Bits and Piece of Our Life

So, I didn’t do much posting in November and here it is getting close to mid-December and I still haven’t gotten around to the blog world. I have a few things I just want to document for our family journal about what life has been like in the “Wight House.”

No need to read further, unless you really want to hear about it, but it may not be all that interesting to you. And it is a long post.

I have no pictures to share, as I mentioned before our camera is broken. Our little camera broke sometime in October. The kids usually use it to take pictures around the house. Well after a picture taking adventure the camera went missing. We believed it feel between the couch cushions. We were right but unfortunately when we found it, the couch had been moved slightly and the frame landed on LCD screen and broke it. So no more camera. Then around Thanksgiving, my SLR camera stopped working. I think the lens needs to be cleaned but that will cost a little extra to get fixed and since Christmas is around the corner, we don’t have the little extra. This means no camera for Christmas photos either. That is a hard one for me to swallow.

However, with my break from photo taken, I have been catching up on scrapbooking my many past photos. Some day my dream is to be completely caught up with my scrap page. Wonder if that will ever happen? But that is my dream anyway.

Another frustrating event in our lives took place just a week before Thanksgiving. I lost the keys to the car. It was one of those crazy days. I came home from a community bible study class that I have been attending and both kids were asleep upon pulling into the drive way. I then unloaded the car full of the kid’s art projects, coats, my study material, purse, etc. I placed everything on our oversized chair in the front room and then transported Zachery and Savannah to their beds for an afternoon nap. Instead of cleaning up my “dump” pile I made myself some lunch and then spent the next few hours scrapbooking while the kids slept.

Once Savannah and Zachery woke up I made them lunch and then it was time to pick RJ up from school. School is in walking distance and the weather was still nice so, the “dump pile” with the keys lying on the arm rest was still ignored. We then proceed with our afternoon homework routine followed by letting the kids play and watch TV to their hearts desire while I made dinner. We were having the missionaries over for dinner that night so I was in survival mode trying to get dinner ready on time and clean up a little. (However, I never got around to the cleaning so the house was a mess when they arrived.)

I remember being prompted to pick up my keys and hang them up. But I don’t really remember anything after that prompting. Obliviously, I didn’t follow the prompting. I don’t remember if I ignored it completely or if I started to pick up the keys but got distracted. Either way the keys didn’t make it to the key rack. It was a whirl wind of a night. I remember being stressed out and wishing Jared would get home early to help entertain the kids while I got everything ready for company.

Well, the missionaries came, we had a pleasant evening with them and then once they left I got ready for a much needed girls night out (it was book club night). But when I went to leave, I couldn’t find the keys. The downstairs was a mess so I just figured Zachery got a hold of the keys and they were lost in the toy mess. Since I was running late I just drove Jared’s truck and thought I’d search for the keys later. Well, to make a long story short, we never did find the keys. We searched through the house for two weeks. We prayed, we fasted, no keys. Luckily, we have two vehicles and Jared had a Thanksgiving holiday break from work so we were easily able to make one car work for a while. Once school started, I was still able to get RJ to and form school easily since we live only a block away, another blessing.

While I was on my knees asking to help us find our keys my words were directed to asking for financial help to pay for a new set. These keys are the type that has to be programmed. Our car had to be towed to the dealer, where they could program a new key. The key, key fob, and service totaled $175. Expensive keys!!! Luckily Jared followed a prompting a few months back and signed up for AAA. We were able to have our car towed and the first three miles were free. Well, it was exactly 3 miles to the dealer from our house. HUGE blessing! And the night that my prayers shifted from finding the keys to financial support we received a reimbursement check that we had forgotten about. It wasn’t a lot but it was a help. So anyway, after two weeks without a car, we finally got a new set of keys. However the tow truck did break our emergency break, so we are still working that out.

Ok, enough with the car. After Thanksgiving, we had a situation with RJ’s teacher. We had to talk with the principal about it; I think it is finally worked out. Time will only tell. It is so hard to send your children out in the world and protect them from things when they aren’t right there under your wing. But the principal of his school is awesome. She was very sincere, and helpful and I have no doubt that she will help fix our little situation.

RJ has struggled with the personality clash he has with his teacher. She is very firm and RJ is so tenderhearted. When she is strict with the entire class or even one single child, he takes personally hard. After talking with RJ about learning how to cope with different people RJ tried to warm up to her a little bit and made her a book. In his words she didn’t even smile or say Thank you when he gave her the book he worked so hard on. That just made my heart break. The issue we talked with the principal about was a moral issue and I won’t discuss it here. But I pray things will work out and continue well the rest of the school year.

The Christmas season is here. It is hard believing it without the snow. I got so used to having a white Christmas while in Idaho. We did have a brief snow fall last weekend. But the dusting lasted half a day. It was pretty when it was here and we hope to get a little more for the kids to enjoy.

I think we are close to being done with our Christmas shopping, however I still have many projects I am trying to finish up. I have had to give myself a lot of pep talks about what we need or don’t need, what we can afford and what we can’t. It is so easy to get caught up in the commercialism of Christmas. I want to give, give, give, but my pocket book doesn’t allow for it and then I fell slightly depressed. I need to remember what the true spirit of Christmas is and remember Christ in all things. Sometimes I wish I can move to a remote island where the worlds “needs” aren’t smacking me in the face every time I turn around. *Sigh*

We had a stomach bug run through our family last week. It was just a 24hr bug; we each took turns passing it around and being sick for a day. It was a fun week. So this week I will be busy cleaning everything!!!

On the day Jared was sick, I took the kids to our ward Christmas party. Santa was there. Savannah was so excited to sit on his lap, however RJ had a panic attack. He went back and forth whether or not he was going to sit on Santa’s lap. He finally opted out when he learned he would get one of the little Santa gifts anyway. It is funny how different those too are.

We are excited for family to visit us this season. Jared mother is flying in for Christmas and my parents, brothers, and grandmother is coming for New Years. We can’t wait to have them.

Well I think that has caught our blog up to date. I just remembered RJ is supposed to give a talk today in Primary and we haven’t prepared anything. Oops, time to get moving on that.