I need some Christmas Cheer

I'm all depressed again. This year I had the money to buy all the kids and dh nice, store-bought presents. Last year I thought, if only I had money, Christmas wouldn't be so depressing. I used to like Christmas. Before marriage. (We had a baby the first married Christmas.) It used to be fun and exciting. I don't hope for any particular gift any more since I know I likely won't get it. Now that I'm grown my mom wants to spend lots of money on me for boring things. And Christmas isn't about that anyway. It should be about Christ. I need to do something. I've gotten slack on reading the scriptures. Last week Ben had the flu. Now Caitlyn and I have it. I feel rotten and don't want to do anything. Caitlyn spent two days in bed, but I have to get up. I am depressed about the illness. Not just this one, but the ones before that. From the last two months I can predict that this fall/winter/spring will be another sick one. With our large family we can't get sick all at the same time. It starts with one and goes down the line. By the time the last person gets over the illness the first person has got a new one. I hate living like this. I feel like we can't do anything. Caitlyn will miss another dance class this week. It is a waste of money. I worry about Emily falling ill this weekend when she's supposed to be in a play. I worry about Aaron getting sick and missing work. He used his leave time on me last month. The other thing is decorations. I don't decorate for Christmas with the exception of the Christmas tree. I feel lights outside are a waste of money. I won't buy decorations. We have no place to put anything in our house. My mom likes to give me snow globes, but we have little ones who break things. I only get out the plastic nativity scene and since the kids play with it it never looks nice. It gets bulldozed all over the room and the pieces go all over. It doesn't matter how many times I set it up it gets thrown all over the place. I would be happy if the kids would do some cute arrangement of it. I have no where to put the breakable sets. Actually, maybe I could put it by the computer. I'd at least get to see it. At least I've got my record player working this year. I've got lots of Christmas records. The only trouble is that I have to be downstairs to hear them. Well, Ben is doing another one of his blowout poops. I feel so lucky.

Happy Birthday Karen

She still likes pink! Happy 3 years old to Karen.

Guests, please don't wash the dishes!

My aunt and uncle came to visit. We had a lot of fun. We made pepperkarkor cookies and popcorn balls. (Throw away your old unpopped popcorn.) We had our grand Thanksgiving feast and celebrated Karen's birthday. It was really very enjoyeable, but I cannot stand using greasy dishes. My father likes to wash all my dishes and my aunt does them about the same way as my father. My mother decided to be "helpful" last visit and even boasted about her "helpfulness". I have one of the cheapest models of dishwashers out there. You can't just throw plates covered in food and grease into the dishwasher. You cannot put in unwashed pots and expect them to come out clean! I am very careful when I handwash my dishes. I use running water to rinse the dishes. Next I use running water and soap to wash, then rinse. In this way I get clean, not greasy dishes. Should you come be my guest you are welcome to vacuum my carpet, wash my kitchen floor, clean my bathrooms, but please- don't touch the dishes!

Saturday Aaron was singing at Temple Square. We went out to dinner at The Blue Iguana. It was very good Mexican food. We recommend it. Next we froze looking at all the lights. We went into buildings every now and then. Sorry I forgot the camera. I got to see the inside of the Tabernacle for the first time. I can see why the conference center was built. It is really small.
Aaron's choir was really not very good. Afterwards he talked for at least an hour about how bad the choir was and how stupid they sounded and all their problems. I approached him quitting since he's got bells now and he said "No way". Oh well. Caitlyn cried because she was so cold. Sunday morning she was obviously sick. By evening Eric had it too. I've just started. Ben was sick all last week. He still has pooping issues. He has to change his clothes afterwards. This Friday Emily is in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". I hope she will stay well at least until afterwards. Emily and Aaron went to the Christmas Devotional last night. Emily enjoyed it. Karen and I listened to it on the radio. She fell asleep during the closing prayer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice thanksgiving with Aaron's family. It was fun and I was glad to hang out and relax in a comfy home. I feel cold at my house.

Things have gotten better for us. The car is fixed and so is the oven. I'm feeling much better. My back gives out after too much strain. Otherwise, we're back to being a boring family.

It's raining...

...misfortune, that is. I wouldn't say it's pouring yet. Our oven's bake element went out. Aaron didn't know to turn off the breaker before removing it and broke a piece. We had to wait three days for the repairman to come out and fix it. Aaron refused to buy the element from the repairman, which is frugal, but we have to wait. He took two days to find and order one off the internet. It is frugal. We still have 5-8 days left to wait for our element. I'm tired of eating soup! I am also not yet going out. I took Caitlyn to dance class this week. I was in such pain from bending over to buckle Ben that we stayed in the car for an hour in order to not have to buckle Ben again. I am not going to the store and we are out of bread products. I would bake bread if only we had an oven. Then the other night as Aaron was traveling to Salt Lake for Bell practice his car broke. It was fixed yesterday, but it broke again on the way to work. Ford paid for the tow truck the second time and didn't charge for labor. The first time they replaced a part broken by the origional broken part. I'm so glad Aaron got a good bonus.

Last week while I was couch-ridden I sent Aaron to the library with the kids. He came back with a book on the linguistics of Tolkien's Hobbits. It was so interesting that I engaged in reading The Lord of the Rings. I'm in The Two Towers now. It is an engaging story, but I am not yet a fanatic (I doubt I ever will be.) as are some like my husband.

Events

A week ago I took advantage of a sale on powdered and brown sugar. I had one bag of 16 pounds of brown sugar. The other had 8 pounds of powdered sugar. I was in productive mood and went flying down the stairs with my sugar to put away. When I was 1/3rd of the way down my foot slipped and I felt the sensation that I was flying. I started unconsciously screaming and I don't scream. I went to the doctor. I've pulled some butt muscles and bruised my tailbone. I'm still in a lot of pain and can't sit. I wish I could have broken my arm instead.

Ben got his 5th tooth last night. The sixth should be in any time soon. He's been sleeping with me at night. I really want this tooth business to end so he will be back to his own crib. We tried the "mommy shirt trick" last night. It lasted about an hour, which is more time than he had previously been spending in his crib.

Aaron's big news is that he is now a member of the Tabernacle Bell Choir. He's a substitute until someone quits or becomes pregnant. It's exciting.

Halloween and pumpkins!

We had a lovely Halloween. Okay, it was busy and crazy, but the kids had fun. We baked most of the day and then carved pupmpkins. The kids drew their faces (or Emily drew hers, Eric's, and Karen's- all the same and Caitlyn drew hers.) I took the liberty to make Karen's different.


Then they got into costume. The girls were Mary, Laura, and Carrie. Eric was a crocodile and Ben a dragon.




They went out and got tons and tons of candy. I need to find someplace to donate it.

The day after Halloween was pumpkin cooking day. I cooked all four jack o'lanterns.



Caitlyn's


Karen's


Emily's


And Eric's. (I forgot to take the picture prior to slicing in half.)


What I did with the pumpkin after baking it. This is Karen's and maybe Eric's.




This is Emily's and Caitlyn's.



This was last night's dinner: Pumpkin Chili. It was really good!


Here's my giant pumpkin which I haven't carved yet.


I am tired of pumpkins!!! Today is a day to take it easy, clean house, and order pizza.