Butterfly Girls

Monday indeed was a brutal awakening! We got out of the house by 5:18 for the 30 minute drive with all the things and nothing left behind. We didn’t even wake up Hannah sleeping in the loft. Score.  Amelia played the new Miraculous soundtrack, which bordered on Broadway level! I parked right next to Sara at the chapel. I was worried we were late by 4 minutes but the buses had not arrived so all was well. We got the kiddos checked in and set up with their bus number. Once the buses arrived the kids threw their luggage underneath and boarded their bus. I was worried the Flakes and Hansen’s would not arrive in time, they thought arrival time was 6:30, but that was the departure time. Phillip roomed with Darrell Flake so he was worried too. I let their bus chaperone know when Ruth was going to arrive, they made it in time (or the bus waited). I headed home with my thought and prayers for the kids to have an exceptional spiritual experience. At home I snuggled with Rachel on the couch watching cats reacting to cucumbers behind them. Rachel was quite sad Jana left for a walk, we snuggled those tears away. Jana left right on time, she is so prepared and organized. Makes me feel like a dirty mess! She even wanted to wipe off all my smudged cabinet doors in the kitchen. I am regretting the white, it looks so light and airy but is hard to keep clean. I admit cleaning cabinet doors is quite low on the totem pole. We waved them all a tearful goodbye. It was short but so, so nice to visit. I tried to get my shopping list managed, my eyes kept wiggling from fatigue, so off I went to take a nap. The little girls went with me to Walmart for the day’s diversion. I only spent $150 on food! Our meals for the week were geared for only two adults and Everett eating food. We had shrimp & avocado salsa, grilled cheese and tomato soup, French toast, and hamburgers on the menu. 

Tuesday Evelyn and Josie ran high fevers for a day, Jana reported that Hannah slept the entire way home and also had a fever. So we laid low for Tuesday and Wednesday bored out of our minds. I was able to edit all the photos from the weekend by Friday evening. Thursday the girls and I tried our hand at painting squishes like Moriah Elizabeth. The paint drying time turned the craft from a one-sit event to a three day ordeal. The squishes to this day are still lacking about 3 coats of white fabric paint. The girls were disappointed their squishes did not look like Moriah’s. We had a learning session about YouTube tutorials, often times they only see the end result after hours of cut video time. Fergus was groomed on Thursday. He came home trembling from the groomer. Mitch is quite the character, he said Fergus was a little Sh** during his session. I can only imagine! His haircut looks much better now that he has grown. Little stinker has chewed up the chairs and table I worked so hard on last year, he chewed the baseboards and wall corners, poos on the front room carpet. He can now match colors! He poops on the brown carpet. Needless to say, I am worried about leaving him at home alone while we are at school. Looks like I need to hire Sara to check on him a couple times a day. 

Josie fell in love with a pair of butterfly wings at Claire’s…for $20! Nope. Amazon had the same wings for $14 with 2 sets of wings, headbands, and masks! The girls flew around for a few days as gorgeous butterflies.  

Justin is extremely frustrated with work. Some HR drama happened over some mistaken numbers reported, the employee self-reported the error but was put under probation. He was upset (and rightly so) that this employee was investigated when he followed the proper protocol, what happens next time he makes a mistake…like the one he found that same day? I hear processes and accountability are making this reporting period a giant drama llama. He comes home exhausted after working 12 hours. We appreciate the effort, we really do. 

Friday I slept through my alarm, no one woke up until after 10 am. The situation we woke up to was awful indeed. The day before I noticed poop tracks all over the downstairs. Vader had diarrhea in his crate during the night. Justin let him out in the morning noticing the smell but not checking the dog. Oh my gracious! It smelled like poop death when I came downstairs. Took me a good hour with a brush, towel, bleach spray, and baggies to track down all the messes. It was nasty. Friday Josie reported both dogs had crapped in their crates. Oh my smelly mess. Took me another 4 hours to clean every scrap of dog stuff, the crates, the floors, the walls, the SMELL. I had flashbacks of Phillip pooping in the floor vents when he was little. 

Josie made a goal to play her violin more using a sticker chart as incentive. She was very sad come Friday, did not want to practice. Everett volunteered to become Mr. Wiggle Pickles, the violin practice cheerleader. He dressed with with a Vader helmet, glasses, a slinky, and other hilarious props! He made Josie’s day! Evelyn came down as Miss Hanky Panky in Grandma’s wig, a tutu, glasses, and such. I got my new flute! It is quite fun to put it to the test. Turns out I am just a terrible flautist! On to practicing my embouchure. 

I turned 46 on Saturday. Justin walked in after leaving on a mysterious errand with my own box of doughnuts, a balloon, and red roses! MY OWN BOX OF DOUGHNUTS! I was very sad my belly was full having eaten cereal just 5 minutes before he got home. I admired the doughnuts and ate one later on in the day. I was nice and shared my treat with the family, even thought I just wanted to horde them with a sharp fork and hissing. Mine. I worked on my blog a bit, got behind again, it’s hard to keep up. Mia and Phillip got home around 2:35 pm, Evelyn Josie, and I went to pick them up. The excitement level was three times higher as the kids exited the bus! Amelia made two good local friends Bekha and Hallie who live in Boise and another girl Sam who lives in Washington State. Phillip’s new friend Tyson Dirks texted me to say he thought Phillip is a great young man. We heard some details about games they played, Amelia was a toddler throwing a fit while Phillip lost his legs for the Sweetwater game. The food was terrible, except for the last day, maybe by then Mia was so hungry anything tasted good. The classes were amazing. Their favorite day was Thursday when everyone wore their church clothes all day and had devotionals. Amelia auditioned for the talent show, played her ukulele and sang “I Do Adore.” The rooms were stifling hot, the fans recommended in the packing list were golden. Sounds like it was an amazing experience. Justin took me out for Shrimp at our fave Mexican restaurant. I needed work pants so we went to Maurice’s for jeans. I loved chatting with mom, Miekka, Jeremy, Jana, and my family. It was a good day. The day ushered out with strawberry jello cake and ice cream. Can’t get much better than that! Sara got me a fun apron and embroidery stuff. Amelia sweetly spent her hard earned money on a Totoro hat and cute Totoro earrings. 

Sunday we had a break the fast after church. For Primary I used the parachute to teach Master, the Tempest is Raging. It went over quite well. Josie really wanted to play at Ronald Reagan, she drove her car down to the playground. I convinced Sara to come along. The adults played…which Josie thought was very boring. She disappeared into a deep patch of silky grass, Josie turned into a cat. It was amazing.