Valentines Day and President's Day 2018

Whew, as always we have been BUSY the past couple of weeks.  So busy in fact that I haven't even had a chance to blog about Valentine's Day.  It's my favorite holiday and so I usually write about it within a day or two, but not this year.  Oh well, I'm getting to it now.  

Let's start out with some cute little Valentine's for all of you. We never buy the kids school pictures because 1. They are so overpriced, and 2. We have a billion pictures of the kids.  This year Derrick's school picture turned out so perfect that I really, really, really wanted a copy of it. But since I didn't have a job when we got the proofs I just couldn't justify ordering a picture package.  

In January the kids came home with a flyer that showed their school pictures in a Valentines day setting.  We could order 32 for $7.95 which was a great deal compared to the regular package.  Now that I have a job, and since Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday, I happily ordered a Valentine package for Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick.  And since we didn't want to leave Veronica out we took her picture and then Brandon made a Valentine backdrop in photo-shop and we had the pictures printed at Fred-Meyer. The pictures all turned out adorable and we made sure to send them to all the grandparents and aunts and uncles. 

I found out later that my sister Emily's son, Titus, felt really left out that he didn't get any Valentine's like his older brother's did.  Titus said that maybe if he checked the mail he would find a Valentine.  Emily didn't want to get his hopes up because she didn't think anyone would send anything.  Titus was so exited when they checked the mail and found our Valentine's day pictures there.  Emily said that he slept with them that night. I was glad that we could make his day. 

We also put together Valentines for the kids at school.  I found Paw Patrol cards that came with suckers for like, $2.50 at Winco and I bought those for Charlotte and Lydia.  There were some Lightning McQueen Valentines for the same deal and so I bought those for Derrick.  Veronica wanted a different Paw Patrol pack for only $1.50 so I was pretty happy with that.  

 Charlotte's class didn't have a class list so all she had to do was write her name on all her Valentines.  Lydia's teacher did send home a list so she carefully wrote her name and her classmates names on the Valentines.  I wrote Derrick's name on all of his, and then we went through his class list and he picked out which one he wanted to give to which friend.  Then he carefully threaded the sucker stick through the pre-punched holes.  He did such a great job and stuck with it until everything was done.  I did the same thing with Veronica.

 We had a lot of fun getting the Valentines ready.  We did all this on Saturday so we didn't have to worry about it during the week.

The girls took some of the left over Paw Patrol cards and taped them to their doll house to turn it into the Paw Patrol head quarters.  Then they played with the toys they got for Christmas.

On Sunday we made chocolate covered pretzels.  My original thought was that we would share some of these with my visiting teaching sisters and maybe my co-workers.  But one of the kids kept coughing into the melted chocolate so these became a treat just for the family.

 Valentines Day was on a Wednesday this year, but I have Tuesday's off of work so that's when we decided to have our little family party.  After the kids went to school Veronica and I went to the dollar store to find balloons.  Derrick had been talking all week about his Frog balloon that he got last year so I was really happy when we walked into the store and saw the exact same frog balloons.  Veronica also found the same bear balloon that she got last year.  They also had Charlotte and Lydia's butterfly balloons, but I decided that we had to be a little different and so we got some dalmatian looking ones. Veronica also wanted to but some "puppies" so we bought those and some teddy bears.  I figured Derrick wouldn't care about a stuffed animal so we bought him a toy gun that launched airplanes. We came home and set up the table in the living room.

Veronica wanted to take pictures and she took these close up pictures of the chocolate covered pretzels. 

 And this picture of the roses.  I was happy that my birthday roses could also be my Valentine's Day roses.

 We tied a balloon to each stuffed animal.  Veronica's was the red dog.  She has since named it "Pony" and plays with it all the time.

 Brandon had been secretly buying Valentines day treats every time he went grocery shopping.  He told me where they were and I put little goody bags together for everyone.

 I realized that Brandon didn't have a present so I grabbed some pringals we'd bought because they were on sale and gave them to Brandon as his gift. 

 The kids were so excited to get off the bus and walk into the house for our party.  They were each thrilled with their balloons. 

 Derrick showed the things he made and received at his class party that day.  (He doesn't go to that school on Wednesday's so they celebrated on Tuesday.)

 Brandon came home and joined in on the fun.  A little before 4:00 we got in the car and headed over to ISU for their "Celebrate ISU" event.  This is an annual thing the university does to show the community all the cool things each department does.  They gave out free T-shirts to the first 500 kids so we made sure we were in line for that.

 Then we walked around and saw all the things each department brought.  One of our favorites was this interactive sand table.  A sensor could tell how high or low the sand was and a projector put topographical lines and colors onto the sand.  The kids played there for a long time.

 At another spot the kids all wrote down what they wanted to be when they grew up. Charlotte wants to be a ballerina.

 Lydia picked scientist.

 Derrick said train engineer.

 And Veronica said she wanted to be a ghost (she thought we were talking about Halloween.)

 This was a fun event with lots of people.  We got lots of free stuff like pens, and pins.  Derrick and Charlotte even won hats at a ring toss game.

 Here the kids are playing at the Out Door recreation display.

 Derrick got this little helicopter and played with it non stop for the next week.

 We'd heard there was a place we could make slime and we finally found it at the end.  The kids loved watching the ladies mix up slime for them.

 We could have eaten at a free baked potato bar, but taking 4 kids through a baked potato bar sounded like more trouble than it was worth so we came home and had sandwiches or something.  Honestly I can't remember what we ate.  All I know is that I'd had so much sugar I was craving chicken.

But the sugar didn't stop there.  The next day we had this gorgeous cake at work.

And that evening Brandon and I put together a romantic dinner date in our bedroom.  We had spinach and artachoke stuffed pasta shells, and green salad. 

 For dessert we just had yogurt and berries. It was fun to take a minute to relax and talk before Brandon had to get back to homework.  I hadn't been feeling well all day so I'm glad we didn't plan a big elaborate date.

I don't really remember the rest of the week. I do remember that I had a cough that wouldn't go away and I know I went to bed at 8:30 one night.  But by the weekend I was feeling better.  Which is good because we had A LOT planned.

First we helped clean our church building.  We've gone every week this month and it's been really fun to work along side the kids to clean the church.  Derrick and I vacuum together every week.  He helps move the cord for me and opens all the doors and turns on and off the lights.  If you've ever vacuumed a church you'll know that the cord and the doors are the most annoying part, so having a buddy like Derrick is a good plan. 

The kids like to play with the nursery toys when we are done so we let them do that.  But we didn't stay too long because we wanted to go to the model train museum right when it opened at 10:00.  This place is only open one day a month and Derrick asks to go ALL MONTH LONG so we make sure we visit when it is open.  This week we noticed this funny display. Derrick said, "that's Marty's car."

 Then we hopped back in the Honda, which was all packed for the weekend, and we started driving down to Utah.  We stopped at the Burger King in Tremonton for lunch. We ordered the kids their own $1 cheeseburgers and they all ate theirs without any fuss.  It was kind of amazing.

 Then we went to Brandon's parents house. Brandon and the kids hung out there and I drove down to Ogden.  My best friend Ashley lives nearby so we'd made plans to meet up at the mall in Ogden that night.  It was the first time we've hung out without a child tagging along in something like 14 years.  We wandered the mall and had fun talking.  Then we stood in the parking lot and talked some more.  I'm so glad we live "close" to each other again.

I drove back to Eden and we all slept there that night.  In the morning we went to Sacrament meeting with Brandon's parents and then went back to the house to change our clothes and pack the Honda.  Then we drove down to my friend Melissa's house in Ogden and visited with her family for a bit.  Our girls had fun playing the Conex toys. 

The whole reason we were in Utah was for a family dinner at Brandon's sister Shannon's house in Tooele.  So we started driving out there.  On our way we stopped at the Salt Lake International Airport and watched planes take off and land.  The kids thought it was so cool.

 Dinner at Shannon's was fun as usual.  Shannon had a bunch of minute to win it games that everyone had fun playing. 

There was a huge winter storm warning in effect and so we were a little worried about the drive home.  We did drive in some snow, but it wasn't sticking to the roads.  And after we passed Ogden the snow let up.  And actually as soon as we came over the Malad Summit we didn't see any snow on the ground.  

One reason we'd pushed to get back home on Sunday night was that my parents were coming up to spend the day with us on Monday since we all had it off for President's day.  We thought they'd drive up that morning, but they'd been worried about the snow storm and had come up Sunday afternoon and then stayed in a hotel. So they came over to our house around 8:30.  We had a lot of fun with them. 

For lunch we went to an all you can eat Pizza Place called Pizza Pie Cafe.  They had so much yummy pizza.  We all loved it. 

 My parents stayed around on Tuesday and watched Veronica while I went to work.  (I was off on Monday so I went in on Tuesday instead.)  Veronica loves the movie Ghostbusters and so they all watched that movie together.

My parents also hung around on Wednesday so they could come to the first grade, "Math about Me" activity that the twins were in. I took a late lunch and made it there right when the program started.  The kids recited a poem about how numbers are all around us and then counted to 100 by 1's, 5's, and 10's.  It was cute.

 My mom sat by Lydia's class and my Dad sat near Charlotte's.

 Here's Charlotte with her little math person.  It says important things like how many teeth she's lost and how many brother's and sisters she has.

 Wednesday was our last night with my parents which was sad.  We really enjoyed having them around.  Later that night Brandon and I moved the dinning room table out into the living room in preparation for an activity I was hosting the next night.  The kids were suprised to come upstairs and find the little round table in the dinning room the next morning.  (This is a picture of dinner though because we do not have time in the morning to make pancakes.)

Thursday night I had about 7 ladies from my church ward come over and make decorations for the our Relief Society dinner next Thursday. We had a fun time working together and talking. (And I was super stoked about hosting my first get-together since Alabama. I've missed inviting people over.) I want the decorations to be a surprise so here is a blurry picture to look at in the mean time. 

Derrick loves the concept of Ghostbusters, though he's afraid of the actual movie.  He's always talking about Ghostbusters and the Marshmallow guy.  A few weeks ago I figured out that he would rather read sight words in sentences than work with flash cards. So we've been writing things like "I like trains.  I see model trains. Diesel engines are big." and so on.  He's learned a lot of words this way. The other day we started writing about Ghostbusters and the Marshmallow guy.  Then he wanted me to draw pictures.  Then Charlotte and Lydia started to add to the pictures.  And this was the final result.  We were all pretty happy with how this turned out.  

 Lydia dug out her bat costume again and wore that on Saturday.  Veronica wanted her Batman costume too.  The two of them wore these most of the day. (Even when we cleaned the church)  Derick work his batman costume for a little bit too and Charlotte wore her unicorn costume.

 In the afternoon we took a few minutes and made Derrick a Ghostbusters Backpack.  He's started pretending a little bit lately and we want to encourage that as much as possible. So if he wanted to pretend to be a Ghostbuster and he needed a Ghostbusters Backpack then he was going to get one.

 He and I had fun coloring the inside of a cerial box to look like a Ghostbuster backpack.

 Brandon took care of the straps and a cord to connect the gun to the pack.

 Derrick was thrilled about it. Though he was a little disappointed that it didn't shoot real fire.

And that brings us to today.  It's always a good feeling to be caught up on this blog.  I always feel like, "okay we can go make new memories again."

As always thanks for reading. 

33rd Birthday

I turned 33 on Wednesday.  Here's a picture Brandon took of me that night.  I was going to crop the picture so there wouldn't be so much going on in the background, but then I realized that there was a lot of stuff going on in the background of my birthday so the picture is an accurate representation of me at 33. 

I had a great birthday, but as I kept telling the kids, "when you are a grown up and your birthday is on a Wednesday you don't really do a lot for your birthday."

In fact, I was so busy with other stuff that I kept forgetting that my birthday was even coming up. Case in point, Brandon teasingly asked me, "So do we have anything happening on Wednesday?"  And in all seriousness I told him, "I don't think so, but let me check the calendar."  And then I laughed super hard when I saw that Wednesday was my birthday. 

I also kind of sucked at telling Brandon what I wanted for my birthday.  I ended up telling him that I really wanted more laundry baskets.  He told me that was a lame gift and that I should think of something better.  He did end up buying 5 new laundry baskets anyway because they are something we've needed for a while. So now we have NINE baskets and it's kind of amazing.  

Brandon also took the laundry theme one step further and fixed the heating element on our dryer.  It was going out and so doing laundry was becoming a pain.  He fixed the dryer the Saturday before my birthday and being able to dry a load of jeans in under an hour was a pretty great present.

While Brandon was diagnosing the problems with the dryer I was out buying what I really wanted for my birthday.  More clothes!  I spent several hours hunting through thrift stores and came home with 7 new shirts, four new pants, two dresses, and a pair of boots.  It's been a while since I went on such a large shopping spree and I'm very happy to have some more clothing options. 

Here I am in one of my new dresses.  This dress is MUCH cuter in person.  In real life its so trendy looking.  In this picture it looks like a cross between a pioneer dress and a paper bag.  I was kind of disappointed by how this picture turned out and so I didn't take many pictures of my new outfits. But I promise they are cute. 

Speaking of trying to look cute, this is me on Tuesday.  Tuesday's are my day off so they are normally super busy.  But this Tuesday happened to be the day of the Cup Scouts Blue and Gold Banquet so it was even more busy.  I needed to go grocery shopping to buy potatoes to make cheesy potatoes for the banquet, and I realized that the only time I could go shopping was right after I put the kids on the school bus.  So I got dressed in a hurry, put a hat on over my greasy hair, dropped the kids off, and then Veronica and I went grocery shopping.  Then we brought the food home, put it away, went Visiting Teaching, came back home, made cheesy potatoes, ran a thousand loads through the laundry, tried to put away as much laundry as possible, showered, picked the kids up from the bus, played with them went visiting teaching again when Brandon came home, and then went to the banquet.  I took this picture at some point during the day.  I was so happy when I could just come home and relax and the end of the day.

 I was pretty happy with my cheesy potatoes, AKA funeral potatoes.  I've never made these before, and I joked that I felt like this was some sort of LDS rite of passage and that I could now be considered a grown woman.  (BTW I mixed in red potatoes with the russet ones and I think that made these extra yummy.  Sorry Idaho, but I prefer red potatoes.)

 The banquet was really fun.  I could have brought my whole family, but it started at 6 which is when the day usually starts catching up with Derrick and Veronica.  So they stayed home with Brandon and I took Charlotte and Lydia to the banquet.  They thought it was really fun.  They were so impressed with the decorations.  And Charlotte laughed really hard during the boy's skits.

I didn't feel bad that I had to work on my birthday. After my busy day on Tuesday I was pretty happy to go back to work.  A desk job is way less work than all the responsibilities that come with being a mom.

At lunch I went for a walk and listened to a Nerdist podcast with Craig Ferguson as the guest.  I'm working my way through old episodes of the show so this was recorded in 2016, but I really enjoyed listening to it on my birthday.  Chris Hardwick, who hosts the podcast, is such an upbeat person, and has influenced my career choices in the past year. Craig Ferguson is hilarious and smart.  He was one of my favorite late night hosts so this episode was just a joy to listen too.  (There is a little bit of off color humor and language, so you've been warned if you choose to listen to the episode.)

And actually I want to talk about another podcast I listened to the day before my birthday.  This was a Nerdist podcast with JJ Abrams.  JJ directed The Force Awakens and Chris asked him something along the lines of "you've dreamed of directing this movie your whole life, what's it like to accomplish a dream like that?"  And JJ replied with a story about when he sold his first movie script and how he was surprised when he didn't feel different even though he'd become a paid writer.  And then how he was surprised that he didn't feel different when he saw his name in the credits of a movie.  And he said that no matter what he did he still felt like himself.  And so even though he'd done this huge movie he really didn't feel different.

Chris added an observation that it's a little bit like the movie the Karate Kid where Daniel was doing repetitive things that ultimately taught his muscles how to do karate.  Chris said that JJ's career was like that where he did "little" things like Felicity, Alias, Lost, Mission Impossible 3, and Star Trek that each taught JJ how to do new things.  So then when he was faced with directing Star Wars he knew how to do it even though he didn't know that's what he'd been training to do.  And that's why he didn't feel much different.

I thought about that concept after the podcast was over.  On the morning of my birthday Brandon asked me if I felt different.  I replied by telling him about the conversation between Chris Hardwick and JJ Abrams.  I said, "I think that's how I feel right now.  I don't feel different now that I'm 33, but when I think back to how I felt when I was 23 I know that I've grown up a lot."  I've done so much in the past ten years that has stretched me in ways I couldn't imagine. I've had 3 pregnancies, and 4 kids.  I've lived in 5 states (in five years), I've met hundreds of amazing people, I've lived without my husband for 9 months.  I've bought cars and found rental houses. When I look back over all of that I do feel pretty grown up.  But I also feel like I'm still just 17 and I'm trying to figure out life.

Anyway, enough about The Nerdist.  (Though if you are interested in who Chris Hardwick is I HIGHLY suggest listening to his story on How to Be Amazing.  It's one of my favorite podcast episodes ever.)   

When I got off work on Wednesday I was surprised to find roses and a candy bar in my car.  Brandon is so cute.  He stopped and dropped those off after he was done with school.

 When I got home the kids came running out the the house yelling, "Happy Birthday."  Brandon had 10 more roses in water at home and the kids were telling me about how they had helped trim the flowers and put a bow on the vase.

Brandon had a seven layer dip made and we had that for dinner.

 Then the kids gave me some presents they'd made.  These were pictures Lydia drew.  Brandon also gave me the Wonder Woman DVD.  (That's what I'd told him I wanted after he told me that laundry baskets was a lame gift.)

 Veronica kept saying "Happy Birthday Mama" and it was so cute that I had to get a recording of it.

 After dinner we had root beer floats.  Brandon was super busy with school and I knew he didn't have time to worry about a cake this week.  So told him I just wanted Root Beer Floats.  And then I realized I think I like those better than cake anyway.  As you can see Derrick was ecstatic about the ice cream.

 I have to mention another gift I got.  A few weeks ago my parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I couldn't think of anything at first.  (This was back when laundry baskets was still at the top of my list.) But later I remembered that I really wanted a copy of The Book of Mormon Family Reader that I saw at Deseret Book.  Ever since school started this year we've really struggled finding a time to read the Book of Mormon as a family.  The kids have to be out the door for the bus by 7:25 so mornings are just too rushed.  And by bedtime the kids (and parents) are too grumpy.

Over Christmas we started doing a little advent calendar where we would read about the different people in the nativity each night.  We would read about the people at dinner time and the kids seemed to pay attention really well when we did that.  So I started to think that dinner time would be the best time to do our family scripture study. After all it was the one time each day that we were together as a family but not rushed. But I didn't like the idea of pulling out the Book of Mormon and reading a whole chapter. I liked that this book advertised itself as having "Select Passages and Discussion Prompts for Five-Minute Family Study."

My parents bought it for me and we started reading it as a family that night.  At first the kids were kind of resistant to it, but when they saw how short the passages were they warmed up to the idea.  Soon Lydia was bringing it to me at the dinner table and asking to read the day's passage.  And then Charlotte started doing it too.  We've all really enjoyed the book and I HIGHLY recommend it if you are looking for a quick way to do scripture study with your family.

Brandon's school schedule is set up so he takes one class for 3 or 4 weeks takes a final and then moves onto the next class for the next 3 or 4 weeks.  It just so happened that he was coming to the end of a class this week so he was swamped with studying for the final, putting together a notebook, writing a paper, and finishing all his tasks in the workshop.  That means he spent the rest of my birthday studying.  He was pretty stressed (and ergo grumpy) the next two days. This class has been on metal working which Brandon has never done before.  He was really struggling for a while.  His mood was giving me flashbacks to when he was studying in Army flight school.

I was so happy when he sent me a text on Friday saying he'd passed his final.  That meant I would have a relaxed, and fun husband for the weekend.

On Friday night we watched Wonder Woman with the kids.  I thought it would be fun, but instead I felt like we had to keep explaining the movie to the kids.  And it was so long. Really we should have skipped ahead to the parts where Diana kicks trash and the Wonder Woman Theme plays.  That would have been more fun for all of us.  I told Brandon we need a new movie night rule, All movies have to be under 90 minutes.

Oh and I have to share the How It Should Have Ended video for Wonder Woman.  Brandon and I watched this the other night and I laughed so hard.

Saturday was another one of those wonderful days where we had nothing planned.  Big projects for the day included helping clean our church building, cleaning our house, getting Valentine's Day cards put together, and laundry.

We also ate my birthday cake.  Brandon made me a Better than Sex Cake.  We didn't tell the kids the name of the cake.

And I made sure that I FINALLY got caught up on the laundry.  Normally I have a pretty good laundry system, but having the drier out of commission while Brandon fixed it really backed things up.  Add in the fact that we are trying to night potty train one of the kids and we seemed to have A LOT of extra laundry this week.  But finally at  11:05 on Saturday night it was ALL washed, dried, and put away.  Whew.  (And if you want to know more about my laundry system you should read this post about how I do laundry. I've changed a few things as the kids have got older and as we've moved, but it's still pretty much how I do things.) 

And that brings us to today.  We are now 3 days away from my favorite holiday - Valentines Day!  We spent today getting ready for some of the things we are doing this year.  The kids and I are all really excited.  

I'll tell you all about it in the next post.  

Thanks for reading.  

PS, I've started writing posts about Yellowstone on www.51centadventures.com.  So please take a minute to pop over to that blog and see what's new.  And if you wanted to share or pin any of my travel posts I would consider that one of the best Birthday Presents ever.  Thanks!

This House is Home

There are a lot of drawbacks to moving every couple of years.  You have to say goodbye to friends, you have to pack up your stuff - and then unpack it, you have to find new doctors, and dentists, and stores.  

But there are also some good things about moving a lot. You get to meet many new people, you get to dejunk your stuff, and you get to learn what you really value in a doctor, dentist, or store.  

One of my favorite things about moving is when the new house and new city starts feeling like home.  I love moving to a new city and learning how to navigate the streets.  I love the satisfaction of figuring out a place that felt so unfamiliar at first.  And I absolutely love when a new house feels like home.  In nearly every house we've ever lived in there has been an almost magical moment when I look around and feel love for every room and the people and things in it. 

I had that moment within a few weeks of moving into this house.  Lately I've begun to notice that the kids have had the moment too.  A few weeks ago the kids were playing with Legos and Lydia looked up at me.  She said, "Mom, this house feels like our Alabama House." She went on to explain that she felt a special feeling that she used to feel in Alabama. She was feeling at home. 

One of Derrick's favorite phrases right now is "This house is home."  He says it to me at least once a day. I don't know how much he remembers about our other homes, but I'm glad that he knows that this is home right now. 

I've been thinking a lot about the journey that led us here to Idaho. Back in November of 2016, On our last Sunday in Alabama, we sung the Hymn "Be Still My Soul" in sacrament meeting. It's Hymn # 124 in the LDS Hymn Book.  It's one of my favorite Hymns and the fact that we sang it before we left Alabama was a tender mercy to me. 

Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;

With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In ev’ry change he faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav’nly Friend

Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake

To guide the future as he has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: The hour is hast’ning on

When we shall be forever with the Lord,

When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,

Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.

Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

I was in tears as I sang the words, "Thy God doth undertake, to guide the future as he has the past."

I thought of all the prayer and fasting we'd done to make it to Alabama and flight school. And I knew, absolutely knew, that our Heavenly Father had guided us on that journey.  And even though our time with the Army had come to an end I needed to remember that Heavenly Father was going to guide our future as he had our past.

Since we currently had no idea what that future looked like we did the best thing we could think of and moved in with Brandon's parents in Utah. They were very gracious to open up their home, and I'll be forever grateful for them, but this was not an easy time in my life.

Brandon had a few career prospects, but none of them seemed to work out. At the end of January he received the sad news that he had not been selected for the job that we'd had the most hope for.  That disappointment combined with the Federal Hiring freeze made me feel like Brandon would never find a job. 

What happened next is a great example of how Heavenly Father guided us toward the next step in our lives.  This happened a year ago yesterday and I wrote about it at the end of February last year.  I like what I wrote so much that I'm just going to quote from my own blog rather than try to re-tell it. 

I work up on Friday February 3rd with a feeling of sadness. I wondered if maybe we'd used up all our miracles back when Brandon was trying to get selected as a Warrant Officer. Who were we to expect to continue to be lucky? I started to think that it was time to face the music and just settle for whatever we could get.

At that moment a powerful thought came into my mind. I know that it was Heavenly Father telling me something through the Holy Ghost. The thought was, "miracles have not ceased."

This reminded me of two scriptures from the Book of Mormon:

Moroni 7:29 And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men.

and

Mormon 9:15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

The thought and the scriptures gave me hope and comfort. I still had no idea what we were going to do, but I did know that miracles had not ceased. We hadn't used up all our miracles. There was no such thing as using too many miracles. We could still work to make our dreams come true.

That night Brandon and I sat down for a long talk about our plans for the future. Brandon made hot chocolate and we started talking. We didn't really have a set goal for the conversation other than to try to figure out something. At some point I tossed out the idea of becoming an Aircraft Mechanic. I brought it up because it seemed like 80% of the available aviation related jobs were mechanic jobs. I wondered if Brandon was interested in getting his A&P (Airframe and Powerplant) Certification so he could be a mechanic. I'd asked Brandon this question before and he'd never really responded one way or the other. But this time he said, "Yeah, I've kind of always wanted to get that certification."

And then we pulled out our phones to see if Google could tell us anything about what it took to get the certification. We learned Brandon's best bet was to go to a college. We learned that there were only two places in Utah where he could do it. One was the Salt Lake Community College. I was kind of okay with the idea of going there - even though I still didn't like the idea of living in the same area where I grew up and playing insane prices for housing.

The other school was Utah State University which elicited an immediate "oh heck no" from both of us. I may have also involuntarily shuddered. There was no way we were letting Utah State have one more dime of our money - even if the GI Bill was paying for it.

For a minute we seemed like we were back to square one. But Brandon said, "I wonder what we can find in Idaho." Now that may seem like a crazy thought, but you have to realize that Brandon and I have always liked Idaho. It's been at the very top of our list for where we want to live. We like the rural atmosphere. We like the low cost of living. We like that it's close to family. We like that it's pretty. We like that it's similar to Utah - but different enough to be interesting. So looking at options in Idaho made perfect sense.

Lo and behold Idaho State University in Pocatello Idaho had an amazing Airframe and Powerplant Certification Program. And suddenly we were excited about our plan and our future. For the first time in months we felt in control of our future again. We weren't waiting for the Army to make a decision, or some hiring manager to call us. We were making plans and we were able to act on them.

What's funny is that I could count on one had the number of times Brandon and I had ever been to Pocatello.  I remember going there once with my Grandma when I was a teenager and the only thing I remember doing was getting an oil change at Jiffy Lube.  Brandon had made a stop or two in Pocatello as a teenager as well. And when we were first married Brandon and I had gone on a random road trip to Pocatello and walked around the main street area. At that time we liked the city, but we never thought, "we should live here in 10 years."

And yet, even with that limited experience with Pocatello we felt certain we should move there.

It's been a year since we decided to move to Pocatello and it's been 6 months since we found our rental house. I haven't regretted our decision yet.  In fact I'm so very thankful that we followed the promptings that we received and came here to Pocatello. 

We love our home, we love Brandon's school program, we love the kids' schools, we love my job, we love our neighbors, and we love our ward members. 

Meeting and getting to know new people has been one of the sweetest parts of living here. One of the hardest things about our time back in Utah was how overlooked I felt. Since we were "temporary" people didn't go out of their way to befriend me. And, I'll admit, I wasn't really trying hard to find friends. 

One Sunday in Utah I was sitting by myself in Relief Society and we sang the song "We are all Enlisted."  The word enlisted reminded me of the Army which reminded me of all my wonderful Army Wife friends and that reminded me of how much I missed them and that made me cry.  And then I cried harder because I remembered the last time I'd cried in Relief Society had been back in Alabama and my dear friend Deb had been sitting next to me and put her arm around me. This time I was crying by myself in a room full of women who didn't know me.

Contrast that with what happened to me last week in Relief Society. We sang the song "Each Life That Touches Ours for Good."  This is hymn number 293.  As soon as I saw what song we were singing I knew I was in trouble.  If there is any song guaranteed to get me to cry it's this one. I have known so many wonderful people who I've had to say goodbye to over the years and this song makes me think of every single one of them. 

Each life that touches ours for good

Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;

Thou sendest blessings from above

Thru words and deeds of those who love.

 What greater gift dost thou bestow,

What greater goodness can we know

Than Christlike friends, whose gentle ways

Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.

When such a friend from us departs,

We hold forever in our hearts

A sweet and hallowed memory,

Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.

For worthy friends whose lives proclaim

Devotion to the Savior's name,

Who bless our days with peace and love,

We praise thy goodness, Lord, above.

I couldn't even sing the first verse because I knew my voice would crack. By the third verse I was wiping away tears. But during the fourth verse a wonderful thing happened. I was sitting by my friend Charity. She noticed my emotional state and she put her arm around me.  It was exactly what I needed.  In that moment I knew that I'd found a place full of people as dear to me as the people I'd left in Alabama. In that moment I knew that God really had guided our future just as he had our past. 

I'm incredibly grateful that we were led here to Pocatello.  I don't know where we are going to be living next, but I'm so glad that we get to spend nearly 2 years in this home. 

* * * 

Okay, enough with the emotional stuff.  Let's talk about the regular things that have been happening in our home the past few weeks. 

Mostly we've been sick. Lydia had a bad cold, Veronica had a UTI, Derrick had a cold and slept a lot, Charlotte had a little cold, and I'm pretty certain I had the flu. I missed two days of work because I felt so sick.  So I didn't take any pictures that week.  And I basically forgot to take any pictures until last Friday.

This past week we've been doing better.  The kids had their 100th day of school on February 2nd.  I love the kids' elementary school because they keep days like this simple.  Instead of doing over the top things like dressing the kids like they are 100 years old, or making elaborate posters all we had to do was have the kids bring 100 of something.  Lydia chose to bring 100 pennies, and Charlotte wanted 100 marshmallows.  Easy Peesy.

They were also encouraged to wear a shirt with a number on it.  Charlotte has a shirt that says, "100% cute" which she LOVES.  So she was excited about that.  Lydia felt a little left out so we painted her a shirt with 100 on it.  (Brandon should get most of the credit for this since he made the stencil.) 

Lydia's teacher has started sending home simple math homework.  It's only one page and it's all a review so it's not very painful to do. (Last year in Utah we had this awful homework packet that was way too long for Kindergarteners and I hated it.) I love sitting down with Lydia to do her homework.  She's pretty good at it.  My favorite parts are the story problems.  It's fun to watch Lydia draw out the problem and solve it. 

 We had ice cream for dessert on Friday and I wanted to get a picture of the kids all in one place.

 I bought Derrick a subscription to Trains Magazine for Christmas and he got a new issue on Saturday.  He loves looking at the magazine with me.

We also got our latest kiwi crate and so the kids put that together on Saturday.  It was a claw that they could open and close with a string.  

Charlotte and Lydia set up a circus tent in the living room and put on shows with their stuffed animals.  Here's Nose doing a trick on a ball. 

The big news this week is that we finally joined the 21st century and got a flat screen TV.  Up until we moved away from Alabama we had a giant picture tube TV that we moved all over the country.  (We hung onto it for so long because we didn't have to worry about the kids breaking anything if they touched the screen.) We realized we didn't want to move it again and put it into storage so we got rid of it before we moved.  When we lived in the RV we had a computer monitor for a TV screen, and that's what we've been using ever since we moved into this house.  

We talked about getting a new TV for Christmas, but we didn't really have the money.  Brandon wanted to wait to get one at the Weber State University Surplus Store the next time we were in Utah.  But we weren't sure when that would be. 

Last week one of my co-workers asked me if we wanted her old TV that she no longer needed.  I said yes and we made plans to get it.  The kids were so excited when Brandon and I brought it into the house.  The first movie we watched was Ground Hog Day.  And another night Brandon and I stayed up late and watched Rogue One.  That was Brandon's birthday present, but he wanted to watch it after we had a new TV.

Oh and I have to add this here because it's so cute and I don't want to forget.  Veronica pronounces movies as "loobies." It's so cute (but don't tell her that because she hates being called cute.) Oh and another funny Veronica thing is how hard her name is to pronounce.  None of the kids can say it right.  She even calls herself, "Ronica."  Some of her friends at school call her "Mo-anica." Which is fitting since she loves Moana so much.  Lately Veronica has started calling all of us "Morecake" for some unexplained reason.  Derrick get's so made at her and says, "I'm Derrick! Not Morecake."  So anyway that's a glimpse into life with a 4 year old.  

Charlotte and Lydia found the GI Joes this morning so after church they sat down and played with those with Brandon.  These were Brandon's when he was a kid and he saved them for his kids. 

 I finally remembered to take a picture of a project I did back in January.  Charlotte and Lydia's old tutu swimming suits were completely worn out, but I couldn't bring myself to throw them in the trash.  They'd worn these suits for three summers and I loved them.  So I turned them into doll dresses.  I was able to make four dresses from two suits.  They are so cute.

And I guess that's all the pictures.  I'm trying to think of a cute way to end this but nothing is coming.  I guess we could do a call back to the beginning of this post and say that I'm glad we are making these memories in this home. 

I hope that where ever you are living it feel like home to you. 

Have a great week!