Thanksgiving

Wow . . . what a great Thanksgiving break we had.  It was so hard to get up and go back to work this morning.  This year we hosted both sides of our family again here at our house for dinner.  It’s always so nice when everyone can get together.  For the past few years we have been doing this and it’s so nice because everyone fixes their special dishes and contributes to the meal.

We had a pretty typical Thanksgiving day.  It all began mid-morning when everyone began arriving.  I sent Jeff out early to grab a paper so we could go through all of the ads.       It was so nice to have both my grandma and my nana here.

I of course forgot to get out my camera until after we had finished eating so I didn’t get nearly as many picture as I would have liked.  At this point in the day everyone was either sitting around watching football, napping or enjoying the weather outdoors.  Later that evening we played our traditional 12 rounds of Mexican Train Dominoes.  It got pretty crazy this year!!!

Grant and Uncle Randy Debbie and her dad Eck, who was here along with her mom Gladys visiting from South Carolina again this year.  Luckily my step grandpa Larry was feeling up to making the trip from Winfield to Wichita.  Here he is with my Grandma.                               Grant and Daddy enjoying some pumpkin pie.  I think Jeff was sitting on his lap and crushing him in this picture.

I couldn’t leave out a picture of the birthday boy.  That’s right, Thanksgiving day was Spiro’s 4th birthday.  It’s hard to believe that he’s been a part of our family this long.  He celebrated with some bites of turkey and ham.

Jeff's Experiment

Jeff did quite a bit of reading online last night about throat cancer (against my better judgement because I was afraid he would just worry more) and even those he does have quite a few of the symptoms he is convinced that he is just suffering from vocal chord strain.

Every morning when he wakes up he feels completely normal and as the day goes on and he talks on the phone and with brokers when he is doing office visits he starts to develop what feel like a ball in his throat which makes it difficult for him to swallow and by the end of the day he can hardly speak without severe discomfort. So this morning when he woke up he decided to try a little experiment. He thought it would be a good test to go all day without talking and see if he had any problems. He kind of figured that if it was "cancer" it would hurt no matter how much he spoke. I'm happy to report that he has been fine all day so we are crossing our fingers that this is the problem and that there is a simple fix for it. I will admit though that it has been really annoying not being able to have a conversation with him other than texting or him writing down what he wants to say on a pad of paper.

We are really hoping to hear back from the doctor tomorrow before the weekend. I will post an update as soon as we find out something for sure. Thanks so much for all of your prayers!!!

The Waiting Game

Tonight we are playing the waiting game. Jeff went to the doctor this afternoon regarding some throat issues he's had for the past 10 years that seem to be getting worse and our family doctor suggested he have a CT Scan to check for throat cancer. I have to admit the "C" word kind of scared us. So they scheduled him to come in this evening to their after hours emergency care office to have the scan done. We of course didn't get to find out anything tonight so now we are going to have to wait for a day or two for the doctor to get back to us with the results. I'm sure no news is good news . . . but I know we will all sleep a little easier once we hear something.

In other news it's been pretty quiet around our house the past few days. Everyone seems to be fighting sinus pain and pressure so we've just been taking it kind of easy and heading off to bed early. Grant has a big weekend planned in Winfield with grandma and papa so hopefully he will start feeling better soon!!!

Too Much Fun

Here’s what happens to a little boy on Sunday night at 6:15 after he’s had too much fun over the weekend.   

It all began on Friday  night after school when we went out to dinner with our friends the Stephens and then the boys all went bowling while Becky and I did a little shopping.  Then on Saturday we dropped Grant off at his friend Nick’s house to play around lunch time and then they went to a laser tag birthday party from 6:30-9:30 that evening.  They decided they wanted to sleep over at Nick’s after the party and from what Grant says he was up until 2:00 am.  Jeff picked him up this morning a little after 9:00 am and then he had a full afternoon of homework and his first basketball practice of the season.  As soon as we got home he took a hot bath and went straight to sleep after dinner.  Now I’m crossing my fingers he sleeps all night and isn’t up too early in the morning.

Birthday Bash

On Saturday morning we packed up our car and headed to Kansas City to see family.  We met up with my cousin Mandy and her husband Sean for a yummy Mexican  lunch at Panzon’s just down the street from their house in Lenexa.  The weather was gorgeous so we were able to sit outside and enjoy a nice meal together and catch up.  Then we drove out to The Legends  to walk around and do some shopping.  The boys went to Dave and Buster’s and played games while us girls shopped around.

Here’s Grant showing off the Bart Simpson doll he won with his tickets.  I think it only cost about $30!!!

This is me with my cousin Mandy and my sister Karen.Jeff and me

After a few hours of shopping  we went and checked into our hotel and got ready for the big birthday bash.  My Aunt Janet turned 60 this week so her daughter and husband planned a surprise birthday party for her.  She is a photographer and thought she was headed to take photos for a friend at a family dinner.  Needless to say she was shocked when she walked in and saw all of her friends and family.  It was a very fun evening.  My mom and dad came and brought along my Nana.

There weren’t a lot of places to sit so Nana thought it would be a good idea for Grant to sit on her lap.  Grant quickly reminded her that she only weighed 98 lbs and he weighed 105 lbs so he thought next time maybe she should sit on his lap.             

   Me with my sister and mom.  The birthday girl with Jeff, Grant and me.Grant with grandma and papa.

Halloween 2009

Our Halloween festivities officially began on Friday.  Grant and I both had our Fall Parties at school.  Thankfully Jeff was home so he was able to go to Grant’s party while I stayed at the party that was underway in my classroom.  (That’s what stinks most about my job.  I’ll be so happy in another year when our schools become K-6 and Grant and I will be back in the same building again.)

Back to the school parties . . . my friends and I all dressed up as the Cheetah Girl’s.  Even though I felt like a total dork with my face painted it was a fun day.We of course had to get a picture of our tails too!!!

Here’s Grant and his best friend Nick.  I sent the camera with Jeff and he took lots of pictures but for some reason this is the only one he took of Grant.  I guess he doesn’t realize I don’t really want picture of other people’s kids  . . .

After school we hurried home for dinner and pumpkin carving.  I found these adorable little pumpkin bread bowls at Great Harvest Bread at lunchtime so I picked them up and Jeff  made a pot of  potato soup. 

Grant did most of the dirty work.  

Yes, I’m still wearing my ears and face paint.

Then he and daddy worked together to drill holes all around our pumpkin.  I have to admit I saw this idea on a friend’s blog and thought it was such a cute idea.  Thanks Aleshia!!!

 

On Saturday our neighbors Debbie and Dave roasted a pig so we went over for dinner and then headed out trick-or-treating.  Grant dressed up as a zombie rock star this year.  I think the years of cute costumes are gone at our house.       Spiro sported his usual honeybee costume.