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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Fall Activities

Just so you don't think that all I do is stress and whine about Katie, I wanted to show you some fun activities we've done this Fall. 

First up is our family campground. If you want to know more about that, you can read about our own campground on my Frou-FruGal blog. Dave built a swing for Katie. Here's a video of her testing it out.


A few weeks after this video, we had a work party for Dave's co-workers. It was a bit chilly and kind of windy, but we had a fire going and Katie enjoyed kicking back by the fire.




Noah and Katie and I took a trip out to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins.


She and Noah went through the maze together. Katie went through hay bale tunnels and worked her way through a large indoor maze.


We fed some animals, which was a lot of fun. Katie was fearless in holding out the food for the animals to eat, even the pony that had very big teeth and was making me a bit nervous.  We walked out into a field to pick out our pumpkins.


Katie helped me choose some flowers for the front door. She chose the purple flowers.


I've since transplanted them in the yard so we can enjoy them next year.

We participated in the ward Trunk or Treat activity. Dave and Katie dressed up.


Katie enjoyed having the glow sticks around her neck. Dave went all out, as usual with a fog machine/cave/maze that the kids had to go through to get the candy.

A few nights after the Trunk or Treat, our village had their Beggar's night parade. We went downtown to watch Noah play the trumpet with the band. As we stood on the side of the road, everyone in the parade threw out so much candy, that Katie filled her bucket! That's the way to trick or treat. She enjoyed getting candy and is still working her way through it.

On Halloween, Katie had her first official day of work at Richland Newhope Industries. They have been teaching her how to process documents and take pictures of them for digitizing the documents. She has happily gotten up every morning to get on the bus to go to work. She gets on the bus at about 8 a.m. every morning and is home by about 4 p.m.

We pack a lunch for her and on Fridays, they order Chinese food. Katie has earned her first paycheck of about $47. The bus drives up to the house to pick her up, but with the weather getting bad, we'll have to wait down at the road for the bus, as they don't want to tackle our driveway during the winter.

Katie and I got matching flu shots and while she doesn't enjoy the shots, she is very good about letting them give them to her.

We have found out from the attorney that the judge is going to require an expert evaluation, but we are going back to the doctor who gave Katie her physical to see if she'll sign the paperwork for us. We'll know this week if that's the case. If not, we'll have to look at other options, but I refuse to go back to Dr. Desai. I'll drive to Columbus before taking her back there.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We had all the usual fare. Our family tradition is that each person helps out by making a part of the dinner. Katie made the drink for us by mixing the cranberry juice and ginger ale together. She loved it.

On Saturday, we ran errands. While we were at The Home Depot, Katie and I played around in the Christmas aisle, rocking out to the singing bears. Katie danced in the aisles and sang along to the songs. This is us just after we got done dancing.


We are talking about Christmas and that Ryley will be home in a few weeks. Whenever we mention Ryley's name, Katie says, "I want to see Ryley RIGHT NOW!" When we tell her she has to wait, she kind of deflates a bit, so she is very excited to see the girl.

She's excited to buy some presents for Michael and Celeste's family and Mary's family. When I asked Katie if she wanted to get them a present, she grabbed my arm and said, "Yes! I want to do that!" She was very emphatic about it, so we're working on a gift for their families.

I've been happy with how things are going. It's so much easier on me to have Katie gone during the weekday. She is much happier to be doing things and it makes it easier on me to have her here. It's hard to feel on call 24/7 and it helps me enjoy the time we have together.

She still tells me she wants to go "home" but I don't feel like it's because she is unhappy with her life here. I think Katie has yet to understand that she has two homes and she's always going to yearn for the familiar. I have no doubt that when she's back in Provo, she will tell Michael and Celeste that she wants to go home to Ohio. It's part of her charm.

Suesan