2013 Vacation Day 3: The Houston Zoo

Back in 2011 Brandon was working for Frontier Airlines.  They gave him free flights so we considered flying out to Houston to visit my sister Lindsey that year for our vacation.  However, Brandon was paid such a pittance we knew we couldn't afford to do anything once we got to Houston.  Another problem was that the girls were only 6 months old.  We weren't sure we wanted to deal with flying standby with them.  So we put Houston on the back burner and did a stay-cation instead.  When I found out we were moving to Texas I was excited because I knew we could finally do a vacation with Lindsey.   

Monday morning om March 11th we got up early and packed the last few things into the jeep.  Then we woke the kids up, changed their diapers, and put them into their car seats.  They fell right back to sleep and slept until Brandon and I switched off driving at the halfway point (he was really tired - he usually never gives up the drivers seat.)

We got to Lindsey's house around 9:00.  The kids were all antsy to get out of the car and see their cousins.  Lindsey fed us all breakfast (the girls didn't like the bagels we'd brought) and we changed the kids into their clothes for the day.  Then it was time to go to the Houston Zoo.

John rode with Brandon to give him directions and I rode with Lindsey.  We took separate routes and ended up parking in separate areas.  We met up at the main gate and then got our tickets.  Brandon and I got in for free because we are military.  We could have received two free tickets for the kids, but they were all free anyway since they were 2 and under.  So we pretended Rocklond was our son and got him in for free too.  

Finally it was time to see some animals.  First up were the elephants.

The girls were so excited to see the Mommy and baby elephants.  They watched them eat for a long time.  

Both girls do really funny impressions of elephant noises.  They basically just blow raspberries.

I'm not much of an animal lover, but when asked, I usually say that elephants are my favorite animals.  I had lots of fun watching the girls react to the elephants.

 We brought the triple stroller, but it didn't get used much at first.  Charlotte and Lydia wanted to get up close to the animals.  So we ended up putting Knoxx next to Derrick and just driving it around that way for awhile.  These boys are only 10 days apart and lots of people thought they were twins.

 Brandon and I each kept an eye on a twin.  Rocklond and John stayed together.  And that left Lindsey to push the stroller.

 While Brandon was at basic training he missed out on going to the zoo - twice!  So he was very happy to be  with us this time.  Brandon comes from a family of animal lovers.  He went very slowly through each exhibit and display.  He took time to read the information signs to which ever twin he was with.  On the other hand, Lindsey and me just kind of breezed through everything.  Lindsey said, "these animals would have to be playing chess to get me to really stop and watch them."

 I'm not sure what the girls favorite animals are, but Charlotte kept asking to see the Tigers.  And Lydia wanted to see a Hippo.  The zoo didn't have a Hippo, but they did have a Rhino so she was happy.  Brandon put her by this model of one and she loved it.  

We saw another of the girls' favorite animals - the giraffes.  But that area was so crowded with people that we just hurried on by.  We were also getting hungry by this time so we stopped for lunch.  Lindsey and I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for everyone.  Lindsey totally smoked me in our little "contest."  Her secret was to use a spoon instead of a knife. 

 Everyone enjoyed lunch.

 Then it was back out to see animals.  There was a little petting zoo with goats that the girls loved.

This was supposed to be a cousins picture, but many of the cousins lost interest before the picture was taken.

 The babies continued to hang out in the stroller.  They ate chips and enjoyed bottles.

 There was a play area that was swarming with kids so we didn't let our kids play on it.  They weren't very happy about that.

 But then we took them into an area that had little windows with terrarium type cages behind them.  The girls loved looking for whatever snake, frog, lizard, bug, and so one was in each cage.  I think they liked how small the scale was.  And everything was right at their height.

 We were in that area for a long time.

When we were done with that area it was getting obvious that the kids were close to their nap time.  We still hadn't seen Charlotte's tigers yet so we couldn't leave.  This is when the triple stroller came in handy (like I knew it would.)  We strapped all three not so happy children into the stroller and went off to find the tigers.  

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 We found the lions first.  They were sleeping and not very interesting.  But the girls didn't care.  They loved looking at them anyway.  Then we found the tiger.  He was sleeping too, but Charlotte could see him and so it was fine that he wasn't doing anything.  Both girls made lots of roaring sounds.

 Then we went into the monkey area.  It was crowded and the kids were in various stages of falling asleep.  We didn't let them get out to see any of the monkeys.  When we were done there we had a little photo shoot in front of some pretty flowers.

 Here is Lindsey's family (this is proof that John was with us).

 And Lindsey wanted me to take her picture.  (No one in my family hides from a camera.)

The kids were all done for the day so we started walking out of the zoo.  We had all had a great time.  The girls had seen all of their favorite animals.  

Sometimes I felt like we were on display more than the animals. All day long people had been making comments about the triple stroller and it's occupants. Most of the time I don't think they knew I could hear them.  I'd overhear things like, "Oh cute, triplets!" or "wow, she has her hands full!" One kid asked his mom, "where did they buy that?"  I just smiled and thought, "I'm glad it's not obvious that I'm having a fourth kid."

 The kids were all completely asleep by the time we made it to the car.  Lindsey gave me great directions on how to get back to her house so I just rode with Brandon and navigated for him with the directions and a map.  We were able to witness some Houston traffic.  The freeways were really crowded, but all the lanes were moving so I guess it could have been worse. Charlotte and Derrick woke up on the way home and played in their seats.

 Lydia slept the whole way.

We actually got home before Lindsey and John (Lindsey didn't follow her own directions.) Brandon and I had wanted to take everyone out for dinner to thank Lindsey and John for all the help they gave us with moving out here.  Everyone was really tired and we didn't want to put the kids back in the car and take them to a restaurant.  So we ordered Chinese food instead.

Then we all watched Wreck it Ralph after dinner.  I loved it.  It was so fun, creative, and interesting.  The girls liked it too.  They were very tired when it was over.  Lindsey put a mattress and a pack'n'play in her dinning room and so we put the kids to bed down there.  It was nice that we didn't have to share the guest room with them.

As I finished putting the kids to bed I got a text message from Lindsey.  She invited me and Brandon up to her room for a hair dying party that she and John were having.  So we went up there.

Lindsey had watched a few youtube videos on how to do an Ombre dye job.  Based on that extensive research I let her die my hair.  The fact that she was willing to do her own hair gave me confidence.  She gave herself dark roots and light ends.  She gave me light ends.  John and Brandon just laughed at us.

The dye finished setting at around 11:30.  I was so tired after all the fun from the day that I just washed it out and then went to sleep.  I didn't have the energy to blow dry my hair to see how it looked.

2013 Vacation Days 1 and 2 - Prep

We had a lot of fun on our vacation last year, but there were many things that we knew we didn't want to repeat.  For one, we didn't have the luxury of packing at a leisurely pace.  You may remember that Brandon and I went to Moab for the weekend while the kids hung out at my parents.  Then we picked them up, repacked the jeep, and drove to Colorado.  It worked because it had to, but I do not recommend doing back to back vacations like that.  

This year the US Army helped us have some extra time to pack.  Brandon had to literally sign in and out for his leave.  His leave started on Monday which meant we really couldn't go to far on Saturday and Sunday.  We took advantage of those two days and got everything together without much stress.  

Here is a list of all the things we needed to pack. I like to start making these lists about a week in advance.  That way I can add things to the list as I remember them.  

If you take the time to read this list you might notice that some things that we usually bring our missing.  Namely the tent and other camping stuff.  Yep, that's right, we didn't camp this year.  We wanted to, but we needed to bring the triple stroller on the trip and that meant we didn't have room for the camping stuff.  Plus we really only had one night open to camp and it didn't make sense to bring all the equipment along for just that one night.  But don't worry, we plan on going on many weekend camping trips to make up not doing it this week.

 And here is our list of food that we wanted to buy.  Our vacation is the one time of year we buy things like pudding cups, capri sun, and string cheese.  

The kids had fun hanging out.  They sort of helped as we cleaned up the house and got things packed.  This is Lydia looking cute.  

And here is Charlotte showing off her pen drawings on her favorite canvas.

We let them eat lunch on the counter because hey we were on vacation.

Sunday was the start of daylight savings time for the year.  I did NOT want to get out of bed and get ready for our church that starts at 8:30.  The only thing that got me up was the fact that I knew I was going to get up at 5:00 for my vacation the next day.  I could not, in good conscience, miss church and then go on vacation.

Through some miracle (named Brandon), we all were ready for church, fed breakfast, looking good, and ready to go with time to spare. We even had time to take these pictures to prove how cute our kids are and how awesome we can be.

Char and Lyds really got into the photoshoot and started hugging because they know I love that.

They threw in a kiss too.  These girls are so loving toward each other.

And here is proof that I do have good hair days.  Please remember how good my bangs look in this picture. There are pictures of later in the vacation where my bangs don't look near this good. 

Church went well. The time change actually worked in our favor because Derrick didn't want to take a nap until after church.  We were sustained in our new calling as Primary Teachers (We are in Sr Primary - thank goodness).

Then we came home and finished getting ready.  We took naps and just relaxed all day.  After the kids were in bed Brandon started loading up the jeep.  He was so full of energy from his nap that he stayed up until about 2:00 in the morning loading the jeep and cleaning the house.  Around 2:00 am he went to get signed out.  Then he came home and climbed in bed with me for a few hours before it was time to get up and get started with the real part of our vacation.

Pre-vacation randomness

I am not a spur of the moment person. I often joke that the most spontaneous thing I ever did was conceive twins without fertility drugs or treatments.  But the US Army seams bound and determined to help me become more spontaneous.   First there was the interstate move that we pulled off with hardly any notice (aside from the fact that we knew it would happen eventually).  And now it's our annual family vacation road trip.

Around the end of February Brandon was told that his unit would be going on leave in March instead of May.  That meant I suddenly had two weeks to plan something that I usually like to spend 4 months thinking about and planning.  Thankfully there were several things in my favor.  1. We are in a brand new state.  Everything is new and exciting to us.  2. We have 5 years of experience with these road trips.  Planning is more like following a recipe than starting from scratch.  3. My sister Lindsey, who we all know is capable of being very spontaneous,  lives nearby and is willing to hang out and give tips on where to go.  And 4. I was already doing preliminary planning anyway (like from the second I knew we were moving to Texas).

So next week we are off on another wild adventure.  In the meantime I have a few random things I want to post about before the vacation takes over my blog topics for a while.  These are just cute things that have happened over the past few months.

• First up we have a video of the girls talking about all the bugs we've interacted with here in Texas.  Lydia had a run of bad luck.  First she got stung by a bee, then she stood on a fire ant nest, and finally she got shocked while playing with the TV plug.  In all cases we put medicine on her and she felt better.  Then the next day she came up to me with her doll and told me that her doll had been stung/bit/shocked and needed medicine.  So then we took care of the doll.  It makes me feel really good about my skills as a mother to see Lydia hold and comfort her doll the same way I comfort her.  

• Lydia's doll is laying on the table during that video.  That doll was Lydia's Christmas present when she was about 14 months old.  We've always just called it "Lydia's Baby" as in "Charlotte you know that's Lydia's baby, go find yours."  The other day I off-handedly told Lydia to go get her, "Christmas Doll," and she came back with that doll.  I wonder if she remembers getting her for a present.  
• Brandon refers to the doll as "Dobby the House Elf" and wonders if it would go away if we gave it clothes.  I'll admit it does look a little shabby, but Lydia loves that doll so much.  She carries her around and likes to wrap her up in blankets.  
• Both girls like to put blankets on their heads and say they are "Mawwy" then they hold their dolls and say they are "Baby Jesus."  Christmas apparently made an impression this year.
• I'm feeling better and better about Baby D.  I remembered that I really like how close together the twins and Derrick are - at least in some ways.  For one thing they all pretty much enjoy doing the same things.  Here they are playing on the ledge.  I had Derrick up there and within seconds Lydia climbed up followed by Charlotte.  They all laughed and pretended to jump up and down.  (Check out Lydia's awesome clothes matching skills.)
•  Charlotte hosted another dinner party for me while Lydia was asleep.  I don't know if she waits to have these until Lydia is gone, or if I only get invited when Lydia is unavailable as a guest.  Either way I'm glad she likes to serve me.  At this party we were eating pizza.  The paint sample cards were our plates and the pennies were our cups.  The comb was the "sharp knife."  Charlotte was very prepared and even had some "baby food" (another paint sample) for Derrick.  A little rubber ducky was also a guest and Charlotte made sure he had enough, "baby food" too.
•  Speaking of pennies.  Charlotte once came up to me and said, "Enning, Money, Hurts." and she pointed to her chest.  "Did you eat money?" I asked her.  "I do it." she replied.  So now she knows what happens when you eat money.
• Charlotte's favorite phase is "I do it."  It works in response to all sorts of questions such as: "Who wants to help me with ______?"  "Did you do _____?" and "Do you want me to do ______?"  Lydia's favorite word is "Self."  It's short for "I'll do it myself."
• The girls know their middle names now - sort of.  Apparently their names are "Charlotte Guy" and "Lydia Brake"  and our last name is Uffuth or something similar.  If you ask them their names Charlotte will tell you "Chawwee," and Lydia calls herself "Lid-ya."  Charlotte calls Lydia "Lil-la" (she used to call her "LaLa") and Lydia calls Charlotte "Char-et."  They both call Derrick "Dewwick." and somehow they can say his middle name, Thomas, perfectly. They know our first names too.  Daddy is "Ban-don" and I'm "Fawerwe." 
• We were out of milk and I told Charlotte that we were going to the store to buy more milk.  She repeated, "Go to store buy milk." The next day Charlotte wanted a banana, but we were out of those too.  She thought for a minute and then said, "go to store buy banana."  I was so proud of her for figuring that out.  
• We put Derrick in a forward facing car seat.  We figured he didn't want to spend another long car ride staring at a box of food.  He seems very happy to be able to see what the rest of us can see.  Lydia kept saying, "Three Babies" which meant, "All three of us are facing the same way."
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• Derrick and Lydia weigh almost the same amount which has lead to some mix ups when I'm not paying attention.  Once I absentmindly put Derrick into Lydia's pink sleeper before Brandon called attention to which kid I was holding.  We all had a good laugh about that. 
• The girls are casually learning their letters and numbers.  They know most of them on sight.  Singing the ABC's goes like this, "A, B, C, P, W (pronounced "double") X, Y, Z, now know sing me.)  Lydia counts like this, "One, Two, FIVE!"  Charlotte used to count "One, Two, Three" but my constant laughing at Lydia confused her.  So now it's "One, Two, FEEVE!"
• Whenever the girls help me clean up Lydia sings, "Keen Up, Keen Up, Eveebee Eveewar."  She must have learned that song in nursery because I didn't start singing it with her until after I heard her sing it.  
• Every time I check on the girls after they've quieted down for the night I wonder, "what am I going to find tonight?"  Usually they are in their own beds, but occasionally I find things like this.

•  Despite all their trying the girls usually can't get through the day without a nap.  Charlotte was acting really tired (stealing toys, wanting everything in sight, driving me crazy) so I put her in her bed with a bottle and told her to take a nap. She knew she was in trouble, but she still didn't want to take a nap.  I heard her come out into the hall, but she knew not to come where I could see her.  Soon I didn't here anything.  A little while later I checked on her and found this.
•  Derrick is eating more and so he's fun to hang out with again.  On Monday he started babbling, Dadadadada again.  I hadn't heard him say that since his hunger strike began.  Then on Tuesday he started playing peek-a-boo (or as the girls say peek-eee-bow) with me.  He plays this all the time now.  He let me film him doing it earlier today.  He sat on my lap while I made the movie and he loved watching the playback of himself.  
• We went shopping for vacation food last night.  I brought my camera to take a picture of the awesome double seating carts that the HEB stores have, but I forgot.  At the end of the trip the girls wanted to sit on the patio furniture that was on display outside so I walked over there with them and let Brandon unload the cart.  I love the girls' outfits.  Lydia is wearing Charlotte's favorite dress - Charlotte said it was okay to wear the dress.  Charlotte wanted to wear the "piddy jacket" that goes with the dress.  In addition to that jacket Charlotte is wearing a Christmas themed pajama dress (which she wore to bed the night before and never changed out of), pants, and rain boots.  Oh to be two and have it be socially acceptable to wear outfits like this.  
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• Odd outfits or not, the girls charm just about everyone who sees them.  Last night it was the HEB bakery lady who thought they were so cute and such good talkers that she let them each have a cookie.  Lydia took two and gave the extra one to me with a cute little, "Here Mama" thrown in incase my heart wasn't melting enough.  
• The girls sharing abilities are another reason I'm glad my kids are so close in age.  Yes they fight, but they also watch out for each other really well.  They always make sure that they each have a treat and "Dewwick too." Every morning Charlotte puts all her babies and bears into Derrick's bed so he has something to play with.
• My Aunt Vera sent me a very encouraging message full of tons of things I needed to hear.  One of the things I'm working on now is to notice happy moments each day.  Today's happy moment was making Trail Mix with the girls while Derrick took his morning nap.  Trail mix is a time honored Valerie and Brandon Road Trip Tradition.  The girls and I had lots of fun mixing it together.  I let the girls sample each ingredient before I let one of them take a turn dumping it into the bowl. I made sure we started with the "boring" ingredients like sunflower seed and peanuts first.  That way when we got to the mini M&M's there was hardly any time for them to steal a whole bunch out of the bowl.  The girls loved helping and are very excited to eat the trail mix on our "cation."

Well the fun starts in just a few days.  I'm looking forward to telling you all about it when I get back.  

Upbeat

I had my first real doctors appointment for Baby D yesterday.  I was nervous for the appointment.  A few nights ago I had laid in bed wondering how I would feel if they couldn't find a heartbeat.  Would I be relieved?  

The MA started moving the sensor over my belly.  For a long time she couldn't find the heartbeat.  I found that I was actually hoping she would find it.  I was surprised at how anxious I was to hear a heartbeat.  I realized that I would be very disappointed if she couldn't find one.

And then that familiar fast-paced popping sound came through loud and clear.  I was instantly reminded of the last time I heard a heartbeat on a fetal monitor.  That was back when I was in labor with Derrick.

I was "in labor" for about 12 hours with Derrick.  Which sounds terrible, but really wasn't.  The contractions didn't hurt until several hours after I went to the hospital.  Once they did start hurting I just got an epidural and took a 3 hour nap until it was time to push.  During that nap the nurse left the fetal heart rate monitor volume on.  The steady thumping of Derrick's heart filled the room.  I loved thinking about the fact that I was sleeping to the sound of Derrick's heart while he was sleeping to the sound of mine.  Some moms say they bond with their baby through the pain/work/whatnot of labor.  For me it was just relaxing while hearing his heart.

As soon as I heard the heartbeat I realized this is a Baby - as in a person.  So far this pregnancy been one problem after another to solve.  Problems such as: find out if I'm really pregnant, get the IUD out, tell Brandon, find a doctor that can actually do a V-BAC, figure out what to do about Brandon's impending deployment, buy a new car, etc.  I think all those problems have made me think of this baby itself as a problem.  Which is not this case.  All these problems are short term.  A few years from now none of them are going to matter.  What will matter is that I have another really cool kid.  

So I think my excitement/happiness level for this pregnancy has jumped up to about 75% now.  I have an ultrasound scheduled for a two weeks from now.  This isn't the one where we find out the gender.  It's one to figure out how far along I really am. (My doctor says that my uterus size agrees with the math that I'm probably only about 12 weeks along instead of 14.)  I'm sure that once I can see the baby on the screen I'll get even more excited for this baby.

A lighthearted post about the kids

Hi there this post will get happier in a second.  But first I feel like sharing some dark stuff.  I'm kind of going through a hard time emotionally right now.  Like I said before, I'm not super jazzed about this whole having another kid so soon thing.  Despite what you may think about me being "Super Mom" I'm really feeling spread a little thin right now with the three kids that I do have.  I really can't imagine having another.  

What's bugging me right now is that I have HOURS of time, and yet I really have nothing to show for it at the end of the day. I spend a lot of time sitting on the couch holding which ever kid needs to be held. Derrick is at an almost impossible age for trying to get anything done while he is awake.  I try to get some cleaning done while the kids are all awake, but whatever I do accomplish usually ends up getting undone within a few minutes/hours. When the kids do all go down for a nap at the same time all I want to do is sit and have a moment to myself.  Then Brandon comes home and starts cleaning and I'm embarrassed that he can do so much in only a few minutes.  

What I really need is a hobby, or something else to occupy my mind, but I honestly feel like I don't deserve one.  I feel like if I can't use my time wisely during the day then why should I get "me" time later.  Brandon has things he needs to get done in the evening too.  I can't just leave him alone with the kids.  

And then there are my feelings about Baby D.  (Warning: If you are struggling with infertility you may want to skip this part.) When Brandon was at basic I wrote him about how great I felt because for the first time in a long time I wasn't pregnant or nursing.  My hormones were back to normal and I was so happy to feel like myself again.  I was looking forward to the next several years of "freedom."  And yet here I am.  Pregnant again.  I feel like all my plans (not that I really had any) have been delayed by another year or two.  And I feel bad because I love this baby, and I will keep this baby, but I don't really want this baby.  Was it only 3 years ago that I wished with all my heart for a chance to have a baby?

So there are my issues for you all.  I'll get them worked out - I always do.  But in the meantime I just wanted to talk about them for a minute.  

On to the lighthearted stuff.  

I love my hair, but it's making it look great every day is not really a priority.  This picture was taken on a rare day when it actually looked good.  (It was taken at the end of the day after bedtime - I was a little frazzled by this point.  Next time I should take one at the beginning of the day.) 

 This is a picture of Charlotte showing off a trend that Lydia created.  They always want me to wrap twisty ties around their fingers like rings.

Here are Charlotte and Lydia putting their babies to bed.  Complete with reading them scriptures and singing hymns. 

I made "box and strings" for the kids a few weeks ago.  They loved them.  They decided one was a truck and one was a car.  I asked them where they were going and they said, "nursery."

 All three kids playing the piano.

 Derrick in the "truck."  He likes chasing the girls into the boxes, but as you can see, he doesn't like getting in them himself.

 A much happier picture of Derrick - though he still has tears in his eyes.

 Playing in the "car."  They always make sure they put their seat belts on.  And they always say, "alrightly" which I've realized I always say before I start the car.

Charlotte likes to raid the refrigerator and get food out.  Here is is putting strawberries at everyone's spot at the table.  

These are my climbers.

This was the first time I found both girls in Charlotte's bed.  I worried that Lydia would roll out during the night, but she didn't.  

 The other day Charlotte stayed up while Lydia took a nap.  Charlotte hosted a birthday party for herself.  I was a terrible house guest and kept asking if I could just take a nap.  But it was cute.

 When we took the kids out for ice cream last week we played on the outdoor playground.  It was so much fun.  The playground was built for adults too so we were able to climb up the equipment with the kids.

 On Saturday we went to our Stake's Emergency Preparedness Fair.  Brandon actually had a booth there because I made friends with the Stake RS Presidency and sent one of them a link to the post about the fair Brandon and I did 3 year ago.  (Before the kids took up all our time.) One thing lead to another and Brandon was asked to do a booth about using camping gear as emergency preparedness supplies.  

  They had a face painting there.  Lydia got a Lady Bug.

 Charlotte got a blue fishy.  Her favorite color is blue. She was a lot happier about it than she looks in this picture.

 They also had balloon animals.  Each girl got one of these cute lady bug wrist bracelets.

 There was a fire truck, a SWAT verhicle, and a police car outside.  Here are Derrick and I in the SWAT vehicle.

 The kids were getting a little unrulely, but there was only about an hour left to the fair. It really wasn't worth it to just take them home because I would have to come back for Brandon and all the gear soon.  So we put them in the tent and let them play around.  That took up a lot of time.

 Charlotte picked out this dress herself.  I guess she figured she should wear a dress since we were going to a church.

 The kids all fell asleep in the car on the way home from the fair.  So we decided to just go on a drive.  We ended up about an hour away at a park in a town called Marble Falls.  We couldn't find any falls so we just played on the equipment.

 The girls had lots of fun.

 There were about 3 different play areas and we spent a lot of time at each one.

 Here are the girls going down a really big slide with their Daddy.  They did this a whole bunch.

 And here are my future rock climbers.  Lydia got up here all by herself (with a little coaching from us).

 Derrick was a pill most of the weekend.  He and I were not getting along very well.  On Friday night he was driving Brandon and me crazy!  Once we left the house to get ice cream he calmed right down.  After ice cream we went grocery shopping.  I actually had people stopping me to comment on how cute and happy Derrick seemed.  He was the same way at the Fair.  One day when he is famous his biography will read, "Derrick's parents soon learned that in order to keep their baby happy they had to make sure he was around people at least once a day."

We had a nice moment together on the swings.  Brandon pushed the girls in the baby swings and I held Derrick on my lap.  He babbled and cooed as we swung back and forth.

 Here are all the kids on a tire swing.  When the girls got on here they said, "Asher" because they remembered being on a swing like this with their cousin Asher last July.

 Charlotte keeps asking me to set up the "Cwismas Lights."  She can't understand why the Christmas tree isn't set up.  We took it down at the same time we packed everything else up so it makes sense that we should get it out as part of unpacking.  I told her that it isn't Christmas time right now.  It's Easter time.  So we made an "Easter tree" on top of the piano.  The one with the flowers is just dried wood with artificial flowers placed on it.  The others are live branches that that kids and I cut from trees when we went on a walk.  Charlotte is very happy about the "Ouster Tree."

So that's all the lighthearted stuff.  Looking at these pictures and writing about them makes me feel like maybe I do have something to show for all the time that I spend at home.  I guess I feel good enough to go get the kids up and start the day.

One student loan down - nine to go

The past few months have been interesting ones in many ways.  Financially they have been no less crazy.  Back at the beginning of December I wasn't exactly planning on moving to a new state before the end of the month.  If I had I might not have spent money on plane tickets and a rental car for my trip to Georgia to see Brandon.  And buying plane tickets to get Brandon home just in time for Christmas wasn't exactly cheap either.  In fact, we actually had to borrow money from my parents in order to pay for gas to get to Texas.

January rolled around and with it came payday so we were okay-ish.  But we had a broken down jeep to deal with.  At one point Brandon turned to me and said, "why do I feel like I'm the poorest I've ever been?"  I tried to lighten the mood by joking (somewhat truthfully) "well things aren't as bad as they were last year at this time - they are worse!"

February was a little better, but I felt like we were still having trouble catching up.  We were perpetually in our line of credit account and I was beginning to wonder if this would be the month that I would find out what happens when a check bounces.  (Something I've lived in fear of my entire adult life.)

And then in a matter of a few weeks we received our very large tax refund, and we were also reimbursed for our moving expenses.  Reimbursed is an understatement.  Thanks to the per diem amounts we actually received quite a bit more money than we spent moving out here - and that includes the cost of the car repairs.     

With my parents paid back, our line of credit paid off, our bills caught up, and our savings accounts replenished it was finally time to do something I have wanted to do for a LONG time.  I paid off one of Brandon's student loans! 

The account was a Campus Based Loan account from Utah State managed by ACS.  I have hated making payments on this loan because the ACS website is annoying.  Brandon has another loan managed through ACS.  That loan always shows up when I log in.  But the Campus Based Loan only shows up once or twice a month.  Over the past year of making payments I haven't been able to figure out any rhyme or reason to when the loan information will show up.  You can imagine how frustrating it is to be all ready to make a payment on a loan, and then not be able to find anywhere to make the payment.  

So out of pure spite I've been focusing on paying that loan off first.  The minimum payment was $40.  While some of the other loans were still coming out of forbearance and deferment I pushed a lot of the money that we would have paid to them to the Campus Based Loan.  Then later, when that money went to the other loans, I still paid an extra $85 a month to the loan (I'd originally miscalculated the "minimum" payment for all loans by $85.)  Doing all that took a loan that was originally for $3000 down to around $600 14 months.  

$40 + $85 = $125 so that $600 loan would have been paid off in July of this year.  But I didn't want to wait.  I went ahead and paid it off on Friday night.  It actually was the first ever double payment I've been able to make.  So now our debt payoff tracker is one month ahead of schedule.  

We took the kids out for icecream cones at McDonalds to celebrate.  

 Derrick wasn't interested in ice cream.

 We told the kids why we were there, but I don't think they cared.

So what's next?  Well now we have 9 individual loans remaining.  They range in size from about $2,500 to $20,000 and total . . . . well I'm not about to admit that amount.  But it's big.  Not quite $100,000 but close.

The nine loans are managed by 3 different management companies.  ACS, AES, and Fedloan.  ACS has one loan, and AES and Fedloan each have four.  The AES loans are the largest, but the Fedloan loans have the highest interest rates.  Right now I'm going to focus on paying off the fedloan accounts.  Starting with the one that has an interest rate of 5.95%.

As fun as it would be to continue making double payments on a monthly basis I'm not ready to commit to doing that yet.  Our regular monthly payment is pretty big - it has more dollars in it than the Book of Mormon has pages.  Doubling it is probably do-able, but it scares me.  I worry that as soon as I made a double payment the car will die, or Brandon will break his leg, or some other catastrophe would occur.  If that happened there would be no way to get the money back from the loan companies.

So instead we are going to "practice" making double payments.  I'll put the money into a special savings account each month.  Then when that account reaches a certain amount (right now I'm thinking 6 months of payments) I'll start making the double payments for real.  That way we will have a bit of money saved up for an emergency.

Anyway, it's been a crazy few months, but there was a happy ending.  And you can bet one of my financial goals is that we will actually have money in savings next January.