Day #223-225

Frankie and I took T for a run Saturday morning. I lost paper, rock, scissors, so I was supposed to pick up her poop, but I swear I can’t do it without gagging. So I was dry heaving, as I do, and Frankie was like “ok, ok! just let me do it!” She’s such a good girl. 

Addie made Halloween cupcakes and then everyone decorated them. 

We liked how this one looked like it had a smiling mouth open and goofy hair on top. 

Addie chose a stoic look. 

Matt went out to Henderson’s to fly his drone that morning and the ladies hung out. I had a free amc popcorn for my birthday that they extended, so Matt and I picked it up and we watched Enola Holmes - which was super cute. Frankie wanted a picture with her cookie from Quinton’s birthday party. 

Lu sent this of Emmi with his best buddy. They are moving to England next week, so they are staying with the Finlayson’s since their stuff has already shipped. Such cute boys!

One of Delaney’s notes she left for me. We have a couples jar on my nightstand that has little papers to start conversations (it was a wedding gift) and I also had a list of things to do on my nightstand. Delaney wrote me a note on my note that said to look in the jar, and this cute paper was in it. “Vurtule tharapist anytime you’d like this agin just come to my room - first one on the left.” She’s the sweetest, seriously. 

Our Sunday afternoon as nice and quiet. It rained all day. We did all our meetings and played some games. Alli got Golden Girls Clue and we enjoyed trying to figure out who ate the last piece of cheesecake. Alli and Addie made baked mac and cheese and prosciutto wrapped asparagus and it was delicious and wonderful because I didn’t have to cook. And I love finding cute pics on my phone. 😍 

We started our Cincinnati chili on Sunday also. This was my original Sunday dinner plan, but then I didn’t read too far ahead and didn’t realize it needed to be refrigerated overnight. Oopsie. 

Alli and I took T for a run this morning. We worked on school and did all the things. D sported a hat mask for lunch pickup. What a goof!

The girls picked their Christmas pieces and then Johnna brought them over and gave the girls a lesson here. Everyone wore masks and washed hands and was careful. 

We ate our Cincinnati Chili over spaghetti noodles with shredded cheese and diced onions and it was different and yummy. Dad came over both nights and it’s always nice to have extra family around. 

The US is experiencing a third wave of covid. Every day I check the St Mary’s county latest, and this morning they had a news blurb about how bad things are in El Paso. I texted with joe and he said things are so bad they are looking at opening the convention center as a hospital overflow and also sending patients to the military hospital. Thankfully Sara works for a surgery center and not in the ER still. Praying things start looking up. 

The weather continues to be straight bananas. It looks like we visited Nola during one of the only weeks they weren’t being hammered by a hurricane. 

Day #222

Friday

Our annual trip to the pumpkin patch! 

We arrived a little before 10 and the girls played and asked a million times when friends would show up. 

So these pictures are out of order because they came from 3 different people, and of course they would be. 

We went on the hayride as soon as Ainas came. 

After the hayride everyone grabbed their lunches. 

Ellie and D ate up on this play structure. Notice D chatting it up with the nuns. 

Later, Addie told us that she asked one of them if she was dressed up as Mother Teresa. She answered back, no, but we have the same husband. 😂 I’m glad she had a sense of humor about the whole thing. The whole day brought fascinating people to watch. Lots of homeschool groups and also some Duggar looking Christian youth groups. I wanted to make friends with all of them, people are so interesting!

Probably laughing about the nun story. 

We have good kids. They share lunchables, jerky, candy, and gum - usually on their own without prompting. 

Sarah and I actually didn’t ever go in the corn maze, but all the kids did. This is such an awesome stage of life! Gone are the days of a parade of double strollers tromping through the maze! After 24 years, I’ve earned my time  to sit out on a couple corn mazes. 😂

We got to the patch early enough to eat warm pumpkin and apple cider donuts. 😋 

Waiting for friends. And that little girl to Addie’s left totally wanted to be a Ray sister. 😂

D is a lot. She’s got a lot of brains and a lot of confidence. And a lot of other things.  

I ❤️ these. 

Addie and Abby did some walking around. Somehow they toppled a stone horse they’ve been playing on for years. That thing was heavy and I’m so glad no one got hurt. 

Our obnoxious climbers. Always on top, not inside. 

More hayride fun!

The corn was a dry mess this year. More 2020 baloney. 

It was papa’s first hayride and he loved it! First corn maze too! Yay for small town country living!

We always get a picture of everybody on the steps getting off the truck, but there were already people waiting to get on. 

We settled for this quick shot of all the kiddos. (before Schoeny’s came)

More lunching. 

It was nice and warm and Delaney had the reddest cheeks! She’s trying to look at the mirror on my pop socket while I was trying to take a picture. 

She took off her socks and shoes and cooled off for awhile after this. 

Cools down break with the bestie. 

Sarah has been texting Joni all day, and finally around 3:30 her crew showed up. I didn’t bring a lunch, just snackies and was kind of ready to go, but then it was so nice to have another person to talk to that we stayed. 

We ended up staying til after 6. They closed at 5 and I kept going expecting someone to come kick us out, but they never did. 

Then we got this amazing sunset as we were picking our pumpkins as we were leaving. 

It was so beautiful! 

We stayed for over 8 hours! 😂 😮 😂

The kids played corn maze tag and had such a blast. 

Grateful for wonderful mom friends. 💕

Always. On. Top. 

A perfect end to a pretty perfect day. 

Except actually the day started off rough with some more Tenkor booty messes on the brand new carpet. Matt’s got some stressful stuff at work and it just all felt like a lot, especially when the other messes aren’t even fully taken care of. I put down oxy clean powder and oxy pet stain remover and scrubbed, then added more oxy powder to sit while we were gone, and thankfully that seemed to work. We are so happy to help Alli and we do love Tenkor and also we’ve worked so hard and sacrificed so much to beautify our home. It feels bratty and obnoxious to complain about, but it’s hard.  Thankfully we were able to salvage the day and enjoy ourselves and forget about stinky pet messes, so that was wonderful. 

Just look at that! Heavenly Father loves us, there’s just no question. 

We came home to Alli back from NOLA safe and sound, and Matt with frozen pizzas in the oven. Such a great day. 

Day #221

Thursday

Pictures from our Wednesday boo. 

‘‘Twas a normal day. We did all the new normal things. Bubba and Jeannie came over and it was good to see them. They helped us take Alli’s boxes to the Aina’s attic where they will be stored for a few monthes. 

That night we had our annual stake organization training via Zoom. Bro. Gibbons talked about our worth in God’s eyes. Sister Isaccson talked about relief society activities- they are activities again, not additional relief society meetings, and Sister Slade talked about ministering. They were all good, but Kitty’s portion was excellent. 

She talked about how sometimes we come up with the perfect speech/idea/lecture for our kids, and we just know they’re going to learn and love and change their ways. And they’re like “ok, cool. Thanks.” And how our Savior, when He taught people really worked to know them, and tailored what He said and how He taught to their specific needs. She talked about how she prays for us each by name, and I know that is true. I’ve had Stake leaders that were great, but I felt pretty certain they couldn’t pick me out of a lineup. I am so grateful to have a real, supportive, vulnerable, strong woman leader and friend as my Stake relief society president for the past few years. Kitty has moved and I’m sure will be released soon’ish and I just really love and appreciate her. 

And I found these silly pictures of the girls on my phone from when I was in my meeting. 👆🏼 

We had a presidency meeting right after. It’s been very helpful to check in with each other weekly and make sure all our weird covid ducks are in a row. 

I watched the last half of the last presidential debate while I ate a sad popcorn dinner. I miss the delicious dinner we get at our stake organization trainings of yore. Among other things. 

When I went up to bed Delaney, who is still staying up late, late, late reading in her room, told me to look for a few botes in my room. This one I had to use D’s secret decoder pen to find the message - it was to look in my drawer for another message. 

This was the note in my nightstand - it is for a “vurtule tharapist any time you’d like.” Delaney is so sweet - always leaving cute notes for everyone. And always wanting notes in return. I would like to check our her virtual therapy and see what she has to say. I’ll report back.