Saturday, February 12, 2022

Steven's Birthday

So last Saturday I went to the Favorite Things party and got some neat things- the game Rummikub (the kids and I had fun playing it Sunday), some really yummy smelling soap (it came with a soap sleeve that helps it lather), really fancy mascara and a microwave popcorn maker, and a fancy beach towel (it's supposed to keep sand off real well). The party itself was alright, not quite my people. One lady kept boasting about how wonderful her teen boy is and then they were talking about marathons they've run. I guess I'm a Debbie Downer because I like to just complain about how hard my teen is and I think marathons sound terrible.

This week in seminary we had a lot of kids absent throughout the week so our class was pretty small. Tuesday morning I had the kids do Scattergories to talk about adjectives to describe people. It got pretty goofy. When we hit the T's someone listed "tasty" (awkward) and someone did "enough" for the E's and we had a pretty good laugh at how I was enough, even though I can't make Marvel Kahoot's correctly. After the fun Scattergories we talked about how we can be described as Abraham's seed and then I asked them what the 3 P's of the Abrahamic Covenant were and that got pretty silly too because there's a lot of super fun words that being with P. So even though we only had half our class, we still had a good time. 

Monday evening we had a really exciting outing to Costco with the girls. Tyler became Goldilocks again, trying out their small selection of office chairs. The girls had fun with that as well but after a bit got tired of it so I took them to go play with the computers they had out on display until their dad decided he had finally found the chair he wanted. I guess that chair you sit on all day for work is sort of a big deal. 

Tuesday evening was Bunco. I have been really feeling the effects of early morning seminary this week and it showed during Bunco when I thought 11 plus 9 equaled 21 and rang the bell at the head table. Oh my goodness is my brain lacking these days. I ended up not having the least amount of points but I did lose the most rounds so I got a Hydro Flask, I'm so cool now.

Wednesday afternoon I took Steven shopping for his birthday gifts. He was just being so undecisive about what to get so I thought I'd give him a budget and let him get into the store and see what he really wanted with that budget. It was a long shopping trip because making decisions is a struggle for him and at first he was leaning towards some pretty junky stuff but in the end I think he did alright. He got 2 switch games (Kirby Fighters 2, Star Valley), a Zelda case for his Nintendo Switch, Here to Slay card game (I don't know why he loves card games, he always ends up fighting with his brother when they play them), and a Nerf Gun. 

Wednesday evening the Deacons had an activity at our house playing with Lego's. Tyler got to monitor that one while I took Steven to the church for his Deacon's activity. Personally I just wish all the activities would be at the church, it would make things less complicated but alas, I'm not in charge. My friends were also at the church so I got to hang with them but I felt a little off with them that night. Melissa has had a lot of drama with yw's lately but it's because she finally tried to push back against the yw's president. I guess I feel annoyed that it took her 6 months to push back, at this point the program has become leader led and there isn't much unity. It depresses me. When I got back home with Steven the Deacons were still at our home and it was chaos. I am glad that I wasn't present for the whole thing.

Thursday was Steven's official birthday! I can't believe I have a 14 year old. I can't believe he starts high school next year. I can't believe in 4 years he'll be an adult and in just 2 he'll be driving. Time is a thief. We started out the day opening his gifts. Although he knew all the ones we got him, the ones from the grandparents were a surprise (Cards for Humanity (Family Edition), and a Lego Set).


While they were at school I did my taxes. This always gives me anxiety but it never takes as long as I think it will. Now I'm glad to be done with them and glad that will be getting a refund. I was worried with all the stimulus checks that the refund would be crap but it's still pretty dang good. We are finally accumulating a decent savings and that feels nice.

On our way home from school Thursday we stopped to get Steven a cake at Coldstone because that was his request but he was such a stinker about stopping before going home (because he wanted to play his new games) that I almost didn't want to get him the dang cake. In the end he chose ice cream cupcakes because he wanted a variety of flavors. It was nice to not have to worry about making a cake for him this year but it was also kind of sad to not have our traditional fun cake photo.

For dinner we went to Olive Garden since "white noodles" are Steven's favorite. I really do love the food at Olive Garden- the soup, the salad, the entrees, all totally bad for you but oh so yummy. Afterwards we were all super full so we decided we would just save all the cupcakes for Steven's friend party.

Friday Tyler took Steven and his 2 friends, Max and David, to do a Teen Night at a VR place in Pontiac. They ended up getting about 40 minutes of VR time plus pizza and pop for about the price it usually is to do 20 minutes of VR time so I would say we did good. Apparently VR time requires quite a bit of exercise so they were all exhausted but I think they had fun, it's realy hard to tell with teens. 

While they were out having birthday fun, I took the rest of the kids to church for our Ward Valentine's Party. They turned it into a Family History Night so it wasn't super thrilling for the kids but the food was good. It was a potluck and I was by far the coolest, bringing Little Caesar's pizza (which was so busy that it was quite a feat that I got pizza at all). The beginnings of these parties are always the worst. I just feel awkward and not sure what to do with myself. Then a nice family sat at my table and so I was able to feel less awkward and converse with someone. Later Melissa came with her family and we joked that we were going to trade daughters- I got her teen and she got Penny. Her teen started calling me Mother and calling her mom Melissa. At one point she said "give me a fist bump mother" and her mom went in for it and she said, "no, not you Melissa" and turned to me. Burn. There was also the comment that her dad made that he would be happy to have Penny in his family because she probably eats less food. He's not wrong. We're such weirdos but I truly love my young women, they totally don't mind how weird I am.

After the party and after the teens finished their VR time we met back up at the house for cupcakes. They were pretty good- whipcream frosting and chocolate cupcake cups.




Today, Saturday, the kids are all hanging out with various friends. Tonight I get to go see "Hello Dolly" with Caroline while Ben has a bunch of friends over to watch "Spiderman 2". I have a feeling the house is going to get all kinds of crazy so I'm pretty happy to get to escape although I am not sure I am too excited about this play. One of my seminary students helped make the props and is in the tech crew so I'm just going to be supportive. Hopefully it turns out to be a good one.


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