Back in Orchestra!

 Austin took a year off from orchestra so he could stay in the STEM academy and get his one required year of language. It's usually 2 years of language, but since he's in the STEM academy, they waived 1 year of language for him. I would like him to take another year of language, but he literally has no room. He has been learning Norwegian on Duolingo. I find it amusing that the one who has been approached at least 2 different times in Spanish-speaking countries by people speaking to him in Spanish because they assumed he knows it is the one who has the least Spanish under his belt. I'm not worried, though. He might have the opportunity on his mission. 

Anyway, back to the orchestra. He's back to participating in it. Since Kade just graduated in June and was still in orchestra, it seems seamless to me. We've been going to orchestra concerts since Victoria was 12, so almost 10 years. 

Austin plays the cello still and didn't lose too much from his year off. He dabbled in it a bit last year. He tried out for the symphony and didn't make it, but he's the first chair in the concert orchestra, and I think he's where he needs to be. There are only 3 cellists this year!!

It's so much easier to get good shots of the cellists! The violas are the hardest to photograph because they're in the middle and set further back. The violins are also kind of hard because there are usually so many of them. Lucky Austin!

Here are his songs, if you are inclined to listen. The third one is with the symphony. They played a piece that's in its world premiere. Only a few select orchestras have played it, and the composer was a guest conductor for the piece that evening. Pretty cool!

I love the holiday concert!

Did You Know?

 At the beginning of October, I was being proactive and looking at the weekly postings of job listings in the high school newsletter. I was thinking that Austin could pull off a small job when the XC season ended and before track season becomes too busy. I found a job listing that was temporary, just like we wanted, except that it was looking for someone from October to December. It wouldn't even work for Kade because that was when Kade was at the height of his Pumpkin Factory job, plus Zumiez. 

The job description intrigued me, and I thought it would be something fun for me to do. It was looking for someone to fill granola orders through Shopify by packaging them in boxes and writing hand-written notes, thanking the customer for supporting this small business. Besides taking those boxes to be delivered from a box delivery shop nearby, it also requires delivering orders to Zingermann's sandwich shop in Ann Arbor, to a health food shop and store called Argus Farms in Ann Arbor, and to Busch's grocery store in Royal Oak. Another shop in New York orders a big wholesale order every few months to sell from their shop. 

The company Teffola, or Tenera Grains, was started by a young lady whose dad owns a farm and grows teff there, which is the world's smallest grain, native to Ethiopia, and is gluten-free. She created this company around the granola she made using teff, so it's all gluten-free. She has original, chocolate, pumpkin, cherry cacao, and berry burst. She also has granola bites: original, chocolate chip, and almond mocha. 

I contacted her to see about the job because it seemed like it wouldn't be too busy (5-10 hours/week), and it sounded kind of fun! Plus, I love granola! I also want to have some extra money for Erik's two big field trips at the end of the school year, and I really don't like fundraisers.

I interviewed with Claire, and she hired me on the spot since I was available and definitely capable. She offered me more than what she listed and also pays my per diem for when I make deliveries. The reason the job is only until December (now she pushed it back to January) is that she moved to Brooklyn, MI, which is an hour away, and she couldn't do all the back and forth. Besides the company that currently makes her granola, I'm her only employee. She has another business that I know she's working on that probably keeps her busy in addition to keeping her eye on the orders that come through, since it's all online. 

The lease for her warehouse in Plymouth is up in January, so we'll move her to Brooklyn then. I say "we" because she was originally going to hire a moving company to move her business, but I'm hoping she'll hire my boys, since Austin never got a job, besides cat sitting, and she can just pay them. She's not ordering many replacement products now, so she'll have less inventory to move over when she does. That's part of my job now is to keep inventory so we can maintain the business, but not have too much to move. 

Her business is thriving, and I ship packages from Maine to California. I love reading the customers' names and writing my little hand notes. I write their names on the outside of the boxes too, in front of a stamp that says "______ is bold and brave". That's the motto of her company. Bold flavors, brave steps in life, basically. 

The hardest part is the printing of the labels when the label printer gets finicky. The beginning was tough because there's no wifi at the factory, and I don't have a hotspot on my phone, so I had to figure out the best way to buy the shipping labels and then print them, which I do at home now. I just go into the warehouse after my preschool job and fill the orders with the labels already printed. Then I drop them off on my way home. It's pretty easy, as long as everything is running smoothly. 

Last week was super busy with the start of December and all the orders that came through. Also, keeping up with the inventory so she can list on Shopify how many of which product are left. 

It's been a fun temporary job, and I have a better appreciation for small businesses.

Bold and Brave stamp with the Teffola tape I use on the top of the boxes. 

The boxes on top are the boxes I use to pack. The ones on the bottom contain the different types of granola.

Part of my workspace. 

Outside Argus Farms a month ago. 

Also part of Arugu Farms- it's so cute!

My latest and biggest shipment, due to the holidays. 28 boxes!

Another Year Older

Erik's 14th birthday was 9 days ago, on Stake Conference Sunday,  lucky him! It was a bit of a busy day with our missionary here, and with the holidays approaching, some of us attended choir practice as well. I think he had plenty of downtime later in the day. We also enjoyed a movie together and a fun new game. 

He got a new bike!

Kade had fun wrapping the Switch game in this huge box!

Gift in hand!

Kade took him to McDonald's for dinner the night before, since Jason and I had other meetings for Stake Conference.  Erik really loves McDonald's for his birthday meal. Chicken nuggets and fries! On his birthday, we had breakfast for dinner with waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, oj, and raspberries.  I'm so happy he enjoys those foods. He requested his favorite poppyseed bundt cake for dessert.  

Since he has braces,  I make a smoothie for him most days that includes spinach, banana, mixed berries, lemon juice, and a bit of yogurt. I usually put in collagen as well. Before we ran out, I was putting creatine in it. He still has a limited fare that he eats, but most of it is decent for you, so with his smoothies, he's able to keep strong for his active lifestyle and keep growing.  

Now that it's been a year since he got his phone, I have to say that it's one of the best things for us. We have a family group chat where we share funny, random, cool, or interesting things, including pictures of our cats. They are shared the most by us. Also, Erik is Mr. Social and always arranging meet-ups with his friends to play basketball or football at a park in a neighborhood nearby. 

When trying to decide what to do for his party this year or even when to have it, we finally decided to do what we usually do- have his friends meet us at a park to play sports (soccer, football, basketball,  and Grounders), and then take them back to our house for food and video games on the Switch. 

It was Black Friday,  which was a good day for a party, except we got hit with a huge cold front (remember the real feel of 12 on Thanksgiving morning??) It was a real feel of 18 at 1pm that day during the party. They only played at the park for about an hour before we took them back because we were all frozen! Even the heater I brought wouldn't work because the wind kept blowing out the pilot light 😒. 

Football

Frozen

Basketball

Grounders

So they warmed up at the house playing Switch games,  ate food like 13/14 year old boys do, even Erik enjoyed all his breadsticks (the rest had pizza in addition to breadsticks). And then,  they played hide and seek in our now very small home (with 6 just about fully grown people who take up every single space, even our storage room, where kids usually hide). With 13 teen boys playing, including Austin, and most of them are bigger than me, Jason and I reminded them that their hiding would be very simple and limited. It didn't matter to them.  They played an indoor/outdoor version (yes, back in the cold) and had such a fun time. I was amused! We barely had time for Erik to open his cards full of money, 1 gift, and have chocolate cake before the party ended. I was happy to see old-fashioned playing going on. Such nice friends!

Erik still loves to read, though he doesn't do it as much, and is still a great student in school,  though I can see some teen forgetfulness sometimes.  His teachers say he's such a good friend to everyone, and he will help anyone at school. He's doing NJHS again, still playing the trombone in the school band, now playing indoor soccer,  and has developed his talents in running.  Sometime soon, he will be taller than me!

We love our Erik and are happy to see him thrive!

Thanksgiving

For the past two Thanksgivings, Victoria was still at school, so it was nice to have her home for the holiday this year. 

We saw Wicked on Wednesday, which she was happy to see. Victoria and I made an apple pie from scratch with Susie and Karyn earlier in the day. I helped Jason prep 2 turkeys Wednesday night for a stock and our dinner the next day, where 25 people would be eating at the Remingtons. We've been eating at their home the past 2 years and like to share leftovers, so we went all out with the turkeys!

The reason we made the apple pies together was so they could try the apple-peeler-corer-slicer!

On the way to Wicked. Austin went to a hockey game instead.

Thursday morning was the Canton Turkey Trot.  I opted not to run it this year since I had just run the Meet of Champions two weeks before. I don't like to run in too many races. I would have just run on my own that morning,  but since the real feel was 12 degrees,  I rode my bike inside and was so happy I didn't sign up for that race! Austin and Erik did, so we supported them and held their extra layers. No PRs set, but Austin came in 5th behind 4 competitive college runners, one of whom (the 1st place finisher) holds the fastest time in Salem history, and Austin is creeping up on his time. Since he currently competes at the college level and runs 110 per week, Austin got good tips from him. It was like meeting a celebrity because we're always looking at his name. Erik looked really good too. 

Always fun to run into friends!

Bare legs! Brrrr!!

Erik's floating in this pic!

Austin found a buddy to beat at the end!

We enjoyed the best turkey Jason has made. I say that often,  but it just gets better and better.  This year, it was because he had cut it into parts before roasting it, like he's done recently,  but he put a really good rub on it and roasted each part accordingly. No overcooked, dry white meat here! We brought the apple pie, a chocolate chip cookie pie, the gravy and cool whip we made, and some fruit. All the other fixings were there as well. Mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole,  green bean casserole,  rolls, salads, Jell-O fluff, stuffing,  and Martinellis. Pumpkin pies and chocolate pies were in addition to the pies I brought. 

Baby love!

Game watchers.

After we ate, we watched some football,  then came home and watched a movie.  We were tired!

It was lovely having all of us home for Thanksgiving. Grateful hearts 💕 

She's Back!

 Victoria returned home from her mission about a week and 1/2 ago. After being in Mexico for only one transfer, I'm truly amazed at how much she grew spiritually and in her Spanish. The MTC contributed to lot of that growth as well. 

She had some amazing experiences that I feel like totally satisfy mission needs; however, some experiences led her to follow up through prayer at the suggestion of the Mission President to come home, at least for time, and take care of her health. 

While she felt an extremely strong prompting to go on a mission, she felt just as strong a prompting to come home. She's continuing on her mission here as a service missionary and while it's been a little difficult navigating this completely new path, there's a lot of potential.

It's almost like the best of both worlds. She can still work with the full-time missionaries here, and believe me, they're all excited to work with her. She can also participate in any service opportunities, develop her own talents (like teaching dance and yoga), and work in the temple. 

Her first Friday here, she attended Zone Conference with all the full-time missionries in the area and many different companionships from our area have reached out to her many times for help, including the Spanish-speaking missionaries with whom she helped with Spanish. 

She can attend the Spanish Speaking Branch whenever she wants, Jason and I try to speak Spanish with her at lest once day, and next weekend she's going to the Spanish Christmas Devotional for all the Spanish speakers in our whole area (there's more than I thought!)

Her schedule still needs to be ironed out as there are so mnay avenues she can take and it's actually overwhelming, but with Thanksgiving this week, it might be til next week when things get figured out. 

We're so happy to have her here for the holidays and for however long she wants to be. If she wants to go back to Mexico and feels ready, she can. She could also be reasasigned somehwere else if she waants to go back out full-time. It's really all up to her. 

We'll enjoy her for as long as it lasts!

(Erik was sick when she returned home,  but since his birthday is today, we'll get some good pics of them together. )