Life

So, my last post was kind of dramatic. Let me start of by saying that my nephew is recovering well. He's still in the hospital and has a long path of recovery ahead, but he's mostly out of the woods, and should be fine. I'm very happy about that. Also, I didn't write in my journal or anything. Guess there was enough magic without my input.

What else has happened since? Emilia has turned 1 year old. Wow. That just snuck up on us. She's such a smart little person. She's really dainty - long but skinny. Yet full of energy. She climbs on everything and into everything. When we dance, she totally dances with us. It's adorable. She also wants to feed herself, especially with a spoon and she gets upset when I won't let her. She is usually all smiles or upset. Not much inbetween. Today I saw her playing with a toy shot, and she kept trying to put the plunger part back into the syringe. It was cool to observe her motor skills and seeing that she also had figured out what she needed to do. She's definitely a clever little cookie.

Then, we also traveled a lot in November. We spent a weekend in Monterey, and I took the girls to the aquarium there, which was pretty fun. We also hung out with my friend Monique and her kids, and spent some time at the Curiodyssey. I also had to stop at the German Embassy to pick up my certificate that allows me to apply for US citizenship. Lovely...

The weekend before Thanksgiving I had the chance to go to Seattle with my fMh friends. It was my first break in over 5 years without any kids or Henry. I had been pretty stressed up to the day that I left, trying to have everything clean, organized, ready for Henry to take over, and when I left I felt pretty grouchy. I had yelled a lot at the kids in the morning, and also Henry, and I was also supertired. I hadn't slept much because Emilia hadn't been sleeping well in the last while.

So, before I knew it, on my way up to Medford, I got pulled over and got a big ol' speeding ticket. I totally felt apart, and had my first-ever panic attack. I couldn't breath, and couldn't really move, and was all cold and shaking, and just felt total despair. Such a horrible feeling. The police officer was totally not helpful and kept trying to get me to keep driving, so I eventually drove to the first exit a few hundred yards away, and then tried to calm down enough to call Henry.

Anyway, the trip started off horribly, but I had such a blast in Seattle with my fMh peeps. So much laughter, and good conversations. On Friday night we went to a Filipino restaurant that also had a drag show. It was pretty fun, and at the end we all just danced in the little restaurant. Good times. We also all participated in a little home baby blessing. Then it just branched out into some of us wanting blessings, and we just blessed each other. It was such a beautiful and neat experience. I asked for a blessing as well, because I felt so broken and depressed. Everyone just laid there hands somewhere on my body - most of my friends just on my back. Just the feeling of having hands squeeze my hand, and hold my back during the blessing felt so nourishing, and less awkward than someone standing above me, pushing down with their hands. It was a beautiful moment of sisterhood, and bonding. We all were in tears, too. I think because the Spirit and sense of love was so strong. Loved it.

For Thanksgiving, we had Maren's kids here as well as the Elders and Grandpa Bob. It's always nice to have company. Joe and Steph didn't want us to come down to the hospital because Emilia still had a cold (it also turned out that she had an ear infection). Maren wanted to see us though, and so we agreed to come down to the Bay area this weekend.

And what a sucky weekend it was. A snow storm was supposed to come in in the afternoon, so I tried to have everything ready to get out on time. It was stressful. Henry had to leave later and drive down Ruth's car. He just barely made it out, and actually started sliding on the way down to Redding. When we got to the hotel, Maren wasn't there. I tried texting and calling, but didn't hear from her. I was feeling a bit yucky already by then, and so decided to just grab food for everyone and just go to sleep. But instead I started just hanging out in the bathroom waiting to barf. And barf I did eventually. Then I got some sleep, woke up 2 hours later, barfed again. And then suddenly Sophia and Alba also woke up and started barfing. Before we knew it, we had a real barf fest going on. The toilet eventually flooded. The hotel was supernothelpful and brought us toilet paper when I called and asked for towels and a plunger. Then they brought 4 towels which didn't seem enough, but they supposedly couldn't give us more. It was ridiculous. In between all that the girls kept barfing, while Emilia slept soundly in her bed.

We switched rooms eventually at 3am int he night, because they said they couldn't do anything about the toilet. Man! And then, to top things off, in the morning, when we wanted to wash off all the nastiness, there was no hot water. And then the battery in our car was dead.

And of course Maren didn't want to see us, because we were all sick. I was pretty frustrated with the whole thing, because we spent all that money and time to come down, just to see Maren. And then I felt like she didn't even make any effort to contact us and see if she could see us.

Oh, well. Luckily, the drive home was barf-free, and the kids seemed to be feeling much better again. We even stopped for groceries in REdding and were stunned by all the snow on the ground. Fortunately, the roads up to Burney were also clear. On Sunday we just stayed home, and it was the best.

It was so restful to not have to be stressed out about getting everyone to Church on time. Everyone got plenty of sleep, which was so needed by all of us. We spent the day making cookies together, and ginger bread houses, and singing Christmas songs, talking about Christmas, and service, and then also did Blessing Bags for the homeless in Redding. It was a really great  and simple service activity for the kids, and they totally loved it.

When we put them to bed, Sophia kept talking about all the things we could and should do for those who don't have homes, how we should just build them homes, and talk to people so they help build them homes etc. It was so cute.

Our advents singing was also so fun. The girls all danced to the singing, or played their flutes. I love my little family.

In between all this we also had Henry's business Christmas party last Wednesday, which was ok. We had it at the Rex Club, and I was pretty disappointed with the speed of their service (dinner was served about 1 hour after the agreed time) as well as the quality of the food. Sigh. I don't think we'll go there again.

The Relief Society Christmas party was nice and simple though. We just did soup and salad, which I loved. At the end, Sis. Valentine even gave me her ornament (we had all gotten a really awesome hand-made ornament). Made me think that I need to start to forgive and try to be nice as well.

Ok. Time for bed. Just a boring, little family update.