Monday, January 5, 2026

September Misc

 Alex went on a couple of work trips in September.  

Weston had a fun friend birthday party, which was steam punk murder mystery.  Weston had to go in costume as a steam punk adventurer. 

I cut my own hair the beginning of September and then cut it shorter again the next month.  I didn't really want a short hair cut unless I could maintain it on my own.  I didn't want to keep paying for maintenance cuts every few months.  Savannah looked cute for her school picture day.  She did a new painting of Kai.  She loves the dog!

A highlight for the month was having the missionaries over for dinner.  Elder Parks had just started his mission, with his home ward being my sister's ward in TX where her husband is the Bishop.  I got to show him the video Audrey had recently posted of the choir singing.  He recognized the soloist and got a little piece of home.  Owen's seminary class had fun making a pyramid one morning.  We discovered Weston's plastic spoon collection (from school), which he was carrying around in his backpack.  So weird.  It was pretty cool to see the dew drops on the spider webs.  It wasn't cool walking head on into one of those webs another day (when I didn't see the web).  When I discovered that I also had the giant SPIDER from the web on my hat, I flung my hat off pretty quick!  Blah. 

About the middle of September, our clothes washer broke.  We did some loads by hand before we got a new used washer.  The dryer still works.  Shortly after the washer broke, our fridge also stopped working, so we also had to buy a new used fridge.  We're not sure how long these used appliances will last, but we didn't really have money to buy anything (with our Utah housing woes). It was funny that we immediately covered the whole fridge with chore charts, reading charts, and magnets again - also a little weird.  

Anyway, Weston's mini fridge came in handy during the transition.  This was a little amusing, because we picked up the mini fridge a couple months earlier off the side of the road.  It said "free" and even though I said we didn't need it, Weston insisted that he needed it and wanted to bring it home and put it in his room.  I guess it turns out we did need that mini fridge for a bit - another of Weston's "prophecies."  He's had a few other times when he said or had some random little prophecy.  He asked for toilet paper for Christmas 2019 (right before the 2020 toilet paper shortage).  He said he wanted to visit Ukraine "while it still lasts".  A couple months later, Russia invaded Ukraine.  He wanted to buy Ford stock with his "Covid money" but Alex didn't let him.  And then Ford's stock prices went way up (should have listened to Weston on that one).  We say he has the gift of prophecy, but it just comes out at random times.  He can't predict the future or the stock market, but sometimes he says or does something that has us marveling.  

I did a lot of yard work, cleaning, organizing, and decluttering in September.  I made a lot of progress, but it also felt like I was just doing manual labor all month - which was tiring.

September wasn't a great month, but I also enjoyed Owen practicing singing for his solo for his choir class.  He doesn't like the way he sounds, but I enjoyed hearing him practice. 









September Birthdays

Birthdays seemed a little weird this year.  Alex's birthday started the night before with Alex's requested dinner (sweet and sour chicken).  Then some friends from church stopped by with a lemon cake, singing to me, thinking it was my birthday.  We still popped a couple candles in the cake and sang to Alex. I had already made his requested Twix cheesecake bars for dessert.  On his birthday, I made omelets for breakfast.  Then we started to head out to Weston's cross country meet, but the car had a flat tire.  We didn't have time to put on a new tire, so we had to go switch out for the truck (which Owen had taken to work).  Owen ended up having to walk home because he couldn't drive the manual car we left there.  We went to Weston's meet and then the temple.  We ended up driving all around Beverly Hills trying to find a ramp that was open to get back on the freeway.  We made it back just in time to go to a dinner birthday party for one of Alex's colleagues (not ever mentioning it was Alex's birthday while there). One of Alex's friends dropped by with some fancy cookies.  

On my birthday, Alex made German pancakes for breakfast and baked a cake to frost later.  I talked to Jared, since it was his normal day to call.  He didn't know it was my birthday though, even though a friend (Carrie) dropped by with a gift during our call that I showed to him.  He still didn't pick up on that it was my birthday. When it came time for dinner, Alex realized he forgot to get sweet potato fries (which I had requested).  He ran to the store to get those, along with some chocolate and popcorn.  Savannah frosted my cake while he was at the store.  As soon as he got back, we popped the candles on the cake and they sang to me right before Owen and Weston had to run out the door for band and basketball.  They didn't even have time to eat dinner or cake with me.  Nathan did remember my birthday and called me.  A friend (Ashlynn) dropped by with some flowers after dinner.  Savannah wrote me a nice card, and she and I watched a Hallmark movie.  It was a decent day, although I don't think anyone put much thought into it (if they even remembered). Oh well - just another birthday, another year older. 

I did go out to eat a couple weeks later with some friends and my friend Heidi paid for my "birthday lunch" (even though it wasn't my birthday anymore).