No Vacancy

One of the main reasons that Jarom and Lix decided to move us all from Richmond to Dallas was the prospect of getting into a larger home for a similar amount of money. And that has been a huge blessing during our first year here in the lone star state. Jarom and Alixa can go days without seeing each other, which has been great for their marriage. Jenna and Bo have lots of space to run around in and make messes and hide from each other, although whenever they do play hide and seek they inevitably both end up in the exact same spot in the closet behind Jarom’s clothes. Every time. But lately it feels like we have needed every square foot of this place. First we had Jarom and Alixa, along with Jenna and Bo. But Lix just keeps getting bigger and bigger and this new little girl Everzoomius is intruding more and more into our lives. Then we had Mario and PJ move into the guest wing, along with lots of their stuff from, let’s say 70 years of life. Then we had Abe arrive for the Thanksgiving weekend, and he got stashed in the toy room because we figured the mess of the toy room could mingle with the mess of Abe and they could sort of conceal each other. So with all this hullabaloo going on I decided to start using my fortress of solitude up in the attic. But when I got up there I found yet another inhabitant, a raccoon. So for the time being I am just hunkered down in my cage waiting until the storm blows over. Unfortunately, despite all of Jarom’s best efforts to get rid of the invaders (traps for the raccoon, bringing Nate over to make fun of Abe, forcing Mario to do assorted yard work, and positive remarks about President Obama for PJ) he has had no success. So I suppose I’ll tell you a little bit about our holiday.

We started at our new ward, and it turns out that it’s pretty similar to all the other wards we’ve ever been in. Old guys fall asleep during priesthood and Sunday school, kids cry and make noise during prayers and the sacrament, and the people are generally very nice and happy to meet you. We seem to have moved down a little bit in the socioeconomic standing of the ward and are now the poor folk, which will hopefully mean we can become the ward charity project. Bo was not particularly thrilled about the new meeting time of 1:00, but that’s what happens when you have 4 units meeting in the same building. Lix has decided that she isn’t going to cut ties with everyone from the other ward, which is probably a good idea. And Jarom is momentarily excited about not having a calling, and especially about not having to wrangle the triplets and other 8-year-olds from his primary class.

Since the Hegewalds are homeless-ish they decided to invite all their children to our house for Thanksgiving. Only one of the three took them up on the offer. I’m not sure if that means they don’t love their parents or they didn’t want to deal with Jarom’s scroogy holiday spirit. But either way Abe chose to come, which meant a holiday full of golf and dance. The boys got in 18 holes on a 73 degree afternoon with Lix along for the ride as a caddy, videographer, and heckler. There was also a dinner trip to TopGolf with Nate along for the ride as a heckler and a handicap for Jarom. On Saturday the Hegewalds took off to see the Nutcracker and toted Jenna along with them. She had a blast and hasn’t stopped talking about the mean mice and the princess and the soldier to anyone who will listen and some who won’t.

Thanksgiving itself was a little bit of a letdown due to some sickness in the house. Jenna spent the night before throwing up all over herself and her bed and her room. If you are going to wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning, it really is best if you have some vomit to clean up while you are at it. Alixa spent the day paranoid that she had strep throat and weighing the pros and cons of a trip to the emergency room. Jarom had been down this road before, sitting in the ER for hours and paying hundreds of dollars just to find out that she should go home and she’ll feel better tomorrow, so he didn’t really want to shell out for the waiting room experience. But you can’t say things like that because if you do everyone calls you an uncaring cheapskate, so he just told her that she should do whatever she felt like she needed to do. Thankfully she decided to try and tough it out until Friday morning. Friday came around and she was feeling better. She still has a sore throat and a bit of a cough, but nothing some sleep and essential oils can’t take care of.

The weekend is now ending and soon people will be on planes and in cars and leaving the metroplex. And it will be nice to have a less populated, quieter home. But we will also be sad when there is no more Uncle Abe to play with, and no more Opa to find after naps, and no more Mimi for Jenna to color with. But I guess the bittersweetness of family is what Thanksgiving is all about. You know these people, and they are crazy and they bother you and do things that make you want to pull your (or their) hair out, but it is still nice to have them around, even if it’s just for a few days. We definitely still want to get rid of that raccoon though. I’ll keep you posted.

I Wish...

I wish I would win this giveaway. It would make my entire holiday season merry and bright.

Find giveaway at here.

Ups and Downs

Halloween is an eventful season for the Winns. Lix takes great pride in the costumes that she chooses and makes for the little ones. This year is was a custom made mermaid outfit for Jenna and Bo got all gussied up as her sidekick, a little red crab. They got to wear their costumes a handful of times, which was great because nobody wants to put in all that time and effort for just one night. There were a few school parties, the ward trunk-or-treat, and Halloween night itself. Before heading out we had a few families over to roast hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire pit. Then everyone headed up and down a few streets collecting goodies. Jenna is now an old pro at the trick-or-treating. Mr. Blake couldn’t figure it out at first, but he’s a quick study. He was thrilled to get candy from the first house, but absolutely refused to put the candy in the bag. So he went up to the second and third houses with his hands already full of candy. Eventually Jarom was able to convince him to drop the candy in his hands so he could go get some more. He had a blast. Jenna was very brave and decided she wanted to go through the haunted house that our neighbors set up in their garage. She didn’t panic at all, and even went through a second time, escorting her sissy mom around.

In true delinquent Winn fashion, this pumpkin was carved on November 1st.

Over the past few months Jarom has been applying and interviewing for a new position at work. One of the things that Lix has wanted to upgrade around the house is the living room furniture. We got a pretty nice leather sofa and chair when we bought the house, but they are more stylish than comfortable, and we wanted a nice sectional for the kids to be able jump around on and so that Jarom and Lix could both watch a TV show without having to touch each other. So they’ve been looking, and one night they found one that they both loved and was a pretty good price. It was the last one in stock, so they decided to get it and if the new job fell through maybe they would return it. Fortunately the couch is still in the living room and everyone loves it. It has been especially useful with the extra adults that are always hanging around the house these days.

Jarom and Lix did take advantage of those wayfarers by heading out to Vegas for a few days and leaving the chitlins with Mimi and Opa. The occasion was an invitation from some old friends to run on a Ragnar relay team. If you know Jarom you know that he isn’t one to pass up running long distances and paying good money to do it, so they jumped at the chance. They caught a late night flight on Thursday and got to Grandpa Paul’s house at about 1:30. After a few hours of sleep the team arrived to pick him up for the race at 5:30. The first order of business was a trip up Mt. Charleston to the starting line. It was 28 degrees and snowing, so not exactly the sort of weather that Jarom had expected or brought clothes for. For those who are unaware, Ragnar is a 200 mile relay race done in teams of 12 people. Jarom had 3 legs to run, two 6 milers and a 3.5 miler. His first was 6 miles along 95 going into Vegas, which would have been fine except for the gale force headwind. He’d complain, but Dave (the next runner) had to run 8 miles into the same wind, and his was uphill to boot. Jarom’s second 6 mile leg came at 8 pm or so, and was actually quite pleasant. The wind had basically stopped and it was a quiet run under the stars with very few other runners and just the bright light shooting up from the Luxor to keep him company. He got a shower and a two hour nap late that evening and then at 3 am it was back to the lab again. His final run, the shortest at 3.5 miles, was at 6:30 and it was warm enough to do it just a t-shirt. Overall he felt pretty good about his performance, averaging about 6.6 mph in less than ideal conditions. He passed about 45 people and was passed by only 3, one on each leg. Sadly, each time it was a girl. And each time he tried to pick up the pace to avoid it, but it was no use. After the race ended (30:30:41 later) it was time for some Café Rio and back to the house to relax and watch Texas A&M beat Alabama. It was fun for them to hang out with Mandy and Dave for a while and to be able to laugh at their kid’s unruly behavior without having to worry about their own kids causing trouble.

Sunday and Monday were days to catch up on a little bit of sleep and hang out with Jarom’s grandpa. There was lots of eating out, wandering around the strip, people watching, and a trip to O. They also got to visit with a friend of Jarom’s from high school who got baptized a year ago and lives in Henderson. Overall it was a pretty fun few days, and it was nice that Lix’s parents were around so that it could happen. But it wasn’t all roses. There was the fact that they flew Spirit airlines in order to save some money, and that airline is basically one step up from trash. There was also the fact that poor little Bo got himself sick on the last day (perhaps pink eye?) and they weren’t there to help out. And on Sunday we got news that we are being kicked out of our ward, which makes us sad because we will inevitably see a little bit less of a lot of the nice people that we have come to know.

Speaking of terrible things, one day last week the whole family went by Petco to get me a meal and while they were there they were checking out an adorable little orange kitten that was very calm and cuddly and that Lix and Jenna and Bo all loved. It turns out that Petco is just a holding cell for the kitten, and that the adoption is actually handled by a third party. So Lix took down the number and gave them a call, ready to bring that little cat home that day. Sadly, she did not pass the phone interview. It turns out that even in a world where there are a bajillion stray cats that need a home Lix is not qualified to adopt one. There were significant concerns about the fact that there weren’t any other cats in the house and little Wally wouldn’t learn the appropriate social behaviors, and also that he would be spending a portion of his time outside, where coyotes would likely eat him. So I guess they’ll have to find a kitten through another cat agency, perhaps one with a less exhaustive background check or less ridiculous screeners. Or maybe we will just wait until we see someone with a box of them in a parking lot and avoid the mess all together.

Watching Hotel Transylvania

Hanging out at the State Fair