Sunday, November 29, 2015

Jeremy's Birthday

Dear Blogosphere,
We just pulled in from a very long two day drive from Arizona and I am exhausted.  The last thing I want to do right now is sit down and write out this post, but as I was in the same predicament last Sunday and opted not to blog, I am now so far behind that I am now forcing myself to sit here and write something.  So here we go...

We spent the last week in Arizona with family for Thanksgiving, but that is going to be the subject of another blog.  Instead, let's go even farther back to the almost two weeks ago when we celebrated Jeremy's birthday.  We were fortunate that my dad was in town the weekend before and offered to watch the kids so we could go to dinner and a movie.  We saw the latest James Bond movie and had a blast.

As for presents, those came two days later on Jeremy's actual birthday.  Okay, I know this is silly but one thing that Jeremy has been asking for is a new shoe horn (maybe to go with his new shoes that were technically a b-day present even though he got them a week or so early).  The kids gave him one and we decided to celebrate his advancing age by giving him a long-handled one.  As for me, in addition to the shoes, I went with an indoor skydiving session.  We are going next weekend so once I am caught up I am sure I will have more to say on that subject.






That's all for tonight.   My bed is calling.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Veteran's Day at the Children's Museum

On Wednesday this week was Veteran's Day.  I am so grateful for all those who have fought to protect the freedoms I hold dear and I am so thankful that in having a day to honor them, I also get to have a day to spend with my family, enjoying the freedom that many paid for with their lives.

This year I knew Jeremy was going to be out of town for work so I had been trying to think of something to do with the kids since I would be off work and there would be no school.  I thought it would be fun to go to the children's museum and when I presented the idea to the kids, Carrigan picked up a toy phone and proceeded to call and invite her friend Anna.  Anna and Carrigan have become close since attending preschool together and her older brother, Porter, and Merrick are good friends too.  I decided that CC's idea was a good one and invited their family to come along with us.

We ended up spending most of the day at the museum together and having a truly wonderful time.  The museum was a little crowded since it was a rainy day with no school, but the kids were enjoying being together so much that they didn't seem to mind.  The hit of the day was definitely the face painting.  No one was shy about getting into it and Anna even helped to make sure CC got full coverage.

So I guess today I am grateful for the three F's: freedom, friends, and face paint







Sunday, November 8, 2015

Soccer and Lost Teeth

When Merrick was little there were often times when things would come up and I would sit down and blog about them right away and so it was not uncommon for me to write more then one blog post each week.  Unfortunately, now with two kids, a job, and three callings, I am lucky to get one blog squeezed in on Sunday.  The consequence of this is that sometimes really important events get buried under even more important events and get lost in the shuffle.  Merrick has had a couple of such events over the last few weeks.

Last weekend (Halloween) was Merrick's last soccer game.  He and his whole team worked really hard this season and the improvement was evident.  Most games he scored at least one goal and learned to play both offense and defense.  We had an experience the last game that really impressed me.  The weather was terrible.  I am talking bitter, gale-force winds and we were about half way through the game when Merrick came over to us saying that his shoe had broken.  It turns out that the sole of his cleat had separated from his shoe on about half the shoe.  In a truly Macgyver like move, Jeremy took off his own shoe lace and used it to tie the sole of Merrick's cleat back on.  What really impressed me is that Merrick got right back into the game, despite the weather and his broken shoe.  I was surprised by his ability to overcome adversity and still have a good time.  At the awards ceremony after the game Merrick's coach talked about him having a big future with soccer and I am sure that will be the case.









The other big thing that has happened for Merrick is that he has lost not one, but two teeth over the last month.  I know I already blogged about our discovery of his permanent tooth growing in behind his baby tooth, but eventually it did push out both of his two front teeth.  The story of the first one coming out was a bit traumatic.  It had been loose for several days and we had tried to pull it with no success.  One night, after talking to his dad, Jeremy decided to tie thread (he had tried floss, but had not gotten it low enough).  This time he got the thread nice and low and tried to pull, but it still was not coming out (the problem was that the tooth behind had pushed the tooth forward and separated the roots in the back, but not in the front).  Jeremy ultimately decided to leave it once again only to discover that the thread was stuck.  The tooth did not want to come out, but neither did the thread.  At this point Merrick flipped out and Jeremy really had no choice but to yank both the tooth and thread out.

Once the trauma was done, Merrick was really proud of his new smile.  I think he particularly liked that later that night the tooth fairly came and brought him a certificate for his tooth and some origami money.  It was only a day or two later that he discovered his other front tooth was loose and Merrick got to work on wiggling it right away.






And now that I have finally gotten these memories in writing I can ramp my mommy guilt down a couple of notches.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Halloween 2015

Yesterday was Halloween and for the first time since my parents moved here (13 years ago), it rained on Halloween during trick or treating hours.  No only did it rain yesterday, but it poured.  Despite the weather, our kids were undaunted and decided it was worth braving the rain to gain the spoils of trick or treating.  As tradition, all the Oregon cousins who are of trick or treating age headed out together.  We met at Brendon and Rachel's and took off from there.  Ben and Becca's family were all characters from Peter Pan, Lauren was some combo football player/ballerina, and Maude was a creepy doll.  As for our family, Merrick was Iron Man, Carrigan was Minnie Mouse, Jeremy was Spiderman, and I was supposed to be Mary Jane.




We lasted about an hour before everyone decided to call it quits and head to Ben and Becca's for hot chocolate.  It was not our best Halloween, but hopefully it will get to be remember as the only Halloween it rained.

P.S. Jeremy came home Wednesday night saying he needed a pumpkin carved by Friday morning for a work contest.  This is what I whipped up (I am pretty proud of it and he tied for first place in the contest)