Cute Outfit (Sept 24, 2018)

Grandma McNiven sent this outfit at some point and so I wanted to get a picture of Michelle wearing it.

This little one is just adorable and such a sweetheart.

This is her favorite stuffed animal, Woofster

 I LOVE doing my girls' hair!!

Scout Weekend at the Raceway (Sept. 21-22, 2018)

We live SOO close to the NASCAR raceway, here in Richmond and I have always wanted to go to experience it, but it is just too expensive in my book. 

HOWEVER, when it is scout weekend at the Raceway, with discounted tickets!! 

OH YEAH!!

We got tickets for the Friday night race because the kids were actually free that night and my ticket was discounted so we went Friday, but Saturday was suppose to be the bigger race.

It was crazy just how LOUD!!!!! those cars are. We had earplugs and headphones to cover our ears but oh my goodness they are LOUD!!!

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was racing this night so that was the only name I had ever heard of.

He is this yellow and white one.

Afterwards, I had paid to have a place to set up our tent since it was a scouting event it could go towards his nights of camping. Because I don't want to wait for the troop to do things, I find other opportunities for Matthew to get things done, so we paid to have our tent. So once we finally found out where were were camping we set up tent and Matthew, Allison and I slept in the tent that night, then got up so that we could go ride 15 miles because that was another thing that he needed to do for his camping merit badge. The 11 year old scouts were doing a 10 mile bike ride that morning so we met up with them and did the 10 miles and then after they were done we did another 5 to make it 15. 

Since we couldn't only pay for one night, Matthew and I went back that night towards the end of the race and stayed in the tent Saturday night so he could get another night of camping. It ended up raining a lot that night and we were getting dripped on. We got up early in the morning and just threw everything in the back of the van and headed home to get ready for church. After church we put up the tent to let it dry out. Then we put waterproof stuff on it so hopefully it doesn't drip on us anymore.

I am so glad I finally got to go to one of those races, and I LOVE all the experiences the kids (and me if I am honest) get to have because of Scouts.

Allison's Hope & Dreams for 5th grade (Sept 18, 2018)

Apparently Allison's biggest hope for 5th grade is to learn about the ocean.

Her biggest dream for 5th grade is to get all As.

This is just a random picture of my errand buddy. I don't want her to leave me for Kindergarten, and that is still another 1.5 years away, to too close for my liking.

Tornado Warnings/Watches

I still don't know the difference between a watch and a warning. I think one is that the conditions are right for a tornado and the other is that there has been a tornado spotted touching down. We had numerous of both.

Last week, Monday and Tuesday, almost everyone in Richmond was in frantic mode because Hurricane Florence was coming for us. They canceled the kids' school for Friday. YM/YW and Cub Scouts got canceled for Wednesday night. Everyone was to get ready.

However, by Wednesday morning predictions had changed and it wasn't going to hit us anymore. It was going to go south. We weren't too concerned because we felt like we were pretty prepared. We started relaxing and not worrying about it too much, however, all of our stuff was still in the garage.

We have gotten same rain and thunderstorms but we have had much worse so it wasn't anything different than the norm around here.

Yesterday after Allison got home from school, did her chores quickly then asked to go to her friend Carys' house. Carys lives in our neighborhood but about a mile away. It wasn't raining so I said sure. When she got there, Carys' mom called me right away. I had NO idea there was a tornado watch/warning for our area. She said she would just keep Allison and it would keep them from being scared to be able to just play together.

I started watching the news and after about 30 minutes of hearing about all of these many tornadoes happening, I decided I wanted Allison with me. I quickly drove down and picked her up. Carys' mom told me that the middle (and high school) were keeping the kids at school and not releasing them until the warnings were gone. Matthew doesn't have a phone with him so I was a little worried, but figured he was probably safer there then at home actually. I just like to have my kids with me. The school kept us very informed throughout the whole thing. They kept the kids at school for about 3 hours. It was POURING rain, but they finally did say that they would release kids to us if we wanted to come pick them up but buses weren't running yet, it wasn't safe for the bus drivers. It was kind of chaos picking the kids up but I was SOO very grateful when I finally saw Matthew and got to hug him. A few minutes after I put his name on the list the principal said they were going to start putting kids on the buses and he hoped to get all the kids whose parents were there but they may get on the bus before they get to them. I was very worried because I had no way of contacting Matthew so I was trying not to freak out...I was ELATED when I found Matthew!!

We ran through the rain to get back to the van, I was just hoping that the roadways hadn't gotten so much water that I was still able to pass through back home.

We did lose power a couple times for a little bit but thankfully nothing for very long.

All of this weather was a result of Hurricane Florence, and it was a little intense with ALL of the tornadoes! There were a few if not more that touched down in the Richmond area but there were so many more that could have. There was one tornado that formed right above the school that someone captured on video but thankfully it didn't get the school with all of those kids inside. 

We had lots of rain, lots of lightning and thunder but thankfully we were safe. There are supposed to be more thunderstorms today but it shouldn't be anything like we had yesterday. Our ditch was almost overflowing so we were a little worried about flooding but thankfully it stopped in time.

I am thankful we were all safe, we didn't have any damage but unfortunately there was one death from the tornado yesterday and lots of damage. 

I was hoping they wouldn't have school today, but they do:(

Michelle In the Dentist Chair (Sept 11, 2018)

We had a big step with Michelle actually sitting in the Dentist chair all by herself at this check-up.

She was being brave like Daniel Tiger and holding Allison's hand to help her.

Then she got to wear cool dude glasses!!

Allison is the best big sister this little one could ever ask for.

Opening up wide so Dr. Strauss can count how many teeth she has

Sister Weekend Part 3

I didn't take many pictures while they were here but Sunday night when I had the kids say their goodbyes, I did get a picture.

Monday morning before Matthew went to school he said, mom, Tina hasn't been bad. I wish that they could stay longer. I just thought to myself, I don't, I still have 6 more hours to get through.

To make it easier on me, Tina and Heather booked the same flight out of Richmond so I only had to go to the arrowport once that day. We were going to leave at 2pm to get them to the airport. Their flight left at 4:30pm.

Kids were gone to school before the aunts woke up.

I have a fancy curling iron and I told Tina that I would show her how it worked and curl her hair. She said she needed to go get a book. She came into the room and asked me if I had read or heard of this conspiracy theory book. I just said no and tried to change the subject. I kept trying to ask me questions about it, and I would conveniently need to go take care of Michelle. When I came back she would say something else and I tried to change the subject about when she did beauty pageants. I didn't really care about it, I was just trying to change the subject. I started curling a strand of hair in the back and it was almost as if she had me. She started talking about this book and I told her that I wasn't interested in it. She kept trying to talk about it and I again would tell her that I didn't want to talk about it. I asked her if she wanted to talk about football. She said sure, after she was done. I did about 3 curls in the back of her head as I was saying I am not interested in hearing this, I don't want to talk about it. She wouldn't give up and asked me why I didn't want to "hear the truth." She started to get upset and I said, Tina I am not going to get stuck her listening to this when I don't want to hear it, if you are going to keep talking about this I am going stop doing your hair and leave this room. She started getting mad about me not wanting to hear and so I just left the room, meanwhile Heather is yelling from upstairs that she needs me. She didn't really but she was trying to get me away from her. I went up and helped Heather. I was in Heather (Allison's) room and later Tina came and and yelled, "STEPHANIE, I AM DONE WITH YOU!!"  I was just like ok, whatever. It was about 10am and Heather was asking what we were going to do that day. I told her that we would go to this cool tourist place with amazing flowers and butterflies. Tina pipes up from her (Matthew's) room across the hall. "I WANT TO GET TO THE AIRPORT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!" 

Heather goes downstairs with me and tells me that she doesn't want to spend all day with that so she was going to take a good long time getting ready. I just avoided Tina for quite some time, letting her cool down.

Later, I was like, what can I talk to her about, oh I know, she loved watching movies. I went upstairs, she was in the bathroom curling her hair, and I said, "Hey Tina, what movie was your favorite to watch here." Her response was, "STEPHANIE, I AM NOT TALKING TO YOU!!"

I may or may not had some tears. I don't like people being upset with me. I had tried SOOOO hard the WHOLE time to make this a positive experience and make her enjoy her time. Heather was trying to talk me into not feeling bad. 

Then at one point I was in Heather's room and Tina came in to talk to Heather about something. I remembered that I had let Tina use my jacket the night before and so I asked, "Tina, do you know where that jacket is that I let you borrow last night?" She just stared ahead and wouldn't answer me. Heather said, I think it is downstairs. I went and checked to make sure she didn't take it.

When I went back upstairs I checked Matthew's room because she was packed and had all of her stuff out of his room....except the gifts I gave her, even the one I handmade specifically for her. Heather said she would take them for her. Then I went into Heather's room and I was talking and Tina said to me, "YOU NEED TO GET OUT!!"  I was VERY proud of myself when I said, "um excuse me? This is my house! If you would like to leave you are more than welcome to, but you can NOT kick me out of my own house!" She didn't say anything to that.

Heather was finally ready and we left to the airport around 11:15am. 

Tina had always sat up front with me, but Heather did this time. I took a long way around to the airport because I wanted Heather to see where my kids went to school. Tina didn't talk to me the whole ride to the airport and NEVER even said thank you or ANYTHING when she got out. Heather thanked me for being a great host and for all that I did for them, but Tina didn't say a word.

I dropped them off about noon. I was so happy to be done with Tina, however, I just broke down crying because I tried SO SO hard. I called my mom and told her everything while crying and she said, "Steph! It was a success!! You made it until the last day!!" 

But this is the "success" picture. I cried until I got home and then I think I was just mad, but this is when I got home.  

Chris said that I pushed the reset button so I don't have to deal with her again for another 10+ years!!

I was SOOOO worried about her being here because of her blowing up and sadly my worry was warranted. I wasn't disappointed and my family understood why I worried so much.

Even though it ended on a sour note, I am actually thankful for all of it, which may sound weird.

I am thankful that my 12 year old son, and my 10 year old daughter (and now 3 yo daughter) got to meet their Aunt Tina that has just been a name up until now. They had a good time with her and she said that we had good kids and were surprised how well mannered they were. 

I am even thankful she blew up at me and that it ended the way it did because it was the last day thank goodness. But if she had not blown up at me, I may feel obligated to bring her back another time and possibly have her here longer and then it may have ended worse. So it was a pretty good visit, but it seemed liked she had a hidden agenda that she needed to take care of that last day she was hear. She said earlier that she didn't like to read but yet she brought a book specifically to talk to me about it. hmmmm. Anyways, we had a good visit but leaving with a sour taste in my mouth makes me not need to worry, or think about her for another 10+ years. Let her worry about the world coming to an end while I focus on my family and my life.

Sister Weekend Part 2

Tina's 50th birthday was on Friday and Heather was supposed to take the red-eye the night before and get here Friday morning. I REALLY wanted to take my sisters on a Segway tour of Richmond but it was about $65/each. There was a trolley tour for half that and the sisters wanted to tour Richmond. I thought it would be super fun on Tina's 50th birthday to ride a Segway and so I wanted to spend the money but I just wasn't sure. I was talking to my sister-in-law earlier about it and she said that it probably wouldn't matter what I did, she would probably find something to criticize about it anyways and she wouldn't appreciate it. I knew she was right, and so with that I decided to do the cheaper one. I told them it was because you can never know if it is going to rain here or not, which is true, but I didn't want to spend almost $200 for Tina to not appreciate it.

On Friday, I went and got birthday donuts at a great donut shop for Tina's birthday. We had birthday balloons and banners and I handmade a gift for her and had another present for her. My family doesn't really do birthdays but since it was her 50th and she was here I was trying to make it extra special.  

Heather's plane got in about 3 hours later than scheduled and so our plans had to change. Once we got Heather home and ready to go we didn't have a ton of time, but we did go downtown Richmond to the James River and walked across a cool bridge and did a little bit of touring.

Then we went back so that we could all go out for dinner for her birthday. We went to Texas Roadhouse because that is the cheapest place to go with a family. We normally spend $25 total there when our family goes there. The bill ended up being $87!!!! We just gulped REALLY hard and tried not to let it bother us...but it did.

Then we went home so that Heather could be on an important phone call that she couldn't miss that night. After her phone call, I took the sisters to a place called Shindigz. It is a cake place. These cake slices are HUGE, like 7 layers high and they have all different kinds. We ended up getting one sundae to split and then ordered 4 slices of cake so that we could bring them home and share with the family. It was also Chris' birthday on Sunday. Tina watched another movie that night and I was thankful when she went to bed without a blow-up.

On Saturday, I let sisters sleep in but then I had to get them up about 10 so that we could get to our Richmond Trolley Tour. I think they liked going around learning about Richmond and there was lots of stuff that I didn't know about but I wouldn't be able to tell you what those were. After that we went to the Virginia State Capitol and did a tour of that.

Tina apparently really likes flowers, and apparently just planted these in her flowerbed this year so she loved seeing these.

After our tour we went to the church because we were having a ward BBQ that I wanted to go to...until we got there. It was suppose to be outside at Bishop's house but it was rainy so they moved it to the church. It was crazy chaos and I wanted to leave as soon as we ate.

Tina watched more movies that night, hallelujah.

I told Tina that Chris was the Sunday School teacher and told him how good he was when we went to DC. She said that she is taking a break from church right now but since Chris was the teacher she would go.

Well, Sunday morning she got ready to go to church but when Chris woke up his red eye was sealed shut. He had pink eye and he needed to go to the dr and not go to church and spread any germs. I told her he wasn't going but she decided to go to church anyways.

I got to sit in between my two sisters at church and that was cool.

In Relief Society we were all sitting in a circle and the lesson was on Following the Prophet and apparently that was a subject that Tina had a lot to talk about. She would raise her hand and EVERY time she raised her hand I would get SUPER nervous as to what she was going to say. Probably start talking about her conspiracy theories or something. I was a NERVOUS wreck. I was visibly uncomfortable whenever she raised her hand and talked. One lady kept looking at me and I was just trying to hold it in. I was so so worried, and she kept doing it. She did say a few things, like just keep your eye on him and things like that but nothing I had to bury my face in the sand about. At about 5 minutes until 12 I got my hymn book out and was ready to sing. I was READY to be done with the lesson. I was so anxious to get it over. At 12 one lady said, she just wanted to add something real quick, five minutes lady, I am not exaggerating, because I was definitely a clock watcher, she finally wrapped up what she wanted to say. Then the teacher said, that reminds me when......and then she went on for ANOTHER five minutes. At 12:10 she finally wrapped up the lesson. I was anxious to get my sister out of there so that she wouldn't start talking to somebody about something. I got them out quickly, we rushed to pick up Michelle and then I herded my sisters out to the car and buckled Michelle and had them stay there so I could go get Matthew and Allison. I was SOOOO very glad when we got home finally. When I got home, I had a text on my phone saying that my facial expressions were hilarious in RS that day. I responded with why I had crazy facial expressions. Then I texted the other lady that saw me really struggling and her response was. It was hilarious because Sister #2 (Heather) had the same facial expressions whenever Sister #1 (Tina) spoke. I was glad to hear it wasn't just me worried.

My mom said that I needed to show my sisters Greatest Showman so Matthew made No Bake Cookies for my sisters and then we watched The Greatest Showman. Heather needed lots of cookies to keep her awake throughout the show but Tina really enjoyed it.

Tina played games with the kids that day and they had a great time.

At one point Allison said, "I feel like your sisters just came to see you." Yep they kind of did little one, it is called a sisters weekend. She didn't like me constantly taking her aunts away from her, so Sunday getting to keep them around all day was a good day for them.

Sunday night after Tina went to bed, I was so relieved that nothing bad had happened yet. I was even thinking that when I went on my next walk with my good friend I might not even have anything to tell her really. It all went really well.

My sister-in-law texted me Sunday night and asked me how the weekend went. I didn't want to text her back saying that everything went well, because I knew I still had a day left and I didn't want to jinx anything....

Sisters Weekend Part 1

My sister Heather wanted to do something nice for our oldest sister, Tina, who was turning 50 this year at the beginning of September. She wanted to get all of the siblings together but once we realized that wasn't going to work, we decided to just do the sisters. I thought it would be fun and even suggested that they come to Virginia but I was willing to go anywhere.

Heather talked to Tina and Tina wanted to come to Virginia since she had never been here before. It had been 3 years ago that I showed up on Tina's doorstep in Utah after not talking to her for 10+ years before that. I honestly wasn't sure if she would slam the door in my face or not. It was the first time any member had talked to her in YEARS. It was the first step to getting her to start talking to the family again. However, I still hadn't talked to her since that time. I had 4 month old Michelle with me and that was the first child she had ever met.

When I realized that Tina was actually coming to my house, I was SUPER nervous. Tina is just one of those that will blow up at a drop of a hat. You have to walk on eggshells around her and I was absolutely worried what would happen when she was here. She had called me SO many horrible things since I have been married it is just ridiculous. She is just really hard to be around and always tells us about the world ending. When she did talk to us, she would call us and tell us about a nuclear bomb that was going to destroy us that weekend. When I did talk to her, I was so depressed when I finally got off the phone. I had Chris answer every phone call in case it was her, I would have him lie so I didn't get so depressed talking to her again. Then she started spreading rumors to the rest of my family that Chris was being abusive and stuff like that. It was just CRAZY!! We got caller ID specifically so we knew when she was calling so we didn't answer. So the fact that she "wrote us off" or stopped talking to us, wasn't necessarily a sad day for us. However, you always wish that your family could just be a happy family.

So, I was BEYOND nervous having her come into my house for six days and seeing what might happen.

I was super excited to have Heather come, because I have a great relationship with Heather and I really have fun being with her.

I cleaned my house and tried to make sure everything "looked" perfect so she couldn't criticize me for everything. My kids were really good with trying to help me also because they knew I was a nervous wreck.

Tina got here Wednesday afternoon. Chris had dinner for us ready when we got home. Thankfully she saw that we had a bunch of movies that she wanted to see like Lord of the Rings, and Indiana Jones and a few other ones. That night she started watching Lord of the Rings and so I was happy when she watched that, and then went to bed and we didn't have a blow-up that day. Thursday, I had planned to take her up to DC since she had never been there before. I was REALLY nervous she would start telling me about all of her conspiracy theories since she would have my full attention. Instead we just talked about different things that have happened in my life and with my kids and then she told me in very specific details about a law case that she spent $40K to prove that she was right and she eventually won $2K, but she had to show her who was boss. She also filled me in on some other crazy stories, but that is Tina.

I bought to Hop-On, Hop Off bus tours to tour Washington DC. I was always on eggshells, but survived. She took a tour of the Capitol but I had food and drinks so I couldn't go in with her (ahhh, shucks...) I was grateful for the time I didn't have to worry about her but wondered what she was going to come out and start talking about. She was in there for about 2 hours and it was 2 hours less that I had to be with her. I was counting down the time that until I could drop her off at the arrowport (as Michelle calls it). Tina did learn that day that there is a difference between the White House and the Capitol building. She thought it was the same thing. She got to see all the major landmarks/tourist attractions. We finally got done about 7pm and started heading back and thankfully for the way up and for the way back there wasn't much/any traffic so it was only 2 hours each way. I was so worried I would be stuck on I-95 for even longer than 2 hours each way. She would occasionally say something about a conspiracy theory but I would just ignore it or change the subject and she didn't try to change it back or keep talking about it. It was SURPRISINGLY a pretty good day with her, I was SHOCKED!! I was super glad when she went to bed and there wasn't a blow-up yet.

School Started (5th & 7th Grade) - (Sept. 4, 2018)

I can't believe that I never wrote about this event either!

I have really been slacking!!

Allison usually loves school but she got the teacher that she did not want:( 

She got Mr. Crew!

Matthew wanted Mr. Crew, but didn't get him and then Allison did.

She left the open house crying because she didn't want him and she had cried many times leading up to school starting.

However, she did have a smile on her face the 1st day of school so that was good but she was also really nervous to have a male teacher for the first time. 

She is adorable!

 When she got home from the first day of school, she was all smiles and decided that she thought Mr. Crew would be ok and that "HE IS REALLY FUNNY!"

Matthew hasn't really wanted to go to school now for a few years, but we do it anyways.

Just another year in middle school.

Nothing to report about the first day of school.

Sam's Club Lunch (August 31, 2018)

We made a trip to Sam's Club and grabbed lunch. 

Here are my helpers for the day.