October 2012 – Andelin Adventures

Happy Halloween

This year, I wasn’t really getting into the Halloween spirit. I think it’s mainly because the whole house feels like it’s been turned upside down, due to preparations for getting the basement finished. We did try on costumes a few weeks ago to make sure we didn’t need to go out and buy anything for anyone though. The school kids got up this morning and got dressed and put their costumes on, and went to school. The school’s costume parade started at 9:30 but Dinah was refusing to get dressed and I just didn’t feel like fighting everyone to get dressed. Then the thought of wrangling them all down to the school by myself and having to try to keep them under control while I tried to take pictures, all felt really overwhelming to me. So we stayed home. Dinah was mad later when she found out that the parade was over and we hadn’t gone. I’m feeling rather depressed about it as well.

The kids came home from school, and instead of hopping in the car to go to Kyle’s work, like we usually do, we just stayed home. The kids kept asking when we were going to leave, but Kyle and I decided that since Symantec was doing something different this year, that we wouldn’t go. Usually the kids get to go trick or treating from cubicle to cubicle. This year they just wanted to change it and do a ‘trunk or treat’ instead. Personally, one of the things I liked best about going to trick or treat at Kyle’s work was that it was INSIDE and therefore we didn’t have to freeze, or deal with chilling wind. Today was pretty nice and warm considering it’s the end of October, but that’s not the point.

I called the new Saratoga Springs Pizza Hut to order our traditional Halloween pizza dinner, and Kyle came home. We ate dinner early and then it was time to trick or treat in the neighborhood. 🙂

The fact that we didn’t go to Symantec this year, meant that they got out nice and early while the sun was still up! Kyle took the kids out and I stayed home with Adam to try to clean up in between passing out candy. We did have one episode where Chloe ran off and left Kyle and the others so she could come home. THEN she decided that she didn’t want to be home and wanted to be out with daddy still. Fortunately they were coming up the street on the opposite side and I could just get her back out there again. But it did catch me off guard when she came home without them.

So this year we didn’t carve or decorate the pumpkins at all. I didn’t take the little ones and go down to the school for the parade. We didn’t go to trick or treat at Symantec. All of that makes me somewhat sad, but I’m trying not to beat myself up over it. After all, we did let the kids wear costumes to school. We did order pizza, like we always do. And they did get to go out trick or treating. Hopefully by the time Halloween rolls around next year, the basement will be finished, and I will have had time to rearrange the whole house and unpack the garage, and therefore I will be able to access the Halloween stuff!

I would say that we still did enough to make it an exhausting day. 🙂

Lydia’s first day in nursery

Lydia went to nursery for the very first time today. I dropped her off, because I’m meaner than Kyle is. I can actually take her in and walk her to the toys, let go of her hand and walk away. Kyle would have stayed with her to see how she handled it.

I went to Sunday school and wondered how long it would be before they brought her to me because she had just been crying too long. I got through Sunday school, and before relief society started, someone came in to ask for help in Lydia’s nursery. I didn’t volunteer, just because I wanted to see how long Lydia would go. Relief society began and surprisingly ended without anyone bringing Lydia to me.

After church, I went to go get her, and there she was playing with the bubbles just as happy as she could be. Until she saw me. She looked up and noticed me after I came in the room and THEN she started crying, as if suddenly realizing that I had left her and she just couldn’t believe it. I thought it was totally funny. I knew she was fine, and obviously, I came back for her. But as soon as she realized that I had left, despite the fact that I came back, that is when she had the melt down.

Entering the next Decade

Last night the kids asked Kyle if he would take them shopping so they could get me a birthday present. Kyle invited me along, basically because he didn’t want the kids picking out useless things and he wanted me to pick out my presents, so they would actually be something I would like. 😛 So we went out, and I picked out a pair of super soft fuzzy pajamas, and because my current purse is too small to hold my kindle, I picked out a new purse.

Kyle worked from home today, so that he could be here with me for my birthday. Then he went out to pick up something for dinner and to buy a birthday cake. When he got back I got to open my presents. Now I knew about the things that I had picked out yesterday, and Dinah has been constantly telling me about how I was getting some Woodstock earrings, and then the final present I also knew about. We were having chicken for dinner a couple of weeks ago when four of the kids asked if they could have a drumstick. I made the comment, “I still want that book”. In case you don’t know, the book is “Who Gets the Drumstick?” by Helen Beardsley. As soon as I made that comment, and Kyle realized what I was talking about, he went to his computer and looked it up on amazon. Being that it is out of print he couldn’t find a reasonably priced hardcover copy on amazon and went to check ebay. There he found one, and bought it right away. He didn’t try to keep it a secret, and so I knew that he bought it. I knew what was in the package when it arrived in the mail, and for some unknown reason it totally surprised him when I knew what every one of my presents was. 😉

After opening my presents, I went down the hall to put on my new soft and fuzzy pajamas, and then we had cake.

So here I am entering my thirties. Life has been very good to me. 🙂

Corona Del Mar

Before leaving for California, Kyle and I had been talking about field trips that we remembered taking while we were in elementary school. And even though we both went to different schools at different times and in different cities (maybe even different school districts) we both remember going on field trips to the La Brea Tar Pits, and to some tide pools. I remember a rather large tide pool that us kids were able to see all kinds of things living in, and I remember being allowed to put my hand in and feel the creatures. We thought it would be fun to do these things with the kids, and so we decided to spend Saturday going on an adventure to find some tide pools. Ethan needed to explore a state or national park for one of his scout requirements, and so we thought Corona Del Mar, being a state beach, would be a good place to search. The lady at the entrance to the parking lot told us that we had to climb over the really big rocks to find the tide pools. So Kyle and I left the kids with Wendy in the car so we could walk over the rocks and see if we could handle it with all of the kids. I didn’t feel like we could get all the little kids over safely, so Kyle stayed with Chloe, Lydia, Adam and Peighton (a little girl that Wendy nanny’s), while Wendy and I took Ethan, Tyra, Jeremy and Dinah over the rocks. Once on the other side we checked out a pretty cool looking cave:

Then we found some tide pools:

Anytime Jeremy saw a little crab in a tide pool, he ran away screaming. I think he exaggerated his reaction a bit, but he still didn’t like them.

We walked around looking for some more tide pools, but didn’t really see any. The kids did find another cave, though. Dinah was the first one to go check it out, but by the time the others caught up to her she was turning around saying “I’m getting out of here”. I guess that cave was a little too creepy for her.

After we saw what there was to see on that side of the beach, we headed back over the rocks to join Kyle and the little kiddos.

After we left Kyle with the little kids, Peighton kind of freaked out. She doesn’t know us very well, and since Wendy came with me and left her with Kyle, she didn’t really like that. So she cried for a bit before letting herself have some fun. There was a couple sitting nearby to the spot Kyle chose to wait for us as, and the lady turned around and asked him if he could get Peighton to stop because they were trying to relax. Kyle apologized and explained the situation, and the other guy told him that it was really alright and they understand because they had kids once. But by the time we met back up, Peighton was enjoying herself in the sand just like everyone else.

After the kids played for a bit, and it was time to go, we got all the kids loaded up in our van. Peighton started another one of her fits because she really wanted to go home in Wendy’s car. But they came out with us in the first place so that just was not possible. I passed out snacks for all of the kids, and then Kyle noticed that in the planter right next to the van was what appeared to be a huge aloe vera plant. We laughed at finding an aloe vera plant growing right there at the beach. 🙂

My Donut Radar

Friday night, after Knott’s, we took the kids back to my parents house, and Dad offered to let us use his car so that Kyle and I could go out alone. We didn’t have a destination in mind at first, so we just kind of drove around. I mentioned that I would like to get donuts in the morning for breakfast. I have a thing for donuts, REAL donuts.We don’t have many donut shops here in Utah and Wal-Mart donuts really just aren’t the same. We do have a ‘Daylight Donuts’ but it’s not exactly close to where we live at all, so we rarely go. So almost every time we are in California we get a whole bunch of donuts to share. Kyle said that getting donuts in the morning would be fine, but that the donut shop we usually go to only takes cash and we don’t carry cash with us. So while we were out on our way to the track at my old middle school (I wanted to go for a run), I pointed out a different donut shop. The track wasn’t lit and the sun had gone down so we got back in the car and kept driving. I told Kyle to go over by Bradford Staduim and I pointed out two more donut shops on the way. We continued past the stadium and down towards Fullerton College. Kyle pointed out the Taqueria in the little shopping strip, and I pointed out yet another donut shop. This went on pretty much all evening. We decided to go to the Brea mall and then to Claim Jumper for dinner, and everywhere I went I would point out donut shops all over the place. We would be talking about completely different things when I would say “Hey look! Another one!” and Kyle would respond with “Huh? What? Oh.” It didn’t stop Friday night either. Saturday evening when we made a run to the grocery store to get water and things for the drive home, I pointed out another donut shop in that parking lot. Donut shops are just everywhere in Orange County, and my donut radar picked up a whole bunch of them. 🙂