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.