Summer Vacation 2025 - Week 11 - The Set: Part 2

Like I said in the last post. The Set for Much Ado About Nothing DOMINATED our lives for two weeks. 

Brandon took the day off of work and spent the whole day putting the set together. He was there from 8:00 AM until about 6:00 PM. 

I went to Aspen Grove in the morning, but left around 10:00. Our fridge was FINALLY getting delivered at 10:30. Yes, we'd lived without a fridge for like 2 weeks. It was supposed to come on the Tuesday that Brandon went to Boys Camp. But Monday night he got a message saying it wouldn't come until Saturday. And with everything else going on there really wasn't a chance to do anything about that. No one was home to get the fridge on Saturday morning so the drop off time was bumped to Monday morning. 

When the delivery guys did show up they were super quick. One guy took our side door off the hinges while the other unpacked the fridge from the box. Then they put on this strap harness thing and walked it into our house together. One guy plugged it in and the other put the door back on. I signed a thing and they took the old fridge away. They were in an out in under 15 minutes. 

I finished the deposit and took it to the bank. While I was at the bank I happened to look down and see the milage on my van. I'm at 292900. 7100 away from my goal of 300,000.

I'd completely overbooked myself for the afternoon. All four kids had a dentist appt at 12:00. Charlotte and Lydia had a retainer check at the orthodontist at 1:00. And Derrick had his well check at 3:00. 

And then I had to make it more complicated by somehow forgetting to pay our dental premium and having our coverage paused. Thankfully I figure that out BEFORE the dentist appointment. So none of the girls could be seen until we get their coverage restored. (I'm still not sure what happened. I was pretty certain I'd paid it each month, but my bank records and the insurance records say otherwise.) Derrick is still on Katie Beckett Medicaid so he was still able to have his appointment as scheduled. Everyone else got re-scheduled for September. The insurance customer service lady was super nice and we had a good laugh over how I work with insurance every day and even I can't stay on top of this stuff. 

So I took Derrick to the dentist. Then took him home and picked up the twins and took them to their orthodontist appointment in the same office complex as the dentist. Driving back and forth would be a theme for this week. 

Then I took Derrick to his well check. When they measured him they said he was 6 feet 3 inches!

After all those appointments were taken care of I checked in with Brandon. I brought the girls over to help with some painting and things. Veronica painted the prison bars black. 

Lydia was done with the garden panels. There were still four panels to go. A door, and three rooms. 

We came home and had BLT's for dinner because we had so many ripe tomatoes. 

On Tuesday Charlotte was picking up another shift of trimming garlic at the berry farm. So I took her there and then went to work. I picked her up at 10:00. 

At noon we took Marcia to the dog park so we could meet up with our friend Heather who is going to watch her while we are out of town. We wanted to make sure Marcia got along with Heather's two tiny dogs. They did so that was great. 

Then we went home and I picked up Derrick and took him basically right back to the area where the dog park is. We were a few streets away at his Middle School for registration. He is really excited for school this year. 

Brandon was at CSI that evening. I took Lydia to the Orpheum so she could paint. She was able to get one of the rooms roughed out and finished the door. I painted a lot of random things like a floor panel that was pink because it was used in Matilda. I also painted a wall in one of the room scenes. 

We'd been hoping that Jori could come. Charlotte and Veronica were going to stay home and watch her kids. But she couldn't make it. 

Back at home Charlotte harvested some carrots. 

Lydia picked a bunch of raspberries and tomatoes. 

Here's Charlotte by the tomatoes. 

I took a picture of our harvest on Wednesday.

It was the twins last day at the berry farm. They got their pay checks when they were done. Charlotte's was $115 for July. We took them to the bank and got them cashed. Our teller was Tracy who has worked there forever. She remembers the girls from when they were in 5th grade and I'd bring one kid along each time I had a PTO deposit. 

Veronica had registration at her middle school. We picked up her schedule and then walked around and found all her classrooms. But I wasn't sure how accurate her schedule was. I didn't see SPED on her schedule. So when we got home I emailed her counselor about that. I also emailed Derrick's teacher about adding Gen Ed classes to his schedule. So one kid needed SPED and the other needed less SPED. My life is not simple. 

Veronica also had Physical Therapy that afternoon. 

When that was over I took Charlotte and Lydia to the Orpheum for what I was hoping was the last work day. Brandon came there right after work and changed into his building clothes. 

I'd promised Lydia that we would get ice cream at the Cloverleaf Creamery when the set was complete. So she was pretty motivated to get it done. Here she is working on one of the room panels. 

I went up and down the stairs to the basement so many times. First I was looking for more brown. Then I needed a different brown because that was too marron. Then I went to get some gold that I'd seen down there so Lydia could use it to paint a mirror frame. Later I was going up and down the stairs to put away supplies. I kept thinking, "I wore the wrong shoes for this."

Here are Charlotte and Lydia each working on a panel.  Charlotte was mostly there to help with all the extra things. She helped Brandon with a lot.  

It's kind of hard to tell, but the panels are the same size, and somehow Lydia had made the rooms painted on them look different sizes. I was blown away by her skill at every step of the way in this, but this was probably the most impressive thing. I was like, "How are you doing this?"

Here are both bedroom panels. I love that sunlight streaming in through the window. 

The paint is stored in the basement along with all the costumes. So I decided to take some pictures during my many trips to the paint closet. Here are the Shakespeare Abridged Costumes and the HadesTown Costumes. 

And here is Hades super cool hat. This thing should be permanently on display somewhere. It's so cool!

Here's the costume storage area. 

And here is the main brush Lydia used to paint most of the set. I wasn't going to take a picture of it, but I had to go back down one last time and I was like, "Yeah, I need a picture of that."

I was super hungry and my blood sugar was crashing. So I took Charlotte home and Brandon and Lydia came home a little after that. We had dinner. Then Derrick had mini golf for Young Mens. I dropped him off for that. And then drove down town and met up with Brandon and the girls at Cloverleaf. Since everyone had worked on the set we all got ice cream, but Lydia got two scoops.  

Thursday was a big billing day for me. Ivan's medicaid stuff has been a mess for a few weeks. Things were better, but I had a lot of work to do to get everything straightened out. I started at 6:45 and worked until 9:30. UUUUHHHHHHHH. But I was determined to have it all cleaned up before I went on vacation this week. 

Then I took the girls to the high school for their registration. We got their schedules and they have three classes together. Orchestra, Algebra, and Freshman Foundations. We walked all over the school and figured out where all their classes are. 

Then I went to work at Aspen Grove and took care of a bunch of stuff there. 

That night the girls and I went to see the dress rehearsal for Much Ado About Nothing. It was so great to see the set come to life. 

For Act II we moved up to the balcony and watched from there. I took this picture before Act II started. 

The play was good, but I'm so glad I took the girls when it was free because they were pretty bored for a lot of it. Veronica was like, "What is going on?"

I plan to see it again for real with Brandon so I'll talk about it in depth when we do that. (Also I'm still feeling a lot of stress when I think about this play so I want some space before write a lot about it.)

Brandon was at CSI again. That's why he wasn't there. 

Friday was an amazing day because for the first time in forever I didn't have to think about Much Ado About Nothing. (though I still went to the Orpheum to take paint rollers back after I'd washed them out at home.)

I texted Jori and was like, "Hey I have my life back. Do you want to hang out this weekend?"  We came up with the tentative plan to get our families together and watch K-Pop Demon Hunters. Later Tim was able to get the day off work which was good because IT WAS HIS BIRTHDAY!  So then it turned into the family coming over and Brandon making Tim a Key Lime Pie for his birthday. 

I had an amazing day at work on Friday where I was able to look into a lot of old claims and move them closer to getting paid. 

Oh and Lydia painted another painting because she was no where near burned out. 

That afternoon Veronica had Physical Therapy. then we went out to Jerome and did some school clothes shopping at a thrift store where everything is a dollar. We got so much good stuff for only $30.  

And then we came home and Brandon made pizza and we watched the Mine Craft Movie and it was so nice to be DONE. 

The DONENESS spread into Saturday. I didn't get out of bed until Noon. And then I didn't really do much. My body was doing that finish line thing where it is like, "We made it and I am RESTING now!"

Brandon and the kids deep cleaned the family room. They found so many spoons under the couch. 

We had nothing planned for Saturday because for most of the summer I thought we'd be out of town this weekend. We are going to Northern Idaho for a family reunion with Brandon's family next week and I kind of planned on going up early. But we didn't do that. So we were home deep cleaning the house and relaxing. 

Saturday morning I got up early and worked on exponent guest posts for hours on the patio. It was wonderful. Derrick and I had refilled the humming bird feeder and a humming bird came over a few times. 

Church was okay. 

After church we deep cleaned the bathrooms and ran a few more loads of laundry through. 

Jori's family came over and brought everything to make dinner. Tim hadn't wanted to host a party on his birthday, and somehow cooking at our house was easier. The logic doesn't add up, but I'm not complaining. They made this yummy cabbage goodness. I could feel all my eastern European ancestors rejoicing as I ate it. 

Then we watched K-Pop demon hunters and EVERYONE loved it. I've been telling Jori to watch it ever since I first saw it. They don't have netflix right now so that's why they had to come to our house to watch it. 

And then we had the key lime pie. It was so good and I don't know why I didn't take a picture. Brandon is really good at making birthdays a big deal for people. So he was so happy to do that for Tim. 

We talked and all the sudden it was almost 10:00 and bedtime.

And that gets us through another week. And now I'm caught up on this blog - just in time to go on another trip. 

This summer started with a road trip and it's ending with one too. But this time we have a rental van so hopefully there is a whole lot less car drama on this trip. 

Thanks for reading.