Making some changes

 April is off to a bang. Right after spring break was over Alice had a field trip with the preschool to the Nampa Public Library. When we have field trips with preschool that means that parents are supposed to come with them to help supervise the kids. They gave a tour around the first floor, which is the kids floor, and we even got to go back and see the conveyor belts where the books are returned and sorted into the corresponding bins. It was neat. Then they had story time with the kids, did a craft and played with some toys.

They are building with giant magnets.

The craft was making this owl mask.

The very next day was Charlotte's first day going to horse camp at Harvey Horse Camps in Kuna. She loved it! I was able to get a picture of her standing next to one of many horses they had in their stable before I left. She told me she got to ride a horse bare back today for the first time. Of course someone was there to lead the horse around. Charlotte loved it so much that she was telling me on the ride home that she wants to live there. 

Curtis also decided to start the task of widening our doorway that leads from the dining room to the hallway of the family room. We had a very difficult time moving couches back there a few months ago and so something needed to be done. After removing the old door and doing some cutting we added 5 inches of space. Of course when we put on the trim it won't be that much extra but still at least 3 maybe 4 inches wider than before. We will also be replacing the door with a sliding barn door. We finished the doorway just yesterday. Next step is making the door and hanging it.

We were able to reuse some of the old trim. The brown trim is new.

We both painted it together. On Saturday we did primer and one coat of paint. Then I did the 2nd coat of paint yesterday morning.

After work yesterday Curtis did the caulking to fill in the cracks.

Ta da! The doorway is done. Next, build the door!

The same day of conference after Charlotte got back from horse camp I later took the girls and Garrett on a walk near our neighborhood. We walked in front of the Sands Point neighborhood which is next door to ours. There was no water yet so the girls had fun exploring on the rocks.

Sitting where the waterfall would be.

It was like going on a hike. They even crawled through the short pipes that went under the sidewalk. They had so much fun exploring down there.

Well, that very same evening Charlotte got a little stomach bug. Thank goodness we were able to stay home and watch conference the next day. She was feeling good on Sunday. We went until Tuesday before Alice and Nikki both got sick. Nikki's started as a sore throat for a couple of days, then stuffy nose and then late Tuesday night she puked 3 times. She was in so much pain from the combo of puking and having menstrual cramps that I thought I might need to take her to the ER. I said several silent prayers while I sat out there with her in the front room. Thankfully the thought to get a heat pad came to my mind and eventually she settled down and was able to go to sleep. The next day she felt better but Garrett stayed home with his stomach hurting.

Garrett's stomach was hurting Thursday morning as well so he stayed home again. I thought he was going to miss his jazz band concert. He never did throw up and then felt good in the afternoon so we went ahead and took him to the concert. He felt even better after having gotten out of the house for the concert.

He got to wear his new hat. 

With all the sickness last week I went around cleaning doorknobs, light switches, etc. Then I decided to try again on cleaning my bathroom floor. There was a dirt and hairspray build up that has been getting worse all the time. I had tried cleaning it years before but couldn't get it off. Well, I had the thought to try the bleach cleaning spray but to let it sit for at least 10 minutes before scrubbing. It worked! The floor looks so much better. I hadn't intended on cleaning the whole bathroom floor that day but once I got started I couldn't stop. I cleaned the trim around the walls as well. It looks so much better! The only problem is I couldn't get the yellow spots off the floor that are under our rug. I tried lots of different things for that but nothing worked. Our kids' bathroom used to have a yellow spot almost as bad but when I started hanging the rugs up on the tub and letting the sunshine in, eventually the yellow went away (mostly). Unfortunately, my bathroom never gets direct sunlight through the window. I'm still hoping that maybe more light and air will help the coloring. We'll see.

The lighter square next to the dark area is the first square I tested. Above that is where the rug usually is and you can see the yellow.

So excited to finally get this gunk off the floor!

The trick is to let it sit and soak so that it can work.

This picture was during my experiments for trying to clean the yellow spots but you can see the rest of the floor that I already scrubbed to get the darker stuff off from the hairspray and dirt.

After rescheduling several times I finally had my appointment with Melissa to do my hair. I decided I was ready to try some color in my hair again and wanted highlights. I haven't had color in my hair for probably 10 years. I also decided that since I was there I would have her give me a trim as well. 

The before shots:

I took some pics a couple days before so I could see the color of my hair and try to decide what I wanted to do.

Here's the before at Paul Mitchell school.

It took a lot longer than I expected it to take but I guess that makes sense since it is a school and Melissa is just learning. Not to mention I have a lot of long hair. I was there from 8:30am to about 2pm.

The after shots:

I decided to have Melissa straighten my hair since I haven't done that in a long time and since it would be easier to see the highlights.

And here it is with the curl. Sometimes I'm not sure about all the blonde because it looks like too much but I do like it!

I couldn't forget to post about the pinewood derby that Jack participated in last week at mutual. Garrett and Nikki were sick that day so they weren't able to go and their cars weren't ready yet (and it was a combined activity). Jack was funny because he was trying to lose on purpose. He put next to no effort into designing his car. The only rule that night was that the car had to weigh 5 oz or less. Jack's car weighed 4.7oz. and the only thing he and Curtis did was spray some lubricant on his wheels. Apparently the lubricant was all he needed. He ended up getting 4th place! 😂 I think if he had made it weigh 5 oz he could have won. It was cool to hear that girls won 1st and 3rd place. We weren't there to watch but we heard stories later about Nikki's friend Logan getting the crowd to cheer for "the block" which was Jack's car. Wish I could have been there to witness it but it's fun to hear about it.

He wrote "Team Failure" on both sides with a sharpie. 

Changed Plans

Earlier this month Garrett was learning about patriarchal blessings in seminary and told us he wanted to get one. Curtis helped him get it all set up and last Thursday the 24th of March he received his blessing. There were lots of good things in there and he's excited to get a copy of it in the mail so he can read it. I was most impressed that he took the advice to fast that day. This is BIG for him because he really doesn't like fasting on Fast Sundays but he fasted ALL day that day, until after his appointment which was at 7pm. So I was very impressed with him. There were times when Nikki mentioned maybe getting a patriarchal blessing when she was a little younger but we were not proactive about getting it arranged and done. That's one thing we regret and I don't think she's in the frame of mind of wanting to get one now.

That very same evening we discovered that Jack had a fever. The fever continued into the next morning so we decided we should go ahead and cancel our trip to Washington. His fever didn't even last the whole day on Friday but he did have a cough and some of the other kids had coughs as well. Curtis took advantage of our cancelled trip by catching up on some work. He had fallen behind when he went to Washington earlier that week on a business trip with Stillman. I decided that I wanted to get out of the house still on Friday and so I took Garrett thrift shopping! One thing we were hoping to find was a bigger sized vest since he outgrew his. He likes to wear a vest for band and church. He prefers a vest over a suit jacket. We went to several thrift stores and finally found one at Goodwill. Not only did we find him a vest but he found himself a fedora hat. He won't be wearing that to church but he will look classy at his next band concert and maybe even to a school dance after he turns 16.

Trying on the vest and the hat at the store.

They didn't have a mirror so I took pictures of him.

One good looking young man!

Garrett also wanted to stop at Dorsey Music to look at piano books but then of course that led to him trying out the electronic drums. It was hooked up to the speaker and he was drumming for everyone to hear. I enjoy listening to him play. I also happened to see a relative of ours, Kathy Shell, with her two teenage twin boys. They were recently in a play "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" at their school. I would have liked to see it!

In our thrift store shopping I was hoping to find a copy of The Prince of Egypt on dvd but did not find it. However, I did grab several other movies. Runaway Bride, The Work and the Glory part 2 & 3, The Singles Ward and The Singles 2nd Ward. A few more options for things to watch on Sundays because we try to stay away from regular shows and movies on Sundays. We also don't allow videogames on Sundays either. We tell the neighbor kids that it's our family day. While I didn't find that movie at the thrift stores I did find it brand new at Walmart and it also came with Joseph King of Dreams. We had never seen the Joseph one and so we watched that one last Sunday. It was perfect timing because it's right in line with Come Follow Me in the Old Testament. 

After Curtis worked Saturday morning to continue catching up he later that day decided it was time to make our doorway bigger that connects our dining room to the hallway of the family room. It was extremely difficult to get the couches back there recently. After cutting it, there was an extra 5 inches of space. We will be putting some trim on it and attaching a sliding barn door. I like having the wider door. He got as far as just cutting it to size. Maybe this weekend he'll work on getting the trim and door installed.

Tearing the trim off.

I finally put an ad on craigslist last week for our rabbit, Fluffy. I had to make sure I did it the right way because I thought I heard you can't sell animals on craigslist or Facebook. We tried to see if we could give him away to someone in the ward by posting on our Relief Society page and Laverne posted it on her Relief Society page but it didn't work. I decided to look on craigslist to see if people were selling animals. After a little research I found that I can rehome an animal, I just can't sell animals (like it's a business or something). So I titled the ad "Rehoming Lionhead Rabbit". I listed him and all of his stuff for $50 because I read that a lot of animals that are listed as "free to good home" often get used for bad things such as bait for hunting, etc. 

I woke up Saturday morning to see that I had received my first message about the ad via text at 5:20am. I was excited but also a little suspicious that it had come so early. It was about 2 hours later that I woke up and saw it and then she took another couple of hours to reply back again. The gal's husband was interested in adopting him. They did end up coming in the evening around 7:45 and took him with them. They seemed like really nice people and like they really cared about the rabbit. They said they plan on trying to litter box train him so that he can roam around the house like a cat would. I'm just thinking to myself, good luck with that! 😂 I tried doing that in the beginning with no success but maybe they'll be better at it than I was. But I also hear that bunnies chew everything up. I just told them to have fun with him. Fortunately the girls had some time with him out in the yard before he was adopted out. It was really cute because Fluffy would run around our legs while I was pushing Alice on the swing and while Charlotte was reading a joke book out loud. He was really cute and fun to play with some times but I am glad and relieved to not have to worry about him any more, especially since I was the one taking care of him most of the time. And for the record, the girls were just fine with him going to a new home. No tears, just a quick goodbye. I think we have decided that we are just cat people. No other animals 😂

He was running after Charlotte. It was cute.

Good bye Fluffy

Charlotte had asked Nikki to make a picture of Camillo from Encanto for her and she finally got caught up enough with her own artwork for school that she made this water color picture for her on Sunday.

I love that Nikki did this for her sister.

Like I said, we're cat people. Ha ha! Alice fell asleep. This is when Sage likes her the best. During the day Alice is always trying to pick her up and she doesn't like it.

There was no school on Monday so I decided to go to the Rec Center. Charlotte was the only one willing to come with me. We started on treadmills and then saw Gpa Tony and Gma Vernie walking the track so we got off and joined them. Charlotte got tired after one lap around so that was cut short. She wanted to go downstairs where we saw Melissa teaching a boot camp class. The class was currently running the track while Melissa waited down on the gym so we ran over and gave her a hug. Then we watched the gymnastics for a few minutes and then went to the small rock wall room. Finally, I said I was done and that it was time to go. We did see mom and dad again on the way out and Melissa. 

Charlotte also grabbed a flyer and a free newspaper. Curtis promised Charlotte months ago that we would do horse riding lessons for her birthday. We went and looked at one place in Meridian on Saturday. It was $50 for one hour twice a month BUT there was a waiting list. On the newspaper that Charlotte took home she found an ad on the back for Harvey Horse Camps. I called on it and found that this place is in Kuna and they do 4 weeks a month of horse camp (ages 5 and up) on Saturdays from 10am-1pm. They learn to ride, do horsemanship, grooming and also a craft/activity. Sometimes the activity could be giving the horse a bath. This would be perfect for Charlotte and more worth the money. It's $175 for 12 hours basically. I was able to get her signed up for April, which starts this Saturday! She's super excited and so are we. I was going to put her on the waiting list for the other place but after we found this one we decided not to. It was a good thing Charlotte went with me that day and grabbed it. Funny thing is that I saw the same newspaper on Saturday when we were at Jiffy Lube getting the van's oil changed and I was going to grab one but got distracted by stuff on my phone and forgot. I feel like we were blessed to find it. 

A new minivan....finally!

 Alice had some St. Patrick's Day fun in her preschool class on Wednesday. They had some treats and built Leprechaun traps out of shoe boxes. Her box happened to be green already so it helped in her decorating. She and Charlotte were so excited to try and catch a Leprechaun. I asked Nikki to help them set up the trap. Alice's teacher had given a baggie of Lucky Charms as the bait. They didn't catch one but the little guy took the baggie and tripped the trap anyway.

Charlotte joined Alice in her bed that night. You can't really see her but she's back there. Alice was holding the string to the trap, ready to pull when the time was right.

There's the bait taped to the top.

On Thursday, the actual St. Patrick's Day, I took Alice and the twins I babysit to Lions Park. They played for a good hour. I thought it was fitting that we were at the playground that was mostly green colored. Later that evening Alice was putting together some puzzles and fell asleep in the process. She must have played hard!

Friday evening Curtis and I took off to go car shopping right after we ate dinner, this time without the girls. We found a couple of minivans that we were interested in but held off until we could do some more looking. Saturday morning Curtis dropped me off at the church so I could help the Relief Society clean it and he went to the store to get some new work clothes for a meeting he has in Washington this week. After we got home and I was able to shower and get dressed we left to do more car shopping. We test drove several vehicles (Curtis did the driving). We ended up in Boise and were seriously thinking about getting a minivan we saw that is hybrid. It's a Chrysler Pacifica but on the car fax it showed a recent recall having to do with the charging system. A hybrid is electric and gas powered. So they were telling people to not charge the vans until they could resolve this issue since there were 12 fires reported. Not only did they say don't charge it but also don't park it near buildings or other vehicles just to be safe. Uh, yeah I'm not comfortable buying this anymore. 

Well, the guy that was helping us did some checking for other minivans and found one at one of their other locations that was not far away (this was through Larry Miller). It happened to also be a Chrysler Pacifica but not a hybrid. It was also a year older (2017) but actually had less miles on it. He drove us over to test drive it and this van actually had a lot more extras on it than the hybrid van did, plus it was less expensive and had fewer miles, just under 40,000. This van even has a built in vacuum in the back and I've never seen that before on a car! Another feature I really like is that it has two sun roofs, a bigger one that can open toward the front of the van and then a smaller one in the rear that just has the option to open and close the shade cover on it. There are two built in TV's that can play dvd's, has game apps (even math flash cards), and HDMI and USB hook ups to plug other things into it. And each screen has a remote control as well. It seems like everything is electric. I just push buttons to open the sliding doors. The buttons on the driver doors control the locks. I don't even have to put a key in the ignition because it has a push start button. The key fob just has to be near it. Crazy! And the front 4 seats have an option to heat up or cool down the seat. Anyway, it has lots of fun things and I love the color and shape of it as well.

There were some people scheduled to come test drive this van at 5:00 and we were there a little after 4pm when we test drove it. We said we wanted it but the salesman didn't want to be rude since there were people scheduled to come see it. Well, we also had a temple appointment at 7:30 and still had to go home and change and come back to Boise to be there by 7:00. We decided that I would drive home in our old van to get changed and bring back our temple bags and clothes for Curtis while Curtis and the salesman stayed and drove around in the Pacifica while waiting for 5:00. For whatever reason the appointment fell through and they said we could have it. Yay! So they drove back to the other dealership to start the paperwork. I got there just in time for me to sign things. Curtis decided he wanted to keep our red van for him to drive to work to save money on gas and just park his truck at home until needed. We ended up putting $5000 down, most of which came from our tax return, and finance the rest. We got finished with everything and were able to drive away at about 6:50 down the road to the temple so it was perfect timing! And here's our new van parked at the temple.

My first time driving it wasn't until after we got it home and took the kids for a quick little ride. This car feels so futuristic with pushing buttons for so many things, plus the cameras that shows us things behind us and somehow can give us a top view as well. Not sure how they do that! Anyway, so far we are loving it. So many cool things! I've been driving that red van for over 15 years so it was about time for an upgrade. We're so glad to have something new to drive before we take a quick trip to Washington this weekend.  Curtis has been to Tri Cities twice now but the rest of us haven't and since it's spring break this week we thought it would be a good time to go check out the area. We're leaving tomorrow and coming back Sunday. It sounds like it's going to be a pretty for sure thing that we'll be moving to Washington but we just don't know exactly when yet. They still need to find more work in that area. Curtis wants to sell the house right now though so we can get the best price possible since the market will likely start dropping. He just wants to rent until they're ready for us to move over there. I think he's also anxious to get away from our next door neighbors 😆 So, as of right now that's the plan. Personally, I would rather just stay put until they're ready to send us so we don't have to pay rent.

Life is Busy...as usual

From taking care of sick kids to my computer being in the repair shop for a week and then just being busy with painting, etc. I just haven't been able to post anything for the last month. 

Jack and Garrett both had concerts in late February and early March to get ready for their Festivals. Jack's concert was also their annual fundraiser. It used to be a Fiesta with Mexican food but this year they changed it up to a Round Up western theme because after all, they are the Lone Star Longhorns. They served pork/chicken pulled sandwiches with BBQ sauce (if wanted), mac n cheese and baked beans. They had lemonade, iced tea and water for drinks. They also had auction items. I almost bid on a couple of them but decided not to this time. 

Jack is the first boy on the far left.

Garrett is the white face in the back. He played the big bass drum again like in marching band.

The drumline had their own musical number and we finally got to see Garrett play the snare drum! He's still timid and not confident in himself but hopefully he'll get there with more years of band.

The two younger girls had some fun at their schools in the 1st week of March to celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday. Charlotte has a Wocket in her pocket and Alice made a Cat in the Hat hat.

Alice had to make hers at home since she was home with a runny nose the first week of March. It's flat so she had to hold it up.

Speaking of Alice being out sick that first week of March, Jack was also sick that whole week with fever and cough, etc. and had to miss his ensemble festival. Garrett was out of school from Wed-Fri also with the same thing Jack had. Nikki missed some days from not feeling well but hers was medication related since she had started a new medication that was upsetting her stomach and causing migraines. At her last appointment on March 9th the doctor took her off of that medication because it wasn't helping with her ADHD and was only making her gain weight even after getting the migraines under control. So, Charlotte was the only one that didn't miss any school that week. 

I had taken a break from painting ever since I finished my bedroom but I finally got back to it and did the family room. We still had 2 five gallon buckets of  green paint leftover from when we originally painted a few years ago so I just repainted those walls the same color they were before. We still really like that color. Even after finishing the family room I still had just a little paint leftover from the first bucket. We way over estimated how much paint we needed!

                                  

There was a lot going on March 9th besides painting the family room. It was my mom's birthday and since I forgot to mail her a card I made sure to send her a text message. I was glad to hear that she had a really good day. She got text messages from all 7 of her kids and some siblings. Plus she had several friends stop by to see her. It made me happy since I don't live close enough to stop by myself. I'm thankful to hear that my brother Colby and his wife Cindy would take her out to eat on the 19th.

Not only did Nikki have an appointment with her psychiatrist on the 9th but earlier that same day she also had an orthodontist appointment where she got her braces taken off. Yay! She said she might actually show her teeth when she smiles now. She had told us before that she wouldn't even after getting braces off. Just like I did though, she will kind of need to train herself how to smile without it looking funny. But she's happy with her teeth now. Success! 

 

My computer battery was having problems charging. It would recognize that it was plugged in but it wouldn't charge my battery. It kept showing that it was at 7%, sometimes even as low as 3%.  I looked at the charging port where it gets plugged in and it looked broken to me. Sure enough, as soon as I took in to ABI Computers that's the first thing he looked at when I handed it to him. So I spent $100 to have them put in a new port (most of that was labor cost). I picked it up a week later and guess what, it didn't work! I still got the same result. So I called them again and he said that it could be the charger. When the port went bad it could have affected my charging cable. He plugged it in with a different charger and it worked! I paid about $25 for the charger and now I'm back in business. Thank goodness! I thought I might need to get a new computer.

Charlotte had an eye appointment on the 3rd and a week later we picked up her new glasses with a slightly different prescription. Her old glasses were getting too small anyway. I really hope she actually uses these ones. She was excited to get them. Charlotte is supposed to wear them when reading or doing school work.

They're a mix of black, purple and pink. Plus she got a new sparkly silver case.

On Friday the 11th was a field trip for Alice to West Park. It's within walking distance from the school so I parked at the park and walked to the school so that I could walk over with the kids. The parents were told to pick up from the park anyway. They had a long rope for the kids to hold onto so that we wouldn't have kids running out to the road. The kids did very well and it was a lot of fun. Thankfully the colder weather we were having early on in the week got warmer in time for their park day. It was still a little chilly but a beautiful day.

After church on the 13th it was cold and breezy but Curtis really wanted to go on a walk. I'll admit I needed it too. I was feeling depressed and needed to get out of the house. I just bundled up warmer so I could enjoy the walk. I'm glad I went. Garrett came along with us but the rest of the kids opted to stay home. We actually found a new path we had never seen before over by the lake.

A view of the lake behind those trees.

There was a bench on the trail to sit and rest on.

This last week we finally started to do some car shopping. We have been wanting to upgrade from my minivan for a long time now. On Monday the 14th we let the little girls come along with us. They were excited about each car we looked at it. We did not find one that night and decided we could look again on the weekend. Charlotte kept saying though that she wanted the 2nd car we looked at which was an SUV called an Armada. 

She liked that this one had TVs.

On Tuesday the 15th I still had half of the office to paint. Whitney is back in town trying to earn money to fix her truck (long story) so I had her come over the previous week to do the first half of the office and then she came again on Tuesday to do the 2nd half. That evening after dinner Garrett wanted to make a mug cake. So I made one for me, Whitney and the girls. They are good but too much to eat a whole mug cake by yourself. The girls shared theirs. I'm so glad to have the office painting done now. I think I will hold off on bedrooms though until we can clean stuff out of the kids' rooms. They have too much stuff!