Labor Day and a bunch of random stuff

I don't know why this picture got missed last week. Except maybe I'd already written like a book-length blog post. Here was my caption for this picture from instagram:As I pulled up to the last stoplight by my house, there on the road, right under where my car would stop, was something that looked liked the exoskeleton of an alien jellyfish spider. *Was it really an exoskeleton?* I asked myself. Maybe it was just pretending to be dead so I would feel safe(ish) driving over it. It could then attach itself to my car and attack me when I got out. Now I'm sitting in my driveway wondering if I'm going to be the next victim of a predatory alien race.

Before church last Sunday the girls were playing and both Mira and Cecily tried on my old Wonder Woman Underoos. They fit Cecily better, but she was too quick to take it off. Here's Mira in the outfit.

Monday was, of course, Labor Day. It was also Onion Days for Payson, and since we had so much fun at the parade last year, we decided to go again this year. And I, being the the efficient one, decided that since we were out of raspberries from our last picking, we should stop and pick raspberries before the parade, since the raspberry patch is in Payson, too. We all had to get up at 7, and we left a half hour later than I would have liked, but we made it in time to pick 3 1/2 lbs before we had to leave for Ben's house.

The bees were busy that morning, too.

This is Emilia, Cecily, Mira, Lincoln, and Dylan. I find it funny that if you look closely, there is a guy running on the street and it looks like Dylan's arm is his bare leg, even though his other leg is covered by jeans. Haha!

This is what the younger kids thought of the sirens and horns of the emergency vehicles.

I love parades.

Steve, Ben, Joanie, Jason, and Conner don't love them so much. They hung out in the back.

Cool dinosaur float. The people were throwing full-sized toothbrushes.

Another cool float.

There was a full moon this week. It always looks so big hanging over the mountains. This is a terrible picture of it, but you can see how orange it is from all the fires, and considering the other lights are the front door and garage of a house, comparitively, that moon is huge.

Cecily has been a rock star all week because the girls have been watching LoliRock on Netflix. I thought she looked like a flapper girl here.

Emilia went with me to the store one night after her sisters were put to bed early for being cranky. She decided she NEEDS these. (She loves all things cats, which she calls "poofy kitties".)

I was super excited to see these. They are all the Star Wars women! So cool! The Endor Leia even has Wicket!

Emilia had a bug in her room one night and Steve wouldn't kill it for her, so she armed herself with knee-high socks, gloves, and a Kleenex and came out conquerer (it was smaller than my pinkie nail, so I was pretty confident she'd survive).

Saturday we spent most of the day puttering and getting ready for our upcoming trip. I'm excited to get my first stamps in my first passport.

Today we had a regional conference, so church was only 2 hours from 10 - 12. Considering we usually have church from 1 - 4, this left a lot of the day for us to hang out. I picked the produce from our garden, we had hamburgers and tater tots for dinner, Steve played My Little Ponies with the girls, and we all drew/colored/painted after dinner, even Steve. If I get ambitious, I may make a peach pie after the girls go to bed because I've been craving one ever since peaches came in season.

Tonight at dinner, I gave Cecily her requested hamburger pattie, raspberries, and bun separate, then turned to dish out some to Mira when I hear Cecily say, "Mmm...this be so good together," and find that she's put both the hamburger and the raspberries in the bun. Oh yeah. Yum! Later, eating another bun, she says, "Look, I have bun cheeks." Oy, child.

Mira was throwing up on Thursday. It was so sad. Especially when we had pizza for dinner and she started crying because she was so sad she couldn't have any. Now I have a sore throat and a headache and I'm downing Airborne like it's candy because I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY don't want to have a cold on 9 hours worth of flights on Friday. That would totally suck. I'll take any good vibes you want to send my way.

I probably won't post next week because I'll be in FRANCE! Woot! Woot! Thanks to everybody who is helping us so we can go. We are so very excited!

There was an eclipse! School started! And we went to a wedding!

Two Mondays ago, my kids got to meet their teachers. I was impressed with Emilia's teacher, and another mom I know took me aside and said we were lucky because her teacher is the best in the school. I hope that's true. Emilia has not been impressed so far. Mostly because she's talked a lot about the rules. Ugh! Right? And then she cut her cornea with a cardboard box and was flat on her back in a dark room for two days. Kind of a crazy start to a school year, poor lady. It was I who was underwhelmed with Mira's teacher. I didn't feel like she was a grandmotherly "love em and squish em" kind of teacher, which I was hoping for for Mira. She seemed like more of a disciplinarian. But that was a three minute first impression, so hopefully I'm wrong.

That day was also the solar eclipse. I'm such a last-minute person. I have a really really hard time planning things more than a day in advance. So I didn't get solar eclipse glasses. I called every store in the area that carried them that morning. I knew they'd be out, but Steve insisted. So I found tutorials online for making your own solar viewer. I spent a good part of the morning putting three of them together, so we could all view the eclipse. Then we went outside around 10:30 to start watching and a neighbor gave us an extra pair of glasses she had. It was actually really fun to have both. I'm glad we had one pair to be able to see the difference, but it was pretty much the same through the viewer or through the glasses. I had so much fun doing this with my family. It was cool to see the sunlight drop in intensity and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees, too. And then taking turns with the kids and talking about what was happening. It was great. I'm so glad we did not trek up to Idaho, though. Maybe next time.

if you enlarge this picture, there is a perfect capture of the the eclipse, but it's not that bright spot on the right. It's a tiny thing in the middle. That bright spot was just Steve not holding the glasses down tight enough to his phone camera.

Tuesday they started school. We actually got them there on time. And I didn't even go. Steve dropped them off. I'm already a been-there-done-that sorta mom, I guess! I didn't even think about going until they were driving out of the driveway and I was still in my PJ's. Oh well. I took pictures before they left. And Mira didn't seem fazed by it, so I guess we're good.

I took the first day of school pictures with my real camera, so I'll get those up another time. I'm too lazy to do it tonight.

We left after school on Wednesday to go to the wedding in Colorado, so Tuesday night and all day Wednesday was spent packing and cleaning the house. The drive was uneventful, though Cecily didn't even wait 45 minutes to start asking if we were there yet. We made the unfortunate mistake of going to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner at the half-way point and it was probably the worst restaurant food any of us had ever eaten. It was detestable. Every single meal. And it was expensive! Ugh. Those sorts of experiences make me glad for Google ratings (because I can leave one), but I'm also grateful that was the worst thing that happened on the trip.

Also, I have a fascination with clouds.

 

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent with family. I wish we'd been able to spend more time than we did all together. I positively adore everyone I got to see. A friend said, "You looked so peaceful in the pictures with them." It's because I feel at home when they're around. Love you, Richaus!

Steve had to take a detour down to Denver to see his boss and buy something important I forgot, so he took some pictures of the Denver temple.

Monday, I was so out of it! I didn't sleep well while we were gone, what with all of my kids in the room with us and not being used to the bed, and other people's kids being morning people. Gah! Some people's kids! (Haha! That just sort of came to me as funny because we used to use that as a fake complaint when we were teenagers.) Anywho--I was super grateful that Megan and Alex let us stay with them to reduce costs for the trip. And I was super grateful that Ariana gave up her bed so we could sleep on an actual bed the whole time. It was really ideal circumstances for what it was, but man was I wiped out Monday. I think I took three naps. (Totally serious there.) I went to help my friend Julia and she was like, "You look tired. You should go home." Haha! I did manage to drag all the kids to the grocery store so we'd have bread and milk to eat on Tuesday, and I think I got all the laundry done, too. Between naps that is.

We stayed home all day Tuesday and I worked on my query. A query is a letter you write to entice agents to read your stuff. If they read your stuff and like it, they can offer to represent you. Which is a necessary step if you want to be published through a traditional large publisher, which I do.

Wednesday was insanity. I got the kids off to school, exercised, did my morning prayers and scripture study, got breakfast for me and Cecily, and then my Visiting Teachers came over at 11:30am. Got us lunch, showered, picked up the girls early from school to take the three of them to a dentist appointment. None of them had cavities, but we apparently need to get Cecily to stop sucking her thumb. It's warping her jaw bone. They have a nifty device that makes it easy for the low low price of $450! *sigh* Every person I know who sucked their thumb as a child said nothing their parents did made any difference. They quit when they were ready. I'll keep you updated on *that* saga. But if you have any advice for something that worked for you or someone you know, please let me know!

When the kids have no cavities at the dentists, they weirdly give them vouchers for a free ice cream cone, so we went and got their ice cream, then ushered Emilia off to an end-of-summer Activity Days pool party. I'm pretty sure we had eggs and toast for dinner that night because it takes me 10 minutes start to finish. Phew!

Since my mom has been updated her house to try to sell it, and since she's been in Colorado for two weeks, she had apples on her tree that she wasn't going to be able to use. So Cecily and I drove up on Thursday to pick the apples. My friend Gina met us there and we talked and picked and ate some lunch, then drove home in time to pick up the other girls from school. That night, I borrowed a victorio strainer from a lady in our ward, and a cherry pitter, so I could make applesauce and cherry pie filling on Friday. Cecily was such a cute helper for that! You can see a video of it here.

Yesterday, I sent out another six queries and got a rejection a couple of hours later from one of them. That's pretty impressive for an agent. They usually ask for 4-8 weeks, not 4-8 hours. I'm not sure if she was just super efficient, or if that means something about my query. Hrm.

I also went shopping for a little while to see if I could find a totem to take with on our trip to Europe in (a little less than) two weeks. I want to find something little that will be fun/funny to stick in pictures of the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben because I want to do something different than just have a billion pictures of things other people have taken much better pictures of than I can with my phone and no helicopter. I didn't find the perfect thing, but I got some ideas. I'll keep searching. Any suggestions?

Today was fast Sunday and Steve's parents were out of town. I was glad to fast and I was glad to have a night with just our little family. I'm so grateful we've got family nearby to share Sundays with, but sometimes it's nice to do our own thing, too. We had nummy Ribeye steak, parmesan sweet potatoes, grilled zucchini, and watermelon. Then we played Five Crowns, Jr., had some ice cream, and went for a walk. It was perfect.