This and That

Since it's been a couple of weeks since I posted, I'm going to give a quick run down of what has happened the past two weeks.

Last weekend, Oct 24-25, I went with Shalise, Audrey, Marci, Amy, Amy's sister Jess, Amy's mom and Amy's Aunt Chris scrapbooking in Park City. I was extremely nervous about going -- only because I'm not a huge scrapbooker but I went with a specific project and I was able to accomplish that project. (More details later, don't ask questions at Christmas time!) Shalise, Marci and I left about 1 on Friday afternoon, we stopped and shopped at Tia Pan. It was fun to wonder around without kids or husbands pretending that it's not boring!! We got to Park City about 5, ate dinner and then scrapbooked until 12:30 and then went back to our room and chatted until about 1:30 before we all crashed! I didn't know how much I missed "girl talk" without kids. Saturday morning we scrapbooked until about 10:30 and then we all went to the outlets and shopped. Again, we had lots of laughs and a great time. I hope that this can become an annual event.

Todd went to Wisconsin last Monday - Wednesday. I now have a greater appreciation for single moms. The boys were good but just going, going, and going without an help, or an ear to lean on was a challenge. Actually, the real challenge was sleeping at night without Todd. I've never been able to sleep when he isn't home but with the help of some prayers, I did okay. I was relieved when I saw him walk into the Ward Fall Festival. There is just something about knowing your spouse is in the same town! I'm grateful that Todd doesn't travel much for work. I'm sure you would get used to that schedule, but I'm glad I don't need to get used to it.

Aggie basketball started on Friday night. The boys choose to go to the game instead of Trick-or-Treating. In fact, I hadn't even bought any Halloween candy until Thursday, since I didn't have to worry about costumes I pretty much forgot there was even a holiday coming. Thankfully, I remembered and bought some candy just in case we got some Trick-or-Treaters. We did have about 7 or 8 kids total, so the Halloween candy was consumed by the Downs Family!

Tyler also started his basketball games on Saturday. He switched coaches and teams this year so I was somewhat apprehensive about the first game but I was quite surprised at how well they played together and seemed to mesh. Tyler actually played really well for the first game. I'm hoping that by not having a coach yelling at him from the sidelines constantly will help his self-confidence. Whether I'm ready or not, I can say that BASKETBALL season has officially begun. Our family LOVES basketball, however, we'll see how much we LOVE basketball when we start having 2 or 3 games every Saturday. When I look and the calendar for the next several months, I get really tired -- let alone trying to live that schedule. I keep telling myself that it's all good and worth it, we'll see!!

Tomorrow night, April and I are hosting a Neighborhood Holiday Open House. Our intent is to have the families on our street bring food to donate to the Food Pantry and then visit with each other for an hour. This would be in place of "neighbor" gifts at Christmas time. A few neighbors have been thrilled with the idea so we'll see how well it goes over. We have talked about doing this for a couple of years now but always seem to think of it a little too late in the holiday season. We are hoping that this could become a tradition to remove some of the stress of the holiday season.

Speaking of the holiday season, I hired some young guys to get my Christmas lights up and running this year. They look great! I don't know if I can wait until Thanksgiving night to turn them on. Todd wanted to leave them on last night while we ran into Logan so I agreed but wondered what the neighbors all thought! Todd doesn't have the patience to accomplish such a tedious task, and I don't like heights but I LOVE Christmas lights so I decided to hire it done and know that it was done right. Todd's idea of replacing a blown fuse is tin foil or a screw. Can I say FIRE HAZARD!??

I can't believe it's November, and in some ways I think the calendar is all wrong, but since the calendar really does say November, I'm starting to get excited for Christmas and the holiday season. I'm thinking of getting the Christmas trees out the end of next week. When we were at Tia Pan last weekend, all of their trees were out and I started to get excited to decorate. It is just such a huge task but I'm going to try and do a little each day and see if that makes it any easier for me. When I was at Walmart last night, the day after Halloween, they were playing Christmas music! and the Halloween candy isle had been changed to Christmas candy! The most wonderful time of the year is coming!!!