November Update

While it's been awhile since the last post, we've had a great fall though.  Here's some of the things we've been up to:

1. Jared coached Kaiya's soccer team. Jared thought he was done coaching soccer. That was a nice thought, but once he was approached about coaching Kaiya's team because there was no coach, he readily agreed. Kaiya was thrilled. It was the best experience for her and she loved it. Her team had a bunch of girls from school on it and having Dad as the coach was apparently the best time ever. There team was named "The Butterflies" and they were so cute to watch. They always hugged it out when they got a goal. Jared's favorite moment was when someone got a goal and the girls whooped and cheered and gave each other this big group hug, jumping up and down. While they were doing that, the other team scored a goal!

 

2. Jared had a birthday. Oh, and I pretty much rocked birthday week this year. Usually Jared does an awesome job for me and his birthday week is suck-tacular, but this year I was proud to say that the tables were turned. I brought lunch {homemade cafe rio salads} into his work, arranged a movie/wings night with a few buddies, let Jared go to Seattle to the U of W game {which was the final football game in Husky stadium before renovations} with his Birthday Twin and good buddy David, and arranged to go to dinner with some of our friends to Famous Dave's.

 Famous Dave's actually became a bit of an infamous experience for me. We had the worst...I mean WORST waitress in the history of waiting tables. She was ridiculous! First she had a hard time taking orders, then she brought out two people's dinners, about 5 minutes later she brought out everybody's dinners except Jared, then left. Finally we had to flag her down and Jared asked about his meal. She was like, "Oh...yeah...it's coming right out....what did you order again?" Clearly she forgot about it and had to reorder it. Finally about 20 minutes later, after everyone else was finished, he got his meal and was like, "I hope this was free." She was snotty and said she'd have to talk to her manager about it. I was starting to get mad but Jared was like, "It's no big deal, my meal is going to be free." Then the waitress came back later {she never came for drinks or anything}, rudely dropped all the receipts in the middle of the table and said, "I don't know what anyone ordered so find your own receipts and get back to me if there's a problem!" and then left! I was so mad at this point but we looked for our receipt and she had charged us for Jared's meal! By then I was infuriated and decided right then that I was going to talk to the manager...Jared was able to keep me at bay for only so long, but enough was enough. Jared was like, "Alright...here we go...this is gonna get good!" So I marched to the manager, explained the situation, he promptly came to our table and declared that all of our meals--all TEN of them--were on the house!

Of course Jared had to promptly get on Facebook and declare:  "My boo made me proud once again. Our entire meal for 10 people FREE at Famous Dave's. NEVER underestimate the power of angry Asian eyes."

Whatevs.

2. Carson earned his Arrow of Light Award in Cub Scouts.   Webelos is coming to an end for Carson and he was able to receive his award. He got it just under the wire, since the November pack meeting was the last pack meeting of the year and he turns 11 in December. Isn't he so cute?!

 

 

3. Carson rocked his Science Fair Project.  For his 5th grade class, all the children had to come up with a question he/she wanted to test. His question was:  "How high will the soda stream go with a Mento with different types of soda?"  Then he had to come up with a hypothesis. He hypothesized, "Diet Dr. Pepper will go higher than the regular Dr. Pepper." He was the first in the class to present, which I think made him a little nervous, but he did great! He got 100% on performance, 100% on his board, 96% on typing, 100% for computer help {he didn't need any and helped others}.

 

4.   Parent/Teacher Conferences were awesome! Carson had to give a student-led conference for the first time. I decided to have him do his conference at home since it was student-led and they were currently having a sub so the actual teacher wasn't at conference anyways. His conference was fantastic. He is having a great school year and I couldn't be more proud.

Kaiya's conference was terrific too. Academically she's doing great and socially she is flourishing. Mrs. S. said she has tons of friends in the class, consistently gets picked to do things by others, always has a smile on her face and a hug to share, and just seems like the happiest girl. That just makes me so happy, you have no idea. 

5. I made my first Thanksgiving Dinner with all the fixins'.  Thanksgiving was at my house this year with my parents, Grandpa, and brother. I was in charge of everything except the mashed potatoes. I was feeling a little nervous since that's alot to do and I'd never made one before. Plus most of the sides were brand-new recipes and I wasn't sure about the timing of everything.  This was the menu:

Turkey
Stuffing {with Italian sausage, craisins, apples, pecans---from Our Best Bites}
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Candied Sweet Potatoes {from Our Best Bites}
Caesar Salad with tomato, avocado, homemade croutons, and parmesan
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
Homemade rolls made by HER
Pumpkin Chai Cheesecake

It was all dang good, if I do say so myself. It was so yummy! I was a total Thanksgiving loser though and forgot to take pictures.  Yep no pictures of the food, the people, or the good time. Bummer. Oh well, it sure was fun and I'm sure I still have a few excess pounds that have managed to make permanent residence around the holidays so you can't say I was left without any memories of Thanksgiving. :)


6. I went to Black Friday at Walmart.  Umm...Black Friday was all sorts of crazy this year. The major sale started at 10 pm vs the normal 5 am so it was a madhouse. I went with THEM this year and we had a great ol' time. Amy and I stood in line for a very hot ticket item from 8 pm on. The line was already very long though. People were letting friends cut in the line which frustrated everybody, but it all worked out in the end. They handed them out by 9:30, though we couldn't pay until 10. The movies/video game area was crazy. Though people weren't supposed to get any until 10, the mob around them was insane. Someone broke through all the shrink wrap around 9, and then the crowd got all the movies/games immediately after. If you tried to get anything by 10, you were out of luck.

It was the first time in a few years I had gone to Black Friday when sales started, so I had forgotten about the craziness. It was fun though.

7. Jared and I went to the Apple Cup in Seattle. Yep, folks. I went to a football game. Can you believe it?! I barely can. It was the first time since like college I think that I've been to a football game. Luckily, the weather was very pleasant and I was sufficiently bundled up so I had a great time. You know how "Cold +Freezing" Lindsay can be a really beast to be around.  We did a little shopping, went to the game, ate somewhere fun and had a good car ride there and back chatting with friends.

Wow. That is probably the least attractive picture of me in the history of pictures.

8. Carson:  Doing great at school. Decided not to do band or choir this year. Had a great soccer season. Had a few growing pains with soccer. In a more competitive soccer league. Put as defender, which he did not love at all. Improved a lot with that position and had a good attitude. Started playing mid-fielder once in a while. Face would light up whenever he got to play mid-fielder. Made a goal the last two games of the season in midfielder position.

9. Kaiya:  Besides school, loving soccer, ballet and piano.  Said soccer was her favorite activity--though probably more about hanging out with Dad and friends than the actual game itself. Liked to play defender best.  Still liking ballet. Really good at piano. Favorite songs to play are all the ones out of the Disney book we got for her--especially Beauty and the Beast. Talked to more people, including her piano teacher, all the teachers for specials, Dr. S.,  my parents. Yay! We're making progress!

10.  Chloe:  Cute as can be. Loves to give a sorrowful face and talk in downtrodden voice when not getting her way. It's pretty dang cute. LOVES preschool and wants to go everyday. Loves to play with friends. Outgrown naps. BOO! {Can still get her to take them once in a while}. Loves to wear her Rapunzel dress. Loves to dance. Loves Candyland. Loves to play beauty shop and fix my hair because "Your hair is crazy, Mom!" Doesn't like to clean her room. Has her brother and sister {Ok, Jared and I too} wrapped around her little finger. Not the hardest worker because she can usually get a sibling to do it for her. Proud of all her schoolwork and wants to save it all. Loves to share all the things she learned at school. Loves her sunbeam teacher at church. Sometimes bosses her older sister around. Has the CUTEST. VOICE. EVER.

Well that's about it....Here's the kids signing off....