Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas

 It's been over two months since my last post, and things are just as busy as always! Here are some highlights of what we have been up to for the past couple months.

Halloween

For Halloween this year, Avery was some kind of sorceress with a long black and purple dress with a hood and a wand. I don't really know if she even knew what it was, she just went to the Halloween store with me and picked out a dress that she thought looked like a good blend of pretty and scary! We went to the Hemming Village Hocus Pocus evening event for a little bit, and also went trick-or-treating in Summerfield. Caleb was on the fence about what he was going to do this year, but at the spur of the moment, he threw on a mask and went trick-or-treating with his neighborhood friends, Benson (who looks 10) and Jameson (who looks 12). Caleb easily looked older than them, but I think everyone still gave them candy. Summerfield is a pretty hoppin' neighborhood for trick-or-treating, with many people coming in that don't even live here. The Milners came and went around with Josh and Avery, and I handed out candy. Gabe went to the school Halloween dance with a group of friends for Halloween. It was a girls' choice dance and he got asked by this girl named Mackenzie that is a year older and who he didn't even know that well. His friends, Porter and Amos, were also in the group, so he had a good time despite having ZERO interest in the girl. They dressed up as fifties teens in leather jackets for the boys and poodle skirts for the girls. (I just realized I posted a picture of that in the previous post.) So, that was Halloween!

House Progress

Even though they broke ground on October 11, there was a lot of waiting around for stuff to happen until mid-November. They dug the hole, did the footings, then the prep plumbing and electrical that all had to go in the ground, then finished the concrete foundation. Finally, like right before Thanksgiving, they started framing it! It seemed like we kept hitting the holidays and things were dragging around Thanksgiving and then recently the Christmas/New Year holiday. Today is January 2, and they are working on hanging drywall. We are thinking over the next few weeks they will tape, texture, and then paint it. They are still waiting on one big window that goes in the staircase because they can't keep the house warm to texture and paint without having that window in. I would've thought that building with a big company like Kartchner that builds the same four home models over and over would mean that they would have the windows they need in some big warehouse somewhere, but apparently not! Here is a picture of me standing in front of the house towards the end of November. 

Thanksgiving

We had a low-key Thanksgiving, which I love. Josh, Caleb, and Avery went to Ben and Heather's house, but I was having a diarrhea stomach issue and couldn't leave the house, so I stayed home and watched Christmas movies on Netflix and Gabe stayed to "take care of me." We had a big lunch with turkey and all the things at our townhouse around noon, so Josh and the other two kids just went at about 4:00 and were back by 7:00. 

School and things

Avery is still not loving fifth grade at the middle school. She's doing fine, but she typically complains about this one teacher named Mrs. Zonts. She just doesn't seem like a very nice person. She yelled at Avery one day for bringing her own pencil to class. Apparently, they aren't allowed to do that. She wants them to share the classroom pencils. It's pretty silly. But, middle school is hard for everyone and hopefully, she can just get through it quickly. Gabe and Caleb are doing fine. Caleb is enjoying student council and hanging out with his friends. Gabe is busy working hard in his classes and maintaining his perfect 4.0 GPA. This trimester, he is enjoying the Madison Bobcat Beat class and he often makes silly little videos with his friend, Amos, and posts them to the school's Instagram. Recently, they did a feature on "hidden rooms of Madison High." I am still teaching and it's been kind of a rough year, to be honest. I'm thinking about doing something different next year. There is a job opening as an "online coordinator" for the district, which would involve more desk work and less student interaction, which some days sounds nice and some days I think would be boring. It depends on how difficult those 9th graders are being and which day you ask me! I have an interview in a few days, so hopefully I will know more about it then. 

Gabe's Winter formal

After me telling him that he should ask this girl named Ellie Moffit since November, Gabe finally asked her on about December 7th. The dance was on December 17th, so he didn't give her a lot of time to get a dress, but they still went and it was fun he said. In his group, it was just four people (him, Ellie, Amos, and Whitney), but Gabe still said it was probably the most fun he's had at a dance. 

Christmas

We once again got way too many presents for the kids in my opinion. Every year I say to myself, "Why do we do this? We should just be on a vacation someplace warm instead!" Maybe next year we will actually do that. Avery got a ton of L.O.L. dolls and toys. Her big Santa present was an L.O.L. airplane. Gabe and Caleb both got scooters from Santa. They also got lots of clothes. Gabe is always the hardest to shop for. He got some gift cards to some fast food places, clothes, black-out curtains (his request), an electric razor (for shaving), and a few other things. Caleb wanted these ridiculous light sabers, which he got, and some other things related to the Play Station mostly. We went to Brad and Diane's house on December 23rd and did the typical breakfast-for-dinner meal. We got home by about 9:00 and then we were home on Christmas Eve day and Sunday, which was Christmas day. We did go see a movie on Christmas eve day (Saturday) because we typically do that in the afternoon on Christmas, but since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, we made an adjustment. We went and saw the new Puss in Boots movie (Avery's pick.) Also over the break, we went ice skating in Idaho Falls, we went sledding at the golf course, and we went to the Labelle Lake ice castles. Josh and Gabe both got to participate in Shop with a Cop this year at Walmart. Gabe is on the mayor's youth council, so he was there helping with things as the cops shopped. Here are some pictures!

That's the update for now! I'm hoping that in the next couple of months, our house gets done and we get moved in by March! I'm also hoping to have some clarity on where I will work next year and how often! Part-time sounds amazing, but there doesn't seem to be many great part-time options in Rexburg right now. And with the economy how it is, I feel like I need to work just to be able to afford eggs! ($7.80 for a pack of 18 eggs today at Walmart! Crazy!)