We survived tech week

Oh my goodness - what a week. Busy weeks are kind of a normal thing in our family at this point. But this week was different in that Brandon was the busy one. Normally he's the one playing pick up for the rest of us, but this week we were just kind of on our own while he was busy. 

It was tech week for the play. His normal rehearsal time has been 7:00 to 10:00. This week the rehearsal time changed to 5:30-10:00 and we weren't exactly prepared for that. 

Here are two stories that illustrate how this last week went. 

Story #1. Brandon had to shave his beard for the play. He has had a beard pretty much ever since he left the military 6 years ago so it was a big deal to shave it.  He started out by shaving it a little bit shorter each time he shaved. On Sunday night he shaved it all off. 

It took until Thursday for any of the kids to notice.  That's because they barely saw Brandon between Monday and Thursday. 

Story #2. When I clocked out of work on Monday my timecard said I'd worked 3 hours.  I was like, "what did I do for those three hours?" I left work feeling like I was only halfway done on several major projects. I still can't figure out what I did for those three hours. 

And really that's how this whole week could be summed up.  Brandon wasn't home and I was doing lots of stuff, but not really making measurable progress. 

Oh and I got sick

Here's the rundown of the week. 

When I finished my blog post last Sunday I looked up and saw the kids sitting on the couch like this.  

Brandon and I did get those peaches canned. I thought we had enough for maybe 3 jars, but we had enough for 7. 

They all sealed and so far none of them look funny. So I guess this was another success. 

Veronica went out to the garden and harvested the last of the carrots and a lot of tomatoes. She was really proud of herself.

And look at my zinnia flowers. I've been really happy with these.  I love that they are still so pretty in October. 

Okay let's talk about Monday. Like I said, I went to work and felt like I got nothing done.  But actually there was one thing I know I accomplished.  There was a big project with a lot of paperwork that I finally got faxed off to the next step of things.  So that felt good. (Thought I told my co-worker that I'll feel a lot better when we get payment for this big project.)

It was also the first of the month so I printed off all the statements for anyone who had a past due balance from September.  But I ran out of time so I didn't get them into the mail. 

Things were pretty rushed for me in the afternoon.  I had to pick up Charlotte and Lydia from middle school and take them to the Orthodontist.  This happened at the exact same time Derrick and Veronica were getting out of school. Normally Brandon would be home from work in time to meet them, but he had to go check out an RV for a new client.  So Derrick and Veronica were just on their own.  Good thing they've started being fine with walking home by themselves. 

So anyway, we went to the orthodontist for our first official appointment. I paid our down payment and signed the financial contract.  (And felt a lot less panicky about it because we aren't going to have a car payment at the same time.)

This was all about "before pictures."  A lady took lots of pictures of Charlotte and Lydia's teeth. Then they had x-rays done.  Charlotte and Lydia inherited my overjet/underbite situation as well as gaps between every single tooth. I've known they needed braces basically their whole lives.  But looking at the pictures as they displayed on the computer was another good reminder.

Then the lady did a 3D scan of each girls' mouth.  This was in order to have something to use to craft the devise that's going to work on the overbites. It also was used in place of the plaster mouth molds that old-school orthodontists used. I was in awe of the whole process.  The lady held a wand like camera and put it close to the girls' teeth. The camera sent data to a computer and I could see a 3-D model of their teeth rendering on the screen in basically real time. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Definitely worth the cost of the down payment.

That was all for this month.  We made appointments to come back next month to get the devises installed. 

Brandon left for rehearsal around 5:15. Since I had a whole evening to fill I decided it was time to get the Halloween stuff out of the basement. 

The Halloween boxes are something like time capsules. I've kept very few of the kids baby clothes, but because I made so many of their Halloween costumes I never could give those away.  So going through the costumes is a major trip down memory lane.  Here are the little shoes I MADE for Charlotte and Lydia when they were 4. ( I was a different person in 2014). Lydia was Tinkerbell and Charlotte was a pumpkin.  Those shoes fit in my hands now. And the hat was made by my sister Emily.  There were so many things like this in that box. I actually ended up collecting all the little costumes and storing them separately this year.  They are just too dear to keep shoving them in the same box with the bigger costumes that the kids still fit. 

Speaking of costumes the kids still fit.  Veronica was already planning to reuse her skeleton costume this year.  She was going to combine it with last years police officer costume and be a skeleton police officer. But then she found Lydia's pirate costume. So now she's going to be a pirate skeleton. 

She kept her costume on for a while that evening and it kept making me laugh every time I saw her doing something relatively "normal" while wearing it. 

It's just too funny to know that there's a 9 year old girl under there. 

Normally I'm pretty pooped by the time the kids are in bed.  At 9:00 I'll go lay in my bed and just watch stuff on Youtube. (I'm too tired to even commit to a TV show.)  But for some reason I had more energy this night and decided to work on getting something I'd written posted onto the Exponent Blog. 

I was officially added to the blog, but I wasn't scheduled to post anything until November. I had a reaction to a conference talk that prompted me to write a post.  I was curious if anyone would give up their posting day so I could put my post up. I asked on the backlist communication channel about it and a lady said that she wouldn't have anything for her day and I could have it.  Which was great, but her day happened to be the NEXT day.  

So I spent the next several hours watching the tutorial for how to put a post up and figuring out how to do that.  It was fun to learn something new. 

And the next day, right on schedule at 3:00 AM Pacific Time the post went live.  Over the next several days it had 13 comments on the blog and 10 more on Facebook. It gained 56 likes on Facebook.  This is the most traction of anything I've ever written so that was exciting. Here's the post if you are interested. 

On Tuesday morning after the kids were at school I had a webinar with the state Sales Tax Commission.  It was all about sales tax and small businesses.  I took it for both PTO and the RV Guy business.  But I think I ended up more confused than I was before. 

The nice thing was it was the time of online meeting where the participants couldn't turn on their cameras.  So I didn't have to worry about being on screen. So I was very glamorous. 

Also the class was 3 hours LONG.  The sales tax part was only about 45 minutes.  Then they had a whole presentation by the small business development center.  I fell asleep for that because I'd already sat through a similar class.  And then there was a presentation by the Tax Advocate something or other.  I made lunch during that one. 

That afternoon I had to cover front desk. I was able to get the bills in the mail that I'd printed the day before. And I made a lot of progress on other projects. 

Brandon's friend had dropped an RV off at our house on Sunday evening and Brandon took care of winterizing it while I was at work. It was kind of nice that he could do it from our house. 

By the time I got off work around 5:00 I was feeling a little weird.  At first I thought I was just tired from working all afternoon. But I kept feeling weird at home. I started sneezing a lot and my eyes hurt.  I always know I'm getting sick when my eyes hurt. 

I'd put dinner in the cockpot before I left for work. I was so happy I'd done that. 

Charlotte and Lydia had their birthday interviews with the bishop at the church at 6:00.  I took them there and sat in the interviews.  He'd so good at asking about their lives.  Both girls talked about the stories they are writing. 

Then we came home and I took Nyquil. I'd bought a bunch of Nyquil and Dayquil the week before thinking I was stocking up for when the kids started getting colds.  I had no idea I'd be the first to get sick. I rarely take Nyquil because it makes me so sleepy, but I really wanted to nip this cold in the bud.  So I took the Nyquil. I figured if I took it at 7:00PM it would mostly be out of my system by 7:00 AM the next day. 

I still needed something to do with the kids until bedtime so I told them we were going to watch the first Hocus Pocus movie.  They liked that idea. I sat on the big recliner and Charlotte sat next to me.  I was asleep before the witches were back from the dead. Charlotte said I was moaning in my sleep. 

I woke up briefly toward the end of the movie but fell back asleep. When the movie was over I put Derrick and Veronica to bed.  I'd had them put on their pajamas before the movie so it was pretty easy to get them into bed. 

Charlotte and Lydia stayed up and did some homework and made their lunches for the next day. They told me I could go to bed and they'd put themselves to bed.  So I went into my room and laid down.  But I kept the door open. When they went to bed I asked them to shut the door.  

I'd texted Brandon to let him know I wasn't feeling well.  I was completely out by the time he came home. I was sort of aware of him leaving for work the next morning.  At 7:00 I got up and got the kids ready for school. 

I had a training at work with a company that we are partnering with for some billing stuff. I was planning on getting ready for that.  But I realized that this was something I could reschedule.  So after the kids were at school I emailed my contact and told her we'd have to reschedule.  

Then I went back to bed and slept for two hours. 

When I woke up I felt a little better.  I stayed in bed and worked on the slide show for the Magic Valley Symphony concert. 

In the afternoon I felt well enough to get out of bed. I ate a bunch of soup for lunch and then clocked into work and did some work from home.  At work I have two monitors so it's always easier to do work at work, but I love that I have the option to work from home. 

Brandon came home from work at 2:00 and we caught up on the last 24-48 hours of our lives. He said I'd been moaning in my sleep. 

He had to go inspect a problem with the RV for the new client so he went and did that, but was home after a little while. 

He was planning to take Veronica to Physical Therapy that night, but a few minutes before that I remembered that he needed to look at Charlotte and Lydia's bikes.  They were going on a bike ride for Young Womens and one of the bikes had a flat. So he took care of that and I took Veronica to Physical therapy.  I just dropped her off and told the receptionist, "I'm not feeling well so I'll be in my car."

When I got back we had a quick dinner and then Brandon ran off for a 5:30 rehearsal again. 

I went out to check on the garden. 

Here are some of the black berries. 

The raspberries.

The last of the peaches. 

The tomatoes. 

And the pumpkin with volunteer tomatoes. 

A little before 7 I figured out how to fold down the back seats in the van to fit the bikes.  They fit with so much room!

I dropped the girls and their bikes off at the church.  They went on a bike ride to the temple via a back road. 

At home I went outside and picked the ripe fruit.  Most of it I froze for later. 

Derrick and Veronica had fun playing in the dirt. 

I watered the plants and Derrick wanted to play with the hose for a bit. 

Veronica liked filling her shirt up with dirt and then dropping it. 

Here's Derrick and the hose. I told him that he could fill the big hole up with water after school on Thursday. 

I was pretty much back to normal by Thursday. I started out the morning with another video call.  This one was with the director of Idaho Parents Unlimited.  I'm in the process of becoming a board member for IPUL and this was one of the steps. 

We had a great chat.  I learned that IPUL was started the year I was born. 

Then I went out to run some errands.  The first stop was a local toy store called Toy Town.  Our PTO is doing a fundraiser this month. We are selling Butterbraids which are apparently amazing pastries.  (Here's the link to Veronica's online store if you are local and interested.) 

Another mom is running the fundraiser and I'm just kind of on the group chat as a helper.  She asked for suggestions for prizes.  I suggested we do Gift Cards to Toy Town because, 1. they are easy, 2. We'd be supporting a local business, and 3. Gift cards are a one size fits all prize.  That's what everyone decided to go with.  I wasn't sure if Toy Town would let us pay with a PTO check or if we'd have to have someone buy the cards and then get reimbursed.  I couldn't get through to them on the phone so I went the in person. 

I'm so glad I stopped in.  They agreed to take the check and then were so happy that we were supporting a local business they offered to give us 10 small toys.  I was like, "This was a GREAT idea!"  So we got everything set up. I had to get the check double signed so I said I'd come back with that the next day. 

I took that "get things accomplished" spirit with me next door to Once Upon a Child. I got super lucky and found EXACTLY what I needed for Lydia's "cool werewolf" costume.  I'd been worried I'd have to make her a fur lined vest but I found one for $2.50!  I couldn't even buy the fur for that cheap.  So that was one more thing I could cross off my list. 

Then I went to Walmart where I was sure I could find the rest of the things on my list. But here's where I ran into a problem. I couldn't find birthday invitations.  Like AT ALL.  I needed them for a birthday party that Charlotte, Lydia and I are planning.  Normally we'd just make the invitations, but making them required Brandon, and Brandon was basically MIA this week.  So I'd figured it would be easier to buy invitations.  

I was wrong. I couldn't find invitations at Walmart, or Target, or Zuerchers. The people at Zuerchers said that no one had invitations.  They did have some black and white ones that said, "Cheers!"  I figured I could work with that, but they cost $9.99 and I wasn't going to spend that much on invitations that I'd still have to modify.  

So I ended that wild goose chase empty handed. (Well sort of, there were other things on my list that I managed to find.)

I went to work and took care of things there for a while and then went home.  When I got home Brandon was SITTING on the couch.  I'm not sure I'd seen him sit on the couch all week. 

He listened to me talk about my day and was like, "I can make you invitations." Then he opened whatever his favorite graphic design program is these days and started putting something together.  By the time Charlotte and Lydia came home he had it all done. 

He had to go to the store to buy make up (yes you read that right) and while he was there he picked up colored card stock. He emailed me the PDF of the invitation so I could print it off when I had time later that night. I really should have asked him about those invitations a lot earlier. 

Meanwhile Derrick came home from school and did NOT forget that I'd promised he could fill up the hole with water.  I'm not sure he ever came in the house.  He just turned on the hose and started filling the hole. 

He had a great time. 

One reason I said he could do this was that it was the last 80 degree day showing up in the forecast.  (Though that changed later.  I'm pretty certain Saturday was 80 degrees.)

While all this was going on I took care of writing out the PTO checks for some reimbursement stuff and for the gift cards.  We had an event at the school that night and I'd be able to catch one of the co-presidents and get them to sign the checks. 

We got Derrick cleaned up, had dinner (I think), and then walked over to the school to get ready for the event.  (Brandon drove by us on his way to his last rehearsal while we were walking.)

The kids helped me get things out of the PTO closet and I set up the apparel to sell. I sold over $80 of stuff.

This was the Gary Hogg Night.  Gary Hogg is an author and teaches kids how to find their authors voice.  He comes to the school for a week and talks to each class.  He is really good at getting each student to feel special.  He randomly selects things that the kids write and then reads them at the parents night.  Last year he read Charlotte's story and made her feel like a million bucks.  

This time none of my kids' stories were randomly selected, but they still had a great time listening to Gary Hogg.  Well, most of them.  Derrick played on the playground most of the time, but I could see him from my table and he was fine. 

Lydia took Derrick home a little bit before the program ended.  Charlotte and Veronica stayed to buy books and get them signed by Gary Hogg.  When it was all over they helped me carry the boxes back to the closet. Here they are walking down the hall. 

When we got home we printed the invitations out on the cardstock.  They turned out so well.

And Lydia showed me the costumes she'd made for her barbie kids.  They are Luke and Leah.  Yes, I think a summer spent watching Star Wars movies was worth it. 

Here she is posing with her creations. 

Brandon woke up on Friday morning with his usual 5:00 alarm and then said, "I don't think I can go to work today."  He'd been so busy all week and it had all caught up to him. He said he'd made a ton of mistakes during the rehearsal the night before because he'd been so tired. 

So he called into work and said he wouldn't be coming in.  Then he slept and slept and slept. 

I got the kids off to school and then sat down to FINALLY GET THINGS DONE.  I spent about 2 hours getting my PTO binder and spreadsheets organized again. 

Then I shifted gears and took care of the same thing for the TF RV Guy.  I sent off invoices for payment for all the work Brandon had done earlier that week. 

Then I went to Toy Town to pick up the gift certificates.  They gave us 10 puzzle balls. 

I stopped by the school to put the puzzle balls in the closet and the gift cards in the school safe.  

And then I went to work and got a lot done there too.  I made a ton of progress on a big project and was so happy to end the week feeling like I was FINALLY on top of ALL.THE. THINGS. 

Yeah Friday was a great day. 

To cap it all off it was opening night of the play. 

Brandon had a 5:30 curtain call so he left a little before that.  The kids and I hung around and then we left around 6:15.  The play started at 7:00, but Octoberfest was happening on MainStreet and I wanted to get there in time to find a parking spot.  

We were able to snag the last parking spot in the lot near the theater.  Then we walked through the crazyiness of Octoberfest to reach the front of the Orpheum. I made the kids take a picture in front of the sign for the play. 

We already had our tickets paid for and printed so we were able to go right in and find our seats. I'd picked seats on the back row of the middle section.  I figured this spot was good because the kids could be wiggly and sit up high in their seats without bothering anyone behind us. It was a good choice. 

 We didn't sit down at first because the kids wanted to explore this super cool building.  I took them upstairs to the ladies bathroom. It has an interesting configuration. 

But is very nice looking. 

Here's Derrick waiting outside the bathroom.

The kids wanted to walk across the balcony so we went out onto the balcony. For some reason the picture ended up really smoky.  (This is the other reason I wanted to be early.  I knew the kids would want to explore.)

We sat in our seats and talked while we waited.  Veronica was listing off all the plays she's seen.  She'd seen "Lily's Plastic Purple Purse" done by the ISU theater department when she was in Pre-school.  And I'd taken her to see Cinderella at Pocatello high school.  She kept telling me things like, "Thank you for taking me to my third play."

This was Charlotte and Lydia's 4th play.  They'd seen Hello Dolly at ISU when they were in Adventure Camp, Cinderella at Twin Falls High with me, and Elf at Century Highschool when they were in 1st grade. 

Technically this was Derrick's second play.  He'd been at Hello Dolly with Adventure Camp, but Miss Wenda had had to take him out because it was too loud for him. The theatre people had felt bad for her so they gave her two tickets to come back later. So it worked out for her. I was a little worried that I would have to take Derrick out. But we'd come prepared.  He had his head phones and a blanket in case things got too loud.  We weren't sitting super close.  And he'd been to Jive enough times that I was pretty certain he could handle this. 

Soon it was time for the play to start.  The kids were so excited at the chance to see Brandon.  He'd been practicing the dances in the living room that afternoon.  We've also been listening to recordings of the songs for a while. It's not uncommon to hear one of the kids start randomly singing, "sit down you're rocking the boat."

The first scene of the play doesn't involve any talking or main characters.  It's just a glimpse into daily life in New York. The actors go across the stage doing different bits.  Brandon is a boxer who acts tough but gets knocked into and falls down.  Then he runs away. It's funny.  The kids were like, "There's Dad!"

Brandon doesn't come onto stage again until the "Good Old Reliable Nathan" musical number.  In that he's dressed up as a "guy" in a brown suit coat and wearing a fedora. I'd never seen him in costume so I didn't even recognize him in that scene.  When the men started singing and dancing I was like, "I thought Brandon was part of this song. Where is he?"  And then all of a sudden I realized he was there singing and dancing along with the rest of them. He blended in so well. 

(And speaking of blending, he did a GREAT job with his stage make up. I need him to teach me how to contour my cheekbones because his looked AMAZING.)

Months ago when this play was still just a pie in the sky idea I'd checked out the movie version of Guys and Dolls from the library.  Brandon had never seen the play or the movie so I figured it would be a good idea to watch it.  The only kid who had been willing to watch it with us was Derrick.  I'm not sure how much of the movie Derrick remembered, but he LOVED the play. He laughed at even the smallest funny things.  There was a running gag that Nicely Nicely Johnson was always eating. Derrick loved to see what he'd come on stage and eat. 

The other kids liked the play too.  Some of the talking scenes got a little long. But there was always a joke or some physical comedy to grab their attention again. 

During the Havana scenes Brandon played a waiter.  There were two girls who needed to dance with him and they'd figured out a cool way to do that. And then a fight breaks out. All the kids LOVED the fight. They laughed and laughed.  When the scene ended and the curtain closed Derrick loudly said, "He punched Him!"  And the audience started laughing again at what Derrick said.

At some point in the first act Derrick took off his headphones.  He didn't need them.  And Veronica ended up using the blanket because she was cold.  Derrick never really had any sensory issues during the play. (He's matured so much in this area. Remember when I couldn't even get him to watch a puppet show at the library when he was two?)

At intermission the kids were raving about how much fun the play was. Veronica's favorite part was when Sarah slapped Sky after he kissed her. Derrick had liked the Havana fight.  Charlotte and Lydia liked the whole thing. 

The second act had the "big" musical numbers.  It starts with the "Take Back You Mink" number performed by the Hot Box Dancers.  Derrick loved every scene with Adelaide.  When she came on stage in a fancy dress for that number he made a heart sign with his hands and said, "I love you!"

Brandon had been working hard for weeks to learn the dance for the "Crap Shooters Ballet" scene when you first see all the men shooting craps in the sewer. He did such a good job at it. All the guys did. And then they all sang and danced during "Luck Be a Lady."  They looked and sounded amazing. 

This was the third time I've ever seen Guys and Dolls Live.  The first time was when I was in Jr High and the High School put it on. I don't remember much about that production, but I do remember seeing the guys sing and dance and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. That how I felt about this rendition as well.  

The other big number of the second act is the "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat" song sung by Nicely Nicely Johnson.  This was another fantastic number.  They really did a good job choreographing it. And the actor did a great job with the song. This was the first song they'd started learning in rehearsal way back in August. They did great!  

Brandon's off the stage for a long time as things wrap up with the main characters.  But he comes back at the end as the boxer again.  The kids were happy to see him. Derrick was also very happy to see Adelaide come out in a wedding dress. 

We clapped and clapped as the actors took there bows.  And then it was over. 

We went out to the lobby hoping to see Brandon, but he took a long time to come out.  I think he was making sure all of his costumes and props were put away in the right places. 

Derrick spent the time going up to every actor who was out there and introducing himself. He'd walk out with his hand outstretched and shake their hands.  He'd say, "I'm Derrick. I'm 10 years old!"  Pretty much EVERYONE knew Derrick after a while.  Then he started having longer conversations with the actors.  He asked Nicely Nicely Johnson "why did you eat cheesecake?" 

Veronica told Nicely Nicely, "I liked your song."  He said, "Oh I finally get to ask this questions, 'Which one?' Because I sang more than once."

Derrick did say hi to Adelaide but he was more shy around her than anyone else.  And funny story.  In real life the actress who plays Adelaide is married to the actor who played Sky Masterson.  So they were walking around together after the play. 

After a while I figured I might as well explain who Derrick was so I said, "this is Brandon's son Derrick."  Ivan, who was the whole reason Brandon was in this play, heard that and said, "OH these are Brandon's kids!"  We talked for a while about how great it was that Brandon was able to do this play. 

We'd given up on the lobby and had drifted up to the stage by this point.  And suddenly Brandon came out. The kids were so excited to see him. 

They crowded around him and told him how great the show had been. He was in a great mood too.  The director came over and thanked us for letting Brandon be in the play. I was like, "No thank you. This has been so much fun for him."

Brandon told me, "Dale (Nathan Detroit) came up to me and told me he met my son Derrick who is 10 years old."  I was like, "Yeah, everyone knows Derrick at this point."

Brandon had been invited to an after party so we said goodbye to him and went home. He went out to Buffalo Wild Wings with a lot of the cast and crew.  They had a blast talking and joking.  He didn't come home until after midnight. 

I took the kids home.  The play had ended around 10:00 and by this point it was 10:30, but the kids were still buzzing with excitement. It took a while to get them into bed.  

All the time that Brandon was away from us was worth it to see him in this play.  It was great!

Saturday was all about digging out of the mess that had accumulated during our busy week.  We slept in a little bit and then it was time to clean. We spent about 2 hours working hard on the house and by the end of it I was like, "Hey there's the living room floor" and "Oh wow, I can walk in the basement without worrying I'm going to step on legos."

In the afternoon the other set of twins came over to go on some adventures with us.  All 6 kids fit comfortably in the back seat of the van.  Oh I'm so glad we bought that van.

We went to Spirit Halloween for some costume and decoration ideas.  Then we drove out to Buhl to Crismor's Pumpkin Patch.  Here are the four best friends. 

And all six kids. 

The kids had so much energy.  They ran around and picked out their pumpkins super fast. Here's Derrick posing with our full cart. 

Here's me and Brandon.

There's a little corn maze at the pumpkin patch and the kids had fun exploring that.  They all happened to be in this perfect pose when I stopped them to give them a lecture about NOT running through the corn. 

They also played on the hay bale maze. 

We were all dying of heat exhaustion so Derrick and I went back to the car to get water bottles for everyone.  Then Derrick wanted to go through the maze with me. 

Here we are together. 

Here are the other twins in a fun picture thing. 

We were all super hot so we decided it was time to go home.  Paying for pumpkins was kind of chaotic.  The other twins had their own money, but I was in charge of it. So I paid for them.  Then we did our transaction.  

It all worked out and eventually we were home with our pumpkins.  I wish I'd marked them better when we bought them.  I'm pretty certain one of the other twins ended up taking Derrick's pumpkin home and then he and Lydia got into a big fight over the pumpkin they both thought was theirs.  So I said it was Derrick's pumpkin and ended up taking Lydia to the store to pick out another pumpkin. In the end everyone was happy though.

And here's some random flower pictures. These are the marigolds Veronica planted from seed. 

Brandon had another show on Saturday night so he left at 5:30.  I was tentatively planning to take the kids to the dress rehearsal for the Magic Valley Symphony at 7:00. But before that happened the kids got highly involved in making their own pumpkin patch. So we didn't go to the rehearsal. 

Here's their pumpkin patch/farmers market/harvest festival.  This is the entrance. 

Here's a both selling carrots.  (Those are real carrots from my garden.)

Here's a spot where people can pick pumpkins and pose for pictures. 

This was where the winners of the giant pumpkin contest were displayed. 

This was one of those fun picture stations. 

This was a food stand.  (With real raspberries, tomatoes, and onions.)

Here's the Baby Yoda costume Lydia made for one of her barbies. 

These two ladies were doing face painting. 

And here's part of the whole set up.

And the girls with their creation.  They played with this until it got dark on Saturday and were back out there as soon as it was warm on Sunday. 

We were all super tired so I put the kids to bed at their weeknight bedtime and no one complained.  I was in bed by 9:00.  Brandon texted me after the show to let me know they were going out to eat again. I told him to have fun.  I was so happy he felt part of a group.  Half the reason I wanted him to do this play was so he could make friends. He got home after midnight again.

Sunday was the first semi-normal Sunday's in weeks.  Between General Conference, Stake Conference, and three trips out of town, I hadn't been to church in my own ward since August 28th. But it wasn't a completely normal week. 

Brandon had a 2:00 PM matinee show. So he had to be there at 12:30.  That meant I was taking the kids to church on my own. It went well.  Lydia wasn't feeling well so she came with me to Relief Society. But other than that things were normal. 

I'd put a roast in the crock pot along with potatoes and carrots that morning and we had that for dinner when Brandon came home from the play.  (I'd told him he couldn't go to any after parties while the kids were awake.)  This dinner was the most nutritious thing we'd had in days. 

That evening we all watched Hocus Pocus 2 together. The kids liked it and Brandon and I were mildly amused by parts of it so it was time well spent. 
 

And here we are at another Monday.  But guess what?  Brandon doesn't have to do anything with the play until another rehearsal on Thursday night.  It's going to be so nice to have him home THREE evenings this week.  I really don't know what we'll do with him. 

(Actually I do know.  The kids have been telling me very specific ideas for Halloween Decorations.  I told them they can talk those over with Brandon and get him to help them.)

Anyway, thanks for reading.