Busy Week!

WOW! November already? That last week of October just about did me in! Here's how it went:

• Monday: Regular day until the evening. Raley is on a problem-solving competition team and their first practice was that night from 6:00 to 7:30. Since that is usually when we have dinner I had to be a little more on the ball that usual! Then, what to do while he was gone? It was just enough time to come back home and walk the dogs and let the other two play outside before going back to get him.
• Tuesday: Jayme got home from work about 6:45 am and drank a 5 hour energy. Then we hooked up the travel trailer and hauled it down to the land (2 hours away) to park it in preparation for Thanksgiving. My folks were there so I FINALLY got to see Mom after her sickness and hospitalization. She looked and sounded so great, it really did me a lot of good to see her. We got back home just after 4:00 pm and Jayme went to bed. Clay is also in the team competition and his group meets on Tuesdays at 6:30 pm so we ate early again and took him, came home, walked dogs, went back to get him.
• Wednesday: Breathe a little! Clean the house, finish the laundry, went to the park with Pattie and Jayme and had a picnic lunch. That evening Jayme and I had an adults only dinner at a friends house so we tried out a new babysitter, RALEY! He did a wonderful job and I can't tell you how excited I am about the prospect of future date nights with my honey. Unfortunately we also got a call from my dad saying that Mom was relapsing with her c. diff infection. Her doctor had warned her that 25% of patients relapse within three months. Why did it have to be her? We were all very sad because we were supposed to meet up with them in Shreveport for the weekend.
• Thursday: Got Pattie and Jayme up after the boys left and we headed into Dallas (about 1 1/2 hours away) for Pattie's recheck with the pulmonologist. She is doing GREAT! and he was very pleased. With her worst time of year here, he kept her on the same dose of Flovent with the hope of cutting it after Christmas if she is sickness free. Then perhaps taking her off completely at the end of March. AWESOME We ate lunch at Waffle House (!) and ran errands on the way home, getting back around 4:00.
• Friday: I subbed in 2nd grade. It was 50s day in celebration of the 50th day of school. Our town doesn't let the kids wear their Halloween costumes to school so they have this day at all campuses except the Kindergarten where you dress like it's the 50s. The teacher I subbed for lent me her poodle skirt and it was great fun, but more than slightly cold on the playground at recess!
• Saturday: Up and at 'em to get packed and loaded for Shreveport and the Driggers Family Bonfire. My mom's cousins host this annual event that serves as a very brief family reunion. It is something we look forward to every year. We headed over a little early so we could go to the giant Bass Pro Shop store on the riverwalk where I found the cure for our wineglass dilemma:

 It's perfect because we just switched all our glassware to mason jars. I saw these on amazon and HAD TO HAVE THEM but they were actually a little cheaper at Bass Pro!
We had so much fun at the bonfire too. They had lifted the burn ban just the day before so, yes, we did actually have a fire:

The pinata is always a highlight of the night. The clones did a great job whacking at it and Raley almost busted it with his swings. In fact, the very next cousin to hit it cracked it right open.

Pattie's turn

Clay having a go

Raley almost cracking it

I was having too much fun visiting to take very many pictures. We went to out hotel room around 11 pm and after restless night on a bed that was too small and had too many people in it (we forgot to bring a blow up mattress so Pattie slept with us) it was morning.

• Sunday: We made a quick stop at the hotel's continental breakfast....



...then we headed over to say our goodbyes to the family. Once we got home (around 1:00 pm) we had some things to do. Jayme got down the  winter clothes boxes from the attic and it was fashion show time! Needed to see what still fit and what would have to be replaced. Pattie is pretty well set for clothes and the boys just need a few things here and there so I can breathe a little easier knowing there won't be a big clothing expenditure.

• Monday: Halloween!! It was really a pretty normal day except Jayme was home and awake. Usually he is sleeping after working all night. It was nice that he was able to take Saturday and Sunday off to go with us to Shreveport. He did have to work Monday night though so he missed trick-or-treating. We headed out just before dark and made our little neighborhood loop. I love that we have the perfect sized neighborhood to get a little candy and have some fun then get back home to pass out treats to the other kids. Here are my little clonies all dressed up and ready for fun:

"Green Lantern" and "Ariel"

"Ariel" and "Captain Rex"

My babies with their friend "Jason"

Treats from our sweet friends Ken and Karen

WHEW! I'm tired again! Now we have a semi-normal week except for the fact that Jayme won't be here. He is off to the woods to get some more work done before Thanksgiving. It will be here before we know it and I, for one, and super excited! Happy times :)