So far in January 2020

After I posted my last update one of my loyal readers texted me and said that she'd had a rough Sunday and that reading my blog update was the best part of her day.  

So we are officially changing this blog from "The #1 blog for people on bed rest" to "The #1 blog for people who need distracting from the woes of life."

I'm glad I could be here for you all. 

I'm happy to report that we made it through those rough first few days back in school. Some of us better than other's but we all survived. 

On the first Monday back I told the kids that I wouldn't expect much of them after school. When they came home they were allowed to go right downstairs and watch some movies. That was good for all of us. 

On Tuesday Derrick had his first church-activity-formally-known-as-scouts.  The leaders paired up older boys to work with the younger boys.  Brandon went with Derrick and was there in case he got overwhelmed, but Derrick did fabulous. They played some sort of indoor soccer game and Derrick was right in the middle of it.  He didn't even freak out when he got hit in the head with a soccer ball. 

On Tuesday Brandon and I went on a walk and Brandon brought up an idea he'd been thinking about for a little while.  He asked me if I'd ever want to own and run a summer camp. At first I said no because all I could think about was the liability of owning a place like that.  But then I realized that that was the only drawback I could think of. Besides the liability I would LOVE to run a summer camp. It sounded like a great idea. 

So Brandon and I are unofficially hoping to one day buy some property and start a summer camp. We'd like to do this in about 10 years so in about 2030. Honestly I am so happy to have this idea. We were both feeling a little goal-less lately. It seemed like our only point in life was to pay the mortgage and raise the kids. (Which are both good things, but they are a little on the monotonous side.) Now we have something to dream and plan for. 

Right now we have jokingly named the plan "Camp To Belong" inspired by this scene in the movie Oceans Thirteen. 

Our last life plan inspired by a movie scene worked really well (remember the Rich Purnell Maneuver anyone?) So I'm feeling pretty good about this one. 

Anyway, back to reality. 

At some point during the week Lydia drew this picture. It's of a lady helping build the set for a play that she is directing. Lydia is planning to enter the youth division of the Magic Valley Art and Soul contest in April.   

Another thing that happened at some point during that first week was we had some really nice weather. We went and played in the back yard. I've been watching lots of the MIGardener Youtube channel and getting excited for Spring. I was out there eyeing the spot where I plan to grow our garden.

The kids were playing in the tree. Here's Lydia.

And Charlotte

On Wednesday night I decided it was time to dye my hair. My darkish roots have passed the "cute" length and just started making my hair look neglected. I decided I wanted to go light brown. Brandon is the most thorough person I know so I always have him dye my hair. He did that for me and I was really happy with the result.

I guess is was not much of a change because the kids still haven't noticed or said anything.

On Thursday I opened up a little free newspaper that we get delivered in our mail on Wednesdays. I was so happy to see this little blurb for the Autism Support Group that I am putting together. I sent this in to the paper so it wasn't exactly a surprise to see it, but it was still cool.

Here's a picture we took before school on Friday morning. Charlotte wanted to look like she was holding the full moon. 

I didn't go to work on Friday because I had to go to the social security office.  UGH that was a drag.  Derrick's Medicaid status changed recently because Brandon is making more money. So now we have to Apply for Katie Beckett Medicaid. The first step in doing that is to get denied for Social Security. For real. So anyway I had to go into the Social Security Office.  Derrick's medicaid case manager had given me a whole list of paperwork I would need to take in so I'd gathered all that.  Well when I got to the office all they needed was Derrick's SS number.  I was barely able to say 5 sentences.  They set me up with a appointment for a phone interview the next week and sent me on my way.

Since I had the morning off I decided this was a good time to go get the Honda's oil change. So I took care of that. At least the morning hadn't been a complete waste of my time.

Then I picked up Veronica.  A little while after we got home Fed Ex came and delivered a package. It was a new computer that Brandon had ordered with the money from his Christmas Bonus. I'd told him he HAD to buy a new computer. He's limped along with his old one for about three years. He said it was fine, but I told him that I was sick of hearing him complain about things like how slow it started. I told him, "Buying this computer for you will help my sanity because you'll be complaining less." So he ordered it.

When I told Veronica it was a late Christmas Present she said we should wrap it.  So we did.

Friday had been Spirit Day at school. This school does Spirit days differently than anywhere else we've lived. On Spirit Day the PTA sells little toys for $1 each. The kids LOVE these toys, but I make them buy them with their own money Every month its a different toy. This month they got light up tops.  The kids had fun with their tops for about an hour. Then the toys started breaking and that was the end of the fun. I guess it was worth the money.

Brandon didn't get to enjoy his computer on Friday night because he was doing something even more fun. He was going camping.

Lately we've realized that Brandon needs a little bit more adventure in his life. He's been so busy with family and school the past few years that he hasn't had time to focus on hobbies.  He's been very supportive of me exploring my interests and hobbies so I knew I needed to do the same for him. I've told him that Wednesdays can be his free nights. He doesn't even need to come home after work on Wednesdays. And we've decided that he can also take one weekend a month and go camping. So on Friday he already had his stuff packed in the car and he went straight the South Hills for a winter camping trip. He had a great time.

Meanwhile the kids and I had a fun time at home. I'd promised the kids we could pull out the couch bed and watch movies while laying on that. Our plan for the evening had been for us to watch Lion King and Bambi on Disney Plus. But that plan was thwarted when our internet went down right as we were eating dinner.

I hurried and went through our big tote of movies. I wanted to find something the kids hadn't watched a hundred times. I found our DVD's of the original Star Wars trilogy. It's been a few years since we watched those.  So I put A New Hope in and we watched that.  The kids loved it.

The internet came back on right as the movie was ending.  I put the kids to bed and then took my computer to my room and watched the 90's X-Men cartoon on Disney Plus. I watched the whole 5 episode arc of the Phoenix Saga followed by the 4 season arc of the Dark Phoenix Saga. I loved the Phoenix story when I was a kid, but I was never been able to watch all 9 episodes in order. In fact there were a few episodes that I wasn't sure I ever saw. It was great to finally achieve my childhood dream of watching all the episodes. Totally worth the subscription to Disney Plus.

The next day I wore my Phoenix shirt in honor of finally watching all the episodes.

I stayed up until about 1:00 watching the show. (I justified it by running laundry through the washer and dryer and putting it away while I was staying up for the show.)  The kids woke up at 6:30 which was so not cool. I had been dragging them out of bed every day at 7:00 all week long so for them to wake up at 6:30 on a Saturday was just unfair. They came in to wake me up and I told them it was still dark outside and to go away.  They mercifully left me alone and took care of finding cereal for breakfast. I didn't get up officially until closer to 9:00 that was nice.

Then we cleaned the house and got ready for a day of adventure. Every January Twin Falls puts together something called Cabin Fever Day. A bunch of businesses and organizations offer free activities all over town. Of course we were going to do this. We had options including roller skating, bowling, a star show, swimming, music lessons, scuba diving lessons, and solar viewing.

We decided we wanted to go to the Star Show at the planetarium at 11:30, then go to a music lesson, and then go swimming.  So we were getting ready to leave the house at about 11:15 to head to the planetarium.  Brandon came home right as we were heading to the car.  He climbed wanted to come with us so he hopped into the passenger side of the Honda. 

We got to the Science Center/Planetarium right at 11:30. That show was already "sold out" so we waited until the 12:30 showing. That wasn't a problem because we had the whole rest of the science museum to explore. The kids had fun looking at all the displays.

The museum was also doing a reptile review. Derrick got to hold a snake.

And then let the handler put a snake around his neck.

My kids also really like the gift shop at the museum. They spent a lot of time in here.

A little before 12:30 we went into the planetarium for the star show. We were here a few weeks ago to watch the Volcano Movie, and it was fun to be back again so soon.

The star show was really fun. The planetarium director did it. He was able to show us exactly what the night sky would look like that night and pointed out constellations. The kids loved it. He also showed trailers for some upcoming movies at the planetarium. And he showed a crazy movie called Sunny Bunnies that had so much movement that we all got sick to our stomachs. The whole thing was really fun.

After that we went to Wakefield music for the free music lessons. This was mostly for Derrick because he really wanted to touch a violin. The lobby was really crowded so basically Derrick held a violin for a second, all the kids got free cookies, and we were out of there.

Then we came home and the kids and I changed into swimming suits. Brandon stayed home to clean out the jeep from his trip. I took the kids to the YMCA that is right by our house. This is the first time we've been there and I was feeling a little nervous (because I always do before going to new places) but everything worked out okay.

The kids had a lot of fun swimming. Here's Lydia. (The water was really crowded so it was hard to get a picture without other kids in it.)

My four, plus a few extra in the back ground. 

I like this picture because it shows Derrick under the water. This is the trip swimming trip where he learned how to swim underwater. He was so proud of himself.

Me - apparently unable to open my eyes.

The pool closed at 4:00 and around 3:30 it started thinning out.  Lydia was able to take control of most of the pool noodles.

When we were done swimming we drove back home and then all the kids took quick baths while we cooked Freezer Pizza in the oven. The kids were all super hungry from all the swimming. 

After dinner Brandon watched the Lion King and Bambi with the kids. One of the girls astutely pointed out, "Hey these movies have the same beginning."

I went over to my neighbor Diantha's for a girls night. A week or so ago I realized that I really need to socialize with more women.  I used to work with 6 other women so I was used to talking with them on a regular basis.  Now I'm at work and it's just me and my boss- and he's pretty busy. I like my job, but I don't get a lot of socialization. So I asked Diantha if we could do something together and she said yes. We had fun chatting and then we watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  I've never seen that movie - and Brandon has never cared to watch it.  So it was so fun to have an opportunity to watch it. We had a good time laughing together. That night was what I needed. 

On Sunday we were able to sleep in.  I love 10:30 church.  Brandon and I took this picture together before church.  I love how my hair looks and I love Brandon. 

We had ward conference. Earlier in the week the Stake Primary President had stopped by for a visit.  She remembered all the kids on Sunday and they remembered her. I thought that was great.

After church we had our first choir practice of the new year. I was excited for new music, but it's kind of hard to learn new songs.  We were back to sight reading.  I really like choir because it's a fun challenge to learn a new song.

We were back to the grind on Monday, but this week went a lot better than the first week back. After school one day Veronica and I were going through some of my files. I found this folder of first time Homebuying advise from a class I took in 2016 when we live in Alabama. I'm so glad I don't have to hang onto stuff like this anymore.

I also figured out where we are on our student loan payoff tracker. (Remember that thing?) I'll be writing a whole post about this as soon as I find out the amount of interest we paid in 2019, but here's a little teaser image for you. 

One of the new hobbies that Brandon has discovered is writing. He has started writing a novel.  Yeah, this guy really can do anything.  At first I was just letting him write while I watched Harry Potter Fan Theory videos on the  Super Carlin Brother Youtube Channel. But after running out of those, I decided it was time to start working on my own writing projects again. So now we both write on our computers after the kids go to bed. Brandon jokes that we are playing battleship.

You can't tell in this picture, but my back tire started going flat.  This is the second time that this tire was losing air. The first time was back in December. Brandon took it in to Les Schwab where our tires are under warrantee and they found a screw and repaired it for free. When it started leaking again I was a little annoyed.  My original plan was to just avoid the problem. But I did send a picture to Brandon and hoping he'd go fill it up with air for me. We'll come back to this story in a little bit.

It snowed a lot on Tuesday morning and the kids were really excited to play in the snow after school. Derrick's therapy got cancelled and he was perfectly fine with that.  He didn't even go in the house after school. He just started kicking snow around in the front yard.

Here's a video of his snow kicking tricks. 

Charlotte and Lydia joined in on the fun, and soon Veronica came out of the house to play too. 

They started rolling snowballs in the front yard.

And then rolled them into the back yard.

The balls got HUGE in the backyard. The snow was perfect for rolling snowballs.

The balls were almost too heavy for the kids to roll. I had to take a video.  (And yes, Veronica is always that energetic.)

I'd been in the house making dinner, and I'd been popping in and out to take pictures. I put my boots on and came outside to help the kids roll their snowballs into the front yard. They wanted the snow balls where everyone could see them. Also our front yard is north facing so the snow wouldn't melt as fast there. 

They tried rolling more balls to make snowmen, but the sun was lower in the sky so the air was colder and that meant the snow wasn't packing as well. Plus it was time for Charlotte and Lydia to go to the church-activity-formerly-known-as-activity-days. This was their first activity in this ward. (Somehow we'd never been in the loop when we moved in and we were so shell shocked from all the changes that I never even thought to ask anyone.)  They had a fun first activity.

On Tuesday Veronica and I went through the spice/food coloring/sprinkles cupboard and organized it a little better. We found we have quite a bit of food coloring.

When the kids got home from school they all went to work on their snowmen again. Lydia was able to complete her's first.  She'd put the middle ball on the day before so she just had to make a head this day.

Here she is holding hands with it.

Derrick was really proud of his. I said it looked like Baymax.

Veronica got cold and was really sad. I brought her inside and then Lydia and Charlotte worked on hers for her.

I didn't get one of Charlotte's from the front, but she also put a little head on hers.

I took this picture the next day, but here's what all the "Snowmen" looked like by the end of Wednesday.

Brandon had his Wednesday night adventures so we didn't see him. After dinner the kids helped with dishes and then we settled down to read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We usually read for at least an hour each night. I'm loving it. Charlotte and Lydia are the main audience. But even Derrick will cuddle up next to me and sit quietly while we read. This is a big change from even 6 months ago. He used to be all over the place while I read and so we could never just sit and enjoy a book while he was around. Now he's just as calm as any of the other kids. Veronica hangs out in the room and "listens" to the book. She is not following the story at all, but she enjoys being with the rest of us. I can't think of a better way to spend cold, dark winter evenings. 

When Brandon got home around 9:30 I showed him my increasingly flat tire. I'd moved on from avoidance and asked Brandon to help me fill it up with air. So we drove to the gas station by our house and Brandon showed me how to use the air compressor there. While he was filling the tire he said, "Well there is your problem." And pointed to another screw stuck in the tire. How the same tire got two screws stuck in it a month apart is beyond me.  

The tire wasn't filling very well and Brandon wasn't sure it would hold pressure.  So we drove back home and pulled the Honda into the garage. Brandon turned on the heater out there and I hung out with him while he took the tire off and put the temporary spare on. I said I'd take the Honda to Les Schwab in the morning. 

On Thursday I woke up and said, "Let's just skip to the park where we read Harry Potter tonight." But that wasn't possible. 

All the kids got up for school, but Charlotte was dragging more than the others.  She just wasn't excited about the day. I told her, "Why don't you come with me to get the tire fixed. We can talk about it there."  So we dropped the other three off at school and then she went with me to Les Schwab. That turned out to be exactly what she needed. We talked about school, ate the free popcorn, watched parts of the Today Show, and watched the tire get fixed. I also had the tires rotated since it was time for that too. I knew it was all under warrentee, but it was still cool to not have a bill at the end. We are almost at the end of the life of these tires so we'll have to get new ones in a few months, but you can bet that we'll be getting them at Les Schwab. (By the way, this was totally not a sponsored post, I'm just really happy with Les Schwab right now.)

I dropped Charlotte off at school and headed into work.  (I'd e-mailed my boss and let him know I had tire trouble. I love that my job is so flexible.)

That afternoon I had my phone interview with social security.  The lady on the phone was much better at communication than the man in the office had been.  She asked lots of questions and then I was formally denied.  (YAY?)  That means we can move onto the next step in applying for Katie Beckett. I'm so glad I have Derrick's case worker helping me through this process. I would have no idea what to do if I was trying to navigate this on my own.

When the kids got home from school they all went to work on the snowmen for the 3rd afternoon in a row. I wasn't paying much attention to them, and then next thing I knew there were four snowmen in the front yard. Later the kids told me they'd all worked together to lift the heavy balls onto each snowman.

This is probably one of my new favorite pictures of the kids. 

They were all so proud of their work.

Veronica bit the carrot on her snowman's nose.

While they'd been working on the snowmen I'd been in the house making dinner. I've struggled with trying to figure out what my role is when the kids are playing after school. I don't want to just be the lady who makes dinner. But what do I do? Do I play with them? Do I make them do homework? Do I sign them up for lots of after school activities and drive them around?

Well this week I've figured out what my role is.  I'm the lady who makes dinner while listening to politics podcasts.  Yes it's a tiny distinction, but I think it's an important one.

While they run in and out of the kitchen the kids are overhearing snippets of NPR's Politic's Podcast, or The Daily from the New York Times, or The FiveThirtyEight Podcast.  Occasionally the kids ask questions about what they hear. I've already explained the separation of powers between the three branches of government a few times. And they are usually interested in hearing me tell a (very abridged) update on the impeachment proceedings.

And of course it's not always politics podcasts. Baconsale re-started this week so I've had that to listen to again and there's usually a few religious themed podcasts in my queue too. But lately it's been mostly politics.

And while I'm on the subject, I've mentioned this before, but I'm the Idaho Chapter Coordinator for Mormon Women For Ethical Government. We are calling for a Full and Fair Trail in the Senate. MWEG has been collected letters from citizens and hand delivering them to Senators in Washington DC. If you also feel that the Senate trail should be full and fair you can write a letter using this link.

Brandon came home and we had dinner. Then the kids helped clean up. They did a great job as always.

In case you want more info on how we get the kids to help clean up dinner.  Step one is live in an RV with no counter space for three months.  Step two is make a chart with a job for each child to do each night.  Our chart has four jobs, Clear table, wash dishes, rinse dishes, and put away dishes. Step three is help your kids do the jobs.  Step four is give everyone a treat when you are done.  Then repeat every night. It took about a year for this to become a habit. The kids still grumble and complain a bit, but overall they are used to doing the dishes every night and will get them done.

Thursday night was actually the night of my ward's relief society activity. So I didn't get to read Harry Potter to the kids.  But I did get to eat yummy soup, salad, and bread while talking with fun ladies.  So it was pretty great. 

Charlotte had made a snowdog in addition to her snowman so I made sure to get a picture of her with her dog after school on Friday.

Most of the kids weren't interested in playing in the snow after school on Friday. But Derrick was.  He happily knocked over his snowman and then went to work kicking the big ball. He was so happy out there.

We usually watch movies on Friday night, but for some reason we didn't feel like doing that this week. Instead we went down stairs and the kids played with toys. Charlotte played with Lincoln Logs. Lydia played with the Frozen Doll house, and Derrick and Veronica played Legos with Brandon. I took a nap on the couch.  It was so peaceful and relaxing.

Saturday was another relaxing day.  Brandon made a deal with the kids that we could get a dog if they helped keep the house clean for a month.  So they all worked together to clean the house. 

The jeeps brakes were grinding on Friday when Brandon drove home from work so he bought new pads and changed those.  (Apparently break pads are really easy.  It took him like 90 minutes at the most.) 

The biggest thing we did on Saturday was actually just something I did.  I held my first ever support group meeting for Parents of Autistic kids. I didn't know what to expect so when 8 women showed up and talked for over an hour I was overjoyed. It went so well. Great things are going to come from this.

In the evening we read Harry Potter and got through the really boring chapter where they visit the House Elves in the kitchen.  We are more than halfway through. I really think we'll get through the book.

Today we had a good day at church. After church Brandon and the kids drew a picture of Lehi's dream. There were a few times Brandon had to get them to focus, but overall it went well. We might do this every Sunday.

Charlotte and Lydia got calico critters for Christmas.  They played with those and their home made boat

This looks pretty fun.

In the evening Derrick and Brandon went to the Baptism Preview activity for our ward. Derrick is very excited to be baptized this year. He and I are already talking about the vest I'm going to make him.

Well we are all caught up. I know that my loyal readers, including my mom, are probably hoping to see this post get published soon. So I'll leave you here for now. 

Thanks for reading. 

New Year 2020

Every January I like to pick a word of the year that will act as a guide throughout the next 12 months. I like this better than setting a whole bunch of resolutions that I'll forget or break within a few weeks. 

2019's word was Confidence. This word was very fitting. I had to do many things with confidence in 2019. Decide where to move, leave my job, spend a summer solo parenting the kids, move to the new city, buy a house (in the middle of job uncertainty), speak in front of a crowd of strangers, and get a new job. There were times that seemed scary or overwhelming, but I kept going back to my theme of Confidence and everything worked out. 

This year I want to build on the successes that came out of last years confidence. I wanted a word that would encapsulate my desire to continue developing my talents and abilities. In December I found my word. 

It is GROW. 

I was talking about my goals for the year with my sister and I said, "Well, I really want to grow a garden in the back yard."  And that's when I realized that I want to do more than grow a garden. I want to grow the autism support group I've been put in charge of, I want to grow the Idaho Chapter of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, I want to grow my muscles, I want to help my kids grow in their talents and interests, I want to grow my savings account, I want to grow my 51 Cent Adventures Blog, I want to grow in other areas as a writer, and yes I want to grow a garden. So yes. Grow is the perfect word for 2020.

Last Sunday I made a list of places we want to visit in 2020. We've also added other places after I took this picture. 

 I may have big plans for adventures in 2020, but I didn't have a lot of plans for Christmas Break. I felt like it was really important to rest and relax during the two weeks the kids and I were home from school and work.

I had two plans for this break. 1. Watch movies in Disney Plus and 2. Read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. We've done great on these goals.

After the kids got roller blades and skates for Christmas they added a 3rd goal: Spend as much time skating in the basement as possible.

We actually haven't used Disney Plus as much as I imagined. The only way it works on our big projector is if I hook up my laptop to the projector.  And that's caused some schedule problems. 

Also we had some movie needs that couldn't be satisfied by Disney. So even though we have Disney Plus we still went to the library on Monday to pick up three movies.  We got Volcano (we'd watched it a few weeks earlier and Derrick wanted to watch it again), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (we'd finished the book so it was time to watch the movie), and Treasure Buddies (the kids had seen the picture for this movie on Disney Plus, but it's actually not available until like April.)

We watched the Harry Potter movie on Monday night. I'm pretty certain this only the second time I've ever watched that movie.  (The first was when it came out.) Wow, that movie is kind of a mess. I'd literally finished the book two days earlier and even I was confused during the movie. Could anyone who hadn't read the book understand that movie? What was up with characters delivering really important exposition lines while their backs were to the camera?

The kids liked it overall, but they kept pointing out things that were different from the book. I think I'm raising these kids right.

After the movie was over we put the kids to bed and then Brandon went grocery shopping. He had lots of fun buying fun food for our New Years Eve Party.

Tuesday was New Years Eve. Brandon had been hoping to get the day off of work, but he had to go in to take care of some things. He was able to get off around noon. He came home and started working on making treats in addition to things he'd already made.

Charlotte showed me some of the creations she'd made with the balsa wood that Santa brought her. Brandon had shown her how to make a little house.  Then she made one by herself.

She also made this candle holder. She came up with the idea to cover the opening with wax paper. 

 Here she is holding the exacto knife and putting two pieces of wood together.

 She uses pins to hold the creations together while they dry. (This is the moment Charlotte surpassed my crafting skills.)

I checked on her a little bit later and she had put together a larger house.  What?

 Lydia has also been working on her talents during the winter break. She got a fashion design drawing book and has loved copying the pictures in there.

Every year we watch a movie trilogy on New Years Eve. We decided to watch all the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies. There are four of those movies so I guess technically we were watching a Quadrilogy or something like that. We got the movies for Christmas.

I added up the run times for all the movies and realized that we needed to start watching them at 5:30 in order to be done my midnight. So early in the afternoon I started setting up the tables for all of our food down stairs. I'd had the kids help me put away all the laundry so we could use the laundry table as one of the tables.

We always have a lot of yummy food, but this year we might have got a big overboard. I mean, there is a whole pumpkin pie on that table.

 We also had veggies, shrimp, chips, dip, cheese balls,

 crackers, candy canes, kisses, bridge mix, peanuts, brownies, cookies, and a big cheese ball.

 Oh look another balsa wood creation. Lydia made a plane.

 All day long Veronica had been very excited by the fact that we were "having JUNK food for dinner!"  She and the other kids were so exited to load up their plates and then sit down to watch the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie.

 We had fun watching all the movies.  We've only ever seen the 2nd and 3rd ones so it was great to watch the 1st and 4th.  We were laughing all the way through.

I hadn't factored in bathroom breaks or movie previews so we weren't done with the movies at midnight. At 11:55 we paused the movie and then went upstairs. All the kids were awake. This was a first, usually it's just the twins. We counted down to midnight and then yelled "Happy New Year" out the window. We saw a few fireworks launch from somewhere in the neighborhood.  Veronica was kind of scared. Lydia said, "I think this is the first time she's seen fireworks." Which might be true because she's fallen asleep every year on the 4th of July. 

We went back down stairs and finished the last movie and then went to bed. 

I was worried that everyone would be grumpy the next day, but this is the year that all the kids have learned how to REALLY sleep in. Even Veronica and Derrick have been staying in bed until after 8:00. There have been days I haven't got up until almost 9:00. And there have been a handful of days that Derrick hasn't got out of bed until 9:30.  So everyone slept late on Wednesday and no one was grumpy. 

We were kind of planning to go sledding on the inch or so of snow that's been hanging around since Christmas. But the day ended up being really rainy and all the snow melted. So we hung around and watched movies (none of which were on Disney plus) and started reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I forgot that book starts off with a death in the first chapter. The kids all handled it well so I guess we are good to go.  We made it through the first 4 chapters in the first reading session. We'll see how fast we can make it through all 700+ pages. 

I'm trying to remember what we did on Thursday . . . . . um . . . . . . . probably not a lot. I kind of remember taking Derrick and Veronica to the library so they could play on the computers. I know Brandon had work. My calendar says Derrick had therapy.  I'm sure there was a lot of Harry Potter in there. 

Thursday night Brandon and watched the Mandalorian. We'd watched the first two episodes on the evening of Christmas Day. We'd liked them, but hadn't really got sucked in yet. Well we got sucked in on Thursday night. We watched the remaining 6 episodes. 

Of course I love Baby Yoda. But my favorite character is Cara Dune. Look at her. She is just awesome. I love that she is not presented as a love interest or as a overly sexy female. She's just who she is and makes no apologies.  Oh and her arms giving me some serious inspiration. I've wanted to work on weight training for a long time, but now I REALLY want to do weight training.  

I got this image here (The article accompanying the picture is worth reading.)

On Friday the kids helped me clean up the house. (Veronica surprised me by cleaning her whole room without any help.) After that we were a little unsure of what we should do.  Charlotte suggested we go to the park. The weather was perfect outside so that was a great idea. 

The three older kids wanted to wear their skates so they put those on and we drove over to the park. They all did a great job skating on the sidewalk. Here's Lydia. 

 Derrick.

 And all four of them.

 Veronica went over to the volley ball court and drew a design with a stick.

 We stayed at the park for a long time. When we got home we were surprised to see Brandon.  Work had been light so he'd decided to come home a few hours early. We all had a nice evening together.

I took this picture on Saturday, but I really could have taken it any day during the past two weeks. Brandon has some sort of castle wreaking game on his phone that the kids love. They are pretty good about taking turns playing it. They all love to crowd around while they each take a turn.

 We were waiting for Brandon's parents to drive up from Utah for a visit.  When they drove up the kids were so excited.  They yelled, "They're HERE" and ran out to meet them in their bare feet.

Brandon was helping a family in the ward move in so he wasn't home when his parents arrived. That was okay because the kids had a great time showing off all their Christmas presents. They all put on their roller skates and blades and showed off their skills in our basement. Even Veronica skated. She's actually improved a lot over the past week. I was impressed.

When Brandon got back we got in the cars and drove 30 miles to Hagerman to 1000 Springs Resort. The past two years we've gone to Lava Hot Springs as a New Year tradition, but that was too far to drive this year.  So we decided to go to the pool at 1000 Springs. We'd been here in April when we were checking out Twin Falls and the kids had been asking to go back.

 I like the water at 1000 Springs.  But I always think the word resort is an overstatement.  I told Brandon, "This is the type of resort you'd expect in Soviet Russia."The building is made of cinder blocks, the roof is corrugated metal, and the bathrooms are pretty scary.  But the water is nice and warm and feels wonderful in January.  So I was happy to be there.

 Last time we were here - a mere 8 months ago- we hadn't let the kids go down the water slide. I just hadn't felt comfortable with them splashing into 5 foot deep water without life jackets on.  This time I felt perfectly fine with that.  Charlotte and Lydia went down the slide a lot. Derrick went a few times.  Veronica went a few times too, but I always made sure I was close by to get her after she came out of the tube. She could doggie paddle a little bit, but not very well. So I'd get her before she sank.

 Here I am with most of the our group in the back ground.

 We stayed at the pool for about 2 hours or so.  When we were done we drove back to Twin and Brandon's parents took us out for dinner at Wendy's.  We ordered one Jr Cheeseburger for each ofthe kids, but they all asked for a second one.  They were hungry!

 When we got home Veronica pulled out her tooth.  It had been hanging on by a thread for about three days.  I'm surprised it didn't come out in the water. This is the 8th tooth she's lost. And about the 3rd one in the last month.

I plugged my computer back into the projector last night. The kids watched the live action movies of 101 and 102 Dalmatians.  We've had the book for 102 Dalmatians for years and so we've all been mildly curious what the movie is like.  It was about what I expected.

Today we had church at 10:30 instead of 9:00. That was a nice change. The kids all have new primary teachers and they all did well with the changes.

Tomorrow we go back to school and work. I'm ready for some structure to our lives again. However, I am not looking forward to waking the kids up at 6:45. That's going to be painful.

But even with early morning wake ups, I'm looking forward to 2020.