Fall Fun - Continued

This week was another glorious fall week. The kids had two days of a fall break from school. This was a "working break" where we didn't go anywhere but we did take care of some needed things. And we still had fun too. This post will cover from Monday October 19 to Sunday October 25 

Monday was a little different than normal. My friend Shaylee reached out on Sunday night to our ward message group to see if anyone could take one of her kids to the dentist on Monday. I was like, "I can do that."  

So I got off work a little earlier than I normally do on Mondays and went to the elementary school. One kid with an appointment was really two kids so I picked up two of her kids and took them to the dentist. It would have been a quick errand, but the dentist seemed to be gone for lunch and so it took a long time for him to come in after the kids' teeth were cleaned. That long wait was hard for the 5 year old. But we made it through. 

Then I took the kids back to school. 

Later in the afternoon Charlotte had her last horseback riding lesson. 

She's really loved these lessons. She'd been asking for horseback riding lessons for a while so I'm glad we could find her a place to do them. 

Tuesday I took my van in for an oil change. I dropped off Veronica and then went straight to Jiffy Lube. This is what I used to do before I had to drive Derrick across town every day. I missed how easy it was to get in at 8:30 in the morning. So I'm glad that I can do it again. 

Then I went to work. Normally I don't work on Tuesday mornings, but this week was all over the place. because the kids would have school off on Thursday and Friday. So I was trying to get as much work done early in the week. 

I spent some time outside that afternoon. I was happy to still be picking berries. 

And I admired my plants that are still looking great. This Texas Sage is so pretty. 

And the salvia is still going strong. 

Veronica had parent teacher conference after school. So we went and did that right at 4:30 when they started. When we got there they hadn't unlocked the doors yet so we had to stand in a little line. Jori was there so we were talking to her, but I think I waved to like 4 other people in line. It's little things like this that remind me that I've lived her a long time. 

We went back home for a bit and then I took Veronica to theatre. They were at the Orpheum on the stage for some reason. Veronica said that everyone was like, "It's so fun to be on the stage."  But she was just sad because it all reminded her of Seussical. 

Wednesday

On Wednesday I spent a long time writing in the morning and then went to work for our monthly team meeting. It was a potluck so I stopped at Fred Meyer to pick up a treat from the bakery. I ran into two other coworkers doing the same thing. We joked it was the pre-meeting. 

I hung around work and took care of a few things for a bit after the meeting. 

When I got home I did some yard work while listening to the final episode of this season of Cold. I moved some irises from a really shady area of the side yard to a sunnier area. 

That evening I took the kids to Tubbs Berry Farm. Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick had each been given three free passes when they were done working this summer. So we had 12 passes. We tried to invite some friends along, but it just ended up being us. (Later I gave the rest to Jori's family.)

Brandon had been working on the sprinkler system every day after work and was really on a roll. So as we were making plans for that night he really wanted to just keep working on the sprinkler system.

So it was just me and the kids going. We drove out there and got our wrist bands so we could enter the area with all the fun activities. 

First up were the goats.

And then we went into the maze. Charlotte had taken a picture of the picture they had posted and so she was using that for reference. She always had a pretty good idea of where we were. I was lost immediately. But I *think* I could have found my way if I had to be in charge of that. As it was, I was content to follow the kids where ever they wanted to go. 

When you go in the maze you get a punch card with different shapes across the top. So in addition to finding your way through the maze you also want to find the hole punch that corresponds to each shape. So as you go through the maze you'll hear people saying things like, "I just need to find the circle."

Veronica ended up finding all her shapes first. The rest of us took a little longer. My last shape was a car and so I'd kept saying, "I just want to find the car" and some people took that as me saying, "I just want to find the car and go home" so they were saying, "the way out is that way."

There are people stationed on top of the maze to help you if you get super lost. At one point Farmer Tubbs was up there and saw us. He recognized Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick. He said hi to all of them.

We knew the last ride through the pumpkin field was at 7:00 so even though we hadn't found all our shapes yet we left the maze and got in line for the tractor ride. 

The tractor pulls two trailers on a ride through the pumpkin field. Farmer Tubbs was the one driving the tractor. He talked on an intercom system and told us facts about the farm. 

Here's the pumpkin field in the twilight. The kids worked to keep the weeds down. 

And here is the garlic field. The kids wored to pick garlic here. 

We finished the tractor ride and got off. Farmer Tubbs saw Derrick and said, "If I'd known you were on the ride I would have said something."

We went back into the corn maze and found the rest of our shapes. It was dark and a lot spookier. 

Then we got out and the kids went to play on the big slides. 

They had a lot of fun. 

They played in these rolling tubes for a long time too. 

And they climbed the big hay tower. 

The kids were dying of thirst so they sent me to the car to get water. On my way I picked up a "Vote for Tubbs for County Commissioner" yard sign. Farmer Tubbs definitely has my vote. Not only did he give my kids jobs, but he also is super knowledgeable about Twin Falls. He has a facebook page where he's always posting about different parts of the county. 

I brought the water back and the kids guzzled it down. Then we kept exploring. 

The girls loved these old tractors. 

Here is proof of me. 

Here's Lydia. 

Derrick was doing silly things with sitting on this giant tire. It looked like something from Toy Story so he was trying to act that out. 

Here are the kids playing with the giant corn hole area. 

And here they are all laying on the big bouncy pad. This was after they had jumped on it a while. 

Here they are getting ready to go. Lydia told me that she weeded that corn in the background. Heidi Tubbs had told her, "Its not for food, it's for pictures."  There were some photo opp areas in front of it. 

Our last stop was the food truck. We could redeem our maze punch cards for a free bag of popcorn. It was fun to walk out after such a good evening while eating our popcorn. 

On Thursday the kids were out of school. That meant it was a good opportunity to take their van in for an oil change. So I got up around 8:00 and did that. 

Then I came home and got Derrick and Veronica up. We went to an orthodontist appointment at 9:30. Derrick was there for a retainer check and Veronica was getting her wire changed. 

Then I dropped them off at home and went grocery shopping. It was a "one of everything" week because we seemed to be out of so many things. 

When I got home all the kids helped me unload the food and get it put away. 

At 12:30 Derrick's friend Max came over. He stayed for 2 hours which is really good for him. I just worked from home while Derrick and Max hung out. 

When I took Max home I stopped at work and printed off a few things I needed and then I went home and finished up the work. 

That evening Jori and Tim had an important meeting so they brought their kids over to our house. It was so fun to have the kid over. And I felt like Lazy Valerie kept having some great wins. 

For example, I'd decided that it was too much work to make home made stew. So I just bought cans of stew and then rolls for bread bowls. Jori's kids hadn't had dinner when they came over. I was like, "Not a problem! I can make stew really easily."  So I heated up stew while the kids all watched Ichabod Crane. 

After dinner Lazy Valerie had another win. I'd never put away the extra costumes we'd had out at our Halloween party. They were still in a tote in our living room. So was the party ball light. The kids wanted to know what the light was so I pulled it in. And then we turned on the Halloween Playlist. And then the kids played in the costumes. It was the greatest impromptu party ever. Thanks Lazy Valerie!

I haven't shown Charlotte's living room decorations yet. She did a great job making our living room cute. 

She has lots of little candles that she likes to turn on each night. 

Here are Jori's kids in some of the costumes they tried on that night. 

This one was especially creepy. Earlier in the night all the girls had told me what they wanted to be for Halloween. And then nearly all of them changed their mind and picked something from our costume tote. 

Jori and Tim came back around 7:00. Tim was in a silly mood and somehow Weird Al came up, and somehow Brandon started singing "The Saga Begins" and then Tim joined in and then both of them sang the whole song from memory (they needed some help on the final verse). We all chimed in on the chorus with "My My this hear Anakin guy, Maybe Vader someday later, but for now a small fry"

It was so random and so fun!  

After they left I went to my room and finished reading a book my brother Billy recommended. It was called Piranesi. He recommended it to me, but wouldn't tell me a thing about it. And when I got the book I was like, "Oh I hate this."  I didn't like the cover and I have a really hard time with novels. But I also trust Billy's book recommendations. So I started reading it and hated the first paragraph too. 

But then I kept reading it and was hooked. I told Brandon it was like reading a dream. It was so strange.

I really liked the book and I've thought a lot about it since finishing it. 

Friday was another day off for the kids. I slept in a little bit and then went to work. I never really got into the groove of things at work so I decided to do the bare minimum and then go home. 

That afternoon we had flu shots scheduled. Usually we take care of those at the kids well checks, but those are all later this fall and I didn't want to wait. So I just scheduled them all at Fred Meyer and we all went together. 

The kids were all nervous but the lady giving the shots was really nice. She told the kids it was normal to be nervous and they appreciated that. I went first and then Derrick went next. He wasn't scared at all. Then the girls all had their turns. 

We each got $5 loaded onto my smiths rewards card so we went and bought Drumstick ice cream cones as our treat and went home and ate those.

When we came home I was like, "I don't have to leave the house the rest of the weekend if I don't want to!" 

I made pizza. Brandon came home and made donut dough and took a nap while it rose. Actually EVERYONE seemed to take a nap while it rose. I'd already gone to lay down and when I woke up the house was silent. Veronica said she fell asleep on her bedroom floor. 

Everyone woke back up and Brandon and Charlotte cut out the donuts and fried them. 

They turned out beautifully. 

Then we went downstairs and ate them with some other treats while watching a movie. We were basically out of fall activities that required going anywhere so we'd planned this treat night as a fun activity. 

I'd ordered the Sixth Sense from the library. I'd gone through a big list of Halloween movies to find one that I wanted to watch with the kids. I'd picked this one because it wasn't super scary and none of the kids knew about the twist yet. I wanted them to see the movie before it got spoiled. 

We had a good time watching the movie and when the twist came the kids were like, "WHAT!?!"  It was really the perfect viewing experience. 

On Saturday we slept in. Eventually we got up and Brandon went to work on the sprinkler system again. He got it to a good stopping place for the weekend. And then he blew out the water in the front yard sprinklers. The forecast looked like it might freeze that night so we were getting things ready. 

I worked on various little projects around the yard. I moved all my pots up against the back of the garage so the warm sun would keep the plants growing a little longer. I cut back and dug up all my pepper and repotting them in the basement. We'll see if the internet is really telling the truth about peppers being able to overwinter like that. 

I also dug up my geraniums and wrapped them in brown paper and put them in a box in the basement. I did that last year and they did survive the winter. 

I picked tomatoes and berries. 

I also planted lettuce in a bed and in empty flower pots. We'll see if it sprouts now or in the spring. 

Brandon moved onto cleaning up the garage. I needed it for a meeting space on Sunday and there were things EVERYWHERE.  

That evening we watched the Shining. This movie shows up in Twister and plays a big part in the movie Ready Player One. So the kids know it, but none of us have ever seen it. 

Veronica has been super interested in it. She and I watched the Honest Trailer and the Pitch Meeting for it. So we knew a lot of what happened in the movie. In fact, I was wondering if there was anything I didn't know. 

So we decided to watch it. 

My main review is that it is LONG! And also that the Pitch Meeting video basically nails the whole thing. So if you watch this, you've basically seen the Shining. 

On Sunday the whole day revolved around the Theatre Gala of the Magic Valley meeting I was hosting at 4:30. As committee members we take turns hosting the meeting. It was my turn. I don't have a great space for 15 people to sit in comfortably so I just put everything in the garage because that's my biggest space. It worked. 

Our meetings also usually involve food so I made some things. Let me say that again I MADE SOME THINGS. Brandon didn't help at all. 

I made these raspberry puff pastry treats. They were so good!

And I made potato soup. Also very good!

And I made the agenda. That was very good too. 

The meeting went well. We actually got started late. We were talking about Jump Company's production of Dear Evan Hansen. Suicide is a big part of that musical. One of the committee members shared that her first husband died by suicide. And she talked about that. Another committee member shared some other personal things that had to do with that. 

When we did get started I said something like, "This is what we are all about. Theatre has a way of helping us process big emotions and bring up topics that we normally wouldn't talk about. This conversation was not a waste of time at all. This was a reminder of why we want to celebrate theatre."

We had a very productive meeting. As of that meeting we were 84 days away from the Theatre Gala. It's feeling more and more real. 

At the end I thanked everyone for their efforts and support. I told them I love these meetings because they remind me that I'm not alone in trying to get this event off the ground.

After the meeting was over I was pretty wrung out. I don't even remember the rest of the night. 

OH WAIT I DO REMEMBER!  The cast list for Les Miserable was published. The Magic Valley Rep will be doing this show in March. And its a huge freaking deal. Les Mis was only recently made available for adult theatre companies to do. EVERYONE freaked out when the rep announced that they had it for March. 

Honestly, I didn't want anything to do with the show. There's not really any great parts for older women. I was like, "I'm too old to be Epinine, so I don't want to audition." Also the whole thing reminded me of a way I once heard someone describe working in Canyon Village in Yellowstone. They said, "Canyon is a 6 month long emergency."  Every time I thought about being part of Les Mis I thought, "That sounds like a 6 month long emergency."

So I wasn't interested in being involved in it. But I am excited to see the show. So I was very excited to see the cast list. It's a stacked cast. It's going to be incredible. And I was so happy to see that Little Lydia got the part of Young Cosette. Her mom, Rachel, will be playing Cosette. So that's very special for them. Little Lydia and I had a few conversations about how much she wanted to be Cosette so I was really happy for her. 

Anyway, now that gets us to the end of the week.

Thanks for reading!