Busy Busy Week!!!

This week went by so much faster than I wanted it too!!  I felt like every day I was just barely getting to do a portion of the things that I had planned on doing, and I feel a little behind on my to-do list.  Oh well, what are the holidays for, if not to get behind on the to-do list?  We had so many things to keep us busy... now I just need to write about them so I don't forget.

Kaylie and Carter had the entire week off of school (the school district made teachers take 2 days off to save money in the budget).  I loved having them home and it made me long for summer time again.  I guess I'll have Christmas break to look forward too, but life is so much more calm when I am not run by the bus schedule here! 

Monday morning I had my weekly dr. apt. and found that I am 2 1/2 inches dilated, which means nothing to me.  I have no intention of getting excited about going into labor early... as I have only done so with Kaylie.  I am scheduled to be induced on Dec. 6th, so that is what I have been planning on.  I also found out that I tested positive for group b strep again and will have to have a 4 hour dose of antibiotic before being induced on the 6th.  What a pain!!  At least this time I don't feel it so I don't have much to complain about.  My good friend in the ward watched all the kids while I went to the dr. and then I joined them at her house until lunch/nap time.  They had a great back yard and the kids had a blast playing on their playground and with their balls.  I yearn for our own backyard and after that I can't wait to have one!!!  We had our usual FHE that night and enjoyed some time together to plan the week.  I took the family planning moment to let my husband know that the next day was our 8th anniversary, and he laughed his head off because he had completely 100% forgotten about it.  I had practically forgotten myself, but definitely remembered before him and had at least tried to think of things to do.  It is rather pathetic that only 8 years into our marriage we are already forgetting our anniversary! 

Tuesday Nate had off of work and I took the morning off for myself.  I ran all my errands and did lots of shopping, hoping to get most of the Christmas things out of the way before the baby gets here.  I spent a lot of time at the Office Depot finishing a project I've been wanting to do for family.  I ended up leaving it to the guy at the counter and picking it up later, only to find that he didn't quite do what I wanted and then paid WAY more for it than I would've ever expected.  It was disappointing to say the least, but at least it is now done.  As it was our anniversary that day, another good friend said she could watch the kids for us for a while, but by the time we got them up from naps and to her house we really only had a little more than an hour to ourselves before she had to go to a meeting.  So, we ended up picking up my project from Office Depot and going to Costco to look at their laptops, as Nate is searching for the best thing for him.  Then we picked up the kids and went out to eat the "Mexican Garden", using one of our restaurant.com coupons.  The food was pretty good, but the kids weren't.  I made Nate promise that we would NEVER have our kids with us on another anniversary date!!!!  I bought Nate several different kinds of summer sausage and salami and also some specialty cheeses from Wegmans.  He has yet to give me anything, although I did enjoy a short massage that evening.  His love is all that I really need, and I do have that and am very grateful for it!

Weds. I did some baking in prep for Thanksgiving, making pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting.  We kept busy trying to keep the house clean and keep the kids entertained with Thanksgiving things.

Thanksgiving morning was interesting.  It always seems to start with looking at the pile full of ads for Black Friday, followed by cooking while my husband disappears for the turkey bowl.  I wasn't planning on going shopping for Black Friday this year, although it is usually something that I really look forward too.  Getting up really early and fighting large crowds of people while 38 weeks pregnant didn't really sound very appealing, but after looking at the ads I did convince myself to go after the morning rush.  I then got busy making some sweet potato casserole in the crockpot and a green bean casserole.  Nate had promised to make the rolls and we were going to a friends house for the dinner, so that was all I had to bake.  By 11am I was getting a little worried as to where my husband was, as he'd been gone well over 2 hours.  He finally came home with the 3 older kids and was here for about 10 minutes explaining what accident had happened this year and that he had to go give a young man stitches.  He apparently went for the ball the same time as a teammate and the teammate ended up chipping a tooth and needing stitches in his chin, while Nate ended up with a goose egg with teeth dents in it on his forehead.  It seems that the majority of the time that Nate participates in church sports he or someone else ends up getting hurt.  I seem to have less enthusiasm for supporting him with each event!  He went and stitched up the guys' chin and didn't get home until about 1:30.  We were expected at our friends house by 3 and I was a little anxious that the rolls wouldn't get done.  Nate ended up getting some done in the knick of time and we enjoyed an awesome meal at the Webbs house.  We had all the traditional foods plus some hispanic foods in the mix as we were with 2 Hispanic families.  It was a really fun Thanksgiving, my only regret is that I forgot to bring our camera.

That night I experienced several rather strong contractions and felt frightened that I might go into early labor.  However, I think it was just my bowels reacting to too much food because nothing became of it.  Thank goodness!! We did not want to have a Thanksgiving baby, as nice as it would've been to not be pregnant anymore!  We got the kids to bed and then Nate searched the ads to see where he would try to brave the crowds for a laptop.

He ended up leaving before 4 in the morning for Staples, to try and get a laptop that he thought was a great deal.  He was about 15th in line and still didn't get what he wanted.  He found a few random rebate deals and then came home.  I left around 7:30 that morning and went to several different stores for random deals.  I ended up buying some nice flannel fabric for a car seat cover I am making, some Christmas presents, and 3 different blenders I wanted to try out before I decided which one to keep.

We started decorating for Christmas that night and tried to have fun and not stress as the kids broke lights and ornaments and other things from our box.  I had to hustle to get things hidden and out of their hands if I wanted to keep anything of sentimental value.

I can't believe how quickly the time flew by this week!  We had some great time together as a family and were able to enjoy many days with Nate, as he only had to work 2 days that week.  It is always a treat to have him home and we took full advantage.