Taylor and I both had something last week (Sun-Wed)... it was weird though. We both ran fevers for 3-4 days of 100-103.6, a little more tired than normal for me but otherwise we had NO other symptoms and then it was over! I'll take it over the other stuff out there! Counted ourselves as very lucky!!
But, I think our luck has run out ... Jess spiked a fever of 101 tonight - out of nowhere! She fell asleep at the dinner table after she got home from dance - which is REALLY weird for her. Before that, I had NO clue she wasn't feeling good. When I put her to bed, she was complaining about a headache and coughing too. Here we go! Oh, and of course, raging wind storm outside tonight which always makes it hard for the whole house to sleep! Hopefully it won't be a long night!
If we've been around you recently, I'm sorry! I had no clue this was coming. I just hope she feels better soon. School pics are on Wed not to mention Steve is probably going to California on Thursday-Fri and I don't want to deal with a sick kid and restless nights with no help. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
Other news from us ... nothing on the work front, so I'm focusing on the fun stuff! I'll put up my scrapbook pages soon, but wanted to share a few things we've done recently.
Gardner Village ... to see the Witches! Michelle W invited us to join her and her kids to see the witches. We went on Thursday morning since it was fall break. She took her 3 older boys and the baby twins. Carol came and brought her 3 girls and then I had my 3 girls. Yep, 9 kids between the ages of 9 and 3 plus the 4 month old twins. It was fun! For those who don't know, Gardner Village is an old shopping area that has been preserved and is now filled with fun little boutique shops. Every year, they decorate with LOTS of witches all over the place. I'd guess probably 30-40 witches. The bakery does a scavenger hunt - find all the witches on the list and get a cookie for .25 instead of .90. The kids love it!
Alyssa with my favorite witch!
Gotta attempt a good pic of the three of them! I actually attempted a lot, but you'll have to wait for my pages to see others. Jess and Tay fought over who got to sit on the witch's lap ... so they both did. 
Notice the name of this one! And yes, its what it looks like ! For some reason it actually did smell this year ... I don't think it was supposed to. ... outhouse with witch sitting and reading a paper.
The crew of 9 kids!
It was a beautiful morning. The sun came out and really made it nice. Thanks Michelle for the invite!
When we got home Thursday, I wasn't done having fun and didn't want to just sit home. So, that afternoon, we opted to go to the Scarecrow Festival. We had coupons for the girls to go FREE and adults get in for just $5. I called my friend Pattie who had talked about going and we went with her. Its fun. Lots of bounce houses, face painting, go-carts that kind of look like spiders, scarecrow decorations all over, a haunted house (kid-style) and a lot more. 
The girls with their faces painted ... Jess - spider and web, Ella - a butterfly, Alyssa - a pumpkin, Taylor - a unicorn. The unicorn and the butterfly struggled a bit (ok, a lot) but the girls were happy!
The next pic is of Pattie and I ... Pattie is one of the VERY best friends I have. I am so grateful to have her in my life. I can tell her anything and she doesn't judge me. I can talk to her about anything and know she'll tell me the truth and help me. Pattie and I met almost 10 years ago. Most that know us would think we became friends because our husbands were both involved with BYU drumline, but that's not the case. They did introduce us once, but we actually found our friendship on our own when we both worked at Novell. She was in the dept next to me and I saw her name on a filing cabinet (that she kept the key for). Her last name isn't very common, so I guessed it had to be her. When I saw her at the filing cabinet a little later, I knew it was her. She was the first person (other than Steve) to know I was expecting Alyssa. And she was the first person I wanted to call after I found out the funding was gone again at Steve's work. Thanks Pattie for always being such a good friend to me. You are a wonderful example of an amazing mom, great friend and dedicated worker too! How you do it all, I don't know. THANK YOU!!
So Thursday of fall break, for a total of $14 was witches, cookies, sodas, scarecrows, face painting, bouncing, hanging out with friends and lots more fun! It was a good day!
Friday, Steve put up the first of the Christmas lights!! WAHOO!! Yes, our house is one of those CRAZY houses with lots of lights! But its less like National Lampoons, and more like that video that circulates the web with the lights dancing to the music. Because you never know what the end of October and November can be like (cold, rainy, windy, snowy), Steve puts our lights up in mid-October. But, we don't turn them on until the day after Thanksgiving. (Although, they do come on sporadically for testing and verifying the music works and on Thanksgiving for a preview for family). Hopefully there will be money to pay the electrical bill!! The ground display won't go up until Thanksgiving week. While he did that, I butchered some bushes in our yard and filled a trash can with that. He mowed the lawn for the last time too.
Jessica went to a bday party for her friend at school on Friday. She was SO excited about it. She got the invite on Tuesday and EVERY DAY she counted down. When she got up on Friday morning, she was practically jumping up and down. She had to wait until 2:30, but she managed! She had a lot of fun!
And then, Steve and I left for a night at Tifie Ranch with some friends. We had a yummy dinner and then played games late into the night before sleeping in our own little cabin. I didn't take many pictures though, so I'll have to get some from Jen. I'll post that later too. The next morning, we slept in a bit and then had a FABULOUS late breakfast - pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit and hashbrowns. YUM! The Tifie Ranch is absolutely beautiful and the drive up there and back was astounding! The colors in the canyon were amazing. Tifie Ranch is located near Morgan, Utah. Thanks Jenny and Chris for inviting us and to the rest of the group (Chris and Jenny's friends) for including us and making us feel welcome. It was a VERY nice break from theh other things in our lives right now.
Saturday afternoon, we watched the BYU game with our good friends Dallas, Robyn and Tom. My ladies' night out got canceled ... so I came home with the girls while Steve did a gig in Nephi. Alyssa and I had one of our rousing arguments/screaming matches. Nobody ever wins our matches. She goes to bed mad at me and hating everything and I go to bed beating myself up because I lost my temper with her AGAIN. But this time, I went back up there and instead of yelling more, we talked for almost an hour about the fact that life isn't fair. Its not fair to her, its not fair to me. Its not always what we want it to be, but its what we make of it. I gave her LOTS of examples of ways she is blessed and how good life can be even if it isn't "fair". We talked about how blessed she is to have all her grandparents and to spend time with them. My grandpa on my mom's side died when I was 7 and I only remember spending one week with him. I treasure that one week though and am so grateful I got that much with him! We talked about how blessed I am to have all my sisters and brothers (and for Alyssa to have her aunts and uncles) because one of my friends lost her younger sister to cancer recently. We talked about Heather Christensen, the AFHS instructor who lost her life a week ago in the bus accident and how "unfair" that is to her students, her family and our friend who has known Heather since high school and how much she will miss her. We talked about one of my friends whose dad was never a part of her life, but that even though it isn't "fair" her life turned out great because she (and her mom) made the most of life and still did their best. We talked about some kids who didn't get to do fun things over fall break because their parent/parents had to work or just didn't want to do fun things with them. I think it finally made a little sense to her that life isn't fair, but that's ok because we are still very blessed and lucky!
I also came up with the idea for both of us to write in a gratitude journal. We each have a small little notebook that we are both supposed to write in EVERY night with little things we are grateful for that day. Hopefully, it will set the tone better for both of us and we'll both be able to remember the little things that are good instead of the things that didn't go our way and/or that made us mad. :) So far, so good! I've challenged her to write in it EVERY day (at least 3-5 things) until Thanksgiving. She wanted a prize for doing it ... I told her the prize will come in her heart when she learns to appreciate the things she has. I gave her a little notebook that I had in my office and then she and I sang the song "Count your blessings" together. She was up LATE that night (almost 10pm - compared to bedtime of 8pm) but I think it was good for us both. I'm actually excited to sit with her once in awhile and share things we both have written. Its been fun for me to write things down. I try not to just write vague and/or obvious things ... I try to write things that have come to mind because of something specific that happened that day. I might even share some of my lists on here from time to time.
So, that has been our lives lately. I know this is a long WORDY post, but hey, its my update. The pages will come soon. Just not feeling the creativity to scrapbook tonight. Night all!
1 comment:
I think you should get Steve to do a guess post with more details and photos of the Christmas lights. I'd love to hear some technical details of what he puts together...
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