Catching Up!!

Since I basically missed the whole month of December, I have a LOT of catching up to do! So I brought my trusty laptop with me to our old house to do some typing while I wait on the laundry. (Yes, I am still doing laundry back at our old house. John tried to surprise me with a new washer/dryer, but it backfired on him when they called to tell him…the day we closed on the new house…that they were back ordered until January 13th!! Which means traveling back and forth to do laundry for a couple more weeks for me.)

I think I will start with the excitement for me today. When I arrived at our old house, I noticed that the door from the kitchen to the garage was ajar. Not too much of a concern to me as we have had problems in the past during weather changes with it popping open on us when we don’t use the deadbolt. We have a security system at the house, but it isn’t currently hooked to a phone line since we had them transfer our line to the new house. Looks like that was a bad choice! Anyway, I noticed that the little red light was still on meaning the system was still armed….but there wasn’t an alarm going off. Which means that the door had been open for awhile. Still not too concerned I entered the house, unarmed the alarm system and headed toward the bathroom. That was when I noticed that the front door was also ajar. Freak out time for me now! I quickly went back to the do to the garage and called John. I explained the situation and told him I doubted anyone was still there since the system wasn’t going off when I had gotten there, but I wanted to check things out with him on the line. The little TV (I am talking OLD 13”) and small DVD player that we had step up to keep the boys entertained on the days I had to come clean was still all sitting in the living room as well as the subwoofer on the living room floor. Things looked untouched. The front door deadbolt and lock were both unlocked and it didn’t look like a forced entry. So I proceeded to check out the rest of the house. No windows broken or unlocked…nothing looked touched….except in the boys’ old bathroom. Sitting right in the middle of the floor in front of the door to their bathroom lay everything from that bathrooms cabinets – a package of toilet paper, various cleaners, a roll of paper towels, the hand towel that I had left hanging in there and the really strange thing…the roll of toilet paper I had left hanging in there for when we were here working!! VERY strange!! So I don’t know if whenever it happened someone had been walked in on or what. Heck, maybe someone came in, set the alarm off awhile back, then came back and was here this morning when I opened the garage door and they went out the front door while I came in the garage…who knows! Our neighbor, whom we are friends with and even happen to be installing a security system at our new house today, said he hadn’t heard or seen anything. So my guess is that it happened over Christmas, after John and his dad stopped here to pick something up (I think that was the Monday before Christmas if I remember right) and while the Rogers (our neighbors) were gone for Christmas. We haven’t been back by the house, until today, since John & his dad stopped here. So much for John’s theory that just having the signs for a security system up would deter someone from breaking in!! And we don’t even have a For Sale sign up yet or anything. I am thinking we might want to reactivate the phone line here while we try to sell it!! After I looked around the house, I was still pretty creeped out, so I went to Home Depot for awhile. If I didn’t have to get laundry done today I would have just left completely!! But I did need to do some cleaning here, as well as take pictures of the house for advertising.

After that, my December really doesn’t sound too exciting. :) Here’s a summary of our end of November & December...buckle your seatbelt and get ready for the ride!:

Thanksgiving: It looked like we were going to have to stay home since Zach was running a fever Tues and Wednesday morning before. So John spent the morning pressure washing the deck at the old house and I worked on some more of the cleaning. We ended up deciding to go to my parents after all and made that trek after lunch.

Black Friday (Nov 28th): SHOPPING DAY! My mom and I made our annual Black Friday shopping trip. It was a much shorter one than previous years since both of us pretty well had our shopping finished. We started with Sears at 5am and then went on to Dick’s Sporting goods (where mom got the COOLEST skeeball machine!), Office Depot (where I got a new compact camera) and then the Family Bookstore. That was it though for us and we were back home before 11am!

Wed, Dec 3-5th: John’s mom came to stay with us to help watch the boys and help us with packing for the move. It was a REAL blessing to have her here!! It helped SO much!! This also meant that we didn’t have to find a babysitter for Zach while I went with Drew to his “Christmas Craft Day” at school on Thurs the 4th.

Thurs, Dec 4th: Drew’s “Christmas Craft Day” at school. HOW FUN!! They required an adult to attend with each student that day and we spent the time going from class to class doing a different craft in each one…and some even had two crafts! It was very laid back and you did as many of them as you wanted. They even had a snack area set up when you wanted to break.

Saturday, December 6th: Moving Day!! My parents came in Friday night to help with the big move and then Edmond from our church (and also John’s work) came to help as well. They started around 9am and didn’t get done until sometime after 2pm. Darren (another friend from church and also John’s work) and Gerald (friend of John’s) came and help while they could. We are SO thankful for all the help we had!!!!

Thursday, Dec 18th: was a VERY busy day for us! In the afternoon we had Drew’s Christmas program at his school (he was a donkey ;) ) followed by his class Christmas party.
That evening was the Christmas party for John’s work. This is the second year they have taking all the employees and their families to Nakato Japanese Steakhouse for a YUMMY dinner! This year there were almost 40 of us! WOW how their office has grown!!!

Friday, Dec, 19th: We found out there is an opening at the Republic Preschool for Drew to be able to start there after the Christmas break. This is bitter sweet for me. I LOVE his current Preschool!! They do SO much with the kids and he loves it too!! BUT I got a little picture of what it might be like driving back and forth every afternoon this winter since we had some ice already. UGH! I have heard very good things about the Republic Preschool so I am hoping it will all work out fine. He was sad when I told him, but he seems better with it now. And even refers to DLC as he “old school” without blinking an eye. ME on the other hand actually started to cry a little when I called to leave a message at DLC that he would no longer be attending there after the first of the year.

Saturday, Dec 20th: John’s dad and step-mom got into town from Florida. They stayed with us until Tuesday, Dec 23rd.

Sunday, Dec 21st: Christmas #1 of 5 – we opened presents with John’s dad and step-mom while they were visiting. It was a treat for all since we don’t usually get to see them over Christmas. Drew was VERY excited about all the Legos he received (especially the Star Wars kits) and Zach wouldn't put his Cars Mac truck with car carrier down for days!

Christmas Eve: We drove that afternoon up to my parents. We were planning on leaving the day before, but they were calling for it to possibly get yucky weather-wise (which we ended up with NOTHING other than a little rain). That evening we celebrated Christmas #2 of 5 with my mom’s side of the family. That is always an interesting evening with around 30 people in my Grandparents’ basement. It is real togetherness.

Christmas Day: Christmas #3 of 5 - The boys woke to presents from Santa (presents from Mommy & Daddy they had opened while John’s dad & Linda Sue were in town). Drew was elated to find that Santa had brought him a light saber. Mommy is just hoping she doesn’t regret giving Santa the “OK” for this gift…so far so good. :) It was cracking me up when they were opening, Zach was throwing his paper (as he tore it off) at Drew! lol Not with much luck though :)
Shortly after opening those presents, my brother, his wife and their son arrived as well as my cousin and his mom & dad (my dad’s sister and her family). It was then time to celebrate Christmas #4 of 5 – with my dad’s side of the family. This is always a very laid back day which is nice after the craziness of the night before. Everyone also had fun playing with my parents' new skeeball game and air hockey table. Even the two smallest members gave it a try.
There was excitement do to my nephew and his mom coming down with the stomach flu in the late afternoon. :) Never a dull moment I tell you! I also found out that I am going to be an aunt again this coming June – woohoo!! (Hope I didn’t just spill the beans to anyone that you didn’t want knowing!) With the possibility of coming down with the flu and Zach having some sort of allergic reaction/cough/cold stuff (think the rolling around on the floor at my Grandparents’ house – who have a dog – caused Zach some problems) going on, were decided it wouldn’t be wise to visit my dad’s mom, who is in her mid 90’s, or John’s mom’s mom, who is in her 80’s, while we were in the St. Louis area. I HATE that we didn’t get to see them, but I would feel worse if either got sick from us!! We hung out at my parents, and THANKFULLY avoided the stomach flu, until Tues the 30th when we drove back home.

Wed, December 31st: John’s mom and step-dad came to visit…which brought with it Christmas #5 of 5…the final one!
For New Year’s Eve we just hung out with them at our house munching on pizza, bacon wrapped little smokies, Ro-tel cheese dip and various other junk food. It was a nice, relaxing evening. Mindy (John’s mom) & I even got to enjoy some beautiful fireworks from out the living room windows. They were huge, 4th of July style ones that we could see just over the treetops behind our house.

Thurs, Jan 1st: More of John’s family (his sister Rebecca, her husband Evan and their little man ….his sister Joanie and her boyfriend, Steve) came and joined us for lunch. Nothing fancy, just sandwiches, hashbrown casserole and leftovers from the night before. After lunch, John’s mom took Drew to see “The Tales of Despereaux” – he loved it…her – not so much. :)

Friday, Jan 2nd: John’s mom & step-dad left in the morning and the rest of the day was spent bumming around the house doing not much. The boys were all downstairs, and I relaxed in the bedroom watching chick-flicks and edited photos. I also got a chance to finish the latest Robin Jones Gunn book “Engaging Father Christmas” – GREAT as all her books are. It is on the short side and was a very fast read.

That brings us today…and I have already shared about THAT excitement. ;)

Well, I just got a call from John letting me know his sister, Rebecca, and her family are stopping by in a couple hours to visit on their way out of town. So I need to go finish up the laundry as quickly as possible and head out of here!! At least I will get to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather we are having on the way home (it was 72degrees here today!!! On the 3rd of JANUARY!! CRAZY!). They aren't calling for it to last though...suppose to be a high in the 30's tomorrow. WACKY WEATHER!!