Well, January is nearing its conclusion. It's been quite a month. We spent almost a week completely iced in. Thankfully we never lost power or anything. And splitcat had the foresight to go grocery shopping before all the crowds hit, so we had enough food and such. All in all it was a pleasant time. I kind of hated that everyone had to go back to school. The worst part was that the garbage didn't come for 2 weeks. But it worked out because splitcat had to clean up the garage to get out the extra garbage cans.

While we were iced in we celebrated the boy's tenth birthday. He thought missing school was a great way to spend his birthday. He also had to miss his scheduled dr's appt. He was devastated. The in-laws braved the icy roads and brought him(and us) some Dunkin Donuts(his favorite treat). We also made a cake and gave him a book about weapons. Last night we went out for pizza with splitcat's parents and he received a nintendo DS Lite and a couple of games for it. Next weekend will be another party for splitcat's extended family, and sometime in February I am going to take him and his boy cousins out for the day.

He is growing into a fine young man. He is still struggling with school, but his appetite for knowledge is pretty voracious. The highlight of the past few weeks for him, though, is that splitcat is letting him play Medieval II: Total War. He has been playing an older version of civilization, so we thought he was ready to move on.

He is a funny, funny kid. In the car on the way to the pizza place last night, we passed a house that had horses in the yard. One of the twins yelled out excitedly that he saw some cows, so he was quickly informed that those were horses. Which led the boy to make a remark about how cows had lots of "pee-pees" but that milk came out of them, not pee. We quickly informed him that those were called udders(I guess I need to get him a book on animal husbandry). Of course, a general discussion broke out about the word "pee-pee." His sister(of all people) informed us all that they were called "weiners." (and yes, we were laughing really hard in the front seat). And in his most authoritarian voice, the boy said, "Actually, the real word is......(dramatic pause)....the Urinator of Doom."

In other news: the bible study I attend has started back up, so I now have something to do that involves people over the age of 10. I am amassing quite a pile of stuff to send to the thrift store. It's taken me a really long time, but I almost have my stuff down to a manageable level. Now, if I could convince everyone that they only need 7-10 changes of clothes, I would have a lot less laundry to pile up everywhere.