It's the most wonderful time of the year

No joke, this week I've been walking around my house humming, "It's the most wonderful time of the year."  

For the past few months I've been getting really exited every time I see cute Valentine's Themed things on Pinterest.  I guess this is how some people feel about Christmas.  But I prefer Valentine's Day because its actually a relatively simple holiday.  Just get some candy, some red stuff, some heart shaped stuff, have yummy food, spend time with the people you love, and BOOM totally awesome holiday.

Of course since this is my favorite holiday I tend to go a little over board with how we celebrate.  And this year was no exception.  Here's the run down of this Valentines Day Week Extravaganza.

One of the things I saw on Pinterest - or maybe it was in a magazine - was how to make a heart shaped cake.  And even though I don't eat that much cake anymore I really wanted to make one.  (Plus Derrick thinks he MUST get frosting every time we go shopping at the Commissary so we always seem to have an extra can of that stuff around.) 

So on Wednesday all the kids helped out (to varying degrees) with making a square cake and a round cake.  Then on Thursday night I cut the round cake in half and put it on the sides of the square cake. Then I frosted and decorated the cake with sprinkle and voila, this beautiful cake was created.  I'm so in love with it. 

I also put together little goody plates with treats for the kids.  In years past we've bought them little boxes of chocolates, but no one ever really eats those.  So this year I decided to just do pretty plates.  I put everything away to wait until the right time to get them out.

Derrick came home from school on Thursday with a folder full of Valentines Day creations.  I absolutely love seeing all the little projects that he works on at school.  Unfortunately I never have time to do these kinds of things with him at home.  I'm always too busy helping Charlotte and Lydia and making sure that Veronica doesn't eat the art supplies to really sit down and help Derrick.  But at school he gets one on one time with the aides in his class.  They help him cut and glue and color.  I'm always so excited when I see his creations.

One of the aides from his class is in my LDS ward and she told me that Derrick held the pen while she helped him write his name on the paper with the hearts.  She said she had to guide his hand a little bit, but that he did a lot of it himself.  That made me so proud.

On Friday, Brandon got home from flying just as the twins were getting off the bus.  He hurried and set up the balloons that I'd bought earlier.  The kids were so excited to walk in and see balloons.  

Here is Charlotte with her balloon. (Her hat says that she loves orange, pumpkins, and pancakes.

And Lydia with her balloon.  She made a hat too and it said that she loved going to Walmart with her mom.

Veronica with hers.

And Derrick with his.

Derrick doesn't go to school on Fridays so his teacher made sure to send Derrick's Valentine's Day bag home in Lydia's back pack.  We dumped out his candy and I helped him open everything.  Most of Derrick's candy got split with Veronica.

Charlotte and Lydia dumped all their stuff out on the kitchen floor.  They had fun looking at everything and eating candy.

Later I filmed Derrick talking about some of the Valentines Day things.  He was so excited about everything. 

For an early dinner we had heart shaped pancakes with cute little heart decorations that I'd saved from some cupcakes a few years ago.

And then it was time for the cake.  Derrick had discovered it and had eaten all the little sugar hearts off the sides.

So we hurried and added the hearts from the pancakes. (And yes I did have a piece of cake and some chocolate.)

Throughout the day we'd also taken care of some not so romantic things like picking up the jeep from the mechanic (after almost 3 years it's air conditioner is working again), and I finally found a minute to spray the yard for weeds.  But after all those necessary yet sort of boring things, it was time to do something romance based.  We went to a wedding reception.

The groom was from our ward and the bride is from Idaho.  They got married in Idaho and had a reception there.  They weren't going to have a reception here in Alabama, but then they decided to move back here.  Some of the women in the ward decided to put together a reception for them.  I ended up making the invitation for the reception.  So even though we didn't know the bride and groom that well we wanted to go to the reception. 

Poor Veronica ended up falling asleep on the way there and spent the first 10 minutes screaming.  But eventually she calmed down and we were able to have a nice time.  We skipped out of there right before the couple cut the cake because our kids had already had enough sugar for one day. 

On Saturday we decided to go check out a waterfall that was over the border in Florida at Falling Water State Park.  I'll write about it on my travel blog tomorrow, but here are a few pictures that probably wont make it on there.  We had a picnic when we arrived and for dessert we each got a little Debbie Valentine's Day treat.  Charlotte looks really happy about this, but she actually only at one bite.

I should have only ate one bite, but I didn't and then my knee started hurting.  Dang sugar and it's effects on my body.

The state park had all sorts of boardwalk trails.  The kids had fun looking at the water that ran under parts of the boardwalks.

And here I am with the love of my life. Gosh I love him.

I swear the kids posed for this themselves.

Anyway, you read more about that State Park and see pictures of the water fall on my travel blog.  I'll have the post up in the next day or two so keep an eye out for that.

On Saturday evening we watched Sharks Tale for our movie night.  Uh, what a lame movie.  Then we put the kids to bed and I gave Brandon his early Valentines Day present - the movie The Martian.  What's funny is that he almost bought the same movie for me.  If he had bought that movie it would have made the third time we've bought the same movie for each other.

Anyway, the Martian was AMAZING.  When I first saw the preview for the movie I didn't want to see it because I didn't want to be worrying about the guy the whole time.  But then I started hearing about what a positive movie it was and how funny it was too.  So it's been on my list of movies to see.  And it did not disappoint.  I'd almost go as far to say that it's a perfect movie.  Go watch it.  Right now.  (But I will warn you that you'll end up with ABBA's Waterloo running through your head for the next three days.)

Okay so that gets us to actual Valentine's Day on Sunday the 14th.  The girls had wanted curly hair for Valentine's Day so I put curlers in their hair.  They were very excited to wake up with curly hair.  Charlotte gave a little talk in Primary and was very confident as she spoke into the microphone.  She'd pretty much written the talk by herself with a little bit of help from me.

When we got home we had a quick lunch and then I brought out the Valentines Day plates.  Everyone was excited about their treats.

Then Charlotte and Lydia helped me get things ready for a romantic evening with Brandon.  Six years ago Brandon and I created our own Valentines Day restaurant in our bedroom.  I thought it would be fun to do that again this year. So while Brandon kept Derrick and Veronica busy Charlotte and Lydia helped me cover my desk with a red sheet and put flowers out.

They had fun making all the little flower arrangements.

They thought it was so funny that I put a table and chairs in the center of my room.

They also helped me make some of the food.  They helped with a fruit dip, cutting up apples, making a salad, and the dessert.

They offered to be the waiters, but I told them they needed to go to bed.  Lydia cried in her bed for about 15 minutes because she was so sad she didn't get to stay up and help serve the food.  While she cried I cooked some shrimp that had been marinating all afternoon. (Here is the recipe.)  Brandon had made rice for the kids' dinner and there was some left over for our dinner.  He also steamed some broccoli for us.

Doesn't that look delicious?

While Brandon set up the plates I hurried and changed into the dress I wore to his Warrant Officer Graduation.

Here we are together on our fancy date. 

At the last minute I remembered the salad plates so we had to take another picture to document that. 

Dinner was so yummy.  And it was so fun to pretend we were in a fancy restaurant.  We joked that this place was so exclusive that it was only open when Valentine's Day was on a Sunday.

Later we got out dessert.  It was vanilla ice cream with dark chocolate, nuts, and white chocolate on top.  One thing I've learned from all my weight loss stuff is that when I do indulge on sweets I prefer quality over quantity.

As if that weekend wasn't already perfect enough - we didn't have to worry about anything on today because it was a holiday.  The kids didn't have school and neither did Brandon.  We had a nice relaxing day of puttering around the house and working on little projects.  Some of the kids never even got out of their pajamas.

Unfortunately now Valentine's Day Week is over for this year.  I guess I'll have to start looking forward to our anniversary.

My 31st Birthday Weekend of fun

Oh I just had the best birthday weekend! There was shopping, there was food, there was an amazing party with awesome women. It might have been one of my favorite birthdays so far.  

Shopping

It started out on Saturday with a shopping spree.  We got our tax refund back this week and so on Saturday we went to Dothan to buy a few things.  I was needing a break from the kids so I took the Jeep and went to do some clothes shopping for the kids.  

I was trying to find the location for this semi annual event called Upscale Resale where people sell high quality used children clothes.  Unfortunately I had bad directions.  But I ended up driving right by a thrift store that I haven't checked out yet.  I went in there and basically found my version of heaven.  I haven't found a good thrift store for furniture yet and so I was so happy to walk in there and find rows and rows of couches, bed frames, and dressers. 

The only downside was that I don't actually need any new furniture right now.  But they also had a pretty good selection of children's clothes so I was able to buy most of the things I needed for the kids.  I even found a new pair of pants for me for $4.  

After that I went to K-Mart which was having a store closing sale.  I'm always shocked to see that K-Mart is even still in business.  I walked around that store for almost an hour trying to find anything that I was willing to buy.  It was a good reminder of why I don't shop there.  Even at 30% off there wasn't much that I was tempted to get.  Finally I settled on some makeup. 

Then I drove over to Sam's Club and met up with Brandon and the kids.  They'd come down in the Honda and were waiting in the parking lot.  We went inside and got our Sam's Club Membership.  My family always shopped at Sam's Club when I was a kid so it was fun to take my kids there.  They thought the samples were fun. And they were pretty impressed with the size of the things we bought.  We grabbed a big 6 pack box of noodles and Charlotte exclaimed, "Lydia, It's EVERYTHING we need."  Which is true because they pretty much only eat noodles.

After that we went to Lowes and bought a deep freezer.  Or rather we just ordered one because they were out of stock.  But still it was good to know that we'll have one within a few days.  

We'd hoped to also have time for some clothes shopping for Brandon and I, but the kids were close to done.  (It tells you a lot about our family that we can do outdoor adventure stuff for hours, but we get worn out after just a few stores.)  Brandon had still needed to get some new copies of the Jeep key (all our spares have disappeared over the years and we were down to one key.)  But Lowes hadn't had the type of key he needed.  So I took the kids home in the Honda and he went to Walmart to get the key copied.  

On the way home I remembered we needed to stop at the commissary for some fruit for my birthday party.  I decided that we also needed to buy some cones to go with ice cream that I'd bought earlier.  I told the kids we needed to get three things at the store.  They were pretty good about making one last stop.  

Brandon got home a little after we did and we had a quick dinner.  Then we had ice cream to celebrate that we'd paid off a student loan that week and that Brandon had passed his FAA test.   Usually we do movie night on Saturdays, but the kids were so tired that we just gave them baths and put them to bed.  

Then Brandon and I stayed up reading Steelheart.  We ended up finishing it.  Brandon really liked all the twists and revelations at the end.  I was telling him that we need to read Firefight, and then we can both read Calamity together when it comes out later this month.  (It's one of my belated birthday presents.)  But Brandon says he kind of hates reading books with me when I'm reading them for the first time, because all I want to do is read the book as fast as possible. So I guess we'll just take our time with Firefight since I can read Calamity on my own.  (And if this paragraph makes no sense to you, you really should read the Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson.  Actually you really should read anything by Brandon Sanderson.)

Food

On Sunday morning Brandon let me sleep in.  He even brought me breakfast in bed. (French toast, fried eggs, orange juice.)  When I finally did roll out of my room I was greeted by a chorus of Happy Birthday shouts from the kids. Soon it was time to go to church.  I was excited to wear this cute outfit.  I bought this dress when I was pregnant with Veronica.  I loved it that summer, but I haven't liked it so much since then because I feel like I look pregnant when I wear it.  But now that I've lost a lot of weight it looks better on me.

Church was good, but not very remarkable.  When we got home Brandon went to work making Egg Plant Parmesan.  This meal is so yummy, but it's labor intensive so I always feel bad asking Brandon to make it.  But it was my birthday so he was happy to make it.

While Brandon cooked I had the all important job of laying down and taking a nap with Veronica.  Later I was able to talk on the phone with my parents.  They are really enjoying their mission in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Then it was dinner time. Here I am enjoying my eggplant Parmesan.  Brandon did such a good job. Gosh I have the best husband.

Then it was time for cake.  Honestly I would have been fine skipping cake, but it was important to my kids.  The girls and I made the cake on Friday and frosted it on Saturday.  We decorated it with little sugar hearts that they actually picked out for Veronica's birthday back in September.  We didn't use them then, so I saved them for now.

The kids watched as Brandon put 31 candles in the cake. I think I should add that I kind of panicked a few weeks ago when I realized I'd be 31 soon.  I was just fine with turning 30, but turning 31 means I'm officially in my thirties.  There's no turning back now.

Derrick loves to watch all the videos I've made of the kids blowing out their candles.  So I made sure to film my cake too.  I handed the camera over to Charlotte and I think she turned it off for a minute, but you get the idea. 

The kids loved the cake.  When they were done we still had an hour and a half until bedtime.  Even through it was Sunday I decided we needed to have movie night for the weekend.  So we watched my favorite birthday movie - Miracle.  So yeah while the rest of the US was watching the Super Bowl we were watching a movie about a hockey team in 1980.  It's funny because usually I identify with the young players when I watch that movie.  But this time I was identifying with the coach too.  I guess that's a sign that I'm getting older.

The kids were pretty hopped up on sugar which is a recipe for disaster when you are trying to watch a movie with a lot of dialog.  They did like the hockey parts so we ended up fast forwarding a lot of the movie and just watching the games.  Charlotte fell asleep, but Lydia stayed awake the whole time.  She was so excited when "our" team won at the end.

The kids went to bed and then Brandon and I had fried ice cream.  He'd also made that for me.  It was so good, but wow - what a lot of sugar.

Party!
As great as my birthday had been the thing I was looking forward to the most was the party I'd planned for the next day.

I'm trying to remember where the idea for the party started.  I think the very beginning of the idea was from my friend Erin.  Years ago I went to a birthday party that she'd planned for herself.  She told me, "I always wanted other people to make a big deal out of my birthday.  But they didn't so I decided that I had to make it a big deal."  I liked that idea.

Another seed of the idea started a few months ago when I started going to P-31 activities at the chapel on post.  I was able to get to know my friend Becca better and we both really enjoyed the chance to just talk and connect as women.

And a few weeks ago I started hanging out at the park with the other mom's in my neighborhood.  It's turning into this understood thing that on good afternoons we'll all just meet up at the park and talk while our kids play.  It's been so fun and honestly makes me feel like I'm one of the "cool moms."

I also had really good memories of the party that I put together two years ago for all my Fort Hood friends when our husbands were away on Valentine's Day.  I wanted to do something similar with all my Fort Rucker Friends.

So all these ideas swirled around in my head until I decided that I wanted to celebrate my birthday by inviting all my friends over for brunch. And we all know that when I say all my friends I really mean, anyone I've ever even sort of had a conversation with.  I just can't leave any one out.  (Side effects of feeling left out a lot in my early teens.)

Thanks to the magic of Facebook I was able to invite a lot of my friends really easily. I was also able to track down a lot of people that I know, but that I don't interact with a lot.  Even then I'm still worried that I forgot some people.  So if you are reading this, and you weren't invited I'm sorry.  We will have to get together sometime.  By Sunday night I had at least 15 women who said they were coming to my party.

On Monday I hurried to get the three older kids onto the school bus, and then Veronica and I came home and finished getting everything ready.  Brandon had put the leaf in the dinning room table and I was so excited to see it get used.

At first as I was planning this party, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to serve but then I remembered that if you get a group of women together-who don't know each other well-they actually wont eat that much.  (It's a weird scientific fact that I've discovered over the years.)  So I decided to keep it simple.  I made healthy chocolate banana muffins and less healthy chocolate covered pretzels.  I had fruit and veggies available and I knew that would be enough.

I just have to show off the pretzels. These are have become my favorite treat.  I think I've made a variation of them for every holiday since Halloween.  This time I did them in white chocolate and put conversation hearts on some of them.  Other's got pink or heart shaped sprinkles.

People started showing up a little after 9:00.  It was so great to have everyone there.  Most of the people who came were from my LDS ward, but there were a few neighbors too.  Even though most of us go to church together we don't always get a lot of time to socialize.  So everyone was happy to have a chance to talk.

I'd told everyone not to worry about bringing a present, but to come ready to chat.  I explained that my love language is Time and so I would rather have people come spend time with me than give me gifts.  (But that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate the gifts that people gave me.)

I also read a quote from one of my favorite bloggers, Jennifer Fulwiler.  Two years ago she wrote a post called When in Doubt . . . Go about why people need to get together.  That post inspired the Valentine's Day party and was one of the main reasons I worked so hard on the play group and other things I did when I was in Fort Hood.  I highly recommend reading the whole post, but the part I read says:

Ten years ago, I understood intuitively that it’s always good to get people together, even if you can’t predict exactly what the benefits will be. Though I couldn’t have articulated it at the time, one of my unspoken life mottos was:

Hang out with people in person.
Ask them about their lives — real questions, not small talk.
Watch the magic happen.

I told everyone that we were going to try to force some magic.  I'd written down 20 questions on pieces of paper and I told everyone to pick one.  The questions were things like, What do you want to accomplish in the next year? or What is your favorite book?  Then we took turns answering the questions.

It was so fun to hear the answers.  I think one of my favorites was Lassell's answer to "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?"  Her answer was, "buy a lottery ticket."

And guess what?  We had some magic happen!  Janell's question was "What is a talent that you are proud of?" Janell told about how she is a golfer and how it's helped her life.  Morgan said, "My son plays golf, but we haven't found him a teacher since we moved here." And I hurried and said, "Janell teaches lessons."  They exchanged phone numbers later. It was a cool little connection that might not have happened otherwise.

After we were done with our questions I told everyone that they could just enjoy talking the rest of the time.  And boy did everyone talk.  If there is one thing I know for sure it's that women need other women.  I loved hearing snippets of all the conversations.  I know a lot of friendships were strengthened and I'm sure that a few were formed.

Gradually everyone started to leave.  I'd made a little quote hand out thingy for everyone to take on their way out.  It was one of my all time favorite quotes.  I heard this for the first time 4 or 5 years ago and it changed the way I view my life.  It says:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

That's by Marianne Williamson buts its often incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela. 

I hoped that by coming together today my friends had been able to make their lights shine just a little bit brighter.  

I counted later and we'd had 17 women and 17 children there counting Veronica and me.

Most people had places to be, but there were still a few women around when it was time for me to pick my kids up from the bus.  My friend Melissa (I should say one of my many many many friends named Melissa) stayed around so her daughter could play with my girls for a little bit.  We had a good time chatting about our gardens and such.  

Then she left and the party was officially over.  We had left over food (I told you there would be left overs) for lunch and kind of did nothing the rest of the afternoon.  Brandon was on a morning flight schedule so he got home in the early afternoon.  He took over kid duty and I took some treats over to my friend Kara who has a newborn so she wasn't able to come to the party.  We visited for a little bit.  

Then I went up to the courthouse and stood in line forever so I could get a new copy of the Jeeps registration.  (It randomly disappeared when we had it in the house for something.)  Honestly, standing in that boring line was really good for me after all the talking and socializing I'd been doing all day.  I love people, but at my core I'm an introvert and I need silence and time alone to recharge.  

By the time I got home Brandon had already fed the kids dinner.  They played around for a little bit and then it was time to start working on the next big event - Valentine's Day!  I love that my birthday just flows right into my favorite holiday.

Brandon and I helped Charlotte and Lydia write their names on (about 5) Valentines.  I wrote Derrick's name on his.  Then we put candy onto the Valentines.  

Each kid's class told us to prepare Valentines for 20 kids.  So here's what 60 Valentines looks like all ready to go.  At first Charlotte and Lydia didn't get the concept of Valentines so they didn't want to give away any of their Valentines.  After I explained it about 20 times I think they are willing to trust me that they are going to get a whole bunch of Valentines and candy back in return.  They get to bring them home on Friday so we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, I had such a great birthday.  I also appreciated all the birthday wishes on Facebook.  I'm terrible at wishing people Happy Birthday so I'm always so touched when people say it to me.

I'm trying to think of a way to sum up this whole post.  I guess I should just say that I'm happy to be me and I'm happy to be 31. And I'm happy to have a great family and great friends. This year of my life is off to a great start.  

illguthlife: The #1 blog for people on bed rest

I don't know what this says about my blog, but a significant part of my core readership is made up by people who either are currently on bed rest, or have been on bed rest.  It's kind of ironic, because most of the time I wish I could spend the whole day in bed.  But all these people who are stuck in bed enjoy reading about my crazy life.

It's my birthday today (more about that in another post) and Brandon is letting me sleep in as long as I want.  That lasted until about 7:30 and now I can't get back to sleep.  (Side effects of being used to getting dragged out of bed at 6:00.)  I keep thinking about my friend Melissa who is on bed rest due to some major pregnancy complications.  I figure she'd love a new post right about now.  And I happen to already have these pictures uploaded to blogger and waiting.  So I might was well whip out a post about the last few weeks.

First up we have this super amazing video of Derrick counting.  His speech is improving so much lately.  For the LONGEST time he was really resistant to repeating any words.  He also didn't like numbers.  He's always loved letters but he hated numbers.  Like he would cry if I tried to count or write letters for him.  I never heard him count anything until last summer when he started counting to three.  A few weeks later I heard him count all the way to 15.  But he's been really resistant to actually learning his numbers until just a few weeks ago.  One of his learning goals at school is to be able to count ten objects.  They must really be working on that because now he's ALWAYS counting things at home.  Here he is counting his trains.  (And you can hear Veronica count at the end.  These two are pretty much neck and neck language-wise.)

The kids had their 100th day of school.  I'm not sure if it was actually the 100th day of school for the Pre-K since they started 2 weeks after the older kids and have had more days off.  But they celebrated it anyway.  The school asked all the children to bring in a few cans or bags of dog or cat food.  Then they sorted them and counted them and did all sorts of learning things before donating them to an animal shelter.  I thought it was a much better way to celebrate the 100th day of school than making the kids make a poster or decorate a hat or something. 

Since I don't really care about animals I wasn't planning on buying any food to send in with the kids, but it was really important to Charlotte.  So one night after dinner she and I ran over to the commissary and bought three cans of dog food for her to take in, and 3 cans of cat food for Lydia to take in. 

Here's Lydia in her 100th day of school hat.  Here class is always making hats like this.  They've made one for every color they've learned.

January has been mostly cold, windy, and rainy, with a few beautiful sun shiny days mixed in.  Last week Brandon was off work early in the afternoon, and so one evening Brandon and I took the kids on a walk to help them get their wiggles out.  We told them they couldn't play at a park because the slides were too wet.  So instead they found a hill and spent 20 minutes rolling down it over and over again.

I finally found a tall dresser for Derrick and so I was able to move the small one out of his closet.  I couldn't decide where to put it, so I just stuck it in the empty corner by the TV.  When Lydia came home she said, "Mom what is this doing in the corner where I like to play?"  I quickly told her, "I thought you might like a desk to do all your drawing at?"  She thought that was the coolest thing ever and quickly set about finding a stool (one of the cradles on it's side), and a garbage can (a yogurt container).  She calls this her office now and no babies are allowed. 

Last Saturday we took the kids to Florida Caverns State Park.  I wrote all about it on my travel blog and included about 20 pictures so if you haven't already you should go check it out.  Here's the link.  On the way there the sun was in Veronica's eyes and she was NOT happy about it.  Brandon handed back his hat to her and she happily wore that the rest of the way there.

At one point Lydia wanted my camera and she took this picture of Veronica.

I didn't mention this on the travel blog, but the kids had picked out Cheetos for our trip.  They kept asking about their cheetos so as soon as we got there we pulled out the cheetos and let them eat those before we did any exploring.

Here are the kids hanging out by the visitor center.  I love how they are all entertained by such simple things like sitting in funny chairs.

And here is a picture of the little tunnel cave that we went in.

And this is what Derrick did most of the time while we were at the Blue Hole.  That boy loves throwing rocks into water.

Here's a funny one of Lydia at the end of the day.

And all three girls.

On Sunday we made heart shaped sugar cookies for our family home evening treat.  Valentine's Day is my FAVORITE holiday so I was happy that it was finally February and we could start doing things to celebrate it.  Seriously, the way some people feel about Christmas is the way I feel about Valentines Day.  I wish we could celebrate it all year long.  

We made the cookies and then I froze them in the freezer.  Every day I this week I sent the kids to school with a cookie along with their usual snack.

I've decided that this year is our "Preparedness" year.  (Last year was "Maintenance" in case you were wondering.)  I feel like we really need to focus on getting prepared for the future.  Not just emergency-wise, but other ways as well.  For example, later this year I plan on sitting down with my resume and getting that ready in case I feel like its time to start looking for (a very part time) job.  I also want to get my Quickbook Certification in preparation for that job.  I also took the time to finally transfer my 401k money from the job I left 5 years ago into an IRA that I can easily manage if I ever am ready to start contributing to it again. And of course this year is mostly about Brandon preparing for his job as a helicopter pilot.  

But I also really want to focus on the food storage aspect of preparedness.  We are spending some of our tax refund money on a chest freezer and a wheat grinder.  We bought a Sam's Club membership so that we can easily buy food in bulk.  (I've missed Smiths Marketplace and their wonderful caselots sales.)  It feels good knowing that we will have lots of food in this house. 

As luck would have it a few ladies from my ward have put together a monthly preparedness class.  I am so excited for this class because it fits in so well with my goals for this year.  This month's class was on 72 hour kits.  The class was so good that it inspired me to actually want to know what was in ours.  Brandon has been taking care of these for the past several years, but I've never really paid attention to what's in them. So on Sunday night we got everything out and went through it.  WOW has Brandon been on top of things.  

We added a few more things to the stash before I took this picture, but for the most part all this stuff was already in the kits.  We have two buckets and two large back packs full of food and gear.  It's pretty impressive.  Brandon has done a great job.

But I'm also glad that I went through the kits with him.  The kits needed a mothers touch.  I added a small stuffed animal and a toy car for each child.  I also added small blankets for each of them. And when I packed my backpack I decided that that was the best place for the diapers.

We also made a list of the things that the kits still need.  It's in my purse now so I can buy things as I'm out shopping.

And guess what, the kits have already come in handy.  On Saturday our power went out.  I needed a flashlight to check the fuse box and since I'd packed one in my backpack I knew exactly where it was.  It was so easy to pull out the flashlight and check the fuses.  (None of them were tripped, and it was a neighborhood wide problem that lasted a few hours.)

Here is Lydia showing off one of her school outfits. My mom gave the girls each a pair of these Halloween socks and they love wearing them.

Here is Charlotte showing one of her cute hair styles.

And Veronica, because if I get the camera out she has to have her picture taken.

Derrick and Veronica normally don't nap, but it still happens occasionally.  The other day Derrick was super mad that I wouldn't let him watch TV after school until 2:00. This has been our rule for several months but he still acts like its the greatest injustice ever.  He threw a big fit about it before falling asleep at 1:55.  I was like, "Derrick, if you'd held on for just 5 more minutes you would have been able to watch TV."

A little bit later I realized the house was very quiet.  I went looking for Veronica expecting to find her coloring on the walls or unwrapping my tampons (two of her favorite naughty behaviors) but instead I found her passed out in the toy room.

On Groundhog day, the girls picked these flowers from our back yard. I think they are a pretty sure sign that spring is on the way.  They area also a good sign that I need to spray the lawn for weeks.  I don't mind the dandelions, but all the other flowers will turn into little poky sticker plants.  I DON'T want those around.

On one lovely afternoon the girls colored all over our patio with chalk.  Derrick wanted me to write the alphabet for him so I did that a couple times.  I also discovered that he can spell his own name.  All I have to do is write D and he will tell me E-R-R-I-C-K.  Yes that school thing was a great idea.

Later the girls created this little band and started singing songs.  Here they are singing Jingle Bells and Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam.

 

This week has been a good week, but its also been a loooooooong one.  Brandon had afternoon flights all week which meant he wasn't home until after 6:00 every day.  I much prefer when he has morning flights.  Sure he has to leave the house every day at something like 5:00 am, but he's home for the day by 4:00 pm at the latest.  The long afternoons with the kids have been getting to me.  So on Friday night we were all very happy to do our "We survived the week party."  We do this every week, but we definitely earned it this week.  Here are the kids dancing to one of our favorite songs, Sweet Home Alabama.

Speaking of flying.  Brandon has been working on his instrument rating for the past several weeks. (Instrument is where he learns how to fly by just looking at the instruments in his cockpit.  This is so he can fly in the dark or in clouds.) He spent the first part of the course practicing in simulators, but now he's back in the real helicopters.  He was able to fly through clouds for the first time this week, and he said it was really fun and really pretty.

On Saturday he took an FAA test.  This was a big deal because when he is all done with flight school he can use his score on the test to get a commercial helicopter license. That will make sure that he can work as a helicopter pilot after he is done with the Army.  He had to pay $140 for the test, but it equals to at least $100,000 that he doesn't have to pay for training.  Obviously that's a great deal.  It's kind of the main reason Brandon is happy to be in flight school with the Army.

Brandon was pretty certain he could pass the test, and I believed him.  But I was still very happy when he came home and told me that he had passed.  It's another hurdle that we have cleared.

So what is next for flight school.  Brandon will finish up Instrument in a few weeks.  And then he starts BWS which stands for Basic Warfighter Skills.  That will last a few weeks and then we have the all important Selection Day.  This is where Brandon will select and/or be assigned to the type of aircraft that he will fly for the Army. He can choose between the Chinook, Apache, or Blackhawk helicopters.  We are also hoping that their are some airplanes available.  He likes helicopters, but airplanes are still his first love. He would love to have the chance to fly airplanes for the Army.

So that's us lately.  Now I guess it's time for me to get out of bed and enjoy my birthday with my family.

Getting out of debt - 4 down 6 to go and why we are working so hard to pay them off anyway

Okay, I know I just did a post a few weeks ago about our debt payoff progress, but I have some fun news to share.

We've paid off another student loan! It equaled to 7 1/2 monthly payments so we had a lot of fun ripping squares off of the payoff tracker. We are now almost 2 years ahead of schedule.

It's kind of hard to see, but I made a little arrow to keep track of where we would be if we were only making the minimum payments every month.  It's really fun to see how far ahead we are now. 

 And just for fun (because I think charts are entertaining) here is what our total debt looks like now.  Gosh it's good to see that loan off of the chart.

Where did the money come from?  Well we got a pretty penny back from our tax refund.  (Thank you Earned Income Credit and Additional Child Tax Credit). So we put more than half of the refund toward the larger of the two Fedloan loans.  I was hoping to pay off the other Fedloan loan too, but there are a few other things we need to do with the rest of the tax refund money.  (The Jeep's AC needs to be fixed among a few other household needs.)  But with double payments that smaller loan should be gone within four months.

Anyway, yay for progress!

Normally I'd stop there, but I have a few things I want to add.

Yesterday I was involved in a Facebook discussion about student loan forgiveness. My short response was that it basically doesn't exist.  And the few cases where it does exist aren't simple to qualify for.  But I've been thinking about it all night and I feel like I want to write more about it.  And I want to add why we aren't pursuing any of these options.

Basically there are 3 ways you can have your student loan forgiven.

The first way is if your income is super low.  You can apply for a loan repayment where you make small payments for 20 years.  And then at the end of 20 years you have the rest of the balance forgiven.

The reason we aren't pursuing that option is that we don't plan on having a low enough income for 20 years.  Maybe if Brandon was disabled or something this option would make sense.  But he's healthy and able to work so it's just not an option.  His income has already doubled from what it was 5 years ago (That's more a reflection of how little he was making back then rather than a reflection of how wealthy we are right now.) and we expect his income to continue to increase over time.

The second way to have student loans forgiven is to work for the government for 10 years.  This option actually applies to military members and so I'm often tempted by it.  It would be so easy to just make small payments for ten years and then have the rest of the loans forgiven.  Think of all the things we could do with the money if we weren't trying to pay off the loans quickly.

But this option also scares me A LOT.  For one, the loans continue to grow over those ten years.  I've already seen what compound interest can do to these loans.  I'd hate to watch them grow even more.

Also there is no guarantee that Brandon will stay in the Army for 10 years.  He originally only had a 5 year contract.  When he graduates from flight school he'll extend that, but I think it will still only add up to 9 years.  I'd hate for him to feel like he had to stay in the Army just to pay off his loans.  (If he wants to stay in the Army for other reasons that's cool, but debt shouldn't be a factor in making that decision.)

Plus at the rate we are going these loans will be paid off before we hit that 10 year mark anyway.   I'd rather just be out of debt and free than tied to a job.

The final option for student loan forgiveness is one that I'd love to do.  I read about the federal government paying off student loans if the students can prove that their university defrauded them.

Brandon most certainly qualifies for this.  His academic advisor basically guaranteed him that he'd be making $60,000 his first year as a profession pilot.  (It's actually more like $16,000.)  And the flight school had all these promises about how they had a direct hiring agreement with Skywest Airlines. (LIES) To say nothing of the fact that they assigned him to sub-par flight instructors and then just kept taking his money even through the instructors weren't doing anything to help him progress as a pilot.  It all makes me super mad and anyone who thinks they should go to flight school with Utah State University should go screaming for the hills.

But the problem is that Brandon can't prove it.  Most of what the school promised was verbal so it would turn into a huge case of he said vs she said and real vs implied intent.    

So the best option is to just keep paying off these loans as fast as possible. And so that's what we'll keep on doing.