My sister Sherri and her family stopped in a few weeks ago. They were taking a road trip to see our Grandma June and were stopping at family along the way. When they left our house their next stop was Colorado. They were well on the way when they started to come up on an RV and moved over to pass it. When they did Kenny saw that it was one of our old RV’s that we sold when we closed our RV business. It still had our logo on the side! It was the one we called “Cowboy”. Pretty crazy!
Spring Hill had their homecoming dance at the beginning of September this year. Allison went with a group of her friends. They came over here after school and each of them brought some food. They had a potluck dinner while they got ready together to go take pictures. Then I drove them all to Heritage Park. Several of their moms met us there and we took pictures. After pictures were taken they changed into football game attire and I dropped them off at the game. It is a bit of a hectic night because they have the game and the dance on the same night. A little after halftime I picked them up again and they came back to our house to get back into their dance outfits. When they were ready I took them back to the school to attend the dance. They said it was fun and they had a good time. When I picked them up we stopped at McDonalds for some ice cream on the way home and then some of them went home, some of them spent the night. I think everyone had fun, looked pretty and made good high school memories.
As I mentioned in a previous post, this was Matt’s last season with his competitive team. They started playing tournaments on the weekends right after Labor Day in September. He has been on this team since 4th grade. There have been lots of changes over the years but at the end of this season there were three boys, plus Matt, that were on the team when he started. Coach Jimmy was the head coach and there were several others that were awesome coaches. Coach Kent, Coach Uhl, Coach Robby. Ryan helped coach most of those years too. If he wasn’t actively coaching he filled in and was helping in some way. He had a hard time just sitting in the stands and watching. There were some tricky times but overall it was a great experience and I am really glad that Matthew was able to be a part of this team and make good friends. The boys and their families on the team were all good kids, good people. That makes a big difference when you are spending the whole weekend together for months at a time during Spring, Summer and Fall baseball. We traveled a few times and had good times and memories from that as well. We went to Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Gulf Shores. I have posted many pictures from his baseball over the years and that was another blessing from being on this team. There were several parents that great photography skills and they took so many pictures and shared them with everyone. I wouldn’t have very good pictures if it wasn’t for them. Matt had his arm back in top form for this last season. He had the highest batting average on the team most of the time. He hit triples and doubles pretty often and was robbed of a home run or two by inches several times. He had good plays at short stop. Watching the boys play and read each other from playing with each other for years was a lot of fun. I will miss it next Summer when it is time for baseball season to start. We all will.
At the end of the season we had one more get together at a restaurant to say good bye to everyone and give appreciation to the coaches and recognition to the boys for their hard work. It was a fun night. One of the parents made each of the boys a poster of them in their uniform for their rooms. There was a slide show of all the boys, and lots of pictures on the tables to look at while we visited and ate dinner. I am sure we will run into them and keep in touch over the years but it is an end of an era for sure. I have really come to love baseball and appreciate it. I love a quite baseball field in the morning with the sound of the team warming up and the sun shining on the grass.
Here are some pictures from the season.
Here are some cool action shots, thanks to our photography parents.
Turning a double play.
Running the bases, trying to catch Ramey.
Catching the pop fly.
Getting the out.
Making it look good. 🙂
Getting runs in. His speed was top notch this season too.
Beating the runner.
Crushing it.
And…stealing bases.
For one of the games we were so far ahead of the other team, the coach let everyone pick the position they wanted to try for a few innings. Matt went with pitching.
Since we were doing Matthew’s senior pictures it was a good time to update our family pictures too. The ones I had hanging on my wall were a few years old. Kids getting older and going through puberty make it looks like even longer. So we got everyone’s pictures taken. I think they turned out pretty wonderfully. I love my sweet family.
It was time to get Matthew’s Senior Pictures taken shortly after school started. He has to have his picture turned in by December 1st for the yearbook. I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get them scheduled and edited before the deadline. I wanted Summer/Fall pictures too. Matt doesn’t love taking pictures but he was a good sport about it for the most part. He tolerated three outfit changes and two separate sessions taking about two hours total. He doesn’t think they are that big of a deal and would have not done them at all but his mother is a picture taker and documenter so I wanted them and wouldn’t take no for an answer. They turned out great. I was very happy with them. I have such a handsome son. 😊 Matthew’s reaction didn’t include many words but I think he was happy with how they turned out too. Here they are!
September is one of my favorite months, and not just because it is my birthday. Its a little bit of a chill month. And usually the weather is beautiful, cooler and still pretty. Sometimes the leaves start changing at the end but this year was pretty warm so it was almost end of October before they started. Fall is just my favorite. I really like all the seasons and maybe they are all my favorite when they start, but I think Fall is my favorite right now…since it is Fall.
Per my request, Ryan took me to a Royals game with our friends the Gudjenov’s for my birthday. It was a great game, great company, fun environment and good food. Turning 43 wasn’t bad at all. I highly recommend it.
Emilee opted to not do softball for the Fall. She stuck with horse lessons and piano. She still loves horse riding and looks forward to her lesson every week. She is pushing to quit piano right now. I am letting her take a little break and then hoping she gets back into it.
Allison took a break from extra curricular activities for the first time…ever. She wants to start doing a weight training program but we are still discussing which one to do. She is going to help with wrestling at the middle school which starts mid October and is followed immediately by HS wrestling so she will be busy again before to long.
Of course football started. Matthew and Ryan both are in a few different fantasy football leagues. They love it and look forward to it all year. This picture is his school buddies that he does a league with each year. They get together and draft their teams and eat way to many donuts and junk food.
Homecoming was in September this year, I think it is a little early but nobody asked me. Matthew went to his last Homecoming with Campbell. Ramey and Ellie doubled with them. They took pictures while the sun was still up, then they changed into casual clothes and went to dinner at Taco Bell. Then it was off to the football game. Shortly before the game ended they went to change into their dance outfits again and then went back to the school for the dance. After the dance they hung out at Ellie’s house and played games. Matthew is still growing pretty fast and starting to put on weight too. The pants he is wearing he at the end of July for senior pics with Campbell. Just two months later he barely fit into them!
While Matthew was at his last Homecoming, Allison was at her first!! She went with a couple friends and had a fun time. We had pizza at out house for dinner and pre-game hanging out. She went to the football game with her friend Olivia and met other friends at the game. They came over to our house and got ready at half time and then I took them back to the dance. After the dance she spent the night at Olivia’s. Allison looked beautiful and so did her friends. I think they had a fun time at their first official high school dance.
Each year at the high school they have FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). It is several school districts in the area that get together and do it and Spring Hill hosted this year. One of Matthew’s best friends, Ramey, spoke at it and several other people he knew participated in it. Matthew and Allison both went but this is the only picture I got from it. I am really glad Matthew has always picked good friends that have good morals and values. He has a great group of friends- boys and girls- that really support each other and are good kids.
I have mentioned before that we found some land and decided to build a house earlier this year. We were planning on living in our house until the new house was built and then sell. The market for selling houses has been crazy high and houses sell fast the past few months. We have been watching it and it hasn’t started to go down but it has definitely plateaued. That started making us nervous that by the time we were ready to sell our house next Spring our Fall the market would have dropped and we wouldn’t make as much equity as we wanted to. We talked about it with our realtor and thought about it for a few weeks. We decided we would regret it if we didn’t at least try and sell it this Fall and get what we want. If we didn’t get our asking price we wouldn’t sell and could try again in the Spring. If prices drop we at least tried. If we got what we were asking then we make a nice profit and finances are a little easier for the next year.
So September 6th we officially decided to put our house on the market ASAP. Pictures were scheduled to be taken on the 14th and it would list on the 16th. I immediately started ‘staging’ the house. We got a storage unit and packed all the clutter and things we won’t need for awhile away. About the second day into my week to prepare I got sick. It ended up being COVID. The first time I have had COVID to my knowledge. I would say my symptoms-flu like- were moderate. I didn’t really have time to be sick so I would clean, pack, and organize until I had to rest for bit then lay down for 20-30 minutes until I could work some more. It was pretty miserable. My family helped a little but Ryan was traveling a lot, the kids were at school and had after school activities so most of it was left to me. I got it done and pictures were taken and turned out great. We went live with our listing on a Friday. We had three showings schedule for that day. The night before Emilee said she wasn’t feeling well so she stayed home. She was much better Friday but I kept her home just in case. Friday when I was going through and making sure the house was ready to show to the people coming in less than an hour, I went into Matthew’s room and found him still in bed. He said he was sick. He had caught COVID from me like Emilee did. I told him he had to get up and we could go sleep at Grandpa’s for the day. He said he couldn’t move and he would just lay their quietly while people walk through. He was disappointed that was not an option. The two sicko’s and I made it to Grandma’s house. They were put in bed and confined to the basement. We got two good offers Friday. When one of the offers heard we had gotten another offer, they countered their own offer and raised it to an even better offer. We decided to accept it and took the house of the market and cancelled the rest of our showings that weekend. Keeping a house ‘show ready’ with three kids and a big picture not detail oriented husband is not easy. It was a huge blessing to sell it so quickly. I can’t imagine having to do it for weeks or months.
It was mid September when we sold it. We had until November 1st to move out. I had looked at a few apartments and houses to rent in anticipation of selling our house. Ryan and I went and looked at a few of them that same weekend. We wanted to stay fairly close to were we were at and pay less than our current mortgage. We were a little concerned when we saw the first few in the price range we wanted to stay. We ended up finding one that was three miles from our old house and had just had a lot of updates and you could tell the owners take good care of it. We applied to rent and by the middle of the following week we were approved and could move in October 1st.
We decided to stay in our home as long as possible. When I wasn’t working or doing the usual kids activities or maintaining our own house, laundry and meals I spent the rest of my time cleaning the rental and taking car loads of things over. It was helpful to have more time to go through everything and really get rid of things that we didn’t need or box things up in storage that we can live without for a year. We had some friends help us load the smaller items and boxes in a U-haul a week before the movers came and brought the bigger furniture and heavy items. Ryan was traveling a lot for work so most of it I did on my own. It was very stressful and I was exhausted non-stop. I wanted to enjoy the last few weeks in our house too. I did my best to remind myself to not be grumpy when I was tired and help the kids enjoy their last month too. It was a good house for us. Despite the builder ripping out the staircase the day before we moved in and taking a year to fix things that were screwed up on or never finished in the first place, it was a great home for us. We lived there 7 1/2 years. Lots of memories and growing up with our kids happened there. We put a lot of work into it. We didn’t think we would ever move so we made it our forever home.
All of our belongings were moved in on Friday October 28th and we started sleeping at the rental then. I also had the Primary Sacrament Program to practice and do that weekend so we didn’t get much unpacking done. Ryan had the idea to eat one last family dinner together at the house on Saturday night. It was a really nice evening. Allison and I got Subway and everyone else got sushi. We met at the house and had a nice meal together. Ryan had told everyone to think of some of their favorite memories to share with each other. Once we started sharing we started remembering more and more things. We talked about Christmas mornings, nerf gun games we played, Easter egg hunts, things that got broken (some that Ryan and I knew about, some we didn’t), funny moments-Allison ‘accidentally’ calling 911. Allison evacuating the family including the guinea pigs when the fire alarm went off. Dad responding to a question of Emilee’s over the Alexa and farting, Alexa catching it and announcing his answer and his fart to the whole house. Matthew hiding under his bathroom sink in the cabinet for over an hour and the rest of us not being able to find him. We had a really nice night reminiscing and remembering the good times and memories we made together.
We still owned the house until November first so we decided to do one more of the traditions we had started in our home. Each year for Halloween since we moved in the McDonald family has come over on Halloween to celebrate with us. We have pizza and witch’s brew (home made root beer with dry ice) for dinner. Then the kids get in their costumes, we leave a bowl of candy on the porch and we go trick or treating. The past couple years Ross and Lauren have joined us as well. Over the years we have had 2-3 groups that form based on how fast they move between houses. This year the older girls went on their own. The dads followed the faster group of middle aged kids, and the moms went with Linnea the youngest. She makes it around the little block of streets and then is done. We can then go home and hand out any candy that is left and warm up and relax at the house until the other groups make it back. As they trickle in there is a giant candy swap in the living room. Sometimes we play a game, or sometimes we just visit until its time to go home.
There was no furniture (or kitchen supplies) in the house this year so we ate pizza but bought root beer instead of making it. The empty living room was loved by all of the kids because they could really spread out for the candy swap. It was a fun night and a good way to have our last night in that house. When we loaded the last few things into the car to leave for the last time Ryan and I walked through the house one more time and turned off the lights for the last time. It was a little sad but we are excited to start the next adventure in our lives.
We have 11 months left on the lease at our rental. They are pouring the foundation for our new house any day now. Hopefully between now and then we have a finished house to move into. We hope it will be our last move- EVER and we want to make it so that it will fit our lives from now, until we are empty nesters, until are kids come visit with their own families and until we are old and want to just stay at home, until we don’t need a home anymore.
We have been keeping an eye out for a good car for Matthew to use. Right now a used car is worth a lot more than it actually is worth so it is hard to find a decent reliable car for a decent price. Kenny said he would find us one, he is a mechanic so he knows a lot more about cars than we do. He found us one and Ryan and I decided to make a weekend of it to go out to Florida and bring it home. We flew out on Labor Day weekend. We spent a few hours in Tampa and had lunch with my parents and the French’s. Then we began our trek home.
It felt like we were in college again, going on a trip and not knowing if we would make it in our 2011 well used Hyundai Sonata. About 20 minutes into our drive the check engine light came on. We called Kenny and he said if it wasn’t flashing and it seemed to be driving ok then we could keep going. So we did. The first night we stopped in Atlanta Georgia. The next day we drove a couple hours to Nashville Tennessee. Ryan had been there for work before and thought it was a fun place. I have wanted to go but never been. Once we got there we checked into a hotel right across from the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. We spent the rest of the day exploring Nashville.
We went through the museum which was ok. I like country music but I am not a crazy fan of anyone in particular. We also went on a tour of Studio C. It is one of the original recording studios from the 1940’s. It was pretty cool. Hundreds of singers had recorded there over the years. Including Elvis Presley. The last part of the tour was in a room that he recorded a lot of his hits in. They told us about a typical recording session with him and his band. There was a broken cabinet that Elvis kicked one night and a panel came off. The piano was original too. I thought is was a cool tour. The rest of the evening we wandered around and did a little shopping. I wanted to find some cowboy boots but didn’t have any luck. It is a very friendly town. Of course at night there is endless live music to listen to. It was pretty awesome. It was all kinds of music too, not just country. There was a lot of talent.
The next morning we drove the rest of the way home. We dropped the car off at the mechanic we use to figure out why the engine light was on. I scheduled a detail for it because it was pretty gross inside and we looked forward to having a third car and driver to get people all the places we seem to need to go.
Fast forward six weeks and we found ourselves trading the Sonata in for a newer car that actually works. After getting it back from the mechanic, we found ourselves in a very frustrating and irritating cycle of getting the car from the mechanic, paying a couple hundred dollars to fix something then bringing it home to have it break again within two days and be taken in for another week to be fixed. It would randomly die sometimes. One of those times Matthew was backing out of our driveway and it died. He had no power steering or breaks and our driveway is a hill so he continued to roll when died. He rolled right into our neighbors nanny’s car. That was kind of the last straw for me. It is stressful enough to put your son who has basically no driving experience in a car and send him off on his own. To send him in a car I didn’t trust and proved many times it could create dangerous situations was nerve racking. On top of that, we were in the process of selling our house (more on that later) and by November 1st Matthew would be the girls and his ride to and from school so we had to have a working reliable safe car for him.
I decided to go through a dealership. I know I pay more money that way but if something goes crazy wrong I know where to go and have some sort of warranty and accountability with it, unlike a private seller. After some research I found a 2015 Honda Accord. They were willing to take the Sonata for more then a few other car places had offered me for it so that was nice. I did not want to sell it privately or have it sitting around reminding me how stupid it was, I didn’t have the time or patience for that. Two birds with one stone. We didn’t tell Matthew because we didn’t know if we were actually going to find a car or not. It was a nice surprise for him. He loves it and it has been so helpful for him to be able to get himself places and sometimes the girls. Game changer.
The other day when I was making dinner Allison came home and gave me a hug then asked if I could break a $5 bill for her. I found my purse and gave her the requested 4 one dollar bills and 4 quarters. She then put $2.50 on the counter and told me that was my share then started to head outside. I told her to come back and explain when she was talking about. She said that she had sold a bag of chocolate chips to someone at school for $5. Since the bag only cost $3 (I do remember her asking me how much I spent on a bag of chocolate chips a day or so previously) she had made $2 and since she used my chocolate chips she split the money with me.
This girl and her ways of coming up with how to make a dollar continue to amaze me. Between her work ethic, drive, creativity, and love of money she will take care of herself just fine. She has already run a successful slime and key chain business. Also her dog walking business. She is currently trying to convince the gym she does gymnastics at to hire her to help do odd jobs around the gym. Meanwhile, Matthew asked two companies for an application, doesn’t fill them out or turn them in and acts like he has done all he possibly can to get a job but there aren’t any available.
Anyway, back to my share of the chocolate chip profit. I told her that I love her ability to come up with ways to make money but while she did make a two dollar profit, as she did not buy the chips in the first place, instead of my share being $2.50 it would actually be $4. She was not as excited about that but followed the math. I told her I would split it with her this time but to stop selling my groceries. Funny girl.
Time seems to be flying by at a rapid pace again. September and October seemed to go by so fast.
Matthew had a busy month. When I was looking at the picture to add to this post I should have titled it Matthew’s busy September. Everyone was busy and had things going on. I guess we just photographed more of Matthew’s.
Matthew crammed in as much baseball as he could in September and October. The weather was pretty cooperative. He is on the same team but there were a lot of changes and the new group of boys is pretty fun to watch. They all mix well together.
Allison came up with another creative way to get her energy out. This is a video she sent me the other day.
We went to several High School Football games this past month too. Some at our school, some to watch other kids we know play for their school. One of those was Homecoming. Matthew and Campbell took pictures together before the game, then they changed and met their friends at the game. After the game they changed again (Matthew in the back of our car) and a group of them went to the dance together.
Next on Matthew’s list was a Temple trip and a camping trip with the Young Men in our ward. They went to a lake and did some swimming, biking, hiking, fishing, and eating smore’s. Matthew and his friend Carter are really into fishing now. They try and go at least once a week. I’m glad he has a fun hobby to do with a good buddy.
Emilee tried volleyball this year, and we are very happy to say that she loved it! She looked forward to practices, we didn’t have to drag her and she was excited enough about her games that she kept track of them herself. I am very glad we found a new talent for her to develop. Her dad is over the moon excited. She has lost two pairs of knee pads already but if she keeps enjoying it I can get her another pair.
https://youtu.be/TbLdsjJJlZw?list=PLBwkO01uWtw9DJu2WA-l0-1CZ6EuoK5Kl
For my birthday this year everyone was sick or quarantining in case they got sick. That was not the original plan but that is what happened. So we put a little pin in my birthday and bumped it out a week and a half until everyone was better. Ryan cooked me many yummy meals- spaghetti and meatballs, steak, and my favorite chocolate layered cream cheese cake. Ryan remembered to cook the crust this year. Allison made me a cute birthday sign and the kids got me a sweet gift basket with lots of fun surprises in it.
Ryan decided to surprise me for my birthday with a trip to Chicago. He confirmed my availability without setting of any suspicion. Then he booked our hotel and flights. He even checked my email and filed the flight information into another folder so I wouldn’t see the confirmation. He was pretty proud of himself and I had no idea. Unfortunately, he was unable to out think all of the Google software data gathering (straight up snooping) even though he hid the emails, my calendar found them and the next time I checked my calendar a little message popped up asking me if I wanted to add my flight to Chicago to the calendar. I tried to act like I didn’t know but when Ryan straight up asked me if I knew I told him my calendar betrayed him.
As I said we ended up having to postpone the trip a bit but shortly after my birthday, we flew to Chicago and spent a long weekend there. We had a fun time with each other. We stayed at the Palmer Hotel. When we got there we decided to go to the Magic Show that the hotel is apparently famous for and has been showing since the 80’s. It was pretty fun. I love stuff like that. During the day we toured the city by foot, subway, or boat. In the evenings we went to shows. We ended up doing two different magic shows, a comedy show, and an old timey piano bar that played requests. The atmosphere was early 1900’s but the music was modern. In the mornings we slept in as long as we wanted. Glorious. It was a great weekend and I’m glad we squeezed it in because it is trade show season for Ryan at work now and since we have been back it seems like I haven’t seen him for a few weeks. We pass each other on the way to work or taking the kids somewhere, one of us is asleep before the other gets home and one of us is at work or taking Matthew to seminary before the other one is awake.
Well, I crossed into the next decade of my life! It is a little weird. I remember my Grandma June in her 40’s. I remember my mom’s 40th birthday, several of my aunts. For a while as a kid, all adults were in their 40’s. Now I am. So far when I have entered a new decade it hasn’t bothered me. It bothers Ryan and he is two years older so maybe I have a few years to prepare myself because he does it first.
There was a bit of a minor mid life crisis for Ryan. It is part of the reason he now drives a Tesla. I think I feel it a little bit too. It is hard to explain. I am not panicking about my age but I feel like I have moved into a different stage of my life. I find myself thinking and considering things differently then I used to. I’ve noticed it enough in myself to say that there is definitely something to a ‘mid life crisis’. It didn’t happen over night of course, I feel like the past year or two I noticed a few subtle shifts and changes in myself. Here are some of my thoughts as a 40 for one month year old.
Emotionally and socially I have become more comfortable with myself and settled more into knowing what I am and want. I definitely feel plenty comfortable cutting out the crap and negativity I don’t want in my life. I am a people pleaser and I still like to please people but I am much better at not expensing my desires and wants ALL the time. My confidence has increased, would be a good way to say it in one sentence. I have solid friendships that are into their second decade. For me this is quite a feat since until 2008 I moved a minimum of every 2 years my whole life. I can be social or be alone-by myself or in a group. I am comfortable with myself and I know more of what I want and don’t want to spend my time doing and who I want to spend that time with.
I am no longer the young person in the room in anyone’s opinion. I have enough life experience to not be ‘just a baby’ or ‘just getting started’ or whatever else other people say. Instead people ask me how I did it when I was younger. In my head I’m thinking, “When did I not become younger?” I know enough to know I don’t know it all or even very much. I realize all the things ‘I will get to someday’ are going to be off the table at some point instead of forever available. Youth and health are not a given and guaranteed permanence. When I see someone the age of 30 they look young, 25 year old’s barely look like adults and 18 or younger look like a baby.
Physically my hair, skin, nails, and a dozen other things have changed a bit at some point in the last few years. I get a glimpse of what ‘old’ people mean when they say ‘my (fill in the blank) isn’t like it used to be’. Instead of my hair just being healthy and shiny, I have to condition it more or pick a new style because it is thinning. Instead of washing my face and throwing on a little moisturizer I have to use a toners and serums and twenty other products to help maintain, shape, elasticity, smoothness and firmness and whatever other properties my skin maintained on it own until now. Moisturizer is now bought in bulk. It is like magic that you start noticing aches and pains when you exercise…or don’t exercise.
I can see how these things and more cause someone to want to do a dramatic change around this time in their life, whether it is plastic surgery, or a trip, or buying something extravagant. I get it. Maybe in five or ten years my thoughts and opinions will change-actually I am sure they will but for now my plan in to live and enjoy my confident 40 self and age naturally and gracefully with the aid of topical creams. 😂
As I mentioned earlier, Ryan’s mid life crisis manifested as a new car. Mine will be manifesting itself in 25 days and I am VERY excited! Stay tuned!
After almost ten years with my van, I decided it was time to get a car with a few less miles and years on it. For the past year I have been researching and keeping my eye out on what I might want. I haven’t been able to decide if I wanted to get another van or an SUV.
Hands down a van is the best family car out there. There isn’t an SUV out there that can compare to the amount of people and luggage space plus comfort that a van can. The sliding doors on a van alone are worth their weight in gold. SUV’s are going to be good for people hauling or stuff hauling-not both. The “mid size” SUV’s are basically a tall car, which is fine but I need something a little bigger still. That narrowed my search down quite a bit right there. Van, or three row SUV. I don’t want a suburban or the huge SUV’s either. I don’t want to feel like I am driving a tank. That narrowed my field even more. There were really only 3-4 SUV’s that fit my criteria. One of those was a Tesla which of course Ryan was promoting. It had a third row but when I sat in it myself it seemed like a pretty liberal description to call it a third row. I am only 5′ 5″ and my knees were under my eye lobes. The lifting side doors while they sound cool, were not as cool in functionality. To finish narrowing it down I picked based on reviews, price, and looks. It left me with the choice of a new Honda Odyssey van, or a Honda Pilot SUV.
After a few more months of debating, I ended up going with the Pilot. If my kids were younger I would have gone for the van again, but since they are bigger they can get in and out on their own and sadly, it won’t be to many more years before they start driving themselves places or going on missions, or college. It was a little weird while I learned all the new buttons and things for a week but I have now adjusted and am comfy and loving my new car.
We didn’t trade the van it. We decided to sell it on our own and get twice what they were offering us for it at the dealership. We debated making it Matthew’s car but I would rather find him something a little smaller. So it hung out in our drive way for a week or two while we decided what to do with it. This past Friday I caught up on my other things and getting the van ready to sell moved to the top of my list. Coincidentally my neighborhood was having their annual Fall garage sale weekend. I decided that since we would have a lot of people driving through the neighborhood I would put a sign on it and see if I could sell it that way before I put it online. I cleaned it out, took it to vacuum and wash it and put the signs on it. On my way home from washing it, I decided to see if Roger and Rhonda would mind if I parked it in their driveway instead of mine for the weekend because they live on the street that leads into the neighborhood. I parked it in the drive way and went inside to ask. We were chatting and less than 5 minutes after I arrived someone rang the door bell. Roger said he didn’t know who it would be and I said it was someone wanting to by my van. It was! They asked to look at it, drove it around, and then said they would buy it! They left to get a cashiers check and two hours later I met them at the house again and they drove off into the sunset with it.
I was pretty excited. I thought it would take a little more effort and work to sell it but it didn’t. I wouldn’t even say I cleaned it all the way. It was neat, but I wouldn’t call it clean until I had worked on it a few more hours. Instead of that, it was sold in about 5 minutes.
Later that night I had a similar experience like I did when I donated my blue rocking chair. I didn’t cry but I had some nostalgia while I remembered all the trips and things we did together as a family in the van. It handled a lot from us. It took us all around KC, Florida, Alabama, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Tennessee, South Dakota, Nebraska, some of those places many times and others I don’t even remember. We sang hundreds of songs, played games, caught up on our days, ran errands, watched Christmas lights, plowed through snow, splashed through huge puddles. It handled our dirt, food, crayons, markers, vomit, spilled milk, soda, water, slime, pee, poopy diapers. It had countless names, words, hearts, stick figures and boogers smeared on the windows. It was a great little van. It never broke down on us. The alarm system was a bit touchy. I had to DRIVE home from a baseball practice once with the horn honking none stop because it didn’t like that I unlocked it with a key instead of the key fob. Much to all of our embarrassment it honked over and over none stop until I got home and found said key fob. Despite my best efforts sometimes it only locked me out of it 1-2 times. It was a good little van. I sold it so fast I didn’t even think to take a final picture of it but I will have fond memories of my black Honda van.
Ryan and Allison planted a full salad/salsa garden this year. The salad stuff didn’t do to great, we got a little lettuce but it was kind of bitter. About mid summer the salsa stuff started growing. The first time they made it I called it our $100 salsa. It has continued to produce and they have made lots of salsa, even canned some to save for later. Our tomatoes are still going strong, they are debating canning some spaghetti sauce as well. We have definitely made at least our moneys worth that it took to plant the garden if not more from all the stuff. It is a nice change for us.
A few months ago I took Emilee and her friend to my co-workers hobby farm. She had a great time and has been begging to go back ever since. Allison wasn’t able to go and she wanted to go too. Sandi had added a few more types of animals and was excited to have the girls come see them. We made it out to see the farm again a few Saturday’s ago.
Ryan went to his half brother Austin’s wedding out in Utah in August. The kids had already started school and it was in the middle of the week so he was the only one who ended up going. He had a fun time getting to know everyone more. After the wedding festivities he did a mini man trip in the mountains with his buddies Sam and Mike. They did lots of manly things together like ATV’s and shooting. He did not get any pictures of the reception for me though.
Ryan and I found ourselves at Home Depot a little while ago. We had gone for one thing but decided to get a few fence pickets while we were there because we have a few broken ones. We weren’t positive on the size and shape so we texted Matthew and told him to send us a picture of THE FENCE. He sent us this picture.
Kids his age use an app on their phones called Snap Chat. They send pictures of what they are doing to each other and they usually look pretty much like this. Half of their face is in the picture and the back ground of where they are. I rolled my eyes and told him I didn’t need a social media head shot, I needed to know how tall the fence was. He wrote back that was the reason he put himself in the picture…for perspective. 😂😂🤦♀️
Matthew and Emilee came down with COVID the first week of September. They both recovered pretty quick but were down in bed for a few days. They still had to stay home and mostly in there rooms for a few days after they were feeling better. I helped Emilee brush her hair one day-which she hates. I told her we could do some silly pictures while we did it so it would be more fun. She didn’t seem to love it that much.
There have been a few things this week that made me smile and show Allison’s determination. I know that her determination can sometimes drive be bananas, but I love that quality in her. She has a drive to accomplish her goals and desires. It will take her far.
She has recently decided that she wants to get another guinea pig so Peanut Butter isn’t lonely. Ryan and I are not on board with this in anyway and have made no effort to hide our thoughts on the matter. She has just pushed our reasons aside and said she will let us know when she has saved up enough money. She has somehow come up with the amount of $300 to save and then ‘we can’t say no’ even though we told her we have already said no and will continue to say no, regardless of how much money she saves.
Her getting guinea pig number two desire has reinvigorated her dog walking business. Her friend and her were out doing this earlier this week. As they were walking a dog down a street they noticed a sign taped up to the light pole that a couple 2nd grade girls had posted advertising to walk people’s dogs for them. Allison started looking around and noticed that there were several of these signs taped up to mailboxes and other light poles. She finished walking the dog then came straight home to report that some ‘little second graders were trying to steal her business’ and she was not having it, ‘not on my watch’. Her and her friend then spent the next two hours, making their own signs and taping them up right next to all the signs the 2nd graders had put up. She felt quite confident that no one in their right mind would pick a 2nd grader to walk their dog when there was a ‘more experienced’ 4th grader available.
Emilee and Allison share a bathroom and it is always disgusting. Clothes and toothpaste everywhere, play makeup, towels, orbees, soap, made up chemistry projects, and hair stuff is always all over the place. It drives me crazy. It is a constant battle to get them to clean it up or keep it clean. The other day I was grossed out by the bathroom and both girls kept claiming they had ‘cleaned’ it. I was annoyed with it and didn’t want to clean it myself but felt like if I wanted it to actually be clean I would have to have them help me do it, which is basically doing it for them and I didn’t want to do that. I decided to motivate Allison with one of her biggest motivators-money- to clean it. I told her if she cleaned it and did a REALLY good job I would pay her $3. She thought for a minute and counter offered with $3 but not the shower. We compromised at $2 and she didn’t have to clean the shower this time. She came and got me a little while later to have me come check and make sure she did a good job. She had done an amazing job. It was spotless (except the shower of course 😊). I was shocked!! I told her she did amazing and I was proud of her. I didn’t tell her that now that I know her true capabilities the jig is up and she will be cleaning her bathroom a lot more. If I have to pay her two dollars to do it, that is totally worth it to me.
Earlier today Matthew and Allison were progressively raising the volume of their voices as they yelled insulting ‘but true’ things to each other. It was started by Allison telling Matthew that cheerleading is harder than playing football. He was momentarily dumbfounded and stared at her in complete shock until he told her that was the ‘most dumb’ thing she had ever said. Of course Allison was then dumbfounded herself because she was truly shocked that Matthew didn’t totally confirm her statement. They then proceeded to yell at each other different ways that one was better than the other. One that made me chuckle in particular was when Allison was explaining that football players get to run around so the wind cools them off. Cheerleaders stay in pretty much the same spot and don’t create wind so they are hotter. It continued to progress to who gets to drink more water and then sputtered out when I started dancing around the room to music from Aladdin.
Their next argument started not to much later when Allison, who has started reading the Harry Potter books for the first time and is about half way through the series, tried to challenge Matthew who has read all the books three times and watched all the movies at least twice, on some Harry Potter trivia. It progressed much like the argument before until they noticed that Emilee and I had sat down and were getting ready to eat dinner, then they joined us.
The reason I am sharing these little tidbits of sibling interaction is because this past weekend Lauren and I went to a parenting class called ‘Simply on Purpose’. It was a good conference. The presenter was fun to listen to and had some good information to share. It included lunch too which is always nice. I have been trying to practice some of the things she said the past few days. Some of it I have already heard or know but it is nice to have a reminder and reset sometimes. I also learned how to do somethings in a better way. Some of the main points I took away from her conference in no particular order was;
So, the past few days when someone starts whining or fighting I try and remember some of these tactics. I try and change the momentum, stay calm, stay positive, and ignore the attention seeking inconsequential behaviors, however obnoxious they may be. I don’t always do it, or execute it perfectly, but I have noticed that it works when I do. When Emilee starts whining I do something else, or talk with someone else. Then as soon as she stops I make sure to give her positive attention. When the kids start fighting I will try and change the momentum by doing something silly or distracting them. In the case of the two arguments I started this post with, I didn’t interact with Matthew or Allison and within the minute and forty five seconds their fight had died out and they both had moved on, or noticed that Emilee was getting positive attention and came over to join us instead.
The kids fight fairly often but I have a little different perspective on it this week. I try to see how they are learning and practicing the things that sibling rivalry teaches them. It is almost interesting now to listen or watch them interact. I’m sure that will not always be the case, but for now it is a nice change from feeling irritation and anger at them for fighting a lot.
I thought I was ignoring behavior before but I actually wasn’t. Most of the time I would inadvertently acknowledge it and then ignore it, so I was actually reinforcing the behavior. It is a lot harder to purposefully ignore something than you think. It takes a lot more concentration then addressing the situation does.
This popped up on my Facebook feed the other day. It is a conversation I had with Allison one morning when she was in first grade while I was helping her get ready. She cracks me up. I think she was trying to explain that she wanted her hair really smooth and flat against her head.
So Matthew works out a lot for baseball and football and he has recently become interested in getting strong well defined muscles like his arms and his abs. The other day he was explaining his plan to turn his four pack into a six pack and then an eight pack to Ryan and I. It was a very entertaining conversation. Allison and Emilee overheard it and Allison decided she was going to get an eight pack first and then keep going until she had a twelve pack. So the past week or so we have seen a lot of sit ups and crunches and many unknown exercises that apparently strengthen your abs. The funny part is the way they talk about it, they don’t really know what they are talking about. Allison skipped up and told me that she her two pack was now a three pack after doing sit ups for thirty seconds. I play smacked Matthew in the stomach the other day when he was being a smart mouth. He quickly replied that I missed because he blocked it with one of his packs. Emilee asks us to tell her how many packs she has all the time or just picks a random number to say she has. What a bunch of goof balls.
Matthew decided to try football this year. It is a little crazy with practice and game schedules because he is doing baseball too. He is liking it but hasn’t taken to it as easily as other things he has tried. He is a little nervous about contact but he is getting better. His last game he recovered a fumble and scored with a touch down. He was pretty excited. We happened to be playing a team that one of his baseball team mates is on, his dad is one of his baseball coaches actually. He also likes to take pictures so he took some of Matthew for us and got some of his touchdown run too. Someday I might add becoming a better photographer to my list of things to learn to do. I really appreciate all the people that take pictures for us.
The past few years I have noticed that I really enjoy the changing of the seasons. I am ready for the change and the different activities with each one.We were at a baseball tournament and football game a few weeks ago. The temperature was 89 but with the heat index it felt like over 100. It was so humid and stagnant. Ugg! It was like that from the beginning of September to just this week. Then we had a little rain storm and it cooled down and the next morning it had that cool crisp fresh feeling in the morning. Aaahhh! I love it. We got the Fall decorations out, I put Mums in my planters, we have been having yummy soups for dinner, and going on walks to enjoy the beautiful weather.
Allison has decided that her new gymnastics place is better than she thought. She is progressing quickly. I felt like she was on the cusp of being able to do a lot of things for a while at the last place we went for gymnastics. I switched her to a new place I thought would be a little more aggressive in getting them to progress. I started Emilee in a class too. Allison was pretty upset at first and said it was awful and they didn’t know what they were doing. I told her to give it 6 months before she ‘insisted on switching back’. She has been there almost two months now and a few weeks ago she admitted its pretty fun. Her and Emilee both look forward to it every week. Now I am trying to get her to do the same thing for her new piano teacher.
Matthew and his friends like to play night games sometimes. Another fun Fall activity is having an evening fire pit with the neighbors and roasting some marshmallows.
We usually take turns eating dinner with Ross and Lauren at one of our houses on Fast Sunday. This month we went to their house. When we were cleaning up dishes I was wiping off a counter and when I looked up this little guy was hanging on the rim of the cabinet. He is probably only about an inch tall. Ross got him at a white elephant party. He is a drink marker, he hangs on the edge of your cup. The one he happened to get at the party had Ryan’s name on it. I thought it was pretty funny.
I volunteered for a few things since school started. I am enjoying it trying some new things. I volunteered to do dental screenings at elementary schools. I go and evaluate the kids teeth and let their parents know if they need to see a dentist. I am going to be a co-leader for Emilee’s girl scout troop. That one makes me a little nervous. I think it will be fun but it is a pretty big troop-17 girls. I hope I don’t go crazy. I am helping two of the kindergarten teachers once a week with prep work stuff too-copying, laminating, whatever they need. I have a goal of helping at Harvesters Food Bank once a month too if I can. That with all my regular stuff keeps me pretty busy. I like it.
Today I took apart my dryer and fixed it. That’s right, you read that correctly. I took it apart, fixed it, and put it back together. I didn’t have any extra parts when I was done either. Booyah! High five for myself.
Wow! The last few weeks have flown by. School and activities and other things are in full swing now. There is always something going on.
We finished the last weekend in August off by going to The Great Wolf Lodge for Aaron’s birthday. We had a great time! We tried all the slides, all the pools, and tried almost every kind of ice cream by the time we were done. Matthew was done around 3 after a full day of swimming. We had to drag the girls away at 4 to get back in time for baseball practice. Six hours of swimming wasn’t enough.
Allison and Matthew seem to have adjusted to school and handle their schedules pretty well. Emilee is still struggling a little bit. She seems to have a little bit of separation anxiety. She was nervous but doing okay, until last Friday I left her crying on the curb at school and thought she was going to follow me home. A teacher helped her make it to class but her teacher said it was a rough start to the day. Monday I walked her into class. The rest of this week I told her if she was a brave girl and got out of the car everyday this week and walked in like a big girl, I would come eat lunch with her on Friday. That worked pretty good. I think that will be our deal for the next couple weeks. Once she gets there and going she does great and has a good day. It is just hard to wake up and go in the mornings. We invited a friend Laney over today that she met in class. They are pretty good buddies and she lives just around the corner so that will be nice to have a friend close by.
Emilee went to a birthday party last week and was so excited to tell me that she got to fight Darth Vader with a purple sword when she got home. I love it when kids get so excited over fun simple things like that.
Last week was really rainy so football and baseball were canceled and moved to this week. That makes this week extra busy, but Matthew had his first football game last night. His coach has been talking with him about needing to be more aggressive and commit to his tackles more. He has been struggling with that and getting pretty frustrated. Last night at his game he was not going to play to much because his coach wanted him to get a little better at tackling first. Another player broke his arm at school so Matthew took his place. He is still a little timid but he did better than he has ever done at tackling. He took a couple people down and evaded a couple tackles. He was pretty proud of himself, so were we and so was his coach. His coach told him he figured out Matthew was a little surprise he wasn’t expecting.
I was going through some papers the other day and I found this little note that Matthew wrote for his dad. Every year on Matthew’s birthday they have a race because Matthew thinks he is faster than Ryan and Ryan has to prove he isn’t. Matthew wrote this for Ryan to intimidate him before their next race. Hahaha!
My birthday was nice. Ryan gave me an Apple Watch, it is pretty handy. He said I have no excuse for not answering or texting him back quickly now. I spent the day reading and relaxing and watching chick flicks. I went to lunch with some friends and we went to dinner as a family. The kids cleaned my car really well for my present. It was at my request and it is still a work in progress but they said they would get it done by this weekend. I watched a movie called, ‘All About Steve’ as part of my relaxing. It has Sandra Bullock in it, who I really like. The reviews were not good but I decided to watch it anyway and it was hilarious. It was supposed to be more ridiculous humor, and it must have been right up my alley because I was laughing a lot. It was a nice day. I did notice that most people asked me how young I was, instead of how old I am. I’ll take that as a sign that I am starting to head more towards the ‘older’ category instead of the ‘younger’ category.
I started the next phase of repainting my house. I picked the colors when we bought it and I still like them but the builders painted with flat paint. So I have been gradually repainting everything with a better paint when the wall gets so dirty that I can’t stand it anymore. I really hate painting, but I love a freshly painted wall. Especially one that I can wash when it get dirty. I also put most of my Fall decorations up. Not my Halloween yet, just Fall. I love Fall. I love being able to sit out on the porch and relax and enjoy the weather. I love that the Holidays are getting ready to start too.
Allison is really liking gymnastics. I switched where she was taking classes because she had stalled in her progression for a while. She wasn’t happy about it but I told her she had to give it a few months and she would notice lots of improvement. She has been there for about a month now, she is not complaining when I pick her up any more and she has gotten better in several areas. She is excited about it again and work on it at home a lot more. She is often doing sit-ups or arm exercises to help herself get stronger.
Many years ago my two sisters came upon some stink bombs that they were very excited to put to good use. I was not living at home anymore but they filled me in later. I can’t remember what they did with all of them but I know one ended up in the 18 hole at a mini putt putt golf course and could be smelled from the parking lot, where they observed from afar and laughed their heads off. Another one ended up in my brothers room and I have been told many times since that was probably the maddest they had ever seen him. They still laughed their heads off, just at a safe distance.
Fast forward a decade or so and…
Allison wanted to do a little shopping with some of her money that she had recently acquired. It usually starts burning a hole in her pocket the second she gets it so she wanted to go to 5 Below and see what treasures she could find (5 Below is a step or two above a dollar store, but everything is $5 or less) She meandered around and eventually found the prank aisle and thought she had enough money to get a whoopee cushion, fake little pieces of poop, and a small aerosol can of ‘fart smell’. (Insert emoji slapping its forehead) Luckily, she did not have enough to get all of those things, but despite my efforts to find something not in the poop category to spend her money on she put back the whoopee cushion and took the other two up to the front to pay.
When she checked out she actually only had enough money for one. I again told her we could go find something else but she agonized for what I am sure the people behind us in line felt like was forever over her decision until finally deciding to just buy the stinky spray (insert emoji with fallen disappointed face) After making her purchase she then skipped out to the car pleased as punch with herself.
On the way home she decided to test it. I should have seen this coming but didn’t think through needing possible rules for the stinky spray before we even got home. She sprayed it in the car and immediately started complaining that it didn’t even stink and she was going to email the company and tell them ‘their fart spray stinks because it doesn’t stink.’ Mean while, I am driving the van and was unfortunately sitting in a location in front of the direction she sprayed the stuff. It did stink! It was foul and disgusting and unlike a ‘real fart’ it didn’t dissipate after a few seconds (actually got stronger), or by rolling the windows down. It was disgusting and of course Allison thought it was hilarious. I immediately laid down some ‘stinky spray rules’ (never saw that coming before I became a mom) and told her no more spraying it in the car or other enclosed spaces.
Allison is the worlds best negotiator though and she baked up some story to spray a little in Matthew’s room as a joke on him because he pulls little pranks on her all the time. I could tell this was the entire grand plan behind getting the stuff in the first place so I told her she could do it one time. Matthew does pull lots of pranks on her.
Allison decided to sneak in his room when he went down for breakfast on Sunday morning before church. She sprayed some stench in his room them came down to eat. Matthew went upstairs to shower. Alli was bouncing with excitement waiting to hear his yell, or gagging sound or something. Nothing. He showered and got dressed then came out. I figured he tried the ‘just ignore it’ tactic to make Allison mad. I forgot about it and finished getting ready in my room. Allison was not ready to just move on though. She went in his room and sprayed some more. She made up some excuse to have Matthew come upstairs to his room, which he did…nothing. Didn’t react in anyway. He went back downstairs. Allison was not to be deterred though. She sprayed more, a lot more. So much more that it came out of Matthew’s room and down the hall and Ryan started to smell it from his closet. (Side note, Ryan was not happy I ‘let’ her buy the stink spray. He said it was a ‘bad choice’ and he ‘wished I wouldn’t have let her do that’ (insert emoji rolling eyes)) He came out to see what was going on and was ‘assaulted’ by the horrible smell now filling the hall and floating down the stairs. I don’t know what reaction she wanted from Matthew but she got one from Ryan. All previous stinky spray rules were erased and a new one was put in place.
NO stinky smell sprays are allowed to be used, stored, or even brought into the house or they will be thrown away and destroyed immediately with no compensation to the owner.
Apparently bad smells make Ryan pretty grumpy. That isn’t a big surprise, he is always telling the kids, ‘Don’t be the stinky kid.’ By this time everyone was getting annoyed and gagging at the smell, except for Matthew who was down stairs with his nose in a book oblivious to everything. While I was opening windows and getting some Febreeze I asked Matthew if his book was so good he couldn’t smell the stench overtaking the house. He said, “No, but my allergies are so bad that I can’t smell anything.” I told Allison why her prank didn’t work and she was pretty annoyed. HAHAHA!
So we finished getting ready for church and headed out the door. When we got to church Matthew came and sat between Ryan and I. I kept catching whiffs of the smell. I guess there was some that settled on his clothes when he was in his room and hadn’t had enough time to go away yet. Alli sprayed A LOT of it. I was making a game plan to get some smelly lotion or oils from someone to help cover the smell but by the time sacrament was over the luckily the smell was gone. By the time we got home the smell was gone from the house too. I did one more round of Febreeze in Matthew’s room so that he was safe from being the stinky kid after sleeping in his room all night. Allison’s remaining spray may or may not have been misplaced. All in all though I think she felt like it was a great purchase.
Ugg! I had the pleasure of renewing my drivers license today. I say that with as much sarcasm as possible. It is such a cliche. I prefer to imagine I have stepped onto a Parks and Rec television set and am playing a part in a ridiculous comedy about the mind numbing process of getting your drivers license renewed. It is a little less depressing and more entertaining from that perspective.
After I got tired of reading my book, doing a cross word, catching up on emails, making a meal plan for the next two weeks, then staring into space being bored, I decided to make a helpful little blog post about successfully managing the DMV while I waited.
Helpful Tips for Going to the DMV.
So to sum up, the best times to try and keep your trip to the DMV as short as possible is to arrive on Tuesday or Thursday between 8:30-9 and 1:30-2 by yourself with no kids, and nowhere to be anytime soon. No guarantees though.
2. Gather proper documentation. Most likely you will get a nice little reminder in the mail telling you it is time for renewal, or whatever reason you might need to go to the DMV. It might even have a helpful list of items to bring with you. Be wary though, somewhere the writer of this little reminder is getting a good chuckle at how unhelpful and misleading this reminder is.
3. Go to the DMV. Congratulations! You have picked a day and time, gathered your paperwork and are now ready to go to the DMV. Here are some arrival tips.
Hopefully on the second try you can make it past the pre-line and get to the actual line. This will depend on how well you were able to use follow up questions to make sure you really have everything. If you are successful you will get a number and get to sit in line instead of stand in line. If not repeat the above steps and try again.
4. Wait in the real line. You will get a number for your place in line. This allows you to sit instead of stand for the remainder of your time in line. Look around and find a spot that looks like a comfy place to spend the next several hours. Despite all previously mentioned ‘No Food Allowed’ signs most of the chairs will have an unknown sticky or gooey substance on it. Hopefully you have wet wipes in your purse, or you can use the handy little reminder sent to you in the mail as a barrier between you and the goo.
5. Finally! After waiting forever and having all your senses dulled by the lack of sound, color, and normal human interaction with the outside world your number is called! You have made it to the beginning of the line. You pick up your stuff and head to the desk that called your number. These next tips are critical, you are not in the clear yet.
There are many more tips to go with the actual interaction with the employee but I’ll let you wing it and have a little fun figuring it out on your own. When you are finally done as you turn to leave you will see a stack of paper that looks like it has been stepped on, crumpled and uncrumpled 20 times, soaked in the toilet and air dried then left on the counter for 10 years collecting dust next to the exit door. On closer look you will see that it says, ‘Please rate your experience at the DMV today Survey’ at the top. There is no pen or pencil or collection box but if you want, you can take one of those papers, fill it out and wait in the pre-line to give it back.