Work, Botanical Garden, and Pumpkin Patch

We found out last Saturday morning that Guy would be going in to work on Monday and Tuesday during the day (10AM-5PM), and then back to night shift on Wednesday like normal. This is how it will be every week for the foreseeable future. So Guy stayed up on Saturday with a short nap in the middle of the day. In the morning he drank some coffee and then all of us, including Allicia, Evie, and Avery, went to the Botanical Garden. Keeping Guy busy while he is tired seems to help with him staying awake. We had a lot of fun!

Then Nico had a field trip this week to the pumpkin patch. I am sure his teacher took lots of pictures so I will be uploading some of those when they're available. Nico came home with a pumpkin and has been asking to turn it into a jack-o-lantern. We told him we would do this with him on Sunday which is Guy's next day off.

The Clubhouse is almost finished, they think it will be ready by the end of this weekend. They put the kitchen cabinets in and the flooring, they just need to do the finishing touches.

Monday was Guy's birthday. To celebrate I made him a video rendition of one of his favorite radio sketches by Bob & Ray. He got a kick out of it.

Nico and Evie doing kid alphabet yoga. Driving Cars.

Reading books in their "house"

A queen bed seems to fit all of us. Nico is a big fan of sleeping next to Daddy.

Cabin and G.G. and School

Sickness kept going through the house last week. Guy was down for a few days, Allicia caught it and lastly Jeff. Kids were first, then the grownups, the usual! We have some coughing and phlegm hanging on but the bulk of the illness is over.

There was a huge Harvest Party at the cabin on Saturday. Nico and I were able to go for a few hours. What an incredible shindig! I was impressed with all the decorations and food and organization. Grandma Salisbury is quite the hostess. Harvest vegetable soup had so many different squashes in it, plus different potatoes, it was very good.

On Monday we went up to the cabin again for a while. Grandma Salisbury made us a VERY yummy lunch which was just rice, ground bison and salsa mixed together. So simple, but sooo good. And then cinnamon tea.

We were able to go see G.G. on Tuesday! Yay! Nico was happy to be able to continue watching the Curious George movie through Netflix on G.G.'s tv. He was also able to feed Scamper a treat while we were there. G.G. sent us home with tomatoes and a nice Halloween centerpiece for our table!

And speaking of Curious George, there is a new Curious George Halloween movie out on Netflix that Guy and Nico just started watching today.

The latest news about Guy's job is that we're not sure when or what form it will take. We heard that they might want him to come in during the day shift (9-5) but STILL work his night shift too. Whacky! Not sure how that would work, but am trusting that God has got a big ol' plan and I'm not too worried :)

Did you know.. that we don't have a water heater? The hot water here is entirely geothermal and it comes out piping hot. Every time we take a hot shower or a bath, it's like we're at a hot springs! Nico sleeps a lot better at night after taking a bath. We all do!

Nico's teacher takes pictures of the class and posts them online protected by a password. I am so thankful she takes pictures! Here are some of them from last week:

Collecting leaves

Playing dress-up

He has had no trouble getting on the bus. In fact today he was excited to go to school, he told me about a game they play where he can win a toy to play with.

I even took some pictures this week, too!

Making use of empty moving boxes

Two sickies coloring together at our table

Guy putting together his steel steam locomotive (Bday present from Grandparents Salisbury)

Today we went to Kid to Kid and bought all of Nico's winter apparel. We found a snow suit with a winter coat, a jacket, pants, and shirts. He is going to be all set for winter! He keeps growing, you see, like kids do, and his 3T pants are too short for him these days. On to bigger and better pants!

We also stopped by Barnes and Noble since it was right next door to the clothing store, and Nico played with the train. I couldn't keep myself from Christmas shopping so I made a few purchases. Nico keeps talking about Christmas now and asking for his presents. heehee. I could hide the front of the items by holding them tightly but he could still see the sides and back of them when we went to buy them.

See you all next week!

More or Less. Mostly Just the Less.

It's been harder to do blog updates since moving, partly because I have gotten completely out of the habit of updating my daily journal with a few lines of what we did that day. So I sit here on Thursday night trying to remember. It is hard!

But here's what I got:

Touch-a-Truck was on Saturday. Guy took Nico to this. Nico got to touch and sit on so many different kinds of trucks. Garbage truck, fire truck, police car, limousine. I am sure there are more but these were the ones that he talked about. Then Guy took him to the bookstore to play with the train. Ever since then Nico has been daily putting together the train that Jeff & Allicia have downstairs. It's the same kind they have at the bookstore. It is so great to have a built in playmate for Nico. And we all take care of each other. I watch the kids while Allicia is out, she watches Nico while I am busy or out, and it's sometimes actually easier to watch 2-3 kids than just one, because they can entertain themselves!

On Monday I had a sore throat that turned into a full blown head cold (or maybe even the flu) on Tuesday. Fever and chills and aches that lasted a long time, laid on the bed all day and Guy took over that evening. He took Nico to the Co-op to have dinner, then went grocery shopping, then played downstairs with everyone else until bed time. Nico also was sick but it didn't hit him as hard. Tuesday was also the day we were supposed to go see G.G. But we missed it. Again! I completely forgot about it, though I would have canceled anyway because I was sick. What a bummer! We are set for next Tuesday and I am excited because IT WILL WORK this time :)

I only have one picture from this last week! We will get into the swing of things soon.

Great news on the job front for Guy! He may be moving to days in a few weeks! His job might be completely changing, too. He is a smartie and he came up with a process change that would save time and money, and they want him to implement it. This means: programming! This is what he has wanted to do for so long, and we think the opportunity is finally here. I am praying that everything goes smoothly. His boss loves him and is pushing for him. The boss' boss' boss main boss is on board, so, that's good news. We have never lived in Boise without Guy working nights. I know it will be an adjustment but I am looking forward to facing it, I am ready! Thank you God for the perfect timing!

Evie and Avery playing upstairs with Nico

First Day of New School

We came back from Salt Lake City on Saturday and we were very happy to be home! We got to be here for all of Guy's weekend and we got some good family time in.

Tuesday was Nico's first day at his new school. Everything went fine, he got on the bus fine and came home fine. On Wednesday when I told him it was about time to get ready for school, he resisted. That's ok, that sometimes happened before, but in the past I would just tell him that he needed to go to school and he was fine. This time, he resisted, and kept resisting, I almost had to sit on him to put his shoes on. He kept pulling his shoes off as I was putting them on. I had to drag him to the bus where the kind bus driver got down and had Nico sit on his lap. Eventually they brought him onto the bus, but the whole while he was still saying "No, Mommy, no, I don't want to go to school. I don't want to I don't want to!"

When he got home he had quite the welcome committee. Me, Daddy, Allicia, Avery, and Evie were all sitting on the front porch waiting for him. After bringing him from the bus, he came right up onto the porch and pulled out some stuff from his backpack to show all of us.

The same resisting thing happened today but in a lesser degree. As soon as he was on the bus he was fine.

Other strange things are happening… potty accidents for him AND for Evie, and acting out a lot. I'm thinking it must be growing pains, moving pains, change and transition pains. We had to miss a trip to G.G. this week because of time outs going long. We rescheduled for next Tuesday.

Last week I launched my essential oil YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/joannabananaberry), so I have been busy while Nico is at school. We've been eating off of paper plates and I think we'll continue to do that until we move into the clubhouse which they are projecting will be ready in one month's time!

Clubhouse progress

Getting Nico off the bus

Sharing some snickerdoodles with Daddy after dinner.

Moving, New School

We moved officially last Saturday. My parents took Nico up to the cabin overnight so that we could focus on moving and unpacking. Once moved in, we had planned that Nico would sleep in a twin bed in the main suite but he asked to sleep in Guy's bed which is in the closet. So, we let him! It turned out to be a good thing because there is a door to the closet area (it's a large closet), and Guy and I could shut it and then play games of cribbage. Jeff & Allicia got us a cribbage board as a move-in present. We've played it a few times already. We have everything we need except a kitchen sink and a stove. When we move into the Clubhouse (the renovated garage), we will have both of those things! The stove will just be a burner, but we don't need much else. The reduction of dishes and things in our living space has been very freeing. I know that most of them are packed away in storage and will resurface when we move to a bigger place one day, but right now I am enjoying living minimally.

Nico has been very happy to live "in Evie's house", and asks to play with her soon after getting up every morning.

On Monday we went to meet Nico's new teacher, Miss Erica. The classroom has a fish that Nico got to feed. From the looks of it I think Nico will be well suited to be in that class, the older kids are all in the afternoon class and she said there are some good outgoing personalities in that class that will get along great with Nico.

On Tuesday Nico had his last day at his old school. They were sure to give him hugs and tell him they will miss him. Tuesday after school, Grandma and I picked Nico up from school and started our journey to Salt Lake City for 6 days. We are here now! There is a dōTERRA convention here so that is what I've been doing while Grandma and Nico play. At the zoo, all the swimming pool, at the toy store, they are having a lot of fun. And so am I! We plan to drive back to Boise on Monday.

Only a few pictures this week.

Watching his iPad on top of a box

Nico and Grandma at the zoo

Not a very thoughtful composition since the name of the zoo is cut out, but it is the Hogle Zoo. They rode the train at the zoo three times! Nico just kept wanting to ride it again.

And a video! Tuesday morning, eating breakfast in our new place.

Moving, School

Nico was sick with a head cold over the weekend. We skipped church. But he did get to play with Meatball the cat. He brought his airplane outside to show him. The cat followed him around while Nico poked among the rocks.

Tuesday night we went to Jeff & Allicia's to drop off a bunch of stuff for storage. We took it down into their cellar. They had room for all of it! I am so glad we won't need to rent a storage unit. This afternoon I took some stuff up into the suite, kitchen stuff, and blankets. We move this Saturday, in TWO DAYS!

Today while Nico was in school I called the bus to tell them our new address. They told me to call his teacher to have her submit the new address, so I called his teacher. She called me back and I gave her the new address and she asked me "now did you make sure that you are still in the boundaries for Madison school?" Umm… no :( I told her that I had assumed that since we were just moving a mile away that it would be the same school. Uh oh, I was wrong. She looked it up and it looks like after moving we will lie in the district for a different preschool - at White Pine Elementary. My heart broke. I asked her if there was anything we could do to keep Nico at Madison and she said not likely. She called later to confirm that there was nothing they could do, no exception could be made.

So it looks like Nico will be going to a different school. Next Tuesday will be his last day at Madison. We told Nico when he got home today and it didn't seem to phase him. I will keep repeating it over the next few days so that it's sure to sink in. It may be more of an adjustment for Guy and I than Nico!

And wouldn't you know it, I forgot to take pictures until today. So you've got three of them.

Hanging out in the cooler

Waiting outside for the bus. We read books, break sticks, or whatever else we think of.

Throwing sticks on the ground

Short and sweet today! Remember next week this blog will be password protected.

BBQ, GF Bread, Zoo

Just a reminder that in two weeks this blog will become password protected. Write me at joannarussell06@gmail.com if you want the password!

On Sunday afternoon all of us headed up to the cabin for a family BBQ. Hotdogs, fruit salad, and a photo recognition game my Mom put together. Each of us had an old picture of ourselves on a poster board and everyone had to guess who each person was. There were prizes and everything!

I left early with Nico because I wasn't feeling well, but Guy was able to stay later and Jonny and Alanna took him home that night. He very much needed time hanging out like that, as this was his first weekend in about 20 days where he wasn't working overtime. He was needing some relax time and he had a lot of fun with everyone at the cabin.

On Monday Nico and I went to Allicia's house and she made us tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. She used tomatoes from her garden, and made a double batch. 8 cups of chopped tomatoes! Also on Monday I tried out a gluten free bread recipe. We use a lot of bread and will likely use more of it after we move into our clubhouse. Bread is easy to eat and very versatile. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, it can be used for everything. Guy will be eating a lot of sandwiches over the next few months or years. But he doesn't mind. He has fond memories of eating cheese sandwiches for lunch in elementary school. And we talk of someday opening a gluten free sandwich shop. Learning how to bake gluten free bread is the start of that.

We all tried the bread out on Monday evening, and Nico woke up the next morning with a tummy ache. He ate more bread for breakfast and his tummy ache persisted. I rubbed some essential oils on his tummy and then he asked to snuggle. He fell asleep for nearly 2 hours on the couch, at 9 AM. When he woke up he said he still had a tummy ache. More essential oils on his tummy and it was about time to make a decision of whether or not he would go to school. He wasn't lethargic or sad, he was very chipper, but always answered "Yes" when I asked him if he had a tummy ache. I decided to keep him home. I called the bus and his teacher. 5 minutes later Nico said "I want a snack"! I fed him and then he said his tummy ache was gone. So I think this episode of tummy problems was due to the bread. I will need to find a different recipe that Nico can tolerate.

Tuesday afternoon we watched Evie and Avery while Allicia went to an appointment. They had a lot of fun playing with Nico's race track and learning how to share.

This morning we met Grandma Salisbury at Whole Foods to go grocery shopping. Then Gma took Nico to the zoo while I finished grocery shopping. It was a fun excursion, and I'm so happy we can do these things in the morning before school in the afternoons. Thanks for the fun time, Gma!

We FaceTimed with Grandma Russell today to sing her the Happy Birthday song. Happy Birthday Gma!! Nico has been hand-writing birthday cards. I write out the words for him and he copies. Then I ask him what else he wants to write in the card and it's always different. We are sending the latest birthday card to his Uncle Tom tomorrow.

We got a tripod for my camera so I can shoot videos, and Nico enjoyed taking pictures of everything while the camera was hooked up to the tripod. I showed him how to use the handle to move the camera around, up and down and side to side, around and around. I went through the pictures later and could see his thought process, taking pictures of everything, not pictures of nothing, but pictures of everything. He took pictures of all his artwork on the walls, one at a time, pictures of me, pictures of the printer, all from the tripod in the same spot in the living room. He would sometimes announce what he was going to take a picture of next.

First tripod test

Nico's picture of the iPad

Then we moved it into the bedroom while I did laundry. For this he just pointed it at the bed and click click clicked to take picture after picture of me folding laundry.

Cleaned my oven. Want to see? I used a homemade paste to clean it, I found the recipe online. You leave it on overnight and then rinse it off the next day. It didn't make all the ickiness go away, but it improved it significantly. I figured I needed to leave the oven looking nice when we move out.

Before

After

I do have a tip for anyone wanting to clean their oven: Hire someone else to do it. Pay any amount required.

Looking forward to just using my toaster oven and having less appliances and things to clean and take care of. There will be plusses and minuses to living so minimally, but it will be an adventure no matter what. T minus 10 days.

Evie, School, Monkeys

This was back to school week! But we'll get to that soon. 

A bit of upkeep first. This blog is going to be password protected starting on Thursday Sept 18th. If I know that you read this blog, then you should have received an email from me telling you what that password is going to be. If you are family or friend that would like to continue reading this blog and you didn't get an email from me, then please write me an email at joannarussell06@gmail.com and I will send you the password.

On Sunday after church, the Grandparents Salisbury treated us to Idaho Pizza Company. Nico walked up to complete strangers while we were there to tell them about his haircut. First time I've seen him be that forward! We got a plate for the salad buffet and I got Nico a variety of things covered with cheese and ranch dressing. It was his first time trying ranch. But he seemed to prefer the little ham cubes with nothing else on them. So, that he ate. We got to see my brother David, which was great! Nico had cousins and Uncles there, plus Grandparents. We took up two tables.

Monday was Nico's Open House at his school. Nico and I met his new teacher, the assistants, and his new speech therapist, Miss Marianne. I am very pleased with his new teacher, Miss Carol! 

Miss Yvonne (assistant), Miss Carol (teacher), Miss Bianca (student teacher)

Miss Marianne (speech therapist)

Miss Carol seems very laid back and outgoing. She was sure to tell me that they get messy in the class so don't send Nico to school in nice clothes except on picture day :) Homework every week is a new book which Nico gets to pick out. They are simple books. This week he chose The Farmer in the Dell. Which is literally 4 pages long. The farmer in the dell, the farmer in the dell, hi-hoe the derry-oh, the farmer in the dell. She told me that they'll be reading it back to us by the end of the week. This evening while I was washing dinner dishes, I could hear Nico in his bedroom singing the book, which we had done together earlier. 

Miss Marianne took us to her office and talked briefly about how she does speech therapy. It will be a lot like last year in that it is usually 2 kids at a time that she teaches. 

Nico has 9 kids in his class this year, but with 3 adults in the class that is still a pretty good ratio!

Miss Carol and Miss Yvonne had interacted with Nico before, so they knew him. They were surprised with how well he was speaking compared to last year. I must say, that it's been just in the past few weeks that he has made leaps and bounds in his speaking. Not just in speaking, but in relating! He is able to hold short conversations with me and keep eye contact for much longer.

Tuesday was his first day. But before school, we took Evie to the park. This is a major plus side to having afternoon preschool. The mornings are fresh and new and there is always time to play! We can run errands or play at the park. We picked up Evie and took her to Quarry View.

They played a game of animal rescue on the fire truck.  They would hear an animal in distress and then go rescue it. First one up was cats. Evie said the cats were on fire stuck in a tree, so they climbed into the fire truck and drove to the rescue. They first put the fire out so that the cats weren't on fire anymore, then they took the pretend ladder and propped it up against a tree so they could climb up and get the cats. They climbed trees to get: a dog, horse, and cow. Then they picked wormy apples, crab apples, and splashed in a puddle. Evie put all her crab apples into her hat and then dipped the hat into the water. A present for her Mom.

Also snapped a picture of clubhouse progress:

We've got a door and a kitchen window!

Then school in the afternoon, after a large lunch of hot dogs and strawberries.

I took him to school for his first day. Even though I'd already been in his classroom and met his teachers, I still wanted to take him.

But he took the bus home. Looks like we got one of the same bus drivers this year!

Tuesday night, Guy got a call from work telling him that he didn't have to come in for overtime that night. He had worked 13 or 14 nights straight and this call provided him a much needed rest. Wahoo! We were able to hangout together and watch Miss Marple after Nico went to bed.

This morning before school we went to the zoo. We hadn't been there in a while. Our plan to go every Friday in the summer wasn't working for August. I kind of put it on the back burner because the dinosaurs made it more difficult. But we had SO much fun at the zoo. We spent most of our time watching the monkeys. The large monkey exhibit is underneath several large acorn trees, and acorns were dropping all over the place. Whenever one would hit the monkey cage, Nico would erupt into laughter and ask me what that sound was. "It was an acorn falling on the cage!" Nico: "A acorn falling on a cage!" and then he would laugh and laugh and laugh. He got several other people around him laughing, too. They would come and go but we stayed glued to the exhibit for quite a while. The baby monkey played with rocks, and would climb to the top of the cage to pull the acorns through the cage because most of them were a little too big to fall right through. Then he'd pop the top off of the acorn and start eating it.

That's a full week for us!

Apples, G.G., Tiny Houses

We had an epic time-out last Friday that lasted 3 hours. Nico lost iPad privileges for two days, too. That was a first for him. He didn't seem to mind too much to be without the iPad, he never threw a fit about it, just asked every once in a while and I'd always remind him that he had to wait.

On Sunday we took a family trip to Quarry View (I think I'll officially switch to calling Old Park by its real name - Quarry View). On our way there we noticed how much wind there was, so we excitedly got out the kite once we arrived at the park. Wind wind wind, I could sense the kite wanting to take off in it while we were walking to the field. But the minute, no, the second, that we got into the field, the wind stopped. Completely! Guy tried running with the kite, which got it up in the air temporarily, but it always came back down. 

So we scrapped the idea and instead we took some pictures by the apple trees.

Nico wanted to pick apples so he got on Guy's shoulders.

Apples keep fallin' on my head

Saw Allicia on Monday, brought some of Nico's toys over, the ones we plan to keep downstairs so everyone can play with them. I chose Nico's floor puzzles, his train set, duplo blocks, some large trucks and his wooden trucks. We put together both floor puzzles while we were there. 

They have made a lot of progress on the garage! While Allicia was out of town with the kids last week, Jeff and his dad got a lot done. They tore down all the external walls and put a fireproof layer on the outside. Since the garage is so close to the garage next door (separated by maybe 2 feet, with a fence down the middle), the city code requires some fire protection. Then they'll put siding on it. 

Allicia told me where the kitchen sink and counters will be. The fridge, more counters, and a bar for our table. The rest will be living space, which we will figure out later. I am very excited.

Allicia shared this article with me written in the Idaho Statesman about a woman who lives in a tiny house. She lives in a 196 square foot house with her infant daughter. You can see the pictures slideshow on the article page. Apparently there is a group in Idaho called the Tiny House Enthusiasts! I didn't even know we were part of a movement :) Our situation is of course a little different, but it's similar.

On Tuesday we went over to Allicia's house again to watch the kids while she flipped the suite because she had back-to-back bookings. My Mom came with me for a few minutes so she could meet the house and the suite and see the garage they're working on. 

On Wednesday we went to visit G.G. She gave Nico a book that has a CD to follow along. His favorite! We watched a little bit of t.v. while we were there and it was quite a treat this time since she now has Netflix hooked up! Thanks to Grandpa Russell for doing that while they were visiting. Nico chose a Curious George movie and recited a lot of it as it was playing. He loves interacting with people while he's watching something he knows. He loves to share his favorite t.v. shows.

Today we had to get our tires rotated. Nico got 2 bouncy balls and 2 trinkets from the machines in the lobby while we were waiting. Then we got our emissions test done, and since the emission testing place is in the same parking lot as Pojo's (arcade games!), we decided to go. Nico had about $10 of birthday cash left that I've been keeping in my purse, so we took $5 and spent it all on games. This was a fun place, and much quieter than Wahooz. There were less people, it was smaller, and it didn't seem as loud. Nico played a fishing game and a claw game that he really enjoyed. Also bowling, and a few other ones.

Then this afternoon we took a trip to the fountain downtown to throw some coins in.

Reaching into his pocket to get coins

 Popping ice cubes from our new ice cube tray. Push the bottom of them and they POP out.

Running through the sprinkler

Fuzzy new hair cut. I see a stray hair!

Guy has been in serious overtime mode. He worked all through his last weekend. Not full nights, but 6-8 hours each night. Which, goodness, is still a lot! And he is working through his next weekend, too.

Garden, Fish Park, and the iBee

We tried several times this past week to fly a kite. The gusts of wind seemed wild enough to carry a kite but when we got to the park there was hardly anything! Oh well. We keep the kite in the back of the car in case we need to make an emergency kite flying stop.

On Sunday after church we went to Louie's for lunch with family. Then afterward, Nico drove to Nampa with Papa to pick up the eggs and milk from the farm. The Grandparents Salisbury gave us 2 dozen farm fresh eggs this week (thank you!!), the darkest orange yolks you ever did see! Papa also let us borrow his wheelbarrow and a big shovel (we already have a small Nico-sized one) so that we could move the dirt from our garden. On Tuesday we moved it to the area under our pine trees. We don't plan to take the dirt with us when we move, but will definitely be bringing our garden bed!

Nico happened to be wearing a nice shirt that morning and me a skirt. But it turns out all you need is good shoes and you can get the job done. We were done quickly.

Cold water, juice, cheese stick, and iPad to relax after digging dirt.

On Monday we went to see Allicia and crew in the morning and brought some bins with us to store in their cellar.

Tuesday, Fish Park!

His favorite part of the Fish Park is the stream-bed in the lobby and the big sturgeon fish that swim under the bridge. So we just did those two things.

We've been… eating cinnamon raisin bread, going for bike rides in the morning, sorting through closets, snuggling, reading, and playing iPad games and watching videos. He is really enjoying read-along books that come with a CD of the story. And of course truck/car books from the library.

Two more weeks until school starts! I am mentioning it to him every so often so he knows it's coming. I've also been trying and trying to remember to enforce him saying "iPad" instead of "iBee". It was one thing that his speech therapist wanted him to work on, but I am so used to him saying "iBee" that I haven't remembered to correct him! We practice saying "iPad" on purpose and he can do it just fine, but it's a habit to say iBee and it's a hard one to break.

Onward!