No Gymnastics Today

This morning we were planning on driving to the Portsmouth ward, going to church there, then going to Megan's gymnastics meet in Dover. It would have been fun and we were all looking forward to it, but it snowed last night! We got about a foot, I'm estimating. We decided to still got to her meet, but a few minutes after we left the house Megan called and said she wasn't going today. She said the coach changed her beam routine this week and she wasn't ready. What a bummer. I don't blame her, though, because she's not one to do something unless she's confident.

So we headed back home. There was no church here because of the snow, so we are just hanging out for the day. We've read books, played games, worked on counting money, watched TV, etc. It's been a relaxing day.

Last week, I watched a movie called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It was about this guy who totally changed his health by drinking juices made from fresh fruits and vegetables. I bought a juicer and gave it a go. Yesterday was my first day, but it was quite a shock to my body. I drank the juice for the morning (it was kind of gross, but I'm hoping I get used to it), then a fruity drink a few hours later. By early evening, I was feeling really nauseous and I ended up throwing up. It was just too much at once. So I ate some crackers and some soup and felt much better. Today I ate Cheerios for breakfast, a juice for lunch along with a carrot and celery with peanut butter. Tonight I'm having a regular supper of chicken tenders, mashed potato, and broccoli. Tomorrow I hope to do the two juices again, and if I'm really hungry I'll eat a snack of fruit. I'll eat a regular supper. I don't know if I'll ever do the juices all day, but in the meantime I'll alternate.

We had Gabby on Friday night and all day Saturday. She is so adorable. She talks all the time now. She was so funny. She has such a great sense of humor for only being two. She gets a kick out of a lot of things, and just goes with the flow. She loves to play with my itouch, so I let her play for a little bit while I'm holding her. I don't want her to accidentally delete something. She also likes to help me do the dishes now, which was really cute. She wanted to rinse everything with the sprayer so water was going everywhere and she put everything into the dish drainer right side up, so a lot of water stayed in everything. It cracked me up, though. One time, she walked into my room, saw the fan and said, "Nice fan you got there." I totally cracked up. When we were eating supper, she was laughing at Nathan who was being really silly. She said as she was laughing, "Nafan is trazy. My dad tells me that every day. Nafan is trazy." We were laughing so hard. We took her to the ward Trunk or Treat on Friday night, but we didn't have a costume for her. She had a great time anyway. She carried around a pumpkin and got lots of candy. She loved it.

Dan and I did some more Christmas shopping yesterday. We are almost done with it. As soon as we get home from shopping, Dan wraps everything we bought. I haven't had to wrap any presents for 10 years now, except for Dan's. He's awesome. I don't actually mind wrapping, but he always does it, so I don't complain. We try to get it all done by Thanksgiving, so we can enjoy the Christmas season.

Nathan is a vampire this year for Halloween. This is his first year being something scary. I put white makeup on his face, black around his eyes, and red under his mouth so he looked like he just drank some blood. It was a pretty cool costume, although I still like the cute and innocent looking ones better.

Matt & Margaret

Yesterday we went to Jeff and Sue's for a get-together because Matt and Margaret are here from Utah. They ran a marathon in Bar Harbor last weekend and have been here since. We had a Thanksgiving type meal, which was so delicious. It was really fun to visit with them. Nathan wrestled with Uncle Matt for quite a while. It was so funny.

On Thursday night, I finished my last class for my Masters in Special ed. I'm so excited! Now I can get back to normal life.

Mom, Olivia and Felicia are in Florida right now. I'm so jealous. They are using Mom's time share in Pompano Beach for the first time. I'm really happy for them. I bet they'll have a great time. I heard from them yesterday and they were having fun so far. I can't wait to see pictures when they get back.

Amber and Dave's wedding

Amber got married on September 23rd in South Dakota. Dan was able to go out and "give her away", but Nathan and I weren't able to go. I was really disappointed because I would have loved to be there. I'm glad Dan could go, though. He had a great time and was really impressed with Dave and Dave's family.

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad!

Yum!

Sydney, Maddi and Paige

On Saturday, Kristen and I took the girls and Nathan apple picking. Then I brought the girls home with us for a few hours. It was so fun. The girls are so cute!. We went down to the barn and tried to catch the kittens (it was pretty hard). Sydney was so funny. She kept whispering because she was trying to sneak up on the kittens. She would tell me where kittens was, but just as I'd get over there, the kitten would disappear. She kept trying, though. She has the sweetest little voice. Felicia finally caught a couple, so they got to pet them a little.

My parents birthdays were on Sep 27th and Oct 4th, so Dan and I had them over for supper last night to celebrate. We had lasagna, garlic bread and salad. For dessert, we had apple dumplings. It was yummy, except I forgot to make the sauce for the dumplings, so they weren't quite as sweet as they were supposed to be. Oh, well, they ate them anyway, so they couldn't have been too bad.

I was so glad there was no school today. I got caught up on some school assignments and it's just nice to be able to stay home. Dan's birthday is today. I asked him what he wanted for a cake and he said banana, so I made him one. It smells so yummy.

September

September was such a busy month! Nathan's soccer season was in full swing. He's had practice on Wednesday nights from 5:30-6:30 and games on Saturday mornings at 9:00. His favorite position is defense. He loves it. Anyway, tomorrow morning is his last game. Aside from a few moments of "sillyness" he's done a great job. Dan has been an assistant coach, too, which has been fun.

General Conference weekend! I love these weekends!
Megan and her friend Taylor made a fort between the chair and stove and watched conference from there. I always love conference, but the music seemed especially uplifting and beautiful this time.

A neighbor's cat had a litter of kittens in the barn a few weeks ago. There are three tigers like this one and three black ones. They are so cute! I want a cat so badly lately, but I haven't talked Dan into it yet. Nathan loves to hold the kittens when he goes to the barn.

This is Bryce, a little guy that stayed with us from the 17th to the 26th. We got a call on a Saturday afternoon from DHS saying that they had a 3 year old boy. We were so excited and went to pick him up right away. Megan was with us, too, and she was super excited. I was joking around on the way down to Lewiston, saying, "Wouldn't that be cool if he was African American?" Dan and Megan know how much I've been hoping to get an AA child. We said, "Bryce isn't an AA name, though, so I'm sure he's white." I was picturing a child with blond hair. When they brought him out to meet us I couldn't believe it. I loved his hair! He was so cute, but had a lot of needs. He wasn't potty trained and was basically nonverbal. He also had some behaviors that were challenging. Things went kind of up and down throughout the first few days. It would seem to be going okay, then things would get hard, and back and forth. After a few days, I let the case worker know that I didn't think it would work. It was almost a week before they found a place for him, though. He actually went to his grandmother, so hopefully that will be good for him. I was not impressed at all that DHS took so long to find a place for him. I kept calling her every day because he didn't do well at day care (They were basically having to use one staff for him all day) and Dan was going out of state (for Amber's wedding, which is another post). Anyway, it was very stressful, but I made it through the weekend. It really wasn't his fault, so I didn't blame him. He actually had lots of really cute qualities and I could have bonded with him so quickly. He tugged at my heartstrings for sure. He was more like a toddler than an almost four year old. He was so cheerful when he woke up in the mornings. He loved to be played with. He had the cutest way of talking when he did try to talk. He tried to sing, which was really cute. I loved doing his hair! He loved to be sung to. My heart really went out to the little guy. He definitely needed some structure and discipline, though. If I was a stay at home mom I could have kept him, but that's not the case. I hope we were able to make his life better for the week he was with us.

The Oxford County Fair was in September. We went for one evening when we had Megan. The kids got bracelets so they could go on unlimited rides. We got candy apples, fried dough (the fair always has the BEST fried dough), and taco salad. After the kids were done with the rides, we looked at all the animals, then went home. It was a fun evening and definitely a tradition.