The joys of a small town

This morning Mike and I woke up to a winter-wonderland in MARCH! The 3 inches they were predicting as recent as this morning was quickly turned into 12 inches. Yes we turned on the news and they said there is maybe more than 3 inches north of the cities, but no more than 3-apparently they did not get the memo that Hutchinson is not north of the cities.

Well I am not going to rant about the weather prediction and lack of follow-up with it. But the awakening was a shock to say the least. Most of the city by 9a.m. had not yet been plowed (again they too were prepared for only 3 inches). Mike had to work by 8a.m. so thus drove through the snow! But we have wonderful neighbors who actually own snowblowers ( a purchase we are highly considering after a year like this). Our neighbors see Mike struggling-since I cannot help much right now with the heavier snow-and push their blowers over and help us out!

Thiessen loves this weather-I think he would much rather have winter year round than any summer since he can run and run and run. Although he is starting to feel too much freedom and experimenting on exploring our backyard neighbor's lawn (this means going around the fence).

Long story short today was a lovely snowy day. Mike was able to get to work thanks to our friendly neighbors and I worked from home. Again, since the town is smaller and our church has a snowplow of our own, I couldn't get into the parking lot (the snow was above my wheels)!

Have a wonderful day!

Much love from the "boonies"

DuFrenes.

110 Days

Well we are down to 110 mark! According to the due date we are 110 days away from meeting the newest DuFrene. Thiessen is starting to act a little differently I am going to assume that is due to the fact he can sense change is in the air. For good practice I have been helping out my brother and sister-in-law while they are working, watching their daughter Avery. Avery was born in January so still a very new little one! She is very cute and I don't mind at all. Since my last post not much has really happened in our lives. Mike and I are preparing the best way we can in this MN winter for the upcoming spring. We have plans to get our roof fixed and the bats who hibernate in our attic taken care of. Yes the bats that hibernate-we have yet to have trouble in the summer, when it is most common to have issues, we only have them in the winter. Apparently our house is only good to hunker down for the cold MN winters. We had 1 bat last winter (January 2010) and 1 thus far this winter (December 2010), but that doesn't mean we enjoy them sharing our habitat. Starting in April or as soon as it warms up enough that we aren't breaking laws those bats will be taken care of! And coming in April a nice, pretty new roof should be in the works. We have talked about how the roof would be nice to be taken care of before DuBabe arrives so that we can plan a little nicer.

Coming up here in April Mike and I are both planning separate trips. For his "guys-weekend" they are going upnorth to hang out and just have fun being boys (I will leave that statement up to your imagination). I will be heading down to Kansas City with Miss Kali Veerman and Miss Megan Buchholz for a wonderful "girls weekend" while we enjoy watching the Twins dominate the Royals (hopefully Michelle and Amanda will be joining us down there).

So here is to spring, the wonder that comes with Spring. How we are reminded of all things are made new! Please continue to pray for us and I guess specifically Thiessen as he is starting to notice the changes-we want him to continue to be part of the family and so the adjustments need to be made for him so as not to put DuBabe in danger.

Much love!

Amy (and Mike-technically)