Fourteen, Felines and Friends

Ben turned 14! It surely wasn't as exciting as going to Vegas for his 13th birthday, but he still had a good day. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Grampie was still in rehab at the time.

 

Ben is such a good sport. Normally, none of us want to sit on the saddle and have them give a huge hee haw for your birthday, but Ben was game! He's always such a good sport. 

 

David made him cheesecake! It's so good!   

 

He got lots of cards and a few gifts. It was so hard to buy for him. He doesn't want or need much. 

 

One thing he did ask for was to change his room a bit. We are going to paint it this summer. But, he wanted to take down some of the super hero decals. They are all over his room. We need to do a major over haul and put some of his special things in a tote in the attic, like Mr. Potato head.  

 

So, when we asked what he wanted on the walls, he didn't know. He's really into History and Science. But, we aren't putting a framed photo of the Ben Franklin on his wall. I wasn't sure what teen boys put on their walls these days. My brother had posters of girls in bikinis, like Heather Locklear and Christy Brinkley, and I think a black lamborghini.  But, that is definitely not Ben. So, I found a few framed space photos and he liked them. He already makes his room filled more grown up. We'll have to work on the paint later and the fact that he has 4 pieces of furniture in there and none of it matches. :)

 

So, we call Noah the cat whisperer. Cats love him. When we go to Canada he walks around Aunt Paula and Uncle Terry's house and finds all the cats and pets them. I think he gets this from my mother. But, this is one of Grammie's new cats. His name is Oliver. They also got his sister Lucy, but she's a bit more timid. But, the both love Noah. 

 

And Ms. Emily. Her world is her friends. They came over last weekend and wanted waffles. It's nice they are at the age that they can just make them for themselves, which is exactly what they did. 

 

This is her group of winter guard gals. They are doing a lot of fund raising to try to travel somewhere amazing next year.  

 

They have competitions every Saturday for like 2 months down in Phoenix. It's a big commitment. They came in second last weekend. Their routine is awesome.  

 

This is her before they left for the competition. I never get to see her all made up as they usually meet at a girls house before and all do make up together, but this time she did it at home. She looks so grown up with the fake lashes and she does her make up so well.  

 

Oh, and this happened for the first time. Ben was getting the slightest mustache, which he did not like. David gave him a lesson on how to shave it. It was comical. He'll probably only have to shave once a month for now, but I'm glad he got the mustache off. 

That catches you up on what's going on around here!

Around Our House

I sometimes think this working stuff is for the birds. A few weeks ago, the kids and David all had MLK day off. I had to work 8 hours. Shocker.  They went for a hike at our favorite spot and to Chickfila. I was happy that they got out and did something, but I was totally bummed I couldn't be there with them. I remember all the times it would be a glorious day and I'd send David pics of me and the kids at the park while he was stuck in the office. It's the cycle of life I guess. This is just the season we are in right now.

 

Noah told David to take this photo to send to me. He thought I'd like it. He was right. 

Pretty much every weekend I'm working 8 hour shifts and I might have an hour or two in the morning or a few hours at night, but the entire day/night is gone with work. This past weekend, I didn't have to leave until 1:00!  I was so excited that we headed to the park on our bikes to play some basketball. We played Horse and wouldn't you know it, Ben won! Emily was gone at a winter guard competition in Phoenix. She's pretty much gone every Saturday for most the day at competitions.

 

 The boys have become obsessed with a Rubik's cube. Well, Ben solved it and then Noah became obsessed and had to solve it. In case you didn't know, it's really all algorithms and if you figure those out, anyone can solve it, which they both did. Then, Noah did another 20 times just to make sure he got it down. It's pretty impressive. We used to peel off the stickers as kids and try to put them back on, so everyone would think we did it. Now, you know the algorithms or just get the app where you put in what your colors are and it shows you how to do it. Lame.

 

Ben finally won a cinnamon roll at school!  Every Friday, they do a drawing for perfect attendance and 4 kids win these huge cinnamon rolls from a local restaraunt. He finally won, so he was on their Facebook page.  

 

And if you've never heard of this app, it's called Life 360. It's free and private. You have to send a text to someone and they can join your group. So, basically, you can tell where your kids are at all times. It's awesome. This was Emily yesterday after school. So, I texted her and said, you went to Starbucks? Who took you? It was our friends Mom. Then, I went into our Starbucks app and could tell she just ordered a grande caramel frappucino. Man, there are no secrets anymore. It's not like the times when I was a kid and my best friend Liz and I would ride our bikes to Circle K to buy candy (with money we stole from her brothers room) and our parents never found out. Now, when her friend gives her a ride to flag practice after school, I can tell how fast her friend is going and if they made any other stops. Technology is awesome for parents, maybe not so much for teenagers.

 Ben got pick to help with the induction of the new NJHS kids at school. He said he had to be there, but we had no idea he had a speaking roll. The thing I noticed most when he got up is his voice is so deep compared to the other boys.

 He had to recite a few sentences about Character, which was a great subject for Ben to speak about. We were so worried about him lighting the candle at the end, but he got it. Eventually.




Ben also had future freshman night at the high school. David took him because, shocker, I was working. Ben used to say that high school seemed scary because it was so big. I think he's getting used to it now and he said he's not scared anymore. We always tell him he's ready for bigger and better things. It's time for him to move on from Jr. High (well, in 4 months).

One of our new favorite things to do are puzzles! We typically have one going on a table and just kind of work on it here and there throughout a few weeks. It's fun and nice to have something that we can work on together. I put the final piece on this cat one today!

And we woke up to a two hour snow delay today! That means that David has to get to work, and I have to take the kids to school. It's really not a ton of snow, but the problem is the buses have to make it out to rural areas that aren't paved and they don't want them attempting that and kids out in the ice/cold at 7. We always enjoy the lazy morning and the snow is so pretty.

Then, Noah has to walk to the bus stop by himself. I usually walk with him or we drive if it's super cold out. Today, we would've drove. I told him that I saw sasquatch prints leaving our house.

 

  

 That's about it for us!

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!