Good Things Are Happening

I spent all day Friday cleaning our floors in the house. First it was vacuuming and then mopping. It's a lot to do in this much bigger house! I did a little dusting as well while I was vacuuming. We were getting ready to have visitors on Saturday afternoon, my dad and mom Laverne. I'm glad I had motivation to get it done because we were getting sick of seeing dust everywhere, even in places that had been vacuumed, like under the fireplace and the recliner. I knew that I wouldn't have as much time on Saturday since I would be going to Jack's band competition for at least half of the day, so I wanted to get as much done as possible on Friday.

Saturday was Jack's first band competition and fortunately it was right here in Kennewick. His band performed very well and was the 2nd band to perform of the day, at 9:15am. After that, Curtis went home to work on tiling the bathroom again and I stayed to watch more bands. It was fun to see some bands from Idaho at this competition. There was Ridgeview from Nampa (which is where one of my nephews went until he graduated last year), Timberline from Boise and Vallivue from Caldwell. (I didn't actually get to see Vallivue perform though) I was about to go home at the lunch break but got a call from Dad and then Jack asked if I could give him and his friends a ride to a burger place since the concession stand was very busy. They didn't realize how close this burger place was and could have walked but it was fun to drive him and his friends and join them. I also dropped them off afterwards. I went back home to finish tidying up the house and watched some Full House with Garrett. Dad and Laverne showed up around 3:30. They only stayed for one night because they were headed to Astoria to take care of Laverne's mom for a couple of weeks. I'm glad they were able to come and that we finally have a guest bed for people to sleep on! 

It wasn't long after they arrived that Curtis quit and cleaned up for the day. He had put a ham in the smoker and cheesy potatoes to have for dinner. Jack got a ride home for dinner but then wanted to go back to watch the rest of the band competition with his friends, so Curtis, Dad, Mom and I all rode together to drop him off and then we drove around to show them some places. It was getting dark fast, but we were able to stop and see the light house on the river and then the Columbia River Temple. We stopped at Baskin Robbins next to get some dessert and then drove by Curtis's office building before heading back home. We showed them the nighttime view from our neighborhood and then drove by the kids' schools. It was hard to see much since it was dark, so we went back to the house where I showed them the video of Jack's band performance and then an episode of The Story Trek on the BYU channel where they ended up in Boise and Nampa! Everyone was really tired by then, so it was time to get to bed.

Our school got 3rd place in their division but did not make it to the finals (they were 4 points short). It's the best they've ever done.

We met up with Jack after the performance to get pictures. The theme is "Thor's Hammer". We bought shirts to show our support. Mine says "Thor's Hammer". Curtis's says "Band Fan Club".

We all got to eat dinner together. Ham, potatoes, green beans and rosemary sourdough buttered toast.

The view of the light house was beautiful!

The temple was beautiful too!

The ice cream was yummy!

Dad and Mom had to leave Sunday morning, but I was able to cook some muffins and sausages with a side of orange juice for breakfast before they left. Fortunately, we have 12:00 church so I had time to fix a nice breakfast. Curtis would have helped but he had a lesson to prepare for the priest group. 

After church we had tithing declaration with the bishop and then that evening, we fed the missionaries. One thing that made it even better was that Garrett told me last Tuesday (after conference) that he wants to start going to the temple every week to do baptisms and that he does want to go on a mission. He wasn't really sure he wanted to before. He also asked Curtis to start reading the Book of Mormon with him each night in his room. Dad and Mom brought some names for baptisms and we scheduled for him, Curtis, Jack and I to go this coming Saturday morning. I need to find somewhere for the girls to go while we're at the temple. Good things are happening!

(Oh, and I almost forgot. I'm typing this on my new laptop computer! I told Curtis to take me shopping for one last Thursday at Costco and we picked one out with the help of my brother Colby. Then I finally got it set up yesterday.)

Conference, Decorations and Sage

 Most of us watched or listened to the Saturday morning session of conference. Jack had to leave for a special band practice, so he missed most of it. We had missed mowing the lawn that Tuesday so we decided we'll do it that day. I started trimming after eating lunch but then after Jack came home he did the mowing. He borrowed my phone and earbuds so he could listen to conference while mowing. He got to listen to it but I didn't. I am okay with that because I don't mind listening to it later and I love that he listened to it. The other kids were busy putting away pool toys since we are done using the pool for the year. It took awhile for them because they had a lot of air to release out of the inflatables. I also trimmed the rose bush and a tree branch that was hanging down low. I had to have Jack help me with that one because he's stronger than I am now. Curtis started work on tiling our shower. He spent most of the day doing that.

He's doing his cutting on the deck this time.

One thing I did the week of conference also was to finish painting the hand rail for the stairs. Curtis got it hung back up last week. 

I painted the hardware underneath to match the chandelier.

Conference was really good, as usual and I was quite surprised at how well it seemed Garrett was listening to it on Sunday, even after I had told him he couldn't watch Full House during the break and that he was found reading his Percy Jackson book instead during the 2nd session. I saw him reading and let him know that conference was on and a little later he came out and watched. Usually you'll see my kids sleeping. Curtis even slept. But every time I looked at Garrett it looked like he was listening, so I was definitely happy about that! The thing that stuck out the most in this conference was the last one where Pres Nelson's talk centered on the phrase "Think Celestial". I love that and I love President Nelson!

Last week I decided to try listening to at least one of the Saturday afternoon talks that most of us had missed since we were working, while getting ready in the mornings and while driving the boys to school. I like starting our day out with uplifting talks. I have also decided I needed to be a better example of reading scriptures. The best way to do that is to read my old set of scriptures I had when I was a teenager and doing it after I wake Garrett up and he starts eating. Curtis wakes up Jack earlier so he can shower first but then he comes up to eat. It's better for them to see me reading printed out scriptures rather than trying to read on my phone, because they usually can't see what I'm actually doing on my phone. It just looks like I'm doing other stuff. And to be honest, I haven't been reading as often as I should be. I do have to use my phone to look up the come follow me stuff for the week though, but I have my set of scriptures right next to me to do the reading from. Sometimes I will listen to scriptures while I'm working.

Alice got me in the mood to put Halloween decorations up. After cleaning up pool toys, she found the Halloween bucket in the garage and had me bring it inside. I spent Monday morning shopping at the thrift store and then Monday afternoon putting up decorations. It was nice to do some things I wanted and take a break from working.

Our front entry. 

I put Autumn and Halloween decorations up together.

The family room in the basement.

Family room again.

The decor in the window by the front door. Nikki had painted that pumpkin.

If it wasn't bad enough that we had thought we lost Coco last month, Sage ended up being missing for a couple of days last week also. The last time I remembered seeing her was Tuesday afternoon after I picked the boys up from school. She was wandering around out front while kids walked home from the middle school. I think she likes to get attention from them. She never wanders very far though and she always comes back the same day. I didn't think I had seen her that evening but thought maybe somebody let her outside before bedtime. Well, I expected that if she was outside during the night that she would be waiting by the sliding door in the morning. I kept looking out the windows and doors expecting to see her and saw nothing. I also looked all over the house and in the garage. It was very unusual for her as she does not wander like Coco does. Charlotte was getting sad by Wednesday night and I was a little worried also. Thursday morning I was thinking of posting about her being missing on the lost pets Facebook pages but I decided to wait. Thankfully, later that day I saw that someone made a post that they had found her and were looking for her owners. She didn't have a collar on and she's not chipped and yes she's skinny, but she does eat. It turned out that a girl walking home from school thought that maybe Sage needed help and she took her to her grandma's house in a nearby neighborhood. Her grandma is the one that made the post trying to find her home. I was so relieved though that she was safe and well taken care of until she was returned to us. I need to get our cats into a vet and get them chipped so that if anyone else finds them they can find out sooner where they belong.

After her little adventure.

Garrett's 17th Birthday

My computer is starting to act up again but in a slightly different way. The screen keeps flashing white and purple vertical lines and it seems the longer I'm using the computer the more it flashes. I made sure I copied all of my pictures from the last year to my external hard drive last week. Now I'm going to try doing a blog post and see how it goes.

Two weeks ago, was exciting as we got our new bed set up and new curtains hung, as well as Garrett's birthday! I didn't initially want to go with blue and silver, but we didn't have much to choose from the night we were looking at Walmart. I'm actually really liking it now. I found the curtains on Amazon, and they were delivered on the 29th (Garrett's birthday). Sage was a good model for my picture. We also got some nice nightstands that have USB connections for charging. The only problem is that our phone chargers have a C connection on both ends so we can't use them unless we find a different cord. For now, we charge them in our closet on the shelves since there's an outlet there.

 

My in-laws were planning on coming to visit the weekend of Garrett's birthday and general conference, from Thursday to Monday, but my father-in-law started to get a sinus infection. They went to the quick care, and he tested positive for Covid. Unfortunately, that means neither of them could come since they both needed to quarantine for a few days. We were really bummed and now we're not sure they'll make it over here until next year. It stinks having to worry about driving over the Blue mountains. 

Friday the 29th was Garrett's 17th birthday and I told him he could invite some friends over, so he invited his two guy friends from our ward (Connor and Dallin) and two girl friends (meaning just friends 😉). One he met in band last semester (Emily) and the other is our friend's daughter (London). I'm so glad I let him invite friends over, especially since his grandparents couldn't come. They ate food and visited. We waited for Jack to come back from band practice (sectionals) and then sang and opened presents. Garrett took his friends and Jack downstairs to play video games. I think they had fun but the girls ended up leaving earlier than the boys. I wish Garrett would have played a board game with them instead of just video games, but I left it up to him what they were going to do. I'm not sure if the girls got bored and decided they wanted to leave or if that was because of parents. Either way, it was fun to have them over.

He chose to have the apple cider cinnamon donut cake again. He must really like it because I think this is the 3rd year in a row that he's had it for his birthday.

Garrett patiently waiting for Charlotte to light the candles. It was her first time doing it.

He's having a little fun in his "old" age. (swapping the number candles)

He loves this show (as do I) and really wanted it on dvd. It's the complete series of Full House. We had previously borrowed it from Tamara, so that's how he knew he wanted it.

A Legend of Zelda hoodie.

Hawaiian shirt because he likes wearing them. Jack does too actually.

The new Percy Jackson book that came out the week of his birthday.

The traditional birthday snack. Jack suggested to get root beer, so I did.

Garrett and his friends - London, Emily, him, Dallin, Jack, Connor

Carpet!

As promised, here are the pictures of our carpet! It's amazing how just adding carpet makes it feel like it's complete (even though it's not yet). Today I'm working on painting the window sills in the master bedroom and prepping the stair hand rail for painting that we had removed. Our bed was also delivered this afternoon, so we'll be able to set that up tonight and it will feel even more complete. We're adding things here and there and still need to finish our bathroom.

Garrett's room with the padding.

Stairs with the padding.

Finished master bedroom. It looks stretched out because it was zoomed out on the camera.

Finished closet.

The doorway from our master bedroom, showing the carpet meeting the existing floor in the hallway.

Garrett's room finished.

Garrett's room.

The finished stairs.

And just for the fun of it, here's a picture of our kitchen with everything back in it. It's so nice to be able to put some of that stuff in our pantry now, including our recycle bin. After we get shelves in the pantry, we'll be moving the food from the top of that hutch also.

Last night we bought closet shelves for our new closet and Curtis built them while I helped Alice with homework. We moved some of our stuff. It fills up fast!

I think I may want to move the dresser out to the bedroom but for now it's in the closet because that's where Curtis wants it.

I emptied out the remainder of our things from Garrett's room this morning, except the ties because Curtis needs to hang up our other tie holder in the new closet first. Garrett will get to sleep in his new bed in his new room, as will we! We're all excited!