Quick 5

Holy smokes, the Broncos are in the Super Bowl. This year I was most definitely a fan, but NOT a believer.

1. What do you do when it's 60 degrees outside, but there is still snow on the ground? Send your kids out to play in snow pants and shirt sleeves. The girls had a blast and now I have a bunch of muddy snow clothes. I suppose the good news is it is supposed to snow in a few days, so I could send them back out and let the clean snow wash off all the dirt.

2. When you play as hard as Alaina, you wear out your clothes quickly. Alaina needed to make her case for a new pair of snow mittens. I'll put it on the list.

3. Shortly after they went outside, the girls came running back into the house saying, "Dad! We found something that looks like a frozen dead rat!" So Lee went out to investigate, and lo and behold it was a frozen dead rat, right in the middle of the yard. It was disconcerting because we have never seen rats around our house. Just mice. Rats are a whole different ball game. But the frozen dead rat was missing a tail, and so the theory is that a hawk or owl or something was flying over our yard holding its mighty prize by the tail, when the tail detached from the body, dropping the body into our yard. We hope that's the case because gross.

4. Lee started his new job on Monday! For the record, he is a Billing Specialist at a company called Twenty Eighty. The week has gone well, full of meeting people and beginning to learn the ways of this job. He was delighted to be introduced to a guy he worked with a few years ago. This guy has helped us move once or twice and has been over here for dinner, and we were sad when he left Lee's old work. But there he was! He's doing contract work, so he's only around for another month or so, but it was nice for Lee to see a familiar face.

5.  That's about it from the home front, really. Next week is a short school week thanks to parent teacher conferences. Then home grown Super Bowl festivities. And the beginning of Bria's birthday month. If anything remarkable pops up, you'll be the first to hear about it.

Life marches on.

Quick 5

This winter I am thankful for my electric heating blanket on my bed.

1. Last Saturday I took Alaina and Joya to Applebee's for lunch. Alaina earned a free lunch there by getting a character award at school for integrity. We love celebrating those kinds of awards. And the girls love going out to eat. At an actual restaurant. Where we can go in and sit down. It happens about four times a year, so it's an exciting event.

2. Monday was a day off of school, but it was shadowed by sickness. Alaina was sick most of the day, which was sad. So we watched movies and kid shows all day long. She felt much better on Tuesday, but she had to stay home from school anyway, since her symptoms didn't start to go away until dinner time on Monday. Thankfully most of the rest of the family has been unaffected, although Bria seemed like she was going to succumb yesterday. But she's okay.

3. Joya is my little creator. She would much rather draw, paint, color and play with playdoh than play with the myriads of other toys we have. I'm learning that there is actually quite the difference between and Pretender and a Creator. Alaina likes to pretend, Joya likes to create. Can anyone name what she made here?

4. Let's not forget Bria. I have serious doubts that this girl will ever be potty trained. She is just Not Interested. No thank you. Whatever. She's my third kid, and I have no fight left in me. I'll change her diaper for another few months or so, then I'll teach her how to do her own. And take the diaper money out of her college fund. She can wear diapers forever if she wants.

5. In other news, I took a giant tumble over the hill by getting my first pair of reading glasses. Age does not play favorites.

Quick 5

Big sigh of relief!

1. We do have the good news that we were waiting for.  Lee was offered the job we were hoping he would be offered! It is in a near identical role to what he has been doing for the past five years (billing) at a growing company that is located less than a mile from Alaina's school. Which means it's about three miles away from our house. We're so thrilled. It sounds like it is going to be a perfect fit and it's close by. He starts on January 25, so he has one more week of "vacation."  And once again, the goodness of God prevails.

2. Lee has been enjoying hanging out with the girls. There have been snowball fights almost every morning, and Lee has been getting used to losing Uno to Joya. I've had a few appointments and volunteering things to do at the school that need to be done before Lee is gone from the house full time again, and so I've been cramming them in as best as I can these two weeks.

3. The girls had dentist visits this week, and all three got thumbs up. Bria did great until she decided she was done. Really she just missed out on the flossing, but who really likes that part anyway?

4. We're trying out a new Warm Fuzzy jar. Each time the girls do one of their chores, they get a warm fuzzy in the jar. If they do the chore without me asking, then they get two warm fuzzies. If the chore is not done correctly, they lose a warm fuzzy. When the jar is full, we go for ice cream. This new system is in beta testing right now. We'll see how it goes.

5. There is no 5 in my quick 5 today.

Onward.

Quick 5

Good news: the blogging hiatus is over.

1. It's been an interesting couple of weeks. On December 14, the day after the Christmas program, Lee's position at work was terminated, effective that day. Because everyone needs a curve ball like that right before Christmas. So we packed up a left a few days early for Kansas City. The time with family was good and restorative. Lee has done everything he can since then, applying for as many jobs that we can find that fit his skill set. And this week has been a very interesting one. We hope to have good news about that soon.

2. Our Kansas City Christmas was good and busy. Cookies were made, trains were seen, parks were visited, milkshakes were slurped. snowballs were thrown (inside. Missouri had no snow.) It was a full, fun visit.

 2. On a very cold, windy day, we got to go see the famous Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile. It was a sight to behold.

 3. Here is the best Christmas 2015 picture I have of my girls:

And the winner of the best Christmas present goes to Aunt Mindy and Uncle Josh for this fine ensemble:

4. We were home for a full week before school started. So we took the girls to Southwest Plaza to check out the renovations. That is the mall I grew up in, and it looks nothing like what it used to. It looks nice, but I found myself getting a little teary walking around an almost foreign mall. But they have a new play area, and my girls are happy about that.

5. Yesterday I turned in the choice enrollment form for Joya to go to kindergarten. We have to go through the formality of the charter school lottery, which is run at the end of this month, but since Alaina is enrolled Joya will get sibling priority. And so Joya's school career begins.

Stay warm, friends.