Category: October

Who Ate Pretzels In My Car?!

My sweet husband is pretty patient and tolerant person. If you listed our family in order of who has the most pet peeves or gets irritated about stupid things he would be towards the bottom for sure. There are a few things he has a hard time ignoring though. One is glasses full of liquid left on the island in the kitchen that are inconveniently the height of his elbow so he constantly knocks them over. The one that tops all other misdeeds in his eyes is anything to do with his car. The number one pet peeve is now no longer an issue. It was getting in his car and banging his knees because I am shorter than him and had the seat up. His Tesla has a fancy function that will move the seat back when ever I get out so he doesn’t hit his knees anymore. However, his second pet peeve of his car appearing like it has been sat in, touched, or used in anyway is not so easily fixed. EVERYONE knows you can’t eat, drink (not even water) or even bring food into dads car. You can’t cross your legs and rest your foot on the dash or console. You can’t touch or breath on the windows. You can’t leave anything in the car that came in with you. As you can imagine, his car is pretty immaculate and frequently cleaned and checked to make sure it is up to snuff. These rules apply to dad’s car whether he is in it or not. Ironically I have tried to enforce these same rules in my own car with ZERO success.

At some point last week I took his car to take someone somewhere and may or may not have been finishing a handful of peanut butter pretzels when I got in the car. When I got home I forgot (admittedly AGAIN) that I was supposed to plug the car in to charge and went into the house and continued on with my day.

The next morning Ryan left early to travel somewhere for work. I was still in bed and heard my text message ding. I looked and it is a picture of his car not plugged in. I curse myself for forgetting and debate on just apologizing or being snarky and tell him it was probably him that forgot.😁 But as I was debating I got a second picture from him.

Caught by a stupid pretzel!🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Meet Betty

Betty is the name I gave my inflatable T-Rex costume. These costumes have been around for years. There is always one or two walking around on Halloween night. They always make me laugh too. It is really hard not to smile or laugh out loud when one of these wanders by with its tiny arms and tail that waddles like a duck when the person inside it walks. Many times when I’ve seen them I’ve thought I should get one of those and have some fun with it. I decided to do it this year. Betty has been worth every penny. Just try and have a bad day if a giant inflatable dinosaur chases you around the yard. Or better yet, be the one inside the giant inflatable dinosaur chasing someone around the yard. Betty has tried her hand at cooking dinner, napping on the couch, jumping on the trampoline, sauntering around the house, watching TV, going on a walk or a jog down the street, and many other things. Betty’s favorite thing to do is jump out and chase someone around while roaring. She is pretty good at it. The neighborhood children have come out in hoards to watch and wave at Betty. Stay tuned, I am sure you will see more of Betty.

This is Betty, waiting for the bus to come around the corner so she can roar at the kids when they get off.

Primary Program 2020 COVID Style

Church is still not back to normal yet. Each Stake is doing things a little different depending on how it best works for them. Our ward has been having very small groups of people attend church each week. This past week they have changed it a bit and now the ward is split in half so you will go every other week and then do your own at home every other week. In the past, every year in October the Primary Children do a sacrament program to share what they have been learning in Primary. They sing songs and have little speaking parts they share. It is one of my favorite sacrament meetings of the year.

This year I am the Primary President so it is my job to put the program together with my presidency. Most wards have canceled it due to COVID, some have done a virtual program. We decided to put together a virtual program for those kids that wanted to participate. I will plan on attaching it to this post when it is complete. The girls did their part for it today. They each wrote an answer to a question. Emilee’s was, how can I keep my baptismal covenants? Allison’s was, how can I teach others about Christ?

GNO

I print my blog in six months increments. I just got the most recent one printed for January-June 2020. It was about half the number of pages as the other volumes have been. Not as much to write about when the world shuts down and people try and keep it that way as long as possible. Our family is trying to get back to life as much and as normal as possible. It has been a long time but I went on a Girls Night Out with some of my friends the other night. We met for dinner and then most of us went to an escape room afterwards. It was a really fun night, we all had a great time and enjoyed being together. There was great conversation and we kicked the escape rooms butt!

Emilee the Horse Whisperer

This little girl is in love with her new hobby. She loves going to her riding lessons. She will not commit to any other activity before clarifying that it doesn’t interfere with her lesson first. She does great. It is amazing to me how she has no fear, she just goes for it and does whatever her teacher says. The other girl she rides with is Peyton. They like to take turns bringing apples and carrots to the horses for a little treat afterwards. They give them to all the horses, not just the ones they rode that day.

She has her pants, shirt, socks, boots, and helmet all set out so it looks like a little person on her floor days before her lesson. She comes home and gets changed and counts down the minutes until it is time to go. It is fun to watch her.

I made a friend too. This cat comes and jumps in my lap every week and takes a nap. I am not a big cat person but he keeps me warm so I allow it. He is pretty sweet. The first few weeks he would try and I would shew him off, so he would sit right next to me. He has a little bucket that he curls up in sometimes too-which is pretty stinking cute. He finally wore me down and I let him curl up on my lap.

Matthew Gets His Learners Permit…Soon

Matthew turned 14 this year! Time really does fly. We have done a few test drives and I have him signed up to take the written drivers test next week. He thinks he is going to ‘wing it’. If he fails he has to wait a bit to take it again so I am encouraging him to study. I am actually looking forward to him being able to get himself around a little bit in the next year or two. Shuttling everyone around can be a full time job.

He decided to have a few friends spend the night for his b-day. Ryan took them all to an Escape Room. They were able to figure it out and escape with a few minutes to spare. They ate pizza and candy the rest of the night while playing video games.

  • We were out of wrapping paper so I just decorated the box myself.

The past week of so I have spent a lot of time reminiscing and thinking about being his mom the past 14 years. I have been blessed with a very good son. A lot of the qualities and strengths he has I have seen in him since he was born or very young. They have become more pronounced or developed more but I’m always amazed at how much of their personalities are present and distinguishable when they are born, some even before that. Matthew has always been sweet and kind and tender hearted. He is quick to pick things up in all aspects of his life-physical, emotional, mental. He is a very good friend and likes to have meaningful friendships but his shyness can slow the process down a little for him. He is a happy person. He is hard on himself and tries to improve, he hides this so well that sometimes I forget he tends to put too much pressure on himself until it boils over sometimes. He wants to do good and be good. He internalized things far better than I ever did at his age. He has a good sense of humor and is fun to be around. He has empathy, compassion, and kindness. His sisters look up to him and love it when he gives them attention. His dad says, “The gospel rests on his shoulders well.” I agree. He listens and understand the gospel well and works on his testimony. I am glad that I get to be his mom, I am excited to see what he is going to do with his life over the next few years. He is good.

His best friend not girlfriend Campbell (she is his girlfriend) has a birthday the same week as Matthew so she came over and I took them to lunch with the family and they exchanged gifts. They each got each other candy and a sweatshirt. She is a very sweet girl and I like her. Matthew has liked her since she moved here in 4th grade. They just started talking and becoming friends at the end of last year, and over the summer have become “really good friends”. The discussions of dating, expectations, guidelines and family rules have been reviewed A LOT in our house lately. The sweet spot the Terry family has been riding the past few years of self sufficient low drama children has sprung a leak. I have heard myself saying many things to him that I know I remember rolling my eyes at when my parents said them to me when I was his age. My number one goal right now as we tip toe into learning how to guide him through relationships with the opposite sex for the next few years is keeping the lines of communication open. He knows I don’t want him to get serious and have a girl friends for several more years down the road but if he is going to do it anyways I don’t want him sneaking around doing it. I want him in my house under my supervision. His sisters are also excellent information gatherers and reporters and chaperones as well, and are very willing to help.

Pumpkin Picking

Matthew was to cool to go to the pumpkin patch with us this year. The girls and I went to the Louisburg Cider Mill. You can watch the process of them making the cider from a whole apple to sealing the lid on the jar. They also have pumpkin spice donuts that are made fresh and you can watch that happen too.

We didn’t have a ton of time this year so instead of meandering through the entire pumpkin patch the girls picked a pumpkin from the mini patch they had next to the store. They could pick any pumpkin they wanted as long as they carried it themselves. I had my hands full of donuts and all of our cider slushies. We had to stop and give Emilee a few breaks on the way to the car but we made it, and ate another donut to celebrate.

We decided to get extra donuts for our cousins. They had a visitor that had COVID when she came so they have to quarantine again, and on day 10 of their quarantine Ross and we think Lauren came down with it too. We thought they might enjoy some fresh donuts. We took some to Grandma and Grandpa Terry too as a perk for living by us.

  • I thought this was a handy dandy apple chart. Big shocker that all our favorites are the sweet ones.

…September…It Came…It Went…

Well, September was a bit of an odd month. Mostly because of school. The girls continued to go every day. Matthew continued to be ‘educated’ (I use that term VERY loosely) virtually from his computer 6 hours a day. It is ridiculous. The majority of parents are ticked off at how schooling is going this year. The whole situation of how COVID 19 is handled is one big joke. The information is mixed, the reporting is inaccurate, it is safe to play sports but not go to school. Basically all adult needs and wants are up and running to some degree, kids are supposed to be the least effected by COVID and schools are acting like it is a death sentence to have school. There was finally a School Board Meeting and they voted to start in person school for the middle school and high school kids. If all goes according to plan then Matthew will go back to ‘in person school’ on October 19th. The three biggest school districts are holding strong to their no in person schooling though. It is awful. I could go on and on but I’ve written enough emails and letters about it to various boards and useless leaders that I don’t want to spend more time on it here.

There was some more notable things that happened in September. Grandma and Grandpa Terry moved into a house just down the street from us so we spent lots of time helping them get settled. There is still a lot of things to do to help them get settled but it is nice to have them close. The girls like to go over once or twice a week after school and hang out with them. Matthew has suddenly started going on ‘bike rides’ that end at Grandma’s house, specifically her pantry where she keeps the soda and jelly beans.

I turned 39. My last year of 30’s. Not sure how I feel about that. Ryan planned a night away for the two of us at Excelsior Springs. We stayed in the Elm’s Hotel and had a nice dinner and went to their in house spa. I loved their quiet room. I sat in a comfy chair and read a book until I fell asleep. I also got a facial. The girl was really good at balancing the comments of how youthful my skin looks with recommendations for products and treatments I need to get so I don’t look old. For my family birthday cake I requested a chocolate layered dessert. Ryan made it for me. It has a crust with chocolate pudding and a cream cheese filling and whip cream on top. Yummy! When I took the first bite I was sorely disappointed to find out that Ryan had forgotten to bake the crust first so it was raw. He claimed he couldn’t even tell and finished eating his piece. I disagreed and requested a cooked birthday cake. His second try was much better.

Emilee found her new favorite hobby! After enduring being dragged to sport after sport and tolerating the games and practices to appease her parents, Emilee found her passion. She started taking horse riding lessons. She counts down the days then the hours then the minutes every week until it is time to go to her lesson. She was learning to post and trot within 30 minutes of getting on the horse her first lesson. We got her some riding gloves, helmet, pants and boots. We are glad she is really enjoying herself. Nervous that someday she thinks she needs a horse.

Matthew passed on playing football this year. He focused more on baseball, and he is doing some basketball training to help get ready for the season in December. After a few lessons at the club, they asked him to be on their 8th grade team. I love watching him play baseball but basketball is a very close second. I just enjoy watching all my kids do the things they enjoy.

Allison moved up another level in gymnastics. She is now on team 5. She has her first meet coming up in November.

Allison’s Pumpkin Contest

Allison decided that she wanted to enter a pumpkin in the school decorating contest. In typical Allison fashion she stuck to her motto of ‘Go Big Or Don’t Show Up’ and decided she wanted to do Cinderella’s carriage. She designed it, then we went to the store and got all the supplies she needed then she spent the next three days painting it. They weren’t allowed to cut or puncture it at all because it was going to sit in the school for over a week and they didn’t want them to stink. I might have tried to persuade her to choose something different if I had know this ahead of time…something that was just one round pumpkin. It was not easy to get the wheels and pumpkin to stay where they needed to without skewers. We figured it out though. She did a really good job. I helped her put it all together but she painted and designed it on her own. I was proud of her effort. The winner was determined by people voting for your pumpkins by putting money in a jar. Each penny was a point. Allison had a lot of change, which were votes from kids. She didn’t end up winning though because some parent put a $20 bill in their kids jar. There were a lot of cute pumpkins but I thought Allison’s was the most elaborate. It was also obvious that some parents thought it was a contest for them-not their child.