We set out on our Thanksgiving shopping trip today!

Ephraim loves these little vehicle grocery carts–they make shopping so much more enjoyable for everyone. Not all stores have them (e.g., Costco & Sprouts) but I suppose that helps keep the car carts special. If it’s a two-seater, the older children take turns riding with him. 

(A few months ago, NPR ran a story on a new development in shopping carts: video players. I’m not sure if I’d take a pass on those the way I do DVD players in autos, who knows how well they’ll do in the test market anyway, so I guess we’ll jump off that bridge when we come to it) 

 Anyway, the children were their usual charming selves and as bnl would say, ‘everything will always be all right, when we go shopping’. We went to Costco, Safeway, Sprouts, Albertson’s and Basha’s, postponed the trip to Fry’s because Elena was asleep, so I went out again later. Some of the fab deals we picked up:

• Del Monte veggies $.08 a can
• Nabisco crackers $.16 a box
• Cantaloupes $.25 each
• Honeydew $.33 each
• Betty Crocker Potato side dishes $.00  (4 free)
• Idahoan Potato pouches $.00 (2 free)
• McCormick gravy mixes $.12 a packet
• Pillsbury Crescent Rolls $.63 a tube
• Cottonelle Toilet Tissue $.50 for four rolls

There’s the usual turkey and cranberries, fresh veggies, milk, cheese, butter, restocking some pantry items, nothing too spectacular there. Glad to have it all out of the way so we can stay far far far far away from the stores for the next week, at least!

Anyone else want to report in on their holiday prep?

So while I’m in the picture posting mood, I thought a little show-n-tell might be fun in discussing some future projections. Everyone loves a good visual aid, right?

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October photo album completed and online for your reminiscent pleasure.  It is huge, naturally, as I didn’t break out the Halloween stuff into a different album.

October 2006 , enjoy and please do ask questions or add comments below. I skimped on the captions to just sit down and crank it out  =)

Most of them pleasant ones too   =)

I had a good doctor appointment Monday (subject for another post), even getting to go child-free!  Monday night we had another family over for dinner and family night (not a surprise for me, but the husband didn’t tell the wife about it until I asked her about the time at the ice cream social Sunday night!)  It was great to discover we had a lot in common, and that we’ll do it again at their house sometime soon.

Tuesday I participated in the democratic republic process and and found it much easier than last time–surprise! Richard found his former debate coach at a middle school in the neighboring district and spent time catching up.  An impromptu evening with some girlfriends, seeing some of the election results coming in on the TVs at the restaurant and whoa–really surprising!

Wednesday the children woke up to find Grandma and Grandpa and Kenny in the house (they drove in about midnight) and that was a wonderful surprise for them. We were treated to a display of the secret Elmo TMX, though it took a few times before Ephraim came out from behind my legs.  Richard’s musical rehearsal cancelled–woohoo! Grandma & Grandpa watched the children while Richard and I went out to celebrate our 10th anniversary–so awesome to have that time just the two of us–thanks again!!

Thursday everyone went to Chuck E. Cheese while I went to women’s group. Lots of fun there. Kenny and Duncan continued working on the Star Destroyer lego set that the children had saved their allowances to purchase.

Richard had Friday off so he was able to come with us to the monthly homeschool group support meeting. It was the annual Turkey Luncheon and it was a lot of fun. Richard organized games out on the playground during the activity discussion. He says it reminded him of how much he misses being a scoutmaster. Ken and Grandpa went to some races at PIR that afternoon. Grandma helped clean up a bit while we were gone, very nice surprise. We went out to eat that night before Richard had to go to musical rehearsal and discovered that Ephraim’s uncharacteristic fussing for the first part of the meal had stopped because he’d finally relieved himself. I found this out as I picked him up to go and my shirt was instantly covered with it. It was allll over the high chair–ugh!  We played Great Dalmuti after Richard, Grandpa and Ken came home. Duncan had a good shot at being the leader one time but finished as Lesser Dalmuti. We ended the game with Grandma as Great Dalmuti.

Saturday they left very early to drive back to Idaho, and we spent most of the day just hanging out at home. Richard did have musical rehearsal that morning. That was a surprise, a day at home with no errands, no get-togethers, no events…

All in all, it was a great week!

It wasn’t something she would have injected into a conversation, even when it was relevant to the discussion. No, talking about herself wasn’t her style. 

He would tell some stories here or there, but the reluctantance to talk about himself was a part of who he was too. 

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Happy Birthday, dear little family. Ten years ago, we started this incredible journey. We decided if we could survive the wedding day we could survive anything! Nine years ago we entered the Salt Lake Temple to become an eternal family. (It ended up feeling much like our wedding day–wonderful ceremonies, indicative of our devotion to each other, tarnished somewhat by extended family drama/power struggles)

Marrying Richard was the second best decision I’ve ever made (being baptized 2.5 years earlier counts as the best) and my love for him evokes tears of joy on a regular basis. Through cloud and sunshine we have walked, talked, planned, worked, played and dreamed together. I never imagined how wonderful marriage could be for me, my life.

Happy Anniversary, Love.

No line when we went in about 12:45, though the poll workers said it was huge when they opened at 6am. The children settled in on the gym bleachers with their catalogues, I picked up my ballot pages and went to a booth. The process went quickly, filling in the little arrows just as I did on the sample ballot last night. 5 minutes later, we headed out the door and off to an afternoon of errands.

I voted today! 

Web albums with lovely pictures of our October events, including Halloween, are works in progress. The pictures have been downloaded from the camera to the computer–progress!

Computer time is not what it used to be, composing time even more so.  Life ramps up and some things fall by the wayside, not always intentionally. I like writing, I enjoy blogging and I want to make the time to do so on a regular basis. Right now I’m taking advantage of a repeat watching of Detective Conan (thank you Netflix!) to pop into the front room and clickety clack on the keyboard.  Given the ordering system of blog posts, I will actually have written this before the one below, but posted it second. It feels better that way.

“Téa, you’ve just spent the 31st of October shopping, costuming, Science Center Hallopaloozing, neighborhood trick-or-treating, traditional Sonic cheap corn dog and free ice cream eating, picture taking and candy sorting. You’re exhausted! What will you do tomorrow?”

“Why, I’ll be at the Arizona State Fair allllll day, leaving the house before 8am so we can be at the gates with the home school group by 9!”

Pictures to come, in the meantime here are the highlights not necessarily in order:

~Rainbo the clown’s Magic show

~Unkle Kunkle’s Farm, where the children move through the stages of farming: plowing the field, planting beans, harvesting vegetables, picking fruit, obtaining grain, feeding chickens, gathering eggs, playing checkers on the front porch, milking cows, selling produse and eggs at the farmers’ market and going to the General Store to buy seeds and start all over again  =)

~The Kidz Zone, a building with crafts and play areas for children. Lots of rocking chairs for adults  =)

~Read & Ride, the children read three books and get three free carnival rides.

~10 for $10 ride day, so we enjoy a few rides together. Rides usually take 3-6 tickets, 14 tickets for $10–great deal!

~4-H displays, animals, handiwork, food.

~Petting zoo, including geese! Who wants to pet a goose?!

~Jewelry and Geology displays

~Picnic lunch–raspberries, grapes, big sandwich, white chocolate chunk macadamia nut cookies and A&W rootbeer.

~A brief nap for me in the foam block area of the kidz zone.

~PET SHOP BOYS, live in concert!!!!!!!!!!!  Can you say, early anniversary celebration?  90 minutes of electronic entertainment! Dance, dance, dance…

So don’t ask me what I did on November 2–I don’t even remember.