Pope Pages

The first month of 2007 has been full of excitement. We started off the new year with a big snow storm, and have proceeded to have either snow or mind-numbing cold every weekend since. Addie has gotten more used to the snow. We even got to do a little sledding down the loading ramp of our big barn. Addie thought that was pretty great, and exclaimed "weeeeee!" every time.

Granny and Grandad spend MLK day with us. With more snow and cold we didn't do much. In fact dad and I spent the day un-stopping the bathtub drain! While granny was giving Addie a bath one of the wash cloths got sucked down the drain. This is not the first time this has happened, and Granny made Grandma Carol feel so much better because the same thing had happened to her!

Addie also had fun that weekend celebrating her friend, Sidney's, 2nd birthday. It's fun to hang around Syd because since she's 4 months older than Addie it's like a preview of coming attractions. Looks like it just keeps getting more and more fun!

Addie is really growing. It's amazing how she's absorbing words! She understands so much, and then just blurts out a the name of something or a color that we had no idea she even understood. She loves putting on other people's shoes and walking around in them. And I've really noticed her imagination starting to take off too. It's great.
Another great thing - we're updating our bathroom!. It is currently all tore up, but we're hoping it will be finished by the end of February. I can hardly wait. I'll have to share some photos of the mess. I just pray we aren't all being contaminated by whatever funky building matter bathrooms were constructed of back in 1929 - like lead paint, asbestos . . .

This last bitter cold weekend Addie attended her first political demonstration. I met Jill, Joaquin and my friend Brooke and her two little boys and we marched at the Nebraska state capitol in protest of the Iraq war. We were surprisingly joined by at least 300 other hearty souls who braved the 20 degree temps and 20 mph north wind. I was happy to see that the crowd was really diverse. There were the typical hippie types, but there were also clergy, grannies, mommies and lots and lots of kids. Hopefully that made the people who drove by and flashed obscene gestures at us feel a little foolish as they saw a 10 year old girl holding a sign that said "We shouldn't hate or fight." From the mouths of babes . . .