December Update

It has been a really interesting and emotional week. I won’t go into detail, but the lessons Clint and I have learned in the past few years have changed us… in a good way. I can honestly say I am grateful for the trials we’ve had and the sacrifices we’ve made in the last 5 years.

Other than a little drama, we’ve had a good week. On Monday night, we went to the aquarium with Caitlin’s cancer support group. We’ve been meaning to go there for a while and it was a fun night. Afterwards, we went to Schmidt’s Pastry Cottage for dessert and for a drive to see Christmas lights.

I found some time to go to breakfast with my favorite work friends. They are so fun and make my job tolerable on tough days.

Today Caleb went to the Winter Ball. They had a day date with a snowball fight (with rolled up socks), watched a movie, and ate pizza. When he left for the dance, he looked so nice. I’m happy he’s dating and enjoying high school.

I took Caitlin and her friends to the movie today and then this afternoon, she babysat for one of her young woman leaders. She’s getting more babysitting jobs these days and seems to like it.

With both kids out of the house, Clint and I played the whole day. We went back to the Up house and took a bunch of pictures, then went downtown. We spent some time at the Gateway, had lunch at Tucano's, ran some errands, and then went to a movie (I know, two in one day for me!). It was a great day and was fun to be out and about after working a lot of hours this week.

This coming week is going to be a little nuts. We’ve got something, or in some cases, several things each night. I can’t believe we only have two weeks left until Christmas!

A Quick Little Update

I am so far behind posting on my blog, I don’t even know where to start…

• We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent it with my family- parents, sibs, nieces and nephew, grandma, and my aunt. We had a fun weekend shopping, crafting, and hiking. Caitlin is head over heels in love with my mom and dad’s new puppy, Cooper and had fun playing with him.
• Caleb and Caitlin both did awesome in school last quarter and both made honor roll. This is especially exciting for Caitlin. She is doing amazingly well in school and it actually seems to benefit her to have seven different teachers. She has also found that she loves reading. Yay!
• Caleb was asked to the Winter Ball by a girl named Analee, who is in his seminary class. He answered her with a scripture scavenger hunt… it really came in handy that his name is found in the Bible.
• Caleb was called as a Family History Consultant in our ward, with three other youth.
• I took Caitlin to Time Out for Girl’s in November and it was such a great experience. I love that she wants to make good decisions.
• Yesterday we did our BIG deep clean in the basement. We do this three times a year and while I absolutely despise the thought of it, it is so satisfying to have the kids rooms purged, cleaned and organized before Christmas. I am constantly amazed by the things I find during these marathon cleaning adventures. Here’s an example… these are the socks found in Caitlin’s bed… I found more between the mattress and box spring. I think she forgets that we have laundry baskets and trash cans in strategic places in our home that she is free to use.
• Finally, the big news… we are officially house hunting. Eeekkk! There is a house we’ve already found that we really like, but we’re trying to remain unemotional about it until we’ve looked into it a little more. Other than knowing where we want to be, we are pretty much starting from scratch. We are open to both pre-owned and new, one and two stories, and many different styles of homes like cottages, bungalows, four square, Victorian, etc… We definitely have a wish list and a target budget, but other than that we’re open minded. The only thing that we’ve pretty much ruled out is building a new home.
• Our December is off to a busy start and we have a lot to look forward to and be grateful for.  Love this time of year!

Time Out

Over the weekend I got to spend time with some of my favorite ladies. On Friday, on my way to St. George, I made a quick detour and took my grandma out to lunch. She’s up to her eyeballs with Christmas sewing, eats clam chowder and onion rings, and likes to fill me in on the news of all our family members. I enjoyed our quick visit.

I met up with my mom and sister in the late afternoon and we went to TOFW. What a great experience! It was such an inspiring, uplifting, and quick couple of days. Every speaker and musician were amazing and delivered a heartfelt message. I think this is going to become a must do in the years to come.

Last night Caitlin and I went to Young Women in Excellence.  She had volunteered to play a cello solo and I was kind of worried she wouldn’t go through with it, but she did. It was a little fast and a little messed up, but she DID it. I pulled out my camera to video it and she said NO WAY! I told her it was for Clint because he was sick at home and would want to see, but she said NO WAY. Hmmm… I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it.

We counting down the days for Thanksgiving. Looking forward to being with our family again.

Quotes of the Day

Okay, so when I should be getting valuable sleep, I’m looking at Pinterest instead. Oh this evil, evil addiction. I laughed out loud when I read these:

“Sometimes your knight in shining armor is just a retard in tin foil”

“I don’t have pet peeves. I have whole kennels of irritation”

“If idiots grew on trees, this place would be an orchard”

“We’ll be friends until we’re old and senile… then we’ll be NEW friends”

LOL!

The Oldest One

Caleb kept me up until midnight last night because he had procrastinated a HUGE assignment for language arts and needed desperate help. I don’t think I’ve helped him with homework since elementary school.

Caitlin was copying the family tree out of Caleb’s 7th Grade autobiography and realized in the whole project she wasn’t mentioned by name even once. On his timeline he had written “sister born September 1998”. He had used Daisy’s name though… twice. Sibling rivalry? I have no idea why he wouldn’t mention Caitlin more! She was amused and huffy about it. LOL

Caleb had his first acapella concert tonight. They are an amazing choir and fun to watch.

Caleb has a date for the Halloween dance at school. They have to wear costumes and the theme is “Opposites Attract”. I seriously have no ideas. No. Ideas.

Tomorrow we go in for Caleb’s SEOP and talk about scheduling for SENIOR year and college. Eeekkkkk!

All in all, he’s a pretty great kid.

Balancing Act

I love this outtake photo of Caitlin balancing on the railroad tracks after her birthday photo shoot. Unfortunately these days I feel more like I have been run over by the train rather than trying to balance on the tracks.

It seems there is a recurrent theme with my family, friends, and co-workers these days… we’re busy, really busy, too busy. As much as I like the stage of life we’re in, I cannot believe how quickly our calendar fills up and how much running around we do.

In the past couple of weeks, I have been overwhelmed with meetings, appointments, deadlines, activities, errands, social gatherings, etc.… It’s not that I don’t enjoy most of these things, it’s just that there is so little down time.

I really can’t complain too much because I’m grateful for the opportunities we have, but I’ve got to figure out how to simplify and keep some empty spaces open on our calendar.

The September Blur

I’m trying to play a little bit of catch up here. As much as I love the month of September, it went by in a big blur due to a full calendar and being sick the entire month.

Caitlin celebrated a milestone birthday this year by turning 13. She had a friend party at Color Me Mine/Sweet Tooth Fairy Bakery the week before her actual birthday. It was a fun and easy party, and the friends she invited are really cute girls. It was also the perfect day to paint with the rain pouring down outside.

     

Grandpa, Grandma, and aunt Toni came to visit the weekend of Caitlin’s birthday. They were here to see her open her gifts and go with us to Mary Poppins. We were happy to have them visit and grateful for the opportunity to share this day together. Caitlin was so happy to get two new pairs of Toms, money, the UP movie, and a bunch of Broadway music CD’s. She was spoiled.

 

Caleb asked a senior to Homecoming this year. Her name is Shelby and they went with a group of four other couples for a day date, dinner, the dance, and dessert (lots of D’s in that sentence). I’m not sure about these full day dates, but they had a fun time together. Caleb also made the Improv team at school this month.

 

I was invited to attend a work conference in Orlando and took Clint and Caitlin with me. We visited Give Kids the World (a village for Make a Wish families visiting Disney World). While we didn’t stay in the village for Caitlin’s trip, we spent a lot of time there and the kids loved it. It’s grown in nine years, but still has a special feeling and holds sweet memories for us. There is a carousel there that Caitlin rode 20+ times a day while on her Make a Wish. She rode it a few more times on this trip just for old times sake. She also still gets a kick out of the talking garbage cans that suck up your trash (or hair if you get too close). The most important stop was the ice cream parlor (we went twice in two hours). First Caitlin got a double scoop of mint chocolate chip and cookies and cream. After walking around for a while, she decided she wanted something more. She ended up with an enormous banana split made by this couple from Missouri who volunteer four months each year at Give Kids the World. We really liked them and appreciated that even visiting wish kids get a warm welcome and the royal treatment. They were not stingy with the ice cream, whip cream, cherries, or the hot fudge. Yum.

   

On our first night in Orlando, we went to see the Blue Man Group at Universal Studios. Clint ended up being part of the show. It was fun, and loud, and messy.

   

While I attended the conference, Clint and Caitlin went swimming at the hotel, to Downtown Disney, to a character breakfast and boating at the Polynesian Resort where we stayed on her Make a Wish, back to Give Kids the World for more ice cream, and I’m sure there are other things I have forgotten. They had a lot more fun than I did, but I’m happy that  they could come with me and take advantage of our nice accommodations and free flights. What’s better than a free vacation?

We’re home now and it’s October. I want this month to go by slowly, but looking at the calendar, I think it’s going to be another blur of a month. Sigh…