Gabby's Birthday

    This past week was busy but good. I'm feeling tired though and I'm happy for a 3 day weekend. I need some lazy downtime. Last Sunday Gabby helped me make and decorate her birthday cake. It was so cute. She decorated it by herself. We ended up saving it for her actual birthday on Tuesday. We didn't really do anything special on her birthday. I had a short weekend with the kids because of a schedule change so maybe the next time I have the kids we will do something for her birthday like go to dinner or Jump Time or something. She got her 2nd ear piercing for her birthday present. She's 14, I can't believe it. 

    Valentine's day was great, I was super happy to be single, lol. The PTO decorated the halls and they looked so cute and festive. They also made us lunch. My sister Kelsey sent me flowers which was a super fun surprise. I guess she put a note on it but it didn't get delivered so it was a mystery for a minute. I knew it wasn't from a stupid boy though which was perfect. Boys smoys. 

    Corbin finally got his license and started driving his car and it already broke down. I think I may have bought a lemon. We will see if it can magically get fixed without costing more than it's worth. Cars are so dumb.

    I got help hanging the last two things in my house and I'm so happy about it! I tried to do it myself but I just don't feel confident about that stuff so I asked for help and my friend and her husband helped me out, yay! Now the only things I want to do with the house are plant some trees in the backyard and build a pergola and by build I mean have someone else build it. I'm hoping I will have some surrogacy money to pay for that. I passed my last medical exam for that and now I'm waiting for the lawyers to draft contracts and then I start getting shot treatments. I'm not sure how long it will take, everything seems to take a bit of time. I will be curious how bad the shots hurt and if they make me crazy. I will also be very curious if the baby sticks. I think the transfer rate is about 60% which is not great. This whole thing will be interesting. 

So cute!

Cute birthday girl. 14!

Some comfy birthday overalls. 

This picture doesn't do it justice but the halls were cute!

Kelsey flowers! Made my day!

Cute kids chasing Charly.

Cute Charly.

Gabby's chair got hung! So cute.

Yay! My bathroom shelf.

My friend Nicole and I went to a cheesy dumb rom com and we loved it. It was fun to catch up with her!

 

Lemon or Lemonade?

This past week went by quickly. I took Corbin's old Honda to the mechanic to give it a look over and he gave me a giant list of repairs and told me to go sell it. I texted Alex to get a second opinion and basically we are going to gamble and hope for the best. I'm already out the money for the car purchase plus the cost of registration and title transfer so I'm taking my chances. Alex said to watch the oil and coolant and drive it until it dies. It's a Honda, maybe it will last a year, maybe a month. Who knows? Place your bets and cross your fingers and toes. I told Corbin to turn on the hazards and call for help if it breaks down. Driving a crappy car feels like a high school rite of passage to me.

I hosted several social gatherings this past week. My aunt Beverly has included me a lot since my divorce. She lives with her daughter Sherry who is also divorced. We are the old lady divorce club. I invited them over for dinner Wednesday night so they could see the house. We had a fun visit. Thursday night I invited some of my old ward friends over and they stayed until midnight. I was super tired on Friday at work but it was worth it. Friday night I chaperoned a school dance. Saturday morning I hosted a Galentines brunch with some of my old book club friends. It was fun to catch up with them. Later that day the kids came over early for the week. Scott's family is coming next weekend on my weekend with the kids so I got them early this weekend to try to balance that out a bit. Gabby's birthday is this week so we are making a cake today and starting the birthday festivities. We are going to go watch the super bowl/excuse to eat and see people tonight at Gabe and Christy's.  

Piper being Piper.

So cute.

 

I am also enjoying giant chair. 

Cuties.

I tried out a Valentine cookie recipe for my cooking lab this week. They are pretty good!

Getting Settled

Phew, I'm tired. I've been continuously working to getting fully settled over here. We are keeping Amazon in business for sure. I keep telling the kids at some point I will stop spending money. I am about at my stopping point and have everything I want for now. We are still getting the kids' rooms decorated. I wanted a new chair and I was trying to decide what to get and what look I was going for. Gabby and I went to a few furniture stores and I stalked facebook marketplace for awhile. We settled on a brand new giant oversize chair. I decided that right now cozy and comfort is more important so I bought the fun kid chair. It is a hit for sure and the kids love it. We are all loving the new house and can't believe we live in this super nice house. We are in love! I bought Corbin a car yesterday. I hope I didn't make a big mistake. Buying cars feels like a gamble. The price was fair according to Kelly Blue Book and I'm just hoping this car can make it to and from school. It's a 1996 Honda Civic and those cars seem to be able to run forever, that's the hope anyway! The owner took really good care of it. I will go get it serviced this week and hope it will be the little car that could for me. Fingers crossed! 

 

It's so comfy!

Corbin had to get into that action.

I came downstairs and Corbin was waiting to go to school sitting in the chair. Success.

Piper built her own nightstand. What! She's already better than me at that stuff.

Go girl!

Ryan's Mohawk and super cool room poster. 

Cute Charly.

You can do it!

New House Baby!

I can't even believe it! I'm pretty much all settled into my new house. It's crazy! The week has been a whirlwind and I was nervously anticipating it. I was nervous something might fall through and I'd be homeless. Luckily Quinton found new renters that are moving into his house in 2 days and luckily I did get into my house! I got up early Thursday morning and loaded my van full of stuff and went to work. After work I had to get a stupid mammogram and then I went and picked up my keys. My sister Trisha surprised me and came from Rigby to help me move for a few days. AMAZING! She and I worked hard that night. The next day we took a load to the house and then went to Home Depot to buy garage shelving. I put Trisha right to work on building those. I cannot do that! I kept loading and unloading. My sister in law Christy came and also helped for several hours. My mom then surprised me that she and my dad were also coming. They had decided not to come because my dad hadn't been feeling well and my mom was worried about driving in bad weather. She couldn't handle not helping and they went and ahead and came. My parents are workers and work we did! Christy and Gabe bought us delicious pizza that night and then we went to Alex's 50th birthday party. Trisha left Saturday morning. Gabe and Alex moved most of the big furniture and we were moved out of Quinton's rental by about 2:00. Christy and Anna were also there to help move but by 3:00 I was wiped out and everyone went home. I slowly kept slothing and working. Hart and Jory were busy with their climbing gym earlier in the day so they came over that evening and helped me for several hours to hang things on the wall and then they took me to dinner to celebrate. By Saturday night I was pretty much done. This morning I finished organizing the garage. I want to rearrange the kitchen pantry and finish decorating a bit. The kids want to decorate their rooms so I'm sure we will work on that for awhile. They haven't even seen it! They acted like they wanted to come and be a part of it but they bailed. They will have NO IDEA how much work it took me and a lot of people to get the house looking like this. GAH! Now I'm just trying to rest up for the work week. I'm exhausted! The kitchen pantry can wait. CHEERS! 

I'm a home owner!

Now that is how you load a truck!

VIDEO!

SNOW DAYS!!!!

This past week has been great. Monday was a holiday but I had a psych evaluation interview for surrogacy and a dentist appointment that day. I wasn't sure if I passed my evaluation but three days later my agency contact person started asking me next step questions so I guess I passed. Phew. I have a big medical exam coming up where they will do a lot of blood work and check out my uterus among other things. If I pass that I will start doing hormone shots for implantation. It will be interesting. We all went to school on Tuesday and we heard rumblings of a possible snow day the next day. Sure enough I got that early morning text that West Ada had canceled school and waited to hear from my work. I heard from them about 5 minutes later. I woke up all the kids and told them to turn off their alarms. They were so excited. Wednesday night was even better, we were all getting ready to go to bed when we got the text from my school that school was canceled the next day and then I heard from West Ada a few minutes later. Wahoo!!! No early bedtime after all! The snow days were very chill and relaxing. We worked on some puzzles and played in the snow and did nothing. It was great. We had to go back to school on Friday but then it was already the weekend. WAHOO!!! 

I've been anxious about the house and if everything was going to workout on the quick closing time line. So far it looks like it's checking out but barely! I went to get my cashiers check for the closing and they said they couldn't cut the check until Tuesday and my closing is Wednesday. It's going to work by 1 day...1 day! Oy! I will feel a lot of stress lifted when I get the keys to the house and get to start moving! I CAN'T WAIT! The kids are very excited but some are a little sad with the emotions of leaving Quinton's rental. It's been a great house for us! I'm very grateful we've been able to stay here. I've felt very safe and peaceful here. I think I'll feel even better in my own house! CAN'T WAIT!

We had a last celebration breakfast together today. I made hash browns, eggs, sausage, and crepes. Yum!

Piper got these kits for Christmas and figured out how to make them all by herself. I'm super proud of her. They are so cute! She did a great job!

I'm not sure what's happening here.

Meet Jerry!

Snow cave.

Piper helped me make a paper chain countdown to moving. I needed to do something while we wait!

Gabe took all my kids ice skating except for Piper. She didn't want to go and neither did I. I was feeling way too lazy for that. 

Holy Snow!

This week has been fairly uneventful. It has been snowing off and on all week. We had a snow day on Wednesday and that was very exciting!  It was pretty disappointing when we didn't get one on Friday, I think we were all banking on one that day. The real snow storm happened yesterday. It snowed a lot! I think there's about 12 inches out there. Crazy! I am worried about getting out of my back alleyway. I don't have anywhere to be until tomorrow afternoon so hopefully by then some of the snow will be plowed, until then I'm hanging here. I got new tires back in December and I'm really glad I did. It makes a big difference. I think the snow is really pretty. I especially like it from my warm couch. 

I had my first week back at work and with half new classes. Things seem good so far. We will see how the class dynamics go. So far none of the classes seem worse than classes I've dealt with in the past so it should be a good semester. I've been really enjoying the school year with more experience and lessons under my belt. 

I think I will be anxious for the next two weeks waiting to complete the loan application process and moving into my house. There are a lot of moving pieces. It should work out fine but it's still stressful. Someone came to look at Quinton's rental on Saturday so they may be moving in in February. Hopefully I'm not homeless in two weeks! I hope the snow is magically melted in two weeks so it will be easier to move. Ahh the joys of buying a house in January. 

So much snow!

I got my workout shoveling the past couple of days.

Gabe hosts a man's ice fishing trip every year. My brother Hart gave Corbin and Ryan a ride. I think it may have been 20 below zero. 20 BELOW ZERO! Um, no thanks!

I Bought a House!

    What a crazy week! My kids were in Utah for part of the week and I got them back on Wednesday. I hung out with Sam over New Years. I broke up with him a few days ago. He was too serious too fast and I could not handle it. I'm super not ready for that and neither are my kids. I need to be a monk for 8 years. Haha. Oy!

    I've been manically house hunting for weeks and everyone is like what is the rush? Do people know me? I like to get things done! I put in 4 offers and the last one was to the miracle perfect house! The first two would have been good but they didn't work out. The 3rd one was a major fixer upper and I liked some things about it but luckily Jory helped talk me out of that one. It had some major bad, sketchy vibes. Then on Friday Hart showed me the miracle house! We put in an offer and they weren't going to budge on price so we fandangled some miracles and with some help from Hart and my parents I got it! I'm not certain on closing dates. I am deciding between two lending companies and need to decide tomorrow. I  am hoping for my money from the divorce this week??? I hope to be moved by February. The house is 1800 square feet and is only 5 years old but looks BRAND NEW! I don't know who lived there but they were immaculate. It's about 1 minute from Hart's house and 6 minutes to Gabe's house. I think Ryan and I will be biking to jump in Gabe's pool all summer. It's a 3 bedroom but it has a little living space upstairs that I am going to turn into a bedroom. Who goes upstairs and who cares? I might put Ryan and Piper in that space and give the teenagers their own room. I'm still figuring that out. It's amazing and I can't believe it's real and until I move in I won't fully believe it. 

    Gabby had to have surgery on her toe again. Her ingrown toenail came back. I went to a        podiatrist this time and hopefully it will never happen again! She has had an infected toe for too    long.  

    I need to shift gears and get ready to go to work tomorrow. I haven't thought about work once. I have 3 new classes tomorrow and I need to get ready to lay down the law and set classroom expectations. Must shift gears! Happy New Year to all! It's going to be a great year!

I put up some décor with lights to help me during dark, cold, January.

This toe has been a hot mess forever.

Charly looks like a rat when she is wet!

Moo and Crumble! Easy awesome dog sitting gig.

Piper being Piper.