Week of 10-13-19

FIRST TIME BACK IN RELIEF SOCIETY
For a first time back to Relief Society, I was very worried halfway through the lesson.  It was not my favorite.  People were getting off on the strangest subjects and things were really going haywire in my mind.  Luckily, Terrie Tenney was sitting next to me and obviously felt prompted to mention that all the teachers had been released and we were getting a bunch of new ones, namely, Barbara Noriega, Jami Caldwell, Sara Laramore, etc.  This felt like a tender mercy at the time.  I am really excited now to have these teachers.  Hopefully Relief Society will be more bearable from here on out.  10-13-19

EARLY MORNING STUDY TIME
So I don't really know how this came up, I can't even remember where Nate and I were when we talked about it, but I have been fighting the impression I've had to switch our family study time to mornings.  Well, I made mention of it to Nate almost in passing, and he latched onto it!  It just took off once he got hold of it.  We had our reservations and wanted to make sure the kids were on board, but it actually seemed like a doable idea.  So Sunday, during family council, we introduced the idea to the kids.  Charity was very vocally excited about the idea and she'd been one of the ones (Charity, Luke, Erika, and Jack) whom I'd worried about with this idea.  So she gave me some hope :).  They all agreed and thought it was worth a shot.  So this was our first week of getting everyone up at 6:30, and down to the kitchen to study at 6:40AM!  It went really well if you ask me!  Everyone was there and even participated a little.  I was shocked!  It shakes up my morning routine a little, but I've been able to get up at 5:00 everyday, shower, study and make breakfast (and sometimes lunches) before waking up everyone else.  So kind of miraculous if you ask me.  It's been so great on the late evenings when I think about how tired I am and don't know if I have it in me to study and then realizing that we already did!  I love that feeling.  So we're going to keep it going I think.  No objections from anyone which is also a miracle.  I think this is something the Lord really wanted for us.  I wish I'd listened sooner.  But it's going great now!  10-14-19

FHE
For our lesson- since Noah had used his good lesson idea for study time one night- we decided to move the boys' beds down to their new room :).  Not the most spiritual activity, but honestly, it was a lot of fun to work together as a family again. Felt like it had been a while.  10-14-19

BRAD LEARNERS PERMIT
So we had tried to go get Brad's learner's on Monday, but of course the DLD was closed for Columbus Day.  So Tuesday we went after school, filled out the form and waited only to find out that there wasn't enough time for him to complete the test that day.  So Wednesday, I agreed to check Brad out of school, during his lunch at least, and take him to get it.  That way we'd be sure to have time and it could count as our fun date and everything!  We were very excited!  Well, as luck would have it, Brad didn't pass his test.  SUCH a bummer! They let him take it again, and AGAIN he didn't pass!   I felt so bad for him!!  They only let you take it twice in a row, he needed to wait another day.  Unfortunately, we were headed to Bear Lake that night for Fall Break and would have to wait until the following Monday.  It was really devastating.  We even got him a consolation shake on the way home. 10-16-19

FALL BREAK!
Wednesday afternoon we all rushed around packing and getting things ready to go to Bear Lake.  We did pretty good getting out the door only an hour later than we'd planned.  We had to drive two cars though, which was less than ideal.  Charity rode with Nate the rest of the kids with me in the van.  We all stopped at Carl's Jr. on the way and then got to Grandma's condo around 8:00pm.  We got all situated, unpacked the car, sent some of the kids' stuff to Grandma's (I think it was Bradley, Luke and Noah) who went that first night.  Ruth had miscounted and only made us sacrifice three of the kids that first night.  It was a fun evening.  We talked with everyone around their fire pit, then played games and watched tv.  Everyone slept well.  10-16-19
Swimming after breakfast- kind of a tradition- we all went over to the pool.  This was Sadie's first experience with a swimming pool and for the most part she liked it.  She looked so stinkin cute in her new swimsuit!  Of course.  The pool was a little cold though, so I wasn't too excited about keeping her in it.  I got out and talked with the ladies.  Ruth held Sadie for the majority of the time, until she got hungry.  When we got back to our place, we showered and then everyone kind of vegged!  It was actually really nice and relaxing for a couple hours there.  Then it was time to go up to Coopers.  Fun tradition.  We all enjoyed each other's company.  The girls sat with the cousins and everyone else sat at a table with Uncle Mark and Aunt Nancy.  Frisbees all around.  That night was kind of a bummer.  Grandma had realized that rather than just three people, we needed to sacrifice FIVE!  Nobody wanted to go.  Charity and Kelly were both feeling crappy, Jack didn't want to sleep somewhere else, and neither did Erika.  There was a lot of arguing and negative feelings that evening and then I suggested that Sadie and I go.  Nate didn't like that idea, so he and Erika ended up going over there.  It was one of the two nights I was going to get to have with Nate on this trip and couldn't believe I had to spend it alone.  But we did.  Such a bummer.  Not that I would have wanted anyone else to have to go either.  It was just such a crappy situation.  I wish we didn't have to do that when we go up there.  Made me really miss my dad's place.  Course we weren't going to be allowed to swim at the condo pool if we stayed at my dad's anyway, so.... anyway.  10-17-19
In the morning, Kelly, Erika, Sadie and I got all packed up in the Prius to head off to Boise for Kelly's tournament.  We were excited about the tournament, but not excited to leave everyone on our vacation.  That was hard.  But we quickly made the most of it and had a lot of fun on the drive.  I about peed my pants when Erika called the llama the "one with the ugly smile!" HA!!  Still makes me laugh.  And all the singing and talking we got to do.  Erika filling us in on her Mustaches for Maddie book every couple hours.  It was long, but a good time.  A short FIVE HOURS LATER and we were in Meridian at the first game for Kelly's tournament.  This was a fun game.  Kelly's team did great!  Kelly did great!  I was really proud of her effort and how well she played.  Made the drive and all worth it!  When the game was over, we drove to our hotel.  The hotel was in the middle of downtown Boise- a huge blessing we hadn't brought the van since the only parking for this hotel for probably several blocks, was in the parking garage!  It was a nice hotel though!  They had a cute sign in the lobby welcoming the Davis Girls Lacrosse Team, which was super cool.  We had been wanting to do something fun that evening and came up with getting take out- Red Robin- YUM! and then going to see a movie at the theater that was a five minute walk from our room... no joke, five minutes!  Too bad we gave ourselves a half hour to walk there! HA!  Actually, it was fine- we sat there in the empty theater just laughing and having a good time before Maleficent II started.  It was a 9:30 movie so we didn't get back to our room til pretty late.  We went right to sleep.  It had been a great day!  10-18-19
We had received texts and pics from Becky all day Friday of Nate and the other kids and all of their adventures.  They had gone to see the Paris Ice Caves and then to Firehouse Pizza for Fh'zookies!  Looked like they were having a good time too.  That was good. 
Saturday, our last day of the trip, we slept in long enough to feel rested, but not past our free breakfast time, thank goodness :).  We ate and then hurried to check out so we could get to Kelly's first game.  I'll be honest, I had been kind of dreading this game ever since I'd looked out the window and saw all the rain and storminess (once I figured out that the building tops were painted white, not covered in freshly fallen snow).  I wasn't super excited about sitting in the cold.  But we made our way to the park, said goodbye to Kelly to go warm up, and then watched as the storm rolled in.  It was an insane little storm! I was super ticked when they saw lightning and had to postpone Kelly's first game!  I did not drive all the way to Boise for one little game!  I had no idea how fast that storm would roll out though!  None of us did!  We decided to go grab some food at Winco when the game was cancelled, and while we were in there, Kelly got the call that we needed to be back there in 25 minutes!  So we quickly rushed out of Winco (slower than we had wanted because Winco doesn't take credit cards and that's all we had), and got back over to the park which had miraculously turned sunny!  We sat there at watched her game, then another one and another, cheering and being impressed with Kelly's balling skills!  She played SO WELL on that tournament!  I think we only won one of the games- and it was one that we totally killed the other team, but it was a great experience for our team and a lot of fun for us.  After that last game, it was time to head home!  We had a long "4 hour drive" ahead of us.  Who knew that four hour drive was going to take us five and a half hours!  Poor Sadie didn't love being stuck in her carseat again.  We had to stop to feed her a lot, thinking that would help her to stop crying.  Didn't work.  As we were driving down I-84, south of course, just before mile marker 116, I saw a deer, in the middle of the freeways, getting ready to run across our lane!  I didn't even have time to think- I just slammed on my brakes.  We were going 80 mph so I can only imagine it helped.  We did manage to hit the back end of the deer, sending him soaring, and creating a pretty loud BANG in the car.  Jerking it a little too, I think.  Poor Sadie did NOT love this.  Kelly and Erika were awakened as well.  Such a scary moment.  I decided after a minute or so that I should probably pull over and check the car out.  It was running okay, but I knew what happened to the Prius when Nate had hit a deer, so I was a little worried it was going to be badly damaged again.  I got out and could barely see anything at all.  It was only after a few scans of the front bumper that I noticed a small chunk of the plastic missing.  Very minor damage.  Pretty remarkable really.  Another little miracle.  Then as I got back in the car, and drove off, it was brought to my attention what a miracle it was that we were even alive!  That really could have not ended well.  And even if we'd been alive and okay, the car could have been really badly mangled and required towing or something!  Being that we were basically in the middle of nowhere, it was a huge relief that we'd been as blessed as we had.  I couldn't help but thank my Heavenly Father for that.  That drive home was not my favorite.  I was so shaken up from the deer that it was hard for me to relax.  I was scared of everything on the road.  The only good thing was I didn't really get too tired after that.  We made a late night stop at Costa Vida which was much needed and really made the last couple hours or so bearable.  We got home around midnight.  almost two hours later than my phone had originally told us.  All those stops!  Nate rolled in shortly after.  It was good to see him, good to be home!  And good to sleep in my own bed!  Poor Sadie was finally able to sleep.  Another tournament in the books!  Good times, fun memories.  10-19-19