Labor Day Weekend

It's 3:00 a.m. and I can't sleep. Tanner is fighting an icky sinus infection. When I woke up at 2:15 to check on her and use the restroom, she was awake and said she couldn't breathe. That led to turning on the light, blowing lots of thick, gross, yellow snot out of her nose, putting Vicks under her nose (which she really hates!) and then giving her some Sudafed. After that I layed in bed with her and rubbed her back hoping to relax her little so she could go back to sleep easily. By time it was all said and done, I was wide awake and sleep was not going to be happening anytime soon.

So I decided to get up and blog.

You know, I'm torn about this whole private blog thing. Steve and I talked a lot about it last night. When I first started a blog, it was with the intention that it would be "therapy" in a sense (I've always kept a diary of some sort) and that since it was my blog, then I could and would say anything I wanted. Within reason of course. I liked that it was open so that anyone could read it. I read lots of other blogs and sometimes leave comments so I wanted the people whose blog I commented on to be able to see who I was if they wanted to.

I'm not going to go into the details or reasons why I decided to go private. At the time, as much as I didn't want to go private, I felt as if I needed to guard my family from people misinterpreting the things I did or did not say. After talking to Steve about it last night, I think I've decided to leave it open but just be careful what I say (which stinks because I want to talk freely!). So that's what we're doing for now. We'll see how it goes.

Now on to bigger and better things we go................(I'm beginning to feel tired, so be prepared)

Labor Day weekend was great. My favorite thing we did? (Besides hang out as a family of course.) We got up Saturday morning and drove up to Joplin to my Aunt and Uncle's house!!

My Unkie from Enid, Oklahoma is known as the "Food Dude." He can cook like no other! Anyway, earlier in the week while chatting on FB, my Aunt who lives in Joplin mentioned she wasn't ready to close up their pool yet. I made the comment that Tanner and I wanted to come swim again, so we didn't want her to close the pool either. Unkie joined the chat and said "Party at Janece's this weekend, I'll cook!" And that's how it all began.

Unkie and my Aunt Arlene drove over early Saturday morning from Enid and we all met at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Joplin. Unkie made homemade sticky buns (which hey Unkie, when you are reading this-can I get the recipe for those please?) so we had those when we got there and they were absolutely de-lish! We then had a "family meeting" and figured out what we wanted Unkie to cook.

Unkie and I ran to the grocery to pick up a few things and then the cooking began. He made two types of bruschetta for appetizers. And let me just say-it was heaven on some bread. Mercy it was good! Then he made pasta with homemade Alfredo sauce and broccoli (I'm not a broccoli eater, but it was really good actually!) then he made pasta with a seafood sauce, which had lobster and shrimp in it. I'm not a lobster fan, but I ate some of the seafood pasta with just the shrimp and it was to die for! We also had garlic bread and then brownie bites and an apple strudel for desert.

Needless to say, when it was time to say our goodbyes, we were all feelin' pretty fat and happy!

While on the way home, I got to thinking how cool it is that our family is close enough that we meet up somewhere for dinner and a few hours of family time. There aren't a lot of families that do that these days and I feel so blessed to be apart of one that does. My Grandparents did one heck of a job instilling in their kids just how important it is to stick together as a family and our parents passed that on to us as well. What an incredible blessing.

The rest of the weekend we just hung out around the house and cleaned, etc. It was a good, relaxing weekend and I definitely wasn't ready for Tuesday to get here and for the daily grind to start back in.

Hopefully Tanner will find out today or tomorrow whether or not she will get to go on the Jamestown/Washington D.C trip with the school. She wrote an essay about it last week and according to the online grade book, she got 100% on it, so that's great! Her teacher has passed her essay on to the other Social Studies teachers and they are reviewing them to pick who gets to go on the big trip in December. Each Social Studies teacher gets to pick 12 students. If picked, they will go to class every Tuesday night until the trip and will learn more about the history of Jamestown and Washington D.C. along with more about the trip itself. We are really praying that Tanner gets picked. Even though she had such a hard time leaving this summer to go to Florida, I think she'd be ok on this trip. The Tuesday night classes will help her meet and develop relationships with the other kids that are going. Plus, I just think this a trip of a lifetime (and it's totally free-including the two sweatshirts, jacket, digital camera and memory card they get) and if picked to go, she should take full advantage of it. She is very excited and yet anxious too to find out whether or not she made it. Hopefully we'll know either later today or tomorrow.

Well it's now 3:51. I think I'm officially tired enough that I might try to lay here and doze for awhile. After typing about my Unkie's cooking, I'm also hungry, but I think I'll resist the urge to snack and will close my eyes instead. Hope it works!

Nite!