Confessions of a Not So Well Behaved Woman: All things cold.

Ever since we moved our freezer - the big huge chest freezer that holds all of our extra frozen foods and all of my pre-made stuff - hasn't been keeping things frozen. I guess I should say not quite completely frozen as some things were definitely frozen, just not as much as they normally are. So last week I started smelling food when I opened the freezer, which meant that things were defrosting. I called GE and they came out to fix the thing. Ninety five dollars later I was told that the temp in the mudroom was too cold for the freezer and that if I kept it above about 50 or so degrees that it would work. This means that we run the heater all the time and keep the temp up, which drives Tom absolutely nuts. So, we've kept the temp between 53 and 58 degrees (as best we can tell). The repair guys said that this would do the trick and it should freeze right up. Well, five days later and the food is now is completely defrosted. We grabbed what we could and plopped it into the freezer and fridge that was working and have called them back again. Apparently the refrigerator repair guy had no idea what was wrong and chalked it up to a dumb customer. They are coming back on Friday to "fix" the problem again free of charge.

It's so cool when the trucks go by with the big plows on the front.

The totally uncool part, and that which we never would have thought about, is that the snow that they plow has to go somewhere, and it's dirty and slightly nasty when it lands where it is plowed. So, we have a bunch of brownish snow on the end of the driveway that is piled up about a foot and half high. This means that even though we can get up the driveway (sort of - it does take a bit of work) and that we can drive out on the streets (they are clear) that we can't get to the street without shoveling.

This brings me to the next "cold thing." When we dragged out of bed this morning, we heard the sound of snow blowers everywhere. We have a shovel (thank goodness we go that at least!) All these folks have snow blower to use ONCE per year when it snows like this. As Tom pointed out (after I stopped laughing at him for attempting to shovel the driveway - the LOOOONG driveway) this really isn't

necessary tool. It really does only snow like this once or twice per year. And we don't really need that Taco Bell (yes, craving Taco Bell drove me to shovel the drive out a tiny bit so that he could get out!). Well, Tom never did shovel the drive to get his car out and go to work. I told him that it would take him at least two hours to get the part behind his car shoveled and after taking about 30 minutes to shovel a path out there he realized that it just wasn't worth it. So, he hung out with us all day and in between working, he helped to build a snowman, make snowballs, and have lunch with his kiddos.

Yes, we did build a snowman.

His name is Sparky - thanks to Tom. to the name, so Sparky it is. Sam instantly took a liking to the name, so Sparky it is. The kids even made him a GameBoy out of snow and some food. Cute, huh? I love playing in the snow, but we still don't have the appropriate clothes to stay warm and dry. One of these days we'll get them, but it seems silly to have them when it really does only snow once per year (big enough to play in) and the kids are growing so much each year. So, until they slow down some we'll play in the snow and our fingers will freeze after the gloves that surround them get wet, our knees will freeze when our pants are soaked through, and we will fuss and complain, enjoying every minute that we are outside playing in the snow.