The last week has been pretty crazy. Let’s do a little recap - just for the heck of it - starting with Valentine’s Day. But really, the day before Valentine’s Day because that’s when we had to have the boxes ready.
School does not demand the boxes - they’re always optional. But my kids demand the boxes! Zoe and Eva both wanted to make dragons. Zoe wanted to be able to lift a string to pull her dragon’s mouth open (there was fire inside), and Eva specifically wanted hers to be eating a taco.
In addition to having the Valentine’s boxes ready, I had to prep some goodies for the theatre kids at the high school. Wednesday was opening night of their play The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon, so I did a Frog Prince/Valentine’s Day theme for their “break a leg” treats, and two other moms decorated their lockers to match.
I put together some cellophane bags full of Kisses and tiny resin frogs. Then I made everyone a little heart-shaped red velvet cake. I loved using the heart-shaped pans (from Amazon). They were so cute and the perfect size for individual portions. I had them ready to go on Tuesday night so another mom could take them to the theatre classes on Wednesday.
On the actual Day of Valentines I got up super early and put out some Valentines for my kids (Lego roses for the girls and snacks for Nicky). Two of my kids had to be to their schools early for extracurriculars. After my third trip to a school, I went to work (remember how I have a job? I don’t feel like I really have a job - I feel like I’m pretending to have a job).
After work (yep, sounds weird), I fed all the people chicken pot pie, made festive with a tiny heart cookie cutter. The great thing about Valentine’s Day is that if you have a heart shaped cookie cutter… or a few pieces of construction paper… or a bottle of food coloring, you can totally fake the holiday and make it look like you’re super thoughtful.
While we were eating, my cute neighbor showed up with a loaf of sourdough bread. This actually was thoughtful and required planning ahead.
That evening was opening night for Brothers Grimm. I was asked to facilitate a fundraiser/merch table in place of the Usual Mom Who Does It because she was going out of town. So Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night my family helpers and I took shifts working the table and watching snippets of the play.
Thursday was a little calmer but still busy. I ran errands and did some grocery shopping. It was a short day at school because there was no school on Friday, so I worked my tail off during school. Eva had a friend over, Zoe had choir, and Daisy had musical rehearsal. Then Eva had dance, I fed all the people, and we went back to the high school for another round of Brothers Grimm.
That night, Nicky broke his horse on stage. The stick got caught in his shoelace. Good thing the play is a comedy!
Also note that, from this play, Nicky has a bruised cheek and a hematoma on his shin, and he reaggravated his elbow bursitis. What is with my kid and his theatre injuries? On top of that, he also sprained his ankle walking up the stairs at his grandma’s house.
Friday brought pure chaos.
Nicky went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple with friends to do baptisms for the dead early in the morning. I took Daisy to an ortho appointment at 8:10. Then I took Nicky, Daisy, and Zoe to the Jordan River Temple to do baptisms. Nicky literally ran from the Jeep to the van in between temple visits, and we took off to make it to our 10:00 appointment.
Oh! And the Jeep came home from Temple Numero Uno with a flat tire (Scotty took it in for repair that afternoon, and they found a metal shard in it that barely met the criteria for repair over replacement. Phew!)
After the temple, we cruised through the Chick-Fil-A drive thru, and then Daisy and I went to the junior high to work on the set for the musical for four hours.
Helping at the junior high was an absolute nightmare of an experience, and I’m not going to write about it in detail because it would take two hours for you to read, and that’s too long for you to be on the toilet.
From there we darted home, ate dinner, and took off to the high school for closing night of Brothers Grimm.
We made it through Friday!
On Saturday we were up and at em at 8:00 to clean our church (helping at the junior high and cleaning the church back to back was not good for my psyche).
When we got home, we got to work prepping materials for Nicky to ask a girl to prom.
Around noon, Scotty and I took Zoe and Eva on an outing. We went to Panda Express for lunch (courtesy of free kids meal coupons). Then we drove downtown and went to the Church History Museum to the Temples Dot the Earth exhibit. Going to that exhibit was one of the last outings I did with my kids before COVID hit. It’s one of those things I have bookmarked in my mind from BC (before COVID).
When we got home, we continued working on the “promposal.” Then Scotty and I went to the junior high to try and clean up some paint that the kids got on the sidewalk (remember the nightmare at the junior high? Shudder…)
After dinner we loaded the whole family in two cars and asked The Girl to prom (since we were all heavily involved, if she doesn’t say yes, all six of us will suffer the ultimate rejection) (she’ll say yes, though).
I was standing at the end of her street when she came outside, and there was squealing. She was a happy girl. This I know.
On our way home we stopped at Arby’s to use some coupons for free shakes.
Sunday was pretty normal. We went to church. Eva had to give a talk in primary on a topic of her choice. When we asked her what she wanted to talk about, first she said yogurt, but then as Sunday grew closer, she changed to oatmeal.
That’s right - oatmeal. Scotty made it happen.
After church we had an early dinner and then went to Scotty’s mom’s house for a while.
Monday was Presidents’ Day, so once again, there was no school. We wanted to do something as a family, so we drove up to Layton and went to SeaQuest. We used some Christmas money from my parents to buy Get Out Passes (we got the ones that don’t include Lagoon, should you care to know, because I sneakily bought Lagoon passes on Black Friday even though Scotty said we weren’t getting them. I told him after Christmas, and there was nothing he could do about it).
Something to know about me - I can’t touch sea creatures. They freak me out. I didn’t know this about myself until I went to Stingray City in Grand Cayman in my early 20’s and couldn’t go anywhere near the stingrays without screaming my head off and running away like an idiot. I was shocked to discover this about myself because there aren’t many things that affect me like that. Spiders… mice… bugs… I don’t love them, but I also don’t freak out about them. Put a starfish near me, though, and I lose my $h*t.
At SeaQuest I touched a stingray ever so slightly after convincing myself I could do it, and it would be no big deal. I screamed.
I can’t do it. No. Icky. Ew.
After SeaQuest we went to a trampoline park (also part of the Get Out Pass), but they were at capacity, so we couldn’t get in. We went and hung out by a river for a while and then checked back at the trampoline park. We ended up getting in line and waiting 45 minutes to go in. This is something I would normally never, ever do. Like, ever. But the kids were actually being good, so we stuck it out.
After the trampoline park, we stopped at Zeppe’s for a treat. Then we drove back home so Nicky could get to work. I made chimichangas for dinner (they were a hit and an obvious way to celebrate American presidents). Then we did our “get ready for the week” chores.
Finally, everyone went to bed in anticipation of another exciting week. Except for me. I wrote this blog post first.
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