(Relatively) simple week

This was kind of a quiet week (relatively speaking) so this should be a quick post (relatively speaking). 

First off,  we need to look at a picture of something that I should have taken a picture of LAST year. 

Last spring Charlotte and Lydia participated in the "Healthy Soil, Healthy Life" art competition. I was in the middle of my own school so I didn't really pay attention to what this was exactly. It was a competition that was on the school level, but was also on the national level . . . somehow.  Really I had no idea what this was. 

Both girls drew posters.  Charlotte worked hard on hers, and I remember seeing it. But I never got a picture with it. She took it to school and turned it in. 

On the last day of school she got an envelope with $40 of cash and a note saying her poster had won for the school . . . or maybe it was the district. Either way it was going onto the next round. Which was State maybe? 

Anyway, we didn't get the poster back and we always kind of wondered what happened to it. 

Well a few weeks ago Veronica came out of the school holding the poster.  She said that someone had given it to her saying it belonged to Charlotte.  I guess it never made it past State or whatever. But it was good to finally see it. Since it had been a winning poster at some point so I made sure to get a poster frame for it. 

It's a really cute little picture.  The magnifying glass zooms in on a worm saying to an ant, "Pardon me, but this soil is really healthy."  And the ant says, "Yeah!."

Lydia was really creative this week.  She's had a sheet on her bed that had little dogs on the top and some argyle patterns on the bottom. It's been her sheet for like 2 years or something. It sadly ripped a few weeks ago.  Lydia took the sheet and cut it into squares then she started hand sewing them into a quilt. Here she is comparing it to another quilt to see if she was happy with the size. 

Shortly after I took this picture she asked me to get out the sewing machine.  She used the machine to do the last few rows. 

On Monday we went to Joanne's after school and picked out some batting and some fabric for the back. Then we came home and I showed Lydia how to sew it all together.  Here's the front. 

And the back. 

And both together. Lydia was so proud of her work. 

Here's some funny stuff the kids did with Marcia. 

I really don't give that do enough credit for her patience. 

Let's see, what else has been going on that I don't have pictures of. 

On Monday I had PTO meeting at 7:30. I didn't make it to the meeting until 7:50.  I'd put on the agenda that we need to discuss a new meeting time for next year.  I walked in right when we were discussing that.  I was like, "We'll obviously this time barely works for me this year.  But I won't work for me at all next year."  That's because next year I'll have three kids at the Middle School. Charlotte and Lydia are good about getting themselves ready. My friend Kaymie gives them a ride with her middle schooler.  But next year she wont have anyone in Middle School. And I don't exactly trust Derrick to get himself ready for school.  So yeah the time will not work next year. 

I went to work for a bit and then came home and went to my second board meeting of the day.  It was a over zoom. It was my first board meeting for Idaho Parents Unlimited.  Mostly I just had to be there and listen. But it was great to be apart of it. 

Monday night was the only night that Brandon, Charlotte, and Lydia had rehearsal all week. They worked on the "76 Trombones" song. They marched and marched and marched.  The girls said their muscles were so sore. 

On Tuesday I hung out with PTO Liz for the first time in a really really really long time. We went for a walk on the canyon rim. It was so good to catch up with her.  I've missed working with her in PTO. We had a really good synergy that I haven't been able to duplicate with the new PTO presidents this year. 

After school I took Veronica to her first tutoring session. It was simple and yet hard. One of the things she needs to practice is following a pencil with her eyes.  She could only do that a little bit before her eyes got tired. 

The program she is in works hard on doing things called Cross Meridians. They want her moving her body in ways that she's not used to.  So she needs to do things like do a jumping jack and clapping her hands over her head. It was super hard for her to do. 

She also had to work on looking at letters or pictures and then remembering what she saw when she looked away.  

The whole thing only took about 30 minutes, but by the end you could tell that Veronica had been pushed super hard.  This was all stuff that was new to her. 

One of the things that I like about this program is that we are expected the practice the things at home. AND they gave me the tools to do that.  Her tutor gave us a bag full of everything we'd need to practice at home just like she'd do it at the lesson. She also gave me paper to take notes on and a chart to keep track of the days we practiced. 

I've been taking my kids to various forms of therapy for 9 years.  NO ONE has ever given me a chart to keep track of things at home. They probably all should have because I LOVE marking off charts. 

When we got home from tutoring it was time for Derrick to go to Boys Activity.  Brandon took him and then hung out in the lobby while Derrick went to the activity on his own.  At one point they made paper airplanes and flew them.  Derrick's went the farthest and the leader said he'd bring him a prize on Sunday. Derrick looked forward to that all week. I kept saying, "He better remember that prize or he'll never hear the end of it."  I was very relieved when Derrick did get that prize today at church. (It was a big airhead candy.)

At some point on Monday or Tuesday I tried to dry a load of laundry and I realized the dryer drum had stopped turning.  Brandon took a look at it on Wednesday after work. There was something wrong with a pully and quite possibly the motor was having problems too. He said, "I could fix it. But I think it's time we buy a new machine."  This was super sad because that dryer has been a constant fixture of my life for 15 years. But it was also time. 

So Brandon ordered a new dryer and then took the old one out. I felt like I'd lost a good friend. 

Derrick went to therapy with Mr Mark. Mr Mark had promised Derrick that's he'd bring his metal detector and they'd look for treasure.  All week Derrick had been telling me elaborate stories about how he'd find a treasure chest full of coins and gems. He'd donate it to a museum and we'd all be rich. He told me this story OVER and OVER and OVER. It was ALL he talked about. 

Well, unfortunately the metal detector only worked for a few minutes. Derrick was pretty disappointed when he came home. 

During the day on Wednesday I went to the library and picked up some new books.  I had two big books come in at the same time.  This is always such a good problem to have. 

I couldn't start either book that evening though because I was going to the Young Women activity with Charlotte and Lydia.  It was a stake activity and the girls were encouraged to bring their moms. 

I imagined a night where we'd get to talk together. Maybe we'd talk about ways I could support them in their goals.  Maybe we'd talk about things we could do to increase the spirit in our homes. Maybe we'd just do fun activities together. 

Anyway, I was looking forward to this night and I was happy that their rehearsal schedule lined up so they were available to go. 

When we got to the church we could tell the leaders had put a lot of effort into the night. We passed rooms that were decorated with strings of lights and lots of fabric. The Chapel had a beautiful balloon decoration hanging over the door. 

The girls were given handouts that included I-Tune gift cards. I was like, "Oh this is going to be very nice."

And it started out nice. We recited the Young Women's theme, we watched a video with the Youth Theme for the year, the female leaders said encouraging things.  

Then we were told that we'd be split up for the rest of the meeting.  The girls would be in 4 groups and would rotate throughout the building. The moms would be in the cultural hall for a presentation. I was like, "Wait! I thought I was here to spend time with my daughters?"

Still, I was hopeful this would be a good experience.  I told the girls to go with their group and I went into the cultural hall. I was disappointed that I couldn't be with my girls, but I was like, "Hey there are 100 other women here. This could be a really cool presentation."

It wasn't. 

I spent most of the time trying to figure out what the point of the presentation/discussion was. I think it boiled down to "Our girls are in a scary world. So we need to be there for them."  And I was like, "That's what I was trying to do tonight. But you separated me from my girls.  I would have been better served staying home and doing a puzzle with them."

Charlotte and Lydia's part of the evening didn't go much better.  At one point all the girls were invited to sit quietly and just think and feel the spirit. I'm sorry, but that's NOT how you get 12 year old girls - especially ones related to me - to feel the spirit. 

We were finally all brought back into the chapel. Charlotte and Lydia were like, "Can we just go?"  And so we snuck out as the final speaker was talking. We stopped in the cultural hall and grabbed cupcakes and bolted for the door. 

When we got home Brandon asked how it was.  The best analogy I could come up with was so say, "It's like we went to what looked like a fancy feast and were served white bread."

I don't think any of us will go to any more stake Young Women activities. 

On Thursday we got the new Dryer. I was sad to say goodbye to the other one, but it's good to have a new one.  It's also more efficient. The old one was starting to take 80 minutes to dry things.  This one can do a regular load in 40 minutes. 

Friday was an odd day. I usually wake up with Brandon when he wakes up at 5:00. Sometimes I stay awake, and other times I roll over and go back to sleep.  But on Friday I was completely out. I didn't wake up until my 6:30 alarm went off. 

I was still pretty groggy when it was time to get the kids up at 7:00. When I did get everyone up I was kind of laid back about it. I was like, "I'm driving everybody so we have time."  Derrick and Veronica weren't ready for school until 7:55.School starts at 8:00, but I wasn't worried.  I was like, "You still have til 8:05 when the tardy bell rings. You'll be fine."  

And then I couldn't find my van key.  Brandon had taken the van to pick up the dryer.  We only have one van key so he'd taken it off my key ring. He'd put it back into my purse, but not onto the key ring. 

So when I pulled my key ring out and couldn't find the van key I assumed Brandon still had the key. 

I told Derrick and Veronica we'd need to walk.  So we hurried out the door. We live really close to the school and we took a little short cut so Derrick and Veronica were at the school right as the tardy bell rang. This was a good reminder that we should probably be walking to school every day again. 

Charlotte and Lydia got ready so we'd be ready to walk together when I came home. In theory they could have got a ride with Kaymie, but I had to go to work too. And really the middle school is not that far away anyway. It's like a 10 minute walk.  So we were going to just walk together and then I'd head to work and they'd cross the street to the middle school. 

Well right before we left, I reached into my purse and found the van key.  So we drove. 

I dropped the girls off and got ready to make a left hand turn to head to work. Right as I pushed on the gas pedal the car went CACHUG and seemed to lose power. The battery warning light came on on the dash board. I still had some power so I was able to slowly pull into the correct lane and then keep driving to work.  The power seemed to amp back up as I drove and by the time I got to work 2 minutes later everything seemed back to normal. 

That battery warning light was still on though.  I wished that I had an owners manual for the van. But then I remembered I had google.  So I googled, "Battery Warning light for 2008 Honda Odyssey." Based on the results I was pretty certain something was wrong with the alternator. 

So I texted Brandon and told him to plan to look at it later. 

Then I just kind of forgot about it and went into work. 

At 11:00 I needed to be at the church for a ministering interview.  So I went out to the car and started it. It started fine but when I tried to go in reverse it did the CACHUG sound again and didn't seem to have any power to back up.  I tried again and the car moved slightly.  It backed up while shuttering and saying CACHUG, CACHUG, CACHUG. Then I moved into drive and it pulled forward slowly while still CACHUGING. 

After a bit it smoothed out a bit and started driving like normal.  But I was like, "NOPE, not driving this to the church."  So I drove it home.  I texted my ministering companion and told her to call me and put me on speaker phone for the interview. 

I had one other thing going on that day that I'd need the car for. A lady in my ward had planned a big lunch group thing at La Fiesta.  I knew my neighbors were planning to go so I texted them to see if I could get a ride.  They said yes. 

Lunch wasn't until 1:30 so I just kind of hung around the house. First I took care of paying a bill that had accidently turned into a saga.  I'd paid the bill for my foot appointment on Wednesday.  But as soon as I hit submit I was like, "SHOOT, I meant to pay that with the HSA card."  I'd paid it with my regular debit card.  

So I'd had to call the doctors office and have them reverse the charge.  They reversed it on Thursday. 

And I paid it again with the HSA card on Friday. 

Moral of the story don't try to pay bills while listening to a podcast. 

I took a little nap and was woken up by a phone call. It was from one of the counseling offices that I'd put Veronica on the waitlist for.  They had an opening. It wasn't with one of the counselors my boss had recommended, but at this point I was just happy for an opening.  I was able to get an appointment scheduled for the next week. I felt pretty victorious. I'd started looking for a counselor for Veronica on Monday  the 16th and she had an appointment scheduled on Friday the 27th. Whew!

Lunch was super fun. It's been a while since I went out to eat with a bunch of ladies.  We had fun talking and sharing stories. I ordered a taco salad. It came in a HUGE taco bowl.  It was great!  

When Brandon was home from work he went outside to look at the Honda.  (Oh funny story.  We've really struggled to keep track of which car we are talking about since both of them are Hondas.  The other day Brandon was trying to say "The Red Honda" but it came out "The Rhonda."  That's my mom's name and so we laughed a lot and then decided it was actually a good name. So occasionally we'll call the Pilot "The Rhonda" and the Silver Odyssey "The Shonda."

So anyway, we were looking at The Shonda. Brandon showed me how to use his multimeter to check the voltage on the battery. It was at 10 volts. He explained that it should have been at 12 volts. Then we turned on the car and the voltage went down from 10.  Brandon said it should have gone up.  He said. "Yep, you're right. The alternator isn't working. If it was working the battery would be charging."

So thank you google. 

He showed me how to use his battery charger and we hooked it up to the battery to get it charged again.  Brandon said, "I'll move this into the garage and fix it tomorrow."

We were all pretty pooped from the week. So after dinner the only thing any of us wanted to do was watch a movie.  We watched Matilda the Musical. It was cute. 

When it was over none of us were tired so we decided to watch Spider Man 3. We'd watched Spiderman 2 the weekend before. I'd reserved the 3rd one from the library - thinking that it would take a long time to come in. But it came in pretty much right away.  

So we watched that. I haven't seen it since Brandon and I watched it in the theatre on our Honeymoon. I'd been very disappointed by that movie and never saw a Spiderman in the theatre again until Far From Home came out. 

The movie actually isn't half bad. It's biggest weakness is that all the marketing sold it as a Venom movie.  But the story has 2 other villains in the story. Peter doesn't even put on the black suit until one hour into the movie. 

Derrick was so into the movie. He kept saying, "Spiderman. You like the RED suit. Put the red suit back on right now."

The movie ended a little before 11:00 and we all went to bed. 

On Saturday we slept in. That was nice.  We didn't have much planned.  Mostly just clean the house.  I took care of cleaning the house with the kids while Brandon worked on the Shonda. 

 

I mainly focused on Veronica's room.  She'd still having trouble falling asleep at night. I wanted to see if she'd sleep better in a clean room.  So I spent like 2 hours on the room. We ended up throwing away a whole garbage bag of stuff. And taking a huge box of toys down to the basement.  

Here's an after picture of her room.

We put her cage at the foot of her bed. There had been a little desk here, but she wasn't using it so I put it in the basement and moved the cage over there. 

Veronica loves this thing so much.  And as you can see, she could easily get out of it.  So please don't call CPS on us. 

Last week Brandon made this sign for her. 

Charlotte and Lydia also spent a lot of time on their room.  They even went and got the ladder so they could put their dragon kit up on the ceiling. 

Derrick had been kind of left on his own while I was working in Veronica's room. I thought that he'd be begging to watch TV or something.  But really he was Mr Self Starter.  He cleaned his room, then picked up the blankets and dishes on the Family Room floor. Then he came up stairs and vacuumed the living room.  And finally he did his bathroom job- mirror and tub. 

When he was all done I gave him a dollar because we are rewarding the heck out of that behavior. 

We ran some errands together and he had $5.  So we went to Smiths and he bought a big package of double bubble gum and a Pepsi. 

Back at home Brandon was able to get the alternator out pretty easily and then replace it with a new one. Here he is putting the washer fluid tank back on.  

You can kind of see the new alternator in this picture.  It's the shiny part at the bottom of the belt. 

As far as car repairs go, I'm glad it was "just" the alternator.  Brandon was able to get it all fixed within 5 hours. I love Brandon for many reasons, but the fact that he can fix almost anything is a big reason. 

We spent the rest of the day just kind of doing nothing.  He's Brandon and the girls lounging on the couch. 

He was tickling them and being silly.  It was fun to have nothing planned. 

The day had started out warmish- but by evening a storm had blown in. Brandon and I had been tentatively planning on going on a date.  But we didn't really want to go anywhere.  So we just went out to the garage.  The kids watched movies in the house and we hung out in the garage eating cookies and talking. 

We are planning to take down the ceiling and insulation in the garage this spring.  So we planned out that. Then we watched the movie, "Ticket to Paradise" with Julia Roberts and George Clooney on Peacock. I kind of had 0 expectations for the movie, but it was really cute.  I smiled and laughed at the movie a lot more than I thought I would. 

We went back into the house and got everyone into bed.  I love the weekends when we go and do a lot, but I also really like the ones where we just stay home and relax. 

Anyway, that's the end of this (relatively) simple week. 

Thanks for reading.