Birth-o-PrimaryProgram-o-Baptism-o-Ween Part 1

The end of October is always a busy time of year for our family.  We love Halloween.  One of my friends posted on Instagram that Hallloween is a verb in her family, and I have to agree.  Like her we Halloween hard.  

Halloween is extra special in our family because it's also Charlotte and Lydia's birthday.  So every year the days around October 31st get turned into one long celebration we call "Birth-o-ween."

But this year the days around October 31st are even busier than usual.  Because in addition to the holiday, and the birthdays, we have Charlotte and Lydia's Baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and a Primary Program at said church.  

We've already had a lot of fun and important activities related to what I am now calling Birth-o-PrimaryProgram-o-Baptism-o-Ween so I decided I better write a blog post now so I don't get overwhelmed by the end of these crazy/busy/fun days.   

Last Monday I had to find the all important paper that says how much money the VA pays for our housing allowance each month.  We have to do our annual certification for the Idaho Childcare Program.  The VA money doesn't count as income per se, but ICCP likes to see it so they can see how we are making ends meet.  I also needed it because we were randomly selected for income verification for Free and Reduced Meals and I wasn't sure if they counted the VA money as income or not.  Anyway, I couldn't find the paper ANYWHERE.  I knew I had seen it a few weeks earlier on Brandon's desk, but I wasn't sure what we'd done with it.  

I ended up going through a years worth of unfiled papers and getting everything organized. I had piles of papers laid out all over our king size bed. I really should have done this a lot sooner. So it's good I finally got around to it. But I still couldn't find the VA paper. 

After everything was filed away I found a file folder in a drawer that I hadn't checked before.  I looked inside and found a lot of random Brandon stuff.  I looked through there and found the paper!  Ugh, I should have just looked there first.  But now everything is all organized again so that's good. 

Around noon I went to my Physical Therapy office for one of the three 20 minute massages I earned by attending my appointments on time and not cancelling.  I've never had a real massage before.  I loved it.  It was definitely what I needed after all the hunched over sewing I've been doing.  

I stopped by my office to catch up with my co-workers. After that I realized I had about 20 minutes until the kids would arrive at the day care.  So instead of driving there I just walked up from my office.  It was one of those wonderful autumn days that makes me so happy to be back in a climate that actually has fall.  I'm still not a big fan of winter, but I am happy to have fall again. 

I picked the kids up and Miss Wenda told met that the teachers at the elementary school had told her that Derrick had a FANTASTIC Day.  I think this was the first good Monday in at least a month so that was great news.  

We walked out of the building and the kids were a little concerned when they didn't see the car.  I told them I'd walked up from the courthouse and that we'd walk down there and play at Caldwell Park before going home.  They all cheered.  They had fun walking across ISU's campus and then through the University neighborhood.  Some of the houses were decorated for Halloween and the kids loved the scary decorations.  

When we got to the park the kids ran right for the playground and started showing me all their tricks.  Usually we get home and they are all wild in the house so it was nice to have them have a place where they could run off their energy.  

Derrick had fun playing with the drinking fountain water.  Silly boy.

Here are some of the tricks Charlotte and Lydia showed me.

And here is Veronica's trick.  

I just love how this picture turned out.  

Derrick had therapy at 3:00 so we went back home so he could change before his therapist met us at the house.  After they left, the girls and I worked on a project that Charlotte wanted to do.  She'd been saving milk jugs for several weeks for this project.  We drew faces on the jugs and then hung them up in the scary tree branches we'd put around the porch.

The next day we added fake spider webs to the branches.  And we put battery operated tea lights in the jugs.  I turned everything on before we went to catch the school bus one morning and it looked so spooky. 

On Tuesday Veronica and I  went and did some Thrift Shopping.  Veronica grew 4 inches in the last year and basically was down to about three pairs of pants that sort of fit.  I realized we needed to get her bigger pants.  So we went on a hunt.  At Idaho Youth Ranch we only found one pair of pants her size.  Before we left I checked out the furniture section (like I always do) and found something I'd been looking for for weeks.  A solid dresser for Lydia.  Lydia's dresser has been falling apart for a while. (We actually had trouble with it in Alabama) We'd set it aside for a few months but we'd pull it back in because it's better than nothing.  I've been looking for a new dresser for several weeks, so when I saw this one for $19.95 I bought it right away.  Never underestimate how much four working drawers can improve your quality of life.

Veronica and I went to DI next and found her 6 pairs of pants that fit perfectly.  She was so excited.  Every time she tried one on she would say, "I want to wear THIS one!"

And after that we went to the school district office and took in all our proof of income.  I wanted to do it in person because our situation gets a little confusing.  For example, I gave the lady my last pay stub, and then told her that I was currently unemployed, but that I was getting re-hired November 5th.  Then we had to try to figure out if the VA money counted as income.  In the end we still qualified for Free Breakfast and Lunch so everything worked out.  

We also stopped at the dollar store to buy the fake spider webs and the tea lights.  When all the kids came home from school we decorated the front of the house.  

At four Veronica had her karate lesson followed by Charlotte's Dance class.  Both were fun for each kid.  Brandon had Derrick and Lydia with him.  Lydia enjoyed Ukulele and Derrick enjoyed the walk he went on with Brandon at Edison Fitcher Nature area. 

On Wednesday I was finally able to get around to working on the Twins Baptism dresses again.  My mom came over at 10:00 and helped me with all the tiers on Lydia's dress.  I'd been dreading hemming these tiers so when my mom offered to help me with the ironing and pinning I was so grateful.  

My mom taught me everything I know about sewing. She started teaching me when I was about 6 years old.  She taught me how to make a skirt.  As I got older she taught me how to make shirts and dresses.  A lot of times I would work on the project on my own until I got stuck.  Then I'd go to my mom and ask her to explain the pattern to me, or show me how to set in a sleeve, or place a zipper, or how to hem.  And every time she'd patiently explain it to me.  With her help I sewed three prom dresses in high school.  I think about that now and I can't believe I was that confident in my sewing abilities.  Maybe I was just really confident in my mom's ability to guide me through tricky patterns.

So it was comforting to have my mom working with me on this complicated dress. And I'm so glad she was there!  Just like old times she helped me figure out what the pattern was saying.  And we were able to talk it through together.  I told her, "If you weren't here I'd just be muttering to myself and I'd still be confused."

My mom does feel comfortable sewing anymore, but she still has some great pinning and ironing skills.  She ironed the hem for each of the FIVE tiers on Lydia's dress.  That was no small task because the tiers kept getting wider.  We had to take a picture of the bottom tier with all the pins in it.  I think we counted 41 pins all around the hem.  

It took us 3.5 hours to get all five tiers together and hemmed.  I can only assume it would have taken me 7 hours on my own.  (Probably longer because I'm sure I would have made at least a few mistakes.  It was such a good feeling to get those tiers done.  I felt like it would all be down hill from there.

Here's our blurry victory picture.  I forgot that my front facing camera takes blurry pictures and in my euphoric state I didn't notice the blur until it was too late.

On Thursday morning I sat down at the machine and sewed the tiers to the lining.  (At least I think that's what the pattern called it.  I'm still a little confused.  Don't worry about it.)  Seeing this come together was so great. I kept thinking, "It's working!  I'm going to have these dresses done in time."

Thursday afternoon Veronica had her final free introductory Karate class.  She received her white belt. (And couldn't stand still during the ceremony.)

Here's a video of her breaking a board with her kick.  She was really excited to do that.  And you can see her trademark jumping at the end of the video.

After the class they talked to us about signing up for real lessons.  I declined for several reasons.  1. We can't afford them, 2. We are moving within a year, and 3. The classes are on Monday's and Wednesday's and that doesn't work with my work schedule.  So no karate right now.  But that doesn't mean we won't ever do them. 

On Friday morning I sewed Charlotte's dress bodice to the skirt.  Her's was the "easier" dress so I was working on it first so I could sort of know what I was doing by the time I got to Lydia's complicated dress. I screwed up and put the right side to the wrong side the first time, and I was glad I wasn't trying to do Lydia's dress first.  I fixed my mistake and the dress looked great. 

Then I had to put the zipper in.  I haven't done a zipper since Derrick's blessing outfit 6.5 years ago.  I couldn't even remember which of my the four extra presser feet that came with my sewing machine was the zipper foot. I literally had to do a Google search for an image of a Pfaff Zipper foot to figure out which one was the right one.  But once I had the right foot on the machine the zipper went in fairly easily.  

After the zipper was in I cleaned everything up and took a quick shower.  Brandon's classes end at noon on Friday's and we were planning to go on a date while the kids were still at school.  

He came home and we went to A&W for lunch.  Back when we lived in Logan we lived right next to an A&W and we always seemed to go there when we ate out.  Its still one of our favorite places to go together. 

Then we went to several stores to find birthday and baptism presents for the twins.  Brandon was in such a good mood.  His love language is gifts so he was really happy to be buying things for the girls.  

We went back home and hid the presents before we went to the Daycare to pick up the kids. They were all excited to see us.  We'd made it to the end of the week yet again.  

We came home and Brandon made pizza while I took a little nap.  We had a big evening planned and I needed a little break if I was going to make it through it all.  

After dinner we started getting the kids into their costumes for the Halloween Carnival at the Elementary school  This was our second dress up event of the season. I know I showed all these costumes last week, but I worked hard on them they are getting featured again. 

Here's Charlotte/Mary Poppins. 

Batman Derrick.

Pirate Captain Lydia (oh and those shoes aren't part of the costume.  Those are really the shoes she wears out in public every day.  I feel like I need to send a note to her teacher explaining that Lydia truly has other shoes, but she refuses to wear them.  She will wear these until they fall off her feet.)

And Spiderman Veronica.  I feel like I improved on the face painting this time.

We went trick or treating to the teachers' doors all around the school.  There were fun games and photo areas set up all over.

The best games were in the lunch room.  Derrick really wanted to play the cheese puff game.  He was so excited to have shaving cream on his head.  I was so impressed.  Two years ago he never would have even set foot in a room this crowded or noisy.  And this year he was participating in a game!

We came back home and the kids had fun eating their candy.  I was trying to come up with an idea for a good Halloween Themed side dish for the party the next day so I pulled up videos on Youtube.  We had fun learning ways to make Halloween Cake Pops (which we did not have time to do, but it was fun to dream.)

Then it was time for bed.  Everyone went to bed really happily.  Brandon and I stayed up late watching Dry Bar Comedy segments on Facebook.  (We love those.)

Saturday was a BUSY day.  Brandon's parents were hosting a Halloween Party down in Ogden that evening so we had to get ready for that, but we were also trying to get the house clean from the prior week while prepping for the upcoming week. We had to give the kids baths, clean the bedrooms, clean the dining room, do the dishes, make food for the party, make dinner to have after church on Sunday, return DVD's to the library and pick up a book that was waiting, do some laundry, and so on. I was in overthinking overdrive and may have stomped around the house a bit more than necessary. Finally I had a little vent session to Brandon and felt much better about the whole thing.  The kids were helpful and we got everything done with time to spare too.

In the early afternoon we drove down to Eden.  We arrived a few hours before the party which gave the kids some time to enjoy the house to themselves.  We haven't been to Utah since the middle of August so it was good to be there.

Brandon wanted the kids to watch the Disney version of Icabod Crane with the Headless Horseman.  The kids liked it.

Then it was time to start getting into costumes.  And again, I'm going to highlight each costume. Charlotte was really getting into Character as Mary Poppins.  She liked to say, "Mary Poppins, Practically Perfect in Every Way."

Derrick was loving being batman.  In other years it's been a struggle to keep him in his costumes, but this year he stayed in his costume the whole time.

Lydia was excited to be a pirate.  Her Bestefar dressed up as a pirate too and Lydia told him, "I'm your captain!"  This was the first party where she could bring her sword so that was fun for her.

And here is my third attempt at facepainting.  She smuddged it, but this was actually my best one so far.  I'd figured out the white part around the eyes was easier to do with a makeup brush than my finger (go figure.)

Charlotte wanted to pretend to be Mary Poppins arriving at the Banks' house.

Brandon and I were really excited to finally debut our costumes at this party.  Months ago Brandon let his hair grow out and we commented that he looked like Wolverine.  He said, "I should be Wolverine for Halloween." I got really excited and said, "And I can be Jean Grey!" 

I really identified with Jean when I watched the X-Men animated series as a kid. I was so excited when she became the Phoenix followed by being DEVASTATED when that whole saga played out.  As a teenager I loved watching Famke Janssen play Jean Grey in the first two X-Men movies.  The end of X2 was such a good tease for where the series was going.  But then the third X-men movie ruined it all.  When X-Men Days of Future Past fixed things I found myself crying in the movie theater.  I'm cautiously excited to see the Jean/Phoenix story play out again in the next X-Men movie. I don't really like Sophie Turner as Jean so she has to win me over big time in the Dark Phoenix movie.

Wow my nerd flag is flying.  But I don't care because I was thrilled at the chance to dress up as Wolverine and Jean Grey.

Brandon grew his hair out again for Halloween (and wore a hat to school for at least a month.)  He also grew out his beard and shaved it to look like Wolverine's.  He had buy and then wear a wife-beater for this costume which was something he never thought he'd have to do. But of course the best part of the costume were the claws.  He got these off of Amazon for $20.  He had so much fun with them.

My costume was mostly based off of Jean's look in X2.  But I wanted a nod to the Phoenix. I found a T-shirt that was the perfect shade of green at a thrift store. Then Brandon drew the Phoenix logo on his computer, printed it, cut it out, and then painted it onto the shirt.  It looked fabulous and I will wear this shirt all the time from now on.  The boots, pants, and jacket were all thrift store finds.  I don't know if I'll ever wear the pants again, but I've already worn the jacket and boots a ton.  Oh and we can't forget to mention the belt buckles. Brandon crafted these from leftover aluminum at school and added rivets.  There was also painting and clear coats and other such magic involved.  He had a great time with this little project.

We had fun doing  a little photo shoot before all the guests arrived.

Charlotte loved all her accessories.

Me again. I thought about going permanently red again for the costume, but I'm finally back to my true hair color again and I feel like staying there for a bit.  So we just did the spray on hair color.

Everyone arrived and we had a yummy dinner.  We'd decided to bring a 7 layer dip and Youtube gave us the idea to pipe sour cream into the shape of a spider web.  Brandon even added a spider.

Here are most of the cousins enjoying dinner together.

There were lots of game and other fun things.  We voted on costumes.  Charlotte won The Golden Pumpkin Award.  (This is the second year in a row she's won a category).  Brandon won Toad-ally Awesome.  He gave his award to Lydia.

Normally we would have stayed the night at Brandon's parents, but we had the Primary Program in our ward at 9:00 am the next day.  So we changed the kids out of their costumes and into pajamas.  Then we drove back to Pocatello.  We were back before 11:00. 

I'd had the kids lay out their Sunday clothes before we left on Saturday so that made the morning go a little easier.  The kids had also taken baths on Saturday morning.  Veronica had traces of red makeup, but nothing obvious so we were good.  Everyone posed for me outside the church.

I couldn't take pictures of the Program so I'll just tell you about what each child did as I show you these pictures. Out of all our Charlotte should have won "The best behaved child."  She sang every song, confidently repeated her part (none of my kids had their parts memorized), and looked like she enjoyed the whole program. 

Lydia started out the program a bit rough.  Our ward never had a chance to practice on the stand during church, and we had to miss the Saturday practice because of the Halloween Party.  So Lydia didn't know that she was assigned to a seat next to Derrick and far away from Charlotte.  She found out when she got up to the stand and was gently led away from Charlotte.  She did not like that at all.  She was in tears during the first song.  Luckily the leaders and teachers very quickly noticed her distress and told her she could sit by Charlotte.  That stopped the tears, but she looked sad for most of the program.  She did give her part when it was her turn. I think she would have won the award for "Most on Stage Drama."

Veronica would have won the Award for "Best/Worst Crusty Looks" for the second year in a row.  With the exception of Karate I have never seen this girl perform.  If you ask her to recite her ABCs she'll look away.  If you ask her to tell you a story she'll hang her head.  If you ask her to stand up in front of the whole ward and sing several songs she will stand there and glower at everyone. Brandon and I were trying not to laugh at the variaty of faces she was making.  We also sent her teacher several "it's okay, we know you tried" looks. She did say her part, but she didn't appear to enjoy it.

Derrick is always a bit of a wild card.  I never know how he'll do in the Primary Program.  So far we've had two good years, but that didn't guarantee this year would be good.  On Saturday Brandon had gone to the church early in the morning to set up tables and chairs for a funeral luncheon.  He took Derrick with him and then sat down on the stand and tried to explain that Derrick would sit up there on Sunday.  Then before church on Sunday I took Derrick up to the stand again and explained it again.  He seemed to understand. 

But when it came time to go up there he didn't want to go.  I forced him into the aisle where his teachers were waiting and they took him up to his seat.  There he proceeded to give a demonstration of 101 ways to be irreverent with a seat.  He sat on the seat while it was folded up, he stole his teachers seat when she went to help another child with her part, he tried to lay on the seat, he turned around in his seat, etc.  The nice thing was that he was quite.  He had teachers sitting on either side of him and a member of the Primary Presidency behind him.  He seemed resigned to his fate. 

When it was time to do his part he repeated it well.   He seemed really proud of himself.  But I think he was a little mad that he still had to stay on the stand.  That's when the escape attempts started.  He made 5 unsuccessful attempts.  He was finally successful during the closing song.  He made a bee line straight for me.

Later Brandon commented to one of Derrick's teachers.  He has three.  One is the actual teacher of the class.  The other two are a husband and wife who are there to help with Derrick and another autistic boy.  Brandon told the husband, "you are like the Man with the Yellow Hat from Curious George.  No matter what that monkey does you are still patient and smiling."  He got a kick out of that.  We really do appreciate Derrick's primary teachers.  The put up with a lot of antics, but still love him. 

My parents had come to see the program and after it was over they came to Gospel Doctrine where Brandon was teaching. He gave a good lesson on the Millennium. 

After church Charlotte and Lydia had their baptism interviews with the Bishop.  Back at home I knew the kids would be worn out from the party on Saturday and the program that morning.  I'd checked out the 1956 version of the movie The 10 Commandments from the library and so we just watched that all afternoon.  It's nearly 4 hours long so it was the perfect thing to do.  We ended up having some really good gospel discussions during and after the movie. 

This morning it was rough to get the kids up for school.  We have to wake them up at 6:30 so as I was getting out of bed I told Brandon that we have to move away from Pocatello because I can't do this for the next 6 years.

Derrick was especially out of sorts so I e-mailed his teacher to give her a heads up.  I don't think we'll be doing a lot of weekend travelling the next few months.  It's too hard on Derrick. 

After the Elementary school kids were on the bus and Veronica was at Daycare I came home and sewed Lydia's bodice to the skirt and added the zipper.  I still have some hand sewing to do, but these dresses are basically FINISHED!  Whew!

I was going to show you the pictures of the pumpkins we carved tonight.  But I think that's enough Birth-o-PrimaryProgram-o-Baptism-o-Ween stuff for this post.  I'll save those for Part 2. 

Have a Happy Halloween!

Busy Days Off

I have really been enjoying my month off of work.  I love this chance to take care of the things that slide when I'm working. Looking back over the things I did during the past two weeks I have to wonder how I ever had time to work.  

First up we have more pictures of the Lincoln log houses that the girls built during conference.  We left these up for a few days after conference.  

On Monday I took the kids up to Idaho Falls after school so we could spend time with my friend Sarah and her kids.  I can't believe it's been 6 months since I last saw Sarah.  We meant to get together sometime during the summer, but then Adventure Camp took over my life and so next thing I knew it was October.  So I wanted to make seeing Sarah a priority while I had time off of work.

We spent most the time talking.  While our kids spent time playing in the leaves.

 They had so much fun together.  We have to make sure we get together again before it's been another 6 months.

On Tuesday Charlotte and Lydia had big plans for a lemonade Stand, but instead the weather did a 180 and got really cold and rainy.  So instead we stayed inside and went through the Halloween costume box to see if we had anything we could use for our costumes.  I'd been shopping and found most of the accessories for the kids costumes, but Lydia wanted to be a pirate and I knew we had pirate things in the box.  Brandon came home and modeled the wig to the delight of the kids. 

Charlotte and Lydia had their respective dance and ukulele classes.  Veronica had put on her  Spiderman costume when we  went through the costumes and she was still wearing it when we went to Charlotte's dance class.  The 3-6 year old class meets right before Charlotte's class. All the little girls wear fancy tutu's and leotards to their class.  It was hilarious to see Spiderman-Veronica walk into that crowd.  She goes strutting by in her muscle suit and all the little girls were making comments about the girl dressed like Spiderman. 

 On Wednesday I had a follow up appointment with the orthopedic doctor.  He felt my knee and told me that if I hadn't told him, he wouldn't know that I'd dislocated it 6 weeks ago.  He is a little concerned that I might have had some cartilage pulled off but since it isn't hurting me he doesn't think I need an MRI at this point.  We'll have another follow up in 6 more weeks to see if I'm having any other problems.

He told me that it was up to my physical therapist if I should continue physical therapy.  Which is funny because my Physical Therapist said that it was up to the Ortho.  I enjoyed therapy so I decided that I might as well keep going to therapy as long at Workman's Comp was paying for it.

On Thursday I went to the Idaho Falls Temple with my parents.  We've had several church lessons on going to the temple and I always think, "Well I would go it I had time."  And then I realized that since I had the whole month of October off of work then I could probably find one day to go.  So I found a day that worked and invited my parents along.  They ended up driving which was nice because this was my third trip to Idaho Falls in 6 days.  (I hadn't left Pocatello for over a month and then I went to Idaho Falls three times.)

It was a really good visit.  I've talked about my temple anxiety a few times on this blog, but this temple trip was surprisingly anxiety free. A big part of that was because I didn't have to worry about my kids.  Veronica was at daycare/pre-school and the three older kids were at school and would go to the day care right afterward.  I knew they were all fine and accounted for for HOURS.  Usually when I go to the temple I'm worried about leaving my kids with a babysitter for such a long time.  I'm rushing to the temple and rushing back.  And the whole time I'm in the temple I'm worried about whether or not the kids are behaving themselves.  It's a whole different experience when I don't have to wonder if my kids are being a burden on the babysitter.

I did end up with a huge headache though.  We went to Wendy's after the temple, and the food kind of helped my headache.  But it was with me the rest of the afternoon and evening.  When I picked the kids up from daycare Charlotte and Lydia were shouting about how it was a nice day and they wanted to do a lemonade stand.  I told them we would see how I felt when we got home.  I realized that aside from helping them set up I really didn't have to do much so I said they could do one.

They had fun.  It wasn't quite as successful as the summertime stands, but they still made something like $20.  Some of our neighbor friends came over and it was cute to look out the window and see them talking together.

 Meanwhile inside, Veronica was helping me with the pancakes.  She had fun spooning out the batter and flipping the pancakes.

 On Friday I went to physical therapy and found that it was all super easy for me.  I had a different tech than usual. She was a little new and so I had to tell her how I needed my weights set.  I even had to show her how to do the surrender exercise.  I realized how far I'd come in a short amount of time. A week or so early I'd been flabbergasted when my tech wanted me to do a surrender, and now I was at the point where I was teaching someone how to do it.


At the end of ever session I get hooked up to a machine that shocks my muscles while ice is put on my leg.  I get to lay there for 15 minutes and just relax.  It's been great.  While I laid there at the end of the session on Friday I realized that I was probably done with therapy.  I was basically using it as a gym at that point.  I wasn't really doing "therapy."  I also realized that the week coming up was JAM PACKED with stuff already.  I didn't have time to come to therapy 3 times that week.  And so I decided I was done. 

After I got unhooked from the e-stim and ice I went up to the front desk and cancelled my remaining appointments.  I was kind of sad to be done, but I was so happy to have reached a point where I felt I'd recovered. And I got a free shirt. 

That night Brandon and I dropped our kids off at my mom and dad's house and we went on a date.  We went to Hobby Lobby and bought the fabric for the girls baptism dresses.  Then we went to some thrift stores and found more accessories for our Halloween Costumes. We had a great time together.

On Saturday we had a ton of stuff to do.  I took Charlotte and Lydia with me to a baptism for a girl in our ward.  It was kind of a sneak peak for them to know what to expect next month. 

Brandon took Derrick and Veronica with him to do the grocery shopping. When we got done with the baptism Charlotte and Lydia decided they wanted to go to the store to buy toys with their lemonade money.  So we went to Fred Meyer.  As we drove through the parking lot we passed Brandon and the other two kids in the Jeep.  It was funny.

Back at home we decided we needed to take some time and trim the trees in the back yard.  Derrick has been obsessed with trying to knock the dead branches down.  That would be fine, except he uses a rock to hit the branches and I can just see him hitting himself in the head with a rock. So we went outside with a saw and the ladder and took care of the branches. 

The girls played with the fingerling monkey's they'd bought.

They were so in love with these toys.

We ended up borrowing our neighbors chainsaw and Brandon sawed down a huge dead branch.  I think watching that branch fall was one of the Top 10 greatest moments of Derrick's life.   We took parts of the dead branch and decorated our front door. (As if our porch needs anything else to make it look scary.)

Sunday was a good day, but I can't remember much about it. 

Monday was the start of my BUSY BUSY week. 

I spent the morning cutting out and sewing the lining fabric for the girls' dresses.  I'm using the same pattern for both of them, but there are some extra things on Lydia's dress.  So it was easier to just trace the pattern pieces first so I could have a pattern for each girl.  Someone in church had made a passing comment about listening to the Book of Mormon as a way to achieve President Nelson's challenge of reading the Book of Mormon by the end of the year.  That turned on a little light in my head, because I'd been wondering how I'd find time to do that.  So I turned that on and listened to it for hours. 

When the kids were out of school I picked them up at the day care and we went to the dentist.  We have an excellent dentist so my kids LOVE going there.  Derrick won the no cavity award again.  Veronica won the most cavity award.  Charlotte and Lydia each have a little cavity.  Charlotte was ready to have her spacer out, but she was really scared.  Lydia had her's taken out 6 months ago so she told Charlotte there was nothing to worry about.  But Charlotte still cried. 

After dinner we had tried making carmel apple pops which was kind of an ironic treat to have after a dentist visit. The kids hated the carmel anyway so it all worked out.  (And I had fun eating it over the next few days.)

Lydia did discover that she LOVES white chocolate.

On Tuesday I cut out the actual fabric for the girls dresses while Veronica watched a movie.  Then we went to the elementary school to help out in Derrick's class for the Art Mom's and Dad's program. This is an art program that's run by volunteer parents. They teach an art lesson once a month.  I'd signed up to help in Charlotte and Lydia's classes later in the week, but for Derrick's class I decided it was best if I just went to help him.  Veronica doesn't have school on Tuesdays so she came along. She sat down next to Derrick and the other moms set her up with a paper and paint just like the other kids. 

At first Derrick didn't want to participate but after a minute he dipped his paint brush into the paint and started to paint a head with eyes, a nose and a mouth.  Later he drew arms and put presents into them.  And the added legs.  It was a rough drawing, but it was the first time I've ever watched him draw a person.  I was so impressed.  When he was done he showed me the books that his teacher keeps in a special place for him.

We finished with Art, but we still had about 45 minutes before school got out.  Veronica and I went to the work room and got the paper and things ready for Charlotte and Lydia's classes. Then we met everyone outside and went home.  

We had dance/ukulele that night with the added bonus of Karate for Veronica.  I'd signed her up for a free introductory class at a place between our house and Charlotte's dance class.  So I took Veronica and Charlotte while Brandon took Derrick and Lydia.  

Veronica had been looking forward to Karate for weeks.  The past few days she'd get really excited and jump up and down every time I mentioned it.  As soon as we walked into the building she started jumping up and down and pretty much didn't stop for the next half hour.  I've always known she was high energy, but I've never seen it on display as much as it was at Karate.  Normally she is a little shy and reserved in new situations and around new people, but that was not the case in karate.  She was bouncy and loud the whole time.  She had so much fun learning to block and punch and kick.  She even loved running around. She has four free classes and then we'll see if this is something we keep doing.  (Hopefully it fits our schedule and budget because Veronica loved it.)

The teacher said that if the kids didn't need a nap by the time she was done, she hadn't done her job right.  When we went to Charlotte's dance class Veronica laid down next to me on a bench in the hall and told me, "I'm tired."  Usually she's all over the place, but this time she was content to relax next to me. 

Wednesday was the busiest day in a very busy week.  I dropped Veronica off at pre-school and then headed over to the elementary school to help with Art Mom's in Charlotte's class.  I had an extra 45 minutes between dropping off Veronica and helping at the school so I just went for a walk on a bike trail by the school.  This was the first long walk I've been on without kids since I got hit by a car.  It was good to walk fast and see what my knee can do. I could feel some stiffness, but nothing concerning.  

As I walked I looked around at the pretty mountains, and the big sky and felt so much love for Pocatello.  I really wish it was possible for us to stay here after Brandon graduates.  I don't know how that would work, but I'm still hopeful. 

I got back to the school and met up with two other moms to do Art Mom's in Charlotte's class.  We talked about the artist Paul Klee.  He drew pictures with people who had big heads.  So we told the class to draw self portraits of themselves with big heads.  Charlotte didn't like that idea and so she didn't make her head very big.  I told her there was no wrong way to do art.  

Here's her final picture.  This is on the outside of her portfolio which is where she'll put the other art work she does in the other months.

I went home after Art Mom's and thought I would try to sew, but there just wasn't enough time to really get into it.  My sister Lindsey called and I talked to her while she organized some of her kitchen cupboards and I organized the kids book shelf.  

Then I went back to the school and checked Derrick out of his class early.  We went to the doctor to talk to her about getting a prescription for pull ups.  Brandon and I have been trying to night time potty train Derrick for over a year, but nothing has really worked. We have to wash his sheets and give him a bath nearly every morning.  With the weather getting colder I don't want him sleeping in a wet bed.  And I'm not interested in doing all that laundry.  His Medicaid Caseworker mentioned that medicaid would pay for pull ups with a prescription.  So I figured that now was a good time to get that set up.  So we talked to the doctor and she agreed that it was probably a physiological thing that no amount of rewards or motivators would help with at this time.  So we got the prescription for pull ups.  Hallelujah. 

That appointment was over right when Derrick's behavioral therapy was scheduled to start.  So I took Derrick to the office and dropped him off there.  Then I picked up the girls from the daycare.  

We were supposed to have Family Training with the therapist that night, but it got cancelled.  I was so happy because that meant I would have more time to help the girls get ready for their first Activity Day's activity.  They can official start going when they turn 8, but they were invited to this one because it was a Daddy Daughter Date.  They were so excited to dress up fancy. 

Here's Charlotte.

And Lydia.

Lydia invited my dad to be her date, and Brandon was Charlotte's date.   They had a lesson on how to set a table fancy, but when it came time to eat they actually ate right off the table!

I'm not sure if this face is a reaction to eating off the table or just to having her picture taken.

They had a lot of fun and are looking forward to going to future activities.

At 7:30 it was time for what is quickly becoming the highlight of my month - The Sibling Call.  I was in charge this time, but Lindsey still took care of bringing us onto to call with her multi-line system thingy.  I asked everyone to talk about what they remember about their baptism or any other siblings baptism. We had some good laughs.  Then somehow we started talking about first crushes and first kisses and we had some REALLY good laughs.  I'm so glad that we have technology that allows us to talk as siblings even though we are in New York, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Idaho.

And then it was time for bed and I was so happy to go.  I think I was asleep before 9:30.

On Thursday I downloaded the weekly Episode of Radio Ronin like I always do.  Last week they announced they were starting a Patreon Account. I've loved this show for 7 years and I figured the least I could do to say thank you was support them at the $5 per month tier.  So I signed up for that.  During this weeks show they thanked all their Patrons and so my name was read by Jimmy Chunga himself.  And my last name was butchered by Jimmy Chunga himself.  And then Chunga, Kenny, and Chandler spent a glorious 30 seconds sort of talking about me.  It was wonderful and I replayed it so many times.  (It happens right after the 17:00 minute mark if you want to listen to it too.)

Derrick's class had a field trip to the Library.  I walked over there and met him as he got off the bus.  Then I stuck to him like glue while he was in the library.  He's been there a lot, but I saw that as more of a liability than an asset.  I knew he would want to play on the I-pads or go look at movies, both of which were not allowed on this visit.  He kept telling me he wanted a Big Hero 6 book, but we couldn't find one.  I looked it up on the computer, but the only book I could find was checked out.  Derrick was not happy about that.  We reserved it, but he was grumpy about it the whole time.  I was pretty relieved when it was finally time for the kids to get back on the bus.  Whew.

I was able to start sewing the bodice for Charlotte's dress back and home and I worked on that for several hours. 

Then I went to the elementary school again.  This time it was for Derrick's annual IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting.  Brandon arrived at we went into a meeting with the principle, Derrick's 1st grade teacher, his Special Ed teacher, his speech therapist, his occupational therapist,  and the school psychologist.  Together we all went over the plan for the next year.  It was a huge meeting that lasted close to 90 minutes and gave me a headache, but it was very positive.  Derrick has a lot of challenges, but he also has a lot of strengths.  And most importantly he has a team of people committed to helping bring out those strengths.  (This is another reason I don't want to leave Pocatello.)

Veronica was supposed to have another Karate lesson at 4:00 but the meeting ended at 4:30 so that was the end of that plan. 

Brandon and I drove over to the day care to pick up all the kids.  The receptionist laughed when she saw us together.  I told her, "look we are together during daylight hours!"

The kids were excited to see us, but they were also all involved in something and were kind of like, "oh, do we have to go?"  Derrick was playing with Legos, Charlotte was playing bingo, and Lydia was over at the science table measuring and writing about her observations of pinecones and cinnamon sticks.

 She looked just like a little scientist.

On Friday Derrick finally got to take his Big Hero 6 Lunch Box to school.  At parent teacher conference Derrick's teacher had mentioned that he really wanted a lunch box and maybe we could use that as a motivator.  So we decided that if he was good (no fighting at recess) all week he could take a lunch on Fridays.  I ordered a lunch box off Amazon and Derrick was beyond excited.  We packed the lunch on Thursday night and Derrick walked around with the lunch box for 2 hours.  

I had a couple errands to run after dropping Veronica off.  One of them was to stop by my dr's office and get a flu shot.  I put this off last year and regretted it big time when I got the flu in January.  So I made sure to get one this year. 

Then I went home and sewed and sewed and sewed.  I got Charlotte's bodice all put together with sleeves and the lining and everything.  This is a big deal.  I also got her skirt basically done.  And I also made it to 2 Nephi 25 in my listening to the Book of Mormon.  Yes listening to it on my phone was a good idea. 

At 12:30 I went back to the elementary school for the 5th time that week and helped out in Lydia's class for Art moms.  She was more willing to draw a big head.

Here's her finished product.  She made sure to draw her shirt exactly how it looked in real life.

When we got done with Art I went out on the playground with Lydia's class.  Lydia showed me how well she can do the monkey bars and I was honestly impressed.  It was like watching American Ninga Warrior. 

Then the bell rang and we met up with the Derrick and Charlotte.  We drove to the daycare and picked Veronica up.  When we got home Brandon was outside tuning up all the bikes.  This was a big day.  We were going on a family bike ride - and I was going to ride my bike.  Now that Veronica has a two wheeler I felt like it was time for us to go on a real bike ride as a family.  She was still learning, but I figured if we went to a flat trail she could learn while we all rode together.  So Brandon got out my bike for it's first ride in something like 8 years. 

Then we loaded up all six bikes into our two cars and went to the bike trail by the elementary school. 

The kids were so excited. 

I didn't get a lot of pictures, because I was trying to steer and all, but it was a fun bike ride.  The three older kids ended up leaving Veronica in the dust so she and I rode together.  She probably wasn't quite ready for a big bike ride, but she gave it a really good go. 

Brandon and the older kids rode the the end of the trail and then came back.  Then I went with the older kids while Brandon started back with Veronica.  Lydia biffed it pretty bad, and so she stayed back with Brandon as well.  But Derrick and Charlotte went with me.  Watching Derrick ride is amazing.  He's a natural.  I watched him go around a little curve and he looked like a pro.  He struggles with so much that it makes me really happy that he has something that is easy for him.

We came back to Brandon and the other two and then put everything back into the car and headed home.  We were all in great moods.  We'd done it!  We'd gone on a family bike ride.  We've been working on that goal all summer and it finally happened.  And for Brandon it was a really big deal.  When he was little his parents told him he needed to learn how to ride a two wheeler so they could go on a family bike ride. He learned to ride, but the family bike ride never happened.  So this was a fulfillment of a dream he's had for almost 30 years. 

We had dinner and then movie night and then Brandon and I worked on my Halloween Costume while listening to a Halloween Episode of Baconsale. This is another podcast I love (and support on Patreon) they were reading excerpts from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and being the baby that I am I didn't want to listen to it alone.  So Brandon and I listened to it together. It was really fun.

Brandon and I are being X-Men for Halloween.  Brandon is dressing up as Wolverine and I'm dressing up as Jean Grey/Phoenix.  I put Brandon in charge of putting the Phoenix Logo on a t-shirt for me.  And of course he did an excellent job.  He drew the logo on his computer, printed it out on cardstock, carefully cut it out with his exacto knife, and then carefully painted it on the shirt.

It turned out so great!

I'm glad Brandon worked on my costume because I was busy working on everyone else's.  Our first Halloween activity was a Special Needs Trunk or Treat on Saturday so I had to get everyones stuff ready.  I spent a lot of Saturday doing some last minute sewing on the costumes.  But I got it all done.  Here are the costumes for 2018. 

Charlotte wanted to be Mary Poppins. She decided on this costume in like June and kept insisting she wasn't going to change it.  I wasn't so sure, but she never did change it.  Most of this costume was just finding accessories.  I was so excited when I found the bag at the Idaho Youth Ranch Thrift Store.  It is PERFECT.  The skirt was also another good find.  It was in the Womens' section, so I had to take it in, but that was all the sewing I had to do for Charlotte's costume so that was good. 

Every year Lydia's costume ends up being the biggest project.  In years past I have made her an Indian dress - complete with papoose, a bat costume with a very specific wing design, and a wedding dress - yes a wedding dress.  So when she told me she wanted to be a pirate this year I was like, "finally an easy costume!  We have all the things for a pirate costume.  But it still ended up being complicated because I had to make the skirt and the vest.  Luckily, she wanted to look like a ship wreaked pirate so the sewing didn't have to be neat.  The skirt was made from left over fabric triangles, and the vest is from my work pants that got cut when I was hit by a car.  (Yay for re-purposing!)

Derrick, bless his little considerate heart, wanted to be Batman again. And since I'd anticipated that last year I'd bought the costume big and it still fit. 

My neighbor Melissa gave us some hand me downs that included a spider man costume.  Veronica decided that's what she would be for Halloween.  It came with a mask, but we can wear masks at half the events we are going to so I bought facepaint and tried my hand at painting a mask on.  It worked pretty well.

And here's the obligatory group photo. 

Here's a closer look at Veronica's make up.  Pretty good for my first try.  She NEVER lets me do her hair so this is one of the first time I've ever seen her with her hair pulled back.

We had a good time at the trunk or treat.  It was fun to be there with other special needs family's.  And I loved that it was during the daylight.  I've decided we are boycotting all trunk or treats that happen after dark because THEY ARE NOT SAFER than actual trick or treating. I've seen so many kids almost get hit by cars in dark parking lots.

Brandon and I didn't dress up, but I did wear my shirt, because I love it so stinkin much. And here's a picture of me because I might as well show up too.  It's kind of a goofy picture, but oh well. 

And that brings us to today.  The kids let us sleep in until 8:10 which was fabulous except our church starts at 9:00.  EEEKK.  Somehow we made it on time, thought I did find my uneaten bowl of oatmeal on my dresser when we came back home from church. 

This next week is a lot less busy, but I can tell you right now what I'm going to spend the week doing.  Sewing Sewing and more Sewing.  I have two weeks until the girls' baptism, but I'm hoping to get the dresses done this week. 

I tell you, it's going to feel like a vacation when I go back to work in November.