Garrett's 16th Birthday and More

I hate playing catch up all the time with my blog but between life being busy and the trouble I have been having with my computer lately, it's difficult to keep up. I am happy to report though that last Friday I finally called ABI Computers and told them what was going on. That after just a few minutes of being on my laptop, sometimes only a minute, my computer starts flashing these little circles and the next thing I know it's doing random stuff like opening or closing folders, etc. I usually end up just closing my lid to stop it because it won't let me click on the power button to restart it or anything. Just from talking to the guy on the phone he asked if I had a touch screen, which I did, and asked if it was disabled. I said it hasn't worked for awhile so it probably was disabled on accident or something. He said to bring it on in and he could fix it in 5 min. I zoomed over there because school was letting out and we had plans to go to The Farmstead in Kuna. He was right, it only took a few minutes. I'm still not exactly sure what he did but I didn't get to test out my computer until yesterday. I had it on all afternoon and no problems! I'm guessing that maybe he actually disabled the touch screen because the touch screen still doesn't work. He had said that those circles I was seeing were touch points on the screen for the touch screen. I'm just happy it was a quick and easy fix and didn't cost anything except the drive over. I need to learn to call them sooner because I was about to go buy a new computer!

Anyhow, now to back up a bit. I wanted to share some pictures of the girls and their room after they decorated it the weekend of homecoming. They used decorations from the parade and also cut some ghosts, bats and pumpkins out of paper and hung it all over their room. I told them no holes in the walls so they used tape for everything. They had so much fun decorating their room.

We also celebrated Garrett's 16th birthday. He had band practice on his birthday so we celebrated the next day, which was Friday the 30th. He invited his old friend Ryan as well as a few new friends from our new ward, Trey Bledsoe and brothers Calvin & Logan Hansen. We ate pizza, fruit, chips, and veggies with some Sprite and Root Beer for drinks. My in laws were out of town but Dad, Laverne and GG were able to come over. Usually Dad & Mom go to bed early Friday nights because they work in the temple early Saturday mornings but with it being General Conference weekend that meant the temples were closed so they could come Friday night this time. Garrett has been working on putting together his Halloween costume which is Link from the videogame The Legend of Zelda. He was so excited about it that he wore the costume at his party. He asked for a sword and shield....which I later learned that he already knew he was getting because he looked at Amazon on my phone and saw that I had bought them. Sneaky kid! Anyway, we did cake and presents after everyone was finished eating dinner. Then after getting a few pictures the boys had fun playing videogames. Jack also had Porter over so it was a boys night. 

This was taken on his actual birthday.

I found some yard balloon decorations at Walmart. It was fun to do but it was a lot more work than I thought!

Garrett asked for an apple cider donut cake. He had the same thing last year for his birthday. We had to put a glass bowl on it to hold the big candle. He was so excited for his birthday!

Gaya made the green tunic and hat for him but he did pay for the fabric. He also bought the boots and waist belt from DI. For the pants he wore my white leggings underneath his old white football pants. He bought the arm bands and gloves from Amazon. We told him he had to pay for his own costume now that he had money for it.

The sword did come with the chest belt to hold it.

Calvin, Ryan, Garrett, Logan, Trey

After his friends went home I got a picture of him inside by the birthday banner. He had a great birthday and was very happy!

The very next day was Oct 1st and it was General Conference but Garrett had another band competition in Kuna. I ended up chaperoning for that one also. I knew I wouldn't be able to chaperone any more competitions because I am now the head coach for Charlotte's basketball team and will need to be with her Saturday mornings for her games. The Kuna Competition was fun and it was a nice warm day, not quite as warm as the previous week thank goodness. Skyview brought home 3rd place overall for their division and their were 6 schools in it so we were happy with that. The atmosphere was also fun in the stands after everyone had finished competing and were waiting for the judges. They were playing songs such as YMCA and Macarena and lots of people would stand up and dance.

I had an opportunity to hold the trophy at the school when we returned so I got a picture of it.

On Sunday we watched General Conference from home and I was having such a hard time staying awake. I finally realized I needed to be doing something so I could stay awake. I got out the diamond painting I got from my mother in law back in July and finally started it. It made all the difference. I love watching and listening to conference but sometimes it's just so hard to stay awake.

The before picture. I now work on this on Sundays while we're watching Relative Race or when I have some down time. We'll see how long it takes to finish. I'm not in a hurry though.

On Monday the 3rd it was a Moms and Donuts day at the girls' school. The girls wanted to ride the bus so I drove over by myself and waited for them to get dropped off. Then we went inside to have donuts and juice in the cafeteria. Unfortunately Alice spilled most of her juice and got some on her clothes but she didn't seem to care. They were both in a hurry though to finish eating and get to their classroom. I ended up finishing both of the girl's donuts for them (plus my own). That was all I had for breakfast and then I went to Melissa's boot camp class at the Rec Center. I had so little energy that day. The sacrifices I make for my kids 😂

Last Wednesday I decided to do some more yard work. I found a lot more grapes hanging on the vines behind the shed. I'm not sure we'll get around to eating all of those. I also cut down the squash plant because my family just does not like squash. I tried a casserole with one of the big squashes and it was kind of good but not good enough to want to cook again. So I decided we were done with that plant. I then took out some more pine needles from the stack and put in the dumpster. I didn't want to put too much in though because I also wanted to start cutting the raspberry bushes down for the winter. I was able to get a lot more branches in than I thought I would. Every time I put branches in the dumpster I would chop it to smaller pieces and stomp it down. 

Grapes on the vine still.

I didn't take a before picture but I had started right up next to that green tree bush on the right and worked my way left. This was taken after I did a bunch. I cleared out pine needles, pine cones, weeds, and branches. 

This was after I finished. I got about half of the raspberry bushes done. It looks so much better! There were tons of old dead branches at the bottom that I pulled out also.

I still had a little room to spare but I was done. Plus we needed space for a garbage bag from the kitchen that I knew would come later. Our garbage doesn't get picked up until Tuesdays.

Jack had an activity that night with the deacons to learn how to bake homemade cinnamon rolls. They weren't finished when I got there so I went in and visited for a bit and got to see Jack add the icing to his tray of rolls. He now says that if I need frosting for anything that he knows how to make it.

The activity was done at the Hansen home, which was the family that two of Garrett's friends were in from his party. There's another Hansen boy who's close to Jack's age. I learned they have 7 kids in their family. Most are grown up. They do homeschool so when you first walk in to their house you see rows of monitors. It reminded me of my brother Derek's house! 

I still have some more catching up to do on my blog but I'm going to end this post and do another new one later. I need a break.