Fall Fun

Monday and the cooler weather brought along the perpetual question, where is your jacket? Ellie thought she left hers at one of her friends’ houses. Lincoln eventually found his in my car. And Jackson was thankful I picked his up out of the Vincent’s yard the night before. But they all got off to school with a jacket, so I was thankful. Andrew took them while I finished up my bike ride and did my PT. After I got ready I got some puzzles out for the twins and they played with them a lot during the day. I would help them here and there but they impressed me with their skills.

We again had dinner early and then headed out separate ways…Andrew and Jackson to football and the rest of us to Lincoln’s soccer practice. While he practiced we played around with some soccer balls at another goal. We would kick it down the field, try to make goals, throw the ball up on the back of the goal so it would roll back down and they liked for me to make a “hoop” out of my arms so they could shoot the ball through it. I think we were successful in passing the time at practice and wearing them out a bit. Miles is getting a bit of a cold, so he did a lot of it while holding onto a Kleenex he brought along with him. Plus he was excited to find the dandelions and blow them. The kids played outside a bit when we got home and then it was time for me to take Ellie to tumbling. I was able to get caught up on my reading for small group and Andrew had the kids ready for bed when we got home.

It rained a little Tuesday morning but the sun eventually came out. When I dropped off the twins, their school pictures were in their cubbies and they were so sweet. Bennett didn’t want me to take them home so I had to put them in their backpacks so they could bring them home after school. After I left their classroom I had to head downstairs to the supply closet to see if I could find Fall Festival decorations. I found some stuffed scarecrows but I still have no idea what I am supposed to be doing as far as being the “unofficial” chair of decorating. Next stop was the bank where I finally got around to setting up savings accounts for the twins and depositing money for the other three that we have had sitting around the house. The guy I worked with to set up the accounts had a couple frames on his wall with albums from Jars of Clay and Michael W. Smith. I guess he used to work for some record companies selling their albums, which was neat.

Once I got home I spent the rest of my time on the phone trying to cancel our phone and internet service for the office so we switched providers. They definitely make it inconvenient and I still had to finish up after I picked up the twins. The twins spent their time after lunch and before their nap pulling out every puzzle they could find in our game/craft cabinet and worked on putting them together. After picking up the others at school Ellie had to get busy finishing up her homework and getting ready for gymnastics. She had her I’m Third study conference call but could only stay on for 15 minutes before her ride arrived to take her to Macon.  Jackson and Lincoln went out to play with their friend and the twins played out front while I planted some bulbs around our flower beds. They decided they wanted to build their “hiding place” outside by bringing down all the riding toys and trying to pile them into a big group. They weren’t very excited when it was time to go in and start dinner and I had them bring some of the toys back up the garage though. Then after dinner they went out back to play with Andrew while I cleaned things up. Soon Ellie was back and was so excited to have some spaghetti waiting for her.

Wednesday ended up being a little bit of a crazy day. I got up and worked on cleaning the bathrooms.  But when the twins got up it was clear to see that Bennett had a bit of a bloody nose sometime during the night. So I got him in the shower and worked on cleaning up that mess. So we were a little behind schedule on getting to school even though everyone got to where they needed to be on time. But then I was later getting to the pool and doing my laps. After I was done, I went home and quickly got ready and then headed to US Cellular to get a new phone. They don’t open until 10 and thankfully I got there a little after 10 and didn’t have to wait too long. But it did take a while to figure out what plan we should go with and get my phone set up. Thankfully Andrew was able to pick up the twins because I didn’t get back to the house until after 11:30. I was late laying the twins down for their nap because I needed to dry the Bennett’s bedding. Then I worked on trying to get everything set up on my phone and get stuff ready for small group. Before I knew it, it was time to pick up the other kids from school. Jackson had football practice so he and Andrew left around 5. The twins did their job of pulling out all the puzzles and games again while I was trying to get everything cleaned up. I felt like I was just running around from one thing to the next and finally got to sit down when small group started. Thankfully Jackson’s practices are getting done just a little after seven now so Andrew was able to join us for the discussion part of small group.

The next morning I got a bike ride in before the kids got up and then got breakfast ready for some of them. I feel like I have to mention that Lincoln is still eating his apple spice oatmeal, the same kind he has for the last couple of years. He always expects it J. After I dropped the kids off, I went to my physical therapy appointment. She gave me a couple more exercises to do and said I didn’t need to come back unless something came up. Then I ran home to try to get some St. Louis Polar Express tickets. I had my phone and computer ready. The presale started at 9 and I didn’t have the right link. So Sara sent it to me and I tried calling. The call was useless because they said they weren’t selling them yet. I was able to get online but was never able to get the tickets I needed. Everything was selling out. I tried for about a half hour and gave up. I needed to get dinner started and get to the store. I was sad though because I was excited about surprising the kids with the tickets. The regular sale is the 13^th, so I’ll try again then.  But then I was off to the stores. I rushed through and had just enough time to unload the groceries and then go pick up the twins but as I was putting some soda in the pantry for a s’mores night we were having Friday, one of the cans sprung a leak and was spraying in the pantry. So I tried to quickly clean it up and rushed out to pick up the twins. On my way there I called Andrew since I noticed he had tried to call me and he already had the twins and was heading home. So I just turned around and came back to get lunch ready. The twins said they had a good day at school and immediately started into their puzzles again.

That afternoon was K-Life so we just had to pick up Lincoln from school. He was excited to show me that part of his homework was “reading” to me with a small sight word/decodable word book. Next up was making some banana muffins. One of the items he can do for his homework (he has a sheet of items for each month and he has to complete 15 of them) was to help cook, so we did just that. When I told him we were going to make some, he said, “Do you know why I have this smile on my face? Because I super, super love banana muffins. After we got them into the oven, he was off to play with his friends. Andrew picked up Jackson and Ellie from K-Life and they thankfully didn’t have practice. Ellie did have tap, ballet and jazz though. She got to play with her friends with a few minutes before it was time to go. But since Andrew was home, I didn’t have to load everyone up to take her which was nice. I finished up dinner after I got home and then Andrew did a quick job of mowing the lawn after we were done. After I picked up Ellie I ended up going back to US Cellular to switch out my phone. I was missing some of the features my previous phone had and decided to go with a similar model. But then they had issues with changing out the financial side of it so I would have to return after they got that issue figured out before I could get the new phone.

Andrew was going to take the kids on Friday but ended up not sleeping well the night before and sleeping in that morning. So I offered to take the kids so he didn’t have to wait around the house after he got ready until it was time to take them. But I usually do a longer bike ride on Fridays and I still wanted to get that in, so I quickly finished up Lincoln’s lunch, got breakfast ready for he and the twins, emptied the dishwasher (I have this horrible obsession with having certain things done before I leave the house in the morning even if I am going to be back soon-empty the dishwasher, start a load of laundry, workout, bible study and have the main floor picked up) and got on the bike. Andrew helped by making sure the boys had their hair and teeth brushed. I was about a mile short on what I wanted to do on the bike but it was time to get the kids to school. So I hopped off the bike all in my sweaty glory and got in the car. I was really counting on not needing to get out of the car because I still had my sweaty spandex biking gear on, my hair was in a sweaty, messy ponytail and the only thing on my face was a nice layer of sweat. Thankfully we got everyone dropped off without incident and came home. The twins wanted watch Cars so I turned that one while I did my PT stretches. This day they moved on from the puzzles and paper airplanes and got all of their cars and then wanted to make a “hiding place” for their cars by getting all the cushions off of the couch and chairs, plus their pillows and blankets. Then while I was finishing getting ready, I hear one of them say, “Mom, can you wipe my body?” They both say “body” instead of bottom. Lincoln did it too. At the same time another one is whining in the family room, so I say, “I’ll be there in just a second and, Miles, quite whining.” Then the one on the toilet says, “That’s not Miles. That’s Bemmett.”  Oops J.

That evening we had a few people over to roast hot dogs and s’mores so I spent the afternoon getting ready for that. When Andrew got home from the office he and Jackson got the fire going. I had tried several different options to get the Cardinals’ game on and ended up with an old alarm clock radio set outside. For some reason (part of it was the game I think) people were really late, so I went ahead and got the twins and I some food and we ate before everyone got there. They all eventually showed up and the kids were off running all around the yard/neighborhood. And for some reason I didn’t realize it until later but they had made their way inside to get goggles, swords, shields and capes. So there was stuff strewn all over the house and more stuff all over the yard that I didn’t see until the next morning J. And it was also a fun night because the Cardinals won! Maybe it was because of Ellie's awesome art work.

The next morning Andrew took Jackson out to the ranch and I decided last minute to take the others up to the Truman Homecoming Parade. It started at 9 and I got in the shower to get ready a little before 8. We rushed around as quickly as we could (and of course I had to pick up things a bit) but we got downtown a little before nine, ended up finding a decent parking spot and just had to walk a block to get to the parade route and found a good spot right next to our friends, the Wilsons. So it turned out great and the Wilson’s daughter was great about helping the twins get candy. It was a longer parade and the twins were a little antsy at first (it was chilly) but then the candy started coming and they were good. Plus they loved all the different emergency vehicles that were in it (they had fire trucks from the surrounding communities too), the Shriner’s cars, all the marching bands, and getting to give Spike, the Truman mascot, and the Pagliai’s Pizza Slice a high five. So I’m glad we ended up going.

Next up was getting lunch for everyone and then we had Lincoln’s soccer game at noon. He was hesitant again at first but really picked it up at the end. He is fun to watch because he can be so enthusiastic. After the game my parents ended up just taking all of the kids except Jackson home with them since they were going to watch them while we went to Jackson’s football game in Unionville. We were going to have to drop them off within the hour anyways, so it worked.  They had fun helping Papa make leave piles, jumping in them and running their trucks through them. And Lincoln lost his second tooth while he was there.

Some of the 5^th grade boys had to get to the game an hour early because the other team had some 4^th graders that wanted some playing time. So Jackson got the opportunity to try quarterback for a few plays. He did pretty well but he said he likes his other position better.

His actual game started at five and it started getting pretty chilly out. I ended up going to the car to get a blanket. They ended up losing the game 20-6 but it does make me proud of Jackson to watch him hustle. He doesn’t get many of the big plays because of where he is positioned but he gives it his all which I love. Later on he was showing me an abrasion on his hip that was hurting (but he is banged up all over) and I asked him if he was about ready for football to be over and he said, “Not even close.” But he was worn out and slept on the way home. We stayed at my parents for a bit and caught the end of the Cardinals game, which they lost. Then when we got home Jackson ended up working on another Lego creation that he was excited to show me. He doesn’t follow any of the instructions anymore, just does his own thing.

Sunday morning Andrew went to the office and then got home just in time to head to church. Our church has a big Halloween party so they ask for candy donations. I had a bag of candy for each kid to bring and I noticed the big bag I had gotten at Sam’s was opened. I asked the kids about it and they all denied it. They were telling the truth because it was Andrew who had gotten into it. I had it down in the storage area and he still found it. So I just taped it up and told the girl in charge about it J. After church I did some quick grocery shopping while Andrew tried to do some work from home. He has some pretty busy weeks coming up. Then we ate lunch and headed out to Jackson’s Country Connection. The kids were very excited to go. Miles and Bennett are drawn to the electric gators though and we had a hard time getting them to do much else this time. The others did the jump house, the kids’ maze, the straw pile, the corn shooter and the corn box. The weather was beautiful. We just stayed for about and hour and then went home.

I got the twins down for a nap and started trying to get things marked off my to-do list while Andrew took advantage of the nice weather and went for a bike ride. I employed Ellie and Grace to help with some of the Fall Festival decorations and they worked on painting some kraft paper “table runners”. They ended up getting bored quicker than I thought they would and only finished 5 out of 20, plus ended up with quite a mess. I felt kind of bad of putting Grace in the middle of it, but I told Ellie she was responsible for cleaning up the whole thing. She gets really messy and I was hoping it would help her learn to contain things unless she wants to be responsible for making sure it is all cleaned up. Well instead of cleaning it up right away, they decided to go ahead and try to finish the runners. They learned that they didn’t need to do that much to each one and just added a few decorations to each and they turned out wonderful and will be great for the tables at the Fall Festival. 

After they were done they went over to Faith’s and brought her over so they could start planning a new business they want to start where they will rake leaves, shovel snow and babysit. When they asked me about it I told them they probably needed to start with a business plan to decide what exactly they want to do, how they want to advertize, how much they want to charge, how to divide up the work, etc. We didn’t have much time before we needed to head to my parents for dinner, so they worked quickly but had to finish up their plan later. When we got to my parents the kids headed out back to play in the leaf pile before our yummy dinner. After dinner I started working with my mom on redoing a vinyl phrase she had in her kitchen that she had to take down when they repainted. First we had to figure out the size and then she had to pick out a font style and color. So now I need to get the vinyl ordered and cut. I haven’t done much of the vinyl so hopefully it works out. Andrew ended up taking the kids home and getting them ready to bed while I stayed behind to work on it and spent some good time visiting with my mom and Molly when she got home which was nice.