Gross ...

As I age, even though I am still 21, I am noticing certain "quirks" about myself.  I call them "quirks" because to come right out and call them Obsessive Compulsive Disorder just sounds crazy ... and that's not right.  So, these quirks ... when I turned 30 (even though I am 21), I decided I hated iceburg lettuce, I had always hated iceburg lettuce, and I saw no reason to ever eat it again.  I even questioned why all these years I had eaten iceburg lettuce trying to convince myself I was being healthy.  So, I stopped eating iceburg lettuce.  Another quirk ... public pools.  A number of years ago I watched some 20/20 or Dateline or other new show that talked about public pools.  After their examination of the "oh so clean from the chlorine" water, they came up a bit short.  After all, a poopie diaper is a poopie diaper and no amount of chlorine will kill off that stank ... I wish the chlorine would kill off the parents that stick their kids in the water with said poopie diaper.  A short time later, I see a newscast telling everyone that public pools are sucking kids down into the bottom of the pool through the super filter systems used to suck out said poopie floaters.  So, gross water and possible drowning.  I now look at pools and say, "this thing is full of pee, and I will not swim in a toilet.  "I have a literal visceral response, and have not entered a public pool since .. even a water park ... still full of pee.  Being the mom of three boys, they love the waterparks and I have to admit Jon does more than his fair share of swimming in the pee wter as I sit poolside working on my sunburn. Final (okay there are many more, but I am only focusing on these few) quirk ... germs.  Yes, this quirk does borderline OCD, but I don't like to call it that, becasue, again, that's jut crazy talk.  My fear of germs has led me to hand sanitizing (not like 30 times a day or anything, but it's sitting at the front door for any carrier monkey that enters my home, aka, my children's friends.)  I also love the smell of bleach, it's sick, I know, but it means clean.
A few days ago, our family set off on a 7 hour pilgrimage from Colorado to Utah.  We're celebrating the holidays with my WHOLE family.  The drive is, uh, possibly the most boring drive on the face of the United States.  It's miles and miles of flat land with occasional tumble weeds or juniper bushes.  Occasionally you run into a "town", aptly named town only because it has a gas station and sometimes a restraunt inside gas station where food poisioning is inevitable.  Since the drive is so entertaining, we try to stop as little as possible for as small a time as possible.  We stopped twice this trip.  First, to get food poisioning, second to get gas and do an emergency potty stop.  I'm not even going to attempt to describe the gas station bathroom, because anyone that has ever traveled knows they are a thing of nasty wonder.  I learned long ago the skill of squatting and "hovering" lest my derrier touch the most disgusting toilet seat known to the free world.  I took Bradyn with me into the bathroom, first shift of children.  I squatted and hovered.  I noticed that the back of the toiled was resting next to the toilet bowl, and it was an extra special treat to peer inside the blackness of the BACK of the nasty gast station bathroom toilet.  SO, I squat, I hover, and unlike most who take care of their "business" in a gas station potty, I flushed.  (Side note, flush the damned toilet.  For hell's sake, I don't care where you are, thyat's just lazu to not flush the toilet!)  As I flushed I realized this toilet was not flushing.  I peered into the blackness of the back of the bowl and realized the little chain was not attached to the stopper/valve thingy.  I'm no plumber, but I know that chain has to be attached.  Hmmmm. so in an attempt to be a nice human being, I looked around for something to get the murky black water out of the back of the toilet, to face my fears, and reattach the chain so I could flush the toilet.  Ah, there it was.  An errant giant Mountain Dew cup.  As Bradyn looked at me, I took a deep breath, and took out scoop number one of water.  Okay, managed to not touch murky black water and I dumped it into the sink.  Time for scoop two, I turned around and all hell broke loose.  Okay, not hell, but some little valve or something from the back of the toilet that was possesed by the devil himself and started spewing out pee pee toilet water like a hose with two much water pressure.  Bradyn hovered behind me and in a moment of sheer mother bear protection I put both hands in front of my face and faced the beast (aka, valve/hose thing spraying high powered pee pee water all vover the bathroom).  I managed to wrestle it back into position and then just sort of stood there.  I was soaked in pee pee water, there was no chlorine, and this was the most vile of all bathrooms ... the gas station bathroom.  I started desperately grabbing the brown rough, resembles a cheap thin paper bag towlets and wiping off my face, my hands, my hair, everything.  It was useless.  I looked at Bradyn, said, go to the bathroom!  He dutifully did his thing, and we left the bathroom.  I looked like  drowned rat and explained to the gas station attendant the situation.  Jon walked in at that point and started laughing.  It wasn't funny.  The gas station attendant was trying to be kind, but he soon fell victim to laughing at me as well.  I told them to both bite my ass, and left for the truck.  I think I might have flashbacks for the rest of my life.  I had to pee again in the next 4 hours ... and I held it.  There was no way in hell I was going to enter a gas station bathroom again.  I'm thinking if I cut off all liquids 12 hours before the trip home, I can make the 8 hours until we get home to Colorado.

Eldridge Family Christmas Letter ...

Ah, the family Christmas letter.  I will now regale you with stories of family perfection reserved for this special annual tradition.  If you believe that, then you don't know me very well. LOL!  Exciting, sorrow, gratitude, love, surprise.  These are just a few of the emotions our family has experienced this past year. The boys ...  Mr. Caden.  Caden is referred to as "Pearl" these days, aka Will Ferrell and a foul mouthed little 2 year old in his online skits.  While Caden is not foul mouthed, he is a sassy independant 21 month old.  Being the youngest of three boys, Caden has no trouble keeping up with his older brothers, digging in his little heels, pointing, and shouting jibberish at them in complete disgust.  We're slowly starting to understand what he's saying ... and I have to admit, he's my son.  Caden says goodbye to his brothers every morning and he and I pal around during the days.  His sweet smile melts me every time and his antics are entertaining.  He loves "cars", his brothers, blankie (nigh-nigh), squeels "DADDY!" when Jon walks in the door every evening, and yes, he still loves his bottle (ba-ba) at nigh-nigh time.  I think he will be off the bottle when he's 16.    

Bradyn graduated from kindergarten this year!  He had an absolutely amazing kindergarten teacher (thank you Mrs. Carlson!) and loved school.  Despite the fact we moved to Colorado when there were only three weeks left of school, he made fast friends.  Bradyn continues to be my little social monkey, and I predict politics will be in his future.  Despite his size (he's ENORMOUS!), he's a "gentle giant" with the most tender heart.  He is now in first grade and doing amazingly well.  We predicted community college for him one day, but I think we might have another Harvard applicant on our hands.Bradyn loves his friends, his DS, Bakugan, WII, Club Penguin, and some days even his older brother Drew.

Drew, oh Drew.  Yes, he is rolling his eyes at me in this picture and I suspect this trend will continue for most photos until he is at least 18.  Drew is in his "awkward" phase navigating the rigors of 6th grade and Middle School.  He's sort of a cross between Eminem and Napolean Dynamite these days.  Jon and I are navigating having a pre-teen and trying not to cramp his style.  He spends alot of time on the phone with his Uncle Josh.  Thank you Uncle Josh.  Despite it all, he continues to be an amazing student  and has all honors classes. Drew played football again this fall and loved it, as usual.  His Nana even flew in from Utah for a weekend to see him play!  Drew started playing the saxaphone in his school band.  He's AMAZING and I am really impressed.   Drew loves the computer, the military channel, national geographic, and all things history.  He tolerates his parents, but it all evens out with what an amazing big brother he is. He even babysits them for short stints (which I LOVE), and he only filled Caden's sippy cup with Mountain Dew High Voltage once.  Caden fell asleep three days later.

Jon's company transferred him to a new client in May.  We moved from New Hampshire to Colorado in May  We love Colorado and Jon loves his 7 minute commute rather than his 2.5 hour commute to Massachussets every day.  Along with the commute, he loves his new client so no complaints on the job front.  Jon was an assistant coach for Drew's football team this fall and he was in heaven.  Jon has a new vendor that gave him 2 tickets to see his beloved Patriots battle the Broncos at Invesco Field.  Patriots lost, Jon was in mourning, but he survived. Jon is the ward activities committee director (which really means I am), and is happy to say we have had two successful activites ... also the shortest activities in ward history.  Everyone is fed and it's cleaned up in three hours! LOL!

As for me, I was appointed by the mayor and city council to be on the School Board our last six months in New Hampshire, and apparently I didn't get enough.  I volunteered and was elected to be on the School Improvement Team at Bradyn's school in the Fall as one of two parent reps.  In my spare time I'm the delegated "party planner" for Bradyn's first grade classroom, run two carpools a day to the Middle School and Elementary School, and I started teaching voice lessons again (I really missed that and am loving it!).  I'm officially a member of a monthly Bunco group with some great women.  Other than that, I spend my days with "Pearl" aka, Caden and am so grateful I can stay home with my boys.  Well, it's time for "ba-ba" and "nigh-nigh" for Caden, and I'm pretty sure my laundry pile pro-creates if I don't watch it every second, so time to cut this short. 

We miss our family and friends in New England dearly, and are grateful for e-mail and facebook to stay in touch.  There are more blessings in our family this year than I can begin to count.  We hope this holiday season finds your families healthy and happy as you celebrate the birth of our Savior. We love you all!

Jon, Cortney, Drew, Bradyn, Caden, and Caesar (woof!)