11/22/09-11/28/09

Sunday 11/22/09

On my way to take the kids to primary, I was asked to sub on the piano. It was weird trying to play the childrens songs again! I've never been very good at them! It was nice to be able to help out and feel like I was needed!!

All the lessons today were on gratitude with Thanksgiving coming up. I don't know why but the thought that kept popping into my head when anybody asked what you are grateful for was, a garbage disposal. Just a random thing that we don't ever think about until we no longer have it!!

I taught Cole how to play solitaire.....with real cards and not on the computer. I think it might keep him busy for a little while!

Monday 11/23/09

Over the past couple of weeks, I have realized that I need to spend more quality time with the kids. I am with them 24/7 but a lot of time I notice that I find things to do rather than play a game with the kids or read them a book. It is one of my many weaknesses that I really need to work on...NOW!!

Tuesday 11/24/09

This morning, I drove up to Mesquite to drop off Morgan and Cole. It was the most pleasant drive! Who ever invented the car DVD player and the wireless headseats is a hero in my book!! The three kids in the back got to watch a movie, Morgan sat in the front seat with a handheld DVD player and earphones, and I got to listen to Christmas music!!

Wednesday 11/25/09

The little girls and I decided to be wild and crazy today and we went out for pizza. We tried a new place that has flavored crusts. We got the ranch crust and Alysa went crazy! She loved it!! I have to admit it was pretty good also!

Chris is finally here! YEAH!! The girls asked me every 5 minutes to check the computer so they could see where his airplane was. They were so excited! Driving around the airport on the day before Thanksgiving was pretty crazy but we were able to find Chris without any problems and were very happy to be reunited!!

Thursday 11/26/09

Happy Thanksgiving. We drove up to Mesquite to meet all of Chris' family for Thanksgiving. It was nice to have time with family.....not to mention the abundance of wonderful food! It was a gorgeous day and we were able to spend some time outside. Cole had a wonderful time spending time with his cousins' son that is a year younger than him. He really enjoys spending time with other boys instead of all of his sisters all the time!!

After dinner, we began the packing to move Sharon and Rich's stuff into storage.

Friday 11/27/09

Today was the forever moving day. It began with a 5:30 wake up call from the dogs. Once awake, Teresa and I decided we might as well get some Black Friday shopping in. That was a waste of time for me since everything that I went for was gone!! UGH!! You'd think I'd learn! The rest of the day was filled with boxing stuff up, moving furniture out, cleaning, eating, waiting, moving more, cleaning more, and eating more!

We had to drive back to Las Vegas to meet with our renters. The boys finished at the storage unit 1/2 hour after we were supposed to have left so we had to rush to get home. It all worked out though.

Saturday 11/28/09

Chris and his brother, David, had to be at the airport at 5:00 a.m.! UGH! I drove them down so they could go see their grandparents in California. Even though it's a hectic trip, Chris is glad that he gets to go see them!

Since everybody was exhausted, we had a pretty relaxing day around the house. We're trying to be creative and find ways to use up all the Thanksgiving leftovers before we leave for Texas!!

11/15/09-11/21/09

Sunday 11/15/09

It was pretty weird to go to church without Morgan and Cole at church today. It has been nice to spend more time with Alysa and Laina. There's also been a lot less fighting!!

The kids returned safely this evening after having a great visit at their aunt Teresa and uncle David's house in Arizona.

Monday 11/16/09

I am officially back in the states! I went to several CVS stores for the 90% off Halloween sale. The first store that we went to was hilarious because another couple of women came in at the same exact time and went directly to the Halloween area. Unfortunately there was only a tiny bit left and I was pretty disappointed. As we were heading out, the manager came over and told me that she had 4 more totes in the back with stuff that she hadn't even put out yet. She took us to the back and let us go through everything! There was a bunch of really good candy even!! The kids had a blast and Morgan spent most of her money that she got from the tooth fairy!

Once we were home, the kids had a "party" with all of the stuff that they had gotten. It was definitely a cheap way to keep them happy for a while!!

Our good friends, the Lunds, invited us over for dinner and Family Home Evening. I love being with their family. They are a great example to me and we really miss being around them! The FHE lesson was on being thankful. I love hearing the things that kids are grateful for! The kids had so much fun playing on the giant rocking horse, the boys all playing soccer in the house (even with Dad!!) and the girls having a perfume fight. Not to mention how excited I was to sit down and have an adult conversation in English with friends!! I did get a little carried away with sharing stories that I forgot that some people do have to go to bed and have kids that go to school in the morning!!

Tuesday 11/17/09

Due to the fun soccer game and playing around last night, I had to take Cole in to get his glasses fixed, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and took the kids to Chuck E Cheese at the same time since they are right next door to each other. We were there for a good two hours! WOW! I am not a fan of that place but I sacrificed and let the kids have some fun!

The excitement of CEC was followed by a fun lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. I hadn't even realized that it was wing Tuesday!! That made my day!

After all the "busyness" of the morning, I told the kids they had to have some quiet time in the afternoon. The kids complained about being bored the whole time until they finally got to go outside and play with Gator from across the street. I was very impressed that Alysa actually stayed on the ground and didn't scream while he was out. She's getting so much braver. Laina was still really nervous and had to stand up on the ledge of the house. She did pet Gator a little though. Baby steps....

Wednesday 11/18/09

Sharon took Rich to the airport today then came by and took us out for lunch. The kids really enjoying getting to spend time with their Grandma. They sure love being spoiled!

After Sharon headed back to Mesquite, the kids and I went to the storage unit. Ouch! I need to learn when to stop! My ribs are still bothering me and I am still coughing but I still moved around all the boxes!! I do have to say that it is more organized now.....maybe. Every time I am there, I wonder when it will be that we will actually open all of those boxes again and use our own stuff. 2 years....4 years....10 years??

We got out of the storage unit just in time to take Cole to his long awaited Cub Scout meeting. Once again a disappointment for Cole! This week the Scouts were delivering bags for the canned food drive. Instead of going with his friends, he had to go with me and his sisters to delivery bags. After the initial disappointment, I think he actually enjoyed himself. He'd take one side of the street and Morgan the other while I drove ahead a little ways to let Alysa get a few houses. It was dark and cold by the time we got our area done so we decided to have some hot chocolate when we got home. I don't know what it is about hot chocolate but it just makes me think of the holidays. It is definitely a comfort food!!

Thursday 11/19/09

What a beautiful day! We packed up a picnic and headed to the park for a while. The parks are definitely different here than in Guatemala! Everything is plastic and aimed at safety! In Guatemala it is all cement and if it's broken, wire it back together with a piece of barb wire and call it good!

We have become frequent visitors to the public library again! The kids seem to be enjoying the chance they have to check out books in English that are at their level.

Friday 11/20/09

What an enjoyable day. We began with a garage sale on our way to the bowling alley. The girls got some cheap clothes and cheap doll accessories to use while we're here. We were almost late for bowling by the time that we left the sale!! Gator's owner, John, asked to take the kids bowling. It was his day off today so we all met him at the bowling alley for some fun. Morgan and Cole both did pretty good. Alysa needed a little warming up but once she got comfortable she did well. Laina was a crack up. She insisted on doing it herself and she could barely get the ball down the lane. Once the ball stopped and we had to go get somebody to get it. The next time that it happened, John went out on the lane to get it and about killed himself in the process. By the time we finished, Laina was more than ready for nap time!! We had to stop at a couple more garage sales that we passed on the way home though!

Instead of quiet time today, we had school time. Morgan and Cole started going through their homeschooling stuff and Alysa and Laina got to work in the notebooks that I got them at the garage sale. I never thought I'd see 4 kids so excited to do homework! I am a little worried about what I have gotten myself into. I am beginning to wonder how hard it is going to be for me to homeschool Morgan and Cole, teach school, and then try to be a decent mom and wife on top of that!

When it was time for "p.e.", the kids got to run around at the park with the Gadeski girls and with Gator. They ran nonstop until the sun was gone!

Saturday 11/21/09

O.K. So it is an addiction. I was going to go to 1 garage sale by our house....that didn't happen! I have been trying to find clothes for Cole and I haven't found a single garage sale that has anything for bigger boys! Well, the kids saw more signs on the way to the one garage sale and talked me into going to another.....then another.....then another.....and another. The only thing that I found for Cole was an NBA basketball book to read! Poor kid. He did get his soccer ball several weeks ago though. When we got home, the kids went next door to Mary's and I went to take care of a bunch of errands that I didn't want to do with kids. I felt so productive! I even worked in the yard when I got home since the kids were busy making cookies with Mary still. After Mary's house, the kids went to the Gadeski's and played on their trampoline with them until the sun was gone! Poor Laina was so worn out that she fell asleep on the floor in the middle of the family room instead of playing with her friends!

11/8/09-11/14/09

Sunday 11/8/09
Church was another fun experience. My kids have been through so much with different primaries! Cole and Laina both refused to go. I was tired, they were tired, so we opted to go home. We had to wait though, until after the beginning of Relief Society so that Brittany could introduce me.
After church everybody was pretty tired but it didn't stop them from playing like crazy. Everybody was a little sad that it was the last day there though.
I have to say that I am extremely jealous of my sister's food storage room. I really miss my food storage but it was never anything like my sister's! She has a huge room specifically designed to be for storage. It has rolling shelves and even a root cellar! I had a blast helping her organize stuff.

Laina did a great job warming up to Tippy! Uncle Mitch is a miracle worker with helping the kids feel comfortable!






Cole might be ready for a pet if he went out and helped Drew pick up after Tippy!! I had to get a video of the boys giggling/gagging!
Alysa is the newest Dance Dance Revolution star! She has finally gotten the hang of it. Notice the lovely spandex purple skating skirt that she is wearing....used to be mine when I was little!



Laina in her gorgeous dress up outfit.

Monday 11/9/09

We left in the morning shortly after all of Brittany's kids left for school. My kids didn't want to go! We left with an "hasta la smoothies". It has become a joke in our family to say "hasta la ______" instead of 'hasta la manana". We did smoothies in honor of Brittany's many delicious smoothies that the kids loved.....except for the vegetable one!!

We made several pit stops along the way to Claudia's. I was able to get a lot of the "to do" things marked off my list! We even went to Cinegrill (with a wonderful coupon thanks to Brittany!) followed by a movie. I took the kids to the $1 theatre that I used to go to in college. To make it even better, they have family night on Mondays so any family with 3 or more people got in for $.75 each!! Not bad!!

Tuesday 11/10/09

Another day in the car!! The kids got up surprisingly early so we were able to get on the road at a decent time. Since we were out so early, I decided to wait until Provo for breakfast at Krispy Kremes..... another "to do" item marked off!! We hit a couple more stores in Provo then we were off for Mesquite. Once again we had great weather and a great drive!!

Wednesday 11/11/09

Rich and Sharon decided that they are going to lease out their house in Mesquite. Some people were coming to look at it in the morning so we spent some time cleaning and doing little touchups. The downside is that we now need to find a new place for the van or sell it. I told my sister that I wish I could just shrink it down to pocket size until I need to use it again!

We left Morgan in Mesquite with Rich and Sharon and the rest of us headed back to Vegas. It is so weird being back here and knowing that it will never be home again. It's a little depressing! It doesn't help that I am still not really feeling 100% physically!! Oh, well!

Cole had a great time going through all of his new homeschooling stuff. He said that it is easy-cheesy but we'll see how it really is when we get going!

Thursday 11/12/09

Cole and Alysa both got excellent reports on their eyes today at the eye doctor! What a relief! I am done with doctors appointments during our trip Yeah!! Now Chris just needs to do his when he gets here.

The kids did great so I took them to a little park that they used to go to.






Cole has continued to work on his cub scout stuff while we were in Guatemala. Tonight was the pack meeting and he got presented with his Wolf badge. He was very shy being around his friends. It almost seemed more so than when we moved to Guatemala.

Friday 11/13/09

Cole helped me get the Christmas containers out of the storage unit yesterday so I got to go through them today. I don't know what to do about Christmas? We won't have a bunch of room to take stuff back with us but I don't want the kids to get jipped. I hope they aren't disappointed. It was also a little depressing to go through all the stuff and realize we don't know when the next time will be that we'll have our traditional Christmas in our own home.....somewhere!! Oh, well. It's those new experiences that help build bonds, right??

Morgan and Cole were really excited that they got to go on another road trip to Phoenix with their Grandma and Grandpa. I hope they do well on the drive and that the dogs don't throw up on them!....or them on the dogs!!

It was kind of fun to have a relaxing day to hang out with the little girls. We did all sorts or craft projects, read books, visited with neighbors, and listened to Christmas music.

Saturday 11/14/09

I love garage sales. The girls got up early and got ready before I could even tell them to and we were out the door. I was surprised at how much fun the girls were having even though they weren't feeling great. We got lots of books and clothes for the girls. Nothing for Cole though!

At home, Laina decided to go lay down and take a nap. Alysa said that it reminded her of when we really lived here and Morgan and Cole were at school, Laina was asleep, Chris was at work and it was just me and Alysa. Unfortunately, she got really bored and was disappointed that Mary wasn't answering the door next door. She worked on a bunch of craft projects with her new 150 piece art kit from the garage sale. That lasted for a while but she was very excited when Mary came over to get her. Alysa and Laina spent most of the evening at her house while I sat in the house trying to get things done but not accomplishing anything.

11/1/09-11/7/09

Sunday 11/1/09

With the time change today, church was even later!! I can not stand 1:00 church!! Laina was so tired during Sacrament meeting and was driving me crazy. I finally got her to sit on my lap and during the closing prayer, she fell asleep! Oh, well! I was asked to sub a primary class today but the teacher finally showed up so I went to gospel doctrine with Laina asleep in my arms. She is getting SOOOOO big and heavy! I was only there for a little while when the primary president came and asked me to sub a different class. It was fun to be able to interact with the kids again. They have all grown up so much. I was shocked last Sunday to see all of my old primary boys passing the sacrament!!

We left straight from church to go to Mesquite. Sharon had a huge meal ready. Cole ate so much food that he couldn't go to sleep at night because his stomach hurt so bad!

Monday 11/2/09

Today was spent in Mesquite. We finally took care of getting our fingerprints done for the temporary residency in Guatemala. I love the Mesquite police department!! We parked in the front row, walked in and were the first people in line, had two wonderful ladies helping us, the fingerprinting was digitial so no sticky ink on everybody, they only charged for one person, and then on top of that, they gave us candy before we left!! How much better can get??

I was also able to get all the rest of the things on my to do list done! That was the most productive day I've had in a while!! The only downside to the day was the my cough has returned!

Tuesday 11/3/09

Up and at 'em. We drove to Salt Lake City today. We had LOTS of pit stops along the way. The first was 1/2 hour after we got on the road. We stopped in St. George to visit my Aunt Edith. Laina thought we were at my cousin Claudia's house and started wandering around the halls looking for the toy closet! It was pretty funny.

Our next stop was in Spanish Fork to go to my all-time favorite grocery store, Macey's. I stocked up on some stuff that I can't get in Guatemala to take to Dave (Chris' boss) to bring down on his next few trips. The kids of course had to get their traditional monkey bar. (Banana creamy popsicle)

After that we headed to American Fork to drop off some stuff from the sister missionary in Guatemala to her parents. It was fun to get to talk to her mom for a few minutes.

Then, of to Riverton to Dave's house. Dave forgot to tell his wife that we were coming so when we got there, a car drove up and it was her. She was just dropping off dinner for the kids and then heading over to Jacobsen to drop off dinner for Dave who was still working. It was pretty awkward but she was very nice and let me leave all of the stuff. She also gave us the homeschooling boxes for Morgan and Cole. I can't wait to get them to work. No more "I'm bored" comments or it's back to the books!!

By this time the kids were hungry but still in the middle of a movie so I decided to cross a couple more things off of our list of places to go in the states and bought a pizza at Little Caesar's, and got slurpees at 7-11. We ate them in the van while the kids finished their movie!

We spent the night in SLC at my cousin Claudia's house. The kids love going there and it is always fun visiting with the Campbells!

Wednesday 11/4/09

The last leg of this trip. The drive to Idaho. I have to say that that is one drive that I don't particularly like. At least this time the skies were clear and we didn't have to go through a big blizzard!

We stopped by my Grandma Hunsaker's house on the way. There were leaves everywhere and Cole asked if he could rake the leaves. We didn't realize how much there really was and it became a family effort that we worked on forever. My Uncle Mark was there also and he cut a pumpkin off the stem for us to take. Grandma seems to be doing the same and getting around. She made lunch for us (which half my kids refused to even try!! UGH!! How embarassing!!) and then after a few more trips in the wheelbarrow, we were back on the road. (And I am still kicking myself since I forgot to take any pictures with Grandma!! She'll be 91 in a couple more months!!)

It was getting dark by the time we arrived at Brittany's. Nobody was home so we left to go find a bathroom. When we got about 3 houses down, Mitch came the otherway so we turned around. All the kids were with him except for Kaiya who had a basketball game that Brittany had taken her to. The kids instantly renewed their bonds and were off playing and being as silly as possible. They were that way until I finally forced my kids to go to bed about 11.

Thursday 11/5/09

We had al of our doctor visits scheduled for today. My appointment was first in the adult side. Cole was an hour behind in the pediatric side. I was worried that I wouldn't be done in time but Mitch (who's day off it was!) said that he would take Cole and meet us there. My appointment did run pretty late and Cole was done by the time I got there. He didn't seem to mind one bit though! We both got clean bills of health even though I can't stop coughing. We did go ahead and get flu shots just to be safe!!

Apparently while I was gone, Mitch got Laina and Alysa both warmed up to their big dog and they are now best friends. He also said that they were talking to him in Spanish. He was impressed with their vocabulary.

After the appointments, we ran home, ate lunch, then back again with all 3 girls. They are all healthy also and did great. Alysa however had to get 4 shots and screamed like crazy!

The remainder of the day was filled with kids playing and me relaxing!

Friday 11/6/09

I was so excited to begin my day with a trip to the Twin Falls Temple. It seems like it's been forever since I got to go to the temple. It was so nice to not have to worry about my kids. It actually is nice to have them growing up a little!! The younger two were still sleeping when I left. These late nights are taking their toll on them!

I can't get over how much fun the kids are having together. There was no school today so they had the whole day together. Alysa and Laina are fully enjoying Aunt Britt's dress up collection. It could take a year to try on everything!

Saturday 11/7/09

Another memorable moment for me today. I got to do 90% off Halloween shopping at Target....with my sister!! We've never gone together. I have to say that I was a little worried about both of us shopping in only one store but it worked out nicely. (I'm used to going to about 5 stores by myself!!) We got plenty of stuff. It helped that I had to limit myself a lot since I can't really take much back with me.

We had to hurry out of Target to get to Ryley's basketball game. We left the game early to get back to the house to get all the rest of the kids ready for their piano recital. My kids were so fidgety during the recital. Laina was beyond exhausted and finally fell asleep in my arms during the 2nd to last performance.

The kids decided to be wild and crazy and sleep in the backyard in a tent. They didn't realize that it was going to be the coldest night of the year so far! Cole lasted until 10:00. Ryley, 2:00. Drew, 6:00. And Morgan 6:30.