We made it through Christmas

Holy cow!  Whew!  Humongous sigh of relief!  We made it through the Christmas season.  For all of you who don't work retail, the Christmas season starts the day after Halloween, accelerates on Black Friday, becomes manic the week before the big day, and culminates with returns and additional purchasing the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.
I just worked my 4th Christmas at Barnes & Noble.  I am very grateful to work at a place like Barnes & Noble instead of a place like Wal-mart.  Call me crazy, but although we have a few eccentric people and a few crazies, we have a pretty decent customer base.  I only had a couple of angry people.  One lady came in on the 21st and wanted several children's books that we were sold out of.  2 of them were backordered at the publisher and she was angry because she couldn't have them before Christmas.  My advice (in my head only) was to not wait until the last minute to shop for Christmas.  "Lack of planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on mine."  The other one called in and asked if we were open on Christmas Day and asked how late we were open on Christmas Eve.  I told her we were open until 6:00 on Christmas Eve and closed on Christmas Day.  She responded by telling me that Christmas was a religious holiday and religion had no place in businesses.  I responded out loud by saying, "Actually ma'am, it's a federal holiday and 1 of 3 we, as a business, observe.  In my head I responded by thinking "You're right it is a religious holiday celebrated long before our country was founded on Judeo-Christian morals, ethics, and principles.  Get over it."  She hung up on me.  I truly believe it was the same lady who called me last year and complained.  2 out of several thousand isn't bad.
Outside of work we had a pretty good holiday season.  We were able to spend 1 more Christmas party with Nathan's Grandpa Nixon on December 4th before he passed away on December 21st.  It was a huge blessing to be able to spend that time with him and also to say goodbye to him the day before he passed.  We spent Christmas Eve with the McClure clan and spent Christmas Day with the Piper crew.  On Christmas Eve we went to church where I played and sang in the service.  The 7:00 service had the Christmas pageant which was a huge and adorable success.  Those kids did a great job.  Aedan and Ariana laughed and enjoyed to service.  We came home and I went back for the 9:00 service which was a traditional candlelit service.  Beautiful and elegant.  We had a huge turkey dinner with all of Nathan's family.  His mom, dad and brother made a photo collage of his parents.  Baby pictures, their wedding photo, and more recent photos of both of them.  It is really cool.  The kids really enjoyed playing with his grandparents.  I will also add that my best friend, Diana was a godsend.  Not only did she bring additional food, but she helped me cook and clean up, helped organize the family and then came to church with all of us to help with our kids while I was singing.  She is amazing.
On Christmas Day our children were surprised by Santa and Ariana loves opening presents.  They are both more fun because they like to play with everything and try on everything before opening the next present.  Their excitement is tangible and contagious.  We went to my parents house and spent a peaceful day watching Christmas movies, playing pool, and playing cards.  My mom is an awesome cook and made a rack of ribs for Christmas dinner.  Yum.  Our only disappointment was that we were not able to see my brother and his family or my sister and hers.
On Tuesday the 27th, we buried Nathan's grandpa.  He was buried with full policeman's rites and honor guard after a 19 year battle with cancer.  While difficult, it is good to know that such a good man no longer has to suffer.  He was funny and courageous and that became more apparent during his life sketch and from both speakers.
Nathan's good news is that he has accepted a job.  He will be traveling with this job for a while and it may cause us to move later this summer, but he has found a job.  He leaves for training on January 15th and will be gone for 3 weeks.  He will come home for a week and then head out again.  He is still looking for a decent paying job here but so far, there isn't much.  After a long year of praying and searching, not to mention school, it looks like we are going to be blessed with a job in the new year.  John will head back to school and then start the process of transitioning to the regular high school at the semester.  Aedan will be heading back to school with stitches (he tripped in the kitchen and split his eyebrow open on the counter) and Ariana is going to have a hard time adjusting to Aedan and John being gone, but overall, I think we have had a blessed, if bittersweet, holiday season.  We are looking forward to the new year with enthusiasm and faith.

Mixed feelings about work

Today was a great day off.  I went to church, played in the praise band, saw my mom, came home and played with my children and baked a caramel apple pie from scratch with apples from our tree.  Tomorrow I have to go back to work.  Part of me wants to go because I know that I have several things to get done and I love the feeling of accomplishment I get from that.  The other part of me wants to stay home, pick up Aedan from school and play outside with the kids during this last bit of beautiful fall weather.  I enjoy working and the people I work with, but some days it is harder than others to be motivated to go to work.

It's been a while

There is a reason I named this blog "McClure Clan Chaos."  The last 3 weeks have proven to be just that.  All of us had a nasty stomach bug, Aedan followed that up with a sinus/ear infection and bacterial bronchitis combination which he promptly shared with Nate.  Now that Aedan is almost done with his antibiotic and Nate is at the tail end of his infection, Ariana showed up with a sinus/ear infection and pink eye.  Today.  Well, I am praying for two things for my family right now.  1 - they (we) all get better and 2 - I don't get any of this crap.  Or if I do, my immune system is hearty enough from working retail that I don't become symptomatic or contagious because it is shut out.  

Now that the bad stuff is out of the way, now on to the good stuff.  

Nate's 16 year old cousin is moving in with us this weekend.  It will be a HUGE change for all of us but I think it will give him a chance to be a kid, go to school, and have a shot at something.  I think it will enrich our lives and our outlook and I know we are doing the right thing.  We are looking forward to learning more about John and having him be such a close part of our family.

Aedan and Ariana have said the funniest things in the last couple of weeks.  Ariana's sentences of choice include, "Aedan, dote do dat to me!" (Translation: "Aedan, don't do that to me!") and "Aedan/Mommy/Daddy, where are you?" in a very singsong voice.  As soon as she finds you or you answer her, she puts her hands over her eyes, opens them like window shutters and says, "Peep boo" and runs away laughing.  She has also been saying "Yeehaw" and "Awesome."  

Aedan is extraordinarily animated when talking or trying to sit and talk with the adults.  If he walks into the room or conversation, he pretends to know what you are talking about and then nods his head and says "uh-huh" and "really" and "you don't say" (The credit for that one goes completely to Bampy.)  When performing a checkup on his Amma with the doctor's kit, he listened to her heart, turned and looked at her with a serious face and said, "Amma, you heartbeat says cockadoodledoo." and then proceeded to continue with the checkup while my mom was in stitches (badum ching).  Anything he views as great or above on the coolness factor gets labeled with "That's better than a baloney sandwich!"  Yes ladies and gents, better than a baloney sandwich.  I do not think my son has ever even had a baloney sandwich because I personally find bologna repulsive.  

The kids crack me up on a daily basis and today was no exception.  Aedan got to go with his Auntie and her son, Gryffin, to the movies.  I asked Aedan if he liked the movie and he came to me, "MOM!  I LIKED ALL THE PARTS OF THAT ROBOT MOVIE!  IT WAS AWESOME!"  These two sentences were yelled within 6 inches of my face and included dramatic hand gestures and full body dynamic expression.  I couldn't help but chuckle.  Immediately following that high decibel exchange, Gryffin headed to the bathroom and Aedan hollered, "Gryff, my bathroom smells like candy!"  Now, lest you all think my child is just weird, I put a my Scentsy burner in there with cinnamon and nutmeg waxes.  Gryffin, bless his soul, just said "Ok, buddy.  Whatever you say."  Then comes out and says, "You're right.  It does smell like candy."   

When I came home from work, Ariana needed a diaper change.  I grab a diaper and the wipes and say, "Ariana, come get your diaper changed."  She looked at me, grinned, and said "uh-uuuuh" and raced away at top speed cackling at the top of her lungs with her copper curls bouncing as she ran.  Being 20 months old and having a contagious cackle, a charming personality, and a grin that no person could resist will get you many places in this world.  Just ask her dad.  

Watching Aedan and Ariana grow up more every time I blink makes me so grateful to have such positive and happy children in my life.  They are a marvel.

Pros and Cons of living by a Minor League Baseball Field

Pro: Fireworks.  Really awesome super large beautiful fireworks....that I can watch from my kitchen table, back patio, front yard, etc.
Con: Fireworks.  They shake the house and the cannons are so loud that they inevitably scare the pants off of the kids.  Furthermore, if we don't remember to keep them up past bedtime, the noise and vibration wake them up in one of the most terrifying manners possible.
Pro: Walking distance to the game where we do not have to fight traffic when we leave.  
Con: Idiots who park in front of our driveway or in our driveway.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have some people who are just self-centered enough to feel entitled to park in a strangers' driveway.  And yes, ladies and gentlemen, they may find that same car egged, keyed, or better yet, (when they park in front of or in my driveway) towed at the owner's expense with a ticket issued by a nice policeman when they come back to get it.  
Pro: Being able to sit on my patio and hear all the concerts (like the sexy Josh Turner on Aug. 25th)
Pro: Walking distance to any day activity for the kids.
Pro: Charlie Chukar will often entertain the kids and autograph baseballs for them.


Last night was the last home game of the Chukars distastefully tawdry 2011 season.  At the end of the game, which they lost to the Orem Owlz (7-5), they lit up the sky with a gorgeous 20 minute display of fireworks with coordinating music.  Now, I LOVE fireworks.  I think they are one of the best things in life.  Aedan like them, but doesn't like the noise of the cannons.  Ariana couldn't make up her mind.  She kept pulling the blanket up over her left eye and peeking up with her right eye, or pulling the blanket up over her mouth and nose, peeking over the top to watch.  It was hilarious.  At the end of the show, Aedan clapped and Ariana looked at him like he had grown a 3rd set of limbs.  I picked her up and carried her into the house and we all went to bed. 

Adjustment Week

So, today is Friday and I think we will finally have our routine down.  Then we have a 2-3 day weekend (It depends on whose weekend we are actually talking about.  Mine is 2 days, everyone else's is 3.) and then we have to start over.  I realize the adjustment back into school is a hard one for everyone, but I didn't realize how difficult it would be for the adults.  Nathan seemed to take to his own school routine without a hitch, but he and I adjusting to Aedan's new routine, well, that is another ball of wax.
Today is the only day I have witnessed Ariana and she cried when Aedan went to school.  I snuggled her and said, "honey, Aedan has to go to school." To which she replied (through tears and sniffles) "No, Aedan.  No cools."  Sad and sweet and absolutely adorable.  Aedan loves school and his only hard adjustment has been the change in therapy times.  His speech therapist moved the end of June, the same time he "graduated" speech therapy.  That was a difficult transition for him and he often states that he misses Miss Janet.  Now, we have had to change his time slots with Miss Chrystal and Miss Melissa and I think he is nervous about that.  After a couple of weeks, I am sure he will be fine.  He doesn't even seem to have an issue going to bed earlier, waking up earlier, or getting ready in the morning!  I am still in awe that my tiny, sweet baby boy has grown into a sweet, tall, bright, rambunctious 5 year old kindergartner and my tiny, sweet, baby girl has grown into a walking, talking, tall, cuddly, Amazon of a 19 month old.  

Kindergarten Milestone

Wow.  What a day.  We started the morning with Ariana breaking Aedan's glasses right before the 1st day of school.  Then, we were double checking the school supplies and discovered that we didn't get the folders.  No problem there because Amma came to the rescue.  We went to Fred Meyer and got Aedan some super cute "Superhero" shoes.  He was so excited.  He is in a size 1 youth shoe!  OMG this kid is growing faster than I can blink.  I can't believe how big he has gotten.
After Fred Meyer, we went to Kindergarten orientation where we discovered that they had made a mistake and placed Aedan in the morning kindergarten instead of the afternoon class.  Herein lies the dilemma:  We requested afternoon kindergarten at the spring registration because he has occupational and physical therapy in the mornings.  The teacher we were going to have quit after Luna's Laws were passed.  Surprise surprise.  So many of them did.  We looked to waiver him in the school he had for preschool, but the awesome kindergarten teacher there also quit.  Throwing our hands in the air, we had to let the fates take charge.
The replacement teacher moved from 4th grade to kindergarten, which is ok, but we have already dealt with that extreme learning curve once and didn't really want to do it again.  One of the staff in the front office is a friend of my mom's and knowing how I felt about that after the last couple of years of preschool, she automatically switched him to the other teacher.  Unfortunately, the other teacher decided to go to part time and teach only morning session.  That all happened over the summer.
Well, we went to orientation today and discovered that he was in the morning class, they can't switch him to the afternoon class because the school has 20 kids over the limit that they are going to have to bus to another school and all of the classes are full.  So, while Nathan sat in orientation and cut out flash cards and Aedan went to his first class, I went about changing his therapies around.  I spent an interesting hour on the phone with his therapists and we were FINALLY able to get it worked out.  So we have the teacher we want, but we do not have good times for therapy.
There is always some give and take in this world and Aedan was so excited for his school.  He seemed to like his teacher and they both liked him.  He noted that his name was spelled wrong, immediately and told them how it was really spelled.  Unfortunately, this wasn't an oversight by the teacher, it was how the office staff spelled it when they sent his name down to the teacher.  I will never understand how people can have 25 or more pieces of paper, shot records, a social security card, and a birth certificate ALL with the correct spelling of a person's name and still manage to misspell the name.  That is just plain lazy and inefficient, in my opinion.  I am glad he can spell his own name and correct it himself.  He has grown up so much and overall the day has been great.  I think tomorrow might be interesting because Ariana will be sad that he is gone, but the both will get used to it.

Whew!

Well, now that I have figured out how to get back on my blog, I will add the next entry!
Last week we drove to Boise for Aedan's follow-up with the pulmonologist.  We drove for 5 hours (yes 5 hours with the ridiculous construction zones that were not actively worked on.) for a whopping 15 minute appointment.  It was FANTASTIC!  His lungs are good, his CPAP is working, he is sleeping through the night and we do not have to go back for a year!  Woohoo!
The rest of the weekend was spent with my brother, sister-in-law, nieces and nephew.  We had a ball.  It was a pretty mellow weekend, playing Yahtzee with Aaron and Leah, going to a boring meeting for Kaitlin's volleyball, and checking out Audrey's awesome bedroom wall she is working on.  She has created street art on her wall.  It is currently a work in progress, but will be fantastic when it is done.  (Thanks for letting us take your room over for the weekend, Audrey.)  Kaitlin drove Aedan and I all over the place on Friday so we could buy his school clothes and it was great to have a chauffeur for the day.  (Thanks Kaitlin.)  The cool thing is that my kids look up to their cousins so much and their cousins are so great with them.  They are more than willing to jump on the trampoline, play video games, play cars, play tag, chase the baby, watch kid movies and generally help keep them occupied.  My kids in turn, follow them all over, hug them, kiss them, sit in their laps and laugh or giggle at almost everything the cousins do.  It is hilarious.
To end our fabulous weekend away, we came home and went to Nathan's cousin's twins birthday party.  They turned 2 and had a monkey birthday!  Our kids wore themselves out playing outside with the other family.  I am consistently amazed at how lucky we are and coming home from a weekend like that adjusted my attitude to where it needed to be.

Introduction

Since I am new to blogging, I will just try an introduction.  I am Amanda, wife to Nathan and mom of Aedan and Ariana.  Currently we live in Idaho Falls.  Aedan is 5 and Ariana is 18 months.  Now, that wasn't so bad.  I know I will think of more things to write later but for now, th-th-th-that's all folks!