Despite being sick most of November, we managed to have a pretty good month! Chris worked from home several days since he was sick, but on November 10 he had no choice but to go to work since it was Zillow’s “bring a kid to work day.” The kids love going to work with Chris and they were so excited! Plus I love when the kids go to work with Chris. It’s the one day that I have all to myself. I don’t have to take the kids to school, I don’t have to pick them up, I don’t have to worry about feeding them lunch, its great! Lucky Chris was feeling well enough to take them (although he still wasn’t feeling great.)
The kids woke up and got ready for work and rode the bus into work with Chris. They got some breakfast at work and went to Chris’ desk to see where he works! They talked with Chris’ manager and some of his coworkers, then they went to classes. Their classes are based on age so they weren’t in the same class. Lillian still gets a little nervous in new situations so she wasn’t so sure if she wanted to go to her class. One of Chris’ coworkers was so good with Lillian and she came out and tried to make Lillian feel as comfortable as possible and Lillian was able to go to her class. The classes are setup to teach age appropriate engineering lessons for the kids. In Lillian’s class she made structures out of marshmallows and toothpicks. Ryan was able to play programming apps on tablets, which he loved! Lillian got her face painted and they got balloon animals made for them. They got to present with their groups what they worked on that day to everyone. They had lunch with Chris, then they watched Moana and had ice cream. They had a wonderful time and it was fun to hear all about it! While they were gone I wrapped Christmas presents, got a massage, and got sushi. It was a lot of fun to have a break!
November also means Thanksgiving and we had a very low key Thanksgiving, just how we like it! Chris’ Great Aunt and her family invited us to have Thanksgiving with them which we really appreciated, but we wanted to be able to work on our house! We bought a smoker/grill this summer and when we bought it we knew we wanted to cook our turkey in it! We were so excited to try it out. We found several recipes that we thought sounded good and we put them all together and it turned out amazing! We did the brine from Pioneer Woman, and I seasoned it like the turkey from Our Best Bites. I put in aromatics and apple cider in a pan in the smoker with turkey as well and let it cook until it was done (about 4-5 hours). It was perfect and we loved everything about this turkey! I also did mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, and green beans. We got a pumpkin pie from Costco and it was a perfect thanksgiving! Last thanksgiving I didn’t have a kitchen and this Thanksgiving nothing has changed, but that’s OK! It turned out great and I loved having the low key Thanksgiving!
Speaking of the kitchen…this Thanksgiving while Chris was off of work we were going to put in the flooring in our kitchen. We bought the tile and we were ready to go. The night before starting, he was making a supplies list and found out that our joyces in the basement weren’t heavy duty enough to support tile in the kitchen. (Basically it would cause the grout and tile to pop and crack and the tile would come out, definitely not what we wanted.) So Chris needed to beef up the joyces before he did the floor. To beef up the joyces he needed to pull out the drywall in the ceiling in the basement. Since he was doing that he decided to gut the whole basement first. So my kitchen is the same as last year, but now my basement is torn up! We’ve debated on the next steps on the house and are about to decide exactly what we will do. (It would be easier for us to temporarily move out and just finish everything in one big push, but that could cost more. OR we could stay in the house and do it bit by bit. It would be slower, trickier, but cheaper….) We also have to wait for permits to get issued as well so we have time to decide exactly what we will be doing! But things are starting so I’m excited!!!!
We had a great November and a great Thanksgiving! I’m so glad we have so much to be thankful for!!!
The kids LOVE drawing on their white board
Ryan learned how to tie his shoes this month too! In his class his teacher has the kids pass off tying their shows to her. If you can do it your name goes on a a board and you become a shoe sheriff (the other kids can ask a shoe sheriff for help tying their shoes if they need it.) Ryan was very determined to learn how to tie his shoes, he worked hard, and was able to accomplish his goals.
Ryan is learning how to write and wrote “I love Mrs. Salmon” on his white board. Mrs. Salmon is his kindergarten teacher.
