Rationale For More Chicfila

"I Didn't Caught One!"

Natalie sharing her lunch with batman

This is what happens when the most indecisive person in the family picks out their donut first

All snazzed up for a girls' night out this week, rocking my elephant shawl and earrings from sister-in-law Kathryn 

Seaworld under-the-floor aquarium

Sorry, I don't have too many good pictures to share! I will have to get Micah to upload some of the ones on his phone to share.

We had a lot of fun on Saint Patrick's Day, visiting Seaworld and then going to the Annual Deseret Ranch Rodeo in the evening. After the rodeo events, they let the kids come out into the arena and they release a trailer full of kids and let the kids try to catch them. Both girls had fun running around in the "pig scramble", but were both distraught afterward that they didn't catch a pig. Micah was all like, "Hmm, I wonder where they get their refusal to accept failure?" or some less flattering comment.

Things have slowed down at Painting with a Twist and it's been nice. The first few months we had a TON of business and I had worked every single weekend since Christmas, plus a handful of weeknights. I love, love, love working there but it was getting to be a little exhausting! Last Saturday I only taught one class and made 2 paintings or future classes and the week before that was the first one besides my week with pnemonia that I didn't have to work at all. When I'm scheduled as a floor artist (i.e. assistant), it's nice because I only have to come in if the class registration exceeds a certain number. Working every other weekend or so will be just about right for me.

Micah is away at a conference in California this week. He waited until the night before to pack and had to run to walmart 9 hours before his flight took off to buy button-down shirts because he realized he didn't own enough. Ah, the burden of casual work dress.

Natalie is doing well, she loves candy and pokemon. She was super sad on Saturday night when she realized that Daddy would be leaving in the morning. She cried for the better part of an hour, saying she didn't want him to go and that he is her bestest friend. She insisted on going downstairs to draw a picture of him, just in case she didn't remember what he looks like in the morning. She had hiccups on Sunday and was literally crying off and on all day because she didn't like the hiccups.

Angela is doing well at home with the potty training thing. She wears panties at home and is fully capable of doing the bathroom thing unassisted. She has very few accidents at home but pees freely  when not at home. Not sure how to teach her to tell me when she has to go. Micah began to introduce the candy incentive. Uhhhh, didn't want to go there, but it works! Angela loves taking baths, making messes and beating up on Natalie.

Planning

Angela learned to use the potty the other day, so I let her pick out some undies at the store. Since then, it hasn't been going so well. Mostly, she is just enraged that I won't constantly give her juice like I did the first day.



We now have all 7 of our chickens laying. huzzah! That darker one in the middle is from the welsummer, the last one we've been waiting on.

There's much talk of Natalie and planning for Kindergarten next year. Natalie has been accepted into a charter school that is very prestigious and competitive- we don't know anyone else who got in- but I'm less than thrilled about it. It's a bit far, as I've mentioned I think, and will make for a lot of time driving to and from each day. But also, it starts later than most elementary schools. We have had a temple group of parents who swap babysitting once a month and if Natalie goes to the school for science, we won't be able to participate. Which is lame, since I have attended the temple more consistently in the last 8 months than possibly ever before. We could still participate, but just show up late and do initiatories and endowments. Or maybe just have Natalie skip school once a month- surely they won't challenge an absence if I claim that we were "out of town for purposes of religious worship", right? I just turned in an appliction to one more school- a charter school that is closer to home and starts earlier in the morning, but they have very few seats and tons of applicants. So I'll just be crossing my fingers over here until mid-April when we find out about that. Also, I'll be trying to enjoy the last few months of this before these frequent school-free weekdays disappear!

Tarzan and the girls

Micah will be going away to CA for a conference in a couple of weeks. We're also working out upcoming plans for a trip to visit family in North Carolina in April, a trip to visit Micah's family in June, Boy Scout Camp and a High Adventure trip for Micah in June and July. We were asked to be a Ma and Pa for our stake's trek in July and we declined- if finding someone to watch our kids and Micah already taking off so much time from work for other youth activities weren't enough of an excuse, I would straight up hate it and nobody under my stewardship would have a positive experience.