This past week started with a dreary, rainy Monday
morning. Andrew head to go out to the ranch and move his cattle. I got up and
got a bike ride in before it was time to get ready and get the kids up and
ready and get the older three off the school. Back home I put on my rain jacket
and went to retrieve a couple of our bikes that were laying around in
neighbors’ yards from a fun day of playing outside the day before. I also
decided to go ahead and unhook all of our hoses as the weather was looking much
cooler for the 10 day forecast. The twins got out their cars and played really
well together until a fight ensued over a fire truck. There was a lot of
chasing, crying and screaming. I broke it up a couple of times and threw out
the Santa threat before I just took the fire truck away. And while they sat in
time out, I closed my eyes and listened to Oh
Holy Night. Then they moved onto playing chef and then onto trying to fit
as many cars as they could into their Little People barn.
Andrew got home from the ranch around 9:30, changed and
headed to the office. I decided it was time to tackle the Christmas presents. I
got them out of storage and started organizing them, grouping them together,
boxing them up and stacking them up in the old office which has become Lincoln’s
Lego room. His Legos were moved out and I set up shop for wrapping.
The twins went down for a nap after lunch and I went back
to work in the basement. I also wrapped Ellie’s birthday gifts and started with
the twins just so they don’t get mixed in with Christmas presents. It is crazy
all the birthdays we have between Thanksgiving and Christmas-Ashlyn, Ellie, my
dad, Ainsley, the twins, Mary and now Joseph (and you can throw me in there too
but I don’t have to get a present for myself J).
I finished up what I could before we had to pick the kids up from school. After
we got home, we did homework and I went back down to the basement for a bit
before I got dinner ready. Lincoln went to play with his friends for a bit but
the rest of us stuck around inside since it was dreary out. At dinner there was
a lot of talk about getting a dog. I am against it for right now but they all
tell me I pretty much don’t have a choice. We’ll see…
Later that evening I took Ellie to tumbling and then it
was time to call it a night. There was more rain the next morning as I did a
quick bike ride before getting ready and getting the kids off to school. I
rained all morning. I did a quick trip to Wal-Mart for a few things and then
went home to try to knock some items off my to-do list before picking up the
twins. Andrew and I spent the lunch hour
discussing the refugee crisis. I am just so torn on what is the right view of
thought/approach…what would God desire of us in the situation. I have
read/watched opinions from both sides and I just feel like there isn’t one way
that is best. It continued to rain most of the day. Molly came over after I
picked up the kids from school so that I could take Ellie and her friends to
gymnastics in Macon. It was raining on the way there and then when we came out
of the building, it was still raining but now the wind was blowing like crazy.
You could really feel it driving down the highway. The girls watched Elf and even though I couldn’t see it,
it still made me laugh listening to it.
The wind was still blowing the next morning. I got up and
started my cleaning then made sure the kids were up and ready to go. They have
been having Red Ribbon Week at school and Wednesday was Favorite Book Character
Day. Ellie dressed up as Fern from Charlotte’s
Web. I had no idea she was going to do it and she did a great job with it.
But the only picture I got of her was in the car.
After I got all the kids dropped off, I went swimming and
then home to get a few things done before I had to pick up the twins. Later
that afternoon Andrew sent me a text asking if I wanted him to pick up the
older kids from school. I thought that was great since I was trying to clean up
the house and prep for small group. Well what wasn’t so great (only for me, not
for the rest of them) was that they had decided to go get a dog. An Amish guy
was selling them so they weren’t sure if they still had the one they wanted but
they were going to check it out. And about an hour later they came home with a
puppy, some dog food, a collar, leash and a rabbit cage that they had decided
to use as his crate for right now. He was a black Australian Shepherd that had
a little white on his chest. After a little while with him, we decided on the
name, Buddy. The kids were so excited and I was happy for them. But I wasn’t
happy about the extra responsibility around the house. They assured me that
they would take care of everything starting with the accidents Buddy had down
in the basement and then had in the garage several times during small group. He
was pretty calm at first, just getting used to everyone. He tried getting on
the wood floor one time and his legs slipped out from underneath him, so he
doesn’t like to get on that anymore. They took him out back to play for a
little bit and brought him inside for a little bit. After small group they took
him out again and then put him in his crate for the night where he proceeded to
poop. Jackson cleaned it all up but you could tell he was a little flustered. I
think it hit him that it may all be a little harder than he was expecting. But
Buddy did pretty well during the night. He whined for a little while and then
went to sleep.
I had warned the kids that they still had to do their
regular chores, make sure their rooms were clean and bring down laundry on
laundry days before they could play with the puppy. So Ellie was up at six
working on stuff and then took Buddy outside for a bit before she brought him
in to wake Jackson up. We did run a little late getting off to school and then
we realized we forgot Bennett’s snacks since it was his snack day. So after we
dropped off the older three, we ran back by home to get the snacks and then
took them to school. I did my grocery shopping after that and Andrew came home
while I was gone to take Buddy out. Then he decided to take him to the office
with him so he could work on the house training. The twins were upset though
when they got home and Buddy was gone.
Andrew ended up bringing him back to the house for a bit
and to get some lunch. Buddy started warming up to his new home and got busy
messing with stuff. He was chewing on the blanket on our couch, dragging a rug
across the room, eating fruit snacks off the floor and started to jump up on
the twins a bit. I knew the calm dog, honeymoon phase would quickly be over so
the kids were going to have to learn to control him. Andrew took Buddy back to
the office with him and I laid the twins down for a nap and got busy with a
long list of things I was hoping to get done. Jackson and Ellie had K-Life so I
was just going to have to pick up Lincoln but Andrew decided to pick him up and
go hunting. Lincoln was excited that Buddy got to pick him up to. They came by
the house and got the twins and headed out to do a little hunting.
While they were gone I got some work done outside. I had
to replace several light bulbs in our landscaping lights. Also, with all of the
wind we have had lately our Christmas lights got messed up just a bit. I had to
get the ladder out and was able to use our tree trimmer to get them back on the
hooks. I ended up drilling a spot for a new hook at the end of the peak and got
that screwed in and the lights all fixed up. I worked on dinner and then went
to pick up Jackson and Ellie from K-Life. Ellie had dance soon after so she
grabbed a snack, changed and then I took her to class. Jackson and I had a
quick dinner when I got home and then it was time for him to go to basketball.
I decided to just stay and watch for about 20 minutes and then go pick up Ellie
from dance. It seemed silly to go home for just a bit. Then Ellie and I went
back to the Y to wait until Jackson was done with practice. When we got home,
Andrew and the boys were back and Buddy was in his crate in the garage. Jackson
and Ellie were so excited to see him after their long day. But Buddy was in
trouble because he had pooped and peed in the house again. He did so well all
day at the office so I think he likes the carpet. So Jackson took him back
outside and stayed out with him for quite a while trying to get him to go to
the bathroom. It never happened and they came back inside. Jackson was so
paranoid and trying to watch him all the time to see if could tell if Buddy was
going to go the bathroom. Buddy was chasing the twins around the couch when
they announced he had peed again. Jackson was so disappointed.
Friday morning I woke ready to get a bike ride in and get
busy getting ready for Ellie’s friend birthday party. But I was slowed down
because I felt pretty dizzy and nauseous. I got up and got breakfast and
Lincoln’s lunch ready, helped him and the twins get ready for the day and tried
to convince myself to get on the bike. It never happened though and I warm
shower sounded much nicer. I felt a little better as the day went on but the
twins made it a little more difficult as they were being kind of ornery. Andrew
ended up taking Buddy again with him since I wasn’t feeling well. So I spent
the day decorating and getting various things ready for Ellie’s party and also
made some cookies to take out to Matthew and Kristin’s later that day. Andrew
picked up the kids from school and then took the boys to his office. He was
going to go hunting but it had started raining. My mom and Molly came over to
help and got there just a little after Andrew and the kids got home. Ellie’s
party was a little smaller than last year and not quite as rowdy. There were
nine girls including Ellie. Lauren was even in town and got to join us. The girls
had snacks first which included some of Ellie’s favorite snacks-Triscuits and
squeeze cheese, string cheese, Fruit Rollups, popcorn and summer sausage with
crackers, cheese and apple slices. I guess the other girls liked her taste too
as they chowed down. Up next were a couple crafts that didn’t turn out quite as
I had hoped. They made glass bead magnets/push pins. They were doing pretty
well until we started hot gluing the magnets on and they would stick to each
other and pull the papers off the back of the beads. The push pins worked much
better. And the next craft was making elastic head bands. I saw someplace where
you put a bead of puffy paint on the back side to make them anti-slip. Well the
puffy paint wasn’t a good idea as they ended up with big blobs, it was messy
and they weren’t drying quickly enough. We were supposed to hot glue the ends
together and cover them with another piece of elastic but we decided that I
would just do that later and we would have Ellie deliver them to all the girls.
After they finished their crafts we headed to the basement where we did an obstacle course that we made up last minute using the balance beam and mat. They had to do everything forwards and backwards. My mom and Molly worked on cleaning things up while we were downstairs which I was very thankful for. When we came back up, they opened presents and then it was time for cupcakes. And while I was lighting her candle, I actually caught the toe of on the gymnastic girl toppers on fire. Oops! Several of the girls didn’t even want cupcakes since they had filled up on the snacks. Then it was time for everyone to start heading home. We had ribbon wands for all the girls along with their magnets. I think they all had a good time and Ellie was happy with it.
My mom and Molly left and soon after, Andrew and the boys
came back home. I finished cleaning stuff up and putting some stuff away and
then we headed out to Matthew and Kristin’s for pizza and visiting with
everyone who was back for hunting. Annie and her family came into town on
Tuesday but we hadn’t been able to see them since we had stuff going on every
night. So it was nice to visit with them
and the kids had fun playing together. Ellie ended up staying and had a
sleepover at Andrew’s parents with Lauren and Ashlyn. They had a lot of fun
doing face paint, eating popcorn and watching movies. Then the next morning
they got to decorate gingerbread cookies. Jackson and Andrew were out hunting and
Andrew was supposed to bring Ellie home. Well Mary decided to bring them in and
take them to JC Penney and pick out some stuff for Christmas and then dropped
them by the house.
At the house, we got up, clean up a bit around the house,
got breakfast and started laundry. We had our first snow of the year and the
boys wanted to go out, so after I put away stuff from Ellie’s party I started
collecting all of the snow gear. I was so thankful that we had boots and snow
pants that fit all of them. I decided to go ahead and put out the rest of our
outdoor Christmas decorations while they were out playing, so I brought all of
that upstairs too. So we all get layered up (besides the snow, it was cold and
windy), got Buddy on his leash and headed outside. The twins, Lincoln and Lincoln’s
friends took turns watching Buddy while I got everything put up in the front
and back yard. Buddy loved getting out
to play in the snow and the kids had fun with it…for awhile. Bennett got
tripped up on Buddy’s leash one time and fell and then Buddy climbed on him
wanting to play, which Bennett didn’t appreciate at all. And later, Bennett
threw a snow ball at Miles which got under his coat so Miles started crying. In
the end I got all my stuff up, we got to wear Buddy out a bit and the kids got
to get outside for a while-so I would call it successful.
When we came in, I decided to just keep the decorating going and started bringing up all the stuff for inside. We took a break for lunch and I got back at it. The twins weren’t the best behaved for the day so naptime was welcomed. I got it all put up except the tree and a couple smaller things. I also decided to wait on the stockings until after we finish up Ellie’s birthday. Then I finished up laundry and got on the bike for an hour ride. By the time I finished and showered up, it was time to get dinner ready. While it was cooking I worked on gluing the headbands from Ellie’s party. Andrew got home while dinner was cooking, tired from a long day of hunting. Before he snuck downstairs and fell asleep, he and Jackson brought the tree up for me. I had just kept it all together with the lights on it last year and put it in a big bag so it was nice for all of that to already be done. Although I thought several strands of lights were out until we discovered that a couple weren’t plugged in. I decided to wait until the next day to decorate. The kids always have fun with the nativity sets and the twins spent some time acting out different scenarios with all the figures. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and ready for bed.
Since Sunday morning was so cold, Andrew opted out of
hunting in the morning and we went to church. Jackson made sure to take Buddy out before we went though. Then Andrew and Jackson headed out
after we got back. Ellie spent a lot of the day playing with Buddy. She took
him out back to run around and the twins wanted to go out and join her. They
also took him on a walk.
I spent the day washing sheets and a lot of clothes. I
think it was 9 loads all together. The twins helped me put out our Christmas
books and had fun looking through them. I also put our Christmas china out. Then
they helped me vacuum the whole house before nap time. While I worked on a few
things around the house, Ellie and Faith made something out of the new Perler
beads that Ellie got at her birthday party and then they headed back outside to
play with Buddy. I eventually got around
to decorating the tree and the kids helped me a bit. Lincoln was the only one
around when I actually started so he got to put his ornaments on first. Ellie
got home a little later and did hers. Jackson did his after he got home too.
Andrew and Jackson picked up some Subway for Jackson and McDonalds for the rest of the kids for dinner. Since I needed to get to the grocery store, we didn’t have much else around to eat. Andrew did have some of his snacks that he had for dinner and I just didn’t even bother. After he got home, I finished up the laundry and took the really full baskets up to the kids’ rooms for them to put it all away and then I went grocery shopping. I had a lot to get since I was trying to get stuff for the whole week which meant extra of things like milk and bread plus stuff for Ellie’s birthday, brunch after Ellie’s baptism and items needed to make a few things for Thanksgiving. I saw my dad at Wal-Mart and he was get extra chocolate chips to make more cookies. After I was done I ran my car through the car wash and headed home. I had some cycling shorts I meant to bring with me to give to my dad (a girl that works in his same building had bought them)and I totally forgot them at the house. Everyone helped bring the groceries in, helped put everything away and then I headed out again to drop the shorts off. I visited with my parents for a little bit and went back home. Everyone was asleep when I got home. I made some toast for my dinner and went to bed.
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