New Year's Eve 2018

Another year come and gone.  2018 has been a bit of a crazy one.  Some would say, "Let's kick this year to the curb".  It's had it's rough times, as I've already blogged about.  But when I look back over the year, there was so much good, I really can't say that I'm so glad this year is over.  I'm glad some of the trials we've faced are phasing into the past.  I'm definitely excited and ready for a new year and what it will hold. But life has been good to us.  We've learned a lot, loved a lot, and had a great time. Life with my family is a great blessing.  And I don't want to wish that away.  Life with great extended family and with good friends around us is a gift.  I am grateful for it all, good and not so good.

Jared spent some of the day hanging out with good friends.  Craig had a couple of friends over for the afternoon and evening. Then they both headed to the stake dance to bring in the new year.  Our tradition for New Year's Eve for many years has been to get Chinese food and watch a movie.  Being more aware of funds this year, we opted to get frozen Chinese food from Trader Joe's and cook it up ourselves rather than order take out.  And it worked and was good and we were all happy.  

We played some games with the teens before they headed to the dance.  We toasted with some sparkling cider before they left too.  

We put Devin to bed, and then let Zach and Branden pick a movie to watch.  They opted for Guardians of the Galaxy since Branden hadn't watched that one yet.  They were excited to stay up past 11 pm.  We had more cider and some Chex mix.  

They went off to bed.  Jesse and I settled into our room to relax and read til midnight and await our teens return.  And about 11:30 pm we got a call from Craig that he had thrown up at the stake dance.  Bummer.  We thought he might be getting the stomach flu, but he only threw up once and was doing okay the next day.  So it must have been something he ate.  Bit of a rough start to the new year, but not as bad as it could have been.

With all that going on and getting him home and Jared a ride home for later, we pretty much called it a night. Happy New Year 2019!  

A Time of Trial

This is a place I record the many things that go on with our family.  Every year we print the year's worth of blog posts into a book that we like to go back and read and remember.  It's a journal.  So with that in mind, I need to take some time to write about a trial we've gone through for the last 6 months of the year.

At the end of June, Jesse came home early from work one day and told me he had been laid off from his job at AVID.  They had been going through a lot of managerial changes and growing pains.  He hadn't really been happy under his current manager for awhile, but he kept hoping things would work out after some time.  But they didn't.

We sat and talked that afternoon.  And although I didn't know what would happen next or what would result from all of this and how hard it would be or how much our lives would change, I just had an overwhelming sense of peace come over me.  I knew that it would be okay.  And that moment, that confirmation from my Heavenly Father that He was aware of us and would be there for us, would help me over and over again as I clung to that feeling through the ups and downs of this experience.

The first few weeks after that, we had a family reunion and Jesse went to scout camp to help out.  He was busy with other things.  And honestly, even though he now didn't have a job, he seemed happier and more relaxed than he had in quite awhile.  His job had really been a heavy load and causing him a lot of stress that was gone now.  And that was a blessing.

We enjoyed having him around more in the summer. He would come to ward beach day with us often. And he got some projects done around the house. He worked on his resume and portfolio and applied, applied, applied for jobs. As we got into fall, we got more serious about job hunting. 

There were many times, we would have something come up and wonder if we should move forward with it or sign up for it when we didn't know if we would have to move for a job. Starting a new school year, I wondered if I should still teach the Key of Liberty class or have someone else do it since I didn't want to leave in the middle.  I was also looking at putting together a personal finance/economics class for Craig and some of his friends for high school credit, but how could I do that if I would move in the middle?  But each time I prayed about it, I felt that peace again that it would be okay.  So we kept moving forward. 

Jesse was able to do some contract work from time to time that would help bring in some income for us.  And thankfully, we have worked hard to put a lot of savings away and have no debt, so it made it possible to keep us going for awhile looking for jobs and using connections and networks we had here.

He applied for jobs anywhere he could. He had some interviews, but it seemed like so many of the jobs he was getting called for were more entry level, like 3-5 years experience and the pay was nowhere near what he had been making, and not something we could really live off of. It seemed so confusing and worrisome that there weren't jobs out there in his area of expertise that were hiring his level and paying his level.  What happened?  And what would we do about it?

As the months went on and on, it was going on much longer than we had anticipated. The struggles were getting harder.  From the start we tried to be careful with money and make the sacrifices we needed to.  But we had already lived pretty conservatively and be careful with our money.  It's expensive to live in San Diego.  But we had to pull back even more.  And after 4, 5 months of it, it was just hard.  Especially when we couldn't see any end to it.  

I kept holding on to that feeling of peace I had from the start.  But time was running out.  We knew we had savings til probably January. The employment specialist in our ward was released and a new one called.  Jesse reached out to him and sent him his resume to see if he had any suggestions for him.  He recommended that Jesse either work on getting his coding back up to speed since he hadn't been doing as much, or that he look into a project management type career, since he had been doing something sort of like that with managing video projects.  We talked and prayed about it and felt that would be a good direction.  And this guy said he would love to have Jesse on his team at IBM working in project management.  

Jesse started right away taking a training class for project management certification to prepare for the 4-hour test to get the certification. He prepared for an interview with someone in the local IBM office and then a further interview with the head boss.  And they came back with an offer through a contract company to start learning the ropes there.  There will be a lot for him to learn.  It will be busy.  But the opportunities for him and his career are awesome. The pay is better.  We go through struggles, but often they really are for better opportunities ahead. Our Heavenly Father knows and will lead us along.  We need to trust in Him.  We've tried to do our best in following and trusting Him.  It's been a trying time, but so much good and so many blessings have come.  We are excited for the future and the opportunities and experiences that await.

Christmas 2018

My mom and I spent some time Christmas Eve day preparing food for our Christmas Day feast.  We also got ready for our Christmas Eve activities.  I put the kids in charge of the nativity. They assigned all the parts and got out the box with fabric scraps and pieces to put together costumes. 

We finished reading A Christmas Carol and finished the last piece of a nativity set with a book that talks about each piece. We ate our Christmas Eve dinner, which is a simple meal of roasted chicken, rosemary herb bread loaves, grapes, olives, and cheese cubes with grape juice to drink.

Then we read and acted out the nativity story.  Jesse was the narrator.  Devin was the angel.

Jared was an innkeeper, and filled in some other small parts.

Grandma and Grandpa were Mary and Joseph.

Zach was King Herod. I think he was a shepherd early on too.

Branden and Craig were wise men. Devin jumped in there too.  I was a sheep. 

We talked a little about things that impressed us or thoughts we had about the story.  And then off to bed!

Christmas morning our kids slept til 6:45 am.  Can't complain about that!  They were pretty excited for Christmas morning.

Devin asked Santa for a scooter and a helmet.  Favorite quote from him Christmas morning, as he was looking through his stocking, he pulled out an apple.  He said, "An apple!  Santa gave me an apple?! Yuck! I did not want this for Christmas!" He likes apples, but he sure didn't want one for Christmas!

Three of the boys (Jared, Zach, and Branden) asked for AirSoft guns for Christmas. They got both rifles and pistols and are already having a great time going out to field areas and playing with them.  They have several friends who have AirSoft as well.

Craig got some new headphones and a set of books he enjoys. Zach was excited to get the Monster Manual for Dungeons and Dragons. Branden got a gem digging kit and a crystal growing kit. 

Grandma and Grandpa got us a new pad for the trampoline.  We got some new games to play. We got a few things for the house including new bed sheets, a dutch oven. I got a few books and a marble Christus. We all were excited to give and receive some great gifts this Christmas.

We enjoyed cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  We spent the day enjoying our new things. For Christmas dinner, Grandma and Grandpa got us a prime rib.  We also had crescent rolls, potatoes, green beans, winter salad, Christmas jello and for dessert we had a boysenberry pie and a peppermint brownie cake.  

It was a great day together.  And we feel very grateful to know that Jesse has a job to start in a couple of weeks and that his surgery was done before Christmas. It was a Merry Christmas indeed.

Secret Santa

This was an extra special Christmas for us in many ways.  A couple months back, I remember thinking forward to what this Christmas would be like.  Jesse had been out of a job for 4 months then, and it would be almost 6 months by the time Christmas came along. We'd never been in such a position before.  I remember thinking that it would be a very simple Christmas and that would be okay. As it got closer, I knew I wanted to celebrate this Christmas by serving even more than we usually do.  And as things started to happen - people started serving us - I wanted to do that even more.  Which I already have blogged about.

I never dreamed of the love and support that would come to us this Christmas.  And it really brought the true meaning of Christmas to us as people reached out to us and served our family.  I was brought to tears many times.  

One night we had a knock at the door, but no one was there when we answered.  There was just a gift bag with a tag that said, "On the first day of Christmas our secret Santa gave to us..."  Inside was a box with nativity pieces and a book called "A Christ-Centered Christmas". It was so sweet and so special and right at the heart of what we needed that Christmas. We were so grateful.

And then the next night, the same thing happened.  Another package.  And another for the 12 days of Christmas.  Oh my goodness, it was just so overwhelming. Sometimes when you go through a trying time, you feel alone, just struggling and wondering when it will end.  This Secret Santa as well as others who reached out to us just made us feel so loved and that we weren't alone in our struggles.  That we have people who care about us and ultimately that our Heavenly Fathers is aware and loves us. It was just so amazing. 

We were so spoiled.  It definitely made me feel like I want to do more for others, take opportunities to makes sure others who struggle know that they aren't alone.  What a very special Christmas experience it was for us.  I am forever grateful for these generous people, as well as others who shared with us this Christmastime. We are surrounded by angels.

Jesse's Surgery

About the middle of December, Jesse came home from mutual night limping.  He was playing Bump with the Young Men and planted his feet to shoot a three-pointer when he felt a tear.  He tore his Achille's tendon.  Ack.  Bummer.

He had to get an appointment to the doctor to check it out, and then a referral to an orthopedic surgeon to check it out and determine if/when he'd need surgery.  The process took about 2 weeks.  He was on crutches.  We borrowed a wheelchair to do some shopping and get Jesse around more easily.

He got into the ortho the Thursday before Christmas and got an appointment for surgery the next day. We were so thankful he could get in before Christmas and start the healing process.  We were thankful my parents came in that day, so I could be at the hospital with him the whole time and not worry.  The surgery went well, and his recovery has been going well.

A Season to Serve

I love Christmastime. I love the feelings of happiness, joy, peace.  I love focusing on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and celebrating His life. This Christmas even more than in the past, I have felt the wonderful blessings of knowing my Savior and being able to rely on Him.  I felt so loved through others who have served our family through our recent trials.  And I wanted to really serve others and have my children be involved in serving others as Jesus Christ does.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has an initiative leading up to Christmas to Light the World. That is what I wanted to do this Christmas.  Light the World with goodness, love, service. We started with the first day of December as a day of service.  I wanted to do something as a whole family. I was thinking of something big we could do.  And then it hit me that service doesn't have to be a huge project, sometimes just serving one person or one family can make such a huge difference.

So I contacted a family in our ward that has 3 young children and are expecting another. The dad is in the bishopric, so is he is extra busy in addition to his regular job. I asked them if we could watch their kids for a few hours while they did Christmas shopping or whatever they wanted to do. The dad was going to be working, but the mom said she would love it if we watched her kids so she could spend some time at the temple, which was hard to get the time to do it.

We were happy to do that.  It was a great service because all of us could be involved in helping play with the kids. It warmed my heart to see my big Craig coloring with their little 2-year-old girl.  To see Zach sitting on the dresser in Devin's room with little kids crawling up him to jump off on to the bed.  Everyone helped play and watch the kids. Seemingly such a small thing, but meant so much to their family.

The week of "Light Your Community" we chose a few things to do to light our community. We made cookies and took them to our librarians. We use the library a lot and are grateful for all the services we enjoy at the library.  It felt so good to just so appreciation to others.

We also chose a park in our community and spent an hour one afternoon picking up trash. Again, giving our time to help serve our community.  I hope my kids felt the joy of serving in a variety of ways as we gave our time and effort to serve others.  It definitely added a lot to my Christmas!

San Diego had flash flooding one day and a lot of the homeless community lost all of their supplies. The mayor had put out a message with a list of supplies the homeless were in need of.  With Jesse out of a job, we weren't able to financially contribute.  But we could still do something.  We offered to our commonwealth homeschool group to collect and deliver any supplies they wanted to donate.  Time. We don't always have financial means to serve or help others, but we can give our time to help. And that felt like we were making a difference.  Even if a small one.

Christmas Season

Joy to the World!  Christmastime is such a wonderful time of the year! Besides the activities I blogged about separately, here are a few highlights from the season we enjoyed.

Picking out a tree and decorating it.

Christmas baking is always a highlight.  I love thinking of our friends, teachers, those who have been an important part of our lives this past year, and show our love and appreciation through them.  Some of our favorites are made every year: fudge, peanut blossoms, tigerbutter, chocolate pizza, peanut brittle, and toffee.  Some we made this year that don't always get made: chocolate orange truffles, peppermint truffles, snowball cookies. We made a couple of new things: nutella twisted puff pastry and a braided cherry candy cane bread. Fun to share with others.

Grandma and Grandpa arrived the Friday before Christmas.  This was our year to have them here for Christmas and it worked out so well.  With Jesse out of a job, it was nice to get a little spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa.  And with Jesse having surgery the Friday before Christmas, it was nice to have them here to help out!  So we had fun sharing our Christmas traditions with them.

We took them to Christmas Card Lane.  It was a Saturday night, and we knew it would be crazy busy, so we went as soon as it got dark.  There were still quite a few people out but it wasn't too crazy.  It was fun to show them the different themed houses and how festive the neighborhood is.

The program at church Sunday was wonderful.  It was mostly music by the choir and a couple songs by the primary with one speaker.  I played the piano for the choir, and it was such a privilege to be a part of the program.  The music was so beautiful.  It was a great meeting.

That evening we went down to the San Diego temple to walk around and see the lights there.  Just beautiful and wonderful to feel the Spirit there.

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Merry Christmas from the Blankenbillers!

Merry Christmas!  As we celebrate the birth of our Savior this season, we are
especially mindful of His love and blessings that we have leaned on even
more than usual this year.  We have had our share of challenges, but despite
those, we have had many wonderful things happen this year too. We feel truly
blessed and grateful for our Savior and for loving and supportive friends and
family who have supported us through this year.

Jesse was laid off from AVID Center at the end of June.  He has spent the
last six months updating his resume and portfolio, applying and interviewing
for jobs.  He has had some contract work and worked on other projects at
home. He’s enjoyed some extra time with us at the beach and on other
adventures.  We weren’t sure if we would have to move or what the next
path would be for us. But we have felt peace through this trial that all
would be well as we sacrificed, waited, and tried to do our best in all we did.
We are happy to say that Jesse has a new job lined up to start with IBM at
the beginning of January. We are thankful for all the prayers and support
of so many.

Here’s a little update on everyone.

Devin - 4 years old

This past year has been a big growing up year for Devin.  He’s definitely
moved from toddler to little boy. He plays more independently.  He is
learning to read. He has had a fun first year in Primary. Eli is still his best
little friend. He loves to go to the beach, jump on the trampoline, help in
the kitchen, and learn about animals. He cracks us up with the things he says.

Branden - 10 years old

Branden continues to love the outdoors.  He is usually jumping on the
trampoline, shooting hoops, dribbling a soccer ball (inside or outside the house),
and more. He played with a non-committed, low-skilled basketball team last
year, but never gave up and worked really hard.  Hoping for a better team this
next year. He had a great soccer season this fall, helping his team to a second
place win in his league. He went on to play all-stars as well. He is venturing
out on his own a little with our homeschool group as Zach has moved up to
the next level group.  He’s doing great.

Zach - 12 years old

It was an exciting year for Zach as he graduated from Primary and was
ordained a deacon in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He
enjoyed his first scout camp and loves being in the Young Mens program.
His soccer team was disheartening, but he worked hard anyway. He is in his
first year at our commonwealth school and loving it.  He memorized the
Declaration of Independence for the early American history class and read all
of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets to become an Emperor for his Shakespeare
class. Zach has also been working for our neighbor, helping clean
house and earning a fair amount of his own money.

Jared - 14 years old

Jared has grown in every way this year.  He is much taller, and will pass me
up in the next few months.He has grown spiritually as he now attends early-
morning seminary and was ordained a Teacher in the priesthood. He had a
great time at EFY in Santa Barbara with his friend, Adam, this summer. He
has also grown socially as he attends stake dances and has a full schedule
of activities to attend with friends. Jared starred in the Shakespeare
production of Love’s Labour’s Lost set in the 1970’s.  He worked as a referee
this fall for soccer and made an impressive amount of money. He loves music,
movies, and Vans.

Craig - 16 years old

Just finished his first semester taking some community college classes.  
He especially enjoyed taking Mandarin Chinese and is starting to speak to
us here and there in it. He was ordained a Priest in March.  We now have a
Priest, a Teacher, and a Deacon in the Young Men’s organization. He also got
his driver’s license - hooray! It has been awesome for both of us! He also
turned old enough to date. He performed in two plays - The Taming of the
Shrew and Spellbound (an adaptation of a fairytale). He had a job for a short
time until he discovered they were inflexible with him not wanting to work
Sundays, so he is on the hunt for a new job.  He will be 17 in just a couple of
months, and I’m in denial!

Holli -

Whirlwind of a year for Holli.  She finished up last school year teaching a
class about World War II.  She is back this year teaching Zach’s class on
the Revolutionary War/Constitution.  She is also teaching Craig and 9
friends in a personal finance class. After almost 3 years of serving as cub
scout leader, she was released and called as a Relief Society meeting
coordinator - planning activities for the women at church. She is still
playing piano for the choir and preparing for the Christmas program.
Homeschooling for the 8th year, keeping up the house and schedules of
the family, supporting Jesse through his job search and injury (see below).
She loves the beach, cooking new foods, reading and learning and spending
time with her family.

Jesse -

The first half of the year kept him busy with work, and the last half of the
year looking for work.  He has worked hard and done all that needed to be
done to take care for his family during this time. He has served as a
counselor in the Young Men’s organization keeping the boys moving along
in Scouts and learning the gospel.  He has a little too much fun with them,
recently resulting in an 80% tear of his Achilles’ tendon. He will have surgery
right before Christmas. Before the tear, he was regularly out riding his bike,
helping out filming and editing boys’ plays and other video work.

In addition to all we’ve done on a day-to-day basis, we enjoyed a trip to
Brianhead to ski/snowboard, a wonderful time at the Craig family reunion
in southern Utah, many trips to the beach and the zoo, and time to serve
others.  Through the trials, life has been good. We are thankful and blessed.
We are looking forward to the promises and opportunities awaiting us in 2019!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Brunch

Our ward Christmas party at church this year was a Christmas brunch. The cultural hall was decorated cute with a tree, some faux fireplaces, etc. There were some fun activities for the kids to do like a scavenger hunt, make an ornament. The food was good. There was a hot cocoa bar. A couple of songs were sung and Santa Claus made a visit.  Branden and Devin visited Santa to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. When Devin got done, he walked over to me and said, "That was a fake Santa."  Haha. Not sure what he was looking for, but he was happy anyway.

We snapped a family photo by the faux fireplace and will use it as our Christmas photo since it's probably our only chance to get a photo all together!

Learning to Read

Awhile back Devin started asking to learn to read.  One day especially he was lying on the floor complaining, "I just need to learn how to read!" He already knew his letters and pretty well knew the sounds they made. I am a firm believer that kids need to play and learn best at this age through playing, so I didn't want to push him.  But if he was interested, I was certainly willing to jump on it and get him started.

I got out the book I used to teach Zach and Branden, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We would do as much of a lesson as he was interested in doing.  If he got bored or frustrated, we would just stop for the day.  The first 10-15 lessons were spotty and short.  But as he started getting into reading some short words and then sentences and really short stories, he started getting more interested. We are now at about lesson 40, and it so fun to see him picking it up.  He'll often ask to do his reading lesson. He is recognizing more and more words and sounding out well.  He has just started trying to sound out words he sees around him.

I love when children start to read and a whole world opens up to them. We're still a long ways from lesson 100.  There is still a lot for him to learn.  But he's really doing well and moving right along.

My Very Happy Birthday

I survived another year of life and was even up to celebrating it.  I got to celebrate over several days and felt the love.

Jesse took me to The Melting Pot for some cheese and chocolate fondue.  I wanted to walk around somewhere Christmasy afterwards, so we went down to La Jolla.  It was actually really quiet there.  But we found some Bird scooters and tried them out.  Since there was hardly anyone around, we just took off down the streets of La Jolla.  Those scooters are fast!  It was pretty fun.

My actual birthday was on a Fast Sunday.  I had choir practice in the morning before church. I prepped food so that we'd have a good dinner when we came home hungry from church.  We would have roast with vegetables, Texas roadhouse rolls with cinnamon butter, and I made a chocolate bundt cake.

It was nice to go to church and be there with my family and starting to sing the songs of Christamstime as we get into the Christmas season. A few hugs, some flowers and well-wishes from friends for my birthday was nice too.

We enjoyed dinner and in addition to the cake I had made, the family we babysat for the day before also brought a cake to thank us and wish me a Happy Birthday. We also made ice cream with the Trader Joe's peppermint Joe Joe's.  So good!  My family spoiled me with a few gifts and I got a few calls from family parents and some siblings. It was a great day.