Decidedly Picky

As all the leaves start to fall and we bunker down for winter, my mind turns to contemplating all the events that have happened since the last time the leaves fell. For the last few years, September has been a major month in my life. I never thought much of September before. It was always just the month after school started, nothing noteworthy. But since Indy was born in 2012, Septembers have had much more significance.

In September 2013, our world changed again. We were living in Madison, WI and loving the changing seasons, when Lewis came home with the upsetting news that he had lost his job. We had some good leads but no job materialized. So 1 year to the day after we arrived, we left beautiful Madison and moved to Seattle, WA.

I've been looking forward to living in Seattle for a very long time. It sounded so romantic (and not just because of Twilight!) with the beautiful greens and blues and grays. I love the rain and couldn't imagine being sick of it. So I was optimistic when we arrived. But our living situation was less than ideal. An old friend of Lewis' was kind enough to offer us a room in his home. He has a beautiful house with plenty of room and we got along great with him and his wife. However, they don't have children and they do not want children and the don't really like children. So bringing in an energetic 18 month old who hasn't learned to talk yet but communicates plenty through pointing and screaming, was just a bad idea. It was incredibly stressful trying to keep him quiet all day and all night, while they worked from their home office. After 4 months, we had all had it! Lewis was getting nowhere in his job hunt even though he was putting in 8 hours a day looking and we were in one of the biggest hotspots in the world for video games. So we bought a plane ticket for Indy and me to fly back to Utah and Lewis drove the 17 hours in our car.

Arriving back in Utah was nice. The Adairs (best family ever!) were happy to let Indy run around like a little hooligan and my mom was so happy to have us back. So after a few weeks of enjoying family and friends we took a job at camp. We love Beaver High Adventure Base with all our hearts. If we ever won the lottery, we would buy that place just so we could keep it alive and beautiful. But this year did not go well. The Management was ill prepared and gone 70% of the time. Half way through the first week, I told them I couldn't be head cook because it was just too stressful taking care of Indy and trying to teach them how to run camp and keep everyone on task in addition to my normal duties. So they got another head cook and I became assistant cook and still took care of Indy, my nieces and did most of the program director's job, the commissioner's job and some of the camp directors' jobs. Some of that was to be expected since I was the only person reliably at the Lodge. But I still came back from camp worn out and sick of doing stuff other people were supposed to be doing.

Unfortunately, coming back from camp was no less stressful. We moved into my mom's house where Joe, Josie their two kids, my Uncle John, and Ben, Windy and their 4 kids were all living (It's a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house). Joe, Josie, and John were supposed to have moved out before the end of the summer but they had been looking for months and no one would rent to them. (I don't know of any landlord who is looking for smokers with a criminal record, and a bankruptcy in the last 2 years. Do you? Seriously, if you do, let me know!) Ben and Windy's family were coming back from camp too and just needed a place to stay for a few weeks while the paperwork for the house they were buying went through. Unfortunately, that turned into over a month, since buying a house is always more complicated than you think. So Lewis and I lived in a tent in the back yard for a few weeks because we just couldn't stand being in the house with all those crazy people! Really, it wasn't that much different from camp.

Ben and Windy now have a lovely home that they are in the process of painting and doing minor repairs on. So I thought things would quiet down a bit but it's never quiet in the Shaffer house for long.

One night when I was feeling particularly domestic, a knock came at the door. I put down the salsa I was making and made sure the timer was set for the banana bread in the oven, and answered the door in my apron. There was 6 big scary looking guys standing on the porch. I thought, "Is this a biker gang? Are they collecting donations for M.A.D.D. or something?" But they introduced themselves as the sheriff's department, showed me their badges and handed me a search warrant. They searched the house while I took the kids into another room. They came in later to inform me that they had found drugs and that Josie, who was high, was being taken into custody. We asked them if we could keep Josie's children with us instead of taking them into state custody. They said that would be alright as long as Josie agreed to it. I have to say I was quite impressed by how polite and considerate they were. It was stressful but not as scary as it could have been and the kids didn't get scared which I was really happy about.

With Josie awaiting trial, I've been watching a 3 year old, and two 2 year olds during the day while Joe is at work. It's been really hard on me. I'm so used to Indy who is very independent and only wants my attention when he's hungry or hurt. Ethan (3) is pretty much the exact opposite. He wants to talk to me all day long, never takes a nap and wants me to help him do everything. Becca (2) is pretty independent like Indy but you have to watch out because she is a master at getting into things and making huge messes. We have our good days (today was one!) and our very bad days when it seems like I'll scream myself hoarse and there is always at least one kid in time out. But we are getting better at it and Becca is even starting to talk which she wasn't doing at all when we moved in. But I am still looking forward to when they move out and I'll only have my own family to take care of.

As I'm sure you've surmised, this year has been a really hard one for us. I don't think I've ever been this stressed in all my life, even during finals. In fact, I think this year has been more stressful than all the stress from my entire life combined. I've been avoiding blogging because I didn't want to unload all this drama onto anyone. (It's bad enough that I have to deal with it!) But things have just started looking up and I'm finally ready to put this all behind me.

I have two amazingly awesome announcements to make. Lewis got a job! Not just any little crappy job (several of those have turned him down because he's overqualified) but a great high paying job in his field! We are through the roof happy... and relieved! It could not have come at a better time. The savings we have been living on for a year are almost completely decimated, and we haven't been employed at Christmas time in 3 years. So I am so excited! I might actually have the money to send Christmas cards this year! The other great news is, we're expected baby number 2!

For Indy's 2nd birthday we decided on a Thomas theme. Indy is obsessed with Thomas. He will put any rectangular items in a line and say "Thomas! Choo Choo!" He also calls all trains Thomas. So we thought he'd be thrilled with the theme we picked.

I was rather uncertain about the rest of the party though. I wasn't sure about the date or time or anything. So I did some facebook polling, some consulting with family, and way too much reading of blogs. I decided on Sept. 20th at 10am so I could finally make the invitations.

I handed out the invites to my ward members and invited the family. ( I actually have family around here! It's been far too long since we lived near family.) According to the RSVP's, we expected 23 kids and 23 adults. Thankfully, they didn't show up all at once and not quite that many showed.

As I mentioned before, I read WAY too many blogs for party ideas and got a little ambitious. I made a train out of cardboard boxes for the kids to play in, several Thomas themed signs, themed food, crayon containers, and decorations. If I hadn't had all the great help from Stephanie the night before, Windy making the cake, and my family help put everything together in the morning, I would have died. In fact, I was freaking out when 10am rolled around and we still didn't have everything done. We started a little late but we pulled it together.











Indy had a great time playing in the train. He spent 90% of the party there. In fact, we had to lure him with the train so that he would come open presents.

He loved all his presents and the awesome train cake Windy made.




All the hard work paid off with the kids having a great time....






And the adults having a splendid time too!




Thanks everyone for coming! Happy Birthday, Indy!

September is the month of a thousand birthdays and my son is one of them. For Indy's 1st birthday party we picked a Curious George theme. It's one of the only things Indy expressed repeated interest in and it's actually a super cute show. So I was excited to start planning!

First I picked the date and location and made the invitation.

Making the invite was grueling and incredibly frustrating but I loved it! I loved collecting all the images and combining them into my own custom invite. Maybe I can be a crafty mormon mom after all!

As the day got close, we realized the weather was not going to be good enough for the outdoor party I had envisioned by the lake. So we were stuck with our little apartment. It was'nt the best venue but we all squeezed in.

On one side of the room I had Curious George episodes playing, some toys and a bubble machine going for the kids. (This was a bad idea. The TV was too distracting for the adults and the bubble machine made the floor really slippery really fast!)



On the other side of the room, I had refreshments, favors, and a make your own party hat activity. The refreshments consisted of bananas (of course!), rice krispy treats, animal crackers, bunny crackers, cupcakes and lemonade. Basically, it was everything left over from Lewis' vending business and cupcakes.

The cups and plates were supposed to look like The Man in the Yellow Hat's hat but I didn't get the black bands put on them in time. So I don't think anyone got it.

I forgot to take a pic before we started eating. Oops! So much for the crafty mom thing....

My favorite part of this whole party was the favors. I made an Adopt a Monkey basket by going to St. Vincent de Paul's Dig and Save thrift store. Coolest thrift store ever!!!! They have tons of huge bins of stuff and you pay for it by the pound. So I paid 35 cents per pound for these awesome monkeys! I found an actual Curious George monkey, a funny gorilla that would suck on his thumbs or toes, a creepy astronaut monkey with a wide grin, some valentine ones, some big ones, and some tiny ones and attached a thank you for coming button on each.


 For an activity, I printed out a bunch of Curious George party hats to color.

I get the feeling the adults liked that activity more than the kids did...

After the kids played for a while and all the adults were getting really bored, we opened presents and had cake.







All in all, things came together all right and Indy had a great time. So I declare this birthday party a success!

Thanks Karen, for giving me an easy post so that I would actually start blogging again. It's been a REALLY long time and I'm happy to get back into the swing of things. So here's a fun little survey to get things going...

1. What are you wearing?
I'm still in my pj's. Halo shirt and grey yoga pants.

2. Ever been in love?
Still am.

3. Ever had a terrible breakup?
Not like the worst ever but it wasn't pleasant.

4. How tall are you?
5'0"

Everyone should because these surveys can change your life. My husband told me he liked me for the very first time through a survey like this. We grew up together and were great friends but I had no idea he actually liked me until one of those questions about your crush. He ended the survey with, "surprised?" A yeah! I about fell off my chair!

Today we spent a lovely day in Seattle.

At first I was annoyed to be going because I was all in gear to kick some moving-butt, but after we got onto the ferry I just couldn't resist the coolness. Ferries are awesome!

But super windy.

And if you couldn't tell it was windy in that one, this one should clear it up...


Ferries also collect all kinds of different people. There was a cute little family with two toddlers that Indy walked up to and just stared at. (Why won't that kid wave at anything except inanimate objects and me? Wait a second! What does that say about me?! :p) We also met a GIGANTIC dog and his owner. The dog was nice. The owner was AWKWARD. He was obviously trying to relate to me and started comparing how he teaches his dogs with how you would raise a kid, which I thought was kinda sweet. But then he asked me how it was nursing when they start teething. I was at a loss as to what to say for a minute while I was thinking, "I'm not going to tell a total stranger anything about my nipples! Why does this guy even want to know?!" I settled on simply saying it wasn't a problem and he continued on about his dog and her 5 puppies. But I just couldn't get away fast enough after that.

Indy loved the ferry and learned how to say the word 'boat'. He wasn't very happy with us when it was time to get back in the car.


Upon lading, we stopped for a refreshing beverage at the Mystery Coke Machine. I pushed the tastiest looking ?Mystery? button and got a..... Mountain Dew! My favorite. :) Next I put in the change and even before I pressed a button, out popped an iced tea, which Lewis actually likes. Happy with the outcome, I started to leave when an elderly lady asked me if I would get her one too since it was hard for her to get out of her car. I happily complied and out popped a 7up. I brought it back to the lady and she looked a little disappointed. So I offered her the iced tea instead. She smiled and happily traded me for the 7up. When I got back to the car, Lewis was even happier with the 7up than the iced tea. I just love a good deed that benefits everyone. :)

Best selfie I've ever done in just one take! Skills upgrade!

Next we went looking for the Troll Bridge. We got totally lost but it was actually kinda fun. Lewis and I have decided that big cities have so much traffic because everyone is so lost that the same car has to drive past any given location an average of 4 times before it can end up where it's going. Getting lost did have the nice side effect of getting to see more of the city with all it's quirkiness.


The Troll may have been hard to find, but it was totally worth it! Look how awesome this thing is!

Don't forget to pay the toll or this could happen to you!

Indy offered a nifty rock

But it wasn't until the Troll and I had a heart to heart that he would let Lewis go.

Obviously, Lewis learned his lesson...

We continued on to the Sound Garden, which was a horrible disappointment. There were no signs to it and we had to ask several people before we figured out where it was. There was no wind so the artwork made no noise and it wasn't even interesting looking. The only thing that made all the trouble even remotely worth it was cooling off in the lake.


So my advice for when you go to Seattle... Forget the Space Needle. Go say hi to the Troll.