It's all good . . .

Life in November

Fall has come to Pennsylvania, and our neighborhood looks so beautiful right now with the trees all ablaze with color.  I know it won't be long until the leaves are gone, and so I am soaking up the beauty while it lasts.

The beginning of November has also been full of beautiful weather, and although it is starting to get cold, last week was gorgeous and in the 50's and 60's.  The kids loved getting to spend time outside.

Arthur has been learning all about nursery rhymes at school, and so I taught him how to play "London Bridges," and he got his siblings to play with him.  It was pretty funny.

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And my flowers are still going strong - especially this amazing yellow mum.  I planted it last year, and it came back gigantic this year.  I love the gorgeous pop of yellow.

Inside the house, I also have some flowers.  Before Kevin left, he bought me the prettiest roses, and they are still so beautiful.  It makes me happy every time I see them.

On Sunday, we had our Young Women in Excellence celebration.  I truly love working with the Young Women in our ward, and we may be a really small group, with only six girls, but it is a wonderful group.  I sure do love these girls - Geri, Lily, Ryley, Lillian, Nikki, and Natalie.

We started things off with a dinner - we kept it pretty simple, with pulled pork we had cooking in our Instant Pots during church,  I brought a giant batch of homemade mac & cheese, and the girls brought dessert. It was perfect.

After dinner, the girls presented the things they have been working on over the past year.  Lily shared a lot of the stories she has been writing lately, which was fun.  The whole thing only lasted 45 minutes, which was awesome.  It was a wonderful evening.

Tuesday was Election Day, and even though my Monday was insane, and I was still playing catch-up, I picked up my friend, Becky, and we went to vote.  I am so grateful to live a country and at a time where I have the right to vote. 

The rest of the week was still a bit on the busy/hectic side, between music lessons, meetings, appointments, etc.  We are finishing it off with a really low-key Saturday though.  Thank goodness.  The kids did their chores, and when Arthur got home from his primary program practice, I gave Arthur a little vacuuming lesson.  He tried his best, and I ended up finishing the room, but hey, you've got to start somewhere.

Once they finished up, we made a quick trip to the library, and then it was time for relaxing - and eating bread that a neighbor dropped by.  Yum!

But the best part was my "date" with Lily.  While Kevin is gone, I am going to trade off taking the kids out.  Lily's choice for dinner was Chipotle, and so I picked up dinner to go, and then we settled down into the basement to eat and watch the Broadway version of "Newsies," on Netflix - which was so very good, by the way.  (Derek made Kraft mac & cheese for his and Arthur's dinner, and they watched a movie upstairs.)  It was the perfect way to end the week, and a great way to reward my amazing Lily for all the help she has been for me since Kevin left.

Choosing Gratitude

Monday started out like any old day.  In fact, it actually started really well - Arthur got to be a van rider for the first time, I got in a really good workout, and then I went to Costco in Lancaster with my friend, Becky.  It was when we stopped at Chick-fil-A for lunch, that everything started going downhill.  

We got our food, got in the car, and it would not start.  The lights lit up, but then there was a terrible clicking noise instead of the engine turning over.  I was just sick inside.  We had a car full of cold and frozen food, I had an appointment that afternoon for the piano tuner to come, we had plans with friends that night, not to mention the fact that my kids were going to be coming home from school and have no idea where I was.  

It was not good.  It was a bad situation, but it could seriously have been so much worse.  As everything was going down, I prayed so hard for help.  And help is what I got.  The car did not miraculously start, but things fell into place to work out for the best, in spite of the bad stuff.  I was tremendously blessed, and although it was a very hard situation, I decided to choose gratitude.

I am choose to be grateful for:

*The fact that when my car broke down, we were sitting in a parking spot at Chick-fil-A, and not out on the road.  I can't even imagine if it had died while we were driving on the highway.

* That Kevin just happened to message me as everything was going on, so that he could give me support and love, even half a world away.

* That even though it didn’t work to jumpstart my car, there was a jeep full of really nice firemen who tried it – and in the pouring rain no less.

*That it was 50 degrees and raining, and not cold and snowy.  That would have made things so much worse, especially since I had to sit in my car for hours.

*That my friend, Jennie, was able to come pick up my friend, Becky, who was with me - as well as take all my cold and frozen food that I had just bought at Costco, so that it could get put away in my fridge and freezer, and I didn’t have to worry about it going bad.

*That even though it took three hours for the tow truck to get to me, that they did get to me and take me to a mechanic before they closed. I guess they were super swamped with calls, and some people they weren’t going to get to until tomorrow. So blessed that they got to me.

*That there was a Honda dealership within the allotted 11 miles of towing that my roadside assistance covered. That means I don’t have to pay a dime for the towing. What a blessing!

*That my phone stay charged enough that I could read a book during those many hours of waiting.

*That even though it was almost closing time when I finally got to the Honda dealership, and even though they were slammed with customers, they took pity on me, checked out my car, and discovered the problem.

*Not only did they have a new alternator in stock, but they stayed late to put it in my van so that I could go home tonight and not have my car sitting there for a whole other day.

*That my sweet and amazing daughter not only made sure her brothers got their homework done, made dinner for them, and switched over my laundry so that it was all done by the time I got home, but when I got back, both boys were in their PJs and she was reading to Arthur. What a tremendous blessing!

Six and a half hours after the car first broke down, I was home with my sweet kids.  Thank goodness!  And yes, this was definitely  not the day that I had planned, but in spite of all the craziness, I had guardian angels watching out for me. I know that all these blessings were  because of the prayers that all of you have been offering in our behalf, and I am truly grateful.

PS. Once I was finally home and the kids were all set for the night, I got myself some bread and jam for my dinner and watched a Hallmark Christmas movie to cheer myself up.  Good times.

 

Answered Prayers

With Kevin's deployment, the person I was most worried about was Arthur.  Unlike his older siblings who have been through this all before - more times than they can count - Arthur, on the other hand, was a baby the last time Kevin was gone like this.  He has no memories of it at all, and other than a week here and there, hasn't been apart from his dad.  And he and his daddy are very close.  So I was worried.

On the surface of things, Arthur has actually been doing very well.  He appears to be cheerful and his normal self, but just under the surface, he is a bundle of raw emotions.  He starts crying at the least little provocation, and is often breaking down and crying at school.  And at the bus stop, which is a whole other thing.

Arthur, partly because of his autism, and partly because he is five, has hyper-focused on being the first person on the bus in the morning, and the first person off the bus in the afternoon.  He was making me walk to the bus stop extra early so he could line up and be the very first person in line.  Unfortunately, the few times he wasn't first, he completely fell apart, which set him into a total tailspin.

And then there were the older kids that ride the bus, who decided to make sport of Arthur's distress by making a new line for the bus in the morning, or rushing ahead of him to get off of the bus.  It was turning into a very bad situation, and I felt like I had no control over any of it.  And then on Thursday, Arthur collapsed to the ground as he was getting off of the bus, because he was so sad not to be first.  Lily had gone to pick him up, and he would not move, he was so upset.  My friend had to help move him, so that the bus could drive away.  I found myself praying, once again, to help me solve this problem.

And then on Friday, I got a call from Arthur's principal with an idea.  In our area, besides the busses, they also have vans that pick kids up and take them to school, and she found a van on our route that had an opening.  And would I want Arthur to be a van rider??  I almost cried on the phone, as I was so grateful for this amazing answer to prayer.  When I told Arthur about it, he was so excited that he ran around the house yelling, "Hip, hip, hooray!"  I guess he liked the idea ;).

And so this morning, Arthur got to ride the van for the first time, and it was perfect.  I am truly grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that answers the prayers of his children.

Halloween Adventures

Although it is always sad when Kevin is gone for Halloween, which has happened quite a bit, we still managed to have a great holiday, and the kids had a blast.

We started things off with a special Family Home Evening Halloween party we were invited to at the Badten's house.  The Bergs and Goulds also came, and the kids had so much fun decorating pumpkin cookies.  We also played charades and ate lots of yummy Halloween themed food, like mini mummy dogs, deviled egg eyeballs, and punch with a floating hand in it.  And lets not forget the spiderweb chocolate cake.  Yum!  We had such a fun night, and it made the first Sunday with Kevin gone fly by.

On Tuesday night, for our youth activity, we went trick-or-treating for canned food in the neighborhood.  We had so much fun, and were able to collect so much food to take to the local food bank.  Not only that, but the kids loved having another excuse to wear their costumes.

Speaking of costumes, we had a Legend of Zelda theme going on, with both Arthur and Derek as different versions of Link, and Lily dressed up as Zelda - she even made her own harp.  Kevin made Derek's blue tunic, and it turned out so awesome!

Arthur also got to wear his costume to school, which he loved.  And I loved that they didn't have a Halloween party for me to plan and carry out ;).

After school, Arthur got home and had earned a special bee for "being responsible, kind, and following the rules."  And the best part was that he got to FaceTime with his daddy and show him.  Can I just tell you how grateful I am for technology?  What a blessing to have moments like this.

For dinner, we had our traditional meal of mummy dogs and jack-o-lantern oranges.  It is so easy to make on such a hectic night, and my kids just love it.

We were so blessed that it was gorgeous weather on Halloween.  It was in the sixties and clear and warm.  If only it could be like this every year :).  the kids looked great in their costumes, and they were raring to go.

I decided to do something different this year, and I sent Lily and Derek off on their own, while Arthur and I went by ourselves.  That meant that the older kids could go as fast as they wanted, and I didn't have to spend the whole night yelling for them to wait for Arthur.  It worked out so well, and they were even able to stop off at the haunted house on the other side of the neighborhood.

Arthur and I had so much fun, and he was awesome.  My favorite thing though, was when he was "fighting the bad guys" at people's houses - everything from giant spiders and spooky ghosts.  It was seriously the best.

When we all got home for the night, we separated the candy, pulled out what we need for our candy train in December, and I let them eat some as well.  It was a great night, and we all had a lot of fun.  I would say that it was one successful Halloween adventure.

It's Goodbye Again . . .

When Kevin got out of the Army, we truly thought that the days of deployments were past us.  And we have had five solid years of Kevin being there, which is amazing.  Especially considering that he was gone 4-6 months a year when he was in the Army.  When he started his new job two years ago, we discovered that a deployment was a possibility at some point, and although we definitely didn't want to have to be apart from each other, we knew it was inevitable.  

Kevin and I spent a lot of time in prayer, and after weighing all the options, we decided that now was going to be the best time for a deployment to happen.  (Not that there is ever a good time for a deployment, but oh well.)  And once we made the decision, things happened very fast.  In fact, we only had six weeks notice, which actually worked out well, since it meant that we didn't have to dread it for months.  

And so the past few weeks have been busy, but we have tried to clear our plates as much as we could, so that we spent as much time together as possible.  Lots of extra cuddles and extra time with dad.  Last weekend, we spent our last Saturday together playing games, talking, and Kevin playing video games with the kids.  And that night, Kevin and I snuck in one last date, and had a wonderful dinner at The First Post, a wonderful restaurant in town.  It was such a nice night, and I tried really hard not to cry during dinner.

And yesterday was the big day.  Kevin packed, and I tried to stay as busy as possible, because I felt like if I stopped for a minute, I would just sit and cry.  We went out to lunch in the middle of his packing, and I could barely eat a bite, because I was so sad and anxious.  Seeing his bags all packed made the reality of his leaving so apparent, it hurt my heart.

And in true Kevin fashion, he surprised me with gorgeous roses (he even knows the colors I will like the most) and some fabulous new hot pads that he crocheted for me.  I love them both so much.  He knows me very well.

After school, Kevin picked up Arthur from the bus stop one last time, and then we tried to get a few pictures.

We were dropping him off in Baltimore at BWI, and so we decided to get dinner on the way at our favorite place, The Iron Rooster.  And although I still could barely eat a bite, I still ordered my chicken and waffles, as well as my berry pop tart.  (Don't worry, I am eating the leftovers today.)  I could tell that Kevin felt the same way that I did, because he only ordered a pumpkin pop tart, and he couldn't finish it.

Then it was time to go to the airport.  We turned on a movie in the car for the kids to help distract them, and Kevin and I tried not to cry, sitting in silence most of the time, our hearts so full, we couldn't speak.  The hugs goodbye were the worst.  I never wanted to let go.  He is my other half, my best friend, and I feel lost without him.

I cried the entire drive home - thank goodness the kids were distracted by watching The Lego Movie, as it helped them keep it together.  Once we got home, I pulled out our special deployment book, "Over There," and read it to Arthur.  It broke my heart a little bit more.  It is going to be a long and hard six months, but hopefully it will go by fast.

I always try to have a few little things to help comfort and help the kids, and a few weeks ago, as part of his Family Life merit badge for Boy Scouts, Derek did a project for our family for while Kevin is gone.  It is a special countdown until Kevin gets back. 

There are 180 groups of three Hershey kisses, so that each day Kevin is gone, all three kids will get a "kiss" from their daddy.  This morning, the kids ran downstairs to get their first kiss.  It was the sweetest thing, and will give them something to look forward to every day.

And so, there is one day down, 179 to go.  We will get through it, and although there will be very rough days, I can already feel the love and support of our friends and family.  We couldn't do it without you all.

PS. When Kevin deploys, there always seem to be things that break down or get ruined, and it just happened that we had two major issues that came up, but they happened a few days before he left.  The first was when our furnace decided not to turn on - and on a very cold day.  Luckily it was an easy fix.  And then we found out that our new gas meter wasn't connected correctly, and we had ten days to get it fixed, or they would shut off our gas.  Good times.  Once again, we were blessed, and I was able to get it taken care of in one day.  Here's hoping we got all the issues out of the way.

A Dream Come True - Keith Urban in Concert

Derek has been a fan of the country singer, Keith Urban, ever since he was three years old.  In fact, his whole reason for learning the guitar, was because he wanted to learn to play the guitar just like Keith Urban (who is an AMAZING guitarist).  I have been wanting to take him a concert for years, and so when I knew that Keith was coming to Hershey, I had to get tickets so I could take him.  The concert was an early birthday present for Derek, and he didn't mind at all that it was two months before his birthday.

 

And so after counting down for months, Derek got to go from watching Keith Urban perform on TV and listening to his music on the radio and CD, to seeing him live.  We were both so very excited!!  The Giant Center was packed, and as we were driving in, Derek thought it was so awesome when we passed the Graffiti U tour trucks.

Once we got inside, Derek was super anxious to get into our seats, but I wanted to get him a t-shirt while they still had his size - and before the show started. The t-shirt star was right outside the door to our section, so I let him go and find our seats and wait :).  I got to him before the lights went down, and he was bursting with excitement when the show started.  It was so fun to take him to his first concert!

The opening act was Kelsie Ballerini, who did a great job, and even though Derek and I only knew a couple of her songs, we enjoyed her performance.

But the real show was Keith Urban.  He was so good!!  And he sang and performed for two straight hours.

Derek was in heaven - dancing and singing along.  We both know the words to every one of his songs.

I have always loved his music, but his live performance was even more amazing.  His musicianship and stage presence were so awesome.  And his interaction with the audience was so fun.  He really was performing for each of us.

There were a couple of especially fun things.  Like when he pulled up on stage a group of girls that were there for a bachelorette party.  He called the groom and talked to him, and it was so funny.  Then there was the time that he took off his guitar, signed it, and then gave it to a girl in the audience.  But one of my favorite things, was when he had them turn down the lights all the way, and had us all turn on our cellphone lights, which truly lit up the whole arena.  So cool!

About an hour into Keith's performance, Derek was starting to get really tired - it was 10pm, and he is usually in bed by 9 - but he got his second wind when Keith moved onto a special stage that was right in front of our seats.  Suddenly, he was dancing, singing, and glowing with happiness again.  It was perfect!

We left after the first encore number, since it was already 11pm, we had an hour drive home from Hershey, and Derek had school on Friday.  It was such a fabulous concert though, and it is a memory with my boy that I will always cherish.

 

Little Bits of Life

October is winding down, and we have had some fun little and big things happen in the past couple weeks.  On Saturday, we had highway clean-up, which is always a fun adventure.  This time was especially fun because it was Arthur's first time getting to go out and pick up the trash.  He thought it was the coolest thing ever, and he was so cute helping Kevin and his brother and sister.

We have also had some yummy Halloween treats a friend brought over to us.  They were so cute, and our family may have eaten the entire bag in only five minutes.  Nutter-butter ghosts for the win ;).

A very exciting and long overdue thing happened for Derek this week.  He was awarded his Second Class and his first Class ranks, as well as merit badges for: Cooking, Family Life, Geocaching, Kayaking, Personal Fitness, First Aid, Environmental Science, Reading, Digital Technology, Personal Management, Citizenship in the World, Golf, and Music.  We are so proud of our boy!!  And he is working so hard so he can get his Eagle next year.

While Derek was getting his awards at their Court of Honor, Lily and the rest of the YW were putting together packages for a missionary in our ward, and well as one for soldiers.  Lily and her friend, Geri, finished their cards early so they could play with baby Piper.  It was so cute!

And as a special treat for himself before he leaves on his deployment tomorrow, Kevin went to breakfast at Chatter so he could listen to the taping of Tony Kornheiser's podcast.  He even got a shout out on the show, and got to get a picture with Tony.  It totally made his day/week/year ;).

I love these little bits of life - the special things that make the humdrum and hard things so much better.

Fun at the Farm with Arthur

On Friday, I was lucky enough to be one of the parent chaperones for Arthur's kindergarten class field trip to Cherry Crest Farm. He was so happy to have me there, and I loved getting to join in on the fun with my little buddy.  We even got to sit together on the hour long bus ride.

I was in charge of Arthur, and three other adorable little kids from his class - one of which was Zoey, a girl in his class that I have heard him talk about a ton.  They were really great kids, albeit super excited.  My only complaint was that the four of them wanted to run everywhere, and so they would leave me in the dust, and would usually go the wrong direction.  I may have lost my voice from calling to them slow down.  Pretty funny.

 There were lots of other school groups there, as well as normal visitors, and so I tried to be strategic about which activities we did when, so that we didn't waste time in long lines.  We walked all the way to the other side of the farm, and were able to ride on the little wagon ride and even got to go around an extra time, because there weren't any kids waiting.  We did a couple more activities, and then it was time for the class wagon ride around the farm.  The kids loved getting pulled around by a huge tractor.

After the wagon ride, we took a break for lunch.  My kids ate really quickly, and so we got a jump on the most popular activities, like jumping on the giant rainbow pillow.  (Arthur never stayed close enough to where I was to get a picture.)  We also got to go on the big slides without waiting in line, which was awesome.  I went on the open slide with two of the kids in our group, holding their hands so that they wouldn't be nervous, while the other two went on tunnel slide, and then we switched.  I wish I had gotten a picture.

Next, we went to the animal barn so that the kids could hold a baby chick.  We even got to see two chicks that had just barely hatched.  They were so cute, and so fuzzy!

Then we walked around and looked at all the other animals, and we even fed some goats.  My favorite thing was watching Arthur and Landry trying to milk the cow.  They thought it was so fun.  Then Evangeline and Zoey had to get in on the fun.

We had been able to participate in almost all of the big activities that the kids really wanted to do, so we made sure and stopped at some of the smaller things, like wooden horses and spider webs.  And we even got to see the old steam train as it drove vy, which was awesome.

Then we made our way over to the other side of the farm so that my group could do the rest of the bigger activities, like the barrel roll.  They were in barrels side by side, and so they tried to race.  It was awesome.

We also did the slingshots, the straw tower, and made a stop at the giant cornucopia.  Good times!  We finished everything in time to head over to the pig races.

Arthur had been looking forward to the pig races all day, and he was not disappointed.  It helped that the pig from our section won two of the three races.  Arthur even did a victory dance.  Awesome!

After the pig races, it was about time to load up on the bus, and I think all of us were ready to sit and rest.  Arthur was exhausted, but for good reason.  he had gone strong all day long.  I let him "nap" on my lap, even though he didn't actually fall asleep.  I spent the long drive home talking to Jillian, one of the other mom's, which was great.

It was a wonderful field trip, and the perfect end to a pretty exciting week for Arthur.  On Wednesday, they had a special visit from some firefighters, and they learned about fire safety.  Arthur came home giving us tips, and showing us how to "stop, drop, and roll."  So fun!  We even had to practice a family fire drill.

And on Thursday, Arthur's class won a pajama day/popcorn party from winning a school competition.  He loved getting to wear his pj's to school so much!

No wonder Arthur loves kindergarten so much ;).  Oh, and here is his school picture.  He is so cute!!

 

October, So Far

We started off October with having some fun by "Booing" some friends, and Arthur was so excited that the very same night, we got "Booed" ourselves.  Someone left a bucket full of fun toys and Halloween items, which was super fun.

Another fun adventure we had recently, was when we went bowling for the YM/YW combined activity.  When Kevin found out that we were bowling, he and Arthur decided to come along.  We had so much fun, and I did pretty well, although I always seemed to leave one pin - oh well.

One of the most exciting things about it being October, is that it means that Costco has their pumpkin streusel muffins.  they are our favorite, and so Kevin really stocked up.  (Don't worry, we freeze them, and won't be eating them ALL right away.  ha ha!)

We have been enjoying really warm and beautiful weather lately.  And my flowers and Arthur have been loving it.  The other day, he played outside while I sat and read a book, but as he rode his scooter between my rose bushes, it looked like he was riding through a jungle.  So funny!

The weather has already changed and is starting to turn colder, and so I have prepped my garden for winter.  I am really, really going to miss having my fresh cut flowers out on my counter.  I mean, these roses and hydrangeas are so pretty, and they make me so happy.

Derek has been busy finishing up his cross country season, and yesterday he had his last meet of the season.  It was an invitational, and wow, there were a lot of kids running.  Derek did a great job, and although it wasn't his fastest time, he still did awesome - especially because it was rainy, the course was really hard and muddy, and it was freezing (50 degrees and windy).  It was especially fun that Kevin, Arthur and I got to be there to cheer him on - even in the cold and wet.  (Lily would have been there too, but she was busy taking the PSAT all morning.)

Today was a really nice Sunday, and as we were wandering through the church on our way out, we spotted the Primary bulletin board.  It has silhouettes of each of the kids, and it was so much fun finding Arthur's.  I love how you can see his chubby cheeks :).

It is rather hard to believe that half of the month is over. It has been a good month - busy, but good.

A Wonderful Conference Weekend

The two weekends a year where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has General Conference, are my very favorite.  General Conference happens the first weekend in April and October, and so when we planned our trip to New York, we planned things so that we could listen to the first two sessions on our drive home.  

Arthur was so nice to sleep through the first session, and so we could listen in peace.  And we were so blessed to have enough cell coverage that we didn't loose our stream for the most part, other than 30 seconds here and there.  And that first session of conference was historic!  There was a huge announcement by our prophet, President Nelson, announced that our Sunday meeting schedule is changing, going to two hours instead of three, with a focus on more learning at home.  So exciting!!  We were sitting in the van and holding our breath as we listened.

That night, after we got back home, it was the Women's Session of the conference, which was wonderful (and also historic, as it was the first time it has occurred during conference weekend, instead of the week before).  It was such an inspirational meeting, and I loved getting to hear from the whole first presidency, since in years past, only one of them would speak.  In President Nelson's address, he gave all of us women a challenge to do four things - 1) Do a ten day social media fast, 2)Read The Book of Mormon by the end of the year, 3) Attend the Temple regularly, and 4) Participate in Relief Society.  

On Sunday morning, Kevin surprised us by making us yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  They were so good!!

Later that morning, Eden and Arthur carved a pumpkin - something that Arthur had been begging to do ever since we harvest our pumpkins back in August.  He had a great time, but he refused to pull out the guts, because it grossed him out too much.  I loved the faces he made.

The pumpkin turned out adorable!!  And Arthur just loved it.  (Unfortunately, it is still so warm outside, I think it won't last very long before it either rots, or the bugs get it.)  It sure is cute while it lasts though, and Arthur had so much fun carving it with Eden.

There were two sessions of Conference on Sunday, and in between the sessions, I put on an early Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, and apple pie for dessert.  It was delicious, and something that I really wanted to do, because Kevin leaves at the end of October for a six month deployment, and so is missing Thanksgiving.

After dinner, we watched the last session of Conference, and we were both physically and spiritually filled.  It was such a wonderful weekend full of inspiration and learning, and it was the perfect way to finish off a fabulous week with Eden.  She went home this morning, and we miss her already.