Cutting Down The Tree

We drove up to Island Park and cut down our Christmas tree yesterday. It was a fun day and great to get all the decorating done before the week started.

After about 30 minutes of wandering around the forest, we found the best tree...

Of course we made the girls haul the tree back to the truck...

Landon had made us a yummy lunch of turkey salad sandwiches...

The finished product...

Thanksgiving Weekend

We were on our own this year for Thanksgiving--no company. We were kind of sad about that and wishing someone would come visit us, but we actually had a great day with just the four of us. Landon made the turkey, mashed potatoes and a yam for himself (no one else was interested), I made the rolls and we all worked together on the stuffing, gravy, curried cauliflower and pumpkin and pecan pies. We had Marie Callendar pies, gravy from a jar and stuffing from a box, so it wasn't too difficult. The food was delicious and we had tons of leftovers. To make our time fun this weekend, we've been attempting to play as many games as possible from our game closet. So far we've played Cranium, Rummikub, Blokus, Monopoly, Scrabble, Sequence, Uno Attack, Guess Who, and Connect Four. We can only handle about 1-2 hours at a time, so we've really broken it up over the past couple of days. Landon and I went to see New Moon (disappointing movie...similar to the book, actually) and while we were gone, the girls had a Guess Who marathon and played it 24 times.
This is us playing SpongeBob Monopoly. Notice the pop and game candy. An essential part of the fun.
Landon and I went to Walmart at 5:00am this morning. We bought everything on our list as well as a few items Kristen asked us to pick up. It was kind of a nightmare. There were no carts and we bought so many things that I had to steal someone's cart. I felt so guilty about it that I couldn't even go back to sleep after we got home. This guy had walked away from his cart! There was nothing in it and he was several aisles away. I couldn't even walk I was so loaded down with purchases, so I put everything in his cart and took off. Landon found me and said, "hey, where did you get the cart?" I said, "Shh!! Move!" Then I took off my coat so the guy couldn't recognize me (except that I'm 6'2" and pretty easy to spot). I felt horrible about it and still do.
Anyway, having a fun weekend with the girls and looking forward to cutting down a Christmas tree tomorrow.

P.S. Yesterday was this lady's 89th birthday...

And this boy's 25th birthday...

Aunt Lorina had her birthday on Monday! Happy Birthday everyone!

Funny School Moments

I've been working at Kennedy for a couple of months now, and sometimes I need to step back and acknowledge how funny the kids are, as well as Mr. Bowman--the teacher I assist.

• Mr. Bowman has a number of funny sayings, for example: "If you don't _______ (fill in the blank), I'm going to beat you like a red-headed step-child." He also teaches driver's ed. and told a teenager that he was going to "kick his ass" if he didn't write down his driving schedule.
• Landon's former student, Ben, who has Asperger's, is in Bowman's class this year. Whenever he gets in trouble, Bowman has Ben write his name on the board. Well, when Ben writes his name, he always draws a picture of Bowman, hanging with a noose around his neck on the board next to his name.
• Bowman usually has a beard and mustache. He had to play Abe Lincoln at a scout function one night, so at school he showed up with his mustache shaved and his beard shaped like Lincoln's beard. The kids hadn't said anything until Bowman explained why his beard looked so funny. Then the kids all started talking at once saying things, like "Oh good, I thought you looked like a freak." or "You look like a monkey Mr. Bowman, I'm glad you aren't keeping it like that."
• There's a girl named Mackenzie who moved to Kennedy from a little community called Parker. She has a habit of burping and farting in class, then laughing really hard. One time she asked Mr. Bowman a question in front of the whole class and while he was answering, she began to dig up her nose. He turned around mid-sentence and asked me, "are you seeing this?!" I laughed so hard.
• I had to give a couple of kids a spelling test out in the hallway, because they were gone when the rest of the class took the test. When I gave the word, "year" I used it in a sentence: "You won't go to fifth grade next year if you don't get better at spelling." Then for the word, "stare" I said, "'Stare hard, retard' is not a very nice thing to say." I guess that's why I only get paid $8.86 an hour.

Fun Saturday

We honestly haven't been having a lot of fun lately. It's been a struggle to make blog posts, because I prefer to record our fun times. Yesterday, we finally made a point to have some fun. It was the day after payday, and Landon only studied at his school for 4 hours instead of all day. We went to the Rex so the girls could play on the bouncy toys in the back, which is a new addition to the Rex. They bounced and played for an hour, then we went shopping to Walmart, Albertsons and Broulims for Thanksgiving dinner supplies. We're going to be home alone this year, which we're sad about, but we'll still cook a great dinner. If anyone wants to come for dinner, you're all invited.

When we got home, I finished reading The Book Thief, the girls and Landon watched one of the Star Wars movies and then played Star Wars on the Wii. A pretty low-key day, but it was nice to be together, which hasn't been happening much this semester!

Want To See Something Gross?

Emma's ear is infected. She's been trying to take care of it with peroxide and leaving her earrings out for a few days, but it's getting worse. This morning she woke up with a lump behind her ear, under the skin, kind of on her neck, and a huge earlobe. The neck lump hurt really bad when she blew her nose, sneezed, or turned her head. I decided to take her to urgent care (she has Medicaid, so it's free for us) and get her on some antibiotics. We tried to put her original studs in her ears while the hole heals, but her lobe is so fat that it didn't reach all the way through to the other side.
*I really want to say something funny about how it looks like Kristen's ears now, but I'm not going to.*

Left side above, right side below.

Book Club

I have been looking for a book club to join since we moved away from Duvall, WA 8 years ago. There have been plenty of opportunities to join RS book club groups, but I have been looking for a group of women who enjoy reading all kinds of books and who like to discuss them in a way that is halfway intelligent. I'm generally not a fan of the Mormon novels I've come across so far in my life, so I've been looking for women who are open to a greater variety of reading material. A lady moved into our ward who belongs to a book group consisting of women who enjoy reading and discussing all kinds of books. I went to my first meeting last night and I came home so excited! I didn't realize how much I censor myself so I don't offend the general population of Rexburg when I speak. I was able to say what I thought, using whatever language I wanted and felt like I fit in with these women just fine. It was incredibly liberating. We didn't just talk about the book, which was really good--The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien--we also talked about movies, TV, church and families. One woman has a masters degree in the criticism of feminist literature and says that all the women in her ward think she's a lesbian, but she has a great marriage and 6 kids. I found out that 2 of the women were in the MTC the same time as me, and had also married Elders who served in their missions.
I had given up the idea that women like me existed in Rexburg; that I had to filter my personality unless I'm with family and about 4 close friends. I am so excited that I have finally found a little niche for myself here.
*By the way, I'm almost done with The Book Thief right now...such a good book!

Flu Update

Lauren's still home today. Her fever died out on Sunday, but she's still really tired and very congested. I'm hoping she can go back to school tomorrow. I don't want to miss too many hours of work, since we really need that money! So far no one else has gotten sick, but I guess it could still happen.

Flu

Lauren has the flu. She woke up at 3:30am today because she had the chills and a fever. When she got up for school at 6:45am, she still had a fever and she was achy all over. I took her to the doctor's office and they prescribed Tamiflu. He told me that locally, most cases of the flu have been the H1N1 virus, so he's treating her for it because of her symptoms. The trip to the doctor completely exhausted her. By the time we got home she was moaning, crying, shaking and hotter than ever. I gave her some ibuprofen and the first dose of her Tamiflu and she's snoring on the couch right now. Poor little baby.

I'm really worried that the rest of us will get it now! I'll keep you posted.

Babysitting

There's a really nice lady in our ward who has given Emma the opportunity to learn some babysitting skills. She has 3 kids (5, 3 and 9 months) and has allowed Emma to babysit twice. She wrote every detail of what Emma should do to take care of the baby, get the kids to bed, etc. She lives 2 buildings away here in the Meadows, so we're nearby if Emma needs help. The first time Emma babysat, the couple went to the temple and everything went pretty well. I only had to come over once to help get the baby back to sleep.
Friday night was the next time Emma babysat. Landon, Lauren and I were at the church setting tables and chairs up for Super Saturday. We were gone 1 hour, but had left Emma our cell phone number in case she needed us (she had forgotten to bring it with her). When we got home, there was a message on the machine left by Emma. She was sobbing and say, "Mom! Help! Mom! Help!" I ran over to find Emma very shaky, very emotional, but all three kids were in bed. Emma begged me to stay the rest of the time. Apparently the baby had started crying really loudly and it freaked Emma out. She said she couldn't get her to stop crying. I checked on the baby (who was rolling around in her crib), changed her diaper, had Emma give her a new bottle, and left her to fall asleep. Emma had done everything right, except when she broke down crying in front of the kids because of the baby. Emma decided she's done babysitting until she's older. (I completely support that plan.) She did get $15 for her experience and that helped a lot.

Landon's Birthday

Landon's birthday was Sunday. It was a pretty low-key day. I stayed home from my normal Sunday morning meeting so I could make him a good breakfast. We went to church, made steak and potatoes for dinner, had ice-cream cake for dessert and hung out at home all day. We bought Landon some slippers, but sadly, they were too small. We also bought him some hunting and fishing magazines. He was grateful for all the cards and money sent his way from both sides of the family!
This is a Cold Stone Snickers, caramel/chocolate ice cream cake. He's been eating it all week.

Halloween

I'm so glad Halloween is finally over! Way too many pre-Halloween activities this year. We carved our pumpkins Friday night...

The girls added glitter glue to the faces to make them sparkly. Saturday we did housework while Landon spent time at his school doing homework, but by 4:00pm the girls got into their costumes. They looked awesome. Our first stop was The Rex (local bowling alley, movie theater) for a trick or treat activity where there were about 20 businesses passing out candy and business cards. Then we drove over to a neighborhood behind Kennedy Elementary to trick or treat. The houses are close together and most people keep their lights on. The girls stayed out for about 2 hours collecting candy. Landon and I walked along with them and socialized with dozens of other parents we knew from Kennedy. The weather was perfect! It was clear, no wind, and not nearly as cold as past years. When the girls were done, we went home, ate a jack o lantern pizza from Papa Murphys, watched Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin, and sorted candy.
Emma and Lauren have used these cute bags for trick or treating since they were tiny. The bags were a gift from Aunt Lorina, of course. Everyone always comments about how cute they are.

Here's an interesting tidbit...we came across about 10 or so houses where they left out a bowl of candy on the porch with a note that said, "please take one." Just wondering...does this happen outside of Rexburg?