November's Nonsense

Wanna know what random things happened in November? Read on...

{...A BIRTHDAY...}

I had a birthday. It was a very low-key birthday, but it was a good one. Eric surprised me with a game. There's been a game around for awhile called Munchkin and it's one Eric and I both like and even a few of the kids like it. Well, recently they came out with a Nightmare Before Christmas version and that's what I got!

SOURCE

The kids made dinner for me and then we played my game. Eric, Tanis and Shaylyn so very politely let me win. Okay the truth is Eric was super close, but I managed to pull it off in the end thanks to some cards Tanis had to throw away.

I had some very giving relatives that gave me money for my birthday. I used some of that money at The Wood Connection to buy me some crafty crap. 

If you want more info on why I chose to do these two crafts, you can read about the turkey here and the rules sign here.

{...THANKSGIVING...}

Of course we celebrated Thanksgiving. My neice had a birthday party the night before and so we just opted to stay at Eric's mom's house for the weekend. So on Thanksgiving morning, I was able to help her prepare Thanksgiving dinner and the older kids helped set the table. 

We had a good meal with one of the smallest crowds we have had in years. Around 6 we headed back over to my mom's house. Eric played a few games with my dad, little brother and my brothers in law. They had a great time. I spent a majority of the night in the same position holding a sleeping 2 year old. That was no easy task with a baby belly in the way. 

My mom, brother Donovan and little sister (who was in my same position with a 3 year old and no baby belly) played a game as well. I'm proud to say that Donovan and I whooped my mom and sister's butts.

Before the little boys fell asleep, my little sister planned a little craft that we did. The kids made little turkey headbands with the feathers saying what they were thankful for. My cute 3 year old nephew just randomly named a few people in the room - I was surprisingly one of his favorite people that day. Woot!

Tanis, Nate, Ailey and Jace all made one. Shaylyn and Lex were too busy playing with cousins they don't see very often and when Shaylyn did see the craft, she and a couple other cousins opted to make Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle masks out of them. Go fig.

I was so excited to see that one of my niece's was dressed similarly to Ailey. Thankfully it was her 'twin' and they had so much fun together.

{...AN ANNIVERSARY...}

Eric and I got married 17 years ago on November 27th. We decided to have a very low key anniversary this year in an effort to have a bit more money at Christmas. This was a very good idea as we spent most of the anniversary in the car. 

Having spent the night at Eric's mom's we spent the morning getting things cleaned up and put back together. We left shortly after lunch and do to many unexpected circumstances we needed to take my nephew back home. He slept over at my mom's and his mom really wasn't thrilled at the idea of driving all the way back to my mom's to get him. (She also live an hour plus away from our mom) 

Because we were literally in the neighborhood, we offered to get him and meet up with her. Well, my little sister played a Speedy Gonzales and got to our meeting spot about a half hour before we would get there. So we changed the meet up place and then we changed it again. We eventually got her son back to her, but then we had the 20 minute trip back home. 

We got home and unloaded the car (somehow we always end up with tons of stuff after being with Eric's mom) and I then made myself presentable. We decided to go to Olive Garden as we hadn't been there in a long time. We got lucky and found a good parking spot and there was literally NO WAIT on a FRIDAY night! Thank you Thanksgiving and Black Friday shoppers! Sadly, we had a miserable experience. I ordered a drink that didn't taste the way I thought it should. The salad had a very miniscule amount of dressing on it and neither of our orders were anything to rave about. But we were fed and that was good enough.

We then ended up at Target. I needed a few things and also had a gift card from my birthday to spend. After wandering the store for probably an hour or so, we checked out. We then headed to the game store where Eric 'works' to pick something up. While there he was trying to decide if he should use his birthday money for a huge piece for one of his games. He debated for probably a half hour but then gave in. 

So yes, very low-key, but we spent the day with each other and that was all that really mattered to me. It's good to know we can still enjoy each other's company while doing the simplest of things and a good reminder that we make sacrifices for each other on a daily basis. Shopping isn't Eric's favorite thing to do, especially when there's no plan. I don't particularly enjoy standing around while someone makes a decision either, but these are the kinds of things we find ourselves doing a lot.

{...ERIC'S BIRTHDAY...}

Eric's birthday may has well never have come at all. I didn't do anything for him to acknowledge it in any way and I still feel guilty. He asked for one thing from me: devilled eggs. I told him I could do it after I dropped Shaylyn off at dance. I went to the store and grabbed what I needed, including a package of carmels for him. I got home and realized I only had 2 eggs and I was at the store. Failed yet again and I still have yet to make those eggs for him. His only saving grace, I suppose was that I gave him the freedom to play a new video game all day. So maybe he was happy.

I spent the night of his birthday getting a few things done on the computer, but Jace needed some love. So I did what I needed to on the computer left handed, which I'm not and held Jace with my right hand. And as soon as I turned the camera on my phone on, he was a happy camper.

And that, my friends winds up the month of November. It went by eerily fast!

What Happens Next...

Still The One

This year our anniversary happened to fall on Thanksgiving. When we got married it really never occurred to me that our anniversary would fall on Thanksgiving occasionally. We will definitely try to steer our kids clear of getting married on holidays that rotate or anytime near Christmas! 

We hadn't really made any plans for our anniversary and money was tight. While we had tried to put some money aside, life happens and money you think you'll have doesn't always end up being available. I wasn't sure how much money we did have, so I tried to find things to give Eric that didn't cost really anything.

I was running out of time to do anything, but thankfully Eric had plans the night before Thanksgiving that took him away for a good chunk of the night and I was able to get the projects done that I had wanted to.

So on Thanksgiving morning I left a 3-4 page letter on his computer while he was in the shower. I went about cleaning the house and when he emerged from our room, he had tears in his eyes and he was very emotional about what I had written.

I then gave him this beauty:

I wasn't sure he'd like it because it is a bit more 'girly', but he was also emotional about this gift. That made my heart happy.

We then went about celebrating Thanksgiving and trying to decide what'd we'd do the next day.

As always, Eric's mom said she'd babysit over night. (She's pretty much a saint) And so we had time to do whatever we wanted.

I like to be surprised and because I didn't know what the money situation was - I let Eric plan things. I did tell him that I wanted him to do whatever HE wanted to do to celebrate our anniversary, and so we did.

After dropping the kids off, we headed out. I had no idea where we were going and we had a fun drive. Eric mentioned things like, 'I need to remember how to get there', 'I don't know if you were even paying attention to how to get there', 'Does this look familiar'?

So really I had no idea where in the world we were headed until we pulled up at LaserQuest. I was laughing so hard. For a little more background on LaserQuest and laser tag, you can read this. I was also laughing because once again, I had so not dressed for the occasion. I had boots on and a shirt that would be seen quite easily with black lights.

We went in and got all paid up and were able to have a game with just the 2 of us. Eric made sure we used the same code names as the 1st time we played and we went to work. It was kind of 'boring' having just 2 of us playing, but it was also that much more fun. We played hide and seek quite a bit and I improved on my game and learned a few things in the years that have passed - but I still got whooped.

After the game we decided we'd go get food. We decided we'd have like a 'Walk Down Memory Lane' type anniversary and went to Golden Corral. We then decided we'd head to South Towne Mall, which also has some memory for us. I had some birthday money to spend and so we went shopping. I found an outfit I wanted and then we headed home.

We played a trivia game, which I won - thank you very much! And then went to bed.

We woke up, got ready for the day and headed out to Orem. We had to play responsible Mom and Dad and get a kids instrument fixed. 

We stopped at Cafe Rio and had a nice lunch. We then dropped the instrument off to get fixed and headed over to Fat Cats to go bowling. We played 2 games and I lost miserably, both times. One day, I'll play like I did when I was young and maybe I'll whoop Eric one day.

After bowling we went and picked the kids up and had dinner. I was pleased to hear that the kids were mostly good and that they had fun with Grandma. 

I'm thankful I've had the chance to be married to Eric for 16 years. I can't even believe it's been that long. I still feel like we're kids sometimes. I am thankful for the man that Eric is and that he so willingly sacrifices so much for me and the kids. He's an amazing husband and a terrific father. I love his sense of family and how proud he is of his family. I am thankful that he took a chance on a quiet girl some 18 years ago and that he hasn't left her side!

What Happens Next...

The Anniversary That Almost Wasn't

It was our 15th Anniversary, the Crystal Anniversary - it should've been a big one. It was anything but.

Neither one of us was really in a celebratory mood. It was hard to get in the right frame of mind for all things fun and exciting while Dad's passing was still so new. We decided we'd just go out for the night and call it good.

I had decided it was past time for me to help my mother-in-law with Thanksgiving dinner, this year especially since I really felt she didn't need to do it. But, Eric's uncle had asked her if she was still doing it and she is too nice to say no. So, we had planned to just spend the night of the 27th with Mom so that I'd be there early in the morning to help get things going.

The plan was that I'd take myself and the kids and we'd meet Eric after work at his Mom's. She was willing to babysit the kids so we could go out.

I get everything packed, the kids all ready to go and then I pack up the car. When I go to get my keys and get the kids in the car - I can't find them anywhere. I look everywhere I can think of and they are no where. I call Eric and he can tell I'm stressed. He tells me to relax and keep looking, so I do. A short time later it occurs to me that he had my keys last and so I called him back and asked him where he might have put them. He swears he put them in the usual spot, but that's where I first looked and they weren't. I finally tell him to just look in his work bag to see if he might have them with him. He DOES!

So yay, we found the keys - but our next issue was that Eric didn't drive to work. He carpools and his buddy drove that day. He didn't feel comfortable asking his friend to skip out of work early so he tried to get a hold of his mom who could pick him up from Trax and then bring him home. I'm not sure how it happened, but Eric works with someone who actually lives out by us. They aren't really friends, so they never go to/from work together - but this guy overheard Eric's phone calls and volunteered to bring him home.

So now that we're 2 hours behind our 'schedule', we get the kids in the car and we're all set to head out. But then the car won't start. Seriously? It's the only vehicle that we have that can fit the whole family and we'd really rather not take 2 cars. Eric jumps the car and we are on our way.

We get to Eric's mom without any other incidents and we arrive at Mom's exhausted. But it is our anniversary so we still want to do something. Because Mom had her friend, Kathy with her, she said she'd watch Jace for us as well. With some hesitation I left him with her. It was weird to be without him, but also kind of nice.

We drive around for a bit not quite knowing where we want to eat, but we finally decide on Chili's. We had a nice, quiet meal and enjoyed each other's company. We decide we're really too burned out to do anything else, but I had to stop at a store for a pie to take to my mom's for Thanksgiving the next night. I knew the pie selection would be pretty picked over and I prayed there'd still be a banana creme. I was lucky.

After the store we went back to Mom's. We found that the kids were good, but gave Grandma lots of chances for some fun pictures.

Tanis performed an impromptu concert for Kathy:

The girls modeled their choice of outfits for the day (Shaylyn wore Ailey's shirt, Ailey wore Shaylyn's shirt):

Lex and Nate channeled their inner artists:

And as is usual for babies, Jace got lots of attention:

So we got back to Mom's and I gave Eric his simple gift, a slideshow video thing of our wedding highlights. It was a harder task than it seemed. I took a 2 1/2 - 3 hour long thing and cut it to 45 minutes. Didn't matter though, he still slept through it. However, because Mom and Kathy were still around they watched it and loved it. Eric apologized for falling asleep, but with the way our day was - I didn't blame him. I was surprised I stayed awake. I decided I wanted to share parts of the video with anyone who wanted to see it so I cut it down yet again to just over 15 minutes. I think that's almost as good as I can get.

A few things I notice/I'd like to point out on the video:

        * The video was made by Eric's cousin, who did it as a gift to us. He's in no means a professional.
        * The first thing you see in the video is introductions
        * There are a few cut outs during introductions where it seems tables didn't quite get finished - this is due to divorces that have happened. Didn't need to keep people in it that are no longer related, eh?
        * The gift from Eric's Dad was something he started when his first son was married. Funny thing this time was that I too came from a pro-BYU family, so it wasn't quite as funny as I'm sure it was the 1st go around with a daughter in law whose family is pro-UTAH.

        * I spent too much time dallying around in the morning and didn't have time to do much with my hair for the luncheon - that's why it looks as marvelous as it does. Thank heavens I had a cousin-in-law who's a hairstylist, she made me look so much better.

        * The Precious Moments Dolls were a wedding gift from my parents.
        * At 8:17 you can see Eric's brother, Greg, sneak out to 'vandalize' the car. Eric says he can see his Dad toss the keys to Greg, but I haven't been able to catch it. I think he's crazy and it doesn't exist.

        * That bench was NOT a bench for 2 and we were both crazy skinny.
        * My little brother, Devin, did the signature table - he volunteered.
        * Eric's best men were his 2 brothers. My bridesmaids (as shown in video) Melinda and Amanda (my friends), Eric's sister-in-law Wendy, then my 2 sisters - Kami and Kaeloni.

        * It's my baby brother, Logan, pulling the chair across the floor. He was bored.

        * Kaeloni ended up getting sick. :(

        * Cutting the cake felt awkward. I wasn't sure how to do it with Eric - so he had to be the one 'in charge'.

        * We had to have a chocolate cake (which I hate), because Eric hates cake in general - but figured he could handle chocolate.

        * Eric's cousin, Kristen, took it upon herself to be my train servant. I didn't mind.

        * Eric is visiting with his Grandpa at 14:24, this is the Grandpa that he looks like - so you can see what Eric will look like in his 80's.

         * Soap and rain don't mix...
         * I learned early to make Eric the pack mule. HAHAHA! I also learned how to keep him waiting.
         * Yes, I hugged my Dad goodbye and ignored my Mom. I'm praying I had hugged her a few minutes beforehand.
          * Eric's MAYBE gained 5lbs. since we've been married - I've gained 12x that. UGH!
          * The music is longer than the video. I know. I'm sorry.

So that was our 15th anniversary, nothing too wild or crazy - but I think this year we were really able to just focus on all that we've gone through in 15 years and how thankful we are to have each other. 

What Happens Next...

November...In A Nutshell, Or Rather One Long Blog Post

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...

To start off the month of November, Indiana Spud decided he'd like to go for an all new adventure and tried stealing Halloween candy...

He did a pretty good job of it and since he is somewhat lacking in pockets, he decided to keep some for later in his fedora.

(Nate was really the one who decided Indiana Spud needed to try the fun that is sugar...)

On the 14th of the month, Eric decided he wanted to channel his inner Robin Hood and went shooting arrows at an archery place with his older brother.

November 15th I left the house around 8:00 PM to go to dinner and a movie with some friends. My friend, Sharla is my birthday twin (we were born the same year, even) and last year we went to see Breaking Dawn: Part 1 the midnight showing on our birthday (the 16th) and this year we decided to go see Breaking Dawn: Part 2. We got an 11:15 or so showing, so we ended up getting home at a fairly decent time in the morning. It was just like a book club night.

The next day was my birthday. YAY! It started out like any other morning, except that Shaylyn was so excited to give me my present (hand made by her) that I hadn't even gotten out of bed when she brought it to me. This was her present:

She even monogrammed it which comes in handy, because the way my brain's been acting lately, I just might forget my initials.

I had a good portion of the day to sit and think on turning 33. This was the first year my age has really gotten to me. I wasn't so much sad as I was just overwhelmed that I am over 30...Age used to be just a number, but I sure felt a change this year.

When Eric got home from work, the two of us went out to dinner at my favorite place, Olive Garden. We had a long wait because it was a Friday night, but that was okay. We weren't in any real hurry to get anywhere.

When we got home I had another gift waiting. This was one from Eric and the kids. Tanis was super excited and told Eric he needed to get this for my birthday. I think he just wanted the game. But that's okay, it just means I have someone to play with.

We spent the rest of the night playing my game and just being silly.

My children then decided to show their turkey feathers. We made our annual Thanksgiving Turkeys on Sunday the 18th. A good family activity for a slow Sunday evening. Sadly, Nate was asleep so I had to make his (and I don't think he really even realized he had one) and Ailey truly went about making her own one WITHOUT anyone's help.

Because life wasn't exciting enough, Shaylyn decided she needed a black eye. She had a cast for a good chunk of November last year and this year she needed to do something! Therefore, she decided to trip and fall over a playground spider-web climbing thing. I wasn't there, so I don't know EXACTLY what happened, I can only go by her words and know she came home looking like this:

By the next morning she looked like this:

That night we went to the BYU Basketball game with Eric's dad and our family friends, The Wildings. We arrived late (I figured we had plenty of time, but I forget that basketball games aren't very long) and so we didn't have a whole lot of time to visit with our friends or see the whole 1st half of the game. We did see the 2nd half and the Cougars killed it. It was a good game to watch.

...I love that the 3 of us are all looking in different directions...

The next day was Thanksgiving and well I don't have any pictures from that day. We went to turkey dinner at Eric's parents at 2:00 and had fun visiting with his extended family members that we haven't seen in 2 years or so and had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.

At about 5:30 we decided to head over to my parents house where the kids went crazy with the cousins, Eric played games with my Dad and the other men, while I played easier games with Tanis, my brother Donovan and little sister, Kaeloni. When we weren't playing games we were convincing Kaeloni's baby Ryan  to make his arrival...He didn't want to listen. We had a late night and got home probably around midnight, but it was all good - no one had to get up to be anywhere the next day.

The next afternoon, however, Eric and I were taking off to celebrate our anniversary. (Which is actually, today - but since it's not the weekend, well...) Some of our great friends gifted us with a hotel room for our birthdays and anniversary with some of their reward points and even volunteered to watch all of our kids. Well our friend is 8 months pregnant with baby #6 so there was no way I was gonna let her take all 5 of my kids. Luckily, Eric's mom had volunteered earlier to watch kids.

We decided that Lex and Nate would do best with our friends and Tanis, Shaylyn and Ailey would be best with Grandma. So around 1:00 we all set out. We dropped off Lex and Nate down the street and then headed to Eric's parents. We dropped the other 3 kids off and got to have turkey leftovers for lunch and then we were on our way.

We drove downtown to the hotel and got all checked in and then decided to hit the downtown malls. The hotel we stayed in (which was AWESOME by the way) was just down the street from The Gateway and we decided we'd just take Trax to City Creek.

We hit City Creek first and then decided to walk over to Temple Square because it was the night they did the lights. Well it was CRAZY crowded (which, I expected) so we didn't spend a whole lot of time there. But we made sure to take some pictures of us...

Sick of us yet. Okay, well here's a picture of me:

...Why yes, I did go shopping at The Disney Store and yes, I DID play Santa for a couple kids...

We then got back and Trax and headed to The Gateway. We decided to look into the Laser Light shows at the Planetarium. They had a Christmas one at 8, and a few others later. It was too close in time to hit the 8:00 show if we went to dinner first, so we opted for a 9:00 show, which was a Rock On Demand show.

We went to dinner at Tuachan and ate too much, but still tried to eat a huge brownie with ice cream. Yeah, only got halfway through. Then we had a bit of time to kill and so we stopped in a couple more stored at The Gateway.

We got to the Planetarium about 10 minutes before showtime and we were able to get awesome seats. The show was pretty cool, I just don't know a whole lot of the songs they played - but I still really enjoyed it. We really want to take the kids to the Christmas one they've got going. Hopefully we'll make that happen.

Then because we are old people now, we went back to the hotel and were in bed by about 10:30.

The next morning we took it easy. Check out wasn't until noon (Hallelujah) and I hadn't slept well that night so I tried to sleep as much as I could. We decided we should go get breakfast around 8 and it was a good thing too, a lot of it was out...However, they still had enough that I think Eric and I both had a good breakfast.

After breakfast we went back to the hotel room and finished getting ready. During this time we got a text that  Kaeloni had little Ryan. Sadly, he had an issue with his blood though so he had to be put on an antibiotic IV, which means he's spent his first few days of life in the NICU. He's there until Thursday. And because only parents and grandparents are allowed in the NICU, I haven't been able to meet this cutie yet. Hopefully that time will come this weekend.

...My sister texted this picture last night, isn't he a cutie??? Can't wait to snuggle him all up!...

Before heading home we decided to look for a new tree or at least new lights. I was hoping for a new tree cause I don't want to try stringing lights, but after looking - we just didn't want to give up our tree and we opted for new lights. But I'm making Eric string them, I'm nice like that.

We went and got the kids from Eric's parents first and once again, were blessed to have a free lunch! The kids had already eaten, so we just finished off some of what they had. We then decided it was time to rescue our friends and grab Lex and Nate.

We were home for about 3 hours when our friends decided they all wanted to go see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. I wasn't thrilled about it, but I'm always up for a night out with friends so we went. I did feel slightly guilty that we left our kids again when we had only been home a couple hours.

The movie was much better than I thought it'd be and I really actually liked it. That being said, I've never actually seen a James Bond movie before, so don't take my word for it. After the movie we headed over to Cafe Rio and had a wonderful time visiting with our friends and enjoying our meal. I then decided I was pooped and needed to get home to bed, so we did.

And as I was typing this, look what arrived for me:

I'm spoiled, I know. I love Eric and I am happy to have spent the last 16 years of my life with him, with 14 of them being married to him! Happy Anniversary to us!!!

And that folks is our November - with a bit more to come. And yup, every November ends up being at least slightly this crazy!

What Happens Next...