Hello! Once again I find myself with three weeks to catch up on. Life continues to cruise along at an alarming rate. Rachel has been a bit miffed that Christmas is on a Sunday this year, so this morning at breakfast Richard looked up the next time Christmas will fall on a Sunday, and it won't happen again until 2033-we then realized that Rachel will be 20 years old and I almost started crying! I have a feeling that is going to be here before I know it! So for now I will stop thinking about my little Dokie growing up and try to recap our last three weeks...
Gretchen thoroughly enjoyed Halloween this year. She was Halloween Minnie Mouse and loved her poofy dress and witch hat. In my opinion, she was the cutest Minnie Mouse. She was able to wear her Halloween costume to dance class a few days before Halloween and she had a ball. On Halloween, Gretchen had the coolest Halloween party at school. Among other things, they decorated fly swatters with cute paper cut outs and called them "monster scarers". Gretchen has slept with that thing by her bed every night since! On Halloween, I took Gretchen trick-or-treating, along with her friend Naomi, and Ziggy. :) Gretchen and Naomi had a ball, and I was so glad it was not cold! The girls just had jackets on and put gloves on for the last little bit. They loved running from house to house gathering their spoils. When they were done roaming our neighborhood, I drove them to Mrs. Conners' house, their kindergarten teacher. They were so happy to see her, and she was equally delighted to see them! By 7:30, the girls were done, we took Naomi home, and Gretchen and I were on the couch with our feet up, watching Halloween shows, and eating candy. It was great! Our school district did something amazing this year, and I was thrilled about it. The end of the term was Halloween, so the day after, November 1st, was a teacher prep day so no school for the kids. It. Was. Amazing. We all went to bed late, I didn't have to stress about it, we all slept in, and didn't have a thing going on until 6:00 pm that day when Marshall and Bridget went to piano. It was a dream! Thank you Davis School District. Gretchen is still loving kindergarten, music class and dance. She has learned her ballet and jazz dances for the Christmas recital and I have seen her class practicing their jazz dance the last two Thursdays. Gretchen melts me. She has the cutest smile and the biggest cheeks and her little shaking hips-it's all so cute I can hardly contain myself! We brought her dance costume home last Thursday and she was in awe. Gretchen started coming down with a bad cold last weekend and she missed Monday through Wednesday of school this last week. Thanks to Covid and distance learning, missing school because you are sick is no longer as relaxing. Teachers put everything online and you still have to get on the computer and do it all. I have a love hate with it for sure. Nice to not have make-up work, but a pain to do in the moment. Despite not feeling 100% though, Gretchen actually loved doing school at home. And I loved watching her little hands navigate the computer and the mouse. Gosh I love her. She was very happy to go back to school on Thursday, and even though I was very happy to have my mornings back, I had quite a twinge of sadness as I watched her walk to her line on Thursday morning, it almost felt like that first day of kindergarten all over again for me. Sigh.
A highlight from Rachel's last few weeks is she won a coloring contest sponsored by the South Davis Fire Department! The fire department provided a picture for 4th graders across the district to color and they chose three winners and Rachel took second place! I have never in my life won a coloring contest-I was so proud of her! She won a snazzy new water bottle and she has used it every day since. For Halloween, Rachel was a cat-nice and simple! She just used some cat pajamas we got her last year and called it good-my kind of costume! She went trick-or-treating with her friend Eily. I dropped her off at 5:30 at Eily's and they went to the neighborhood dinner, then trick-or-treating, and then she played at Eily's house until 9:00 pm. By all accounts, those girls had a great time together. On Friday, the 4th, Rachel and Sara went to a dance master class at the dance studio. It was only an hour long, but it was taught by a former Cougarette. Rachel had a blast, it was hip-hop, and she had a great time. This last Friday, Eily walked home with Rachel and those two got a couple of hours to play together. Then that evening, Rachel went to Sara's birthday party. Rachel and Sara have been friends since kindergarten, they dance together three days a week, and have piano lessons together too! We adore Sara, her mom is the best carpool buddy, and I hope those two girls always remain close friends. I am so glad Rachel could go and celebrate with her!
Bridget has fully embraced another winter on the farm. She is back to layering, wearing a headlamp, thick socks, and I am back to cursing the chicken waters. Gag. Luckily, there are only three goats that need to be milked and I am savoring these short milking sessions. Soon enough, babies will be born, and the number of milking goats will drastically increase. Bridget cannot wait. Me, on the other hand, I will let you guess. :) Bridget is loving student council. She happily goes to their 8:00 am Monday meetings. She read the school announcements last week and led the school in the Pledge of Allegiance a couple of weeks ago. Bridget has also had two primary activities and loves them. She only has one primary activity left and then it is off to Young Women's-ahhh!!! We all went to get flu shots a couple of weeks ago. Bridget was relieved the nasal mist was an option, which both she and Marshall opted for. Just the sight of the needles though for the rest of us made her queasy and she immediately left the room with Richard after she was done! Bridget has had a very social couple of weeks. On the 28th she went to Avery's birthday party. Avery's mom took the girls to Station Park for manicures, window shopping, treats, and pretzels. Those girls had the time of their lives and Bridget is still talking about it. All five of those girls have planned to go back for manicures and pedicures over Christmas break! Haha! Bridget went to Lagoon on closing Saturday with Ben's family. She said it was packed, but she still had a great time. I helped with Bridget's class Halloween party and it was fun to get to know some of her classmates better. Her class is half 5th graders, half 6th graders, and it is going well for her. On Halloween Bridget went trick-or-treating with the same group of five girls. They went to Claire's neighborhood dinner, went trick-or-treating and then went back to Claire's house for the fine art of sorting candy and making trades. They ended the evening with a movie and Bridget got home a little after 10:00-once again, so glad there was no school the next day! This last Friday Bridget had the same friends over for a late night. They spent almost the entire evening dressed up and had a blast together.
Marshall went trick-or-treating for the first time in a handful of years. I did not bat an eye at letting my 14 year old go out. I was thrilled a friend invited him and Marshall had so much fun. Johnny got an inflatable sumo wrestler costume and Marshall got an inflatable chicken. Those two looked hilarious together. They left our house at 6:00 pm with some other kids in the neighborhood, but once they were done in our neighborhood, their group split apart and Marshall and Johnny continued on. I started tracking Marshall on his phone about 8:00 pm. Those boys were all over the place, with no rhyme or reason to their path. Sometimes they knocked on doors, and other times they just walked and walked. Both me and Johnny's mom checked in on them throughout the night and finally at 10:30 they came home! Marshall's phone said he walked eight miles that night...in an inflatable chicken costume! Haha! In other Marshall news, he finished the first term of 8th grade and got another 4.0. The fall soccer season also wrapped up. Despite his team having a rocky summer, they had a really great fall and ended up placing second in their division, so next season they will move up! Last weekend Marshall went on an overnighter with the Teacher's Quorum. One of his advisors has a cabin up by Pineview and they took the boys up there. I was so proud of Marshall for going and he had a great time! They ate dinner, played games, watched a movie and then the boys slept on sleeping pads and sleeping bags in the carpeted/semi-heated garage. :) The next morning they had breakfast, played a bit more and then headed home. Yesterday morning Richard and Marshall went to the Bountiful Temple to do baptisms. The next baptism appointment we make will include Bridget!
Richard and I have had some fun moments the last three weeks. On Thursday, October 27th, we went to the symphony to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 1. Not being as into Harry Potter as the rest of my family, I had never seen this movie. It is Richard's least favorite Harry Potter movie, but since it was all new to me I was riveted...I never dozed off...a miracle! It was a fun evening out for us. We actually drove separately and met at City Creek because of Richard's work schedule, we grabbed a quick dinner at the food court and then made it over to Abravanel Hall with just minutes to spare. The kids were good at home. Everyone was asleep when we got home and Marshall had strategically positioned giant squishmallows in front of Bridget's bedroom to prevent Ziggy from bugging her! Ha! Speaking of Ziggy, he has been in a bit of a wandering mood lately when we let him out. He wandered off while we were gone, so Marshall had to chase him down. It apparently was so stressful for Ziggy that he went potty in the house, which he has not done for ages! Marshall texted us while we were at the symphony and we told him how to clean it up...all the while Ziggy refused to make eye contact with him! Let's just say it was a very adult night for Marshall and for the most part he handled it well. :) Welcome to real life!
The next weekend Richard and I took a trip up to Boise. Kevin and Audrey were beyond kind to come and stay with our kids that weekend. Bless them! We were hoping to get on the road about 9:30 Friday morning, but because of various things we didn't leave until 12:30. Despite driving through rain once we got up into Idaho we had a very uneventful, calm five hour drive-it seemed like a breeze without our kids! We had a late dinner reservation that night at 8:30 pm at a restaurant called Fork. It is downtown Boise and it was delicious. Richard and I both loved what we had and were way too full for dessert, sadly! We got to sleep in some the next morning and at 9:00 met my cousin, Tim, and his wife, Susie for breakfast at Moe Joe's. Tim and Susie have lived up in Boise for years, and though I only see them every few years, I adore them. They recommended Moe Joe's and it did not disappoint. I ordered banana bread French toast complete with bananas, candied walnuts and a caramel drizzle. If that doesn't make your mouth water, I don't know what will! We had two lovely hours catching up with them and it made me so, so happy. After breakfast we went back to the hotel for a nap before Dutch and Gigi picked us up at 1:00 pm. Dutch was Richard's mission companion in the MTC and Gigi was born and raised in Queens and Richard knows her and her mom well from his eight months of serving in their branch. I had never met either of them and it was a complete joy to meet them both and spend hours together. We went to lunch at a restaurant super close to the stadium and just enjoyed three hours inside, out of the cold, eating good food and talking with them. Dutch has the personality that immediately puts you at ease. He is funny and tells great stories and just a genuinely happy person. Gigi is so fun to talk to. I loved listening to her stories of growing up in Queens. Dutch and Gigi have three boys and you can just tell how much they love those boys. A great couple! After lunch we walked over to the stadium and by miracle of miracles BYU pulled out the win. Richard, obviously, was on Cloud 9. It was a really fun game, fun atmosphere, and with plenty of layers on, we stayed decently warm. After the game, Dutch and Gigi drove us back to our hotel, and after talking for a while more, we said good-bye and promised to not let 20 years go by before we get together again! When we got back to our room that night, Richard told me how much Dutch meant to him. Richard hated his nine weeks in the MTC, but he really thinks Dutch was the perfect MTC companion for him, and if it weren't for Dutch he might not have survived the MTC. Richard doesn't often talk this way, so it was sweet to hear him express those thoughts. We slept in a bit Sunday morning and then hit the road and drove home. We got home a little before 3:00 pm and found all well here. The kids, despite Gretchen being at the beginning of a miserable cold, all had so much fun with Kevin, Audrey, and their boys. At dinner that night they just told story after story of cute things Todd and Clark did and how much fun they had with them. We are so grateful to Kevin and Audrey coming to watch our kids and so happy that our kids got a whole weekend with some of their youngest cousins to make great memories.
A couple of weeks ago, Richard enjoyed going to a movie with Ricky. I have had two book club meetings, one for my Foxboro book club and one for my Centerville book club. If you have not read Rebecca, I highly recommend it! It was such a fun Halloween read. Now I just need to watch the movie! I had a delightful Saturday afternoon. I met my friend, Shannnon, downtown for lunch at Setebello's and then we went to Ballet West. Shannon has never seen a ballet, and I told her it was high time she experienced it. It was breathtaking. They performed three pieces, and they were all wonderful, but the second one was exceptional. It was about loss and it was set to a piano solo and it was stunning. The human body is amazing!!!
When I got home that evening, after dinner, we decorated our new 12 foot Christmas tree that Richard and the kids got set up while I was gone. Richard has been dying to have a huge tree in our big family room ever since we moved in. I held him off for four years, and we agreed that last January he could buy a tree on sale after Christmas. This 12 foot tree has been sitting in our garage, in three boxes, for 11 months. :) Stacie and I went shopping for the ornaments a couple of weeks ago, and I am so glad she was with me because it would have stressed me to the max to try and figure out how to decorate a 12 foot tree. Richard and I survived trying to put ribbon on it, but that was the hardest part. It is a beauty, and it sure was a lot of fun. Funny story though, Rachel came home from Sara's birthday party on Friday night saying she hurt her pinky toe. Of course, I hardly thought anything of it until she brought it up again Saturday morning. I told her to show it to Richard and sure enough it was quite bruised and swollen, but what can you do for a pinky toe?! Nothing. So as we were decorating the tree Saturday night, Richard accidentally ran his foot into the corner of our wall that juts out. Sure enough, when we went to bed that night and he took off his sock, his toe looked exactly like Rachel's! Their bruises and swelling are seriously identical. Ha! Twinsies! As my girls like to say. Rachel is happy to not be suffering alone anymore. :)
Okay, my goodness, that was long. Took me two days to write! Here's to writing next Sunday. Fingers crossed.
Love each of you.
Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, and Gretchen :)
And for journaling purposes, our Halloween-festive activities included Cross E Ranch for Rachel, Gretchen, and myself. A neighborhood Halloween party. Carving/painting pumpkins. Scary Hill with Danny's family. And Toney FHE with many people in costume. :) I was so glad when Halloween was finally done! Ha!
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