Hair cut and back to school Aug 2011

Amber has never really had a hair cut, she is nearly 5 years old.  Her hair is thin and long, wavy and tangles easily.  She asked if she could get her hair cut, at first I told her no, then as I thought about it... my policy is if they want it cut, then that is their choice.  Her hair was so long though.... it was hard to do it.  I think the ease of brushing it was a helping thought too. 

Here she is getting ready to get her hair cut.

 Ready....set.....cut!  It was hard to do it, but I was pleased with the out come, and so was Amber!!

She LOVED it!!

You can see how much we cut off.  I was a little in shock but she was in love with her shorter locks.

August is always back to school time.  The girls picked their favorite outfits to wear for the first day of school.  Lindsey is styling her new outfit, and excited to get back to school.

Lauren is super excited to go back to school and see all her friends and excited about her new class.

Emily is going into 6th grade, she is excited for her new teacher, and I can't believe she will be in Jr. high in one more year.  That scares me!  She is growing up too fast!  She too has missed many friends during the summer months. 

All the girls were ready to go back to school.  I however felt the summer went too fast, and I still had a list of things I wanted to do with them while they were out of school.  I have the same feeling every year when school starts back up.  I am the one not ready for it. 

More of Emily's writing

I told you about Emily and her constitution that she did for NOVA and how she was chosen to read it at their graduation.  I found it in her file and thought I would share it.  I guess they liked it because it was so much different then the normal ones of "I learned this and I won't do that and we learned not to..." kind of thing.  I was (as I am sure any parent would be) very proud of her.   Below is her work.  You can read about her metaphor paper here.

A road map shows you how to get somewhere.  The place can be good or bad.  There are usually places where you might turn the wrong way, either by accident, or by not paying attention.  Life is a road map. You are constantly driving. There are two different roadmaps you can choose from.  You can choose the roadmap to bad habits, or you can choose the roadmap to excellence.  If you choose the roadmap to excellence, your goal will then be to get to excellence city.

            Some of the roads that I wish to go down on the roadmap to excellence are college lane, Job Avenue, and last but not least, highway smartness.  There are many different roads to go down, and they will all take you to different places. For example, if you go down college lane, there are hundreds and hundreds of roads branching off of it like doctor drive, Teacher Boulevard, and lawyer lane. Each of these will take you to good places, unless you don’t use the knowledge that you gain down these roads.

            I personally would like to go to college.  To get to college lane, you first start out at Birth Boulevard.  Now continue on to preschool road, elementary lane, middle school Avenue, high school drive, and the rest is self explanatory.  But I am going to let you in on a little secret, I have a shortcut.  My shortcuts is start out on Birth Boulevard as usual, but drive your very best through elementary lane, middle school avenue, and high school drive, and if you do your very best, you might just get a ticket. Not tickets were you have to pay a fine or anything, but a ticket called a scholarship.  These are like trucks. If college lane gets bumpy or hard with payment, a truck makes it smoother and easier to pull through and do a good job on what will change your life. 

            Job Avenue is easy to get to.   All you do is once you get off of high school drive, is you take a sharp right turn onto Job Avenue and your there.  There are tons of turnoff roads to choose from.  You might want to chose McDonalds way, or maybe you would prefer something where you are more free, or where the road is wider. Like artist avenue.  More than half the roads will be locked though unless you took the detour on college lane.  Yes this will take you longer, but if you go this way, all the doors will be open.  This way, you will have a higher chance of getting to excellence city.

            Highway smartness is a highway that is long, wide and strait in one direction.  Across the valley of excellence, there is another highway called the highway of decreasing smartness.   Joining the two highways is a road called sameness path.  The highway smartness takes you towards the city of excellence.  Highway of decreasing smartness takes you toward Birth Boulevard.  I would like to stay in school so that I can continue on highway of smartness till I get to the city of excellence.  

            When you are driving a car, you need to avoid things.  Pretend you are halfway down 28 avenue and you see that the road splits in two.  One way says “smoke”, and the other way says “drug free”.  Which one will you choose? Now say that you are driving in your car, and then you see a speed bump. You then decide to slow down. Now let’s pretend that you went super fast over it so that you could fly in the air, even though it would only be for a couple seconds. If you were driving in a convertible with your seatbelt off, you would most likely fly out of the car and die or hurt yourself.  Always remember to Study the Situation, or STS.

            If your car doesn’t have an engine, how can you drive? If you don’t know how to drive, how can you drive?  If your car doesn’t have a steering wheel, how can you control the car?   There are obviously things you need and should value for cars.  There are also things you should value in life. If you didn’t have a roadmap, how would know where to go or what to do.  If you didn’t have a car, how could you get past Birth Boulevard? A couple of things I value are knowing whats right and whats wrong, my car/brain, and my roadmap/life.

            Back to the roadmap stuff.  If you are heading towards excellence city, you are on the path of excellence. NOVA has helped lead me to my path of excellence by letting me know how dangerous drug usage is, how to be a better person, and to be able to REALLY know whats around me besisdes flowers and unicorns.

            During NOVA, they had about eight different topics, which were gangs, internet safety, music awareness, media, self-esteem, true colors, windows of opportunity, and heroes. Gangs was about why a gang is harmful.  Internet safety was about making sure that while your on the internet you are safe.  Music awareness basically said that there is bad music, and good music.  Media was on making sure the media that you were around was appropriate.  Self esteem was on paradigm and put downs.  The lesson on true colors taught us that what is right is right, and what is wrong is wrong.  Windows of opurtunity was all about cause and effect, STS, accountability, and how to get good opportunitys.  The lesson on heroes helped us to realize, what a hero was and how to be one.  All of these lessons were important and I will remember them for ever.

Emily's Human Metaphor

One morning I came to the computer and saw this homework assignment of Emily's.  It turns out that she had an assignment to write a metaphor paper on what they are like I guess.  Emily chose yarn.  I read it and thought, yeah that really sounds like her...  alot like her!  (And of course this morning, I snipped and snipped at her yarn, even though I knew already how it would make her feel.  I was so angry at her and I just blew it!  Bad Mama!)
Emily's A.L.L. teacher was really impressed with it, she even asked if she could copy it and keep it for next years class, and also checked to see if she could share it with the class. 

Emily is a super writer, she was also chosen to be one of the special speakers based on her paper she wrote on a N.O.V.A. constitution with the theme, "Roadmap to Excellence."  She did a great job on it, I will have to try to find a copy and add it too.  Our computer got a nasty virus and much of items were lost.  I know she has the hard copy of it though. 

Here is her Metaphore paper, although somehow the format changed from its original form.

I am a ball of yarn. As a ball of yarn, I unravel. I can easily separate. I can be made into something that is different from me.

As a bunch of yarn, I unravel.  When someone yells or makes me feel bad, they tug on my string. Once the end is out, if anything else happens, it just keeps tugging.  It might be hard to make me feel bad at first, but then I can’t stop unraveling.

With just a snip of the scissors, I can have totally different opinions. If, and when, someone says something that might seem small and unimportant, I might be cut in two. I can always be tied back together, but it always leaves a scar.  Sometimes, a knot might come undone. Then the problem resurfaces. I am always tying and retying knots.

With something like a crochet hook or knitting needle, I can be turned into something new and different. I can usually do what I’m told, as long as I know how and have what I need. I can also be different colors or sizes to help me with what I need.  I can be a writer if I need to write. I can be an artist if I need to draw.  I can be a mathematician if I need to do math.

I am a ball of yarn.

Em's teacher told the class about an essay contest on Water Conservation, she is really wanting to enter that contest.  It pays $100 to the winner.  Emily's cousin Serena is a good writer, and come to find out her Grandma Thomas was quite a writer too, she won an eighth grade compitetion when she was in school.

Choir and pink eye

Lindsey and Lauren did choir for the whole year as 3rd graders.  They had practice every Monday and Wednesday for about an hour.  They had a winter concert where they did mostly Christmas or holiday songs and then a spring concert that they did patriotic songs if I remember right. 

By about April, Lindsey was so done with choir.  I hated to see her quit, but it was such a HUGE commitment to go every week for two days.  I think if Lauren wasn't going too then I would have just let her quit.  I had to fight her each week and persuade her to go.  Lauren on the other hand, she loved going and you could see her smile and have a great time singing at the concerts. 

Unfortunately my pictures aren't great, I was too far back.  Lauren the day of the spring choir (I found out later) had complained to her teacher right before they were coming home of her eye hurting.  Then she came home, said nothing to me of it, and then went to a friends house.  She told me later that she had to keep wiping her eye at her friends house becuase it was all wet and goopy. 

She went to the performance with a friend, and I saw her on the stage.  I guess the choir teacher asked if she had allergies, Lauren told her not that she knew of.  After the performance, Robert saw Lauren and immediately sent her to the bathroom where I was at with the little ones.  I took one look at her, and knew she had pink eye.  She told me she didn't want to say anything because she was afraid I wouldn't have let her still be in the concert.  Which she was right! 

These were at about day 4 and 5 after drops.  Lauren's eyes got so red and blood shot.  They looked really gross!

Everyone one else got pink eye too.  Except for Robert and I.  Lauren and Emily's eyes got super swollen, and so we took Lauren into after hours clinic and she missed a soccer game because of it.  I felt like we were giving drops all day long.  We had 3 different RX's from different times I had called our doctor, or called after hours and then when Lauren went in.  It was hard to keep them all straight.  At one point I thought I had gotten it, but it turned out to be just my normal allergies and went away without drops. 

And poor Samantha, she got it and it started going away and then it came back so we ended up at the doctor for well care check ups and he gave her some different drops.  It did finally clear up, right about the time Amber got her pink eye.  Then she gave it to her cousin who we were watching. 

Did I also mention we had pink eye just back in Feburary? 

Wax Museum

Emily's class, well the whole 5th grade did a wax museum.  They had to chose someone from history that has already passed on (I believe) to do their report about.  She had to write a report and then also dress up as this person.  She thought about doing Laura Ingles Willder but wasn't sure. She finally settled on Elizabeth Griscom (aka Betsy Ross). 

She did some reading and research about Elisabeth.  Then she was trying to figure out how to dress like here.  I was searching on-line and all I found was flag looking clothes.  I laughed and told Emily, apparently she was more like Capt. Moroni, where she rent her coat and put it on a pole as a flag.  I was so frustrated because I was getting NO IDEAS at all on what clothes or era really, I mean other than 1776 right? 

We went to a second hand store to look for costumes or clothes we could convert into something.  We even saw a girl from Emily's class doing the same thing there.  This was like on Tuesday I think.  Emily finds a flower girl type dress that is a little too small for her but it had a zipper in it so we kind of slipped it on her arms and all and it looked like it would be okay.  I thought it would be a done deal with the exception of her flag material. 

Wednesday night she tells me that her dress doesn't fit.  It was one of those bedtime "oh by the way" kind of things.  Now I am really frustrated!  She needed it for Friday morning. 

Of course then I go shopping on Thursday for material, a pattern (after searching for a free pattern on line) and all the notions for it too.  This was our whole reason for doing this earlier so we or should I say I wouldn't have to stay up all night to do this. 

I finally got started with the dress about 2pm I think I started cutting out the pattern.  I knew I had some material at home for the hat and those things.  Emily was specific on what she wanted.  She really wanted a pink dress but I couldn't find pink material in the price I wanted to buy. 

I bought a big fountain drink of diet Dr. Pepper and I started in on it.  I can't remember what Robert was doing, it seems like he was working late or had soccer or something, I'm not sure.  I also had to run Emily to her soccer practice during this time. 

I think I finally went to bed at 3am.  My alarm was set for 6:45 to get the girls up for the bus.  Ugh!  I was so tired and I was so frustrated that I was doing this last minute when I shouldn't have been doing it last minute.  Emily in my oppinion was being way too demanding... as I put her to bed, she said, "oh and mom, can you sew my flag too?"  SERIOUSLY?  I told her I would do the best I can, and we will see in the morning.  She was to be at school with all her stuff the next morning at 8 I think. 

 After she saw her dress, and I could tell she totally approved of it, then it made those lost hours of sleep a little bit better. 

 She was suppose to bring all our props and her costume for the wax musuem which they were suppose to be there for I think like 2 or 3 hours.  The girls and I planned on going to see her.  Below is her "please mom will you go buy me that book at the book fair before it closes" look.  I was thinking, really?  Yes, I still probably really owe you don't I?  Although I did still go and get her the 2 books she wanted.  I think her smile and the way she kept talking about how much she liked her dress and how people were asking her "where did you get that costume" made me kind of soft.

Another thing that shows she approved and liked the dress/costume, is that she wore it the rest of the day minus the hat and shall.  Yeah, it made it seem worth those hours lost in sleep.  I also had never sewn darts or zippers, but it all seemed to turn out okay.  Her dress came together for the most part.

Hope of America

The fifth graders are able to participate in a performance that (as I understand) is sent to those serving in the millitary.  That is kind of all I know about it. 

Emily's class worked on the songs for days.  Some days they mostly just sang all day.  They had a demo type DVD that had the songs and actions that they were suppose to do for each song.  Each of the kids got an audio CD as well so they could practice at home. 

It was a pretty neat performance.  I guess they have 2 different nights that they do it.  Each night they have kids from different schools do it. 

The kids are given a specific colored shirt, and those colors then make up the flag.  Emily was afraid it wouldn't really look like a flag.  I guess they have been doing this long enough to know it will work out and look like a flag. 

Emily is the middle section, the second white stripe from the top, and on the right side.  This picture came from KBYU facebook page I think, or Hope of America Facebook page.

Once I got there, it was already pretty packed.  I was all by myself, but still finding just one seat was hard, it seemed like EVERYONE was saving seats.  I finally found a seat, and then I was trying to find where Emily was.  I had my camcorder, so I started using the zoom on it to find her.  She told me a little where they were, and I knew she was white.  Once I found her, I got a kick out of what I saw so I had to record it a bit. 

Then the two songs that Emily liked best are these two. 

On the last video I was looking around for some kids from the other school.  Guess I should have done that later.  Emily was asking me what I was doing, then she said, "well that is just great mom!"  As if that has ruined her whole life now. 

The Hope of America will be broadcast on KBYU July 3rd at 12:00 pm  and July 4th at 6:00 PM.  BYUTV will show the program July 22 at 11:00 AM and July 23 at 11:00 PM

May Days

May has been one crazy month, I am glad it is almost over!  It seems like it is always kind of crazy, school is wrapping up, I have 3 birthdays to celebrate...  it just seems to be a bit crazy.

This is how the first week of May went for me. 

Monday:
7:55 Kids missed the bus so I drove them to school
9:00ish, I drove Em and neighbor to school (my week to carpool)
1:45ish, girls come home from bus stop
2:40, I take Lindsey, Lauren, and a friend to choir practice, which is the same time Em needed to be picked up.
2:55ish, I go pick up Emily and neighbor from school, arriving 15-20 minutes late due to choir drop off.
3:45, I go pick up kids from choir practice
4:00, go to the store to get Emily her needed things for school, sunglasses, black pants, flashlight
6:00 try to find something quick for dinner and then do a fast FHE so kids can get to bed

Tuesday:
7:19, I shove the girls out the door to go catch the bus
9:00ish, I drive carpool to Em's school
10:45, go check out Lindsey from school
11:15, arrive at Orthodontists for Lindsey's appointment
12:00ish, check Lindsey back into school
2:35ish, girls walk home from bus stop
3:40 pick up carpool at Em's school
4:45, leave to take Amber to her soccer game
5:45, arrive back home to make dinner quickly
7:00, I go to my Pres. meeting

Wednesday:
7:19, kick kids out the door to catch bus
9:00ish, drive carpool to Em's school
2:35ish, girls walk home from bus stop
3:00 tell Lindsey and Lauren to get ready for their soccer game
3:35 I take twins and friend to choir practice, in their soccer stuff
3:55 pick up carpool at Em's school late because of choir practice drop off
4:30 Pick up twins and friend from choir early, drop off friend and head to Rob's work.
5:00 Arrive at Rob's work, switch cars with him...  I take Em with me, he keeps the rest of the kids.
Emily and I get some dinner,
6:15, arrive at the Marriot Center for Hope of America performance (which is why we needed sunglasses, flashlight, and black pants)
Rob takes Lindsey and Lauren to their soccer game that starts at 6pm.
10pm, Emily and I are leaving Marriot Center to come home.
Note:  Emiliy also was suppose to have Activity Days but missed it due to Hope of America

Thursday:
8:05, I take girls to school because they missed the bus, and I have to check them in to school
9ish, I drive carpool to Em's school
2:35ish, girls walk home from bus stop
3:40 pick up carpool at Em's school
5:20ish, Take Em to her soccer game that starts at 6:00
7:30, figure out something for dinner and send kids to bed late

Friday:
8:10, take twins and their friend to school late and check them in because they missed the bus
9ish, drive carpool to Em's school
2:35ish, girls walk home from bus stop
3:40 pick up carpool at Em's school
Sigh a big relief that the week is over!

Saturday:
8:30 take Emily to soccer game that starts at 9.  Hope Grandma and Grandpa arrive to pick her up.
9:25 arrive at Amber's game that starts at 9:30. 
Luckily Grandma and Grandpa picked up Emily from her game and brought her to Amber's.
10:30 take kids over to Emergency Preparedness fair (where Rob has been since 7am)
1-ish, leave the fair to go get lunch before Lindsey and Lauren's soccer game
2:00 arrive at twin's soccer game that starts at 2. 
3:30 get back home....  phew!  What a week!

Of course the weeks events doesn't include any grocery shopping or getting gas or stopping to pick up dinner fixings after soccer games to try to have a quick and easy dinner. 

That is just about how my whole month has gone.  We have had soccer games each week, normally on Saturdays, but then we have 3 practices during the week.  We've had doctor appointments, and one for me  and one for the dog too.  I had a dentist appointment and I canceled it, I just couldn't do it! 

What a month!  I am glad May is just about over!  I hope for slower days in the month of June. 

Spring Break week

After my parents left, we still had a few more kids take turns throwing up.  Amber went for her second round of getting sick.  She was so funny (if you can see any humor in the stomach flu).  She was asleep on the couch and threw up almost on Lauren't head.  Amber was pretty much still asleep.  I was trying to get her to sit up and go to the bathroom.  She wouldn't do it.  I tried getting her clothes off her, and she was mad at me.  I told her she threw up all over, she didn't even beleive that.  Finally she woke up enough to realize it all. 

That was kind of our spring break.  We had sick kids.  We thought we were going to the zoo on Friday and I think that is when Amber threw up, early that morning.  We didn't do anything at all.  Well I take that back,

we went to McDonald's courtsey of my parents McD's Dollars they left for us,

and we got ice cream type treats and played on the play area. 

Also soccer started for the girls, so we had 2 soccer practices.  Samantha and Amber had fun playing at the playground while we waited for the practice to be over. 

The area that Emily practices at has a few little bridges.  The girls all took turns playing "3 Billy Goats Gruff" and they "trip-trotted" across the troll bridge to try and get past the troll.  I wish I would have gotten pictures or even video of them.  I will have to remember that when we go back for another practice for Emily this week. 

It is always hard for me to get back into the swing of things, back into our normal schedule of school.  Being off for the week was nice but I didn't feel like we did much while the kids were out of school.  Maybe if the kids were healthier.  I suppose summer will be here before I know it.

*Note: For some reason I couldn't get my pictures to download.  (Frustrating!)

Amber's art

Amber has been practicing her name. She loves to write it. She still needs some work on it but since she just started writing her name a few days ago and this one she did from memory.
I like her picture too! I think that one of the pink persons are from one of the twins. Her pictures remind me of Emily's pictures in her preschool stuff.

Amber will start her name out by drawing a line to write it on, then she will write her name on her line.  If she mixes up or forgets a letter she will start all over again with a new line and begin her name again.  It is pretty cute.  This is what she will call "play school" which she will ask me to do often if I don't do it.  She calls me Teacher-Mommy.  It always puts a smile on my face when I hear her say, Teacher-Mommy.

She's a lot of fun!  I love her to pieces, every bit of it!

A recap of the last few weeks

Friday after school there was a swarm of kids at our house playing.  There were a few of them playing on an old phone (one with a cord connecting the base to the handset) that I plugged in, they wanted to see how it worked.  Next I hear the words "911" and "dialed" which caught my attention quickly.  I informed them that it was against the law to call 911 if it isn't an emergency and that they could get in big trouble.  They hung up the phone.  I unplugged the old phone.  As I was putting the phone away and continued my lecture on why we can't call 911, the phone rang.  I wasn't for sure if they really had called 911.  I aswered the phone, and it was the 911 center.  They received a call from my house and wanted to know if everything was alright or if we needed help.  I apologized and tried to explain what had happened and that we were fine.  About 15 minutes later, a police officer knocked on my door due to the 911 call.  I explained it to him and assured all is fine.  He took my personal info anyway.  I guess I have a record now.

When the officer came, I was getting ready to walk out the door to meet Robert for a date.  We had a sitter.  When we came home we heard all about their eventful night.  The saw something out the kitty door in the garage.   Some glowing eyes (like cats eyes do) but it wasn't the cat.  Amber went to open the door and the sitter told her NO!  Then the sitter went to look out there, she found the return of the Racoon!  He hissed at her as he was going down the steps.  I guess the kids where pretty spooked and stayed in my room the rest of the night. 

We had an incident the night before of something that was in the kitchen and I thought it was the cat.  When Robert went to go check it out, the cat was in the loft.  The kitty door swished open and shut when Robert went in the kitchen.  As he came back upstairs the cat was still in the loft.  Same night, just earlier, the kitty door swished but the cat was laying in front of the door.  I thought it was maybe the wind.  I felt the cat to see if he was cold as if he were in the garage, but he wasn't.  I didn't think any more of it until later when we had other things.  I did notice the racoon tracks in the snow in January sometime.  We are blocking the cat door in the outside garage door so he can't come into our garage. 

I went shopping on Saturday... alone... but ended up coming back much later than I anticipated which made a frustrated husband.  I did get alot done.  I got some curtains for our bedroom since the stupid vertical blinds that are in there are falling down, getting broken and don't work.  I found some curtains to replace the vertical blinds in our dining room too that I want, but those will have to wait a bit longer.  I did a small grocery store trip and got some hardware for some misc. tasks around the house at Home Depot.  I got a book shelf for the little girls room and some little baskets to go with it.

Sunday we had Robert's parents over for dinner.  Technically, they brought dinner.  I made a new salad, with cauliflower, onions, brocoli, rasins, bacon, sunflower seeds.  It was SO yummy!  Robert made the comment, "how can you make something with so many vegtables in it taste so good?"  Due to the super bowl, we had some junk food too.  Emily ended up throwing up early the next morning and stayed home from school on Monday.

The curtains I got weren't the right color so I went back another day to exchange them.  The new ones were $10 more but I think they will be better in the long run.  I also splurged and got a little table and two stools for the little girls' room to go with the little book shelf and their new dresser. 

I put together a dresser, a book shelf, a little table, and two stools.  I organized the little girls' clothes and got rid of stained or too small ones.  I moved two older dressers to the basement to make room for the new dresser.  (I am excited to have those in the basement to one day organize some things down there.)  I also debunked the bunk beds in the twins' room.  That was tough.  It would have been quite the sight.  I had four 8/9 year olds helping me stablizing one end of the bed as I moved the other side.  I even had Emily on the bottom bunk to kick the top bed up at one point.  I rearranged the twins room so that they could have their beds both on the ground.  I think Lauren was tired of being on the bottom bunk.  Their room is a little tight, but it will work. 

I also got a book shelf that about did me in when I carried it upstairs, I was thinking I was pretty wimpy until I looked on the box after I got it upstairs.  90 lbs, no wonder it was feeling so heavy.  Ugh.  My muscles were resisting when I put the back seat back into the van after carring the book shelf in it's box all the way upstairs.  The book shelf will hopefully be better for the books and toys so we can get rid of the toy box bins.

On our drive back home from getting the book shelf,  I was telling Amber that she couldn't have chocolate milk because of her cough.  I was trying to tell her that we didn't want to give her something that would make her cough more than she already was.  I started out with "you can'tt have things that will make you..." and I was trying to think of ways to complete it.  I didn't want to tell her she couldn't cough, so I was trying to choose my words.  Amber then finished, "make me die, right mom?"  I told her that was right (since that is all you can follow with when she uses that right mom phrase).  Then she was quiet for a moment.  Then she said, "Jesus probably really loves having a dog and a cat now."  It kind of caught me off guard, I had to have her repeat it.  The thought of her dying made her think of Jesus and that made me feel great that she put those two together.  She use to say things like, "if I push my finger in my eye I will go live with Jesus."  It kind of freaked me out alittle.  She would say things like that when she was going to bed about going to live with Jesus and dying.  I was always wondering, is she preparing me for something?   The reference to the dog and the cat that Jesus has is from our cat that never came home fearing his fate was death and a dog we had before she was even born that had to be put to sleep.

Oh, did I mention I also got a flat tire?  I found a crack in the sidewall of the tire on my van.  I heard this loud gushing when I was taking the seat out of the van to get that whopping 90 lb book shelf.  I could feel the air wooshing out.  I filled up my tire with air from our compressor and prayed it would make it to the tire place.  Would you believe when I got there, the tire was still fully inflated, I couldn't see the crack at all.  The two little girls and I sat in the waiting room while they replaced the tire. 

Emily had a science fair that we went to.  She did it on the diet of guinea pigs.  She got two different kind of food and fed one to one and the other to the other.  Then she put them through mazes to see if the time was better one way or the other.  She was checking to see if it one food effected their intelligence or activity level.  She didn't think she collected enough data to really tell one way or the other. 

Rob's mom went to the ER for a kidney stone and a UTI.  They admitted her for a procedure to flush the stone out, she had complications with blood pressure and has stayed this whole week.  We took the kids to see her the first night, but she was in ICU so the kids weren't able to see her.  Poor little Amber wouldn't leave, she said "I'm not leaving until I see Grandma!"  Even in the parking lot she was pulling back and telling me she came to see Grandma and she still wanted to see her.  It was pretty funny. 

Since then, Amber has came down with a cold accompanied by a fever so we aren't able to go see her until Amber gets better.  Amber looks so sad, her little eyes are all red and watery even.  One night I heard her crying in her bed, I went in her room.  She had turned the light on and was looking around in her bed.  I asked what she was looking for.  "I was looking for you!" she cried.  She must have been looking for her blanket and shirt or water or something.  Poor thing, she is just out of it. 

Lindsey and Lauren both have DEAR today, Drop Everything And Read.  Lindsey also has her RAD kids graduation.  I feel bad I will be missing it all.  Amber still isn't feeling great.  Robert doesn't feel like he can miss any work since twice a week he goes to physical therapy and leaves work early.  I wish there were someone to go to it.  I feel aweful I am not able to be there.  Lauren wants me to come help with her Valentine's party on Monday, but it will have to depend on how Amber is feeling.

Robert's physical therapy has been going good.  It is funny, our insurance approved him for 6 visits.  The dr. recommended twice a week for 12 weeks.  Our hope is that the insurance will still cover the other visits.  Oh, and did I also mention when Robert was thinking about this surgery he asked them how much it would cost.  The amount they gave him he thought was total before insurance, so he was thinking we would pay like 20% of that.  The price they gave him was AFTER insurance.  That made for a nice surprise.  He has started lifting weights with his arm at PT.  At first they were just using the weight of his arm as weight.  Now he is up to a 2 lb. weight.  He said it about killed him.  It will be nice once he has full use of it, so I don't have to do it all.  Book shelfs and dressers, Christmas trees, gargbage cans, snow shoveling, moving furniture, putting up curtains.  There are hundreds of things (or it feels like) I have been doing that I think it would be nice to have help with or for him to do it.

I got a call from a research place a week or so ago.  They wanted to know if I would be interested in coming in for a control panel, I think is what they called it.  It would take about 2 hours but they would give me $75.  I thought, sure!  I took the girls to Grandma's and went for the panel.  Turns out they always overbook, so I sat there for about 20 minutes then they told me I wasn't needed, so I got $75 anyway, and they will call me again since I didn't get to really do it.  I was excited!

The same day Emily had her science fair, Lindsey had an appointment with her orthodontist.  She scored another A on her brushing and flossing.  That put her name into the monthly drawing and she got to put a sticker on her picture.  Her picture had 5 stickers on it already so this made 6.  Every 3 stickers you get a gift card to a local business.  She last time got a walmart $10 gift card.  This time she chose Cinemark.  She was really excited!

Samantha's new thing is "in-a-men" which means in a minute. I am sure that is a phrase she hears me say often.  I will ask her to come here to put her pajamas on or get her shoes on.  She will tell me, "in-a-men" and she will continue doing what she is doing.  Funny girl!  She also does this cute thing with her eyes.  When she is telling you something that maybe might be a bad thing she will squint her eyes up real tight.  For example, "I just spilled a little bit" or like when Grandpa asked if she wanted some of his cake.  She said, "no I have my own."  But then she came back and said, "Maybe just a little one" with her eyes all squinted and her fingers showing how little of a bite.  She is so cute!

It is amazing how much you can accomplish at times and yet other times nothing gets done.  The master bathroom has been on my to do list for weeks.  Yet I can never find time to do it.  Although I did find time to rearrange 2 bedrooms, put together furniture, and organize the loft which was a 2 day project, and I cleaned the car out.  The car was a nightmare in itself.  We also lost one of the remotes and I had a hunch the couch ate it.  I turned the couch over and sure enough, the remote was there along with tons of other little pieces of playsets and some other unknown things and lots of crumbs from snacks and popcorn.  That couch is the worst at eating things!  Although we still have a remote we lost around Christmas time that has never surfaced.  Strange. 

There is always lots of things going on.  I saw a paper announcing sign-ups for spring soccer.  Amber is old enough this season.  She will be so much fun.  But I am not sure about 3 practices and 3 games each week.  I am sure I have forgotten some other things from the last few weeks.  Since it is Friday, it is my laundry day, so I must get on it or laundry will never be done this week.  I am hoping to get my curtains up too, but I have been hoping that for half the week.  I also want to put together the new shelves too.  I am not sure my day is long enough. 

Christmas Sing-In

I still have a TON of catching up to do... but here is something very recent! 

Check out what Emily's school did for Christmas singing.  She is the one in the front next to the girl in the green shirt.  Emily has a white shirt (duh since all the girls were to wear white) with a light blue shirt under it.  Her hair is in a pony.

Halloween Time

Now that it is nearly Thanksgiving, I suppose I will get my Halloween pictures on here.  Life has been so busy!  The day is over before it starts somedays!

The girls' schools have a Halloween parade where they get to wear their costumes, parents come and get the see all their costumes.  Last year both the girls' school did it at the same time.  I went to Emily's school and then raced to the twin's school to see them finished with the parade.  This year they had one in the morning and one toward the end of the day.  I was so delighted!

Emily wanted to be Cruella DeVil.  She made a good one!  I made her coat the morning of school, and she had a black dress that she wore.  I also made her bag for treats (pictured later).

 Lindsey wanted to be a mummy, I told her I couldn't let her do that for school, because she wouldn't be able to do it herself.  She decided to be a witch for school and then she would be a mummy later.

 Poor, Lauren, I totally missed her picture!  You can see her in the back, like the 3rd person.  She was an indian, but later I found out that was just for the parade. 

 Then for Halloween, Lauren was a witch. 

 Luckily Emily stuck with Cruella, for the parade, the turnk or treat, and trick or treating.

 Amber was an elephant... and she made a cute one.  Except when she was tired and just laid on the floor sucking her thumb. (Notice the 9-1-1 bag, those came from WA as a barf bag because Emily had thrown up the morning we left, if I remember right.  They came from Aunt Lorri but were at my parents house.)

 Lindsey was a mummy... for only trunk or treating.  She threw a fit because it was falling all apart... mostly it was my fault because I went about it the wrong way.  I should have used a stretchy material instead of cutting up a painting cloth that you use to cover things with.  I will know for next time.  Stretchy only!  It fell to pieces as she got in the car, as she moved, as most anything.  Not to mention when it was raining, she wasn't sticking together very well.  I felt bad, and Lindsey was crying and didn't want to go to trunk or treating.

 Samantha was a cute little Dalmation dog, which was suppose to be with Cruella, but somehow I didn't get a picture of the two of them together.  Bummer!

 After I painted Samantha's nose, Amber wanted her nose painted too. 

 So cute aren't they?  I couldn't help but take lots of pictures because they were so cute!

 Samantha loved her tail!  She kept finding it and pointing it out to us.  Sometimes she would even freeze, and say, "where's my tail" as she would look for it.

 Then after the trunk or treat and the mummy costume turned bad, Lindsey decided to be a gypsy.  No one looks very happy in the picture except Lauren.

 I think everyone was ready to go and tired of standing for pictures.  This was the best picture I got of all the girls for Halloween.  Nice huh!  Maybe we will get a better one next year.

 I also forgot to show you our pumpkins.  This is all of them together on our steps.

 This is Samantha's pumpkin, the smallest of the all. 

 This was Lauren's and she carved it herself.

 This was Amber's she told me what shapes and how they were to be for her face.

 This is Emily's pumpkin.  She wanted a small one.... less guts and seeds I guess.

 This is Lindsey's she carved herself except for the glasses.  She wanted a "nerd" pumpkin.  Funny girl!

 This is mine... I can't help but to do a pumpkin with the girls.  I actually gutted two, but a neighbor used one of them.

And did I mention all these and 3 more were grown from our garden?  Nice huh!  Unfortunately those were about the only thing that grew in our garden.  Oh well. 

There were two sad girls who didn't go to school.

The first day of school had lots of excitement and nervousness.  The girls are always happy and excited to go but also nervous.  With all the craziness of making lunches and making sure that everyone has everything, someone was overlooked somehow.  (I think it is part of being #5 of 5 kids.)

Samantha found a backpack, found some boots, grabbed a baby doll, she told me she was going to school.

I felt so bad for her when I told her she wasn't going to be able to go to school this year.  She is only 2 so she has several years of "first day of school" days to see before she gets to participate in it.  Poor thing!

We spent the day playing school... we played with some little scrabble like tiles and matched like letters, then we played a memory game with them.  We had a snack time and a story time too.  Then it was time to go pick up some kids from school.  The girls fell fast asleep in the car.  I guess all that school wore them out. 

When we played school, Amber who is still obsessed with a neighbor friend from our old neighborhood, she wanted to be Jacob.  It was pretty funny, then Samantha decided she didn't want to be Samantha, she wanted to be Carebear.  I guess because of her carebear backpack. 

I would say, "it's Samantha's turn, " she would look at me and shake her head NO and say, "I not Mantha, I bear-bear."  I would then so, "Sorry Carebear, it's your turn."  Samantha would pick her same two tiles and no match still, then she would say, "Jacob's turn." 

I see many more days of school in our home with this little guys before they really do go to school.  That's okay.  I guess that is why I never do preschool outside the home.  I figure we do enough of it anyway.

Don't you love her boots on the wrong feet.  I tried to change them, but should would have nothing to do with it.  She carried this backpack around all day, then the next 2 days.  She will still carry it around if she finds it again, but I have put it up for awhile.

Amber was a little bummed that she didn't get to go to school but I told her she could go when she was 5 (in two years because of her fall birthday).  She liked doing school and she even got her own backpack too. 

Never a dull moment!

Back to School again

School started about today for my girls.  They were super excited (and nervous) to get back to school.  On Monday we had back to school night were they were able to go meet their teacher and see where their classroom was.  It was all good except the part with Samantha and Amber fighting and crying in the middle of me trying to talk to the teachers.  Emily even lost her tooth during it, when she ate a salt water taffy piece.

Here is Lindsey and Lauren and one of the neighbor girls they are good friends with.  It was so cute, we heard this little knock on the door and there was Taylor asking to see if the girls wanted to walk to the bus stop with her.  I was just getting pictures, so we added her into them too.

Lindsey fell in love with this shirt.  I warned that it was going to be warm today but it didn't matter to her.  And she loved the jeans too, looks like something kids wore back when I was in school.  Nice acid washed jeans.  I remember making a pair of jeans that looked like this in my bathtub with a bottle of bleach.

Lauren was so wanting "skinny jeans" and I wasn't really interested in them.  We got them a size bigger, she was happy that she had skinny jeans, and I was happy that they were sooo skinny.  She kept telling her friends, "I got 2 pair of skinny jeans!"  Too funny!

Emily had a fun time shopping for clothes.  She is doing alot of layered stuff.  She got a few tank tops or shirts like that and then got some t-shirts to go under them.  Although this morning when we were leaving she said, "I am too short and too skinny for the jeans... I think we should fix them."  That is a nice switch... normally it is a total melt down with crying and screaming, stomping off to her room, pouting and sometimes kicking of objects in her way.  I was pleasantly surprised it went the way it did.

Emily woke up this morning, came in my room in a rage saying, "Why didn't you wake me up?"  She was all mad.  When I questioned her about it, she sheepishly smiled and said, "oh it is only 6:50, I had a dream I missed school."  Apparently she had a dream she missed school, and then when she woke up she thought she was still late and noticed her alarm hadn't gone off yet (because it wasn't time yet) and then thought it was all real.  It was pretty funny.  She was in a good mood ever since then.

My complaint with back to school, is that they couldn't get Emily on the same schedule as Lindsey and Lauren.  The family I was going to carpool are on the 8am track and we are still on the 9:15am track for Emily.  Lindsey and Lauren take the bus and they are on the early schedule.  I now have another year of having kids go to school at different times and get out of school at different times.  UGH!  The good thing is... there is a girl that needed a ride to Emily's school (she is in the 6th grade A.L.L. program) and wasn't able to find a ride or carpool.  We are now taking her to school and it is on our way to school too.  I was happy that at least with this problem of mine, it helps out someone else and feels better I guess you could say.  

Now what to do with my older kids in school? 

School is out!

School is out.  I didn't ever do anything for Teacher Appreciation week (because I was too busy, but more accurate would be because I am just lame) so we decided to do end of the year gifts.

I saw this idea on another blog... wish I could remember which one it was so I could link it.

I found these at Ikea which were under $4 a piece.  They have dividers inside.  We got some from there years ago that were blue.  I looked all over at other office supply stores for these with lids and couldn't find any.  I finally went to Ikea, and wala! 

The girls decated them with stickers and sharpie markers.  I put mod podge (2 coats) over the lids to seal them and keep the stickers from peeling off.  I wish I would have gotten the matte finish. 

Then I filled them with things I had on hand like gum, chapstick, candy bars, rubber bands, paper clips, cap erasers...

(gum and chapstick were free after coupons)

The boxes were a little under $4 and then the supplies on average were under $7 a piece. 

I then bought a few things in packages and split them up for the 2 boxes.  Binder clips, small (2 boxes @ .88 each) binder clips, large (2 boxes @ 1.37 each) pink erasers (6 ct for $2) glue sticks (2 pk for .97) Expo markers (8pk for $5) small post-it notes (3 pk for 1.44) Lined paper pad (3 pk for 1.77) then I got more rubber bands (.46) and cap erasers (40ct @$1) to add to replenish my supply.  Oh and the tissue and the purell were on average $1.12 each.  Not too bad for a gift around $10!  The stickers and sharpies and modge podge I already had as well.  I thought they turned out cute and the kids loved making them.  I also wrote a little personal thank you note to each teacher on the lined paper pad.

Now I am off to do some birthday cakes for Lindsey and Lauren, since it is their birthday today!  While I have been baking cakes the other girls have literally been sitting in the kitchen... that would be Samantha's kitchen that she got for her birthday... they are such crazy girls. 

Amber came up to me and told me she gave Samantha some chocolatey splishity splash.  I asked her what that was... she told me frosting... which she gave the frosting tub to Samantha to eat. 

Yeah no worries, I am not stressed... she is a mess, my house is a mess, I am making 2 cakes which I am not sure how I am going to do what they want me to do...  I am totally calm and in control.  I can do this!  But I better go just in case I can't!!