christmas caroling

Went caroling with the kids tonight. It was freezing cold, but really fun--they had a good time singing to our friends. This is a fun time of year to look in the mailbox. Usually we just get bills, but I look forward to checking the mail for christmas cards and packages from family, etc.
I went to the post office myself today to mail cards and packages to grandparents. I was up until 2:00 a.m. getting things ready. The post office trip was a disaster--Sam and Ginny were extremely crabby and Sam especially was not cooperative at all. We survived, and the packages got mailed, but I was glad to get home.
Had a nice visit with Gladys this morning. What a great lady she is! I'll miss her a lot.
We also had the radon system installed today. I'm glad that's done. I really can't wait to get this move over with...yet I'm sad to leave our home and friends.

Theft

Well, yesterday was just a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Yesterday morning when I was getting ready to go visiting teaching, the kids and I went out to the van, and I noticed that the contents of the glove compartment were spread all over the front seat. I immediately thought that the kids had been playing in the car or something, but then I noticed that the DVD player was gone, too, as well as the adapter for plugging it into the car. The thing that worried me most was some old cards on the front seat--insurance cards, an old debit card, swimming passes, etc. The thing is, I remembered that in that pile of cards was a credit card that we never use so I had stuck it in the glove compartment one day when I was cleaning out my wallet. Anyway, I'm not totally sure that was in there, but it definitely might have been. So, I called the bank to get a copy of our credit report with all of our account numbers, etc. and spent the whole day calling to cancel this and that just in case. I'm so glad I didn't leave my purse in the car. Mostly I just feel violated. I don't like the idea of someone creepy sitting in my car going through all of my things. I couldn't ever really find the account that I was remembering, but I called everything on the credit report--and I'm pretty sure that the credit report shows every account we have. Anyway, it's a bummer to not have the DVD player anymore, but I was far more worried about our accounts/credit being compromised right when we are trying to buy a house.
I hope I took care of it okay.
Later, I was supposed to pick up Emily from a friend's house, and couldn't find my car keys anywhere, and that's when I fell apart. I cried and called my friend Marilyn, which made me feel a lot better. Sometimes you just need to cry to feel better. Anyway, I did eventually find the keys, and Emily's friends' mom brought her home, so everything worked out okay. I guess that was just the last straw. But after the tears, I got everything together and we had dinner and the kids did their homework and practicing, etc. We even did our scriptures and prayers and read some stories, so at least the evening didn't end in disaster.
Trevor called later, and said that his new boss, Jeff, had taken him out to dinner and the movie, King Kong, and had had a really fun time. He was excited about working on the store's website, and really happy to be working for such nice people.
I think he's really thrilled with the new job, which is great news. I'm anxious to just get moved now--two weeks from today we'll be in the new house.

Emily

This morning as the kids were getting ready for school, I looked at Emily--she was wearing a pretty new pink shirt with her black pants and her hair cute from her new haircut---and I was suddenly just amazed with how beautiful and grown-up she is! How does this happen? It seems like just yesterday that she was sitting in my lap like Ginny is right now. Ginny looks so much like her sister did at the same age that I'm having lots of nostalgic moments. Speaking of Ginny...she's like her sister in other ways, too. Absolutely every time we get in the car, no matter how cold it is, she takes her shoes and socks off! It is just making me crazy! Especially because after she pulls her shoes off she starts to cry about having cold toes. What a varmint!
Ginny is a cutie, though, and gives great hugs. Yesterday she and I had fun dancing in the living room.

New week

Well, Trevor is back in St. Louis, and so another week begins. 2 and 1/2 more weeks before the move. With Christmas coming, too, I have decided to begin packing in earnest this week. It's definitely time. We're having the house appraised on Wednesday. Sam is so funny--every day he comes up to me with a very sweet hug and a kiss and says, Merry Christmas Mom! The kids are definitely counting the days. Sam has also taken to dressing up like Santa Claus. It's pretty funny--he puts on his red fuzzy pajamas, his black harry potter robe, a black belt, santa hat, and paper beard. I took a picture, which I'll post later if I have a chance. Emily went back to school today--she's finally feeling better after being sick for 6 days. Poor kid was really miserable for awhile.
I've been finding all kinds of things while i pack--it's kind of fun to look through journals, scrapbooks, and pictures, etc. I read through some things from my mission, and it really brought back a lot of good memories.

Snow and Santa

We've had lots of snow this week--and the kids love it! It's also very, very cold all of a sudden, so the adults are having a hard time adjusting. I finally decided that I would have to quit wearing my slip on shoes with no socks when I found myself freezing in ankle deep snow scraping off the van. Yesterday I tood Sam and Ginny out into the snow to play for a little while. Ginny plopped right down into the snow and played like she was sitting in a sand pile. When Sam lay down to make a snow angel, she followed suit. Sam thought it was hilarious to go sliding down the slide on the swing wet and end up --poof! in a big pile of snow at the bottom. Unfortunately, the snow was too powdery to make a snowman.
Emily has been really, really sick this week--following Sam from last week. Sam finally got an antibiotic on Monday and has been doing a lot better since then. Of course, they wouldn't believe me that Emily had the same thing as her brother until her fever and terrible cough persisted for 4 days, so this morning I was finally able to get her some medicine. But, since she is a pretty big kid now, the doctor said it was really better for her to have the medicine in pill form. Well, we got home and had 20 minutes of tears and drama before she got her pills swallowed, but then she threw them back up again. I'm waiting to see what the doctor says we should do. What a disaster--we were both crying.
We took the kids to see Santa this morning at the scout Santa breakfast at church. Max asked for a multi-function pocket knife, Sam asked for a costume, and Ginny of course, didn't ask for anything, but she did sit on Santa's lap for a picture with her brothers. It was a very nice Santa experience--no crazy lines like at the mall--free breakfast, and lots of time to sit on Santa's lap and talk to him. This is a nice service/fundraiser that the scouts provide.
Trevor is home for the weekend--yippee! Only 3 more weeks until we move and we don't have to do this anymore. I'm doing okay so far--but praying daily for extra doses of patience.
Guess that's it for now!