One Crazy week

Here is the letter I wrote to my youngest brother for this week. (He is in Canada on an LDS mission)

Dear James,

John and I think we were punished last weekend. (Not really, but I guess we shouldn't have messed with the Sabbath). We got home from church last week and realized that we had no meetings or appointments, and we had a vision of moving our furniture in our bedroom and then relaxing with the kids for the rest of the Sabbath. You see, Sister Howell was getting rid of TONS of stuff so she would have an easy move. One of the items that we got out of this was a large entertainment center to go in our bedroom. I have had my eye out for one for a long time. We had no good furniture in our room, other than our bed and nightstands. Anyway, we had just left it backwards against a wall, and we were running into it every time we turned the corner. So we thought we would go ahead and arrange our room to get that all set up and out of the way.

As we were moving things around and cleaning up the mess that was under the bed, it started to get really hot. I left the room to catch a break from the vent in the living room, where it is always the coldest. I then realized that it wasn't really any cooler, just very muggy. So I went to check the thermometer in the hallway, which read 82, and should have read 78. So I turned the A/C up a notch and went back to work. When all was said and done, it was hotter than before. The A/C was out. I couldn't believe it. (I guess we shouldn't have moved furniture :)

We called one of our friends in the ward and asked if he could come over and assess the problem. (He works with this kind of stuff). We thought he might have the magic touch and would know the right thing to hit to make it work again. He very willingly came over at about 7, and half an hour later we received the bad news that the compressor was shot and we needed a whole new unit. (That's really expensive BTW). So we called Mom and Dad, who invited us to stay the night.

We had no idea when Chris, our friend, would call us the next day, but he said he would call and let us know what kind of unit we needed and what the best deals were for us. He didn't call until lunch time, and he couldn't get the unit until the next day. So I had John go home after work and get us all one more set of clothes for the next day.

Tuesday, we waited for Chris to tell us when he could get the unit over to the house, but he didn't call until 6 PM. He was still waiting for one part to come in, but he would get things started the next day. Luckily, I had already been to the house and picked up more clothes just in case. Another night at Mom and Dad's.

Wednesday, John came home from work and waited for Chris to show up. I stayed with Mom and Dad, but John waited in the hot hot house. Chris finally showed up at 8, and they worked on the unit until 11. John just stayed at the house and slept. But the coil Chris had was the wrong size, so the house was still hot, and that also meant another day at the Crawford's.

Thursday, John did the same thing--went over to the house at about 7 and waited for Chris. Again, he showed up at about 8 and they worked until 1 AM. Everything was finally fixed. So Friday morning, I cleaned up the space that the kids and I had destroyed (like the kitchen and bathroom), and cleaned towels and sheets, and then we headed back to our nicely cooled off house.

I'm not complaining. I got to enjoy some time out and about with Mom and some time with Dad. It was almost like vacation. But it was so unexpected, and Mom was busy with life, and I think that maybe they got a little too much of us that week. The kids certainly were not in the best mood. Kaylee was a pain and a half to get to bed every night. But it all worked out.

Now, to add to all the craziness, I had planned a surprise UN-birthday party for Mom that Thursday night. But I had it planned several months before. It was supposed to be at our house, and Karie was going to have the whole afternoon to decorate our dining room while I was taking care of baking a cake and getting food prepped. Then Dad was going to come up with an excuse to get her over to our house. First of all, she told me that she was leaving for Utah on the 18th. That was fine. But then she changed her mind and decided she wanted to leave on the 17th (that Thursday). I wasn't sure what to do about that. She was going up with Granddad, so he could be there with Aunt Kristen when Murphy came home from his mission. So I called Granddad. Funny thing was, Dad had the same idea I did. When I called Granddad's house, Dad was there with him talking to him about the situation. So Granddad called Mom and said, "We can't leave Thursday, I have something I forgot about," and that was that. But now we had the problem of being stuck with no A/C, and I had to figure out how to get their house ready, and Mom out of the house. Dad and I ended up going to Costco to buy a cake, since I would have to time to bake one at their house. We had to hide that from her. Then, after much craziness, I got Mom out of the house for about 45 minutes--in which time we had to decorate and get food out and ready. Karie arrived to decorate five minutes or so after she left, and I was running a marathon to make sure I had all the food out and ready to go. Mat ran to the store for me for last minute stuff, and John and the kids were on the look-out for her arrival. (Dad was out with her as well). Mom was completely surprised when she walked in. It was great! We all said Surprise! and then we all had fun talking, opening presents, and eating to our hearts desire. Granddad showed up after the surprise part, but we were all there. Mom got a Michael Buble CD, two large pinwheels, reflexology certificates, and a Josh Hamilton shirt (which we all laughed at hysterically). The theme was summer and pinwheels. It was just plain fun.

So we had a crazy week, but after much waiting, secret purchases, food hiding in coolers in office closets, and re-planning, it was fun. I hope we weren't a burden on anyone, but everything worked out in the end.

Vacation...and then some

Who knows if anyone actually even looks at my blog anymore. I just can't seem to find enough to say more than once every three or so months. But for those of you who do check it out every once in a while, here are some pictures.

Breanna and her friends Sarah, Shelby, Lauren, and Natalie, graduated from Joyshcool this past Saturday.

For anyone that doesn't know what Joyschool is, it is a program developed for preschoolers to teach them the joys of life, about manners, how to verbally communicate well with others, help them be creative, and help them see their self-worth. We, the mothers, took turns teaching.
As much fun as it was to have Breanna a part of the program, I am glad it is over.

We decided to take a short trip to East Texas over the Memorial Day weekend. We visited historical cities, saw an airplane show, went to a lake for a picnic, and did lots and lots of swimming. (We swam 5 times over three days).

The General Store in downtown Jefferson, TX

We bought ice-cream at the general store. It was very messy.


Historical Jefferson, TX

Caddo Lake



Here we visited the rose gardens in Tyler, TX. I think the season for the roses had just passed, but there were some beautiful plants and scenery.





The annual airplane show in Jefferson



And on a different note:

These pictures I just thought were cute. The first is Kaylee, and I took that about a month ago (age 13 months). The one below is Breanna, taken about 4 yrs. and 1 month ago (age 18 months).

Birthdays and Easter

This is the beautiful cake I made for Brett's birthday. About a week before his birthday, Breanna asked him what kind of cake he was going to have, and he told her a train cake. I was shocked. I was planning on a plain round cake, but I did some research and found a way to make this.
Now that Brett is 3, he is very excited that he can go on the slides in the kids club at the gym. In fact, he wanted to go first thing the next morning just so he could play with the big kids.
Easter was very fun this year. We enjoyed that it landed on conference weekend. We had lots of opportunity to teach the kids about the meaning of Easter, and still have lots of fun with an egg hunt and egg decorating. They are getting old enough to be able to do these things. That's what is fun for me. I don't like decorating eggs necessarily, but I love that they love it.
It was also Kaylee's birthday Easter weekend. We had the family come over in between conference sessions Saturday for cupcakes. Kaylee was asleep the whole time. So John, the kids and I ate another cupcake when Kaylee woke up, and we sang her Happy Birthday. As you can see, she enjoyed her first taste of cake.
Our family has been sick for most of the year so far. I can't figure it out, but maybe we won't be sick for the rest of the year if we get it all out of the way now. We have only had about a week of wellness between each sickness, and each time it hits, it lasts anywhere from one to two weeks. Most of the time we are just sick with colds, but this time we are going through some kind of stomach thing. Brett is the only one so far that hasn't gotten it, but I'm sure that will change tonight. Why is it that kids always get sick in the middle of the night?

When we are healthy, we are very happy.

My Quarterly Report

I feel like so much has happened since Halloween. That's what the holidays will do to you. In fact, I am still trying to get back to something normal, but my routine just isn't kicking in yet.

Thanksgiving was a blast! My mom had asked John and I to pick up my brother,Sean, from the airport to surprise my youngest brother, James. We were excited to see him too, but when we got to my parents' house, my sister answered the door! My parents had arranged for her to come home from her mission two weeks early! I was sooooooooo excited! We had so much fun catching up, not only on Thanksgiving day, but the whole next month. We got to hang out a lot, and it was just so much fun to have her home. Oh ya, and Sean surprised James pretty good too. It was the first time in ten years that we had all been together for Thanksgiving. It was a blast!

James left for his mission the 1st of December. He is in Vancouver, Canada. I think it took him a little time to really accept that call, but he got excited about it pretty quick.

Christmas was fun this year too. It was in the 70s on December 22nd, and then we had a cold front come through the 23rd in the evening and it was freezing with snow all day Christmas Eve. John took the kids outside and they made a snowman. The next morning, we woke up to snow on the ground, and then the sun came out and melted it away throughout the day. It was perfect weather for Christmas.








New Year's Eve, we just sat around and watched the ball drop. Nothing exciting there. But that was fine with us. The kids went to bed at their normal time, and we stayed up to watch a movie. I can't even remember what we watched. We had to keep our eyes peeled open just to stay awake.

Now we are back into Joyschool, which has been a little slow getting moving again. Someone is always sick, and now we are down to just three girls. Kaylee was sick for a long time. She started with just some congestion and a cough, but that turned into a fever, and then into a worse cough with a fever that wouldn't end. So we took her in to the doctor after about a week of that, and he sent us to get chest x-rays. No pneumonia, but she was really not a happy girl. Luckily the fever is gone today, and she seems much much happier.

I have also discovered something new. Okay, so it's not new at all, but it's new to me--facebook. I always made fun of everyone that had a facebook account, but then I got to reading my journals from high school and college and thought it would be nice to contact some of my old friends. So I had John set a facebook account up for me. I have found so many of my friends and I just love it. It's fun to see what everyone is up to now. I'm not very good at making the best comments or keeping up on posting my own thoughts, but I'm not very good at that with blogging either. At least I try.

Halloween Pics

This Halloween I wanted Brett to be a lion, but it's very hard to find a lion costume. So I got brave, and under instruction from my Mom, I made his costume.




Kaylee was too small for any costumes I have, so we just stuck with the jack'o latern onsie.

Breanna was able to wear her costume from last year. We went all out this year and made her hair pink too.

The kids got to go to our ward Trunk-or-Treat Friday night, and then out again through the neighborhood Saturday night. They got quite the loot.

Somehow, our Saturday afternoon got so busy that we didn't have time to feed the kids dinner before trick-or-treating. I figured they would be out for half an hour and then we could eat our pizza. An hour and a half later, they got back and they kids were tired and grumpy and wanted nothing but to get out of their costumes and eat.
Brett fell asleep while eating his pizza, and Breanna kept asking when it was time for bed. After struggling with dinner, baths, and pajamas, John rocked Kaylee in our room while I rocked the other two in the family room, and we got all three down at the same time. Then it felt like we could breath again. Holidays. :)

Renovations P.S.

I finally got my shelf two weekends ago.

Quick Trip

John had some business to take care of in Austin yesterday, so we decided to make it a fun family trip. Austin is only three hours from here, so we packed up the kids with an overnight bag and snacks, and headed out Monday morning.

The kids were so excited to take a trip in the car, they were up at 5:30 A.M. That didn't make me too happy, but kids will be kids. Brett kept telling us he was ready to leave, and he had his backpack on ready to go before I had even taken a shower. A little later, I found him on the floor in Breanna's room crying. He was just so excited to go he was going crazy. I was glad at that point that I hadn't fed them breakfast yet, because I was sure he would have lost it by then. John and I laughed and laughed at all the excitement.

We got into Austin at about noon. We decided to first see the state Capital. It is a very beautiful building.



Kids watching a movie on the way there.


Texas State Capital Taken from several floors up, looking down

Top of the dome

The kids were tired and hungry at this point

Found on the State Capital Grounds

Lunch time!!!


After we ate lunch, we headed over to our hotel. We stayed at an Embassy Suites. I highly recommend them to anyone. It was great. We swam (but forgot the camera in the car), and got cleaned up and hung out in our room for a while.

The kids were tired from the day, but we ate dinner and then drove around Austin to see Uncle Scott's house, and to see all the different areas around Austin. It is really quite beautiful.

That night, everyone seemed to sleep well, except Kaylee and me. Kaylee didn't want to sleep for more than half an hour at a time. Then, Brett decided to wake up at 4:30. I tried to put him back into bed, but he would have nothing of it. So then, that of course woke of Breanna. The kids were awake by 5:30...again. John took them down to breakfast at 6 while I tried to get Kaylee to go back to sleep. I was unsuccessful.

A couple hours later, John and Breanna went swimming again, while I was cleaning up Brett, who had the runs. NOT fun. Then, after we all got cleaned up and ready for the day, John went to do his business while I took the kids to eat lunch and hang out at some stores for three hours. When I got to McDonalds, I turned around to get the kids out and they were all sound asleep. I didn't know what to do, so we just sat in the car, while it was running, in the parking lot and I let them sleep. I rested too, but I also got to talk to my brother for a while to catch up.
Twenty minutes later, the kids woke up and we did our thing.

When John was done, we decided it was time to head home. About an hour and a half out, Brett threw up. Ah yes, the fun of car trips and too much junk food. He got it all over himself, his blanket, and the car seat. We had to pull over, strip him down, wipe down the car seat buckles, grab grocery sacks to put his clothes, car seat cover, and blanket in, put a new shirt on him, and put him back in the car. About five minutes later down the road, he did it again. So we pulled over and did it all over again. Then again about half an our later. Then again a half hour after that, and finally we made it home. The poor kid was sick two more times, but he got it all out of his system, got a quick bath, and then got a really good night sleep. Thank goodness that's over.

This morning we are doing lots of laundry.

Overall, it was very fun to get out with our family and do something fun and different.


Have a hoppin' great day!