Thankful, Not so thankful, pretty much thankful

Wednesday afternoon I went out to get the last minute stuff for Ryan's birthday and Thanksgiving. It was a crazy week and we were rushing to get everything done so we could leave early Thursday to go to Wyoming. About 8:00 that night I asked Brynn and Kate to go to the basement and get me some wrapping paper for Ry's gifts. They came running up screaming, "Mom, the basement is flooded!" That was NOT what I needed to hear. Apparently when I had turned on the washer that afternoon it had never stopped filling. If it had been a normal day, I would have checked on it earlier. In the chaos, however, it had poured water on the floor for about 4 hours! It was horrid. The water was ankle deep in most places. We spent most of the night Wednesday and most of the day Thursday moving everything out, drying it out, and putting it back. I was lucky more things weren't ruined. My scrapbook corner was spared. I would have been so sad if my pictures had been ruined. One good thing is a few months ago we had moved a bunch of our boxes out into the garage. I lost a bunch of books, and a few pictures, but not much else, thankfully. It was just a giant pain!

Thursday I was really having a pity party for myself. I hadn't had a good week and I wanted to be in Wyoming at my Grandma's. I was trying to be cheery for Ryan's sake. (he had a great birthday because we don't make the kids work on their birthday so he got out of a lot of work)He got a new coat, a VIDEONOW with a bunch of pvd's, clothes, and an XBOX game he wanted.

Finally, I went to Walmart to get stuff to make Thanksgiving dinner since all I was supposed to bring to my Grandma's was chips and dip. The walk around Walmart was good for me. I realized that I was lucky to have so many options for Thanksgiving. I felt sorry for the people working there that day and the people who don't have anywhere to go for Turkey day.

Mark made a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings and I made Ryan a yummy Oreo cake. He thought it was great. We ended up having a really nice casual day.

Friday afternoon we went to my parent's house in Wyoming. They had felt sorry for us that we had missed Thanksgiving so they planned a big family dinner for Sat. night. We made yummy enchiladas and had a fun time visiting. We were all there except for Zane and Mark. After the delicious dinner we went to the Parade of Lights in Afton. It was fun. All the floats were decorated with Christmas lights and the parade was to honor the local 1041st National Guard Unit that recently returned from Iraq. The soldiers marched in the parade and I was so happy to see them cheered for so enthusiastically.

We enjoyed church at my parents ward today and headed for home. Zachy was so happy to see Mark. He made us all give him a hug multiple times. Mark and I are going to watch more of the first season of "Heroes" tonight. Mark is really getting into that series.