November 2023

Karson is 9 months old!!

November started off with Bryn being sick and missing a few days of school. I was hoping/willing/praying that everyone would stay healthy after that so we could go to Utah for Thanksgiving and we did! Thanksgiving will be its own post.

This month Tyler's mom decided that she wants to sell her house down in Moroni and move to a Senior community in SLC that is close to Tyler's brother and his family and Tyler's sister. We think it is a great idea! I know that was a hard decision for her to make but it will be so nice for her to be closer to family and in an area where it is easier to get around and get to doctor appointments and things like that. She turns 80 this summer. The Senior Living community that she wants to move to has about a 6 month waiting list. She is okay with that and is busy sorting and deciding what things she wants to keep and what she doesn't. That is tiring physically and emotionally. I'm glad that she can take her time with it and not be super rushed. I know that she is really going to miss her friends, ward, and little community in Moroni. 

Hunter's grandpa passed away the first of the month. That was sad for the kids even though it was anticipated. Hunter's mom has been busy caring for him for a long time along with her siblings. Still. Losing a grandparent is hard.

The Holiday Open House at Midtown Market was moved up this year so it was the first weekend in November. It made for a crazy week right after Halloween. Halloween was on a Tuesday and on Thursday I pulled all of my Halloween and regular stuff out of my booth and had to completely revamp it (and the whole store) on Thursday night and all day Friday. Tyler took Friday off work to help me. It was a big undertaking but it turned out great and the Holiday Open House weekend was a huge success with my biggest sales total yet. That made my exhaustion worth it!

At our house I took down our Halloween décor and decorated for Christmas right after the open house. I need Christmas up for as long as possible. It is so cheery plus with us heading to Utah for Thanksgiving it was nice to have it done early so that we could come home to a decorated house. The Hallmark Christmas movies are already going strong around here! We also introduced Karson to the joys of Nutcrackers...our McClellan family obsession. His Great-Grandma Vic would be proud!

 

Tyler had a doctor appointment with his new GP. We are all slowing changing to this new guy (except for me) and everyone really likes him. He now sees Tyler, Ailey, Kameron, and will soon see Bryn. At least we are all now at the same practice and one that is 5 minutes from our house.

Reilly came over a few times to make homemade bread. She enjoys baking at our house...with all the ingredients, supplies, and equipment and we are happy to eat what she makes. Win-win!

One day she came over to learn to make my Grandma Ellersick's homemade chicken noodle soup. Look how domestic this girl is getting!! It happens to all of us. She has also been coming over to workout in our basement and since the weather has been fairly nice we have gone on some walks with Karson which he loves.

Tyler and I spent some time at Lake Coeur d' Alene. Not in...but near. LOL. Any time by the lake is a good time for me. That snow will be here before we know it and I am dreading it.

The Tamaracks are turning yellow. Aren't they gorgeous?!

I cannot get enough of the water!

This happened...a day I dread all year. Day Light Savings. It's so fun when it starts getting dark at 3:30 pm. (Insert sarcasm.)

We got our snow tires all put on at the same time too. I guess I can't live in denial that winter is on its way. So far November is thrilling!! LOL.

We did party it up a bit!! Reilly and Kameron both had their birthdays. It boggles my mind that they turned 27 and 23 this year. When I started this blog Kameron was 7 and Reilly was 11. Whoa.

We got to see Reilly on her actual birthday which was fun! She and Karson came along with us to CDA for vendor night and then we went to out to dinner.

We had her birthday party that weekend. Since they won't be with us over Thanksgiving; Reilly requested a mini-Thanksgiving with just her favorite Thanksgiving foods (basically just sides) and Thanksgiving party décor. Too funny! 

Her other request was a Turkey balloon. This kid cracks me up. But did I go to three stores to find one for her? Yes!

She also requested individual slices of cheesecake. Tyler and I met her at the bakery and we picked out the different cheesecake slices for everyone. After dinner, we played some games and Karson started *almost* walking!! He will take a little step and a half and then stop. It was a fun night celebrating our girl!

Basically everything Reilly wanted for her birthday was for Karson. Although we did manage to surprise her with a couple of little things just for her. She really wanted a push horse for Karson. She thought that he would have fun with this push/riding horse since he is pushing his diaper genie thing all over the place! It will also help him to walk. One night before her birthday party we met them at Target to find one.

She was right! He loved it! He pushes that thing all over the place!

This cute boy turned 23 and sent me zero pictures of the day or any of his birthday activities. Thank goodness for BeReal or I would never have pictures of him or see what he is up to. Boys!! They are so different from girls!! We did get to talk to him on his birthday which was really nice and he got our birthday gifts to him on time too. He said that he had a fun birthday! He and his friends went to dinner in Blackfoot and then went to Lava Hot Springs. He had a great time!

Right after Reilly and Kam's birthdays I got a call from this girl crying. Shocking to no one she was sick and miserable once again with a fever of 103. Ailey has spent 90% of college sick.

Kam took Ailey to the urgent care. She had mono again (a flare up), bronchitis, and the adenovirus. They put her on a strong prescription but no pharmacies were open in damnable Rexburg on a Sunday so she had to wait until the next day to get her prescription filled. Ugh. The next day Kam drove her to get her prescription filled and made sure that she was okay. Thank goodness for Kameron! He has been such a good big brother to her and she is usually less than appreciative. She is really going to miss him though when he moves to Provo.

Bryn tried out for the basketball team. It was a three day tryout and it was really nerve-wracking for all of us. High school basketball is a whole different situation. Bryn was stressed out the entire time. She made the JV team as a freshman which was exciting!! Did it lessen her stress after making the team? Nope. If anything it has made it worse. We are letting her play 3 sports this year and I think it might be too much. But we are super excited to watch her play and she is having fun.

On 11-12-23 Karson started walking!! At nine months. Unheard of...at least for my babies. Reilly was my earliest walker and she started walking at 11 months.

I helped with our RS Ripples Activity and Dinner. It turned out nice. It was all about service. My friend Jordan did this awesome paint by number of Jesus looking out over Spokane and the colors all coordinated with different acts of service done by women in our ward. I hate RS activities so I guess putting me on the planning committee was a good way to make sure I attended the activity. Ha ha.

I also had three more Primary Programs in one day. It was a LONG day but it was really fun to see friends! One of my favorite parts of being in a stake calling is getting to visit all of the different wards and seeing my friends in other wards. This month Tyler and I also got to go to stake council together which was kind of weirdly fun! In some sad church news...the apostle Elder M. Russell Ballard died. His voice sounded just like my Grandpa McKinnon's voice. I will miss him and his counsel. 

One day this month I got a phone call from Tyler saying that he was coming home from work early. A woman, Ashla, in his department had passed away unexpectedly. (Not at work...thank goodness!) His boss gave everyone the rest of the day off. That was pretty shocking to their whole department and super sad.

I had another doctor appointment. This month was the dermatologist for a full body skin scan. She told me that my skin was "amazing" and that I don't have to come back for two years. That's a first! I guess that sunscreen and hat wearing is doing its thing!

Bryn was busy all month long with basketball practice. They literally practice or have games 6 days a week. They are also scheduled for practice and games all through Thanksgiving break which Bryn will miss because we are out of town. It's crazy. We headed to Utah over Thanksgiving and had an absolutely fantastic time! The weather was perfection for traveling. It was so good to see the college kids and family and very dear friends!!

It was right after we got home from our Thanksgiving trip that things turned extremely SUCKY. The day after we got home from Utah I started to get a scratchy throat. Tyler's throat was bothering him too so he went to the Instacare and was told that he had a cold. LOL. The next day I felt like I had a cold like Tyler. Okay...annoying but I could deal with that. Tyler felt like he had a bad cold. We all went to bed early. By 3 am that night I was MISERABLE!! I was so so sick. I had the worst headache and face ache. I KNEW it was COVID. I tested to see if I had a sense of smell by smelling some Vick's Vapo Rub in the medicine cabinet and nope. I couldn't smell anything. Damn it! I went back to bed and tried to sleep. It was literally the most miserable that I have ever felt since I last had COVID in 2022. I told Tyler that I couldn't parent that day. I was too sick. He gave me a COVID test and sure enough it was positive. He felt crappy so he took one too and his was also positive. Double Damn It!!

Bryn tried to avoid us like the plague and went to school. We called our doctors and each had a tele-appointment. We had to wait online for them for about 45 minutes. I had to do all kinds of things...take my temp, my heart rate, O2, meanwhile my head was feeling like it was about to explode. Tyler didn't have to do any of that. I qualified for Paxlovid. I mean I guess I did. She kept telling me that I didn't really need it but then prescribed it. Tyler didn't qualify for Paxlovid. It is baffling. He can't take it because it would dangerously interact with his medications. So...this medication is basically for those who are immunocompromised but then due to their medications the immunocompromised can't take the damn medication. Just another logical thing about COVID.

Due to my intense head pain I was pretty much incapacitated. Tyler was slightly less miserable so he kindly picked up my prescription. I was eventually given the okay to take my migraine medication for my headache. It's recently been cleared to take with Paxlovid. That didn't fill me with a lot of reassurance but my head hurt so incredibly bad that I took it and hoped for the best. It helped. That took my COVID suffering from a 15 to a 10. Tyler didn't get the major headache or the loss of taste and smell. He is on his 3rd round of COVID and I am on my 2nd. I will take any vaccine from now on to not feel this hellacious again! I slept for the rest of the day and night. Tyler too. We were miserable.

The next 13 days (that went on into December) were a literal BLUR. We slept most of the first three days. I barely left my bed. We tried to quarantine from Bryn and she did her best to stay FAR away from us but my doctor said that if we had it then she would get it too and she did but a week later. Reilly was checking in on us daily. We didn't let any of them get anywhere near us. 

Thank goodness I did a big restock of my booth before Thanksgiving because I had Small Business Saturday and a Customer Appreciation Day right after Thanksgiving and I was in no shape to do anything. I am so glad that I went into Midtown Market literally the day before we left for Utah and got everything ready for the big post-Thanksgiving weekend. Yay... November.