Friday and Saturday update.
Friday was 15 year old's birthday and it didn't go as she would have wished. First of all DH decided to sign up to work that night and since she feels that she was not wanted due to our not being married when we found out she was coming and some controversy caused by DH's sister's reaction to our getting engaged and married. Let's just say she did not approve of him marrying me but supposed she had to allow it because I was expecting. She has made it very clear including go so far as to not purchase holiday gifts for 15 and 12 year old on the years we do not spend the holidays with DH's side of the family that she is not pleased that DH and I are still together. She is working on the if he sees that his kids are getting hurt he will blame me and choose to end our relationship as a couple. Needless to say there were a number of you wouldn't have forgotten to take off or you wouldn't volunteer to work an extra shift on 12 year old's birthday made. He is going to have to do a lot to make things up with her. She even made the comment to me that if I was working I would make sure I was off for 12 year old's birthday but not for her's and that did hurt.
After we got done doing laundry we came home and after stopping by my parents house so that I could have 15 year old run in the payment for the car from the loan my parents gave us and get her and DH's birthday presents we got ready to go get pictures done. We had one a package that was our sitting fee and a 16x24 wall portrait. We were offered additional items at a significant discount and they showed us an update your wall portrait to a larger size and you get this many 8x10 sizes and can choose to get your large portrait as a canvas wrap or framed and a CD of the poses we choose. Even with the discount and the fee we paid for holding our spot for the sitting it was going to be over 2 grand. We did spend a little bit and got our picture framed by them but it was not much more than what we had paid to hold our spot. We had pictures done in early December with my entire family-my parents, siblings and their families and even with my parents getting pictures of all of us, my family, my brother's family, (sister did not see reason to get one of just her), us kids, the 2 of them, and the grandkids plus brother's family got at least one photo of their family (We would have too if we had not had this one scheduled so close as it was originally supposed to be early January but we had to reschedule due to the shoes I ordered because since payless closed you can not find wide width shoes in my area and even medium width can be a challenge for dress shoes taking longer than we expected to get here and I could not wear my sneakers in the photos due to them being pale pink and they said to not wear light colored shoes unless everyone was and we were wearing light colored clothes due to your eye being drawn to the lightest thing in the photo and not wanting it to be your light colored shoes. DH and I got some holiday cards to send out which I am still in the middle of addressing so they can all go out together. I am over half done and hopefully we be done by Sunday evening. If I get them done in time before DH leaves for work on his Sunday shift I will send them and have him pop them in the postal service box at the post office either on his way to or from work and if not they can go out from there on Monday. We don't mail things from the mail boxes at the road because we have had problems with the carrier either not stopping at all even though we have the flag up to indicate we have mail to go out or stopping and putting what we mail was to be delivered to us that day on top of them and not taking what we were mailing so we just send it with whoever is going to town next. DH doesn't normally go close to the Post Office but can go that way, my sister can go that way into work if she is working at the office, brother and sister in law both go right past there, almost 17 year old niece is driving and could run that way either going to or from school without it being too far out of the way, my parents can usually get to a post office when they are running errands or have appointments, and I can get to one when I am out and about running errands so it's not like someone is having to make a special trip into town to mail a letter. Now when we have a package that we need to sign for and don't happen to be home and get the notification card that is a different story since the route we are on is out of the main post office in our area and that is 20 minutes one way in a part of town we don't have other places we normally need to go to so it's a 40 minute drive out of our way plus time there so all together I can plan on at least an hour when I need to go down there.
After pictures we went to the bank so that the girls could each withdraw money from their savings accounts so they could go and purchase a switch and some games. 15 year old got the switch but 12 year old bought some games to go with it. Eventually hopefully we can help them get a 2nd one and some of the games so if nothing else it is easier when it comes time for at least 15 year old to move out on her own. 12 year old due to disablilities may never be able to live independently unless it's in a group home and personally I would rather it not go that way so hopefully if it gets to the point that DH and I can not care for 12 year old 15 year old can or other family will be willing and able to step in and help. While we were at the bank we added DH to 12 year old's account as he was not with us when we set it up and we either didn't have the time or he was not with us duing lobby hours for almost the entire year and a half the account has been open.
After the bank we went to the mall so DH could take 12 and 15 year old into the store to get the items they wanted to purchase. When they came out 12 year old had managed to put a hole right in the middle of the chest area of a really nice hooded sweater. Needless to say no one was amused. I am hoping a friend of mine who knits might be able to figure out how to repair it. Since DH was going to be going to work we had brought both vehicles into town and left the one that only he can drive over at his parents house which is close to his work. We went over there and 15 year old went into get her birthday present. Normally all of us would have gone in and had a visit for a while but since there was the hole in a really inappropriate spot in 12 year old's top I stayed out in the car with 12 year old. DH went in and I am assuming said why we were not all coming in and visiting.
The girls and I started heading home with the plan that we would change 12 year old's top and I was going to change mine because what I wore for pictures was a bit warm as it warmed up both in tempature and the wind stopped blowing which was bringing the how cold it felt even lower than the actual tempature. I had started to get warm. 15 year old mentioned that since I was just going to use the drive up at the credit union to make a payment for a different car that we got in February 2019 and had the transmission go out in October 2019 with the cost of repairing it being more than the car was worth that why didn't we just go to the credit union and make the payment and then go home so they could play on the switch. We did stop at a fast food place of 15 year old's choice and got something to eat so that we did not have to make something at home.
Saturday we went to the Y and got a membership for all of us. I had a fitness membership through DH's work but since we are not involved in a 4-H club that meets in the smaller town we are not running there as much and while the one I had allowed me to use several facilities around the country due to both my weight and health issues I need to do the majority of my workouts in a pool. When I started out there was a place in both the smaller town in the one direction and the larger town in the other that had a pool and for a while there were even 2 places in the larger town. There is no longer a place with a pool in the larger town that accepts the fitness program I had through our insurance. 15 year old was wanting us to get her at least a youth membership at the Y so she could go with her Best Friend on the weekends. Due to where friend lives friend only goes on the weekends most of the time because by the time school gets out for friend and the trip is made into town there is not a lot of time.
I added up the cost of what I had currently and what it would cost to get 15 year old a youth membership to the Y and what I was paying for mine it was only $22 more to go with a family membership at the Y and then DH and 12 year old could go as well. Though I don't know how much they will use it though 12 year old seemed to enjoy going "swimming" or more acurately walking around in the water holding a kickboard and resting her chin on it when she was not being a baby koala and holding onto me. At least she has gotten out of screaming and doing a death grip around the neck. We are going to be looking into swim lessons for her in the near future though we are going to have to set different goals. For example on level 1 normally there is going under water with 12 year old's sensory issues that is not going to be a good idea though I am going to talk things over with her occupational therapist and see if we can work together with the Y swim instructors to set some goals. Right now I am thinking if she could get where she was comfortable enough to float on her back and maybe learn a little bit beyond that.
After swimming we went to Golden Corral for a day late birthday dinner for 15 year old. I had a nice salad bowl of cottage cheese with some pears and pineapple, a bowl of cream of brocolli soup to which I added some crutons and some parmasan cheese on top, a plate of 2 pieces of baked fish, some steamed cabbage, and some steamed carrots and a yeast roll, and finished off with a slice of carrot cake, some cornbread dressing, and a baked chicken breast. I had a large sweet tea to drink but didn't finish all of though I did get it topped off before we left to enjoy at home.
Currently it is almost 3:30 in the morning and I have been working on the computer and adding to this post while waiting for 12 year old to finally get ready for bed though currently she is in the kitchen crying because she should have been in bed hours ago and is so tired she is fighting sleep. She finally came into the front room and we got her into her nightie so hopefully she will go to bed soon. I did tell her she could get a sleeve of crackers for a snack. She is not getting all of them though I will give her a few. She had some fruit and pepperoni slices, a big plate of macaroni and cheese, an ice cream cone and some items dipped in the chocolate fountain along with a cookie and 3 cartons of chocolate milk.