No school weeks 7 and 8: Stagnant and Released

It's Mother's Day and I told Brandon I wanted to spend all morning writing in bed. So that's what I'm doing. I'm a little behind on this blog because I didn't post last week so this will be a long post. 

I think it will work out okay because there's actually a story arc that spanned over the two weeks. So let's back up to the last week of April and get this story going. 

Monday April 27

My tulips started blooming and so I took pictures of them when I came home from my walk in the morning. I'm in love with the colors. 

They are so pretty. I'd find myself looking out the window to see my flowers.

Charlotte and Lydia spent quite a bit of time in their room playing with their Frozen Barbies. They turned the Tracy dog into Swen the Raindeer. 

We did a little bit of school on Monday. I taught Veronica a new sight word and showed her how to remember how to spell it.

The day has started out pretty sunny, but clouds rolled in and were threatening rain. We had been planning a hike down in the Auger Falls area, but I decided we should just go for a drive instead. We picked up lunch and then got on the freeway and headed east to Rupert.  

One of my favorite things to do with my kids is to drive in the car and listen to the radio. The kids like it too. We have great memories of this dating back to Texas. We still talk about the time I said, "Let's see if we can find Shake it Off on the radio" and turned on the radio just as Shake it Off started playing. Back in Texas one of our favorite songs was Best Day of My Life by American Authors. We'd always get excited when we heard the song and Charlotte would say, "Mom, It's your favorite song!"  (It wasn't, but it was close.)  

Anyway, when we got in the car on Monday the very first song that started playing was Best Day of My Life. We heard the opening notes and I said, "Charlotte, It's my favorite song!" It was a great way to start the drive. 

The whole drive was great. I realized we haven't driven this direction on the Interstate since Christmas Eve.

We passed an RV camp that has a water slide. The kids wanted to go there and I told them we'd need to be camping there. They wondered if it had a place for tents. They also wondered if we could get an RV again. 

Talking about RVs got me thinking. It gave me an idea to a perplexing problem that Brandon and I have been trying to solve for several months. But first some back story. 

Brandon's job hadn't been going well. It's more his story than mine so I won't share a lot of the details, but basically it boils down to a new manager that didn't have good management skills. It was really affecting Brandon and he started having trouble sleeping again. And the lack of sleep was affecting him at work. And that was giving him stress. And that was making it hard to sleep. We were back in the death spiral that he was in during flight school. 

Fortunately this time I knew the symptoms (and the outcome if we did nothing) so Brandon and I were able to be proactive about the problem. 

Brandon talked to some trusted people and several of them started bringing up the idea that maybe he needed to find another job. At first I was like, "NO WAY! You belong in aviation. You just went to school for two years to be an aircraft mechanic. There is no way you should get out of the industry. We just need to figure out how to get you to be less stressed."

Overtime I began to see that leaving his current job was probably inevitable. When I first told him that I agreed that he should consider quitting his job I could feel his stress levels decrease. I told Brandon that I was okay with him quitting right away, but that since we are trying to be responsible adults we should figure out a new plan before abandoning the current plan.   So we started talking about what to do next. 

Even in the best of times there weren't exactly a ton of aviation jobs in the Twin Falls area. If Brandon was going to stay in aviation we'd have to move. After a lot of consideration we decided that we didn't want to move. I said, "I'd rather have you change industries and stay here, than uproot everything again to try aviation."  

This was all happening with the backdrop of the coronavirus. Demand for aviation was imploding everywhere. This was not a good time to be looking for a new aircraft mechanic job anyway. 

So what could Brandon do?

He briefly considered going back to school to be a graphic designer, but neither of us was wild about the idea of more school. Plus that didn't seem like a very stable career either. 

So as I drove by the RV park an idea for a new job came into my mind. What about an RV mechanic? Maybe that was something he could do in Twin Falls. I decided to bring it up with Brandon later. 

We drove out to Rupert and found the town square. It reminded me a little of the town square in Back to the Future with a park in the middle. We parked and ate our lunches. Veronica climbed into the front seat. 

Here's a selfie. (I have no memory of making duck lips)

Here's the cute little park. 

This was supposed to be a picture of all the kids, I'm not sure what happened here.

We could see a train going by a block away. That kept us entertained for a while.

When the kids were done eating we drove back to Twin Falls. We'd never even got out of the car in Rupert, but it had been great to go for a drive.

The kids put on their roller skates and went up and down the side walk. The girls found a big box that had blown out of someones garbage. They brought it home to play with.

Monday evening was really nice. We admired the flowers some more. My Aunt Julie gave the tulip bulbs to me as a house warming gift last fall. Derrick had helped me plant them and had been eagerly awaiting spring ever since. He kept saying things like, "It's spring Mom!  We did it!"

My friend Kara stopped by with her husband and son to pick up the metal clothesline I'd dug out of our yard. She is opening a farm themed bed and breakfast so I'd asked her if she wanted the clothesline. She did. Derrick helped me move the clothesline to the front yard before they came. I told him my friend was coming to get it. He's never met Kara, but when she arrive he said, "It's you!" And gave her a big hug. While they were picking it up her husband saw the kids riding their bikes.  He pulled out a air compressor out of his truck and filled up all the kids bike tires. We stood around talking probably longer than we would have pre-corona. It was so nice to have people come to our house. 

My craft room was a disaster so I decided to spend some time down there working on projects and trying to get things organized. Charlotte and Lydia joined me and did some painting.

Their creations were very cute.

After the kids were in bed Brandon and I hung up hooks on the sides of our dresser. I've been hanging my jackets on the knobs on the dresser for ages and it was driving us both crazy. This is so much better now.

At some point I told him the RV Mechanic idea. I looked on Indeed.com and there was, in fact, and RV Mechanic job at a Jayco production facility in Kimberley. Brandon wasn't super interested in production line work, but at least it was a start.

I also looked up jobs for me. Maybe I'd be able to find a full time job, and Brandon could stay home with the kids while he figured out what was next for him. I found one right away that looked amazing. It was for Operations Accounting. OPERATIONS ACCOUNTING!  I've always had a passing interest in Operations Management, but always assumed I'd need an MBA to do anything with it. But this job was for an accounting position that worked with an operations department. They didn't even require a college degree. Surely my Bachelors degree in Economics and my hands on Accounting experience qualified me for the job.

Tuesday April 28th started out early in the morning.  Derrick woke up crying about a stomach ache sometime around 3:00. I was pretty zonked so I wasn't super aware of what was going on, but Brandon got up with him and helped him get back to sleep on the couch.

When I woke up I thought about going for a walk like I had the day before, but decided to snuggle with Brandon instead. All day I regretted not taking that time for myself.

When I did get up Derrick woke up and told me his stomach hurt. He also said his head hurt. He didn't want cereal for breakfast so Veronica made him toast. She was so helpful and it was cute to see her helping out her brother.

 I decided to cancel therapy for the day. Ten minutes later Derrick was ridding his bike outside. What?

We did some fun hands on things for school. We attempted to make a walking rainbow based on a little video Veronica's teacher sent.

We also made soft play dough from corn startch and cheap hair conditioner. (I'd bought the ingredients back on like Week 4 of quarantine and finally got around to doing it.)

The kids had fun with the playdough.

And as great as these activities were, they really didn't fill the time or keep the kids occupied for long. Next thing I knew the kids were all riding their bikes.

I liked that they were outside having fun, but I felt guilty for not having them inside working on school stuff. I didn't like how I felt so reactive to everything. I felt like everyone had their own ideas for what to do that day and everyone was just spinning off on their own ideas. I didn't feel like my authority mattered at all.

Some kids said they didn't care about lunch and they just wanted to stay at home, so that looked like the plan for a little bit. But then I decided that we needed to get lunch so we drove over to the school at 11:50 and picked up lunch.

The kids ate it outside. Here are Charlotte and Lydia enjoying the hammock.

And Derrick and Veronica in the tree house. 

These pictures look great and I can see how happy the kids are. But behind the camera I was not happy. I felt completely overwhelmed by the job of keeping four kids safe, healthy, educated, entertained, and going somewhat the same direction.

We went inside and the kids watched a movie or something. I sad on the couch and felt paralyzed.  There were so many unknowns in my life that week. I felt like I couldn't make a decision about anything.  All morning I'd been thinking about that Operations Accounting position. I talked myself out of applying for it several times. But as I felt more and more out of control with life at home I decided I had nothing to lose by applying for the job.

So I got on my computer and updated my resume to include my current part time job. Then I applied for the operations accounting position. It felt good to do that.

When Brandon got home from work I took off for my work. I was completely done being in charge of the kids for that day. It hadn't been a bad day. But it had been a rough day. I felt like no one had listened to me. And even if they had been listening I didn't feel like I had anything to say.

Work was great. We have calming meditation music playing in our lobby, and listening to that usually is all the therapy I need. I told my boss that Brandon's job was probably ending in the near future and that I'd applied for a full time position in case Brandon couldn't find another job quickly. I told him it wasn't anything again against him. He understood. I'm so lucky to have a flexible boss.

When I got home I saw I checked a text from my friend Shellien. Shellien pretty much knows everyone in Twin Falls so I'd texted her to see if she knew of anybody who was hiring. One of her suggestions was to check findabetterjobtwinfalls.com. I didn't want to go in the house yet so I clicked on that website link while I was still sitting in the car. I was looking for a job for me, but when I typed in Accounting no results came back. Instead a list of "suggested jobs" came up. I kid you not, the first job on the list was for an RV Mechanic.

And the position looked promising. It was for a shop that was looking for a mechanic. It was written in such a way that seemed friendly. They said they offered opportunity and were willing to train the right person. The ad didn't even ask for a resume. It just said to call the guy and tell him about any experience. I immediately emailed the job to Brandon. Later he took a look at it and said that he liked the sound of the company.

Wednesday April 29th started out with a walk. I'd learned my lesson on Tuesday. I HAD to take a walk every weekday. I haven't missed a weekday walk since then. As soon as I walked out of the house I admired my beautiful tulips.

Their bright colors made me so happy.

Here's what they looked like a little later in the day when they'd opened a bit.

Derrick was, as usual, so excited by the flowers. He wanted to know all about them and I told him what I could. I mentioned that they were bright colors so bees could find them. He was very interested in bees so I told him about that.  He loved it.

It was about time to start "school" so we went inside. We watched a youtube video about how bees make honey.  Then we watched another one about bee keepers collecting honey. Derrick watched both videos twice. Then he started repeating what he'd learned back to me.

I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down what he said. With a little bit of encouragement from me, and a few suggestions from his sisters, Derrick was able to dictate this whole essay on how bees make honey. It was incredible.

Charlotte chose to use a lot of her school time finish working on her fuse bead house. The Art and Soul art competition was pushed back to June so Charlotte decided to add onto her entry. She made a yard with vegitables growing in it and built a fence to go around the whole thing.

I love the pumpkins.

And look at that cute trellis.

She is so creative.

Since yesterday's hands on science had been so fun I decided to do another one. We made colored rain with food coloring, vegetable oil, and water.

It turned out pretty cool.

At lunch time we picked up lunches, filled the car up with gas (for less than $30) and headed out to Balanced Rock Park. There were lots of other people there - probably the most we've seen on any of our weekday outdoor adventures. All the picnic benches were taken so the kids decided to eat on this rock.

They had fun climbing all over it.

All over it.

Derrick went to the creek and watched some people fishing nearby.

The girls kept playing on the rock.

Then we drove over to Balanced Rock. We climbed up the trail, but some other hikers warned us there was a rattlesnake up ahead. The girls wouldn't go any farther once they heard that. Derrick took a little bit more convincing, but he eventually turned around and came down off the hill.

It's probably good we didn't stay there much longer anyway because the day was getting hot. We went back home. The kids watched a movie and I went over proof reading edits with my mom for the Yellowstone Book. 

When Brandon got home from work he told me it had been another tough day. As soon as he left work he'd called the RV guy and talked to him. The RV guy asked him to send him an email with some info about himself so later that evening Brandon sent him his resume. The man replied back with an unusual interview request. He said he liked to have people come in and work for about half a day so he could see what kind of a worker they were. He asked Brandon if he could do that. Since Brandon still had work he wasn't able to do it until Saturday.

I'd been hoping to get things done in my future berry patch area, but since it is in the back of the yard I didn't feel comfortable working back there unless another adult was around to watch the kids. So that evening Brandon worked in the garage and kept an eye on the kids while I turned over soil in the berry patch. Charlotte came walking by wearing some Halloween costume stuff. I thought she looked like a little elf or something.

Here's the flower update for Thursday, April 30.

These flowers were probably my favorite thing about the week.

Derrick's teacher had sent over an assignment to watch the animal camera at the San Diego Zoo and answer some questions. I took notes of everything Derrick said. It was a fun activity, but it also made us sad that we couldn't go to the zoo ourselves.

Veronica's teacher had stopped by on Wednesday with an envelope that had a "Flat Mrs Collier" in it. She asked us to take pictures of things our kids did with Flat Mrs Collier. Here's Veronica coloring with her.

My sister Hillary had sent us a Marco Polo video of her son Walter wearing a blanket that he called his Bat Man Cape.  That got me thinking about some of the Halloween Costumes the kids had out grown. I told Hillary we'd have to give her Veronica's old Batman costume next time we saw her. And then I decided that since we didn't know when that would be, we should just send her a package. I was able to find the Batman Costume, the Spiderman costume, and the Hulk Costume. Veronica liked the idea of passing the costumes onto one of her favorite cousins. She even wrote him a note that said, "Dear Walter. I hope you joy these costumes. Love Veronica."

We got the package together but then couldn't find packing tape. Our neighbors let us borrow some. On our way back from their house I realized the flowers look really good from this angel too, so I took another picture.

We dropped off the package at the post office after getting the lunches.  I ran in to take care of paying for it and the kids waited in the car. Walter got the package on Saturday. His favorite costume was the spiderman costume we could see him wearing it in one of the marco polo videos she sent on Saturday. She said he threw a big tantrum when she made him take it off for bed and the compromise was that he could snuggle with it while he slept.  I'm so glad we took the time to pull it out of a storage box and send it to him.

We didn't go anywhere special on Thursday. The kids played outside and I took pictures of my garden.  Here are the peas.

Lettuce.

Onions.

Not pictured are the beans and pumpkins we planted at some point that week.

At 4:00 we went to a Drive By Snocone event that the Primary leaders in our ward put together. It was fun to have somewhere to go.  The kids loved getting their cones and seeing the primary presidency.

Back at home I had the kids help me put the ladder and the hammock away. There were tornado warnings for all the surrounding counties and I'd seen pictures of toppled trees in Boise. I'd noticed big clouds heading our way when we'd gone to get the snocones. About 5 minutes after we got everything put away the wind started blowing.  It was  very strong wind. We could see dirt and leafs blowing down the street. The sky turned a funny yellow color.

Brandon was home, but was on a zoom call in our bedroom. I was supposed to go into work, but I didn't want to leave the kids unsupervised during a wind storm. So I emailed my boss that I'd be in late. We watched the wind uncertainly.  Nothing big blew over near us - though I did see some fallen branches on my walk the next morning. The wind eventually let up and I went to work.

I updated my boss how Brandon had an interview lined up. He seemed relieved that I didn't have an interview yet.

After work I went to Walmart to buy some shoes for Veronica and me.  We both had sandals that were completely falling apart. I also stopped in the garden section and bought potting soil and a few more plants.

When I got home I didn't even go in the house. I just unloaded my stuff and went to work planting things. I filled up my big planter that Brandon gave me for Mother's Day in Alabama. I put mint in it and some bulb that I've already forgotten what kind it was.  When Brandon finished putting the kids to bed he came out and helped me.

Then we went in the front yard and I planted gladiola bulbs and other flowers. Marcia was in the front yard too and Brandon was playing with her. Charlotte and Lydia peeked out of their window and watched. They kept asking when they would be old enough to stay up late and play in the front yard. I told them they could do that as soon as we didn't have to worry about school.

On Friday May 1 we were all a little surprised that we'd made it to May. March and the first part of April had drug on by, but the last part of April zipped by. May 1 was the end to the Stay Home order which Governor Little had issued on March 25th. Now we were entering into a gradual reopening of the state. It was odd to suddenly be thinking about things possibly returning to normal soon.

I'd left Veronica's new sandals on the table, but she didn't notice them right away. I'd hoped to get ones similar to Derrick's, but in a different color, but all they had were ones the exact same color as Derrick. So Veronica thought they were Derrick's.  She was super excited when she found out they were hers.

She and Derrick had to pose together with their matching shoes.

Our first walking rainbow hadn't worked out so we tried it again. This time we left the cups where the colors mixed empty. That helped the color move into those cups better.

Our morning was pretty laid back followed by a laid back afternoon. All week I'd been supposed to be working on a presentation for the final part of my business class, but I just couldn't seem to work on it. My "business" was basically my very part time writing side hustle. It was hard to focus on writing a 5 minute presentation about my glorified hobby when I was grappling with Brandon's need for a new job. Still I attempted to write down my ideas for the presentation while relaxing in the hammock.

Veronica came out and swung in the hammock with me.  Then she showed me how she likes to swing on the rope ladder.

Derrick climbed in the hammock with me.

Time was slipping by and soon it was time to make dinner. I wasn't in the mood to cook anything elaborate so I just made quesadillas. We took them up in the tree house and ate them up there. That was a fun dinner. 

Charlotte showed off her climbing abilities. 

My siblings had set up a game of Quiplash on Jackbox games. We'd played a game together earlier in the week and it had been so fun. This one was for adults and parents. Charlotte and Lydia played on mine and Brandon's cell phones. I helped them know what to write. 

After the game, I spent some time putting little brick walkways into the berry patch. Charlotte helped me.

Then we went into the front yard and the kids played until it got dark. Brandon taught them some night games.  It was a great way to spend a Friday evening.

Saturday May 2nd was a good day, but a little unpredictable. The RV guy hadn't told Brandon a specific time to come in and work. He said he'd call him when he was ready.  So we couldn't really make any plans for the day.

I went grocery shopping in the morning and Brandon texted me to say the guy wanted him to come in at 11:00.  I was home by then and Brandon went to the place. This was as much for Brandon to see what the place was like as it was for them to see what Brandon was like.  The last thing he wanted to do was end up in another poorly managed shop.

Meanwhile at home I took care of more yardwork.  (It's kind of my favorite thing right now.)  Here's the flower update.

Derrick helped me water all the trees and give them their "medicine."  We have an itty bitty lilac bush that I'm hoping grows well.  Even though our lilac is small we still have been able to smell all the lilacs our neighbors have. Both next door neighbors and one of our kittycorner backdoor neighbors have multiple lilac bushes. The air smells WONDERFUL in our backyard.

Brandon came home after about 3 hours.  He was so relaxed and happy. He told me all about the ways this job would be perfect for him. The owner was really easy to talk to and gave good directions. The workflow of the shop made a lot of sense. Brandon had been able to show off his experience by explaining how to use airplane rivets. (They had one of those metal 1960's motor homes.)  The work he'd done had been easy to understand and hadn't had the pressure of making sure something was safe enough to fly.

They'd discussed pay and the owner had agreed to keep Brandon at the same amount of money he was making at his current job and then assess that after about a month.  And really this already was a pay raise because Brandon wouldn't have to drive to Jerome. The RV place was only a mile and a half from our house.

Brandon and I both felt really good about this opportunity. Yes he was leaving the airline industry, but he was still staying in the same profession. It wasn't like all the work he'd put into his A&P was suddenly worthless. In fact the A&P made him a super qualified mechanic.

The RV guy, whose name is Bill, said there was one more guy coming in on Monday.  So far Brandon was the most qualified, but he wanted to give this other guy a chance.  So we had to wait until Tuesday to know for sure. But even with that little bit of uncertainty we still felt really good about the situation.

I'd been outside with Derrick for a long time, but had forgotten to drink any water.  So I ended up with a huge headache and laid down for a long time. When I work up I went downstairs and sat on the check freezer and talked to Brandon while reorganized the food storage. We'd had our holiday decorations on one half of these shelves and the food storage on the other half. We decided we needed more food storage so we moved the holiday stuff under the staircase.  This opened up so much space for food storage.

Throughout the day we got Marco Polo updates from my brother Billy about his wife Becca. Their first baby had been due on the previous Monday and we were all super excited that she'd finally gone into labor. Somehow Billy and Becca had restrained themselves from finding out the gender of their baby. So we were all super excited for the birth of the baby.  

He sent us a picture of the baby after it was born, but he really took his time telling us the gender. Finally he let us know that it was a BOY! This meant the baby would be named William Duncan Loveless VII (The seventh.)  This name has been passed down since pioneer times. I remember being really little and hearing my Great Grandma Edra talk about the name. My brother Billy must not have been born yet because she was speculating about whether or not there would be a Sixth.  Someone said something about whether or not there would ever be a Seventh. The general consensus from everyone in the room was that having a Seventh just seemed so far away and basically unthinkable. Yet 30 years later here he is. And he's quite possibly the most photogenic baby I've ever seen. 

The kids wanted a dance party so we had one that evening. I still had my headache so I didn't participate too much, but the kids had so much fun.

We are talking about doing a dance party for Charlotte and Lydia's birthday in the fall.

On Sunday May 3 I woke up and hammered out the text for my business presentation.  It wasn't great, but it would do. In the morning one of the other participants in the business class delivered cookies to use as a sample for her business idea.  These cookies are AMAZING and I really hope she does get her business going because the world needs more of her cookies.

We did the class via zoom. Everyone had really great ideas for their businesses. Everyone had 5 minutes to give their presentation. My presentation wasn't amazing. But I didn't need it to be.  I was so happy when it was over.  (And honestly the next day I had an idea for how I could have done the presentation differently. I was like, "where was this idea last week?")

The past 12 weeks of this class have been really good.  It gave me an opportunity to explore what I want out of my writing career. Ultimately I've decided that it's still going to be a side hobby, I've learned a lot about how to make it a productive side hobby. I highly recommend the church's Self Reliance Classes.

The class lasted 3 hour and I was drained by the end of it. So I didn't update this blog that evening.  And I never found a good time to do it this week so we are just going to roll right on to the next week here. 

Week 8
I assume we made some sort of attempt at school on Monday May 4th, but I don't remember anything specific.  After attempting school we picked up lunch and headed into the Snake River Canyon to the Auger Falls area.  The kids had been trying to convince me that we didn't need to go anywhere that day, but I told them we had to go somewhere.

We were all impressed by all the seasonal waterfalls we could see.  None of these had been running when we came here at the end of February.

The kids forgot all about their earlier complaints and started hiking with a lot of excitement.

Soon we came to the area we'd planned to visit.  It was a bunch of rocks that they'd enjoyed climbing on last time we were here.  They scattered in all directions. 

Derrick climbed this rock.

There was another waterfall visible off in the distance.  We could hear the water from it.

The kids were very interested in all the lizards they could find. There's one hiding in a crack here.

Eventually they sat long enough to eat.

And then went back to exploring.

Here's Charlotte and Lydia.

All the kids looking for lizards.

We talked about how lizards are cold blooded as opposed to warm blooded like us. That info stuck better than anything we'd attempted to do at home.

More climbing.

And more exploring.

You'd never guess that these kids hadn't wanted to go anywhere that morning.

Eventually we went back to the car and the kids talked me into driving to the trailhead for the Perrine Coolee Falls. They wanted to play in the "Grand Canyon".  They had so much fun playing in this dirt.

Back at home we relaxed in the cool house. The kids watched a movie in the basement and I worked on proofreading over the phone with my mom.  It's so good to have another pair of eyes.

Brandon came home while I was making dinner. He seemed more relaxed than he usually is after work. I asked him, "How was work?" And he replied, "Oh it was good, and I got fired."

I'd dreaded, and yet, expected those words every day for months. There had been days that Brandon was so stressed out he could barely talk after work. I'd think, "oh no they fired him today."  But no he was just stressed at something that happened. Or he'd come home angry and I'd think, "It happened today." But no he was just mad about something that happened.  After all the anxiety and the anger I guess I should have expected the day he got fired to come as a relief.

To the company's credit they'd been very civil with him. He didn't get fired over anything specific or anything he did wrong. Everyone (including Brandon) had come to the realization that he wasn't a good fit for the company. The office lady who is also over HR specifically told Brandon that she wanted him to file for unemployment.

Maybe I would have been more stressed out about the job loss if we hadn't had the RV job nearly in the bag. But as it was I was relieved. I'd been waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop for so long that now that it had dropped it felt good to get it over with.

Brandon seemed like a new man.  He seemed happier and more energetic than he had been in a long time. After dinner he said, "so what do we want to do now?" This kicked off the most productive week we've had in a long time.

I suggested we get the backyard fountain up and running.  He happily went right to work on that.  Derrick and I helped him clean it out.

Meanwhile the girls were playing in the backyard. Veronica made herself a home in the big box. 

Charlotte and Lydia's Frozen Barbies went camping.

Here are the barbies exploring the wilderness.

There was a lot of standing water at the bottom of the collection pool. Brandon said that it would be easier to get it out with a wet dry vacuum. I told him to go buy one. As homeowners with a basement a wet dry vac is probably something we needed to have on hand anyway. Homedepot is open until 8:00 these days so he was able to get the vacuum. Derrick thought it was the coolest thing ever.

More camping barbies. Now they were sitting around the campfire.

We worked on the fountain and nearly got it working again. But Brandon realized the pump was broken. It was after 8:00 by this point so a new pump would have to wait until morning.

At some point during the evening we got a phone call from Bill the RV Guy. He said that the guy who had worked for him that day wasn't going to work out. But that another potiential employee was coming in on Tuesday. He wanted to at least give him a shot. So he told Brandon that he'd let him know either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. We still had a good feeling about the job so we didn't worry too much.

There was some sort of meteor shower that was supposed to happen that night and we'd told the kids they could lay out in the backyard to watch it.  Derrick and Veronica had set up beds in the cardboard box.

We put the picnic blanket down and the kids made beds on that so they could see the sky. 

The moon ended up being too bright to see and meteors, but we had a wonderful time hanging out in the backyard. This was one of the first times the kids have ever done this. We finally went in the house around 10:00 everyone was shivering outside so we were happy to be in the warm house. Derrick and Veronica had been basically asleep when we came inside. Veronica was so sleepy she didn't even make it to her bed. She just went straight for the couch and fell asleep there.

Tuesday May 5th turned out to be Saturday #1 of a week full of Saturdays. We wouldn't hear from Bill until that night at the earliest so we just decided not to think about the job at all. Instead we focused on the things we've needed to do for a while. Brandon had already decided that if he got the RV job he wouldn't start there until the next Monday. It had been a while since he had a lot of free time and he was going to enjoy it.

I went for a walk in the morning and when I got home I took my hair out of the bun it had been in.  I laughed so hard when I saw my hair. I'd felt like it was getting too long back in February. I'd been planning to at least get a few of the dead inches trimmed off. But then things went crazy with coronavirus. 

All the damaged hair was making tons of tangles. So I had to use the kids wet brush to brush my hair. But that had been lost for the last few days. I'd been washing my hair, but I'd been unable to really brush it. I'd just been throwing it up in a bun every day.  This was what it looked like when it was down.

I sent a marco polo to my siblings to document the crazy hair. And then I was still laughing about it so I put it on Facebook too.

Then I took a shower and brushed out my hair (with the wet brush which had been found on Charlotte's bed.) I had quite the transformation. (Makeup helped too.)

Brandon asked me to make him a list of all the things that we wanted to do while he was off of work. This was the start of the list. A few things got added over the next few days. There were things that had been on this list for months. We had the money for everything on the list, we just hadn't had the time or mental energy to take care of these things.

I attempted school with the kids while Brandon went to the store to buy some of the things on the list. When he got back we took him with us on our adventure for the day.  The kids had been asking to go back to Billingsley Creek in Hagerman. So we'd planned to go out there before we knew Brandon would be with us.  Since he was coming we could now bring the fishing poles.

The kids had a great time fishing and playing in the water.

I really love this area.

We stayed until 2:00 and then headed home. When we got home I did proof reading with my mom. Then I went to pick up two big planter pots from a lady in the ward who was giving them away.

When I got back, Brandon had the pump installed and the fountain was running. It looked so good.   He'd bought heavy duty double sided sticky tape for me and so I started to mount our licence plate collection to the wall. I was having a lot of fun with that when I realized it was nearly 4:30 and I usually go to work at 5:00 on Tuesday nights.  I decided to email my boss and let him know that the time had got away from me.  I told him Brandon had been let go and that meant I'd be able to come in for several hours during the day on Wednesday. Then I went back to work mountain the licence plates.  It looked so good when I was done!

I took a selfie with it.

I had no desire at all to go back in the house and cook dinner so I decided that we needed to celebrate Brandon getting fired. (Weird, I know, but Brandon had said a few days earlier that she should celebrate when he was finally done with that job.) So I ordered food from Wendy's and Brandon picked it up. We hurried to put up the card table and find some seats. We had our first outdoor meal.

This is also when we told the kids that Brandon wasn't working at the airport anymore. We'd just told them he had the day off when they'd asked why he wasn't at work. None of them seemed worried when we told them he'd been let go.  They all knew about the RV job so they'd known he was planning to leave anyway.

We spent another wonderful evening outside. The kids played and Brandon and I worked on installing a solar powered light above the fountain. I took this picture of the licence plates and loved how they reflected back the flash.

Brandon fixed up my windchime and we hung that up.

When it got dark enough the solar light came on. It made the fountain look like an interesting grotto. We'd also ordered more outdoor lights for the rest of the patio. Those should help brighten things up too.

Wednesday May 6th was Saturday #2.  Brandon called Bill a little before 9:00.  Bill told him he had the job!!!!!!!!  We hadn't been too worried about the situation, but it was still a relief to hear those words.

I headed into work and got a lot done. I was in a faboulous mood for several reasons.  1. Brandon had to take charge of home school for the day. 2. Brandon had a job. and 3. I'd spent nearly the whole day outside on Tuesday.

After work I went to Lowes to pick up spray paint for the new pots I'd received. I picked up a pretty blue. I also bought a bunch of shade loving plants. I pretty much had no idea what I was buying, but if it looked cool and said it did well in the shade I bought it.

I came home and spray painted the pots. I used the giant box to catch the paint.

Brandon took the Honda to Les Shwab to get new tires.  Oh it's good to finally see some tread on those wheels again.

I got the pots painted and the plants potted. (Try saying that 3 times fast.) This rock fountain looked so much more cheerful than it had a few days earlier.

Here's the full effect.

The kids love climbing up in here to get a good look at everything.

I also got a lot done in the berry patch. I added some soil amendments and put the T-stake frame in place.  Brandon also built me a box for strawberries. The strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries will arrive in the mail next week.

Here's the berry patch from another angle.

And while we are at it, here is the garden.

On of my favorite views of the fountain is from this side. It's so fun to walk by.

Brandon made lasagna for dinner and we ate it outside. 

Lydia and I went to the store and bought ice cream to celebrate Brandon's job offer.

Thursday May 7th was Saturday #3.

I went to work again during the morning. It felt so go to be there during normal business hours. (Even if I did spent half the morning looking at the calendar for Tuesday.)

Back at home I took care of a lot of little small projects. Brandon had replaced the heating coil in the dryer (probably the 5th time in the 12 years we've owned that hard working dryer.) So I was making sure the laundry got done. Brandon took the jeep in to get new tires. 

A package arrived with some new calico critters. Marcia had eaten one of Lydia's little kangaroos and when Lydia found out she was devastated. I agreed to buy her a new set so she could replace that kangaroo if she gave the rest of the set to Veronica.  That's kind of how it turned out. Lydia decided to keep the new set and give Veronica the old ones.  Everyone was happy. Veronica started playing with the kangaroos and it was good to see her playing and pretending.

The package had also contained a copy of Jenifer Fulwiller's new book, "Your Blue Flame." I'd bought it as a Mother's Day present. Brandon took the book and wrapped it so I wouldn't read it right away. Because I bought the book I was invited to the online book launch party. So at 5:30 I logged into that. It was so fun to listen to Jen. I adore this woman. She has influenced my life in ways that she will never know. 

Here's a picture of us together.

She had several guests including Jennie Gaffigan.  Jennie inspired me by her very casual appearance. She had her hair pulled up in a quick bun with lots of wispy hair on the sides. And yet she just talked and shared stories like it was no big deal that she was speaking to hundreds of people. It was a fun night and felt very social even though I couldn't actually talk to anyone.

When I finished up with that I went outside and found that the kids had constructed a mini golf course in the drive way.

They showed off all the different challenges.

They had a lot of fun ideas.

Everyone was very involved.

I like this one because you can see the flowers.

The evening was really nice. Our neighbor Karen came over to talk and ended up giving us a tour of her RV that was parked in front of her house. We stood outside her house and talked for at least an hour.

Lydia finally dragged me away so I could finish reading Holes to her and Charlotte.

Friday May 8th was Saturday #4. And we still had projects. Brandon set up the new tent and water proofed it.

Miss Shay didn't show up for Derrick's therapy and we later found out she wasn't feeling well. Derrick was super sad that she wasn't coming so I offered to take him to the store to buy a remote control car with his birthday money. We'd been planning to do this on real Saturday, but Saturday #4 worked too.

We went to Walmart and bought the car. I also picked up a few other things to surprise the kids with when we kick off the summer. And I bought 4 storage tubs. When Brandon moved the holiday decorations under the stairs I'd remarked that I'd like to put some of the stuff into tubs instead of boxes.

Derrick was so excited to have his car.

He loved driving it around.

At 11:30 I met up with my boss at a office building that he was looking to lease. The new building is a 10 minute walk from my house. (I'd checked on my walk that morning.) And will be across the street from the kids Middle School. I was already partial to the location so I was happy when I saw that the inside of the building will work well for our growing needs.

Back at home I moved the decorations into the totes in the basement while Brandon and the kids did stuff in the garage and outside.

At 3:00 I went over to my friend Mary's house so she could show me her food storage system. I'd put up a post on the ward Facebook group asking for suggestions for the best places in town to buy in bulk. Mary responded with a phone call full of tons of advise. She wanted to show me her system. I'm so glad she did that. She had great ideas. My favorite was that she stores things like bags of pasta in storage totes. That's such a good idea because then you don't have to worry about the bags sliding around.

When I got back I found Charlotte and Lydia working together on a book. It was so cute to see them working together.

They even let Veronica help them.

We had dinner and then Veronica went with me to pick up a Bountiful Basket. We haven't done this since Texas.

It was so fun to get all this food.

Brandon wanted to watch a movie with me on Friday night so we watched Cloverfield. It was pretty good. Then we watched a couple episodes of The Good Place. We recently started watching it and have had fun with it.  

Saturday May 9th was Saturday #5. We cleaned the house really well. Brandon worked with all three girls and made sure their bedrooms were picked up and the floors were super clean. I worked with Derrick to clean his room, the family room, and the living room. The girls later cleaned the bathrooms.  After the house was clean Brandon took the jeep to get an oil change and then went grocery shopping. 

I spent a lot of the day cutting old jeans for a new project. I was listening to Brandon Sanderson's Starsight so I didn't really pay attention to how much time passed, but I probably spent HOURS on that project. 

At 3:30 we drove over to Veronica's kindergarten teacher's house to get cupcakes. It was her birthday and she'd invited her students to come get a cupcake. (And she said siblings could come too.) Veronica had made her a card and gave her too candies. 

Saturday night I went on a long walk with my friend Diantha. I'm so lucky to live next door to a woman like her. 

Brandon and I stayed up watching shows for nostalgia's sake. We watched the special reunion episode of Parks and Rec that was filmed with all the actors at home. It was so fun to watch. Then we watched Psych the Movie.  Somehow we'd missed hearing about this when it came out in 2017 so I only found out it existed when we heard they were releasing a second movie. It's been a while since we watched that show (like 5 years) so it was a little harder to get in on all the jokes, but it was still fun. I said to Brandon, remember when we would put the kids to bed and then have to watch these shows in our room because they kids would get up if we were anywhere else in the house? Even then we often found Charlotte and Lydia asleep on the floor by the door when we were done watching Psych. Now we can watch these on our big screen TV in the family room. 

And now we've finally made it to today. Sunday May 10th, Mother's Day. 

Brandon and the kids brought me breakfast in bed for me to eat while I wrote. 

 Veronica had made some very beautiful collage/sculptures.  They were pretty amazing.

 Charlotte and Lydia put together a bouquet of flowers.

 Here's the breakfast.

 Later Derrick came in to give me a flower. I came out of my room to participate in our sacrament service, and then I went right back in. I spent a long time writing and then I talked to my sister Emily on the phone.

After that I came out and spent a few hours with the kids. I discovered these flowers that Brandon bought for me.  I'd been buying presents for myself for a while so I'd told him not to worry about buying me anything, but he'd still bought these for me.  They are so pretty.

Brandon made 7 layer dip for dinner. After dinner he took a long nap. I set the laptop up on the patio and kept writing.

And here we are at 7:47 and I am finally done writing about the last two weeks.

It may seem crazy to spend most of the day writing, but this is what I love to do. 

Thanks for reading.