All the September things rolled into one.

Justin has been looking for a car for Sarah (she turns 16 in 13 months). Judging by his search criteria and the listings he shares with me, this ad on the bulletin board of our local grocery store looked like something he would be interested in. Poor Sarah.

These are the shoes of a man at Henry's football game. A grown man.

Met these cute fellas on my walk a couple of weeks ago. I live in a pretty town.

Our stake hosts a yearly harvest festival. We didn't go the first year we lived here because it was on my birthday but we've gone the last two years. It's a cute time.

We didn't enter the salsa contest and we got there waaaay after the official judging so people at the booth didn't care about our opinion but Justin was all about tasting them.

The best part are all these boots hosted by stake members. People bring goods to show off, demonstrations, collections of Legos, knives, guns, etc. I love seeing the quilts and tasting baked goods.

The most popular booth was the cotton candy. My kids stood in line foreeeeeever for one. Like they missed out on doing most everything else long.

Calvin came with us and it had been awhile since he hung out with James and I realized I missed him. They are so funny together and such cute boys.

Every parent there dreaded the moment their child ran up with goldfish they won in the kiddie game section. 

Erica named her fish Stewart (or Fish Stew as I called him). He survived a miraculous 36 hours. Here he is getting the porcelain salute Monday morning.

Our neighbor owns an axe throwing place and they brought their portable target trailer. It was fun but I am terrible at it.

And then the grand finale of the candy rocket.  There was also a car show and a train ride. We have generous people in our stake. I wish I was talented enough to share something. 

We had a random Monday off of school so we went to the zoo since I figured the crowds would be smaller. My sister and her husband and son met us there. Justin decided last minute to not go to work and came too.

We hadn't been to the zoo since James was less than 1 so he didn't remember anything. He had a great time. He wanted to look at every little creature in the stinky reptile house and was just oohing and aahing over everything.

If you know James then you know he loves tigers. 

This is a good tiger. He relaxes for a bit but then paces back and forth in front of the several windows of his enclosure. I didn't see it but he came right up to James and licked the window right at him. Made his day.

This is our last opportunity to see elephants at this zoo. They are in their prime breeding years but have been unsuccessful so they are being moved to another zoo to see if that helps.

 

Elephants are Henry's favorite animals so I'm glad we made it to see them before they moved the next week.

This drinking fountain is a Hogle Zoo classic!

Sloths are Erica's favorite animal. Pretty sure it didn't move an inch the entire time we wathced it.

******

We will soon say goodbye to our sweet neighbor, Ashley. She has been serving as the primary pianist so my littles have gotten to know her and love her. She is leaving on a mission soon and we will miss her. She stopped by the evening of her farewell to bring us some cookies.

Henry had his last football game. His team did pretty well but they had a heartbreaking last minute loss last night.

Just for context, he is 12 years old. This morning he wanted a peach for his granola and asked me to cut him one. "I don't know how," he says.

"Erica can cut a peach," I replied. (Erica is 9)

"But she's still asleep." (He was dead serious.) I've been chuckling about it all day.

And it's moments like these that make family life the best life.

Happy conference weekend!

This is 40

Sunday birthdays are fun because you have to do stuff on Saturday too. We took the kids out to Strap Tank restaurant that I really like but only Sarah had been. We tried to talk James into going there for his birthday last year but he chose Popeye's at the last minute and then didn't like it. Well now he knows what he missed. I ordered ribs because they are my favorite.

For breakfast that morning we had omelets (Henry declared mine a momelet) smoothies and chocolate  milk. Justin pared down his meeting schedule so he could be home to make breakfast. The kids gave me lots of my favorite treats and Justin gave me this new lamp. (I love stained glass.) Then I finished up the last cake (I started baking and freezing cakes on Tuesday).

I don't usually make much of a to-do for my birthdays. Justin, my kids and his parents and mine round out the numbers for any dinner or birthday cake. This mostly stems from not really wanting much attention on my birthday and really really not liking to plan my own day. I love planning my kids birthdays and Justin's too but I kind of want to just skip over my own. Is this an adulting thing? 

But this year was my 40th birthday so I decided to open the circle of celebration a bit more. It all started with the idea of making four birthday cakes, one for each decade of my life. Then that evolved to recreating birthday cakes from my past. I scoured my photos to find cakes representational of ages and favorite cakes. I came against two obstacles: 1- There aren't many birthday cake photos. Third, 8th, 12th, 13th, 20th. Not a lot of material to work with. I think there are home videos on VHS tapes somewhere but no photos. 2- I chose German chocolate cake half the time. 

But these are the 4 I came up with. They are representational of my favorites and a pretty good spread of my ages.

With four cakes I needed a lot of people to help me eat them. We had family over for dinner Sunday evening and then ate cake.

I also had to recreate the photo from my third birthday.

That's the same suitcase!

This is my grand-nephew. (Is that right? I'm his great-aunt but is he a great-nephew or grand-nephew?) He is the cutest and sweetest thing ever. That my nephew and his wife made the 2-hour trip to my house just made my day.

We made a pretty good dent in all the cakes but I made everyone take a plateful home. I have cake in my freezer to drag out the fun for a little longer.

Here are a few things I've been mulling over as I approached this momentous occasion.

-It is an honor to get older. A good friend from childhood died a few years ago from cancer. All she wanted was to live a few more years so her youngest child would have memories of her. She would have liked to turn 40.

-When I turned 30 I wondered what your thirties are all about. I made all the big life changing decisions and completed my life goals in my twenties. What are the thirties about? I know now. My kids' teeth. Losing teeth, finding teeth, watching teeth grow in, brushing teeth, cavities, orthodontist appointments, paying for teeth. And it may be what my forties are about too. 

-I asked Justin last night if I was now old enough to go on a Viking River Cruise.

-I don't care how cute the shoes are if they hurt my feet.

-Forty isn't that old. Henry tries telling me I'm old and getting older. "We're aging at the same rate," I tell him. We are all marching toward elderliness to the same beat.

-I don't know what generation I'm in. I relate to Gen-X movies and music and all that since I grew up with Gen-x siblings. Technically I'm a millennial but I look at kiddies born in 1994 and don't relate to them at all. I can't name a single Rihanna song and I have no idea what Instagram is about.

-Speaking of things that make me an outlier, I don't like Taylor Swift. There I said it. I get really tired of her after like two songs. I cannot relate to her lyrics at all. I find them petty and fickle. After I listen to one of her songs I feel like she still has no idea what love is. 

-When James was born in 2016 I remember saying when I'm forty he'll be in first grade and I won't have kids at home during the day. Welp, here we are.

-I still feel in the middle of junior and women's styles.

-I kind of feel like I'm finally getting to the age of my personality. 

-If I have one regret of the last 40 years it would be not taking time off from college to travel. Why was I in such a rush to graduate? 

-I have a hard time living in the present. I'm either looking forward to the future, the next event, the next holiday. Always planning or preparing. Or I'm reading, studying, watching things about the past. And shopping for old stuff. Always looking forward and back. It's today I have no idea what to do with.

Here's my birthday interview. (Can you interview yourself?)

Favorites
Color: navy blue and dark green. Pretty much all the blues and greens.

Movie: Return to Me, Into and Across the Spiderverse, Count of Monte Cristo, Bourne Identity

TV Show: The Simpsons (seasons 3-8) Parks and Rec, The Office, most of Masterpiece, all the historical miniseries. We've been watching ER up to where Dr Green dies and I'm not sure I'm going to like it much longer.

Sport/Activity: riding my bike around town

Band/Artist: Roxette, Snow Patrol, Duran Duran, Erasure, Matchbox Twenty, Young the Giant. It changes all the time. I also really like opera but just the big famous songs.

Season: Fall

Foods: Ribs, burgers, sandwiches, fruit (especially mangos, grapes, raspberries), cinnamon rolls, oatmeal, all the desserts

Thing to do: Go for a walk, volunteering at the school, taking care of growing things

Youtube channel: Great Art Explained His videos on the Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's David are my favorite but I found out how much I like Caravaggio from his video. His videos are so good I find myself even appreciating the ugly.

To do with Justin: Fix stuff. He hates it but I love working along side him making our home better.

To do with my kids: Cook or bake, watch Bluey, play boardgames, ride bikes to school, take them to good restaurants so they like fastfood less and less.

Inspirational Quote:  "Give 'em hell." I wish there was a G rated version of that I could say to my kids as they walked out the door. "Do your best" or "You got this" lacks gravitas. "Give 'em hell" encapsulates doing what needs to be done and never giving up or giving in and that you have the ability to change the world. Find me three other words that can say that. 

What most of my Youtube feed is about: architecture, British history, Jordan Peterson, nutrition, recipes, hair and skin care, how to not dress frumpy.

What I want to accomplish this year: I honestly have no idea. I did not plan this far.

Something I really don't like: When there's something noisy going on in my neighborhood like a jackhammer or other machinery. Puts me on edge. I don't like noise. And solicitors coming to my door.

What superpower would I want? Teleportation. I could go anywhere at anytime for no cost and no time. You can't convince me any other power would be more cool.

Most skilled at: bargain shopping, finding good books my kids like, making frosting and cookies

Wish I was more skilled at: talking to people in social settings, serving others in meaningful ways, handling the heat in the summer, not dressing frumpy when it's cold out

What has surprised me most about life: Not much. My life looks exactly like I planned. But I do have to say I feel a little unprepared at each new stage of motherhood. I'm really good at toddlers and preschoolers now that I don't have any.

Back to School 2023

We took the kids out for a fancy dinner on Monday to celebrate going back to school and for completing a family goal of reading 200 books this summer. They were way behind on books at the end of July so we had a couple of days of read-a-thons and they actually surpassed the 200 goal. 

9/10 when we go out to dinner the kids get water. We let them order a drink this time but we asked the server to bring out their sodas with their meal. Last time they got full on soda and barely touched their dinners. It worked!

Henry's proof that his burger was saucy. I'm relieved his pants stayed clean.

We ordered 2 desserts: bread pudding (which looked like a gigantic sundae) and chocolate cake. I think their desserts might be the best part of dinner.

Justin is so good at these selfie things.

Tuesday is meet your teachers day! Wahoo! The kids were pretty excited. Sarah left first to go to a thing at the seminary building then she had show lost 8th graders around at her school for school council. I dropped Henry off at the middle school and then I took the littles to the elementary school. This is the first year in like 5 years that a child of mine isn't starting a new school. Everyone went back to where they were last year. Kind of a low key return (For them. More on that in a minute.)

James is in Mrs. Murdock's first grade class. He's not with his bff Calvin and he's pretty sad about that. But there are like 6 kids in there from his kindergarten class so I think he'll be okay.

Erica is in Miss Blaisdell's 4th grade class. This is the teacher she was really hoping to get. After last year I am excited for her to have a great teacher. Her best friend isn't in her class either but she makes friends "too easily" Justin says so I think she'll be okay.

I dropped the littles off at home and saw that Henry was back as well then I stopped by the junior high to check on Sarah. She showed me where her classes were and this is her locker.

She finally got an email with instructions of what to do next about the job she got. We had to quickly head to the district office to fill out paperwork and get her ID badge. She is now a student sweeper at the other elementary school by us. She is so excited. She works for a couple of hours every day after school cleaning classrooms.

Finally back to school! For a few weeks Sarah was saying she didn't want to think about going back to school which doesn't sound like her at all. I think she was trying to fit in with what her friends were saying. She loves school and gets so bored at home.

9th grade is still at the junior high. She is taking seminary which I know she'll love. She's playing the violin this year in orchestra and is excited for student council stuff this year.

Henry is in 7th grade at the middle school. His schedule looks pretty similar to last year (2 semesters of PE, orchestra)

He doesn't have many friends in his classes but he's used to that. He lives for lunchtime when he and all the "narwals" get together.

And then the littles. This was the first year all my kids started on the same day.

Erica has some fun field trips this year so I volunteered to be the room mom so that I could get first dibs on which ones I could help with.

Harry Potter is the theme for a lot of the stuff they do in 4th grade and Erica isn't interested in Harry Potter at all. For no reason. 

And then there's James. I could barely look at him in the eyes the last few days without getting emotional. My little buddy gone all day at school? How did we get here? I'll be alone. I've had this feeling that my life as I knew it for the last 15 years is over.

He's most excited about having a desk and eating lunch at school. 

Here are some cute pictures of them going inside. I don't usually walk them all the way into class but Justin took the morning off work and I was feeling extra clingy.

(I stressed all day they would forget their new bike lock codes.)

And then Justin and I went home. He worked from home that day so I wasn't all alone. I cleaned the kitchen and even mopped the floor since it would stay clean for more than 10 minutes. I went to the grocery store right when all the high schoolers got there for lunch and that was annoying. I was one of those kids but I don't remember there being so many of us. Anyways, then I made chocolate chip cookies and welcomed them home one at a time.

Sarah left for her first day of work. She was there for more than 3 hours and came home so hot and tired. The AC shuts off at 4pm so it got pretty warm.

She's worked 2 more days since then and is getting a little faster at cleaning her assigned common areas and 10 classrooms. There's one high school boy that works with her and several senior citizens.

And then there's me trying to find out how to fill my days. I am so worried I'm going to be bored or lonely or just not know what to do with myself. First step is getting a feel of just how much extra time I actually have after still doing all the things. Fifteen years ago I took a day off work to return some baby shower gifts and buy some baby supplies I needed. I went to like 5 stores, got a bite to eat and made it home before Justin got home from work. That was the last time I had a free day that I didn't have kids at home waiting for me.

James has some adjusting to do as well. Thursday he asked for a popsicle while I was making dinner and I told him no and he replied, "I don't have time to do anything!" He's missing his long quiet afternoons where he got me, the fridge, and the TV all to himself. Now afterschool time goes by really fast and it's noisy and chaotic with all the kids. He had a hard time waking up Friday morning and only the thought of Saturday got him moving. I had to drive him to school but he rode his bike home. We'll figure this out.