In September, Brian and I decided to take on a couple new ventures. Due to Covid, I wanted to do my part and applied to be a substitute with the school district. I needed a picture with a white background for my ID badge. I tried doing a selfie
And then brought Brian in to help.
I ended up just putting a picture taken a year ago by my photographer friend on a white background instead.
BYU sent out an email that said they were desperate for capstone coaches, so Brian applied. They hired him, which meant that Brian needed to shave his beard. We were both sad about the loss.
We went to a park somewhere. Maybe while Michael had practice? I don't recognize this park, so it's not one we normally go to.
And we finally got to mow our new grass!
We went to BYU so Brian could pick up some things for his capstone job, and we decided to drop in to see if Kirt was in his office. The sign on the door made me laugh.
Papa wasn't there, so we just took this picture to send to him instead.
There were chores to be done still.
Gracie kept on being Gracie.
Rachel kept inventing fun little events with tickets and the like.
We took front porch pictures at our new house.
Michael keeps getting better at making Challah. He doesn't even need help anymore.
Gabe still occasionally fell asleep in the middle of the day, but not as much as he used to.
We had our last Sunday dinner at our tiny little table.
We played the Switch together.
We watched the workers working.
We tried out some baseball.
We cut it a little close on the gas situation.
And we finally got our new dining room table. The color was a little more orangey pink than we thought it would be, and there are deep grooves throughout, but considering that we bought it online, we weren't surprised. Mostly, we just love it.
We love the sunsets here. We have spectacular views from almost every window in the house.
Did I mention that we love our new table?
I finally worked through all my online training and had my first substitute job at the district office. We still hadn't unpacked all of our shoes, and I frantically searched for my booties that morning, but I could only find my knee high boots. When I took them off that night and plopped them onto the floor, it reminded me of those witch feet that people display around Halloween, so I stuffed my leggings in the boots and placed them like this. Brian thought it was funny (mission accomplished!) and took this picture.
Cheetos were consumed.
Smiles were, er, smiled.
And the kids finally got to play in the backyard.
We discovered this strange little blister-like thing on Gabe's foot. It was causing him pain, so we popped it and put Neosporin on it.
We finally got to do soccer again, and this time, Gabe got to join in the fun. It had been a year since we could do soccer, and it was so nice to be back on the field watching the boys play.
I saw a video on Facebook where parents laid down in their kids laps while they were watching TV. The kids smiled and just adored the attention, so I thought I'd try it with Gabe. I didn't see his face, but Brian said he was smiling. He rubbed my back.
There was another fire, this time in Pleasant Grove. We didn't worry about this one for our sake, but it is always alarming to see fire on the mountains. We heard about fires in California and Oregon that were much, much worse.
I took a ridiculous selfie.
We made cookie bars. (Did I mention that Michael is really liking to cook and bake?)
We had our first dinner party at our big table. Thanks, Parkers for helping us break it in!
Rachel made this for Michael.
One day, Gabe and Rachel were twinners.
I substituted at the district office a couple of times for the main receptionist. I got to hear complaints about masks, bus drivers, in-school teaching concerns, online learning concerns, and even met a very abrasive Black Lives Matters representative that blew into the building like a force of nature, threatened everyone there while accusing us all of being racists. I was also there the next day and put on alert to see if her threats would come to pass. It was pretty unsettling. The story she told online about her reception by the district office was much different than what I witnessed. She came in looking for a fight, so that's all she saw. She didn't see that we were all a little off put by her antagonism, not her skin color. I understand needing to be full of resolve to take on centuries of hatred and inequality, but I couldn't help but think the approach was more divisive than unifying. I wish we could all just get along, love each other, and not be so caught up in skin colors and past wrongs. Maybe that's oversimplifying things, but the whole Black Lives Matters movement has made me more self-conscious around people of color whereas before they were people just like me with darker pigmented skin (that I was mostly just jealous of because I can't tan and burn so easily). I hate that there is all this hurt and fear among my friends of color, but I feel like there is a better way to go forward because the current narrative seems to be spreading more hate than previously was here. The peacemaker in me just wants to fix everything, but I don't know how.
Anyway, at the district office, they have this really cool sculpture right in the main atrium, and I love it.
We apparently sat at the table long after dinner was cleared, looking at a phone (hopefully scriptures!) and played with Gabe's hair.
It was definitely time for a haircut. Charlie came to visit with Cal and Cassidy when they came to help haul sand. He hung out at our house during the day while they met up with her parents after getting the sand in. He's a very sweet dog, and he's getting so big!
We snuggled up to watch more soccer games. Nana and Papa made it to quite a few games, and Michael scored quite a bit.
We read books.
Gabe hosted picnics on the deck. If only his friends ate all the things and threw their trash away....
Gracie went to the groomers.
Gabe had a masquerade in the car.
And speaking of masks, we went back to church AT church for the first time since March. Masks were required, and we couldn't really talk with anyone after services. There were no other meetings besides sacrament meeting, but it was SO nice to be back with our fellow Latter-day Saints in person. We've been watching broadcasts as well, which has been amazing, but so nice to meet in person. I also got called into the Young Women's organization as an advisor, and we held one week-day meeting in September.
We read some more.
Gracie fell asleep waiting for Charlie to call. He never did.
Gabe did Upstart, an online preschool.
The kids had school pictures, and Rachel looked so cute that day that I had to drag her to the field across the street for a quick photo shoot. I meant to do one with each of the boys as well, but it never happened.
We had more snuggles.
And ate roughly 2 dozen boxes of cereal.
And just like that, it was October!
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