Melissa and Girls

I’m beginning to think that I have a terrible memory because now that I’m finally sitting down to write up our month of October I can only remember a few things. Is that normal to not really remember anything that only happened one month ago? Maybe it’s because there’s been so much going on that nothing has had enough time to imprint on my brain! But, I’ll do the best I can. Most of the beginning of the month was spent moving from Mapleton to Spanish Fork. I only moved about 12 minutes away so I wasn’t going to spend money hiring a moving company. So, after work I would pack up 3 boxes for the trunk, 2 that would fit on the floor beneath the girls feet and 2 that I could put on the front passenger seat. I’d make 1 or 2 trips depending on how quickly we could get it all done. The girls were excited because I bought them a “new”, old movie, The Cat in the Hat and they’d watch it on a little TV at the new place while I was trying to get everything unloaded. So, the first week of October went on this way and the first level of the house went pretty smoothly even though it got tedious and boring really fast. The basement, however, was a whole other story. My lovely daughter Brooklen had spent who know how much time going through every box she thought looked interesting and emptying them all over the floor and, of course, nothing ever got put away even though I asked the girls every time the came upstairs if they had cleaned up after themselves. So, when I finally attempted the move I couldn’t even bother with organizing or it would have been impossible to move on time. So, in the end, my mom and my sister ended up just shoving whatever they could into whatever type of storage device they could find. I have to admit that I was overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have collected over the years. I’ve kept everything that I’ve ever bought for the girls and myself. So I decided to use this as an opportunity to purge what we don’t need anymore. I was able to give away some of the bigger, nicer “baby” toys to the day care my kids go to. Anything else that the girls didn’t play with and some stuff that had just been sitting in the garage I just sat on the lawn hoping people would come take them. One woman and her daughter came and took a lot of the baby items. It was really nice because she kept telling me how much this was going to help her. It’s nice to know that I was able to help at least a couple of people. On Saturday, October 10th the Elder’s Quorum in my ward helped me move all the furniture and then Monday, October 12th I had the day off because it was Columbus Day. The Relief Society came over and helped me clean the house. I can’t even begin to express how grateful I was for all their help. Since I had only been in the ward for a couple of months I didn’t even know some of the people that helped. I haven’t been one to ask for very much help in my life and this experience was very humbling and also strengthened my testimony of service. It’s amazing how much my burden was lightened by others being so willing to help. Well, after everything was moved into my new townhouse everything was so chaotic. I wasn’t able to park in the garage for a few days. My sister Lisa would come over at night and help me get boxes where they needed to go so I was finally able to squeeze the car into the garage. However, the biggest challenge was going through all the boxes we had shoved everything from the basement into. Oh my, I never realized how many clothes I had for the girls. I decided that it was finally time to let go and wanted to give the clothes to my friend Jennifer’s little sister Christina. She had twin girls in September and her husband recently lost his job. It took me a couple of weeks to wash everything and get it organized. I kept all of the outfits that had a strong memory attached, such as the outfits I brought the girls home from the hospital in etc. but gave everything else to Christina. I only got up to size 2T the clothes filled 3 big plastic bins and 3 smaller plastic bins. All full and some almost over-flowing. Holy crap!!! I was shocked. So, I’ve now decided that I really need to stop buying so many clothes for my girls! I’ve said that for a while but this really put it into perspective. In addition to the move we did a few other fun things. We went to the cabin for the deer hunt which we do every year. I love knowing that my kids look forward to this as much as I did growing up. It was really warm this year so Jordyn and Maegan spent most of their time outside playing with MY cousins (lol) Kylee and Sione. There was an old bike that they would take up to the top of the “road” that goes down the side of the cabin and they peddle as fast as they could and then coast towards the cabin. For me, the highlight was being able to take Brooklen on her first hike. It’s not that difficult of one but for a three year old it was pretty intense. We just went to the big rock that sticks out of the side of the mountain like we do every year. At first everything was fine but once we started going up hill she got a little scared. I told she just had to pretend the rocks were like stairs and show her where to step. I also stood behind her and helped push her up a little but eventually we made it. The older kids hiked up to the “top” of the mountain (it was actually just the top of the hill we were on). After a while Brooke was bored so we decided it was time to head back. The trip back was not so pleasant. She was scared to death to go down hill so this time I had to stand in front of her are show her exactly where to step. Which wasn’t that bad. The problem was when we were walking through the bushes she was the same height as them. Every time someone stepped past a bush the branches would snap back and hit her in the face. She was crying so I had to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way. That’s a little difficult to do because she’s getting to be a big kid! But, we all survived and hopefully next year’s hike will be a little better. My cousin Andrew was able to shoot his first deer, a spike that was barely legal. My dad and a couple others got a deer but none of them were spectacular. There was one funny incident when my Uncle Danny forgot to put sugar in the pumpkin pie filling. Jordyn ate a piece of pie and thought it was delicious but as soon as Uncle Dan bit into it he knew something was wrong. I didn’t ever try it but I wonder how Jordyn didn’t notice it was not sweet. Well, feeling in the mood after the hunt, on Monday night I made deer steak for dinner. Now, Maegan is a little funny about meat. Almost every night we have a lengthy discussion about what type of animal we are eating, where it came from on their body and why we are eating it. I was a little worried that after seeing the deer hanging under the cabin during the weekend would throw her off and she wouldn’t eat it so I wouldn’t tell her what we were eating. However, after dinner she said, “this is the best meat in the world!” So, that’s when I told her it was deer steak and her mouth dropped to the floor. To my surprise, she said, “I love deer steak!” Phew! Guess I can make it for dinner without it being a big battle. After the deer hunt Halloween was fast approaching. My friend from work, Heather, has never really watched the Harry Potter movies. I love them and we watch at least one a week. So, she and her daughter Bailey came over a few times and we watched movies 2 through 4. On Halloween we were watching the movies and we also carved pumpkins with the girls. While watching the movie I was still scrambling to finish making Maegan’s costume. She wanted to be a mummy this year. I was able to find some “bloody gauze” but it was really thin and a pain to work with. I bought a sweat suit and “tea dyed it so it looked old and dirty. She then had to wear the sweat suit while I told her to turn while I used spray glue and sprayed the suit and then stuck the gauze to it. It turned out really cute and she was happy with the way it turned out. I was starting to stress that I wasn’t going to finish it on time and then remembered that I had spent the month moving/cleaning/organizing and I could cut myself some slack. Brooklen is obsessed with The Little Mermaid and wanted to be Ariel for Halloween. Thankfully I still had the costume I made Jordyn at that age, which Maegan also wore in 2005, and I didn’t have to do any hard work for her costume. Jordyn ended up being Little Red Riding Hood. I was able to make a cape out of red fleece and sew a really poor “fake” blue and white checked dress to wear over her clothes. She used a basket instead of a pumpkin bag and she looked really cute as well. After Heather and Bailey left the girls and I headed to Justin and Jennifer’s house so the kids could go to their neighborhoods “Street of Treats”. The older kids took off on their own while Jen and I went with the smaller kids. Brooklen makes me laugh because at home she is so LOUD all the time but she is so shy around strangers. She would only quietly say “Trick or Treat”. Maegan and Bailey went around 3 times so they were loaded up with candy. Eventually we ended up back at Jen’s house for dinner. I had made chili in my Crock Pot and she made cornbread and dessert. We all ate dinner and hung out for a while before the girls and I headed home. I felt bad that I didn’t have time to take the girls around our new neighborhood but then realized that I was glad I didn’t have to spend time introducing ourselves at everyone’s door so it was probably easier. The last thing to mention was that Jordyn got to be a helper at lunch this month. She loved it and wasn’t even embarrassed to wear the had they made her wear. I am keeping the girls in their old elementary school until Christmas break so it’s been pretty busy just keeping up with school, piano, gymnastics, theater and all the demands of every day life but we made it through! Also, I wanted to mention a little about my “Thoughts” post. Yes, I was feeling a little down but it’s amazing how a few days later I was back to my old self. I do still need to work on everything I posted. However, I am much more optimistic about everything. I think I was just feeling so stressed because I had a whole bunch going on at home and at work things were insanely busy. I was trying to put together a big training, get hundreds and hundreds of boxes of files moved to a new location, deal with all the every day issues that come up with my employees and answer the 500 or so emails I have in my in box. It just got to be overwhelming. At the training I mentioned above my boss gave me a “Silver Medal” (something she created, not done by the state )award for everything I had been doing and gave me a $50.00 gift certificate! I was really surprised and honored that she did that for me. That helped boost my spirits and getting the house in order helped too. Well, that’s it for October. Hope I didn’t miss too much of anything.I'll post pictures soon.

I was reading some of my friends blogs that show when the last time someone posted when I noticed it said my last post was 5 weeks ago. I was shocked. I can’t believe how quickly time is flying by. Just wanted to let everyone know that my venting was great because I was able to get a few of my feelings out there but I’m back to my old self. I still need to work on what I posted but I have a much better attitude towards everything. Eventually I will have enough time to sit down and get my October/November posted. I have just been insanely busy between work and home. But, until then, be assured all is well with us.