The day after Halloween--November 1st. I had just been thinking about how, with Luke here, I have five kids in five schools. And I ended up going to ALL FIVE that day, unexpectedly. First was to CSHS to deliver Cooper his lunch, which he forgot when he got out of the car to go to seminary. *sigh* Around 10am I got a call from A&M Consolidated HS. It took me a minute to register in my head why THEY would be calling. I had been getting lots of phone requests from teachers around the district to substitute, so that was my first thought. But then I heard "nurse" and waited for more information. Turns out Luke wasn't feeling well. Oh no. He didn't have a fever but was feeling achy and it had started pretty quick. It was in his legs and then his back. And he had no strength. I went and picked him up and took him home. Jared said it sounded a lot like the flu. I thought Luke had received his flu shot before coming, because when we went, he said he was good. But when I reached out to Hanna, the liaison, she said he wouldn't have had it yet because he left in August and they aren't available then. Ahhhh. It would cost him about $250-300 to go to the urgent care to get a flu test, so after talking to Hanna and having Luke call his parents, we decided to treat it as if it were the flu and start him on a course of Tamiflu--that we happened to have for "just in case" on our cruise in January. I left him to rest and went to the OTHER three schools to pick up the kids for their dental appointments. I teased Luke that he wasn't feeling good because he ate too much candy. :)
If I could survive November...I'd be in good shape. And I had take it one week at a time. The first MAJOR event was on Sat. the 3rd. The Stake YW was in charge of a stake youth service project. We decided to volunteer at the newly renovated food bank. We'd been making these plans since July and just when we thought things were going well, we'd get hit with an obstacle. One after another--all the way up to less than two weeks before. But all those headaches aside, the Lord blessed us to execute a youth service project that was at least different, if not also impactful. I was SO glad when it was over though! And the feedback we heard was positive.
On Sunday, November 4th, Luke was feeling back to normal and we fasted as a family that Cooper would do well at his first job interview at Grand Station Entertainment (home of the bowling alley, laser tag, bumper cars and arcade) the next day. As a young 16 year old, in a town full of college students, Cooper got the job! We were so happy for him! This boy needs to work. They told him the job was his before he even left the building.
Tuesday the 6th was a "fun" night. Jared had to drive Cooper to Grand Station because he had a job orientation for about an hour at 6:30pm. So I drove Calvin and Luke to the baseball field for Calvin's baseball game at 6:45, dropped them off, then headed to my stake implementation meeting regarding the new changes happening in church (2 hour church block, alternating classes each week, a new curriculum for individuals and families). Jared was going to head to the game after Cooper was done, but Cooper took more like two hours in his orientation instead of the one that they said it would be. Jared was sad to miss the game plus we told Luke he wouldn't be alone. Jared was still stuck at Grand Station by the time I finished at 8:30, so I left from the church to go get Calvin and Luke from the game. Jared and Cooper pulled into the driveway right before we did. It was just one of those nights. Thankfully, Karcyn was holding down the fort with JJ at home. Calvin announced that he got a hit AND got on base and his coaches put him in as a relief pitcher at the end of the game. And we missed it all. :(
Fall Baseball was coming to an end for Calvin. Playing baseball was his idea and he seemed to enjoy it. November 8th, his second to last game, was a cold, damp night. In fact, this entire fall was full of rain and cold. I think Calvin had maybe two practices and a just handful of games because of either too much rain or super cold temps. One night it was going to be in the 20s. Just a couple hours before the starting time, the officials still hadn't cancelled the game, but I told Jared we were boycotting. Having our kids play in those temperatures was not right. Having their parents sit in those cold temps was not right either. For the record, they did eventually cancel, so Calvin didn't have to be a no-show. On the 8th, it was still pretty cold and wet. But not raining...just misting. Like it was snowing rain, if that makes sense. Very Oregon-ish. Jared was a doll and went to the store and bought us two really nice stadium seats. Holy schnikey. I wish we had invested in them sooner. My back cannot take sitting on those metal bleachers very well for very long. The cold weather just makes it worse. Those seats were amazing and worth every penny. He also brought us blankets. So we wrapped up in those and sat our buns on a cloud of awesomeness and leaned back to watch the game. We were in the lead, up by four. In the last inning, I was trying to find Calvin. That's when I realized, with a gasp, that he was put in as a relief pitcher!! He had only done that once before, two days ago! All of a sudden, I was on the edge of my comfy seat worried for my little guy!
This is Luke sweeping. I took the picture to show his mom. He didn't want me to show his mom because he was afraid it might give her ideas. Haha!! We even found that "blitzing" on Friday night is even better, whenever possible, because that frees up all of Saturday.
On Saturday, Nov. 3rd, Cooper got on a school bus at 6am with some other choir students and traveled to another city to audition for the All-Region choir, so he missed the stake youth service project and Luke still wasn't feeling 100% that day. Cooper said that every voice (soprano, alto and bass) except tenor, had two parts--one and two (ones are high, twos are low). And there were 15 choir members for each of those parts or 30 per voice. So 15 soprano ones, 15 soprano twos, etc. But they didn't divide up the tenors. There were only 20 slots. When they announced the names of those who made the tenor section (which they called LAST), starting at the lowest chair and working their way up to the top chair, Cooper was getting nervous. He wasn't in the bottom ten. As they crept up higher and got to the fifth chair, his face and hopes were falling. There were over 100 other tenors who auditioned. Cooper was shocked when he was selected as FOURTH chair out of the entire region!!! Woo!!
On Saturday, November 10th, the real work began. Jared and I were headed to the temple that morning, so we dropped Cooper off a little before 6am to catch his bus to Waco for the day long rehearsal and practice and then we headed to Houston. We left the temple after grabbing a quick bite to eat and about 20 minutes into our drive home, we came to a dead halt. We ran straight into Renaissance Festival traffic. Oh my heck. There was only one way home and we were stuck. Jared tried to get us around the mess, but that only made things worse, which he deeply regretted. Turns out, we didn't get home until almost 2pm. We had to leave College Station to go to Waco no later than 2:30!! We hurried and changed our clothes, gathered the kids, piled in the burb, swung by to get Karole and drove to Waco (about an hour and 45 minutes away). In the car, on our way home from the temple a few hours before, Jared and I were trying to figure out where to eat dinner that would accommodate Karcyn. We saw there was a Chipotle in the vicinity and after looking up the menu I determined that would be place that could work. So I stuck in the address of the nearest Chipotle in Waco to see how far it was from the auditorium that Cooper was going to be singing at. They weren't too far and even though the Chipotle was back tracking a bit, it was worth it. So that's what we'd be doing for dinner.
On the way to the music center (which was part of a high school campus), Jared asked me to put the address into my GPS. I had already looked it up earlier, so I just selected that address and helped guide Jared to the spot. Except...when the GPS said we had arrived, there was no school or auditorium to be found. But..."Oh hey, Jared, look there's the Chipotle!" Cool now we know where it's at. Jared was quiet for a second and then asked..."Did you plug in the address for Chipotle or the school?" (hee hee...nervous laughter). Now that he mentioned it, I DID select the Chipotle address, not the school one. Whoops!!! So we scrambled to "recalculate" our whereabouts and got to the school as soon as we possibly could! It was after 4:30 and the concert was at 5pm. I really blew it now and felt truly bad about it. Jared had faced enough travel issues that day. We were late and needed seven seats! Fortunately, we were blessed despite my goof. (I cannot be trusted with any kinds of directions!) There were plenty of seats when we arrived around 4:40ish. It was a wonderful concert and we're super proud of Cooper and his accomplishments!!
Karcyn's plant cell project for science. She did a great job!
Luke and Calvin playing "Perfect" as a duet.
When I speak in the Brazos ward, I submit my talk about 5 days in advance so that the person translating it can read it and be familiar with it. And you have to talk slooower to allow them time to translate. He speaks in a device that transmits to headphones for those who want to wear them. But for those who don't, it helps to speak sloooower so that those members who know some English can try and listen and understand what you're saying. It takes every ounce of control in my body to physically slow my speech down to the pace that they need. It is not easy and I hoped it wasn't so slow it was patronizing. I worried about that too. But one of the gals I know who speaks Spanish as a second language said it was awesome how I delivered my talk because it really helped the other members. So I was happy to hear that. As I walked out the chapel doors to get a drink, who should walk in towards me but President Sharp himself. He was going to attend the Bryan 1st ward Sacrament meeting. Lovely! I would be one of the speakers he'd hear that day. That is the second time I've spoken in the B1 ward and the second time President Sharp has been there, too. I was already having doubts about my talk, having the Stake President there wasn't doing me any favors. Good grief. After my talk, Scott leaned over and whispered it was perfect. Which I appreciated. Afterwards, President Sharp came up to me and shook my hand and said it was one of the best talks he's heard. Which is sweet...because he's very gracious and complimentary and I think he loves all the talks he hears. :)
So yeah...here comes the crazy weather again.
Dear
Wes and Bev,
As
promised--here is the silly story of the jam.
There
is a new southern café (Stella) that just opened up here in town. I've been
twice already. So yummy and I noticed they serve and make their own jam.
Knowing I was heading your way the middle of November and that you guys enjoy
homemade bread and jam often, I wanted to gift you with some unique jam that's
made right here in College Station with a bit of a southern flair. J
Since
it was just me flying to Oregon and for a few days, I was determined not to pay
$50 in checked bag fees and was super impressed that I got all my stuff (hair
dryer, curling iron, flat iron, 2 pairs of shoes, clothes for 3 days, church
outfit, coat, etc. and a jar of packaged jam) all in my small blue carry-on.
As
I patted myself on the back for this unexpected packing feat, it dawned on me
that the jar of jam might not make it through the security process. (I had been
warned.) But I rationalized that it's just food--special southern food--and NOT
a true liquid (despite its state of
matter being more on the liquefied end of the spectrum such that I would
consider it "runny jelly" more than solid jam.)
Even
still, I told Jared on our way to the airport at 4AM that I needed him to wait
out front after dropping me off (it's like waiting outside of someone's
house…security is 10 feet from the door) just.in.case the jam doesn't make it. There
was no way I was going to surrender it to security. It was far too expensive
and yummy to be tossed.
I
got everything on to the security table and set my two bags and screening bin
on the conveyer belt and held my breath, trying to look as innocent as possible. My blue carry-on had just disappeared into
the dark side of the x-ray compartment and then the belt stopped moving. My bag
got STUCK! How does that even happen?? The workers behind the x-ray monitors
had to pause the whole process and tried reversing the belt in order to
dislodge the bag. Oh, if only! Still stuck. So now there's a growing line of
tired passengers waiting to go through security behind me and they're stuck,
too. No one can go anywhere because my jam, that was in my carry-on,
"jammed" the security machine! Honestly though, what was the hold up?
I could feel the heat of embarrassment rising to my face knowing that was MY carry-on.
But I quietly stood there, looking around, as if I had no idea whose blasted bag that was and tried not
to bring any attention to myself.
By
now it was all hands on deck. Several security workers had to leave their posts
to lend their assistance with this obstinate piece of luggage so we could all
get on with our lives. One lady official even brought over a very long pole
that she used to try to loosen the carry-on from whatever it was hung up on.
All the while, Jared's texting me, wondering about the status of the jam. I
told him we were having technical difficulties.
They
finally got the bag free, but then BOTH my bags were set aside for further
investigation. Drat. The security guard said they needed to check the candle in
my blue carry-on (I had two candles in my black shoulder bag actually). He was
referring to the jam. That's when I piped up in full transparency, with
confidence and said, "Oh, that's not a candle, that's jam." After
going to great lengths to unearth the jam from the bottom of my stuff, the
guard found that it was wrapped up all ready for Christmas--just the way you
found it--and set it on the table.
First,
using gloved hands, the guard unwrapped the candles and got out some
investigative solution to dampen squares of cotton and wiped the surface and
all around the lid. After he deemed them both safe, he gave them back to me and
referring to the Christmas jam said, "Anything with water in it as a main
ingredient over 3.4 ounces can't go beyond this point." Turns out the jam
is 8 oz. He said I could give it to a friend, I could check my bag or I could
surrender it there with him. I perked up and asked hopefully, "You'll
check the bag for me?" Nope--I had to do it myself. So I told the guy my
husband was waiting for me outside and I'd give the jam to him. As if I were a potentially
dangerous threat to nearby passengers, the guard escorted me all the way to the point of no return, where the
secured area stops/begins. Thankfully, Jared had not left (even though I had
robbed him of about 30 minutes of sleep before kids had to get up) and gave him
the jam to take home for me. After saying good-bye to Jared again, I got back
in line to go back through security. The gal checking IDs looked at me with
surprise and asked, "You again??" "Yup--I had jam. Don't pack
jam."
I
am happy to report that the blue carry-on learned its lesson from the previous
trip through security and did not get stuck again. But I did hear one of the security
employees behind the monitors ask, "Uh, have we seen this bag already? Are
those candles?" That would be a yes and a yes. And the candles got pulled
aside and swabbed down again, too.
Interestingly
and ironically enough, my carry-on (and all the other bags on that first flight)
HAD to be gate checked because the rinky-dink puddle jumper plane is so small.
You know--when the aisle and window seats are one in the same. J
And
then, when I was at the Dallas airport, browsing through some souvenir shops, I
discovered shelves and shelves of salsas and hot sauces. Not to be defiant, but
how can those items be allowed on the plane, but not my jam? Do they go through
a special security check before being unpacked at the airport because they were
all over 3.4 oz?
Furthermore,
the flight to Dallas was "very full" so the agents asked for
passengers who would be willing to voluntarily check their carry-on bags. Being
the gracious traveler that I am, I happily parted ways with my rolling
carry-on. And that bag went from Dallas all the way to Portland in the belly of
a bird. What kills me, just a little bit, is that my bag ended up being checked
for all three flights, with no jam inside. *sigh* I guess I can't be too upset
with the airports wanting to keep our airspace and flights safe.
Ah
well. It is what it is. I knew mailing you the jam, while only mildly
inconvenient and not nearly as fun (for me, of course), would still cost less
than checking my bag. So it's all good. And I hope, when you spread this jam on
your food, that you will remember, with a chuckle, the little jam it "caused"
Jenn at the College Station Easterwood Airport. J Merry
Christmas!! ♥
This was the beautiful sunrise when I got to Dallas.
Friday morning, Bev loaned me their car and I headed to Dr. Hicken's office. I promised Dawn (one of the MAs) I'd swing by. It was 7:45am so it wasn't really busy, thankfully. It was so good to see her and to surprise Shirley. Jared and I miss them a lot. I was also able to visit with Dr. Hicken for a few minutes, but that makes me uncomfortable...like I'm intruding. I felt bad enough that I was in the "back" patient area. Even though I used to be the manager (and a patient) of that office. :)
I swung by our old house and took some pictures, but it looks gross, so I didn't bother adding them here. When I got back to Bev's, I edited an application for a master's program for Nicole and then Vickie Hansen showed up with OJ (our first bishop) and off we went to Manzanita.
This...is...the beach house. Just wait until you see the inside. It is incredible!
A gorgeous sunset.
Time for a hike!!
Here is the sixteen of us: Nicole Stoddard, Dory Leder, Heather Wood, Melissa Woodside, Marie Fernstrom, Michelle King, Jann Poff, Kelly Jones, Bev McCullough, Katie Durrant, Mary Ann Andersen, me, Vickie Hansen, Julie Nelson, Jenn Lusk, and Laurel Pope.
For a long time--many months--I have felt so run down and tired. But my iron was good. I even started meeting with a personal trainer (Bailey) at the end of September and I have been working out every day--doing strengthening exercises and lifting weights M-F for almost two months, but I still felt tired. I arrived home late Monday night on Nov. 19th from Oregon. Thanksgiving break had already started for the kids. (They got an ENTIRE week this year!) When I woke up early on Tuesday morning, my eyes popped open and I all but bounced out of bed. After a long day, I was reasonably tired later at night, but again, I jumped out of bed the next morning. I started to notice I had more energy. Even after taking 3 flights one day and 2 another and staying up til midnight and 2am (my time) while in Oregon, I felt energized. I could only attribute that significant change to the girls weekend. I never expected that as a result either! But man, I guess needed five days where I didn't have to do or think about anything WAY more than I thought I did!! Time where I could just be and and enjoy and soak in the friendship, laughter, and the crashing waves of the ocean. That was a most pleasant surprise!
This picture is to give perspective to my Oregon friends about the size/price ratio of Christmas trees here in the south. They are SUPER small, but SUPER expensive. In fact, I'm sad to say that for the first time in my 41 years of life, our family has crossed over to the "dark side" and bought an artificial tree. We just can't stomach the cost and the fact that the trees are mostly dead by the time you get them anymore. *sigh* And I had to buy an "evergreen" scented candle.
On Tuesday, the 20th, two days before Thanksgiving, Jared decides to buy a Traeger smoker and grill with a small bonus he got from work. In his defense, he was going to get it sooner, but thought he might get a deal from a friend and that didn't pan out. But still. Two days before Thanksgiving. We wanted to smoke the turkey, but that night Jared read you have to make a brine and soak it for 24 hours prior to smoking it. That means it had to be thawed and the brine had to be made and then you had to have something large enough to put the turkey in all by 7am the next day! Ack!!! This was getting a little complicated at 8pm Tuesday night. But miraculously, it all came together. And we got that big bird (though not big enough in my opinion) in a big canning pot with the brine.
Meanwhile, Calvin worked on the deviled eggs.
Karcyn working on the cookies.
It was another gorgeous day. You can't tell from the picture, but there were a lot of people there.
This was the old hospital. Now a store with lots of fun kitchen cookware, utensils and gadgets. We walked around in it and you can tell where the exam rooms where and the pharmacy.
A cold morning at the bus stop!
Now the next big hurtle...Stake Young Women Auxiliary training--our first ever--Saturday, Jan. 12th. I'm actually training on what I talked with the bishoprics about so I feel good about that. And hope it will be received as such by the Young Women leaders and teachers.
I thought this was a super cute letter that Karcyn wrote to one of her YW leaders, Leslie Call, who had a baby--number 7 and her first girl! For mutual night, the YW went to visit Sister Call and see her new baby. Karcyn wrapped up one of her dolls she had as a little girl and wanted Marlie to have it. Everyone thought that was super sweet.
JJ was loving our Little People Nativity. In fact, he circled the troops in order to protect baby Jesus from the mean animals (a lizard, an armadillo, a bear and a dragon) that were trying to attack.
Thursday, Nov. 29th, Jared took a half day and drove up to Dallas to meet Kevin for the Cowboy game. They were doing pretty good, but knowing Jared's luck, the "boys" would botch it at the one game he can go to all year. As it turns out, the "boys" pulled it out and won pretty handily. The game was over early. But it takes forever to get out of a stadium and back to your car and then the 3 1/2 hour drive home. But even still, I think Jared was home before 2am.
In other news, the end of November was nearing. Jared sported his "No Shave November" goatie rather well. In fact, he was even getting compliments from the youth of our ward saying he looks really good and should keep it. I was kind of torn. But in the end, I didn't mind if he kept it a little longer, so I was kind of surprised that he shaved it off within a few days. He had to order a trimmer, though, first. :)
About 10 minutes after getting home, we turned around and got into the suburban. We were headed to Brenham (about 50 minutes southwest of here) for a Nativity celebration put on by the Brenham Branch. They had a live nativity, over 200 nativities from around the world, and a music concert with people from the branch and community performing. The Brenham branch started it last year and it was such a big success that they're doing it again. I missed it last year and was excited it worked out for us to attend this year.
All the kids wanted to pet the donkey.
We left about an hour later and made sure we swung by the Blue Bell factory so Luke could get his picture taken. Apparently, his family are BIG ice cream eaters. What's funny, is whenever I ask him what flavor he wants, he always says vanilla.
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