Updates

° School is in for Mike. School is a lot more work than Mike thought it would be and is thankful that he doesn't have a part-time job. However, the lack of income has made things quite tight. It will work out, however, because of that tithe law. Mike is taking Java, Trig, Astronomy, and Business Statistics. An interesting variety of classes, but until he gets on course for his Major, it will have to be that way.
Do you remember me complaining about how much I made at my last job? Well, that raise was well worth it. It shot us into another tax bracket (for the first time in my life) as I made $35k last year. Nothing exactly to brag about, but we've never really been that successful. Too bad about the lay off!!! Now we'll have to settle for a stint at school in hopes of landing a $250k one. Grrr.

° Work started for Jay, and she just got out of training with an unjustly, horrible schedule. She scored 100% on her training exam and was given quite possibly the worst shift they have, while others in her class did quite bad and was given early shifts, including 4-10's. This is going to make the daycare quite expensive. I've urged jay to try and find someone to talk to to find the method of their madness and perhaps petition for a better schedule. They never did give any options to select your preferred shifts, so it's as if they just assigned schedules randomly. We hope all goes well, and I'm sure it will, as long as we continue to be obedient and enjoy the temple. However, there has been talk about looking for other open positions in the region as well.

° Speaking of, we've finally gotten back to the temple. It had been so long... we estimate about 6 years or more. We just took the close proximity to the Idaho Falls and Boise temples that we never attended. And you wonder why things weren't working out for us in the past?...

° Myson LOVES school, of course. We spoke with his teacher and they didn't seem too excited to be getting another kid, as their actions spoke louder than words and left him out of 2 weeks of school to do "paperwork." When we met, we helped him learn his teachers' name (Mrs. Hayes & Ms. Welker). She just said, "Oh, don't worry about it. The other kids just call me teacher." In the interest of respect, we wouldn't have that -- but we didn't have to try anyway. We met her on the Friday before he would start Monday. He had already memorized her name and let us know the whole weekend before.

° Em has started what we call "preschool," which is really daycare but she doesn't want to go to daycare (even though she calls it that when she leaves). She is the most adorable thing that we know of on this Earth (but she's also 2 right now, so she's also very difficult). One example: Myson brought a teddy bear to school as an assignment for bear week and Em would not go to daycare without one as well. So we let her. As we were leaving when I went to pick her up, we were interacting with her and the attendants and they asked, "What's the bears name?" To which she replied, "Bear Haddox" quite matter-of-factly. Very cute. There are a million more examples which need cataloging, but I'm horrible at memory, so we'll let Jaypea do that.
She's also potty-training, which I was just reminded to talk about as she said "Ooooh. Big poop" as she currently sits on the toilet. She was doing so well her first week, but then got in a pattern of not caring and just letting it all go onto the floor. I tried to make the thing positive, but after 3 days of non-stop cleaning of the carpet, I let her know the law. After that I didn't need to discipline anymore. She's knows what right and wrong now and she gets Hello Kitty! stickers for doing a good job.

° For Deedee, the move to Eastern Idaho was just another move. Since she's been through so much she doesn't make a big deal with them anymore. However, she does get motion sickness, so we had to buy some powdery stuff you mix in her food to calm her down. It worked quite well. So far we love Shelley. The people are all very friendly and the city is shut down on Sunday's which helps us observe the Sabbath a bit better. They only have 2 decent fast food places which means it's easier to get sick of them and not go to them.
Although I am switching to BYU-Idaho next semester (upon approval), we will still live in Shelley do to the proximity to the kids' grandparents and the cheapest daycare prices I have ever seen ($2/hr/kid).

° Dan came home from Afghan- and I can't wait until he's free to take phone calls. I'm excited to talk to him again but I really want him to spend as much time with his immediate family before we get to converse again.

° Great Britain has abolished the use of the apostrophe on all their street signs do to it making things too confusing. I wish the English language would the same as a whole because I suck at it. I signed up for an English class for the very reason to improve upon this, but then I did just one assignment and felt myself sick to the stomach the moment I got involved. Hence, that was dropped and Statistics was added (because it was the only interesting online class). Anyway, I brought that up because instead of making corrections on this blog, I'm just letting it go. For instance, I began the blog in third person, now I'm in first. How fun!

° I have a test at 2pm which I have not studied for... That gives me 1½ hours to do so. Enjoy the blog and please comment. We'd love to hear from you!