Thanksgiving In St. Louis - Day One

Sunday, November 20, 2011

As soon as the kids got out of school on Friday, November 18th, we got in the van and started the long journey to St. Louis to visit Steve's family. We arrived at Steve's sister Heather's house around 9:00 PM on Saturday. The above picture was taken on our drive. As we were driving down the highway in Kansas City we noticed a familiar looking building that we had never seen there before. We took a little detour off the highway to have a looksie. It is the new Kansas City Temple.

The next day was Sunday and we went to church with Heather and her family. Sierra did all the girls hair before church.

After church, everyone came over to Heather's house and we had a fun game night and dined upon creamy potato soup and homemade bread. The boys wasted no time getting started on Axis and Allies.

The girls played Beatles Rock Band

Zac and Grandpa

Sierra and Meagan

Our oldest niece, Amanda, was in town from Illinois for the weekend

Emily, Meagan and Aubrey

Wednesday Morning Hackings

I'm comin' atcha live from my sick bed. I'm a real prize right now, just let me say. We were in St. Louis all last week for Thanksgiving and our last night there I started to get a cough. I woke up Saturday morning to pack and load up so we could begin our drive home and I could hardly do anything. I just figured I was tired because we had been keeping some late nights. It really was a struggle to get everything packed and once we were in the car and rollin' down the highway, I started to realize that I was sick. My body was achy and I had chills and a horrible hacking cough. So it was a very unpleasant two day drive for me.

We got home Sunday night. I had to help in Aubrey's class the next morning at 9am. It was so hard to get out bed when my alarm went off at 6:30. But I decided that most of it is in my attitude and if I just got up and had a positive attitude and went about business as normal, I would be just fine. I went to help in Aubrey's class, then I went shopping for Addy's Birthday present, because it was her Birthday. Then I went shopping for groceries. Then I came home and cleaned the house and made Addy's Birthday dinner and cake and my mom and Lauren came over for a family party. Then the next day I got up at 6:30 am and went to help Emily's teacher at 9am. (Most of it's just in my attitude right?) By the time I got home from the school yesterday, I was in pretty horrible shape. Like Horrible, Horrible. Yesterday was not a good day for me.

I can't remember the last time I felt so bad. I had a fever and chills. A nasty cough that was in my lungs. And a very achy breaky everything. I thought I might die. Thankfully I didn't. About that time, I decided it was about time for me to slow my attitude down and park my booty in the bed. I couldn't just keep going about life as normal. I needed to get better and I needed to do it in a jiffy. I had exactly one day because on Thursday (tomorrow) I had 3 big events. 1. Emily's play at school, 2. Addy's friend Birthday party, 3. Relief Society Christmas Dinner. So I put a halt on all activities last night. My dear visiting teacher brought in dinner last night. The Relief Society Presidency came by to visit and brought me a treat. And I started ordering everyone in my family around, more than normal.

At that point, I had no choice but to get orderly. I couldn't do anything for myself. Seriously. I couldn't even reach my arm out of my blanket to get a kleenex because my chills were so bad. And my kids were freaking out because every time they would come to give me a hug I was burning up. Poor Steve, he has been so good to me. After me ordering him around all night last night and making a trip to the store for me to buy all my invalid supplies and getting all the kids in bed and doing everything else that needed to be done, just as we were about to fall asleep I said, "Honey, will it make you crazy if I ask you to do one more thing for me?" He said it wouldn't. So I asked him to take my socks off because they were bothering me. And he did it without complaint.

He is a good man. He stayed home from work today and he has been babying me all day. I have decided that in all likelihood, I am not going to be better by tomorrow, so I postponed Addy's party and sadly decided that I'm not going to the dinner tomorrow night even though I hate to miss it. I will venture out for Emily's play however. Hopefully I will be well by the weekend because we have play tickets for Saturday and tickets to the Christmas Devotional at the Conference Center on Sunday. I will not be happy if I have to miss either of those.

One upside to all this is that I haven't been able to eat anything for the past few days and my abs are getting a stellar workout with all the coughing. And I had Steve set me up in bed with the laptop and my pictures so I can get caught up with all my posting.

Here are some pictures from last night. I told the kids that if they would clean up the kitchen and clean out the van (it hadn't been done since we arrived home from our trip and it was pretty ripe) we could set up the tree. And by we I mean I would shiver under my blankets in the corner of the couch while they set it up.

The girls pretty much set the tree up themselves

Steve hard at work

Zac wasn't feeling too hot either (I don't know what I'll do if other people get sick) so he also took up residency on the couch. I tried to tell him not to get near me but he wouldn't listen. I think he is looking for a way to get out of going to school.

Monday Morning Musings - Heavy Metal

My dear son Zac came home from school on Friday with this beautiful flower he made for me in Metal Shop. I love it. He is loving Metal. He has made some pretty awesome stuff so far this school year.

I also must say how proud I am of his recent report card he brought home. He made 4 A's and 3 B's which is a HUGE improvement over all of last year. He really is working hard and trying to get good grades in his classes. Way to go Z!

I can't tell you how nice it was to wake up this morning and have it be semi-light outside. It has been so hard lately to drag myself and the kids out of bed when it is so dark outside. And I am glad it will be easier to get people in bed on time. I am really enjoying this time change thing. I will have to remember that in the spring when we have to pay up for our extra hour.

My cousin Kathy and her son Spencer flew from Texas to Utah over the weekend. Kathy's husband works for the airlines and they let their kids pick anywhere they want to go (inside the US) for their Birthday. Spencer turned 5 on Friday so he and Kathy flew here to go to the Dinosaur Museum. They stayed with us on Friday night. It was good to see them. On Saturday morning, before the had to head out to the airport, we had a delicious breakfast with them and my mom and Lauren came over too.

Spencer and Addy are only a few weeks apart in age and they were instant best buds. They had so much fun together for the few hours they had to play. It snowed Friday night so they were excited to wake up Saturday morning and go outside and play.

On Saturday morning Addy went down the street to a Birthday party. It was a princess party and she came home all decked out in princess attire with her own little princess cake.



The other day we were cooking something on the stove and one of the kids took the pan off the burner and set it on the counter. I picked it up and put something under it and told them we couldn't put hot stuff on the counter or we will ruin it. Silly Zac said, "Oh...so that's why you don't want me sitting on the counter."



That boy is so goofy. A few days after that Emily had something she wanted to put in the spice cabinet. I told her she couldn't keep it there and showed her a different cabinet where she could keep it. She for some reason was not happy with that and really wanted to keep it in the spice cabinet. I told her she couldn't because it wouldn't fit in there. And Zac said, "Yeah, it doesn't fit in. All the other spices will make fun of it."



So the other night I was making dinner in the kitchen when I almost chopped my hand off. I was just going along all fine and dandy like, singing along to Journey as I sliced and diced with a big huge knife. And then BAM! Something hit my big picture window so hard, I can't believe it didn't break it. After a split second of freaking out and almost cutting my hand off, I knew exactly what it was. Because it isn't the first time it has happened. A big huge beautiful pheasant had flown into the window. It was kinda sad. For the bird and my big window which had just been washed a few days before.



I don't know what the deal with me and dishwashers is. Really. At the time in my life when I had the cheapest dishwasher available, no problemo. Whenever I have a nice dishwasher, it is always breaking down. It is totally ridiculous. We have lived in this house for almost 3 years now and this is the 4th time the dishwasher has stopped working. Anyhoo. So when the kids get in trouble and need a punishment, they get to do dishes, since the dishwasher is on the fritz. Again. I think my kids are a little too smart for their own good. Do you know how many glasses they have broken in the last week? I couldn't even begin to tell you. It is so often, I really think they are doing it on purpose to insure that they don't ever get dishes again as a penalty. "She's gonna make me do the dishes again, I'll show her how I do the dishes. Oops. Another broken glass...."



Addy. I don't even know. That kid. She keeps us laughing all the time. The other morning when the kids were eating breakfast she said, "Lady Gaga is bad because she shows her boobs." And Emily said, "Addy, don't say that, that's bad." And so Addy said, "Ok, she shows her MAN BOOBS!" And Emily said, "Addy, that's bad too!" So she said, "FINE! She shows her pecs!" First off, I don't even know how she knows anything about Lady Gaga and what she shows because we don't ever listen to or watch Lady Gaga in our house.

The Grinch Who Stole Halloween

I totally am gonna get a door mat that says this. Really. Just call me the Halloween Grinch. With every passing year, I like this "holiday" less and less. I have my reasons. However I have children and so in an attempt to not cause them any additional emotional trauma (Emily still brings up, on a bi-weekly basis-3 1/2 years later, the fact that her Baptism dress-not the one she actually wore to be Baptised in, the one she wore after-was red instead of white. I am sure she will mention it when I am on my death bed as well.) Anyhoosers. To spare any unnecessary emotional trauma to my children, we still participate in this..ritual. Of Halloween. Which is now a full week long event. It started when we went the Monday before Halloween to the Library for Spook Stories. Then Wednesday, Addy and I went to the Library for story time and she dressed up as a princess and went trick or treating in the Library. I didn't get a picture of that event.

Next up was Zac. He had a Youth Halloween party at the church the Wednesday before Halloween. He insisted on wearing Addison's unicorn costume, which caused her to freak totally out. He did take home first prize for the funniest costume though. And it went well with his pink shoes.

Then the Halloween parade at the school the Friday before Halloween (because if a 4 day weekend wasn't enough the weekend before, we had a 3 day weekend for Halloween and the kids got to stay home for Halloween). This was a HUGE event at our old school and I was so glad when we moved here to find out they didn't do one at our new school. Until this year. yay.

My normal cheerleader, Aubrey. You will see later why I call her normal in this picture.

Emily, who figured the costume worked for her brother, why not for her too?

The Saturday before Halloween we went to my mom's church for their Trunk-n-Treat. My brother Sam and his wife Teresa were in town for the weekend. The best part of the night was when a girl dressed as Hermoine from Harry Potter came by and my mom got so excited and said, "OH! I know who you are! You're JUDGE JUDY!" We all fell out of our seats we were laughing so hard.

After the Trunk-n-Treat we all went to our house for dinner and games. Then my mom and Addy snuggled up on the couch to watch TV and snooze while the rest of us went to a haunted house in our neighborhood that the High School Drama Club puts on. Not my favorite part of the night. I don't know what I was thinking. I mean, if I want to be scared I can do it without even leaving the house. All I have to do is not fast forward or change the channel or close my eyes and put my fingers in my ears and yell LA LA LA LA when a scary movie commercial comes on TV. Which I would never do, so I don't know why I thought I would want to go to a haunted house. Emily was a brave one though. She made Uncle Sam go through with her twice.


On Sunday we went to my mom's house for lunch after church. We said our goodbyes to Sam and Teresa who were going back to Idaho. I traumatized my children by making them watch Michael Jackson's Thriller video. Then we came home and carved our pumpkins. I fully intended to skip this part of Halloween, but my kids still remind me all the time of the year I wouldn't let them carve pumpkins and I made them decorate them with stickers (just so you don't think I'm totally lame, they were cute vinyl jack-o-lantern face stickers my friend Coren made). So once again, to avoid emotional trauma, we carved our little tiny pumpkins that spontaneously grew up from our old chicken yard. I am afraid however that in this attempt to avoid emotional trauma, I actually caused trauma by not having the proper sized pumpkins to carve. Look, these pumpkins were free. And I am cheap. And I am sure there are children somewhere in the world who would have been happy to have the small pumpkins.





And after a full week of celebrating, we finally arrive at the actual day of Halloween. An event I refused to decorate for this year (which Zac just reminded me of as I am typing this). Like I said, the kids had this day off from school. Steve and I were able to go to lunch that day with our dear friends Ken and Michelle, who we haven't seen in forever. Just to clarify, we did not go to lunch to celebrate Halloween, we went to lunch to celebrate Ken being Steve's lawyer and they had official business to attend to.





That night we had a huge neighborhood pot luck dinner and mass trick or treating. Aubrey went as a Zombie Cheerleader.






Addy changed her mind about what she wanted to be about 5 times that day. Finally, about 30 minutes before we left, she settled for a cat. Does this kids have the eyes or what?!?

Zac took a page from my sister Farrah's book (she sent us a picture of herself dressed up like this) and went as...well....went as this:

Emily also changed her mind several times in the costume designing process. She finally settled on a rock star. That's her with the git-tar.

Sigh...alas our Halloween celebration has come to an end....