Fender Benders and Things

My Labor Day was not too exciting. I went to Kroger's in the morning where Ruby made it awkward and stared down a cashier instead of giving them a the smile or hello that they wanted. Later I went on a walk with the younger 4 and Poppy to Subway for lunch. Of course Penny did not want Subway- because bread- so I walked down to Tropical Cafe for a smoothie for her and Ruby. It was a nice little outing.

When we got back from a walk we went to Skyzone so the kids could jump. Ruby was very territorial while we were there and would not let her siblings jump on the same "square" she was on. She is in a really frustrating screaming phase and she is going to make me crazy. The only other exciting thing that day was a quick date with Tyler at Dairy Twist when we went to pick up Ben from work. The ice cream there is really so good and I have been having a hard time resisting it as of late.

Tuesday was the first day of in person classes for the girls. Penny was really excited and I think it lived up to her expectations. They both seemed really happy to be back in the hybrid program with their friends. Lucy, surprisingly did not sit with Claire at lunch but seems to be making friends with a girl named Mila. I like that she is making more friends. It was also really nice to have a morning with just Ruby. We went on a walk to the library with Grace. My only frustration on the school front is that they both my girls apparently are unhappy with their uniforms because Penny says no one wears polo dresses anymore and Lucy felt too boyish in pants. Both requested what I bought and also, I thought uniforms were supposed to stop things like this from happening.

Tuesday evening Ben had a game. They lost 0 to 3. They didn't give him much play time which always makes me feel frustrated, but Ben did a courageous thing and talked to his coach after the game. He asked the coach what he could do for more game time and the coach gave him some things to work on. Since then, Ben has been taking more time to practice at home with Tyler and it makes me happy to see him have some drive for the game again.

After the game I had a Primary Meeting. I am really not loving being in the Primary Presidency. I feel like I do not fit in with the other members of the presidency. They do not understand my humor or my bluntness/honesty. I was very clear about things that I would not help with`but in my defense, I am also helping with a lot of things too. They also seemed to have a hard time understanding why young moms might not like a primary calling. Like it is crazy that they may be tapped out from being with their own kids all week and they might want an actual break. Anyways I would rather go back to just being a teacher and playing the piano but apparently bishop is not down for that (I gently hinted at it that following Sunday).

Wednesday morning it was back to homeschooling. I suffered a bit of a melt down in the beginning when I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and then couldn't find the solutions manual to grade the girls math work. Turns out they changed us from having a physical copy of a solutions manual to an online one. Once I figured this out I got over my melt down and homeschooling went surprisingly smoothly. I know it's just the beginning but they seem to be doing well with being back in hybrid. 

When we finished our schoolwork, I took the girls to Dollar Tree so Lucy could get a birthday gift for her friend (she just wanted to get her friend a bunch of stuff that was her favorite color, red). While we were there we found some super cute ladybug wings for Ruby and isn't she just the cutest?

That afternoon I got a phone call from Tyler asking if Steven had called me. I guessed immediately that Steven had been in an accident. I wish I had guessed incorrectly but he had indeed got into a minor accident on a round about. Thankfully, as you can see from the picture, there really wasn't any damage to his car. Another person had never been in a round about before and tried to make a left turn in the outer lane- she made the left turn right into Steven who was in the inner lane. The other driver definitely got the brunt of the hit and since Steven hit her, she thought Steven was at fault. She called her parents who insisted she call the cops because they were also sure it was his fault since he had hit their daughter. They all regretted that when the cop calmly explained and showed the girl that she was at fault. Since Steven wasn't far from home, I had driven over and was able to be there with him while the cop was there. I am grateful that the girl told what happened honestly and for a patient cop. The other driver was pretty upset about getting a ticket because she said her parents are Russian and very strict. I tried my best to be a calming presence which we know is not normally my thing, lol.

That night was supposed to be crazy busy but it rained and most of our plans got canceled which was really nice. Ben was supposed to work in the afternoon and that got canceled. Penny's soccer practice was canceled because of the rain. And the ym were supposed to have an activity at the park but then they got moved to the church which was nice because the yw were there too. It made my evening super relaxed and I was able to take my parents on some errands they had to do without any kids which makes things much easier. 

Thursday while the girls were at school I took my parents to Salvation Army so they could drop off another load of things to give away and also so I could so some shopping. Poppy was a little frustrated that they didn't take some of the things he wanted to get rid of. I was bummed because I really didn't find any of the things I was looking for.

Thursday night Ben had a soccer game. This time they didn't wait until the last 5 minutes to play him but they still only had him play for like 5 minutes. I do feel like it was slightly better than just throwing him in at the end though. His team lost 1 to 2. 

Friday we had our first monthly co-op with Julie's church- Julie and I are in charge of the toddler room. It went mostly as expected. The assembly in the beginning was rough to sit through with toddlers. The toddlers also weren't super cooperative with group activities (reading books and singing songs) so mostly we put out different "stations" for them to play at- books, puzzles, sensory bins, feed the hungry caterpillar... We also dressed up the kids in cute bug attire (wings, headbands...). The toddlers were super cute. We went outside for a bit and did sidewalk chalk and they "saved" bugs from ice cubes with spray bottles. We attempted to color some butterflies I made from paper plates but they weren't too into that. Overall it was fine, Julie just cleaned things up a little too quickly which made the end kind of drag a bit with trying to entertain the toddlers with the stuff packed up. I didn't really meet anyone, and neither did Penny. Penny ended up crying in the car because she said she got stuck with the babies (the table with girls her age was all full). Lucy said it was meh and that she talked to some people. I really thought Lucy would be the miserable one so I was surprised Penny was so bummed. I feel like I would agree with Lucy and call it a meh day. It wasn't anything too awesome but it was ok. I am glad it gave Ruby time to interact with other toddlers (Asher and Addie) and work on her sharing skills. I am glad it got the girls out of their comfort zone- I think that's good for them.

Friday afternoon Penny got to go to Mimi's and Lucy had a sleepover birthday party for Geli at a hotel. Penny got lucky and when she got back from Mimi's, Geli's mom invited her to join the sleepover so she could keep Geli's sister Luna company. Penny was thrilled to get to join in on the fun but Lucy was not happy about having her little sister there- even though Penny and Luna were in a different hotel room. Lucy really likes to have her friend time separate from her little sister.

Saturday was pretty chill. I picked up the girls from the sleepover and took my parents to CVS. I thumbed through magazines while they waited for the prescriptions. Then that afternoon Tyler and I went for a date. We decided to go frisbee golfing on a course by a nearby elementary school. I am not so good at it but Tyler...he went and lost one of my frisbees on the school's roof. There was another guy at the course who was much more experienced and made me feel self conscious about my poor abilities. This is why I don't like sports. I don't like other people seeing me play them. After we did frisbee golfing, we got dinner at Leo's and then we picked up Ben from Dairy Twist and got some ice cream. 

Summer Ends

Sunday I tried doing a fishtail braid for the first time on Penny and it turned out pretty cool. It's been fun discovering that I can do some fun hairstyles.

Here are some pictures of our Henna tattoos that we got done at the Renaissance Festival because I don't think I shared any in my last post. Penny's is stil going strong a week later but Lucy and mine have already faded. I don't think our artist used as much Henna. 

Monday was the boys first day of school. I woke up early with them so I could snap a picture. Of course Steven gave me grief about it, even though it only took 30 seconds of his life. Then he proceeded to get grumbly with me because I had to take Ruby's car seat out of his car. I get the impression that he only sees me as a nuisance these days.

Also Monday, I called the dentist about my tooth and told the office lady that my tooth was still hurting and I also told her that the dentist had said I would need a root canal if it was still hurting. She told me to come in so I did. I then told him what I had told her and without any xrays or looking at anything, he asked if I wanted a referral to an endodontist. I was fustrated that I had driven all the way out there and he had looked at nothing and was just going to give me a referral. Why had I had to come out just for that? So in my frustration, I asked him if he did root canals and he said he could try. And not thinking I said ok and then began to panic in my mind because I did not want someone to merely "try" a root canal on my tooth but I did not know how to cancel that request. Anyways, he numbed me up and tried and he did not succeed. Which meant I just went through more discomfort and a trip there for nothing. Super.

When I left, I called the endodontist and they said they couldn't get me in for 2 weeks and so I was even further upset because I really was over all this tooth pain. The endodontist ended up calling me the next day, just as I was checking their practices google reviews, which were not good. I was spiraling as they called and when they asked for more insurance info I said that actually I was going to go somewhere else because my tooth was hurting and I didn't want to wait 2 weeks. And wouldn't you know, they suddenly had availability that Thursday? Because I don't know how to say "no" I changed my appt to Thursday and continued to worry because seriously- their online reviews were not great.

Tuesday morning the girls had the back to school picnic. It was a lot more low key than previous years. It was literally just a get together with no activities or food. I hung out with Mimi's mom most of the time and we basically just chatted and followed Ruby around. Nahoko is a good friend to me. The girls seemed to have a good time with their friends- I had brought Claire so Lucy had a built in buddy the whole time.

Tuesday afternoon I went with Poppy, Lucy and Penny to see "Freakier Friday". I love going to movies, it's nice to escape from reality and eat junk food. The movie itself was ok, it was entertaining enough, but it did have some cringe parts- I just think the young boy crushing on the mom is super weird. It was weird in the first movie too. 

Wednesday morning Ruby and I went over to Julie's so Julie and I could plan our toddler class that we are teaching. Ruby and Asher played pretty well together but Asher had some drama with his trains. Julie and I got a pretty good plan for our class- it will be bug themed. We're going to read the Hungry Caterpillar, sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, freeze toy bugs in ice cubes and have them use salt to get them out, make paper plate bugs...and other fun bug things. The class will just be Asher, Ruby and one other toddler so it should be the easiest thing ever. Julie also took us down into her basement when we were there and it was cool to see her set up. She has a climbing wall, monkey bars, a slide...lots of cool stuff. But Ruby's favorite thing was a small trampoline. She really loves to jump and I might need to buy a little trampoline for Ruby to get us through winter.

Wednesday evening the young women had an activity at our beach. The weather was cold again. The weather has been so weird this summer. Since last week all the activity day girls got in the lake despite the cold, we kind of assumed the young women would get in too. So we got there a little early and Lucy, Penny and Ruby got in the water. I refused to go in and told Lucy she would have to look after Ruby. Well, only one other young woman ended up coming and she did not even bring a swimsuit- she was not going in. It was super awkward so after a bit I had my girls get out of the water and then I suggested that Lucy and the other girl come to my house to play games on the Nintendo Switch. It was a good suggestion because it seemed to break the ice and they had a lot of fun playing on the Switch. Meanwhile I chatted with the leaders. One of them has a daughter that just got engaged so we talked about the wedding planning. And the other one has a kid on the soccer team so we talked about the frustration of our kids not getting play time (even though her kid gets more time than mine).

Thursday morning all us girls plus Poppy and Grams went to Ikea. There were a couple things I wanted their for Ruby's sensory table and there were some things that Grams and Poppy wanted to look at. Ruby was being very much a toddler and causing me grief because she did not want to sit in the cart- she wanted to stand. Ruby was also in love with laying down on all the toddler beds and did not want to leave that section. Poppy spoiled us and bought us all lunch at Ikea and then he spoiled Ruby and got her a bumble bee doll that she had grabbed- it will be a nice addition to the bug themed class Julie and I are doing. Penny and Lucy had fun posing at the Halloween themed selfie spot.

After our trip to Ikea, I had to go in for my dreaded root canal. It was probably even worse than I expected. It felt very aggressive when he was cleaning out the roots- more like he was sawing down a tree than dealing with a delicate root. There were several times he said I would feel a pinch and it was more like a stab wound. I also had the joy of nasal drainage the whole time which made me feel like I was going to suffocate, choke, die...At one point I started coughing which is really difficult when they have your mouth propped open with a wedge and a rubber cover behind your teeth. It was the longest hour ever BUT on the bright side my tooth has made a marvelous recovery and felt brand new by the next day.

That evening we went to Ben's soccer game. It downpoured right before the game so we thought we were going to get soaked but thankfully it stopped when we got there. It is so hard for me to go to Ben's games and not feel frustrated by how little time he put out on the field. The other people that play defense are really not that much better than him and they are always playing freshman over Ben. I have tried to talk to Ben about asking his coach what he can do to get more play time in games but he says he can't do that. I really wish he would because I don't think the coaches have a good enough reason to not be playing him but I really don't want to be "that" mom and go talk to the coaches myself. All that said, he got to play the last 5 minutes of the game (they always put him out in the end) and this time they put him out as a striker- a totally new position for him. I am not sure what they are thinking in general about Ben but sometimes I really want to go all Karen on them. Oh well, Ruby had a good time. Ruby had refused to eat the dinner I had made that night and then was hungry at the game so Tyler bought her pizza which totally made her night.

Friday the boys had no school and no work in the morning so I decided to use our Dave and Buster gift cards that we had gotten for Christmas. Steven gave me grief about going which was really frustrating- I was trying to create some positive memories with this kid, and it's a fun place for teens. I wasn't asking him to go shopping for Pete's sake. Anyways, 10 minutes before we were planning to head out, he hopped into the shower. Further frustrating me because it felt like he was trying to get out of going. Surprisingly he only took a quick shower and made it out in time to go with us. Each kid got $33 to play with. Steven blew through is card in like 40 minutes but the other kids took at least a half an hour more. They all seem to gravitate towards games that give them big wins- they like racking up tickets. Lucy and Ben are really good at knocking down the clown pins.  The only game there that Ruby really played was Skeeball and even that, she basically just threw the ball on the ramp and then had me rethrow it for her. At the end they wanted to put their tickets together to get Ruby something but we do not need any more stuffies so I told them to just get their own stuff. Of course it was all just junk...Ben got a rubber chicken, Ruby got a squishy llama, Steven got candy, Lucy got a squishy ball and Penny got some candy. Ruby wanted a lollipop but I didn't have enough tickets for one. The lady was nice and just gave it to her. 

Saturday morning Poppy, Grams, Penny, Ben, Ruby and me went to Yates Cider Mill. We got some doughnuts and cider and then went and sat in the car to eat them so we didn't get swarmed by bees. Then we went on a walk down the river. It was a beautiful morning and Ruby was excited to see some "quack quacks" in the river. Afterwards Grams and Poppy went to get some treats to take home and Ruby, Penny and Ben went to look at the goats. Ben and Penny helped Ruby find goat food that people had dropped so she could feed them without us having to buy food. We are cheapskates, lol.

 

By the time we finished at the cider mill it was lunchtime so we went Culvers. Ruby has been such a toddler lately and just wanted to eat french fries and ice cream, but I did manage to get her to eat some of her grilled cheese sandwich. She is spoiled.

Saturday afternoon we had a bbq at the Bloomfields. It ended up just being us, the Bloomfields and a few people from the May family. The Eakins had flaked out and half the Mays were out of town at a bagpipe competition. It wasn't the most exciting bbq but the food was good. Ruby fussed most of the time because she wanted to play on the trampoline with the big kids but they did not want her there. I miss the days where I could just sit and chat with adults while my kids play. Toddlers are exhausting.

Renaissance Festival

Monday I spent the morning running errands with Grams and Poppy and the girls tagged along. First we went to Hobby Lobby so Penny could pick out her birthday gifts from my parents. My mom also got Ruby a mini waterbottle because she couldn't resist. It's cute to watch Ruby drink from it.

 

Then we went to Walmart so my parents could get various household things and groceries. Lucy also found this really cool Harry Potter Potions set on clearance and bought it and then spent the afternoon making it.

Our last stop was Costco. By that time it was lunch time so I picked up some pizza slices and hot dogs for us. Thankfully Costco wasn't too busy while we were there but it was still busier than I like. 

That evening Ben had his first soccer game of the season. It was an away game so only Tyler went. Unfortunately, Ben did not get any play time and his team lost. I was hoping as a sophomore he might get a little more time but it's not looking that way. I am a little frustrated that the freshman are getting more time than him but I am not allowed to say anything to the coaches.

Tuesday was busy with baking and making things. I was bringing food to a family in the ward and getting things ready for Penny's party. So I baked a cake and some cookies and put together a Candy Land "game board" in my parent's garage. I hate bringing food to other people because I doubt my cooking/baking abilities. I made meatloaf because she said her kids loved it but then I worried that it was too greasy and possibly undercooked for the rest of the night. Anxiety is stupid.

Wednesday was Penny's Birthday. She opened her gifts first thing, as per tradition. It was nice to have Grams and Poppy there to watch her open them. From us she got a kid's Kindle and some Stitch clothes for her doll. From my parents she got a Lilo and Stitch bracelet kit, a doggy fashion book, and Lilo and Stitch lip stuff. From Lucy she got slime. And from Tyler's parents she got 2 silver coins. 

After the present opening, I was able to go on a walk with Grace and Ruby to the library. The weather cooled off this week so it felt good to be outside and therapeutic to vent about life with my friend. Then for lunch my parents and I took Penny to Wendy's. We left the other kids at home and let it be her special outing. I think she appreciated the extra attention and she certainly appreciated the frosty.

After lunch we had Penny's party. She had 6 friends come- Lyla, Anna, Lara, Geli, Luna and Mimi. It was a candy themed birthday party. I figured it was going to be loud and the activities would go quickly and both those things were true. The girls all colored pictures of candy as they arrived. Ruby joined them in the coloring but then it was time for her to take a nap.

After the coloring we made a candy salad. I had the girls say something they liked about Penny as they put candy in the bowl and then Penny said something nice about each of them when she put her candy in. It was one of my favorite moments of the party. Happy and always smiling seemed to be a common compliment from them to Penny.

The next activity was a matching game. I put Dum Dums under bowls and they had to try to match flavors. It went super fast in the first round and the matches were actually all mixed up. It was like they all had peeked under the bowls or something. We ended up playing another round but then they started helping each other so it still went pretty quickly. 

Our next activity was taste testing Skittles. They were blind folded and had to guess what color Skittle they had. They each took 2 turns but in the end only a couple people guessed correctly- and only once each. It is interesting how hard it is to guess a Skittles flavor.

After that the girls used candy to make art on a graham cracker. Some girls tried hard and made beautiful things and some girls just threw candy on a graham cracker. Surprisingly my girls were more in the realm of throwing candy on a graham cracker.

When we finished making candy art, we went over to my parent's house to play my "live action" Candy Land game. I failed to take a picture of my set up but I had taped construction paper in a path on the ground and had lollipops (made from paper plates) in a few buckets around the path. The girls each had a die with colored sides and they rolled it to determine where they went each round. If they landed on a red square, they got candy jewelery (bracelet, necklace and ring). It was very chaotic but I think they had a good time. Lyla made it to the end first so she got a real giant lollipop. I had the girls do a group pose in my parent's garage before we went back to my house. 

 

At my house we had cake and ice cream and then Penny opened her gifts. She got skincare stuff from Lara and Anna (I don't know why 10 year olds think they need skin care but she loved it). Lyla gave her an awesome Stitch hat and her favorite candy. Mimi got her various Stitch themed things. Geli and Luna got her Target giftcards and stuffies. She loved everything. 

 

After the present opening, I had no more activities planned so they had about an hour to do what they wanted. They played a card game, played on the Switch and ran outside doing who knows what. Then parents came and I got to chat with them for a bit before they all headed out.

Wednesday night we had Activity Days at our beach and it was much too cold for a beach day in my opinion but the girls still got in. One of the leaders was brave and got in with the girls. I was so grateful for her. I really did not want to get in. Another mom had her toddlers there and was forced in...fully clothed. Such a bummer for her. Near the end Penny started feeling sick and wanted to go home. I think she had had a bit too many sweets for the day and maybe a swim in cold water did not help her tummy. It was kind of a bummer way to end her birthday.

Thursday morning I got a call from Sharon. Her car had broken down at the hospital (she had taken her husband there for an ultrasound). She was hoping Tyler could come look at it but he had gone in for work that day. Instead she asked if I could pick her up. I was a little anxious about giving her a ride because she is super judgy and my car is a mess, but it turned out ok. I could tell she was really down and I was glad I could help. I ended up waiting about a half an hour with her and then a waited a little longer with her husband while she talked to the company that came to tow her car. Her husband rarely talks to me but he was actually pretty chatty about pain meds of all things but it was a nice change to the quiet.

After helping out Sharon, I ran some errands with my mom and the girls. Our first stop was Salvation Army. We dropped off some things from my parent's home and then went inside real quick to look for a sweatshirt for Lucy. At check out we had a worker that was obsessed with trying to get Ruby to smile and say hello to her. Ruby would not cooperate and it sure made things awkward. Then we went to Home Goods and Bath and Body Works. Grams was nice and spoiled the girls with some lotion and got me a candle. We are grateful for her sharing her gift cards with us. After that we went to the girls school to pick up their books. I felt really silly because I didn't see their bag of books at first and thought it was missing. It was really me just being dumb and assuming that the books behind one bag belonged to the same family so I didn't even look. I felt like an idiot but glad it got sorted. Claire's mom was there and I talked to her about the volleyball program Claire is in because Lucy has talked about wanting to do it with Claire. It involves travel and I don't think that we have time for that because the volleyball season coincides with soccer. She suggested another one that is from Jan-April but it costs $1200 so I think not. 

That night Ben had another game and we all went to that one (except for Steven). I ended up getting a family pass so we can attend all the walled lake games and Grams and Poppy get in free because they are old. It was another bummer game. His team did not win and he only got like 7 minutes of play time.

Friday morning I ran the girls to Target so Penny could use the giftcard she got for her birthday. She ended up buying a "live" bunny which Ruby immediately wanted to steal for herself. She also bought some blue tooth headphones so she can listen to audio books on her Kindle. 

Friday night Ben was working at Dairy Twist so Grams, Poppy, me, Tyler, Ruby and Penny went to get ice cream there (Lucy and Steven were at the temple). Ben actually made me and Poppy's banana split so I felt pretty special. It is always fun to see my boys working. Ruby shared a banana split with Tyler and made a big mess of both of them. 

Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival as per tradition. Steven had to work so he didn't join us and Poppy wasn't interested in going but the rest of us went, including Grams. The weather was overcast which actually was perfect. It never got too hot, although Grams thought it was a little too cold at times and almost needed to buy a cloak. We did get a little sprinkled on a couples times but nothing serious. The boys enjoyed looking at expensive weapons and eating turkey legs. The girls enjoyed all the girly things- they made fairy wands, fairy potion, got sprinkled with fairy dust and got henna tattoos. Lucy got a mushroom and Penny got a sea turtle. I even got one- a Christian fish on my wrist. I am just so religious. We also saw the mermaids, and caught pieces of various variety shows, the kids all played a turtle game (which I had to help the girls cheat a bit so that they could finish it), we walked through a viking village and we watched the jousting. It was a good time as always.