Tuesday September 30

So we got the drain fixed today.

So we can go back to showering and doing dishes and stuff like that.

I am just so glad that it wasn't the septic backing up!!!!!

I was secretly really worried that that was going to be the problem!

We don't need problems like that right now!

*****

I was playing around with the camera today......and Port was being a cutie :)

He stood there, and then told me when to take a picture each time he moved his arm....so I did.

When we were done, he said that now it will look like he's moving.

Smart boy :)

He also played with the boys today.

All of them.

They are funny all together.

They make me laugh....and sometimes a little bit worried.

Boys like to wrestle.

The girls didn't ever do that unless they were playing with Dad....but never with their friends....and never as rough as the boys do it.

They are all willing participants, but I still make them stop when I see them.

Am I mean???

*****

Elsie's wasp sting is big and swollen and hot and red!

Poor girl.

She said it was itchy at school, and it was hurting too.

I gave her some Benadryl and she seemed to be able to go to sleep good tonight.

So hopefully it is feeling better in the morning!

 

 

This doesn't really show how red it really is :(



Monday September 29

Well, it was drizzly all morning.

So instead of finishing the dormers......which we badly want to do......we went shopping for an exterior door for the side of the house.

The house is starting to feel cooler from the colder weather being able to reach inside.

So the first step was to get a door :)

I wanted a full window door, but they wanted like $600 for it.

I wasn't about to spend that!

So we found a nice basic one, and we plan to fancy it up a bit ourselves :)

We came home and got to work installing it.

It was a bugger.

Doors are buggers anyway, but dealing with the uneven cinder brick sidewalls.....made it much harder!

But we got it in and I think it looks great :)

*****

We decided to cut the boys hairs tonight.

They were getting pretty long!

So we headed outside, where it was still sprinkling a bit.

The kiddos followed us outside.

Elsie was playing on the grass over by the raspberries when she got stung by a wasp!

Those dang wasps!

Dad had enough.

He has been trying to kill that nest there since the beginning of the summer!

So he left and came back with some fuel and some fire :)

Don't worry he was safe about it.

But he had to defend and protect his little girl!

I think he got them.

Then we got the boys finished with their haircuts :)

They sure look handsome!

*****

Well, then we had a big problem.

Port took a shower, and the water wasn't draining.

So Dad tried to figure it out.

Seems like we have some huge drain blockage somewhere.

Bad enough I have to call someone tomorrow to come and fix it.

And you know we don't do that very often......

So, after Madi had a panic about not being able to shower for school tomorrow (she had XC practice today, and she sweats like me :) .....we called Bubbles and she and Cassi ran to her house for a shower.

Not sure when I will get to get one.

Wish I took one this morning....or last night.

But my fireman will be working tomorrow, so I don't need to impress anyone anyway :)

 

 

That's some impressive long grass there :)

 



Sunday Septemebr 28

It was a fun day spent with the family.

We went to church, and all had a good day.

We got to church a little later than usual, and had to sit in the chairs instead of a nice padded bench.

I was kind of grumpy about it.....cause I wanted a bench :)

Brent turns to me and says, "Hey, we always get a bench. Don't you think it is about time we let someone else have a bench?"

I had to smile....cause it made me laugh.

But it's true......someone else got to enjoy the nice padded bench this week.....I guess I should be better at sharing :)

I enjoyed going to the family history class with Brent.

The teachers are so gung ho about it and make it so much fun.

They actually bring their computer and projector, and they have people come up and we go through it together with the class.

It really is so exciting to see what can be done and how you really get to know these ancestors and crave to know more.

Such a cool, cool thing!

And I am watching Madi and Cassi getting excited about indexing...which is cool too.

And what a great Sunday activity!

After church, Dad and I made dinner together, and the kids played nice.

It was just really nice.

Later tonight we played a round of hide and seek with Wuvey.

They would hide Wuvey, and then Elsie had to go and find her.

It was pretty funny :)

With Elsie giggling the whole time.

Love this little family of mine :)

After the little ones went to bed, we finished watching the Womans Conference talks.

So great to hear.

Such great speakers.

It makes me super excited to hear the conference talks next week!

 

 

Saturday September 27

Man...it was a gloomy rainy day today!

The rain is nice, but I wasn't able to paint the soffit wood, because they were all wet!

Anyway.

At least it's not snow yet.

Gramps called and said they had 8-10 inches of snow today in Evanston!!!!

Not ready for that quite yet!

I stayed in the house and cleaned with the kids today.

We also worked on a book report video for Cassi that is due Tuesday.

She is doing a news report about the girl who got kidnapped in the book she read.

I think it will turn out good :)

Mrs. Harvey has fun ways of having the kids do their book reports.

So we got some good cleaning done....not as much as I would have liked, but still good.

We planned to go to the Womans conference tonight, but then my babysitter for Port fell through, and I found out it was on the BYU channel.

So we set it to record, which I am glad because I had a photo session that ran over the time that it started.....

So we watched some of it when I got home and then got the kids to bed.

We will watch the rest of it in the morning....a great thing to listen to while getting ready for church :)

I had to make a quick late night run to Winco, cause we needed toilet paper!

Can't wait for dad to come home tomorrow.

He said that Sundays are hard though....cause he will be home, but can't work on the house.

But he is forced to relax, which I think is what he needs most after these past two weeks!

We will get to work and work hard on Monday :)

*****

Madi got back to doing some indexing tonight.

Cassi is excited about trying it out.

She sat and watched Madi do it for a long time.

It really is such a neat thing for us to be a part of.

 



Friday September 26

I got to go to breakfast with Jenni this morning.

It was fun to see her again and have some time to catch up.

It's sad how fast time goes by without us seeing each other.

It was a fun time.

Thanks for getting us together Jenni :)

I am so Thankful for our friendship.....that can last even though long spaces of seeing each other :)

(Oh, and she went blonde :)

*****

The rest of the afternoon I spent at the school doing art smart stuff for Cassi's class and Elsie's class.

After school, Elsie's friend, Lily, came home with us.

And Kyra came over too.

The girls had a lot of fun.

And they all have such funny personalities.......makes me laugh to listen to them play.

 

 

Thursday September 25

Madi last XC meet....besides district next week.

It's been a good season :)

She pushed it hard in the last stretch and beat out the girl in from of her (even though she was on her team anyway).

But Lake Hazel girls have rocked it and have won every meet so far.

*****

Porter stayed home today.

He got all ready and then said that his tummy hurt.

I told him to go lay down, and he did, and he laid down for an hour......

So I kept him home.

He relaxed and played with Legos.

He kept showing me all the Lego sets he wants to get.....and I said that he should just make his own because he has enough Legos!

So he did and he made some awesome stuff today!

He is super creative, and he makes me smile.

He is feeling better.

He wanted to have Cannon over all day, but I told him he can't have a friend over if he didn't go to school!

Maybe tomorrow.

I did a little bit of painting today.

I just put some coats on the sheets of wood we will be using for the soffit.

It will be way better to paint it now and then just touch up later, then to have to paint when it is up.

That way we don't have to worry about the deck getting drops of paint on it.

And when dad got home, he trimmed and put on the edge pieces for all the corners.

That way it looks like the siding wraps all the way around.

I am loving it.

I can't wait until next week when we can actually put some good full days of work in.

It has been a frustrating couple of weeks :)

It's all good.

As long as we are moving forward!

 

 

This guy has a get-away pod :)

 

Wednesday September 24

These boys are so dang cute.

I am so excited to see them all grow up together....these two and Max and Graham.

Such fun boys!

Cannon came over today after Port got back from school.

They played school together.

And they went on a field trip to the pear trees, and got a treat to take back :)

We also went and took some buckets back to Bubbles.

And she gave us a watermelon and the boys enjoyed some of that too!

Cute boys :)

*****

Dad got some more work done on the house.

He works so hard.

I know he is so tired from these classes....and the house stuff.

I feel bad I couldn't help him today.

I had a photo session and then Young Womans.

It was fun tonight.

We put together FHE jars and then spent a lot of time talking and getting to know each other.

 



Tuesday September 23

Oh Elsie, Elsie, Elsie.

My sweet Elsie.

I just want her to have all that she ever wants in this world.

I don't want there to be anything that holds her back.

And I hate it that there may be things in this world that will want to hold her back.

I might sound a bit dramatic......but it is something that I struggle with daily, and it feels my top is gonna pop!

Every time Elsie talks about going into the ERR (Extended Recourse Room) room, I ask her what she did there, and how long much time she spends in there.

I don't like her going there.

I love the people, I love that it is a resource available......

But when Elsie misses class to go to the ERR room, she is missing instruction and missing the things that the other kids her age are doing in her classroom.

Today I helped in her class.

She went out three times in the 2 hours I was there.

One of the times was to fill out a worksheet that the other kids in her class were doing.....but they took her to the ERR room for it to be more quiet.

Well, that seems silly to me.

Yes, Elsie does better with less distractions

But Mrs. Janzens room was so quiet and the kids were so good.

And if we are talking distractions, the ERR room has swings, and toys......

So I decided it is time for me to say something.

But I also think I need to really sit down and decide what I want to say.

I don't to offend anyone or make anyone feel bad.

They have worked so much with Elsie.

But I feel like this year, she is not being pushed.

She isn't expected to do the same things as the kids in her class.

Physically, there are things she cannot do (yet) that the kids her age can do.

But mentally, cognitively.....she is there.

She can do it.

She just needs to be pushed....she needs to know that they expect more out of her.

That when she is out of her comfort zone, she will learn and grow.

Telling her she can just color the worksheet however she wants instead of picking out the odd or even numbers, is not teaching her anything except that if something is hard, she should just not try.

That's not okay with me.

Last year, she kept up pretty good with her peers.

But I feel like if we give her a year 'off' and don't push her, she will never be able to catch up.

That isn't fair to her.

She is a smart girl.

She can do it.

She is stubborn, yes.

But that stubbornness is also what has gotten her this far.

So now I just need to decide what needs to be done.

I need the school team to be on my side.....

They need to understand that what is happening right now is not what is best for Elsie.

I am actually even thinking of saying not to take her out of class for PT and ST because she misses that classroom instruction.

And she gets that stuff outside of school....and I feel like that is enough for now.

I don't want to fail Elsie myself either.

I don't want her to think that I don't expect her to do things around the house like the big girls and little boy do.

Today after dinner, I asked her if she would help me clean up.

She kinda moped.....but then I gave her a choice to either put the leftover waffles into baggies, or put away the silverware.

She fussed for a minute, then thought about it and thought putting away the silverware might be fun.

I just need to give her more opportunities to be helpful....

I do know that she gets more physically tired then the other kids, or all of us for that matter.

But I also know that there will always be things that she thinks is too hard, but she can still do.

I want her to know in her head that she can do anything.....even with a tired body.

Okay....enough of that.

I am trying not to be negative :)

One cute thing that made my heart happy today.....

Joanne came over for ST, and Elsie brought out her scriptures so she could show Joanne what she has been reading.

She turned right to the Articles of faith and recited the 1st one.

Made me smile.

*****

Dad had to go teach class today, but he came home a little early and we got to work on the house.

The shake shingles are quite the chore.

We decided to change up the original plans, and I am excited about that.

The middle dormer will be the same siding as the bottom of the house, and the dormers on the sides will be the shake shingles.

I think it will look great.

One thing I am not sure about yet though.....should I have the triangle on top of the middle dormer be shake shingles like the sides, or leave it all the same??????

Hmmm.......guess I need to decide soon :)

Monday September 22

So this negativity fast can be a hard thing.

BUT....I am excited about taking it on.

This morning I was up about 5 thinking about the stuff I have packed in this week.

I started to feel stressed.....

But then I thought, hey, all I can do is do the best I can do.

So that's what will happen.

I will just do the best I can do :)

It was about 7:30 when I opened the front (back:) door to throw some garbage out in the garbage can, and I saw Miley standing there, right outside the front door.

And all goats just hanging out on the back lawn.

I took a picture, but it was after I ran back in to get my phone and I kind of startled them and they moved further.

But Miley was right outside the door!

I was NOT in the mood to go and chase barnyard animals that early in the morning!!!!!

But I couldn't help but laugh, cause it was pretty funny :)

Well, we grabbed shoes and as soon as I walked out, they started to move themselves in the gate.

It was pretty cute.

It was no trouble at all.

I had to untie mater, so they could get by him, but even mater helped to push them like  sheep herder into the pasture.

It was easy as pie :)

The morning went nice and smooth too.

All because of my attitude change.

Well, Cassi and Madi are doing the negativity fast too, so that is very helpful for all of us to be doing it.

Dad came home in enough time to see the little ones off to school.

I dropped them off and then came home and did some dishes before I headed back to the school to help in Porters class.

I thought dad was teaching class today when I scheduled to work in class.

My plan is to only work in class when he is at work, because when he is home we want to do house stuff!

But I had already sched today.

So I went.

It was fun.

It is so cute to see Port working at the little stations, playing with his little friends.

He's a good kid.

*****

I came home with Port when class was over.

Then I started helping dad with the house.

Which he already finished the siding on the house.

I need to get started on painting that.

So then we started on the dormers.

I am excited about our shake shingles.

We also had to make a trip to Home Depot to buy the corner pieces for the house and dormer corners.

Then I had to leave the boys to go and get Elsie early from school to take her to PT.

Came home after that and got back to work on the house.

Those shake shingles are a bit time consuming....but I just love how it looks!

Then we had dinner.

For FHE we took a little walk to visit with Bubbles and also the Edwards family and we took some flowers to them that I got to take home from the luncheon yesterday.

It was a good day :)