Ames--Colder than Antarctica in January

Guest blogger Robby here.

Last Sunday I asked which of a long list of cities are colder than Ames (colder being defined by average January temperatures).

The answer: Two.

Here they are, listed in order from warmest to coldest:

Congrats to Marilyn for having the closest guess. Marilyn--we'll bring you the promised goodies when we swing by in June '09.

Our most faithful (read: only) Swedish reader, Victoria, suggested that the coldness of a winter might be better measured by something like how long winter lasts. She's got a good point (but my bet is that winter is just as long in Ames as it is in Stockholm).

Thanks to accuweather.com for the U.S. weather data. International data from the Washington Post Historical Weather Database. Leipzig data from weather.msn.com. McMurdo Station data from antarcticconnection.com.

Olivia adventures

The other day I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch as a treat. While we were there only one other family came into the indoor playroom, and they had a 3 year old little girl who played marvelously with Jenna. As Olivia sat in my lap and watched the girls play, she became more and more restless and wanted to go and play, too. The family who sat next to us struck up a conversation with me, and as we talked Olivia got wigglier and wigglier. I finally relented and allowed her to walk around near the entrance to the climbing tunnels (she has transitioned to only walking now).

A short bit later, Little Robby came down the slide, and I asked him to watch Olivia for me in the first little tunnel room that was on the ground level. I turned back to talk with the family next to me thinking that Little Robby would be fine with her just as long as he kept her right there in the first little room. I chatted and chatted for the next little while, until I heard Robby calling me from up above. As I turned to look up, I was surprised to see little Olivia smiling down at me from a bubble room in the play tunnels that were far above my head!

"Robby! You weren't supposed to take her up in the tunnels!"

"But Mom, she wanted to go! She started climbing all by herself!"

"Did she up there by herself?" I questioned.

"Well, no, I had to help her up the climbing tunnels. I supported her little bum as she climbed," he admitted. (Don't you just love big brothers!)

"When I asked you to watch her, I didn't think you would take her up there!"

All the while, Olivia was pounding from the inside of the plastic bubble with this huge smile that said, "Look at me! This is so fun!" (I actually wished I had had my camera to take a picture of her. She was so proud of herself!)

I thought about climbing up there to get her myself, but from prior experience climbing in these tunnels I knew that they were designed for a kid and not an adult (I may be small, but not that small!) I asked Robby how he was going to get her down, and he said, "I'll just take her down the slide!" I reluctantly permitted this idea because I thought it would be much safer than having him try to crawl down the tunnels with an extra 20lbs.

So off they climbed again to the top of the play tunnels, and Olivia got her first slide ride ever down the BIG twisty slide at McDonald's. And what did she think? Well, she was so excited she tried to go and do it again!

Unfortunately for her, Mom felt like we had had enough of McDonald's and the playplace for the day.

(Little Robby just read this post and said to me, "You make it look like it was my fault! It's not my fault she wanted to climb up there!")

Winter Wonderland

Sunday morning we woke to this beautiful scene...

Okay, first I will admit that I am not a cold weather person, but from the warmth of my house it was a pretty scene. It snowed again on Monday, and as you can imagine Robby and Jenna LOVED it!

We bundled each of them up as best we could. You know, coming from Arizona we had to improvise in a few ways.

Jenna didn't have any mittens, so we used socks with plastic sandwich bags rubber-banded over the top. Hey, they kept her hands dry and warm!

Olivia doesn't have any snow gear, so despite the fact that this picture makes it look like she is outside, she was just inside the doorway. And our other improvisation was using waterproof sport pants with pajama pants layered underneath for Robby. It works, right?!

Robby's first order of business was to begin constructing a snow fort in the corner of the yard. You know, to protect him from snowballs being lobbed at him by his sister.

They were both having a ball ... a snow ball that is!

The final order of business was to construct a snow man for Jenna. It was her dream to construct a snow Mama, a snow Daddy, a snow Robby, a snow Jenna, and a snow Olivia, but they settled on one snow man (with no mouth since they couldn't get the raisins to stick to the snow.)

Sometimes I get a warm, fuzzy, "it's great to be a parent" feeling when I watch my kids have a blast doing something. I had that feeling today as they were enjoying our winter wonderland.

One other thing is snow in the yard has brought new meaning to a lot of the Christmas songs we sing. You know, "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" and "Winter Wonderland" and others. I must admit that is fun, too!

So I guess a real winter isn't all bad.

Oh, and I did get Jenna a real pair of mittens, and both the kids snow bibs, so now they really won't freeze. I figure it's an investment since we will really need the stuff in Iowa!

(By the way, if you haven't posted a comment with your answer to the quiz in the next post you need to!)

Frozen Cyclones

Guest blogger Robby here. The contract's signed, and I'll be an Iowa State Cyclone next year, joining the Management Department as an assistant professor.

Iowa State has some family connections: My uncle Wayne worked as an agronomist there until a few years ago and his wife Toni graduated with an accounting degree from ISU.

I really liked the folks out there, and we're grateful to have had such a good employment opportunity, especially in a difficult economy.

But one thing we're going to have to warm up to (so to speak) is the weather. Iowa is further north than I had ever realized. Now I've always known where Iowa belonged on a map, but I guess I never paid particular attention to the fact that it's right up next to states like Minnesota and South Dakota. Brrrrrr.

For example, how many of these ten cities are further north than Ames?

Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Hartford, CT
Laramie, WY
Logan, UT
New York, NY
Omaha, NE
Pittsburgh, PA
West Lafayette, IN

Got your answer? Okay, scroll on down.























Answer: Just one--Boston would be 12 miles up the road if it were slid over to central Iowa. All of the other cities lie south of Ames. (Guess Iowa's not quite as middle America as I thought.) As it turns out, Ames isn't just farther north than a lot of cold-weather U.S. cities, it's even farther north than some points in Ontario, Canada.

But farther north doesn't have to mean colder, right? After all Seattle is farther north than Chicago.

So here's the real question: How many of the following cities are colder than Ames (i.e., lower average January temperature)? Cities farther north than Ames are designated with a double asterisk.

**Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Hartford, CT
Laramie, WY
Logan, UT
New York, NY
Omaha, NE
Pittsburgh, PA
West Lafayette, IN
**Anchorage, AK
**Berlin, Germany
**Billings, MT
**Boise, ID
**Buffalo, NY
**Calgary, Alberta, Canada
**Detroit, MI
**Donetsk, Ukraine
**Geneva, Swizerland
**Helsinki, Finland
**Ithaca, NY
**Kodiak, AK
**Leipzig, Germany
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
**Milwaukee, WI
**Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia
**Oslo, Norway
**Rapid City, SD
**Reykjavik, Iceland
**Saint Petersburg, Russia
**Spokane, WA
**Stockholm, Sweden
**Toronto, Ontario, Canada
**Warsaw, Poland

Make your guess in the comments. Answer next Sunday night. Popsicles to the winner!

So what are you doing on Black Friday?

I don't know about you, but I've been redesigning my blog! (If you are reading this in google reader click through to see the changes.) Ta-dah! What can I say, I was getting a little envious of everybody else's cute blogs. Plus, Robby hated the background I had thrown up on our blog a few months ago. So now I have gone from him disliking my background to disliking my new title. I just keep reminding him that in reality this is my blog since I do almost all of the posting! He just posts occasionally as a guest. We tried to come up with another title together, but nothing else we could think of fit with the new design. So for now it stays.

Anyhow, many thanks to Andra for posting links to the tutorials she used to do her blog face lift back in September.

Little Robby turns 10!

As the days, weeks, and years of Little Robby's life thus far have passed, I know I have found many joys, but it is at times like his birthday, that I realize how much time is now gone. As a child, each year seems an eternity, but now that I am a mom, each year seems but a fleeting moment. I know Robby is not grown yet, but to think that his time as a child in our home is more than half way over is hard for me to imagine.

My labor of love this week was putting together a slideshow of Little Robby's life. Seeing each of these moments that I remember so vividly on the screen, makes me wonder whether I have savored these moments enough. Our children are only little for so long. Yes, I will admit that I have cried a little this past week... not because he's making me older, but because I sometimes wish I could sneak back and relive some of these moments with him.

I am so very grateful to have Robby as my son. He is a blessing and a miracle in my life. I know that there will be many moments to come in his life that I will cherish just as those in this slideshow, but now I realize that I need to slow down and savor this moment because it only lasts so long.

I hope you enjoy reflecting with me...

Reflections on Proposition 8

I’ve watched with keen interest over the past few weeks as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (of which I am a member) has been targeted by protesters for its support of California’s Proposition 8 which preserved traditional marriage in the state. Over a dozen Church buildings have been vandalized, some Church members have walked past picketers to get to their Sunday services, and the Church’s Los Angeles temple was forced to close at one point.

Leaders of the Church—whom members revere as modern-day prophets—took an unequivocal position on Prop 8, urging members that, “Our best efforts are required to preserve the sacred institution of marriage.”

In light of the Church’s strong stand on the issue, protests by segments of the gay community have been somewhat unsurprising. What has been more striking has been that a noticeable portion of Church members has also opposed Church leadership on the issue. While the absolute number of such dissenters has been relatively small, I think Prop 8 portends increased levels of conflict within the Church over social issues in the coming years.

Church leader Harold B. Lee said:

“We have some tight places to go before the Lord is through with this church. The power of Satan will increase; we see it in evidence on every hand. There will be inroads within the Church.... We will see those who profess membership but... [are] trying to lead people not to follow the leadership that the Lord has set up to preside in this church.

Now the only safety we have as members of this church is... to give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through his prophet.... There will be some things that take patience and faith. You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life.

But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord himself, ... the promise is that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name's glory."

The gay marriage issue will be just one of many polarizing issues that will sift the Church. Sooner or later, each one of us will be tested. The key to our protection will be a willingness to follow the Lord’s prophets.

Robby

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More...

• For a ground-zero perspective on Prop 8 from old family friend Chelsea Combs, see here or here.
• A first-hand experience by my sister Andra with Arizona's similarly worded Prop 102 is here (registration required).
• Also, Elder Neal A. Maxwell weighs in on the subject here.