October

 We are always trying new things. We tried a new ice cream place called Handles. I like it but my kids are still partial to cold stone. Something not so great, the pump of the dishwasher is going out. I have had to do dishes by hand. Azalyn thinks it is fun to play in the bubbles. Greg is a great help; I love spending time with him. 

Conference weekend is fun for everyone. I love that my kids look forward to conference. This year we picked only certain words for all the talks: Lord, God, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and Savior. My kids got loads of candy. I love that you can see what our focus is on. During conference they say to have a question in mind. Mine was the schools. I received my "No’s,” and I have my schools I am applying for. Stake conference, they zoomed it so people with kids could actually listen. My takeaway: don’t stop feeling. The analogy I loved, think of the gospel as a latter. We are all climbing at different heights and different speeds. I feel like I am at the bottom of the latter waiting to climb again. I started reading my scriptures again and started slowly climbing. 

 I had parent teacher conferences. Both need to work on spelling (there spelling test is something we work on every day, but I just don’t believe in spelling tests). Colvin LOVES his teacher. (That was what he wanted to tell her in his report.) Denali's teacher loves how happy he is. He also got a huge compliment about being a helper for a sub. 

After running for the last few months mom is dead. I usually try to relax on the couch after lunch with Azalyn. One day I was out.  She got a yogurt and opened it all on her own. Then came back and snuggled. I try to have about every 5th book be a self-help book. I finally read How to Win Friends and Influence People (one of my dad’s favorite books) If you want a slap in the face about how YOU change how YOU are the person to give, read this book.  I finally read the secret (I love the movie) Universe: Money enough to really help people, more money than we know what to do with. Sand in the backyard, I also want to put some AstroTurf in the backyard, boys get 100 on their spelling test. 

Greg had a business meeting in Pennsylvania. Azalyn was up at 5 AM everyday crying because she missed daddy. We started a tradition, when dad is gone we go to KFC (we started when he was in the hospital) Azalyn learned how to ride her pink bike with no training wheels why he was gone. (A Balance bike is worth it).  It has started to cool off, however that has not stopped my kids from swimming. They just don't swim for as long. I even had to jump in, the cold was really refreshing. We finally paid for pool school. (See notes below) We had googled most of  it on our own but we did learn a few things. 

1500 Gallon pool-every 5-6 yrs we need to drain it. Don't run the aerator all the time. We need a GFI switch. The pool gets filled by a line attached to our hose bib. 

He talked a lot about the water filter. We need to change it every 6ms. We can take a water sample into any pool store to test it.  He did say that our pool looks great. 

Big and small miracles happen every day. You just have to be ready for them.  I took my kids to the dollar store to get travel treats. In the parking lot there was a lady that asked if I could use some clothing. She gave me 2 huge bags of really nice women’s clothing. Then she gave the kids $5 to share, she said she missed her grandkids..

We have been trying to use our POGO passes more. We made it to the ZOO for the 2nd half. This time the splash pads were open, my kids were wet the whole time. They had a dinosaur in the desert exhibit. The animatronics were fantastic. Colvin was in heaven. A huge milestone for us was we did not bring a stroller. We finally made it to the escape room. We had another family with us, or we never would have made it as far as we did. At the end we were finally trusting each other. The next day (fall break) we saw the same family at the dinosaur museum. Without the pass I never would of or never will go to the dinosaur museum. It was just really small for how much $$. The kids had a good time so that was all that mattered. The kids have been begging to do the arcade at fat cats. We had a Wednesday off (1/2 off arcade Wednesday). We had a great time bowling and playing. 

At the end of fall break, we had neighbors again. I was running late for the preschool field trip when he yelled, "Hell girl can you go any faster." I yelled, "late" he yelled, "I could tell that" I think we are going to be just find having neighbors. I was able to go on a field trip with Azalyn. We went to a "Pumkin" patch. It was more like a small "play" farm. She had a blast, and it was so fun to play with her. Azalyn stayed with a friend one afternoon why I ran errands. It was a win for both, her mom got cleaning done and I got errands ran. Trustworthy friends are the best. 

Main event for October Halloween parties: Denali was a skeleton (only costume I bought on Facebook) Colvin was spiderman (I could not find the mask so I did his makeup, the 3rd and last time was the best) and Azalyn was Minnie mouse (they both loved they got to reuse costumes).  I really could of done a whole post on all the parties. The first was school. There were a ton of kids and very narrow halls but the kids had fun. Then we had our ward party. It was the biggest Halloween ward party I have ever attended. I helped the young women do a fishing pond. (There were tons of carnival games). There were bounce houses.  I handed out 200 candies in about 20 min. I went as Greg. Last was trick or treating. We went with some friends. TONS of candy. Colvin and Azalyn could not even carry their bags. (Best quote of the night- we had 7 kids in our group we went past another family and the dad said wow there are so many kids out- they have no clue). On our way home we went trick or treating on our side of the road. My kids got about 3 full size candy bars each. We did not bring our bags since it was just a few homes, my hands could not hold it all. Then we stopped at our neighbor’s party. It was fun to get to meet more people. They filled up my kids sacks again with candy. Was giving them cup fulls. I Put 2 FULL gallon bags of chocolate in the freezer and my big metal pull is still OVERFLOWING! Great haul. 

I put my kindle away, till I ordered my Christmas cards and ordered my pictures for my wall. During fall break I read 3 books. My family and my to do list needed me.  I made my family take family pictures, they did really good for about 2mins. Then the boys said it was torture. We did not get perfect pictures, but we captured personality

My kids proved to me they can clean if they have motivation. Denali just wants to get it done, Colvin and Azalyn have to have proper motivation. 

We have started to open our windows at night. It gets in the 50’s at night and we are cold in the morning. I even got out my sweaters. 

Funny mom stories: one morning we were talking about how tall we were. The boys asked me how tall I was. I said 5'4’'.5’ Colvin was shocked. He said mom how do you know how tall you are, but you don't know how old you are. To him I am just backwards. I told him that my age changes each year, but my height has not changed for a VERY long time. Azalyn has been in our bed for a few nights. I told him she needs to sleep in her own bed. She told me that she loves sleeping with daddy because he is so snuggly.