Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving we are driving to my brother's house. We'll be feasting with around 22 people. Lots of kids, noise, food. After our meal there we are driving an hour to Mark's parents' house. I think we'll be having food again there. Whew! The plan is to stay the night there. We don't have any money so no Black Friday shopping for us, but we may go to the museum for a special exhibit.

Of course, now the weather is turning and snow is predicted for the rest of the week. I hate that first real snow. Everyone forgets how to drive in it. Almost makes me want to stay home. I've been sick, which makes me want to stay home too. Henry is also sick. He has tonsillitis. I have some kind of stomach bug and coming off having a cold with nasty cough it has wiped me out. I'm exhausted. This past weekend our MOPS group had a soup luncheon/fundraiser at the church that hosts us. About fifteen different soups were made along with breads and desserts. I made the blue cheese and cauliflower soup plus a cake and cupcakes. Sunday morning I was getting everything together when I was overcome with nausea and stomach cramps. I never made it out of the house. Thankfully, Mark took the soup and desserts to the church for me. Through messages on Facebook the other MOPS members let me know that they loved my soup (which is way better than it sounds!) and the day was an overall success for the group.

I am feeling better today but still not great. I have to pack us all up and then tomorrow morning we are off. I'm hoping to feel well enough to be able to eat turkey on Thursday!

I also wanted to say Thank You to all of my sweet and supportive friends. Your recent comments have been a huge help. There are many days when I feel such an unending loss and reading your kind words help immensely. Last night I had an amusing dream with my mom and younger brother in it. We knew she was dead and we even made joking comments about it. It had many things in it that just made it so real to me and it was fun! One of the best parts was when I asked her if she needed anything new to read. My mom was an avid reader. We found library books everywhere! And we're donating her immense collection to the library. Anyway, she gave me the name of a new book she wanted to read. The title stuck in my mind for the entire dream but now all I can recall is that the word green was in it. Still, this morning when I thought of the dream I laughed out loud.

Have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all have many things for which to be thankful!

Halloween

Halloween 2010! Henry went as a dragon and Irene as a lady bug. Yes, this is the third year as a lady bug, but this year her costume is new! I think they look so stinkin' cute!

I got their costumes as well as Gavin's monster costume at the Children's Orchard in Traverse City. The Children's Orchard sells gently used children's clothing and some swings, bassinets, strollers, high chairs, etc. For all three costumes I spent a total of $30. Not bad when you consider the dragon and lady bug came from Old Navy. They probably each cost $30 new! I love the Children's Orchard. I get fantastic deals there which really helps.

Gavin was a monster. He looks huge in the pictures but it is all padding from the costume. My little guy only weighs in at 19 pounds which is still the 10th percentile. I'm not too concerned though, he eats a lot and is very active. Even Henry weighs in at only the 15th percentile. Okay, enough about weight...it's about candy and trick-or-treating! We had a great time walking to the houses. Henry and Irene are pros at ringing doorbells and knocking.

Poor Gavin wasn't feeling very well. Out of the blue he threw up that morning. Then he seemed fine. He took a good nap and seemed to be back to his old self. Around 9:30 pm he had just fallen asleep on Mark when he suddenly sat up, coughed and threw up all over Mark. LuLu came over to investigate and Gavin threw up all over her head! I tired to be sympathetic but I've been thrown up on by all three kids before. Been there! Done that! I laughed until I cried and even Mark was able to see the humor in it (eventually).

Like knitting? Check out my knitting blog :-)

A Whole Lotta...

On October 20th Gavin turned one. At the time we didn't really have the funding for a birthday party for him. I was bummed not to have a party with all the family but life was and is a mess.

Gavin now has 6 teeth! My mom used to joke that we were going to have to get baby dentures for him. He finally started getting teeth just after she passed. He is also pulling himself up and trying to stand on his own. He is will walk along the furniture or if someone holds his hands.

My dad came up the day before Gavin's birthday. He brought a birthday cake as well!

We let Gavin have some cake but he wasn't overly impressed. He did like the ice cream though!

The week of Gavin's birthday was a crazy one. Mark got a job with a trucking company in Grand Rapids which is two hours from here. We did not want him to go back out on the road but after applying for an endless amount of jobs here and not even getting an interview he finally took the trucking job.

We had to take him to Grand Rapids the Sunday before Gavin's birthday. I was not happy for a lot of reasons but especially because he would be missing Gavin's first birthday. We went to Mark's parents' house when we got down there. His mom made lasagna for dinner. My kids had fun playing with Mark's sister, Beth's kids. At dinner time Henry came downstairs saying he had a headache. I felt his head and he was burning up! We took his temp and it was 102!!! Thankfully Beth had children's tylenol so Henry got a dose of it. He took a nap in grandma and grandpa's room. Of course, I was worried about driving home two hours with Henry being ill. I'd rather have had mark with me so one of us could concentrate on Hen.

I ended up staying longer in Grand Rapids than planned. When we left it was getting dark and Henry's temp was only down to 101. We made it home without a problem and Henry ended up taking most of the week off from school with a fever that would come and go.

For me it was very difficult to get used to Mark being gone and my mom not being here. Several times on the drive home I tried to call her. It was like getting slapped in the face each time. Monday and Tuesday were hard. I cried a lot. I miss my mom, dammit!

Irene goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thankfully, a knitting/MOPS friend has a daughter in Irene's class. She volunteered to take Irene to school and bring her home. That made the morning a little less of a crazy time. Tuesday afternoon Mark called me. The new company made him do a physical/drug test. Mark just got a two year DOT health card in July but this company wanted him to go through the health screening all over again. Of course, there was sugar in his urine. Now, Mark's dad has diabetes. We have known that there was a good chance that Mark could develop it as well. Well, it seems he may have. The doctor that had to sign off on the physical card would only give Mark a three month card. Unfortunately, this was not good enough for the company. They wanted him to go home and get it taken care of and then they would hire him. So Wednesday morning Mark's mom drove him home. He and my dad actually arrived at the same time.

While Mark's mom was here (and my dad) we went to my mom's house. My dad had a lot of stories to tell about a lot of things there. I enjoyed the stories. He asked to have some things that had special memories. We packed up a couple of boxes for him. Mark's mom took some things as well. We also found a grocery bag full of pictures that came from my dad's grandma's house. He went through them with me and I loved learning all about that side of my family. We always called my grandma Boo-Boo and my dad called his grandma (Boo-Boo's mother) Boosha. I never knew it but both his grandmas (my great-grandmas) were named Mary and my grandpa worked on the big freighters before getting married.

Anyway, Mark called the doctor assigned to him from the insurance company. They were able to get him in within two days. He needed some kind of blood sugar test. Of course, Wednesday we got a series of high winds and storms. The power to the doctor's office was cut off. They rescheduled his appointment but now it is in two weeks. He needs to have this test done and get his blood sugar levels under control before he can go back to work. So right now we are waiting...waiting...waiting. Mark's eyesight has completely changed as well. He used to have 20/20 vision but he has been complaining about not being able to read the computer screen or books. This could very well be a symptom of diabetes. We went to Traverse City on the Friday before Halloween. They have a Lenscrafters up there. The eye doctor thinks that once Mark has his blood sugar under control that his eye sight may come back part way or even all the way. Right now he has glasses and I think he looks really good in them. Of course, glasses were not an expense we could really afford but he desperately needed them. Since we were already in Traverse City we decided to get a hotel room. Most of the places up there had really good winter rates. We stayed at the Grand Beach Resort on the East Bay. I wanted to stay at this place for a weekend during the summer but the rates were way too high for us to afford.
We got a family suite which consisted of a little sitting room and a bedroom with two king-sized beds. Of course, we went swimming!

The hotel is located on the east bay. Beautiful in the winter but stunning in the summer!For lunch we ate at a little Greek restaurant called Opa! We loved it! We tried the hummus sampler and the gyro. The kids colored and had a hot dog. We enjoyed the place so much that we went back for dinner. At dinner we had the Greek kisses and the chicken phyllo. I also had the Greek coffee. Thoroughly enjoyed our meals there.

Mark's new glasses! And yes, they were ready in about an hour ;-) He looks good!

Well, I think I have gone on long enough. There is still so much more to tell but I'll save it for another day.

If you get a chance, visit my knitting blog here