I've been thinking a lot about Dandelions. You know, those pretty yellow flowers that spring up everywhere. I know they get a bad rap as a weed, but there is a lot we can learn from them. They grow anywhere. And they send out tiny seeds that create more flowers.
Dandelions are the symbol of military children because:
I've often considered dandelions to be my personal symbol as well as a symbol of my children. I've lived a very nomadic life as an adult. As a result, I've got "homes" spread out all over this country.
One feature of dandelions that I've been thinking about in particular is the tap root. The tap root is part of what makes dandelions so resilient. It's a big thick root that grows deep into the ground. The root is what brings the nutrients up to the plant and allows it to grow. That's why dandelions grow back if you mow them.
Dandelions grow their tap roots very quickly. I feel like I do the same thing in my life. When we move some where I've learned to quickly grow my own symbolic tap root. I meet people and try to learn their names and become friends within a few weeks. I try to get involved in the local community. I want to speak in church and have a calling right away. It takes some time, but usually within 6-9 months my tap root in is place and I can work on blossoming.
We are coming up on our year mark here in Pocatello. I'm definitely feeling like its blossom time. The past two weeks have been crazy busy. We haven't just been participating in things - we've been creating things for others to participate in. And that's a big milestone.
Of course there is another part to this whole dandelion metaphor though. And its the sad part. Eventually this blossom is going to go to seed and we'll get blown to our next home. We renewed our lease on August 1st. And rather than renew for 12 months I realized it would be better to get a shorter lease. We signed a 10 month lease - that get's us to the end of May. Brandon graduates at the beginning of May and the kids finish school at the end. And then we'll move on to wherever is next. I know ultimately that change will be good, but part of me is already dreading it. This might be the hardest goodbye yet.
But I've learned time and time again that no matter how short my time is in a place I can spend that time doing good. I can think of it as "we only have 10 more months" or I can think of it as "we get to have 10 more months." I think you know which way I choose to view it.
So let's re-cap what my family has been up to the past two weeks. I warning you right now, there is A LOT of stuff in here. Like I said, I've been blossoming lately. So a lot of things that I've been working on have started to come to fruition - sometimes simultaneously. It's been really fun.
First up we have the kids Adventure Camp Stuff. They had their last swimming lessons on July 30th and then went to the Splash Pad in Chubbuck that afternoon.
The next day they went on their field trip to the Aquarium in Idaho Falls. I had to work, but Brandon is out of school so he went along and brought Veronica.
They talked about Dory Fish, and Nemo Fish.
They loved seeing all the different tanks.
They were able to pet rays.
They saw a python. (I think it's a python. Veronica kept telling me about the yellow snake.)
There was one tank where they could put their hands in and little fish would nibble at their skin. Derrick kept telling me about the tickle fish. I think if we ever get a fish we should name it Tickles.
Derrick was in HEAVEN this whole day. He really loves fish and so he was super excited to see all the tanks. He talked to me for probably 5 minutes all about the different fish he saw. Including this eel.
And this shark.
There was also a bird area that the kids loved.
In the afternoon the kids went to an Art Museum, but Derrick must have been a bit more difficult to keep in line there because Brandon didn't take any pictures of that.
Actually he was having trouble with Veronica. On Monday afternoon I came home from work and found Veronica laying on my bed. I felt her and she felt very warm. I gave her water and changed her into cooler clothes and that seemed to help. But on Tuesday afternoon she started overheating again. She was so hot in fact that Miss Wenda took her into the bathroom and put wet papertowels on her neck and forehead.
When I came home from work, Veronica was laying on my bed again wearing nothing but her underwear. Brandon had a laid a wet towel over her. And she still felt very warm.
Brandon said that he'd asked her if she'd been drinking water and she told him that she hadn't drank any water because she didn't want to wet the bed. Apparently she'd taken our lectures about not drinking water before bedtime to mean don't drink water anytime. Oops, that was a bad parenting moment.
So we spend the evening getting as much water and ice into her as possible. She looked terrible. Her face was pale and her eyes looked like they had dark circles. It was scary. I was super close to taking her to the emergency room for an IV or something, but I figured they would just give her water and otter pops like we were already doing. So I decided to wait it out for a bit. I told Brandon that if she wasn't better by morning we would make a same day appointment with her pediatrician. She fell into a fit full sleep and by morning she was looking a lot better.
Brandon kept her home from daycare that whole day and made sure she drank plenty of water. She was much better by the afternoon.
On Wednesday the kids had their last day of Tumbling followed by their third to last day of skating at Deleta. Derrick has now apparently mastered roller blading in addition to roller skating.
I had cubscouts on Wednesday night. I brought my little tent and taught the boys how to set it up. Then the boys took turns showing that they could fit through the little shoe door next to the big door.
In other news, we got a "new" dryer. Our rental house came with a washer and dryer so when we moved in we just put our washer and dryer into the garage. The rental company doesn't maintain the washer or dryer so when the dryer started having problems we had to pay to replace the heating coil. That was back in the winter. It started having trouble again a few weeks ago. Brandon was done with school so he didn't mind stringing up a clothes line and hanging things up to dry, but I was thinking long term and asked him what we should do about it.
We decided that the best think to do would be to bring in our real dryer from the garage. The problem was that it wouldn't fit through the doorway into the laundry room. So the solution to that was to take the dryer apart and bring it inside in pieces. We did that on Monday night.
For a while it seemed like our problems were behind us, but then Brandon realized some switch or relay or something had malfunctioned. So he found the problem, went to a parts store, bought a new one, replaced it, and then we finally had a working dryer again! I don't know what I would do without Brandon.
On Thursday Derrick had an appointment with the ISU Audiology department to do some tests. He had some IQ tests done earlier this summer and his score for verbal things was way lower than his score on non-verbal things. So that prompted the psychologist to recommend we have him tested for and Audiology Processing Disorder. So we are looking into that. Brandon took him in and then met up with Adventure camp at the park for lunch.
Charlotte and Lydia and the rest of the Adventure Camp kids went to the Museum of Clean for a field trip. Then the walked to the park for lunch.
I went over to the park on my lunch break and was waiting for everyone to arrive. While I was waiting I noticed that there were many more people at the park than usual. And a lot of them were wearing swimming suits. I realized that this was the day for Cool Rain in the Park. It's an event where the fire department sprays kids with water from their fire hose. Apparently they also talk about carbon dioxide and smoke detectors as a token way of making this educational.
Anyway, Brandon showed up with Derrick and the girls showed up and we all had lunch together. The event started at noon which was when I had to go back to work. So I told Brandon to take pictures and I went back to the courthouse.
But when I got there and told my co-workers what was happening at the park they told me to go back. They said it was really fun and that I would enjoy seeing it. So I ran back there as fast as I could.
Here's what I saw.
The firefighters had the hose spraying from the ladder on top of the truck. It was raining down and soaking the kids.
Everyone was drenched!
This was so much fun for everyone. Brandon kept saying things like, "We never got to do cool stuff like this when I was a kid."
I went back to work and was honestly a little sad. The event had been so fun. And I kept thinking about how much I love Pocatello. I kept thinking, "we won't be here next year for this." I didn't expect to start mourning "the last time we do ______" quite this early. But I guess that's a side effect of knowing exactly when you are moving. When we moved away from Fort Rucker and Fort Hood we didn't know our exact moving date until a couple months in advance.
Veronica went back to school on Thursday and had a just fine day. (We told Miss Misty to remind her to get drinks of water.) She has really done well with school/daycare/pre-school/whatever you want to call it. The other day she wanted to write everyone's names. I had to spell most of the names for her, but she can spell her own name and she knows the first letter of everyone elses.
On Thursday night we did an important summer time tradition. We made ice cream! We try to do this at least once a summer. (We didn't do it last summer because we didn't have room for the ice cream maker in the RV.)
Our house is so warm that the ice cream was melting as soon as we got it out of the churn. It was basically the consistency of a Wendy's frosty. (Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.) We all had a bowl and then put the rest into the freezer to harden up. Even though it was runny it was super yummy.
We went to Brandon's parents house and dropped off the kids. His parents were willing to watch the kids while we went on a date. We decided to go to 25th Street in Ogden. They have the horse statues out again which was fun to see.
We went to Cold Stone and split the Founders Favorite mix.
The reason we were in Utah was for a family reunion for Brandon's mom's side of the family. In years past this has been a camping trip reunion. But this year it was just a daytime event. That meant there were some growing (or rather shrinking) pains. Basically we were BORED most of the day.
The reunion was held at a golf course/day use area up Parley's canyon. We got there before anyone else and relaxed at the park. The kids found a leafy area and pretended it was their house.
I was thinking this was a compete waste of time until a MOOSE ran passed us. It was within 50 feet of us. That was the closest I'd ever been to a moose. So that made the day better.
People showed up and the event got a little better. The kids played some games with their cousins.
They all struggled to various degrees.
There was a silent action going on and the girls were all determined to get the $2 purses they had bid on. They were so determined that they sat at the table for hours in case anyone else came to bid. Their patience won out because they each got a purse.
Meanwhile Derrick and I had had enough with waiting around. Derrick had already disappeared on at least three different impromptu hikes and I decided I needed to take him on an adult supervised on.
So we wandered down the road that led around the golf course. We ended up above a culvert above a stream where Derrick could throw rocks to his heart content. I sat on a big rock and tried not to think about the really cool neon street dance on Main Street we were missing in Pocatello.
I heard a noise that sounded like a car door slamming, which would have been completely normal except it came from the bushes. I looked over there and could see the outline of a moose head only 30 feet away from me. I told Derrick to be quiet and to come near me. He was obedient and came right to me and we sat together and watched as the moose stepped out from behind the bushes. Part of me wished I had my camera, and the other part of me kept wondering how realistic the scene with the moose charging Bryan is in the book Hatchet.
Derrick held still and we both watched as the moose walked across the road and then disappeared around a corner. It looked at us a few times, but just kept walking.
After it was gone Derrick went back to throwing rocks and I thought about how seeing the moose was probably better than that street dance.
Eventually we walked back up to the pavillion and saw two deer on the way there. We told everyone about the moose. Lydia said that she'd seen it when she went to the bathroom earlier.
It was finally time for the most anticipated part of the day - the glow stick parade. The kids had a lot of fun coming up with their creations. Lydia said she was a lion tamer.
Here's Brandon with his "hair."
Veronica liked flicking her long sticks around.
Charlotte wanted a hat so I made her one to go with the rest of her outfit. I think she said she was some sort of bug, or maybe a fairy. Sorry I kind of started caring about this at the last minute.
Here's a group photo of everyone.
Brandon's cousin wanted him to dress up like a super hero so he made him an arc reactor like Iron Man.
Here's Charlotte and Lydia together.
And Iron Man and Captain America.
We've been focusing on having the kids clean up after dinner. This is something we started in the RV (because we had to do dishes after every meal) and so we wanted to keep doing it. We have four jobs that the kids take turns doing. They either clear the table, empty the dishwasher, load the dishwasher, or sweep the floor. I have a chart with who does what on what day. They kids are so good about checking what their job is and then doing it. I was walking by with my camera when I saw Derrick sweeping the floor, so I had to take a picture.
After the house was clean we got out the ice cream and put it into cones. That was a good cleaning treat. (Usually the cleaning treat is one piece of salt water taffy.)
Lydia was being funny and pretending to be stuck behind the quilt ladder so everyone wanted me to take a picture of that.
And then Veronica had to go get "stuck" behind the ladder.
Charlotte and Lydia have been playing with their barbies a lot. They are still making up their own Anya and Elsya stories. Here they are having dinner. I love the plates which are really water bottle lids and the cups which are toothpaste caps.
Here's one of the bedrooms.
We also had a lot of boy clothes.
And here's the pile of coats and jackets.
On Tuesday morning Brandon helped me load everything into the car and then we went to the Library and he helped me set up tables.
I'd had nightmares the night before that no one had showed up, so part of me wondered if anyone would really come, but soon enough we started having people show up. And they were bringing BAGS and BAGS of clothes. There were so many clothes. It took over 30 minutes to get them all sorted into piles.
And then it was time for people to find what they needed. This was the part that made me so happy. Here were clothes, that would otherwise be sitting in someones closet going to people who needed them. So many people commented that this was just what they needed. I was so happy to be able to help people out.
We had 13 families show up. Several of them had many children with them. Every one said they are interested in doing this on a reoccurring basis. So we'll do another one in a couple of months. If you are interested here is the link to the group I created to help us communicate between events.
I'd thought that I'd hang onto the clothing between events, but Brandon and I looked around at the piles of clothes that were left over and we decided that we didn't want them back in our house. We didn't even have enough containers to get the clothes back out to the car. Brandon took the load after load out to the car in the tote. He'd dump the clothes in the car and then come back in to fill to tote again. When it was time to leave we barely had enough room to buckle Veronica into her seat belt. She was sitting next to a wall of clothes.
We took the clothes straight to the DI. I figured there were probably other mom's hoping to find good school clothes at the DI and so I wanted them to have these clothes available to them.
The Adventure Camp kiddos had gone to Geronimo's in the afternoon so when we picked up the kids they told us all about that.
Oh and I have to mention that this was my FIRST Tuesday off in FOUR weeks. I'd worked Tuesdays to make up for the days I took off for my family reunion. I had no idea how much I enjoy only working four days a week. It's hard to work five days a week when you are used to working four. So it was great to have a day off again.
On Wednesday I went back to work and kept thinking it was Monday. And then I'd remember it was Wednesday and I only had three more days until the weekend and I'd be so happy.
I do have to add that I really love my job and my co-workers.
My supervisor, Jennifer Clark, is running to be the next Treasurer for Bannock County. She's worked in the Treasurer's Office for 20 years so she's the logical choice. Our whole office is supporting her and that includes me. I'm very proud to be part of her campaign team.
Jen had to attend a Treasurers conference so she was out of town the same time as the parade in Downey. We planned to have Team Clark there representing her anyway. I would have gone, but I had a cub scout pack meeting. We were doing a rain gutter regatta and having root beer floats. I did not want to miss that.
About an hour before Pack meeting I got a call from our cub master that he was running late. He had his son coming to help set up the rain gutter stuff, but he asked if I would start the meeting.
I did the best I could, but it was pretty apparent that in 9 months of being in scouts I haven't paid attention to the beginning of a single pack meeting.
Anyway, we went outside and had the boys do the boat races. Neither the Weblos leader or I had ever actually seen a rain gutter regatta, but other adults had so we figured it out.
I'd brought all my kids because I figured it would be fun for them. The girls were all entertained by a guinea pig that one of the other siblings had brought. Derrick was fascinated by the boats and stood right at the end and watched the boys blow the boats toward him.
Earlier Derrick had been awarded a little fish for finishing Swimming Lessons with adventure camp. He brought that fish and showed off that he could make it hang off his nose. He waited patiently for all the boat races to be done so he could play with "squeaky fish" in the water.
Brandon was a champ and scooped ice cream into cups while the races were happening. When the races were over all we had to do was pour rootbeer into the cups. Then everyone enjoyed the treat while lounging around on the shady grass. These are the things I don't take for granted after living in the hot, humid south with pokey grass full of fire ants.
Things got a little crazy for me at the pack meeting. I was slightly in charge of the meeting. But I was also texting my co-workers to remind them to send me pictures of the parade so I could put them on Jen's campaign page. I was also taking to my friend Robin about the Clothing Swap. And Robin also happens to be the RS presidency member over activities and so we were talking about those too. I was like, "whoa, I didn't realize how many things I was involved in until I had to think about them all at once." But I was also pretty happy about that. I like being involved in stuff.
On Thursday the kids went to a parade on the Fort Hall Reservation. They got a lot of candy. In the afternoon they went to the Ross Park Zoo.
When I came home I was greeted by an elf, because apparently the kids decided to get into their costume box when they got home.
Charlotte dressed up like a cowboy and wanted to pose with our Texas License plate.
Derrick was playing with Squeaky Fish in the bathroom sink.
And here's a picture of Veronica because I'd taken a picture of everyone else.
They are holding the adorable trophies that Miss Wenda made by spray painting plastic figurines.
She had a different one for each Adventure Camper. Veronica was a little sad that she didn't get one. She keeps asking when she will be in Miss Wenda's class and I have to keep saying that we probably wont live her when she would be old enough. (Sob)
We went home and all the kids had breakfast. Then we went out to the airport to meet up with Brandon. He was getting a Piper Airplane ready to be picked up. The airplain was donated to the school by someone who wanted it fixed, but didn't want to pay real mechanics to do it. Brandon was super excited about working on it and had a goal to get the plane back in the air. But sadly the owner died a few months ago and his family said to stop work on it. They came to pick it up on Saturday.
It's kind of hard to see, but Brandon put in all the rivets on this firewall.
The kids had fun looking at all the airplanes. It's been a while since most of them were out here. Veronica came with Brandon on the day he was making sure she drank water. So she was showing everyone around.
They had fun getting inside the King Air.
According to the plan we'd worked out earlier, I left Lydia, Derrick, and Veronica at the airport with Brandon. Then I took Charlotte with me to the Chubbuck Days Parade. We met up with Team Jennifer so we could had out candy, otter pops, and water bottles.
Charlotte was a really good parade buddy. She loved throwing things out. And she saw three friends.
I'm glad that I get to involve my kids in things like this.
When the parade was over Charlotte and I walked back along the route so she could pick up candy for herself. There was a lot of salt water taffy that people didn't want so she ended up with a whole bag of candy.
Then we went back to the airport where Brandon and his boss/teacher were finishing helping load the Piper into a U-haul truck. Charlotte climbed into the cockpit of an airplane where Lydia had been pretending to be a pilot.
I love how at home my kids are with this stuff.
Meanwhile Brandon had been keeping the other kids entertained with Donald Duck cartoons.
Back at home we had time for a quick lunch and then the six of us went over to the church to help set up for a wedding. The kids former babysitter Monique was getting married. Her family is one of Brandon's ministering family's so we offered to help set up and take down the decorations. Brandon worked wonders with the back drop and I helped with little things like ironing clothes that the center pieces stood on. The kids played with toys in the nursery.
We went home and Brandon and I took two hour naps while the kids watched Duck Tales. Then we all took showers/baths and got into nice clothes for the reception. Somewhere in there we also had dinner.
The reception was so simple and yet elegant. I LOVE these center pieces. Monique's mom, Rachel, made these.
They had a pictures lined up on the stage.
And more pictures on the wall.
And here's the backdrop in use. It looked great.
After the reception we put on another Donald Duck movie for the kids and went to work taking every thing down. I was so happy that Rachel and Monique could talk to their friends rather than worry about making sure tables got put away. Monique is a huge fan of Harry Potter so we joked that we should say, "Ministering Managed" when we were done.
We came home and put the kids to bed. Then Brandon laid on our bed and talked about how much fun we'd had that day - and how much our feet hurt. It had been a big day.
I was pretty happy for the day of rest on Sunday. Church was good. After church the kids made up a fishing game. They would throw a rope over the stair-rail.
And Veronica would hook something onto it. Then they would pretend they'd caught a fish.
One is already turning orange.
Our beans are really strange this year. The plants are growing great, but so far we don't have any beans. I don't know what's up.
The corn is small but growing.
Our tomatoes are doing well despite the fact I never bought them cages.
And the sunflowers are taller than me.
We realized that in all our business on Saturday we'd neglected our own house. So we did a little bit of light cleaning after dinner. Then we had a special treat. More ice cream with cones that had been dipped in chocolate sprinkles.
The kids loved them and we got this perfect summer picture of them eating ice cream. I love these kids.
Lydia's ice cream melted and dripped a little bit. She said, "look mom it's a heart."
And I think that's the perfect way to end this post.
Talk to you later.
When I got home from work the kids talked my ear off about all the cool things they had seen.
Actually he was having trouble with Veronica. On Monday afternoon I came home from work and found Veronica laying on my bed. I felt her and she felt very warm. I gave her water and changed her into cooler clothes and that seemed to help. But on Tuesday afternoon she started overheating again. She was so hot in fact that Miss Wenda took her into the bathroom and put wet papertowels on her neck and forehead.
When I came home from work, Veronica was laying on my bed again wearing nothing but her underwear. Brandon had a laid a wet towel over her. And she still felt very warm.
Brandon said that he'd asked her if she'd been drinking water and she told him that she hadn't drank any water because she didn't want to wet the bed. Apparently she'd taken our lectures about not drinking water before bedtime to mean don't drink water anytime. Oops, that was a bad parenting moment.
So we spend the evening getting as much water and ice into her as possible. She looked terrible. Her face was pale and her eyes looked like they had dark circles. It was scary. I was super close to taking her to the emergency room for an IV or something, but I figured they would just give her water and otter pops like we were already doing. So I decided to wait it out for a bit. I told Brandon that if she wasn't better by morning we would make a same day appointment with her pediatrician. She fell into a fit full sleep and by morning she was looking a lot better.
Brandon kept her home from daycare that whole day and made sure she drank plenty of water. She was much better by the afternoon.
On Wednesday the kids had their last day of Tumbling followed by their third to last day of skating at Deleta. Derrick has now apparently mastered roller blading in addition to roller skating.
I had cubscouts on Wednesday night. I brought my little tent and taught the boys how to set it up. Then the boys took turns showing that they could fit through the little shoe door next to the big door.
We decided that the best think to do would be to bring in our real dryer from the garage. The problem was that it wouldn't fit through the doorway into the laundry room. So the solution to that was to take the dryer apart and bring it inside in pieces. We did that on Monday night.
For a while it seemed like our problems were behind us, but then Brandon realized some switch or relay or something had malfunctioned. So he found the problem, went to a parts store, bought a new one, replaced it, and then we finally had a working dryer again! I don't know what I would do without Brandon.
Charlotte and Lydia and the rest of the Adventure Camp kids went to the Museum of Clean for a field trip. Then the walked to the park for lunch.
I went over to the park on my lunch break and was waiting for everyone to arrive. While I was waiting I noticed that there were many more people at the park than usual. And a lot of them were wearing swimming suits. I realized that this was the day for Cool Rain in the Park. It's an event where the fire department sprays kids with water from their fire hose. Apparently they also talk about carbon dioxide and smoke detectors as a token way of making this educational.
Anyway, Brandon showed up with Derrick and the girls showed up and we all had lunch together. The event started at noon which was when I had to go back to work. So I told Brandon to take pictures and I went back to the courthouse.
But when I got there and told my co-workers what was happening at the park they told me to go back. They said it was really fun and that I would enjoy seeing it. So I ran back there as fast as I could.
Here's what I saw.
Veronica went back to school on Thursday and had a just fine day. (We told Miss Misty to remind her to get drinks of water.) She has really done well with school/daycare/pre-school/whatever you want to call it. The other day she wanted to write everyone's names. I had to spell most of the names for her, but she can spell her own name and she knows the first letter of everyone elses.
On Friday the kids watched Zootopia as their movie at school. After school they came home and helped finish packing the Honda. When I got home from work we put the last few things into the car and then headed down to Utah for the weekend. On our way down there we passed this huge cloud of smoke coming from a fire in the mountains southwest of Malad. Ugh no wonder the air had been so smoky in Pocatello.
The reunion was held at a golf course/day use area up Parley's canyon. We got there before anyone else and relaxed at the park. The kids found a leafy area and pretended it was their house.
People showed up and the event got a little better. The kids played some games with their cousins.
So we wandered down the road that led around the golf course. We ended up above a culvert above a stream where Derrick could throw rocks to his heart content. I sat on a big rock and tried not to think about the really cool neon street dance on Main Street we were missing in Pocatello.
I heard a noise that sounded like a car door slamming, which would have been completely normal except it came from the bushes. I looked over there and could see the outline of a moose head only 30 feet away from me. I told Derrick to be quiet and to come near me. He was obedient and came right to me and we sat together and watched as the moose stepped out from behind the bushes. Part of me wished I had my camera, and the other part of me kept wondering how realistic the scene with the moose charging Bryan is in the book Hatchet.
Derrick held still and we both watched as the moose walked across the road and then disappeared around a corner. It looked at us a few times, but just kept walking.
After it was gone Derrick went back to throwing rocks and I thought about how seeing the moose was probably better than that street dance.
Eventually we walked back up to the pavillion and saw two deer on the way there. We told everyone about the moose. Lydia said that she'd seen it when she went to the bathroom earlier.
It was finally time for the most anticipated part of the day - the glow stick parade. The kids had a lot of fun coming up with their creations. Lydia said she was a lion tamer.
And where was Derrick? Well, he'd given up and was in the car ready to go home.
One of my favorite moments of the night was walking to the car with Veronica. We could hear crickets singing and Veronica said, "I hear the dark talking." I told her it was crickets and she said, "it's the mommy's saying I love you to the babies."
We cleaned up our stuff and headed back to Steve and Jacque's. The next morning we got up and quickly gave everyone baths. Then we went to sacrament meeting at their ward. After that we hung around the house for a little bit and then drove back to Pocatello in the early afternoon.
I had a Relief Society Activity Committee Meeting that evening and we planned out some things for the next few months. I've got 10 months to do some great things in this ward. I'm really excited.
All the kids had a field trip on Monday. Veronica's class got to go to the Geronimo's which is the local trampoline park. They opened up an hour early just for the 4 and 5 year old classes to go. That way they didn't have to worry about any big kids. Veronica loved it.
The other three kids went on a swimming trip to Jenson's Grove. Brandon had to work at the airport and I had work so they kids were on their own. Derrick came back talking all about the fish and Lydia came home with a backpack full of rocks. So that was a successful day.
They also wanted me to take a picture of the little fish tank the girls set up for Derrick with plastic fish inside.
I had quite the project on Monday night. I've had lots of generous friends donate clothes for my kids. And I've been grateful for every single bit of clothing. A few months ago I started to realize that I had quite the stockpile of girl clothes. I had more than my kids would ever wear. And so I started kicking around the idea of doing a clothing swap like the one I organized back in Fort Rucker.
First I asked around to see if there already was one going on in Pocatello. The answer came back no. So then I decided to set one up. When I did this in Rucker I'd held the swap at the Community Center because I didn't want it to be just a "church thing" or just a "my friends thing." So I wanted to do it at a similar location here. I decided that the community room of the Library was the perfect place. So I reserved it. Then I created a facebook event and invited my friends and asked them to invite their friends.
I had it set for Tuesday August 7th. So on Monday night I stayed up sorting all my clothes into piles and piles of clothes. I had a lot because after I'd decided to do the swap one of the kids day care leaders had given me a HUGE tote full of clothes. I'd pulled out what I could, and the rest went to the swap.
Here's the piles of girls clothes. This is AFTER I pulled out what I needed. I had over 25 pairs of girls size 8 jeans. I kept 14 pairs and even that seems excessive.
And then it was time for people to find what they needed. This was the part that made me so happy. Here were clothes, that would otherwise be sitting in someones closet going to people who needed them. So many people commented that this was just what they needed. I was so happy to be able to help people out.
I'd thought that I'd hang onto the clothing between events, but Brandon and I looked around at the piles of clothes that were left over and we decided that we didn't want them back in our house. We didn't even have enough containers to get the clothes back out to the car. Brandon took the load after load out to the car in the tote. He'd dump the clothes in the car and then come back in to fill to tote again. When it was time to leave we barely had enough room to buckle Veronica into her seat belt. She was sitting next to a wall of clothes.
We took the clothes straight to the DI. I figured there were probably other mom's hoping to find good school clothes at the DI and so I wanted them to have these clothes available to them.
The Adventure Camp kiddos had gone to Geronimo's in the afternoon so when we picked up the kids they told us all about that.
Oh and I have to mention that this was my FIRST Tuesday off in FOUR weeks. I'd worked Tuesdays to make up for the days I took off for my family reunion. I had no idea how much I enjoy only working four days a week. It's hard to work five days a week when you are used to working four. So it was great to have a day off again.
On Wednesday I went back to work and kept thinking it was Monday. And then I'd remember it was Wednesday and I only had three more days until the weekend and I'd be so happy.
I do have to add that I really love my job and my co-workers.
My supervisor, Jennifer Clark, is running to be the next Treasurer for Bannock County. She's worked in the Treasurer's Office for 20 years so she's the logical choice. Our whole office is supporting her and that includes me. I'm very proud to be part of her campaign team.
Jen had to attend a Treasurers conference so she was out of town the same time as the parade in Downey. We planned to have Team Clark there representing her anyway. I would have gone, but I had a cub scout pack meeting. We were doing a rain gutter regatta and having root beer floats. I did not want to miss that.
About an hour before Pack meeting I got a call from our cub master that he was running late. He had his son coming to help set up the rain gutter stuff, but he asked if I would start the meeting.
I did the best I could, but it was pretty apparent that in 9 months of being in scouts I haven't paid attention to the beginning of a single pack meeting.
Anyway, we went outside and had the boys do the boat races. Neither the Weblos leader or I had ever actually seen a rain gutter regatta, but other adults had so we figured it out.
When I came home I was greeted by an elf, because apparently the kids decided to get into their costume box when they got home.
On Friday I met up with the kids at the park for the first time all week. It's a good think I was there. Derrick was in a bad mood. He was probably just hungry, but he didn't want to get in the line for food. I made sure he got in line and stayed there. After he got his lunch he walked back to the picnic tables with me. At the last minute he started running to the dumpster and some of the kids yelled, "he's going to throw away his food." I ran and caught up to him, but he threw his bag of food in before I could stop him. I was so mad I picked him up and put him in the dumpster too. There was an old speaker in there and he balanced on that and looked at my with such a surprised look. I told him, "pick up your lunch, you don't waste food like that."
After a brief standoff he grabbed his bag and I got him out. Then I sat by him and made sure he ate it all. This is why I try to meet up with my kids for lunch when ever I can.
Lydia and Charlotte ate their lunches too and then Lydia laid her head in my lap for over 10 minutes. This is also why I try to meet up with my kids for lunch when ever I can.
Derrick kept telling me he wanted to go home, and I kept telling him he wanted to watch the movie. They were watching Big Hero Six which none of my kids had ever seen. Derrick didn't believe me, but in the evening when I came home from work he and Veronica were shouting excitedly about Robots and Marshmallow man and how much they liked the movie. Derrick wanted to go get it from the library right away. We looked on the website and it was checked out, but I reserved it. Derrick is so excited for me to watch it with him.
Brandon had already fed the kids a little dinner when I got home. He had to help someone move at 5:30 so he ran off to do that while I helped the kids pack for a sleepover. Yes a Sleep over. Apparently Adventure Camp also includes a sleep over. And Miss Wenda told us that we were welcome to drop Veronica off as well so we could go on a date. So of course we took her up on that offer.
At 6:00 I took the kids back to the day care. Two of the classrooms that are only separated by a partition so they had the girls on one side and the boys on the other. They went outside and played games for a while (one of them involved putting ice cream on the teachers or something) and then they came back in and settled down to watch movies. The movies were shown on a TV that was set up so it was between both class rooms. So boys and girls were in separate rooms, but watching the same movie.
I went back home and met up with Brandon. Then we zipped over to the movie theater and watched Mission Impossible Fallout. I'd heard good things about the movie so I'd been hoping we'd have a chance to see it on the big screen. It did not disappoint. I consider watching that movie the 11th greatest moment of my life. It was so good. I don't know how the sixth movie in a solid franchise can be better than the rest, but somehow it is. And I love it.
Anyway, after the movie we went back to the day care and picked up Derrick and Veronica. Wenda had said they were welcome to stay the night, but I didn't think they would like that. Veronica comes in our bed every night and I worried she'd wake up sad at the day care. It was 10:30 but all the kids were still awake. I asked Charlotte and Lydia if they wanted to come home and they said they wanted to stay so I kissed them good night and took the younger two home.
In the morning Brandon had some work to do at the airport so he left early. I took a sleepy Derrick and a sleepy Veronica with me to the daycare so we could pick up a sleepy Charlotte and and even sleepier Lydia. Charlotte proudly said that they'd stayed up pasted midnight. "We went to bed at 12:05!"
Then we went back to the airport where Brandon and his boss/teacher were finishing helping load the Piper into a U-haul truck. Charlotte climbed into the cockpit of an airplane where Lydia had been pretending to be a pilot.
The reception was so simple and yet elegant. I LOVE these center pieces. Monique's mom, Rachel, made these.
We came home and put the kids to bed. Then Brandon laid on our bed and talked about how much fun we'd had that day - and how much our feet hurt. It had been a big day.
I was pretty happy for the day of rest on Sunday. Church was good. After church the kids made up a fishing game. They would throw a rope over the stair-rail.
We went out to check on the garden. Here are the pumpkins. We have three big ones coming along nicely.
Talk to you later.
