Some Laughs with a Little Depression Sprinkled on Top

When is January going to end???
This month the total of our bills (including medical bills, teacher recertification fees, kids' lunch money, in addition to our regular mortgage, HOA, internet, gas, electric, and phone bills) exceeded our income (which is only Landon's salary since I can't work right now) by $207.50. That doesn't include food, gas, household expenses, Emma's birthday, co-pays for medication, entertainment, clothing, etc. The only credit card we own is a JC Penney credit card (LIGHT BULB), so, thanks to the dregs of Landon's student loan from September, we're able to squeak by this month. If the government doesn't hurry up and finish the stupid tax changes so we can file our income tax return, next month we're going to raid the girls' meager savings accounts, and after that I might have to start hookin' on Main Street and 5th West. I'm not sure if there's a market for plus-size 39-year-old hunchbacks in this college town, but it might be the next logical step.
The weather is cold, icy and scary for me to walk outside in case I fall down and hurt my back even more, so I've been staying inside all day eating candy. By the way, I've run out of candy so I'm resorting to making cookies and treats, which I'm happy to say, helps a lot. A big shout-out to whichever prophet invented food storage, because I always have enough staples to make cookies.
Luckily, my husband is a teacher and can bring home laughs to share around the dinner table to ward away the discouragement:
Yesterday he was teaching the kids about the VCCV pattern to divide words into syllables (Vowel Consonant Consonant Vowel). He had the kids open their reading textbook and pick out words with that pattern so they could divide them. For example "winter" is divided between the N and the T so you have WIN and TER. Some kid chose "ashore." Landon said, "OK, let's see what happens when you divide it between the consonants. You have AS and...well let's not finish that one. It doesn't work because of the SH blend." But some kid yelled out, "You would have AS and HORE!" Landon kept going, but shared it at the lunch table with the other teachers and had a good laugh over that one. Of course, I explained to the girls why it was funny. They got the "AS" part, but not the "Hore" part, so I explained what a whore was at dinner last night. (It is in the scriptures, so I thought it was OK to explain what it meant.)
At another point in the day yesterday, he was teaching them how to take notes. A little girl raised her hand and said, "I already know how to take notes. My counselor taught me how to take notes when I go to counseling."
As usual, we're hanging in there...sometimes by a thread, but we're still hanging. I know we're not the only ones who have problems, and I know ours are small compared to many, but what kind of friend/sister/daughter would I be if I didn't take a depression dump on my family and friends now and then? I think you all know that I'm the kind of gal who likes to share the good times and the bad, so we can all be happy or sad together.

New Post of Ballroom Dancing

I started a post Sunday morning of Emma's ballroom dancing but it took a while to upload the video, so it's below the YW post. Scroll down and check out her video...

YW Lesson

I have to teach the Beehive class today. I'm excited because I get to use my limited creativity with the handouts and other lesson material. The girls appreciate it and I enjoy doing it, so it's win/win. When I was surfing the internet for ideas for my handouts, I came across a lot of ideas, but in the end, I just did what I wanted with the materials I already had. (We still have tons of scrapbook material from when Landon sold ad space for that scrapbooking magazine, and from Jane giving me tons of stuff from that magazine because her sister owned it.)

So I made wordstrips that I'll put on the board with magnets as we discuss them. I made a poster with a key scripture on it, and then I just taped Jesus to a piece of cardstock to make it match the other poster.I made bookmarks with a Marion G. Romney quote. I couldn't decide which kind of flower I liked better, the curly or the flat. Emma likes the flat, so I went with that. The girls can choose which bookmark they want.

Emma, Lauren and I had fun making this stuff and I'm excited that I get to do this for a calling.

So clearly, I'm insecure and looking for some validation. Please leave a comment telling me that you liked what I made. (By the way, in addition to the lesson "cutesies" I've actually prepared a real lesson with a real point that I hope the girls will learn from and apply to their lives. That's beside the point, though.)

Emma's Ballroom Performances

Emma danced at a Jr. High girls basketball game Thursday afternoon. This was the first performance for her team this year. We were a little underwelmed. I guess the routine is more technical than her routine last year, so it doesn't look quite so flashy. Yesterday she performed at the Civic Auditorium in Idaho Falls with 41 other teams. The show itself was 2 1/2 hours long, but we had to be there by 4:00pm for her stage practice before the show. It was a long day, but Lauren and I really enjoyed watching the show. Landon was ready to go when we got there, and Emma was so tired that she didn't even want to stay the whole time. (We did anyway.) At the half-time performance, none of the dancers smiled or appeared happy to be there. For the show last night, Landon offered to pay Emma $5 if she cracked a smile while she was up on stage. She did smile and it was a lot more fun to watch! Here's a video of the half-time performance:

MLK Weekend

There's not a lot going on with us, but here's a sampling of what we've been up to:

Lauren had Ketti come over to play last week (she had been over to Ketti's house the week before). I took them to the dollar store and they picked out some slime. They put it on the counter and blew into it with straws and made bubbles. This entertained them for quite a while.Lauren got this vest from her Justice giftcard at Christmas. It just arrived this week in the mail and she couldn't be happier! She wears it non-stop. Landon and the girls made homemade eggrolls the other night. Landon became quite confident with his rolling ability and said, "I'm like a little Asian woman!" They were really good!Monday morning I made German pancakes for breakfast. Simple and delicious! The cookbook is still in the works, by the way! Landon just formatted it, so I've been copying and pasting each and every recipe to the section it belongs in. I've also been making the comments on all the new recipes I'm adding from our supply, so it's taking a lot of time. I don't want anyone to think it's not happening, though. I can't sit at the computer for hours at a time, so it's being done little by little. It will be so cool when it's done though! Probably about 100 pages worth of recipes (50 front and back), because I'm including about 90% of the previous two cookbooks within this 3rd cookbook. I'm lucky enough to see everyone's contributions, so I've already tried a couple. It's been fun!

In December when Nana was visiting, we went to buy Landon some suits for work. While we were there, the shopping complex where we bought the suits was having their grand opening celebration, and they were giving away prizes. We won a raffle prize of a $50 gift certificate to Bella Luna, which is a new clothing/accessories boutique in that shopping complex. We decided to go spend the money yesterday. The girls got to split the $50 and buy $25 worth of stuff for themselves, and this is what they got:Lauren bought a crocheted headband, some earrings and an undershirt thing.
Emma bought a hat and an undershirt thing (there's a bit of a glare on her glasses!).
Their purchases came to $55.89 and this is the bag they put them in:So fancy! Everything in that store was super expensive and really trendy/chic. Way beyond our fashion sensabilities, which is why I had to take a picture of the bag. We're saving it to use when the girls have a birthday party or something. It's the kind of store where TAMN would shop from that "Seriously So Blessed" blog, if she really existed. I wonder if it will survive in Rexburg! The owner is the lady who was our real estate agent and helped us buy our house. She's a nice lady, but I hope she knows what she's doing with her store!! It was fun experience for the girls though.

Update

There's not much to update! January is turning into a slow month for the LeFevre family.

I was released from Activity Days and sustained as a Beehive Advisor. The entire YW presidency and all the leaders were released and a new group of us was called and sustained. You've never seen such drama in all your life! The outgoing women were weeping and sobbing all 3 hours of church last week, which made the girls very upset as well. Of course that sets us up as the bad guys. It's going to be a real fun month or two as the girls decide whether or not to hate us. They had been allowed to lay down on blankets and pillows during their Sunday lessons, call the leaders by their first names, bring pets to weekly activities, etc, etc. There had been no structure or boundaries at all for nearly 3 years. The new women are all similar to me in attitude and opinions, so as you can imagine, there may be some challenging times ahead as we attempt to get the program back to the way it should be run.

Landon and I went out on a date a week ago or so. Landon made the girls some homemade pasta with cheese and butter, green beans and ciabatta bread. The girls loved it so much they insisted on taking pictures of it.

One night this week we made fried Rhodes rolls (scones) for dinner. I preferred mine sweet, while Landon put bacon and eggs on his. (Gross!)

Lauren came home Thursday after school and looked super pale. She started throwing up around 4:00pm and didn't stop until about 2:00am. She and I slept in my bed so I could dump the barf bowl into the toilet, rinse it out and hand it back to her throughout the night. Night time is still the worst time for me since my surgery, so it was kind of challenging for both of us. I moved really slowly, all hunched over, but I managed to take care of her anyway. Since Landon had to go to work all day, I made sure he could get his sleep downstairs on the couch. It's Saturday and she is still feeling kind of lethargic and achy. She's been happily watching episode after episode of The Cosby Show, thanks to Heidi letting us borrow the whole series of DVDs when I had surgery. Lauren loves it.

Today I felt like baking something. I found a recipe for "Pecan Upside-Down Baby Cakes" in my new Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that Landon gave me for Christmas. They turned out YUMMY! You see that one that looks kind of broken down? Well, Landon and I shared that one and I can tell you that they were delicious.That's about it! There's just not much going on with us right now.

*Update: If you want the recipe for these little cakes, try Googling Pecan Upside-Down Baby Cakes. I had a hard time pasting the recipe for some reason, so just google it and find it for yourself.