Putting the pieces together

Last Christmas we bought the kids a puzzle at the dollar store and included it in the presents we gave them. We finally got it out two weeks ago. I figured it was a fun activity to do on a Sunday afternoon.  The kids helped a little bit, but mostly Brandon and I did it. We stayed up until 12:30 to finish it. As we got close the end I realized we were missing a piece. 

I joked with Brandon that this puzzle represented our lives because we were currently missing a pretty important piece. 

Brandon didn't have a job. 

Yeah for real.  

This isn't a fun thing to talk about, but I've always been open with you about things that are going on in my life. And so I feel its important to update you on this. Plus some of the stories in this week's updater really won't make sense if you think Brandon is still working at the airport. 

I wrote a whole "Secret History" (the title is an homage to the Mistborn Secret History) that I shared with my family and a few close friends. I can send it to you if you want all the details. Comment or message me on Facebook. 

Basically the short story is that Brandon was unceremoniously (and undeservedly) fired RIGHT as we were moving. 

That sucked. 

Brandon was given a month's severance pay which was a good cushion while we scrambled to figure out what we were going to do. Our church also helped us out with food and some utilities. And Brandon and I started donating plasma here in Twin Falls.  So we are okay financially.  

And Brandon did find a job. It's not in aviation, but it is in maintenance.  He's the maintenance man for a uniform company.  He keeps all the industrial size washers, dryers, and irons running.  He doesn't LOVE the job, but the people he works with are nice and the pay is good. It's a good job to have to pay the bills while we figure out what we are doing. 

And boy do we have a lot of questions.  The main one being, "Why are we in Twin Falls?" 

I don't have a crystal clear answer to that. But I know that I felt a prompting to move to Twin Falls. I know that we were led directly to our house. I know that our ward, our school, and our neighborhood are absolutely perfect for us.  So obviously there is some reason for us to be here.  I just can't figure out why the job couldn't have worked out too.  

So I guess we'll just have to keep going on faith for the time being. 

Anyway, let's talk about the last two weeks. 

Monday September 9th was Brandon's follow up interview with the uniform company.  He met with them and had a really positive interview.  Later they called and officially offered him the job. We were both quite relieved. 

That evening my Aunt Julie and Uncle Mark came to visit.  They were celebrating their wedding anniversary here in Twin Falls. We were honored that they wanted to spend part of their time with us.  We showed them the house and then they took us out to dinner at Golden Corral. Derrick made us all laugh when he jumped into the back seat of Julie and Mark's car and buckled his seat belt.  He wanted to ride with them.  

The kids LOVED Golden Corral.  They especially loved the dessert bar.  They went back for many, many helpings. Later Charlotte wrote an essay (she called it a story) that compared and contrasted Pizza Pie Cafe and Golden Corral. Golden Corral won because it had so many more options - especially dessert options.   

On Tuesday morning I went to the temple for our Relief Society Temple Day.  I've wanted to go since we moved here, but I just kept putting it off. So having a specific date and time was really good for me. I planned to do an endowment session but when I got to the temple I was told that the 11:00 session was already full. I was asked if I wanted to do sealing or initiatory ordinances. 

I didn't want to do either. I've talked a lot about my temple anxiety on this blog. It's only been recently that I've gotten comfortable with the endowment. That's what I was planning to do that day and so I didn't appreciate having that option taken away from me. But I also didn't want to just go home.  So I said I'd do initiatory work - even though I was super nervous about it.

We don't really talk a lot about initiatory work so I don't want to say too much about it here.  So let's just quote Elder Boyd K Packer from Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple: "The ordinances of washing and anointing are referred to often in the temple as initiatory ordinances. It will be sufficient for our purposes to only say the following: Associated with the endowment are washings and anointings—mostly symbolic in nature, but promising definite, immediate blessings as well as future blessings.”

The last time I'd done initiatory work had been when I went to the temple for the first time - over 12 years ago.  I didn't remember much about it, but I do remember not liking it. Everything was so new. That whole temple experience had given me a headache.  I'd never really planned to do initiatory work again.  

But here I was. 

I went into the dressing room to get ready. And I bumped right into my Relief Society President. She saw the little orange paper that indicated I was going to do initiatory work and she held up her own orange paper. She hadn't got a spot in the 11:00 session either.  I was so happy to see her.  I immediately said, "will you be my buddy and help me know where to go? I haven't done this in 12 years."  Of course she said yes.  

She showed me where to go and waited with me in line. I was so glad that she was there for me. I know it was not an accident that she was there right when I needed her. 

And oh my gosh I'm so glad I did initiatory work. I'd completely forgotten the promises involved in that. It was such a good reminder of blessings that are available to me. If you haven't done initiatory work in a while I highly recommend going and do it. 

I follow a Catholic lady on social media and she'd posted a little video of her walking into her church her caption said, "Every time I walk into our parish church to sit in silence for a second I think “I can’t believe this is free”"  I kept thinking of that while I was in the temple. 

When I got home Brandon had picked up Veronica from Kindergarten, but he had quite the story to go with it.  He'd been donating plasma and had had plenty of time to get Veronica. But when he got done and went outside to start the jeep he couldn't get the car to start. So he'd walked over to a car dealership and asked them if they'd come give his car a jump.  The mechanics there were bored and so were completely happy to do that.  They jumped the jeep, it started, and Brandon was able to make it to the school just in time to pick up Veronica. 

So he spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what the Jeep's latest issue was. He traced it to the alternator which he'd replaced about a year or so ago.  So it was still under warrentee. He took it in to Autozone and got it tested and replaced. Hopefully this will be the last of the Jeep issues for a while.  This whole thing has me glad that Brandon's new job is less than 2 miles from our home. If all else fails he can walk there. 

Wednesday was picture day for the kids. I've already forgotten what they wore. 

After school I met Derrick at the school like a normally do.  But this time we had some other friends meeting him too.  We finally had everything in place for him to start behavioral therapy. The program owner and the director met us at the school. Then we walked to the office which is right down the street (I didn't know that when we bought the house) and me Derrick's new therapist. Her name is Miss Cecile and Derrick has a hard time saying her name.  He calls her Miss Seal. The program director and Miss Cecile took Derrick some places and it went really well for everyone.  I'm glad we have therapy set up again. 

Thursday was the last day of school for the week.  The teachers had some sort of work day on Friday so the kids were off school. Before we'd even moved to Twin Falls I'd seen this long weekend on the calendar and wanted to plan a camping trip.  My original plan was going to be a trip to Yellowstone. We haven't been back since we moved away and I've wanted to go back every fall since then, but it just hasn't worked out. 

Well the whole "no job thing" effectively cancelled the Yellowstone plan. But we could still go camping close to home. Brandon didn't think he would start work until the next week so we decided we might as well take advantage of all our free time and go camping. 

Well, the best way to get a job is to plan a camping trip. 

Almost as soon as we were certain we were going camping on Thursday night, Brandon got a call from his new job. They wanted him to work on Friday morning. The good news is that Brandon's shift is the super early shift. 

He starts work at 1:30 am and works until 9:30 am. Advantages of this shift are that he can be home with the kids after school.  That leaves things open for me if I end up with a job this school year. Disadvantages of this shift are that he has wake up in the middle of the night. But honestly this isn't much of a problem for Brandon. He's never been great at sleeping through the night.  He says he might as well get up and go to work rather than lay in bed like he usually does.  And now he doesn't have to feel guilty about taking naps in the middle of the day.  Somehow I think he's almost getting more sleep than usual with this schedule.  

Anyway, so we weren't going to be able to go camping on Thursday night, but we still could do it on  Friday night. Brandon could work his early shift on Friday morning.  Come home and sleep for a few house, and then we'd all go camping that evening. 

Well the plan made sense, but the kids were super sad about not camping on Thursday night.  There were literal tears. 

I saved the day by taking Charlotte to the library to pick out a movie for movie night. She picked Alvin and the Chipmunks the Road Chip.  It was a simple movie, but the kids laughed a lot at it.  When it was all over the kids danced around during the credits. Brandon ended up hooking up his phone to the downstairs sound bar and playing lots of dance music.  The kids LOVED it.  They all were dancing and having a great time. We all agreed it was just as much fun as camping. 

On Friday morning Brandon got up for his first day of work. He had a pretty good first day.  When he got home he took a nap.  I put a movie on for the kids and went to donate plasma.  When I got home I was surprised to see Brandon in the front yard talking to someone.  It was his buddy Arie from ISU.  Brandon had maybe 2 hours of sleep before Arie came over.  

After Arie left we started packing the car.  Then we drove south of Twin Falls to a canyon in what I guess are called "The south hills."  At first the canyon was just full of sage brush.  

 But it was a beautiful pine forest by the time we got to the campsite areas.  We found a spot in the Pettit campground. Our site was only $8.00. There was only one other family in the whole area.  As we got set up the dad of the other family came over and said to Brandon, "You're name's Brandon right?"  And Brandon was like, "Yeah, and who are you?"  And the guy said, "Oh I'm so and so from your ward."  What are the odds?

The kids were so excited to help set up the tents.  Veronica and Derrick helped Brandon with the big tent.

And I helped Charlotte and Lydia with the little tent.  They asked if they could sleep in it by themselves and I couldn't see any reason why not.  So we brought it with.  They did a pretty good job getting it up, but they did need a little guidance from time to time. Then they had fun relaxing in the tent when it was all set up.

 Here's Derrick and Veronica anxiously waiting for the fire to get lit.

We had hot dogs and snacks for dinner. Everything was really yummy. I'd been feeling really sad before we ate.  I told Brandon, "I don't know why, but I just feel super sad."  It actually had me kind of worried.  But as soon as I ate I felt better.  Normally I get grumpy when I'm hungry, getting sad was new.

 Brandon and I had gone on a walk the night before and it had been one of the first time I'd worn my tennis shoes since the beginning of the summer. I don't know if my feel swelled or what, but my toes had been hurting all day.  I could barely hobble around the campground.  So we didn't do much hiking or exploring.  The kids ran around and that was good enough for me.

 We sat around the fire and told silly stories and jokes.  Brandon showed the girls how to tie different knots. Lydia demonstrated her ability to tie a slip knot.

 Then we roasted marshmallows.  Usually we just buy the $1 marshmallows, but I hadn't been able to find those.  So I'd bought Jet Puffed Marshmallows for the first time in probably ever.  They tasted AMAZING.  I don't think I can ever go back now.

 There was tons of fireword just laying around so we stayed up for a while after dark just burning things. Then I helped Charlotte and Lydia get into their sleeping bags. I told them stories about when we slept in that tiny tent as a family back in 2016. They couldn't believe they used to be so small. Brandon put Derrick and Veronica to bed.  Then we stayed up for a little bit more and watched the fire burn down.  We had a good time talking.

Before we went to bed I checked on Charlotte and Lydia one last time to make sure they had enough covers.  They did and they said they'd been warm all night.  Then Brandon and I snuggled down into our amazing sleeping bags and slept well all night too.

In the morning we had more fun with the unlimited firewood.  We finally packed everything up around 10:00.  Charlotte and Lydia took their tent down almost completely by themselves.  I've debated signing all the kids up for Cub Scouts here in Twin, but honestly at this point I think Cub Scouts would just be "remedial camping" for my kids. So we're just going to do our own thing as a family.

My feet were feeling a little better so I was feeling up for a hike. We drove back down the road to a place called Ross Falls that we had seen on our way up the road the day before.

 We passed a lot of ferns while we hiked.  I had no idea furns like this grew in Southern Idaho.

 The waterfall wasn't very far from the road.  It wasn't tall, but it was pretty.

 The kids had fun playing in the little run off stream.

 Here's Charlotte by the waterfal.

 And Charlotte and Lydia on a rock.

 I took a selfie with a couple kids in the background.

 And a selfie with no kids in the back ground.

 Here's Veronica.

 After we were done with the waterfall we hiked back to the car.  It wasn't far, but my feet didn't like the downhill parts of the trail. Then we drove to another part of the canyon where the river was near the road.  The kids played in the river and I read a book. (Wizard of Lies about the Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme.

 Then we went home and got cleaned up.  We went to a BBQ that our ward was putting on.  There was a lot of good food to eat. After we'd stuffed ourselves they brought out ice cream cones for dessert.  The kids ate those and then everyone had a tummy ache so we went home shortly after that.

Sunday was a good day.  I've joined the ward choir again. I'm one of those people who sings really well with other singers. I can read music, but I can't actually read treble clef (I played the string bass in school so I know bass clef) and even if I could read treble clef I don't think it would help me know how to hit notes without someone to follow. So usually I just sing soprano since I can pick out the melody and I sit by someone who is a better singer than me and follow them when we do tricky stuff.

Well this choir only has a few sopranos so there is a suddenly a lot more expected of me than I'm used to.  But everyone is nice and I've found I actually like the challenge of figuring out a tricky song so I think I'm going to be okay.

At home Veronica and I played Uno.  Or at least we pretended to.  We ended up just sorting all the cards by color and I think that was more fun for both of us.

On Monday Veronica woke up with some pretty bad indigestion. So I kept her home from school.  She didn't seem sick so I wasn't too worried about her.  Later in the day she wanted me to read her a story.  We went to sit down on the floor to read, but it was just so uncomfortable.  I said to Veronica, "You know what?  We need to go find us a couch or at least a chair before we read.  Let's go to DI."
I've been checking DI and Goodwill at least once a week for a couch since we got here, but so far nothing has stood out to me.  But I had a good feeling about this visit.  And I was right.  As soon as we walked to the furniture area of the store I saw two cream colored arm chairs.  We sat in one of them and we were happy to see that both of us fit in the chair.  I bought both of them.  We used money that Brandon was given as a graduation gift that we saved to buy things for the house.

We had to make two trips to to get the chairs home.  And Brandon was sleeping when we got home so I had to carry them into the house. But I got them in okay.  And then we were able to sit in them and read our story.

The older kids were so excited to see the chairs.  And they have loved laying in them. Here's Derrick.

 And here's Charlotte and Lydia.

 I like sitting in one of the chairs when I read at night.  Brandon goes to bed pretty much as soon as the kids are in bed so I have a few hours that I spent reading in the living room before I go to bed. It's really nice.

Veronica had been fine all day so I figured she would go to school on Tuesday, but right at bedtime her GI problems came back in an ugly way.  Still I hoped she'd feel better by morning.

But no.  She was crying off and on through the night about her stomach hurting.  At six in the morning she was really in pain.  So she and I went on an early morning run to Smiths which is only a few blocks from our house.  We got some medicine that helped her out.  Then we came home and I got the other kids up and ready for the day.

As soon as they were at school I came home and put a movie on for Veronica and then I crawled into bed for some more sleep.  But that didn't last long.  Soon I got a phone call from the school. One of the twins wasn't feeling well either. She said she was going to throw up.  So I ran over there and got her.

She came home and built this replica of the Old Faithful Lodge.

I was feeling pretty sorry for myself by this point.  I have dreams of being able to get so much done with the kids are in school.  I'd love to have a full time job, but then days like this happen and I just feel so ham-stringed.  Like I can't even try to do anything.

But that's not completely true. I may not be able to work 40 hours a week right now, but I do have little things that I'm accomplishing.  Tuesday was actually the day that my latest article for Idaho Falls Mom's Blog came out.  This one was about podcast recommendations. It wasn't anything earth shattering, but it was fun to put together.

And yes, I know it's super confusing that I live in Twin Falls, but write for the Idaho Falls Mom's Blog - especially when I never lived in Idaho Falls.  But hey I love the mom's blog community and they said I could stay as long as I wanted to so just go with it.

Derrick had therapy again on Tuesday.  He walked home from school and saw Miss Cecile waiting for him in front of the house.  I was worried he'd just want to go inside the house and play, but he hopped right in Miss Cecile's car and was ready to go. Whew.

Veronica was finally feeling better by Wednesday morning, and so she went to school. The twin who had stayed home also went to school.  So I finally had a morning to myself. I got some things done on my computer, but I was having trouble with the internet.  Brandon decided it was finally time to reformat my computer (or something like that).  So he took over my computer and I didn't get it back for about 4 days. It runs much better again.  I'm so glad I have live-in tech support.

Here's a picture of the kids all working together to do the dishes after dinner. I don't want this to come across as sactamonious, but lately I've been thinking that teaching kids to do chores like this is more important than enrolling them in sports.  They are learning just as much about finishing a job and working as a team by doing dishes and putting away laundry as they would on a sports team.  I'm not against sports, but I'm super glad that we are focusing on this right now instead of sports.

 Our grass was getting long, so the kids begged us to let them cut the grass.  They all took turns pushing the lawn mower around.

 We must be doing something right if the kids think yard work is a privilege.

 They all had a fun time mowing the front yard.  Then Brandon took over and did the back yard because it was really close to bed time.

Thursday morning I dowloaded the Radio Ronin Podcast like I do every week. I listened to about an hour of it before I had to do other things. I listened to it on and off for the rest of the day. While I was making dinner they announced the winner of a drawing for an R2D2 mug that the hosts had picked up in Disneyland. They've been doing these drawings for the past few weeks, but this was the first one I'd entered.  In order to enter you have to be a Patron of the show. I contribute $5 a month which is the lowest tier, but it still qualifies me to enter the drawing. This mug was the first thing they'd offered that I was interested in.

So anyway, I'm listening to the podcast and they get to the give away part.  And suddenly I'm thinking, "I think I won!" And then I'm thinking, "There's no way I won, I'm just imagining things."  But sure enough they read my name and I'm standing in my kitchen going, "Did that just happen?"

Brandon was sleeping and I went into our room and woke him up and played back the part where they said my name.  Brandon mumbled congratulations and then fell back asleep.  Later he thought he'd dreamed the whole thing. 

But nope, it's real.  And soon I'll have the real mug to prove it.

 On Thursday night I went to my ward's Relief Society Activity in the evening.  It was a service auction.  I was so happy to go to an activity that I hadn't had to plan.  I loved my calling, but I'm so glad I can just be a participant for a while. I had so much fun laughing with the other ladies in my ward.

The same twin who had been home on Tuesday woke up with a tummy ache on Friday.  She said she couldn't even eat her breakfast.  I wasn't sure what to do. I'd already suspected that this was more than just a stomach problem, I was pretty certain she had a bit of anxiety. So after crowd sourcing ideas on Facebook I realized that I needed to act. I called the school counselor and asked to have a meeting with the teacher and him.  I'd already talked to the teacher about some concerns and I knew she was 100% in my corner.  The counselor was also ready to help. We have a meeting set up where we can talk with the twin about what is bothering her.  I also called her doctor and set up an appointment so we can rule out any physical problems.

It felt good to be proactive about this.  I've had problems with anxiety as an adult and looking back I know it was there as a child.  I don't want to have my daughter grow up feeling like her feelings are out of control.  I want to get ahead - or at least along side - this problem now.

In a way I'm glad that Derrick is autistic because none of this feels out of the ordinary.  Of course I'm going to talk to the teacher and have a sit down meeting.  I've done that to discuss Derrick so it's not a foreign idea.  And of course I'm going to take my concerns to the pediatrician.  And if he suggests a psychologist of course we are going to do that.  None of this is new to me. I walked a similar road 4 years ago.  I can do it again.

Anyway, the stay at home twin and I decided to call Friday a mental health day so we went out shopping for some of Veronica's birthday presents.  We ended up at Once Upon a Child and found some Diary of a Wimpy Kid books for only $4.50.  So there may have been some early twin birthday shopping going on as well.

That evening the school had a free hot dog dinner and glow in the dark dance in conjunction with the book fair. There was a fund raiser going on with a silent auction and a raffle.  We made an appearance for the dinner, and wandered around the book fair.  (The girls had been planning to buy Diary of a Wimpy Kid books at the book fair until I proved that they could find them for cheaper at thrift stores.)  I wasn't sure how the kids would do with the dance so I was surprised when Derrick wanted to go in the gym.  He did okay with the noise, but none of my kids wanted to dance so we left pretty soon after that.  We went home and watched Mr Peabody and Sherman for movie night.

Brandon usually only works Monday through Friday, but he had to work Saturday as well this week.  So on Saturday morning he was gone when we all woke up.  The kids and I cleaned the house together.  Then they all watched Mr Peabody and Sherman again while I went outside to get our little flower garden ready for the day.

My in-laws were coming up to visit for Veronica's birthday and my mother in law was bringing some lilies and irises she'd divided from her garden.  My Aunt Julie had also given me a big bag of tulips.  Derrick had been eyeing that bag and was eagerly waiting for when we would plant the bulbs.  But first we had to move all the rocks that were currently covering the flower garden.

The girls had helped me move rocks a few times, but Derrick really took over this week.  Every night after dinner he'd say, "Okay Mom, Let's move ROCKS."  We'd go outside and work together to fill buckets of rocks and move them to the side of the garage.  We did that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I'd planned to turn over the soil and get it all ready on Thursday or Friday, but it had been rainy both days.  So I couldn't do it until Saturday morning.  As it was I was still digging when Steve and Jacque pulled up.

Brandon was home from work by this time so we took them inside and gave them a tour of the house.  Then we went outside and got to work on the flower garden.  Derrick was so excited to open the tulips and put the bulbs in the ground. But after the first row was in he was done and went to ride his bike.

 Charlotte's the one who stayed the whole time and helped the most.  She and Jacque planted the irises and the lilies.

 Here's the garden bed now that everything has been tucked in for the winter.  It doesn't look like much, but it's full of potential.  Derrick is already eagerly awaiting spring so he can see the flowers.  I told him they have to sleep all winter first.

 Here's what it looks like from the other side. Much better than a bunch of spider infested rocks.

After we got the flowers planted we had lunch.  Then we had ice cream for Veronica's birthday.  We'll make her a cake for her actual birthday but we wanted something to celebrate with while Steve and Jacque were here.  We put a candle on Veronica's ice cream cone and sang to her. 

 Then she opened her present from Steve and Jacque.  She was so excited about getting a present.

 After that we went to Shoshone Falls.  Steve and Jacque haven't been here since the 90's and we haven't been here since our Idaho Road trip in May of 2018.  The flow was a lot lower since it's late in the season, but the falls were still very prettty.

 We saw a rainbow at the base.

 It was really bright.

 I wanted a selfie.

 And later I took more selfies because I realized this was a rare occasion where I was on an adventure and my hair actually looked good.

 After looking at the falls we went to Deirke's Lake which is upsteam from the falls.  I wanted to see if this is somewhere we could go swimming this summer. It looks like it could work.

 Derrick had fun watching the fish in the water.  They didn't show up in this picture, but there was a whole school under the surface.

 Steve and Jacque left around 4:00 and Brandon was asleep on the floor about a half hour later.  He'd been awake since 1:00 am.  Crazy guy.  He slept for a little while then woke up to eat dinner with us.  Then he fell asleep again while I helped the kids with bathtime.  Then he took over and watched TV with the kids while I read upstairs. After the kids were in bed we took a long walk together and had a good time talking.  Brandon wanted to watch a movie, but I was like, "um I haven't had a nap today, I need to go to sleep." So we both went to bed.

We both were really happy when the kids let us sleep in until 7:30 this morning.

I sang with the choir at church.  We sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.  I love that song, but this was my first time every preforming it.  There were a lot of parts where I was like, "oh these are the words."  We did really well and I'm glad to be in a choir again.

After church the kids played "whale rescue" with Derrick's whale. They all worked together in the game and had a great time.

We also had another puzzle to work on.  I'd bought a few more at the dollar store since the first one had been so much fun.  This one only had 300 pieces and it was easier.  But oddly enough this one was also missing a piece. I guess missing pieces are kind of normal.

So even though things didn't work out with Brandon's job the way we thought.  Things are going pretty well for us.  We are in a home, we can afford to pay for the home, and we are happy to be together as a family.

There still are some things we need to figure out - like long term plans and things like that.  But we don't have to have all the answers to those things today.  We'll just keep putting the pieces together one at a time. Eventually the big picture will appear.

Settling In

I'm trying to think of something witty or profound to say to start this post.  But honestly I've got nothing. 

We've lived here in Twin Falls for three weeks.  The house feels like home, but we are still working on establishing a routine for daily life. The last three weeks have felt a little directionless and chaotic.  But they've also felt full of newness and possibilities.

Let's back up and do a pretty fast recap. 

Veronica lost her other front tooth on one of the first days we were in the house. She was pretty excited.  

Here she is with her big gap from having two teeth missing.  It's so adorable.

Derrick's therapist, Miss Christy, gave the kids art kits as goodbye presents.  Veronica had fun with her's one day after school. She and I are still working on figuring out what we do when she is home after Kindergarten.

Lydia drew this picture all by herself which prompted me to consider finding her some advanced art classes. I'm blown away by her talent.

The biggest thing I accomplished during the first few days in Twin Falls was to get a Doctors appointment for Derrick so we could get a new prescription for pullups to wear at night. We went to the doctor on Thursday after school and Derrick did such a good job talking to the doctor. The office is really close to our house which is basically the only research I ever do when it comes to finding a pediatrician. So I'm happy. 

On our way home we stopped at Redbox so I could pick up Avengers Endgame.  Brandon and I watched last night and enjoyed it.  But wow, that movie has a lot of characters. 

On the weekend after we moved in to the house we went down to Utah for a family reunion with some of Brandon's extended family. I'd been on the fence about going to this reunion because it was so close to moving in and it was after school started.  I had a hard time committing to going because I wasn't sure what emotional state any of us would be in.

Well we made it through the week without any big emotional outbursts so the reunion was a go.  All of Brandon's siblings would be there so we were all looking forward to some family time.  Plus it was held at a campground and my family is always down for a camping trip.  On Friday when the kids were done with school we drove all the way from Twin Falls to Little Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake.

The first night there weren't many people there.  It was us, Steve and Jacque, one of Jacque's brothers and his family, and one of Jacque's cousins. We had hotdogs for dinner and the kids roasted marshmallows.

The next day there wasn't much planned until the afternoon. We drove up the canyon to see if our National Park's pass would also give us access to the Albion Basin.  It didn't, but we thought it was fun to see the Ski resorts on our way up there.

We found a rocky area and went for a little hike.

The plan was to use some of our rock climbing gear that Brandon had brought, but the kids were having fun free climbing the smaller rocks.

Here's Derrick.

Charlotte and Lydia.

Me

Brandon scouting out a good location.

And  me and Veronica. Veronica was being her usual klutzy self, and was really struggling with the rocky terrain.  So I gave her a piece of gum and had he sit by me while the other kids climbed around.

Well I probably should have kept a better eye on the other kids.  Charlotte ended up gashing her knee on a pointy rock.  And guess who didn't have their first aid kit with them?  Seriously I carried that thing around ALL summer.  But I didn't have it when I needed it.

Veronica had been wearing pajama pants over her shorts because she'd been cold so I used her pajamas to stop the bleeding in Charlotte's knee until we could get back to the first aid kit in the car.  But that one was pretty low on supplies so we had to drive back to the campsite where Brandon had left his backpack with his first aid kit.  Wow we were really unprepared.  So that was the end of the rock climbing adventure.

Charlotte was pretty sad so when we got back to camp I took her with me down the canyon to the store.  We got gas and then we went into the store to buy some extra things. I'd also hoped to find a Redbox so I could return the Avengers movie (we'd forgot to return it on our way out of Twin on Friday.) But there wasn't a Redbox at the store.  Before we drove off to find one, Charlotte looked at the Redbox case and asked, "Is it a see through disk?"  And I realized we didn't even have the disk in the case.  It was still in my laptop at home."  So never mind on that. 

When we got back to camp Derrick wanted me to go with him down to the river.

I sat with him while he threw rocks into the water for a long time.

He was so content.

He knew his way around the river pretty well.  Almost too well.  He led me back to camp via a different trail than we'd taken down. But he got us right back to camp. Brandon and the kids had come to this campsite for the family reunion two years ago.  I'd had to work in Yellowstone so I hadn't come.  Brandon said he'd let Derrick wander a lot during that visit and I have my suspicions that some of those wanderings took Derrick further than Brandon realized.

Now it was time to hang out with Veronica.  Charlotte and Lydia were playing with their cousin Oakley who had arrived by this point.  They were kind of excluding Veronica.  So I took Veronica and Derrick over to the sandy volley ball court and they had fun playing in the sand.  I was reading John McCain's memoirs, "Faith of My Father's" so I read that while she played.  The book was taking a long time to get interesting so I ended up laying down on the picnic blanket and taking a nap.

Occasionally the kids came over to show me the face painting that Melanie was doing.  Here's Charlotte's.

Lydia's.

A picture I have no memory of taking of Derrick, (I think Veronica was playing with my phone when I took a nap.)

Veronica chose Wonderwoman.  I love her little toothless grin.

And Lydia again.  She took this picture while I was fast asleep.  I vaugly remember her coming over and saying, "Mom, look at my turtle!"  Before I fell back asleep.  Obviously I was a little drained from the move and the first week of school.

Later I did get up and talk with Brandon's family.  But then I opened my book again, and John McCain got shot down over Vietnam, and the narrative FINALLY picked up.  I was pretty engrossed by the book after that. Veronica took this picture of herself while I was reading.

We had a big potluck dinner which was really yummy.

Melanie had painted this "tattoo" for Brandon.

It's that funny.

They always do an auction to raise money for the reunion.  Kara and I ended up buying the same bags.

As it got dark everyone got ready for the glowstick parade. Here's Charlotte.

And Lydia.

Derrick was pretty tired so he wasn't interested in the glowsticks.  He and I sat by the fire.  He took this picture.

Veronica had fun decorating her puppy.

Here's Veronica's full ensemble.

As it got darker everyone looked cooler and cooler.

It was fun to look at everyone.

Brandon was sporting a top hat and bow tie.

Everyone went on a parade of sorts.  Then they came back and we put the kids to bed.  I was going to stay up and talk with everyone, but I was pretty tired.  So I went to bed with the kids.

In the morning we had breakfast with everyone and then cleaned up.  I was very antsy to get going because I was ready to get back to work on the house.  Plus I wanted the kids to have a chance to decompress from the trip before going to school on Monday.  So I cleaned up our stuff while Brandon chitchatted and the kids played.

We drove home.  While we drove the kids watched Mountain of the Lord which is about how the pioneers built the Salt Lake Temple.  This was espeically fitting since Little Cottonwood Canyon is where the granite for the Temple came from.  We made it home with plenty of time to have a relaxing afternoon at home.

The next week was the last week of August, by I was already thinking it was September. The reunion had been our last event for the summer.

I spent most of the week finishing unpacking.  My favorite part was when I started to put up pictures.  

On Monday night Brandon took Derrick fishing.  They were gone for a long time and we didn't wait to have dinner with them.  After dinner the girls helped me clean up without complaining AT ALL.  I was so impressed. They just went right to work.

A big part of that is thanks to our latest dishes chart.  We had to make a new one because our last one had jobs like Load the dishwasher.  This house doesn't have a dishwasher so we needed some new jobs.  But the kids haven't been phased at all.  It took 2 years of consistency to get us to this point, but it was totally worth it.

On Tuesday Brandon and Derrick went to work on something Derrick has wanted for a long time. They put together a plywood table for a model train set.

Meanwhile the girls were enjoying the backyard.

Derrick likes Brandon's powertools, but he's still a little sensitive to their sounds.

We've had this model train set for about a year.  One of Brandon's professors gave it to us when he found out Derrick loved trains.  The professor had taken down his layout when he moved and he had no plans to put it back up in his new house.  So he was very kind and passed on his stuff to us. We told Derrick we'd get the set out when we had a new house so he has been anxiously waiting.  Ever since we moved in he's wanted to get the trains out.  So I told Brandon it better happen sooner rather than later.

The girls continued to have fun in the back yard.

I thought Derrick and Brandon would just lay out the track, but Brandon actually nailed it down.  Derrick was so happy.

They even got the train to run on the track.
The next day Derrick found his old train hat and exclaimed, "I'm the train man."

I made a bag that converts into a small rug to hold the legos so the girls have had fun playing with those.

On Wednesday we bought our first ever lawn mower.  Brandon taught the kids how to mow the lawn and between the 4 of them they mowed the front and back yards. Brandon said he barely had to do anything other than supervise. 

The bishopbric stopped by to welcome us into the ward.  They'd been trying to come by for a while, but our schedules hadn't meshed. I'm so glad they came.  They told us they hoped we felt welcome and we let them know that everyone had done such a good job of welcoming us into the ward.

On Friday we got a dog - sort of.

My friend Sarah in Idaho Falls was going to Sun Valley for Labor Day weekend.  She needed somewhere for her dog Lemon to go while they were gone. She asked us if we'd watch Lemon. She paid us, but honestly we might have done it for free because Lemon happens to be one of my favorite dogs.

We had a great time with Lemon and she was a great practice dog for us. She is super well behaved. We don't have a fence between our back and front yards and I thought that would be a problem, but no.  Lemon just stayed close to us and never ran away.  (I had no idea dogs could be that well behaved, but I grew up around a lot of ghetto dogs.)  I'd also been a little worried about if a dog get in my way in our small kitchen, but she wasn't a problem in there either.

Lemon threw up on Sunday and I was probably more worried about her than I was when my kids have been sick. I was like a new mom Googling things to make sure Lemon wasn't somehow going to die.  Brandon, who grew up around dogs, kept assuring me that Lemon would be fine.  And she was.

Brandon said he couldn't believe how much I liked Lemon.  Every time I petted the dog or talked to her Brandon looked at me like, "who are you?"  He was very happy though because he's wanted me to want a dog for a long time. We even let her sleep in our bed on Sunday night. 

On Monday we didn't have anything planned for Labor Day (We play so hard over the summer that we are always exhausted by Labor Day.)  I took the kids and Lemon on a bike ride/walk to the school.  Derrick was riding his bike around very fast and looked like a professional racer with his yellow shirt.

Even though she'd broken her collar bone in a bike accident at the beginning of the summer, Veronica wasn't afraid to ride her bike. She still had training wheels, but she was getting better and better at riding.

Lydia had a new bike. Before we moved she and I realized she'd completely outgrown her bike.  So we decided to give it to DI before we moved and just get her a new one after we moved.  Well on Saturday she'd decided it was time for that new bike.  She'd looked at everyone else riding their bikes and started crying.  So Brandon took her to DI and they found a bike - with a basket - practically waiting for them.  It didn't even need any parts replaced.  Brandon gave it a little tune up and then Lydia was off. She was so happy to have a bigger bike.

Back at home Lydia showed me the lego creation she's been working on.  It's a house.

That opens up!  I was so impressed.

Here's one of the rooms.

We have a bunch of rocks in a flower garden in front of our house.  Jacque is going to bring up a lot of flowers that she's dividing and I want to get those rocks moved before she comes. So we worked on moving some of the rocks.  Lemon laid on the rocks and basically blended in.

Sarah came to pick up Lemon a little later.  We were all sad to see her go.  I joked that we'd just keep Lemon and Sarah could get another dog. 

I've been on the fence about whether or not I want to work this year. There are a lot of factors to consider. I want to stay home with my kids, but I also really like working.  I want to earn money, but I don't want to have to stress about childcare when the kids are out of school.  It's a really delicate balance. 

I considered going back to school to beef up my resume for when the kids are older. I looked into getting a book keeping certificate through the Pathways program or the College of Southern Idaho. But when I looked at the classes I'd have to take my main thought was "I've already taken half these classes."  And honestly the thought of going back to school made me want to throw up.  

So I decided to start applying for jobs just to see what would happen.  If I got called for interviews then it meant my skills were up to par.  If I didn't get interviews then maybe I'd think some more about going back to school.

One place I applied was with the county.  I had to take a skills test for the job.  One of the skills was a 10 key test.  I had 15 minutes to complete several columns of numbers.  I finished the first screen in less than 4 minutes.  I thought I would have another screen of numbers pop up for me to do, but nope, that was the whole test.  I have some pretty awesome 10 key skills.

I also had to do a proof reading test.  As you can tell, my proof reading skills aren't as good.  Especially when it came to the spelling questions.  The test would have a sentence and I was supposed to find all the errors and then fill in a multiple choice answer with how many errors I found. I knew I was in trouble when I could only find one error, but the lowest option on the multiple choice list was four. 

So I'm considering my scores on all the tests as a wash. 

On Monday night I saw an open job for a secretary position at the middle school near our house. Working for the school district is my ultimate dream because I would have the same days off as the kids.  So I applied for the job that night.  It actually wasn't that hard because this school district uses the same system as the Pocatello/Chubbuck school district.  I'd applied for some jobs there so all I had to do was import the info from that system and then add my Treasurer's Office stuff. I submitted the application and didn't think much about it. 

On Tuesday I was minding my own business when I got a call from the Twin Falls School District.  My first thought was, "oh no what did Derrick do?'  But the call was actually from Human Resources.  They asked me if I could interview for the secretary job that afternoon!  Of course I said yes.

I was confident before the interview, but during the interview I had a hard time reading the reactions of the people that were interviewing me.  I had no idea what they thought of my answers.  I ended up feeling like I'd bombed. I was pretty sad at first, but I decided to be nice to myself.  It was my first interview in almost two years, I'd done it with just a few hours notice, and I was also coming down with a cold.  So it's okay if I bombed it. There will be other jobs.

The interview did help me with one thing though.  I realized I needed to get some childcare in place in case I did get the job. On Wednesday I called the Boys and Girls Club and learned that they don't have a wait list for Kindergartners. They have a bus that would pick up Veronica from school. So that would take care of her. I also e-mailed Derrick's Medicaid case worker and asked her to adjust his therapy budget so we could do more therapy hours during the school year.  And then I talked to his therapy company about possibly adding more hours so he can be with someone after school until I get off work.  I would be home a little after the kids get out of school and so I was comfortable letting Charlotte and Lydia be home alone during that time.  I was happy to have that all worked out in case I got the job.

Wednesday ended up being a rough day.  I was still upset about how I'd done on the interview.  And my cold was getting worse. Plus I was having some girl problems.  I muddled through most of the day, but by the afternoon I was falling apart.  Brandon told me it was just fine if I went to bed and stayed there the rest of the day.  So I got in my pajamas and just wallowed in self pity for a few hours.  After Brandon put the kids to bed he came in with a sure fire way to get me feeling better - An Action Movie.  He picked out the first Mission Impossible movie and we watched that.  When it was over I felt much better and slept really well that night. 

On Thursday we had a girl from Veronica's class come over after school. Her parents are working on finding childcare for her and I offered to watch her while they get that sorted out.  (I also told them that I was casually looking for a job so I wasn't a good long term plan.)  She's an only child and Veronica is the youngest so they had some learning to do about how to play together, but over all it was fun to have her over.

That evening Derrick and I went to the library to get him a library card.  I'd already taken Lydia on another day and this time it was Derrick's turn. He did such a good job answering all the librarians questions.  He even spelled out our last name. The only thing he didn't know was his birthday.

When we got home from the library I saw Charlotte riding Veronica's bike.  Then I realized it was Veronica and the bike didn't have training wheels!  She was riding on her own. She'd learned how to ride without training wheels the same way Derrick had. The training wheels gradually bent up and so she was balancing on just the bike wheels as she rode.  For the past few days Brandon and I had been trying to tell her that she was basically riding without training wheels, and to let Brandon take them off.  But Veronica was really scared to have them off.  I couldn't blame her, she had broken her collar bone while riding her bike.  She wanted as much stability as she could get.  Well on Thursday night she finally realized it was time.  Brandon said she jumped right on the bike and was off again without any trouble.

Charlotte and Lydia made a helmet for Antler and took her for rides in Lydia 's basket.

Friday was an interesting morning.  Charlotte and Lydia wanted to ride their bikes to school. Derrick and Veronica did too, but we felt it was too much to have four bike riders so we said it would just be Charlotte and Lydia on bikes this time and then we could let all four kids ride next week.  Well Veronica was fine with that, but Derrick was MAD!

He screamed and yelled about it all the way to school. When he got to school he was still mad.  Brandon had gone ahead with Charlotte and Lydia and Derrick yelled at Brandon when he saw him.  This was new territory for me. Derrick has been mad before school before, but I always just put him on the bus and then sent an e-mail to his teacher. A para professional always met him at the bus so I always knew that he had an adult with him no matter what his mood was.  I didn't know what to do about it when I was dropping him off. 

I did know that I didn't feel comfortable sending him into the school angry. So I went with him to make sure he was safe around the other kids. This would have been fine except I'd barely gotten dressed.  I hadn't brushed my teeth and I wasn't wearing any make up.  So there I was sitting in his classroom trying to look somewhat put together as I tried to calm Derrick down.  After a few minutes his para helped me guide him out to the hall and she took him on a walk to calm him down.  Whew.

Aside from that Derrick actually had a fabulous week at school. The first two weeks had been a little rough as he adjusted to everything, but things seem to be stabilizing.  They have an aid for him during half the day and she is really helping him focus on his school work.  I still miss our last school and all the support he had in place there, but this school is stepping up and doing a good job too.

On Friday night we watched Arthur Christmas for movie night.  Derrick picked it out at the library.  He calls it Otter Christmas. We haven't watched that movie since Alabama so we all had fun watching it again.

Saturday was a near perfect day.  We spent the morning cleaning the house and doing yard work. Charlotte mowed the front yard all by herself and then I did the back yard.  (Fun fact: somehow I have avoided mowing a lawn for 34 years. So this was my first time ever doing that.) I moved rocks and acted like it was a super fun thing to do so for a while all the kids were happily helping move rocks too.

Then after lunch we drove over to Niagara Spring so the kids could go fishing there.

The water is super clear and we could see fish easily.

I wasn't too into fishing so I was reading my latest book, "Grateful American" by Gary Sinise. All I knew about him when I picked up the book was that he'd played Lieutenant Dan in Forest Gump and Ken Mattingly in Apollo 13. His career is so much more than that and I have loved reading his book. I read a lot of memoirs and his is somewhere in the top 10 of ones I've read.

It's hard to see in this picture, but Niagara spring was on the other side of those trees. We could hear the water rushing the whole time.

Brandon caught a fish and here are all the kids celebrating.  

Here's Lydia posing with Brandon's fish.

Veronica and I went for a walk over to the spring.

We also went to the spill way. Some of the water goes to a fish hatchery, and the rest of the water goes to the pond where we were fishing.

When we finished fishing we came home and had dinner.  All the kids took much needed baths and then went to bed. 

Brandon and I stayed up talking in the garage while he organized some things.  He has it nearly the way he wants it.  He's so excited to have a workshop.  

And that gets us caught up to today.  We went to church and had a such a good time.  Our ward is so welcoming. Last week was our first official week there and Brandon turned to me and said, "I already feel like we've been in this ward forever."

And actually that's how we feel about the house and Twin Falls in general.  We feel like we've been here forever.  And I plan to stay for a long time.