Dearest Jenafer

First of all, you have my deepest sympathies. How incredibly frustrating to get your hopes up only to be dropped. I'm so so sorry and frustrated for you!! (And I'm glad you can rant on our blog. After all, what is family for but to be able to rant?)

But my feeling sympathetic doesn't really help, does it? So here are some ideas for you, working in the context that you aren't (1) going to call the Bishop and demand to be released from all callings and (2) going to go inactive.

In our ward, visiting teaching supervisor is a pretty easy job. We have some sisters who do their job by phone (most of these ladies are shut-ins, so it's pretty much the only calling they can have), by mail (we have a member of our ward in federal prison in California, and one VT supervisor just writes her a letter every couple of weeks), or by email (which is the only way to get a hold of some of our newlywed/college student sisters). However, when I was in college, we trained our VT supervisors to actually be a fill-in companion for the sisters in their district. If your companion couldn't/wouldn't do visits with you, your VT supervisor would be your companion. (That's a lot of work, I realize, but part of your complaint is that they aren't working you enough, right?)

(Of course, I would suggest that you talk to the VT coordinator before you start anything like this, just to make sure it isn't horribly wrong or something.)

As for your other calling...(you are completely free to ignore this advice especially, but I thought I'd put it out there)...embrace it. Totally and completely embrace it. Learn progressively harder pieces on the organ. Tell the ward music director that you are working on an organ piece that you would like to perform during sacrament meeting in July (or August). Have a definitive goal. (If the ward music director doesn't schedule you right away, make it a goal in Faith in God (the primary award that parents and teachers are encouraged to do alongside their 8-12 kids) and tell her that. Find the red in you (you have it, I know you do, I was your roommate for 16 years) and be aggressive. Don't take "no" for an answer.)

Again, I know what I'm suggesting is time-consuming, and it is hard to find time with five kids underfoot (more when you have the other little girls). Especially when you don't have to do it for your calling. But, Jen, for your self-esteem and sanity, I think you would need to treat it like these tasks were necessary, and just work around them like you would if you were camp director or something.

I love you, Jen, and I won't feel bad if you totally disregard the advice I've given. I know I don't completely understand your situation. Good luck, sweetie.

(P.S. Your friend with the little daughter who had surgery? Is she okay? Do they know what the mass in her lungs was?)

Tell me if anyone else has had this happen to them?

Ok, so something happened today that was just weird. Jeff answered a call this morning and called down the stairs that I had an appointment with the second councilor in the Bishopric at 10:40 for a new calling. I thought, "Great!" After I was called to be ward organist six months ago I made them promise to give me something else. They took their time about it, as far as I was concerned, but I was excited to get started on something new.

So, Bro Layton took me into the little classroom they use for that sort of thing and sat me down and said that they hoped this wouldn't make me too busy. I assured him that the organist calling was not terribly time consuming or anything and he proceeded to call me to be...A VISITING TEACHING SUPERVISOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now this is only really annoying because I am ALREADY a visiting teaching supervisor. They called me to do that last October. I certainly didn't understand why on earth they thought that would overwhelm me! It is six calls, once a month! But maybe I'm missing something. I even went and asked the visiting teaching coordinator if I was doing something wrong. Am I supposed to be busier at this calling? She was very confused. "No," she told me. "These are easy callings." What makes THAT more ridiculous then anything is that she is the wife of the first councilor!

I know I had to have looked at Bro. Layton like he was playing a joke on me or something and told him that I ALREADY was a visiting teaching supervisor. They had called me a long time ago and that it wasn't a busy calling. He was, needless to say, embarrassed to be extending a call to me that I already held and we left it at that. Jeff actually went up to the bishop later and asked him a bit about it and apparently the entire bishopric is under the impression that Visiting Teaching Supervisor is a time intensive calling! I don't get it! I could understand if they thought I did even a fraction of what the coordinator does, but really, I'm really just one of the branches of a telephone tree that is activated once a month. Keryn, am I missing something? Is this calling a bigger deal then I've been told. If it is, you would think they would have at least given me some instruction over the last six months instead of simply emailing me my lists.

So, the kicker to all of this is that the second councilor basically told me that they would never give anyone three callings! That two was stretching it! So I got from that was that I have no hope of EVER escaping from the chain that has been imprisoning me to the piano bench for the last 13 years. I am just going to stop even trying to improve myself, there is no point! No one is ever going to give me a chance to do anything else! And no, I am not being sarcastic! I am MAD! And incredibly depressed and I don't understand why everyone thinks I am brain dead and can't be trusted to do anything other then provide appropriate background music that I can't even be trusted to pick out for myself! I don't really provide anything that couldn't be replicated by putting a mike to a CD player! I am scenery and I am so tired of it!

Crazy day

Yesterday was a crazy/quiet day. Benjamin had a friend spend the night on Thursday night. JJ's mom works at the school and had to go back on Friday to pack up her classroom so we had him until 3:00 or so. That was no big deal. He was quiet and they spent all their time playing on the computer or on the Wii. I had two calls on Thursday. The first was a woman in the ward who has four girls with her oldest in Kindergarten. They needed some help in Kimber's class and Vicki asked the oldest girl who is at home where she wanted to go and she said "Sis Roy's house." So I agreed to watch the three girls for Vicki while she was at the school. Her youngest was born just a week of so before Heber, so I always get my baby fix when I watch her. The older girls love to play with the baby. Not her older sisters, of course, but my three girls swarmed all over her and were horribly disappointed when she almost immediately went down for a nap. They got their fill of playing with Autumn when she woke up. Heather got a particularly good insight when she was running for a towel as the baby threw up all over me, "MOM! Babies are hard work!"

The second call was from my friend who's five year old was having breathing problems. They had an appointment with the doctor on Friday morning and she wanted to know if I would watch her older two while they were there. The appointment was at 9:00, but her husband didn't have to go to work until 11:00 so I wouldn't get the girls until then. At 11:00 they still hadn't arrived, so I called. It turns out that they redlined Maddie for surgery so Greg took the day off and the girls were going to their grandmothers. So two less kids for me!

After everyone left at one, it got really quiet. The rest of the day, we were able to clean a few of the rooms in the house and generally settle down. Jeff didn't get home until after nine last night, his fault. He forgot his glasses at work and didn't realize it until he was practically home and turned around and went back! I wish I could get away with driving 50 miles without my glasses! Must be nice. That was my day. I know I didn't post yesterday, but there were so many other posts, I won't feel guilty about it!

PS-Samuel, I just realized that you're going to be in Taiwan on Father's day! Are you guys celebrating early or late?

Missing Daddy

I posted this memory almost four years ago--strange to think the blog has been around that long) and I wanted to repost it:

I've been thinking about Daddy today too (well, duh, seeing as how it is his birthday), and I have a birthday memory I want to share. When I was in junior high and high school I was on a big cooking/baking kick, remember? (Bradley has a hard time believing that.) I loved to experiment and try new recipes and set the table all pretty with candles and all. Anyway, for Daddy's birthday sometime during these years (I don't remember which birthday), I made a gorgeous cake for him. It had two layers, white frosting, nuts sprinkled on the top...I worked so hard on that cake. I thought it looked like it could be photographed and put on a magazine cover (I was such a modest child!).
So the cake is sitting on the island just waiting for dinner and presents to be over. And we are sitting in the family room. And T.T. (the cat) was...in the kitchen. On the island. With his nose in the cake!
I remember yelling and jumping up, which naturally caused T.T. to jump down. The cake was (mostly) fine, and we still ate it (sorry if that grossed you out). But I still remember being so offended that T.T., who very rarely did anything like that, and relieved that Daddy still was willing to eat it.

My pretty new computer

My laptop has been acting squirrelly lately, and even totally wiping the hard drive and starting over again didn't help. Bradley thinks it is a hardware issue (not too surprising, because it has been used hard and well), and so we decided to buy a new computer for me. And this is what I got:It's very shiny. It's very pretty. You can't tell from this picture, but it's a pretty bronze color, and it has a very very shiny mouse track pad. (Seriously, I could use it for a mirror.) It even has a built-in camera. And did I mention it's shiny?

I named it Sphalerite:

Re: Sand Smuggling

As far as Hawaii goes, it's actually not illegal unless it is from a national park (all sample taking in national parks is tightly regulated). However, there is a legend/myth that if you take rocks or sand from Hawaii, Pele will curse you. The post office on the Big Island receives a ton of rocks yearly from people trying to "escape" the curse.

Seeing how I brought back an entire suitcase load of rocks, sand, and other geological stuff from Hawaii in 2000, and got happily married in 2001 and had four adorable children since, a wonderful house, a fabulous van, and an all-around marvelous life...

...I totally believe the legend.

However, if you can't bring back sand, that is totally okay. Or if you are afraid of curses.

Beach Sand

Keryn,

Is it legal to take sand from Taiwan and bring it home? I seem to remember hearing something about taking sand from Hawaii, I think, and that being illegal. But, if I can, and possibly smuggle it in, I will get you some official Taiwan dirt, I mean, sand.

Re: Samuel's question

I agree with Jen, Samuel, about how it definitely isn't a "have-to" thing. I've been very much enjoying reading something new everyday, and getting an insight into what some of our siblings' day-to-day lives are like. It's sort of fun! But, really, I realize it is a lot easier to find little minutes to post when you are at home most of the day like I am. I was amazed LaDale managed to post daily last week--I know how busy she is. So don't worry, and just enjoy. And post when you can/want to. I don't want anyone to feel like it is an obligation.

I am so excited for your trip! If you ever go down to the beach, and you have a chance, and you think about it, and it isn't too much trouble...could you get me a little sand? I don't have any from Taiwan!

We are all slowly crawling out of the sickness pit we've been in for the last week, mostly that is. Mercy and Bradley haven't gotten this particular sickness yet, so they still might. Let's hope not.

Thursday

Well, that's it. My life has officially ended. At least for the next six weeks. School is out. Today was the last day, and it was a half day. I picked up the kids at 11:50, a special last day of school treat. Since then, they have been vegging and generally congradulating themselves on getting through another school year. Benjamin is having from school spend the night tonight. This morning Jacob had something of a milestone in his life, he lost his first tooth. It's a little late, but whatever. He didn't pop his first tooth until he was 15 months old, so I guess he's right on schedule, for him. I am going to have a crazy day tomorrow morning, but I'll write about that then. I've mostly been running around getting all the documents together for Jeff's new job. Background check and passport photos and such. But that's all done now. They have officially cleared Jeff to start work on the 11. That's about it for today.

Love ya all!

Re: Question

Samuel,
I don't think anyone was trying to make it into a 'have' to post. I think we all just enjoyed having something new to read each day. Quite frankly, the conversation on the blog had trickled down to a very bare minimum and this way, we get alot more comments! That's all.

Waz up, my family?

So I just wanted to take a few moments and post something on the blog. First off, WOW, Jen. I am so glad that yesterday is not a 'typical' day for you.

The things going on in my life right now is stress and worry. In a little over 2 weeks I will be flying to Taiwan for school purposes. I am extremely excited and I will have several days to be a tourist. I recently found out what will be expected of me on this trip. (And you all thought I was only going to be a tourist.) I will be expected to share a 'brief' presentation, 20 - 30 minutes long, about my personal research. This would be fine and dandy except that any conference I will be planning on presenting my research will only give me 10 minutes at best. So I need to make sure I have everything for at least 20 minutes. In reality, I don't think this will be a problem. I think, as I get the presentation put together I will probably have to leave lots out. But wait, there's more. One of the universities we will be meeting with specializes in teacher education. These people still do active research but are geared toward teaching young(ish) students. Thus, we have been asked to have a second presentation, about the same time limit, that sums up our research and how we developed lessons based on our research. This will be what we will be doing as we visit the universities.

We will also be visiting several middle and high schools around the island. At these we are expected to teach a lesson. It could be anything from what we already prepared or something else. Most of the lessons we all prepared take several days to do so we would have to adjust the lesson or do something new. We shall see how that goes. Thankfully, this part of our expectations is for all of us going, and not solely on me.

This trip is going to be fun for me and I also hope to meet some great people that I might, one day, work with or at least collaborate with on some project. I will be taking lots of pictures, I hope, and sending them to Caren on a nightly basis if possible. I say if possible as I'm not sure if all of the locations we will be staying will have internet. I guess I will have to see when I get there.

I love you all tons. I have one last question for the general body of the family.

My question is: Is this blog going to soon be one that somebody 'has' to comment each day for a week? Please, I hope not to offend or have anyone misunderstand me. I love hearing about your days and weeks and everything about your lives. I know I should share more about my life with all of you as I love for you to know the things in my life. I just don't want to get caught thinking I have to 'take a turn' at posting for a week of daily posts. So, please continue what you are doing and I will try to post more frequently as well.

I do love you all tons and I really like reading about what you all are doing.

Truman Madsen

Truman Madsen passed away this morning. I put a few of my memories on our religion blog.

Wednesday

Sorry, I just fell into bed last night. I didn't have a chance to write.

Yesterday was a very busy day. The last week of school is always busy! I dropped the kids off at school, Jeff hadn't the chance to fix Benjamin's bike yet. My first appointment of the day was at 8:30 at Heather and Benjamin's school. The entire fourth grade split up into little groups and each picked a different book to make into a play and they all performed them yesterday from 8:30 to 10:00. Don't get me wrong, I was glad to go. The look on Heather's face when she looked out into the audience and saw me standing there was worth it, but it was difficult to get there. All of the seats were taken by the fourth graders and the parents and younger siblings all had to stand along the walls in the back and off to the side. I had Erica and Lillian with me and they were not interested in watching a bunch of kids on stage who they couldn't hear as they stood there and read their lines off of pieces of paper. We slipped out as soon as Heather's play was over. She did a great job.

Then we stopped at the front office to talk with the staff for a moment. Benjamin has been lobbying for home schooling next year. After much prying, I finally got him to admit that he has been the target of some bullying. I wanted to talk it over with the principal before we made any decisions. They said the councilor would give me a call later in the day.

Jacob's award assembly was at 2:30 so we were once again back at the school for that. Lillian and Erica were antsy by now and didn't sit well at all. After that, school was out so we picked up all the kids and headed home. One of Benjamin's friends asked for a ride. His family moved a few weeks ago and now he is zoned for Skyline Ranch and he had to walk two miles in the sun since he is still going to Johnson Ranch until, well, today. We took him home.

The school councilor finally called me back at 5:30 or so. She was actually excited to call so she could tell me that Benjamin had taken a few tests with the rest of the sixth graders. About ten of them scored high enough to test into a few eighth grade classes for next year. Benjamin 'gets' to take algebra and eighth grade reading next year. They don't want him to leave the school. Apparently, letting the seventh graders do this is something they worked hard for and next year is the pilot program so they can prove to the district that this is a good idea. They really want Benjamin to stick around. I've been trying to get some names out of him so the school can address things more directly. Jeff and I have asked Benjamin to at least try going to school next year. If things get bad, I promised him that I would pull him out and we would explore other options, including transferring him to another school close by and home schooling. We are also getting the names of the other students in this new program so he can try to cultivate a few friends over the summer.

Then one of my friends called. Her five year old had just choked on a piece of chicken and she was now having trouble breathing and the Urgent care was worried that she could have aspirated the chicken into her lung and that was above their abilities to treat so they were recommending she go into town to the emergency room to get it checked out. They reason for the call was that she wanted to know if I would take her two older girls until they could get back. Of course I said yes! She called me at 8:30 to let me know that they were headed home. Maddie (the five year old) had not aspirated the chicken. Instead the x-ray had revealed a 7mm mass on one of her lungs. They don't know what it is, but it's not a emergency room situation. Instead, they have a series of appointments with a bunch of doctors. She will likely have a MRI and a lung biopsy in the next few weeks. I've told her mother that I would be happy to take the older girls when she needs me to over the summer.

Anyway, that was my Wednesday! With any luck, Thursday will be easier!

Tuesday

So, I know it's late, but here is Tuesday's post.

It was a very long day. The morning started out reasonably well, I got the kids up and out the door, and five minutes later they were back. Heather had a flat tire and Benjamin's bike was refusing to change gears. So we all loaded into the car and ran them to school. Then we came home and veged for about two hours and the phone rang. It was Heather's teacher. Their classroom apparently had an infanstation of ants and Heather's lunch had been invaded. Naturally, all of you who know my daughter know that she does not handle this sort of thing well. She had a breakdown and no lunch. So I had to drop practically everything and take her a new lunch. In an effort to stave off the 'my day was the worst ever' I took her a happy meal. It worked. She had a great day dispite everything. I think her teacher was thrilled.

Then we came home again and there was a message on the answering maching from Jeff telling me to 'call him now!" Naturally, I was worried about him having lost his job again, it's happened so often lately that that was automatically where my mind went. But that wasn't it. Instead what had happened was that he had gotten the offer from the place he had interviewed with last week. We are most likely going to take it. The company just feels like a better fit for Jeff. Besides, the benifits are better and start immediately and that is a big plus. It's no further away then his current job, just in a slightly different direction. It will actually end up being less hours so I am thrilled!

Then, I got a call from my friend. She finally finished editing my first chapter and I could come and pick it up! I am so excited to finally be able to do something again!

Benjamin had scouts last night, sort of. It was actually the combined activity so it was with the girls! When I went to pick him up, the one girl who I gave the book to so she could read it came up to me and gushed. She is loving it! I am thrilled. She is thirteen years old, so we'll see where the other age groups fall! I am really getting excited!

I will write more tonight!

Love ya all!

This week

Hey, Jen, if you want to take this week, I'll take next week. Hopefully by then I'll have kicked this bug and actually have something interesting to write about.

Videos in the Classroom

LaDale mentioned the prohibition on watching Disney movies in the classroom. I believe this to be accurate when it comes to entertainment. However, I learned some interesting things from the BYU general counsel recently about the rules for media in the classroom.

If you obtained the video in a legal way, even renting it, you can show it in class if the purpose is to comment on the video and incorporate it into your lesson. The rules about copyright are much looser in a face-to-face teaching environment as a result of the TEACH act and some others.

question

Is anyone going to write this week? So far, no one has volunteered. If no one does, I guess it will be my turn again!

Love ya all!

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Not that 'happy' is precisely the right sentiment for today. I will probably always remember Daddy on this day. While not exactly the date of his death, it was on Memorial Day that he passed away so that sticks most in my mind. I just wanted to take a moment and tell all of you how much I am grateful to have had the parents I was blessed with. Daddy taught me so much about allot of things. I love you all and am grateful to all of you for being my family!

Interesting

So, Caren, I am glad that you feel it is a good question because as I was reading the post back to myself after writing it the questions seemed a little creepy to me. I decided to post it anyways know that you would all forgive the creepiness of it, or at least hoping that you would.

showers

great question tyler! Ilove hot showers! Samuel can't handle it as hot as i like it. I then love a cold shower right after my hot one. Shocking to the system, i know. I started it when i was attending early morning seminary and never out grew it. However living here in AZ is tricky in the spring and summertime especially. The water cannot get cold. Our water pipes are not buried deep enough. I love it when we visit mom or even my parents for that matter.

Our kids are half and half. Kip used to hate baths! This is until we figured out that he was like me with the hotter water. Where as adam is like samuel. So what we do to still save on water is we run their bath with quite warm water and let kip go to town. Then when it has cooled down sufficiently enough adam gets in.

On an unrelated matter. Kip is tearin' it up with his sign language capabilities! I love it!
love caren

Temp

I won't try to answer for anyone else but me, but I like really hot showers. It is a family trait to have poor circulation and I find that I have a hard time really warming up, even in the summer, without a hot shower, or better yet, a hot bath. But that's just me.

On another note, Jeff had an interview last Thursday. It looks good. Jeff was one of three people interviewing for two openings. The second person interviewed on Friday and the third is scheduled on Tuesday. We should know after that. It went well and we are hopeful that he will be able to get out of the situation that he is currently in. I might actually get my husband to work only a ten hour day instead of a twelve or thirteen hour one! Hopefully, anyway.

Piping hot showers

So, is it just a Tobler thing? Telima likes to take very hot showers. I'm not implying that every shower that you take LaDale is very hot but it just got me thinking and for some odd reason (remember I was school by Samuel to thing) I set myself to pondering the bathing habits of Toblers. Which, now that I think about it furthur is very strange indeed.

That said I'm still curious, what temperature do you all take (most) of your showers at? Is it surface of the sun levels like my little Tobler or some lesser level of volcanic goo? Or are any of you cold shower people? I myself was a warm shower but not hot, just warm enough to be comfortably bearable and warm sometimes when I needed to relax my mind or body.

Well, there is my question. So, what say you?

By the way, since marrying I have ajusted and now I take my showers much more to Telima's level of liking. I had to get used to it which took a little while but now I can't go back to only mildly warm.

A three day weekend

Yes!! It's Friday and ten to 10:00. Another day at school with me alternately laughing or trying not to throttle a certain child. I ran out to get gift cards from Barnes and Noble's for the Baker's graduation presents, home to meet with one of my laurels, then off the Baker's for their graduation party. There were a million people there, but I talked quite a bit with Justina. I will miss that girl a lot when she leaves in the fall for BYU Idaho. I got home just before Shauna so I spent an hour talking with her. She's leaving early in the morning for New York with her sister and mom for a five day vacation sight seeing over her birthday weekend. Then I jumped in for a very hot shower. It's been raining non-stop since about 3:30 and I spent a half an hour directing traffic in front of the school and getting soaked. I needed to warm up. Now I'm in bed getting ready for a nice long sleep-in!!

I love you all.

Re: My blog

Tyler, I've been playing around with the idea of starting my own blog for a long time, but I finally decided to do it when I noticed that all my friends have personal blogs. And I love reading them, because even though Kristy lives in Flagstaff, AZ, and Tammy lives in Houston, and Mandy lives in West Valley City, UT, I still sort of feel like part of their lives. It's fun to keep up with everyone.

I want to be a part of that. And I obviously don't want to send my friends to our family blogs, because that would be weird. And Ponderit is for religious musings, and Hot Blava is for political...I just didn't see a place to write about my life. And my random thoughts. And the cute things my kiddos do. And other stuff that bubbles out of my fevered mind.

I've tasked myself with writing everyday (excepting Saturday, which is my day off), so some of the posts are going to be really short, really random, and not necessarily examples of fabulous writing technique. It's a good exercise for me, though, because I'll need discipline to keep it up. And it should be a pretty fun record for my kids, someday. A record of their mother's random mind.

Thursdays

Thursdays are usually very long days for me. I leave right after school for piano lessons and don't get home until about 8:00. Tonight, however, there was a reprieve. While I was at Thomas', they received a phone call from the Brady's who were at their son's high school graduation and had forgotten piano. So I was home by 6:30 instead. That was nice because mom called almost the moment I'd walked in the door and I had a good talk with her. Now, instead of just finishing preparing dinner, I have already eaten a good meal of pork chops with tomatoes and squash (I'm a summer squash fan) and am writing to you.

Today wasn't a bad day. Normal, I guess for being the fourth to last day of school. Only three left and my report cards are DONE, except for attendance, which will be easy. There weren't any dramatic happenings today and that is totally OKAY. We spent an hour watching the fourth grade wax museums, finished the end of year test in math, stayed in for lunch recess as it was pouring (I HATE indoor recess!!!), wrote about our favorite Rockrimmon memories and a letter to the teacher that changed our lives, developed a little more about Toberia (We are divided into three tribes: air, water, and land, ride animals as transportation, live in holes, under the water and in the air on clouds, don't have t.v. and have a cleaner form of energy that uses the stalks of our native plant- you all need to read Weslandia by Paul Fleischman to understand the total significance of this place.) Finally we talked about how grateful I am that the patriots and not the loyalist won the revolutionary war and a little about the Swamp Fox. If I could figure out how to get a hold of the old Disney shows without spending an arm and a leg, I would in a heart beat. Except, of course, we don't have the copy right to watch any Disney shows at school. Even G rated once. Apparently, it costs an arm and a leg!! Oh well, I guess we'll just talk about Francis Marion instead.

Swamp fox, swamp fox, hiding in the glen...

Love you all!!

Keryn...your blog...

So, I get the whole tell me what you think thing but I don't know what to say. I don't know the purpose of the blog and so don't know what I am suppose to be measuring it against.

It is just for posterity; rambling, ventings, and musings; ... well yeah. It makes a difference and I don't know what one I am suppose to be testing.

By the way, what is the story with your garter? I think there are more things that you can add to the list of not does on both sides but appreciate brevity. I thought you could have had a lot more fun with the heroine kick. I am personally on the opinion that brevity and succinctness (google says that is how it is written) make things funnier as long as they don't take away from the story but rather get to the point quicker. Also, depending on the audience that you are appealing to sometimes giving pseudonyms to people is not only a security kick but also a lot of fun and enjoyment.

I remind you that I am not nearly as advanced in any writing mechanisms as lets say your oldest child but he is peaking early...or at least I hope so...

Those are my thoughts without any idea regarding your audience.

Wait, were we just suppose to read the one post...well don't I feel out matched again by a 5 year old.

It's late

I burst into tears today, right in the front entrance of the school when all the counselor said was, "You look tired." I had just returned from a very hot, very exhausting, although mostly fun except for one incident, field trip with my fifth graders. Another fifth grade teacher had her class and mine in my classroom while I dropped off the one incident with the vice principal. The problem wasn't what happened but how the student responded. He had called one of the girls in my class some very foul names that had her running to her mom (who happened to be at the picnic) completely sobbing. When I spoke with the young man, I asked him if he understood how hurtful it felt when someone said such things to you and he responded, "But people say that to me all the time." He's been suspended for two days because this is hardly the first time this has occurred but you could see it in his eyes. Part of him could not understand what he had done wrong. It still make me sad to think of it.

In any case, for the most part, the day was fun. The parents who planned the event did a very nice job and the fifth graders had a blast. Tomorrow we are back to work. We haven't yet finished all the end of year benchmark testing but for today they just got to play. After piano lessons, the Stones (the family I teach on Wednesdays) invited me for dinner and I enjoyed a family meal for once. It was great. Then home to wait for my home teachers, after which a cool shower (finally the sun screen is washed off although the water didn't help the burn along my part!! I remembered the hat for field day, but not today). Now, as soon as this is published, I am off to bed.

I can't believe tomorrow is Thursday. It's been one of those weeks that alternately moves as quick as lightening then as slow as molasses. But, there's a three day weekend coming up, so all my planning for next week can take place then. I just need to get through TWO more days.

Um...so I have this new blog...

The Parks/Recreation building in our town doesn't have a handicap parking space OR a handicap entrance. To get in you have to go up a flight of stairs. Actually, around in the back, there is a ramp to the back door, but the back door is locked with a keypad lock and a sign that says "Employees Only. Please Use Front Entrance."

Before Gee was born, I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed. But a few weeks ago we had to get some forms and sign a liability waiver to sign up for swimming lessons. I had all the kids with me, naturally, because the Parks/Recreation Office is only open when Bradley is at work...

Read the rest and give me advice at my new blog...

tip

Housecleaning tip of the day-
If the top shelf of your fridge freezes your eggs and causes them to explode all over their container, it's a very bad thing, turn the temp up.

Benjamin threw me a curve today. On the way home from school he mentioned, "Oh, today is the orchastra concert, it's at 6:00 or 6:30 or something like that and I think it's at Skyline." He had never brought home the flyer he got next week and now he had lost it and he had even forgotten his instrument at school! So I spent a half hour running around getting his violin and checking on the time and location and finding his clothes and such. We made it and all but in the rush I forgot to set the DVR and I missed NCIS! Now I'll have to wait until it gets online or in reruns over the summer! Good news, after the concert I talked to the teacher to make sure that Heather can take orchastra next year. We're all set, she is so excited!

It was the last day of preschool today, so from now on I will have Erica and Lillian full time. At least I won't have Kate and Bridget over the summer. Just my five at home!

Love ya!

My Day

Well, today started as early as yesterday, only after the fifteen minute ride to school I realized I'd forgotten the crock pot I'd promised to bring for Martha and her kids graduation party this Friday. Today was the last day she would be in school this week, so I turned around and went back to get it. Luckily, I tend to get to school before I really HAVE to be there and was in plenty of time for the staff meeting. The school day was normal, some fun things and some frustrating things!! Tomorrow is our 5th grade picnic- end of year party. From 9:00 until 1:30 we'll be outside and hoping it doesn't rain!! This is Colorado so you never know.
After piano lessons I headed to the church in the pouring rain wondering if they would call the game since we were going to see the Skysox play. I asked to be excused since it would be three long hours and my report cards are still not done. After chatting for a few minutes I headed home to open windows and take advantage of the cooler weather. Now, I am half way through with the report cards and am taking a break.
But let's talk about something more wonderful- dinner. I had an artichoke tonight. I tend to do things like that- find something I love and eat (or watch or listen) to it a ton of times all in a row. I've eaten three artichokes in the last few weeks alone. I've decided I really like them and they are quite easy to prepare- a little cut there, a little chop there, an hour and a half wait time while it cooks, then eating!!! And I LOVE the heart. That is one of the benefits of living and eating alone, no sharing- I get to eat it all!!
Anyway- we are almost to the last of everything. The last math test, the last reading final, the last etc, etc. We aren't quite to the last Wednesday, as the last day of school is a Wednesday, but we're close.
So- tah, tah for now!!

Love you all!


P.S. I wish Toberia were made of chocolate- It would help my afternoons pass in a much more enjoyable fashion.

toberia

LaDale your new country sounds exciting! Is it made of chocolate? lol ;)

love
caren

Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!

Renewed!

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

Actually- they don’t. And today it was bright and sunny and almost too hot by the afternoon in a school without air conditioning.

This morning was an early morning and I was to school by 6:45 to get ready for my end of the year compelling conversation with my supervisor. Here’s my day in a nutshell:

* An hour meeting with Carol while I hope my substitute isn’t sinking
* Returning to class to find out CR is horribly wounded because CF threw a pencil at him and, boy, is his dad going to be MAD
* An insane session with the middle school trying to get all our kids registered at the middle school (this is the first year they’ve had the kids to it themselves and they let us know- umm- at the last minute they needed an hour of computer time with out kids today
* An afternoon with my kids creating a new country and/or finishing any make-up work they haven’t turned in yet (I am the ruler of Toberia and can hardly read the new language they’ve invented!?!?) and preparing for a revolutionary war debate they will be having tomorrow between the Patriots and the Loyalist
* A splitting headache by the end of the day for really no discernible reason so I came home pretty quick- thank goodness I don’t have piano today
* Writing this right now
* Will finish putting together the end of the year graduation slide show of the exhibition with pictures I’ve been taking for months during dinner
* If this headache continues- will go to bed early!!! If it doesn’t and I suddenly feel wonderfully- I will finish report cards for family home evening!!!
* Will be loving each of you and missing you and thinking about you

things to do

For those of you who haven't heard, Samuel is going to go to taiwan concerning nano technology research from june 13th to june 28th, tentatively. I say tentatively because the organizer of this trip has not yet purchased tickets. Apparently the organizer is a man and is not married. Anyway so i called the foreign travel health services and samuel will be getting shots tomorrow. Our little family will be travelling to Las Vegas on June 11th to attend David's graduation on the 12th and the kids and i are staying with mom while Samuel flies back to the Phoenix airport in time for him to fly to Taiwan with the other people. Samuel will fly back to Phoenix after his trip and then on to Las Vegas to join us and stay for the 4th of July.

oh and i've been busy buying bigger clothes and shoes for our biggest boy. Adam is in a size 7 in clothing now and wears a size 1 in shoes. Yes my boys are solid! Adam will probably be taller than me by the age of 10 or 11.

love caren

My life at the moment:

I was awakened by the sun this morning (as in most mornings since the sun shines in my east facing window at about 5:00 A.M. every morning- it does make it difficult to sleep in on those days I can.) I tried for another hour or so, but at about a quarter to six, I picked up the computer and spend an hour going over my young woman’s lesson on temple marriage one last time. I was actually combining two lessons this week since last week for mother’s day the girl’s took over the primary so that all the young woman leaders and primary leaders could go to Relief Society and their visiting teaching workshop. Last week’s lesson was on covenants so it was fairly easy to start with covenants and move right into temple sealings.
I left my room at about 7:00 to find my roommate up (again because of the sun) and was talked for a while. Shauna and I don’t get an opportunity to talk too much, morning Saturday and Sunday mornings as we both leave early for work on weekdays and I am usually in bed before she gets home in the evenings. (She usually heads to her parents house after work for dinner and such before coming to the apartment.) So, I made chocolate chip muffins for breakfast while she made brownies for our ward’s single adult linger longer luncheon we have every third Sunday of the month. Then I spent the next two hours alternately getting ready for church and practicing the piano because I was playing for the choir today and (of course) it was a Sally Deford 5 flat (thank goodness it wasn't 5 sharps) song I still wasn’t completely comfortable with. At 10:00 I printed off my lesson, packed up a bag and a half (lesson materials, folders- I use two so I don’t have to turn as many pages while accompanying- scriptures etc.) and walked to church. I LOVE living right across the street from by building. It literary takes less time to drive to church than it does to walk across the street. I got their early and after the other ward exited the sacrament room, I played through the choir piece once before the rest of the choir arrived for our early practice. We practiced, and then I enjoyed sacrament meeting.
Immediately afterward, the second counselor in the bishopric stopped me to say I was to meet in the Bishop’s office in twenty minutes for a meeting about Daughters of Promise (stake girl’s camp) that lasted until we had to run so I could teach my laurels. The lesson went well and as we were leaving, Jen (the young woman’s president) said we had a meeting at the church at 4:15.
So, after church, we ran home (Shauna and I) to cut up tomatoes, cucumbers and such for the salad I was taking and the brownies Shauna was taking and ran to the linger longer. There we agreed to host the luncheon next month and ate salads and dessert!!! Then, Shauna drove the two of us back to the church, where she had a appointment and I walked home to practice the piano for a half an hour until I walked back to the church for the meeting with the young women leaders, young men leaders and the bishopric. After that I met with the bishop (he was meeting with all the single adults in the ward) and then walked back home again!! Now I am typing on the computer to you lovely folks!! I hope to spend the rest of the evening simply relaxing, starting next weeks lesson, writing, and sleeping before it grows too late since tomorrow will start with another early morning and begin the last full week of school and a last great hurrah!
I love you all- this seems long, but you wanted something to read- boring as it may be. I can’t promise the same length the rest of the week- but something.☺

Update

I posted this link about this kidnapping in CA awhile ago. I thought you would all be as interested as me in the update!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090517/ap_on_re_us/us_abducted_boy

They found him! Alive and physically unhurt! That mother must be so thankful.

This Week

Okay, I am going to try posting everyday this week. I was going to wait until school was all the way over, but then I would have so much less to post. Maybe I'll try both and you can judge the difference in my life. I didn't quite get my reports cards completely done this weekend (as I told Jen I was trying to do in order to take the week) but almost. So, I've give it a try.

Love you all!!

LaDale

Saturday

Question, is Blogger having more problems lately, or is it just that I'm posting more often so I'm encountering the problems it has more often?

Yesterday was very frustrating. I started to write and then it deleted my post and I wrote the little one and went to bed and this morning I woke up and found the one that was deleted partially posted! And underneath the little one! I am confused and frustrated by the problems I've encountered. Oh, well, I'll deal and move on. I wish that blogger would let me copy my posts, that way, even if it refuses to let me post I wouldn't just lose everything I'd written. Anyone have an answer to that?

The boys came home from the Father/Sons actually quite early today. They got home around 11:00. It's the earliest they've been home for a few years. Usually they have some fun activities planned for Saturday and they stay and play for a while.

Other than that, today was a fairly boring day. Not much happened. The girls and I went yard saleing, we found nothing interesting, and this afternoon I did five loads of laundry. Jeff is exhausted tonight, a direct result of not sleeping well last night on the ground with just a sleeping bag, and apparently the campsite was next to a slow moving creek that was a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Not terribly fun, but I did remember to pack both sunscreen and bug repellent, so they were fine. The entire ward got into an hour long marshmallow fight last night where apparently five or six bags of marshmallows gave their lives for the cause. They had fun.

Is anyone different going to volunteer for next week? If not, then with this post I hand it over to you, Telima! Love ya all!

Friday

I tried, I really did! I wrote this long post and it deleted itself.

Huge sigh. I'll try again tomorrow!

Friday

Well, today went rather smoothly. All things considered. I dropped the kids off at school and this morning was all normal with just me, Kate and Bridget. We have reached the point that when it's just the two of them, it's no different then if it were two of my own kids running around. They know the rules and expectations so it's rather quiet around here when it's just the three of us. Then Lillian and Erica get home and everything kind of goes insane. The four of them just love to spend time together! But they do get out of hand quickly. I have to keep a close eye on them in the afternoons. Today that was difficult because I had to get everything ready for the Father Sons trip. Jeff was planning to get off work today at noon and be home by 2:00 and leave by 3:00. That didn't happen exactly like that. They were hitching a ride with the across the street neighbors, who have a suburban and only one boy.

Happy Anniversary

Since I, too, forgot about Telima and Tyler's anniversary, I offer this video as my make-up gift.

Thursday

I am really tired so I'm not going to post much tonight.

Tomorrow is Jacob's "Cultural Day" at school. He had to pick a food that represented our cultural background to bring to school and share with the class. I asked him what he wanted me to make and he said "Tacos"... Next. Then he picked "Spaghetti." Yeah, my poor confused boy obviously has no idea what culture we are. That's ok because this threw me for a loop as well! What exactly was I supposed to make? I talked to Mom and she suggested Scones, because of the pioneer culture and that made sense but I think we all know that scones have to be served fresh or not at all, so they really wouldn't have worked. Finally we just made an apple pie and left it at that! It's waiting for him downstairs at this very moment. He even helped me make it.

Erica and Lillian only have 3 more days of school left. I have a meeting with the preschool on May 21, probably to go over Lillian schedule for next year, but we'll see when it happens.

Benjamin came home from school today with some rather depressing news, his bike was stolen...again! Since it was a $5 yard sale special that he had had for over a year, we're not out much. Also, we had already bought him a new bike that was just waiting for Jeff to put new tires on it, so we don't even have to frantically search for something for him to ride on Monday, but still! His bike was old and run down and I had thought we would be safe from this sort of thing! He hadn't been locking it up because he had lost his key. That won't be happening again! I have to sigh in exasperation.

Tomorrow is our father/son camp out, excuse me, Arronic priesthood commemoration outing. Jeff has made arrangements to take a half day at work so they can actually pitch the tent while it's still light out. But we'll see when he actually gets out of the office. The girls and I always enjoy these little nights on our own. I will probably be watching a Barbie movie in the theater room with popcorn and giggling little girls in cartoon pajamas at this time tomorrow night. But we'll see.

Samuel, congratulations on finally getting your itinerary for Taiwan.

David, congratulations an receiving your associates. Wish we could be there to see you walk. We will promise to try really hard to come to see you walk when you receive your Bachelors!

Love ya all!

Wednesday

Ok, so I know it's not technically Wednesday! I had my Miche bag party last night and the last person didn't leave until 9:30, basically seconds before Jeff got home from work, so whawt with one thing and the other, I didn't have a chance to post list night.

I cleaned all day yesterday! I promise, from the minute I jumped out of bed practically until I dropped back in it I was scrubbing. I mopped, scrubbed a bathroom, vaccumed, did dishes, washed countertops and did all manner of other things.

The party was really quite fun. Caren came with some of my ward members. I had a good sales number and I will get a few more since I know I will have at least one more sale from someone who wasn't able to come last night. I should be able to get enough credits for my purse to be free. I'm really excited to get it! It just looks like such fun!

My kids behaved themselves beautifully all day yesterday. The girls let me clean with very few interuptions. Last night I had an additional 8 kids running around with my five. They mostly played outside. That was when I heard the sprinklers come on. I went to look and they were all running around, getting wet, and having a total blast. They were so cute! I had to leave the party to put the little girls to bed around 9:00. Lillian was all but falling down, she was so tired!

I'll write another post later today to make up for missing yesterday!

Love ya all!

Wrist Pain

Jen, I get that same pain sometimes. It's so bad that I can't grip anything or move my wrist at all. And there's really not much that I've found that helps with it. The closest thing that I figure is that it's the beginnings of arthritis (which does not bode well for the future...). Anyway, it goes away, at least for me, after a few days. Good luck and let me know if you find anything that helps with the pain!

Oh, and we're keeping Jeff in our prayers. Love you guys!

hey jen

if this pain turns out to be not as temporary. I know of a good pain specialist if you need a referral.
caren

Tuesday

I am just mad at the moment. I am mad at Jeff's bosses. They are considering firing him because the loan officers still won't give Jeff their files because they don't want to have to deal with the fact that he actually does what he's supposed to do and checks the things they apparently don't want him to check. They are ready to punish him for other's incompetence! I'm just about ready to have steam boiling out of my ears. He has been working 12 to 13 hour days to keep up with what they want done and they don't think he's doing enough. Jerry (Jeff's boss) is so fed up with dealing with them that he has said that if they fire Jeff he is going to walk out. They just won't listen to the competent people they hired. They actually hired a efficiency expert who is telling the exact same things that Jerry's been saying for the last month and they still won't listen! Jeff's going to be looking around for something else, not because he wants to, but they are killing me!

Deep breath, deep breath, calm down, calm down. I have been having some problems with my wrist. It kind of feels like I sprained it. I have no up or down movement and when I pick up anything that weighs more then a pound or so I sends a sharp pain up my arm. I got a wrist brace today and while it helps, if I have it on tight enough to stop the pain then it starts to put my hand to sleep. That seems like a bad idea to me. I'm fairly sure it's the start of arthritis, but really, there's not allot anyone can do about that so I'm just dealing. It's not so painful that I'm taking aspirin or anything so I'm not going to worry over much unless it keeps it up more then two weeks.

Other then that I am just hanging tonight. Jeff only just got off work about 15 minutes ago so he's going to be late. My house is in fairly good shape, cleaning wise, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. My kids are mostly in bed so I'm doing good about that too. There's less then three weeks of school left, but I'm actually feeling pretty good about that. I won't have Kate or Bridget during the summer and it's only seven weeks long and then Erica and Kate will both be in full day kindergarten, so it's just be Bridget, Lillian and me next July. I'm hoping things will be really quiet.

Monday

In case it slipped any one's notice, I am lousy at coming up with titles for these posts! So we're going to go green and recycle the ones from the last time it was my week!

I actually did get yesterday off. They just didn't tell me until Devin showed up to sub, about 10 minutes after I started to play prelude! It was nice. Sacrament meeting was great! I played for the primary children when they sang in the middle and every teacher in the ward, all seven of them, spoke for 5-10 minutes about their mothers. It was really sweet. And then came primary. It was really funny! They had the teacher's husbands sub for them. Lillian's teacher's husband is a rather large man who looks a little scary! I don't think any of the Sunbeams made a peep the entire sharing time! Not that I was there, but Jeff was assigned to teach the class right behind her, so he shared with me.

There were many of us in Gospel Doctrine who wished for a close circuit TV set up so we could amuse ourselves by watching what was happening in the Primary room! But we could hear quite a bit.

It was actually kind of fun to have the Bishop preside in Relief Society and the first Counselor in the Bishopric give the lesson. They even had someone come in to lead the music! They were quite serious about giving everyone a day off.

In other news, Jeff and I saw Star Trek on Saturday night and I promised Keryn I would post a review. We really enjoyed it! Not to give anything away, but I have to admit I laughed allot during the movie, and it wasn't because it was particularly funny! The actors had just done such a spectacular job of capturing the essence of the characters. They had Kirk and Spock, Uhra and Scotty, Sulu and Checkov, and of course Bones. All of them really did a fantastic job! It was great.

oiur mothers day.

I had Jen buy some See's candy gift certificates at Costco. They are a lot cheaper than buying them in the sees candy store. We were not original in our gifts this year. Both Mom Tobler and Mom Willes got a certificate as a gift this year. I also gave samuel a list of what chocolates i wanted. {might as well make the most of it right?}
As for breakfast yesterday, we had Krispy Kreme donuts. Samuel picked those up on saturday on the way home from the lab. Yum yum!!
Samuel and the boys took advantage of this coupon for Zale's that we recieved in the mail. They bought me this adorable diamond necklace that had a heart with a mother and child in it. It was originally close to 200 dollars and quite a few jewelry places were selling it for 70 dollars. Since we were customers at zales a few times we get special coupons in the mail. This particular coupon allowed us to get the necklace for 20 dollars. What a deal!!! I absolutely love it!
I took care of dinner preparations. We had a salad bar. Samuel did all the laundry and cleaned the kitchen. I have a woncerful husband and 2 wonderful boys. Adam made me a card in primary and kip made me a card at preschool featuring a vase of flowers. I had an excellent mother's day!
love Caren

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mothers day to all the women in our family!

Well, it's my week, so I will start with a Mother's day post. This morning I got all the little gifts and cards that the teachers have been prompting my children to fill out all month. Yea, teachers! Jacob gave me a little book that said things like... "My mother's favorite food is...." and then he filled in the blanks. Apparently Jacob feels that my favorite food is Mac and Cheese and that what I do best is Laundry! Heather gave me a 3-D card of butterflies and flowers and Erica's was a sand paperweight and Lillian gave me a card with construction and glitter flowers on it. Benjamin is past the age of teacher prompted cards so he gave me nothing!

For breakfast I was served a delicious meal of slightly overcooked eggs with slightly undercooked bacon, of which I ate every bite! (Except for those few sections of bacon that I threw to the dog.) After breakfast I got to go downstairs and supervise dishes and the complete preparation of my dinner feast. Jeff has never used the crock pot before and was a little nervous about it, but he did great. Then he asked me to supervise him making cookies for all the mothers he home teaches. They are now all done and it's time for baths for little girls so we can get ready for church.

The men in our ward decided to take over everything for the women in the ward. They are doing primary, young womens, even the lesson in Relief Society. They assigned men to take over the library and virtually every other calling in the ward, except mine. I am the single woman in the ward who does not get the day off. I still have to play the organ. Sigh. I suppose there isn't a man in the ward who can take it over for me!

I love hearing the children sing on Mother's Day. It always make me teary eyed. So... How was everyone else's Mother's Day?

Does he or doesn't he?

So, family, what do you think?

Does Heber have the chicken pox or not?

Abby's baby shower

Today was Abby Olsen's (CJ's wife) baby shower, for her little baby boy Alexander Robert Olsen. He was born 7 weeks early, but it was more like he was 10 weeks early, because her body stopped providing him with much nutrition three weeks earlier. He is four pounds now, still in the hospital, but breathing on his own, and gaining weight. They are hopeful he'll be able to come home around his due date--mid-June.

Abby is doing okay. She got a bad infection (taken care of now), and has a large hematoma that needs to break open (don't ask me, I'm just repeating what Aunt Wendy told me), but every day she gets a little better. She only gets to go to the hospital once a day, which has been really really hard for her, but hopefully once she gets to bring that baby home everything will be great.

The shower was fun--it was good to see Aunt Wendy, Kimberly, and Gabrielle. Gabrielle is having a boy in about 9 weeks; she looks great. An amusing tidbit about the shower--three games were played: Memory (when you match a candy bar with a word, and then you get that candy--smarties with doctors, milky way with nursing, lifesavers with epidural, etc.), a memory game where they uncover a table with 20 baby items, you look for 20 seconds, and then you have two minutes to write them all down, and a jar-full-of-candy guessing game. I won two candy bars (smarties and rocky road (labor and delivery)), and then I won the memory game. So then when they were deciding who won the candy guessing game, Gabrielle leaned over to me and said, "Do you think you'll win this one, too?"

Which I did.

(Don't worry, I asked them to give it to the next closest. It was Gabrielle, but we didn't know that at the time.)

So, yes, I apparently am a baby shower game expert. It's very important, don't you know?

(Over to you, Jen!)

Long, wonderful day

• Bradley is back. YAY!
• Spent all day today in Salt Lake City. Today my dear friend and college roommate Mandy Eynon became Mandy Beck.
• Left the kids with Aunt Kim in South Jordan, borrowing a pair of dress black shoes for Bradley to wear with his suit.
  
• Attended wedding in Salt Lake Temple.
• Returned to S. Jordan to feed the baby.
• Attended luncheon in West Valley City.
• Returned to S. Jordan to feed the baby.
• Helped kids into their nice clothes.
• Drove to Trax (the light rail transit system) station and parked car.
• Rode train 5 blocks to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building next to Temple Square.
• Attended reception.
• Watched Gideon charm many people with his walker-using prowess.
• Rode train 5 blocks to retrive car.
• Drove back to S. Jordan to return shoes.
• Drove home.
• Exhausted.
• Goodnight.
  

Fashion angst

(Oh, Caren, never fear! I actually really appreciated your post about the swine flu--information is what I want, and your post had lots of it! There is also a pretty good article at CNN that answers some of my questions: Swine flu part II: What's in store in the months to come.)

Now let us turn our eyes to another problem: Fashion. I stumbled upon a website that sells vintage clothing, and spent a good 30 minutes drooling over some of the clothes. Dresses that actually have sleeves! Dresses without plunging necklines (although, to be fair, there are plenty WITH plunging necklines, and some without sleeves). Dresses that I would love to wear! (If, you know, I had $200+ to spend on a dress that has to be babied because it's over 100 years old.)

Let's take a look, shall we? (All dresses too expensive for me to contemplate, so let's ignore prices, mmkay?)








Apparently, as far as fashion goes, I was meant to live in the 30s, 40s, or early 50s. Sad, isn't it? Now let's compare them to what is being offered today:



Excuse me. I'm going to go cry in my closet now.

Funny!

This is hillarious. As I know we are mostly Trekkies in the family, I thought everyone would get a kick out of this!

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/trekkies_bash_new_star_trek_film

Enjoy!

Scary i didn't hear about that

i hadn't heard about the kidnapping. Yikes!
that poor family

i'm personally glad that schools have forms with emergency contact info, saying just who can pick up your child besides yourself. {Jen and i are on each others kids contact info. Not that that is a surprise to any of you.}
Also be aware that those requirements are great! Sometimes the miscommunications from those who work at the school are frustrating and scary at times.

For example: A few weeks ago i got a frantic phone call from Holly at the walker butte little campus. { there are 2 campuses with 2 separate offices. The smaller campus holds preschool kids through 2nd grade and the bigger holds the older kids.}

Anyway i answered my phone and Holly asked me "Is anyone going to pick up heather?". I then confirmed that she couldn't reach jen roy and told her i would be there in 5 minutes. I grabbed the boys and their shoes and jumped in the car. I forgot my cell phone. I got there and we walked in the office and there was no Heather. Holly looked at me like she was puzzled as to why i was there. I said "hi, you just called me and said my niece Heather was here needing to be picked up". She just looked at me and said "i thought that that was you she left with. I went to get something in the back and when i came back out Heather was halfway across the lot with a woman i thoought was you. That was 2 or 3 minutes ago." I told her heather usually rides home with her brothers and that i was going to leave now and go make sure she made it home. {i didn't have my cell phone, so i couldn't just call jen.}

I drove quick to jen's. Benjamin let me in {heather was not in sight} and jen came down stairs. I said, "please tell me heather made it home!" She said" yes". And i breathed a sigh of relief.


Wow! those are some very specific requirements that arlington has. I wonder if they go so far as to check birth certificates. There are quite a few who don't look their age. {looking older or younger whatever}. I for one will turn 30 in november of this year. If i lived in arlington i'd probably have to wear my I.D. as a necklace 24/7.

As for 17 year olds being able to get the "abortion pill" without parental consent. I'm glad they are allowed to. I'd even be in favor of letting people younger than 17 get it without parental consent. As long as it is physically safe to take . {doesn't cause death heart attack or stroke etc...}

love,
caren

re: flu frustrations

I'm sorry keryn. I think iImight have added to your stress when i posted "Comforting Thoughts I Hope" on the 27th.{ It was on my research on the flu.}
Again i'm sorry if my post about the flu caused more stress. That was not my intent.
love
caren

gentle reminder about the cookbook i swant to compile

i just wanted to remind everyone that i wish to put together all of our favorite recipes and have a little cook book for each of us. So please feel free to submit as many as you want. I do want to have this together and ready to give out by Christmas. {i'll be taking recipe submissions up until halloween.

Sorry about the fire Telima. :(

I echo Jen's comment to please let us know what recipes you need. They can go in the cookbook as well.

re: qotw

Personally i would love to see all of the places! They all sound fabulous! Having to choose I wouldgo for the balboa park.
love
caren

John Aird

Just to let everyone know.
John Aird is in the hospital. Two weeks ago he started throwing up some blood and Marchelle forced him to go to the hospital. By the time they got there he was throwing up 'buckets of blood'. They immediately admitted him and starting doing tests. They thought they would find a bleeding ulcer but instead they found that his entire esophagus was covered with tumors. Luckily they were all benign but because of the bleeding they knew that they had to do surgury. The surgury lasted 8 hours and went as well as possible. The doctors told the Airds that they would have to take part of his intestine to rebuild his esophagus but it turned out that they were able to salvage enough of his esopagus that they didn't need to take his intestine. However, his stomach is now up close to his throat. It is making it hard for John to breath. He is however getting much better. He is still in the ICU so no one can see him except family. He can't yet eat anything but he can talk and the doctors were worried about that. The Doctor knew that he did some damage to his vocal cords but not how much and it has turned out to be minor. Marchelle said she didn't care if he had to whisper the rest of life if that was the worst of it. I totally understand that. I will keep you posted.

Comments

Okay- so I had another post written but I deleted it and am writing this instead. My life is run by rules like those in Virginia. Seriously- as teachers we have to document and PROVE everything. We come in contact with every kind of person there is- I haven't seen everything there is in the world- but I have seen A LOT and MORE than wish. By law, I have to report certain things but (most of the time) we can't just make a call because we feel something is wrong and rightly so, we shouldn't. We have to have some kind of parameters in which to accurately document something. Those rules are there for the same reason I can't hug my students- someone, somewhere (probably more than one someone in more than one place) left a child too long and harm was done. So yes, other people, good people, honest, hard working people suffer because of rules that are put into place to protect the one.

I guess in this case, I'm for the one.

Dude, it's a joke!

You're not supposed to actually DO it: Dad accused of using dog shock collar on his kids

I believe that could be termed a parenting FAIL.

In a related (well, very very vaguely related) topic, the city of Arlington, VA, has posted "minimum acceptable standards for the supervision of children"(and this part is no joke):

• 8 years and under : Should not be left alone for any period of time. This includes leaving children unattended in cars, playgrounds, and yards.
• 9 to 10 years : Should not be left alone for more than 1 ½ hours and only during daylight and early evening hours.
• 11 to 12 years : May be left alone for up to 3 hours, but not late at night or in circumstances requiring adult supervision.
• 13 to 15 years : May be left unsupervised, but not overnight.
• 16 to 17 years : May be left unsupervised for up to two consecutive overnight periods.

Of course, when you are 17 years old, you are allowed to get the "abortion" pill without a parent's consent. You just aren't allowed to be unsupervised for three nights.

Apparently I'm a really bad, neglectful parent. My four-year-old and five-year-old play by themselves ALL the time in the FRONT yard of my house--and the front yards of our neighbors' houses, too. We all keep our eyes open, of course, and I don't nap or give one of the little kids a bath while the others are outside alone, but STILL. What kind of child can't be left alone outside AT ALL until after they turn NINE?

(Sorry about the capital letters. I'm a little worked up by this.)

I have two concerns about this. First, how long is it before someone decides that instead of being guidelines, these "standards" should become rules, and someone calls CPSP on me? (Thank heavens I don't live in Arlington.) And second, what kind of life is a child going to have if they are never left alone until they are nine years old?

(Edited to add: Okay, it is a little funny that I wrote this post directly after talking about a kidnapping. But, honestly, stranger abduction (scary, scary, SCARY stuff) is not very common at all:

Their chances of being abducted and killed by a stranger are, according to the numbers he crunched, 1 in 1.5 million. That’s about 50 children a year—a statistic it makes my stomach sink to write—but far less than the 1,000 killed each year by relatives or acquaintances, a far more stomach-sinking stat.

Something to think about. And not get worked up over.)

RE: Kidnapping

I hadn't heard anything about that kidnapping, Jen. You're right--what a nightmare. I have a hard time reading things like that--sometimes a good imagination is not a good thing.

Day three of four: we're almost done! It's been extra hard because Heber isn't feeling well still; he wants to be held, walked, rocked, or otherwise catered to almost every hour of the day. That's not easy in the best of circumstances; with the other kids sickish and Daddy gone...ugh.

Enough complaining! I'll try to think of something more cheerful (or at least interesting) to post later in the day. Love you all!

Kidnapping

Has everyone heard about this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090505/ap_on_re_us/us_abducted_boy

I've been watching it for a few days now. My personal nightmare! Every parent's personal nightmare!

I don't really get the whole flu hysteria either. We always have deaths due to flu. In fact, world wide, the swine flu has claimed fewer lives then a run of the mill flu virus! So why is everyone freeking out?

Flu Frustrations

I am seriously perplexed by the swine flu--not the flu itself, but information about the flu. You all know information is my bread-and-butter; I thrive on it. (Okay, yes, I thrive on knowing things other people don't know, in particular. It helps me feel superior and all that. Sad but true.)

For example: Why are we worried about a fall outbreak? Why is it possible it will be worse, scary, or catastrophic? I know I don't have the medical/chemical/biological background to really understand all the details about viral shifts and what-have-you, but reporters are usually pretty good at broadly explaining important stuff to us laypeople. We are told that we have to be on the alert for a fall outbreak, but not why it might happen. Does it just get passed around to just a few people here and there until we're all indoors again with the cold weather, and then SWOOP! it gets us all? And does that mean that in the Southern Hemisphere they should get it really bad now, and then not as bad starting in September?

And speaking of the public being told things, why, exactly, is the public being told to prepare for a fall outbreak? What, exactly, are we supposed to do? I can see telling public health officials about it, and I certainly don't mind reporting about meetings and what goes on during them, but there is little to no information/advice for the public on this subject. Okay, then, we're supposed to be alert for a fall outbreak. That's nice. So we should eat, drink, and be merry this summer, because in the autumn we die? Or maybe we should just be making sure we get our bunkers finished.

I'm frustrated because I feel like I am lacking the tools to deal with this crisis, whether real or imaginary. Anybody got any better information?

My Turn

Unless someone else wants to take this week, I was sort of planning to do it. I'm absolutely loving the daily postings--it totally gets everyone talking. So, my week it is!

Any takers for next week?

Poor Telima! Yikes. Hopefully your neighbors don't hate you. And I can't wait until the murder!

One day done. Three more to go. It's a darn good thing my husband isn't in the military.

Oooh! Almost forgot. The steak bites were divine! I probably could have cooked them just a titch less, but they were so yummy. Too bad my husband doesn't love steak as much as I do.

Just a little to each

Jenafer, I would guess that the teacher didn't even realize what he had said until the boys laughed. I have been there myself.
Telima, I am sooooo sorry about your poor kitchen but most of all your recipe book. I know that I really used to depend on mine all the time.
Keryn, My vote goes to Balboa Park but I would spend most of my time in the museums than at the San Diego Zoo. I would like to see the Aminal Park but if I could only choose one it would be the museums.
Amy, I am so glad that you are starting to feel better finally. I was worried about how long it was taking for any of the meds to work.
LaDale, School is almost out Yah!! I know that you have a busy summer lined up but it will still be easier than this last year of school.
Samuel, Don't know what to say to you but HI

Love you all

Re: Fire

Sorry about the fire, Telima! Let us know which recipes you need so we can dig them out for you! I don't think I've done that myself. I have had the pan I was cooking in catch fire, but never anything else.

Did anyone volunteer for the week? If not, are we going to start over again, Keryn?

On another note...
I am throwing a Miche Bag party. One of the women in our ward just got into it and I'm going to throw a party for her. I love them, they are fascinating. If anyone one wants to check out what it is, the website is http://michebag.com/
They're a bit expensive so a party is about the only way I'll be able to afford one! If you want to do it, I can ask about a rep in your area.

Keryn,
I vote Embarcadero Marina Park, sounds like fun!

Just wait till you hear what happened here tonight...

So, I'm cooking dinner, right? And I did a stupid thing. I left my cookbook on one of the front stove tops. I put the pot of water I was going to boil on the back burner, right behind the cookbook. I flipped on the burner and walked away. Five minutes later, flames are shooting out around my cookbook because I turned on the WRONG burner! As Tyler said later, I just need to learn not to put my cookbooks (or anything else, for that matter) on the stove! Anyway, we got the fire out, with minimal damage to our kitchen. There's a few scorch marks on the linoleum and I seriously need to clean off the burner now, but all in all, nothing was seriously damaged. Except the cookbook. Which is toast. I did manage to save most of the recipes, though. I'm really actually sad about it, though, because it was my cookbook with my recipes in it, you know, on little index cards as opposed to a regular cookbook. Anyway, just thought you would all like to hear about my very first kitchen fire. It's a good thing I married a man who keeps a cool head in these kinds of situations! Here's some pictures. The first one is of the stove after I had already cleaned off around it, so you can't tell just how bad it really looked:








Hope everyone's having a good laugh! We are, now. =)

QOTW, San Diego style

Okay, so Bradley is in San Diego with Relia and James (co-workers), and the conference they are attending doesn't start until tomorrow. So they have all the rest of today to kill, and called me to look up stuff for them. Here's what I found:

Coronado (Island with beaches, naval marine base, etc)
Wildlife Animal Park (wicked awesome zoo-type thing)
Balboa Park (large Central Park-type place, with historical buildings, art and science museums, botanical gardens, and the San Diego Zoo)
Embarcadero Marina Park (shopping, restaurants, and entertainment)

What would you choose to do, for the afternoon/evening? Assume no children, and that everyone you are with is totally pumped to do whatever you want. And assume money isn't a worry.

(And you can't choose SeaWorld or LegoLand. Because they aren't on my list. So there.)
*************
I would choose the Wildlife Animal Park, I think. Up close and personal with rhinos, giraffes, and cheetahs? Awesome.

New Phone Number

So, it turns out that using our cell phone as our only number is costing Tyler's parents a very pretty penny every month. If we had known just how much before, we would have gotten a land line a long time ago. But now that it's come to our attention, I just wanted to let everyone know what our new number will be. If you live in Vegas, it's still fine to call our cell, as it's local to Vegas. But everyone else, please call this number: 801-798-8753. Actually, don't call it yet. It won't be our number until Friday, by 5:00 pm. So, until then, continue calling the cell. But after that, switch to the new number. Love you all so much!

Sunday

Just a quick thought to end Sunday on.

Today, after church, Benjamin sat in the van laughing as he described what had happened in Deacons. I don't know what they were talking about, but the teacher pointed to one of the athletic deacons and said, "Some of us are physical, and some of us are mental," and he pointed to Benjamin. This set off the entire Quorum into laughter. That's my boy, mental in the extreme!

Sunday

Here I am at home, when I should be at church. My two youngest have slight fevers today. Normally I wouldn't keep them at home at all, but I figure with all the swine flu scares going on, I should be good to all others at church and keep my barely sick babies at home.

Has the hype around the swine flu changed your actions at all? Obviously it has mine, even just a little. And I'm a bit more active in washing hands/getting my kids to wash hands. But other than that...it sort of seems like much ado about nothing. What do you all think?

LaDale, your last post is very cryptic. It's been long enough since I've read Septimus Heap that I have no earthly idea what you are referring to. Unless it is some secret message between you and Samuel concerning national security--in that case, forget I even mentioned it.

I'm going to be making these for dinner tonight. I'll report back tomorrow with the results.

I made baby wraps for my three oldest children yesterday. They were all carrying around dolls just like I carry around Heber. I'll try to get a picture--it's terribly adorable.

Bradley's leaving, on a jet plane, on Monday, but unlike John Denver's song, he does know when he'll be back again--Thursday night late. San Diego is the destination this time, the last of his work trips for the year (hopefully). I find myself quite apprehensive about his absence. Four days, four kids, no breaks...it'll be like a reality TV show, without the edits and the music and the money and the (dubious) fame. I thought about packing up and going to visit Mema, but we have therapy on Monday and Thursday, a surprise party for a friend on Tuesday, meetings on Thursday, and Mandy's wedding on Friday. So, not really a good week to be gone.

Goodness, this is a boring post. I'm practically falling asleep writing it. But I'm lazy, so I'll probably post it away. Hopefully I will have more scintillating posts for the rest of the week.

Septimus Heap

Samuel,

It's called Syren.

Love you,
LaDale

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Samuel!

Love Ya!

On another note, I tried to post a really long post yesterday and Blogger wouldn't let me. I'll try to recreate it again later today!

Happy Birthday, Samuel!!

I love you so much! I hope your birthday is fabulous! Have a happy, happy, happy birthday! I'll give you a call later to make sure Caren's treating you right...=) Love you!

Happy Birthday sweetheart!

happy birthday you old old man! I know you are 28 and i am 29 and a half. You are so old!!!! lol
i love you sweetie!
love caren

Adventures in Babysitting

I had a similar experience to Telima's last night. But I was the babysitter. Rad and Jenny asked us to watch their kids while they hit a temple session. Jenny dropped them off at 5:15 or so, I figured they would hit the 7:00 session if they were lucky, but didn't want to count on that. Cassie and Grayson were fine. Heather loved playing with them. They were totally terrified of Taffy, but that was solved by locking her in the garage. Heather and Cassie made matching friendship necklaces and Grayson watched Jacob play rockband. At 8:30 I sent all of my kids to bed and settled Grayson and Cassie on a couch watching Cartoon Network.

All of this was fine and actually easy, so we'll move on to the nightmare. Seven month old Kaitlyn. She smiled at me and wiggled with happiness the way they do when we were introduced. She even smiled as I held her and we walked Jenny to the door. Then the other shoe dropped. I was not her Mommy and that was unacceptable! She screamed until 9:00. Mostly off and on, but every time I thought I had calmed her down, she would look up at me and her face would crumple and she would start to scream again. She refused to eat and refused to relax enough to sleep. I'm sure that the fact that she didn't recognize anything around her didn't help. Also, Erica and Lillian were determined to 'help' me calm the baby down. On Lillian's part this meant she kept poking the baby, I think she was trying to tickle her. I managed to explain to Erica that the baby missed her mommy. So she went and immediately drew a picture of the baby's mommy so the baby could look at it and calm down. (It didn't work, but it was so cute that I tried hard to keep her from realizing it.)

Once, the baby was being held downstairs by Benjamin while I was taking care of something upstairs and Lillian followed me. She tugged on my shirt and said, "You not baby's mommy?"
I said "No, I'm not the baby's mommy." Then she nodded and said, "You MY MOMMY." And threw herself on me, forcing me to hold her until I took the baby again.

After everyone was settled for the night, I took Kaitlyn into the theater room and rocked her in the dark until she finally relaxed and fell asleep. From there she slept until Rad and Jenny came to pick them up, around 10:30. That was about when I had expected them. Jenny had to feed her poor abandoned baby before they could go home. She is NOT a bottle baby!

So that was my Thursday evening. Tonight we have the young women's fundraiser at the church. We've already gotten our ticket, so we just have to show up, and I don't have to cook tonight!

Love ya all!