125 plus Thanksgiving

125...that's how many hours Aaron has worked so far this week and he's still not home. Hopefully he won't be too late tonight. I'm tired and I'm sure he' s beyond EXHAUSTED! The sad part is that he was planning on having the weekend off. But another resident's wife decided to have a baby, Aaron was off and in town so he got called in for the WHOLE weekend. Just our luck!

He did have Thanksgiving Day off. We were invited over to the Behesti's (our Bishop) house for a nice Lunch. It was wonderful. We were joined by a few other families and had a great time. The food was fabulous, it's always better when I don't have to make the whole meal. We ate til our hearts (and bellies) content then played "round robin" ping pong to work off some of that food before pie. I was in charge of the pies. I found incredible recipes for pumpkin cream cheese pie, coconut custard, regular pumpkin, and pecan. I had fun making them and even more fun eating them. It was nice not to have to spend the day alone. We really have been blessed throughout our time away from family with wonderful people who have become our family. We have been well taken care of over the years, although we look forward to the time when we get to spend Thanksgiving and the other Holidays with our families...all of them.

HE Knows Me

It seems like no matter what stage in life we are in it is busy. So many times I feel like I am being pulled in 4 different directions at the same time. There is always something that has to get done; whether it's making Christmas presents for all the Sisters in the Ward, doing the never ending piles of laundry, sitting down to do homework with the kids, or making dinner. I have left out the other 100 things that moms, wives, and LDS women do on a daily basis, but you get my point.

I found myself complaining the other day about not having time to enjoy anything I was doing. I was in a "get one task done so I could move on to the next task" mode. Not really happily doing any of them.

I was making dinner and Caite asked if I could play a game with her. I said after dinner. Well dinner came and went, clean up came and went, then baths came and went. I got the kids in bed and Caite started crying, "You said you would play a game with me!" But now it was bed time and she had school in the morning. "We'll do it tomorrow." She was sad and I felt bad.

Then I got a call from a lady in the Ward asking me to sub for her in Relief Society next week. The lesson is a Conference talk give by President Monson, "Finding Joy in the Journey." President Monson said, "Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important--and what is most important always involves the people around us." "Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows."

The night I didn't play the game with Caite, I made her feel like she was less important than cleaning up. I don't want that to happen again. So I need to come up with a better solution. Dinner still needs to be made, the house still needs to be cleaned, but my kids need to know that they are the most important things to me. I'm working on it...finding joy in the journey. Heavenly Father knew I needed to teach this lesson. If no one in Relief Society gets anything out of my lesson, I did. I need it. Isn't that how it always goes? I'm grateful for a loving Father who KNOWS me so well, knows my needs, and knows how to meet them.

School Closed...Mom Goes Crazy

We got a message from our neighbor while we were out of town that said, "Chrystal Hill will be closed next week due to a roof structural problem." What in the world? So we got home Saturday and talked to a friend who's kids go to the same school. Same message, not much information. On the news that night they had a blip on it saying that the fire retardant that was sprayed on the roof when it was built in 1992 is causing a chemical reaction with the trusses and wood under the shingles that causes them to weaken and decay. Great so the roof of my kids school is at HIGH RISK for caving in on them. Now no one is allowed in until it is fixed. How long will that take?? I read on the website just now that the students and their teachers will be relocated to Maumelle Middle School starting Monday until further notice. The problem...k-5 relocates to Maumelle Middle and Pre-K (Caite's class) relocates to Oak Grove about 10 miles away. They both start and end the same time. Someone will be late.


In the mean time we have ALL been together ALL last week and now ALL this week. The kid had had about enough of each other. I've have enough of the fighting. The weather hasn't been conducive to outside play. cold. rainy. We still can't find Hayden (see earlier post) and Isaac likes to tease everyone when he's bored. Aaron came home last night gave me a hug and kiss. I said take me away. I did. Without kids this time.

Branson

(Warning: this is a very LONG post)

We survived a week long Family Vacation!! We set out Sunday afternoon for a quick 3 hour drive to Branson. I'm so glad our kids are good travelers. It make life so much easier. We got to our condo just in time to grab dinner, do a little grocery shopping for the week, unpack, and put the kids to bed. We had a beautiful 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 kitchen, 2 living room, screened in porch condo located right on Lake Table Top. It was roomy and worked quite nicely for our big family. It was very nice to stay in a condo vs. a hotel. much bigger and we could make our own food (when we were there).

Day One: We hung out at the condo in the morning and then we had to go to one of those "high pressure sell you a timeshare" meetings. It was really easy to say no due to the fact we have no money to buy into it. How ever they still put the pressure on and the 1 hour meeting turned into 2.5. I was mad. But we got 2 day tickets for our whole family to go to Silver Dollar City for only$34 (it would have cost over $200 if we paid out of pocket). The rest of the day was spent driving around Branson seeing what it had to offer. We found a mall on the river that had a great fountain and fire show set to Christmas music. The kids thought that was fun.Day two: Got back in the mini-van and drove 4 hours to Independence, Missouri to check out the Visitors Center, the funny Community of Christ Temple, Adam Ondi Ahman, and Liberty Jail. We thought since we were staying in Branson we were already half way there, so we took advantage of the opportunity of seeing all the Church History Cites in Missouri. Very neat. I think my favorite was Adam Ondi Ahman. The fall leaves made it gorgeous! The history there is amazing and the future is even more incredible. It is such a peaceful place, similar to the Sacred Grove. You can definitely feel the strong spirit there.

Day Three: Silver Dollar City. Their "Old Time Christmas Festival" started the beginning of November, just in time for us to see it. Every building was lit up with a million lights, they had all kinds of Christmas Shows going on and all the shops were filled with Christmas Decor. It was so much fun. Of course the kids only cared about the rides, the light Parade, and all the little candy shops. The rides were great and there was something for everyone. Among the favorites were the "little roller coaster", the frog, the shooting boat ride, and the indoor roller coaster.

Day Four: Isaac woke up throwing up. Hayden followed a few hours later. While the boys were home sick, I took the girls shopping. We got to the outlet mall, I put Halle in the stroller and Caite says, "Mom I need a rag, I just threw up." I looked in the van and all I could see was vomit on the floor and seats. Sick!! So I spent an hour cleaning it up with baby wipes, just to get it clean enough to go to the store and buy carpet cleaner and real rags. No real shopping was done. So sad and so sick. So day four was a bad day.

Day Five: Hung out at the condo until after lunch...making sure everyone was okay and not going to throw up anymore. Back to Silver Dollar City (it didn't open until 1). This time it was cold out side. We bundled up and had another fun filled day. The favorite was the Foam Ball House we found at the end of the night. It was a 3 or 4 story open building that has these cool foam ball guns. You could shoot at people from across the house, or up to different stories. It was really fun. Aaron really got in to it.

Day Six: Back to the outlet mall for some shopping. It took us 20 minutes to get to the parking lot from the road...too many cars...too many old people...no parking places...I was annoyed and didn't want to fight the crowds with 4 kids. No shopping was done. Went back to the condo, ate lunch, packed up and headed home.

Vacation was fun, but it's soooo nice to be home.

Thanks for the Condo Nana and Papa!

Fall Festivities

This has been a busy week!

The kids helped make Rice Crispy Treat Pumpkins and delivered them to all the neighbors.

I went with Caite's class on a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch and Hay Ride. She had a lot of fun and found just the right pumpkin...it took her forever. She was very excited to ride a school bus for the very first time.

Last night we had our Ward Halloween Party...Chili Cook-off and "trunk-o-treat". The kids ate too much candy and too little chili. Won too many cupcakes from the "Cake Walk". And got really scared in the "Spook Alley". But a good time was had by all...except Aaron he spent the night at the hospital.

We went for a family theme this year with our costumes.

RAZORBACK Football players and Cheerleaders!

We still have the real Halloween, Isaac's Honor Roll Assembly, give hair cuts to the boys, and Pack for our Vacation. We leave Sunday after church for a Family Vacation (with Aaron) to Branson Missouri for the week.