The Best Weekend Ever?

We were all set to go to Washington for Thanksgiving, then the van started to overheat. So our plans changed but it turned out to be a great weekend. Our neighborbors invited us over for Thanksgiving Dinner and we spent the rest of the weekend playing with our kids. Rachel told her primary teacher on Sunday that it was the best weekend ever! What did we do? Not much!

We made jam as a family.

The Work Never Ends!

Today was our primary program. All and all it went fairly well. I am my own worse critic so I already know what I want ot do differently next year. Starting with having it prepared a little sooner. On that note we broke out the outlines for next year and are getting straight to work on planning the new year. The theme for next year is 'My Eternal Family.' I am very excited! I already am starting to come up with fun activities that I want to do. So far my counselors are very supportive (or as Brent would say as crazy as me.) It will be a fun year!

Halloween Fun!

Halloween is always a tricky holiday for us. It is usually filled with tears and this year was no exception. I had pouting kids who didn't get to eat as much candy as they wanted. Everyone got two pieces and you would think that was enough but no. The older two didn't complain but then I have found their secret stashes. They hed plenty in their rooms. Miss Diabetic did enough sneaking and that lead to some serious problems. Needless to say she was so sick on Saturday night I was debating taking her to the hospital. Now she has a new found respect for the rules and I think her sneaking candy days may be over.

The holiday was not all bad. The kids enjoyed the parties, pumpkin painting, corn mazes, hayrides and trunk or treating. I am glad its over. I just have to get ride of all the candy.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times!

This describes the last month for me. The great news first. Ally got her insulin pump

It has been a little hard to get set up. We found out she has Hypothroidism and started her on meds. for that at the same time as the pump. However, I am proud to report that we are doing much better at getting her rates right on the pump. Also related to this, we found a new doctor that I love. He is very easy to work with and doesn't treat me like an idiot.

More good news! I got called to be Primary President. Some would not consider this good news but I love working in primary so this works for me. They are also redoing Young Womens in our ward and being Primary President takes me out of the running for that. Being President has kept me very busy if not a little overwelmed. You see there was no program written and both of my counsellors have never served in primary. It has been tons of work, but it is all coming together.

More good news! We are done with soccer!

And now for the bad. Last week my husband was informed that he will be laid off in four to six months. This has thrown our life in a loop. We have faith that all will work out in the end. However, working out does not mean I get to stay in my beautiful house. Jobs here in Idaho are scarce. High paying jobs are almost no existent. The two major employers in Boise have both laid off over a 1000 people a piece in the past two months. So we may be moving our family again. Right now I'm voting for Arizona, just because it has started to get cold here and my arthitis is acting up. We will see what the Lord has in mind for us next.

I can't end on bad news so my other good news it that my stubborn son has finally decided that he is willing to learn his alphabet. He went from knowing just the letter in his name to knowing all 26 letters upper and lower case in two days. The teacher couldn't believe it. I had been working with him all summer. It went like this. "This is an 'a'" to which my son would reply "I think it should be an 'r'" or whatever letter he felt like that day. He is a silly boy. I am glad that he has decided that learning to read may be an okay thing to do. Now numbers are a different story!:)

12 on the 12th.

I am a scrapbooker. I love to have my life and that of my kids documented in photos. My friend had this great idea where on the 12th of each month you take 12 ordinary pictures of your day. I think it is cool to keep a record of ordinary events. So these are the pictures of my day yesterday (which was a crazy day- but no crazier than the rest). Warning: they are not the best pictures because I kept forgetting to take them. I was busy remembering what I was supposed to do next.

This is where I am gathering all my stuff to go to town. I was preparing to be gone the eleven hours so it took a little planning. I have a sack of shin guards for soccer, Ally test kit, a sack of needles, test strips, and snacks to restock her at school, a garbage sack for Karen, dinner packed, my roster for soccer practice (I am the coach for Thomas' team. It's crazy I know.)and of course my purse. I also had to get the soccer balls and cones together in the back of the van and grab 5 water bottles out of the fridge.

This is my kids school. Yesterday I helped in Thomas' class and in Rachel's.

After picking Thomas up from kindergarten we went ot visit my friend Karen. She is losing her sight so I am helping clean out her closets. We spend 45 minutes each week going through clothes and trying to put things were she can find them. Then we go to lunch and run a few errands.

After school we pick Ally up. We have Ally's soccer practice. Then we drive across town to Thomas' soccer practice. We get to eat our dinner in the van on the way.

Finally Brent, Samantha, and Rachel join us in town to clean the church. Finally, at 8:30pm we head for home, where a package from my sister was waiting. YEA!

Then as we pulled in the driveway we got a call from my mom and dad that they were dropping in on their way to Salt Lake. So we quickly had to clean up Ally's room. It was very messy. Change her sheets for the guests and make up the bunk bed for her. It was a long crazy day. However lately more days are like this than not so I guess that is life. It's all good!

Back to School!

I have spent the past two weeks getting kids ready to go back to school. Today I am sitting in my office surrounded by pencils, paper, notebooks, marker, glue sticks and the papers on diabetes for all of Ally's teachers. I got distracted reading blogs while I waited for them to print. I love catching up on what people are doing only to feel the guilt of not keeping my own blog up to date. Summer has been bad. I realized that I had not checked my email in two weeks when my neighbor called to tell about our Home Owners Association Meeting because I had not resposed to the emails. So maybe with the start of school I will be better. For now I have a cake in the oven, clothes in dryer, dishes in the sink and an office that looks like a tornado hit it. So I'm back to work!

The Kindness of Strangers.

Monday we took the kids to see Kit Kitredge: An American Girl. Must to my husbands dismay. I keep telling him it is the price you pay for three girls. Anyway as we came out of the movie we were greet with a river of fluid coming from our van. As Brent got down to see what was leaking the lady parked next to us asked if we needed any help. I told her that we would probably be all right. She insisted on staying. Then her husband pulled up in his car. He took Brent over to Walmart to buy more antifreeze while she stayed with me. To make a long story short the fluid came out as fast as Brent could pour it in and there was no way we could take the van home. They lived close to the theater so they let us park the van at their house and they gave us a ride home using both of their cars to fit all six of us. We live 30 miles from the movie theater. I couldn't believe how kind they were. The next day she also followed Brent to the repair shop to pick him up and take him to his car. We are very grateful to the Carpenters who were there for us in a tight spot.

Time Flies!

This summer is just zooming by. The kids go back to school in four weeks. There is still so much to do. So far we have had a very busy summer. I haven't had a lot of time to sit and blog. Now I'm at my parents for a couple of days so there is a little free time.
So far this summer we have had a great time with swimming lesssons, water parties, and family visits. We also have a great garden growing. We built a fence and when we get home there is a shed waiting to be built.
It is not just the summer that is going fast. My baby went to girls camp last week. It was hard to believe that she was old enough. Put that with the prince going to kindergarten and I had a week of tears. They are growing so fast. There are so many things I want to do with them. I guess I will just keep plugging away at my list.

I love May!

May is the month for field trips and for performances. It is the month that starts summer and playing with my kids. They have 7 more days of school and we cannot wait. We are all ready startong to map out the summer. We have family reunions and visiting family. I signed up the kids for swim lessons this week. Best of all the weather has turned. It's supposed to be 95 degrees today. Yesterday, I brought out the slip-n-slide and the little kid pool. This morning we had Craze Dayz- where the girls did their cheerleading. Summer fun is almost here!

Spring Pictures

The weather was finally warm enough to go out and get some spring pictures. Don't my angels look cute?
We had a great time taking pictures! Everyone that is except Thomas who insisted that he was all out of "Cheeses".

Soccer Mom

I now understand the phrase Soccer Mom. This is the first time one of my kids has wanted to play. We have done dance, gymnastics, t-ball and cheerleading. None of them required the time commitment that soccer has. It is the practices twice a week and games on Saturdays. It has been fun though. I have loved seeing Ally so happy and excited about things. She absolutely loves it and wants to do it in the fall. So does Thomas. That should be double the fun.

Country Traffic

Every winter they let the cows out and you get to share the road. At times they form good road blocks. You have to lay on the horn and creep towards them to get them to budge. It one of the things I done that I never dreamed I would do in my life. I do like to see all the new calves that are being born.

March Already?

I can't believe it is March already. The month of February was crazy. It didn't help that I was sick for four weeks straight. No kidding! I didn't know a cold could last so long. Actually it was a cold, the flu and a sinus infection. One right after the other. It was crazy. But last week I started feeling better and now I am playing catch up. I have a little piled up. Anyway today is laundry day.
Now I have to brag. I had an excellent proud mama weekend. It started with my princess #3 who had a speaking part in her school concert. This is the girl who I couldn't get to pray in front of people. She flat out refused to give talks in primary until last year. But she had a speaking part and she did so good. She was awesome. Then I had princess#1 in a singing competition. She was singing with group of 5. She was the only one that I could hear throughout most of the song. A huge improvement. We have been trying to get her ot project for years. The judge actually told her to sing as softly as she could. I mean she should so that all the girls in the group can blend but I couldn't help but be proud that she has learned to sing out. She has a beautiful voice and I want her to share it.

Snow Days!

The weather here is fightful. It has snowed every day this week. Yesterday, they finally closed the schools. It had snowed all day Tuesday and the roads were snow packed and icy. So yesterday the roads cleared and they decided to have school today. It started snowing about 6am. The girls left at 7am, it was bad but the snow still wasn't sticking to the roads. It hasn't snowed a lot but the winds have been blowing. in fact they have been gusting up to 40mph. When my hasband got home he told me there were foot deep drifts on the road. At 10am I went to take my soon to a play date. I couldn't get out of my driveway. I'm snowed in and my kids are at school. Now the schools are going to keep the kids ther for the day because it is supposed to warm a little this afternoon and the winds are supposed to die down. I hope it does!

A different role.

My daugther is having her birthday party right now. She has now reached the age where I am not wanted at her parties. I'm not complaining. It was easy to get ready for this party. All I did was make the cheesecake and pizza. I got to help dish up food and take pictures of opening presents and blowing out candles. Other than that I am expected to stay out of the way. It has been nice. My three little ones are at a friends house and my hubby is at work so I get some time to myself. I am working on my scrapbooking after I finish this blog.
There are a lot of aspects of my daugther getting older that scare me but for the most part I am enjoying the freedom that comes with her getting older. I like that I don't have to do everything for my kids. My youngest will be five next month. It is a whole new world.

Attitude

The attitude has emerged. My princess #1 will be turning twelve next week. She has been very calm and delightful up until now but the other night I got the hints of things to come. We were trying to take pictures of the kids in the their new Christmas PJ's. I'm making a thank you for their nanna who bought the PJs. She has now decided she doesn't like to get her picture taken. She kept shoving any sibling who touched her. The "I am too good for this" attitude came through crystal clear. We finally managed to get a couple of shots but it was a task.

The Tough Call.

Saturday I was faced with one of those truely sad mommy moments. I had to tell my daughter she couldn't go to the movies with friend even though she truely deserved to go and we weren't doing anything better. What made it worse was that daughter #1 was going. Here's the story! We live by a pair of sisters (my age). Each had a daughter that corresponses in age with my oldest two. The two older girls had set up a date to go to the movies. Saturday morning my daughter #2 gets the call to go to the movies. The problem is I don't think that the mom is a responsible driver. She drives too fast and has taken to letting her two daughter, ages 9 and 5 ride in the front seat without seatbelts in a van with air bags. Very Stupid! Suzy (the mom) is divorced and it is like she has given up being a parent all together. She just wants to be her kids friend and they walk all over her. Anyway, I don't want my princess #2 riding with her. So I told her why. She is a very smart child and agreed with my reasoning but I could still tell she was sad. I was sad for her. There aren't any other girls that live around us so it is not like I can tell her to go play with some one else. Most of the time it is not a problem because I like to keep my kids really busy but every so often I have to make the tough call.

Best Laid Plans

I had a scrapbooking party at my house last night. I love to have them because I get to scrapbook and socialize at the same time. However, there are always a lot of treats and snacks around. That makes it hard for a little girl with Diabetes. Last night in a preemptive strike I ended up giving her too much insulin. Then she had to have some candy before bed. She wasn't a bit sad. Needless to say I was up late. My company all left by 11:30pm (the result of the fact that we had all been up a 6am to get kids off to school.) I however stayed up to finish a couple more pages. I thought that I would sleep in today. However, I had to get up at 6:30am to give a little girl a shot and I couldn't go back to sleep. It should be a nice long day today.

Vacation Fun.

Yesterday was an awesome day. I made my hubby take this week off work so we could do some fun things with the kids while they were out of school. However, the first part of the week we spent with the flu. I did however get some good house cleaning done while everyone was sick. Yesterday eveyone was better. We took the kids to the Discovery Center of Idaho. It was great fun. We told the kids that they could stay as long as they wanted. We left when they closed at 5pm and I think they would have stayed longer. They spent an hour pretending to shop. Who knew grocery shopping could be so fun. After we decided to go to dinner and a movie. We went to the bookstore first. Everyone needed a new book. Then Pizza Hut for dinner. The to Mr. Magorium's Wonderful Emporium. The pizza is my hubby and kids favorite. However it does strange things to my little one's blood sugar. I thought I was good when she was in the normal range at midnight but then she shot up in the middle of the night causing her to wet the bed. I just washed all her bedding two days ago because of the flu. Oh well - at least I have a supersize washer.