Teeth, Sunburns, School Ends

On Sunday Penny lost her first tooth! She came running downstairs saying it hurt and felt weird- it was ridiculously loose and twisted funny. She was sobbing so hard and freaking out so much that I literally had to sit on her arms and legs so that Tyler could pull it out. Ironically, just a bit later she said she had another loose tooth and she actually ASKED Tyler to pull it out. So bam her first two teeth in one day! Then just a few days later another tooth was ready to go so Tyler pulled that out. Three teeth in one week. That is simply unheard of in the Hatch home.

Monday I got to do the weird Covid pick up of the kid's school stuff. First I picked Penny's stuff up at a very empty school- they had everything laying out by teacher in alphabetical order in the gym. Then later I picked up Ben's and Lucy's via a drive by- I pulled up to a spot with my last name posted in my car window and they placed the bag of things on the front seat. It's all weird. 

For lunch Monday we packed a lunch and then went to Scarlet's Park so the boys could have their turn to check it out. Coincidentally the girls wore matching shirts (most likely purposely) and the boys were both in orange (not purposely) so I had to take a pic.

Also Monday, Ben had an orthodontist appointment and they decided it was time to take off his braces. That was a happy surprise for Ben. I was just surprised, and also surprised that they decided he didn't need a retainer. I hope that's not just because they want to make more money off of me.

Tuesday we went to the beach around lunchtime and didn't come home until dinnertime. I love our beach days with friends and am so grateful for our neighborhood beach- it's close and rarely crowded. 

I let Lucy and Ben re-apply their own face sunscreen while at the beach and clearly they didn't realize they needed to apply it to their WHOLE face. But at least we know that sunscreen will work where it is applied.

Wednesday we did a bike ride to the river by the library and the kids had some fun playing in it. However, Lucy got some dirt in her Crocs from playing in the water and whined the whole way home about it. She does not like having dirt in her shoes. 

Wednesday afternoon I had my tele-appointment with another doctor at the practice. I guess my questions were answered but not fabulously. Mostly I am a unique case and this mass isn't really acting like a blood clot but it also doesn't have the characteristics of a fibroid so it's probably a blood clot. But just to be sure I'm getting an MRI next Thursday. Super excited for that. The MRI will also help with getting the exact location of the mass. I also really awkwardly brought up my trust issues with the doctor who has been doing the d and c's and she told me he is reliable and was her mentor. She explained as well, that the ultrasounds at the hospitals are meant to pick up third trimester babies and are not really accurate for small masses so that could explain how it got missed. A last disappointing bit of news I received was that there is still a chance that they could not get it all with the third d and c. It is a fairly big clot and the plan to insert it with water during the next d and c should help break it up but they can only put in so much water before it becomes dangerous to me so they might not be able to break it all up and get it all out. Super. I guess it's good I've reached my out of pocket maximum with an unknown number of surgeries in my future.

Thursday I took my kids, plus 2 Bloomfield kids, plus 2 neighbor kids on walk to Scarlet's park. Yes friends, that was 8 kids. Probably not the wisest choice I ever made. It was a little chaotic. While at the park Steven, Jacob and AJ decided to go on a walk in the nearby woods and after a bit I decided to check on them. Ben tagged along and when I couldn't find them right away he started freaking out and crying (he hadn't gone on the walk because he said "the woods are scary"). His crying stressed me out so I walked him back to the park and left him crying at table (I'm such a great mom) so I could go look for the boys without added stressed. Thankfully as I was about to re-enter the woods, the boys emerged and it was no big deal. Sometimes Ben can really amp up the stress level for me. The walk back from the park was not super fun either, Lucy was really whiny about walking and I finally ended up booting up one of the littles (Jessie) from the wagon just to get the whining to stop. Yeah, so definitely not one of my favorite trips to the park. But Penny did take this super fun selfie of her and Jessie in the wagon on the way to the park.

Friday was everyone's official last day of school so we did our traditional last day of school pictures. It has been such a weird school year being quarantined the last 3 months of it and it's sad that it ended without any real sort of finality- no parties, no teachers and classmates to say goodbye to in person. A part of me is so relieved to be done with this crazy but another part of me also realizes that we now have an extra few hours each day with no structure. We'll still do our own summer learning but it definitely will be much simpler and less time consuming. I wonder what the next school year will look like. Right now I am working on preparing a contingency plan in case this Covid crap continues.

At lunchtime I went over to my friend Jessica's house and we had a good cry about her cancer and my miscarriage and health issues. Life is hard.

That afternoon I took the kids on a hike at Proud Lake. Perfect weather, minimal fighting and only one child whining at the end (Penny) so all in all a pretty good hike. 

Also here's a before and after picture of the new paint color (living room is still a mess, ha ha)

Frustrations

Last Saturday I had the joy of going with Steven to his friend Adam's house. The mom had invited me to stay while the boys hung out and with no valid reason not to, I did. That was a long afternoon of listening. The mom is a talker and it was real hard to contribute anything to the conversation. The dad did come out at one point and he was actually a better listener but alas, he went back inside. I am still not a fan of that friend, the boys were supposed to ride bikes but ended up huddling together outside and playing on a tablet and when the mom asked the boy to put the tablet away, he kept refusing. It was a bit aggravating, especially since I hauled Steven's bike there.

That evening we had a pit fire courtesy of Ben- he only needed a little help from Tyler with the prep and starting it. I think next time, he might be able to do it on his own. I always like our s'more family time. And this time Penny's teacher Mrs. Richter got to join us- the paper version of her that is.

Sunday we had the Mays over again. I like our little church services with them. Too bad they are headed to Utah for a long while. That evening I had a class presidency meeting and it was an absolute disaster. The older girls were adamant that we should have zero activities in the summer, but the younger girls felt differently. And then their was grief over who would lead the 2 activities that we did plan. I ended up lecturing everyone and ticking off the older girls. So much frustration and drama. Left me feeling like a failure as a leader. 

Monday I recorded Ben giving his wax museum speech- he was the pirate, Blackbeard. We did at the beach for authenticity. I think he did well. I also think he is lucky that he just had to record it and didn't actually have to give it in front of the whole class. The coconut in the picture below was his "button." In the video he would be frozen and then Penny pushed the button and he spoke. In a couple videos the coconut got bumped and started rolling towards the water, those made for good outtakes.

We also did a nature walk with "Mrs.Richter" on Monday. Gosh Michigan is just so pretty in the summer.

Tuesday we met some friends at the beach day and it was just what I needed. I got to vent about my frustrations with my calling, they got to vent about their frustrations. I love my people. That evening I had our youth activity via Zoom and I was feeling like I really didn't want to go because of everything but I went. It ended up being really fun for the few that attended. Everyone shared baby pictures and told a childhood story. I shared how I used to eat books and some of the girls declared that I was a book worm. It was what I needed after feeling disgruntled with my calling.

Wednesday was not a great day. I had my ultrasound and it was discovered that I still have a mass in my uterus. It shrunk slightly, it was 7.5cm and now it's 5.5cm but it's still hanging out. I was beyond frustrated with this news but honestly, not super surprised. Intuition told me it was going to be bad news. I am still confused at how he could have missed a huge chunk of this mass. I am meeting with another doctor from the practice this coming week to discuss things and get some questions answered because I felt like the doctor I have been working with is not really answering my questions. I'll make final decisions after discussing things with this other doctor but right now the plan with the doctor who has been working with me is to do another ultrasound in 2 weeks to verify that the blood clot is still there and then go have a THIRD d and c. This time though, they will light up my uterus and use a tool that will insert liquid into the blood clot so it will break apart and come out easier. 

I know this may sound weird but even though I have trust issues with this doctor, I don't necessarily blame him. I feel like there's a reason that this mass keeps getting missed. I don't know why exactly and I am not really at peace with it but hopefully I will get there.

Because I didn't want to mope again, I distracted myself from all my feelings by throwing myself into painting the living room. Started Wednesday night, literally that quickly, and finished today (Saturday). No more warm yellow room- it is now a blueish gray. I was just trying to get gray but I don't hate the blueish tint. It is still loads better than the previous color. I really do hate painting but it was a good distraction and it is so rewarding. I am still in process of getting everything back in it's place in the living room so no pictures yet.

Wednesday night I had a meeting with Bishop to talk about my awful class presidency meeting. I was worried it wasn't going to go well but it actually did. He wants to rework the older girl's presidency and I think that's a great idea. Once it's reorganized he'd like to meet with both class presidencies to discuss bringing the spirit back- also a great idea. He also suggested I take a sabbatical because of my lovely health issues- I am tempted by the offer. I am worried my emotions are affecting the way I handle my girls. 

Friday afternoon I did another beach day with friends, seriously therapeutic. And today, Saturday, the parks are finally open again and even better, a new playground by us (Scarlet's playground) was open so me and the girls rode our bikes there and had some fun.

Saturday evening Steven babysat while Tyler and I picked up some Jimmy John's, ate it in the car and did a little nature walk over at Proud Lake. It was a much needed date. Unfortunately, at the end of our date, a YW's mom called and expressed her concerns about us having activities again- we're doing them outside, and we usually only have 10 girls so it's following state guidelines- but she is freaked out. She was disgusted at how people aren't practicing safe social distancing and it was hard not to say, well neither am I. Anyways this lengthy conversation really made a sabbatical sound more appealing. We shall see what I decide. 

Heat Wave

Sunday was kind of strange day. There had been flooding due to a dam break in Midland (about 1.5 hours away from us) so our church leaders declared Sunday a day of service. That meant that Tyler spent all day Sunday clearing out drywall in flooded houses. It was a hot day so it was hard work and when he learned that the homes he was clearing out were people's vacation homes, it made him a little cranky. But service is service and I am glad he was able to help.

His being gone kind of messed with my Sabbath day feeling. We didn't have much of a spiritual Sunday but we did have family outings so that's good right? We went for a bike ride to our usual spot and Lucy, of course, took pictures. We also encountered a turtle on our way back home from the bike ride. Lucy literally almost ran it's head over with her bike which super terrifying but thankfully the turtle was smart and put it's head in it's shell. I was so nervous we were going to move her bike tire and find a crushed turtle head.

 Can you spot the turtle?

After the bike ride we were all sweaty and the kids were begging to go to the beach so I gave in. Steven brought his guinea pig, Mariah, and played card games with me while the other kids had fun playing in the (still) cold water. A friend of Ben's (from school) was there so he played with him. I felt a bit guilty about breaking the Sabbath but...the kids had a good time.

Monday was Memorial Day. Tyler spent the day working on re-caulking the upstairs shower and discovering that we probably need to remodel the whole bathroom. I spent the day at the beach.  We invited some friends and ended up being there for almost 5 hours! We were all pretty crispy when we came home but it was worth the fun.

Tuesday the kids had school work in the morning but we hit up the beach, yet again, that afternoon with some other friends. My one friend had her 1.5 year old daughter and Penny took her under her wing for a good long while. It was sweet to watch Penny taking good care of her. Also I tried to be better at reapplying sunscreen this time around and Penny decided to take it upon herself to really slather it on- check out her leg below...

Tuesday evening we had our Youth Zoom Activity and it was a total flop. That was hard after coming off such a good one last week. We had hardly anyone there and the young woman who was supposed to lead the activity had her camera off and when the whole thing got sidetracked she did not pop in to get it back on track- despite my hint. Who knows if she was even still there. It left me frustrated with her. I just really don't like Zoom activities and am hoping in a month we can get back to real life ones.

Wednesday the kids wanted to go to the beach once again. Lucy had used her money to buy a doughnut float and she really wanted to try it out. I relented and took them but it was cloudy and windy so the kids didn't last long before they were cold and wanted to come home. 

Tyler has been saving some money and was finally able to buy 2 used kayaks with paddles off someone in our Ward this week. Now we have 3 kayaks so I can take friends kayaking with me. So Wednesday night, I took Stefanie kayaking in my neighborhood lake. It was a beautiful day to kayak, perfect weather. At one point I started feeling overexerted (still not quite recovered from the d and c) so we spent a lot of the time after that just letting our kayaks drift with the current- although our kayaks kept trying to drift closer to houses which is awkward when people are in their yard. We talked a lot about my miscarriage and Stefanie brother's wife that had just miscarried twin boys at 20 weeks. Goodness life is hard. We also talked about her trying to start up her own graphic design business (since she recently got laid off)and the things she wants to do with her house. She is a good friend  and I just feel eternally grateful that I moved next door to her 6 years ago.

Thursday evening the girl's got their pictures taken in a field of flowers. There is a man in our Ward who does photography on the side and he called asking if we would like to get some free pictures of the girls in a field of flowers he had found. He is very expensive and doesn't sell the digital files, only the prints, so we've never used him. He also has a full time job and takes pictures for High School on the side so he's super busy. But he has been known to randomly call people in the ward to take pictures of their kids and this week we were the lucky winners of his randomness. The girls were goofs and not very good at posing. Lucy also kept pushing Penny down in the flowers and grass and saying she was pushing her into lava. But despite their goofiness or maybe because of it, the pictures turned out phenomenal. These are some of my favorites and somehow I am supposed to pick out just 3 favorites for him to print. 

Friday it rained on and off during the day and the kids decided to spend most of the day fighting, whining and being little stinkers. At the end of the day we had a Zoom lesson from the Sister missionaries in which Ben pushed Lucy and her head bumped into Steven's. That was fun. We did learn a cool trick up praying and tying knots in jump ropes though, ha ha. After the lesson we had another thrilling car parade to go on. This one was arranged by one of my young women for another young woman's birthday. I was impressed with my young woman for putting it together but I find these parades a little awkward. You roll by and shout "happy birthday" and then it's over. Yay. It's much better when it's a surprise birthday parade for your own kid, ha ha.