First week of school

Once again we have survived the first week of school. I feel like I've lived at least 5 lives since last Monday. And part of me isn't really interested in re-living them again while writing about them on the blog - once was hard enough. 

But I know in a few years it will be nice to look back over all the details of this week. So let's recap this anyway. 

Sunday was a rainy day. (A fact I had completely forgotten about until I looked at these pictures.)  Here's a rainbow we could see from our house.  


My garden was loving the rain. 

The kids were rather squirrely so we decided to drive to the first federal park to get their wiggles out. We left the house when we thought the rain was over, but by the time we were at that park it was raining again. The kids didn't mind. I hid out under the covered pavilion.  

And we saw a rainbow there too. 

The kids all went to bed that night with a little bit of trepidation. No one was really looking forward to the first day of school - except me. I was quite ready to have them all out of the house. 

On Monday morning Derrick was the first one who had to be out the door. He is going to a Middle School all the way across town and he had a bus picking him up. We have an app that we can use to track the bus. It said that the bus would be there to pick up Derrick at 7:41. The bus didn't really come until about 7:50. Derrick was so excited to get on the bus. He'd been telling me that he missed the bus from Pocatello.

Next was Veronica. She was nervous about school, but that didn't stop her from doing an epic pose. We walked over to the school together. On the way there she said that she was ready to walk home from school. That's a big deal. 

When we got to the school I was fully prepared to walk around to the back of the school and wait with her until the bell rang. That's how we've done things on every other first day of school at that school. But after we crossed the street Veronica was like, "Okay, bye mom, see you later."  And that was that. 

So I guess she doesn't have much separation anxiety anymore. 

Charlotte and Lydia were next. They weren't exactly happy about school. But they were happy that they share their Primetime class. On the first day of school the students spend most of the day in Primetime and then go to each of their classes for like 15 minutes. That meant that Charlotte and Lydia were in the same class together for most of the day. 

I had them do more than one first day pic. This is Charlotte's, "I'm forcing a smile" smile.

And Lydia's, "I don't know why we always do this, but okay" smile. 

I drove them over to the middle school and dropped them off. We were trying out a new drop off location and it worked SO MUCH BETTER. We'd had to go to the one by the office last year because I'd had to walk Derrick into the office every day last year. But that's not a thing this year. So we can go to the big parking lot behind the building. It's still cut throat back there. But there's more space so it's less stressful. I was in and out of there in less than 5 minutes. 

I drove to Ivan's office and took care of things there for about 45 minutes. And then I went to Aspen Grove and worked for a long time. It was nice to know that the kids were at school and I didn't have to feel guilty about working while they were at home.  

Back at home I noticed that one of my big sunflowers in the side yard had bloomed. So I took a picture of that. 

Then I went out to the plum tree and picked all the plums. They were finally ripe and sweet. (People had been telling me they were ripe over a month ago, but I told them to keep waiting!)  I probably could have let them go for a few more days, but all the rain on Sunday had come with wind and some of the plums were starting to fall. That made me nervous so I decided it was just time to get them all down. 

Brandon came home and then soon after Veronica walked home. She'd had a really great first day. About 45 minutes later Charlotte and Lydia came home. 

Then we were just waiting for Derrick. I could see where the bus was on the app. It was going all over town. We were the last stop so I knew it would be a while. Derrick finally got home more than an hour after school got out. But he seemed pretty unfazed by the long ride. 

Not only was this the first day of school - it was also the 5 year anniversary of moving into this house. Back then it had also been the first day of school. We'd literally dropped the kids off at school and then went to the title company to sign all the papers. 

Since getting into this house was akin to a miracle we always make sure to celebrate it. This year we decided to go out to eat at Pizza Pie Cafe and then go mini golfing. So as soon as Derrick was home we got back into the car and drove over there. 

This was on the route that Derrick's bus had taken. He told us, "That's where ____lives. In those apartments."

 

We had a fun time at Pizza Pie Cafe. I really liked the Fireman Pizza with a jalapeno pepper on it. But after about the 8th or so slice of pizza I started to realize that maybe this dough wasn't that great. I remembered why we haven't been here in almost 2 years. But oh well it was still fun. 

Then we crossed the street to go mini golfing. Ideally we would have done this a little later in the evening when things were cooler. But Brandon had play stuff at 7:00. So we were there at 5:00. It was hot, but the upside was that we had the place to ourselves. We didn't have to feel rushed or wait for others to hurry up. 

We had a lot of fun.

This picture was cuter in my head. 

We always like the tunnel part. 

And this bridge one is fun too.

This hole at the end was basically heaven because it was so shady. 

And here are Brandon and me. 

He's so great. 

We finished up at mini golf a little before 7:00. It was easier to just drop Brandon off than have him go home and get his car. They weren't meeting at the Orpheum. Instead they were at someone's shop or something working on scenery and props. Brandon painted letters on shields so they could spell out C-A-M-E-L-O-T during the Knights of the Round Table Scene. 

Whoever was in charge told Brandon, "It doesn't have to look great. It can look like a kid drew it."  Brandon was like, "Not on my watch." And found a font online and then freehanded that font onto the shields. He told me it still wasn't great, but that everyone else thought it looked amazing. I told him that his worst is better than most people's best.  

Tuesday was another day of school and everyone was a little less enthusiastic than the day before. But everyone was up and out of bed and went off to school without much fuss. 

Brandon had taken the Odyssey to work so I could take the Pilot. The Pilot was due for an oil change after all the driving around Brandon did to various camping trips this summer. It's much easier for me to take the cars in for oil changes in the morning than it would be for Brandon to do it later in the day so I said I'd take care of it. I dropped the girls off at the middle school and was at Jiffy Lube by 8:30. I think I was the second car in the bay. They got everything changed and I was on my way really quick. 

I drove to Brandon's work and switched cars. Nothing had gone wrong with the Pilot this time, but I wasn't pushing my luck. 

Then I drove to D&B and bought chicken feed for the chickens. And then I went to the community center to find out how much a monthly membership would be. Our kids are getting too old for parks, but I feel like we need something to do to give the kids something active to do after school. I figure a gym membership might be good for all of us. 

Then I went home and watched The Help while cutting up plums. I'd read the book The Help the week before and really liked it. So it was fun to watch the movie. I kept thinking, "Who plays Hilly?" She is doing such a good job, but I've never seen her in any other movies. Who is she? So I finally looked her up on IMDB. It was Bryce Dallas Howard! I had no idea. She disappeared in that role. Also Jessica Chastain was playing Celia. I feel like I might have figured that one out on my own - eventually.

The movie was long so I had to stop it about 45 minutes from the end. I went to work and got a lot done there. At 4:30 I drove over to Derrick's middle school. He was really interested in the robotics club so he was staying after school for that. I was excited that he was doing something extra curricular. But I wasn't sure how well it would go. So I wanted to be there when it was over. Right at 5:00 Derrick came out with a group of other students. He was so happy. He wanted to come back on Thursday for more. 

Brandon had dinner ready for us as soon as we got home. Charlotte and Lydia had a big pile of craft things in the living room. Their family and consumer sciences teacher from last year had put together a bunch of supplies that she didn't need. She gave them all to the twins. Lydia was already using the embroidery floss to make a quick Thank You for the teacher. 

After dinner I went out and watered for a long time. The raspberries are getting ready to ripen. Around labor day we are going to have so many berries. 

The black berries were also starting to ripen. They'd really struggled with the heat in the summer, but things were cooling off and they were doing much better. 

Look how pretty!

Back inside I decided I might as well make plum jam. The kids were all burned out from the day and were watching a movie. No one was in the mood to do anything else. So I looked up a recipe and then started cooking the plums.  The thing about jam is that it takes SO much more sugar than you'd ever think. I had 8 cups of fruit and 8 cups of sugar. I think this is why I like canning the jam. By the time I open it up in a few months I'll have forgotten how much sugar is involved. 

I was able to make 6 pints of plum jam. 

I still had some cut up plums, and I already had the hot canning water so I decided to just go ahead and can the rest of the plums. So I did three jars of those.  One didn't seal so I've been eating it with my oatmeal in the morning. Oh my goodness those plums are good!

I did save a few plums to eat. But I don't really like biting into fruit directly. So I'm glad I had other things to do with the fruit rather than watch it rot on my counter. 

Wednesday started out with a lot of excitement. Derrick's bus said it would come around 7:40, but it had been showing up around 7:50 each day. Well on Wednesday it showed up at 7:15!!!!!!! Thank goodness Derrick was already dressed and just had to finish eating. 

They told me that 7:18 would be his normal pick up time. Thankfully they adjusted it to more like 7:30 later in the week because 7:18 is just a little too early. 

After I dropped the twins off I went to work at Ivan's for a little bit. And then I went over to Jori's house. 

A few weeks ago at scripture study Jori brought up the fact that she loves to make sushi. The other ladies wanted to know how so Jori offered to teach us. We decided that we are all available at 10:00 on Wednesdays so we decided to meet at Jori's one of the weeks that we were on a break from scripture study. This was that week. 

So we all gathered at Jori's and she showed us all the tricks and tips to making sushi - starting with washing rice. Needless to say I learned a ton!

I was a little unsure of myself as I spread my rice out on the seaweed wrapper. I didn't like how it felt, but I got the hang of it. Then I added veggies and cooked breaded shrimp. Then it was time to roll it all up. This was tricky and I wasn't sure how it would turn out and all of a sudden I had a nice looking roll. 

I was so proud of myself. Like so proud. 

And then we cut it and ate it and I ate my whole roll in like 5 minutes and had to make another one (and then a few more) in order to have enough to take some home for Brandon to try. 

I was so happy that Jori took the time to teach us all. I like having talented friends. 

When Veronica came home from school that afternoon she was humming loudly. It was good to hear her so happy. 

My friends Mary and Carl came over to take a tour of my yard. They are interested in having less grass and they wanted to see what I've done. I was like, "It's still a work in progress, but you can come see it." It was fun to show it off. They kept commenting that we had a huge yard. They only live like one street away, but they are on a small lot. They are both retired so they didn't need a big lot, but they didn't realize just how much larger our yard was than theirs. 

When Lydia and Charlotte got home they checked the chicken coop. They found an egg!  We joke that this egg is worth like five thousand dollars because of how much time and money we've put into those chickens. It was exciting to finally see some of it pay off. 

The girls had young womens that night, but they weren't interested in going. And Derrick didn't have young mens. So everyone just chilled out at home. Veronica and I went grocery shopping real quick. 

On Thursday morning I had Derrick up and ready right at 7:00. By 7:18 he was dressed, had eaten breakfast, and was wearing his shoes. I was watching the bus on the map on the app. The bus seemed to be stuck at Locust Street. Every time I checked the app the bus was still at Locust Street. It's little icon also seemed a little crooked. I joked, "It's like the bus was in an accident."

It was just a joke at first, but after a few more minutes I was like, "maybe there is something wrong."

I texted the bus attendant to see if they were okay. Before she responded I got a call from the bus company. A lady said that the bus had been in a small accident. They could send another bus out, but they wouldn't have one available until after 8:00. I was like, "Oh I'll just drive him today."

So now Derrick was going to be home for the next little while. But last year whenever I left him home with Charlotte and Lydia while I took Veronica to school, I'd come home to them fighting about something. So I told Derrick, "you are going to walk with me and Veronica."

When we got to the school Derrick noticed some work sheets on the ground. He was very concerned about them getting to the correct student. So we took them into the office. The school secretary was so surprised by how tall Derrick is now. I've gotten used to it (mostly) so I don't remember that he's grown quite a bit in less than a year. People that haven't seen him in a while are always really surprised. 

I'm glad she was paying attention to Derrick because I looked terrible. I needed a shower, but I planned to go for a walk that morning. So I wasn't going to shower until after the walk. My hair was so bad. When I got home I put a hat on for the rest of the morning. 

Derrick and I walked back home and then drove Charlotte and Lydia over to their middle school. We dropped them off and then drove to Derrick's. I dropped him off at the door by the ERC and his teacher came out to meet him. We were only about 5 minutes late. 

Then I drove over to the Federation Point section of the Canyon Rim Trail and walked on that for about an hour. 

Then I went home and took a shower. After that I worked on Castle Therapy things from home for about an hour and then I finally had time to finish watching The Help. 

I went to work around 12:30. And stayed until about 3:30. I came home as Brandon was about to leave for CSI. Veronica was already home. At 4:15 I took Veronica and the twins to run errands.  

First we dropped Veronica off at girls activity. They were doing an escape room. 

Then I took the twins to Hobby Lobby so we could buy drawing pencils and a few other supplies for their art class. (Charlotte is in the semester long class, and Lydia is in the year long class. They have the same teacher.)

Then we went to Derrick's middle school and picked him up from Robotic Club at 5:00. 

I took the three oldest kids home and dropped them off. 

Then I picked up Veronica from the church at 5:30. 

It was kind of a fend for yourself night as far as dinner went. We were talking about going swimming, but no one was in the mood. Everyone was just tired. 

I went outside and got everything watered. This bee was loving one of the sun flowers. 

Charlotte kept saying her ear hurt and felt swollen. I did a lot of poking and prodding and we figured out that it was just the skin near her ear canal. It kind of felt like a pimple that hadn't come to a head yet. She was still worried about it so I took this picture so show that there wasn't any sort of out of control swelling. We ended up just wiping it down with a stridex wipe and that seemed to help the swelling go down over the next few days. I was happy we didn't need a doctors appointment. 

Friday felt like a victory. We'd made it. The last few years we've had Wednesday starts for the first week of school. So to go all week was kind of a big deal. 

Derrick's bus came a little after 7:30 and that was a doable time. Everyone else went off to school without a hitch. I went to work, but around 9:00 I got a call from Veronica's school. She wasn't feeling well and needed to come home. We'd almost made it a week. 

I picked her up and then went back to work. But I'd lost my momentum so I only stayed about 90 more minutes until the mail came. Then I went home to hang out with Veronica. We watched Bed Knobs and Broomsticks. She's seen that movie before - but it was when she was little so she had no memory of it. Then I helped her make cookies. 

Brandon came home and took over the cookies while I took a nap. 

When everyone else was home we went to Deirkies Lake. The weather was too cool for me or Brandon to want to get into the water so we just wore our regular clothes. But the kids were all in their swimming suits. When they'd come to the lake last week with Brandon he'd let them cliff jump. So they all wanted to do it again. The swam across the narrow channel and climbed up on the cliffs. 

Veronica hadn't jumped last week and she was determined to do it this week. She never did. But we all cheered her on for a long time. 

I told her she looked pretty cool even if she didn't jump. 

Here are all the kids on the cliff. 

More waiting for Veronica. 

I took a lot of video thinking, "This time she's going to jump."  But I erased most of them when she didn't actually jump. Here's one I didn't erase. You can see Derrick jump in this one. 

When the kids were done with the cliff they played in the water for a long time. This lake is so pretty. 

I had a big list of things to do on Saturday. And we got through all of it! We did all the kids laundry - and got it put away. We cleaned the family room, the living room, the bathroom, and mopped the kitchen floor. 

The big project was the hole. Here it is in the morning when I was watering. (It's so hard to take a picture of this and actually show the perspective. )

Brandon went to D&B and bought a pick ax so he could make some progress on the hard compacted soil. He told me he kept thinking about the line from the movie Pacific Rim. It goes. "There are things you can't fight, acts of God. You see a hurricane coming, you have to get out of the way. But when you're in a Jaeger, suddenly, you can fight the hurricane. You can win."

He said, "When you have a pick ax you can fight and you can win."

He made a lot of progress on the hole. But for some reason I didn't take a picture. 

While he was working on the hole I was doing lots of little things like chopping up branches from a bush I'd trimmed a few weeks ago. I also did a lot of weeding. I was trying to get an area ready to hold all the dirt that Brandon was shoveling out of the hole. 

Here's the peaches on my tree. They'll be ready in about a month. 

Lydia made a little dinosaur from some of her new craft supplies. 

We could have worked on the hole all afternoon and evening. But we had things to do. Our ward was having our annual Potluck and Brandon was in charge. So we took showers and got ready for that. 

At 4:30 we went over to the church building with the pavilion. We set made sure everything was ready. We brought powdered gatorade to make in our big 5 gallon water jug. Our friend Jeff brought home made root beer and dry ice. Derrick was fascinated by the dry ice and had fun breathing in the vapor as it poured out of the jug.  

Jeff has a friend with a bounce house business so he rented a big inflatable slide. The kids and some other guys helped set it up.

The party officially started at 5:30. There were so many people there. I think it was the most people that have ever come. All the tables were full and many people were sitting on the grass. I took this picture after most of the food was gone, but this whole long table was full of food. The ward provided fried chicken and then there were many side dishes and desserts. I think my kids only at dessert. 

After a while Brandon got out his candy cannon and had fun shooting that off for a long time. 

The weather was great so many people hung around for a long time. Derrick found some of the dry ice and did lots of fun things with it. He and two or three other kids played with it for like 45 minutes. 

Around 8:00 Jeff finally started deflating the bounce house. There were still a lot of kids around so they all had fun getting the air out. 

We finished cleaning up and were back in the car at 8:30. I couldn't believe we'd been there for four house. We'd all had so much fun socializing and playing. It was the BEST ward party yet. (And that's saying something.)

After all our work on Saturday, it felt good to rest today. We slept in past 9:00 and then somehow made it to church at 10:30. Church was followed by long naps. 

It's been good to recharge our batteries for another week of school. 

Thanks for reading.