illguthlife: Easter and Derrick turns 9

Last April I mourned the fact that everything seemed to be cancelled. We were in lockdown and only supposed to leave the house for exercise. My calendar was empty and I was sad.

Well this April it's a whole different story. I've very nearly overbooked myself. I didn't even know that was possible in 2021, but it's possible.

So this blog ended up being a little neglected this month. I'm going to try to catch up. This post will focus on the first two weeks of April when we celebrated Easter with family (in another state!) and celebrated Derrick's birthday. There were also many other little things that I managed to pack into our days.

First up are some pictures from Sunday March 286h. This was 4 (four!) Sundays ago. We spent the evening playing in the back yard. The area where the shed used to be is kind of like a big sand box right now. All the kids love going out there and playing. It's seen more action in the last few weeks than it has in the other 18 months that we've lived here.

The girls used some bricks to make some fun structures. Veronica said hers was a graveyard.

Monday was March 29th. I had work in the morning as usual. When I got home the girls had created an elaborate world on top of the table using all their toys. They had been playing for a long time.

Derrick and Veronica had also created "Sodor" on the living room floor and played in there for a while. I know I've said this before, but my favorite thing about homeschool has been how much time my kids can play together.

When we were done with whatever school stuff we did that day I went over to my friend Annette's house to dig out some ornamental grass that she no longer needed. I was planning to buy this grass, so I was super excited when she posted on Facebook that she had grass for whoever wanted to dig it out.

I came home and planted the grass in the backyard along our back fence. Now that the shed is gone we are feeling very exposed to our backdoor neighbors. It will be nice to have this grass help create a bit of a privacy screen.

Annette also had a Peony plant that she didn't want any more. I've wanted to plant peonies so I happily took that too. I dug out more of the grass around our new front yard tree. I split the peony up and put the halves on either side of the tree. Eventually this will be a whole triangle shaped flowerbed, but I'm doing this a little piecemeal.

And here are some other garden additions. Lydia picked out this Cardinal shaped windchime for me at Lowes when she went with Brandon to get something. I love it.

I moved the grass from the front yard into the backyard. There is a plan for this area it just doesn't quite look like there is a plan yet.

This picture is more of a "Before" picture. Hopefully there will be a really cool "After" picture later this summer.

Lydia and Charlotte took some of the ornamental grass and put in into their little "gardens" I told them they can play in this area until I need to plant tomatoes here in May.

This is Charlotte's little garden area.

On Tuesday the girls played some sort of birthday party for one of their stuffed animals (I think Cubby, but I'm not sure). They decorated their room and even had the party light going during the party.

There wasn't anything special about Tuesday. But here's a picture of the Peach Tree.

Here are Brandon and the kids doing something science-y on Wednesday. He had some pond water he'd brought home from our camping trip. They took turns looking at it under the microscope.

You can see our Easter Baskets on the table in that picture. We realized that the Wheat Grass wasn't sprouting as well as it had last year. That was fine because we were planning to travel for Easter and I didn't want to bring baskets with dirt and live grass anyway. So on Thursday when we were running a little early for our horseback riding lessons I stopped at the dollar store and grabbed 4 new baskets that stacked together and would be easy to travel with.

Horse lessons were really fun. Veronica went first and did a great job.

I stayed in the car and read The Goose Girl to Charlotte and Lydia. They LOVED that book.

Then it was Derrick's turn and so I got out so I could be nearby during his lesson. He did really well and was pretty excited about being on the horse.

So when they went for a walk around the yard I just went back to the car.

Derrick got tired of being on the horse, but he still had time in his lesson so Miss Mary had him help her lead the horses to water. Derrick liked that a lot and was fascinated by the way they can suck up water to drink.

When we got in the car to drive back home I realized we were super close to 240000 miles on the odometer.

I was hoping to see the mileage turn over to 240000, but I completely forgot about it after I started driving. The next time I thought to look was when we were back in Twin Falls. We were at 240009 miles. We hit 220,000 in Yellowstone so we added about 20,000 miles in less than 4 years. And really the Honda is still running really well. If the kids weren't outgrowing the backseat I'd probably plan on having this car for many more years. But the kids are outgrowing it so we are starting to plan on replacing the Honda in the next year or two. (Sob)

When we got home there were Kiwi and Tinker Crates waiting for us. Well, most of us. For some reason Veronica didn't get one this time. She was super bummed about it.

Here's Lydia following the directions for hers.

When Brandon came home from work I realized I was completely used up for the week. I ate dinner with everyone, but then I tapped out and just went into my room and took a break. I sometimes say that I have a "5 hat limit" each day. I can only fill so many roles before I emotionally run out. This day I'd been a biller, lunch lady, teacher, chauffer, and chef. I didn't have anything else in me.

Brandon took over for the evening and made sure the kids found all the clothes they needed for our upcoming trip. After the kids were in bed I came out of my room and talked to Brandon for a bit. there also may have been some stress eating of generic samoa girl scout cookies.

Friday was a good day. We finished up school for the week. Here's proof we survived once again.

The rest of the day was a "waiting day." We planned to leave for Utah as soon as Brandon got off of work. This would be the first time we went to Utah in almost 6 months. Heck, it would be the first time we'd left Idaho in almost 6 months.

I had the kids help me put away laundry and we found the top of the laundry table again. We packed the car and honestly I can't remember what else.

Brandon got off work earlier than we expected. He was home by 4:45. We were on the road soon after that. Marica was really funny and wanted to sit RIGHT on Lydia for most of the drive.

We drove down to Salt Lake and went to my sister Hillary's house. It was so good to see her. She's always so fun to visit. Walter had been waiting anxiously for Veronica to come all day, but he'd given up and gone to bed a little before we arrived. Penny did get up and see the kids for a bit though.

Saturday morning was a very lazy morning. I was so content to sit on Hillary's couch and do nothing. Lydia and Charlotte had fun with Penny.

She's such a cute baby.

Hillary has ~~finally~~ recently started hair school. She learned all about curly hair and then passed on her knowledge to Charlotte and Lydia. She even drew them diagrams.

Then she deep conditioned their hair. They thought it was fun to lay on her counter while she rinsed out their hair.

Lastly, she cut off all the dry ends of their hair. Charlotte's had to have about 4 inches taken off, but it looks so much healthier now.

We hung around at Hillary's all morning. All of a sudden it was noon and Hillary had places to be. So we got ready - sort of. I basically just changed into slightly less comfy clothes and put a hat on my head.

We drove up to Brandon's parents house. Brandon and I helped make homemade pizza for dinner. His sister Melanie and her family came over. His other sister, Shannon, wouldn't arrive until Saturday, but her kids were already there. We haven't seen most of Brandon's family since their Grandpa's funeral last October. It was so great to see them again.

While dinner was cooking Melanie, Jacque, and the older kids all went outside and hid Easter Eggs. Many of the eggs had been prepped for Easter last year. Back then we'd thought that we'd have an Egg hunt in the summer "when COVID was over." HA HA HA.

A year later, COVID wasn't exactly over, but it was time to use the eggs.

We ate pizza and then it was time for the Egg hunt. Here are the girls listening to instructions.

Then we went outside for the hunt.

The weather was PERFECT! We didn't even need jackets.

Derrick was very concerned about not being able to find eggs so he wanted me to go around with him. He did need a little help, but mostly he was able to spot the eggs on his own.

When it was over we sat on the porch so he could see what he had. He had fun cramming candy in his mouth. But actually there wasn't an insane amount of candy. Melanie had filled her eggs with legos. All the kids were thrilled about those eggs.

Everyone moved inside to take stock of their haul. It was so cute to see all the kids opening eggs and seeing the surprises inside. The weather had been so warm that some of the chocolate was melted and had to go into the fridge for a while.

After all the eggs were done it was time for Derrick to open his early birthday presents from Steve and Jacque. He'd asked for two movies.

He got Into the Spiderverse and The Meg. Jacque was really interested in The Meg so she wanted to watch it with Derrick. Derrick thought it was so fun that she wanted to watch the movie with him. Most of the kids ended up watching it with them.

Meanwhile, Brandon, me, Melanie, Justin, Steve, and Wally played games in the dinning room. We played Balderdash and then the drawing game. We were laughing so hard. It was a super fun time.

I'd been a little worried about this trip. I wasn't sure everyone would know how to interact after so much time apart. But actually everyone seemed to know each other really well. And I give all the credit to Marco Polo. About a year ago I created a Marco Polo group for Brandon's siblings. I'd loved my sibling group on Marco Polo and I figured Brandon's family would enjoy one too. It's been a really fun way for the families to communicate this past year. We've been able to share big things like travels and birthdays and small things like lego creations. I think all that contact on Marco Polo helped everyone connect better when we were in person.

After the movie was over we got everyone ready for bed. Melanie's family lives nearby, but they'd brought everything for a sleep over. It took some time, but soon everyone was in bed somewhere in the house.

When I woke up in the morning I was feeling a specific prompting for something I needed to do that day. It was Easter Sunday, but it was also General Conference Weekend. I'm not a fan of having Conference on Easter. I feel like Easter should be celebrated in a church. And I feel like the General Conference Talks just end up being repetitive messages on the importance of Easter instead of being about more diverse themes. Plus we were with family for the first time in months and so no one was really paying attention to conference anyway. We hadn't turned it on at all on Saturday and I wasn't sure how much we'd listen to it on Sunday.

But I really needed some sort of spiritual recharge.

And so I turned to my favorite way to jumpstart my spiritual life - I went to Catholic Mass.

You may remember that I went to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in 2019. I'd enjoyed that so much that I'd been hoping to go back for Easter Mass that spring. Well COVID cancelled that (and every other) plan. I'd hoped to go for Midnight Mass last year, but I ended up getting sick on Christmas Eve. So I'd been kicking around the idea of going for Easter Mass this year. I made up my mind to go that morning.

There is a little chapel over in Huntsville so I looked up the Mass Time and drove over there a little before 9:00. I hadn't packed a dress, but I had a nice shirt and pants and I've seen people in jeans at mass before so I knew I wouldn't stand out because of my clothes. I planned to just hang out in the back and try to blend in.

Blending in didn't really work though. It was pretty obvious I wasn't Catholic when I didn't genuflect when entering the chapel. And when the priest greeted me with "Happy Easter" I replied with "Thanks!" Instead of something along the lines of "Happy Easter to you Father."

But nobody cared or made me feel like I wasn't welcome. And I wasn't there to pretend to be Catholic, I was there for a spiritual experience.

And I definitely got the spiritual experience. I often feel the spirit stronger in other religions than I do at my own. This is probably for two reasons. 1. I don't have my kids with me. and 2. I don't know enough about the other religion to notice anything that happens to go wrong. I can just show up and plug into the spirit.

I don't know what it is exactly about Mass that I love, but I think a lot of it has to do with how much the audience gets to participate. I love standing up to sing. I love the scripted responses. (And thanks to COVID I had to wear a mask so no one could tell when I was mumbling along or leaving out certain phrases.) And I really love the way communion is presented. It's really cool to hear the Priest explain the Last Supper as he's preparing communion.

Because of COVID the Priests came into the congregation to distribute communion rather than having the congregation come to them. It would be completely inappropriate for me to take communion, but I knew I could request a blessing from the Priest if I crossed my arms and bowed my head when the Priest came to my row. I found myself really wanting that blessing. (Yes I know I happen to live with an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood of my own faith - who could give me a blessing any time I asked, but that seemed beside the point.) So when the Priest reached my row I crossed my arms and bowed by head. He held out his had and whispered something in my general direction.

I don't know if it was that blessing, or if it was hearing the Priest say, "Receive the Body of Christ" to each person who took communion around me, or if it was just the atmosphere created by the music, but I broke down crying. I cried for a long time. It was one of those really good spiritually cathartic crying sessions. I definitely got my spiritual recharge.

When the meeting was over I said goodbye to the Priest (and probably used the wrong phrases again) and then headed back to my in-laws house. I got back a few minutes after the first session of General Conference had started.

Most everyone was in the front room listening. The girls were alternating between playing with Barbies and eating Easter Candy.

I was still riding high from Mass so I didn't really pay much attention to that session of Conference. I did like seeing the international musical numbers. I said to Brandon, "I think I just saw more people of color in 30 seconds than I have in the last 30 years of watching conference."

This ended up being the only session of conference that we watched so it wasn't until later that I heard the stats about how many women spoke at conference. Or rather how few women spoke at conference.

Sigh.

I don't really want to talk about it. Just know that I'm super disappointed.

I had a writing deadline coming up for a speech that I'd been selected to do for the Idaho Autism Summit. I had major writers block, but had managed to scratch out some ideas in the last few weeks. I'd planned to make myself write it during this weekend. So after the morning session I locked myself in one of the guest rooms, set a timer for 30 minutes, and wrote. I was able to push past the writers block and make a lot of progress on the speech.

Brandon's sister Shannon and her husband Chris arrived while I was writing. It was good to see them. We had a big Easter Dinner with a delicious ham. Then we sat around and talked for a long time. I took a nap because I figured I would be the one driving home.

Around 4:00 we started getting things ready for us to leave. All the other family members were leaving too. But that didn't make it easier. No one wanted our fun weekend to end.

I drove home and we got home a little before 8:00. One of the first things I did was go around my yard and check on the garden. There were lots of exciting things going on.

The new Weeping Birch Tree had some little leaves starting to bud.

So did the Lilac. (It survived the transplant!)

The daffodils were super pretty.

My raspberries had new little growth popping up from the roots.

And on the stocks. (The light was fading so everything ended up a little blurry.)

The blackberries also had little buds. That meant these survived their transplant too.

The yellow bush was starting to turn yellow.

The peach tree was loosing blooms, but gaining leaves.

And there were little pea sprouts. My garden had been very busy during the weekend.

That night when I put Veronica to bed she started sobbing. She told me that she'd had such a good weekend and wanted to be back at the house with everybody. She was so sad that we'd had to say goodbye. We talked about some of the upcoming things we have planned. And I told her that we would definitely see everyone sooner than 6 months this time.

Monday was the start of another week and this one was a little different than usual. It was time for ISAT tests and Derrick was scheduled to do a test every day for 4 days. Monday and Wednesday he was scheduled for the afternoon and on Tuesday and Thursday he was scheduled for the mornings. Those mornings were a little tricky for us. I had to cancel his therapy and plan to leave work early in order to sit in the parking lot while he was taking the tests.

So on Monday I went to work like normal in the morning, but in the afternoon I took Derrick to his test instead of doing homeschool stuff. The testing place was by the Middle School which is only one major street away from our house. So it wasn't too big of deal to go there. But it was a little tricky to find the exact relocatable building that we needed to be in. We finally found it though. Our homeschool mentor was there to be Derrick's test facilitator. This was the first time we'd met her in person. Derrick warmed right up to her and didn't mind at all that I couldn't be there with him.

I went out to the parking lot and worked on my speech again. It was finally coming together. A little bit later Derrick came out with his teacher. They hadn't made much progress on the tests, but not because of anything Derrick was doing. He needs a text to speech feature that was not working. It would have to be installed and that would take more time than it was worth for that day. So we went home.

At home the girls had been doing crafts. Lydia made lots of fun electronics for her Barbies.

Here's her area.

She even made little snacks called "Rainbows"

Tuesday was another test day. I went to work and helped train a second receptionist. Then I had to leave her in the hands of the other receptionist so I could meet Brandon and Derrick at the test location. I brought my daily deposit book and the most recent bank statement to keep me busy in the car this time. It's a little hard doing reconciliation on the center console of a car, but I made it work. Derrick finished two LA tests and then was done for the day. We dropped the deposit book off at work and checked in with the receptionists. Then we went back home.

In theory we could have done regular school that afternoon, but I was approaching my hat limit and I still had a lot of roles to play that day. So I cancelled school and I laid on the couch and read The Goose Girl to Charlotte and Lydia all afternoon. Veronica took this picture of me.

Then Veronica disappeared with my phone. I later learned that she went into my room and took blurry pictures of all of her drawings.

She's been drawing a lot lately and it's good to see that she's proud of her work.

I told her I'd upload some of the pictures.

I've been a little worried about her fine motor skills. But lately she's been playing with Legos and drawing so I'm not as worried.

This one is a mixed media art piece. She used stuffing as clouds.

I think this one is a lot of traps.

We read the book right up until my phone alarm rang. It was the alarm to remind me that I need to take Derrick to speech therapy. I'm glad I have that alarm because we were about 20 pages from the end of the book and probably would have read right through Derrick's appointment time.

I took Derrick to therapy and worked on my speech in the waiting room. It was at the point where I could give it and be mostly happy with it.

Which was good because we had a zoom rehearsal for the conference that night. I didn't have to give the speech in the rehearsal, but it was good to say that I had it mostly done. The rehearsal was more of a technical run through so we could make sure all the presenters could connect via zoom.

Brandon came home during that rehearsal and he and the kids ate in the dinning room while I ate in the living room while on the zoom meeting. (My microphone and screen were muted.) As soon as that rehearsal was over I got in the car and headed to the Symphony Rehearsal. Every time I'd tried to complain to Brandon about having two rehearsals in one night he'd just laugh at me and tell me that I only had myself to blame for this.

The rehearsal was great. I'm really happy to be part of the symphony.

Wednesday was another busy day at work followed by taking Derrick to his test. When I dropped him off our Mentor was there, but so was the Vice President of Venture Upward. Through some sort of crazy coincidence the Vice President is also the Bishop of our ward. Yeah, Twin Falls is kind of a small town, but it's not that small. It's just a crazy coincidence.

The Vice President/Bishop was there to observe how the tests were working. He introduced himself to Derrick and asked if Derrick recognized him. Derrick didn't because he wasn't wearing a suit.

I went out to the car to wait. I didn't really have much to do (which was kind of amazing) so I was scrolling instagram on my phone. The Bishop/Vice President came out and started talking to me. He asked, "What're you reading?" And I had to stammer out, "Oh you know, scrolling Instagram." I wanted to add, "but yesterday I was doing bank statement reconciliation, and the day before that I was writing a speech. Why couldn't you have caught me doing that?"

He did ask me about my plans to go back to school and wanted to know what degree I'm planning to get so I did get to mention that I'm going for a second bachelors in Accounting.

After Derrick and I came home from the tests we picked up the girls and took them to their Girls Activity. It was at the temple. They were going to take pictures. The activity would last an hour so Derrick and I rushed off to do some errands. We parked in the strip mall by Winco and I told Derrick, "We have to go to 3 stores. First we'll walk to the party store and get balloons for your birthday, then we'll go to Office Depot and pick up envelopes for my work, then we'll go to Winco and get freezer pizza and ice cream for your birthday." Derrick was so excited to do all those things.

We finished our errands in time to pick the girls up, but my friend Kaymie texted me and said she'd take them home and just meet us there. That helped a lot. Kaymie is a dear.

That night Brandon and the kids took care of frosting Derrick's cake. Derrick and I had made the cake on Monday, but that was all I was in charge of. I was able to just sit and watch. While everyone else worked.

They had a lot of fun working together.

Derrick had asked for a lot of rocket themed things for his birthday so we kept that theme going by decorating the cake like a rocket launch complex.

Before Derrick went to bed we all blew up balloons to "surprise" him with on his birthday.

Thursday April 8th was Derrick's 9th birthday. Earlier he'd coached me on what to say to him on his birthday. He said, "When I wake up and come upstairs you say, 'SURPRISE' and I'll say 'Oh Wow'"

So when I heard Derrick come upstairs I hurried to hide in the hall bathroom. Veronica happened to be awake and she hid by the bookcase. We heard Derrick stop in the kitchen to cross off the birthday countdown that Charlotted had made him. Then he came into the livingroom and Veronica and I both jumped out and said, "Surprise."

Even though it was all pre-arranged Derrick was thrilled. He said, "Oh thank you Mommy!" And gave me a big hug.

Here's a picture of the birthday countdown Charlotte had made for Derrick. She'd been sick of hearing him count back the days on the calendar every morning so she make this for him so he could know how many days were left until his birthday.

Derrick asked about birthday hats and I was miraculously able to find some in the basement.

Derrick's birthday plans had gone through many different versions. The original plan for Derrick's birthday had been that he would go to therapy with Miss Nisha like normal. Miss Nisha was planning to take him to lunch at McDonalds. But that plan had to change when Derrick's ISAT tests were scheduled on his birthday.

So then the plan changed to Derrick taking the tests and us doing something fun later. Miss Nisha and Derrick went out to lunch on Wednesday sine they wouldn't be together on Thursday.

Then Derrick finished all the tests on Wednesday afternoon. He didn't have to come back to the testing center on Thursday.

So now I had a huge dilemma. I'd already cancelled therapy for the day. I couldn't just reschedule it. But I also needed someone to be with Derrick while I was at work. I really needed to work on Thursday and I'd planned to go back to work while Derrick was doing the test. (The testing center is like half a block away from my work.)

On Wednesday night I was trying to figure out how to rearrange my schedule to make sure I could get the work done that I needed to on Thursday when Brandon told me, "Hey, I'll just stay home a little longer in the morning." I'm so glad that was an option. So Brandon stayed home with Derrick and the other kids and I was able to go to work and get everything taken care of.

When I came home we had a little mini party for lunch. We had the freezer pizza and rootbeer floats that Derrick had picked out the day before. It was almost like we had planned this all along.

Brandon went to work and we ended up with a really loooooong afternoon where we basically just waited for him to come home. Normally we go to Buhl for horseback riding on Thursdays, but the weather was too cold and windy for riding. And that weather made it so we really didn't want to go anywhere else. So we just stayed home and hung out.

The kids asked me about a million times when Brandon would be home so we could eat the cake and open presents. And every time I told them that he would be home at 6:30 they acted completely shocked. I was like, "guys, that the time he normally gets home."

Speaking of the cake, let's look at it in more detail. The rocket was made out of Sweet-Tarts stacked on top of each other. The nose cone is a frosting tip. There are liquorish fuel lines running out of the launch control building.

The Mike and Ike Candies are supposed to be people. You can see a yellow one holding a bit of orange candy. That's a camera man. The orange candy is the camera that is pointed to another yellow Mike and Ike that is the reporter.

Brandon finally came home and we had chicken nuggets for Dinner. I'd been so happy when Derrick had picked an easy meal. I think he picked chicken nuggets because they are something he could eat fast. He ate so fast and then was like, "Okay time for presents!"

Here he is waiting eagerly for his presents.

My parents sent him a Stomp Rocket, and that would be fun for him later, but really at this moment ALL Derrick cared about was the present he had waited for for weeks. The Deep Space Rocket and Launch Control Lego set.

As soon as the box was open Derrick and everyone else wen to work building the set. Derrick has repeatedly watched Lego's official videos of how to put this set together so he was so excited to do it for real.

Everyone had so much fun working together on this.

They got one or two of the little kits done and we decided it was time to take a break for the cake.

Here's Derrick posing with the cake. He liked the cake, but he really wanted to be with his rocket. As soon as we were done singing to him he blew out the candle and then went back to the set. He never even ate a piece of cake until the next morning.

There were about 9 different kits involved in the lego set. Derrick got through maybe 3 or 4 before bedtime. The whole Rocket was together by this point and he asked to sleep with it that night. He even wore his astronaut pajamas. What a happy kid.

Brandon and I usually go for a walk every evening after the kids are in bed. I think Derrick snuck upstairs and got the other kits. (Actually as I wrote this he just told me "that's when I went upstairs and got 5, 6, 7, and 8" So yes that it what happened.) Brandon and I didn't even have a clue that he was still awake until about 10:30 PM when he came upstairs looking for one of the instruction books. I honestly don't know how late he stayed up.

On Friday morning the other kids joined Derrick in his room and helped finish the sets.

Here's the finished set up.

And then Derrick finally ate a piece of his birthday cake.

Most of the day was spent outside. Here are the kids and Brandon testing out the stomp rocket.

After we got sick of the rockets ending up on the roof I had the kids go in the front yard. They would launch the rockets horizontally across the yard and see who could get theirs to go the farthest.

I spent the day leveling a section of the new garden area and putting in a firepit with bricks around it. It turned out really well. I used brick that was left over from when we pulled it out of a different area of the yard last year. Eventually the brick will have grass growing all around it.

Lydia constructed this elaborate city with a castle on a hill while I was working.

That evening we had hamburgers for dinner to celebrate the completion of the firepit.

Here's a different angle.

And another angle.

And here's the "well" that is now the "covered table" It's so much more useful over here.

All week long I'd had my upcoming speech for the Idaho Autism Summit hanging over my head. I was mostly happy with my speech, but I felt like it needed a little bit more tweaking. I ended up writing the final draft in bed at something like 4:00 in the morning when I woke up unable to sleep. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

The conference started at 10:00 and I needed to log in at 9:30. I did my make up and put on a nice top.

But in the true spirit of Zoom meetings I was wearing pajama bottoms.

Brandon took the kids to run errands so I wouldn't have a ton of background noise or distractions. I logged on and was able to talk with the people in charge and the other presenters for a moment. We had a final reminder to not worry about being super polished. We could just be ourselves.

And then the conference started. It was so strange because from where I stood nothing changed. One of the ladies just said, "Okay, we are live now."

This portion of the conference focused on the people most affected by Autism. So they had pre-recorded videos of people with Autism telling their stories and then they had family members talking. One presentation was by a woman who grew up with a brother with autism and how he influenced her to work with people with special needs. I was there representing a parents perspective.

My speech went really well and I was very very proud of it. But wow, it was so strange to tell a joke or a funny story and just hope that people were laughing.

When it was over I was like, "okay, I think people saw that." But it didn't feel like I'd done a presentation at all. It just felt like I'd read a story to my computer.

But I did hear some great feedback. And as odd as the zoom format was, I'm glad it was an option. This summit is usually held in Moscow Idaho which is in the Panhandle. There is no way I would have been able to participate if it hadn't been for zoom.

I'm told the presentations will eventually be on Youtube so I'll share that will you when I have a link to it.

Brandon and the kids came home an d we had a quick lunch. Then it was time to wash off all my makeup so that we could go swimming. This was what Derrick wanted to do for his Birthday Activity.

Here I am without makeup.

Here's derrick playing with a toy.

We went to the city pool which is where we went all the time last summer. But it felt like a completely different place. That's because the bubble was on the top. They had also set up the "The Tower" in the deep end.

Charlotte and Lydia passed off the swim check and could go in the deep end and play on the tower. They were some of the smallest kids over there, but they were able to do everything.

We were at the pool from about 1:00 to 3:30. The kids were so exhausted when it was time to leave.

I'd previously ordered pizzas from Pizza Pie Cafe so we drove over there and I picked up the pizzas. Then we went home and gobbled them up. We were so tired and so hungry.

As always our favorite was the oreo pizza.

We were completely pooped so we just went in the basement to watch a movie. We decided to watch the Muppet reboot that came out in 2010-ish. Derrick has never seen that movie, but he's seen enough other Muppet stuff that he could completely understand it. He LOVED it. He's been asking me when he can go see the Muppets and meet Kermit. I'm trying to explain that that's not really a thing.

Sunday was a much needed day for recharging. I'm trying to think of anything specific that happened.

The only thing I can remember is that all the kids were so tired during church. We have primary in the chapel right now and pretty much all the kids spent all of primary laying on the benches.

Back at home there was a lot of Lego fun. Lydia made a hot air balloon with one of Derrick's birthday balloons.