Late Fall/Early Winter 2024

In late October we returned from our Florida trip to find a very sweet Nibble cat at home and rotten pumpkins on our porch. It's a good thing they'd been included with our farm admission! There was also a little bit of snow, but it wasn't too bad. It made for a cold Halloween, but we at least didn't have to be as concerned about ice in people's driveways as we'd been last year.

Halloween was on Thursday and we arrived home around 4pm on Tuesday, the same day as our ward trunk or treat. Just before our trip Oscar had bought this great jumping spider, which definitely scared a few kids at the trunk or treat and on Halloween night. After it jumped out at one girl, she whacked it while saying "bad spider!" I love the little otter wrapped up in the web saying "hewp me" and the sign that says "Emotional Support Spider (we didn't say which emotion)." 

We saw some great decorations while trick or treating with Nolan and his family in Meridian Ranch. Allison pooped out early, so I dropped her home then came back to finish up the evening with Tyler and Nolan. Several houses had hot chocolate available, the neat ghost buster house had donuts, and one place was even serving fresh hot dogs. The boys made it until about 8:30pm, then we went home.

The next day the kids divided up their candy into what they do and don't really care about. Oscar picked up some discounted Cheeto Bones Mac and Cheese at the store the next day, which motivated Allison to line up all our boxed pastas on the table. 

Here are some cute pictures of me in a new dress and a fun new shirt. Tyler made a dodecahedron book report for school, and we had 3 big early November snow days.  The snow started late Tuesday (when we were up late watching election results), and went from Wednesday - Friday with only slightly warmer temperatures on Saturday. At least there was no more snow after Friday, and the weather improved significantly the next week. Oscar still had to drive into the office in Centennial on Wednesday, which was only his second time needing to go there ever. He'd committed to it months earlier for a big company retreat several VP's were flying in for. Oscar made it to and from the office safely, but I have to admit I kept tracking his phone on Google just to make sure he was safe and still moving. Several others asked if he was going to get a hotel, but the snow was predicted to get worse on Thursday and Friday (and it did), so there was no benefit to him getting a hotel. 

Thankfully I had the ingredients to make tasty butternut squash and bacon soup. 

The kids and I were snowbound for 4 days, though they only technically missed two days of school. Since there are so many members of the military in our area, our schools don't close on Veteran's day. They give us a different day off for it and observe the day itself with celebrations and Veteran's Day assemblies. That different day was the Friday before Veteran's Day, so our only school snow days were Wednesday and Thursday. 

The next Tuesday the kids participated in the Pinewood Derby for Primary Activities. Their cars didn't perform particularly well, but they won "Most Colorful" and "Best Paint Job." Oscar helped them a LOT.

The next Saturday Allison attended a fun birthday party at Main Event. There was tons of yummy food, laser tag, and 3 hours worth of arcade cards.

Oddly enough Tyler also had a birthday party at Main Event later that afternoon with bowling and $10 game cards. Oscar dropped him and Nolan off and took Allison home. Nolan's mom Caitlin picked them both up while I had call time for my Ascend Choir concert, then she brought Tyler to the concert later that evening. Oscar had taken Allison to Fazoli's restaurant for pasta and breadsticks for a daddy daughter date before the concert. 

Allison decided to sit near the Roger's kids in church the next day. Their dad is our new bishop and their mom was out of town, so she went up to sit next to the kids and do drawing and coloring with them. At one point she came back, stared me down in the face and said "my friends want colored pencils."

Caitlin was sweet and picked up flowers for me and Erica in the orchestra before coming to the concert. Nibbler was a big fan. He couldn't stop rubbing against them and chewing on them. 

Oscar made a wooden tile of Nibbler based on this cute picture of him on the right. 

Here's some of Allison's artwork and a sweet homemade card from her friend Rachel. 

Later that week I hiked the Castle Rock incline on the way back from an appointment in Parker. It's pretty short, but straight up steep. These are the lovely views from the top, and I learned it's in the same area as "The Edge Ziplines and Adventure Park" where I'd like to take the kids sometime during the summer.

That Saturday we hosted a fun Friendsgiving at our house. I made amazing Eggnog cookies that froze beautifully and kept snacking on them throughout the week. They taste even better chilled.

During Thanksgiving week we had a fun day at the Children's Museum with Rachel. The girls played inside, outside, and made ornaments. Tyler mostly worked on building and launching a rocket. 

On Thanksgiving day itself we went out for lunch at Toucano's. It was a delicious meal, but I probably wouldn't do it again. The best food was their standard Churrassco, but I can buy that any day. Their Thanksgiving fare was just okay. 

Allison made this beautiful Lion King image on her light bright. 

That evening we did our traditional Cornucopia Hunt. I didn't do it last year since we went to Utah for Thanksgiving, and I nearly forgot about it this year. But Tyler asked if we were going to do it, and on Wednesday night I went to the store to purchase many varieties of fruits and vegetables. I might have done too many since they were getting bored towards the end of it, but it was still fun. I was just disappointed that half the cones in one of the boxes of ice cream cones I bought were broken. It made it much more difficult to get enough for all the clues I made.

I recorded in high quality, so I couldn't put all of the 20ish videos together in one video, but I did get them down to 7 videos. The kids were happy to get their new generic Lego advent calendars at the end of the hunt, and there was a small Lego set for Allison and a card game for Tyler. 

Here are some cute pics of me and Allison, a fun Space Tree I saw at the Festival of Trees, and Tyler in his new green screen suit. He wanted it for a school video. At first it seemed to have two right hands, but he figured it out. 

Sweet kitty!

Poor Tyler had a bad fall on the way to the bus stop, and I had a lovely day at the temple with some of the Relief Society sisters.

Here's Allison's at her 3rd grade showcase. We saw some projects she'd been working on first then went in for the silly songs set to Christmas tunes.

Cute girl! She's so expressive during her songs and loves doing all the actions.

That same evening I went to dinner at the Relief Society Christmas party and made this lovely ornament that looks like stained glass but is actually just colored with sharpies. I made eggnog cookies again for the ward Christmas party the following Saturday, and I found an ugly Christmas sweater for the Elder's Quorum plus spouses party the following Friday. 

Allison had "dress as a Roman day" at school. Oscar figured this outfit out from a fitted sheet, scrunchy, and some shoelaces.  

Tyler had a Christmas band concert. It went well, though we could barely see him. He decorated his instrument before going. He missed the beginning of his primary activity, but he made it for the last half and got this fun candy Christmas train. 

The following Saturday we went to our rec center's "Cookies with Santa" activity. Allison put as much sugar as possible on her cookie. 

There were also some crafts and the kids played on the inflatables in the gym. In previous years they had this activity at the west rec center and had the inflatables outside. The first year we didn't know about the inflatables and arrived at the activity with only 15 minutes to play, meet Santa, do crafts, and meet cookies. The next year the weather was awful, so there were no inflatables, and I was in Seattle. This year we finally got it right. The weather was nice enough that we could have done the inflatables even if they were outside, but it was still much more fun to be indoors. I hope they continue doing it at the East rec center.

At the very end Allison and I got our faces painted. I didn't want to take a spot away from a kid and wasn't in line, but one of the face painters had an empty line with only 5 minutes before closing, so I jumped in. She did a great job too! It went perfectly with the Reindeer on my sweater. I wish I could have worn it longer, but the next day was Sunday and we were performing a musical number in church, so I removed it and Allison's face paint that evening.

The next day Oscar and I sang "Come Lord Jesus" with our friend Erin in church. Tyler took this video beforehand while we rehearsed in the primary room. 

Oscar had to go into the office in Centennial for the 3rd time ever (though he was relieved not to have to deal with snow this time), and he kept working on painting our kitchen and family room. Allison did some fun artwork

Unfortunately I got super sick the week before Christmas. We'd planned a date night while the kids went to a parents' night out, but I spent the evening lying in bed. This was a Friday, and I'd started coming down with symptoms on Tuesday. It caused both my nostrils to get clogged through Saturday morning. I thought I must have a terrible sinus infection and had Oscar take me to the ER at 3:30am after not sleeping at all. 

They tested me and I had Coronavirus OC43, which is one of the non Covid-19 coronavirus that causes the common cold. Allison got it first, and Tyler got it after I did. For them it was just a standard cold, so I'm sure my increased symptoms were less due to the virus itself and more due to my CLL causing my immune system to overreact. It started with a relentlessly runny nose on Tuesday, and when my nostrils clogged up, the runny nose still wouldn't stop. Over the next few days my nose was so tender, painful, and inflammed from constantly having to wipe the runny nose. I tried not to blow hard since I knew that would cause more inflammation, but it was pretty maddening to be in that double clogged state for so long. I had to breathe solely through my mouth, so my mouth was incredibly dry too. I was doing everything right - drinking lots of fluids, resting and getting good sleep up until the final night, using Flonase, taking hot baths, using a Vicks Steamer, and I tried a netipot, but my nostrils were too clogged for it to make a difference. Any relief these efforts gave me was minimal and brief. For example, I took a nice warm bath, which gave me use of one nostril back while I was in the tub, but after I dried off, it reclogged before I'd even finished getting dressed.

I was literally awake all night long from sinus pressure on Friday night, and my lymph nodes went nuts. I was worried I was having some sort of CLL emergency, but since the nodes weren't preventing me from swallowing, they weren't too concerned at the ER. They did give me a blood test, and my WBC count was higher than it was at my last test in early November, but it was only slightly elevated. I was expecting the counts to be much worse with how sick I was and how enlarged my lymph nodes were. Ultimately the ER visit was unnecessary other than the assurance of knowing that I wasn't having a CLL emergency. They sent me home, and in spite of just having had a night with zero sleep, to my great relief one nostril unclogged, and I finally started getting better just in time for Christmas and the kids' winter break.