Sick

Not SUPER sick, but sick enough to not want to do anything. I've cleaned the kitchen and done a few left-over loads of laundry from yesterday, but that's it. Laid around on the couch and had the kids bring their school work to me when they needed help. I've got a terrible sore throat--probably the worst I've had in years--but otherwise I'm just super tired and achy. My head pounds for a little while when I first stand up, but it usually subsides pretty quickly. So... I'm sick enough to not want to do anything productive. Isn't that great?! It means that I'm finally going to BLOG after over a week! Wa-Hoo! Yeah, sickness! (Riiiiiiight...)

Let's see... We had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving and SO much fun with the Hatch folks. They came up on Saturday before Thanksgiving and stayed until Monday night. We stayed up late playing games and had lots of good laughs. Sister Erika is especially good at Pictionary. If "good" means the one who enduces the greatest laughter! Ha! You should see her picture of a chicken and an egg. ;-) It was terrific. On Monday we put out our full-fledged Thanksgiving feast and everything turned out perfect. It was not only fun to have everybody here, but it was FANTASTIC to have some other girls to help with the dishes! Ha! I don't mind cooking the big meal (especially on holidays), but it's sooooooo not fun when you're the only woman there to do all the clean up. I put food in Tupperwares and then sat down to de-bone the rest of the turkey. By the time I was done with that the girls had all of the dishes FINISHED! WOW! They're invited to come for EVERY holiday from now on! Ha!

On Thanksgiving Day I cooked a honey glazed ham and fresh potatoes and stuffing and things like that--to go with our left-overs from our early Thanksgiving. We were out of hot rolls and egg salad (those are always the two left-overs I go for in the post Thanksgiving meal days!) and a few other things, but it was still a great meal.

The clean up wasn't even so bad. :-)

That night, as is tradition around here, we hauled in all of the Christmas decorations. Packed up all of the fall stuff and got started pulling out all the red and green. James got the tree up and looking adorable and I got most of the other stuff in place... just didn't have it in me to fight with the greenery around all the doorways. So that was Friday's job. Actually, I think it may have been Saturday before I actually got the last of everything done (I was working in slow motion--I hate days like that!) and the house all cleaned up and looking good.

I taught the kids Sunday School class on Sunday and we had a great time. Made little mangers out of wooden sticks and then made a wooden cross to place in them, signifying that Jesus was born for the purpose of growing up to die for us. I loved the thought, whether the kids got anything out of it or not. :-)

After church we went to the dollar store so James could look for a new Christmas tie. Ha! Only James... This one has snowflakes all over it and it sings Jingle Bells or something when you push the button. Makes him happy. I, on the other hand, was made happy by the four pairs of Christmas socks that I found! Ha! (For only a dollar apiece, why not buy all the cute ones?!) Got some socks for Katie, too, a little snow globe for Sam, and some Christmas sun catchers for Joe. We came home and the kids and I sat down at the table to work on the sun catchers. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Especially 'cuz I still had time for a nap afterwards. :-)

Sometime that day the kids got to talking about the CPMA and they all decided that they simply must join. They've mentioned it a lot in the past month or two, and they finally just couldn't take it anymore. They wanted to be MEMBERS. So they arranged with their dad to take $10 out of each of their savings accounts so they could be real, live members of the CPMA with their very own cards. They were soooooo excited! They sang Brother Grimes' CPMA song all the way to church that night, but adjusted the lyrics a little bit. "I am a member of the CPMA -- Because I just joined TODAY!" Ha! When we got to church they all went running up to Brother Chris to tell him that they were joining the CPMA and he about gave Joe a heart attack. "Joe, did you pass the test?" Joe asked what he was talking about. "Your granddad called me and said to make sure you took the CPMA test before you got your card. Have you taken the test yet?" You should have SEEN Joe's face! HA! He came to me looking VERY concerned. "Mom, Brother Chris says I have to take a TEST before I'm a member... what if I don't pass it???" Ha! It was great. Brother Chris asked the kids a few questions, helped them out with the answers, and they all received their CPMA cards during our CPMA service that night. And they are the most excited CPMA members I've ever seen! Ha!

Monday was a regular day, I think. School and the usual. Yesterday we went to town to do some running around. Went to Bath & Body works because I was OUT of lotion and in desperate need. We made good on their buy 2, get 1 free deal, then made it back out to the van only to discover that I had a coupon for one free item up to $13 with a purchase of $10 or more. So I left the family in the van and marched back in to see if they'd let me redeem it. They were kind enough to do so and, after a great deal of confusion, I finally walked out with four lotions for the price of two. :-)

We made out pretty good at the thrift store, too, finding some nice long sleeved shirts for the kids. I hate seeing their arms when it's COLD--they ought to wear long sleeves during this glorious time of the year when they're ABLE to. :-)

Uummm... stopped by Hobby Lobby and let each kids pick out their annual ornament since this was the 50% off week.

Ah, yes. We ate at Pizza Hut so the kids could get their free Personal Pans from the Book It! program. Do you remember that program?! I used to love it when I was a kid--my very own pizza! How cool is that?! It's made available for homeschoolers now, so this was their second month. The waitress was SOOOOO excited and just kept congratulating the kids and telling them how great it was that they're reading so much, gave them each a bouncy ball and a free soda along with their pizza. And she let James and me get the $6.99 large pizza that was only supposed to be available for carry-out. So our bill was less than $12 and we had enough left-over to have dinner that night. Gotta love that! Of course, I insisted James leave a generous tip to our way too nice waitress.

I started coming down with a sore throat on Monday night and wasn't feeling the greatest yesterday, but mostly just really tired. I made it through our venture to town okay, but by the time we got home I was shot. So we called another family movie night and enjoyed our left-over pizza and just hung out with the kids. It was nice.

Today I woke up feeling REALLY crummy and my throat is sooooo much worse. I had some hot lemonade with honey earlier and that seemed to help a little bit. It made me think of Grandma Babe anyway, so that always makes me happy. :-) I tried napping today, but it just didn't work out too well. The kids managed to finish up on school and James fixed Frito Pie for supper. Now he's in his office, Katie and Joe are reading library books, and Sam is sitting in a laundry basket with a blanket, a walkie-talkie and a stick, talking to himself--playing SOMETHING, but I can't figure out what yet.

Oh, I do have one great story. When I woke up this morning feeling so bad Joe took it upon himself to try to help. He's generally a pretty kind and thoughtful kid. I didn't know he was doing anything at all, but suddenly he burst into the den where I was sitting, saying, "Oh, Mom! Mom, I'm sooooooo sorry! I'm so sorry, Mom--I didn't mean to! Please forgive me! I'm so, so, so sorry!!!" Not the way you want to start your day, you know?! Ha! I followed him into the kitchen and this is what I found...

My kind, thoughtful son had poured me a glass of juice and was making me a piece of toast. Only for some reason he put the bread ON A PLASTIC PLATE, then put it in the toaster oven!!!! The plate was all melted and oozing down between the wires on the rack and Joe was just freaking out. HA! I laughed so hard!!!

That kid is so sweet... but he's SUCH AN IDIOT!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! He's made toast a hundred times, but for some reason he added a plate today. ~sigh~ I IMMEDIATELY found myself thinking, "He's a good boy... One day he'll be gone and we'll miss him very much!" Ha! Lucky for him it hadn't melted enough to actually drip to the bottom of the toaster. And it all came out easily in one warped piece. :-)

He's not too thrilled about me blogging the story (can you tell?), but I told him that I HAVE to blog it so I don't ever forget the crazy things my kids do. :-)


I also told him that it would NOT be funny the second time; only the first. ;-)