October started off with a bang! Shalyn had her six month well-check visit during the day, and Jarom had a medicine check-up after school. Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia had marching band practice as usual. Jarom went to the Shakespeare Night at the Middle School for a drama assignment. James had scouts and Cali and Cecilia had YW's. Wednesday, the 2nd, was Lena and Alyssa's preschool fieldtrip to a local farm that we could get a free pumpkin and go through a corn maze and have a hayride. Kelsy came along with Ashton and Vivian so she could help me. It killed my foot to walk through the dirt in the corn maze. I was very done when we left. The girls also got to go down some fun slides while there and pet some farm animals. After school, there was marching band practice for Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia. I went to James', Mckenzie's, and Ruby's parent teacher conferences. That was the first time I personally met with their teachers! On Thursday, it was Mckenzie, James, and Ruby's turns to have their pictures taken. So, I also took Lena, Alyssa, and Shalyn up during the day to get their pictures taken as well. Cali had a well check after school with Dr. Edwards. Then, the oldest three had marching band practice again. On Friday, Ladd watched the BYU football game. On Saturday, I took Garrett and Cali into the lab at the hospital early in the morning to have their cholesterol tested. Garrett thought they'd be taking a pint of blood, and Cali didn't seem to understand that she was having her blood taken. Both seemed surprised, though, when it was all done so quickly. The person who took their blood was the lady who had messed up so badly with my arm one time, and treated me like a live experiment! When I saw who was going to draw their blood, I started praying for a positive outcome for Garrett and Cali!!! Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia had a marching band competition in Herriman while the rest of us watched general conference. Ladd went to pick them up early so we could go down to Mapleton for the Priesthood session/ice cream night despite the fact that they can now watch it on the TV! Sunday was more of General Conference. On October 7th, there was more marching band sectionals for Garrett and Cali. I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Rogers. He started me on physical therapy that same day. Physical therapy consisted of having electrodes hooked up to my incision site and electrical stimulation sent through my foot for 10 minutes. After that, I was to soak my foot in a hot, vibrating tub for 10 minutes. The electrical stimulation is not my favorite! It reminds me too much of the electrical test I had to take shortly after Shalyn was born to find out I have mild neuropathy in both feet and carpal tunnel in my left arm. I don't remember what we did for FHE that night. . . . Tuesday, the 8th, Keen and Savannah flew in for them to go to the MTC the next day, but we couldn't go see them since Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia had a competition at BYU, and Ladd, Jarom, and James all had a service project at the Hicken's and Gheddes's house that night for YM/scouts. On Wednesday, Garrett and Cali had to be to Westlake early in the morning because the marching band was being featured on one of the newscasts -- as well as other parts of Westlake High School. When it was time to take Lena and Alyssa to preschool, we decided that preschool wouldn't work for any of us. Rachel's daughter would only go to preschool when it was at her own house, and it wasn't worth it for just Sharee and I to do preschool for our three children. It would mean rotating every other week and neither of us were willing to put that much effort into it. I decided to try to still do preschool with Lena and Alyssa, but I've really let that slide. I did buy them some preschool books. Hopefully, this year we will get them both to complete all of their books at least! The oldest three had marching band practice as per usual. Thursday thru the next Monday were considered Fall Break. On Thursday, I took Garrett to get his braces put on his teeth. His appointment was supposed to be right after his birthday, but they shifted it back to this day. I had physical therapy at Dr. Roger's office. Garrett and Cali went on a date with Kaleb, Parker, and Connor. It took Corin stepping in to make sure the car arrangements would work for everyone and that they had something worthwhile to do since it was raining and going to cornbelly's wasn't going to work that night. They ended up bowling and eating pizza at the bowling alley, then going to Chad and Corin's house to play some games. It was fun that they all could have a date night together, AND, it was Cali's first date!! Ladd and I went to the temple to do sealings with the Olsen's and went out for ice cream at a Wendy's off of 106th So. afterwards. Ladd also worked on the last bedroom downstairs. He's trying to get it finished. Yeah!!! Friday, we went up to the Zoo. I used my scooter, and was quite tired after all those hills. Feeding Shalyn was a trick as well -- she's mostly on a bottle now. After the zoo, we went to Zupas. The kids thought they were all in heaven. I think we overwhelmed the Zupas staff, though with as big our order was!!! Alyssa wouldn't eat anything. Otherwise, everyone seemed to like what they ordered. The only exception would be Mckenzie. She liked her salad and took a couple of bites of her sandwich before it was time to go home. She eventually had others eat her sandwich because she didn't realize and/or like the cranberry sauce it had on it! :) We watched Iron Man 3 that night (I think Mckenzie watched Epic in our room with a few others -- she usually has to watch something else to stave off nightmares). Saturday morning, Ladd took the Primary kids and Jarom to go pick out pumpkins in our ward garden for the Primary Pumpkin activity. Then, we got ready to go to the sand dunes down near Delta. Cali drove most of the way there and some of the way back. She only has 1 and 1/2 hours left to drive to finish everything up so she can get her license!!!! Ladd was intent on watching the BYU game and the kids all just wanted to relax, so I went to my England Leeds Mission reunion by myself. I learned that President Wigglesworth is a Stake Patriarch! We talked for a bit about that since my dad is a Patriarch as well. I was reminded that night that I really don't "fit" into that group of people. I'm convinced that President and Sister Wigglesworth think I'm nice, but aren't fawning over me like they do others. Oh well. It has always been thus. It was still nice to see them. There weren't very many other people there that I knew very well. Certainly not any of my own companions or the Elders I served with. Sister Wakefield was there, though. I served with her for a week while Sister Wiese trained a brand new sister since Sister Tack (who was supposed to train her) was sick. I still remember being dragged into President Wigglesworth's office on a preparation day in our p-day clothes amongst all the new sisters and elders and President Wigglesworth calling Sister Wiese to be a temporary trainer. As we stood to go out, he asked us if that would be okay. Sister Wiese said that she'd do her best, and I added, "But President. What am I supposed to do?" He looked at me blankly as if realizing that I was a loose end he hadn't even thought about. Then, he proceeded to give me several possible scenarios with the firm statement that the only thing I couldn't do was to live in the flat I'd been living in with Sister Weise while she was training. Boy did I feel unimportant, invisible, and overlooked. I suppose it was part of my growing and stretching that I needed to go through. I decided that I would take Sister Wakefield as my companion and we would work in my same area since we would be walking. I slept on a mattress on the floor that whole week. The first day, Sister Wakefield informed me as we left the house that she wouldn't do any "OYMing's" -- in other words, talking to people on the street. We were asked to do 10 of those a day to be obedient as missionaries. So, I did them all myself that whole week. All I remember from that week was walking long hours, listening to her talk lots to me, and any missionary work that we did, I did it myself. That week was when my feet started hurting me in earnest -- probably my bone spurs even back then. When I did see a doctor about my feet there in England, all he asked me was if I was pregnant. I still don't see the corollation! Anyway, when I saw Sister Wakefield at the reunion, Sister Wigglesworth whispered in her ear that I was the mother of 10 children. Sister Wakefield mumbled something that sounded like, "Of course she'd be the mother of 10 children. She's so peppy and enthusiastic!" I guess that's her impression of me from that one week all those years ago! I personally don't see what being peppy and enthusiastic has to do with being the mother of 10 children. :) On Sunday, Garrett had another presidency meeting before church. On Monday, we watched Epic and Now you see me. Tuesday, the 15th, we found ourselves embroiled once again in our hectic life. I had physical therapy after school on top of marching band. Then, the four oldest had YM/YW's and James had scouts. On Wednesday, Jarom had a choir exchange while Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia all had marching band practice. On Thursday, I had a physical therapy session, and I had Kelsy watch the three girls. Evidently, Shalyn cried the whole time. I guess she's in the stranger danger stage now! Mckenzie had tumbling. Garrett stayed afterwards to try to take one of the math tests he failed. Once again, the oldest three had marching band practice till late at night. On Friday, Ladd and I went to Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia's last football game so we could watch their pre-game show that Cali leads, and watch their competition show that they've called "Our Town". They've been doing extremely well this season. It was a very cold night sitting on those metal bleachers. We left after their half-time show was done. On Saturday, the 19th, Jarom and James had BYU POWWOW, Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia had a competition up in Idaho, and Ladd, Mckenzie, Ruby, and Lena had their Primary Program Practice. For an hour and a half, I only had Alyssa and Shalyn there with me. Rather strange! Cali had gotten up early to go to the temple with the Laurels (since she's a Laurel now!!!) at 4:30 a.m. Ladd watched the BYU football game. Afterwards, I talked Ladd into taking me to Sizzler's in celebration for our 18th anniversary. We decided that from here on out, we needed to stop eating out on our dates since it doesn't help me lose my weight very well. I think I've regretted it since then. It seems we don't know what else to do on a date! On our anniversary, the 20th, it was the Primary program. All of the kids did remarkably well with their parts. Lena's voice could be heard over everyone else's voices during the songs. I got the feeling she was trying to sing her loudest and very best so she could be heard. And she succeeded. We all got many complements on how distinctive Lena was as a singer (or yeller) :) I gave Ladd some gifts with a note thanking him for the time we've spent together and so forth. So, Ladd pulled out the latest Percy Jackson book and gave it to me as a gift first making sure all the other kids knew I would get first dibs. The oldest four all made quite the fuss, and kept giving me jealous looks. On Monday, I sent Ruby to school with treats to celebrate her birthday at school -- a totally random date I picked and put on the calendar. Garrett and Cali had marching band sectionals and I took Cali over to UVU so she could attend a concert for school credit. The rest of the family had most of FHE without us. Tuesday was a particularly long day! I met with one of the counselors with Garrett to try to get him out of the math class he was in to go into another teacher's class. I went visiting teaching with my new partner -- Tara Jenkins to visit Maryam Cheney and Alicia Zimmer. It was like night and day to me. Maryam's home was spotless with candles glowing around the room. Lena and Alyssa just sat there and played quietly (for them). Then, we went to Alicia's house. She'd forgotten about us coming, and proclaimed her dirty house "still pretty clean". She has three dogs, a cat, and some fish. Lena and Alyssa wouldn't obey me, and seemed very out of control. It was a powerful lesson to me on the affect our environment has on our behavior and attitudes! After school, I once again had physical therapy. I met with Dr. Rogers after I was done. We talked about my progress. He told me to still do physical therapy, to put my inserts in (after I got my cast off, I finally got some new tennis shoes that were size 10's! The only ones that would fit onto my foot!), and then told me he could shoot some medicine in that left foot when I had my right foot surgery done. It sure hurt to have those inserts in!!! But eventually, it worked its way out, and feels better now. Marching band practice and activity days happened while I was gone. It was Jarom's band concert and Garrett and Cali performed with the marching band for the last performance of the concert. On the 23rd, Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia went to the morningside for seminary before school. Garrett had to leave the morningside early because drumline was supposed to play for something. He left his lunch somewhere, so he was very hungry and distraught when he got home from marching band. Cecilia had a color guard clinic that went very late. And, Jarom had his choir concert that night. Garrett had tried to get all the signatures so he could get out of the math class, but his current math teacher wouldn't sign it. Garrett sat and cried through dinner. He'd had such a rough day. When I went to pick Cecilia up, I started telling her about it, and I could tell she didn't think very much of it, but when I told her that Garrett had been crying, it sobered her up, and she voluntarily turned over the Percy Jackson book over to Garrett as a peace offering. I don't think she told Garrett why she gave it to him, but I thought it was a very nice thing for her to do for Garrett. On Thursday, Ladd took Garrett in to school to talk to his math teacher, and got him to sign the paper for Garrett. Yeah! Go Ladd!!! Garrett said his math teacher put a lot more credence to Garrett's request once Ladd showed up to talk to him! I had another physical therapy session. This time, Mom Olsen met me at a nearby park and watched the three girls there while I went for my half an hour physical therapy session. I guess Shalyn didn't realize I was missing till the very end, but she ended up crying for the rest of the time once she realized it was grandma singing to her instead of her mom! It was Mckenzie's Halloween party at tumbling that day after school. And, marching band practice as usual!!! On Friday, I went out to Mapleton to pick up $300 of meat that dad Olsen had just brought home after butchering his beef cow. After I got back, I took all the kids to the Halloween party at Ladd's work there in American Fork. We had a hard time getting everyone dressed, but we finally made it. The kids really enjoyed themselves. You could tell that Fidelity had gone to lots of effort for it. Ladd watched the BYU game afterwards. On Saturday, Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia had their Mt. Timpanogas marching band competition and Jarom went with his band on a fieldtrip to go see them perform. Cecilia was given a last minute solo at the first of their show where she went on the field all by herself as if trying to find the place to have their town. So, Ladd and I took Ruby, Lena, and Alyssa to go see their show. They did such a great job!!! It's really improved since the first of the season. Ladd went to a BYU game with the Olsen clan. I had to do all the shopping, cleaning and bathing by myself. Sunday, the 27th, it was Young Women's in Excellence. Cali gave a talk I didn't know she had to give. She did a great job! It was fun seeing all the displays. On Monday, Garrett and Cali had marching band sectionals. That night, we did our family Halloween party except Ladd spent all his time downstairs working in the bedroom downstairs instead of having fun with us. Tuesday after school, I had another physical therapy appointment. James and Jarom went to a 100 year celebration for the scouting program. Cali and Cecilia missed their YW's because of marching band practice, and Garrett didn't have YM's. On Wednesday, there was marching band practice as usual, and then it was the Westlake Band Bash concert. Jarom performed in it as well as Garrett and Cali. After we all got home, I stayed up until 12:30 a.m. helping get Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia packed for their last and final trip for this year's marching band season -- for the State and Bands of America competitions. As a result, I didn't get much sleep. Ladd took them to their buses early on Thursday morning. I had a physical therapy appointment during the day. So, I arranged to have mom Olsen watch them again at the park, but then later cancelled my appointment because I was so tired. But, then I couldn't get a hold of mom to tell her, so I had to load the girls into the car anyway so I could go meet her and tell her we didn't need her to babysit. I was tired and lacking patience that night for Halloween. James went with a friend trick or treating. Mckenzie went with a friend trick or treating as well. Ladd took Ruby, Lena, and Alyssa out trick or treating. Jarom answered the door all night and handed out candy. And, thus ended October 2013. . . .
P.S. -- Our Halloween costumes consisted of this year:
Garrett--Tonto and a Percy Jackson character
Cali and Cecilia -- matching Little Red Riding Hood's
Jarom -- a black caped character
James -- a scary masked dude as well as a detective (which I told him made him look more like a mobster)
Mckenzie -- a pretty witch
Ruby -- the queen character from Epic
Lena and Alyssa -- fairies
Shalyn -- Robin (as in Batman and Robin)
No one asked me, but I had my response all ready in case someone did ask me. I was an opera singer in disguise. :) Ladd dressed up in cowboy gear when he took the kids trick or treating!
No comments:
Post a Comment