Steps to Surviving a -29 degree day

Today, it was -29 degrees with windchill. While I am still adamantly against complaining about the weather, I still think that is important to educate the public (primarily all the people who live in Florida) of how to survive a cold Minnesota day. I especially thought this was important after all the wonderful emails I received today mocking the fact that it was ONE HUNDRED degrees colder in Minnesota today than it is Fort Lauderdale to educate you STUPID FLORIDIANS! (I am not jealous ... I am not jealous ... I am not jealous ... I am not jealous ... I am not jealous.)

I have two pairs of these boots -- in brown and in black. I wear these with warm socks. You can also see the tights that I wear under my jeans as well. My first winter I did not know about the tights and my second year I was still not wearing boots everyday. Now I wear boots everyday. If my boots don't match, I wear them and change my shoes when I get to work.

Okay, now pay attention. The key to warmth is layers. Here you will notice three layers. The shirt underneath, the sweater, and then the pullover jacket.

I add another layer to this with another coat.

Okay I have now added gloves and a scarf and a hat. This scarf is really not thick enough. I've been looking for a thicker one I really like.

On really cold days I wear a pullover over my hat to keep the back of my neck warm. Then I add the scarf. I wrap the scrap around my face. This can cause difficulty with my glasses fogging but it is worth the inconvenience.

On days that are not quite as cold, you have option to do the "New York" tie to the scarf. This is warm as well but is dangerous as it leaves a significant amount of space exposed.

Children, as illustrated by Karuna above, must also prepare for the cold. Karuna can't move, but she is warm!

Karuna and Wendi minus Wendi's facial covering.

Okay, this is a recent tool we have uncovered. These are heating pads that slip into specially designed socks. These help keep your feet warm when you are in the house. Cold feet is a real problem in the cold.

My friend Kristen made me the rice bean bag warmer when I told her that JB is against electrical currents running through blankets and whatnot. You put this in the microwave for 3 minutes and it keeps your feet warm for hours.

Another HUGE problem in the winter is very dry skin. We run a humidifier in both rooms but my hands are just so chapped. These are gloves that actually dispense lotion from inside them. These are amazing! Once the lotion runs out, you can actually put your own lotion on and then the gloves.

Okay, not that you know all the steps, you are ready to come visit me in the winter in Minnesota. I do find it ironic though that we had so much company from March until November and now, nothing. What's with that!?!?

Weather Facts & Tara the flutist (is that what you call it?)

Okay, I know I PROMISED that I would not post anything about the weather. However, I believe I can post FACTS without opinion and that would not qualify as complaining about the weather.

1. This morning around 3:00 a.m. I woke up to see JB padding the window in our room with a towel. I was too tired to ask what he was doing, however, when I woke up this morning, I asked. The windows in our condo are problematic (the condo association is working on this, but we are hoping they work slowly and that they don't resolve it until after we move out because it will result in another assessment.) However, you will notice on the picture below that what JB was doing was trying to stop the frost from creeping up the window and dripping! This picture was taken after work TODAY so this is much improved from what it was in the middle of the night. Yes, that is frost inside our home.

2. Right now as I write this, it is -6 (-22 windchill).

3. Tomorrow's high is 4 (-13 windchill). That is the HIGH temperature mind you in the AFTERNOON. I'd prefer not to write the low.

Again, these are just facts. These are not complaints.

More facts about the weather. Last night, JB and I went to hear Tara play her flute at St. Mary's Chapel during an Advent/Christmas service. This is probably the most beautiful church in Rochester. In addition, the music was just amazing. I am enclosing some pictures from the night's events.

However, after the service was over, we had to walk about 100 yards from the chapel to the car. During this walk (and mind you this is a FACT not a COMPLAINT), I literally got sick to my stomach I was so cold. I know it was in the negatives with windchill. I have no idea how cold it was. I asked JB why my stomach hurt and he said it had something to do with the fact that I was getting the shivers in my abdominal muscles. I didn't know this was possible, but it was.

To make matters worse, we got stuck on the sidewalk behind a very old woman. Now I feel bad saying this because the woman said to her son, "I am so sorry that I am walking so slowly and holding all these people up!" The son then said, "Don't worry -- these are hearty Minnesotans behind us!" I wanted to SCREAM, "NO WE AREN'T -- WE ARE WIMPY FLORIDIANS". Instead, both Tara and I made the decision to venture into the snow on the side of the walk in order to pass the older woman. We had no choice. It was too cold to walk that slowly.

We were so cold, we went to Olive Garden for soup. This helped considerably as did the hot tub when we got back home. We stood in the lobby of Olive Garden for quite a few minutes before we ran back to the car when we were done. We could have stolen numerous vehicles on the way out as everyone had their cars running trying to keep them warm.

Again, these are JUST FACTS. NO COMPLAINTS.

Okay, back to the concert. We had to get there an hour early to get seats so we had some time to pass. I am not sure if taking pictures in church is sacrilegious, but I should note we didn't use a flash. Here are the pictures from the concert.

Here is Tara playing her flute. She played her flute for two songs, however in the song Ria Ria (Tara did I spell that right?) Tara was simply AMAZING, and afterwards, everyone was coming up to her telling her it was. She was absolutely AWESOME. And I don't care if she gets mad at me for saying this. JB and I were awe-struck since neither of us are very musically inclined (although, we both were 1st chair clarinets in junior high!)

The choir and the orchestra played behind us. The sound through the chapel was simply awesome. I only wished we could have seen them (especially the harp player!)

Passing time before the service started.

Here is a picture from our seat in the chapel. This chapel is in St. Mary's hospital.

Got some Pictures from Rachel of Hans' Birthday

This is our friend Hans (with John). Hans is in JB's class and is one of our very good friends here.

These are our friends Jason, Sean and Sam. All of them are in JB's class. Actually, Sam is an MD/PhD which means he is taking of 2-3 years to do research and will now not graduate with JB.

Here is Tara, Jason, and Sean. You may remember Sean because he went to Costa Rica with JB during their first year spring break.

Here is Sean and his girlfriend Steph. Steph is a fourth year and goes to church with Dave and Lesley and Christo and Melissa at Berean.

Here is John with Nick and Tia. Both Nick and Tia were in JB's class but now Nick is on the MD/PhD track with Sam. MD/PhD's are nuts! They go to school for SEVEN YEARS!

Hans with one of many desserts we saw him eat throughout the night.

Here is Hans and Rachel. Rachel is awesome! She was a cross-country runner in college and is now in dental school in Minneapolis. She is only here on some weekends so we don't get to see her as often as we would like. She is the one who gave me the pictures for my blog. Thanks Rachel!

Hans can now rent a car!

Well yesterday morning when I left for work, and I walked outside, I honestly could not really take a breath. Breathing was painful. Mind you I was only outside for about 2 minutes while I walked from our condo to the underground, but it was absolutely horrible. Only after I got to work did I check the temperature and see that it was -1 degree (before windchill). Okay, so that's why it hurt to breathe despite my scarf and boots and tights and hat.

Okay, that's all I am going to say about the weather. My goal this winter was to think warm thoughts all the time. And to be positive. I love Rochester. I love cold. I love the weather. I love when it hurts to breathe. I love seeing my breath. I love my freezing feet.

Last night we went to our friend Hans' birthday party thrown by his awesome girlfriend Rachel. I meant to bring my camera but forgot. Rachel took pictures but she said I could get some in a few weeks?! So this obviously will be delayed blog gratification for you regular visitors. We went to TGIF's, and I was very proud of myself -- a club sandwhich with fruit! For those of you don't know, I am on Operation Bikini for our cruise on December 19th. It is so hard to exercise in the winter so I am really working hard. This morning, Tara and I went to step class. I am glad I had arranged it with her ahead of time because it is snowing like crazy and very cold so I have a feeling without knowing she was going to pick me up, I would have rolled back over. Ooops, did I just talk about the weather again? So I won't tell you that I just checked the weather and it is feels like 2 degrees.

On a side note, we just received an email that John's Uncle Victor (his mom's sister Betsy's husband) is in a hospital near the island they own on Cape Cod. Apparently his kidneys are shutting down and they also told him he has a very advanced stage of cancer and are giving him only a few days. Victor is 92 I think so this isn't completely a shock, but I am still asking you to remember John's family, particularly, his Aunt Betsy right now. Thanks!

John doesn't want to Comment

I asked Jb if he would like to put a comment on my blog. He leaned over, reminded me that it's about "a tall girl freezing her butt off" and that that description did not fit him whatsoever. He then returned to his book on New Zealand.

Speaking of New Zealand. We are investigating the possibility of this being our "Celebrate Jb being a doctor trip" in May of 2007. As I have mentioned earlier, we would include any friends and family who can take 2 weeks off and spend the money to go with us. Why the change in direction? Well, we were thinking Europe or Alaska. But then we went and visited my Uncle Ed and Aunt Janet who brought out their own pictures from a relaxing getaway in New Zealand. This has always been a dream of Jb's and seeing the pictures solidified it. So while I type my blog entry, he is reading a book from the library on this country. We will see if this all pans out.

Since arriving back in Minnesota we have made some decisions about our future:

1. We are not decorating our house for Christmas this year. It is already December 1st and we leave for Florida on the 17th. We just can't reason that it would be a good use of our time.
2. We totally forgot how cold it is in Minnesota. I resorted to driving 3 blocks to RLS today. It's okay on the way there (I think it was in the 10's with windchill), but at 5:00, when I leave, it is dark, and it is cold -- bitterly cold. Tonight it is supposed to be one degree. I am going to put a picture of everything I wear to leave the house on my blog one of these days. This includes silk leggings, a shirt under my turtleneck, boots (I don't leave home without them) and then the coat, hat, gloves, scarf. I also think its funny how many of these pieces of outerwear people lose all over the place. I seem to pass a lost glove every day on the way to work.
3. We hate to move. We have now, in our 7 year marriage moved 5 times. I think we have probably helped people move about 10 times. We also hate to help people move. I think everyone does so everyone just decides to suck it up and help each other (unless you are Ron Ray and sleep through your friends moving but we will discuss this another time). But last night we helped the Rays move across town in the cold and the snow. Moving is even worse in the cold and the snow. We actually formed teams of "people who walk in the snow" and "people who stay in the house" and "people who float in the middle" to prevent the tons of mud from outside from emerging back inside.
4. Thursday is an important day in my life. Surivor is on on Thursdays. We go to Bible study from 6:00-7:45 and return just in time to rewind the tape and watch Survivor. If you haven't seen this show, you need to watch it, each season, from the beginning. I would love to go on this show but since I hate to have people mad at me and despise conflict, have decided this would be a bad move.
5. We are currently furious at the show Prison Break. We watched the season finale only to face a cliff hanger (No -- they aren't out of Prison yet!) that won't be resolved to March. The good guys of course aren't bad criminals but there are some good guys who are actually very bad criminals and here we are cheering for them to get out. We are contemplating the wisdom of this.

So that's 15 minutes in my brain for you. That's really all that is currently in there.

IVF appointment Update

Well we had out IVF appointment today. I don't want to bore you all with the details but here is a quick summary.

Our new doctor, Dr. Coddington, is wonderful. I instantly loved him and so did Jb, much more so than our other doctor. The resident who was there has worked with Jb before. That was a little weird but it went fine.

First of all, both doctors believe I am a very good candidate for IVF. Because we have no other issues and are both at prime reproductive age, they said that that while they can't assure us success, they feel very confident in our prognosis. Many of you have asked me for stats. We asked for them too. The best they can tell me is that my chances of achieving a full-term child is about 40% each time we try and the chances are best with the first time because these embryos are fresh instead of frozen. The rates of pregnancy is higher than 40% but actually going all the way to term is 40%. Twins is very high as well, but I didn't ask for numbers on that.

They are thinking that we will actually get to do the procedure sometime in early March. That seems like a long time but there are a lot of stinkin' things we both have to do between now and then which was what my friends in Hearts like Hannah had told me. We both have to get a series of tests run to rule out a variety of STD's and other disorders, I have to have another ultrasound, some other test that I don't have a clue about, and go back on birth control pills for a few months to help get things inside of me in prime-shape. We also have to meet with a psychiatrist to determine if we are mentally able to handle this stress (we think we can fake them out :) and also meet with a financial planner, someone about my advanced directives, and also make some big decisions in regards to the embryos.

One of the things we can use the most prayer for is that it appears that I will probably produce a large number of eggs being as this was our problem before (too high a chance of multiples so they would cancel the cycle). Please pray that the Lord gives us wisdom for how many eggs we want to fertilize. If too few survive, we won't have enough for as many children (or chances) as we would like to have. If too many survive, we have already made the decision that we will donate these to a couple that cannot conceive with their own embryos. However, we would like to avoid this possibility. Anyways, this is the area that we need the most prayer in.

Right now, the schedule is to return to the doctor on January 17th to go over my test results and set up the schedule for IVF. The nurse told me she forsees a chance at conception in March. The shots will be twice a day, double the dose I did with artificial insemination.

So that's all I got. If I didn't answer your questions, feel free to post a comment or email me. We are very open about this, and I have no problems with any questions. We both feel pretty good right now, and will now just get all these other appointments done before our January 17th return.

Thanks everyone!

Thanksgiving Memories

Here are some long-promised pictures from our trip to Chicago for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Wendi and Grama Huisman

Josh and Tyler complete with bear hat.

Wendi with Tyler (Josh and Sarah's son) minus the bear hat.

Brothers Josh, Jason, and Justin along with John. I really have no comment.

A little more normal take on the 4 J's.

Sarah and Wendi

Josh doing who knows what

Uncle Bob (Jason, Josh, and Justin's dad and my dad's bvrother) with Grama Huisman

Wendi and John in the children's wing.

Kathleen with their son Cullen and Grama (Mary)

Jason, Ryan, JB, and Justin. I laughed so hard at Jason in this picture.

John hanging out with Grampa and Uncle Ed on Saturday

Grampa and Grama playing scrabble (I joined them and whooped them!)

Uncle Ed and Aunt Janet

Aunt Janet and Aunt Karen in the kitchen

Jb showing Uncle Ed and Aunt Janet how to cook Indian (Uncle Ed is taking notes)

Rub a Dub Dub

I love this title, don't you? What a great title for a blog like mine that has nothing to do with taking a bath. Don't you think? Jason, I seriously do love you a lot! :)

In other news, yesterday, (Friday), Sarah and I hit the Christian bookstore while Justin, John, and Josh (way too many "J's" here right now) headed to Harry Potter. We also did Fazzoli's for lunch. Last night we had dinner at Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary's with Jason, Josh, Justin and families as well as Steve and his wife Karen and their two boys. Unfortunately my camera went dead so I won't have any pictures from last night. However, I am sure Jason will. You can catch them at www.huisofamily.blogspot.com ... not that it's a good blog, but you could probably see some new pics soon.

Heading to breakfast with Grama and then heading to see Janet and Ed! I will put pictures up as soon as we return to Rochester.

This Blog has a Cool Title

Jason, this title is for you. Also, I just wanted to let people know that when I get back to Minnesota, I will have some fantastic pictures for you and they will include Jason, for sure.

We arrived at Chicago on Wednesday evening after a NINE hour drive. (It usually takes six). We met Josh, Sarah and Tyler, Bob and Mary, and Justin at Culvers for custard and then stayed up way too late talking to Josh and Sarah at home.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday at Kings' Community Church. There was plenty of space to eat, play games, watch movies on the big screen TV, and just have a great time together. I'll let the pictures tell the story later.

John is going to see Harry Potter this afternoon with Justin and Sarah and I are about to go hit the sales at the Christian Bookstore.

I took some fantastic pictures (if I do say so myself) and plan to put them on as soon as possible.

Heading to Chicago

Well we are leaving for Chicago this afternoon. I didn't think we would be able to leave until after work today but the weather is suppsed to be kinda rainey and snowy and so my boss actually offered to let me leave earlier, maybe around lunchtime! So we are praying he doesn't get a sudden need for me to do a lot of work. I plan to take a lot of pictures this weekend as I realize I don't have many Huisman family pics up except some of Jason and Kathleen so I will try to do a good job on that this weekend. We will be also seeing my Kotynski aunt and uncle and my grandparents on my mom's side as well so it will be a great few days for family.

I will update when we get back, possibly sooner depending on my access to the internet.

Please be praying for us if you think of it outside of travels. We have our appointment on Tuesday -- I can't get into it all right now, but we, well mostly I, could you the prayer. Thanks!

Quick updates

Well here are a few bullet points of what is currently going on in our lives:

• John is still on research. On Monday and Tuesday this week he has to take some sort of life support class with a few other classmates who are currently on research.
• Right now Jb is on the phone with our friend Ajit. He is currently on surgery in his home state of Arizona.
• We are leaving for Chicago for Thanksgiving on Wednesday. We will actually be staying with Josh and Sarah but seeing the entire Huisman family for Thanksgiving at Kings' Community Church. We will also see my uncle Ed and aunt Janet as well as their kids and spouses and my Medema grandparents who I haven't seen since we moved to Minnesota.
• Our first IVF appointment is on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29th. Please be praying for me and for Jb having to live with me as we begin this process. As always, we continue to pray that we will be pregnant on our own before we start IVF! I don't know all the details of the IVF appointment but will definitely update you on the 29th with complete details.
• We are excited to be heading home to Florida for the Christmas holiday and really excited about our cruise. We were supposed to go Cozumel but are now going to Cancun due to the hurricane which went through and then hit our parents' in Florida. We are excited to go and also excited to finally meet my brother's new girl, Adrian "AD" ...
• As far as the hurricane in Florida, both our families are doing well. We are a little leery of seeing the devastation when we go home. Our families have repeatedly told us things will look a lot different. In addition, my dad is still waiting for his satellite dish to be fixed -- this could take another month before their turn comes up.
• We want EVERYONE to mark their calendars for May of 2007!!!! John will have his MD in just one and a half years and I am planning a BIG OL' PARTY! If you can come, we will find you somewhere to stay for sure :) We are also trying to come up with a great 3 week trip to take afterwards and are inviting anyone who wants to come to attend that as well. Our top three choices are Europe, Australia, or an Alaskan cruise.

Washington D.C.

I am so sorry it has been so long since I have updated my blog. We were in D.C. for a week. We left for D.C. on Thursday, November 10th and returned on Thursday, November 17th. We got back at 10:00 a.m. and I was back at work by 1:00 and then worked a full day yesterday (Friday) as well.

We had a very nice in Washington D.C. I did have internet access, but I was so busy I really couldn't update anything. I worked in a booth "advertising" the RLS Foundation from early in the morning until dinner time every day. However, we were able to take a nice break each day for lunch and dinner and ate at some great restaurants: Burmese, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Costa Rican, Lebanese, and others. We had some fabulous food and worked it all off by all the walking we did. John especially walked a lot as he often went and toured while I was busy in the booth.

I am including a bunch of pictures from our trip here as well! I will try to be updating this more often from now on.

The botanical gardens that John spent one half day touring without me.

The first day we were there, we had some time to tour together. We spent a week in D.C. in 2001 so we did the quick things, like the white house. It looks so much smaller than you would imagine it.

During a lunch break we went and saw the new World War II Memorial which hadn't been built yet when we visited in 2001.

John went and saw the first Civilian-built space ship "Space Ship One" and since I wasn't there, took a picture himself.

This is the booth that we ran the entire week. Well, I ran it but Jb did volunteer to help relieve me on occasion. The days got very long.

John in China town. There is some great food there.

John got to see the new Panda exhibit at the National Zoo. He took pictures and a video for me and showed them to me later :)

St. John's church where all of the presidents since James Madison have attended services.

Outside of the capital buildling on the "Mall"

John in front of the capital buildling.

Leaving for DC tomorrow

So here is a picture. I got Justin and Tara's permission to include them on the blog today.

So I am sorry (Jason, Mom K. etc.) that my blog has been a little pathetic the last few days. We got back from Chicago late on Sunday night and now we are leaving again tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon for D.C. so things are quite hectic. I'm doing laundry now to prepare for another trip. We'll be only home a few days before we go back to Chicago for Thanksgiving. Overall, there isn't really much to report. I am sorry that my life is so boring currently. My cousin Justin is in town visiting for awhile and we are having a nice time with him. Last night we babysat for Karuna. We had dinner with Tara, Justin, Jb, and I, and then Dave & Lesley brought over dessert. John and I were going to watch a movie but were just too tired from our traveling.

Okay, well, that's really all I have right now. Sorry Jason! Jason said if you want to read a REAL blog visit: www.huisofamily.blogspot.com!

I will probably not write until I get back from D.C. unless I have internet access there.

Back from Chicago -- Leaving for D.C.

Well Jason said I needed to update my blog, so here it is. Chicago was FANTASTIC! Now we are back. We are having some people over tonite and in a bit, I will take some pictures and include those. But for now, Jason, here is your update.

Heading to Chicago

Well, I probably won't post at all the rest of this weekend. John, Tara (Tar-uh), and I are heading to Chicago for the weekend! Tara is a friend of ours; she is in Jb's class at Mayo. Over the last year she has lived with Ron & Ebby and we have therefore become good friends. We are leaving right after Tara's test is over today, probably around 5:00 or so. We can't wait to get to Chicago and see Josh and Sarah and Tyler and Jason and Cullen (Kathleen is out of town) and Justin who is in his off-season from baseball, my grama etc. Should be fun.

Other good news: Josh won a singing contest last night. This gives him a free trip to Nashville to compete with other winners for a record contract. I will try to find out more details this weekend and let you all know.

In other news, I just wanted to let you know that if the weather was like this every year, I could live in Rochester for the rest of my life. It is currently November and I have currently only had to wear my coat in the mornings when it is a little cool out. By the afternoon it is in the 60's and next week they are even saying Tuesday will bring 70's. Are you kidding me? It is wonderful. I keep thinking when it gets cold that it is all down-hill from here but then it ends up warming up slightly again.

I will post pictures and details on Monday from our trip. We return late Sunday night. Then we will leave the following Thursday for D.C.

More storm pictures

You can see pictures of my old school by clicking: www.flcs.org.

Here's an email my brother sent out about the storm.


Well hello,
I'm not one for mass e-mails, but I thought the time was appropriate given the circumstances. This is the first time I've had access to the internet in over a week.

What a week. Let me start off by saying that all is well down here. There is a lot of damage and a lot of clean up to do, but no one I know was hurt in any major way. Trees are down everywhere. Probably 75% of the traffic lights are gone and every street has had some sort of debris that needs to be avoided.

As far as me personally. I got power back in my condo some time Friday. My parents got power back Thursday morning. I boarded up my condo for the first time this storm. The weathermen were saying that the storm would weaken as it approached the penninsula, but that definitely did not happen. Many people did not board up because they were told the storm would not be too big. I had dodged bullets last year when Frances and Charley went by. For some reason, I felt my luck had run out. I am so glad I boarded up. One of my buddies spent the last hour of the storm holding his sliding glass door because it was buckling and was almost sucked right out of the house.

I stayed with my girlfriend and her parents during the storm. It turned out to be a real fun time. We played games and slept mostly. I will say that I have never eaten better than I did this past week. Everyone was having people over to cook off their food before it spoiled. I've had turkey, lobster, crablegs, shrimp, steak 2 or 3 times, burgers, dogs, blueberry cornbread, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, chicken wings. I'll stop as I'm sure many of you are a little hungry at this point.

Today (Tuesday) is the first day back to work. Our school (Fort Lauderdale Christian)sustained some pretty substantial damage. There is a 130X15 foot hole in the gym roof. All but one of the athletic field lights snapped in half. The softball dugouts peels open like tin foil and every major branch on every tree was snapped off. We had a clean up day last Thursday. about 50 people showed up and worked for 4 hours to get the place functional.


I will stop writing for now. You can see some of the pictures of FLCS and the surrounding neighborhood at www.flcs.org

Love you all,
Keith Huisman
Fort Lauderdale Christian School
Crusader Athletic Director
Phone: (954)972-3444
Fax: (954) 977-2681