Jack’s pumpkin.
Millie’s pumpkin.
Our Sunday was full of running around in the morning, and then the kids went to lunch with Grammie and Pop. The kids went shopping with Grammie as she had promised them birthday gifts right after their birthday. I went with the kids and the Hills to Creek Side Taco for dinner. Grammie and Pop came over to watch the kids carve pumpkins. We sat out on the back patio with the fire pit lit.
Monday was Halloween.
I was the Grandma Big Bad Wolf and Elise was Little Red Riding Hood.
Millie and her bestie, Brinley, were killer clowns.
Jack and his buddies were all supposed to be the cast of Shrek, but Gavin broke off and went as Tom Cruise in Risky Business. I went to collect Jack from Owen’s neighborhood while Millie took a shower.
Tuesday Jack had his first basketball game. They got beat by the team that won the championship for seventh grade basketball last year. Jack didn’t play very much, but he wasn’t terribly disappointed. I think he’s lost that loving feeling for basketball. Once the game was over, we came home, and he showered, had some dinner and then settled in for the evening. Millie had already showered and was laying on the sofa when we got home.
Wednesday I went to school the first half of the day and the second half was spent at a seminar about organizational leadership and the climate of our school. Once I was home I took Millie to gymnastics. I picked up a 13 pound rib roast for our supper club dinner that was coming up on Saturday. I then went and collected Jack from basketball practice. We had a neighborhood meeting where we discussed having a block party on November 12. It was nice to meet some of the neighbors that I had never met. I went and picked up Millie from gymnastics. I had made her some macaroni and cheese, and put it in a hot pot. She was not pleased at all. She got over it when I acted like I was really sorry. Then she felt bad. When we got home she took a shower and laid on the sofa. Elise came over for a chat. Millie fell asleep on the sofa, as she often does. I usually carry her up to her bed, but that is not as east as it used to be.
Thursday I finally got a response from Jack’s Algebra teacher. Seems Jack has been lying to me. I was so angry. We definitely had a conversation about his consequence. I told him he would not be playing his X-box until his C in Algebra was not a C. Seems there will be some dust collecting on that game system.
Stuart messaged earlier in the day to tell me he was coming home. The weather had turned bad and if he didn't leave then, he would likely get stuck for the weekend. The fact that I already bought a 13 pound rib roast that I had no idea how to cook for Supper Club made me know I needed him home.
I took Jack and the boys to volleyball and Millie waited for Stuart to come home.
Friday was a bit of a catch up at school. After school I went home and Stuart and I took Moose to his vet appointment. My mom and dad picked Jack up from basketball. Once we were home from the vet, Millie and I went to the Coyote Fest at our elementary school. There was a controversial vendor at the event, and I ended up reporting it to my principal. Then the PTO president came and told me that the next time that something like that happens she’d appreciate being told first. I promptly told her I did not report to her. I said I was responsible only to my principal. She handled it rather well because she know I was right. At any rate, it was cold, and we decided to come home early. Stuart and I sat out back and turned on the fire. We had a couple drinks and then came in and went to bed. Well, I didn’t really go to bed. I laid downstairs and slept with the puppy. It seems that he sleeps really well on the sofa, but hates his crate.
He did rather well through the night, but of course woke me up at 5:30. It was fine because I had to get up and run our garage sale. Why I decided to have a garage sale on the same day that we were having supper club is beyond me.
The garage sale was a success. We had some visitors from my high school days. Seems one of my classmates lives in Queen Creek and his sister was one of my best friends growing up. She and her husband were visiting so they dropped by. After the garage sale was over, my parents loaded up the left over stuff and took it to Goodwill for us, thank goodness. That gave me time to go get lunch, table gifts and martini glasses. I then came home to shower and get ready for our evening with the Supper Club. The evening was fun and the food was amazing.
I woke up Sunday morning and my hip was killing me. I had thought I was getting better, but it didn’t seem like it that morning. I messaged Sue and, once again, had to cancel. She was very understanding, as usual, but I do miss our talks for sure.
I kind of laid around for part of the day. Stuart had invited our neighbors over for leftovers from the previous night. They showed up around 1 pm. We ate and then sat on the back porch the rest of the afternoon. By 8:30 we were all spent. We nearly had to force Jack to go to bed at 9:30 so that Stuart and I could go to bed. He was getting up at 4:30 am, which meant I was as well. I was thrilled that the baby slept until 2:30 am and then went back to sleep until 4:30. That’s really not bad for only having been with us for two weeks.
Stuart left at about 5:15 AM. Jack was up by 5:30 AM and I woke Millie up just after 6 AM. School was uneventful and quite boring as my kids took their math benchmark, which was an afternoon event. After school, I took Millie to gymnastics and then headed to get Jack from basketball practice. I ran him home and prayed the dog would poop so I could drop the sample at the vet before taking Jack and the boys to volleyball practice. In that 15 minutes we were home, Jack ate and Moose pooped. Yahoo!
After I dropped the boys I was supposed to meet one of the gals I taught with last year but she messaged and said she wasn’t able to make it. I waited around for Millie and then she decided she wanted to go home instead of going with me to pick the boys up at 9 pm. So I left her at home and went to collect the boys. When I got home, Millie was asleep on the sofa. I carried her up to bed and Jack took a shower. I had gotten McDonald’s for the boys.
I didn’t go to bed until around midnight.
Bailey loves Moose. Moose slept until 3:30 and then again until 5:30 am. He has one more week and then his kennel is going downstairs.
Tuesday school was slow running. We knew it was just a 4 day week because of Veteran’s Day and then we were taking a field trip on the Thursday, so really it was only a 3 day week. After school Millie got braces. We didn’t even really know it was going to happen.
She is all smiles! Wait until they start to hurt.
We went to Jack’s basketball game. He was the only player that didn’t play the first half of the game. He only played 3 minutes the entire game. You know how to make a good athlete hate a sport? Don’t realize his potential and don’t play him much in a game. I normally don’t put blame on a coach, but his coach doesn’t pay attention to the rotation. He played his starting 5 players the entire third quarter and they were up 25 points. In junior high, especially, those are times you take the opportunity to develop players. Jack is trying to not be disappointed but I know he is. When we got home for the evening, the kids showered and just chilled. Our Tuesday nights are priceless to me.
Wednesday he had a game again. It was a very similar scenario and there were several parents who were upset at how the coach was handling things. It is a shame this is the way things are being handled. But there are lessons in all of this, I suppose.
Thursday Millie and I were up and at school at 5:15 am. We were heading to Bisbee to the copper mine and then on down to Tombstone. There were about 80 students and 30 adults going. It was a long day and my parents had to be Jack’s uber as Stuart wouldn’t be home until around the time we would return from our field trip, around 8 pm. We had a great time. We got home and were very excited Stuart was home for an extra day at the weekend.
Friday morning I was up at 5:15 am with the puppy, but at least we had the day off. Moose actually did quite well as I had put him to bed at 11 pm and he only woke up at 3:30 am. I am hoping he grows out of this middle of the night peeing need. He is, after all, still a puppy. Once Stuart was up, we went down to my parents’ house for coffee. We then returned to our house in time for Jack’s tutoring session with Lauren. He did so well the previous week that we had to continue.
We went to the Nike store to shop. We have a very generous friend who gave us a friends and family discount. We got about $700 worth of merchandise for $390. It was amazing, and just in time for our Chicago trip. The kids had no winter clothes. They both will only wear sweats and sweatshirts in the winter, so this trip was golden for us. We were so appreciative of the discount for sure.
We returned home and got ready for the Elton John concert. We had decided to go downtown early for dinner. We ate at a place called The Kettle Black Kitchen and Pub. There was a wait so Stuart went into the bar and get us a drink. Wouldn’t you know it? Two people left the bar so we got to sit and eat at the bar. It was so fun to watch and listen to the bartenders. The concert was amazing. It was such an epic event.
Saturday morning we were up and got both kids up. I still hadn’t slept much because of the puppy. Jack went to his volleyball tournament. Millie headed to gymnastics. We went to Jack’s first match. We then came home and got ready for our neighborhood block party. I picked Millie up from gym and her friend Ella came home with us for the afternoon. The block party was a success. At 3 pm I left to watch Jack’s last match. He played well and although they didn't win, they are getting closer to winning against this team. His team had to referee the 4 pm game because they lost the 3 pm game. So I didn’t get home until after 5 pm. When I got back to the house the block party that was supposed to end at 3 pm was carrying on. I had picked up Chick-Fil-A for Jack and the girls, not knowing the neighbors had ordered pizza. Once the girls had eaten, we took Ella back to her family at Campo Verde High School. We returned to the house and a fire pit had started. We stayed out in the cul de sac until nearly midnight.
Sunday we got up and we’re going to do some yardwork but then decided to go down to my mom and dad‘s to see their friends Patti and Max. The kids came down with us for a little bit. Stuart and I decided to go to lunch, inviting the children, but then knowing that they didn’t want to come with us. So we went on our own little date.
Monday Jack had a game after school. Clearly someone had spoken about their dissatisfaction regarding playing time because all players played more on Monday. Jack played really well. They won.
Tuesday school was boring. We had another benchmark test which makes the day very long. If we taught as much as we tested the kids might actually learn something. My Tuesday evening was full of nothing, which was nice.
Wednesday at school I started working my magic with the second grade team. I had decided that I wanted to do buddy reading in order to help continue to promote cohesiveness amongst our staff. I had picked out a second grade teacher that I felt like would work well with me. However, I realized that she and I have similar personalities so for us to be partners, would have been a little bit of an elitist type of buddy reading. So I picked one of the teachers that was considered maybe a little more challenging. And she was very excited about it. So that made me happy. After school I went home and discovered that Millie had let the dog stay in the living room while she went to the neighbors. They broke a bowl that Gina had bought me in Kenya and they also chewed up our mat in front of our kitchen sink. It seems that the dogs are capable of staying in the kitchen living room area while they sleep at night, but during the day they are disastrous. After I dropped Millie at gymnastics, I headed to pick up Jack at Casteel. I then went back to get Millie and got her chicken nuggets, as is common.
Thursday Jack had a game after school. He played so well and got to play nearly half of the game. He was quite excited and thrilled with his performance. They won again, which was encouraging. When we got home, I packed all of us for Chicago. It amazes me how much Millie wants to dictate what she brings on a trip yet isn't willing to help pack any of it.
Friday we went to school, but I was so excited for Chicago, I just wished the day away. Once I picked Jack up from Rock Point and we were home, we both showered and headed to the airport. Our flight was delayed, wouldn’t you know.
But when we did finally get on, we all slept.
Carter’s mom boarded first and was kind enough to save us all seats.
Saturday we got up and Uncle Mitch made breakfast.
This is Uncle Mitch’s phenomenal tree!
On the way to his first out of state tournament. He was so excited.
They ended winning two of their games and losing one on the first day, but still placing first in our bracket.
Saturday evening after the games Jack was sick. He had a horrible cold and was hacking up a lung.
These puppies love Millie.
Sunday was another day of games. I actually was able to sing the national anthem for the beginning of the day’s games. In the second set of the first game Jack asked to be taken out. He had to have been feeling horribly to ask to come out of the game. They won all of their matches on Sunday. There were a few breaks, but for the most part we were at the facility all day long. We did have a chance to go shopping with Mitch. It was just me, Millie and Mitch but we had fun.
So Monday was an early start which was not good for Millie, for sure. It came down to us being late and Uncle Mitch having to get after her for not being ready. He apologized for over stepping his boundaries and I told him it didn’t bother me. She needs to hear from others that she is inconveniencing people and is being disrespectful and rude when she doesn’t value other people’s time.
Jack’s team played three matches. It was a single elimination tournament on the last day. Jack made the winning spike to win the gold for the tournament. It was very exciting! Jack ended up, staying to watch some of the older boys from their club play in their final matches.
These five boys will be playing at Casteel for the next five years. What an exciting future in volleyball we have before us.
Mitch, Millie, and myself went back to Mitch‘s apartment for a little while. Millie watched some television and we had pizza for lunch. We then went back and picked Jack up with all of our things, ready to go to the airport. We stopped on Michigan Avenue at Millennial Park and saw the Bean and took some pictures.
We then ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. We decided to go ahead and go to the airport in light of the fact that if there was traffic we would need to avoid that. We got to the airport and most of the coaches were on our flight back to Arizona. 
This was the ice rink that we tried to get onto but it was all booked up.
The flight was uneventful, and I slept most of the way. We landed just before midnight, but didn’t get home until 1:30 AM. I unpacked the two bags, Jack took a shower and went to bed, and Millie went to bed as well. At 2:30 AM I was finally in bed, having showered and started some laundry.
So there wasn’t enough sleep once I got home and in bed. My alarm went off at 5:30 AM. I got up and let the dogs out. I fed them and then came back upstairs to get ready for the day. I helped Stuart wake the kids up around 7 AM so that they could head out to Mexico. I was exhausted. I spent the day at school doing a whole lot of nothing. My students had puzzles and different games that they could play for Thanksgiving, so I didn’t feel terribly guilty. After school I had a meeting that I had forgotten about. After that meeting was over I texted Sue to tell her that I would be late for our walk date. But once we were together, it was as if no time has passed. We decided to go to dinner at Pita Jungle. We were a bit early, which made us look a bit geriatric, but it meant we would not run into any crowds.
Wednesday morning I got up and did some more cleaning and tidying up for Jennifer to come and stay with the dogs. At school it was twin day. My team decided we would dress as a Thanksgiving dinner.
After school I took Weston and Cole home. Jen was already at the house to dog sit. Elise and I were driving down to Mexico to meet the dads and some of the kids. We left just before 2 pm. It took us nearly 5 hours to get to Rocky Point. Getting out of Phoenix was the issue. It was the longest drive ever.
This was the set up.
We arrived around 7 pm and ate chili Stuart had made. We sat around the table for a couple of hours and then went to bed.
Thursday morning we got up and the kids took the stuff down to set up on the beach. We had breakfast pizza in our pizza oven that Stuart got for a steal off of Amazon.
It is big enough for more than one pizza for sure.
This pizza was delightful.
We spent the majority of the day at the beach. About mid afternoon Mitch and Stuart went and got Lucas chicken for our Thanksgiving meal. We went back down to the beach for a little while and the kids tidied up and brought everything back up to camp. We spent the evening around the fire and went to bed around 9 PM. Camping can be exhausting.
Friday we did more of the same. We did play beach volleyball and football with the kids. We had breakfast at Manny’s with our neighbors that live across the street. Manny’s is a restaurant bar down the beach from us. Our across the street neighbors were staying at a resort in Rocky Point. Once we were back at camp the kids took all the things down to the beach. We did go into town to get shrimp for our lunch. We also checked to see if the escape room was open. Unfortunately, the escape room was closed permanently. We were going to let the kids go on Saturday, but couldn’t because it was closed. The rest of our day was spent at the beach, and the kids brought up all of the items after the day was over. We had pizza for dinner in our new pizza oven.
Saturday morning Stuart and I got up a little bit earlier than normal and sat outside by our propane fire pit. Then, although the children moaned and groaned about it all, they took all of the beach stuff down and set it up. We took more snacks on Saturday down to the beach so that we wouldn’t have to hear them complain all the time. The day was relatively normal until the end of our time on the beach. The adults were at one of the bars that sits right behind where we set up our canopies, and we noticed a little bit of a fight going on with some boys. They were college kids. So when it came up close to where the kids were, Mitch and Stuart went down to try to break it up. When Stuart grabbed the aggressor, he got punched in the head. Well, Stuart is a really nice guy and very calm… Until he isn’t. Stuart absolutely laid into this kid. Then the mom came up to me and mouthed off to me. I told her not to curse at me. She continued and asked me if I want some of her. So I hauled off and punched her in the face. I turned into white trash in two seconds. It was horrifying. The crowd left, in the end, and we are pretty sure the aggressor learned his lesson. We are not fighters, so not real sure what happened. Eek! After the brawl and all the things were up at camp, we had dinner. We went to bed not being real sure what had just happened.
We got up on Sunday morning and packed everything up. It was the same routine as far as getting out of town. On the ride home I realized I had booked Jack’s So Cal Regional Volleyball tournament for the wrong dates. So I panicked and we started changing bookings to the tune of $400. Ugh! But at least we were able to change everything. Once we were home, the laundry and unpacking began. It was overwhelming. I think the evening events on the beach the previous night started to hit me and get to me. It was all so crazy.
After many loads of laundry and a shower, kids were in bed and Stuart was as well. I put all dogs in their crates. I continued to hear whining all night, but I just left in there. Boy do I wish I wouldn’t have done that! I finally went down to the crates at 5:30 am and there was poop around Moose’s crate. It was everywhere. It was then decided that Moose’s crate would have to remain on the tile until it all stopped! It made for a horrible beginning of the day. Stuart left around midday to go to Navajo Mountain, which is on the Utah border. He would be gone for almost two weeks and then would head to So Cal with Jack for volleyball, then back to Gallup for another week. Then he would be home for three weeks. I want to savor every moment he is home.
When I got home from school on Monday, I found the same situation with Moose as that morning, except that we had moved his crate to the tile, so clean up was a little bit easier this time. I think we have a finicky dog, or do all labs have dodgy bellies? Millie was late to gymnastics because of the poo situation. After I dropped her off, I headed to Jack’s basketball game. We came home and Jack took a shower and ate. I went to get Millie and brought her mac and cheese. She was highly disappointed. She expressed that as I was talking to my brother and wishing him a happy birthday. She got over it and ate every bite. She took a shower when we got home and everyone settled in for the rest of the evening.
Tuesday Jack had volleyball practice
Wednesday school data dig. millie gymnastics. Picked Jack up from basketball practice took him home and he showered. I then took him to the Basha library to have a tutoring session. I picked him up and he and I had dinner at a sushi bar. We really had a great conversation over dinner. It was nice. We picked Millie up and ran through McDonalds for her dinner.
Thursday morning I panicked because I realized that our elf on the shelf had not made it out of his hiding place. So at 5:05 I went on a mission to get the first days items set out. Why on earth did I ever start this trend? At school, I ran a spelling bee. But in general, it was rough day. We had a team leader meeting where we looked at data. My students were the lowest in proficiency on their Math benchmark. It was so deflating. I always tell others that they didn’t give birth to their students, but I have a hard time remembering that myself. Millie got picked up from school by our neighbor because I had the team leader meeting. Once I left school, I went home for a minute and then headed out to watch Jack play in his final regular season game. He played amazingly and actually played quite a bit. I was super proud of him, and he was very pleased with his play. As soon as the game was over, we headed to Brophy for his volleyball club practice. Two of his teammates were sick that ride in his carpool. The parents of the kid that wasn’t sick actually took their son to the gym and brought both boys home. I was thrilled as I had not been prepared to stay for practice. I picked hime up from Starbucks around 9:50 pm. I went back home, Jack showered and I got him something to eat. Then he went to bed. I stayed up for a bit, took the puppy out for a final pee before getting into his crate, and then went to bed.
I’m proud to report that the puppy slept for 5 1/2 hours and did not poop or pee in his crate. When I got up on Friday morning, I made coffee and let the dogs out. I then went and set Millie’s alarm for her to wake up. Jack was awake and came downstairs. We left at 6:30 like we always do. I came back to get Millie and we headed to school.
Looking forward to a Merry Christ-Moose. This was a shot I had to have before going to school on Friday.
Millie rode home with the neighbors again as I was going to do my best to be cohesive and stay at school to help with our school float that is in the Queen Creek Christmas parade every year. It seems that the original teachers at school insist on doing this float each year. They assign every teacher something to do, and because our principal doesn’t want to do the float, people selectively don’t complete their assigned jobs. I did not realize this until I got to the back of the school to help put together the float on Friday afternoon. the theme for the parade this year was Christmas movies, so we chose Chalie Brown Christmas. I was assigned to create a cardboard cut out of Freda, which I did.
It was the biggest stress of my week. Forget teaching standards, I had to get that red head drawn and colored. As we started to put the float together, it was discovered there was not a cut out of Lucy. I asked the lady in charge, a kinder teacher who has been a bit snide to me with her approach to my wanting to bring the staff together, if she wanted me to go and draw Lucy. She said, ‘Well, if you don’t mind. She is pretty important to the movie.’ So off I went to my classroom. I drew and colored Lucy and she was affixed to the float. I had to leave to get Jack from basketball practice before they were finished with assembling the float. So I apologized for that. The crew just kept thanking me for my help and I felt the bond I made would help create some more cohesiveness. We shall see.
I collected Jack from basketball practice and we came home for dinner. Elise came over and we sat outside by the fire pit for a while. I decided to leave the dogs in the living room for the night. When I came downstairs on Saturday morning, they seemed fine. When I can do this, it just means I get to sleep a bit longer in the morning.
Of course, this particular Saturday I wasn’t able to sleep longer as Jack had his regional volleyball tournament. I had planned to go to Gallup to spend the weekend with Stuart but the kids take priority at this stage in life, I suppose.
I took Jack to Owen’s house to get a lift to the volleyball facility. I came back and picked up Millie to go to gymnastics. I basically had to drag her out of bed in order to get her there. I told her if she didn’t get out of bed I was going to have to keep her inside the whole day. Ironically, enough, it rained all day on Saturday so she wasn’t able to go outside anyway. But she did go to gymnastics.
After she was at gymnastics I headed to the volleyball tournament. It was cold, and it started to rain around 10 AM. Facility was freezing, and as usual, I was wearing flip-flops.
I ended up leaving around noon to pick Millie up from the gym. The dogs were well behaved and managed not to pee or poop in their crates, specifically Moose.
It turns out that the parade continued, but our school decided not to put our float in it. So all that work for nothing. I I returned the volleyball facility to watch the last two matches. They played really hard, but the final match they were beat two sets to one. They ended up winning silver.
on our way home we stopped at McDonald’s to get food. I had told Millie that she could ask her friend Brinley over to have a sleepover. When we got home, Brinley arrived with a gift for Millie. They now have matching clothes. They love each other. Jack showered and laid on the sofa the rest of the evening. It rains for the rest of the evening as well. The dogs lazily peed on the travertine all day. There was too much rain for them. Jack went to bed around 11:30 pm and asked me to come up to say goodnight. He actually hasn’t required this for a couple of months. Being 14 has caused him to be able to go to bed on his own. Ha! But I knew that this evening he had asked me to come up to tell the girls to hold it down. I did so, but it was a but useless as they were up and loud for at least another hour. Girls treat sleepovers as a reason to not go to sleep.
We went out a bit later to get shrimp and ice. After we returned, Jack and Millie fished while Stuart and I sat in the shade. 
