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.