November 2019

We started off November celebrating this darling girl's 9th birthday...

She is magical.

Her birthday list was easy

1. Unicorn Stuff

2. A new bike 

I felt so badly because we bought her a bike 3 days before her birthday 

on a Saturday and we wanted her to be able to ride it that day, so we gave 

it to her on her not-birthday.

She was SO happy, she jumped right on it and rode with Makayla over to the park.

But, then her actual birthday came and it seemed uneventful.

We sent her on the bus with cupcakes for her class.

But other than that, no big deal.

 I stopped on the way home from work and bought a unicorn cake.

Dad stopped and bought some super cool balloons.

And I sent a text to the mother's of her 3 best friends and invited them

over for cake and ice cream and an impromptu birthday party happened.

 And she was SO happy.

She put her glittery gold tights and tulle skirt on

 And a gigantic bow

 Kaitlin Moore, Demi Gubler and Makayla Graham

 She said that it was the best birthday in the history of birthdays

 Just look at that smile

She is so content with herself that she is incredibly easy to please

 My house was a wreck

And little girls were running all over and screaming for

a solid hour.

 She got everything Unicorn

When this boy was born, his dad was 25, his grandma was 50 and her dad was 75 all born in November.  And his grandma said to me "won't it be so cool when he turns 25, this nest of scorpions will have to have a big celebration."  And I thought....  you are a whack job, Lady.  This little person will NEVER be 25.  But the long days and the short years rolled along and before I knew it, he was.

I can't believe it. 

Allie is taking English 1010 at Dixie State. 

And so, naturally I am writing English papers again.  

I don't know why she just can't use Morgan's papers that I wrote for her 

3 years ago.  I don't know why I have to write all new papers.

But, I am.

AND........ she got accused of plagiarism.  

It's not the first time, this has happened to me.

Brayden was accused his senior year, when I wrote poems for him.

But, it's so embarrassing for them when I have to call and say 

"she didn't plagiarize,  I wrote it...  and I can assure you those are all my words"

And I wish you had done some real investigating before you accused her.  Because if you had, you wouldn't have found that document written anywhere.

Shaking My Head

That'll teach her to write her own shiz.

We had 11 foot vaulted ceilings in our last house, so our 9 foot tree fit nicely.

We were stressed because our new house only has 9 foot ceilings and they have weird drop downs and there really wasn't a perfect place for our tree.  

I knew where I wanted it to go, so I asked Raleigh to test it out and to our dismay, it fit perfectly.

I LOVE IT

 I'm so glad Allie wanted to help me decorate.

She played Christmas Music and kept me laughing.

It looks a thousand percent better in person.

It's gorgeous

I vowed to have a really good attitude this year.

We tucked enough money away for Christmas early on, so we haven't been stressed about that.

We put up our decorations the first week of November to help us get into the spirit and feel happy.

My parents are hands down the best.

They are my kids' biggest fans.

They do so much for us and they show up for every event regardless the importance.

This day was 

"Lunch with Someone Grand"

And they braved the chaos at our disorganized school and ate a gross turkey dinner and were there for my kids showing them that they are loved.

We love them so much.

Thank you Papa and Nana.

 They said they had fun

The kids for sure enjoyed them.

Christmas Light Hanging Day is always so stressful for me.

My feet get all sweaty while I am on the ground taking pictures. 

He was so high up and there was nothing for him to hang on to.

Peyton came in after they had the first section hung up and said "Dad and I are exhausted."

It's really hard work holding the ladder.

And then she said "he stresses me out, I can't stand this job."

 I had to leave to go get my hair done and I said...

When I get home, I would love it if you could be healthy and in one piece and 

NOT DEAD.

He did a great job.  The house looks beautiful all lit up.

I somehow got tickets to Live with Kelly and Ryan which was being taped in Las Vegas.

I talked Raleigh into going with me with the promise that we would eat at a really nice restaurant and do some Christmas Shopping after it was over. 

He agreed to go with me.

 The show was taped at Paris Las Vegas

The dress code was.... dress like you are going to dinner.
That is so relative.

Some people were dressed like they were going to dinner at Taco Bell

others to the White House.

 There were so many people and we stood in line for 2 1/2 hours.

STOOD.

In Line.
In THOSE boots.

Backs aching.

Feet aching. 

Shifting our weight from leg to leg.  

Every so often bending over to stretch our backs.  

And by the time they came to take us into the Theater, we were SO grumpy and we didn't even really want to go to the stupid show.

Especially when the guest was Freaking Howie Mandel. 

 There was a really nice man in line in front of us that went and got us a chair.

It was SO random.

But, we were so glad.  

We half bunned the chair and shared.  

Raleigh watched the football game on his phone.

I tried not to start crying. I was so miserable.

I kept having the thought...

This day will end.

There will be a time when I am sleeping in my bed at home and this will all be over.

This will NOT last forever.

 Finally, we were able to go into the theater.

Walking never felt so good.

 But by the time we got to this point, we were so over it.

 We were 3 rows away from them.

And they were pretty funny.

 And it ended.

And we were too grumpy to shop or spend money.

~Side topic~

**We are not a very fun couple**

(It's such a good thing we found each other)

We don't have friends.

We don't like to do stuff that much.

People kinda bother us.

We are very cynical.
And luckily for us, we really like each other and really only want to just be with each other.
That may sound sad, but it's not really.

So when it's not the status quo, we get grumpy.  Not at each other, just grumpy in general.

We are the same kind of grumpy, so neither of us takes offense.  We don't even have to speak about it, we just know that we are both grumpy and food will most likely help.

So we ate dinner at Texas de Brazil which was so expensive, Raleigh wouldn't even show me the bill.

I do know that I ordered a Diet Coke and the waitor brought one to me in a wine glass with ice in it and poured a diet coke from a fancy 8 oz metal bottle into my glass while wearing a towel over his forearm like he was pouring expensive chardonnay and I chuckled at the ridiculousness.  And when he asked me if I wanted another coke, naturally I said 

"YES of course I do" ...duh...

(that little whimpy bottle that you poured into this silly glass was no where near enough to snap me out of this mood I am in)....

AND....

Raleigh kind of gasped and whispered to me that the refills were NOT free. 

Which is probably why he didn't show me the bill.

My diet cokes were probably $10 each.

Sorry Lover, I was just so thirsty.

We continued decorating and trying new things

We are slowing updating and adding to the new collection.

I am SO happy that we finally got a little plant for the planter box. 

 I bought these stocking last year and searched all season for a "Q"

I had Parker and Nana check up north.

I had our friend, Sherrie check in Vegas.

I had my friend check in California.

No "Q"s to be found in the whole world.

I was certain that we would find one this year, but not only did Smith's Marketplace 

not produce a "Q" for the second year in a row, they didn't even produce the same stockings....

claiming the reason is because they switch out their stockings every year for variety.

Well....  you're dumb.

Ever think that maybe a family may have added a member in the past year  (maybe a marriage or a birth) and MIGHT want to add to their collection? 

Nevertheless, here we are "Q"-less.

So, I only put up the stockings of the kids that live with us, so that feelings aren't hurt. 

The B and the Q are not displayed.

But, not because I am happy about that.

Sorry Q...  It's Smiths fault.

I'm still trying.

Dad's work party

 It was November 26th and I had only taken ONE vacation day the entire year.

For various reasons...

1. It's more stressful to be away from my job than to be in the crappy heart of it.

2. It's hard for me to be away from home

3.  I am not a good traveler

My family had to talk me into agreeing to even THINK about going.

I agreed on 2 conditions...

1. It would be a quick trip

2.  The kids would not be exposed to germs of any kind prior to the 4 days before we left.  

(I will NOT travel with sick kids)

So....  we kept them home from school Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week

We quarantined them.

No outside contact of any kind.

Wednesday was a given day off and we left on Thanksgiving Day.

It was dark and rainy in St. George when we left.  

Perfectly gorgeous weather to be driving in.

I LOVED IT.

Las Vegas was clear and sunny.

While the kids slept so quietly

 Baker was cloudy again.

We stopped to kill some time and play some football in a parking lot.

 THEN......Victorville freaking looked like THIS

 It was beautiful and we thought it was fun...  UNTIL......

 California Drivers who have never seen snow before did THIS to the freeway

And it took us 2 hours to go 13 miles.

At first it was fun....

The kids played in the six inches of snow that had piled up on the back of our car

 Raleigh was a good driver

But then it started to get old really fast.

It's kind of bad for someone who isn't a good traveler to be literally TRAPPED

on a freeway for an undisclosed amount of time.

I kind of freaked out a little bit.  TWICE.

And then....

The kids had to pee...

Well, sorry Charlies!!!  We weren't going anywhere soon.

They tried to wait it out, but it fast became an emergency situation and we started looking for a backup plan.  Well..... little Ryker, in anticipation of going to California (thus the beach) hid sand buckets under the back seat of the truck.  And there they were just sitting there begging to be used as makeshift urinals.  

The ONLY problem was what to do with it once they had nearly filled one of the buckets to the top...

Don't worry...  "Mom will hold it until we get down the pass".  

Praying that we don't have a slide off or a fender bender.

We kept clipping along ever so slowly.

Getting nervous because we had Dinner Reservations at Claim Jumper at 2:45 and it was now 2:00.

And Papa and Nana were at least an hour behind us.

Finally.... and I literally NEVER thought this would happen...

We reached the Summit of Cajon Pass.

All we had to do was drive down the mountain.

And then the CREEPIEST thing I have even seen in my whole life happened...

We got to the top.

There were hundreds of cars pulled off to the side of the road.

People were walking around.

NO ONE had crashed.

NO ONE was massively injured. 

They were just pulled over.

Parked.

And the pass was completely clear. 

So, Raleigh drove past the parked cars and just kept driving ....down the pass.

And it was scary, because what if these people knew something we didn't.

Like what if the road just dropped off into a gigantic sink hole up ahead.

It. Made. No. Sense.

Until Nana assessed it perfectly...

It's like when you were a kid.

And you went to the park for the first time.

And you climbed up the slide.

But when you got up there, it was really high and scary.

And you stood there at the top trying to decide if you could go down or not.  

You had two choices...

Be brave and go down.

Or step aside and let the brave kids go.

Well, Raleigh had been down the slide before.

He's from Utah (and this baby storm was NOTHING)

He had 4 wheel drive

And he's pretty brave.

So essentially, that is what it was. 

The pile up was a result of people at the top

of the slide trying to decide if they wanted to go down or not.

Are. You. Kidding. Me?????

Don't get me wrong

I am glad it wasn't a massive wreck causing the traffic.

But, this was SO STUPID!!!!

And now the race was ON to see if we could get to Claim Jumper on time.

Our reservation was for 2:45 and we pulled into the parking lot at 2:48.

But, by this time I was in a full on anxiety attack.

Afterall, I had a bucket of PEE on my lap.

And we had just risked driving into a sinkhole.

 Here we are at our table 

WITHOUT

Papa and Nana 

Who were 2 hours behind us and had to have Thanksgiving Dinner at Denny's

(SuperSlammin)

 We took this picture after dessert.

I had finally calmed down at this point

And the whole thing was a distant memory

SO READY for our next adventure

We spent Black Friday at Disneyland

With the rest of the world

Papa and Nana wanted the kids to feel loved
So they took them to the Magic Kingdom

And it was a beautiful day.

Who would have ever guessed what had happened just the day before.

 I had TWO massive cases of vertigo this month and so in order not to aggravate that again...

I stayed away from Dumbo and the Carousel.

 Nana's favorite ride was shared with KK

They are perfect for each other... 

They didn't go very high and neither of them cared

Then we went on It's a Small World 

Where the music was Jingle Bells....  and the little characters were dressed for Christmas

SO CUTE!

Then Papa and I got WHIPLASH driving with these two "women drivers"

We stood in line for hours

And FROZE

While the big kids went on the fast rides, 

Nana and her mini went shopping 

Christmas Disney is even more magical

On our way out, the kids picked one thing for a souvenir

 Peyton chose a Chewbacca Backpack

 KK chose Lady 

 Ryker was in line to buy a Light Sabor and at the last minute changed to some chicken looking thing from Star Wars which was a far better choice.

Then we ate dinner at Cheesecake Factory

So yummy and WARM

While we were gone, the big kids had Thanksgiving with their dad and did fun big kid stuff... 

 Now that we are home safe and sound I can say that we had THE BEST time on our little trip.

We all got along.  No one got sick.

No one fell off the end of the earth.

The kids had a great time.

We made some great memories.

We fell more in love.

And we are ready to HO HO HO into the Holiday Season.

I love this family of mine.

We are looking forward to Christmas Parties,

Another quick trip.

And 2020 8:30 church for an entire year.