2009 Thanksgiving

Ok I know Thanksgiving is all about family. Well I am here to tell you about the most relaxing and entertaining Thanksgiving yet. I have to admit I am able to write this because none of our families check our blog. We stayed home for our Holiday we had nobody over and we didn't go anywhere. I must admit on Wednesday night I was feeling out of sorts. What I don't have to make 4 doz rolls, we only need how many pies, I don't have to wake up a 5am to put in our turkey? I soon realized this is a great thing the kids and Jay helped me put in the turkey, helped roll out the rolls and we ate around 2pm. We slept, watched videos, and hung out together. The kids did fight but that ended in a discussion on how to make our family better and then the rest of the weekend was almost fight free! We went to the Christmas Carol and were pleasantly surprised that it was at the cheap movies. We went and wandered Toys'R'us for a couple hours to let the kids dream and decide what the want for Christmas. Then we hung out. We officially got nothing done and Kaelee's most common Facebook post was "I'm bored" but we really loved it. We had no pressures and didn't have to try to form our schedules to anyone elses. Now I have to admit that we missed our families and cousins and nieces and nephews, but it was nice to miss them and not want to strangle them. So it will become a tradition that every couple years we are taking a year off and just being a FAMILY.

Thanksgiving

Today I am thankful for the opportunity to be a mom. I really miss my mom and am starting to realize how she had a hand in most if not everything I think and do. My mom taught me to be who I am. She taught me to make "Parker House" rolls just right so they don't open in the oven. I know this is a common thing but they are the bain of Holiday dinners for me I cant keep them closed mom spent many of days before Thanksgiving showing me what I was doing wrong and the right way to do it but today I master about 75% that staid closed. I also make a pretty good apple pie but it is not my moms. Today has been a trial in love for me because I really wanted to hide in my room and cry, but I am blessed with four kids who need me to be their mom and I spent the morning teaching them how to make "Parker House" rolls. I am not as patient as mom was but we got to eat so that is what counts. I taught Kaelee to use ice water in the pie crust, and the kids learned we clean Grandma's goblets by hand and not in the dishwasher. I am so grateful for the time I had with my mom and am most grateful for her teaching me how to be a good mom. Thanks mom I miss you everyday.

Memories

Well I just had a thought that remembering things sometimes sheds them in a better light. Tonight as we were driving in the car we were talking about adventures we mistakenly have taken. All of us agreed that just maybe we shouldn't continue to look for ghost towns. I must tell you when Jay advertises "lets go for a ride, and find the ghost town in Gilmore" we all got excited. The kids (I think) really thought we would see ghosts. I pictured a cool "old west" town with a saloon and bank with maybe bullet holes. Well this was our first mistake. Our second was about and hour into the drive we were promised just a few more minutes. Well the facts: first Gillmore is and old mining town and has been abandoned for about 20-30 years (not old west). Second you cant get out and go in because it is all private property and the buildings have all been condemned. Third NO GHOSTS. Looking back though it was one of our favorite days together (pitiful yes, but great non the less) after we saw what we had driven two hours for we continued up the road and found the coolest lake. It actually still had snow the end of June. There were huge ice chunks flouting every where. Next we stopped at the side of this little known road to make lunch (yeah I brought bread and peanut butter and Jelly) We quickly got chased back into the van by a huge swarm of mosquitoes. So we decided to save the day by stopping at every historical site we could find. I realize this sounds awful but by this point we were all trying to torture each other to utter boredom. It flipped on us and we just had a great time doing nothing. The kids all groan with a huge smile on their faces as we recall this day. We ate PB&J's drank soda and had a ball. I do have to admit if Jay mentions he has heard of a new ghost town we all run the other way but it is more for the fact that we could never possibly improve on the day we went to Gilmore.

Family Pics

Tonight we attempted to take family pictures. We didn't pay anyone we used our timer. I was inspired by Katie and Doah's family pics. So off we went we had 1 hour of sun light and had to find a neat place to take the pics so of course off to Moody we went. (One of our favorite places on this planet) Jay kind of remembered an old granary so we went in search. Cache screamed in fear as we drove down the somewhat narrow (I say somewhat because it really was a nice smooth one lane road but so Cache wouldn't look like a wimp I'm sticking with narrow) road screaming, "slam on your breaks Dad were going to crash." Now knowing Jay you would know that he took this as a way to torment Cache and laughed the whole way. About half way up Gavin started looking green and was getting car sick. Kaelee and Makenzie were attempting to play I spy so you can see it was a normal Fuller outing. I personally didn't realize there would be snow where we were going or else I wouldn't have had all the kids and Jay dress in short sleeves. (he he) I wore a sweater. I hope we got OK pics and lots of memories.

Gavin is Awesome

Wow our boy is great. Most everyone knows he has been struggling in school mostly with reading. When he got diagnosed with dyslexia I thought we were in for a really hard time with school. This year he got the most Awesome teacher Mrs. Ward this is her first year teaching (so I was really worried) but she has made a big difference in his attitude (Jay says is because she is cute) then with the dyslexia mom began to tutor to learn how to help Gavin, with all of this help we just had the world's best parent teacher conference. He is above grade level in math (a miracle) he is almost at level in reading. (He started our lower than a kindergarten level and now he is catching up. The best news though he is loving school. He actually wants to go. So Yeah Gavin you rock!

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day which has come to mean lots of essays, projects, and programs. Kaelee finished the last of the Veteran Essays today at about 10:30am yes she was very late for school (She only had 10 days to write why not wait until the last min?). Kaelee, I and Jay were all up until midnight trying to get her thoughts narrowed down to 400 word. Some people say she is quite no she just waits until she is comfortable and then lets her words flow. The good news is her essay was one of two selected from the school to go to the next level.
Makenzie had the Veterans Day Program. Her fourth grade class has worked for about a month writing and rewriting, learning songs, making invitations, and decorations. Makenzie's essay was chosen to be read today. She wrote about her Great Grandpa Higley who served in World War II. She did an excellent job. She kept Jay and I entertained by chomping her gum with her mouth, then making faces throughout all of the songs. Cache decided he was bored immediately and entertained himself with taking pictures of everything.
I must say the Fullers are grateful today and everyday for our Veterans and all they have done for us. They are braver than me. We have many uncles, grandpas, and great grandpas that served. We love them all.

Husbands are great!

This weekend Jay tackled the basement with the kids. I have been fighting it forever and had no more energy for it. They all started working and four hours later it is done. Jay has the DVD player working, the VCR (yeah we still have one), the Wii, and the antenna. You must understand we only have rabbit ears so getting reception is next to impossible, this is the reason that for the last 6 months the only TV with reception was in our bedroom(it is easiest to get reception). So after nearly 5 hours Jay got rewarded with watching an edited version of the Tail of Despero. It is edited because Great American only has edited movies much to our frustration. Our family doesn't watch R rated movies and is really selective on the PG-13 movies. If the movies content is not what we want to watch we skip the whole movie but Great American takes the option completely. Then you never know if you can recommend the movie because you don't know what has been cut. So frustrating. But anyway my husband is great and really helpful. He makes dinner at least once a week and that takes the load off and some pressure. So hear is to my Honey YOUR THE MAN!