Derek is packing the car as I sit here.  He’s the World’s Most Efficient Car Packer, and since we are going home with a truckload of presents, efficiency is key.  I’ll just let him do his job and sit here and blog. Okay, so I failed miserably at blogging every day this month.  Ah, well.  I was too busy hanging out with family, friends, eating, playing nerts, and shopping.  I love black Friday!  My mom, sister, and I are usually among those crazy people out at the crack of dawn.  But Miss Camryn decided to sleep until 7:30 yesterday morning, so it was 9:00 before we even got to Kohl’s.  It was perfect!  The major crowds were gone, and they were restocking the shelves. I was able to get everything I needed from there and at Target.  I’m mostly done Christmas shopping!

I can’t believe the holiday season is officially here!  I’m excited to get home and set up the Christmas stuff.  This is my favorite time of year!

Other blogs to come…Sometimes I Act Like a Kid (and more evidence that I am most definitely a middle child), 7 Things about Logan, and 7 Things about Camryn.  (Does anyone else have to say things out loud to remember them?  This last paragraph is really just a note to self.)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  (Just a bit late…)

and…

Happy Birthday, Roomate!!

Instead of writing 7 random things about me, I’m going to write 7 random things about each of my kids.  First up: Connor James.

1. He does not like spaghetti sauce.  When I make spaghetti, he gets noodles with butter and parmesan cheese.  When we eat pizza, he gets cheese sticks, or sometimes if I get out the ranch he will eat it.  He isn’t a terribly picky eater, but tomato sauce is one thing he consistently does not like.

2. He gets ready for the day and gets ready for bed in the exact same order every single day.  Wake up.  Eat breakfast.  Get dressed.  Go potty.  Brush teeth.  And bedtime: potty, bath, pj’s brush teeth, story, bed.  He never varies from that order.  Ever.

3. He is hesitant to do new things until he knows he can do them well, and then he gets a little obsessed.  For example: drawing.  He wanted to draw batman but didn’t know how.  There were many tears involved in the process, but now we have notebooks full of batman drawings.  He was like that with learning to ride a bike, and I think reading is going to be the same thing.  He can read, but does not want to do it because he can’t do it perfectly, but soon I think it will be hard to get him to put the books down.

4. He has a super long tongue.  It’s really freakishly long.  We talk a lot about how God makes each of us special and gives us each special gifts.  And when we have this conversation, he almost always brings up his tongue.  “God made me special and creative and I’m a fast runner.  And God also gave me a really long tongue.”

5. He gets overstimulated very easily.  It’s something that gets easier to deal with the older he gets.  Now when he starts to get overstimulated, we can diffuse it before he explodes by having him color.  I’m glad that we finally figured out how to deal with this aspect of his personality, because let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty for quite some time.  The world is a very stimulating place!

6.  He loves numbers.  He loves to tell time, to count, to add things, etc.  He always sits in the same seat number on the bus, and on the same number on the carpet at school. He defines how much he likes something in number form.  My favorite is when he tells me “I love you 80 million galaxies past pluto.”

7. His favorite color is black.

Okay, so blogging every day for an entire month might have been a bit too lofty of a goal.  A few things happened:

-We all got sick.  Connor had a little stuffy nose starting on Monday.  No biggie, he didn’t even have to miss school or anything.  Well, Wednesday evening, Camryn started running a fever.  At 11:00 p.m. that night, her fever got pretty high and she was miserable.  She needed to be held until 2:00 a.m., and then even when she would finally let me put her down, she woke up every 20 minutes for the entire rest of the night.  It was a long night to say the least.  She has had a super snot nose since then, but a trip to the doctor confirmed it’s just a cold.  Logan started getting snotty on Thursday, and now that it’s Sunday, Derek and I have it, too.  Connor is now complaining his ear hurts…not sure yet if he has an ear infection, but I will have my brother check tomorrow.  Just one of the benefits of having a brother who is a doctor. 🙂

-Connor and Logan finished their soccer season.  It was super short because of the hurricane.  But it was still fun!  Connor especially had a great season.  This was his third season of playing, and this year he had the advantage of being one of the oldest (and by far the biggest…the next tallest kid on their team only reached his shoulders!)  He was really into playing, understood all the rules, and really did great.  He scored 4 goals this season, which are the only goals he has ever scored.  I wish I could have captured to look on his face when he scored.  It was priceless.  Logan had fun, too, but since it was his first season, he spent a fair amount of time sitting in the sidelines just watching.  But when he played, he was right there in the middle of the pack going after it 100%.  That’s how Logan rolls.  He always gives his all.

-Our Thanksgiving vacation has started!  If we can all catch up on some much needed sleep and get well, it will be a great week visiting with friends and family.  I love Thanksgiving!

-Okay, that’s all I can think of right now.  Pretty pathetic.  I think my medicine is turning my brain to mush.  More blogging tomorrow!  Hopefully I’ll finish strong on my month of blogging.

Okay, so I failed at blogging every day this month.  I’m still going to try, but I’ve already missed a few days.  I’ve been up to my elbows in to-do lists.  I’ve actually been able to get a lot done over the past 2 days!  I put away The Largest Laundry Pile Known to Mankind, made phone calls, worked out, ran errands, returned stuff, cleaned things, baked cookies, cooked dinner, and that’s not even everything. I just got finished making these little cuties for Connor’s class party tomorrow.

Tomorrow after I take Logan to school, I plan to get a jump start on Christmas shopping!  Speaking of Christmas…

A few weeks ago, our church showed this video:

It’s really something that’s been on my heart since I first saw the video a few weeks ago.  It’s one of those things that I tried to resist at first.  If there is one thing I love, it’s gifts.  I love to give gifts.  I love to receive gifts.  (Five Love Languages, anyone?  Yeah, gifts is my love language.)  I didn’t mention anything to Derek or to anyone about wanting to be a part of the Advent Conspiracy.   I decided to just ignore that little voice.  Well, maybe not completely ignore.  It would be good enough just to give a few extra dollars towards clean water, right?  I don’t really have to sacrifice any of my Christmas presents, do I?

But that little voice got louder.  And I started to think about my kids and the lessons I want to teach them. Then the voice got a little louder.  But really?  Give up some presents?  C’mon God….I’ll pick a kid off the Angel Tree,  I’ll give all my loose change to the Salvation Army bell ringers, I’ll be really kind to other drivers for the entire month of December, and I’ll even give a little extra on Sunday morning.  Isn’t that good enough?

Bu the answer was still no.  It’s not good enough.  Finally, after several weeks of wrestling with this, I mentioned it to Derek.

“So, um, I was thinking, and, um, you can tell me if you don’t think it’s a good idea…I was, um, just thinking about that Advent Conspiracy thing….and, um….maybe we should contribute to it.  You know, not just like write a special check, but acutally do it.  You know, like not get each other presents.” I paused.  I desperately wanted Derek to interject, but I got nothing.  I needed to say it, and say it boldly.

“I really think that instead of us buying presents for each other, we should give that money to the advent conspirary thing at church.”  There.  I said it.  Maybe he wouldn’t think it was a good idea.  Maybe he would say, no, let’s still get each other presents and just give a little extra.

“Yeah, I do think that’s a good idea.  I was thinking the same thing.”

So just like that, I was in 100%.

It’s really insane that Amerians spend on average 450 billion dollars on Christmas every year, and for 10 billion dollars, the entire world could have clean drinking water.

I know that our few hundred dollars won’t really put a dent in the water crisis, but I still feel led to do this.  And if there’s one thing I know…if God is leading, we better follow.

This morning, Logan, Camryn, and I met up with Annalee, Adelaide, Tricia, Sam, and Micah at the zoo.  It was so fun!  It is so beautiful outside today and the zoo was practically empty.  The kids ran around (well, the ones that run), and we got to visit.  We are going to do monthly playdates (hear that girls?!  I’m holding us to it!)

Anywho, while we were there, we talked about naps, which I have found is a really common conversation to be had among mamas.  Logan doesn’t nap anymore.  The end of the napping era started when we took away Logan’s paci back in June. Then Camryn was born, and I completely went into survival mode which meant I did not have it in me to fight about nap time. I started letting him go on my bed, which led to playing on my bed, which led to just watching tv on my bed.  That’s what he does every afternoon now, and it works great.  I get at least a 25 minute break in between conversations, and the bonus is he goes to bed really early.   So we talked about this today, about how Logan doesn’t nap, and lo and behold he fell asleep in the car on the way home from the zoo!  So he is conked out in the carseat (I don’t dare move him.  I know he will wake up, so I just parked the car in the closed garage and left it running…oh wait, I’m not trying to poison my child.  It’s cool today, so I closed the garage door, turned the car off, opened all the windows, and left the door to the house open so I can hear him when he wakes up.  Today I am very thankful that we are able to park our cars in the garage!)  Now here’s the really glorious part.  Camryn is asleep too. Folks, I have just fully attained the wonderful pastime known as the nap overlap.  Nap overlap is what got me through the first year of having 2 kids.  I love the nap overlap with my whole heart, and it’s been far too long since I’ve gotten to experience one!  So now I am sitting here in complete silence, drinking a Dr. Pepper and wondering what I should do with this??  I don’t want to start laundry…what if it wakes one up??  We cleaned the house yesterday for small group, and besides, I think it’s against the rules to clean the house during nap overlap.  I don’t even want to turn on the tv for fear that this will end!  I think I’ll go scrapbook.  It’s been a lovely Monday here at the Thurman abode.  I hope all of yours are just as lovely!

P.S. I would take a picture of Logan sleeping in the car, but I am way too scared that the flash would wake him up.

5:00: Camryn wakes up hungry.  It will be a happy time when she consistently sleeps past that lovely hour.

5:30: Back to sleep.

7:00: Connor wakes up.  We snuggle.  He talks and I murmur “uh huh” while trying to get just a few more minutes of sleep.  He eventually goes out to the living room to watch tv and eats Lucky Charms.

7:30: Get up.  Take a shower.

8:00: Remember that our Operation Christmas Child boxes need to be put together.

8:15: Logan wakes up.

8:20: Camryn wakes up.  Eats.

8:40: Finally finished with Christmas child boxes.

8:45: Frantically try to get everyone ready for church.  Derek worked sound this morning and was already gone.  The boys make their own mixes of cereal and dried fruit to eat on the way.

9:30: Leave for church.  We’ll only be a little late.

11:30: Home from church.  Derek goes and gets us food from The Fish Place while I feed Camryn.  Boys play in the backyard.

Afternoon:  Boys play outside almost the entire afternoon (it was gorgeous today!)  Derek made another fire, and Connor spent a good amount of time just staring at it today.  Derek and I clean the house and get ready for our small group which is at our house today.  Camryn sleeps, eats, wiggles around on the floor, and sleeps again.

4:15: Small group starts.  8 kids, 7 adults, lots of good fellowship and good food.  We had tacos, rice, rotel, and cupcakes.

6:45: Small group ends.  Get boys ready for bed.

7:30: Boys head to bed.  Camryn stays up a bit later since she took a really long late afternoon nap.

8:00: Everyone is asleep!  Connor actually said these words tonight: “Mom, I am going to sleep good because I am tired tonight.”  He’s never said anything like that before!

Evening: Blogs, emails, message boards, D watches tv, plays XBox, I will edit pictures, veg, and go to bed.

And this concludes my life this week.  (I added in the Friday and Saturday pictures.)

6:45: I wake up even though everyone else is sleeping. I putter around and pray Camryn wakes up soon.  It was past feeding time, and all you women who have ever nursed know what that feels like…

7:00: Connor wakes up.

7:15: Camryn wakes up (thank goodness!)

7:30: Logan wakes up.

8:00: Leave for the boys’ soccer game.  It was freezing outside yesterday!  The wind was crazy.

8:30: Soccer game.  Logan played the first quarter, sat out the second and third (his choice), and played the fourth quarter.  Connor had a great time, even when they put him in the goal and the other team scored 3 times.  He finally made a great save after Derek went down and gave him some pointers.  He didn’t think he could move off the goal line.  Kids are funny like that!  Connor almost scored a goal.  It was quite exciting!

(click on that last one….that is what they do when they get bored during the game.  Classic!)

9:45: Home.  Feed Camryn.

10:00: Leave for bible study breakfast at Panera.

11:30: Home.

Afternoon:  straighten, straighten, and straighten some more.  Our neighbor comes over to play with Connor and Logan.  They have a great time in the fort under the kitchen table and in the backyard. Camryn goes down for a nap around 1:45.  We take some silly pictures.

4:15: Camryn wakes up from a great 2.5 hour nap.  She eats.

4:45: Go to Wal-Mart.  Our church participates in Operation Christmas Child. Connor and Logan each picked out things for a box.  Logan wanted to buy presents for a little girl his age, and Connor chose a boy his age.

5:45: YMCA Fall Festival.  Our Y had a fun little festival last night.  We met some of our friends there, and the kids had a great time in the bounce houses, playing the little games, and riding ponies.

7:15: Home.  Boys get ready for bed, Camryn eats, and goes to bed.

7:45: Derek makes a fire in the fireplace.  It was cold here last night!  The boys thought the fire was the coolest thing.

8:30:  Boys head to bed.  Logan was literally asleep by 8:35.  He must have been exhausted!  Even Connor settled right down.

8:45: Movie Night.  Derek and I watched Rumor Has It.  It was okay…I ended up falling asleep towards the end.

(Pictures coming soon)

4:30: Camryn wakes up and eats.  My eyes hurt since I stayed up until midnight last night.

5:00: Back asleep.

6:45: Logan climbs in my bed.  He needs orange juice, pronto.

7:05: Connor joins us.  We lounge around watching a bit of Franklin.

7:15: Breakfast for Connor.  Muffin, yogurt, and cinnamon toast crunch.  He was hungry this morning!  Breakfast is interrupted by the garbage truck, and the boys run to the front yard to watch and wave.

7:40: Camryn wakes up.

7:50: Take Connor to school.

8:15: Home.  Call the insurance company about our claim for hurricane damage.  Feed Camryn.  Logan watches Jack’s Big Music Show.

9:00: Talk to Kathy (sis-in-law) on the phone.  Logan plays with play-doh.

9:45: Eat breakfast.  Maple and brown sugar oatmeal and coffee.  Logan eats some applesauce.

10:00: Get ready for playgroup.  We’re going to Fun Max today, which is an indoor jumping place.  Logan eats a baggie of honey nut cheerios in the car on the way.  He is a Master Grazer.

10:40: Arrive at Fun Max.

1:20: Leave Fun Max and head to Wendy’s for lunch with our friends.  I have a Chicken BLT Salad and Diet Coke, Logan has his standard meal: chicken nuggets with french fries and ketchup and chocolate milk.  He requests that meal every single day. (Not from any particular place.  He loves those food items with his whole heart.)

2:15: Get Logan’s hair cut.  I cut it shorter than normal, and I think it looks so cute!  I also get my eyebrows waxed.  It was long overdue.

2:45: Home.  Feed Camryn, clean up breakfast mess, start a load of laundry.

3:15: Get Connor off the bus.  Yellow day today. The boys watch Sonic X, I pick up the house a bit more, and get ready to go to the gym.

4:15: Head to the gym.  I did 40 minutes on the elliptical and 25 minutes of weights.

5:40: Home.  Catch up with Derek about our day.  Boys play in the backyard.

6:10: Start dinner.

6:20: Pause making dinner to feed Camryn.  She goes straight to bed because she didn’t have any good, solid naps today.

7:00: Eat dinner.  Cheese tortellini and french bread.

7:20: Boys play in the backyard.

8:00: Boys in the bath tub.  I start another load of laundry.

8:30: Boys in bed.  Derek watches Smallville, I blog and catch up on blogs.

Evening plans:  maybe scrapbook, maybe watch a movie, maybe watch the Thursday night shows that are tivoed.  Pick up the hosue a bit more because even though I try to throughout every single day, somehow it’s still a wreck tonight.

(I’ll add pictures later.  I didn’t take very many today.)

7:00: Wake up.  No one is up yet except Derek.  Start to make Connor’s lunch and remember that there is a Thanksiving meal today and he is going to buy his lunch.

7:15: Make sure Connor is getting out of bed.  Fix him breakfast, a sausage biscuit and one of the muffins I made earlier this week.

7:45:  Load Connor up with the neighbors for a ride to school.  Camryn and Logan are still sleeping!  Cami was one worn out little munchkin after the fussy afternoon/evening.  She’s been asleep all night, minus needing her paci at 5:30.

8:00: Eat breakfast.  Lucky Charms and coffee.  Read blogs/emails. Decide to be productive until Camryn and Logan wake up.  Unload the dishwasher, get the kitchen nice and clean.  Since we ate dinner out last night, there are still dishes in the sink and the floor needs to be swept.  Make Logan’s lunch (chicken nuggets with ketchup, string cheese, raisins, pretzels, and mandarin oranges.)

8:15: Logan wakes up.  Goes into my room and watches Jack’s Big Music Show, which he normally does not like, but for some reason, he decided he liked it today.  He eats a cereal bar and orange juice.

8:20: Camryn wakes up.  Eats.  Gets dressed. Finish getting Logan ready for school.  He slept in clothes last night (his new thing…he doesn’t like pj’s anymore.)  All he needed to be ready was shoes and socks.

9:00: Drop Logan off at pre-school.

9:20: Home.  Shower and get ready for the day.  I actually fixed my hair and put on make-up today.

10:00: Camryn falls asleep.

10:40: Wake Camryn up and go to Connor’s school for lunch.  Parents were invited to the Thanksgiving meal.  The turkey and potatoes were actually pretty good!

11:30: Home. Camryn eats.  I watch ER.

12:30: Cami falls asleep again.  I edit pictures I took at the Thanksgiving meal, read my blogs, reply to a few emails, and make lemon squares.

1:40: Wake up Camryn.  Time to get Logan from school. Stop at Sonic on the way home.  Diet Dr. Pepper with Vanilla for me and chocolate milk for Logan.

2:15: Home.  Logan shows me all his projects from today and then watches Little Bill.  I feed Camryn.

2:45: Take pictures of Camryn.  She is 4 months old!  She rolled from back to front today.  She’s been trying and trying and finally got it.  (She rolled front to back a few weeks ago, but still isn’t very good at it.  I think she’s only done it twice.)

3:15: Get Connor off the bus.  Green day!

3:30: Logan and Connor watch Tale Spin.  Camryn goes down for a nap.  I blog.

4:15: Camryn wakes up, fussy.  Logan was way too loud in the bathroom, which is right next to her room.

4:30: Think about starting dinner.

5:00: Actually start dinner.

5:40: Dinner.  Parmesan crusted tilapia, tomato soup, bread, and caesar salad.

After dinner: boys play outside, run around, be boys.  Connor plays a little computer.  Camryn is fussy so we sit on the couch and watch tv, rock in the rocking chair, talk, and cuddle.

6:30: Bath time.  Everyone’s attitudes start to go south about this time.

7:00: Story time.  I read to Logan, and Derek reads to Connor.

7:15: Boys are in bed.

7:20: Feed Camryn.

8:00: Camryn is asleep.  Logan is asleep.  Connor is not.  I have never known a kid to fight sleep as much as my Connor.  He takes at least 45 minutes to fall asleep, no matter what time he goes down.  Which is why we put him to bed between 7:15 and 7:30.

8:15: I leave to play volleyball.  One last check on Connor before I go…he’s fast asleep.

10:20: Home.  Shower.  Watch The Office with Derek.  Blog and go to bed.

5:20: Camryn wakes up hungry.

6:00: Back to sleep.

7:00: Connor wakes up, on his own this morning.

7:10: Breakfast for C (cinnamon toast crunch and vanilla yogurt)  Make Connor’s lunch, a Pizza Lunchable and a fruit cup. Get myself dressed.

7:20: Camryn wakes up.  She and Connor spend some time together on the couch, and per his request, she follows him room to room while he gets ready for school.

7:30: Logan wakes up.  Goes right into my bedroom to watch Franklin.

7:50: Take Connor to school.

8:10: Breakfast for me.  Maple and brown sugar oatmeal and coffee with mocha peppermint creamer.

8:15: Logan picks out his candy for the day.  Each boy gets 2 pieces of candy per day.  They can eat them whenever they want, but once the 2 pieces are gone there is no more.  Logan eats his for breakfast this morning.

8:30: Feed Camryn.

Rest of the morning: Camryn naps, Logan grazes all morning on cereal, fruit snacks, and oranges, I fold a bit of laundry, start another load, check email and blogs, call tree stump grinding companies for quotes, clean the kitchen, shower.

11:00 Camryn wakes up. Eats.

11:30: We leave for Sam’s. Logan and I eat some pizza, browse around, and do our shopping. We are now stocked up on batteries, wipes, fruit snacks, fruit cups, and a bunch of other stuff.

12:45: Home. Camryn goes down for a nap. Logan watches Little Bill, plays with his toys, plays a few Nick Jr. computer games, plays with play-doh and runs around the house telling me to call him Sonic. As in Sonic the Hedgehog. I watch Dawson’s Creek and play on my computer.

2:00: Cami wakes up. Eats. (I see a pattern here…) After I feed her, I vacuum and pick up the house a bit.

3:15: Walk to the bus stop to pick up Connor. He was green today. Woo hoo!

Late Afternoon: C and L play outside. Eventually they come in and want to watch Tale Spin, their latest movie from Netflix. Camryn fusses all afternoon. Teething? Tired? I don’t know. But she was pretty much fussy all afternoon.

4:45: Derek gets home. We head out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was school fundraiser night for Connor’s school.

Camryn is only happy at the restaurant if she is being held, so Derek and I take turns holding the fussy (and at this point, exhausted) princess. She falls asleep sitting up in Derek’s arms, but wakes up as soon as we put her back in the carseat.

6:15: Home. Cami fell asleep 5 minutes away from home and takes a 20 minute power nap. Boys get ready for bed. Finish watching an episode of Tale Spin.

7:30: Boys head to bed. Camryn eats. And then fusses for another hour. This is very unlike her. The boys are up and down tonight. Connor needs a string to tie sossy (his blanket) in a knot. Logan needs more and more and more hugs and kisses. I watch America’s Next Top Model in between taking care of the kids.

8:00: I think the boys are quiet.

8:45: Camryn finally falls asleep after I swaddle her as tightly as I can. Derek and I watch Friday Night Lights.

9:30: Computer time, Derek watches Heroes. I enjoy a nice glass of wine…it’s been a long day and an even longer evening.

Pictures: