So, first thing I have to show you is a hilarious picture of Rachel. She was insisting that she wasn’t tired one afternoon and didn’t need a nap. She said she was just hungry. We had a bag of chips that was almost empty and told her she could have the rest. She sat down on the stairs by me and began to munch away. Within two minutes, the munching stopped and I looked down to discover her sound asleep with her hand still in the bag of chips.
I finally got my CPAP machine for my sleep apnea. Yay! Or so we thought. I tend to sleep with my mouth open due to my allergies. So, the nurse fitted me with a Mirage Quattro full face mask for my machine. Problem! My face doesn’t exactly fit the masks. I’m right in between a medium and a small, except for the bridge of my nose, which is apparently too small for even the small. She jerry rigged a mask, in hopes that it would work, and sent me on my way with instructions to wear the mask at least four hours a night for proper REM sleep. Not gonna happen. When the mask fit my chin area, it leaked around the nose. When it fit the nose area, it leaked around the chin. Drove me crazy. So after a few days, I went back in to see the nurse. This time, she decided to try a Mirage FX nasal mask with a strap to hold my mouth shut. This has been working much better! The strap gives me a headache and I haven’t been using it. Because my body seems to naturally keep my mouth closed when the mask is on, it has not been a problem. If I get woken in the middle of the night, I instinctively try to breathe through my mouth. This gives me the sensation of suffocating and I whip the mask off. But once I am completely awake, I’m able to relax and put it back on. Most nights, I have been wearing it all night without a hitch. Though I discovered last night that I can’t wear it all when I’m stuffed up (I have a bit of a head cold). Even with the setbacks, I am a whole new person. Who knew that getting adequate sleep could change your whole outlook on life!? LOL I’m less grumpy and have loads more energy, enabling me to keep up with my duties as mom and still have some left over for extras. I am less forgetful and can think clearly again! It’s wonderful! We estimate I’ve been living with the apnea untreated for at least three years, so I’m a whole new mommy for the little ones. Rebekah and Rose like that I’m less grouchy, but are unsure of a Mom that has enough energy to properly hound them on their homework and chores. ;D
Speaking of, school was out for Oct. 20-21st, so we had a house cleaning marathon. Then, as a reward, we took the girls to Gardner Village to see all the witches. They enjoyed the day out, with the nice weather and cookies after a scavenger hunt. Sadly, not many people were dressed up. In past years, almost all the kids and many of the adults were dressed up for the fun at Gardner Village. But this year, our girls were the odd ones out for having any type of a costume. Oh well, they had fun, and don’t they look cute?
On Oct. 22nd, Rebekah and Rose had a Daddy-Daughter activity for Activity Days at church. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken. But they did come home full of excitement. The girls chose to carve pumpkins with their dads since it was so close to Halloween. Dad let the girls draw out what they wanted to carve the night before and then helped them to edit the pictures into something they could actually carve into a pumpkin. Then, the day of the activity, he let them do all the carving, just helping them with more difficult parts. He thought that was much more rewarding then just taking over the carving and doing it for them. And the girls were most excited to show off their completed projects. Rebekah carved several faces into hers. Rose carved kitty cats with witch hats. Both were very creative and I regret not thinking to take pictures until too late.
Oct. 28th was a half day for the girls and spent in cleaning house and preparing for the insanity of Halloween. I was nervous about Halloween because we knew that Dad was going to be working and not be home until after many of the activities. So I was going to be on my own with all five kids. We did a lot of prep work to make the day of a little smoother for me.
Saturday the kids were at church practicing for the primary program and had pizza. The girls had been working hard to memorize their parts but were still nervous about the upcoming program. Sadly, this is Rebekah’s last year in the Primary's sacrament program, as she’ll be entering Young Women on her next birthday. So we made sure to invite local family. She was excited to see her Uncle Brian, Aunt Tracy, Grandma, Grandpa and cousins in attendance. I was so proud of the girls; they said their parts without a hitch. All our hard work paid off! Now they’re working on finishing memorizing the Articles of Faith. Next Rebekah will be working on the Young Women’s theme while Rose moves onto the Ten Commandments.
Finally, it was Halloween. I got up at 4:30AM (because my body’s clock is still crazy and woke me up without an alarm) and decided to do some quick grocery shopping before Dad had to leave for work. I knew the stores were gonna be slammed and didn’t want to brave them with all kids in two (as Rebekah and Rose had the day off). I left before he was up and back before he was done with his shower. Started laundry and a final clean-up before the festivities, with help from all the kids. I admit it; I blackmailed them with no trick-or-treating if they didn’t help. After lunch, I made everyone take naps so that I wouldn’t have to deal with tantrums later. While everyone was napping, I decorated the van’s trunk for the church trunk-or-treat. Then got everyone up for a snack of mummy pizza bites and put on costumes. The girls turned out SO cute (as always, but then I’m not biased or anything).
First we hit the city’s downtown trick-or-treating. Last year, it was slammed and raining. But this year, we got their early and missed most of the crowds. It was also gorgeous weather all day. After downtown, we headed to the trunk-or-treat. Man, there was a LOT of kids! I was out of candy in twenty minutes, and I brought quite a bit! But it’s a good way for non-members and less active members to feel welcome without feeling they're being targeted for conversion. And such cute costumes were in abundance! The girls made a quick circuit for candy while I handed out. Ruth stayed with me, while Rebekah and Rose took Rachel and Robin around. Once they were done, they helped me hand out the remaining candy. Then we headed home to meet up with Dad, who was just getting home from work. He took Rebekah, Rose and Rachel out to trick-or-treat in the neighborhood while a tuckered out Robin and Ruth stayed with me at home as I handed out candy and got dinner ready.
Rachel ran out of energy before Rebekah & Rose, so they got to trick-or-treat on their own for the first time. Dad left them with the cell phone and instructions to come home as soon as it started to get dark or when I called to say dinner was ready. I was so proud of them, because they got home just as it got dark and right before I was going to call. We sat down to a yummy dinner of snake calzone and Jack-o’-lantern cheese ball with crackers. Rachel was so funny. She saw the snake and announced that she didn’t want to eat snake for dinner! Dad explained that it was just shaped like a snake but just like a pizza. She relented, but declared she wasn’t going to eat the head – Daddy could eat that!
Well, the weather was wonderful for Halloween but the next morning we awoke plummeting temperatures and slush that turned to snow, which still hasn’t completely melted from our yard. Dad came home from work in a panic yesterday because he hadn’t cleared the sprinkler system of water. So as soon as we were done with dinner, he went outside and set to work to make sure our sprinkler system was winter ready. He’s also decided that he’s not going to try to remove the swamp cooler this year due to funds. Instead, he’s gonna cover it up and remove it next summer. I’ve got all the Halloween decorations down and Thanksgiving up. Thanksgiving decorations are fairly low key, to give me a break between Halloween and Christmas.
So that’s us for now – getting ready to gear into full holiday mode with yummy cooking and lots of shopping and crafting. Hope everyone else is enjoying the change of seasons as we are!
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