Winter 2013

 Sorry I haven't been blogging. It seems like it is always one thing after another for our family (get to that in a minute) and I am so busy putting out fires that I just can't seem to pause, take time to reflect, and compose some blog posts. So here goes our Winter Season in one fell swoop instead of little moments along the way.

• 1. We wet camping in November for Thanksgiving weekend. It would have been better for me if I hadn't bruised my foot playing football with the elders quorum Thursday morning so I had to hobble all over the place, and it was a little chilly, but other than that we had a great time!
  
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
• 2. Josh got braces. This was the worst thing ever that could happen to Josh (his words) and right before Christmas too. He has an appliance on the roof of his mouth that really took some getting used to for speech, eating, and cleaning. The boon in this procedure is that he only has to wear this first set for 6 months. He may have to do more treatment later, but six months is better than a year like Elliott. I miss his smile though, he wont "cheese" for pictures anymore.
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• 3. In December I started to downsize all of my scrapbook hobby stuff. I know this may shock most of you, given my zeal for it in the past, but it really has lost interest for me. You may have noticed the lack of handmade cards in your mailboxes. I don't know if its because our family is still a little broken after Michael left, or if I just enjoy knitting so much more than scrapbooking, but I just don't get to it as much. So I held a huge scrapbook sale and found that I wasn't the only one giving it up. I didn't make very much off of it. I held onto the items until the begining of the year. Then right after Christmas I donated them all to the Swap and Assist here on post. It was a good cleanse although I still kept some things, I imagine another cleanse may happen later this year.
• 4. Christmas: We had an okay Christmas this year. I say it was only okay because Michael wouldn't come for the holidays. I don't think we even took any pictures this year. I am still working through the stages of grief on this. You would think that after a year I would be over it, but we had a rough Thanksgiving where Michael claimed he didn't want ot see me anymore ever. I say it was better than awful because 3 of my kids started to really feel the spirit and Joshua decided to start sharing his testimony, thanks to some good FHE lessons. It's those small moments that make all the fight seem worth it sometimes. Probably the best part of the whole season. We also did a few fun Christmasy things like make cookies and candies, go see the lights at Lights of the South, enjoyed several Christmas programs, and spent some time with my Mom, Dad, Sister and her two boys Cade and Phoenix.
• 5. Echo, our dog, decided that she would eat an entire bag of Christmas chocolate. It was a gallon sized ziplock bag with a whole chocolate orange, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate. She ate everything, including all the foil wrappers. Chocolate is poison for dogs if you didn't know, and that much would have killed her, not to mention the foil wrappers getting lodged in her digestive tract. we had to tak eher to the emergency vet and have her stomach pumped. It cost over $500.00. It was awful! After one night stay she came home and was all tail wags and curiousity. Dumb dog! Jay was the one who left the pantry door open for her to get into the chocolate, and he felt terrible about it, but he was mostly mad at the dog. I don't know if he wished we never had a dog or not, but if he did, I want him to wish for Michael to come home and a million dollars next, see #9 for why.
• 6. At the begining of January we had a real fire in our house. It was small and contained to the microwave, but it still stunk up the whole house. I spent most of the first few weeks washing walls and ceilings, spraying frabreeze on furniture, asnd trying (and failing) to get the brunt smell out of the microwave. What was so worth trying to set the house on fire you may ask, frozen pretzel rolls. They looked so yummy and I swear the bag said they were microwavable and ready in just 8 minutes. I realised later, after I saved the kids and the dog, that it was ready in 8 minutes form the oven and the microwave time was 10 second intervals until heated. Yah.
•  7. Also at the begining of January we started taking care of Bethany our neighbor girl 24/7 until her mom comes back in a year from Afghanistan. We have had her off and on since the summer as her mom prepared to deploy, but now it is full time and we had some adjustments to make. We moved the upstairs rooms around so Josh and Elliott each ahd their own room and the Beth and Bethany got the bigger room to share. Elliott will have to share with Michael when he comes to stay, but that probably won't happen too often. Bethany has a few emotional needs that took some adjusting and a few physchiatric visits, but it seems we are all adjusted for now and are getting back into the swing of things.
• 8. Elliott got his braces off! After a year of no tortilla chips Elliott was so excited to get them off. His teeth look great. He still has to wear a retainer and a chin cup at night, but it is so freeing not to have the braces. He may have to get another set after some of his new molars grow in, but that is a little ways off.

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• 9. Back in October, our dog Echo killed a loose cat while we were out on our walk. She was on the leash at the time, and the owner of the cat had no idea where the cat was, but the facts are that the dog killed another pet. Balfour Beatty the housing management has a no tolerance policy on this issue and in the middle of January we received notice that they were evicting our dog and we had to remove her from post immediatly. We put our dog in the kennel, and tried to appeal the decision, citing the wrong of the neighbor and the time elapsed since the incident, but we were unsuccessful. During that time I was frought with worry and grief. I frantically searched for a home for our new dog since we didn't have any family that would take her. She had to find a home off base and with no cats. Thankfully the folks at the CSRA Humane Society posted her on their website and I found a wonderful girl to take my dog. She is Leuitenant in the Salvation Army and she lives close to the Augusta Canal where she can take echo for runs and walks through the woods, which I know Echo will love. I am heartbroken still about the loss of my baby. She was a wonderful companion and friend. I miss her terribly each day as we did just about everything together. I am trying to move on, again through the grieving process, and I am past the point of wishing horrible retaliations on the neighbor and getting to the point where I can see other dogs without crying. The kids want another dog, and we may get one, but not for a little while yet. I am kind've enjoying not having to dog proof the house everytime I need to run a human only errand. I am also a little afraid of loving another dog.
• 10. The boon in all that was that Michael called us and wanted to hang out with Elliott. We were so happy to have him home for a Saturday. He is growing up so fast. He has longish hair and a mustache. He is still fencing. He is struggling in school still and I wish I could help him, but those are areas of discussion that are "off limits" between us. I am supposed to be the "Disney Mom" and just enjoy the rides. If any of you truly know me, you know that I can't really do that very well. It was a nice visit and we hope to have another one soon.
• 11. I call this our "winter post" because Winter is no more in the South. We are moving onto spring and the trees are blooming with flowers. Agusta in the flowering season is so beautiful, but also bad for allergies. I am gonna have to make sure we are all stocked up on appropriate allergy meds for the next 4 months. I have to decide if I am gonna garden again this year. It still gives me some sadness to be outside without the dog so I am still debating that decision. 
• 12. Lastly we just had our pinewood derby. we only have 3 cub scouts in our ward (we have over 15 Achievement Day girls) and all four kids (Joshua, Elliott, Beth and Bethany) participated along with the 11 year old scouts, and the achievement day girls. Beth had a rose car that was carved all out of one pinewood derby kit by her daddy. Bethany had a puppy dog, Elliott used his Night Rider car from last year, and Joshua raced both his last years car "the Golden Fin" and his new car this year a racing truck. All of our offical cubs go to district by default.

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