The First Month of March

I feel like my family runs a marathon every week.  Having a husband in school full time, two kids in elementary school every day, one kid bouncing back and forth between Kindergarten and daycare every other day, and one kid in pre-school/daycare four days a week, plus working nearly fulltime is quite the endeavor.   Last week felt especially long. Remembering back to last Tuesday is like remembering back a month.

Today is my day off and aside from the piles of laundry which are always there for me, I really don't have much to do today.  All I want to do right now is cuddle up with my laptop and write about last week.  (Actually all I really want to do right now is go back to bed, but I know I'll just lay there and mentally compose this post instead of falling asleep so I might as well write it for real.)  

The weather decided to give us winter after all this year and we've had a bunch of snowy days.  I'm just fine with that because I know spring is going to come soon anyway. The kids have had fun playing in the snow.  Here they all are enjoying icicles.  

On Tuesday Veronica and I went to Idaho Falls to visit with Sarah.  We hadn't got together since November which was a travesty because I always enjoy talking to Sarah.  We went to the new exhibit at the Museum of Idaho.  It's called: Dinosaurs in Motion: Where Art and Science Meet.  There are a bunch of metal statues of dinosaurs which you can move with levers and pulleys. 

Veronica was both intrigued and scared of the exhibit.  

 As we progressed through the displays the motion of the dinosaurs got more intricate.  This one was moved by levers.

 While these were moved by remote controls.

It was a really cool exhibit and I'm glad we were able to go.  It's definitely worth your time if you are in the area.

All morning on Tuesday I'd been trying to figure out our after school babysitter situation. When I started working in November I was lucky to find Monique to watch the kids after school.  She picked the kids up at the bus stop every Monday, Thursday, and Friday and hung out with them at home until Brandon came home.  She was super dependable and I never had to worry about her meeting the kids.  

However, I've known pretty much from the day she started that she wouldn't stick around forever. So I wasn't surprised when she told me that she had a job interview for a full time job.  And I wasn't surprised when she got the job. 

I tried to find somebody else who could watch the kids after school, but it's pretty hard to find people who are available every day at 2:30. Everyone I talked to had work or other commitments.  

I decided it was time to bite the bullet and enroll the kids in the after school care at the Learning Center where Veronica goes to Pre-school/daycare and Derrick goes when he isn't in Kindergarten. I'd put off enrolling Charlotte and Lydia here after school because I felt it was important for them to have a chance to go home and kick their shoes off and relax after school.  But without and adult babysitter that wasn't an option any more.   

So when Veronica and I came back from Idaho Falls we went to the Learning Center to talk to the front desk lady about what we needed to do in order to enroll Charlotte and Lydia.  The process turned out pretty simple since I'd already done the paperwork for them to go there this summer.  We just had to modify the start date on a few of the forms and fill out a bus transportation sheet. 

They could have started Wednesday, but for simplicity's sake we had them start on Thursday, March 1st. 

All week long the kids were celebrating Dr Seuss week at school. Our school is pretty laid back with these types of things (Thank Goodness) so most of the days were things like wear crazy socks, and wear red and blue. But Wednesday was crazy hair day. Charlotte and Lydia wanted me to curl their hair and make it all poofy, but we couldn't find the curlers. So instead I braided it the night before to make it looked crimped.  Then we put their hair up in high pony tails.  Here are the girls doing crazy hair day in the morning.

Lydia really got crazy after school and this is how she looked when I came home from work.

Lydia was really nervous about going to the Learning Center on Thursday.  Most of her anxiety revolved around the bus.  She was concerned about making sure Derrick got on the right bus.  I made sure to let Derrick's teachers know about the change and they assured me they would get him on the right bus.  But Lydia was still nervous.  So we made tags for the back packs that said which days they needed to ride the little bus.  That made her feel a little better.  We also talked through EVERY scenario of what to do if something went wrong. And I told her I would call the Learning Center to make sure she got there.  

She was still nervous so we had a big talk about how it's okay to feel scared before new things.  I told her that's how I feel every time I do something new.  That seemed to help her feel better, but she was still really concerned.  

Well I'm happy to say that nothing went wrong and Lydia and Charlotte both had a great time at the Learning Center.  

I'm so glad we have the Learning Center.  I'm not sure I could have a job without it.  And I'm also really thankful for the Idaho Child Care Program which pays a portion of our bill.  Our monthly budget would be in shambles without that assistance.

Thursday was a big day for another reason - it was the night of our Relief Society Birthday dinner and I'm on the Committee for those kinds of things.  Our theme was Fiesta and I was in charge of the decorations.  The committee chair wanted lots of tissue paper flowers.  I didn't know how to make those, but I knew pinterest would solve that problem.  

I actually ended up having a resource better than Pinterest - my mother in law Jacque.  When we were at her house two weekends ago she showed me how to make tissue paper flowers. 

When my mom came to visit for President's Day we went to Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Store and bought the tissue paper, crete paper, ribbon, and even a mini pinata.

At first I considered making all the flowers by myself.  But then I realized that was crazy talk. I knew I couldn't do them all on my own.  And I knew that many women would love to get together to do a simple craft.  And if there is one thing I love doing, it's inviting women over to my house for some girl time. 

We've had several new ladies move into our ward in the past few weeks and most of them don't have callings yet so I started out thinking that I would just invite them.  But if you've read this blog for a while then you know that I couldn't just stop there. I don't like making people feel left out.  I ended up inviting at least 20 women individually and then put a blanket invite up on the RS facebook page for good measure. 

I was inspired by this article that a friend posted on Facebook titled "Am I Invisible? The Pain-Relieving Response to Being Rejected or Excluded." The author, Rachel Macy Stafford, talked about how it only takes one person to make someone feel included.  I can relate.  Having lived in 5 states in the last 5 years I've been the "new girl" quite often.  I know how important those first invitations to be part of a group are.  Because of that I've taken the opportunity to befriend new people every chance I get. 

About 10 ladies said they could make it and Brandon and moved our dinning room table into the living room so we could have a large work space.  I have pictures on my phone, but for the life of me I can't get them onto this computer.  

Seven ladies came to my house and helped put together the flowers.  We had a lot of fun working and talking together.  One lady met her visiting teacher sisters for the first time (we just had some changes so it's not like she had been ignoring them for month.) And I think everyone left feeling like they had made a new friend.  Success!

That was the week before the dinner.  On the evening of the dinner I got off work an hour early so I could help set up.  Piper, one of the ladies who had come to my house to make flowers, had offered to help set up so I invited her along.  I'm so glad I did because Piper is great at decorating.  I gave her three things of crete paper and a few directions and she did the rest. 

Each table center piece was made with a tin can that had colorful ribbon glued to it. (Piper took care of all the gluing).  I filled the cans with beans to hold the flowers in place.  I made little signs that said things like Dance, Sing, Party, Celebrate, and Fiesta. I also made table numbers because I have met some great ladies though randomly picking a table number out of a bowl.  (Hi Deb and Anna.)

My friend Robin is in the RS presidency and she brought some big paper balls so we found places for those. 

Here's the table with the bowl of table numbers.  Not everyone chose a table number, but several people did.  I got to know Emily better because she chose a number that put her at my table.  So it at least worked in that case.

Here's the buffet table.  I used #10 cans for the buffet peices.

Here's another view of the room.

Here's our cute pinata.  We also had a larger one that we broke open later in the night.

We had tacos for dinner.  This is my version of heaven.

Everyone enjoying good food and good conversation.

We had a little program and a sister from the ward talked to us about the founding of Relief Society. During her talk I looked up and realized that an original painting depicting the founding of Relief Society was hanging above us in the room. I've noticed this painting before, but it was cool to see it while we were celebrating the founding of Relief Society.

At the end of the night I was tired, but very happy.  This had been a great activity.  I'm looking forward to many more.

All week long Brandon and I had been planning to go down to Utah on Saturday for the model train show at the Ogden Union Station.  But the weather forecast had us worried.  Every time I thought about going to Utah I got a funny feeling in my stomach.  On Friday morning we were laying in bed talking about our options.  Brandon and I both decided that we wouldn't go down to Utah that weekend.  Immediately I felt so much better. I don't know what would have happened if we'd tried to brave the storm, but I'm guessing it probably wouldn't have been good. 

The snow started after I got to work and it snowed pretty much all day and most of the night.  On the way home from work I picked up the movie American Made at Red Box.  We watched our copy of Beauty and the Beast for family movie night. The kids haven't seen it for a long time because it didn't work in the computer DVD player.  Now that we have a real TV again we have our old DVD player hooked up and Beauty and the Beast works in that.  So the kids saw that movie for basically the first time.  They loved it. 

After the kids were in bed Brandon and I watched American Made on my laptop.  It was super good and we laughed a lot.  I highly recommend it - with the caveat that they say the F word A LOT, and it's about drug smuggling. So if those things offend you then that movie is not for you.

On Saturday Derrick forgot all about his disappointment about not going to the train show as soon as we told him that we were going sledding. We've wanted to go sledding as a family all winter long, but it hasn't snowed hard on a weekend until now.

We drove up to Bonneville park by the ISU Holt Arena. This is where Brandon took the kids sledding on the day after Christmas.  We were the only ones there and it was so fun to have the place to ourselves.

As soon as we got out of the car the kids jumped on the sleds and went down the hill.

We had so much fun with different combinations of people on our two sleds.

The kids also had fun going down by themselves.

Here are all four kids on the round sled.

And here is a video of all of them.  This sled would go forever.

Brandon found two pairs of adult snow pants at Goodwill earlier in the week and we were so excited to use them.  They made sledding super fun. 

Here are the kids bringing the sled back. They were so good about carrying it back up the hill every time.

At one point all three girls were in the blue sled and Derrick was hanging off the back.  We tried recreating the picture, but Derrick noticed the empty tube sled and jumped on that at the last minute. 

Brandon could slid without a sled.

And don't worry, I went down the hill a lot too.  Here's a video of one of my runs.

The snow was just about perfect for rolling snowballs so I took a break from climbing the hill to make a big snow ball.  Charlotte was so impressed by how big it was. 

With Brandon around to lift heavy snowballs we were able to make the tallest snowman I've ever made.

Charlotte loved it.

Here she is showing how tall it was.

We played in the snow for close to two hours.  Lydia was the first to get cold so I took her back to the car to change into dry clothes.

We went home and spent the rest of the day relaxing.  Brandon took Derrick to run some errands and go grocery shopping.  They ended up buying a model rocket at Hobby Lobby.  This is Derrick's new obsession.  He even slept with it at night.  Now he's gone from wanted snow so he can go sledding to wanting the snow to melt so he can shoot off his rocket.

Well that gets us caught up again. Veronica is asking me to spend time with her so I'll let her finish this up.  thanks for reading. 

vvvvvvveronica

derrick

lyddddddddia

ccharlotte