Brrrr! I said it's cold in here.

It is really cold. As I type this, it's 17 degrees, and we are about to get snowed on again. I can say that I'm officially adjusting to it! I still take an hour-long walk most days if it's not icy. I love being outside. 

The latest:

Gwen lost another tooth. My kids lose teeth really late. Most of their friends have lost all of their teeth, and we are about two years behind them. Doesn't bother me. What does bother me is that my kids don't believe in the tooth fairy and still expect tooth fairy money. Said Gwen, "Mom, you actually owe me two dollars because you never paid me for the last one." And I said, "Gwen, I'm not the tooth fairy. Take it up with her." And then she said I was supposed to be, and back and forth. 

It's not that my kids are really street smart and have figured out that these mythical things don't exist. It's that I always forget to do the thing I'm supposed to do in order to keep the legend alive, i.e. put money under a pillow, eat the cookies left out for Santa, etc.

We live in a rural area. Moving here from New Jersey two years ago was quite hard for me, but now I've acclimated. There are people and houses and buildings everywhere in NJ, and here in PA (only two hours away!), we drive by several farms every single day no matter where we are going. The first night we were here, we stayed in a hotel before the closing of our house. A bunch of other people in the hotel were in town for the PA farm show. At the continental breakfast, they asked if we were attending said farm show. They couldn't believe I hadn't heard of it. Well this year we went, and we had a lot of fun.

The first thing we attended was a farm comedy magic show. You read that right. I caught myself praying that my kids wouldn't get called on to volunteer. My kids always get picked to volunteer, and they always derail the agenda of the person who picked them. I was relieved they weren't picked.

We witnessed the birth of this calf. Yeah. In person! They have cows giving birth all day, and tons of people come and watch. I immediately felt for the mother, who just found out that the doctor has a crowd of dozens of students coming in to watch her do something rather private. Sorry, mama cow. I've been there. 

While there, I texted my sister about it, and we had the best text exchange.

We ate the FAMOUS PA farm show milkshakes. These are talked about a lot in these parts, so we had to try them out. It was interesting because there were signs everywhere talking about the virtues and health benefits of dairy, but I didn't feel so good after my shake. I'm old. I can't eat ice cream very often.

We went into the butterfly exhibit and held up cue tips dipped in gatorade and the butterflies flew all over and around us.

We milked a fake cow. This was not cool at all. No milk even came out of the fake cow, and then the lady working at the station said that the mother was pregnant so she wasn't producing milk right now. The fake cow was pregnant and not producing milk. Got it.

In other news, Dan has been working with June to strengthen her legs so that she can ride a bike better. She already goes to physical therapy, but Dan is helping her twice a week as well. 

Wall sits. Brutal.

I was gone yesterday morning grocery shopping, and when I came back, I was presented with a ticket to attend a show the kids had put together. Their own rendition of "The Tortoise and the Hare".

The ticket:

That's me:

June showing the costumes she designed because Harris refused to put the backpack back on when the show was over. Gwen was the hare, hence the bunny hoodie. Harris was the tortoise, and he wore a backpack with a green plate taped to it as his shell. You can also see Harris' medal he won. Slow and steady wins the race!

The two stars:

And church today:

The End.