More school photos

Here are Aiden's and Ash's latest school photos too. I will post Alexis' when we get it.

Like Mother Like Son?

What do you think- do Aspen and I look alike? Aside from my post P.E. hair, do Aspen and I look like we are related?

Troublesome Ash

I am at a loss as to what to do with Ash. He got in trouble at school AGAIN today. First it was the box cutter incident, then another day he wrote on his desk. A third day he wrote on some math instuments, day four he wrote on the rug and today he had to move two sticks for talking and being disruptive (equivalent to getting your name on the board with a check mark for you older folks). I really don't know what has gotten into him. Last week he told my mom that he didn't like her anymore because she wouldn't buy him a new toy. This is all so uncharacteristic of him! Where has my sweet little boy gone? I keep promising his teacher that he is a good kid and then he gets in trouble for something else. Any suggestions?

The Interview is Done

Dallas had his interview at the mine this morning. He is still there right now but he called to say it had gone well. We won't know for sure the outcome for 1-2 weeks, during which time the mine will be doing a background check.

If he does get hired, it sounds like he will really enjoy the work. He will first go into a general labor pool where he will spend two weeks in each area of the mine. After 8-16 weeks he will be assigned to a specific job. They consider what area he would like to work under in addition to what areas need workers.

So, keep those prayers going up for another week or two. We aren't out of the woods yet but we are getting closer.

Blog changes, boring post

While I want to remember 9/11, I couldn't stand that backdrop anymore. Too dark for my taste and hard to read so I am back to a fun backdrop. With so many choices to choose from, I like to change it up all the time anyway.

Also, in case you haven't done it, check out the link on the right titled "free rice". It is a website that asks trivia questions. For each question you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to third world countries by sponsors of the website. If you are looking to kill a few minutes on the web, it is a great website.

Dallas has an interview at the mine in Morenci on Friday. Please pray for him that things will go well and that he will get a job. It is a 4 hour commute so he would need to live there during the week but the pay is good and I think it would give him a much needed emotional boost as well. We also need him to get this job because within a year or so, I will need to cut back my daycare hours so I can do my clinicals. Any extra prayers you can offer up would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I can post how it went on Saturday.

Remember

Last night I watched a special on the anniverary of September 11th. I remember it like it was yesterday, just as I am sure you do- remember where I was (home making breakfast), remember who told me to turn on the television (my mom), remember hugging my children closer than ever (did it again last night). I wish I were eloquent or mighty with the pen to write a fitting tribute to that day but I am not. All I can do is remember those who lost their lives that day, remember what we are fighting for, and pray for their loved ones who were left behind. They have now missed 7 birthdays, 7 Christmases, 7 anniversaries and countless mornings to say "I love you". May God bless them and bless us as a nation as we remember what we lost that September day.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDh_pvv1tUM

I am DONE!!

I am excited to announce that I have finally finished the last prerequisite to nursing school and I can officially be on the waiting list now. It has taken me three years to get to this point by doing a class here and there when we could afford it. Now comes the fun stuff! Who knows if it will help or not, but I noticed that the director of the nursing college is a woman who went to my church while I was growing up. I went to school with her children and she was even with me with I had Aiden- an emergency c-section after a full day of labor. She is wonderful. I am going to call her once I am registered and ask if there is any way I can get bumped up on the list. Doesn't hurt to ask, right?

So, I have two weeks with NO SCHOOL. Anyone up for some late night partying, trips to Bahama Bucks or TPing, give me a call because I am FREE! Yahoo!!

A New Aspen

A year ago when Aspen started kindergarten I was worried because he would never tell me his colors or shapes let alone numbers or letters. When he colored, there was no recognition of anything he was trying to draw and staying in the lines was out of the question- just scribbles all over the paper. He wouldn't sing songs for me like other Sunbeams and he was constantly going into these little, sometimes not so little, fits where all communication was lost and he would either cry or simply ignore me. All this after two full years of preschool. I often wondered if I was just comparing him to his older siblings who benefited from their mother being an over zealous first time mom who was convinced that her children needed to read, write and have all the classical composers memorized before starting kindergarten (embarrasingly enough, that isn't too much of an exageration) but after having him tested through the school, I realized it wasn't just me. He was actually intellectually behind other children his age. There was nothing medically wrong with him mind you, he had some amazing skills in other areas but the typical school work just wasn't clicking in his brain.

Fast forward one year and I can't even believe Aspen is the same child. He has made a 180 degree turn for the better. Not only does he know his letters, numbers, colors and shapes, but he is reading and writing! It is amazing what one year in all day kindergarten school has done. With his new found skills, his communication ability has improved as well. He still has a few tantrums now and again but no more than any other child. Above is his latest paper sent home. I can actually read what he wrote and can tell he was drawing people at the bottom of the page! We couldn't be prouder. Thank you, Thank you Ms. Matthews!

Its for real this time...

Some of you may remember Ash telling me he got sent to the principal's office on the first day of school. He didn't get sent to the office on the first day but he DID get sent there today.

During recess Ash whipped out a box cutter to show one of his friends. A playground aide saw it, confiscated it and sent Ash to the office. When his teacher picked the kids up from recess she noticed one of her children was missing and another teacher said, "Oh, it must have been one of your kids who was sent to the office for bringing a knife to school." Ms. Okonowski, his teacher, told me that she looked around and saw all of her trouble makers in line and couldn't figure out who had been sent to the office. Ash never came to her mind.

Ash told me the psychologist asked him to draw a few pictures for him. He drew a couple pictures of Dallas making bikes for the kids, he drew our family taking turns on the swings and he drew one of a boy in his class. Later the psychologist told me he spoke with Ash and thought he was a nice kid who simply didn't know it was wrong to bring a box cutter to school. (Really?) They spoke about how it was wrong to bring those kinds of things to school then he was sent back to class.

Ms. Okonowski said as soon as he got back to class, his thumb went in his mouth and he fell asleep for half an hour. Incidently, she said he does that every day and is super hard to wake back up. So much for my idea of peer pressure convincing him to quit sucking his thumb.

Knowing Ash can be kind of tender, I chose to pick him up from school instead of having him ride the bus home. At parent pick up I thought he would be a little sad about what had happened but in his typical happy go lucky self he runs up to me and says, "Today is my lucky day! I found a quarter in the grass!" Then when I asked him about the principal incident he blew it off by saying "I just drew some pictures then they sent me back to class. "

Dedication

This post is dedicated to a special visitor I had tonight. She had a um... slight accident with her tan in a bottle and we had a lot of fun at her expense. Throughout the evening my neice and I kept trying to document the incident with photos but cell phones don't take the best quality pictures. Besides, she swore revenge if she saw any of the photos on this blog. Since she took two of my children home with her, I thought it wise if I deleted the photos. Instead I am dedicating this post to her to thank her for the good time (and the good ice cream) we enjoyed. We love her with white skin, orange skin, striped skin or blotched!

Class Party

Aspen has been asking me if he could have a friend over to play but unfortunately, I don't know any of his classmates. A friend of mine gave me an idea- host a get to know you play date. We went to Peter Piper Pizza and invited all of his classmates and their families. We had a good percentage of the class come but more importantly, I got to know some of the parents and we all exchanged phone numbers and email addresses so we can get together again at another time. It was a good evening.

New Story

I read a short story yesterday that made me smile. It told of an old woman who had lost her husband after 62 years. During the last decade or so of their marriage they bickered often, usually over petty little things. Her daughter constantly asked them to quit fighting and be kind to one another but to no avail.

About six months after her husband's death, the woman was feeling lonely and confided in her daughter that there was one thing she regretted in her marriage, and that was getting worked up over little things and not offering forgiveness. For example, every day her husband would brush his teeth and splash toothpaste on the mirror. This really aggravated the old woman and she nagged him constantly about his sloppy ways.

The first cleaning day after her husband's death, the old woman washed the toothpaste off the bathroom mirror. However, when she came back the next day there was toothpaste on the mirror again. The same thing happened on the third and fourth day. She realized that all those years she had been accusing her husband of splashing on the mirror it was in fact both of them who were the culprits.

How foolish she had been in letting something so trivial consume such a large part of this woman's thoughts and actions! How much time had she wasted berating her husband instead of spending that time telling him how much she loved and appreciated him, while quietly overlooking his faults? She can never get back that time but I can certainly learn from her mistake and hopefully spend a few extra minutes today overlooking the "toothpaste splatters" in my own life.

Thanksgiving

I know my daycare parents have already seen this picture but for those of you who haven't, here are our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Their names are both Tom and they are growing quite nicely. Last week when I weighed them they was just over 20 pounds. With another three months to go, I think Tom is going to be the biggest turkey I have ever cooked at Thanksgiving! To give you a size perspective, they are as tall as my daycare children- average 4 year olds. If you don't already have plans, consider this your personal invitation to come join us for our feast. From the looks of it, we will have plenty of food to go around.

Daddy Daughter Date

Last night Dallas and Amanda went to her Daddy Daughter date with the young women. While it will be two years in October since she joined our family, last night reminded us that we still have a long way to go in regards to her relationship with us. She still has major issues with Dallas and refuses to let him have any part in her life. There is not usually anything big and showy that you can point to and say, "Wow! She is pushing you out of her life!" but more of the subtle things that make up normal healthy relationships. For example, twice during the evening when Dallas tried to speak with her she either fully turned her back to him or ran away. Even before the evening began her behavior was eskew. She never even mentioned that she had this date with Dallas until 6:00- an hour before it began. You may think that is a normal reaction for teenagers but it is more than that; this is how she acts all the time, even at home. Keep in mind last night is only one example. We face different family and social issues with her on a daily basis. Even though last night wasn't a success, we can still look at the situation and realize how far she has come in two and a half years and are proud of the changes we have all made through this process.

The photo on the above right is Amanda sitting on her bed in Ukraine. The one on the left was taken at Young Women in Excellence a few months back. She has changed a lot both inside and out.

How do you like it?

I am not the fastest when it comes to learning new things on the computer. I assumed a blog was a blog and you could only choose from what was offered. After catching up with a friend at the park yesterday though, I checked out her blog and it was adorable! I didn't realize you could choose different backgrounds and features. This morning I skipped my walk so I could search for a cute wallpaper and figure out how to apply it. While it took two hours (I TOLD you I was slow learner with computers) I finally figured out how to do it. Whatcha' think? Do you like the new layout? I am still working on how to get some of my old features back with the new format so come back again in a few days to see the finished product. Thanks Delanie for inspiring me!

Enrichment night

I went to Enrichment night last night and it was a blast! The theme was "Back to School" and the entire church was decked out as a school, from picking up ID badges with our high school pictures down to the women wearing hairnets in the kitchen. It was hilarious.

On one wall there was a "Most likely to..." section with various pictures of women in our ward. One of them was me and I was voted "Most likely to get an object caught in my hair." Somehow Chea Lamb, who was in charge of the pictures, found out about one of my most embarassing moments from grade school. Now that I am in my 30's I can laugh about it. Here is what happened:

In junior high, the hair style was huge! (notice my friends and I "back in the day" above) The bigger your hair was, the better. Often times I would pull the hair away from my head at the temples, hair spray it until it was crisp then use a thin curling iron to create spirals. Once my hair was complete, it was like a solid helmet- seriously. There was no bounce in my hair, it moved as one solid mass.

During lunch, the cool thing for us girls to do was sit at the outside tables and watch the boys play handball against the side of the building. One day we were sitting there and a stray tennis ball came flying in my direction. Unfortunately, the ball hit my hair and got tangled in it. I was struggling to get it out before the boys found out where it was and I was wispering to my girlfriends, "Get it out! Get it out!" We all worked on my hair and finally retrieved the ball but not before the boys came over and asked, "Is the ball STUCK in your hair?" I was mortified. A tennis ball had literally gotten lost in my hair.

The keynote speaker for the evening was my neighbor, Joel Anderson. He is a K9 and SWAT police officer in Mesa and is a competitor in the Iron Man competitions held every year for the police and fire departments from around the world. Last year he won first place out of every police officer and fire fighter in the world!! He is amazingly fit and strong. The talk he gave last night was on setting goals and working to achieve them and he did a fantastic job, inspiring us to be better and do more. He quoted Gordon B. Hinkley when he said,

"This is the great day of decision for each of us. For many it is the time of beginning something that will go on for as long as you live. I plead with you: don't be a scrub! Rise to the high ground of spiritual, mental and physical excellence. You can do it! You may not be a genius. You may be lacking in some skills. But so many of us can do better than we are now doing. Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."(Matt 5:48) That is the crowning example of excellence. May each of us have a rich and wonderful likfe moving in that direction. We will not become perfect in a day or a monty of a year. We will not accomplish it in a lifetime but we can keep trying, starting with our more obvious weaknesses and gradually converting them to strengths as we go forward with our lives. "Look to God and Live"(Alma 37:47). Kneel before Him in supplication. He will help you. He will bless you. He will comfort and sustain you. There will be progress. There will be growth. There will be improvement. And there will be much of added happiness."

Another thing Joel mentioned was that we need to make goals, write them down and tell them to someone else. So, here goes. Here are my goals for this next month:

1. Continue to work at my schooling, finishing two off two more classes, algebra and anatomy/physiology. I will work harder to study and prepare for my finals.
2. I will attend the temple at least once more this month. This is a hard one because it requires me to carve out at least three hours of time but I am always glad I did it once I am there.

So there you go- my two goals to work on this month. Next month will be something different but this is my starting point. Where's your starting point?

Aiden advances to Bears

Last night Aiden received his wolf badge in cubscouts and has advanced to be in the bear den. There was a big ceremony where he received his rank advancement, two beads, a gold and three silver arrow points. This year he has been working hard and loves cub scouts. Thankfully, he has had some amazing scout leaders. I don't know the bear leaders very well but he sure got a good start with his wolf leaders.

Good Read

If you are looking for an easy yet good read, try "The Burning Within" by Ranelle Wallace. The kids and I are reading it in the evenings and are enjoying it. The book is about a woman who was burned in a plane crash. It is a little graphic in places but my kids seem to do fine with it. In fact, I think it is helping the message sink in because a few days ago I heard Aspen telling Noah about the book. Keep in mind that I can never really read Aspen or tell what he is hearing or understanding. That is just his personality. So when I overheard him telling Noah "...and Jesus told the woman not to go in the plane but she did anyway and she was burned all over her entire body. Then she had to go in a whirlpool to wash away all the dirt and dead skin..." I was surprised. He went on to tell Noah all that had happened in great detail. At one point in the book Ranelle tells about meeting a two year old girl in the burn unit who had been scalded by her mother for wetting the bed. All of our children have been bed wetters and I stopped reading when we got to that point and talked to the kids for a while, asking them how they would feel if I burned them with water every time they wet the bed. They were shocked to hear that there were mothers out there who would do such things to their children. That night they all hugged me a little tighter and I had one of those rare moments as a mother when I actually felt appreciated.
I may have many faults as a mother such as losing my temper, being lax on the kids cleaning their rooms and forgetting to brush their teeth sometimes, but I am glad I have read to the kids almost every night since they were born. Many good conversations have been had and many treasured memories have been made during those last few quiet moments before bed.

August 3, 2008

For some reason my thoughts are drawn to Alexis today. As she advances one more grade, she is entering an age where outside influences are going to override the things I say and I am nervous about that. I am proud to see the young lady she is turning into, the one who constantly asks me if we can volunteer for this group or that activity. She always wants to do secret acts of service for our family, friends and neighbors. She has so many amazing qualities and is beautiful both inside and out. Yet I am sad to think of what the world wants her to think of herself- that she isn't good enough. She needs to be prettier, to be thinner, to be more popular. But I want her to know how beautiful and special she is and how much she is loved.

I was looking for a lesson for FHE to remind her and my other children about just how wonderful and unique they are when I came across two different sites on the internet, two worlds apart but both with great messages. The first one is a video put out by Dove's campaign for real beauty. It captured all of my worries and fears and put them in a 30 second spot to show just how much pressure girls are under nowadays to be perfect. http://www.dove.us/#/features/videos/default.aspx[cp-documentid=7049560]/ Then I came across another article with a collection of short stories that tell the same story of our need for good self worth but in a different light. http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=8f5430b157edb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1

Both messages are equally powerful in their own right. I have some work to do tonight to figure out how I am going to combine them into a lesson for our kids so that I can convey just how much they mean to me and to their Heavenly Father.

August 1, 2008

Thankfully, Aspen is feeling much better now. His fever is gone and he is no longer sleeping 16 hours a day. We sent him to school this morning.
I love having my kids on a regular schedule. It makes life so much more peaceful! Towards the end of summer the kids are always fighting with one another and are getting so bored but once they go to school they actually enjoy being with each other when they come home. We haven't had the television on in the evening all week because they have been busy playing with each other. I LOVE IT!