The week before Thanksgiving

We survived the last week of school before Thanksgiving Break. It wasn't a bad week, but we all were tired and ready for the break. It was a good feeling to make it to Friday afternoon. 

Anyway, let's recap. 

We woke up to about two inches of snow on Monday. Here's Derrick watching the snow come down while he waited for his bus. The bus was running very late. It hadn't even come when I left for work around 7:30. 

I was at work until about 9:30 and then I drove over to the hospital for my well woman check. Normally I'm pretty blasé about these check ups, but I was actually kind of nervous for this one. At other appts I could be like, "I'm young and healthy and everything is fine." But at this one all I could think about was that my mom was 40 when they found a lump on her thyroid at a well woman check - and I'm just a few months away from 40. I was like, "What are they going to find?"

But everything was fine and we didn't even have to do a pap smear. (I swear even when I'm not expecting a pap smear they are like, "Well you need one for this new reason blah blah blah" and I have to have a pap smear. So NOT having one was great.)

I went back to work and stayed until about 1:00. 

That afternoon I picked Derrick up early for his Bowling Tournament. He was all sorts of nervous for this and had said he didn't even want to participate. But I wanted him to at least try. I took him home first and had him eat something and then we got there just a few minutes before it started so that he wouldn't have time to get stressed out. 

But that didn't work. 

It was really chaotic. He was on a lane with a boy from Minico and another from Burley. They switched lanes every time they got up to bowl. That was something Derrick had never practices before so that stressed him out. And the boy from Minico was a MACHINE. He was so good. Derrick was actually bowling pretty okay, but he wasn't doing as well as that boy and it frustrated him. 

So at about the 5th frame Derrick ran off. I tried to talk him back, but I could tell it wasn't going to happen. I can handle Derrick's sensory issues, and I can handle Derrick being worried about stuff. But the two together aren't a good combo. His nervous system was in overdrive so there was really no reasoning with his logical side. 

So we had a teacher clear him off the board and we went to a table on the far side so he could put his shoes on. 

Then we went to the car. He was really worked up so I told him we'd drive around until he calmed down. After a little while he asked if we could go to Toy Town. So I told him if he calmed down we could go there. 

He really liked being in Toy Town. They have so many cool toys and they often have some out of their packages so you can try them. Derrick got this crazy spinning string toy to work. 

The next day was supposed to be a tournament in Burley. The kids were going to take the bus, but I'd been worried about how Derrick would do with that. So we planned to have Brandon take Derrick out there before his CSI class. But I was trying to figure out if I'd go watch and then take Derrick home and if I did that I'd have to figure out Veronica's theatre stuff. And I never really had a solid plan for all of that. 

So I was kind of relieved that Derrick hadn't done well at the tournament here in Twin. That meant he wouldn't be going to Burley and my life would be a lot simpler. 

That evening Brandon and the Twins went to a free mixed media art class that a local non-profit called Culture for Change put on. (Fun fact, they used to sublease three rooms from the Aspen Grove office. They had been subleasing from the previous tenants and we kept the agreement going. But our company was growing and we needed those rooms. So Culture for Change found their own space downtown in a really cool building. And now they can offer more classes.)

Originally I was going to sign up for the class with Charlotte and Lydia, but reading over the planned topics for the class made me realize I didn't want to spend 8 weeks in an art class. But Brandon would. So he's taking the classes with the twins. 

At 7:00 I had a team meeting at work. I can't remember if I've ever been there in the evening after dark. It felt weird. We are right next to a restaurant called the Turf Club. They have a big sign of a martini class. It's all lit up at night. I didn't realize how well I could see it from my window. 

Our meeting was really good. I can be really scary and intimidating - in peoples minds. So it's always good to have these face to face meetings where my coworkers can be reminded that I'm actually pretty chill and I only send a lot of emails because I care about them getting paid for seeing their clients. 

Then I came home and read Harry Potter to Veronica. She's been begging for me to read it to her. I wasn't sure it would go well, but she's been paying attention really well and asking lots of good questions. 

On Tuesday morning Brandon and I made sure all the kids got to school okay. We dropped off the twins and then went to the canyon rim to go for a walk. Derrick's teacher messaged me and told me Derrick was having a bad day and wanted to go home. So we drove over there and Brandon talked to Derrick and convinced him to stay. 

Then we went to the post office to mail something to my sister Emily and finally we went to Costco. We were looking for snow shoes. Brandon bought snow shoes there last year as a birthday present. This year we wanted to get some for me so we could go snow shoeing together. But the only ones they had there were plastic. So we didn't buy anything. I call that "winning at Costco."

I went to work around 11:00. First I stopped at Castle Therapy and got a lot done and then I went to Aspen. 

Brandon went out to Burley for his job interview. He told me the interview started at 2:00. So at 3:00 I texted him to ask him how it went. He texted back at 3:30 that he'd just finished it. 

At first I thought I might have just had the time wrong - there was no way a job interview lasted 90 minutes. But no, it really was a 90 minute interview. It had gone really well and Brandon was pretty certain that things were all lining up. We didn't like the fact that it was in Burley since that's a 45 minute drive. But there were a lot of positives that outweighed the negatives. So later in the week Brandon followed up on the job and indicated he was interested in moving forward. 

And then heard NOTHING back. 

So we aren't sure if that's a no, or if the guy was just out of town for pre-Thanksgiving stuff, or what. So it's kind of disappointing. But it was really good for Brandon to have a good job interview. 

After his interview he went to CSI and taught his last class of the year. This was with the second year students who are finishing the course. So that's the last time he'll see them. It was a little bitter sweet. 

Meanwhile I was doing all my Tuesday afternoon things. I took Veronica to her theatre class and picked her up an hour later. She came out of the doors laughing super hard with a bunch of other girls about something silly that had happened. It made me so happy to see her so happy. 

She's really thriving in theatre. I often hear her practicing singing her songs and saying her lines. It's been so good for her. 

I'd made tuna noodle casserole while she was in class. Lydia pulled it out of the oven and set the table while I was picking up Veronica. That was nice to come home to. 

After dinner Veronica washed all the dishes - without complaining. She was still riding the high from class and I'm not sure she even noticed how many dishes were really on the counter. And Charlotte rinsed. I took a picture because it is so rare to see the kids doing the dishes this happily. 

And here's the view of the living room where Derrick and Lydia were hanging out nicely. We often have nice evenings, but this one was especially nice for some reason. (Maybe because I didn't have to run Veronica to basketball right after dinner. 

I'd been debating going to work on Wednesday, but Brandon's good job interview made me realize that I should probably be taking advantage of all the free time he has now. So I stayed home from work and we hung out all day. 

We watched Hit Man. It stars Glen Powell. He was so good in it. 

That afternoon I had a dentist appointment. I was kind of wondering who scheduled that appointment. All afternoon I had to keep reminding myself about it. Normally I go in the morning right after I drop the kids off at the middle school. But I guess last May I'd had trouble getting Derrick dropped off easily. So I guess I'd scheduled this one in the afternoon to avoid those issues. But now he rides the bus and usually loves school. So that's a non issue now. 

Anyway, my appointment went fine and I got really invested in the HGTV show that was playing on the screen on the ceiling. I was kind of sad when we were done. (Though not too sad because having a hygienists scrape my teeth is not fun.) 

The young women were providing babysitting for their activity. So I dropped Charlotte and Lydia off for that. The young men were raking leaves in the dark and were told to wear headlamps. Derrick was NOT interested in that and I didn't blame him because the whole thing just sounded like poor planning. So he didn't go. 

On Thursday I kind of needed to make up for not working on Wednesday. I wanted to go to work pretty early, but Lydia had an orthodontist appointment to follow up on how her retainer is working. Brandon ended up taking her to that. (I'm really going to miss the extra help when he does go back to work.) And I took Charlotte to school. Then I went to Castle and then to Aspen. 

At Aspen Grove no one was expecting me until the afternoon which is when I usually come in on Thursdays.  So I went into my office with the door shut and got a lot done without distractions. 

I left work to go to Veronica's elementary school for my last ever Thanksgiving Lunch. I've been a little emotional about this. It seems like just yesterday we were taking this picture at the Thanksgiving Lunch in 2019. Veronica was in Kindergarten (and was only there with me because her school was already over for the day.)  Derrick was in Second grade. And Charlotte and Lydia were in third. 

And now here we were at the last one. Veronica is in 5th grade. She'll be in middle school next year. This year we had the added bonus of having Brandon come. He'd been grocery shopping and had driven straight to the school as soon as he was done. 

In other years they just had us RSVP and then we paid for the lunch on the day off. But I guess they must have run out of food last year because they did it completely different. They had us buy tickets at Parent Teacher Conference. I'd bought a ticket for me, but not for Brandon. I'd assumed he'd have a job by this point. HA HA HA HA HA

The food was really good. I always like it. I made sure to tell all the lunch ladies and school staff that this is one of my favorite days of the year. 

After the lunch I went back to work "for realsies." I got a lot more done and was feeling caught up again. Or at least as caught up as I can at a company that NEVER.STOPS.GROWING. One reason I was working extra was because one of our clinicians just got her clinical license. It's a big deal and I'm super proud of her - but it does result in more paperwork that I have to send to insurance companies to tell them about her new license. 

I left work and picked Derrick up for his last thing with Bowling Club. They were having a pizza party and bowling. Derrick wasn't interested in bowling. (He said he'd "changed his mind" which meant his mind was interested in other things now.) But he did want that pizza. So we went and he grabbed a slice and then we left. 

Bowling club ended kind of anti climactically for him. But he'd had a good month of LOVING bowling every single practice. And that is a huge win for him. So I'm happy with it. 

That night I had Bunco. My kids were asking things like, "What's the point of Bunco?"  I told them, "the real point is to have a reason to hang out with 11 other women once a month."  It's an easy enough game that you can play it while still talking. And you move around as you win and loose so you get to talk with lots of other people. 

I didn't have any crazy luck like the last two times. I actually came out perfectly even with 12 wins and 12 losses. But I'd had a great time anyway. 

Jori had given me a ride. When I left Brandon had said, "See you at one in the morning."  I was like, "we aren't going to talk that long."

Brandon knows me better than I know myself. Jori and I pulled up to my house at 10:00 . . . . and then talked in the car until 12:40! She's just so fun!

On Friday morning I had high hopes of getting to work before the kids went to school. Instead I wasn't even out of bed before they were all at school. But I did manage to get to work by a little after 9:00. 

I was there until like 1:30. I wanted to get as much done while the kids were still in school. I knew I wouldn't want to do as much work the next week when everyone was out of school. 

When I did get home I was hoping to spray the fruit trees. But it was slightly too windy and cold. 

At 3:45 I went over to the middle school to pick up Charlotte and Lydia. Lydia had agreed to help with an activity days activity at 4:15, but she needed to be picked up from school in order to make that happen. Also the girls were bringing their instruments home to practice during the break so it was helpful to have a ride. 

And it's really good I picked them up because they'd been making crafts during Cub Club that day. Charlotte had a huge paper chain in her arms and Lydia had a paper wreath around her neck. 

Veronica didn't care about learning to crochet so she didn't come, but I'm not sure if I talked about her previous activity so let me recap that really fast. It had been a talent show. Some girls sang, other's danced, some played the piano, one recited a poem they wrote. Veronica told some of her jokes. One of her leaders is my friend Olyvia. Her husband Brad was there to help with their kids and help set up. He loves stand up comedy and so really liked Veronica's jokes. He ended up buying her a little notebook and giving it to her to be her joke note book. He really wanted to support her budding comedy writing. She carefully wrote all of her jokes in there.

Also I just need to bring up the fact that Veronica has so many adults that are rather invested in her success. Jori is always talking about how funny Veronica is. Our Elders Quorum President Jeff is always telling her jokes. My friend Kori says that Veronica always says hi when she sees her at the school. And I have so many people telling me that Veronica is delightful. 

It used to be that Derrick was the one everyone knew. But it seems like the same thing is happening with Veronica now. 

Anyway, back to the girls activity. They have three adult leaders, but two of them couldn't be there. They'd asked if any adults could stay and help. I said I could. And then I asked Lydia if she could come along too because she actually knows how to crochet. Its a good thing she was there. She helped two girls learn how to chain. (She looks annoyed in this picture, but she was actually very patient and helpful.)   

While she was teaching the girls the other leader, My friend Julia, was teaching some of the other girls how to do things like the Magic Circle. This made me curious. I wasn't sure where Lydia had learned to crochet. So I asked her and her response was, "Mostly Youtube."  Right. 

When we got home Brandon was making pizza. We took the pizza down to the basement and watched Twisters. It was so fun. And it also stars Glen Powell. That guy is having a (well deserved) moment. 

On Saturday my main goal was to tackle the clutter in Veronica's room. Earlier in the week we'd discussed it and decided that it was time to take EVERYTHING out and start over again. As we talked about it she mentioned that she liked how Derrick has kind of a loft bed in his room. I realized that Veronica's room is perfect for a loft bed. Our house has vaulted ceilings because we don't have an attic. One of the walls in Veronica's room is nearly in the center of the house and is like 9 feet high. We could easily put a loft bed in her room and she'd still have plenty of head room. 

And we actually already had a bed that would be perfect as a loft bed. Charlotte and Lydia's old bunk bed was down in the craft room. We got them a new bed because that one had broke, but only one support bar was broken - and that was the one that we didn't need if we were making a bunk bed into a loft bed with a hang out area underneath. 

We convinced Brandon that this was a good idea and he bought wood to help make the bed a little taller and stronger. 

So on Saturday morning around 9:00 we started pulling everything out of her room. I'd already taken down the curtains and pulled off the bedding before I remembered to take a before picture. Here's a link to a before video. 

I think it took about 90 minutes to get everything out of the room. And I mean everything. We've done this before, but left the big stuff like the book case. And we've never taken down the pet net or the pictures. 

I spent some time getting some old pen and pencil doodles off the walls. And I vacuumed really well. 

Then Brandon took over. He and Derrick moved the pieces of the old bunk bed upstairs. They put it together and then Brandon screwed boards to it to make it taller and stronger. It went from being like 5 feet high to being 7. (Or something, I'm kind of just guessing here.)

Meanwhile Veronica and I were sorting all the stuff that came out of her room. I went through the books and took out a whole stack of them that we were done with. (I also kept a whole stack of ones that we will NEVER part with because they were well loved when the kids were little.)

I also went through all the clothes in her dresser and closet. I got pulled out a whole garbage bag worth that she'd outgrown. 

Brandon finished the bed and helped us move the desk, bookcase, and dresser back into the room. Veronica and I started putting the books and things back on her shelves. 

We played a little bit of musical mattresses. We moved the big full size mattress and bed frame down to Derrick's room. Brandon and Derrick set that up under Derrick's loft bed. So now he kind of had bunk beds. (I'll take a picture when his room is back together, it's kind of mess right now.) We took the thick mattress off of Derrick's loft bed and moved that up to Veronica's bed. Then we took Veronica's old thin mattress that has just kind of been an extra guest bed for the last like 4 years and put that on Derrick's loft bed. 

Giving Derrick the full size bed actually solves an issue that I'm not sure we talked about yet. Here's the back story. At some point in the spring or maybe early summer Derrick decided that he was too big for his loft bed. He couldn't stretch out on it anymore and he didn't like it.  So he started sleeping on our family room couch where he could stretch out. 

Then at some point he was scared of the basement and moved upstairs to the living room couch - which ironically is smaller than his bed. I thought this was just a phase and just kind of went with it. Surely he'd be sick of sleeping on the living room couch within a few days. Well its November and he's STILL sleeping on the living room couch.

In some ways its been convenient because I can really stay on his case in the morning to make sure he wakes up and gets out of bed (I mean couch) on time. But in other ways it's been odd because he has a perfectly good bedroom in the basement that isn't getting used. 

So anyway, now that the full size bed is down there he has room to stretch out again. He slept on that bed last night and I think he really liked it. So problem solved.  

I took a break when the weather warmed up outside and the sun actually came out from the clouds. I went outside and sprayed the fruit trees. I'd missed the November spray last year and regretted it this year when the tart cherry trees had worms. So I'm trying to stay really on top of that this year. 

My sprayer handle was broken and I got the oil all over me by the end. So as soon as I was done I got in the shower. 

Then I took Lydia to Joann's because she had been patiently waiting all day. She used her money to buy six skeins of yarn. She got them in every color of the rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. And then some soft yarn for a hat. 

We also stopped at DI and dropped off the books and clothes that I'd pulled out of Veronica's room. 

Back at home I desperately needed a nap. So I took a nap for about an hour. Then it was time to get back to helping Veronica get her room back together. 

Brandon had been helping one of his theatre friends with a plumbing issue at a house she just bought. He got home just as we were sorting through the last of the random stuff. All in all I think I threw away three garbage bags worth or random stuff from her room. 

Here are the after pictures. (I also took a video, but I can't find it to upload now.)  Here is her bed on top and the desk underneath. (That blanket is hanging about 6 inches below where the board is. 

Here's the book case in a new corner. 

The chair is now in a corner with the lamp behind it. 

Here's her closet. All the stuffed animals are now in bins on the shelves. 

The room feels so much better and Veronica is so happy with it. 

I took a little break, but I wasn't going to bed early that night. It was the Good Looking 4th Wall Night for Little Women. This is the night everyone dresses up super fancy and we go out to the RedHawk Gastropub for mingling after the show. Brandon and I already saw the show the week before so we weren't seeing it again, but we were going to the party. 

So at 8:45 I started curling my hair and getting in my dress. I decided to wear my green dress that I call my Holy Grail dress (which in hindsight would have been a very appropriate dress to wear to the Spamalot 4th wall night.) I call it that because it is somehow sexy, comfy, interesting, and has POCKETS. It's just the best dress ever. 

I had fun picking out jewelry that I never wear and doing my make up and hair much more dramatic than usual. 

Jori had been disappointed that I didn't have a full picture of my dress last time so I made sure to take one this time. 

We were some of the first people there because we weren't coming from the theatre. Brandon was talking with Jarod (the freaking owner of the Orpheum and director of many plays, and so many other things) he decided to sit with us. Brandon is really cool with everyone, but I'm still star struck. I was like, "We are sitting with Jarod!"  Our friends Nate, Kerri, and their daughter Payton also sat with us. Kerri was wearing a beautiful purple dress. She said she'd worn it to a wedding years ago, but hadn't worn it since. That's one of the fun things about 4th Wall Night. You can pull out your outfits that you don't really have a chance to wear anywhere else. 

They usually have appetizers and entrees on the menu for this event. But they'd already done a 4th Wall Night for a musical that had happened in Filer earlier in the month. (Ivan had been in that one. It was called Once. They did it in a tiny theatre so tickets were hard to get.)  So this time they changed the menu to just be drinks and desserts. Brandon and I both ordered a cheesecake type thing in a tortilla. It was good, but we were both eyeing the rootbeer floats too.

I also took a picture of Jarod's desserts. He'd ordered two because "I deserve it."  One was a chocolate cake and the other was some sort of pumpkin cake. He said the pumpkin one was better. 

We had so much fun mingling and talking to our friends. Lots of people commented on Brandon's set. Brandon asked Jarod if he needed to come help tear down the set after the show on Sunday. Jarod said, "No, those platforms are built so well. We are using them for Christmas Carol next month and then probably storing them for the future."  Brandon loved hearing that. 

Jarod also talked a lot about Cinderella. He'll be directing it. I'm still hoping to audition. And actually we are ALL talked about auditioning as a family. (Except Derrick who can watch youtube at the theatre just as easily as he can watch it at home.) That's actually one of the good things about this Burley job not working out. There would be no way we could make a play and a new job in Burley work. 

We talked at our table, but we also moved around and talked with other people. At one point I was sitting down and just kind of looking around. About three people in the cast and crew had young babies. Two of them had been in the play as Meg's twins. So there were just babies being passed around. Brandon was out talking with people. He was laughing and looked so happy. I remembered back to 5 years ago when we'd first moved here and he'd been so lonely. Really he's been lonely a lot in his adult life. It's hard for men to make friends. But here he was surrounded by friends. Theatre has been so so so good for our family. 

Things started to wind down at 11:40 so we paid for our food and then went home. When we walked in the door at 11:55 Derrick said, "you are home earlier. I thought you said you'd be home and midnight." I was like, "It's midnight in 5 minutes."

The kids had been busy all night. Charlotte and Lydia had each been working on paintings for their art classes at school. 

Lydia had also crocheted her own hat and scarf.  Later she offered to make one for every member of the family if I bought the yarn. That sounded like a great deal to me. 

I helped boost Veronica into her bed. (Brandon hadn't made the ladder yet.) She was a little nervous to be so high. But she also loved it. 

This is me trying to take a very tired picture of my earrings. 

And that gets us to Sunday. I'd had the kids take baths and showers on Saturday night so we didn't have to worry about it on Sunday. That meant we could all sleep in until like 9:00. 

Church was good. But the real fun was after church. We went exploring some old sights around Twin Falls. But I think I'm going to save those for the next post. 

The kids are out of school all this week, but we get off to a rocky start. Somebody scheduled the Twins well child check ups for 8:00 AM Monday morning. I don't know what I was thinking. We have to be there at 7:45. Charlotte doesn't even get up until 7:45 on a school day. So that's going to be interesting. 

But other than that the week should be really chill. We aren't going anywhere for Thanksgiving. We are getting together with Jori's family and that's going to be so fun. Derrick calls her kids "the cousins" which is pretty accurate at this point. 

Thanks for reading. 

A very social week

Last week I said that this week would be one of the most normal weeks that we'd had in a while. And I guess that was true. But there were also some out of the ordinary things that happened. And those are what we will talk about in this recap. 

First up are some cool drawings Charlotte and Lydia have been working on. 

Lydia has been working on this picture. There are about 6 dragons in this drawing.

And here's a cellular drawing Charlotte has been working on. This is the whole thing put together. 

But it's actually drawn on a lot of clear celluloid pages. 

As you take each layer away there is less detail.

The final page is cover of an Idaho travel guide. 

On Monday Brandon had a job interview. He'd made the appointment the week before when he was kind of feeling a little desperate. Our savings was running low and it felt like it was time for him to swallow his pride and take a job that wasn't quite what he was looking for. 

Well long story short, he didn't need to do that. He'd had to appeal his unemployment benefits claim. On Saturday, we'd received the letter stating that his benefits were approved. He was so happy to get that letter. And on Monday we received the direct deposit of all the weeks of unemployment benefits he was entitled to so far. I was able to refill a lot of the savings that we'd drained while waiting for those benefits. It was a good feeling to see our bank account balance go up instead of down. 

So he still went to the job interview, but basically it would pay as much as the unemployment benefits, and he's worth more than that. So he didn't pursue that job any further. 

Derrick had broken a braces bracket over the weekend. So I called up the orthodontist and they were able to get him in at 11:30 that day. So I picked him up from school and took him to the orthodontist. I was wearing my big coat because the morning had been cold. But by the time we left it was kind of warm outside and I took the coat off. 

Derrick was missing lunch and it really didn't make sense to take him back to school just to pick him up again in a few hours for bowling club. So I just let him come home early. 

At home the house was really warm so I changed into basketball shorts. I had to go pick up Charlotte for her scheduled orthodontist appointment to check on how her retainer is going. The weather was warm enough that I just wore those shorts. It was funny to walk into the orthodontist office like 2 hours after I'd left it - yet I was wearing a completely different outfit. That's fall in Idaho for you. 

That was actually the only funny thing happening thought. Charlotte was actually in tears in the car. I'd scheduled the appointment for 3:00 which meant I needed to check her out of school about 10 minutes early so we could be there on time. We've done that before without any hicups. But this time it didn't go so great. For one, I went to work early in the morning and Charlotte wasn't even out of bed when I left. So I never really talked to her about the appointment. Also art is her last class of the day. She was not happy to have to get checked out early from the class she's looked forward to all day. 

When she started crying I was like, "Um, this might be about more than just the appointment time."  We talked about it and decided that we need to be more intentional about the time we spend together. Otherwise Derrick and Veronica just kind of eat it up. 

So that night after dinner I took Charlotte shopping with me. We went to Walmart and bought a little Christmas tree. We have different plans for Christmas this year than usual. We are going to spend Christmas in a hotel. So we bought the little tree to be our tree in the hotel. Charlotte had fun picking it out and picking out the ornaments to go on it. 

We were also looking for a fuse bead gingerbread house set. But we couldn't find one in person. So I ordered her one online. And then we went and bought ice cream cones. 

Charlotte was feeling a lot better after all of that. 

On Tuesday Derrick wasn't really feeling up for school. I got him on the bus, but I told him I'd pick him up if he wasn't feeling well later. 

I dropped the twins off at school and then took the Odyssey to Jiffy Lube for an oil change. I love this time because the shop is hardly ever busy. I think I might have been the first customer of the day. They had me in and out of there so fast. 

While I was there I got a message from Derrick's teacher. Derrick wasn't feeling well. So when I was done I drove over there and picked him up. When I brought him home I told him he needed to rest so he couldn't watch any movies or anything on his chrome book. He spent a lot of time resting, but he also got so bored he took apart his fan and cleaned it and then put it back together again. 

That evening Brandon was teaching at CSI in Burley. So he went out there. I was supposed to make tuna noodle casserole, but I realized there was no time to actually do that. I had to drive Veronica to theatre class, and then pick her up, and then drive her to basketball, and then pick her up and well there just wasn't time to really make a meal. So we all had frozen burritos that everyone just heated up on their own time.

Lydia decided she wanted to set up the little tree.  

She had fun doing that. We plugged it in and basically haven't unplugged it. It's like a tiny beacon of hope. 

Veronica was kind of nervous for theatre this week. I'm not sure why. But when I picked her up she was so EXCITED. She kept yelling "I LOVE IT SO MUCH."  They'd been practicing her scene and the song that she's part of. It was wonderful to see her so happy. 

Wednesday was a momentous day. It was the first time in YEARS that I slept in on a school day. Brandon has reintegrated into our morning routine and can get everyone where they need to be all on his own. He did it when I was in Boise and again when I was working the election, but I wasn't able to sleep in those days. But Wednesday morning I felt like sleeping in and so Brandon took care of everything while I was sleeping. It was so great!

I wanted to have a really relaxing Wednesday, but that wasn't possible. I'd had to cut my work days a little short on Monday and Tuesday and that meant I had to work on Wednesday. I planned to go to work in the morning and then take Veronica to therapy in the afternoon. But then I realized that her appointment was actually at 10:00. 

Fortunately, Brandon was available. So he took care of taking Veronica to therapy and I went to Castle Therapy to take care of things there. I put in a solid hour and got so much done. I was feeling great and on top of things when I drove over to Aspen Grove. As soon as I clocked into work there I got a call from the middle school. I was like, "Oh shoot!"

It was Charlotte. She wasn't feeling well at all. Brandon was still at the therapy appt with Veronica and wouldn't be able to get to her for about 30 minutes. So I left work and drove over to the school to get Charlotte. I took her home and then went back to work. 

Every once in a while I wonder why I don't work full time. This is why. 

I went back to work and was able to get back into the flow of things. When I come in on Wednesday's I hide in my office with my door shut. It's nice to get a lot of work done that way.  

That evening the Young Men and Young Women were doing a Veteran's appreciation activity. Usually they make gift baskets and drop them off at the Veteran's houses. That's what I thought was happening until about 6:00 when the kids were saying they didn't want to go. Brandon was like, "Well I'm going so all of you need to go."  I was like, "Wait what?" 

Brandon didn't know what was happening, he just knew he needed to be at the church for some sort of Veterans Day thing. I was like, "Oh this sounds cool." So I decided that Veronica and I should go too. And I told Brandon to bring the shadow box that had a bunch of his army souvenirs in it. 

The activity ended up being super cool. They had 6 or 7 tables set up. They had each Veteran sit at a table. The youth sat at the tables too and asked questions. The veterans would answer them. Then the youth rotated about every 7 minutes. 

It was so cool. I was keeping track of Derrick so I was rotating with him. I got to hear a lot of cool stories. Everyone except Brandon was a veteran of the Vietnam war era. Most of them had enlisted after college when their deferments ran out. 

The kids got really into the stories and liked them a lot. It was so cool to see the kids developing new respect for these older ward members. 

When the activity was over, Brandon and I hung around talking to the other adult leaders for a little bit. Our kids were playing hide and go seek around the church. They didn't want us to leave. They were having so much fun. Veronica was having an especially good time. She was like, "Oh I am so ready for Young Women's."

On Thursday I was determined to have a relaxing morning. So I watched a movie that I'd checked out from the library and had been hoping to watch on Wednesday. It was Spotlight. It was so good. I was sorting papers while watching the movie. But there were parts where I just stopped what I was doing and focused on the movie. 

In the afternoon I went to work. After work I picked Derrick up from school and took him to bowling club. I took this picture of him at the beginning. He has absolutely LOVED bowling club. 

Next week they have tournaments and Derrick was getting a little nervous about those. He actually worked himself up a lot and got really frustrated. He kept saying he wanted to quit because he wasn't good enough. We left early because he was so agitated. 

Honestly, I think he was just tired. Thursdays are really long days for him. I wake him up at 6:50 and he's on the bus by 7:30. Then he has a whole school day followed by bowling until 5:30. It's a lot for him. 

When he was calmer we talked about Bowling Club. He's going to try the individual tournament on Monday. And then we'll go from there. 

That night Veronica had her last basketball practice. I dropped her off, but Brandon picked her up because I went to a Relief Society Dinner. 

Our Relief Society always has a really nice "Friendsgiving" dinner in November. The counselor over activities puts it together and it's lovely. I was able to sit by my friends Lindsey, Jori, Diantha, Jennifer, and Darla. 

Darla was in an especially fun mood. She had a lot of funny things to say. The funniest part was when Jennifer asked how Darla's mother was doing. Darla is in her 70's and so her mother would be in her 90's. She was in poor health for a long time. Darla responded, "Well, she's passed so I think she's very happy now."  I laughed so hard. 

We finished the dinner, but there was a group of us that had no interest in going home. Kori and Carol moved from their table to talk with Jori, Lindsey, and me. We had a really fun conversation as the tables around us were cleaned off. Then we stood up and kept talking while they took down the tables. Then we moved to the hall while the room was vacuumed. And then we just kept talking. Jori and I will basically NEVER stop talking if we are left to our own devices so we could have stayed there all night, but we both decided that we should probably go home around 9:00.

I had big hopes for Friday, but I woke up around 1:30 with super bad heart burn. Apparently you can't mix tortellini soup with enchilada soup when you are almost 40 years old. 

I finally got back to sleep around 3:30, but then I had to get up at 6:50 to start getting the kids ready. Brandon had a job interview at 8:00 and so he couldn't help. 

I got everyone off to school okay and then emailed my boss that I wasn't feeling well. I told him I was going to rest and then see if I felt well enough to come in later that day. 

I waited on the couch until Brandon came home and told me how the interview went. It went well and there will hopefully be a second one next week. And that's all I'm going to say about it because I DO NOT want to jinx it. 

Then I went back to bed and slept for like 3 hours. 

After that I felt well enough to work from home. The receptionist had messaged me that there weren't any checks in the mail that day so I didn't have to worry about going into work to process the checks. That was nice. I just stayed home and did 2.5 hours of work from my kitchen table. I'm always so happy that's an option. 

Then I went back to bed and took another long nap. 

Jori was having a grown up movie night that evening and I was debating even going. But I realized that I could either sit at home and watch a movie or sit at Jori's and watch a movie. So I picked watching a movie at Jori's. I wore my pajamas and then made a nest of soft blankets and that worked really well.  

I'm so glad I went. Our friends Brad and Olyvia were there as well as Jori and Tim. It was fun to talk with all of them. The movie was Jori's favorite movie - Cyrano. It's a modern version of Cyrano D'Bergerac. Peter Dinklage plays Cyrano. He was wonderful to watch. And its a musical too. The singing was so good. 

When it was over Brandon and I stayed and talked with Jori and Tim until like 11:30. The movie night had started at 7:30. So yeah, it was another wonderful 4 hours of hanging out with Jori. In case you can't tell she's like my best friend. 

The kids had had a great time staying up watching their own movies. I love having older kids. 

We all slept in late on Saturday - well except Brandon who is nearly done with the novel he's been writing for years. He got up at 6:00 and worked on that. 

I spent a lot of the day organizing our craft room. It had a lot of stuff in there that just needed some attention. It still needs a lot of work, but it's looking a lot better. 

At 12:00 Veronica had her last basketball game. She did the tip off. She's like a head taller than any of the other players. So she just reaching up and hit that ball like it was nothing. It was so cool to watch. Brandon came with to this game. He said that was his favorite part. 

Here she is doing her thing under the hoop. When they are on defense that's where she goes to try to block shots. When they are on offense that's where she goes to try to get missed shots and put them into the hoop. 

Her team ended up loosing - which was sad. But everyone had improved a lot. Veronica was excited to get a medal. 

We went to the store and bought ice cream and root beer and had root beer floats at home. 

Veronica told me that she'd had blurry vision during the game and said that maybe she needed glasses. I was kind of brushing that off and telling her she'd just had her eyes checked. A few hours later Veronica found me in the craft room. She asked, "How do I know if I'm having a migraine?"

She said she had a really bad headache and I was like, "Oh shoot, I probably should have paid better attention when you told me your vision was blurry."

This is the second migraine that Veronica has had so fortunately I knew what to do this time. I had her go in her room and we turned off all the lights and made sure her curtains were shut really well. I gave her ibuprofen. I put ice in a ziplock bag and put that on the back of her neck. And finally I rubbed lavender oil on her temples. 

Her headache stopped pounding and she was able to fall asleep. I was sitting in the chair in her room and I took a nap too while she was asleep. 

She felt a lot better when she woke up. I took her on some errands to take three large toys to DI and then to buy ornament hooks at Walmart. 

That evening Brandon and I went to see Little Women at the Orpheum. Brandon got comp tickets to this play since he helped build the set. Jarod ended up giving us seats right in the middle of Row B. That's the closest I've ever sat to a stage. It was kind of amazing to be that close. Here we are before the show.

And here's the set. (This picture doesn't really do it justice.) There's a big area down below where the mail action happened. But there was also an "attic" area where some action took place. Brandon made sure the platform for the attic was very sturdy.

I heard so many complements about this set. There had been some scary moments with the stairs and platforms used in Spamalot. Brandon was like, "these actors DON'T have a clue about building things."  So he'd volunteered to help. And everyone was so grateful. 

Apparently one person had said, "Now, that's how a platform is supposed to feel."

The director Molly thanked Brandon after the show. She said that the set had been one of her biggest worries. She's been so relieved when he'd taken care of it. She was like, "It's everything I hoped it would be. Just just did it."  I was like, "That's how it is living with him."

Here's what I wrote about the show on Facebook. 

Brandon and I went to see Little Women at the Orpheum last night. It was a delight!

I've been a fan of Little Women since my mom read me the book when I was 9. I even did a book report on Louisa May Alcott in 5th grade. I really enjoyed the play. Some things were in a different order than the book/movie, and some things were condensed, but instead of annoying me it actually made me pay closer attention. Like, I knew what happened, but I really wanted to see how it would unfold in this story.

Brandon had no prior experience with the story. But he enjoyed the show a lot. I'm so happy we finally found a way for him to experience the story of Little Women.

Everything about the show was wonderful. The singing was incredible. I'm constantly surprised at how many talented sings we have in the Magic Valley.

The costumes were also stunning. In most plays you'll see maybe two or three costumes per character. I was expecting Jo to have like one dress as young Jo and another as older Jo and then maybe an extra fancy dress for the ball scene. Instead Jo - and all the other girls - were coming out in new outfits nearly every scene. I could have spent the whole evening just looking at only the costumes and come away satisfied.

And we have to talk about the set - because Brandon helped build it. He made sure everything was stable and sturdy. So many people were thanking him after the show. He kept saying, "well, I just pretend to be an actor, this is what I'm actually good at."

You can see the show next week from the 21st -24th. If you are local make sure you see it.

And here are some extra observations. Marmie was played by our friend Sarah. She was the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot. In case you forgot, Spamalot only ended in September. She turned right around from that big role and started rehearsals for Little Women. She was fabulous in both roles. I'm just blown away by her talent. 

Sarah's husband Uriah played Professor Bhaer. He'd also been in Spamalot as Lancelot. I'd never quite bought him as Lancelot, but I totally bought him as Professor Bhaer. In fact, I totally forgot that he was married to Sarah. There's a part where Marmie interrupts Jo and Professor Bhaer as they are professing their love for eachother. It's a funny moment no matter what, but it's especially funny if you know that Sarah and Uriah are married in real life. Well I'd completely forgot that fact in the moment. It was only afterward that I realized how funny it was. 

And actually it's even funnier because Older Jo was played by Sarah's sister. So she was interrupting her sister and her husband together.  

Our little friend Payton was in the play as a Troll. (There's a bit of a play within a play where Jo reads one of her stories and it's acted out on stage.) I knew that Payton had that part, but I didn't realize it was a singing part. She did so well!  Her actors bio said, "Payton is 9 years old and this is her 4th play."  I keep saying she's going to be ready to direct a play in like 5 years because she's been on set so much. 

We had several friends in the audience. At intermission Brandon made the rounds and talked to people. Our neighbor Dianna was there and I talked to her. When we came back together Brandon was like, "Oh we are invited to Rachel and Avery's birthday party tomorrow."

At the end of the play we spent a long time talking to people about how great the play had been. It took us a long time to even make it to the lobby. 

We were home by about 10:30. I went to bed, but I just kind of sat in bed and smiled happily for a long time. I love live theatre anyway, but it's especially wonderful to be part of the theatre community. I'm still kind of in awe that this is my life. 

We slept in late this morning. So it was kind of a rush to get out the door for church at 10:30. I said the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting. 

After church Charlotte was hard at work on her fuse bead gingerbread house. It had come in the mail on Saturday and she'd wasted no time getting to work on it. 

We had our little Come Follow Me study which is basically just watching the Line Upon Line videos and the Book of Mormon video. The kids were really into the story of the Brother of Jarod. 

Then Brandon and I went to the birthday party. We planned to make just a little appearance and maybe stay for like an hour tops. Then we walked in and I was like, "Oh I want to stay here forever!"

Everyone was in their pajamas. It was at Rachel's mother in laws house and it was so inviting. There was a lot of good food on the counter. 

I was wearing jeans like a sucker. So after about 15 minutes of me regretting that decision I decided to go back home and get in pajamas and maybe pick up a kid or two. 

So I got in comfy pants and talked Veronica and Derrick into coming with me. Veronica was coming because Payton was there. Derrick was coming for the soda. 

We came back to the party and soon they were putting together a group to play a game called Mysterium. It's kind of like Clue. My first thought was "I hate board games. I do not want to play that."

And then I thought, "Actually, I think I'd like to play."  So I joined the group. Out of the 6 of us only 1 had ever played. So that made it fun for us to all learn together. I liked it a lot. 

And then we played Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit and I had a good time playing that too. I told Brandon, "today I learned I like to play board games with adults."

I was on a team with Rachel's husband Ethan. He's actually one of my oldest acquaintances/friends from Twin Falls.  He was the school counselor at our elementary school when we first moved to Twin Falls. When Charlotte had a hard time adjusting to the new school and started showing signs of anxiety we had a meeting with her teacher and the school counselor. That was like September of 2019. Fast forward 5 years and 2 months later and we were playing a game together. 

Ethan and I were probably the only two non-actors in the group. We were playing Trivial Pursuit with King Arthur, the scary pirate that killed Brandon's character in Treasure Island, Sir Robin, Dr Livesey, and Charlotte and Lydia's mom from Music Man. 

Other people at the party were Gwendolyn from the Importance of Being Earnest, a foreign princes from Little Mermaid, Miss Prism from Earnest, Mrs Paroo from Music Man, and Brandon's dance partner from the Finland scene in Spamalot. 

It was a talented group. And really fun too. 

We left around 5:00 which was two hours longer than the hour I'd thought we'd stay. 

Gosh I love our theatre family. 

And now here we are nearing the beginning of the next week. Its our last week of school before Thanksgiving break. There's a lot scheduled. I somehow managed to schedule both a well women check and a dentist appointment. I'm not looking forward to either of them. 

But the rest of the week should be good. 

Anyway, thanks for reading. 

Election week

This will be a surprisingly short post. I literally only took 6 pictures this week. And three of them were on Tuesday. 

The election dominated my week. Not just emotionally, but also physically. I worked at the polls on Tuesday which meant that Monday was spent preparing to be away from work and Wednesday was spent catching up from being away from work. I spent most of the week rather confused about what day of the week it actually was. 

On Monday Derrick had bowling club after school. If he took the bus home he wouldn't get home in time, so I picked him up from school. He'd saved up enough money for another knock off nerf gun from walmart. We'd ordered it online so we went and picked it up before going to bowling club. He was so excited about the gun. And it was HUGE! Derrick had fun comparing it to various parts of the car. Here it is against the sliding doors. 

I was super sleepy, but I didn't want to take a nap. So I stayed at Bowling club with Derrick. He's having a really fun time there. Bowling club lasts 90 minutes, but Derrick always wants it to last longer. He could bowl forever.

I went to bed around 8:30 Monday night because I knew I was going to have a long day on Tuesday.  

On Tuesday I was up at 6:00. I got ready and ate breakfast. Around 6:45 I drove over to the Valley Christian Church. That's the polling location for Twin Falls Precinct's 7 and 9.

Here's a picture I took from the car before I went in.

The other poll workers arrived around the same time I did. There were four of us poll book workers and two registrars. Out of the poll workers I was the only one with experience - but I'd only been a registrar before. One of the registrars was new and one was the lady I worked with 2 years ago. 

Our Chief Judge has been working elections for like 25 years, which doesn't seem right because she looks like she's 35 years old. So I guess she started at age 10. 

She was a little late (she got stuck behind a school bus), and I didn't want to waste time so I was directing us on how to set up tables. This is my polling location and I worked here too years ago so I knew how things should be set up. But I also knew that we probably should do it very differently this year. Two years ago we'd had a huge line after about 6:00.  We'd had to route people through a weird room next to the kitchen. I didn't want that to happen again. 

So after our Chief Judge showed up I told her we needed to reconfigure things. This had been her polling location many years ago and she remembered that they used to have people come through a different door all together and wait in line down a long hallway. So that's how she had us do things this year.  

THANK GOODNESS we did that. We had a huge line down that hallway in the morning. I'm glad people were able to wait in line in doors instead of outside. 

We got everything set up. I want to take a picture of the set up, but it felt weird. So I'll just describe it. We had four tables set up in a long line. Each pollbook worker had their own table. We each had our own printer and we each had an i-pad type tablet. These tablets had cameras that we would use to scan the barcodes on the back of drivers licenses. That would pull up the voter information (usually). Then we'd verify that the name and address matched what the voter told us. After that we'd flip the tablet over and they would sign their name. Then I'd flip it back and I would print their ballot. 

At least that's what happened eventually - I actually had a printer problem for the first 45 minutes. My printer was only printing part of the ballot. Fortunately we figured it out pretty quick so I only gave out 3 messed up ballots and we were able to re-print ballots for those guys. 

We couldn't figure out what was wrong so I had to sit there awkwardly while we waited for one of the county tech support people to show up and help out. I was so happy when he showed up and got my printer going again. After that I didn't have a problem again. 

Brandon showed up while the line was still really long (and while my printer was still down.) By the time he made it to me my printer was working again. He checked in with me and then gave me a kiss. Shannon, the Chief Judge, laughed and said, "Hey don't kiss the voters."

We worked through the line and it was gone by 10:00.  But we had a steady stream of people all day. 

We took breaks throughout the day. Here I am on a break in the morning. 

The day went really fast. There were a few lulls, but we stayed busy the whole time. My favorite thing was seeing lots of my friends and neighbors come through. 

The funniest part of the day was when one of the other printers went down. The voter had been saying something about Trump and then the printer went down so she was like, "Oh I guess I shouldn't mention him around the machinery."  The printer had issues for a while so they moved her over to me so I could reprint the ballot so she could go vote. Right before my printer started printing the paper the lady made a hand waving motion over the printer and whispered "Kamala" like it was a magic word. My printer immediately started printing. It was hilarious.  

I'd brought a lunch and some extra food. Around 3:00 we all ordered sandwiches from Jimmy Johns. That sandwich was delicious. 

Around 5:00 we started to have a pretty steady line. I expected us to have a line until 8:00 or later. So I was surprised when the line disappeared around 7:15. 

We had a few more registered voters show up, but we actually had more unregistered voters than registered by the end. 

There were so many registrations all day long. I think that when I worked registration before we did something like 50 or maybe 75 registrations. This year there were close to 300!  Some of those were people updating things like names or addresses, but many were people who had never voted or who hadn't voted in a long time. 

The polls closed at 8:00. But Idaho has two time zones so no election results would start to be available until the polls closed in northern Idaho at 8:00 Pacific Time. That meant we were in no real hurry to get everything finished up and sent to the county offices.

It was kind of fun to see what happened with the ballots. At the beginning of the day the ballot boxes were unlocked, open, and empty. After the first voter put their ballot into the box, both boxes were locked with green zip ties. After the polls closed we opened the ballot boxes and started counting boxes. We weren't tallying votes or anything like that. We were just putting the ballots so that they were all facing the same way and putting them into stacks of 25. Then we counted how many we had in total. Shannon made sure that the number of ballots in the box matched the number of ballots that had been printed. 

We also packed up all of the printers, the tablets, and voting booths up. 

Most of the other workers went home after everything was cleaned up. But I was low key shadowing the Chief Judge so I could see everything she was doing. My goal is to be a Chief Judge when I'm 50, but honestly I could do it sooner because a lot of the older poll workers have retired or will retire soon. So I was watching her closely because I could be doing this sooner rather than later. 

I stayed and helped try to help organize the registrar paperwork. It was a big job since we had nearly 300 of them. 

After all the paperwork was finished we put all the ballots, the extra ballot paper, and all the voter registration paperwork into the ballot boxes. Then they were sealed with red zip ties. The zip ties had special tags with numbers. That way no one could open the zip ties without anyone knowing. 

Shannon put the ballot boxes into her car and took them to the county building where they would be opened and scanned.

We all left at 10:00. That means I worked a 15 hour day. 

All the kids were in home when I got home. Brandon was still awake. He told me about his day. He'd taught at CSI that night. That meant the kids had been home alone from the time they got home until he got home around 9:00. I'd been a little worried about this and had almost not worked this election. But when I'd asked the kids if they would be okay being home alone that day they'd been like, "Yeah, we'll be fine." And they had been fine. 

I'd had Veronica had go home from school with her friend that is also in her theatre class. So that's how she got to theatre. And by the time she was done with theatre Charlotte and Lydia were home. Derrick is allowed to get off his bus without an adult there to meet him so he was just dropped off no problem. Then the kids hung out and were fine. 

I'd started coughing around 5:00 at the polls. I felt like it was just from talking to much and I'd been able to get rid of the cough by drinking water. But the cough came back when I got home. I ended up taking Nyquil and going to bed. 

On Wednesday I planned to sleep in. But I made the mistake of looking at my phone and seeing that the election was looking like it was in Donald Trumps favor. That shocked me awake. I'd expected the results to take like 4 days like they did in 2020. So I was not in any sort of state to actually see results. Let alone those results. 

I went to work and got caught up there and then I came home and just kind of wallowed in grief. It felt like 2016 all over again. And to make things worse I was reliving ALL of my November 2016 feelings. That's when we moved from Fort Rucker to Brandon's parents house, we didn't have jobs, or a plan for the future, and it was super stressful. 

Eventually I was able to separate all my 2016 flashback feelings from my feelings about the election. I'm still super upset about the election results, but things aren't feeling as hopeless. 

Thursday started out strange, but got better.

We are planning to stay in a hotel over Christmas. Brandon's brother Bryan will be in town and so will my sister Lindsey and so it just makes more sense to be in Utah for a few days rather than try to drive back and forth. The kids were a little hesitant about this plan but as soon as I said the words, "hotel with a POOL" they decided this was going to be the best Christmas ever. 

On Monday I'd quickly reserved two hotel rooms at a hotel with a pool for a few days. But I was thinking that maybe I could find a hotel suite that would fit all six of us for about the same price as two rooms. So I started looking for that on Thursday morning. I found a really cool looking suite so I reserved that and then cancelled the existing reservation for the two rooms. And then I looked at the suite reservation some more and realized that the pool was OUTSIDE.  

And outside pool wouldn't work at all. So I hurried and rebooked the two rooms that I'd just cancelled and then cancelled the suite. So that was 45 minutes that ultimately didn't matter. 

I was feeling pretty discouraged about my ability to actually accomplish anything. I was scheduled to meet with Ivan and I was considering cancelling that, but I figured we might as well get together for a minute.  

Well I'm so happy I went through with that.  We ended up having a huge breakthrough on our month long saga with Medicare. Several weeks ago we got a Medicare payment, but we didn't have any information about which appointments the payment went to. Well we finally got the payment info. It was so great!

That gave me a huge dose of dopamine that turned my whole day around. I so much better about everything. 

I went to Aspen Grove and got a lot done there. Then I picked up Derrick for bowling club. He's always so happy about bowling club. He talks about it all the time. He wants to buy his own ball. 

Friday was a good day. I went into Aspen Grove first thing in the morning and got a lot done. Then I came home and took a very, very long nap. 

That night we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. 

Saturday was another good day. We got the house all cleaned up and then did a little bit of yard work. I cleaned up the last of the dead flowers. 

Veronica had a basketball game. She's gotten so much better. About 5 different times she ended up catching the ball when the other team tried to shoot a basket. Then she was the one to dribble it across the court and hand it off to the point guard. 

She almost made a basket right at the buzzer of the third quarter. But it didn't go in. It was still a really cool moment. 

When we came home I made raspberry jam from my raspberries. I made some in little quarter pint jars that were so adorable. These are so I can give them out at presents. 

I also made little half pint and pint sized. I love how they look. 

That night we had quite the party at our house. It was Derrick's second movie night. They were watching The Meg 2. We had three boys and one of the boys dads come watch the movie. 

We also had Payton come over. Her parents had tickets to see Once the musical. This was a musical happening at a tiny theatre in Filer. It seated 40 people total. So tickets were HARD to get. They'd been on a wait list and found out they got tickets on Wednesday. So I was happy to have Payton come over while her parents went there. 

Payton is so fun. She said, "It's like Brandon and Valerie are my uncle and aunt and you guys are my cousins."  And yeah, that's basically how it is. Theatre family is so great. 

She was there until about 10:00. We stayed up playing Picwits. It was fun. 

This morning we slept in until 9:00. Then we had church. After church I went over to Jori's so we could process the election results together. It was very needed for both of us. Before I left I said, "I'm going to Jori's I'll be home in 10 hours."  But really it was only like 4 hours. I was home by 6:00 so I could take Veronica to her Temple and Priesthood Preview night at the church. She's so ready to go to Young Women's next year. 

And that gets us all caught up. 

This next week is probably the most normal week we've had in a while. I'm looking forward to a nice quiet week with a normal schedule. 

Thanks for reading.