THANKSGIVING PRE-SCHOOL STYLE

I am apologizing to Liz at the beginning for these pictures. Hopefully she got a little bit more serious picture of the Austin and Kyle while they were learning about the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving--but Austin wasn't about to let me get away with a semi-decent picture of his pilgrim hat he made in pre-school. So Liz, I am so, so, sorry he wouldn't pose like a nice little 5 year old!

When I took the pictures he really wasn't interested in talking about why they made the hats and just what the pilgrims represent in this country, but yesterday it all came out--He told me about the Pilgrims and John Smith and the Indians, but I think he was more interested in the fact that they had rifles and went "deer hunting" as he called it! I don't know what Liz told him about Thanksgiving, but I can assure you she DIDN'T go into the "deer hunting methods" of how we get our Thanksgiving Turkey! But, gratefully, he wasn't graphic about shooting the turkey.

I know that I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to live in this wonderful country and have the ability to worship in a religion where we aren't persecuted in the way my pilgrims forefathers were. I am very truly thankful for the family and friends I have in my life. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

ILLINOIS, PEORIA MISSION

Sister Gwen Schmardebeck has been called to the Illinois, Peoria Mission. She will be entering the Provo, Utah MTC on Monday, December 28th. She had been praying for some time to really serve in the Nauvoo Mission. And I think she was a bit disappointed.
When she opened her call, she just had that small look of disappointment, not a lot, just a little. Because I believe she was thinking that she would have to serve here in Salt Lake because of what one of the missionary department people told the bishop, due to some of her physical limitations. I asked her if she was going to tell me where it was or if she was going to let me read the letter from the prophet. When she handed it over, I think she may have been more excited than she let on, but at the same time disappointed. And entire mission away from where she really wanted to serve.
The missionary department sends a booklet of: Who your Mission President is, a map of the Mission, what clothing to wear, what to take, etc.
When she handed me the map and I looked it over I told her, unless Nauvoo was a separate mission in and of itself, it was in the Peoria Mission. Wow, did her eyes light up in a hurry! I got on the internet and looked at the area and found that it is not it's own mission.



So, Sister Schmardebeck will be serving in the Illinois, Peoria Mission, which includes Nauvoo, Illinois--right where she has prayed for a year to be serving
Congratulations, Mom. You will be doing a great work, for a good reason and we will be blessed for you having given up 18 months of home life for mission life as an Office Specialist In Peoria, Illinois.
Now it is time for me to panic and be overwhelmed. That is only "6 WEEKS AWAY" YIKES!!!

HAVE I MENTIONED?

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate being sick? I am the type of person who, if I am sick, can only tolerate one, maybe two days max. I am now headed into day number 5--count them five days. Fever, body aches, n/v/d (abbreviations for other not so pleasant symptoms), Yep it's the flu. Not only have I had it, but Keith, Kassie, Austin, Ashlynne and now Andrew have had or now have it. Mom and RJ, so far, are the only two who have yet to catch this nasty bug. RJ lucked out because he has been was out of town.

So I am going to just mention a few things that send me a little over the top (Sorry for the bad attitude, but after being sick for this long, I am entitled!)

1. Being sick for over two days.
2. Procrastination of others.
3. Not being able to do the things I did 10-15-20 years ago because of physical limitations.
4. Being very impatient.
5. Sick grandchildren--all three at the same time.
6. Being pre-menopausal! That being said, you can only imagine!
7. A house full of several people and no one seems to realize that things need to be picked up, put away, or washed. Or my personal favorites: not hanging up bath towels after they are used or changing the toilet paper roll when it is empty. Do people pealize that you don't die from changing the toilet paper roll!!
8. A car that needs to be turned over to the junk yard, yet need to wit 'til next year to get a new one.
9. The leaves not falling off of the trees fast enough--because I know with all of us being sick, we probably won't get around to them before the first big snow! Generally they are off the tree no later that the 1st of November. Here we are approaching the 7th and we still have a large fully established tree full of leaves.
10. And finally, have I mentioned not having a camera that works because the brand new one that I bought after the old camera was dropped and broken the night before Kassie's wedding had to be sent to Virginia to be repaired, because someone bumped into me and I dropped it while I was taking pictures at the wedding. Big time swear word!!! (for now we are useing my mom's that we barely figured out how to use and there is a reason that it was so inexpensive---it takes terrible picture)

Now that I have gotten that off of my chest--I feel a little better, not much, but a little. Feel free to let me know just how you feel or not. I promise I won't laugh, I will only commiserate with you and I won't even be offended if people don't write any comments, I just needed to blow off steam!

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY AUSTIN

It is very hard to believe this, but Austin is five today. I remember distictly the day he was born. I remember putting my hand in his tiny little fingers and him just squeezing sooooo tight. I thought he might squeeze it off, he was sooo strong. He had a boatload of hair (I wish I had a scanner to get his baby pictures on the computer). This little boy is athletic, funny, loves his brother, plays ball, tolerates his sister (most of the time), adores his Papa, loves to give babies kisses, loves to learn new things, loves dinosaurs, spiderman, and anything soldier or military related.
He is a joy to have around, loves doing things with his dad and papa. He loves to laugh. He has a very hardy laugh that comes straight from the belly. And at any given time of the day he will come up to you out of the blue and say to one of us, "Nana ( or whoever he may be talking to), I love ya! I love ya a lot!" And we love him a lot too.
We acutally celebrated his birthday yesterday because his dad had to go out of town for work this week. Unfortunately, today, he is sick! (Good thing we did it yesterday).
We hope you have a very happy birthday Austin. We love you loads and loads!