A Fun Thanksgiving Break

This Thanksgiving has been wonderful. Not only did I get a much needed break from work but Will, Darice, Cameron, Zachary and Emily came in to visit. We’ve all had a lot of fun being together. They got in late Tuesday evening and left yesterday. I guess the only negative part about the holiday was that I battled the crud (most likely a sinus infection) the whole time.

THE KIDS HAD A BLAST! Thursday morning Cameron and Zachary came over and played with our kids until it was time to eat our Thanksgiving dinner. About halfway through the morning Vicki commented on the noise, or lack of it. They were playing together so well that we hardly heard any unhappy sounds from them. That night, after eating at Pauline’s, Cameron and Zachary came back over and spent the night with our kids. Nate happily stayed in his room while the other four took over Jenna’s room. They wound up spending Friday night here as well.

EMILY IS PRECIOUS. She has changed the most of all the kids. Of course, she is only one year old. She’s walking now and tries her best to keep up with the rest of the pack. Jenna, glad to have another girl around, was always happy to entertain her.

Emily is actually quite a flirt. I caught her making eyes at me or someone else frequently. Will and Darice are very blessed to have a precious little girl along with their two smart and handsome boys.

THE SCRABBLE TOURNAMENT. Where my family likes to play Spades, Vicki’s family likes to play Scrabble. This is a very frustrating game to me as I find it difficult to use the letters on the board and in my hand to make words. Vicki’s family is also more competitive than I know how to be or can even understand. Naturally she and Will resurrected their old friendly argument of who is the best player. From Will’s point of view he is the best player because he had the most points from all the games they played. Vicki takes a different approach. She says that you should look at overall performance and give points for how you placed at the end of each game (4 points to 1st place, 3 to 2nd place, etc.) Using this method Vicki was the better player overall. Darice sided with Vicki and Pauline stayed out of it. Personally, I think they will be arguing this for years to come.

WHAT A SPREAD! We ate our Thanksgiving meal at two o’ clock and boy did we have a spread of food on the table. If anyone went away hungry it was their own fault. We had ham (instead of turkey), dressing, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs and green beans just to give a partial menu. Then Pauline had about four desserts to choose from.

EARLY BIRD/NIGHT OWL. Vicki and I are very different when it comes to our internal clocks. I get up with the roosters, she likes to burn the midnight oil. Not being a morning person she likes to hit the snooze button on her alarm clock a few times before getting up. I’m not sure how it happened but her clock must have gotten knocked to the floor sometime because something has happened to make the alarm sound a little sick. The other morning she mentioned this when I came into the bedroom. Not wanting to let an opportunity like this pass by I told her the clock was hoarse from beeping too much.

Joe

A Taste of Winter

This week started out with pleasant weather. On Monday I went to work in a short sleeve shirt. By midweek it was pretty brisk with lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s. We’re getting an early taste of cold weather. It has warmed up a bit since then. It was pleasant enough to work in the yard yesterday and once I got moving and a fire going to burn leaves I had to come out of my sweatshirt.

PATIENT PROGRESS. Mom is still coming along with her recuperation. One thing that is making some days really hard for her are frequent cases of the “fidgets” (Restless Leg Syndrome). She’s had this as long as I can remember and it isn’t making things easy now. She had her hair fixed on Thursday and when I picked her up from the beauty shop she said she felt 1000% better. Still no change in hairstyle after 40 years.

Mom went to church today. Everyone was really glad to see her out and about. I think she was glad to get out too. I’ll have to say one thing about our church--they have really taken care of Mom and Aunt Mar. They have not lacked for food at all.

One piece of great news is that Pauline’s doctor (the orthopod) discharged her from his care. We are all proud that she is able to walk around and carry on a normal life.

PRE-HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES. This is the week when all the holiday activities get started. On Wednesday we had a Thanksgiving lunch at church for the boys’ Mom’s Day Out program. We went back for another Thanksgiving dinner that night. Thursday night the Cross Plains Heritage Commission had their annual covered dish Thanksgiving supper. On Friday Jenna’s school served a Thanksgiving lunch. Tonight we went to the community Thanksgiving service. This year it was held at Orlinda Baptist. We ate after that too. I’m stuffed already.

I do need to tell this on myself. I got confused and thought Jenna’s school was serving Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday. I decided I’d go out there and eat with her. I called Vicki and she thought her class went to lunch at 11:25. It is 16 miles from my office to East Robertson Elementary so I had to rush. I got there right on time, or so I thought. Jenna’s class was just leaving the cafeteria. Her teacher allowed her to go back and sit with me while I ate. They were serving corn dogs (one on my least favorite foods). Vicki has told me that my selective hearing would get me.

ANTS IN HIS PANTS. Benton cannot keep himself still. Sitting in church with him is an exercise in practicing patience. He also never thinks his actions through. We really have to stay a few steps ahead of him all the time. It’s just those times when we are not with him like the other evening when he was brushing his teeth before bed. His learned that evening that the toilet paper holder is not strong enough to support his weight.

BASKETBALL SEASON. Jenna is signed up for basketball. This time she is playing in an Upward league. This league puts focus on athletic skills, sportsmanship and spiritual growth. There will be a devotion at each practice and game. They also do not keep score at the games. Jenna went to her first practice on Tuesday. They spent time with each player to evaluate their skills. Their practices start next month and the first game will be in January.

MORE ON JENNA. Jenna is an avid reader. She doesn’t just have her nose constantly in a book but she does read a lot. She just finished Anne of Green Gables and has started on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I think she also carries a lot of rapport with her friends. The mother of one of Jenna’s friends was telling us her daughter was getting ready for school one morning and said, “I wish Jenna was here.” When the mom asked why the girl said, “Because she always gives such good advice.”

Joe

Much Needed Rain

This week the kids have enjoyed playing in the newly fallen leaves and we had all enjoyed record breaking high temperatures. And now, after months of almost no measurable precipitation, we are getting rain!

The only bad thing about this week was that Vicki and I both had the 24 hour stomach bug. Fortunately she was getting over her case when I came down with mine. Nate has also been a bit under the weather.

MOM’S PROGRESS. Mom has come a long way in her recovery this week. Last night I caught her walking around without her walker (just where she can grab hold of the kitchen counter). As I said before, pain has been her biggest problem but I think she has found a way to handle it and it is beginning to diminish some.

NATE IS A LITTLE MESS. So the other day Vicki hears Nate rustling around in the bathroom. Figuring she’d better check this out she spied on him through the crack in the bathroom door. He was standing on the counter admiring his reflection. She wasn’t there too long before Nate turned and spotted her. He grinned at her with blue lips. Coming on in the bathroom she asked Nate what he had put on his face. Pointing in the closet he said, “This... and this, and this, and this and this.” In his run down of products he identified two sticks of lip balm, a stick of sun screen, a stick of Elmer’s glue and a blue permanent marker. (I have no idea why the glue and marker are stored in our bathroom closet.) Fortunately, Nate had used the marker last and it never penetrated the other stuff to stain his skin. Everything just wiped right off.

Then there was yesterday when Jenna brought Nate to me and said she had stopped him trying to eat a marble. Figuring I’d use a little scare tactic I said, “Nate, you shouldn’t eat those. They’ll make you sick.”

“Make me sick?” he inquired to make sure he’d heard me correctly.

When I said yes he stuck a finger deep in his mouth in an attempt to gag himself. After stopping him I asked if he had already swallowed one. He nodded. Now we are checking his diaper for marbles.

A FUN EVENING WITH THE KIDS. Yesterday morning Vicki and Pauline attended a women’s missions brunch at church. Their meeting lasted until noon. After they got home Vicki and two friends headed for Christmas Village at the Nashville Fairgrounds. This left me and the kids together all day. We hung out around the house until after lunch. When Pauline came home we sent Nate over to her house to nap and spend the evening. Then Jenna, Ben and I left for a little outing of our own.

Our first stop was the movie theater where we saw Chicken Little. The kids really enjoyed it. From there we went to McDonald’s and then to pick up a couple of things at Wal-Mart. The three of us simply had a great time together.

MY VIDEO CONVERSION PROJECT. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was starting to convert our home videos to DVD. I am about halfway through the seventh one right now. It’s neat to see Jenna and Benton when they were the same age that Nate is now.

Jenna’s memory blows me away. I was working on a DVD when Jenna walked by and looked over my shoulder at a scene that was paused on the computer screen. It showed a two year old Jenna standing in the doorway that separates the foyer from the living room. The only evidence that it was a Christmas scene were the stockings in the background and the title I had just typed in. As soon as she saw this she said, “Oh, that’s the Christmas when I got the Sesame Street train.” When I scrubbed forward in the footage, lo and behold, a train with Sesame Street characters came into view! You now see why we go to her when we want to recall something.

I’ve also enjoyed seeing the church when it was under construction. Back then I would go and film around the construction site every few weeks to capture the progress. I am pulling that footage out to combine it all on a DVD later. Maybe, after adding a few other clips related to the construction project, we’ll see it in the church library in a few months.

HOW’S THAT AGAIN? Speaking of Jenna’s memory, we were talking at lunch today when Jenna, referring to a past event said, “You know, it happened back then when now was the future!” She’s absolutely right, but we had to think on that for a minute or two.

Joe

Fall Fun

This week has been beautiful. The weather has been great (with a few days hitting record highs) and the trees have looked surprisingly vivid in spite of a very dry year. To look on the bright side about the dry weather, the farmers have had an easy time getting the soybeans in. Larry and Tommy Pinson cut Mom’s beans this week.

MOM IS HOME NOW! I brought her home on Thursday. I am pleased with what she is capable of doing as she can get up and down from a chair or bed and walk around with a walker. She has some difficulty on the up and down part but I’m proud she is capable of getting around the house and taking care of herself without major assistance at this point. Vicki or I are staying there at night and we check in on her during the day but we simply aren’t able to stay there 24 hours a day and I really don’t think she needs that any way.

One thing I never dreamed I’d ever do is give Mom a shot. She is taking Lovenox (to prevent blood clots) for the next couple of weeks and it has fallen to me to administer this medication. Of course, I’m not letting an opportunity like this go by without a mock sadistic comment. I am all the while getting the “evil eye” from her. I enjoy “poking” fun at her in this way!

All the nurses and therapists who have worked with her have said she had a top notch surgeon and that she is progressing nicely. It’s just going to take time to heal. I think the roughest thing for Mom right now is pain management. Please continue to pray for her.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CANDY. With Monday being Halloween we made our annual, three hour Trick or Treat run. Jenna dressed up as a sensible princess (sensible because she wore tennis shoes). She curled her hair and wore real lipstick for the first time and she asked at lots of our stops if her lips still looked good (they lasted the whole night even through sampling her goodies). She was so pretty. We wondered how she’d look in 10 years for her senior prom.

Both of the boys were Superman. Ben’s costume had a red Speedo sewn in it. He asked Vicki what it was and she said it was Superman’s underwear. He quickly covered his privates as he looked at Vicki with shock and embarrassment. (He got over it but Vicki enjoyed the moment.) Nate enjoyed dressing like his big brother. They were quite a pair.

Last year Nate was pretty much just along for the ride. This year he got the hang of it pretty quickly. Starting with the fourth house we visited when walking through Cross Plains he would turn to Vicki and say, “More candy, Mama!” He couldn’t explain why but he knew he had hit the mother lode and he wasn’t complaining. By the end of the night his bucket was so full his little arm was shaking. This year was a good year for chocolate. We’ve got so much candy now that I really don’t even want any when I see it.

I think the best costumes I saw were on Ross, Donna, Rachel and Betsy Swann. They all had white tee shirts with a large “P” painted in it. They had also painted black face paint around one eye. That made them the black-eyed peas!

NOT CHRISTMAS ALREADY! It’s bad enough that all the stores have their Christmas wares on display but we noticed one of our neighbors had their tree up the day after Halloween. That really takes the cake! Last night Vicki and I went to Applebee’s for dinner. As we were driving down Fifth Avenue in Springfield we passed several houses with inflatable Santas and snowmen in their yards. We were pleased to see that one house had the guts to go against the grain with an inflatable turkey.

We’re actually behind the times. With Mom being in the hospital we never got around to carving our jack-o-lantern until yesterday. Ben had bought a pumpkin from Steve Freeland and he was going to carve it or bust. He picked out his pattern (a pirate’s skull) and even cleaned out all the pumpkin’s goo and seeds. He is very proud of it and has it on the floor by his bed.

Joe