I typically do like to finish the bulk of my shopping before Thanksgiving.  But usually still have the boys and Rob to shop for.

Well, thanks to some great friends, I 95% finished shopping by Monday.  Then yesterday another friend watched Bryson while  I wrapped everything I have bought.  I didn’t put tags on anything, rather I wrote numbers on them and have a list with what the numbers are and who they are for.

All I can say is it is so much easier to buy things for a 4 year old than an 11 year old.

Not only that, but I have ordered my Christmas Cards and just finished writing our Chrsimas letter and will print those today.   Maybe I will do the labels for the cards too?

Seriously, I am worried, when will I crash?  What has possessed me?  What am I going to do in December?

Oh, yes that is right.  I am in charge of the family calendar.  That will keep me busy.  Not to mention 2 doula clients due, Sing Noel, teaching a Hypnobabies Series, Follow the Star, decorating a Gingerbread house, decorating the house.  I guess I will stay busy.

 

“Go away Punk!”

When he was talking about park day.  “Cora was there.  Maddie and Brooklyn were there too.  There was also some random girl.  She was nice.”

I often have to borrow Bryson’s baby dolls for Hypnobabies Class.

Last night when I was ready to go out Bryson offered to go up and get his baby dolls for me.  I said, “I don’t need one tonight.”

Bryson asked, “Where are you going?”

I replied, “I am going to book club tonight.”

He said matter of factly, “Book club doesn’t have babies!”

 

Bryson was watching Angela’s with much interest, while I was editing it.

He said, “Her baby was born in the water?  I wanted to be born in the water!”

He was very offended he didn’t have that pleasure!

When my boys grow up they won’t say,

“My mom raised 3 boys and had a perfectly clean house AND cooked homemade meals each night.”

Rather, they will be satisfied with anything they get.    If it is canned Ravioli, fine.  If the house looks like a disaster, fine.

My great DH, has never made such comments to me, nor would he ever.

But I know some men do expect perfection in housekeeping and food.    I don’t know how to attain that, so I just try my best.

I also have the best cleaning lady in the world, so my house is pretty “clean” underneath the mess.  Without Olivia, I hate to think how my house would be.

 

When we went to Cancun we left our rats with our friend Jenny and her boys.  Twister hadn’t been doing to well for a few weeks.  He seemed like he had suffered a stroke or something.  His back legs weren’t working, his eyes seemed weird.

Jenny was hoping he wouldn’t die when we were gone.  I prayed EVERY DAY that Twister would live until we got home.  Jenny and her boys have had enough death to deal with, she didn’t need Twister’s death in her household.  I was thrilled to find that Twister was alive when we got home.  He even seemed a bit better.  His eyes looked normal and while his back legs were still not working well, he seemed to have more use of them.

Well, 4 days after we got home, Twister died.  It was a sad morning.  Tears were shed by Carson.  Devon was laughing so he wouldn’t cry.  Bryson was confused.  Twister was still in the cage and I was explaining how he had died.  His body was still here, but his spirit was in heaven.  (Do rats go to heaven?  I am not sure, but I went with that theme today.)  Bryson asked, “Is his head still here?”  I said, “Yes, all of his body is.”  He took a look at Twister and said, “His ears are still here too!”

Carson led a nice service for Twister today after school.  He will be missed and I have another experience to testify that God hears and answers prayers, even ones about rats!

My church has a Sing Noel concert every December.  I have participated for many of the past few years.  We have an amazing pianist who composes a wonderful song for a soloist each concert.  I have always LOVED her songs.  The only problem with the CDs from the actual concert, is it isn’t the best quality.  Either you can’t hear the singer or the piano.

I was THRILLED to see she is producing a Christmas CD.  I am just in tears listening to her samples on her blog It’s All About the Baby.

Here is my favorite song so far!  Evening Lullaby

YAY!

Wednesday

We got on a plane to Dallas Texas first.  We waited 2 hours until we got on our plane to Mexico.  When we landed we had to wait in a really long line just to go to another really long line.  Then at the end of that long line we pushed a button with a random red or green light.  Then we got in a rental car and drove to the Royal Sands Hotel.

 

Thursday

We went to a hotel not to far away called Cancun Palace.  We took a tour and went to the Infinity Pool.  (We got a lot of tours for the 7 of us for only $225, well worth our time!)  My brother Devon and I went to the beach which was seriously right next to us.  I found some really cool shells and 2 rocks, on the beach, under the sand.  We ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant.  We went to a show about Michaels Jackson.  It was an OK show, not the best.  (Carson asked during the show.  Is Michael Jackson supposed to be a boy or a girl?  Good question.)

 

Friday

Today was the boringest day ever.  I had to go on this bus.  It took 3 hours to get to this Mayan temple named Chitzenitza.  IT is really cool because when you clap you hear a sound like a gun shot.  There is this God that is a bird snake.  The gun shot sound is the bird.  If you listen to the left there is the rattle (snake sound.)  There is a phenomenon – there are 7 triangles on the steps and the head on the bottom.  September 22^nd and March 21^st the sun lights up the triangles one by one.  If all light up it will be a good year.  2005 it was cloudy so it was a bad year.  (Lots of damaging hurricanes.)

 

Saturday

At 11 am we went to a Marina and went on a cool tour.  While we were doing it a level one hurricane was coming.  On the tour we were on little speed boats.  We went through Mangroves.  When we started back it started to pour.  The water droplets felt like bullets.  It got me cold so I hid under the bow of the boat.  We are just about to be in a level 1 hurricane.

 

Sunday

This morning really early Hurricane Ida hit us, just the edge of it.  We went to the pool and swam for a minute and a half, and then the manager told us to get out.  Two hours later we went to the pool attain.  WE stayed there for at least 2-3 hours.  The Devon, Pop-pop and I went up the elevator.  I went to the back corner of the elevator and I stepped on a piece of glass and cut my foot.  Then when we got to our room I went to our porch.  Our dad helped me with the cut.  Then a doctor came and helped with my foot.  Then I went back inside and watched Toy Story 2 and ate ice cream.

 

Monday

We tried to go do a zipline.  It was cancelled so we rescheduled for tomorrow.  We decided to go to Coba.  We did a 45 minute tour with a guide.  Then we went on tricycles with a pedaler on the back driving us around.  Then Devon, my Dad and I climbed up the big temple pyramid called Coba.  There was a spectacular view from the top of Coba.  Then we all climbed down which actually was not too hard.  Then we stopped at other sites on the way back to the car while riding on the bikes.  Our pedaler was our tour guide.

On the way back from Coba we drove into a 2 foot deep hold in the middle of the road with no warning.  We popped our right front tire.  Apparently the hole was right next to a little police station.  Then we got the care fixed and drove back to the hotel.

 

Tuesday

We started our day with a Zipline Adventure.  We started out with a slow moving one for the zipline.  Then we went down a longer zipline, which was also very fun.  The ziplines kept getting longer and longer.  On one zipline when you were done you had to walk over a bridge.  The 2^nd to last zipline I went on upside down.  The last zipline was the longest and funnest.

Then we went on a boat ride that was called a shot over jet.  There was a professional driver driving the boat.  We did high speed turns, which dint’ get me dizzy at all.  It really cooled me down on the hot day.

 

Wednesday

I went to the beach in the morning.  I collected some shells and rocks and a cool piece of coral reef (that I lost) we were at a yellow flag doing stuff because every place else had a red flag.  I lot of rocks had been unburied by the hurricane.

We went to the pool and played a few hours there.  We went back to our room.  Then my Dad, Mom and baby brother decided to go to the kids place.  We played a little ping pong and then we hit it on the wall.  Back at the hotel we watched Kung Fu Panda, which I have seen 10 times.

 

Thursday

We went to Wet and Wild.  My favorite ride at Wet and Wild was the double space bowl.  We went on all the rides.  One ride was called Kamikaze.   There were Bumper Boats.  There was the Kids Park, Wave Pool and Lazy River.  For lunch I ordered Pepperoni Pizza.  On the Kamikaze, you went down a slide really fast, when it feels like a free fall, you land!

 

Friday

We flew home.

That about sums up our trip to Mexico.  It was pretty great.  Fun memories made.  Bryson said, “I am happy to be home, but I miss Nana and PopPop!”

The only bummer was the only sunny day was the last one, when we went to the airport!

We went to Wet and Wild on Thursday and it was practically empty.  If only it had been warm instead of chilly.  The boys didn’t seem to mind.  They never do.

Here are the rest of the pictures!