Organizing, Snow, and Grandma Gohl

Jeff & Allicia went out of town last week and they told us we could organize their library while they were gone (we asked if there was anything we could do). So, we did! We organized their library, and then also cleaned the rest of their house for them. The cleaning part was a surprise to them and they were delighted when they came home on Sunday.

On Saturday I made sushi for the first time. Nothing with raw fish, just veggies rolled up in nori and rice. It was very good! I think we'll make that a regular dish.

On Sunday, Guy and I and Nico took a trip to Best Buy to look around. We had a coupon, and Guy was trying to find something to spend his birthday money on. No luck! Then we went to Red Robin to spend his gift card. I love their sweet potato fries!

Starting on Monday morning, Allicia and I started going through at least one box of stuff in their basement to try to organize it a little better. We are trying to go through her whole house, getting rid of stuff and organizing it. She is due with her 3rd child in March, and I'm sure things will go more smoothly after the baby is born if her house is in order. We also created a chore chart. There's only one thing on it so far, but we are working up to more. Starting small is important.

Monday we also found out that Guy's Grandma Dee Gohl had passed away. We will miss her. Guy is going to the funeral which is on Saturday. I will drive him to the airport tonight. One thing clearly stands out in my head when I think of Grandma Gohl. I think of eating meals with her, and her always saying "Beautiful!" to describe the food. Then the girls (Mom Russell, me, Grandma), would sit around the table after everyone was done, and we'd continue to eat.. and eat.. and Grandma was always so pleased with me the more food I ate. And I loved obliging her! She will be missed.

Here's a picture of all of us the last time we saw her which was about 1 1/2 years ago:

We had our first snow fall yesterday! Nico and Evie spent a lot of time playing in the snow yesterday morning. When we woke up THIS morning.. more snow! And school was canceled, so they spent time  this morning out in the snow, too. Nico ate snow for the first time, and they built a fort with help from Allicia.

That's it for this week! We'll see you all again next THURSDAY night. I won't forget!

The Lost Update

The first time ever that I forgot to update on a Thursday! My excuse is that Nico fell asleep on the bus home yesterday, and didn't go to bed until 9:30, and that was only after I let him crawl into our bed and I fell asleep with him. Update will come tonight…

and p.s., no school today because of snow!

Halloween and Parent Teacher Conferences

This year was the first year Nico went Trick-or-Treating. I wanted to take Nico down Warm Springs to experience the crowds and the costumes and the kids and the excitement, I knew he would enjoy it. The candy wasn't something he'd be able to eat but we planned to trade the candy for treats he could eat. Jeff and Allicia were going to be taking their kids to Harrison Blvd in North Boise which is apparently a VERY hoppin' place to go in Boise on Halloween, but they decided last minute to stay in their own neighborhood, so we ran into them on our way out. We joined forces and stormed Warm Springs. I am so glad Nico got to trick-or-treat with Evie!! I took him up to his first few houses to teach him when to say trick-or-treat and to only take one piece of candy and then to say "thank you".

We turned off of Warm Springs and back into their neighborhood and ended up back home two hours later. This was much more time and excitement than I was expecting but it was a great thing. I don't remember the last time I had so much fun. Watching Nico experience something new like that and seeing him enjoying it and enjoying it with his best friend, no less, was awesome.

Check out the Halloween video at the end of this update!

We had Nico's Parent-Teacher Conference on Monday. Guy wasn't able to make it (what, he needs to sleep?) I really like his teacher! She says that she pulls the kids aside individually to work on their IEP goals. For Nico she is working on recognizing emotions, happy, sad, angry, frustrated, and using a mirror to make them himself. As far as I know none of his previous teachers ever did one-on-one time with each of the kids. She doesn't do all of them every day, but one or two a day.

The speech therapist wasn't able to make it to the meeting, unfortunately, but Miss Erica (his teacher) answered all my speech therapy questions really well. I asked if she thought Nico would be ready for kindergarten next year in regards to his speech and she said yes. He will continue speech therapy in kindergarten. He will also get a resource teacher coming into his kindergarten class every day for about 15-20 minutes to make sure he is doing okay and helping him if he needs it. If there's a particular part of the day that is hard for him, they'll come in at that time. That makes me feel so much better. Miss Erica said that sometimes it's hard for kids transitioning from such class (8 kids, 3 teachers) to a large class (22 kids, 1 teacher), so having the resource teacher there for part of the day will help.

I asked her about elementary schools, too. Because our living situation is somewhat up in the air when it comes to next Fall, I feel like we have the ability to choose which kindergarten to send him to and then when we do end up moving from here we can move close to the school. He is currently going to White Pine Elementary for preschool, and Miss Erica said that the Speech Therapist for kindergarten at White Pine is excellent, and so are the teachers. Then there's Adams Elementary which is a stone's throw from here, and a bunch of other ones. I am even considering public charter schools, though they do a lottery to determine who gets to go to those. A lot to think about.

Pictures from school:

Halloween Party!

Volcanoes

Snack time. With his teacher Miss Erica

On Sunday we went up to the cabin for a memorial dinner for my Grandma Salisbury (Nico's Great Grandma Salisbury) who passed away a few years ago. My Dad and Aunt Ellen made us Grandma's famous enchiladas and jello, and then we got to hear some stories from their childhood. They had so many adventures. One in particular that cracked me up was the story about how my dad and his brothers went hiking and found a bunch of salamanders, at least 100 of them, ("we probably should have left some there" Papa says) and they brought them back to their house in a bucket and put them in their pond. The salamanders started popping up in the neighbors' yards and squished on the roads. They got calls from the neighbors about them (how did the neighbors know it was them? hehe!) Salamanders were everywhere for a while.

Papa and Aunt Ellen telling stories

My brothers Jeremy and David

The boys chatting in the living room

Evie and Avery and Nico playing in the Clubhouse.

 Video time!

The Clubhouse

We moved in on Sunday!

Before the movers got here

After the movers left

Up until that day, we weren't sure where we were going to put everything. But it worked out beautifully. We set up Nico's loft bed and put his mattress underneath it instead of on top. We stacked the cedar chest and some other things on top of the bed and we drape blankets over the rest and it becomes a CAVE. This is where Nico sleeps at night and where Guy sleeps during the day.

The place looks a lot more organized than what you see in the pictures, but it is still a tiny space with lots of stuff in it :) 

I love having a kitchen! Tonight for dinner I made Fish Curry. Both Guy and I agreed that we were getting tired of sandwiches. Nico even ate some of the curry! 

So the only thing we don't have in this room is a bathroom. We use Jeff and Allicia's 2nd bathroom as our own. This has worked out just fine so far. 

I realized after moving into the clubhouse that this is the time we have been planning for, and that we need to take advantage of it starting right now, to start paying off debt. I know that we will only be able to last so long living in a tiny space, so we are not going to fritter away our time! This is serious business, and we are going to get it done. We are people on a mission!

Feeding the chickens grapes

Nico and Evie in the clubhouse

Waiting for the bus last Friday - Halloween Party day! 

Nico says: "Paint a pumpkin red!"

Nico says: "Biiiiig"

At the pumpkin patch, riding the bucket train

He has picked his pumpkin!

Moving Day is Upon Us!

The big news this week is that they finished the clubhouse!

We move in on Sunday. We are trying to get everything in order for when the movers arrive. We are hiring movers because there are 2 flights of stairs that need to be dealt with. They are moving our stuff down one flight, and then the furniture that was up here before needs to be returned up here from the basement, 2 floors down. Movers to the rescue! We hope to move most of the kitchen stuff down before Sunday so that they can just focus on big furniture.

I told Guy that the first meal I'm going to make in my new kitchen is Fish Curry! Then I said "now I just need to find some fish!" The next morning, my Mom called and asked if she could take me to Costco, "just for the halibut" (but some other stuff too). Halibut is exactly what I needed :) Thanks Mom!

I am looking forward to cooking, and to cleaning, and to routine-ing it up. I miss routine. It was nice for a while not having one, almost like a vacation! And I guess the vacation worked, because I am ready and raring to go back. This really WAS like a vacation. Soaker tub with geothermal water, eating off of paper plates, no dishes to wash, making sandwiches every day and eating lots of chips and larabars, so no food prep. I am so grateful!

Guy worked Monday and Tuesday during the day again. He has been very tired, but he is motivated. I am very proud of him.

Tomorrow Nico gets to wear his Halloween costume to school! TIGER.

Carving the pumpkin Nico picked out at the Farmstead pumpkin patch on his field trip.

And lots of pictures this week from the preschool.

 This one doesn't have a lot of Nico in it but I LOVE his face and can hear his reaction to seeing the duck being dropped into the water.

Showing Nico this picture, he told me about the sizes of the pumpkins and how heavy the big pumpkin was.

I love having these pictures so I can ask Nico was he was doing! He told me they made play-doh!

Painting apple trees.

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