Happy Birthday Halloween

Whew, another Birth-o-ween is over. And as always I'm excited to write about it and share all the cute pictures. But first I have to say thank you for the outpouring of love and support that you showed me after I published my last post. I was a little hesitant to talk about our precarious financial situation so openly. But I felt strongly that I needed to share it because people who were in similar situations wouldn't feel so alone. I didn't realize that sharing it would help me feel less alone. Thank you for each and every comment and message.

Okay now we can talk about Birth-o-ween. For those of you who are new, Charlotte and Lydia were born on Halloween Night 7 years ago. Halloween was already one of my favorite holidays so adding TWO birthdays to it just made it all the more extravagant. Every year we refer to the many Halloween and Birthday related events as Birth-o-ween.

Well, at least I refer to it as Birth-o-ween. I don't think we actually ever call it that for real. Mostly we just say, "it's Halloween, and Charlotte and Lydia's birthday." This year Derrick started calling it Happy Birthday Halloween.

But no matter what we actually call it, October is always full of birthday and Halloween preparations. The foremost of those is making Halloween Costumes for the kids. I put a lot of time and preparation into these so I always like to take a minute and talk about each costume.

Let's start with Veronica's.

One of the first movies we watched when we made it back to civilization and had access to a Redbox again was the Batman Lego Movie. Veronica was really into the Lego movie and wanted to watch it every day. (This was before I realized that pre-school was probably preferable to another year of TV boredom.) I figured she would like the Lego Batman Movie. She did, and she REALLY liked Batman. I jokingly asked her if she wanted to be Batman for Halloween and she got really really excited. She kept saying "I be Batman." Brandon taught her how to say, "I'm Batman!" in a deep growl and she ran around saying that for a while.

I found a Batman Costume at the Idaho Youth Ranch thrift store for something like $3. When Veronica came home after school and saw it she was so excited. She tried it on and wore it for a while. She really wanted a cape so I'd also bought a black pillowcase at DI for $1. I opened that up at one of the seams and cut it into a cape shape. Veronica was thrilled.

I knew she wanted some sort of mask, but I also knew that most of the Halloween events we'd be attending wouldn't want her to have a mask. So instead I asked my wonderful sister Emily if she had time to crochet a batman hat. Emily said that she would love to do it.

Here's my little Batman before the hat arrived in the mail.

Derrick's costume is always a little bit of a wild card. I'm never sure what he wants to be for Halloween or if he'll even want to wear a costume at all. At first when ever I asked him what he wanted to be he would tell me "Hulk." That's what he'd been last year. So I figured if all else failed he could just wear that costume again.

When Veronica decided to be Batman Derrick decided that's what he wanted to be too. So when I bought her costume I also found one for Derrick. It was a little big for him, but I figured that if he decided not to wear it this year we'd have it on hand for another year.

Two years ago Derrick refused to wear a costume at all, so last year I bought him a skeleton shirt as a back up costume. He still fit that shirt so I made sure I knew where it was so it could be a back up costume again.

I also asked Emily to make Derrick a hat too. She's such a good sister.

Derrick and Veronica's costumes were pretty simple, which was good because, as usual, Charlotte and Lydia's costumes required a lot of creativity.

Lydia wanted to be an Indian- specifically Sacajawea. And she wanted her baby doll Rose to be a papoose. In theory this would be a simple costume because I'd been an Indian for Halloween the year I was (very) pregnant with the twins. I still had that costume and with a little modification it would work for Lydia.

Here's a side by side comparison of the dress re-make.

I ripped off the bodice from the skirt and cut off about 18 inches from the skirt. I took the sleeves off the bodice and realized I could sew them together to make a little collar. The trickiest part of the whole dress was figuring out how to make it fit Lydia's tiny waist, but not be all bunchy in the front. That took a lot of thought and elastic. Lydia was very good to let me keep trying it on her as I figured out what exactly I was doing.

My favorite part of the dress was the beaded fringe that I put on the bottom. I already had the beads from other projects.The head dress was the same one I wore 7 years ago.

I finished the dress in time for our first Halloween Party. The next week I worked on the papoose. I used the fabric I'd cut from the bottom of the skirt. I glued some of it down to a back board I'd cut from cardboard. Then I made a little bag with straps. I put the backboard down in the bag and secured it with yarn left over from Charlotte's costume. And I put more yarn all over as a decoration. I was so excited with how this turned out. 

Charlotte's costume involved a lot of hand sewing. She'd been telling me that she wanted to be a unicorn for several months, but she has a history of changing her mind so I told her that we'd make final decisions after Veronica's birthday. At the very end of Veronica's birthday Charlotte turned to me and said, "Okay, it's official. I want to be a unicorn."

She wanted to be a white unicorn with a white mane and gold hooves. I found a white hooded shirt for $3 at DI. It had AEROPOSTALE sewn onto it with but I knew I could unpick that. It also had the number seventy six or something embroidered on it. That would be harder to unpick, but Charlotte said she was fine if I just covered it with a patch. Later I found adult sized white capri pants at the Idaho Youth Ranch store. I adjusted them to fit Charlotte. (And I saved the extra fabric to be a tail.)

Charlotte had been eyeing a little unicorn headband at FredMeyer. I figured that would be simple to sew onto the hood. But when I went to buy the headband it was priced at $14! I'm not sure if it was just mis-labeled or what, but that price gave me pause. The headband was pretty cheap looking. Just a small horn and small ears. It also looked too small for Charlotte's head. It came with a tutu that also looked too small. I decided that even if it was less than $14 it wasn't going to work.

So instead I went to Walmart to see what they had. They had a solitary gold horn for something like $3. Much better. I bought a roll of gold sparkly sequins for hooves and orange yarn for a mane because I thought orange would be more fun to work with than white. I'm pretty certain that Charlotte's whole costume barely cost $14.

Then it was time to figure out how to put it all together. I decided to unpick the seam that held the hood lining to the top of the hood. That way I could put in the yarn for the mane through the hood fabric and then cover up the knots with the lining. I also sewed in the ears when the lining was off. Everything looked so great when it was in place and the lining was back on. I could have sewn the horn on, but I decided it was better just to pin it on so I could take it off if I needed to wash the hood.

Charlotte helped me a little bit with the costume. She sat with me while I sewed the little sparkly parts on the ears. When I put the yarn on she cut it into the right sizes. Every time I did something and asked her if she liked it she'd say, "It's PERFECT! Everything you do is perfect!" She's really good at encouragement.

Then it was time for the hooves. So much hand sewing. The trickiest part was reaching down inside the cuffs to maneuver the needle around. Each hoof took me 2 hours. I worked on them while watching movies with Lydia and then Charlotte when they were sick and home from school.

The hooves on the pants were a lot easier. I was running out of sparkly stuff so I only had enough for one layer around the bottom. I worked on these while we drove down to Utah for the Halloween Party with Brandon's family.

The final result was exactly what Charlotte and I had hoped it would be. She was so happy to prance around as a unicorn.

Brandon's family has a Halloween Party every year. Unfortunately we haven't been able to attend it for 5 years. In fact, the last time we attended it was when we hosted back in 2011. I was pregnant with Derrick at the time.  

Last year we'd thought that we would move away from Fort Rucker, Alabama in September and so we were planning on attending the Halloween Party in Utah. We'd watched Specture, the newest James Bond movie, during the summer and really liked it. At the end of the movie Brandon said he wanted to be James Bond for Halloween. I'd really like the "girl," Madeline Swan, in this movie so I agreed to be his Bond Girl. Brandon had a ton of free time so he worked on props for his costume. He somehow made an exact replica of James Bond's gun from wood.

But then we found out our move was delayed. Overall I was really happy about that delay because I felt I needed more resolution to our time in Fort Rucker, but I was sad that we missed the Family Halloween Party.

So this year, we were determined to make it to the party. And Brandon was determined to be James Bond. He found his wooden gun and made a holster for it out of old car-seat webbing.  (This is why I let him save random stuff like that.)  He'd made a bow-tie last year so he also found that.  He'd wanted to buy a tuxedo shirt at a thrift store, but we'd never found one.  His white shirt worked well enough.  I thought he made a very handsome James Bond.

I'd been planning to find a fancy dress at a thrift store, and had even tried some on last year, but I hadn't found anything I liked.  This year I didn't see the point in spending money on a costume.  So I dug out an old fancy dress that I wore to dances back in my early college days and was happy to find that it still fit.  (Even thought it wore very differently than it used to.)

Some how it was a lot shorter than I remember so I decided to just go with that.  I added tucks to one side to make the dress slant up.  (This was my other sewing project I did in the car while we drove to Utah.)  Brandon made me a wooden dagger and a strap to hold it on my leg.

We changed into our costumes at my sister Hillary's house and she offered to do my hair and make up.  I liked how fancy I looked. 

We had a fun time at the party.  It was hosted by our friends John and Christina. John is the brother of my sister-in-laws husband. Johns' wife is the sister of a my friend Katie who I met in college. It was really funny when we realized that she is the sister-in-law to my sister-in-law's brother-in-law. (Or something like that.) We've been facebook friends for years but its been a while since I've seen her in person.  I was hoping I'd see her at the party.  And sure enough I did!  It was fun to chat with Katie and compare the heights of our kids.  She has two girls that are almost the exact same age as Derrick and Veronica.  She said she walked in and saw Derrick and was like, "I recognize that boy."

It was really fun to see everyone's costumes.  Veronica had been really excited to go to the party, but it took her a while to get used to all the costumes and decorations.  She spent the first 15 minutes snuggled up in my lap.  (And I spent that time wondering why I thought wearing heals and sequins was a good idea with children around.)

But gradually she perked up as she recognized her Bestemor, Bestefar, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Soon she was talking everyone's ears off.  

At the end of the party we voted for the best costumes.  Brandon and I won for best couples costume.  YES! and Charlotte was in a three way tie for most unique.  She was thrilled about that. (So was I because that costume was a lot of work.)

The party had been on the 21st which meant I was done with costumes 10 days early.  I just had to do the papoose for Lydia's costume.  It's good I was done early because all I wanted to do was rest and relax.

I realized that I had been stressed out for 18 months.  Ever since Brandon decided to voluntarily leave flight school and the Army in May of 2016 I have worried about our future.  I've worried about our finances, I've worried about where we would live, I've worried about cars, and food, and schools, and well - everything.  That worry has been with me in Alabama, in Utah, in Yellowstone, and here in Idaho.  In some way's the worry has been good.  It's kept me planning and dreaming and moving.  But it's also been toxic.

As soon as I found out I had a job I felt an immense sense of relief. I'd finally solved all our major problems. Brandon was in school, we had somewhere to live, and we had a steady income.   And with that relief came the permission to rest.  I had two weeks before I started my job.  And I wanted to relax during that time.

So I've done as little as possible lately.  I still take care of the things I need to, but I don't push myself very hard.  And I've found every chance to just sit and read.  Even with reading I'm not doing anything difficult.  Instead of reading a new book I'm re-reading the Mistborn Series.  It's been so healing to climb into bed every night at 8:00 and just read until I fall asleep.  I've felt a lot of anxiety slip away.   I'm going to be much better prepared for balancing work and kids and Brandon's school because I took this time for some self care.

Meanwhile the kids and Brandon took it upon themselves to make some cute Halloween Decorations.  

 And Lydia wrote a whole story about a Vampire.  She is getting to be a really good writer.  I can't believe how much she writes. 

 Veronica has brought home a little craft every day from school.  She was especially proud of her spider hat.

 Charlotte and Lydia continue to astound me with their creativity.  They made these little Indian dioramas by themselves one afternoon.

The kid's school doesn't do anything on Halloween like a Parade of parties.  What they do instead is a Carnival the night of the Friday before Halloween.  So Friday evening we got all the kids into their costumes.  I'd finished the papoose, and painted a yellow bat on Veronica's costume.  And Emily's hats had arrived in the mail. The kids costumes were DONE!

 The carnival was fun.  The kids' teachers stood outside their class rooms.  The kids could show them their costumes and get candy.  Then we went into the lunchroom to play some games.

 There was one where Brandon had whipped cream on his head and the kids threw cheese puffs at him.

 It was really funny.

 Then we came home and the kids watched some little halloween movies on Brandon's computer while eating their candy.

 On Saturday I had a Super-Saturday activity going on at Church.  (I was recently called onto the Relief Society Meeting Committee.) Brandon's parents were planning to come up to give the girls their birthday presents.  The girls have wanted to go back to the Museum of Clean for a while so I thought it would be fun if they went with Steve and Jacque since they've never gone.  Everyone liked that idea.

Before Steve and Jacque showed up I got a call from Sister Hansen. She and her husband were the military relations missionaries in Alabama.  They were in Pocatello for a granddaughters mission farewell and wanted to know if they could stop by.  OF COURSE they could.  So I ran home to see them. 

For a while our house was a little crazy.  Steven and Jacque showed up, followed by Barbara and Carl Hansen.  The kids were running between their real grandparents and their surrogate grandparents. I was so excited to see someone from Alabama.  We are coming up on the one year anniversary of leaving Fort Rucker and so I'm getting a little sentimental about that.  So it meant a lot to see them.

After they left the kids went to the Museum of Clean and had a great time.  I'm glad that we live close enough that the kids can go do things like that with their grandparents.

On Sunday the kids had their primary program.  This was the first year that all four kids were in it.  They all did great. I had been worried about Derrick and talked over some options with the Primary President.  But he did so well in rehearsals that neither of us were concerned. When it came time to go up for the program Charlotte and Lydia made sure he made it to his seat.  His teacher sat by him the whole time and kept him focused.  He was so good at standing and sitting at the right times.  I even saw him singing along with some of the words.  Last year he'd been afraid to say his speaking part, but this year he did it.  About halfway through the program he lost interest in the whole thing and just sat in his seat.  But he was quite and calm the whole time. 

Charlotte and Lydia did great as well.  Charlotte couldn't seem to sit still and Lydia moved a lot when they sang, but they were both really good at doing what they needed to.  And they said their parts into the microphone very well.

Veronica was the funniest one though.  You have to realize that Veronica has a soul of a 40 year old sometimes.  She just doesn't act like a normal 4 year old. The sunbeams were the first kids to get up and say their parts.  She was pretty excited to talk into the microphone.  When she sat down she had a look that said, "wait. That's all I get to say?  I've been waiting a whole year for this!"

Her seat was off to the side and she had a little bit of a table in front of her. She liked resting her head and hands on the table.  She didn't like standing up and singing the songs.  At one point they sang the wise man and the foolish man.  The teacher sitting with her was doing the actions and trying to get Veronica to do them too.  Veronica gave the teacher a crusty look and then looked at us like, "Do you really expect me to do this?"  Brandon lost it.  He was laughing so hard he had to double over so he wouldn't laugh out loud.  I was crying big laughing tears. Best Primary Program ever. 

After church we carved pumpkins.  We got these from Bob and Vonnie Coombs who were the military relations missionaries when we lived in Fort Hood.  They live in Idaho Falls now.  They watched our kids when we went to the temple in September and then sent us home with 4 home grown pumpkins.  (Blessings of doing temple work.)

 The kids were pretty animated about the whole process.

 It was funny to listen to them complain about how slimy everything was.

 Derrick learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin at school and hasn't stopped talking about wanting to plant a pumpkin seed.  I keep promising that we will do it in the spring.  He was also really exited to carve the pumpkin.  I gave him a marker and he happily and expertly drew on a face.  Then Brandoon carefully cut it out exactly as Derrick drew it.

We went outside to put the pumpkins on the porch and ended up taking the cutest Halloween picture ever.

 The kids wanted to do a scary pose too.

 Here's what the pumpkins looked like with candles inside.

All I remember about Monday is that I had a big to-do list and somehow got it all done.

And then it was Tuesday!  Which was Halloween and the twins SEVENTH Birthday.  We started it off with Balloons like we always do.

The girls wanted to pose with the Balloons.

 And here they are together wearing their trick or treat shirts.

 Derrick wanted to wear his Skeleton shirt.

And he wanted to pose with Baloons like the girls had.

 Veronica was able to wear her costume to school, so she was happy about that.

 I got the kids all off to school and then went to donate plasma (a fitting Halloween thing.) Then some last minute shopping because I was trying to find spider rings.  I couldn't find any and settled for pipe cleaners that I knew Brandon could make look like spiders.  Then I went visiting teacher and then came home and started making a white chili for a chili cook off we were having that night at the church.

When the kids came home from school they had candy so every one sat around and at that for a while.

Brandon came home early and we opened presents. The girls each got a plastic horse that they were so excited about.  They got some other small presents.  The "big" present from Brandon and me was fabric and a list of days and times we are going to do sewing lessons. The girls have been asking to learn how to sew and I have been saying "we'll do it some day."  Well I realized that now is a great time.  So I figured out what times will work for me and Brandon.  I'll teach the lesson and Brandon will rangle the other kids. 

 We had plans to go to a trick or treat thing at one of the businesses in town, but the twins told me they didn't want to do that. They just wanted to play with their horses.  That was fine with me. 

Then around 5:00 we started getting everyone into their costumes.  Our ward was having a Chili Cook off and a Trunk or Treat.  I was surprised when I'd heard it was on Halloween.  But after asking around I found out that nobody really trick or treats in this neighborhood.  (It's apparently a "rough" neighborhood which might be true but makes me laugh because I lived near Killeen, Texas.)

Anyway, we went to the church and got our chili.

 I'd forgotten to take a picture of the kids at the house so I did it at the church.  Here's Veronica with "bat eyes"

 Lydia showing off her baby.

 Charlotte with rosy cheeks. (Halloween is the only time I let the kids wear makeup)

 And Derrick who had decided to be the Hulk at the last minute and was really upset that we weren't going door to door trick or treating.

 I had my own case of the grumpies.  I've said many times that I don't really like Trunk or Treats because I don't understand how being in a dark parking lot with cars driving around is "safer."  I was also feeling homesick for Fort Rucker.  Halloween in the South is amazing.  It's warm and everyone sits on their porches to hand out candy.  There is such a feeling of community.  And yet here we were in an over crowded gym, but I didn't have anyone to talk to. 

Derrick was getting antsy so we went out into the hall and hung out there.  Suddenly Brandon showed up with a little package and said, "We just won first prize in the Chili Cook Off."  And suddenly I was feeling a lot better about this Halloween.  We'd WON.  Somebody liked us.  (Or at least our chili, but it was basically the same thing in my mind.)

So with a re-newed happieness I went outside for the trunk or treat.  It wasn't quite dark yet, and the sky was pretty.  I remembered that I really do like Idaho.

 We decorated our car with a spider wed and the pipe cleaner spiders. We got one picture with the kids and then Brandon took them around to get candy while I stayed at the car and handed it out.

 When they came back we put them in the car and they had fun pretending they were trapped by the web.

Then we went home and the kids ate candy for about an hour.  I sat with Veronica and helped myself to her candy without her knowing it.  We had a really fun time just sitting and talking about the day.

 Charlotte learned the fine art of candy sorting.

And that was Birth-o-ween.  Or at least all of it up until now.  We still have a birthday party to do on Saturday.  But we'll talk about that after it happens. 

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween.

Job hunting took over my life

This post is mostly about me.  So let's start it out with a selfie.

I've been putting off writing a blog update for a few weeks. Most of this month has revolved around my job hunt. I've been a little bit depressed and even scared about my job search situation. I didn't want to make you depressed or worried about me so I didn't want to write about anything until I could say that I had found a job.

And thankfully, I can finally say that I HAVE A JOB! And it's an awesome job. And I'll tell you all about it in a little bit. But first let's go back to the beginning of October when I was starting to get panicky about not having a job. Because not having a job meant that we didn't have money coming in, and we sure had a lot of money going out.

Brandon had to buy tools for his school program, and they were not cheap. We had to pay for Veronica's day care/preschool (which is very affordable, but still costs money). We had to pay rent, and utilities. And we found out that since Brandon's student loans were private loans we couldn't put them into an income based repayment plan and we'd already used up the forbearance options. Oh and we also had to eat.

We did have some money coming in. The Post 9-11 GI Bill pays for Brandon's tuition and our housing costs. So rent and utilities were taken care of. There was also a modest stipend for books and supplies - though it would hardly cover the cost of professional tools. We'd sold the RV and so we made back all the money we'd put into it. That money certainly helped, but it wouldn't last forever.

Brandon and I made the gut wrenching decision to take out ANOTHER student loan to cover the cost of the tools and pay for his monthly student loan payments. (We had the small consolation of knowing that at least this loan would be a government subsidized loan so it would have better repayment terms than the stupid private loans.)

Brandon also got a small work study job after school. It didn't pay much, but it was better than nothing. (And it will look great on a resume.)

But I was still worried about how long our finances would hold out. The biggest worry in my mind was Veronica's pre-school. I felt bad that I had her in there every day, and it was costing us money every day, but I wasn't making any money during my kid free time.

So I decided that it was time to donate plasma. This is something I've always had in the back of my mind as an income option, but I've never done it before. I've always been able to donate blood without any problems and donating plasma isn't much different. Well there is one difference - I get paid to do it. I told Brandon, "this is great. I get paid to sit down for an hour, listen to a podcast, and I can even play around on the internet if I want. Who cares if I have a needle in my arm the whole time." Donating plasma offset most of the cost of Veronica's pre-school.

But I was still worried about how long our money would last. I kept running the numbers over and over in my head, and things kept coming up short round about December. Which is a terrible time to run out of money.

And so it was time to go to the LDS church for help.

Now before we talk about this we need do a little flashback. Imagine that this is one of those memory sequences in a TV show where the camera gets all wiggly and we fade out.

Back in 2011 Brandon was working for Frontier Airlines as a baggage handler. Or should I say, having his life force sucked away by Frontier Airlines. The job just kept getting worse and worse and eventually ever single good thing about that job disappeared and it was time to quit.

He was hoping to get a job with the FAA, and we figured that our modest savings could keep us going until he had a new job.

At the same time I was in the Relief Society Presidency in our branch. We had a lot of needy families in our branch (which is one of the reasons it was a branch instead of a ward) and so I often helped with filling out food orders that people could take to the Bishop's Storehouse to get food. And I realized that the people getting help from the church were eating better than Brandon and I were.

So Brandon and I decided to ask our Branch President if we could also get help from the Bishop's Store House. We figured our savings would last longer if we didn't have to use it to buy food. So we started getting our food at the Bishops Storehouse and it was such a blessing in our lives. Charlotte and Lydia were babies then and the storehouse even provided disposable diapers for them. We received food from the Bishop's Storehouse for 5 months until Brandon found a new job. I've always been so grateful for that help.

I'd also kind of thought that those days were behind us.

But at the beginning of October, as I kept running the numbers in my head, I knew that our money would last longer if we didn't have to worry about buying food. And so I made the decision to ask the bishop for help.

I called the Ward Executive Secretary who handled the situation so professionally. He told me that in this ward there was a husband and wife who were called to help with Food Orders. Brandon and I and the kids met with them on a Tuesday night and they filled out the order with us. They were so kind. They kept telling us that this what the church Welfare program is all about. Its here to help families who are in need. They were so happy that they could help us.

Then on Thursday I went to pick up the order. The kids were out of school so they all came with. I was a little worried about having them all there, but really it was such a learning experience for them. I told Charlotte and Lydia, "watch, we are going to get all this food and we don't have to pay for it." They were so impressed when we walked out of the store with three (THREE!) grocery carts full of food.

Charlotte has been asking questions like, "why do we go to church?" After this experience I told her, "we go to church because people need help. Sometimes we are the ones helping people and sometimes we are the people who need help. And when we go to church we have opportunities to help and to be helped." I'm not sure if she fully understood, but she has seemed to have a better attitude about church the past few weeks.

This experience certainly helped strengthen my testimony too. We received so much food. They had us fill out the order with the next two weeks in mind, but it's been three weeks now and we still have tons of food everywhere. It reminded me that Heavenly Father is just waiting to pour out blessings, we just have to remember to ask for them. 

Having a house full of food helped calm down my money worries. We would at least be able to survive the next few months until I could find a job. Brandon also gave me a priesthood blessing. In the blessing I was told that there was a job out there for me that would work well with my schedule. I clung to those words every time I started to get depressed and think that I'd never find a job.

I did have several good job prospects. Some that had even shown up before we went to the church for help with food. The school district called me about an Administrative Assistant Job that I'd applied for a few weeks earlier. I needed to take a typing test with the department of Labor, and I needed to score 60 words per minute with only 5 errors. I had no idea what my typing speed was so I was really worried about this test. (This is when I asked Brandon to give me the blessing.) I took the test and scored 55 words per minute. Considering the last formal typing class I took was in 4th grade I was pretty happy with that score.

Later I got a call from the district again asking me if I would retake the test. They were very interested in me so they wanted me to have a second chance. I was even more worried about that test. I didn't want to do worse the second time. So when I scored 56 word per minute I was at least happy that I hadn't done worse. I hoped that the district would count my score as "close enough" but I didn't hear back from that department

I did hear back from another department. The Director of the School Food Service department e-mailed me and asked if I would be interested in being a substitute food service worker (lunch lady.) The position had the potential to become permanent and would work around my kids school schedule. I wasn't interested in that job, but I was interested in working for the district, and didn't have many other job prospects so I agreed to an interview.

I also went to the LDS Employment Resource Center and asked them for any job search advise. Back in college Brandon and I had taken the employment workshop classes at the Logan Employment Resource Center and they'd really helped me with my job search before I found my job with Conservice. Since I'm new to Pocatello I wanted to talk to someone from here who might give me a lead for places to look for work. I got the lead I wanted. One of the Sr. Missionaries at the center asked me if I had looked at any jobs with Bannock County. I hadn't even thought about the county. We looked up their website and found two jobs that I would love to do. One was an administrative assistant for some department and another was a Deputy Treasurer position. I read the job description for the Treasurer position and I KNEW this job was perfect for me.

I went home and wrote the best cover letter I'd ever written detailing how I was a good fit for the position. The county only did paper applications so I went to drop off the application in person the next day. It was Friday and I didn't know that the HR department was closed on Fridays. I'd written the date on all the pages of my application so I didn't want to wait until the next week to turn it in. So I hurried to the store and bought a package of manila envelopes so I could mail my application in. Then I hurried to the post office so I could have the envelope mailed to the county. The next week I called the HR department to verify that they'd received my application. They said they had and they'd turned it over to the treasury department.

 A week or so later, I went to a job fair at the Department of Labor and talked to the County HR ladies in person. They told me that they also had a position with the Department of Motor Vehicles available. They urged me to apply for that. So I applied for that as well. (I made sure to drop off the application on a day other than Friday)

I got a call from the LDS Church Welfare Department about an Administrative Assistant Job position that I'd applied for the day after I'd quit my ridiculous night auditor job. This position would help oversee the Deseret Industries Thrift Store. Ironically, they asked me to come in for a job the same day that I was scheduled to go pick up our food order. I joked with Brandon that I could say in my interview that I was very familiar with the purpose of the Welfare Department.  Since the kids were out of school that day I asked to reschedule for the next week which they did. That interview went very, very well. The man who interviewed me had lived in Kearns years ago and so we talked about Kearns for a while. He also gave me high praise for my economics degree - it was the first time I really felt like that degree was special. I walked out of there feeling like I was actually a qualified job candidate. Unfortunately, it would be several weeks before I would even hear back from them about a second interview.

Meanwhile I had my interview with school food service. It went well enough. I made it clear that I was really interested in a job with the district and not necessarily one with food service. They understood. A few weeks later though they offered me the substitute food worker job and told me that if I wanted it I needed to get fingerprinted by the sheriff's office and have a back ground check. I debated it for a while, but I figured this was the best way to get in with the district. If I already had a background check on file they would be more willing to consider me for other positions. So I decided to do a stint as a lunch lady. Plus the schedule worked around the kids schedule so it would be a good temporary job while I was still looking for work.

Well, normally it would work around the kids schedule. But I had to do four days of training and two of those days were Derrick's "off" days from Kindergarten. So I needed to find a babysitter. Once again I turned to the LDS church for help. I texted the Relief Society President and asked her if she could recommend anyone. She gave me a list of about 4 people who she thought might be able to help. We also announced it in Relief Society. From that announcement I found one lady who could watch Derrick on Wednesday and from the list I found a girl who could do it on Friday. Problem solved!

I also finally heard back from the Bannock County Treasurer job. They wanted me to come in for an interview on the same Tuesday that I started training with food service. I was able to schedule it for late in the afternoon when Brandon would be home. And then I heard back from another job that also wanted me to interview the same week I'd be doing food service training. I scheduled that interview for late Wednesday afternoon.

So on Tuesday morning I dropped the three older kids off at the bus stop, dropped Veronica off at pre-school, and drove up to the elementary school where I'd have my first day of training. I learned that lunch ladies are amazing. They work hard and fast. They zipped around the kitchen and laid out food with lightning speed. And I was super slow. I've never worked with food before and I knew this job wasn't for me. Part of me wanted to quit within the first hour. Then I thought to myself, "Valerie, If someone asked you to come down here and volunteer your time to help serve these kids lunch you would gladly do it. So you should just pretend you are volunteering." And somehow, just pretending that this was a volunteer position instead of my job helped me have a much better attitude about the whole thing. But I still ended up with a "first day of work headache."

After school, Charlotte and Lydia thought it was so cool when I came home and told them that I'd helped make grilled cheese sandwiches and hot dogs. They said, "That's what we had for lunch!" and they wanted to know when I would come work at their school.

After Brandon came home I hurried to my interview with the County Treasurer and one of her deputies. They were so friendly and the interview went very well. I knew it would be a pleasure to work in that department. At the end of the interview I had to take a 10-key test. I was a little worried about this since I haven't done a lot of 10 key since leaving Roosevelt lodge 2 months earlier. I was worried I'd be rusty. Plus I still had that head ache so I wasn't sure if that would affect me. I didn't need to worry. The test went fine. The ladies were so impressed by my speed. (I thought I'd been slow) and my total was only 9 cents off. Which was pretty impressive since the total was well over 7 figures.

I walked out of there knowing that I had a really good chance of getting the job. They told me they would get back to me by the end of the week.

The next day I worked at the central kitchen for the school district and was again blown away by how good the other women were at their jobs. Seriously lunch ladies are amazing.

And that afternoon I had another interview with another company for an accounting position. This one went well too, but I didn't know if they liked me or not. They told me they would get back to me at the beginning of the next week.

So then I had a decision to make. My first choice was still the LDS Welfare Department job. It would be full time and came with benefits and I'd get to handle cash - which I love. My second choice was the County Treasurer Department Job. It was only 30 hours and came with no benefits, but I'd get to handle A LOT of cash and work with really nice ladies. And my third choice was the accounting position. It was full time with benefits, but no cash handling.

I kept trying to get Brandon to help me decide which job was better, but he was no help. He told me, "they all sound exactly the same to me." He said, "It's like if I asked you if I should take a helicopter maintenance job or an airplane maintenance job."

That night I woke up in the middle of the night and thought and thought and thought about the jobs. I realized that the county treasurer job was actually my favorite. It was the one I'd gone out of my way to apply for. It was the one that would work well with my schedule. It was the one with the most cash handling. And it was the one with the best co-workers. I knew that if they offered me the job I would happily accept it.

At work the next day I was sent to a Middle school to train. This was my favorite location, but I still felt out of my element. I'd learned enough at this point that I felt like I was actually helping, but I still felt like the other ladies were superhuman in all they could do.

At lunch I checked my phone and saw I had a missed call from the County. I checked my voicemail in the small storeroom off of the kitchen. I was so excited when I found out I had been offered the Deputy County Treasurer job! I called right back and accepted it. Then I called Brandon and told him. He said that was the job he'd thought was best for me all along. And then I went back to work with the biggest smile on my face.

I still finished out my food service training. I came back to that same middle school the next day. By that point I felt a lot better about my skills in the kitchen and I knew I could do that job if I had to. But I was also really glad that I didn't have to.

After work I talked to the girl who had babysat Derrick that day. They'd had a good time together and I asked her if she'd be willing to be our after school babysitter when I started work. She said she could do it three days a week. Then I asked my friend from the bus stop if she'd watch the twins on that other day. She happily said yes. I already knew I could put Derrick into ISU's childcare on his "off" days. So all my childcare needs were taken care of perfectly.

And I was able to sigh a big sigh of relief. 

These past few weeks have certainly been stressful, but they've also been good for me.  They helped strengthen my testimony about prayer, priesthood blessings, fasting, going to the temple, the church welfare program, and really just faith in general.  There was one day in particular where I was praying and worrying about how I didn't have a job.  The thought came to me, "three months ago you were praying about how worried you were that you hadn't found a house in Pocatello yet, and that worked out.  Two months ago you were praying about selling the RV, and that worked out.  Can you just trust that getting a job will also work out?"  After that thought came I changed my prayers from, "please bless I'll get a job" to "please help me know the right job when I find it."  And Heavenly Father certainly helped with that.

So now what? Well I start work on November 6th. I'll work a little less than 30 hours a week which is great because that gives me one day a week to do "mom stuff" like take kids to Doctor's appointments and stuff at home.

And now I have two weeks before I start work. I briefly considered still doing food service sub work during those two weeks. But one look at the calendar told me that would be a bad idea. Between the twins birthday and Halloween and normal life stuff I think there is one day that I would be able to work.

So instead I'm taking this time to get caught up on projects that got pushed to the side while I was searching for a job. Things like updating this blog.

So let's finally do the picture recap which I know you have been waiting for.

First up lets go back again to the beginning of the month. The kids were out of school on Thursday and Friday the first week of October. Thursday was a busy day because I'd scheduled dentist appointments for the twins and then found out it was also parent teacher conference. So we went to Parent Teacher conference in the morning. The kids all received high praise from their teachers. 

Then we went to the dentist where things weren't so perfect. But considering this was their first appointment in something like 16 months I'm okay. I have to say that I'm really happy with the dentist office. It's a pediatric dentist and they really know how to make kids happy and comfortable. I'd taken Derrick and Veronica in the week before and they were super sad that they couldn't go back to the examine rooms with Charlotte and Lydia. They literally cried because it wasn't their turn. We've never had that problem at the dentist before.

The next day we went out to the airport and had lunch with Brandon. I've gone out and had lunch with Brandon a couple times when the kids have all been in school, and I thought they would like a chance to eat with their dad. When I eat with Brandon we just eat in the lunch room. But with the kids we decided to go eat at a picnic bench that is close to the airport terminal. The kids thought that was fun. Derrick kept asking to go on an airplane ride. We kept telling him "Someday." (Charlotte keeps telling me that I need to say "one day" when I tell Derrick stuff like that. She says "Someday" sounds too much like "Sunday.")

When we took Brandon back to his building he took us inside for a tour. The kids loved looking at all the airplanes that the students are working on.

Brandon is LOVING school. Actually that's not the right word. Brandon is EXCELLING at school. He's never been a straight A student, but in this program he is at the top of his class. And he's so happy with everything he's learning. There is a little bit of work involved with the program, but it's not excessive. He has homework every week night, but the tests are always on Friday and so he never has homework on the weekends. They have class in the morning and then spend the afternoon doing hands on work. His teachers are impressed with everything he can do. There is even talk of making sure he gets a scholarship next semester.

We keep wondering if he should have done this program from the very beginning. If he had been a mechanic instead of chasing his dream of being a pilot our financial situation would be a whole lot better. But I'm not sure if 22 year old Brandon would have been as good at this program as 34 year old Brandon. Part of what makes Brandon so good at this is that he already has a wealth of aviation experience. He took a lot of aviation classes for his first bachelors degree. So he already knows about weather, hydraulic systems, flight principles, etc. He also has all that Army helicopter training that has helped him a ton as they learn about helicopters.

In a way its like his whole life led up to this. So now he just has to put in a little bit more time and work to become certified as a mechanic. Then he can finally get a job that he loves.

On Saturday we decided it was finally time to go on an adventure. Living in Yellowstone for 3 months really filled up our need for adventure so we've hardly done anything since moving to Pocatello.  But the kids were driving me crazy during their two days off of school and I had a feeling none of us would enjoy spending Saturday at home.  Luckily, I have connections. My friend Sarah in Idaho Falls has connections to the Museum of Idaho and she told me she could get us a free family pass.  So I texted her and asked for one.  She said there would be one waiting for us on Saturday.  I told her she might have just saved our lives. 

So we went to Idaho Falls that Saturday and checked out the Museum of Idaho.  They had a space exhibit set up that was cool to see. 

 The kids liked it, but I kept comparing it to the museums we've been to that are completely dedicated to Space History.  Places like Rocket Park in Houston, The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntville Alabama, and the totally amazing Cosmosphere in Hutchington Kansas.  Compared to those museums this exhibit was just satisfactory.  Not amazing.  Still it was really nice that we didn't have to drive far to see this exhibit.  And I really can't complain since it was free for us.

 Derrick and Veronica particularly liked watching this rocket launch video.  They watched it over and over again.

 After we were done with the Space exhibit we checked out the children's room.  The kids LOVED this.

 There were cute little areas and props they could play with.

 Even Derrick really enjoyed exploring the area (though later he went back to watching the rocket launch movie.)

 We also enjoyed the local exhibit area.  Honestly my favorite part of the museum was the part dedicated the history of the Idaho National Laboratory which pioneered a lot of Nuclear Powerplant technology in the 50's. 

 After the museum we drove over to a parking lot near the Idaho Falls Greenbelt so we could find a place for lunch.  We found a cute little Japanese garden.

And we saw some of the man made waterfalls.  They were pretty impressive.

The kids loved the garden area.

 They all loved running around and exploring.

 The kids insisted on eating lunch on these stones that they called their lilly pads.

 Then we crossed the street and looked at the larger section of waterfalls.  I've driven through Idaho Falls a lot, but usually we've been on the Interstate/Highway. I've never seen these falls. They were so pretty, and the temple in the background added to the beauty.

 The girls wanted to pose with Lydia's doll Rose.

 We wanted to walk around the whole greenbelt, but the day was super windy so it wasn't as pleasant of a stroll as we would have liked.  And Veronica didn't seem to be feeling well.  So we made it this far and then turned around.

 On Sunday Brandon was able to do his church calling for the first time.  He teaches Gospel Doctrine to the Adults.  He did a great job.

The next week I had my interview with the LDS church Welfare Department.  I took this picture after the interview because I was so excited about how well it had gone.  I also really liked how I looked. 

 Less than 12 hours later I looked much different.  I was putting the girls to bed and reading them a bed time story. Veronica was making gagging sounds in her bed, but I was ignoring her because she's always testing out new sound effects.  She can mimic sounds really well so it's not uncommon to hear her making funny noises.  All of a sudden I heard a much different and yet too familiar sound. I asked her, "Did you just throw up?"  I looked at her and yes she had.  I went over to her bed just in time to get projectile vomited on ALL OVER!"  Oh it was gross. 

Charlotte and Lydia ran upstairs to get Brandon and he came down and helped clean everything up.  Soon we had Veronica asleep in a clean bed.  But our throw up adventures weren't over.  Veronica threw up in the middle of the night the next night. And the next night I woke up to Derrick standing by my bed.  He threw up all over me as soon as I sat up to ask him what was wrong.  And later he threw up on me again.  I'm no stranger to throw up, but I've never been thrown up on so much. 

Lydia also got sick, but she at least knew how to throw up in the toilet.  And Charlotte took a turn as well.  I had different variations of sick kids staying home from school on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  Oh it was a long week.

Brandon got sick too, but he couldn't stay home from school.  Any time he missed would have to be made up later.  He was really worried about his test that Friday, but even with multiple bathroom breaks he still scored a 97%.  I told you he was doing well in school.

By Friday the kids were doing better.  Veronica had her 4 year old check up so we went to that.  Since Derrick is out of school on Friday's he came along too.  I wanted Veronica to get her pre-kindergarten shots at 4 since that was the same age the other kids got theirs.  So we did those along with a flu shot.  And I wanted Derrick to get a flu shot too.  I told them that we'd get ice cream after shots.  So we did that. 

 I was pretty happy that Veronica got all her shots.  Way back when the twins were born I told myself that I would always make sure my kids got their shots on time.  I have been to countless appointments in order to make that happen.  And now we are FINALLY done with shots.  The next ones we need to worry about are the booster shots the kids need at age 11.  But for the next 4 years I am done!  (Aside from flu shots.)

 Lydia and Charlotte are little art machines. They are always making such creative things. One day Lydia made her own little computer.

 It even had mouse and a spot for a disk and a jump drive.

 Charlotte found some buttons and made a bracelet.

 Fall has arrived in Idaho.  This is probably our first "real" fall with falling leaves and chilly weather since 2012.  The kids are so excited to rake up leaves and jump in them.

 Lydia lot two more teeth within two days.  That brings her total up to 7, but only 2 have grown in.  She had picture day with 5 teeth missing.

All month long we've been receiving packages with Brandon's tools.  He's been so excited to get them.  He keeps showing me them and saying, "look at this cool _____. Isn't that just awesome?" Last week his big tool box showed up. Now he has a place to keep his tools at school.  It's like he's a real mechanic now.

 This last Saturday we went to Utah for a Halloween Party with Brandon's Family. This was our first trip to Utah since moving to Pocatello.  This was actually my first time back in Utah since we left for Yellowstone.  We could have made it an overnight trip, but those are just so hard to prep for.  So instead we made the trip down and back in one day.  First we went to the Model Train Museum in Pocatello to appease Derrick.  He had been looking forward to going back for a MONTH so we couldn't skip it. 

Then we drove all the way down to Salt Lake to visit my sister Hillary.  She is due to have a baby boy within the month. But that didn't stop her from doing everyone's hair for the Halloween Party.

I've already posted about our costumes on instagram/facebook, but I'll save talking about them here until the next post.  We are coming into Birth-o-ween so they'll fit better with that post. 

Anyway, as always thank you so much for reading.  I know these posts get long, but somehow you all enjoy them.  Thanks for being interested.