Thanksgiving & Black Friday

Hooray for holidays, holiday pay, and family time! I actually worked for a few hours on Thanksgiving morning. We were planning on going to Grandma Hart's house for Thanksgiving, but then she got sick, and wasn't up to cooking all day. Hope you feel better Grandma. So, that morning, we just went to the church where some members of the ward had organized a potluck for those who didn't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving dinner. We had some fun chatting with friends for a couple of hours.

However, that night, Richard said, "I'm going to the store!" What? Then he explained, "It just doesn't feel like Thanksgiving to me. I need some leftovers!" So, we went to Safeway and picked up a box of Stove Top, and a whole roasted chicken! Haha! So funny. We warmed it all up, and sat at the table together as a family expressing our gratitude for different things in our lives. It was the perfect meal.

And then I went back to work again to work all through the night.

I have never really been interested in all the Black Friday sales. However, I am highly looking forward to Cyber Monday. The only Black Friday deals I hit up were at Rite Aid! Classic, right? I brought home some Froot Loops for Michael, and myself and we made him a Froot Loop necklace, which he loves. And, together we ate the entire box in less than 24 hours.

And, all our Christmas decorations are up! Hooray for the holidays!!!

These are just two....

November 22 brought some snowfall. In Utah, this amount of snow is no big deal, right? But, in Seattle, they have seriously no resources to clean up anything but the main roads. Here's some home videos that I enjoyed of people who seemed to be enjoying themselves inside their homes, drinking hot cocoa, while watching out the window.

And that's why I'm glad I'm close enough to walk to work.

Sick House

We are living in a sick house. I am so glad it's Sunday. I can just rest.

Michael was the first to go. On Tuesday morning, he crawled into our bed and threw up. Nothing like a good adrenaline rush to get Richard up on time for school! We got the sheets in the wash, Richard took a shower, and we all began to get ready for the day. Michael came into the kitchen and started crying for oatmeal. My initial thought was, "You just threw up, I'm not giving you oatmeal." But, then he kept crying, and crying and I felt bad for this kid who was hungry and traumatized at what had just happened. So, I gave him really watery oatmeal. After he ate it, he just laid down on the floor and there he stayed until we walked out the door to drive Richard to school. I put a towel over Michael in the carseat, and off we went.

Michael did just fine, except for the part where he threw up on the way home, missing the towel, and making me completely regret giving him oatmeal. Dumb Mom moment. We pulled over, I cleaned him up briefly, opened the windows, and rushed home as fast as I could.

When we got home, I knew I had to strip all his clothes off of him before I could take him upstairs. That's when I spotted a plastic bag in the passenger side of the seat. I recognized this as a tender mercy, especially when I recalled the circumstances for why it had been left there. I realized then that Heavenly Father knew that days later Michael would throw up and that I would need it. Seeing this, almost forced my mind to take a more positive approach to the entire situation, instead of getting too discouraged.

Taking off the seat cover from our carseat is very complicated. I couldn't just figure it out, and eventually googled it. I love the Internet. I found someone who had written an entire blog post on how to take off the seat cover from our carseat. It was quite the hilarious read, honestly.

Michael throwing up all over his carseat was a good thing, I decided, because:

1. It taught Richard and I cooperation as we worked on stripping it down and cleaning it.

2. I don't think we've washed it once since buying it.

3. Now it's really clean, and I can feel good about putting in our car.

4. I know not to feed a sick child oatmeal when he's sick again.

Later that day Michael asked for chicken nuggets. I'll leave you to your own thoughts on the matter.

Lucky for the rest of us, we just have colds. I'm glad the week is over, quite successfully too. In fact, it involved making these:

Deal of the Week

Albertsons had fantastic freebies this week! I did one trip last weekend, and then after they printed doublers, I made another trip. How much do you think this transaction cost me?

I paid...drumroll...

...just a little bit of money!

Haha, I actually misplaced my receipt, but the transaction was just over $5.00! That's $5 for 15 boxes of hot cocoa, 4 bottles of pop, 4 boxes of brownies, cake mixes and frosting for baby shower weekend cupcake baking, and more!

I got the pop and hot chocolate and brownies without paying a penny.

Looks entirely healthy, doesn't it!? Tis the season for baking, and baking sales!

I must note that I never had got any doublers from the paper. I was hoping they would have some at their customer service desk, but they were out. When I got to checkout, after I handed over my coupons, the checker asked me if I also had the doublers. I said, "No, I didn't see any." Right then, the customer behind me pulled her doublers out and gave them to the checker for me to use, even though she had coupons in her hand as well. It was very nice, and hopefully I will find the opportunity to return the favor to someone else.

What is it?

There is a game my family plays called, "What is it?" The rules simply go as follows. Somebody picks up an object, typically an oddly shaped object, and asks "what is it?" As the object is passed around, the persons playing will give a clever, imaginative reply to the question without repeating what the object really is, or what another person has already stated.

Well, Michael is learning this game, in his own way. He has the innate ability of picking something up, and when I ask him "What Is It?"...well, can you guess what he replies?

I took the liberty of taking some pictures of the various objects he's picked up the last two days.

A Banana=A Gun

Some Tongs=A Gun

An Apple Peeler/Corer=A Gun

A Puzzle Piece=A Gun

He even tucks the puzzle piece into his pants, and walks around with it that way.

What is in my sink?

What is it?

Have you ever found a sippy cup filled with milk that was hidden for days?

I just did.

And it was truly disgusting.

Glugged out as I dumped.

Looked like tofu.

Now I really have no interest in eating tofu.

And--even after letting the water run on it, it wouldn't break apart and go down the drain.

Gag. Gag. Gag. Gag. Gag. Gag.

Halloween 2010

Who goes there?

We were going to go as Yoda, Leia, and Skywalker. But Richard failed to put a costume together and I didn't finish getting everything together either. But, here was an attempt at pulling my hair around my ears.

Looks fine from the front, but the sides just looks silly.

So, I went as an angel instead.

Using the force.

On Saturday, Michael and I went around to businesses who were hosting early trick or treating. Then that night, we enjoyed a ward trunk-or-treat, with games and cupcakes. :) Michael was very good at saying "trick or treat" by the end of the day. And collected much candy to share. :)