Trick or Treating

Happy Halloween. The kids are at the table eating the spoils of the day. 

Part of me wanted to restrain them a bit, but we're just letting them have at it. No strategy or plan this time to keep the sugar reigned in. I am trying to keep the candy and all the wrappers in the kitchen though. I think I'd prefer just taking it all and tossing it, so next year we'll try get our act together and have an auction. We did that once at the Crosswood house, though I can't find a post about it. 

Owen just got back. He went with friends and then they watched a movie. He said it felt different this year, as in it was not as fun. I told him that might be because most of the magic of childhood is behind him. He got more candy than anyone else, so the magic must not be in the candy. I was impressed that  he's was thoughtful/introspective enough to notice he felt something different. 

So here's how the day went today. Corey wanted to go work, but I asked for some help in the yard first, cause I knew a lot of neighbors would be walking through our yard tonight to go get pizza at the neighbor's house behind us. I started on my own in the front yard, pulling out milkweed and putting the garbage cans in front of a pile of stuff by the basement. I'm kicking myself that I forgot to throw out at  the fall Bulk Clean up. As I cleared out weeds, mostly milkweed, I was starting to get upset that no one was helping me. I paused and went inside to get mad at everyone. That's when I saw that Corey was in the backyard working. Ok, my bad. The kids were still inside though, painting faces and getting final touches ready on their costumes. I called up to them and said "no one is going trick or treating tonight until...." yada yada and they came outside. Daniel went to get Owen, who had left for friends but was SUPPOSED to check in at 12:30 but he didn't. Soon the kids were all at work, raking pine needles with occasional goofing off. Peter was my BEST worker. I told him what to do, and he stayed on task the whole time. I'd go to check if he was jumping on the trampoline or something but nope, he was still clipping away at all the chinese elm trees. Good job Peter!!

The other kids did decent, and when both garbage cans were full, I let them all go. Kids went back inside to finish face painting, and Corey left to work at his dad's house. I kept working on this path in the backyard, which I excavate every 5 years or so. 

I used lots of the small rocks that I tossed up from the basement window when I cleaned that in April. I hope I can get in the mood to keep working on this next week after the garbage bins are empty and I can throw weeds and pine needles out again. Came inside to check on Lily. She was supposed to take her final test before she left for her date, but she got all set up, opened the test, and when she saw that it was NOT multiple choice (like the practice test was) she panicked and just shut the computer. She came up crying saying that she KNOWS she's going to fail and she can't do it. I told her she probably is going to fail if she starts it and just walks away, like isn't there a time limit after you start it? She was crying a little bit and said she can't do it, I was like ok it's your life, and Corey was texting to see how Lily was doing, and she was getting ready to leave for Monster Mash. My only requirement for her was to talk to Corey before she left. She did, they came to some agreement as to the new plan of attack (she'd take it tonight after she gets back home) and then she left. She and her date were Mavis and Johnny from Hotel Transylvania.

Ok, what's the next crisis... Peter and Kat wanted their candy buckets. I went downstairs and found the easter buckets. Kat was pleased and happy to use the strawberry bucket, but Peter didn't want to use the dinosaur one. He wanted something more Halloween looking. Ok, let's paint a bucket. I brought some empty ice cream buckets (we use them for storing legos and other toys and things) and we were going to paint it, but the orange paint was out. It's ok, I have paper - went in my room, found scissors and tape and whipped out this trick or treating bucket. Peter said it was perfect. Yay

Peter and Katharine were going to start treating with some friends at 5, so it's time to go! Quick pic. Belle Bear is Elsa.

Corey took Natalie out to Churchill to go with friends, Sophi stayed home to pass out candy. O & D took off with friends, D was a ghost like yesterday, O was spiderman, I didn't get a pic of Owen today.

They went to a few friends houses near their meet up spot, then came to our house to go back for pizza at the Felix's. 

After pizza, Katharine and her friend Becca were ready to go, so all us parents coordinated and I left with them, and Peter would go with the group of boys. I let Owen and Daniel run free, trusting they know their way around the neighborhood well enough.

We were still close to our house when I got a text from Mel that she and Christian were here. Can you tell who they are? 

Answers here for Christian (pic 4&5) and Mel's costumes. Ethan Bella and Alvie showed up next looking awesome in a Disney Pixar classic! So cute!

They went over for pizza and to say high to neighbors, and I went around with Katharine and Becca. About 30 minutes later we met up with MC and EBA and they went to a few doors together. 

I ran into Peter's group of friends, but he wasn't with them, so then I left Katharine to go with Alvie's group, and I walked around looking for him. Corey came back, and then he and I drove around looking for Peter. 

He was unaccounted for for about 45 minutes, but we found him before it was completely dark. He wasn't worried, he was just putting in a day's work for candy. We found them a little further than I thought they should be, but I guess they were feeling confident and brave, and also the urgency of the moment. I guess their friends were too slow? His friend in the burglar outfit was easier to spot, so that was good. Glad we found them.

I walked home with them, hitting the other side of the street that they missed on their way out. Peter wanted a pic next to the Jack Skeleton. 

Peter got more candy than his bucket could hold. Maybe next year he'll agree to use a pillow case. 

The paint on his face was bugging him so he took a bath. He came down refreshed and put on Christian's wig. 

Natalie liked the wig too. She tried to pester Christian into giving it to her, it didn't work, but I got a pic for her. 

We didn't end up watching Harry Potter or any Halloween movie. Natalie was asking for us to put something on but we put her off cause we were visiting with the older kids and I didn't want the noise. It's ok though, cause tomorrow is Sunday and we need to get to bed. 

Halloween Parade

Today was the elementary Halloween parade. 

Corey and Sophi are home, they got back yesterday at 2:28. And Corey was still in bed when it was time for me to go, so I could have taken his car, but I didn't want to wake him to ask him and also didn't want him to not have his car in case he woke up and wanted to go exercise or something, so I walked over to the school with Kat in the umbrella stroller, and I was feeling a little sorry for myself. I probably sound pathetic all the moping that I do in my head, but just trying to keep it real for myself when I look back at these days and wonder if it was hard or how I handled it. YES, it's hard, it totally sucks, and I'm sooo tired of it (I have a few written journals where I really vent) but I try to keep on keeping on. But yes, it's hard. See my post from Sunday of the things that are hard for me right now. Most of it comes down to money and could be fixed with a large direct deposit to our bank account. But I'm also trying to trust in the Lord and not my bank balance. 

Anyway, getting ready for the parade. Daniel was a ghost, but he didn't want people to be able to see his eyes through the holes. So he got black sun glasses. Then he didn't want people to see his skin around the glasses, so, as once before, we fixed that with a little bit of black permanent marker. 

They headed off to the bus stop, I walked over with Kat. I'm grateful it wasn't unbearably cold. Kat had a chair with her stroller, so I guess it's good I walked over with that. We were by the west door where the parade began. The Brighton Drum line started the parade off, which was awesome. I want to play the drums, it's so fun. After we saw both Peter and Daniel pass, we left to enter the school for Peter's Halloween performance. Daniel is the white ghost in the middle there.

Into the school for the 2nd grade program where they teach us all about Halloween. 

Peter was front and center. He did a great job and was happy to have a Jack Skeleton mask to wear that he and I fixed up this morning. Peter with some friends after the program. 

And a pic with his teacher, who was dressed as Michael Jackson and looked SO awesome, I want to get that costume for next year.

Katharine admiring the crown that Evan's mom was wearing. She quickly shared it with Katharine.

Then Katharine wanted a photo with Peter's teacher, so we got another one. 

Ms Tiff might be your teacher in a few years Katharine!

When I got home, Corey was still here, so I could have taken his car. But it's good to get steps in. I maybe would have liked to use my time differently? If I got home quicker could I have gone to exercise at the rec center? Had there not been the school parade and program this morning, I might have tried to go on a ride somehow, but instead I decided to wait until kids were home. Kat watched Elena while we waited for that. I layed on the floor to rest while I waited for time to pass. I should have set an alarm to leave at 1, but I waited for the noise of kids coming home to alert me that it was time to go. Well, they weren't noisy when they got home. I say "they" cause it should have been Owen and Natalie, but it was just Owen, and when he got home and sat to watch the show with Kat. Natalie didn't ask to stay after school (prob wise on her part cause I would have said no) so then around 1:30 I got up wondering if N&O were back. Owen was, ugh, why didn't I leave yet, and I got ready to go on a ride. I texted Natalie to come home with Lily and Sophi. Then I saw that the forecast said rain, doh I should have left earlier. I was kicking myself. I saw D&P on their way to a friends house after getting off the bus as I passed by on my bike. At a mile in, I got a text from a friend saying they were on their way over for the playdate I had asked for last Saturday (after D was nagging me at Owen's soccer game). Doh, I prob need to head home. Natalie called and asked why she needed to come home with Lily and could she stay later. Lily was on her way, and Natalie said Lily said she could babysit, ok fine. I call Lily and tell her the plan. She needs to go back for the football game at 4 though. Ok, it was past 2, I should be back by then. Then it started to rain, and I knew rain was forecast for the next 4 hours, so I gave up and accepted that yeah, a ride is not happening today. I got home, texted the mom of the two friends that were here that I was home now. I blogged and did computer stuff until date night. We went to Aubergine. My computer stuff today was looking for clothes. When I was blogging this past week and putting links to things in Sunday's post, I was googling a lot yesterday trying to find a shirt like the one that I wore biking and on the drive home after Joseph's wedding. I've been thinking for years that I really liked that shirt and I don't know what ever happened to it. I miss it, it was one of my favorites. Joseph bought it originally and then donated it to the family and I took it, so that was a clue - men's shirt. I have a similar shirt still in my closet, but grey instead of navy, and the shirt label says the brand is Goodfellow & Co. Size was small. More googling helped me get even more specific as I narrowed it down (I didn't want 3/4 sleeve): "Goodfellow & Co Navy Body with Burgundy Raglan Long Sleeve Tee" so I have now found some similar ones at Walmart dot com and enjoyed putting those in my online cart. I find that just putting stuff in my cart is helpful, and then in a week or so I go back and sometimes I don't want or need it anymore. I also put some stainless steel chopsticks in my cart, per Sophi's request. I would have gone shopping for groceries today cause were low on food, but I don't have a car anyway, Lily took it to the football game. It was nice having a car while I did. 

A few pics from yesterday. Sophi sharing treats she brought back from Korea. Some of them were cough drops, not candies, haha. I guess that happens when you don't know the language or their alphabet.

And Owen teaching Katharine how to play the pocket trumpet last night. 

She did really good! I was impressed she was able to get a sound out of it, cause I can't! Her cute little puffed out cheeks, aww. Good job Kat.

Did Better

Katharine's friend Becca came over to play today and they played so great together. 

They had fun playing and I got stuff done too! I was grateful for that because yesterday had been a waste and I was struggling most of the day. 

Natalie had her ballroom/dance Halloween concert tonight at 6:30. I went, go me, and Wayne came too. Natalie here dancing to "Spooky Spooky Skeleton". 

She liked the dresses for that number cause they twirled out really far. After her concert, Wayne took us and one of Natalie's friends to Menchie's and treated us all to some soft serve. I haven't been to Menchie's before but I like it - it's like Yogurt Stop and Red Mango. Natalie was a little sad that none of her siblings came. I was late because I went on a 4pm ride up the canyon, and when I got home, I hurried and cleaned myself up and called to the children to hurry and get ready if they wanted to come. As I went to the car, no one cared or was getting on their shoes, so I left without them. Sorry Natalie, maybe one or two can come Friday morning? If dad goes to that one? 

So I'm still trying to soak up the last moments of fall. One thing I wanted to share was that I listened to the Follow Him podcast on the climb (Jeremiah 31–39; Lamentations 1; 3 with Sister Alyssa Edwardson) and they share a little bit about Kris Belcher (starts at 31:00), and she had cancer as a child that took one eye, and cancer returned as an adult to take sight from her remaining eye. And Hank shared this thought that he had about that - "How would it feel knowing that you had a week left to SEE..." and as he said that, I looked up at the mountain full of fall colors before me and the tears just started to run down my cheeks. 

What a hard trial, but such beautiful words she shared "Don't allow your heart to be hardened by hard times. Make the choice to turn to Christ."

Mildly Functional

Here I am at 1:50 am Wednesday morning, Oct 28, but we're going to post this for Tuesday the 27th. I went to bed tonight at the same time as Katharine, 10:15pm, but she wanted me to lay down next to her, which was on the floor, thus uncomfortable, so around midnight my aching body woke me up and I went to get into my bed. Then I remembered I needed to shape my 4 loaves of sourdough or they'd be very exploded by morning. So I went down to the kitchen to do that and see Hyrum is still awake. He came by to visit today and it's been nice having a fellow adult around. We talked while I shaped 4 lovely loaves (I've really got the sourdough thing down now. I gave out 3 loaves today and they were all perfect). H and I talked about life and school, what his options are, how he hoped he'd be married by now, and that's why he's putting off graduation a bit, cause he's not sure what his next step is, but he's not feeling challenged by his internship and not learning anything there. I think he should go study abroad at BYU Jerusalem! We looked and the applications are accepted like this weekend! Perfect timing! AND it would start April 26, so that is also perfect cause I can fly out with him as a birthday present to myself! Ok, maybe not, but if Hyrum was over there, I'm positive Corey and I would try to make it out there as well to visit him, which would be AMAZING! Yes Hyrum, this is a good idea. He's trying to keep it cool about school, work, and finding his future wife (she'll be at Jerusalem Hyrum!) but like all young folks, he over thinks a lot. But I get it, these are big decisions! I laughed and said I felt like that all day today, captured perfectly by this Instagram Reel that I saw around 4pm, which captures my stress levels about our life - I'm trying to be chill and supportive, yeah no big deal that we're broke, go to Korea! but while I'm giving the thumbs up, I've thought through and processed a dozen bad endings in my mind. "I’m Chalant about a lot of things" so I showed that to him at 12:45 am, transcribed here for your reading pleasure:

I may appear nonchalant but I assure you I am chalanting about a lot of things. Just because I said "it’s all good" doesn’t mean it’s all good. It means I’ve decided not to make everybody else’s problem at this exact moment. There’s a difference. On the outside. I’m calm, relaxed, unbothered, "whatever happens happens" while on the inside, I’ve already imagined 14 possible outcomes, I've prepared responses for each one, and somehow have gotten my feelings hurt by a conversation that hasn’t even happened yet. I’m extremely chalant, I’m just doing it privately. Somebody takes a little longer than usual to text me back "No worries! You’re probably busy." Meanwhile, I’ve noticed a change in response time, the missing emoji, and the fact that they use a period instead of an exclamation mark. I’m not confronting anybody though, but the investigation is active. And when somebody asked "Are you OK?" "Yeah! Why?" because apparently my face has leaked classified information. and the worst part is when I pretend not to care about something I absolutely care about. "I’ll do whatever you want!" Now why would I say that? I know perfectly well that I have a preferred outcome, I’ve just chose chosen to make it a surprise exam and if somebody cancels plans, I’ll say "No problem at all!" which might actually be true because sometimes I wanted to stay home anyway, but now I need to know why you canceled, not because I’m upset, but because I’m chalant. There’s a distinction." 

Hyrum seems so chill and non-chalant, but he's chalant about a lot of things, and he'll tell you some of his true feelings if it's late and quiet enough to pick his brain! Then we watched a few other of his saved reels and it was funny, like Birthday Spider-Man, Crush the can, and the last one I sent him was Pinky the cat up for adoption, which I remember crying with laughter about a few years ago. I also sent him this one today, this is me!

So now it's 2:20 am. I've set the oven to start preheating at 5:25, so it will be ready at 5:55, so I'm setting my alarm for 5:50 so I can go score them and put them in at 5:55 so that the LNO will have some fresh bread ready for breakfast before they leave for school at 6:40, so I should probably go to bed now. But Corey's sleep schedule is going to be all messed up when he gets back, so I'm just prepping myself so I can keep him company.

Here's stuff that I had typed up earlier today before I went to bed the first time. Goodnight!

Tuesday/today/actually yesterday I was only a mildly functional pigeon. That statement comes from Davide De Pierro who is so funny and so clever in the thoughts he shares. I was scrolling a bit this afternoon when Owen had some friends here and I was trapped, tell you about that in a second, and you know sometimes when it seems like a lot of the reels just hit the spot. "I'm not a morning person or a night person. There are a few minutes in the afternoon where I'm decent and that's about it." Well, that was today. I was decent for a few minutes this afternoon, other than that I pretty much wasted the day away.

Haha he says he's not a night owl or an early bird, he's a mildly functional pigeon, so I'm adding that to the bird people - an afternoon pigeon. He says around 1pm he is feeling a little bit of energy and ready to work, make some goals, improve his life, and that lasts for a few minutes while he waits for his lunch to reheat, and then he's ready for a nap. (That one was really funny but it's been deleted for some reason, sniff). I spent most of the morning reading my scriptures, so that was good, then I let K watch Elena of Avalor for too long. I struggle even listening to that show in the background, it's pretty annoying. But K likes it. She came over to me close to tears for episode where this pink giant dolphin thing and it's baby dolphin were hunted and the baby was caught in a net by a bad king. Ok found it - the giant pink dolphin things are Marposas. It's from episode S1:E8 Royal Retreat, bad guy is King Hector. Anyway, that was cute that she was so sensitive about it. But we're not watching Elena tomorrow. Bluey I love, Elena is a bit much. 

This morning around 10:30 I got a call and several texts from Owen's classmates parents, cause Owen and three other boys have a group project for drama that is due on Thursday. Personally, I don't think they should have homework that involves parental participation. Kids need to own it, work it out, each kid asks their own parent if it sounds good, I'm ok with that. ...but for me and these parents to be scheduling playdates homework dates felt wrong. But me and this guy are texting to coordinate when our kids can get together and when they'll pick him up, I offer to do it here, I also said we could bring/give their son a ride to our house with our carpool. I felt I had done my part. Then there were 2 other boys that needed to come. One parent dropped her boy off, and then that boy told me his parent's can't get him and he needs a ride home. Well no one told me, that's not my problem, so good luck cause I never agreed to anything. I did my part already. Well I wanted to leave to exercise, but couldn't with these kids here. And then the mom did text me to ask if I could take him home. ok fine... I was waiting for the other kids mom to come get him, then thought if they both live by churchill then this kid that needs a ride could go with them. She said she was on her way, and since I thought that was true and she was probably almost here (it had been 15 min) I texted and said there was another kid that needed a ride, so I can bring her kid in case they live close to each other. Then she texted that that would be great for me to give him a ride (so I guess she wasn't on her way, boo) and they live between us and the other kid, but they lived almost in Murray, so what was going to be a 30 min obligation for me (to take the one kid home) turned into a 50 min thing cause now I was dropping off this other kid and his home was NOT on the way, though I guess it was in between us, the way the tip of a pyramid is in between the two points on the base. Ok, let's go and get this over with so I can go exercise. I dropped ODP off at activity days at the church, with Natalie and Katharine at the church too to play in the nursery, then I took the two boys home. I tried to make small talk, but I'm an introvert so I'm not a pro. After that, I was very tempted to go buy some hardship ice cream and eat it all, but instead I went to the rec center where I did upper and lower and really pushed myself, AND I didn't buy ice cream on the way home either, so I did pretty good processing my stress at the end of the day. I'll try to processes it during the day as the burdens come so that I don't waste so much of my day being mildly functional like today. I don't know if that story made sense, but basically, I wasted time today, so if I'm not going to value my time, God  might give me little time wasting errands that will help me be of service to other people. OR next time, I can just be productive on my own. I'm also giving myself some grace too - I might be trying to cope wit Corey gone, and/or hormones and perimenopause? Who knows... but I was not being productive, and then when I was ready to be productive, I had to drive those kids home and lost almost an hour of "my" time. So I want to do better at using my time wisely.

When I got back from exercising, L&N were home. Lily missed school today (took carpool, but went to work on her online class at Wayne's again) and then picked up carpool this afternoon. She didn't go in to work cause of her class. Natalie and Kat walked home after going to play in the nursery at the church. I had told Kat she could come with me to drop off Owen's friends, but then she went to the church, but when she got home she was sad that I left without her and she cried herself to sleep in the corner, found her there by the piano.

I picker her up to wake her so she'll go to bed, and she's ok. The activity that Owen, Daniel and Peter went over for was carving pumpkins. Looking good Daniel.

Nice work Peter!

Peter isn't supposed to attend until he's 8, but he's almost 8, and all his 2nd grade friends go, so I've let him go a few times when he's wanted to. 

Scriptures tonight. O had already gone to bed and layed there to listen.

It was a bit chaotic when I paused and looked around - each kid was busy doing something... Kat detangling some string...

Hyrum flipping a lego trophy...

Lily at her computer, Natalie laying down and also tossing a pen in the air. 

Daniel up on his bed with a fidget spinner on his toe

Yes, a bit chaotic, but we're doing pretty good. Corey and Sophi are 15 hours ahead of us in Seoul, so right now it's Wednesday morning/afternoon. They're on their last day. They fly out "tomorrow" for them, on Thursday at 6:40 pm, and will be arriving in SL at 2:47 pm, also on Thursday! Kinda weird how that works, they'll be jumping back in time. 

Jeju Island

Corey and Sophi went to Jeju Island today. 

It's like the Hawaii of South Korea. This is Corey's friend Byungchul

And his lovely wife. Seeing some sights on the island.

And enjoying lots of new and interesting food!

Sophi is enjoying using chopsticks when they can. 

And still happy to see sights and stores that remind them of home. Paris Baguette - that means they're thinking of Abi again!

I've noticed that in Abi's emails, like the one she sent today, that she gives a quick little summary, aka her little list of "a few happenings" which I like cause it's a good quick way to record events without having to go into detail on it all, so I like that and I'm going to try to incorporate that here. Though I'll start my happenings list when I've actually got happenings to report, not like today. Maybe Abi gets enough for a list cause she's reporting after a whole week of stuff, and if I'm just doing day to day, I might not have enough for a list. I'll use a happenings list if I get behind.

Today was just the mostly normal school for the kids and I also went on a bike ride. Lily took and picked up carpool but didn't attend her classes today. She went to Wayne's do school work. She needs to finish an online BYU class asap before Priority deadline for college applications next Monday night. She's shooting to get it done before Corey gets back on Thurs. So for my ride, I drove Corey's car with Velocirax to the trailhead and then rode my bike up to the ruins from there. It's still pretty with autumn colors.

I did Techy twice to get another mile in, since I skipped the 4+ miles from home to the trailhead. That part of the ride is boring and not that pretty anyway, so I don't mind skipping it. I am enjoying having a car. Lily is too. I'm mentally trying to prep myself to not be in a bad mood when I don't have a car anymore after Corey gets back. I know I can coordinate with Lily so I have the van if/when I ever need it, but I usually don't need it, and I also don't want to coordinate anyway, so I'd rather just let her take it and I'll wait until she comes back, and then I can be impulsive. I've been a little "let's see what the day brings" while Corey's been gone, so just trying to keep things steady with no plans to do anything extra while I'm a single parent.