Baby it's cold outside..brrr

Cold temps in NY/NJ continue. The windchill on Monday was -7 and today it is 10 degrees. There is snow coming too, not much but a nice sprinkling.

Monday, the kids had regular days in school and Daniel had a pretty normal workday. Dakota is glad that his dad is home as they can ride to early morning Seminary at 5:30 am.

Patricia went to help her friend Kaye get bills in order to help her qualify for Medicaid. Her doctor found small growths in her left lung and she will go for a biopsy on Wednesday. She had treatment for lung cancer two years ago.

Patricia has her small jobs this week and is making frantic phone calls to NYC to find service opportunities for the upcoming Stake Youth Conference in June. Turns out that NYC is a difficult place to volunteer. Insurance and Unions are big in the city. Also as the Manhattan ward building will be under contruction, the youth now have no place to use classrooms for lessons. The city is very expensive to rent rooms and even if the church paid for the classrooms, religious instruction is forbidden in many public places in NYC.

Daniel has Stake presidency meetings tonight and Patricia and the kids will eat out (a rare occurance, especially during the week). Dakota is going to meet another 14 year old who began at Rutgers this year. He is a first year student doing research on stem cells. Hopefully the two can become friends and if Dakota can get into Rutgers, it'll be great to have a same age peer.

gratitude: I'm grateful for friends. My friend Nina called for my birthday and after playing phone tag, we finally got a chance to talk. I met her when I was 16 years old training at the Alvin Ailey school. She is a piano prodigy and an excellent ballet dancer from London and Montreal (duel citizenship). There are no words to describe reconnecting with my friend and talking about the past dance life we shared. So many memories, such glorious, fulfilling and fun times in both our lives. It is way cool to have enjoyed her friendship these past 33 years. We both miss those days.....miss dancing.....miss that life....

trivia: Black History month continues...grateful for the contributions Black Americans made to the USA. While helping my friend Kaye, we listened to an R&B station featuring black musical artists. I was blown away listening song after song. what enormous talent in the music industry.

Who would have ever thought a Black man would be running for President and doing so well?? My ancestors must be grinning from ear to ear.