The Red Chair

 Way back when we lived in Delaware, about 15 years ago, I found a great big green chair while out jogging. We had a big-to-us house and not much furniture. I have never been a big fan of buying expensive furniture. Way back when we were still getting established with the first home we bought and our baby, free furniture was the way I wanted to go. So, this king-sized chair seemed perfect. It would take up a lot of room in our living room and work out just great!

Apparently, I never took a good picture of the green chair, but here's most of it.

We only had two sedans. An old Honda Accord and a new one, so we borrowed our next-door neighbor's van to go down the street and pick up this chair. On a side note, this next-door neighbor family happened to be members of the Church and the father was in the Bishopric (how random is that in Delaware to live next door to members of the Church?!) We didn't take out the last bench from the van and there wasn't much room to fit the chair even there, so I held onto the chair so it wouldn't fall out of the slightly open door of the van for the short drive down the street. One detail I don't remember is that if we strapped Victoria in her car seat in one of the many rows of the van, or the Christensens were babysitting her.... 

We were so excited to put it in our living room when we returned! It looked great! 

A few months later (maybe more, but not much because we only lived in Delaware for a year), we decided we were leaving the military, due to an unexpected opportunity to separate a little earlier. When we finally arrived in our condo in Michigan (many months later), I wanted to make a coverslip for this chair. I'm sure I wanted to do it beforehand, but time didn't allow for that, so once we got settled, that was my first project. My stepsister, Shelly, has a business covering furniture in Utah. She's awesome at it! I knew I would need help from her if my chair were to look presentable whatsoever. I called her up and we made a long-distance plan. She gave me tips on fabric, measurements, and pinning. I sent her pictures, measurements, and the fabric after I had pinned it, and a small work fee. She sent it back and you would not believe how perfect it looked! I worked out so well! We loved our red chair! It became a favorite play place and sitting place. It was also the chair our kids usually sat in to open birthday presents. I could take the cover off and wash it any time I wanted and put it back on with ease. 

I could fit baby Karissa and Victoria together with plenty of room for Karissa's whole body to be on it, lying down.

First Valentine's day with the chair.

First of many forts created with the chair!

Our house now is on the smaller side, that's only because we have 6 of us, and no more little babies! For a couple of years now, I've wanted to replace the big chair with two smaller chairs so people can sit more comfortably in a chair of their own. This last Christmas, I received a bunch of gift cards from my very generous student's families to Target, totaling $100. I decided to use the money toward some cute chairs from Target. They are surprisingly supportive and comfortable, even though they're from Target, not your typical furniture store. Of course, they're very chic as well. 

Before, with the red chair...

Afterward!

Our red chair was taken by a sister who wanted it from our ward. She is single with an 8-year-old son. I think he will enjoy the fun bouncy chair and they can sit together in it if they want. 

We love our new chairs!

Another One in Braces

 Can you guess who has braces now? Yep, Austin. And he was very excited to get them on since he's the only one who hasn't had them yet, though Erik will have to get them again for a longer period of time when all his teeth have been lost and found again. 

We had scheduled Austin's appointment sometime in November. I think it was even before Erik got his off, but I knew that Erik would be getting his off soon after that since they were overdue. I also had a feeling that Austin would have lost his last molar by the appointment in January. I was right with that too. It came out sometime in December and his new one is growing in. 

He got his top braces on during this appointment and will get the bottoms on in March. It was only a week ago, but his teeth are already moving. Hooray!

First Week Back

 Our first week back to school started with some good snowman building snow. It has been fun to watch my students play in it this week and especially goes well with all my winter themes. It's nice to have snow when we're talking about how it forms and doing our snow dance!

Luke enjoyed being outside with the kids.

We got some good snow, but where they rolled it into the snowmen, it did clear it off the ground, so still not too much.

I also started the week with the knowledge I was being released from my Relief Society counselor calling. Our ward RS president was called to be the Stake RS president, so the presidency was dissolved.  I was a little surprised, but after serving for 2 1/2 years in that calling and right before then as the 1st counselor in the Primary presidency, I guess it's good for me to have a break. Since things haven't been that busy, I haven't felt too overwhelmed, but it's nice to focus more on my kids on Sundays now as opposed to RS sisters and missionary work. I got to give a 5-minute testimony in yesterday's meeting about what I learned. I was glad I was healthy enough to go. 

The other thing that snuck up on us this week was a bad cold. Everyone has some symptoms of it, except for me, which is why I was able to go to church yesterday. It was our family's turn to go, but they all had to stay back, even Jason couldn't be up on the stand as a member of the Bishopric. Victoria has been coughing pretty badly and Karissa has a crazy stuffed up nose, but Saturday's test determined that it is not COVID, thank goodness!

We're anticipating the meeting tomorrow that will determine whether or not the middle schoolers and high schoolers get to go back to school in person, in some form. Also, Erik gets to go back next week for his funky schedule, but I'll take it!!

The Priesthood

 Austin was ordained to the office of a Deacon in the Priesthood on Sunday. It was a very special experience for all in our family. Jason attended the ward meeting as a member of the bishopric that morning (it wasn't our family's turn to go), and the rest of us met him there for the ordination afterward. Then, since the rest of us hadn't taken the sacrament yet, Jason blessed it and Austin passed it to us at home. It was a very sacred and special experience. Later that day, Jason realized that exactly 6 years ago, on January 3, Karissa was baptized! What a great day January 3 has turned out to be!!

Karissa's 14th Birthday!

 As I predicted in the past, Karissa will start celebrating her birthday with friends on New Year's Eve, just because it works out well to have double the fun on New Year's. This year it definitely made sense because even though we can now start having more contact, we still don't want to have too much going on just yet. 

I'd say that Karissa lucked out with her birthday, in fact, all the kids did in 2020, the way we planned everything and the timing of their birthdays. They sure do love being with friends, especially on birthdays, and it worked out that they all could. 

The day before her birthday, she went to her friend Olivia Banko's house ( a different one from the Olivia she's always with, but one of her closest friends for sure). Olivia was invited to her party on New Year's, but couldn't make it, so she had Karissa over and two other really good friends of hers (with face masks on) as a surprise! Since none of them were coming to our house on Thursday, she got to see these 3 friends on Tuesday. They had pizza and cake and played games, but that's about all I know since I wasn't there. I didn't even get any pictures of Ash, Thai, and Olivia at Karissa's surprise party. Oh well, they had fun!

On her actual birthday, we went skiing. We were going to go on New Year's Day but decided on the 30th instead and Karissa agreed that we could on her birthday. It turned out to be a very good choice for many reasons. First, the weather was a little wet, there was a slight drizzle or mist most of the time, so it made for not the greatest conditions, but we loved Mt. Holly so much, that it didn't matter to us. It was so much better than the other ski resort we've gone here. It all looked a little more natural like we were in the mountains, rather than on a big old re-purposed trash hill. The runs were better, the resort was better, and the layout was better. So, since the weather was not great, it was not very busy there at all. Second, two families from our ward (and very good friends of ours) happened to be skiing that day as well. The Farnsworths have been very careful with COVID and we haven't seen as much of them as we would have liked this year. The Dalebouts are the family we trick-or-treated with, but with the pause, we didn't get to see them much recently. It was so good for all my kids to ski with these great friends of ours! Third, it was a great way to spend the day on Karissa's birthday. Every year we do something pretty fun as a family on her birthday, so it was good to keep up that tradition. Last year we went roller skating and that's when Austin broke his arm. I'm very glad this year he didn't break anything!

She wanted doughnuts for breakfast, which worked out well for our quick morning. Her siblings were very happy about that!

Karissa and Victoria

Erik getting the hang of it.

Karissa and Victoria on the lift in front of me.

I can't remember who's behind us on the lift. can anyone tell??

Erik said it was the most fun he's ever had in one day!

Birthday Girl!

Max, Victoria, and Karissa

Victoria, Karissa, Owen, Austin, Erik, and Jason.

Austin, Nick, Spencer, and Erik. 

Owen and Austin

Austin really loved snowboarding. This was after his final run.

When we returned from skiing, I popped Karissa's requested tilapia and roasted potatoes in the oven and the broccoli in the microwave that I had already prepped, while Karissa opened gifts. We ate and then sang Happy Birthday with the cupcake tower before we plopped our tired bodies down to watch Soul. 

She loves all her gifts and cards she received!

Erik gave her an Ice Drink.

Victoria made her a nice card with one of her favorite Anime characters on it. 

Austin and Erik made her a nice card.

Out of pure laziness and the idea as to not have too much cake lying around, we made cupcakes for her birthday and added some brownies to fill up the tree for the party. She didn't want 14 candles on it, but I did put them on, not knowing she only wanted one!

For her party, she wanted Japanese food. So I served ramen, make-your-own-sushi, potstickers, and stir fry veggies. Only her two best friends came, which was perfect. We had Pocky, cupcakes (that they decorated themselves), and Ramune ( a Japanese soda) for dessert. Victoria went to a friend's for New Year's and after Karissa and her friends ate, they went to her room to play their loud rock music and watch Anime until it was close to midnight and they could ring in 2021 with us. 

The spread

CJ, Karissa, and Olivia

Make Your Own Sushi

CJ, Karissa, and Olivia (Olivia gave her this t-shirt and CJ's gift is coming all the way from Japan, so it's not here yet).

Olivia brought balloons and CJ brought noisemakers which the boys thoroughly enjoyed!

While the girls partied upstairs, Jason and I played some games with the boys and then watched a movie. We actually did stay up till midnight since we had a party going on. I managed pretty well, I guess. We were happy to celebrate Karissa and bid farewell to 2020. 

The final countdown!

Watching the ball drop.

Toasting our sparkling cider to the new year!

I'm sure for a lot of kids Karissa's age it was a tough year. I don't think she'll admit it, but it was a pretty hard year for her. She has changed a lot this year, as I'm sure most kids do going from 13 to 14. She still loves to hug her parents goodnight, so that's good. But she's a textbook teenager, in that she loves to be in her room or with her friends. We've had some excellent family time and many good moments as a family this year with fabulous memories made, but when the activity ends, she's back in her room. In her room, she loves to read and watch Anime (in subtitles, not dubbed in English), and draw and create her own comics. She also likes to listen to rock or alternative rock. She loves Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, and My Chemical Romance the best, but even old groups like ACDC, Wheezer, and Green Day are some of her favorites as well. She likes to wear band shirts, dress in black, and has finally convinced me to let her cut her hair. It looks very cute in her! 

She still plays the piano, the viola with the virtual orchestra, and is now teaching herself the guitar. She is also still in choir and made the Bueax Chantuers (special choir group). She was learning Japanese over the summer on her own but is taking Spanish in school. I think she will go for Japanese at the high school next year. She really likes to ride bikes with friends when the weather is nice. When we're not on a pause for COVID, she takes a tumbling class with Olivia. She has her back walkover now and is hoping to get a front walkover soon, and possibly a back handspring. We're happy to see her growing and changing to who she wants to be. Happy Birthday, Karissa!