Phillip (17) and Evelyn (13) Birthdays
Phillip’s birthday was on Tuesday, one of our busiest days of the week. Ben gave Phillip the BEST gift ever: a gallon of red fruit punch. Phillip had to carry the gallon around school all day long! I pinned a birthday badge on his backpack before he left for school, little stinker probably hid it later. Evelyn made Phillip a burning Elmo picture and made him breakfast on Tuesday. She is one thoughtful kiddo. Right after school was over we snarfed down sloppy joes before strings lessons at the Beck’s home. On our way back we stopped at Albertson’s to get some cheesecake and whipped cream for Phillip’s birthday treat. He asked for t-shirts, a nice watch, pirate ship 3-1 Lego, and a key strap. Easy peasy. I felt bad his birthday was so chill and normal but that’s the way birthdays go when you grow older. We ended his special day watching videos of Phillip as he went from a tiny smiling baby to one heck of a kid. I can’t believe we survived his toddler days.
Mr. Darcy 2.0 came galloping into my life Tuesday afternoon. This version was not cracked and looks like a slice of 3-d printer perfection. I figured out that because our school wifi and bluetooth are dumb the only way to connect to Mr Darcy is using USB sticks…dude, stoopid and ancient tech there NSD. I now have a lovely 3-d boat, the christening print most 3-D printers print. As you can imagine, the first question I get each class is: when can you print me a 3d dragon Mrs Call? My response: when you can learn to design one YOURSELF. We had an assembly on Thursday. Basically, that was like a shoot-me-in-the-foot experience. Let’s build community!!! Hooray. We took the first graders outside for a 3rd recess because we only had 25 minutes left. I sent three students to the wall 4 times for playing dead horse. Students are not supposed to wrestle or you know, lay on top of each other, for obvious reasons. Each time I turned around these 3 were canoodling each other. The first time I warned them not to get on top of each other. Turned back, they were back at it. Sent them to the wall for a minute. Turned around, they are on top of each other. Went to talk with them, “where is your body ma’am?” “Well, Mrs Call by belly is touching his belly because we’re dead horses.” Ok! What IF you played dead horse by laying NEXT to each other? OK! I look back, guess what they’re on top of each other. Back to the wall. After several iterations of this the little girl finally said, “Mrs Call….my parents play dead horse like this all the time and they don’t have to go to time-out.” Doh! I wonder what dead horse really means?
Evelyn is our newest teenager. Yes, that fire slayer is now 13 years old. Funny thing is she turned 13 when she was two years old. It’s been a looooong year (wink). Evelyn really wanted her own suitcase. You heard that right, a suitcase. Hannah thought it was strange that Evelyn got a suitcase for her birthday. What else is a girl to do when your mom won’t buy you one because it’s too expensive? You guessed it, ask for one for your birthday. She chose a lavender color with lots of pockets and bags inside the case. She is one happy girl with her suitcase. She had her outfit chosen the night before, hair curled, and slaying all the baddies for her special day. Evelyn got a dolphin lego, bedazzle kit, coloring book, and some other mystery boxes (Harry Potter scene and Roblox), and her darling Salmonella the weighted dog. Her cute friend Lyla made Evelyn 3 flower pens and gave her $2 of her own money. How sweet is that. Evelyn cringes whenever I say she is my newest teenager. So I say it to everyone I meet just to cause cringe factor.
The birthday kids went out to dinner at the Smokey Pickle with Mom and Dad for dinner on Thursday. Mom didn’t want to cook, so that was perfection. The Smokey Pickle is a new smokehouse restaurant with BBQ meats and lots of side dish choices. We tried the pulled pork, smoked turkey, steak, and brisket then 4 sides like fries, slaw, beans, and hominy. They had a sideboard with different sauces and many types of pickles. Evelyn was not a fan at all, she thought everything was too spicy. She sure ate all her food in spite of the complaining. I heard the banana pudding was on par so we ordered two of those to share. It was very delicious. Evelyn hated it, so Phillip got the entire container. I felt a little bad so she got an ice cream cone on the way home. We called Jen Snider (Pickle friend) on the way home just for fun. It’s hard to believe it’s been 8 years since we last saw our pickle friend. Amelia was able to call home on Tuesday and Thursday this week! She watched Evelyn open her gifts, which made Evelyn’s entire day.
Friday evening all the kids were gone. That was strange! Phillip went to an escape room with Ben, Bodhi, and Jovanhii. Evelyn was at Lyla’s birthday party watching a movie. Josie went with Lucy and Kara to Blazing Hope for some horse riding. Everett was in and out playing Among Us with the Ostlers and Flake boys. I was startled several times by Benson lying on the ground “dead” at random places around our house. I must say the game looked like a lot of fun.
I finished editing Jared and Whynky’s wedding photos. I included one terrible edit just because I can. The comments on the family group chat made my month! James said he would have nightmares, Jared was glad he was not eating, Seth washed out his eyes. It was disturbing! Jarnky! Evelyn was especially cranky this weekend. She’s yelling and reacting to anything and everything. We’re walking on eggshells around her. It’s very hard not to pull out the, “are you having PMS card?”
Saturday the older kids went to the temple to do baptisms. Josie and I went to watch Kara compete for the Kuna rodeo queen title. Kendria was so anxious she couldn’t watch Kara do her rein and horse work part. I felt bad she was feeling so much pressure over the competition. I do feel a little anxious when Evelyn and Josie were at the fiddling contest but nothing like Kendria was feeling. Kara looked amazing and rode better than the gal in the older category. We did some yard work once everyone was home. Jeremy and his family are coming to visit at the end of this coming week for Labor Day weekend. I tidied the girl’s room since it was looking rough, too much for Evelyn to handle alone. Evelyn lost her mind when she found out the dogs had loved on her Salmonella (the weighted dog). It was mostly licked and not chewed, I can fix licked.
Phillip accomplished an astonishing feat this week. He reached the goal Brother Cheney gave the priest quorum: to read the Book of Mormon before the end of August. Phillip read the entire book! He read a little here and there but was only in 2 Nephi by the beginning of this month. He really pulled out the stops and put his mind to reaching the goal. Everett finished reading the Book of Mormon a couple weeks ago as well! I am so proud of the boys for reaching this goal and reading the entire book. Way to go! Gloooooory on Phillip and Everett.
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