Decked Out Detroit

Sunday we had stake conference. I was going to ditch and just watch it from home with Ruby but at the last second I guilted myself into going. I wish I hadn't. We sat by Mariah's family so I had to keep on my kids to not rile up her kids. Then Ruby's schedule got all mucked up and she slept horribly that night. And the talks were not super uplifting. We had one lady who spent at least 15 minutes talking about the whole experience of being asked to speak. Way more details than needed. It just felt like I probably should have followed my first instinct to watch it from home. 

On Tuesday Ruby had her 4 month doctor's appointment. She is a whopping 15 pounds now, growing beautifully! I love the doctor and the nurses there but was not thrilled about being there for over an hour because of waiting. I seem to have bad luck in the waiting dept with appointments lately. We were getting close to nap time so Ruby was getting fussy near the end. Ruby also did not react well to her 3 shots. She took her nap when we got home but then she woke up very upset. She was super sensitive to any movement or touching of her legs for the rest of the day and into the night. That night I had a zoom meeting about early enrollment into College for Steven and Ruby was a pretty noisy partner during it. We still haven't 100% decided to enroll Steven in this program. It'll be hard for him to keep up with extracurriculars and it'll delay his mission and I can't decide if it's worth it... I really want him to make the decision but he is so blah about big decisions. 

Wednesday after the kids did school work I ran a couple errands with the girls and we encountered a "Karen". I was in line at Target returning diapers that Ruby had grown out of when Lucy realized she had forgotten her purse in the car. She really wanted to buy something so I told her that she could go get it, as long as her and Penny stuck together. Just as I finished up the return the girls came huffing and puffing back in. Behind them was a "Karen" who started shouting at them. She told the girls that they needed to be more careful because she almost ran them over twice. She also told them that she had rolled down her window and told them to stop and they hadn't listened. And according to the girls she also got out of her car yelling at them but they just walked away. Which honestly was probably a smart move because I wouldn't want them to be alone outside with an unknown Karen. Honestly, I know they are not always smart about looking both ways but almost running them over twice? How does one do that in a parking lot? Like once she saw them, shouldn't she have been aware of them? And Lucy isn't exactly short. I also don't love that she was yelling at my kids. I would rather she had just talked to me and asked me to talk to them about safety. The whole situation was super uncomfortable and totally deflated the girls excitement to shop at Target. 

Wednesday night Lucy had a volleyball game. Mariah and her kids came to watch too. Tyler was at church activities with the rest of the kids so it was nice to have company. Lucy's team won 2 out of the 3 matches. Lucy was sometimes really awesome at diving for the ball and serving and sometimes not so much. Just have to work on her consistency.

Thursday was the first time in a long time that I didn't have a massive to-do list to accomplish while the kids were at school. It was so nice to have a chill at home day. I was able to take a long shower for once. I was also able to do some cleaning in the girls and boys room where they tend to both harbor trash. And I even began the present wrapping. 

Friday after school work we went on a fun outing to The Monroe Street Midway in Detroit. Steven had plans with a friend so he ditched us. There was a lot of free things to do on Monroe Street and also some not free things to do and we did a little of both. We started off going down the free "artic slide". After that we did the free Puck-Putt which was like minature golf but hockey style. It was more tricky than I expected. I was not great at it but Ben got himself a hole in one at one of the holes. After that the kids played on the teeter toters and the swings. Then we went into the warm arcade tent and that's where we spent some money. I think it was worth the money though because the kids really had a blast. The games were pretty cool. The game would take their pics and put them on the screen with their car or score or whatever they were playing. We did some basketball, skee ball, racing games, air hockey...It was fun watching everyone get real competitive and giggly with each other. When we used up all our points, the kids did the slide again and then we got some hot chocolate and doughnuts. After we finished our treats we were headed out but this super hyper lady had the kids go in this "virtual portal." It was apparently just a person talking about other countries. Glad I missed that and instead hung out with Ruby. The last thing we did was check out the big Christmas tree by Campus Martius. 

Saturday morning we found out Mariah was in the hospital having an emergency c-section. Her sweet baby was born 7 weeks early, weighing 2lbs 6oz. So itty bitty. Her in-laws happened to be in town so they took care of her kids and she wasn't up to visitors. So far her and baby are doing ok. Baby just has to go to the NICU because he is so small. Such a scary situation. Meanwhile we went to see Mariah's daughter's ballet recital. It was adorable but not super synchronized, lol. 

Saturday night we had a plethora of kids over for a "Home Alone" night. We had pizza, watched the movie and then pigged out on ice cream sundaes. After the movie, the kids came up with their own battle plans for protecting thier house from an attack. They had a lot of fun with that. 

And we will end with a pic of the girls at school and a pic of Ruby making rude hand gestures.