October 7-15

I am relying heavily on McKay's faithful (albeit sparse) journaling from this week because I am having a hard time remembering most of what we did. I think this is because we didn't take a ton of pictures, and that is what I normally base my memory on :)

 I took my second Patho test on Monday, this one on the endocrine system. I couldn't tell if I was ready for the test or if I was just sick of studying this particular unit. The good news is we are starting the cardiovascular system now, and I can safely say I am not planning on becoming an endocrinologist. I got my results back that afternoon (84!), and I was fine with it for as blah as I was about it :) On Tuesday, McKay had the day off, and he spent the morning running errands with Jamie. I have no idea what I was doing during that, but I have vague memories of watching Love Actually. I plead post-big-test ennui :) On Wednesday, after Jamie and I picked up Tyler from school, we met our friends at Legoland for the afternoon. The kids had a really great time, especially Tyler, who was able to go on the big kid rides with his older friends by himself. Jamie was so happy to have me all to herself :) Tyler had an early release day on Friday, so after Jamie and I went grocery shopping, we picked Tyler up and spent the rest of the day playing outside. It was one of the first real days of fall, and they loved it. I was still worried about fire ants and mosquitoes, so I bundled them up before I let them go out. They spent hours building these little "bridges" out of loose bricks and stones, and then digging canals underneath.

On Saturday morning, I watched our friends' girls Tori and Ada. We did three semesters of Joy School with this family, and Tyler and Jamie love seeing them every Sunday and when we have play dates. I remember when Ada was born, so it's crazy to think she's old enough for preschool already! Didn't we just move here? After Sarah Jane and Russell picked up their girls, we had just enough time to straighten up before David dropped off my nephew Edison. Edison's birthday had been a few weeks before, and our present to him was a trip to...guess....Legoland! And so another afternoon was whiled away in Grapevine Mills :) We really have such a great time each time we go. I expected to get bored with it long ago, but I never really do. And of course the kids don't either, they are in a frenzied fun state the entire time.

On Sunday, I woke up with a full fledged cold. Jamie was coughing, so the two of us stayed home while Tyler and McKay went to church. After they came back home, I went back to bed. The weather was pretty dreary outside, and it inspired a movie day for the rest of the family. I think we all needed a down day :)

Tyler didn't have school on Monday or Tuesday, and I had the notes from my lecture, so McKay got the day off from work on Monday and we spent it together, which was really nice. We had grand plans to visit the Flower Mound pumpkin patch, but by the time we actually arrived in Flower Mound, it was pouring. We occupied ourselves in the area for the rest of the afternoon, and I peeked into Gymboree to get nice winter coats for Tyler and Jamie now that the weather is getting below 90 :)

Tuesday was Mckay's turn to be sick. I was a bit off track with our running schedule, so I went on a five mile run that morning, and I used the TWU gym for the first time. I discovered I do not like running inside. It's hot and there's people everywhere and you feel like an elephant pounding on the treadmill. I got a terrible time, and I don't think I'll be using the gym again :) We had planned on going to the state fair that day, but we got rained out for the second day in a row.  Instead we drove to Arlington first to a Toys R Us to pick up a certain present for a certain soon to be six year old and then to a restaurant called Trail Dust. This is a BBQ place that features a two story slide. The kids did not eat much :) We had an early dinner so the kids pretty much had their run of the slide or the two hours we were there. Tyler slid down as aerodynamically as possible so that he kept nearly knocking me over as I took pictures of them. Jamie slid down the same way everytime, sitting up primly with a huge grin on her face, quietly saying "Weeeeeee" to herself. It was so cute :)

 Bug Proof!

 But not Sister Proof.

 Also bundled :)

 Tyler and Jamie's bridges.

 And Tyler discovering his batting helmet is much like a woodpecker's beak :)

 Yes! Got the hat!

 Look at these amazing ribs I made last week! They were so yummy :)

 Ada and Tori visiting on Saturday.

 And various Legoland shenanigans:

 




And Trail Dust!

See you next week!

September 30 - October 6

Monday: School for everyone today! I got to study for a nice long while after my class got out before I picked up the kids. My second test was a week away, and I was starting to be nervous. It was a really lovely day (hi fall!!)  so we played outside all afternoon with Bronx, who was so excited he ran in circles around us for the first ten minutes. He goes all aerodynamic and his inner shepherd comes out and he starts to "herd" the kids like sheep. Its pretty hilarious to watch :)

Tuesday: Doomsday for Tyler! This was the dreaded day to get his two bottom front teeth pulled. I made McKay take him, and it was as bad as I thought it would be. In McKay's words: 

I took Tyler to Dr. Harris’s (dentist) office to get 2 teeth pulled. From his explanation, the roots in these teeth didn’t dissolve, which was causing the adult teeth to come in crooked. He said that this can be caused by trauma, like when Tyler smashed his teeth in my knee 2-3 years ago. Anyway, he screamed the whole time Dr. Harris was applying the anesthetic, but once he was numb, each tooth took about 2 seconds to pull. They just popped right out. He put the teeth in these little tooth sized treasure chests, which was pretty exciting.

While they were gone, Jamie and I experimented with microwave mug recipes.

 This was a super delicious apple crisp!  Tyler was so dejected afterwards that we let him just stay home from school the rest of the day. He perked up after a few hours of rest, and I thought a family outing would be fun. I tried my best to get everyone to clean their rooms so we could visit Legoland, but I couldn't get anyone to clean their rooms, so we stayed home. :( McKay took Tyler to run errands, and he also started building a clubhouse with Tyler and Jamie in the back yard with leftover wood pallets I had collected for a project.

Wednesday: Jamie and I made a menu chalkboard for the kitchen, and she was gleefully unhelpful :) I set up a paint station for her own artistic expression, but she really wanted to help me with mine :) After school, both kids were so grumpy. I could not pull them out of it! We even made mug chocolate chip cookies, which were happily devoured, but even that only lasted a few minutes before they were fighting again. I could tell we needed an outing just to escape the house. After McKay got home we swung by panda express to pick up yummy honey chicken bowls, and then we took them to the lake near the airport. It was a beautiful evening, so everyone else in West Dallas seemed to have the same idea! The park was full of joggers, rowers, and families feeding the nutria. These guys are scary! They have huge orange teeth and are disturbingly aggressive about getting food. When they started hissing and charging us, we decided we were done :)

Thursday: Jamie and I went on a price matching adventure at Walmart with all our Meximart grocery ads in hand. I felt like I was sort of cheating, but 5 lbs of onions for $1 is hard to pass up. McKay kept sending me links to different gross people of Walmart pictures the whole time because he knows I don't like Walmart or its people. I can happily report that at 8 am, the gross people are not out yet. Your retinas are safe.

Friday: I studied all morning for the upcoming test, and that night my lovely husband took me on a date to see Gravity at North Park Mall with yummy gelato after. I had to do my hair in the car and i was taking pictures to see the back of my head. Someone photo bombed me and then the pictures just got silly... 

The movie was so stressful, I was exhausted at the end. It was really good though, and we had a nice night out together.

Sat: General Conference began this morning, but since McKay was working, I didn't try real hard to make myself and the kids tune in today. I listened to part of the first one before we headed out. First stop: the Home Depot workshop! In the 1.5 mile ride to the store, the temperature dropped about 20 degrees, from mid 70s to the mid 50s. We were so surprised when we jumped out of the car! We had a really fun time building airplanes and talking to Linda, the lady who runs the workshop here.  

Cute , cute kids, I had to get a picture before we left.

And before the sillies took over.

Lovely girl :)

Then we went to Old Navy to try to find Jamie a nice coat, but didn't find anything I loved. We braved the chill up at North Park to see the first of the Parktober celebration, but it was just too cold. We're still acclimating! We got home just ad McKay was finishing, and I needed to hurry up with my studying. McKay took the kids to the dollar theater to see Monsters University in 3D. It absolutely POURED while they were gone. I made some hot cocoa and listened to the rain while I read. It was so cozy. I just love it when summer is over!  I listened to the priesthood session while I studied, which was available online for the first time ever. I also followed the OW event happening at the priesthood session that night. I don't really know my feelings about their goals, but I agree that there is inequality in the culture if the church that needs to be addressed. I may not fully agree with OW's end goal, but I can understand their motivation. I felt so sad with them when they weren't let in.

Their pictures are so poignant, you can see clearly there is pain, that this isn't just stirring up trouble or causing bad PR for the church. These are faithful women who are hurting, and they are our sisters who we've covenanted to mourn with, even if their pain isn't our pain. *End soapbox*

Sun: Actually got to watch the sessions today, although I may have turned off the live feed during Elder Oaks and Elder Christofferson's talks. We made our traditional GC breakfast, biscuits and gravy. Jamie helped me put the dishes away after:

 McKay made a batch pf chocolate cookies, and after the last session we headed up to Plano for dinner at Kevin and Cindy's. I was a social hermit the whole night with my flashcards for the test the next morning. When we got home, both kids were totally out, hilariously sprawled across the back seat.

Jamie chose not to participate...

...she was busy elsewhere.

Tyler is always sure to grab one of these beauties at Grandma's.

Funny things:

• Tyler keeps calling cantaloupe "envelope".
• Jamie's has been called movies "woovies", and the "woovie feeter".
• While watching the oil being changed on the car, Tyler observed the oil dripping out of the raised carans asked "Is that the car's pee?".

See you next week!