Yes a March recap too

Well this recap comes with some bad news that actually happened in February but caused the events of March.  David and I have decided to get divorced.  We are just two different people who are on two different paths in life and can't seem to get those paths to align.  So I was going to try and stick it out and stay in the house until the end of the contract but it got too hard.  So I found an apartment I could afford (which is not easy in St. George - prices have gone way up since I last needed a place) and the kids and I moved.  Justyn and Jonah were the heads of my move.  I had two guys show up from the ward that were super helpful.  It took two trips with the trailer to get the big things moved over.  Then I worked on the smaller things with my car.  Dad and I did a trailer load on Monday to try and get me completely out of the house.  I am very appreciative of those that helped me moved.  I am in an upstairs apartment and could not have gotten my furniture up the stairs.

There are actually some kids in this neighborhood so my kids have loved it.  Not much grass to play on but the kids are finding ways to make it work.  You just have to be very careful in the parking lot....kids are running everywhere.  The kids also get to stay at their school but they are back to riding the bus.  They don't have the downtime that they had when I would take them to school.

I haven't been sleeping well at all lately...so it has been a little bit harder for me to get the house put away.  I didn't really have boxes to unpack...just a few totes and things to put in their place.  Two weeks after moving in, I am just about there.

I went to start a load of laundry one night and Aspen said "mom there is something leaking" before she headed outside.  Sure enough, my washer was leaking water...like a lot.  So I researched what could be the issue, turned to my dad who found the part for as cheap as he could.  In the meantime, I had to go to mom's to do laundry.  But I have the best mom and she would help out.

The part came and dad and I spent 3 hours trying to get it on the washing machine.  (ps we could not see any holes in the old part so we have no idea why it was leaking).  There was a spring that we couldn't get together.  So I asked Jay if he could come over.  He worked on it for about an hour...went to go get a tool...worked for 5 minutes and had the machine all put together.  Thank you Jay!!

The kids had spring break right after we moved.  I took two days off of work to finish the move and the other two days...it was fun.  The kids went to Grandma's one day.  I think Jeramiah and Alijah were there that day as well.  I did take the kids to the library for their Lego Club activity.  The kids were supposed to build something that they thought was lucky.  Aspen's was a lucky bed and Colt built a rainbow with a pot of gold.  They are displayed in the display case at the library until next Lego club.

So my school decided to do grade level outings this month but they are located in the Salt Lake area.  But I got permission to drive up to attend.  The kids were on Spring Break so they could come with me.  Their dad came down and helped watch them at the fun center.  He actually got the kids the unlimited 3 hour pass...my outing would last 2 hours.  Of course the kids wanted to stay as it truly was a fun center.  They were roller skating, bouncing in the bounce houses and the blast zone (which is like shooting air bullets).  They also got a slushy and 10 tokens to play in the arcade.  I enjoyed meeting a few of my students who, otherwise, I would never meet.  There were a few students that showed up that I never saw :(

The kids went with their dad to go visit Grandma Karla and I just went to the hotel.  The kids and I stayed in the hotel that night...they went swimming while I just stayed in the hot tub...more like a warm tub.  The kids enjoyed watching the Disney channel in the hotel.

On Saturday, I drug the kids out of the hotel room (they were watching Disney channel) and we went to temple square.  We took a tour of the conference center.  It was really cool, especially since in two weeks is conference.  There is a place in there called the Book of Mormon room...the kids could name almost every picture that was in there.  Our tour guide was impressed.  I can't wait to see conference now.

We also headed over to the church history museum.  The tour guide said that there was interactive things for the kids to do.  We watched "The First Vision" video which was way cool.  The video was shown on a half circle screen.  It started out in the woods and Colt leaned over to me and said "It's like we are in the woods".  After the movie the kids weren't too interested in seeing what else was on the first floor.  So we headed to the second and they played with the things up there.  I would like to go back and actually see what all is there.

Before we came up, I had asked the kids if they wanted to head home on Saturday and attend our new ward or go out to Stansbury Park...they both said "Can we go play with the cousins?"  So cute that they wanted to go play with Kurt and Sher's kids again.  So after lunch, we headed out to Stansbury for the night. Sher was planning on coming over to watch some March Madness games.  It was a beautiful day so the kids mainly played outside.  Colt and Matthew played with sticks they pretended were swords (or light sabers - not sure) and Aspen played with Maren.  All in all, they had a great time.

We went to sacrament meeting with Bob and Marilyn before we headed off.  I needed to get some gas before heading down (because I was going the back way).  Well the kids wanted to change and get a snack for the road.  So I collected the clothes and gave Aspen the keys to go put in the car.  I am paying for the treats and Aspen comes running back in...I knew right away something was wrong.  I asked her where the car keys were and she explained that she was putting the clothes away and forgot the keys...now they were locked in the trunk.  I didn't have my phone with me...it was in my purse inside the car.  I had borrowed my mom's car :(  At first I was so mad...but then I calmed down.  I went into the store and asked for a phone and phone book.  No a single lock smith answered the phone...so I called Connie because I knew her house number.  She said they had just got home but would come down and help.

Things in my life were not going well...but I was trying to stay positive.  When Connie and Mike got there, they had a phone :).  Mike text my dad (who was in church but I knew he had his phone out)  and then my dad called.  There was no spare key on the car.  So Mike looked up locksmiths and called a number - a 800 number.  He got someone on the phone but then got placed on hold for awhile.  He finally got talking with someone and figured out that this is a national place because they don't know Utah.  They said they would dispatch out a lock smith who would call to get an address.  The locksmith called and was in Salt Lake and would be about 20-30 minutes.  So we waited yet again.  Had a nice conversation with Connie and Mike.  Connie offered to get the kids food but they weren't really hungry.  So as we are sitting there a guy comes out of Maverick to get in his car and says "you guys aren't locked out of your car are you?" Mike said "yeah, we are locked out of this car".  The guy says that he is a locksmith and may be able to get us in the car.  Mike said that he called a locksmith and he is on his way from Salt Lake.  The guy asked if it was an 800 number and proceeds to tell us that they are crooks and will overcharge you.  He didn't have the right tool in his car but he said Mike would call and cancel the locksmith, he would run home and get the right tools.  So Mike called and 5 minutes later the dude pulls up in his locksmith van and gets to work.  Took him 2 minutes to open the door (set off the alarm) but I popped the trunk and got the keys.  Aspen had found a nice little place to put the key.  I was so grateful to this man and he did it all for free (although Mike did pay him something).  Definitely made my day a little brighter.

We made it home...only 2 hours later than planned.  The family was waiting to eat dinner (that I had arranged) but it all worked out.  It all worked out though.  Glad to be home.

Here are a few other pictures from March.

Colt doing the Home Depot project

Love seeing Oaklee and making her smile ;)

After the move, Aspen gave me a coupon for a free back massage.  Then told me it is good for forever.

Aspen at her softball clinic.  It was sprinkling the whole time. But here is some batting practice.

And I am all caught up :)

February Recap

Well....what can I say about February?  It went by way too fast and I didn't do a good job of keeping the blog updated.  So my February update is going to be based on the pictures I took.

My student's reached a goal for their passing rate...so I got to dye my hair pink.  No I didn't actually dye it pink...it was hair spray and it took 3 washes to get most of the pink out.

Arrowhead had their Family and Life Week, which meant they invited parents to come eat at the school.  I went with Colt one day...snagged a picture with Trent :)...went with Aspen another day (forgot to take a picture) and then we had Moms and Muffins....I mean Moms and Donuts.

 Aspen wanted her hair pink like mine...so I saved a little hair spray so we could do hers.

 Colt and I attended a Dixie State Basketball game while Aspen stayed at the grandparents.  Colt really enjoyed it...except that Dixie lost.  I showed him the player that used to be in my class at Cedar High.  Maybe next year, we'll be able to attend more and I can actually introduce him to Kyler.

 Since our trip up north and I learned that the kids can play Settler's of Catan, I stole Settler's of Zarahelma from my parents to play with them.  They just had to learn the few different things that this game does but they did good...still lost though.  Man, I am a horrible mom huh?

Colt enjoyed his basketball season.  I enjoyed that the games weren't across town.  We played with the same coach as last year just a different league.  Most of the team were new to playing basketball so Colt got a little frustrated with that.  But he did really good.  The league didn't keep track of the score but Colt always came up with awesome scores.

President's Day Weekend 2017

Sooooo Colten has really struggled with behaving appropriately when asked to turn video games off or going to friend's and not being able to play the game he wants to, so we had to do some parental intervention.  So since St. George had tons of activities going on, the kids and I headed north.  The kids went with their dad Friday night and I met with Doug and Colten on Saturday to do a behavior contract with him.  We had a good talk about what is expected of him. He was sad that he was losing electronics for a while (he had already gone one week without them) but he was understanding of what we were asking.

So once "the talk" was out of the way, the kids spent the next two days at their dad's.  I went to the Brigham City temple to do a session since I was up there.  I also played a game of Settler's of Catan with the kids and totally won.  I am still undefeated in that game.

I headed back down to Stansbury Park to my aunt Marilyn's.  I got to see Kyle and his family on Saturday night.  On Sunday, Marilyn and I went up to Tooele and went to Stacy's ward to hear Syndee speak.  We stop real quick to visit Lindsey and her family.  Then we went to visit Connie.  My mom had told me that I had to go visit her and make sure she was doing alright.  She has been having medical problems and just had shoulder surgery.  She was doing good...just in pain management.  After we were done visiting Connie, I headed into Salt Lake to visit my cousin Mary, whose 6 week old daughter was having complications with RSV (I think).  It was fun to visit with her and her husband for a little bit.  I even got them in touch with Hollee to get a baby swing (her dad was in St. George that weekend and could pick it up).

After my visit with Mary, I went to meet Doug and get the kids back.  We headed back out to Stansbury Park but to Kurt and Sher's house for dinner.  Aspen and Colt played for hours with their kids.  They have a basement that the kids could just go play in.  They would come up every once in a while but we really didn't see them that much.

On Monday, we got early to head home.  I had to get the rental car back by 1:30pm.  So all in all it was a great weekend and I think everyone had fun.

Colten playing with my phone on the car ride home.

Welcome to the family Oaklee Richmond!!

So last Sunday morning I got a text from Hollee saying that they are in the hospital to have her baby.  Needless to say I was excited and somehow knew that baby Oaklee would wait until Super Bowl Sunday to arrive.  She arrived at 1:27 pm that day.  All went well with the delivery.  Family didn't get in to see her that day due to her having feeding problems.  But I did go with my dad on Monday to go see her and she is the cutest thing I have seen in 8 years.  I then took the kids back to see her that evening.  They are both really excited to have a new baby cousin.  Aspen loves holding the baby and Colt is glad not to be the youngest cousin anymore.  As for the Super Bowl, the kids and I watched it at the parentals house.  The first half was exactly how I wanted it to go with the Falcons pouncing on the Patriots.  The second half was a complete 180 of the first half.  The Patriots came from 25 points down to tie up the game and send it to overtime and then won.  I really didn't want the Patriots to win but I can tip my hat off to Brady...he is an incredible quarterback.

This past Friday the kids each brought a friend home from school.  I took everyone down to the Thunder Junction part, the new all abilities park in St. George.  They happily played there for over an hour before one of them had to go home.  Aspen headed to the library for art club while Colt went over to his friend's house for a little bit.  Saturday, the kids and I cleaned our house in the morning.  Then we headed over to the parentals to work on a balance beam for Aspen.  That turned into a bigger project than I thought.  Luckily I had my dad there to help me and he knew what to do.  We did take a break and go watch Paige play basketball.  Then that evening Colt and I went to the Dixie State men's basketball game.  Colt was having a really good time until they started losing by more than 10 points...then he got bored and saying he was tired.  It was a fun way to end the night and I hope we can do a few more of those date nights.  Sunday we headed over to Hollee's house to hold Oaklee some more.  My poor mom didn't get to hold her much because me and Aspen hogged her.  Oaklee feel asleep in Aspen's arms...she just loved holding her while watching the movie.