Ready?

I’ve been busy for the last bit finishing up some projects for the Ransom Made Design Christmas Event tonight (5-9pm) and Saturday (9am-3pm).  Here’s something I finished.  It’s a panel that I found at a thrift store and I made it into a little quilt and machine quilted around each square and character.  I had no idea I could do that.  Learning new skills.  Not perfect, but decent. 

 A friend of my mother in law ordered these aprons for her grandkids to use when they play with her pretend kitchen.  She bought the fabric.  Isn’t it cute?

 One of my reversible child size aprons.  The other side has the fabrics that are on the waist ties.

 A few small adult or large youth aprons for Christmas using some of my leftover material from last year.

 I found this material at a thrift store along with that panel.  I just sewed them together and added the ribbon and batting.  Fun.

 Here’s my table all set up.  Diaper clutches, toy roll ups, tote bags, and microwave potato bags, along with pillows.

 A little more of my things.  Magnets, Scissors, I Spy Bags, and Flower Hair Pins.

I set up Thursday after a dentist check up.
Thursday afternoon was busy, especially for Elizabeth.  She had activity day, then book group at our house, and then jujitsu.  While Elizabeth was at activity day, we hurried and set up a little for Christmas because I took down the Thanksgiving decorations earlier this week and our living room was bare.  Olivia helped a lot.  She did the mantle.  Then she was distracted by the wooden puzzle.  (Yes, she wore that to school.  I make her wear something on her legs now that it’s so cold.)

 I forgot about this nativity banner that I bought from Andy’s sister last year.  I like how it hangs here.  It wasn’t quite long enough to go over my mantle so I’ll figure something else out there.

 Added the nativities and kid toys and books to our cabinet.

 Friday after grocery shopping and lunch, Vincent and Abby played tic-tac-toe.  They still had messy faces (and hair).

 Guess who won this round?  Abby.  They don’t quite get it yet, but they will soon.

 Vincent likes this puzzle too and mastered how it fits together.  It’s more tricky than it looks.

And on to a visit before going to the Event…

Around here

Abby wore a dress Shirley made for Elizabeth her second Christmas when she was almost two.  Behind Abby is the matching doll.  She took the doll to church and loved undressing it and making us redress it.

 I had Andy take my picture wearing the shirt I wore in my ‘fat’ picture from earlier.  36 pounds makes quite a difference!

 Vincent wanted a picture in his Sunday best.

 The last few days have been full of arrangements.  A lady at church went into the hospital with contractions two months early and her three other kids needed tending while her husband works this week.  We passed a sign up around at church and as always I’m amazed at how quickly people sign up to help.  I had two lists in different rooms and had to combine them and tell some people to sign up again next week.  Now she’s home again, but on super strict bedrest, so some more shuffling might need to happen.
I’m in charge of preschool this week.  (Printed the stuff out Monday morning.)
I have a dentist appointment this week and made some arrangements for Abby and Vincent.
Our Mother Daughter Book Group is at our house this week. I’ll think about a treat another day.
The Ransom Made Design Christmas Event is this weekend.  Since I’ve been a procrastinator, I have a lot of work to do.
A lady asked me at the Autumn Event if I’d make aprons for her grandkids to use when they play with pretend food.  She got the fabric to me last week.  This is the smallest size she requested on Abby (who didn’t want to pose).  I like the owl fabric.

 Here it is flat.  The bottom is curved a bit, not crooked.

Whew.  Back to business.
Dinner to make.
I Spy Bags to finish.
Ornaments to finish.
The other three aprons to finish.
And plenty of other things on my list this week, like running my first funeral dinner as compassionate service leader.  I will have help and I will need it!  I wish I could say it will slow down next week, but I know it will not.  Next week is Nutcracker, so Elizabeth, Olivia, and I will be very busy with that.  I’ll be able to breathe again sometime next year I think….

Post Thanksgiving

I’m not that into Black Friday, which probably surprises you since I DO really enjoy couponing, but the sales they have are not usually things I need to buy and not worth the effort of staying in line for hours and hours.  

Andy had to run a few errands that morning and didn’t have too much trouble.

I had a $10 off anything coupon at Kohl’s if I went there before 1pm that day, so I went there at noon.  Man, it was packed!  I found some jeans (the next size down-yea!) that were normally $36 priced at $12.99, tried them on.  They fit and I got in line.  I also had a 15 % off anything that I could combine, making my new cute jeans almost free.  The lines were super long and I happened to get in one that really tried my impulse shopping.  We passed by some Barbies that were half off and I had to check to see if the one Olivia wanted was there and it was, so I picked that up too for $9.99.  Pretty awesome deal.  I left there only spending a little more than $11 with tax and stood in line for 20 minutes.  Not bad work if you can get it.

Because I’m a little crazy and I like coupons and I’m working on crafts for the Ransom Made Design Christmas Event (Friday, November 30, 5-9pm and Saturday, December 1, 9am-3pm), I went to JoAnn’s too.  I was not having anything cut, so I grabbed the stuff I needed and got in line.  It wasn’t too bad.

I had more on my normal Friday shopping list, so I also went to Dollar Tree, Winco, and Walmart.  It really wasn’t too terrible in the afternoon.  The chaos had died down by then.

We had a few hours at home before it was time for dinner.  I thought I’d have time to do more, but ended up doing some of my compassionate service calling fielding a phone call and making a few more.  Suddenly it was time for dinner.  My parents and my brother and his family came over to spontaneous taco night.  We were going to a session at the Temple at 6:15 and we all needed to eat.  Brant’s boys were staying at our house with our kids and the sister babysitters I arranged.  We got done just in time and went for a great Temple session with my parents, three of my brothers and all three sister in laws on my side.  It’s my parent’s wedding anniversary Sunday, so we were celebrating that.  I don’t know how long it’s been since we were all in the Temple together.  A while.  When we got done, we needed to go home so the babysitters could be with their family and so we could be home for our game night (with out of town special visitors).  We talked with my brother about them picking up some ice cream on their way to our house, but instead I guess they had all talked about going out for frozen yogurt ahead of time and didn’t tell us, so they didn’t bring me any ice cream.  Still a little annoyed, but really didn’t need to eat ice cream anyway…  

We got home, paid the sitters, took them home, and then came home to clean the chaos left behind with seven kids at our house.  Abby wrote on the wall again and the sitters were cleaning it off when we walked in.  Toys everywhere.  Dishes all over and some popcorn on the floor.  Abby was just in her diaper and two kids had bathes while we were away.  One lonely apple was left in the bowl where there were many before we left (which was not a big deal since my aunt gave them to us on Thursday and I only put half of them out).  Our kids were running around still playing with cousins and Nathan was there to play games already.  Finally, my parents and brother and sister in law came back (without my ice cream-pouting!) and gathered their boys, paid us for their part of babysitting, and went home.  It was really great to see them despite my whining.  

One of our oldest game night friends was in town with her family for Thanksgiving and brought her husband over to play games with us after they put their three boys to bed at her parent’s house.  Monica was one of our regulars until she moved away and got married.  We love that they still want to play games with us when they are in town.  Robie came after the hockey game was over and we had a great time remembering all kinds of fun memories.

Saturday was a bit of a somber day.  We decided to drive up to Puyallup to our friend’s daughter‘s funeral.  Monica and Nate drove Nathan up too.  We thought about having someone tend our kids, but decided it would cost too much to pay them and we didn’t want to spend that long away from them, so we brought them with us.  It’s good to expose them to things, we think, and they had been aware of the situation.  We don’t sugar coat much around here.  We left about 9:30am and didn’t get home until 9:45pm.  

I took these pictures at a rest stop in Ryegrass.  I like the look of windmills.

The clouds were so pretty today.

 We could see the top of Mount Rainer peeking through the rain clouds and the power lines going through the valley.

We got to the church in time to go to the viewing for little Brooke.  Andy took the bigger girls in while Abby threw a tantrum in the hall.  Vincent found us before they went to see Brooke.  He was nervous about that.  We found an empty room to sit in until Andy was done.  Darren and Sarah told Elizabeth that they had watched the “Brave” movie this weekend and thought of her.  Someone ahead of Andy in line was talking with Sarah about the cross-stitch that I made for Brooke when she was born that they had next to her tiny little casket.  

Andy and the girls came out and found us and told me that.  It was really hard to hold back the tears when I saw the little cross stitch that I made when she was born hanging there.  I gave Darren and Sarah big, huge hugs and we went and sat down.  When they walked in after the pallbearers, I saw that Sarah was clinging to it in her hand like a hankie.  I hope it’s something she will treasure, although I really never expected to see it again, since I’d hoped it would hang in her room.  I’m glad it seemed to be a comfort to Sarah.

What a sweet little girl.  She was only 18 months old, but by all accounts of those speaking at her funeral, she lived them all to the fullest, only sleeping for short periods of time and exploring all that she could.  

We enjoyed the stories about Brooke and her good parents.  I thought of all of the times Darren played with my Elizabeth when she was a baby and could imagine him doing all of the silly things they explained.
We went to eat with our other game night friends, Monica and Nate, Nathan, and Larry and Sonja joined us too at Applebees.  We were all so hungry!
Took the long drive home and got home late.  It was worth it to go anyway to support them and mourn the loss of a beautiful little girl.
After last weekend’s events with this and other things going on, I made a goal for myself to be more patient with my kids.  I want you to know that I’m not giving up on that.  I want that change to stick.  I only yelled at my kids once this whole week, which is about 500 times better than normal.  That one time was when Elizabeth was running with Abby’s bunny teasing her and making her cry, which just needed to stop right then.
Still struggling to understand God’s plan in this, but I do know that there is one.  I know that they will see their daughter again and that everything happens for a reason, even if it’s not something we like.  One thing her death helped was three other little kids when she donated her organs.  There are good things to come for her parents, I just know it!

Thanksgiving part two

After deleting files from Picasa with no change to the amount it said I was using, I uninstalled Picasa and installing another editing program to avoid having to pay a monthly fee to use storage.  Then Blogger still said I was using all of my storage, so I had to resize all the pictures to the smaller size.  It did upload a lot faster, but what a pain!

Moving on…

Thanksgiving in Walla Walla was a lot of fun as you saw in the previous post.

Vincent liked hanging out with the basketball.  I saw him dribbling quite a bit too.

 Elizabeth helped portion out the rolls in baskets to go on the table with her cousin who is just eight months younger than her.

 Abby had to have her special “bunny”.  She always sleeps with bunny so it’s a must have.

 This is my favorite of the family pictures my aunt took for us.  We are semi coordinating.  Brown/gray with purple and turquoise was our color scheme.  Olivia has almost all of the colors in her shirt and Vincent has a blue stripe on his.  Abby was going to wear a different shirt, but Olivia let her hold a nail polish before we left, not knowing that Abby can open those now.

 Dishing up.  YUMMY food!

 Abby sat at the end of the kid tables in the middle of the room.  Before long, she was the only one there.

 Soon Abby moved over by Nathan and us.  She carefully carried each piece of her table setting, with just some help for her plate.  She even had to have her little name tag.  Please note, that drink is grapejuice and rhubarb that my aunt brought, not water.

 Abby was a busy girl and even helped clean up the chairs.  She helps until it’s done.

 My uncle told Abby to hide the ball.  This was the best she could do.  Can you tell by her shirt that she enjoyed her meal?  Also, that is why we take pictures first.

 Elizabeth multitasking while vacuuming with an apple in one hand.  She was hungry again.

 We went over to Andy’s parent’s house for dessert.  One of Andy’s sisters made these cute little turkeys. The kids loved them.  Abby liked throwing some pieces down to Scooter and giggled a lot when he ate them.

 Sara and her family got back from David’s mom’s house and playing began.  The girls love ring-around-the-rosy.

 All fall down.

 Ezra is getting so big.  What a cutie.

 Torrie’s family went home for naps after they ate and came back to see us.  Reagan was puzzled by the red light that shines on faces before the picture is taken.  She’s growing up too.

We are so grateful for our families who live so close that we can be with them often.  We love the ones who live far away too and always enjoy our time with them.

Thanksgiving part one

Part one because Picasa was getting mad at me for having too much on there again and wouldn’t upload, so I used my aunt’s pictures.  I’ll load mine up when Blogger stops being mad at me.
We went to Walla Walla for Thanksgiving this year for a nice, big Thanksgiving with the Crowther side.  Many were missing, but we still had a great time. I think this is probably about 2/3 of the whole Crowther group.

My aunt took our family picture. This one that her daughter took with her camera turned out alright, but I think I like one that was on my camera that my aunt had more.  Expect something like this on our Christmas card. 

Olivia and Elizabeth have a good time no matter where they are.  They are always coming up with new ways to entertain themselves.

 

Our game night buddy Nathan came with us this year because his family wasn’t getting together for Thanksgiving in Idaho.  He’s practically our kid’s uncle since he comes to our house at least weekly for our game night and has been a friend to Andy for more than 12 years.
Vincent wanted someone to flip him over.  Nathan was elected.  Then Vincent worried about his shirt showing his tummy because he likes to be modest.

 Abby needed a turn to be held up by Nathan too.  (She is so thin!  I promise she eats.)

 All of the great grandchildren sang the new Primary song, “As a Child of God” that they sang in their Primary program this year for us, mostly for Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Zora.  They did a good job and all seemed to know the words.  We don’t have many shy kids.

 This is the kid table.  It was right in the middle of the room and all the other tables so we could keep our eyes on them.  Some of the bigger kids ate at the regular table too.

 After dinner, I gave Tina her birthday jean blanket that I didn’t want to pay to ship to Wyoming for her real birthday on Christmas Day and Andy rolled Derek up like a burrito. Abby helped.

 Abby liked wrapping up her cousin who’s two months younger.  He was so tired.

I have so many other pictures to share!  I’ll tell the rest of the story about our Thanksgiving with them when I post them.
If you were following our good friend’s whose daughter was in the hospital in Seattle after getting a dried bean in her lung and had severe brain damage, here is the most recent blog about what is going on there.
They have donated her organs to three other small children who have been waiting for them, making their lives and the lives of their families much better.  If you don’t need them anymore, you might as well help someone else.  I don’t say any of it as well as Sarah does.  Read her blog.
I’ve started thinking of new goals for next year already and testing a few out right now because I need to.  Since Sunday night, I’ve been trying (and mostly succeeding!) to not yell at my kids.  I’ve been trying to have more fun with them and to be patient.  I’m determined that “this experience will be for [my] good” without it having to be the same experience.  Being a better parent is something I should be doing anyway and this has helped to wake me up.  Seriously, read her blog.  It will make you cry.  It will make you be a better person and love your family.
I’m so thankful for so many things, but the people I love are right at the top of what I’m most thankful for and I want to make sure I ‘prove it’.

Special People

Tuesday morning I had the photos printed that my friend Charlene took of my grandparents last week and took a set over to my grandparents so they could see them.  

Grandma was sleeping so Grandpa looked through them first.   He is a teaser and kept saying “What a waste to take pictures of us.”  He looked a little pleased, but sounded upset that Charlene caught him smiling in a few pictures too.  He is quite the ornery man, or at least he pretends to be.  

My favorite picture has to be this one with Abby in it.  She wanted to sit right down next to Grandma and be in the picture too.  

Abby likes to visit them.  Today she and Vincent found some nail clippers and when they pretended to poke Grandpa with them, he yowled like a hurt puppy.  Vincent and Abby thought that was hilarious and kept doing it, but when they came and tried it with Grandma she took them away so they wouldn’t get hurt.

This photo is Grandma’s favorite one.  (Grandpa made me wake her up since it was almost lunchtime.) She plans to use it in their Christmas letter. 

 Grandpa commented on his age spots in this hand holding picture and said it looked like an old man’s arm. I told him it looked like a hard worker’s arm.

Grandma said this one looks just like her ‘poor sister’.  She said her sister who’s three years younger was a carbon copy of her.  (I brushed her hair just before this picture after she asked me to.)

She also told me that I have one beautiful grandmother and that it’s not her and went on a little about how gorgeous my mom’s mother was.  I sure think I have two beautiful grandmothers!

There’s Grandpa’s smile!  When Charlene asked him to smile, he told her it’d cost her, but I guess she got some for free after all.

It is hard to see Grandma and Grandpa aging, but I’m so glad that I get to see them and be around them. Grandma mentioned to an aunt who showed up as I left that she doesn’t know how to repay me for all I do for them.  I brushed that aside then, but really, I’m just so glad that they are HERE so I CAN do things for them.
They are some of my steadiest, stalwart, faithful examples of righteous living and good works.
I am going to need tissues when the great-grandkids sing to them on Thanksgiving Day.

On the way home, the rain clouds broke and let some pretty blue sky through the gray clouds.  I teared up thinking about how lucky I am to be surrounded by beauty and how life can be FULL of blue skies if we can just look past the gray clouds that get in the way sometimes.  

Full Heart

I don’t know how much sense this blog will be, but I must write.  Maybe then I can stop crying…
I read on Facebook Friday night of our former game night friend, Darren (former because he moved away and got married).  Friday night his daughter who is just 18 months old inhaled a dry kidney bean and it went into her lung and caused her breathing to stop.  Despite a super fast response from her mom, Sarah, and ambulance, she was without oxygen for long enough to cause brain damage.  You can read her mom’s account in the link above.  She has amazing parents.  Saturday the update was that the doctors at Seattle Children’s did not expect her to survive after looking at tests.  Sunday night her mom wrote again here letting us know of their prayerful hearts and feeling of comfort on such a trying day learning about organ donation and feeling their daughter’s spirit is no longer in her body.
I cannot even imagine this and only met little Brooke once when her parents came to play games with us when they were visiting Darren’s family.  She was sleeping so nicely and we put her in the baby room with the baby monitor on, but because we hardly ever used the monitor it was on the wrong channel and we discovered her crying a little while later.  I felt terrible about that and still do.  It’s so hard when your baby is crying, especially when it’s your first kid (not that it’s pleasant to hear subsequent kids cry!)  She’s a beautiful baby girl and so full of life by all accounts of her travels and fun with her parents via Facebook.
I think the world of her parents and their faithfulness in this trial, although I must say that I cannot see myself behaving in the same manner.  I don’t know that I would turn to God.  I’m afraid I would turn the other way and that is scary to me too.
Even more than just this experience this weekend, another friend’s young daughter passed away recently and I attended her funeral with her amazingly strong parents and family.
Life is precious.  Spend it wisely.  I really need to take that advice.

My friend Charlene took these photos of my grandparents last week, which again reminded me just how time moves on so quickly.  I won a free photo session on Facebook from her that was an “All About Me” session.  I didn’t feel like having my own pictures all over (at least not until I complete a few more goals), so I asked if she’d take pictures of my Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Zora instead.
She does an amazing job.  Here is one of Grandpa with his walker.

 And my beautiful Grandma.

Again, life is precious.
Hug your kids.
Yell less.
Smile more.
Write your loved ones a letter or give them a call.
Thanks for reading my heavy and sad heart blog.

Typical night

Olivia asked to use my old camera tonight while I wrote that last blog.  It’s always fun to see what kinds of things kids take pictures (and video) of.
I liked this video of Abby talking and playing with Olivia.

You can tell Abby had a good day by how dirty her shirt is at the end of it.

 Vincent LOVES playing with his Legos.  He builds them into so many fun things.  Lately they’ve been guns and Transformers.

 Olivia’s big smile.  How does such a little girl have a double chin?  Genetics.  You are welcome.

 Andy playing some video games after dinner to relax.  Elizabeth likes to watch and learn.

 Elizabeth took some salt dough to school to make a map of Washington and there was some leftover so she created some things at home with it.

 Some things Elizabeth brought home from school over the last week.  She chose to help me decorate my house a bit.

This video shows a little more of typical behavior and how they all get along.  If you have motion sickness easily, you may just want to listen.

I am so lucky!

Little things…a lot of them.

This past week was so nice/terrible/wonderful/bad.  So, I guess just a normal week.

The girls didn’t have school Monday because it was Veteran’s Day.  I dropped of Vincent and Abby at a friend’s house went to another friend’s daughter’s funeral with Elizabeth and Olivia. So so hard, but such a wonderful service for a sweet little girl.

Elizabeth has started to pray that I will get a nap when it’s her turn to pray and asks me after school if I did.  I think I’m nicer when I have a rest. 

Tuesday Abby, Vincent, and I ran a bunch of errands.  We had to take a book to the library that Abby wrecked and we had to order online (so it wouldn’t cost as much) and then pay a little fee.  While there, I found the book that was still showing on my card that I was certain we returned and returned it in.  =)  Randomly, we were at the library when about 10 friends came for storytime with Corkie the robot.  I took pictures last time. Vincent left the library with a movie while I colored with Abby.  I thought he was still looking at movies and knew where I was.  I felt like a bad mom (but don’t worry, it’s not the first or last time I will feel that way.)  We left before storytime was over so we could do all of our errands before the girls came home from school.

School conferences are going on this week, so the girls get out a little early each day.  My calendar said that that was going to start on Tuesday, so for a half hour after they should have been home, I was freaking out.  I called a few friends whose houses they go past and sometimes go in to use the bathroom and one didn’t know and the other said they get out at normal time and the calendar was changed.  Relief!  Meanwhile, another friend called to see if I could watch her two kids while she went to her sister’s house for her sister to hear a lesson from the missionaries.  Abby was sleeping and they came over to play.  Someone else called to see if I could take her child to ballet with Olivia and so I was trying to hurry over to the school to pick the girls up, but my other friend wasn’t quite back yet, so I had to text the ballet friend to let her know what was going on.  Kids were collected and we rushed out to get the girls.  Another friend called while I was at the stoplight asking if she should bring my girls home.  I’m so lucky to have so many friends helping me out, but what a huge ordeal that afternoon was.  Elizabeth went home with the sister of Olivia’s ballet friend to play.  I sat down for a minute while watching ballet and remembered that I wanted to go to the Dollar Tree across the street, so I took Vincent and Abby over there to pick up some supplies for a craft.  Dinner was super fast.  Elizabeth had jujitsu and the other kids had a bath.  I went on a (5 mile!) walk with a friend.  Then I made some cookies for Andy’s Teacher’s mutual and the craft I planned.  It was a crazy busy day.

Wednesday morning I took Vincent over to a preschool friend’s house and they took him to preschool somewhere else when it was time while Abby and I went to my grandparent’s apartment for Charlene Hardy to take their picture.  I won a giveaway on her facebook and decided I wanted some really great pictures of my wonderful grandparents.  They were so cute.  Charlene asked them to kiss each other on the cheek, but neither could reach the other.  She asked Grandpa to put his arm around Grandma, but it was his bad shoulder so it was difficult. Grandma asked her to take a picture of them with their walkers next to each other so she could add it to their Christmas newsletter.  I brushed Grandma’s hair for her.  They were just sweet.  I made this clothespin wreath for them to hold their pictures.  

They were putting them on their mini fridge, but it was quickly running out of space and they couldn’t see them very well.  This mostly solved that problem, although this one ran out of space pretty quick too.  I think I need to make a bigger one (and probably figure out how to make the clothespins stay on better too.)  Pretty good for a prototype.  Grandma liked it.  It was a fun morning.
The girls got out of school early, but Olivia had play practice so I had to pick them up separately since they can’t walk home alone. Slept the afternoon away while the kids played.  I was still feeling my cold. Made lasagna.

Thursday. Thursday. Thursday.  Rested all morning (ie:watched shows on the computer).  Then picked up Elizabeth at school.  Then picked Olivia up at school.  Then took a nap.  Then made the kids clean up the huge disaster they made while I slept.  Burned up our microwave.  Andy threw away the microwave.  Heated dinner on the stove using three burners.  Hurried to a RS meeting with Vincent and Abby while Andy took Elizabeth and Olivia to Jujitsu and to watch the Young Men play basketball.
I learned how a nice sister in our ward makes noodles for chicken noodle soup and had a wonderful time with sisters in my ward and ate some delicious chicken noodle soup!

I heard when I got home about a friend’s daughter who inhaled a dry bean she was playing with as she made dinner. It went into her lung and they had to remove it at a Seattle hospital.  She is now in a drug induced coma and is having seizures.  Praying SO hard for them and her.

Friday Vincent and Abby and I ran our weekly errands.  Bank, Groceries, home for lunch.  It wasn’t fun this time.  Abby yelled and screamed pretty much the whole time and wouldn’t be quiet so I could give her a sucker.  Oh well.  Errands done.  We went to Fred Meyer to get the Brave movie because they had a decent deal and threw some free stuff in, but it was not worth the half hour it took to figure out how to get the deal in their store.  There wasn’t anyone in electronics, so I figured out which movie was the right one for the ad and then found the freebie stuff somewhere else and stood in line for five minutes before the cashier rang me up and then didn’t understand the ad deal (which is strange because it’s Friday and the deal had been going on since Tuesday.)  I ended up having her cancel it all and went over to customer service.  Apparently there was some in store coupon that I didn’t see (or it wasn’t there!) in the electronics section, so I waited while the guy brought that over to the customer service desk and then waited some more while the lady there figured out how to enter it in.  It took forever and was not a pleasant experience.  Then we went to Costco and Walmart (where the movie was cheaper! Dang it!)  Abby yelled through the whole store and that was the end of my patience. Girls home early again (they walked home this time).  Disaster created while I napped again.
Andy came home bearing gifts.  A new microwave.  Andy’s parents gave us our old one when we got married, so it did work for a decent amount of time.
Look at this nice new shiny beautiful appliance!

 It’s even bigger than our old one.  I love it.

Used it to heat up our leftover dinner.  Now it’s time to go and watch some Brave with the family during game night.

Oh and I got a Federal Jury Duty Questionnaire to fill out and may possibly be picked to serve on a Federal Jury.  I know I’m not normal to be excited about jury duty, but I AM excited about the possibility.  Would it take some juggling of kids and time?  Yes.  Probably.  Would it be an experience to remember.  Maybe.  Probably.  I think it’d be fun though, despite all that and I really think our court system needs more people who are rational and have morals to serve so justice can be served.  (Maybe I watched too much Law and Order…)

Well Dressed

Abby is big enough to wear the special thick fleece peacoat that Andy’s mom made for Elizabeth when she was little.

Vincent says Abby looks like a midget grown up. He is funny.  She looks all sophisticated.  I love it.

Just for kicks, here’s Elizabeth when she was about Abby’s size.  

One time we lost that hat in Walmart and had to go retracking our steps to find it.  It was back in the toy section.  It’s always the last place you look (my mom taught me that.)  Times have changed quite a bit since then.  We hardly ever even take all our whole family to the store with us anymore and rarely go in the toy section.  We already have plenty of toys at our house to play with!