A less eventful week

Last week I ended my post by saying, "Hopefully next week is a lot less eventful." And guess what?  It was.  

This week was super chill. It was also a little redemptive.  Many of the things that hadn't happened the week before were able to happen this week. 

All the kids went to school every day of the week.  Brandon was feeling better too (though he has an lingering cough.) I finally found the energy to deep clean the living room. Derrick finally got a trip to Dierkie's Lake. 

And guess what? I found not one, but TWO ladies who are willing to be PTO president. We'll have a co-presidency this year because both women are top So notch. We also brought on another parent as secretary.  I still have a few things to do to get them all up to speed, but pretty soon I can just fade into the background and focus on deposits and writing checks like I always wanted.  

So let's talk about all of that and more.  But first let's look at some more pictures and videos from Brandon's second BASE jump that happened Friday August 19th. 

Here's the video from the camera that Brandon was holding when he jumped. 

And David Helton took the time to pull still pictures off of that camera. Here they are falling. 

And more falling. 

I like how happy Brandon looks here. 

The landing.

Here they are posing with the bridge.  (And I feel like we need to have a mini conversation about Brandon's hair.  My sister Hillary talked him into growing it out.  When he styles it, it has the most beautiful curls. But when he doesn't style it . . . well let's just say he's planning on being a made scientist for Halloween.)

Here he is when they hiked out.  (He'd dunked his head under a waterfall and so his hair was curly again.)

 This is the point where I'd hiked down and met up with Brandon and David.  David took a picture of Brandon and I together. 

Okay, now we can talk about this week. 

Like I said, all the kids went to school on Monday and Brandon went to work. They were all pretty tired after school. But everyone was feeling okay.  So we went to Golden Corral for dinner.  This is what we'd planned to do on Friday to celebrate living in Twin Falls for 3 years. It was Veronica's idea to go because she remembered the chocolate fountain. 

Well the chocolate fountain must have been a COVID casualty because it wasn't there.  But there was a soft serve ice cream machine that the kids went nuts over.  I told Brandon, "next time it might just be cheaper to buy our own ice cream machine."  (But then I googled it and realized, that no, Golden Corral is still cheaper than buying our own ice cream machine.)  Here we are eating our "real food" before moving onto the dessert. 

We finished eating and hurried home because Brandon had to be at rehearsal for Guys and Dolls at 7:00. He drove off to that. The kids had spent most of the afternoon watching TV so I wanted them to do something else that evening.  I suggested we take Marcia on a walk to the school.  Derrick could bring his styrofoam airplane and play with it at the school and everyone else could just play on the play ground. 

Here's Derrick with his airplane. This has been one of the best toys for him. It doesn't need batteries and when it breaks Brandon can easily glue it back together.  Derrick threw it probably 100 times. 

The other kids played in the grass too.  It had been recently mowed and there was a layer of dead grass laying on top of the green grass.  The girls started gathering the grass. 

They made a big pile. 

Here's Charlotte carrying another pile to combine it with the existing pile. 

It got really big. 

We stayed at the school for over an hour.  Then we walked over to neighbor Liz's house so the kids could take care of putting her chickens into the coop.  All the kids LOVE taking care of these chickens. 

We'd had a lovely evening, so imagine my surprise when it ALL fell apart almost as soon as we walked in the door of our house. 

Charlotte and Lydia discovered Veronica had used some craft supplies without asking and so they were SUPER mad at her.  Derrick flew his airplane in the backyard and the fuselage cracked when he threw it against something.  He tried to throw it away and I got mad at him.  I was like, "Dad can fix that! What are you doing!"

So the night ended on a very tense note.  I realized the problem was that we'd just stayed out too late. I was still thinking a 9:00 PM bedtime was feasible.  But this proved it was NOT.  The kids were just falling apart by 8:45.  So I moved bedtime up to 8:30 and that worked much better the rest of the week. 

This next picture is of the growth on my baby Maple Tree. This thing was a 1 foot stick when I got it through the Idaho Power program last fall. That original stick DIED this spring and I was like, "We'll that's what you get with free trees I guess."  But the roots were still good and they sent out new growth. The tree is now over 5 feet tall. I took this picture to show Neighbor Liz because the program opened up for Twin Falls county again this fall.  (Here's the link if you are local and interested. https://www.idahopower.com/energy-environment/ways-to-save/savings-for-your-home/rebates-and-offers/shade-tree-project/)

Tuesday was another blissfully normal day. After school things were a little busy. Veronica had Physical Therapy at the same time Derrick had Behavioral Therapy. Brandon took Veronica and I stayed home with Derrick. Miss Natalie came over and was like, "It is way too hot to go anywhere.  Let's just stay here."  So she and Derrick just did stuff at the house for a little while. She has a new job and this was her second to last time with Derrick.  

I actually made the decision to stop behavioral therapy after Miss Natalie's last day. Derrick has been doing this therapy weekly since the Fall of 2018. It's helped a lot. But all summer I've felt like we've outgrown this therapy.  So we are taking a break. Maybe we'll do it again in the future.  But right now we are done. 

At 7:00 Brandon went to rehearsal again and the kid and I walked over to the school again.  This time we brought rakes and buckets.  The kids had a blast raking up the grass and putting it into an even bigger pile. 

Since the airplane was still drying, Derrick brought his bike. He'd ride it around and around the school. 

Here's the grass pile. 

We left the school around 8:00.  I had the kids stuff the buckets full of grass and we took it home to be mulch for my black berries. When we got home Charlotte and Lydia rode their bikes over to Neighbor Liz's so to take care of her chickens. 

I had Derrick and Veronica get into pajamas and started putting them to bed. When the twins got home they also got into pajamas and then put to bed.  Everyone was in bed by like 8:45. It was heavenly.

On Wednesday I had a meeting at the elementary school at 8:00 with the principal and the two mom's interested in doing PTO.  It was a GREAT meeting.  After the meeting I gave them a tour of the school. 

I felt so much relief knowing that I didn't have to be the only person in charge of PTO anymore. 

That evening Veronica had girls activity.  They were going swimming at the pool.  I decided to go along too and bring Derrick.  Charlotte and Lydia wanted to go to the other set of twins house so I dropped them off on the way and picked them up when we were done.  

Swimming was fun.  The water was a little cold for me so I didn't stay in it long, but it did feel good to get wet. 

Here's some garden pictures.  Here's the Morning glory and a sunflower. 

Here's one of the flowers. 

And more flowers. 

Derrick wanted to go for a bike ride on Thursday evening.  I was going to ride my bike with him, but my bike had a flat tire.  So I just walked behind him.  At some points I was VERY behind him. He ended up at the park and had a fun time riding around the skating area.  The other skaters and bikers were pretty cool around him. Here he is while we were riding home. 

I took this picture when I put him to bed Thursday night, but this was really something I'd done on Wednesday. I'd ordered storage bins when I was sick on Saturday.  The idea was even if I was too sick to do any work I could do something to make my life easier when I was feeling better.  The bins arrived on Wednesday and I was able to fill them with a lot of Derrick's train accessories.  Then I put them on a shelf that my neighbor Kaymie had given me. This area is under Derrick's bed.  It looks so much better now that there aren't train tracks all over the place under their.

Here's another thing from Kaymie.  She gave me this shoe rack. (And like 4 pairs of shoes that will fit Derrick perfectly.)

On Friday I FINALLY got the living room clean.  It took me 2 hours.  The hardest part was all the paper and things that had accumulated on the ledge by the fireplace and the end table.  I took all the books, papers, and magazines out of the room and put them on the kitchen table.  I went through everything and was very choosy about what actually went back into the living room.  The end result looked so good!  I've been very protective of the living room ever since. 

I also went to work every day this week.  I was able to get a lot done.  (I also discovered 6 unpaid claims that were missed by an insurance company somehow.  I'm always excited when I find things like this because it really validates my job existence.  I caught those unpaid claims within 5 weeks of the appointments happening.  No one else would have noticed for MONTHS.)

We decided to go to the pool as a family after school on Friday.  It was really fun.  The water was perfect! 

Veronica and I had put tuna noodle casserole into the crockpot before we left.  When we came home it was PERFECT.  Everyone ate a ton.  

Then we watched Pirates of the Caribbean for movie night. Charlotte wanted to watch it because they'd listened to some of the music in her orchestra class. 

On Saturday we cleaned the kids bedrooms really well.  Charlotte and Lydia's needed a serious intervention and so I helped them clean it. We had to make some sad decisions like it was time to give these roller skates away.  

I also worked on the bathroom a tiny bit.  A few weeks ago the showerhead in my bathroom broke so I'd had to shower in the kids' bathroom.  I realized their shower is actually really dark because they had such a dark shower curtain.  So I decided to order a light colored one to brighten things up.  I picked this one because it looked like it would be very good at hiding splatters from toothpaste, blood, and paint. (Those are all routine things in this bathroom.)  I LOVE how it looks. 

We got the rooms clean and had lunch.  

Then I fulfilled two promises I'd made to Derrick earlier in the week.  

1. I watched Lightyear with him.  It was actually pretty good. 

2. When that was done I took him to Dierkies Lake.  I wasn't in the mood to swim so I just laid in the grass and read. But Derrick was all over that water. 

Charlotte came too.  I think that's her on the diving board. 

They had a good time playing. Usually Derrick plays with one on one with Veronica while Charlotte hangs out with Lydia so it was good to see Derrick and Charlotte playing together. 

Here's Derrick soaking his towel at the end. 

We came home and Brandon had hambergers cooking. We ate outside. The weather has cooled down a bit so its actually bearable outside again - without the mister. 

Around 7:45 we started a fire.  We'd wanted to do fires all summer but its just been too hot.  With the break in the weather they are bearable again.  And it helps that it's getting dark earlier.  The kids didn't have to stay up super late to have an evening fire. 

Here's Charlotte and Lydia hanging out by the fire. 

Derrick and Veronica had fun playing in the dirt. They added water and had fun with mud.  (I still haven't settled on a final layout for this area so I haven't bothered to put in grass.  But look at those Blackberry Bushes in the background!)

Here's everyone hanging out. 

And look at my raspberries.  They are just a few weeks away from non-stop berry time. (Last year I had berries from September to November.)

Things got darker and Veronica found a lantern so she could see her dirt and mud play. 

When the fire died down we made smores.  It was the perfect end to a really good Saturday. 

I'd washed all the kids sheets that day so I made all the kids take baths before getting into bed.  Veronica showed me the cave bedroom she'd created under her bed.  She slept in it all night. 

Brandon and I stayed up late talking around the fire.  It was really fun. 

And that was the end of our pretty chill week. 

Thanks for reading. 

First week of school - sort of

Welcome to the second blog post in a two part series where I'm trying to find the answer to "Why the heck was I so tired the Saturday after school started."  

A big clue is hidden in the seam between this post and the previous post.  We got home from a weekend trip to Utah at Midnight on Sunday. I woke up at 6:30 on Monday morning. Then I woke the kids up at 7:00. Ideally we all would have slept in and caught up on some sleep. But this was the week school started.  I'd been waking the kids up half an hour earlier for about a month to get ready.  This week the wake up time was 7:00 and we needed to keep that consistent. 

Charlotte and Lydia were pretty groggy when I woke them up.  They said something like, "How about you let us sleep in tomorrow?"  And I said, "How about you go to bed early tonight?"

I'm just glad that we didn't have to start school on this Monday. School started on Wednesday August 17th this year. (Believe it or not, the fact that Christmas is on a weekend affected the school start date.) I had a lot of things to do on Monday and Tuesday to get ready for school on Wednesday. 

Monday was especially busy. Even with waking up at 6:30 I was already behind for the day. I'd actually already missed 6:00 AM Bible Study.  (But I'd expected to miss it because I knew we were probably getting home late.) 

Other things on my schedule were work, admin meeting at work, school clothes shopping with Charlotte and Lydia, divvying out the school supplies to the kids, picking up car decals for PTO, and a ton of prep for the Elementary Open House that night. 

I wasn't sure how I would fit it all in. And honestly I completely dropped the ball on admin meeting.  I forgot all about it until my phone alerted me. So I sent a quick message to my coworkers that I wouldn't be there.

I started out the day with a little school supply "store."  I'd ordered all the school supplies online and they'd been delivered to the house so the kids really hadn't seen them yet. It was fun to lay them out on the table. Charlotte and Lydia went first.  We had the list of supplies from the school website. I'd read off the list and they'd find the things. Derrick went next and then Veronica.  

I realized that somehow we didn't have scissors, or about 6 notebooks. I was pretty certain I'd put them in my cart, but when I went back to check the order they weren't there.  So I guess I never fully pushed, "Add to cart." That was frustrating, but I knew we were going to Walmart later that day for school clothes shopping so we could just pick them up then.  

Derrick went with Miss Natalie and I logged into work and did about an hour of work remotely.  I can usually process electronic payments from home with no problem.  I knew there were probably paper checks showing up in the mail, but they would just have to wait until Tuesday. 

After Derrick got home I took Charlotte and Lydia school clothes shopping. Honestly, this was not my original plan. I'd envisioned school shopping for the twins with the help of my sister Hillary. She is a thrift store connoisseur. But that plan got scrapped when she had to have outpatient surgery days before the weekend we were coming to Utah. So I was on my own trying to get two girls ready for Middle School.  No pressure. 

Our first stop was the apparel store to pick up the decals.  Then we went to DI.  We may not have had Hillary's expertise, but I'm no stranger to thrift shopping either.  Was was pretty confident that we could find cute middle school clothes for the girls. 

BUT it was Monday and DI was closed.  Shoot!

My sister Emily had mentioned that she'd done some school supply shopping at Ross so I wanted to stop there at some point.  I was hoping to do it after a thrift store, but we just went straight to Ross. We found cute shoes and pants for the girls - and I'm happy with all our purchases.  But wow that all added up fast. 

While we were shopping I noticed that Lydia had gunk in her eye. I figured it was just sleepy dust that she hadn't cleaned out that morning. 

Next up was Walmart. We needed to get boring stuff like socks and underwear as well as a new backpack for Charlotte. (Lydia had upgraded last spring when the zipper on her backpack stopped working.) 

Everything we had to get was necessary, but it also wasn't cheap. In the future I'm going to try to be better about replacing socks and underwear throughout the year instead of buying those with back to school.  Because there's nothing fun about dropping $50+ on that stuff while also trying to buy cool clothes and school supplies. 

All three of us were just DONE by the time we finished at Walmart. We went home and took a break. Well the girls took a break. I had to roll right onto the next thing. 

Over the summer I'd set up a Square Account for PTO and had been able to process a credit card payment using an app on my phone.  I was planning to do the same thing to take credit cards payments for apparel at the open house that night. But I wanted to make sure it would work again. 

I'm glad I tried logging in while I was at home because I could NOT get the app to open on my phone.  I knew I could do it on my laptop. So Brandon helped me set up my phone as a hotspot so I could have mobile internet on my laptop. 

The things I've learned from PTO. 

Derrick and I were scheduled to go to the school at 4:00 so we could meet his teacher before all the hubbub of Open House.  Derrick was so antsy for that.  At 3:00 I told him I still needed to take a shower.  He said, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

When I was out of the shower he kept trying to get me to hurry.  We ended up at the school around 3:30. 

I could see why Derrick was excited to get back to the school.  EVERYONE was happy to see him. He walked around saying Hi, seeing who he was taller than, talking about his summer, and giving hugs to so many staff members.  

We met his teacher. I've talked to her before, but she didn't teach Charlotte or Lydia last year so I didn't know her very well.  I'm sure that will change this year. 

When we were done talking to Derrick's teacher I had Derrick help me set up the PTO table for the Open House.  He was trying to earn money for a Styrofoam airplane.  I told him I'd pay him $1 for helping me.  So he happily carried boxes from the closet to the table outside. 

I wish I'd taken pictures of the table because it looked really cool.  We had our black table cloth that said Morningside Elementary School as well as a smaller table runner that had the Mustang Mascot on it.  One side had pictures we'd taken last year. The other side of the table had all the apparel on it. 

Here's a Marco Polo video I'd taken earlier in the day to show my siblings all the cool apparel.

The Open House didn't officially start until 5:00, but there were people outside starting at 4:30.  And pretty quickly I started to have people interested in buying things. In addition to the apparel we were selling some of our "Mustang Day" stuff for $1.  We had smencils and slap bracelets. I was staying close to the apparel help sell it and to be there if anyone tried to steal it. 

Other parents had signed up to take 30 minute shifts at the table.  They helped pass out a flier I'd written with answers to Frequently Asked Questions about PTO.  It had info like when and where PTO meets, easy ways to support the school (buy apparel, link Smith's card to the school, download the box tops for education app, and attend our chick-fil-a night) and whether or not parents can bring young children along when they volunteer.  (Derrick had also helped me make copies of that flier.) 

I also had a clipboard on the table with spots for people to sign up if they were interested in helping with PTO.  I was counting on this clipboard to help us find someone who would be willing to be president.  Because I'd put in more hours with PTO in the last week than I had at my real part time job. 

Derrick got bored at some point and decided to walk home.  A little while later Charlotte showed up.  She wanted to wear the Mustang Mascot Costume. I'd brought it out before things got busy.  She changed into it under the table. 

Brandon came over to go inside and meet Veronica's teacher. At least that's what I thought he was doing. Instead he was was super worried about Lydia's goopy eye and wanted to talk to me about it.  He didn't know that I'd seen it earlier. He thought it had come out of no where. Lydia also had a bloody nose.  Brandon's always a little hyper vigilant about bloody noses because he had a nasal tumor as a teenager and the main symptom had been bloody noses. So he was a little on edge about it.  I was like, "Brandon, I can't leave this table! It has merchandise on it! Can we worry about this later?"

So Lydia ended up laying under the table almost the whole evening. She was fine. She just wanted to hang out there. Brandon took Veronica to meet her teacher and later took her home. 

Despite the crazy stuff with Lydia the night was a huge success.  We had 6 parents sign up to help with the PTO, we sold almost $300 of merchandise ($200 of them were credit card sales I did through Square on my laptop), and most importantly - we showed that Morningside PTO is up and running. 

The event ended at 6:30 - at least that's when the school administrators locked the doors into the school.  But it was almost 7:00 before all the parents cleared out of the area outside the school.  At 6:45 I'd had to say, "Last call for Credit Card Sales"  and then I still did $50 in sales after that. 

(Oh and the trucker's hats which I called ugly are apparently in style.  We sold like 3. At $16 each! To people that had no idea we'd be selling things at that event!

Another parent stayed to help me clean up the table and get everything back into the closet. I made it home around 7:15. 

Brandon wasn't home when I got home.  That's because he was at a rehearsal for Guys and Dolls. 

What's that you say?  You didn't know Brandon was in a play?

Yeah, I know that's a little out of nowhere.  Let's catch you up on that. 

Remember last December when Brandon was in the Living Nativity? Well he was a fish merchant that kept getting antagonized by the fish head seller.  They had a hilarious dynamic and had a blast interacting all night. The fish head guy's name is Ivan and he invited Brandon to be part of the Magic Valley Repertoire Theater. He mentioned that since Brandon can do accents he'd be great when they did Guys and Dolls later in the year. 

So I start following Magic Valley Rep on Facebook.  Fast forward a few months and I see the announcements for rehearsals.  But the requirements seemed kind of intimidating. There were singing and dance requirements. Brandon was like, "um maybe this isn't for me."  Plus the rehearsals were right after a finished fixing the jeep and he really didn't want to do anything that week.  So we decided not right now.  And that was just fine.

But fast forward another month and I'm scrolling facebook. I see a post from Magic Valley Rep saying:

Magic Valley Repertory Theatre is looking for 3-4 men who are interested in being in the ensemble in our production of Guys And Dolls! We have lost a few castmembers due to unforeseen circumstances and we need to fill these parts as soon as possible! If you are interested, send us a message on our Facebook page!

So of course I send a message to the Facebook page.  And after talking with whoever ran that page I was given a phone number for Brandon to contact. Brandon texted the guy and later had a phone call with him. Basically it boiled down to this:

Brandon: I don't really have any experience being in a play, but Ivan told me I should join this play.

Guy on phone call: Well if Ivan says you are good, then you are in. 

And that's how Brandon ended up in a production of Guys and Dolls. The performances will be the first three weekends in October. I'll post on Facebook when tickets go on sale. 

He came home from the rehearsal super happy. They'd gone over singing "Sit Down Your Rocking the Boat." He was a little overwhelmed by that. But everyone was very encouraging.  And afterward he got to talk to the other cast members.  He talked to Ivan who kind of looked at him like, "Who are you?" Until Brandon said, "I'm the fish guy."  Then Ivan was like, "Oh GREAT."

Brandon also got to meet one of the ladies from "The Play That Goes Wrong."  He said, "I don't want to be weird, but I'm a huge fan."

Since Brandon was at rehearsal I was in charge of putting the kids to bed.  It actually wasn't that hard because they were all so tired.  

And that FINALLY brings us to the end of Monday.  What a day!

Oh wait, we aren't quite done with Monday. Because we really need to mention what happened on August 15th three years ago. That was also the night of Open House.  And as soon as it was over Brandon told me that he'd been fired. We were three days away from closing on our house.  This was a major sucker punch and we didn't know what to do.  

Ultimately we went through with buying the house, but we weren't sure if we had a future here in Twin Falls. But here we were. Three years later. I was DEEPLY involved in the PTO and Brandon was in a community play.  Not to mention all the other things we've done in the last three year.  Things have a way of working out. 

Tuesday was an easier day, but only in comparison to Monday. 

I still needed to get shoes for Derrick and Veronica. I also wanted to have some long pants for both of them.  Things would still be hot for at least another 3 weeks, but I wanted pants for when they needed them. And I felt like everyone could use 2 or 3 new t-shirts.  All that had felt really unobtainable when I was tired on Monday.  But everything looked better on Tuesday. 

For one, DI was open.  We went there and were able to get all the things I was looking for for less than $50.  That made me feel so much better.

Veronica also found some toys. She bought a paw patrol boat for only $2 and a nerf gun for $3. 

I'd spent ALL my cash getting clothes the day before. So I bought the toys with my debit card and then Veronica paid me back.  With just that $5 I was able to pay back Derrick. I'd been unable to pay Derrick the money I owed him for making dinner, babysitting himself, and helping me set up the table. I'd written him IOU's.  He was fascinated by the fact that these papers were kind of like money.  He only needed two more dollars to have enough money to buy a styrofoam airplane. So he made his own IOUS and copied down everything I'd written.  It was so clever.  But I told him it didn't work that way.   

We also went to Hobby Lobby so we could buy that stryofoam airplane. Derrick and I had figured out that if he babysat himself while I was at work and then made dinner that night he'd have enough money to pay me for the airplane. 

So that afternoon after he'd babysat himself and made dinner. (We ate at like 4:00 because he was so eager to make dinner) I paid him the last two dollars he needed. Here he is with his bank. (It's a punch powder container.)

And here's his money. 

And here's his Styrofoam airplane!!!!!!!  He was so stinking excited. 

Brandon helped him put it together.  But they had to pause because it was time for Back to School Night at the Middle School. 

Back to School Night was pretty great.  They didn't have us go around and meet the kids teachers.  Instead we went to little classes about subjects that would help us.  We learned about a class all 6th graders have to take called "Cub Essentials." It's a class dedicated to helping the kids develop organization and study habits.  (Brandon was like, "I wish someone had taught me how to study in 6th grade.") We also learned about some of the rules, how to log into the homework program, and other things.

One of the nice things was how often the teachers said things like, "We know these kids are eleven." or "We are here to help them. If they are lost in the hall they can come ask us for help. We won't be marking tardies for the first few weeks to give them time to get used to this."  I really liked the acknowledgement that these kids are young. (Now if only the LDS church Young Women's program could do the same.)

While we were there I noticed that Lydia's eye was still pretty goopy.  I was starting to worry that she had pink eye. But really, what could I do at that point?  

When it was over there was just enough time for Brandon to take Derrick to the sledding hill so they could throw the airplane.  They had a great time.  

Then Brandon dropped off Derrick and went to play rehearsal. 

I'd been washing clothes and putting them into piles. I made sure the kids had clothes ready for the next day. 

Charlotte spent time moving all her key chains from her old backpack to her new backpack. 

That night I went with Charlotte and Lydia over to neighbor Liz's house so we could put her chickens into the coop. 

We ran into Kaymie on our way back home.  Kaymie has two older boys that have gone through middle school. She's a great resource whenever I have questions about Middle School.  She explained that on the first day of school the kids would spend most of the day in their "Prime Time" classroom.  It would only be toward the end of the day that they'd go around to their other classes for a few minutes.  That made all of us feel better about the first day. 

And all of a sudden it was Wednesday. And that meant it was the first day of school.  And even though I'd been preparing for this day for WEEKS at this point it still didn't seem real. 

Getting the kids up in the morning felt familiar and yet also different. For the first time ever Charlotte and Lydia didn't have to get up first. In Idaho the elementary schools start before Middle School.  So I work Charlotte and Lydia up, but didn't worry to much about them at first.  They got dressed and then ran over to Liz's to feed the chickens. 

I focused on getting Derrick and Veronica ready. Soon we were outside and taking pictures. The sun was very bright. 

Here's Veronica.  She is starting 3rd grade this year. Her shirt says, "Wake up and Make your Dreams Come True." 

Here's Derrick about to start 5th grade.  He'd wearing a Skooby Doo shirt. Later in the week he wore a shirt that said, "The cool kid has arrived."

I walked over to the elementary school with Derrick and Veronica. When we got to the school Derrick went right in so he could eat breakfast like he always does.  Veronica and I walked through the school and stopped at her classroom so I could meet her teacher.  Veronica is in the same classroom that Charlotte was 3 years ago. 

Then we went outside and I stayed with Veronica until the bell rang.  She'd started out really confident, but she seemed to get more and more withdrawn and forlorn the longer we were in line. By the time she walked into the school with her class I was very worried about her.  

So as I walked home I wrote an email to the school counselor and asked her to pop in and check on Veronica at some point. Later she wrote back that she'd checked in with Veronica.  Veronica said she'd been very nervous that morning, but was feeling better. 

Charlotte and Lydia were waiting at the window when I got home. They came outside and I took their pictures.  Here's Lydia. Her shirt says, "Free the House Elves." If you look closely you can see that her right eye is a little puffy.  I was pretty certain she had pink eye - but I also knew there's not much you can do for pink eye and it didn't seem like something that justified missing the first day of Middle School.  So I told her to wipe her eye with tissues often and to try not to touch anything or anyone. 

And here's Charlotte. I guess she's the only one that didn't want a saying on her shirt this day. 

I walked with the girls toward the Middle School.  It's farther than the Elementary school, but still within walking distance.  I told the girls I would turn around as soon as they wanted me to. 

They wanted my help crossing the busy street with the light. As soon as we were across the street they said, "Okay, you can go now."  So I turned around and walked home. 

I had so many plans for the day.  The main thing I wanted to do was to clean the living room.  So I took this before picture. 

But before I could clean I wanted to post the first day of school pictures on instagram. And then I had to spend almost an hour texting and emailing the people who had signed the PTO clipboard. 

Around 10:30 I finally got around to starting to pick up stuff in the living room.  But then I was hungry so I started making myself a sandwich for lunch. 

As soon as I finished eating I got a call from Morningside Elementary School.  I was like, "Crap, what happened already."

It was the Principal on the other line.  She said, "Hey remember when I asked you about helping with the "I choose Twin Falls School District" media campaign?"

I replied "yeah."

She said, "We'll that's today and its right now."

I asked if I could have a few minutes to get ready and I'd be right over.  

So I hurried to change into nice clothes, put dry shampoo in my hair, and put on make up. 

I was over at the school within 15 minutes. 

The school district PR rep, Eva Craner, was there with a professional camera man from a local company.  Eva asked me and anther mom questions about why we like the Twin Falls School district and our local school. Our answers were filmed and will be used for ads on social media to help other parents know that the Twin Falls School District is a good place for their kids. 

I truly love this school district and the school so I was happy to help with this project. 

I figured this was a good time to head to work so instead of going home I drove to work and put in a few hours there.  

While I was there Kaymie texted me. She and her husband had decided to clean out their basement storage room that day because it was his day off and the kids were all gone.  She asked me if I wanted anything. 

So at 2:00 I went over there and poked through her stuff.  She called the room the "Room of Requirement" because it had just about everything in there. I left with things like two sets of luggage, a bunch of carpet pieces (for the kids to sit on in our cold basement floor), a few storage things, and a bunch of other random "treasures."

I got home around 2:30. Brandon was already home.  I was like, "Hey I never really did get around to cleaning the living room today. But let me tell you about everything else I did."

He just laughed. 

Close to 3:00 we walked over to the elementary school together to pickup Derrick and Veronica. Both kids are old enough to walk home on their own. But they'd asked to be picked up on the first day.  (Plus I love hearing about their days while we walk.)

My plan for the afternoon was to expect as little as possible from the kids. So they went downstairs and watched TV.  I went out in the backyard and checked on my garden for a minute. 

Things were going well out there.  Look at all these cherry tomatoes.  

I also had more raspberries. 

Look how big the morning glory is. There's also volunteer sunflowers mixed in this year. 

Bigger Tomatoes.

The big tomatoes are taller than me. 

And so are the cherry tomatoes. 

Okay, I really can't get over how awesome it is to have this many ripe tomatoes.  Last year the spot they were in just didn't work at all.  So this victory is a long time coming. 

Here's an establishing shot of all the tomato plants.  Some are doing better than others, but they are all doing well. 

Charlotte and Lydia had asked me to meet them on the corner. So Brandon and I walked over toward the middle school.  The girls had a good first day, but they were tired. Lydia's eye was goopy and Charlotte was complaining of a sore throat. 

I didn't expect much out of them at all.  And they didn't go to Young Women's that night. 

Brandon didn't have a rehearsal on Wednesday.  Rehearsals are blocked out for Monday - Thursday evenings, but as an ensemble member he doesn't have to be there every night.  Tuesday night had been a singing rehearsal for just the men. Wednesday was for the women.  Thursday would be for the leads. 

Instead he worked on an RV, because that business is still happening.  

In fact, here's a fun story that happened on Friday, but I'll tell it now while I'm thinking about it. We've been getting a lot of mail that says, Twin Falls RV Guy on it.  Our checks, office supplies I ordered, business registration stuff, and even junk mail. 

Brandon was outside about the same time the mail man walked by.  The mailman stopped Brandon and said, "Are you the one with an RV business?"  They talked for a minute and the mailman asked if Brandon could come work on his awning. He even said, "if you have an RV business you'll always have work."  So yeah, business is going well. 

The kids were very tired so bedtime went really well.  Charlotte and Lydia both weren't feeling well, but I just assumed it was first day of school exhaustion. I gave them each an ibuprofen and figured that they'd feel better in the morning. 

And here we are at Thursday. A day that I thought would be full of cleaning my house while listening to podcasts followed by a few hours at work. 

Alas, it was not meant to be. 

When I went to wake Charlotte and Lydia up Charlotte said she couldn't breath.  Lydia said she couldn't see because both her eyes were completely goopy. 

I couldn't really worry about them yet because I had to get Derrick and Veronica off to school.  So I had the twins lay in my bed while I focused on Derrick and Veronica. I'd made sure that Derrick and Veronica had their school clothes in their drawers, but I'd neglected the baskets of their "regular" clothes that were on the laundry room table. Those baskets had their shorts.  So I was running from their rooms to the laundry room to find their clothes. It was rather stressful. I was vowing to myself that never again would we start a week of school without putting away laundry. 

I finally got Derrick and Veronica to school. Drop off went much faster this time.  I just said goodbye to them outside the school and they went inside. On my way back home I stopped by Liz's and let the chickens out. 

Then I went home and assessed Charlotte and Lydia.  The nice thing about Middle School starting later than elementary school is I have longer in the morning to figure out just how sick my kids are. With Elementary school I generally have 20-30 minutes to get the kids out of bed and ready for school. It's hard to make a judgement call about how sick someone is.  (My go to trick is to offer them hot chocolate. If they are just a little sick they will get up for the hot chocolate.  If they are super sick they won't.)

Anyway, with Middle School I have over an hour from the time the girls woke up to when I had to make a judgement call.  And a big clue was that neither twin had moved from my bed in the whole hour since they'd laid down there.  No one had been hungry. No one had thought, "oh I want to wear that cute new outfit."  They were still just laying there. 

We talked for a minute about how hard it would be to miss the real first day of school with all their teachers. But even that didn't convince the girls.  They were not feeling well. 

So I regretfully made the call to the school. The twins would be staying home.

I gave them each a COVID test that both came out negative.  (That's all we ever get in this family.) I told the girls they couldn't watch TV while they were home, they just needed to rest. They came in the livingroom and laid on the couches.   

This threw my whole day out of whack.  I'd been looking forward to a quiet house. Instead I had a two coughing and sniffling girls laying on the couches. 

I ended up giving up on the house and just going grocery shopping.  While I was shopping I bought a bunch of cold medicine. I was kicking myself for not giving the medicine to the girls the night before. 

Back at home the girls sat at the table and helped get things out of the shopping bags.  They were so tired they couldn't even stand up to help put away the groceries. 

I gave them a full dose of medicine and then went to work to get away from their sniffling. When I got home they were doing much better. Yep, should have done the medicine thing the night before.  But really, who has colds in August?

Here's the Ferris Wheel the worked on when they were feeling a little better. 

You can also see how ridiculously cluttered the basement had become. 

Derrick had just Occupational Therapy after school. (His speech therapist was out of town.) So I took him to that. 

Then I came home and chopped a bunch of green onions for the Relief Society Progressive Dinner that was happening that night. 

Because I totally needed one more thing right?

Actually it wasn't that bad.  I was literally only in charge of bringing chopped green onions, shredded coconut, and a dessert. I'd done the math in the Winco bakery and realized that a container of cookies there was worth like 15 minutes of work with what I get paid. I was like, "Yeah, there's no way I'm making a dessert today" so I bought the cookies.

The Progressive Dinner is always a really fun event in this ward.  They pick three houses that are in the same neighborhood so we just can walk from house to house. I had a blast talking to different people at each house. I was actually a better listener than I usually am.  I'm such a story teller that I like to talk at these kinds of things. (Plus I've had some pretty crazy things happen to me that make great stories.)  But I was so worn out from the week I didn't have the capacity to be a story teller. I just asked questions and listened to other people talk. I really should do that more. 

At the dessert house there was a group of moms with teenagers that didn't want to leave.  We didn't have to rush off to get littles into bed and we knew our bigger kids could get ready on their own.  (Also Brandon repeatedly tells me I get home too early from these things.  He's always like, "I would have had them in bed in 10 minutes, but you came home too early.")  So anyway, I had a blast hanging around for an extra 30 minutes or so with the other high school and middle school moms. 

When I did get home I wasn't home longer than 5 minutes when Lydia told me her ear hurt.  Part of me was like, "You have been home with your other parent this whole night - why didn't you tell him?"  And the other part of me went into nurse mode. 

We tried drops, we tried oils, we tried gum, we tried a hot pack, we tried brand new drops, and nothing was really working.  Finally after about an hour of trying everything I gave Lydia a melatonin pill and told her it would help her sleep through the pain. 

Brandon was still pretty alert and I was fading fast so I put Brandon in charge of Lydia and went to bed.  He helped her get propped up on the living room couch so hopefully that would help her ear drain.  

Around midnight I heard someone crying.  I thought it was Lydia so I went out to help her. Instead I found Brandon in the bathroom with Veronica.  Veronica was throwing up. Brandon said he had the situation under control and told me to go back to bed.  Which I did gratefully. 

On Friday morning I assessed the damage.  Brandon had been up late with Veronica and had slept most of the night with her in her bed. He was also starting to feel like he had a sore throat.  So he called into work sick. 

Veronica was feeling a little better. But she made sure I remembered the rule that said she had to stay home for 24 hours after throwing up. So she was staying home. 

Lydia had slept through most of the bathroom drama, but was still not feeling well. Her throat was swollen.  When I looked at it with the flashlight on my phone I saw a little white spot on her tonsils.  I was like, "Finally, a symptom I can justify going to the doctor with!"  I immediately called the doctors office and got her an appt for 11:00 that morning. 

Charlotte was feeling better again and proved it by riding her bike over to Liz's to take care of the chickens. So she was going to school. 

Derrick hadn't had a single symptom all week and so was going to school. He was also basically oblivious to all the sickness that had been going on at our house all week.

I took Derrick to school and then walked to school with Charlotte.  

When I got back Brandon told me, "Half the reason I'm home is to help you. So what do you need help with today?"  I told him that what I really wanted was uninterrupted time to actually get something done. I really wanted to just go out in the garden and weed while listening to a podcast. And so that's what I did. 

It was very therapeutic.

Brandon stayed in the house and cleaned out the big storage cupboard in the kitchen. 

I came in to check on Lydia (because it occurred to me I hadn't done much for her that morning other than make a doctors appt.  She was zonked on the couch.) So I went back outside and kept working without any Mom Guilt. 

Around 10:00 I came in and took a shower. I woke Lydia up at the last possible moment before we had to leave for her appt.  (She later told me that she didn't even remember putting on her shoes and socks.) And we went over to the doctors office. 

They got us into an exam room quickly and soon the doctor was talking to us about Lydia's symptoms.  She had a whole mixed bag.  Pink eye, ear ache, swollen throat, a little cough, fatigue.  He said it wasn't unheard of to have a cold virus at the same time as strep bacteria. He said we'd treat the bacteria and just let the virus run it's course. (That made me feel better about not taking her in for just the pink eye - there was nothing he could have done for it anyway.)

He finally got around to examining Lydia. The first place he looked was her ear. He said, "Yep, it looks like you have an ear infection with a ruptured eardrum. Did you feel things come out of your ear last night?" Lydia said she had, but that she'd assumed it was just the ear drops leaking out. He said, "I bet that was painful and you were crying."  She agreed. 

With the ear infection diagnosed we were for sure getting antibiotics.  We could have also done a strep test, but that didn't seem worth it at this point. I'd already felt vindicated by the ear infection diagnosis. 

We left and drove home.  We have to pass the Middle School to get home so I just stopped there and dropped off the doctors note. We could see Charlotte eating on the outdoor picnic benches. She looked very happy. 

I dropped Lydia off at home and then picked up the prescription at the pharmacy. I brought that home and gave it to her.  There's always such a feeling of accomplishment when I'm able to successfully get antibiotics for the kids when they are sick. 

After that I went to work.  But I noticed that I was a little "off." I was doing a report I do ever month, but it was taking me a lot longer than usual. I finished the report and then went home. I took a two hour nap. Brandon took care of meeting Derrick and then Charlotte after school. 

Veronica had had a physical therapy appt scheduled for 4:00 but we cancelled that. 

We didn't cancel the big event at 5:00 though.  

This was August 19th.  AKA the day we closed on the house three years ago. Three years is the longest Brandon and I have lived anywhere during out marriage. So I wanted to do something to celebrate.  

We'd decided that this would make a perfect day to schedule Brandon's second BASE Jump.  Yes, that's right.  He was going back for more. The guy who did the tandem jumps said that any second jump was half price.  And well that was a deal we couldn't pass up. 

So we scheduled the jump a few weeks ago. And we didn't cancel it.

At 5:00 we drove to the Twin Falls visitor center and met up with David Helton. He was working on packing the parachute. 

Here's the Perrine. It's so pretty. 

The kids ran around playing while Brandon and David got ready. 

Here they are with the bridge in the background. 

There's a statue of I.B. Perrine. He was a founding settler of Twin Falls.  The kids had fun playing around on the statue. 

Here's Charlotte posing with him.

And Veronica. 

She kept coming up with funny poses. 

This was the funniest of all.

Here are the kids relaxing on the grass.  This is quite adorable. 

Soon it was time to walk out onto the bridge.  David had someone built this platform that went above the railing. That way Brandon didn't have to climb over the railing. This actually made me think I might be comfortable jumping one day. 

Here's a view down into the canyon. 

Here they are up on the platform getting ready to turn around. I like the big metal chain attached to Brandon.  Seriously, I'm like 85% of the way toward wanting to jump myself. 

And suddenly they were turning around and about to jump.  I had the camera out and ready.  And then they just  . . . . jumped. 

This time I wasn't as shocked.  I don't have any crazy outbursts on the camera. It's funny how suddenly BASE jumping seems like a routine thing Brandon does. 

Here they are at the bottom.  They landed much softer this time.  Brandon did hurt the previous tailbone injury a little, bit it was nothing like the last time. 

David has worked out a deal with a tourist boat company that he can often catch a ride on the boat.  But that wasn't the case this time.  So he and Brandon had to walk out.  The kids and I drove down to the trail head. Then Derrick, Charlotte, and I hiked down to meet them.  Check out this view of the bridge. Gorgeous. 

We drove back up to the top and dropped David off at his truck.  He gave Brandon a shirt that said, "BASE jump the bridge: Do it because your mamma told you not to."

According to our original plan we were going to go eat at Golden Corral as another way to celebrate three years in Twin Falls.  But we didn't think that was wise given how sick some of the kids had been that day. 

So we just went home. (Well we stopped and smiths, and bought icecream and then we went home.)

We did start watching the Mandalorian.  The kids weren't too sure about most of the first episode, but they got really into it as soon as Baby Yoda showed up. We ended up watching 3 episodes. 

And now here we are at Saturday. 

I knew things were off for me when I woke up at 7:30.  I haven't slept in that late all summer.  Also I didn't immediately get up to turn on the sprinklers.  I haven't missed a watering day all summer either.

Brandon was also having a different morning that usual.  He woke up with gunky eyes - in both eyes. Uh Oh. 

Still we got up and tried to go about the day.  We didn't have much planned. I wanted to get the living room cleaned up (finally) and also clean the family room.  There was a Free community event happening at Dierkie's Lake that Derrick was really looking forward to. 

But it very quickly became apparent that I needed to lower my expectations for the day.  I was overseeing the kids clean up the living room and I had to lay down on the couch because I was so tired.  Then we went downstairs and everything just kept feeling harder and harder. I'd promised the kids ice cream if they helped clean.  But even the thought of scooping the ice cream into bowls felt impossible.  

Brandon was working on some sort of project in the garage I went out and found him and told him how I was feeling. He told me to go lay down in our room and he'd oversee the rest of the cleaning. 

I ended up falling asleep for three hours. And a good portion of my dreams were filled up with me dreaming about napping during church.  You know you are tired when even your dream self is sleeping.  

Even after I woke up I didn't feel ready to do anything.  It was like my brain was saying, "Nope, you have reaching your decision making quota for the rest of the week."  So I just laid in bed and watched silly youtube stuff.  (I highly recommend the "What if Harry Was in Slytherin" series happening over on Super Carlin Brothers.)

At some point I had the mental capacity to get online and order some storage containers I'd been planning to buy. I got ones to help Derrick keep his trains and hot wheels cars organized, and a big one for that will fit under the coffee table and hold all the legos. I've also wanted to freshen up the kids bathroom so I bought a new shower curtain and bath matt.  My logic was, "Well if I can't clean today, I can at least make it so I can clean when I am feeling better."

 

Brandon didn't feel like making dinner so we had Domino's Pizza for dinner.  Then we watched another three episodes of the Mandalorian. 

And look, here's the Ferris Wheel without a bunch of junk in the bathroom. 

On Sunday I was feeling better, but Brandon wasn't quite better yet. We decided it was best if we all stayed home from church.  Then Brandon decided to prove that point HARD.  He fell asleep around 9:30 AM slept right through our church time at 1:30 and didn't wake up until 4:00.

I was hanging out with Derrick in his room. I recently put a world map on the wall above his bed and he likes to look at it.  He noticed the country Egypt for the first time.  He said, "WAIT, EGYPT IS REAL?????"  It was so funny. 

He ran upstairs to try to get sleepy Brandon to come down and see Egypt.  Brandon was like, "I know Egypt is real." and fell back asleep. 

Derrick came back to me and we watched some Youtube videos about Egypt.  Derrick told me, "I thought Egypt was a story,"  So now he wants to go on a trip to Egypt. 

We had dinner after Brandon woke up and then we watched the last two episodes of The Mandalorian Season 1. The kids really enjoyed it.  I'd forgot a lot of the details of the show so it was fun to rewatch it.  

Derrick has been asking where R2D2 is and Veronica keeps asking where Luke is. I keep telling them that this is all happening far away from where Luke is.  (But they are going to loose their minds at the end of Season 2.)

And here we are at Sunday Night.  I'm feeling much better and I'm looking at an "easy" week.  Or at least one with less required PTO stuff. 

Brandon is kind of feeling better.  He's not sure how he'll feel when it's time for work tomorrow.  I'm curious if he'll sleep at all tonight. 

Charlotte is ready for school. She hasn't felt sick since Thursday afternoon. 

Lydia is also ready for school. The antibiotics have been working. She is a little nervous about missing two days during the first week of school. I told her she can always ask her teachers for help. And I also emailed her teachers to give them a heads up that she will probably want to ask for help but might be a little shy. 

Derrick is raring to get out of this house after two days stuck home with a bunch of lazy, sick people.  He was so disappointed that we couldn't go to Deirkie's Lake. Today he kept leaving the house to ride his bike up and down the street really fast so he could get some energy burned off. 

Veronica is also ready to go back to school. I think she realized that staying home isn't as fun as it seemed. 

So yeah, that's the first week of school for the 2022-23 school year.  Hopefully next week is a lot less eventful. 

Thanks for reading.