Soccer, Ice Cream, Canceled Church

Monday was a rough morning. Both Ruby and Penny were having melt downs. It makes me want to melt down too. I had to take away screen time from Penny and that seemed to help her calm down for homeschooling the rest of the week. For those people who say they could never do homeschooling, I hope they know that just because I do it, it doesn't mean I am some sort of amazingly patient and good teacher with my kids. It's rough but I try to remember why I do it and hang in there.

Tuesday morning I went on a walk with Grace to the library. At the library when Ruby was playing near another toddler I told her to play nice and she patted the kid on his head. I guess that's better than stealing a toy from him or hitting him. After the library I went with Grams to Kohl's to return a wifi booster thing that Tyler had been trying to use so Grams and Poppy could better use our internet. Unfortunately it only worked for Poppy's computer and for some reason made the wifi inaccessible for Grams and Tyler. Technology is weird. 

After returning it, I got a Kohl's coupon, so I took Penny and Lucy to Kohl's the next day to look for jeans but they had hardly any. I don't know what is going on with the fall/winter clothing stock but I am willing to spend my money and they are not giving me any of the things I need to buy. Lucy ended up using the coupon to buy herself a Snoopy sweatshirt. It's funy to me that she thinks Snoopy is cool because I totally had a Snoopy shirt when I was a teen.

Wednesday night Penny had soccer practice in Milford and Ben had a game. Tyler took Ben to his game and me, Ruby and Grams went with Penny to Milford. I had thought about going to Ben's game after dropping Penny off but there was a chance of rain so the coach told us to stay close. Instead we played at the park and the library. I think that Ruby quite enjoys her time at the park because later in the week when we were taking Penny to her soccer game Ruby started talking about going to the park to play. She was very disappointed that we actually had to stay and watch Penny play soccer.

Thursday while the kids were at school I was supposed to meet in person a toddler mom in our neighborhood that I had connected with on Facebook. I had seen her walk by our home before with her daughter and then she had posted on facebook looking for walking buddies for her and her 2 year old daughter. I responded to the post and then had anxious regrets (especially when I saw her at the library a few days later and decided it was too awkward to say hello) but still, I really do want to make more friends for Ruby. It was disappointing that she canceled. Instead of meeting her, I had a melt down about the gnats in our house and then went on an intense cleaning spree. That was way less fun. My gnat melt down sprung Tyler into gear though and he changed out pipes and bought more things to kill them with. We also had an ac guy come and clean things out and I don't know what really did it- Tyler's work, my cleaning, the ac guy...- but since all these things there have been way less gnats around. I am really hoping they are on their way out permanently. 

Friday after doing our homeschool work, we took Poppy to the library. When we were done at the library it was lunchtime and Poppy was nice and took us to Burger King. Ruby really loves their chicken nuggets and apple juice and now the kids have collected all of the Scooby Doo toys ;)

Friday after Ruby's nap Asher came over to play. They didn't do a whole lot of playing together, mostly fighting over toys or playing in separate areas. Sometimes I think I am not "crunchy" enough for Julie. My kids are definitely exposed to a lot more tv things and teenage trends. She was making a comment how she was a little shocked that her young niece was so into "K Pop Demon Hunters" and she didn't think it was super appropriate and I was like...well Ruby likes the music a lot...I mostly enjoy hanging out with her and Asher but I also sometimes feel a little judged by her.

Friday evening Ben had a soccer game. His team won 3-2. Ben ended up playing for the first 14 minutes which was a bit of a bummer because I got there 5 minutes late. I did like that he played in the beginning though, because then I didn't have to stress about if he would get to play or not. I had bought a reusable sticker book for Ruby because I am constantly looking for ways to entertain during games and church and it seemed to be a hit. She played with it until the very end of the game when she decided to wander over to the gate and drop it onto the field. I was very lucky that I nice lady (I think the teams physical therapist?) was there and picked it up for me. 

Saturday Penny had a soccer game in the morning. I have mixed feelings about early morning games. I don't love having to get up early on a Saturday but it's also nice to get the game done so I can move on with the day after. Penny's team won again- 8 to 2. Her team is mostly just older kids(10-11), whereas the other teams are usually more of a fair mix between 8-11 year olds. I sometimes wonder how they would do if all the teams they played were older like them. However, I do think they have an advantage of having played together for a long time and they really work well together.

Saturday was our last day to get ice cream at Dairy Twist before it closes for the season so of course we had to go. Unfortunately, even with having a kid that works there, we ended up coming before it opened. Rookie mistake. But no need to worry, we went back later when it was open and boy was it busy. We waited at least 30 minutes before getting our ice cream. It was worth the wait though. Ruby enjoyed sitting on the table and stealing bites from everyone's ice cream.

Normally I save Sundays recap for the next week but this has been a particularly tough Sunday. Today was supposed to be the Primary Program. I had practicing the piano religiously for the last week- I was super nervous but so ready to be done. The girls had invited their friends Geli and Luna and Mimi's family. They had all arrived and I had explained to Mimi's family how our church services work and we were basically ready to get this show in the road. Then Tyler comes to me and says church is canceled and I thought he was just joking because he knows how nervous I get about playing the piano, but then it wasn't a joke. The Bishop was canceling church and telling us all to go home. There was a shooting at the Grand Blanc building- less than an hour away from us. They wanted to be extra catious so they sent us all home. I had to call Geli and Luna's mom and tell her what happened. She came back to get them. We said goodbye to everyone and then left and it was just awful and scary. Steven has friends from that building that he has met at multistake dances. He checked in with them. Thankfully they had attended church at another building that day. The details are coming out slowly but apparently the man drove his car into the building and then shot at least 10 people and lit the building on fire. They think they will find more victims now that the fire is out. Is completely insane. I know I don't personally know anyone there but I feel so heartbroken about it- it was just way too close to home. I keep telling my kids we can't live in fear but I also just desperately want to bubble wrap them and have them never leave the house again.

Grams Turns Wiser

Sunday was our first primary program practice. Besides my less than perfect piano playing, the practice went really well. Tana was the president for last years program as well and she has really gotten the system down. I love how she buddies up the younger kids with the older kids and has the older buddy help the younger with their part at the microphone. That is so much better than an adult up there helping. They also finally called a primary teacher to replace me so I guess I am just a counselor in the primary presidency and a primary piano sub. It's a relief but I am still not enthused by being in the presidency.

Monday morning we did homeschool and then I had to take Penny to a reading assessment at her school (Lucy had one to do as well but it was online). Penny came back to the car very proud of herself because the teacher had told her she had done so well. She is definitely my reader- she constantly has her nose buried in a book. Afterwards we dropped by Costco to pick up a few things. It was still crazy in the parking lot- I am so over them having half the spaces closed off for construction. Thankfully it wasn't too busy inside though. I ended up getting lunch for the girls as well because who can resist their cheap prices?

Monday afternoon, we had an orthodontist appointment for Penny. I wanted to try out another place to see if the price at the other place was fair. They were very nice there but they left my head spinning. This doctor wants to charge the same price as the other place but he doesn't simply want to do braces- he thinks she needs an expander again and that some of her teeth will need filing down to make more room. SO basically he would give us more for the same price but does she need the more? I feel like now I need to visit at least one more place before making a decision.

Tuesday after I dropped the girls off at school, Grace and I went to Salvation Army. Grace found me a cute stripey dress that I ended up buying. I also found a basic brown stripey shirt for me and a book for Ruby. I swear the last bazillion things I have bought for myself have been striped- I really like stripes. It was fun thrifting but by the end Ruby was done sitting in the cart and I feel like we barely made it out the door without Ruby suffering a melt down.

Wednesday was Grams birthday. To start off her birthday celebrations all of us girls plus Poppy, went to breakfast at Lena's Kitchen. Some of us had dessert for breakfast- Penny got s'more pancakes (and even though they were off the kids menus they gave her a massive portion) and I got crepes. Everyone else had more healthy things that involved eggs. Ruby is not the best to take out these days. She was not in to sitting in her high chair and spent a majority of the time sitting in my lap, driving me crazy. I have got to find something that keeps her entertained better because she is not into the normal toys I have been bringing and I really don't want to use my phone.

After breakfast we went back home to let the food settle. I also did some schoolwork with the girls. Then we made the drive to Cherry Republic in Ann Arbor so I could buy Grams some cherry flavored birthday gifts. The parking garage was a bit narrow and scary to drive in but we survived. Then we had a short walk to the Cherry Republic where everyone enjoyed a large amount of samples- the girls definitely ate more than they should.  I got Grams some cherry salsa and cherry chocoalte covered pretzels. I got the girls some cherry candy and Tyler a cherry soda. I resisted buying anything else because they are so expensive. Afterwards, we went to a couple of nearby bookstores. One of them was not very toddler friendly- they put the kids books at the top of a very steep staircase. They were also kind of sassy in letting us know we could have used the entrance that didn't have a step (we had lifted the stroller up the step). They implied most people already know that. Kind of rude to a new customer... Then it was back home so I could finish up school work with the girls and Ruby (and Poppy) could get a nap.

Wednesday  afternoon/evening was busy with soccer and church activities so we did an early dinner for Grams. I made her tortellini soup (her request) and then we sang to her so she could eat some of her strawberry bundt cake that I had made her.

After we ate, I had to take Penny to soccer practice. Grams, Lucy, and Ruby came with us. We dropped Penny off at her field and then went to Central Park. We didn't play at the playground for too long before Lucy and Grams seemed bored so we strolled the trails. Lucy saw a friend from school which is always a little awkward I guess. They waved at each other but did not talk to each other even though they totally were close enough that they could have. Then I took Lucy to her activity (that was also in Milford) and then we picked up Penny. And that was the end of my mom's very exciting birthday ;)

Thursday while the girls were at school I managed to do a very thorough cleaning of the house- I haven't done that good of a clean for a long time. I even dusted the lego shelves in my room and the boys' room. It felt good to have everything so clean but unfortunately we are still having a horrible problem with drain gnats and they are getting worse. They are spreading out into more rooms and we have tried so many tactics to get rid of them to no avail- traps, cleaning the pipes, putting stuff down the pipes, blocking the drains during the night... I hate that no matter how clean my house is, I have these awful gnats swirling around. It makes it feel so unclean.

Thursday evening I took my parents out to run some errands while Tyler was home to watch Ruby. We went to Home Depot, Michael's, Target and Costco and I think we checked most of the things off their list. We went to Costco to get mine and my mom's fav snickerdoodle ice cream sandwich treat only to find they were no longer selling them. We we so sad and we were just about ready to make a road trip to Iowa since they are from there...only for me to discover that Meijer's sells them. We went and stocked up there and I am hoping they also don't go out of stock their because they are the perfect treat at the end of the day. 

Friday morning the girls were back to giving me drama while we did our schoolwork. This makes me sad. We had such a good honeymoon period. That evening Mimi came over and Tyler and I had a triple date night at Grace's- with Grace& Jason, and Nahoko& Eric. Tyler ended up having to meet me there slightly late because he got pulled into a work call. We did an "Escape the Crate" game once he got there, we had gotten the game from my in-laws. It was actually a lot of fun even if I had to be a cheater and keep using the hints. Even with the hints, it still took us 2 hours to finish only half of the mystery. We decided to end at the half way point and maybe we will get together another time to finish the second half? I really enjoyed hanging out with these two couples. They are really genuine, nice people and they have a good sense of humor. It was a good night.

Saturday morning Penny had a soccer game. Grams, Poppy and Ruby came along with me to watch. Penny's team was pretty well matched with the other one but Penny's team still won- 3 to 1. Penny was pretty fun to watch as she played defense. She is getting better at being a little more aggressive. That evening Tyler, Ruby and me went to Taco Bell to get some food from Steven. It is always fun to see him at work. Some girl (apparently a co-worker who was just hanging out after a shift) went and asked him what elementary school he went to- she seemed a little flirty. I asked him about it later and he said she was sooo annyoing. Ha. 

Doughnuts!

 Monday morning my Ward had their first preschool play group. Unfortunately I just don't think I am going to be able to make it to the play groups because I feel like it would ruin our calm mornings. We do so much better when we can do our homeschool first thing in the morning and then I like to do my workout when we finish- otherwise I usually get to lazy to do a workout later. I feel sad that I am missing out on meeting the other moms of little ones at church and Ruby is missing out on making friends but life is different as a homeschool mom. I wish I wasn't the only homeschool mom in my Ward.

That afternoon we went on the hunt for fall/winter church shoes for Ruby and Penny. It was harder to find some than I thought it would be because Penny really wanted boots and they didn't seem to have them in stock yet at places. We finally ended up finding her some at Kohl's. Ruby also got some cute white shoes that had a little heel and insisted on wearing them everywhere for the next couple of days. I think she loved the way the heels sound on the ground. She has already scuffed them up so they will not look super nice when she finally wears them to church. 

Tuesday while the girls were at school Grace and I (plus Ruby) hit up some thrift stores. We were looking for paintings that we can spookify- it's a cute Tik Tok trend. I didn't end up finding anything I wanted to buy but she found something. I did find a cute clear backpack full of little dinosaur and animal figurines for Ruby though. She has really had a lot of fun with the dinosaurs. 

That afternoon I had to go in to get my permanent filling on the tooth I had gotten a root canal on. I thought this would be my last visit and I could be done with that place but apparently I actually need to get a crown. The dentist just knew I wouldn't have insurance for it because of paying for the root canal so he wanted to save that cost for the new year. I guess that's nice but I just want to be done with this tooth. At least the visit itself was pretty painless and the tooth isn't hurting anymore.

That night Ben had a soccer game at Northern and Tyler got to be the announcer. I actually managed to get both my parents to come and all my girls- probably because they were selling Chick-Fil-A sandwiches. Unfortunately we all turned out for Ben and he got zero play time. It was super frustrating. 

After the game I calmed myself down by finally finishing the puzzle I had gotten for my birthday. It was a fun one. Also, Chad (our skeleton) is back out and has been ending up in various places since.  

Wednesday after the girls finished thier homeschool work, we went with Grams and Poppy to get doughnuts at Longs Farm. They are seriously the best doughnuts.

Wednesday night Penny had her first soccer practice. While she was at practice Ruby and I went to Central Park in Milford. Ruby had a good time going down the slides and swinging. She is in a phase of talking about herself in third person- "Ruby go down the slide" "Ruby's turn". It's cute. Penny had to leave her soccer practice early to go to her church activity that night. When I picked her up, Penny was upset because she said everyone had friends but her. This seems to be a common complaint from her lately. The activity was kayaking. I stayed on shore while some leaders and the girls went kayaking. Ruby played in the shallow water and Caroline (who had brought Lizzie) was rude and encouraged Ruby to splash in it and get even more soaked- not cool. After the kayaking the girls had smores and thankfully, I managed to appease Ruby with just the graham crackers. I am sure her eating a smore would have been a bit of a disaster.

Thursday I had nothing on the agenda for when the girls were in school so after I took my parents to Home Depot, we all went for a walk at Proud Lake. Ruby was a bit of a pain. I brought the stroller but when I let her out to walk, she wanted me to carry her. Or if I didn't carry her she would just sit down and draw with sticks in the dirt. She did, however, have a lot of fun throwing rocks and acorns we had gathered into the lake. That was probably the best part of the whole outing.

It was lunch time when we finished up our walk, so we decided to go to McDonald's so Ruby could play for a little bit. Tyler was even able to meet us for lunch since it was in Milford. There was a very small slide there, but she absolutely loved it. She got a little territorial when she saw another little kid come in to the eating area by the play place but luckily we left before any fights arose ;) 

When Grams and Poppy got home for all our fun, Grams discovered a opossum in their cage they had put out. A bug guy had told them they had a raccoon living under their porch but apparently he was slightly wrong. Grams said the opossum looked sad and she felt bad for it but she remained strong and did not let it free. Instead she let Tyler drive it out to Proud Lake. It was a stinky critter and I feel bad for him having to be in a car with it.

That night I ended up picking up a painting I found on Facebook marketplace that I am going to spookify. It was much bigger than I expected but that should make it easier to add fun Halloween details. I am looking forward to that artsy night.

Friday was homeschool, house cleaning, a quick trip to a playground for Ruby to get her wiggles out, and a quiet night in. Ben had an away game that day but our family ticket pass only works on games at Walled Lake schools so we opted not to go. I seriously regret that because Ben ended up getting to play in the game for almost an hour. His team won 5-0. I am so bummed that the one game we didn't go to, he got a ton of play time. So frustrating but I am happy they gave him a chance.

Saturday morning Penny had her first soccer game of the season. Her league is made up of 8-11 year olds but her team is mostly on the older end since they have been together so long. The other team however, was mostly 8 year olds. Penny's team creamed them. I stopped counting after awhile but I think it was something like 10 to 0. I felt bad for those little ones they defeated. After the game, we went to the Milford Bakery and Grams bought treats for all my kids. They love the fancy cookies.

Saturday afternoon I went to see the newest Downton Abbey movie with my friend Stacie. It was a nice movie, with everything being wrapped up neatly. We had a very noisy audience that had lots of loud reactions to things happening so that was fun. Afterwards Stacie invited me in (I had driven her to the movie) and we chatted for a bit. I feel like I talked too much about myself and wasn't a great listener. But I also think she might prefer listening to me than talking because she thinks I am weird, lol. Who knows.

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.