Thanksgiving and then some

I missed posting last week because I was in Atlanta, at NCTE (National Council for Teachers of English), a conference that's long been on my bucket list because it involves both college English professors *and* writers. This year, I attended as a writer and was on a panel for YA writers and got to stay in a lovely hotel (the Glenn) arranged by my publisher.

Here's the view from my window:

I was excited for Atlanta because this had been my backyard the morning I left, but Atlanta turned out to be surprisingly cold (though the parts I saw were pretty).

 I wasn't there for very long, but I got to meet a lot of authors in real life that I've been friends with online, and a few who have no idea who I exist, but whose work I admire (like Maggie Stiefvater, below).

 Friends from an online writing community (Pitch Wars) that I've been part of for two years.

I came home with a suitcase packed full of new books to a household full of sick children (A & E had been puking while I was gone). Poor Dan. By Monday, both kids were complaining of sore throats, so I took them in to the doctors. Evelyn was diagnosed with strep, but Andrew's test came back negative. On Tuesday, however, when his throat was hurting worse (and we were heading out of town the next morning), we went back and had him retested and his came up positive.

That night, it was Oliver's turn. He started sounding croupy around 10 pm--as bad as I've ever heard him. Breathing treatments and a walk in the cold air didn't seem to help, so I took him to the ER where we spent the next 2.5 hours. The steroids seemed to make a big difference in his breathing, but he did NOT want to sleep while we were there and was not surprisingly cranky the next day.

Wednesday, we went up to my parent's house and got caught in a huge detour on I-15, thanks to an over-turned semi that leaked battery acid and closed down the freeway in both directions. An extra 90 minutes later, we made it. We went shopping for Thanksgiving and hung out.

Thursday, of course, we had our family dinner with both of my brothers and their families (my sister was there in spirit). It went really well, I think--my favorite thing is watching my kids have fun with their cousins.

Unfortunately, Oliver took a turn for the worse that night, his fever spiking and his breathing difficulties coming back (though not so croupy this time). That meant that he missed Leo's baptism on Friday, though Dan took the two older kids, who had a good time at the party afterward (Andrew ate nearly his weight in desserts).

We decided to do Evelyn's hair fancy for the event.

Yesterday, we had dinner with Bubby, Poppy, Sarah and her family, and Matt and his family (though Oliver ate about two bites and then wanted to sit in the car, so I missed most of it). Today, we had dinner with Matt's family and Bubby and Poppy.

Oliver is finally on the mend--unfortunately, I can feel something coming on myself. (Hoping I'm wrong--this is not a good week to be sick! Only 1.5 weeks to go in the semester).

Grateful this time of year for family, and for modern medicine, and for all the material blessings we have. Looking forward to getting the tree up this week and celebrating one of my favorite times of the year.

November

I'm struggling a little with what to say this week! I'm not sure what it means when a writer runs out of words, but nothing good, surely.

We had our primary program today, which means we practiced yesterday and last Sunday and while I was not the main person in charge (that honor goes to our wonderful music people and my counselor, who put the program together), it did mean lots of time wrestling with certain small people (okay, with Oliver). Oliver may have unintentionally stolen the show today by turning off some of the lights in the chapel when he was supposed to be singing. (Whose bright idea was it to put all the lights below the counter beside the podium where any 4 year old can reach it?) He spent more time climbing on his seat or trying to escape me and climb on the counter by the podium than actually singing. Our music leader's husband told me later that my son was a riot to watch--he looked so gleeful. Aside from Oliver, the program went really well. (And I guess if someone's kid had to act out, it might as well be mine.)

Otherwise, the last couple weeks have been busy: school, work, extra curriculars (piano/tae kwon do).

They've also been pretty draining. A week and a half ago, one of my dear friends buried her husband (she's 38, with 6 kids). She's in my writing group, and the other four of us went to the viewing, funeral, and then graveside service together. She's become almost like a sister and my  heart aches for her and her family. That was a hard, emotional day.

It was followed by some writing-related drama late last week and over the weekend (not anything I want to go into here, but you can ask me about it in person if you want) that took up more time and energy, and then of course this week was the election. I still feel a little out of it. (And I realize this post has suddenly become about me, and I'm sorry for that, but as I write I'm realizing why I don't remember much from the past couple weeks--it's been an emotional fog in a lot of ways).

We did have a fun Halloween though--one of Evelyn's friends came trick-or-treating with us, and Andrew got to go with one of his friends and felt very grown up.

Evelyn as a skull archer, Oliver as a pokemon trainer, and Andrew as a Grim Reaper (but I didn't get his picture until after he'd returned from trick-or-treating, and all the makeup around his mouth wiped off.)

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving break and getting to see a bunch of family. Wishing all our readers a good week as well!

This is (almost) Halloween--and pictures!

 Oliver with a backwards shirt:

From the NICU reunion a few weeks ago:

Reunion at Capitol Reef

From my NYC trip--Alice in Wonderland (in Central Park):

The kids and I spent last weekend with my parents--on Monday we got to hang out with my brothers and their families, pick pumpkins from a local farm and then decorate them, and eat Mitcee's chocolate chip cookies.

This last week has been a sad one (for me, at least)--one of my dear friends lost her husband to a hiking accident while he was out hunting and grieving with and for her family has colored a lot of the week. (I love this beautiful tribute from my friend Elaine: https://thinkingthroughourfingers.com/2016/10/29/in-memoriam/)

There were a few bright spots: the kids had pajama day/crazy hair day on Friday and we did NOT forget.

And I got to go to an author signing this week where I met some good author friends and was reminded how generous the writing community can be.

Catching Up

It's been over a month since I posted here--some of that is normal busyness (I haven't been home the last two Sundays), some of it isn't.

Among other things, I've been dealing with some anxiety issues that were making it hard to post. Thankfully, that is more or less under control now. I mention it mostly because I think we're often too guarded when we struggle with mental/emotional issues, and yet lots of people are affected by them.

Anyway.

Last week we had a chance to go to Capitol Reef for the annual family reunion for my mother-in-law's family. It's always fun to get together with the cousins: this year (for the first time since Oliver was born) we actually camped! (Last year Oliver and I were in a hotel while Dan stayed in a tent with the oldest two). We hung out, played games, ate delicious food, hiked, and (sort of) slept.

I had to leave early Saturday evening, because I had a flight out of Las Vegas Sunday morning on my way to New York City. So I missed the last night/morning of the reunion. My flight was long but uneventful, and I got to the hotel around 9 p.m. Monday, I mostly wandered around the city: I went to the Natural History museum, caught Pokemon in Central Park (I wish I could say it was all for Andrew but that would only be partly true), saw the NYC public library and walked to Rockefeller square. I had dinner with my editor at a cool Korean barbeque place where we roasted our own meat at the table.

The next morning I went to the Random House offices to meet with my editor and the publicity/marketing team. That was a little surreal, walking into the lobby and seeing all the important books that have come out of this publisher. I was pretty nervous going in, but everyone was really nice (even if it was a little overwhelming to see the enthusiasm for my little book in the Knopf children's offices). People I'd never met before told me how much they loved my story!

After the meeting, we had lunch at a nearby Italian place (I had some amazing gnocchi) and then I headed back to the airport. I got home about 12:30 a.m., after driving back from Vegas. It was a nice (short) trip, but I was glad to be home.

This weekend, we're dividing and conquering. Dan's at home catching up on work and I'm at my parent's house with the kids for their spring break. Yesterday we went to Target and the Halloween store to collect costume material, and went to the Riverbottoms and the toy store there.

Expressions aside, I promise they had a good time!

Tomorrow we're going to hang out with my brothers and their kids--but we miss Dan, so if you see him before we do, give him a hug for us. :)

Septemberish

Not a whole lot to report this week.

We spent Monday morning doing the chores we'd missed when we went up to Provo, and then took the kids swimming.

Evelyn's back into gymnastics two nights a week, and Andrew has Tae Kwon do Wednesday night, so that's kept us busy after school.

Classes continue apace, Oliver still enjoys preschool, and so far we've managed to more-or-less keep up with everything.

We have been enjoying our garden: fresh beans from Bubby and Poppy, salsa from our garden, caprese. Yesterday Dan tried making "bonuts" from Alton Brown--donuts made from biscuit batter. They were a hit with the kids especially. 

Hoping the three or four of you who read this are doing well!

Last Drops of Summer

We are behind on our blogging and 4/5 people at our house are sick (Dan may be succumbing even as I type this), so I'm just going to present some pictures without much comment.

We went to Oceanside, CA, the week before school started and the kids had fun on the beach. The big kids (including the parents) loved body boarding; Oliver liked playing in the sand. He was a little scared of the ocean.

School started last week for the kids and today for the parents. We're still adjusting.

Don't get wet, we said, we're just going to the beach for a peek (our first night there). An hour later and two extremely wet kids . . .

Oliver may have avoided the ocean, but he loved the pool.

 l-r: Jake, Aaron, Andrew, and Dan riding in a big wave.

 First day of school: 3rd for Ev, 5th for Andrew.

 Our garden runneth over.

Summering

Another summer week has slipped by in a blur.

Andrew finished swim team a week ago, so this last week he got to come and hang out at the pool with me while Oliver and Evelyn had their last week of lessons. Mostly, he borrowed my phone to hunt Pokemon around the aquatics center. Evelyn passed (barely) her level 3 lessons, though the instructor suggested she might benefit from repeating them. Oliver passed his intro class (it would be hard not to, though!) and only had one bad day where he wasn't following the rules and let go of the side of the pool and sank. His teacher fished him up again, but he freaked out and spent the rest of the lesson sitting in my lap.

The rest of the days have melted together: lots of friends, a few chores, lots of evening walks with Andrew (hunting Pokemon, of course! But it does make for good bonding and some exercise). My babysitter was at girls camp this week, so it wasn't a very productive week for me, despite Andrew offering to pick up the slack (provided I pay him something!)--he was more interested in playing with friends, it turns out.

Yesterday, Dan had to work all day in preparation for a conference (where he'll be until Wednesday), so I took the kids to the library and then the local popnsweets (a new chain that's opened in town and has almost every soda imaginable and an impressive collection of foreign candy). We were looking for butterscotch beer (aka Butter Beer) for a Harry Potter celebration and wound up with a hot chocolate float (Evelyn--and yes, that's ice cream in hot chocolate), ice cream (blue and orange--Oliver still picks desserts by color), and a Prohibition float (vanilla ice cream, birch beer, root beer, and sarsaparilla).

(My picture from Instagram b/c I didn't have my actual camera with me). 

Park City!

 Every year since I was a teenager, my family has gone up to Park City for a week (give or take a few days) in the summer. As the family has expanded, the logistics have gotten more complicated in terms of where to put everyone, but we still manage to have a lot of fun. This year, all thirteen of my parents grandkids were present (and 3 of their 4 kids--my sister is off getting educated).

We went swimming every day, hiking one morning, and playing Olympics another. (I have some pictures but they're all on my new phone and I haven't yet figured out how to transfer all those pictures. I'll see if I can do that this week). My favorite part of the Olympics--besides cheating in the 3-legged race with Oliver (I just picked him up and ran), was watching Oliver try to crab walk. In the time it took the older kids to get around a cone and back, he made it maybe six inches.

We also went to the time-honored ice-cream spot (which has taken on the slightly annoying tradition of also being where the kids acquire yet another beanie boo . . .).

Mostly, we just enjoyed one another's company. (Though the walk my mom went on with me, Jared and Mitcee, where we were all playing Pokemon Go, might not have been so enjoyable for her!)

Thursday we headed back to Provo, where the kids spent a little more time with Jeni's kids while my parents took the two oldest grandkids to the temple for baptisms.

I spent the rest of the weekend at a Segullah writing retreat--which was lovely and rejuvenating. Though I did come back for a book signing at the Provo library Friday  night. Dan came up to join me and it was fun having an actual date night (and witnessing Pokemon mania first hand on the library lawn, which was covered with people. It was insane). Dan took the kids home Saturday while I finished out my retreat, and I came home Sunday morning just in time (well, five minutes late) for my ward council meeting. I then got to teach sharing time to an unusually squirrelly group of kids (they were missing half of their regular teachers), before a lovely dinner with Bubby and Poppy and a visit to the annual Platt family snow-cone extravaganza that they hold once each summer at the end of baseball tournament season (they run concessions during the season and they use up some of the extras here).

When the other kids were in bed, Andrew and I went for a walk around campus. (And yes, we played Pokemon Go. Andrew was super excited because he took down three different gyms. The fact that his usurpation lasted all of a minute in each case before getting taken down in turn did nothing to dim his joy.)

Weekly update

This past week has been a blur of summer: sunscreen, playing at the park, playing with friends.

We spent last weekend up north for the 4th of July.

On Saturday, we hung out at my brother Jared's house, shamelessly using him for his pool (j/k we were invited). Lia brought her kids as well, and we enjoyed some great barbeque and some swimming. We topped this off with a trip through Ikea where, as always, we came away with stuff that we don't exactly need, but looked useful.

Sunday and Monday we spent hanging out at Sarah's house enjoying surprisingly mild weather in her back yard. On Monday, we watched her cute neighborhood parade before hanging out at Chick-fil-A enjoying their AC and waffle fries. Also frozen lemonade, which Oliver said he wanted and then repudiated when it finally arrived.

 

The rest of the week has sort of blurred together. Andrew has had swim practice every day; the kids have spent lots of time with friends. I had writer's group on Thursday. Dan took Andrew to a swim meet on Saturday in SG, and the littler kids and I went to the library.

We did download the new Pokemon Go app on Friday and the kids and I have logged 10+ kilometers since then. Honestly, it's been pretty fun: I love the feeling of community when you run across other people playing, the kids love it (their favorite free time game for some time has been to pretend to be Pokemon trainers, so this app just makes their fantasies a little more real), and I get to spend more time with the kids.

(Ask me again how I like it in a couple weeks when I have to battle my kids for my phone)