Simonds Family Inc.: Of Note

WARNING: BIG POST

Follow up from the last post--No, still haven't decided what to do about school for Henry. I think I'll just wait it out, keep exploring options, and when it comes time if I feel like putting him in, I will. If I don't, I won't. Since K isn't required anyway, I've decided not to worry about it anymore. I did take him out of the community center preschool--it was too expensive for what it was and I didn't love the teacher. Glad he isn't doing it anymore.

I recently realized I haven't mentioned some of the big things that have happened. So this post is a quick catch up of the big and some of the little too.

End of September-Johann stopped working in Las Vegas and started working in Palmdale, Ca.

He had been commuting to LV starting the end of August, staying during the week at hotels and then back on the weekends. Henry, Thea and I stayed in Apple Valley with my mom while he was gone all week. It was sad.We started looking for a place to rent, found one we really liked and then it was no longer available. After that I struggled to be happy about any aspect of moving to LV. We really just couldn't find anywhere we wanted to move. We had a bad experience with where we lived during the internship (neighbor drug dealer, narcotics raids, girl kidnapped in the complex over and the area was made into section 8 housing) and really wanted to avoid that.
Johann continued to look for positions in CA and saw one open in Palmdale. He applied. Then he met a new hire psych in LV who had just left from Palmdale, and it was his position that was open. Douglas (the LV psych) made some calls, gave Johann a great recommendation, and after some paper work and figuring out how to get Johann an emergency CA credential, he was officially hired at Palmdale. We are incredibly grateful to Douglas for all he did and for the Palmdale hiring for being willing to work with him through the credentialing process.
Now he commutes an hour both way to Palmdale daily, which is hard, but it is so much better than LV. We are staying with my mom so we can pay down loans and save up. We are also so thankful to her for allowing us to stay and make some goals for us possible much sooner than they otherwise would be.

October-Halloween

Pictures of the kids. Henry was The Flash. Thea was an Owl. We had lots of things going on here at the house so I ended up not getting her costume done until just before the ward party. My mom helped with cutting and we finished in about an hour. It wasn't fantastic but I have to start somewhere and she's still a cute face.

November-Thanksgiving break. We went to Northern Ca to be with my Aunt Virginia and fam for Thanksgiving. We stayed in a hotel in Pleasanton and had our first family vacation planned and paid for by us and as a family of 4--woot! We also switched rooms and are in the house instead of in the guest room off the garage. We have a new nephew! Apollo! Congrats to Johann's brother and wife.

Cousins

Monterey. Favorite day of break. So much fun and so beautiful.

Thanksgiving day. So much to be Thankful for this year!

December-We got all of our stuff out of storage in LV and are officially done with that city! We are still working on getting everything put together and organized and have taken a temporary break to try and enjoy Christmas time. Oh and Thea turned 5 months! I probably should do a whole post just on all the Thea catch-up but if I'm honest with myself, it's incredible I am even doing this post! Had our ward Christmas party. The Santa did SUCH a good job. We also got to see our new nephew, Apollo, blessed!