Brandon's birthday and the first part of December

 The past two weeks could be summed up this way:

Work, Day off, Work, WORK, WORK/Birthday, Christmas Decorations, Church, 

WORK, Day off, Work, WORK and fun, WORK, a Christmas Party, Church.  And done. 

I'm kind of tempted to just leave it at that.  

But there are some fun stories I want to share too, so I guess I'll elaborate a bit. 

Obviously I worked a lot the past few weeks.  Property Tax notices were mailed on Monday the 26th and ever since then work has been busy.  We can always tell when the notices start showing up in people's mail boxes because the phones start ringing off the hooks, we get multiple people at the counter, and a ton of mail starts pouring in.  

It's busy, busy, busy. 

I'd planned to work on Tuesday the 27th, but I realized that tax time is a marathon and not a sprint.  I needed to make sure to take a break when I could.  So I didn't work that Tuesday.  And I wont work any Tuesdays during December.  I'm pretty happy about that.  

When the kids got out of school on the 27th I picked them up and dropped three of them off at my parents house.  Then Charlotte and I went to an appointment with an eye doctor.  Lately I've noticed Charlotte seems to be struggling a bit more with reading and math than Lydia.  I started to wonder if she needed glasses.  So I made an appointment with an eye doctor.  

I was just kind of randomly googling places to go when Alameda Vision sounded familiar.  I realized I knew Dr Anderson who is one of the optometrists there. He and his family were in our Fort Hood ward for a few months when we first lived there. I've been friends with his wife Amanda on Facebook ever since then.  I distinctly remember her saying, "We are building a house south of Pocatello and we'll never move again." When we decided to move to Pocatello I messaged her to get some general info about the area.  But I haven't really kept in touch other wise.  Anyway, I decided we might as well go see Dr Anderson since we have history together.  

I made a good choice because he was really nice and treated Charlotte well.  I told him that we'd known him in Fort Hood. He said he recognized my last name (it is pretty memorable.)  He said we'd made a good choice when we decided to move to Pocatello.  

It turns out that Charlotte does need reading glasses.  So we will try those out for a while to see if they make a difference with her school work. 

On Thursday Charlotte woke up and told me she felt sick.  This is a rather common complaint from the kids and usually it's nothing.  So I was just going to send her to school.  But I did my due diligence and looked at her throat with a flashlight. She had a white spot which had me worried.  Before I could make a final decision she had a coughing fit. That convinced me she was sick. 

I texted my parents and told them what was up and asked if Charlotte could spend the day with them.  They said yes.  (I'm so glad my parents live close by right now.  I really don't know what I would do without them in situations like this.)

I got the other kids on the bus and then came back to the house.  It was 7:30 so I called the drs office to see what time we could come in for a strep test.  They said the techs were usually there after 8:15.  I took a super fast shower, got Veronica ready, packed a lunch, and we were out the door by 8:10.  We dropped Veronica off at pre-school and then headed to the clinic. They swabbed Charlotte's throat and then we waited 10 minutes for the results.  It came back positive and I was so happy!  I know that sounds weird, but it was nice to know that I hadn't overreacted. 

I took Charlotte to my parents and made it into work at 9:20.  Whew!  What a morning.  

At lunch I picked up Charlotte's antibiotics and took them to Charlotte at my parents house. Later Brandon picked her up when he was done with school. 

Friday was Brandon's birthday.  

I'd thought that it was a good thing that Brandon's birthday was on a Friday. What could be better then celebrating at the end of the week?  Well it turned out that Friday was the first day we got slammed with incoming tax payments.  I was pretty brain dead by the time I got home from work. 

Fortunately I'd baked Brandon's cake before work on Friday so I felt like I'd contributed that way. He wanted the kids to help decorate it however they wanted (I think this was a ploy to get more candy on the cake) and so he and the kids did that while I was at work. 

 We had home made hamburgers for dinner.

 Followed by cake.  Brandon wanted his candles to spell out 36 in binary.

Here is the video of us singing happy birthday - filmed by Charlotte

After cake we went downstairs to watch one of Brandon's birthday movies - The Rocketter.  I laid on the floor and fell asleep for most of the movie.  But the kids all loved it.

It started snowing that night, so we woke up to a winter wonderland on December 1st.  Oddly enough, the first snow last year was also on December 1st.  This year was much better than last year though because we didn't have to get the kids ready for school.  Instead we stayed inside and got ready for Christmas. 

First we played a round of the cleaning game.  Then we got the Christmas Decorations out.  We had a lot of fun putting up the ornaments on the tree and finding places for everything else. I'm so glad we redecorated the living room over Thanksgiving.  The tree looks so good with the new curtains.

And I'm so glad we have a couch again.  My favorite thing to do is sit on the couch after the kids are in bed.  I've discovered that I love writing on the couch.  I've had a bit of writers block for a few months.  I thought it was because I can't write when I do so much math every day.  But now I think the real problem is that I hate writing at my desk after sitting at a desk at work all day.  Writing on the couch, with a Christmas tree to keep me company, is much more relaxing. 

After the tree was up the kids wanted to go outside and play in the snow.  Getting them ready literally took two months.  I'm serious about that.  I started checking thrift stores for snow pants and boots back in October when I was shopping for Halloween Costume accessories.  Then I had to make sure the summer things like hats and flip flops were put away and the winter things were ready to go.  

And then on top of all that I had to help the kids put on their boots, and gloves, and take off the boots so they could put on their snow pants, and then put the boots back on.  And then zip up coats because the kids couldn't do it with their gloves on, and there was no way we were taking those gloves off because it took 2 minutes just to get all the little fingers into the correct finger spot.  

I HATE winter gear. 

Finally everyone was ready and I took this victory picture and then took a nap.  

Actually before the nap, Brandon and I took a minute and made sure the hooks by the back door were ready for when all the wet winter clothes needed to be hung up.  Brandon even put up more hooks so they kids could hang their wet gloves on them.  And I rearranged the entry way a bit to make the winter gear more accessible in the mornings. You have to be strategic about these things when you have to worry about 4 coats, 4 snow pants, 4 scarves, 4 hats, 8 boots, and about 36 gloves.  

That night we relaxed by watching Elf.  Our old DVD had a scratch in it so we surprised the kids with a new copy.  They were so excited. 

While I was at church on Sunday I felt like I should invite my parents over for dinner that night.  So I called them up a little before they left for their ward.  I invited them over and my mom said that was just what she needed to hear.  She'd had a rough day on Friday and said that she needed hugs from her grand children.  

So they came over for dinner.  Charlotte and Lydia entertained us with the hoods on their pajamas. Here's Charlotte's deer.  

And Lydia's owl.

Lydia wanted to make cookies for her primary teacher so we made gingerbread men.  I gave Derrick a bag with icing in it and was planning to help him, but he surprised me and did a near perfect job with the face, three buttons, and some arm decorations.  He was so careful and had such good coordination.  After I tried decorating a cookie I realized that maybe Derrick could teach me a thing or two about decorating.  Mine looked bad.  Here's my best cookie next to Derrick's. 

We decorated the cookies while watching/listening to the Christmas Devotional for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints online.  When it was over Lydia and I took the cookies to her Primary Teacher. 

My parents hung around and talked with Brandon and I after the kids were in bed.  We haven't really done that yet, even though they've lived here since September.  But now that we have a couch its a lot more comfortable to stick around and talk.

On Monday it was back to the marathon.  And it was in full swing.  I like when work is busy because the days go by fast, but its also tricky to get everything done. 

I was so happy that I didn't have work on Tuesday.  Veronica and I ran errands in the morning.  When the other kids came home from school I made a really yummy stew for dinner. 

Wednesday was George HW Bush's funeral.  A lot of federal offices were closed including the Post Office.  That meant we didn't have any mail, and that meant I had a chance to get caught up on things.  I think a lot of people assumed that the county court house was closed along with the federal court house so we had less people in the office.  It was nice to get a breather. 

On Thursday I took a picture of the wasps nest that we'd noticed in our neighbors tree while we were walking to the bus stop.  I don't know what we'll do about this in the spring, but right now it's cool to look at.

After work on Thursday I drove up to Idaho Falls for an evening with the Contributors of the Idaho Falls Mom's Blog.  That's because, I'M A CONTRIBUTOR TOO!

The Idaho Falls Mom's Blog launched back in August.  My friend Sarah was one of the contributors and I loved reading her posts. (Here's the link to her writing, you're welcome.) I started following the Facebook page and noticed when they put out the call for new contributors in November.  At first, I had no intention of applying, but with Jen's campaign for treasurer ending I felt like I needed something new to focus on. So on a lark I submitted an application and writing samples to the Mom's Blog.  

A few days later I got an e-mail saying I'd been accepted as a new contributor!  I'm thrilled about this.  I'm excited to contribute to the information that is out there about Southeast Idaho.  

Being accepted as part of the blog also helped give me motivation to write.  I've felt a little stuck lately, but now I'm feeling the urge to write again.  

Anyway, I drove to Sarah's house and then rode with her to the meet up.  We had such a fun time together.  I loved getting to know some of the other ladies. Here I am with the other new contributors. 

 It was amazing to be in a room with so many talented and passionate women. I needed this evening so much.  Honestly, I felt like I'd found my tribe again.  I haven't felt part of something like this since we left Alabama and the military.  

I have a 6 month commitment with the blog, but right now I'm feeling like I want to be with it forever.  And Idaho Falls is back on the top of the list of places where we want to live after Brandon graduates.  (These a different top city just about every week.  I have no idea how we are going to decide where we are moving.)

Friday was another busy day at work.  But all day I had such a happy feeling in my chest from the night before.  Still I was pretty tired by the end of the day.  When I got home we had dinner and then watched another movie and I fell asleep on the floor again. 

On Saturday we pretty much did nothing.  And it was great.  In the evening we went to the church for our ward Christmas Party.  It was Polar Express Themed and we could wear our pajamas. 

The tables had these cute "North Pole" center pieces on them.

And they were decorated to look like train engines.

They served pancakes, eggs, and sausage for dinner.  And we could make our own hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was in giant 5 gallon coolers full of hot water.  When I went to get a refill I noticed one of the spiggots was leaking.  A brother in the ward tried fixing it while I went to find cloth towels.  All I could find were paper towels, but they weren't doing a good job of soaking up the water.  The primary president noticed the problem and came over to help.  She touched the spigot and suddenly the whole thing shot out and hot water started pouring all over the floor!  I grabbed a garbage can to hold the water until someone came and picked up the cooler and took it out.  Then someone else grabbed a mop and got the water off of the floor. We all had a good laugh about it.  

The Gate City Singers from Pocatello High School came to sing us songs.  They did a good job. 

But do you know who did an even better job?  Derrick.  

Last year he (and I) had some sensory problems with the way the room was laid out for the party.  We ended up out in the dark hall so he could settle down.  He refused to go back into the cultral hall to listen to the singers.  This year he did just fine with the dinner part (it helped that things were laid out much better this year.)  When the singers came he was upset by the noise and wanted to leave.  Brandon took him out to the hall - or so I thought.  A little bit later I was surprised to see them calmly standing by the wall.  Derrick made it though the whole performance. When it was over he wanted to buy the CD so I gave him $5 and Brandon went with him to buy a CD.  Derrick was so happy to get that.  

The Primary Chorister dressed up like the Polar Express Conductor and read the book to us.  The kids kept saying, "He's from Primary!"

When he was done everyone in the ward got a jingle bell.  The kids were so excited about those. 

We drove back home and decided to look at Christmas Lights before going home.  That turned into driving over to my parents apartment and doing some surprise caroling to them.  We sang Jingle Bells and shook our bells during the chorus. It was just as adorable as it sounds. 

Then it was back home and the kids went straight to bed.  Brandon and I have been watching Season One of Arrested Development on the weekends and we finished that up.  We've enjoyed it. And yes, we are super behind on pop culture.

Today was another relaxing day.  I'm expecting this week to go WORK, day off with lots of errands, WORK, WORK, WORK so I relaxed while I could.

There is light at the end of the tunnel though.  Not for me, but for Brandon.  The semester ends on Friday and then he gets three weeks off before starting his final semester.  And the kids only have two more weeks of school until they have two weeks off.  We are all living for Christmas break at this point.  I don't get much of a Christmas Break, but it will be nice when I don't have to get the kids out the door by 7:30 each morning. 

That's all for now. 

Enjoy your December and be patient with your county employees.