Allison – Page 7 – Terry Family Shenanigans

Friendsgiving 2019

Last year four families from our baseball family got together for a Friendsgiving. We did it again this year. It is a fun time. The kids like it because there is a group of them to play and all of them have at least one buddy. We are all very different families but we get along really well and enjoy each others company. Everyone brings a few appetizers and we visit and hang out for a few hours then eat a dinner together. Then play games and visit some more.

This year there was minute to win it games that we all did. We divided into five teams and each team rotated between five games. There was potato rolling, apple stacking noodle fishing, cotton ball flipping and cookie eating contests. The winner of each team wrote their name down on a paper. After all the teams finished we went to each game and the five winners from each team played the game. Those people earned a laminated turkey medal. Then the winner of each of those games played against each other in a final championship game. The final championship game ended up being Cam, Matthew, Jake, Allison, and Frank (his mom actually one but requested a proxy for the championship game). They each had a paper plate with 10 candy corns on it that were covered in whip cream so you couldn’t see them. Whoever found all ten and put them on a napkin next to their plate-without using your hands of course- was the winner. The kids loved it. Jake was the winner and he got another laminated turkey medal for his efforts.

It was a nice relaxing enjoyable evening. The friends that have done it every year are moving to Poland this summer for a couple years. One of the rest of us will have to try and live up to the Friendsgiving tradition while they are gone.

I have been waiting to post this post to add some fun pictures to it…long story short-they aren’t coming. So take my word for it, we had a fun time and looked ridiculous doing it.

Allison’s Cheer Competition 2019

Allison’s squad did the dance and cheer competition this year. They did a great job! It was fun to watch. The smile on her face when she was doing it showed that she loved it too.

They ended up placing third for the dance. I really think they were better than at least one if not both of the teams that took 1st and 2nd but they got docked a huge amount of points for the way they tossed their poms to the side when they were done with them…I will refrain from the snarky comment I have about judging competitions getting way out of hand. I have no problem being in competitions that are judged. I think it is can be good for kids actually. If it is logical with clear objectives. When it is convoluted and subjective. All the teams were fun to watch, the judging was just a little obscure and hard to predict.

I don’t know what happened with my pictures. The first few are fine and the last few are fine but the middle ones came out way to dark. I lightened them as much as I could. I feel awful they turned out dark. I also put pictures from her last cheer game on here. They performed the same routine they did for the competition during half time so I got a few good pictures from that. After they last game they switched gifts with the football players too.

Allison and Mom Date

The past few weeks have not been the best weeks between Allison and Ryan and I. We seem to go through cycles with her of ups and downs and we are definitely in a down. There are still happy moments when we are on a down cycle but that is what they are moments. Far and few between the contention and friction and arguing and almost constant battles over everything from waking up in the morning to how people are breathing around her. Hopefully we are headed back up at least but that is an unknown for now. It is not fun for all involved obviously.

The other day Allison came to me and said that she wanted to go and have some fun one on one time together. I thought it would be a good idea and a chance for us to have some positive interactions for a good amount of time.

We decided to go to main event together. There is a bunch of different activities there to do and we decided to do bowling together. We played three games and had lots of fun. The score board would use your actual real face on silly cartoons when it was your turn to bowl. Allison thought it was a hoot. We did a fun zip line thing a couple times while we were there too.

It was fun and we did get to reset and enjoy each others company and not fight for a whole two hours. Allison and I have to put more than the average amount of effort into our relationship and communication. The little stinker is worth it though. She doesn’t always believe me but I love her and I want her to be happy and I want what is best for her.

November happenings…

The past few weeks have been pretty busy but really good weeks.

Our primary at church had their annual primary program. It was really good. It is one of my favorite Sundays of the year. This year Emilee helped me invite our new neighbors to come and they did. It was a really cool experience for them I think. Their son Jack even stayed the rest of church with Matthew. That same week they called a new primary presidency and I am the new president. Figuring everything out and getting organized has kept me busy for the last few weeks. I am enjoying it and excited. I enjoy being in primary. Kids can be little stinkers but they also have sweet pure hearts and I love hearing the way they see the gospel and apply it in their lives.

Emilee was the P.E. Student of the Month for her class. I couldn’t make it because I was at work but Dad made it and got a picture of her getting her award.

Allison became a turtle activist. Basically that means she made lots of posters and shames any of us that use a straw.

We have had some great Fall weather this month, despite it snowing the day before Halloween. The last few weekends have been gorgeous and we have tried to go to the park when we can.

Emilee decided to measure herself doing different things on her mirror. It made me smile when she showed me. There are fewer and fewer moments like this in our house now that everyone is getting older. It is kind of hard to see but she marked a spot for standing on her tippy toes, standing regular, kneeling up, kneeling down, criss cross apple sauce leaning up, and last but not least criss cross apple sauce flat on her bum.

Allison made a tube for something at school and found a funny way to take pictures with it too.

Allison had her last game for cheer this season for the football teams. They have their final cheer and dance competition coming up later this week. It has been mixed reviews on whether she liked it or not this year. I asked her if she wanted to do it again and she is currently undecided. She is looking forward to the competition and will do a great job and have fun. I am sure that will help her decide.

Emilee had a field trip to the the Pumpkin Patch. There are few less perfect field trips for 1st graders in the Fall. We got lost in a corn maze, played in the corn box, climbed in the hay, and rolled down the lawn in huge irrigation pipes. There are some sweet kids in her grade. Emilee and I had fun sitting in the very back seat of the bus together too.

Allison’s Pumpkin Contest

Allison decided that she wanted to enter a pumpkin in the school decorating contest. In typical Allison fashion she stuck to her motto of ‘Go Big Or Don’t Show Up’ and decided she wanted to do Cinderella’s carriage. She designed it, then we went to the store and got all the supplies she needed then she spent the next three days painting it. They weren’t allowed to cut or puncture it at all because it was going to sit in the school for over a week and they didn’t want them to stink. I might have tried to persuade her to choose something different if I had know this ahead of time…something that was just one round pumpkin. It was not easy to get the wheels and pumpkin to stay where they needed to without skewers. We figured it out though. She did a really good job. I helped her put it all together but she painted and designed it on her own. I was proud of her effort. The winner was determined by people voting for your pumpkins by putting money in a jar. Each penny was a point. Allison had a lot of change, which were votes from kids. She didn’t end up winning though because some parent put a $20 bill in their kids jar. There were a lot of cute pumpkins but I thought Allison’s was the most elaborate. It was also obvious that some parents thought it was a contest for them-not their child.

Halloween Festivities

Usually by Halloween day arrives I am more than happy to be done with it. The kids dress up and it is fun but you can only go to so many parties that the purpose is to get candy before it gets old. The girls school had a trunk or treat, our church had a trunk or treat, there was class parties, we were invited by some friends to go to a community party, our neighbors have a party (its for adults but still Halloween themed). It is all very fun and the kids love it but my small introvert social bucket is over flowing by the time Halloween comes.

We did our usual Halloween tradition with the McDonalds. There whole family came over to have pizza and witch’s brew (home made root beer) for dinner then we go trick or treating together afterwards. Allison invited her friend Hailey and her family to come with us too. Matthew went on his own with his friends. Allison was a little put out thinking she would have to wait for the slow people in our group to go trick or treating and not get as much candy as she wanted. Her costume was a giant rooster that made it a little tricky to get around in so she actually ended up being the slowest person. The amount of candy did not seem to be affected though. She ‘won’ her own prize for the most candy collected when her bag weighed in at 14 pounds. Matthew had a mere 9 pounds and was totally embarrassed he was beaten by his sister. Emilee didn’t weigh hers but I’m sure she had a few pounds as well. I felt like I was going to get diabetes just sitting in the room with all of it. Of course there was a giant trading of candy session when we all got back to get rid of the candy they didn’t like. I think they all thought Halloween was a big success. Ryan has been taking several large handfuls to work since Halloween to help protect our children’s pancreas’. It was a fun night.

Cheerleading Allison

Allison did her first season of Cheerleading this year. She was a little disenchanted with it because she had a broken arm and couldn’t do the stunts but she likes cheering at the games. When Grandma and Grandpa Terry came they came to watch her and she was the Captain that day which means she gets to pick what cheers they did. They have a few games left and then they have their dance/cheer competition.

A few weeks ago Allison walked in the Spring Hill Fall Festival Parade with her squad, and thought it was pretty fun.

Decorating the float for the parade.
Spring Hill Bronco Cheerleaders
Parade
Waiting for the parade to start
Besties.
2019 Cheer Squad
Cheer captain

Running Of The Goats

The other day for Allison’s Activity Day Girls Meeting, we went to Deanna Rose Farm. It is a little park and petting zoo. We walked around and did an alphabet scavenger hunt. Each year they have 30-40 baby goats that during the day you can feed with bottle and pet them. Apparently right before closing every night the baby goats go from the bottle feeding pen they have been in all day, to their sleeping pen with hay for the night. They call it the ‘Running Of The Goats’. All the scavenger hunts ended by the baby goats so we could watch. It was pretty cute. The goats are all excited for the hay so they are all smashing up against the gait waiting for it to open. When the person opens the gait 40 little baby goats do a 100 yard dash as fast as their little legs can carry them to the next pen to get their dinner. That was pretty cute in itself. Some of the goats are ‘fainting goats’. I don’t know a lot about goats but when ‘fainting goats’ get really excited or scared or anything that gets the adrenaline going they faint. So some of these cute little goats take of running as fast as they can and then all the sudden they fall over for a few seconds then jump back up and continue on their run. I thought one had tripped but instead of falling forward with his momentum he kind of rolled over on his back with his legs up in the air, then kept rolling and jumped up and continued on when his feet landed on the other side. I wish I had gotten a good picture of one of them fainting but I wasn’t expecting it and they were really fast. Allison and I still got a good laugh though.

Allison helps Matthew work on his people skills.

I mentioned in a recent post that Allison had been picking a few fights with Matthew. She started the first one by making the statement that cheerleading is harder than football. Shortly after that she picked another fight by claiming she new more about Harry Potter than Matthew did. The next morning at breakfast Matthew was sitting at the table eating and Allison skipped down the stairs placed a piece of paper in front of Matthew, smiled, and sat down to start eating her own breakfast. Matthew leaned over to see what it said.

To clarify the meaning of this note, I will explain a few things. Last year for Valentine’s Day Allison made a huge Valentine’s box with a giant rooster on the front with the help of her Grandpa Jones. A few kids in her class called her Rooster and she decided to adopt the nickname. None of us call her rooster at home but she refers to herself often as ‘The Rooster’. Matthew’s nickname on his baseball team is Cheetah. A lot of the parents will say ‘Go Cheetah’ to cheer him on. Allison decided to say ‘Go Cheetoh’ instead of cheetah when she cheers for him. She gets a kick out of Matthew shaking his head or rolling his eyes at her while he walk up to the plate. So, she decided to leave this note for him next to his breakfast with all nicknames covered. Matthew took the bait and immediately started arguing with her that cheetahs would eat a rooster in a second. Allison had her responses ready to go and kept them coming no matter how crazy Matthew claimed they were. I think she accomplished her mission to get some attention from Matthew.

Later that day I picked Matthew up for an eye appointment. I reviewed the last three arguments him and Allison have had and asked what he thought she might be trying to accomplish by attacking three of the biggest hobbies in Matthew’s life right now. I saw a little light bulb go off and we brainstormed some ways for him to make her attention seeking more positive. I have noticed several time that he has gone out of his way to give her positive attention and acknowledge her accomplishments. He told me he is an Allison Whisperer now. I told him he is on his way but still needs to practice.

Ryan and I both remind him a lot how much his sisters look up to him and try and be like him. It is a little easier for him and Emilee to get along. I think the bigger age difference decreases the competitiveness between them. Matthew and Allison argue more but I see glimpses of a good relationship between them. It is really important to me that they take care of each other and enjoy each other. I am close with my siblings, especially my sisters. I feel like in a lot of ways we got closer when we were older after we didn’t live at home anymore. I am grateful for that but one of my regrets is that I didn’t develop that more when we were growing up. I tell my kids all the time to take advantage of the years that they live together now and enjoy each other because when they grow up it won’t be like it is now, and they won’t see each other as much, even if they live by each other. I don’t know how much they understand that now, its kind of hard to imagine an adult life when you are a kid but hopefully it will sink in a little.

Allison’s got spunk.

There have been a few things this week that made me smile and show Allison’s determination. I know that her determination can sometimes drive be bananas, but I love that quality in her. She has a drive to accomplish her goals and desires. It will take her far.

She has recently decided that she wants to get another guinea pig so Peanut Butter isn’t lonely. Ryan and I are not on board with this in anyway and have made no effort to hide our thoughts on the matter. She has just pushed our reasons aside and said she will let us know when she has saved up enough money. She has somehow come up with the amount of $300 to save and then ‘we can’t say no’ even though we told her we have already said no and will continue to say no, regardless of how much money she saves.

Her getting guinea pig number two desire has reinvigorated her dog walking business. Her friend and her were out doing this earlier this week. As they were walking a dog down a street they noticed a sign taped up to the light pole that a couple 2nd grade girls had posted advertising to walk people’s dogs for them. Allison started looking around and noticed that there were several of these signs taped up to mailboxes and other light poles. She finished walking the dog then came straight home to report that some ‘little second graders were trying to steal her business’ and she was not having it, ‘not on my watch’. Her and her friend then spent the next two hours, making their own signs and taping them up right next to all the signs the 2nd graders had put up. She felt quite confident that no one in their right mind would pick a 2nd grader to walk their dog when there was a ‘more experienced’ 4th grader available.

Emilee and Allison share a bathroom and it is always disgusting. Clothes and toothpaste everywhere, play makeup, towels, orbees, soap, made up chemistry projects, and hair stuff is always all over the place. It drives me crazy. It is a constant battle to get them to clean it up or keep it clean. The other day I was grossed out by the bathroom and both girls kept claiming they had ‘cleaned’ it. I was annoyed with it and didn’t want to clean it myself but felt like if I wanted it to actually be clean I would have to have them help me do it, which is basically doing it for them and I didn’t want to do that. I decided to motivate Allison with one of her biggest motivators-money- to clean it. I told her if she cleaned it and did a REALLY good job I would pay her $3. She thought for a minute and counter offered with $3 but not the shower. We compromised at $2 and she didn’t have to clean the shower this time. She came and got me a little while later to have me come check and make sure she did a good job. She had done an amazing job. It was spotless (except the shower of course 😊). I was shocked!! I told her she did amazing and I was proud of her. I didn’t tell her that now that I know her true capabilities the jig is up and she will be cleaning her bathroom a lot more. If I have to pay her two dollars to do it, that is totally worth it to me.