The lovely kind of Chaos

Christmas was wonderfully chaotic. We had 17 people here. All of my siblings and parents. It had been a long time (about 10 years) since we had all had Christmas together and I will bet that it will be another 10 before it happens again. We all got what we didn't even know that we wanted which is the best kind of stuff to get. (I even got some stuff that I did know that I wanted) Since then we have been hanging out, playing games, eating way too much food, and just enjoying being together. More info and pictures are to follow, but too much is still going on to form much of a coherent thought. Happy New Year to all!!

My Amazing NYC trip

As many of you already know my sister Emily and I went to NYC last weekend to take in the sights. We had more fun than I have had in years. I was the absolute tourist. I kept saying things like --"OOOOHHHH look at that" and "I have seen that on TV." We stayed at Richard's apartment on Friday and then spent all day looking around on Saturday. The only other place that I have seen that many people was at a concert mosh pit. It was still a blast.

We started out a little bit shaky after literally sprinting down the streets of DC in order to catch our bus, and realizing that I had brought the portable DVD player, but no movies to watch. Everything else just got better from there. The bus ride went quickly despite the fact that we were sitting right next to the bathroom door and had to keep informing people that you must PUSH the door open not PULL. When we got to NY we got on the subway and headed to Richard's place. (After seeing a huge rat run down the train tracks) We crashed at his place and got up the next morning to begin our adventure.

Time Square was our first stop. It was everthing that I hoped that it would be. There were lights everywhere and all of the stores were ten times bigger and brighter than the ones at home. Toys R Us had a working full sized ferris wheel inside. What a rush! We then went to Hershey world and M&M world, took a million pictures, saw Rockefeller Center (along with two wedding proposals), Saks, Macy's, Fao Schwartz, and everything in between.

With plenty of time left we headed back to the subway to go and catch our bus. After buying a movie for the ride home and hot chocolate we somehow found ourselves again sprinting down the street to catch our bus.

Though I came home sore and exhausted (in order to speak in Sacrament meeting and teach RS) it was one of the best trips I have ever been on.

Thanks Em!!!

Frozen Bums and other events

On Saturday we went to see Todd march in the town Christmas parade. It was only 30 degrees and flurries were coming down. It was a funny parade. Since we are really kind of a redneck area (just in case you weren't aware) the "floats" were kind of comical. A lot of them were just cars (regular not old, cool, or done up) with little paper signs on the side saying who was inside (keeping warm I might add). I decided that I was going to drive my van in the parade and just wave at all the freezing people along the way. Todd had hand warmers in his gloves and feet warmers and two layers of clothes but he still came home shivering. His band was entry number 75 out of 120. As soon as we yelled, cheered and took pictures of his band going by (I had to explain why we would say "Thats my Barney") we packed up our stuff and left. Needless to say all of us were frozen!

On a different note-I was organizing and found the following picture (which made me laugh) Later on that same day

I was lecturing the boys on how we should treat our brothers and sister. "Heavenly Father did not give us families so the we could beat them up". I thought of this picture and started to laugh. It is funny how life seems to make a full circle.

Thanksgiving

(I don't know why this is sideways, but what can you do?)

We went for what is probably one our very last Thanksgivings with family in a long time. We were at Tami's house, but since she is moving to Germany in the spring I think it was probably the last time we will be there for Thanksgiving. We had a really good time. I even fed a goat. We went to the Bluebird Gap Farm and had a good time walking around with the kids. The best part of the trip was the huge mound of mashed potatoes. It only took us three days to finish it off. There is nothing better than leftover Thanksgiving food.

The other fun thing that we did while we were there was to go and see the movie Twilight. I was hoping that it was better than it was, but it kind of grew on you and once I quit making comparisons to the book I really enjoyed it. I took Todd and Hannah with me (as well as Emily, Jeremiah, Richard and Tami). Todd thought it was boring and the scariest part was Bella and Edward kissing. Hannah covered her eyes during the kissing part, but enjoyed the rest of the movie. Unless you had read the book the movie was probably kind of lacking. It did kind of make me want to go home and read the book again, but I resisted the urge and now I think that it has past.

My brain is now turned towards Christmas. We got out our Christmas decorations last night and I am already sick of the singing/dancing snowman that hasn't shut up since he was put out.

Again?

I somehow have been put in charge of the Branch Christmas party. I thought I was done planning things. Since we don't have an activities committee the Relief Society was put in charge. We just had our huge enrichment dinner last week and now the Branch party is on the 5th of December which is next week. Just thinking about planning it is making me tired. We are having a potluck for a portion of it, but the Branch is providing the meat and drinks. I also need to figure out what to decorate with and if there are going to be any activities. The primary is in charge of the music part. So any ideas or voluteers?

I didn't know I could do that

I know that this picture (Hannah and her friend) has really nothing to do with the post, but I don't seem to have any recent pictures to post. I need to get some of the ones that people took at the funeral. I also seem to have a plethora of pictures of the youth in our branch.

I got onto Facebook on Friday on a whim. I didn't know that people like me could do such things. I really thought that you had to be a lot cooler or younger or something to do these social networks. (take a look at Lymabean if you want another social network to be part of) Little did I know that I would wake up on Saturday to like 20 emails saying that I had been added as a friend. I didn't know that I had that many friends. Apparently lots of people who are my age use Facebook. Who Knew? (everyone except me obviously) I am not sure that I really know how to use it yet, but I will learn.

WOW this post sure does make me sound old and fuddy doesn't it?

Hard to write

I have thought of starting a new post several times, but just didn't know where to begin. My Grandpa Blakemore died on Friday November 7th. It is always hard to wrap your mind around the fact that you won't see somebody again. I always have a hard time with living out East and away from family when things like this happen. Luckily Tami, Emily and I were able to get a flight together and fly home.
That Friday that he died was obviously a hard one for me. Even though I felt like curling in a ball and not dealing with anything for a while, I still had a lot of things that had to be done. I went in to Joseph's classroom because it was my turn to read. Then I went to the grocery store so that we could have dinner before all of the beehives and deacons came over for a movie game night. I did lock myself in my room once all of MY kids were taken care of. I let Steve deal with all of the extraneous children at my house. The next few days were a flurry of activity as I had to get everything ready for my leaving on Tuesday. I had to teach RS on Sunday and get as much of the plans for Enrichment done before I left. I then of course needed to find child care, make a menu, get groceries, write out a schedule for all of the kids, and get myself ready to leave. I thought that it was about as busy as it could be until my mom called and asked if I would speak at the funeral on behalf of all the grandchildren. By the time that we left on Tuesday I think I was almost certifiable.
The great thing was that I got to spend time with my family. The funeral was wonderful. It was such an honor to speak about my grandfather, but it was also one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do. He had 16 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren. The best part of the trip was playing games and laughing with my cousins and especially Grandma. She is very competitive and so doesn't like to lose. I laughed so hard I thought I would pee my pants when she told Melanie to "shut up".
I have such a great family. I did finish planning for Enrichment which was last night (that will be a separate post unto itself) One thing that I have definitely walked away from these past few weeks is that I have so much to be thankful for. It is the simple things in life that really do matter and I have enough simple things to make a whole lot of great things.