Things

Monday someone on FB was giving away a little pop up tent and I managed to snap it up. It is now obnoxiously taking up space in my living room but Ruby loves it. She also got a Peppa Pig House from Grace so she loves to sit in her little tent and play with her Peppa Pig House. 

Tuesday Tyler was off for Veterans Day. He was able to work on the bathroom for most of the day and got the flooring mostly done and the shower finished. We now have two showers again! Meanwhile Ruby and I had the exciting task of dusting all the upstairs lego shelves. It's amazing how quickly those gather dust. After I picked up the girls from school that afternoon, we dropped by Home Depot to get a couple things for Tyler. The aisle we needed to access was blocked because there was a man on a lift doing something. He gestured that we could come in the aisle but I felt very rebellious unhooking the chain to get in and then I had to awkwardly shimmy by his lift. Home Depot is just not my favorite place. Also Tuesday, I picked up some snow boots for Ruby off of FB marketplace because she has outgrown hers from last season. They are super ugly but she loves them because they are baby shark and they light up. She wants to wear them always.

Wednesday morning Penny had an appointment to check out her arm. It was a quick appointment. They took an xray of her arm and everything has healed nicely so the next step will be to take the rods out of her arm. Thankfully they will not just pull them out in the office (a horror story a friend told me) but she will need to go to the hospital for an outpatient appointment to get them out. They are aiming to do the appointment in the beginning of December so she can be all healed by Christmas. I just want it done before the end of the year so we don't start a new insurance year and have to pay a bazillion dollars.

Wednesday afternoon I discoverd a plethora a gnats in the boys doorway- they had been making a return in our house again. Turns out they were originating for Mariah's cage. Steven does not clean it out nearly enough so we did a major cleaning. Why is it always the boys room that gives me so much grief? I worry they will not survive when they don't have a mother to clean up after them. They don't seem to care much about having bugs in their room.

Wednesday evening Lucy had her second volleyball game. I wasn't able to go because I was home with Ruby. I am not a fan of these 8pm games. Tyler said Lucy played really well but a lot of other members on her team were not playing so great so they lost, badly.

Thursday night, Lucy, Penny and I had an activity at the church. It was combined RS and YW (&future YW) activity. The food was really yummy. Melissa was there for like 30 minutes- long enough to complain to everyone about her son getting falsely accused of cheating- and the she left. But that was Ok, I was kind of relieved when she left. There's always drama with her. I was happy to socialize with Mandi, Naoka and Sandra instead. After the food they had 4 people talk about the temple. They each gave what felt like church talks and it lasted about 50 minutes. Far too long for a Thursday night. By the time the talks were done, I was done and ready to go home but there was still a craft. The girls enjoyed the craft but I did not feel like it. I am glad that despite all the talking and the fact that most of the adults ignored the girls, they had a good time hanging together.

Friday morning we had our homeschool co-op. Ruby was feeling extra mean that morning and was constantly taking toys from Addie and Asher. She was a bit of a monster. Our centers didn't end up being big hits with the toddlers- the turkey theme was a bit of a bust- so mostly the toddlers fought over things and made messes. Afterwards Julie and I were on clean up duty so we took care of that as fast as we could so we could just go home. We have one more session to attend in December and then we will be done with this co-op. It just wasn't a good fit for us. The girls still didn't connect with anyone and they found the classes boring. It is nice that Ruby got some social but it's not worth the efforts.

Friday night the girls had a sleepover with some girls from the Ward. While they were away, Ben and I watched "Black Phone" It has too much bad language and violence and I am probably a bad parent for letting him watch it but... the storyline is good and I like the way things work out in the end.

Saturday Tyler was able to work on the bathroom some more and he got the toilet installed! I am so glad we have 2 working toilets again! Only thing left to install is the bathroom sink and then we will have a fully functioning bathroom. Also on Saturday Ben had another soccer game. His team is definitely an under dog and they really need some sort of miraculous coaching to pull them around because they lost 11 to 1. The other teamed scored like 7 goals in the first 15 minutes and then it got a little bit better until the other team got their final 4 goals in the end. It was hard to watch but Ben is really enjoying these low pressure games where he actually gets to play so that makes me happy.

Bronners

 Monday morning I had to drive my parents to the airport so they could go back to Arizona for the winter. I know they were happy to leave the cold but we are sure going to miss having them here- dinners, walks, tv shows at night with the kids, chess games, extra people to cheer on our kids- it won't be the same with them gone. After I dropped them off at the airport, Ruby and Lucy had a hair appointment with Grace. Ruby went first. She insisted on sitting on my lap and would not wear the cape so she got hair all over me but at least she didn't cry and fuss. She did really well (especially since I let her watch owl and panada reels) and her hair looks so much better- I wish I had taken her sooner. Lucy finally was able to get her hair trimmed so it was all one length and she can continue to grow it out. She is happy to be done with the pixie cut and always comments that she looked stupid with a pixie cut. I don't agree with her, I think she can pull off any hairstyle.

Monday night Tyler and I went on a date to REI. He introduced me to travel backpacks which is what he wants to get for Italy. They are really cool and I am intrigued, but they are also very expensive. I am hoping there will be some sort of amazing black Friday deal on them so we can get them without breaking the bank. After looking around at REI, we went to Shake Shack and got shakes and fries. It was a nice night out.

Tuesday was Election Day so the boys had off school and the girls had school on Zoom. Ruby and I left them to go on a walk with Grace. We had missed our walk last week so it was really nice to catch up on life. We both talked about how it would be nice to meet new people but we also don't want to go through the work of meeting new people. We also both talked about that feeling of something missing from our lives. Not sure if it is just a mid-life crisis thing but I wish I could figure out what would fill that hole for me.

Tuesday night Ben drove me out to World Market. They have these cool mini Torani Syrups that I want to give as gifts to neighbors and friends and the closest one was in Ann Arbor. Ben still needs night driving hours so it was the perfect way for him to accumulate some. It was a cool little store and they had the syrups so my errand was accomplished. It was also nice to get some one on one time with Ben. I got to hear about his classes and people in his life.

Wednesday morning Julie came over with Asher so we could plan our next toddler class. She always has so many things she wants to do but that's probably a good thing since toddlers don't have much of an attention span. Asher and Ruby played independently for most of the time and then near the end decided to play together and fight over Paw Patrol Cars.

Also Wednesday, Tyler took a half day off work so that we could go to Bronner's since Steven had a rare afternoon with no school or work.It was a really nice family outing. I read the kids Would You Rather questions that were Christmas/Winter themed and it was fun to hear their answers. I learned that they really like all our silly Christmas traditions- especially our graham cracker house party/It was also a good way to help the time pass more quickly. Once we got to Bronner's Ruby was excited by all the Christmas things and then even more excited by the ornaments they had of her favorite animals- pandas and owls. It was a tough choice for her but she picked a panda ornament in the end (with some slight nudging from me since we already have owl ornaments). Steven got a green Xbox Controller ornament. Ben got a marshmallow snowman driving a car ornament. Lucy got a Snoopy ornament. Penny got an Angel ornament (from Lilo and Stitch). After picking out our ornaments we froze our buns off and took pictures with the big Christmas decorations outside and then went to Wendy's for dinner. 

Thursday while the girls were at school I had a really thrilling day-Ruby and I ran an errand to Walmart and then I cleaned the house. She was not so great at Walmart but she was really good while I cleaned the house and entertained herself with toys. She goes through phases of being super independent and being super needy. I love when we are in the super independent phase.

Thursday afternoon I was going to help Kara with her baby since she had her appendix out Friday and was having a hard time lifting the baby. Unfortunately she caught a cold and cancelled. I was looking forward to holding her little baby but maybe I'll get a chance to hold her another time.

Friday, after a rough morning of homeschooling (Penny was feeling lots of feelings), Lucy had a birthday party with one of her friend's from Renaissance- Mila. They went goofy golfing and then they had pizza and played at the arcade at Chuck E Cheese. It had been so long since we were there! Lucy had to ride on the police car for Ruby. These 13 year olds are really just kids at heart.

Friday evening Tyler and I hung out at the Eakin's house with Grace, Jason, Eric and Nahoko. We played Worst Case Scenario- which was fun to try to guess how people would rate these bad scenarios- and then Scattergories- which was tricky for Nahoko since English isn't her first language. Then when we finished we just chatted. Jason wants to buy this nasty fermented fish and make all of us try it- apparently people gag just at the smell of it. Seeing how I hate sea food I was an automatic no but Nahoko is on board, lol. I wouldn't put Jason past actually buying it. 

Saturday I ran away in the morning to look at rain coats and packable coats for the trip. They are all so expensive, I am having a hard time buying anything. The trip itself is already expensive and I am not sure I can justify spending more money. It was nice to escape the kids for a bit though.

Halloween, Lucy's Birthday

Sunday Penny and Tyler had a musical number to sing while I played the piano ("I Know my Savior Loves Me"). Both of them woke up congested but I was determined to get this done so to church we went. Our musical number went ok- Tyler's voice had some issues with the congestion but I think he was on key for a majority of the song. After sacrament Tyler was subbing in as Primary Chorister and I had helped him prepare songs and activities. Lately my brain has been a little crazy and when he started to go off script, I felt compelled to go up and take over. I don't know why I couldn't have just let him do his own thing. Sometimes my brain goes crazy and I wonder if perimenapause is beginning for me.

Monday was kind of a lame day for us because the girls all had runny noses and weren't feeling well but we did manage to make it outside of the house for some Burger King with Poppy. 

Tuesday while the girls were at school, I took my dad to see "Regretting You". It was a heavy movie with death and cheating and love...Poppy liked it and I got some good cries in. I am grateful mom watched Ruby for me so we could go. It was really nice to get out to a movie- it had been a really long time.

Tuesday night we were supposed to go to the temple with my parents to do sealings (it would've been my first time back in years) but life had other ideas. Apparently Poppy did not bring his temple clothes (there was some miscommunications) and our temple does not have rentals. And Tyler was sick and coughing. I thought it would be awkward for just my mom and I to go to sealings so I cancelled. Hopefully I can do a redo with Tyler sometime soon.

Wednesday night Lucy had her first volleyball game of the season. Her games are now at the lousy time of 8pm so I stayed home so I could get the sick Ruby down for bed. Unfortunately I missed Lucy rocking it out on the court. She had 4 volleys in a row between the other side and in the end she scored on them. I'm sad I missed that. It was a good confidence boost for her though (her serves aren't always so great) so she seems to be feeling more excited about the season.

Thursday while the girls were at school, Ruby and I went with my parents to the mall in Auburn Hills. I helped my mom look for some wide leg pants and she actually found a good pair- she is so hip ;). Then we had some Panda Express while Ruby played at the play area. Ruby who can be quite mean, was actually nice and allowed another little one to sit by her on the play boat. Usually she yells at people that get too near to her so I was glad to see her playing nice. After we ate lunch, we stuffed ourselves silly with some pretzels and then headed back home so I could put Ruby down for her nap.

Thursday night was Ben's soccer banquet. The invite said it was from 6-9pm but I was sure it would not last that long. It absolutely lasted that long. They don't have a very good system for handing out awards and they called all 22 varisty played up like 5 different times to hand out various awards. Ben was given a "paper plate" award of "most teachable". I like that award for him. I had been dreading the awkwardness of sitting by strangers that night because last year we ended up by people that were not very easy to socialize with. This year we got lucky and sat by one of Tyler's co-workers and I chatted with his wife for a bit. She works in education so we had some common ground. Then I met the other 2 couples at the table who had freshmen that were bench warmers like Ben and they had big families as well so they were easy to chat with. It was nice that this year we had good people to chat with at our table. Also exciting, Poppy had bought a raffle ticket and he won a $100 giftcard to a jewelry store. Not sure what he's going to buy with that but that was still lucky of him to win.

Friday was Halloween. We homeschooled in the morning and then Poppy took us to Burger King. After Burger King we ran to Kroger's to get a few things and it was insanely busy. Every line extended out into the aisles. Not the greatest but we survived.

We didn't do anything extra special for Halloween. I wasn't feeling ambitious in that way, but it was still a nice day. I grabbed pizza for dinner and Tyler and my parents went and visited Steven at Taco Bell. He apparently got to take his break while they were there and ate with them. After dinner, the Mays came over and everyone went trick-or-treating. I went down one street with Ruby and then let Tyler take over. I walked back home alone with my butterfly wings and I am pretty sure people were weirded out by a dressed up adult walking down the street alone, lol. I came back to pass out candy but Caroline had taken over and didn't seem willing to relinquish. I was kind of bummed because I actually enjoy passing out candy and seeing all the fun costumes.

Saturday was Lucy's 13th birthday! I can't believe I now have 3 teenagers. She woke up and followed tradition by opening her gifts and eating Lucky Charms. This year she got from us: a silly shirt, a Dr.P hat, skin care products, a jewelry holder, film for her camera, press on nails and a spa headband. My parents got her a jacket and $$. 

After her birthday morning celebrations, Tyler and I did a Costco run with Ruby and then I went to the Dollar Tree with the girls. It turns out all these places are pretty empty the morning after Halloween. It was really nice.

At noon, Lucy's friends came over for her birthday party- Geli and Claire. She had invited two other friends but they couldn't make it. For her party she went to Taco Bell, came home for cake and ice cream and then went skating at Riverside Arena. They skated for almost 2 hours. It was a long time and super loud and I was a bit overstimulated but I did get to read some of a book and people watch (there are a lot of interesting people at a skating rink). It was actually a really easy party and all the things Lucy loves so it was pretty perfect.

For dinner we all went out to Culver's with the grandparents. It was nice to have everyone together and the food there is always good.

That night Ruby needed a bath but was not very interested in taking one until I told her that baby Chad would take one with her. She was very funny with him in the tub- putting bubbles on him, having him play with her toys, washing him- she makes a good skeleton mom.