November through New Years Eve 2012

November started out with a bang. Or, I should say, a leak. We were getting ready to head for Idaho the next day when Jakob came running upstairs to let us know that he found a leak in the ceiling. Our immediate thought was that there was a leak from the fridge pipe because of mice but when Steve went downstairs, he figured out it was coming from our sink. The food disposal had rusted through and water went from the faucet straight down to the ceiling below. We put buckets and containers underneath the leak and Steve cut a line through the drywall. Water came rushing out—thankfully into the containers.

Steve ran to Home Depot to get a new disposal while I got kids ready for bed and attempted to behave myself. I finally decided to call a member of our bishopric who works for a disaster relief company and he headed right over. Within minutes we had fans going and part of the floor ripped out so the ground could air out. We were told it would be 3-4 weeks before the kitchen was done—which meant no sink and no dishwasher for that long. Awesome. 

I'd had worse. We'd lived with mold and many other problems for four and a half months. I could handle this right? Yep. I helped pack things up (big no-no since I was still recovering) and then told myself it was just a makeover. When I hurt because I had to bend over to wash dishes in the bathroom sink, I told myself it was all worth it if I could just make it to Thanksgiving.

We survived and headed off to Idaho for Thanksgiving. The dinner was great and we all enjoyed our time together until the stomach bug hit. While we were in Idaho, only one person had it but once we got home, Steve got it—just in time for a wedding and then to leave for Florida for a week. That meant I got to take care of sick kids while he was gone. Yippee...

Everyone got it and got over it quickly and I was thankful because we were finishing up the last of the kitchen. It's gorgeous!! I love my new wood floors.

Poor ceiling!

My new (but slightly dusty in this photo) floors!

Because they had to take the countertops off to get the sink out, we got new countertops. I love them! They're much easier to keep clean.

Writing Group

Throughout this time, I was invited to be part of a critique group. I was thrilled to death and I dragged Steve along with me. The first time or two it was torture to my poor, sensitive ego. That only lasted for a short time and now I look forward to having my book shredded so that I can get it better each time. I have amazing partners to work with.

Christmas 

Steve had to travel for a lot of December which was hard but it gave us a lot of frequent flyer miles. See? Looking at the positive side. The ironic part was when he had to be gone on the same weekend we were going to go for a work party but decided not to for finance sake. Fine...

I was partly in charge of helping get the ward breakfast Christmas party shindig thing put together. I had great people to help out and it turned out very nice. And I was thrilled to death to have it DONE. 

We had fun learning to make new candies and adding them to our collection of goodies we put together each Christmas. The kids had fun delivering them, even with it cold outside. I added one last batch of chocolate chip cookies just as it was time for us to head off to Idaho. But you didn't think it would be that easy, did you?

More Surgery

I won't get into the gory details but I'd been needing to get my gall bladder removed for years and since my deductible was dead and gone from not one, but two trips to the hospital, I decided to go for it. Of course the horrible attack I'd had a week before might have had something to do with it as well. Anyway, I went to a surgeon and he found out that I also had gotten a hernia (possibly from the surgery in October) so he was going to fix that. I asked how soon I could travel afterwards and he told me I'd be uncomfortable no matter what so it was up to me. Ha.

Friday the 22nd—yes, the end of the world—I went in for surgery. It was an outpatient surgery so after I was able to stand without wanting to lose my lunch, I was ready to go. The trip home was used as the experiment to see if I would be uncomfortable in the car. I was actually very comfortable in the car and decided I could make the trip home. I got home to sink down in my couch and realized that it only caused me agony. I had everyone pack the car while Jakob helped me walk where I needed to go (I don't like medicine) and then we were ready to head off to Idaho.

By about Bountiful, my medicine finally wore off and I was actually hungry. I'd had to drink a lot of water because of the percocet, which meant we had to stop several times on the way. I was actually glad because I needed to get up and move around anyway. Gotta stay away from those blood clots!

When we reached Idaho, my mom was shocked by the paleness of my skin. She sent me straight to the couch and I tried to get comfortable. I slept in the recliner that night and it helped a lot with the pain. I decided to go with only ibuprofen because everything else made me so sick.

Christmas Festivities

Last year we started a tradition where each of the grandchildren would have a chance to participate in the talent show. Each child took turns and then a few adults did too. It was a wonderful experience. Having my nephew perform his sister's recital dance was probably the highlight but I loved them all!

I stayed home from church the next day to rest while everyone else went. Heidi was excited during Sacrament Meeting and yelled "Go Melissa!" when all the cousins went up to sing Christmas songs. I think I'm glad I wasn't there...

Christmas Eve is one of my all-time favorite holidays because it so full of traditions. They all start around 5:00 that night and go until bedtime. First we start with bean dip and chips, which was the first actual meal I'd had since I had surgery. I was being careful just in case because I didn't know how my stomach would react. It was heaven.

Next we moved on to the nativity. My sister made puppets several years ago and as my dad read the story from Luke chapter 2, the grandkids acted out the story. I loved it! After that came our egg nog milkshakes that my mom does an amazing job with. 

We turned Mickey's Christmas Carol (My mom's favorite) and then we watched Disney's Small One. I didn't realize Steve had never seen it but he told me that night how much it had touched him.

It was time for bed so we made sure the stockings were out and the kids were off to bed. It took a while to get them to sleep before we could finally go to bed. 

Christmas morning came way too early for Steve, and just the right time for the rest of us. It's the one day a year I'm a morning person and he is not. 

We all gathered in the toy room for a family picture before heading up to see what Santa brought us.

Next we got in line youngest to oldest and headed up the stairs. Everyone was chattering.

It was a great Christmas morning. The kids loved their gifts and I loved watching them open each one. My mom got one from my niece that took about half an hour to open because she'd gone through several rolls of tape and wrapping paper. 

We left for Utah after dinner, knowing there was a nasty storm coming and we still had to drive to St George the next morning. We needed a small break in between so we wouldn't have to ride in a car for eight hours. Everyone begged us to stay but I'm very glad that we left when we did.

By the next morning, snow was covering the ground and we were worried about the next trip. We decided to take a chance and go anyway, figuring we could always turn around if we needed to. We got to Provo and decided the roads weren't too bad and continued on to Steve's parents house.

We stayed there that night and then found our rental the next day. It was a rather old, retro styled apartment but it was a good size for our family. It easily fit all of us and we were able to host a few meals there for the rest of Steve's family. 

The kids enjoyed time with their cousins and I tried to get as comfortable as possible while enjoying time with his family. It was great to visit with everyone. They all left our house around 9:30 on New Year's Eve so we watched TV and hung out as a family until midnight. It was a great way to say goodbye to 2012 and ring in 2013. I must say, I was not sad to see 2012 slip away!!

August through Halloween 2012

I have gotten into writing my leprechaun book enough that I've neglected writing my blogs. Now, it's suddenly April 1st, which means that we're one quarter through 2013 already. Awesome.

I could pretty much sum up the rest of my 2012 year in a few words. Soccer, baseball, scouts, and surgery. Oh, let's not forget mice, flooding, and more surgery.

Let's start with soccer. Ethan, Ashley and Gavin got to participate in British Soccer Camp in August. It was a lot of fun for them and their skills were greatly improved. On top of that, though, we had the opportunity to have one of the coaches come and stay with us. It was fun to have him come and the kids loved that he was willing to play soccer or give them airplane rides constantly. Poor Liam was worn out by them but never complained once.

We spent as much time as we could at Seven Peaks for the rest of the season. The first part of the summer we weren't able to go so we wanted to make up for it. By the time the season ended, I had three stronger swimmers, one beginning swimmer, and two that would put their faces in. I was thrilled! We're all looking forward to the opening this year.

School started, and along with that came soccer season. We had five kids playing soccer, on four different teams. 

Steve coached Ethan's team and had a lot of fun with it. It was hectic at times but everyone came away loving the season. Ethan even scored a goal with the help of his friend, Ethan, on his team! Ashley and Gavin played together and Ashley's goal was to score five times each game. She made that goal a few times and others she scored one or two. Gavin did awesome. He never scored but he came close many times. Andy's team did very well and he loved playing. His best friend was on his team and they played very well together.  Jakob's team was very fun to watch. There were players that could some awesome tricks as they passed the ball and I was in awe. I decided this last year that I'd become a full-fledged soccer mom and I never expected to be. I got more into the games than I thought I would and Steve enjoyed watching me. 

Jakob and Andy were also doing scouts and Steve went on a couple of campouts with Jakob's scout troop. One camping trip was staying at his leader's dad's house but it worked out for everyone involved. They had lots of fun. My other kids enjoyed it because we went to McDonalds and then watched a movie that night.

Around that time, I was still having health problems and we decided it was time to have surgery. I wasn't looking forward to it because I knew that it would be hard to do my calling during that time. We decided it was worth it though because I was feeling crummy enough that I wasn't able to get a lot done around the house anyway so we scheduled a hysterectomy for October 22nd.

Oktoberfest

That meant that our Oktoberfest that we had planned was moved up to October 20th. It. Was. Packed. We couldn't walk through the house because there were people jammed into every corner of the house. I loved it! The food was amazing and we had fun talking to friends and family. A lot of people from Steve's mission came as well. I was exhausted when the day was done but it was well worth it.

Surgery for Jaclyn

Surgery went well for me. I had my mom in town to help with the kids and it was a huge blessing. She took the kids everywhere they needed to be and had my house spotless on top of that.

I stayed in the hospital for one night and I was happy to go home. The painkillers they gave me made me very sick and I made them change what they were giving me. I couldn't sleep so I caught up on a lot of reading and several video games. I had Rachelle and the Ellises come and visit me and it was great to see them all.

I was ready to go home to my own bed by the time I got out of the hospital. I slept better that night than I had in months and by the next morning I felt amazing. The painkillers were still making me sick so from about day 2, I went to only ibuprofen and I was fine most of the time—as long as I was behaving.

I'll wait a second while you stop laughing and wipe the tears from your eyes.

I actually did very well with behaving for the most part. I had amazing neighbors that took my kids for the school hours for the first two weeks. It was wonderful to be able to sleep when I needed to - which was most of the time. :)  The meals that were brought were also amazing. I was in awe with the help I received when I needed it the most. However...

Mean little visitors

The Sunday after I had surgery, Steve and the kids had left for church and I was laying in bed. I started hearing running around in my room and I looked up to find a mouse running from under my bed to the closet, and back again. Ugh, darn mice!

There went behaving. I jumped the floor and crawled into the closet, determined to find the stupid little mice. I pulled everything out that I could and then waited for Steve to do the rest (See? I mostly behaved). As soon as he got home, I sent him into the closet to clean and I went to talk to the YM president who had brought me the sacrament. He brought us some mousetraps and another neighbor let us borrow their cat. 

I spent the day getting everything up off the floor that they could hide in and soon they were caught and I was able to live in peace—until they got to our storage room but that's another story (which has ended and thankfully they're gone).  The next day I was very, VERY sore from sitting on the ground and it took a few days to get feeling better.

A Great Night of Friends 

The next Saturday I was feeling well enough that I decided I wanted to have company over. We had two families come for dinner and we had a lot of fun together. It was a great night. I may or not have overdone it but it was totally worth it!

Halloween

Halloween came the next week and I had to be creative without sewing anything (a bummer because I do it every year). The great thing was that everyone came up with easy costumes that turned out great (or at least I think so). 

Heidi wanted to be Captain America and there was no changing her mind. I decided to make the tutu to give it some flare and she was thrilled.

Ethan has one love and that's Angry Birds. For his birthday, Christmas, and, of course, Halloween that's all he wants (or wants to be).

Here's my little clown, Gavin. If you know his smile and mischievous spark in his eye, you'll know this fits him well.

Ashley wanted to be Wasp (from Avengers) for Halloween and I had no great ideas to do quickly for her. So I painted her into her costume. No joke. The shirt, skirt and leggings all took two and a half bottles of acrylic paint. 

Andy changed his mind several times but finally came up with Thor. The hammer was fun to make and his shirt... stank. Note to self: Don't spray paint a shirt anymore! But he was thrilled, I loved it, and it all worked out just fine. Plus, the shirt spent all night outside so it could air out a little...

Jakob was Hawkeye and but did it turn out fun. He helped make everything and it was probably one of my favorites we've come up with.

Steve was the Flying Spaghetti Monster and I was in a robe and nightgown, handing out the candy. Steve took the kids out to get candy and it went very well. Heidi was very sad when it was time to come home—even when all of her siblings were ready to go home! Jakob went with his friends for the first time and I survived.