Halloween, end of Trimester 1, End of Football Season

Well, the two biggest things I have to write about from this past month are Halloween and the end of Caleb's high school football career.

This year, it seemed like we got invited to more Halloween festivities than ever before. There's this lady named Krystal Klassen that is a mom of one of my former students and she has a son that plays baseball with Cody and Lindsey Summer's son. Her husband is also the principal at the high school. Anyways, she puts on this huge scavenger hunt that goes all around town and it's for married couples to just compete in groups and have fun with other couples. We got invited this year (last year was the first time she had ever done it) and it was so fun! We got put in a group with Cody and Lindsey Summers and Travis and Mindy Schwab. We didn't win, but it was still so fun. We dressed as prison inmates and Josh wore his police uniform. At one point, a bystander at Broulims saw Travis Schwab running around the school district office, and she called the police because she thought he was an actual criminal. lol We had been waiting for Josh as he ran into the police department to get something, but then the rest of us drove over there and found Travis talking to the actual cops. lol Josh was there to tell them to stand down. The evening ended back at the Klassen's house and we had some dinner and it was a fun night!

Then, the next Friday, we got invited to Clint and Lauren's Halloween party. It was fun, but probably not quite as fun because we didn't really know the other couples there. It was a lot of her high school friends and me and Josh were like, the old people there. We played some games and ate some snacks and then came home. We dressed as Ariel and Prince Eric for that one.

Then it was actually Halloween! We always have fun at the junior high on Halloween. It was awesome because Halloween was actually on a Friday this year, which I think it should be every single year. Then it's a shorter day of school and we end with the fun assembly, and then everyone goes home and gets out trick-or-treating and gets to sleep in the next day and hopefully come down from their sugar high in the care of their parents and not their teachers! The English department dressed up as villians, and I was Mother Gothel from Tangled. Avery and her friends were rappers. She went trick-or-treating with Briella and Phoebe and some other kids up on the hill.

The other thing that was happening on Halloween night was a football game! This was such a weird thing because I can't remember ever having a football game on Halloween, but it was awesome! It was their first playoff game and they were hosting Boise at Bobcat stadium! So, we got Avery situated with her friends trick-or-treating, and then we went over to the stadium for the game! We won 17-14 and advanced in the next round of playoffs! 

We also had senior night somewhere in there. I think it was actually the week before Halloween. It was probably the coldest night of football all season (except for when we went to Coeur D' Alene - which I'll get to next!) I was wearing my friend, Ashley's, heated vest and I was so grateful for that! We walked out onto the field with Caleb at the start of the game and the cheerleaders gave him a candy lei and a gift bag. The moms had decided to do personalized blankets, so the gift bag had the blanket and some other little treats. They won their game that night pretty easily and we all thought, "This is the last home game!" but then we ended up having home field advantage for that first playoff game against Boise, and then THAT Halloween game ended up actually being Caleb's last home game.

After the Halloween night win, that ended up pushing us into the second round of playoffs, but that meant we had to travel all the way up to Coeur D' Alene! On Friday, November 7, we left at about 8:00 in the morning and drove the seven hours there! I got a sub and Avery skipped school. We got to the hotel at about 4:00 and Josh took a nap and Avery and I did a little shopping! She got some shirts and a bracelet and some other stuff, so she felt like the trip was worth it. Then we went to the game and watched Madison play the worst game of the season. :( It was actually soooo bad. I think we lost 43-14 or something like that. It was crazy because most people said Madison was actually favored to win it by the stats! I don't know what happened, but just nothing went our way. So many fumbles and turnovers. It was a sad way for those seniors to end their high school football careers, but oh well. If they would have won, they would have played the next week, and it would've been pretty tough to play either Timberline or Rocky Mountain. Tomorrow is the state championship game and it's Rigby vs. Timberline. On the one hand, I really don't want Rigby to win again because the are so annoying. On the other hand, it's also nice when a team from east Idaho wins instead of Boise. So we shall see...

Other than that, it's the end of trimester one at school today! It was the attendance final today, so it was a pretty low key day. I went to the school from about 8:00 - noon and Avery came with for a little bit. Josh brought her over there at about 9:30 because she was just bored at home. I worked on my seating charts for tri 2, which starts on Monday, and a bunch of other stuff.

In other news, I booked our flights to SPAIN!! I was able to find some pretty good deals on the flights, so I figured I might as well do it and then we can plan! So we have that to look forward to in 2026! 

Also, Avery finished up tennis lessons with Briella in mid-October and had her Halloween orchestra concert! Gabe is just living the missionary life in Aranjuez in his piso with four other elders! He's with Elder Taylor officially, but they are also training Elder Plewe and they still have those other two that are living with them too (Brinkerhoff and Stucki).

That's all for now! Here are some pictures!

Grandma Sue, Aaron, and Colter Visit and Football Season

 On Wednesday, September 24th, Grandma Sue flew into Idaho Falls! She spent the next week here while we were off of school for spud harvest break, and it was awesome having her visit. We went shopping on Thursday, went to Caleb's football game against Thunder Ridge on Friday (Bobcats won by a lot), and then my brother, Aaron, and his con Colter came to visit on Saturday and Sunday. While they were here, Josh was on his bike ride to Utah, so they didn't get a chance to really see him, but it was still fun. We mostly just hung out at our house, played Cover Your Assets, and chatted. While they were visiting, we kind of tentatively planned out a lake house trip at the end of July next summer in Wisconsin. 

Aaron and Colter left on Sunday afternoon (we didn't go to church), and then my mom left on Wednesday afternoon. We also went to Fat Cats and went mini golfing, played some arcade games, went out to dinner at Red 8 (twice) and had lots of fun just hanging out! I wish she lived in Rexburg. Maybe someday...

While grandma was here, two big things in the world happened. 1) President Russell M. Nelson (our prophet) passed away at the age of 101. That was already a sad day. Then, the next day, someone drove into an lds church building in Michigan and started shooting, killing 4 people and injuring others. It was all over the news. Nothing like that has ever happened in one of our churches before, so everyone (even non-LDS people) were shocked. I guess the guy was a veteran and had some PTSD issues. It was very sad. They General Conference was only a few days later, so it kind of left the church leadership scrambling probably. Dallin H. Oaks spoke at conference, and he is going to become the next prophet/president of the church.

After spud harvest was over, we went back to school on October 6th and got back into the school year swing of things. Our lives have been busy going to Caleb's football games every Friday night, taking Avery to tennis on Tuesdays and Thursdays and piano on Mondays with Claire, and just doing other random things here and there. 

The weather has been beautiful and the trees have been showing off their oranges and yellows. It hasn't snowed here yet, but it has been rainy this weekend and it snowed un the mountains. I am NOT ready for snow, but Caleb is counting down the days until Targhee opens so he can start snowboarding all the time. He has been kind of getting sick of football lately to be honest, but it's sad for us to think that he only probably has 2 or 3 games left. They really haven't had a bad season, but they've lost a total of 3 games (Rigby, Hillcrest, and Skyline) but those three loses combined were by a total of SIX points. They lost to Hillcrest and Skyline both by ONE point, and they just played Rigby and lost by 4 points. It was such a good game too. I thought we would get creamed, but we were ahead for a lot of the game. I think the Rigby fans were shaking in their boots. A turnover in the 4th quarter basically cost us the game. It was so sad. 

Senior night is this coming Friday, so I will have more pictures to post then, but here are some football ones I have for now!

Also, Gabe is back in his first area of Aranjuez and is a zone leader and is training a greenie (Elder Plewe) with his other zone leader companion (Elder Taylor). They have been pretty busy he says, and are teaching at least two lessons a day in Valdemoro. He gets transfer news this coming week, but I really think he will probably stay there at least one more since he is only halfway through training a greenie.

Here are some pictures!

Caleb's Football Pics and Senior Pics

 I just wanted to share some of the favorites from Caleb's senior football pics and his regular senior pics! They were all taken by Breanne Serrano (in case I forget) and they turned out great! 

Back to School and Homecoming Week!

It's been about a month and I have so many fun pictures I've taken in the past month, but I can't post them all! I'll try to limit myself to just the best ones!

First Day of School

School started on Monday, August 25. It was Caleb's last first day of school! :( First day of his senior year! He actually left for weight training before any of the rest of us, so I had to take his "first day" picture later in the day. Me and Avery left the house together and headed to the junior high around 7:50am. 

The first day was pretty good! I have a sweet deal this year because I'm still teaching only part-time, but they raised my pay to a .75, so I'm making about $800 more per month. The ironic thing is, I looked back at my old pay stubs and I'm actually making $50 more per month than I was making my first year of teaching in 2020 when I was full-time and putting in like, 12 hours a day! So it's pretty nice to be working until 1:00 every day and making about the same! Basically, I get there are 8am and teach until 12:30 and then I usually have Avery and her friends that eat lunch in my classroom and I leave between 1:00-1:30.

Lately, it's been Avery and Briella and sometimes also Tayvree and/or Phoebe. I'm glad Avery seems to be wanting to branch out a little this year and expand her friend group. She's in my English class for 1st hour, which is fun. Hopefully she doesn't get too embarrassed by having her mom as her teacher. 

Caleb is taking a pretty easy course load this trimester. He starts his day with his zero hour weight training "class" for football. Then he comes home and has a little break during what would be first hour. He wanted this so he could have time to take a shower and eat breakfast after running out the door for weight training early on. Then he just h as to be back to school for second hour when he has a video game design class that apparently is also a math credit! Then he has a regular gym class third hour, then he comes home for lunch, and then he has another break during fourth hour, during which he is supposed to be technically doing his online English class. Then at about 2:30 he has his fifth hour which is just football practice. So really, he just has three class periods of physical activity and one class of video game design. Not a tough trimester!

Gabe was so sweet to humor me and take a "first day" picture in front of his piso door! He made a sign that said "13 months as a missionary"! haha He was in Alcazar when this picture was taken, but he just switched areas and went back to Aranjuez, which is crazy, but more on that later!

Here are our first day pictures!

Homecoming Week Festivities

I always love the fun and excitement of homecoming week, but I think I was especially trying to live it up this year knowing that it's Caleb's senior season of football. Each day, we dressed up as different crazy things at the junior high. Then on Friday, we got out early at 11:10 and the parade was at noon. I actually got out at about 10am, which was really nice. I went to Jimmy Johns, got a sandwhich, came back to the parade and parked in a good spot, then watched it with my friend Ashley Pendleton and some of her friends. I waved to Caleb as he went by on the football float, and all my past students as they rode by on lots of different floats. Avery had walked with Briella to get food at Swig and then she came back over. Here are some pictures of the week and the parade!

Then after the parade, I went home and got some fruit salads ready for the team dinner. Me, Shelly Wilkes, and Katie Phillips were in charge of helping Ashley Wheeler with the dinner before the game for all the Varsity players. We got there at about 3:30 and did hot dogs and salads. Then I laid out some blankets to save some good seats and went home for about an hour.

That night, my friend from Wisconsin, Laura Smith, ended up being in town because she was dropping her college aged daughter off at BYUI. Time sure flies because it feels like yesterday Laura was coming out to BYUI as a freshmen and I was a newlywed! So she and her daughter ended up coming to the football game with us and then she stayed overnight in Gabe's room so she didn't have to start driving home late at night. 

The game was... so heartbreaking. We ended up losing by ONE point. It was very sad, But it was still a good game and a fun night. The stands were packed. I just wish we could have won, but lessons were learned. Caleb was pretty bummed, but it was okay by the next day.

On Saturday, Caleb had the Homecoming Day date and dance. He went with a cheerleader friend named Audrey Sutton. They went golfing for their day date, which Caleb always loves. Then he and Sidi came to our house to get ready. I ended up going over to Katie Phillip's house to help with the dinner at about 5:30. The boys weren't super organized, so it ended up being the moms making them dinner and it all worked out. They had chicken alfredo, salad, breadsticks, and I brought Costco desserts!