Early November 2020

Nov 1:  We turned out clocks back an hour last night.  I’m never one to complain about an extra hour of sleep, but I’d much rather have it stay lighter in the late afternoon (especially cause I’m rarely up early enough to care when the sunrises).  I thought this meme was funny.

We like to give Grandpa Fletcher a bit of a hard time when it comes to his use of technology.  I tend to be his on-call tech support and have access to his Facebook account so I can go in and delete things he accidently shares.    

Tonight JKD played hide and seek for hours.  I can’t remember the last time they played hide-and-seek so this was quite unusual, especially because they played so long.  Perhaps it’s because we’ve been moving so much furniture and boxes around that they had new places to discover?

Carly helping Jason hide in the linen closet

Nov 2:  I held off long enough and after seeing egg nog at Costco for several weeks now I finally bought us our first batch.  It’s quite tasty; however, in years past they carried the Darigold Old Fashioned version which we discovered at our egg nog tasting party a few years back is our favorite.  I might have to buy some at a regular grocery store.  

We splurged a bit tonight and got pizza from a local pizza joint instead of Dominos (which I’m not a fan of).  It was tasty and might need to be a repeat every so often.

Nov 3:  Election Day

 

Today I actually was up for the sunrise.  Not necessarily planned but we had a big day today and knowing that made we wake up several times during the night and I finally gave up and got up just after 6am – early enough to catch a beautiful sunrise from our bedroom window.

Jason had his first appointment today at the orthodontist.  We’ve decided to see if different orthodontist than the girls went to, but we feel good about it and like the plan they’ve set up for Jason.  He got a spacer today and will get an expander in a couple weeks.  Gotta make room for all those big teeth of his.  After the ortho we went across the street to pick up a couple free Krispy Kreme’s for election day.  

I thought it was sad that our high school had to send out a message calling upon our community to respect each other as we faced the results of the heated presidential election. 

I really don’t have a whole lot to say about the election.  I wasn’t thrilled about either candidate and am disappointed President Trump and Joe Biden were the best our nation could put forth for election.  I voted but was really indifferent who won or lost.  I think our country is in for a ride regardless and to be honest the purposes of the Lord will roll on and He’s got this.

 

It's only fitting to throw in a funny memes – memes are what had kept us laughing this year

Today was Day 1 of getting our carpet replaced – all the bedrooms and the upstairs hall today.  It was actually quite cozy to have everyone stuck downstairs together all day – except for Justin – midday we ended up sending him into the office cause he talks so loud on his calls and doesn’t wear headphones. 

Drew turned around that chair to face the stairs so he could sit there and watch the carpet guys working

Carly cocooned herself in the living room doing homework and watching shows most of the day

Nov 5:  The last of the carpet was installed today so we had to move everything out of the bonus room and master closet – we store A LOT of stuff in the master closet.  A reminder that I never want to move.  It will be nice to get our house back in order.

We’ve ended up with a nice little stock of toilet paper and paper towels over these past few months.  

Shot of the new carpet on the top of the stairs are our old flat carpet on the stair below

Nov 6:  My gal pals were able to end their quarantine this week and were anxious for some socialization so we headed downtown Seattle to try the molten cakes at Hot Cakes.  Yum!

Nov 7:  Justin and I decided to head down to Covington today primarily so I would have a chance to try this week’s cookie flavors at Crumbl – especially the Circus Animal cookie.  It was delish!  And we got to run a couple other errands so that’s an added bonus.

Nov 8:  Jason organized a Connect 4 tournament today.  Similar to our puzzle competition during quarantine there were prizes for first and second place.  In the end I came away with first place and Jason landed in second.  Jason’s reward was $3 to spend at the grocery store – which he redeemed for a box of fudge bars.  My reward for first place has yet to be redeemed – Jason’s had a few options in place for me (or Justin if he’d won):  family walk, choice of TWO desserts (I think this is more of a reward for the kids), or having the kids put away TWO loads of my laundry.  I love it when my teen boy is excited about any family time so this was a fun activity for the day.

Nov 11:  A GNO for me tonight to hit up Crumbl with some girlfriends.  Are you sensing a pattern/habit/addiction?  I was super excited about all of the featured flavors this week so I opted for a dozen, especially because Justin mentioned he wanted one of each as well.  I’ll admit I don’t love all the flavors they’ve had so far, but I’m keeping track of my favorites and hope that I won’t feel like I need to go every single week once I make my way through the flavors they cycle through regularly.  This week I did love the Butterfinger, Oreo and lemon – not so much the red velvet.

Sommer thought all the ladies would be interested in popping into HomeGoods afterward, but only she and went in.  Sommer started the gnome craze a few years ago and she’s still adding more to her collection each year.  Tonight I bought three myself.  We sent a selfie from the checkout line to our group chat with Camden and Laura (also gnome fans).

When I got home Carly proclaimed, “I call your collection of gnomes when you die.  Write that in your will!”  I’m glad my family also likes gnomes and it’s not just a middle aged woman thing. Ha!

My stack of library books keeps getting higher and higher as I continue to get more but haven’t read much.  This week I decided to read the new book by Stephanie Meyer which tells the Twilight story from Edward’s perspective.  It was a fun read, but really long and I didn’t feel fully justified spending so many hours reading instead of getting things done around the house – especially because it was a completely fluffy book.  

Nov 14:  On a walk this morning with my friend Andrea I vocalized that if I could restuff my couch cushions today than I could feel quite productive for the day.  So when I got home I got to work.  I was nervous to open up the pillow inserts by pulling apart the stitching with a seam ripper and then having to stitch them back up with Carly’s machine after stuffing them with some poly-fil.  Turns out it was much easier than I feared.  Our has held up beautifully over the nearly 8 years we’ve had it but the back cushions had become a bit flat and seemed to always need reshaping.  The tag said they were filled with 70% poly-fil and then the rest a combo of feathers and down.  I decided to pass on dealing with the mess and cost of adding additional down and instead bought two 10lb boxes of poly-fil at Walmart.  Turns out that 10lb box holds a ridiculous amount of fill and once it comes in contact with oxygen it expanded significantly.  Needless to say I have tons leftover from that first box and can return the second.

My project was quite satisfying and I’m so happy with the results.

Justin and Jason were gone all day at a young men’s activity for the SnoFalls ward.  My friend’s husband is a leader and she has offered us a blanket invitation to join in anytime we want since our ward hasn’t done much with the youth.  It’s sad that Jason’s scouting experience from 8-12 was pretty disappointing as well.  Their ward went up to a cabin near Cle Elum to do “manly” things – shooting guns, riding snowmobiles, eating food, etc…  It sounds like they had a great time.

Nov 15:  This weekend was stake conference so last night Justin and I watch the 11 and older conference with Jason and then today our whole family watched the general session. 

Drew created a cute little comfy spot downstairs.  I love that he’s got his comfy blankets, a pillow with some toys and his preschool photo album and then another pillow with a few pokeman books.  He’s been very into Pokeman lately and that’s been his show of chose when he has TV time.  

Other October

Oct 1:  Crazy how these two ladies and I couldn’t work in a hike together all summer.  Finally in OCTOBER we were able to coordinate a semi-quick hike up Poo Poo Point.  It was a cloudy morning but at the top we were above the clouds which is a pretty cool view as well.

Oct 2:  My favorite thing each morning is to hear Drew say the Pledge of Allegiance.  I’ve been wanting to sneak a recording for weeks now and finally got a decent one this morning.  His fluctuation of “flaaaag” is unique to today but makes it even cuter in my opinion.

Justin took this picture of me helping Katie put on a shower cap.  She’s been loving getting her hair braided and didn’t want to take them out when she showered tonight.

Oct 3:  As conference neared the kids kept asking me if I was going to put together the mystery bags again.  They loved it in April and I was already intending it on doing it again, but it was nice to hear that they were looking forward to it again.  

Conference was wonderful.  I have a group of friends that have been focusing on preparing ourselves physically and spiritually for the times to come and felt that conference confirmed those impressions we’ve been having.

 

Oct 7:  Next stop in my kamut adventures was making a sourdough starter.  Did you know it takes a week to make a starter?  I didn’t.  On the morning of day seven Katie came upstairs saying my kamut had spilled all over the kitchen.  Yep, I guess I should’ve used a bigger bowl, but at least that means it was doing what it’s supposed to.

The next day I was able to bake my first loaf of sourdough.  It cooked much faster than the recipe said so I learned I need to tweak the oven temperature a bit.  Thankfully, I had a kamut-loving friend in Auburn I was able to text throughout the day to get some tips on “feeding” the starter and keeping it happy.  

I’ve a few more loaves since and they’ve turned out great.  It does take some planning since your starter needs to sit out overnight and then your dough needs to rise twice.  Quite the process!

 

Oct 10:  I screenshotted this collage off the link the school photographer sent encouraging families to buy past years school photos.  Abigail sure has changed over her high school years.  If you recall the large photo from her senior year was meant to be goofy with her hair (she was also wearing glasses but they made her take them off).

Tonight we played the last game on the wall – Acquire.  Justin bought an old version of this game for cheap after playing it with the Gibbs YEARS ago.  I didn’t like it, but he did.  Even though he liked it YEARS ago he was totally reluctant to play it these past months.  Even though I never liked it I was ready to get it put away with all the other games so I sucked it up and decided to refamiliarize myself with it and teach the kids.  Turns out we loved it and as Justin watched us play (between working all day) he could hardly resist jumping in and playing with us.  We’ve played it tons since and it’s become a new favorite – ironic.

A few other favorites during this project of play it or get rid of it are…

 

Carcassone

Blokus

Thurn and Taxis

Settlers of Catan

Clue

Quixx

 

Oct 11:  I dusted off a dress and heels today to attend in-person church for the first time in seven months. It took much longer than expect for the sacrament portion due to all the safety protocols, but it was nice to be back.  It was strange to not be able to visit with anyone.  We were seated immediately upon arrival (after turning in our COVID paperwork) and then after the service they dismissed row by row and we were to exit the building and head home.  It’s also hard to “see” people when everyone is wearing face masks the entire time.  In fact, President Smith was sitting on the stand when we arrived and I couldn’t figure out who it was so I asked Justin and Carly and they were shocked I didn’t know it was Matt – who we’ve know the entire time we’ve lived here as our bishop, hometeacher, stake presidency and friend.  To my credit he also stopped shaving his head over COVID which I hadn’t seen yet.  It was wonderful to feel the spirit and strength from gathering together as a ward family.  We’ll only be attended once a month at this point and the other weeks will be over zoom. 

Oct 13:  I got my hair done today and popped into Chick-fil-A to redeem a free sandwich and also picked up some Chick-fil-A sauce for us to have a home – yum!

I also hit up Walmart, Costco, WinCo, Home Depot and Nordstrom – my car was packed by the time I got home but I love a productive day!

 

Oct 15:  Near the end of every year General Mills cereal goes on sale and we like to stock up on some of our favorites.  This week was the week and it seemed like they were cheaper than in the past – after all discounts each, large box was only $1.49.  This was our first grocery run.  I think we went two other times and got about this much each time.  Great food storage and can’t be beat prices!

Oct 16:  Washington’s first Crumbl Cookies opened yesterday in Covington which is only 20 minutes away.  Today was FREE cookie day and we weren’t going to miss it!  We actually ended up waiting in line nearly an hour for our FREE cookies and bought a dozen on top of that.  It had to be done.

And just a picture of Katie carrying around Drew on her back which is not encouraged…

Oct 17:  We were invited to a surprise birthday party for my friend Addy’s twin daughters 10th birthday.  They moved from the ridge to a beautiful property in Fall City with acres and acres to enjoy.  Jason wasn’t excited about joining us, but in hindsight he really missed out as there were a few other families there with kids his age.  Plus lots of great food and lots of fun.  Addy went with a Harry Potter theme and created a fun web game in which each kid had a black string “web” that they needed to follow to a goodie bag full of fun.  The webs crossed and tangled each other taking some kiddos 30-45 minutes to untangle.  Drew had a tough course but happily stuck with it to the end.

It was so nice to see some families from our old Snoqualmie Falls ward and visit with them.  Our social circles have been small since COVID so it was a real treat.

Oct 20:  I woke up this morning to a text from a Mom of one of the kids from Carly’s homecoming group that she tested positive for COVID.  This family has been super careful during the pandemic so it’s ironic that of all families this would be the one to test positive.  They had hosted the teens on Friday night for the dinner portion of the evening so it was important that we all be aware that they may have been exposed.  Carly had three babysitting jobs today and we felt she needed to be tested before potentially exposing anyone.  So all plans for the day went out the window.  She cancelled all her jobs for today and we drove down to Auburn to get tested.  I figured I might as well get tested as well.  We were both pretty nervous to have a massive Q-tip stuck way up our nose.

The test wasn’t as terrible as I feared.  Not at all pleasant, but we survived.  I thought this meme was funny given the situation and season.

We both had negative results within 12 hours – phew!

Oct 23:  Justin and I went out tonight.  I wanted to check out the new apple watches but unfortunately Apple is only allowing people in the store if they have reservations so that was a bust.  We had some gift cards to Cheesecake Factory so we enjoyed a delicious meal there.  I was shocked there wasn’t any wait for a table on a Saturday night especially since they have to space out customers so much.  Guess that means that people really have changed how much they are going out since COVID.  We also had some Baskin Robbins credits from this week’s T-Mobile Tuesdays offer so we both got a big ice-cream cone to top off the evening.

A cheesy photo opp in the mall

I thought this voicemail I received today was pretty funny.

Oct 24:  Months ago I signed Carly up to take the ACT in Ellensburg, WA – a 1:20ish drive east for us since there wasn’t any testing locations nearby.  A few weeks ago I got a notification that the test had bene moved to Olympia, WA – a 1 hr drive south for us.  So weird.  Anyhow, she had to be there at 7:45am – Justin offered to take her and they were gone all day doing that, walking around the Capitol, and getting some lunch.

Justin was able to score some Clorox wipes at a Costco in Olympia – these have been impossible to find near us.

While I was out walking the neighborhood this afternoon I took a picture of the street into our neighborhood.  Next year I need to catch it before the trees start losing their leaves.  It’s so beautiful in the fall.

Abigail got to attend her first BYU football game tonight in Lavell Edwards Stadium.  BYU is undefeated so far this season, 6-0.  Go Cougs!

Oct 29:  This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned this and it likely won’t be the last, but I continually find myself surprised that I seem to be the only one in our house that changes out the empty toilet paper rolls.  Like it’s actually part of my job description.  Today I was shocked to find that the actual toilet paper roll was missing this time.  Someone took the time to remove the empty roll and yet could not bring themselves to replace it???

I posted this picture on my stories and 100% of those that commented said they too feel like they are the only ones apparently capable of replacing the empty rolls.

Later in the day I had to share Brenda’s comment regarding the puzzling disappearance of the empty roll.  Ha!

Today I posted on our ward Relief Society page offering up a large tub of Legos.  These are all Lego specific to their Hero Factory and Bionicles line that has since been retired and my kids never really got into. They are actually worth quite a bit of money now but I couldn’t feel good about selling them when they were given to us.  Just passing them along to another family that can enjoy them.

And them some cards with K&D before bed tonight.  Actually I was taking the picture more to show the sweet bruise in the palm of my hand from moving a large slab of granite from the bonus room into the garage.  It was SO heavy!

This month has been busy getting our bonus room ready for some new furniture.  We’ve painted the walls and ceiling, moved out the big ole’ cabinetry and granite we’ve been using as storage/TV stand and we’re getting ready for new carpet.  Lots of projects going on behind the scenes – exciting, busy, stressful stuff.