Apples, Milford, Walk, Party

We had Monday morning with Tyler's parents, they flew back to Arizona that afternoon. And of course that morning was the coldest morning ever. With Covid and freezing weather that really limited our options to do anything fun. We ended up taking them to the market at Spicers and we bought some apples and doughnuts. We had thought about doing the corn maze but with temperatures in the 20's it did not feel like a good idea. So we ate our doughnuts (while shivering) and then headed out. While at the market Lucy used her money to buy herself and her sister a stuffie. That was very nice of her. Ben also used his money to buy stick candy (as if he didn't already have tons of candy from trick or treating :/.

On our way home we stopped at Milford and Leslie and I and all 4 kids went into some of the shops. The kids actually did fairly good at not touching all the things. We didn't buy anything but I did find some fun things that I would not mind getting for Christmas. We also had to take a picture by the giant pumpkin that Palate always has.

For lunch we went to Culver's. Michigan has a new law that you have to give contact information to places you are at to track people who get Covid. I don't love that but I am too honest and gave them all my correct information. Other than that we had a nice meal.

We spent the last couple hours with them chatting around the kitchen table. Tyler and his dad spent time talking about Tyler's grand ambitions for renovating the bathroom upstairs. This led to some contention between Tyler and I, mostly because there are other things that I would rather have done around the house and I was a pretty bad dream killer. Also, while visiting around the table, Tyler's dad had a heart to heart with the guinea pigs. The kids thought that was hilarious so I did my best to document it.

Sadly it was back to Arizona for his parents Monday afternoon and back to real life for us. This meant catching up on all the things I had been slacking off on the previous few days.

The rest of the week was more of the same old same old. Homeschooling everyday. Still going pretty well. Young Women's meeting at the Bishop's house Tuesday night. I dropped off a smoothie for my friend Jessica Wednesday for lunch- conversation felt a little stilted, not sure why. Then that night a young women's activity at the church building- which felt a little weird since we haven't had an activity there in sooo long. We wrote letters to missionaries and the girls shared their favorite scriptures- it was a nice chill activity.

The weather really warmed up after Monday so on Thursday we went on a nature walk at Proud Lake with the Mays. Seriously perfect weather and everyone had a good time hanging out with each other. Only hiccup was when Lucy got pretty high up on a fallen tree and began to panic about getting down. Probably some PTSD from when she fell into the little stream. Thankfully she figured it out and got down with no incidents. 

Saturday we did a little birthday party for Lucy- she only had Peter over but with 3 siblings to join in it still felt like a proper party. They started off pinning the Pizza on Robin from Teen Titans. I made the game myself and was pretty proud with how it turned out.

Afterwards they played Teen Titans Bingo and I gave away Halloween candy for Bingo prizes- the perk of having a birthday after Halloween.

The last activity was watching a you tube video on how to draw Robin. They didn't put a whole lot of effort into following the instructions but they seemed to have fun regardless. 

While I made pizza rolls they watched a Teen Titans Go episode. Then they ate their pizza and had some cupcakes. It was a real simple party but I think it was a success.

After the party I was able to go out and run some errands on my own. It's been awhile since I've ran kid free errands and it was honestly really nice. It's kind of terrible but I find shopping a bit therapeutic. Mostly terrible on our wallet.

That night Tyler and I went to dinner at Benihana, we had been given a gift card for there. We got to share our table with another couple- don't worry the table was long and they were 6 feet away. They were nice enough and it was their first time at this restaurant too so that helped us not to feel too dumb that we didn't know how things worked. It was fun to watch the food get made and the food was really good. Also, really expensive so thank goodness for a gift card.

Also this week was Election Day, Tyler and I were able to go out and vote together since he had the day off. According to the media Biden was determined the winner Saturday but things are still in the air due to some suspected voter fraud. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out and how people react. I'm trying to be hopeful but I definitely have concerns.

And this week Lucy has become very close with our neighbor Sharon. She is an older lady with 2 dogs (we had brought her and her husband cookies last week). Sharon has been letting Lucy walk the dogs with her and she just loves this. Sharon also wants to teach Lucy how to play Chess so that should be interesting. Sometimes it feels a little weird letting Lucy go over there so often (once a day the last few days) but I think it's a good thing.

Lucy's Birthday and Baptism

 Sunday was Lucy's birthday and as per usual we started the day with her unwrapping gifts. Actually we started the day with the kids getting one of their Hexbugs trapped under the dishwasher and it was making this super loud buzzing noise. Once Tyler removed the dishwasher and the bug, then it was Lucy's turn to open gifts. From us she got a watch, Teen Titans Go action Figures, a Raven doll, and a unicorn hairbrush. From Grams and Poppy Brady she got walkie talkies. And from Grams and Poppy Hatch she got binoculars. 

The rest of the day felt like we were just waiting for her baptism. We didn't have in person church and we were fasting so it sort of made the day seem longer. Plus I was feeling a bit anxious about everything and that also helps slow time down. We did do our own little sacrament meeting and that was nice. Both Grams and Poppy Hatch bore their testimonies and so did Ben. We also played Telestrations with Grams and Poppy Hatch and the kids enjoyed it (probably more than the grandparents ;) ) Lucy also got pen on her baptism dress that she insisted on wearing and I had a real stressful time trying to get it out. I was not super successful. 

Around 1pm Tyler and his dad left to fill the font and I took the girls to get their hair done by my friend Melissa. She made us all looks so good and I am so grateful she shares her talent with us. Then I came home and put some dinner in the crockpot and finally it was time to go to the church.

Everything went real smoothly. It was just us and Tyler's parents there and everyone else joined virtually via Google Meet. My amazing brother took care of streaming the opening and closing songs and church videos while Lucy got dressed. I was in charge of videotaping the speakers and I probably should've got a phone stand, it was a little uncomfortable holding the phone out properly to record it all. I did have one hiccup in the beginning when I accidentally lost the Google Meet screen and struggled to find it again but thankfully I figured it out. Tyler and his dad give talks and they both did a great job of catering their talks to Lucy. Tyler talked about how Lucy said she wanted to be baptized so that she could be a member of this church. She's such a good girl. The water was nice and toasty for Lucy and she told me that she felt awesome when it was all done. And at the end Lucy got to see everybody who was watching and they all said "hello" to her and I think she felt pretty special. People that I remember were tuned in on Google Meet: Brewer's, Kellog's, Jones, Bowman's, my parents and Mike's family, Melissa and Logan's family. Solomon's, Massey's, Brother Jensen (Bishopric member), Sister Schmidt (primary president), Schneider's, May's, and Barney's.

Afterwards we had some chili hotdogs to break our fast and then Lucy's Robin cake. The cake looks better in the pictures thankfully. In person the green frosting showed up under the face but I really did try my best on that cake. It was quite a fiasco because originally I had tried to make it red but failed, major. In my failure I made a purplish black frosting that can be found under that green frosting. Thankfully Lucy is not picky and loved the cake despite it's flaws.

Halloween Homeschool

So this week was just about getting back into life. Recovery has been real smooth and I feel good. I just can't be too active or it will hit me later.

The beginning of this week was fairly uneventful. We mostly just did our homeschool thing which has been going smoothly. That's not to say that every moment is perfect and joyous but overall we seem to be doing ok. I'm making time to sit with each kid and we're finding a rhythm. I also let go of doing "PE" in the morning and a read aloud and honestly, that has alleviated things. I am getting quite comfortable with being home a lot and not having to deal with interacting with people at bus stops and at the school. And I also enjoy wearing my jammies all morning and usually not getting ready until after lunch. I think when we go back to school it will a rough transition for all of us.  

Monday night Tyler and I went on a "date" to Meijer's to pick up some things. Unfortunately my stomach as been real awful this week so I didn't enjoy it too much. Ended up having to head home pretty quickly.

Wednesday night the younger Young Women came to my house for an activity. But first I had to pick up two of them and pick up hot chocolate. It was a lot of driving but I bought the hot chocolate as bribery to get another one of our girls there. It worked. She came for a little bit. Only thing was that she refused to sit by the fire with the other girls because she said she didn't want to smell like smoke. I think she puts up walls because of her rough relationship with her mom. I will just keep trying with her and maybe someday I will crack down those walls.

Thursday I had a short time window to drop off something to one of my young women and of course I got pulled over. I didn't stop long enough at the stop sign. The police officer took forever to get out of his car and then when he came to my window, he immediately told me I was not going to get a ticket, just a warning. I was still ridiculously shaky as I handed him my license and registration. I hate how freaked out I get when I get in trouble. He once again assured me as I shakily handed him the things, that he was only giving a warning. I sure am grateful that is was only a warning.

After the drop off I got home just in time to watch a friend's kid. She has been having some health issues and finally admitted to me that she is pregnant. She struggles with pregnancy and so I want to be happy for her but it was hard to muster the excitement. There's that part of me that still wants a baby (but another part of me that thinks that part is completely crazy). Still, I'm glad she felt comfortable telling me she was pregnant and I really hope the health issues resolve for her and all goes well.

Thursday evening I had a couple more drop offs for young women's and then we got some more library books. We have so many library books, the librarian is always complimenting us on what amazing readers we are. I just hope I can return them all in time. The dang week long quarantine of books before they check them back in really messes me up. 

I tried to make Friday (the day before Halloween) a fun day for homeschool. The poor boys had to do their regular math but the girls got to do some math with candy corn and some fun addition color by numbers. Then we all read "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything" and did some acting out and card matching afterwards. Next the kids colored a monster, wrote some adjectives about it and wrote a story about it. After that we put candy corn in lots of different kinds of liquids (salt water, soda, oil, baking soda, vinegar) and watched what happened to it. The kids were bored at first, I think they expected an immediate reaction, but then they were fascinated as they watched it melt away-sometimes in layers. While watching our candy corn we learned about the history of Halloween and then ended our fun school day with decorating Halloween cookies (our neighbor Jacob joined in). In addition to all our Halloween fun I made and decorated Lucy's cake. It was such an exhausting day and definitely did more than I probably should have but the kids enjoyed it so much.

Friday night we went to our Ward's Trunk or Treat. It was so nice to have a sense of normalcy- even if I was pooped. I enjoyed interacting with all the kids and seeing my friends. It was a good night, albeit it was freezing cold with temps in the 20's. 

Saturday I cleaned the house and had a nice visit from our neighbor Sharon. The kids had brought her over some of their cookies they had made and she had wanted to say thanks. She also offered us some maps and geometric shapes. Lucy went with her to get them. Lucy is so sweet with her, probably because she loves Sharon's dogs so much ;).

Tyler's parents arrived late afternoon (in town for Lucy's baptism). We picked up some dinner and then it was trick-or-treat time. The May's came over to trick-or-treat with us. I ended up staying behind with Caroline. We sat and chatted by the fire and occasionally I ran over to the fence to pass out candy. As the fire died down people had a hard time spotting us so I became the creepy lady shouting from my yard "I have candy!" I did not want leftover candy and thankfully I was able to get rid of most of it. Not so thankfully the kids came back with a ton more. It's safe to say that we all sugared out that night. And thankfully for the kids, their was no precipitation this year and the temps were in the high 40's so not too cold (although pretty cold for Tyler's poor mom).

Pictures from Halloween night (2 taken by Lucy, can you guess which?)

 

Pumpkins and Surgery

Last Sunday started off a bit lazy- Tyler and I slept in and totally missed our church's broadcast. But after that things got busy. We did our own family sacrament meeting, then Steven had virtual Sunday School (in which his class could hear me yelling at Ben not to change in front of Steven's screen- seriously Ben was in in his underwear as Steven was joining the Zoom meeting). After Steven's virtual Sunday School, us grown ups had our virtual Sunday School. It was actually really nice to hang at home and send texts messages to friends during the meeting (apparently I am good at being distracting whether in person or virtual). Then Tyler and I had Ward Council. Next we had tithing settlement in which Penny told the Bishop she was not a full tithe payer and then it was time to watch Peter's baptism via zoom (Peter is Lucy's good buddy). When that was done we went down to Peter's house for his surprise birthday party. That was really nice to mingle and eat and then it was back home for me so I could attend a yw's class presidency meeting. This was the first one for the new younger girls presidency and it actually went rather smoothly- I just think they planned sort of lame activities but we shall see...I could be wrong. And that was our crazy Sunday.

Monday we did our homeschooling in the morning and that went pretty well and after lunch I had to go get my Covid test since I was scheduled for surgery Wednesday. Since my first Covid test was awful and my second was ok, I wasn't sure what to expect. It ended up being in between. My nostrils and eyes burned like crazy BUT I didn't feel like they were trying to swab my brain so that was good. That evening I had planned to carve pumpkins with the kids but as we left to go buy them the girls started fighting in the car. Before we even left the neighborhood I decided we should go back home because they were being so naughty. This led to epic tantrums by both girls and no pumpkin carving. Seriously the drama unleashed by those two was something else, you would have thought we had ruined thier lives. Penny threw herself on the ground outside the car and kicked and cried. They both ended up in their room. Penny calmed down first. Through the heater vent we could hear her say, "I calmed down, it's Lucy who is still crying." That was so funny to us that she knew we could hear her if she talked to the vent.

Tuesday evening we ended up giving the kids another chance to carve pumpkins. This attempt went much better. We picked up pumpkins at Kroger's and I ended up scooping guts out of 4 pumpkins while the kids watched "Hocus Pocus". I didn't super enjoy that. I also ended up carving Penny's pumpkin in the design she had sketched out. The rest of the kids did pretty good at carving out their own designs.

Wednesday was surgery day. The surgery was at 7am and I had to be there at 5am. I did not sleep much the night before but I do have to say that even though my mind was worrying, I felt fairly calm. Does that even make sense? Anyways we were at a different hospital so it was a little confusing to find it and figure out parking but I was glad to have Tyler there. They even let him go to the waiting room with me. Unfortunately he wasn't allowed to go back with me. The prepping was not fun. Blood drawn, 2 IV's, nurse talking all about her pregnant daughter- not the best conversation with someone having uterus issues. Then I had to take 6 pills with hardly any water and then there was the shot of blood thinner to my belly. Holy cow did that burn. It was awful. Thankfully my nerves never seemed to catch up with me or at least I can't remember them catching up. I just remember being rolled back by a crabby, sarcastic short nurse and a tall friendly nurse, moving onto the table and then...that's it. 

When I woke up I felt supper shaky and dizzy and it took a bit to really wake up. And unfortunately when I sent a text to Tyler to ask him if the doctor talked to him, he didn't have reassuring things to say. Then the nurse confirmed that they went in but they didn't fix anything. I am still confused by it all. Apparently after making 2 incisions and going in and trying different methods to find the defect in my uterine wall- he found nothing. No defect, no evidence of a defect. Tyler the ever optimist says this was good that we have confirmation that my uterus is fine and I think he feels like I was miraculously healed. Me, with 2 achy incisions and feeling super pessimistic, isn't so sure. I can't help feeling like this surgery was pointless. I can't help wondering if there ever was a defect or if they read my MRI wrong. I guess regardless, the bottom line is my uterus is fine. And once my incisions heal I am free to try to get pregnant again, if I so choose. I don't know what I choose. This has all been so much.

Thursday and Friday were spent homeschooling some from bed and trying to resist the urge to do all the things that needed to be done. Saturday I attempted to do some house cleaning things in the morning and then spent the afternoon in bed. Honestly the recovery hasn't been so bad. Compared to a c-section these two little incisions are nothing. I have had more issues with a sore throat (probably because of the breathing tube), and my tummy bothering me. As long as I kept up on pain meds, the incision hasn't hurt too much and today (Sunday), I haven't even needed any pain meds. I even went to in person church and made dinner. I would say the recovery has been pretty quick and smooth. 

Things I am grateful for: a friend who came to my house at 5:30am so my kids wouldn't be alone when they woke up. She then took my kids to her house and kept them there until dinner time. Another friend who brought dinner Thursday evening, even when Tyler insisted he had it. And our neighbor who heard from Ben about the surgery and surprised us with dinner Saturday. And of course Tyler, for helping with the kids and buying me smoothies when food sounded gross.