17 and a half!

 Today Cameron is 17 1/2.  I can't even believe it.  Time is flying by without my permission.  We have been staying up late with Cameron talking about next year and all that his future holds.  Mitch and I can't even talk about it without tearing up and crying.  The other day I came across this video of Lucy.  Oh my gosh.  She is the sweetest little thing.  I look at these videos and wonder where in the world did my babies go?  They are turning in the best teenagers but seriously STOP growing for just a second.

Teenager

We have another teenager!  

Natalie had a quiet Covid Sunday birthday.  It is hard to believe that she is getting so big.  We had a nice day celebrating her and eating her favorite foods including dill dip!

She made cake pops with her new cake pop maker.

 

Choose to win!

 Got this in the mail today. These things always make my day better. 

Today’s Events

The newest employee of Home Goods! What a handsome guy. 

I went on a run for the first time in over a year. Holy Moley that was tough.

Took the Jules out on the road!

Lucy spent the day with Mitch at work. It was take your Lucy to work day.

Halloween

We had a quiet Halloween.  Natalie and Lucy went trick or treating with Cameron and Julia tagging along walking with them.  They got a fair amount of candy but definitely a different kind of year, we only had the doorbell ring twice. They seemed to have a good time and I was glad that they thought it seemed somewhat normal.  

Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz

Two really cool teenagers

Glenda the Good Witch of the North

A bunch of athletes who used to compete in high school

Cookie Dough

The other day Mitch bought some cookie dough at the store.  Is it a sickness that the kids just wanted to eat the dough instead of make the cookies?  We are a bit odd.

Lucy’s Birthday

Lucy turned 9!  How can this be?!?  What a sweet fun girl.  She keeps us laughing with her quick wit and funny personality. She is literally the best.  She made me a wish list for her birthday presents and it was so cute.  A perfect mixture of little girl ideas and trying to keep up with her sisters.

I'm going to be honest.  Some of the decorations weren't my best work.

Lucy wanted a ballerina outfit that fit.  Apparently the last one she had was a size 4T.

We surprised her with a piñata.  Unfortunately her mother was too lazy to make one and bought one instead after about 4 hits the thing broke, but not broke open, just broke and fell to the ground.  Not like you would hope for a piñata.  I am going to go with it was the thought that counted. 

Lucy had a very specific dinner all planned out for her day.  Fettucine chicken, with sweet corn, sour cream and onion potato chips, pink fluff and Italian sodas.  

She also wanted to crave pumpkins.  Which worked out really well, since ya know we needed to get that done.  She wanted to do it ALL BY HERSELF which is also a score in the old, tired mom book.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl!

Online Assistant

 

Julia is receiving a little help from her friend this morning in ceramics class.

Who are these people I live with?

 Apparently I have a house full of apes. I opened the dishwasher today and stood in disbelief. I guess I should be glad that they are putting their dishes in the dishwasher after they use them! 

Jackets for nowhere

 

Ya know when your parents spend $$$ on a jacket and you have nowhere to wear it?  Yeah...that sucks.  Good thing they are cute kids. 

The Hits

The hits of 2020 just don’t stop. When school was starting the elementary school sent a letter saying that because of COVID and the different models that school will look like: online learning, hybrid, and all day they wanted to let us know that there might be a chance that our kids might be reassigned their teacher mid year. With the announcement that they are hoping to move to a hybrid schedule in the next month more talk of teacher reassignment is happening. I woke up last week from a terrible dream one night where Lucy was reassigned and was so upset. She has a really great teacher and the thought of this upset me throughout the day after my dream. I have tried to put this out of my mind as this is completely out of my hands. Just hoping that this wouldn’t happen for us. 

This morning I woke up to an email from the principal saying that Lucy’s teacher is in fact being reassigned and Lucy will be getting a new teacher. Of course no mention of who the new teacher will be or any other  info. I had a good cry and then went to tell Lucy.  Lucy took it in stride and seems to be ok with it. As the mom, I’m the one that is struggling with all this change.

 As I watched conference this morning and listened to President Nelson’s talk he used the word myopic. I was reminded that I am being short sighted with all of these small disappointments that have been happening. I sure hope things turn out well and that I can look back at these set backs and see the good that will come from them. At the moment it is hard to see. 

What a rough year! 2020 go away! 

Lucy came downstairs today wearing this shirt. Yet another reminder that everything really is ok. 

FHE

 We have a few comedians in the house 

Back to school

Back to School 2020

3rd grader, 7th grader, 10th grader, SENIOR

I think enough time has past that I can post about the kid’s back to school online year without crying. It has been a somber affair. My two high schoolers have 4 classes per quarter. The school district was in a battle over class schedules before school started and this is what we ended up with. So for now 4 classes a day but moving at double the speed they would normally (a typical year long class finishing in a semesters time and a semester long class finishing in a quarters time.) They spend an hour on zoom per class with breaks and then have 30 minutes per class to work by themselves. They start at 9 am and end around 2:30 with their zoom and then have their own work time after that. Things have been going ok. Julia is not loving her online ceramics class but to give the class some credit she is working with ceramics clay almost everyday. Julia is missing her friends and spends most her lunch breaks talking to them over zoom. 

Natalie’s schedule is more normal with her 6 periods. She has 3 periods a day with a homeroom. She alternates classes every other day. She spends most of her day on zoom with classes.  In 2020 we have learned what “zoom bombing” is. If you don’t know what that is look it up! And according to Julia “a federal offense.”

Lucy was excited for school to start even with it online. The night before she was so excited she couldn’t sleep. She has a two to three live zoom meetings a day with work she is supposed to do by herself mixed in. She starts at 9 am and finishes around 2:30 everyday. It seems to be going okay. She is working on multiplication and division and writing her own book. 

The kids seem to be adjusting although at times I can feel their emotional state to be down. A few weeks ago we were riding bikes and we rode by the elementary school. Lucy looked at me and said if I could choose online school or school with masks I would sure choose wearing a mask. That made me so sad. The good news is that maybe by mid-November we might be able to go to in person school 2 times a week. 😬 

Braces

 

Natalie got braces! Looking at her teeth one might not think she needed them but her poor molars are twisted and turned so bad in her mouth her orthodontist said if she didn’t get these on soon that she was going to need to have teeth pulled and would have adult years of alignment problems. We sure hope that it works and her teeth rotate correctly. 

Joy!

 I must be getting old when this is what gives me so much joy! We have been talking about this stupid chimney for far too long and yesterday Mitch made it happen. 

Better late than never?

 Today Julia received her YW medallion. She finished it last November. So ya know, why not wait this long to recognize her? But none the less we are proud of her working really hard and finishing something she put her mind to. She had to speak to all the YW and other ward members today on zoom about her experiences and did a great job! 

SENIOR

I have a lot that I want to post about our summer. That will be coming soon. There is so many pressing things happening that my time is non-existent. Today I spent the day setting up school desks, computer, supplies, links, zoom, etc.  To put it mildly, I am completely overwhelmed.

 BUT- yesterday I was at the lake with the kids and as I looked over at Cameron I couldn’t help wonder were the time has gone. This kid is a SENIOR. This year will not be a typical year for him, but I am so blessed to be with him and have him with me for at least one more year. Here is to the Class of 2021!!