Back Pain & Christmas Lights

I was going to go to the temple again this morning, but I woke up w/ a sore throat & runny nose so I went back to sleep instead. I decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a new laptop. I have had mine for 6 years and I’ve LOVED it, but it’s starting to have issues and not working the way it should. So, I went over to Best Buy to get the one I’ve been looking at. It’s a Toshiba Satellite and is around $250. I was so annoyed b/c it took them forever to help me, and then they didn’t even have it, so they had to send me somewhere else to have them order it online. What should have taken 10 minutes took 50 minutes! But, I finally got it ordered and it should be delivered sometime in the next 10 days.

Since I was alone (Autumn chose to stay home w/ Nick & watch cartoons), I decided to go to Lane Bryant to try on some jeans since the whole store was 50% off. I was in the dressing room and bent down to pick up a pair of jeans and it felt like something in my back snapped. I couldn’t even stand up straight w/ out IMMENSE pain! Y’all, I was so worried I was going to be stuck in that dressing room until closing time b/c I couldn’t walk! My thoughts went to yesterday when I was playing ultimate frisbee and I stepped in that divot in the lawn wrong. I was finally able to get my own pants back on by just pushing through the pain, and I went home and got Autumn and we went straight to Mom & Dad’s house so Jon could give me an adjustment. I am SO GLAD they are still in town, b/c I knew he could help me. After the adjustment it was still painful, but at least I could walk around normally. I just had to be really careful w/ how I moved.

I went and sat outside in a chair and watched Papa & the kids play w/ these Nickelodeon Zog Logs from the 1990s.  Dad was cleaning out the garage and found a few boxes of them and was just going to throw them away, and we should have just let him.  They are supposed to hold together w/ water, but these ones were so old that it just made a mess.  Oh, well!  The kids had a blast, it kept them entertained for an hour, and then we threw them away when they were done.  Look at cute little Adam peeking out from behind the curtain over the glass door.  He wanted to be out there w/ us so badly, but he’s just too little.

Jackson was a good helper in showing Papa where the leaves were in the pool that needed to be fished out.  He LOVES being outside, and he LOVES being w/ Papa, so he was in hog heaven.

Autumn & Andrew were good helpers too, and helped Papa put up lights and Christmas decorations outside.  They even had a picnic lunch out on the fort!

I couldn’t do much to help b/c of the pain in my lower back, so Lexie & I sat at the table & did a puzzle.  We love to do puzzles during the holidays b/c it keeps us occupied but we can still sit and talk w/ each other.

Nate & Riannon & Olivia & Sofia had gone to a Christmas market in a nearby town, and when they got back Nate helped set up decorations outside.  He was telling us that it used to annoy him when Dad would say, “put your back into it” when he would be out working in the yard w/ Dad.  Now he said he “gets it” b/c he was trying to show Autumn & Andrew how to hammer the stakes into the ground and they weren’t “putting their backs into it” and he was getting frustrated w/ them.  LOL!  The circle of life, my friends!

After working so hard, it was time for a Kool Aid break.  I’m so glad that we’ve had such nice weather so that they could be outside and create such fun memories w/ Papa.

After I helped Mom get dinner ready I went to find Autumn, b/c I felt like I hadn’t seen her all day.  I found her curled up in this chair, with a warm blanket, reading a book.  For some reason she looked so grown up to me!  I keep telling her to stop growing up, but she won’t listen to me.

After dinner, Dad told us that we all had to come outside b/c the kids had a surprise for us.  We all trekked out to the front yard & they counted down from 10.  When they got to zero, they plugged in the Christmas lights and we all cheered.  You would have thought we were at the big tree lighting at Rockefeller Center in NYC!  It was such a cool moment and I’m glad we were all together to share it.  Here’s our motley crew w/ the pretty lights behind us.

It wasn’t quite bedtime yet, so we decided to watch a Christmas movie together.  We couldn’t find The Grinch, so we watched Elf instead.  It’s such a funny one!  Autumn & I finally came home around 8:30 so we could both go to bed and get some good rest.