Saturday, we ran errands and then went to Brian’s parents for the evening. We had chili for dinner and everyone – sans Brian and myself – watched the Alabama game. I don’t get into football if I’m not at the game. Brian’s just not into football. But, we had a good time with family. Nice togetherness. Good chili…
Sunday, we actually got to go to church as a family. Hooray! Brian didn’t have meetings that morning, which is a rarity. That Sunday was our ward’s Primary Sacrament Program – our nephew, Caulin’s, first. He was shooting us thumbs-ups and waving the whole time. But, he did such a good job signing and speaking. We are so proud of him! Hard to believe he is already 4-years old. Almost 5. Yikes...
After church, we had to high-tail-it to a family reunion. Here, Ammon got his first taste of his MawMaw’s yellow rice and peas. Yummy, yum, yum. After the reunion, we walked around outside for a bit before heading home. We all slept most of the afternoon. Much, much needed naps. This was the last day of documentation for our week-in-our-life album. Sad that this seemed to end so soon. This may be a more-than-once-a-year thing.
The whole week was busy and hectic. The first time in quite a while that Ammon and I had something to do every single day. And when I say “something to do”, I mean a reason to be up, showered, dressed, and have Ammon up, fed, dressed and ready for the day by 8:00am. I know people do this everyday and have more than one child. But, I am not one of those people.
Monday morning, I had to go visiting teaching. Brian’s mom was able to watch Ammon for me so that I could go. Ammon had such a good time playing with his Sissy. He was taking a nap when I got home, and I think he was a little upset that she wasn’t still here when he woke up.
That afternoon we ran some errands and went to pick out our pumpkins. This year, we bundled up and went to a pumpkin patch. Ammon loved it. I don’t know exactly what it was that he loved so much, but he had a good time. So much of a good time that he brought a little cold home with him. The first of many, I’m sure. Fun.
Tuesday, my visiting teacher came to see me. Ammon loves dear Sister Locke. He was taking a nap when she got here, and I ended up having to go and get him out of his crib. Apparently, he knew she was here and wasn’t about to miss her company.
My mom dropped in that night with the last piece of Ammon’s Halloween costume. She also brought her sewing machine so that I could get to work on Ammon’s Halloween basket. I stayed up far later than I should have – cutting out all the parts for his basket. I don’t do patterns. Heck, I don’t do sewing machines. But, I was bound and determined to make this work. Finally, I just got sick of looking at it and had to go to bed.
Wednesday, I had a meeting with some of my Relief Society counterparts. The meeting was almost 3 hours long – but, unlike other 3-hour meetings I have had in the past, this one was actually productive. Things are going so much better than they were before. Any small bit of improvement would have been a blessing – but there has been a complete, absolute, unquestionable, definite and total change made with the entire situation. We are happy, happy people now. No more thoughts of mutiny.
Ammon was good throughout the meeting – which was a surprise to me. He napped for a good, long time when we got home. This gave me the chance to finish his basket. I am beyond happy with how it turned out. It was more difficult than I thought it would be, but all is well. You can’t really tell in the photos above, but the inside of the basket liner is actually two layers of fabric – a black and white harlequin print on bottom, with a black sheer fabric on top with orange, fuzzy Halloween shapes and texts (i.e.: pumpkins, ghosts, stars, goodie bags, and “trick or treat”). I am actually going to use this same basket for Ammon at Easter time – and just make an Easter-ish liner. We’ll see how my homemade-tracing-paper-pattern holds up the second time around.
That night was our Trunk-or-Treat activity at church. We decided to make an appearance even though Ammon was still feeling a little under the weather. Ammon decided to be a ghost this year for Halloween. Brian and I usually dress up to the nines… this year we decided to opt for simple skeleton t-shirts courtesy of Old Navy. I’m so glad that we decided to go that night – so many people participated this year. We got to see most of our family there. Brian’s aunt, Bev, was a Dancing Queen à la ABBA. We got to meet our cousin, Shelby’s, boyfriend, Clay. Our nephew, Caulin, chose to dress up as an army man – our niece, Lainee, wanted to be Caillou… I don’t know how that turned out as Caillou is a boy. Anyway, Ammon had fun soaking everything up. He loaded up on lots of candy… candy that we will probably still be whittling away at next Halloween.
Thursday morning, Ammon and I ventured up to Enterprise. We started out with a visit to see my dad, then to my mom’s office. Ammon enjoyed crawling all over both places… trying to find a way into those “off limits” areas. We went to lunch with my mom and grandmother to Old Mexico. Ammon even got to sit in a big-boy-restaurant-highchair. His first time. And my, did he think he was a big boy. He also got to try his first Spanish rice and said "Hi" to our waiter.
After lunch, Ammon and I headed over to my grandmother’s house so that Ammon could eat his lunch. We also went next door to visit with the Waites, whom I have known my entire life. By mid afternoon we were on our way home, and all of a sudden, I felt sick. Within the space of 1 or 2 minutes, I couldn’t breath, had a horrendous headache and felt like I was swallowing razor blades. I have never had something get a hold of me so quickly – but this did, and it got me good. What an interesting week this was turning out to be.
That night, we decided to go and see Shelby’s last football game. Determined to actually stay and see her perform this time, we waited to show up until right at halftime. Of course, this time Ammon was perfect. We ended up staying for the last two quarters. I really enjoyed the game. Talk about my kind of football weather. None of that sweat-off-6-pounds kind of stuff for me. I’ll take the scarf-mittens-and-hot-chocolate kind of football games any day of the week.
When we got home, we carved our pumpkins. That is our tradition for Halloween Eve, if you will. I never made it around to getting a third pumpkin, so we only had two this year. Brian carved an Autobot (i.e.: the good Transformers) symbol on his pumpkin, and I did our traditional Thomas Family Jack-o’-lantern. They both turned out pretty good, I think. We, of course, watched Ghost Hunters a lot last week. This night was no different…
Speaking of the weather: You know it is cold when I suggest turning on the heat. I am a hot-natured person – I love the cold – and I relish the fall and winter months. I am the complete opposite of Brian in that regard. And it isn’t cold now, but there was one night last week that my teeth were rattling and I could not get warm. Needless to say, the heat isn’t on anymore. Brian could probably do with it, but I like it just fine the way it is.
Friday, Ammon and I spent most of the day trying to recuperate from our respective colds. We had a long night ahead of us, treat-or-treating and all. As soon as Brian got home from work, we all started getting ready to go. We loaded up and headed down to visit with Brian’s parents and grandparents. We headed straight to MawMaw and Granddaddy’s house where everyone was waiting for us. After a nice visit, we went to see Brian’s dad, Larry – and the almost-done-Chevelle.
That evening, after our visit to the Nub, we headed to Enterprise to see the rest of our family. We went to see my dad and grandparents first. We ate dinner with them – some yummy chili and homemade cookies – and had a nice visit. Ammon enjoyed crawling all over – especially maneuvering the step up to the kitchen from the den. We fed him his dinner there before going over to see my mom, grandmother and uncle. Ammon got a special Halloween treat from Great-Grandma Lois… some Cheerios! Ammon got his bath and then took to the floor. His great-grandma gave him some paper to crumple… one of his favorite past-times. We had a nice time with them, shared some dessert, and – for Brian’s sake – some Ghost Hunters.
All in all we had a very good week of Halloween fun – colds and all. As Ammon’s first birthday approaches with great momentum, I have had an even greater urge to soak up these special moments… these special firsts. Yes, it was a bit nippy outside when we went to get our pumpkins – but we did it. Yes, it was a bit hectic being “everywhere at once” Halloween night – but we did it. We want those experiences for Ammon. We want those experiences for us. We want those experiences for our family.
So we hope that you all had a very festive All Hallows’ Eve. We hope you had lots of spooks and candy and pumpkins and ghouls. We hope you enjoyed this first hint of holiday.
1 comment:
As always, love keeping up with your life and reading your stories :). I hope you are feelings tons better! And the pictures (and decorations) are great!
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