A Trip Down Memory Lane . . . And Reunion Time

I know a lot of people who hated high school.  Like, seriously hated it.  I'm not saying I want to go back and do it again (that would be a definite NO), but I actually had a pretty stellar high school experience.  That's probably why I decided to become a high school teacher, because I was blessed with so many exceptional ones (and the occasional dud, too, but who doesn't have those?).  I also had a great group of friends.  Here are some shots of some of us at graduation ten years ago:  

Sadie Hawkins our junior year:

Not sure what we were trying to go for in this picture, but I thought Lena's fairy wings were pretty awesome, as was Lacey's nod to the thug-life:

Girls' Camp as YCLs:

The year Lena almost died while floating down the river on a tube:

People always find it odd to hear that I am still in close contact with a lot of the friends I had in high school.  I guess that is pretty abnormal.  I attribute it to how awesome we all are.  Of course we're going to defy all odds and still love each other ten years later!

My high school reunion was this summer, and I didn't go.  This was because 1) the preparation for the event seemed mediocre at best, judging from the updates I was getting via the facebook page, 2) I had no money to make the trip out there, and 3) we came up with a way better plan B.

My friend, Emily, served an eighteen month mission for our church in Brazil, and she was still there when the reunion happened in Moses Lake.  I was talking to Callie on the phone one day, and it came up that neither of us was planning on attending our ten year reunion.  I mentioned that it would have been sad to go without Emily there, anyway.  She mentioned that she was planning on trying to make it to Emily's homecoming in October, and that we should all try to get together at some point in the coming year.  That got me thinking:  why not try to make it to Emily's homecoming, too?

I immediately called my friend, Lacey, who happens to live a few miles away from me in North Carolina, despite the fact that we initially became friends while sitting next to each other in a kindergarten classroom in Washington State (AMAZING, right?).  She also happens to have an awesome brother who works for Southwest Airlines.  He hooked us up with buddy passes, and we made plans to secretly fly to Washington without Emily knowing, while Callie made her own secret plans to drive from Utah.  Luckily for us, a few of our other friends still happen to live in the area where we grew up, so we were able to have an awesome girls' weekend once we got there.

I stayed with my Grandpa Jensen, who has just started taking piano lessons.  He's 78, and learning to play piano.  Isn't that awesome?!  HE CAN PLAY WITH TWO HANDS!  I am so proud.

My grandpa looks a lot like the old man on Pixar's UP, as evidenced by this shot.  I love his suspenders.  He never goes a day without them:

I was able to spend a lot of day time with my Grandpa over the few days I was there.  I am going to start helping him type and edit the personal history he has written, which will be a super neat experience.

Lacey, her brother, and I got into Spokane by early afternoon.  That night, we pulled off the ultimate surprise.  Here we are on Thursday night, after surprising Emily at our favorite restaurant, Inca.  Such.  Amazing.  Mexican.  Food.  Oh, the arroz con pollo . . . just thinking about it makes my mouth water.  We were all just sitting at a table, waiting for Emily to show up with her mom.  Her sister was in on it, too.  When I saw her walk in, I waved, and she waved back, but I could tell she had no idea who I was.  Then, it registered that I was there, that Lacey was there, that Callie was there, and so on.  It was awesome.

We are all laughing hysterically in this shot, because Callie and Emily's moms were having such a hard time figuring out how to work each of our cameras.

On Friday, I knew my grandpa would be working at the temple all day.  Callie, Emily, and I made the drive to Tri-Cities and did a session, which was awesome.

Afterwards, we met up with my Aunt and Uncle, who were great enough to drive from Prosser, where they live, to see me.  We feasted at Olive Garden on soup, salad, and bread sticks.  So yummy!

I loved seeing them!  They have been such a huge part of my life, and I love them to pieces. Living so far away, I don't get to see them very often, so it was nice to give each of them a big hug.

Then, Callie and I dropped Emily off at her house, since she had to work, and we went on a driving tour of Moses Lake, which I'm not going to lie . . . took less than 30 minutes.  I made Callie stop the car to get a picture of me with this tumbleweed.  I couldn't believe she didn't want a photo taken with a Moses Lake tumbleweed!  She was completely uninterested, and wouldn't even get out of the car to take the picture!  She snapped this from the driver's side, out the passenger window:

This is when things took a disappointing turn.  The highlight of the entire trip was supposed to be going to our Alma mater's football game.  I had even spent some time rekindling the memory of various cheers to bust out while watching from the stands.  (Chiefs!  Don't take no UH!  JIVE!  Chiefs!  We are alive!)  I even tried to remember the fight song, but I kept getting it mixed up with the BYU fight song, and eventually gave up.  Anyway, devastation struck, when Callie and I showed up at the 6th Ward potato bar, only to have Sister Bergeson tell us that the game had been rescheduled as an away game.  In Wenatchee.  Thanks for updating the high school website, folks!  There went that!  So, we made new plans.  Which is more difficult than it may sound when you are visiting Moses Lake, Washington.  It's not the most happening spot.  We went to Shari's for dessert, then hit up the local bowling alley.  Luckily for us, it was black light bowling night!!!  Even though the parking lot was packed with cars, they were all casino customers apparently, because we were one of the only groups in the bowling alley.

I happen to loathe bowling.  I am so bad at it, that I pretty much don't even try anymore.

That's why I'm so excited about actually hitting two pins in this photo:

On Saturday, Grandpa cooked me a great breakfast and we went to the Farmer's Market together.  Can I just say that it is RIDICULOUS how cheap Honey Crisp apples are in my home state?  And they are giant beauties!  I kept trying to figure out how to get a box of them home with me.  I didn't succeed in coming up with a master plan, but I did help Grandpa lug his box of Fugi apples to the car. Grandpa gave me the extended driving tour of Moses Lake, and we stopped at the Goodrich house for a nice visit on the way home.  Callie met us there, and I could tell I was cramping Grandpa's style.  He went home, but Callie and I stayed and chatted with Brenda for hours, which is always a delight.  We even got to see our friend Elliott and meet his adorable wife, Kayla, while we were there.  That night we went to Crystals, drank sparkling cider, overdosed on lots of chocolate, talked, reminisced over old photos, and laughed until it hurt.  We also had a dance party with a little assistance from Lena's Kinect.  It was awesome.

Sunday was Emily's homecoming talk in the 8th ward, so we went and listened to her speak.  She did a beautiful job.  I am so proud of her.  I know she touched so many lives in positive ways while she was serving in Brazil.

Emily and her Mom:

Grandpa came with me.  Then we went to 6th ward together, and afterwards went to lunch at his friend Emily's house (same name, different friend).

On Sunday night we all got together one last time to say goodbye.  We pledged to make these get togethers happen at least every five years . . . but we're going to start in 2015 in North Carolina.

Lena and Crystal's awesome kids were there.  I wish we lived closer, so Kaden could be their buddy.  They have great personalities and are a lot of fun.

Here they are jumping:

Showing me some ninja skills:

Isak and Aubrey showing off their tricks:

Baby Edyn just being awesome.

We left at 3 a.m. on Monday morning.  Needless to say, we were looking hot.  I would not have wanted to be stuck in an airport for a million hours with anyone but Lacey.  I love that girl.  We got stuck in Las Vegas (the consequence of flying on a buddy pass), but we still made it home in time for Chad to go to work Tuesday morning.  Here we are, starting to show the effects of being in an airport for too long:

One of my biggest hopes for Kaden is that he chooses good friends.  I know mine have certainly played an important role in who I am today.  Having worked with adolescents for the last several years, it's become more and more apparent that who your friends are really does determine a lot.  Peers can be a tremendous influence on a teenager for good or for bad.  I was so blessed to have such wonderful friends while I was growing up.  I am still so thankful for each of them.

I am so glad I had this chance to go spend time with family and friends.  A big thanks goes to my mother-in-law who came to Raleigh and watched Kaden on Thursday and Friday, and to Chad who also had to play mommy and daddy for an entire weekend to a pretty crazy toddler.  It meant so much to me that they were willing to do that to give me an awesome weekend away.

October's Favorite Things

One of my friends has an adorable blog and at the end of every month, she does a favorite things post.  Such a great idea!  Every month I plan on linking up with her, because it's a perfect way to recap a month with some of the details I forget to write about . . . and then I get busy and forget.  Only this month, she's giving away a killer pair of earings, and linking up will increase my chances of winning said earings.  There's nothing like free stuff to motivate me to action.

So, without further ado, here are some of my favorite things from October that I haven't blogged about yet:

1.  Gigi brought Kaden a "big spider" of his own.  His name, chosen by Kaden, is Scary.  I'm not going to lie, he totally freaks me out.  Kaden adores him.  Every time we leave the house, he waves to him and says, "Bye, Scary!  See you later, Scary.  Love you!"

2.  I flew to Washington state and spent a long weekend reuniting with some of my oldest friends (we graduated from high school together ten years ago--but have known each other even longer than that).  The reunion was sparked by the return of Emily from Brazil, where she had been serving as a missionary for the last eighteen months.  A reunion this monumental deserves a blog post of its own, but for now, to make a long story short: we had an amazing time!  I was reminded that time and distance away mean nothing in a true friendship.  We laughed and talked like we'd never been apart.  It was so therapeutic and fabulous.

As if that wasn't perfect enough, I got to stay with my Grandpa while I was there.  It was so fun spending time with him!

3.  My kitchen went from this:

To this:

To this:

To this:

And I could not be happier with the end result.  NOW to paint the second coat on the walls and TO FINISH THE FLOORING!!!  And eventually update the appliances . . . but all in due time.


4.  Some people in our ward own a fabulous NY-style pizza joint (no, seriously, it's fabulous.  If you live in Raleigh, go eat at Sergio's Pizza).  They had an oldie's night with $1 cheese slices, fun music, and balloons for the kids.  As if that wasn't awesome enough, the sweetest little boy restored my complete faith in humanity (which was previously crushed by a class of high school sophomores who stole the money their peers donated to the breast cancer awareness fund out of the jar on my desk while I wasn't looking).  There were a lot of kids at the pizza place, and most of them were waiting in line for a balloon.  Kaden sat down and was watching all of the action, completely fascinated, when this little boy comes up to him, hands him HIS balloon that was tied in the shape of a sword, and says, "Here, would he like this one?"  ARE YOU SERIOUS?  How precious is that?  Kaden's face lit up and he beamed a bright, "Thank you!"  We asked him if he was sure, and he said, "Yes, he can have it."  Somebody has awesome parents.  I don't know who you are, kid, but kudos to your mom and dad.  And kudos to you, too!


5.  Kaden's Halloween costume from last year still fit, and he looked as darling in it as ever.  He loved trick or treating this year.  He did such a great job saying, "Trick or treat!" at every house and remembering to say, "Thank you!"

6.  In a couple of hours, Halloween will officially end, which means tomorrow I start playing Christmas music, my friends.

It's been a good month.

Terrible Hosts

We won't be winning any brownie points after my mom's visit over her fall break. 

She arrived during our kitchen renovation, so most of her trip consisted of us trying to figure out how to prepare meals that didn't involve any dirty dishes (we had no kitchen sink).  In addition, we couldn't use our stove or oven for pretty much the entire time she was here.  Oh, and her "guest room" was still basically being used as a pantry/massive storage space with a tiny spot for her to sleep.  

We had a cute kid present for her to fawn over, so hopefully that counts for something.

Luckily, Kaden and I whisked her off for a couple day escape to Atlantic Beach.  My sister-in-law's awesome mom, AKA our good friend Beth, let us borrow her beach cottage for a night.  The weather the few days before we left was cold and rainy, so I figured we were in for a freeze fest, but luckily the sunshine came out while we were there.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect!  The ocean is one of my favorite places to be.  I've always loved it.  There's something about sand on your toes and the sound of the waves crashing against the shore that makes life feel instantly better.  

Kaden is still a little uncertain about the water at the beach.  It pretty much terrifies him.  Since we were only there for a couple of days, there wasn't time for him to get really friendly with the waves.  Plus, Chad wasn't  there to coax him into the water.  He preferred climbing up the sand dunes and running down, or chasing seagulls.  He was so devastated that they wouldn't let him touch them.

While mom was here we also went to our neighborhood's fall festival.  I didn't get any pictures, but it was a lot of fun!  They had rented a couple of giant bounce houses for the kids and they had a BBQ and fried chicken catered lunch.  There were also cupcakes that tasted like Twinkies.  What's not to love about that?  Kaden LOVED the bounce house.  I was a little nervous about him going in alone at first, so I went with him.  There were a lot of bigger kids in there, so I didn't know if he'd get mauled, but they were so sweet.  They kept asking, "Do you want me to bounce you?" and helping him jump higher.  After about ten minutes of standing there watching him have a blast, I left and let him go crazy on his own.

Mom and I had a girls' day on Saturday afternoon and explored The Vintage Village, which is this amazing place with a series of antique shops.  It is also dangerously close to my house.

Mom's trip ended much too soon, with no time for me to consult Martha Stewart on how to redeem myself as a hostess.

I need to make sure I buy some mints for the pillows the next time we have house guests.   

My Demise.

I'm pretty sure you're going to see my obituary in the paper by the end of next week.  It will read something like this:

Katie Reese,  a stay at home mom, bit the dust early yesterday evening.  Her death, while sudden, wasn't unexpected.  After a long struggle, she succumbed to obliteration from an overabundance of toddler whining.  

Seriously.

The last few days with Kaden have been a constant series of, "No, no, no!  I DO IT!"s and high pitched requests that I have to coax him to rephrase in a normal tone of voice with a please and a thank you.

This mothering a toddler is an exhausting business, I tell you.

Tonight, I had to call in reinforcements just to get the chap pajama-ed, song-ed, and to bed.

Luckily, I have photos like this to remind me just how cute he can be:

The first weekend in October is the General Conference for our church.  I love conference weekend for many reasons.  Probably the best reason is we get to feel spiritually nourished, uplifted, and end the weekend filled with a desire to be better people in general.  The second best reason is definitely that we spend pretty much the entire weekend eating and in our pajamas.

Kaden, enjoying some daytime pajama time:

Kaden, listening to President Monson speak:

Chad had Columbus Day off at the start of the month.  That was also the day the demolition started on our kitchen (YAY!), so we did the activity part of our Family Home Evening in the afternoon and headed to the farmers' market.  Kaden fell in love with the little pumpkins, so we bought a few for our front porch.  They've become some of his favorite toys, and we've carted the things all over the place (to the airport to pick up Grandma, during the day while we run errands, etc).

 We bought some apples while we were there.  I was busy picking out varieties we can't find at the regular grocery store, when Kaden grabbed a gala and took a ginormous bite out of it.  We bought it, of course, and he carted it around the market, munching on his snack for the rest of our visit.

My little munchkin might be a mess, but he's mine.  I am so thankful I get to be a mom, even with all the challenges that come with the job description.  

Arachno-LOVE

My mother-in-law is the queen of holiday decorating.  I kid you not.  Come Christmas time, her house will look like one of those holiday shops you walk through while you're on vacation.  Harvest time is no exception, and when we went to K-town last weekend, the Halloween decorations were already up for Kadester to enjoy.  He became particularly enamored with this little gem:  

Yes, that is a giant, creepy spider.

At first, he was terrified of it.  Nana showed it to him while they were outside, and he wouldn't believe that it was fake.  When Chad finally went over to touch it, Kaden warily hid behind a plant and watched from afar. For the two days we were there he kept saying, "Oh!  Big Spider!" and then we would have to remind him, "Yes, that is a big spider.  But he's just pretend."  When it finally sunk in that the spider was, indeed, not like the ones that his mommy screams bloody murder about, runs from, and attacks with bug spray from 25 feet away, he decided that he was in love with it.

Seriously.

He has shed tears over not being able to be reunited with the big spider.  "Go Gigi's house.  Big Spider!"

He has talked with the Big Spider on the phone.  While conversing with said spider via the cellphone, he has proclaimed his love for it, and commanded that Gigi feed it a lunch of french fries.

I have had to console him at nap time by telling him that the big spider is probably resting at Gigi's house, since it can't be with him in his crib.

  

It is crazy to me that he still remembers it.  

Crazier still is the fact that he remembers it FONDLY.