Easter and Other Stuff

Alright, I know it's been a while since we've posted a new blog. I'll try to keep it short.

I've been really proud of Mike lately with school. He has been really dedicated and working hard to get good grades. Mike has changed his major. He was struggling with some of his programming classes and not enjoying it as much as he was enjoying his math and physics classes. He spoke to his astronomy teacher who recommended he try nuclear engineering. Mike has been really excited about this idea, and even more excited about the prospect of $150k - $200k a year to start. They'll even provide tuition reimbursement for him to get his Masters and Doctorate. I'm mostly happy that he can finish his degree in nuclear engineering quicker than he can finish in computer engineering. I really miss being home with the kids.

This leads me to my next topic. My job. Shortly after I came out of training, two more classes came through with 22 agents each. Those 44 agents were congratulated, given graduation certificates, and as they were eating their cake, were laid off and sent home. Of course, the rest of us started to panic about the security of our jobs. Center Partners assured us that our jobs were safe, but there were signs all around that Capital One might cancel our contract at any moment. The end result was a cut in hours for the entire product group. Every day I wish more and more that I had signed on with the Sony account. I'm currently looking for another job, but I don't dare quit at Center Partners until I have another job lined up. The economy hasn't hit East Idaho as badly as it has other areas, but jobs are still scarce.

The kids are absolutely adorable! Hyrum is doing so well in school. He can read entire books by himself with only minimal help. We're so proud of him! He'll be ahead of most of the other kids in that area when he starts kindergarten. His speech is still a little behind, but he is making huge progress every day. His teachers want to have him see a child psychologist and have him tested to see if he's border line autistic. We've been wanting to have him tested for a while, but with all the moving we've been doing the past several years, it's been tough. If he is diagnosed, we'll have a lot more resources available to help him with his speech. Of course, we hope nothing is wrong, but it'll just be good to finally know. He continues to excel academically.

Emily is bottled sunshine in convenient travel size! She is such a happy child! Emily is very funny, and she knows it. Although she loves being girly and wearing jewelry, dresses, and carrying purses, you really can't call her ladylike when she'll drop the whole facade to stand on her head or pretend to be an animal or sing a silly song to make us laugh. She is also very smart. She knows most of her letters, several numbers, all her colors, and shapes. She must think that she needs to make up for all that Hyrum doesn't say by jabbering all the time. She speaks very clearly and in full sentences, and even expresses complex ideas. She loves to sing primary songs, and can say prayers all by herself. She thinks she can spell as well as Hyrum. And although she can spell Hyrum and Emily correctly, all other words are spelled "H-I-J-K-O-O-O-O-P!"

Ok, so both my kids love to sing, and they sing very well. But every time I try to get a video of them doing so, they decide to goof off. I love the part where Hyrum gives the camera an exasperated look after Emily's high note solo. He wasn't happy about being upstaged.

I must say that this Easter was the best I've ever had! On Saturday, we took the kids to my work for an egg hunt. Emily was an egg hunting demon! Hyrum was a little too timid to pick up very many when there were so many other kids who wanted them too. I swear, that kid is too gentle for his own good. The kids ended up with quite a haul. They each got a blow up Easter Bunny (which they both love and won't let out of their sight for too long), several pinwheels, finger puppets, bottles of bubbles, foam gliders, stickers, whistles, and of course, too much candy. I think the kids were a little disturbed to find out that the Easter Bunny is actually a red headed chain smoker. (actually, she's a coworker, and a very nice lady.)

After we came home from Center Partners, we dyed and decorated eggs. We had a kit with glitter pens and foam stickers. The kids loved it, even though Hyrum looks so serious in his picture.

Then Mike and I had a babysitter over to watch the kids while we took advantage of a 50% off coupon to a grand opening of a new restaurant in Idaho Falls. The place was called The Hard Hat Cafe. It's supposed to be really great food, but we'll never know. We had a reservation for 7:25, but still had plenty of time to enjoy the construction decor while we waited an hour to be seated. After being seated, we sat. And sat. And sat. Nobody waited on us for about 45 minutes We brought it to the attention of a waiter as he passed by, and he informed the owner. The owner came to our table and apologized and promised us that he would send a server immediately, but that the food would still take 30-45 min to cook. We had already kept our poor babysitter much later than we had intended. We decided to leave and picked up Jack In the Box on the way home.

On Sunday morning, Hyrum woke up first. He waited patiently for nearly an hour for Emily to wake up because he didn't want to go see what the Easter Bunny had brought until he could share the excitement with her. When she finally woke up, it took Hyrum a while to convince her to go to the living room with him to see their baskets. She was probably too young to remember last year, so she's fairly new to this whole Easter thing. However, the moment she came around the couch and saw her new pink and purple tricycle, (exactly what she had asked for. "Mom, I want a PINK bike!") she threw aside her blow up Easter Bunny and ran full speed to check it out!

Hyrum got a new fire station Lego set. Hyrum is a mad genius with Lego! He can build anything! He patiently waited until he was sure it was ok and he had permission to open it. We gave him the go ahead, and he went to work building a fire truck. Then he brought in his old set and introduced his new Lego fireman to his old Lego dock worker. "Oh, hi! Nice to meet you! I have a new truck. Want to come for a ride?" "Sure, that will be fun!" Later, he told me they were friends. (love my kids!)

Before you think we spoil our kids from the size of their Easter stash, it wasn't all from us. They also got new, very cute hoodies and an Under Dog video from my mom. My Grandma Sears gave Hyrum a book and Emily a blanket with zebras, monkeys, and tigers (her favorite animals) on it and gave them both bendable Easter Bunnies and lots of goodies. Mom helped me buy an Easter dress for Emily too. (although I still need to pay her back...)

After church... Oh, that reminds me! Mike and I have new callings. Mike is a ward missionary and I am a Sunbeams teacher. Anyhow, after church, we came home and had an egg hunt in our back yard. Hyrum was much more aggressive at home than he was at Center Partners and beat Emily hands down in the number of eggs found. That night, we had deviled eggs which is the only Eastery thing we had for dinner that night. We had Easter dinner and watched Conference with my mom and Sherwin the week before since they were in Oregon for Easter.

This weekend, we've finally been blessed with some beautiful weather. Mike was able to take the kids out to ride their bikes while he worked on the Toyota. I was sick in bed. *cough cough*