That's right, I'm starting a new thing today. Or I just have ten random things to write about, a whole lot of old pictures to document, and decided to call it a new thing to make it all a little official. My mind can do those sorts of things when my blessing of a job gives me the week off for Thanksgiving. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year. I put all things work aside, get this home all ready to serve my family around the table, and usher in the holiday season well with a lot of rest, a lot of twinkle lights, and a lot of sweet traditions we've come to love about this last month of the year. There's just no place like home for the holidays. But before we move into all things Thanksgiving and Christmas, ten random things for your Tuesday... :)
1. Last Wednesday, I lost my phone at Peet Junior High. I was in a Social Studies classroom to observe a student and afterwards, the two of us went to the library to debrief. But when I got up to leave the library, I realized I didn't have my phone. 100% sure I had it in the classroom, I went back to quietly search for it while another class was in session with a teacher I didn't know well. No phone to be found. It was a crazy day and I had to get home, so I went to the office to tell the staff to contact me if someone turned it in. This is when Megan, school secretary and friend, went in to full blown Nancy Drew mode. She asked if I knew my Apple I.D. and within seconds had a GPS location of my phone, which was still somewhere in that Social Studies room. Thanks to this amazing little tool, we traced my phone back to the room and had the entire class of 8th graders looking for my phone. I finally found it in the coat pocket of the substitute teacher! And no, she didn't steal it. I draped my coat over hers when I sat in her desk chair and accidentally put my phone in her coat pocket instead of mine. How funny is that?! Moral of the story - know your Apple I.D. Megan says she has to help look for several students' phones every week and it's almost always a victory when they know their Apple login information.
2. Speaking of our crazy Wednesday, Cruz got his first concussion at school last week. It was a scary morning. I was observing another lesson and had an email come through from the school nurse explaining that Cruz had fallen at morning recess and hit his forehead on the sidewalk. He seemed fine and was sent back to class with an ice pack. A half hour later, I received another call from school explaining that he was throwing up and needed to be picked up. I knew enough about concussions to know throwing up shortly after is typically a pretty good indication, and went into crazy mom mode getting him an appointment with our doctor within 15 minutes. The ride to the doctor's office wasn't fun. Cruz was definitely not himself, trying to fall asleep in the car, not making eye contact with me, and just generally acting out of it. Thankfully, by the time we were seen, he had started acting like himself again, even quietly joking that "I would have worn better socks if I knew I'd be going to the doctor today," when he stepped on the scale and noticed his big toe was sticking right out of his sock. The doctor confirmed he had a pretty good concussion, was confident it was nothing more, and sent us home with a plan to rest at home that afternoon and the following day. Cruz's "brain rest" day meant no screens for over 24 hours, and he got to go to work with Beau for the better part of the next morning. By the time Thursday rolled around, Cruz was ready to be back at school with nothing more than a decently sized bruise on his forehead!
3. We celebrated our fourth annual IF:Table Friendsgiving last weekend and had a blast. Beau smokes a turkey, Katy makes some out-of-this-world dessert, and the rest of us cover all the in-betweens. The guys always clean up, and we almost always end our night with a hilarious game of salad bowl that usually leads to someone peeing their pants. Although this year, everyone was much to fascinated with Beau's new bidet and had plenty of opportunities to visit the bathroom. ;)
4. This week, we'll host our family for Thanksgiving. As the kids get older it seems we stay up a little later every year. I'm pretty sure Taylor and Kate left our house at 2 am last year! This might be because the Henrichs family is known for the long drawn out goodbyes that could last all night if my husband didn't set his phone timer. ;) I found this article on Facebook last night and sums us up COMPLETELY!
5. I usually spend a better part of Thanksgiving break trimming the house for Christmas, but thanks to the early October snow and the late Thanksgiving, everything is already done! We worked on a little at a time this year and enjoyed the slowness of it all. But no matter how slow you go about it, there's always one day when you just can't keep it contained. We put the two main trees up on a Sunday afternoon and you would have thought our house threw up tissue paper. And let's not start on the two strings of lights that failed to light in the pre-lit trees. Mila cried and slammed the door to her room more than once, I had to reorganize more than a hundred plastic inserts with their corresponding ornament boxes, and when it was time for dinner, I announced there was zero chance I was cooking the soup I had planned to make. We went to Pablos in our pjs and had Thanksgiving burritos instead.
Photos from all our tree trimming...
6. We've had our life group girls over twice this semester, first for some pumpkin painting in October and last week for soup, popcorn and a sappy Hallmark movie, complete with Hallmark movie bingo I scored from Jones Design Company Blog. These are such fun nights for the kids to be a part of, especially the pumpkin painting night since we didn't get around to carving those jack-o-lanterns this year. Blame it on Beau's th th th th th th th thumb.
7. My sweet friend Natalie is home from Southeast Asia and we are gathering in our favorite Panera booth for an Advent study together. We met last week and it was SO good to be back in that space together. I had my favorite holiday cherry vanilla bagel, sipped my coffee slow, and savored the stories of what God has been up to in Natalie's life for this past year.
8. I'm almost finished with our second book club selection, Educated, and am looking forward to meeting next week to discuss all the things about this book. Mostly, I'm just excited to have an excuse to read again.
9. Beau and I had the most fun date night Friday night. We got all gussied up and progressively ate our way through the Cedar Valley. We started with sushi and martinis at Sakura, shared charcuterie and the best kombucha cocktails at the new Verve Kombucha, and ran into Taylor and Kate at Singlespeed and shared a slice of Tip the Cow chocolate cake. And when we weren't quite ready to head home, we stopped at Zsavoos for darts, pool, and cheese balls. So often, our date nights involve a big dinner and then we're full and unsure of what to do next. This progressive dinner idea was such a fun way to hop from place to place, something that would be much less fun to do with kids in tow, and enjoy some of our favorite places together.
10. I am ready for all the cozy things as we officially kick off this holiday season! My girl sure knows what's up when it comes to all things cozy and this book tugs at all my Thanksgiving dreams.
And now for a good ol' photo dump! Happenings from this fall...
...The end of soccer and flag football with some good buddies.
...Poor Beau and his broken thumb. He's finally out of his brace two months since he tore his ligament right off the bone. Just found out this week though that he can't lift anything over ten pounds - aka no working out until January. Unless he comes to spin class with me!
...Soup and homemade bread from Jess
...Just a couple girls in their converse, exploring our favorite woods on a beautiful fall Sunday
...When the first snow falls in October, it sure makes for a pretty morning commute.
...Sweet Halloween traditions of spooky suppers and surprise lunches.
...Mila's kindergarten class on Halloween
...Sunday morning pancakes, prepared start to finish by these two. Soon enough they'll be ready to serve us breakfast in bed.
...A fun evening with this crew supporting Cedar Valley Angels, one of our favorite nonprofits. That there was a really pricey and equally delicious cake!
...And a fun overnight trip to see our favorite Talbott Brothers perform at the Mill. We even closed the place down and helped them load their van. Pretty much roadies at this point!
...Friday night pizza night, four different ways.
...Joanna's chicken pot pie served over mashed potatoes. Super delicious!
...A pretty afternoon snowfall we just had to go check out
...Letters to Santa prepared early this year. We made quite the process out of it all, first going through the large stack of Christmas toy magazines and finally narrowing down our most desired picks. Or in Mila's case, just circled everything on every page!
...I captured this from the front window one Saturday. Cruz is a good coach and Mila is more than happy to soak up the attention.
...We've all come to the conclusion that Cruz wins the prize for the coziest bed this Christmas season. This new flannel duvet cover is so soft, I may just trade places one of these nights.
...Mila and her Bitty
...A messy room, more books, and Mila's itinerary for her much-anticipated special day with Mom taped to her door so she doesn't forget. Girl's got plans and the I like her love for a good well-developed list.
...The first of what I hope are many naps by the Christmas tree.
Happy Thanksgiving Week!
