Goodbye!

I have removed all evidence that I have children!


I mean where is the food? the toys? the stains?


Surely this vehicle couldn't be owned by a person with kids!


Well, I guess the pesky fact that it's a mini van does give my parenting role away. For $25 you can get rid of all traces of your children. Who wouldn't want to do that once in awhile? Our school has a car detailer come once a month. All you have to do is leave your car keys at the front office with your money. At the end of the day you pick the keys back up and voila, it looks brand new! I do feel a bit sorry for the ones who were stuck with my van. I am sure it was not one of the easier vehicles to clean. Next time I must ask if they shampoo the children's car seats, too. I didn't want to risk the piles of french fries underneath, so I left the car seats at home. There WILL be a next time. I am still in awe at how clean the van is. It pained me to put their car seats back in there and hand them french fries.

Unfortunately, that same day our family had to say goodbye to Nicole. Nicole received an offer for a job that is close to her house and paid much better (benefits, too!). She promised me that she would stick it out with my until I found someone to replace her. I immediately began my ad on Craig's List and relisted my ad on the LDS Employment website. Interestingly enough, the responses I receive from Craig's List were people who wanted to bring their children with or people who could not put together a coherent sentence to save their life. It wasn't looking good.

As I said, Nicole told me not to stress so I was trying not to. On Wednesday night she was pulled over by a police officer who was in a lovely mood. He asked her how long she had been in the country and she told the truth. He was anything but kind when he told her that she was driving illegally since she had been in the US for longer than 60 days (she's Canadian). I think it's safe to say we were both pretty distraught that night. I had to call in a substitute for Thursday while Nicole went to the DMV to find out what she needed to do to get a license. They told her she needed to get a social security number, something which someone else told her she could NOT get. The DMV then sent her to the SS office to get a letter stating she was unable to get one because she was a Canadian resident. They wouldn't do it, it turns out she is eligible for a SSN. Unfortunately, she won't receive it for several weeks, and then she will have to take both the written and the driving test. Nicole's husband drove her on Friday, but there was no way that she could keep that up. In case I haven't mentioned it, Nicole lives on the other side of Las Vegas. Thankfully, I just needed to get through Friday and then our Spring Break started!

I felt bad for the boys, as they have gotten used to having her around. Every time Nicole leaves a sweatshirt here, they always bring it to me and say, "Cole's." It's too cute. She took them for walks and played outside a lot. Nicole's husband ended up hanging out for a good part of the day and he was nice enough to put together the boys' birthday present for me. I wish I could have seen the look on their faces when they first saw the airplane, but I am thankful they took some pictures!



While Nicole was busy with her driver's license ordeal, she did call the LDS Employment office to see if she could help find someone to replace her. I met the girl yesterday and I believe she will be starting Thursday. I am trying to stay hopeful that this one will make it through the rest of the school year.

Our family will miss "Cole" but we will get to see her when she comes for visits! I am sure the boys will have plenty of hugs for Nicole when she comes over. We wish her the best of luck!