I remembered to take pictures!

I made a mistake. Last night I thanked Heavenly Father that we hadn't been sick in over a month, it's been amazing. Jac came home with a fever today. 

Okay, let's see, this week we had Valentine's day and everyone had at least one part of their box/bag break, we watched the super bowl and were disappointed in the halftime show, and I got a free hutch off facebook marketplace and it's still in the car because our oven decided to stop working and instead of emptying the car we took apart the oven. It can break down into a surprising amount of pieces and has really overtaken the entire kitchen (our basement bathroom is also strewn about cause we had a leak and needed to get a new faucet and are still waiting. There's a lot of breaking and strewing of stuff around here. And none of it the exciting type I like) 

Valentine boxes/bags. The tail fell off Blake's, the head fell off  Jac's, and the camera lens fell off Wade's. Each was salvaged. Wade's feeling extra cool cause I said I think we could save his and call it v-day decor. I was gone at class when the kids got home, but I decided to leave them pink heart rice krispies. That failed, but boring old squares still taste good, and they were pink = festive. No one noticed them until I got home. Attempts at magical thwarted. 

Wade had quite the week. He got an award for doing 5,000 questions in IXL (math app) and got to be on the announcements because of it, his group got chosen to go to the zoo (wrote about it last week), and he got picked to be in the art show! He keeps talking about how he is just rocking at life right now and saying "my life is going great." He's now reached 6,000 IXL questions - we've gotten into weird stuff, I taught him roman numerals and Bryan has been teaching him all sort of, I don't even know, math stuff. He did take a really good burn going off a jump snowboarding, so keeping him humble. 

A few weeks ago I sold my china cabinet. I loved her, but realized I'd like something more functional, and once that thought took root it grew like a magical bean, and I knew I could use the money now + there are blessings with sacrifice, usually the blessings are linked to like spiritual sacrifice, but sacrificing something I loved to help with finances is noble. Or so I'm telling myself. I'm so noble. Thought I'd list it high and see what happened. It was gone within 18 hours. Sold her for $400 (I bought her for $100, painted her, and enjoyed her for several years. My kind of ROI). Well, she had a mirror in it. The girls have been lamenting the loss of the kitchen dancing mirror. Cause kitchen's should have dancing mirrors. Didn't you know? This week I brought down a different mirror and all is again right with the world. Even better, because there's nothing obstructing the view. After dancing the girls decided they needed their pictures taken:  

I got the tiniest, faintest amount of pink on my cheeks from snowboarding Saturday! I know this is just spring deception, but it feels so good. So much snow is melting, we've had warm weather, blue skies, and sunshine. Of course, everything under/within the snow is becoming visible. The snow was so deep I had to dig spots for Stella to relieve herself, with the snow melting everything is quite...densely dispersed. 

Dad yelled "There's a BEAR!" and Blake came running in full terror. Dad's are buttheads. 

Everyone was jealous that Blake wore a short sleeve on our "hike." It was 38 degrees. These are definitely Minnesota kids. 

He's always trying to get me with snowballs. Told him at least at Buck Hill it isn't allowed. I don't know if that's true, but he was getting alarmingly good at aiming it so it'd somehow get under all my layers and I'd have snow dripping down my back. Impressive and annoying. 

He decided it was time to organize his rocks. He did it by type. I kept hearing him ask Echo how to spell things

During the Super bowl - Wade is Derek's favorite person to come over. Wade sleeps well nights after we hang out with him. 

Saturday we were snowboarding and Travis broke his wrist. It was an very uneventful, mundane fall. I'm going to start slipping him calcium pills. Bryan took him to the ER and I took all the kids .... wait, I need to back up: 

A few weeks ago I was driving my carpool group home from our hospital clinical. It was so windy, the kind where you almost get clipped trying to get in the car door. I started driving and heard something weird, I pulled off and realized it was my license plate kind of flapping. Got back in, started driving, we were still talking about it when the noise stopped - I looked back just in time to see my license plate fly through the air into the brush off the shoulder along 1-35. My new tabs were ordered and this year they were sending new plates, so I was a few days from being set. New plates come, we can't get the screws out. The license plate ripped off - there are still pieces of metal attached! Bryan and Travis have tried, they have to take it to a welder. 

Okay, fast forward to Saturday: Bryan drives us to Buck Hill in our license-plate-less car. I don't bring my license because I am not driving. Bryan takes Trav to the ER, I am driving. I am driving in a license-plate-less car without a driver's license, no shoes (cause I can't drive in my boarding boots), my 9 year old in the front seat and three 7 year old girls in the back. We get pulled over. Could the storm be any more bazaar? He was so nice. He believed me, probably partly cause only the truth is so outlandish, a lie would be more conservative. I told him I was dropping my niece off and going home, so he just let me go without a fuss. So nice. 

Tuesday I have class and don't get home until about 6. We didn't plan anything special for Valentine's day, so when Bryan asked what we were doing for dinner I said white bean chili and that I'd have to stop for beans on my way home from class. We're not super "special" people, but it was a rough day and class was really rough (I've had a lot of bad teachers at this school, this is the first one that feels like she's trying to make our lives harder, ugh) and then I needed to stop at the store. It was frustrating and I was overwhelmed. Bryan usually makes dinner when I have class late, but I didn't think beyond just being kind of annoyed, especially cause it's been a long week for him too. I walk in and the girls had set the table and Bryan had made steak and lobster for dinner! The girls bombarded me with a bunch of random crap with hearts on them that they deemed a gift (basically every piece of paper they touched that day, along with some genuine notes meant for me), I cried in my hallway feeling really loved.