Summer 2024 - Week 12 - Okay everyone can go back to school now

Up until about 4 days ago I was still really sad that school was starting soon. This has been such a nice relaxing summer and I wasn't looking forward to having to get the kids out the door by 8:30 each day. 

And then I noticed the kids were fighting a bit more than usual. They were arguing about the dumbest stuff. Even Charlotte and Lydia were a little done with each other at some points. And I was like, "Okay we are done. I don't care if I have to drag you out of bed. It's time to get back to school."

But even with that, it was still a nice week. So let's recap. 

Monday was a pretty normal day. In the afternoon we all went to the pool. Even Brandon came. This was the second time this whole summer he was able to go. 

Tuesday I watered everything all over the yard. Here's the Rose of Sharon again. 

The big excitement of Tuesday was when the garbage truck came by to empty our very full garbage can. Brandon had shoved a bunch of stuff from the garage in there after garbage day last week. He didn't really factor in that we still had a weeks worth of garbage that needed to go into our garbage can. So it was really full on Tuesday. The kids were eagerly awaiting the garbage trucks arrival. 

Here's the before picture. 

And here's the after. 

And here's the video that Veronica took of the actual event.

YEP, it's non stop excitement over here.

That evening I took Derrick to a Neurodiverse Teen game night hosted by a therapy place across town. Derrick had noticed a flier for this game night at the library. He was really interested in going. 

He had a good time. He was able to play Uno with a girl. He got snacks too. 

On Wednesday I would have had my Scripture study group. But we were taking a two week break. So instead I took Charlotte and Lydia to buy shoes and a few other things at Walmart. 

Then we came home and I got out all the school supplies and set them out on the table. I learned long ago that it's just easier to do all the school supply shopping online. It's NOT FUN AT ALL to do it at the store. So I get online with the lists and order everything. The bulk of the things had shown up the week before, but none of us wanted to deal with them then. 

Anyway, I spread everything out on the table and then had Veronica come in and "shop" for the things on her list. Then the older kids came and did theirs. 

I resolved to not buy a single new notebook this year. We have a TON of hardly used ones from prior years. They'd had maybe the first 10 pages used, but all the other pages were blank. So I ripped out all the used pages and then had the kids reuse the books. To make it fun I bought dragon stickers that they could use to make the note books seem new.

Here are Charlotte and Lydia putting their stickers on. (They weren't happy because school was starting soon.)

That evening the stake was hosting a youth activity at a lake at the fancy golf course. This is normally only available for members only, but our stake reserves it for this activity every year. Last year only Charlotte could go. But this year Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick could all go. I was really worried about Derrick being there on his own. I like his youth leaders, but I didn't exactly trust them to keep a close enough eye on him. So I decided I'd go. And since I was going that meant Veronica was tagging along. She'll be in Young Women's in like 5 months and she's as tall as a lot of teenagers, so I had no qualms about "sneaking" her into the activity.

We got there and I found a chair to sit and read a book where I could keep an eye on the kids. I planned to be very hands off unless Derrick was being dangerous. I was reading, "The Help" and loving every moment of it. That book is GOOD!

Anyway, here's the beach. 

My four kids went straight for the pedal boat. While the other kids seemed to still be getting their bearings, my kids were getting this thing out of the dock and heading out on the lake. 

They had that thing figured out really quick. 

They went all over that lake and had fun diving into the water and then getting back onto the boat. After about 30 minutes they let some other kids use it and went to play with the water slide. 

Veronica came up to check in with me and we went to find the refreshments that were advertised on the flyer. They had ice cream on the patio. It was really yummy. I think Veronica got like 4ths. At the end of the night she told me, "Thanks for bringing me!"  She'd liked everything, but the ice cream was her favorite. 

I ran into my friend Cort who is one of the Young Men leaders. He said, "You guys are the first people I've seen from the 7th ward. Most of the 7th ward kids are in the water."  He remarked that some of the wards had areas for their ward set up on the grass and the kids were hanging out there. They weren't even in the water. I was like, "Well that's because the 7th ward kids don't have memberships here. They know this is their only chance to swim here."  

He laughed and agreed with that. We live in a very affluent stake. Our ward still has a lot of well to do people, but compared to some of the other wards  . . . well it's different. 

Derrick spent a long time on his own little kayak. He had so much fun taking that all over the lake. He was so sad when it was time to go. I told him that we'd be able to come again next summer. That was not soon enough for him. 

On Thursday morning Veronica and I did some grocery shopping. But I was really just getting enough to get to Saturday. I figured I'd do bigger shopping on Saturday. 

When we got home everyone was kind of just doing their own thing. I was like, "Whatever, and just went to work like 90 minutes early. I was feeling kind of guilty - like we should do some big thing to mark the end of the summer. But then I remembered that last summer I went out of town to California right before school started. I guess I'm not that important at the end of the summer. 

Here's a picture I took of Veronica sorting out her grocery store treat by color. This is totally my child. 

Brandon was heading out to CSI in Burley by the time I was home from work. I took the kids swimming. It was kind of a weird trip. They closed the deep end soon after we got there so a high school swim team could practice. So the kids were all in the deep end. Turns out Veronica's bully from third grade was there. That kid is a piece of work. In my completely unprofessional opinion I think he has ODD. 

He followed all the kids around the made fun of Veronica, made fun of Derrick and then made fun of the twins when they defended their siblings. The kids finally had enough of him and decided to just go home. 

The one silver lining is that Veronica told me he had been expelled from the elementary school at the end of last year. THANK GOODNESS. That was a long time coming and so necessary. 

We came home and Veronica and I changed and heated up burritos for dinner. (I've given up preparing actual means on the nights that Brandon is at CSI.) Then we walked over to the elementary for her very last elementary school open house. 

It was a good evening, but also really weird. The 5th grade is in the classes closest to the main entrance. So we walked in and were basically at her classroom right away. We didn't have to walk down the long hallway. And we only had to go to her class. I didn't have to go see teachers for any of her siblings. 

We would have been in and out of there so fast except the 5th grade teachers are doing something new. They are going to have the kids rotate for different subjects. So Veronica's main teacher is the same teacher that Derrick had in 5th grade. She will teach social studies and science. Lydia's fifth grade teacher will teach math. (Which is awesome because she helped Lydia really love math.) And the other 5th grade teacher will teach reading. I'm not sure how much those rotations will affect Veronica because she has her IEP and will probably do those subjects in the SPED room. But we still went around and met all three teachers. 

Then we said hi to the new music teacher, the new counselor, and the new PE teacher. 

And that was it. 

We were heading home pretty soon after that. 

And I couldn't help remark that 5 years ago we'd attended this same open house. And when it was over Brandon told me he'd been fired. This was days before we bought our house. That evening had been AWFUL. But this was was just fine. 

I was still thinking about that whole anniversary while I was laying in bed on Friday morning. Five years ago we'd camped at the Murtaugh Lake Campground after the open house. Friday morning we'd got up early to go get our moving van figured out. Brandon's company had offered to pay for it. But with him being fired we figured that was off the table. So we wanted to be at the U-haul location right when they opened so we could get the U-haul truck put into our name instead of the company's. 

It had all worked out. But I decided I'd stay in bed a little longer on this Friday. I figured I owed it to Valerie from 5 years ago. I was thinking, "You're stressed now. But in 5 years you are going to wake up in that house in your own bed. And you are going to be so relaxed."

Then I got up and went to work and had a really good day there. 

After work Derrick and I went around and found things for Dierkies Lake. All of us were planning to go. But we couldn't find the pump anywhere. And I was like, "Well, if I can't blow up my floaties, I really don't want to go."

And then I thought about that some more and realized that I was REALLY sick of the kids. I thought back over the last few weeks and realized that I hadn't been alone at a time other than work or mornings since June 30 - that was a month and a half ago!

So instead Brandon took the kids to Dierkies Lake and I stayed home and enjoyed a silent house. 

I watched 2 episodes of the crown. (I'm still slowly working my way though that show.)

Then I gathered up all the empty glass jars that are spread between the upstairs cupboards and downstairs. I put them in an orderly stack on the microwave so they are ready for when I start canning things this fall. 

I went outside and weeded some flower beds. 

And finally I worked on the lesson for Sunday school. I was teaching Derrick's Sunday school class again on Sunday and I was so excited to teach some of the "war" chapters. But I was having trouble with how much there was to talk about. Seriously, I could take like 3 months on these 9 chapters. 

The kids came home and told me about how they all cliff jumped. Well almost all of them. Veronica had been too scared. 

Charlotte and Lydia had been invited to a "Favorite Things" party. So they hurried to take showers and then I took them over. They'd been really skeptical of this party and weren't sure if they would have a good time. Well, they were just fine. Around 9:00 they texted me and said they could stay until 10:00 and they were having a great time so I couldn't pick them up until then. 

When I did pick them up they were so happy they went. I was like, "I TOLD YOU SO."

Brandon had told me that he was planning to kidnap me and take me on a hike on Saturday morning. At first he wasn't planning on telling me, but then he thought better of that. I was like, "Thank you for telling me because I was planning to do a big grocery shopping trip and I didn't need you messing that up because we wouldn't have anything for dinner if you did. "

His plan was to take me to a hike in the South Hills. But since I needed to go grocery shopping we decided to do something a little closer to home and then go shopping. 

I suggested going down to Pillar Falls. 

So on Saturday morning around 7:00 we drove over to the Pillar Falls parking lot and then walked over to the trailhead. This trail starts at the top of the canyon and goes down to the river.  

Here are the signs at the top.

Here's the view into the canyon. 

And here is the steep trail. The steepness of the trail is why I've never done this before. I've been really worried about taking the kids down here without having done it myself first. And my feet have had so many issues I wasn't sure if I could handle this trail. 

But I was happy to see that the trail was paved with a rough surface. So even though it was steep, it wasn't slippery. 

As we went down we got better and better views of the bridge. 

It is so pretty. 

Here are me and Brandon together. Between Spamalot rehearsals, his CSI job, his real job, and the fact that the kids are always home, we really haven't spent a lot of time alone together this summer. 

About 3/4th of the way down we came to this beautiful waterfall. Honestly, this could have been the destination and I would have thought the hike was worth it. This was lovely. 

We kept hiking down and the trail leveled out. We started to go through some trees. 

And then we were at the rivers edge and we could see the Pillars of Pillar Falls. 

They were so cool looking. 

There was a rock wall by us that was COVERED in spider webs. 

We were down there right as the sun was rising. It was super bright. 

Here we are. 

This view was so pretty. 

I'm so glad we finally came down here. 

Then we had to go back up. Which actually wasn't as bad as down. When we'd gone down I'd had to take tiny little steps to make sure that I didn't lose my balance. But on the way up I could walk a little more normal. It was still hard, but it wasn't impossible. Here's the view of the waterfall on the way up. 

This is about the halfway point. 

I love seeing all these springs coming out of the canyon walls. 

Here's a view of Pillar Falls from almost at the top. 

We made it back up and I was COVERED in sweat. So instead of going shopping right away we went home and I took a shower. 

Brandon was asleep on the couch when I got out so I just went shopping by myself. He ended up sleeping a lot on Saturday. This was his first Saturday that he wasn't camping in like 6 weeks so I think his body was trying to catch up on sleep. 

I took a long nap after I got home from the store. And then  . . . what did we do most of Saturday . . . It was only yesterday but I'm having trouble remembering. Honestly I think it was just a last chance for rest before school starts. 

That evening Brandon and I went to the Orpheum to see The Importance of Being Earnest. We had several friends in the play. 

Our friend Kota is the guy in the stripped suit. He was Algernon. He'd been Lydia's dance partner back in Music Man and so I've always had a special affinity for him. He's had a lot of little parts with like two lines. So it was incredible to see him as a main character. I was so proud of him. 

Our friend Rachel was Gwendolyn. She is in the yellow dress. She's also been in a lot of plays with a few lines. So it was also really great to see her in a main role. 

And our friend Kerri was the governess. She also did a great job. 

I've always wanted to see this play so it was really fun to finally see it. It was really funny. This is definitely the high comedy play to balance out next months low comedy in Spamalot.  

Brandon had a lot of fun talking to all his theatre friends before and after the show. We ran into a lot of people. I'm always so happy that we got involved in all of this. 

Here we are before the play. 

This morning I woke up and my hips were super tight. I'd had to keep them really tense while I was hiking down the trail and I was feeling it.

I finished up my lesson plan. The sunday school class meets in the Young Women room which could be divided up into three sections. There's a white board in each section. I decided to divide the lesson into three sections and cover one in each room. 

So first we talked about the Battle with Zarahemnah in one room. After 15 minutes we moved to another section of the room and talked about Amalakia for 15 minutes. And then we moved to the last section and talked about Moroni's preparations for the last 15 minutes. 

It went so well. (It also helped that the most difficult kid in the class was out of town.) There's one boy who knows all the stories super well so he would get excited and start telling them. Another boy in class LOVES the scriptures. I started out the class saying we could spend 3 months on just these chapters and he was like, "I would love that!"  He also is really interested in my Annotated Book of Mormon. He's borrowed it both times I've taught. He loves to read out of it. 

It was a really fun time teaching. I'm kind of sad that the real teachers will be back next time. But I'm also glad because trying to get through these big sections in one week is really tiring. I prefer the one chapter a week approach. 

And that gets us caught up to today. Tomorrow is many things. 

It is the first day of school. 

It is also the 5 year anniversary of buying this house. (Which was also the first day of school.)

We are planning to go mini golfing and go to pizza pie cafe after school to celebrate those things. 

Anyway, thanks for reading.