Feeling Like Fall

So after I finished typing up the last blog post last Monday, I was so excited to receive a phone call from Cape Air letting us know that we had a bag there. I was not expecting it because my call to United earlier said that our bag was still lost in Chicago. It was frustrating how much time I had already put in getting everything ready to make claims with United, the travel insurance and possibly our home owners insurance. But it was also such a relief to get it back and it had everything in it.

The kids didn’t have school on Monday and we had a worker here most of the day trying to finish stuff up. The kids were in and out of the house most of the day. The twins get so excited when they get to join in with the others. Then that evening, even though they didn’t have school, Ellie and Lincoln still had soccer and Jackson still had football. We ate an early dinner and then we got everyone where they needed to be.

Tuesday it was back to school and the weather was definitely feeling more fallish. Lincoln’s class had a field trip out at Truman farms, so I met his class out there. It was pretty much the same as it was when Jackson and Ellie were in first grade. They got to pick an ear or corn and run it through a machine that took the kernels off. Then we got to see some horses and listen to someone talk about them followed by a hayride, apple pressing to make apple cider and sack races. Lincoln loved that I was able to join him and it is always fun meeting friends in his class. He seems to be well-liked and is friends with most everyone.

When the twins got home they did a great job of entertaining themselves while I worked on painting our stair railing and fireplace to match the new trim. They had about every toy out in the playroom but their imaginations were running wild. That evening we didn’t have anything going on so I continued working on the painting along with putting up some curtains rods. The day turned out nicer than it was for my bike ride, so I let the kids play later outside and we ate dinner later than usual. Andrew left work early and worked on sealing our patio. We had lemon chicken that night and the kids were very excited-especially Jackson. We talked about how it was the recipe he chose to use in the recipe book for his kindergarten class at the Faith Lutheran. He even had a drawing for it.

I decided to head out on a bike ride Wednesday morning and kind of regretted that decision. It was around 50 degrees but there was a stiff north wind. I was okay going out since I was heading south, but then I had to turn around and head north and it was not fun. My face, hands and toes were cold and I felt like I was hardly going anywhere. By the time I got home, I had 20 minutes to shower and get ready before picking up the twins. I so wanted to just soak in the warm shower but didn’t have time. I continued working on finishing up stuff around the house by hanging curtain rods/curtains, putting the china back in the china cabinet, hanging pictures and doing touch up painting. After I had the curtains up, I realized I put them all upside down and had to go back and change them. Thankfully Andrew was around while I was putting up the last long rod over the family room door and windows because I needed his strength to get the screws in far enough. But then after he left I realized that I couldn’t use the set-up we did, which was four support brackets, because I couldn’t move my curtains the way I wanted to. So I had to remove two of the brackets and put a third in the middle and that is when it finally dawned on me to use shorter screws and I was able to get them in all of the way. But it is all coming together and I love it. We still have a chair to come in along with a couple trim pieces around the cabinets and filling in nail holes.

Thursday I picked up Mcdonald’s for the twins and we went to the YMCA playground. There were quite a few kids there and the twins had fun chasing each other and climbing all around everything. We stayed for about an hour before heading home. We only had to pick up Jackson from school since Ellie and Lincoln had K-Life. We played outside and Jackson found new ways to take Buddy for a walk.

Then we had our crazy evening of Jackson and Andrew at football from around 5-7 while I picked up Ellie and Lincoln at 5 from K-Life. I had a piece of pizza for each of them on paper plates in ziplock bags. Lincoln didn’t get done eating his before we dropped him off at football, so I told him to just take it and eat it. I dropped him off and he proceeded to put his plate of ½ eaten pizza and Gatorade on the sidewalk and then continued on to where the kids were practicing. Oh well. Then we had to get Ellie dropped off and we were right on time at 5:15. Next up was the twins soccer practice at 5:30 but they had both fallen asleep in the car. I tried to wake them up as I was putting their cleats on but Miles wasn’t very happy. He pouted for the first half of practice before he finally broke out of his funk. He would do what his coach told him but he was half-crying while doing it. I had to leave partway through their practice and pick Lincoln up at 6. He was eating the last bit of his pizza and he said the birds must have eaten some because there wasn’t much left J. Then it was back to soccer practice which was done at 6:15, followed by picking up Ellie who was also done at 6:15. When we got home, the twins were so excited that Ty was out and had invited them to jump on the trampoline. Thankfully, Jackson’s football practice wasn’t running as long so Jackson was able to go to K-Life right after practice. He did forget to bring some shorts though and went in his football pants and cleats. And Andrew was able to get back before I had to take Ellie back to dance, which was nice. So Ellie went back at 7:30 and then I picked her up at 8 and Jackson up from K-Life at 8:15 and finally we went home for good.

Andrew took the kids to school Friday morning and then went to Columbia to have his bike worked on. The twins and I went to get the car serviced and tried to get some paint to match our exterior color but the sample I had was too small. So we when we got home, I worked on getting a bit bigger sample off of the area that was peeling by our front door. The twins got out the Magformers, a favorite. They come out about every other day and their creations are getting more elaborate.

We had an early dinner at La Fuente before Lincoln’s last football game. Molly joined us and came to the game too. I was determined to get some pictures but didn’t realize until later that I had it in manual mode. Lincoln ran the ball all the way for a touchdown and all of my pictures are blurry. 

We were a bit of a disaster up in the stands. At one point, Miles came up to me and was trying to tell me something about Bennett and then a lady came up and said I think your son is crying. They had been running around with their friend and Bennett fell and scraped his hands. Then a little later, Miles needed to go to the bathroom and as he was walking out, he started screaming and it was a bee that was flying around his legs. He got stung by a bee at school so I guess he is scared of them now-I had never seen him act that way. So Jackson took him to the bathroom for me and told me when they got back that he wet his pants a little because there was a fly in the bathroom stall and it freaked him out.

The twins had another soccer game Saturday morning. They both got to play goalie and stopped several balls. They would get in there and play hard for a bit and then take it easy for bit. Lissy came and watched them for a bit since she was in town for some photo shoots. I was needing to take Ellie up to the square to practice before her Red Barn performance, but Lissy offered to take her and I got to stay for the rest of the game.

After the game, I took the twins and Jackson while Andrew took Lincoln. We got up to the square just a few dances before Ellie was up. They only had ½ of their group there but she did a great job with a big smile on her face.

After she was done, we tried to convince Andrew to go around and look at stuff with us, but he only lasted one booth (where we got Ellie some boot cuffs) and he decided he should probably just go home, The twins and Lincoln were ready to go too. Jackson and Ellie wanted to stick around. Jackson was playing Pokemon Go and then he also found a crocheted Pokeball that he thought he needed. Ellie ended up with a snow cone and a craft kit to make candles. We also grabbed a couple slices of pizza at Pagliai’s and ate out on the sidewalk. Jackson was back and forth between us and his friends while Ellie and I enjoyed walking around and looking at everything.  Andrew went for a bike ride when we got home. Then Ellie got to go to Kate’s birthday party. Leah got the idea from my sorority big sis to have the party at the nursing home and include the residents. They had just put her grandma in the nursing home and Kate had enjoyed playing Bingo with them, so she thought a similar party would be a great idea. Ellie had a fun time and it was a great idea. I did some grocery shopping and got done just in time to pick up Ellie and Grace. Andrew and Jackson worked on football a bit while we were gone and then it was time for them to get ready for Jackson’s game. While they went to the game, we went to Luke’s birthday party. It was a camp out theme and everything was very cute. The kids got to enjoy a scavenger hunt and cake before we headed back into town to try to get to some of Jackson’s game.

On our way home, I got a text from Andrea with a congrats for Jackson on his great carry. I was sad I missed it. It was misting as we were going back to Kirksville and it continued when we got into town, so I asked Andrea if they were all still sitting at the game and she said they were but there was just a minute left. We pulled into the parking lot and I checked out the score board and there was just a minute left in the 4^th quarter, so we just went ahead and went home. Jackson and Andrew told me a bit about the game. Jackson said he had some good blocks and a couple good carries and one of them was for a two-point conversion. They won 36-6, so it was a good game.

Sunday morning, we went to church and then Andrew and I decided to go for a quick ride out to the lake and back. We rarely get to go together, so it was a nice outing. I quickly got ready again when we got home and took Ellie to a friend’s house for her birthday party. Lissy called while we were out on our ride, so when I called her back after dropping off Ellie, she invited me to see Masterminds with her and Molly. I still wanted to make some apple muffins, so I quickly made them when I got home and got to the movie theater right as it was starting. It was an okay movie but definitely not what Lissy was hoping for. I hadn’t seen any of the previews for it, so I didn’t have any expectations. Andrew mowed the yard while I was gone and they all played outside for a bit until it started raining. Then Jackson worked on a Minecraft Lego set that Lincoln got for his birthday that Lincoln preferred that Jackson would just put together for him. The twins had a lot of fun playing with it while I was getting dinner ready and Andrew was running to the store to pick up a couple extra things for dinner. We were having Molly and Lissy over and then my parents got into town in time for dinner too. The twins weren’t expecting them and they were very excited to see them. We did one of our usual Sunday dinners of grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and were hoping to do s’mores outside but the weather didn’t cooperate. Molly helped us out though and made them in the oven. The weekend went by too quickly and I wasn’t quite ready to start the new week.