Back to December

Six weeks without blogging. It's probably the longest I've ever gone. The holidays are always busy, but this year, was beyond. The 40 hours a week at Costco and 20 hours at my other job meant I had very little time for anything else. The time I did have off, I wanted to spend with family and friends. I've also tried to take some steps back from picture taking and posting stuff on social media. I've been tagged in a bunch of stuff, but I've only posted one thing on Facebook in over 4 months, and it was the snow!

What I've learned by working so much, is this... the time I get with my family is precious. All of us sitting down to dinner is something I don't take for granted anymore. Laying in bed at night with the boys and David and watching TV is something I miss dearly when I'm working nights. It's those little things that I appreciate since I'm not around as much.

I'm thankful for my husband who has stepped up beyond belief over the past 5 months while I worked. Yes, he's always been wonderful, but he has taken it to a new level. He does anything and everything for me and our family and never complains. He's incredible. And my sweet friends are all amazing. They take my kids to parades when we can't, and are always there if anything should happen. I'm so very blessed and thankful.

Ok, so here's our December recap.

Ben and Emily were both in a parade. Ben's on the left in a green sweatshirt. Emily was with the marching band doing her flag.

 The next day, Emily was in another parade in Prescott. This picture was better since it was daytime. I took this from the newspaper or something that was posted online.



 Em went to the tree lighting in downtown Prescott with friends. I hope to go to this one of these years. And this is where friends come in. Em got ready for the parade, and I was working. She's in a sweatshirt. It was freezing and raining out later, and Dakri had an extra coat for her. I saw her wearing it in another photo and was like, "I have the best friends." They make sure my kid is warm and dry when I'm not around. That's the best feeling.

Noah had his Christmas concert at school. He doesn't want to wear ties anymore.

They sang some cute Christmas songs. He was with all his friends and got separated when they ran out of risers. So, he had to go to the front row alone. He wasn't thrilled. But, the concert was nice. Grammie and Grampie joined us and we went for ice cream and to see the drive-thru light display after. It was a good night. I was so happy I got to be there.

We went down to my Dad and Suzy's for our annual Christmas party on Sunday. We do it the Sunday before Christmas as it works better with work schedules and it's kind of nice to not be out in holiday traffic. We can just relax at home.

I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I did take this one of my cousin Rory. He seems to age backwards or something. He's looked exactly the same for 20 years.

 

And here's my beautiful niece and her boyfriend. I'm so proud of her. She is such a hustler and my sister would be so proud. She works 2 jobs, goes to college and just got her first apartment with her friend.  I love her spunk.

 

The kids got a bunch of gifts! Thank you Grandma Suzy and Papa! 

 

Here's Emily trying to choke her brother, I think. I'm sorry, I took like 5 photos, so I was just trying to post something here.  

 

As we were leaving my Dad's, Enrique fell and hurt his hip. We got him to the van and home, but we found out the next day that he broke it. So, he had to get surgery on Christmas Eve. Boo.

Christmas day, Gwynne spent the night as she wanted to watch the kids open gifts. They really didn't ask for a lot this year, so they got some things they needed and wanted and that was it. We usually have bags of wrapping paper. It all fit in one garbage bag this year.  

 

Emily got her Apple airpods. 

 

Ben got some video games and these books. He loves useless trivia.  

 

 And Noah got this virtual reality headset. Ben is playing with it here, but it was the hit of Christmas. It's actually really, really cool.

  

The kids did a lot of this on their 2 week break....just relaxing with the cats.

 

David and I had a date day and we went to see Grampie. He's in a rehab facility and doing well. He should be out next week sometime and able to go home. But they were saying he may need 25% help getting up and in a wheel chair. He can't bear weight on his foot for another month. Gwynne isn't in a position to help him, so now, he may go to another facility for 3 weeks.

 

 Alisa and the kids were not planning a trip out here for Christmas, but after Grampie fell, they quickly made arrangements and came out for 4 days. 

David was teaching Rachel how to roll meatballs.

Alisa took the kids sledding in Flagstaff. These 3 are wild together, but they have so much fun.

These two boys are so sweet together. I'm glad they are so close.

 

 And then, we got the best news ever! David took Ben down to Phoenix for his eye appointment, and the doctor gave Ben the all clear. Basically, he doesn't need to see a pediatric eye specialist anymore. He can just go to a regular eye doctor up here for annual exams like everyone else!  We were so, so happy. This has been a 10 year journey of going to Phoenix 2-4 times a year, 2 eye surgeries, patching and everything else, and Ben is DONE!  It was the best news ever!

 Then, Pam came up for a visit. I hadn't seen her in 8 months! I don't know how that's possible and we barely made this visit happen. We had to meet when I got off work at 4 and then I had to work the next morning, but we made it work.

 

She brought the kids cookies and gifts and we had a lovely visit. 

Then, we hosted our annual New Year's party. Somehow, we've fallen into hosting this every year, and it's all good with us. We wear pajamas and do a puzzle. It's a raging party.

We have fun and we barely make it to midnight, but we make it! Everyone leaves at 12:03.

So, here we are...at 2020! On the 2nd, I went to work and got called in the office by one of the head honchos. He told me that they'd like me to stay past seasonal status!  So, I'm now an official Costco employee!  This week, the hours have finally tapered down to about 30, which I find is totally doable with the 20 I do at home for Bargain Believer. This is where things will be for now, and we are all good with it.  The kids are doing more around the house and Emily is even cooking some dinners for us. Well, reheating pasta sauce and boiling water, but hey, it's a start. David is busy doing things for his parents on weekends, which works fine since I work every weekend. We're settling into a nice groove for now and it's working for us.

I think my plan going forward will be to post a blog once a month. At the end of January, I'll see what phone pictures I took and do a post, and so on for each month. I don't like pressure on me to feel like I need to keep this blog going, but I also like these little recaps and I love that the kids have journal of their lives. I don't want to give it up. Thank you for hanging in there with us for all these years.

Family Pictures

We did our family pictures this past weekend. It almost didn't happen. We were trying to coordinate with Dakri on when Josh would be home. But, I had to work until 2:30 on the only day possible that we both had open. So, I rushed home, got ready in 30 minutes and we took off so we could beat the sun. Now mind you, I have to wear a hair net and hat to work. So my hair is what it is. I told David if it didn't work out, I'd get a pic of me in my Costco hat. Emily on her bed looking at her phone. Ben doing a back flip on the trampoline. Noah sitting at his computer playing video games and David cooking and we'd say that's what we got for this year.

But, luckily it all worked out and we got a few good pics.

Those will be coming on our Christmas card. But here's a preview of Emily. But, what I love about this picture is she is wearing earrings!  She hasn't worn earrings since they got infected back in 2010. I wrote about it here. She didn't want to wear earrings after the pain of her infection. But, lately she was saying that she wanted to get her ears pierced again. I told her I could still see the hole in the front and if she'd let me play around with a needle, I could get it through. She wanted no part of that. But, a few weeks ago she was trying to get earrings in and all be damned, they went in! 

She borrowed her friends earrings for this picture.

Santa plans to bring her more for Christmas.

And you know what else I noticed? I never changed the pictures on the side of this blog. Those are from 2017!  Guess I've been busy for awhile.

Landscape

Ugh, this has been a thorn in our side for months. The landscape at David's parents new house had a 3 month time limit for completion. We knew we had until about Thanksgiving to get it all done. We got a few quotes for just simple landscape, rocks in the backyard and rocks in front with the minimum requirements for the HOA...1 tree and 5 bushes. The quotes came in between $6,000 and $10,000. What?  That just seemed crazy high.

My Dad came to the rescue and offered to come up here and help with the irrigation and stuff. So, mid-October David and my Dad got to work. They got all the irrigation dug. This is one of the trenches, but they have it going around the entire front yard and to the back.

Then, David went over the next weekend and planted the one tree and five bushes in the front. We plan to do more later, but this is not the time of year to be planting things. So, we got what is required in and we will spruce it up later with some flowering shrubs and other nice things.

Then, David went over the weekend after that and ran the dripper system line around the backyard. This way when we do plant stuff the line is down and ready to go.

Then, came the rock, 34 tons of rock to be exact. We got it delivered and one of David's friends suggested renting a mini bobcat to spread it all. We asked a landscape crew how much it would be to spread and they said $1300. This bobcat cost $250. So, David went over and moved all that rock.

 

That same day, my Dad and Suzy came up and helped. Well, Suzy's back hurt or you know she would've been back there with a shovel. We tried to get the boys to help and Noah lasted about 5 minutes. Ben stuck it out there. Him and my Dad raked it all while David kept driving that little bobcat back and fourth and back and fourth. He had a major headache when all was said and done.

 

 

But, it's done! Well, David went over the weekend after that and put in pavers. They have a steep driveway and it was hard for them to get down it. So, it's not very steep where the pavers are, so now they can walk to the street without a problem.  This is the only picture I have and it doesn't really show all the work.  Plus, the rock needs to get rained on to show the color since it's covered in dirt. But, luckily that came a few days ago.

 

David went over there 5 weekends in a row and worked his butt off. I admire and appreciate him so much. We never could've done it without my Dad's help either. At 74, he's still able to out-work most 20 year olds. He's impressive. 

Our final tally on doing everything ourselves?  $2300.  David was so relieved when it was all done. Thank you to my hard working husband for getting this done and my hard work Dad for helping make it all happen!

One Job, Two Jobs, Three Jobs!

After all the expenses with the new house and the down payment which drained our savings, I thought I should get a second job. My part time from home thing is great and brings in a nice amount of money, but I knew I had time on my hands.

When I got the job at Fry's working in the Starbucks, I thought it would be great. Not so much. The pay was lousy, just .20 above minimum wage. I figured I would work my butt off and advance quickly, but it doesn't work like that. It's a union, and you don't get a raise until you work 800 hours and you get a dime. What? That's almost like an insult. We couldn't take tips either as we are Fry's employees, not Starbucks.

I was the person with no seniority, so how their schedule work is the person whose been there the longest takes what shifts the want, then, the next person and so on. The new person gets whatever is left. I get it and it wouldn't be too bad, but there was no rhyme or reason to any of it. In one work, I'd close at 8:30, open at 4:30, work mid shift; sometimes 4 hours, sometimes 6, sometimes 8. I'd end up with 6 days a week and close to 40 hours most weeks. Um, I signed up for part time. I think I worked under 32 hours twice in the 3 months I was there. My part time job at home is about 15-20 hours a week. There were many weeks that I was easily working 60 hours. I was exhausted.

The good part is the kids really had to step up. I brought out the easel from when they were toddlers and I'd leave notes. They'd have to pack their lunches most days and get ready for school as I was up at 3:30 to go to work. Yes, I know they should be doing that anyway, but when I was home and only worked one part time job, I enjoyed doing it.

 

I really wasn't happy at Fry's. I loved the people, both my co-workers and customers. I loved making delicious coffee for people and it brought a smile to their face. I didn't like the crazy hours, pay and other things. 

I had applied for Costco when I applied for Fry's. But, they didn't call me. When we were on vacation in Newport Beach, a manager from Costco called and wanted to interview me for seasonal help. She said they lay off all seasonal help at Christmas and hire back all of their best workers throughout the next year. By the time I got the interview, several weeks had passed, but they hired me on the spot. I wanted to give Fry's two-weeks notice. But, then Costco wanted me for orientation a week after they hired me, and that was their last orientation for seasonal workers. I had to go. So for about 4 days, I was juggling 3 jobs. One day, I worked over 16 hours with an hour in between and I brought a pillow in the car for a nap. I tucked the kids in on a Wednesday night, and I wasn't going to see them until Saturday. It was crazy.

So Costco.... they pay really well with time and half on Sunday's. I'm in the Food Court, which I like as it's a good mix of people and hustle, and boy do we hustle. There isn't a lot of down time and we are constantly busy. Time just flies. It was so much easier to learn than Starbucks. Costco's register has about 9 buttons. Starbucks had 9 pages with about 20 drinks on each page. No joke. It took a month to get Starbucks down. I had the basics of Costco figured out in about 15 minutes. I've mostly been in the front, but this week, I got to go in back and learn to make pizzas, salads and sandwiches. I really like it and hope that I can get on with them in the future. There are several people who work in the Food Court with me who were seasonal last year. One got called back in March and two in July. So, I could end up with a nice long vacation after Christmas. But, that's ok. I can't stress about it. The hard part is I feel like I already have a permanent job. I like the people I'm working with and it seems weird that in 4 weeks, I won't work there anymore. It never even crosses my mind that it's temporary.  

That's where I've been over the last month and why blogging has been the last thing I was thinking about. Hopefully though, things are simmering down a little. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

Halloween

Yes, yes, yes. I know I'm super behind on things. Life is so busy.  Here some highlights from the past month.

Halloween was fun! We started the weekend before with a few trips through the Haunted maze that our neighborhood clubhouse puts on. They do a really great job. The kids loved it and went through twice. Well, Noah stayed back with me for the second go through.

 Our friends had their annual Halloween party. I'm a cat. The boys are ghosts. Em is an M&M and David is a Mexican, which can not be offensive to anybody because he is a Mexican. I even drew an eyeliner mustache on him and we borrowed the costume from Dakri.

I'm so glad the kids still want to dress up and get candy. I thought Ben might think he's too old, but he's only 13 and this is one of his favorite holidays.

I told the kids this year that I wasn't buying any costumes. We have enough around the house and they can get creative. Well, I did buy two white sheets from the thrift store for a few bucks. They wanted black behind the eyes. Luckily, I had an old pair of black pantyhose that I was able to cut up and we taped it behind the face. It worked and they loved it.

Of course, this is the real reason why they like to go trick or treating. We got lots and lots of candy!

 

We went trick or treating with our friends in the neighborhood, like always.
It was a fun Halloween!

Newport Beach

Three weeks ago we left for vacation, and I'm just now finding time to blog about it. To say life has been busy is an understatement. I think I needed this vacation more than any other vacation ever in my life. The beautiful thing was we had zero plans. Well, we had one plan...to hit the beach every day for 4 beautiful days. And that's exactly what we did.  I didn't bring a computer. I didn't post about it on Facebook and I barely took out my good camera. Truly, it was just what I needed.

But, the whole point of this blog, other than keeping you beautiful people up to date on our life, is to have memories for my kids. So, blogging I must do, I want to do. I just needed to find a little time.

So, we took off on a Saturday. Due to Em's color guard schedule we left a day early and spent the night at a hotel. We had to come back early by one day. This way, we would have all of Sunday at the beach instead of that being our driving day. Did I mention we went with 2 other families and we all shared one huge 3 story, 6 bedroom house on the beach?  It was awesome!

So, here we are, all loaded up.

 We got to the Hilton and looky here. I was the guest of the day! Basically, I got a free Starbucks and a free dessert!  Sweet! They randomly pick a rewards member and it was me!

 The hotel was super fun. They had free happy hour with drinks and appetizers, so the adults took advantage of that.

 The kids rode the elevator and went swimming. It was a super nice hotel. This is the inside of the hotel with real trees and a huge atrium. Noah said it looked like the cruise ship.

 That's Noah and Clara in the back doing flips. Ben and Savannah are the normal ones in the hot tub.

 On Sunday, we headed straight to the beach.

 Ava came with us. Her parents were going to Washington, but she wanted to go with us, so it all worked out. We told her the first time at the beach, and you have to get buried. She was cool to play along.

 

There was an air show going on at the beach down from us, so we got to watch an awesome airshow!

 Every night meant walks along the beach and pier. Noah is being a goof. He didn't want his picture taken. I would've made the exact face at 10. Karma, right Mom?

 

 

 This is the only blurry photo I got of our walks and tag on the beach. It's a nightly thing.

 The sunset from our balcony was pretty perfect.

 The fist night we made steaks with potatoes and salad, and this was how it was most nights. All of us enjoying food. It was so fun!

 I think this is one of my favorite pics of all 4 girls. They are just having fun and doing their thing.

In a few more years, I'll have Ben take his Senior pictures here. He's the class of 2024, so this lifeguard station is perfect!

 Ben walking along the beach at night.

 Every day, we got shaved ice or some little treat. Noah wanted this crazy SpongeBob popsicle.

 These pics are all out of order and I don't have the time or desire to reorganize them. So, Ryan got sick after the first day and was pretty much in bed the entire week. I felt awful for him and Dakri who was single for much of the trip. We still went out on the last night and enjoyed our favorite Vietnamese place. The 420 downtowner rice is so good! It's cilantro lime rice with chicken and fried pork on top.

 This is Noah and the girls on the last morning. The were feeding the birds all of our bread that we weren't taking home. They enjoyed every last ounce of beach time!

Ok, now these are my expansive camera photos.

So, this was us on day one. It was a Sunday, so the beach was more crowded than normal. 

 The bigger kids are in the water.

 I think this was the second day. It was like noon and this huge fog just came in off the ocean and sat there for like an hour. It was so bizarre, but that's Cali for you.

 One night, the girls wanted some pics taken of them at the beach. These girls have been best friends for years, so it was so fun they all got to be together on this trip. The pics came out really cute. I think I took over 200!  HA!  Here's a few of the best ones.

 And while I'm taking pictures, this is going on behind me.

 And this.

 These girls are so cute!

 Ben didn't want his picture taken either, so I got the back of him. He loves the ocean.

 And they had to take a selfie!

 These three kids played so great together. Clara is 11. Noah is 10. Savannah is 9. So, I always wonder which one Noah will marry. Maybe neither of them, but I hope so! They are sweet as can be.

 The sunsets in Cali... wow!

And this was the very last photo I took.

Everything went so well, we decided we will do the same trip again next year at Fall Break!

I can't wait.