It is a job

We woke up to six more inches of snow today.  We had 8 inches last Sunday.  It is a snowy world.  I had heard that they get the most snow here in late February and March, well, I am seeing that.  I hope that it doesn’t last too much into March though, I am getting tired of it too. While I was getting breakfast out Andrew came in and asked if he could shovel snow for me.  He was able to clear most of the driveway before we had to go.  I didn’t like driving on the snowy roads this morning to the schools.  It isn’t a good feeling when I fish tail in a suburban.  

Caleb standing by the mound of snow from clearing the driveway

This view shows how much we shoveled off this morning

the view from the back door

Our big adventure is continuing.  I still don’t know all the reasons why we needed to move to Colorado and have our time of unemployment.  But I do know I have enjoyed the family time.  This morning it was rather quiet and I miss Neal.  He has been at home for five months now.  Yesterday he drove to Albuquerque New Mexico to be able to start his new job on Monday.  He is happy to be employed with Sandia National Labs.  It will be a good job for him.  I am excited about it too.  I feel good about moving there.  I will stay here with the kids until school is out.  We felt that would be more stable for the children.  It is different to go from having Neal here all the time to not having him here at all.  We are thankful that it isn’t too far away and he will be able to visit us on some week ends.

We have had a busy week.  Last week we had the sister missionaries over for dinner.  It was nice to meet the new ones.  We have two new missionaries in our ward.  They are sweet sisters and had a great spirit about them.  

Last week Ruth had left her clarinet at the school.  When she went back in to get it she couldn’t find it.  I was so worried.  Two days later when I went into the school with her to try to help out we found that it had been returned to the office.  I was so thankful.  I know that our prayers were answered.  She enjoys playing it and is doing well in her class.  This week she started a new class, Spanish.  She isn’t that excited about it but I told her she could work hard with it and then she could say things to me and Neal that the boys wouldn’t understand.  She thought that sounded fun.

Thursday evening we had a fun event.  The Hubbard’s got the whole family together, via video chat, and opened their mission call.  It was fun to watch them read their call.  They will be serving in Des Moines Iowa doing a record preservation mission.  They will leave in April.  We are happy that they can serve.

A cute picture of the kids in pajamas 

On Friday I was invited to a friends home, Sally, for a brunch.  She had invited a bunch of sisters over from the ward to eat and mingle.  Caleb went with me.  She lives close by and we walked over.  It was fun to walk with Caleb and talk to him.  He enjoyed playing with Sally’s son who is a year older than Caleb.  Sally moved into the ward about the same time as us and said that she just wants to get to know people better, so she invited us over.  It was a nice morning.

I finished reading another book with the kids.  It was “The Cay” one of my childhood favorites.  The kids enjoyed it too.  We plan on starting another book tonight.  I thought I would try another classic with them and do “Swiss Family Robinson.”  I figure we will have time to read it before we move in June since our evenings will go differently with Neal not here.

On Saturday Ruth went to a party for the Chinese New Year at a friends home.  Haley is from China.  Haley was adopted by a family in our ward when she was very young, but they still celebrate her Chinese heritage.  Ruth had a lot of fun with the party.  Ruth also enjoys doing Activity Days.  This week they painted place mats to make them “prayer rugs.”  She enjoys being with the large group of girls.  Yesterday for school three of the girls planned to dress alike.  She had fun going to school and being with her friends.

Andrew has been working on fixing a small electric train.  It is small and he has it set up on the kitchen table.  He has enjoyed trying to fix the trains.  He is getting good with small tools and the hot glue gun.  Last night at Pack Meeting Andrew earned his Bear rank and three arrow points.  I am proud of him and all the work he does in the scouting program.  He enjoys doing it.

Andrew receiving his award last night. They have a new Cub Master.  The man in the lower picture has done the calling for five years and is moving this week and was saying his good bye to the boys.  

Spencer has been enjoying reading “The Littles” series.  He has gotten into reading more and enjoys doing it.  Some mornings he wakes up early and reads before school. He has really enjoyed playing with his friend Logan this week.  With Andrew and Parker they have built a snow mound in the front yard to play with on the sleds.  The boys have lots of fun together.

Caleb has been into making maps.  He has loved playing “Stack the Countries.”  He has already mastered South America and does some of the other areas pretty good too.  He likes the mapping game on it.  Then he will sit and draw maps, giving the places names and talking about the “new” continent and what planet it is on.  He has a great imagination with it.  I am surprised at how he can sit for an hour or more drawing these maps.  He has been making one or two a day.  He loved playing with his friend Justin on Monday.  It is fun that they can be together.  Caleb also enjoys going to the library and is very enthusiastic about story time.  The children room librarians all know him by name now and he is always very happy to be there. 

The other day we had an electrician come over and fix our bathroom light.  It is so nice to have a light above the sink again, makes putting on make up easier.  

Yesterday Andrew came home from school with a coat with a broken zipper.  He had showed me a couple of days ago that his zipper had some missing teeth.  But I didn’t know what to do for it.  Then yesterday the slider that zips it up fell off in the hole and Andrew didn’t notice, so it got lost.  I decided that since Wednesday was early out day we had time to try shopping for a new coat.  We went to three stores.  Two didn’t have any coats.  One had a few on clearance, but they were too small for Andrew.  There was lots of swim suits and shorts available.  Once again I feel frustrated at the retail stores for switching the seasons too soon.  As we were running into the stores with snow falling all around us and driving through snowy roads I found it odd that I couldn’t buy a coat.  I will try a few more places, maybe later today with Andrew.  If I can’t find anything I might have to try replacing the zipper and that looks tricky.

I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying winter time.  I appreciate all the love and support I have felt and continue to feel.  I know this time of transition will be difficult but I feel good about what our family is going into.

Snow

The kids enjoyed their break from school.  I had some nice visits with their teachers with the parent conferences.  I am glad that the kids are doing well at school and are working hard.  

Friday morning Ruth and I went to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, the city next to us.  It was a fun little museum.  There were displays of insects and lots of information about butterflies.  The big attraction was a large green house type room that had hundreds of butterflies flying around.  Some were from other areas of the world and were larger than I have ever seen before.  It was neat to see them flying around.  At one point two landed on Ruth’s head.  It was fun that they sat there long enough for me to get some pictures.  

I thought this butterfly was pretty with its vibrant colors.  It was a smaller one though.  The big ones with blue on the inside of their wings moved around too much to get a good picture.  I thought it was neat to see were they get the butterflies from.  They buy them from farmers all over the world.  Then they had this area set up to wait for them to hatch.  It was a neat place.

Saturday Neal gave me a dozen red roses.  They are pretty.  They smell good and it has been fun to look at them.  We had a fun Valentine’s Day with the family.  We made sugar heart shaped cookies and the kids had fun decorating them.  In the afternoon we went to McKay Lake, close by us.  The boys brought their fishing gear and gave it a try.  Neal and I walked around the lake twice.  Ruth brought her binoculars and enjoyed looking at the birds on the lake. It was a beautiful afternoon and nice to be outside.  

Andrew fishing

Caleb and Spencer at the lake

Ruth and Spencer

Caleb likes being silly

Sunday I ended up helping the little boy I have mentioned before.  I held him through the two hours after Sacrament meeting.  He slept for part of the time. He was quiet and easy to tend.  He had oxygen on and tried pulling it away from his face a few times, one time he succeeded.  I guess it isn’t very fun to have that on your face.  I am glad that I was able to help the family out. I enjoyed going to the adult meeting too. 

Sunday evening we went to the church for a baptism preview meeting.  Spencer will be turning eight in August.  He is excited about preparing for baptism.  It was a short meeting the primary president put together for all the families of kids preparing for baptism. 

Sunday it started to snow.  Surprising in a way since the days before that were warm and sunny.  Monday morning we woke up to a white world.  There was about six inches of snow.  The kids had fun playing in it.  Andrew was outside almost all day.  It was fun that they could enjoy that on a day off of school.  Neal took Andrew and Spencer to a park to go sledding in the afternoon.  

Andrew had cub scouts on Tuesday.  He has done everything to earn his Bear rank.  They will award it to him next week with Pack meeting.  He is enjoying the scouting program.  Yesterday afternoon Caleb had fun playing with his friend.  I am glad that the kids have friends.  They all enjoy playing with the boys across the street.

Today I was able to get Caleb’s quilt set up.  I am on my way to having it done before Caleb’s birthday.  He is so excited about his birthday.  He is looking at the calendar often and counts how many days until the big day.  He is always so excited about things.  We enjoyed going to the library yesterday morning too.

Neal has enjoyed building some creations out of Lego.  With the snow this week he tried them out to see if they would drive on the snow.  The kids had fun playing with them too. We are enjoying some fun family time right now. 

Adventures in Parenting

We have enjoyed the mild weather this week.  The snow disappeared quickly and the sun has been shining.  It has been nice.  We have enjoyed outdoor activities this week. Neal took the boys fishing Saturday afternoon.  They talked to a nice man at the lake that gave them some pointers on fishing.  So this morning they went out to try again.  I guess we will see if they bring back some fish this time.

I took Caleb to the park Friday and we enjoyed visiting with others that were there.  We have all had a bit of a cold and congestion this week but are doing better.

Neal made it back home after a long week of being away from home.  The interviews went well.  We are excited about the prospects.

Sunday we went to church and I didn’t have to help in nursery because there were only three kids in there.  There are four families in the ward who have Chicken Pox, children who are young and have only had the first vaccine for it.  So many in the ward kept their children home or with them in the adults classes.  I enjoyed going to the adult classes.  The young boy I have been asked to help hasn’t been at church.  He is having some health problems and with the Chicken Pox scare he will probably not be at church for awhile.  So I guess I might not ever help him, but I was willing to.

I was able to finish Spencer’s quilt.  He was all excited about having it done.  I think it turned out nice.  I have started to piece together Caleb’s quilt and hope to work on it more today.  I have promised that I will have it done for him by his birthday next month.

The boys beds, I think the quilts look fun. 

Tuesday was a busy day for me.  I took Caleb to the library story time, which he really enjoys.  Then I went to a luncheon for the nursery workers.  I enjoyed visiting with the ladies, without watching children.  I came home to our little play group for Caleb at the house.  It was our turn to have the other boys over.  Neal was playing with them but then I helped out.  The boys weren’t getting a long very well and needed help to share and play nice.  It was a bit tiring.  

Tuesday evening we went to the church for the Young Women’s New Beginnings night.  Andrew had scouts and Spencer and Caleb played at a friends house.  Neal and I were able to be with Ruth for her first Young Women meeting.  She didn’t want to sit with us though, she sat with her friends.  It was neat to listen to the young women introducing the new girls who will be 12 this year and talking about the theme for the year and the program.  Ruth is very excited about turning 12 and starting on a new adventure.

Wednesday the boys didn’t have school.  Ruth did though.  I went to the elementary school for parent teacher conferences.  They are doing well in school.  I am glad that this school does the conferences, I enjoy going in and seeing the class room and visiting with the teachers.  I got home from the parent conference and called my parents.  I had a nice visit with them. I stopped the call because I had to go get Ruth from school.  As soon as I hung up and looked at the clock it hit me, today is early out Wednesday.  I totally forgot!  I got over to the school and found her in the office.  She cried when she saw me.  The schools phone system wasn’t working.  They had tried calling my cell phone but the schools phones would cut out.  Then an office person let Ruth try her personal cell phone to call.  Ruth called our home phone number, but I was on the phone, so she left a voice message.  I wish she would have tried my cell phone with the ladies cell phone.  I felt so bad.  She waited 20 minutes for me outside and then had walked back to the school and waited for about an hour in the office.  I am glad that it all worked out.  I was just mixed up on the schedule with the boys being home.  There isn’t school until Tuesday now.  The kids are enjoying their break.  I have a parent teacher conference for Ruth this afternoon. The boys had fun playing outside all day yesterday.  I am glad that they can have fun with the neighborhood kids.

Things get busy around here.  Last night I went to a Relief Society activity and enjoyed being there with the other women.  It is a bright sunny day today.  I think I will take a walk and enjoy the good weather.

Snow!

The weather keeps going back and forth on us.  We have had days that are sunny and warm, up to about 60 degrees.  Then we have days that are snowy and cold. Maybe that is why Spencer, Caleb and I have colds this week.  We aren’t too sick, but aren’t 100% well either.  

Last Wednesday evening we went to the Red Leaf ward pinewood derby race.  The boys were so excited about their cars.  Andrew had a lot of fun making his car.  He designed it, cut it, painted it and helped Neal with the wheels being put on.  They had it finished a few weeks ago, he did most of it over Christmas break.  Andrew had fun putting a Lego man with a steering wheel in the middle of the car.  It was brightly colored too.  It ran well and won some of the heats he was in.  It was a fun evening.  I tried taking some pictures of the kids with their friends but they didn’t want to pose.  Ruth’s friends were even avoiding me at one point, so I guess I need to be happy with the few candid shots I did get.

the boys gathered around the cars

watching the race

Andrew with his car

Neal took the camera and took a picture of me watching the racing

Thursday Caleb and I enjoyed going to McDonalds.  He sure is excited when he works hard to get his chores done and earn a big reward.  This week he hasn’t been working as hard, I guess it doesn’t always last.  I was able to get a skirt adjusted for Ruth to use.  She wore it Sunday and it looked cute on her.  She also wanted to curl her hair and we rolled it in sponge rollers Saturday evening.  Her hair is so thick and heavy that by the time we got to church at 9:00am most the curls had pulled down too much and it didn’t look as pretty.  

Ruth with her new skirt and curly hair.  Caleb wanted a picture too.

Everyone looked so nice before church, but they were full of silliness and wouldn't smile good.  At least this shot everyones hands are down.

Saturday I went to a Stake Relief Society women’s conference.  I enjoyed being with the sisters in the ward and felt a good spirit in the classes I went to.  I am glad that I was able to attend.

Sunday we woke up to about 5 inches of snow on the ground.  We went to church and the kids were so excited about the snow.  I ended up not helping the little boy because he wasn’t at church, possibly sick.  I was able to go to Relief Society class sunday.  In nursery we had 12 kids, but three parents helping their fussy little ones and we had all 6 nursery workers there.  So for the third hour two of us went to RS, because we didn’t need that many adults in nursery.  I enjoyed going to RS, I have missed attending.

Sunday after church I let the kids go play in the snow.  It was so perfect for packing and so much of it.  They had fun playing in it around the yard.  Andrew was out for almost two hours and built a wall fort in the back yard.  He used all the snow out of the back yard.  He even had Ruth help by shoveling the snow off the balcony so he could use that too.  I realized I didn’t get a picture of the final wall.  Neal went out and helped Andrew lift the balls on top of each other to make it higher.  Monday the weather was nice and the boys and their friends played on the snow wall and with the warm weather most of it melted or was knocked down.  

Ruth made a snow castle out of the pile of snow from clearing the drive way.

Andrew and his snow man

Spencer and Caleb were playing and digging in the pile of snow on the other side of the drive way from Ruth.

Andrew's fort half built.  This is the length of it, then he kept making balls and had Neal lift them up.  Then they packed snow into all the cracks.  I wish I took a picture of the finished wall!

Last night the kids had activities.  Ruth had Activity Days at her leaders home because they were doing cake decorating and thought it would be easier in a home.  She had lots of fun and brought home so pretty cup cakes.  Andrew had scouts at the church.  At the last minute his leader was trying to find a mom to take her place because she was sick.  I said I could go but needed to have my other boys with me.  So all four of us attended the Bear den activity last night.  The other leader talked about emergencies and we did finger printing.  It went well.  I am glad that I was able to help out so they could still do their activity.  In the afternoon Caleb enjoyed a play date with his friends.  We are trying to get the boys together every Tuesday.  Next week will be our turn to host.  He enjoys having friends to play with.

Yesterday Neal had an interview in Albuquerque.  He is flying home now.  We missed having him here for a couple of days.  I look forward to a report of his day long interview.  Friday he has another interview for a company in Houston, so he will be gone again tomorrow.  I am glad we get to see him today.

This morning we woke up to more snow.  It has stopped snowing now, we got about two inches.  I am sure it will melt quickly.  I noticed the forecast for Saturday says a high of 70 degrees.  I know the “groundhog” said six more weeks of winter.  I had a friend on facebook say  “if the next six weeks are like the last six weeks then no problem!”  This winter hasn’t been too bad.  I like the warm days between the cold ones.