The busy week I somehow made busier

This was a week for the books.  On the Thursday before this week, my friend Liz asked me if we could get together to talk as friends and not just about PTO stuff. I looked at my calendar and realized I had absolutely no free time this week. 

It was the type of week where all the weekly things, all the twice a month things, and all the monthly things lined up to happen in one week. Plus I was scheduled to try to finish a class at the end of the week. 

I told Liz that sadly we couldn't get together, I was just too busy.

And then I found out that I'd made it onto the Baconsale anniversary show as a contestant to be The Listener.  They would record on Wednesday night - smack dab in the middle of my busy week. I've been dreaming of being on Baconsale since the podcast started in 2015 and I've been trying to get onto the anniversary show since they started the tradition in 2017. So no matter how busy the week was, this was one of those "drop everything and go" situations. 

And I'm going to tell you ALL about it in a minute.  But first let's go though some of the other things that were happening.  

First up is this picture that somehow didn't make it into last week's huge recap post.  Lydia recently had her hair cut. Now she and Charlotte are hard to tell apart again. They didn't help things by dressing EXACTLY the same one day. 

And what would this blog be without an update on my flowers. The pink tulips started to open up.

Okay let's start with what happened Monday April 25th. 

The day started out at 5:45 when my alarm went off for Bible Study.  I got ready and went over to Liz's house. (We normally meet at a church, but her husband was out of town so it was easier to met in her living room this week.) 

Bible Study starts at 6:15. And it is totally worth getting up that early. We officially started the study of Systematic Theology. A synonym for Systematic is Organized. So think of it as an organized study of God and what the Bible teaches. 

I've actually been thinking about doing some sort of theology study when I finish my accounting degree. I was just planning to go to the library and check out a book and study it on my own. But as often happens, Liz had what I needed. Several months ago she sent out an email explaining that Systematic Theology would be the focus for our ladies study for the year.  She included a link to the book we'd use.  So I ordered that right away. 

Bible Study ended at 7:30 and I hurried home to walk the kids to school to Brandon could leave for work. 

Charlotte wasn't feeling well so she was laying on the couch.  She looked miserable so Brandon had agreed to let her stay home.  When I got back from walking the kids to school I had Charlotte take one of our home COVID tests. It came out negative. 

After that I worked on some PTO stuff.  Then I headed over to work to get ready for Admin meeting. Charlotte just stayed home and watched TV.  I planned to only stay at work for 90 minutes, but it turned into about 3 hours.  (This was my theme for work all week long.)

When I got back home I was surprised to find out that Charlotte had thrown up. I felt so bad that I'd been gone for so long. But she said it was okay.

The other set of twins came over like they always do on Mondays. One of them had been sick with a similar stomach bug the week before so I figured they'd already been exposed to whatever germs we had. 

That evening Veronica had her Karate class.  At the end of the class Veronica played a tug of war game.  She got pulled across the floor by the other kid, but she thought it was so fun.

I spent most of Veronica's karate class reading school stuff on the WGU app.  I was able to get through a lot of material.

Okay onto Tuesday. Charlotte still wasn't feeling well on Tuesday and neither was Lydia.  So they both stayed home from school. 

I went to work and spent another 3 hours getting things done. 

At home I was able to get all the school reading done.  

And here's a check in with my garden.  These flowers make me so happy.

Here are blossoms on my cherry tree in the back yard. 

Peach blossoms. 

My lettuce garden. 

Derrick had behavioral therapy and Boys activity. Miss Brittani took him to Boys activity and made sure he interacted with the other kids.  This has been such a good arrangements.  When I go with Derrick he just asks me if we can leave and we usually skip out early because I have other things to do.  But it's Miss Brittani's job to keep him engaged.  So they stay the whole time and he does really well with the other kids when she is around. 

Normally I take Veronica to Karate on Monday's and Thursdays.  But the gym has a drop in schedule which means she can attend any level one class on any day of the week.  That worked out really well for us this week. She couldn't go Thursday because of a thing at the school.  And she couldn't go on Wednesday because I'd be out of town with the car.  So I had her go on Tuesday. 

Advancements were supposed to be on Wednesday and Thursday, but I talked to the coach and he agreed to do her advancement on Tuesday.  So at the end of class on Tuesday he had her come up and answer the basic questions that he askes at every class.  Then she got her white belt.  She was so thrilled. Here she is with the board that has the answers to the basic questions. 

When we were back from Karate, Brandon and I went over to one of my ministering sisters' house to pick up a loveseat.  I've been looking for a loveseat for a while. She'd posted on the ward facebook page that she was giving away one for free.  So I told her I was interested.  It was a win win situation. She didn't have to try to take the loveseat to DI and I got a free loveseat.  It's so nice to have another place to sit in our living room.  A few days later we were all putting on shoes in the morning and we ALL had a place to sit.  

I sat down to take my Pre-exam late that night.  I completely bombed it.  But I kind of expected that.  I knew I needed to sit down with the practice questions.  The big problem was that I wasn't sure when I would have time to do that.  

Okay here we are to Wednesday.   It started out normal enough.  Charlotte and Lydia both went to school. I went to work and put in a few hours there.  

But then things were different.  I came home and packed my backpack for and overnight trip. I wrapped a mothers day present for my mom.  And I dug up a bunch of strawberry plants to take to my sister Emily's house.  

Brandon got home from work at 2:00 (he'd gone in at 6:00 in order to get off of work early.)  I packed my things in the car and then started driving to Utah.  

This was so odd.  The last time I drove far away by myself was for my sisters' trip in 2019.  And even then I'd had tons of camping stuff in my car.  It seemed so strange to drive away from home with just me and a few things in the car.  

I'd debated whether or not I should listen to old episodes of Baconsale while I drove. Earlier in the week I'd gone back and made a list of all the previous shows from the last year. I'd even listened to the end of some so that I could remember who won certain bracket challenges. But I decided I didn't want to oversaturate myself before recording that night. So instead I listened to the Bible Talk Podcast. This is another thing I've picked up from Liz. I've been listening to it a lot lately to prepare for the Come Follow Me lessons on the Old Testaments. 

On this drive I listened to the first several episodes about Leviticus.  I always thought Leviticus was boring. And it is - IF you don't know what the heck is going on.  But these podcasts really helped me understand it. 

I made it to my sister Emily's around 5:30. She was able to head over to a choir performance for Bridger. She was going to take all the kids and had invited me to go along too.  That was fine with me, but I realized Juniper was still asleep.  I asked Emily, "Would it be better if I just stayed her with Juniper?"  She said, "Um yes that would be much better."  

Vance decided to stay home too and so did Titus (who hadn't wanted to go to begin with). Hazel was all of a sudden not feeling well so she stayed home to take a nap in Emily's bed.  So Emily and Asher were the only ones that went to the elementary school for Bridger's concert. 

Juniper woke up a little after Emily left.  We had a good time hanging out. She was much happier than last time I babysat her. 

Emily came home around 6:45 and Hazel threw up almost immediately after Emily came home. I was like, "Oh I'm so sorry, I have to go record my podcast now, and I'm leaving you to clean up throw up." But Emily told me, "No, you were so helpful. This would have happened at the school if you hadn't been here."  So that made me feel better about leaving. 

So I got into my car and drove down to Bountiful to meet up with everyone for the recording. Normally they record the show at home.  But for the anniversary shows they usually pick somewhere bigger.  They've rented out studios in the past.  This year they did it at Blake's Barber Shop in Bountiful. Zack, one of the hosts works there, and Blake is a supporter of the podcast so that's where they recorded this year. 

Recording in Bountiful had special significance for me. Brandon and I were married in the Bountiful Temple and we lived in Bountiful from 2010-2012. Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick were all born when we lived in Bountiful.  When I was pregnant with Derrick I'd listen to the radio while driving to doctors appointments.  I started listening to the morning show on 101.9 The End.  There was a movie review guy that was on the show on Tuesday's and Fridays.  He'd have reviews of new releases and would also share Top 5 lists. I got to the point where I was scheduling my doctors appointments on Tuesdays and Fridays so I could listen to that movie guy, Kenny D. 

Later I'd start listening to the show on the radio at home.  I listened most days, but I for sure never missed a Tuesday or Friday.  

When we moved to Texas in 2013 I listened to the show on the I Heart Radio App on my laptop. The radio show was cancelled in August of 2013 and I was devastated.  But the show came back as a the Radio Ronin Podcast in 2014 - just as Brandon went to Korea. That show kept me company while Brandon was gone.

Kenny D was on Radio Ronin, but he also started Baconsale with his work friends in April of 2015 - weeks before I moved to Fort Rucker, Alabama. For the next 4 years I'd listen to Kenny D on Radio Ronin and then listen to his alter ego, Kent on Baconsale. Those podcasts were with me for so many things.  Driving across the country when we moved from Alabama back to Utah.  Driving up the mountain to work at Snowbasin.  Driving over the Dunraven Pass on my way to and from work at Roosevelt Lodge in Yellowstone.  Walking around on my lunch break in Pocatello. Packing up my stuff in Pocatello and unpacking it in Twin Falls. 

These shows meant a lot to me so I started supporting them on Patreon. In September of 2019 I won a contest for Radio Ronin.  I won an R2D2 Mug that Kenny had picked out in Disneyland. I took it to work and proudly displayed it on my desk.

Just a few weeks later, things went wrong with Radio Ronin and Kenny was forced to pick between Radio Ronin and Baconsale. He picked Baconsale. I continued listening to both shows for a while, but realized that Kenny had been my favorite part of Radio Ronin.  So I gave up on that show and just listened to Baconsale. 

So here I was, finally going to meet Kenny/Kent after 10.5 years of listening to him. And it was going to happen in Bountiful where I'd first discovered him. Yes, this was very significant. 

In some ways I'd already met Kent. At some point in the last few years we'd become Facebook friends.  I'd messaged him a few times. I also had sent him supportive messages when he'd had to pick a podcast. I'd also been on a zoom call that Baconsale did with listeners in December of 2020. But those things didn't measure up to meeting him in person. 

So before I walked into Blake's Barber Shop I took a couple deep breaths.  This was FINALLY going to happen. 

I walked in and Kent just happened to be the person closest to the door.  He said, "Hi Valerie" and came over to give me a big hug.  Everything was worth it right then.  

Joel came over and gave me a big hug.  Zack would come over in the next few minutes too. 

I'd brought the R2D2 mug in my purse.  I told Kent, "I have a weird request. I have a relic I won from an unnamed podcast.  Can I get you to sign it."  I pulled it out and Kent said, "Oh I remember this."  He agreed to sign it, but he said, "You know I'm just Kent right.  I'm just a regular guy." I told him I still wanted his autograph. 

We chatted for a little while.  I told him that we were basically best friends, he just didn't know it. He'd pick up on that and keep bringing it up during the recording. 

I was introduced to everyone else that was there.  And wow, there were a lot more people than I'd expected.  In addition to Kent, Joel, and Zack there were the three contestants, myself, Chad, and Mark. Mark had brought his wife.  Zack's wife and his mom were both there.  Joel's wife was there too. (apparently this was the first recording she'd ever been to.) Blake the Barber and his wife were there.  Also the 3 previous The Listener were there- Sam, Adrianne, and Spencer. That makes 15 people.  Here's a picture of most of the people who were there.

The atmosphere was like a family reunion/party. Everyone had fun talking and socializing.  I was nervous and yet also felt right at home. There was pizza and lots of treats.  The guys had asked the contestants what our favorite treats and drinks were.  They had kitkats and sugar free A&W Root beer for me. I felt so at home.

I'd arrived at 7:30.  Around 7:45 Zach announced that they planned to push record at 8:00.  So around 7:55 we sat down at the microphones.  The guys explained how to adjust the microphones so that they'd be right on our mouths. Joel said, "We want this to be as natural as possible, but Kent will cut out any awkward parts or pauses."  

The guys started into the show with the intro and usual business.  I loved watching them do something that I usually only hear. It was also interesting to see them stop and say things like, "oh I don't have that list in front of me can you send it to me real fast."  

Then they started introducing guests and I had to talk.  This was the part I was nervous about.  I've done a fair amount of public speaking, but usually I'm the only one on stage and I'm doing a rehearsed talk. I've never been on a podcast or really had to interact with other people during a presentation.  I was worried I'd either come across as bland or SUPER hyper/weird. But in the moment I felt like I was being myself in a natural way.

The anniversary show is a contest to find "The Listener."  I was competing against Mark and Chad to be "The Listener." After the introductions were over we went into the rounds of the contest.  

I'll let you listen to the show to know the details of the questions.  But here are some behind the scenes things. We did 10 rounds. After every 3 rounds we'd pause and take a break.  We could get more snacks and pizza. The microphones never stopped recording though. Kent reminded us that anything we said could get used as a sample at the end of the show.

Some rounds were buzzer rounds and some were ones that we had to use whiteboards. Some rounds I did well on.  Some I didn't do so great. During one of the breaks Mark's wife told me, "I don't know how you know any of these answers.  You're doing great."

I'm not going to tell you who won. (The episode drops at Midnight on Monday morning.  You can find it at baconsale.com or on podcast apps.) But I will tell you a silly story at the end.  Joel strongly urged all the contestants to take home the treats that had been picked out for them.  So I went over to the cooler and picked up the remining 5 A&W bottles.  Just then someone said, "Oh let's do a picture, where's Valerie."  So everyone looked at me as I'm holding 5 bottles of rootbeer.  I said, "Hey, this is the real prize right here!"  That got a big laugh. Someone said that should be part of the contestant picture.  

It wasn't though.  This is the real picture with the three contestants. I'm still in shock that I'm part of this. 

We finished recording around 10:30.  The other The Listeners commented that this was probably when they STARTED recording their anniversary shows. Adrianne was like, "And we didn't have chairs!"  

We stood around talking for a while.  A reoccurring guest of the show, Mats, showed up. He has a lot of energy so you know when he's around. I told him, "I'm a huge fan of your episodes." Everyone got into a discussion about if his name is pronounced Mats or Mots.  Mats said, "I don't care, I'm just so excited that Joel Hilton knows who I am."  I was like, "Same, but with Kent."

Eventually people started leaving.  I gave Kent one last hug and thanked him for a great night. Then I drove back to Emily's house. As I drove I realized I had a big problem. I'd always assumed that if I could just be on one episode of Baconsale I'd be happy. But now I'm realizing I want more.  I want to be on Baconsale again and again.  That night had been so much fun, I'm going to be chasing that high for a while. 

Everyone was asleep when I got to Emily's so I just texted Brandon and told him I'd tell him all about it later. I realized I'd completely forgot to pack pajamas so I just slept in my clothes. 

In the morning, Emily's kids were so excited to hear how everything went.  They've listened to a few episodes so they were interested in what it was like.  I'd found out that Joel grew up in Layton very close to where they live.  I told them, "Guess what. You guys go to the same elementary school that Joel did." They thought that was really cool.

I hung around Emily's for a couple hours.  But soon it was time to get going. I left the present for my mom with her.  And also made sure Emily had the strawberries.  Bringing those things had helped me justify the expense of going down to Utah by myself. 

I drove back to Twin Falls and arrived around 1:30. I went straight to work and took care of things for about an hour.  I probably wouldn't have gone in, but it was the end of a pay period and I wanted to make sure everything was right before my boss ran payroll.  

Then at 2:30 I went over the school and picked up Derrick for speech therapy and occupational therapy.  We stopped at the house so I could leave a note (and some candy) for the girls.  Then we went to his appointment.  While he was doing his therapy I attempted to catch up on emails.  I had an email from Baconsale asking what I wanted for my prize from the Baconsale Merch store.  I picked a Blue Baconsale Hoodie. I also won and Amazon gift card so I started to try to decide what to buy.  

We came back home and Brandon had dinner going.  He'd rode his bike to and from work that day. I caught up with everyone about what had happened while I was gone.  Derrick had been able to go swimming with Miss Brittani. Veronica had got a ride with Kaymie and her daughter to go to Girls Activity.   And Charlotte and Lydia hadn't had to worry about Young Women's because it was cancelled in favor of a Stake Activity on Saturday. 

Dinner was short because I had to run over to the school. The school was hosting the Magic Valley Children's Museum for a STEAM night. I wanted to have a table set up representing the PTO so we could get the word out for any parents that were interested in volunteering next year.  Plus this table was a test run for a district wide event happening next week. 

I got the table set up and hung out there all evening.  The kids and Brandon bounced around between the STEAM activities in the lunch room and the book fair in the library.  Sometimes Brandon was with them.  And sometimes he wasn't.  We've come a long way from when they had to be constantly supervised. 

The other kids went home with Brandon after about 45 minutes.  But Charlotte stayed with me.  When it was all over she showed me her AR star. 

That night I really should have sat down and studied for school. But that was a lost cause at this point. Instead I wanted to read over some really cool things I'd learned about in the Bible Talk episodes that I'd listened to on the way home.  The final Leviticus episode had traced how certain prophesies in Leviticus are echoed in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and then fulfilled by Jesus. I was particularly interested in reading Daniel 9.  I'd never heard the story talked about there and had certainly never read it.  It's really really cool.  And thanks to the foot notes in my ESV study Bible I could see how it tied into the greater Bible Narrative. 

On Friday we slept in a few minutes because I'd forgot to turn on all the alarms I'd turned off at Emily's house.  Most of the kids were up and going and to school without too much trouble.  But Charlotte wasn't feeling well again. So she stayed home again. 

I took her with me to work in the morning. I was planning to only be there about 90 minutes because I wanted to get back home and join the At Last She Said It zoom call. I've missed the last several because of scheduling problems, but I didn't have any schedule problems this time. 

The call started about 12:00 and around 11:45 I heard Charlotte's breathing change.  She was fast asleep on the futon in my office.  So I just stayed at work and got a lot done.  It ended up being another unexpected 3 hour work day.

By the time the other kids came home from school we were all pretty tired from the week. I fell asleep on the couch.  When Brandon came home we decided we should just get pizza for dinner so he ordered some from Dominos. 

That evening we watched Hotel Transylvania 4 for movie night. 

Saturday was a productive and yet also restful day.  We got the house clean and Brandon mowed the lawn. But we decided that Charlotte and Lydia didn't need to go to the Stake Youth Service project for 4 hours because neither of them were feeling that great. 

We did end up helping my neighbor Diantha set up tables and chairs for a region singles conference.  Her first round of volunteers cancelled on her so she called Brandon because he's her ministering brother. I said we'd all go to help.  The kids were kind of like, "Uhhh why do we have to do this . . . this is hard."  I was like, "Hey, setting up tables and chairs was my childhood because my dad was the bishop. You can do it once."

They ended up having a great time helping and then exploring the church building.  It's one of the oldest in Twin Falls - if not the oldest - so it had 3 stories and lots of interesting features.  

We also helped Diantha blow up balloons with a balloon machine for a balloon wall.  That was fun too. 

When all that was over Derrick and I drove over to Tubbs Berry Farm for "Bee Days."  By the time we got there the event was officially over.  But the owners were nice and let Derrick see some bees. 

They even gave us a drone to take home.  Derrick named it Buzzy and talked to it and loved it - until it died about 3 hours later.  (The farmer had told us it would probably die within the next day or two.)

Here's Buzzy in his little cage.  We might get a whole hive from Tubbs Berry Farm next year.  Derrick likes that idea, but the other kids are terrified. 

I really should have studied on Saturday.  But I decided to just give up on that for the week.  It hadn't happened yet so there wasn't much point in doing it now.  I'll hit everything hard next week and hopefully finish the course Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Instead I made a bag to hold all my Bible Study stuff.  

By this point recording on Baconsale feels like a dream.  I'm like, "I didn't really drive down to Utah on a Wednesday and meet Kenny and record and episode of Baconsale. That has to have been a dream."

I guess we'll find out for sure Monday morning at Midnight. 

Life After Spring Break

Okay, now it's time to catch up on ALL the stuff that happened in the 4 weeks after we came home from our vacation. 

In some ways the last four weeks were pretty uneventful.  Sure there was all the usual stuff like the kids school, my school, PTO, church, yardwork, etc but that's all pretty run of the mill at this point.  But we also celebrated Derrick's 10th birthday, celebrated Easter (with both sides of the family), and squeezed in another trip to Lagoon.  So in other ways this was a very eventful four weeks. 

Let's dive on in and recap. 

Week One - Sunday March 27 - Saturday April 2 

We came back home from our trip late on Saturday night. We were all super tired and so we slept in on Sunday.  I don't know what time the kids woke up, but Brandon and I didn't get out of bed until 11:00.

Our church doesn't start until 1:30, but we knew that it would be hard to make it to church even at that late time so we planned to just watch it on our computer.  That was a good idea. I tried to have everyone take a shower or a bath because the last one they had had been on Wednesday and we'd gone swimming twice since then. Veronica thought she saw a spider in the bathtub and started crying super hard.  When I went to check on her she sobbed, "I'm just SO tired." 

When church did start I was like, "It's 1:30 already!" It felt like it was only 9:00 am. 

Aside from being tired, there was another lingering side effect from the trip. I'd screamed so hard and so much at Lagoon that I'd really done a number on my vocal cords.  I'd been able to talk okay on Saturday, but on Sunday my voice was very scratchy and weak. I sounded awful.  And it lasted for almost a week.  People thought I had a cold or something and I'd have to say, "no, I just screamed my voice out at Lagoon."  Fortunately my voice came back, but I think I'm still missing a high note or two in my singing range. 

At some point Brandon picked up Marcia from the dog kennel. She'd had a good time there. When Marcia was back home that's when I knew the vacation was over. 

Whiskers, Charlotte and Lydia's mouse, was also doing fine.  We'd left her home and had our neighbor Diantha check on her.  When I'd texted her to ask her to watch Whiskers I'd asked, "Will you watch our mouse while we are out of town?"  She thought my phone had autocorrected house to mouse so she said yes.  And then was very confused when I started mentioning the cage and water bottle.  After we got it all straightened out she agreed to watch our house and our mouse. 

She was a fabulous house sitter.  She lives next door so it was easy for her to do things like take our garbage cans down to the curb. She also returned a DVD to the library for me so we wouldn't get a fine.  Good neighbors are so nice to have. 

One thing I made sure to do on Sunday was check our bank account.  I'd been keeping some tabs on it during the trip, but I wasn't sure what the results were from the last day or two. I was pleasantly surprised to see that we still had a little money in the checking account. That's rarely happened after a big trip. Paying off the student loans continues have nice repercussions.

I also went around and check on all my flowers. Here are the back area tulips getting close to blooming.

I love when they get to this stage. 

My lettuce experament was working well too.  I'd planted lettuce seeds in this bed last winter.  This is the bed closest to the back wall of the garage.  I was hoping the sun shining on that back wall would create a micro climate that would allow the lettuce to sprout early in the spring.  It worked!

Here's another experiment.  These onions also successfully overwintered and are already growing nicely. 

The strawberries were coming back nicely too.

Here's the peach tree. 

The daffodils by the house. 

The front flower bed had lots of happy little points pushing upward. 

And the bed in the very front was also showing a lot of progress. 

Here's the bed against the house from a different angle.

And LOOK!  A Daffodil ready to sprout. 

Another thing I did on Sunday was start prepping for my next school class. It had been WONDERFUL to take a whole week off from school. I'd brought my laptop along on the trip, but I never once got it out of my backpack. I wanted a complete detox from all the time I'd had to spend studying. 

Now it was time jump back into the class.  My next class was "Accounting Information Systems."  According to my self imposed schedule I needed to get through this class in a week.  So I sat down and made a plan for how many lessons to read a day in order to do that. 

It was going to be awful, but do-able.

I also did something else very important.  I knew that it would take me a long time to write about our spring break trip so I jotted down notes about everything I wanted to remember about the trip.  I'm so glad I did that.  I thought it would take me maybe two weeks to finish writing about that trip.  I had no idea it would take me almost FOUR. 

On Monday I jumped back on the Life Treadmill pretty fast and hard.  The first thing I had to do was 6:15 Bible Study.  We are doing Systematic Theology which is tracing various theology subjects through specific scripture verses.  It's really detailed study and I'm super excited for it.  

But at 6:15 am after a big trip it was a little tricky. Words like Hermeneutics, Pneumatology, and Hamartiology did not make the morning any easier. 

Brandon took care of getting the kids up and ready while I was gone and then I came home and gave the kids a ride to school and Brandon and ride to work and then went to my own work. We recently had one of our receptionists move onto bigger and better things. We had new receptionists hired, but not trained so I was covering front desk for about 5 hours that morning.  Which worked out because I had about several hours of work to catch up on from being gone for a week. 

I sat at the desk and tried to sort out everything.  I also had an admin team meeting that morning. Normally I'm prepared with lots of charts and lists to show where our Accounts Receivable numbers are, but this week I didn't have anything.  I said, "Sorry guys, I'm just trying to remember who I am today."  Everyone laughed. 

After work I picked the kids up from school. Charlotte and Lydia are best friends with another set of twins. They always come over to our house on Mondays.  So they came home too. The weather was super nice so everyone played in the backyard after homework was done.  I was out there watering things for a long time too.

I think I took this picture that Monday. Charlotte and Lydia have been playing in the their garden and created an elaborate river and lake system. 

On Tuesday I had to work front desk again. I'm actually really happy with how this worked out.  I was able to provide phone coverage AND get caught up on all my work.  Last May when I took 10 days off of work to go to North Carolina it took me until the end of June to feel caught up on work.  This year it only took 2 days. (The big difference this time was actually the fact that my kids were in school so I could work 10 hours in two days with out worrying about them.)

Let's see what else happened this week . . . . hmmmm . . . honestly this is kind of a lost week in my brain. I spent a lot of time with school. My class was awful because it was boring boring boring.  I hated it so bad.  But I wanted to get through it fast.  Since I was working so much in the morning I had to do homework in the evenings.  I was having flashbacks to the week before our vacation when Brandon had to pick up all the slack while I studied so much.

But hey, look, the daffodil bloomed! 

And the crocuses too.

Charlotte and Lydia's young women activity was a baby shower for one of their leaders.  I went along too because I know her. One of the games was to make little babies out of playdough.  these are the ones we made. 

Derrick had a bad day at school on Thursday.  He's struggled with the class at his school since second grade. I considered having his IEP amended to excuse him from music back then, but COVID shut everything down before I could make a decision.  At the beginning of the school year I brought it up to his team, but we all agreed to take a wait and see approach because we wanted to see if Derrick had matured enough to handle the class. 

Well it's been an interesting year.  On the one hand Derrick actually does very well musically.  He has a good sense of rhythm and the teacher describes him as one of the best students.  But music has continued to be a problem for Derrick.  The teacher's personality doesn't mesh well with Derrick and they've been learning recorders this year which is just the worst even if you don't have a sensory processing disorder.  

Derrick is always super worried about music and will ask to stay home on days that he knows he has to go.  I've emailed the school about it, but nothing had really been done to rectify the situation. 

I still don't know what exactly happened on this particular day, but something happened during music class that set Derrick off.  I got a call while I was at work that he was asking to come home. They'd calmed him down, but he was not happy the rest of the day. Whatever happened affected Derrick in his SPED class and with the school Occupational Therapist.  No one could get Derrick to be in a good mood.  

It happened to be the day for his after school Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy. I picked him up and he told me he had a bad day.  He was so morose and not at all his typical happy self.  He kept being really sad and low energy at therapy.  Both therapists told me that he was not himself that day. 

This was the final straw. I ended up writing an official letter to the school requesting the IEP update. Whatever was happening in music was disrupting too much to let it continue.  The school agreed and within a week I signed the amendment. 

So no more music class for Derrick.

Friday was April 1st which I always consider the real beginning of the year. 

I had to go over to the school to pick up the money for Hat Day.  I did the money count and I changed the inspirational message on the little letter board in the teachers lounge.

And here are more garden pictures.  (The garden is my happy place - especially when school is terrible.)

Here are blossoms on my plum tree. 

And raspberry shoots coming up.

Here are the back tulips.  

I was still working on my class on Friday night.  Brandon and the kids watched a movie while I studied.  I was planning to take the test Saturday morning, but realized that I was probably as ready for the test as I'd ever be. So I rescheduled the test and went over to my work office to take it.  (My internet at home isn't fast enough to support the test requirements so I take the tests at work. Which is probably better anyway because I don't have to worry about the kids interrupting me.)

I don't remember a thing about the test (or the course for that matter), but I passed and was able to come home and mark that class off my chart. 

Whew!

With that class out of the way I was able to focus on everything else.  Every month I take a half sheet of paper and list out stuff to work on for the month.  There are lists for: Things that are happening that month, Things I need to pay for, Projects I want to work on, and Writing projects I want to do. When I finished it I said, "Oh no what have I done!"

First up were a bunch of outside projects. This was General Conference weekend and so I had my phone ready to listen to conference while I was working outside.  But for some reason the internet wasn't working great. So I couldn't listen while I worked.  I wasn't too sad about that though. Lately prefer an arms length distance from conference anyway. 

So instead I listened to episodes of a podcast called the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill which is a fascinating look at a non-denominational church that grew for over a decade and then collapsed overnight. 

One of the things I did outside was clean off the covered patio.  We've had old mattresses out there nearly all winter. I put them on the open patio. I wanted to take them to the dump, but the kids discovered that they mattresses were super fun to play with.  They jumped on them like trampolines and then laid in the sun on them.  So I guess it will be a while before we get rid of these.  

Veronica loved them.

Neighbor Liz wanted me to come over to her house to give her ideas about what to grow in her yard. I did that and then she came over to my house to see what my yard looks like. It was fun to have her and her kids over for a little bit.  I'm looking over to having more people over now that the weather is getting nice and covid is mostly over. 

Charlotte worked on updating her fairy garden. 

It turned out super cute. 

Here's a tulip that opened in that back flowerbed. 

Liz had come over when the patio was still junky looking so after I got it all put together I texted her these pictures so she could see what it was supposed to look like. 

I'm always so happy when I can get the patio ready for nice weather. 

Doesn't this look like so much fun!

Here are some of the kids playing on the mattresses. 

Charlotte got out the hammock. 

Veronica earned a coupon to Orange Leaf a few weeks ago and has been constantly asking to go redeem it.  So we finally made that happen.  She was quite happy. 

Brandon and the girls lit a fire. 

And we had hot dogs for dinner. It was so fun to eat them on the patio. 

More fun with the mattresses. 

And look!  The lights are on.

Here's everyone sitting around the firepit. Last year at this time we'd just barely got the junky shed down.  Now look at the area. 

And here's my garden. Not a lot happening here yet. But I have lots of plans. 

Here's my line of trees. 

Week Two: Sunday April 3 - Saturday April 9

Sunday was a nice relaxing day.  We had conference on for most of the day, but the internet was still crapping out - even on our new TV.  We'd listen to about 5 minutes of a talk and then it would freeze.  I took that as serendipitous - especially since I didn't have to listen to any of President Oaks. 

The kids played with Lincoln Logs like they always do. Here's a house Veronica made. 

Monday was a rainy day. The other twins came over and all the girls played on the patio. I didn't get a picture of it, but they ended up building a type of fort with the mattresses and the wood pallets. 

Brandon had stained the newly found wood shelf and finally mounted it in the bathroom.  It's so nice to finally have two shelfs in here. 

Monday was the start of some new things.  I started my third Intermediate Class. I'd blocked out four weeks for this class so I wasn't feeling any stress or pressure (though I knew that would come later.)

Another new thing was that Veronica started Karate Lessons. Back when we lived in Pocatello she did about a month of an introductory Karate class.  It didn't work for us to continue lessons then, but lately she's been asking to start Karate again. 

I felt like Karate would be a good solution to a lot of small problems that Veronica has had.  She's had some issues with mean girls this year and she doesn't feel like she has any friends.  She's also struggled with reading.  And she still has a few balance issues.  I was thinking, "well it's either therapy or karate, let's try karate."

So I started looking around for a Karate Class. Most of them were either too far away or on nights that didn't work for us.  But I finally found one that had a program through Twin Falls Parks and Rec. What worked best of all was the classes were just on a drop in basis.  Veronica could attend whatever Level 1 class fit her schedule.  That worked really well for me. 

So on Monday we went to her first lesson.  The teacher greeted us and helped find the right size gi for Veronica.  She looked so good in it right away.  Then she joined a bunch of other kids for the lesson.  Many of the students have been taking lessons here for a long time and others were there for the first time.  Veronica followed along and did push ups, jumping jacks, and other exercises.  Then they worked on protecting their heads and punching.  It was hard work, but Veronica loved it. 

See how happy she is.  Veronica's a funny kid.  She doesn't really like overt praise. She HATES it when I tell her things like, "good job" or "that was amazing."  So she actually really thrives under a strict, no nonsense structure.  (Case in point, she really likes the music teacher that Derrick couldn't handle.) So she was quite happy with a karate teacher telling her she needed to work harder. Its probably too early for predictions like this, but Brandon and I are fully prepared for her to want to go all the way to black belt. 

I can't remember anything specific about Tuesday so let's just roll right into Wednesday.  Several weeks ago I'd made eye appointments for all four kids for Wednesday at 1:00.  Then I'd scheduled a two hour assessment interview with Derrick's new behavioral therapy company for 10:00 that day. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking with all that. 

Lydia ended up staying home sick on Wednesday (oh I just remembered something about Tuesday.  Both Lydia and Veronica had stomach bugs and stayed home that day.) Anyway, Lydia was still home on Wednesday and I was sitting on the couch trying to figure out the plan for the day.  I was like, "Oh my goodness the only time I have to work today is from now until like 9:30.  So we hurried and got ready and ran over to work for about 60 minutes.  

Then I dropped Lydia off at home and went to Derrick's assessment. I came home, made a quick lunch and then we went to pick up the other kids and go to the eye doctor. 

Everyone did well at the eye appointment and no one needs glasses.  Derrick was SUPER interested in everything and asked a ton of questions. 

After the appointment was over we still had a while until school was out.  We had the car so we decided to go somewhere.  We'd had some crazy rain on Tuesday and the car was filthy.  The kids convinced me that we should go get a car wash.  So we headed over to the car wash.  Well, we weren't the only ones with a filthy car that day.  The line for the car wash was SUPER long.  I wasn't about to wait in a super long line so we went to find something else to do.  

First we went to DI and I found some fake plants for the fountain outside.  (I want to make it look tropical.)  Then we went to the park. 

Back at home this is what the plants looked like on the fountain. They'd seemed so big in my arms at the store, but they look tiny here.

Veronica had her second karate class on Thursday. She continued to love it. 

On Thursday evening Derrick and I went to Smiths and picked up birthday cupcakes for his class the next day.  He was so excited that it was his birthday. 

He told me he wanted a surprise for his birthday so about an hour after he was in bed Charlotte, Lydia, and I blew up balloons. (Veronica wanted to help, but she fell asleep before we started.) We were going to put them on his door with crate paper so they would fall on him in the morning, but we couldn't get that to work.  So we hung them from the ceiling with yarn. 

Lydia drew this on the whiteboard outside his room.

Charlotte and Lydia went back to bed.  I stayed up with Brandon and watched him work on the cake. I was so tired and I was very happy that Brandon has taken care of all cake related duties the past few years. 

I ended up going to bed when the cake still looked like this. 

Derrick's 10th Birthday - April 8, 2022

A few minutes before 7:00 on Friday morning Brandon and I woke up Charlotte, Lydia and Veronica. we all went down to Derrick's room surprise him.  I knocked on his door and then hid behind a chair to film this. 

Derrick was thrilled about his birthday surprise.  He was so excite that it was his birthday. He got dressed really fast and then we took this picture.  Derrick kept saying things like "What a Lovely Birthday." 

Then we went upstairs and he got his first look at his "Godzilla Cake."  Derrick has been really into the 1996 Godzilla movie lately.  So when I saw this Godzilla toy at the store I realized it would make a cool cake topper. 

Brandon went above and beyond with the cake.  He even made a nest for Godzilla's eggs. 

I love how he made it look like Godzilla was walking down the street. 

We had a super busy morning.  I needed the car all day which meant I needed to drop the kids off at school and then drop Brandon off at work and then go to my own work.  

I got some stuff done at work and then headed over to the elementary to help with the Mustang Day sale.  While I was at the school so many people came up to me and told me about things Derrick said and did related to his birthday that day.

Derrick had at least 3 separate parties at school.  One was with his SPED class. They always do Fun Friday, but this one seemed above and beyond.  There were even mini cupcakes that Derrick got to take home. 

During lunch he had a party with his structured recess group.  He goes to a sensory room for lunch and the teacher in there just adores him. She bought him a swim shirt with a shark on it. One of the other teachers made him a cool ball shaped thing out of paper with lots of nice things written on it. 

Then Derrick went to his class where they had the cupcakes.  

Meanwhile I was helping with the sale. And then I had to do the money count. When I was done with that I had the office lasdy call down to Derrick's classroom and let them know I was checking him out for the day.  I heard Derrick down the hall say, "bye" and then a chorus of kids say, "Bye Derrick. Happy Birthday!" It was so cute. 

Derrick went with me to the bank to drop off the Mustang Day Sales Deposit. The lady who helped me said its fun that I always bring my kids with me to the bank. 

Then Derrick went home and showed me all the fun things he got at school.  This kid was so happy. 

After the other kids were home from school we picked up Pizza for dinner.  Derrick was thrilled about that too.

And then it was time for presents. He was so excited. 

The main present was a fairly inexpensive knock-off game boy with a bunch of retro games on it.  I bought it for Derrick so he would stop stealing my phone to play games.  I just wanted him to have something simple that couldn't get onto the internet. 

Well in a funny twist of fate, I've ended up stealing the game from him. Turns out one of the retro games is Super Mario Brothers 1. AKA the only video game I've ever been slightly addicted to. As soon as I heard the kids playing it I was like, "Wait! I know those sounds! Is that Mario?"  

I played Super Mario whenever I visited my Grandma's house from the time I was about 5 until I was about 12. I don't have any cousins my age so in some ways Mario is the closest thing I have to a cousin.  I never beat the game, but I sure had a lot of fun playing it. 

I've spent hours over the last few weeks playing Mario. I will literally set a timer and do 30 minutes of homework and then play Mario for 10 minutes. And then repeat. It's been fun to remember all the secrets and to unlock some new ones too. I've also been able to pass on my knowledge of the game to my kids.  (Lydia is currently the best out of all the kids.) 

Anyway, back to Derrick's birthday.  After presents it was time for cake. But first I had to take more pictures. Brandon did such a good job!

He made the buildings by putting together a bunch of wafer cookies with frosting.  And then piped frosting onto the outside. 

It was Lydia's idea to us Robin Egg candies as Godzilla eggs. 

Here's what the cake looked like the the candles lit. 

After we sang to Derrick and he took the Godzilla off the cake there were foot prints in the "road."

We kind of ran out of steam after the cake.  Our original plan for Derrick's birthday had been to drive down to Utah that evening and go to Lagoon on Saturday.  But that had been cancelled.  We were trying to think of something to do.  Finally we settled on watching Ralph Breaks the Internet. 

That night when I tucked derrick into bed he thanked me for a Lovely Birthday.  He was so excited to be 10. 

Saturday was one of those days that went through multiple plans. Like I said we had planned to go to Lagoon.  But then Brandon was scheduled to work over time on Saturday.  That actually worked out well because we were also planning to go to Utah the next week for Easter and it kind of seemed crazy to go two weeks in a row.

But then Brandon didn't have to work the overtime so we had a whole morning to fill.  What we ended up doing was cleaning and rearranging the living room and family room.

I decided that we were DONE with having a desk in the living room. We had a nice TV downstairs but the kids were still in the habit of watching Youtube on my laptop at the desk.  And the desk itself was so full of clutter that I couldn't do any work at it.  For weeks I'd been taking my laptop to the kitchen table or the couch when I wanted to study. 

So we took the desk out of the living rom and put it into Veronica's room. The filing cabinet went down into the craft room. We also took the legos and the coffee table and put them down the basement. Here are the kids when we moved the couch to straighten the rug. 

And here's what the living room looks like without the desk and the legos.  It's so much less cluttered now. 

And here's the family room with the coffee table.  It's like a real room now.

And look, here's another check in with the flowers. 

Since we weren't going to Lagoon I had to come with with something to take the place of a birthday activity. Derrick really likes going to Jump Time as part of Behavioral therapy, but the other kids haven't ever been there.  So we decided on going to Jump Time. 

It didn't start out well.  The place was so loud and chaotic (not to mention EXPENSIVE) but those were just my hang ups. The kids had a BLAST.  They ran around jumping on everything. 

Brandon didn't come so I was just there hanging out by myself. I took a few pictures of the kids, but mostly just sat on a couch while the kids ran around. 

Here's Lydia.

Veronica.

And Derrick was all over the place so he was hard to get a picture of, but I finally got one. 

And here's a video of all of them.

We only paid for 1 hour, but it had been an expensive hour and they didn't seem super strict about time limits so we just stayed until all four kids were ready to go at around the 2 hour mark. 

When we got home the kids were pooped.  Brandon and I parked them in front of the TV and went on a date to Panera to use a gift card I got for my birthday. 

While we were there Brandon pulled up something to read to me about the book he's writing.  I joked that he didn't look exactly like I'd expect a writer to look. 

We also went to Walmart to pick up more hot glue for the girls.  They have been crafting like crazy and going through hot glue quickly.  They've been using the glue to make lots of additions and accessories for their doll houses.   This is the baby room that Charlotte added to her house. 

Here's the baby room in Lydia's house. 

Here's some book cases.

And a desk.

And here's a wall that Charlotte added to Veronica's house for her. 

Oh and look at these adorable Easter baskets Lydia made.

And she even made treats to go in the baskets. 

Week Three - Sunday April 10th to Saturday April 16

On Sunday we went to church for the first time in what felt like a long time. 

That night Brandon and I stayed up working on something for Teacher Appreciation Week.  We made large cards for students to sign for their teachers. I needed to get them done in time to give to the school counselor so she could have the students sign them while they were in her class. 

On Monday I would have had Bible Study, but Liz and I already had a PTO meeting planned for that morning.  So Bible Study wasn't happening that week.  I went to the school at 7:30 for PTO meeting.  

The meeting was really good. We had several other parents at the meeting which was kind of a record. At one point I might have accidently called it a party. And really by the end it was kind of a party.  We needed to come up with a display for a district event. Someone said there was a probably a mascot costume in the PTO closet.  And someone else offered to wear it. And we all ended up in the closet taking turns putting the Mustang Mascot head on. It was hilarious. 

After PTO meeting I headed to work and got my charts ready for Admin meeting.  I was like, "Hey guys, I'm sure you missed all my papers two weeks ago. I'm back now!"

Most of the week was marked by two things. 

1. School.

2. Weird Weather

Let's talk about the weather first.  It kept snowing and then melting all week long. 

Our front yard looked like this a lot this week.

Here's the flowers, putting up with the weather.

They took quite a beating. 

And yet looked so cheerful.

Okay now let's talk about school.  

This was another one of the big classes that was split into two halves.  I was planning to take the first of two tests that Friday, BUT there was an investment section of the class that had me super confused and over-whelmed. I spent a lot of time doing practice problems, but I still felt like I wasn't learning enough to pass the test. 

It really put a cloud over my whole week and dominated everything. Brandon was a hero AGAIN and took care of taking Veronica to karate in addition to making dinner every night. 

I felt like I was drowning and really couldn't focus on anything else.  I was planning to go thrift shopping and find Easter outfits for the kids, but I decided that was a ball I could drop. 

We did find time to dye Easter eggs at some point. This was fun.

For a while I felt like I wouldn't be able to take the test until next week, but on Thursday things started to improve a bit. The concepts started to come together and I was feeling a little more ready.

One Thursday evening I was able to take a break from school stuff and help with the Relief Society activity. We were doing a book recommendation club and I was in charge of bringing hot chocolate. The more I hated my class the more I envisioned delicious hot chocolate. So I ended up with some AMAZING hot chocolate that I made in a crock pot. 

It all ended up being for naught though. There were only 5 of us there.  The activity was still fun, but I just has the sense that no one had cared enough about advertising the activity.  I love our current RS presidency, but I found myself thinking that maybe after 4.5 years it was time for them to be released. They all seemed really burned out.  Little did I know that they were actually getting released that Sunday. 

That night, fueled by a whole bunch of hot chocolate, I took the pretest for my class again.  I did really well on it and decided that maybe, just maybe I'd be able to take the test on Friday. 

So on Friday morning I went to work and studied for a while and then logged in for the test. I was fully prepared to bomb the test, but I discovered that it was simpler than I expected. Maybe all that studying had worked out, but honestly the test wasn't so bad. I'm so glad I was able to take it and get it over with before the Easter Weekend. 

We were going down to Utah for Easter. I'd been kind of whiny about the whole trip earlier in the week. But then I realized that all my "problems" were actually really good things.  I had nothing to complain about when my weekend involved juggling seeing many family members and a trip to lagoon. 

After I finished the test I did a few hours of work and then went home to pack for the weekend. I'm not entirely sure where my brain was as I packed. I completely forgot to pack anything to wear on Saturday. 

The kids came home from school and I helped them pack too.  They did better than me. They actually packed clothes for Saturday. 

Brandon came home and finished packing his stuff. He also made a quick sandwich dinner. Then we started driving down to Brandon's parents house. 

The drive was really nice and uneventful. All the strange weather seemed to have cleared up.

We stayed the night at Brandon's parents. It was good to see them - especially his mom.  She'd had some health challenges recently and she was doing much better. 

On Saturday morning Steve gave Derrick a helicopter toy and  Derrick ran around playing with it for a long time. 

This is when I discovered that I hadn't packed anything to wear on Saturday. I was able to use some leggings that I'd planned to wear as pajamas as my pants for the day and I just re-wore the shirt I'd worn on Friday.

Around 9:30 we left the house and drove down to Lagoon. The weather was iffy but we were only planning to spend about 4 hours at Lagoon anyway on this trip. I figured we'd go and see how long we could make it. 

I was hoping that the weather would scare off the crowds so the lines would be shorter. This turned out to be pretty accurate.  We were in the park super fast and hardly any of the rides had long lines. 

Our first ride on this trip was Cannibal.  All six of us got in line, but Veronica started having second thoughts.  Normally I'd tell her that she'd love the ride, but I'd never been on Cannibal so I couldn't be sure about that promise. Brandon offered to stay off the ride with her while I took the other three.   

I started having second thoughts myself the closer we got to the front of the line. When we were seated in our roller coaster car I seriously thought, "What am I doing?  Why am I taking these kids on this terrifying ride? I can't do this!"  But we were getting clamped in and there wasn't much I could do at that point. 

There were two things that scared me about Cannibal, 1. There were no chest harnesses on the ride.  Everything depended on some elaborate leg harnesses. And 2. the ride started out with the car travelling up an elevator and then clipping into the track.  I kept imagining everything that could go wrong with both those things. 

Charlotte and Lydia were a little worried, but Derrick was completely thrilled.  He was clapping and cheering as we went up the elevator. 

I had to close my eyes because things were just too scary for me. As we prepared to go down the first drop I thought, "I will NEVER go on this ride again."  

But after that first drop I opened my eyes and realized that I wanted to ride this ride over and over again.  It was so much fun. The track was actually pretty smooth and while it was scary it was more on the thrilling side rather than the terrifying side. 

When we got off the ride everyone said how much fun it was and that we HAD to go again. We met up with Brandon and Veronica when they were about to go on the Samurai.  They went on the ride and then me and the other kids did.  I forgot how much that ride spun. But it was so fun.

Then we headed over to the paratrooper.  Brandon and Veronica had been on it earlier. Brandon told me it was pretty fun, but it looked like a baby ride to me.  It took a long time to get loaded.  Here's me and Veronica. 

Everyone else was ahead of us. 

Veronica was very concerned about my phone.  She kept saying, "Mom, you better put that away before we go fast."  I didn't know what she was talking about, but I quickly realized when the ride got going.  It went VERY VERY fast.  I was laughing so hard. 

After the Paratrooper we went on the Ferris Wheel.  This is another one of the rides I'm scared of. (In case you can't tell, it's the slow rides that scare me the most.)  I survived it, but I was clutching the handle in the middle and telling everyone not to rock AT ALL! I'm not sure I'll ever do it again. 

After the Ferris Wheel we went over to the Rocket.  Again Veronica decided she was too scared.  So she and I watched while the others went on the ride.  

Here's a link to the video I took. 

After the Rocket we went over to the White Roller Coaster. This was my favorite ride when I was 6. I rode it again and again. I noticed that the loading area is different now and the seats are also different.  But the ride is still the same.  Derrick and Veronica were able to ride in the front and had a blast up there. 

We went to the Wild Mouse after that.  Bags weren't allowed in that ride so I stayed off with the water backpack.  (The Wild Mouse is another one that hurts.)  I took pictures of the flowers while I waited.

So pretty.

Here's Derrick after the Wild Mouse.  This was to try to replicate the crazy hair from Wicked on our last visit. 

Charlotte and Lydia wanted to ride Colossus, but Derrick and Veronica didn't want to.  So we split up again. Brandon took the twins and  I took the other two to the Terror Ride because Derrick was asking for that. Derrick wanted to ride all by himself so he went in a car ahead of us.  Veronica and I rode together. The ride was pretty scary and I totally screamed at the car honking at the end even though I knew it was coming. 

When we got off the ride Derrick said, "Mom, you were right, I should have gone with you!"

Brandon and the twins had met up with us and we all went over to the Air Raid and rode that.  

By this point it was 2:00 and we'd planned to leave around 2:00. The kids wanted to ride the Jet Star and the line was short so they ran over there. 

Here's the link to the video I took. 

Before we left I took this group picture of us all. I'm so glad we have these opportunities to visit Lagoon together this year. 

We left Lagoon so we could go to my sister Emily's house. (And because we didn't want to over exert ourselves and end up super tired on Easter.)

My sister Hillary was there to hang out with us and to give haircuts. My mother in law Jacque was also there. She'd had a bit of a hair dye disaster with her regular cosmetologist earlier in the week and Hillary was working her magic to fix it.

We joked that Hillary should call herself a "Hair-a-metic" and that her tag line should be "It can always be saved."

Hillary did save Jacque's hair. She also cut my hair, Derrick's hair, Veronica's hair, Lydia's hair, and Brandon's hair.  She LOVES what she does. 

Meanwhile there were 12 kids running around, I was washing Emily's dishes, and Emily was making dinner. It was chaos, but fun. 

At some point I did sit down and take a little break.  David and Brandon were reading Shel Silverstine poems together.

Here I am with Emily and various other kids. 

We hung around with Emily's family until a little around 9:00. Then we drove back up to Steve and Jacque's house. On the way up the canyon Veronica asked, "Mom, what would Jesus be doing right now?"  Throughout the week we had been having impromptu discussions about what happened each day of Holy Week. So we had a discussion about what Saturday would have been like for the disciples. And then talked about Easter.  If I'd forced the kids to sit down for a discussion like that it NEVER would have lasted more than 30 seconds.  But because Veronica started it and because we were stuck in the car with nothing else to talk about it was able to last about 15 minutes. 

The kids were super tired by the time we made it to Brandon's parents house. Veronica didn't even want to change into Pajamas. She didn't care about putting out her Easter bucket and just went to bed.  The other three put out their buckets, but weren't very enthusiastic.  They were all ready for bed pretty soon after that. 

Brandon and I waited about half and hour and then filled the baskets with treats.  (Which I had remembered to pack.)

Brandon was going to hide the baskets in easy places like above the cupboards, but I told him, "No way, I'd like to at least have a chance to feed these kids breakfast before they find their baskets."  I decided the best place to hide the baskets would be under the beds the kids were sleeping in.  They wouldn't think to look their first.  So I crept into the rooms and slide the baskets under the beds. 

Week 4 - Sunday April 17- Saturday April 23

It's a good thing I did that. Derrick and Veronica were up at 6:45 looking for their baskets. I was able to go out and make sure they ate breakfast. Then they spent about 10 minutes looking for the baskets.  They were pretty happy to find them. 

Eventually Charlotte woke up and found hers too. 

Lydia was the last one up and found hers. 

I was tentatively planning to attend Easter Mass at the small Catholic Church in the Ogden Valley. I'd gone there last year when Easter was the same week as Conference and it had been a very moving experience. I wasn't feeling as spiritually hungry this year, but I still wanted to go. I asked Brandon if he wanted to go. He told me, "I don't have any nice pants." I told him that didn't matter.  

So at 9:00 we drove over to that church.  It was a moving experience again. This year I got chocked up right from the start when the priests came in holding the Bible above their heads. My relationship with the Bible has really improved in the last few months.  I bought myself an ESV Study Bible, and it has made me love reading the Bible. I never thought I'd write those words.  

ESV stands for English Standard Version but I say the E also stands for Easy because it's so much easier to understand than the King James Version. Also the footnotes in the Study Bible are excellent. I probably highlight them more than the actual text. 

And the first thing we are studying in Systematic Theology is Bibliology which is the study of the Bible. Reading about the bible from a Theological perspective has been thought provoking.  While I'm still not inclined to take the Bible 100% literally or think of it as inerrant I do appreciate it more. And that's a big deal. 

So yeah, I got chocked up when the Priests walked in carrying a Bible. 

The rest of the service was good too. At the end Brandon said he wasn't so sure about all of it.  I told him, "Yeah, It's not something I could do every week.  But I like the "High Church" traditions on days like Easter and Christmas."

We went back home and had everyone take baths.  Then I took the kids down to my sister Emily's ward. Brandon stayed at his parents house to help his mom cook food for the family Easter dinner that afternoon.  

We went to Emily's ward because she was singing in sacrament with her kids. Here's a picture of how her family looked for Easter. 

Now let me describe to you what my family was wearing.  Keep in mind I never had time to buy Easter outfits and we'd packed at like the last possible moment for this trip. 

Me: Unlike on Saturday, I actually planned and packed clothes to wear on Sunday. I had a nice flowery shirt, black pinstripe pants (I've been wearing pants most Sundays for over a year) and a long pink cardigan. I'd even packed my cute gold flats. 

Charlotte:  Charlotte wanted to be like me so she'd packed some dress pants. But the only shirt she had was a black T-shirt with a huge College of Southern Idaho Eagle on it.  She decided to turn the shirt inside out so no one could see the graphic.  But it still felt too casual for her so I let her wear my cardigan over her outfit. She wore her tennis shoes. 

Lydia: Lydia had about half an outfit.  She had a nice floral pencil skirt and tights, but she was wearing a striped t-shirt. And tennis shoes. 

Derrick:  Derrick was wearing a nice button up shirt with a collar. But we hadn't been able to find his church pants when we packed so he was wearing his usual athletic style pants.  And sandals. 

Veronica: Veronica was actually wearing a pretty normal "Sunday" outfit for her. But that's not saying much.  She wears pants and a shirt and then puts a shirt with the vaguest hint of a skirt on over those.  She was wearing tennis shoes too. 

Basically we walked into Emily's church looking like we'd never been to an LDS service before. We got there just as the announcement were over and hurried to find a seat in the back.  Several people gave us some strange looks and I got a few, "Oh Bless your Heart, we are happy you are here smiles."

The meeting was good and Emily's family sang so well.  When the meeting was over we went up to where my Mom and Dad were sitting with Emily's family.  Part of the reason we'd come back down here was to have a chance to see my parents.  So we kidnapped my mom from Sunday School and took her back to Emily's house with us so we could spend time with her. On our way out of the chapel a lady said to me something like, "It's so good you could come to church with us today."  I felt like saying, "Okay, I know my family looks super out of place, but we actually are all members."

At Emily's I was planning to just hang out and talk with my mom while the kids jumped on the Trampoline. But my mom was holding a carton of 10 hardboiled eggs and Charlotte asked if she could do a hunt.  So my mom shut her eyes while Charlotte hid the eggs.  Then my mom went around and found them. 

After that my mom hid the eggs and Charlotte found them.  Soon Lydia and Veronica joined in too.  This was something of a little miracle. My mom had a lot of health challenges over the winter.  There were times I wasn't sure if she was ever going to be back to her usual self.  It meant a lot to sit on a bench and watch her play with my kids.   

The kids spent a lot of time jumping on the trampoline. I'd pulled out the back up clothes from the car and gave Derrick a T-shirt and Lydia pants.  Veronica had shed her "dress." Charlotte's dress pants split and so she ended up in backup pants too. Yes, it was possible for my children to dress down farther than they had been at church. 

Sunday School ended and everyone else came back to the house.  We were able to visit with my dad for about 45 minutes.  I would have liked to stay all afternoon.  Hillary and her family would be there soon. So would my Uncle Johnny and his family and my Aunt Vera. It would have been a great party.  But we had to go back up the canyon to Brandon's parents for the party up there.  So we said our goodbyes and went back.

When we arrived Brandon showed off the carrot cake he'd made. This man is a wonder. 

Brandon's sister Melanie was already there with her family and Shannon arrived about 5 minutes after I did. 

We had a delicious dinner and then the kids went out for an egg hunt. 

Here's Veronica finding eggs. 

The weather had been so dodgy all week and we'd often wondered if the egg hunt would have to be inside.  But everything had warmed up and dried out in time. 

Derrick was the only kid in the front yard for a while.  He found so many eggs. 

I had to find a bag to hold his eggs so he'd have room in his basket. 

When it was all over we went into the living room and the kids started looking over their loot. Jacque had a big box that all the eggs had been in.  She wanted to put all the empty eggs back in there.  If the box wasn't full that meant there were more eggs out in the yard somewhere. 

Derrick went and sat by Jacque while he opened his eggs.  He exclaimed over everything that was inside.  Whether it was chocolate, jelly beans, a sticker, a pompom, or a lego it got an "Oh Wow!"  Then he'd give the empty egg to Jacque to put back together and put back into the box. 

Everyone had a great time talking and laughing together. I realized I was getting sleepy.  I decided it was probably a good idea to go take a nap. So I went into the guest bedroom and took a long nap.  It's a good idea I did that because Brandon ended up being too tired to drive home. 

When it was time to go I told the kids they needed to use their egg finding skills to find all their stuff that was all over the house.  I'm pretty certain we got it all packed. 

We started driving home around 8:00 and got home a little before 10:30. We were tired, but no where near as tired as we'd been when we came home from Spring Break. 

I'm trying to think of anything particular to tell you about the last week. Really it was all pretty run of the mill and stuff I've talked about before.  School, Work, School, Therapy, Karate, Church, PTO, Mario, yeah nothing new. 

 Let's just look at flowers. Things were getting really colorful in the front flower bed. 

The tulips had joined the party. 

And the hyacinths were blooming too. 

Back when this area was covered in a snow bank I looked forward to seeing all these flowers. (Also let's admire that GREEN lawn!)

Aren't they just beautiful.

I'm so glad I added this flowerbed last year. 

And things were also starting to bloom in the back yard.  These are cherry blossoms. 

Peach blossoms. 

The back bed tulips. 

And look at this.  After I straight up murdered this bush to make room for the plum tree the girls moved it over to their garden area. 

And it has growth on it!

The raspberries have more growth every day. 

Okay I remembered something special about this week.  It was JIVE week at the high school.  JIVE is the show choir and they do some amazing shows.  The kids all had a chance to go see JIVE on field trips.  There were the first field trips the kids had been on post covid so it was a BIG deal. 

Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick were all scheduled to go on Thursday.  Derrick, who rides roller coasters without a second thought, who walks down the Las Vegas Strip saying hi to everyone, who has seen JIVE live TWICE, kept saying that he was too scared to go on the fieldtrip. No matter what I said he refused to even think about wanting to go on the fieldtrip. 

In the end we decided not to push the issue. We did just amend his IEP saying he could be excused from music activities and Jive is definitely a music activity. Derrick stayed behind and played on the computer in the SPED room.  Everyone how did go said it was probably a good idea Derrick didn't go. He would have had to sit near the front and it would have been very loud. But still, it was so odd to me that he didn't want to go. 

Veronica's turn for the JIVE field trip was Friday.  This was a big deal because it was her first ever public school field trip.  It also was the first time she's EVER ridden on a yellow school bus. That's so funny to me.  The other three rode the bus every day to Primary School on Fort Rucker and they rode the bus every day in Pocatello too.  But Veronica wasn't in school then.  She rode the ELC bus, but that wasn't big or yellow.  And she rode the public transportation buses with her class at the ELC, but never a regular school bus.  So she finally did that. 

As fate would have it, Derrick had another field trip scheduled for Friday.  Normally the 4th grade goes to the State Capital in Boise, but things were still too up in the air with COVID when they were trying to schedule that.  So this year they went to the Stickler Ranch outside of Twin Falls. 

Derrick was also afraid of this field trip.  I wanted him to go the whole day and he wanted to stay home the whole day so we compromised.  He had to go to school and then ride on the school bus to the field trip place.  I'd follow the bus and be there when he got off.  As soon as he got off we'd set the timer on my phone for one hour. At the end of the hour we'd leave and he'd go home in my car.  He agreed to that compromise. 

The area was fairly interesting.  The ranch was located on the Oregon Trail.  There is a log store that is still standing today.  It was the only building on the Oregon Trail between Fort Hall and Fort Boise. 

We were able to go inside the store.  They have it set up like a store.  The kids could feel inside the barrels.  Derrick really liked the cornmeal. 

We also went inside some cellars.  And then we went over to a Victorian era house that is on the property. The whole house was pretty cool.  This room was my favorite. 

My timer went off after an hour and Derrick was ready to go.  So was I, it was FREEZING out there.  I didn't envy the kids that would have to stay there and eat lunch in that cold.  

We went home and had lunch in our nice warm house.  

I went to work and got a few things done, but any work for the day was completely derailed by an email I got at 12:38.

First let me give you some backstory. 

If you've read this blog for a while you know I love the podcast Baconsale.  It's a silly pop-culture show with a improve comic and a movie critic arguing about things that don't really matter. I've listened to the show since it's very first episode in 2015. But I've been a fan of one of the hosts since they were on local radio in Utah in 2011. 

One of the running gags on the show is that they only have one listener. In 2017 they started an annual contest to find "The Listener."  They do a pre-quiz via google surveys and then invite the top three people who did well on the pre-quiz onto the show to compete to find out who is "The Listener" for the year. 

I've been trying to get onto that show every year since 2017. But it hasn't panned out yet.  (And last year I was so busy I was secretly happy I didn't make it on the show.)

This year when I submitted the pre-quiz I had a pretty good feeling about it. I checked some of the answers I wasn't sure about and found out I'd got them right. I dared to let myself think that maybe this was the year I'd make it on the show.  

On Wednesday night I got my score back.  I'd missed 11 points.  I wasn't sure if that was better or worse than anyone else. 

I figured I'd hear from the hosts one way or another soon.  I waited all Thursday and didn't hear anything. 

On Friday I gave up on being on the show but I needed closure.  That morning I sent them an email with the subject line Closure ?.

And at 12:38 I got an email with the subject line, "Get Ready to Rumble, Valerie!"  I opened that email as soon as I saw it. I could barely believe what it said. I'd scored well on the quiz. I was invited on the show to compete to be The Listener!

I'm still in shock. 

I'll go to Salt Lake to record with everyone this week. Am I super busy this week? Yes. Am I making it happen anyway? Also yes!

As if Friday couldn't get any better we also had tickets to see JIVE as a family that night.  Here are the kids running across the high school lawn to the auditorium. 

And here we are in our seats. 

And Mr Derrick was thrilled to be there. He wasn't scared at all.  

The show was so so so so so so so good. They preformed Mary Poppins again and Derrick was in love with Mary Poppins again.  They also did songs from The Greatest Showman.  And they finished out the show with songs from Les Miserable. They only did about 6 songs, but they were some of the hardest ones.  The girl singing Epinine did fabulous at "On My Own."  And I cried all through "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables."  Derrick was worried about me crying and kept wiping my tears and patting my arm.  Then the whole chorus went into Bring Him Home so there was no recovering from tears during that. 

When it was all over the performers were out in the lobby.  I found Epinine and told her I'm a huge Epinine fan and that she did amazing. She said my comment made her night. 

After all that, and I mean ALL that as in the last four weeks, this Saturday ended up being a restful day.  Brandon and the kids cleaned the house and I went to a Stake Relief Society Activity.  But we didn't do any big projects. It was like we just needed a day to relax and take a breath. 

Today was pretty similar.  And wow, do I ever need to take a breath. This next week was already going to be crazy. It's one of those weeks where the weekly stuff and the every other weekly stuff and the monthly stuff all line up on the same week. Add in the once in a lifetime thing with the Baconsale recording and well, let's just say its a monumental week.

See you on the other side.