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.