Busy Time of Year

It seems there are a thousand details to take care of in December, and then you add in Christmas! My fingers are going numb at the thought of typing out all of the things we've fit into the days and weeks, so far this month, but it is a bit mind-boggling. For one thing, we ordered Etsy gifts for Buck's 125 plus employees. Just a little token of his thanks. But they were in a bit of disarray upon delivery from overseas (here I thought Etsy was all American craftsmanship!) I spent two days re-super gluing, cutting strings, tying boxes, and printing tags. Buck helped me with the final couple of hours. I might as well have chopped down the trees myself and bought an etcher! Hopefully, they are liked (despite their very real fire hazard) and recognized as a genuine "thanks" (on a budget :)

Youth group season wrapped up without me. Noah and Caelan are volunteer leaders, and the boys are still in full swing, but I stepped back, and then unintentionally out, of helping this semester. But they had a good end of the year! Graysen got all festive for their trip to a retirement community for Christmas caroling. They all enjoyed a pajama party with White Elephant gift exchange. They filled a horse tank with warm clothing for the local homeless population. They made Christmas cards for an elder care center. They studied the entire book of Romans, too!

Caelan, to fill her non-school hours, decided to try a crochet project. She found a cute little sea turtle pattern online and bought herself three rolls of chunky yarn. And then three more . . . and then six more . . . and then I bought some . . . and then Noah bought some . . . and then she ran out again . . . :) The original sea turtle is about a foot big; Caelan's sea turtle is the size of a pool float! It will be fun to see it finished--after she gets more yarn ;)

One of the biggest (almost) accomplished tasks for me, was getting the boys set up with the public school. I cannot tell you the hours of paperwork and emails and phone calls it took. Thankfully, Caelan was able to help Brennen through the process of setting up his new laptop (Merry Christmas from us and at least one grandparent :) and getting him logged on at the college to see his spring classes. This is definitely a benefit of the public school--free college! And having Caelan very knowledgeable about the college side of things is another huge benefit.

I think I had a million other little things to post . . . oh, Buck and I went to a Brazilian bbq restaurant with our NGFs. I wasn't sure what to expect . . . I thought maybe a giant sculpture of meat centerpiece that you just chopped pieces off of throughout the evening. That's for sure not how it works :) You have a little board game piece that is red on one side and green on the other. Green means go! As the waitstaff walk by, they offer you whatever is on their giant skewer--beef, chicken, pork, lamb, etc. If you say yes, you take a piece with your tiny silver tongs. If all the skewers look good, you get a pile of meat on your plate that you frantically try to chew through before the next round of goodness appears. Somehow, I lost my stop/go button in the middle of the meal (we later saw it had been swiped onto the floor by one of the skewer trays--it was stuck in the GO position, lol. So much meat! But, it was fun :) And I didn't overeat. I was a for sure yes to ice cream downtown after the meal. A good night out with friends!

Oh, we got sick. I'm actually typing from a solid week of being in the house without leaving (well, tomorrow evening will be the first week anniversary of meat night, which is the last time I went out). Not from the meat. Wow, this is all over the place! Brennen got a flu bug from choir. He had a 103.6 fever for a few days. Then I started feeling the aches, but never got the fever. Graysen got it all, but only for about 48 hours. Caelan's fever was lower but stuck around. It was/is a respiratory flu, so lots of tiredness and coughing. She missed her wisdom tooth surgery, but we managed to reschedule it for still this year. Noah was getting cabin fever hanging out with us. He took trips to the coffee shop, grocery store, and church to get away from the house. Oh, shoot! I was going to open it all up and air it out while everyone was gone. It's probably, too late now. Drat. 

Spax's "stuff" has been on the move. It went into Caelan's room the first night Noah was in the guestroom, but Caelan woke up with swollen eyes (possibly from the cat litter or from the cat jumping on her head at 3 a.m.?) so she slept on the couch for night two; however the kitty kept everyone up trying to open her door and meowing constantly all night long. The third night we moved his stuff next to the basement door. He ended up attacking Brennen in his sleep that night. Let's see, then he got his gear relocated to the laundry room. We all slept with our doors closed, except Buck didn't shut our door tight when he left early for work, so I got my head pounced on at 4 a.m. The cat's gotten most of us successfully :)

There's lots of little things, but I'm really just procrastinating the next blog post I need to write. Ugh :(

Gabby's First Place

Since she graduated high school, Gabby has had the idea of getting her own place on her mind. She was stuck, though, on the whole car situation. When my mom provided wheels, Gabby suddenly had the missing piece of her puzzle. We looked at an apartment complex on the west end where her coworker resides. It was okay, but not fantastic. A little online research led us to something much nicer, brighter, fresher, and in a better neighborhood. Gabby signed the papers (online, everything is online!) a few days later.

In boxing up starter items for her to take, well, I ended up cleaning out my entire kitchen! I discovered bits and pieces of measuring cup and spoon sets spanning more than 25 years, clear back to the set for my dorm! (I used to make pancakes on the electric skillet in our bathroom; oh, the college years). I also pulled out the golden silverware my mom gave us for our wedding. We've not used it, but Gabby said she would. I wasn't sure why my parents got us gold-wear when we registered for silver-ware until I realized the name of the pattern is my first name (just spelled in the usual way). Mystery solved!

It's like a visual inventory of things in the house to send with the next mover-outter :) Chase provided lots of giant boxes for Gabby to pack her things in; she didn't think she had very much, but it ended up being multiple truckloads! She was also gifted some furniture by our former worship director's mother-in-law, so Caelan, Noah, Buck, and I took care of that pick-up and delivery.

Because we've always had bunkbeds, Gabby had a mattress and mattress topper to take with her, but no frame. We were able to order one express, and Christmas came early! :) Graysen spent a good while getting it all assembled for his sister, while Brennen and Chase were getting the truck filled and unloaded. 

We took some time to pray together over Gabby's new apartment. It's a big step, but she's really excited about taking it!

We haven't been back since she was still in boxes (she's been in CA all week), but she sent me a few photos of the arranging she did in the two days before she left. Next will be to move in Mr. Kitty-Cat, but I don't think Buck is willing to let him go until after Christmas :)

Big, sunny windows; room for sleepovers with her girl friends. Pretty nice for her first place!

Winter Graduation

Bright and early Saturday morning, Caelan and I dashed to the arena to get her lined up for college graduation! We met Noah in the hall and proceeded to take lots of photos. According to the graduation brochure, there would be no opportunities to do so afterwards (but that wasn't the case :) 

Blogger chose its own order for my photos, so here is Caelan in her PTK honors stole and cords. She completed her Associate of Communication degree! She also graduated as a senior--or nearly--she just needs to take one more CLEP test. Then she plans to finish her bachelor's degree online, before she and Noah arrive at Cedarville. In fact, she's looking into some future job opportunities on campus there. Pretty cool!

Noah's brother-in-law and our boys :)

Gabby and Noah's sisters dressed in the same color palette, but in different arrangements. Black jeans win the day, though :)

Sibling pics afterwards! Since the diploma holders are empty, I figure I can alter their appearance, too :) Only Noah's older brother and his fiancé (who attend college in the south) were unable to make the festivities. Noah graduated with his Associate of General Studies (which is the only "major" student athletes are allowed to declare at this school).

Caelan and our boys hustled over to Noah's dorm to help his family help him move out before noon! That is a crazy deadline following graduation ceremonies, even if they were only 45 minutes long. Meanwhile, Buck and Gabby drove to her new apartment to pick up her keys. Then Gabby took our vacuum to Noah and picked up her siblings to meet us at the restaurant. You would think after all of that we could sit down to a nice, relaxing celebratory meal.

You would think.

As we arrived, a waiter was sticking a sign on the door that said they had closed the restaurant due to short staff. We said, "But we have a party of 15 arriving in five minutes, and we made this reservation weeks ago." He told us we could sit on the bar side of the business and still have the same food. So, we asked for the TVs to be turned off and squished into a tiny ante room that was somewhat private. It had a pretty chandelier and some Christmas decorations, so that wasn't too bad :)

Soon, we realized how short-staffed they were . . . no cooks. The bartender was back trying to make our food. They were turning away people at the door. After about an hour they came out to say they were out of ice cream (no milkshakes), clam-chowder (K's order), and bread bowls (for C's chili). They did manage to bring out pizzas (yes, we mostly ordered pizzas) and appetizers at an about every-20-minute pace. We had plenty of time to talk and get to know everyone better. Caelan and Noah opened a handful of gifts. 

We released the boys and Gabby (who got their pizza fully eaten before any other food appeared) to go load up for her apartment move (we had a very small window of time available, because Brennen worked at 4 and Graysen had a birthday party 45 minutes away at 6:30). 

Rolling into hour two, they announced they were out of large pizza crusts. C and K collected their very patient five-year-old and left without getting any food. As the second hour passed, the last pizza came out, but it was tiny, because--no dough. The three staff who did show up for work that day worked their tails off, but if we would have known our celebration would have proceeded as thus, we likely would have picked a different dining location. Ay yi yi.

However, the important things happened--graduation, check: two moves, check: lots of family time, check! Maybe next time we can space major events out just a smidge more, though :)

Winter Concert

Our choir contribution is shrinking! Crazy to only have the boys on the risers this winter season. They had seven songs to memorize, no solos or special ensembles this round, they had more than enough to process! The church was absolutely packed . . . a dozen or more people crammed in each pew, many with a second layer of children on their laps. The choir kids were experiencing a whole array of illnesses, which hit Brennen good and hard a couple days later. Actually, looking at these pictures, he's got the "about to get ill" look all over him. But, wowza, what a busy week that was! I didn't have time to notice. They still sounded great, but both boys were ready for a break :)

Brennen's friend R sat with us in our squishy row. Gabby was able to get the evening off from work, and Noah was still in town for graduation the next morning. I didn't take many pictures, and the ones that I did are a bit blurry; I think the camera was as hot as the rest of us and melting a little :) If the photo is quality, it's because my NGF took it!

Only one more season of choir to go! I think when their buddies graduate this spring, it will become less fun for the boys to attend. It is interesting how many senior accolades they will miss out on, heading to public school for activities. Ah, no time to think about it now. I've got blogging to do! Fum, fum, fum . . .

Birthday Weekend

I set up all these blog posts by *photos only* to get a jump start on posting them, but now it won't let me type at the top :) The first inkling my birthday was near was a box from my sister. Our traditional homemade birthday gifts brought me an official flag football stat hat, complete with Band-Aids! A fine feature. My nephew pretended to try my birthday hat on before it went in the mail. We don't share hats, even with family, so that's why he is just pretending :) Another fun mailbox find!

Okay, now getting ahead of things . . . Buck and the girls surprised me with tickets to see The Nutcracker ballet! I surprised them by having already come up with a plan to do such a girls' night out with my sister-in-law, but we never pursued the tickets (I didn't even know the dates). K was surprised that no one told any of them about her original plan, which then became Buck's plan, which worked out to be a great plan, so everyone was surprised in some way :)
 

After the show, we walked--it was really nice out!--several blocks to a Mexican restaurant in a charming little enclosed alley downtown. We had to wait for Mr. and Mrs. Claus to finish making their dinner reservation ahead of us (pretty wow suits, no less!) We sat out on the veranda of sorts, to enjoy the novelty of eating "outside" in the winter. Random people would walk up and interrupt K's dinner to ask her questions and visit. She said, "Welcome to my life." She also got sprinkled with a full glass of ice water before dinner; it might have been more of an adventure than she expected :) It was really nice to sit and eat and talk with my grown girls and my sister-in-law in a pretty place with good food. A new era of birthday celebrations!

The above is not my picture, but a pretty glimpse of our dining location. It's so nice to see green in the winter, and I love Christmas lights! The downtown area also had a full display going. It was pretty fun to walk back to the parking garage, enjoying the glow. We laughed as the poor horses drawing the sparkling carriages looked embarrassed about their own glowing red noses, fake antlers, and excessive body glitter--"Please, don't take my picture . . ." Ha :)

Getting back to our cars was like an unexpected reverse escape room! Apparently, the parking garage closes at 5 . . . but our passes lasted until 6. The whole place was on lockdown--you couldn't enter anywhere! We knocked on the glass at the theater, and the janitorial staff said that the skybridge access to their theater was closed, too. But, one gal said if we pushed a button on the side door of the main garage, a guy would let us in. So, we tried that. A voice said, "Go to the other side of the building and I'll open the door." We walked down, saw no one, and waited. Eventually, the door did roll open, revealing a near-empty garage. We kind of carefully walked in and looked around, picture nervous laughter, then made it successfully to our cars. Gabby was driving and chose the most likely exit--it didn't open. There was a call box near Caelan, but her door had the child safety locks on it. I was in the process of detangling from my seatbelt, when K's car pulled up in the neighboring escape hatch. Her door opened! Gabby started backing up to catch it before it closed, when our escape hatch opened, too! It was weird. But we were able to follow Aunt K back to town and now have quite an adventure to remember!

In the meantime, Buck and the boys were up north at my family's property, trying to catch some deer. Although they suffered through cold, and relaxed in warm, the deer did not appear. They had a good time, though, watching football in the blind :)

Apartment Hunting We Will Go

I just found this post I started . . . sometime. A glimpse at the first apartment place Gabby toured with the owl picture of my childhood home posted outside the door :)

When it has been three weeks . . .

 . . . the easiest place to catch up is with a cat post. I learned this week that a cat's purrs register at a therapeutic level for humans. So, like if you had a broken bone or an internal illness, a doctor could send healing sound waves/vibrations into the injured place to promote repair . . . or you can get a cat. It's science. Perhaps? :) I think when the cat is not busy giving us adrenaline rushes (by sprinting out the door at the speed of light, clearly breaking the sound barrier because even with a bell we can't hear him coming, or by hanging by two paws from a second-story drop from the staircase, or by walking daintily behind a flaming stove where dinner is cooking after completing an incomprehensible leap from the kitchen stool--which now is stored upside-down) he can be therapeutic. Buck would say so :)

He's gotten quite leggy and quite roundy in the middle, and he has an amazing sense of when I sit down to finally work on something--that is when he MUST take a nap, pinning my arms in a useless fashion. As he is right now.

He can sleep almost anywhere and in any way--forget sleep like a baby, aim for sleep like a kitten with a full tummy! He gained an entire pound in just over two weeks when Gabby took him in for his vet follow-up . . . from three to four is quite an accomplishment, percentage wise :) I'm trying to only type with keys I can reach without moving my left arm. Oh, Spax!