Football and Soccer are over, Fall Fun, and Halloween!

October this year has been so, so nice! The weather has been unseasonably warm! Last year, we had snow on October 1st! This year, we have been out enjoying the weather as much as possible! We drove out to the Palisades area one weekend and let Zeus come along in the car. The fall colors were beautiful and the kids (and the dog) loved running around in the woods.

 

Fishing with the Boys

Josh took the boys fishing one morning with his brother, Bryan, and his son, Brennan. They just went out on the river close to our house this time because they had they needed to be back in time for a football game. They had a lot of fun, but didn't catch much! Caleb mostly just goes for the junk food anyways!

Treehouse Fall Festival

One of our favorite fall activities every year is going to this local farmer's house where they do this "fall festival." They set up all of these little storybook props and we go walk through the "enchanted forest." Here are some pictures of Avery posing as "Goldilocks" and "Little Red Riding Hood." After we walked through that, we went on the hayride that the farmer guy does and he shoots this pumpkin cannon into his field! Then we got some of their fabulous scones! They also have a big slide that the kids played on for a long time. Here are some pictures of that!

Gabe's Championship Soccer Season

This year, Gabe had the best team ever! At first, he was sort of bummed that he didn't try out for JV because some of his ninth-grade friends had done that and made the team. However, it turned out that this team he got put on was full of amazing players! Most of them were younger than Gabe, so he was kind of the old man on the team, but that was ok! They ended up only losing one game the whole season to Teton, but then they also beat them at a different game. In the championship game, they ended up playing Sugar City, which was crazy because they had already beat Sugar TWICE! But in the end, they beat them again 6-2. Here are some pictures of him with his coach, Freddy, and with his team, and with his medal!

Caleb's Football Season

This year, Caleb had a lot of fun with football again. His season was kind of up and down. They won the first two games by A LOT! I think the scores were like 36-6 and 40-12. Then the third game they lost by one touchdown. Then they won the next one. Then they lost the next one and so on. They DID end up going to the playoffs though! That was exciting. It had been a three-way tie, so they did this "Kansas City play-off" game between the three teams. Their team won! So they advanced to the playoffs. They were considered the best team in the "B league" so they had to play the second-best team in the "A league" which happened to be Madison Gray! It was a good game and we were winning at half-time, but then one of our best players got hurt, and it kind of went downhill in the fourth quarter. They ended up losing to Madison Gray. Then the next game, Madison Gray lost to Rigby! I was secretly happy that we got out when we did because the weather turned really cold right after the game that we lost and the Madison Gray team ended up having to play in SNOW! (I wasn't sad to miss out on that experience! haha) Here are some pictures of Caleb with his teammates.

Church at home usually - AND our first day back!

Ever since March, we have been having church at home. I'll admit, it's not all bad. I've worn the same comfortable long skirt every Sunday for about sixth months now. Gabe makes fun of me and it's become a tradition at this point. He's like, "You better burn that thing when this is all over!" haha I will be somewhat sad when we go back and I have to start caring about what I wear to church in front of people again. We did have ONE day back at church though! Starting on about September 1st, Idaho had moved into phase 4, which meant that we could gather in groups of up to 100. Our church leaders divided up the ward into groups and assigned each group by the last names of the alphabet. Our day finally came on October 11th, along with everyone with last names of R-Z! We had to wear masks and we weren't allowed to sing. We got there at 12:00 and we were all done by 1:00. Guess who one of the two speakers was? Caleb! haha The Bishop asked him to prepare a talk on what his favorite conference talk had been. They even had a little camera at the pulpit and broadcast it on YouTube for the people at home. He did a great job! Now the governor has recently moved us back to phase 3 because cases were rising again, so now the limit is groups of 50. We will see when we can go to church again! We have such a large ward (probably 500 people) that it won't be very often! 

Here are some pictures of church (Caleb at home church with Zeus) and Avery standing outside the church building with her mask! She was so excited to get to wear her baptism dress again.

Josh at the FBI Academy

Josh got to attend this fun little FBI Academy in Yellowstone. It was a week-long from Sunday, October 18 - Saturday, October 24. I think that will go down in history as the longest week of my life EVER! He left on Sunday, then I was on my own with the kids on Monday! Tuesday and Wednesday I had parent-teacher conference, so I had to stay at the school until 7:00! My poor kids had to fend for themselves! Also, Avery's babysitter found a job as a para at a school, so she let me know that she was quitting like the day before Josh left town! I was freaking out. Luckily, my sweet neighbor offered to watch Avery after school for me until I got home. The boys and I always get home about an hour after Avery gets home. So, it was a stressful week! On Friday, I loaded up the kids and the dog and we drove the hour and a half to Yellowstone after school. The kids watched TV in the hotel room and we ordered pizza for them while Josh and I went to the "graduation ceremony" in the banquet hall. The chief and his wife drove up to join us so that was nice. They're so supportive of Josh. They really love him.

Halloween

I feel like we all needed Halloween this year more than ever. Kids have been deprived of so many things in this country for the past seven months! Luckily, in Idaho, most people are pretty in favor of keeping schools open and keeping sports seasons underway! People were equally in favor of handing out candy and letting the kids trick-or-treat. We had a LOT of kids come through our neighborhood. I started out with a big bowl of "good candy" (M&Ms, Kit Kats, Reeses, etc.) and then I had an extra bowl as a backup that had lots of little candy (tooties rolls, wrapped gummies, fruities). We went through BOTH bowls! 

Avery dressed up as Hermoine from Harry Potter. She's just starting to get into Harry Potter this year because her teacher LOVES the books and makes everything about Harry Potter. They had a Halloween party in class and it was Harry Potter themed.

Caleb put on the pumpkin head and sat still on our porch with the bowl in his hands this year. He scared a lot of little kids as they would reach for the candy and he would jump at them! He liked that! haha Avery went around the neighborhood with me and Josh and our new neighbor, Maggie (the one whose mom babysits her now), and Kendalin and her parents. The weather cooperated and we had a lovely night! We went out at about 5:00, and by 7:00 it was dark and we were tired and we were in for the night! Gabe had gone around the neighborhood with a couple of friends on skateboards just harassing people and causing a general disturbance. haha No taking candy. He had fun though. It was a great Halloween! My favorite moment was when I saw these two brothers dressed as Biden and Trump. I had them pose for this picture in front of my Trump sign!

In two days, it will be November 3rd and we will have the big election day! Some people are saying that we may not know who wins until Thanksgiving because of all the mail-in votes. I just really hope that the Democrats don't rig it and stack the ballot boxes or something. It's a scary world we are living in these days. I really hope they don't shut everything down again.

                                                    

That's all for now! We will see if the next time I write, we are still going to school five days a week!

First Month of School and Crazy September

September is always a crazy month for us, but this year it has been crazier than ever before. Josh is working his new position at the police department as a Lieutenant, I am working from 8am-4pm as a teacher (and then usually 6pm-9pm at home grading things, creating content for online students, and emailing parents about students who have missing work from being absent), Gabe is doing a club soccer team, and Caleb is doing grid kid football. Avery isn't doing dance this fall because I really didn't know what was going to happen with Covid and I didn't want to end up paying for something that was going to get cancelled. She isn't sad about it either. She's very content to come home from school, do homework with her college girl tutor for an hour, and then go play outside with her friend until dark! 

On a typical day, I head to the junior high with the boys at 7:45am and Josh takes Avery to Burton for school. Then at 2:30, Avery' s school ends and she walks across the street from the school where our college girl helper, Matilyn, is waiting for her. Matilyn walks her home, gets her a snack, does some reading and math, and then just hangs out with her until the boys get home. They choose to ride the bus home at 3:30 when their school ends because it gets them home a little sooner than it would if they waited for me. They usually get home from the bus at about 3:55. Then Matilyn leaves and then Josh and I usually both get home somewhere around 4:15 or 4:30. 

Then we usually have about thirty minutes to try and throw some food at Caleb and Gabe, get soccer cleats, shin guards, football pads, mouthguard, and water bottles organized, and then Josh usually heads out the door with Caleb to his football practice at 5:15 and I take Gabe to his soccer practice at 5:30. If Avery is playing with one of her neighbor friends (Maggie or Kendalin or Lucy or Soleil) sometimes I will leave her if it's okay with whatever mom is home, but usually she will ride along. 

Then I typically come home, find some food for me and Avery, work on grading whatever assignments I haven't gotten to during the school day, input some assignments into the online Schoology program for whatever students where absent that day (usually about 20 percent of each of my four classes) and try to lesson plan what I'm going to actually TEACH in person for the NEXT day. It's a blast. I'm not feeling overwhelmed AT ALL. Just kidding. I totally am. I keep telling Josh, "We will see if I do this next year." The principal has even come and talked to me and basically begged me to come back next year and said, "Please don't burn yourself out. You're doing a great job. I promise it will be easier after this first year. You'll have all your lesson plans and it will only get easier." But right now, especially with all this COVID CRAP, it is SO HARD. 

Then here are some pictures of the first day of school on August 26!

On Labor Day, we went to Wade Lake with our friends the Summers. It was pretty packed there, but we still had fun swimming and kayaking around with the kids. Then we brought hot dogs and snacks and cooked them over a campfire for dinner and came home at about 7:00. 

Other news with Gabe... Gabe is able to start drivers ed in a few months, which is so crazy. He actually could start it September 23 (because that's his 14.5 birthday) but so many classes were already full. They got really behind over the last six months with Covid and now every 15 year old is scrambling to get in. So we bought a car in preparation for Gabe! Right now it is mostly just sitting in our garage. We don't usually need it because I drive the Buick and Josh drives his police car.

Gabe has also been doing well with his soccer team. At first, he was wondering if he made the right choice by not doing the JV team this fall as a freshman. But the JV coach ended up taking every single boy that tried out, meaning they ended up with 27 boys on the JV team alone. Only 11 can play at a time, so that means that usually most of the freshmen boys sit the bench. The coach is also somewhat obsessed with soccer, and if you try to have a life outside of soccer in August-October, he basically tells you, "You chose something besides soccer," and then you NEVER get to play. I'm not really excited for Gabe next year if he decides to play high school soccer. This team that he's on right now has been such a good experience. I am so glad he decided to do this one. His coach, Freddy, is a hispanic college student from BYUI and he LOVES coaching these boys. He is so nice and so committed. They haven't lost one single game out of the five they have played so far. Hopefully, they can keep it up and have an undefeated season! They have three games left and then the finals. Gabe usually makes 2-4 goals per game. He is one of their "strikers" and he typically is the one shooting the ball at the goal. 

Its kind of funny because the league has this new rule that you can't win by more than six goals and if you score a seventh one, then the other team automatically wins. So they've had games before where they are up by six and then they just have to basically pass the ball in circles around the other team, but not try and score. I feel like it's just a pain because they game gets so boring. They might as well call the game then if they are up by that much! But instead we just have to sit there and watch them play monkey in the middle and pass the ball around the boys from the other team. I need to get a good picture of Gabe in his soccer uniform, but it hasn't happened yet. Here is what I have so far. The kid standing next to him is a hispanic kid named Julian and he is small, but mighty. He can dribble the ball around anyone! lol Gabe is also the tallest one on his team, so they just look funny standing by each other. 

Caleb started out his football season really strong and they were winning games like 39-12 and 36-7. Then all the crazy other coaches from other teams started coming and FILIMG our games so they could know our plays! It's ridiculous how crazy some dads get into this who coaching thing. So this last game that we played yesterday, we lost. They literally knew every play. Our coach was like, "Sorry guys, but I don't have time to go to these other team's games and film them so we know their plays. If anyone else wants to, you can." I don't blame him though! That's insane. But either way, Caleb is enjoying it and he loves being on the team. At homecoming last week, all the little seventh grade boys asked girls at school to wear their football jerseys on Friday. Caleb asked this girl named Briley, who has been his friend for a while and has worn his jersey a lot. I guess they are "good friends." She seems like a nice girl, so that's good. I have lots of Caleb's teachers come up to me at school and tell me how funny Caleb is and how much they love having him in class. One teacher said, "Your son has lots of confidence." Yup! That's Caleb. He's never shy.

Avery participated in this cheerleading camp that the varsity cheerleaders put on. It's a fundraiser that they do every year. You pay $15 for your daughter to go and then the older girls teach them a dance. They practiced for a week and then performed at a half time of a high school football game. It was a beautiful night and Avery loved being out on the field at halftime. Avery also has become good friends with the new girl that moved in next door in July. They have four daughters and they are all very nice. The one that is Avery's age is named Maggie. They dressed up as twins one day for school during spirit week. Here are some pictures of Avery!

Zeus (the new dog that we got last month) has fully infiltrated himself into our home. He is totally a social dog, way more than Drax ever was. He wants to be wherever we are all the time. He loves sneaking on the couch or anyone's beds when we aren't looking. He somehow has convinced us that he should sleep in the house at night instead of outside in his kennel. I don't know how we ended up having this huge indoor house dog. He is not the size of dog that should be a house dog. But he's so nice and so friendly that it's hard to turn him away. He cries when we put him outside in his kennel alone. It's like an ultimate punishment for him to be away from people.

Here are a few pictures to summarize my teaching so far. I had a kid wear a giant WW2 type gas mask to school one day. I didn''t feel like I could deny him his right to wear a mask, so I just took a picture instead. Then on the Friday of homecoming, they dismissed school early at 11:10, which made each class period only 25 minutes long instead of 70. So I did what ant good teacher would do and we played games the whole time. Here is a picture of them playing "heads up seven up" (a classic game from the nineties that I used to love!) You have to try and guess who put your thumb down. It did require them all touching each other's hands, but I figured, "You know what? They've been sharing laptops for the past two weeks soooo.... is it really any different?" Covid can just shove it for all I care. There is this one teacher who has been so concerned about everyone in her class wearing a mask every day. She even sits in her classroom, ALONE, and wears her mask while she works. It's actually insane. But guess who JUST tested positive for Covid? Her! hahaha I know I shouldn't laugh. But I find it ironic that of all people, she's the one to get Covid. I guess that mask really saved her! 

Most of my students really are super great. I even went through the Freddy's drive-thru one day with Gabe and I don't know who was in front of me, but when I got up there to pay at the window, the worker said, "Your meal has already been paid for by one of your English students. They told me to tell you that you are a great teacher." Awww... see? They aren't all little turds. lol Most of them really are great kids and make class really fun. Hopefully, this whole Covid thing will get under control and we can remain in school. All of the BYU-I college kids returned last week and our numbers have been soaring. We went from having about 30 active cases in the summer (when the students weren't here) to over 200 now. This last week has been really bad. Every evening, the mayor stands on the corner of Main Street by this sign we have and announces our numbers for the day. I am just wondering if we will stay in school if the numbers continue to rise. So far, it hasn't been bad because the majority of people who are getting it are young and healthy. But if our small hospital would start filling up all the beds in the ICU, I think that is when school would go online again.

Right now, we just started our "spud harvest break." They were planning on us being out of school for one week from October 2-9. Then last Wednesday, they made the announcement that they were extending the harvest break to TWO weeks and that it would start on September 28 and go until October 13. All the teachers found out along with the kids! I'll admit, a collective "HOORAY!" may have been screamed by both myself and the students on Wednesday during class when we found out. lol So I am going to try and use these next two weeks to lesson plan, get more things put on my website (in case of a shut down) and just try to sleep in and enjoy some time to breathe! I feel like we haven't had much of that this month!

Lastly, as if life isn't overwhelming enough right now for the Rhodes family, Josh just got called to the high council in our church and I just got called to be in the young women's presidency. (It's as if they think I love being around teenagers or something? lol) When they asked if I would do it, I answered, "Well, you know, life is a little crazy right now, but we will figure out a way to make it work!" So, wish us luck!