In the Past Month

Kevin is sitting in the dining room with Allie and Sami right now, making snowflakes to decorate our house for January. Allie believes there is always something for which we need to decorate the house (at least, she has believed that since Halloween)... and I think she's a little depressed that we've taken down all the Christmas decorations-- well, everything except the tree, which is coming down today, so the yard waste truck can pick it up in the morning. Sami just barely skipped over to me, a broad smile on her face, whispering (because Drew's sleeping), "Mom! Mom! Look!" It's her first snowflake. Kevin was hesitant to let her make one, since she'd have to use the scissors and all. But it worked out. She has a good-lookin' snowflake, and all her fingers are still attached! I'd say it was a success.

Except now that Sami is done, she's banging on the piano.

Thank goodness for a digital piano-- I just showed her how to use the headphones.

Today is cold... for central Florida. Currently, it's fifty degrees and cloudy. Tonight, it's expected to get down to 32, and by Wednesday night we're supposed to get down to 28 degrees. Brrrr! We came home from church, and while usually I just stay in my skirt or dress, I was so cold I had to change into pants and throw on a sweater. Kevin has tried to put on two separate sweaters, just for both of them to throw him into sneezing fits from the dust they had been collecting for the past 4 1/2 years. I told him to put on a sweatshirt, but he doesn't think he has any.

I'm not looking forward to Kevin going back to work tomorrow. He has been home since Christmas Eve. That day we spent a couple hours at the zoo, and then came home to prepare for dinner at our house with Mom and Dad Smith and the sister missionaries from our ward. While our "big" dinner we traditionally have on Christmas Eve, the fare tends to change each year. We have always wanted to try tamales, and this year we got the courage to try them.

I guess there's no "we" about it, really, since I'm the one that made them.

Kevin did get the needed groceries from the Latino foods market, where a Mexican woman noticed Kevin's items and concluded that he was making tamales. She and her husband helped Kevin find the rest of the needed items on his list, even leaving him with their phone number in case I needed help along the way.

I had prepared the tamales the afternoon of the 23rd, and then put them in the fridge ready to be steamed on Christmas Eve. They weren't half-bad! Of course, a bit more spice would have been nice, but if that's the only complaint for my first attempt, that ain't too shabby!

Christmas morning we continued our tradition of our gifts to Jesus, and opened the gifts we had under the tree. The kids had significantly fewer gifts to open, thanks to some divine inspiration received a week earlier. The week leading up to Christmas, we let the kids open a gift from extended family each day. It really worked out nicely-- each gift they opened they played with that entire day, and therefore truly appreciated, and by Christmas morning, they were left with only our family's gifts. No one was overwhelmed or burnt out, and the task of opening presents didn't seem like so much of a task. This idea had never occurred to me before, but it made for a very relaxing Christmas morning for us. Mom and Dad Smith came over while the girls were test-riding their new bikes out front, and after having lunch together, we headed over to the hospital for caroling with some friends, something which is our family's new Christmas Day tradition. We had gone caroling at the same hospital with our ward's choir at Christmastime every year while I was choir director, but since I was released, we decided to make it our family's tradition. In planning for it, it occurred to us that Christmas Day would be a nice day to go, and a day when the patients would probably be needing it the most (something else that had never occurred to me before). We had a good group of friends that joined us, and while the majority of patients were grateful for the Christmas spirit, I think our little group of singers felt grateful, too, for the way it helped us look beyond the materialism of that morning. Several times we were summoned to someone's doorway, where we sang of the Savior's birth as they smiled and listened intently from their hospital beds. Humbling.

The previous weekend we had celebrated Drew's birthday with Reddin and Lochlan, two other December one-year-olds from the ward, at a park along the Indian River. The week leading into that weekend had been rainy, just for a cold front to swoop in the evening before the party and, while blowing out the rain, bring in a pretty stiff, dry, chilly wind. In spite of the weather, we had fun downing hotdogs and punch, and Drew really loved his cupcake. Sisters Heather and Stephanie, Reddin and Lochlan's moms respectively, prepared oversized cupcakes for the boys. Reddin took a few licks and cried, Lochlan took respectable gentlemanly nibbles, and Drew, after taste-testing a few bites, shoved fistfuls of frosting into his mouth, smearing it all over his happy little face, and then into his hair. Once there was nothing left for Drew to eat, Kevin lifted him him up and ran him into the park bathroom for a rinse. Too bad our camera died just after we sang "Happy Birthday." I was able to get a good picture from Stephanie, though. What cute boys!

Later that week, we got to enjoy both the Christmas program at Sami's preschool (since it's through a Baptist church, it literally is a Christmas program), and Allie's winter holiday Kindergarten program (a lot of songs dedicated to Santa...). Both programs were cute, and both girls looked beautiful in their Christmas dresses.

Going back to the week of vacation with Kevin home... We got to visit Sebastian Inlet with Mom and Dad S. one evening, even seeing and petting a small hammerhead shark some kid had pulled in while fishing on the pier.


Another day we spend in Vero Beach, visiting the botanical gardens as well as the outlet mall for a few spontaneous purchases. Of course, one morning Kev spent with the Scouts, but since all of them showed up for once, I guess it was worth it.


And now I'm staring at that Christmas tree, knowing I need to get the ornaments put away so we can throw the tree out front. But it's so pretty. I really don't want to do it. Plus, we'll get all those dang needles everywhere...

A Mini Update (since I've been a slacker...)

November was rough health-wise. Well, I suppose it all actually started the week leading up to Halloween. Allie came home with a slightly pink eye, which progressively worsened over the weekend, so much so that she had to get Vigamox eye drops and stay home from school... on the day of her first field trip, which happened to be to the pumpkin patch. A bit of a head cold developed along with the Pink Eye, but not enough to keep her home more than a day. It wasn't long after when my throat began to hurt and Sami began coughing and running a fever. We couldn't keep either one of us away from the Halloween festivities, though. Sami had been planning on being Princess Leia for months. We still had to go to the ward Trunk-or-Treat, turning our trunk into a "snowball toss" to go along with my theme of dressing up as one of Santa's elves and Kevin being Rudolf. (By the way, Allie was a witch and Drew was a darling Charlie Brown.) We put up with Sami's coughing for a week before I decided to take Sami in. When I did, the doctor in the morning clinic at the pediatrician's office said Sami's lungs sounded clear. Over that weekend the cough worsened, and I thought I heard wheezing, so I took her back to the pediatrician... and she was given a different doctor. This doctor checked her ears, said she had an ear infection and bagan to write down a prescription for an antibiotic. I mentioned the coughing at that point (since that's why I had brought her back in), and she replied, "Oh, she's coughing? I'll write her a prescription for some cough medicine." Say what?! The next day I put up with the coughing with no improvement, so the following day I skipped the pediatrician's office and went straight to the Urgent Care, since I needed to go there anyway for my own horribly sore throat. The doctor there looked at my throat and said, "Yep, that's strep," and then listened to Sami's lungs and heard wheezing. He took chest x-rays there and sent them to a radiologist, who diagnosed her with pneumonia. She had to go back to the Urgent Care the next morning to get a painful shot of Rocephin in the leg. About a week later, Kevin caught the cold (including the Pink Eye), which lingered with him for a couple weeks, and at about the same time Drew developed bronchitis and Allie developed some kind of nasty cough (for which she had to miss the PE Olympics at school). A couple weeks later, Sami came down with croup just before I caught another cold. At this point in time we're all healthy, and I just pray it stays that way so we can go caroling at the hospital on Christmas.

As for happenings of the past couple months... We went to Sea World's Halloween Spooktacular, and the girls got to triack-or-treat throughout the park. And we took Sami and Drew to the day of free admission for Brevard County residents at the Kennedy Space Center. We spent Thanksgiving at my Mom's cousin Peggy's house with her husband and daughter and my two great-aunts. Allie and Sami also had their Christmas dance recital. Sami is the youngest in the in the pre-ballet class with two other girls, and Allie is the youngest of six girls in the next level up. I would describe it more right now, but I am feeling so overwhelmed and exhausted and frustrated at all I have to do that I need to just give the basic facts at this point-- no clever descriptions, too time consuming. But a quick run-down of the program-- Sami danced as a "little swan" dressed in white to a selection from Swan Lake, and Allie danced as perhaps a little girl playing around before bedtime to some piece I hadn't heard before. Cute, very cute.

Steve brought four of his girls out here from Utah as their Christmas present last week, while a pregnant Erika stayed home with their two boys and nearly two year-old Emily. They stayed at the Church ranch with Mom and Dad Smith, and we got to spend a day at Sea World with them... in the cold rain. On Sunday they all came to one of my choir concerts (for which the church sanctuary was overflowing), and then joined us at our house for dinner afterward. Allie and Sami really enjoyed the time they had to be silly with Bri and Kayli. Caitlyn told us we needed to "move back to Utah." Although, with how much Steve was loving our Florida "winter" weather, I think we might have better luck to convince them to move here.

I can't forget about our little Drew turning one on the 7th. I made him a "BYU cake," as the girls called it. A little singing and a present and we called it good. Goodness, we love that little boy.



Oy.

Kevin came in not too long ago asking me if I'd cut his hair tonight. I sighed. So much to do, and yet my list keeps lengthening because someone in this house is always in need of something.

Well, my eyes are extremely heavy, so I had better... Oops. I just fell asleep.

It's a bird! It's a...

This afternoon, Allie and Sami heard a jet fly over the house, so they ran to the sliding glass door to peek at the sky. Allie exclaimed, "Mom! I just saw the biggest 'r-plane I've ever seen!... It was about one-hundred and fifty pounds!... But little planes are only about... one-hundred pounds."

And, yes, Allie is unable to say airplane.

Pixie Dust

Last Friday we went to the temple, Kevin staying longer with the Terrys to purchase some food storage from the cannery in Orlando. Sami tagged along, since the Terrys were bringing their girls, and I went home with Drew, so I could get home in time to pick Allie up from school.

While they waited for their 3pm cannery appointment, they spent some time at Downtown Disney, eating lunch at McDonald's and exploring the shops. With three little girls in the group, the Disney Princess store was a 'must." They walked in and, according to Kevin, a girl asked Sami if she wanted to be sprinkled with Pixie Dust. Sami agreed, and the girl dusted her head with green glitter. Sami looked expressionless at Kevin.

"Dad, what did she do to me?"

"She sprinkled you with Pixie Dust." Sami stared for a moment, letting the thought roll around in her head before she responded.

She looked up at Kevin, and in all seriousness asked, "Dad... can I fly?"

Of course, his is all second-hand, but hopefully I did the story justice.

In the Past Month

As already mentioned in the two earlier posts, Allie started Kindergarten... And Sami started preschool. Both girls practically ran into their classrooms on the first day, nearly forgetting to give me a mere "see ya, Mom." I already have piles of their art projects collecting on the dining room table, and both girls love their new friends-- Sami plays with Zoey, Cameron, and Samara on the playground, and Allie seems to have really taken a liking to Caitlin and Rori. Julia, a precious red-head, is sweet to Allie, too, having tackled Allie with a tight hug when we reached Mrs. Georgeff's classroom yesterday. Thankfully Julia has been transferred to Ms. Gregg's class with Allie, so she won't feel so alone. Arrrg. The whole situation still upsets me...

Kevin turned 33 on the 5th, over Labor Day weekend, which we spent in Miami with Kev's parents. Friday night, we put the kids to bed, and Mom and Dad sat in the hotel room with them while Kev and I went out exploring Miami's famed South Beach, with the party-crowd going full-swing-- groups of girls in slinky dresses, with their glossy lips and dark eyes, the guys reeking of cologne, and little me in my denim capris and glasses, with my hair pulled back, and no make-up. But we walked out to the empty beach, the moon reflecting off the surface of the ocean, and put our feet in the warm water. That Saturday we spent at Jungle Island (a pseudo-zoo where they throw macaws all over you and take your picture, and tease alligators as a crowd pleaser-- a bit disturbing and upsetting, but the girls had fun in spite of all that), while Mom and Dad explored The Coral Castle. We met up for dinner in our apartment-style hotel room to eat sub sandwiches, just in time to watch the Cougs' upset over Oklahoma-- an especially great birthday treat for Kev. On Sunday, we attended the nearby Spanish branch, with the nearest English-speaking ward being a thirty-minute drive away. All of us know some Spanish, but none of us is fluent, so communication was limited. By the end of the third hour I had a nasty headache from having to concentrate on comprehension for so long. But even still, it's amazing how the Church is the same everywhere-- the organization is familiar and consistent, as is the warm fellowship from the members. The branch members attempted to welcome us and introduce themselves in broken English, we introducing ourselves in Spanish. We were all especially inspired by their strong testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I mustered up the courage to share my own testimony with the Relief Society sisters in Spanish (after having chickened-out in Sacrament Meeting). For me it was terrifying, but the sisters understood me enough, responding to my sentiments with endearing murmurings of "Que lindo!" Monday morning we quickly explored the nearby lighthouse, and then made our way home, taking a short detour through the Everglades.

As for other events of the month, we attended a couple Manatees baseball games-- well, the first 45 minutes of each game, both having been free for Harris Corp. employees and their families. We have yet to actually pay to attend a game. Kevin and I woke at midnight to see the shuttle launch, and we attended the water-game-themed Primary activity at church for the girls.

A quick update on Allie's school situation... She's home now. I asked her how her day was, "Good,' she said-- the usual answer. No tears, no sadness. She's fine. Came home and asked to "play computer games," just like she does everyday. Whew! For once I wasn't annoyed with that question.