Lesson Learned

I've been wanting to go take a journey to Newton lately to check out the awesome trees at Bethel's campus and see if the fall leaves were in full effect. Then I figured my mom's is only about 25 minutes from there, so I should go see the 'rents. Of course I didn't call before I loaded the kids up. And knowing that I was going to my mom's at dinner time, I didn't think it would be necessary to bring any food to eat. Two minutes from the Newton Outlet, I got ahold of my mom on her cell phone--OH, I FORGOT!!!! SHE FINALLY GOT A CELL PHONE!!!! :) --and she of course is in Wichita!! Honestly, mom. We've been begging her to get a cell so she could call us when she came to town. So this is actually her fault. Once again, glad she doesn't have internet! :) Ha ha. Call mom to make sure she's home before visiting--lesson learned. To kill time we decided to head on to Newton's Wal-mart and venture through it. My mom has always laughed at my sister and I cause we always had to go to the Wal-mart in my Granny's itty bitty town whenever we'd make a trip to Oklahoma. I'm sorry, but not all Wal-mart's are the same, therefore I must stop and visit. It was a good thing too...I found Emily's birthday present on sale. Well, Emily found it, but I bought it. I told her she could pick one toy out for Chloe's birthday(her cousin)at the end of the month. She went to the shelf, where the same toy was sitting side-by-side and said, "this one is for Chloe and this one is for me for my birthday". Ha. Then I had to explain how we were only getting the one for Chloe. That went over well. Actually, it was a lot better than I ever imagined, so I can't complain. We paid for the toy and strolled back out in the drizzle. Then I was forced to drive slow. The speed limit in Newton is 30 and 20 in the "downtown" area. It really hurts me to drive that slow. However, since I was going at drive-by pace, I was able to look at the antique store that I always tell myself I will go in one day. :) We made it passed the 20 mph zone and into the 35mph, which meant that Bethel was just blocks away. I knew my mom was a ways behind us still, so we took a little detour through the neighborhoods around the campus so I could gawk at the beautiful houses.

Playing in the back of the truck. They have discovered that they have the ability to make annoying noises and do it frequently. Ugh. I think the phrase "I will turn this bus around and end your precious field trip" came out at one point.

We made it into Canton at 6:45pm, beating my mom, of course. The kids and I drove over to the Casey's(a whole 2 blocks away)and put in an order for a pizza. That required getting the kids in and out of the truck. In the drizzle. Then I looked back at Emily in her seat and asked her the dreaded "do you need to go potty" question...of course she did. So, I unbuckled and removed kids from the truck. Again. In the drizzle. We get inside the Casey's and there is NO bathroom. What in the world??? Back to the truck we went, buckled up, again, and headed to my parent's church. We found an unlocked door(they had choir practice)and got the girl to the bathroom. I miss diapers on days like this.

We waited in the church and took some pictures... the girl always has to have that blasted hand in a picture. I need to invest in duct tape before we do our Christmas pictures.

The serving cart makes a great seat for my little kids. Ha ha.

"This is my happy face!!"

I loaded the kids up and started to drive down the street to get the pizza when my mom was driving towards us. Of course. The kids told my mom that I said she needed to drive faster. :) That's right!!

I think everytime we go to my mom's there is a "kids playing piano" picture posted. That's because this is the only thing to do in Canton. Well, inside. They have to have a song book in front of them--Emily searches for a page before playing. They were singing ABC's here. I don't recall that being in the church's hymnal, but okay. After the beautiful concert of ABC's, we enjoyed our pizza and german chocolate cake that I had brought along to get out of my house.

I made a cake. All by myself. Whooda thunk?!

So happy to see Pop!!! We haven't seen him for over a month. We've been sick(well, I have), so we were avoiding him like the plague. Quadruple bypass and lung surgery are enough for the poor man. He doesn't need respiratory stuff, too. Emily was very worried about seeing him. She told me on the way that she didn't want to see him 'cause he had "ouches". I told her that they had all healed and were now better. She got so excited and exclaimed, "Pop's all better?? Pop's all better, Dood!!" She was so scared to get near Jack at the hospital after his lung surgery, so I know that her being able to see that he was all better was a big relief to her little heart.

Aiden bonding with Pop. He always wants a ride on the automatic chair. He just climbs up on Jack and plops down in his lap. Okay, honestly I do still have this itty bitty twinge in my throat that makes me cough every now and then. I had to take my Wal-mart version of NyQuil again last night. I hate that stuff. It was 1 a.m. when I took it, which means no ability to get out of bed before 10 a.m. AND crazy dreams!! Let me tell ya, it fit nicely in the crazy dream category!!