Last Monday was the last day of Fall Break. We had only one car, so we took the whole family, visited Ladd's grandmother Clements, went hiking up Little Cottonwood canyon (where Ladd led us across the raging river on a rickety board), then, since Mckenzie had slipped into the river up to her chest, we dried her shorts off by trapping them into the window and letting the air flap them about till they were dry on our way up to drop Ladd off for his Monday meetings. I took the kids over to the new City Center Mall while Ladd was in his meetings. We picked him up and headed back home for dinner and FHE.
Tuesday I went into Vista Heights to meet with Jarom's counselors. Turns out we lucked out and got the principal. I think he still recognized me from my meetings with him regarding Cecilia's math teacher. He reasurred me that Jarom would have all year to fix his F in math before being required to do summer school. Later, Cali and Garrett went to yet another marching band competition. Cecilia and Jarom both had Young Men's or Young Women's and James surprised me by telling me his scouts had been changed from Wednesday to Tuesday for this week. It was a bit strange to have just the four youngest girls at home in the evening. Alyssa had a 3 hour nap in the evening and didn't feel like going to bed by 11 p.m., but I finally pulled her onto Ladd's empty pillow so she could fall asleep before I went to pick Garrett and Cali up at 11:45 p.m.
Wednesday, Cecilia had an early morning practice for dance. It's always tricky trying to get Garrett to Seminary on time and yet get someone else where they need to be at the same time!!! James had ballroom dance, and Cali and Garrett didn't come home when I expected them to. I finally realized Cali had sectionals, and Garrett was taking advantage of it. (Garrett HATES riding the bus this year and tells me it makes him crazy mad to listen to all the filthy-mouthed 9th graders).
Thursday was an incredibly busy and stressful day. I glossed over some of the details and posted this on Facebook: "Red letter day: Cali's 1st early morning dance practice for this year, James headed off to Clear Creek, heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time this pregnancy (17 weeks), took Mckenzie to the Instacare for a nasty cut (thankfully it didn't need stitches nor was it broken) on her pinky finger, and, it is flu shot day for the whole family!" I commented later: "Would you believe that added to all that was finding out Garrett might need to have an operation, and Lena woke up just as I was going to bed with the classic case of croup. Oh, and I think almost all the dishes in the house are dirty right now. Lots to do!" What I didn't mention is that getting Garrett and Cali to school early was a bit of a trick, and that I was cutting Ladd's hair when Mckenzie cut her finger. A lovely neighbor helped Mckenzie until I could go find her. Eating animal crackers, chocolate teddy grahams and sprite helped Mckenzie feel better almost as well as numbing her finger with Lidocaine cream! At my doctor's visit, the CPA told me I could probably teach her a thing or two. And, may I say, it was a relief to hear the heartbeat loud and strong!!! At the flu shot clinic, the nurse said, "Congrats mom! That's the fastest I've ever been able to do this many people!" Ruby made sure before we went to get our shots that she would be allowed to take her silky and suck her thumb. Anything to stop tantrums!!!! And, Garrett has tonsil "stones" that become an irritant and are usually cause to have tonsils removed. We still haven't even acted on the hole in his mouth between two teeth that needs to either have braces fix the problem or an implant put in before his mouth naturally ruins everything. Oh, and Ruby went to dance (Mckenzie had to sit this week out), and Garrett and Cali had another marching band practice along with Garrett's sectionals.
On Friday, James came back from Clear Creek. He had a good time. I sat in close proximity all night while Jarom forged ahead on getting caught up on all his homework!!!! It was a long night.
On Saturday, this is everything that I did while Ladd slept in the morning: Took Jarom at 8 a.m. to the pumpkin patch so he could help cut the pumpkins off the vines. Took James, Mckenzie, Ruby, Lena, and Alyssa to the pumpkin patch for the Primary activity at 9 a.m.. Helped find and haul 10 pumpkins to our van. Took everyone and everything home. Had the kids wash all the pumpkins and bring them inside. At 10:30 a.m., took Cali up to her Miamaids advisor so they could have a meeting (she's the president right now). At 11:00 p.m., took Garrett, Cecilia, James, and Lena up to where Cali was to look through all the coats the Young Women had collected on that Tuesday. We managed to find coats for everyone in the family that didn't have one!!!! YEAH! Tender mercies for sure! I think I did some scrubbing of dishes as well as a couple of batches of laundry. Picked up the Louis L 'Amour book I'd nearly finished the night before and finished it. Ladd got up about then. I wished him a happy anniversary and he did the same. Got everyone fed for lunch and ready to go. Cecilia babysat Alyssa while I took everyone else over to Chad and Corin's to watch the BYU football game. I took Lena, Jarom (since he wasn't quite finished with his homework), and Cali back with me. Cali and I went to Stephanie Guthrie's baby shower and talked to Joy Guthrie for awhile. Then, we dropped Lena off to be with Cecilia, and found some lunch for Jarom, then headed back to Chad and Corin's house. I left Cali and Jarom there, and went to do the weekly shopping. I finished, dropped off the groceries at home, and went to retrieve my family. Ladd, Chad, and Corin were playing a game, so I sat there and chatted with them while waiting for them to finish it. Afterwards, we took everyone home, got them going on the evening activities of dinner, baths, etc. Ladd and I headed over to drop Chad and Corin's truck off, then went to find some place to eat in celebration of our 17th anniversary. We waited for awhile at Olive Garden before we were seated (around 8 p.m.) The food was great! We went shopping at Walmart afterward and broke down and bought a new computer. Our old one would freeze and the CD door continually opened and closed. I collapsed once we got home. I was sooo tired! I left Ladd setting up our new computer.
Sunday was busy. The choir performed. They did a great job! We sang, "O My Father" with a flute accompiment and different piano arrangement. I took Lena and Alyssa home after Sacrament Meeting because Lena and Alyssa still had a bit of a cold holding on. I taught them a little lesson while we were at home. I taught about how Heavenly Father created everything. I asked them why Heavenly Father created their eyes. Lena's answer: "Because he loves us." Now I know she's been learning something at nursery! We found some leaves and did an impression of them on a piece of paper. I was able to do some work on the Choir binders before it was time to eat and get to choir. I tried to take a nap through the young girls yelling and running up and down the hallway. Ladd and Garrett went to do their Home Teaching. During dinner, Ladd bent over to pick something up and his iphone fell out of his pocket and the screen shattered. Cali had to be at the church at 6:30 p.m. for a presidency meeting. Then, I gathered Ladd, Cecilia and I for the Young Women fireside where Bishop Wendel and President Beecher spoke about virtue. What put a pall on the evening was finding out that one of the sisters in the ward had a severe stroke after church and was in the hospital in a comotose state. We've been praying hard for them these last few days!
Monday started right. I got a very messy house straightened, vacuumed (thanks to Ladd for putting an upright vacuum back together for me!), the kitchen floor swept, and the dishes all scrubbed. We still had only one car, so I had to leave with Ladd when he left for his Monday meetings at 2 p.m. I left Cecilia babysitting, and Garrett and Cali stranded at marching band. I intructed the kids to carve the pumpkins, pick all the red and green tomatoes since it was supposed to snow this week, make and serve dinner, hold FHE, and clean up all the messes. During Ladd's meetings, I went as instructed to the AT&T store to see about getting his screen fixed. Then, I holed up in Barnes and Noble and read the first of "Snow White and the Huntsman." Ladd figured we were late, so we rushed over to the "Grand America Hotel" where his celebratory dinner for 15 years of working at Fidelity was to be held. We found it didn't start for another hour, so we walked around the opulent hotel gazing at everything for awhile, then rested ourselves on some couches while we waited out the time. We finally checked in, got our badges, got our pictures taken, found some sprite at the bar and started mingling. The food was perhaps my highlight since I don't really know any of those people. There weren't enough tables to sit at, so we stood at a table to eat. My toes started going numb, my bone spurs screamed, and my back ached by the end of the night. Still, the conversation was good, and the food better. We came home around 10 p.m. to find 6 pumpkins in different processes of being either carved or painted. The food had been put away for the most part. The green and red tomatoes had all been put in the same huge bin. I realized my mistake as soon as I looked into the bin. I'd neglected to specify all the firm red and green tomatoes. So, rotten tomatoes sat next to squished ones. Yuck! All my usable tupperware had been used in either cleaning out pumkins or picking tomatoes. Even some of my laundry baskets had been used. At least my children are resourceful! I cringed at the pieces of apple sitting on my carpet along with pumpkin seeds. Cali assured me it had been much worse than before they straightened a bit. I supposed I can be grateful I was spared that mess?! Milk was spilled all over the kitchen table, and water was all over the pumpkin table. I cleaned up the worst messes, then went to bed dreading Tuesday morning!
Tuesday (yesterday), Ladd had to leave early in the morning. Thankfully, he took Cali in to school for me since she'd missed her bus. Before James left, I asked him what had happened during their FHE the night before. (During calendaring on Sunday night, I'd asked the kids who would volunteer to give a mini-thought. Cali finally volunteered, and James said, "I'll do one, too.") I asked James what he'd done for his mini-thought. He said, "Oh. I talked about marriage and about the earth and it's role in the Plan of Salvation. I was going to talk about the prophet, but I forgot. I talked about Jesus and then I bore my testimony." He's 10! I asked him what Cali said and he replied, "Oh. I don't know. Maybe something about the scriptures." (How funny!) After getting all the kids off to school, I stared at the mess, went and picked the rest of the tomatoes, then decided I just needed a nap. Three hours later of nap interrupted with helping Lena and Alyssa, I finally gave up. When the kids came home, I finally got off my duff and started working. I finished carving the pumpkins, sorted out the tomatoes, gagged as I washed the bin out, had Garrett and Jarom carry out the very heavy trash bag out to the outside trash, gathered up all trash (we had a lot laying around), picked up all the clean socks someone had spread all over the living room floor, had to have the kids help me straighten, and scrubbed the dishes. Cecilia helped me make tacos which we ate quickly before I had to take Garrett and Cali to Westlake for the pep band to play at the last volleyball game of the season at 5:30 p.m. I helped Jarom find the drawing of a dragon he drew last year and wanted to display at the Young Men/Young Women talent show that evening. Ruby was carrying Lena around on her back (which I've told her over and over not to do and she responds with, "I won't fall!) when she slipped on some water and went down face first. Lena's breath was knocked out of her and her tummy had a distinct head-like red impression for awhile. Ruby's head really got a sizeable bump on it. It took a bit of care during the whole evening. I took Cecilia, Jarom, and James to the church (once again James had scouts on Tuesday). I left Mckenzie (!) babysitting. I put Dora on to entertain Lena with Alyssa crashed out on the floor. After I got back from dropping them off, I went to pick Cali up at the high school so she could come back and perform her solo on the clarinet for the talent show. I took Cali up to the church. A little after 8 p.m., I went to pick James up from scouts and found that the talent show was over, so I brought Cali, Cecilia, Jarom, and James home. We got home around 8:30 p.m. -- about the same time that Ladd drove into the driveway! It seemed early to me, but I guess he'd worked an 11 hour day. A little later, Garrett called for me to finally go pick him up. After we got back, we did family scripture reading and started trying to send people to bed. James came back to sit morosely on the couch. We asked him why he wasn't going to bed, and he said, "Because of my shot." Ladd and I just laughed. This is the boy who, when we informed the family of the flu shot, cried and cried for a whole hour even though he would be the only one not getting the flu shot with the family because of Clear Creek. That was only two Sunday's ago!!! We reminded James that he wasn't getting his flu shot until Thursday, and he cried, saying, "I know!!!!" He said Wednesday would go too fast. Oh, brother! Was I ever that dramatic?! Probably. :)
This morning was a bit of a rush trying to get Garrett and Cali to the school by 6:15 a.m. Garrett was required with the rest of drumline to play for an accreditation thing going on at the school. I'm still baffled about that one! It requires him missing Seminary (big frown!!!). We woke Cali up at 6 a.m. -- I guess she'd slept in! She still managed to get dressed, locate ALL of her stuff and eat on the way. I tried and tried to get Garrett to eat this morning, and finally he said he was fasting. Exasperated, I explained that his comment would have been helpful earlier so I wouldn't have been on his case for so long! He must've been tired. He said his brain just didn't process the necessity of telling me that bit of information. He even appologized! Surprises never cease! I helped carry Cali's stuff out the door to the car. I dropped them both off at school, and while coming back in the door, I found one of Cali's shoes on the porch. I tried to hustle Jarom through his morning routine so I could take him early to work on homework that's overdue. (He's always behind!) I finally got him to the car at 7:15 a.m. I dropped him off and then headed off to find Cali. After walking the halls for awhile in my morning non-ready-for-the-day look, I finally found her. I don't think she'd realized yet it was missing. I told her to have a great day. (Most embarrasing moment of the week so far!) When I got home, I found evidence that Ruby hadn't eaten before leaving, that Mckenzie and Ruby had both gone to school without their coats, and that Cecilia was still at home. So, I got James going on his reading, then took Cecilia to school. When I came home, I ate, then helped James ponder over his Halloween costume. He want to be a "time see-er". I just can't visualize it, but evidently it requires the same cloak Jarom insists on needing. I've instructed the kids that I won't be buying anything for Halloween costumes this year, so creativity is needed. James says he envisions something medieval and futuristic all in one. Yikes! More than I can imagine! Lena and Alyssa have been on one this morning. Lena threw all the unmatched (think a big bin!) socks at my head because I made her mad. I believe she's said about 15 times, "Mom. You're the meanest!!!" And, Alyssa threw her cereal all over the floor. I still don't understand why. I fixed mac 'n cheese for the two girls. Alyssa ate a few bites, then shoved it away from her saying she didn't want it. She refused some milk. I finally decided to just leave her alone. I checked on her a few moments later to see her sleeping on a stool, sitting up at the table, with her head on her folded arms. Cute! She's wanted me to hold her lots this morning and has been very lovey-dovey. I guess she was just tired! My dirty house is still staring at me. . . . Here's hoping I'll actually get it done today despite Mckenzie going to a friend's house, marching band practice for Garrett and Cali, sectionals for Cali, and ballroom dance for James!
Whew! We read it all! Glad to get some clarification of the oral version.
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