In the last year...

-Dave has gained...well, I don't know how many pounds. Let's just say he gained some much-needed weight.
-I've lost 45 pounds.*
-We gained an awesome baby.
-Mabes lost her first tooth.
-We gained a minivan.
-I lost my preschooler.
-I gained a kindergartner.
-Dave lost a crappy job with a demeaning boss.
-Dave gained a great job with a great boss.

We started the year with hope that things would get better and the somewhat silly resolution that this would be our year (dammit), and it has been. I'm not quite ready to say good-bye to 2010, but I'm hoping to make 2011 another great year.

*As of 10 days ago, I was quite proud of myself for losing the baby weight and then some. I've since gained back at least 10 pounds. Considering the amount of ice cream, fudge, See's, red meat, and In-n-Out I've consumed, I'm thinking that's a conservative estimate. Totally worth it, though.

Why yes, I *do* have a blog

Do you ever think "If only I didn't spend so much time online, my house would be super clean and organized." Guess what? It won't happen. You'll find other ways to use your time. But you might make the best fudge you've ever tasted.

It's just been a busy month. Add to that the fact that for some reason blogger keeps causing my wireless router to crash, I haven't been able to post anything or read and comment on any other blogs. A quick summary, with hopefully some pictures to follow at some point: We spent Thanksgiving with Dave's family, we decorated (somewhat) for Christmas, Annabelle is better than Mabes about keeping off the Christmas tree, I was called as Primary President, Mabes has declared herself the smartest and fastest kid in her class (beating out Vaibhav, Vedant D. AND Vedant S.), Annabelle is starting to stand on her own, I finally finished The Sunne in Splendour (the last 100 pages took forever, as it was getting pretty depressing. Spoiler alert: Richard III dies), and I made some very delicious fudge and toffee.

The Primary thing has been particularly challenging. I'm trying to get everything organized and ready to go for the new year before I leave for Christmas. This is difficult, as I'm not the most organized person to begin with. But I'm learning, and thankfully I have awesome counselors to hold my hand and pull up the slack.

Last night we had our Ward Christmas Party. It was a Polar Express theme, so all the kids came in pajamas. We got to take our picture with Santa:

(Yes, I look really tired. Because I am really tired. And I pretty much felt like I had strep when this picture was taken. After lots of home remedies, advil, and a haircut at a salon with massaging shampoo chairs, I'm feeling much better.)

And then decided we needed one of just the girls. Annabelle isn't a fan:

I love this picture so much it hurts.

House Hunting

I found my dream house:

Unfortunately, it's not for sale. And if it were, it would probably be out of our price range. But 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 4 acres of floor space (forget square feet, I want my house measured in acres), an indoor swimming pool and bowling alley would be nice. It's probably just as well, though, I wouldn't want to clean 43 bathrooms.

In school on Wednesday, Mabes' teacher had them draw a picture of what they planned to do on Veteran's Day. Mabes drew this:

She explained that she was going to watch TV all day and Annabelle was going to play on her lap. Note the talking dog on the TV screen; that's Martha Speaks.

Thankfully, she wasn't terribly upset when we told her we were going to take advantage of the day off (yay for bank holidays!) and head west to Asheville to enjoy the fall colors and tour Biltmore Estate. We've been in North Carolina for over three years now and we finally went. It was a perfect day: sunny, 65 degrees, beautiful leaves. Dave's sister Amber-Rae was able to join us in the morning, so that was an added bonus.

A brief history: George Vanderbilt opened the home to family and friends on Christmas Eve in 1895. It was built on 125,000 acres, though it is now on "only" 8,000. It was modeled after 3 chateaux built in 16th century France. Though no one has lived in it since the 1950s, it is still owned by George Vanderbilt's grandson. It is the largest privately-owned residence in the US.

Unfortunately, they don't allow pictures inside. But it was lovely and I think I'd enjoy having a house with a large dining hall and my own library to nap read in.

The formal gardens

After we toured the house, it was time for Amber-Rae to leave, so we took the shuttle back to the parking lot to say good-bye and decided to just have lunch there. We folded down the back seat so Annabelle could crawl around, and both girls thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Have I mentioned how much I love my minivan?

We then walked and drove around the estate. The grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the creator of New York's Central Park. Because when you're a Vanderbilt, that's who you get to do your landscaping.

And of course, there's a farm on the estate. Mabes and Annabelle both loved the animals.

We decided to end the day with a brief drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Due to a road closure, it ended up taking a lot longer than expected. There was some fussiness (by both Annabelle and me), but overall, the girls did very well.

We broke up the drive home with a stop at Hardees, which sent Mabes over the moon. "Lunch in da* back of da van, and dinner at Hardees?!? Dis is da best.day.ever!" We got home late, but it was a great day.



*Sadly, we're working on this. Since we're working on sounding out words, she was a bit confused when she learned that "the" doesn't start with a d. So when she slows down, she can correctly pronounce the "th." I realize that she has to learn how to speak properly, as it might sound weird when she's 25. But I'm going to miss the "dis" and "dat." It was the last thing keeping her my baby. Well, that and eating crap off the floor. I won't miss that.

We told her

We waited until Saturday morning to tell her, but we didn't want to sit her down and say, "We have some bad news." So we were all in the playroom sitting on the floor, and I started telling her about the pet fish I had when I was younger. I told her how fish don't live very long, and one of them died two days after I got them, some lived a couple of weeks, and 2 lived for almost a year. We told her how different animals have different life spans, and that people generally live lots longer. She seemed fairly interested and seemed to follow, so I took a deep breath and said, "And dogs usually live for about 10 years. I'm telling you this because Louie died this week. He was ten years old."

She continued nodding as she had been doing through the conversation and said, "Wow. So that means Grandma and Grandpa don't have a dog anymore." Then recognition spread across her face, she sat quietly for about 10 seconds, and then curled into a ball and put her head in my lap. And she just cried. For the next half hour, she would alternate between quiet tears to full-on wailing ("but I love Louie! I wanted to see him!"), and we just talked and let her get her emotions out. We told her that we all loved him, and it was okay to be sad.

After a while, she decided that the only thing that would make her feel better was to make a picture:

It's Louie on Christmas morning.

She did better after that, though she had a few more crying outbursts throughout the day. We decided we needed to do something fun, so we went to Plaza Fiesta for the playland some delicious Mexican food. We took Annabelle on the slide for the first time and she loved it. Unfortunately, it's the best slide ever, so all others will pale in comparison.

Mabes had a blast running around for an hour and at one point declared it her best day. While we were eating, she told us she had so much fun playing she almost forgot about Louie. She said she was still sad, but was feeling better.

A story about a dog

Ten years ago, I wasn't a dog person. Dogs scared me. Even the tiny little bichon frise my parents got for Christmas. But you couldn't help but love Louie, and very soon, I considered myself a dog person.

Louie very unexpectedly died today. He wasn't just a great dog, he was the best dog. I wanted to clone him and have my very own Louie. Before Louie, I didn't know that dogs could smile. He was sweet and loving and playful. He got buzzes and spoke his own language (yaithew yaithew, Yewie baba). He loved to cuddle and was the perfect reading/watching tv/napping companion.

People always say that their dogs are great with children, but I would love to see a dog better than Louie. He would put up with Mabes pulling his hair (bichons have hair, not fur, that's why they're good for people with allergies), squeezing him, playing with his food, and climbing in his bed. If he got tired of her, he never snapped--he'd just get up and move.

Mabes believed Louie was her dog, partly because we lived with him (and my parents) before moving out here. One of her first words was "Louie." She loves him. Last week she started making him dog toys for Christmas. I haven't told her yet, and I don't know when or how I will. She knew something was wrong when I got off the phone with my mom, but all I could tell her was that Louie was very sick. I guess I hope she'll have the warning none of us did. I'd like to think she'll take it in stride, as she is pretty resilient and matter-of-fact about disappointments. But this isn't just a scraped knee. Louie was one of her most favorite living things in the world. She adored him.

I'm sad for our loss, but I'm heartbroken for Mabes.

Halloween

I'm having internet issues so instead of writing some cute blog post about the wonders of Halloween, I'm just going to throw out some pictures before I lose my connection again.

Mabes decided to be a cowgirl. I was a little disappointed at first (where's the big fluffy sparkly costume I get to make?), but then realized that it would be super easy. And Annabelle could wear Mabes' old puppy costume, and it would totally fit with her personality. And if I really wanted to, I could make her be a puppy in a big fluffy sparkly tutu. I decided that the easy route sounded appealing, so she just wore brown pants.

Our church's trunk-or-treat was at the park, and Mabes was excited to ride the horse (and Clifford) and yell "Yeehaw!" at the top of her lungs.

My absolute favorite part of the night was when I was trunk-or-treating with Mabes and I was thinking I should go grab Annabelle so Dave wouldn't have to worry about her while he handed out candy. As I turned the corner to where our van was, I see this:

Puppy!

Saturday morning, Mabes and Annabelle get ready to hollow out the pumpkin for Dave. They're very excited:

Dave finishes off the pumpkin:

(Yes, we have a problem. Mabes is totally over her Mario obsession, but apparently we're not.)

The pumpkin Halloween night:

We were very entertained by the kids who raved in amazement. Even though I'm usually annoyed by trick-or-treating teenagers, the ones that asked permission to take pictures to post on facebook totally got extra candy.

Diversions

Things I have been doing while neglecting my blog:

-Primary Program: I've helped out with them in the past, but never been completely in charge. It was interesting. And lots of work. And I'm glad it's over!

-Reading: I've been on a British historical fiction (specifically, the War of the Roses through the Tudors) kick this summer, and now it's continuing into fall. I keep saying each book will be my last, and that I'll break it up with some non-fiction, but that hasn't happened yet.

-Making cookies: Okay, so this isn't any different from the usual, but it's always worth mentioning.

Mabes and a drawing of the playground at school

-The madness which is Mabes. Okay, nothing too crazy. She's still loving school and seems to be doing well; we'll see what her teacher has to say tomorrow at parent/teacher conference. They invited parents to come to their "P.E. Fall Mile." But apparently "mile" is used loosely and it was a lap around the track. She could run a mile (we have on walks before), I was hoping they'd do an actual mile so I could see what her time is. Plus, running a mile might burn off some of that energy. But it was a fun afternoon and the P.E. teacher had some nice things to say about Mabes.

Running (she's in the blue skirt)

-Reading: It takes a while, trying to sort through the Plantagenets, Nevilles, Beauforts, Tudors, Howards, Seymours, Percys, and all the other relevant families, as well try to remember who's loyal to York or Lancaster, who married which cousin, and what they're the Duke or Earl of. And since everyone's name is either Edward, George, Richard, Catherine, Anne, Elizabeth, or Mary, it's extra confusing. I'm working on a wall chart to try to sort it out.

-Visiting Dave's family. That'll get it's own post.

-Staying warm/keeping cool. It cooled off for a while and was perfect. Cold enough at night so that my comforter came out of summer exile, warm enough during the day that my coat remains there. I even got to enjoy hot chocolate in the mornings. But the last few days have been terrible. I didn't complain (much) about the heat in the summer. It's summer. It's supposed to be hot. But at the end of October?!? I'm supposed to be fighting a battle of wills to see if I can wait until November to turn on the heat, not trying to resist turning on the air conditioner. It's hot and muggy, and to make matters worse, yesterday we had a service tech here checking the heater to make sure it's ready for winter. This involved runner the heater for half an hour. It was already 78 degrees in my house.

-Cuddling Babybelle. Seriously, with all her waving/clapping/pattycaking/face-chewing-kisses, I really don't think she could be cuter if she tried. It helps that she's having a good sleep week (as opposed to not-as-good sleep weeks, but even those are nothing compared to other sleep boycotters I could name). I know I just posted about her cuteness, but it's worth mentioning again because her cuteness diverts my attention and therefore prevents me from doing productive things. I'm not complaining, though.

Trying on her puppy costume. Yes, that is a Tupac book in the background.

-Reading. Seriously, I was about to break from historical fiction for a while. But then my most recent book on Richard III came in, a favorite book of my sisters that I have mocked for years because, well, it just looked dumb. (Though it's more fun to mock the author's other book, "Here Be Dragons." I've since learned there are no dragons in the book, but it's still fun to make fun of it.) It is a good book and I'm enjoying it, but between the aforementioned name/title confusion and detailed battle accounts, it's taking some time. And I have 700 pages to go--we'll see if I can finish it before it's due back at the library in two weeks. Of course there's only one copy in the entire library system here and there are already holds for it, so I can't renew it.

Okay, one more because it's cute: