Thanksgiving 2016

This year for Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to have 31 people for dinner! It was awesome. We had both sets of parents, Benjamin's brother Scott his wife Suzie and 6 of their children including  his married daughter her husband and their dog. Peter and Danny came. Aaron and his wife Jen and their 3 daughters, plus Jen's father and his wife. We had  Bekah her adorable pooch Jett. Later Benjamin's two other Sisters Amy and Melissa and their families joined us for dessert. We loved it!  Not a single picture was taken, boooo! Imagine a beautiful dinning hall with lights and fall decorations...it was beautiful. We managed not to have a children table either. The previous owners left 6 bar height barista tables. The kids loved sitting high and we managed to have six stools that weren't broken :)  Later we fired up the hot tub and the kids swam in the freezing pool that was at a cool 57 degrees and then they would hop into the 104 hot tub. This hopping and swimming went on for hours, hours. The littles spent the night at our house and the teenage girls plus Anna went to their cousins house to watch the premier of Gilmore Girls at 1 am in the morning, crazy kids. On black Friday we honored our Thanksgiving by being content with all we had and not chasing any deals, I'm just getting old :) The happiest people I know are the ones who are thankful for what they have. Like Corrie Ten Boom says be grateful in all things.

Ribbon Cutting on the New Preschool Room!!

Dreams come true people, dreams can come true! Sometimes when you are going through the trenches you think no way can this get better and no way will it get better anytime soon. I couldn't help but get extremely emotional for my preschool ribbon cutting ceremony. Encouraged by my mom to explain the conception of this preschool to my awesome preschool parents, I couldn't hold back the tears. Those who know us, know this story all to well :) I opened a preschool 7 years ago to help us get out of debt. Nearly 200 students later this idea born out of necessity quickly became a passion and an utter joy to me and a financial help to my family. Who knew that our dream house was in Tucson and it would contain a one room school house?! The Lord knew. We started construction the month we moved in, paying as we went. If being a software developer doesn't work out for Benjamin, home building will! He put in so MANY hours to make this happen, I have loved learning form him and I have learned many new skills. I will gladly work on his crew if the need arises:)  My Dads construction expertise was utilized to the max, when he would drive up to assist we would say here comes the cavalry. Benjamin managed to finish a week earlier than planned, what can I say he is an over achiever.

This is the "Tack Room" as it was listed when we bought the place. The first task was removing all the junk that got left behind from the previous owners.

Inside the tack room.

This shows you how bad the roof was. That was the first thing to go. Benjamin, Dad and I re-roofed that in June. Working on the surface of the sun was no easy task! 

Next thing the walls had to go! It was nice, the preschool kids had a open pavilion to play under.

Then we framed the windows. "We" means Dad and Benjamin.

Then we wrapped this futuristic wrap around the place to help with insulation which keeps the temperature even. The kids were so good with not messing with this! 

Then we put up furring strips to provide a beeze air flow between the walls.

This is a picture of  Dad helping to install hardy board.

Then we installed itchy insulation, working with fiber glass is fun... Benjamin managed to do all the electrical with out getting too severally shocked. Thank goodness for Utube and a laptop. We also dug a trench for the water, digging is serious work. 

When the drywall went up we could taste the finish line!  The true tricky part is the taping and texturing trying to get a smooth finish is really hard, really.

All white from the "mud"

Ceiling fans go up.

We painted a light blue and installed vinyl floors. That took forever. By forever I mean another date night in the school house. 

 The next day Saturday November 12th I was just going to move in some of the tables to see how it all would fit, but I couldn't stop! So we moved the preschool out of our living room. We will get to the base boards "later" realistically over Christmas break if I can convince Benjamin to go back into the school house.

We had our ribbon cutting ceremony of Tuesday November 15th, Preschool kiddos their parents and many honored visitors came (Grandma and Grandpa and Nate and the boys). We had a week without a toilet at school and my mom and I would walk the kiddos to the main house to go, that got old real fast. So we special ordered this toilet that Benjamin is posing on. 

Now I can kick back and enjoy another day at the office!

God is good. Never in a million years did I think we would climb out of debt as fast as we did and that I would find a job that I enjoy so much. The lesson for me is sometimes the best thing to do is get moving and the Lord will magnify your undeserving efforts. 

Halloween fun! This was Beryl's first time carving a pumpkin since Halloween is clearly an American tradition. The weather was so lovely, it was all cloudy and rainy and even had thunder while we carving. A perfect spooky night .

Later Bella, Beryl and Brighlynne (all B's that's funny) made fruit shirts for a church Halloween dance, they even convinced their guy friends to wear them, if only for a little while. 

20th reunion!

What's my take away from attending my 20th year high school reunion? My friends are a bunch of SURVIVORS! Some have survived cancer, abusive relationships, child birth, children with disabilities and loved ones who have passed away ... All employed "plan B" and crushed life's battles. The passing of time is a true gift. The added waist line and wrinkles are tokens from victories great and small. I hope I get to experience another 20 on this rock. This sappy reflection was taken directly from my Facebook post about my reunion, I can only come up with poetry like this once a topic :)

Fall break

Kids were home all week for fall break, they had a blast! The house was a revolving door of friends and activities. Having cousins live right next door at our guest house has made after school and break times one big party. We also watched the kids of our close family friends, our kids have known each other for years and we call them cousins. Their Dad is getting deployed for a year and we thought they needed a night away so we had a slumber party. Our kids had a blast. Unfortunately the cousins move out next month November 1st, so the ongoing party will soon change. We are super sad about it especially since my sister in law, Suzie is my closest friend in the ward. All my kids would say the same thing, that their cousins are their closest friends in the ward, bummer.

One of our foreign exchange students, Cindy, moved out fairly suddenly.  She met a friend at school whose parents are from China, she is also an only child and they live in a four bedroom house. We think she wanted space, her own room and Chinese food, all of which we couldn't provide :) we were sad to say goodbye. I personally love when preschool kids leave my house crying cause they don't want to leave, so it was sad that she could leave so easily. Luckily we will see her around school. So glad we still have Beryl, she is super sweet and has really joined our family in activities and humored us on our craziness.

All week Bella and a good friend have been fixing up my parents old Ford Explorer, Nana calls it Black Beauty she hasn't run for nearly 7 years. Bella's friend got it running! It still will need more work, fingers crossed we can get it fully running by March.

Benjamin is continuing to work crazy hard on converting our tack room into a preschool room. We have already replaced the roof, taken down all the walls, installed windows and doors, built up the walls, installed electricity, framed a bathroom and on Saturday we installed water! My pick ax skills are mad, you need a lady to dig a trench I'm your gal! Benjamin's handy man skills are never ending! This week we hope to install insulation and drywall. I can not express how excited I am to get the preschool in its very own location and not sharing it in my home. It is going to be so sweet.

On Saturday, Bella and Olivia and their cousins threw a bon fire party, it was "lit". They had about 20 friends come out for smores. They even convinced their Dad and I to hide in the desert behind what we call "the creepy gate." Just down the road from us is a winding path that leads to this rock gate with metal skulls a top the gate. Its super creepy because its in a tunnel of mesquite trees and beyond the gate the path turns so you can't see where it leads too. Anyways we sneaked over there and hid and waited till they got there and came out running. It was great! Even the kids who knew we were doing it got totally spooked.

It was a great break and I am looking forward to a quiet Monday. at home with kids in school and preschool that starts Tuesday!

18th Anniversary

Benjamin and I celebrated our 18th anniversary on the 19th of September. Benjamin was born on the 1st and I was born on the 18th and when you add that together it makes 19.  Our family was born on the 19th....SO cheesy and truly romantic. Benjamin just pointed this out to me when I told him I was posting about our anniversary. Cause next year will be our golden anniversary, 19 years on the 19th.

We went to our friends ranch and road horses to celebrate. We later ate at a yummy restaurant and went to the movies. It was a great day. Can't find a picture of us on the horses so a picture of us at the U of A  vs BYU game will do. We had awesome seats due to my Father in law Ron, padded seats are a must. The cats lost but it was still a great game and night.

A teenage driver in the house!

Bella got her permit after much hilarity. To celebrate I took her to my favorite breakfast joint Gus Balones, it is the best in Tucson literally the best. Benjamin and I once did extensive research on this. We have eaten at 6  different mom and pop breakfast joints and Gus wins hands down! I LOVE cinnamon rolls and theirs are hands down are amazing. Whoever is the baker there should get a raise. Every bread product that is on the menu is homemade. Yummo!

I am really impressed with the patience of other drivers as Bella is learning to drive. No body yet has rudely gestured or cursed at us, not even a honk. What nice citizens.

Somebody who was not a nice citizen was a parent driver at my kids school. I went to pick up Bella and Beryl after school hours and wasn't sure where they were at. If they were in front of the school or at the QT. So I didn't enter the pickup line in front of the school and paused my car by a red painted curb to shoot off a quick text to see where they were at. This lady pulled up next to me and was gesturing out of control. I thought I was being reprimanded by the chief of police. I thought wow what was her problem?! Then I thought oh she was behind me and must have been frustrated that I was pausing, well go around!!! Well she did that! How hard. For some reason I could let her craziness slip. She pulled into a parking spot and I pulled behind her and unrolled my window.....

She came out and I said with sincerity not sarcasm "I am so sorry for stopping in the parking lot" To which she reply "Well it was a red zone!" again I said "I am so sorry I was trying to reach my kids I wasn't sure where they were at" To which she reply's "Its ok, I understand it could happen to anyone" I then said "I will try to be more considerate next time" 

Why did I feel the need to apologize? Was it me not wanting someone to be mad at me? Or was my apologetic attitude a mockery of her over reaction?,,,, You decide.