Organizing

Nothing much happening around here. I've almost made it through my least favorite month. Woot! My winter project goal is to clean and organize my house. I worked on that a bit this week. I hope I don't burn out before I get done.

Ryan was complaining about his ears on Tuesday so I took him to the doctor on Wednesday. He had a double ear infection but when he opened his mouth the doctor was really concerned about his tonsils. He is putting Ryan on antibiotics for three weeks. We have a follow up appointment and if his tonsils don't look better they may have to come out. I'm hoping we don't have to have surgery but at the same time he has been sick all winter so maybe he will be better without his tonsils. Who knows?

On Friday night we went out to dinner with my siblings and their spouses for Alex and Lance's birthday. We had a fun visit with them. Last night I had a late night with Scott. I've been working almost everyday this entire month so I've been going to bed early every night. I felt like a real party animal going to bed after midnight, four hours past my usual bed time. Ha.

Corbin survived his maturation talk. Ha. We talk to our kids really openly about sex stuff so it's not like there were any surprises!

Well that's all. I'm super excited that January is over this week and I'm excited to see my fat paycheck from VIP next month.

I went through the kids' puzzles and put them all together in one bin. Each of the puzzles had their own box and it took up so much room! 

Ta-da! So many puzzles in there! 

Teaching stuff disaster

A Little Less of a Disaster.

Poor Willow, Gabby has had her captured all day!

Working Hard.

I survived my subbing week. It wasn't so bad. This is the teacher I subbed for  last year for 6 weeks so I'm very comfortable subbing for her. I feel like I know what I'm doing and I know a lot of the staff and kids at the school since I also coach there. The best part was last week was finals week so Thursday and Friday were half days! Score! I did wheel in two chairs into my private bathroom and shut off the lights and have a power nap on some of the days during my prep time. I am a big fan of power naps! I think I've decided I will go ahead and sub one day a week until I start coaching.

For some reason I have been killing it at VIPKid I don't even know what is happening. My schedule has never been so full. My bookings go up and down so I'm just trying to enjoy it. I will earn my biggest check yet this month. Chinese New Year is in a couple of weeks and the entire country migrates so I'm counting on my bookings going down soon for a little while. We will see what happens.

I am trying to finish up in my room as quickly as possible. Projects are so messy and disruptive! I finished painting the walls in my room. I decided to switch out my dressers with the kids' dressers because I want white furniture with my new paint. I finished painting a dresser today. It looks good! I'm close to being done. I can't wait! I'm tired and need a break.

Corbin is watching his maturation video this week in school. He's so nervous. Ha. He's been talking about it for WEEKS! It's weird that he's going to be going through puberty and heading off to middle school. Weird!

Gabby starts play practices for the spring play she will be in. We will see how that goes. I'm hoping it will be a fun, good experience.

Piper is doing well even though her BEST friend moved away before Christmas. It hasn't seemed to phase her that much.

Ryan loves preschool. He thinks Miss Janis is the best (she is). He enjoys his daycare as well.

Scott's job is going well. He really likes his co-workers and mostly enjoys his work although it can be stressful at times.

Gabby taking selfies of her straightened hair. (There were so many pictures). Ha.

Power nap!

Choosing a paint color

White dresser

Painted dresser

My dad has been the county commissioner in Butte County for 33 years. They did a little write up on him in the local paper. 

Faux Shiplap Wall

Okay lets see, the kids went back to school and we got back into the swing of things around here. The sun has been out a lot and it's been a very pleasant January so far. I was at Walmart with Ryan and I went past the home section and impulsively bought a new bed spread. I then felt the bug to change other things up as well. I love shiplap so much but I am intimidated by that project especially since Scott does not enjoy projects as much as I do and I felt like I would need his help. I asked an experienced friend about it and she sent me some instructions. On this blog there was a link to another blog where someone just drew lines on their wall instead of doing shiplap. Color me intrigued! I decided that I for sure wanted to give that a try first. I painted the wall white and then drew on the lines. Boom! Done! It looks good enough. It's not as amazing as shiplap of course but for real I'm already done and it cost me nothing since I already had some paint. Now I'm trying to decide what color to paint the other three walls. I have a couple of different blue shades on the wall and I will try to decide soon, I have to put a pin in the project though because I am going to be swamped this week. I am subbing for my friend for a week. I have been dreading it for awhile. I'm hoping it goes okay! I'm mostly worried about being too tired since I will work for 3 hours before I head into sub. I'm hoping some caffeine can help see me through! I've already got dinners made and ready to go. Wish me luck! 

Rustin hanging out before his flight home. 

Ryan playing with his cool car he got from Nana.

Willow just hanging out while Gabby does her homework, 

I made bread pudding for the first time. It was good! 

Wall before: 

Faux Shiplap wall. The lighting is not great. It's kind of hard to see.

Still deciding on a new paint color for the other walls. 

What a week!

I feel like I've been in the Twilight Zone for the last week. It's been weird! The house was far too quiet. I had to have music or the TV running all day. I really enjoyed the relaxing break but 3 days would have been sufficient. Ha. Oh well! The kids had a blast. I'm surprised they got loaded up in the car and came back to boring old us. 

Scott and I were working a lot the whole time and our schedules are opposite. I work in the early morning hours and need to go to bed early and Scott is gone all day. We got a little bit of hang out time every day. Scott and I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. I even got him to work out with me on New Years Day. He couldn't sit without being in great pain for a few days. I'm pretty certain he got his one workout in for the New Year. Check! I was mostly home alone all day without a car the whole time. Lucky for me I was raised in the middle of nowhere and we never went anywhere. I have years of experience entertaining myself and keeping myself happy and occupied. I mostly wanted to relax and veg but I cannot just sit all day doing nothing SO  I found projects I could do while binge watching some shows. I mostly worked on redecorating my classroom, I busted out my cricket with which I have a love hate mostly hate relationship with. I made a ton of snow flakes, a new banner, and I redid my letters on my magnet board. You won't believe it but just that took days. I took down the Christmas stuff and cleaned the house, I made some artisan bread and froze some meals and just like that they were back. It felt REALLY long and kind of short at the same time.

The kids had a BLAST! They went to the movies three times. They went roller skating twice. They went swimming, They went sledding. I mean who even knows what else? It was party time for DAYS! Now it's back to reality and school tomorrow. Wish us luck! 

Old lettering

New Classroom make-over.

Artisan bread.

Rustin making the kids play mother may I? Ha.

Breakfast time!

I don't think she likes the peppers.

Sledding time? Phone time? Ha.

New Years Eve

Fondue

Cuddles

Pizza

Uncle Gordon owns some Pizza Johns so he let the kids come down and make their own pizzas.

Classic Fun Center

Christmas and Corbin's B-Day!

What a week. On Christmas Eve I started cooking the turkey right away. I cook it on low for many hours like my mom. I didn't have to do much other food prep during the day. Around 4:00 I started in on the potatoes, yams, dressing, and gravy. I was happy with how everything turned out. After we cleaned up dinner Gabby got out the gingerbread kit I had bought. I don't know what I was thinking with that! I was already tired from cooking and cleaning up dinner AND we had just decorated cookies and had a giant mess the night before. I am terrible with those stupid kits as well. I cannot separate the pieces without ruining them. Luckily after the initial disappointment was over that I had ruined some of the houses and was too tired to help them, they instead had a blast making a giant mess with some "cake wreck" style gingerbread houses. After that we did a few Christmas Eve festivities including reading a few poems, singing some songs, and playing a round of Guestures. I was beat and we did it as quickly as possible so the kids could go to bed, followed shortly after by me. 

On Christmas morning I ended up waking up the whole house to open presents after 7:00. The kids all seemed to be very happy with their presents. We somehow went from a 1 pet family to 3. The bunny was a big hit. She's so cute! We named her Willow. Gabby spent the next two days trying to hold Willow as much as she possibly could. I'm not sure if bunnies like being held or not...

The day after Christmas Gabby got to pick out her beta fish. She named him Bubbles. 

We hung out Christmas day, I made Cafe Rio Pork for dinner that night. We were going to go to Ralph Breaks the Internet but were disappointed to see they were charging regular prices for Christmas and not the reduced Tuesday rate. Scott and I could not handle being ripped off that badly and changed our plan. Scott had tickets to see the Botanical garden Christmas lights and we had not had the occasion to go yet so we did that instead. The kids were pretty tired and we only lasted a short time at the lights. Ryan wore his snow boots and they started hurting his feet and he had to be carried to the car. The kids happily went to bed tuckered out that night.  

The day after Christmas I tried to get things ready for Corbin's birthday. It's such a marathon getting everything done for Christmas and then to have to worry about a birthday right after is tough. It makes for a tired mama. Rustin flew into town on Corbin's birthday. He could NOT handle that we were not coming down for Christmas. Long story short he ended up flying to Boise and driving the kids back with him. They will get back next Saturday I think. More on that later.

After we picked up Rustin we went to Pojos and played and had lunch there. Corbin ended up playing a game of chance and winning the biggest prize...1,000 tickets! Crazy! He was sweet and used some of his earnings to buy something for his siblings and Rustin. We hung out the rest of the day at the house. 

The next day I helped get the kids ready and packed them up. I was much more emotional about it than I expected to be. Piper kept begging me to come down with them and Ryan was doing his crying not crying routine where he tries not to cry by wiping his eyes and looking up. It is the cutest, saddest thing! I cried for a bit after they left and felt kind of sad and lonely on Friday. Things have been fine since then. I spent a lot of the day working on a puzzle yesterday and much to my amazement I finished! I have a lot of projects I could work on this week. If I'm feeling ambitious I'll get a lot done and if I'm not I won't! Ha. I do want to try to make a weeks worth of freezer meals for when I'm subbing for a week. My coach friend is going on a cruise and she's been harassing me to sub for her since last year. I tried to get her to find someone else but she couldn't find anyone else she wanted so I caved. I made arrangements for Ryan. That week should be interesting. Hopefully it will be okay. It should be fine. Tiring, but fine. 

I've been teaching a lot! I was offered two incentives from VIPKID to work Christmas week and New Years week. They offered me an $80 bonus for Christmas week and $100 bonus for New Years week. They did not make the same offer to other teachers I know. I don't get it and I'll believe it when I see the money. I did keep a copy of the e-mails. I've kind of adjusted to getting up at 3:45 so I may start doing that from now on. We'll see. Well that's it. I hope to enjoy my staycation and hope and know the kids are having a blast in Utah.

Christmas Eve Dinner. We busted out our wedding china. 

Gingerbread house fiasco. 

Christmas Eve. I love my tree except that it leans. Oh well! 

Stockings and slippers. 

Ryan was so happy with his red dinosaur. 

Piper wanted a hatchimal so much! 

Gabby's fish tank! She's such a ham! Dramatic much! 

Corbin got a bigger nicer computer monitor. 

Willow!

She's so cute!

Gabby loves her sooo much! 

Christmas breakfast. Sooo good! Salmon is a quirky Beal tradition going back a few generations. My grandpa Beal always had fish (trout I think) on Christmas morning and my parents changed it to Salmon. My family had salmon and waffles growing up but I prefer breakfast casserole and homemade cinnamon rolls. 

Corbin's big win! 

Bumper cars! 

Zebra dessert per request. 

My 300 piece puzzle. It took me sooo many hours. Ha. 

Botanical gardens.

Willow's hutch. Rest assured she is an outdoor bunny although you wouldn't know it with how much time she spends inside with Gabby.

Bubbles