This month of November was such a pleasant surprise! When we had that little snow storm hit right before Halloween, I thought, "Oh great... the next six months will be filled with snow." But then the snow melted away right after Halloween and we didn't see another single flake until November 27th! (The eve of Thanksgiving) Then it decided it was really going to let loose and it snowed for the next 5 days straight! So right now we have a good 6 inches on the ground and the Rexburg roads are filled with icy, packed-down snow in their usual Rexburg winter fashion. I really try hard not to even leave the house and drive around town when the roads are like this, PLUS filled with college students from California who have never driven in snow before! So it may be a loooong winter of being a hermit if this snow doesn't melt.
The month of November has been a lot of hanging out at home. I have been studying every spare moment for this teacher exam I have to take. I actually am going down to Pocatello tomorrow morning to see if I can pass this first exam. It starts at noon and is supposed to take about 4 hours. I am NOT excited for it. If I do pass (hopefully), then I will start studying for the second half which is in the content area of English. Once I pass that one, I can start applying for teaching jobs. I am guessing it will probably be next fall when I would start teaching full-time.
The kids are all content hanging out at home after school and playing the XBOX or watching TV. The latest excitement is that we just subscribed to the new Disney Plus, which enables them to watch every Disney movie or TV show. That's kept them quite entertained. Definitely worth the $12 per month.
Avery is doing tap lessons every Tuesday after school and the boys are on a break from sports right now. Gabe tried out and made the highest level of travel soccer team a couple weeks ago. I was hoping he wouldn't because it's also the most expensive! lol But he's excited about it so I guess we will pay for it. *sigh* That starts up with indoor practices at the end of January and goes until June! They play games all over Idaho and a couple in Utah I think.
Caleb is trying to decide what he is going to do for the next few months. I told him to sign up for recreation leauge basketball again but I think he is dragging his feet because last year he had kind of a useless coach. He might just play church ball instead. (A group of boys from our church have games once a week.) Caleb also finally had his end-of-season football party on November 14th. We had it at the Vivint building (Josh used to work for them selling home alarms) and they were able to play basketball and ping pong. We had a big banquet for all the boys and their families and then we showed the highlight video that I made. It was a fun night! All the boys got awards and Caleb's was "Most Dependable Player" because the coach said, "We could always know for sure that Caleb wasn't letting his guy through and he didn't mess up on snapping the ball once all season."
Avery got to have a fun "Frozen" day with me last weekend. The new movie, "Frozen 2" came out and the local movie theater had an event where you could come and meet Anna and Elsa before the movie and do some other activities. The boys had gone with Josh to help his dad move some hay so me and Avery had a girls day. We met Anna and Elsa, saw the movie, ate lunch at McDonalds, (and even got a Frozen toy in the Happy Meal) and then Avery went to a birthday party for her friend, Adrie. She said that it was "the second best day ever" (after a day at Disney World). Here are some pictures of the "Frozen Day." Also, note that Avery lost one of her front teeth right before this. She has already lost just her two bottom ones so this is the third tooth ever that she has lost.
In addition to her "Frozen Day," we also had a little "spa night" a couple of nights earlier. Both of the boys had friends over and were busy playing Madden on XBOX, so Avery asked if we could do a spa day and put masks on our faces with "pickles" on our eyes (I realized after some questioning that she meant CUCUMBERS.) Here is Avery with her mask, her cucumbers, and her nails done.
For Thanksgiving, we went to our church just down the road. Josh's sister was going to host everyone at her house, but as the guest list grew she decided to reserve the church and have it there instead. It worked out well because then everyone did the traditional game of lighting (basketball) after eating. (Not me... I was in a food coma.) Here are the grandkids that were there (except for Gabe because he had just barely stepped out, but he was there too!) Shannon's family and Heather's family didn't come this year because they were doing other things. So this is just the kids of Josh's brother (Bryan) and two of his sisters (Janelle and Jenni). Tyson (the boy in the pink shirt in the front row) is a Junior and plays on the high school Varsity basketball team so he typically beat everyone at lightning. lol
On Black Friday, I started out by shopping online the night before and I should have just stuck with that! But no. I was lured into going to Kohl's because I had some $10 coupons that had to be used in store. I even had a couple of friends give me theirs so I had a total of 3 $10 coupons and 1 $5 coupon! I couldn't let that $35 go to waste! However, if I would have realized beforehand that they couldn't be used on toys, candy, Under Armour brand, Levis, and a whole host of other things I probably wouldn't have dragged my whole family along to Kohl's at 9am on Black Friday!
We created quite the scene at the check-outs as one by one all of use failed to be able to use our coupons. It was one per customer so I had told each of my kids, "Here is your coupon, go get in line." Gabe had just a pair of Under Armour socks. They were going to be about $12 so he had the $10 off coupon and I gave him a few bucks in cash to pay the difference. Well nope! The coupon wasn't allowed on Under Armour! Meanwhile, at a different checkout lane, Caleb had an $8 blanket to buy. Well nope! He needed to have OVER $10 in order to be able to use the coupon. So he tried to grab a candy bar at the checkout to bump it over $10, but NOPE! That wasn't working because it was candy! The cashier had mistakenly told him, "Oh, you must not be able to use it on the blanket," but it was actually the CANDY that was messing it up. So then Josh ALSO had a blanket. NOPE! Same problem. He just got out of line and was like, "I'll go look for something else." Meanwhile, I had a few little toys and also some socks. Well apparently I couldn't use the $10 coupon because the socks were only $9 and the toys wouldn't help bump it up over $10 because the coupon wouldn't apply to toys. So then I at least could use just the $5 coupon on the socks! SHEESH! And literally all of this was happening at the same time at four different registers. I have never been so frustrated with Kohl's in all my life. In the end, we did end up leaving with 2 blankets, a pair of shorts for Gabe, a pair of socks for Avery, and four little Hatchimals toys (for the gift exchange with Josh's extended family... we have a bunch of little girls to give gifts to.) But we ended up paying full price for one blanket and leaving one $10 coupon unused. I think total we ended up spending about $30 for all the things, so still a decent deal. But it also came with the cost of about 50 people in line staring at us as all heck broke loose and every cashier's light started flashing for help. Oops. Maybe they shouldn't have so many friggin' exclusions on their coupons!!
Then I also went to Bath and Body and got a whole bunch of hand soaps on sale to give to teachers and friends. Everyone can use soap, right?! After that it was about noon and we were all ready to get the heck back to our quiet house in Rexburg. Idaho Falls was CRAAAZY! When we got home, Josh took the kids sledding at the sand dunes and I stayed home and studied. Caleb looks really small in this picture but I think he was standing downhill. haha
Last but not least, I have to share these awesome pictures of Caleb. There is an ap that lets you age progress a photo so that you look like forty years older. Well here is Caleb's current school picture next to him as a grandpa. hahahaha The missing tooth only adds to the appeal.
He kind of resembles Santa Claus right?? And on that note.... Merry Christmas!!! ;)
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