It was a nice day. It was sunny and warm. Roger's friend Brian came over to hang out for a while. Since it was so nice, they decided to go outside and play football. Parker had been begging them to come out, but when they decided to go, they found out the football is flat and the needle for the pump was broken. Parker convinced them to play baseball with him instead. While they were outside a big gust of wind came. They noticed a bunch of garbage from the area of the park, go flying up in the air, kind of swirling around like a tornado. Parker came running in and told me to bring my camera out. I asked why and he said there is a really cool garbage tornado that I have to see. So, I grabbed my camera and went out. It was kind of crazy looking, but by the time I got there, it was pretty far away. I got the zoomed in lense and took these pictures.
We went to our across the street neighbor's house for a BBQ at 6:00pm. It was sunny and warm outside all day, but as soon as we got over there for a BBQ, the wind picked up and it got really cold. The kids played, we ate some food, and visited for a little while, then we headed inside. It was really cold!
The kids decorated Easter Eggs
Then we spent the rest of the evening visiting and playing games. They have a really fun pool table. It is different than any I've ever seen. It was a lot of fun to play. We had a lot of fun visiting with them. We are really happy to have neighbor's that like to hang out.
It was a short day at school for Alissa today and now Spring break has started. She is super happy that she doesn't have to go to school for over a week!
I moved all of the toys downstairs, into storage today. The kids still have the toys they play with in their rooms, but there is no longer a need for all the other toys sitting around. It's crazy how fast they are growing. Roger's excited to have the toys put away. He's excited for the change and to have a more grown-up house. I'm excited for the change too, but a little sad about saying good-bye to the having younger children phase of my life.
Parker and I went to the store to do a little grocery shopping and Easter shopping. Now that the kids are older, they think it is fun to help out with the shopping for the holidays. They still like some surprises, but they also think it is fun to get to have a chance to go and pick some things out. Alissa helped me do some and Parker came to help this time. Brinley is always too busy playing with friends every time I need to go shopping, otherwise, I'm sure she would come. We ran into Roger's sister, Caroline at the store. She was there with Brittany and Grace. It was fun to run into her. We're not used to bumping into family when we are running errands. Family usually isn't around. Scott works in Brigham City and Caroline works with him, so maybe we'll run into them a little more often. That would be fun.
Caroline was supposed to plan the Sister's Fling this year, so I asked her about it when we were at the store. She has a fun idea, but she keeps thinking it might be more fun to invite families to come, rather than just the sisters. I love that idea. I think we should start having family reunions. I need to try and convince my family to do reunions also. We need to have more family get togethers. We don't get together with family very often anymore.
Teirnynn and Malaiyah came to play tonight. They got here while I was at the store. They brought eggs and an egg dying kit with them, so we could decorate eggs. I had just pulled out our Easter stuff before I went to the store. Last year, after Easter, I bought some fake eggs to decorate and some chalkboard eggs. Last year, the kids were hardly interested in decorating eggs. They said they wanted to, so I got everything set up, and they barely decorated any of them before they were bored. So, this year, I was going to keep it really simple, because I didn't think they'd be interested. With Teirnynn and Malaiyah here, they got into it a lot more. They all had a lot of fun decorating Easter eggs.
We got invited to go to a bbq and decorate eggs with our across the street neighbors tomorrow evening. So, we will get to have even more egg decorating fun tomorrow. It think we should always decorate eggs with friends, from now on. It is a lot more fun that way.
Roger came home from work early last night, because his eye kept swelling. It doubled from what it had been yesterday. He said he was in a room working, when his boss came in. He looked up and it surprised his boss when he saw how much more swollen Roger's eye was. Roger said he was like, "Woa! Dude your eye is getting a lot worse." So, Roger went to look at it. It was getting hard for him to keep his eye open, so he decided to come home. In the morning, Roger called the doctor and I drove him to another appointment.
Yesterday, they had thought it was just his allergies, but since the allergy medicine was doing nothing, they decided it was probably an infection. So, he got some more medicine to see if that would work. So far, it is working. The swelling has started to go down and Roger was able to go to work tonight.
So, I've been going to the Sharing the Caring classes to get licensed for daycare and after last nights class, I'm pretty sure that I don't want to do that anymore. I can't believe how difficult it all is. There is so much paper work and so much crappy stuff you have to deal with. I'm good at taking care of kids, but I'm terrible at business. So, I guess being a licensed daycare provider is not for me. I'm frustrated about that, because I have been counting on it and looking forward to getting started with my daycare and finally have a way to earn some money. Now, I need to find something else. I really don't want to work outside of the home. The kids are growing fast and I'll have plenty of time to go get a job when they are grown. I really want to be home and be with them as much as I possibly can while they are young. It's just aggravating how expensive everything is.
Anyway, now that I'm done focusing my attention on trying to get that all started up, I can focus my attention back on the house and getting it arranged and organized in a better way. I don't need it to be daycare ready anymore. The kids are getting older and it's time to put some toys away. We are transitioning from little kids to teenagers. Alissa turns 14 this year, Parker will turn 12 in a little over a month, and my baby (Brinley) is turning 11. It is fun having older kids. I know I will love every minute of it, but I think it's time to change some of the ways I do things, now that they are older. I've just been doing a lot of thinking about that. I'm thinking the first step will be putting the toys they don't play with away. When I was thinking about this earlier today, I had a lot more ideas, but now that I sat down to write about it, I got nothing.
My poor little Brinley is sick today. She has had the throw ups and poops all day. It is no fun. Alissa ended up staying home from school today. I woke her up at 6:00am. Then her and I went to the living room to warm up by the fire. We both ended up falling back asleep. Luckily, I had an alarm set to go off at 6:30am. The 6:30 alarm went of and I asked Alissa if she wanted me to set it to 7, so we could sleep a little longer. She said yes, so I rolled over to set the alarm, but I fell asleep before I was able to set it. We woke up around 9, when Roger woke up to call the doctor. His appointment was right away and we needed Alissa to stay home with Parker and Brinley. It was short day at school anyway, so I bet she didn't miss too much.
Alissa is funny about school. She is always doubting herself and always thinking that she probably didn't do a good job, but then she always gets straight As on her report card. I went to parent teacher conferences yesterday with her. She warned me on the way, that she probably didn't do that well this semester. She was sick a lot, so I didn't expect that her grades would be perfect. But, we got in her class and sat down with her teachers. They handed me her report card and she had all As except for in P.E. (because she needs to turn in 2 papers). She'll hand in those papers tomorrow and her grade will go up. I'm proud of my little Alissa for doing so well. I was always terrible in school. I just didn't care enough. I don't know why Alissa and Brinley care so much about their grades and doing well in school. I don't know where their drive and motivation came from. I'm guessing they get it from their dad. They both get straight As and I think that is awesome. Parker doesn't care about school. He doesn't care what his grades are. He just doesn't care. That's more how I was. Parker is a smart kid. He does really well when we are homeschooling him. He is a much happier person when he doesn't have to deal with the stress of school. This time around of homeschooling with Parker is going much better than the last time. He doesn't fight me anymore when I say it is time to do some school work. That is making things much better. Also, I noticed that when he gets a chance to sit and watch tv, he chooses more educational shows. He's always liked the educational shows more anyway, but it seems like he is watching them more and he is more interested and excited about learning.
I love my little family. It is so fun to watch them grow and see all the changes in them. I love the people my little ones are growing up to be. They are so fun. I don't know how anybody could not love them.
I just got back from a Sharing the Caring class in Logan. Tonight was the second and last session. After tonight, I am feeling very unsure about if I really want to pursue getting licensed to do daycare. All the information I got is very overwhelming. I'm just frustrated because I really want to find a way that I can earn some money and still be here for the kids. I think it's crazy how hard it is to get licensed. I keep hearing that they desperately need daycare providers. I think the reason they don't have many could be because of how hard they make it. I really don't know what I want to do anymore.
Roger's allergies attacked his eye. Yesterday, he noticed his eye was swollen. It felt better last night, so he hoped it would go away, but it didn't. He woke up this morning and his eye lid was much bigger. I feel bad for him. He went to the doctor and the doctor gave him some eye drops that should help. Hopefully his eye will get better soon.
Roger sent me this picture while he was at the doctor's office waiting. He's funny.
Tuesday - March 22nd
We got our new TV today. Our old TV had a small black line across the screen. It was really thin and not too much of a bother. It wasn't always there, but would pop up frequently. It's been like that for a while. When we bought it, Roger paid around $300.00 for a warranty. I remember getting upset at him for spending even more money, but he said that if he was spending that much money on a TV, he wants to make sure that if something breaks, we can have it fixed, otherwise, we'd just be out a TV. When the line first started appearing, we considered calling about it, but then it kept going away. We just dealt with it for a while, but Roger finally got tired of it and decided to call and find out what they can do to fix it, since it's under warranty. We bought the TV 3 years ago. After asking some questions and having Roger try some different things to get rid of it, they told us that the screen was going out and since the TV is old and they're not making them like that anymore, they would have to replace it. So, they sent us with a number or something to take to Best Buy so we could pick out our new tv. We were kind of excited that this warranty paid off. We got a bigger and better TV. Yeah! We got a 65 inch TV and it has the new 4K technology. Roger was so excited for it to be delivered. It would have been nice if we got to keep our old TV, but they had to take it when they replaced it.
Roger's friend Brian came over to check it out. It's nice!
It is really cold outside, but it looks nice. Alissa wanted me to come outside and play for a while. She had no idea what she wanted to do, she just wanted us to go outside. So, that's what we did.
At the town houses, whenever it was windy the kids loves to play this game with a plastic bag. They let the wind catch it, then they all race to see who can catch it first. It's fun, because the wind doesn't always blow it in the direction you expect. I't nice that we have a yard big enough for them to play their game. The wind wasn't super strong, so the game wasn't too exciting. I took a lot of video, because it's usually pretty funny. The only time it was really funny this time, was as soon as I turned off the video camera. Every time I shut it off, the wind picked up and it got funny, but by the time I got it rolling again, it was over. The battery died on my main camera, so I had to use my phone and it takes a while processing each video before it will let me record another.
You can tell when I had to change cameras. I almost think the cell phone video looks better. We really need a new video camera.
After the TV guys left, Roger went upstairs to get something and when he came down, he said, "why didn't you tell me my eye was swollen?" I looked at his eye and was surprised to see that it is starting to swell up. I hadn't noticed. It's not too terrible and it really is only noticeable if you are looking for it, but when you're just standing there talking to him, it doesn't really stand out. He's thinking that maybe it's his allergies flairing up since he mowed the lawn yesterday.
Roger took the truck in to get a recall on it fixed today. He was gone for a couple of hours. He had to go to Brigham City. While they were fixing it, he waked over to Scott's work and visited with his sister, Caroline. He said that it was fun to see her and spend some time visitng.
Alissa has a sore throat that kept getting worse as the day went on. I really hope she'll feel better tomorrow and that she is not get the yucky sickness I had. The kids and I went up to my room and watched Daddy Daycare, while Roger watched hockey in the family room on the new TV. The new TV is really nice. We are really happy that we got it. We are trying to decide if we should buy a warranty on this one, but i don't think we will. It was nice that it worked on the last one, but we really don't have the money to spend on the warranty this time.
It's really cold. Kristy posted a pic on Facebook of all the snow at her house.
Then, 5 hours later, she complained on Facebook, saying, "make the snow stop" She always gets so much snow at her house and it makes me so jealous, but I'm definitely not jealous of the snow in the Spring.
We focused on getting familiar with different sayings and phrases and what they really mean, in our homeschooling today. Things like, "The early bird gets the worm" and "Don't put all your eggs in one basket". I was surprised that the kids hadn't heard a lot of those sayings. It was a lot of fun though.
I spent a lot of time looking over all the requirements for getting licensed for daycare. There really is a lot of things I need to accomplish to get licensed. Roger is going to call about insurance for my daycare tomorrow. I really hope that goes well. I have my last sharing the caring class tomorrow. I'd really like to focus and get moving with the licensing process.
Money is tight, since we got our new house. We did a budget and if we could do $100.00 grocery trips every other week, we will be good. I have been really struggling trying to make that work. It has not been easy and i am super frustrated by the whole thing. I finally got Roger to understand my struggle. He agreed that if I have to change my grocery shopping, that he will have to change the way he eats. I explained to him, that if he could learn to eat more simple foods like cereal, sandwiches, Ramen noodles, etc., then we could easily get the groceries we need for $100.00 every other week, but if he wants me to make him nice dinners each night, we have to change our grocery budget back to what it was before. I finally managed to explain how I was feeling in a way he understands. He agreed to try eating differently. I'm relieved. I have been so stressed out, trying to make this work. Grocery shopping will be so much easier when I go on Friday. Trying to feed my family as cheaply as possible is very time consuming and frustrating. I spend hours looking through all the ads for the best deals, gathering and cutting coupons, preparing a menu that will work with those foods that are on sale, then preparing my list, so i can get in and out of the store quickly. I do all of the math before hand, so I can stay in budget. It is a pain. I'm getting really tired of it. Eating simple things will make everything so much easier.
We love our big yard! IT is going to be a lot of work to keep it nice. Roger told the kids that we would be doing yard work today. Parker has never mowed a lawn before. He was too young, the last time we were in a house. He's been looking forward to getting to mow the lawn. We got two lawn mowers. Our old one from our first house (Todd kept it and gave it back to us) and Roger's mom's lawn mower. We were excited to have 2 mowers so 2 of us could mow at once and we would get it all done faster. When Roger and Parker went out this morning, they were disappointed to find that our old lawn mower had a leak and won't work and the lawn mower from Roger's mom, kept getting bogged down. It was not doing well. So, Roger and Parker went to Logan and bought a new mower. It's nothing fancy, but it works well.
We love this picnic/bench seats from Roger's mom. It switches between a picnic table and bench seats.
The 2 mowers that didn't work so well. We will get them fixed, so we can have our idea of 2 people mowing at once to speed up the job.
Alissa thought that she would get out of doing yard work today, since she'd be at school. she really hoped it would all get done while she was gone. But, because they had to go buy a lawn mower, they didn't get started until after Alissa got home. She only mowed one strip. Roger just wanted her to get a feel for it.
Here's my beautiful, goofy 'Lissa
Brinley is getting really good at her cartwheels
Alissa was making some musically videos. Eventually I'll get those emailed to me so I can share them on here. I think musically is fun.
Brinley, mid cartwheel
Parker said it was much easier to ride his bike in the grass now that it's been mowed.
Roger is excited about this shed. He is so excited to have a place to keep his tools and an area he can work on things.
Since he finally has that, he can be a mister fix it now. I like that. He is fixing the post on the fence that had come loose. One of them had fallen off completely in the last wind storm.
It was a really nice day today and there was no church, so we got to spend the day relaxing at home. Parker and Brinley couldn't wait to set up the picnic table we got from Grandma Moser. It turns into 2 bench seats or a picnic table.
I wanted to teach the kids how to play Tensis, but when we counted the dice, we realized we only had enough for 3 players. So, we decided to play Sevensies. It was a lot of fun. The kids loved our new game. Roger didn't want to play, but he sat down and hung out with us. It was his idea for us to all go outside. We were going to play inside. I'm glad we went out, though, because it felt so nice.
Alissa caught a butterfly
Brinley told me she wanted to show me something. She said to hang on, because she had to run inside and get it. When she came out, she had tucked in her shirt, pulled up her pants, put on a bow tie, and some funny glasses. She is a cute little nerd. I love how funny my kiddos are.
Alissa took some more snap chat pictures.
Brian and Keri came to help us bring the table in. It was too heavy for me to help Roger. I was very thankful that Brian came.
While we were hanging out with Brian and Keri, they were talking about their favorite treats of mine that I have made for them. Brian really loves my granola bars and Keri really loves my peanut butter finger bars. I loved hearing that. It made me feel really good. It's nice to know that people appreciate what I do. I made them some granola bars and sent some home with them so Brian could enjoy them on his birthday tomorrow.
After they left, we ate dinner then the kids and I played Tensies.
Roger's mom sold her house and the new owners wanted to move in right away. So, we all went to help her with the move. She is moving in with Roger's brother, Todd. I hope that she is happy there. I'm sure it was hard for her to give up her house.
Roger had to work last night, so he didn't get to sleep at all before we went. We woke up when he got home, ate breakfast, got ready and left. I was super tired. I fell asleep on the drive there, so the drive went really fast for me. I felt bad sleeping, when I knew Roger was the one who really needed sleep. But Roger said he was fine and he didn't mind if I slept. He usually needs me awake, to help keep him awake, but for some reason, he was feeling wide awake.
We stopped at Dan's house on the way and borrowed a trailer so we could bring some of Joyce's stuff home with us. She gave us her lawn mower, picnic table, inside table and chairs, some rugs, and other yard tools. Also, we were planning to bring home our old futon that has been at her house since our first move. We didn't end up bringing it home, because it was broken.
There was a lot of work to be done. I didn't do too much, since I'm still recovering from my sickness. I really don't want to get sick again.
The kids worked hard at first, but quickly tired out and lost interest. Parker went to the truck to watch something on my phone and hide out. Alissa and her cousin Emily hid in another vehicle to watch a show.
Brinley and her cousin Caitlynn had a lot of fun playing in the backyard. Every once in a while the neighbor's dog came out and they had fun playing and saying hi o the dog.
My nephew, Canyon walked by and told me that he would give me the honor of being able to take his picture. Then he did this funny pose. He is a funny guy. He makes me laugh.
Brinley and Caitlynn
The bottom right picture is of Cindy holding up the plastic knife that she was using to prepare lunch for everybody. She had to get creative since the dishes were all packed. She made a salad in a grocery bag.
This is Joyce's table that she gave to us. We are excited to have a nice table. With the table runners on and with all the chairs, this table seats 10.
This is all our stuff, waiting to be loaded on the trailer.
Alissa was pointing out how stiff the floor felt where the wheel from grandma's bed used to be. Alissa was cold. she kept her hoodie on the whole day.
Grandma had some ice cream that needed to be eaten, so Brinley and Caitlynn volunteered. Cousin Stephanie helped them get it.
The kids thought it was a lot of fun to ride up and down on the lift on the back of the truck.
The kids had fun playing with their cousins. They don't get to see each other enough.
I had to run back in to use the bathroom before we left. I took some pictures as I did my last walk through of her house. We made some fun memories here. I think we'll all miss it.
The kids waited in the truck, while Roger and I tied down all the stuff on the trailer and in the back of the truck for the drive home. Alissa must have taken this picture then.
While we were tying our stuff down, the new home owner asked us to help him move the tetherball pole. A car drove by the pile of stuff on the curb that was left for the city to pick up. They got out and asked about it. The new home owner was out. They went through the stuff. He took some things and the people in the car, went to get a truck so they could take some things. There were quite a few things they wanted.
We headed home a little after 3:00pm. Roger was too tired, so I had to drive us home. It was scary pulling a trailer. I've never done that before, so I was nervous. I stressed myself out too much over it. I was nervous and tense the whole drive. I did okay. I didn't have any problems. But by the time we got home, my neck hurt really bad and I had a headache. I'm not taking medicine anymore (that's my new goal - I'm returning to my old habits that I had before people started telling me how to be healthy), so I knew the headache wouldn't go away until I slept. I didn't get to go right to sleep though. There was a priesthood activity that Roger really wanted us to go to. It was from 6:00 - 8:00pm. I laid down for a little bit before we left, but it wasn't enough o get rid of the headache.
We went to the activity and my headache got worse and worse as the night went on.
We played games and ate some food at the activity. The first game was a dice game called Tensies. It was a fun, simple game that I know the kids will love. I plan to teach it to them right away. They'll love it. Then we played a pictionary type game. I can't remember what it was called. It is a game that everybody seems to love and laugh really hard at. I think my headache was too bad at this point, so I really didn't enjoy it. After that game, we had ice cream, then we went home.
It looks like Alissa took these pictures while we were gone. I love the funny things you can do on snap chat.
When we got home, I tucked the kids into their beds and I went straight to bed. Roger was especially exhausted. I'm pretty sure he was the first one asleep. Shortly after we all climbed in bed, Alissa came up and asked if anybody else had heard the door bell. She wondered why none of us got up to answer it. She heard it, got up, and peaked through the peep hole. She saw it was our across the street neighbor's so she answered it. They came to invite us to sit around the fire with them. She told them we were all in bed. I feel bad that we couldn't go. We had a lot of fun the last time we sat around the fire (before winter). Hopefully they'll invite us again.
