Birthday/Valentines Day 2023

The last two weeks have been really nice.  I'm finding a new slower paced rhythm of my life that allows me some breathing room. I'm getting better at thinking things like, "that's not a necessary thing to add to my life right now." It's been good for me. 

The last two weeks have also had some special days. My birthday - which always sneaks up on me. And Valentine's Day - which I always look forward to. 

 So let's dive into this recap. 

Monday February 6th was the day before my birthday. It also was kind of a terrible day. I woke up with a headache and just felt tired all day. I felt like I dragged myself through work. The worst part of the day was that I'd helped put together a parent meet and greet for Idaho Parents Unlimited. I'd scheduled the library and helped spread the word. Idaho Parent's Unlimited would have staff at the library from 3-7 to talk to parents. 

In theory it was a good idea. But all day I was so nervous about it. I felt like I didn't advertise it well enough and Sarah from IPUL would have wasted her time coming down. I also worried something would go wrong with the library reservation. I also worried about how much time I'd be able to spend at the event. I'd thought I'd stay from about 3 to 5, but given how I was feeling I wondered if I'd last until 3:30. 

I dragged myself over to the library at 3:00 and found Sarah finishing setting up in the meeting room.  So the reservation had all worked out. 

She and I have talked a lot online over the years, but never actually in person.  (Though I didn't realize that at the time.)  She asked me how I was doing and I said, "I'm a close approximation of a functioning adult." She laughed. 

We talked for a while and then ANOTHER parent showed up. It was a mom who had just heard about IPUL.  She said, "I feel like you set up this event just for me."  Oh that made me feel good. 

I stuck around and helped Sarah fill that mom in on what IPUL does and how they can help her. I was able to stay until 4:00. Before I left a husband and wife showed up.  They said they'd just moved to Idaho that week and were curious what services were available for their son. 

Later my friend Renee (who is also a fellow IPUL board member) messaged me. She had been at the meet and greet toward the end.  She said that 9 parents had come in. I'm so glad that there were people who found the event helpful. 

I'm also glad I can cross it off my to do list for the year. 

That evening Brandon and the twins had rehearsal. I just let Derrick and Veronica watch movies. I think I went to bed soon after I put them to bed. 

Tuesday was a much better day.  It was my birthday!!!!  And I was taking the whole day off of work. 

I had two goals for the day. 1. Stay in bed as much as possible. And 2. Go thrift shopping. 

But I also had a problem. I didn't have a working car. The van door was still stuck open.  Brandon had ordered the part, but it wouldn't be there until later in the day. 

The night before I'd told Brandon. "I want to stay in bed as much as possible, but I also want to go thrift shopping. But I can't go thrift shopping without a car. And I can't have a car without taking you to work early in the morning and that makes it so I have to get out of bed which violates the first goal."

I was saying this kind of as a joke. But Brandon knew that I'd had a rough day on Monday and he wanted me to have a relaxing day on my birthday. 

So he got up early and walked to work. His work is only about a mile away so it's not exactly far. But the route doesn't have great sidewalks. Plus it was 5:30 and dark. But he did it anyway. 

I woke up to a text message saying he wanted me to have the car and be able to sleep and that he hoped I'd have a happy birthday. 

I really married the best guy in the world. 

So I stayed in bed until 7:00 when I had to get up and get the kids ready for school. I dropped them all off and then went right back home and right back into bed. I wasn't really sleepy so I just finished the blog post I'd been working on about the week before. 

Eventually I got up and took a long shower. And had a nice lunch. And then I went to DI and thrift shopped my heart out.  I FILLED at cart with so many clothes and then just wheeled the whole thing into a changing stall and tried everything on. I left with three new pairs of pants, three shorts (I was thinking long term with this trip), a jacket, a pink shirt, a green shirt, and like 6 grey shirts. I've decided to embrace my love for grey so I'd tried on about 15 grey shirts and kept the best ones.  

Lydia called me as I was putting everything into the car.  She wasn't feeling well and wanted me to pick her up. I was already planning to pick up Brandon so I just went to get Lydia first and then picked up Brandon. 

I'd already bought everything to have rootbeer floats that evening, but I'd been craving one all day.  So when the three of us were home we got out the ice cream and root beer and had floats.  Then I got back into bed and enjoyed being there.

I did get up again at 4:00 so I could take Veronica to her tutoring appointment. I'm really happy with how that program is going.   

Brandon made a 7 layer dip and we had that for dinner. 

I took this picture of Derrick's latest hobby.  He learned how to make paper airplanes at boys activity a few weeks ago and now he's constantly folding airplanes and throwing them. The girls were complaining that he was wasting paper.  I told them, "When you were learning to draw you used up so much paper. Now it's Derrick's turn."

After dinner we opened presents.  I showed off all the clothes I'd bought myself. (That's all I wanted for my birthday.)

My mother in law had sent me a package. It had a notebook with a beautiful hand stitched cover on it. 

Here's the back.

I also had an unexpected present show up. I've wanted more storage bins. But I haven't been able to find the size I like at Walmart. I tried to order one online, but the best deal was actually to order a set of 8. That seemed like a lot - but I could also think of about 8 uses for storage bins.  So I'd ordered them.  They happened to show up on my birthday. The kids were kind of disappointed to see what was inside the big box. 

Brandon went to get the rootbeer floats ready. Derrick and Veronica put on a parade of sorts.  Veronica blew on a noise maker while Derrick banged on a drum. It was cute.

Here are the root beer floats. They were so good.  And so much easier than cake. 

Brandon and the girls had rehearsal so they left around 7:30. I hung out with Derrick and Veronica and then put them to bed. 

Oh and at some point during the day the van door part showed up and Brandon was able to get the door to open and shut again.  But something had been pulling power off the battery. So it was dead. Brandon put the charger on it and left it on overnight. 

It had been a great day. And I was feeling so relaxed.  I started making plans for taking more Tuesday's off of work. 

We all had to walk again on Wednesday, but I'd been expecting that so it wasn't a big deal. Brandon came home at 1:40 and then I took the car to pick Veronica up from school and took her to her first therapy appointment. I was kind of hoping for some magic moment where everything would be fixed all at once. But I also knew that probably wouldn't happen. Mostly Veronica and Rachel got to know each other. Rachel took Veronica on a tour of the building and showed her the different rooms.  I was trying to give them space so I didn't go, but apparently there is an art room and a play room and a snack station.

When we were done with therapy we went to Walmart and picked out things for the little Valentine's Day party we do every year.  Veronica had so much fun picking things out.  We couldn't find a few things so we went to Smiths to get pink M&M's and conversation hearts. 

Derrick had asked if he could just walk home by himself so I said he could. Brandon was there when he got home.  Then Mr. Mark picked Derrick up for Behavioral Therapy a little while later. 

When I got home I got a message from Derrick's special needs teacher asking me if I could go with Derrick on a field trip to a concert at the college on Friday.  Then his main teacher sent me a message asking the same thing.  I was like, "YES!"  I'd asked them about two weeks earlier if they needed me to go, but they'd said something like, "Well we don't normally have room for parents, but we'll get back to you."

A little while later I got a phone call from the school principal. She asked me if Derrick had said anything about what happened after school.  I was like, "I haven't even seen him yet today."  I checked with Brandon and he said that Brandon hadn't said anything.  Then the Principal told me that Derrick had got in a fight after school.  From the security camera footage she saw she said it looked like other boys were egging Derrick on to fight.  Derrick wasn't in trouble exactly, but they wanted us to come onto school property to pick him up after school. 

I was like, "OHHHH that's why there was suddenly room for me on the field trip."  But I didn't say that. 

Anyway, we got a lot of things figured out, but the details aren't too important for here. 

The van battery was charged and so I had a working car again on Thursday.  It was good to have my van back. 

Thursday was a small shopping day so I didn't have to spend the whole morning grocery shopping.  I don't really remember what I did that morning. 

That evening I took Derrick to Occupational Therapy.  Then I dropped him off at home and went to the church to make an appearance at a Relief Society dinner. The activity started at 6:00, but I couldn't make it there until 6:30. And I had to leave at 7:15. So I couldn't really help with the activity. But I still wanted to go. 

I had a great time and the food was wonderful. I loved talking with the people around me. When I left someone told me to take some brownies home to my family. I said, "Heck no, I don't want my family to know that good things happen in Relief Society.  As far as they are concerned NOTHING special happens here." 

I got home just in time for Brandon and the girls to go to rehearsal. 

As I put Derrick to bed that night he kept telling me that he didn't want to go to the field trip. I really wanted to go and I really wanted him to go. So we talked through the whole thing. 

But then at 2:00 that morning Derrick appeared at my bedside and told me he was sick. I didn't want to wake Brandon up so we went in the living room.  Derrick laid on one couch and I laid on the other.  I had a hard time going back to sleep. When I thought he was asleep he actually got up and ran to the bathroom.  Right as he did that Veronica came out of her room.  

Derrick was sick and Veronica was nervous and none of us slept well and so in the morning no one went to the elementary school. So no field trip 

I did get Charlotte and Lydia off to middle school.  Then I stopped at my office and picked up a couple folders. I told my co-workers, "my kids are home from school today so I'm going to work from home."

I went home and went back to bed. I slept until 10:00 and then started working. 

I actually got a lot done. Sometimes when I'm at work I wish I could go home and take a nap.  But this time I already was home and I'd already had a nap. I'd been planning to be on the field trip so I had nothing else planned. I just worked and worked and worked. I got a lot done. 

Around 2:00 I took my binders back to work. There were some checks in the mail so I stayed and processed those and then took them to the bank.  

After that I had NOTHING!!!! I was done for the week. 

Brandon had plans with the twins to go winter camping. 

They'd already packed so when Charlotte and Lydia came home from school they basically left right away. 

That left me with Derrick and Veronica home together  . . . again.  We've spent a lot of evenings together so I wanted to make sure this night felt different than most evenings. 

I had a list of things we needed to do.  One of them was to get the Valentine's day treats and cards ready for the kids class parties on Tuesday. It was fun to help them get those ready. 

Then we made a cake. (It was supposed to be brownies, but apparently we are out of brownie mix.) It actually ended up looking amazing thanks to some frosting and sprinkles. 

We still had ice cream so I put together cake and ice cream for us. 

I'd told Derrick and Veronica we could have a sleep over in the family room.  So we went downstairs and unfolded the couch bed. We decided to watch The Avengers.  

I started out on the black couch, but then moved over to the bed when Veronica said she wanted to snuggle. After the movie I went back to the couch and slept there all night. 

We had a fun time with the movies and sleeping in the family room.  We laughed a lot. 

Meanwhile Brandon took Charlotte and Lydia up into the south hills.  They found a place to park and hiked about 100 feet off the road. They dug something of a pit/cave and put a tarp down.  They also covered the top with a tarp.  They had warm sleeping bags, blankets and winter gear. 

They made a fire on top of the snow. They said by the end of their trip it had melted into a pit of its own. 

They had a good time camping and lasted the whole night.  But the consensus was that winter camping is a "fun once."

In the morning Derrick, Veronica, and I took car of cleaning up the house. Brandon and the twins came home around 11:00.  

After they came home Brandon took a shower and then we went on a date to the Home and Garden Show. It was full of lots of fun ideas and dreams.  We took a few pictures with Brandon's phone, but I forgot to get those off his phone. 

We came home and laid down for a nap. I thought we sleep for maybe 45 minutes.  Instead we both slept for something like 2 hours. 

We had a nice afternoon/evening with the kids. After the kids were in bed Brandon and I went out to the garage for our "Valentine's Date."  We had pizza and root beer. 

And we watched a movie.  After scrolling Netflix forever we finally settled on the Kristen Bell, Kelsie Grammar movie, "Like Father."  It was really good. 

Here we are. 

Brandon is my favorite.  And I'm super glad that we put a couch in the garage. 

On Sunday I had to be at the church at 8:30 to run through a song with the choir. That left Brandon to get four kids ready for church.  They showed up during the opening song. 

Our choir number went really well.  It was called "The Fount of Love." I hadn't liked the song much when we first started singing it.  It had a lot syncopated rhythms and parts where the women echoed the men.  But as I got more used to it I liked it more and more. So it was fun to sing. 

I had choir practice at 2:00. After that the whole family went to the park.  We went for two reasons.  1. The weather was like 43 degrees and we were not spending a day like that inside.  And 2. Derrick was convinced there was treasure buried under the bridge at Rock Creek Park.  He'd even drawn a picture of it.  Derrick hardly ever draws so this was a big deal!

So we went to the park so he could dig in the dirt under the bridge and see if there really was a treasure there. 

Charlotte and Lydia found spots to read and draw.

Here's Derrick excited to get started. 

And here he is getting to work. He quickly learned that the dirt was super compact.  But he kept going.  I lost interest and went to the playground with Veronica.  I called my sister Lindsey and talked to her for almost 2 hours.  I went on a walk by myself while talking to her and later went on the same walk with Derrick. (He'd given up digging when he'd hit the water level.)

When we drove home from the park the roads were super empty.  We were like, "Oh yeah the Super Bowl is happening right now."

At home we had dinner.  Then the kids and Brandon watched Studio C sketches while I made some Valentines Day treats. 

Monday was the day Veronica and I had planned for our Valentine's Day party. I still needed to buy balloons so as soon as I dropped Charlotte and Lydia off at school I drove to the dollar store and picked out 4 balloons. I felt a little bad that I didn't have Veronica help with this, but I knew the best selection would be in the morning.  I dropped the balloons off at home and then went to work. 

After work  I checked Veronica out from school at 12:45.  We had so much fun setting everything up for the "party."  I think (actually I know) I spent more on this little gifts than I spent on the kids Christmas stockings.  I make no apologies.   

Here's Veronica posing with everything. 

We had balloons, stuffed animals, giant kisses, M&M's, jelly hearts, home made brownies, homemade raspberry squares (with strawberries, rhubarb, and raspberries from my freezer), and homemade brownies.

I also had two games. Valentine's Bingo and Don't Eat Pete.

Here's Veronica with the balloons. 

The balloons. There were two squirrel ones that said, "I'm Nuts for You."  The dog one said, "I ruff you."  And the pizza one said, "You have a pizza my heart."

Brandon picked Derrick up and 2:00.  He was so excited to see all the fun stuff. But we couldn't eat anything yet.  I kept Derrick and Veronica occupied by watching Buster Keeton silent films on my phone.  We discovered these a while ago after a Baconsale Episode about silent movies. Buster Keeton is like a very daring Mr Bean.  So Derrick LOVES his stunts. 

When it was almost 3:00 Derrick, Veronica, and Marcia eagerly looked out the window for Charlotte and Lydia to come home. 

Everyone was so excited once all four kids were home. I made them pose behind their presents. 

The kids got candy and then we played bingo. 

And Don't Eat Pete.  The "party" is always more of an excuse to eat all the treats, but it was fun to play the little games. 

Here's Veronica posing with the giant kiss. 

Charlotte told me that her favorite part of the day was eating the conversation hearts.  She said, "It's like a tradition that says spring is coming."

Tuesday was real Valentine's Day. Derrick and Veronica took their treats in their backpacks. Charlotte and Lydia didn't have anything. None of us were really sure what happens with Valentine's day in middle school.  Their Primetime classes had little parties, but other than that Valentines day wasn't really a thing. 

I took care of a lot of paperwork that morning.  I was waiting to have our taxes done by our accountant, but I decided to just try running everything through Tax Act. I was super nervous about this year.  Brandon was making a lot more money than he had before. And the business added an extra layer of complications. So I just wanted to see what to expect.  

I was happy to see that we were still getting a refund. Smaller than other (poorer) years, but it was better than owing anything. 

And I was also happy that I was having a real CPA do our taxes.  The schedule C portion of the return had been tricky and I wasn't sure I did everything right.

I went to work and got a lot done.  I'd recently made a breakthrough on a tricky billing situation for one of our clients so I was able to get a lot done with that. It felt good. 

After work I took Veronica to tutoring.  Then I took Derrick to Boys Activity. Derrick does really well at boys activity, but it's still good to have one of us there. I hung out in the lobby and could here Derrick happily talking with everyone.  

This week they made a game of sorts.  It was a block of wood that they sanded.  Then they put a nail in the middle.  The game was to figure out how to balance 7 nails on the nail. Derrick showed me the trick when it was over.  I was so impressed by his deterity.  Who knew that Boys Activity would double as Occupational Therapy practice.  

Here he is at home showing off the trick. 

Wednesday was an insane day. Just look at this schedule for the afternoon. I'd double booked myself with Veronica's therapy and my appt with the accountant both happening at 2:00.  So Brandon took Veronica to therapy. 

Things actually went okay. Everyone got where they needed to be on time and so that was good. 

Here's Charlotte getting ready to leave for her Orchestra concert.  I bought her a new violin case in January and it has been great!  It's kind of funny because she's using the same violin that my sister Emily played in Jr high.  Back then it was a BIG deal to get Emily her violin. Most people had to buy or rent violins from Riverton or Summerhays music. But my parents had known someone who was able to get them a violin for a really good price. I remember how special and unique Emily's violin had seemed and I was still kind of operating from that mindset. So when pocket on the violin case had a broken zipper I was thinking, "oh that will be really hard to replace."  So Charlotte walked around with a broken zipper for a few months. And then I remembered we live in 2023 and Amazon exists. 

I looked up violin cases on amazon and laughed out loud when I saw that we could get the exact same case for $20. Then I looked at other cases and found this cute teal one with backpack straps for like $30 more. So I bought her the case. 

I dropped her off behind the Roper Auditorium and then parked and went inside.  I was going to find our usual seat near the back but then I remembered that Derrick wasn't coming to this concert.  So I found a seat near the front. I was determined to make up for how distracted I'd been at the Christmas Concert so I took lots of pictures. 

Plus I was also testing out the camera on my new phone.  (It had shown up on Monday.)

Charlotte is in the beginner orchestra so they were on the stage first. That gave me lots of chances to take her picture while she warmed up.

After the concert I asked her about her seat. I was trying to figure out if she was officially first chair or if her teacher just happened to assign her that seat. She had no idea what first chair was and had never heard the term Concert Master before.  So I guess she wasn't officially first chair. But it was still cool to see her sitting there. Maybe she'll have the honor for real one day. 

Here's the whole group.  I call them the "Baby Orchestra."

But they've actually improved a lot since the Christmas Concert. I took this video of their last song. 

Brandon and Lydia had come to hear Charlotte play. But they had to get to rehearsal.  So they left after Charlotte's group.  I stayed to listen to the rest of the groups. 

The intermediate orchestra went next.  They did really well.  This was a combined concert with Twin Falls High School.  So next we listened to the Freshman Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra.  That chamber orchestra was especially good.  They played a Lord of the Rings Medley that was fabulous. 

When the concert was over I took Charlotte to the Orpheum for her rehearsal.  (Who goes from a concert to a rehearsal?) 

I told her that if there was a good parking spot I'd go in the theatre with her and watch for a minute.  But if there wasn't parking I'd just drop her off at the front.  Well as luck would have it there was a spot right in front of the door.  So I parked and went into the theatre. 

I really really really really really wish I had a video of what I saw.  Brandon was on stage with all the "pick-a-little ladies."  He had his constable handcuffs hanging off his belt. But he was also holding a fan and fanning himself. I was like, "I didn't think the constable was in this scene?"

I soon realized what was happening. Brandon was filling the role of one of the ladies who was gone for the evening. He was reading from the script in a high falsetto voice.  It was hilarious. He even sang along with the Pick-a-little song. 

I'm glad I was able to see that. 

Back at home Veronica was pretty upset.  I'd been gone a lot longer than planned. But it was kind of a big deal that she'd wanted to stay home with only Derrick. The past 6 weeks she's been too nervous about things like that.  

I got Derrick and Veronica into bed a little before Brandon and the twins came home. I told him what scene I'd walked in on and he laughed.  He told me he'd been playing the main Pick-a-little lady, Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn herself. He said he'd been bragging that he knew every word to the Pick a little song and that had somehow led him to being the stand in for her. 

Today I didn't have much on the calendar. It was my big shopping day and I had work. But nobody had therapy, or concerts, or appointments. Brandon and the girls didn't even have rehearsal. 

And it was the last day of school for 5 days.  The kids get a 5 day weekend off of school for President's Day.  (Charlotte said, "I never cared about Presidents Day until it gave me 5 days off of school)

We are going to Utah to spend time with ALL of my siblings. This will be the first time we are all together in 7 years.  The last time we were all together was Christmas in Alabama. 

So yeah, I'm pretty excited. I'll tell you all about it when we get back.  

Thanks for reading.