Everything since Nov. 8th

I have a lot of pictures - most from a few specific days - from the past month. These are some (lots) of my favorites: Pictures on Google Albums

So it's been a long time. Just over three weeks. I've meant to blog. I've thought about blogging. But honestly, i just didn't have the heart to do it after the election. But life goes on, and things keep happening, and now it's December and Christmas is coming, and so.

(A quick aside. I am really quite heartbroken about the election. Not because i loved Hillary so much, but because i'm just so incredibly disappointed in people. I realize that people don't like Hillary, and that's fine. And in any other election in my lifetime, i'd say, "I'm bummed that my guy didn't win, but i'm sure the other guy will be able to do the job too." But Trump? He's just so offensive and unqualified. And so many of his followers are far too happy about being given leave to be openly racist and offensive now. And so far, since the election, nothing has lessened my fears. So. There. There's that for posterity.)

Anyhow. Things that we've been doing in November:

• Family Drawing night. It's always a favorite activity and really something we don't do often enough. Everyone has a special sketch book used specifically for family drawing night - the kids are all nearly finished with their second books (theirs are quite thin books...) - so there are drawings going back several years at the beginning of their books. They all started looking at what they'd drawn 4-5 years ago, and it really is fun to see how much better they are at drawing!
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The movie came out on the 18th, and so we got a big group together and had everyone over for a pre-movie party and then all went to see the movie together. Beth and Juanito and Keren and i made party favors - bookmarks and cookies and origami rats and suitcases (for where the beasts lived) and passports and little tiny beasts. Everyone brought food, and we had cupcakes to sort people into their American Magic school houses. Brooke even got to come, having just returned from New Zealand. Yay!
• We went to Meijer Gardens for the Tree Lighting. It was a members only event (fun!), and it was quite packed. The tree lighting itself was quite lame, but we got to see all of the trees and decorations at night, which was really pretty and totally worth it. My mom came with us, which was extra fun. It's been several years since we've gotten to all go, and i'm happy we got to see it again! Plus there were carolers and cookies, so it was extra awesome.
• Thanksgiving! We went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving this year, and we had lots and lots of people to celebrate with us. My aunt and uncle and cousins who we always do Thanksgiving with were there, along with my cousin Cindy and her family and my mom's cousin and her husband. We ended up with two long tables full of people. And i remembered again that i really like my whole extended family.
• The kids and i decorated the house for Christmas while Juanito was sleeping. He's not actually a fan of the decorating, and we all are, so we figured that there was no reason to wait for Juanito for us to get started. Katrina and Zane woke up early and brought up all of the decorations from the basement. (If i'd known this ahead of time, i'd have been extremely worried about all of the very fragile things they were maybe going to drop and break, but they didn't break anything at all! Woohoo!) We set up the fake tree (but didn't decorate it). We hung up the stockings and the advent calendars and the mistletoe and all of the other decorations that we put on walls. We found places for the snow globes and snowmen and nativity scenes and all of the other stuff that goes on random shelves. And the kids were actually helpful! Like...actually helpful! This is a wonderful new phase!
• We went to get a real Christmas tree. We met my parents at the same tree farm we've been going to for years. We fully planned to get a "pretty tree," but then we just happened along a really cute wonky-ish tree. The past several years we've looked for wonky trees and haven't found any that were remotely cute, so when we saw this one, we were like, "Huh. We kind of can't pass this up, can we?" Katrina was a little bit devastated - we'd just been looking at pictures that very morning of the year that she thought we were joking about getting a silly tree and then was completely crushed when she realized that we actually were getting a silly tree instead of a pretty one - but she was placated by my mom's kind offer to let her borrow a little fake tree for her own bedroom. Juanito got the tree all set up and the kids put their ornaments in the most ridiculously random pattern ever, and once it was decorated it's really quite adorable.
• We went to Meijer Gardens again. This time we went with my sister Chellie and her kids. Going with different people always makes it a whole different experience. It was fun to see the trees when it wasn't so completely mobbed. Katrina and Zane had fun getting to show their cousins around. Juanito and Houston came later to meet us so Chellie could take family pictures for our Christmas cards. Yay!
• Advent started, so we got to light our first candle on Sunday. My goal this year is to actually get all the way to the last candle. Every year we do the first 2-3, and then by the end we're all busy and we just forget. 
• I got to babysit my friends' kids today. They're between 4-8, and they're all adorable, and i was reminded of just how short kids' attention spans are at this age. And also how much little kids like to touch All! The! Things! They were all very disappointed in me for not having more toys around for them to play with, but my kids weren't home, and i didn't want to offer their toys without their permission. I did teach them "Guess Who," and that continues to be a game that every single kid ever loves to play. We played lots of other games too, but Guess Who was the hands-down favorite. And they spent half of their time here holding the guinea pig and only stopped when i insisted that the poor little thing needed some quiet alone time. (Me: "Y'know how, when you're really tired and you just want to be quiet and alone for a little while?" All of them: "I never want to be quiet! Or alone!")

The Cursed Child

Last night was the midnight release of the new Harry Potter book, "The Cursed Child." Beth and i have gone to the midnight release of at least 3 of the Harry Potter books before, so of course we wanted to go to this one too! And this time, we could take Houston and Katrina, who have also finished the series! (We didn't want to take Zane and expose him to spoilers, but his best friend was sleeping over, so he wasn't upset at all!)

Beth made us awesome little bags of swag - cauldron cakes and floo powder and Butter Beer and chocolate-covered wands and a little bottle of Felix Felicis! They were SO cute!

The release was at Barnes and Noble, and they had games and fun stuff to do, and it was really fun.

I didn't actually read the book last night, as i did with the other books, because i was just too, too tired, but i did totally read it this morning and finished it in about 4-5 hours. And ... i'm pretty sure i liked it. I'll have to think about it a bit more, but i think i did. 

Harry Potter! In the Park!

Tonight Houston, Katrina, Beth, and i went to "Harry Potter in the Park." It was fun - a little bit cheesy, and definitely put on by amateurs rather than professionals, but fun.

We got sorted into houses. They gave us a sheet of paper with 10 questions on it, including things like "Left or Right?" and "Black or White?" and then did a whole little Sorting Hat ceremony for each person. And amazingly, every single one of us was sorted into the house that we actually belong in, so somehow those 10 questions were pretty accurate. Houston, Katrina, and i are all Hufflepuffs (according to Pottermore, the Harry Potter website that JK Rowling herself helped build), and Beth is a Ravenclaw.

(Side note: Hufflepuff is widely regarded as the lamest of houses, and yet, i think there were more people sporting Hufflepuff scarves/shirts/etc. than any other house. So.) (I don't know what that's meant to prove, but it made me happy.)

Blandford Nature Center came and did a whole talk about owls, including 5-6 of the owls they own. The owls were actually Houston and Katrina's favorite part of the whole shindig. (They WERE really cute.)

We got to make wands and flying key necklaces, and Katrina "transfigured" a rock into an owl (using paint). We tossed gnomes. We watched "wizard rock bands." We walked around and smiled a lot about all of the other people wearing their Harry Potter shirts or (better yet) fully dressed up as characters.

So yes. Fun! Yay!

Camping and not camping

Zane missed the Cub Scout camping trip when we were in South Dakota, and he was really disappointed. So tonight, Juanito and Zane are camping. They're out somewhere in the woods in a not-campground, just parked in a State Park, hiked in, digging a hole for a bathroom.

Zane is wearing all camouflage, so that the bears and wolves can't find him.

Meanwhile, Katrina, Houston, Beth, and i are staying home and watched the sixth Harry Potter movie. We can't watch any of the Harry Potter movies past 2 while Zane is home, so we have to try to fit them in when he's otherwise occupied. The kids have approximately the same response to the movies that i do: Love the actors, like some of the movie, completely disappointed by all the stuff left out, irritated about the stuff changed. I've made it a rule that no out-loud complaining is allowed, because otherwise it's just constant wails of, "That never happened!!!!"

Harry Potter's birthday!

Today was Harry Potter's birthday, and we're just geeks enough that it can't go by completely unobserved.

Today was also the day that Zane had his friend to sleep over, so that he'll wake up and have Justin here on his birthday and be able to play together (rather than waking up and having church).

And so Beth and Keren came over, and we had tacos and hung out a bit, and then we decorated cupcakes. Zane and Justin decorated the cupcakes because it's Zane's birthday. The rest of us decorated them for Harry Potter's birthday. And that way, everyone was happy. 

Bittersweet

Katrina and i are nearing the end of the last book in the Harry Potter series. It's my favorite book in one of my favorite series, and i'm both really happy about reading it and really sad that it's almost over. Plus, it's such a great, amazing book, but also really sad, so there's a whole bittersweet feeling on so many levels. (And, once i'm finished reading it with Katrina, there's only Zane left to read it with, and then it's finished. And that's also pretty bittersweet.)

At the same time, Houston and i are nearing the end of Ender's Game, which is another of my favorite books. I really love reading the books i love with my kids, and getting to share that experience with them. I feel like, in the near future, they're going to just be finished with having me read out loud to them, and i want to read to them as many of my favorites as i can before that happens.

Beth enlisted my help for one of her projects for work tonight, so we got to sit and brainstorm for a couple of hours. At one point, sports came up peripherally, and Juanito said, "No, an ump is for baseball!" Beth said, "I'm so glad that we have a man around!" and without thinking i completely burst out laughing. Because...as far as "manly men" go, Juanito isn't exactly the poster boy. Especially when it comes to sports. (And almost immediately, i realized that i'm really mean and started to apologize, just as Juanito yelled, "Yeah! Bring me a beer!" So he wasn't too traumatized.)

Three days.

I missed two days of blogging, first because my laptop kept crashing and Juanito wasn't around to fix it, and then because by the time i got home at midnight, i could hardly keep my eyes open. So i have three days of blogging to do here. So.

March 4:



Beth's aunt's boyfriend Larry works at Universal, and because he is an incredibly generous soul, he gave each of us 2 free days at Universal, which is INSANE and made us all completely freak out with joy when we were told. We got emails with our confirmation numbers, and when we got to the park yesterday, we entered our numbers and the machine spit out two tickets. We tucked one safely away and used the other one. Perfect!

Except that then when we went back on Wednesday, we handed our tickets to the guy at the gate, and he was all, "Nope. These can only be used on the day they're issued. Go talk to Guest Services, and they'll sort it out easily!" We went to Guest Services, and the guy was all, "Nope. Nothing i can do. You can ask him to re-send them, but it can take 24 hours. Sorry," in a totally bratty, non-sympathetic way. Beth's ticket had been issued differently and worked fine, plus her niece Emily was with us, so they were already in the park. They came back out and we re-grouped and went back to talk to a different Guest Services person. She was much more sympathetic, but basically told us the same thing...except that it usually gets re-issued in about 10 minutes, not 24 hours. Much more hopeful!

So at this point, our options were:
1 - Hope and pray that we could get ahold of Larry and that he could fix it.
2 - Just pay and go. (Bearing in mind that it's $150 for a one-day pass)
3 - Go home.

Obviously, option 1 was the best, so Beth called and left messages and texts, and eventually got ahold of her aunt, who drove over to Larry's house to drag him and his computer back to her house (for the internet) to sort it out. And after 2 very stressful hours, we were in! YAY!!!! It was not the best start to the day.

BUT! Once we were in the park, we went straight to the biggest, most terrifying roller coaster, where we screamed our heads off. And it was all good from then on.

Emily hadn't been to the Diagon Alley side of Harry Potter world at all, so we "had to" go back through everything so that she could see it. That meant re-riding the Escape from Gringotts, which ... awesome. We ate at the Leaky Cauldron. (Beth and i are supremely un-adventurous and got the fish and chips to split again. And they were delicious again.) We basically soaked it all in and looked for all the little bits that we might possibly have missed the last time.

But then we also went to all of the other parts of the parks as well. We did the rides in Springfield (my favorite part was when Maggie used us as a pacifier) and Despicable Me, and we walked through the other areas and took pictures and had fun.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted. I'd have felt REALLY OLD, except that Emily was with us, and she's only 18, and her feet hurt as bad as the rest of us. Whew!

March 5:



Last day in Florida!

We went to breakfast with Beth's family in "Celebration," a town created by Disney to look like "everytown." Cute. But weird.

And then we relaxed. Beth and i went to the big pool for a bit. She stayed to get burned, i went back to the house to sit in the shade by the house pool. We sat in the hot tub and swam in the pool and went back a forth a few times. I read for the first time all week. We took a short walk, ate ice cream, talked and talked and talked.

And then i had to leave. Sniff.

On the plane, the guy sitting next to me sat quietly for about an hour and then asked, "So what are you reading?"
Me: "It's called, 'Quiet - The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking."
Him: "That sounds really boring!"
Me: "Actually, it's really interesting!"
Him: "Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk....." For the next 2 hours. Sigh.

Juanito and Emma picked me up from the airport. Emma was completely beside herself with glee at seeing me. She thought i was gone forever.

March 6:

Emma comes with us to drop the kids off at school every day. Most days this is not a problem. Today, i was holding her collar, and she totally backed out of it and took off out the door as the kids were piling out at the curb. I parked as fast as i could and ran to catch her. She was gleefully running from person to person, saying hello and then dashing off to see who else was around. And, of course, nobody could catch her because she wasn't wearing her collar. Grrr. I had a treat in my pocket (Yay for treats!) and caught her attention with it. She came over, and the kids converged around her to make a tight circle while i hooked her collar back on. And then a dozen kids came over to ask to pet her. (On the bright side, nobody seemed the least bit upset or worried. So THAT'S good.)

I came home and took a nap until i had to get up to go cover lunch in Zane's room. Vacationing is exhausting.

So almost the first thing Zane said to me today was, "It's funny that you went to Florida and you came home without any tan at all!" You're SUPPOSED to say, "Wow! Look how lovely and tan you look," child! Geez.

Tonight i started reading the last book of Harry Potter with Katrina. The LAST BOOK! And then i helped Houston get Facebook all set up, because he'll be 13 tomorrow. They're both getting so old! Sniff!

Florida - Day 3! Harry Potter World!!!!

We spent the entire day at Universal, and almost the entire time in one of the two worlds of Harry Potter, and it was amazing. AMAZING.

We started out in the newer of the two parks - Diagon Alley - and i was almost immediately overwhelmed with how incredible everything was. They did SUCH a good job of making everything PERFECT. It's a testament to how good of a job they did that someone who knows the books really, really well can walk around all day and not come across anything that i thought, "Hm. Well, that's not right." There were all of the things from the movies, but then there were details that people wouldn't even know if they'd only seen the movies. It was so happy-making. And everyone who worked there seemed to be really happy.

We rode the Escape from Gringotts ride, and it was fantastic. It was the first thing we did, and i'm guessing that every other ride will pale in comparison. We walked through all of the shops and looked at every detail and i took 745 pictures in the course of the day, many of them little details. Keren got a butterbeer, which she let us try. Beth got an ice cream cone from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor (where Harry used to sit every day to do his homework, while Florean would bring him free ice cream every hour before third year). We ate at the Three Broomsticks. (Beth and i shared fish and chips, and they were delicious!) We rode the Hogwarts Express - twice. Keren bought an interactive wand, so she walked around finding the little places to do magic and making things move and sing and do random things.

My pants completely ripped right in the butt about an hour after we got there (apparently that's another good reason not to wear old clothes?), so i spent the entire day trying to hide my butt with my purse. Keren and Beth insist that i did an admirable job and nobody could tell...except when we couldn't take our bags onto a ride with us, and then i just ... flashed my underwear at everyone, i guess. It was...not ideal. On the bright side, it was my butt, so at least it didn't show up in pictures!

Last day of 10

I got to go out for lunch with this cutie today. She was going to use her coupon on her actual birthday, but i'm covering her lunch already, so she moved it forward a day. She's SO sweet. I love her.

Oh, ALSO? She made her Valentine's cards this year. Their class isn't actually "doing" cards, but they can bring them if they want to. She wants to. Here are her cards:

So. That's what Katrina did on this, the very last day that she will ever be able to show you how old she is with her hands. (Sob.)

Also, the part where Barty Crouch is seen long before he's supposed to be....

I got my new phone case today, which is happy partly because now i can tell my phone apart from Juanito's, partly because now it's a lot safer, and partly because it's easier to hold now, but mostly because it's just a lot cuter. Also, it came already, even though it wasn't supposed to come until the end of February or the beginning of March, so i was pretty sure i wouldn't have it when i went to Florida...but i will! Yay!

Katrina, Houston, and i watched the first half of the fourth Harry Potter movie today while Juanito and Zane were at Zumba. It was Katrina's first time watching it, but she's read (or listened to) the book dozens and dozens of times, so within the first two minutes, she'd already exclaimed, "WHAT? That's not right!" a dozen times. I kept telling her, "No, seriously. This movie has all KINDS of stuff wrong with it. Just let it go. Let it go...." Meanwhile, i was texting to Beth things like, "This is where Dumbledore throws three chairs, flips a table, throws Harry across the room, and yells, 'DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET?!?'" I mean. Come on. Also, "Why is everyone in this movie so YELLY?" The characters aren't supposed to be that yelly, Mr. Harry Potter director. 

Anyways. It was a nice, boring day. Except for the part where Emma got a giant burst of energy for an hour and made everyone a little bit crazy with her leaping and attempts to play. Sigh. Emma. Such a puppy.

Recipes and reading and book club

Many years ago, back when Houston was an infant and i was all, "I will find ALL THE RECIPES and make lots of delicious foods!" i typed lots and lots of recipes into the computer, printed them, and put them into a giant binder. Fast-forward twelve years, and there's now this place (the internet) where i can find new recipes in seconds any time i feel like trying something new. And also, i have never, in the past twelve years, made two thirds of the recipes in the binder. And also, the rings in the binder were falling apart, so you couldn't flip through the pages, so i mostly just shoved all the recipes i ever used loosely into the front of the binder, which made them hard to find and also made them all fall out if you held the binder just wrong.

And so! I bought a newer, prettier binder! And i went through all of the recipes and tossed everything we either didn't like or had never made and added a few things that we like but had lost the recipes for, and BAM! Newer! Better! More organized!

I finished it on Monday (Katrina ooo-ed and ahhh-ed over the pretty dividers i'd made back in the day) and handed it to the kids and told them each to choose 3 or 4 of their favorite meals for me to make. Zane, predictably, chose banana bread and poppyseed muffins (both practically cake), but also, unpredictably, chose beef stew. So Tuesday was beef stew and banana bread, and he was thrilled. As was everyone else about the banana bread. One of Houston's choices was goulash, so Wednesday was goulash. And Houston was thrilled. Katrina and Zane, less so. (They both don't like tomatoes. Sad for them.) One of Katrina's choices was chicken pitas - so that was today's meal. Everyone was the most thrilled yet. So! Three good meals with three happy kids, and i didn't really have to think about what to make this week. Yay!

This afternoon, i was going to read Harry Potter to Katrina up in my bedroom, but we both walked in there and said, "Nope! Too cold!" We couldn't read downstairs, because of Zane. So we went to McDonalds (half a mile away), where i got a $1 drink and we sat in the warmth at a booth and read all about Horace Slughorn. Enjoyable!

And then, tonight, i had book club. I really enjoy having book club. For many, many years, i would think, "Gee, i wish someone would invite me to join a book club!" and then one day, i realized that...hey! *I* could start a book club! With people i like! And so i asked people in my family and Beth, and Beth asked her sister-in-law, and it became a thing! Yay! Except that none of us really knew what we were doing. So the first few months, we'd talk about the book we'd read, and then we'd try to pick the next book. People would mention book titles and people with smart phones would look them up, and eventually we'd all kind of agree on one. It wasn't the best method, so we decided that instead, whoever's house we were at, they would choose the next book. That worked better, but then choosing the book was SO MUCH PRESSURE, because...what if nobody liked it! What if everyone had already read it? What if it was just a dumb book?!

So today, we started a new choosing method. Everyone who wanted to brought 3-5 books, and then everyone voted (with pennies) on their top 10 choices. And then we put the top ten choices on a list, which we'll use for the next year. And we'll see how this works! Fingers crossed!

Time to start "The Half-Blood Prince"!

When my kids turn 7, i read Harry Potter book 1 with them. We then read book 2 when they turn 8, book 3 at 9, book 4 at 10, and book 5 at 10 and a half. And so, when they turn 11, we read book 6 and then go straight into book 7 to finish off the series.

Katrina's birthday is a month away, BUT two weeks after her birthday, i'm going to be heading to Florida for nearly a week, and honestly, we're both pretty excited to get to the last couple of books, so tonight! We started book 6!

It's always a little bit hard to read the Harry Potter books with the older two kids, because anyone younger than them has to be completely not nearby so as to not get spoilers. Sometimes we hide in my room and close the door and read quietly, but it is just way too cold to do that right now. (Our upstairs is only marginally heated - there's a vent in the hall, but it doesn't help much, so most of the heat has to make it up the stairs - and if bedroom doors are closed, it is FREEZING in there. Juanito and i always have our door closed, so it's probably in the 40's in our bedroom. We all have lots of blankets, which works for sleeping (Once you get warm, you can stay warm. It kind of takes forever to actually get to the non-shivering point. I usually try to steal all the warmth from Juanito's back and in return, i squeal and jump away if he puts anything remotely cold near me. I'm a giver.), but doesn't really work for reading.

So tonight, we waited until i tucked Zane into bed, and then we all curled up under blankets as close to the heater as we could get. Mmmm. Heater.....

Sunday

The plan was that Beth would come to us at 10:20, and then we drive to pick up Stephanie and all ride to church together. And so, when it was 10:10 and Houston was calmly eating breakfast and STILL had to take a shower, i was all, "Houston! Beth will be here in 5 or 10 minutes!" And he was all, "Okay." And then continued eating at a leisurely pace. And somehow managed to get out of the shower and dressed by the time Beth showed up. He had wet hair, but he made it. (I was totally the same way when i was his age. I went to school and church many, many times with wet hair, having gotten out of bed at the last possible second. So i can't be too irritated with him.)

After church, Beth and i drove up to visit Keren, who is closer to town at her parents' house for the weekend. We talked about our up-coming trip to Florida and looked at maps of Harry Potter World and got all excited about all of the Harry Potter-y things that we'll get to do. I like my friends.

And then Beth came over again tonight to make our costumes for Keren's birthday party (Star Wars themed, with costumes strongly encouraged) and to watch Downton Abbey. The costumes (we're going to be Ewoks) are hilarious and ridiculous and will hopefully be cute enough.