Talk about a break!
I honestly thought that I had written something sometime in December, but I guess I was off on that mark. Time has certainly flown by and a lot has happened since October, so let's get to it, shall we.
First off, the situation with my Mom. Her memory is still failing and she is starting to forget more and more things that are recent. I can't tell if it's the same rate or faster, but it seems like it's getting noticeably worse. The apartments that she was on the wait list for in Oklahoma I guess called her a couple of months back saying a 2nd floor unit had opened up. She messaged me asking to call them. I panicked because I did not want her moving here so quickly and we certainly weren't ready for it yet. This was in December, I believe, right before the Christmas hoopla...or, was it before Thanksgiving? I can't remember. Anyway, Laura literally saved the day because she called, talked to them, and then convinced my Mom that she should wait for a ground level unit to open up because the risk of her falling down the stairs or something was high due to the weather and icy conditions here sometimes. For now, we're in the clear...although I'm sure the wait time is decreasing rapidly. A couple of months ago, she also crashed into the gate opening machine at the apartments. I'm really not sure how she managed to do that because you pull up to it pretty straight forward. I could maybe understand if it was during a turn, but no. Anyway, the apartments said she didn't have to worry about fixing the machine or paying for it. The car repair, however, even though it was the front left fender area, was like $2000. Insurance apparently paid for roughly half and she paid the other. She thought about selling the car for a while but I said she should keep it in case of an emergency but that she should limit the use of the car when she could. She really shouldn't be driving. So, apart from the memory situation and her always saying she doesn't feel good and doesn't have strength, that's where we are. We just visited her this past weekend on a surprise Dallas trip for the kids.
Back to the Fall. I think the next big trip we had was in November for Thanksgiving. During the break, we drove out to Colorado/Estes Park to spend a few days there at the YMCA cabins over the holiday. Actually, I think it was Lucy's baptism, so we sort of tacked on the Estes Park part to make it a vacation. Everyone was there, including Uncle Kenny. So, we got there on Saturday or something and spend a couple of days with the McGuires. Then we left for Estes Park after the weekend. The cool part was that starting the night we got there, it literally blizzarded for a day straight and there was about 18" of snow or something like that. The highlight of day one was that we all went out to eat I think that night and the snow started while we ate. The problem was that there is a huge hill you needed to climb to get into the YMCA grounds. People were already having issues going up the hill, so getting back to the cabin as soon as possible was priority. We had split up into 3 cars, me and my kids, Ryan and his kids, and then the rest of the adults in another car. Ryan got to the entrance first as I had to pick up some things at the market before we went home. He apparently had trouble going up the hill, so I saw him at the base of the hill. I pull up and talk to him. The snow plow truck was going up at this moment, so he asked if I wanted to try and I said sure. By luck or skill, I was able to get up without any issues, but my troubles weren't over. By this time, the snow was really picking up and literally minute by minute, the chances of cars being able to go up the hill were getting lower and lower. I kept going back to our cabin, but then I got lost trying to find the right route to the cabin. I couldn't remember which turns were what. It was worse because by this time, the roads were covered and I couldn't really see the road. I didn't want to get stuck in the ditch, either. At the first fork, I had stupidly turned left, which in hindsight was the wrong turn, obviously. After nearly getting stuck in the bend after the left turn, I managed to find my way way behind our cabin. It sucked that we could see our cabin, but I couldn't get to it. After looking at the map afterwards, it turns out I wouldn't have been able to anyway. So, I turn around and slowly make my way, guessing on some turns. The satellite map did not prove to be helpful. Eventually, though, we finally found our way back to the main roads of the YMCA and then I tried again, this time turning right at the fork. I was then able to get home. Now, this was about 15-20 minutes of being lost in such a small space. During this time, Ryan was able to get up the hill and get home before us. Oh well. It was funny because during the time I was trying to figure out the road, I had told the kids jokingly to "pray for us," after which they started muttering the our father line from church. Then I overheard Connor asking God to forgive his sins or something ridiculous and I started laughing. So, that's 2 of the 3 cars.
The last group of adults which was everyone else, got to the hill quite a bit later after doing some shopping. By now, the snow was still coming down harder than before and the road probably got more packed and icy than when Ryan and I went up. They tried a few times, even after a snow plow, and they were unable to get up the hill. They ended up parking the car at the entrance and getting a ride from the ranger. Ryan and I celebrated our successful climb after hearing from them. The rest of the trip was good. The snow let up the next afternoon, the kids got to play in the snow, and we did some activities at the YMCA, even though the workers there were pretty incompetent. However, Laura's Mom and Uncle actually fell and ended up getting hurt halfway into the trip, so they were resting after that. The cabin situation was okay. We and the Lemons were in a bigger cabin and the rest were down the street, actually in the same cabin that Laura and I stayed at with the kids a couple of years back. That did mean they had to walk to our cabin each night to hang out with us, however.
The day we left, we met up with Chris and Alicia in Boulder for breakfast and we were then headed to Wichita, Kansas to stay the night before going home the next day. All and all, it was a fun trip, minus some of the hiccups.
Oh, for Thanksgiving dinner, we did eat at the Stanley Hotel, which was cool. That was my first time there. Because of the storm, Ellen and Matt, who were supposed to fly out for a trip, couldn't get out of the airport, so they ended up staying and actually coming up to meet us and eat with us at the Stanley. That was a good surprise extra visit for the everyone.
Fast forward to Christmastime. All the presents were bought and ready and we had already has our Christmas with the Lemons and all that. We did our yearly carriage ride thing in the neighborhood, which was a little crazy this year. The horse this year was really nervous or something, so at one point, some cars I think scared it and it went out of control, moving the carriage crazily. At one point, we were waiting to get on, pretty close to the carriage, when that happened and I had to basically grab Emmeline's coated to tug her back because the carriage wheels literally would have run her over. Laura was actually the only person to have gotten on the carriage when that happened, so it was just her sitting when the horse was going crazy. It was sort of funny after the fact. We did end up riding it shortly after, but now I'm wary of doing that again.
The next Debbie Downer moment was that right before we were to go to Tulsa, everyone, and I mean everyone, got some degree of the flu that was going around school at the time. First, it was Emmeline, then Laura, then me, and of course, lastly, Connor. This made it so we were unable to head down the Tulsa this year for Christmas because the McGuires were there with Lucy, so we didn't want to risk them her and them getting sick. Laura and Emmeline ended up going down for the day I think on Christmas day, but Connor and I stayed home. Sort of sucked because we didn't get to see the McGuires and all that, but, oh well. Everyone had recovered by that weekend for our New Year's celebration. Laura was really bummed about not being able to go, but what could we do? At least she got to see them a little bit.
The last thing I wanted to write about is this enrichment cluster program that St. Eugene is having this semester. It's a student-led course about different topics sort of like an elective. They were asking volunteers to facilitate these clusters, so I volunteered to teach computer building. Turns out I'm the only non-teacher to be doing this, so I'm getting pretty nervous about it. It starts next week and I'm anxious to know how many, if any, students chose my cluster. Since the news, I've been slowly amassing a crapload of computers and spare parts, some from the tech lab at school that they didn't need to parts I've had since I'd been building computers. I have a big pile right now behind Laura's desk. I think I went overboard with it. Anyway, I'm nervous about it and I know the days leading up to next Friday are going to feel like an eternity. I chose to limit it to 4th-8th graders, leaving the 2nd and 3rd graders out. I felt they were too young to building computers. I'm most nervous about the students behaviors and attitudes. However, at least since they had to choose their top 4 cluster topics, they are attending clusters they are somewhat interested in. I hope that it enough to keep them behaved. I'm still fleshing out how I'm going to run this cluster, but hopefully things with fall into place after the first day.
Well, that's the catch-up for the last 4 months. I actually wrote a lot. My fingers hurt now. Time to get ready to pick up the kids.
