This Week at Our House #12: A birthday and a Visit

This week we finally got the hole in the floor repaired, and tomorrow we will finally get the kitchen floor put all the way in. Johnny has done the most of that work and he will be our saw-man when we finish the floor tomorrow. Adam is Johnny's assistant. When we put in the floor, he will be our muscle-man when the boards are warped and hard to snap in place. I will be more than glad to have my kitchen back.

This week we also celebrated Ruth's 21st birthday and my parents and cousin Sadie came to visit. My mom and dad got to meet Gideon for the first time and hang out with Ruth for the first time in a year and a half.

My parents stayed in a hotel about 30 minutes from us, but where we grocery shop. I scheduled my weekly shopping trip to meet them when they got to their hotel. When we met up with them, they took all of us to a steak house next to their hotel. I had Ruth, Kate, Anya, Rachel, Susan, Sam, and Gideon with me. Arwen did not come because she did not want to change into matching clothes. I was sitting with my littlest kids, my mom, and Rachel. When the waitress came she offered a kids menu to Rachel. Rachel looked disgruntled and I explained that while Rachel is tiny and looks young, she will be 13 in about two weeks. At the end of the meal, the waitress brought Rachel a free ice cream sundae with birthday trimmings. We thought it ironic that Ruth's birthday was the next day, but Rachel got all the notice for her birthday instead.

Rachel was really cute in the restaurant. She was excited to be there and kept saying, "I don't know

what to order. I don't know what to do. I have not been to a restaurant in such a long time." And Rachel was very pleasant and grateful for everything.

Sam too was particularly cute in the restaurant. He just sat there calmly enjoying all the food we gave him. He didn't try to climb down or run around or anything, and when cousin Sadie fed him a jalepino, he just looked surprised and quietly drank some water.

Anya sat with Ruth and Kate. She ordered the kid's steak and sweet potato. She was very quiet about her order. The waitress told me that she thought Anya was sweet and so soft spoken. Anya ate all of her food and had no room left for cake, just like me.

When it was time for me to go so I could get to Sam's Club before closing, Kate and Ruth, who were enjoying themselves immensely, said they were not leaving without a togo box. They were enjoying a large piece of tuxedo cake. I said they could stay and get that while I walked the little ones to the car and buckled them in.

As I left, I felt a bit of shock as I realized that I was at a restaurant with a 4 yr old, 2 yr old, and 2 month old and had a quiet, nice, and enjoyable time. None of them ran around; no one cried or whined or complained; nothing was spilt and no food ended up on the floor. It did not feel like I was there with a bunch of little kids.

The next day was Ruth's birthday. It really ended up being more of a spend time with grandparents day as we did not go to the beach like Ruth wanted. But my mom brought this really cute fairy craft. Ruth, Kate, Rachel, Anya, Joshua, Arwen, and Susan all made them with my mom. They are adorable and the kids love them and have been playing with them. I think it was good time spent with their grandma.

Joseph and Adam and Sam went on a walk with my Dad around some of the woods and farmland 

Adam and Johnny and I introduced my dad to one of our favorite games, Dominion. My dad might learn to like it if he had people to play with him.

here. My dad said that Joseph ran back and forth the whole time.

My mom, loves to shop, and she onlined shopped with all of us. She got some needed items for us like shoes for Josh and Anya and baby clothes for the growing Gideon. My mom bought Arwen a plain creme colored skirt, so she will have a favorite skirt that will actually match with her clothes. That will fix Arwen's dilemma of having nothing to match her favorite skirt.

Saturday, we planned to go to the beach for Ruth, but it was cold and John asked us not to go. I promised that the first hot day, we will 

drop everything and get Ruth to the beach. We actually haven't been back as a family since the hurricane. We usually go for a Christmas trip, but didn't this year. I will have to keep my promise and drop everything for a beach trip real soon. Especially, since we did not get Ruth a present this year.

John and I took a walk around our property today. It's so beautiful and peaceful and quiet out here. We will really miss this land and fully expect to come back at some point in our lifetime.

John has been working a lot harder on his programming and gaming. He has also spent a lot of time teaching us the gospel. Sometimes John stays up half the night reading and pondering the scriptures. We learn a lot from him. I think John's dedication to the teachings in the scriptures has had a lot of power to convert our kids and keep them safe from the common temptations of our day.

We have nothing but home repairs, school, and garden work planned for this next week with a possible drop everything and get to the beach trip. Next week won't be so exciting.

And to end this week's news, John emailed these cute kid stories to me that we will want to remember and enjoy reading again in the future:

Samuel went to our room and opened the blinds and your parents were
driving off and watched them saying
Bye
Bye grama and gra
Bye
He said it like he fully expected they could hear him as their
taillights drove off between our trees.

Joshua brought two cups of orange juice (the little Christmas cups)
and asked me which one I wanted. One was full, the other was half
full. I said they were not even kind of equal. Without the least hint
of irony, Joshua lifted the full one and drank it down to being half
full, said "There" and again asked me which one I wanted.

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