2021, August 23-29

First full week of school, BYU annual conference, and prepping for new flooring and paint occupied us this week. Also, we spent a lot of time with the cat.

Here is Eliza bothering loving on Fergus before taking a break from school. Hallie stayed home this week from work to do remote instruction with Eliza while Mike had meetings for University Conference. 

We are so glad Eliza makes it look like it was all fun and games during the week, but boy, the girls worked hard on school work, and before you know it, it was time to go get Landon from school and then take both of the kids to gymnastics.

Lily started her first day of kindergarten on Wednesday. The girls all got together at Zeppe's beforehand for some celebratory gelato. Where has time gone with these two?! Hallie checked in with Sarah (Lily's mom) after she dropped her off. The two moms commiserated, and Hallie may have cried just as much. 

As Mike went to pick up Landon from gym on Wednesday afternoon, he spied some glorious sun rays emanating through the clouds. This was our last day of clear skies before smoke rolled back in from California again. 

Fergus likes to keep Mike company as he works. Sometimes the cat flashes his delectable belly, which none of us can resist petting, even though we know it will result in an attack. Eliza did an Instagram Reel of her petting him, and within minutes it had over 100 likes, but because Eliza didn't aske if she could post it under Hallie's Instagram, the mean mom deleted it.

Eliza had a doctor's appointment Friday at the new hospital. Apparently they grow catnip (nepeta faasenii) out front for the bees. We'll have to get Fergus a sample next time we go.  

Last week, Landon kept his cool and helped out when a fellow student injured himself. He received this note from his principal. We appreciated her thoughtfulness. Things have been a bit challenging at home and at the gym, so it meant a lot. Thursday was a mental day at home for Landon, and he did not go to gym for two days. This mom and dad are a bit overwhelmed with teenage boy life.

In lieu of movie night on Friday, we had a family dinner at Cravings Bistro with the kids followed up with dessert at Blox Dessert Bars. Some of us had more fun than the other (hint, hint), but everything tasted great!

Look at these monsters! So tasty! We had to taste all the varieties they had, and there were a lot of favorites. It was great that they were so big that we could share.

As we removed items from downstairs in preparation for getting the walls painted and new floors put in, Fergus found a cat trap. Hopefully he moves soon. Otherwise his new home will be in the garage for the next bit.

On Saturday, we had pizza and a movie with pies from Mod and Via 313. Via 313 serves Detroit (AKA Sicilian) style pizza baked in a rectangular pan with the sauce above the cheese and toppings. Most of their stores are in Texas, but they recently opened in Orem. Hallie won a small pepperoni and a cinnamon bread. After she picked up the yummy pizza Hallie spun the wheel of prizes and won cheese bread for their next trip to Via 313.

This week Hallie saw on Instagram that if you are a teacher you could sign up for Buy One Get One Free Mod Pizza. So she signed up, and it came in the email, so we had lots of yummy pizza and finished the movie we started the week before for Mike's movie night, Race. It was about Jesse Owens, and the movie was good!

On Sunday morning Mike came downstairs to feed the cat, and he found the boy asleep still wearing his reading glasses (which probably meant he snuck downstairs to play Fortnite and get a bite to eat). He stayed napping on the couch until about noon. It is hard being thirteen.

Fergus was really in a mood to play fetch this morning, bringing his bracelet up and downstairs to find someone to play with. 

Mike indulged the kitty between sips of mate. They're buds, so how could he resist? 

Sunday evening we got Landon to move some more of the packed boxes to the garage for us, and we spent a bit of time chatting with our neighbor. It was a rough week emotionally for most of the family, so Sunday came as a nice day of rest which we all needed. We hope next week brings less doctor appointments and more time doing things for ourselves.