The Weekend Update

Jason felt recovered enough to make the sojourn to his parents' house, to the airport early (3 a.m.) the next morning, and the flight to my parents', and we came as planned. Or so he thought, anyway. Considering how the whole thing exhausted him (and me, and Jamie), how many obstacles we encountered to get here, how many things went wrong, etc., we were seriously wondering for awhile if we weren't supposed to come.

But I think that has mostly passed, and we've been having a nice visit. We've gotten to know our future sister-in-law Michelle and nephew Conner better, which has been nice. It took a good week+ to get all of us into a well enough state to be able to do anything, though! (Jamie, my mom, my dad, Rob, me, and then Jason AGAIN all had bouts with sickness.)

Oh, and I've taken a few pictures, plan to mooch a good deal off of Rob's (since he offered), and will post some once I've uploaded them.

Favorite highlight: Jamie and Ali (aka Lexi, cousin) giving each other hugs and kisses during their playdate Wednesday!

Anyway, I hope you all have a happy and SAFE New Year's! Be careful out there!

Bummers

My mac 'n cheese is cooking. (Actually at the moment it's just mac.)

Took the hubby to the ER this morning after dropping Jamie off with friends. Jason has strep throat, pretty bad. Been taking care of him. It's extremely contagious. And we have a two-year-old.

Will almost definitely have to change our flight to Sacramento, which means missing the big family get-together that my mom and I have been excited about for weeks (not to mention paying an extra $130 just to change the tickets--thanks a lot, jetBlue).

May even be leaving Jamie at our friends' house for the night, because Jason is still miserable and may need to go back to the ER.

I'm fighting tears at the thought of not seeing my baby until tomorrow, yet guiltily feeling relief at the thought of not having to worry about taking care of both of them at once. But still feeling a physical ache and wanting my baby in my arms...then thinking that my arms might have germs on them that would get him horribly sick.

Oh, the pathos of parenting.

Mesa Temple Christmas Lights

On our way to the temple!
This was the first time we put this sweatshirt on Jamie (Black Friday, $4), and he LOVED the hood. He got so upset if it came off his head.

Lol. So close to having a decent picture of all three of us...

Pushing an empty stroller, chasing a crazy toddler.

These were out in the middle of the great big lawn.

This was Jamie's favorite place, that he kept coming back to: a set of steps, with hardly any lights!

It's impossible to do the lights justice, but I had to try. Merry Christmas!

Halloween 2010! and a couple other randoms

Three cheers for being able to post pictures again!

Hip, hip,
HURRAH!

Okay, one's enough.

Okay, is it just me, or is this seriously cuteness overload? (We got out Jason's old snowboots to complete the Popeye ensemble.)

Our ward party was out in the parking lot, which I didn't like much; terrible lighting for pictures.
By the way, Jamie's hat was 49 cents at Goodwill and had Thomas the Train on it, which I simply peeled off and replaced with a piece of fabric I'd painted an anchor on.

Our costumes were a hit. Lots of people complimented us, Jason had a great time hamming it up as Popeye, and people were stopping us at church that Sunday saying, "Hey, weren't you Popeye and Olive Oyl?"

I got the sweater new for ten dollars, sewed the collar and cuffs on, made the earrings out of buttons, and used sticky tape to put the ribbon on a skirt I already had. I've taken the collar and cuffs off the sweater now and plan to wear it in Sacramento--since it's too warm here most days.

These are Goodwill pants that I made into bellbottoms, and I sewed the bib collar thing (I forget the real name of it) myself. I also made the corncob pipe out of a cork and a piece of wooden dowel. We couldn't afford the price the army-navy surplus store wanted for a sailor hat, and I'd already done enough work on the costumes; I didn't want to make one. Oh well.

Just for the heck of it...

Jamie's first tricycle, which his Grandma and Papa Noall bought him as an early Christmas present!
He doesn't actually ride it yet, but he loves pushing the buttons that do turn signals and make music and horn noises.

Good grief, my baby is getting so big!

Bragging rights

I have to brag, just a little bit...

I just roasted a turkey (using Giada de Laurentis' recipe from food network--soooo good and moist) all by my little ol' self.

AND I made real mashed potatoes, stuffing with chopped onion and mushrooms, crescent rolls (out of a can, but still), and some AWESOME gravy from the turkey drippings. All by myself, mom!!!

And I've determined that I will not be doing all this again until we move, because I seriously threw a couple of small tantrums due to the tiny-ness of our kitchen, in conjunction with there being nowhere to put anything outside the kitchen, either. It's RIDICULOUS. Those of you who have a decent-sized kitchen and actual counter/cupboard space, please go kiss it and thank it for being a part of your life. As for future Thanksgivings, I will be mooching off my mom's or Cheryl's kitchens just like always, but more able to help out therein.

Anyway.

I made a yummy-tasting turkey dinner!!! I really am quite proud of myself. I'll make my mom's turkey-barley soup with the carcass (lovely word), and endless quesadillas and a few meals with the leftover meat.

Thanks again for the free bird, Cheryl!

thoughts swimming around

I think I'm too obsessed with blogging. When I have a thought, I think too often about how I would blog it.

Some random things going through my head right now, that I just feel like putting out there for the heck of it:

I tried to buy barley at Super Wal-Mart and then Albertson's; neither carried it. Barley. I had no idea it's such an oddity.

I'm overstretching myself on "neighbor" Christmas gifts. I have so many ideas and want to do them all; yet money, time, and common sense get in the way...

Is it silly that I'll click the "Follow" button on blogs to show a friend support, yet I use my list on my sidebar to actually read them? (I hear a lot about Google Reader but I don't know anything about it.)

I love my friends. There is something endearing about reading the more honest blogs, or maybe I should say blunt, where people talk about how hard things can be. I guess it makes me love you guys even more because I see more of what you have to deal with, and how well you do it, and you give me strength and encouragement.

Well, I guess I'd better go make my hot fudge sauce. I have some jars I want to get rid of, so I'm giving away the sauce in them to some people. There are also candy cane reindeer (for the kiddos, particularly my primary class), my mom's unbeatable (try, I dare ya) fudge, and butterscotch cashew bars in the works. (Don't you wish you were my neighbor? ;)) I was going to make a few ornaments to give away, but I'm not sure that's going to happen now.

Oh, and my mother-in-law got a buy-one-get-one-free deal on her Thanksgiving turkey and gave me the free one, so we're doing another turkey dinner Monday. I've never roasted a turkey completely on my own. Between that and the sweets for giving away, my head has been spinning with ingredients...

Maybe it will make me feel a little more grounded to get the sauce done tonight. Adios.

Of course.

Yeah, totally didn't win. You'd have seen a post with a lot of exclamation points by now, right? Bummer. BUT, here are a few happy things:

1. Arizona is apparently just slow to catch up, because guess what? Some of the trees are finally starting to change! We're actually getting some pretty autumn colors...in December, but I'll take late over never!

2. My dear brother texted me asking for my address the other day and said to expect a package Saturday--today! CAMERA CORD!! (Unless it was some sort of sick joke...)

3. We borrowed our friends' carpet-cleaner vacuum thing, Jason cleaned our area rug and I cleaned our carpets upstairs, and it has made THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE!! They're now way cleaner than they even were when we moved in, they look decent instead of nasty, and it seriously has made us so happy.

4. Last night we went to the Mesa temple to see the lights, and it was AMAZING! I took lots of pictures that do it very little justice, but it was worth a try. Jamie had a great time running around and getting in people's way. We'll be going back again to see a performance and the "nativity scenes from around the world" art exhibit.

5. Jason has offered to watch Jamie all day today so that I can get Christmas/normal things done; I realized last night that we have barely a week and a half before we'll be traveling to California again. EEK!

6. IT'S THE CHRISTMAS SEASON!

Well, Jamie is done eating, which means he wants my attention, which means I need to go before he acts up to get it. (Jason is getting cleaned up and then will be taking over.)

Yeah, Jamie just chucked his sippy cup at me. Gotta go.