Sunday- 10.16.22
Today we attended church at the Frankfort branch. We were a couple of minutes late and so we just came in and tried to sit down inconspicuously. It didn’t work. We were a family of 7, coming into a meeting of 30ish people. We stood out a bit.
After Sacrament meeting concluded, several people come and asked us very hopefully if we were moving in. We told them that we were just visiting.
The congregation here is quite small, and the primary follows suit. There are (I think) 4 kids who regularly attend. Having our three older kids just about doubled the size of the primary. It turns out that next week is the primary program, and so they were quite delighted to find that we would be here next week, so there would be a few extra singing voices. Clara even got a speaking part.
Honestly, it makes me so happy that it worked out this way. I didn’t think we would have the chance to see our kids in a primary program this year. Just one of those sweet little tender mercies.
After church concluded, we chatted with a couple of families and exchanged contact info with them.
After church was over, we started driving on home.
And as we have driven around Mokena (the suburb that we’re in), we have seen a lot of houses with crazy amazing Halloween decorations. And so for fun, we stopped and got out of the car to look at a few of them. One of the houses had a QR code that you could scan. And it turns out that this is a thing! The QR code takes you to a list of houses in the greater Chicago area that have gone crazy decorating for Halloween.
We didn’t follow the map, but we took a few minutes as we drove home from church to check out the elaborate houses we happened to see. It was fun and festive feeling. And it got the kids and I in the mood to decorate for Halloween.
Mon 10.17.22- Dinner @ the Lea’s
For the most part, it was a pretty standard day at home: school and chores etc.
One of the families that we met at church yesterday invited us over for dinner this evening.
And it was such a lovely evening. We had a great time with them. It honestly felt like they were old friends that we just hadn’t seen for a while. Jonathan and I really clicked with Robert and Jamie and our kids and their kids played really well together too. We have all definitely missed having in-person interactions with friends. And so this was just lovely.
Hanging Out @ Home
Over the next couple of days, we continued to stick pretty close to home. Cause that’s what we needed.
We got out some construction paper and the kids put together some great Halloween decorations after being inspired by our little drive yesterday.
Also, the twins fell asleep in random places.
Job Update
Jonathan’s actual laptop finally arrived (thank you Genny!) and so one day he went into the office to return the loaner. And in the end, he actually just turned in the other laptop and kept the loaner since it was all set up already. Woot! We have finally got some permanence there!
He opted to take the train this time, because he didn’t feel like sitting in traffic for an hour and a half on the way home. Can’t say I blame him; that’s pretty awful! The nice thing is that there is a train stop about a mile from our house and so he was able to easily walk to and from the station. Riding the train made for a much more pleasant commute; trains are very restful. (Also, this line is apparently the one that is featured in the movie Source Code starring Jake Gyllenhall. Cute.)
Thursday (10.20.22)
For Mom’s Night Off (MNO), Clara and I went to Shake Shack, Wal Mart, Walgreens, and Michael’s, cause we are total party animals.
The trip to Shake Shack occurred because a certain party has been rubbing it in the faces of other parties that the party of the first part has gotten Shake Shack twice while downtown. And so, the parties of the second part determined that this was unacceptable. And they went to the aforementioned dining establishment. And then, being total party animals, the parties of the second part also went to other aforementioned retail establishments.
Fri (10.21.22)
Friday rolled around and everyone was feeling a little cabin fever-y. So I put on my big girl panties and off we went. To the park. (Phil, I know you’re reading this aloud to Peggy. And it just makes me giggle to think of you reading that last sentence. It was just for you.)
Hanging, with the Lea’s, again!
In the evening, Jonathan, Robert, Zackary, and another guy from the branch did a board game at or Airbnb.
Jaime and I had all the kids at their house. The kids basically hung out together in the basement the whole evening. And Jaime and I just yacked our heads off (with the twins occasionally orbiting us). We were there until 11 pm 🙈🙈🙈 Obviously, we were having a great time…. And we also decided to go to the pumpkin patch together tomorrow.
So, stay tuned for that!
