Cold Cold Night (and morning)

LaPorte, IN. Where the average temperature this month has been below zero, and the snow fall has been ridiculously high! Why do I live here?

I especially asked myself this question early this morning when I woke up freezing in my bed, wrapped in all the blankets. Usually by 4 am neither Randy or I are really covered up, our room keeps heat very well. This morning was a different story. This morning was a reminder of one week ago, when we woke up the same way. Our furnace wasn't on...and its the middle of January, in LaPorte, In, in the middle of a lot of snow that still isn't melting.

Last week, we had issues with our water heater, and in trying to fix it, had shut off the power to the outlets in the basement - this included our furnace. Well, in frustration we left it alone for the night, still not having fixed the water heater, and of course, forgetting we had turned the furnace off. We woke up to the house being 44 degrees at 7am on Saturday morning. After realizing what happened, Randy turned the furnace back on, and within 3 hours (10am) we were almost back up to 68 degrees.

This morning we woke up freezing again. Only this time, our furnace was still initiated and "supposed" to be working. 46 degrees. It was 46 degrees in our house and our furnace was "supposedly" working. Turns out it is so stinking cold outside, our intake pipe froze. In turn, our furnace had no way of pulling air in to warm so it was shutting itself off. Randy ended up going outside and banging on the intake pipe (with what, I don't want to know) and this allowed the snow buildup and ICE! to be broken off, allowing air to flow again. Thank God for all of our knowledgeable friends!

So needless to say, in addition to our water heater not working last weekend, and our furnace not working all night (the most important part of the day), we also are having some electrical issues with some lighting in our kitchen. Someday we will make it through a week/weekend without having something going craxy on us! I just don't know if we'll be young enough to enjoy it! :)

Our Little Princesses

True Royalty. Melissa received a trunk of princess clothes, shoes, jewelry and crowns for Christmas. Yesterday, Marian was jealous of Melissa wearing an outfit, so of course we had to satisfy her. Its a little big on Marian, but overall fit her pretty well. And Marian actually was walking around in princess shoes - I was impressed!

The two lovely princesses

Marian's shoes that she actually walked around in!

Marian with her "noble steed" Murphy

Melissa with her "noble steed" Murphy

Melissa and Marian with Murphy

The pictures our kids will hate some day

So I now have an appreciation for all the pictures my parents took of me as a child - especially the embarrassing ones. These are just a few of the many from the last couple of months.

This was in November 2008. Melissa wanted

to share her ice cream with Marian

Not really sure what's in her mouth - not
really sure I want to know!

You've got to love the geeky science goggles.

Unfortunately for Melissa, I don't think this

is her first goggle appearance, nor her last!

This is more or less for the hair - but the

wide open mouth shot is typical of Marian

cheese-ing it up for pictures!

AH! The hair picture I was going for...talk

about a bad hair day!

More Pictures of Our House

Here are pictures of the remaing rooms from the downstairs: the family room, downstairs bedroom, and downstairs bathroom. Enjoy!

View from front entryway of house, looking from

family room into dining room

View of (left to right) Kitchen, Stairs,

Bathroom, Downstairs bedroom

View of family room from

inside downstairs bedroom.

This room is the multi-function room!

Guest room, office, music room, all in one!

Some day it will be all Purdue theme

The downstairs bedroom, that's our

massive desk on the right

Downstairs bedroom, view

from Family room

This is the family room when the

kids are having a little bit of fun

Family room/Dining Room

Family room, this is a view of the

kids corner -when its clean

View of Bathroom and downstairs bedroom

from family room/dining room

Downstairs Bathroom

Downstairs Bathroom

Downstairs Bathroom

View of Family room from Dinining room

Our House

For those who haven't seen our house....(there are still a couple rooms to add, coming soon)

Our dining room - like the kids kitchen set?:)

The french doors look out to our deck

The China Cabinet came from Randy's Aunt and Uncle,

and the dished came from Kelly's Grandma.

Dining room from the Kitchen

Kitchen from the Dining Room

I love my track lighting!

There are lights under the

cabinets around the corner too!

Our washer and dryer are hidden in the

pantry next to the refridgerator and

our basement door is to the left of the fridge.

Looking down into the family room/dining room

View of both downstairs and upstairs
from turn on steps.

Really cool Nursery rhymes rocking chair

from Grandma and Papa Griffin

Christmas 2007

Look at all those toys!

Eventually this will be bunk beds, but we

have to wait a few months for Marian!

This is looking from the bathroom at the stairs

This is the bathroom entry and linen closet

We just painted this room in August of 2008

The hallway looking into the master bedroom

The hallway looking into the kids bedroom,

from the Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

We purchased the bedroom furniture in February 2008

My Birthday present from the Cooks, February 2008