A few forgotten things

We've had a blast over Christmas break!  I took the boys, and a friend, to see Frozen one Sunday afternoon.  They really enjoyed the movie...and the popcorn.

Honestly, is that not the sweetest face ever?  That tub of popcorn is bigger than him.  I could eat him up.  

I mentioned breakfast at Cracker Barrel on Christmas Eve, but I forgot to post the pictures.  

 A quick game of checkers while we were waiting on our food.  The game prevented Jack from melting down completely before our food arrived.

 Here's the kid that was "made for breakfast".  Too funny.  We will not list all that he ate, but I will offer up that he did not eat much lunch or dinner.

 Sweetness.  

 Big boy that is growing up too quickly.

Our friend D came home with us from Paris for a few days.  The boys just picked right up where they left off.  We went to church, Sky Zone, Chick Fil A, Baskin Robbins and then met up with his parents to go to the Rendezvous and a Grizzlies game.  We really had the best time getting to visit with them...and eat ribs and watch basketball.  Good times.  How I love these people.  What a blessing to have friends who are more like family.

One of the many perks of living in town with family is that they can spend the night with grandparents if we have something the next morning, or even if we don't have anything.  Grin.  When we have a morning to ourselves we enjoy going to the gym together.  Gym times are a highly debated topic around this house.  One morning when Fred and Renee had the kiddos we got to go to a 5:15 am Boot Camp class.  I spent much of the class on the floor exhausted and laughing at myself, but we had the best time together.  Fred may or may not have almost tripped over the step he was using during one particular set.  The image of this gives me a great chuckle when I replay it in my mind.  Great chuckle.

I have grown up with my grandmother making homemade boiled custard.  It is delicious.  Delightful.  Beyond words.  I have never made it.  It seems complicated.  I mustered up the courage to try it and I think it may be a go.  We will know tomorrow once it's cooled.  I am beyond excited!  Fred is particularly fond of it. The following was our conversation via text:

After making it I now understand why this stuff was only made at Christmas.  Goodness in a glass.  Yum!

Christmas

Christmas started with Christmas Eve services at Ellendale.  A lot of our family came in, Dale and Tim, Christy, Fred and Renee, Elzie and Francis, and Mun and Janice for the service and then I cooked a little supper for us all.  It really was great having everyone here.  After dinner everyone but Mom and Dad and Christie left for the night.  We got the boys in bed and then quickly followed behind them.

Christmas morning Fred and I were the first ones up.  We just sat on the couch in the silence and looked at the tree.  It really was peaceful.  

 The boys woke up around 7 and we had wrapped all of their presents, stockings included, in one big box.

 While this was not from us each of the boys got a ticket (from the Burtons) to a Grizzlies game.  Part of the surprise is that they are coming from Paris to go with us.  They treated us to the tickets and now we get to go with them.  Clayton was excited to say the least.  The boys also got money to spend on food at the game.  I don't have Jack's expression, but he was excited about the money.

We had a big breakfast with Mimi, Tee and Christy: sausage pinwheels (a childhood favorite), ham, rolls, eggs, cherry turnover and fruit.  It was delicious.  Fred and Renee even came over since we now live in the same town...epic.  

After breakfast we headed to East Memphis to Fred's parents house.  This is how Fred spent the entire day.  Entire day.  He, along with 7 other family members, had some kind of stomach virus.  Nice.  Needless to say, we will be celebrating Christmas with the Shackelfords on New Years day.  Good times.  

The kids are hip on celebrating Christmas with the grown ups this week, but they did not really want to wait on opening presents.  Who can blame them?!?  

Here Andrew and Zachary are modeling their super hero attire from Uncle Dan and Aunt Tami.  Too sweet.  

Shortly after this we headed home and got Fred in the bed.  In total he slept about 18 hours on Christmas day.  In an effort for the rest of us to not get sick we left him to recover and headed to Jackson to celebrate with my parents, Aunt Christie and my brother's family.  It was a crazy fun time.  We ate, played and marveled that the house was still standing when 5 boys left it the next day.  Fred rolled in Friday morning just in time to open presents.  Then later that day we headed to my grandmother's house to celebrate with the Thomasons.
One of the joys of the Thomason Christmas is having my Uncle Jim in town.  We always go on a long walk together and get a good visit in.  Typically our walk takes us to the campus of Union University, where we both graduated.  I found these while we were there.  Sweet, right?!?  Seems like a lifetime ago...

There will be more celebrations this week as we brought our friend D home for a few days.  We'll go to the Grizzlies game, the Rendezvous, Incredible Pizza and just generally be lazy.  We may still have a few tricks up our sleeve before the end of 2013.

 

This week

Eleven days before Christmas we decided to get a tree. We actually cut it down it down ourselves. It was ironic to me since we just moved from rural area to a city. While in the rural area we never cut down our own tree, but once we moved to a city we cut one down. Funny. (We took Clayton into the woods to pick out this beauty while he had a fever.  Yes we did.)

Since it's Christmas it's time for us to be sick. It just wouldn't be the holidays without it. It started with Clayton last Friday night. He started throwing up, fever, headache, etc. The next morning we thought maybe he was fine, but no..Higher fever and then Jack started Sunday morning. I kept all three home with me. Fred spent Sunday afternoon at a walk in clinic. He had a sinus infection.
Our church had our Christmas program Sunday night and then they had a welcome party for us. Mr. Fred stayed with the kids so I could go to the party. It was unbelievable. Our transition here has just been seamless.

Monday morning I thought everyone was better. Wrong. A quick check of temperatures proved that Clayton was still sick. I called a doctor and made an appointment. In the mean time Andrew crawled up in my lap and felt warm. Yep, he had a fever too. I called the doctor back and made another appointment for Andrew. Off we went to a new doctor. Diagnosis: C had a viral infection and Andrew had an ear infection.
I was not feeling well, but just kept willing it away. Once we returned from the doctor I started with the stomach virus that the boys had. The next five days were a series of fevers, crying, throwing up, changing sheets, etc. And that was just me...I kid.  Miserable.
Honestly, I wouldn't know how to celebrate the holidays without it!  I'm thinking our Christmas card should just look like this from now on:

You know you have some sinus problems when you carry your own roll of toilet paper and use the entire roll by noon.

I never like my kids being sick. Never.  During the holidays are especially difficult, because we don't get to do any fun things and make memories. Don't get me wrong, we make memories. They're just not memories that will we treasured. Maybe they will be treasured though. Come to think of it...we've all been together. I've gotten to hold little boys that don't ever sit in my lap anymore.  We've laughed and laid by the Christmas tree. Schedules and agendas have come to a screeching hauls. Someday well laugh about our holiday "memories" that don't quite look ideal.

Five on Friday

1.  Our new gym has IPhone docking stations on all the equipment in the cardio room.  To quote our good friend, "We are not in Kansas anymore."  
2.  As a welcome to Memphis present Fred and Renee treated me to a membership to Costco.  Fred and I are going to go soon on a date night.  Seriously, does it get any better than being able to buy 36 rolls of toilet paper, a slice of pizza and tires for your car in one store?!?
3.  Since the move I have been home schooling the boys.  I've ordered a book for Clayton to begin studying Latin and Greek root words.  When I told him we would begin this in January he responded with an excited, "Yes!".  He is not my child.
4.  The boys get up early and start their work.  They work on a lot of things independently.  I found Jack like this working on his spelling.

5.  The boys all got haircuts this week.  Andrew asked the girl cutting his hair if he could have a mohawk (faux hawk, really).  She laughed out loud and did it for him.  He left with the biggest smile on his face.  He keeps lightly touching the top of his head to make sure it is still there.  Too funny!

List of things going on...

I love a list. So, here's a few things happening in our world:

-We said good bye to our church/friends of over 9 years last Sunday night.
-We loaded up our necessities from the house and drove to Bartlett Sunday night to our "new residence".  Home, sweet home.  We are so grateful for a place to lay our heads during this time of transition.  The playground in the front yard doesn't hurt either.

Coincidentally, this house feels like we are just on vacation since we don't have the majority of our stuff here. The only thing missing to make it feel like a vacation is the beach/ocean and perhaps a hot tub.  I can't really do anything about the beach, but a hot tub...now that's different.  Maybe I'll bring it up at our next business meeting?!?
-The boys and I started home school Monday morning.  They started school at 5:30 am.  By 8:00 am Jack was finished with the majority of his work and asked what was for lunch.  At 8:00 am.
-We went to IHOP one day for breakfast.  I ordered food for all of us to share.  Jack was very upset with the prospects of sharing breakfast.  He gave several reasons as to why he could not share and then he said the ultimate..."I have mono.  I can't share."  I told him I would divide the food before he ate any.  To which he responded, "I'll just lick it before you have a chance to divide it."
-Fred has been settling in to his office.  You know, unpacking 25 boxes of books and what not.  While the boys were at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house I helped him decorate it a little.  We are making progress.  Hopefully, I'll be able to convince my mom to make some curtains sooner rather than later. :-)

-Our good friends from Paris came this weekend to Incredible Pizza.  Of course, we had to join them.  Of course.  Incredible pizza + Incredible friends = An Incredible Time

-Sunday morning was Fred's first Sunday.  It was a great day.  We even had a blast from my past with the White Christmas March for Missions.  Good times.
-We have a contract on our house in Paris.  Pending inspection and appraisal it should close some time in January.
-We made an offer on a house in Bartlett.  We have not heard anything yet, but I know God has a plan for us.
-We went to a Christmas party last night with our Sunday School class.  We played a game that was so much fun!  Fred and I came home with a Christmas toilet seat cover and a strand of Christmas lights.  It was great!
-Since our trip I am still not right on my times.  I've been waking up at 3:58...on the dot almost every morning.  I usually go back to sleep until 4:30 or so.  You can really get a lot done if you get up at 4:30.  It's a good thing, because when you get up that early you are ready for bed at 7:00 pm.
-Fred and I got to go to dinner Friday night.  We took the kids to Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house.  Bliss.  They spent the night because we were running St. Jude Half Marathon the next morning.  It actually ended up being canceled so we had the next morning off.  Good times.  Fred slept until 8:45 am.  I was up at 5:00 am.
-I tried two new recipes this week.  You too can try them by clicking here and here.
Andrew would like to give a testimonial.  He called it deliciousness.
-I have bought about 5 Christmas presents so far and have addressed zero Christmas cards.  I am not even stressed about it.  It can be nothing but the Lord.
-I had to go to the grocery Monday mid-morning.  I chose Super Target.  It did not disappoint.  It did not.