October Recap

We kicked off October with Joy School at our house.  Except that the condition of our home provided less than ideal circumstances for 2 1/2 hours of access to preschoolers.  So we scheduled a field trip and called it good.  Keeping 4 two and three year-olds from running off in different directions at all times was no small task.  I whipped out my very best bribery techniques and somehow we all survived.

Monday night Anna participated in and won third place in a barbershop competition.  Their quartet walked away with $300 in prize money.  Not to shabby for forming a week earlier and, therefore, having minimal practice time.

We scheduled hardwood installation early in the month and we’re “kicked out” of our house for two days while the fumes of the finish died down.  We made it a long weekend by pulling the girls out of school on Thursday and Friday and heading down to visit family in Utah.

We then had a few days before carpet installation began that Friday.  They completed half the carpeting. Then we spent the weekend shifting furniture into newly recarpeted rooms so they could do the rest on Monday.

Sunday night I received word that my parents were getting a divorce.  (Just shy of 45 years of marriage).  Still processing that one.

Monday morning’s carpet installation coincided with Jack’s regular infusions (3 consecutive days) which also coincided with Tim scheduling our phones to get their batteries replaced.

So, we had workers at our house while I was stuck at the hospital without a phone.  For three days.  And honestly.  It could not have gone more smoothly.

Did you catch that?  I survived mothering five children ages 3-15 for four days without a phone.

On the down side, without a phone, I didn’t have a camera with which to take Jack’s pic with the frog at the infusion center.  Ah, nuts.  Here’s the last one, for old times’ sake.

Can I just say how luxurious carpet feels when you’ve been walking around on sub-floors for over two months?  Rachel loved it so much she ditched her bed to sleep on the floor of her newly-carpeted bedroom the first night.

The flooring was the big project of the month but we also installed bathroom and light fixtures, got siding and a roof (but not before 2 inches of rainfall in a single day, and a resulting leak into the new bathroom).

Our house still looks rather unfinished, as the columns in the downstairs living area are…well, unfinished.  We told our contractor that we’d be hiring someone else to do those.  After seeing his lack of attention to detail on other aspects of the remodel we called it quits and are looking for someone else to the trim work.  Wish us luck.

Rachel played basketball at her elementary and pretty much towered over every opponent.  Except one.  It was very frustrating to have someone a full head taller than her but I hope it gave her a bit of perspective on how others feel when she’s in the game.  She makes basketball look easy.

Both Anna and Lily had choir concerts…on the same night.  I took the kids to the high school for Anna’s and Tim had Lily duty.  Anna sang a solo in her jazz choir and nailed it.  That girl was made to sing.  Such a smooth tone and perfect pitch.  Proud momma moment, for sure.  Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures of the occasion because I spent all my energy wrangling the toddler in my lap.  Sorry Anna.  Luckily we got to watch footage on Twitter with Tim and Lily later that night.

The fall colors stun all around.  Raking just might be one of my favorite chores.  Especially when there’s company.  It never ceases to amaze me how intuitive it is for kids to jump in a freshly-raked pile of leaves.

The elementary school held their annual Monster Mash over a week before Halloween. Here are our “Glow Stick Skeleton” and “Unicorn” (with friends).  Jack made for a pretty adorable Yoda but only lasted about half an hour at the party.

Halloween was a different beast for our family this year.  As the kids get older and graduate from their trick-or-treating years, it becomes much less “hands on” for mom and dad.  Anna went over to a friend’s house, Lily had a bunch  of her friends over at ours, Rachel blasted through her friends’ neighborhood trick-or-treating and Tim took Eve and her friend collecting candy in our neighborhood.  Jack(Yoda) handed out candy with me at home.  It couldn’t have worked out more perfectly.