Stress and Relaxation

I can sum this week up in just a few sentences. 

1. I spent most of the week prepping for a really hard test. 2. I went on an AMAZING ladies retreat. 

And I don't have much time to tell you about either of those things because . . .

3. We leave on vacation this week.

But I don't want to come back from that vacation and be even more behind on this blog.  So I need to expand on those sentences.

Let's start with Monday, March 14th.  On Sunday Veronica had been complaining about a sore throat, body aches, and a headache. I was a little concerned, but I figured I'd wait and see how she was doing on Monday morning.  

Well, Monday morning wasn't great for a whole host of reasons.  Daylight Saving Time had started the day before and that meant we were all DRAGGING that morning.  To make it worse I'd had a rare bout with insomnia the night before.  I hadn't been able to get to sleep until about 3:30 in the morning. And that was only after I moved to the basement couch. 

I did NOT want to get up that morning.  But I had a whole bunch of studying and work to do so the kids needed to go to school. 

I went upstairs to wake Veronica up and she told me that everything still hurt. This was not good. I went into the bathroom and found the covid tests that we'd received from the government back in January. I groggily tried to understand the instructions. I swabbed Veronica's nose and then we put the swabs into a reagent and put that on the testing surface.  Then we had to wait 15 minutes to see the results.  

Before the 15 minutes had passed I was already calling Veronica's doctors office for a real test.  I wasn't sure if she had covid, but I wanted to know for sure, because I didn't trust my test administration abilities.  I was also suspicious that she had strep. So I made an appointment for her at 9:30 that morning. 

This threw everything else I had planned that morning into disarray.  I had been planning to attend a zoom meeting at 8:00 with a lady with the school district to discuss some things for the PTO Facebook group. I also had work meeting at 10:00, but there was no way I could make it to the meeting now.  

Meanwhile, Brandon had to be at work and Charlotte and Lydia had to be at school.  (I'd made the decision to let Derrick sleep in because the last thing we needed was to add a grumpy Derrick to this off kilter morning.)  I needed the car to take Veronica to the doctor so the best thing to do was to drive Brandon to work.  But I didn't have time to take him and the twins so the twins just walked to school on their own. 

Before I took Brandon to work I got on the computer and used my personal email to let Derrick's teacher know I was letting him sleep in and he might be at school later. Then I used my PTO email to let the lady know I'd be about 5-10 minutes late for our meeting.  And then I used my work email to let my coworkers know I wouldn't be at the meeting. 

How do you know if you are super busy? If a small change in your plans requires emails from multiple email accounts.

Then I drove Brandon to work. By the time I got back home Derrick was awake.  He was like, "Hey what's going on?"  And I told him what was going on was that he was going to stay home and play computer games while I took Veronica to the doctor.  He didn't complain about that at all.  

But first I had a zoom meeting with the lady with the district. Our meeting went well.  

Then it was time for Veronica and I to go to the doctor's office.  It was at our regular clinic, but since we suspected covid they immediately put us into a room rather than have us wait in the lobby.  Our doctors regular rooms were in use so we were put into another room. I'd never been in this one before.  It had some cool decorations. 

 

Our regular nurse came in and took Veronica's temperature and other things. While they were talking Veronica started coughing really deeply.  I was like, "Thank you!" I was worried we'd get there and she wouldn't seem sick at all, but the cough helped it seem like I wasn't over reacting.  Then the doctor came in and examined Veronica.  I'd been unable to get a good look at her throat, but he was able to and said things looked good back there.  

Still he ordered a Covid test as well as strep and flu tests.  So Veronica got to have a bunch of swabs done to her nose and throat.   

We came back home and I realized that in all my email flurry, I'd never actually told Veronica's teacher what was going on.  So I emailed her and told her I'd keep her updated.  

Buy this point I was completely exhausted. My lack of sleep from the night before combined with the hectic morning had caught up to me.  I told Derrick and Veronica they could watch a movie and I climbed back in bed and took a long nap. 

I woke up around lunch time and received a phone call from the clinic.  The rapid strep test and the rapid flu test had both come back negative.  This was very good news. 

Veronica seemed a lot better.  On Sunday I'd had her lay on the couch - and she STAYED there which on it's own was concerning. But now she was her usual bouncy self.

The day had been a bust as far as getting any work done, but I was still going to try to get school stuff done.  Derrick and Veronica kept watching movies while I buckled down and read and read and read.  I was trying to finish the reading for Intermediate Accounting II. I was hoping to take the test on Thursday, but in all honestly I really should have given myself another week.  That just wasn't possible though.  After Thursday I had a Ladies retreat followed by spring break.  There wouldn't be another chance to take the test for almost 10 days.  So I was determined to take (and hopefully) pass the test that Thursday. 

I finished the reading at some point on Monday and then took a small break from worrying about the class. I'd planned to go to work after dinner and get a few things done, but Veronica kind of made that impossible.  I wasn't too worried about covid anymore.  Instead I was just worried about her general safety.  She was SO TIRED.  She kept stubbing her toes and running into things.  She had a major crying episode about once and hour that whole evening.  So I never made it into work. 

Brandon tried to cheer Veronica up by putting up a slide for her stuffed animals. She really liked that and spend a long time playing outside.  So did all the other kids. 

Here's Lydia working in her digging area. 

I trimmed off about 2/3rds of the branches from this bush. 

The girls took the branches and used them in their little world they were creating. 

We were happy that Daylight Saving Time gave us a nice evening outside, but it had definitely come at a cost that morning. 

After the kids were in bed I took the Pre-test for my class.  I took it completely "cold" meaning I didn't look back at my notes before or during the test.  

I failed miserably.  Which wasn't surprising.  I already knew this course was awful and would take a lot of intense studying to be ready for the real test.  

But at least now I could schedule the real exam. I scheduled it for 7:00 PM on Thursday. From this point on I felt like I had a ticking clock hanging over me. 

Early on Tuesday Morning I checked my email and found the result for Veronica's covid test. It was NEGATIVE.  Whew.  Part of me felt a little sheepish for reacting so quickly to her mild symptoms on Monday, but I was also happy to now have peace of mind about her symptoms.  Now I could hear her cough and I didn't have to wonder if she had covid. 

So everyone went to school on Tuesday and I went to work and got somewhat caught up on things. 

Then I came home and started diving in on practice problems for school.  

I took a break when the kids were out of school.  It was parent teacher conference week and I'd signed up for back to back to back to back conferences. 

I picked the kids up from school and walked home with them.  Derrick's therapist met us at home and Derrick went with her.  Then I went back to the school.  

Veronica was my first appt.  I've already talked to her teacher A LOT in the last few months so this meeting really wasn't anything new.  But it was good to talk to her.  

Then it was time to meet with Derrick.  That meeting went well too. 

Then I called the Kids Phone and told Charlotte and Lydia to come over to the school. They walked over and we went to Lydia's appointment followed by Charlotte's.  Both girls are doing really well. Here's Lydia showing me her Star that represents getting 100% of her reading goal. 

The next two days were an ENDLESS stream of studying, work, and more studying. I feel like I barely saw the kids. I'd eat dinner with them, but then I'd disappear to study more.  Brandon took care of cooking dinner and putting the kids to bed every night. 

I was working so many practice problems that I nearly filled a whole 100 page note book. I got stuck on a particular concept and could not figure it out.  Fortunately, I had a call already scheduled with my course instructor at that time and she really helped me wrap my head around that concept.

On Wednesday night Brandon helped the kids set up Leprechaun Traps.  I barely was aware that it was St Patricks day.   

He also made rice crispy treats. 

These were "from" the leprechaun and Derrick and veronica had quite a long discussion about how the Leprechaun had been able to get the rice crispy treats into our pan. 

The kids didn't have school on Thursday or Friday. I needed to go into work for a little bit on Thursday so I went right after dropping Brandon off at his work.  I planned to only stay for about 90 minutes, but one thing led to another and I was there for about 3 hours.  

When I got home I was so worried that the kids would be upset that I'd been gone for so long.  I went in the door and called "I'm home" down into the basement where they were watching TV.  They kind of said something in response, but it was AN HOUR before any of them came upstairs to say hi to me.  And when Charlotte saw me she was like, "Oh I just thought you were sleeping in."

The kids were binge watching the Gravity Falls Series on Disney Plus.  And thank goodness for it because I was still planning to take the test that night and still needed to spend time panic studying. 

I studied until about 2:45 and then had to take Derrick to speech therapy.  I did something I've never done and took my laptop with us.  I kept working practice problems while Derrick was in therapy. 

Derrick didn't have OT this day so we went together to pick Brandon up at work.  We were a little early so I cracked open the laptop and got in a few more practice problems while we waited. 

After we picked up Brandon we went home and picked up the girls. We all drove over to Old Town for a little St Patrick's day parade. 

The parade was the perfect amount of fun while also being small. It was the perfect little break from studying. 

Derrick did so well at the parade.  He'd been the one to suggest bringing his headphones and he wore them the whole time.  He was so excited about everything. 

We came home and I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then took all my stuff to my office to get ready for the test.  

This was the final crunch time for studying. And I was feeling the weight of this course. There was just so much material.  How could I ever know enough for the test?

The test was scheduled for 7:00 and I got to the office around 6:00. I decided to re-read ALL my notes.  So I did that.  

Then I just kind of sat with my head on my desk for a while.  How could I ever know enough for this test?

I decided that it would be a good idea to make sure I had the financial ratios memorized.  So I took some time to look over those and make sure I knew what the parts were to each ratio and how to remember their names.  

Then I sat with my head on my desk for a little bit longer. 

I visualized myself in one hour. I pictured myself confidently doing math and writing on my whiteboard.  I visualized myself in two hours at home and watching Frasier with Brandon.  I visualized myself in 24 hours enjoying time at my ladies retreat with my friends. 

I thought through contingency plans for if I failed this test.  I could study and retake the test on my vacation if I needed to.  Or I could always do homework on Saturdays to make up for extra time spent on this course. 

It was almost 7:00 and I decided to use the bathroom one last time.  The receptionist and a therapist were still there.  I told them, "I'm basically going into this test planning to fail."  

I sat back at my desk and put my head down again. How could I ever know enough for the test?

At 7:00 I connected to the test proctor and after running through the usual procedures I started the test.

To my surprise the first question was actually one that I considered easy. That was a good sign.  There was at least one question that I knew what to do.  

As I worked through the test there were a good portion of questions where I knew exactly what to do.  All that last minute work with the ratios had definitely been time well spent because there were quite a few ratio questions.  But there were still many questions where I thought, "What exactly are they asking here?"

I think this was the test I've spent the longest amount of time on.  Usually I can finish a test in about 35 minutes.  For ones that take more math it takes me about an hour.  This one took me 72 minutes. I thought about going back over some of the more difficult questions, but I was worried I'd start second guessing everything.  So when I was done I just pushed submit and hoped for the best.  

Looking up test results is pretty anti climatic.  Basically I just sign into the website.  Whatever class I need to work on next will show up on the main screen. I was fully expecting to still see "Intermediate Accounting II" as the top class.  But instead I saw "Accounting Information Systems."  

I'd passed. 

I could move into my weekend without thinking about this test. I pulled up the breakdown of how I'd done on each unit.  I was so happy I'd gone ahead and submitted the test when I did.  If I'd been off by one or two answers I probably wouldn't have passed. 

I sat in my office for a while and just kept thinking, "I passed. Somehow I passed."

Eventually I went home and Brandon and I watched Frasier just like I'd planned. 

Friday was such a nice day now that the test was behind me.  I had to go to work and do some last few things in order to be ready to take the whole next week off. 

Then I came home. Once again the kids ignored me when I got home. I packed for the overnight retreat and then made lunch for the kids. 

I had the kids get off the TV so they could at least spend a little bit of time with me before I left again. I went outside to look at my plants. 

Here's a daffodil that grows along our back wall. 

Here's the flowerbed with tulips.  They might bloom this next week. 

Strawberries that are starting to come out of dormancy. 

More strawberries. 

The sweet cherry tree. This is it's third year in my yard.  Look how thick that trunk is getting. 

Here's the tart cherry.  It has skinnier branches.

Here's the peach tree.

And the plum.

Here's the plum and peach tree getting to know eachother. 

I also checked on things in the front yard.  The catalpa has the tiniest little pre-buds. 

Here are some daffodil points coming up in the front. 

Another daffodil.

And some tulips.  I've been anticipating this all winter. 

I was waiting for my ride to the ladies retreat to come pick me up. I still had a little bit of time. Charlotte came out and we worked together to give all the trees and bushes a dose of iron. 

Around 1:30 my ride showed up. I said goodbye to the kids (they were all back to watching TV and were pretty indifferent to me leaving.)  They would be fine until Brandon got home from work a few hours later. 

Okay, let's pause a bit and give some back story on this ladies retreat. 

And, as many things do, the backstory involves Alabama. Back when we lived in Alabama I hung out with the nondenominational women's ministry at the on post chapel.  I started going to their monthly craft mornings and then added going to the weekly Bible Study groups. I was mostly there for the free childcare and chance to hang out with other adult women, but I ended up picking some deeper theological understanding too. 

Anyway, I remember hearing about a ladies retreat. I wasn't able to go because the kids were so little and Brandon was so deep in flight school, but I thought, "I want to go to something like that one day."

Fast forward a few years to last summer when I felt the need to join another bible study group.  I couldn't find one that fit my schedule. Then I went to a neighborhood block party. One of the first people I talked to at the party was Liz. She told me she was married to the pastor for new church and I immediately asked, "What does your church do for women's ministry?" 

They had an early morning bible study group that I literally joined the next day. I've been kind of sort of attached to Twin Falls Community Church ever since.  And Liz has gone from just being a random lady at a block party to being a fairly constant reoccurring character on this blog. (She's the PTO president and I'm the Treasurer so yeah, we see a lot of each other.)

A few months ago Liz sent out an email announcing the dates and details for the TFCC Ladies Retreat for 2022.  I immediately knew I HAD to go.  Things got even better when Liz told me she was going to be the speaker at the retreat.  She is an amazing bible study leader so I was eager to hear her teach even more in depth.  

The retreat took place at a Christian Camp near Fairfield, Idaho which is about 2 hours away from Twin Falls.  Since Brandon and I are sharing a car I signed up to ride in the carpool car.  I rode with a lady named Sheila I'd met at Bible Study.  She brought her best friend Leanna who was visiting from Nevada.  I was the first one they picked up.  Then we went and picked up Kayla who I also knew from Bible Study and another lady named Kaylee who I didn't know yet.  

The five of us had a great time chatting while driving.  Everyone in the car had moved to Twin Falls from out of state and we shared stories about what brought us here.  This became a reoccurring theme over the weekend.  So many people were from out of state and had felt led to Twin Falls.  (Including me.) In some ways this reminded me of all the military wives I'd made friends with over the years.  I'd forgot how much fun it is to talk to people that come from all over the country. 

The camp was right at the foothills of the mountains.  Everything was still snow covered. 

I knew we were staying in a cabin, but I really had no idea what to expect.  In my mind I kept picturing the cabin I stayed in as a 12 year old at Oakcrest.  I imagined cement floors and bunk beds. 

We pulled up at the cabin and all the other women came out to greet us with hugs and smiles.  I knew most of them from Bible study, but a few were new faces. 

We went inside and my first reaction was "WOW! This is nothing like I expected!" 

This was more like a house than a cabin. Here's the huge dinning room table. There were 12 of us and we all fit around the table. 

Here's the kitchen.  (With dear Grace who took care of all the meals.) There were snacks and treats constantly out for us to eat whenever we felt like it.

Here's the living room area with four super comfy couches.  This is where we played games, where we sat when Liz taught us, and where we just sat around and talked. 

The cabin had 8 bedrooms.  Some of them had one queen bed and some had two twin beds.  One room had three twins beds. But there were no bunk beds in sight. 

Here's my bed.  (And yes that's a TV in the window.  It didn't have a curtain so the prep team just put the TV in the window. 

I decided to share a room with "Other Liz."  Other Liz is the other church pastor's wife.  It's so random and slightly confusing that both pastors have wives names Liz, but it works out. Other Liz owns the home where that block party took place so she actually lives closer to me than PTO Liz, but we really haven't had a chance to get to know each other well yet.  This retreat was a good chance to bond.  And we had a GREAT time talking. We found out we have a lot of common interests.  I brought up my trees and she immediately wanted to know ALL about them because she wants to plant trees in her yard. And she loves to come up with good paint colors combos so she was helping me figure out good colors for my house exterior that wouldn't clash with my blue roof.  

The ladies had been playing a game of spoons when my group arrived so after everyone was situated we all sat down and played spoons.  I hadn't played that since I was a teenager.  

At 5:00 we had taco Salad for Dinner.  Dinner was full of rousing conversation. Everyone was funny and insightful. I laughed so much throughout the whole weekend.  In addition to the women I've already mentioned there was also Amanda, Natalie, Lynn, and Ferin.  Three of the women were over 45. Of the 9 younger ladies I was probably one of the older ones.  At least my kids were older.  Most of the group had oldest kids that were about 6 or 7.  So me, with my 11 year olds, was a bit of an anomaly.

Three women had babies under 6 months old. It was the first time each of those moms was away from their babies overnight.  Two of those moms were still nursing so there was a lot of milk pumping going on throughout the weekend. 

From the moment I walked into the cabin I felt so cared for. It was like every single one of my physical needs was met so that I could focus on feeding my spirit. I felt all my cares slipping away and I was able to totally relax for the first time in a very long time.

I took this selfie to show how relaxed I was, but I think I just look annoyed. Trust me, I was NOT annoyed at all this weekend.  

After dinner we had our first session.  Liz did a fabulous job of explaining the overarching theme of the Bible. Our theme for the weekend was "The Better Portion" and we were specifically going to study the story of Mary and Martha. But Liz felt it was important to zoom out and look at the big picture.  

Then we changed into pajamas and played Pictionary.  After Pictionary we played HeadsUp on someone's phone.  There was so much fun and laughter. 

People started heading to bed around 10:30. I stayed up talking until about 11:30. The four of us who were still up were basically like, "Okay we will all go to bed now." And we just got up and went so no one would get sucked into another conversation. 

I slept super well all night. Here's the view out my window in the morning. 

We had a lot of choices for breakfast.  Waffles, eggs, bacon, cut up fruit, yogurt, granola, etc. Then we grabbed our bibles and sat down for another session.  

A study session involved praying, singing, listening to someone talk about their testimony, and then instruction from Liz.  Liz was almost ready to take us to the story of Mary and Martha as it's found in Luke.  But first she wanted to talk about who Luke was and what his purpose was for writing. She took us through a good intro. (But she hinted that originally this whole presentation had been a lot longer. Her husband had told her, "Well that was a good intro into a college class on Luke. How about you cut that back a bit."  When she was done I asked, "so when do we get to hear your college course on Luke?"  

And then we finally got into the story of Mary and Martha.  And with ALL that prep work and context Liz was able to approach the story in a way I've never experienced. Usually the two sisters are shown as two ends of a spectrum with one clearly more "righteous" than the other. Liz was able to show that its much more nuanced than that. 

She said many amazing things, but the thing that struck me the deepest was when she said, "Culturally, Mary is in the wrong place, but she doesn't allow culture to tell her where she should be. And Jesus commends her for it."

That phrase applied to me. As an active member of the LDS church being on this retreat was culturally the "wrong" place for me to be.  But I don't allow the culture to tell me where I should be.  And I felt like Jesus was happy with my choice to be there that weekend. 

We took a little break for some quiet reflection. Then we met on the porch for a group picture. I was so happy to be in the middle of that picture. 

After the picture we went for a walk along the main road.  It was nice to get out and moving.  

We had pulled pork sandwiches for lunch and then sat down for one last session.  Because in over 2 hours of speaking, Liz had not fully finished the story of Mary and Martha.  This is one of Liz's amazing gifts.  I am constantly in awe of how she can take 5 verses and pull so much application out of them. 

We stood to sing songs and I was just so happy to be in that group of women. All weekend long I'd been thinking, "I found my people!" I felt like I used to feel when I was with my military friends in Alabama. Part of something big and yet personal with people who cared about and understood me. 

And then I started crying, because I'm not with those Alabama friends anymore.  Kelly, Morgan, Kara, Becca, Jen, Mariah, Jess, Margaret, Janel, and so many more.  I laughed with them and loved them and they are gone.  And so are my Fort Hood friends, Ashley, Ange, Kelly and so many other women I had in my home that I haven't seen in years. 

And I thought of other times I felt close to people. People from high school, and college, and church camps, and jobs and how those people are all just memories too.

 

And it suddenly felt so scary to fall in love with these women. Could I really do this friendship thing again?

I had to remind myself that these women all live in Twin Falls.  I will see them again. Liz is part of PTO with me. Other Liz lives around the corner. Most of these women are at Bible Study. We will all have the opportunity to go to retreat again next year. This isn't some camp where we came from across the state and will never see each other again. 

That made me feel better - at least a little bit. 

We had another chance for quiet reflection and then it was time to start cleaning up. Everyone worked together to put the cabin back to normal. I was shocked when I realized that all the cute little decorations that had been on the fireplace and elsewhere in the cabin weren't part of the cabin's regular décor. They'd been brought by Liz and the other people in charge.  I was so touched that they'd wanted to make the cabin feel homey for just one night. 

Liz had been so focused on her teaching sessions that she and I hadn't really had a chance to talk all weekend. So I asked if I could ride home with her. She had plenty of room so she said that was fine.  Lynn and Natalie were also in the car.  We had a great time talking as we went home.  

The retreat was officially over when we left the cabin, but 7 of us weren't quite ready for it to be over over.  Liz, Liz, Lynn, Natalie, Amanda, Grace, and myself went out to dinner in Twin Falls. There was one final hour of good conversation and laughter. And then it really was time to for it to be over. 

Liz dropped me off at my house.  On the way we talked about how we are so excited for Bible Study to start up again. Liz will be leading a Systematic Theology study.  It's going to be AMAZING. 

The kids were so excited to see me when I walked in.  They'd had a GREAT time with Brandon over the weekend.  Lydia had sent me this text on Friday night.  

We are great. We went to Walmart and got a inner tub for Veronica's bike, and got a fishing license so we could go fishing to marrow. We also got sota for dinner and pizza. We went to the park by are house and ate, we plad tag and Dad played to. Then we went to D and B and got some hoky things for Derricks bow and erow. When we got home we shot his bow and erow. We went in side and watched yes day. It was good. I hop you are having a good time. 

I'd read that text to everyone and we all agreed that Brandon was a pretty amazing dad.  And yes he'd taken the kids fishing on Saturday.  Derrick told me about falling in the lake and how cold it was. 

Brandon had also gone grocery shopping, helped the kids clean the house, and got all the laundry washed.  He really is the best. 

The kids all went to bed shortly after I came home. Brandon and I stayed up and I told him all about the retreat. 

Today the kids helped me get their clothes and other things packed for the family trip we go on starting tomorrow.  This is the first time we've done a big trip for spring break in  . . . well technically ever.  

We are all so excited.  But that's a subject for another post. 

Thanks for reading. 

Rearranging and Adding

Hey, it's time for another two week check in.  As usual A LOT happened. But I think this week's selection of updates is better suited to be done by theme rather than chronologically.    So let's get to work starting with . . . . work. 

Brandon's Job

Brandon's job to be exact.  A lot of people have been asking me how his job is going. My response is to call the job a "nothing job."  Because Brandon brings NOTHING home from work with him. Nearly every other job Brandon has worked at has always come with strong emotions - either good or bad.  He's either been so thrilled by the job, so stressed out by the job, so excited by the job, or so frustrated by the job. 

His other jobs have also involved a lot of unpredictability.  At the RV place it was "what mobile call will he go on today?" With airplanes it was "What airplane will fly in today?"  In the Army there were any number of things that could suddenly happen to our plans each day.

There's none of that with this job. There's not a lot of drama with management. The things he does each day are pretty routine and not dramatic. Yes he likes what he's doing, but it's not exactly long story worthy. 

It's nice to not have a lot of emotional energy spent on working out how Brandon is feeling about work.  He just goes there, does the job, has a nice time doing it, and then comes home and gets on with his life. 

And the amazing thing is that all this non-drama comes with a higher paycheck.  When he received his first paycheck for a full pay period I sat down with the spreadsheet I use to allocate the money.  (The spreadsheet's actual title is "Something Resembling a Budget." I pugged in the numbers the way I always did with his last job and was SHOCKED at how much money was remaining.  It's nice to know we'll be able to afford a new car and braces for the kids in the next few years. 

My school

Okay now let's talk about how my school is going.  It's HARD!!!! Possible, but still hard.

 

via GIPHY

Except for Reece Witherspoon looks cuter than I do.  This is me studying in the basement. Just trying to get through Intermediate Accounting Level II. 

I was able to make it through the first half of the course and passed the Excel based exam. But now I'm in the second half and I'm struggling under the amount of material.  I'm trying to get done before Spring Break. I'm pretty certain I'll be done in time. But it might kill me. 

If you interact with me in the next week and I just seem off - that's why. 

The kids' school

In other school news, Charlotte and Lydia are getting excited for Middle School. They were able to fill out their requests for electives for next year. 

Derrick is also doing well in school.  Third quarter ended and he brought home a big packet of all the work he's done this quarter.  He normally doesn't care about the packet at all, but this time he showed me every worksheet and talked about doing the work. 

A few days ago I had a meeting at the school about whether or not Derrick qualifies for the Extended School year.  He definitely qualifies under "General Ed" criteria because he is below grade level.  But we are not sure Gen Ed summer school would be a good fit for him.  Oddly enough, he doesn't easily fit the requirements for Special Ed summer school. So the meeting was about ways that he does fit the requirements and how the teachers can back that up with data.  It was a good meeting.

I've also had several meetings at the school about Veronica. She's had a hard time socially and academically this year.  We met with her teacher and the school counselor about the social concerns. Also the school was finally ready to initiate testing for special education. I've been pretty certain she has a language disability (like dyslexia) for a while and so it's nice that the school is ready to assess for that. 

And I've also spent a lot of time at the school for PTO stuff.  We had a meeting on Monday the 28th and we did another "Mustang Day" Sale on Friday the 11th.  Plus there have been checks to pick up and other checks to drop off.  

All this elementary school stuff combines into situations like this: I'm emailing Veronica's teacher about a playground incident and get interrupted by a phone call from Derrick's teacher to discuss something that happened that day. 

Or where I stop by the school on a Friday afternoon to sign the form giving the school permission to assess Veronica, pick up a donation check from the apparel company, and drop off another check to reimburse the school nurse for deodorant that was handed out during the 5th grade puberty presentation. 

Some people have asked me why I do PTO. My answer is that I'm at the school and communicating with the administrative staff a lot already so it's not a big deal to add PTO to that.

Okay, what else has been going on . . . .

Therapy

Derrick has a new behavioral therapy company and a new therapist.  We are all still getting to know each other, but so far it's been good.  Last Tuesday the therapist went with Derrick to Boys Activity at the church because we want him to practice interacting with kids his own age. I went along to introduce everyone, but I left for a while.  When I came back Derrick was playing with the boys and having a great time.  It was good to see. 

Here's Derrick on another day when he convinced me to help him make oobleck.  We all had purple hands after this.  

Also Veronica has been asking for Karate lessons for a while.  I think she needs them because of all the problems she's had at school.  She needs something to be good at.  But it's been hard to find a place that fits my schedule and my desire to not have to drive clear across town during rush hour. 

Then we heard about a place that has a program in partnership with the Parks and Rec Department.  I was able to get Veronica signed up and she starts class in April.  She is so EXCITED!

Refreshing the twins room

One of the big projects that happened in the last two weeks was a refresh for the twins rooms. It was time for their room to grow up a little bit to meet their needs now that they are almost in Middle School.

Here are some before pictures.  

This is the closet. 

One of the walls. 

The curtains. (That have been up in their room in nearly every house we've lived in since they were 2 years old.)

The other wall.

We ordered several things on the internet and then added them to the room as they arrived in the mail.  First up were these storage cubes.  The girls took down their "Pet Net" and put all the stuffed animals into these storage cubes. 

Just having the pet net down changed the feel of the room.

The next things to arrive were these two "hangy down storage thingys."  We took out Charlotte and Lydia's dressers and replaced them with a smaller dresser, lots of hangars, and these storage things. This closet is working so hard and doing a good job now. 

Charlotte's dresser went down into the craft room (to take over for the little dresser that was now in her closet.  Lydia's dresser went to DI along with some other things. 

After we dropped off the dresser we went inside DI and found this desk.  The girls wanted a vanity - which would have been cool too.  But I suggested we look for a desk so they could have a place to do work and craft as well as do makeup.  We found the desk at DI and the girls LOVED it.  We just need to find a Mirror to mount on the wall.

The next things to arrive were these mint black out curtains. They are slightly too long - but I plan to cut them and put the excess on the other window in the room - eventually. 

Here are all the "After" Pictures.  

Here's the closet.

The desk.

The wall.

And the bunk bed. 

And if you want here is a Marco Polo video of the girls giving a tour of their room. 

Veronica felt VERY left out that she wasn't getting any new things for her room.  So we did a tour of her room too. 

And here's Veronica being silly while doing dishes one night. 

Going through my closet

All the rearranging I was doing with Charlotte and Lydia's closet inspired me to reevaluate my closet.  Specifically the clothes in it.

I've been working on loving my body the way it is and so I don't want to talk to much about my weight or size, so we'll just say things have changed and I'm mostly okay with that.  

But I still have a lot of clothes that I've been hanging onto that don't fit or don't really work for me. I decided it was time to stop hanging onto all those clothes.  So I dumped EVERYTHING out on my bed and went through it all.  

The clothes on the floor are the ones I got rid of, the clothes on the bed are the ones I kept. 

I should have taken a before picture of my closet, but this is the after - with a few caveats.  1. I still had to do laundry so none of the clothes I'd worn that week are in this picture.  (I figured if I'd worn then that week then I still fit and liked them.)  And 2. I keep my workout clothes and pajamas in my dresser. So this isn't ALL my clothes.  But it's close.

And remember this picture of what I took to DI?  Well 4 of those trash bags are holding my clothes.  Two others are holding clothes that the kids outgrew. 

And now that I was able to let go of my clothes I felt okay adding more to my closet.  I was able to do some thrift shopping on Tuesday and added 6 new shirts, 2 jeans, 1 pair of work pants, and 2 shorts to my closet.  That was the first time I've done a big clothes shopping trip since COVID hit. The dressing rooms at DI are finally open again so I was able to try everything on and make sure they fit. 

Young Womens

Okay let's shift topics again.  It's no secret that there have been some growing pains as Charlotte and Lydia have moved from Primary to Young Womens.  But things are going much better lately.  

The Younger class of girls went to Skateland.  They needed another driver and so I came along.  The girls had a great time skating and I got to know some of the other girls and leaders better. Here are Charlotte and Lydia eyeing some of the toys for sale and skateland. 

This week the activity was a Pine Wood Demolition Derby. It was combined with the boys. Everyone had a week to work on their cars.  Here's Lydia's.

She made a truck.  She did all this completely by herself with her own little pocket knife and paint. 

And here's Charlottes.  

She made a dragon. 

Brandon wanted to see what a Pinewood Demolition Derby was like so he took the girls. Basically picture four STEEP pinewood derby tracks all crossing each other. There was a lot of mayhem. Charlotte's was the second ones out when her wheel fell off.  Lydia's lasted into the Top 6.

They had a great time. 

(And I just have to add that I LOVE the whole concept of a Demolition Pine Wood Derby.  I think it expresses a lot of people's pent up frustration toward all those years we lived under the tyranny of the rules from the Boy Scouts of America.)

The Jeep Engine

Speaking of cars, here's an update on the jeep engine rebuild. I often say that rebuilding the jeep engine has involved all sorts of side quests for each part. It's been a slow process.  But progress is being made.  Brandon was able to get the oil something or other mounted the other day. 

And recently he attached the bottom of the oil pan and painted it for some reason.  

 Yesterday he was able to flip the engine back over (it's upside down in those pictures up there) and I guess that means it's closer to actually going back into the jeep. 

I don't really know.  

But I do know that Brandon and I are getting tired of sharing a car.  It was okay when Brandon was working a shift from 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM. But lately he's been working a shift from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The kids have to be at school at 8:00 so if I need the car that day everyone has to get in the car around 7:30 and we drop Brandon off at work and then drop the kids off at school.  It was fun the first few times, but the novelty is wearing off. 

Random Things with the kids

I've had changes to hang out with each of the kids one on one the last few weeks.  

First up was Veronica on Friday Feb 25.  I forgot to write about this in my last blog update.  She had a really hard day at school on Thursday and it seemed like she needed a mental health day so I let her stay home with me on that Friday.  She watched a movie while I did homework and then we walked to my work.  She was able to eat a giant piece of birthday cake left over from an office birthday celebration.  She thought that was amazing.  Then she played with my 10 key calculator forever.  She finished off a whole roll of machine tap.  I think it was a good day for her. 

The next Friday on March 4th Derrick stayed home with me. He'd had some sort of incident at recess on Thursday that he was still worked up over. And it was a short day at school so he did the stay at home/go to work with mom routine too. 

We didn't take this picture that day, but it fits here.  His Speech therapy was cancelled, but he still had OT so I didn't want to throw off our schedule too much.  So we just went to D&B for a little bit before going to OT. 

Lydia was my next kid to spend a Friday with me.  But she actually went to school for most of the day.  Friday March 11th was Mustang Day at the school. I go there to help count the money from the sale.  (Because remember, the whole reason I wanted to be treasurer was so I could count cash again.)  Last month I checked out Veronica after I was done with Mustang Day so that we could set up the Valentine's Day Party.  That made the other kids wonder when they get a chance to be checked out after Mustang Day.  And as luck would have it there were three other Mustang Day's left in the year.  Lydia got March, Derrick got April (because it will be his birthday), and Charlotte gets May. 

So when I was done counting the money I had the office call down to Lydia's room.  She was so excited to go somewhere with me.  Our first stop was the bank. I handed Lydia the bag full of currency to carry in for me.  She asked, "what's in here?"  I told her to open it. Her eyes got so big when she saw the brick sized stack of bills. She couldn't believe all that money came from the school sale.  Then I handed her the bag of coins and she was surprised at the weight.  

Inside the bank, she and I were able to watch while the teller used machines to count the currency and coin.  I'd been spot on with the coin, but had undercounted the currency by $1. (Dang it, but at least my count was under instead of over.)  

When we left Lydia was like, "Do you know all those people?"  I told her yes.  I take my work deposit there so I've been talking to them through the drive through for months.  And I always go inside with PTO money so I've been getting to know them all even better. 

Then we went to SIPS to buy two cookies. Neither of us had ever been here, even though its super close to the house so we were excited to try the cookies.  Lydia got a chocolate chip cookie, and I had a Twisted Sugar Cookie.  And LOOOOOOK I finally have a picture of my new hair style. (And one of my new shirts.)

We still had some time before the other kids got out of school so we went to Webb Nursery's and walked around.  (I was trying to find their locust trees, but I didn't see any while we were wandering.)

I realized I couldn't find my phone and Lydia thought I might have left it at SIPS so we went back there and found it.  

Then we went to D&B to look at the chicks. Lydia loved them. 

And finally I had a chance to spend time with Charlotte at Orange Leaf.  She earned a coupon there a few weeks ago, but we haven't had a chance to go until yesterday. 

She filled her little "Beginner Cup" so full. It had so many flavors all packed tightly. 

Dates with Brandon

Last Saturday Brandon and I were able have our own trip to Orange Leaf.  We'd run a couple errands and then went to Orange Leaf.  It was fun. 

Garden Garden Garden

One of the places Brandon and I went was D&B (of course) because they were having a sale that day.  We'd woken up to snow that morning, but I still knew that spring was around the corner so I wanted to get things like fertilizer and mulch while they were at a discount. 

We also went to look at the trees to scout out a Santa Rosa Plum Tree. I wasn't going to buy one that day . . . but  . . . the sales lady in the nursery reminded me that fruit trees always go fast . . . and I was going to buy one anyway . . . and Brandon was there to help me . . . and so we bought the tree. 

We put it on the side of the house and it was a happy reminder all week that spring was coming. 

Tuesday was a beautiful day so when the kids were home from school we went outside for some garden time. We needed to make room for the plum tree by taking out a half dead bush.  Veronica had had another rough day and needed a way to get out some frustration. So I gave her the giant garden clippers and showed her what to do. She LOVED it. Those dead branches didn't stand a chance against her. 

Meanwhile I prepped a garden bed and planted peas. 

Then we woke up to a big snowstorm on Wednesday and all work on the garden had to stop again. 

But by Saturday afternoon things had warmed up again.  I was able to spend a couple hours digging out the stump of the bush.  I'd worried that it would have a big tap root, but really it just had a bunch of shallow roots that spread out around it.  I was able to chop through them with the shovel.  It was a good feeling to finally pop that thing out of the ground. (And Veronica and Lydia showed up at the last minut for the photo credit.)

The plum tree wasn't going in the exact spot of the bush so I had to figure out where I wanted it and then dig another hole.  Here's the stump from the bush, the hole from the bush, and the plum tree. 

Meanwhile Brandon had trimmed the tree and put up hammocks for the girls. 

I got the hole dug and the tree planted. 

Here's a slightly better angle.  Now that the bush is gone this whole back area feels much more open.  We are going to try to get the grass to regrow better back here. 

Another new thing

You might be noticing that we bought a lot of stuff in the last few weeks.  Well we got our tax return back and for the first time in - well in the history of our family - NONE of it had to go toward paying off student loans or car debt. Most of it went into savings (to try to avoid future car debt) but we did spend some of it. 

And the biggest thing we bought was a new TV. 

Brandon and I have never bought a TV.  We started out married life with a giant picture tube TV that someone gave us for free.  That TV went with us through two apartments in Logan, two in Bountiful, Texas and Alabama before we gave it to a thrift store. I liked that TV a lot because it was basically indestructible to little kids. But since all our stuff was going into storage when we lived with Brandon's parents there was no reason to take it with us again. 

In Yellowstone we used a computer monitor for a TV and then kept using it when we moved to Pocatello.  Then a coworker gave us an outdated flat screen TV and we used that the rest of the time we were in Pocatello.  

That TV was too heavy to bother moving so we just gave it away before moving to Twin Falls.  

When we moved into this house Brandon really wanted to have a projector for a TV.  So he bought one for less than $100 and built a screen for it.  We've used that for 2 1/2 years and it's had it's pros and cons.  

Pros have been: Size, Size, and Size

Cons have been: 

• The projector only works in the dark so no one can play in the basement while someone else is watching TV.
• The whole system was pretty Gerry-rigged with separate remotes for the projector, the sound bar, the DVD player, and the Roku. 
• The projector wasn't ever quite in focus so the image was slightly burry. 
• The projector started going out and the images were getting noticeably darker.  

We've been talking about getting a higher quality projector that had a better image and could work with the lights on. But in looking into those we realized they were about the same cost as a TV.  So we decided to just buy a TV. 

We've had Costco cards for the past year, but I never use mine because Costco gives me anxiety. But Brandon said we should put the card to use and go to Costco for the TV. He also said we should get pizza there for dinner.  So we braved the tiny tiny parking lot and went to Costco on Monday night. 

I nearly had a panic attack, but we came out of there with a TV in our car and Pizza in our tummies.  Here are all the kids and the TV in the car as we drove home.  (I was sitting in the back.)

As Brandon got the TV mounted to the wall I gave the kids a lecture on how this TV was now the most expensive thing in the house and we had to treat it super careful.  The kids then swore on a Harry Potter book to always be careful around the TV. 

And here's the mounted TV.  It's been an adjustment to this "small" screen because our last one took up nearly this whole wall, but what we lost in size we gained in clarity and simplicity.  The images are clearer, we can watch TV with the lights on, and we only have one remote now.  (Two when we get the DVD player hooked up again.) 

The kids watched a couple different things throughout the week, but on Friday we all sat down and watched Turning Red for movie night.  We loved that movie. It had so many good themes. My favorite part was the very end when the girl askes her Great-Great Grandma "I'm not going to regret this am I?" and the Great Great Grandma reacts so well.  

And I think that was all the major themes from the past two weeks. We'll finish this off with another picture of my new hair style. 

Thanks for reading and thanks for giving me something to do to take my mind off of the crazy amount of school work that I have to do next week. 

I'm going to make it through, but it's definitely an uphill climb.  

See you on the other side.