This kid

Rex came home a few weeks ago soooo excited because he got picked at the Terrific Kid for his class--basically he's Student of the Month.  I said cool but didn't really think anything of it because, let's be honest, I was student of the month like every month.  Then we got the invitation to the awards ceremony and it was being presented by Kiwanis Club.  Rex is in kindergarten and already one-uping me.  That's right, I'm still bitter about not being picked for Kiwanis Club in eighth grade.  Let's make this post a little more about me then right?

Back to Rex.  He's pretty amazing.  He has had a sticker day every day.  He's reading at a mid-first grade level and writing short paragraphs.  Even his drawings have dramatically improved since September.  People are always complaining about public school, but for the most part, I'm pleased.  I wished they hurry it up with the math a bit--Rex can multiple and divide but his class still isn't adding.  Why is my kid so much smarter and better behaved and more handsome than everyone else's?  I think the best part, though, is how proud he is of himself.  He worked hard to get picked as Terrific Kid--he had to have perfect behavior for a month.  He reminds me at least once a day that he's terrific kid.

Bright and early Monday morning, we went to school for the ceremony.  It only the other Terrific Kids and their parents so things went pretty quickly.  Rex's friend/our neighbor also got Terrific Kid so they got to stand next to each other.

As a side note, Rex decided not to play T-ball this year.  He just didn't like it last year.  I'm proud of him for sticking it out for the season and glad that he knows himself well enough not to bother with sports he doesn't like.  I'm also SUPER glad that being a nerd is cool these days (it is right?) because Rex spent the weekend disassembling an old computer and having Greg tell him about all the parts.

Ghetto Snow Day

We woke up to real snow this morning.  Like as in actual, unique, fluffy white snow.  Allbeit a bit wet, but still snow nonetheless.  I eagerly checked the school website hoping to squeeze an extra 30 minutes of sleep in before the kids woke up.  But there was still school.  And then Rex's bus was late so we stood outside in the snow with a very cranky Henry for 20 minutes. 

 But Rex and Derick made good use of their time waiting for the bus.  They made tracks.

Once we got back inside, Henry enjoyed watching the snow from the (relative) warmth of the house.

 Then he took a nap and Alice and I started on our ghetteo snow adventure.  First, we tied plastic bags around her feet since I don't have snow shoes in her size (though, it has snowed almost every year we've been here.  I should probably buy some proper snow equipment). Then we went sledding.  Like just about everything else, we left our real sled in Provo.  We ghetto-fied it and used a cardboard box.  

Unfortunately, we didn't have enough snow to sled.  It was really only a thin dusting of wet, wet snow.  I pushed us down the muddy hill once before giving up and taking Alice on a ghetto sleigh ride in our laundry hamper.

I ran her around the yard and over a few hills for a bit before she got bored and I got tired so we decided to build a snowman.  But there wasn't really enough snow for that either so we decided on a snow face instead.

 Then Alice got cold so we went inside for mandatory hot chocolate and story reading.  When Henry woke up, it was time to go to the mall because I'm too ghetto to pay to play indoors somewhere else and we're going crazy with all these subfreezing temperatures.  But wait, you wonder how I got the snow off my car since I also left my ice scrapper in Utah?

This:

 I stole Alice's play dust broom and dust pan.  It worked quite well.  Well enough that I think I'll keep it in the car (until she notices that is).  Also, because we had a ghetto snow day, I couldn't use an actual snow scrapper.

We completed our ghetto day with a mall walk because I am too cheap to pay for a gym membership and prefer running outside.  But that hasn't been an option for a week now, so we made do with a ghetto mall walk, like an old lady.

 The kids played at the play place for over and hour and then both fell asleep in the car.  Success.

When life gives you lemons

make lemonade.

Seriously.  When Greg came home with a bag of lemons on Friday, I asked if he was sick.  Nope, just having a lemon of a day, so he decided to make lemonade (with a bit of blood orange, blackberries, and lots of sugar, of course).

That's been life around here lately.  Lots of lemons.  Most of it involves our Provo house.  I'd like to say it all started when...but there's no when.  It's been bad for a while.  Last April, we listed it to sell it to get rid of the bad.  And got nothing.  Then our contract with our realtor was up and that day we got an offer.  We then spent quite a bit of money fixing various things and paying our tenets to move out for the buyers.  Then the day of the signing, the hour we were to be free of the house , the lender pulled out(really though.  I got a call at 5 pm saying everything was fine and another at 7 saying it wasn't).   We tried with a different lender just to have the same thing happen.   I was crushed.  It was 3 days before Christmas and I still that lemon-throwing tree of a house crouching over me.

In January, we got another low offer but took it because we wanted to sell the house.  They pulled out two weeks later.  We now have a third buyer.  And things are going well.  We're supposed to close on Friday.  But I'm not holding my breath.

The thing that makes me the most upset is this though: Last year we evicted a tenet.  The day we served him the papers, he asked for our insurance information because he fell on the property a month before.  So we jumped through those hoops and our insurance said he has nothing on us, and by the way he's in jail.  I thought we'd never hear from him again, especially since he owes us quite a bit of money.  He got out in November and the first thing he did was actually sue us!  Luckily we have awesome insurance and they took care of everything.  Including settle, which was annoying because he's a crazy liar, but I thought was to be a blessing in disguise.  He was getting almost exactly the amount of money that he owed us. So I contact my eviction attorney and let him know that ex-tenet will be getting a check.  Eviction attorney talks with insurance attorney and eviction attorney works things out so that he will collect the check basically as soon as ex-tenet gets it.  In theory.  In reality, eviction attorney turned up 2 hours too late and the money was gone.  He tried getting the money from the bank account of ex-tenet but that took him 3 days to do and meth-addicts don't let large sums of money sit around in bank accounts when it could be buying them more drugs.

I got the final word today, which I already knew, the account was empty.  Eviction attorney blew it and we're out a bunch of money.  At least he's not charging us.  He knows he blew it.

I'm trying to make lemonade out of it, but I'm also just a little bit mad.  I really thought that Heavenly Father perfectly orchestrated that settlement to get us the money we needed, and the attorney failed.

Add to this starting a business.  Not me, Greg.  He's got a good product and things are going well.  But it's still stressful trying to produce and manage and sell and account and do everything.  Not me, Greg.  I just watch feeling mostly helpless

Like how artsy I am?

This kid was not allowed to help, so we played Try-to-grab-the-camera-while-Mom-takes-pictures.

.  And a lot of days things just don't work out.  And so Greg brings home a bag of lemons and we laugh about it and have some amazing, complex, and layered lemonade with dinner.

Because it's either that or cry, and I hate crying.

Snow Day!

Friday: Teacher work day

Saturday: Valentine's Day

Sunday: The Sabbath (duh)

Monday: President's Day

Tuesday: SNOW DAY!!!

While wish I'd known that Tuesday (and Wednesday) were going to be snow days so we could have gone on week-long vacation without missing school, we enjoyed our at-home snow day.  A lot.  There's something about not having snow plows and being stuck in our house for 1/2 inch of snow and feeling completely isolated and yet together as a family that I love.  Greg could work from home, but we just spent the day being a family.  We started the day with romp in the ice (not snow), but I think I prefer the ice--you can play and play and not get wet.

 We finally tried this activity that I saw on Pinterest a few years back.  It lasted about 1 minute before they'd used all the colored water.  Next time I think I'll use spray bottles instead of squirt bottles.

 We also threw a bunch of ice at each other, ran around with sticks hitting the ice, and played baseball with the ice.  Well, at least Greg, Rex and I did.  Alice whimped out and watched TV and Henry took a nap.

Then we made home made hot chocolate and played Settlers of Catan, which Rex almost won, but Greg pulled it out with 4 points in one turn.

I took a super long nap at one point.  More TV was watched.  I discovered how to occupy Henry while I made dinner.

The boys got into a Nerf war where Greg informed Rex that he's not allowed to shot unarmed people...um, about that.

And then Wednesday was a snow day too.  By Wednesday, we decided to brave the perfectly clear roads and head to the library.  But it was closed.  So we drove uptown and went to the big library.

And then today was a 2-hour delay late start, which I am definitely not complaining about.  I do not like waking up for school.

Feb 14. 2015

I have been planning Valentine's Day since the horrible let-down day of New Year's (you take down all your decorations and it's the end of the holiday season and for a stay-at-home mom, it's just a sad day, so I started planning the next holiday).

We were going to have red, heart-shaped pancakes with heart-shaped strawberries for breakfast.  Then Greg and I were going to go on romantic bike ride like back in our Provo days.  Then we were going to tie-dye shirts as a family.  I was going to set the table beautifully and we were going to have a wonderful dinner and then put the kids to bed and play some two-player games to complete the day.

Then half-way through last week, I felt like we should go to the temple.  A few talks at church had mentioned temples and I thought, wouldn't it be nice to go to the temple.  After my wonderful Valentine's Day, I reasoned.  But no, it had to be as soon as possible, which was Valentine's Day.   I am an stanch believer that the temple does NOT count as a date because you don't even get to sit by each other. To my surprise, Greg didn't complain and even arranged for his dad to watch the kids.

So we were up dark and early Saturday morning and driving to the temple.  Meanwhile, the kids ate cereal for breakfast and opened their token gifts without us.   As for the temple, it was very temple-y.  You know.  It was the temple.  But I did make sure to take a picture when we left to mark the occassion and for once in a long time, I looked cute in the picture, but Greg closed his eyes and vetoed it from the blog.  LAME!

We had a nice chat and drive home, which is why I think we really needed to go.  Three kids, two time-intensive church callings, tutoring 5 days a week, and starting a business doesn't leave a lot of time for us to say to more than, Will you get Henry out of the _____? to each other.

When we got home, we rushed to complete the rest of our V-Day activities.  I didn't take a ton of pictures of how cute and perfect everything thing is because I didn't want to Mom-shame anyone.

We tie-dyed shirts.

 minus Henry, who got into drawers in the kitchen instead.

 Then I made this cake that I was on Pineterest before Christmas and was sooooo excited for and have been looking forward to for months.  It was ok.  Good thing it didn't take very long.  Don't get me wrong, it still has chocolate and sugar in it so I'm still eating it, but it's not as good as it looked on line.

Once the kids were in bed, Greg and I split a deck of cards and wrote things we liked about each other on the cards.  Then Greg proceeded to stomp me at Gin.  We made some delicious hot chocolate (Greg's idea and recipe) and went to bed.

Sunday I was still feeling a bit of the holiday spirit so I dressed all the kids in red.

Rex refused to take a normal picture.

 Alice refused to look at the camera,but we wore matching polka dots (on purpose)

 And this kid...good thing he's cute because he's been a bit of terror lately.

And Greg wore a blue sweater and left for church 2 hours before us (he's ward clerk).

Best Vacation Ever Part 2

The next best thing to having slaves come for two weeks and do all my chores is go on vacation close to home.  Santa brought us one night at Great Wolf Lodge for Christmas.  20 minutes from our house.  And while it was a little crazy at times and Greg ended up taking Henry home at 1 am because he refused to sleep, Santa may need to bring us 2 nights next year.  In door water park in the middle of winter and the kids having their own "room" in the hotel.  Yes please.  The only thing that made it unpleasant was 1. the price of everything (I paid $5 for oatmeal for Henry), and 2. we had to check out of our room before we headed to the water park so things got a little weird with all our stuff.  Both of those things would have been remedied by staying two nights.

I loved it.  The kids loved it.  Greg had to work.  Yet another hazard of being your own boss.

 We checked in around 2 on Thursday and had to check out our room.  We stayed in the "Wolf Den" room so the kids had their own little section with a TV and bunk bed.  It made staying in a hotel with 3 kids so much easier.  Then we changed, left the camera in the room, and headed down to the water park.

After some swimming we hit up the arcade and then left the resort to get dinner across the street because the food there was expensive and gross.

 

Then Greg had to go to church (I guess there is a downside to vacationing 20 minutes from home) so I took the kids down to the nightly creepy animatronic show and story time.

 Henry was crazy tired from only napping on my shoulder for like 30 minutes at the water park.

Then to bed.  We actually left the kids in the room and Greg and I went on a mini ice cream date in the lobby.  Then Greg took Henry home because he refused to sleep.  Plus of vacationing 20 minutes from home.

In the morning, I bought the kids over-priced donuts and milk for breakfast.

Then we went to the arts and craft room where Rex yet again informed me that I'm a bad mom for not letting him color a super ugly $20 t-shirt.  I gave him one of the free coloring sheets.  Alice got her face painted for free.  

Then Greg left again to go to work.  The kids whined and complained.  I threatened to go home but the Robins in me couldn't do it--I had paid to be there all day, dang it we were going to stay.  So we went back to the water park and the kids had a great time, Henry slept on my shoulder again.  When we got tired we left and where home in time for left-over dinner.

Some tips for next time:

1. Bring cash and only spent cash.  That Dave Ramsey knows what he's talking about.  We set our budget ahead of time, took cash and when the money was gone, it was gone.  Great way not to over spend.

2. Bring food.  There fridges and microwaves in the room.  No need to waste money on gross food.  Save it for a few fun treats.

3. Stay two nights.

So, Dear Santa, Next year for Christmas, I want 2 nights at Great Wolf Lodge.