Happy Halloween!

 Our farewell week of October was pretty standard. Laundry, piano lessons, dance, baseball, groceries, working out at the gym, and replacing light bulbs in all the ceiling fans. When I sum up my life like that, I feel pretty lame but I do keep my family alive and get them where they need to be so I suppose I am pretty useful to them at least. I went over to my friend Olivia's house on Thursday to watch her little kids so she could go out and get a haircut. My friend, Jana, used to help me all the time when my kids were little and hers were in school and I was always so grateful so I'm trying to pay it forward. Olivia's kids don't typically like being without a parent but they were both super happy and we read lots of books and it was good. I guess I did also talk to Shelly for two hours one morning. It was so fun to catch up with her and talk to someone who knows me so well; she was making me laugh so hard and I'm excited to see her in May when she comes to visit. 

Friday I took Lily and her friends to get some items for their Halloween costumes and that was an interesting adventure. Shopping with 13-year-olds was hilarious and embarrassing at the same time. I'm grateful she has such good friends but next time I will make sure they don't use the self check-out. That evening Matt (Josh's co-worker) and Olivia came over for dinner and it was a bit nutso. Their two little kids are very busy and into everything and it makes it hard to talk or do anything besides pay attention to them. Matt is also pretty picky and I don't think he liked dinner but whatever. Lily was babysitting elsewhere or else the evening probably would have gone a bit smoother but it was still nice to see them. Dance was cancelled because the parking lot was flooded so it was nice not to have to take Emma so late. 

Saturday the fields were still too wet to play so Brandon's game was cancelled (actually they rescheduled it for Sunday but I didn't even tell him since there was no way we were going to participate on a Sunday) and we finally had time to carve pumpkins. It is one of Josh's favorite traditions and we always have fun with it. Brandon and I carved one together and while I did most of the work, it looks like he did. Lily and Emma did the kissing emoji and it is super cute. Josh and Curtis each did one and Curtis took forever to do his but it looks cool. Then he had a birthday party to go to and I made chili for our ward party. It was a nice party and we had a good time. Matt and Olivia came too and enjoyed it. I like showing people that we are normal and fun and Olivia comes to book club so she already knows a lot of people so I think she felt really comfortable. I am always so impressed with other people's creativity and try not to feel bad about my lack. 

 

Today church was really nice and while Josh did a bucket-load of tithing settlements, the kids and I wrote in our journals and played some piano and they played games. Josh took the kids trick-or-treating for an hour and I stayed home to give out candy. We had a family council to discuss whether it was in line with keeping the sabbath day holy or not. In the end, we decided it is a nice walk around the neighborhood with some candy involved so we decided it was okay. It is also the only night we see a lot of our neighbors and we feel it is important to be social and involved when possible in getting to know our neighbors. When the kids came to the door I tried to guess what they were and I was terrible at it but it was fun to chat with them and one girl even told me that minecraft was a pretty fun game to play (she was offended I had no idea what she was but she was apparently a minecraft something or other). It was kind of quiet but Josh told me kids are getting lazy and don't want to have to actually go up to the door and ring the bell because lots of people like to sit outside now on their driveways but we ended up with only a handful of candy left. 

 

 

So far this week has been more of the same. Laundry, piano lessons, family night, and dance. I spent all day Monday organizing my girls' clothes and it took forever. However, both of their closets are now organized and all the clothes are in bins labeled by size and season and I have bags of clothes to give away. Tuesday it rained so Brandon's baseball was cancelled and we actually got to have a nice family dinner. It has been a good season and I will miss associating with these great people but hopefully we'll see them again in the spring, and I am ready for a change of pace (meaning not sitting at practice a few nights a week). This is the last week of the season so Curtis has two games this week and Brandon's last one is Saturday and then we're done. Basketball starts pretty soon but that will only be one night a week and then games on Saturday for Curtis but none for Brandon since he is young enough it is just an instructional league for him. So, more low-key, which is good because I've got lots of ideas and plans to make Dec-Feb awesome to make up for it being so challenging last year.