I can't believe it. The Holidays are almost here. The fact that we didn't really celebrate Halloween until November 4th, (See this post), makes Thanksgiving that much closer! I can't wait. My parents are coming to be with us for Thanksgiving/Randall's birthday. I think having family makes it so nice. It gives you an excuse to go all out and bake and cook and decorate like crazy. In fact while Randall was away on one of his most recent trips I may or may not have indulged in a little retail therapy at one of my very favorite stores. HOME GOODS! I love that place. If you don't know what that is I would say that it's like a marrying of TJ Maxx and Taipan trading company. I am a sucker for all things glass and there is a huge section right up front with all sorts of dishes and glassware and decorative vases,...and did I mention dishes? Ahh...I love it. And, it's cheap! My table cloth was $8, and I bought 12 new goblets for $12.99, now that's my kind of store. I figured it was only right that I get a more Thanksgiving worthy table cloth, because last year I had to use my white tablecloth, and white dishes on a white table cloth certainly does not "scream" Thanksgiving to me. So I bought a pretty gold-ish table cloth and then some deep purple cloth napkins because I thought that would be pretty and not so blah as gold and orange. Anyway, I have spent a little time on pinterest lately gathering all sorts of new holiday ideas.
It's tradition for Randall and me to make pies the night before thanksgiving, while watching a good movie. Then Thanksgiving morning we usually watch the Macy's day parade as we prepare the other fixins'. Since we don't have cable we won't get the parade, so I'll have to look into watching it on the Internet, because you can't have Thanksgiving without the Macy's parade. Last year we went and watched the parade from Rand's office and it was a dream come true, but it was also exhausting. Seeing it is his birthday on actual Thanksgiving this year, I figured I should make it a little more about him and what he wants to do and not all about me, at least for one day of the year :) We do however think we may go to Central Park the day before where they fill up the balloons and get them ready for the parade the next day. I think that sounds like a lot of fun. We shall see.
When I went on my date to the library I picked up some new recipe books and have been perusing all sorts of yummy things to maybe add to or mix up our Thanksgiving Fare. I am planning on making a Thanksgiving binder with all the recipes that I use on a yearly basis. I know this all sounds ridiculous and shallow but I LOVE Thanksgiving.
I was also trying to think of a way to make the holidays a little more meaningful and spirit filled so I have started reading the New Testament. Our scripture group is studying the New Testament this year and I figured reading and studying about Christ would be nice and I am enjoying it so far.
Last night Randall and I had our planning meeting to discuss our all things Christmas, like budget, activities, what are we doing etc. It got me excited and way overwhelmed too. Sometimes in an attempt to get everything done and organized I overwhelm myself and started to feel panicked. I updated my Address book and finished up our Christmas cards today and really happy with them. The card is just various pictures because I decided that while I would like to think that the people receiving the card want to read about the things going on in our life, and how amazing and talented little Johnny is, in reality xmas cards often comes across of being so over the top or just plain rude! I don't know how many times I've read a Christmas letter and thought to myself things like "wow, compared to them, we are LAME, we don't do any cool stuff like them, or "who really cares that you bought a new house, and car and went on 7 vacations this year? I remember saying to a friend of mine once after receiving her Christmas card one year and feeling really bad comparing my life to hers, "Wow, you guys had such a fun year!" She replied that it had taken her 3 days and a lot of crying to figure out something to say. We all want our lives to see amazing and glamorous but bottom line, is life just life and even if you do have that amazing life, maybe I'm just too insecure to read about it. We on the other hand, have some cute kids in my opinion, and we finally had some great pictures taken(thanks Josh!) and if people want to know the specifics of our life, then there are many ways in which they can look me up so we can chat in real life, not in the crazy xmas card world of "we are so amazing, and better than everybody else." Whew, I feel better now.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Hallowhat?
Saturday October 29 the forecast predicted a little snow in the late afternoon, so when the first flakes began to fall, I thought nothing of it. In fact, I was a little bit excited. The first snow of the season is always magical, and last year we didn't have any snow until December 26th! The only problem is the little flakes soon turned into big flakes and they just kept coming and coming. Randall and Ethan has been away for the weekend and were supposed to be flying in Saturday night, so when the roads began to be covered with snow I was a little nervous.
Miraculously after two long delays in Atlanta my boys were able to get home about Midnight, thanks to a ride from our trusty home teacher. We had received 6-8 inches of snow over the course of the day and the trees were looking a bit Seuss-like. What I mean by that is that the trees still have all their leaves on and adding heavy wet snow to those branches weighed down all the branches so they were all just bending over like a weeping willow. I noticed some branches breaking off in the road and some power lines came down but I never once thought that this would spell disaster.
Little did I know that about 3pm Saturday many, many and I'm talking millions of people had lost power. Somehow we were fortunate at that point to still have power. In fact Sunday our home teacher called and asked if we could return the favor and let them come over and warm up since they were some without power and their house was already to 55 degrees. We awakened to no power but welcomed them over anyway. It was fun to have their family over since Stake Conference was cancelled due to the weather. We enjoyed a little slower paced day and went to bed. We awakened in the morning we learned that the train lines weren't running due to hundreds of downed trees and many miles of damaged lines. This meant no work for Randall, yeah! Or so I thought. Without power or Internet Randall didn't even have a way to get into his work account to put on his out of office. His boss even asked him to go to an Apple store to try to log in there to do it. Randall's day off turned not so off, with him taking some client calls and the like, but it was still nice to have him home and not work for the most part.
The crazy part is that when we tried to get to the mall we had to try 3 different routes just to get there because of so many closed roads due to downed power lines and trees. I'm not exaggerating when I say that our poor little town looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Oh, and I forgot, Monday was Halloween. Our Mayor (I guess) decided that Halloween would be postponed until Friday November 4th. Can one do that?!? Apparently so. Oh, and did I mention that school of course was cancelled? Day by day I would wait for the call saying whether there would be school the next day or not. By Tuesday the kids were still home, Rand was able to get into work, and the house was cold. Thankfully it was only 55 degrees, which was chilly but not unbearable. The hardest part actually was having the kids keep enough clothes on. I was cold at times with a coat and a hat on. Kate especially was the worst and kept coming out in a skirt and t shirt and I would have to say "NO, long pants and long sleeves and socks or slippers and a coat!
Thankfully I wasn't worried or stressed really at all. I figured it wouldn't be long, because who in this day and age goes without power for an extended period of time? Little did I know. Many people in our ward were without power for 5-6 days! We were prepared with battery powered lanterns, flashlights, and many candles. We did realize quickly though that while we have a stash of "C" batteries, we very much need to stock up on "D" batteries. I was tempted to go trick or treating for batteries. Thankfully due to our location right next to the hospital we were one of the first after a few days to get our power back. Every time I am unhappy with the location of where we live I am reminded of how lucky we have been with our location for various reasons, and power is certainly one of them. We didn't lose power at all with Hurricane Irene and we didn't have any flooding with the snow storm, and on a day to day basis we couldn't be in a more convenient location to the train, library, etc.
The blessing in receiving power days before others was not only warmth, but that we had the opportunity to serve others. I don't write that to toot my own horn but I learned a very important lesson from this experience. Accept help!!! I, like many people, I'm sure due to pride, do not like to accept help. In fact I have a funny story about that. When I was pregnant with Jane I was really sick. I was throwing up all day and feeling horrible and just trying to stay alive. Needless to say the house was a complete wreck. So much so that one of the kids had spilled a ton of raisins all over the family room floor, and I didn't have the energy or the care to just pick them up or even ask them to pick them up. Some friends of mine came by during that time to give me a care basket full of things to help with my nausea and meals and various things to make me feel better. While they were there visiting one of my friends said "let me pick up your raisins" very non chalant, and I practically yelled at her "NO!!!" I was SO embarrassed that they were even there in the first place after who knows how long, and I was NOT going to let her pick them up. A silly thing really but that was so not going to happen. We still laugh about that now, and from time to time I will say "Nicole, let people help you pick up your raisins" and she totally knows what I'm talking about. Another time I was 8 months pregnant and we were moving out of our house and Randall was begging me to let people help me clean once everything was moved out. After much pleading on his part I finally promised him I would get some help. So...after hours and hours of cleaning myself, I went to my neighbor and asked her if she would come vacuum my living room for me so I could tell Randall I had help. I don't say this to say look how awesome I am but I am realizing how dumb that is. People really want to help. I saw needs of people and offered to do things and so many times it was like "no, we don't need to come spend the night, no, you don't need to do my laundry, NO... " I finally realized that it may be uncomfortable to let others see you at your worst, un-showered, dirty laundry etc., but they really want to help. We had the ability and desire to help people and sometimes people let me and sometimes they wouldn't and it just made me sad. While it will still be difficult I've decided that next time I need to let someone "pick up my raisins".
Another thing I learned through all this is how the council we are given from the leaders of our church is so amazing and inspired. Being without power and heat was mostly just an inconvenience. Others not of our faith were not prepared as we were and it was a true difficulty for them. With no prompting from me I was talking to a good friend of mine who is not a member and was without power for 6 days. She and I have discussed many different aspects of the gospel including food storage. She pointed out to me that this was probably one of the reasons why our church leaders ask us to store food. I couldn't believe it and was really excited that she put that together all on her own.
Needless to say by Thursday the kids were still out of school and Halloween had been cancelled at that point. Thankfully the Zoo was having trick or treating so I took the kids over there so they could as least put on their costumes and get some candy. It was a fun time. Wow, who knew the adventures we would have while living here, the good news is I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Miraculously after two long delays in Atlanta my boys were able to get home about Midnight, thanks to a ride from our trusty home teacher. We had received 6-8 inches of snow over the course of the day and the trees were looking a bit Seuss-like. What I mean by that is that the trees still have all their leaves on and adding heavy wet snow to those branches weighed down all the branches so they were all just bending over like a weeping willow. I noticed some branches breaking off in the road and some power lines came down but I never once thought that this would spell disaster.
Little did I know that about 3pm Saturday many, many and I'm talking millions of people had lost power. Somehow we were fortunate at that point to still have power. In fact Sunday our home teacher called and asked if we could return the favor and let them come over and warm up since they were some without power and their house was already to 55 degrees. We awakened to no power but welcomed them over anyway. It was fun to have their family over since Stake Conference was cancelled due to the weather. We enjoyed a little slower paced day and went to bed. We awakened in the morning we learned that the train lines weren't running due to hundreds of downed trees and many miles of damaged lines. This meant no work for Randall, yeah! Or so I thought. Without power or Internet Randall didn't even have a way to get into his work account to put on his out of office. His boss even asked him to go to an Apple store to try to log in there to do it. Randall's day off turned not so off, with him taking some client calls and the like, but it was still nice to have him home and not work for the most part.
The crazy part is that when we tried to get to the mall we had to try 3 different routes just to get there because of so many closed roads due to downed power lines and trees. I'm not exaggerating when I say that our poor little town looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Oh, and I forgot, Monday was Halloween. Our Mayor (I guess) decided that Halloween would be postponed until Friday November 4th. Can one do that?!? Apparently so. Oh, and did I mention that school of course was cancelled? Day by day I would wait for the call saying whether there would be school the next day or not. By Tuesday the kids were still home, Rand was able to get into work, and the house was cold. Thankfully it was only 55 degrees, which was chilly but not unbearable. The hardest part actually was having the kids keep enough clothes on. I was cold at times with a coat and a hat on. Kate especially was the worst and kept coming out in a skirt and t shirt and I would have to say "NO, long pants and long sleeves and socks or slippers and a coat!
Thankfully I wasn't worried or stressed really at all. I figured it wouldn't be long, because who in this day and age goes without power for an extended period of time? Little did I know. Many people in our ward were without power for 5-6 days! We were prepared with battery powered lanterns, flashlights, and many candles. We did realize quickly though that while we have a stash of "C" batteries, we very much need to stock up on "D" batteries. I was tempted to go trick or treating for batteries. Thankfully due to our location right next to the hospital we were one of the first after a few days to get our power back. Every time I am unhappy with the location of where we live I am reminded of how lucky we have been with our location for various reasons, and power is certainly one of them. We didn't lose power at all with Hurricane Irene and we didn't have any flooding with the snow storm, and on a day to day basis we couldn't be in a more convenient location to the train, library, etc.
The blessing in receiving power days before others was not only warmth, but that we had the opportunity to serve others. I don't write that to toot my own horn but I learned a very important lesson from this experience. Accept help!!! I, like many people, I'm sure due to pride, do not like to accept help. In fact I have a funny story about that. When I was pregnant with Jane I was really sick. I was throwing up all day and feeling horrible and just trying to stay alive. Needless to say the house was a complete wreck. So much so that one of the kids had spilled a ton of raisins all over the family room floor, and I didn't have the energy or the care to just pick them up or even ask them to pick them up. Some friends of mine came by during that time to give me a care basket full of things to help with my nausea and meals and various things to make me feel better. While they were there visiting one of my friends said "let me pick up your raisins" very non chalant, and I practically yelled at her "NO!!!" I was SO embarrassed that they were even there in the first place after who knows how long, and I was NOT going to let her pick them up. A silly thing really but that was so not going to happen. We still laugh about that now, and from time to time I will say "Nicole, let people help you pick up your raisins" and she totally knows what I'm talking about. Another time I was 8 months pregnant and we were moving out of our house and Randall was begging me to let people help me clean once everything was moved out. After much pleading on his part I finally promised him I would get some help. So...after hours and hours of cleaning myself, I went to my neighbor and asked her if she would come vacuum my living room for me so I could tell Randall I had help. I don't say this to say look how awesome I am but I am realizing how dumb that is. People really want to help. I saw needs of people and offered to do things and so many times it was like "no, we don't need to come spend the night, no, you don't need to do my laundry, NO... " I finally realized that it may be uncomfortable to let others see you at your worst, un-showered, dirty laundry etc., but they really want to help. We had the ability and desire to help people and sometimes people let me and sometimes they wouldn't and it just made me sad. While it will still be difficult I've decided that next time I need to let someone "pick up my raisins".
Another thing I learned through all this is how the council we are given from the leaders of our church is so amazing and inspired. Being without power and heat was mostly just an inconvenience. Others not of our faith were not prepared as we were and it was a true difficulty for them. With no prompting from me I was talking to a good friend of mine who is not a member and was without power for 6 days. She and I have discussed many different aspects of the gospel including food storage. She pointed out to me that this was probably one of the reasons why our church leaders ask us to store food. I couldn't believe it and was really excited that she put that together all on her own.
Needless to say by Thursday the kids were still out of school and Halloween had been cancelled at that point. Thankfully the Zoo was having trick or treating so I took the kids over there so they could as least put on their costumes and get some candy. It was a fun time. Wow, who knew the adventures we would have while living here, the good news is I wouldn't trade it for anything.
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