Since We've Been Home

A LOT has happened in the last 10 days. It truly has been a whirlwind. I'll just try to give you the hilights.
Wednesday, December 3: Asa was sleepy. I woke him up a few times during the morning and he fell right back to sleep. I was concerned because he had been sick and I had done some reading about dehydration. I got him an appointment that afternoon and it turned out that he was fine. I guess the trip and sickness really took a toll on him. We missed going to church that night. I was sad to miss seeing friends.
Thursday, December 4: This was the day that I felt like I did a lot of work during the day but the house didn't look any better by the time James got home. I had a bit of a melt-down because I felt my efforts were wasted. Now I see that there are more important things than the clutter in my house after vacation.
Friday, December 5: After James got home from work he got a call from his dad that Grandma Light passed away. I knew right away that he had to go back to Arizona for the funeral but I didn't know how that was going to happen. After dinner we went to see Christmas in the Park at Longview Lake. If you're from Iowa, think Jolly Holiday Lights. We drove around and looked at the light displays, and it was free! The boys sat in the front with us. The best part was free chocolate at the end.
Saturday, December 6: I had an open house for Tastefully Simple at someone else's house. She was having a "One Stop Christmas Shop" with a lot of different vendors. I was up late Friday and early Saturday preparing food and materials for the day. It wasn't the best day for sales, but I met some interesting people and had a pretty good time. The boys enjoyed their time with Daddy. Asa ate a lot while I was gone. I guess he was hungry since he hadn't had much to eat all week!
In the evening there was a party that we went to. I think I have mentioned our friend Dawn from church. She came and stayed with the boys when I went to the ER with mastitis. She has offered several times to watch Asa and Judah and always seems to love taking care of them. Her husband Guy has been in Kosovo with the military for a while and was home on leave. It was great to spend time at their house and get to know him better. It's funny how you can see someone's personality through their family. I felt like I knew Guy because of things I had heard and the lives his wife and kids lived. It was really a great evening!
Sunday, December 7: Of course, we went to church. What else would we do on a Sunday. The nice thing was that we are doing something different during Advent. Instead of having several adult Sunday school classes, we are all meeting together. They have chairs set up in little circles and we are encouraged to sit with people we don't know very well. The lesson is discussion oriented so we get to know the people in our circle as we discuss and answer the questions. It's really a lot of fun. I will admit that we are friends with everyone that sat in our circle. I sat next to a friend when I went in because I needed to nurse Judah and didn't want to plop down by a stranger for this delicate task! After church we went to Culver's with some friends and then home for nap/cleaning time. The boys took naps while James and I cleaned in preparation for our Christmas tree. After nap time, we went out to cut down our tree.

We even got to ride on a hay rack. Which was called a wagon. I felt like a city slicker because we were making a big deal of this hay ride over to find our Christmas tree.

We got home and James set up the tree while I fed Judah. I was signed up to be a driver for the Women's Ministries Christmas Tour of Homes. I probably would have skipped if I wasn't going to be a driver since we had just gotten our tree. I've had more fun on similar outings in the past, but I did get some really good food! And a yummy cold coffee drink. Mmmmmm.
Monday, December 8: James went to work and worked extra hard to get caught up before being gone another three days this week. He is flying out to Phoenix Tuesday after work. In the evening we had two meetings at church. James went to one, I went to the other. After the meetings we went home to pack James up and decorate the Christmas tree. Packing took longer than normal. I say packing but really James picked out his clothes and I packed them on Tuesday to save his time. He tried on his suit to make sure it looked OK, so that took a while. By the time we were decorating the tree, it was pretty late. We ended up having fun and getting into the Christmas spirit. And the tree looks great. It's always so much fun to get out the ornaments and remember hanging them on the tree as a child.
Tuesday, December 9: I spent the day getting things ready for James' trip to Arizona. I had to be careful to pack according to airline regulations since he wasn't going to pay $20 to check a bag. It also snowed pretty steadily all day. I had to leave extra early since I didn't know what the roads would be like. It seems like they don't do much plowing when the snow falls. They just wait for it to melt off the streets. It's really pretty annoying. We (myself and the babies) picked James up and made it to the airport in plenty of time for him to catch his flight. It was pretty sad telling James goodbye. Asa wanted out of his car seat and wanted James to hold him. I was just sad because we couldn't go with him. Then the interesting part began. Since it was 5:15 when we left the airport, we were going to be driving home is rush hour traffic. And it was snowy. Let's just say that the normal 45 minute trip took over two hours! The boys were crying a lot but I didn't know of a safe place to stop. And if I did stop, I didn't know what to do by myself with two unhappy boys. Amazingly I had an overwhelming sense of peace during the drive. I wasn't stressed out. It was weird. By the time we got home and Asa ate dinner, it was bed time. James made it safely to Phoenix and ate at his favorite fast food joint: Jack in the Box.
Wednesday, December 10: I made puppy chow for the teens and went to church. James and his sister drove up to Winslow from Phoenix for their grandmother's visitation. James said it was pretty quiet and he was able to talk with some people he hadn't seen in a long time.
Thursday, December 11: This was the day of grandma's funeral. I heard that James did a great job on the eulogy. I was very sad that I couldn't be there with the rest of the family. Meanwhile back in LS I went over to Justin & Amy's house for dinner. Justin is our youth pastor. They have a son a year older than Asa and one 4 weeks younger than Judah. Asa had fun playing with his friend "Baybub."
Friday, December 12: Today I am blogging.... And cleaning up the house since James gets home tonight. At 7:00 I am going to the youth Christmas party. The boys are going to Brad & Janelle's house. I am pretty excited to see James!