lid off of our washing machine and used it to shovel the snow. We were laughing so hard and all the serious Japanese neighbors thought we were nuts. How many people shovel snow with the top of their washing machine, wearing dresses (we were missionaries) and moon boots! HA! Then we had a snowball fight with the children in the area. It was great.



I do miss the snow but... I think I will stay in Arizona a little while longer! Hang in there!!!



Robin

[houseelf]

Robin--



Thanks for the encouragement. I try to think about the beauty rather than the pain in the bootie that snow can be. Where in Japan did you live? I briefly lived in Camp Zama, Japan just outside of Tokyo and absolutely fell in love with the place. I ate sushi every single day! I was amazed at how much Japan moved me. What a beautiful and spiritual country! Did you fall in love too?



Kelly

Hope you are all stayin' warm!!



Kelly, I was farther north than Tokyo. I moved around quite a bit. I lived in Sendai, Tsuruoka, Hiragata, Morioka, Sendai again and then Sakata (I think that was the name. Boy, is my memory getting bad!) Of course, I was in the areas that were the farthest north for the winter and then to the west in the summer where it was very humid. The country is absoultely beautiful. I felt like I was in a different world and I LOVED sushi too! What brought you to Japan? It was such a great experience and the people really are wonderful.



We are actually having cool weather here and I am loving it. My poor kids though are struggling trying to find clothes to wear. They ALWAYS wear shorts so we are pulling out anything with longs sleeves and legs! I think I need to go shopping! My kids are completely bummed every time they see that it is snowing somewhere in the country. They REALLY want some snow.



Have fun!!

Robin

[houseelf]

Robin--



Has it warmed up for you? Hopefully, your boys found plenty of clothes to keep them warm. Now that I live in Minnesota, it makes me laugh to think about what I used to define as "cold". I'll never forget our first week here in the Twin Cities. Sean and I wore sweatshirts & jeans during an unusually cold spell in June. We saw teenage girls wearing those hankerchief-type tops and little kids went around barefoot! Unbelievable! They really do start swimming in those 10,000 lakes come May regardless of the fact those same lakes were frozen just one short month ago! Brrr!!!



As far as Japan goes, what were you doing there? Have you been back? I would love to go again. <sigh> I am always willing to chat about Japan! I love it there! I was able to experience this amazing country during an internship with the Army Jag Corps during law school. I fell head over heals in love with the place. Did you engage in the lucrative practice of teaching English there? Do you speak Japanese or read Kanji? (sp?)



For me, one of the humorous aspects of living in Japan was that I felt like a giant at 5'2" and could buy clothes off the rack. In fact, I was a medium size! Sometimes, it was a little unnerving to always be the foreigner. I'm VERY fair and I stuck out like a sore thumb wherever I went. School children would come up to me and ask to have their photo made with me when I went to some of the more remote temples.



Do you feel that your travels better prepared you for the whims of fate of the medical profession? Sometimes I feel like I get a little carried away with my inability to adjust to another state in my own country. I guess that things ard different when you have little ones.



Any time you want to talk about Japan, I'm all ears...err...eyes, as the case may be.



Kelly

Kelly are you laughing at my definition of "cold"!! I used to laugh at my sister-in-law and family who live in LA. They had their kids in coats in the spring in Utah when my kids would be in shorts. Now ... I have become the total wimp! Yes, it is still a bit "brisk" in Arizona. It was around 60 today. Russ is in Portland, OR right now and he is freezing and he is from Colorado originally! Oh well...



I do miss Japan a lot but it almost seems like a different life! I bet that was a wonderful experience being in Jag. Depending on where I was living and who I was living with, determined how much Japanese I spoke. In public, I usually spoke Japanese and if my roommates didn't speak English then I was thrown fully into the language. There was a six month period where I was practically the only American in town. I taught English once a week and absolutely loved it. I came home planning on teaching English as a second language until I realized I would be in school forever! I was a missionary so we didn't get paid but I loved speaking with the Japanese people. They are so gracious! I never learned Kanji while I was there. I usually had Japanese roommates who would read things for me. I was decent at writing hiragana and katakana but kanji was beyond me. I even minored in Japanese when I came home and learned to write some but it has been a good 10 years now and I have forgotten so much. I don't think I could hold a conversation now without A LOT of practice. I miss the people and the food! I have never been in a place that was so absolutely different than I had ever experienced. I loved it. I used to be so adventurous.



I moved to Hawai for a year by myself just for the heck of it and went to school. I ended up with a roommate from Fiji (one of my very best friends) and a boyfriend from Sri Lanka!



I agree with you Kelly that things change when you have little ones. I now worry about how they will handle change of any type, especially because my 10 year old has never dealt well with change. It took him the longest to adjust to moving to Arizona. I am nervous about moving for residency now where, I would have just loved it if I was single. Priorities change I guess.



What was your favorite food in Japan? Did you like sushi? I learned to like almost everything except natto (ugh!) and eel. I was in northern Japan for the fall and they had the biggest apples! One apple would make an apple pie. They were incredible. Anyway... I did love Japan and would love to go back some day. I sure wish I had kept up with my Japanese.



Sigh ... now I need to rummage through my pictures. Genki de!

Robin

[houseelf]

60 degrees!!!! That is down right sultry here!



As far as your 10 year old's resistance to change, it is probably normal. At my last job I went to one of those touchy-feely executive development workshops and the topic was dealing with changes and the accompanying stress. I can't remember all of the specifics but I distinctly remember this PhD talking about how some amount of change and texture in a child's life better prepares them for the realities of adulthood, especially if such changes occur within the confines of a relatively stable family life. This is somewhat contrary to what we aspire to create for our children: an unchanging, predictable life sheltered from the harsh realitites of the world. I guess this is my inarticulate attempt to assuage your fears about the effect of the impending move on your kids. Maybe this grand adventure will better prepare them for their adult lives.



Ahhh, Japan! Let's say goodbye to the 'burbs, pack up all the kids, and meet there right now! I LIVE for good sushi. I ate it every night the month before I left. I am impressed by your command of the Japanese language. My vocabulary is limited to the very basics and words that describe sushi: anago, ebi, etc! It was wild having to memorize train stops in order to get home since I didn't read Kanji. (I lived off of a private line that did not have English translations like in Tokyo proper.) I hope that my kids will travel someday to a place where the culturally embued norms are different enough to challenge their belief system. Japan was this experience for me.



The missionaries that I met all ended up staying and living there permanently. How ever did you pull yourself away? Was Russ there too? Do you guys ever talk about practicing medicine in another country? I'm all for it, but my dh is not. <sigh>



Kelly

I did love Japan but I also really missed the good ol' USA! I became much more grateful for my country and family while I was in Japan. I missed celebrating Christmas and independence day.(Surprisingly, the 4th of July was a hard holiday for me to be in Japan.) I missed a good hamburger and french fries. Being a missionary was a lot of hard work because your time was not your own so, after 18 months I was ready to come home. I wouldn't trade the experience and I met some wonderful people. I would LOVE to go back now and I miss it a lot. Russ has never been there but would like to visit. He has no desire to practice medicine in a foreign country at all. I think it would be a wonderful experience. Russ dislikes change. I am definitely the adventurous one in the family.



Changing the subject back to the weather... we actually got hail yesterday! Okay... I realize that you are all getting snow but it was quite something to have hail in Arizona. My 5 year old didn't know what hail was!!! My 2 year old cried when I tried to take him out of the car. If we live here too much longer my kids will be "weather inept"



Robin

[houseelf]

Robin,



I'm sorry for my untimely reply, but you're selection of the ing smiley icon represents how I'm feeling about right now.



I honestly can't complain about winter this year. We've had 57 days of above average temperatures here in the Twin Cities with only 2 to 3 snow days. Last year we had the third longest winter on record (as in days below freezing) and we had snow coverage from Nov. 1st to April 10. YUCK!



(O.K. The irony of this post is that I used to joke that Minnesotans were "weather obsessed"- they talk about it all the time. I guess that I've joined the masses. Next thing you know, I'll be saying "You betcha" and "eh?" Nah....



Hey, what is the latest news on Russ' interviews/match decision?



Kelly