Molly and the dentist

I was finally able to take Molly for her sedated dentist appointment this morning. I've had to reschedule two appointments because of colds. But this worked out because Russ didn't work today so could stay home with the other kids.

Molly was all happy when we got there. Did very well for the x-rays they took so they could have updated ones. Clapped when they were done. Grinned and was all happy up until the point where they gave her the numbing shot before giving her the sedative. She really did not like that at all. But the sedative worked quickly and I went out to the waiting room while they worked. They came out to get me sooner than I expected. She woke up pretty fast and kept trying to sit up so they couldn't do any more work on her. They said if I reschedule with certain dentists, I will get in sooner, but will likely have to come back two more times. If I reschedule with the owner/dentist, it will be longer before I can take her back, but will only have to take her once. Russ thinks we should opt for the sooner and two more times. I'm not sure because I don't know that I want to put her through this two more times, but I can see the advantages of going in sooner and being able to come home a little sooner than if we go for the one. Obviously, I haven't rescheduled yet. They had me move the car to the back door so I could carry Molly out of the recovery area and straight to the car, so I didn't go by the front desk.

Molly kept asking when we could go home when we were in the recovery area. She's still a bit loopy. They had her eat some of a popcicle and drink some water and waited about 10 minutes to make sure she could keep it down. Of course, she hurled on the way home. But she's happier at home. Just have to take it easy for a bit today.

Sometimes I think I should learn to say no....

A little over two weeks ago, the ward choir director called me up and asked me if I would be willing to sing a duet with another girl in the ward as part of our Christmas program. I sing with the choir, but really didn't expect her to call and ask me that. I guess the people she had previously asked to sing were no longer able to do it. I hemmed and hawed a little, but in the end said sure. Mostly because I can't bring myself to say no when people ask me things like that. Now if she had asked me to sing a solo, I probably would have hemmed and hawed even more and I hope I would have said no. I don't do solos. I laughed when she told me we would be singing Away In A Manger. That song had been running in my head for at least a week before she asked (and is still stuck in there).

A few days later, I came down with the cold I have previously mentioned. That worried me. I was to sing the soprano part of the duet. When I have a cold, I really can't sing all that high. And for the last verse, the music called for me to go up to a higher note. I joked that since Stacey would be down, I could always have her sing for me. The cold got better and I just have an occasional cough left and in my practicing at home found that I could hit that note. Not quite sure how good it sounded, but I could hit it nonetheless. Last week at this time the only way I could hit it is if I cleared my throat first, which doesn't really sound good in the middle of a song.

Well, today was the Christmas program. We have Sacrament meeting last in my ward, and during Sunday School I found myself getting nervous, even though we met early before church to practice some of the program. The choir sang background for the second verse of the song with loos and las. They wanted to practice that part because it wasn't quite as straightforward as it sounds. I pretty much did a solo for the practice while they did that and did fine, so I wasn't quite as nervous. Then it came time for me to sing during Sacrament meeting.

Let's just say that I'm glad my voice didn't shake as much as my hands. I should have left my music at my seat since I knew all of the words, but I wanted it in case I ended up needing it. Didn't use it, but I'm sure others could see the papers shake with my hands. Despite my nervousness, I think I did okay. A couple of people told me I sounded really nice. One said that it sounded "more beautiful with each note." So I guess it turned out fine that I didn't say no, but I still sometimes think I really should learn to say no.

More Santa pics

We finally remembered to go pick up our pictures from Bowman's, one of the local grocery stores. I thought the pictures turned out cute. Didn't know they got one of Lys with her finger in her nose. She wasn't happy about sitting on Santa's lap and immediately stuck her finger in her nose. I moved her hand and they took a picture after that, but I didn't know they got one before I moved her hand. Kind of funny. Unfortunately, I can't find one of the pictures they took of Emma. Russ keeps telling me to ask Jimmy about it. Guess he looked at all of the pictures at one point. Anyway, here are the pictures.

TV (Useless?) Info

I came across an article online today that stated that Monk and Psych will air on NBC on Sunday nights in March. Wonder if they will start from the beginning of each of those shows, or if they will air the latest season (which resumes on USA Network in January). I assume they won't be new episodes because of the strike (which is why they are going to air the shows). Of course, if NBC follows suit of how they usually do things, the shows won't get the instant ratings they want and so will pull them from the schedule without giving them a chance to build an audience. Yes, I'm actually complaining about another show that NBC is doing that to. Journeyman. Wednesday night will be the final episode of the show. I quite enjoy the show and will be sad to see it go. But such is life. Ah, well.

Congrats Lisa!

I just wanted to congratulate Lisa on her entry winning the montly contest on the Wallace and Grommit website. Her sculptures of Preston and the cooker were very well done, and it was a deserved win (in my opinion). Here's a link to her entry. http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/creations/view/311 Again, congrats, Lisa!

People are nice

Tonight as I was laying on my bed (I've had a bad cold the past couple of days...starting to feel better, but not nearly as bad as I used to be), the doorbell rang. I went and answered it to find some guy I didn't know standing there, holding a wrapped package. Okay, I looked up to find him standing there. He was pretty tall and I'm short. Anyway, he looked at me and said, "This is for Cindy," and handed me the package. I was taken off guard so said, "Oh, okay, thanks," and took the package from him.

The girls were thrilled. It was a present! They wanted to help open it! The present was nicely wrapped, complete with a card and a felt-ribbon bow. I decided to open the card first. Since surely the guy gave it to the wrong Cindy. The card was a simple card with a lamb on a hill overlooking Bethlehem and the star. The inscription inside read, "May the quiet peace and gentle love of the first Christmas be yours today and always." Not that the inscription really has anything to do with the story. Just thought I'd tell you what it said. Anyway, someone had written in the card, "Merry Christmas Cindy. We hope this fits. From Secret Friends."

I decided to go ahead and let the girls help open it. Emma and Lyssa each took one end of the ribbon to untie the bow and then Molly untied the knot. They eagerly watched as I unwrapped the paper to find a JC Penney clothing box. I opened that to find a very nice black skirt and a white turtleneck sweater. Lyssa started jumping around and asked if it were for her. Even started trying to take off her shirt so she could try it on. I took them downstairs to where Russ was sitting at the computer and showed him. I then took them and tried them on. They fit quite nicely, actually.

The point of this whole thing is to say that people are nice. Yes, I do wonder who did it, but I also know that part of the fun is in the not knowing. Even though I'm sure I'll spend some time trying to think of who it could possibly be (don't have a clue at this point). So if anyone who reads this is the person(s) who did it, thank you very much.

Ward Christmas party/Santa

Saturday night was our ward Christmas party. We had a good time. They had activities just for the kids and homemade soups for the dinner. I actually don't think they expected as many people to go to it as did. They ran out of the paper bowls and had to get some of the bowls from the kitchen. Ran out of rolls, too. They also had a big jar of bubble gum and had the kids guess how many were in there. The closest would win the jar, and the next closest would win a bag of gum. Jimmy guessed 300 but didn't put his name on his paper. There were 303 in the jar. One girl guessed right on. Another boy guessed 300 like Jimmy did, and so he got the sack. His family was nice though (well, nice for Jimmy..maybe not so nice for us) and came over to our house after the party and gave him some of the bubble gum.

We had taken the kids over to Bowman's earlier to see Santa (Santa comes on one Saturday and they give free pictures...we pick them up Wednesday), but they were still excited to see Santa there. Lyssa wasn't though. She wasn't thrilled about sitting on Santa's lap at Bowman's. She was actually better sitting on Santa's lap at the party. At Bowman's she wouldn't even look at Santa and pretty much frowned the whole time. Could be that she was better at the party because I told her that Santa had a small gift for her.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the party.

This first one was actually the best picture we could get. Only one where they were all at least sort of looking toward the camera.
Put this on as an example of another where only Jimmy was looking at the camera.
This one was supposed to be of the kids in line to sit on Santa's lap, but Lys came running up as I took the picture so it didn't quite turn out like I hoped. They never were quite in line like that again.

Dentist...sort of

I took Molly this morning for her dental appointment. Things started out well enough (even though I haven't received the dental insurance cards yet...I printed up proof from the internet and that worked for now). Then they took her back. Asking the usual questions, they asked if she has a cough or runny nose or any congestion at all. Well, she's had a cough for a little bit and sneezes occasionally. Lyssa has an obvious runny nose, but Molly doesn't. After the dentist looked at her, he suggested that we postpone her appointment, as it is a sedated one. Her lungs sound fine, but she does have a little bit of drainage (which is probably causing the cough). He explained that when they are sedated and have some congestion, it tends to get worse. And if the drainage hits the vocal cords, they react by closing off the airway, which isn't good. He basically said, "If it were my child, I'd postpone it because the teeth aren't so important to risk it."

I rescheduled for 2 weeks for the 19th. And I'm hoping she is better by then. But at least this way I should have the dental card when I go and won't have to make another trip to the dentist to give them that.

Yay!

While searching through the house for a spare pacifier for Lyssa, I found our missing camera! Yay! Of course, I have since discovered that our new camera takes a different sized memory card. Either that or I'm just dumb and can't get it to go in. I'm voting on the first since the manual said something about a photo card. Of course, I had looked where it was when I first discovered it was missing, just not deep enough. I found it between cushions of our couch. Just kind of shoved down into the hide-a-bed a bit so it wasn't easily seen. And when I looked at the pictures that were on it, I assume it was Jimmy who had it last (as usual).

I also broke down and put up some Christmas lights today. Didn't feel like getting up on the ladder and putting them along the roof line like usual, so I just put the ones that we have for the bushes and a shorter strand along the porch. It seems that when I find one thing, I lose something else though. I now can't find my thingamajig that you screw in where the porch lightbulb goes that has the places to plug in power cords so I can plug in the lights and control them with the switch. I know I have two of the things since I couldn't find the one last year and bought a new one and found the old one as soon as I got home with the new one. So while I have the lights put up, they aren't plugged in or anything. Ah, well. Maybe Russ will know where they are. And maybe I can get him to help put up the Christmas tree today. I'm thinking both are unlikely, but worth a shot, right?

Thanks again to Mom and Myrna for taking our kids overnight when Russ had his work party. It was much appreciated.

Emma's party and cake

We finally got the film developed from Emma's party. The quality isn't that good, but it's better than nothing...isn't it? I'm posting just a few pictures. I have two of her cake...one before I put the dog figures on it and one after. Unfortunately, they are really hard to see in the picture. Really wish I could have found our camera (still haven't)...but at least this way I have some type of picture. Too bad you can't really see the bones I did for the border. I was kind of proud of those.




This last one is just for fun. This is the picture Russ took that was mentioned in the earlier post about the joys leading up to and after Emma's party. (Photo has been cropped from the original.)

Emma update

Emma's teacher hasn't ever sent home any stickers like she said she would do (she told Jimmy she's keeping a chart of the stickers at school), but Emma is starting to do better at doing her work. Today when I picked her up, she cheerfully said, "Check my backpack!" I looked through her backpack and all of the work that was in there was completed. Usually she has 2 or 3 pages that she hasn't done at all. She was excited because she actually did all of her work today. On Monday everything she brought home was finished, so this is the second time she's done all of her work.

Here's a picture of her putting a marble in her jar. The next picture is just because I thought it was a funny one of Lys. Still haven't gotten the film developed from Emma's party. That will come. Eventually.

Party joys?

Emma's party just ended. The last party-goer is still here (I think-next door neighbor and they're just playing so it's okay), but I would imagine will be leaving shortly. Can I just say that I'm glad it's over? The party went fine, but leading up to the party, well, that's another story.

The mishaps (not quite the right word, but I'm sticking with it) began last night. After getting the kids to bed, I took the opportunity to decorate the cake while Russ went down and painted the figures to go on it. It started out well enough. But in the middle of making my frosting, my Kitchenaid mixer died on me. Just would not turn at all. So I had to finish making the frosting with my hand mixer, which really didn't go that well. The frosting was a little thin but adding more powdered sugar didn't seem to help much. But it was thick enough to use. Just tried sliding down the sides a little bit. Although I will say I think the cake turned out well despite this.

It was after I finished decorating the cake and thought that I would take a picture of it before the figures were put on that I realized that the camera was nowhere to be found. I did a quick search in the likely places and couldn't find it but thought it wasn't a problem, I could find it in the morning. Then morning came.

No luck in finding the camera. Searched everywhere I could think of. Even searched through the car. No luck. Unfortunately, I remember doing something with it. I found it by the computer the other day after Jimmy used it (keep telling him he's not allowed and putting it up, but he still doesn't listen). I deleted the video and pictures he took (why on earth would I want a picture of a stuffed animal SpongeBob?) and seem to remember taking it with me when I left the room. Everything after that point is a complete and total blank. So I ran to the store and bought a disposable one. Which is why there are no pictures at the moment. Need to take it somewhere and get it developed. Made record time running to the store, however.

The time for the party to start was fast approaching. I decided I would start to make some balloon animals to put out on the railing and mailbox like I usually do. Bought a new pump for the balloons when I bought the stuff for her party. Mostly because I didn't feel like searching for the pump when I knew the kids had played with it. Unfortunately, the pump wasn't worth half of what I paid for it. Thing wouldn't blow up a single balloon. And then the top broke off. Luckily, I had a general idea where the old pump was and after some searching, found it. By then some of the kids had arrived, so I wasn't able to do the decorating thing like I planned.

From that point, the party went generally fine. One boy was afraid of Xena so didn't want to play the games. We put her outside and he was a little happier, but still just wanted to watch. He did eventually join in with the pinata though. He also said he didn't want any cake because he didn't like pink (I frosted the cake white but had pink bones lining the bottom and little pink pawprints across top and a few bigger ones on the sides). He did eat some though. Even had the pink ice cream.

At this point, I can hear Jimmy still yelling at Russ. Russ came running in here a minute ago with Jimmy chasing him, crying. Russ told me that Jimmy was painting one of his sister's fingernails so he took a picture of it. Jimmy is not happy about it at all. As you could tell if you were here and listening to the way Jimmy is still going on about it. And on...and on...and on....

Can I go back to bed now?

Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma turned 6 years old today! I think she's had a pretty good day. As I type this, she is at the store with Russ picking out her birthday present and ice cream for her party tomorrow. Once they get back, we are going to go out for her birthday dinner. She picked McDonald's as what she wanted to have for dinner for her birthday. I think mostly for the fact that they get to play on their playland equipment.

Jimmy drew up a book for her for his present from him (and gave her a dollar bill). She happily unwrapped it this morning then immediately started to talk about her party tomorrow. She is excited about her party tomorrow. I hope that she gets a good turnout for her party. I felt bad for a boy in her class for his party. He invited the whole class and only 4 or 5 kids showed up. Actually made me glad I let Emma go to the party instead of the practice for their primary program that was going on at the same time. I will post about her party sometime after, hopefully with pictures. Just wanted to make sure I got a post about her birthday on her birthday. Still need to finish her cake. Luckily, I've already made the pieces for it.

JibJab thing

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!After seeing Mike's jibjab things that he did on his website, I thought I'd do one. I think Russ with his hair fit this one nicely. And the fact that he used to have a pair of pants just like the one in this movie thing. I'm pretty sure he finally took them to the DI, anyway.

Computer virus?

We've all heard of computer viruses. Most of us have received several emails alerting us about one kind of virus or another-some true, some not. But sometimes it really does seem like there is a different kind of computer virus. Perhaps it would be good to call it the "Sharing Online Virus," because that's what seems to happen. You chat with someone either through a chatroom or an instant message. That person, or someone with them, happens to be sick. Before you know it, you, or someone with you, gets sick with the same symptoms.

Take this morning, for example. I was doing my usual morning chatting with family (today it was Mom, De, and Stacey). A little while into the chat, Stacey pretty much said, "Oh, yeah, I didn't tell you that Chris (or was it Daniel?) was sick and throwing up again last night. I said something along the lines of, "And yet you're online?!" She did say he seemed better this morning. The rest of the chat went along as it usually does. But then it happened soon after I picked up Emma from school and had just given the girls their lunch.

The phone rang. Looking at caller-id, it was the elementary school. I knew what they were going to say before I even answered it. And I was right. It was one of the ladies in the office calling to say that they had Jimmy back in the nurse's room saying he felt like he was going to hurl. My first thought went to Stacey and her statement about her sick child. I thought, "That was fast." I also couldn't help but thinking of earlier online conversations about this online virus. Most notably when I was pregnant with Alyssa and Di got on and said that she wasn't going to get on when I was on anymore because she seemed to catch everything I had.

So online chatters beware...

Movie Date Night

Last night Russ and I got a babytender for the kids (Elise from next door) and then walked over to the Kaysville theater (dollar theater that is kind of nice to have close) and saw the movie "Stardust." Since our babytender had plans earlier, and since she didn't mind, we went to the late showing of it. We got the kids ready for bed and told her she could let them stay up until 9 since they were all excited that she was going to come over and watch them for us. Lys had actually fallen asleep on my bed before she got there, but woke up when Russ tried to move her. So she was wide awake. In a way I was glad she woke up. I pictured her waking up while we were gone and not being happy about it.

Anyway, I liked the movie. It was predictable, but I thought it was cute. There were a few things I thought while watching the movie. 1. Michelle Pfeiffer is gorgeous. 2. At one point after Russ had leaned over to me to tell me he liked one of the prince's hair (yes, it was longer), and after the main character's hair gets longer (if you've seen the trailers, it does show this) I thought that his hair looked somewhat similar to Russ'. Only his didn't flip out like Russ'. Not sure Russ found that thought as funny as I did. 3. I don't think I would mind owning this movie when it comes out on dvd. And 4. The title always gets Nat King Cole's song of the same title stuck in my head. But then, it doesn't take much to get songs stuck in my head.

It was nice to get home and find all of the kids asleep. Elise told us they went to bed pretty easily. Except Molly gave her a little bit of trouble, which didn't surprise me. Molly is the one that always has a harder time going to sleep. This morning they all said they had fun with her. Well, Jimmy said he didn't. He wanted to stay up later.

That's pretty much the extent of our movie date night. I would recommend the movie if you haven't seen it. If you have, well, then I don't need to recommend you see it, now do I?

A little more about Emma

Before Emma went to school this morning, she told me that she was going to do her work to get a sticker. I told her good, but that her teacher may not start the sticker thing yet. When I picked her up, she told me that her teacher didn't start the stickers. I asked her if she did all of her work anyway. She said she did. I got home and looked at the stuff she had in her backpack. She had 4 things in there. Two of which, she hadn't done at all. I had her do them at home and it took her probably less than a minute to do both. She knew what she was supposed to do with them, and knew the right answers on them, just hadn't done them. Silly kid.

Parent-Teacher Conferences..aka SEP

I had Jimmy and Emma's Parent-Teacher Conferences today. I usually schedule them for after Russ gets home from work, but with his new work schedule, I made them sooner so I was going before 6:00 at night. Which meant I got to take all 4 kids along with me. Which was fun in and of itself.

Anyway, Emma's went fine. She said she's a "good little girl that gets along well with others. Knows most of her letters, sounds and numbers." She then added, "There's just one little thing we have a problem with." Asked Emma if she could tell me and Emma just grinned. Apparently Emma doesn't do her work. She will sit and look around at everyone instead of working. She will have to be reminded several times to start working (and she will usually grin when she's told to start working but still just sit there). Some things she starts immediately with and gets done really fast. She just seems to get distracted easily, and there is a lot to look at in the room. So her teacher is going to start giving her stickers every day (sound familiar, Stacey?) according to how well she does her work. Green for doing it really well, yellow for so-so, and red for not well. For our part to try to help encourage her, we are going to do the marble reward jar (again, sound familiar, Stacey?) and she will get to add a marble for every green sticker she brings home. In the short time we were talking with her teacher, Emma got distracted several times, so hopefully this will help keep her on task.

Jimmy's went fine, too. His teacher wrote "Jimmy is a great student! He strives for quality work." He is reading on a 4th grade level. He does have three areas of difficulty, but those are part of his current reading level. He is nearly at a 4th grade level for math, but has no areas of difficulty with math. I find it kind of funny that his reading level is higher than his math when he got a better grade in math than language arts. Anyway, I asked his teacher about her opinion with the Full-Time Spectrum. She asked me how interested he is. I said he really doesn't want to leave his friends. She said to have him take the test regardless of if he will go in it or not. Said we would really have until almost the end of the summer to decide for sure and even if we put him in it and he hated it, there would be no reason we would have to keep him there. His goals for this next term involve memorizing part of the times tables and keep practicing cursive lettering. And to do his homework.

That pretty much sums up the conferences. It actually wasn't that bad taking all 4 today. Except that Emma's teacher gave them each a snack and the whole time with Jimmy's teacher Lyssa was trying to get me to open hers. Ah, well.

F.H.E and Donuts

Last night as part of Family Home Evening, we went to Krispy Kreme to let Jimmy and Emma get their free donuts for their report cards. Not an original idea to go there on a Monday night, apparently. It was crowded.

The kids really liked watching the donuts being made and laughed at the ones that didn't quite turn out right. When you go in there like that, they often give you a free donut just for going in. And that seemed to be what a lot of the people there had gone for...the free donut. They also got a paper hat while they were there.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the kids once we got home.

Jimmy and school

We got a letter today from the school district about Jimmy. Said that he received high scores on the State of Utah End of Level Tests in math "and/or" reading. And because of this, they are inviting him to apply for the Davis District Full-Time Spectrum for the next school year (it is an accelerated academic program). The letter states that those who apply will be assessed in February (basically they take a test at one point during the month) and will be accepted depending on the results and the available openings.

I think it's neat that he has done so well. Guess Russ and I need to decide if we want to apply for the program for him. He would have to go to a different school for the program, which doesn't make him very happy. He'd rather stay where he is and with the friends he has. I would have to drive him to and from school every day and that would make for an interesting year with Emma still going to Columbia. Wonder what she would think of having her brother go to a different school. Of course, there is the chance that he wouldn't be accepted.

They are having a Parent Information Night in a few weeks about it. Might be a good thing to go to.

Grades

Jimmy and Emma brought home their report cards for the first term of school. Both are doing well. Jimmy has almost all 4's (Graded on a 0-4 Standards Rating system, 4 being the best). He got one 2.75 in Vocabulary and a 3 in Phonics, two 3.5's (Writing and Data Analysis), but the rest are 4's. Last year his 2.75 was in handwriting for the first term. This time he got a 4, so that's a big improvement. His overall grade for language arts is 3.75.

Emma has mostly 4's for the alphabet and some sight words. She does have a couple of 1's with parts of the alphabet (like the sound for q...she has gotten it before so I'm not concerned, but should review the letters with her a little more. Plus looking at some that she got a 1 on, she told me just this morning the sound it makes). Not surprising, she got a 2 for speaking under communication (the 2 stands for beginning) and for participation. I would have been surprised had she gotten any higher on those. She has a few 3's scattered in there, but mostly has 4's as well. Guess I should mention that for the standards part of her report card, she got three 2's (two of which I mentoined, the other is assignments...she tends to bring home a lot of unfinished work). Other than that, she has mostly 4's, with the bulk of her 3's coming under the language section, which (again) doesn't surprise me at all. She is a very quiet child, after all. But good to know she does at least a little. With both Emma and Jimmy, I'm sure I will find out more on how they are doing at the SEP Conferences next week.

Jimmy has already started to ask if we can go to Krispy Kreme though. They give one free donut for each 4 (or A on actual letter grades), up to 6 if the kids bring in their report cards. And they let them pick out which kind of donut they get. Jimmy says he wants all jelly filled donuts. Emma will probably want at least one chocolate sprinkled donut. May break down and take them over there one of these days. Just don't feel like doing it when Russ isn't home to go over with me....although they do have fun watching the donuts being made.

TV Shows (a rambling rant)

After enjoying the three shows I watched last night (Chuck, Heroes, and Journeyman), I thought about the reports of certain shows being considered for cancellation. Journeyman is one of those. When it premiered, Scott Pierce of the Deseret Morning News wrote that Journeyman was confusing. I have never found it to be confusing. It has elements that remind me of Quantum Leap, which, in my opinion, is a good thing.

I started to think of other shows that I have enjoyed watching that didn't last long. Two of those are Jack & Bobby and Studio 60. I still kind of miss the shows, but at least they both ended in a way that gave closure to the shows. (Although I do find it funny that Russ noticed that Rob Lowe's character on Brothers & Sisters is the same as Bobby's in Jack & Bobby-Robert McCallister-where I didn't. And he didn't really watch the show with me. From what I understand, the names being the same is intentional.)

Of course, with the current writer's strike, my worry about the shows I like is probably a wasted worry. If it continues, we won't have new episodes of almost any show (excluding the "reality" shows). Wonder if that will mean there's hope for the shows I like that are close to being cancelled. Somehow, I doubt it.

Feel free to comment about shows you like or have liked. (If you've tried to comment before but weren't able to because of the member issue, I got rid of the not being able to post unless you're a member on my blog.)

Molly

Decided it's Molly's turn for a post about her. Molly loves to sing. Makes up songs all the time. One time I took her to the bathroom during church and she sang, "I love you, Mommy..." I thought it was funny. One time she even made up a song about a dinosaur. She likes to sing "Love is Spoken" a lot and will ask me to sing it with her. (Of course, I much prefer that to her deciding to play on the organ and say, "Sing the song I'm playing!")She is good at drawing for her age. One time she drew a horse hoof on the porch with sidewalk chalk and I told her it was better than I could have drawn (for some reason the hoof is hard for me....). Now if I could only get her to remember to only draw on paper and not the walls or herself..

Yesterday she was excited to let Xena back in the house and went running to let her in. She fell when she got to the stairwell and hit her chin hard on the tile floor there. At first I was afraid she had split her chin open for the third time. She didn't, but it still looked very sore. Her whole chin was swollen and where it wasn't bright purple and bruised, it was red. This is a picture showing the bruise this morning. I took one yesterday when it was still red but Jimmy somehow managed to delete it from the camera. (Really need to get him to leave the camera alone.) Today it doesn't look quite as sore as it did yesterday, but you still get an idea of how bad it looked (even though it looks worse in person).

Russ and Jimmy story

Last night Russ and Jimmy walked a friend of Jimmy's home after he came with us to a star gazing party Columbia Elementary had for the students for filling up a marble jar for doing kind things. After they got back, Russ told me this story. I decided to share it because I thought it was funny.

As they were walking, Russ was telling Jimmy that someday he'll like girls. Jimmy said, "Who'd want to date me?" Russ told him that he's good-looking like he is and that he'll have to learn to use his looks for good and not for bad and that if he uses his looks for bad, "The Big Guy" will make him ugly. Jimmy asked, "Who's the Big Guy?" Russ replied, "The Man Upstairs." Jimmy said, "Who's the Man Upstairs?" Russ said, "Heavenly Father." He told me that Jimmy thought about this for a moment then said, "Is that what happened to you?"

November Birthdays

Yes, I know this picture is from Molly's party, but I figured that's okay. Anyway, happy birthday this month to Mike, Susan, and Emma! Mike's is today, Susan's is Monday, and Emma's is the day after Thanksgiving. Guess I could throw in a happy birthday to Xena, too, since she'll be 10 on Sunday. But do we really include a dog with wishing happy birthday to people (even though she passes up life expectancy for a Great Dane by turning 10)? Well, she is my dog, and this is my blog, so I can do whatever I want. So happy birthday to Xena, too!

Trick or Treat

The kids were very excited to go trick-or-treating last night. I made them eat dinner before putting on their costumes. When they finished, they each eagerly put on their costumes. Once Lyssa had hers on, she ran around the house, holding her sack and yelling, "Trick-or-treat! Trick-or-treat!" Since Russ was still in a costume from work (apparently he was one of the only ones who dressed up for work), I had him take the kids around. They were so anxious to go that they groaned when I told them I wanted to take their pictures first. Well, Jimmy groaned, anyway. After I took their pictures, they went outside and waited impatiently for Russ. Russ told me that Molly got scared of a few decorations along the way and he had to take her to the door a couple of times. One decoration had Lyssa entranced so she didn't even look at the candy the people had.

When they got back, Jimmy nicely put his sack on the couch. Emma and Molly immediately dumped their candy on the floor and started to pick through it. As did Lyssa and Jimmy. I think Lyssa forgot about her sack and just saw their candy. A few minutes later, a neighbor stopped by with little sacks of candy for the kids and told them she knew her house was too far for them to go, so she brought the candy to them. Her husband brings a bag of candy to church every week. Kind of funny to see all of the kids run up to him as soon as church is over and get some candy.

I had fun staying home and handing out candy. Xena seemed to have fun helping me. Someone would knock or ring the doorbell and she would jump up, bark twice, then look at me and wag her tail like, "Aren't you going to open it?" She tried to sniff everyone who came to the door. I was actually surprised that she didn't seem to scare anyone with her size. As soon as the door was shut, she'd run to the kitchen all excited, expecting me to give her a treat for being good.

Here are pictures of the kids in their costumes. And of Russ walking with them as they started out.

Pumpkin carving

As part of Family Home Evening on Monday, we helped the kids carve their pumpkins for Halloween. Okay, for the most part, we carved them for them. They just told us how they wanted us to carve them. Jimmy did carve some of his by himself. Ended up breaking the pumpkin carving knife Russ bought, but it was bending when I used it, so I wasn't surprised. They were excited as they watched us dig out the pumpkin seeds and innards. Kept saying "Ewwww!" as we'd dump them on the cookie sheet I put out so they wouldn't get all over everything.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the kids with their pumpkins. Jimmy actually has a second pumpkin he got from Scouts yesterday and has since carved, I just haven't had a chance to take a picture of him with it yet.

Jimmy

It's Jimmy's turn now for a post about him. (Yes, he's been asking when I will make a post about him.)

Jimmy tells us that he wants to be an author when he grows up. He's made little books about a fish named Henry. He will sometimes even draw pictures of Henry and his friend Bob for his sisters to color. He once made some "posters" and put them up around the house announcing that a new Henry book would be coming out soon. You know, I don't think he ever wrote those ones. Some nights at bedtime, he will make up stories and tell them to his sisters to help get them to bed.

He is cute the way he takes his sisters out on the tramp and plays games with them. He will take Emma out and they will play for hours. Wonder what they are going to do when it gets too cold. Maybe he'll actually do his reading homework.

Leaves are Falling

The kids decided today to do their annual "Mom has just raked leaves, let's go jump in them" fun. Of course, I had to get out the camera for it. Ruth from next door decided to join with them. She did last year, too. Here are a few pictures of their fun. Jimmy didn't play long with them, which is why he's not in many. Hope you enjoy them.







Lyssa loved throwing leaves on everyone and here she's about to throw some on me.

Thank You Dinner Party

Last night our next door neighbor, Noreen, hosted a dinner party for us and four other couples in our ward. She did this because she wanted to thank us (well, mostly Russ) for helping her out late one night a few months ago. You know that book line, "It was a dark and stormy night?" Well, it was dark. Wasn't stormy, but was quite windy. About midnight she heard some banging and went out into her garage to see if she could figure out what was making the noise and the door to her house in her garage slammed shut behind her, locking her out. Of course, she had happened to decide this one night that since it was such a warm night, she would just sleep in her garments and not any pajamas. So she sat there for about an hour, trying to decide what would be best to do. Thought of a friend who has a key to her house, but it would be a bit of a walk and she pictured a policeman driving by and seeing her like that. She thought about waiting until it got light and then coming to our house for help and decided that wasn't a good idea. So she finally just came over to our house and rang the doorbell.

I don't think I've ever seen Russ jump out of bed so quickly. He went to the door and flipped on the outside light and opened it. She had kind of been hiding off to the side and he said, "Oh, I didn't see you at first." She said, "I didn't really want you to see me." She quickly explained what happened and Russ said he'd be over to help. I grabbed a robe of mine and handed it to Russ to give to her. In the meantime, she went into her backyard and hid behind a rose bush (which she later said made her feel like Eve hiding in the bushes). Russ handed her the robe, which she was grateful for. She had left her bedroom window open, so Russ climbed up and in through her window and opened the door for her.

She kept telling us that she would like to have us over for dinner to thank us and Russ would always say, "You don't need to do that." She insisted and kept telling us to think of a few other couples to invite. Russ would practically name half the ward. I ended up telling her the ones he would repeat and she set a day to have it. Russ got stuck in traffic and was a half hour late. One of the other couples came late because the husband also got stuck in traffic. They showed up just after Russ.

The dinner was very good and we all had a fun time chatting and eating. She started us out with a salmon chowder (now I'm not one who usually likes seafood, but this tasted pretty good), followed by a green salad. The main course was a stuffed and breaded chicken. We had creme brule (or however you spell that) for dessert. Everyone knew the story of the reason she had the dinner, so one couple brought her a gift of a garbage sack they glued jewels to for her to use the next time she locks herself out without clothes on.

Being just a couple's dinner, we asked a neighbor girl if she could tend the kids. After we got home, Jimmy said, "I don't ever want to go to Grandma's again! I want you to have her tend us every time!" They all had a lot of fun with her. She also had a lot of fun tending them. All in all, it was a fun evening.

Quick vent...with an edit

A little while ago, I ordered some black Spider-man boot covers to go along with Jimmy's costume (found a place that sold the gloves and boot covers seperately). Was maybe a week later that I received an email stating that it had been shipped via UPS and it included the tracking number. I looked it up with the tracking number and it showed that it was scheduled to be delivered on the 25th. Checked back a little while later and everything was still on schedule. The 25th came and went. No package. Got online and looked and it showed it as having been delivered. So now I'm wondering where they actually delivered it since I surely didn't get it. Emailed both UPS and the company I ordered from. Just hoping this doesn't turn out like the last package I supposedly had delivered that I never got and the company I ordered it from basically said, "Tough luck." Ah, well. Just glad it wasn't Jimmy's entire costume.

Hehehe...now I feel silly. I went out and walked around and found the package hiding behind my garbage can.

Thought...

I came across a thought tonight that I liked. Saw it in a place that I never expected to see a quote. It was on my bank's website. I almost didn't notice it because it was placed where they usually post announcements about their doing maintenance on the website. Decided that it might be a good idea to see when they would be doing the maintenance and discovered that it was the quote (along with a statement encouraging everyone to vote).

Here's the quote: The Constitution of the United States only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. -Benjamin Franklin

Emma

Thought since I recently posted about Lys, it's only fair if I post about the other kids. Probably do it over time. Emma just seemed to be a good choice with being in kindergarten and how excited she is about it.

Emma loves school. The first day she went after they finished all of the individual testing, she practically skipped all the way home because she was so excited. Some days she still does that. Of course, she had been excited about starting school for a year. I had signed her up for a preschool for last year, but that ended up getting cancelled because the teacher was moving. I felt bad because she was very excited for that and I never could find another one for her.

She seems to be doing really well in school. Today she brought home her 6th reader book and sat down and read it all by herself. (She's supposed to read it three times before she turns it back in. She would actually be on her 8th or 9th, but forgot to turn them back in a couple of times.) She is still her quiet self (told me she doesn't talk at school), but seems happier or something since being in school. One night she told me her stomach hurt and I said she might have to stay home from school if it still hurt in the morning. She panicked. Did not want to stay home from school at all. Said she was fine from that point on. I thought it was funny.

Today was the exception of her seeming as happy when I picked her up. I finally figured out it was for two reasons. One being that I walked to get her instead of drive. I've been driving lately because it seemed to make my knee stop hurting to not walk to the school. She really liked being picked up in the car, apparently. But she wasn't really telling me what the other reason was. I kept asking her if she had a good day. When she didn't answer, I asked if it was a bad day. A neighbor was walking behind me and talking to her son and the boy who lives behind us. We heard her son tell her that they had a fire drill today. Emma pointed back at him, indicating that it was about what he said. I eventually got out of her that the fire drill scared her. I mentioned this to my neighbor, who laughed and said that her son cried when they did the fire drill today. So I guess Emma wasn't the only one it scared. She was happier after I figured out that she got scared today.

Alyssa

Sometimes Lys makes me laugh. Well, sometimes all of my children make me laugh, but she's been doing it more often. The other day she found a Dora book we have that has a lot of fruit in it. She kept pointing at things and saying, "What's that?" She pointed at a blueberry and asked. I told her it was a blueberry. She said, "No, it's a purple berry!"

Lately when she opens the fridge to get something out, she says, "Ta-da!" as she pulls it open. Will sometimes even say that as she closes it, too.

This morning I heard her calling to me and saying, "Help!" I went to see what was wrong. She was in the kitchen, with a container of cookie dough on the floor that she had pulled out of the fridge, spoon on the floor next to it, trying to open the container. She saw me and said, "I can't open it! Open it for me!"

With Emma in school, she and Molly play cute together. They were crawling around the house this morning meowing as they were pretending to be cats. I think Molly was the "baby cat" and Lys was the "mama cat." Which doesn't surprise me since sometimes Lys will come up to me and say, "I'm the mama, you're the baby." (Although I'll say, "Okay, hi mama," to her and she frowns and says, "No, I Lyssa.") She's just growing up too quickly.

Kind of cool optical illusion

Saw a link to this on aol's welcome page tonight. I thought this was kind of cool. Not totally convinced it's a true optical illusion, but I can get it to switch directions when I want....http://www.switched.com/2007/10/15/the-trippiest-optical-illusions-on-the-net/
Which way do any of you see it going first? At first I could only see it going counter-clockwise. It wasn't until after I voted on the poll thing that I saw it go the other way.

New Format/Template, whatever you want to call it.

I decided to try a new background setting for my blog. I kind of liked this one and thought I'd use it for a bit to see if I like it. If I decide I don't, I'll change it back to what it was before or something totally different. What do you think about it?

Guess since I started a post I might as well do the usual rambling thing....

Russ worked late last night. Not totally sure what he had to do. He just complained that he doesn't know why they have to do it after work instead of sometime during work. He also works late tomorrow and Friday doing inventory. He said something one time about maybe having to go in Saturday if they don't finish on Friday, but hasn't said anything else about that, so I don't know if it's still a possibility or not.

I thought Jimmy and Emma were funny this morning. It was raining hard, so I kind of expected to drive them to school. Nope, they wanted to use the umbrella Mom gave me for Emma to use when it was supposed to storm on the day they had a walking field trip. Of course, they argued a little about who got to hold it. I just wonder who got to take it once they got to school, since they don't come home at the same time.

Pumpkins...

Sometimes it's nice having a farmer as a neighbor. This year and last (and I think the year before but for some reason we didn't take him up on his offer then), our neighbor, Don Neville, has let us (and some other neighbors) take our kids out to his farm and pick out pumpkins for Halloween. We went out today to pick out the pumpkins. Of course, I searched and searched but couldn't find the camera to take any pictures. Ah, well.

Since his wife is in poor health and he can't leave her alone anymore, Brother Neville requested that we go out at the same time as our neighbors so he doesn't have to make lots of trips out there. Unfortunately, the best time for my neighbors to go was before Russ got home from work. He has fun helping the kids pick out pumpkins. Although in discussing when we would go, Russ did say that he thought we should go as early as we could to make it easier for Brother Neville. He kind of expected to not be home in time anyway. His only real complaint was that I didn't grab a pumpkin for him, just for the kids.

The kids had a good time picking out their pumpkins. Lyssa cried when I put her in her carseat to leave. Not sure how much of it was because she had fun picking out a pumpkin or the fun she had chasing the ladybugs that were around. After picking out her pumpkin, Emma sat on it to make sure everyone knew it was hers. I think hers is the biggest they picked out.

One last thing I will say about it: Don't wear a white shirt if you are going to be picking out and carrying pumpkins with your children. Just so you know.

Russ and his new job #..wait, I haven't been keeping track of how many....

Last night Russ told me that he almost wonders if they are giving him too much too soon at Dal. Robin, the guy he talked to the most about working for Dal, has made him in charge of ordering the caulks and the tools. And didn't tell him how to do that. Which is probably what is making Russ think too much too soon. I think the only reason he told me this was to explain why he wanted to try to go into work early today. So he can try to figure out how to order the things. Especially since they need to order more caulk now. He said Robin wants him to wait until after they do inventory next week to order more tools, but he's not sure they have enough to wait that long.

So now he's in charge of an account and ordering and keeping them stocked on caulks and tools. Maybe he should have started to work for Dal a long time ago.

Columbia's 25th thing

Thursday evening, the elementary school held the kick-off for their year-long 25th anniversary celebration. They wanted the students there by 5:15 because they were starting at 5:30 and had each grade lined up and ready to sing. A little after 5:00, I decided to go ahead and head over even though Russ wasn't home from work yet. I thought he would have been home by then though. I decided to walk over with the kids, since we live close enough and knew that finding a place to park wouldn't be easy. Took the wagon. So I had the three girls and a blanket in the wagon, while I carried the camping chairs. I eventually handed Jimmy one of the chairs to carry. Got really heavy after a while.

Got everything set up and called and left a message on Russ' cellphone saying that I was over at the school and had a chair for him when he got there. Saw a neighbor and told her she could use Russ' chair. Being outside, it wasn't the easiest to see the kids all in their rows. Kind of fun with each grade having a certain color for their t-shirts. The kids sang their school song (I even noticed that Emma was singing), then they had a letter read from Jake Garn. Then some of the older kids put on a couple of skits about things that were popular when the school opened in 1982. Like records. And Thriller. They even did some of the Thriller dance. It was kind of funny. The kids then sang a song called "A New Day," which I thought went on for a very long time, but didn't have much to the lyrics. Russ showed up just as they were explaining how things were going to work for the kids to set off some rockets. The kind with the 2 liter bottles and using water and pumping air into them. All of the kids seemed to really like that part.

Afterward, we bought some pizza from there and some drinks. Russ then went to the playground with the kids while I stood in line for the cinnamon rolls. Really long line. Emma and Molly had said they wanted a cinnamon roll instead of pizza. Of course, while I was in line, Molly ate my pizza. Finally were able to get the cinnamon rolls and then we headed home. Unfortunately, dropped some of the cinnamon rolls.

Jimmy kept saying it was the most fun he'd had at a party. Probably just because of playing at the playground, but that's okay. Here are a couple of pictures from it.
If you look, you can see Jimmy. He's the one in the lime green just right of center, looking to the left with another kid looking at him.
Emma is on the front row, right about center.
Jimmy with his bottle, waiting in line.
Emma with her bottle right after shooting it off.

Alyssa and MOlly sitting in t heir chairs, waiting for the program to start.
Just threw this one in as proof that Russ actually made it for part of it. Note, he stopped and changed into his shirt that matches Jimmy's.