Snow Melt

This winter/spring snow melt has been unique in our experience and as I talk with others, they have also expressed the strangeness of the melt. In our experience, the melt happened fairly quickly and usually was accomplished with a rain storm and warm temperatures.

This spring we just finished eleven days of sunshine with highs in the 20 - 30s each day but overnight lows between 0 - 10 degrees. This meant that we melted during the day but refroze and solidified everything each night. Late last week I began noticing the strangeness of the snow. It was melting very differently. Some places or piles were melting more than others and then we began getting these beautiful lacy sculptures of ice on top of the snow piles. I really began looking at them Monday and Tuesday and took a few pictures to try and capture the look. I didn't do the snow and ice justice, but you can get a brief glimpse of the unique look that we saw all over.

I loved the mountain peak looks to the snow covering lawns. But my favorite was the lace ice that seemed to defy gravity and physics to hang at impossible angles and be connected by molecules of ice.

We saw snow flurries most of the day today and are expecting up to an inch of snow tonight. Tomorrow the weather is expected to become more rainish so I imagine the snow will melt quickly. I am ready. I'm hoping to plant my tomato and herb starts on Saturday so I'm beginning to think gardening and that means I want the snow to go and the ground to thaw. But I have thoroughly enjoyed the melt this spring.

Spring on the way!

I think we can safely say spring in on the way. While we continue to have temperatures below normal, the sun is high enough in the sky that even temperatures in the twenties will melt the snow. We've had almost a week of bright sunshine which I've really enjoyed.

Jeff and I celebrated 23 years of wedded bliss yesterday. We had a quiet day with lunch at the local Mexican restaurant then time at Menards picking up the supplies to make me a portable greenhouse. I'm excited to move outside and begin working in the yard. Probably not much work for at least another month, but next weekend I'll start my plants for transplanting. It will be nice to begin growing things again. Although, I wintered in the kitchen rosemary, parsley, marjoram (almost) and oregano.

The speech season is beginning to wind down. Friday, April 1 is the section meet. The state speech meet is Friday afternoon/evening April 15 so they have put the section meet on Friday afternoon as well. This will be a new experience for Rachel. But she ended the regular season on a high note. Saturday the team went to Hermantown and many of the schools participating in the meet were AA schools. Falls High School is only a single A school. She placed 5th at the meet and was very pleased.

Sarah had spring break this past week and on Friday moved to her new residence. We are very excited for her and hope the second half of the semester goes smoothly.

Have a great week.
Diane

Family pictures

We have had a couple of requests for a new family photo. We tried a couple of times this weekend to get a decent one. Not very successful. Just as we don't remember to take photos, we don't seem to photograph well either. But here are a few photos of our family together.

Diane

St. Paul weekend

On Friday morning, Jeff and I along with Stephen and Rachel headed down to St. Paul to meet up with Sarah and spend the weekend playing together. We stayed at the Best Western Bandana Square. We stayed there in November and enjoyed the location and was the closest to where most of our activities were.

We picked Sarah up and checked out a surplus store and used book store. Only our family would be equally excited by gears, sprockets, wire, leather and used books. It was fun to wander through both stores and just enjoy laughing together. For dinner Friday night we had dinner at Osaka a sushi and hibachi restaurant. We sat at a hibachi grill and watched our dinner be cooked. It was marvelous. Jeff had chicken, Diane had salmon, Stephen steak, Sarah swordfish, and Rachel tuna. We all tried a bit of each others and had fun comparing and sharing.

Saturday we had a lazy morning then headed to the Source, the comic and game store that no trip to the cities would be complete with. We spent almost two hours wandering the store, reading game boxes, comic books. We also purchased two new games for the family. "Who Would Win?" is an argument game. Two players draw an action then each draws a character. Each then has 20 seconds to argue their case for why their character would be better at the activity. Then each gets a 5 sec. rebuttal. We had a lot of fun playing that one Sat. evening. "Fluxx" is the other game we got. It is a card game with changing rules depending on the cards drawn and played. Rachel and I really enjoyed that one.

After the source we went to India Palace for a buffet lunch. Stephen has spent very little time in the cities and didn't have many ideas about what he wanted to do. But he did want Indian food. We all enjoyed the experience.

After lunch we took a trip to Sarah's new lodgings. She will be moving next Friday to a house in north Minneapolis with 5 other students from International Falls, most of whom are students at the Art Institute. She will have her own room and we are excited for the change for her.

We then went back to the hotel and settled in. Several swam and sat in the hot tub. Some played games and we all talked and laughed. We had planned to go for ice cream but were still full from the India Palace and were tired, so we just settled in for the evening.

Sunday morning we were out of the hotel by about 9:45 and went to Robert Street Keys cafe for a wonderful Sunday brunch. We again enjoyed the time together talking about summer plans and goals for the next few months. Stephen then headed west to Morris and Jeff, Diane and Rachel headed back to International Falls.

We aren't very good at remembering to use a camera and then when we do remember don't always get very good photos but here are a few from our weekend.

Enjoy.

Spring Break

Stephen has been home this week from school. Tomorrow we take two cars and head to St. Paul to spend the weekend with Sarah. Stephen will drive from there back to Morris and Rachel, Jeff and I will return to International Falls.

It has been good to have Stephen home. I was able to take a few hours each day off and enjoy time with him. I was also able to do some special cooking and baking for him.

It is looking like he will be home for the summer. We hadn't counted on having him home again for any extended period of time so this will be a blessing.

It has been a wild week at the library as the computer catalog system housed at the Arrowhead Library System headquarters in Mt. Iron malfunctioned on Wednesday morning. We spent two days with no catalog or ability to check books in and use a remote system to check books out. Supposedly the system will be available tomorrow and my staff will have to deal with uploading the items checked out, checking in all the piles of books returned in the last two days with no way to check them in. I am going to go play in St. Paul with the family.

Rachel is at work tonight, covering the boys' basketball playoff game. At last update they were losing and so this might be her last game for a while. She is now working for the radio station three afternoons a week, recording weathers and community events and a few commercials.

Jeff is trying to stay on schedule and get a podcast up every two weeks. It has been a stretch this year because he is also trying to add in additional promotional activities and take the theater to the next level.

We have been warm this past week which has helped melt lots of snow. We are looking awful brown and muddy at the moment, but we have to go through this stage to get to the green stage. I just hope it doesn't last very long. Last year we had two full months of brown before the green arrived.

Have a wonderful day and count your blessings.
Diane

Spring?

Not yet. We are finally creeping up to almost normal temperatures (daytime highs about 32) but we have also had snow flurries the last couple of days.

All of us have agreed that this has been a long week. Not entirely sure why, we were busy, but we are busy most weeks. And we started the week with a spectacular Oscar party, if I do say so myself. We had 11 people here and 3 participating remotely. We served parmesan puffs, spinach dip, lil smokies and a hot crab dip. And then for dessert we served a gingerbread lemon curd trifle with blackberry syrup. It was marvelous. We put together swag bags for all the local participants and most of us dressed up in our finery. We also created a red carpet for those arriving to walk on. This has become one of our favorite events of the year.

Speech season is in full swing and Rachel heads to Ely tomorrow. Sections are in four weeks. She continues to tweak her speech which if you haven't heard can be heard on her Facebook page. We'll try and get a new video produced and placed up here on the blog for your viewing pleasure.

Jeff is staying very busy with IBRT writing, producing and planning for summer. He continues to dream of a limited touring schedule in the county during the summer.

Have a wonderful week and give thanks to God for everything big and small in your life.

Diane