Veronica woke up around the same time as me. I had her get dressed and eat breakfast. Then we both went to my work. I'd had big plans for that morning. I'd been planning to stay at work for 5 hours and get caught up on so much stuff. But school getting cancelled changed all that. I was lucky to get 90 minutes of work in before Veronica was ready to go.
We went to the bank (she was happy to get a sucker) and then we went to Smiths so she could spend some of her money on treats. Then it was back home.
The other kids had woken up at some point and were watching TV. I wasn't going to ruin the fun of a day home from school so I just let them do their thing while I did mine.
I listened to Baconsale and put away my laundry. Then I read. I was coming to the end of "The Fall of Babel" and things were beyond captivating.
At 2:45 I took Derrick and Veronica to an orthodontist consultation. It's been 2 years since their last one. I'm NOT interested in having three kids in braces so I was just going to wait to even think about having Derrick looked at until Charlotte and Lydia were a little further along. But the dentist recommended it. Derrick has a pretty severe overbite and over jet so the dentist wanted me to make sure we weren't going to miss any important growth milestones. So I made the appt for Derrick and decided we might as well have Veronica looked at at the same time.
The appointment was much different than I'd expected. For one, Derrick and Veronica were bouncing off the walls. Veronica was especially hyper. I was like, "wow, I am never taking you guys anywhere when you have been holed up in the basement all morning.
The second crazy thing was when we looked at Veronica's x-rays. We'd looked at Derrick's first and had clearly seen 4 adult teeth still waiting to emerge. When Veronica's x-rays came up I looked for any adult teeth under the gum line and couldn't see any. I was like, "wait, have you lost all your baby teeth?" The orthodontist confirmed that yes, 9 year old Veronica has lost all her baby teeth.
I was not really prepared for that.
And in case you are wondering how I didn't realize this before you have to understand what it's like in this house. All four of the kids are ALWAYS loosing teeth. I completely lost track of who lost what teeth YEARS ago. Like I knew Lydia had recently lost her last baby tooth, but I didn't realize that so had Veronica. (And I think Veronica might have lost her last baby tooth before Lydia did.)
Veronica also has most of her 12 year old molars grown in. I knew about that. At our visit 6 months ago the dentist had remarked that Veronica's x-rays looked almost identical to Charlotte and Lydia's. I just hadn't realized that she was also loosing the same teeth they were.
The orthodontist said, "Veronica is actually ready to start braces. But I also understand that she is nine. So we can wait until she's a little older to do braces."
For Derrick he said that we still needed to wait for those last 4 baby teeth to come out. He said we were probably about a year away from being able to start. He also said that the position of Derrick's molars looks good. So we don't have to worry about getting braces on sooner rather than later. That was good news. It's nice to know I don't HAVE to have three (or four) kids in braces.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. The kids were all super stir crazy by the end of the afternoon. So after dinner we braved the cold and went for a walk around the block. Our cheeks were all super red when we came home about 15 minutes later. I think the high for the day had been something like 10 degrees. But it was never windy - at least in our part of town. It was actually so still it was a little creepy.
Brandon, Charlotte, and Lydia had rehearsal that night. They tried on their costumes. Someone had brought in a military dress uniform for Brandon's Constable costume. Brandon was like, "If you want me to wear something like this I can just wear my own dress blues that fit me perfectly." He brought them in the next night and the director was like, "Yep that will work. Just take off all the pins and medals."
That night I stayed up late and finished the Fall of Babel. It had a very satisfying ending, but part of me is still thinking, "so where's the next book?"
I wrote this on Facebook about the series:
Have you ever read a book so captivating that it refuses to leave, crawls under your skin, and just becomes part of you?That's how the 4 books in the Books of Babel series have been.
On Tuesday we all had to go back to reality. It was still cold outside, but not as cold. (When I checked the temp it said it was 0 degrees outside.)
I drove Derrick and Veronica to the elementary school. Then I came home and did some stuff on the computer until it was time to take Charlotte and Lydia to school. Right before we left, a girl from up the street stopped by and asked for a ride. I was so happy she'd asked us. It was too cold to walk.
I was also happy that we replaced the alternator last weekend so the Shonda (silver Honda) could be running and reliable this super cold week.
So I drove all three girls to the school and then dropped them off. Then I went back home. Tuesday is my self care day and all I wanted to do on this freezing cold day was sit on my couch and get things done on my computer.
I started finding documents for our taxes. I also tried to get things a little readable for the business side of things. I was working on creating income statements and balance sheets for the RV business. Academically I know how to do those things. But it's a little trickier when it's for real. (Also it doesn't help that I did my whole accounting degree assuming I'd always work for existing businesses.)
I'm still a little unsure of how to account for owners draws and my Accounts Receivable accounting needs work. But overall things are looking good. Also I've decided that I can't do this all in excel next season. We really need to invest in even just the basic level of QuickBooks.
I went to work around noon and got things done, but I was still playing catch up from missing time on Monday.
After work I took Veronica to her tutoring appointment. Her tutor remarked that she already could see improvement in Veronica's eye muscles and other movements.
When Charlotte and Lydia came home they spent a lot of time working on the igloo. Charlotte worked out a door for the opening. It was just big enough for both of them to lay down inside. They'd asked if they could sleep in it on Friday night. I said they might as well try.
While Brandon and the girls were at rehearsal on Tuesday I started working on a big project. East Idaho Mom's is the blog that I've contributed to since December of 2018. I recently found out that the blog will be ending. I'm heartbroken about the loss of this community. But equally sad is the fact that the website will cease to exist. I don't want my work to disappear so I'm moving my posts from EIM to my 51 Cent Adventures blog. They won't really fit the theme of that blog, but I'm just happy they will still exist on the internet.
I was kind of shocked when I pulled up my blog list and found that I've written 40 posts for EIM. FORTY!?! I guess it makes sense. I've written for the blog for four full years and I usually contributed about 10 posts a year. 4 X 10 = 40. But still, that's a lot. I guess I just didn't realize that I've been contributing to that blog for so long. Like I've been writing for that blog for more time than I spent in high school.
I'm really torn about this loss. On the one hand I was probably going to have to step down from EIM soon anyway. I was feeling like this was another thing I needed to let go of in order to have time for other things in my life. So the blog ending just kind of sped things up. But on the other hand, I still had so much that I wanted to say.
Maybe this is just the push I need in order to start working on getting published in magazines and on national blogs.
On Wednesday I took back everything I said about how great it was that we got the Shonda fixed. I went out to the car to take Derrick and Veronica to school and the car DIDN'T start. The battery didn't click. The starter didn't try to turn over. It was just DEAD. We'd been able to open the sliding door to get into the car, but the car was so dead the door wouldn't even close.
I couldn't believe it. I also couldn't believe that I'd counted on the car starting and so we were leaving the house pretty late. Derrick and Veronica and I had to hurry to school. The whole time I was thinking NOT AGAIN!
Fortunately, it wasn't as cold as the last two days had been. I think it was like a balmy 29 degrees or something like that.
After I got back home I finished getting ready for the day and then I walked with Charlotte and Lydia toward the middle school. When we got close to the school I said goodbye to them and kept going to work. Thank goodness we live within walking distance of school and work.
(I actually thought about it later and realized that I probably walked farther between some of my college classes than I do between home and work.)
There was one place that I needed to go that day where I couldn't walk to. I had an appointment to meet with Veronica's therapist. And her office is not a quick walk away. Fortunately, I know how this works. I called the office and asked if we could do a telehealth appt. This probably wouldn't have worked if Veronica was going to be at this appointment. But since this was just going to be a conversation between two adults telehealth would work just fine. The office agreed. So that took some of the stress out of my day.
But somehow the day just felt super stressful. We have many of newish people at work. To of our student therapists are newly licensed and so it's like they are new employees because so many of the rules change once they are licensed. And our newer students are still learning the ropes. I felt like I was finding little problems everywhere. None of them were huge problems, but all together they felt like a lot.
Plus I'm working on getting the newly licensed clinicians credentialled with insurance companies. I enjoy most things about my job. But I HATE credentialling. There's a lot of repetitive paperwork. It's tedious and not very streamlined. It's just the worst.
I came home and was just a bundle of stress. So I did something I NEVER do - I watched a silly Youtube video. Usually I reserve Jamie French for evenings when Brandon's busy. But she was just what I needed at 1:00 PM.
Marcia had refused to go outside the morning before I left for work. So when I came home she was waiting right outside the door. I let her outside and she ran for the backyard. I didn't get a chance to chain her up. This has happened before and I've kept and eye out for her while I eat lunch. She usually comes back to the window and stares at me to let her in.
So I kept one eye on my lunch, one eye on youtube, and one eye on Marcia. And because I only have two eyes I completely lost track of Marcia. I went out in the backyard to call her in and she was gone.
I felt a little bad. But I was also like, "Well, what can I do?" I didn't have a working car to drive around looking for her. And I had to be on that phone call with Veronica's therapist in a few minutes.
This next part really should be told from Veronica's perspective. I'm going to try to write this the way she's been telling people about it.
I was at recess and I saw a brown dog with a yellow sunflower collar. I was like, "Is that my dog." I squinched my eyes to see better and I thought "That is my dog." I ran over to her and it was Marcia. There were lots of other kids who were excited to see her.
I was so embarrassed to have my dog at school. The ground teacher said to go into the office to call my mom so I went there and called my mom. But no answer. I called my dad and no answer either.
I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where Marcia was either. So I went back to my class because recess was over. I was so worried and embarrassed.
Meanwhile I was on the phone with Veronica's new therapist. We talked a lot about why I was seeking therapy for Veronica. Things I was concerned about. Things I wanted her to work on. Etc. It was a super important phone call so when I saw the call come in from the school I was like, "Well that's just going to have to wait."
Brandon didn't answer the call because he was driving home from work. (And his phone is always on vibrate so he's oblivious to phone calls half the time anyway.)
I finished up the call with the therapist and called the school to see what was up. The secretary answered and told me that my dog had been at the school and Veronica was calling to let me know. The secretary didn't know where Marcia was, she just knew she'd been there.
Brandon was home by this point and so I told him what was up. He'd been looking at the Shonda to try to figure it out. But he stopped what he was doing, got in the Rhonda and drove over to the school to see if he could see Marcia.
He couldn't see her. School was almost over so he hung around to see if she come running again when all the kids started coming out of the school.
What happened was completely unexpected. A teacher came out of the school with Marcia. A 4th grade teacher had taken Marcia into her classroom. We later heard through the grapevine from a friend of a friend who had been in that class that Marcia had been really well behaved and just laid on the floor and stared at everyone.
When I heard that Marcia had been IN the school I had two thoughts. 1. It was probably the best day of her life. and 2. She was definitely going to try to go back to the school if she ever ran away again.
Brandon went back to the Shonda and figured out what was wrong. The battery connectors were loose. They needed to be attached more securely. The engine started right up after that minor fix. But the sliding door still wouldn't shut. Brandon came inside to watch videos about what the problem could be. He wasn't very happy about yet another project for that van.
I remembered that I still had a deposit I needed to take to the bank and I needed to buy stamps for work. So I took Veronica with me in the Rhonda to run those errands. We also stopped at a local locksmith. Veronica really likes keys so a few days ago I emailed the locksmith to see if they had leftover keys we could buy. They said to just stop by and they'd give us some for free. Well they had a small box full of keys that they just gave to Veronica. She was so excited! She spent quite a bit of time sorting the 50 or more keys they'd given her.
Derrick had been looking forward to Wednesday all week because that was the day he'd get to go with Mr Mark and try out Mr Mark's metal detector again. Well Mr Mark was sick so he had to cancel. Derrick was super sad. So instead of going with Mr Mark after school he went outside to play.
And that's when tragedy struck. Somehow Derrick's foot made contact with one of the walls of the igloo. Was it just an act of curiosity? Was the south facing wall already weak from the afternoon sun? Was Derrick just acting on little brother impulses to destroy things? We don't know.
What we do know is that Charlotte and Lydia came home from school just in time to see Derrick standing by their crumpled igloo.
They came into the house sobbing. Brandon went out of the house yelling. Derrick came in apologizing and put himself into the corner. And this day that was already full of so much odd energy came to a terrible climax.
Thirty minutes later things were slightly better. Brandon had laid down for a much needed nap and was fast asleep. Derrick had apologized. Charlotte and Lydia had been promised a snow cave camping trip in the South Hills.
I gave up on making anything for dinner and just went to Smiths for chicken nuggets and salad. I also bought doughnuts in an attempt to inject some positive energy into the house.
Brandon slept until about 30 minutes before rehearsal. He felt a lot better after that long nap. The rest of us were all happy to go to bed. I put Derrick and Veronica to bed at 8:00 and was in bed by 8:30. I could have fallen asleep right then, but that felt lame. So I stayed up watching Youtube until at least 9:30.
I was so happy to be done with that day.
Thursday is my grocery shopping day and we were in desperate need of a big shopping trip. Veronica had complained that we were out of food on Tuesday. We weren't out of food - we were just out of snack food. My kids live off of popcorn and hot chocolate mix so when we ran out of those things they were thrown off.
I took Brandon to work at 6:00 so I could have the car. Veronica happened to be awake at that time so she came with me. When we got back home we both crawled into my bed and went back to sleep.
About an hour later I woke everyone up and got them off to school. When I drove Charlotte and Lydia to school I told them, "This Honda is AMAZING" It has started EVERY time for me for the 9 and a half years that we've owned it. The only times it didn't start were when I did something stupid like leave a light on overnight."
I got to thinking about it and remembered that there was some preventative maintenance that Les Schwab had recommended a few months earlier. Something with something that was like a hip joint or something? At the time we'd still been operating on the "fix the jeep, and also buy a truck" plan. In that plan the Honda Pilot was the extra vehicle that we'd probably sell. It hadn't made much sense to do that maintenance at the time.
But now I was super grateful that we'd hung onto the Pilot. It had continued to be our most reliable car. I figured I should probably keep taking care of it. So when I came home from grocery shopping I immediately called up Les Schwab. I told the lady, "Yeah, I had a quote for some maintenance for my Pilot a few months ago. Can you remind me what that was for and can we get that scheduled."
She looked through my account and said, "We'll I have this note from January 2022." I laughed super hard. How did JANUARY of 2022 feel like a few months ago? It was DEFINITELY time to get that maintenance done.
She took care of ordering the parts and made an appointment for me to bring in the Honda on Saturday morning.
While I was bringing in groceries from the car I let Marcia out into the backyard. I thought about chaining her up, but I thought, "She'll want to run around the back yard a bit. I'll be going in and out of the house so I can keep track of her."
Well, you can probably guess what happened. That dog somehow snuck past me and took off. She did go back to the school because the ground teacher later told Veronica that she saw her dog running around. But she didn't stay there.
I got in the car to look for her, but didn't see her. I was like, "Whatever dog. You want to run free and then get caught by animal control? Go right ahead."
So I went to work without a second thought.
I'd texted Brandon to let him know Marcia was missing again. He planned to look for her after he came home from work. When he got home he found her chained up in the back yard. Our across the street neighbor said that someone had brought her home and had knocked on our door. Then our neighbor had told them we weren't home. (He'd said something like, "Yeah they have a van in the driveway, but I think that door is stuck open.) So the two of them had gone in the backyard and found the chain and put Marcia on it.
A few days later, Brandon and I had been on a walk with Marcia and we'd walked by a guy walking his dog. He stopped us and said, "That's Marcia right? I'm the one who found her and brought her home last week. She's such a good dog."
So yeah Marcia had quite the social week.
Thursday was a better day at work. I still had a lot to do, and I could have easily spent 5 hours at work that afternoon. But it was the end of the pay period and I only had a couple hours left before I'd hit 30 hours. This was the second time in two pay periods that I was hitting 30 hours. I was not exactly thrilled about that. I mean I SAY I work 15 hours a week. But I mean is I COULD work 15 hours a week. I'd prefer 12.
So I worked from about 12:30 to 1:50. Clocked out and drove over to Brandon's work to pick him up. (It's only about a mile from my work.) Dropped him off at home. Drove back to work. Clocked back in. Worked about another 45 minutes and then tried to clock back out.
But I couldn't clock out. The timecard app that I use on my phone told me that my phone's operating software was too out of date to work with the app anymore. I was like, "Now you tell me? You couldn't have kept working for 1 more hour?"
So I emailed my boss and told him what time to clock me out.
Brandon took a look at my phone and said he could update the operating system. But later he told me it would just be easier to buy a new phone. It kind of felt like this scene from Jumanji.
The best part of Thursday was when I got home. We didn't have to go ANYWHERE. No therapy. No tutoring. No errands. Just staying home.
Brandon and the twins had rehearsal, but I didn't have to take them. Actually I have to say that it's really nice that Brandon is doing the play with the twins. If Charlotte and Lydia were in this play without Brandon it would be a huge drag. I'd have to keep track of their rehearsals and drop them off and pick them up (or coordinate with Brandon to do it.) But since they are all in the play together Brandon just takes care of everything. He's in the Facebook group with the announcements. He takes them to and from rehearsals. It's so nice.
On Friday Brandon had the car again so we were back to walking to everything again. I walked with the girls part of the way to middle school and then went to work. I stayed at work for 5 hours and FINALLY got on top of all the things I'd been trying to get on top of since Monday. It felt so good!
After school the other set of twins came home with Charlotte and Lydia. We haven't had Aurora and Gwen over for a while so it was fun to see them. I made pizza for dinner. Macie came over when she was done with work and we all had dinner together. She's had some health things going on lately so we haven't seen her since New Years. And I've been so busy with getting supports in place for Veronica that I didn't have mental energy to do anything for Macie. So I was happy that we could take care of dinner for her family this night.
After dinner Macie and the twins left. We went downstairs and watched Ground Hog Day. That movie is so funny.
On Saturday I got up a little after 8:00 and drove the Honda over to Les Schwab. Then I walked home. It was about a mile and a half. It took me about 30 minutes to walk home. I needed that walk so I didn't mind. The best part was my foot didn't hurt! Okay it did hurt a little bit, because it always hurts a little bit. But I wasn't limping by the end. And later when the Honda was all done I walked back with no problems either. Hurray for ankle braces, sturdy orthotics from Super Feet, supportive shoes, and just being nice to your own body.
We all worked together to clean the house. When Macie had been over the night before I told her, "I'm glad we are at the level of our relationship where you can come over and I don't feel like I have to clean up my house first." But it was still nice to get the house clean.
After the house was clean Macie came over and picked up my twins so they could spend the afternoon with her twins. She was like, "They all just disappear into the basement and I can do whatever I want. So having them over is no trouble at all."
In the afternoon I hung out on the garage couch with Brandon while he worked on the sliding door of the Shonda. Basically the problem was the wheels were worn down. He could replace the part pretty easy, but we had to order it. It would come in on Tuesday.
The day was pretty warm and the snow was starting to melt in some places. I remembered that I needed to do some late winter pruning on the berries and the big rose bush. The berry plants still had a lot of snow around them so I went to work on the rose bush. Its the big one with stunning yellow blooms. I love that bush, but it's almost too big at this point. A lot of the branches are crossing and rubbing each other. At the end of last year I made the decision to prune it all the way back and get some new growth going. So that's what I did on Saturday.
Then I went inside to take a nap. Veronica asked if I wanted to watch a movie with her. She picked A Bugs Life and I watched about 10 minutes of that, fell asleep for a while, and then work up for the finale.
Macie brought the twins back around 6:00. Then Brandon and I went on a date to celebrate my birthday. My boss had given out gift cards to Texas Road House for Christmas gifts so we used that and went to Texas road house.
Brandon ordered ribs and I had shrimp. But neither of those things really mattered because we were so stuffed from our blooming cactus, rolls, and house salads by the time the main dishes arrived. Most of our food went home in boxes and was a very nice lunch the next day.
We had a good time there. Brandon was asking me questions like, "What goals do you have for yourself for the next few years. All I could think was, "I just want to survive having the kids in middle school and high school."
It's funny because 2 years ago I decided that I wanted to go back to school. I'd told Brandon about it on my birthday. And then I did and that was a HUGE thing that took up a lot of my time. When I finished school I assumed I'd take some time off and then jump into another big project. But instead I'm just feeling like I need to do less. Or at least schedule less. It's an odd feeling for me.
We finished up at Texas Roadhouse and then walked around Barnes and Nobel. Then we stopped at Lowes to buy a board for some shelves in the kids bathroom. We had a good time talking and laughing together.
Sunday was a really good day at church. We still aren't used to church at 9:00. We'd completely forgot to have the kids take showers and baths on Saturday night and there wasn't time in the morning. But we made it on time and had a good day.
I had choir practice at 2:00 that afternoon. I always give my neighbor Amanda a ride to the house where we have choir practice. So I took the Pilot and picked her up. We drove over to the house and had an hour long rehearsal. When it was over we went to the car and tried to start it, but it wouldn't start!
I was like, "Et tu Pilot?"
I realized that the car was beeping every time I opened the door. It was like the car still though the keys were in the ignition. I realized the problem was that the keys weren't able to move into the "off" position. They were stuck in the "axillary power" position. I figured the car had been in that position the whole time we were at choir and so the battery had run down.
If you are wondering how it was possible to take the keys out of the car when they weren't in the "off" position . . . . well Brandon did some creative things with the ignition cylinder a year or so ago. The keys can come in and out of the ignition no matter what.
I went back in the house and asked if I could get a jump. Immediately I had two guys helping me out. But the jump didn't work. The car still didn't start.
The two guys were thinking there had to be something wrong with the starter. But I was thinking it had something to do with the ignition cylinder. The starter having a problem was just too out of character for this car. We were out of my depth so I said Brandon would come have a look at it.
I called Brandon and told him what was up. Then Amanda and I got a ride home. Brandon walked over a little bit later to see what was wrong with the car.
He sent me a text, "The car works, I'm going to check on a friend. I'll tell you what was wrong when I get home."
When he came home he took me out to the Pilot and had me sit behind the wheel. He said, "Can you see what the problem is?"
I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
He said, "look what gear you are in."
The car was in drive. Not park.
He had me shift the car into park and then try to start the car. It started right up.
Somehow I hadn't remembered to shift the car into park when we got to choir. Since the keys come out of the ignition easily I'd been able to pull them out while still in drive. I'd parked on a super level spot on the driveway and put the parking brake on. So I hadn't noticed the car roll or anything. And since no one considered that the car could still be in drive no one even thought to check that while trying to jump it.
Major Lesson Learned.
So the Pilot still has a reputation for starting every time - unless I've done something stupid.
I'm just glad that we didn't have to fix yet another thing. Because this has been getting a little out of hand lately.
For those keeping score at home here are things that have needed repair or replacement in the last 5 weeks.
Work laptop died - replaced
Flat tire on Honda Odyssey - repair
Dryer drum stopped turning - replaced
Alternator on Honda Odyssey - replaced
Door on Honda Odyssey - repair
Phone - replaced
Hip Joint things on Honda Pilot - repair (preventative)
Honda Pilot ignition - operator error.
I started saying that I need to stop touching things because everything keeps breaking.
But on the positive side of things I really should be grateful that everything has lasted as long as it has.
My work laptop lasted nearly 3 years despite being a model that was only purchased because it was the only things available during covid supply shortages.
The Odysseys tire had been an easy (and free) fix.
The repairs on the odyssey are things that Brandon can do. And they are cheaper than a car payment. (We joke that the Shonda isn't its true nickname. Its real nickname is "Cheaper than a car payment.")
My phone has worked for at least 2 years despite my blatant disregard for it's safety or internal storage limits.
And the dryer ran continuously for at least 15 years - despite being used when we bought it.
So really I should be grateful all this stuff has worked as long as it has.
Still I'm being careful what I touch.
Anyway, that's all for now.
Thanks for reading.
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