Week 51: Gingerbread and a Twelve Year Old

This Week...

...we made a gingerbread house. Our friends, the Votaws, brought us a gingerbread house kit. After we came home from a showing, the kids worked on it all by themselves. I'm surprised there was any candy left for the house. ;)

...Emma turned 12! We are so excited for this birthday because she gets to go into Young Womens. She has been so ready for this next step. I hope she has all the fun that Beehives and Young Womens can offer. Greg and Shelly Olson came over to have dinner with us. Shelly brought her delicious cabbage salsa. Yum! That was at the top of Emma's birthday wish list.

Emma tried out a new recipe for High Tea Lemon cookies. They were so good, and I love that she is so adept in the kitchen.

After dinner, we went out to drive the Luminaria route. Every year it seems we miss this event. It was so much fun to see it this time. First time that driving at night without your lights on is acceptable.

...Emma had her choir play and concert, . She got to play Santa! She was excited that she could participate, but that she didn't have a speaking role.

Emma with her sweet group of girls. These girls have gotten along so well and been such a support to each other since third grade. Hannah Muhlbier, Emma, Joy, Zoey Orton

...we made Garfield cookies. Oh, you know those cookie dough fundraisers...You get a whole tub of dough and then it sits in the freezer for a long time. Well, not this time. We got these Garfield cookies and we made them right away. They were delicious! It's like a monster cookie. Not as good as homemade, but pretty good for coukies out of a tub.

           

...the front of the house takes shape. They worked on the board and baton and we got some official driveway signs. I cannot say enough good things about Brett Lott and how he does business and builds a home. I can't wait to move again so we can build with him again! They also put the stone on the front of the garage.

...we sold our house! Funny story, once our house went on the market, we had four showings in four days and two full price offers. We were baking cookies to leave out and grabbing the laundry bins on the run. We would drive around and then park across the park to watch. The two parties with offers went back and forth a little until we accepted the one that fit our needs the best. Laying the laminate in the office at our new house may have taken longer because we were taking calls from Leslie about the offers. Aaaggghhhh! Thank heavens for Leslie to help us through. It was such a relief to see the house get the attention we were hoping for. And it was such a relief to have it sell!

...Max installed the interior doors. One of the marks of a good carpenter is how they hang doors. They take their time when hanging a door. They open and close the door to listen and watch how it moves on the hinges. They observe how it hangs and make adjustments as needed. I just had to capture Max at work.

...Stewart is still at it! He sure loves chocolate. The morning after Stewart chose to sit by the gingerbread house he didn't move. So he sat two days in the same place. Paul was really devastated. He told me that the first day he accidentally bumped Stewart causing him to fall over. Then he touched Stewart as he was trying to sit him back up. Paul thought that Stewart hadn't moved because of him. (Which wasn't the case at all.) I reassured Paul that Stewart just needed a day to recharge and that he would move that second night. And he did!

...we dropped off a gift at the mall. Danica was with us for the day and so she came along for the fun. We dropped off a family night pack (Restaurant gift card and movie tickets) to our new friend Jamie. She works at Dairy Queen in the mall and we were oping to catch her there at work. Unfortunately it was her day off, so we just left it there for her.
     A while back, there was a really bad dust storm that decreased visibility to nothing and caused a terrible amount of collisions. There were cars off the road everywhere and people wandering through the dust filled wind to find their way. Jamie was involved. She ran into the back of a Walmart truck. Her two sons were with her in the car; the 18 month old was thrown from the car. The medics rushed him to the hospital, but he was in critical condition and not likely to make it. She had no one there to offer support. Jason was headed to work and heard this come out over the radio. He called the supervisor going off duty and asked him to get through traffic to pick up the fiance. Jason then headed to the hospital so that he could check on Jamie, knowing that this would be a devastating thing to face alone. When Jason got to the hospital, they were performing CPR on the little baby and no one was comforting Jamie; no one knew how. Jason went right to her and put his arm around her. She sobbed into his shoulder. Her baby had died. 
     This event stayed with Jason for several weeks. He thought about Jamie and her little family. He thought about the loss of this sweet little baby boy. It made him reflect on the plan of salvation and realize once again the beauty of the Plan, that we will see our loved ones again after death. One night when Jason went in to work, there was a card from Jamie on his desk. He was thrilled to have word of how they were doing. Jamie included a picture of her little boy that they had taken earlier the day he died, at the pumpkin patch. He had the brightest smile on his face. Jamie thanked Jason for his help and concern, expressing how much it had meant to her. We wanted to give her a night out on us.

Week #50: High Five Pens And The Polar Express

This Week...

...lots of progress at the new house. The kitchen and bathroom cupboards went in. The bathroom and laundry room tile was laid. The walls and ceilings are all painted. We picked up the laminate flooring from Craftsmans. Now our job of laying the floor begins.

We started the laminate flooring project at our new house on the weekend. Our friend, Stephen Schab, came to help us. We were so grateful he took the time because we were able to get part of the entryway, the kitchen, mudroom, and pantry all knocked out. It looks so great! Jason was a little nervous about the white coloring in the planks. It's randomly placed and we weren't sure that it would work or be too much. I pushed him into agreeing and I love it! This risk paid off.

...they poured concrete at our new house. Court Concrete got it all smoothed out and framed up. (They even worked in the rain!) It's amazing how much prep work it takes. They came back early the next morning to start pouring. I stopped by with the kids before school. It's so fun to watch the cement come down the trough and how the guys get it spread out.

...Jason had an eventful shift...Some tow truck driver was in the holiday spirit.

...Benjamin received a McGee Cares award at school for Attitude. He had a rough start to the school year, but has worked hard to get adjusted and be brave. (That's Naya's hand in the photo. Hehe!)

Benjamin also made a poster about the history of Pasco for Cub Scouts. He could point to each picture and talk about the early days of the city and different places of interest.  

...we went to our ward party. This year's theme was The Polar Express. The Primary was in charge, and the president wanted to go all out for the kids. We had a genuine conductor, ticket booth, polar Express train model and village. 

The program was wonderful too. We read a condensed version of the Polar Express book, with a break for Hot Chocolate, and then went through five symbols of Christmas. At the end, Santa came in for the kids. Our friend John was Santa's helper and wore the suit that night. He was such a great Santa-so good with the kids and funny for the parents. Everyone said how they enjoyed him.

Charith and I were talking once the party was over. She had some crepes in her hand that she was taking home. She randomly said that she felt like putting one in my face. Long story short, I agreed.

...I helped out at the book fair at the school. We got quite a few volunteers that don't normally make it out, but there were still shifts that needed to be covered. As a result, me and my PTO board spent a lot of time manning the book fair. We ran the book fair during parent teacher conferences which was nice for parents to come in and buy books, but there was also a lot of time when no one was there but us. Needless to say, I got a little silly. And they got silly with me. It's that kind of silly that happens when you've stayed up too late and everything is funny. I was cursing all of the erasers, and pens, and baubles by the registers until I started to play with them. I grabbed the high five pen and started giving people high fives. I would wave at people and try to give them a "helping hand." Naya grabbed the pointers and started making jokes about how we want volunteers. We all bought fun pens to use at the next PTO meeting. And yes, the book fair was a success. ;)

...Stewart the Elf continued his rounds. This time he hid in the cupboard hoping to scare someone. Well, he did. Me! He startled me good as I went to get a glass for water.

Stewart got into the advent and ate the hershey kiss for the day. That sneaky Stewart.

He got a little daring this time. We couldn't believe it when we saw him hanging from the clock, dangling so far above the floor. It was as close to Emma's repelling suggestion as he could get.

...Teresa came to take photos of our house so we can post them online. She was so great! We're talkers so we didn't have any trouble getting to know her. It turned out that she was a talker too. We were so interested in what she was doing that she let us tag along. It was fascinating to watch her and listen to what makes a great picture. She shared some tidbits and I ate them up.

And then this happened! What?! Our house is officially up for sale.

...Lainey fell asleep with Grandpa Zirker. Sometimes, you just play too hard at Grandma and Grandpa's.