Thanksgiving

You know what I wanted to do during nap time today? Sit and rest, and oh, write a blog post since it's been a few weeks.  And when I went to upload the few pictures that I have right now, I couldn't.  Why? Because my Picasa Web Albums (that I didn't know I was using every time I put a picture on a blog) are full.  They are full, make it near impossible to figure out how to delete anything to create space, and have long-running scripts that force the window to close and reopen.  Why would anybody choose to use that?  So it'll be a while before I can share any pictures because I have other things to do with my time than spend forever trying to figure that out.

In the meantime, I'll try to keep my brain together and remember things that I've been forgetting to write about.  I had a list earlier and now, of course, I can't remember them.

We had a fun Thanksgiving.  Natoma decided to be human and give their employees their due holiday, instead of making them work it.  Shad's been working mandatory overtime 50-60 hours a week since September.  Others in QA have been at it since July.  People are getting burned out and this is expected to continue at least until Christmas.  Probably longer.  They're really backed up and overloaded on orders.  Anyway, my parents arrived Wednesday night.  Tom had been so good waiting for them.  I told him the Friday before that they were coming and showed him on the calendar so that he could understand that it would be a few days, but that we could be excited now.  Finally on Wednesday, I told him that they were coming today.  He repeated, "Gramma and Grampa come two days." I had to re-explain that they were coming after dinner when it was bedtime and that they were going to sleep at Tommy's house.  That meant a whole different thing to him and he understood.  It's nice to have language comprehension develop further so that we have good communication.  Thursday was a nice relaxed day.  Shad went out with the missionaries in the morning to play Frisbee golf.  Mom and I walked down to the park with the kids to meet up with Shad after we all got ready.  Aside from the ham I put in the crockpot after breakfast, we didn't do any cooking until after lunch.  Then Mom did all the cleanup and she and Dad watched Shaun the Sheep with kids so that Shad and I could have some game time.  That was nice.  Almost like an at home date:)

We tried to go to the Fort Bissell Museum in Philipsburg, but found out when we got there that it's closed until May.  Warm weather only thing.  We shopped around a bit to make it at least worth the trip.  Then went down to Logan for awesome pizza and wings at the Main Street Pizza place.  After lunch, we walked two blocks over to the Hansen Museum, where they had a fun exhibit of health based interactive activities.  The kids loved it.  We got our house all decorated for Christmas in the evening while Mom cooked.  She wanted to make a lemon chicken dish that my sister Jen made for them when they visited her in Canada a couple weeks ago.  Shad and Dad cut a spruce tree from our backyard.  We didn't want it there and it's the perfect size for a Christmas tree.  We watched Cinderella Man in the evening...okay, we talked about it at 8 and it was 9:30 before we had Dad all set and ready to go.  So it ended at midnight.  When we moved upstairs for bed, I lost my dinner.  Take it from a pregnant lady with loads of experience, acids like lemon juice and vinegar (Italian dressing) are the last things you wanna throw up.  Gosh, it burns! 

Shad and I thought I was just being pregnant, but when I was up again at 3:30, 6:00 and 7:15, we knew we had something contagious to deal with.  Tom started at breakfast Saturday morning.  Shad caught his Sunday afternoon.  Katie's still managed to escape the horrors.  Shad and I only had the bug for 24 hours, but Tom is still getting over his.  He only threw up for a day, but then had a fever and hacking cough.  We've had to try so hard to get him to eat or drink anything.  Really, probably just enough to keep him alive.  His energy has returned today.  He's been all over the living room cooking for me and bringing me more.  His strength is not back though, since he still doesn't eat much.  Watching him walk is like watching Katie, though sometimes she looks more stable.  And he and I have both come to the conclusion that stairs are entirely out of the question.  He just can't handle them.

Aside from sickness, the kids have been having a hard time adjusting to their dad being gone so much.  They miss him, cry any time they see him leave, act out, etc.  On top of that, I've still been getting over the turmoil of first trimester nausea and fatigue, so without Shad here to help me so much, our house has been in a general state of chaotic, filthy disarray.  I just can't keep up with all the demands of taking care of 5 people single-handedly.  We're slowly finding balance...or at least trying to.  Having a weekend with my parents definitely helped.  The kids got more attention, play time and outdoor time.  Mom got us all caught up on dishes...though after 4 days of playing nurse now, I'm behind again.

We qualified to refinance our home!  The quote for the monthly payment is that we could be saving almost $100 a month AND cut off 3.5 years.  Yay!  We took our application over to our neighbors to help clarify somethings I didn't understand.  When we got to the liabilities section, I only had the house down on that.  They asked about car payments, student loans and credit card debt.  They were shocked when I told them that we didn't have any of that.  Their two sons are rather swimming in it, so they were rather dumbfounded at the thought.  I'm really thankful for the way Shad and I choose to manage our finances.  We may not have loads to spare and still can't afford $500 a month for health insurance, but we are happy as we are, not having the shackles of debt tying us down.  We will be going from 7% on a 15 year loan to 3% on a 10 year loan.  I'm super excited!

Tom-isms: He does catch on to things!  His pop gun that he got for his birthday has been a problem a little bit.  Being misused as a sword and all.  So he gets corrected that it's a gun, not a sword.  Lately, Katie's taken an interest in it.  Today, he told Katie, "No, no, no, Katie! (yes, he's started pronouncing the T) Not a sword! I's a gun!"  He even took it away from her until I had him convinced that she was using it as a gun.  He's also been mirroring my language, asking, "Katie, yike some druice?" (Katie, would you like some juice?) "Okay, be right back."  And the newest one: "Good idea!"  Several months ago, Tommy was commenting on something in the sky on a walk...the moon or clouds or something.  I told him, "Tommy, Jesus made the moon."  His reply was immediate: "Oh, FANK you, Gees!" His pronunciation has improved to "Gesus," but he still thanks Jesus for the stars, moon, sun, clouds, sky, trees, etc.

Katie has been acquiring more language skills, too.  She desperately tries to talk all the time.  Just this weekend she picked up banana, apple and cracker, and is thrilled to have that new communication!  Her face just lights up, knowing that I understand her.

I've reached the second trimester now, which means a bump and the eye of the storm.  I've been trying my hand at a new area of baking: breads and crackers.  I've tried out wheat thins, rolls, hamburger buns and bread bowls.  There's tweaks that need to be made here and there, but overall, we like these new homemade food items.  I'm also looking at cloth diapers, but not only that.  Instructions online for sewing your own diaper covers.  And then I still have a list of more soups I want to can.

Well, I better run and get to other things...like tonight's dinner.