Labor Day

 

We all rejoiced Monday was a holiday! It felt like a blessed day of rest from our Labor(s). My mom stayed around watching silly old family videos with us until lunch then headed home. We missed her even before she drove away. Everett gave Grandma enough hugs to last until she got back home. He is quite the snuggly guy. Josie cried for about 10 minutes then went on her merry way. While we were outside I noticed a large circular "hickey" on Everett's forehead. When questioned he revealed the boys were playing with the bug bite extractor seeing who could keep it on the longest before breaking. Everett obviously tried his forehead! I enjoyed a good, long laugh! Another highlight was catching Phillip outside his room without a shirt on...my new, favorite game is to slap his chest when he is shirtless. Makes my day when he forgets. I was on my last leg as far as energy. We talked about going on a bike ride, exploring downtown, and etcetera. None of those sounded good to me. The boys ended up in the truck to explore the way up to Silver City. The girls and I convinced Sara and Oliver to walk around the mall for a few hours. Evelyn and Josie were stoked to go shopping. Oliver lost interest after 30 minutes! Josie was thrilled to use several quarters for gum balls. Amelia found a super cute dress at Down East that was clearance. The clerk said the dress looked the best on her out of many other customers...especially after Mia added a belt. We also found some cute and comfortable tiaras 4 for $25. Mia convinced us to try rolled ice cream, which was absolutely delicious. The best part of mall walking is watching all the people, so many different varieties of humans in our world.  

The rest of the week flew by in typical fashion. Wednesday Evelyn had another Dr appointment for ADD and Anxiety screening. I wish she did not attend the appointment, other than helping me answer the screening questions she heard more than her little ears needed to hear. She scored 54 on the anxiety scale, a score of 20 means intervention is advised. I think the score was a bit skewed since I see her doing many things I don't imagine an anxious person doing (like singing a solo in front of a crowd at church). There are two avenues for treatment: cognitive behavioral therapy and/or an SSRI like Prozac. My gut reaction was to pursue CBT first, since SSRI medications in a pre-pubescent child can be detrimental. Evelyn tried using anxiety as an excuse for acting like a spoiled stinker after her friends went home. She was blaming her anger on Anxiety. Oh no...try again sister! Not happening. She has the choice to determine her attitude and change her story. To use the crutches give her in this life as tools and get to where the Lord directs her to go. As I researched options most therapists were scheduled out over 8 months in the future. After about 20 phone calls I found an option that can take Evelyn next week and takes our insurance. Even if this therapists is not the best fit we can get something started until she can see a pediatric specialist. 

Thursday I enjoyed a couple hours browsing thrift stores. I was thrilled to find child-sized chairs for the art table and entire book series that Everett enjoys. Evelyn got some nice shoes to wear at school, her new (Walmart) shoes are already falling apart. That was a fun afternoon for me. I spent another chunk of time trying to figure out how Millennial Choir will work. I was not on the weekly email list so was missing important information. The choir is slated to start this coming Thursday. We picked up Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner to support the elementary school. Yum. 

Friday afternoon Nick from Solo Heating and Air arrived with our fancy new HVAC system. The guys worked on installing the downstairs system first, the exchange in the garage and the unit outside. There was some finagling they had to do in order to splice the new unit into the old ducts. Goodness, the output was immediately noticeable! Now it does not sound like a dying beast outside our house. Our area enjoyed an afternoon of much needed rain. Evelyn and Josie earned about $50 selling their toys! I was able to sell several nicer toys instead of donating as an incentive to get rid of more stuff. 

Saturday we stayed home while the upstairs HVAC was installed. The guys had to remove part of the closet shelving, use an hydraulic lift to get the 2 ton unit into the attic. Nick and his employee worked for 8 hours getting that beast installed. He will need to come back on Monday to finish up a couple more items like the thermostats. Guess I am bad luck, since Justin and I married we've had to replace the air conditioning in all of our 3 houses. Ha ha ha. We had a family clean inside for an hour without much complaining. Evelyn earned two stickers for working so hard without throwing a big fit. She started heading down the tantrum road, I pulled her aside and gave her a choice, throw a fit or just get it done; she could assign me two tasks and she could choose two tasks. I think she enjoyed that. After a short break we worked the rest of the day in garage. Phillip did a great job cleaning out the bike section. We organized all the totes and got summer fun packed away until next year. I worked to get my photo stuff back in the right bins and got rid of half my old photo accessories (headbands and clothes). Justin and I let the kids take a break while we went to Walmart for bike hooks and totes. I wanted larger totes for my photography accessories. Justin touched all his tools and got those re-organized, the sprinkler tote, and the bike tools tote. The garage looked like a new space by 6:30 pm. Amelia gladly made tacos for dinner all by herself! I am ready to host school photos in the garage starting Monday. Paula hosted a neighborhood ice cream party. We handed out flyers and invites 10 days beforehand to others on our street. Only Paula and Steven, the Ostlers, and the Freeman family. The kids were excited to pet Kyber the husky (7 mths old). We had a good time chatting with our neighbors and eat homemade lemon ice cream (thanks Mia) and vanilla with yummy toppings. Our kids were racing about playing a fun game with the Ostler's wagon. Mia and Clair went to the Stake Dance and enjoyed the evening. Amelia got to use her Social Dance skills learned at school for the line dances.