Preschool, the Funeral and a Night Out

Wednesday- after taking the kids to school and getting ready for the day Amy and I headed over to the clinic to get some lab work done.  Since I have hypothyroidism I have to get it checked every year to get a new prescription.  I expected it to take a lot longer to get in, so I left early.  But I was done in just 15 minutes.  Amy had preschool so I was a little early.  After I dropped Amy off I went to get an oil change on the van.  They tool longer than I expected and I was 15 minutes late picking up Amy.  Luckily I had explained that I might be late, so Becky was OK with it.  Amy and I got home and had a late lunch.  I think she took a nap that day.  When the boys got home we did the normal snack, screen time get ready for dinner etc.  We found out the funeral for Sis S* was to be on Friday.  That didn't give us much time.  In fact we had less than 48 hours to pull off the meal.

Thursday I helped out in the kids' classrooms.  Although I didn't watch Cecil since he wasn't having a bad day, and needed a nap.  Amy took a nap too, and so did I.  I kept falling asleep while reading to her, and when I was done I read my book, and kept dozing off.  Amy woke me several times having to go to the bathroom, or wanting to come out.  The last time I remember her waking me was at 2:30.  We both fell asleep after that.  I woke up at 3:20 and ran down stairs to unlock the door for the kids as they came home.  After dinner that evening we went over to the church to make sure the tables and tablecloths etc. we ready for the funeral.  Cheryl gave me two hams to cook.

Friday was very busy.  I had thought about getting a babysitter for Amy, but decided just to bring her with me.  After dropping kids off at school and getting ready for the day, Amy and I went up to the city for few things.  I started the hams.  Amy and I ate some lunch and then went over to the church.  We wandered around for a while and talked to people.  We brought Aaron some lunch which he ate before he went into the chapel.  I hadn't thought about bringing my church bag, so I didn't have much to entertain Amy with.  I found an old shopping list and we borrowed a pen, so she drew for a little bit, but then ran out of room.  I let her draw on the back of a couple of receipts, but then there was nothing left to draw on.  So I found some coins in my wallet and let her play with them.  Then she ended up pulling out all of my credit cards, reward cards, insurance cards etc.  That kept her occupied for the most part.  I was able to hear all of Aaron's talk (the Life Sketch), and most of Nancy's talk.  I had to take Amy out for a bit. Bishop also spoke, and I got to hear most of that as well.  Two of the A* daughters sang some beautiful songs.  Amy walked into the aisle and started dancing, I was trying to not smile, but it was cute, though probably inappropriate.  We stood as the family left, and Amy thought it was time for us to leave.  I had to go get her.  I had to get home and put the glaze on the hams and pick up the boys from school.  I didn't quite get it done in time, so I had to go back and pick up the hams.

Cheryl and I were so grateful to have a lot of help with set up, serving, refreshing food and water, and cleaning up afterward.  For the most part the kids stayed in the nursery and watched movies and played.  They came back to see what we were doing every once in a while.  They snacked a little and got a piece of cake when the guests were done.  There was just enough food, with a little bit left over.  When we got home it was about 5:00 so Aaron whipped up some potatoes to go with the bit of ham and salad we took home.  Most of the leftovers went with the S* family. 

Saturday was another busy day.  Besides the normal clean up around the house we did some playing too.  Aaron helped our neighbors pack up their moving van.  The boys went to a birthday party for most of the morning.  Amy and I played around the house.  then we had lunch and I put Amy down for a nap.  I don't think she fell asleep though.  Oh  wait, I remember now she took a late nap.  I picked up the boys and then they played some more.  Aaron and David made a trip up to the city to get a few things, and they were home later afternoon. I had made a cake for our High Priest Group Social.  After calculating the calories I figured I'd have to eat a very small meal to even get a tiny piece of it.  Oh well, indulging every once in a while is OK right?  Rebecca came over and ate dinner with the kids and watched a movie.  Aaron and I went over to Sis. A*'s and it was a small gathering, but it was fun to talk and eat some good food.  Br. B* brought hamburgers (from his own cows), and we had lots of veggies.   I was very good and didn't eat any chips.  It ended a little too early for us, but there wasn't really any place to go, so Aaron and I found a place and attempted to do some dancing.  I guess it's been a while because we could only remember a few moves.  I really need to find a place around here to go dancing.  Everyone was in bed, but still awake when we got back, as we expected, but that was OK.  I took Rebecca home, and soon the kids were asleep.  What a fun day. 

Valentine's Day 2012

I love Valentine's Day. I don't expect gifts, nor do I typically give them.  I don't expect to be pampered, or go all out for something expensive or fancy.  It's just a fun day.  I usually make heart sugar cookies (we did on Monday) and maybe make some special meals.  We get Valentine's for the kid's classrooms.  The kids made Valentine cards for Aaron and I.  I told Aaron that we just bought a new TV, I really don't need a gift, and overpriced flowers.  I definitely don't want chocolate, at least not his year.  So we both kept our word.  Aaron did give me a card that he made with Timothy at the Daddy Dessert Night at Timothy's school the week before.  What is important to me is that in some way we get to spend some time together.  We tried going out to eat one year in Utah, and it was not worth the wait, so we try for lunch instead if we get the chance.  Aaron happened to have the day off, and we spent the morning at the temple.  We had signed up to do an endowment session, but when we got there we asked if we could do sealings instead.  We did the names we brought and a few more.  We saw a couple of people we knew there as we were leaving.

We had some extra time since we did sealings, so we stopped by Best Buy, and then went to Winco.  On the way home we stopped by Subway for lunch.  I figured I could get something good and healthy there, and I did.  Aaron and I split a $5 footlong, no soda or chips.  Cheap, easy and healthy date.  Plus we got to spend 5 hours together.  We got home just in time to put Amy down for a nap before I went over to Timothy's classroom for their Valentine's Party.  She wasn't happy that I left before finishing her last book, even though Aaron said he would finish it.  Just before I left Aaron got a call from Carolee.  Sis. S* had finally passed away.  After a couple of weeks of hanging on, it was almost a relief.

When I got to Timothy's classroom, most of the kids were out at recess.  However five or six were gathered around Thomas.  Thomas has been out of school for the last couple of weeks because of a sledding accident.  He broke his tibia in one leg and his femur on the other leg.  He was in a wheelchair.  Everyone was fascinated by his casts and wheelchair.  His parents brought him just for the Valentine’s party.  When the bell rang and the class returned, they started handing out the Valentine’s.  Timothy was glad that I brought his bag of Valentine’s that he had forgotten at home.  Not only was it Valentine’s Day, but two students had a birthday and it was the 100^th day of school.  It should have been the Friday before, but with two snow days they happened on the 14^th.  So the kids got a lot of treats that day.  One girl even gave me a cookie.  There were 3 other parents there as well.   The kids thought I looked “fancy” because I was wearing a skirt and my boots.  

I stayed until the end of school, then took Timothy with me and picked up David instead of having them ride the bus home.  Amy never took a nap, and was excited when the boys came home.  They ate some of the candy from school for a snack – real nutritious ha ha!  Then I loaded up the kids in the van and took them over to Rebecca W*'s for cub scouts.  She moved it to earlier in the day so they could do a neighborhood cleanup.  Then of course it started to rain.  We had a short lesson, and then drove to the street instead of walking.  We didn’t get very far, but it was raining and it was about 37 degrees.  Poor Amy was miserable.  But we still got a couple of bags full of garbage.  

Once back at home Aaron and I worked on dinner.  We had pulled a salmon fillet out of the freezer, and I roasted some asparagus and cooked up some rice pilaf, and mad salad.  It was a delicious dinner.  Then Aaron went to scouts.  I gave the younger kids baths. Just as I was getting the kids ready for bed my dad called.  He wanted to Skype with the kids.  So we got on the computer.  He was having fun adding images to his face like a king's crown, or a mustache and goatee.  There were some creepy ones too like a baby or a cat.  The kids thought it was hilarious, and wanted to talk forever.  Eventually I had to get them in bed.  It made for a really great Valentine's day.

Leadership and Indexing

This past week has been very busy.  I'm not sure I'll be able to cover everything. At least not in this post.  Let's start with last Saturday.  I got up early and exercised.  I had a leadership training at the church at 8:00.  When I came downstairs to leave I found Aaron cleaning the fridge.  Everything was on the counters and he was scrubbing away.  He made sure I had keys in case they left to take the recycle out.

I really enjoyed the 2 hour broadcast.  It was a great meeting.  When I got home Aaron had left with the kids.  The fridge was put back together.  So I worked on a few things before they got back.  Apparently not only had he taken the recycle out, but he got new tires on the van.  They have been needing them for a couple of months now, and I have been hesitant to go get them in case I got talked into something I didn't need. 

We had a good afternoon.  I'm trying to remember what else we did.  I do remember that after dinner that night Aaron and David decided to go to the High School Basketball semifinal game.  We were playing our rivals for the 3rd time.  It's always a close game.  Well this one was a blow out.  We beat them by 26 points.  I enjoyed time at home giving baths to the younger two and sending them to bed early.  Then I decided to read my book, and fell asleep.

Sunday was another great day.  As a RS presidency we met with the Stake RS leaders.  It was great to get instruction and feedback from them.  Then we had a fabulous lesson: "Our Testimony of Jesus Christ".  After church we had a quick lunch and visited with out home teacher.  Then I somehow got Amy to take a nap.  I think I fell asleep too.  I made an enchilada casserole for dinner.  David really wanted to make brownies for FHE dessert, so we did, but I had to cut my piece smaller so it would be under 200 calories - yikes! They were delicious though.  Aaron went to visit Br. and Sis S*.  He's been there several times this month, but with Sis. S* going downhill rapidly he really wanted to be there. 

I have a new obsession.  No it's not pintrest, although I am starting to pin recipes every so often.  On Sunday I finally signed up to do indexing on familysearch.org.  And now I'm hooked.  However I really need to finish my book before it's due on Thursday.  Although I suppose I could pay the fines.  Once the housework is done, or while Amy is napping I'll do a little bit of indexing.  You should try it!

Monday it was back to the normal routine.  I knew we were going to Winco on Tuesday, so I didn't make a trip up to the city like I usually do on Mondays.  Amy and I hung out at home and played, and worked.  She took a nap.  It was odd, for 4 days she didn't nap at all, and then she took a nap everyday for 4 days.  I guess she's not ready to give them up yet.  Valentine's Day was a post in itself, so I'll stop here, and post more later.

David

Now another update.  I started this post last week, but we've been really busy, so I didn't really have time until now.

David is so different from Timothy, other than they are pretty smart kids and do well in school.  He is much more social, and doesn't get distracted as easily.  He is doing well in school, and gets all of his work done at school, so he rarely has homework.  The only homework he does at home is read the books for book reports.  He is reading the second Fablehaven book, and will be disappointed when he can't read #3 for a while.  Our library system isn't very big, and it seems that within the last couple of months someone has lost the only copy of that book.  So I requested an inter-library loan.  And it seems they will be purchasing the book again.  They had to do that with the firs book as well.  I checked it out several months ago, but when I tried to put it on hold for David they didn't have any copies.  I'm reading #5 right now.  OK, so back to David...  He always wants to have friends over, or go over to other people's homes.  He still doesn't get the "don't invite yourself over" thing.  Probably because we have a couple of boys who do that to him.  They call and ask if they can come over.  Usually without their parent's knowledge, until they ask permission.  Oh well. If he can't play with friends he wants to play a game with me, and he doesn't like it when I'm not available.  HE rarely wants to play with Timothy.  They play together sometimes, but not as often as I would like.  When they do play together it's either doing something potentially destructive, or they end up fighting.

David also loves all the gadgets.  He wants to play on the computer, or on the ipod touch, or now the Roku - it has Angry Birds.  He knows his screen time limits, but unless I'm there telling him time is up, he'll keep playing.  That's not the only thing he's sneaky about.  About two weeks ago I made pizza for dinner.  Since I wasn't eating any of the left overs David and Timothy took them for lunch.  Last Friday I took some cookies to David's class for his report on Poland.  I was a little late and they had already gone to lunch, so I left the cookies at the front desk.  But Amy really wanted to see David, so we went in to see him.  David was happy to see Amy, and then I saw his lunch.  Apparently he had been trading away his pizza all week for the chips or cookies or whatever people had in their lunches.  So he had two bags of Fritos and a bag of animal crackers for lunch.  Sneaky!

 David is a pretty good writer.  He does a lot of journal entries for school.  I always love to read them.  I swear he's got the teenage drama already, without the hormones, thank goodness.  He always hates something or loves something.  He goes into detail about why he hates or loves something.  This last one the prompt must have been to write about 2 things he loves and two things he hates.  First he wrote about how he loves LEGOs.  He talked about all the things you can do with LEGOs.  He also wrote about how he loves deserts (desserts).  He described all different kinds.  He "hates" Thursdays.  Everything bad happens on Thursdays according to him.  He also "hates" school because it's "boring".  Only PE and recess are fun, and social studies is the most boring.   I bet the teacher got a kick out of that.  He also wrote another essay on how his favorite place in the world is a hotel.  They do loves hotels.  He saw me reading it, and said, "It's not really my favorite place."  I wonder what his favorite place really is, he wouldn't say. 

Timothy

I love it when we have mornings like Thursday.  Timothy woke up early, I think because Amy woke up crying.  Aaron had to calm her down, and let her crawl into our bed so my exercise wouldn't get interrupted.  When I came up the stairs at 6:15 he was reading in his room.  I reminded him that he needs to get ready for school first before he reads. Yes I realize how early that is, but if I don't start asking him early we end up rushing to get to school on time.  Since I was going to the schools today I showered before breakfast.  By the time I was done I fully expected to see Timothy still reading books.  He surprised me and was fully dressed, had made his bed, and was trying to brush his hair.  I helped him with that, and then sent him downstairs to get his lunch ready.  I tend to have simple breakfasts when I have somewhere to go right after dropping the boys off.  So oatmeal or cereal and grapefruit was on the menu today.  Timothy was polite, and ate everything, no complaints or fooling around.  He did forget to clear his bowl, but he  dd it with a smile and a laugh when I asked him to.  When  I went upstairs I discovered that he had made my bed.  It was so sweet.  Then why did I feel compelled to fix it?  Maybe I am a little crazy when it comes to things like that.  My house may not be in perfect order, but I do things I want them done right.  Oh well.

That morning I went to his class.  Instead of reading like I usually do I helped the kids with an art project.  They were making valentine's cards for their parents.  Timothy was first.  I only got through about 8 of them before it was time for recess.  During recess I talked with Mrs. A* as usual.  She told me about the math problem she presented to them that morning.  Timothy solved it in about 5 seconds.  And then he explained it to everyone.  She wrote on the board:

How many lollipops are in the jar?  It is a 2 digit number (10-99).  The sum of the number in the tens place and the number in the ones place equals 3.

After Timothy said he had the answer she gave the other students a clue.  The tens digit is an even number, and the ones digit is an odd number.  They tried a few different numbers, but eventually Timothy showed them this:

1 + 2 = 3 true?
2 + 1 = 3
2 is even  1 is odd
answer: 21

That kid is pretty smart.  A couple of weeks ago he was multiplying 3 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers in his head. He is a great kid!

Amy's Antics

Amy is into all sorts of things right now.  Last week we hosted preschool at our home.  It was a lot of fun, except for when she refused to let her friends play with her toys.  Oh boy!  But I got this cute picture of the girls as they sat down for a snack.

 Amy had to stick her tongue out of course.  

Amy has gone back and forth over the past week or so with having accidents.  She was going 7-8 hours or more without using the bathroom, and no accidents at all.  Then suddenly she started having accidents, a lot of accidents, even if it had been only 2 hours since she had gone last.  I have resorted to taking her every two hours, which she doesn't like.  And after doing an extra load of laundry this week I am starting to take her as soon as she wakes up.  Sometimes she'll tel me if she's had an accident, sometimes she won't say anything until I find her and ask if she needs to go.  Then she'll say, "No, my pants are already wet."  A friends suggested she might have a bladder infection.  I followed Aaron's protocol, and it seemed to work and she was back to normal for a couple of days, but now she's back to having accidents again.  I hope we figure this thing out before it drives me crazy!  And now she has decided to stop napping.  I was getting her down for a nap at least 4 or 5 days a week.  We are on day 4 of no naps.  And She doesn't seem to go to sleep any earlier either.  She gets grumpy and tired around 6:00, and by 7:00 she's on her second wind.  Even if she goes to bed early she doesn't fall asleep until about 9:00, which is only a slight improvement to her normal of 9:30.  She still gets up around 6:30 in the morning too.  I guess some people just don't need that much sleep.  I'm not one of them.  I took a nap yesterday, even though she didn't.  I put her down at 1:00, by 1:45 she's asking if nap time is over.  She'll use the bathroom at least twice.  How can I say "no" when she's having so many accidents?  I send her back to her room until about 2:45, when I finally give up.  I don't want her falling asleep after that or she'll be grumpy and not go to sleep until 10 or 10:30!

Amy loves to draw and paint.  I provide reams of paper for her.  She has crayons and pencils.  I got rid of the markers because she kept drawing on herself.  So now I randomly find pencil drawings on the wall!  In her room, in the boy's room, in the playroom (where the drawing stuff is kept), or in the hallway.   I just went to take a picture of one I found this morning and found two more I didn't know about!  Grrrr!

Yesterday I gave the kids apples and peanut butter for snack and then I went upstairs to send a few emails.  David was on the computer downstairs or I would have used that one.  I got a phone call and came downstairs to give a message to David when I said Amy running around with peanut butter all over her hands.  I stripped her shirt off, and washed her hands.  Then I came downstairs and realized what had happened.  I must have left the peanut butter jar out somewhere where she could reach it.  She dug out the remaining 1/2 cup or so of peanut butter left in the jar, and then smeared it all over the table, and the jar itself.  It took a lot of soap and water to clean it up.  At least it wasn't on the couches or carpet.  David and Timothy were in there the whole time on the computer, and were completely oblivious to what was going on!

 the table

the empty jar

 I probably should have taken a picture of Amy too, but I was not in the mood at first.

She doesn't like it when I interrupt her fun.  She likes to destroy her food and then ask for more.  Nope, not gonna happen.  Or eat half of it, and then ask for more of what she likes.  Nope, gotta try everything first - note I didn't say finish everything.  I didn't used to make her take her plate to the sink or dishwasher, but I know she can do it, so there's really no excuse.  I've also added her to the chore chart rotation.  Ate least with a few things.  She likes to set the table and empty the dishwasher.  She has a day for clear table too, but I usually do that for her.  Everyday she asks me if she has to do chores.  Of course now she's also asking if she gets an allowance.  Ha!

Then again she does some really sweet things too.  She loves to help me with the laundry, and she'll help me put the books back on her shelf - she usually empties at least one shelf during "nap time".  Although I don't like that she writes on the walls she really has fun drawing on paper.  We've been writing some letters, and she knows all of the letters in her name, however Sunday was the first time she wrote all three letters in order on her own.  I didn't ask her to do it, she was drawing at church, and she said, "look mom,  I drawed my name."  It was pretty amazing.  

She also loves primary, and I'm so glad.  Sis S* is a great teacher for those little girls. Sis. W* said they were talking about gifts and she announced several times that she got a kitchen for Christmas.  This last Sunday after church Amy recounted the story of the Good Samaritan.  It was simply this:  "A man was hurt, and one guy didn't help him, and another one just walked by, and the other guy said, 'I must help him.'"  It was so sweet to hear her tell that story to us.

I'm sure there are more things I could talk about, but Amy's movie is over, and I have other things to get done.  Hopefully I'll get a post up about the boys soon.

Perfect Weekend

OK, so it wasn't really a perfect weekend, but some really good things happened.  After a great workout Saturday morning I showered and got breakfast ready while the kids attempted to do some chores.  Luckily Friday night we had cleaned up the play room and family room so we could have a movie night.  Timothy was almost done before we had to go to the church.  We were only a couple minutes late, but a lot of people turned out and we were down in less than an hour, except for the mopping,  But there's only one mop, so it didn't make sense to stick around longer than necessary.  I did get to talk to a few ladies there and that was fun.  I'm not sure if the kids actually did any work, but at least they didn't seem to be in the way.

After we were done Aaron went over to see Br. S*.  He home teaches them, and his wife isn't doing so well.  He wanted to give the caretaker some time off so she could see her family.  They visited for a couple hours, and then he came home.  Meanwhile Jonathan came over to play with David.  He left right about the time we had lunch.  Aaron got home soon after, and I put Amy down for a nap.  She really needed to nap because we were going to be out late.  Aaron and Timothy went to a baptism that afternoon, and David and played some games. 

We got ready to attend the basketball games.  It's the end of the season and we were playing our rival team.  In fact our ward is comprised of people living in these two cities and attending these two schools.  We have young women on each team in our ward.  And two young men on the boys team, well one is taking the discussions, but I consider him part of the ward.  The JV game started at 4:00.  We got there just before halftime, and the best seats were already taken.  So we sat higher and further to the side than we usually do.  But got to sit with friends.  In fact it was fun to point out how many people from our ward and the neighboring ward were there.  The JV game was back and forth, but in the end we lost the game.  It was about 5:30, so instead of going to get dinner we bought some snacks and waited for the girl's game to start.  The kids did pretty well for sitting through a lot of games.  I brought notebooks and pencils, and crayons, and when they got bored they had something to do.  David also had Alan next to him most of the time, and they played games on the phone or DS or whatever it was.  It was senior night, so the seniors (including Whitney and Malia - a team manager) were honored.  At half time for the girl's game I took the kids out to the van to eat dinner.  I had packed some wraps and other things.  No outside food is allowed in the gym, so we ate out there.  Don't worry, Aaron got to eat too.  He is just able to be more discreet.  The girl's game was also back and forth.  It was really close, with some bad officiating, on both sides (both teams got techincals).  In the end the other team won (good for Paige, bad for Whitney). 

It was a backed gym by the time the girl's game was over.  The boys' game didn't get started until about 8:00.  I was hoping to get home in time to catch some of the BYU basketball game on TV (since we have BYUtv now), but no such luck.  It was another tight game with a lot of lead changes.  Our team seemed to miss so many shots, and got a lot of second chances that just weren't falling!  It was frustrating!  Of course there were a few ball calls, as usual.  Toward the end of the game we pulled ahead.  They came back a bit, but then we got far enough ahead that they couldn't catch us.  It was a great win in the end.  We didn't get home until almost 10:00.  Aaron and I had followed the BYU game on his phone, and we were excited to see they had won as well. 

Sunday I got up early with Amy and sent off my monthly newsletter, because I had forgotten to do it the day before.  I also started putting things in the crockpot for dinner  I was exhausted so I went upstairs to go over my lesson while Aaron got breakfast for the kids.  Just cereal for fast Sunday.  Then it was a rush to get kids in the shower and tub.  Then David and I blew up at each other because he couldn't find his white Sunday shirt.  He yelled at me, that it was my fault, and I yelled at him that it wasn't, then I went to take a shower.  Aaron found his shirt in our room under the pillows.  I had set it there so I could iron it, but I hadn't done it yet.  Oops.  I apologized after I was dressed.

We got to church a few minutes early as usual.  I really enjoyed the testimonies that were shared.  I noticed David being really secretive about writing something in a notebook.  Then Aaron pointed out that he was sitting on the edge of the pew watching everyone as they walked up to the pulpit.  Aaron thought, "I think he wants to go up there."  We've often talked about bearing testimonies, but never pressured them.  I don't want them to just say whatever I tell them.  I don't want them to say things they don't believe.  So up until now, none of my kids have shared their testimony in sacrament meeting,  Only at FHE or when they give talks in Primary.  A few months ago David asked if he could go up to the pulpit, and I told him if knew what he wanted to say he could do it any time.  He wrote down his testimony that day, but never got up there.  So yesterday I prayed that David would have the courage to follow through.  Anytime some got up he would slouch back in the pew.  I prayed that there would be an opening for him.  Then suddenly he just got up and went to the front.  He waited his turn, and then he bore a short, sincere simple testimony, and tears came to my eyes.  I was glad I had put tissues in my bag that morning. 

Sunday school was great, and then it was my turn to give the Relief Society lesson.  I think I have only done that once or twice in my life!  I was a bit nervous, but I think it went well.  I talked about visiting teaching  I was a little concerned when I was done with 2 of my 3 pages, and there was still 30 minutes left, but as I asked for more participation the rest of the time was full, and I didn't even get to finish a couple of things.  I really enjoyed the lesson, not because I had planned and prepared so well, but because so many of the sisters were inspired to share great ideas, and wonderful stories.  I love being involved in such a wonderful organization where women are brought together to be inspired and uplifted.  It was perfect!

I stayed after a bit to talk to a few people.  Aaron went with one of the young men to serve the sacrament to the S*, as he usually does on fast Sundays.  The kids ate lunch when we got home, and Aaron got back just as I was putting Amy down for a nap.  He found something for the boys to watch on BYUtv, and I read a book and dozed off as Amy slept.  Then I got up to make cornbread for dinner.  The nice thing about fast Sundays is I don't have to worry about going over calories;)  Or anything else for that matter.  We had put together a chili.  Aaron suggested that we use the duck meat.  We've been told that it's only good in a pressure cooker, but that last time we put it in a crockpot stew and it was good, so we did a chili this time and I thought it was great.  If we could have tasted it before dinner we probably would have added some more beef bullion, and a few more spices, but I think it was just fine.  After dinner we cleaned up a bit and have FHE.  Timothy gave a lesson on Love.  We watched a couple of videos on BYUtv for an activity, and Aaron made a ice cream cake roll for refreshments..  The cake was so fluffy and light.  It was delicious.

So that about sums up our fabulous weekend.  Perfect?  No, but overall - wonderful!

End of January Update

I really need to stop waiting so long to post.  Well here's an update anyway.

David is doing a report on Poland.  Everyone in the class has a different country.  This should be fun.  Today he came home with a poster to display his information.  He is supposed to come up with some fun facts, and bring in something like food, clothing or a game from his country.  Maybe I'll find a Borscht recipe!

Timothy is doing well at school.  They are doing timed tests for math now.  He isn't finishing them, even though he knows all of the answers.  At first I thought he had brought home someone else's paper.  Not because he didn't finish but because the handwriting was neat and tiny.  That's the opposite of his usual handwriting.  So now when speed is important he's taking his time to make it neat?  Oh boy!

Amy has had two preschool days so far.  Melissa taught the first week, and I taught the second week.  It was fun to have the 4 little girls all together.  They got along for the most part.  Except for Amy telling them that they couldn't play with her toys.  She's also had some bladder control issues.  I'm not sure if she's back sliding a bit in potty training, or if she has a bladder infection or something of the sort.

Aaron has had a very busy week at work.  There has been some crazy stuff going on, and that has resulted in some late nights.  When he finally gets home he has to finish up a few more things, and then we usually watch an episode or two of Fringe.  We are almost caught up now.

As for me I have been doing well with my new diet.  I am consistently exercising and tracking my food intake.  It's getting easier, and I'm not so worried about being exact.  Close enough is good enough for me.  I had a little snack binge today, and I contemplated not recording everything I ate.  However that would only be cheating myself.  Surprisingly I was still within my goal ranges in every category.

I've been spending my time watching Downton Abbey and Fringe.  Is that weird that I like two completely opposite shows?  One a period drama the other a fantastical science fiction.  I also love the crime dramas too, but they didn't have new episodes over the last couple of weeks.  I typically watch one show during my workout. 

I also hit a bit of a emotional slump.  I was feeling really sorry for myself.  Don't worry I'm over it now, but I wouldn't be honest if I didn't share.  In the past month or so I have had several friends ( 7 or 8 I'm not exaggerating) announce that they are expecting a baby.  And for most of them it's #4.  The number we've been working on for about 2 years now.  I could handle it at first when it was one or two, but to have... let me count - M*, A*, H*, A* M*, B*, J*, K*, M*,T*. OK, so it's 10, one is #1, one is #3, one is #5, and the rest #4.  That doesn't mean I'm not happy for them.  It doesn't mean I don't want them to announce it.  I just wish it didn't affect me, that I didn't let it make me feel sad that I can't make the same announcement.  Of course I realize that I also have friends that haven't been able to make that announcement ever.  I also realize that I have friends and family that have lost children, or are dealing with sick children.  Just this past week one of my sister's best friends had to take her 7 year old to the hospital, where they determined she has cancer.  I know I have many blessings which I am grateful for, but sometimes I throw myself a pity party.  Luckily I have been able to pull myself out of that with some help from my always wonderful husband.  Wow this post turned out to be a lot different from what I planned it to be. 

I don't even have any pictures to share.  I have a couple on my camera, but I haven't uploaded them.  I'll get to that soon I hope.  I'm trying to think of any other things that went on in the last few weeks.  I already talked about the pinewood derby.  Church has been great.  I'm working on a lesson for Sunday which I hope will go well.  I've enjoyed reading with the kids in David's class, and being involved in Timothy's class as well.  I read with them, or help with worksheets.  Tuesday we surprised the kids with a new TV.  We replaced the old tube TV we bought when we were first married.  The kids are excited with the flat screen, and the Roku box.  Now we can watch BYUtv, among other things.  We are using some of the money from our tax return to pay for it.  I was pleasantly surprised that we were getting a tax return, and then Aaron reminded me how much was taken out of our checks, and that we bought a house last year.  In fact tomorrow is the one year anniversary of us closing on the house!  We didn't move in for a couple of weeks, but I can't believe it's been a year now since we made that purchase.

So that about sums up the last couple of weeks.  Hopefully soon I'll have some pictures to post.