On Sunday, Dec 6th our little Gracie will be 12 years old. Seriously!! She is jumping up and down with excitement and gives us the countdown every day.
So in honor of her birthday, we will be posting something we love about Grace every day this week.
#1:
She goes above and beyond when there is a project to be done. Her school projects are amazing and she does them with very little help from anyone (meaning Mom).
Tuesday thru Friday...
We cooked, we ate, we cleaned...
Tuesday:
woke up disgustingly early to work
took a short nap
grocery shopped
cooked a ginormous batch of chicken parm to feed the missionaries
cleaned the kitchen
Wednesday:
tried to buy a pie at Mr. Tod's but they were out of pie
decided to bake pies instead
baked pies
loaded pies, etc into the van
found the pecan pie ruined after being stepped on
tried to buy another pie at Mr. Tod's
gave up after seeing 40 people in line
decided to not have pecan pie
Quintin said that wasn't an option
went to Kate's
got a pedicure
baked another pecan pie
prepped sweet potatoes, stuffing, salad, green bean casserole
watched "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" - weird!!
Thursday:
ate Swedish Pancakes for breakfast
watched THE PARADE!
started cooking and prepping for the big meal
ate appetizers
cooked some more
ate turkey and all the trimmings - yum
cleaned
ate pie, cheesecake and cake - yum
drove home and went to bed
Friday:
tried to sleep late but Quintin wouldn't let me
took a shower
sorted all the laundry
gathered my card making supplies
drove to Kate's
sat on the couch and made cards all day long
watched a lot of movies
ate a lot of leftovers
meanwhile, Will and Quintin went camping, Jacob stayed at home and did laundry and Grace and Tal played in the playroom. Grace also loaded all the Christmas music onto the computer so that it can be put on the ipods.
Let the Christmas Season begin...
After a weekend full of activity, Jacob and I were having a quiet morning at home. He was in the living room reading and I was sitting on my bed watching "Grey's Anatomy". I heard a knock on the door and I heard Jacob answer the door. I assumed it was the mailman because I was waiting for a package. A little while later Jacob came running up the stairs to tell me that there were a bunch of police cars and fire trucks in our yard. WHAT!?!?!?
Jacob had been asked by his father earlier this morning to clean the ashes out of the fireplace. Our dumping place for the ashes is the garden. The garden is also where we dump our leaves after raking them up. Unbeknownest to Jacob, the ashes were still smoldering and caught the leaves on fire. A Franklin Township fireman was driving down the street and saw the fire. He called in reinforcements and soon our yard was full of emergency vehicles and the fire was out.
We live approximately 1/2 mile from our municipal complex. At times we complain about the amount of siren noise we hear but today I am thankful for our close proximity to the fire station and for a vigilant fireman.
Happy Birthday Quintin!!
Quintin celebrated his birthday by:
waking up early
getting a fire going (we like fires!)
cooking breakfast for everyone
going to Costco with a list from me
fixing the brakes on my van with Paul - which included two trips to Pep Boys and a lot of running around in between
raking and blowing leaves
cooking lunch for everyone - Paul helped though!
showering
helping me prep for his party
and then - eating his weight in cheese and chocolate!!
Maybe next year I'll let him have the day off...
I found these three guys by the side of the road today, so I picked them and brought them home and they had great stories to share of their adventures on the Appalachian Trail.
But first they need to take showers because they are super stinky!!
I do not define myself as a morning person. It's the whole getting up thing that I don't like. Once I'm awake I am normally happy and cheerful and chatty, it's the "getting me awake" that is the hard part. I would like to be able to sleep until I want to wake up, not until the alarm clock tells me to wake up. But I suppose that is not how things work in the real world and today my alarm clock went off at 4:45 am. This is my back-up alarm that tells me to wake up and make sure William is up. Usually I hear him get up at 4:30 am and then I turn off the alarm. Today he didn't get up and I had to go get him up. That little act of walking down the stairs and saying "William, get up!" is enough to wake me up just enough that I can't go back to sleep. So by the time we got in the car at 5:15 am, I was wide awake and ready to chat and so I started chatting. This is when William informed me of "The Rule" - no talking in the car on the way to Seminary! I ignored "The Rule" and kept on talking until William reclined his seat, closed his eyes and refused to answer me any more.
Maybe I shouldn't be allowed to drive to Seminary if I can't play by "The Rule"!
**In the real world, Quintin drives Will to Seminary every morning, but he is away this week and so I get to be the designated driver.
After spending the entire morning ridding my house of cobwebs and disgustingness, I needed a break and Sharon and I needed to catch up after her two week trip to Italy. We chose Chipotle because we love those ginormous burritos!! But the real catching up happened at Crate and Barrel as we wandered the furniture showroom moving from chair to couch to settee to chaise and finally landing here:
I have decided that the "Simone Daybed" is the best place to sit and have a chat about really important things like shoes and chocolate and what to have for dinner - I think all the world's problems could be solved by spending an afternoon chatting on the daybed. Maybe we should all get one!
Remember recently when we posted Will's "then" and promised a "now", here's the "now"...
My best school subjects: none of them
My favorite movies: good ones
My favorite colors: purple
The best book I've read is: a good one
My favorite tv show or computer game: good ones
I collect: garbage on my bedroom floor
5 words to describe me: insane, funny, lazy, and 2 other illegible words
My birthday is: 12-17
Things I'm good at: spelling
In my future I see: food
My eye color: blue
My favorite foods: everything
Sports & Hobbies: running
Here's what bugs me: my sister
My one wish is: that my mom would leave me alone
Seriously not loving the teenager attitude!
Jacob, Quintin and Uncle Paul have gone on "walkabout" or "vision quest" or maybe just a male-bonding backpacking trip on the Appalachian trail - whatever you want to call it, they are not here this week. They will return on Friday and are fortunate enough to have a beautiful week of late November weather to walk around in.
Meanwhile back at home, we are having a little down time. After school we went to the Shoprite and stocked up on frozen dinners. I don't plan on cooking this week at all except maybe on Saturday. I really don't plan on doing much at all.
After our roller-coaster of emotions last week, we need a little down time!
Where missionaries serve is far less important than how they serve,” says Elder Quentin L. Cook.
“The call to serve a mission is paramount, the specific location is secondary,” he explains. “As missionaries serve with all their heart, might, mind and strength, they learn to love the people wherever they go.”
And Jacob is going to
UGANDA KAMPALA
He will be leaving for the South African Missionary Training Center on March 25, 2010.
Wow!!
I was awake all night. One of those nights when you stare at the clock all night long and get more and more frustrated that you're not asleep. I finally fell into a deep sleep at about 6 am. When the alarm rang at 6:30 am, I hit the snooze button. And then five minutes later, I hit the snooze button again... knowing the whole time that if I didn't get up soon, Grace would be late for school. It was at about this time that I nudged Quintin and kindly asked him if he would get Grace up and off to school. He kindly did and I reset my alarm and went back to sleep. When my alarm rang again at 8:00 am, I hit snooze again and again and again. I finally managed to drag my body out of bed at 8:45 am, barely managing to get to work on time.
When Grace got home from school she said to me, "What was your problem this morning?" I guess I just needed a little extra beauty sleep. I really don't think it helped though... I didn't feel beautiful at all today!
The kids had the day off of school to celebrate our Veterans. Thank you Veterans!!
It was a much needed little break from the hustle and bustle of every day life. I slept late and then made a delicious brunch of chocolate chip pancakes and scrambled eggs. Then we all just chilled and relaxed (chillaxed) the rest of the day. Grace rearranged her playroom. William caught up on all the latest Spongebob episodes. Jacob tried to conquer the world, or create a world or something like that. I finished off two quilts that have been waiting to be finished. Then we convened in the family room for some movie watching. We watched the 1971 version of "The Andromeda Strain" and laughed at all the "modern" technology and science.
And I achieved my goal of not leaving the house at all for at least one day this week!
Hanging on the wall above my desk is a piece of art created by William. It is a cut-out in the shape of a shirt and all over the shirt are pictures of things that describe William. It has been hanging there for a very long time. So long, in fact, that I don't even know when it was created. But, just for fun, let's list these things from "whenever that was" and someday soon we'll post Will's answers to these questions now.
Then:
My best school subjects: math, science, spelling
My favorite movies: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
My favorite colors: red, green and orange
The best book I've read is: Remnants #1 - The Mayflower Experiment
My favorite tv show or computer game: Fairly Odd Parents
I collect: pins
5 words to describe me: crazy, funny, smart and two other illegible words
My birthday is: 12-17
Things I'm good at: spelling
In my future I see: A+ A+ A+ (over and over again)
My eye color: blue
My favorite foods: pizza, ice cream, Chinese
Sports & Hobbies: reading, swimming
Here's what bugs me: my sister
My one wish is: that I could have more wishes...
