The Erwin Journey: Goodbye November

I am the worst blogger.
Life flies by and I rarely catch up.
November is already gone-- and a lot has happened here in our world!

Ellie and Gunner had their final day in Paradise.
We cried.

Beckham and I spent that next week polishing up their house for sell, making necklaces for orders, dealing with a busted noggin', scoring Lance a rockin' new do from my pal Jennifer, and surprising Maddox with lunch at the school.
Plus I got flowers.

Lance works his real job and then has a second side-job that he does too (and loves)-- but with the time change it feels like we see less of each other these days.

He and I finished the weekend off with a much needed over night date to Fort Worth, dinner, and a night about the town, sans kids-- with a couple of friends.
We left the Worthington for brunch at Esperanzas before picking up our boys from my dad and Julie.

Monday, Maddox had a Veteran's day program at school. The weather was beautiful for about a day-- and then it dropped frigidly low. Like, in the 20s.
We even had snow one day, which Beckham proclaimed was "the best Christmas ever"!

A few things I wrote in my phone, worth documenting--

One night Beckham got in trouble multiple times and was finally sent to his bed, with the door closed behind him. A few minutes later he came out and sweetly crawled into my lap.

I said, "did you come in here to apologize?" to which he replied, "no. I came in here to ask what smells so delicious."

I was baking cookies...

and had forgot about them.

So they were burnt.

Serves him right.

He also refused to eat dinner one night and when I asked him why he wasn't hungry, he said, "I guess I just lost my appetite."

He also asked me, randomly, "do you ever think about how rabbits even eat carrots?"

I don't.

Or hadn't.

He is his father's child.

He also called me fat. Well, kind of. He told me to "come here you big love chunk." And another day Maddox told me that my "muscles are so fat, I could take down a 90 year old man!", so whatever.

Maddox set a "deer trap" in our front yard by filling the tire swing up with acorns. He was ecstatic one night when we pulled into the driveway to see a 6 point buck standing in the yard... not near the swing... but he couldn't be convinced it hadn't pulled him there.

B is still obsessed with babies. Actually he has only mentioned two things that he wanted to ask Santa for, "A real Mickey Mouse with his own robot, and a baby in his belly." So one night, when we had met Lance's dad for dinner, we shouldn't have been shocked when he asked his Papaw straight up, "when did you get a baby in your belly?!!"

But he did.

Another Christmas-wish-funny came when I couldn't remember the name of one of the toys that Maddox wants. I asked Beckham what they were called (since Maddox was at school), and he frankly said, "I don't know. Just buy him a map. He likes maps."

One night Maddox and I were perched up in the chair together and we were laughing together at B and then got a little mushy thinking about him getting bigger. Maddox said, "well great, I just cried a tear into your hair thinking about him growing up."

We finished out the last week at school with a Thanksgiving feast with Mrs T's class and fun run. Lance and I bought tickets to ICE but decided not to tell the boys, just pull him out of school early Friday and drive there.

When I spilled the beans that morning, that Lance and I would be pulling him out for a SURPRISE, he politely declined, telling me they had a lot of things to do before the 9 day break like move tables and stack chairs!

Mrs T also told me that Maddox told the class that I had said that I didn't understand why we teach our kids that Columbus discovered America when the vikings were clearly already here (I said Indians, in a conversation that wasn't to him) and Mrs T said, "I'm not sure Maddox?" To which he said, "its true! They were here a long time before... even before Indiana Jones!"

The last few weeks, prior, B and I were able to complete a few Random acts of kindness while Maddox was at school. He has been pretty bummed but my friend Nicolle "challenged" us to not walk past a single bell ringer this season without dropping an offering-- big or small, So I have explained that each time we do that, he's getting to do a RAOK too.

Anywho, at dinner afterward Lance ordered 4 sopapillas and Maddox hopped in with a "make it 5!"

We thought he was extra hungry but he told us that he ordered it for the waiter as a RAOK!!

(who I am sure did not eat it, but it was his thought that counted!)

Just like every other year that we have gone to ICE, Maddox spent the following night up croupy coughing.
The next day it turned junky and he complained of a sore throat, but he was never consistent and seemed to be acting great.

Sunday he spiked a fever of 102, and Monday I took a look into his throat to see a messy-mess and made an appointment-- at 5:30 at night-- because flu season is officially upon us.

His flu was negative but his strep was positive.

Which is good news as far as treating it goes.

While I sat at the pharmacy, my pages kept rolling in and I had no choice but to drive back to the office and get caught up! Thankfully mom went with me and kept the kids in the car-- but it was 8:00 before we started heading back to Paradise!

Thanksgiving was great.

The food was amazing.

We got to see all of our cousins, who have moved away over the last couple of years.

And a super-score-- I was able to slide over to WM to score a Black Friday deal!

I met my sister, her friend Karleigh and my mom for more shopping and we finished our night around 1:00am.

My sweet husband has worked almost every day this month, at two jobs-- and Thanksgiving and the day after were no exception.

I am so thankful for him providing for our family the way he does-- for the guys all pulling together to get each other finished early-- and for Facetime to chat!