Year 2, Day 326 & 327: Thanksgiving 2017

It's now the day AFTER Thanksgiving, and my head is in a tailspin, quite literally.  The head cold I've had has done it again and messed with the ears and now I've got some vertigo.  Not as bad as before, especially because I have some tricks up my sleeve.  One of those tricks is to take Dramimine the night before, which does knock me out for the whole 24 hrs after I take it.  Therefore, my brain is all foggy, and I'm a bit overwhelmed.  I've made my to do list, my Lilla Rose stuff is out and done for today (Black Friday sale, woot! woot!), and I'm going to spend some time here before kids come from Grandpa's house.  They are helping Grandma and Grandpa decorate for Christmas.  If I can get my act together, we'll try to do some of that tonight, tomorrow morning and Sunday evening, since those are the only times the 6 of us are altogether.  But do it we shall!

Now, back to Wednesday and Thursday.  As I probably mentioned last year, we typically get together with Leah's side of the family for Thanksgiving.  Some years long ago we would make it up to Michigan for Gary's side of the family during the Christmas break.  In the past few years when we've lived here or have been here for the holiday (like when we surprised Leah on her birthday AND for Thanksgiving since they fall in the same week), we have gathered at one of the her brothers' churches, so it is less of a drive on her parents, or now, just her mom.  So, we went to Ohio this time, which is still a 4 hr drive away.  Therefore, we drove up on Wednesday and spent the night at a hotel.  Therefore we didn't have to get up so early on Thursday.  We had adjoining rooms this time, which was nice, and we also were able to go out for dinner because we got up to Lima, OH by 5pm.  It had been a crazy morning, so I was already feeling the anxiety of it all.

Actually, I will try to be brief, but it has been a hard week.  From some items brewing in my head about my own family, to Thanksgiving falling ON my mom's birthday this year, to my shoulder, back, and now head all hurting, yes, my soul hasn't been at much peace this week or in a thankful mood.  Maybe it's because I don't enjoy food as much I want to.  Maybe it's because my mom has been gone for over 7 years now.  I don't know.  I try to muddle through, and I did try to use a phone on my app to write down blessings and things to be thankful for.  Maybe it's because everyone else's holidays look perfect through the lens of social media, and this year especially as I am learning Instagram.  Lots of things, I guess.  So, I hope I didn't spoil any one else's mood this week.  It's just where I'm at.  Oh, and it could be just Satan messing with my head and heart since last week was so awesome!  Don't forget that spiritual warfare.  Now, moving on.

Wednesday started with a little bit of vertigo, but I managed to shower before Keturah's eye appt. That's significant because usually I don't get that done first thing in the morning.  7 1/2 minutes, children, that's all it takes! They are all notorious for taking 20 minute showers.  Anyway, Keturah's appointment.  Our regular optometrist got her prescription partly wrong, yes, the new one, so we have to go back and get that fixed.  If that doesn't solve Keturah's double vision and/or blurry vision, then at her 3 month recheck with the pediatric ophthalmologist, then we'll talk about surgery or patching or even a bifocal piece on her left eyepiece.  Fun.  Depending on if Medicaid paid for the glasses we just got 2 months ago, we may or may not be able to get the new lenses replaced for free.  I'll take her in next week to get that figured out.  We were there at the doctor's for quite awhile because they had to dilate her eyes.  So, I'm glad I showered earlier in the day.  We had just enough time to eat lunch, pack up the misc. stuff, clean up and leave by 2 pm.  I said it took 4 hrs to dinner, but it was just 3 hrs to the hotel we stayed at the night before.

Meanwhile, right before we left, Socks came up lame.  Crud.  Thankfully, our wonderful dog sitters have a 7 yr old dog who has hip issues, so they knew how to gently make sure he gets outside and such.  They even made a bed for him out of Benaiah's blanket (he doesn't have his own bed but sleeps wherever) and took his food and water into the boys' room where he was so he didn't have to go far.  Unfortunately, he got confused by the moving of the food and water and didn't eat until we got home on Thursday around 7:30pm.  That's ok, I'm not worried about him not eating, just drinking.  And thankfully, by the time we got home, his leg was fine.  I guess he had propped up his leg on the blanket in such a way for it to heal.  I think he had just been off balance from me cutting his nails on Thursday and he somehow got up wrong on Wednesday, kind of like how I get hurt twisting the wrong way.  We will have to keep an eye on him for other signs of aging like this though.  Maybe some more running around the backyard and actually building up some muscle might help.  I can definitely praise God that it resolved itself and we didn't have a vet bill we can't afford.  Phew!  And I'm grateful for lovely dog sitters.  We had some great ones in Canada as well.

So, we got on the road, traveled well, hotel, supper, swimming and bed.

Thursday, I felt very dizzy, and Jared thankfully took the kids to the hotel breakfast while I slowly got myself going.  I can work through the dizziness if I can go slow and steady.  Jared also brought me breakfast, too, so I wouldn't have to go too far.  We still left the hotel when we wanted to, which is always good. Made it to Uncle Bill's church in one piece.  I was leery about traveling, but I did ok.  I stayed a good portion of the rest of the day in a chair trying to just get through the day, but my attitude got better as the day went on.  The cousins had a grand time playing all around the church building, which was pretty old and needs some TLC.  Like 150 years old kind of old.  Uncle Bill has only been there a few years, so there's other work to be done, not just on the building itself.  But that's church life.  As always, there was more food than could be consumed in one meal, despite having hungry teenagers around.  We all sign up for something, but we all seem to bring more than what we signed up for as well, lol.

After dinner, the adults swapped stories about Grandpa Cook, as they had planned on doing, while the kids ran off some of their sugar highs.  Grandma Cook was in good spirits, remembering lots of things when asked and accepting the things that she couldn't remember.  She kept saying, "Oh, really, I don't remember that, but ok."  The oldest memories are the last ones to fade, so she knows more about them, then the last 15 yrs or so.  She's relatively healthy for her age as well.  And still can do a lot of things on her own.  All told, we had 20 people there.  We were missing one of Leah's sisters and hubby, Aaron and Shauna (which is normal because they typically don't come up for Thanksgiving), and one of Bill's girl's with her fiance' and 3(?) kids.  Good conversations, good food, pretty typical.  The year of "first's" is almost over for this family, as in, the first Thanksgiving/Christmas/birthday/anniversary.  Ok, maybe not.  Grandma and Grandpa Cook were married on Christmas Day and they both have birthdays in February.  I can't remember the exact date of Grandpa's death, but I believe it was in February.  Anyway, it's all part of the grief process, and considering I've been dealing with my own grief, still, 7 years later, it ebbs and flows and will continue into Heaven.

I'm too lazy to put these into chronological order.  Here's what I got though.

Abishai looks so big from this angle!

Yes, this is the "I'm the king of the bed!" pose and he didn't want anyone else on the bed.

After swimming snack.  We ate a big dinner, but then they were hungry again, the SAME night.

Snack time.

This kids knows how to do the death fall perfectly! This picture snapped on his way down to the bed.

And this is why he got there, Daddy slammed his pillow into him!

Watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Same pose as always.

We always bring games to share.  Playing nerts here.

Yup, this is his "natural habitat" wherever he goes.

Food!

They found some cool puppets!

The "board" game.

Teens hanging out on the altar.  Hm,....there's a sermon illustration in there I think, or not.

Yes, there were pockets of cold air in this old church building, but Abishai ran around the whole time in his bare feet, which were quite warm FROM running around! 

Racoon puppet Justin found and made bang into the door frame on purpose.

Playing Justin's "Fortnight" game he made up all by himself!

Jared and Grandma Cook.

Tweens and Teens waiting for food.

Other parts of the family.

Found markers.  Must draw.

And the rest of the family.

Park it, boy, park it!  He used this vehicle to get around the church building.

All of us that were there this year.  Yeah for self timers!

Last prayer.

Now, back to Wednesday morning.  Yeah for teens that can scrap your windows for you!

The medical assistant noted that Keturah was well behaved and when we told him that she is homeschooled, he remarks, "Yup, that figures.  Most homeschooled kids are well behaved."  Or he said something like that.  What a compliment!

Wow! Rare sighting for us!  They were clearing up the last little bit of corn in the township, which happened to be 1 minute from our house next to the CVS Benaiah walks to.

Benaiah's other natural state of being.  And he snored.  And he slept the next morning on the way to the church and the way home and then stayed up until after 1am playing his video game.  SMH teeangers!

This the one that SHOULD nap and did on both longer drives at the right time.

Driving into Ohio.  The sign has changed! I have driven both on I-70 and I-74 often enough in the last 20 years to know when these signs have changed.

When you have adjoining rooms, you play the "squish the children in between the doors" game.

Let's just pet every person on the head while we are in the elevator shall we?

Always climbing.  Stir crazy. Even twirled with Keturah in the aisle way at Applebee's because they felt like it.  We got a couple of stares, but I don't care.  They weren't screaming, they weren't crying, and they stayed right next to our very large booth.

They were so far away!  VERY large booth at Applebee's.

In and out, under and over.

Don't take my picture!  Sorry, too late, REDNECK in yuor Superan swim shorts and WADING boots!  So redneck!

Swimming!  And I actually spent most of the time IN the water for once.  It helped that there was a hot tub to get into at the end of our swimming time.

It's kind of scary at times how Abishai will get up to the edge of the pool and wait for Jared to get near enough to him so he can jump into the water.  Jared has to move fast because one false move and the child will be under.  He's a fearless kid!

It's always fun to get big brothers and sisters!

Benaiah's aerospace project that they will be building AND staying in for 48 hours come next spring.  He is on the design team to figure out how to fit 3 nearly grown guys into a 15 ft diameter dome AND have it be light enough to put it into space AND do experiments in.  This is his results after 8 hours.

My breakfast my husband lovingly prepared for me.  Yes, he's a pro at the gluten free diet.  I did ask for most of it, but he picked out the oatmeal and toppings.

Cute cups and sleeves at this hotel.

I guess Jared and I are one in the same because we both picked Earl Gray tea for breakfast.  Matchy, matchy!

"Thank you, Gawd!" Yes, Abishai did preach and he did tell me to sit down on a pew. And he opened this hymnal and started yelling into the microphone.  Oh...my...goodness.....shut..the...door...Gary Jr. he is!

Lol!  The Bill Cook family is KNOWN for having a new to them car every 3-6 months.  I'm not joking.  They are always trading and buying and selling cars.  Even Mr. Zion who is barely 16 yrs old is on his 6th car.  Not because they break.  Yup, it's a family oddity.

Abishai helped by holding open the door!

Sunset on the way home.

Back in Indiana.

 The second video is dark, but it's Benaiah and Abishai having a blast in the middle seats of the van.  Keturah rode with Gary and Leah and even had a sleepover on Thursday night.  Fun!  And this is why teens are basically toddlers in an adult's body.  No joke!

This pretty much sums me up, right? The tag line does, "Sometimes it's your only choice."