Christmas tree hunt

We spent yesterday afternoon out cutting down our Christmas tree. This has been a tradition in our family forever (before I was married even!) and now it's part of our family's fun. Nothing better than to get the kids all psyched up to race through the fields of trees, then have to drive an hour to get there.."are we there YET?" Then get 6 people to agree on which one's the best, only to walk away for a minute and when you come back, someone else has cut it!! AAAHHH! In the end, we got a great one, that's waiting to be part of our Christmas celebrating. Gramp is home now, he got checked out well and his meds have been changed, so maybe he won't be so sleepy all the time.

Give thanks

I haven't blogged in a while, because last time it took hours to keep trying and re-trying to get a new post to work. I guess I figured that if I left it alone for a while, the little mouse that works in my computer would get it all straightened out for me! So, all goes well here. My parents came last week for a visit with Gramp, and we had our Thanksgiving dinner a week early; we had the whole big meal. Of course Michael got sick in the middle of it with a fever and wicked crankiness (translation: I ONLY want mommy to hold me, and then I'll just moan and writhe around). It was fun anyway, and I know Gramp was really glad to see dad. The kids are loving the massive leaf pile we have at the end of our driveway. They can literally jump into it and they disappear and have to crawl their way out. It's totally a hoot to watch. Like a swimming pool of leaves. I have an account on facebook now and have found so many old friends from high school, etc. It's really weird to just be able to go online and see what's up in their day now. Kinda like a freaky time warp, but fun, and train-wreck-like...you just gotta go and have a look at what they're all doing!

Gramp likes PIZZA!

Haven't updated this week. Let's just say my stress level was up too high. Things are a little more stable right now, so I'll give you a peek into today. Gramp loves pizza. Pepperoni. He had it last night for dinner and today for lunch. He had me go and get some last week as well. Who knew? He's been awake for a majority of yesterday and today, which is new. Friday he had a fall off the bed (he says he just slid off of it) which shook him up a bit, but now he seems fine. Michael is pulling up to stand on everything, but I think mostly my legs. Then there's the constant imminent fall, of course. Little Bret plays his first basketball game tonight, and we've spent today tackling the enormous amount of leaves that our forest-like yard produces. AND we left most of them in place!!! We only cleared the back patio and walkways! Anyway that's that. Tonight I have a thick and garlicy smelling beef stew in the crock pot to combat the chilly air outside, and the girls all had hot chocolate this afternoon after an hour of using a push-broom to "sweep" leaves down the driveway at breakneck speed.

Cracker Barrel

We took Gramp to Cracker Barrel and Shelby Farms yesterday. He had bkfst., and read the paper while the kids and I ran around the playground. All went well, but today he's sleeping it off for the most part. Otherwise, nothing too wild to report here. School as usual, kids all doing well. Rachael and I worked and worked at "getting" the concept of rounding numbers. Just when you think she has it, she doesn't. So, we did some creative stuff that involved drawing various shoe styles on the number's "feet" and personifying the number, and VOILA! She gets it! I love homeschooling! The muppets should do homeschooling videos for various subjects; don't you think Cari?? OH! I forgot to mention the MOUNTAINS of leaves we have amassing at the bottom of our driveway, from the friendly neighbor with a leaf blower. I'll try and have pictures one day. Just picture the girls running from the top of the driveway to the leaf pile at full speed, and barely denting the pile!!!

first time out

Last night we went out to dinner with Michael's godparents. Without Michael. It was really a fun time; we had such a good laugh! But, the poor babysitter who kept Michael didn't have as much fun. My friend Kim's daughter Sebrina (along with Emily and the girls) listened to Michael scream for the better part of 2 hours. I'm sure they were miserable. The poor girls, and poor Michael! I hate those first few times you have a sitter for your baby. Both mom and baby are miserable (even though mommy is laughing on the outside...inside she knows what's going on at home!) But he finally wore himself out and passed out. Whew! Today we're hanging out at home rearranging stuff and catching up on laundry. Gramp is doing better the last 2 days, not sleeping quite as much, and more interested in his developing room as I try and re-create his old apt. He really loves Michael and even reached out not only to grab his chub hand today, but to actually hold him. Cool!

Fall leaves and Gramp's hats

No words needed! We had a fun fall day!

Being prepared

Gramp's furniture arrived today, and I rearranged his room to accommodate it all. He was actually asleep on the couch as it all arrived and I set it up, so I thought it would be a GREAT surprise for him to walk in and see all of his dear things in place and pictures on the walls! Well, he went in, said that he remembered all those things, rolled back out and started reading the paper. Hmmmm......Okay then! Clearly not the excited homey memories I had anticipated! I think all that stuff being here is pretty final for him, so maybe he's more sad that he's not going back to his safe little apt. again. Great! All my efforts for naught! :-) Oh well, he'll get used to it. Back to the food game. I also had my good friend, Fr. Bauer come out to meet Gramp today, and he was able to give him Communion and Annointing of the Sick. Hey, as long as he's on MY watch, he's not going anywhere without being ready to go! So I'm really relieved about that being accomplished. He actually wants him to come back and bring Communion again! So, that is great. On a lighter note, literally, Bret shaved the Canadian lumberjack beard off this morning, but the hair's still here. One thing at a time. And, Michael is making TRACKS all around the place! He's getting so interactive and funny. Every couple of days I'll say to the kids, "his brain grew again!" Which I really believe!

Not the Waltons

Although I may envision our house as the warm, stable, welcoming place, neat and tidy and predictable...somehow that's not exactly what happens. Our weekend summary: Bret finally made it home!!! The kids were thrilled when they were woken at 6:30 in the morning to see his tired, travel-weary face. Well, that and the werewolf beard and hair. To which Emily said. "Daddy, that's got to go." (My sister Shannon saw Bret before he left FL. She said, "He looks like he was left in a forest...and then found as a lone survivor..." )He's been asleep for the better part of his time here...I'm sure trying to catch up and get used to sleeping, rather than working, at night. Then he jumped on his Harley to do errands. (Did Mr. Walton have a Harley?) Also, in my eager efforts to keep up this wknd, I washed Gramp's clothes. All of them. Including the billfold and the HEARING AID. Yes. The hearing aid. It's not designed for Maytag rides. Luckily, my sister has cable. And infomercials. She had ordered, and then mailed to me the "as seen on t.v." "LISTEN UP," a personal amplifier thingy. It works. And he's using it. I'll try not to wash it. We also had our annual "all saints day party" with the homeschoolers. It's adorable. The kids all dress up as their fav. saint and get to tell about their lives and what made them holy. (and play games for candy) We always love to dress up for it. Except this year. It was all I could do to prepare for Halloween, AND our history group. The kids went as "all-Saint's-Day-observers" this year. BUT, we also ran the "save the shroud from the convent fire" booth. Which is fun because there's fire, and squirtguns. It's a recipe for fun!! I picked a room to set up that had no fire sprinklers. ('cause you KNOW we'd get hosed !) So anyway, on Sunday when Bret walked by Gramp's room and his bed was covered with cash bills spread out on newspaper, he wondered what the heck??? I simply explained that we'd been laundering money.