Rainy Day Pinterest Day

This weather is so weird... It was raining today so we decided to stay inside but only so much will keep my very busy, very active kid occupied (especially since I told my husband I would do better at not turning the TV into my free babysitter...). So I went on Pinterest and found some fun stuff for us to do today!

Baking Soda and Vinegar Art!!

You're supposed to use a little syringe but I couldn't find any... we used a spoon instead and I told Peyton to use little drops. Little. 

But honestly, how many 2 year olds will follow your directions?

Still listening to mommy!

I feel like this face says she has a great idea coming on...

And there goes all the yellow....

By the end of the hour, all we had was a gross mess of brown... Oh well, she had fun!!

Church is True, Go Be AWESOME!!

Seriously I could not be more proud of my brother. On Wednesday, January 9th, Elder Kalilimoku entered the MTC... running on Hawaiian time (aka. late) and covered in lei's made of candy. 

Our whole family together for the last time for 2 years!!

Peyton showing us some of the candy that Uncle Glenn gave her

Riena tried to take pictures of what we all looked like after dropping him off...

yes, there were tears.

 

She was mocking me... 

Although I didn't cry THIS hard.

Funny Story: Since missionaries can't listen to world-ly music, Ben came up with a playlist for us to listen to on our way to AND from the MTC. On the way there we listened to "The Point of No Return" from Phantom of the Opera. We all had a good laugh about that one with Glenn.  On the way back? "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables... and right after that, "Time to Say Goodbye" by Andrea Boccelli.... Yeah, that just made things worse. Thanks a lot Ben!! haha

Festival of Trees

One of my friends at work has a young nephew who is a cancer survivor. The people at Primary Children's were so amazing with their family that the family has done everything they possibly could to give back to the hospital. One of those things was putting on the Festival of Trees. My friend is on the committee and had some discounted tickets to go so I bought a bunch of tickets! All for a good cause :)

With Ben's work schedule, the only time we could go was on a Friday night... the busiest time of the week! It was so packed and crazy but we had fun. We walked around and looked at all the trees (ALL OF THEM), some of the wreaths that they had up, and a couple of the gingerbread houses. Peyton did a couple of the crafts they had for kids and then we watched a dance show. Peyton went right up to the front of the stage and danced with the performers (along with all the other of kids...). After we were done, we went and bought a couple of caramel apples to finish the trip. So yummy!! And again, all for a good cause.

There were so many people that she needed to hold 2 hands...

And of course, the only picture we took together is blurry... 

Oh well. 

Next year, my friend and I (and a couple of other people) are going to enter a tree together. So excited!!

Thanksgiving!

My absolute FAVORITE holiday is Thanksgiving!! The first year Ben and I got married, we did our own Thanksgiving and it was amazing. We haven't changed the menu since then and probably won't for a long LONG while (except the rolls... I can't ever make rolls! But this year, I was successful! Yes!). Usually, we invite all of our friends who are unable to go home for the holiday over to our place but this year, everyone had a place to go to so it was just us! We had so much food and even more leftovers. It was awesome.

The Menu:

Mashed Potatoes 

Honey Ham

Maple-brined Turkey

Sausage, Cranberry, Apple Stuffing

Green Bean Casserole

Maple Pecan pie

Apple pie

Yams

Rolls

Creamed Corn

Cranberry Sauce - from the can AND the bag 

(because you need the one from the can for leftover turkey sandwiches, right?)

3 different choices of drinks.... and no, not water, milk, or juice... haha

Temple Square

She loves her Auntie "Anna"

Best Friends

Our whole group... Sorry its a little blurry!

YAY!!!!!!!

Just a few random facts:

• It's the 4th most populous city in the nation (trailing only New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago). 
• It hosts the biggest rodeo in the world. 
• More than 90 languages are spoken here. 
• It has one of the youngest populations in the nation. 
• Residents of this city eat out more than any other US city. 
• It is illegal to sell Limburger cheese on Sundays. 
• With 634 square miles, this city could contain the US cities of New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, AND Miami. 
• In this state, when two trains meet each other at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a full stop and neither shall proceed until the other has gone. 
• It is illegal to take more than 3 sips of beer at a time while standing. 
• And finally, it is REQUIRED for criminals to give their victims 24 hour notice, either orally or in writing, and to explain the nature of the crime to be committed. 

Yup, Glenn has been called to serve in the Texas Houston East mission and will enter the MTC January 9th. He is going to be such an amazing missionary. I am so proud of him and the example he has shown. I won't go into a ton of details about this incredible journey because its personal and private to my family but I will say that the thing that impresses me about my brother more than anything else is that he refused to serve a mission until he KNEW 100 percent that he was completely ready to be a full-time missionary. In the past, most 19 year old boys in our Church have gone on missions because that was what was expected of them at that time. And I'm not trying to diss or down on that at all. I'm glad those missionaries went out at that time.

For Glenn, however, it just wasn't the time for him. And for Glenn, that was perfect. There is no doubt in my mind that he was saved to be a missionary now. I'm so proud of him. He's an amazing person, inside and out. Glenn is so talented and so incredibly smart. He's such a great uncle and brother. I love him so much and will miss him! Can you believe that Peyton will be 4 years old by the time he comes back?!

The people of Houston Texas are lucky that such an amazing person will be serving them for 2 years.

Salary!!

Finally, I got a job that pays salary.... Well, I got the job almost 2 months ago but I need to write about this!

I'm now a supervisor at the treatment center that I work at. And I LOVE it. It's definitely more responsibility but it's also a lot more fun! I'm able to have more time to do what I do best: be creative! It's tough because now its up to me to make the hard calls but I've been here for almost 5 years and I've learned a lot so I feel confident and comfortable doing it. Ben and I are so excited too... It looks like a car, a house, Ben's education, and a little extra spending are all in the workings for our near future!

Is that too greedy? selfish? both?! Probably... but honestly, ever since I graduated from BYU it was "Sorry, you're too polite" or "Sorry, it was between you and someone else less qualified/experienced than you" or "Sorry, we just hate you." haha, not really...

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Things that have happened at work recently:

- A girl ran away... This was a big deal because a boy ran away from the boy's campus and did some super bad things. Luckily, we found her an hour later. She was walking down the freeway looking for some smokes. This girl is so low-functioning so when the cops brought her back, she literally had NO IDEA that she did anything wrong!!

- I've made up a new schedule for the whole school to follow! This was the first big thing that I did that made me look good to the higher ups :) Aww yeah!!

- I'm not sure exactly WHAT I did but I guess I impressed someone high up (trust me, it wasn't the new schedule thing that I came up with)... they gave me a $50 gift card to the mall, a $50 gift card to Outback Steakhouse, and 2 movie tickets. For my job, that's pretty good... (The usual rewards they give to staff are boxes of candy or something lame like that so I thought that was pretty awesome)

- So far I've been kicked and scratched. Girls have also tried to bite me and hit me... 

- One girl was "possessed" by "demons"... And it actually scared me a little. Eek!

- My goal for work: Make sure Investment is a place where girls don't want to be and make the open dorms a place where girls really do want to be! (Investment is a place where we need to watch girls who are more high risk... like our runners, fighters, and the sneaky ones. The open dorms aren't as secure and locked down.) What I've tried so far: Come up with activities like service projects, game nights, movie marathons, crafts, etc. One of the dorms go and read bedtime stories to the early adolescent campus every other week. Holidays are super fun too! For Halloween, we did different activities on the dorms and ended the night with a movie in the courtyard. It was epic :)

- We're having a pilates instructor come in and teach the girls how to be healthy both in their bodies and in their lifestyles. The girls will have a ton of fun and hopefully, it'll motivate them to make the right changes in life!

A couple things that I love about my job: the people I work with are AWESOME!! and also, trying to make a difference in these girls' lives. It is so sad to learn their stories and hear about their experiences. About 90% of our population come from broken families... They've never had anyone read bedtime stories to them. No one has ever shown them how much potential they have. Some of these girls are SO talented and they don't even know it! Not too many of our girls know what its' like to legitimately be loved... They don't know what it feels like to have someone really care for them. Don't get me wrong... These girls can be vicious and hurtful. I've been told some awful, horrible things that I wouldn't want anyone to ever have to hear. But when it comes down to it, I come home and all I want to do is hold my own daughter a little bit closer and a lot of bit longer. 

Anyways... job. salary. Fist pump.