Student Loan Payoff update for 2016

 Hey it's that time of year when I go over the progress we made as we work on paying off Brandon's student loans.

First up we have some good news.  For the first year ever we have paid more in principal than in interest.  The red parts of this graph show the amount of interest we paid each year.  And the blue parts show the principal.  That blue part is pretty big this year.  That's good news.  

One reason we paid more principal was because we were able to completely pay off two loans in 2016.  Over the past six years we've paid off 5 of the 10 original loans.  All the small loans are now gone.  But we still have five very large loans left.  

 We paid more money on the student loans last year than any other year before.  The only year where we paid off more total debt was 2014 when we paid off the Honda as well as made a bunch of payments on the student loans.

 So those are all great things.  And I'm happy about them.

But there are some things I'm not so happy about.  One is that we only reached about 2/3 of the payment goal that I made for this year.  Yes, even with paying more than we ever did before we were still short of what I was hoping to do this year.

That's because that goal was based on the assumption that Brandon was going to spend the next six years in the Army. According to that plan we'd throw everything we had at the student loans while living in on-post housing or renting off post.

But when flight school didn't work out and Brandon decided to get out of the Army we had to change our financial plans.  The biggest thing was that we would probably have to buy a house.  And that meant we needed to start saving.

We already had $1000 in the bank as an emergency fund.  But that was about all we had.  Everything else was going to making extra payments on the student loans.

In June we stopped making those extra payments and went back to just paying the minimum amounts.  We started squirreling all our extra money into an account for buying a house/getting through this giant life change.

That account has been growing slowly but surely.  Thanks to Army reimbursements for moving expenses and the fact that we are currently living rent free we've been able to save quite a bit.  This savings combined with the tax refund we are expecting this year should help us have a good down payment on a house.  (Yes, I know the VA will help us buy a house without a down payment, but I'd like to have some equity in our house right away.)

I'm hoping that after we figure out our employment and housing situation we'll be in a good position to start attacking the student loans again.  But for now we are pretty much in a holding pattern with them until things settle down.

I want to add that I am so glad that we didn't put Brandon's loans into deferment while he was in active duty.  That was an option available to us, but the loans would have still accrued interest. It would have been terrible to add a huge student loan balance to our list of things to worry about as civilians.

Along those same lines, I'm also glad we didn't plan on student loan forgiveness if Brandon had been employed by the government for 10 years.  If we'd been counting on that he might have been forced with the decision to stay in the Army just to take care of the loans.  Ug that would have been disheartening.  

One final thing.  A few weeks ago I listened to a podcast from Reveal all about the student loan industry.  I highly recommend you listen to it if you have student loans.  I also want to warn you that you'll probably come away from it feeling pretty ticked off.  Here's the link. https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/whos-getting-rich-off-your-student-debt/

Slowly but surely we will get these stupid loans paid off.

Winter of my discontent

This has been one of the hardest January's of my life.  

Not the hardest one - that title  belongs to January 2013 when we'd just moved to Texas. all of our stuff was still in transit, we had no money in the bank, Brandon was sent to NTC, and I found out I was pregnant with Veronica.  That January will always be the hardest.

But this one is up there.  

Basically it boils down to the fact that it's hard living with other people.  Even when they are super nice and accommodating like my in-laws.

And as you can see from the title of this post, the weather isn't helping anything either.  It's been snowing a lot up here. As someone who has LOVED the mild southern winters I'm not exactly thrilled to be living in a snow globe.  I feel trapped indoors.  Trapped in a house that isn't mine.  

Leaving the house - especially with children - is an ordeal of putting on coats, boots, and gloves.  Then we have to navigate stairs down to the drive way.  My in-laws keep it as clear as they can, but it's a gravel driveway so it's never completely clear.  Sometimes it's icy.  Sometimes its full of snow.  For a few days it was full of slushy soup-like melty snow.  Walking to the car is always an ordeal of trying to get the kids to actually get into the car and sit in their seats.  When they are wearing their gloves none of the kids can buckle their own seat belts so Brandon and I have to help with that.  Then it's time to clear snow off the car.  Finally we turn on the car and try to back out of the drive way.  In the jeep, with it's 4 wheel drive, we usually don't have much trouble getting out.  But the Honda is another story.  So far it hasn't ever been stuck, but there have been some close calls.  But we have to do it or stay in the house and go crazy.

Another problem is that I'm incredibly lonely.  We've been here for two months and I don't have a single new friend from the neighborhood or ward.  The people here have been nice and welcoming, but they see us as temporary and therefore haven't spent much time getting to know us.  I miss the Army Wife Culture where everyone makes friends almost right away no matter how long or short you will be staying in one place.  A few weeks ago in Relief Society we sang "We are all enlisted til the conflict is over." The word enlisted made me think of the army which made me think of all my friends and that made me cry.  Last time I cried during a song in Relief Society was several months ago back in Fort Rucker. I was sitting next to my dear friend Deb who put her arm around me.  But this time there was no one there.  And that made me cry more.  

I do have a wealth of good friends that live in my phone.  Facebook and texting have been great lifelines to remind me that I do have many meaningful relationships - even if we can't talk face to face.  

Fortunately, I also have a best friend who can sympathize.  My very best friend Ashley recently moved nearby.  Her husband joined the Army a few years before Brandon did and Ashley and I always hoped that we'd get stationed in the same place.  Well that never happened.  Instead our husband's ended up getting out of the Army one month apart, and we both moved back to Utah.  Ashley did the "move-in-with-the-in-laws" routine until they could buy a house.  That house is only about 40 minutes away from where I am.  And so on Saturday I went down to visit with her.  

It was so great to see her.  We've been friends since we were nine years old.  We've always had a lot in common, but right now we really have a lot in common.  We were able to share our feelings about leaving Army culture, living with in-laws, adjusting to snow after living in the south, making our children go to three schools in one school year, buying vs renting, and everything else that's been on our minds. Gosh I needed that talk. It's so good to know that I'm not the only one going through this transition.     

Somehow just having someone to talk to made me feel better about everything. 

Another thing that has kept me sane this month has been my job.  Things have slowed down since New Year's, but I still like my job.  It's nice to have somewhere to go four days a week.  I'd probably be really crazy if I didn't have my job.

Since things are less busy these days I actually get out of work when its still light outside.  I'm always so impressed by how beautiful the mountain is. Half our road trips last year were to "mountains."  The tallest place we went was Clingman's Dome at 6644 feet above sea level. And now I work at 6,391 feet above sea level and the mountain goes up above 9000 feet.

And of course there have been lots of fun little things that have been going on during the last few weeks. 

Probably one of the biggest things has been that Lydia lost two teeth.  I missed both times, but she excitedly showed me the gaps in her mouth when I came home from work.    

When I was a kid my dad would always call the tooth fairy and tell her that I'd lost a tooth.  It was always funny to hear him give detailed directions on how to find our house and which bedroom I slept in.  Then invariably the tooth fairy would FORGET to come that night and my dad would call up the tooth fairy and chew her out.  I'm sure this was by accident the first time, but it turned into a really funny routine.  He'd make threats such as, "there are other tooth fairy services that we can switch to if you can't get your act together."  Then the tooth fairy would come that night. 

Brandon must have had a tooth fairy from one of those other services.  His tradition was that they would put the tooth in an envelope and write "to the tooth fairy" on it..  When he woke up the next morning the envelope would still be sealed but there would be money and a roll of life savers inside.  

When Lydia lost her first tooth we had to decide what our tradition would be.  Basically we just combined them.  I called the tooth fairy and made sure that she knew that Lydia no longer lived in Alabama.  I also made sure she understood that Lydia went to sleep in one room, but that we moved her into another room where she slept all night.  I told the tooth fairy that Lydia always slept between Charlotte and Veronica.  Then Brandon took care of buying the Lifesavers and then steaming open the envelope that Lydia had left under her pillow.  

Lydia was so excited when she woke up the next morning and found 50 cents and the life savers under her pillow.  She later told us that she'd felt the tooth fairy dancing on her face. 

A few days later she lost her other tooth.  We went through the same routine, but we actually almost forgot to do it.  I can see why my dad had to call up the tooth fairy and yell at her for forgetting to do her job so often. 

Last week Brandon and I realized that the kids were getting a four day weekend for Martin Luther King Day.  I had to work on Friday, but I'd have the other three days off.  We tried coming up with something to do.  At first I wanted to go out to Lehman Caves at the Great Basin National Monument on the Utah/Nevada border.  But then I remember that there is this whole snow thing that happens here and that maybe a 4 hour road trip wasn't the best thing to plan in January.  

After trying to figure out a good winter activity I finally decided that we should visit some of the buildings in down town Salt Lake City.  So that's what we did on Saturday. 

Our first stop was the state capitol.  We've been to the capitol buildings of Texas and Alabama and so the kids were excited to see the one for Utah.  

They had lots of fun climbing up the stairs and looking over the railings in the building.

Here I am hanging out.

The kids on the stairs.

This place is so big.  Last time we were here was when Derrick was only a few weeks old.

We had fun riding the elevator.  The front of it was glass so we could see the floors go by as we went up and down.  Veronica was afraid of it so Brandon stayed with her.

The weather was fairly warm so we went outside and looked at the reflecting pool outback. I had my bridal photos taken here almost 10 years ago.

The kids through it was cool to look out over the city skyline.

Then we walked around to the front and got a good look at the capitol.

Everyone wanted to pose in in front of the capitol.

Here's Charlotte.

There is a path lined with cherry trees that runs around the whole area.  I bet this place is amazing in the spring.

After the capitol we got back into the car and drove down into the heart of the city.  We parked by the Conference Center and then walked over to the trax station.  We were going to take the train to get to the next few buildings.  Ever since Derrick went on trax around Christmas time he's been asking to go on another train ride.  We've been answering that he could go on the train when he wore underwear every day.  Part of me thought that he was only hearing, "go on a train ride every day."  But he actually was making a lot of progress with the potty training that Brandon had been doing with him and Veronica.  So we figured he deserved a little train ride as a reward.

We went to the Clark Planetarium first. Brandon had brought the kids here after Christmas and they were all excited to show it to me. We spent a lot of time looking at the big ball drop.

Brandon had bought the kids a giant thing of popcorn for $3 last time.  So everyone wanted to do that again. 

 The planetarium was really fun.  We liked the part that was set up like it a a moon of Jupiter.

 After the planetarium we got back onto the train and went over to the City and County Building.  I was hoping that we'd be able to get inside this building, but it's closed on Saturdays.

So instead we went to the library.

The first thing we did was ride the glass elevators up and down.

As with the other elevator the three oldest kids loved it.  Charlotte had been really grumpy before we even left the house.  She kept telling us that she didn't want to leave the house.  Well she'd forgotten all about that by the this point.  She happily yelled, "Is this my BIRTHDAY!  I LOVE elevators!"

Veronica was not happy at first, but she gradually got used to it.  By the end she was enjoying the elevator as much as anyone.

Then we went to the childrens area.  The kids played with the little hands on things.

Every good library has one of these bead toys.  

Brandon and I enjoyed the chance to relax while the kids were entertained.

After a while we decided to walk up the staircase and get a view of the library from there.

We also had a little snack down in the main area.  And we rode the elevator several more times.  There were some teenagers also riding the elevators and we kept running into our "elevator friends."

After that we caught the train and went to the City Creek Center.  The kids loved standing on the walkway over the trains.

They also liked the fountain.

But they REALLY loved the escalators.  They are so amazed by these.

Then it was back to the sky bridge for more train watching.

On the other side of the mall we looked down into the creek and noticed that there was fish in the water.

We went down to look at those for a while.  Charlotte wanted to catch one, but she couldn't give us a good answer when we asked her what she would do after she caught it.

The kids had done amazing with all the walking we'd done that day.  They got a little whiny on the way back to the car, but nothing bad.  It had been a great day.  

The next day we had a family dinner with Brandon's sister that lives near by.  We had a ham.  We told Derrick it was hot dogs and he ate a lot of it. I was very impressed.  

 On Monday I took Lydia on a "Mommy and Lydia Day."  Charlotte and I had done one the Monday before.  She helped me pick out my belated Christmas Presents of sweaters and other long sleeved shirts at Savers.  While we were there we found out that they were having a 50% off sale on Martin Luther King Day.  So Lydia and I went there and bought six new dresses for her and Charlotte.

 After modeling their new dresses the girls put on their winter gear and I took them to the Elementary School so they could play on the large snow piles there.

 They had a blast climbing and sliding and jumping around. I think we were there for over 2 hours.

Jacque gave Charlotte and Lydia cute little birds for Christmas.  They wanted a cage to go with them and I told them that Daddy could probably make them a cage.  Boy did he deliver.  

 Here's Lydia showing off the cage. (And Veronica photo bombing with her newly acquired potty training pull ups.

 Even after we took Derrick on the train he kept asking to "ride on a train."  So I told him that we would take him on a "big long train" when he wore underwear every day.  He repeated that a lot, but I'm not sure it sunk in.

Well on Thursday he opened up his underwear drawer and said, "Wear underwear all the time go on big long train."  He picked out a pair of underwear, handed it to me, and wanted to wear it.

I wasn't so sure about that.  He's been doing great about peeing on the potty when we tell him to, and I know he can hold it, but I wasn't sure if he was ready for underwear.  But I figured since it was his idea we might as well go with it.

So Brandon and I made sure Derrick sat on the potty every 15 minutes.  He did fine with that.  Then it was time to go to school.  Brandon packed backup clothes in Derrick's backpack and I wrote his teacher a note telling her that Derrick wanted to wear underwear.  When Brandon dropped Derrick off he told the teacher that Derrick was in underwear.  I think we were all expecting Derrick to have an accident.  But instead he went the whole day in the same pair of underwear.  Brandon said that Derrick even ran to the potty on his own at one point. It was amazing.

The next day he did the same thing.  And the next, and the next.  He still hasn't figured out pooping on the potty and he had one accident while playing in the snow, but gosh I'm willing to declare a major victory.  I'm taking him on Frontrunner tomorrow for our "Mommy and Derrick day."

In hindsight I'm not surprised at all.  Derrick has done this with just about every milestone.  He waits until he absolutely ready and then he crushes it.    

Derrick has also discovered that he loves playing in the snow.  He asks to play in the snow every day.  He loves getting all bundled up.  He'll spend almost and hour just running around and sliding on his bum.  Veronica likes it too.  She calls her boots her "boops" and it's just about the cutest thing ever.  Here they are playing.

 They like to slide down the little hill that leads to the basement door.

And here is some really recent news.  Charlotte has been wiggling this tooth all day.  It started out sort of wiggly and I told her that it would probably come out in about a week.  But she wiggled it and pulled on it and wiggled some more and pulled it out while I was reading to her tonight.  She was so happy.  (Lydia's been a little arrogant about losing two teeth before Charlotte even lost one.) I told her the tooth fairy starts flying around at 7:00 so she has to wait until tomorrow before the tooth fairy will come.  (It's Sunday night, and we don't have any quarters or lifesavers in the house.)

Here is one more piece of news.  And this could change everything.

Brandon had a job interview on Wednesday.  It's for a position that is perfect for him and will pay very well.  The interview went well and he should hear back this week.  We are really hoping he gets the job and that we'll be able to get out on our own soon.  If that does happen I'll probably always remember this January as a good month.

The title from this post is based on a line from Shakespeare's Richard the III.  But if Brandon gets that job then more of that passage will apply.  

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York [job offer];
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

Let's hope my next post is all about glorious summer. 

My super powers are broken

Brandon likes to say that if I was a super hero my name would be Omni-thought.  That's because I'm always thinking and planning and dreaming about the future.  I'm not clairvoyant, but I do have a pretty good knack for anticipating how things will turn out, or planning ways to make them turn out. 

But sometimes my powers don't work.  

My most common problem is when I start over anticipating the future.  There's a fine line between preparing for contingencies and worrying so much that I trigger an anxiety attack. Think of it as a microphone getting too much feedback and just making a high pitched whistle.  

My other problem is when my powers just don't work.  As far as I remember this has only happened twice. 

The first time was during the first three months after the twins were born.  I was so tired and drained that I could barely see into the next day let alone the next week, month, or year.  

Right now is the second time. 

My problem this time isn't that I'm tired or over-worked. This time the problem is that there are just too many dang future possibilities and I don't have control over any of them.  For all you Mistborn fans out there its like me and an opponent just took Atium.  (And if you haven't read Mistborn yet you really should quit reading this drivel and go read that book.  I won't be offended.)

What are the future possibilities?  Well let me give you a run down of the top several in order of our preference

1. Brandon gets a job in airport operations. 

2. Brandon gets a job with the FAA.

3. Brandon gets a job with FEMA.

4. I find a good paying, full time job and Brandon stays home with the kids permanently. 

5. Brandon goes to flight school for a third time, and gets commercially rated in either airplanes, helicopters, or both. 

I would love the opportunity to start hashing out the details on any of these options.  But I can't because we are stuck waiting. Waiting to hear back from hiring departments from the many places that Brandon has applied. I hate waiting and I hate being stuck. Even rejections would be good at this point because that would help us narrow down our options.  

But for now we wait.  And I can't plan.  And it's driving me crazy.  

Thank goodness I have my job right now.  That has been wonderful.  And busy.  Maybe even wonderfully busy.  I work in the accounting office at SnowBasin which is a ski resort.  And it's winter.  And it's an exceptionally snowy winter.  Which means there are tons of happy skiers on the mountain.  And those happy skiers are happily spending their cash.  And that cash comes to my office and I count it, and document it, and sent it to the bank.

The week between Christmas and New Year was especially busy.  I went in an hour early each day and stayed an hour later than normal.  Some days I was so busy taking care of little things that I didn't get to sit down until I'd been there for two hours.  

It's been great.  

I've also spent a lot of time listening to podcasts. I have a 20-30 minute commute to and from work four times a week and I've filled up that time with various shows.  And since they make up a big chunk of my life right now I thought I'd take a minute and tell you about some of my favorites.

The main show is Radio Ronin hosted by Jimmy Chunga, Kenny D, and Spinari. Through all the times I've moved over the years these guys have been my most constant friendship.  I discovered the radio show 5 years ago when on my way to doctor's appointments when I was pregnant with Derrick.  Soon I was listening at home every day. I just liked listening to all the stories that Chunga and Kenny would share. Even after we moved to Texas I still kept listening through the I-heart Radio app. I was devastated when the radio show was cancelled in August of 2013.  Fortunately they came back as a podcast in January of 2014.  That was the same time that Brandon went to Korea.  I'm not going to lie, Radio Ronin helped keep me sane during that time.  Seriously, these are some of my best friends.  

When the radio show was cancelled Chunga made it his personal mission to take away the radio station's audience.  He called for everyone to turn off their radios and to start listening to pod casts.  And over the years he's build the Pod Bash network full of great podcasts.  I'm an equally huge fan of Kenny D's other show, Baconsale.  This one is about movies and other pop culture.  Brandon and I often listen to this one together.  

Another Podbash show is Life on the Rocks, Please.  This one is hosted by four women who basically complain about all the stuff that society tries to convince us is "normal."  I don't listen to every show, but there have been some really good ones.  (The "Crap were Thankfuller For" series in November was especially good.)

I decided to expand my podcast horizons beyond the Podbash network and somehow found Cracked. This is a much more liberal group of people (and much more profane) but I've enjoyed hearing a different perspective on a lot of things.  Plus they are just funny.  

I've recently started listening to a show called Reveal.  This is probably the most cerebral of everything I download.  They are an investigative journalist show that talks in depth about a lot of things.  I learned a ton about Zika from one of their shows.  

And to balance out all the pop culture I've been trying out some of the shows on the Mormon Channel.  So far I like the Everything Creative Series where they interview different artists.  But I'm not a fan of the format that the downloads come in.  They don't work with my Spreaker App which means I usually forget about them.  Or I listen, but have to stop halfway during the show and my place doesn't get saved.  It's annoying.

So yeah, that's what's going on there.  

Let's look at pictures, cause that's really what you are here for, right?

First up we have pictures from when Brandon took the kids for a ride on the Front Runner train.  As you all know, Derrick LOVES trains.  So Brandon decided that they should all ride the train while the kids were out of school. I had to work or else I would have gone too. They were all super excited about the idea and Derrick asked to "Go ride on the train" for at least two day before they actually did it.   

He loves staring out the window and watching the tracks.

Brandon took them to the Clark Planetarium in downtown Salt Lake.  They had to get off Front Runner and take a Trax train to get their.  They kids were so excited about all the trains they got to ride on.

They kids all loved the big ball gizmo in the lobby of the planetarium.  I love Derrick's face.

They also looked at the other free exhibits.

Derrick, was glued to watching the balls.

Brandon did so well with taking the kids out.  They love hanging out with him.  Even though this weird limbo is hard it's still pretty cool that the kids get to spend a lot of time with Brandon.

Here's Derrick staring out the window again.  You can see he picked up another brochure for his collection of "train pictures."

Brandon was smart and brought pretzels for the kids to eat on the way home.

Here's cutie pie Veronica.

On New Years Eve we were originally planning on just staying home and watching a movie trilogy. But then I suggested to my extended family that we should have a get together.  My Aunt Vera offered to host.  My sister Hillary lives near Vera (they are in the same ward) and so we planned to go to Vera's for several hours and then sleep over at Hillary's.

We were the first ones to arrive at Vera's.  It was nice to have her all to ourselves.  Vera is one of the coolest people in the world.  I lived with her for a few months in college and she taught me so much about how to be single and happy.

The kids wanted to watch a movie so we put in Jumangi.  They've all seen it, but I told them all about how I watched Jumangi for the first time at Vera's house and how all my siblings and I were so scared of that movie.

Derrick and Brandon were playing a game where Derrick would say, "I want big hug" and then Brandon would say, "one two THREE" and hug Derrick really tight.  Vera started saying, "One Two Three" and Derrick would run to her and give her a hug.  Soon she could just say, "One" and Derrick would run over while saying "Two Three."  It was so great to watch Derrick interact with her.

Hillary and Joe showed up followed soon by my cousins, Alex, Melissa, and Heidi.  Their parents came a little later with my Grandma Mary Ann.  We haven't seen them since Billy's wedding almost 18 months ago.  It was so great to catch up with all of them.  Everyone kept commenting on how much better Derrick can talk now.  It was a nice reminder that we have made progress.

Hillary and Joe had another party to go to so they left.  Later Julie, Mark and Grandma left too.  But a little after that my Uncle Johnny, his wife Cheryl and their four kids showed up.  This was when we remembered to take pictures.

While the grown ups talked in the living room, the kids played and watched movies in the other room.  Charlotte and Lydia liked this cave.  They thought it was so funny when I told them that I used to sleep up there.

Oh and Lydia was dressed like an elf because why wouldn't she be?

We were at Vera's house for over 6 hours and the whole time my kids had been super happy and relaxed.  I was so impressed with how Derrick acted.  In addition to the hugging game with Vera he also hugged my Grandma Mary Ann goodbye when I asked him to.  And he sat in the crowded room with very little fuss. 

Eventually though they started getting tired and so it was time to head over to Hillary's.  She'd given me her key so we just let ourselves in and put the Derrick and Veronica to bed in the guest room.  Charlotte and Lydia impressed me by staying up all the way to midnight.  Hillary and Joe came back around 10 and we all watched America's Funniest Home videos on Netflix.  They LOVED those.  Later we showed them to Derrick who thought they were the most hilarious things ever.  (He loves physical comedy.)

Midnight was kind of anti climactic because all I wanted to do was go to sleep.  You can see that Lydia was halfway there in this picture.  She seriously fell asleep on the couch seconds after I took this.  I wasn't too far behind her.  We moved Derrick and Veronica off the bed and I was gone. 

We spent the first day of the New Year with Hillary and Joe.  We went to their ward for Sacrament meeting. I used to be in that ward, but I only recognized one or two people.  I wasn't sure how any of the kids would react to Primary in a different ward so we decided to go on a "Family History Drive" after Sacrament Meeting.  My family lived in their neighborhood from the time I was 3 until I was 7, and my grandparents and great grandparents lived here too.  So I wanted to drive around and show the kids the houses, churches, and schools that were important.  Charlotte decided to stay at the church and go to Primary.  She got to see Vera as the primary chorister which is always fun.

The rest of us drove around.  I showed the kids Whittier Elementary where I went to kindergarten and first grade.  (The actual school I went to has been torn down, but the new one is on the same property.) I showed them the Whitter ward building where Billy was blessed as a baby.  The SLCC campus where my mom took college classes a few years ago, and where my grandparents went to school back when it was South High school. We passed the house where my dad lived as a little boy. It's on the same street where my great grandparents lived.  I used to stop by my great grandmas house after school when I was in Kindergarten and she'd let me play there.  We went by the little duplex where we lived.  My Aunt Lisa lived on the other side of the duplex.  When she went on her mission Vera moved in.  And finally we passed the Wilson Ward building where countless family events were held, including my grand parents wedding reception.  Yes that area is full of history.


Back at Hillary's we made dinner and had it ready for everyone when they came home.  Charlotte had had a good time at Primary.  We hung out with Hillary and Joe and had a great time with them.  They the kids got grumpy and it was time to get going.

Monday we just hung out and home and lounged around.  After all our partying that weekend this was perfect.

Then the kids started school again on Tuesday and I went back to work.

On Saturday I tried to think of some sort of fun adventure that we could do.  I wanted to go to a hot spring, but since the temperature was below 0 most days I figured that would be a disaster of an idea.  Finally I decided that we should check out the little ice rink in Huntsville and then go to the library in Huntsville for their free Saturday movie.

We didn't have ice skates, but I figured we could just slide with our boots.  So that's what we did.

Derrick and Veronica hated the ice right away, so Brandon took them to the library.  Lydia and Charlotte loved it though.  Here's Lydia.

And here's Charlotte.  She found a puck somewhere and she and Lydia would chase it around.  They called it the nut. 

There were some boys playing ice hockey on the other side of the ice. 

Charlotte liked sliding.

I enjoyed watching the girls have fun, but in the words of Sanka from Cool Runnings I was, "freezing my royal Rastafarian nay-nays off."  (Cool Runnings quotes are the best for describing the transition from Southern to Northern Winters.)

So eventually I talked them into walking over to the library.  Along the way we passed the church where some guy were breaking off the biggest icicles we'd ever seen.  They let Charlotte and Lydia each have one.

These were the icicles from their dreams.

The guys lined them up in a big spiky row.

We made it to the library and got warm.  The movie for the week was Angry Birds which was probably the most unneccessary movie of the last decade.  But at least we weren't bored at home.  Plus this was a nice test to see how Derrick would handle the sound speaker in a movie theater.  He did great!  The movie didn't hold his attention though so we went to the children's area.  He likes looking at the fish.

He and Veronica also liked playing with the puzzles and other small toys.

While we were hanging out I had a brilliant idea about how I can start to get back some of my ability to see the future.  There is one thing that is probably going to happen no matter what this year - we are probably going to buy a house.  So I found a book that details everything you need to know about buying your first home.  I started reading it right there in the library.

I don't known when or where we'll be buying a house, but I do know that I can prepare for it.

And somehow just taking that little step helped me feel like I'm somewhat in control of this whole process. My super powers aren't back yet, but it's a start at least.