Sunday, January 23, 2022

Visit from the Hatch's

This week the girls went into their school Tuesday afternoon to take their reading assessment (they passed) and all the kids turned in their work. It was a relief to get that done and soon we will get back to our regular school schedule. I cannot wait until I can drop them off for the day. It's been a long week of me feeling super frustrated and annoyed with the kids. I don't know if it is hormonal or they really are just this frustrating. At dinner that evening one of the things I talked to the kids about was their need for everything to be fair. I tried to talk about how fair looks different for everyone but near the end of this lecture I turned to joke scenarios and asked Lucy if it would be fair if Penny stole her boyfriend. Lucy kindly responded, "She's not even hot." BURN. 

Tuesday evening we went to watch one of our seminary student's basketball games. He has only come to seminary a handful of times and that was at the beginning of the school year. I really do enjoy watching sports in person, especially when I have a team to root for. His team did not win unfortunately- it was a close game up until the last quarter- but I think our coming showed him that we care. 

Wednesday we had a very light load of school work to do since we had turned in the majority of it and the kids still managed to complain. I spent most of the day trying to clean and get the house ready for Tyler's parents who were coming Thursday. It always feels good after a good clean, I just wish the kids could let it stay clean longer. That evening the kids all had activities at the church. When we got there the girls refused to go in without me (I had wanted to leave a message for my mom before going inside) and then they left a car door open as we were heading in. I was so annoyed and frustrated and overwhelmed with them so it was a really nice thing that they all had activities and I got to hang out with All my friends (Grace, Caroline and Melissa) who were also at the church- girl's night at the church ;). I needed that. I was glad to have some time to just vent about how much my kids were driving me nuts and chat with my friends. 

Thurday I ran some errands in the morning and then rushed home to get some food made before Tyler's parents came (banana bread for a snack, a bean salad his mom could eat for lunches). Of course my rushing was unnecessary. His parents went out to eat, stopped at a few shops and made it to our house about 3 hours after their flight had landed. I should have know better. That evening we had a nice dinner (where I made red sauce for the first time and it turned out meh) and then Tyler's dad turned on "Moana" and watched it with the kids. I was inspired to play one of the songs from "Moana" at seminary the next day, it the perfect ending to my lesson.

Friday Tyler had to work so I was the entertainer of his parentals. After the kids did some reading I took the kids and his parents to Belle Isle. His dad really seemed to enjoy the aquarium there and even though we had just been there recently, the kids enjoyed it again. Although the kids were much faster than Poppy Hatch who took his time reading all the plaques. Penny and Steven had both brought their own cameras and they enjoyed taking pictures. Lucy ended up taking my phone and was in charge of taking pictures for me. Mostly she took the fish but she did get one of her and her Grandma Hatch.



Our next stop was the Conservatory next door. It was a frigid walk there but nice and toasty inside. This one interested Poppy Hatch less but I think Grandma Hatch thought all the plants were neat. We were all especially excited by the bananas that were growing.



My phone needed to charge so we didn't take any pictures at our last stop, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum. Poppy Hatchwas real excited by the Edmund Fitzgerald stuff and from a plaque he learned that right around Lucy's birthday they do a memorial service for the Edmund Fitzgerald. Maybe we should go to that one of these years. The kids liked the icy lake outside of the museum and enjoyed throwing rocks trying to break the ice until they slipped and realized that was a little dangerous.

After Belle Isle I drove them by the Heidelberg Project so they could see all the "artwork" in the front lawns and so they could see downtown Detroit. They agreed with me that the art looked quite a bit like trash. On our way out of Detroit I had a little trouble not getting lost and may or may not have almost side swipped a car. Thankfully they saw me but that was bit embarassing. 

Saturday we took his parents to see the Christmas Story House in Cleveland. Tyler and I had been there before but that was before I had actually really watched the movie. It was a little more fun to me this time around and I think the kids and his parents enjoyed seeing it too. Also this time they actually had someone giving a tour of the house- she wasn't the best, a little sour- but we learned some interesting stuff, like most of the movie wasn't even actually filmed there and the main character ended up not getting any royalties because of a studio change. 











Our last stop in Cleveland was the Westside Market (Tyler and I had also been there before). Tyler bought some super expensive dried fruit that had basically been turned into candy, I got a strawberry shortcake treat, we got a bunch of Kale for guinea pigs, and the kids all got to pick out a treat which was (as always) an extremely difficult decision for Steven. I wish he didn't have my annoying habit of being super indecisive. Then we took it up to the ledge and took in the view while we enjoyed our food.





When we finished up at the market we had the almost 3 hour drive home and that was our exciting day out.

Sunday Ben was ordained as a Deacon and Steven was ordained as a Teacher. It was nice that they were able to have one set of grandparents there and Tyler stuck with the tradition of giving them his tie (he brought multiple ties to church that day).


I didn't take any pictures yet but they kids have put together 2 puzzles already with their grandparents and are now working on a third. Poppy Hatch claims he hates puzzle but I keep putting them out and he keeps doing them. I think he's just to ADD to sit still and I think we have ruined his life by not having the news channels he like to watch.

Also this week, Poppy Brady has been sick and having health issues. He's got us all pretty worried but he is currently checked into the hospital and showing improvements. He was stubborn about eating and drinking and taking his medicine and now he has to do all these things so I am hopeful this will help him get back to good health. We love him and want him healthy.

And ending with a funny story. I was complaining that my hand hurt from cutting a bunch of stuff for seminary and so Tyler was massaging my hand and I was making all sorts of awkward noises to express that it felt good and suddenly we hear Ben shout "What!?" Totally caught me off guard because I thought he was still upstairs sleeping but apparently he was hiding out by his heater vent.


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