A weird Thanksgiving, a Christmas parade, and Rebecca's birthday

The beginning of November was full of "Junie B. Jones" excitement but we also had lots of other fun stuff happen in November....the three events that stand out as the biggest were Thanksgiving and gearing up for the Christmas holiday season and Rebecca's 12th birthday!

We spent Thanksgiving dinner time at my parents' house. Up until a few days before Thanksgiving, we weren't even sure we were going to have a dinner as my mom didn't want to do it. There has been a lot of stress in our extended family this year. Bill and I have been having our problems. My brother moved out of his house and is now couch surfing while his wife and kids live with her mom in a 1 bedroom apartment near their school. My youngest brother and my sister are angry with my sister-in-law and with Bill. They are also having a time adjusting to their lives in grad school and college respectively.  Anyhow, back to Thanksgiving...my dad convinced my mom to have it as he said family should be together for Thanksgiving. I had to convince my brother to come as he said my dad didn't want him there. Fun times...NOT!

Anyway...I offered to pick my brother up from where he was staying as he didn't have a car. So we did that. My dad picked up my sister-in-law and the kids so they were there when we arrived. My niece and nephews were so happy to see their dad. My youngest brother's girlfriend was there and she was being annoying...bothering my kids and teasing them. She wouldn't leave Ben alone. It was weird and there was a lot of tension in the air at first. Then it kind of settled and we had a nice dinner.

After dinner, we celebrated our nephew Ethan's birthday (which we missed due to family drama), Rebecca's upcoming birthday and my niece Lacie's upcoming birthday with cake and a brownie and presents. (The thing that struck me the most was the Lacie and Ethan seemed really upset that my parents got them clothes as gifts and they were vocal about not liking them, whereas Rebecca was excited to get jeans and a llama shirt. I was proud of her for enjoying her gifts.)

Then it was time for my mom to "command" that pictures be taken. LOL

 I could feel the tension rising again so we packed up and headed out. I took my brother back to where he was staying and we headed home as Bill had to work the next day.

That weekend we started decorating our house for Christmas, which I will share when we get done. We are doing it slowly and in little snippets of time that we have. We also all got ready to walk in our town's annual Christmas parade. The weather that day was amazing... sunny and in the high 40s/low 50s. We were all in the parade this year. Rebecca and I were walking with her American Heritage Girls troop. (Their parade entry won best youth organization!) Jacob and Ben got to ride in the back of a pick up truck for their Trail Life USA troop. And Bill got to hand out oranges for and walk with his current employer. Speaking of employers...Bill also found out as the parade was beginning that his former boss (the editor of the local paper who bullied Bill and caused his life to be utterly miserable had been fired a few weeks before that! So that made him feel a little better.) Overall, it was a lovely afternoon.

That led us up to Rebecca's 12th birthday on the 28th. I felt bad because I didn't do a birthday post on here like I typically do, but everything about this year has been different. Rebecca had a nice birthday day.  I made here zucchini bread for breakfast before school as she LOVES zucchini bread and she got to play on her phone before school as there was a 2 hour delay due to snow. Then after school we went to China buffet for dinner as that was her choice. Then home to have presents and a birthday brownie. She loves to make crafts out of duct tape and so she loved the duct tape from her brothers and her "Book of Mythicality" from us.

Thus ended our November. It started out super busy and ended super busy but with some good memories made in there. Life isn't perfect, but we are trying to take it day to day.

Junie B.Jones the Musical

The beginning of our November was dominated with work and with tech week and performances of "Junie B. Jones: The Musical."

Back in the beginning of September, Rebecca decided to take a leap of faith and try out for a school production of "Junie B. Jones: The Musical." Auditions were open to any 4th through 12th graders in our school district. She was pretty nervous. After her audition, she said that she was told that her acting was really good, her singing was really good, and her dancing needed a little work. 🤣 She found out a week later that she got a part! She was cast as "Mother" in the play. This part included both lines and a singing solo. She was ecstatic.

Rehearsals were 5 days a week and it was our first foray into the world of theater. She had such a good time and made wonderful memories and made lots of friends.

Performances were November 9th and 10th and the play was great.

Rebecca did a wonderful job! We went as a family to opening night as did my parents.

Saturday, I worked tickets for the matinee show and then went by myself to the final show. It was hilarious, because at one point Rebecca was holding up a mirror in front of Junie B. and during the last show she had the mirror turned the wrong way. She realized it and said "Oh, crap" on stage. It wasn't said too loudly but as her mother I know what she said. LOL A friend of mine said well at least she didn't say "Oh, s***." LOL

It was a really good production and made me thankful for the arts program in our school district. I am sure this won't be the last production Rebecca is in. I look forward to future productions that she is in.

I am back and an October recap

Happy Tuesday everyone. I hope everyone had their fill of their favorite foods, made some good memories, and survived the kick off to the holiday season this past weekend. I did... I think. I know I haven't been on here since the beginning of October but I have been around. I read up on blogs when I can. And if we are friends on Facebook you know that I have been on there. Things haven't been easy this year in our family. I do hope to get back into blogging as I miss it as a journal of what my family is doing. Life is going at breakneck speed right now and there are days where I feel like I am just being swept along trying to hang on tight and not get barreled over.

So what has been going on....

Here are the highlights (or low lights in some cases) of October…..

In the beginning of October things came to a head with Bill and I and our relationship. It was a build up of a lot of things (many not good), but I took the kids and stayed a couple days at my parents' house. I had to get away and get some time to think. This time away made me realize that I do love Bill and when I was away I felt that something was missing. However, things have to change. Since we have been back home, Bill is trying. Life is still not great but he is trying. He finally found a doctor (we think) that should help with some of his issues. He is at a new job, for a local company that is full time hours. He started in the middle of October. We are working on things.

We celebrated Jacob's birthday with donuts before school, McDonald's for dinner and cake and presents.

We went to Rebecca's first middle school choir concert. She did a great job, as did the whole 6th grade choir! 

 

I took a friend to an eye doctor appointment as she wouldn't be able to drive after and she took me to an Indian restaurant for lunch as a thank you. I had never been there before and now I am a fan of tikka masala. I have made it at home a couple of times since then. So good! 

I took the kids trick-or-treating in Utica with my mom. Bill had to work and so I took them out. This year we had a unicorn, Hulk Hogan, and a Macho Man Randy Savage. (If you can't tell, the boys have gotten into old school wrestling.)

I worked a fall festival event for a non-profit that I have joined the board of. (More details on my work life in another upcoming post). It was rainy and cold, but we made due. I was in charge of a pumpkin painting station. Rebecca worked the event as well for service hours and she loved being around the horses.

We carved pumpkins the weekend before Halloween. We were late doing it this year but it got done.

Finally, we ended October with an awards ceremony for our American Heritage Girls troop and the Trail Life USA troop that our boys are now a part of. Rebecca had to miss out because she was in the middle of tech week for a play she was in. The boys were so excited as they got their joining awards.

Oh and I almost forgot, I started babysitting too as a way to bring in extra income at the end of the month. I now have 3 kids (ages 4, 3, and 3 months) that I watch pretty much all day during the week.

So October was a mixed bag as far as emotional stuff and it was VERY busy with lots going on. This level continued into November, which I will recap soon, as I think this post is long enough for now.

So I am back for now. I miss this platform and really need to make time to write out what is going on. I hope everyone is doing well!

Taking a break

Sorry I haven't been posting. I have been reading blogs when I can (usually as I am eating my breakfast/lunch). A lot has been going on and life is just really rough right now. There are times that I am beating myself up because I didn't get a blog post written (on one of the many times that I wake up in the night) so I am going to take that pressure off by saying that I am going to be taking a blogging break for a while. Real life is kicking my a** and things are just really not good right now. I have some really tough decisions to make and so I really want to focus on that and on my kids. I hope that you understand. 

If you feel the need to get ahold of me, you can email me at egan_rachel@yahoo.com 

Thanks. 

Football

Sunday afternoon I took the kids to my college alma mater to watch my little brother play football. Josh is in his freshman year at Marietta College and is loving it. He plays football for them as well. On Sunday, the JV team traveled up to Denison University to play so I packed the kids up after church and made the 30 minute drive to see him play. I graduated from Denison back in 2001.

  

It was weird being back on campus. Funny story though... as I was pulling into the campus, my dad called to see if I was on the road. I told him I actually was pulling into campus (this was about 20 minutes before game time). He asked me if I knew where I was going. LOL It's not like I didn't many countless hours on the campus and the football stadium is in the same place it always is. I had to laugh. They have added some buildings and parking garages but most things were the same. 

Back to the football game. Jacob had a blast. Ben got bored quickly, but then that is to be expected. Rebecca enjoyed it even though it was super hot and sunny. 

Unfortunately, Marietta lost. :( Oh well. It was still fun. This is the closest Josh will play to us. For us to go down to Marietta to see him, it would be a little over 2 hours away. I might try to get down there one of these weekends. 

When we got there, Jacob asked me who I was going to root for. I told him that I may have graduated from Denison and had roots there, I was rooting for Marietta because that is who Josh plays for and family comes first. 

Family comes first always. 

Update on Benjamin

We have smiles today! That is a great improvement from the last 3 days. We ended up taking Benjamin to Urgent Care last night after he wouldn't eat his dinner (not even his blueberries which are his favorite) and he said that his throat hurt....

Diagnosis is ear infections in both ears and lots of congestion. The doctor gave him a prescription for amoxicillin and a congestion medicine. When Bill went to pick them up, the pharmacist said that they only had the amoxicillin ready as they were out of the congestion medicine. They are supposed to get more in this morning, so I will have to run out and pick it up. The amoxicillin was the most important though in my opinion. 

He had a dose last night and again this morning and he is smiling. Still not eating, but he is up and playing and smiling. I will take it. The doctor said that he can go back to school tomorrow. Here's hoping he keeps feeling on the up and up. 

Sickness, play, 9/11 and Hurricane Florence

So this virus or whatever it is can leave my house anytime now. Ben has been sick since Sunday. He told me Saturday night that he had a headache, but I thought he was just tired. Well Sunday morning he woke up crying that he didn't feel good and he didn't want to go to church or the first day of PSR class. He seemed to be a little better Sunday afternoon. Then Sunday night he developed a fever. Yesterday he stayed home from school due to his fever and he laid around all day long. We watched movies... "Ferdinand" and "Charlotte's Web."  He is home again today as he still has a headache and a fever. :( Today we have watched "Ferdinand" again and now we are currently watching "Lion King." I just want him to feel better. 

In other news, I took Rebecca to her first play practice last night for the musical she is in. She was super excited to get her official script and to do a read through with the rest of the cast. She has several lines AND a small solo singing part. She will definitely be busy over the next 2 months working on this as there is play practice most evenings of the week and on Saturday mornings.

Today my social media feed (mainly Facebook) has been lit up with remembrances of September 11, 2001. I will never forget and I pray for peace everyday. 

I have also been keeping an eye on Hurricane Florence. I don't live on the coast, however the Crystal Coast of North Carolina (Emerald Isle area) has a special place in my heart. It is my place of peace and unfortunately it is looking more and more likely that they are going to have a catastrophic hit from this hurricane. I pray for all those in Florence's path and pray for safety for all those who have to stay in the area (police, doctors, etc.). It is scary to watch.

Happenings lately...

I have been a bad, bad blogger. It has been over a week since I posted. I have been on here, reading other's blogs usually while I am eating lunch, but I haven't had a chance to sit down to write anything. 

Life has been crazy busy. I thought once school started back things should have slowed down, but if anything our lives are busier than ever. 

I have been spending a lot of time in the car.... taking Rebecca to school....

and then later sitting in the van waiting for her to get out of school. Thankfully I have rediscovered reading so I have a book with me to pass the time. 

I have been trying to walk at least 3-4 times a week. This past week was difficult as I was sick last weekend and really had no energy. Also it was hard to walk when the temperatures were in the 90s, with heat indexes over 100 with very high humidity each day. It was awful, but I managed to get some walks in. 

I am now a leader for Rebecca's American Heritage Girls Troop. I am in charge of the Kindergarten level. Right now we only have one little Pathfinder. I also signed the boys up for Trail Life USA--- which is a Christian scouting troop that meets at the same time/ same building as Rebecca's AHG troop. 

Speaking of Rebecca, life is about to get more interesting as she just found out that she got a role in her school district's fall musical. She gets to be Junie B. Jones' mother. She is so excited. I guess I will have to factor in rehearsals, etc. now. 

Today, I have worked on laundry and just puttering around the house. I also worked on planning for our church's Parish School of Religion (PSR) classes that start tomorrow. Once again this year, I will be teaching the 5th grade class. I volunteer to teach so that I don't have to pay the tuition fee for the kiddos--it saves us $150 a year. It has been raining all day and is supposed to continue through tomorrow...we are getting the remnants of "Gordon." Tomorrow we have PSR and church. I am also going to be teaching Rebecca how to do laundry tomorrow. 

I hope everyone is having a good night! I am going to sign off and head to bed soon. Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!