A Week of Fall

This past week we had some beautiful weather. I went for a run in the morning even though I wasn’t feeling the best. I guess I thought it may spark some energy, but it didn’t. Luke’s birthday was Monday and Kristin invited some friends to join them at Dairy Queen after school. He was excited to see everyone.

When we got home, Ellie found a surprise we had for her in her cubby. We let her know that for an early birthday present, she had tickets to go see the Kellogg’s Olympics Gymnastics Review in Kansas City along with me, Autumn and Briley. She was very excited.

I had to start dinner right away because Jackson and Andrew had to go to football practice. But they didn’t even get to eat before they left-it was just a few minutes too late. So I fed everyone else and cleaned up. Ellie and Lincoln ended up riding to soccer practice with the Vincents. I worked on trimming some bushes to thin stuff out a bit since we were having the brush pick up that week. Andrew got home before I needed to head to soccer so he was able to keep the twins. After soccer practice, Matt (one of Lincoln’s coaches) came to let me know that Lincoln did really well and was one of the best ones at practice that night. Sometimes you don’t know what you are going to get with Lincoln so I was glad to hear that.  Tuesday morning, I woke up very aware that I wasn’t feeling well.I felt wiped out, short of breath, easily tired and a little achy. I took the kids to school hoping I would start feeling a little better since I had planned to do a bike ride but I just felt worse and ended up on the couch. Andrew picked up the twins for me and then the others while I tried to rest. He made sure they got lunch and dinner when I eventually went to lay down in my room. I told the twins I wasn’t feeling well and Bennett asked me if I had been riding in the truck to the ranch (they usually end up car sick when they go). The kids would check on me every now and then to see how I was doing. And then I emerged that night to finish the laundry and there were messes everywhere.  I went off telling everyone to start cleaning up (I also discovered that Lincoln and his friends got into the Halloween costumes in the storage area including the new ones for this year) and Andrew sent me back to bed and said they would get to. He and Jackson also spent quite a bit of time cutting branches in our backyard to go out for brush pick up.

I felt a little better the next morning and decided to try to shower and get ready before taking the kids to school. I had just gotten in the shower when I thought I noticed something run across the floor. The shower had fogged over a bit, so I couldn’t see very well, but I’m pretty sure I saw a mouse tail go under our bathroom door out to the bedroom. I didn’t have the energy or the time to do anything, so I mentioned it to Andrew later and he said all we could do was put out traps. Then Bennett came down with a bloody nose, I put him in the shower to wait it out while I finished getting everything ready to go. Although most of the messes had been picked up around the house, things were still just dirty-the counters and floors in the kitchen were all dirty from the kids eating and making lunches, bathrooms dirty, etc. I had to leave it and get the kids to school and it drives me crazy to leave the house dirty. Though we were a tad late, everyone got to school on time and then I went grocery shopping. I picked up some mouse traps and Andrew set them when he came home for an early lunch. I picked up the twins from school and then got busy trying to get stuff off my to-do list. It was hard to fight off the temptation to just lay down though. I was just hoping if I kept going, that I would sleep better that night.

I prepped the sauce and green beans for dinner for that night and made a treat Andrew had been requesting lately, homemade Frosties, and got them into the freezer. Then I started cleaning-the kitchen, bathrooms, the Halloween costumes, the basement. Even though I was tired, it makes me happy to have a clean house. That evening, everyone was excited to have a “frosty” after dinner and it was a good incentive to get dinner cleaned up. Then Andrew took Ellie and Lincoln to soccer while I finished up the cleaning. I picked them up later and was able to get Lincoln a uniform since they were going to be playing in their first game on Saturday. When we got home, Lincoln took a shower and then we finished up reading the Magic Tree House book he checked out from the library before it was time to go to bed.

It felt like it stormed most of the night and I’m not sure if anyone slept that well. I took all the kids to school and then dropped off my car to get new ball joints installed and get an alignment done. It seems like our car needs one repair after the next, but I’m hoping this will be it for a while. And I was glad to get it done before going to Kansas City. While the twins were at school, I got stuff ready for the weekend-Ellie and I leaving Friday to go to the show in Kansas City and then soccer games in Chillicothe. Ellie and I were hitting them on our way home and Andrew was bringing the others. The twins have enjoyed playing with Lincoln's Minecraft Legos.

We were able to get the car back that evening. Ellie and Lincoln were at K-Life, so the rest of us loaded up in the truck and went to pick up my car. Then Jackson and Andrew went to football while the twins and I went to pick the others up at K-Life. We had pizza that night, so I brought Ellie and Lincoln their dinner in ziplock bags to eat on our way to the next activities. We dropped Ellie off at dance and she agreed to just stay there until her next dance class. She usually goes from 5:15-6:15 and then again from 7:30-8 and we usually pick her up in between. But this time the twins had a makeup soccer game during their practice time, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to pick her up until closer to 6:45 so it just made more sense to just stay and work on homework or read her book. She actually ended up just playing with friends and really enjoyed it. The twins’ soccer game was pretty typical. Bennett did have a moment where he decided he was tired and didn’t want to do much, but the threat of not getting to go to the playground afterwards, quickly changed that and he was all over it. And since we didn’t have to rush off to get Ellie, the twins and Lincoln enjoyed some time on the playground when the game was done.

Friday morning the twins and I went to the fairgrounds so I could help decorate for Faith Lutheran’s Fall Festival. I have done the table centerpieces for the last several years, so I was in charge of that again and it went very smoothly. Before we left, I told the boys to put some toys in their backpacks so they would have something to play with while we were there. I told Bennett to get some trains and cars and he informed me he already had a gun in there. It was a Nerf gun, but you still don’t want to hear you kid has a gun in their backpack. They were excited to see that their friend, Owen, was there and they played with him and his brother the whole time and had fun. But then it was time to head home. I had to finish up laundry, the dishwasher and getting everything ready to go. Andrew came home for a bike ride and then took over so I could pick up Ellie and head out of town. I picked her up around 1:15 and we made our way to Overland Park. We got there in decent time, which was great since I wasn’t sure about rush hour traffic. We weren’t at Andy and Autumn’s too long before we headed out for the show. We parked near the Sprint Center and then walked to a restaurant to grab dinner before the show and it seemed like many other moms and daughters going to the show had the same idea. We were able to snag some seats at the bar but it was a game trying to get the bartender to take our order. He was moving so quickly you couldn’t even get a shout out to him that you were ready to order. But it all worked out, we enjoyed our food and got to the Sprint Center with a few minutes to spare before the show started. The girls really enjoyed the show so I consider it a great birthday gift. The only girls there from this year’s Olympic team were Aly Raisman and Simone Biles, who the girls were very excited to see. But there were several others including Shawn Johnson, Nastia Lukin, Jordan Weiber, and Ashton Locklear along with the men’s team, trampoline gymnasts, an acrobatic gymnastics couple and an aerial artist. It was an entertaining show.

The next day we got to hang out with Andy and his family for a bit. They made us banana chocolate chip muffins for breakfast and we ordered some pizza for lunch before Ellie and I had to head to Chillicothe for her soccer games. Andrew took the twins to soccer games in the morning and then they all met us in Chillicothe so that Lincoln could play too. We didn’t find out until we got there that neither of them would be playing the first games that started at 2:30 and instead played at 3:20. Thankfully their fields were right by each other for the first games so we could stand in between and catch both of them. They had their ups and downs and it took them a bit to get going but they both did well. I was glad we got the chance to watch them play. Their next games were until 5:15, so Andrew decided to take Jackson and the twins back home while I stayed with the other two. We got done a little after six, stopped by Sonic for some dinner and then went home.

Sunday we went to church, I did some grocery shopping and then we went to Jackson Country Connection. The kids still have fun going there. They played in the corn, the hay pile, the slide, the bounce house, shot the corn cannon and we did the maze. I was thankful they didn’t have the little four wheelers and tractors anymore since the twins would spend a lot of time on those and fight with each other about them. They did have a large checkers set though that Ellie and I played for a little bit.

After we got home, Andrew and I went for a bike ride. We had thought about going for a longer one but felt bad making the kids stay inside while we were gone, so we just did 19 miles. I was still easily winded, so Andrew had me draft behind him. Then they got to go out and play with their friends when we got back. Andrew cleaned our bikes and the twins cleaned theirs while I worked on our outdoor nativity set. I sanded it and then Jackson helped me spray paint it. That evening we went to my parents and had dinner. Andrew helped my dad put the cover on the pool. We were all tired by the time we got home and were looking forward to bed.