This weekend we had the first big snowfall of the season. And our furnace decided to be grumpy about it. Friday night we shivered awake thinking that it must be really cold outside if it was this cold inside even with the heater. When we got up Saturday morning and looked at the thermostat we realized that yes, it was really cold outside, but no, our furnace wasn't doing anything to combat it. We called around and got a hold of the rental company, and they sent out one of their maintenance men, Jessie, who has been up to our house before for various issues and has always been very nice. He played around with it and got it to work, but Saturday evening/night it went out again, so we had another shivery night. He came out again early this morning, and for now it is working again, and he left us a supply of space heaters in case it kicks out again before Monday. Hopefully not, 49 degrees in the house is not fun.

Now for something a bit more (heart) warming.

Gwen made an interesting indirect tribute to Rus as a father this week. We were playing Snow White. When we got to the part when the evil queen brings the apple to the cottage, Gwen burst out with "Suddenly the KING comes and says 'I will protect my daughter! You can't have my Snow White!' " She knows her Babbo would never let some nasty person hurt her, so of course, Snow White's Babbo ought to come protect her too.

Rus and I had our Zooiversary date yesterday. It was at Utah's Hogle Zoo 12 years ago that we decided a more permanent situation for us was in order, so we always try to go to the zoo to celebrate that day. It was snowing and very cold, so there were about 2 other groups of people at the zoo, which is awesome, the animals act much more naturally. The tigers were pretty active (the weather being more inline with their habitat of origin), the pallas cats sneered at us, and we spent some time warming up inside the small animal house. Then we went and had some lunch. I'm glad Rus wanted to marry me, and I'm double glad that after nearly a dozen years of putting up with my weirdness he hasn't changed his mind : )

P.S.

Laurelin came home from school a few weeks ago with a song she had made up herself. I hate P.E.

Laurelin’s “I hate kickball” song

“I can weave a bit of grass, I can catch a butterfly,

The one thing I can’t do is play a game of kickball

I can climb a little fence, I can rake up some leaves,

The one thing I can’t do is play a game of kickball

I can paint, I can cook but

The one thing I can’t do is play a game of kickball.”