Fostering
Sterling and I have decided that because Athena is so young we don't want to take our chances of putting her at risk by doing foster care. So we are simply postponing fostering until Athena is 8 yrs old atleast.
School year
Tiberias has been anxious for Summer vacation for weeks now. He convinced me to make a count down chart.
Ever since we stopped allowing him to have sugar before school and before church his behavior has vastly improved. And now that he is off sugar so often he can control himself. So when he does get sugar he has learned to control himself. Whereas, it use to be he didn't know how to calm down or behave well. It's so nice to have figure that out.
Piano Update
The boys are learning the piano. They love it and I love that they are doing it. I'm teaching them the basics. In a month or so I will start buying beginner piano books. And eventually I may have to pay for a real piano teacher. But for now they are learning Hot Cross Buns, Bubble Gum, Itsy Bitsy Spider and more.
Where We Are
We have been in Rapid Valley for over two years. And we are pretty well settled and happy. We love our home and being in the valley. We love Valley View Elementary school. We have wonderful friends and many friends/acquaintances. It is joyous.
We recently made friends with somewhat new neighbors. They moved in this last winter two houses over. Justin and Lacey have a teen daughter Abi and two toddlers; Annabel and Alex. Our kids love them. And we do too.
We had them over for dinner a week or so ago. That doesn't always lead to friendship. We've had our neighbors across the street over to dinner, last December, but we never see them now. And we had our next door neighbors to dinner a while ago but they have so many family friends before us that we never do stuff together.
This new family has friends and family here too but we really click with them. They seem to like us as much as we like them.
Fun Things We've Done in the Last Few Months
We tried Brain Yoga. Every morning for a week or so. Then I gave up. I knew I'd never see the results anyway...since I'm not their teachers.
We've done good at reading scriptures every morning off and on.
Had a fun, fun Easter party on the base. Squadron Easter party. The Easter bunny even came and spent time with the kids! They loooved that.
We bribed our boys to be great students in school. And every weekend they got a prize such as a dollar store item or one weekend after Ster's PT test we went to a doughnut shop for breakfast.
Luke went with me (Tiff) to a ward service project. We cleaned up trash in our community.
We've started playing at parks and went once to the downtown library. It's not as fun when the weather is cold...and here it is cold most of the year round. So we only go to the park when it's Spring weather. We had a few of those days but it's like this...a week of cold then two days of warm. Then snow and cold. Then rain. Then a day or two of warm. Then cold again.
Spring has FINALLY come to Rapid City! It got warm here this week and even though it's cooling down again it's not freezing. So that means Spring is here.
My Hair
Last year I had fun with purple hair. But it fried my hair so it was difficult to wash, brush, maintain. I had long purple hair which made it even harder to maintain. Then this year I went from purple to red to brown. I had fun transitioning back to a natural color. Then I had it chopped off. I am going to let it grow out healthy once again.
I actually went to a real beauty salon and paid to have my hair cut. When cutting it short you don't want to attempt it yourself.
I love my haircut. And nobody has to give me weird judgy looks anymore. I do have to say that when it was purple I received compliments everywhere I went. Often times by elderly people I did not expect it from. They loved my hair.
My Bows
For two years I have been making hair bows. At first it was just to learn. But then I want to sell them. So I stored them up as I made them. Waiting until I had enough to sell. I then attempted to sell them on facebook to the locals. Nobody wanted to buy them. Puzzling.
I tried to have an accessories party once and nobody showed up.
Then an opportunity presented itself for me to purchase a table and sell them at a city event. Tables were $40 but I figured it would not be worth paying that much to try and sell some bows. So I found a friend to split the table and cost with me. She sells Thrive.
In preparation for this event I worked hard and spent a lot of money to make enough fabulous hair accessories. I even made some tutus and bow holders.
And for over a month I waited anxiously for this event. Fearing I wouldn't sell enough to make money but hopeful that I would sell a bunch.
I was told I would be the only vendor selling hair accessories. And my friend Melinda would be the only one selling Thrive. There would not be more than one vendor per product type being sold.
But as the date came closer the person organizing the event was searching for more and more vendors to participate. I'm guessing she changed her mind and decided to allow 2nd vendors because at the event there were multiples.
We got to the event so excited but were given a table in the center of the room that was cramped. The tables were set so close together making the aisles thin and weird. The room and tables were set up like a maze. The outer tables, the lucky ones, had huge and wide aisles for people to walk through.
The event was from 9a-4p. Most people who came walked the outer aisles first and maybe would venture through the maze. But the event was packed with vendors. And maybe it wouldn't have been too many vendors IF the tables had been well set up.
I was unhappy because I was one of the first vendors to sign up yet the one who had hair accessories who probably joined last was given a table near the entrance and on the outer aisle. Nobody could see me or my table until they got in the maze. So naturally the other hair accessory vendor sold items before anyone even saw my table.
I was proud of my table except for its location. I had it set up fabulous but nobody could see it. And guess how much money I made that day.... -$20. I sold NOTHING.
If I had paid the full $40 myself for the table I would have complained big time. But I let it slide. I'm still mad though.
2 years of making bows. Over a month of craming and spending money and looking forward to this event that turned out to be a dud.
It wasn't all the table positioning fault though. We had way less guests come than planned. We had advertised well but to no avail. Most of the vendors today felt they did poorly because they sold little to nothing.
Frustrated I made a new plan. I will put everything 50% off and have a party. A going out of business party. I don't want to pay money to get a table at another event and spend a whole day trying to simply make up the money I spent to sit at that table!
I had hoped to make money off of this learning experience....but now I simply hope to make back the money I spent...or close to it.
So I'm having a party this next week. I will do my best to get people to come. Sell as many hair accessories and items as I can. Then try to sell more at my multifamily yard sale next Saturday.
Whatever is left will go to Athena or our "gift" box to give away.
I've learned how to make wonderful hair accessories and tutus. But I've also learned that making crafts and hoping to sell them is not worth it. It doesn't bring in money. It is best to only make what customers have specifically asked you to make. I have a tutu order for June. I know what they want and I know I will get paid and actually make money instead of losing it. That's how I do my cakes and that's the only thing that works. Lesson learned.
