Bronners

 Monday morning I had to drive my parents to the airport so they could go back to Arizona for the winter. I know they were happy to leave the cold but we are sure going to miss having them here- dinners, walks, tv shows at night with the kids, chess games, extra people to cheer on our kids- it won't be the same with them gone. After I dropped them off at the airport, Ruby and Lucy had a hair appointment with Grace. Ruby went first. She insisted on sitting on my lap and would not wear the cape so she got hair all over me but at least she didn't cry and fuss. She did really well (especially since I let her watch owl and panada reels) and her hair looks so much better- I wish I had taken her sooner. Lucy finally was able to get her hair trimmed so it was all one length and she can continue to grow it out. She is happy to be done with the pixie cut and always comments that she looked stupid with a pixie cut. I don't agree with her, I think she can pull off any hairstyle.

Monday night Tyler and I went on a date to REI. He introduced me to travel backpacks which is what he wants to get for Italy. They are really cool and I am intrigued, but they are also very expensive. I am hoping there will be some sort of amazing black Friday deal on them so we can get them without breaking the bank. After looking around at REI, we went to Shake Shack and got shakes and fries. It was a nice night out.

Tuesday was Election Day so the boys had off school and the girls had school on Zoom. Ruby and I left them to go on a walk with Grace. We had missed our walk last week so it was really nice to catch up on life. We both talked about how it would be nice to meet new people but we also don't want to go through the work of meeting new people. We also both talked about that feeling of something missing from our lives. Not sure if it is just a mid-life crisis thing but I wish I could figure out what would fill that hole for me.

Tuesday night Ben drove me out to World Market. They have these cool mini Torani Syrups that I want to give as gifts to neighbors and friends and the closest one was in Ann Arbor. Ben still needs night driving hours so it was the perfect way for him to accumulate some. It was a cool little store and they had the syrups so my errand was accomplished. It was also nice to get some one on one time with Ben. I got to hear about his classes and people in his life.

Wednesday morning Julie came over with Asher so we could plan our next toddler class. She always has so many things she wants to do but that's probably a good thing since toddlers don't have much of an attention span. Asher and Ruby played independently for most of the time and then near the end decided to play together and fight over Paw Patrol Cars.

Also Wednesday, Tyler took a half day off work so that we could go to Bronner's since Steven had a rare afternoon with no school or work.It was a really nice family outing. I read the kids Would You Rather questions that were Christmas/Winter themed and it was fun to hear their answers. I learned that they really like all our silly Christmas traditions- especially our graham cracker house party/It was also a good way to help the time pass more quickly. Once we got to Bronner's Ruby was excited by all the Christmas things and then even more excited by the ornaments they had of her favorite animals- pandas and owls. It was a tough choice for her but she picked a panda ornament in the end (with some slight nudging from me since we already have owl ornaments). Steven got a green Xbox Controller ornament. Ben got a marshmallow snowman driving a car ornament. Lucy got a Snoopy ornament. Penny got an Angel ornament (from Lilo and Stitch). After picking out our ornaments we froze our buns off and took pictures with the big Christmas decorations outside and then went to Wendy's for dinner. 

Thursday while the girls were at school I had a really thrilling day-Ruby and I ran an errand to Walmart and then I cleaned the house. She was not so great at Walmart but she was really good while I cleaned the house and entertained herself with toys. She goes through phases of being super independent and being super needy. I love when we are in the super independent phase.

Thursday afternoon I was going to help Kara with her baby since she had her appendix out Friday and was having a hard time lifting the baby. Unfortunately she caught a cold and cancelled. I was looking forward to holding her little baby but maybe I'll get a chance to hold her another time.

Friday, after a rough morning of homeschooling (Penny was feeling lots of feelings), Lucy had a birthday party with one of her friend's from Renaissance- Mila. They went goofy golfing and then they had pizza and played at the arcade at Chuck E Cheese. It had been so long since we were there! Lucy had to ride on the police car for Ruby. These 13 year olds are really just kids at heart.

Friday evening Tyler and I hung out at the Eakin's house with Grace, Jason, Eric and Nahoko. We played Worst Case Scenario- which was fun to try to guess how people would rate these bad scenarios- and then Scattergories- which was tricky for Nahoko since English isn't her first language. Then when we finished we just chatted. Jason wants to buy this nasty fermented fish and make all of us try it- apparently people gag just at the smell of it. Seeing how I hate sea food I was an automatic no but Nahoko is on board, lol. I wouldn't put Jason past actually buying it. 

Saturday I ran away in the morning to look at rain coats and packable coats for the trip. They are all so expensive, I am having a hard time buying anything. The trip itself is already expensive and I am not sure I can justify spending more money. It was nice to escape the kids for a bit though.

Halloween, Lucy's Birthday

Sunday Penny and Tyler had a musical number to sing while I played the piano ("I Know my Savior Loves Me"). Both of them woke up congested but I was determined to get this done so to church we went. Our musical number went ok- Tyler's voice had some issues with the congestion but I think he was on key for a majority of the song. After sacrament Tyler was subbing in as Primary Chorister and I had helped him prepare songs and activities. Lately my brain has been a little crazy and when he started to go off script, I felt compelled to go up and take over. I don't know why I couldn't have just let him do his own thing. Sometimes my brain goes crazy and I wonder if perimenapause is beginning for me.

Monday was kind of a lame day for us because the girls all had runny noses and weren't feeling well but we did manage to make it outside of the house for some Burger King with Poppy. 

Tuesday while the girls were at school, I took my dad to see "Regretting You". It was a heavy movie with death and cheating and love...Poppy liked it and I got some good cries in. I am grateful mom watched Ruby for me so we could go. It was really nice to get out to a movie- it had been a really long time.

Tuesday night we were supposed to go to the temple with my parents to do sealings (it would've been my first time back in years) but life had other ideas. Apparently Poppy did not bring his temple clothes (there was some miscommunications) and our temple does not have rentals. And Tyler was sick and coughing. I thought it would be awkward for just my mom and I to go to sealings so I cancelled. Hopefully I can do a redo with Tyler sometime soon.

Wednesday night Lucy had her first volleyball game of the season. Her games are now at the lousy time of 8pm so I stayed home so I could get the sick Ruby down for bed. Unfortunately I missed Lucy rocking it out on the court. She had 4 volleys in a row between the other side and in the end she scored on them. I'm sad I missed that. It was a good confidence boost for her though (her serves aren't always so great) so she seems to be feeling more excited about the season.

Thursday while the girls were at school, Ruby and I went with my parents to the mall in Auburn Hills. I helped my mom look for some wide leg pants and she actually found a good pair- she is so hip ;). Then we had some Panda Express while Ruby played at the play area. Ruby who can be quite mean, was actually nice and allowed another little one to sit by her on the play boat. Usually she yells at people that get too near to her so I was glad to see her playing nice. After we ate lunch, we stuffed ourselves silly with some pretzels and then headed back home so I could put Ruby down for her nap.

Thursday night was Ben's soccer banquet. The invite said it was from 6-9pm but I was sure it would not last that long. It absolutely lasted that long. They don't have a very good system for handing out awards and they called all 22 varisty played up like 5 different times to hand out various awards. Ben was given a "paper plate" award of "most teachable". I like that award for him. I had been dreading the awkwardness of sitting by strangers that night because last year we ended up by people that were not very easy to socialize with. This year we got lucky and sat by one of Tyler's co-workers and I chatted with his wife for a bit. She works in education so we had some common ground. Then I met the other 2 couples at the table who had freshmen that were bench warmers like Ben and they had big families as well so they were easy to chat with. It was nice that this year we had good people to chat with at our table. Also exciting, Poppy had bought a raffle ticket and he won a $100 giftcard to a jewelry store. Not sure what he's going to buy with that but that was still lucky of him to win.

Friday was Halloween. We homeschooled in the morning and then Poppy took us to Burger King. After Burger King we ran to Kroger's to get a few things and it was insanely busy. Every line extended out into the aisles. Not the greatest but we survived.

We didn't do anything extra special for Halloween. I wasn't feeling ambitious in that way, but it was still a nice day. I grabbed pizza for dinner and Tyler and my parents went and visited Steven at Taco Bell. He apparently got to take his break while they were there and ate with them. After dinner, the Mays came over and everyone went trick-or-treating. I went down one street with Ruby and then let Tyler take over. I walked back home alone with my butterfly wings and I am pretty sure people were weirded out by a dressed up adult walking down the street alone, lol. I came back to pass out candy but Caroline had taken over and didn't seem willing to relinquish. I was kind of bummed because I actually enjoy passing out candy and seeing all the fun costumes.

Saturday was Lucy's 13th birthday! I can't believe I now have 3 teenagers. She woke up and followed tradition by opening her gifts and eating Lucky Charms. This year she got from us: a silly shirt, a Dr.P hat, skin care products, a jewelry holder, film for her camera, press on nails and a spa headband. My parents got her a jacket and $$. 

After her birthday morning celebrations, Tyler and I did a Costco run with Ruby and then I went to the Dollar Tree with the girls. It turns out all these places are pretty empty the morning after Halloween. It was really nice.

At noon, Lucy's friends came over for her birthday party- Geli and Claire. She had invited two other friends but they couldn't make it. For her party she went to Taco Bell, came home for cake and ice cream and then went skating at Riverside Arena. They skated for almost 2 hours. It was a long time and super loud and I was a bit overstimulated but I did get to read some of a book and people watch (there are a lot of interesting people at a skating rink). It was actually a really easy party and all the things Lucy loves so it was pretty perfect.

For dinner we all went out to Culver's with the grandparents. It was nice to have everyone together and the food there is always good.

That night Ruby needed a bath but was not very interested in taking one until I told her that baby Chad would take one with her. She was very funny with him in the tub- putting bubbles on him, having him play with her toys, washing him- she makes a good skeleton mom.

Three Cedar Farm and Ward Halloween Party

Sunday was the Primary Program. The girls had invited their friends (again) and they all came- Geli and Luna and Mimi's family. I was nervous about playing the piano and I let my nerves get the best of me and I didn't play the greatest. I made mistakes in each song but at least I never had to stop mid song and was able to keep playing. Mandi took over for me for the last two songs which I was extremely grateful for and she did great. However, my brain was still on an anxiety trip and I said the dumbest thing to her afterwards- I basically told her that I noticed her mistakes but I am sure no one else noticed. It was a really rude comment and I don't know why those words came out of my mouth. She honestly did way better than me. Ugh, I felt so bad and later sent her a text saying how amazing she is. Hopefully she doesn't hate me.

Primary after the program was insane. One of the counselors in the presidency came up with the game and I know she put a lot of work into it but it required lots of quiet sitting while others took turns and that just didn't work well. She gave each kid a turn to: ask a bishopric member a question about the talk they gave, choose a costume item to put on the bishopric member and then try to guess how each bishopric member answered a question about themselves. Each kids turn took so long and everyone was so loud and wiggly. It was overstimulating for me and it ended up taking the whole primary time and I was so ready to go when church was over. 

Monday after we finished our homeschool work we went to Three Cedars Farm. Julie had invited us to go and I decided to invite Mimi so that Penny would have a friend too. Well, Julie cancelled on us that morning (sick kids) and I kind of wanted to skip out as well, but since we had invited Mimi we kind of were stuck going. When we arrived, there was instant regret, it was soooo busy. There were lots of buses and the lot was pretty full- we had to park far away. But despite the crowds, the girls had a good time. They played in the corn pit for a little bit before they got too annoyed with little ones throwing corn. Penny and Mimi had fun riding the little trikes around the corn pit- it was pretty comical to watch. After that we went and looked at the farm animals and Ruby played on the little slides. A few of the slides had mud puddles at the bottom so I had to save her from a dirty bum. Next the girls got cider slushees and then climbed on the wooden train- they are all just kids at heart. 

Tuesday Steven's car decided to overheat on his way home from school. I managed to drop Poppy off with some anti-freeze to help him on my way to pick up the girls from school but unfortunately, neither one of them could figure out how to open the hood to put it in. After I picked up the girls, I went back to Poppy and Steven. I let Steven take the Squeak home because he needed to get to work and I stayed with Poppy and the broken car. I could not get the hood to open either- the safety latch on the hood was way hard to trigger. Someone was nice and stopped to help us but Poppy shooed them away since Tyler was coming. Of course, once Tyler got there, he had no problem opening the hood. He showed me how to do it but when I tried, I literally did not have the strength to trigger the latch. Apparently Tyler is stronger than us all. The car still had issues overheating on the way home, even with the anti freeze, but the engine didn't actually feel hot. Tyler thinks it might be a messed up sensor but unfortunatly real or not, the car shuts down when it thinks it's too hot. I really hate that we are always having car issues, it makes getting everyone where they need to go such a challenge. 

Wednesday was a bit of a bummer day. It started out with Ruby begging to take a shower with me and then crying the whole time. That is hard on me because my showers help me wake up and feel ready to face the day. Then I took Lucy to meet a friend at the Farmington library. Lucy's friend had to be dropped off because one of her siblings was sick so the mom couldn't stay. I thought we established she would come pick up Lucy's friend in an hour but apparently we hadn't. She sent me a text over an hour later asking if she should come pick up her daughter.It wasn't that the kids were super bored or anything, they were having a good time and that was a pretty good library, but I hadn't brought Ruby anything for lunch because I thought we would leave earlier. That meant when I got home, I had to rush to feed her lunch and get her down for a nap. 

That that night we had our cake decorating activity for the Activity Day Girls. It was raining and dark and I had to drive the Suburban which is already scary to drive- adding on darkness and rain was not helpful. It was not a fun drive. When I got to the church, I parked in the back of the church because I didn't want to park that big beast by other cars. I decided to try the back doors, even though they are usually locked, because I didn't want to get drenched in the rain. Lucy and Penny decided to run around to the front, because they didn't care. I figured they would let me in if the back doors were locked. The doors were indeed locked. The girls however, did not let me in. I stood banging and yelling at the back door and I swear people made eye contact with me but nobody let me in- not even Penny. I was in charge of the activity and had most of the stuff and I could see everyone waiting in the hall for me to come set things up. I should've just ran around to another door but I was stubborn (and hormonal). Penny eventually realized it was me banging on the door and let me in, and then I yelled at her in front of everyone. It was not a proud moment and the rest of the night I just felt awkward and stupid. I think though, despite my crazy, everyone had a fun time making butterfly cakes.

Thursday, while the girls were in school, I went on another walk with Kara. We talked about her mission in Thailand and how it changed her. It was a good conversation and I am enjoying our walks together. What's funny though, is we hardly converse when we see each other at church. It's like we're secret friends, lol.

It's been getting cold, the weather is changing, so I moved some of Ruby's things into my parents garage Friday night to protect them from the weather that is coming. I ended up making a "road" in my parent's garage for Ruby to drive her cars on but, honestly, Lucy had more fun turning it into a town and driving on it, than Ruby did.

Saturday morning the girls, my parents and I went to the mall. My parents went for the food (especially the pretzels and cinnabons). The girls were happy to tag along so they could also eat some yummy food and do some window shopping. There was a Hello Kitty Truck outside the mall that brought in a lot of interesting characters while we were there. I also rode the escalator up and down at least 20 times with Ruby while my parents and Lucy ate lunch. And we went to Toys R Us because apparently it is back and in the mall but it is not anywhere close to being the Toys R Us of my youth. It was just like any other toy store in the mall. And it had a huge section of calendars which didn't seem to fit the brand.

Saturday evening we had our Ward Trunk or Treat Party. Some before pics...

Grace came to the party with her whole family because she had been invited to judge the chili. It was so nice to have her at a church event, I miss having her to hang with at church. She sat at my table but was gone for quite a bit in the beginning to judge. Geli and Luna's whole family came to the party as well and sat with us. Cherish and Roberto were up a lot, wandering the halls with Izzy. I was up a lot wandering the halls with Ruby. Then it was time to eat and I rudely cut in front of my mom and Cherish so I didn't have to wait in line- totally worth it. Ruby ended up eating two cookies so that was pretty much her dinner. So healthy. She sat with Grace for awhile- I love that she feels comfortable with Grace but I hope we didn't disease her. Ruby has had a runny nose the last couple of days and has not been sleeping well. It's been rough. 

On a high note- we won the best family costume for the second year in a row. I was a butterfuly, Ruby was a ladybug, Penny was a bumble bee and Ben was a bug catcher. I guess they didn't care that our whole family wasn't dressed up in theme- Tyler had no costume, Steven was working and Lucy wanted to be a Minion. Tyler won an award for the most interesting/unique chili. He doesn't think anyone liked it because it tasted so different but I think he should be happy he won an award.

After dinner it was time for the trunk or treat. I set up a plank that the kids had to walk before they got their treasure (a ring pop). It was an easy set up and I think it ended up being fun for the kids. It was cold that night but not too bad. I think all in all it was a good time for everyone.