Well here I am again with an update of our happenings. Enjoy.
Tuesday I had a 9 am appointment in Pleasanton for Afton and Milo. So we got everyone up, dressed and ready to go by 7:45. We took Scott to the shuttle stop and then I hopped on the freeway and got to the appointment 10 minutes early. They actually took me early and I was done by 9:30. I had another appointment that morning at 11 am with Jaime and Alix’s teacher. I made it to that appointment by 10am. She was able to take us early too. So we got home by 11. It was nice! We ate lunch, I put the little kids down for naps and Jaime, Alix and I did school. It was a very nice, very productive day. We did our chores, picked up dad, had dinner and went to bed.
Wednesday was the first day of P.E. for the girls. We got up, got dressed and out of the house by 10:30. We made it to P.E. slightly late, but that was fine. P.E. got over by 11:45. Niah and Alix went home with my friend Laura and I took the other three and headed to Oakland. Milo had a doctors appointment with his ENT. He checked out fine. Both tubes have fallen out. There was quite a bit of wax build up in both ears so the dr. removed that. He did say that there is fluid forming behind the ear drum and if Milo starts getting ear infections or having a hard time hearing that they will want to put tubes back in. We shall see what the winter season brings. We got done and back to Laura’s by 3. I grabbed the kids and headed home. I got home by 3:30. We got to work right away on our chores and cooking dinner. The sister missionaries were due at 5 pm. We had everything done by the time they showed up and had a nice dinner and short gospel game. After they left we went and picked up Scott. He ate a quick dinner, then we did our normal bed time routines and put the kiddos to bed.
Thursday was the first day of piano lessons for the Jaime and Alix. Since the girls can go anytime, we chose 10 am on Thursdays. I dropped the girls off and Milo, Niah, Afton and I went for a walk. I wasn’t too familiar with the area and so we ended up getting slightly lost. But we had a good time. Milo road his bike and I think he really enjoyed the time we spent together, I know I did. We did find a park on our little excursion and played there for a few minutes. That was fun. I was slightly late picking up the girls but the piano teacher said she didn’t mind. She could have kept them for 2 hours she had so much fun. The girls said they had fun too and couldn’t wait to come home and practice. They have done a really good job about practicing and they love it. We spent the rest of the rest of the early afternoon doing school. My friend Li-Li came by about 3 and the kids played and we talked. She left about 5. The kids did chores and I cooked dinner. We got Scott, ate dinner and then went to bed, we were all pretty tired out by now.
Friday was suppose to be a little less crazy. We did some morning school and chores. We then went and met our group at the park. Alix had an appointment at noon. None of my friends were ready to leave the park and asked if my kids could stay to play with their kids. I agreed and Afton and Alix and I went to the appointment. After waiting 20 minutes I went up to the receptionist and asked how much longer, she said about 30-40 minutes. No thank you! I asked for my co-pay back and left. But, I did get a chance to talk to some really nice old people. One couple had been married for 56 years. The other old man was there with his daughter. He had been married for 64 years before his wife passed on and he was now a great-great grandfather. Amazing! He seemed very alert and healthy for the age he must have been. He even sang Happy Birthday to Afton! Oh ya, it was Afton’s birthday on Friday. We didn’t do too much celebrating since Scott was at work and she usually goes to bed very soon after he gets home. We had decided to save the festivities for Saturday. So we got back to the park. By then the original set of friends were ready to go home, but a couple of other people I know and don’t get to see too often came to the park so we stayed and talked and played. We didn’t get home till 3:30. By then we were all pretty tired out so we just lounged till it was time to make dinner and do chores. After picking up Scott and having dinner, Scott went to run errands and I put the kiddo’s to bed. I fell asleep before Scott even got home.
Saturday morning started early for me. Niah woke me up at 6 am to go potty. That was fine since I needed to grab a few things from the store for Afton’s party. Niah went with me since she was awake. We pulled into the Wal Mart parking lot and I was just sitting there enjoying the quiet of the morning. All of a sudden Niah laughs and says ‘I tooted. That means it’s time to get out of the car. My toot was telling me it’s time to get out.’ It was so funny I couldn’t help laughing. She has such a wonderfully happy personality. After picking up a few things at Wal Mart I stopped by Safeway and got donuts and ice cream. Scott said Afton would want donuts for her birthday breakfast. After eating a donut as big as her, Afton was still hungry so she ate some pancakes too. We had a few Saturday morning chores to do and so we went right to work. We were having the Elders for lunch and had decided to bbq. We did some ribs, hamburgers and hot dogs. We had potato salad and watermellon. Then we had smores. Afton had fallen asleep, otherwise we were going to share her birthday cake with the Elders. We had a nice visit and they left us with a wonderful spiritual thought. After they left we tried to lay Milo and Niah down for naps but that did not work. Instead, Afton woke up and we had her party. She enjoyed opening her gifts. Her radio from Grandma A was a big hit. She didn’t want to give that up. We brought in the cake and she looked at us as if we were crazy. She had help blowing out her candle and then we gave her her piece. We fully expected her to go at it. We were hopeful when she right away put her hand in it. But she wouldn’t take a bite, she just kept smooshing it. Scott put a little piece in her mouth. She gave a look of confusion/disgust and picked up the whole piece and threw it!! It was so funny we picked it up and gave it back to her. She looked at us like we were idiots or something and threw it again. At this point it was getting pretty messy on the floor and so we cleaned up. It was funny though. She would have nothing to do with that cake. We washed her up and relaxed for about an hour. Then we put Afton down for a nap and played a few games with the other kids. That was super fun. Then we had dinner, baths and bed. Jaime and Alix stayed up a little later than usual cause we were looking at some old pictures. I had forgotten how fat/chubby Niah was as a baby. She had rolls! Not Afton, no way! Anyway, it was fun to remember some fun times in the past. The girls really enjoyed it. It made me realize how very important pictures and journals are. Posterity really enjoys them.
Scott is putting the finishing touches on his lesson. I finished mine. They called me on Wednesday night and asked if I would teach the lesson in R.S. I said sure. The lesson is on keeping the sabbath day holy. It’s been interesting the information I’ve found on that. One quote in particular really hit me. Anyway, fun times. I’ll let you know how things go. We have some families over for dinner tomorrow night and then nothing, not one thing scheduled till next Saturday. Not sure how I will handle that, but we shall see. I haven’t had a blank week in….I don’t know how long.
Much love to all.
I should have read this entry before commenting on the picture of Afton. Now I get it. That is pretty funny that she thought you were feeding her cake from a different planet! I doubt if her dislike for cake will last too long. The “toot” story was pretty funny too. Kids really do say the darndest things!
I loved the lesson this week. As I was reading the past few days I for some reason, just thought it was the greatest lesson. Maybe I felt a spiritual connection to you teaching it.
I am sure you will make do with a week without anything scheduled. You can come over to our house if you like. :-)
I really enjoyed the lesson and the other things I found while doing research. I was greatful for the insights that I gained. I hope I really put these lessons into practice and not just forget about them and move on with life. I’d love to come over this week. Too bad you live like 1000 miles away!! Maybe next week……
Much love.