Hey there! Good news, I've finished school for the semester. I don't have to do school stuff until January.
I told Brandon that it feels like I'm a ship that just dropped a load of ballast. I'm sitting high up on the water and can maneuver much more easily. And with that freedom comes time to get this blog updated.
So where were we?
The week of Halloween. Which was also the week of Charlotte and Lydia's birthday. And also the week I was trying to finish my Managerial Accounting Class.
I don't know how, but somehow I timed it so that I was finishing a course the same week my kids had major milestones this fall.
I finished Taxation 1 on Veronica's birthday.
The next course I took was Operations and Supply Chain Management and I finished it the day before Veronica was baptized.
And the next class was Managerial Accounting. I was scheduled to finish it the week of Charlotte and Lydia's birthday. I'd given myself 3 weeks to do the class and I'd thought it would be enough. I'd been able to make it through Financial Accounting in 3 weeks and that had been the class I'd struggled with when I took it at Salt Lake Community College. I had much better memories of the Managerial Accounting class at SLCC and so I assumed this one would be easier than Financial.
I was WRONG! or maybe just cocky.
Either way, I was in trouble by the week of Halloween. The course had 47 lessons divided into 8 Units. I'd read through all the material and taken quizzes at the end of each lesson, but I had rushed through the unit quizzes. I figured I could come back at the end and retake the unit quizzes and brush up on the math at the end. That way I wouldn't have to try to remember it all through the 3 weeks. This was a good plan, but it required me to have about a day dedicated to studying after I'd finished reading all the lessons. And I was really struggling to get through those last few lessons.
When I'd made my timeline for the course I'd hoped to finish on Thursday the 28th. That way I could be really present for all the Halloween things we had planned starting on Friday. But as the week went on I knew there was no way I could be done on Thursday. I would have to finish on Friday or even Saturday.
We'll come back to how that class was going throughout the week, but just know that it hung over everything that happened this week.
Okay let's look at some pictures. Here's a super nice breakfast in bed that Brandon brought me. Probably on Sunday the 24th. I'd holed up in our room and was determined to update the blog that day. Also, I'm not sure I ever showed this off, but we have such fun sheets right now.
Brandon had spent the weekend doing crazy things with the jeep engine. I went out to the garage so he could show me his progress. This is the inside of the engine.
This is the box he made so he can keep track of which parts go with which cylinder as he takes them apart.
Oh and speaking of grime. I decided that this week was also the week I'd tackle a true horror story. Our bathroom shower was pretty gross. There was soap scum that just wouldn't come off no matter what we tried to scrub it with. We'd tried regular bathroom cleaning spray, bleach, comet, dish soap, soft brushes, hard brushes. Nothing would get the grime off.
Finally I Googled "Best shower cleaner." And got a recommendation. I ordered it and it arrived in the mail. According to the directions just just needed to spray your shower, wait at least 8 hours, and then spray it off with water. All the grime would come off easily. So I took a "before" picture, sprayed it down, and waited.
It sort of worked. The grime didn't wash off easily, but if I scrubbed it with a stiff bristled cleaning brush the grime would come off easier than it had with any other cleaner.
The bottle did say that it may take a few applications to get heavy build up off the surfaces so I sprayed it down again and waited again.
On Tuesday night I had Symphony Rehearsal. Usually when I go to rehearsal I have a good time and leave feeling energized. But not so much this time. We were practicing some very difficult songs and I just felt like I was floundering. Usually there is at least one song that I feel good about, but this time I felt out of my depth on all of them. I was seriously debating my participation in the next concert.
Wednesday was a busy busy afternoon. I later told someone, "I have a lot of activities that I'm involved in and usually they don't overlap, but this week they ALL did."
Here's what was going on on Wednesday afternoon. Veronica had her well child check scheduled for right after school. I was planning to pick her up about 15 minutes early and take her to the doctor's office. Meanwhile Charlotte and Lydia had STEAM club after school. They would stay after school about an hour and a half.
With Veronica at the Doctors and Charlotte and Lydia at STEAM Club there was no one to walk home with Derrick. He probably could walk home by himself just fine. But I'm never sure what kind of mood he'll be in or if he would remember that he was supposed to go home by himself. It just didn't seem like something he was ready to do yet.
Brandon offered to help pick Derrick up, but Brandon's schedule in the afternoons is really unpredictable. We never know if he'll be in town or sent on a mobile call out to some place like Sun Valley. So it's best to not plan on Brandon in the afternoon.
I considered having a friend pick Derrick up, but that seemed too complicated. This is what I ended up doing. I picked both Derrick and Veronica up from school 15 minutes early. I dropped Derrick off at home and let him watch Youtube. (He'd mature enough now that I'm fine leaving him alone at home for a little while - especially if he'd engrossed in fishing videos.) Then I took Veronica to the doctors office.
Her appointment went well and we were back home soon. (It helps that our doctors office is super close to our house.) Derrick had been fine while we were gone.
But that's not all. Charlotte and Lydia came home around 4:30. I'd had dinner cooking in the crock pot and we had a quick dinner. At some point in here Brandon showed up. Then a little before 5:00 I took the girls to the church for the girls activity while Brandon stayed home to be there when Mr Kelly came to pick Derrick up for behavioral therapy.
I have no memory of what I did between 5:00 and 6:00, but at 6:00 I was back at the church to pick the girls up. They'd traced themselves on to paper.
Here's Veronica.
Charlotte.
It was Red Ribbon week at the school. Most of the days were pretty easy. Monday had been wear a shirt for your favorite team (the kids had worn their ISU Bengal shirts), Tuesday was something like wear red, I can't remember Wednesday. Anyway you get the idea. But Thursday was crazy hair day. And Charlotte wanted curly hair.
So she took a quick shower and then I rolled her hair into curlers.
Lydia also wanted her hair curled, but I was out of time because I had to be at my friend Liz's house for a PTA planning meeting. So I promised Lydia that I would wake her up when I got home and curl her hair then.
The PTA planning meeting went really well. Liz and I are like a newly in love couple. We just keep showering each other with complements about what a good job the other one is doing. Liz has amazing ideas for the school and has already started working on many of them. And Liz is amazed that I'm perfectly content to handle the "boring" paperwork side of things. We love working together.
The kids were all in bed by the time I was back home. I went into Charlotte and Lydia's room to wake Lydia up so I could curl her hair. But she was fast asleep. I ended up putting some curlers into her hair until she rolled over and I couldn't get to her hair anymore.
Here are Charlotte and Lydia the next morning. (Though part of me thinks I took this picture that afternoon.) Charlotte's hair was beautifully curled.
On Thursday I took a break from the merry go round of studying accounting and going to work to go out to lunch to celebrate the birthdays of some of the ladies in my ward. It's meant a lot to me to get invited to this informal lunch group. Finding a group of supportive friends was the final piece to feeling like Twin Falls has successfully met all the things that I loved about Fort Rucker. (Other requirements were a neighborhood pool, a four bedroom house, and a decent, reliable income.)
We went to La Fiesta and it was so fun to sit in a big booth next to my friend Justine and about 8 other ladies. The conversation ranged all over the place and was so fun.
After lunch was over I went to the elementary school and picked up Derrick early for the second day in a row. This time is was for his OT appointment.
I'm not sure what else I did that day. Probably took a nap. At some point Brandon took Charlotte and Lydia to the store to do a little grocery shopping and to pick up the cupcakes they were taking as a birthday treat the next day.
We also packed the kids' Halloween costumes in their backpacks. There wouldn't be a Halloween Parade at school this year (thanks COVID), but the kids could change into their costumes for the last hour of school for a party in their classroom.
The first thing I did on Friday after the kids were in school was take the Pre-Assessment. I passed it, but it had been hard. There were formulas and terminology from the first few units that I didn't even remember. As I suspected, I would need to go back over the unit quizzes and refresh my memory.
I went back to studying and Derrick watched things on Youtube. (Like all my kids he loves Outdoor Boys so he watched a lot of their videos.)
I had to pause studying when the girls came home from school. They told me all about their class parties.
We had a ward trunk or treat that evening that we needed to get ready for so the kids didn't really change out of their costumes. I worked on mine a little bit. I made this sign for my "costume." It says, "I'm a Hot Mess and it's not a costume." It's a something I said last Halloween and I wanted to put it on a T-shirt for this Halloween. But since I'm a hot mess I didn't get that done. I really leaned into the hot mess aspect and wrote my sign on a crumpled piece of paper and then squished cupcake wrappers onto it.
Here I am posing in my not costume. I really didn't have to work hard for this. This is only a slight exaggeration of how I look when I'm not at work. I think my favorite part was the mis-matched shoes.
Here's my sign on my shirt. I couldn't even find a safety pin to stick this on my shirt. It's held on with a bobby pin.
She was a scare crow this year. We looked up scarecrow make up on google and then I did my best to copy the picture she chose. It turned out really well. I was super happy I've been subscibed to Ipsy makeup bags this year because I had a lot more makeup supplies than I had at this time last year.
Here's the full effect. The hat was given to me by my mother-in-law, but Charlotte claimed it pretty quick. Her overalls and shirt were the exact same ones she wore 2 years ago when she was "a builder." The only things we had to buy were the collar and the cuffs. I found them at Walmart for $5. This might have been the easiest Halloween Costume we've ever had.
But then Brandon handed her the prop gun he'd made for his James Bond costume a few years ago. Veronica came alive and started posing.
Here she is with her walkie talkie. She will make an excellent police officer one day.
And finally we have Lydia as Hermonie Granger. She used her wand and tie from the Harry Potter event we'd gone to a week earlier. I'd found the robe at Once Upon a Child after visiting two other thrift stores. This was the first time I didn't have to sew anything for Lydia (or any of the other kids for that matter.)
You may be wondering where Derrick's costume was. Well, he just wasn't that Halloweeny this year. He didn't want to wear a costume and was even saying he didn't want to go trick or treating. We had the Spaceman costume out just in case he changed his mind, but he wasn't interested in it.
The kids wanted to decorate the back of the car for the trunk or treat. I didn't have any sort of mental capacity for that so I told Charlotte and Lydia, "you guys can decorate it how ever and with what ever you want as long as I don't have to drive to the store." They were so excited to have that project. They decided to do it like a witch's lair.
Charlotte's hair was still curly from crazy hair day. I was able to incorporate it into her hair style for her costume.
Veronica wants to be a police officer when she grows up and so that's what she wanted to be for Halloween. I ordered her a shirt and hat from Walmart or somewhere. Brandon made her a belt. When I first had her pose she was super stiff and didn't seem to know what to do.
The trunk or treat started at 6:00 so we headed over a little earlier than that to get set up. I took this picture, but the sun was in everyones eyes.
It really washed them out in this picture, but you can see into the "Witch's Lair" really well.
I loved all the little specimen gars the girls made out of drinking glasses.
Here's a cauldron and a recipe book.
The trunk or treat was really fun. I always appreciate that it happens in the early evening when things are still light. I don't like doing trunk or treats in dark parking lots. The kids all went around by themselves while Brandon and I gave out candy.
The whole area.
There were a lot of people at the trunk or treat that I didn't know. I kept thinking, "did ALL these people move in during the pandemic and I just haven't met them yet?" And "Wow this truck or treat is really pulling the inactive people out of the woodwork." At the end of the night I found out that another ward had asked to combine with us a few days earlier. That's why there had been so many people I didn't recognize.
The kids had a lot of candy and they came home and started sorting it and eating it. I sat on the couch and enjoyed watching them.
At some point we turned on the party light and the kids danced around.
On Saturday I woke up around 6:00 and went over that last unit. Then I drove over to my office and got ready to take the test. (I don't have fast enough internet at home so my boss allows me to take tests at work which is probably better because I can lock myself in my office at work and not worry about kids banging on the door.)
I didn't know how to feel about the test. Part of me wanted to wait to take it on Monday. But I knew I'd just stew about it all weekend if I waited. I told myself, "just take it today. If you pass you don't have to think about it ever again. If you fail you don't have to think about it until next week."
When I started the test things went really well. I had a spot on my whiteboard where I wrote down the questions I wanted to go back to. I only wrote 3 questions there. Everything else on that 48 question test was something I was fairly confident with. All that reviewing had paid off.
That is until I got to the spreadsheet.
There had been a spreadsheet on the pre-assessment. It had been pretty basic and easy. But the one on the final test was complicated. NOTHING had prepared me for that spreadsheet.
I stared at it and then put my head in my hands for about a minute. I'm sure the online proctor who watched me take the test over Zoom was wondering what was going on. Part of me just wanted to cut my losses and end the test right there. There was no way I could figure out the spreadsheet. I felt good about the rest of the test, but could I pass the test if I didn't get the spreadsheet right?
After taking a few deep breaths I decided to look at the spreadsheet again. I was able to pick out some familiar pieces and I thought I could figure out what was going on. I decided to just try my best. I filled it in with information and formulas as best I could.
I'd thought I'd go back over the three questions I'd written on the side of my white board. But by this point I was sick of the test and had to pee. I decided to just submit it. As soon as I'd submitted it and finished with the proctor I hurried to the bathroom.
When I came back I logged into my school website and looked at the results. I'd PASSED. I was just kind of stunned and numb. I was done with the class. I couldn't believe it.
The rest of the day is a blur. Back at home, Brandon and the kids had cleaned the house. My in-laws drove up to give Charlotte and Lydia their birthday presents. They were there when I got home. They congratulated me on finishing my course and I sat on the couch and just kept saying, "I passed" at random times.
Later they left and Charlotte and Lydia's best friends - another set of twins- came over to play. I'd known I wouldn't have it in me for a party, but Charlotte and Lydia really wanted these two girls to come over so that's what we had planned. I'd told their mom not to worry about gifts, but they still brought some. Charlotte and Lydia each got a Rainbow High doll.
Soon it was our turn and we could see our first characters. Here's Maui and Moana.
Right after that picture we ran into Charlotte and Lydia's twin friends. I'd felt bad that we didn't get a picture when they were at the house so I took one now.
Here are the Frozen crew.
That's Merida and the triplets from Brave standing infront of the bright light.
But the kids wanted a picture with each group.
I was blown away by how fun this was. The costumes were so great and everyone had huge smiles.
I told Brandon, "Southern Idaho takes dressing up to a whole new level."
Charlotte made sure to pose with every character.
And then Derrick would follow her lead and want to pose too.
In a lot of cases the kids were almost as tall as some of the characters.
We had to put them to the side or else they'd block out the characters.
When we were done with this picture one of the Ugly Step sisters asked Veronica to try to put a slipper on her foot. Then she showed her an ugly monster foot. Veronica thought that was such a funny prank.
Tiana was the last princess we saw.
And here's a look back at the house. Wow! It had been amazing.
They also spent some time working on making houses for their rainbow high dolls out of cardboard.
We went to church. When we came home we finally got around to carving pumpkins.
I'd been so busy with school and everything that we'd had to put this off until today.
Derrick was very excited that his pumpkin was so tall. Nearly his whole forearm fit inside.
We had dinner. (The kids didn't want to eat, but I insisted they have something substantial before all the candy.) Then the girls opened our presents.
Our tradition this year has been to let the kids each pick out a $100 lego set for their birthday. Lydia picked an airport and Charlotte got a space station.
Then they sat around building legos for a little while.
We had left over cupcakes from the ones they'd taken to school on Friday and so we used those in place of a cake this year. Last year I'd literally written a note to myself on my calendar for October 1 2021 to remember to just to "little cakes for Charlotte and Lydia." Every year I seemed to forget that no one actually wanted to eat cake when Halloween Candy was around. So yeah, cupcakes were just fine.
Here are the girls getting ready to blow them out.
The sky was really pretty.
Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year we were faced with the dilemma of trying to decide if we should trick or treat on Saturday or Sunday. The last time Halloween was on a Sunday was the year Charlotte and Lydia were born so we'd literally never faced this decision as parents. I'd checked the local Wives and Mom's Facebook page and it looked like the consensus was to go on Sunday. So that's what we planned.
When I'd gone out to lunch on Thursday there had been a lady there who I didn't know. Everyone was asking her about her plans for her yard for this Halloween, and I got the sense that they weren't just talking about lawn ornaments. There was talk of Volunteers and Costumes and Themes. Apparently she had a tradition of creating a whole walk through experience in her front year every year. I had a mental note to try to figure out where this was.
Well the very next day I read an article in the paper about her house. Yes, the Alder house was a very big to do every year. This year the theme was Disney Princesses and Villains. I decided this would be a perfect activity for us to do on Saturday night.
The house is near the temple and so we drove over there and found a place to park. There was already a long line and we went and stood in it. The kids were SOOOO excited, but also super hyper. They were jumping up and down and going crazy. Part of me was thinking, "I am NEVER taking you to Disneyland. You are so annoying to stand in line with." But I was also happy they were so excited.
The lights were giving my camera some trouble.
We went back home and watched Beetlejuice. That movie is so weird. I think the things the kids were most freaked out by was when I told them that skinny Alec Baldwin was the voice of the Boss Baby. Earlier in the week we'd also watched Nightmare Before Christmas. I'd stayed awake for about 10 minutes of it and then fell asleep until the end credits.
After the kids were in bed Brandon and I watched Crimson Peak. The guys on Baconsale had mentioned it in an episode earlier that week and it sounded like the right amount of scary for me. It was pretty good though the whole time Brandon and I were like, "Why do you live in a place that is falling apart?"
Sunday was finally the girls birthday and finally officially Halloween. We kind of didn't know what to do with the day at first. So we just relaxed. Here are the girls reading Harry Potter books.
The pumpkins turned out super cute as usual. I loved Veronica's cat. Derrick had drawn the face all by himself. Charlotte and Lydia drew and cut the faces by themselves.
While they'd been doing pumpkins I'd been cooking ALL THE THINGS. I made white chicken chili. I tested a recipe for butternut squash/apple/bacon goodness. And I'd roasted pumpkin seeds.
And then it seemed like it was time to get into costumes again. Derrick had agreed to go trick or treating, but he still refused to wear a costume. I was able to duplicate Charlotte's make up and the other costumes were easy. The kids were so excited to go.
Here they are walking off with Brandon.
I set up a cute little display like I always do.
Then I sat on the porch and read Better Homes and Gardens. I love this tradition.
I didn't know what to expect as far as numbers this year. Last year there had been hardly any trick or treaters. But this year there were more. It was fun to see people out and about.
Brandon brought the kids home so they could dump their buckets. Our neighborhood is kind of interesting. It's not a "rich" neighborhood so there aren't a lot of people that go around in it. But the people who live here are always prepared for trick or treaters. So my kids end up with TONS of candy. They've figured out if they dump their buckets at home every so often the people giving out the candy think they don't have a lot so they'll give them extra pieces.
Derrick was done after one round and went downstairs to watch a movie.
I stayed out on the porch. My neighbor Karen was outside giving candy out from the trunk of her car. We had a conversation from across the street for a while until I decided to just go over and sit with her on the edge of the truck. We had a really fun time talking for about 45 minutes.
Then Brandon and the kids came back from round two. Veronica was done after this so I went back home to talk with her. Brandon took Charlotte and Lydia out for round three.
Here's the final result. Charlotte's bag weighed 10 pounds.
Here's Derrick with his candy.
Veronica with hers.
Lydia with hers.
An idea started percolating in my mind. I love Halloween because it's such a fun neighborhood holiday. And I'd loved spending time talking to Karen. I wanted to do something to make that feeling even better next year. All night my siblings and I had been talking on Marco Polo. My sister Hillary talked about a neighbor that had a fire pit where people could stop to get warm. I realized I want to do that next year. I was to have a fire pit or maybe a standing warming station at the end of my driveway. It would be so fun to have a spot where people can stand and talk and be warm. So that's a goal for next year.
We let the kids stay up until about 9:00, but then it was time for brushing teeth and going to bed. I already knew that we'd let Derrick sleep in in the morning and I decided to let everyone else.
So on Monday the kids got to sleep in about 45 minutes and I took them to school an hour late. I figured that was better than letting a bunch of sleep deprived candy-oholics loose on the school.
So there you have it. That was Birth-o-ween 2021 with a whole bunch of accounting thrown in there too.
Give me a few more days and I should get us caught up on the first half of November too.
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