Snow Days

What's up with all the snow we've gotten this November? Seriously, in recent years we've had good Thanksgiving weather. This year we left the house and the temperature was 0 degrees. It felt absolutely balmy to hit Ogden, where it was in the low 20's. Sigh. Not much to do about it, though, except bid a fond farewell to the grass until March.

So Thanksgiving was nice. We had a great sports weekend - Auburn beat Alabama (War Eagle!), the Jazz beat the Lakers, and the Utes beat BYU. Everyone was happy in the Wright family. We mostly stayed inside - played some games, read some books, watched some movies, decorated for Christmas. When the temperature doesn't get above the teens, it's hard to be motivated to do much else.

A few pictures from our weekend:

The boys enjoying some downtime on Sunday night.


Here's Tessa, standing in front of the sliding glass doors leading out to the deck. You can kind of see how much snow we've gotten - it's almost up to her waist.

For Family Home Evening we decorated a gingerbread house. Thanks for the kit, Nana!

Lots of fun things coming up, first and foremost being William's birthday! Perhaps a "History of William" pictoral is in order. Stay tuned.

Thankful

I've been thinking alot about the things for which I am thankful. There are the little things, like chocolate and warm socks and a good book. There are the big things, like my family and friends. There are the material things, like medical insurance and reliable cars.

Then there are the intangible things; these are the things that are hard to list. The pleasure that I get from watching my children learn and grow and improve. The happiness I get from serving my friends and family and watching them as they serve those around them, including me. The love I feel for a wonderful husband who I love more than I thought possible. The knowledge that I have of a loving Heavenly Father who has a hand in my life.

I am so thankful for the life that I have, even when it's hard and even when I just want the day to end so that we can start over the next day. This past year has been a hard one for my family and still I'm overwhelmed by all the things with which we have been blessed. I am truly thankful for all of the blessings, big and small, that we have been given.

I'm hopeful that one day I'll be thankful for the hard things, too. I want to be able to recognize them as opportunities for growth, not just as crappy things that happen to everyone. I realize that it's up to me to get there, so I'm trying.

But for now, I'll stick to being thankful for all the good. That seems like a nice place to start.

Thanksgiving in February?

We have a Blizzard Warning for late today into tomorrow. Yes, a Blizzard Warning. Not just a Winter Storm Warning, but a Blizzard Warning. I didn't know that they even used the term blizzard anymore, but apparently you get a blizzard when there is a combination of artic cold (think below zero at night), wind (30 mph winds with gusts of higher) and lots of snow (we are forecasted to get 8-12 inches over the next 24 hours). The schools are getting out early today so that the kids will be home by the time the worst of the storm starts. I'm trying to remember if that has happened in all the time I've had kids in school and I honestly don't think that it has. I guess we'll hunker down until Thanksgiving Day, which is forecast to be sunny with a high of a whopping 15 degrees in Cache Valley.

Where's my Indian Summer?

Movie Time

Henry and I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 today. It was the first Harry Potter movie that I've seen at a theater and we both really enjoyed it. Henry is excited to see Part 2 when it comes out next July. It was nice to have a little Mom and Henry time; it doesn't happen that often.

We are also gearing up for Jay's big vacation week. He always takes a week's vacation the week of Thanksgiving and we really enjoy having him home. He loves to cook so he's usually making fun food, including homemade rolls and caramel popcorn. Once Thanksgiving Day is over we get the house decorated for Christmas. I'm able to get a little shopping done. And Jay gets a break from work. The timing this year is good because he's still a little sore from his surgery last week and I think it will be good to get a little rest as well.

We are also getting ready for William's birthday. His birthday always seems to sneak up on me, maybe because it seems so busy around this time of year with Thanksgiving and then, bam, all of the sudden it's his birthday. I don't think we'll do a party this year. We had one last year and it was really kind of crazy. It was fine; the kids were all great but we don't have a good space for entertaining half a dozen extra kids for a few hours and December in northern Utah isn't conducive to any kind of outside party. We may just do something fun like bowling or the Fun Park or a movie instead.

I kind of felt bad leaving William at home during the movie. He likes Harry Potter and has seen the other movies on DVD, but this one is rated PG13 and the book is definitely darker than the previous books. It just didn't seem like a good idea to take him, although there were lots of kids that looked to be his age in the theater so I'm sure plenty of kids in the 7 year old range do fine - just not William. He saw Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief last summer and confided to Jay that he thought the movie "should have been rated PG13" after one particularly realistic scene with Medusa. He didn't seem too bothered with missing the movie, actually, so I probably worried about it for no reason at all. Isn't that usually the case?

Bucket Lists

Jay went on a minor home improvement tear last week. All these little things that kept getting pushed aside apparently moved their way to the top of the list early last week. Why? He had minor surgery on Thursday and would be unable to lift or move around too much for a while. Theres a good chance that we'll have snow on the ground before he is cleared to go back to full activity so he was digging and climbing and doing all kinds of things. It was nice but I was a bit confused about the urgency. I mean, we've lived without the garage door opener light bulb working for a while now; surely it can wait. But Jay doesn't like to leave things undone so the night before his surgery was spent on his version of a Bucket List. He even asked me if I wanted him to put the Christmas tree up early so I wouldn't have to lift and/or drag it by myself. Since it was only November 10th, I said I'd try to manage on my own after Thanksgiving. Which is coming up next week. How did that happen?

Anyway, Jay is fine. He went back to work today, although he's planning to come home early. He's sore and it's hard for him to get up and down but he's better. I feel bad for him, though. He was looking forward to sitting on the couch on Saturday watching the Utes play Notre Dame. But they got killed - again - and he was kind of a captive audience. It was like he couldn't look away. Oh well - maybe he'll get his coveted Rose Bowl trip next year.

In other news, I have a new calling at church. I'm the Primary President. If you are LDS, feel free to pause and laugh at the thought of me as the Primary President. If you aren't LDS, Primary is the organization in the LDS church that serves the children ages 18 months to 12 years old. It's basically Sunday School - we have lessons and classes and music. It's a big responsibility to be over this organization and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. There is a reason that I chose to specialize in Secondary Education when I was contemplating a teaching career; I just don't feel like teaching or working with young children is a strength of mine. But I have great people to work with and lots of resources to draw from and I'm sure it'll be fine. It'll probably end up being fun. At some point. Right now I have a headache just thinking about it.

And to be clear, being Primary President wasn't on my bucket list. Not even a little.

Scenes from a Saturday

Despite the crushing loss to TCU, the boys had a nice day at the University of Utah.


Here is the view from the field before the game - Jay was able to wrangle some sideline passes from a work buddy.
This is the view of the field from their seats. The weather was fantastic and perfect for a football game, especially considering it's early November in northern Utah. Notice the fans in white to the right of the camera - those are the TCU fans.

William got up close and personal during warmups.

Our Ute fans!

Sugar and Spice

I was not in a good mood this morning. The boys were all excited to head down to Salt Lake City to watch the Utah/TCU game. Tessa isn't a fan, however, and a little young for games so I took one for the team and stayed home with her. Honestly, I was a little bummed. I was feeling left out. Tessa is pretty easy but I spend most of the day with her alone as it is so a solo Saturday with Tessa didn't sound that exciting.

How wrong I was! We have had a great day so far. She got a haircut, we went to lunch (Chili's - her choice), picked up cupcakes for a treat and went to the library. She hasn't been whiny or demanding. She's been a pleasure. Sugar and spice and everything nice.

Jay, on the other hand, is having a rough time. The Utes are getting worked at halftime. Jay's tickets are by the visitors section and Henry got pretty upset after the third touchdown when the TCU fans started chanting whatever it was that they were chanting. No swearing, thank goodness. William was happy until a box elder bug got into the popcorn he was having; freaking out ensued. Henry is grumpy because the Utes aren't doing well. I'll be shocked if they stay for the whole game. I'm sorry that they aren't having a better time.

Now I'm off to eat my cupcake and wait for Jay to text me that Henry has attacked a TCU fan and William is crying for treats without insects in them. I think I am definitely having the better day.