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.