Two weeks since Mimi and Pops; one week till M and P = super behind!

Two weeks ago Saturday November 2, Katelyn had a benefit garage sale in the morning for a friend of ours with a kid with down's and another kid with cystic fibrosis.  It was at our old church and she went by there in the morning to help price and sell stuff.  She said it was interesting having different people price items because two identical things would have a different price on them based on each person's opinion.  I stayed home with the girls and attempted to clean before Mimi came.  After Katelyn got home, we finished the cleaning and the girls napped.  Then we headed to Tyler to watch a LeTourneau soccer game.  It was their last game of the season before play offs and they HAD to win.  We got there shortly after the second half began.  Apparently they were evenly matched the first half.  We must have been bad luck because they lost like 5-1 or something crazy.  One of the guys on UT Tyler's team was definitely having a good day as goal after goal without assists attested to.  After the game we headed to the airport to pick up Mimi.  She arrived on time and we headed to BJ's Brewhouse for dinner.  We had gone to one in Wichita but this one was supremely terrible.  The waiter started out by saying "I think I need to be fair to y'all and let you know the kitchen is behind tonight and it's a 30 minute wait time." That should have been enough for us to go to Taco Bell, but we chose to wait it out.  A couple pieces of cold chicken and a ketchup-less burger later, we were on our way to Longview!  To his credit he did give us some free fries for the kids while we waited.

Sunday Mimi helped get the girls ready for church.  She combed and fashioned Haley's hair.  We should have taken a picture as this is the very first meeting between her hair and a comb.  Then, after church, she grandbabysat the girls while we went to a nesting shower which basically means a work day.  I scraped paint off some old cupboards.  I think they may have chosen to get pregnant simply because they needed help at their house.  When we got back, the Feenstra's minus one, had arrived.  They had left Jay with her parents in west Texas.  Mimi and Katelyn went to Bodacious and brought back some food for us for dinner.  I think we played dutch blitz after the girls went to bed.

Monday Katelyn felt super sick.  I had to go to Trinity School, where a couple ladies from our church teach Spanish.  This month they were studying Honduras, so they asked me to come speak to the school.  It went pretty well.  All the kids were attentive.  Katelyn, Mimi, and the girls came to watch me present the middle and high schools.  Mimi had gotten the girls ready single handedly as Katelyn felt sick.  So sick, in fact, that after the presentation, as we were walking to the car, she just threw up in the parking lot.  Aint no thang because she just hopped in the civic with Mimi and they were off shopping while I took the girls home and gave them lunch.  I was supposed to fly in the afternoon but that got cancelled.  Katelyn and Mimi went to chic fil a for lunch.  While the girls slept, Katelyn and Mimi went shopping again and found many stores to be closed on Mondays.  Then Katelyn came home and fell asleep feeling sick and Mimi went shopping alone.  At night we had Bible Study while Mimi watched the girls again and said they did pretty well.

Tuesday Katelyn took Mimi to MOPs with her and it became GMOPs.  Right from there, they met Pops, who had arrived that morning, at his hotel.  They brought him back to the Canche casa and Katelyn made BLT's for everyone.  Then Pops and I watched the girls while Katelyn and Mimi went to all the stores that had been closed on Monday. Pops showed Haley how to build color coded hollow towers, something she had never been exposed to before.  At night we went to Cowboy Chicken for dinner.  I cant believe how many times we went out to eat chicken.  Now that I write it out, it seems a bit excessive.  After dinner, we went to the yogurt bar for dessert.  Then Katelyn ran to a baby shower for Eli Freeman for an hour while the rest of us played with the girls and put them to bed.  Then the four adults played dutch blitz.  Katelyn wants the record to show that she won both nights.  I was about to and then chose to forfeit so she could feel good.

Wednesday Katelyn had BSF and right after picked up her mom to hang out.  Pops' golf outing got cancelled due to rain, so he came with me to Jobs for Life and got to meet some of the men we are working with.  After that, Pop's and I figured we should eat chicken again and headed to chic fil a for lunch.  When we got home K and M went shopping AGAIN (it is so much more annoying writing about it than actually living it) while Pops and I waited for the kids to wake up.  Mimi came with us to the pot luck at church while Merle went to his meetings.  Katelyn dropped her off after an hour for her meetings. At Missio Dei, we packed up boxes to send for Operation Christmas Child.  I had gone out in the afternoon to buy the toys and stuff we were sticking in there.  The girls had fun coloring a picture for the child who will receive our package.  I used to think OCC was an irresponsible, damaging, way for people to feel good about themselves by giving something that is easy to give, but Rin can tell you otherwise and enlightened me to care with which those material gifts are shared directly alongside the gospel.  After Missio Dei, we came home and went to bed.

Mimi looking at babies on backs and babies in papooses

Haley showing Pops pictures of herself (Belle) and Emily (Cinderella)

Emily cooking up a veritable feast for pops while Haley gets her backpack ready for the 2016 School year

A week of catch up October 27 - November 1

Sunday October the 27th was a pretty good day from what I can remember.  David didn't have to work which broke his 5 week stretch of having had to work on a Sunday.  Most of those he didn't miss church though because they were afternoon flights.  We relaxed and took naps in the afternoon and then in the evening we went to a Birthday party for baby Claire.  Baby Claire, if you remember, is a girl from our church who was born about a year ago with trisonomy 18.  It was amazing that she survived even being born and nothing short of a miracle that she is still alive today.  We were celebrating that she had turned one, something only 0.07% of Trisonomy 18 babies live to do.  Not to minimize it, but when they gave the statistic the first thing I thought was her percent of living is actually higher than Haley's weight percentage for her age (0.04%, haha).  Anyways, they had the celebration at the church complete with pizza, cake, and worship service.  I know the worship service seems out of place but Claire's parents wanted to sing praises to God because "to God be the glory, great things He has done."  It was pretty cool and kind of felt normal since we were meeting at our church anyways.  After the party David and I had invited some couples over to play games.  The Yeakleys and the Grubbs came and the Feenstras live with us so they were there of course.  I put Emily to bed early but Haley stayed up and watched Dora for a bit before turning in.  We had a lot of fun, I don't remember when everyone left but I remember it was later than usual.

Monday I think we went to a little harvest celebration in the morning that some of my friends from MOPS and Bible study fellowship were putting on.  They had tons of food for lunch and a craft and games for the kids.  The kids were encourage to come in costume but Haley was horrified when I suggested that she wear a tutu to the party.  I think she felt a little sheepish when we arrived and she was one of the only ones in normal clothing.  She even asked for a princess dress while we were there (there were several little girls dressed as princesses) but I told her I didn't have one on hand.  We ate lunch and played and then cleaned up a bit before we left.  The girls took awesome naps after that party.  I don't quite remember what we did in the afternoon but I know that David had men's prayer group at our house in the evening.  They meet outside by the campfire which is super convenient for me because I don't have to clean up the house or anything!

Tuesday I had a MOPs steering team meeting in the morning.  I packed a lunch and we ate outside at a playground after the meeting for lunch.  Haley really looks like a ragamuffin pretty fast when we are outside.  I heard a mom talking to her child who wanted to take his shoes off and heard him say, "but Haley isn't wearing her shoes!"  I looked over and sure enough, Haley had put her shoes nicely in a corner of the playground and was running around like a crazy person, her hair band was also long gone at this point.  I maybe would have noticed before then except at the time I was giving Emily her second peanut butter and jelly sandwich and her hundredth chip.  Emily loves to eat.  After the playground we came home and the girls took good naps.  I don't remember what we did in the afternoon or what we did in the evening, I don't think it was too interesting or I would remember...

WEDNESDAY we had Bible study fellowship.  It was raining and it's kind of a walk from the parking lot to the church so that was kind of exciting.  Haley wore her hood and I put a burp cloth on Emily's head which she kept on surprisingly.  After Bible study we came home and ate lunch and they played a little bit before naps.  We had church in the evening and then came home and put the girls right to bed.

THURSDAY we had Bible study in the morning at our house.  Haley and Jay were in rare form which led to an often-interrupted discussion.  I think Haley had to go on time out at least three times.  I should just put her on time out for the whole time, she just sits there quietly and stares into space.  I'm pretty sure she's not "thinking about what she's done" like she's supposed to be doing.  After Bible study I put the kids down for naps and then worked on making fliers for our annual neighborhood block party.  Every fall David and I have a block party for our neighbors.  We make invitations in the form of fliers and pass them out on Halloween night.  We decided that it makes it less awkward because people are expecting visitors anyways and we end up getting candy out of the deal.  After dinner I pulled out the girl's flower girl dresses and talked about how fun it would be to dress up like a princess.  Emily was game, but Haley would not have it.  I asked if she wanted to wear a tutu instead and it only made her more worked up.  In the end I made her change into a pink shirt because she was already wearing pink pants and pink shoes and she went as the color pink.  It took about thirty minutes to pass out our fliers and then we got home and didn't have anything to do.  We decided to go to Kroger to go grocery shopping which was the best idea ever because no one was there.  The place was almost completely empty, Haley even got to use one of the kid shopping carts which are always all taken.  We finished up our shopping and then put the groceries away and went to bed.

FRIDAY was a pretty big day.  David didn't have to work so we went to Wal-mart to finish up our grocery list and then quickly came home because we were having company for lunch.  I had invited my friend Libby over with her two kids Ruthie and Jude who are about Haley and Emily's age respectively.  When Dave's trip got cancelled he invited her husband to come over his lunch break so we actually had the whole family over.  I was running a little late on the lunch so when the husband arrived and admitted that he actually was done for the day and didn't have to go back to work, I was pretty relieved.  I made tomato basil soup and grilled cheese on french bread.  Grilled cheese is so much better on french bread, the difference is amazing.  After lunch we were all sitting around talking and Josh asked me where I had gotten my decorative pumpkins on the coffee table.  I told him I had gotten them at Canton, the biggest flea market in the nation, about an hour away.  Canton is only held the weekend before the first Monday of every month.  Anyways, Josh started going on and on about he loved Canton and that we should all go sometime.  Then Libby mentioned that it was actually going on today and that we should go right then.  We all looked at eachother and kind of shrugged and decided to do it.  I packed some snacks, put the perishable lunch stuff in the fridge, and we headed out.  We had to drive separate because there were eight of us total and our van only fits seven.  Libby rode with me and David rode with Josh and the kids all took a nice hour nap on the way there.  Haley actually took about fifteen minutes to fall asleep so her nap was more like forty-five minutes.  We got there around 3 and they're only open until about six so we didn't have tons of time there but it worked out nicely for us.  Usually people spend eight hours or so at Canton but I don't think many of them have one year olds and two and a half year olds with them.  I found a big picture frame that I wanted and David bartered the lady down to $8 for it so that made the time worth it to me!  We walked around and bought some lemonade and popcorn for the kids and funnel cake for the adults.  I offered some funnel cake to Haley but she didn't want any, Emy ate Haley's share.  We headed out around six and decided to grab dinner together on the way home.  We stopped in Tyler which is about thirty minutes away and ate at 'On the Border.'  It actually was our second choice but our first choice had an hour and a half waiting time and we only had to wait thirty minutes for 'On the Border.'  The girls did really well at dinner but by the end Emily was sitting in her high chair and resting her head on the table she was so tired.  We should've gotten a picture because it was so cute, kind of sad too actually.  After dinner we loaded up in the car and the girls fell asleep almost right away.  We transferred them to their beds and then went to bed ourselves.

Haleyism:
Haley loves to give compliments, she is quite flattering.  If I am in my bath robe she will tell me that she loves my dress.  Often she tells me she likes my hair, "It is brown like mine" she likes to say.

Emilyism:
 Emily loves to shake her head and say 'no.'  See the video below...

By the way, she did want the macaroni and cheese once it was offered.

Ready to go grocery shopping on Halloween night.  Notice her 'pink' costume.

Catch up compliments of Mimi!

First off, everyone can give a big thank you to Mimi who made this post possible by folding all the loads of laundry that were waiting for me in the laundry room.  If Mimi hadn't done that for me this afternoon I would be doing that right now!  The last time I posted was for Monday, October 21st!

I've got to be honest, I don't really remember too much of what happened the rest of that week.  We had MOPS on Tuesday but David did not have to work until the afternoon so I left the girls home with him.  I'm sure the girls took a nap in the afternoon and then we don't ever have anything on Tuesdays so we usually give them baths so we probably did that.

WEDNESDAY we had BSF in the morning and church in the evening.  David had to work late that night so he wasn't able to make it to church.  I'm not even sure if that was how the day went but probably!

THURSDAY we had Bible study in the morning.  We met at the Keuker's house which is the home of Haley's good friend Addy.  They played nicely during the study, they spent a lot of time changing dresses.  In the afternoon we came home and took naps.  Thursday evening I had a MOPs event called the 'Sip 'n Shop.'  It's where a bunch of moms can sell things from their businesses.  For example, Julianne sells thirty-one bags and she was there, there was a Mary Kay girl, and a bunch of girls that sew things to sell.  While I was at the event, David was home with the girls and entertaining my Uncle Dave who had come into town to look at LeTourneau with my cousin Turner.  Uncle Dave got in around eight thirty or so and he got to meet the girls before David put them to bed.  Then he and David chatted it up until I got home and then we talked some more before we all went to bed.

FRIDAY David worked but he made it home by the afternoon.  We went out to grab some things for dinner from the store.  Then we met Uncle Dave and Turner at LeTourneau and dropped David off with them to take them to the airport and show them around.  The girls and I went home and started dinner and it was ready by the time the boys got back.  I made pork tacos and Mexican rice and chips and salsa.  Uncle Dave ate several tacos but Turner only ate one, I don't think he was a fan.  It was pretty much confirmed when he ate four brownies for dessert, oops.  They left around 8:30 and we put the girls to bed and then probably did something wonderful  but I can't remember!

We actually have a pretty good account of Saturday because David wrote it for me back when it happened and I had it saved until I actually came to that day!
Saturday, I finally broke my streak of working six days a week and brought it down to five.  I was able to sleep in and spend time with Katelyn and the girls. Emily did not sleep that great.  She woke up once at like 2 am and I gave her a bottle. She was also the first one up just after 8 am. I gave her some allergy medicine because she seemed to be having a hard time breathing and her nose was really runny. She also could be getting teeth though because it didn't really seem to help much. Then I stuck her in her high chair and gave her some honey bunches of oats to eat.  Haley woke up shortly after and went straight to the den to play with jay who had been awake for some time already. Todd kindly made pancakes for everyone and Haley and Emily each ate one of those.  After Katelyn got up we got ready for the day.  Our church is thinking about buying a house...random I know. Anyway, it was open for us to see today at ten so we went over there and looked at it. The downstairs is set up as a coffee shop. It's really pretty neat. The upstairs is like 8 rooms but I don't know what you would use them for and they aren't finished anyway. After we were done looking at the house we stayed downtown. Actually, pretty much right behind the house is the Amtrak station. Next to the station is a park with a little jungle gym that looks like a train. Emily really liked sliding down the slide, which was all of three feet long and really shallow, perfect for a baby. Katelyn really did not feel good though, so we left after a short while. We came home and ate lunch quick and then put the girls down for a nap.  They really did not sleep well. After their naps we played a little while but pretty soon they were kind of fussy again so we figured they needed a change of scene. We decided to go to the park and walk on the trail. The girls did well on the way there and played on the toys.  Emily liked going down the curly slide too.  They also liked swinging.  We tried to get Haley to learn to pump so we won't have to push her anymore.  She gets it I think but she kinda got sick of it after a while. On the way home, they were not quite as easy on the way home. The Feenstra's cooked white chili for dinner. It was really good.

Haleyism:
Our pastor just finished a sermon series on the Lord's Prayer and we have been saying it more often, at meals and before bed and so forth.  Anyways, Haley has almost the whole thing memorized!

Emilyism:
Emily walks really well now, I think it started about two weeks ago...sorry about the late notice...

Emy playing at the park on Saturday