Reggie's birthday party

Reggie invited 7 other boys over for his party.  They gamed for a bit and then went to Deadpool, the PG-13 one.  I didn't like that movie at all and Ainsley had a birthday party to attend so I took her there and Ryan managed the afternoon!  I usually do the birthday parties and its a lot and I was a little happy to hear he thought it was a bit stressful too (glad its not just me) and still not really appropriate.

Cookie day

I flew all by myself to Washington a couple weeks ago for cookie day!!!  What a nice break...can I just say it is so nice to just worry about me!  The weather was very nice on Friday, so it made sense to make my toffee early (last time I made it in the rain, it was a little chewy and I didn't want to risk it).  That night we had a Bunko party at the fire hall and there were so many people there :).  I don't have much luck at that game but it was still fun.  Aunt Pam came up and went too....no beginners luck for her.  Saturday we spent all day making cookies, dozens and dozens.  My mom premade a couple and they were my favorites...Peppermint meringue and whipped shortbread.  I ate a lot while I was there!
I forgot to take pictures but I did get a few of us playing the face game.
The mouth pieces can be a bit challenging and somewhat painful to get it.

Piano recital

Ainsley and Khalif had there piano recital and both did awesome!  Reggie outgrew his teacher and with starting high school we decided to let him play on his own.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to happen too much anymore.  He was excited about some new movies coming out and learning their theme songs, so we'll see.

1st Trampoline meet

Ainsley's first trampoline meet was a couple weeks ago and we have a lot to learn!!!  The scoring is so different than artistic gymnastics and the scoring on each event is different.  I got the 101 from her coach afterward, so it makes a little more sense now.  We think she did pretty good and since she was the only one in her age group, she got 1st place on everything.  The group she was competing with was level 1-7 all ages, so she got lots of ooh's and ah's because most of the kiddos were lower level and I guess they don't get to see the upper level routines very often.  She felt pretty good about herself afterward!

Pac 12 Championship Game

Before Apple Cup, Ryan talked about going to the championship game at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, but got pretty quiet about it after the Cougars lost to the Huskies.  Reggie's friends dad works for Audi and they sponsor the event, so we offered us tickets for the entire family, plus the VIP tailgating party!!!  The younger 2 have never been to a game, so I thought it would be a great experience and it was!  We were hustling to make it to the tailgate party and the Husky band was walking/playing next to us and it was quite impressive.  There's so much energy at college games!

We had all kinds of food to choose from, sliders, churro's, nachos, meat carvings, chili.  We did not leave hungry :).  

We got to the game and found our AMAZING seats...probably the best seats I've been in, BUT we were on the wrong side.  Sitting with a bunch of Utah fans.  The kids heard more f 'bombs than they knew what to do with...good and a bad because that at least meant the Huskies were causing misery.  It was quite entertaining and the kids laughed and laughed.  Khalif was a little uncomfortable with things being so out of control, so he moved over by me and cuddled in his blanket.  He was very annoyed that they would stand up for the whole game and swear for no apparent reason!!!  But, when all said and done, he really enjoyed himself too.  We all had a blast!  Brought me back to my college days....all the band songs are the same :).  Felt good to laugh..which we did A LOT.

The game ended on a bad no call, so the Huskies won and the crowd was booing and I took a little video for us to remember our friends in front (Ryan was buddy, buddy with them, chit chatting it up the entire game...well, until the last quarter when it got a bit intense.  They liked him because he wasn't a Husky!).

15!

Doesn't he look good!  Nothing like a hair cut and shave...What?  Yes, Ryan helped him shave his upper lip and chin!  He just said how weird it felt, but he'll get used to it.  He is now 5'11" and 148 pounds.  He is growing so fast, his knees are bothering him a bit and crack when he goes upstairs.  I hope everything will settle in when he stops growing.  It won't be long until he passes Ryan!

We had birthday dinner when the Rinehardt's were here, so there wasn't too much planned for today and we knew he would want to play on his new gaming computer that he worked so hard for.  He has been saving and working for us since February and combined with his birthday money, he finally ordered his computer on Black Friday.  He is really enjoying how fast and cool it is!
We did go to Timothy's birthday party today and that was lots of fun.  He destroyed his cake and it ended up all over him which is why he doesn't have a shirt on.

 Wasn't that nice that they had a party and cake for Reggie!  Ainsley overheard us talking about his age and she just couldn't get over that he is 15.  She was so surprised...it was very funny!

It is still weird to think of him in high school!  The first trimester is officially over! So far, he has all A’s and squeaked it out in biology with a 90.4!!!! We studied so hard for his final and I’m glad it paid off! He wasn’t so sure after he took it and was a little irritated that the study guide wasn’t exactly like the test but he did great ☺️.  English is still unknown...he had an 89 going into the final.
He also went to work with Ryan for the first part of Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving break and spend some time with the engineers at Molex. He seemed to enjoy it but hasn’t said too much. He is growing up too fast!  It is weird to think he'll be moving on to bigger things in less than 4 years.  He is such a great kid with a big heart!  Always wanting to do the right thing...he has a very strong moral compass and it so great to be able to trust him.  I hope he always stays that way.  I never know who to believe if he isn't around....the other two have a ways to go in this area.  He is a gentle soul and its easy to love Reggie!

He is getting quite the sense of humor and its been fun to see him "get" things and develop into a young adult.  Sometimes it isn't so fun....we have lots of screen time battles, but deep down he knows why we have limits and I'm hoping he'll learn to self regulate better in this area.  Its a different world than when we were growing up.  These kids always have access to screens and they see people making money on Youtube and becoming famous just by playing video games.  It is crazy!  He is very techy and someday that will hopefully be a benefit in the workplace.  

Happy Birthday....We love you Reggie!

Rinehardt visit/Thanksgiving

Unfortunately, for the Rinehardt’s trip started out with a delayed flight which threw everything off a little bit and they ended up in some San Francisco traffic but made it home in time for dinner.
We woke up bright and early the next morning to turn right around and go back to San Francisco to visit Alcatraz, Lombard Street, China town and the Golden Gate Bridge. It was absolutely pouring down rain!!! The rain was much needed to dissipate to smoke in the air but it wasn’t so fun. We were all soaking wet. I think everyone enjoyed Alcatraz but Maggie not so much. It was enlightening for sure.

 Ainsley with former inmate William Baker.  He was in for making counterfeit money and then escaping from 3 other prisons.  Pretty smart guy.

We cut it close in the morning and thankfully there wasn’t traffic so it all worked out but leaving in the afternoon is a bit of a nightmare. Waze routed Ryan all the way up through Vallejo and back down.... probably 40 miles out of the way. Our route seemed much simpler but when it took us an hour to go 2 blocks I wanted to jump out of my skin. Took us 3 hours to get to sweet tomatoes. The boys beat us by at least an hour! I won’t be returning there anytime soon. That might be the dumbest city exit ever...only one way out.
The next day was Thanksgiving and the turkey was in the oven by 8. It was a beautiful day and we could finally see clearly (the smoke was gone). We decided to play a little beach volleyball. The girls made a comeback and we ended up tying. It was fast and furious when we got home. Linner was delicious and we were all stuffed. Somehow the kids were able to jump on the trampoline with full stomachs. Adults were comatose! A few hours later we ventured out to Walmart and Kohl’s for Black Friday. What a mellow, quiet year. I didn’t have much on my list but it was worth going there. We were able to get the good stuff online and maybe that’s why the store was quieter. Lots more online shoppers!

 Working hard on one of his favorites!  He was also our potato peeler...

 We went and saw the fantastic beasts movie and The Rinehardt’s were impressed with the reclining seats and ability to pick your seats when you buy the tickets. We don’t really think about it much but I guess it is pretty cool. Apple cup was later that day ....ouch for Ryan!  Oh and I almost forgot that Wade and Ryan put up the Christmas lights!

We were supposed to go to the jelly belly factory on Saturday but I read online that none of the machines would be working so we all voted that was not worth it. We decided that might be a good parents night out! The kids also had kids night out and walked downtown to get dinner and Menchie’s. It’s good for them to have a budget, make choices about where they want to eat and have some freedom and responsibility at the same time.
I’m pretty sure they made better choices than we did!!! Lots of drinks and food (we got warm maple bars from the donut wheel 😋). We really enjoyed Paxti’s happy hour. Then we went to the escape room and failed miserably. We contributed quite a bit (we were with 6 strangers) given our condition and thought we were doing great until he showed us how much we had left. It was still really fun. From there, we Ubered back downtown to the beer Barron. That was memorable...Liha was asked to dance by a lady!!!! She wouldn’t do it, but it made us all laugh. The DJ started the music awhile later and the place was absolutely packed and we danced the night away. We walked home and arrived around 12:30! There’s still some young in us!

Everyone was hurting the next day but I pounded the water before we left and stuff with lemon drops and I felt great. I think that’s my new favorite drink! Makes me happy but doesn’t seem to make me pay later.
Sunday we went to church and then headed to the pool for some time in the indoor therapy pool (96 degrees). They have family day on the weekends and they were a lot of people there so we decided to go outside. The pool was empty and it was beautiful!!! The kids swim and we soaked up some sun, maybe snoozed a bit. It was glorious! That night we celebrated Reggie’s birthday at Red Robin for the last time (slow service), but we all left very full.

 We all walked to school on Monday.  I think Khalif is going to miss Spencer...

The kids spent hours in the secret room, playing a Overdrive (racetrack game), jumping on the trampoline and the girls did nails and played barbies and watched a lot of the carbonero show. Fun times for all!!!!

Ryan's back

Well, he finally went in and had the MRI. The results came later that night and turns out he has a bulging disc and a pinched nerve. He didn’t think I was serious 🤔. He's been wincing when he gets up and making noises at night when he moves, so I had a good idea there was a problem.  We don’t know exactly what all the jargon means and he just finally made an appointment today so we’ll know more in about 2 weeks. My nurse friend kind of interpreted and she said it wasn't good.  Here’s the summary:

Projects

We are about 95% finished with the pantry project!!! Last weekend we spent some long hours working on it and it is finally usable and looks great! Reggie, Ainsley and I assembled the shelves but Reggie did the last one by himself. He’s so good at that kind of thing!
Laundry room wall:

We added 3M hooks so we didn't have to put holes in the nice, new wall and they are working great.

 Pantry wall

 Finished pantry wall

 So happy!!!

 New door into pantry (that's where the electrical panel used to be.

Ryan arrived Saturday morning and we moved our trampoline into the neighbors yard to make room for the new one. Our black Friday special from 2 years ago did not last like the last one 👎🏻. Around lunch we drove to disassemble the trampoline on craigslist. It was a beast and not super easy to take apart. I was dreading putting it back together but the kids were on us to get it together. We got most of it done the next day but we needed a few straps.

It was an exhausting weekend and my back flared up so I could hardly walk. I used the CBD cream that we had for Ainsley and I have to say it really helped. Ryan has been using it on his back and has felt some improvement. We are quite the pair. It’s not fun getting old!!!
And, today the HVAC people came back to tweak the furnace because it was overheating and shutting down before it reached its desired temperature.  Hopefully, this is the last time they have to come.  It has not been the best experience, but they have been very responsive and they are super nice.  Praying it is finally finished!

We survived!

Ryan was in China and Taiwan all week...he left on Saturday and just got home this morning.  One of the hardest things about his travels is the schedule and tight windows of where kids need to be.  This week had a different challenge...getting Reggie ready for finals.  I quizzed him for hours and hours and he thinks he did well, but we won't find out for awhile.  The saving grace this trip was the smoke.  Unfortunately, California is on fire and it is sad to see so many losing their homes and beautiful places like Paradise leveled by fire.  The smoke has decided to settle in Livermore and particle levels have been off the chart, cancelling all outdoor activities, including swimming!  It is the most smoke we've seen since we've been here.  Thankfully, no one in our household seems to be affected.  Not having swimming was huge for my stress level and things were so much more manageable. 
Khalif is also a challenge when Ryan travels and this was no exception.  He has been so good at school, but this week he had to sit out at recess for talking in class, ugh.  He also had an accident and had to change his sheets which hasn't happened in a very long time (he finally stopped wearing pull ups a couple weeks ago!).  Not to mention his daily behavior and absentmindedness.  I finally pointed it out and asked him if he felt any different and he said yes, but had no idea why...thought maybe it was the excitement of black friday or the cousins coming next week.  It is very interesting how his mind works and the connections he makes.  I've been tracking this for awhile and when Ryan is gone for extended periods of time his behaviors and issues ramp up.  I mentioned that to him and he thought that was not correct (what a surprise!) and seemed to make no sense.  So, he started with a new therapist last week, which he absolutely loved, and maybe she can help us/him figure it out!
As far as Ryan's work/life balance, its been up and down.  When he's home, its o.k., but when he travels weekly or for extended periods, things are rough.  He goes to Mexico after Thanksgiving for almost a week, so we'll be right back in the chaos.  It is hard :(.

Halloween

Halloween is changing a bit these days.  The older 2 wanted to go with their friends, so Ainsley went with her group and Reggie went with the neighbor.  I didn't even see Reggie in his costume!  We had a nice walk around our neighborhood with Khalif and had some nice conversations with neighbors...Halloween is nice that way...brings everyone out!  Not sure why Khalif chose to be an M&M since he has lots of other costumes, but it was easy.  He got WAY more candy than the other 2 and decided to weigh it.  It was over 8 pounds!  He wanted to bring a small bag and then have Ryan carry a big bag where he could dump his goods when it got too heavy.  I think it was a good strategy because he went to many people's doors with little or no candy and they were giving him hand fulls! 
Reggie was impressed with the Batman on our street...his costume was pretty amazing and he talked just like batman.  Our community is awesome and there were so many houses participating and so many little ones running around!
Ainsley discovered she likes chili and she had a great time with her friends...she decided to dress up 80's but wouldn't listen to anything we had to say, so I'm sure people were trying to guess what she was.

Volleyball buddies.  Easy school costume!

 Halloween parade at school

Khalif and his stomach

The boys were hit hard with a really bad cold and toward the end, Khalif was complaining of a stomach ache and didn't eat much dinner.  I had a feeling it wasn't going to be a good night so we reminded him right before bed what to do if he got sick.  And, he followed it to a T.  He came down afterward and told us he got sick and through up in the toilet.  Yay!!!  We have had so many problems with his throw up and where and when it happens and the lack of ability to get the puke in a bag or in the toilet, so this was good.  He woke up the next morning and had a headache and not real hungry, so I told him to sip water, but he only hear drink water and it all came back up about 15 minutes later.  He was thrilled there was so much water because it didn't hurt at all!  He stayed home and started eating a few hours later and was fine.  The following day was good too, but he had pizza at the adoption support group and wasn't feeling all that great.  Well, shame on us for not reminding him, although I'm not sure it would've helped.  When he gets a stomach bug, it can take up to a week for him to fully recover, puking randomly 3 days later sometimes.
Ryan woke up in the morning and the rug by the front door was in a heap, so he fixed that and then noticed a bunch of dried food in the sink.  He just thought the kids forgot to rinse it out.  Then, he heard Khalif from the stairs asking for him.  Khalif said someone had thrown up on the stairs and Ryan said, "Yeah, buddy, that was you."  But he denied it so convincingly that Ryan asked the other two sleeping children and they both said no it wasn't them.  Khalif then suggested maybe it was the cat?  Ryan decided to look at his jammies and there was puke all the way down the front.  He continued to deny it, but it was clear he did it but had no memory of it.  Ugh!  While Ryan was cleaning the walls, I noticed the couch had a mess on it, so I worked on that.  It must have happened shortly after we went to bed because it was all dried up.  This is one of those times where it would have been awesome to have cameras and see the video of what the heck he did., traveling all over the house while depositing puke!
The entire house spelled horrible and we didn't even know where to begin.  So, I called the professionals who apparently have been unusually busy.  He felt bad and fit us in and I have to say it was worth every single dollar!  I have been wanting to get the stairs cleaned for quite some time, so in a way, it was a win.  However, he didn't have time to do the entire top of the landing or the entry into the kids room, so there's an obvious line where he cleaned.  I'm going to see if my carpet cleaner can work magic, but in the past we haven't had much luck with the berber carpet.
Funny, that he thought the cat could create such a mess!

 AMAZING!

 So, I have reminded him again to use his hand sanitizer in his lunch box so he isn't sick all winter, but this wasn't even enough to make him use it!  I ask him almost daily and the answer is always, "I forgot."  So, between that and biting his nails, it will likely be a long season :(.  Thankfully, no one else got this bug!

House projects

Well, our HVAC project didn't exactly go smoothly.  When we ran the air conditioner it would blow really hard and then stop and then blow really hard and then stop, but occasionally, it would work correctly.  Miller's was great about troubleshooting but they had never seen this before.  They replaced basically the entire unit, moved stuff around, put in a ground and still no luck.  Finally they did some electrical testing and it was getting feedback from a couple wires that were touching (or something like that-I didn't really understand).  So after several months, we finally have a working system (the last visit and fix left me with a lot of questions based on how it was working and they were not able to answer my questions, so I guess we will have to wait until next year to find out if the problem is truly fixed).
There's actually a lot of things we need to do around here and the driveway is one....dad fixes it almost every time they come but it is still a cracked mess.  I would like to move the driveway to the street side and make it longer so we could have the option of parking 2 cars in the garage.  It will become more important when the kids start driving and if Ryan's company does a car allowance instead of a car (he wants to get a Tesla).  We had absolutely no idea how much something like this would cost and we only had one contractor who came and followed up with a quote.  We've heard they are so busy and can pick and choose there work, so it we definitely don't have the upper hand.  The quote was around 50K which didn't seem worth it for either of us but as I looked at the quote, I realized if we found someone to do the work themselves and not contract out everything and changed a few things, it would drop down to about 35K which is worth it to me since replacing the driveway alone is around 17K.  So, we will see if we can find anyone, but I'm not thinking this will happen anytime soon.
In the process of dreaming about that, I did realize there's a very small project that will make my life so much better!  I don't have a pantry and haven't since we've been married.  It is very hard to have enough food for these hungry children with no place to store it (right now our utility sink is being used as a pantry!).  We have a room on the other side of the kitchen that is overflow for a lot of different things, but if we cut access to it and closed off the existing door, it would be an awesome place for a pantry.  The one problem was the electrical panel is where the door would be :(.  We got a couple quotes to move it and it wasn't as much as we thought, so that was finished last weekend and hopefully, by thanksgiving, I'll have a pantry!!!

Ainsley

It was a long summer for Ainsley....she got sick right after the 4th of July with a sore throat virus and after several days, I took her in because it wasn't resolving.  They checked her for strep and she didn't have it and started to rebound a bit, but then started complaining about a sore throat again a few days later.  We were at Lummi and I looked at her throat and she had white pockets, but no fever.  I decided to take her in on our way home and they did another strep test and it was negative.  2 days later they called and said it was positive, so she had a different strain that wouldn't show on the rapid test.  Finally, an answer and an easy fix.  We picked up her antibiotics and the label said 7 days...what?  That didn't seem right to me so I gave her everything in the bottle which ended up being about 9 days.  You could still hear her throat was swollen and a few days later she complained again, but it was close enough to our trip home that I decided to wait it out.  Just about that time, Khalif got sick and was complaining of a sore throat.  He had a mild fever and was playing with Easton who was also sick.  I finally looked at his throat and he had pin pricks of blood which looked like Hand, Foot, Mouth.  We let Dustin know, but he took his kids in and the doctor said it wasn't HFM, it was another virus in the Coxsackie family, Herpangina.  Who names these things??!!  It wasn't long after and Ainsley got that too.  I think Reggie and I were immune since we both had HFM when he was a baby.  Her white pockets returned, but no strep.  Her doctor was amazed at the series of events and was very sympathetic but could offer no help.  I think she spent about 80% of her summer with a sore throat!  Miraculously, she was only out of commission for a few days and ended up just rallying and doing most everything sick.  We went to see our acupuncturist when we got back and she improved so much overnight, but it still took several weeks for her tonsils to recover.
School started for her not long after feeling better and she was back at trampoline and started fall volleyball. 
First day of school-they look so old :(

She was very nervous to go back to trampoline after taking the summer off and was talking about not going back but it was easy to see that she was actually afraid to do her skills.  I made her go and everything came back quickly and she has been loving it.  She will compete level 7 starting in December.  The season goes through May which will be interesting because club volleyball is at the same time!  We are really keeping our options open so we can try to have her do volleyball on opposite days of trampoline.  She is really loving volleyball and has improved a lot the last few months.  Try-outs for club are in a couple weeks and that will be telling as far as what her skills are.  I don't know volleyball at all, so I have no sense of how she is doing.  I will say, it is a bit over the top just to try out....you have to sign up for USA volleyball and pay for each try-out.  I'm thinking this will be kind of intense, but we shall see.
I haven't been there in time to see her trampoline routine, but I saw her latest on double mini:

Ainsley has had a lot more time on her hands which is a good and a bad.  Good because she is able to do more things and be a little more well rounded, but bad because she hasn't quite figured out how to prioritize and she ends up wasting so much time and then has to do her homework late at night.  So, she is showing us this month that she can organize herself and put in a little more effort into school before we sign up for another volleyball commitment.  I know she is capable because when she had no time, she was so much more efficient and was able to get things done.  Maybe its her hormones????  She is full blown tween and has an attitude sometimes that is very challenging. I'm just thankful that she tells me things.  I hear from so many moms that they have no idea what is going on (that is kinda how we feel with Reggie, since he isn't much of a talker).  The tricky thing is trying not to react when she tells me things.  So fun being a parent sometimes!
Perfect example is the dress below.  She pitched a fit about wearing leggings.  Thought it was fine without and I told her to bend over and sure enough her butt was hanging out!  Then she understood, but it doesn't help when she sees others wearing inappropriate things (although, it does help at times because she recognizes it).

Pinot's palette-she loves the explore her artistic side

Reggie

Big milestone for Reggie this year...the start of high school!!! 

 His buddies decided to walk together on the first day

The high school schedule has been a bit of an adjustment.  Reggie is out the door at 7:45 and doesn't return until 3:15.  He has a full schedule (some of his friends are missing a class) and it isn't an easy one, Geometry, Biology, English, FIT (freshman in training) and Social Science.  So far he is hanging steading with all A's and a B+ in Biology!  He was very nervous about Geometry so he looked in the book before school started and thought he would be o.k. and he just got 100% on his quiz.  The teacher found him and said to come to her if he ever needs any help because she wants him to get an A+!  We have seen a lot of maturity this year and although he still needs a little coaching, he is managing his classes really well.

Our house seems to be the drop off and pick up location and he and a friend spend some time everyday after school playing their game.  We just had a family meeting on Friday to reel everyone back in and make sure we aren't spending too much time on our devices (Reggie was playing every night and we have a rule of no screen time on the weekdays!).  These kids are always pushing the limits and unfortunately, they are growing up in different times and aren't able to manage their devices in a healthy way.  Its hard because many of his friends are on playing fort night for hours and hours.  I have told him if technology is what you like, then find a way to use it for good.  We have a retirement home just down the road with lots of elderly who could use a little help.  So far, he hasn't figured out how to make that work for him.  He will be going to work with Ryan for the first couple days of the Thanksgiving break to spend some time with some engineers at Molex to see what real life work in that field looks like.  Maybe he will pick up a new hobby!
We've encouraged him to try new sports at school and he is not even a smidge open to that, but we are strongly suggesting (actually, we are forcing) him to try out for the swim team in high school.  It hasn't been easy finding a new place for him to swim since his team is on hiatus for several months.  He is so resistant to change and going to new places, but we'll work through it.  I gave him his swim options and he chose the one with a lot of change and swimming in multiple places, so we shall see how that works out!
Reggie at a swim meet this weekend.  He got his BB time for the freestyle, his favorite and best stroke.

Homecoming was this last weekend and he and his friends had no interest in going to the dance, but we did go to the football game, a first for him.  I think he liked the snack bar best!
Hanging out with friends instead of going to the dance