October round-up

During this month we also went to the ward Trunk or Treat, Olivia had fun at school, and I helped plan the RS visiting teaching conference.

Trunk or treat ended up being on a Friday night, and B has class until 8pm on Fridays (he is only taking one class and it is only 1 day a week), so I had to get me and both girls ready for the evening. I think there may be a misconception that since I live with my Mom I have endless amounts of help. While it is a HUGE (massive, gigantic, [insert any other large word]) blessing to be here and we do afford certain luxuries that we wouldn't otherwise have, we still have separate lives. She is busy and out of the house pretty much every day. Being the Relief Society President of a large full spectrum ward allows for endless amounts of opportunities to serve, and she is out serving others almost every moment of her life. I could go on and on about how generous, kind, and self-less both my parents are, but for now I'll just leave it at that.

So Brady usually leaves on Friday by 11am at the latest, so I had all day to get the girls and I ready.  I realized that B was going to meet us there, and that he didn't have his costume, so I texted him and said that we should just dress the girls and not us. I didn't want to dress up if I was the only parent dressing up. It didn't feel right being Goldilocks and the 2 bears. He insisted that he would dress up and that I should dress up, but inorder for him to wear his costume I had to get everything together and bring up to the church so he could just change there. Both girls took a nap at 3pm. While they slept, I took a shower and got myself totally ready. Then they both woke up at 5. The party started at 6. I rushed to get them into their costumes, and then rushed around the house trying to get all the things packed into my diaper bag that I needed for both girls. THEN I rushed and got all of Brady's things for his costume. Then I made 10 million trips to the car to get all of the things from the house into the car. We were only half an hour late.

It was kind of a whirlwind from there. I hurried and ate since we got there at 6:30 and trunk or treating started at 7. Olivia was an angel and sat quietly next to me. It was so loud and busy in there, I think she just enjoyed watching all the chaos. My dad even had Scarlett while I ate and chatted with friends. The only thing I regretted was that I wasn't able to take Olivia around to do any of the fun kid events because we were so late. There was a cake walk, fishing, and some other carnival events that we missed out on, but thats really okay. She prob wouldn't have done them anyway.

Trunk or treating started at 7 and B got there right when we were all going out to the cars. by that time it was dark, and wouldn't you know it, B didn't change into his costume...grrr. I totally shouldn't have dressed up. We went outside and I could not find my mom (she had the pumpkin Liv was using to fill with candy). I was rushing all over to find her because kids were already starting and the candy goes pretty fast. People want to get rid of it and kids will go around and around and around til its gone. I started having an inner panic attack because this was the ONLY thing Liv wanted to do. She had been talking about it all night and I promised her that she'd get candy, and now it wasn't happening. I was feeling like I had just spent 3 hours rushing to get things ready for what I thought would be a fun night, to have the disappointment of B not dressing up, me not getting much to eat, Liv not playing any carnival games, and now the one thing that would make it all better would be trunk or treating and I felt it slipping through my fingers. A failed evening and efforts down the toilet.

Finally I found my mom, got her pumpkin and rushed Liv around as fast as I could to get some candy. I was right to hurry because some cars were indeed already out of candy. We only needed to go around once though, and she was happy as a clam! And it was over. Of course I was glad we went, I just had such high expectations. Last year we had so much fun, and this year it just didn't even compare. It was Scarlett's first Halloween so I wanted it to be this super fun thing for my kids, and it ended up just feeling like hours of prep and rushing to run around the parking lot once. Of course I don't blame anyone but myself, but its just one of those things. When you have something built in your head and it doesn't go even remotely as planned. C'est la vie! I guess I just hope my little family knows that I really do try to do fun things. I think my "perfectionist" personality is sometimes a detriment to activities like this. Hopefully my efforts won't always go unnoticed even if they don't end up as grand as I imagine them. Just spending time together is enough.

 Liv had lots of fun at preschool doing fun Halloween activities like going to the pumpkin patch with her pre school friends! She also got a fun Halloween present from Mrs. Finley!

I am the ward VT coordinator so I was semi-in charge of this meeting; however my Mom is the RS president and she and her counselors did just about everything! They made it really easy on Jenny and I! All I really did was find a few quotes, delegate some responsibilities (2 musical numbers), say a few words (I hate talking in front of groups though and I felt like I was rambling and didn't really get across what I was trying to say), and come up with the decorations (that part was fun for me). They came up with the theme, most of the quotes, the musical numbers, and the menu. It ended up being a very fun and nice night.

We got to go on a date to Kona Grill (such a rarity these days)!!!!

To celebrate Brady's acceptances :)