Fam in Florida Trip - Day 1

 We made it to Florida!  

I woke up at 3:30, and couldn't get back to sleep worrying that I would miss the flight.  So I got up, and started some of Jacob's laundry.  Jess was due at 5:30, so I could get the boys up at 5, and I remembered to pack coffee and decaf, and the picture frame for Mom and Dad.  A million thoughts were running through my head, no wonder I couldn't sleep. Bless Jess for getting us to the airport on time. 

The Boys were Superchamps at the airport.  I was a nut, and even though we had no carry ons, an I'd pre-registered online, I waited for half an hour with them at the Departure Airline to check in.  I didn't need to do that.  But the kids behaved well.  

We had seats, all in a row, Chris sat across the aisle from me with strangers.  The kids were happy because they had all the screens they wanted.  Jacob had his DS, and the big boys their phones.  Though I did let J borrow my phone to play solitaire while we waited to take off. 

We made it on the plane on time, and I had the boys take a pic to send to Eric, just before we took off. 

The Willmans take over the row! 

The one where I got a new skein of yarn. 

I pulled this from my stash, it's a Pima Cotton by We Are Knitters, and I am making swatches. I'm making swatches, in order to knit them into a patchwork sweater, probably a cardigan.  

Meanwhile, this one is called Sunrise. 

I thought it would be Perfect, since we're going to the East Coast of Florida, where if I play my cards right, I'll see a Sunrise. 

Meanwhile, Jacob watched the sun rise, and watched us Take Off in Baby's 1st Window Seat Flight.

Chris told us he wouldn't fall asleep on the plane. 

He lied. 

It's that pillow blanket, Putin (what he used to call Penguin when he was little). He snuggles up with it and he is Out Cold. 

About halfway through the flight, Sam offered Jacob a trade, time with his DS in exchange for the window seat.  He made a good trade. And until the landing, everyone was happy. Sam was excited about the Landing, and Jacob also wanted to watch.  

First Day of School

 How did it sneak up on me?  

Somehow I have a Junior, an 8th grader, and a 4th grader.  

They don't listen, I say stop growing, and they don't listen and obey.  They keep growing.  They are so excited about school this year.  They are all among the oldest in the school, so the maturity level has kicked up. 

Jacob is the only one with new shoes, and of course they had to be the brightest yellow we could find, but only Jacob, because we decided a. the big boys' school shoes from last year were in ok shape, and because b. they'll KILL them in Marching Band.  So maybe new shoes for them for Christmas.

Jacob picked the 1st Day of School shirts for everyone this year, he liked the sailboat icon, which is Nautica brand. He chose everyone's favorite colors.  They look pretty nice. 

Chris's bus stop is now down the street and around the corner, because there aren't that many juniors that don't drive, so he has to go where the underclassmen are. It wasn't too long ago when I hated him walking out of my site, the bus stop was 5 doors down, and I called Transportation to move it.  

That's not necessary now. 

Sam meets out front. Whew! 

Jacob car rode today, on the 1st Day because they slated the bus stop to be an hour before school starts. That's a Nope. He'd get in fights right away. So we decided to drive him. I'm hoping it changes to a more reasonable time. 

There are perks to having to drive Jacob to school. 

Eric joined me and we got to go out on a date. 

We visited a new place, Brown Skin Coffee and Tea, a place that is minority owned, and new. 

I got a lovely latte, and it was cool enough outside, we opted to sit outside. 

On a date with my hunny booboo!  

Cheers! 

I love this new tradition we've begun, to go out for coffee, and enjoy each other. We try to go on one date a month, but it's harder to do that in the summer.  

I'll miss the boys not being home. But with Band, they hardly were home. 

I'll miss them being around, Jacob especially.  

But they need the routine of school.  And I will get used to the quiet. 

Happy 1st Day of School! 

Happy Birthday Opa!

 

Last night, we went down to my Dad's to Celebrate his Birthday!  

The moment we walked in, he told us he wanted a picture with all the grandkids. I wholly supported that. I seriously debated leaving 2/3 of the kids at home because they were in rare form and we were 30 minutes late because of all their grumping and screaming when it was time to go. 

I feel like all I do is yell at them lately. But when they were with their cousins, they were on good behavior. It's good to let them be sweet together, so I don't feel quite as bad. 

My Dad didn't have much patience for us as tweens/teens either. He wasn't used to our noise.  I remember him yelling at us when we weren't fighting, and ignoring us when we fought. I hated it.

He's a good Grandpa though. 

My Dad is turning 73 today.  

My Stepmom jokes he's turning into an old man who doesn't like to turn left while driving, and likes to check the weather, so she got him an Apple Watch that he can check the weather.  I thought to myself, oh my goodness, I will drive out of the way to avoid turning left onto 267, and I've been checking the weather every day. Just like Pa. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OPA!

My Stepmom put out another amazing spread - Pork Tenderloin, spaetzle, and apple Strudel. 

Initially the kids balked at it, but then they tried it, and realized how awesome it was. 

They've learned their lesson. 

Everything my stepmom makes is amazing.  I prefer her Schnitzel and Spaetzle myself, but it was a scrumptious meal. Even all my kids cleaned their plates.  That was a birthday miracle too.  

As we headed out, the kids tackled my Dad with hugs, and I managed to snap the pic.  Daddy told me to send him the pic.  I know where I get it, that whole I must document this moment.  We got him a James Bond movie he can watch in his theatre basement, but the pictures and memories of the kids being sweet, that was the real Gift. 

To read, space must be made on the bookshelf

 362/365

The kids rooms have been hot messes for a while.  We tried to get them to clean them on their own. No luck.  We tried to threaten them with "No Toys for Christmas!"  But it turns out Mommy has a lot harder time with that one than the kids do.  They didn't get many toys for Christmas, some stuffies from Santa, and Jacob got some Legos.  Now, they didn't come from us, they came from Santa.  So that counts. 

Anyway, at the beginning of Christmas Break, I made a list.  I'm good at making Lists, usually, just not so good at crossing everything on them.  This list filled up a page very quickly.  It was freeing for my mind to write it all down, and within the first week of Break, we crossed off half the things.  But now we're getting to the big items, things no one wants to do.  There's still a bit of fun left, but not much. 

Today we took on Sam's bookshelf.  Books were spread all over his room, and overflowing off shelves all over the floor.  We worked on it today.  Now, while I was pulling books out from under his bed, I found clothes, a lot of clothes.  So we need to wash them, and put them away.  That part only got half done.  But what they really wanted to do today was spend their Gift Money. 

Opa gave them all Barnes and Noble Gift Cards for Christmas.

I think having a No Toys Christmas was hardest on Opa.  

Today, we took the kids all to Barnes and Noble.  

Since they'd all organized their bookshelves they knew exactly what they wanted. 

Jacob was looking for Dog Man Mothering Heights, but didn't find it, 

he found Cat Man and the 1st Dog Man book instead. 

Sam was finishing up a couple of his collections, like Wings of Fire and Divergent. 

He had quite the list after totally revamping his bookshelf.

Eric introduced Chris to the Sci Fi section. <3 

And Chris chose the first few books of the Wheel of Time series. 

I really think he's going to Love it. 

I looked at it, and it was familiar, my father in law lent them to me. 

I said, "Oh yeah, I know that one.  Isn't it the one with the guy and the gal?"

Chris interrupts, "No Spoilers!"  

Eric burst into hysterical, teary eyed laughter.  

The girl and the guy... that could describe any book. What's a spoiler about that?! 

We've long joked that Eric keeps me around for Comic Relief, and our outburst of laughing so hard we couldn't breathe is part of that.  My cheeks were sore I was laughing so hard. 

It's probably not as funny in print, but after a disgusting hard day of cleaning out children's rooms, nooks and crannies, it was awesome to laugh that hard. 

I went hoping I could find the We are Knitters pattern book, and also the complete works of Jane Austen. 

I've got some Great Ideas to get cooking with now for the next year.  

Call it Knitspiration! 

I'm making great progress on my Copper Tap Cardigan, but getting itchy as to what's next. 

On one hand, I want to get more yarn; on the other hand, I want to bust up some of my stash and finish some of my incomplete projects.  I think stashbusting is going to win first!

Meanwhile, Ahsoka really enjoys the throw rug Eric got me for Christmas. This blanket looks just like one I had while I was in College.  Unfortunately, it got eaten by Fina, and didn't survive the move to this house.  She's awfully cute. 

Christmas, Part Deux

 360/365

They call it Boxing Day.  We call it Unboxing day. 

We often use this day to clean  up from the generosity of our loved ones. 

And today, for the most part, wasn't much different. We needed to put stuff away. Of course putting stuff away led to issues on where to put things, which inevitably leads to some sort of Organization project around here.  Today it was Jacob's room, putting dressers away and sorting socks. 

Yes, have some. 

It started with Coffee. As it should be. 

Eric got me this fabulous Ghostbusters themed mug for Christmas yesterday. 

I loved it and specifically requested to drink from it first today. 

Ahsoka killed Darth Vader. 

He had a squeaker, and she would have none of it. 

Darth Vader being taken out by Ahsoka seems perfect.

As I worked on Christmas Cards, the strong boyz in this house moved dressers. Jacob's baby dresser is now in the basement, and he has two new (to him) dressers in his room, and things are being moved around and cleaned up in that room. Eric spent 3 hours sorting socks and matching and stuffing drawers today.  I did Christmas cards and took a nap, supporting from afar. 

Then we went to my Mom's for Christmas. 

She and Lisa made an "Annie's Mexican casserole" which is layered corn tortillas and toppings.  I asked Lisa for a side salad, but she never does anything halfway, so we ended up with a build your own salad bar, which was delicious, and just what I needed. 

My Grandpa used to take photos of every meal. 

I remember it driving me nutsy. I remember being annoyed at having to wait to eat while Grandpa took pictures, now I look at these pictures and remember everyone smiling, happy to eat together, and it's not so annoying.  So I continue the habit. I flubbed saying Grace tonight, I wish I'd had more mindpower to say something more than "God is Great, God is Good..."  though it's true, I wish I'd lent more of my heart in Thankfulness to our family prayer time.  I didn't want to lead. I regret that now. 

I was really Thankful for this time.  Two weeks ago, my family was hit with Covid. Mom stayed safe, but Lisa, James, and Charlie all got it.  Luckily, they didn't get hit too hard.  Still it was scary to not be nearby, and I was extra Thankful that we could get together to celebrate our slightly belated Christmas today.  Chris enjoys sitting at the big table now... it's not the boring room to him anymore.  

We still have the little kids table though... though they really aren't that little anymore. 

We ate in shifts, and the boys actually did a good job eating. 

Last week, on Mom's birthday, I dropped sushi off on their doorstep.  I peeked in the window, like some kind of stalker, and saw them decorating this tree.  It made me so happy to see, that they were all feeling well enough to do so, they were on the tail end of their covid adventures, but we weren't quite ready to get together with them, let alone eat.  So we waited, and did our celebrating today. 

Technically, we saw Lisa and them yesterday, but today was our Christmas.  

All the Cousins together. 

I know the Grandparents love to get pics of the kids together. 

I do too. <3

This was my gift to my Mom, a sushi scarf.  If you roll the scarf up it looks like a sushi roll.  I had to make up the pattern, and it was neat when it was all wound up, but I forgot to get a picture of it. Doh. Meanwhile, this sushi scarf came with a gift card to Ocean World, one of Mommy's favorite sushi places.  She was excited.  It's not making up for the fact that her Birthday Party got bumped, but it was something good.  And I'm pretty happy with how the sushi scarf turned out. 

While I was watching Mom, the kids opened their gifts from Lisa, 3 sets of bluetooth headphones.  All three of them can hook up their tunes to their screens and play quietly... theoretically. 

They were pretty happy about that. 

I got my sister good. #Goals

I completely surprised her with a T-shirt of Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby in the Sisters outfits.  

It was a pretty awesome shirt. 

And the girls were also pretty happy with their Squishmallows and Sushi cards. 

It was a very sushi and White Christmas.  Lisa got a shirt and mug of Sisters. 

Eric got some nifty Hawaiian shirts that with Purple. He loves to wear Hawaiian shirts when he's on vacation, and we seem to be traveling with the Band a lot, and purple is our color now. 

Nana surprised them all with money. 

Visions of Nintendo things dance in their heads. 

Eric offered the boys 10 cents a stick to pick up in the yard the other day, and before he knew it, he owes Sam $100 and Chris and Jacob roughly $50 each.  However, he got all the yard work done in one day, so that was pretty good. We have lots of Holiday Break goals, and that knocked out a couple with having the boys help.  It's really neat now that they have enough strength to really be helpful. It couldn't come at a better time, I'm getting old, and a lot more useless, it's handy that they are helpful, I appreciate them so much.  

Meanwhile, I wore my new White Christmas Tshirt today too.  As soon as Lisa opened her present, I took off my flannel and showed her I had it. She laughed so hard.  It was Perfect. She loved the theme, and she enjoyed her presents.  I'm so glad.   She even let me take cheesy photos of us together in our matching shirts. We'll see if we ever plan to match again.  Who knows?

Next year, I think I'm going to need giant feather fans. ;) 

We're silly. 

Sisters. Sisters. 

There were never such devoted sisters.