Five days that felt like a month

I know what you are thinking. Valerie, it's Thursday. Why are you updating your blog on Thursday. Didn't you just update your blog like 5 days ago?

Yes, I did just drop a blog update.  But A LOT has happened in the last 5 days.  Nothing earth shattering or really that important.  But still A LOT of stuff happened.  

And I want to write about it all now because I'm leaving for a leadership retreat this afternoon.  That's going to be A LOT too and when I get back from that I'll probably have forgotten all about these five crazy days. 

So let's talk about these last few days.  

Sunday itself was really relaxing.  I wrote by blog post while listening to Stake Conference.  Charlotte organized her crayons by color while she listened. 

Doesn't that look cool.

Stake Conference was over at 12:00 which is a whole hour and a half earlier than our Sacrament Meeting usually even starts so we had a whole afternoon of nothing to do.  It was kind of strange. 

The kids played and I read a lot. I finished the book Faith After Doubt by Brian McLaren. This was a super good book. I'd heard about it from the At Last She Said It podcast, and had reserved it at the library.  It took a while to come in and when it did I was like, "hmmmm, do I even want to read this book?"  It felt like a big commitment to read the book. I thought I'd have to like actually work on confronting my doubts.  It took me several weeks to decide to open it. And when I did I realized it a better title would be "Faith DURING Doubt."  This book was all about how doubt was normal. I found it very validating. 

I also did my Systematic Theology Bible Study Reading.  We are on to Angelology - the study of Angels.  I already knew I couldn't make it to Bible Study on Monday morning, but I wanted to keep up with the study.  It was really good reading.  I also realized it was probably okay to skip this class.  I could just picture us having a discussion about who Michael is and I'd blurt out, "oh, he's Adam."  And that would just get weird really fast.  (Same with Gabriel/Noah.)  Yep, it was better if me and my LDS theology sat this one out. 

After dinner we all hung out in our back yard.  The weather has cooled off enough that our back yard is pleasant again. Derrick had started digging a hole on Saturday evening.  Charlotte had snuck some fake gold coins into the dirt and Derrick was suddenly OBSESSED with digging for treasure.  And then he realized how fun it was to just dig. 

It made me glad that I haven't quite figured out the final layout of this area.  He could did all he wanted and I didn't have to worry about him messing anythingup.

He was really happy about it.

Charlotte had put her little building project up into the tree and I'd been meaning to get a picture of it all week.  We finally did that. 

She was quite happy with it.  

Lydia's was also done.  They put it into the tree after I took this picture. 

The kids all took baths and then we finished the last two episodes of Season Two of the Mandalorian.  As predicted Derrick and Veronica were super excited by the last part of the last episode.

Monday was a LONG day.  I had decision fatigue by the end of the day.  Here's the run down of what we did. 

First off, I didn't sleep well. I was awake in the middle of the night for something like 3 hours.  It was AWFUL.  I usually sleep well so when I don't it's really hard for me.  Brandon never sleeps well so he was like, "that's normal for me."  So keep in mind I was doing all this on very little sleep. 

The jeep was still in Utah so Brandon and I were sharing a car. We were supposed to get up around 5:30 and take him to work. But somehow neither of our alarms went off.  He woke up at 6:30 and was like, "Shoot."  So he hurried and got ready and I took him to work. 

I came home and got the kids up for school.  I had a PTO presidency meeting at 8:00 at the school.  So I stayed at the school after I walked over with Derrick and Veronica. (Charlotte and Lydia took care of getting themselves off to Middle School.)

I was the first one there so I did math on my sticky note to figure out our sales tax for this quarter. (I took the picture because I was worried about loosing the sticky note.)

This was our first meeting as a Presidency.  It was kind of the meeting where I handed the reigns to the co-presidents. I had a bunch of things we needed to discuss. We set goals for the year.  Decided what we'd like to raise money for (a new sound system.)  And then discussed our ongoing projects.  It was great!

But wow, it was not easy doing all that on a few hours of sleep. 

I went home and took care of some of my action items from the meeting. 

Then I had to run over to work and do stuff there.  Work is pretty routine for me so I didn't do anything hard, but I still had to do stuff and make decisions on a small amount of sleep.

And then it was time to pick up Derrick and Veronica.  One of the ladies I minister too had asked me to give her kids a ride home.  So her three kids walked home with us and then I drove them home.  After I dropped them off I went to pick up Brandon at work. 

I was able to sneak in a little nap after we came home, but it was not long enough.  

Somehow I had triple booked myself for that afternoon.  Charlotte and Lydia had an orthodontist appt at 3:30. Veronica had a Physical Therapy appt at 4:00. And I'd scheduled a phone call with Derrick's school occupational therapist for 4:00 as well.

Right before I left Brandon got a call from the Mechanic in Utah who had been working on the jeep. They'd found the problem.  It was a computer board.  It would be $1200 in parts and labor to fix the jeep.  Brandon was on the phone with the guy and trying to talk to me about what we should do.  I was like, "Tell him you'll call him back."  We did NOT need to have that conversation when we were pressed for time. 

I told Brandon to look up the part and see if he could get it and fix it himself. (I was pretty certain he could.  Computer boards are what he spends half his time replacing at his real job.) 

I took the girls to the orthodontist and had that appt.  We've been meeting with the orthodontist for a while and every time he's like, "We are getting closer to being ready."  This time he was like, "I think it's time."  So I scheduled the appts for Charlotte and Lydia to begin the process to get braces.  I also got the financing paperwork.  I've been preparing for this. We have been saving and I now the money will all work out, but braces are still so expensive. It's a lot to process. (Especially on top of car trouble.)

That appt ended at 3:55 and we drove across the street for Veronica's Physical Therapy Appt.  I went in with her and Charlotte and Lydia stayed in the car.  After Veronica was started with her therapy I got on the phone with Mr Trevor and had a 20 minute conversation with him about Derrick's Occupational Therapy progress.  It was a good call, but the whole time I had a little voice in my head saying, "how are you still functioning?"

After the call I took Charlotte and Lydia home and then went back to get Veronica.  I probably should have just taken them all home at the same time, but Lydia's lego dragon had shown up in the mail and she was antsy to work on that. 

When I got home Brandon had looked up the jeep part.  He could get it for $200. And the online forums said it was a pretty easy part to replace. So he started working on getting the jeep towed from the shop in Brigham City to his parents house. 

He was also trying to figure out what to say to a client that he was going to have to turn down.  He'd agreed to do what he'd thought was a simple solar panel installation project with RV solar panels. But it turned out to be house solar panels. He'd still been interested in the project, but as he researched it he realized he was not qualified.  He felt really bad about turning the client away.  I felt bad too, but I was more practical. I was like, "If you aren't qualified, that a huge liability problem for us.  Don't take the job."  So I helped him word what to say. 

Brandon and Derrick had made pizza for dinner so we had that.  Then Brandon went to his play rehearsal while I stayed home with the kids.  We read City of Ember. Derrick and Veronica were kind of wild so I stopped reading and let them horse around for about half an hour.  

Here's a picture of Derrick and Veronica nonsense. 

Here's Lydia's dragon. 

I read to the kids a little bit more and then it was bed time.  Well for everyone except Lydia.  She still had homework to do.  So she stayed up. I worked on updating my budget spreadsheet.  I've had it set up the same way for 3 years and it's worked super well.  But with the braces (and the new car that's probably going to be needed sooner than later) I needed to tweak a few things.  So I changed the spreadsheet.  

Brandon came home from rehearsal.  Lydia went to bed.  And so did I. 

I thought I'd sleep well after such a long day.  But NO. It was another night of insomnia.  I tried sleeping on the couch for a while and that helped a little, but not much. 

I was super grumpy when I took Brandon to work that morning.  I told him, "I'm sorry, I'm just so tired."

I got the kids ready for school and as soon as Charlotte and Lydia were out the door I went back to bed. I slept until 10:00.  It was WONDERFUL.  I felt so much better.  I got up and just sat on the couch for a long time. 

Then I got ready for work and was there around 11:30 to get ready for our Admin Meeting at 12:00.  It was such a great meeting.  It's been awhile since all of us could attend the meeting so we had a lot to discuss. 

While I was in the meeting I got a call from the Elementary school. I pushed Ignore and said, "I hope I don't regret that later."  When the meeting was over I checked my voicemail. Whenever I get calls like this I'm always like, "Is it a PTO thing or a Derrick thing."  This time it was a Veronica thing.  She'd been stung by a bee at recess.  I called the school and the front desk lady assured me Veronica was fine.  Just a little shaken up. 

(And Veronica was fine, but she also LOVES to tell the story to anyone who will listen.)

I'd been planning to go grocery shopping after the meeting, but I had to take care of some things and then all of a sudden it was 2:00 and time to pick up Brandon.  So I picked him up and dropped him off at home. He'd take care of picking up Derrick and Veronica. I went to the store and bought food. When I came home everyone helped me put it away. 

Brandon had to go check out an RV for the Base Jump the Bridge Guy.  And the rest of us STAYED HOME AND DID NOTHING.  It was glorious. I even changed into pajamas as a reminder that we had no where to be that afternoon. 

After dinner Brandon went to rehearsal and the kids and I hung out in the back yard again. Here are Charlotte and Lydia discovering the ripe raspberries. 

They also ran around with Marcia. 

Derrick worked on his hole some more. 

The kids discovered mice running around the wood pile so they had fun spotting them.  I told them NOT to touch them and they listened to me. 

This was quite entertaining. 

Then we went inside and read more of City of Ember.  We are loving that book.

I slept better Tuesday night, but it still wasn't great.  Fortunately I didn't have to get up to take Brandon to work.  I didn't need the car so I said he could have it all day. 

I stayed home and canned crushed tomatoes. I think they worked. 

Canning didn't take near as long as I thought it would so I had time to sit down with the finances for the RV Guy business.  I've been sort of tracking things, but I've needed to build a better spreadsheet to really keep track of our revenue and expenses.  So I spent several hours working on that. 

When it was all done I was pretty certain it should balance to the bank account. But I was off by $63 and some cents.  I realized that was the amount of a part Brandon bought for a client that we haven't been reimbursed for yet. Somehow I did have the receipt in my book.  I'm glad I was able to track that down. 

Then I went to work and covered the front desk from 2:30 to 6:00. It was another "Receptionist Appreciation Day."  The phone rang so much and each call for for a completely different reason. 

Brandon took care of taking Veronica to Physical therapy and then to Girls activity and then picking me up from work and taking me to the bank.  I think he was feeling the way I had on Monday. 

Oh and he'd been able to pay the mechanic for the diagnostic service and then had the jeep towed to his parents.  He'll get it fixed next time we go down there.  

He had rehearsal and I stayed home and read with the kids.  

Last night ended up being another rough night of sleep for me. I don't know what is wrong, but it needs to get fixed.  I don't know how Brandon functions with little sleep. 

And now we are on to Thursday. Today is the day I get to go to a Leadership Retreat.  I'll tell you all about it when I'm back.  

Thanks for reading.