31 October 2024

Halloween!  This year we went with a theme for costumes, instead a family group.  It happened because I suggested that Mr. Brown and I could dress as the Men In Black, and Rosebud said, "Great idea! I'll be Catwoman, she wears black!". So "men in black" it was!

Mr. Brown and I dressed as the Blues Brothers.  This picture was taken at the ward Trunk or Treat, which I was in charge of, and I forgot my black pants in the rush to get ready.  People still recognized us!  We went to the APG trunk or treat too, and people knew who we were.  They would say, It's the Blues Brothers! And we would respond, "We're on a mission from God!" So fun.

Nut Brown opted for "George Washington in black with sunglasses".  He loved the powdered wig I bought for him. And when we went to the thrift store looking for supplies, we found a fabulous red brocade coat with gold epaulets, and he was in heaven.  But this is the "in black" version of the costume.

D went as a Minecraft Wither, which is a three headed skeleton.  This costume was really fun to make.

Catwoman was a little grumpy for this photo.

Rose Pink chose to dress as the Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride. She wanted us to all dress as characters from the movie, but Mr. Brown and I didn't think we would be recognizable.  I unfortunately didn't get any photos of her individually! She looked great, and made herself up to change the shape of her face a bit and have a mustache, which was really cool.  Anyway, she's in the back row of the group photo from trick or treating, next to the boy in the orange shirt.

We trick or treated with our ex-fam friends in the same neighborhood as last year, and had a good time. (Mr. Brown made seven layer dip for the party and made some blood spatter out of hot sauce for the top!) The weather was so nice that D ended up taking off his costume (it's a lovely warm hoodie) and knocking doors without it.  When people asked Nut Brown how he could be George Washington while wearing a red coat, he replied that he was dressed as George Washington during the French and Indian War when he was a British soldier.

Eventually Rosebud had to go to the bathroom so she and I skipped ahead to get back to the house sooner.  The big group splintered and people trailed back in pieces.  There was some trading when everyone returned and then we headed home. Happily, the school district was cool enough this year to give everyone the day after Halloween off!

Last photo: 

Nut Brown's youth group at church built a trebuchet this summer.  What use could that be? Well, it turned out to be just the right size for flinging small pumpkins as part of the ward Trunk or Treat.  Awesome!!  I thought this photo of Nut Brown in a powdered wig working the trebuchet was pretty funny.

29 October 2024

 Rose Pink has been involved in a lot of changes over the past few months!  She put in mission papers, received her endowment at the temple, and was accepted to BYU Idaho. She also switched jobs and is now driving delivery for Domino's Pizza. 

Her mission papers submission was quite a journey. She decided back in October 2023 that she wanted to serve, but due to various hangups her papers weren't submitted until June. After a few weeks, the response from Salt Lake was that she could serve a service mission but not a proselyting mission, which was a disappointment. She did go ahead to the temple and received her endowments in September.

She is amazing.  

She decided to apply to BYU Idaho instead, and was accepted and is starting there in January. We have been busy negotiating a ton of paperwork and decisions necessary for college enrollment. It is no joke! But we're making progress and I think all of us are excited for her.

She was really nervous about going away to hang out with strangers, but then she attended a YSA Halloween dance also with a bunch of strangers, and she had a great time. She said it was like her inner extrovert woke up again, and it reminded her how much she enjoys social activities! So now she's more excited than anxious. I'm glad, because the social life is one of the main reasons Mr. Brown and I are excited for her to go to BYU Idaho.

In summary, big changes for Rose Pink recently, and more big changes coming!

27 October 2024

This morning we read in 4 Nephi about the people beginning to be proud and separate themselves into groups, and D said, "Sounds like a civilization." I said, "Hmm?" And he said, "Social divisions. Yup." Sometimes it amazes me the things they learn at school.

25 October 2024

School picture time!

Rosebud making the smile she does when someone tells her to smile. I've never seen this expression on her face anywhere else!  She was very excited about picture day and asked me to do her hair in two braids (which you can see she has carefully pulled over her shoulders towards the camera in the photo). She also picked one of her Sunday dresses to wear to school.

D making the face that says, I wish I were anywhere else. He hates having his picture taken, in spite of the fact that he has the best smile in the family.  

In spite of the high quality of the images, neither of these are very representative of my kids!

22 October 2024

Rosebud wrote this hair-raising Halloween story at school.

10 October 2024

 A note from Rosebud's Activity Days leader: 

Bridey is so smart! Last night during Twister, it was taking forever for anyone to get twisted enough to fall off so I whispered to her "You can just call whatever you want" She seemed surprised at this as well she should be because I just made it up. But a little bit later I noticed she was still spinning the dial and I said something and she whispered to me that she had to pretend she was doing it! Brilliant!

This morning, hot chocolate and a chunk of a giant cookie for breakfast. The mornings after Activity Days are always hard because she gets to bed so late (8:30 pm).

She is so proud of her cookie - she earned it by knowing the references for Mosiah 2:17 and Matthew 7:7.

5 October 2024

 It's conference weekend again!!  I love that everyone in the family looks forward to watching conference all weekend, even if the kids are mostly motivated by the candy rewards for hearing the words on their lists.  Mr. Brown also gives extra rewards if they can give the reference for scriptures that are quoted by speakers.  Nut Brown has been memorizing scripture masteries for the past year or so, and he did really well with that!  D and Rosebud and I have been working on memorizing them in the mornings too, and both of them got at least one as well.  I love listening to the prophet and apostles speak.  Also I love Sister Tracy Browning.  She's been out here twice in the two years we've been here to do trainings, and it's been my good fortune to participate each time.

D's word of the month right now: "just like Buddy Holly". (song lyric)

1 October 2024

Nut Brown is taking Forensics for his science credit this year, and today they have a crime scene investigation. He seized the opportunity to dress up as a detective, and left the house this morning saying, "In a city that knows how to keep its secrets... Guy Noir, Private Eye."

30 September 2024

 Yesterday morning Rosebud was getting ready for school and she came into the kitchen to show me that if she took her folded pair of socks apart a certain way, she could shoot one of the socks at me.  She found this very funny!

Mr. Brown and I have commented to each other what a different childhood she and D are having, compared to Rose Pink and Nut Brown.  We see so much less of both of them.

29 September 2024

Sunday afternoon. All three of them reading, and D is also talking to himself as he reads.

22 September 2024

 

We went to pick apples for the first time this season (yum yum yum) and are enjoying the fruits of our twenty minutes of labor. Fresh apples are so good! It is so nice to live somewhere that has apples again. We missed them sorely after we left Michigan.

Rosebud was very interested in the way that the apples polished up. She created an "apple spa" in my bedroom (because I was reading the bedroom and she wanted to hang out with me) where the apples were massaged and took baths and so on. She named them all too.  She doesn't play like this very often, so it was definitely fun to see.

Saturday Nut Brown and I spent time on driving practice getting ready for his road test. We went to the library to pick up books and practice parking and found that they had some extraordinary guests: 

It seems they had a mini con going on, with costume contests and tabletop games and miniature painting and video games... Busy day and looked like tons of fun.

Nut Brown practiced his three point turns in the parking lot by backing into the spaces between parked cars. He was careful and thorough and it was very boring for me.  Good time together with him. I enjoyed hanging out with him. He is so cool, and funny, and thoughtful.

After stake conference this morning, Mr. Brown organized an impromptu potluck at our friends' house.  We all brought what we were going to have for dinner anyway, and ate together on their patio. Very satisfying.  (Photo is Nut Brown with his buddy Elijah) At one point D and his friend Aaron came flying back out of the woods up to the patio and told us they'd been attacked by some kind of bug. When we pressed for details, D said, well, there was this thing in a tree and we were throwing rocks at it, and when we hit it, a bunch of bugs came out of it and attacked us! Fortunately he only had two stings and Aaron only had one!!

19 September 2024

Rosebud came home and school with a project that identified two personal character traits: independent and thankful. I wasn't surprised about "thankful" but I was a little surprised about "independent". When I asked her about it, she explained that she doesn't like the teacher to help her because the teacher is so slow, and she finds that frustrating. That made sense, because this is her main complaint about school, that it is so boring!

15 September 2024

 Last Saturday Nut Brown and I were driving home from his driver's training and I decided to stop at a place that said that they sold eggs. When we pulled in, we discovered that there was actually a small festival going on there, with a sunflower maze. So we paid our entry fees and wandered the maze.

We found the TARDIS refrigerator in the back corner. Alas, it had no eggs.

When headed home, Nut Brown said, that was nice. Nice to do something a little different today.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Adrian Brown <spencersgirl@gmail.com>

To: spencersgirl1.Yoroko@blogger.com

Cc: 

Bcc: 

Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2024 13:00:00 -0400

Subject: 15 September 2024

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--- Message truncated -----

14 September 2024

D found some interesting packing materials and just spent an hour telling me a story based around them and the different shapes he could make with them. It involved archaeology, runes, a space kraken, magic and quasars.

Current phrase of the month: pheoretical thysics.

9 September 2024

Mr. Brown and Nut Brown helping our friends practice dancing.  Getting ready for a youth dance.

There was also game action happening on the floor that evening.  

 

7 September 2024

 

The psychiatrist adjusted my medications and I'm interested in gardening again. Mr. Brown took me to the store and let me buy a bunch of flowers for the front yard. Happy happy! I'm very glad to be feeling again!

3 September 2024

This last week has been a blizzard of preparations for school and anxiety about school. We attended three open houses to meet all the teachers and make sure everyone could find all necessary classrooms and lockers. We acquired the required supplies (and put Rosebud's name on all of hers). We tried to remember what time we got up in the morning and when each kid leaves the house so we could set all the alarms. We laid in supplies for lunches (Nut Brown and D) and snacks (Rosebud).

Everyone made it out the door on time! Rosebud caught the bus! No one forgot their backpack!

Best and worst of the day:

Rosebud - best: her teacher is nice! Worst: one of her friends from last year is in her class but totally ignored her when she tried to say hi.

D - best: found a dead frog on his way to school. Worst: only one and a half classes with his best buddy Kieran.

Nut Brown - best: his groups in pre-calculus and culinary are cool and he anticipates a good time with them through the year. Worst: he remembered his backpack but didn't actually put anything in it. No lunchbox, no notebooks, no pencils. Fortunately there was a random pencil in the cupholder and a graph paper notebook left in it (from last year?). However, zero lunch was had. And he'd skipped breakfast to finish packing his backpack!

Overall, I think we're off to a good start.

31 August 2024

Nut Brown has been running a D&D group this summer, with two weekly sessions.  The last session was last Thursday night.  Mr. Brown and I were sitting in the living room upstairs when the sound of singing came from the basement.  That's right... teenage boys were singing!  

One of them wanted a bonus to his Strength score so they sang, I'll Make A Man Out Of You (from Mulan). Another asked for treasure, and they sang "Over the Misty Mountains" and Nut Brown gave them a treasure... map.  And the last friend wanted to resurrect another player character, so they sang "Supernatural". It was so fun!

28 August 2024

Benefits of working from home - Rosebud hanging out with me while working in her math book.  She and D both had math books this summer that they worked in.  Rosebud wanted to learn multiplication and D wanted to work ahead in algebra.  

26 August 2024

It has been a busy month.

It has been a busy summer.  I can't believe it's almost over already.