First day of School

Boy did summer go by fast or what. Maybe it was because I was on crutches and on pain killers most of the summer that I didn't realize how fast the days were going.

Here are pictures of the kids on their first day of school. Jonah and Mason are in third grade and their teacher is Ms. Craig. Ellie is starting first grade and her teacher is Mrs. Lundgreen. We switched schools this year to a Charter school a few miles east of us called, Canyon Rim Academy. Everyone is excited about what the new schools offer but a little nervous to start brand new, especially me, and I'm not even going to school. I think I am more nervous than anyone. The kids did great and they seem to enjoy their new school.

Never a dull moment

We had such a crazy day at church today. I always hope primary goes smoothly but one never knows from week to week what each Sunday will be like in the primary room.

Opening exercised started of normal and fine. During the talk one of our two visitors started coughing and I noticed she had some drool coming from her mouth. I stood to go to the bathroom and get some tissues for her when I realized she was now starting to throw-up. I grabbed the garbage can while my first counselor went to get her grandma who is one of the nursery leaders. All the while, the little boy giving his talk and his father helping him never noticed that this was going on right in the front row. Just as the talk finished I stood up at the microphone to continue conducting. I had the children stand and repeat our monthly scripture in Doctrine and Covenants. My head was turned reading the scripture and as I turned back to the microphone one of the older children startled me as he was standing two feet in front of me and proceeded to tell me I had made a mistake and that in the D&C it was sections and not chapters. I apologized as the whole primary was staring and our brand new teachers picked their jaws off their chests. They didn't realized he has Asperger's syndrome and this wasn't abnormal for this child to behave like that. We finished opening exercises, dismissed the senior primary and sharing/signing time began for the junior primary.

Sharing time went smoothly although there was an abundance of energy among the children. Singing time started and as the singing progressed our second little visitor began complaining of a tummy ache. She is cousins with the first visitor who began throwing up so we decided to get her to the bathroom quickly with her grandma before we were cleaning throw-up off the floor again. As I was walking this child out, the nursery kids were walking in to the primary room to join singing time. As I walked passed the nursery kids, I noticed a diaper laying in the hall. I quickly eyeballed the kids to see who walked out of their diaper. I had a good idea which child it was so I picked up the diaper, continued onto the bathroom with the tummy ache visitor, only to find her grandma in the bathroom with the first little girl throwing up again. Then I headed to the Relief Society room to get the mother of the diaper less child (we aren't supposed to do any diaper/potty things with the kids). By the way the diaper was not dirty. As I entered the primary room, the nursery was just finishing and dismissing to go back to their class room, while the other children were very rowdy, talkative and wiggly. I stood in front to help them quiet down and dismiss them to their class when I noticed that a 6 year old girl had her hand up her dress (panties visible), under her arm pit trying to make "tooting sounds" and the two boys sitting next to her saying "Can you make a fart sound? I want to hear you make a fart sound. Make a louder fart sound!"
I stood there fairly appalled for a couple of seconds and then fought for their attention to regain reverence in the primary. Within one minute everyone was sitting with their arms folded and I dismissed them to their classes while wishing their teachers the best of luck with such great energetic children.

The senior primary came in, things went much smoother until the end when the younger brother of child with Asperger's stood and corrected me out loud. I can't remember what I said but it was some simple mistake. I was almost to the point of hysterics. Sundays are unpredictable. I am thankful I went home laughing at all of the silly things that had happened because there are times when the unpredicted is a child having melt down or teacher(s) that didn't show up and we are scrambling to find last minute substitutes. I am also grateful that the little children are so forgiving and it is fairly easy to remedy a situation. I am going to be bored if I ever go back to Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society.

I want short hair like Daddy

I have had the hardest time getting Jessica's hair to grow. Mostly because she twists the right side while sucking her thumb and in so doing, the hair breaks or gets ripped out. We haven't been able to grow her hair out yet. I trim it up so it's not too uneven and we just keep trying. It is now the longest it has ever been which still is not very long, not to mention it is thin with a coarse texture so it has been a challenge to me. Two weeks ago, Jessica started playing with some physical therapy clay Jeff had. Thinking she was funny, she placed it on her head and said she was a clown. Then as she tried to get the clay out it matted down even more. I began to work on removing the clay. I was sure I was going to have to cut it out when I decided to slather it in butter and comb it out. It took about a half of a cube of butter, but I removed it.

Then today in the afternoon, I noticed some hair in the bathroom garbage. Ellie was close by so I asked her if she had cut her own hair. Of coarse she hadn't and she quickly found Jessica asleep on the downstairs couch and said "Mom her head is shaved on one side." I realized Jessica had cut her whole pony tail off. She was trying to cut out the rubber band as I often do, but she ended up cutting everything. When I asked her if we should cut all of her hair to match she said she liked it that way. After some convincing, I took her to Cookie Cutters for a salvaging hair cut. They did a cute job and the short hair seems to fit her personality.

So in the end, Jessica may never have long hair and I will keep the scissors away from her.

Floats and Parades

After work today we went to Jessica's T-ball game and then we went to the 24th of July float preview. I love going to the float preview at the Expo Center. We can see all the floats for the parade close up, at our own pace and we don't have to fight parade crowds and stake out a spot 2 hours before the parade even starts. The best part of all is when your little girl is dancing to go to the bathroom there are many bathrooms to choose from within the Expo Center and you don't have to be the 20th person in line at a single port-a-potty on the corner of the street with a child who will inevitably wet her pants and be wet for the rest of your time at the parade. I realize that is a run on sentence but as you can tell I have had some experience with this kind of thing.

The kids loved looking at the floats; so many bright colors and so many floats that sparkled and shimmered. Often times there are people who worked on their float there and will tell you the meaning behind the float, how many hours they put into it or some creative ways they used to bring forth the design. Jeff's mom was with us. She loves to take the kids every year and I tagged along. One of our favorite floats was the float depicting that miracles still happen and the theme was seagulls eating crickets. They had a seagull barbecuing the crickets, cricket salad and sandwiches, and even green Jello with crickets in it.

On the morning of the 24th of July we can watch the parade on TV and the kids are totally enthralled watching all of the floats they saw at the preview. It's the best of both worlds.

I can walk!!!

I went to physical therapy today was finally given permission to walk on my leg. No more crutches or brace, unless I feel that I may need them in a crowd or something like that.

I don't walk well mind you, my knee still feels swollen and I don't have the range of motion back yet, but hey, I have my hands back now since I don't have to hold crutches all the time.

Steph's Birthday

Sunday, July 13th

Today is my 35th birthday. Wow, it seems like 35 is starting to sound old. Of coarse my birthday is on a Sunday so it wasn't that much of a day off (from church responsibilities.) Yesterday we went downtown to the Buddhist Obon festival; good food and dancing, it was neat to see. Our neighbors had a big role in the festival, they treated us well to many neat Japanese treats. Jessica and Ellie went to sit in the middle of the stage with their friends. My kids didn't look like they belonged with their blond hair and blue eyes. When we came home we noticed the kitchen sink was backing up and sure enough it was backing up in the basement also.

For my breakfast in bed that Jeff likes to give me on my birthday, I told him cereal would be fine. We would be limited on time in the morning and with the sink off limits I wanted as few dishes to wash as possible. Jeff brought me breakfast in bed; pancakes, fajita omelets and hash browns. I was curious about the food because it looked like nothing he had ever cooked before. He confessed he bought it from Jim's family restaurant and arranged it on our plates so it had a home cooked look to it. I thought that was clever and minimal hassle. After church we had lunch and the kids helped make a chocolate birthday cake for me. I opened my presents; new sunglasses, a blouse, flip flops and a gift certificate to a spa. Jeff tried working on our plumbing issues so I could get the dishes washed in order to make dinner. (we hadn't washed dishes on Saturday and almost everything was dirty) After some pipe cleaning attempts, we realized we would need a rooter company and it was decided that this justified eating out. We went to Mimi's Cafe for my birthday dinner and I enjoyed not having to cook or do dishes. When we came home, Jeff's sisters and mom came up to have cake and hang up some decorations for by birthday. ( Jeff's family has a natural talent for decorating that I can't come close to so I was grateful for some floral wall arrangements his mom and sister made me.)

Overall a good birthday, even though Jeff continually reminds me that I am older than he is. He has even trained the kids to remind me as well.

Jessica's Adventures

Blind meets Shy in the Bathroom
On the 5th of July we went to my Aunt Lorrie's cabin for an extended family dinner. We were down by the fire when my James and his wife Kris arrived. (Kris lost her eye sight to retinal cancer and has prosthetic eyes.) Kris was on the balcony of the cabin and she asked Jeff and I if Jessica was our daughter. We said "yes" and then Kris said if she needs therapy later in life that she will pay for it. Kris began to laugh and proceeded to tell us what had happened. Kris came in from the car and needed to use the bathroom so she went in the bathroom, pulled down her pants and proceeded to sit down on the toilet. As she began to sit, she felt little legs on the toilet underneath her own. She stood up and asked if someone was there, then Jessica spoke up and said she was going potty. Kris said Jessica didn't make peep. When Jessica came out of the cabin, she sat by me and I asked Jess what happened, Jessica said "Mom a lady almost sat on me in the bathroom, she didn't even see me." The adults kept laughing about the situation all night.


Sunday, July 6th
On the way to church Jessica asked, " Mom, do marshmallows lay eggs?". Jeff and I looked at each other and started laughing. What a smart question.


Don't take without asking
Thursday, July 10th

Jessica often plays with the twin boys across the street, Josh and Max, they are five. Jessica loves to snag treats from their house, they keep a good stock of drinks, gummy snacks etc. I keep trying to teach Jessica that she can't just open their cupboards and fridge and take things without asking. She needs to wait until the snack is offered or she needs to ask. I noticed I failed in this teaching when Jessica came home from her friends the other day.
I called the kids home for lunch. Jessica proudly walks in with a piece of pizza in one hand and a can of pop in the other. She said," I had lunch at Josh and Max's". I noticed the pop wasn't opened and I didn't recognize the soda. I looked at the can of soda and read, BUD LIGHT. I asked Jessica if she asked to have this pop, she was hesitant and then answered yes. I told her I didn't think she asked because I knew their dad wouldn't have given her a beer. We took the beer back so their grandfather could have his drink. We had a pretty good laugh about it. I again discussed with Jessica we don't take without asking.

Jessica keeps us laughing and on our toes.