What a busy month!

I have been so neglectful of the blog this month. The days from Thanksgiving to Christmas seem to run by in such a hurry. It's an especially busy time for mothers of young children but made even more so by my church calling. The end of the year is a very busy time for Primary as we prepare for new classes and teachers. What little spare time I have over normal holiday preparations is spent. I will try to bring you up to speed on our doings over the last few weeks.

We had the treat of having my parents come and visit over the weekend of the 5th, 6th and 7th. They arrived Saturday morning and by that afternoon we were in Hayden, ID playing at Triple Play and Raptor Reef. We've been to Raptor Reef before with them but this time we also spent time at the other venues there. The kids got to bowl, play arcade games, play mini-golf, play lazer-tag, and play at the water slides. The kids had a great afternoon and were worn out by the time we left at 5:30. It was a great Christmas gift from their grandparents, to have fun with them. The one major unhappiness for me was that I had no camera with me.

I know, a mortal sin, to not have my camera with me. The night before my parents' arrival I drove Rachel and her Young Women's group down to the Fox theater to see the Spokane Symphony play the holiday pops. During that drive my purse fell over and everything fell out. Rachel cleaned it up for me and zipped it back up. We got home very late that night. The next day when we left for Hayden I had no idea that my camera was still on the floor of the Saturn, not in my purse where it ALWAYS is, when not in use. My mother was kind enough to go purchase a low-end digital camera but we discovered that of the 56 pictures we took only 3 turned out. She returned the camera. Here is a link to the really bad pictures, you can take a look if you want to.

From December 2009

Sunday was spent going to church and hanging out at home. That afternoon the Saturn had problems starting. Monday was spent getting an appointment with a mechanic as the Saturn again could barely start and it had been charged all night long. Monday night we dropped the car at the mechanic and the children spent as much time with their grandparents after returning home from school as they could. Tuesday morning my parents had to leave and we picked up the Saturn that evening. It runs so much better but our bank account is feeling the price. Monday also brought a routine vet visit and while the dog is doing well enough, he is going to need a minor surgery to improve his health. Haven't scheduled that yet as all I can see is dollar bills flying out the window.

It was great to see my parents but 72 hours is just not enough time and with the kids in school its really a bummer. We'll have to look at better planning in the future. We really enjoyed spending time with them, especially since we didn't have to do the driving to see them, thanks mom and dad!

The rest of that week moved along at normal crazy Lindh speed. Then on the 12th we realized that the garbage disposal was leaking. So Jason inspected it and found that it had a hole in the housing. Time to buy and install a new one, yeah! (Do you see more bills flying?) Got that project finished Saturday night and cleaned up the kitchen and went to bed. Woke up Sunday morning to discover that the pump on the dishwasher had died. Trust me when I say that I speak from experience and can tell you that this is NOT something you repair. You replace, end of discussion. Our credit card is starting to LOVE us! Gotta laugh, it's that or crying.

That night we decided to treat the kids to a drive around town. We went to look at Christmas light displays in different neighborhoods, including our own. We had a great time listening to Christmas music and singing and being together. As we were returning home the kids begged for just a little more. So we decided to travel the one mile loop of road near our home. There weren't many homes with lights but we got a treat of a different kind. We saw two bull moose crossing Ponderosa Dr at 50th Place. They were HUGE! It was so cool to see them as none of us have ever seen a moose in real life. The kids loved it. Again, no pictures, I wasn't driving and didn't have my purse. But in all fairness to me we would not have been able to get any shots that would have been decent. They moved across the road too fast to have gotten the camera out, on and out the window to remove glare from the flash.

Monday night for Family Home Evening we took the children shopping for items to donate to the families in need that their schools sponsor. The children at Ponderosa were collecting mittens, hats, scarves and boots for families in need. And the students at Horizon were also working towards providing a nice Christmas to a chosen family. While shopping for these items we bought a new dishwasher. It won't be available for pickup until this Tuesday. We have been washing dishes by hand, all week. I must say that personally I don't mind the washing but the counter space they take up as they dry is driving me crazy. Can't wait to get my new dishwasher.

Tuesday was my day to help at preschool and Caleb had a program that night. Jason went to it and recorded it. I took Nathan to scouts and Anna to gymnastics while Rachel stayed home for her French Horn lesson. I also helped Jaron finish up his Nutcracker he made for his school play held Thursday night.
A snippet of Caleb's concert.


Wednesday was fairly routine. Thursday Jaron had a school play based on the Nutcracker. He got to be a soldier. There was also a competition to build the best Nutcracker they could. He had a good time making his and he did a great job on it. He was not one of the winners, of which there were only 4, but he enjoyed his project. Jason attended the afternoon production and I got to go to the evening showing. He did a great job of fighting the mice and singing the songs.

Some of Jaron's concert.

Thursday afternoon I did manage to catch a few cute photos of Sarah and Darik. DTL was playing games at the computer and Sarah climbed up to give him some love and watch the action.


Friday was spent on errands and preparing for baking on Saturday. As gifts to all of our teachers one counselor and I baked loaves of bread for each of them. My other counselor and secretary were in charge of the gifts to the children - homemade ornaments. We spent Saturday morning cleaning and baking. Mostly the day was spent getting our home in order after our week and addressing Christmas cards which I'll be mailing on Monday.

Today was church with a Christmas music program during Sacrament Meeting. Our 5 oldest kids were a children's choir that performed with the ward choir. Kind of cool that you can have a "children's choir" all made up from one family. They did a great job on the two verses that they sang. And all the primary children sang a song for the meeting and did a good job on that too.

I'm tired and ready for Christmas break. We still have speech therapy and a few other appointments this week but after Wednesday evening it should all slow down, just in time to recover for January. I'll have my camera up and ready Christmas morning and I'll be back to good picture posts. Until then...