Monday, October 07, 2013

October 7 family letter

Hi family,
Aarrgh.  I missed Eva's p-day!  Oh well, she'll get this next week.
Conference weekend is over...  Conference weekend always feels like a little break from reality-- a mini vacation right when I need it.  I loved Elder Holland's talk, Elder Uchtdorf's talk, and Elder Soares talks the most, although there were lots of memorable talks.  
During conference we put up Halloween decorations.  Brigham informed me that our old decorations were not adequate.  :-)  Too much cutesy, not enough creepy.  Which is fair since all of our decorations have come from when the boys were really little.  So he did a bunch of internet/pinterest searching and came up with some good ideas for our yard and house.  I'll take pictures when it's all finished, but it's looking good!  Between sessions we went to Target, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Halloween Spirit (a great big store that just went up in a shopping plaza nearby-- I can't imagine they'll be open all year, but we'll see), and the dollar store.  Should have gone to the dollar store first. :-)
This last week was good.  No early seminary, so no 30 minutes between classes, hence no blog posts (I'm writing now during my 30 minutes between the 5:40 class and the 7:00 class), and now I can't really remember what happened.  Oh, well.  On Friday the boys had an airsoft battle with 5 other boys.  Ben came home early and joined in.  :-)  Airsoft has been really great for my boys' social lives.  We have a standing airsoft game every Friday afternoon which the boys look forward to all week long.
On Tuesday we went to Seaworld!  Seaworld has certain days in October open only to school groups.  Thursday was actually a designated homeschool day, which would have been so fun, but it was sold out.  We went with my friend/visiting teaching companion and her 4 kids.  We drove together down to San Antonio, which was not so fun for my boys since we were squeezing 9 people in my 8-passenger van, including 4 booster/car seats.  My boys were good sports.  On the way home, after having been screamed at and poked/pinched by the kids next to him (including his brother!), poor Mosey unbuckled and sat on the floor for the rest of the way home.  
Anyway, the trip to Seaworld was just OK.  Most things were not open, and there was a lot of stopping to go to the bathroom, to get snacks, and general dawdling that we didn't get to see as much as we could have.  But we did get to pet dolphins and that was pretty cool.  At least it only cost $4 per person (plus a tank of gas, but I'm not going to count that :-)).
The rest of the week was full of regular school stuff and practicing and orchestra.  Mosey is 3rd chair cello, which is extremely respectable, but I know he was disappointed.  He really wanted to be first chair.  There will be additional chair testing later in the year, though, so he has more chances.
The weather is starting to turn a little bit.  We still had a couple of days in the 90's last week, but only 80's in sight this week.  A cool front blew in on Saturday evening and it was actually the first time in months and months that I felt a little... cold? outside!  What is that sensation??  Yesterday evening we went on a walk/jog/bike ride around the old golf course and it was just perfect.  The grass was perfectly green from the rain we got last week, the deer were just coming out (Ben and the boys and Sandy tried to orchestrate a joint attack on the deer, surrounding them from all sides, but they were too fast), and it was one of those idyllic evenings that I want to remember forever.
So I better close now since my 7:00 class will be here any second.  I love you all!  Have a great week!

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