November Begins

And it is still in the mid 70's. We live on the surface of the sun. Seriously. It is always sunny here. Sometimes I wake up and I just wish it could be cloudy. I don't have much to say about this week except to report that Kenna has decided to veto sleep entirely. She won't nap, she won't go to sleep at night and she is up between 5 and 6. It is fun. My dad left on Tuesday morning so the house is quiet again. Kenna woke up that morning and asked where Grandpa was. Then she looked at me, smiled, started nodding her head and asked, "Can we go trick-or-treating today?"

Also, I have a job lined up and will start working this coming Friday. I'm doing PRN at a rehab center. It sounds like a pretty good deal. There are about 17 centers around Dallas so they call at the beginning of the month and tell me what days they need filled and I tell them what days I can work. Then if they have unplanned openings they call at the beginning of the week. Luckily I have a flexible babysitter.

So, now onto the funny things Kenna did this week -

Kenna recently remembered that she has a white board attached to her kitchen set. She has spent a lot of time this week writing up grocery lists and asking me what else we need. - "How bout do we need some grapes? Oh no wait. I already color that right here." (pointing to a scribble on the board).
Our pantry is huge and Kenna can walk into it and shut the door. One day she took her shopping cart in there and when she came back out it was full of food (pasta, rice, couscous). She pushed the car around for a little while then stopped it in the living room and said, "Surprise Jenna! Happy Halloween! I brought a snack for ya!"

We made mac and cheese for lunch one day and I handed Kenna the butter to put in the pan. She looked at me and goes, "Can I eat it?" I figured she'd think it was disgusting so I said, "Sure." Well, she didn't think it was disgusting. In fact she liked it so much that she had a second bite. I had to pry it out of her hands to get it into the mac and cheese.

Her Elmo potty that she no longer has any use for is now in our bathroom. Nate feels the need to give Elmo a high five every time he uses the bathroom so I will randomly hear Elmo's voice saying things like, "You're growing up just like Elmo!" or "Elmo is so proud of you." One of those times Kenna was sitting on the bed with me and I looked at her, gasped and said, "Daddy is using your Elmo potty." to which she screamed, "NO! Tell him to use the big potty!"

Kenna also has adopted a strange way of eating. She wants tons of whatever she is having but will only take one bite out of it and then move on to the next. For example she likes to eat carrots and ranch but she want to have the whole bag of carrots so that she can pull one out, take a bit, set it on the table and then get a new carrot. Weird.

Kenna picked out the boots to wear on her own. She wore them to the park but then realized she couldn't climb in them. Luckily mom brought a back-up pair. She calls them her "cow boots,"

Well that's it for fun Kenna stuff for the week. I know that most of our posts are all about Kenna or reporting news about our lives for those who live far away. There is a reason for that. I don't like to talk about my feelings but Nate says I should give it a try because people might want to hear about how the move is going for me. So, for those who don't care or who don't want to be depressed - stop reading now. You've been warned.

I miss Virginia every day. I hate that it is always sunny here and I am ready for cold weather. I feel like a horrible person for complaining because I know we are very blessed to have a good job and a nice house and our health and blah blah blah but I am just homesick. I think that mostly, I miss pushing Kenna on the swing in our backyard. I have so many memories of doing that for her whole life that it is hard not to have that anymore. In fact I can't look at pictures of her swinging without tearing up. Can you believe that I am most sad over something as dumb as a swing? Then again even if we had one it is so sunny and bright out all the time that I don't know how often we'd swing. I miss having trees and shade in our yard, and weather that actually changes and I am really missing seeing the leaves changing color.

I miss our little house. The house here is nice, but too big. I pick up and clean all day long and it does not make a difference. It is still messy at the end of the day. It doesn't feel like home. We put up our nice, seven foot Christmas tree (I know it is early. Kenna asked for a whole week) and it is dwarfed in this house. I looks like a Charlie Brown tree.

Just as much as the swing, I also really miss the small town feel of the west end and the trees that were everywhere. I miss the Children's Museum that was right around the corner. I miss having Nate home as often as he was and the great routine we had down. I miss my Barnhills. I miss our old ward. The one here is nice, but big and everyone is the same.

All that being said I am very glad to have Nate and Kenna. Kenna can still make me smile everyday and we have fun going to the park and cooking together. I'm glad Jarom and Lix are close by. I'm glad Nate has a nice job. We found a nice gym to join so that is good. Oh - and I like having a three car garage.