I just worked a lot

This week was kind of strange. I had something planned for nearly every single night. So it was really fun. But overall the days were pretty boring and I spent a lot of time at work. 

So basically this will be a very quick recap. 

Starting with Monday where I worked a ton. I went to Aspen Grove as soon as I dropped off Derrick and I didn't leave until it was time to pick up the twins. It's been a while since I had a day like that and it was really nice to finally feel on top of some things. 

I was home with the kids after school and then I went back to work in the evening for a team meeting. I haven't been able to go to a team meeting since April so it was good to be there. 

But yeah, not really riveting stuff. 

On Tuesday I didn't have to be at work until 12:00 so I decided to hurry and paint one of the walls leading down to the basement. I'd taped it off on Monday night so as soon as Derrick was dropped off I came home and started painting. 

Here are the before pictures. This is looking down the stairs. 

And here's what the wall looks like from the basement. 

I was able to get a coat on around 9:00. The paint takes two hours to dry so at 11:00 I hurried to put on a second coat and then shower and get to work at 12:00 for Admin meeting. 

I was able to put on the third coat after the twins were home from school. I basically just told them to stay away from the wall. And it was dry ish by the time Derrick and Veronica were home. 

Here's the after pictures. I LOVE how this wall looks in the basement. 

And here's looking down the stairs. I worried it would be a little too much, but Brandon didn't even notice it for like 15 minutes after he got home. So I think we are fine. 

That night I had bunco at Kori's house. I had some of my old luck back. I had 16 wins!  Another lady tied with me. I let her get the prize because the prize I'd liked was already taken. 

Wednesday was the first Wednesday in weeks that I DIDN'T have to go into work. That was nice. On Sunday I'd been talking with my new friend Elle. She has like a 3 month old baby and is adjusting to being a stay at home mom while her husband works 12 hour shifts. We started talking in the foyer at church and she was talking and talking and talking. I'd seen this before with one of my military friends who had an infant and a deployed husband. I was thinking, "you just keep talking. You've probably been so lonely lately."

In the course of our conversation she told me she hasn't been able to use her washing machine because it's in a shared space with other renters who make her uncomfortable. I told her she was welcome to use my washer and dryer. I invited her over after church because I was going to be pretty bored while Brandon took the twins driving. That didn't quite work for her, so she asked what my Wednesday looked like. I was like, "I'm actually free that day!"

So after I dropped the kids off I picked her up and brough her, her baby, and her laundry to my house. We were able to get three loads of laundry washed and dried. 

It was also the last day of my scripture study group for the year. It was kind of an odd day to have Elle there for the first time. But I don't think we scared her away and I hope she comes next year when we are studying the 12 minor prophets of the Old Testament. In any case she was able to talk to the other 3 women who came and I think she felt much less lonely by the end. 

Wednesday night all the youth in our ward went to the Burley Temple open house. But none of my kids went. There were a couple reasons they didn't go. One was that Veronica was still going to be at theatre until after the departure time. The other reason is that lines have been really long at the open house lately and I didn't think Derrick would have a good time in a long line. So instead we all just stayed home. 

On Thursday Charlotte reminded me the chickens needed feed. So I bought that and then tossed out a handful for the chickens. They were very grateful.

I did a little bit of work for Castle Therapy (things have settled down there so it's really simple again.) I checked in via email with Gaining. And then I worked in person at Aspen Grove for 3 hours. 

That evening Brandon was out in Burley for the graduation for the second year students in the CSI maintenance tech program. 

And I had the Relief Society Friendsgiving dinner. That was super fun and I got to talk with lots of awesome women. 

On Friday I went grocery shopping in the morning before work. I'm glad I did that because even at 9:00 AM Winco was more crowded than usual. 

Then I worked for 3 hours. 

I went home and took care of a few things around the house. Then I picked up the twins. This was the last day of school for a whole week. They were very happy to be done. 

I went to get Veronica and her bass. But the other kid who plays the bass had decided to take it home. Veronica was very disappointed about that. 

That night I'd been invited to go see Wicked For Good with some friends. But I didn't want to go. Mostly because I don't like Wicked enough to pay money to see it. I'm just fine getting it from the library in a few months. But also because I was tired. I'd been somewhere three out of the last 4 nights. I just wanted to stay home. 

Derrick had wanted to watch the 2005 King Kong so I'd ordered it from the library. Brandon and I had watched this when we were dating or maybe first married. I remembered like 2 things from the 3 hour movie. Mostly, I remembered that it is too long. But I was willing to watch it again with Derrick. Brandon watched it too. It was actually better than I remember it being. But it's still too long. We were just mocking the movie by the end. 

But Derrick liked the dinosaur parts - which were the whole reason we were watching the movie anyway. So that was good.   

Saturday we were back to work on the stair rail project. Brandon and I went to the store to buy more wood for the top piece. (Our original plan no longer fit the vision.)

Here's Brandon measuring the wood. 

The kids watched movies and then came upstairs and hung out. Charlotte and Lydia started a puzzle. Derrick and Veronica played chess. 

At the store I'd also bought more paint for the wall on the other side of the stair case. I wanted this wall the same color as the kitchen - dreamstress. I had a little bit left over, but not enough to cover the wall so I'd bought a small can. It's funny because buying paint seemed so hard back when Jori went with me to help me back in January. And now it's so simple. It's nice to feel that growth. 

I taped off the wall early in the day. But Brandon was all over the place for a long time so I didn't paint right away. 

He got the top rail done and I started staining the pieces. We are staining it first and then putting everything together. 

I was worried about everyone going up and down the stairs with wet paint so I had to be very strategic. We had dinner and I put the first coat of paint on while the kids were eating. Then we went to a puzzle party at our friend Cami's house while the paint dried. 

The puzzle party was really fun. It was for a bunch of our theatre friends. We were all there for about 2 hours and then Brandon took the kids home and came back. We stayed until about 9:30. 

There were two puzzles going. I worked on one that was of the Grand Tetons. We made a lot of progress, but gave up when the mountains were just colors without any real identification.  It was still really fun. It was fun to talk with people without having to make eye contact. 

Back at home Charlotte and Lydia had finished their puzzle. 

I put another coat of stain on the wood and then put another coat of paint on the wall so it could dry while we were asleep. 

The plan is for one more coat on Monday morning before the kids get up and then we'll assemble the whole thing when Brandon is home from work on Monday night.