College Tour, Combined Rehearsal, Thanksgiving 2024
Last week was so boring I did not feel inclined to write. The highlights were Justin and Amelia driving to Pocatello Friday morning for a BYU-I tour. Amelia got an email from BYU-I on Tuesday, a full day later than expected. She called me and opened the email during 3rd period, it almost felt like a mission call letter situation. Amelia was so relieved to get into the college she wanted after all the other college acceptances pouring in, to get an acceptance to the anticipated college was quite a relief. I am pushing her to look for a way to retake the SAT, if she can score just a few points higher she can get the highest scholarships to cover tuition. We looked and all the slots are booked through this school year. I wanted to go with Justin and Amelia but MCO's combined rehearsal was also that weekend. Divide and conquer. Amelia said the trip was really fun. The first item of the day was going on the campus tour at 3 pm. Surprisingly, Amelia said she saw Logan Hansen walk by, she was sure she would not see anyone she knew! Amelia signed her acceptance letter...the tour was a success! They met up with Clare and Renee for dinner at an Indian restaurant across the street from Clare's apartment. Justin was excited to cover dinner for everyone. He even paid for theater tickets so Amelia and Clare could watch the new Wicked movie. That was a highlight for the girls.
At home Sara helped me do grocery shopping for Thanksgiving at Walmart and Winco! What a blessing! With both drivers gone we were stuck at home. The cart battery died at Walmart after only 15 minutes, my armpits were really sore by the end of shopping. Phillip came down with a really, really bad cough and head cold. Poor kid was delirious Thursday and Friday with a fever and cough. Thankfully, everyone had a week off work/school to relax. I was so tired Friday morning I stayed in bed until 10 just reading, got up and then fell asleep on the couch for another couple of hours. Same story on Saturday! I guess the lack of things to do and places to go made us all a bit lazy. The Ostlers came over Friday night to watch the Wild Robot with us.
Sara drove us to Middleton HS for combined MCO rehearsal at 7:45 am. Phillip stayed home, he was still not feeling well at all. I tried to hawk concert hair bows, no luck there. I directed traffic from a chair situated in the hallway. It was magnificent...really, the dulcet tones coming from the auditorium were the magnificent tones. The singers did so well that rehearsal ended 8 minutes early...unheard of! Sara et al packed up their doggies and left right after rehearsal was over for a short weekend trip to Shelley, ID. Josie took her elf along to play with, I think her name is Sugar Cookie.
Monday the 25th I booked an appointment for Maisie at the vet to get her health assessed. She is peeing everywhere, I finally had to block her from the couch because she pees wherever she perches, even in her kennel. Turns out Maisie has 2 golf ball sized bladder stones, basically her entire bladder is occupied with stones. A urine test inconclusively determined the stones could be Struvite stones, which are dissolvable using medication and prescription food. Except the size of her stones would take 6+ months to dissolve. The stones are causing injury to her kidneys with bacterial infections and such. We got 3 different quotes for treatment ranging from $3,200 to $1,500 depending on what we decide on. She needs to be spayed, has a few rotten teeth (and needs her teeth cleaned), plus the bladder surgery which is the most expensive option. We are devastated, spending that much on a dog is too much for our finances. We had a few family meetings to update the kids on what we learned from the vet, we need to have a decision by next week.
Sunday cleaning is an absolute shit show. Everyone is playing a part to make it awful. Sunday's show brought to you by the Call Family:
Jenni: smoothing out all the fires, but really just making more fires
Amelia: critical queen, tries to parent
Phillip: takes all criticism to heart, works slower than molasses
Everett: eager beaver, covering his ears just trying to get things done a quickly as possible, often misses or ignores feedback, starts crying
Evelyn: wears on her sleeve all the emotions we all feel, so she yells, spits everything back (Justin, Mia, and sometimes Phillip) throw it right back. Escalation Queen.
Josie: flits around, like Everett, just staying out of the way cleaning the perimeters
By the end we are all worn out, angry, and hating life. Last Sunday was especially terrible because everyone was tired. I hate the cleaning up on Sunday is such a big deal. We clean up often so the house does not get to level 10 destruction mode. Amelia and Evelyn especially butt heads. Evelyn is convinced that Amelia hates her. When Evelyn sees Amelia having a hard time she reaches out with a hug or kind words to which Amelia pushes her away. Breaks my heart that Amelia does not see all the good Evelyn has in her heart. Justin is convinced the kids are willfully disobeying him, more like they are kids and don't listen. Instead of taking a step back he escalates which ramps up the fighting. If he could respond with love and patience instead cleaning would be so much better. There is no award for crushing a kid like a bulldozer.
I contacted Nina to start up sessions again with Evelyn, she had an opening on Tuesday morning so Amelia drove us up for that. Amelia actually stepped up (hooray) and took Evelyn to the gas station as a reward for doing dishes without complaining. She offered to take Evelyn out to dinner (alone) IF Evelyn would clean without a tantrum for 4 Sundays! Today was magical. Sometimes all it takes is thoughtful intervention from another family member. Mrs Gingerich came over to hang out Tuesday night. We had Mexican food for dinner. She played Rummikub and Small World with us after dinner. We watched Wild Robot (again) while watercoloring. Josie and Mrs Gingerich kept up a running commentary about the differences between the books and the movie. Amelia painted the cutest set of mushrooms! Josie painted a Dragon's eye with Mrs Gingerich. We had a lovely evening.
I had the family drag in all the Christmas bins on Monday so I could leisurely decorate for Christmas throughout the week. I could not make the post-turkey transformation happen in a day like most other years. Amelia helped me hang stuff on the star wall, Phillip helped assemble the tree, the littles and Everett decorated the tree with me. Sara helped lay out the Nativity table. Evelyn decorated the "tree" vignette. I love the communal effort this year, though having all the bins scattered about felt cluttered. We still have a few things to finish but it was mostly completed by Friday afternoon.
Everett made all the pie dough this year. He was a great robot following all my instructions! I had the correct recipe out and verbally helped him through the process, three times. He also got the cranberry salad started before we cleaned up. Amelia, Phillip, Everett, and I went to Target for some Christmas shopping. I stopped at Bath and Body for a couple items Evelyn was really wanting, found two darling doggo backpacks on sale. We enjoyed a very merry trip together.
Thanksgiving morning was really rough. I got up late, hobbled downstairs to find WW4 raging. Amelia yelling at Justin and Justin dishing it right back, arguing over who knows what. Justin not listening, Amelia not listening, and both not understanding the other. They kept triggering each other making us all cringe. I asked Justin to go find some grapes...he came back annoyed because the stores were crazy. Amelia and Justin went right at each other's throats again. GUYS! They got it together before we started Horse Duvers at 11 am, but the mood put a damper on the day. Everett made goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. Amelia made brie stuffed sourdough bread with cranberry sauce and pecans, toasted inthe oven. It's magical! The Ostlers were introduced to the sacred tradition of the Horse Duver. Mmmm. Later we went over to their home for Thanksgiving dinner. Dusty managed the turkey, it was well-managed, sooooo tender and juicy! Thank you Sara and Dusty for making dinner, it was perfect. We played a few card games after dinner that Sara and Dusty like to play, those were really fun. Justin brought over Rhonda (the huge apple pie), Pumpkey, and Nutty the pies I made earlier that day. I ran out of pie plates so I used a 9x13 for the last pie. It was so big Amelia had to name it Rhonda. She was especially excited to used the apple peeler/corer/slicer to prepare the apples. Sara had a banana cream pie, chocolate pie, and a pumpkin pie. We enjoyed lots of pie for dessert. Dang we are blessed.
Friday we worked to finish getting Christmas decorations up and the boxes put away. I invited Rachel, Eliza, and Andrew Beck over to our home for a crafty session. Rachel taught Josie her violin lesson from 1-2 pm, we had an amazing jam session right in our music room with Josie and Rachel on violin, Eliza on guitar, and Andrew on mandolin to practice Jingle Bells and Jolly Old St Nick. Josie's concert is just a week away! She is working hard practicing each day on her 4 songs. Amelia nabbed the girls for some Mario Kart. Then we went to crafting. The girls decorated candles with wax, made earrings, played with resin, and whatever crafts looked fun. Eliza and I worked on crocheting earrings. She is a quick study. Those kids remind me of my home growing up, lots of self-entertainment with little to no TV. I'd kick it out of the house if Justin was not attached. Our Nelves made an appearance Friday evening right before dinner! They rang doorbells, knocked on windows, rang bells, and THEN left a Lego tree, candy, and a baby elf for Josie. Scared us all to death! We had two theater tickets burning a hole in our pockets...so we went to see Wicked. We got there 10 minutes before the 7 pm showing, all the good seats were taken so I opted for the 7:45 show with better seats. The wait was fine because we had a long wait in the concession line, silly photos in front of the Wicked display, then found our seats, used the bathroom, then sat through all the previews. It was AWESOME! We loved it! Everett and Amelia were happy to go refill the popcorn and slurpees, free refills baby. At the end a loud yell erupted from my voice box, a thrilled yah!!! So cool.
Our microwave is not working. We have to use the garage microwave (from our AZ days) which is often a hazard because the garage is a disaster. Justin enlisted the boy's help to clean it out an assess the problem. Looks like there is a damaged part that can be replaced. Let's hope we can get that fixed soon. I worked most of Saturday editing two family sessions I photographed as a teacher gift for Evelyn's teacher. Sister Minor called me about the Christmas program on Dec 22nd. We finally got a good program assembled. We both felt all the good feelings about the program.
Today after church I had two mini choir practices, one for a youth number, and the other for adults. The youth practice garnered quite a few singers! They are singing "When He Comes Again/Joy to the World." The adult choir is singing "Come, Lord Jesus." For a last minute practice, I was grateful for the turn out. The Nelves left advent calendars on the girl's bed sometime between 4-5:30 pm. Nnylatter moved Josie's Elf on the Shelf and even a note on the whiteboard. Melody instructed Josie that if she surrounded her elf with sugar, salt, and pepper that the Elf on the Shelf would regain its powers. Time will tell! Oliver taped a piece of cardboard titled "cursed" on the elf, maybe it is cursed? Maybe the Nelves move the elf? One day the secrets will come to light.
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