illguthlife: Korea 2014: Week 18 - Billy Came to Visit

We had three full days between my Aunt Vera's visit and my brother Billy's visit. Normally those dates would have included pre-school for all the kids, speech therapy for Derrick, a visit from Elder and Sister Coombs, and a playdate with the other mommies in my ward. But for various reasons only one of those things was scheduled for this week. Pre-school would have interfered with dropping Vera off at the airport, it was our off week for therapy, and Elder and Sister Coombs have finished their mission. I took advantage of the unstructured days to reorganize some things.

On Tuesday I tackled cleaning out my closet. It's become a little bit of a disaster - which is okay because the closet is ginormous and the disaster really hasn't affected my life too much. Still I needed to box up my winter stuff so I decided to just clean the whole thing out as I went through my clothes. I can see all of the carpet again - yay!

On Wednesday we set up my "new" desk. I've been looking for a desk for a while so I was really happy when I found this on the curb. It was bigger than I was planning, but it reminds me of my awesome desk from my office job so I am in love with it. I tried it out in my room, but the desk was way too big. It makes more sense to have it in the living room anyway.

I had to move the piano to make room for the desk. I wasn't sure if I could move it on my own, but I was some how able to push it with my feet as I braced my back against the wall. There was a point where I was kind of stuck in the middle of the room with nothing to push against, but somehow I got past that point and moved the piano into it's new home against the other wall. That side of the room felt really "top heavy" and tall, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I couldn't move any of the other furniture anyway, so I just had to leave it.

I've already blogged about Thursday when I did my typical day post. You may remember that I had to clean the living room carpet that day. Well it was so rewarding/disgusting to see how dirty that carpet was, that I had to clean the carpet in the rest of the rooms. So on Friday I did the hall, the toy room, and the kids room. I hope to get to do my room and Veronica's room this week.

Here is a random picture of Lydia falling asleep at the table. Out of respect to her I wont show the picture of the funniest place she's ever fallen asleep, but let's just say it adds a whole new meaning to the word "pooped."

Billy came to visit on his 23rd birthday. The girls really wanted celebrate his birthday. They wanted balloons and they picked out a card for him. Charlotte was really excited to help make his cake. She "read" the picture instructions and told me that we needed, "three eggs." Then she cracked the eggs herself.

Lydia joined in when it was time to mix. You can see that Veronica wanted to help too.

We had fun decorating the cake. I don't know why, but I love putting candy on cakes.

Oh here is another random picture. After 10.5 YEARS of faithful service my blow dryer quit working on Saturday. My parents gave me this blow dryer as a Christmas Present during my first year of college. It's been on its last legs for the last year or so. I really only use it to blow dry my bangs, but I miss it already. I haven't had the heart to throw it away yet. Maybe now that I've talked about it I'll be able to throw it out.

Okay enough about the blowdryer, lets talk about Billy. Billy spent the first half of May on tour in Eastern Europe with the BYU Chamber Orchestra. Then, instead of flying home to Utah, he flew to Houston and spent about a week with my sister Lindsey and her family. Lindsey and Billy came up for a visit on Saturday. Charlotte and Lydia were so happy to see Billy. The yelled his name and jumped up and down.

We had dinner and then sang happy birthday and had cake. The girls gave Billy a card that had a little gopher picture that spun around. They'd seen it at the store when we were picking out another card and they'd decided that they had to give it to Billy for his birthday.

Billy and co arrived on Saturday evening so pretty soon it was time to put the kids to bed. After they were asleep Billy and Lindsey helped me rearrange my furniture even more. It was Billy's idea to put the piano in the spot where the couch was. Then we shifted the TV and book cases into the center of the room to line up with couch's new position. (These pictures were taken later when the kids were awake.)

I love how balanced the room feels now. And my book cases really stand out, which I like.

Here's what my count down chain looks like. Brandon has been gone for 4 months. Veronica is 8 months old. So that means he has been gone for half her life. All I can say is, thank goodness for the internet that allows us to still have a relationship from opposite sides of the world.

Here is one more view of the living room. I really like the new arrangement. I'm so glad Lindsey and Billy were here to help me. It's amazing what three adults can accomplish when there aren't any kids around.

We all went to church together on Sunday. Here are the kids hanging out in their Sunday clothes.

On Sunday night I invited my friend Ashley over for dinner. Her husband was coming home from a 9 month deployment to Kuwait that night-ish (really it was 1:30 in the morning). I figured she probably didn't want to be home alone. We made sure to finally get a picture together. Because despite hanging out at least once a week for the past 2 or so months we haven't taken a picture of both of us.

Funny story about Ashley and Billy. Billy actually served in Ashley's teeny tiny home town during his mission. When I met Ashley she told me where she was from and added that I probably had no idea where it was. But I told her I did because my brother had served there. Later I told Billy that I'd met someone from that town. I said that I didn't know her maiden name, but that her name was Ashley. He texted me back and told me that he'd never met her, but he was pretty certain he knew her family. He told me her maiden name and sure enough that was her. Once again, its a small world.

Here are all the kids and Billy watching Cars.

When they all settle down and sit on the couch together I realize why everything seems so crazy. That's a lot of kids to keep entertained.

On Monday we went to a park to help the kids get their wiggles out. We ended up down at the creek that runs next to the park. It was so much fun down there.

Lydia found tadpoles and got really good at catching them.

Charlotte figured it out too.

Derrick spent the whole time throwing rocks in the water. In fact, his insatiable desire to throw rocks in water was the whole reason we went down to the water.

Derrick added a few new sounds/words to his vocabulary while Billy was here. Billy got him to say "ar" (car), "ump" Jump, "raa" (rock). When we moved the furniture we found the Dr Seuss ABC's book. I was like, "this is Derrick's favorite book, why was this hiding?" The next day I remembered why I hid it. Derrick was unrelenting in wanting to read that book over and over and over again. But it was worth it because I discovered that he can say, A, I, O, R and T. He also tried to say every letter after I said it. So the book is staying un-hidden (for now).

Lindsey stayed home with Derrick, Knoxx, and Veronica while the rest of us went to the nearby planetarium to see a star show. Or we would have if it hadn't been closed. We were all really bummed that we couldn't see a show.

I felt so bad for getting the kids hopes up, that I took them to Texas Thrift and let them all pick out one toy.

The visit was nearing its end (read the cousins were starting to fight) so Lindsey went to the store to get gas and pick up ice cream. We all really like the ice cream.

And then it was time to say goodbye. The kids all waved as Lindsey's car drove away. We'll see Billy again when we visit Utah. And we'll see Lindsey again in a little over a week. Our sister Emily comes to visit almost as soon as Billy goes home. (We're not sure how they missed planning an overlapping trip.)

The kids ran up and down the driveway and wore themselves out. We had an overly emotional bedtime, but they were all asleep by 8:30. That hasn't happened in a long time.