You've Had a Birthday

What a year its been for this guy! In the last year, Kent has been diagnosed with Autism, ADHD, and dysgraphia, has had some major diet changes due to constant stomach and headaches, gotten rid of most of his stuff to move into our travel trailer, lived in 3 different states (in one of them two different times), made friends with cousins, become obsessed with Minecraft, Sonic, and Pokemon, had his bike stolen and replaced, homeschooled, and learned and grown in many many many different ways. 

Jacob and I have had to open our minds to a new way of thinking and parenting and teaching where he is concerned which has been really good and really hard.

We love Kent so much and love all the things about him. 

He is so strong physically and mentally. He is extremely determined and even though in general its hard for him to notice others feelings and he doesn't the typical way to social things, I have found his boldness and directness in social situations to be supremely comforting and useful. 

One quick story about Kent. I already posted about my disaster of a birthday, but there was something about it that I loved. Because of the dark mood I was in all day, my family mostly just tried to go around me and give me space, and I felt lonely and sad. But Kent didn't. It was probably the normal thing to do to leave someone alone when they are highly reactive and prone to tears, but Kent kept coming to me and telling me he loved me or doing small things to show he cared. It wasn't big, but it was what my lonely heart needed that day and it was something only my autistic son could give me. 

Here is Kent's traditional giant cookie with a few modifications this year. Dairy free, sugar free and gluten free. It's hard to make desserts with those requirements, but we managed it! We had to make it at a friends house since our oven in the trailer works so poorly. (We actually use our oven as a storage space.)

 Kent's 9 year old birthday interview:

1. What is your favorite color? Orange, you already know that.

2. What is your favorite thing to do? Invent, or hug you

3. What is your favorite toy? Probably Lucky or my superman blanket.

4. What do you want to be when you grow up? Everyone knows that I want to be an inventor.

5. What is your favorite food? My favorite food? I have a lot of favorite foods. One of them is eggs and bacon, one of them is burgers. 

6. Who do you like to spend time with? Um...I like to spend time with my family sometimes, sometimes I don’t like to spend time with anyone. Most of the time I like to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa.

7. What do you do really well? Everyone knows what I do really well. Invent.

8. What makes you laugh? Not really anything. 

9. What is your favorite time of day? Everyone knows it’s after lunch.

10. Who is your best friend? My best friend is someone we moved away from. Remember, I think his name was Rylan. I don’t really have any friends now.

11. What do you like to do with your family? Um...I like to play games and I like to play games. 

12. What do you love to learn about? Um…programming. I don’t actually know because I know all I need to know about programming to be able to program a robot. I can program a sprite and I can make my own blocks that I can make do whatever I want. 

13. Where do you like to go? Arizona, Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

14. What is your favorite book? I don’t have one, I have like 10 million. The only ones that aren’t my favorites are the ones I don’t like. I either don’t like them or they are my favorites. I like that robot book where they build giant robots, Monster Mayhem...Keeper of the Lost Cities. All the books in Keeper of the Lost Cities. 

15. What are you afraid of? NOTHING!

16. What is your favorite animal? Dog, tiger. My favorite breed of dog is a mutt. It's a bunch of breeds mixed together.

17. What is your favorite snack? Probably Larabar or pistachios.

18. What is your favorite song? Everyone knows my favorite song is Christmas Bells.

19. What is your favorite game? Sorry

20. What do you like to sleep with at night? Lucky and my superman blanket and my heavy blanket. 

21. Is there anything else you want to tell me about you? Um...I don’t know, that I like to sneak and invent. I like to invent. So one time I invented a game where it's like a soccer game where you have to be the first to get to the end and when you get to the end you have to stop the other people from getting to the end. You are a little straw thing and once you get to the end you have to roll a dice, so you roll a dice to move, and when you get to the end  you roll a dice when someone is close enough to get onto the win place and if you roll higher than them then they can’t move and if they roll the same as you or higher then they get to go. I want to invent a super cool robot that can shoot bolts of electricity out of its hands like lasers and it has flashlights for eyes and it can turn on the flashlights when it's dark. And I know how to program it and I can program it with scratch and Dad thinks it's impossible but I believe it's possible. I want to also make it so that it has rockets on its feet so it can fly. And I also want to make a bunch of them and sell some of them so I can get lots of money and some of them will be tiny and some of them will be huge and some of them will be just the right size for me. And it will be remote controlled. That’s the part that Dad thinks will be especially impossible but its not, especially with Scratch. And I can create my own blocks and that is what will make it even easier because I can program Scratch with Scratch. And I’m going to make the coolest robots in the world!!!

Day 1

 Well, today was Jacob's first day of his new job and honestly its been a little underwhelming for both of us. He was hoping to be able to jump right into things and I was hoping to find out the location of our next move and to finally have a place we might stay and put down roots and possibly buy a house and move out of our trailer. Well Jacob didn't get much direction or information at work today. Mostly its just a hurry up and wait game. We found out that he will be working remotely at least until the end of 2021 but we don't know much beyond that. I guess I can be grateful for that amount of information at least. We made a plan through the end of the year of where we are going to stay. 

Rachel is turning 11 this year and this is her last year of primary. (sniff, sniff) We have made some friends in the ward we are in right now, and more specifically, Rachel has made a friend, which honestly I feel like is kind of a big deal. The last 10 months we've been traveling and trailer living, and Covid was before that. Add that to always being homeschooled, and Rachel honestly hasn't had a lot of friends, especially ones that shared her interests like this cute girl in our ward. Also, Rachel was invited to sing a solo in the Primary Program this year and she really wants to stay here long enough to do it. If it were up to Rachel, she would have us buy a house right here in Farmington. She loves it here. Anyway, we decided to stay here long enough to be here for the Primary Program at the end of October and then I told Jacob that if we were possibly moving far away somewhere, I wanted to spend some time near my family. I feel ready to drive to Utah today! So we will be spending November and December in Southern Utah this year. 

That's a longer term plan then we have had for a while, so I will be grateful for that, although I was really hoping for a 2 year plan. I feel like we are all wanting to get back into a house and have some permanence in our lives again.

Summer Reading Program 2021

We got to Farmington just in time for summer this year and of course one of the first things we did was check out the library. We got the four of us signed up for the Summer Reading Program and we had so much fun with it. Lots of prizes (shirts, board games, kites, I won a $50 gift card) and a really neat foam part at the end. 

Honestly it was one of the best summer reading programs we've ever been involved with and we've been doing them since Rachel was a toddler. 

Only drawback to the foam party, the next day all my kids were covered in spots, all over their bodies. I wasn't sure if it was an allergic reaction to the foam, the grass, or something else all together. We stayed home for the week (just in case) and the spots faded and went away. It was nuts!

 

Patience

 I thought I was more patient than this. I really did. When Jacob said we would find out in two weeks where we are moving and what is coming next, I really thought I could wait and be happy that the answer was coming. Instead, I feel more anxious about it than ever. I don't want to wait to find out! They better tell Jacob where they are sending us first thing the day he starts his job!

New Job

 Jacob got the job with Cognizant! We are so excited!!! Excited to have some idea of what is going to happen in the future, although, they said that they don't tell their new employees a location until they are fully onboarded which won't happed for Jacob until August 18th. I think I can be patient that long to find out where they are going to send us. Maybe. Sigh. 

Well, we are excited about the job anyway. August 18th better hurry up and come! I'm tired of being in limbo and not knowing what is going to happen next month. Kent keeps asking me where we are going to be on his birthday and a couple of weeks, and I have to keep telling him that I have no idea. 

Last Day!!

Today is Jacob's last day of his class and we couldn't be more exited!!! It has been a long 10 weeks! He has put in soooooooooo many hours! Waking up early and coming home after everyone else is asleep (including me). We are so excited to have him back! He has an interview this morning with a company called Cognizant. They were the ones that Revature groomed and customized their teaching for and they have a lot of spots they are looking to fill. Everyone in Jacob's class is doing the test/interview and they could possibly pick up every one of them. If not though, there are other companies that are still looking at his class that are interested. 

Yesterday Jacob had his final presentation. They were presenting their last projects that they worked so hard on for the last two weeks. Jacob had a scare because he went out early to prepare and his computer wouldn't turn on, which meant he couldn't attend the class, which meant he wouldn't be able to do the presentation. The presentation was for the clients that were thinking about hiring them on, their teacher (of course), and other groups. It was a really big deal. Well about 3 hours of quick thinking on his part, (and a lot of prayer), he was able to get it all fixed and figured out and was able to have it all ready to go in time for the presentation. 

Toothless

Do you remember how scary it can be to lose your teeth? I don't really remember, but with my kids, it seems like the first tooth is scary because you don't know what to expect. The second tooth usually comes out pretty soon after the first so it isn't too scary, but the third tooth takes a little longer to be ready. By then the two bottom teeth are usually mostly grown in and it's the fear is back, almost as if it was the first tooth again. 

Elijah has been working on his third loose tooth for a while. It was so loose that it could poke out sideways, but he was so afraid of getting it pulled out. 

Yesterday we went to the park for the morning. I tried all I could think of to get Elijah to let us pull it out before the park so it wouldn't get bumped out and lost because his tooth was just that loose. I didn't want him to be sad if it got lost in the woodchips. 

Well, we were at the park for about two hours and then Elijah went to Rachel and asked her to pull out his tooth, which I thought was the cutest thing ever. Cute that she wanted to pull his tooth out, and cute that he trusted her to do it for him and not hurt him. 

Thankfully we were prepared with a Ziploc baggie and a paper towel.

I just can't get over how adorable he is with his holey smile. 

Round 2

Rachel painted my face.

And I painted everyone else.

Face Painting

So I'm taking a face painting class online. I thought it would be a super fun skill to have! Anyway, here are my first three attempts. 

Rachel's was the favorite. Elijah hated his and washed it off immediately and Kent's wasn't as good as the picture I looked at for the idea for sure. We all got a good giggle out of it though.

Wells Fargo

We just found out that Jacob did not get the Wells Fargo job, and honestly we both feel relieved. Most likely we would have had to move to San Francisco where it would have been difficult to make ends meet. 

Now we just wait until Jacob's training is finished and see what comes up next!

Not Wells Fargo

 We found out that Jacob did not get the Wells Fargo job and honestly, we felt relieved. It looked like we might have had to move to San Francisco, which we weren't way interested in (cost of living, yikes!!) And Jacob heard that Wells Fargo didn't use very cutting edge tech which he would have thought was a bit of a bummer. Anyway, we will see what comes our way next!

East and West

 For a long time this has been a favorite book of mine. 

East By Edith Pattou 

It is written in a way that immediately captures you and sucks you in. It is based on an old tale called, "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and always reminded me of some of my favorite Beauty and the Beast retellings. 

We got rid of all of our books when we moved into the trailer 😱 but have been collecting e-copies of all of our favorite books. Well, I hadn't purchased this one yet, but I found it at the library (thank you Libby!) and quickly devoured it again. Then I saw that there was actually a sequel to the book. What?! And I knew that my life couldn't be complete until I had read it. 

https://amzn.to/3B84uvg

It was so good! It is a continuation of the first story and shows the love of a wife and mother and the lengths they will go to protecting their family. I definitely can't wait to read these with my kids and I'm sure that will be happening sooner rather than later. 

The recommended reading level for these books is 12 and up. I think Rachel (age 10) could handle it with no problem, but it might be a little long for Kent (age 8). If reading them with your kids or listening to it as an audible, I think that ages 6 and up would enjoy it. 

It Mattereth Not

I've been so focused lately on where we are going to go next. I think that is just part of living in the trailer. We need to have a place to go and we can't always stay in the same place and for months and months now we haven't known what would come next. We haven't known where Jacob's work would take us. We haven't known how long we will stay in the trailer, or if we will buy a house or rent a place or where we will be even a month from now. There has been a huge question mark over our future.  Kent keeps asking me where we are going to be for his birthday, which is at the end of August,) and I have to keep telling him that I really have no clue.

I was reading in the Doctrine and Covenants and came across this scripture: 

"Whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss."

Doctrine and Covenants 80:3

It really resonated with me because I have been so wanting to know where we are supposed to go. North, south, east, west? Where are we going to live? What is going to be the best place for our family? What place is going to put us where we can help gather Israel and do the Lords work for us? This scripture to me means that it doesn't matter where we go. We will be in his hands in whatever place. We will have a work to do in whatever place we end up. We can make a difference wherever we go and we can give service and be kind and make friends and stand as a witness in all places that we may be in. I don't need to worry so much about the details. That will come in time and will work itself out. It always does. 

Interview

Jacob had his interview yesterday. He found out beforehand that he and all of the guys who had been chosen to interview early all thought that if they were selected for the job early then they would be leaving the class. Mentally they were all preparing to be done and to not do the last project. Then while in class they were all put into groups to work on the last project and Jacob asked about it because he thought they weren't going to be there to finish. His instructor told him that actually they are finishing the class and if they get this job, the client actually asked for them to have two extra weeks of training with Revature before they start working. Total whiplash for these 4 men who were expecting to be done and possibly moving within the next week. 

The interview was with Wells Fargo. Jacob and I did some research on own before the interview and I found a list of places where their Dev Ops Engineers are usually based from and have been looking at rentals and house prices and weather and things to do in those areas. Jacob should hopefully find out today or Monday if he got the job or not. I'm hoping they will tell him at that time if the job will be remote or if they want us to relocate somewhere and where that will be so we can start looking and planning and making decisions. 

Silly Things

The boys were talking about silly things during dinner tonight. Kent, talking to Elijah in a teaching voice, "Soap Operas are movies that try to get you to buy soap." 😂😂

Elijah to Kent, "Do I have any hair in my armpits?" 

Kent to Elijah:"No only full grown men have hair in their armpits."

My Birthday

Special days can be really hard sometimes. Especially when you want them to be special and they just aren't. My birthday was on Wednesday and the days leading up to it, I was having some depression and the morning of my birthday dawned and I was in deep. It was a really hard day. There were many tears and I was so deep in my depression and Jacob was busy all day and I broke my phone and it was really awful for all of us. 

We didn't go anywhere, or do anything. I didn't even eat my birthday treat or make my birthday dinner. 

I decided that since the day was so crappy, that I needed a do over. I woke up Thursday, still dealing with depression, but with more fight than the day before I had my birthday treat for breakfast and decided that Saturday would be my birthday do over. 

 

Today I am much more ready to be 33 and have a day to celebrate me. I told the kids to make me presents (they each made me a cute card and gave me a balloon to blow up.) Kent, Rachel, and I started the day with a mile run and then the kids and I went to the farmers market and went to help clean the church. I made my birthday dinner (for lunch because it's a super hot day here, too hot to cook) of brats and homemade fresh salsa with garden tomatoes from the farmers market We havent down anything super spectacular or out of the ordinary, but it has been a great day and we are going to be making some ice cream again later.

Also, I did my nails so they could be fun and happy for my birthday. 

 I've had a lot of special days be awful it seems like, but this is the first time I've claimed a redo to fix it and I'm so glad I did. 

Work Update

Update on this handsome guy.

Jacob just completed week 7 of 10 of his Dev Ops training. He has been working soooooo hard. His class is from 8-4 but he is often out of the house by 6, comes home for a quick lunch and dinner break and then works until about 9 or 10. Once when he had a project due , he worked til 4:30 am and then left by 6:30 am. He had another project due this week and had to stay out working til 2:30 am and was back to work by 6 am. When they said this training was intense, they weren't kidding!

He also spends his entire Saturday studying and working. This last weekend he got Monday off for the 4th of July, and yep, you guessed it, he was working.

And all this he is doing from our van in the middle of the summer. Yesterday it got up to 105. 

He is so dedicated, and working so hard so he can learn the skills he needs to provide for our family! 

I am so thankful for my husband!

Well, we just found out that it's possible he might not be finishing the course. His teacher approached 4 members of his batch (and Jacob was one of them) on Thursday and said that they have a client who is interested in hiring them early. AND THATS ALL THE INFORMATION ABOUT IT THAT WE HAVE! Talk about frustrating! He should have an interview towards the end of next week and then we will see from there. 

We have all the questions about it and no answers, so we just wait. We seem to be doing a lot of that. Waiting with no answers and all the questions. 

The Absent Minded Professor

In describing Elijah, I think Jacob said it best when he called him, "an absent minded professor." This kid is so funny. He is so smart and is often deep into his own world and will sometimes completely miss what is going on around him. 

Today we went to the park. When we got there I looked down at Elijah and noticed he only had one shoe on. When I asked him about it, he said, "Oh, I couldn't find my other one."

That was it. He didn't tell me before we left the house. He didn't ask for any help looking for his missing shoe. He didn't get a different pair of shoes on. He just wore one shoe and figured one was good enough. 

These kids are pretty funny and keep me on my toes.

 

Bisti Bay

 A couple of weeks ago there was a really unusual for the area heat wave. It was hot. Upper 90's low 100's hot. It wouldn't have been quite so bad except for that our electric chord that plugs our trailer in had a short in it so we could only use our AC for a little while and usually not until after 4:30 in the afternoon, and even then sometimes it wouldn't work and we would have to get out for a few hours until almost bedtime. We tried a lot of different things to help us keep cool, mostly just staying out of the trailer until we could turn on the air conditioner. 

My parents invited us to come and stay in their basement and use their internet for Jacob's work and we were really really tempted by the offer. In my heart it is where I want to be, but for when we prayed about it, we felt the need to stay here. In Farmington. Where its hot. Without family. 

Jacob's parents took pity on us and bought us a pool pass to a super fun pool here called Bisti Bay, and we have been so grateful! We have been going to the pool at leas 3 times a week since. It is amazing how good cold water can feel when you are sooooo hot, and then how long it works to keep you cooled off. 

Drab Chicken

So, in an effort to keep our trailer (and ourselves) cool this summer, on days when it's hot, I don't cook. Awesome right? Well it would be more awesome without our food and other restrictions that come from living in our trailer.

 Anyway, one meal we have occasionally is the day old cooked chickens rotisserie or the 8 piece ones from the grocery store and we just eat it cold with fruit. 

We were having that meal yesterday for dinner and Kent, while eating a chicken breast, pipes up and says, "This chicken is kind of drab." 

Knowing drab wasn't the word he thought it was, and picturing drab chickens in my mind, I asked him what he meant. 

He said, "You know, drab. It's a little dry." 

Definition of drab: lacking brightness or interest; drearily dull.

The rest of the evening I kept picturing drab chickens and smiling to myself.