Surprise Farewell Party

Saturday was Veteran's Day. I put up the flag, but we didn't make it out to the unveiling of the new memorial in town. Aaron went duck hunting, and David still wasn't feeling well. The rest of us were busy cleaning and organizing. I got a lot done. Aaron enjoyed his solitude and his duck blind.

It was a fairly normal day, however at nap time I couldn't find Michelle's binky. I ended up putting her down for nap without it, and she did fine. So when I found it later I conveniently "lost" it again to see if we could just get rid of it.

That evening we attended a surprise party for Carol P*. She had moved out of her home, and had secured a place in Utah. So we surprised her with a farewell party. There was well over 100 people there. We just asked people to bring desserts to share. I made a new recipe, that I should have double checked. It didn't cook all the way through and was really gooey. Oh well. Lots of people brought delicious things to share, and the decorations were beautiful. Aaron was asked to MC the event. He shared some memories, and others did as well. I didn't get any good pictures of her. I'm not sure I even got to talk to her that night.

After the event, we went home and got kids in bed. I noticed the thermostat was showing some unusual outside temperatures. It was about 50 outside but the thermostat said it was 95. In the morning it was even worse:

 I'm certain it was not 127 outside!

Anyway, Aaron went off to meetings, and the rest of us got ready for church. All except David that is. He was still sick. It seemed he was feeling better and then would feel awful again. So we went to church without him. Timothy was reminded that morning that he was asked to give a talk, and he spent the rest of the morning preparing for it. After a bit of editing it was ready. It went pretty well, although he always adds things that weren't originally there, and sometimes it doesn't flow well. But otherwise he did great. the rest of church was great, from what I can remember. Michelle did fine in nursery, and I taught a lesson on being patient.

After church the thermostat was still not working correctly:

David seemed to be doing better that afternoon. I really don't remember much. Aaron did some home teaching and came home around 5. We had dinner and FHE and dessert, pretty typical Sunday.

Adjusting to the Time Change

Monday Michelle woke up way too early, and I couldn't get back to sleep. While I was dropping kids off at school, the rain turned to a rain/snow mix as the temp dropped to 35. I was off to the city once again to do some shopping. There was a bit of snow on the ground and more in the mountains. Michelle fell asleep on the way from Target to Costco. I got her to wake up, but she was not happy. She wanted to sit in the cart, but wouldn't sit down. She didn't want to walk or buckle into the seat. She wanted me to carry her. That was not going to work. She was having a melt down, and I was trying to text Aaron. We pulled over to the side aisle as I tried to calm her down. I did the only thing I could think of I told her she could listen to Moana on my phone if she would buckle into the seat. It worked. Eventually we finished and she fell asleep on the way home. Another early nap didn't bode well for the rest of the day.

Aaron was on call that night, and didn't get home until after 7. He ate dinner while we got ready for Studio C. Michelle lost her pants somewhere, and was having fun sitting on David.

Tuesday morning Michelle was up super early again! After taking kids to school, I asked the girls to clean their room so they could watch Daniel Tiger while my visiting teacher came over. But it took them way longer than expected. I had them clean up the living room. Michelle had taken off her PJs and was wearing her sister's shoes.

Christen came over and we talked for a while. Unfortunately Michelle came and sat next to me and fell asleep at 10:30 am! Eventually Melanie cleaned up enough to watch a show. Michelle napped for less than an hour, and never took another nap.

Amy came home from school with a citizenship award for the month of October. The word of the month was motivation. Her teacher mentioned her initiative in reading books at home and taking the AR tests at school. She was pretty excited. Aaron got home just in time for dinner. Once again Michelle went to bed early.

Wednesday was yet another early morning for Michelle. I was really getting tired of this! David woke up feeling awful. He took some Ibuprofen and went back to bed. However by the time I went to take the kids to school he said he was doing better, and wanted me to take him to school. So I drove him there. I just excused his absence from driver's training.

I had to deal with the old internet company. We finally cancelled our service, and asked for refund for the rest of the month (since you pay a month in advance). Well, they still drafted the next month's payment. so I cancelled the autopay, and now they owed us 1 and 1/2 month's worth. That morning we helped in Amy's class, and the girls were having fun with the chairs while waiting for the kids to come back from recess.

We went home and had lunch and Michelle fell asleep at 11:30! However this time I was able to get her back to sleep until 2:30. At least that's a little more normal. When David got home from school he looked awful. I could tell he was still sick. He had a headache and body aches and a fever. He was supposed to bring the pizza crust for the mutual activity, so I made it anyway. Amy had activity days at 6 instead of 7, so I dropped her off, and then Aaron got home in time to take Timothy and the pizza crust. They went in the truck so they could use it for the leaf raking the priests were going to do. I picked up Amy later. I had spent most of the day trying to finish my book for book club. Timothy had put some laundry in the washer before he left for mutual and suddenly the washer started making some really crazy banging noises. I ran down there and stopped the washer. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I let it sit for a bit, and then started it again, and everything was fine. But then I couldn't find my book. I looked everywhere! I looked on the couch, on the piano, on the stairs, in my room, in the laundry room, on the washer on the sink under the laundry basket, I simply couldn't find it anywhere. I picked up Timothy and the pizza pans, since Aaron was still raking with the priests in the rain. David found the book in the laundry basket. It only had one shirt in it, but somehow I had put the book in the laundry basket and then put the shirt on top of it, or the shirt fell on top, I don't know. But I was glad David found it, because I only had 2 chapters left.


Thursday Michelle actually woke up at a decent time. Finally she was back on schedule! Unfortunately David didn't feel any better. He missed seminary and school. After dropping kids off at school, I came home for a bit, then picked up Rebecca W* and we went Visiting Teaching to Shannon. We ended up staying a really long time, but none of us minded. We had fun chatting. My only concern was getting back home to David, and possibly taking him in to get checked for flu. We got home, had some lunch, and then drove over to the clinic. He got a swab done, and then we headed home. Michelle took a nap, and I think I did too, finally! They called later with the results, flu test was negative. So whatever it was would just have to get better on it's own. David was happy it was not flu, but not happy that he couldn't do anything to make it go away.

We had spaghetti that night, and Michelle made quite a mess!

Friday there was no school, for Veteran's Day (observed). So at least David didn't miss a second day of school. He still wasn't feeling well. He seemed to get better mid morning, but then was feeling sick again in the afternoon. He had to let S* know he would be missing the game that night. He felt bad because half of the band would be missing because it they were in the play. At least the game was a bit earlier, so the drama kids were still able to play for the first half. The game started at 4. It was a play off game. Aaron met us at the game as he was able to sign out early. Timothy and David stayed home. It was really cold, but at least it wasn't raining any more. The game went fairly quickly as both teams had running games. We didn't play well at all - too many mistakes, and even though we kept it close we couldn't pull off a win. That was the end of the season. After the game we had dinner, and then I took Timothy and the girls to help set up for the surprise party the next day. Brenden R* and the G*s were there too. We got it set up before Aaron even got there.

Michelle recently figured out how to climb on the bathroom sink to turn on the water. We have to ask her to turn it off several times a day.

That night Michelle also thought it was hilarious to open the door to our bedroom and have Aaron scare her over and over. He got a video, but I still can't seem to upload them. 

Phase I of David's Eagle Project

It was 26 degrees that morning. Really cold! But we all got up early, had a quick breakfast, and then headed out to the park. The plan had been in place for months, but finally we found a time that worked for the city and us. The city excavated the area, and the rest of us showed up and put together the playground. They had also added a teeter totter and a climbing web, however neither could be installed yet. The play ground also didn't come with an anchoring system, so the city has to come up with a plan to anchor it before they can fill the playground with pea gravel and bark.

Aaron and the boys took the truck with a 2 gallon container of hot chocolate. The girls and I stopped by the grocery store and picked up 2 dozen doughnuts. It was really cold out there. I took some pictures, but then decided the girls weren't going to last very long out there. So after and hour I took them home. There were about 20 people that helped out. Some stayed longer than others, but some were there the entire 5 hours.

Here's a ton of pictures:

 empty space

 unloading the pallet

 

 laying out the pieces

 Michelle was all bundled up.

 Aaron took some pictures as well

 teeter totter put together, but still needed to be set in cement

John S*, from the City came to check on the progress.

Around 11:30 I ordered some pizzas for lunch, picked them up and delivered them to the park. Michelle fell asleep on the way there. It was still pretty cold, only 36. I left Michelle in the Yukon and watched the progress. I checked on her every few minutes.

 While taking a break for lunch some of the kids decided to hang upside down in the tree.

I think Leea started it

 lunch!

 John came to check again and took away the teeter totter and the swings, to be installed later

 After about an hour Michelle woke up, so she joined us outside and had some cold pizza.

 The kids had fun testing out the new play ground

 almost done!

 David hammering in the last piece

 we put up caution tape because it isn't anchored yet, and doesn't have the bark yet.

 Finally around 2:00 they finished and we headed home. We only had a pizza and a half left over.

That afternoon Aaron and the girls raked up some leaves.

I don't recall much else about that day. The morning was busy enough. Sunday morning I found this on my night stand. She must have colored it and put it there Saturday, but I didn't notice it until the morning. So sweet.

With the time change I was pleasantly surprised to not be woken up until 6:00 am (normally 7 for the kids). I thought that would be a sign of good things. After a quick breakfast with for me and the little girls, we got ready for church. Everything went pretty well. We watched Music and the Spoken Word, and go tot church on time. I even contemplated going up to share my testimony, but then I looked down at Michelle and she had this glazed over look and then just fell asleep! The other kids were being cranky as well, and I had to stop at least 10 squabbles! I was exhausted! So I sent the kids off to their classes and just held Michelle through Sunday School. She woke up just before Young Women's class. Aaron took her from there, and was able to get her to stay in nursery for the last hour. Shannon taught the lesson on being self sufficient.

Since Michelle took an early nap, she didn't nap in the afternoon, and I didn't get  a nap either. It was a long day. I don't remember much else. Aaron got home around 4, and we had the missionaries over for dinner, and dessert. Then we had FHE.  Michelle was dancing around in the evening, but was super tired, and fell asleep before 8:00. She was definitely not adjusted to the time change.

She took a selfie while we were getting ready for bed.