Other October

Oct 1: This is how I do Café Rio – fully and completely.  Yum!

Katie had to do a research project on someone from history and chose Walt Disney.  Part of the requirements was to make a Biography Buddy.  Her buddy consisted of brown bag pants, cardstock shoes and facial features, a fuzzy mustache (and nose) and an old shirt, sweater vest and tie from her brothers.

Oct 3: Keep in mind that it was just last week that returned to the gym after two months off to recover from my hysterectomy.  Andrea asked me if I’d like to go on a bike ride with her today.  She got a new bike recently and has been riding along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail a few times a week.  We have mountain bikes, which normally are just fine, but they aren’t as light as trail bikes so I knew it would be a workout for me but I was fairly confident I’d be fine.  The trail isn’t very steep.  Andrea was totally prepared to tone it down for me if needed so off we went. Andrea and I are both pretty competitive so she had it in mind that she’d like to ride out further on the trail than she had so we biked out to mile #12 and then turned around so we could log 24 total miles.  I was feeling pretty good, but the hardest part was yet to come.  As I mentioned, the trail isn’t very steep, but the way we went out is slightly downhill, which means it’s slightly uphill the entire 12 miles back.  It was hard.  VERY hard.  I couldn’t quite find the sweet spot with my gears so I was working two or three times harder than Andrea.  We had to take a few breaks along the way so I could catch my breath.  My legs were so, so tired.  We made it back to the car and when I dismounted my body gave out. Andrea had to carry my bike back up the ravine to load it on the car for me and then she walked along side me since I was feeling very weak and lightheaded.  I survived, but just barely. We beat Andrea’s record (though she beat it again the next week without me).  Andrea dropped me off at home and then texted me 5-10 minutes later to ask how I was doing and I sent her this picture…

I’d come in the door and dropped immediately to the ground.  And stayed there.  For a while.  Not sure I’ve ever been that beaten down from a workout in my life.

Oct 5: Keeping dry at Katie’s soccer game…

Katie has been so excited to be old enough to attend the General Women’s Conference for our church since she’s seen Abigail, Carly and I attend each year.  I usually let the girls choose a place to go out to eat afterward and often we end up doing some sort of shopping as well.  I’m not sure why this would be Katie’s first opportunity since she’s already nine years old, but it was.  Abigail and Carly weren’t nearly as thrilled about it, but they both kept their schedules clear and we were able to make a night of it.  Katie chose Panda Express for dinner – can’t complain about keeping it simple.  Don’t they all look thrilled?  Ha!

Oct 6:  Conference weekend in the fall means we rotate the food from our 72 hour kits.  For the most part the kids still get excited about being able to eat all the expired food from their emergency backpacks, but nobody loves having to eat the canned soup.

And of course there were also conference cinnamon rolls for us to enjoy and share.  Another conference tradition our family has is playing BINGO while we listen to the speakers.  This year we only did it during one session.  The kids did a great job listening even when they weren’t playing for skittles.

Jason is taking a digital media class and had to film how to do something.  He chose making cookies – no complaints here.

And just a random picture of Drew playing around in his shark blankie tail.  He still roams around in just in underwear often so at least the shark tail is a bit more modest.

Our Come Follow Me lessons started out pretty strong in 2019 but by the end of the year had fizzled a bit.  Tonight however we had a lesson on the armor of God and Katie helped gather things around the house to demonstrate.  Cute little warrior!

Oct 8: Carly was inducted into the National Honor Society today – way to go Carly!

Oct 11:  Some pretty fall pictures 

Oct 12: Drew’s front tooth was wiggly. I referred to those two teeth as my “favorite” because once those teeth fall out, big permanent teeth come in, and suddenly my little kid becomes a big kid and it tugs on my mama heart.  He was excited for them to come out so he could get some cash from the tooth fairy; however, he’s probably been my most hesitant kiddo about letting me pull out a tooth.  He’ll have that tooth hanging by a thread for days before he’ll relent.  When I knew his little smile was about to change for good I bribed him into taking a picture. Wish I could slow down time. Even with his two front baby teeth still in place he looks so much older here.

And then a few days later L

Carly went to a haunted morgue with friends tonight. I have absolutely zero desire to put myself in situations like that so I’m grateful she has friends whose parents are into that sort of thing.

Oct 15: Today I baked bagel bread for the first time.  The process of throwing beautiful risen dough into a hot pot of water was so uncomfortable for me that I documented it.  The results were delicious.  A bit time consuming but definitely something I’ll want to make again.

Drew said, “I love it like 1000%, maybe 2000, but probably 1000” – It’s appropriately named – chewy like a bagel and IMO best toasted and smothered in cream cheese or butter.

I don’t post much about Abigail and Carly’s social happenings since they are older now and we’re no longer major players in their social lives; however, Abigail posted this on her stories today and I screenshotted it because it makes me so happy that she is value conscience and has a knack for taking advantage of free food opportunities just like her parents.  We’re so proud.

Oct 18: I got the new iPhone 11 Pro today and was super impressed with the camera’s capabilities to take photos in low light situations.

The quality of this next one is pretty poor, but the room was completely dark (aside from the nightlight) so with that in mind it’s pretty impressive.

Oct 20: Two Come Follow Me lessons documented this month???  Guess we weren’t THAT bad at getting it done.

Oct 23: Abigail tried to cheer on her volleyball friends as much as she could this year.  This was taken from senior night with current and past players.