Right now it's the day after a wonderful Christmas. Mitch is doing a house project, the kids spent the entire morning building Legos together and are now laughing while playing a new video game, and I tackled a mound of laundry and read books in between. Each of us are happy with our activities, the house is full of Christmas cheer, and it is snowing outside. My favorite kind of day.
(I have a lot more pics of Christmas at the end of this post.)
We've had our share of not-so-good days lately. Stressful, sad, disheartening, worried days. But they always end and we're able to kneel and pray and feel the peace of our Savior return to our hearts and our home.
That is the gift I am most grateful for this Christmas season-the ability to face this world with assurance and peace, as well as the ability to see the good in the world. Because the good always outweighs the bad. Our Heavenly Father loves us and our Savior atoned for us. And remembering those things is what allows us to feel peace and even happiness in the midst of the hardest trials of our lives. Not that they are easy, but that there can be an underlying peace and eternal happiness despite all the crazy life can bring.
Having Mitch gone this year brought a level of stress I have never known. It lead to tears from all 4 of us at different points, exhaustion, and panic attacks for me with upcoming finals, a part-time job, the approaching holidays, and being a kind of single mom all at the same time. It was hard. But, there was a light at the end of the 9 month long tunnel, and we finally reached it! Mitch came home, I made it through finals, and we had a very merry Christmas indeed.
To make up for lost time together, we spent a few days in Arizona at Great Wolf Lodge. It's a giant, indoor water park. Our little fish children loved it. They both love to swim so much, and Marcus has really improved his swimming skills since living in Cali with a swimming pool this summer. It was great to have 3 days of uninterrupted family time after so many months of Mitch being gone.
Thanksgiving was wonderful. My grandma still makes the best dressing ever. Mmm, my mouth waters just thinking about it! The kids and I started a Thankful poster where each day we wrote something we were thankful for based on a list we hung next to the poster. It had things like "something outside you're thankful for," and "something you've accomplished recently that you're thankful for" so it made us think more outside the box.
We had fun for my birthday. Mitch had just gotten home a few days before. The kids and Mitch made me breakfast in bed, we went out for Indian food for dinner, and had Nothing Bundt Cake (my FAVORITE!) for dessert. We played games and they spoiled me with great gifts. I felt very loved.
Mitch is now DR. BOTT!!!!!!!!! He finished his Ph.D.! His degree is in systems engineering, but I must admit that I don't really know what that means, ha! It took him 8 years to finish; he worked full-time and continued to be the amazing husband and father that he always is during those 8 years, or I'm sure he could have finished faster. Regardless, I am so proud of him and we are both so happy he is done, haha! We are still awaiting his diploma in the mail and can't wait to display it!
To celebrate his huge accomplishment, I surprised Mitch with an experience to drive exotic race cars in California. He ended up driving a Porsche Caymen and a Lamborghini Huracan. He was utterly speechless after and said he couldn't process his thoughts fast enough to keep up with the speed of the car, haha! Pretty sure he was in heaven.
Mitch's parents treated us to a fancy dinner that weekend as well.
On a less grand scale, I finished my first semester of grad school with straight A's. Wahoo! I worked my butt off for those grades and I'm proud of myself. They say the first semester is the hardest, so if I can do that while having my husband away, then I'm sure the rest will seem relatively easy.
I also started a very part-time job at a title one elementary school. I am a behavior coach, so I take data on kids and compile it to help with diagnosis, as well as offer intervention strategies for teachers. I primarily work with students with diagnosed or undiagnosed ADHD and autism, but also compliance issues or learning disabilities. It's fascinating, heartbreaking, and fun all at the same time. It is a different world at a title one school and this one includes lots of poverty and gut-wrenching stories that will surely leave some people paying for their terrible actions after they die. I work directly with the school counselor, and she is wonderful. I feel very blessed to learn from her and I am grateful that she has kindly taken me under her wing. I love that I get to see/use the things I'm learning about in school each day at work.
Other noteworthy events:
There was a fire this fall on the mountain behind our house. It was frightening how fast it moved down the mountain! I had a feeling we wouldn't be evacuated since our home is on the other side of the mountain road, but several people on our ward were evacuated and it was scary. Then the added factor that the school buses wouldn't bring the kids home, plus I have two kids at two different schools, and you can guess that the logistics of that day were pretty crazy. Thankfully no homes were harmed by the fire and everyone was okay. Mitch and Marcus then went and helped clear trees from one of the houses the next week to make sure they're safe should another fire ever occur.
Marcus had strep throat. Have I mentioned on here how much that boy loathes having his throat swabbed? Not that anyone really loves that, but he puts up such a fight! This last time we had to have a male nurse hold Marcus down and in between Marcus's blood curdling screams, the second nurse was finally able to get a swab. It was positive for strep. Oh, and after we got home we noticed that Marcus had literally broken blood vessels under his eyes from straining so hard. Jeez, that boy! Good thing we love him--it was intense! The saddest part was that we missed out on boating, again, this year as a result. We were all so sad about that.
We started skiing this winter! All four of us completed the Learn and Earn program, which means we took 3 all day ski lessons and now we have season passes. Layla and I are pretty much on the same skill level, though I have no doubt that she will pass me up in only a few weeks, ha! Marcus has work to do to advance, but he's getting there and he likes it more now than he did after his first lesson--that one didn't go so well, honestly. In fact, Marcus said, "Skiing is just falling down, getting lost, and being cold!" Oh boy, good thing he's had fun since that first day! And Mitch is an advanced skier since he had skied a lot before. He LOVES having a season pass and is thrilled we've finally joined him. It's completely changed winter for me and made it a much more pleasant time of year. Even my S.A.D. symptoms have decreased.
Well, speaking of skiing, I need to go switch laundry so we have dry ski socks since we're heading up to the slopes this afternoon.
The kids both had parent teacher conferences where we got more stellar reviews. They are both "model students" and are doing so well. I am happy that Layla is thriving in the gifted program and Marcus loves learning French. They are both where they need to be and it makes my heart happy.
We also did our annual girls trip and saw The Sound of Music. It was great! Then we spent 12 hours shopping on Saturday!!! This included eating lunch, ice cream, and dinner and ended at 11:30 p.m. when we finally dropped into bed. It was quite the day, haha! We have too much fun on these girls trips, I think. :)
Before:
And AFTER:
I had a memorable day this fall. It all started early on a Wednesday morning. I was extra tired because, as usual, Mitch was out of town. Also, I was up late the night before attending my grad program and the kids had been with a babysitter. That morning as we were eating breakfast, I smelled an awful smell. It only took a minute to realize it was cat poop and I quickly located it at the bottom of the stairs in the basement. On my way down to clean it up I said, "Harvey! If you ever do that again I'll take you to the animal shelter so fast your head will spin!" I was MAD. But when I got down there, I realized that the babysitter had closed the door to the unfinished part of the basement, which is where Harvey's litterbox is, so he couldn't get down there all night! Then I felt bad that he had held it as long as he did. Anyways, I got that cleaned up and the kids off to school and myself off to work. Later that day, Layla cleaned her fish tank and accidentally filled it back up with hot water, which killed her fish almost instantly. There were A LOT of tears. After comforting her and promising a new fish, I got to flush that one down the toilet. 30 minutes later, we're finally settled eating dinner when I see Harvey acting weird in the living room, only to find him playing with a DEAD BIRD he had brought in from outside! Grrrr! I had to clean up feathers and blood off the carpet. Gross! It was seriously the weirdest day full of dead/gross animals, though it's pretty funny now, I must admit.
We went to a corn maze during Halloween time.
For Halloween this year we had Ash from Pokemon and Hermoine from Harry Potter. Which also sums up Christmas: Marcus got mostly Pokemon cards and Layla got several Harry Potter Lego sets.
Layla made this "parade float" for her 4th grade project on Carbon County, Utah.
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| Layla made these hats for Kitty and Bow Bow. |
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| Mitch made me this ladder for our library. He did such a good job! |
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| Our White Elephant gifts from our friend's party. |
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| Layla and I both got our hair cut the same way. Twinning is winning! |
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| We had a Jerusalem dinner with unleavened bread and we dressed up as angels, a wise man, and a shepherd. |
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| Christmas morning! |
