Oh that.

Last night I was watching the late night news as it was talking about how with wind chill it would be in the -40's today!! YIKES! I don't know how people are walking to school in this weather like I would be (but Riley is sick). They were saying that skin exposed for only one minute at those temperatures will freeze!! I was imagining myself bundling the boys up in all our outdoor gear plus sticking them in a sleeping bag on top of the sled while pregnant me pulled them up the street. Hmm...I don't know if it would work. Hopefully it warms up by the time Riley is feeling better.
Anyway...it brought on some stories in my head of previous cold days in my life...
When Michelle and I were at Prairie Bible College, there were some mighty nasty cold days. (It's located in Three Hills, a few hours north of here.) We had this volunteer position at the hospital where we went to feed some elderly ladies. That's kind of a story in itself! Anyway...one day we had to bring a new volunteer with us to show her the ropes. She was this quiet little thing. Of course it happened to be freezing cold out and we had to do the 10 minute walk all bundled up like penguins. I remember we would occasionally force our mouths out of our scarves to small chat with her and figure out who she was and how she was enjoying school etc. One time when I looked over at her, I noticed her nose was looking a little weird!? Ya! Like one section of it was changing color from the usual skin tones to more of a dead grey color! I quickly looked over at Mich and gave her the eyes as to say...are you seeing what I'm seeing here? We sorta kept quiet about it and kept looking over at her as we were talking to check out the nose situation. We were starting to get those nervous giggles like we get at funerals or in church when we should be doing anything but laughing. I don't know who it was, but finally one of us piped up..."UMmm, your nose is looking pretty cold...does it feel ok?"
"Oh that". She said. Then she filled us in with a story of how her nose actually had frostbite when she was a child, and it always changes color now when she goes out in the cold. Poor thing. But man, Mich and I were relieved to find out we weren't witnessing frostbite occurring right before our eyes.
I was thinking of this whole story when I was in bed last night, about 5 minutes after I had said goodnight to Greg. I started to giggle out loud and so of course he wanted to know why. I was laughing so hard as I was telling it to Greg...my quiet laugh where all you hear is my tonsils flapping. I could barely finish the silly story cuz the tears were streaming down my face and my stomach was hurting. (Everything is so much funnier at midnite and when you're pregnant!)
And I was also thinking of this old watch I had when I was about 12 years old. It was one of those watches that would never die and I wore it everywhere everyday. It had a nice beeper on it, and a light and everything. One day sadly, on my way to school, it dropped somewhere and was lost. I backtracked a few times to no avail. Then one day, like over a week later, I was walking back from school when I heard this familiar beeping noise! My watch! It was calling out to me!! I bent down near the ground to listen for it and there it was about an inch under some ice...my favorite watch! I got a rock and literally had to chip it out of the ice! Yeah! It was on it's second life. Then eventually the strap broke off, but I still carried the face of it around in my pocket. One day I couldn't find it yet again and figured it must have dropped out of my pocket. I didn't grieve too long...but I swear, it was like a ghost watch, cuz I would hear it beep from time to time when I was out sledding, but could never find it when I checked my pockets. Then one day I was doing up my skates in the basement and heard this beeping noise coming from the dryer. I ripped open the door and it was beeping in there. I stuck my ear close to every clothing item and finally found it down in the hem of my snowpants. I guess the pocket in my snowpants had a hole, and the watch had fallen down through my pocket all the way down to my ankle. Ya, weird. It was life #3 for that watch, and I think it's still ticking somewhere down in the basement.