A Little Piece of JONES

Tonight I went to a cardio dance class at the gym. I have always wanted to check this class out but it is on Wednesday nights which is scouts and Relief Society meeting, so I'm not able to go. But this week due to the Nativity (more info on that later) everything was canceled. So I jumped at the chance to try out cardio dance. I wasn't sure what to expect but imagined it to be like modern day Jazzercise. And I was right. But lest you think that means it was dumb, it was not. It was fabulous. Not everybody would enjoy it but it was right up my ally. I enjoy this type of exercise because its not mundane repetition. It's fun and it engages my brain. I have to listen to the beat of the music, follow the teacher, figure out the coordination of the moves, push through the pain of using my over soft and out of shape muscles, and try to look good while doing it. Talk about a total body workout, it even includes my brain!
   And, it totally kicked my butt. I am not in good shape-I will be the first to admit that. So it's not hard to make my muscles burn. Which makes the fact that I have been to many classes here that have done nothing for me, that much sadder. But this one got me. Not only did it burn but the fat jiggling around while doing fast feet is always a good motivation to keep going. So here's to being sore and hoping that this class will be on a different night of the week next semester.

Thanksgiving was a whirlwind blast this year. My sister Jacque flew in to spend the week with us. It was really fun to have her, and her help was definitely appreciated. When I was in college, she flew out and spent Thanksgiving week with me one year; such fun memories. So now I have dubbed her (at least for the moment) my Thanksgiving sister. Here are the details of our non-stop week.
   It started on Friday. Justin took his test Friday morning and then had a couple of hours to prepare before heading off on his first scout camp trip. He had a lot of fun and I'm so glad he got to go. (Even though it was a little hard to send him out the door after having endured test week...but Thanksgiving made up for it.) Saturday night our dear friends watched the boys for us so we could go on a date. We went and saw the Lincoln movie. It was SOOO good. I highly recommend it. It really touched me and had I been in a room by myself I would have cried my eyeballs out. Anyways, Sunday was kind of a crazy day for me just because I had a lot of assignments to complete at church.

   Finally Monday arrived. I did my best to get the house cleaned up and finish up some last minute things. After Justin got out of class we did the last of my shopping for the missionary luncheon and then we headed off to the airport to pick up Jacque. When Jacque walked through the doors Matthew ran up and gave her a big hug and said, "You are my best friend Jacque!"  It was very sweet. The next morning at breakfast he sang a whole song about picking Jacque up from the airport and he detailed everything that happened. After picking up Jacque we took her straight to the Ranching Heritage Museum where the train lives.

They have a whole barn full of brands. When we found one with Jacque's initials, we just couldn't resist.

 There was this stage in the barn and the whole time we were in there Koyle walked up and down singing. He loved it so much and was heartbroken when we made him leave.

That night we went out and bought the paint for our chairs, and stayed up late to get the first coat of paint done.
   Tuesday morning after completing some more painting, Jacque and I set off to feed the missionaries. Justin skipped class to watch the boys for me which was fantastic. They had told me to plan on feeding 35-40 missionaries, but there ended up only being 28 there. So needless to say I ended up having LOTS of leftover food. But the whole lunch came together very nicely and it was a lovely afternoon. Tuesday evening we did a few more errands which included buying our Christmas tree.

Our Christmas tree shopping experience is a story within itself, which I will save for a later day.

It wasn't until about 9:30 that night that Jacque and I finally made it to the store to buy the food for Thanksgiving. Of course Wal*Mart was out of turkeys big enough, so we had to go to another store for the turkey. And of course it was another late night getting the last coat of paint on the chairs.
   Wednesday was a little more relaxed, but not much. We had to clean up the house, get 2 coats of the seal painted on the chairs, bake the pies, bake the sweet potatoes, and made Grandma's pumpkin roll (which we enjoyed during the movies). Then at 6 we loaded up and headed off to the drive in movies. The weather had been super nice all week, but it was really windy that night so we ended up watching most of the movies from inside the car. But it was still fun. The boys did great, and Jacque enjoyed holding a sleeping Koyle on her lap.
   Thursday was the big day. Lots of baking, Lots of dishes, and Lots of fun. Justin did the turkey and it turned out AMAZING. Everything came together perfectly at the end, despite an almost gravy disaster, and we had a fine Thanksgiving feast. We had the Carlson's over, as well as the family of a guy that Justin goes to school with. They had a little boy Matthew's age, who also liked trains, and they hit it right off. I really wanted to get a picture of everybody who was there sitting at the table, but I totally spaced it once we got to that part. Thursday night after cleaning up the kitchen we were finally able to just sit down and relax. We did webcam with my family in Phoenix which was fun. Then after getting the boys in bed we watched Elf. Well, some watched it but I fell asleep.
   Friday morning we headed off shopping to find Jacque some new shoes and scrubs. Then it was time to take her back to the airport. That afternoon Matthew said, "Mom, Jacque had to go home. We miss her." We sure do. It is always so fun when family comes to visit. Friday afternoon we did a little more shopping. We got the majority of our Christmas shopping done, we just have a few more things to get.
    Saturday afternoon we went a test drove a van, and then we spent the rest of the day hanging out at home. I put up the Christmas decorations. We watched some Christmas movies. Matthew seriously loves Christmas so the boy is in heaven right now.
 Today we put the ornaments on our tree. It was an awesome week. Now we are ready to get back to the daily grind and hit it hard before Christmas. I loving having time with my family and wish it could last forever.

The other day I was thinking about all the transitions and major changes my family has been through in the last 3 months

1. Moving across the country and starting a new life in Texas
2. Moving to new house means unpacking and moving in
3. Husband starting medical school=adjusting to new schedule
4. Potty training
5. Matthew stopped taking naps
6. Koyle has gone from taking 3 naps when we moved, to two naps, to one short nap, back to two naps, and now he is hit and miss between one and two : ) (read between the lines...crazy days with a cranky one year old)
7. Koyle learned to walk
8. Koyle got a new tooth
9. I am in the process of starting my own preschool
10. New church callings

Some of these are bigger than others, but as I thought about all these things we have been working through in a relatively short time, I felt better that my dishes aren't usually done before I go to bed, my family room is usually littered with toys, and I fluctuate between a go get 'em attitude and a step back and just let it happen because I can't control life attitude.

I wonder what the next 3 months will bring? I am hoping it involves a little more 'settling' and less 'transitioning'

I have been doing a few things lately:
Thankful Tree

I threw this together on Saturday and it turned out not too bad. Each day we all write what we are thankful for on a leaf and we stick it on the tree. I was going to make a leaf for each of us for each day but then I realized that I would have to cut out around 90 leaves...so we all write our things on the same leaf. I'm excited to watch our tree "blossom" as the month progresses. And of course it always a good exercise to take a moment each day to ponder on what you are thankful for
Supplies: Scraps of cardstock  Total Cost: FREE
Pantry Shelves

A while ago we got this pallet from behind our house and it has been sitting in the garage waiting for a project. I have been trying so hard to be grateful for the pantry I have here, but it has been hard coming from the huge walk in pantry I had at Wymount. So I decided to make some shelves to help clear up some of my pantry space. Once I decided it still took a while to get it sanded and sawed. Friday I finally finished sanding and painted it. Crazy how a little wood stain can totally make a crappy piece of old pallet wood actually look kind of nice.
Supplies: Wood Pallet, Wood Stain I got from the Share Fair    Total Cost: FREE


Art Board

Matthew is always bringing pictures home from nursery, or story time, or just coloring pictures and making things at home. Like most kids he wants to keep these things around and treasure them. I also wanted to keep them around but was getting sick of floating papers all over the floor or sitting on my counters. So I painted an extra board we had from our headboard project, painted some clothespins, hot glued them on, and voila! a great place to hang up my sweet children's' creations.
Supplies: Old Board, paint, clothespins    Total Cost: $1
Kitchen Chairs

 We have been on the lookout for some new kitchen chairs for a while. We currently have cheap metal folding chairs from Wal*Mart. Yesterday as we were headed off to the park we saw some chairs at our neighbors garage sale. I bargained them down to $5 for all 3. It would have been nice to get 4 but I figure Koyle will be in his high chair for a while still so this will do for now. Now Justin just needs to tighten the joints up, I need to sand them, and then we can paint. Any bets on how long it will take me to sand those by hand? I have one piece of one chair done so far!
Supplies: Chairs, sandpaper, paint    Total Cost: $5 for now, until I decide what to paint them and until I need more sandpaper