Time with Family

I put an app blocker on my phone a few weeks ago. I put it on there to keep Derrick from watching random Youtube videos all afternoon long. I decided that I might as well block Facebook as well.  So from about 9:00 am until 8:00 at night I can't access Facebook from my phone. And it has changed EVERYTHING. 

I don't find myself randomly scrolling Facebook for 30 minutes at a time (during the day at least - nights are another story) I also don't feel the need to post as much. I realized that the last time I posted a picture on instagram/facebook was over two weeks ago. 

Crazy!

Have my days been super productive?  Not really. But I'm more present. I can read a book without needing to check Facebook every time I finish a chapter. I can make dinner without getting lost in a thread. 

The nice thing about the app blocker is that it only blocks certain apps and websites. So I can still Google things and I'm still able to get onto Facebook Messenger and Marco Polo. I'm still connected but not CONNECTED. It's been really nice. And I highly recommend it.  

I use AppBlock if you are interested. 

Okay lets back up and revisit the last two weeks. Yes, two whole weeks.

I ended my last post on Sunday night and Derrick had just thrown up. This changed my plans for Monday and put the whole week into question. 

Derrick wouldn't be able to attend the onsite program for homeschool on Monday so I had to stay home from work to take care of him. I was also very worried that he was just the harbinger for the rest of the week. I imagined the rest of the kids getting sick throughout the week.  

But thankfully that never happened. Derrick's illness just seemed to be a one off thing. Thank goodness. 

There were some other things out of the ordinary though. Coronavirus cases were increasing in the Twin Falls area and so the school district had decided to have all students go to school every other day. This didn't really affect us homeschool option families, but it did affect the onsite program. The people in charge decided to have Monday's classes at a park. 

I pictured the kids bored and freezing, but instead everyone LOVED it. 

When they came home they played with our toy trains. All four kids worked together to build some impressive track layouts.

Derrick's therapy had been cancelled for the week. Not because he was sick, but because of some staff rearrangements. Brandon and I had been trying to figure out how to cover the time that he would be home. My sister Hillary was also talking about coming up for another visit. I realized that it would be really helpful if she came to visit on a week day so she could be home to keep an eye on Derrick. So she came up Tuesday morning and stayed to Wednesday night. It was so fun to have her around so soon after her last visit. 

Lydia was in heaven with Penelope. 

Tuesday is my busy day and I felt like I kept popping in and out of the house. I had work and then home, Derrick speech therapy and then home, and symphony rehearsal and then home. Hillary was a great help while I was running around. She even took care of getting Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner. 

Wednesday was a little bit slower of a day - a little bit. 

When I got home from work I had to make lunch,  help Derrick with a progress monitoring Zoom call, and then get everyone out the door for a Field Trip to a pumpkin patch. 

Our onsite school put together this field trip. We went to a little pumpkin patch near the school location. 

Hillay and Walter and Penelope came along. Charlotte was so good with Walter and walked wherever he wanted to go. I'd been hesitant to have Hillary come up for another visit because I didn't want it to be too hard on her. She was like, "are you kidding, visiting you makes my life easier because your kids take care of my kids."

This picture sort of turned out. 

Penelope is just a doll.

Such a doll!

This picture is super cute too.

I can't remember if I knew there would be a corn pit at the pumpkin patch or if it was a complete surprise. Let's say it was a surprise. Because planning to let my kids crawl around in a communal pit of corn during a pandemic doesn't seem like the best parenting move. But that's what happened. 

The kids played in the covid pit, I mean corn pit, for over an hour. They had so much fun. 

When they were done they were all covered in a layer of corn dust. 

They were so white. 

Here's Veronica, Hillary had given her a haircut earlier. Short hair is much easier for her to keep brushed. 

We went home and all the kids took baths and we did laundry. Hillary left around dinner time and went back home. 

That night Brandon and I stayed up until 1:00 watching the final 8 or so episodes of The Good Place. that was such a fun show and I loved how it ended. I highly recommend it. 

On Thursday morning I was thinking about Brandon's Bestefar (Grandpa). He's been going downhill for a few years and Brandon's parents had mentioned that they didn't think he'd live much longer. I told Brandon that he should plan to go down to Utah either that weekend or the next to say goodbye to his Bestefar. Well, that plan ended up being moot. Later that day Brandon's dad called to say that his dad had died during the night. 

So we were expecting to go down to Utah sometime in the near future for a funeral. We'll talk about that in a little bit. 

Here's a picture that is from Thursday, but really could be from any day. Our headphones took FOREVER to arrive, but now that they are here school is going really well. I can have Derrick and Veronica working on Reading Eggs or Mathseeds while I help Charlotte and Lydia with their Language Arts or Social Studies. It works really well. 

Here are Charlotte and Lydia with their Language Arts books.  Don't be fooled by this picture though. They have yet to complete a single page without me sitting between them helping them with the work. 

Thursday night Brandon brought home the truck from work and loaded all the scrap metal siding from our shed into it. On Friday he took it to a metal recycling place and got something like $40 for it.  

I stayed inside where it was warm and watched more episodes of the West Wing. The Season 6 finale at the Democratic National Convention is such a good episode. Then I rolled right on into Season 7. I'm kind of over the drama of the  real life presidential election (I've already voted) but I'm still a political junky so I'm getting my fix from the West Wing. 

On Friday I took care of the morning portion of school so Brandon could take the metal to the recycling place. We learned about seasons and then made fun little seasons books. 

Here's Veronica showing hers. 

Veronica had recently bought two more Black Bear stuffed animals at DI. They made a family with the Black Bear she already had. I decided to put on a puppet show of Goldilocks and the Three Bears for the kids. So I told the story for the kids. Then Charlotte, Lydia, and Veronica did the show for me. It was probably the highlight of our homeschool experience so far. 

I filmed it, but I had to film it in 3 parts. I was hoping to put it together before this post, but I haven't done that. Anyway, it was adorable. 

Friday night we bundled up warm and went to the Library for a free drive in movie. They showed The 1991 version of the Adams Family. It was on a big blow up screen. The library staff did a good job of helping every park. They put small cars in front of the big SUVs and trucks so everyone could see. 

We each got a ticket for a free hot beverage from a local business that had a food truck set up next to the library. We all got hot chocolate. It was yummy and helped keep us warm. 

The movie was really fun and the kids loved being able to watch it from our car. We haven't been to a drive in since Fort Hood in 2015.

On Saturday I spent a lot of time sewing for the kids Halloween costumes. Charlotte is being a witch and we had to add some embellishments to the dress we'd bought.  Charlotte hung out with me while I was sewing and played with the color inversion settings on my phone. 

Creepy.

Much more normal.

I also worked on Derrick's costume. But I didn't get it done on Saturday. 

On Sunday we were able to watch Penelope's baby blessing via Zoom. It was so nice to be apart of that without having to shake up our whole Sunday. Then we went to church for our sacrament meeting. When we came home we realized we didn't have anything planned for the day. That's nothing new. But what was new is that we actually kind of wanted to do something. 

I suggested we go for a drive in the South Hills. Brandon like that idea so after lunch we all got into the car and headed south. This was the first time we've left Twin Falls since we got home from City of Rocks at the end of August. That was 6 weeks ago. What?

The drive was really pretty, but we'd forgotten the Badger Creek fire had swept through here a few weeks ago.  There were sections of the canyon that were burned completely black. Even the dirt was black. 

But thankfully the fire didn't get the whole canyon. Much of it was still alive. 

We went up high into the hills and were on a dirt road before we decided to turn around. 

It was a beautiful area. 

Here are the kids in the back.

We stopped at the Ross Falls Trailhead and went for the hike on the short trail. Here are the kids posing. 

Me and Brandon

Hiking on the trail.

Another pose.

And finally the waterfall.

Here I am again. 

The view from the waterfall was really pretty.

Charlotte showing off.

The kids had fun climbing all over the rocks for a while.

We went back down the canyon and passed through the burned area again. It was sureal.

On Sunday night Marcia nearly got herself kicked out of the family. Lydia had saved up all her money to buy an OMG Doll and had finally bought one on Thursday. (She ended up buying it from me because I'd bought her one for her birthday but she decided she wanted it sooner than her birthday so she bought it from me and I just got her something else for her birthday.)  On Sunday she left it on the floor of her room and Marcia snuck in and chewed it up. 

This is the second brand new LOL/OMG Doll that Marcia has chewed and NO ONE was happy about that. We have now spent more money replacing toys that Marcia chewed than we spent adopting Marcia. 

After the kids went to bed Brandon and I had a LONG talk where we decided we were going to take Marcia back to the rescue center. Earlier that day she'd also pooped on the downstairs rug. She also had started running away from home more, and wasn't listening at all. We just didn't feel like we were giving her the attention she needed.  The kids had done everything we'd asked of them, but as parents there were some things that only we could do and we just didn't have time for those things. 

We decided to tell the kids on Monday night. We knew it would break the kids' hearts, but it just seemed like the best option for our mental health. 

But by Monday night we'd had a change of heart. We called our first ever official family meeting and had a long talk with the kids. We told them that we'd almost decided to take Marcia back to the pound, but we'd decided to give her another chance. Then we figured out some things that could help her and us. It was a good meeting. 

And honestly this whole situation helped my thinking about Marcia. Now when she's tied up in the back yard half the day I think, "Hey it's better than the pound." And I don't feel guilty. 

And there was a happy ending with the OMG Doll too. When I'd bought the dolls for Charlotte and Lydia I'd ordered them online and accidently bought two of the exact same doll. When I realized my mistake I just decided to save one for Veronica for Christmas and bought another one for Charlotte. Well when Lydia's met an untimely death I was able to replace it with the duplicate I'd planned to give Veronica. I'll buy another one (a different one) for Veronica for Christmas. 

Moral of the story - invest in LOL and OMG Doll stock.  

On Monday Derrick had an online speech therapy appointment with a therapist through the school district. I go the time wrong and we logged into Zoom 30 minutes early. Derrick discovered the filters and all the kids took turns playing with the filters. They thought it was funny that they could make their faces look like puppies or tigers. They loved putting sunglasses and masks on too.

After school on Monday I worked on finishing Derrick's Halloween Costume. We'd found an amazing astronaut costume at Goodwill at hte beginning of the month.  Everything about the costume was perfect except the jumpsuit was a size 4-6 and so was too small for Derrick. I thought he'd be willing to just wear his astronaut pajamas, but no, he kept trying to squeeze into the jumpsuit. 

So I took out the zipper, cut the jumpsuit in half, and told Derrick I'd make it bigger. We bought a yard of white cotton fabric and a longer zipper at the store and I figured out how to make the jumpsuit bigger. I added about 4 inches of fabric to the outside seams on the pant legs as well as added about 6 extra inches in length. I figured out how to add about 8 extra inches to the back of the suit's shirt area. And I added about 8 inches between the pants and the shirt. Then I sewed the longer zipper back in.  

Derrick was so excited!  He put the whole outfit on right away. When it was all together I couldn't even notice all the extra sections on the jumpsuit. The sleeves are still a little short, but so far I haven't found time to take care of those.

Oh and here's the picture with the helmet down. This costume was such a good find!

The funeral for Brandon's Bestefar was scheduled for Thursday. It was just going to be a graveside service. We decided that we all should attend it.  Brandon and I each took Thursday and Friday off of work. I spent all Wednesday packing and getting ready to leave.  As soon as Brandon got off work on Wednesday night we started driving to Utah.  This was the first time we've left the state since we got back from Washington on the 4th of July. 

We made it to my sister Hillary's  around 10:00. This was the third time we'd seen Hillary in person in a month. That's a record even without a pandemic.  Walter had had a 5 hour nap earlier in the day so he was still awake. My kids stayed up playing until 11:00.  Then they slept in super late the next day. 

I decided that since we were coming all this way for a deceased grandparent we aught to visit a living grandparent while we were in town. So at noon we went to visit my Grandma Mary Ann. We were able to visit with her outside her apartment. But we couldn't hug her and we had to wear masks the whole time. She lives near the Jordan River Temple and we walked over there together. We took some quick - maskless pictures with her in front of the temple. 

Here we are together. 

And the kids. 

More of the kids. 

We had such a good visit. We spent over an hour and a half with her.  We probably could have stayed longer, but we had to get going to the funeral. 

Grandma Mary Ann gave each of the kids a goody bag that they had fun eating over the next few days. I'm glad we were able to see her and talk with her. 

Then we headed up Redwood Road to the Redwood Memorial Cemetery. This is where Brandon's Grandma Ruth is buried. She died a few weeks before Derrick was born. When she was alive she gave us some presents that I was mystified by at the time, but have actually turned out to be really useful and loved. Derrick sleeps with a quilt she gave us. We've used the plastic plates she gave us for years.  And she's the one who gave Antler and Nose to the twins when they were just babies. 

I showed the girls her grave and said, "She's the one who gave you Antler and Nose." They both said, "Thank you!"

Ruth's funeral was the last funeral any of us attended. So I was a little worried about how well the kids would behave. But they all were fine and very respectful. Brandon dedicated the grave at the end and did an excellent job.

When it was over the funeral director said we could take some flowers since the weather was getting colder and the bouquets wouldn't look as good after spending time in the cold.  

Many of Brandon's cousins were at the funeral, so he talked with them for a long time. I took the kids back to the car because they were getting antsy. We had snacks and talked about memories of FarFar. 

Then we drove back to Hillary's.  On the way back we drove by the houses we grew up in in Taylorsville and Kearns. We also stopped at the spot where the Taylorsville temple will be. This was the location of our wedding reception. 

Back at Hillary's I realized that I'd never taken a picture of Brandon. I made sure to take one before he changed. Oh he looked so good in that suit!

We stayed at Hillary's until after dinner. Then we headed up to Brandon's parents house. We took a little detour to check out the newly completed airport. This is a terrible picture. The real thing is very nice.  We drove on both the arriving level an the departing level. We wished we could go inside, but thanks to COVID only ticketed passengers are allowed in the airport. 

We stayed the night at Brandon's parents house and had a super relaxing day there. In the afternoon we went to his sister Melanie's house to see the finished addition and to have dinner.

We left Melanie's around 8:00 and headed back to Twin Falls. We got home around 11:00 and went straight to bed. 

It was really nice to wake up on Saturday and realize we still had a full weekend at home. Temperatures had dropped while we were gone and my garden had (finally) died. I'd been able to harvest cherry tomatoes on October 21st. That's amazing. 

I spent most of Saturday morning tearing out pumpkin plants, tomato plants, and bean plants. Here's the garden area now. 

Brandon spent the afternoon tearing the roof off the junky shed. Here's the shed now.

We had planned to attend a Read and Treat at the City Park. This was something put on by the library. The kids were looking forward to it because it was their first chance to put on their costumes. 

Well it ended up being a victim of COVID.

Cases were rising so much in our area that the local health department moved us back to Phase 3 which meant no gatherings of over 50 people. So no read and treat. 

This also affected Onsite School. That was cancelled for at least the next 4 weeks. Regular school is staying 2 days per week, but the school district will reevaluate that are their next meeting in November.  And the Magic Valley Symphony is also affectd. Our next concert will be online without and in person audience. 

I'm glad we went on our little trip when we did because I think we are in for a LOOOONNNNNNGGGGGG winter at home. 

Instead of the read and treat, the kids spent some time raking leaves. 

We have a big pile that accumulates in our driveway so they swept that and moved it onto the grass so they could play in it. 

They piled everything under the tree house.

On Sunday the temperatures were in the 30s. Brrrr.  I was glad we didn't need to go anywhere.  Not even church.  We watched our ward's sacrament meeting broadcast for the first time. That went really well. 

And I think that gets us caught up. And just in time too because Birth-o-ween is upon us. 

Symphony Concert and other stuff

My Sunday recap is coming to you on a Monday for reasons we'll talk about when we get to Sunday. 

I had my phone this week, but I was out of the habit of taking pictures so there aren't that many in todays' recap. We also had a very low key (for us) week. Which means this should go fast. Let's see. 

The kids and Brandon had onsite school on Monday. It went okay, but Derrick was keyed up by the end. That threw our afternoon off. I've learned that even though onsite school is just in the morning - it dominates the rest of our day.

On Monday my latest piece was published for East Idaho Moms. I had the idea to write about taking my kids to get flu shots. And I somehow found a morning to write it the week before. It's always fun to see my stuff published. 

Work on Tuesday was AMAZING. It was the first time in a month that I didn't feel ridiculously busy. I've been pulling double duty for a month while we didn't have a receptionist. We've been able to figure that situation out. And so when I came into work on Tuesday I didn't have to play catch up with things that had come in on Monday afternoon. Oh it was nice!

Charlotte and Lydia spent a lot of their free time this week sewing Barbie clothes. Here's Lydia with an outfit she hand sewed. I can't believe she made pants! 

Tuesday afternoon the girls decided to set up their pumpkin stand. They'd noticed that we have the most traffic on our quiet street around 4:30 to 6:00. So when I got back from taking Derrick to speech therapy they set up the card table and put our 5 extra pumpkins on it. They were selling each orange pumpkin for $5 and the white one for $6. They were out there any hour and sold two pumpkins. That was super fun for them. 

For some reason I only took pictures of Lydia out there. But Charlotte was out there too. They did the stand again on Wednesday, but didn't sell any more pumpkins. On Thursday my friend Kaymie let them borrow her wagon. They went around the neighborhood and sold the pumpkins door to door. They sold the other three pumpkins in an hour that way. It's been fun to drive around our neighborhood and see the pumpkins on people's porches. 

After dinner on Tuesday we all got ready to go to my rehearsal with the Magic Valley Symphony. This was our last rehearsal before our concerts on Saturday and Sunday and our families could come to hear us. I'm glad this was an option because I wanted my family to hear me play, but there was no way they could sit through a concert. 

Brandon and the kids sat way up in the very back.  They kept waving at me. It was cute. Here's my view of Brandon and the kids. 

Here's what the kids looked like up close. 

Brandon came down and took a closer picture of me on stage. This wasn't my main spot. They were switching out a platform that we stand on so I was standing off to the side while the platform was getting set up. 

I'm not sure how staged this next picture was, but this is more proof of why we didn't plan to have the kids go to the real concerts. 

The kids were interested in the music though. When it was all over Charlotte told me she wants to play the gong. Her reason: "You just play one note and then you are done."

Rehursal ended at 9:00 which was much later than the kids 8:00 bedtime. They went to bed as soon as we got home. 

I found this picture on my phone I have no idea when Derrick and Veronica took it, but it is so cute. 

This week my calendar had an incredibly rare phenomenon. There was nothing written on it for Wednesday, Thursday,  Friday, and most of Saturday.  When Brandon saw that he told me, "Let's keep it that way."  I was happy to oblige. I still feel a little guilty when I have nothing to do because part of me feels like I have to be doing something productive all the time. But if 2020 has taught me anything its that it's okay to slow down and to relax. 

So yeah, aside from homeschool stuff we really didn't do anything Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. 

I tried to watch the Vice President Debate on Wednesday night. But I didn't last longer than about 15 minutes. I could stand watching Vice President Pence blatantly avoid answering questions. And it physically hurt me to watch Kamala Harris have to smile politely to appear "likable."

So anyway, I turned off the debate and hung out with Brandon and the kids. Later I started seeing memes about the fly that landed in Mike Pence's hair. This is how I felt. (This meme is from one of the best episodes of the TV show Community.)

For other fly memes check out this compilation. I've been I've been trying to explain memes to Charlotte and Lydia and this event gave me lots of good examples. 

I can't remember Thursday day at all. I do remember that night though. It was Brandon's night to do whatever he wanted so I was on my own entertainment wise. I hung out in the basement and watched old episodes of the West Wing again. I decided to rewatch the episodes about Matt Santos presidential campaign. They are a good distraction from current politics. 

On Friday morning we got a phone call from the school district that because we have high cases of COVID in Twin Falls they have decided to move from the Yellow phase into the Orange Phase. This means the in person school will happen every other day. If my kids were in regular school they would be going to school every Tuesday/Thursday with alternating Mondays. 

This scenario is exactly why I wanted to homeschool. I did not want to worry about figuring out childcare or homework schedules around the kids bouncing back and forth between home and school. 

I didn't work on Friday so the kids and I were able to knock out a lot of our school stuff pretty fast. That left time for more Barbie crafts. 

When I put Veronica to bed on Thursday night she'd told me a whole story about lions. I told her I wanted to write it down. So one of our school activities on Friday was for her to tell me a story while I wrote it down. This was super fun. She wrote two "chapters" and came up with a third chapter on Saturday. 

Saturday was a "get ready for fall" day. We'd kind of planned to finish taking down the shed, but Brandon had hurt his finger at work and so wasn't in the mood to be banging a sledge hammer around on the shed. 

So instead we took care of things in the house. And there were quite a few things that needed to happen in there.  The kids bathroom toilet needed to be unclogged. Brandon had to buy a drain snake to get the clog out. (And then gave the kids a lecture on using proper amounts of toilet paper.)  Since he had the snake he also snaked out some of our other drains. Our bathroom shower handle had also broke this week so he got that replaced. (Yes we had a few days where the toilet didn't work in one bathroom and the shower didn't work in the other.)

The kids were good about cleaning the house and we put away ALL their laundry. I also went through the clothes of winter boxes and made sure we had coats and boots that fit everyone. And I went through some clothes that Kaymie passed on to us. Derrick LOVED this Spiderman Jacket. And check it out.  He is wearing JEANS. I never thought I'd see the day where he was willing to try on jeans. 

After we got the house cleaned up we went outside. The kids picked up dog poo and then I mowed the lawn. As soon as I was done I said, "Okay, now the leaves can fall."  And they really did start falling. By afternoon it was really breazy and the air started feeling like fall. 

My concert was scheduled for 7:30 Saturday night and I had to be there by 7:00. So in the late afternoon I started getting ready. I was nervous for the concert, but mostly for strategic reasons. I wasn't sure if my outfit would match the other women. And I was worried about being so prominent on the stage. The bass section was on risers.  So not only would I be one of the only people standing on the stage, I would be 8 inches higher than usual. 

But I was comforted by the fact that I was going to be sharing the stage with many other people. IT wasn't like I was up there alone. I wasn't even the only bass. Really I just had to show up and do my best. Here I am before I left the house. 

And here I am in the music room. I was happy to see that my outfit looked very similar to what most of the other women were wearing. I put my music on my stand on the stage so I didn't have to carry it out with my bass and bow. Then I waited in the music room with everyone else. For some reason we were very quiet as we waited. I wondered if this was some sort of pre concert ritual, but other people mentioned that it was strange. Then someone walked in and said, "What is this, a wake? You're all in black and sitting here so quiet." That broke the tension and the room got more noisy after that. I was practicing scales to warm up. I realized that when I'd picked up this bass again at the end of August I'd had to print out a list of scales and finger charts. And now I was running through the scales like it was no problem. I was pretty proud of my progress.

The director came in and gave us all a little talk. He mentioned there were programs and I got one and took a look at it. I nearly cried when I saw my name listed under bass. I never really thought I'd have a chance to play the bass again. This really is such an amazing opportunity. 

Soon it was time and we went out onto the stage. I looked out at the audience and realized it was smaller than I'd expected. Due to COVID they could only fill 180 of the seats. Which is why we were doing this concert twice. But when I looked out in the audience it looked like there were only about 60 people there. Maybe there were more, but I realized that I'd played the bass in front of bigger audiences during assemblies in Jr High. 

I wasn't nervous after that. 

The concert went well. I made a few mistakes, but I doubt any body caught them. And if they caught them they certainly wouldn't remember them. 

These are the songs we played along with Youtube recordings of other groups playing them. If you watch only one video watch the Grieg Piano Concerto. It was amazing to be part of that song. And our soloist was only in high school. He was incredible. 

Walton — Crown Imperial — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwj1YyyP_OA
Gounod — Juliet’s Waltz Song — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo5qZQdbBns
Mozart — Bassoon Concerto, first movement — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfhxZMUy9DU Solo starts around 1:40 and the movement ends around 8:00.
Grieg — Norwegian Airs — Cow Keeper’s Tune — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu6XtLXed9A
Grieg — Norwegian Airs — Country Dance — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6F-JngRCio
Grieg — Piano Concerto in A minor — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VwFXXely-Y
Movement ends around 12:30.
Beethoven — Symphony No. 9 Finale — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTYZWHR5I_Q

We finished the concert and the lights came up and I realized that I'd survived. That felt good. 

I went home and Brandon had just put the kids to bed. I was pretty brain dead so we just hung out on the couch and talked. 

Sunday was kind of a crazy day. First we hadn't been scheduled for church on Sunday. But earlier in the week we got an email that our stake was cleared to start having sacrament meeting without any restrictions on the number of people in attendance.  So that meant we were going to church on Sunday. 

But late Saturday afternoon we got another email. This one said that in light of the school district deciding to change to Orange that the stake had reconsidered their plan. They decided to go back to having wards meet in halves every other week. So we were back to not going to church that Sunday. 

I wish we could say that we were sad to miss out on church, but really we were all a little happy. It's so nice to sleep in and stay in pajamas as long as we want to on Sunday's. 

The kids were all really creative when they did finally get up.  They were drawing pictures and playing. Charlotte wrote and illustrated a books called the Runaway Pumpkin. I recorded her reading it, but someone shut my computer when I was uploading the file to Youtube so I don't have it ready for you this week. Maybe next week. 

I decided it was a good time to vote. Brandon and I requested our absentee/mail in ballots weeks ago. They arrived last week. I'd opened mine, and had planned to research some of the local races. But instead I just got annoyed.  Most of the local races had Republicans running unopposed. Two county commissioner seats were completely uncontested.  

I have the beginnings of an idea for what I want to do politically after this election. I'm not interested in running for office, but I would love to help behind the scenes to help people feel comfortable running. I'd love to help get something like the League of Women Voters up and running here in Twin Falls. I'm not a registered Democrat, but I might become one in the future so that I can help out with the local candidates. 

So anyway, on Sunday I decided it was time to actually mark my ballot and then drop it off at the county drop box. So Brandon and I each filled out our ballots. Then Charlotte and I hopped in the car and drove to the county building to put the ballots in the little box they have out front. DONE!

When I got back home it was time to get ready for the concert again. This one was at 4:00 and I had to be there at 3:30. 

This concert would be live streamed and I'd sent the link to my parents. It was great knowing they were watching. I played my very best during this concert. Here are some of my thoughts on the songs.  

Crown Imperial is the hardest song for me. I never really did figure out the main rhythm. But there is a part in the song where it's just quarter notes and I can play those. I felt so happy and thrilled to be doing what I loved. 

Juliet's Waltz is the type of song that is the reason I played bass for 8 years. I just had to play a quarter note every three beats. Everyone else (especially the soloist) had the melody, but all I had to do was keep time. Yep, I can do that. 

The Bassoon Concerto had some of the very first 16th notes I've ever seen. That scared me at first. But aside from the 16th note runs it was actually very simple. So I just let my section leader handle those scary runs and I was able to do the rest. 

The two county tunes by Grieg were simple, but doable. One of them was in 6/8 time. I realized that my mask was super handy because nobody could see me mouthing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 through the whole song. There was one part of the barn dance song that was so fun to play. It was just a few quarter notes, but I loved doing them every time.

The Greig piano concerto was something else. The piano player was so good. And the music was okay to follow over all. But there is a part where the piano does a beautiful cadenza for a minute or two. I was mesmerized every time I heard it.  I'd always still be off in dreamland when it was time to come back in.

Beethoven's 9th was deeply personal to play. I'd learned the Ode to Joy when I was in 6th grade and playing it then had been a big deal. Our little elementary school orchestra had played the song at our little elementary concert. Every other player dropped out of playing the song, but I kept going. I was the only musician that finished that song that day, and if I remember right I was the only one that went on to play in Jr High. The thrill of playing that little song correctly at that little concert is honestly what kept me going in music beyond 6th grade. So to play the song at my first concert since 2003, well it was special. 

It was also super hard because Beethoven for grownups is different than it is for 11 year olds. That song had some really tricky parts. But I was very happy with how I did in the concert. 

When the concert was over we unceremoniously handed in our music. We already had some music for our next concert, but we got more - including the last movement of Beethovens 7th symphony. Oh boy that one looks scary. 

I came home from the concert and had dinner with the kids. Then I called my parents and talked to them about the concert. They'd loved it. 

The whole time I was talking to them Derrick was sitting next to me telling me that his stomach hurt and that he had to throw up. He'd said the same thing on Saturday night so I didn't think much of it. But about 5 minutes after the call ended Derrick did throw up - all over the living room rug. 

Ugh. That was obviously no fun. But COVID added an extra layer of problems in addition to just cleaning up the mess. Suddenly I was wondering what this would do to my plans for Monday and the rest of the week. 

Derrick had to stay home from Venture School and since Brandon teaches at Venture School I would have to be the one to stay with Derrick. So that cancelled my plans to do training for our new receptionist at work on Monday. 

I was also worried that this was a sign of things to come. I imagined other kids getting sick during the night.  Thankfully that didn't happen.  And Derrick seemed to be feeling better after a good nights sleep. 

Anyway, I didn't update my blog on Sunday because I was sitting on the couch so I could help Derrick fall asleep. I just watched silly stuff on Youtube until he fell asleep. 

So that's the update for this week.  

Thanks for reading. 

Valerie Phoneless

My phone died a watery death last Friday and my replacement didn't show up until this Friday afternoon. It was a little odd not having a phone for a week, but overall not too bad. I could borrow the kids' Gabb Phone and Brandon's phone if I needed to make calls or take pictures. And I had access to the internet on my laptop. 

The biggest thing I missed was being able to listen to podcasts while getting dinner ready. I'd thought that might be a good thing - I listen to a lot of political podcasts and I was thinking that this close to the election it might be a good idea to just take a step back.  What news could really come out this week anyway?

I should have known better. There was a new bombshell story nearly every day this week.

I kept up with the news on my laptop throughout the week. But yesterday I went back and listened to the 15 minute episodes from the NPR Politics Podcast. I can't even describe what that was like. Imagine a roller coaster that just got higher and higher. Or maybe that's more of an elevator. All I know is that in an already crazy political year, this was an insane political week. 

Here are the headlines for the episodes I listened to:

Monday September 28, 2020
The NYT Says Trump Paid Little In Income Taxes; What Does That Mean For The Campaign?

A New York Times investigation published on Sunday said that President Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes each year in 2016 and 2017, which the president denied at a news conference using a familiar retort: "fake news."

Wednesday September 30, 2020
Debate: Trump Refuses To Condemn White Supremacy, Biden Pitches Directly To Camera
The first debate was chaotic and light on policy as the participants disregarded the agreed-upon rules. President Trump repeatedly interrupted the discussion in order to lambast Joe Biden and debate moderator Chris Wallace. The president once again refused to condemn white supremacy and did not agree to respect the results of the election.

Thursday October 1, 2020
Two Million Americans Have Already Voted
Early voting is way up in 2020. But conspiracy theories spread by the president and protests at polling places have spooked some voters, and changed how some plan to cast their ballots.

Friday October 2, 2020
The President And First Lady Test Positive For Coronavirus
President Trump tweeted after midnight Friday that he and the First Lady Melania Trump had both tested positive for the coronavirus. The White House physician also released a formal letter confirming the news. This comes after top White House aide Hope Hicks tested positive Thursday.

Saturday October 3, 2020
After Doctor Said Trump Doing Well, Source Familiar With His Health Said Otherwise

FOLLOW OUR COVERAGE: https://n.pr/3nj0elU

And it looks like there is a new episode that I'll catch up on soon

Sunday October 4, 2020
Questions Persist About Trump's Health After Second Dissembling Briefing

The president has started a steroid and his doctor acknowledges that Trump has in fact received supplemental oxygen. His course of treatment suggests a severe case of Covid-19, though his team suggests he could be back at the White House as soon as tomorrow.

In my personal life, this week was actually pretty light. But thanks to all that other stuff this week felt really really long. Monday felt like Wednesday, Thursday felt like Friday. And by Saturday all I wanted to do (and all I did) was sit on the couch and listen to LDS general conference. 

I only took a few pictures this week, (because I didn't have a phone) but I still have some things I want to document. So let's get going on that. 

Monday got off to a good start. The kids and Brandon had onsite school and I had work. We are working on hiring a receptionist. We'd received a lot of applicants and so I took over the job of weeding them out so my boss could focus on other things. I'm glad I took over that project. I barely had time for it. There is no way he could have made time for it in his busy busy schedule. 

Back at home I read the kids The Witches by Rohl Dahl. My 4th grade teacher read that book aloud to my class and I loved it.  So it was fun to read it to the kids. They really liked it too.

We've found a fairly good rhythm with school. There are a still a few tears from the kids occasionally, but overall I've been really happy with our decision to homeschool. My favorite part is that we all can sleep in. Charlotte was trying to tell me that I should let them sleep in. I told her, "I do."  She didn't believe me. I told her, "The time you wake up is the time that you would normally have to be at school." She couldn't believe that. 

Tuesday was another busy day at work and then at school. I took Derrick to speech therapy after school. The therapy lasts 45 minutes and he's in another room the whole time. So it's 45 minutes of uninterrupted reading time for me. 

Last week I'd been reading "Promises to Keep" by Joe Biden. I'd read the chapters about the Joe meeting and marrying Jill. These chapters made me so happy for him. 

This week I was close to the end of his second book "Promise Me Dad." This book is about the year that his son Beau was dying of brain cancer. On Monday night, I'd read that chapter where Beau died of cancer. I'd assumed that would be the saddest part of the book. I hadn't realized that the funeral would be an even more emotional section. I was crying the whole time I was reading while waiting for Derrick. 

Beau's death stayed with me the rest of the evening. To me it was like he'd died that day. I was mourning the loss of such a great man and feeling so sad for Joe Biden's pain.

This was the night of the Presidential Debate, but I wasn't' going to watch it live because I had rehearsal for the Magic Valley Symphony.  Rehearsal went well and helped take care of some of my melancholy mood. 

I planned to watch the debate when I got home. I was super curious how it had gone. As soon as I walked in the door Brandon told me he had a text from my sister Hillary. She was warning me that it had been an absolute mess. 

I pulled up a replay on Youtube and started watching. I'm glad I had Hillary's advance warning. I don't know how she'd watched that live. It was rough to watch even with her texts telling me about the worst parts. 

Later Brandon and I watched Treavor Noah recap the debate on the Daily Show. (Trevor Noah is getting me through this election cycle.) Sorry for the swearing, but this is spot on.

The next day I posted this on Facebook in reaction to part of the debate:

Yesterday afternoon I finished reading "Promise Me Dad" by Joe Biden. It documents the year that his son Beau Biden died of brain cancer. I was literally crying while reading the book while waiting at Derrick's speech therapy appointment. To me it was like Beau died yesterday. I was affected by it the rest of the day. 

So it hurt to hear President Trump speak over Joe Biden talking about his son. It broke my heart to hear him disparage Beau's brother and best friend Hunter Biden. Hunter was such a caretaker during Beau's illness. He was a model brother. Many times through the book I hoped that I could raise siblings as close as Beau and Hunter.

The debate didn't change my mind about who I'm voting for, but it certainly solidified my feelings that Trump is a vindictive bully.

Honestly the only good thing that came out of the debate was a return of the delightful Obama/Biden memes. I particularly liked this one. 

And while we are on the subject, here's another thing I posted about Joe Biden. I usually post a book review on Instagram/Facebook when I finish a book that I want to recommend to others.  This is what I wrote about Joe Biden's books. I posted this on Saturday because that's when I had a phone and could post to instagram again. 

It's probably no secret who I will vote for this election, but for a long time I saw Joe Biden as the default choice. I was still a little miffed that I'd had to vote for him in the Primaries because my first choice had dropped out days before. I often described him as "boring" while sighing that maybe boring is what we need right now.

A few weeks ago I realized I didn't know much about Joe Biden as a person. Sure I'd listened to sound bites, I'd read tons of articles and opinion pieces, and I'd thoroughly enjoyed every Obama/Biden meme from 2017, but I didn't know much about the personal history or accomplishments of Joe Biden.
So I did what I always do and checked out books from the library. And I found that Joe Biden is a giant of a man.

Here are just a few highlights for those of you who don't have time to read the books. But I HIGHLY recommend taking the time to read them.

*He has been in public service nearly his whole adult life. He was elected to the Senate at age 29 in an underdog race no one thought any Democrat could win.

*Shortly after the election his wife and baby daughter were killed in a car accident. His two young boys were badly injured. Reading about his sorrow was harrowing. This man knows personal loss on a deep level.

*He wanted to resign his Senate seat, but was persuaded to give it six months. He ended up being one of the longest serving Senators. He gained a wealth of experience from the older statesmen -both Democrats and Republicans.

*One of my favorite parts of the book was when he met and married Jill. By this point I was deeply invested in his story and was so happy for Joe and the boys.

* He served on many important committees including Foreign Relations. He knows and has worked with Heads of State from around the world. If elected he will have had more foreign relation experience on day one than our last 4 presidents.

I want to write more, but apparently Instagram has a character limit.

Let's just say I no longer consider Joe Biden a boring candidate. I'm excited to vote for him.

He is principled, he is thoughtful, and he has dedicated his life to public service. This is the man who should be our next president.

Whew, I'm sure you are sick of hearing about politics by now. So let's move on. (But fair warning, I'll probably talk about politics again in this post.)

Wednesday was a great day. Particularly in the afternoon. After school the kids and I went to the park and they played super well together for a long time. I didn't want to intrude on their games so I took a picture from a far. They played hide and go seek, duck duck goose, horsy rides, and several other games. It was so nice to see them all playing together. 

 
We went home and had sandwiches for dinner. Then we all hopped in the car and I dropped Derrick and Veronica off at Brandon's work so they could hang out with him during the last 30 or so minutes of work. 

I took Charlotte and Lydia to the CSI ropes course. They'd been so jealous when Derrick had been able to go a few weeks earlier. When my friend Amy Toft texted out a 2 for $20 coupon for the rest of the season I'd decided to use it to take the girls. 

Here they are in their harnesses.  

I'd assumed they'd be going up on the same events that Derrick had, but instead the big challenge course was open. Here's Lydia fearlessly going up the ladder. 

And Charlotte was right behind her. 

Here they are at the top of the tower. A worker named Adam was up there with them and he was absolutely wonderful. He helped them clip their special harnesses onto the wires and talked them through what to do. I couldn't have asked for a better coach for my girls.  

Here's Lydia going across some planks. 

And Charlotte following. 

Then they got ready for some tires. 

I could hear Adam talking to the girls about how he helped build this course. They were talking right back and carrying on a good conversation. 

Here's Charlotte on the tires. 

Lydia had made her way over to the zipline and was ready to do that. A worker named Emma, helped get her ready. 

Here's Lydia doing the zipline. When she got down she told everyone, "It was like I wad dying and in heaven at the same time."  Everyone thought that was a perfect way to sum it up. 

Then it was Charlotte's turn. She also loved the zipline. I felt like my girls had passed an important rite of passage.

I was so proud of my girls. I assumed that would be the end of the evening, but they had permission to go up again. So Lydia scampered up. But almost as soon as she was back on the platform a large group of teenagers was ready to go up. Adam and Emma and the other workers were busy getting the teenagers harnessed and up onto the course. They didn't have time to help two little girls with clipping and navigating the course.  

Poor Lydia got stuck on the platform. She was safe, but the adrenaline from the zipline wore off and she suddenly realized how little she was and how high up she was. She was crying by the time Charlotte made it up onto the platform. Emma finished getting all the teenagers up and then helped lower the girls back down to the ground. It was kind of a sad way to finish the course, but I reminded the girls how brave they'd been when they'd first gone up. 

We found out that people can start working on the course when they are 15 years old. I think they will both be up for that when the time comes. 

When I was back home I spent the rest of the evening in an alternate political timeline. I watched the debate episode from the Westwing. 

Thursday was October 1st and I promised the kids we'd decorate for Halloween on October 1st. So that evening we pulled out the Halloween box and let the kids have fun decorating. I put a lot of stuff up on our living room shelf. Brandon built this shelf a few months ago and at the time I'd been like, "Why did you bother doing that?" Well now I'm super excited to have the shelf. We were able to put so many of our Halloween things on it. 

We also put fake cobwebs all over the front yard. The kids loved doing this. 

On Thursday night I was reading Facebook until sometime after 11:00. I think I went to bed just minutes before President Trump announced he had COVID 19. So I didn't hear that news until after I woke up Friday morning. Since I still didn't have a phone I heard about it from another text from Hillary to Brandon's phone. 

It was hard to strike a balance between honoring the office of President and just wanting to yell KARMA over and over again. Mostly I just enjoyed the fine crop of memes that popped up in response.  Here are some of my favorites. 

And I haven't made any memes this year, but I still find this one funny. Future generations better not underestimate the importance of memes in helping us all cope with 2020.

Okay where were we in the real world?  Oh yeah Friday.  I'm not scheduled to work on Fridays, but I went in for an hour or so this week because I'd been so swamped. I'd been weeding out receptionist candidates all week and had done phone interviews with some of them on Thursday. On Friday I was able to get the list of potential job candidates down to 4 and set up second interviews. 

Then I went home and did school stuff with the kids. We were done by early afternoon. I took the kids to Goodwill to see if we could find Halloween Costumes for them all. 

We did so well!  All the kids are being easy things this year so it was simple to find costumes for them all. We found a dress, hat, and tights for Charlotte's witch costume. A skeleton costume for Veronica. And a whole spaceman get up for Derrick. Lydia wants to be a werewolf, but we couldn't find anything for her at Goodwill, DI, or Spirit Halloween. So I ordered a mask and tail for her online later. There are a few things we need to tweak on some of the costumes, but overall we are done!  

I'm still not sure what Halloween will look like for us this year, but I didn't mind investing in these costumes because they are all good stock costumes to have on hand for the next few years. 

Back at home I was chilling out on the couch reading a book. (Know My Name by Chantel Miller). Someone rang the doorbell and when I answered it, it was a girl from our ward. She was dropping off a box of conference goodies that my friend Amy Toft had ordered for us. Amy had placed the order for several people and we were one of them. This made my day! I want to be Amy Toft when I grow up. 

Honestly, I'd kind of forgotten that it was Conference Weekend. I wasn't even sure it was October. 

On Saturday morning I laid on the couch and snuggled with various kids during the first session of conference. It was really nice. 

After the first session was over, Brandon's parents arrived. They'd planned to come on Veronica's birthday, but had been watching Brandon's grandpa that week. So they came this day.  They brought homemade brownies so we could celebrate Veronica again.  

We sang:

Happy Birthday to you (again)

Happy Birthday to you (again)

Happy Birthday, dear Veronica (again)

Happy Birthday, to you (again)

We were all laughing by the end.   

Veronica also was able to open her present. 

She got this Barbie Jeep and was so excited. The kids all took turns playing with it outside all weekend. 

The built jumps and other things for it.

On Sunday I worked on getting things from the last year or so put into my scrapbooks. I worked on the project for a total of 4 hours today and got it done. Its always a good feeling when all that loose paper is finally put away.  The kids built lincoln log houses. 

My favorite talk from conference was by Jeffery R Holland. It looks like that one isn't up on Youtube yet. So instead I'll put up President Russel M Nelson's Sunday morning talk. 

And that gets us caught up once again. 

Thanks for reading. (And if you think I wrote a lot about politics you should talk to Brandon about what it's like to live with me these days.)