October is over, which means I have now worked every weekend at Rust for a whole year. To celebrate the end of my 1-year contract I moved to PRN status, so instead of being required to work 2 shifts a week, I now only have to work 2 shifts a month. Technically my contract was for the equivalent of 1 year of full-time work and I only worked part-time, so I will have to pay back some of my sign-on bonus, but it will be worth it to have a weekend off every now and again without the struggle of juggling shifts or getting PTO approved. I am greatly looking forward to this next year of having more time together as a family.
Here is the clock at work changing itself for Daylight Savings Time so we could do 1:00am all over again!
On to other October news.
First, here are pictures of the samples of the kids' school pictures, because I missed the deadline to order.
We tried curling Vivi's hair with the curling iron, but it just made it BIG!
Halloween
This year for Halloween, Vivien really wanted to be Miraculous Ladybug.
Back when I was at Joann's buying fabric for my wedding dress, we walked past some fabric that looked exactly like Ladybug's suit, but I didn't have a pattern and didn't know how much we'd need, so we took a risk and went home without it hoping it would still be there for us when we were ready. It was.
I bought a pattern online for a suit (girls/boys to adult women sizes, in case anyone needs a skin-tight suit anytime soon!). The pattern called for fabric that stretched 70% in both directions. This one only stretched that much in one direction. The other direction still had a little give though, and it just looked SO PERFECT, we went for it and hoped for the best. My friend Krista let me borrow her serger, which saved me a ton of time and made everything look really nice.
My invisible zipper skills were on point for this project.
Good thing too, because a lot was riding on the zipper. I cut the fabric so the stretch would go vertically and she'd be able to bend over and walk and move her arms, but that meant that we didn't have much wiggle room across the belly. Without the zipper in, it fit her like a Disco King suit.
I was concerned about the fit. Her measurements were all for a size 5 in everything but length, which was a size 8, so I stupidly cut it out accordingly, not remembering the fabric didn't have as much stretch as it should have had. She needed the costume that night for the Intel party and I didn't have time to start over, but my concern was in vain, because it fit her like a latex glove. She put it on and said, "I feel so flexible!" and started prancing around the room. Without the spots it looked a lot like the Incredibles' suits.
I decided to iron on the spots. I stuck this fusible webbing...
...onto the back of the black fabric, then traced out a bunch of circles of different sizes onto the paper backing and cut them out.
It was a lot of circles. My thumb did protest much.
I probably should've made the circles a little smaller, but I think they mostly look comparatively big on Vivi's suit because Ladybug has a disproportionately long body. Her legs are about a third as long again as a normal human. I tried to use different sizes of dots to suggest woman-curves on my little Vivs, but I'm not sure that it made much of a difference. Also, we skipped the inside line of spots because I was worried they would rub off while she was walking. But other than those things, I think it turned out pretty awesome!!
The costume was done in time for the Intel party! I stayed behind to try to take a nap, but my mind was going too fast to sleep, so I probably should've just gone with them.
The next day I came home from work, took a quick nap, then started getting ready for our ward Trunk-or-Treat. Our ward council assigned the Primary to run the Halloween party because it's the most kid-centric activity of the year. I now know why Primary hasn't been in charge of it in the past; it's the same time of year as the Primary Program! We had planned to have our Primary Program on Nov 10, but the bishop called one night and asked if there was any way we could move it to October 27th. I told him we could probably do that, hung up, then all the issues of losing 3 weeks of practice, having my song leader in the middle of IVF harvesting, throwing a ward party the day before, etc. started piling up, and I texted him back a day or two later and said while we definitely could do it, it would be much appreciated if we didn't have to. We were allowed to switch it back. More on that later. Here is the invitation for the party I sent out a few weeks prior:
The ward was invited to participate in any of 5 different ways:
1. Show up (in costume if you like), eat food, visit, Trunk-or-Treat in the parking lot, have a great time.
2. Be a part of the Trunk-or-Treat; bring candy to pass out, decorate your car, etc.
3. Compete for the title of Best Chili in the Ward, or bring a side that will be enjoyed without judgement. (A link to sign up will be sent soon.)
4. Familiarize yourself with the song “Remember Me” from the movie Coco so you’re ready for a ward sing-along after dinner.
5. Accept a Family History Challenge: Spend the next 2 weeks studying your family history. On provided paper, visually summarize what you have learned. Be creative! The “family tapestries” will be displayed along the walls during our party.
I invited everyone in the ward who plays guitar to learn Remember Me. The song has some challenging chords, and I wanted to be able to support beginners so they would have a good experience participating, so I learned to "play" the guitar so I could figure out simplified chords and the melody. My brain! We practiced together twice after mutual two separate weeks.
The day of the party I left for the church at about 3 to start setting up. As I was piling everything from my list into the car, I realized that the tablecloths I had sent Drew to the store for a few days before were missing. I had a moment of complete panic witnessed by Drew before I remembered that I had planned to start setting up at 3 so there would be time for a Walmart run. I dispatched Krista, my counselor, to grab more tablecloths, and some extra bowls just in case.
My other counselor Kellie and Jordan Davies met me at the church to help set up. We brought every folding table and seminary table in our whole building and put them together to make three long tables across the length of the gym (with a walkway through the middle) and covered them with the plastic table cloths, 18" craft paper off a roll, and crayons. We put food tables on the side next to the accordion door into the chapel and left a space at the other side for the microphone. I bought two enormous marigold plants at Costco to put on the water table and the table where the pushpins were for people to hang up their family trees. Then we set up chairs along the walls to seat anyone who didn't fit at the tables. I didn't take a single picture. Well, I took this one before we messed it all up so I'd know how to re-set the room afterwards.
I had intended to have everyone eat from 5-5:30, start the YW running carnival games for kids as they finished eating in the Primary/RS room from 5:30-6, gather all together in the gym one more time for a brief summary of Halloween history (by me!) and the sing-along, then head out to the parking lot to Trunk-or-Treat at 6:20. We actually stayed pretty close to the schedule + 10 minutes. It took a little longer to get everyone fed because I didn't have the tables set up for people to go down both sides, but someone took initiative and moved them for me, and then the line started moving more quickly. Other awesome people saw that my water cooler was not going to cut it for drinks and went to the kitchen to fill up water pitchers and put them out on all the tables. It is nice to be in charge of a party where everyone is so helpful! I'd bought 125 (biodegradable!) 5-compartment trays so people could conveniently try multiple chilis in one trip, and we had 100 Styrofoam (not biodegradable...) bowls as well. We used everything, and even had to start putting chili in cups towards the end. Drew made an enormous chili that took up our whole crockpot plus another pot and it was cleaned out by the end of the night. It won 2nd place in the Chili Cookoff, which was a very slapdash competition because I had asked the Elders Quorum Activities Committee to take care of it and they didn't start thinking through the logistics of their assignment until the party had already started. I didn't try the first place chili, but I can attest that Drew's was excellent. So excellent he had to make it again on Sunday so we could taste it again. Here's Drew with his new stock pot, perfect for award-winning chili-making.
I had great feedback from the families who participated in the family history challenge: that it had helped them see what tasks need to be done to get the family history documents/photos they have digitized for easy sharing with the rest of their family, that it had helped them better visualize the stories of their ancestors and remember who they were and where they fit in. Below is my favorite picture I came across while working on mine. It took me a minute to understand what was happening in the picture, because most of the pictures are very formal and posed, but I think my great grandma Elizabeth is being pushed off this rock into the water by her husband Rex (Vivien's namesake) and her brother Bill. I highlighted her flailing legs and their sneaky faces. Look! 100 years ago people were still people who laughed and pranked and fought and struggled and loved and lived! And I'm related to these ones:
The sing-along was my favorite part of the party. You couldn't hear the guitars at all because I didn't mic them, but I had Joel and McKenzie sing into the mic to lead the singing, and I had our old nursery music leader Tiffany Shurtz bring her little egg shakers for everyone to keep the beat with, and we laughed and sang and smiled all together and I loved it! We had the trunk-or-treat out in the parking lot, and some people had gone above and beyond with their trunk decorations so it was super fun. I got to talk to all of my Primary kids as they came by, and when I went back in after the candy was gone some of the men had stayed inside and were just finishing cleaning up the whole party. I think it went extremely well. And the best part is, it's over!! I forgot to say the best scare of my Halloween season. I was making a final sweep around the building after the party and turning off lights. I walked past the door to the cultural hall and looked through the dark to the other side, and there, framed in the open doorway, back-lit by the dim light in the opposite foyer and holding perfectly still, were two of my tall skinny Primary teachers that had dressed up as skeletons, just standing there. I had a little rush of adrenaline and had to sit on the floor for a minute. They had stayed after the party to meet with the bishop and thought they'd give me a little fright on their way out. It worked.
The day before Halloween we carved our pumpkins.
The two white pumpkins were the lone survivors from our original crop before the squash bugs killed everything.
They were not good carving pumpkins, being rather delicate from their months-long stint on our counter. Much of Drew's details on his fire-breathing dragon were lost.
And I couldn't put half the onaments on my calavera as I wanted to.
We had Vivien and Rafe draw what they wanted on their pumpkins and then we carved them out. Vivien's included a hat and bow-tie this year.
Rafe's sported jagged teeth and some good spooky eyes.
Annie requested a cat. We had to go through several drafts before we came up with a design she approved of.
We set them out along our path to light the way to our front door. It froze the night before Halloween and killed off the beautiful marigolds. Not those mums though. Those are some tough flowers!
The Halloween Spider took awhile this year to spin his Halloween web. He was otherwise occupied. Vivien set up this shot
He must have gotten to the basilisk chapters though, because he did eventually put down the book and get outside.
I studied a couple pictures of webs on the internet to get a feel for their construction and tried to spin it just as a spider would. I think it turned out pretty well! Our spider definitely caught a couple Trick-or-Treaters, especially those whose visibility was obstructed by masks.
Obi-wan and Ladybug went to school on Halloween.
Rafe's class decorated sugar skulls.
Vivien came home with candy from a classmate and showed off her superhero agility.
Ocean came trick-or-treating with us again. Leo specifically requested a picture of everyone in the light, because Ocean died her hair purple to dress up as Mal from Disney's Descendants and it shows up best in the sun.
Annie was Ladybug's kwami (the thing that gives her powers), Tikki.
One more of all those cute kiddos. Love the sass in this one.
We were going to have mummy hot-dogs, but the crescent roll dough didn't quite make it into the shopping cart, so we had pizza instead, with carrots and olives and green grapes and black corn chips and guacamole for sides.
Merrick wanted to tell Ocean about 10,000 times that he had seen Yoda at the Bloonesta. "OOOOOCEAN!!! OOOOOCEAN!!!" "Why does he keep saying my name?" "He wants to tell you something." "OOOOOCEAN!!!" "What?" "WE SAW YYYYYODAAAA!!!"
Here's Rafe's costume from the back. Drew found this woven blanket fabric at Walmart that did the job beautifully once it had been zig-zag stitched around its edges.
The Halloween procession
The trick-or-treaters
Rafe getting ready to score all the candy
I passed out candy, blasting Danse Macabre from my iHome speaker into the night for a good hour. Here are triumphant Tikki and Ladybug with candy-laden bags on their return
Let's see. I have a couple news things and some random pictures.
News first.
Our stake boundaries were rearranged the week before our Children's Sacrament Meeting Presentation (which is why bishop asked if we could move it up). We had 119 kids, we lost 27 kids, gained 14 kids, so we had a net loss of 13 kids. I also lost 9 of my 23 teachers, my 1st counselor, and my secretary. Another teacher got called into the bishopric today, another one will be made the new RS president next week, 2 more teachers are moving at the beginning of the year, and I'm losing my song leader in December. It's going to be so much fun. This is our Primary before the boundary realignments, having a Program dress rehearsal
Some were more into it than others. That's Vivien in the yellow sweater.
But, the stake presidency gave special permission for everyone who was in our ward to attend for one more Sunday, so our Primary Program wasn't too badly affected. I invited the new children to participate if they so desired and a few did. We had a practice on Saturday. While we waited for everyone to arrive I made the kids join hands and make a huge chain and lead them through the dark church building so they wouldn't run around the chapel. When enough people arrived we got everyone sitting on the stand, then while the song leader ran through the list of songs with the kids I contacted all the kids who weren't there to see if they'd be there Sunday or not so we could finalize our seating chart. We put the Sunbeams down in a pew so they wouldn't be hyper crazy nuts on the rostrum.
I thought the program went really well. I had been having such a hard time writing it; I'd sit down and have ideas but they never seemed quite right. I talked to Haley and she told me about the cool thing Kaitlyn's ward did, just assigning the oldest class of children speaking parts, and that seemed perfect since our Primary was so huge and we had 15 kids in that "graduating" Primary class. I wrote prompts for each of the 11yo's (Things like, "Why should we read the scriptures? What scripture has increased your faith in Jesus Christ this year?" or "What is one of Jesus' commandments that you try to keep? How do you do it? How has keeping that commandment blessed your life?") and asked their parents to help them prepare a 1-minute-or-less talk. I had my counselor introduce the program and bear her testimony, then we sang our songs with one or two speakers in between, halfway through I gave a short talk about baptism (talked about why I'd gotten baptized and read some scriptures from Romans), then had the 15 kids from CTR 7 class who were baptized this year stand in a row on either side of me and introduced them to the ward as "new creatures" in Christ. I asked the congregation to think back on attending some of their baptisms, and shared my feelings about being a part of Vivien's baptism, and how similar it felt to the wonder and promise and excitement and peace you feel when you first hold your newborn baby in your arms. All of those 8yo's looked up at me and just beamed as I told them how proud we were of them for starting their new life as disciples of Christ. It was really sweet.
More news! I auditioned for the Albuquerque Philharmonic, and I made it! And not only did I make it, but I made it into 1st violins! My audition was in front of the conductor and all the principal strings. I played a snippet of the Franck Violin Sonata and then my 3 excerpts, then I was told to go wait in the warm-up room while they conferred. I waited for about 5 minutes (a worrying amount of time) before the concert master came running in and apologized for the delay; they had started talking about something else. She said, "You were in a millisecond after you walked out!" I am a substitute since I missed the original auditions, but I will at least get to play this concert (John William's Overture to The Cowboys, the first two of Debussy's Trois Nocturnes, and Dvorak 8) and next concert (Brahms Academic Overture, Star Wars, and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition!!!). It's a fun orchestra, and the concerts are free, so I don't even have to feel awkward about inviting everyone I know.
Here is the conductor, Byron Herrington. He is also the principal trombone in the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra.
And more news. I learned how to hot-wire my car. We were at the park the other day and I went to start the car and nothing happened. Tried to jump it and it didn't work. Borrowed The McKenzie's car and took the battery to Walmart and it was fine. Called a guy in our ward who's a mechanic and he came to look at it and discovered a short in the circuit the starter is on. It's working fine now, but he cut me a little piece of wire to keep in my car and use to hot-wire it if it ever happens again.
Last news: everyone got sick again. I got a terrible cold two weeks ago that completely knocked me out. I swear I have caught every bug that's come through our house since I started working nights. It's super annoying. Drew caught the cold from me...somehow... and felt awful for a couple days.
Then yesterday evening Merrick started throwing up.
And Annie started this morning when Merrick moved on to explosive diarrhea that is completely uncontainable. Drew stayed home from church with them today and poor Annie missed the Primary program.
Courtney has been very stressed lately, what with the Primary Program and having to sell her house and move and doing IVF all at the same time. She vents her stress by baking delicious treats, and we all benefit from her distress. She had all the "family" over for this divine cheesecake the other week.
Drew had given the kids some chores to do in the afternoon, but they had procrastinated them all day. Drew told them if they could finish their chores by 7:15 they could go to the Davies for dessert. I was not allowed to help them. They didn't finish. So Drew sent me by myself. Everyone was impressed with his hard core parenting, but they missed him. We all ended up packed onto the couch after dessert, Bo giving massages...
...and everyone cooing over precious baby Brock.
I passed on our rocker to another new mom in the area this week. We got it from a family in our Seattle ward when Rafe was a new baby. He's kind of outgrown it.
I took a picture of my healthy lunch the other day but was instantly ashamed, because my picture also documented the Captain Crunch I fed the kids for lunch.
Here are cousins FaceTiming each other.
Here are kiddos eating salsa made from our garden tomatoes that are slowly ripening on the counter.
Here is my neighbor's gigantic Golden Shepherd named Murphy that I am watching while they're out of town this weekend.
Here is the pickleball setup at the stake where I play on Tuesdays mornings.
When I take a shower, Annie and Merrick come stand on the little ledge in the bathroom to keep me company. At least I know they're not getting into trouble, but it's not very relaxing.
Whenever you read Merrick a story, he rests his arm on your shoulder. It's unbearably cute.
Here is Merrick at 10:09 one night when Drew was playing games with the "brothers."
And here he is saying more cute words.
His favorite thing to say right now is "I caaaaaan't." It is almost as annoying as the Ado-Annie song from Oklahoma. He also likes to say that he hates whatever we're talking about. "Come eat lunch Merrick!" "I hate lunch." "Let's read a book Merrick." "I hate books." He reminds me of this little boy from Leo the friendly ghost, who tries to offer the family that moves into his house mint tea and honey toast and they respond like this:
One more of kids eating Ramen noodles.
A funny thing: Bo told us that in Korea if someone sees another person make a horrified or worried or disappointed face, they ask, "Did you lose your country?"
And one more. Rafe has been very quick to anger lately. I have had to move him up to one of the bucket seats in the car because he kept fighting with Vivien on the bench seat in the back the whole way home from school every single day. He is still having a hard time following the car rule (Keep your hands and feet to yourself), but it's better with him in the bucket seat. His anger is often reactionary, then when he gets in trouble it's the whole, "But she did _____ to me first!" We pulled into the garage after an especially heated drive home and I was lecturing him about not screaming like a demon at his sister and he said that she was so mean to him all the time, and I said in my most intense voice, "Rafe, if you want Annie to be nice to you, then you need to be ice to Nanny." It was certainly less intimidating than I was going for.
