come on cougars its up to you

It was very cold in Minnesota today, okay, by very, I mean 30 degrees colder than what we have been living with in Utah. I had not packed any warm clothes for Reuben because it was 100 degrees or higher for the last month. Grandma, being the protective get-that-baby-some-socks type, went down to Courtlin's storage of baby clothes and pulled out this sweat shirt. Courtlin used to wear it as a baby, and now Reuben is keeping warm in it.

Grandma also showed him the toy closet, which Reub immediately figured out how to open. He found several golf balls. Grandma showed him how to use the pouch pocket in the sweatshirt, and Reuben carried 4 balls with him all day. Pulling them out every once and a while to look at them, throw one or two, and then carefully put them back. When we were on the trampoline they kept falling out when he would fall down, so he would chase them around so he could get them back in his pocket.

Justin's adventures were not as pleasant as mine and Reuben's. Driving the 24 foot truck in Manhattan was as big of a worry as they had expected. They got a parking ticket, and blocked traffic in an intersection. (The light was green, but the next light was not, so the tail stuck out.) Jed's apartment building had a loading dock which they used, which I'm sure was a pleasant surprise. They did have some help, but because their drive took longer than they expected and phone batteries were dead, they didn't have as much help as was set up.

Justin says that the apartment "feels nice." He said, "the ceilings are so high! The hard wood floor is new, the paint on the walls will get dirty easily because it is soft, all of the appliances and cupboards in the kitchen are new, and the ceilings are so high!" I asked him if was just comparing them to our last apartment with 7 foot ceilings in the back room, he assured me that the ceilings were actually high, he can't even reach them. The bad news is there is no cell phone reception down there... GRRR!!! I wonder if we can lower our minutes, or something so we don't have to pay so much for something we will barely be able to use. He called me from the 6th floor stair well. I do not think I will want to go to the 6th floor stair well to talk on the phone, even if I didn't have Reuben, I wouldn't want to do that to talk on the phone, maybe eat some pie, but not talk on the phone.

It is weird for me to think that he is in New York, and not in Utah on some film shoot. Last summer when I was here, he couldn't call because he was either working or sleeping, now he can't call because he doesn't get cell reception. GRRR!!! I am so relieved they got there safe, and that the ceilings are high. I'm just going to enjoy my time here and worry about my worries when I get there.

One more thing, isn't it nice to have a community? A lot of my readers are LDS (Mormon) and may think my use of the word community is odd, but that is what it is. We have a group of people who are willing to accept us, until they meet us, anyway. We will "belong" somewhere, with people that have similar backgrounds. Because Justin and I are LDS, we have a "village" to help us in the great city. I don't agree with a lot of the philosophies of the author of "It Takes a Village" but I do think it takes a village. We are so lucky that we had people there who would be willing to sacrifice their time, and energy, to help Justin and Jed (and by extension, me and Kate.) There is no way they could have survived the day alone! We will soon be a part of that village, and be able to help other people who will need a community. There are other huge pluses to being Mormon, but today, I am thankful for the community aspect of our faith. I really don't think I am the type of person who could find a community without it already being set up for me to just join. As Jordan described it, I am not "very friendly, so people don't realize how much I actually like and appreciate them." This makes it really hard to make friends who don't have a reason to try and have me as a friend.