OCTOBER 2019

This little guy is such a funny one.  He hangs out with me all day, and does really great playing by himself or coloring/drawing (the new thing he learned to do this month and loves), reading himself books, playing with his toys, etc. Right now in time, with doing school & the boutique & managing finances, I spend a lot of time on the computer and he is pretty good with not needing attention every second.  He stays close to me, but is pretty independent.  Every once in a while I find him asleep.  It gets quiet and I go to check on him and see the cutest little guy.  If he isn't asleep he will just be sitting there with his head in his hands all still.  I'll ask him what he is thinking about and he usually says something random.  Some things I've "caught" him in deep thought about this month are: tigers, his best friend Kasen, ice cream, the Avengers song from Studio C, Wild Kratts, and toast.

SCHOOL  - For a fundraiser the kids school had a fun run.  Dallin and I went over to watch the fun while not running!  There are so many kids at this school it is crazy.  I can't wait until the new elementary is open.  Dallin ran under the finish bridge a few times while we waited for Kasen and Kinsley.  They both did great.  Kasen got 3rd place out of his whole grade.

Volleyball finished up for Ava the middle half of October.  Hallelujah!  This was a hard year.  It is so hard to watch a team get worse as the season goes on due to horrible coaching.  Our nephew Matt said everyone at Rocky Mountain would joke about what a good thing it was that our coach had no idea what she was doing because we had so much talent but so little technique.  Unfortunately, he wasn't wrong.  The coach decided early on that Ava wasn't going to play too much and that was so frustrating watching other girls who weren't as good play and make mistakes.  Ava handled it all with grace and her usual cheerfulness.  She is such a good person.  I wasn't nearly as positive.  One of my favorite things about volleyball this year was seeing Ava look outside of herself.  She could have easily felt sorry for herself, complain and blame, or even quit.  The other players were friendly to her, but they weren't inclusive.  During one tournament, Jed said that all our coach got really upset about a line call and was yelling at the line judge (which was another girl from another team).  The poor girl didn't really know what call to make and people started getting mad at her.  During the break in between matches, Jed said Ava went out of her way to find the girl that had been the line judge and tell her that she did a great job and not worry about what happened.  There are few teenagers who are aware enough of the world outside of themselves to do something like this.  I was not one of them back in my day.  But this is who Ava is and I'm more proud of that than anything amazing she does on the court.  Kasen and Dallin and Kinsley were troopers during a lot of games and tournaments.  

As I said earlier, Ava's team wasn't very inclusive and the coach was pretty much the worst person on earth in my opinion.  Some girls were nice to her in the beginning and after a few weeks invited her to hang out with them outside of school.  But then that stopped after a couple of times and they never invited her again.  It is weird, but ultimately Ava has chosen to not worry about it.  Why waste your time worrying about why other people do what they do?!  Ava is a sweet, kind, honest, hard-working, smart, beautiful, spiritual, thoughtful giant and she will find her people.  We are proud that Ava stays true to who she is and never stops moving forward. 

Speaking of moving forward, I started another semester of school.  In December I will officially be done with all of my required classes to graduate.  I will still have 12 credits to do, but they can be anything I want.  I'm taking a social media marketing class this semester and so I've had to do a lot with different social media platforms.  Kinsley and I had fun on the snapchat assignment as illustrated below.  I could finish the last 12 credits and get a certificate in social media marketing, but I'm not sure what I'll do.  On the one hand there is so much opportunity to make money online through social media, but on the other hand I hate being on social media all the time too.

Kinsley has been reading up a storm these last few weeks.  Her teacher does a really fun year-long program where the kids earn different colored ninja belts based on how much they read.  The goal is to make it to the black belt.  Kinsley passed off her first belt color this week - the white belt.  I think there are about 8 different colored belts.  She was really excited about it! Then a few weeks later she passed off her yellow belt too!

ACTIVITIES - Kasen finished his 9th season of flag football.  His team took 2nd in the division.  It is crazy that he has been playing that many seasons and Jed has coached every single one.  When I think back to how many hours that is in practices and games that is one dedicated father and son team.  They are both pretty special to get along like that for so many seasons! 

CONFERENCE WEEKEND - We missed most of conference on Saturday this year because we were at Ava's volleyball tournament and for some reason our internet connection wouldn't work.  We were able to watch the Women's session that night though.  It was Kinsley's first time being old enough to go!  Abbie Anderson was up so she came and watched it with us at our house.  Then we met Grandma Erickson and Trena at Arctic Circle for ice cream treats afterward.

Conference Sunday I was so sick I stayed in my bed most of the day.  Grandma, Grandpa, Trena, and Abbey came out for a taco lunch Jed made everyone and brownies/ice cream by Ava.  They stayed for the afternoon session.  Towards the end I was starting to feel better so I came out for a minute.  It was pretty annoying to be bed ridden.  After conference Kinsley organized a scavenger hunt for her Dallin and Kasen.  It included Kasen taking pictures of Kinsley doing things outside. lol I'm not sure how she talked him in to that but here are the pictures he got.

JK STUDIOS TOUR - About a month ago Ava told us that JK Studios (formerly the cast of Studio C) was doing a comedy tour and they had a night scheduled in Rexburg.  The kids were big fans of Studio C and now watch the JK Studios videos on youtube.  They wanted to go really bad.  I promised Ava if she would help me with making a video for a homework assignment for my social media marketing class then I would take them.  When we got there we had the option to upgrade for $20 to VIP seating and get the chance for a meet and greet.  How could I say no to these faces?  They had the best time and were laughing their guts out.  Meeting the cast was pretty fun as well. 

FUN OCTOBER EVENTS - A couple memorable events for the month... Kasen was in his last primary program ever!  We were able to get him a new suit just in time and he really looked sharp.  We are so proud of how he has worked hard to overcome his stage fright at church.  He had a speaking part and was as cool as a cat up there.  We were also here to celebrate Grandma Erickson's 78th birthday.  I'm pretty positive we have never been around when it's her birthday so it was fun to take her a surprise that day and a few days later take her out to dinner.

We finally made it to the zoo the last day they were open for the season.  I bought the passes in the summer when the kids were planning on going to the zoo camp, but they didn't end up going and we never had time to go.  I guess we will have to make up for it in the spring and summer.  The zoo here is cute and small.  It was a pretty cold day so we went through it even faster than normal.  Dallin loved it though and was so happy to see his beloved tiger and lions.

POTATO HARVEST - Our first year being back and who knew it would be so crazy with harvest.  Due to weather they couldn't start until later than normal.  Then it got really cold and was going to freeze.  Farmers were so nervous they'd lose entire fields and even kept digging through Conference Sunday.  The last night before it was supposed to get below freezing they worked all through the night.  Jed and I went up around 5pm.  Sydnee and Austin were out working.  Abby was doing dinners and then she came back out and worked.  Georgia came up and worked through the night as well.  There were a lot of other people that showed up to work all through the night.  The day crew was able to go home and rest for a bit until about 5am.  The night didn't start off too bad at all.  It wasn't too cold and we had lots of fun picking and talking.

Then all of a sudden about 2am it got so windy and cold.  The wind was like 100 mph and it felt like little toothpicks were blowing straight into my face.  I finally went and got sunglasses which helped a little bit.  Ski goggles would have been the best.  It was so freezing and miserable.  I was so happy to go home!   Jed came home, showered, slept for 2 hrs, and then went to a full day of work.  I'm not sure how he managed.  Some of the workers didn't even go home at all until the next morning at 11am.  It was too cold to dig or do anything for the next few days.  It definitely got below freezing and no one knew what they would find when digging commenced about 4-5 days later.  There was a small window of time, about 4 days, before it was supposed to get really really cold and rainy again.  So they worked like mad.  Again, Jed was going up every night after a full day of work.  I went up when I could.  One night we went up and worked late again.  It was really disheartening to see how many potatoes were getting thrown out because they were rotten. There were a few truckloads that felt like literally everything my hand touched were rotten and had to be thrown out.

One night we took the kids up to work for a little bit.  Ava couldn't come with us and we didn't stay very long, probably only two hours but it was good for the kids to work and see "Potato Mountain".

 

39TH BIRTHDAY - My last birthday of my 3rd decade on earth.  What??!!  It started off great with breakfast in bed made by Jed.  He made me a veggie omelet - my favorite.  I was especially impressed with his salsa cup.  Since I had been sick for the past 3 weeks he used my medicine cup.  So sweet.  haha.  I didn't have a lot going on for my birthday but there was a piano sale going on in Rexburg so Dallin and I went up to check it out.  It was inside an airplane museum so it was pretty much the worst place ever for Dallin.  If I wasn't trying to protect the pianos I was chasing him through very expensive aircraft.  Super fun.  I found the most beautiful dark walnut piano and couldn't pass it up.  Jed was so excited for me.  John and Coleen brought me the prettiest fall bouquet of flowers too. Kasen had basketball tryouts that night so we couldn't go out, but Jed brought me home one of the best gifts of my life.  An entire platter of Mexican food from Garcia's, a whole grocery bag of their tortilla chips, and 4 different cheesecakes from Kneaders.

I decided to gift myself with a trip to the salon for my bday as well.  The older I get it seems the more I have to do to my physical appearance to look somewhat normal.  It's like you have to be high maintenance to look low maintenance.  I got a much needed hair cut and color.  Of course I had to take my yearly birthday picture with the kids.  I started doing this in Louisville and I love seeing how different the kids look each year. 

HALLOWEEN - We started my least favorite holiday of the year off with a trip to help with Kinsley's class party.  (I hated Halloween as a kid because it was always freezing and cold.)  The kids were allowed to wear the costumes to school which was super fun.  We helped with a cake walk which Dallin wanted to be the winner of every single time.

Then we stopped to say hi to Kasen in his classroom.  On our way out we watched the costume parade of all the school kids.

After school we went up to Abby's house for a cousin Halloween party.  We decorated rice krispie treats and the kids trick or treated at different doors in the house.  Ava had a game so she wasn't able to come with us.  After the party we went and picked Ava up and drove around Rigby for about an hr while the three younger kids trick-or-treated.  It was so cold.  I'm surprised they lasted that long.  We drove out to the lake and they trick-or-treated at some of the bigger houses out there hoping for some king sized candy bars but no luck. Kasen's school teacher had sent home her address so the kids could come to her house and get a homemade donut.  Kasen thought that was pretty fun. The night ended with the annual candy trade.  I had bought some fun sugar Halloween cookies for everyone.  Leading up to Halloween Ava's GT class had put together a spook alley for younger kids that wasn't too spooky.  They ran it 3 nights the weekend before Halloween.  We took the kids and went through and it was actually pretty scary.  Dallin hated it but wouldn't every say that it was scary.  The GT kids did a great job putting it on and earned quite a bit of money to pay for their physics day (which is a trip to Lagoon in the spring. lol) 

 THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH -