Back to School

Sending kids back to school this year hasn't been nearly as exciting as it has been in years past.  I am overcome with sadness that this is Eric's senior year.  But I knew it was coming and yes, it's as bad as I anticipated if not worse.   Major bribery was used to get pictures of Erin this year (the birthday pic we got of her was from Eric secretly taking it with his phone or else we wouldn't have a good pic of her 15th birthday.) The boys started back to school yesterday and Eric and Erin start back today.  Eric and Erin went to breakfast at Panera Bread before school with some friends.

I haven't quilted all summer.  So I guess it's time to pick it up again.  I don't think I'll have near as much time this year though because much of my time will be devoted to getting ready for the big move.

I can't believe Mario took a picture in front of the dirty glass but I guess
he wanted to include Sophie.

Here's a Minecraft t-shirt that Nate made with a friend.

There was no unfolding those arms for any of the pictures.

Happy 15th Birthday Erin!

Erin celebrated her birthday awhile back with friends. She didn't want cake because she ate so unhealthy in Missouri this past week. So I made her some healthy raw brownies and bought cupcakes for everyone else. She chose BBQ chicken for dinner with her favorite oven potatoes.

Besides her expensive birthday party, we gave her a new skirt and a necklace chain for her Young Woman Medallion and Honor Bee.

She's a beautiful girl. I can't believe she'll be dating in a year. Scary, especially without Eric around to approve or disapprove of her dates. We are hoping to spend her 16th birthday in Paris. Hopefully Mario can get some time off from work to go with us.

Happy 17th Birthday Eric!

Eric chose to have steaks with potato skins for lunch. I wasn't feeling well so Zach made the potato skins which were very yummy. Eric asked for "ugly" cake and boy did it turn out ugly! It came out in three large chunks from the pan. But it was still delicious. Mario has a theory, the uglier the tastier. I barely felt up to making the first cake so I didn't make a second one hoping it would turn out better. I almost was too embarrassed to take pics of his cake. He spent the rest of the day with Caitlin.

He got new sunglasses from us and a Guess watch from Caitlin. I think she spent more than we did on a gift. Crazy teenagers!

Who knows where Eric will spend his 18th birthday. I hope with us in Europe but he may not. I'm going to miss him so much. I have a whole year to prepare myself.

Surprise Party

Erin recently told me IHOP is her favorite restaurant. Not sure where that came from since I don't remember really ever taking her there. But I promised to take her to lunch there today to celebrate getting her YW Honor Bee. Instead I picked up 4 if her friends and went to IHOP. Then Mario delivered here there for the surprise.

She had wanted to go to the waterpark at a state park by our house for her birthday but that didn't work out because it cooled off this week. So she went to Papio Fun Park to do Go-karts, laser tag, and mini golf after a lunch at IHOP.

It is a really early birthday party but one of her best friends leaves tomorrow and won't be back until after her birthday.

Savana, Erin, Cora, Kenna, and Chastity

I Love Sundays

This is a day I wish we could repeat everyday. We spent the evening together as a family having FHE, walking the dog, rough housing, listening to Erin play lots of hymns on the piano, and watching videos of bullfighting.

Earlier in the day, we spent a lot of time looking at rental houses in Spain and dreaming of living in a big house with a pool and a housekeeper. There were homes with 7+ bedrooms within our housing allowance. Even though we could afford the rent, I'm not sure we could afford the utilities on such a big house.

I enjoy these moments. We get so busy in our daily lives that it's so nice to have Sundays to sit back and enjoy one another. Everyone got along so well today (even Erin and the twins.)

I'm sad to know we only have about 50 more Sundays left with Eric. I love him so much. We will all miss him when he leaves.

Then before we know it, Erin will leave home as well. The older they get, the faster the time flies.

Tomorrow I'm throwing a surprise birthday party for Erin. She deserves a party. She's doing so well getting along with the family and working on more personal progress even though she already finished the program. She just earned her Honor Bee and now she's going to start the program over again. Wow! I didn't even do the program once. I think I'll join her this time around. She's such a good example.




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Spain

Not a lot of time to blog, but just wanted to share that our family is moving to Spain next year (as long as the USAF doesn't change its mind between now and next summer.)  Mario had really been pushing for a job as an ROTC commander at a university.  But his assignments team didn't want to release him to compete.  Mario begged and pleaded and they finally said he could but if they found him a job in his career field, he would have to take it instead.  Well, I think the assignments guy made it his mission to find Mario a job before he PCS'd last Friday.  Late Friday night, Mario got an email stating Madrid.

Mario and I are thrilled.  It's not ROTC but hey, it's Spain.  So who are we to complain?!  Maybe I'll finally learn Spanish and I'll be a good mission companion for Mario when we are seniors and serving a Spanish mission.

More details later.....

The Boys Learn to Budget

One of the Webelos badge requirements is for the boys to make a 30 day budget and then actually track expenses for 7 days.  I haven't been good about allowances lately (mostly because they haven't been good about chores lately.)   I decided our vacation to Yellowstone was a perfect opportunity to give them some money and let them budget it.

I gave them 3 envelopes.  One with $50 cash for food, one with $10 for wetsuit, and one with $20 for spending money.  I told them that there would be 9 meals that we would eat out and they would have to decide how much to spend at each meal.  They asked if they could keep whatever money was leftover in their envelopes.  I agreed.

First lunch out was at BYU Idaho dining hall.  Nathan decided to pack celery and grapes that were leftover from the car ride.  Zach shared some Chinese food with Erin so he only spent about $3.  That night we ate dinner back on campus and we got an entire pizza for $5. The boys each contributed $1. That night for FHE, we went to see a movie.  The boys didn't want to go because they knew they would have to pay.  But we didn't give them a choice.  They were really excited to find out it was dollar night for kids.  So they splurged and got a kids treat pack for $3.25 each.

The next day we went White Water Rafting.  The wetsuits were required because of the water and air temperature that day and so the company didn't charge us for the wetsuits.  The boys were mad when I took the $10 back from their budget.  That evening we went to dinner at a "sit down restaurant."  The kid meals were $5 each.  They weren't happy about it but they had no other choice since we didn't have food in the car for them to eat.  They each ordered one.  The bad news came when I told them they each owed the server a $1 tip.  They tried every which way to get out of it.  We had agreed before dinner to go out for ice cream after dinner.  The boys usually try to get us to buy Dairy Queen for them.  But since they were paying, they asked if we could get $1 cones at McDonalds instead.  They changed their minds and didn't want any ice cream after paying the mandatory tip.  We were all laughing.  But Mario and I didn't budge.  We didn't pay for anything except the white water rafting and an ice cream sandwich at Yellowstone that they didn't ask for but I decided to give them one as a treat.

The week continued with the boys being very frugal.  Nathan ate more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches than I can count.  Zachary ate as cheaply as possible wherever we went.  We went back to the same "sit down restaurant" on the way home and the boys decided to split a meal this time so they could split the tip too.  They got a lot of questions from different people when they were getting money out of their envelopes.  We would tell people they were on a budget.  The boys hated it, but everyone thought it was a great idea.   By the end of the week, Nate had only spent $21 of his $70.  Zach had only spent $26 of $70.  They wouldn't even spend $2.25 on hot chocolate on a cold rainy morning.

Mario and I learned a valuable lesson from this experience.  Our children have no issues spending our money and they ask for everything!  But when we give them money and tell them we aren't giving them anymore when it runs out, they are very frugal.  It was an enjoyable week of not having them ask me for anything and everything in sight.  They are still bitter that I took the wetsuit money back.

Zach came home and immediately used his money to buy a new DS game.  Nate is saving his for now. I told Mario that maybe we should give Eric a budget for his senior year including college application fees, Senior pics, prom, homecoming,  class trip etc and let him decide how much he wants to spend on each. Maybe he would be more frugal too.  He's already pretty good at budgeting but I bet he could improve too.

The twins are glad to be back home and they are happy that when we go out to lunch or dinner, they aren't expected to pull out their cash envelopes anymore.  But it worked so well, I'm tempted to do it all the time.