Calm--Sort Of

This week has seemed pretty calm. No big vacations. No Alaska trips. No huge furniture rearranging. And yet, we've had some things that were pretty notable.

Tuesday evening Scott came home from Alaska. He went to work the next day and to Mutual that night, so we still are missing him. He's so busy with work this time of the year, that even when he's not traveling, we don't really get to see him. He also found out this week that his assistant is quitting (she found a better job), and she gave her two week notice (which consists of one week of her being gone for Thanksgiving, and the next week of Scott being gone to Alaska). So, his stress level has skyrocketed as he is faced with having to hire and train a new assistant, and being without help until that happens. And of course, because his stress level rises, so does mine--no assistant at work, means no husband here at home.

Thursday Aaron had a Thanksgiving Feast at kindergarten. I baked 50 mini cornbread muffins the night before to bring for it. Nate was at preschool, so just Owen got to come with me. Scott went with the kids to "Donuts with Dad" before school that morning, then stayed on to help with the set-up for the feast in the kindergarten room. Aaron loved that his baby brother and BOTH of his parents were there with him at his feast.

Thursday after school Savannah had gymnastics. Then that evening the whole family went grocery shopping at Walmart (we were out of pretty much everything). We also went to Bed Bath and Beyond to get presents for two wedding receptions coming up.

Scott's dad had surgery last week. On Friday night we got a babysitter and left the younger 4 kids at home. We took Savannah and Josh to see Grandpa Mike in the hospital, and then took Grandma Jo to dinner with us.

Saturday morning Scott woke up in intense pain. He rolled around and moaned for an hour or so before he asked me to take him to the doctor. We took Owen with us, and left Savannah home to babysit the other kids. I took Scott to Primary Health, where he was diagnosed with a kidney stone, was prescribed some heavy pain medication, and given a funnel with a screen on the end to pee through (so he'd catch the kidney stone and know when it had passed). Then we went home for him to sleep the day away in a drug induced haze. I had a bunch of errands planned for the day, and since Scott was out of commission, I got to take all the kids with me. I let Josh stay home (in case Scott needed anything), and I took the other 5 kids to Old Navy with me. They were having doorbuster deals, which created a very crowded store (not fun with 5 kids), but I scored 4 long sleeve shirts for the girls at $2.66 a piece, a beautiful $90 black coat for me for only $10, and a new winter coat for Savannah for just $7.50. Then I brought all the kids back home, put Owen down for a nap, sent Nate across the street to a birthday party, put a movie on for Aaron and Josh, and took the girls with me to do some Christmas shopping at a local holiday boutique that some of my friends were participating in. After acquiring some cute knit hats for the girls and a few other fun things, we stopped off at Target to get Savannah some new jeans (her's are too tight, she says). Then it was home to find that Scott was miraculously healed. He had passed his kidney stone and was feeling great (although, we was still a little out of it until the pain medicine fully wore off). So, since he was feeling better, we packed up all the kids and went to two wedding receptions that night.

The kids were out of school on Friday (teacher inservice) and are out of school this whole week for Thanksgiving. As Aaron will readily tell you, they get 11 sleeps till they have to go back to school (well, 6 sleeps now). This house has seen more art projects than ever so far this week, and yet every 10 minutes I still hear "I'm bored!" from someone.

Scott's little brother and his wife had their first baby last week. We still need to go see little Avery Jo. The kids can't wait to meet their cousin. I'm trying to give Kenna as much time as possible before that happens.

And our Thanksgiving plans are up in the air. We were planning on having Thanksgiving with Scott's parents (to celebrate his Dad having his surgery done and on the path of recovery). But, they've decided that he won't be feeling well enough to handle a big crowd yet. So, we've considered going to Aberdeen where all of my family will be getting together. But, traveling with 6 kids is exhausting, and Scott has to fly out for his third Alaska trip Sunday morning. With both of our stress levels already so high, I'm not sure either one of us wants to take on the stress of a trip. The idea of just staying home with my little family sounds like the most appealing to me. No packing, no traveling, no breaking up fights in the car, no laundry to do when we get back--just staying home and enjoying this cute little family that I've created. Then we will have time to get our Christmas tree put up and decorated with Scott before he leaves us again for another week. Have I mentioned how glad I am going to be when all this Alaska travel is finally behind us for one more year?