some september

Carma and I would like to welcome you to this post about some random September things. Please note that we match with our grey Boise State shirts!

I obviously opted to be a little more modest than Carma..

Chuck was up at Wood Badge two different Wednesday-Saturday periods in September and these are some of the lovely pictures we sent him so he wouldn't miss us too much:

And because in my heart of hearts I think texting while you're in the woods is silliness, I also sent cheesy old fashioned hand written notes for him to open each day. I actually do that every time he's gone at Scout camp/wood badge/etc because I am the BEST Wife Ever... as long as cooking isn't a requirement for that title. Chuck leaves me notes too WITH chocolate, because he's amazing and also because he knows that chocolate = my sanity = surviving with four kids while he's gone singing campfire songs :).

Speaking of Scouts, Clyde started Cub Scouts and had his first Pack Meeting in September, where he was awarded his Bobcat - as shown in the top left. Usually just a parent comes up with the award-recipient, but Carma and Jack both think they're attached to me, so we all headed up.

It was a bit discombobulating to be a Cub Scout parent instead of a leader - but ohhh so enjoyable! The evening was fun and cute and we learned that Clyde is a creative genius when it comes to transporting popcorn via feet (he had the brilliant idea to walk on his heels) and we learned that Will occasionally has thoughts like "What if hot dogs were made out of real dogs??" luckily followed up with "then people would say YUCK."

Girls' night!

So wonderful, we were all there plus Paulina's super cute sister Melinda (on the very right) and after we survived the Most Awkward Server Ever (for the second month in a row... we haven't been back since...) we went and checked out Kara's amazing new house! Seriously beautiful.

A while back I told Clyde that I would make him a Percy Jackson shirt, and like two months later I followed through. And then for fun I made one for Will with my current fave nickname for him (Will I Am).

So there's a chance that I carry Carma around like this all the time. Like right here where I'm making a sandwich for Clyde. I've done it with all my kids and I always kind of laugh when people think it's weird and/or dangerous... but now looking at it from this angle I can kind of see what they mean, haha. 

In the latest of a long, long string of my friends who are mean and move away from me, my dear Emily and her family moved to Washington at the end of September. I still haven't processed it. Denial feels like a better option for right now :).

The job interview/offer/acceptance/move all happened quickly and I was so, so happy to see a need that I could fill - running Emily's HUGE garage sale for her for a couple days while she and Travis drove up to find a place to live. 

 It was definitely exhausting but also SO fun! I had a great group of girls that came and helped in shifts and we talked and laughed and haggled with shoppers.. and each other sometimes.. and my kids did amazingly well (thanks Tasha for taking the middle two all day Saturday!!) and it gave me something to do while Chuck was at Wood Badge that week!

Here are some packing/moving day pictures; Chuck worked his Tetris magic in the moving van for a while.

And here's our goodbye picture. Emily will kill me for anything I write, but it has been such a privilege to know her and watch her and learn from her. She is such a 'do-er'; she sees a problem or a need and jumps in. There are about a billion examples I could name where she listened with a furrowed brow and then started nodding and spouting off what needed to be done and did it. I would not have been able to handle my RS activity chairperson calling without her as the RS presidency member over our committee. I could always count on her to talk through things with me and laugh with me and eat cookies with me and take pictures with me even though she hated it :). Washington is so lucky to have her, and I'm so glad that she's learning to live at a slower pace there - she deserves some rest!! LOVE you Em!

Oh, here's a fun story: Clyde chipped his tooth. Like a whole corner of it. Crashing his bike. About six hours after his baptism (oh, yeah, Clyde's baptism! future post...). Ahhhhhh! 

[Much thanks to our good neighbor Trent who witnessed the accident (Clyde may have been showing off for little Logan) and walked Clyde and his bike home.]

It happened on a Saturday night, which left Chuck and I allllll day Sunday to ponder how expensive and extensive and painful the repair process would likely be to fix this PERMANENT FRONT tooth. Monday morning Clyde and I rolled into the dentist only to discover that it was a ten minute filling for $60. Say what?? Amazing. Granted, it's just anchored along that diagonal break and could got knocked off again in the future, but that's a $60 risk we'll take! And let the record show that Clyde was back on his bike Sunday night - that's the top left picture; he's riding over to leave a thank you note for Brother Swallow :).

No story here, just hanging out on the floor with my baby girl. This was the night before her blessing at church (future post! promise!) and I was feeling crazily emotional (Clyde's baptism that afternoon, a fantastic General Women's session of conference that evening, coming home to hear about Clyde's bike crash and chipped tooth) and it was just so perfect to see this sweet, innocent, darling baby chew her fingers and wave her chubby arms and smile at me. I sure love her!

Oh, and Chuck and I went on a date in September! Jared was in a play at his new school and it counted double - Jared is one of Chuck's YM aaaand one of my Sunday School kids. As always he did a fantastic job and we had a great time. Good news since we're seeing him in Romeo and Juliet next week for Chuck's birthday date :). #romantic