Weekly Happenings: The beginning of this week was pretty kick-back. I cancelled my students since most of them were going to be travelling for the holiday. Thursday we got everything ready for Thanksgiving. A good friend of ours surprised us by ordering a smoked turkey which was delivered to our house (he let us know a bit ahead of time so that we didn’t buy a turkey). I made rolls, green bean casserole, and stuffing. We also had cranberry sauce and pecan pie. It was pretty yummy! Friday we spent most of the day decorating for Christmas. We didn’t brave the Black Friday crowds until later in the day, simply because Paul wanted to get a ladder that he’d had his eye on that would help him decorate the outside of our house. We went out again later to get an electric stove that Paul had been eyeing (we lucked out with that because at our regular Lowe’s they only had one left that had been damaged by the forklift when they unloaded the pallet, so we went to another Lowe’s and got the last one; the packaging on that one had also been messed up by the forklift, but the stove itself wasn’t damaged) and a few small decorative items at Wal Mart (spray snow and some gel clings for the storm door and some small ornaments for Joseph’s Christmas tree…more about that later). Saturday I took Joseph to the zoo so that Paul could get some things done around the house.
Weekly Weather: Our typical fall weather has returned: mostly in the low to mid-70s, breezy, and nice. While I like the cold weather, it’s nice to get a break from it!
What Paul’s Been Up To: Besides work and school, he worked a lot on our Christmas decorations and also braved the storage area in our garage to see about storing Christmas stuff up there. He says that the boxes are fine up there empty, but before he can put them up there full, he’ll need to lay some plywood or something across the 2X4s so that the plastic bins can sit up there more securely. He also took the lights off the little Christmas tree that we bought when we first were married (since it no longer lit up)…that was a tedious task! I helped him a bit with it toward the end. We then put it in Joseph’s room and got him some shatter-proof ornaments that he could decorate it with. Paul also cut out some paper snowflakes for it, which Joseph loves. Yesterday, Paul cut down, sanded, and stained a board to put under our little electric stove. It looks super nice! He also went to the shooting range so that he could get in a little practice before taking his class for his concealed handgun permit, which he’ll be doing in a couple of weeks.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much this week since I didn’t have any students. Just Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff. I had my own little tedious task which was to find the burned-out bulb on our pre-lit Christmas tree. There were 5 branches that were unlit, and I finally found the offending bulb after trying all the lights on about 4.5 of the branches. 🙂
What Joseph’s Been Up To: We finally found a way to wash his hair without making him pitch a complete fit during the entire process! I hold a dry washcloth over his eyes and then use another washcloth to get his hair wet (during the soaping up process he’s fine to have his eyes uncovered) and then I cover his eyes again and use the washcloth to rinse out the soap. While it takes longer than dumping water on his head, he doesn’t freak out, which makes it a lot easier on all of us. Joseph is also continually showing us what a defined imagination he has. He was playing with his cars and a couple of Lincoln Logs houses I built for him. One house was the house and the other was the garage, according to him. He dropped some pennies into the “garage” and then proceeded to drive one of his cars into it. Then he stopped, sighed, and said, “Oh no! Scorpions!” Ha! Can you tell that he’s heard us say that a lot? Must be a Texas thing. 😉 He also came up to me last night with a long Lincoln Log and a short one and told me that they were a stick and a marshmallow that I needed to roast. While his imagination is very active, he is also showing a firm sense of practicality and literalness. The other day he asked me for a cookie. I said that we didn’t have any. He then said that we needed to go to store to get some. Finally, today Paul was reading a book on his phone and Joseph wanted to play with the voice command search (if you say “Okay, Google” the phone will allow you to do a search for something vocally instead of typing it out). When Paul said that he was reading, Joseph said, “That’s not a book, it’s a phone!” When Paul said that it was a phone that could do many things (one of those things being acting as a book), Joseph countered with, “But, no…not a book. It’s JUST a phone.” Silly boy probably said that so that Paul would stop reading and let him play with it.
This Week in Pictures:
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