Fall and a very big home improvement

Sarah's swim season is in full swing. Or should I say "full stroke?" She's had two meets so far.

She gets pretty nervous but at her second meet this week she did better than she thought she would, even placing second in her heat and beating her previous backstroke time by 10 seconds. 

Here are some pretty fall colors I captured while walking.

 

And one of our friendly neighborhood deer. I got so close to it before it bounded away.

Erica watching for her friend to come over. I hope I can always remember her at 11. She has grown so much this year with finishing elementary school and starting middle school. There have been some hard adjustments with friends and getting used to seven classes and seven teachers (a couple of classes and teachers she does not like). But in spite of all that, she is still so sweet and kind and goodhearted.

A couple of weeks ago Justin and I were going to get tacos and we saw her and her friend on the front lawn of a house that we don't know. I asked her about it at bedtime and our conversation went like this:

Me: I saw you at the red brick house. What were you doing there?

Erica: Playing with puppies

Me: Do you know the owners?

Erica: No. They are for sale so we knocked. It makes sense they would let us play with them. Are you thinking about buying one?

Me: (not thinking about it) How much are they?

Erica: $550. It's not even $1000!

Me: What kind of dogs are they?

Erica: They are......little puppies!!

And in the biggest house news since we the new patio....We got new windows! The very first thing Justin noticed about the house when we first saw it was that it needed new windows. We have 30 windows and all but 5 were broken or dysfunctional in some way: 4 had broken glass, 4 didn't stay up, most were foggy, several were scratched, 2 didn't close tightly and had a constant stream of outside air, ALL got frosty in the wintertime and standing at a window felt like standing in front of the open fridge. And I highly doubt the latches could keep anyone out. The windows always made me feel a bit anxious about heating and cooling costs, mold, safety, and their constant dirtiness no matter how often I cleaned them. But you can buy like a ton of other stuff and go on trips for the cost of windows so it kept getting bumped down our budget list. 

Until now! 

Before:

After:

Before and after

Before

I have to say I like the way they look inside looking out more than the exterior view. The white is so white which draws attention to the drab faded paint. 

Before and after. Goodbye pie slices.

Before (yes, that's broken glass) 

After

Before and after. Goodbye grids.

Before

After (I didn't think they had put the new window in at first. I thought it was still empty.)

Before 

After (now I can see perfectly how dirty my window wells are)

I didn't get a before picture of my bathroom windows but look! I get really distracted by the view. 

I almost feel like I'm discovering what's outside the house all over again.

We still have 11 more windows to be done in December (kitchen, dining room, Sarah's, and Henry's bedrooms, bathroom) but the house already feels so much better. In fact, the way they improve the feel of the house is more beneficial than the way they look or improved the view. I don't feel air seeping in and out; everything feels shut up tight. The house feels quieter since they insulate from noise too. I don't feel like the furniture and floors are baking in the harsh sunlight. No more cobwebs and dead bugs piling up in the tracks. I can sit near a window without it feeling drafty. It feels like a new house and I feel better inside.

Next is a new garage door since our current one is cracked and may fall off the track at any time.

James turns 9

 My oldest and youngest having birthdays two weeks apart makes for an emotional two weeks. James turned 9! We started the morning with crepes for breakfast and opening presents.

He got a flag football set, legos, a maze cube

And lots and lots of snacks.

Erica got him a giraffe palm pal, Henry gave him his shoshibo cube and Sarah gave him cosmic brownies.

He couldn't decide what he wanted to do for his birthday until a couple of days before. "I just want to play outside with my friends." It wasn't his year for a friend party but if all I had to do was buy gatorade and order pizza, we'll invite friends over. I picked them all up from school (the loudest car rider ever) and they promptly went to the backyard and played.

Here was James's plan.

Then they came in so James could open presents. Such nice moms to get a gift on short notice.

My chocolate-loving kid wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. You got it.

We sure love this boy!

9 Things about 9-year-old James

1. He loves Legos. He got two sets for his birthday and that's all he wants for Christmas.

2. He is pretty witty. He can throw out a mild burn with the wit and confidence of someone twice his age.

3. He will just about any book I bring home from the library for him. He's a fast reader too! Pretty sure he stays up later than me reading.

4. He is pleasant and easy-going 80% of the time. 5% grumpy and whiny, 5% spazzy and obnoxious.

5. He's good with numbers. I live in a house of human calculators and it is so convenient when cooking dinner and scaling the recipe and I can call out "What's 2/3 of 150 grams?" and get a chorus of correct answers.

6. He goes from playing with all his friends all day and that's all he cares about to the next day hibernating in his room with Legos.

7. The only places he wants to go are the doughnut store, Chick-fil-a.....that's it.

8. He wakes up at 7 every morning and watches TV until it's time to get ready for school. He gets dressed, makes his lunch, practices the piano and then rides to school with his friend Calvin. He rarely eats breakfast.

9. He doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up but he really likes building things and he's not afraid of heights.

Halloween 2025

 Erica had her very first orchestra concert on Monday! It has been a couple of years since we've gone to a middle school orchestra concert with Mrs. Harman. Her concerts are so crazy. There was a potato sack race in the middle. Erica had so much fun but came home stressed and sick and threw up. She says she was hot and dehydrated. Let's hope next concert is a bit more relaxed for her.

Wednesday was our ward trunk or treat. Justin was in Colorado for work and Henry had a football party but the rest of us went. James took his costume off after 5 minutes so he could play football with the young men.

After a chili dinner, it was time for the trunk or treat. I've never decorated a trunk before but decided to go all in for some reason. I don't know why. I bought some stuff on Amazon and borrowed candles from my sister and platter from Nadine. I think it turned out awesome. 

I'm not one for Halloween decorations but I like this. I had the Coco soundtrack playing too. Fernando, who is installing our windows, is from Mexico so I asked him all about Dia de los Muertos. It sounds like a more cultural rich Memorial Day. Kids in Mexico go trick -or-treating nowadays but not in scary or gory costumes. Instead they wear aspirational costumes like firefighter, superheroes, princesses and the like, more in keeping with the thoughtful and respectful holiday the next day.

Erica and her friends Avery and Ellie. These girls get to go to young women's together in January and they couldn't be more excited.

Friday morning was Halloween! Henry wore his banana costume again. He loves this thing.

I moved my Dia de los Muertos things to the dining room and then after dinner I moved my candle and skull to the window sill by the front door.

James was sick throwing up early Thursday morning and slept all day Thursday. Friday morning he was feeling better but was still so tired and weak. I had signed up to help in his class party so he came with me for that hour.

This is his classmate dressed as Chucky. He was the funniest and weirdest kid. I need to go back and meet him without this costume on because in my head this is not a costume, but who he really is. He photobombed my picture of James and then I said, "okay, one without Chucky."

 

And then he said, "And now one without James!"

After a dinner of French dip sandwiches, it was time for trick-or-treating

Mason came over to go with Henry and my parents came over to see their costumes.

James was so excited to get his face painted something spooky. I think I did a pretty good job for my first time. Sadly he could not stand how itchy it felt and we spent 10 minutes scrubbing it off but didn't get it all.

Henry went off with Mason, Sarah left later to go to her friend's house, Erica went with a bunch of her friends (we crossed paths a few times as seen below), so that just left James and I.

There they are again!

House rule is you trick or treat with the family until middle school. I didn't think what this would mean when just one kid with me. Or what happens in 3 years when I have no kids to take. And to be honest, if James wasn't sick, I'm pretty sure he would have tried harder to find his friends and ditch me this year.
 
But for 50 minutes, it was all about him.

All he cared about was making it to the house that fries doughnuts out of their garage. He doubted I knew where it was but I knew.

For several houses we were the only ones in sight but then we found lots of people, most of which we didn't know. This street had the house that gave out onions and potatoes. The next street the house with cotton candy.

And finally to the house that gives out freshly made glazed doughnuts. This is almost a mile from our house, in another ward, and they don't know us but are so nice. We actually went back for seconds because they said we could. But James was worn out after that and wanted to head home. He didn't even want to hit up houses on the way back, just go straight home. But we did stop at the house where the lady was sitting on her front porch with a big basket of candy because it would have been rude and awkward not to.

And look who we saw on the way home. They pointed out the house was hat handing out hot chocolate. We heard about another house handing out doughnuts and another one, pizza. 

At home we watched "Wait Until Dark." James liked it until the final scene that was a bit too scary for him. Henry and Mason came home from trick-or-treating then much later Erica came home from Delaney's house and then Sarah came home too.