November Summary

I cannot let one more day pass without writing my November in Review post. It would just be lame to have it any later, considering it’s December 11. It's lame I'm only getting around to writing it now! So, without further ado:

Kaleb: Probably this experience will happen quite often in Kaleb's life: A Friday night, and Kendell and I thought it would be good to go somewhere nice-ish to eat for dinner. I'd worked all day, he'd been hanging Christmas lights, we both wanted something relaxing. Since Nathan and Jake were at their camp out and Haley was at her friend Nikki's, our little buddy came along on our date with us. We went to the Spaghetti Factory, which he first protested about, but once he tasted the macaroni and cheese he'd ordered? He was in heaven. There was a man walking around the restaurant making balloon animals, so we got him to make Kaleb a monkey. We talked together, laughed, ate, and of course colored the menu. As my Bigs get older I think Kaleb will have more and more nights like this, when he's just hanging out with his parents. Until, of course, he is old enough to do things with his friends, and then I will get all weepy and lonesome and sad.

Nathan: Nathan turned twelve this month. Twelve is sort of a big deal in the LDS church, as it is the age boys are given the priesthood and can start passing the sacrament. It also means he doesn't have to go to Primary anymore (the children's organization) and gets to go on many more scouting camp outs. He went on one on the weekend of his birthday, which means he actually turned twelve while romping around the Sand Dunes. It snowed during the night of their camp out and I became Anxious Amy, imagining every single possible snow-related disaster, but apparently they'd packed enough warm clothes and managed to stay dry enough, because everyone made it out alive and unscathed.

Jake also had a memorable experience this month: he shaved for the first time. I considered taking some photos of it but I didn't want to embarrass him. It's not likely that he'll need to shave again any time soon, but still: how strange and surreal is it to watch my little Jakey turn into this new Jake, with his deep voice and peach-fuzzy lip and ceaselessly growing body? On one hand, I sometimes desperately miss Little Jakey. On the other, he is pretty helpful! He spent quite a bit of time in November either raking, or supervising the raking of, nearly all the leaves from our trees. He helped Kendell clean out the rain gutters. He survived his two weeks of being on kitchen. He put up our outdoor Christmas lights and detailed the toy room for me before I got the Christmas tree out. Plus he managed his first month of wearing elastic bands for his braces. In fact, his orthodontics gave us a sweet morning, after he'd had an appointment. The time we were finishing up and the time that second period started were just the right amount of distance for him to not bother with the rest of first period. Instead we went to McDonald's for a sausage and cheese biscuit.

Haley’s November can best be summed up by photos:

There's the before shot:

And the after shot:

She’s been wanting to change her hair color for awhile, but I finally got my brain (and my wallet) wrapped around the idea. I think she looks gorgeous as a redhead. And she loves it, which matters even more!

Kendell did what he does nearly every November: hung Christmas lights. This always makes me a titch nervous—and that scaling of steeply-pitched roofs!—but the only accident happened to one of his customers, and elderly woman. She was walking down the steps to show Kendell where her lights were stored, missed a step, and fell. She got a concussion and she broke her hip. Kendell is a little bit haunted by the sound her head made, hitting the concrete; we’re both just glad it wasn’t any worse.

My thing this month was my scrap blast, which I’ll blog more about later. I ran a couple of times and started going to a new sculpting class at the gym, but then I caught a cold and spent the entire last week of November coughing. I even called in sick, something I hardly ever do. It’s only been three or four days since I’ve finally felt nearly better—except for the cough which will likely linger until spring. I read the book Just My Type and started The Tiger’s Wife, but liked it so much I decided I need my own copy. And I started working on Christmas.

There! Check November 2011 off my to-write list!

Comments

[Becky K]

Yikes about the lady and her hip - that is awful. So exciting about Nathan turning 12 (I'm not looking forward to the overnight campout thing; not at ALL!!) I love Haley's hair, and I remember being Kaleb and the one to hang out with mom and dad.

Love the November review! I should have done one; sigh. It's probably not going to happen!!

[Shaunte]

Yeesh. I feel sorry for you guys.
Your Haley is gorgeous.
Holy cow, tell Kendell to ask Santa for a shotgun. :)

[איטום]

I live through two several weeks of being on cooking area. I put up our outside the holidays are lighting and specific the toy room for me before I got the The holidays are shrub out.