Dear Tyler,

Hi my sweet son! How are you doing on this Monday afternoon? Today is January 21 and it is a holiday here. It is Martin Luther King Day. It is a Federal holiday so no schools, banks, mail, etc are open and it is probably a very good thing as well. The weather here is beyond cold. I think it is 5 degrees outside right now and other places it is -3 degrees. With the wind that we are getting still, the weather channel says it feels like -20 out there. Mom can not see outside her office windows because of the ice that is on it. 
 Before I start my letter to you I wanted to take a minute to say that I was sorry for not writing to you yesterday. This whole weekend was just a mess. I never turned my computer on at all yesterday and I didn't have my iPad either as I was charging them all weekend incase we had lost power. I hope you heard Mom whispering to you all weekend because I did it a lot. Thank you for watching over Mark, me and the pups. You are my beautiful Angel and I miss you so much. Okay.... Mom will tell you about the weekend...ready....lol?
 Saturday Mark and Mom were up around 9 am because we did not go to bed until 2 am so that Mark could sleep in and get the rest needed to do his cutover later that night. He left around 4:30 pm that afternoon to beat the snow that was coming. He called me to tell me when he got there and that he did not run into any troubles and he made really good time. That was a plus. The customer moved the cutover from 9 pm -1 am to 8 pm -12 midnight. I thought that was super. He would get home sooner and perhaps beat the ice that we were going to get starting Sunday morning. Mom did not hear from mark again until 2:30 am Sunday morning. I thought he was home or on the road but nope.... the cutover failed and they tried from 8 pm until 2 am. Someone there decided that they would take a 2.5 hour break and try again around 6 am. Mark found a hotel and got about 2.5 hours of sleep and went back to the site at 6 am sharp. They worked on it until 1 pm and finally got it. Cutover was a success. He was on the road around 1:30 pm and never got home until 5:30 pm. A 2 hour drive took him that long...4 hours due to the freezing rain and ice that we were getting. He said the roads were really bad and went about 30 mph the whole way home and slower in other spots. Mom was relieved that he was home safely. For what should have been about 10 hours turned out to be over 24 hours for him working and 38 hours without sleep. What a mess! During this whole time Mom had her own issues. I was so worried all day Sunday for Mark, the weather was horrible and the pups were so scared and shaking because of the plows that I was holding them both..one on each side for about 5 hours straight. Mom watched TV until about 1 am and then tried to go to bed but I couldn't sleep because I didn't know at the time what was going on with Mark and the plows were out as well. I finally fell asleep around 3 am and back up at 7 am feeding the pups and then back to bed to try and sleep but again that didn't happen. I got up and got ready and then made breakfast for myself. Meme called me to check in and so did Rick, Mark's friend. The pups were better and Mom just rested on the couch all afternoon. I watched a movie. When Mark got home, I made him coffee and dinner. We watched the 2 championship football games and then crashed. Mom was up at 7 am with Mark. We fed the pups and then Mark went back to bed until 10:30 am. I stayed awake. We both are still exhausted so tonight will be a very early night for sure. It will be dinner and TV and then bed. Tomorrow Mom has a nail appointment and then it is home to study. Mark will be working. The guy never gets a dang break. He did 3 days worth of work this weekend and worked all last week and still has to work all this week. Thank you again for watching over us pumpkin. Words can't express what it meant to Mom.
 Now for the football games.... Rams and Saints played first. Saints were leading the whole game until 4th quarter then the Rams took it. There was a call that was so obvious to see that the officials did not call on the Rams so the Saints lost the game after overtime. The score was 26-23. Second game started at 6:30 pm. This was the Chiefs and Patriots. Patriots came out strong... 14 pts before half time. Chiefs came back and the game was neck and neck and a nail bitter. Again... there were plays that the officials were calling and not calling properly plus when the Patriots were losing somehow the officials faulted the Chiefs for something and the ball went back to the Patriots. This game also went into overtime. Patriots won with a touchdown but it was never their game to win. If the officials did their job and called things correctly then the Chiefs would have won and the Superbowl would be the Saints vs Chiefs but instead it is the Rams vs Patriots. Lots of very angry folks today because of it. Even the commentators at the end of the night said that the officials were wrong and they didn't do their jobs. That speaks volume. Anyways... in 2 weeks it will be the Rams and Patriots for the big game. Mom is sure hoping that the Rams win it but time will tell. Bob was happy though and so were you...lol. Everyone else in the family...not so much! To say the least there is a lot of controversy. Mom will keep you posted on it. 
 Last night Mom only spoke to Meme and that was right before the last football game. She hurt her back shoveling on Saturday. She is doing okay but she is in a lot of pain. Bob is good. I am sure I will chat with Grandpa later tonight. I will touch base with everyone else later in the week. This whole weekend set me back a couple days. Mom needs to get some solid sleep to be with it and on my toes. My eyes are just really heavy right now. After I get done writing to you I am going to go snuggle on the couch and relax before I need to feed the pups and get dinner going for us. Oh yeah.... I forgot to tell you that Winter Storm Harper was a mess and still is for us all. They dropped the snowfall totals because we were expected to get more ice than snow and they were spot on. We got 3" of snow and a lot of ice and wind. Mom will post a couple pics of the trees here. NH got about 14" of snow. They didn't get the ice though or the wind. Our wind here is still over 20+ mph and will be that way through the evening. This is day 3 of it. More rain is to follow this week though so I think a lot of our snow will melt. That is fine by me! 
 It is already 3:15 pm and Mom is going to go relax for a bit. I will be back tomorrow with another letter to you. I sure hope your night is everything you want it to be. Come visit Mom in my dreams if you can. I love you with all my heart and soul. To the moon and back and all the way around the world. You will always be my hero and the wind beneath my wings. Forever in my heart, mind, body and soul. I miss you beyond words my sweet precious son. I will light the candle in a bit and I will whisper to you later. Smile for me and I will smile for you. Until tomorrow comes.... good night and sweet dreams.
 Always, Mommy xoxoxo. Muah!

Here is today's prayer:

In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Psalm 18:6, RSV

Dear Father in heaven, we rejoice that you are our Father. We rejoice that you rule and guide each of us so that our path in life leads to what is good and genuine and we do not get stuck in this or that concern. Lead us, renew us, and again and again free us to go forward, finding new courage and joy for ourselves and for our fellowmen. Then we can praise you, your strength and power can be revealed to us, your heaven come down to earth, and your will be done on earth. Here on earth your help shall come to the poor, the weak, the lowly, the sick, and the suffering. May your name be praised! We rejoice in your name. Amen.