Gobble Gobble Gobble

What a nice Thanksgiving we had!  We stayed here in Rexburg and spent the day with David's parents, Grandma Shirley, Aunt Linda, Suzette, and her friend, Paula.  It was very peaceful and easy going (at least as easy going as it CAN be with a destructive, curious, tireless one year old running around).   Technically, it was our year to drive to Utah, but David's work has tightened up their time-off policies and it's not very easy to find goat milking replacements so we decided to stay here rather than drive down-and-back in one day.  I'm glad we did.

I spent the morning cooking, bathing kids and assembling everything for the party.  David helped me so much by milking, doing dishes, and taking the boys for a walk.  We headed over to the Gee's house around 1:00 pm.  We had a gigantic feast with enough food for a small country.  Every dish was outrageously good.  Not a single dud in the whole lot! 

After lunch, Bronson took a nap on me while the rest of the crew took turns four wheelin'.  Suzette said she actually let Nicole try driving and they had a near-death experience.  Hee hee.  When Bronson woke up, David took me on a ride too.  It was so fun!  Meanwhile, the girls went for a walk with Sue, Paula and Grandma Gee.  They walked up to the farm and climbed on the haystacks.  Josh talked Grandpa into going downstairs and playing with him and I don't think I saw Grandpa for the rest of the day.  He played with Josh for a LONG time, then watched a video on his huge TV with David. 

All week as we talked about what I was bringing, David kept telling me to bring more pies.  He really pushed the fact that we needed enough pies.  I thought he was overdoing it, but I ended up bringing four pies just in case.  On our way over, Dave said something about Kristi's family.  I said, "Dave,  Kristi's family went to Utah.  We're the only ones with kids here."  He sat quietly for a minute, then said, "We've got too many pies."  Ha Ha!  Love that man!  We just about had a one-to-one ratio of pies to people, along with Grandma Shirley's famous homemade ice cream.  Yummy.  Nicole loaded up a paper plate with four FULL-SIZED slices of pie before I caught her.  The plate was about to give way!  Grandma advised getting another plate and eating one piece at a time, promising that she could take home which ever ones she couldn't finish off.  Nicki followed that plan, but after a few minutes, she announced, "I don't really like pie.  Anyone want these?  I just want more ice cream."  WHAT?!?!  I hate to think how much she'd eat if she liked it!!!

That evening, David took the kids home to bed while Suzette and I went to the movies.  We saw "Real Steel."  I think it's my new favorite!!!  Okay, so it's not life changing or anything, but I love boxing movies, I like robot movies, I'm a sucker for father-son movies and I have a teeny little crush on Hugh Jackman.  It was very very fun!  I can't wait to take David to see it. 

I came home and geared up for my annual Black Friday shopping trip.  I took it pretty easy this year, but I still went pre-5:00 am and had a total blast getting the bulk of my shopping done.  Let the Christmas season begin!!!!

A Few Happenings.

The boys and I have been sick for a couple of months.  It's been a strange, on-again-off-again sickness with multiple symptoms.  I kept thinking I was getting better, then I'd get bad again or show some other symptom.  Same with the boys.  I took Bronson in to the doctor a month ago and he got some medicines, but they didn't help.  Finally, last Thursday we went in and had Bronson's chest x-rayed.  The doctor said it showed some spots in his right lung and prescribed an antibiotic.  Josh got the same antibiotic only for an ear infection, and I got the same antibiotic just so I wouldn't feel left out.  I THINK I'm finally getting better (or not...) but the boys are about the same as always.  Yesterday, I took them in to the Ear Nose and Throat specialist, who is also the city's allergy specialist.  We're HOPEFULLY going to get to the bottom of this.  We're getting both boys allergy tested next week (anyone want to come with me?  It's gonna be totally awesome to scratch each of their backs 54 times).  I guess once we know what the triggers are, we can work to get them out of their lives.  With our luck, they'll be allergic to cats, goats, chickens, and sisters or something like that.

Yesterday as I was unloading the kids from our van after an afternoon in town, I heard a strange noise.  It sounded a bit like a bird or something.  I followed the sound and was led to my front porch, where I found a darling little kitten hidden in a corner behind some old flower pots.  She came out of her hiding place and cuddled up to the kids.  They fell instantly in love with her, of course.  Who wouldn't?  David, who acts like a tough guy, was almost instantly taken by her when he got home from work.  I could see it in his eyes.  In fact, I had to remind him that we're in the process of figuring out if our children are allergic to cats so it's not the best time to be adding another one to our family.

Still, with the number of mice living on our property, I'm a BIG fan of keeping as many cats as possible around the yard.  She really is a beauty!  She's white with tan and light gray markings and big, almost cross-eyed yellow eyes.  She's super friendly and playful and very persistent.  She slept on our front porch last night.  She hasn't left our yard since we found her.  The only family member who is NOT happy about the whole thing is Cookie.  She's freaking out.  We'll have to see how this whole thing plays out.  Stay tuned...

This morning, a good friend of mine rang the doorbell and gave me a candy bar bouquet.  There was a note attached that said, "Just a quick note to say thanks for being you."   Can you believe that?  What a complete surprise!  She obviously knows me well enough to know that I've never met a candy bar I didn't like. 

New Calling

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this before, but I've been pretending to lead our ward choir for about seven months now.  Seriously.  Not my favorite calling.  When the counselor in the bishopric asked me to do it, I laughed out loud and was absolutely positive that he was joking (in my defense, that counselor is a real joker most of the time).  Once I noticed that no one else was laughing I said, "But I don't even read music!  I haven't sung in a choir since before my first child was born!"  Apparently that didn't matter.  Our ward has extremely low standards I suppose, so I said yes. 

I've been plugging away at this calling for a while.  It's not really that difficult.  In fact, parts of it are very fun.  I loved picking out the music and some of the hymns we have sung have been fantastic.  The challenges of the calling are:
a) Back seat choir directors.  Gotta love the woman or man who interrupts rehearsal to let you know that you should be focusing on more round tones or cutting off more cleanly,etc.  Every choir has 'em.
b)  Help in choosing hymns.  From the sweet widower who gave me a copy of his favorite song (which I didn't love) and continually asks when we're going to sing it, to the woman who stopped me after practice to let me know which arrangements she can't STAND and would like me to avoid, to the old man in the back row who doesn't like the hymns you selected for a particular month.  I actually ended up saying in rehearsal once (in a very nice way) how about we let the people set apart to lead the choir be the ones who choose its music, eh? 
c)  Not reading music.  Its probably a good idea for the person leading a choir to read music, don't you think?  I told the choir up front that I didn't know how to read, but I could tell if something sounded good or not and I could boss people around just fine.  They all laughed.  Most of the time, it wasn't a problem.  I can read enough to keep up, but whenever a person would say something like, "Are we singing that C flat?" or "Let's start over on the B" I just stared at them with this blank look on my face.  Luckily, my pianist was AMAZING and she could cover for me. 
d)  Getting people to come.  By far the worst part of being choir director is getting people there.  It's more of a PR job than a music job.  Bribing, begging, calling to remind people, asking for help, announcing and announcing again.  I felt like a nag, but if I didn't I was lucky to have more than 10 people show up regularly. 

Other than that, choir was GREAT!!  Sorry to complain.  It wasn't the worst calling I've ever had (but that's another topic all together), but it was certainly a stretch for me.  That's why I was thrilled when I got called into the Bishop's office last Sunday.  I was called to be the first counselor in the new Primary presidency.  YIPPEE!!!   Talk about a dream job!  I love Primary, I love the new president and other ladies in the presidency, I LOVE being a counselor, and I get to be released from choir!

Well, He WAS In "The DIRTY Dozen"

I never THOUGHT that we named Bronson after the old-time action icon, Charles Bronson.  That is, until he "grew" a stolen-Halloween-candy-mustache.  He does look a little weather beaten, just like his namesake....