Month in Review: September 2020

September was a pretty good month and it was kind of busy (well… COVID busy. My calendar looks nothing like it did pre-COVID, which is a good thing!). It was filled with birthdays, donuts, and the start of fall festivities. It also included some much cooler temps, which I can surely appreciate. Here’s how our September shook out.

Books Read

Sadly, I only finished one book in September, for my mystery book club. I absolutely loved it though!

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

What I Watched

• Shows I finished this month finally: Making a Murderer season 2, Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant
• The Family I Had (crime documentary): very sad murder story but VERY well done and engaging to watch.
• The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (documentary): wild, fun, and interesting story about a wild outlaw family.
• Goodnight Sugar Babe (crime documentary): very sad murder story, crazy people, and the documentary was very poorly done.

Happenings and Tidbits

• My baby boy, my Holden Lee, turned two on the 2nd! I am happy / sad / mixed up inside.
• We had a drive by birthday celebration for him the following weekend. We set up a table and dessert cups outside (from Monarch Delights!), and family members dropped by for a bit. It was a nice little celebration of our guy.
• Caleb started virtual kindergarten on the 10th. We had the option of sending him in twice a week, but we opted to go 100% remote for safety reasons. He does most of his schooling at my mom’s since he’s there during the day, and it’s been… stressful? Not ideal? Remote learning is just not great for 5 year olds, but everyone is doing the best they can. He has 2 short Google Meets a day, and then assignments on the SeeSaw app and stuff that I go pick up once a week.
• I hosted my first Pink Zebra Blend Bash on 9/18 at my house and it was GREAT! Several ladies came over to make custom wax blends, we chatted, we ate TONS of food, and just had a great time! It was a stressful week, as I waited for the kit to arrive (FedEx and shipping delays), but it all went off without a hitch in the end (even though I got the kit just a few hours before the Bash). Our house is a little on the small side, so we kept all the food in the kitchen (which is in desperate need of new ceiling tiles!), the blending in the dining room, and the sitting and hanging out in the living room. It ended up working out pretty well that way!
• I took two vacation days from work for my Blend Bash and much needed time to unwind.
• Donut Quest 2020 kicked off! Donut Quest is something that Jerry and I did in 2017 where we went to a lot of the local farms who do seasonal fry cakes in the fall. We tried them and ranked them over the course of the fall, BUT, there are tons of places around that we never got to! DQ2020 is similar, but my friend Denise joined me this year in the quest, and we want to try even more places.
• Denise and I visited Schutt’s and Bauman’s on 9/12 with the boys. Schutt’s was the clear winner that day. We hung out at her place for a bit with the kids and sampled fry cakes, cider, and fudge from both places.
• Jerry and I took the kids to Kelly’s Apple Farm on 9/18 for a dozen fry cakes for my Blend Bash, plus a couple other goodies and apples. It was also one of my vacation days from work, so Jerry left work early so we could all go! Very delicious, but not better than Schutt’s.
• Jerry and I took the kids to Herman’s and Kelly’s again on 9/26. Herman’s used to be our winner, but not anymore. Schutt’s is still in the fry cake lead, and the quest will continue tomorrow with more places.
• In an offshoot to Donut Quest where we focus on fry cakes, my friend Christine and I traveled to Buffalo on 9/19 together with her son and Caleb. It’s about an hour away, but we decided to make the trip to try a placed called Paula’s. Many people say it’s legendary. Well, let me tell you… we both got a variety of donuts, and they were out of this world good. My favorite was their chocolate glaze. We both agreed it was worth the trip and we plan to go back. I loved spending some time with Christine!
• Holden had his two year check up. While there, they did the finger prick lead test, then called me about an hour later, saying they were concerned with his lead levels. They said that finger pricks can be inaccurate, so they wanted him to go for a blood draw. Well, Jerry and I ZOOMED out of work, picked him up from my mom, then flew to the blood lab. It was a freaking ORDEAL and Holden was shrieking and flipping out. It broke my heart. Then we waited around with knots in our stomach for over a day. We finally got the results back and he was fine, with good levels. Phew. Major relief.
• I made it in the top 10 of sales for my PZ team in September… out of around 400 people!
• Caleb and I went to a girl’s dinner (+Cal) with our newfound cousins, my mom, and aunt. We went for barbecue again and it was great!

Coming Up in October

• Jerry and I will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary on Monday, October 5! Holy cow, we’re getting old.
• Donut Quest! Woohoo! DQ2020 continues all month long. We have about nine more places on our list, so we’d LIKE to get to as many as possible, keeping in mind that many farms stop their fry cakes after Halloween. Fingers crossed we can make it work LOL.
• Halloween, obviously, which is my number one favorite day of the year. We still don’t know what it will look like this year. We usually host and trick or treat from my house with my brother’s family and my parents, but trick or treating may not happen this year. Sigh.
• Hopefully lots of scary books and horror movies! I try to read horror only in October.
• Vacation time from work! Most people take vacation in the summer, I save it for the fall. LOL. I took the entire week of Halloween off so I could bask in the Halloween and fall awesomeness. I’ll mostly just be hanging out at home with the kids, watching horror movies, and living my best fall life.
• Caleb loves a local spooky hayride for kids at Powers Farm, so we’d like to go again this year. We went twice last year because he loves it so much!
• A spooky overnight trip… hopefully! Jerry and I are planning to visit a new haunt attraction about two hours away, so we’d also like to stay overnight at a Bed and Breakfast. We’ll call this… the horror lover’s anniversary celebration.

And that’s it for September! I’m loving that we’re in the full swing of the fall season now, but also sad because we have to miss out on a lot due to COVID (like haunted hayrides and probably trick or treating!). However, I am trying to make the best of it and am still looking forward to a fun and festive October.