Ten for Tuesday 11.25.08

This was a pretty uneventful week. Hip hip hooray!

1. The biggest event of the week was on Tuesday. I had some friends over to make caramel-chocolate covered apples. Yum! This was way more fun cooking with friends than doing it myself. If you've never had these, I am so sorry for you! They are delicious and addicting. Good food, good friends, good times. Thanks for coming girls!

2. The next biggest event this week was that Reed put up Christmas lights. This took some major arm twisting. We've never had Christmas lights, and Reed pretty much vowed to never, ever put them up. Bless his heart, Reed will take out the garbage, vacuum, fold laundry, etc.---just don't ask him to do lights! But, I am way too scared to climb up on the roof to do it myself (I'm not as brave as you Adri!), so I had to whine and beg in order to get them up this year. I bought the lights last year on clearance for about 25 cents a piece, so he couldn't claim that we didn't have money for lights this year. Anyway, the kids were pretty excited, and so was I, and Reed actually admitted that it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be---which means maybe next year he'll put them up again. If I had to bet though, I'd say we'll probably just leave the lights up until it's time to turn them on again next year.

3. Also on the Honey-Do List for Saturday was to wire a dedicated outlet for the freezer in the garage. When we moved in, the builder warned us the the garage was NOT wired to support a freezer. But when we inherited a freezer a couple of years ago, we plugged it in, and it worked, and we decided to take our chances. Probably not the smartest move. Anyway, the freezer tripped the circuit on Tuesday and I had to run an extension chord from the garage clear across the kitchen all week until we could take care of the problem. Reed really hates to do fix-it jobs around the house, and I don't blame him. I had NO IDEA how to run a new line to the freezer, and neither did he, so we called our super-handy, super-friendly neighbor/friend Cory and he agreed to help us. We called him up, and off the top of his head he told us all of the materials we would need to pick up at Lowes. He came over for about an hour on Saturday morning and finished the whole thing---plus, he fixed the window that I broke (not the glass part) a few weeks ago. Cory, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your time and expertise! Don't we have awesome neighbors?!

4. Oh, another big event at our house. . . Kelli and Becky showed up unexpectedly one day, and my house was actually clean. Seriously! I don't think I've ever had someone just stop by when my house is nice and clean. People always seem to drop by right in the middle of disaster-zone time---which, admittedly is most of the time. This was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime event, so I figured I should document it as proof that I do actually clean every once in a while!

5. Blake has been practicing eating with utensils, and he is so proud of himself! He especially likes it when we pour milk in his cereal. I am just waiting for that bowl of cheerios and milk to fly across the room like a frisbee, but so far I've been lucky. He's also really into raisins right now, which makes for some pretty nasty diaper changes, but what can you do?

6. This is one of the scarves I finished this week. It's pretty and soft, but I'm not crazy about how the edges roll, so I think I'm going to change the pattern a bit for the next one I make. The scarves were really easy beginner knitting projects, and I keep seeing them all over the place when I go out shopping, but I'm not sure I am really the type to be able to pull off the scarf look---other than just wearing it with my winter coat when we go out to see the lights. It's kind of like people who wear hats. Either you know how, or you don't. Typically, I don't. Any tips?

7. A couple of weeks ago my primary lesson was on the Sacrament, so I borrowed a sacrament tray from the deacons to show the kids. When I went up to return it I was so happy to find a sink and hand sanitizer! I have sat in church on Sunday for years and wondered about the hands that prepared and served the sacrament---wanting to give the boys a lesson in hygiene and provide them sanitizer if needed. Now, there is no guarantee that the boys actually use the sink and sanitizer, but knowing that it is available makes me more at ease.

While I'm on the subject. . . I don't know if there is anything that can cause claustrophobia in a person faster than sitting in a pew for an hour with three rambunctious boys. Sometimes by the end of the meeting I feel like I might start to hyperventilate if I don't get my kids off of me.

8. A few days ago I sat down to create an account on Goodreads.com, and seeing as how I'm not very tech-savvy, it took me a little while to figure out how the site works. Anyway, I think I may have accidentally sent out multiple invites to everyone in my address book. So embarrassing. So sorry. If I've sent you multiple invites, I apologize. I'm just a little techno-challenged, and. . . I really want to beef up my friends list!

9. Lately I have been feeling so fatigued. Do you think it could have anything to do with the late nights, lack of exercise, and loads of sugar I've been eating? I have been trying so hard to get up early to exercise, but I just cannot make myself do it. I've got to figure something out, because my body is screaming for a good work out. Any suggestions?

10. Last week I read this article in the newspaper. It was just heartbreaking. I clipped the article thinking maybe I could contact the journalist and find out how to contribute to a relief effort. The boys came home from school and found it sitting on the table, and it was a great opportunity to tell them about how blessed we are compared to so many other people in the world. Ty in particular was just fascinated by the photograph and kept talking about how we're going to buy soup to give to this little girl. I wasn't able to contact the journalist, but I did find several places to donate for relief efforts. I have to say that I'm not sure how many of these organizations are trustworthy, so any donations we choose to make will probably go through the Church's humanitarian program. This was such a stark reminder of how much abundance we enjoy in this country---even during hard economic times. During this week of Thanksgiving, we truly have much to be grateful for.

11. Okay, one more. My little Turkey just came home from preschool. Isn't he cute?