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.