Things

Last Saturday Ben and Lucy had a soccer game. Andrea and Steven came with me to watch. They pretty much drew the whole time and didn't really watch but it was nice to have company I suppose. During the game I was really surprised when they put Lucy as goalie, it made my mom heart pretty nervous because I kind of think she's afraid of the ball. Thankfully the ball never came her way so she didn't have to try and catch it. Later on in the game, she got picked to do a goal kick and she missed. But thankfully her team didn't rag on her and she didn't seem to feel too bad about it. For the second week in a row, Ben helped score a goal. He seems to always get one goal a game. However his one goal wasn't enough, in the end they lost: 2-3. 

Somehow Sundays still feel busy, even though I don't have a Sunday calling. That's probably because I spend the morning catching up on lost sleep. Then when we get home from church I try to bake something for the seminary students for Monday, there's dinner to make, a phone call with my parents and seminary lesson planning to be done. I suppose though, that's exactly the way a Sunday should be spent.

Monday I got a work out in, did school work with the kids, and did some purging in the basement. That evening Lucy and Ben had soccer practice and it rained the entire time. I hid out in the car and felt super bad for them as it downpoured on them. They came back soaking wet and miserable. Apparently not only had they got drenched but a lot of members on their team were being pretty bad listeners so the coach made them run lots of laps. Not the best practice for them.

Tuesday I kept myself busy while the kids were at school. I had a big load to drop off at Salvation Army and I had a hallway that I wanted to paint. The drop off of my junk was a little complicated. I went to one Salvation Army and there was a huge line, I just couldn't do it, so I drove 20 minutes to another one and then there was only one car in front of me. I think it was worth all the driving to not have to sit in a car line forever but it probably didn't actually save me any time. Then there was also the buying of painting supplies, the taping and prepping for painting, a lunch break with Tyler and I managed to prime the walls before having to go pick the kids back up. After dinner I painted the first coat of white pain and then crashed. It was a LONG day.

Wednesday, after I finished doing school work with the kids, I did another coat of paint. I had just finished the walls and was about to start on the ceiling when a reminder popped up on my phone- Ben had a dr's appointment. He had went to Defy with Andrea so I had to quickly change out of my painting clothes, go pick him up and then take him to the appointment. Thankfully all those places were close by and I ended up getting him there early. I was impressed with myself. Unfortunately he had to get 4 shots and that was pretty traumatizing for him. He was an emotional mess as soon as he heard that news but he did survive, with tears streaming. And I came home and finished painting the ceiling, made dinner and rushed Steven to an activity...only to learn that it was cancelled. The weather was windy and getting to the church building had been such a mess so I was not happy to find out it was all for no reason. But the wind had took out the power at the church so whatever.

Thursday was a rainy day. We had so many of those this week. I cleaned the house, took a shower and was taking a rest before picking up the kids when I felt like something was biting me. It was. There was a bug in my robe. I just don't even know. It was horrifying and I threw it and now it is in my room somewhere waiting to bite me again. Also Thursday we found out one of our seminary students who had been in class Mon and Tues tested positive for Covid. So we cancelled seminary for Friday and then we get to do Seminary via Zoom all next week which I am not excited about. I have no idea how I am going to keep them engaged, they seemed to be extra tired and unfocused this week- more kids with heads in lap and a few students with phones out. I think the honeymoon period is over and that does not bode well for Seminary Zoom. The Covid news also ruined the plans Tyler and I had to go see one of our student's volleyball game and another's football game. We figured going out into a big crowd after being exposed to the Covid wasn't a good idea. Boo.

Due to all the rain we had this week, Ben and Lucy's soccer game was cancelled for Saturday since the field was too soaked for kids to play. This left our Saturday nice and empty. I ended up running a few quick errands, going through a few more boxes in the basement, and starting to clear out our bedroom because I am a glutton for punishment and am going to paint it next. I really do hate painting, it is physically exhausting and so messy but the end result always inspires me to do more. This is going to be much harder than the hallway though since there's furniture and junk that has to be moved out of the way. 

Steven had his friend Max over that day and in an attempt to get them off the screens that they had been stuck on all day, we made a fire and did s'mores. But apparently Max hates marshmallows so that was a fail. Instead they sat outside watching videos on Max's phone. Eesh I hate portable screens. After we made s'mores, I put in this "fire dye" I had bought and it was really cool to watch the fire turn colors. The girls were impressed too but the boys, once again, not so much.

Also on Sunday we received a text from the Bishop that was not worded so well. We don't wear masks to church because we have been told they are encouraged but not required, Tyler is pretty anti-mask. I have asked Steven to wear a mask while passing sacrament but he won't because another boy doesn't so I didn't fight that fight with him. Anyways the text basically said he (Bishop) chooses to heed the counsel from the Prophet because he has a testimony and that there are blessings in doing so and the opposite is true if we don't. And he respects our agency but if we choose not to wear a mask Steven will need to be excused from passing the sacrament and we will need to distance ourselves from everyone. It felt very judgy and condescending. If he had just said hey, Steven needs to wear a mask to pass sacrament and if you guys aren't going to wear a mask we'll need you to social distance, we'd be cool with that. Or even he could just require masks and we'd wear them, fine. But telling us we don't have a testimony in the prophet was not cool. And especially doing all that over text was not cool. If he wants to talk about it and pass judgement I would respect him more if he did it face to face and allowed a conversation about it. Anyways, working hard on my pride and obstinate feelings right now. 

Booth Park, Soccer Game

 On Monday the kids didn't have very much school work to do so after lunch me and the 3 youngest kids decided to go explore a new park in Birmingham, Booth Park. It had a really great playground, some fun stone chairs with rocks to climb and a pretty little river flowing nearby. It also had a bakery a short walk away that we went and picked up some doughnuts at. I didn't realize the walk to the bakery would be all uphill but the kids decided it was worth it and didn't complain. It was actually a really nice outing. The only downfall was that a storm decided to unexpectedly and very quickly roll in and it was kind of a terrifying to drive in. The rain came down hard and fast and lots of lightening. I had to pretend that I wasn't nervous so the kids wouldn't panic but ugh, I hate driving in bad weather.

Tuesday while the kids were at school I went over to Corinne's house to help her out because she is still trying to finish house projects so she can move to Indiana (her husband is already there with his new job). I went to her house after I dropped the kids off (9:30) and... she wasn't awake yet so I left. At 10:30 she finally woke up so I went over and took her kids to the park while she worked on window sills. She is so worried about such minute details, I cannot relate. I would just put the house up for sale already. Watching her kids is not my favorite thing. One is into everything and the other lacks knowledge of appropriate social behavior but it wasn't terrible. After I left her house I had lunch with Tyler and then before I knew it, it was already time to pick up the kids.

Wednesday after the kids finished their work I told them we needed to get out and do something. The kids decided we should go on a walk to 7-11. I wasn't a big fan of this idea since their dad had just taken them to 7-11 the night before but if it got them out in fresh air it was worth the extra sugar. On our way back we stopped at the library to grab a few books and the kids discovered a giant worm, So exciting (gross!)

Thursday I was feeling down. I found out my sister in laws due date with her fifth baby is a day before Isaac's due date would have been and I was Marco Polo'ing with a friend that just had her 6th baby and I was just feeling like life is so unfair- all these people having babies. I still have my low moments. Anyways, that night I had an RS Activity and none of my good friends were going and I was regretting my decision to go but since I had signed up for something, I figured I better follow through. It turned out ok. I just asked other people questions and let them chat my ear off and tried not to think about my own muddled feelings. 

Friday we went as a family to watch 2 of our seminary students play soccer- they were playing against each other so we painted a W on one side of Tyler's head (for WLWestern) and a N on the other (for WLNothern). It was also a pink out game (for breast cancer awareness) so me and the kids put a pink "W" and "N" on our cheeks. We sat by the family of one of our students and had a good time. The dad is real intense about soccer and has all sorts of hand signals for his son. He started teaching them to Ben so Ben could help him communicate. It was pretty funny. The teams were equally matched and no goals were made until like the last 12 minutes of the game. Western won 2-1. It was a good family outing and a good way to support our students.

Home Again

Monday morning Mike, Lillian and Emmy all took me to the airport. Security went smoothly- somehow I actually got in the shortest line. At the gate they offered $400 to anyone who would get on a later flight. I was still feeling unwell and my ears were still a mess so I just couldn't do it. I wanted to go home. This time instead of being near the front, I was in literally the last row of the plane. That meant I didn't have to gate check my luggage since I loaded first but it also meant I was on the plane much longer. First one in, last one out. The man next to me kept giving me worried looks as I pulled down my mask to wipe my runny nose. When there was only an hour left I got a mad tickle in my throat and had a hacking fit that earned me lots more worried looks. I finally managed to stave it off with water and lots and lots of Ice Breaker mints. I was so relieved when I finally got out of the plane and could be sick without judgement. It was also nice to be back with my family. This last month has consisted of lots of traveling. But with this last trip I think I finally figured out what souvenirs my kids like and they all seemed properly excited with what I brought home (stuffies for the girls, a racoon skin hat for Ben and a block of pyrite for Steven).

Tuesday we didn't have Seminary but the kids had school. It was nice to drop the kids off and then have some time to catch up on life. I even did a little extra and cleared out some things from the basement. It boggles my mind that I have taken so many trips with my trunk full of garbage bags of junk to Salvation Army and somehow we still have SO much stuff in the basement. Maybe it's all these trips and souvenirs I'm buying...

Wednesday morning it was back to seminary and the wake up was hard. I am also struggling with articulating my thoughts. Ususally I script out a lesson format pretty good and it keeps me focused. But with lots of lessons to plan and morning brain...I feel like sometimes I ramble. I don't know. Hopefully the teens are getting something out of it. 

After Seminary I decided to go to the doctor since my ear was still clogged. After a one hour wait the lady looked at my ear, declared it swimmer's ear (I have not been under water lately) and prescribed me ear drops. Not impressed. After 2 days of ear drops and no improvement I decided to discontinue them because it felt like they were just filling up my ear more (also Ben accidentally knocked over the ear drop bottle anyways and I lost about half it). I think I am just doomed to be hard of hearing for the rest of my life.

Also Wednesday was homeschooling with this new hybrid program. The kids are still struggling to re-adjust to doing school work at home. They seem to think that they should only have a minutes worth of work and then they're good. It is frustrating. They really don't have that much work compared to what we did last year and none of it seems too difficult. They are just lazy bums.

Wednesday night we ran a quick errand to Hobby Lobby and while looking at some things, Lucy knocked a unicorn bank off the shelf and it shattered. I tried real hard to stay calm and the fact that the price was only $7 helped. I flagged down a nice lady and she helped us clean it up and told us not to worry about paying for it. We got really lucky. 

Thursday they were back at school and I was back to being productive. Then that evening Tyler and I went over to one of our Seminary student's homes to meet his birds. He has 21 birds (half of them are cockatials and the other half budgies). I kind of loved being around all the birds, very reminiscent of my days being a bird owner. Most of them are finger trained so that was fun and a couple cockatails hung out on my shoulder for a bit, also fun. There was some awkward conversations...the mom worked for the public health department and shared some interesting stories...but it was good to show the teen that we cared and get to know his life a little better.

Friday was our homeschooling day and the kids were done by early afternoon. They now have no more work until they go back to school Tuesday. I guess instead of light Fridays, we now have light Mondays and I am going to have to figure out what we do with our Mondays...Hopefully we start figuring this all out.

Also on Friday we went for a bike ride and as I was blindly putting away everyone's shoes,  I thought my finger had got stuck by a thorn.  I looked down and there was a wasp on my shoe! I was horrified, I had just been stung! I swatted at it with another shoe and it disappeared. Then I swear I felt it on me so I was shouting at Penny and asking if there was a wasp on me. Instead of looking she started screaming and ran upstairs. Helpful. Thankfully there wasn't and Tyler came up, found it inside my shoe and disposed of it. Stupid wasp.

Saturday Lucy and Ben had their first Soccer Game of the season. Ben was really proud that his team didn't lose- they tied. He also scored one of their two goals. Another member of his team also scored one of the goals for the other team so there's that. Lucy did a really good job running back and forth across the field but she never made any attempts to kick the ball. She's a lot like me. But maybe she'll get more confident the more she plays.

School Starts, Funeral

 On Sunday I gave my talk about the youth program in sacrament. I was an anxious mess that morning. Every time that I tried to practice my talk I felt out of breath and was struggling just to say a sentence. I had Tyler give me a blessing and said many prayers myself. Tyler at one point said to me, don't you trust in the blessing you were promised? And when I thought about it, he was right. I needed to trust in that blessing and that helped. When I got up there the Holy Ghost did it's magic and I was able to speak up, speak clearly and deliver my talk without any hiccups---just a shaking knee. I felt grateful for that blessing and grateful to be done. Lots of people said nice things to me afterwards and then our special speaker in our fifth Sunday lesson even quoted me. Made me feel good.

Monday was the kids last day of summer and their request was to have screen time all day. So lame. Before I fulfilled their request though, Ben had an orthodontist appointment. I was worried about this appointment because I tend to feel pushed into doing things I don't want to but I managed to be very forward and I told them we really didn't want to pay for a second round of braces and that we sort of regretted doing the first one. The lady didn't appreciate that but when she came back with the orthodontist, the orthodontist was pretty cool about it. She tried to convince me that we did the right thing with the first round of braces (which I remain on the fence about) and then she told me that Ben still had 9 more teeth to lose so he didn't need another round of braces...yet.

After the appointment the kids literally had screen time the rest of the day. It makes me anxious to see their brains rotting away but I did manage to get some things done around the house. And it gave me time to rework my seminary lesson for the next day since Tyler had went off plan that morning. We are still trying to figure out how to teach with each other. Especially when he goes off plan or interrupts my lesson with a long comment :|

Tuesday the kids started their first day at Renaissance Academy. They were both nervous and super excited to finally be meeting new people. My kids might be too social for homeschooling. We were in between printers so I had printed my s"first day" signs through Costco but they didn't come in time so I had them hold my tablet for the first day and then they got to hold the real signs on their second day of school.

We got to the school super early but the kids didn't mind because they are listening to a story they really enjoy- "Wings of Fire" which is actually a bit more violent than I like but...I also enjoy it. Then they were off and it was so weird because they haven't been in person at school for a year and a half. The house was so quiet. I did a workout with weights which I haven't done for ages. I took a looong shower with no one to interrupt me. I ordered groceries, folded laundry and did everything at a leisurely pace. It was really nice. And before I knew it, it was time to pick them up. 

They were all real chatty in the car and the girls had already made best friends and the boys had met friends and they all had a lot of positive things to say. Ben was the only bummer who was complaining that they gave him too much work and that he couldn't find his labtop during class. But he does have anxiety like me. That night I thought it would be fun to go out to dinner to celebrate the first day of school. We went to Chili's. I think all my kids have forgotten how to behave in public. They were pretty rowdy, kept getting up and then there was Ben burping and making weird sounds. Not the most fun experience.

Wednesday the girls had no work to do but the boys had plenty. They worked and annoyed each other (and me) all morning. They are not meant to do school work in the same room. Last year Ben was in one living room and Steven in the other. Wednesday they thought it would be a good idea to both work at the kitchen table. Nope. They were constantly bickering which made the work take longer. But they were doing the work without much help from me and that was a much appreciated change. 

At lunch time we went to back to school picnic at Heritage Park. I do not like things like that, lots of people and not one person that I know. Steven didn't like it either. He basically just hung out with me. But the girls found their best friends (who are sisters too) and Ben hung out with some friends he had made. Near the end someone came up to me and said hello and that kind of helped me break out and so I finally went over and met the mom of the girls' new best friends. Also Penny got her face painted while there, super fun.

Thursday was a long day. Seminary in the morning. Getting groceries and cleaning house while the kids were at school and packing. And then after dinner I caught a flight to Arizona. So basically I was up from 5am Thurs to 1am Friday. My poor eyes were so tired and ready for bed by the time I got to my parent's house. Besides being tired, the flight went smoothly. I was forced to gate check my bag which was probably a good thing and I was almost the last person in the plane since I had a row closer to the front but that was also not a bad thing. I ended up next to two teenage boys whose parents were behind them. They didn't bother me excpet to "show me" how to look at the movies (which I already knew)- do I look old?

Friday was the drive to New Mexico and we all piled into the car- me, my mom, my dad, Mike, Emaline, Lillian and Oliver. It was pretty uneventful besides me becoming Emaline's best friend. I'm pretty sure I am in the running for best Aunt. I also discovered that Emmy really likes to experience her food with her hands, even ice cream. It was super cute and super messy.

Saturday I woke up feeling miserable. I had had some drainage the night before and a bit of a sore throat from that but all that escalated and by Saturday morning I felt super congested and had a really awful headache. As I got ready the congestion turned into a runny nose that just wouldn't quit. I hated being sick and then taking my diseased self to a funeral with lots of people. I feel bad about spreading my germs. But my Aunt Ragena's service was really well done. The talks did such justice to her and there was a beautiful song sung. My brother gave a good talk and I got a little misty but when the Bishop spoke at the end he made me cry. I think it was just the fact that someone I didn't know had captured her giving and loving nature so perfectly. Which just went to show that she was truly this person always- not just for family. 

After the service there was a little luncheon and I saw some relatives I hadn't seen for awhile. And I tried my best to not feel too socially awkward (especially with my red, runny nose). After the luncheon, Mike had promised his kids he'd take them to a museum so we went to the Tinkertown Museum. It was probably a poor choice on my end to go. I was feeling super funky and my nose was still super runny and there were lots of people and that made it feel extra warm and it just wasn't the best because of that. Maybe sometime when I don't have a super fun head cold I should go back and visit.

After Tinkertown Museum we went to the Nuclear Museum but since I had been there back in April and wasn't feeling well, I decided to stay in the car. Mike didn't leave the a/c on for me so it was a bit warm but it was still better than walking around a museum and pulling down my mask constantly to wipe my drippy nose. I listened to a message from a friend and responded and may have fell asleep for a minute or two.

When they finished at the museum we went to Target to kill some time before we met up with family for dinner. Poppy was astonished by how fancy the Target was since it had covered parking and an escalator to take up to it. I got some Sudafed and the kids wandered the toy aisles and soon enough it was time for dinner. It was a big group- us, Aunt Irene & Uncle Charlie, Chris, Fred& Fred's boyfriend Ivin, Victor & Jolene, and their son Vander. We started out at one restaurant and then ended up at Applebee's because of the wait. Only Applebee's ended up making us wait over an hour for food so not ideal when you're feeling sick but I did still have a good time chatting (even if I was a sniffling mess) and it turns out my cousin's wife Jolene grew up with my friend Melissa so that was a fun connection. Jolene is pretty crafty and showed me a picture of this giant nutcracker that she made that I totally want. 

Sunday we drove back to Arizona. I woke up feeling less headachey but my ears and nose were still stuffed up. Thankfully less nose running. And thankfully another smooth drive home. But being sick while out of town is not fun and I feel ready to get back home tomorrow. And I am hoping the flight doesn't kill my already aching ears.