A Rare Thanksgiving at Home

Today's post is going to be a little out of order from usual.  Normally I talk about everything in chronological order.  But this time we are going to start out with the pictures I took today and then well go back in time about two weeks.  

Brandon and I are going to get rid of a lot of our stuff before we move in a few months. One of the things we decided to get rid of was our wooden round table.  I've had the table for 12 years and most of the time I loved it. It even served as our dining room table for about 3 or so years.  But lately it seems like it's just been a clutter dump. Brandon's parents have always loved the table so we decided to see if they wanted it.  They said yes.  

We'd moved the round table out of our living room to make room for the Christmas Tree last year.  So we decided that it made sense to give the table to my in-laws before Christmas this year.  They came up for a visit last weekend and then they took the table home with them when they left.  

None of us knew it, but we'd just set off a chain reaction that would end up completely redecorating our living room.

The first thing that happened was that the room felt off balance.  So I decided we should move the long green table with the radio on it over to a side wall instead of the wall you look at right when you enter the house.   

After we did that I looked at the corner by the piano and though that looked like a pretty place to put the Christmas Tree.  So I started to try to figure out new places to put the piano.  

I also realized that I was DONE with our green arm chairs.  I've had these chairs for 12 years and they were definitely starting to show their age.  I also decided that it was no fun to try to read or snuggle with the kids in an arm chair. Brandon and I had planned to replace the chairs with a couch when we moved, but I decided we couldn't wait another 6 months.  I wanted a couch ASAP.  

On Monday I got onto Craigslist to "take a peek" and just see if there was anything that interested me.  I ended up finding the perfect couch for only $50.  I jumped on that deal right away and Brandon and one of our ministering brothers picked it up that night. 

I was in love with the couch instantly.  I forgot how nice it is to have a place to lounge in your living room.  I've been reading in bed at night, but having a couch made me want to spent time in the living room in the evening.  That meant that we needed better curtains over the entryway windows so people wouldn't be able to see into our house as much.  So I moved the living room curtains to the entry way.  And that meant I had to look for new curtains for the living room window. 

Later in the week I decided that I wanted to move the piano and put the couch in it's place.  So Brandon and I did that Friday night.  (That also reminded me that I really don't want to move with the heavy piano again so we'll be finding a new owner for it before we move.)

On Saturday I checked a few thrift stores for curtains and ended up finding four of the most perfect curtain panels for only $6 a panel. I wanted curtains that had grey in them, but that would still match my blue couch and green other furniture.  The curtains I found are grey, AND, green, AND blue.  It's like they were made for my living room.  

As a final touch I painted the unfinished wood frame that Brandon made for our big wall quote.  I wanted it to be grey, but it ended up darker than I wanted so it's almost black.  Still it looks AMAZING.  

Oh and Craigslist helped me find a new owner for the chairs.  A lady who reupholsters furniture came and got them.  I'm glad they are going to a new home and I'm glad they are out of my house.  

Okay so are you ready to see my new living room?

TA DA! Here it is:

Here's what it looked like when we moved in.  It's like a whole new room now. 

 Here's what it looks like looking the other way. 

 And here are my pretty curtains.  50 percent of my conversations with Brandon the past 24 hours have involved the phrase, "I love those curtains!"

 Here are the other curtains around the entryway windows.  They look pretty great too.

 And here's our big quote.  That frame looks so great.

 And let's take a moment to appreciate the couch.  Long time readers of this blog might notice that this is almost exactly like the couch Brandon and I used to have.  That's one of the reasons I wanted to buy this one.  But it's actually even better than our old couch.  I never was a fan of the purplish brown color of our old couch.  And our old one had two Lazy-Boy recliners built into the couch.  We hardly used them and the metal framework of the recliners actually made the couch uncomfortable to lay on.  This couch doesn't have recliners.  Which means it has removable cushions which are much more comfortable. And under those cushions is a couch bed! The kids think it's the coolest thing ever. 

So yeah, that's our "new" living room.  

One reason we were able to focus on the living room so much this week was because we didn't have to travel for Thanksgiving.  We stayed here and had a nice relaxing long weekend.  But that's getting ahead of the story.  First we have to go back to the other holiday in November - Veteran's Day.  

I had Veteran's Day off of work, but no one else in my family had it off.  Normally that would be great, but I just had a whole month off of work so it didn't feel very special.  I ended up going on a mini clothes shopping spree for Brandon and me. It's been a while since either of us got new clothes so it was very needed.  

At noon I went to the elementary school to help Lydia's class with Art Mom's and Dads.  The lesson this month was on pointillism.  The kids painted pictures using que-tips. Lydia did a fish. 

 The rest of the week was busy, but not very picture worthy.  The kids had follow up dentist appointments on Tuesday and Derrick had therapy on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday Brandon's program had their annual Thanksgiving Dinner at the Airport Hangar.  I couldn't go because I had work, but my parents and Brandon's parents were able to go.  My dad took this picture of Brandon by a jet engine.

Brandon's parents stayed over night at our house.  In the morning we took them for a walk around Main Street in Old Town Pocatello.  The stores all had their Christmas decorations up.  Those were fun to look at.

 Then we went to the Student Center to go bowling.  It's been over a year since we went bowling.  I can't believe it's been that long because the kids love it so much.

 We had two lanes and it was so fun to see the kids bowling at the same time.

  Like I said, Steve and Jacque took our round table home with them when they left. Within 72 hours I'd replaced it with a couch.  This was the first time I'd been able to relax on a couch in my own living room in over 2 years.

 Monday was also important in ways that didn't relate to furniture.  Brandon took the
FAA written Air frame test and PASSED it.  He's been studying for this test for the past forever 3 months so it's nice to finally have that out of the way.  Now he just has to take and pass the written
General Test and he'll have the A part of an A&P mechanic license.

Brandon didn't have school at all the week of Thanksgiving so after he passed the test he was done with all his school responsibilities for almost a week.  He was super happy about that.  He started making pies for Thanksgiving and it seemed like every time I walked into the kitchen he was making more pies.

I spent the first three days of the week of Thanksgiving at work. My office was closed for Thanksgiving and the Friday after. That's great and I love having the time off, but since I'm technically a temporary employee I don't get paid holidays.  So to keep my hours (and my paycheck) roughly the same as other weeks I worked from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm on Monday and Tuesday and from 7:00 to 3:00 on Wednesday.  Since Brandon didn't have school he could take care of getting the kids onto the bus in the morning and watching Veronica on Tuesday. I felt like I barely saw my kids from Sunday night to Wednesday night.

I did find time on Tuesday (after the kids were in bed) to deodorize the couch.  The couch was in great shape an didn't smell at all, but I figured it was a good idea to give it a thorough cleaning.  So I sprinkled it with a homemade carpet/couch cleaner.  One of the ingredients is cloves so the couch smelled very Christmasy when I was done.

 Brandon had finished his final pie and then went somewhere for a little while.  I was in the kitchen admiring the lovely lemon meringue pie when I started to notice all the pies around the room.

I wish I'd filmed my reaction as I started counting how many pies there were.   First there was the pie on top of the kitchen cupboard.

 Then there were the pies on top of the fridge.

 And the pies on the can shelves.

Plus the one in the fridge and the one in the freezer.  

All in all there were nice pies total.  Brandon had made a banana cream, mincemeat, lemon meringue, and two pumpkin pies.  He'd brought an apple pie home from Airport Thanksgiving.  He'd bought a pecan pie and a berry pie because those were cheaper than buying the ingredients.  And Derrick had brought home a pumpkin pie as a reward for his class winning a fundraising contest at school.  Nine pies.   

At work on Wednesday I told my co-workers about pies and joked, "So you'll all understand when I come in wearing Yoga pants on Monday right?"

The kids had Wednesday off of school.  There was a movie scheduled for the ELC kids that afternoon so Brandon was going to take them to that.  But it ended up getting moved to the morning and no one told us.  So the kids missed the movie.  They weren't too sad though.  They were so happy to be out of school for a while. Here they are jumping off the furniture because they were so happy.

My co-workers and I were all happy to get off work at 3:00 on Wednesday.  I think was also super happy because I didn't have to travel for Thanksgiving.  It's been a while since we could stay home. Last year we traveled to Brandon's parent's house in Utah. The year before that we moved across the country in time to make it to their house for Thanksgiving.  The year before that we traveled from Alabama to my sister Emily's house in North Carolina.  The year before that we hosted Thanksgiving at our home in Texas.  The year before that we traveled from Fort Hood to my sister Lindsey's house in Houston Texas.  And the year before that I was in Utah with the kids and Brandon was in Basic Training in Georgia.

Since we weren't going anywhere we had a pretty normal Wednesday night planned.  Derrick had therapy as usual and then we had family training.  Generally Christy, the therapist, just brings a craft for the kids to do together.  This time they made these adorable gingerbread men.

 The kids put them on a cookie sheet and pretended to cook them.  Later Veronica played kitchen for a long time with them.

 After Christy left I laid down on the couch for a minute.  It was only about 7:30 but I was so tired.  I ended up falling asleep. I woke up and moved to my bed around 10:30.  I thought I'd wake up unable to sleep around 3:00 AM, but instead I slept until nearly 8:00 the next morning. working 25 hours in 3 days certainly took it out of me.

Everyone was so excited for Thanksgiving.  We usually watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but usually we are at someone else's house.  And those someone elses usually have broadcast TV.   We don't have broadcast TV (or maybe we do, but we've never bothered to check) so we tried finding the parade on the internet.  We could have watched it live from the NBC website, but we had to sign in with our tv service. And that's something else we don't have.  I ended up finding a live stream on Youtube provided by Verizon so we watched that. We could see the balloons and we didn't have to watch a bajillion Macy's commercials so everyone was happy. 

 We were having a "small" Thanksgiving this year.  My parents were the only ones joining us.  But Brandon was not letting that change his cooking style.  He was hard at work making enough turkey, potatoes, rolls, and stuffing to feed an army.  And he was loving every minute of it.

I put myself in charge of setting the table.  The kids and I thought it would be fun to made edible name cards for everyone.  So we printed out everyone's names and put them under wax paper.  Then I traced over the names with chocolate.  I think I added too much coconut oil to the chocolate because they ended up melting super easily, but they looked cute.

 When I was a kid I never liked Thanksgiving when we had to do it at home because it seemed like a lot of work for nothing.  We'd spend HOURS in the kitchen just to sit down at our same old table in our same old spots, and eat off our same old dishes.  I realized that we were in danger of repeating that this year so I told Brandon to buy some fun dishes for Thanksgiving dinner.  He found some really cute fall leaf themed stuff at the dollar store.  I had fun setting it all up.

 Charlotte put signs on the dinning room door that said, "Keep out." and "parents only."

Things got kind of silly while we waited for my parents to arrive.  Charlotte showed off her flexibility.

 We had music on and all the kids danced.  Here's Derrick showing he can dance like a grown up with Lydia.

 The kids were glued to the window when  it was almost time for my parents to arrive.

We were all so happy when the food was ready.  My parents had brought green bean casserole and yams to go with the bounty that Brandon had prepared. 

 About 4 years ago Charlotte made up a Thanksgiving Treat she calls Sunflower Carmel.  We put it together and had it on the plates along with the name cards.  We'd also made napkin rings out of string and pony beads.  Everything looked fantastic.

And then we got to eat and eat and eat and eat.  I was in love with the green bean casserole.  If I'm ever in charge of Thanksgiving it's just going to be pizza and green bean casserole.

After dinner I took care of the part of Thanksgiving that makes sense to me- I did the dishes. I don't know how Brandon juggles all the food to have it come out hot all at the same time, but I do understand how to do dishes.  And it helped that all that plates were paper this year.  

Later it was time for pie.  Back on Sunday I'd invited a family of 8 to join us for pie.  This was back when Brandon was planning to make 4 pies.  I thought 4 was too many for our little group so I that's why I invited the other family.  But Brandon thought we needed more pie.  Which is how we ended up with nine.  

 Brandon was happy to share all his creations with the Porters.  And they were happy to help us eat the pies.

Still we ended up with so much leftover pie.  I put this on Instagram the next day.  

Here's a story problem for you. You have nine whole pies. 16 people come over and eat an average of 1.5 pieces each. What do you have left?

You have breakfast. That's what you have. A really yummy breakfast.

 We had leftover everything and that's what we ate for the next three or so days.  Add that to the leftovers we'd already been eating from Airport Thanksgiving and I've basically been eating Thanksgiving food for over a week.  I'm done with Turkey for the year.

Friday was a super laid back day.  I spot cleaned the couch and that was probably the biggest thing I accomplished all day.  In the afternoon the kids and I went over to my parents apartment to watch the movie Babe.  We all proudly wore our pajamas over there. Brandon stayed home and enjoyed doing nothing important without anyone around to interrupt him.

In the evening the kids put snow pants and coats on over their pajamas and we walked over to Main Street in Old Town for the light parade.  Last year we went to a light parade in Ogden.  I was excited to see our town's parade this year.   Derrick had tons of energy so we went for a walk up and down Main Street.

 Then we joined the other kids at our spot.

Veronica wanted to sit on my lap while we waited. 

 The parade started at 6:30, but it was about 7:00 by the time the parade made it to our spot.

 The kids loved it.  I was especially impressed by Derrick.  Last year at the Ogden Parade he'd freaked out from all the noise and light.  I'd had to wrap my scarf around his head to filter out some of the stimulation for him. And then he'd gone nearly catatonic on me.  This year he was just fine with all the noise and light.  He was participating in everything right along with the other kids.  Things liek this remind me that  he's made a lot of progress in the last year.

 Our favorite float was the entry by Idaho Power.

 They even had real line men hanging from poles.  They threw out candy from up high.

 The kids were really excited to see Santa come in on the fire truck at the end.

Then we packed up our stuff and walked home.  I'm going to miss living within walking distance of Main Street.  

On Saturday morning Charlotte decided what she wanted to buy with her Lemonade Stand/Birthday money.  She wanted the "Animal Rescuer Barbie set."  So we went to Fred Meyer to buy that.  Lydia came along and bought a fingerling toy with her money.  And I stopped at DI on the way home and scored my amazing curtains that I love so very very much.  

We came home and picked up Brandon, Derrick and Veronica and went back to Main Street.  The shops of Old Town had put together an event in honor of Small Business Saturday.  We went to our favorite building, Station Square, for the events there.  The kids were all able to write letters to Santa. 

 And then put them in a mail box to be sent to the north pole.

 After mailing the letters we stood in line for a chance to take a picture with Santa.  The kids had fun posing for me while the line moved through the building.

 Here's Charlotte  in front of a tree.

 And Lydia.

 And Veronica.

 And Derrick.

 When it was our turn all the kids happily crowded around Santa for the picture.  This was the first year we've done this where they have all smiled.  I hadn't expected much from the kids so I didn't put much thought into what they were wearing.  Derrick had practiced what he was going to ask Santa.  All week he'd been saying, "I'm going to ask Santa for a fishing pole."  Only he says ask as ax.  So it kept sounding like, "I'm going to ax Santa."

The zoo had sent an employee with an owl and the kids liked looking at the owl.  

 Then we went and found the stop for the free trolley rides. We enjoyed our ride around Old Town.

 We also spent some time walking around Main Street.

 Our final stop was a cookie decorating place in the Yellowstone Hotel Building.

 The kids had fun with that.

 We were parked by Station Square so we walked back through there on our way to the car.  I love that building so much. 

Back at home we enjoyed more laid back activities.  I painted the picture frame. And then Charlotte and I figured out how to make a Christmas Tree for her Barbies.  

 In the afternoon my parents came over to watch the kids while Brandon and I went Christmas Shopping.  We were happy to have a date together.

And that catches us up to today.  I go back to work and Brandon goes back to school tomorrow.  The kids don't have school tomorrow.  They get to go to a pajama party at the day care.  Property tax bills get mailed out tomorrow which means the rest of the year is going to by busy for me.  I'll try to keep the blog up to date, but I can't promise anything.

Thanks for reading.

I thought I wasn't busy this week . . .

I made muffins for the first time in a long time this afternoon.  As I mixed them up I realized it was the first time in a while that I've baked anything.  I've cooked meals and things, but It's been at few months since I've actually made anything with flour.  I kept thinking, "why has it been so long since I baked something?" 

And then I remembered that I got hit by a car 10 1/2 weeks ago.  And about the time I started to get fully healed from that I started sewing two complicated baptism dresses.  And so it makes sense that I haven't baked in almost three months. 

I've had a lot of little moments like that this week.  Moments where I'm like, "this feels familiar, but why haven't I done it in a while."  And then I think back on all the ways I've been busy over the last few months and I realize why I haven't done something.

A lot of things have come to a close this week. And other things have started happening again.  Let's talk about them. 

Sunday was such a relaxing day - especially compared to the excitement of the day before.  Charlotte and Lydia were baptized on Saturday and we'd had a big party at our house afterward.  When it was over Brandon and I realized that we hadn't planned ANYTHING for the rest of the day.  That was such an odd feeling.  We also realized that aside from a few things that we weren't directly responsible for, we didn't have anything else planned until Thanksgiving.  We'd been so focused on the girls' baptism that we'd never planned past that date.

That lack of planning actually came in handy.  At church on Sunday my friend Rachel and I were talking in the library while we were waiting for copies.  She mentioned that one of the ladies who I am a ministering sister to, was due to have a baby in two weeks, but had not had a baby shower yet.  I knew Nicole was pregnant, but I hadn't realized that she didn't have any family in town who would throw her a shower. 

My first response was "well that's too bad, but I'm going back to work this week so I probably won't have a chance to put anything together."

That lasted about 5 minutes. 

My second response was, "I LOVE to plan stuff.  And with Brandon's help I can pull off anything in any amount of time." 

Nicole had left church after Sacrament Meeting so I started texting her to see what she needed.  We quickly determined that the next Saturday worked well for both of us.  (I like to think that it was divine intervention that I hadn't planned anything for that Saturday.) In Relief Society I announced that there would be a Baby Shower for Nicole on Saturday and that I'd appreciate any help anyone could give me.  I had two offers of help in addition to Rachel.

I kept thinking about the shower the 8th Branch in Bountiful threw for me when I was pregnant with the twins.  It honestly wasn't that fancy, but I remember feeling so loved at that shower.  I wanted to give Nicole that same feeling.

I also thought about a promise I'd made to myself a long time ago. There were times during each of my pregnancies when I'd felt so alone and so overwhelmed.  I told myself that if possible I would reach out to the pregnant women I met in the future, and let them know that they were not completely alone.  I knew that planning this baby shower was an important part of keeping that promise.

After church I made sure to reserve the Relief Society Room of the building, and started thinking about what we could do for Nicole.  I met with her that evening to talk about her thoughts. 

I also went on a walk with Derrick after church.  He had fun playing in the leaves at the park.  He's a handful, but he's MY HANDFUL and I love him.

Monday was the first week day since daylight saving time ended.  That meant it was actually LIGHT outside when I took the kids to the bus stop.  We were the first ones out there and part of me worried that we were late because it was so strange to be out there in the daylight.  I also realized that my green sweat pants are totally visible in the morning again and I might want to put more thought into what I wear. 

Within an hour I was showered and wearing professional black pants because it was MY FIRST DAY BACK AT WORK!!!!  When I had my 5 weeks off back in April it took me about three weeks until I was feeling ready to go back to work.  This time I fully enjoyed my 5 weeks off, but I realized I was getting pretty annoyed with the kids during week 5.  I figured I needed some time to miss them again. 

I was also feeling ready for a break of sorts.  I squeeze as much stuff as possible into my time off.  We had dentist appointments, drs appointments, flu shots, and a visit with Derrick's audiologist.  I finished physical therapy. I volunteered at the kids school a few times. I went to the temple with my parents.  I worked on Halloween Costumes.  And the rest of the time I was sewing two fancy dresses.   After all that I was looking forward to the chance to go back to work for 7 hours a day.

My first day back was everything I hoped it would be.  It was good to get back into the swing of things again.  And after work I was so excited to come home and see the kids.  I loved listening to their stories and reading books with them. 

Around 6:00 I got a phone call from someone in my ward.  They'd heard that I was throwing a baby shower for Nicole and they offered to donate $40 for decorations and food.  Later they dropped off $45.  This was a great blessing because I wasn't sure how much money I could spare for decorations and food.  This donation helped make cuter decorations and better food possible.  People are really good.

Tuesday was the one year anniversary of me starting work with the Bannock County Treasurers Office.  But no one paid attention to that because it was also Election Day. We'd been looking forward to this day for MONTHS.  I haven't written a lot about my involvement with the campaign because I didn't want to write anything before the election was over.  Now that it's all final I want to write some of my memories of the campaign. 

When I interviewed with the Treasurer's Office last October I met with the current Treasurer Radene Barker and her Sr Deputy Treasurer Jennifer Clark.  In that interview Radene mentioned that she would be retiring and that Jen was planning to run for County Treasurer.  My response was something like, "oh that's nice."  I had no idea how involved I'd become.

Jen officially announced her campaign last March on her 20 year anniversary with the Bannock County Treasurers office.  (This always blows my mind, but four of the ladies I work with have worked in the same office for 20 years.  I've lived in 10 different cities in that same amount of time.) 

At first I thought I wouldn't have much to do with the campaign. Most of my co-workers had helped with Radene's campaign so they knew what they were doing to help with Jen's.  I figured I'd march in the parades and that would be it. 

But then I kept opening my mouth. 

And good suggestions kept coming out.

Like when Jen was trying to write a Facebook post to announce her candidacy and she was asking everyone for help with the wording. I came up with some good phrases. 

Or later when she said she wanted a Facebook page and I mentioned that I knew how to set one up because I had one for 51 Cent Adventures.

After that it quickly became apparent that I knew a lot about social media.  Suddenly the 6 years I'd spent as a stay at home mom with a slight addiction to Facebook came in handy.  I knew how to set up privacy controls on Jen's personal profile, I knew how to admin a Public Facebook page, I knew how to create events.

I was appointed to the role of social media director for the campaign.  And I loved it. 

I also found myself giving advise on various aspects of the campaign.  Jen would ask something to the group and I'd respond with what I felt was right.  Like when we would discuss how much candy to give out at parades I would say things like, "It's not your responsibility to make sure every child gets candy." Or "Candy is great and all, but does it actually translate into votes? Could that money be better spent elsewhere?" Time and again I'd be surprised by how bold I was in voicing my opinion. But I also knew that my opinion was valued. 

Jen had someone do her logo, but later she needed help with her big signs.  She wanted to add her picture.  The original graphic designer was busy with other projects so I took a look at the photoshop file and figured out how to do what Jen needed. We still weren't happy with the sign so I had Brandon look at it.  Within 5 minutes he'd made some quick changes that made the sign look better than ever.

He knew that with a little more time he could make it look amazing so he offered to spend more time on the sign.  And that's how Brandon became the graphic designer for Team Clark.  Jen used Brandon's sign on the large signs she put up around the county.  It also appeared on several electronic billboards in Yellowstone Avenue in Pocatello.  It was always so much fun to see the sign that Brandon had designed flash onto a billboard while we were driving by.

In addition to managing the social media, I also helped out with writing for the campaign.  Jen and the other candidates for county positions were invited to a forum at the League of Women Voters.  I helped Jen craft her speech.  Later I took a key quote from that speech and put it on the Facebook Page.

When the local newspaper, the Idaho State Journal, wrote about the forum at the League of Women Voters they included a picture of each of the candidates.  However, they left Jennifer's picture off.  The day the paper came out Jennifer was in Boise at a conference, and the campaign manager was also busy.  I decided it was my job to figure out what had happened.  I was worried that we'd somehow failed to provide a picture to the paper and that was why they left Jennifer's picture off. 

Before I could contact the Journal our office got a call from a man who knew Jen.  He told us he'd already called the Journal to complain that they'd left Jennifer's picture off.  So when I called the Journal they already knew about their error.  I talked for a minute to someone who explained it had been caused by human error.  Then she told me that her editor wanted to talk to me and I was transferred to the man who wrote the article.  I'd been nervous to call, but during the call I realized that this man was actually a little nervous to talk to me!  He explained what had gone wrong, apologized profusely, and told me that they'd already updated the web edition and put Jenifer's picture in the top position.  In the end we probably ended up with more publicity from the error.  And I ended up with a boost to my confidence. 

My month off lined up perfectly with the last month of the campaign.  I created several graphics to put on Facebook with the idea that the followers of the page would share them.  We also tried to get these to be sponsored posts, but somehow that never worked as well as we thought it would.  (I still have a few things to learn about social media.)

 A week before the election the Idaho State Journal came out with an editorial where they listed their endorsements for the various county races. Jen got a glowing endorsement.  Which I quickly turned into graphics and put on Facebook.

One of my favorite things about the endorsement was how the wording of the endorsement so closely matched the wording of the things I'd helped write about Jen.  Perhaps the Journal came up with their reasons on their own, but I choose to believe that my words helped persuade them.

So on Tuesday, November 6th my office was on pins and needles as we anticipated the outcome of the election.  We have early voting in Idaho so a lot of my co-workers had already voted, but I waited until Election Day to vote. I went on my lunch break. It was really cool to vote for someone that I knew personally.  There were several other people on the ballot that I'd learned to admire during this campaign.  I think that was the most informed I'd ever been while voting. 

I normally don't work on Tuesdays, but I do this month to make up for all the holidays. I signed Veronica up for drop in daycare on this Tuesday because her class was going to see a play at ISU.  They went to see Lily and the Purple Plastic Purse.  We have the book, but I don't think Veronica understood what a play was.  When I picked her up in the afternoon she was so excite to tell me about the play. 

She told me, "the people pretended to by mice. We gave them High 5s at the end."

 I took these pictures off of the School of Preforming Arts Facebook Page.  You can see half of Veronica's face in this one.

I didn't want to have to pay for all the kids to go to drop in care on Tuesday so I got off work at 2:00 to meet the other kids at the bus stop at home.  Their bus actually broke down so they came home on a different one. 

I was starting to feel a little sick so when we got home I just laid down on my bed and let the kids watch TV.  We'd planned for Charlotte to go to Dance and Lydia to go to Ukulele, but Charlotte wasn't feeling well either so she stayed home.  Brandon took Lydia to Ukulele. 

I felt better in the evening which was good because Brandon and I were going to an election watch party.  We had a teenage neighbor girl come watch the kids.  It was probably the easiest gig ever because all the kids were already in bed and they stayed asleep the whole time.

Brandon and I arrived at the party around 9:00.  Polls had closed at 8:00, but there were no results yet.  There probably wouldn't be for a while.  But there was free food so we enjoyed that and talked with my co-workers. 

I'm not really affiliated with any party.  But it turns out that all the candidates I was rooting for this year were Democrats.  So we were at the party hosted by Bannock County Democrats. I enjoyed watching all the candidates as they waited for results.  There were some really cool people in that room. 

One of my favorite people was Christine Stevens.  She was running for one of the county commissioner seats. Christine used to be a middle school principal.  Earlier in the year she was instrumental with the grass roots campaign to gather enough signatures to get the proposition to expand medicaid on the ballot.  After that success she decided to run for Commissioner.  As part of her campaign she knocked on nearly EVERY door in Bannock County and talked to voters from Downey to Fort Hall.  I loved reading updates on her facebook page.  Often I got ideas for Jen's page from looking at Christine's. 

Another candidate that I fully supported was Sean Fay.  He was running for County Clerk.  Was a s self proclaimed "numbers geek," and would be so good a going over the county budget.  He also was the unintended star of the League of Women Voter's forum.  He was humorous and upbeat.  I really hoped he would win. 

And of course there was Jen.  A few weeks earlier my co-workers and I had submitted a letter to the Editor of the Idaho State Journal.  I shared it on my Facebook Profile and added this: I've worked with Jen for only a year, but I have been so impressed by her work ethic and her customer service skills. Even when we have lines out the door with customers she is always willing to give each customer a smile and her complete attention while she helps them.

Jen has worked in the Treasurer's Office for 20 years. She has tons of experience and is involved in a lot of big decisions. But that doesn't stop her from answering a phone call or helping me when I need help. It would be easy for her to sit back and say, "that's above my pay grade" or "I'm too important to handle minor questions." She never does that. She works right along side her co-workers to serve the citizens of Bannock County.

There was a TV set up, but we couldn't get local channels on it.  So a few of my co-workers ran over to the courthouse elections office to get in person updates on the ballot counting.  At about 10:30 they were done counting the early voting ballots.

Someone got up to read the results to the room.  They explained that early voting usually favors the Democrats so we shouldn't be surprised if things turned out different later.  Then he read off all the current results.  The democratic candidate was winning in each race.  Everyone was clapping and looking so happy. 

Brandon and I figured that was the highlight of the party so a little before 11:00 we said our goodbyes and headed home.  I told my co-workers to text me the final results. 

At 3:00 am I woke up and checked my phone.  I'd received a text at 1:53.  Jen had won!!!!!!!!! I woke Brandon up and told him the good news.  Then we felt back asleep.

Later I checked the final results for all the races.  I was surprised to see that Jen was the only democrat who had won.  Sean Fey had lost, Christine Stevens had lost, and the other two democrats had lost their races for Assessor and Commissioner.  I was excited for Jen, but sad for everyone else. 

When I got to work all we could talk about was the election results.  Jen had won by 849 votes.  Way to close for comfort.  Especially since he opponent had been such a dweeb.  We knew that many people had voted for him just because he was a republican.  If it hadn't been for some people voting cross party Jen would have lost.  I was very glad that we'd put so much effort into promoting Jen's experience. 

All my co-workers had stayed up for the results so everyone was tired.  It was actually kind of hilarious to see everyone in a daze.  One of them was even wearing two different shoes! 

Jen came in and we celebrated with cake.  Jen was feeling a little bit of survivor guilt at being the only democrat elected.  She was glad she was elected, but she wasn't feeling excited yet. 

Honestly I think we were all just tired and feeling release now that it was finally over. 

Somehow we made it through the day. 

That evening Charlotte and Lydia had Activity Days.  It was a baby shower for one of their leaders.  When I dropped them off everything was so cute.  It gave me a lot of inspiration for Nicole's shower.

On Thursday my attention shifted to the Relief Society Activity that was that night.  We'd planned an "Unfinished Craft Night."  People could bring any unfinished craft and work on it while talking to other women.  After all the anxiety I'd had over the Progressive Dinner in September this activity was a breath of stress free fresh air.  There was a little mix up with scheduling the building so the other ward was using the room I'd planned on using, but other than that everything went off without a hitch.  We had 7 women there - two who haven't been out to church for a few weeks - and I feel like people had a good time. Easy Peasy.

On Friday I was feeling the effects of working 5 days in a row.  I enjoy work and all, but I was getting ready for the weekend.  When I got home from work we had a quick dinner and then watched the old version of Your's Mine and Ours for movie night.  After the kids were in bed Brandon and I went to work on stuff for the baby shower. 

I'd ordered some things from the baby registry at Walmart.com and had them set up to be picked up in the store.  Brandon had picked them up for me.  One day during my lunch break I ran to the dollar store and picked up some more things.  And Friday afternoon Brandon went grocery shopping and got the food. 

 He worked on the food while I worked on center pieces.  I made tissue paper flowers and then attached them to baby bottles.  The bottles were full of blue and white candies. I figured this was a good way to have centerpieces that doubled as gifts.

 Brandon made chicken salad and rice crispy treats. 

On Saturday we got up and finished prepping things.  Then we took everything over to the church.  One of the other ladies who offered to help made this cute diaper cake and the ribbon back drop. 

 Here's the food table.

 Here's a long shot of the room.  The Primary President brought the balloon center pieces.  She's made similar ones in pink for the Wednesday shower so she offered to make other ones in blue for this shower since she already had everything.

 We had 18 people at the shower.  10 were Nicole's friends and family and 8 were from the ward. It was so great to see so many people come to support Nicole.  Every baby (and every mother) deserves a shower.  I'm glad I was able to help provide one for this baby and mother.

This baby shower strengthened my testimony of ministering.  Someone saw a need, notified the ministering sister (me), the ministering sister realized she couldn't do it all on her own and asked for any help, other people stepped up to help where they could, and everyone was blessed. 

What's also cool to me is that Nicole wasn't the only one blessed.  I feel like a few of my friendships were strengthened by working on this shower.  One of the ladies who came from the ward is new to the ward.  I think she made a few new friends through visiting with the other ladies who came to the shower. 

It was a good experience for everyone. 

Brandon and the kids had helped me set up, and they came back to the church to help clean up.  Then we went to the mall to pick up some late birthday presents.  They girls had wanted journals with locks and I'd found some on claires.com.  I'd had them shipped to the store, but they showed up a little late.  We picked them up and the girls loved them.  They've had them two days and I think they've already written more in their journals than I wrote during the first two years I had a journal.  They are definitely little writers. 

We also went to a park for a while.

When we came back home I took a long nap.  When I woke up from the nap I just laid in bed for an other hour and enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to do ANYTHING.  Brandon asked me if I was going to get up.  I asked him if I had to.  When he said, "no" I said, "then I'm not getting up yet."

Actually having nothing to do really made me start to notice other things.  I remembered that my friend Mindy's husband was out of town.  I realized that she probably was lonely and didn't want to make dinner for her three kids.  I sent her a text and invited her over for dinner on Sunday.  She responded by saying that sounded great. 

I had a little epiphany while I laid in bed.  I realized that maybe there is something to be said for having an open schedule.  I usually try to plan lots of things because I like to feel busy.  But I think I'm going to try to keep things a little more open.  At least for a little while.  I think that sometimes I miss opportunities for service by having a busy schedule.  I'm going to see what happens if I don't plan so much. 

At the very least I should have more time for baking.