12 on the 13th

As I have already blogged I am trying to take the twelve pictures on twelth of each month to scrapbook the ordinary days of my life. To describe my life this month I believed that Tuesday was the twelth only to wake up that morning and discover that it was the thirteenth and so I took my pictures that day. So here are a couple of my favorites.

These are some of the antelope I saw on my way to town. Also notice the cat prints on my windshield. We love our cats.

I love this picture because my husband is actually helping me take out the garbage.

These are some of my plants that haven't frozen yet. I took a tour of my year to check on all my plants and trees. We already have weeds growing!

Ally got to work in the lunchroom. She was so excited because then she got free lunch. Appartently we make her pay for her lunch on the other days.

So these are some of my ordinary or not so ordinary pictures!

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!