Award, Library, and Skating!

Tuesday afternoon I attended an assembly at the girls' school because Alice earned a citizenship award. Her teacher had told me about it during our parent teacher conference. The way they do assemblies here is different than the other two schools in Nampa. They had us meet in the cafeteria. I thought, there's no way they can fit the whole school in this room, plus parents and teachers. Well, they split the school up. They did Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades in the first assembly and then the older grades after. I was fortunate enough to get a front row seat where the parents were sitting and this is the closest I've ever been to be able to see my child, so I liked it. The only bummer is that Charlotte didn't get to see Alice get her award but that's okay. I'm so proud of all of my kids and I know they don't need awards but it was nice for Alice to be recognized. She definitely earned it!

I also decided to take the girls to the library after school that same day. It was their first time and they loved it. Charlotte was convinced that because the ceilings were so high that it had to have two floors but I kept telling her it didn't. It's very open and spacious, like the new Nampa library, but on one floor. It is a nice library and even has a fireplace in one area for people to sit by. I saw a couple of homeless people sitting and sleeping by it, which was a little creepy, but I'm glad they had somewhere to warm up.

It looked like their story time place had a puppet show, so the girls put on a little puppet show for me. 

After the puppet show, we brought the little chairs out in front and I sat behind the curtain to read the girls a book. They loved that! There was another little boy that would walk by and stop to listen and then walk away again.

This is part of the children's area. I have to say I'm glad there are NO tablets here for them to play on like at the one in Nampa. I would much rather them do some coloring or reading. There are computers on that table next to them, but it looks like they are for checking out electronic books to read on. It says you need to sign in with your library card.

They were both coloring on one paper. It was cute to see them sharing and working together on it.

I saw the fireplace from the children's area. It's purposefully darker over there so it can be a cozy place to read.

We didn't stay over there long because the homeless people were on the other side sleeping.

Here's a picture of the library as we were leaving.

As far as house projects go, Curtis did some sanding on the doorways and he had frustrations like I did. The doorways are definitely not perfect but we decided that 4 of them were good enough to paint. I did primer on Tuesday and then painted them on Wednesday, two coats. We still need to do the family room and closet doorways but our priority was the bedrooms and bathroom. We also decided to wait to do the trim in the basement later. As soon as we get the doors done, we'll turn our focus to the upstairs. We figure it will be easy enough to move things out of the way when we do the trim. Since that was the case, I wanted to clean up the family room so we could move things down there.

I am so happy to report that Garrett came home from his mutual activity at the church on Wednesday and said that he made a new friend! He said he got brave and went up and talked to this friend, whose name is Dallin. He told me that Dallin also likes to play Dungeons and Dragons and they set up a time for them to play after spring break. Yay!

Yesterday I took a break from working on the house and did some shopping! I drove around to Walmart, the dollar store, and several craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Michaels, looking for glass gems to fill vase jars for our kids to be motivated to do chores and other good things (like saying personal prayers and reading scriptures). Once the jar is filled, we'll reward them with something. It could be money, or going out to dinner, or buying them something. I got a little discouraged because all of the stores had about the same variety of colors. We were trying to get colors that the kids picked but the stores did not have most of the colors they had asked for (Garrett wanted blue, Jack wanted purple, Charlotte wanted orange, and Alice wanted pink). After searching, I decided to wait on buying anything yet and went to Costco, then home. I decided that I might as well go back to Walmart because they had some on clearance and the gems were a lot better price than all of the other stores I went to. Charlotte and Jack were going to have to get a different color than what they asked for but at least I found some! Jack gets red and Charlotte gets clear/white. The great part is that 3 of the colors were on clearance. 

I had found and bought the vase jars the first time I went to Walmart that day. (They were also better priced than the hobby stores for the exact same thing.) I paid $3.18 per vase and then just under $10 for all of the gems. Not bad at all! The red and pink gems were only 10 cents per bag and I bought 5 bags for each color. The white ones were in a different container and $1.50 on clearance so I bought two. The blue ones regular price was 98 cents per bag, and I got 5 bags. The other stores wanted anywhere from $2-$6 a bag!

 For now, we are keeping the gems in gallon bags in a drawer in our kitchen, that way they are easy for everyone to get to when they need to put a gem in their jar for doing their chores. And I put the jars on the kitchen counter by the sliding door. I may move them later. Hopefully this will help to motivate them to do chores without us nagging them and to do other good things as well. I thought about just filling the jars with pom poms but the gems look much nicer to have out on our counter. I told the kids that we're doing this like they do in Harry Potter. Doing their chores and other good things can earn them "points" or gems, any rule breaking or fighting, etc. and they could lose some. We'll see how this goes!

I took the girls to a school skate night last night at the Rollarena in Richland. It was the first time we had been skating here. It is similar to the Rollerdrome in Nampa. My body finally feels good enough to do skating again. My knees, neck, and shoulder are all doing better. They did several activities at this roller rink that I had never seen in Nampa. They had a big screen showing videos of the songs we were skating to and at one point blew some fog out over the floor (not too much though). They had a hula hoop contest and I can usually do really well on hula hoops, but not with skates! They did two hula hoop contests because there weren't enough hoops for everyone. Charlotte and I did the 2nd group and Charlotte won! Her prize was a free small soda from the snack bar. They also played a dice game where they had a huge dice they threw in the air that had three colors on it. We would skate while the music is going and then when it stopped we would pick a wall that had either red, yellow or blue lights shining on them. After the dice was thrown, whoever color it landed on was out. We were in the first group to get out, lol. The coolest thing though, is that they had these contraptions that kids could push to help them skate. It was such a great idea whoever though of it! Alice used it  most of the night. Charlotte even used one later after saying she fell down several times. The girls and I had a great time!

These are so much better than her trying to hold my hand the whole time. 

She would even try to go faster with it and by the end of the night did a little skating without it.

Charlotte did most of the night without using the contraption.

Since Charlotte won a soda, I bought one for Alice also.

While we were gone skating, Curtis was back home trying to hang doors. He ran into problems with each door! All of them are just a little too tall. The laundry room middle hinge did not line up with the cut out on the door frame either. Bummer! We're going to have to cut the doors to trim them up to fit. I was so hoping we would be done with them before the weekend, but like I keep saying, everything is taking longer than expected! It's a good thing Alivia and Cory canceled their trip to the coast this week. They were going to stay with us for one night and we are just not ready to make that happen.

On a happier note, spring is in the air and we're starting to see some blossoms in our yard. Our tree by the pool looks so pretty! I have no idea what kind of tree it is though.

I took this picture just this morning before kids went to school.

There are also some purple flowers blooming out front by the sidewalk where the girls wait for the bus. I haven't gotten a picture of them yet but I love seeing flowers now!

First Trip Back to Idaho

We made our first trip back to Idaho last weekend and it was great. Our goal was to leave by 4pm on Thursday after the kids got home from school and Curtis got home from work but we got on the road around 4:45. Garrett started out driving but the wind was blowing hard and then it started to rain and he got nervous, (I got nervous too), and he pulled over so Curtis could take over and drive the rest of the way. I ended up sitting in the seat behind the driver and that was a bad idea because my stomach didn't like all of the winding roads. It was about 10pm when we pulled up to Grandma's house. The boys slept on the couches in the basement while the girls took the smaller guest bedroom next to the bigger room, which we used. I was really tired and wanted to go right to bed but Curtis wanted to visit with Grandma, so we stayed up until 11pm. 

Friday morning was Garrett's appointment. Before we went to the appointment we stopped by our old neighborhood to see our friends the Wallace's (Ashlie and Jim and their kids). The girls stayed to play with Sidney while I took Garrett to his orthodontist appointment and then to close his bank account. After we got back to pick up the girls, I asked if their daughter Lilly, who's the same age as Garrett, could come to Wahooz with us since none of Garrett's friends could come due to having school. Lilly is at a different school and didn't have school on Friday. She agreed to come and I'm glad she did. Before going to Wahooz though, we went back to Grandma's to cook up some mac and cheese for lunch and then headed over. Jack didn't want to come since none of his friends could come. We ended up being there about 5 hours.

Alice, Charlotte and Sidney

Charlotte wanted to hold their ferret before we left.

The ferret was cute but stinky! That's why I don't want any rodents as pets.

Having a ride on the Twister. Lilly opted out because she and Garrett already rode it once while the girls did something else and her stomach said once was enough. I'm right there with her. The girls loved it though! This is why I'm glad that Garrett and Lilly came because my stomach can't handle this either. I just watched the kids the whole time we were there.

Getting ready to do the ropes course.

Alice did the little tykes course that was down low. She said it was fun.

The other three did the big course.

There's Charlotte way at the top with the red shirt.

Lilly was on the green bar while Charlotte and Garrett waited. You can see Garrett waving to me.

I took a picture of the screen when they were on the Dark Ride. It's a 3D game that you have to shoot something while your seat vibrates and wind blows in your hair to make it seem like you're there. They did the werewolf one, even Alice. She said she wasn't scared.

They get points for shooting and at one point Garrett, Charlotte, and Lilly were in the top 5. It was constantly changing.

By the end Lilly tied for 1st (but they gave her 2nd) and Garrett got 5th. The other people were others we didn't know. There were 8 people total on the ride.

Picture of the screen of the girls doing the laser maze.

Bumper cars! This was the first time Alice was big enough to ride them.

Frog Hopper. The big kids were good sports and rode with the girls.

The two girls zonked out on the way home.

We took longer at Wahooz than we had planned and Jack was waiting for us to take him to his friend Xavier's house. Fortunately, I was able to call my dad and he gave Jack a ride for me. Curtis got a ride with Nathan to work in Meridian. He got dropped off at Wahooz after work to meet up with us. Then we hurried home to drop Lilly off and pick up some steak and salad to have over at Curtis's parent's house. We ate dinner with them that night and visited a bit. At one point I had to take the girls back to Grandma's to get Charlotte's ear medicine and the little pom pom she made for Grandma Butterfield. Alice wanted to stay at GG's instead of going back but I finally convinced her to come. Jack had invited Xavier and his other friend Chris to come to Grandma's and it worked out perfectly because he needed me to come get them and take them over to GG's, and I happened to be going there anyway. They played pool, Yahtzee and I'm sure some videogames.

It was nice being able to sleep in on Saturday since we didn't really have any plans until the late afternoon. Grandma had bought eggs and bacon and so I helped her cook some up for breakfast, along with toast and hot drinks for those that wanted one. Because we ate so late and ate so much we didn't need to eat lunch. Dad and Laverne called and we set our dinner time to be at 4:00 at Grandma's. Curtis wasn't feeling very good on Saturday. He was dealing with a headache and then later he said it felt like needles in his eye. He thinks maybe it was allergies. I had read a book with Grandma for a little bit until Curtis fell asleep. Then I decided I better give the girls a bath and get it over with before going to Tamara's and then do a bit of shopping. Tamara wasn't home because she was at a work party but the girls stayed to play with their cousins while Garrett and I went shopping and I got to see their new shower before I left. It's really nice. We wanted to find a suit jacket that would fit Garrett better and fortunately we did at D.I. I also found another pair of church shoes for Charlotte that are sparkly gold. Then we stopped at WinCo for salad, French bread, and chimichangas. The salad and bread are for the dinner we were having but the chimichangas were our lunch for after church before hitting the road. Garrett really wanted me to take him to this game store so he could look at some Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) stuff. He did find a few things to buy before we rushed back to Grandma's where I dropped him and the food off and then over to pick up the girls from Tamara's. Tamara was still gone. I told Chris to let her know that we'll be playing games later, but she never showed up because I later found out that she was running errands until 8:30pm. I didn't get to see her this time but maybe next time.

I got back to Grandma's at exactly 4:00 and we started to prep a few things when Dad, Laverne and Joyce showed up to join us. Mom & Dad brought a casserole and brownies and Joyce brought rolls. Grandma already had ice cream to go with the brownies. It was a good dinner and dessert. Then we played a couple of rounds of Golf, which is a fun card game. Then later we switched to SkipBo so Jack would play with us. Garrett got dropped off to Trey's house to play D&D and Jack had invited his friend Rhett over but he got picked up at 7pm. Jack likes playing SkipBo, so that got him to play with us. We played until about 9:00 before Dad & Mom & Joyce left. I had the girls get on pajamas before going to pick up Garrett at 9:30 from his game night. We all got in bed around 10pm or so which was good because we went to our old ward for church the next morning (37th) because they start at 9am. Grandma's ward is at 1:30 and my in laws' ward is at 12:00. We wanted to be able to get on the road and make it home before dark so we needed an earlier time. Curtis still wasn't feeling good so he stayed home from church. 

Jack was the only one of the kids that wanted to stay for the 2nd hour of church so he could be with his friends longer, so I took the other kids home after Sacrament meeting. Jack was going to get a ride to Grandma's from his friend Rhett's parents. After getting back and changing our clothes I realized that my stylus pen from my phone was missing! Yikes! Alice had been using it to color on my phone during Sacrament meeting. It wasn't in my purse or the van. I ate some lunch quickly and drove back over to the church with the girls. We had to wait a few minutes for the other ward to finish their Sacrament meeting before we could go in and look at the bench where we were sitting. Sure enough, there it was on the ground by the bench. Thank goodness no one took it! 

After we all packed up, Jack realized he forgot his jacket at the church. This was getting a little old, ha ha. We had to drive back over to the church again to get it on our way out of town, which added about 20 minutes to our trip. I ended up driving most of the way home and tried so hard to make it all the way without stopping. It was me that finally needed a potty break when we only had about 40 minutes to go. We almost made it but it was good that we stopped because I was starting to get a headache. Curtis drove the rest of the way. In Nampa the weather was cold with snow flurries here and there. When we got home to Kennewick it was warm and sunny, nice spring weather. It was so nice that I wanted to go on a walk. Sometimes I could walk without a jacket but sometimes it cooled down enough to put it on. The girls and I started walking in our neighborhood and they both wanted to walk to their school, which is about 1.7 miles from our house, but we actually did it! It was fun and I can't believe they both made it, especially Alice who was pushing her bike all the way there. They even had energy to play at the playground a bit and then walk back home. They took turns riding the bike on the way home.

Charlotte was walking up those pipes and doing flips.

Alice was doing the monkey bars without help.

Charlotte was actually the one to complain about being tired toward the end of our walk but she said she felt better after we ate some soup for dinner when we got back. It was a fun walk and I'm glad we did it. 

Urgent Care, Band Concert and Doors

Monday started off productive. I was able to do some laundry and a blog post. Then I proceeded to prep doorways and do some sanding. In the middle of my first doorway of sanding I looked at my phone and saw that I missed two calls from the girl's school. I received a message from the nurse that Charlotte had now come to the office twice that day with her ear hurting a lot. It was toward the end of the school day so I decided just to pick up both girls early and try to get Charlotte to a doctor as soon as possible, because I was pretty positive that she had an ear infection. There was an urgent care just down the road from us but when I got there I learned that you needed an appointment and they didn't have any more for the day. She gave me a paper that had other options of places to try. I ended up taking Charlotte over to Richland after making an appointment on the phone. The practitioner that saw her was super nice and confirmed my suspicions. Charlotte had a bad ear infection in her right ear. He sent in a prescription and gave us a list of other things we could do at home to help. He was surprised to learn that Charlotte has been using a Neti pot sometimes and even used it that morning before school. Not many kids or adults will use one but he says it is a good thing to do and wrote that on our list of things to do at home. Another was getting a nasal spray for kids and just spraying once a day for 4 days. He said I could give her Sudafed if I wanted but I decided not to since we were doing the other things. 

By the time I got home from taking her to the doctor, bringing her home and then going to the pharmacy, it was dinner time, and that meant no more working on the doorways. Thankfully, Charlotte started feeling better the next day. We gave her a dose of Advil right before going to school just in case. I'm so glad we were able to get her in somewhere so quickly. It has hit me that it's about time to start looking for a new family doctor or pediatrician over here.

A quick picture of my sanding before I got the call from the school.

On Tuesday I decided I needed to fill holes on the doorways first and let them dry. A few of the doors needed a lot. I think I would have preferred to buy a new door frame. Tuesday evening was also Jack's first band concert. He played in the honor band (concert band) and jazz band 2. It was great not having to worry about parking this time. We just walked right over from our house. 

All dressed and ready to go.

They have a big gym. If the bleachers were folded up, there would be two basketball courts side by side.

Jack is to the left of the director with the French horn.

Jack is standing on one of the blocks on the left in the back. That's where the trumpets always go in jazz band.

Alice wearing daddy's sunglasses.

It's always fun to watch the boys in their concerts. Charlotte is now saying that she wants to play the trumpet. I told her she can decide that when she gets to 6th grade.

I tried to be productive again on Wednesday during the day and did some more sanding. I was getting really frustrated with the girl's door. There were strips of paint sticking way out that didn't get ripped off with the old boards. When I tried sanding them down low, I accidentally nicked our new floor. I was so mad at myself for doing that! I finally moved on to the bathroom door. After I got most of that door sanded, I was tired and so done. I kept seeing spots that I missed on filling holes and decided I'm going to leave the doorways to Curtis, I resign! 

I did get some laundry done during the day yesterday to get ready for our trip, and got caught up on dishes last night. The girls' got their suitcases all packed and ready. I wasn't sure if I was going to work on the house projects at all today but I finally decided I would like to at least get the doors 2nd coat of paint done, so I could feel like I accomplished something and be done with that. I have done all the first sides of the 6 doors and am now waiting for it to dry but will be ready to go back down in a bit. I also need to get my bags packed and take a shower before kids get home from school. We have to leave right after they get home. We'll probably get to Grandma Norton's between 10-11pm if we leave on time.

Doors painted on one side and drying.

It will be nice to have a break from working on the house and just have fun with family and friends this weekend!

Carpet and Doors

The flooring guys finished a day early so we had a break from workers on Thursday. It was good because the girls had parent teacher conferences that afternoon, so I didn't have to worry about leaving for those. Charlotte is struggling with writing but she is improving since moving here. She also needs to practice her multiplication facts more because she seems to be stuck on the 4's. Alice is doing really well and really nothing to worry about with her. She had a parent teacher conference because her teacher, Mrs. Shay, decided that she likes meeting with all of the parents during the spring, not just the Fall. Mrs. Shay let me know that Alice will be receiving the citizenship award on March 28th and that she has just been such a great addition to her class. Alice has adapted very well for having come in the middle of the year. So good to hear that! All of the kids are doing well in school. The boys have even brought some of their grades up. Last I checked, neither had D's or F's, which they did in 1 or 2 classes for a little bit. They now have mostly A's and B's and maybe 1 or 2 C's. 

Charlotte was also begging for me to make a pumpkin pie during the week. I obliged on Thursday since I had the time and the girls got out of school early that day. We never got to make one last Fall or Winter so it was fun to make it and it tasted delicious. I got to use my new silicone mat that has the measuring circles on it so I knew how big to roll the dough out and I love it! The mat stays put and it's an easy clean up. I didn't even need to flour the mat either.

I didn't think to get a picture until we had eaten most of it.

Anyway, now to carpet! I love the smell of new carpet and now our downstairs looks almost like a new house and we actually WANT to be down there. We love the new carpet! Now to get doors and the smaller stuff taken care of like trim, closets, blinds, and electrical outlets.

Waterproof padding.

Alice loves the carpet!

The girls love sitting in front of the window on the ledge in their room.

While the carpet guy was working, I decided to do some more work in the laundry room. So much for waiting on doing the laundry room later, ha ha. I didn't really have anything else to do so I figured I might as well. Also, Curtis wants to move the water softener over to a new spot so I wanted to make sure I painted behind where it will go.

This is where the water softener will go. I stopped to take a picture so we could see the difference in color of paint. It's looking nice even in the laundry room!

This wall is painted already and was where the water softener was but we want to add a utility sink right there.

This wall is mostly done. There were three holes I had to patch up and wait for them to dry. I will have to sand them down and spray texture on, then paint later. Eventually, we will paint the ceiling as well.

Just to see how bad some spots looked. This is right by the door. I painted the right side, then took a picture and painted the other side as well. We may need to replace that strip of wall in between the door and the cement wall. It looks so bad.

This is the wall on the left side of the door. Half of it is a concrete wall. It was dirty (as you can see) and has lots of holes in the concrete. I later wiped off what I could and filled spackle in the holes. I will have to get a picture of what it looks like now, which Curtis says looks like it has poison ivy, ha ha.

The girls also got out of school early on Friday, which was St. Patrick's Day. It was such a nice day that we had our first picnic outside, with lots of green at our table.

We ate sandwiches on green plates and a green apple that we sliced with the green spiral apple slicer. Then some apple juice to drink in green cups.

Friday night we relaxed (after I did some touch up painting) and watched the 7th Harry Potter movie. Saturday our big project was purchasing new doors for the basement and getting them cut and painted. Curtis had to buy some new tools to cut the spots for the hinges and holes on the doors. He taught Garrett how to do it as well. They would cut out the door, then pass it to Jack and I to paint. The weather was perfect for painting outside, sunny and warm with very little wind.

I told Jack to get pictures for me.

Getting the paint ready for the doors.

Jack took a picture of his shadow.

The girls just played out in the backyard while we worked.

I had to ask Curtis to get the canopy out for shade because the sun was drying the paint a little too fast while we were painting. We would move the door to a sunny spot on the driveway after we finished painting it, then over to lean against the house when it was mostly or all dry.

We brought them inside to keep them safe. Some of those are upside down. I still need to touch up paint on them so we couldn't hang them up yet.

We bought Panda Express for dinner that night, except the girls got happy meals from McDonald's since they don't like Chinese food. I told you Panda is one of our favorites! Jack is always suggesting it. We had to watch the last Harry Potter movie earlier than usual because both of the boys went to the stake dance that started at 8:00. They didn't get there until about 8:40 or so though. Jack found some friends from school that he hung out with and said he had a good time. He even danced with one girl at the end. Unfortunately, he ditched Garrett and Garrett did not have a good time. He said he stood against the wall the whole time, didn't dance with anyone or talk to anyone or even eat any refreshments. It was very crowded they said. Garrett struggles with crowds and he's also too scared to talk to people. He looked pretty depressed after picking him up but it wasn't until Sunday morning that I got information out of him. He was still looking depressed and wasn't getting ready for church. He's very sad that he doesn't have any friends yet and it's so hard because he's scared to talk to people. We're hoping that with Curtis being called to work with the priests, that maybe that will help. We have been talking about getting Garrett into therapy and now it looks like we really should. I just hope we can find someone good. Curtis wasn't feeling good on Sunday morning, so he stayed home with Garrett from church. My heart is just breaking for Garrett.

We were able to cheer him up later. In the evening Curtis, Garrett, Jack and I played Yahtzee down in Jack's room on the new carpet. Then I suggested that we at least move the boys' beds in the room so that they could sleep on a regular mattress again. They were all for it! It took longer than I thought to get it set up but they were pretty happy when we went to bed last night. The girls were of course jealous that the boys get to sleep in a new room and they wanted to sleep in theirs. I told them I wasn't going to move their bunkbed yet, but the girls said they wanted to sleep on the cots that the boys had been using, so that's what they did.

This is where Jack wanted the bunkbed, right in between the windows. It fit perfectly!

He moved all of his stuffies up with him and wanted a picture. They take up half of his bed!

The boys having a little fun.

Don't worry, that plunger has NEVER been in an actual toilet, ha ha. It's the one Jack bought just for fun.

All set up on the cots to sleep in their new room.

Being a little silly.

A dog with human hands (Charlotte's).

Well, it's been a long post but there were a lot of things I wanted to share. Charlotte and Curtis were both dealing with feeling a little sick over the weekend. We're hoping they feel better by this weekend when we make our first trip back to Idaho!