Catching up

This should be on the family blog, but I uploaded the pictures and then realized I was on this blog and not the family one... so we'll let that slide for now. :)

Ashley was one of the kids chosen to participate in decorating a christmas tree with her 6th grade english teacher Mrs Conrady at the state capital.  I was able to drive her and two friends down to it and they had a great time.  When we first got there, there was some waiting time... the girls kept themselves amused with the phone.

 Then the ornaments arrived and it was instant chaos... 28 kids trying to decorate the tree at the same time with parents trying to take pictures... this times 100 as there were schools decorating tree's every 20 feet throughout the state capital building... with marble floors- the sound was loud!

The Govenor and School Superintendant and Santa Clause came around and took pictures and visited with the kids after the tree was decorated.

 The three girls I took, with their great teacher Mrs Conrady.  Alex had her last year so it's been fun already knowing her and some of her traditions with the kids.

 Then we went and stood outside in the cold and waited for the big tree lighting ceremony... it was cold... and we waited and waited, and waited... for 45 min while they had some technical difficulties.

 But it was a pretty tree... and the hot cocoa we went and got afterwards was a beautiful drink too! lol! :)

Random thoughts that may or may not relate to each other...

I'm getting tired of, and at the same time have a lot of gratitude for Tissues,  Cold medicine, cough medicine, steam showers, and pillows...

We have a cold that has been passing around through our house.  I've had it about three times now, or I just haven't ever gotten over it.  Everyone else has had it at least once, and Alex was down and out of school with a cough for a week...

We managed to have a fun thanksgiving through the midst of it with Ann and her family coming over to visit from Tennessee.  I managed to not take a single picture of anyone while they were here... just forgot to pull the camera out at all.

The family all pitched in and we put up the christmas tree and did our indoor decorations last week.  Much to the chagrin of the girls, we have yet to put up any outdoor decorations and are currently the only lightless house on the block at nighttime...

Oklahoma is wishing we could take the high temps of this summer and the low temps of this winter and just average them together and stick to a mild temp year round... it's hard to deal with cold temps when you acclimated to 100+ for weeks on end in the summer...

I really need to blog more regularly... and with a purpose... :)  Next time I'll have something worth talking about and not just ramblings. lol! :)

Back from our trip...

We are back from our trip.  We had a wonderful fun time and I'll put pictures up on the family blog hopefully in the next few weeks. 

Of course there are the stories to tell and the snags and stuff that come up before and during big trips.

A week before we were to leave on our trip, Ashley was stepping up from wet grass onto the wet concrete on the back porch.  She slipped and fell and hurt her foot.  By the next monday it was still swollen so we took her to get x-rays on it.  We wound up not hearing back from the dr until Wed night, and she had two broken bones on her foot. On Thursday we went to the Orthopedic dr and we discussed the best options for her foot to let it heal, and for her to also still be able to have a good time on the trip.  We wound up with an air boot cast.  So she was able to ride on the roller coasters with Rich at Universal, and we could take it off and shower and go into the pool and ride the water slides with inner tubes.

Here though is a picture that is one of my favorite...  it sums up a lot of the trip...

So much fun that at the end of the day Angie just couldn't stay awake long enough to finish her cookie...

This week it's back to business for us at home... homework, lessons, Halloween (we still need to get costumes for tomorrow nights ward party) laundry, grocieries, cleaning rooms... etc...

All that free time they said I would have...

All last year and this summer people asked me what I would do with my days when school started and all the kids were at school all day long...

I told them I was just going to wait and see what time I had extra throughout the day.

What I've realized is that my day is more free for scheduling things.  I don't have to schedule around the mid-day pick up that I had done for the last four years between two kids going through pre-k and kindergarten.

What I've also realized is that even though my day is more free for scheduling things- I am just as busy or more busy than I was last year at this time.  I find myself at the school more volunteering...  taking my time at the store instead of rushing through shopping... and trying to increase my exercise time and intensity.

The laundry pile is still always big,  the bathrooms are still always there needing to be cleaned,  and the kitchen floor is still almost always in need of mopping...

I haven't blogged more often like I thought I would.
I haven't baked homemade bread on a regular basis.
I haven't dived into digi scrapping with all of my "free-time"
I haven't cleaned out closets and drawers and organized the whole house...

Those things will come in time, but right now I'm finding myself plenty busy. :)

This month will continue the busy trend.  Yesterday and Today is General Conference.  Today is Rich and I's Anniversary, the rest of this month holds campouts, birthday parties, end of the term tests, new clarinet and tuba lessons, a buisness trip, a family vacation, dentist and dr routine appointments (not to mention the inevitable non routine apt's that I'm sure will get scheduled) Fall festival parties at school and at church, and Halloween to end the month.

I'm going to try and blog more often.  I miss it when I don't get on here and blog and record what we are doing as a family...

Storm Damage