October sure has been eventful! We ended September with a family day with some of our friends at the food bank. Our task was labeling and bagging capri suns, which became smellier and stickier as the morning went on, due to fermented leaking bags.
The girls were ultra serious about their job and Julia enjoyed counting every completed juice box to measure their success.
The boys preferred to do things their own way, as always, and were standing amidst a pile of label trash by the end...at which point Gray made the unfortunate choice to tape his hands behind his back and became stuck. I need an eye roll emoji on this site.
We kicked off November (and my two week fall break) with a trip to Smith Mountain Lake, just me and Matt. Mama and Daddy came and held down the fort while we were gone, including helping Julia participate in the neighborhood yard sale. Apparently we aren't as "back to normal" as we thought, as there weren't the big crowds of years ago, so there wasn't much money made and lots of stuff ended up being given away. But maybe that will limit the saving of stuff around the house with high hopes of profits. I was definitely in a major cleaning out mode over fall break and even got up in the attic and went through baby clothes to give away, which was a sweet walk down memory lane. I also cleaned out all the closets, made some freezer meals, caught up on some doctor appointments, and did some deep cleaning. And I closed a special chapter of my life, teaching my last VIPKID class (my favorite student Pheobe) since China gov't is not allowing any foreign teachers anymore. It's nice to not constantly be figuring out the morning logistics of getting classes done plus managing the usual before school/work stuff. But I'm sad to leave behind my sweet students and the opportunity to create positive connections between China and America.
Back to weekend at the lake...
We rented a boat all day Saturday, which was very fun. One of us was freezing in the morning with 5 layers of clothing on. One of us was feeling just right in a swimsuit. :)
We got breakfast at a cute coffee shop before getting on board and then ate on the water. We drove all over the beautiful lake. I loved the mountains and sailboats we saw. We had packed a lunch and ate that on the boat too, then came back to turn in the boat about dinner time. We did have one little incident in which we had taken a break from driving the boat and when Matt went to crank the boat back up, the ignition fell into a hole in the dash. After some frustrating moments trying to get it out with whatever tools we could find, we resigned ourselves to wait for the 16 year old boat attendant to come find us (way far away from the rental place, of course) and install a new one. Apparently it happens all the time. Anyway, once we fixed that and had a joltingly fast ride back over the choppy water, we turned in the boat and ate outside at a lakeside restaurant.
The next morning I could see orange coming in through the balcony sliding door and went out to watch the sunrise. It was so beautiful. Really nice to get a weekend away!
Allie dressed as "Pig the Pug" for book character day at school. She sure was cute. We just had her parent-teacher conference and she's doing great. She says sometimes kids make fun of her for being so tiny and say she's "3 or 2 years old" but her teacher reassures me she is very well-liked. Allie tells us she is the quietest in the hall, the most flexible (physically) in the class, the best at making paper airplanes, and the best "playing girl" because she plays with everyone. She is doing well with her academics too and starting to read anything and everything on her own now.
The morning of Joshua's birthday, I took him to get his license, which only requires a quick check in with the dmv to turn in papers, pay a fee, and of course get a memorable picture. We had a time getting a good one of Joshua. The officer there was very friendly and fun and she was jabbing Joshua a little because he was having trouble answering the simplest questions, such as whether he'd had any tickets before. I think he wasn't awake yet! He made it home in time to grab Gray and the truck and drive to school.
Those first few times he drove, I couldn't help watching him drive away till he turned the corner, with Kenny Chesney's "There Goes My Life" playing in my head.
He enjoyed having Nanny and Pa join us for pizza and sushi the night of his birthday. He is so into the Seahawks and loved getting a new jersey, hat, and license tag.
He had his favorite traditional bday dessert, trifle, and we played a game and called it a night. The next night he and 6 friends got dropped off in Burlington to eat dinner at a pizza buffet and walk over to a laser tag/arcade place for a few hours. I was worried they'd be too grown up or too cool for this plan, but they had such a good time and want to do it again. I didn't get any pictures because I only had half the boys when I left them and then when I picked them up, they all had won these long sticky hands and were nailing each other with them in the parking lot like little kids and I just didn't want to be the awkward mom breaking that up to make them take a picture. It was a long night for me of driving 30 minutes each way, twice, but worth it for Joshua to have a fun time with his friends. I'm feeling super conscious these days of the kids getting enough quality face to face social time.
And I just had to include this "sweet" card from Allie. "I love how you skate" (Uh...he went with her once and pretty much hated it, but THAT'S the one thing she comes up with when I ask her to write something she likes about him. ) And then you turn it over to find this advice/insult.
"You need to push harder" Happy Birthday, Joshua. Julia did write him a sweet card that she didn't want others to see, but was a long message including something about being glad he was her brother.
In other (not pictured) news, October included some terribly exciting news that Jeannie and fam are moving here in December! We had a whirlwind week or two that included a visit from Jeannie and Hunter, driving around Hillsborough to confirm they want to be here and not Durham, looking for houses/apartments while they were here and after they left, seeing a couple of places with an agent, doing Facetime tours, etc. They were able to settle on a rental in our neighborhood and we just can't wait to welcome them into our world!
I went back to work, which was hard until I got there and remembered I really do like my job:) And the kids had it a lot more together than I anticipated after two weeks off of school. We've had some crazy days with kids in and out for covid exposure (sometimes 1/3 of the class at once!) but overall it's going so well and they are learning so much easier than last year. Super thankful we've been able to be in person the whole year. Outside of work, we continued to juggle the kids activities. Julia kept running her race and doing well, the girls persisted with skating and signed up for the Nutcracker on Ice, the boys practiced for upcoming lacrosse tournaments, Joshua went to off season basketball, the older three went to Bible Studies, Wyldlife/Younglife/FCA. It's a lot to keep track of. And we entered into a theme of neglect in our family, where things popped up that we should have been attentive to and just let go because there's so many things to think about and we hoped it would just be okay.
Joshua had an ingrown toenail for weeks (or months? who knows? As mentioned before, we have not excelled in the attentive parent arena) and we finally decided it was not going to resolve itself. I took him to a wonderful little urgent care here (made an appointment, walked right in and sat right down in the examination room. Amazing!) and they cut that sucker right out. Joshua was such a trooper as they injected his toe over and over with lidocaine and cut on it. He quite enjoyed missing two days of school and was back to normal in no time.
Here's Exhibit B. We love Raven, we really do. She's such a sweet thing, but high maintenance in some ways, namely her affinity for attacking dogs she meets on a walk and her allergies that require us to specially make her dog food. But we got used to her always licking her paws and being itchy in spite of her gourmet meals. And we didn't bathe her much. We noticed her troublesome ears seemed to be especially bothering her but thought it would be okay...until one of them started bleeding profusely. Matt bandaged her up and again, we thought it would be fine. She seemed to be recovering and we went on with life until one morning when she became so uncomfortable it was scaring me. She was going to lay in our room, where she only goes if it's storming) even without me in there and would suddenly jump up like something bit her and shake her head really hard. After several failed attempts at getting her an appointment, I was finally able to drop her off at a vet so they could see her when they had time. A lengthy phone call with the one who examined her reveals that she had two terrible ear infections and a paw infection too. So the last few weeks we've been good owners again, giving her her medicine, cleaning her ears, giving her baths. It's a lot. But she really is so sweet.
Other not pictured examples of neglect include the middle children being (unbeknownst to them or us) terribly behind in their schoolwork. I don't know why I ever think I can let my guard down. They are so capable but the organization/following directions piece just doesn't connect in their brains and just when I think I can take the training wheels off and watch them go, it is another crash and burn. I'm thankful for their many talents and praying they grow in these important life skills so they can be independent. And let's make that sooner than later please.
Julia enjoyed a much awaited Starbucks breakfast with Daddy, in which she ordered a coveted pumpkin spice latte, which she deemed gross and I found I kinda liked, when she brought it home to me. :)
Julia was super proud to compete on the cross country championship team for the conference race. She had a great run!
In the stands were many adoring fans who decided to make in more interesting (not that they were uninterested or anything ;) ) by scoring the race themselves. They diligently recorded the place finishes for their designated team and determined the winner.
Awhile back, Matt bought us tickets to see Michael Bublé in concert, which got postponed a few times due to covid. We finally made it and it was so much fun! We got there very early and it's a good thing because we had no idea about things like not bringing purses in or having to show your covid vax card! We had awhile to sit and talk and have an astronomically overpriced drink and then the show began. Matt did take a few looks at the world series score from time to time but overall think we were both very much entertained by this dynamic performer. In my opinion, this one highly beat out the Dave Matthews concert with its amazing musicians, laughs, crowd interaction, dancing, favorite songs of mine, comfortable and uncrowded venue and last but not least, lack of marijuana smoke. :) But I guess Dave Matthews is one of those bucket list things.
Can you spy Allie? Cross country finished up with a donut run celebration that families could join in.
Allie and her friend Owen discussed the donut run at recess that day and decided to go ahead and stretch to prepare. They were excited to reunite after school and re-stretch. Owen was so sweet and said, "Hey Allie, do you want to stick together?" She did...but also found another friend from school along the way that she enjoyed run/walking with. I was relieved she had someone with her, because I had thought they were just going around the track when in fact they were doing the whole cross country course! Gray came along too for the donuts but refused to run because he was hot in his sweatpants. He kept an eye out for Allie and trudged along, the very last to cross the finish line. They both finished the 1.8 miles in just under 30 minutes. I really couldn't believe Allie wanted to do both laps!
Julia was thrilled to find out the girls' team won the regular season and got tshirts!! She loved being on this team and especially enjoyed the kind attention and guidance from the older girls. After assuring me that she most definitely didn't want to do ultimate frisbee this winter because it's so cold, she loudly argued with me during the awards ceremony of cross country that she'd never said such a thing (but recanted that statement soon after) and most definitely was going to try out. So we may be freezing our tails off again this year, though she hasn't done much to prepare for this sport, so we will see!
Post race, Allie took to the chore board and put a star for everyone that ran that day, leaving a special notice for Joshua (Go run, Joshua!). She insists she doesn't want to be on the cross country team when she's in middle school, but I don't know...I think she's got a school sport in her future.
Hopefully our last example of neglect for awhile has been our Halloween celebrations. Julia lamented the other night, "Why are ALL our Halloween traditions just falling away this year?!" Well, something has to give and I don't want it to be my mind, honey. We didn't do a big pumpkin patch trip with the whole family as usual, but the girls and I just ran by a corner pumpkin stand after skating a week before Halloween and snagged some cheap ones.
And as of tonight (Halloween Eve) we didn't carve them as a family either. Our independent littlest one took it upon herself to start hers last night. I cut the top off while making dinner and let her get the seeds out and play awhile. Before I knew it, with no help from me, she had used a little pumpkin carving knife to make an adorable face. She woke the next morning and completed the look with nostrils. :) Yesterday I finally put up our lights. We don't have many and one strand was half out, which I unsuccessfully tried to fix, then unsuccessfully took the girls to two stores to find more. Oh well. Halloween will come anyway and there will still be trick or treating! Maybe I'll have it all together next year??
