Mini-Getaway and Valentine's Party

Aaron and I were finally on our way. We had some time so we stopped by a store and grabbed a few things, and then checked into our bed and breakfast. Before we even got into our room the owner gave us a recommendation for dinner. It was one Aaron and I had looked at already. So he called and made a reservations for us. We put our stuff in the room, struggled to figure out the door lock, and then left for the restaurant. Our reservation was for 5:30, and we were a couple of minutes early. The restaurant was a at a winery, of which there are plenty in this area. We were told to try the pear and bacon pizza, we also ordered the chicken with mole pizza - half of each. They were amazing! We also had the antipasto platter as an appetizer, salami and cheese. Yum. We were so full we didn't even order dessert. At first there was only one other couple in the restaurant. It was kind of early for dinner. Eventually there were a few more tables filled. It was nice to have a quiet dinner, no interruptions, no need to rush home to relieve a babysitter.

 We took a couple of pictures in our room

After that it was a pretty simple evening. I did think about the kids occasionally. Hoping they were behaving and not giving Tayller a hard time. After a great night's sleep (I didn't have to wake up with Melanie), we woke up and got ready for the day. Breakfast was delivered at about 9:00. I should have taken a picture of it.  Waffles with blueberries and strawberries and whipped cream with bacon on the side. They had sprinkled cocoa over the plate before they put the waffles on it. We had the grapefruit juice. After our a delicious breakfast we packed up and checked out.

We left in plenty of time to make it to the temple. We got there a little early in fact. It's always great to see friends in the temple. It was a very full session. I love how peaceful the temple is. I wish I could spend all day there. Afterward we stopped by a local grocery store to pick up lunch. Tayller had to leave a little earlier than we were going to be back. Since we were going to be unavailable for a while and about an hour away, we decided we needed an adult in the house. I was glad Julianna was available since there was no school that day. So I never did get to talk to Tayller about how the day went. Julianna said things were great. Melanie was napping when we got back, and the kids were great.

We only had a couple of hours to get things done before our date that night. Yes, another date. This time David would be watching the kids. So we did a few things around the house to prepare for our trip over the weekend, like packing and cleaning, and then made dinner.  Aaron and I ate quickly and then left for the church. The Elder's Quorum had planned a Valentine's party for the ward. It was fun. We got there early and helped set up food and table centerpieces. There were some desserts, and they provided paper and stickers etc. to make Valentine's. We made one for each of the kids. We talked with others, mostly Carla N*. Then they had someone come in a show us a few line dances.

It was really fun. Then we did some swing as well. Aaron and I had a great time. We stayed longer than we expected. Before we left we had Daniel take a few pictures of the two of us.

With the western theme we got to bring out our hats again.

We took home some left over cookies, but not the cheesecake since we were going out of town. We sent David to bed when we got home, and finished up a few more preparations for our trip.

Basketball, Basketball and um, more Basketball!

Monday it was back to school, but I don't remember much about what I did. Melanie was doing better, but was still coughing and had a runny nose. I can't remember much else except for Timothy's drama class that afternoon. I just had Melanie with me. I think we went up to Fred Meyer and that's it.

Tuesday was fun. Melanie was still a little sick, and Coral wasn't available to watch her, so I took her with me to Amy's class. I know go to Amy's class every Tuesday to help with reading groups. Another parent (a grandma actually) and Rose M* also come and Mrs. W* splits the class into 4 groups and we each read with them. I have some great readers, so we read through a book and then do an activity. So far cutting and gluing thing having to do with letter sounds.  That day we worked with finding the "b" sounds at the beginning, middle or end of the words and gluing the picture in the correct column. I have a group of 5 students and Amy in in that group. Melanie just wants to color along with us. I like that it's late enough that I can still exercise and shower before I go. We finish up right before they head out for lunch recess.

That night was really busy. At 6:00 was the Basketball Banquet. This was for the family of the kids in the program.

Melanie liked to watch, but wouldn't sit still.
The kids got to show a skill to someone - Timothy chose Amy.

Then they called up each kid one by one, by their nickname printed on the back of their shirt and gave them a certificate for "excellent ball handing"

Then they performed one last time for their family

Aaron, Melanie and David left early. Aaron dropped David off at the middle school for pep band. Then he took Melanie to the G* girls' basketball district playoff game. I took Amy and Timothy to the Z* girls district playoff game. We couldn't go to both. It was nice to only have Timothy and Amy to worry about. We bought some popcorn on our way in and I added some M&Ms - part of the bag that I opened for Amy's brownies on Sunday. Even though both went to the bathroom fairly early on they both insisted they needed to go again. For Timothy it was only 20 minutes later!

I got a few selfies with Timothy and I

Amy wanted no part of that.

Aaron and I texted back and forth to get updates on the other games. Both girls' teams won their respective games! Our game was a little closer and took a little longer, but Aaron and Melanie had further to drive, so we arrived home only about a minute after they did. It was close to 8:30, so it was straight to bed for everyone.

Wednesday was another busy day. David had to get up early because he was going on a snowshoeing trip. Mrs. A* (his science teacher) was taking a group (16 kids I think) on a first sign up first go basis. So David was one of the first 16 to sign up so he went. He had to be at the school at 6:50, so we read scriptures early and Aaron and David ate breakfast and left. Aaron dropped David off and went in to work a little early.  It was hard to believe there was actually snow up their considering how warm it was in the valley. We've had beautiful weather, but the kids are disappointed we haven't had any snow. The rest of the day was pretty normal. David got back in time to catch the bus back home. Other than scouts that night I can't think of anything else. Oh, I found this picture on my phone which reminds me of a short story.

I was going up to put Melanie down for a nap and found her babies all stuck behind the bed like they were playing peek-a-boo or something. She had names for all of her babies. It usually has something to do with what color they are. The one in the red dress is "red baby", she also has a "pink baby" a "blue baby", and "white baby". That's her favorite one, so every bed time and nap time she says, "where's my white baby?". It sounds so funny.

Thursday was a fun day. I had lots to do, but it was all at home, cleaning, laundry, packing etc. So I agreed to watch Teancum that morning. I was still able to get a few things done while he was here. Melanie is still fascinated with babies.  All of this preparation was for a little getaway that Aaron and I had planned. We've never really made a big deal out of Valentine's Day, but have wanted to do a weekend to ourselves. However we decided to not do it on a weekend. So I booked a B&B nearby for Thursday night. With Valentine's Day over a weekend and a 4 day weekend locally, I wanted to avoid the crowds.

We hired a babysitter (nanny?) stay with the kids for about 24 hrs. We wanted to leave earlier, but she was subbing until 2:30, and then Aaron ended up having a meeting until 2:30. So Aaron made it home just before I did, and he got changed. Then Tayller arrived and I gave her a few last minute instructions. She had met the kids before, but there were a few changes since then, like Melanie sleeping in a bed instead of a crib. The evening plans changed as well. She was supposed to have a volleyball practice that even, but it got cancelled, so I arranged for someone to pick up David so he could play with the pep band for the boys' district playoff game. By the time we were ready to leave the kids were coming home from school. We said goodbye to them, but snuck out before Melanie woke up. Aaron and I had to make a few stops in town. We got some cash from the bank and then bought clamming permits for the weekend. While we were there David texted me and said he'd left his trumpet on the bus, and needed it for pap band that night. We weren't far from the bus shed, so I drove over and picked it up.  Then went back and got Aaron at the hardware store, and we drove it up to the house. David was hoping I'd just let him used Chris's trumpet, but there was no way I was letting that out of the house. We dropped it off and finally we were on our way.

A Little Bit of Everything

I have to look at my calendar to remember what I even did three weeks ago! Monday was fairly normal. I mostly cleaned up at home. I took Timothy to his drama class, and then ran to Costco, and got back in plenty of time to pick him up. I just had Melanie with me.

Tuesday I don't remember much other than I dropped off David for pep band, and then we had dinner. Aaron arrived in time to take the kids to the basketball game while I went to book club. While I missed going to the game, I certainly enjoyed book club. We had read "The Giver". It was a great discussion, and delicious food to enjoy afterward. I made it home before Aaron and the kids. I had some time to clean up and do a little blogging before they came home. I helped them get ready for bed and that's about it.

Wednesday Melanie got sick. It started with runny nose and a cough. At noon she crawled up into my lap and said, "Mommy I mmm." Which refers to bed or sleep. I said, "You want to take a nap?" "Yes," she said sleepily. So I carried her upstairs put her in bed, tucked her in and sang her a song. She was out in less than 5 minutes. Poor girl. She slept for over 3 hours, although she did wake up once and then go back to sleep. The boys had scouts that night. Melanie woke up with a fever in the middle of the night. :(

Thursday I have a text to remind me that I made an extra trip to the city. Melanie still wasn't up to par and fell asleep on the way there. David's trumpet was in need of repair, so I had to find a time where David didn't need to have it. David spoke to the band teacher and asked if it would be OK if he didn't bring his trumpet on Friday because it would be in the shop. And he said it was OK. so I brought it in on Thursday since they had advisory instead of band that day. It had several dings in it and a few places it needed to be soldered back together. It turns out they moved advisory to Friday, and they were doing a recording session in band on Thursday so David had to play the instructor's trumpet - with a different mouth piece. Melanie also fell asleep on the way home and took a long nap.

Then there was Timothy's field trip. He had a basketball skills performance at at a college an hour away. They make it a whole day thing. They leave after lunch and then spend time on the campus and eat dinner in the cafeteria, and then perform at half time of the basketball game that night. Aaron met Timothy up there, watched the performance and then drove him home. He treated him to Wendy's afterward. My phone was giving me fits so I finally called into tech support and they decided I needed a new SIM card. She also helped me clear the cache on some of my apps to help them work better.

Friday the boys had piano, but I had invited the missionaries over for dinner. However they were scheduled for the same time, so we had to do some rearranging. I moved piano lessons up an hour, and then the missionaries said they needed to be at the church to prepare for a baptism, and asked if we could do it earlier. We have Elders again, so that wasn't possible since Aaron wouldn't be home yet. So we decided to bring dinner to the church at 5:30 and eat there. The other stipulation was I needed to find a gluten free recipe for one of the Elders. I was able to find a pizza crust recipe that used ingredients I actually had, so I made three different pizzas and they ate almost all of the pizza! I also had a salad. So it all worked out in the end. A sister in the ward had walked over to ask if someone could jump start her car, but Aaron had left the jumper cables in the truck, so he called someone to help him. Aaron decided to stay for the baptism, even though it was for the Spanish Branch, so after we cleaned up we left. On the way out we saw Rose M* coming in for the baptism, and Amy said, "That's Grandma Rose." She volunteers at the elementary school, and they call her "Grandma Rose". It was fun for her to make that connection.

Saturday I think Aaron met with some people in the morning, or maybe that was the week before. But I do know that he needed to go into work for something. I also know that we did chores etc, and after Melanie went down for a nap I went back up to the city to pick up my new SIM card, and David's trumpet, and I stopped by the store to pick up a couple of things. Aaron wanted to recreate a dessert he had tried at Epic. They listed the ingredients and amounts, but no directions, but it was pretty simple to figure out. So later that afternoon we made these chocolate pomegranate desserts. Delicious! So rich. Aaron tried to deliver some to friends that night, but they weren't home.

Sunday Aaron had early meetings, and I got the kids ready for church. We needed to go early so the youth could practice their song for sacrament meeting. Melanie was still sick, but I wanted to see the program put on by the youth and attend the Sunday School presentation. It was also the only lesson I would be teaching in the month of February. So I just tried to keep Melanie away from everyone. The sacrament meeting program was great. They had 6 of the youth speak, focusing on the theme for the year of "Embark in the Service of God". David was one of them. There were 3 or 4 songs as well. During the second hour the youth and their parents met in the chapel for a presentation on dating. Someone from the stake (Br. F*) and Aaron as the bishop, talked about the dating standards, and Aaron presented some research on statistics about dating young, having dating rules etc.  It was great, what I could hear of it. Melanie was being rather loud, she was not happy about missing nursery.  I brought Melanie with me to Young Women's but luckily Aaron came to get her before I had to teach my lesson. I think my lesson went well, but it was a small class.

After church I can't really remember the details, but we had lunch and got ready for dinner. Melanie napped, we had FHE etc. Amy was in charge of dessert, and even with the delicious dessert we had prepared, she still wanted brownies. I asked her if she wanted to add anything to them like chocolate chips, she said, "Yes M&Ms." As it happened I had a bag of Valentine M&M's so I sprinkled them on top. I got them out too early and they were a little doughy, so after we ate some around the edges I put them back in. That's about it!

Piano Ensemble and Super Bowl

I know, I know, I was almost caught up and now I'm 3 weeks behind again. Saturday morning (Jan 31st) besides the normal chores we didn't have much else. That afternoon David had a rehearsal at 3:20 (it's 25 minutes away and only 20 minutes long). Aaron was on call, but decided to risk it and planned to leave David there if he needed to go and I would pick him up. Aaron didn't get called in and was fine. I made dinner and Timothy and I quickly ate and then left for his rehearsal which started at 5:20. It didn't make sense to go home and come back, so we stayed there. Aaron left early enough that if he got called in I could come get the kids. It's a good thing too, because I told him it started at 7:00, and it started at 6:30.  They got there just in time. It was a packed house. It was great to see the boys perform with other kids.

David and Michael K* were on the same piano.

I think there were 6 kids in that group.

Timothy and 5 other kids played their song.

We saw several others that we knew. Luca W*, Lydia K*, Shelby N*, Alex H*, and someone else I'm forgetting. I'll have to post some videos later. They were on Aaron's phone, and I haven't uploaded them yet.

Afterward we left quickly so Aaron could be closer to home, so I didn't get to talk to other people that were there. I can't remember what else we did that night. I think it was just baths for the girls and bed time.

Sunday Aaron had to go in really early to see all of his patients and still made it on time to his meetings at church. I did I few food prep things for our gathering that evening. It was superbowl Sunday, and we invited over a few friends who also don't watch the super bowl.

Church went well, but I obviously don't remember much. It was too long ago. I didn't have to teach since it was a 1st Sunday. Shannon and Julianna did a great job with the lesson.

After we got home I put Melanie down for a nap right away. We were having an early dinner, so Amy said she didn't need a lunch. So I got started on food prep. At our non-super bowl party we always have foods that you would serve a a football party without actually watching the game. Our first guests arrived a little after 3:30. We enjoyed some great food, and some great conversation and some games. We were doing really well not worrying about the game since the kids and Br. K*'s favorite team was playing. However the girls kept getting text updates about the score. It was getting harder to focus on something else, especially when the other team came back. I'll admit even I was itching to know the score at the end of the game when they had a chance to came back and win it. It's not even my favorite team! Anyway... About halfway through, Phillip and Julianna and their little man came over. Phillip had to leave for a meeting, so we played games and Melanie followed the "babies" around and kept saying, "two babies". Eventually the game ended, most everyone was disappointed. Our guests left, and then we finished cleaning up and went to bed. Actually I think I left a lot of dishes undone because I was tired, and Aaron was exhausted after getting up so early. We both crashed!

Piano, Pep Band and Yogurt

Saturday the 24th was another busy day. After chores in the morning Aaron had a few appointments at the church. We had a visitor come over. We've been looking for someone to watch the kids while Aaron and I have a little getaway, so we got a recommendation and the kids met her that morning. I showed her around and she got to know the kids a little bit. We still have to work out some details, but hopefully it will be fun and the kids will be good.

As I mentioned in the last post Aaron bought a new mattress. By the time we got it home David had already left for his piano ensemble rehearsal. Daren was willing to take him since Michael had to be there as well.  So we got the beds switched and new sheets on them etc. Aaron and David wanted to go to the basketball game that night. It was an away game against our rival, but we also know several kids on the opposing team from church. So we wanted to support them as well. I wish I could have gone to cheer on one of my Mia Maids, but Timothy had his rehearsal that evening. So Aaron drove down and picked up David and they ran to a store and ate some dinner. Then I took the rest of the kids down for Timothy's rehearsal. Afterward I treated them to Burger King for dinner. I came home and ate leftovers.

Then the kids took baths and showers, and got ready for bed. It was a little trickier since Melanie was in a bed now, but she actually did great.

When Aaron and David got back after the game, it was funny to watch David figure out that he had a new mattress. He went to sit on it, and since it was higher than the old one he hit it sooner and said, "woah, what happened." Aaron laughed and told him we got him a new mattress. He was pretty pleased.

Sunday was pretty normal as well. I can't really think of anything out of the ordinary. Church, dinner, FHE etc. So that's that!

Monday I needed to go to the store, but also needed to drop something off for Aaron. Melanie was not cooperating in getting ready, so I had to put her in the van with PJs on and bring clothes and shoes. Aaron came out right away so I ended up waiting until we got to the parking lot of the store to get her dressed. Eventually we made it into the store, and then went to several more. I was bummed that Costco didn't have the romaine hearts I wanted to buy. After school I took Timothy to drama, and the girls came with me this time. We stayed at the studio the whole time instead of running errands.

Tuesday I stayed home did laundry and stuff. Nothing really exciting. That evening was a bit different. Cub Scouts had been moved to Tuesday so they could visit the library. It started at the same time David needed to be at the basketball game for pep band. So I dropped David off, and then Timothy. I picked up my book on hold while I was there. Then went home with the girls to fix dinner. I picked up Timothy and then we ate. Aaron met David at the game and took him home afterward.

Wednesday was the day I decided I needed to be more accountable for what I was eating. My meals are fine it's the snacking that's killing me. Exercising 4 -5 days a week wasn't getting me anywhere because I snacked too much. So that was it. I got back on spark people and started tracking my progress. So far so good. I also decided to make yogurt like my sister told me, so I started that in the evening as I was preparing dinner. I had to drop Timothy off at the school for another basketball performance. He had to be picked up just before David did, so I got the girls ready for bed, and then we picked up Timothy and drove over to the church, knowing I'd have to wait for 15 minutes or so. It was more like 30, and I was worried the milk would be boiling by the time I got back. It was a little hotter than I wanted it, but not boiling. So I turned it off to cool. I got the kids in bed, and checked the temperature every once in a while. Aaron came home soon after. I almost forgot to add the starter, before I went to bed, but I got it in time and I hoped by morning I would have yogurt.

I checked on it in the morning and it looked great! I put it in the fridge so I could strain it later. After dropping off the kids I did just that, and then exercised and showered. I checked how much whey was strained out, and it was about 1 1/2 cups. I set it aside and strained it for a couple hours more. Eventually I got about 2 cups of whey and about 38 ounces of yogurt.

I fit 32 ounces in a quart jar and the rest I had for snack - yum!

I was reading up on what to do with the whey, and lots of people use it in bread recipes, so I whipped up a batch of half wheat/half white bread - with fresh ground wheat! Delicious! That's all I can think of for Thursday.

Friday was a good day. Shannon invited a few of us over for lunch, but it ended up just her and I, and our younger kids. It was nice to get out of the house. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and then Brooklyn and Melanie played, but Brynn mostly stayed with Shannon since she wasn't feeling well. We talked about all sorts of things, eventually I left because Melanie needed a nap, and Brynn had already fallen asleep. It was fun.

That afternoon I was helping David on the computer and Aaron called to let me know when he'd be home. When I hung up I noticed the time and realized we were late for piano, so we rushed over there. Then we ended up just having left overs for dinner. We did baths and showers since I knew Saturday would be busy. I'm only about a week behind now!

Independent Melanie

Melanie seems to be growing by leaps and bounds right now. Ever since she got that leap pad for Christmas she has started to recognize and say letters. There are very few that she can't say: g, h, j, l, q, r, v and z. But she can recognize all of them. If you ask her to point to the letters she will get it right 90% of the time. She can't say "g", but she makes the "guh" sound instead. The cutest one by far is "w", she says, "buhbuhyou". Her "x" is great too, its more of an "ets". She will point out letters on everything. Especially books, and t-shirts.

She is super independent, and wants to do everything by herself, including changing her diaper, getting dressed, turning on and off the lights, getting in and out of the van, buckling and unbuckling her car seat - luckily she can't do that without help, but she wants to pull it open and get out by herself. She wants to set the table and pass out the scriptures before breakfast, and turn off the TV after her show is over. She wants to mix the pancake batter without my help - that's one I don't let her do until it's already mixed, I don't want lumps in my pancake batter.

She even wanted to climb into her crib by herself, which brings me to the next milestone. Melanie transitioned from a crib to a bed! The Saturday after Aaron got back from Wisconsin we discussed it, and he bought a new twin mattress. We put it on David's bed and took his mattress and put it on the top bunk in the girls' room. So now Amy sleeps on the top bunk and Melanie sleeps on the bottom. She was really excited about it. She has actually done pretty well with the transition. There were a few nights about 5 days into it where she wouldn't stay in her bed, but the cure seemed to be taking away her independence if she didn't stay put. In other words I would carry her to her bed, which she doesn't like at all. It takes a little more time to get her settled, but she's doing great.

In addition to learning letters she is adding words, one or two a day it seems. She can't say David or Timothy but she calls them "the boys", and individually, "boy". If one isn't there he's "aduhduh boy" (the other boy). She has added a few more colors to her repertoire: black, white and pink. There's too many words to list, but here are a few more:
'ome (home)
going
eat
nice
Jesus
obey
Mats (Max)
out (out or off)
on
huh?
And thanks to her new found love of letters: "Why?" It's usually coupled with "huh?" so when I'm telling her something she either says "huh?" or "why?" or both. Yes, the "why?" phase has begun!

Along with her new vocabulary she insists that she needs to say the prayer - every time! It's hard to tell a two year old she can't pray, so she still has to let others pray, but she can say a quick prayer afterward if she wants to. She'll repeat the last word I say, so if I say, "We thank Thee for Jesus" She says, "Jesus". She will only repeat the words she knows, so we have to find ways to incorporate those words into the prayer. So instead of saying, "bless the food" I say "bless the food we have to eat." because she can say "eat" but not "food". She learned the word obey by saying these prayer though.

Melanie still follows Amy around like a puppy dog. She wants to do everything she does, and wear what ever she wears. The other morning when Amy was getting ready for school she wanted a coat hat and gloves just like Amy.

She was still in her pajamas though. Last Sunday Amy wore a dress with a coordinating sweater, so Melanie needed a sweater too. She wanted her gray one because it buttoned up like Amy's even though the cream one would have matched her outfit better. So cute! She did that with me once, I wore a scarf, so she needed one.

Here she is at the pink out basketball game, dancing with Amy.

#BStrong

I completely forgot that the Friday basketball game, was no ordinary basketball game. There was a string show of support for the girls' basketball head coach. She is battling cancer right now. To support her they made 450 pinks t-shirts with the words "You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have". On the back was #BStrong and number 33 - her jersey number when she played basketball. They sold out of them that night.

The 5th grade basketball skills drill team did their annual performance at the girls' game that evening. They had their own pink shirts to wear during their performance. It was awesome!

 It was hard to get Timothy close up. He's the one putting his ball down, you can only see his arms and head.

 He's right next to the sign

 

 

This is always a crazy one where they put on blind folds and then the kids walk toward each other, and through each other all the way to the other side. They dribble the ball with one hand and hold the other out to guide them!

Here's a short video:

Melanie was quite silly that night.

Along with t-shirts they had head bands, bracelets, temporary tattoos, cookies, and socks for sale. They also gave out these pink leis. The 50/50 raffle of a fund raiser for the senior class. Half of the money goes to the seniors, and half goes to the winner. That evening the money was going to the basketball coach for medical expenses. They raised almost twice as much as usual, and the winner donated it all back to Coach V*. It was great to be a part of that event. It was also great to see the opposing team join us by wearing pink socks, and the coaches wearing pink shirts, and the refs had pink whistles.

It helped that we won both games. The boys' game started off as a runaway:

Another Week at Epic

Aaron spent 4 days in Wisconsin this time. It was only a 3 day course. He still got to visit some great shops and enjoy delicious food. He brought home some delicious and interesting varieties of cheese. Meanwhile back at home we had a day off of school for the kids.  I told the kids I needed to do some shopping in the city and they agreed to come with me. They had the option of staying home. First I had to find out if the heat pump guy was coming that morning or not, when I found out he was coming the next morning we headed out and stopped at Value Village first. It was half off clothes, shoes and accessories, so the kids got some new clothes. I did end up grabbing a pair of jeans for myself. We stopped by a few other stores and then we headed home for lunch. The kids were disappointed we didn't go out for lunch, but we'd eaten out so much in the weeks before that I couldn't justify doing it again, especially when we had leftovers at home.  After I got Melanie down for a nap, we played some games and then I took Timothy to drama. Melanie went down late, so I left her with David and took Amy with us. It was a warmer afternoon, (about 50) but with the sun setting, it was too cold for me outside. So Amy played on the playground while I watched from the van. I called my dad - it was his birthday, and we talked for a good 30 minutes before it was time for him to eat dinner. After the class we headed home and ate our own dinner.

Tuesday morning after dropping off the kids at school I rushed back to make sure I got there before the heat pump guy. I got laundry started, Melanie's show started, and was just about to jump on the elliptical when there was a knock at the door. It was the same guy that did the maintenance last time. Not only did we need a check up the thermostat was doing something weird, and since it was under warranty they replaced it. I got my workout in and was switching the laundry when he finished.  I don't recall anything else out of the ordinary.

David was sick again. He had a fever, so he stayed home - he really went back and forth on whether or not he should stay home. He didn't like doing make up work, but he really didn't feel well either.  However I had already agreed to help out in Amy's class, so I left him home alone, dropped the kids off at school early ,and dropped Melanie off at Coral's. I wanted David to rest, not take care of Melanie. I got to Amy's classroom as Mrs. W* was leading the kids in from the playground. They made "stained-glass" mittens. She had cut out a mitten outline and contact paper. Then she cut little squares of purple and green tissue paper. My job was to put the mitten outline on the contact paper, and to direct the kids (I had two at a time) to put the tissue paper on the sticky side of the contact paper making sure to fill all of the space inside the mitten outline. Some kids used a ton of tissue paper, and some barely overlapped. Once they were done I wrote their names on the mitten and cut off the contact paper along the mitten outline. It was a fun little project. Afterward I picked up Melanie and went home. David was still not feeling well, but was really bored. By lunch time he was feeling better though. I had a short conference with Timothy's teacher that afternoon, I took Melanie with me. Not much else to say except that the boys had scouts and mutual that night. It was pack meeting for cub scouts, so we all went to the church.

Thursday as far as remember I mostly stayed home and cleaned up and that's about it. Timothy and I had an appointment in the afternoon. I got texts from Aaron occasionally to let me know how his travels were going. His plane landed about 10:00, and then we talked pretty much the entire drive home for him. It was great to have him home. I wanted to share some pictures he took of the Epic headquarters. They have some pretty cool things there. Seems like a fun place to work.
These were from his trip in December:

 He walked to the capital building where there was a Christmas Concert in the rotunda

 These are all found somewhere in the Epic Complex

 Life size Darth Vader

 Forest area

 s'mores bar

 Cat in the Hat bench

These were from his trip in January:

 Outer Space room

 interesting staircase

 Medieval room

 Western theme

 Chinese dragon room

 rocking horse?

 There is a slide you can ride down to a lower level

 Here's where it comes out. Yes, Aaron did go down the slide.

He flew in a 737 from SLC into a small airport, and had to deplane using an outdoor ramp.

As for Friday, Aaron was back at work and the kids back at school. The kids had piano lessons, then I took David to pep band, we ate dinner and then went to the basketball game. And that's about it.