This morning I thought I'd start a bit early on my blog since lately S has been waking up early and thus my time online gets interrupted. I love my kids, but I do need to be refreshed each day before taking them on again. :) So here I am online trying to get a head start. Well see if it works lol.
Yesterday I decided I wasn't going to print any more math stuff for N since I've been using lots of ink to print sutff for her. She's stuck at the times tables so I don't want to continue with her math curriculum until she knows them. Anyway, dh bought timestales.com for her to use and her and I finally went upstairs to practive them with no noise and interruptions. IT WORKED!! She's finally starting to memorize the upper times tables. It's going to take all summer, but I think by next fall we might be able to start on the Saxon #4 book.
Well after lunch, we all went to the art building to help finish up an art project that has been waiting since 2 yrs ago this spring. The waiting area at the art/gym class has a wall that the kids in art were able to contribute by putting their approved drawings on the wall and then painting them. It's a bright picture with some butterflies, flowers, grass and a few kids playing plus a tree in the corner. Well there's also a magnetic board that needed the magnets so S and I were able to create and cut out the hand drawn magnets the kids had made a few yrs ago. Plus R and N were able to help with the details on the bear that will be holding a chalk board. Should be interesting how things turn out next fall. How long it will last. Of course, having moms in there should help keep it longer.
We arrived home around 3 and dh said he wanted us to get him a bit early. A co-worker's mom had passed away and the viewing was that evening. So we picked him up, we all came home, then dh and R went back to viewing. R stayed in the car while dh did, then they went on to the church for R's meetings. Once they came home that evening they had groceries. It's funny to see the kids most of the time get so excited about the things daddy brings home. I'm just grateful we can afford to do this. I remember a time, prekids, when I wouldn't even look at magazines or in stores because I knew we didn't have the money. Now, every now and then, I have to remind myself how lucky we are that dh has a good job and that he makes good money. I'm very thankful for that. So many either just make ends meet or are struggling.
I finally get around, after family prayer, to putting the kids to bed. Tues evenings are always late in this event. Well S decided that she didn't want to go to sleep. I was up in her room keeping her company from 9-9:40. I decided she just wasn't sleepy so down stairs we went. I told her no talking and no playing. She had to sit on the couch and do nothing. Finally at 10 I told N it was bedtime, so I took S along and put them both to bed. S still wasn't sleepy, but I told her that if she didn't go to sleep she would NOT be able to play first thing after the devotional like she usually does. Guess that worked because the eyes went shut and stayed. WHEW!! Now THAT'S why mom is usually so tired in the evenings. lol The rest of the week should be relatively quiet. Sat we will be cleaning the church since it's our time now. And sometime that day the scouts will be back to collect any books left for R's scout project. I sincerely hope he does well.
Karie
Kariesplace
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Just can't catch up with sleep
I've been trying to get some extra sleep, but it's not working. On Sat, I managed 2 extra hrs, but they were filled with Dd S trying to cuddle while sleeping. S is a wild sleeper and likes to put her legs and feet all over you. She's my climber, so that explains her feet. So anyway, the last few nights, she's been coming into our room, or waking me up fussing. I'm getting tired and during the day I don't have much time to sit and take a nap. Although yesterday afternoon I sat down with S in the frontroom around 4 and ended up snoozing for 20 min. Not a good idea since that's close to when we pick up dh. It's hard to drive when you're still tired.
Well, compared to the weekend, yesterday was nice and calm. We took dh to work, then home to start school. After our devotional, we got our books and DVD's ready to take back. Then off to the library. Once we got there....WOW!! The parking lot was FULL of cars. I was trying to figure out what might be happening for their to be so many cars. We finally found a spot, but never found out why so many cars. Guess it was just one of those days.
Once we got home, we ate lunch, then relaxed while the girls watched school videos and R read. I was able to get some chores done. Pretty much the day was spent relaxing. We did do some food shopping once we picked up dh, but that was it. We also managed to schedule family night again. We've been kind of skipping occassionally lately. Guess because we get busy with things and I don't want to interrupt. But last night I decided we need to get back into it. It turned out good, because S is learning to read and so she wanted to have her turn reading the lesson. Dh helped her with that. I think she had fun.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Well, compared to the weekend, yesterday was nice and calm. We took dh to work, then home to start school. After our devotional, we got our books and DVD's ready to take back. Then off to the library. Once we got there....WOW!! The parking lot was FULL of cars. I was trying to figure out what might be happening for their to be so many cars. We finally found a spot, but never found out why so many cars. Guess it was just one of those days.
Once we got home, we ate lunch, then relaxed while the girls watched school videos and R read. I was able to get some chores done. Pretty much the day was spent relaxing. We did do some food shopping once we picked up dh, but that was it. We also managed to schedule family night again. We've been kind of skipping occassionally lately. Guess because we get busy with things and I don't want to interrupt. But last night I decided we need to get back into it. It turned out good, because S is learning to read and so she wanted to have her turn reading the lesson. Dh helped her with that. I think she had fun.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Monday, April 28, 2008
Well, it's started
Last Fri we were having really bad weather. Thunderstorms and really rough winds. The scouts in our ward were getting ready for a campout at their scoutmasters house in his back yard. Well as it's raining I'm thinking, he's got to change his mnd about this campout, or at least make some changes. That morning afternoon as he's working on his Eagle Project, I start seeing emails about "the boys won't be able to sleep out in tents tonight due to the weather. Would it be possible for us to have our evening activity at the church, maybe sleep there and then continue on to the police academy for the mornings activity". Well, as it turns out, They did meet at the church for the evenings activity. Then one of the leaders offers his basement for the scouts to sleep that night. Due to policy, there is no sleeping at the church. So that meant either the boys come for the evening activity and food, then go home to sleep, then meet at the church for the activity, or someone needs to offer their home. So thankfull they were able to meet at one of the leaders homes for the night.
In the meantime, after we've dropped R at the church, we come home, eat dinner and watch tv. The storm is roaring pretty good outside, but we're ok inside. By the time it's bedtime, the storm is gone. The girls go to bed with no problem.
Saturday morning we're mostly sleeping in. S finds her way into our bedroom and so by 7:30 I'm mostly being kicked out of bed. So rather than wake up, I just get up and come downstairs and rest on the couch. Once everyone wakes up, we start getting breakfast over with and showers. R's Eagle Scout project will begin that afternoon at our home, and we need to do some cleaning up. I have the girls take ALL their toys downstairs so we'll be able to vacuum better. I'm under the impression that the boys will be at our place around 2:30 and their scout master will provide lunch. Then they're supposed to start on R's project. Well, around 11:30 we finally get most of the house cleaned up. By noon we're done and the girls are hungry. So we eat lunch and are watching a DVD. Around 12:30 the phone rings and it's one of the sisters from church asking about R's project. (He's collecting books and other material for our local library). She wants to know if we would like the leftover books and such from their meeting? YES!
Well in the meantime I'm looking out the window while on the phone and I notice one of the scouts leaders vans pull up in front of our home. Turns out one of the activities they were going to do got cancelled. So in walked 7 Teachers and about 7 Deacons into our frontroom. The house was filled was boys boys boys. lol My two girls left the frontroom and escaped into the school room. Dh put on a DVD for them so they would be out of the way.
Once the boys had their lunch, R took charge of his project. The boys were being paired off onto each street and they were to place these bags with info stapled on them on each door handle. The papers were adveritsing about R's project for the library. So around 2 they headed out and didn't come back until 3. I think they handed out about 170 bags. We had 200 ready. While they were gone, the sister who had called about the books, pulled up, and with her dh, brough in 5 1/2 boxes of books. So he's off to a good start.
So now next Sat he's going to have just the Teachers Quorum come and collect any bags with books in them. Plus he's also got a box at the church for members to bring in their books and such. We've also included our homeschool group. So hopefully we'll collect a bunch. Someone at church also brough in a bag of books, so that's good.
It was a good weekend. A bit windy and chilly, but the guys did a good job. I'm glad they stuck around to help out(even though they really didn't have a choice lol).
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
In the meantime, after we've dropped R at the church, we come home, eat dinner and watch tv. The storm is roaring pretty good outside, but we're ok inside. By the time it's bedtime, the storm is gone. The girls go to bed with no problem.
Saturday morning we're mostly sleeping in. S finds her way into our bedroom and so by 7:30 I'm mostly being kicked out of bed. So rather than wake up, I just get up and come downstairs and rest on the couch. Once everyone wakes up, we start getting breakfast over with and showers. R's Eagle Scout project will begin that afternoon at our home, and we need to do some cleaning up. I have the girls take ALL their toys downstairs so we'll be able to vacuum better. I'm under the impression that the boys will be at our place around 2:30 and their scout master will provide lunch. Then they're supposed to start on R's project. Well, around 11:30 we finally get most of the house cleaned up. By noon we're done and the girls are hungry. So we eat lunch and are watching a DVD. Around 12:30 the phone rings and it's one of the sisters from church asking about R's project. (He's collecting books and other material for our local library). She wants to know if we would like the leftover books and such from their meeting? YES!
Well in the meantime I'm looking out the window while on the phone and I notice one of the scouts leaders vans pull up in front of our home. Turns out one of the activities they were going to do got cancelled. So in walked 7 Teachers and about 7 Deacons into our frontroom. The house was filled was boys boys boys. lol My two girls left the frontroom and escaped into the school room. Dh put on a DVD for them so they would be out of the way.
Once the boys had their lunch, R took charge of his project. The boys were being paired off onto each street and they were to place these bags with info stapled on them on each door handle. The papers were adveritsing about R's project for the library. So around 2 they headed out and didn't come back until 3. I think they handed out about 170 bags. We had 200 ready. While they were gone, the sister who had called about the books, pulled up, and with her dh, brough in 5 1/2 boxes of books. So he's off to a good start.
So now next Sat he's going to have just the Teachers Quorum come and collect any bags with books in them. Plus he's also got a box at the church for members to bring in their books and such. We've also included our homeschool group. So hopefully we'll collect a bunch. Someone at church also brough in a bag of books, so that's good.
It was a good weekend. A bit windy and chilly, but the guys did a good job. I'm glad they stuck around to help out(even though they really didn't have a choice lol).
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Friday, April 25, 2008
Loooong Night
It seems, lately, that my oldest dd N keeps asking me each night(since the end of March) if there's going to be a stom that night. I always say "its not warm enough yet". Well last night she asks me again and I say "not that I know of". Well sometime around 1 or 2 or 3am she climbed into bed hearing thunder. Ok, that was fine. Then around 4 my youngest dd S decides she hears it also and needs mommy. So thankfully we have a king size bed because as it was, we were crowded. Both my girls sleep very rough. So dh and I are constantly getting pushed, kicked or whatever all night. I checked the clock around 4:45am and was about to put the girls in their own bed, but just decided to climb back into bed and try and snooze for 50 min. Ended up waking around 5:15 so I just decided it was time. I'm normally up on week days around 5:30am R's seminary class. Thankfully the storm has ended so the girls are back to sleep.
Today is going to be a busy day. We have a science fair to attend at the local library, so we'll head to that for the next 2hrs. Come home and get busy with R's Eagle Scout Project. He needs to staple some flyers to about 200 plastic bags that will be announcing that he's collecting books and such for the local library. Then we're off to get dh from work, the dropping R at his scout masters house for a weekend campout. R loves these. He didn't used to when he first entered in, but the scout master is so nice to R that it makes it worth while.
Sat will be cleaning up and possibly making some cupcakes for the scouts when they come over to do the scout project. I'm just hoping the weather works out. Supposedly more thunderstorms today, but at least it will be daylight and the girls won't freak out as much.
Last night we went to Sam's Club to pick up groceries and get the bags for the scout project. S was very active and kept wanting to climb on the cart, then hop off, then back on etc... Dh was getting a big frustrated since it meant the cart was somewhat heavy. R finally put her on his shoulders and carried her a bit that way. She loved it! That helped a lot.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Today is going to be a busy day. We have a science fair to attend at the local library, so we'll head to that for the next 2hrs. Come home and get busy with R's Eagle Scout Project. He needs to staple some flyers to about 200 plastic bags that will be announcing that he's collecting books and such for the local library. Then we're off to get dh from work, the dropping R at his scout masters house for a weekend campout. R loves these. He didn't used to when he first entered in, but the scout master is so nice to R that it makes it worth while.
Sat will be cleaning up and possibly making some cupcakes for the scouts when they come over to do the scout project. I'm just hoping the weather works out. Supposedly more thunderstorms today, but at least it will be daylight and the girls won't freak out as much.
Last night we went to Sam's Club to pick up groceries and get the bags for the scout project. S was very active and kept wanting to climb on the cart, then hop off, then back on etc... Dh was getting a big frustrated since it meant the cart was somewhat heavy. R finally put her on his shoulders and carried her a bit that way. She loved it! That helped a lot.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Eagle Scout Project
Well yesterday, ds R spent most of his day getting things ready for his Eagle Scout Project which will possibly start this Sat afternoon. The weather isn't looking too good, so we'll have to see. I hope, for his sake, that the weather holds until they're done. He's been wanting to get it done literally for months. He told me the other day he'll be glad when it's all done so he can concentrate on other things. I think he'll feel good once it's accomplished.
Dd N received her packet of math in the mail. It's the www.timestales.com that I've been hearing from others that starts to work either that day or after a week. I'm hoping it will help her because she's really struggling with her times tables. We shall see.
I'm determined that I need to be more serious with school stuff now. Dh and I had a nice talk awhile back and it made me realize that I've been too slacking in school. I firmly believe that if you give a child information laying around the house, a child will be curious and want to learn about it on their own(mostly). So I've tried putting some types of books and videos on hold so that my kids will learn of it. It kind of seems to be working with dd N, but ds R is firmly planted in computers. Dd S just wanted to learn about everything, and wants to read to you so you know how excited she is. I think it's neat that at 4 1/2 she's already reading. Amazing! Anyway, I'm hoping to get more serious about stuff now. We'll see how it works in a few weeks. lol
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Dd N received her packet of math in the mail. It's the www.timestales.com that I've been hearing from others that starts to work either that day or after a week. I'm hoping it will help her because she's really struggling with her times tables. We shall see.
I'm determined that I need to be more serious with school stuff now. Dh and I had a nice talk awhile back and it made me realize that I've been too slacking in school. I firmly believe that if you give a child information laying around the house, a child will be curious and want to learn about it on their own(mostly). So I've tried putting some types of books and videos on hold so that my kids will learn of it. It kind of seems to be working with dd N, but ds R is firmly planted in computers. Dd S just wanted to learn about everything, and wants to read to you so you know how excited she is. I think it's neat that at 4 1/2 she's already reading. Amazing! Anyway, I'm hoping to get more serious about stuff now. We'll see how it works in a few weeks. lol
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Good, but busy day (April 23rd)
Yesterday was ds R's birthday. It being on a Tues made it even busier than a normal Tues. Dh took the day off and instead of school work, we choose to go to the zoo. After a few hrs we decided we were hungry so off to get lunch. We then had "Celebration Day" for the kids' art and gym class. This is where the kids receive their certificates of achievement for art and gym class. Youngest dd received her first one. She was excited. We told her several times what she needed to do and she did a fabulous job. She's a bit shy at times, but did well. All the kids have done well with these classes. They also get to have snacks and such.
After this was over with, ds wanted to do miniature golfing. It was fun because it had been raining just before we went tocelebration day so we weren't sure exactly what to expect. We did have fun, but the fake green grass was soaked, so we had to be careful not to sit down lol. After golfing we went and got pizza for dinner, then home to eat and receive gifts. He received some nice gifts. He was happy. Some of them were computer related, but some were snacks. We then headed off to the church for meetings we had. Ds had his scout meeting, and I had my sign language class. We were all very tired but had a good day.
Today we're back to regular schedule, I hope lol. It's always hard to get back to serious mode when you've had a fun day. Especially on the parents who have tired legs lol. I refuse to believe I'm getting old. Older and wiser I hope, but not old lol. Apparently my body seems to think otherwise. Guess we're in for a battle lol.
The weather is finally being good as well. I believe spring has finally out done winter. This means, of course, that we need to put the shovels back into the garage lol. I guess we've left them there in case we had one last hurrah! It's so nice to see green grass, flowers blooming, just color everywhere instead of white and gray. Even on days when the sun was shining, it was still not always a fun day. It helped to have the sun, but when you stepped outside you knew it was winter. I love being able to go outside without a jacket and just sit on the porch or take a walk. Breathe fresh air.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
After this was over with, ds wanted to do miniature golfing. It was fun because it had been raining just before we went tocelebration day so we weren't sure exactly what to expect. We did have fun, but the fake green grass was soaked, so we had to be careful not to sit down lol. After golfing we went and got pizza for dinner, then home to eat and receive gifts. He received some nice gifts. He was happy. Some of them were computer related, but some were snacks. We then headed off to the church for meetings we had. Ds had his scout meeting, and I had my sign language class. We were all very tired but had a good day.
Today we're back to regular schedule, I hope lol. It's always hard to get back to serious mode when you've had a fun day. Especially on the parents who have tired legs lol. I refuse to believe I'm getting old. Older and wiser I hope, but not old lol. Apparently my body seems to think otherwise. Guess we're in for a battle lol.
The weather is finally being good as well. I believe spring has finally out done winter. This means, of course, that we need to put the shovels back into the garage lol. I guess we've left them there in case we had one last hurrah! It's so nice to see green grass, flowers blooming, just color everywhere instead of white and gray. Even on days when the sun was shining, it was still not always a fun day. It helped to have the sun, but when you stepped outside you knew it was winter. I love being able to go outside without a jacket and just sit on the porch or take a walk. Breathe fresh air.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Monday, April 21, 2008
A good weekend
We had a very nice weekend. The weather was low 70's so we spent a lot of time outside. Very good for the kids, bu especially for dd S who is only 4. She loves being outside either running around chasing R and N, riding her bike or taking a walk around the block. The bedtime is usually much easier. It's just so nice to have good weather finally.
Sunday was back to regular church schedule. The last 2 Sundays have been General Conference and then Stake Conference. They were a nice break but we now need to get back on track.
Yesterday I was able to speak to my mom with my aunt's help holding the phone. Felt really nice hearing her voice again. My one aunt said mom's voice was a bit quiet, but I think just the fact of getting to talk to me helped her speak loudly. I miss my mom and being able to just call whenever and talk. So I'm thankful to my aunts who were willing to do this.
Well somewhat sad news, my nephews oldest is in the hospital. Not sure what the exact name of his little boy's condition, but something about dwarfism. Due to some unforunate incident, he's back in the hospital with emergency issues. My poor nephew was trying to do the thing he always did with the trach, but it refused to work for him, thus causing his little boy to pass out. He ended up back in the ER. He seems to be slowly getting better, but my nephew is really taking it hard. Prayers on his bahalf. I tried leaving a message, but they're probably just too busy right now. I just pray that whatever Heavenly Father has in mind, that he will spiritually lift up this family so they can handle whatever comes their way. Such a sweet family.
On a lighter note, tomorrow is ds R's bday and he will be 15! Yikes! lol. J/K. He's growing up into such a good kid, bit of an attitude, but still a good kid. He helps me out with a lot of things and I greatly appreciate him. He's not sure exactly what all he wants to do, but we'll figure that out as time goes. He does want to do miniature golfing, but the weather may not cooperate. We do have celebration day for the kids' art and gym classes. After that he's not sure what to do. Says he really doesn't want to do a lot, just be with family. So my entry for Wed will reveal what happened.
Karie
http://www.kariesplace.robertcity.com/
Sunday was back to regular church schedule. The last 2 Sundays have been General Conference and then Stake Conference. They were a nice break but we now need to get back on track.
Yesterday I was able to speak to my mom with my aunt's help holding the phone. Felt really nice hearing her voice again. My one aunt said mom's voice was a bit quiet, but I think just the fact of getting to talk to me helped her speak loudly. I miss my mom and being able to just call whenever and talk. So I'm thankful to my aunts who were willing to do this.
Well somewhat sad news, my nephews oldest is in the hospital. Not sure what the exact name of his little boy's condition, but something about dwarfism. Due to some unforunate incident, he's back in the hospital with emergency issues. My poor nephew was trying to do the thing he always did with the trach, but it refused to work for him, thus causing his little boy to pass out. He ended up back in the ER. He seems to be slowly getting better, but my nephew is really taking it hard. Prayers on his bahalf. I tried leaving a message, but they're probably just too busy right now. I just pray that whatever Heavenly Father has in mind, that he will spiritually lift up this family so they can handle whatever comes their way. Such a sweet family.
On a lighter note, tomorrow is ds R's bday and he will be 15! Yikes! lol. J/K. He's growing up into such a good kid, bit of an attitude, but still a good kid. He helps me out with a lot of things and I greatly appreciate him. He's not sure exactly what all he wants to do, but we'll figure that out as time goes. He does want to do miniature golfing, but the weather may not cooperate. We do have celebration day for the kids' art and gym classes. After that he's not sure what to do. Says he really doesn't want to do a lot, just be with family. So my entry for Wed will reveal what happened.
Karie
http://www.kariesplace.robertcity.com/
Friday, April 18, 2008
Fri again
Well, once again the weekend is closing in. Feels like the week just started and now it's ended. I remember my mom always saying time was flying by quickly. I used to just chuckle and go yeah yeah. But oh how right she was. At least now my ds R realizes this quicker than I did and does try and make life count. Not always, but he tries.
Tonight we're going to the Stake Court of Honor. I think R will be getting his computer merit badge. He's very close to getting 3 others, but those will have to wait till the next court. He has a swimming, family and one other one(one thing on each) and then he'll have those badges. The swimming one will hopefully be done in the next month or two. His scout master emailed him stating at one of the weekend campouts they would head over to one of the local high schools and use their swimming pool. The family one, he just needs to talk to his dad about s_x. Not sure about the other one. Then get his Eagle project done. He says then he'll stop worrying about going to scouts as much. Although I think his dad will still insist that he go, but who knows.
This weekend, dh will be on call again. He traded last weekend with this weekend due to Stake Conference. Which just basically means we don't go out to eat, we don't do heavy duty shopping since if dh gets paged, he needs to have access to his computer within 10 min of being paged if needed. So he informs me, we'll probably do a bit of spring cleaning. That's fine with me. I think I'll start today with the girl's room. It looks like a tornado ran through it. Clothes and books and toys scattered throughout, and their room really isn't that big. R has already started going through his stuff and has found many things he had forgotten about lol. Amazing how that works.
I went on my 2nd evening of visiting teaching with my companion. I used to visit teach her, but I was also companionless. My former companion just hasn't been able to make it to church, and any time you call her at home, she gets interrupted by family. So R.S. Pres had assigned her to a letter route, and given me this sweet sister who has been having a hard time with work and car and life. She has a ds R's age and we can both relate. We had an enjoyable time visiting our 2nd sister. Wed evening we did our first sister. Anway, this last one was harder to get away from because her and my companion know each other from the past and had a lot to catch up on. So we were gone a bit longer. Thankfully the kids were able to play outside in the nice weather, thus giving dad a break and getting their energy out. That has made bedtime so much easier.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Tonight we're going to the Stake Court of Honor. I think R will be getting his computer merit badge. He's very close to getting 3 others, but those will have to wait till the next court. He has a swimming, family and one other one(one thing on each) and then he'll have those badges. The swimming one will hopefully be done in the next month or two. His scout master emailed him stating at one of the weekend campouts they would head over to one of the local high schools and use their swimming pool. The family one, he just needs to talk to his dad about s_x. Not sure about the other one. Then get his Eagle project done. He says then he'll stop worrying about going to scouts as much. Although I think his dad will still insist that he go, but who knows.
This weekend, dh will be on call again. He traded last weekend with this weekend due to Stake Conference. Which just basically means we don't go out to eat, we don't do heavy duty shopping since if dh gets paged, he needs to have access to his computer within 10 min of being paged if needed. So he informs me, we'll probably do a bit of spring cleaning. That's fine with me. I think I'll start today with the girl's room. It looks like a tornado ran through it. Clothes and books and toys scattered throughout, and their room really isn't that big. R has already started going through his stuff and has found many things he had forgotten about lol. Amazing how that works.
I went on my 2nd evening of visiting teaching with my companion. I used to visit teach her, but I was also companionless. My former companion just hasn't been able to make it to church, and any time you call her at home, she gets interrupted by family. So R.S. Pres had assigned her to a letter route, and given me this sweet sister who has been having a hard time with work and car and life. She has a ds R's age and we can both relate. We had an enjoyable time visiting our 2nd sister. Wed evening we did our first sister. Anway, this last one was harder to get away from because her and my companion know each other from the past and had a lot to catch up on. So we were gone a bit longer. Thankfully the kids were able to play outside in the nice weather, thus giving dad a break and getting their energy out. That has made bedtime so much easier.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Spring is here
Yesterday the weather was beautiful. The temp was 75 by noontime. I actually shed a few layers of clothing. We opened up the windows to let the fresh air in. Our neighbor behind us called to see if the kids could come pick up the sticks off her back lawn again. She had asked them 2 summers ago to come help out and they each get $2.00 a piece for doing this. R says he's kind of tired of it, but I figure it won't hurt him any to help a neighbor. Well he was also able to help out in her basement turning some water knobs and got an extra $2.00. Not much, but more than if he didn't.
I also went visiting teaching with my new companion last night. I used to visit her, but requested she become my companion since my old companion's schedule just didn't work with mine. We had an enjoyable visit together also visiting with our 1st sister. I'm hoping this will continue to work out. She really needs reactivation.
Well last night dh asked me how the kids' school was coming. Always a subject I try and avoid with him since he feels that I'm too lax. I'm under the idea that a child will learn according to THEIR ability and with occasional pushes from me, will learn at the best rate they can. Sometimes I feel that dh is still too much ps minded and that the kids are way behind in some of their studies. My comment is "who decided at what level each age should be at". Well the government did. My thought on that is, a lot of kids can do at the same level, but there are some kids either ahead, or behind due to their learning abilities. I try and work with this and encourage, but I feel if their brain isn't ready for something and you keep pushing it, eventually they're going to stop learning and hate it. That's how I felt about school growing up and I don't want that for my kids. I know I need to push a but, but sometimes I feel he wants me to push too much.
He also mentioned that fact that our oldest dd N needs to really practice on her prayers. She will be in the young women's group the end of Aug when she turns 12 and she still refuses to say them at home. She used to say the food prayer all the time, but now S does. So I guess I need to sit down with N and figure out why she doesn't want to say them. My personal thought is, not everyone is comfortable saying prayers for everyone to hear. But I guess I need to at least find out WHY she's this way.
Anyway, so with all this talk from him, I have a lot of things to figure out how we'll change our schedule. He commented on how much actual DVD's and videos that kids are watching and my comment back was that our dd N learns more when she's watching than just reading. He's concerned also about her reading. Again my thought on this is a child is born curious, just let that curiosity go where it wants(as long as it's good) and help it out occassionally. I do check out books for her on food, animals and other science stuff. Guess I need to sit down with her and find out how much she's retaining.
So anyway, I guess I need to get my butt going and get more actual lessons going. Wish me luck I can keep it going enough to satisfiy dh. I understand his concern, I just wish he would be a bit more relaxed. We'll see. :)
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
I also went visiting teaching with my new companion last night. I used to visit her, but requested she become my companion since my old companion's schedule just didn't work with mine. We had an enjoyable visit together also visiting with our 1st sister. I'm hoping this will continue to work out. She really needs reactivation.
Well last night dh asked me how the kids' school was coming. Always a subject I try and avoid with him since he feels that I'm too lax. I'm under the idea that a child will learn according to THEIR ability and with occasional pushes from me, will learn at the best rate they can. Sometimes I feel that dh is still too much ps minded and that the kids are way behind in some of their studies. My comment is "who decided at what level each age should be at". Well the government did. My thought on that is, a lot of kids can do at the same level, but there are some kids either ahead, or behind due to their learning abilities. I try and work with this and encourage, but I feel if their brain isn't ready for something and you keep pushing it, eventually they're going to stop learning and hate it. That's how I felt about school growing up and I don't want that for my kids. I know I need to push a but, but sometimes I feel he wants me to push too much.
He also mentioned that fact that our oldest dd N needs to really practice on her prayers. She will be in the young women's group the end of Aug when she turns 12 and she still refuses to say them at home. She used to say the food prayer all the time, but now S does. So I guess I need to sit down with N and figure out why she doesn't want to say them. My personal thought is, not everyone is comfortable saying prayers for everyone to hear. But I guess I need to at least find out WHY she's this way.
Anyway, so with all this talk from him, I have a lot of things to figure out how we'll change our schedule. He commented on how much actual DVD's and videos that kids are watching and my comment back was that our dd N learns more when she's watching than just reading. He's concerned also about her reading. Again my thought on this is a child is born curious, just let that curiosity go where it wants(as long as it's good) and help it out occassionally. I do check out books for her on food, animals and other science stuff. Guess I need to sit down with her and find out how much she's retaining.
So anyway, I guess I need to get my butt going and get more actual lessons going. Wish me luck I can keep it going enough to satisfiy dh. I understand his concern, I just wish he would be a bit more relaxed. We'll see. :)
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Still tired
Yesterday was the kids' last day at art and gym for the semester. Always a fun time for catching up on unfinished projects. Well, then once the youngest group was done, Miss Sara took the group(except my dd) to gym only to find that the gym teacher wasn't there. He hadn't called or anything. So the staff tried calling him but no answer. Hmmmm...now what to do. Luckily on one of the moms of the younger kids said she would take over. However, the art teacher would still have to find someone for the middle and older class. Well what they ended up doing is having one of the staff members take over the art class while Miss Sara took over the gym class. What fun! So the question for the moment is....what happened to the gym teacher?
After classes were over, we came home and the routine of showers, picking up dad, and more showers along with dinner happened. However, because ds R wasn't having any church activities, dd N and I ended up going alone. Dd S stayed home with daddy and R. I think dh would have rather come with me to the church, but felt he needed to stay home. I got home to find dh very tired. It was nice to have it just be Dd N and I do something on our own. That's rare.
This morning it's, stay at home time, and get serious school work done. I'm ready for any problems(I hope) that might come along with any refusal to do school stuff. Ds R tells me he will help dd N with her times tables today. We'll see how it goes. lol. But seriously, I hope something does because the way I was doing it hasn't been working. I had emailed my dh about a product called www.Timestales.com and how my friends have been raving about it. It's a bit pricey for what it is, but if it'll help out, it will be worth it.
Dd N came to me after her church class and said they worked on journals. She was handed several pieces of paper with questions she had to answer. She answered a lot of them on her own, but a few she would need help with. I told her that would be fine. She loves her "Faith in God" class. I'm glad she does. But she's only got 4 more months and then she's ont to YW(Young Women). I think she's kind of excited, but also very nervous. She has LOVED going to FIG and doing all the activities. Her teacher says she has done well. That's good considering how shy she used to be. She still can be if she doesn't know someone, but she is doing better.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
After classes were over, we came home and the routine of showers, picking up dad, and more showers along with dinner happened. However, because ds R wasn't having any church activities, dd N and I ended up going alone. Dd S stayed home with daddy and R. I think dh would have rather come with me to the church, but felt he needed to stay home. I got home to find dh very tired. It was nice to have it just be Dd N and I do something on our own. That's rare.
This morning it's, stay at home time, and get serious school work done. I'm ready for any problems(I hope) that might come along with any refusal to do school stuff. Ds R tells me he will help dd N with her times tables today. We'll see how it goes. lol. But seriously, I hope something does because the way I was doing it hasn't been working. I had emailed my dh about a product called www.Timestales.com and how my friends have been raving about it. It's a bit pricey for what it is, but if it'll help out, it will be worth it.
Dd N came to me after her church class and said they worked on journals. She was handed several pieces of paper with questions she had to answer. She answered a lot of them on her own, but a few she would need help with. I told her that would be fine. She loves her "Faith in God" class. I'm glad she does. But she's only got 4 more months and then she's ont to YW(Young Women). I think she's kind of excited, but also very nervous. She has LOVED going to FIG and doing all the activities. Her teacher says she has done well. That's good considering how shy she used to be. She still can be if she doesn't know someone, but she is doing better.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Hard time getting going
This morning I go to wake up ds R, and he's not wanting to wake up. Took me a few extra times of getting his attention before he signaled that he was awake. Guess he needs to go to bed earlier. It's amazing how on days when he doesn't have seminary, he's awake as early as 4am. lol Guess it's the motivation of using the computer that wakes him lol.
Well today is another busy Tues. Take dh to work, then get ourselves ready for the school day. Then around noon take S to her art class while N tags along. R stays home and continues working on school assignments. We then come home in time for a quick lunch and back to art AND gym for N & R. We're there for about 2 hrs. Then home for a bit and N or R showers, then off to pick up dh. Back home and the other one showers and dinner. Then off to the church for activities for R & N. S tags along with mommy and dad. Then we arrive home around 8:30 or 9 exhausted. Thank goodness for days at home.
Well one of my friends who has been getting less and less hrs at work, finally found a new job! She was so super excited that she called me right away. I'm so happy for her. She's a single mom with a car that barely works. And with this yrs winter snow storms we've had, she has struggled to keep it going. Her ds is in high school and thankfully a strong boy so he's been able to assist her in some instances. And at least this job is still in town so she won't have to drive too far. I'm so happy for her, she's really needed some good news with jobs.
Anther friend of mine will be moving in a few weeks, and she's a bit over 3 months preg. She's trying to be so careful due to some other miscarriages. This one seems to be hanging on, so my continued prayers are with her. I'll probably be going over to help clean one of the houses during the move. I'll be taking the kids, of course, and I"m sure they'll be thrilled....NOT! Oh well, service never hurt anyone.
It's also tax time, and dh has spent the last several evenings getting our taxes done online. So much fun. I also discovered that state taxes are about 3x more than the federal ones. Apparently our state is known for high taxes. If I were the governer, I would be ashamed to have a state known as that. Of course, a lot of politicians seem to think the more $$ we give them, the more they can do(yeah for themselves).
Well, I'm going to end on a positive note. Weather wise we're finally having some nice days. Yesterday, by mid afternoon we were able to go outside with NO COAT OR JACKET!! Sunshine and green grass. Some flowers here and there. So nice to see finally. Spring is here!!
Karie
Well today is another busy Tues. Take dh to work, then get ourselves ready for the school day. Then around noon take S to her art class while N tags along. R stays home and continues working on school assignments. We then come home in time for a quick lunch and back to art AND gym for N & R. We're there for about 2 hrs. Then home for a bit and N or R showers, then off to pick up dh. Back home and the other one showers and dinner. Then off to the church for activities for R & N. S tags along with mommy and dad. Then we arrive home around 8:30 or 9 exhausted. Thank goodness for days at home.
Well one of my friends who has been getting less and less hrs at work, finally found a new job! She was so super excited that she called me right away. I'm so happy for her. She's a single mom with a car that barely works. And with this yrs winter snow storms we've had, she has struggled to keep it going. Her ds is in high school and thankfully a strong boy so he's been able to assist her in some instances. And at least this job is still in town so she won't have to drive too far. I'm so happy for her, she's really needed some good news with jobs.
Anther friend of mine will be moving in a few weeks, and she's a bit over 3 months preg. She's trying to be so careful due to some other miscarriages. This one seems to be hanging on, so my continued prayers are with her. I'll probably be going over to help clean one of the houses during the move. I'll be taking the kids, of course, and I"m sure they'll be thrilled....NOT! Oh well, service never hurt anyone.
It's also tax time, and dh has spent the last several evenings getting our taxes done online. So much fun. I also discovered that state taxes are about 3x more than the federal ones. Apparently our state is known for high taxes. If I were the governer, I would be ashamed to have a state known as that. Of course, a lot of politicians seem to think the more $$ we give them, the more they can do(yeah for themselves).
Well, I'm going to end on a positive note. Weather wise we're finally having some nice days. Yesterday, by mid afternoon we were able to go outside with NO COAT OR JACKET!! Sunshine and green grass. Some flowers here and there. So nice to see finally. Spring is here!!
Karie
Monday, April 14, 2008
Conferences
The last 2 weekends have been filled with General Conference(last Sunday) and this past Sun was Stake Conference. It feels like we haven't had regular church in quite awhile. I think I'm looking forward to next Sun and back to routine again. It's nice to have routine broken, but then it's nice to get back to it again.
This past weekend was a hard one on my dh. He had gone out to lunch one day last week to Taco Bell and by the time he got home he was looking green. I think that was Thurs. He went to be early and then the next morning back to work even with not feeling well. When he got home Fri he was still not doing good. He ended up going upstairs and falling asleep for a few hrs. Later in the evening he came down looking a lot better. Still not completely well, but a lot better. By Sat morning he was much improved and started working on fixing our broken toilet. It was really wiggly and needed to be tightened. He figured it would take many hrs, but turns out to only need 2 1/2. Not bad, and now we have a toilet again. YEAH!
We also had Stake Conference this weekend. On Sat there was the Priesthood session and then the adult one. This yr I decided that our ds R was going to babysit our youngest dd S (with help from oldest dd N) while both of us went together to the Adult session. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous at first, but after the song break halfway through I called and they were having fun and being good, so I was able to enjoy the rest of the conference. It was nice to just sit with dh and not have children needing my attention.
Sunday morning we all start getting ready for church which starts at 2. Because we're meeting at a different building, and this yr due to all the snow and rain which we've gotten, there was a lot of flooding. So the extra parking that was on the grass, wasn't available. So they encouraged us to carpool and get to church early. We did and got great seats and great parking. It was a nice meeting, but dd S decided that she wanted mommy to read some of her picture books to her. I was trying to be patient, but I did want to listen to the talks. Finally, I got her coloring a small activity book which she was good with.
After conference we left to go home and enjoy the rest of the day. We did find a message from our neighbor that the city would be by today to clean up the rest of the leaves from last fall. Finally!! Dh had no church work and neither did I. So we had dinner and relaxed. The girls played quietly with their dolls, ds & dh went on computer, & I watched a bit of tv. Ended up dozing a bit, but that's fine. Overall had a nice evening.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
This past weekend was a hard one on my dh. He had gone out to lunch one day last week to Taco Bell and by the time he got home he was looking green. I think that was Thurs. He went to be early and then the next morning back to work even with not feeling well. When he got home Fri he was still not doing good. He ended up going upstairs and falling asleep for a few hrs. Later in the evening he came down looking a lot better. Still not completely well, but a lot better. By Sat morning he was much improved and started working on fixing our broken toilet. It was really wiggly and needed to be tightened. He figured it would take many hrs, but turns out to only need 2 1/2. Not bad, and now we have a toilet again. YEAH!
We also had Stake Conference this weekend. On Sat there was the Priesthood session and then the adult one. This yr I decided that our ds R was going to babysit our youngest dd S (with help from oldest dd N) while both of us went together to the Adult session. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous at first, but after the song break halfway through I called and they were having fun and being good, so I was able to enjoy the rest of the conference. It was nice to just sit with dh and not have children needing my attention.
Sunday morning we all start getting ready for church which starts at 2. Because we're meeting at a different building, and this yr due to all the snow and rain which we've gotten, there was a lot of flooding. So the extra parking that was on the grass, wasn't available. So they encouraged us to carpool and get to church early. We did and got great seats and great parking. It was a nice meeting, but dd S decided that she wanted mommy to read some of her picture books to her. I was trying to be patient, but I did want to listen to the talks. Finally, I got her coloring a small activity book which she was good with.
After conference we left to go home and enjoy the rest of the day. We did find a message from our neighbor that the city would be by today to clean up the rest of the leaves from last fall. Finally!! Dh had no church work and neither did I. So we had dinner and relaxed. The girls played quietly with their dolls, ds & dh went on computer, & I watched a bit of tv. Ended up dozing a bit, but that's fine. Overall had a nice evening.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Friday, April 11, 2008
The weekend...
is almost here. Can't believe it's already Fri. I was certain we had just started the week and now it's Fri again. I think dh will be glad when Mon is here. He's been on call all week, and I believe these weeks are getting worse each time.
This weekend is our Stake Conference, which means the whole family goes to one meeting on Sun together instead of 3 classes as a regular Sun. We have these twice a yr along with General Conference. These meetings are a way for the higher up priesthood holders to give more of us a message we need to hear on a more personal level(not THAT personal, of course) but more to wha we need to hear in our area. This meeting lasts about 2 hrs. A bit long for the children, but most of them handle it well. There is a crying room for those small children who can't handle it.
I think on Sat dh is going to try and fix the upstairs toilet. The screws on it are very loose. So loose that the kids were able to move it quite easily. It's been off limits for the past few days. Thank goodness we have another bathroom we can use. The kids have been very good about not touching or using it.
Weather wise we've gone from shoveling lots and lots of snow, to watching lots and lots of rain. This past week I believe we've had about 3 to 4" of rain. Now that may not seem a lot, but when you figure in all the snow we've had that is now saturating the ground, it's a lot. Pretty much the ground is so wet that the rain water is just sitting in ponds all over the place. The fields where farmers plow are just soaking wet. Kind of like small swimming pools all over. And then on top of all that we have lots of brown yucky leaves from last fall that are still waiting to be picked up. Should be an interesting next few weeks.
Well as much as getting up early is hard, it's nice to have a quiet home so that I can relax for a bit. It's my time online to check things out, read my emails and just enjoy a bit of quiet before the household wakes up. I love having my children home, but I do need my time in order to enjoy them.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
This weekend is our Stake Conference, which means the whole family goes to one meeting on Sun together instead of 3 classes as a regular Sun. We have these twice a yr along with General Conference. These meetings are a way for the higher up priesthood holders to give more of us a message we need to hear on a more personal level(not THAT personal, of course) but more to wha we need to hear in our area. This meeting lasts about 2 hrs. A bit long for the children, but most of them handle it well. There is a crying room for those small children who can't handle it.
I think on Sat dh is going to try and fix the upstairs toilet. The screws on it are very loose. So loose that the kids were able to move it quite easily. It's been off limits for the past few days. Thank goodness we have another bathroom we can use. The kids have been very good about not touching or using it.
Weather wise we've gone from shoveling lots and lots of snow, to watching lots and lots of rain. This past week I believe we've had about 3 to 4" of rain. Now that may not seem a lot, but when you figure in all the snow we've had that is now saturating the ground, it's a lot. Pretty much the ground is so wet that the rain water is just sitting in ponds all over the place. The fields where farmers plow are just soaking wet. Kind of like small swimming pools all over. And then on top of all that we have lots of brown yucky leaves from last fall that are still waiting to be picked up. Should be an interesting next few weeks.
Well as much as getting up early is hard, it's nice to have a quiet home so that I can relax for a bit. It's my time online to check things out, read my emails and just enjoy a bit of quiet before the household wakes up. I love having my children home, but I do need my time in order to enjoy them.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Morning again
Good morning to whoever reads this. I'm hoping to have a better day and better attitude today than I did yesterday. Yesterday was blah and cloudy and I had a hard time feeling up to anything. I think it's just the leftover winter blues, but I barely managed my basic chores. I did manage to wash our bed sheets yesterday. That's no easy task. So now we have clean sheets for the next few months. I just need to do the kids' bed stuff now.
I also cleaned the upstairs bathroom. The whole toilet is very loose and dh has asked that no one use it or touch it. I did have to flush it after cleaning, but that was it. Ok now I'm rambling lol.
Dh had to work late yesterday due to he's on call and the site commander. He finally managed to get home around 9. He said all he was doing was sitting at his desk just listening to their conversations. Finally they kicked him out. The kids were glad to see him especially little S. She ran to him and hugged him and then proceeded to try and dance around when it was family prayer time. I admit I was a bit frustrated since I was trying to get her to settle, but she was happy to see daddy, so I stood back for a bit.
Well I guess the ole' brain just doesn't have much else to say so I'll end this now.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
I also cleaned the upstairs bathroom. The whole toilet is very loose and dh has asked that no one use it or touch it. I did have to flush it after cleaning, but that was it. Ok now I'm rambling lol.
Dh had to work late yesterday due to he's on call and the site commander. He finally managed to get home around 9. He said all he was doing was sitting at his desk just listening to their conversations. Finally they kicked him out. The kids were glad to see him especially little S. She ran to him and hugged him and then proceeded to try and dance around when it was family prayer time. I admit I was a bit frustrated since I was trying to get her to settle, but she was happy to see daddy, so I stood back for a bit.
Well I guess the ole' brain just doesn't have much else to say so I'll end this now.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Time to settle
Since Mon we've been going here and there, but now it's Wed, it's time to settle and just get school work done. I love getting out and doing stuff, but after a few days, I just need to stay put.
Well the end of the art and gym semester is coming up. All 3 of my kids have been doing these classes this semester. S just has art since gym was a bit rough. But she loves the painting and play dough and such. It's been fun being in with her and helping the teacher out. At the beginning of the semester I tried to just sit at the table and not butt in, but as the weeks went by, I could sense she needed an extra hand at times. So I eventually just started helping out when I could see it was needed. It's been fun.
The snow has melted finally. We had spots in our yard where it took awhile. Especially next to the garage where it doesn't get much sun. But now it's raining season and yesterday afternoon it poured and continued pouring all day and into the evening. According to the weather radar it seems to have passed now. I'm guessing several inches of rain.
Well I think my brothers and I may have finally gotten dad's insurance info taken care of. We've also been discussing giving a portion of what each of us receives from the insurance to my mom for when she has er services. It turns out that my grandma(mom's mom) has put away money for that already, so all we need to do is take care of the morturary and then maybe put some into a gift for mom for mother's day and her bday. Just not sure what yet. I miss my mom and dad.
Thankfully I can still see my mom, but dad is gone and I'm sad. I miss his sparkle in his eye when he was being silly. We had our disagreements, but I still love and miss him. I'm just glad that my brothers and I are good with each other and not greedy for the money. Not that there's much to be greedy over, but hey some families would try. I'm very thankful for my brothers and our friendship with each other.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Well the end of the art and gym semester is coming up. All 3 of my kids have been doing these classes this semester. S just has art since gym was a bit rough. But she loves the painting and play dough and such. It's been fun being in with her and helping the teacher out. At the beginning of the semester I tried to just sit at the table and not butt in, but as the weeks went by, I could sense she needed an extra hand at times. So I eventually just started helping out when I could see it was needed. It's been fun.
The snow has melted finally. We had spots in our yard where it took awhile. Especially next to the garage where it doesn't get much sun. But now it's raining season and yesterday afternoon it poured and continued pouring all day and into the evening. According to the weather radar it seems to have passed now. I'm guessing several inches of rain.
Well I think my brothers and I may have finally gotten dad's insurance info taken care of. We've also been discussing giving a portion of what each of us receives from the insurance to my mom for when she has er services. It turns out that my grandma(mom's mom) has put away money for that already, so all we need to do is take care of the morturary and then maybe put some into a gift for mom for mother's day and her bday. Just not sure what yet. I miss my mom and dad.
Thankfully I can still see my mom, but dad is gone and I'm sad. I miss his sparkle in his eye when he was being silly. We had our disagreements, but I still love and miss him. I'm just glad that my brothers and I are good with each other and not greedy for the money. Not that there's much to be greedy over, but hey some families would try. I'm very thankful for my brothers and our friendship with each other.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
It's Tues...again
You know, as I get older(not old, mind you lol) but older, I see time flying by. I've always known that it goes by fast, but I'm definitely seeing it fly by at times. I think R is also seeing that, because he has made comments about how it was just one day, and now it's another. I told him it only goes by faster. The reason I bring that up, is it seems like it was just Fri and we were on our frield trip, now it's Tues., and we've started a new week again. Just too darn fast.
It's also spring and the temp are trying really hard to show it. Over the weekend it was high 60's and no sweater or jacket weather. The girls wanted their bikes down, so down they came out of the garage. The flowers are really popping out of the ground. The grasses are still a bit brown, and the fall leaves from last yr still need to be gathered by the city, but otherwise it's spring. I was finally able to put my lawn decorations in the ground Sat as well.
One thing I've been meaning to do for awhile, and just finally started doing it, is having the kids write to their grandma twice a month. Since they've finally gotten to know her better, I thought it would be nice for her to get messages once in awhile. We finally wrote letters last Thurs, but due to not having her new address, I didn't get them out until Sat. That's ok, it'll give her something to read later on this week.
Last night, just before I logged, I received an email from my brother stating the insurance company received all our letters, so the next step is having their lawyer draw up a statement for my aunt to sign in representing my mom. Boy this process has been long. I know my brother will be glad when all is taken care of. We still owe the morturary.
Well that's about all I have for now. I'm glad my friend found this blog that I had started last summer. This has been nice to write down my thoughts, or my travel log. I had been telling my kids they needed to do their journal, but I wasn't. So now R does his online, and N does hers in a notebook. S is still a bit young, but she has one started if she ever wants to continue.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
It's also spring and the temp are trying really hard to show it. Over the weekend it was high 60's and no sweater or jacket weather. The girls wanted their bikes down, so down they came out of the garage. The flowers are really popping out of the ground. The grasses are still a bit brown, and the fall leaves from last yr still need to be gathered by the city, but otherwise it's spring. I was finally able to put my lawn decorations in the ground Sat as well.
One thing I've been meaning to do for awhile, and just finally started doing it, is having the kids write to their grandma twice a month. Since they've finally gotten to know her better, I thought it would be nice for her to get messages once in awhile. We finally wrote letters last Thurs, but due to not having her new address, I didn't get them out until Sat. That's ok, it'll give her something to read later on this week.
Last night, just before I logged, I received an email from my brother stating the insurance company received all our letters, so the next step is having their lawyer draw up a statement for my aunt to sign in representing my mom. Boy this process has been long. I know my brother will be glad when all is taken care of. We still owe the morturary.
Well that's about all I have for now. I'm glad my friend found this blog that I had started last summer. This has been nice to write down my thoughts, or my travel log. I had been telling my kids they needed to do their journal, but I wasn't. So now R does his online, and N does hers in a notebook. S is still a bit young, but she has one started if she ever wants to continue.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Monday, April 7, 2008
General Conference
This weekend was General Conference. It's a time where all members of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" watch our Prophet and other general authorities, remind us of who we are, and what we want to become. It's a very spiritual time to spend together at home watching online, or at various meeting houses watching with other Saints. This conference, we were able to view a new prophet being sustained and how that works. Very interesting. Pres. Monson is a good man, and has a good sense of humor.
So Sat after the first session, we went out for lunch as is tradition in the last few yrs. But I guess the kids were all still a bit tired from our trip on Fri. They weren't as eager to eat. R apparently had a stomach ache and was trying to get over that. He apparently was nervous seeing a real case in a courtroom. Well once he saw it, he settled, but his nerves apparently needed more time to settle. I wished he would have told me sooner so I could have talked to him. Oh well, hopefully next time. So once we got home from lunch on Sat we watched the 2nd session. I then, went outside to put up our spring time decor, and while trying to lift something off of a hook, ended up having another decoration fall on my face. OUCH! It was a wooden one and it has left some light bruising under the left eye with some tenderness. Guess next time I'll be more watchful. lol Later on that evening dh and R went to the Priesthood session. They got home almost 10pm so S didn't get to say good night to either since she went to bed sooner.
Sun was another day at home watching Conference. Of course, this day we don't go out to eat, we just vegged at home. Kind of nice to just relax. The kids and I took a walk as well since the temp was almost 70. YIPEE!! Spring time is here at last. Then the last session was here. General Conference always seems to just zip by quickly. So we try and enjoy it as much as we can before it's gone.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
So Sat after the first session, we went out for lunch as is tradition in the last few yrs. But I guess the kids were all still a bit tired from our trip on Fri. They weren't as eager to eat. R apparently had a stomach ache and was trying to get over that. He apparently was nervous seeing a real case in a courtroom. Well once he saw it, he settled, but his nerves apparently needed more time to settle. I wished he would have told me sooner so I could have talked to him. Oh well, hopefully next time. So once we got home from lunch on Sat we watched the 2nd session. I then, went outside to put up our spring time decor, and while trying to lift something off of a hook, ended up having another decoration fall on my face. OUCH! It was a wooden one and it has left some light bruising under the left eye with some tenderness. Guess next time I'll be more watchful. lol Later on that evening dh and R went to the Priesthood session. They got home almost 10pm so S didn't get to say good night to either since she went to bed sooner.
Sun was another day at home watching Conference. Of course, this day we don't go out to eat, we just vegged at home. Kind of nice to just relax. The kids and I took a walk as well since the temp was almost 70. YIPEE!! Spring time is here at last. Then the last session was here. General Conference always seems to just zip by quickly. So we try and enjoy it as much as we can before it's gone.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Long , but good day
We started out morning out with R and dh headed to seminary. Then after showers and breakfast we loaded up the car with kids and such and headed to Madison by 7:30am. We arrived at the capital around 8:30, but still had to find a place to park. Finally found one and arrived at the meeting place at 8:50. We then took our tour at 9am. The guide was very good and explained all about how the building has been built and what material was used. We then went to many rooms including the governors press room and to the House of Representatives place.
After the tour guide was done, one of Milw Rep named Peggy ? spoke to us about her job. She is democrat, but that's ok, she was still nice. A bit over zealous of her job, but oh well. I'd say the one thing that really annoyed me was her constant trying to get the kids to sing. Argh!!
After our tour was over, the younger kids group went over to the museum. It was a nice museum, but they included a tour of the place and the kids at this time were just wanting to play. Thankfully, it was over quickly and the kids then got to roam around. Finally around 1 we headed back over to the capital to meet with the older kids group. They actually got to hear a case from the state supreme court. Apparently very boring, showed the kids that real court isn't like tv lol.
Once everyone was done, we called our friends who live in Madison to let them know we were done and the dh didn't have to go into work. That was a relief. We arrived at their home around 3:15 and didn't leave until 10:30pm. It was a very nice visit. It turns out, they were having a late birthday party for their oldest child with 2 of his friends, so we had homemade pizza (YUMMMMY!!) and ice cream sandwiches and donuts. Then spent the rest of the time just chatting. They also homeschool and the mom was homeschooled so they're on a 2nd generation of this.
Later on in the evening, the boy, who's birthday it was, asked if R could go miniature golfing with them. So R went with him, his friends, and the dad. Apparently they had a good time. Once they got home, we just chatted. Very nice since they have the same political, and religious views that we have. They are reall good friends and I'm glad we have stayed in touch when they moved about 5yrs ago.
When we arrived home, it was almost midnight. We then proceeded to unload a carful of very sleepy kids. Long, but very nice day. This weekend it General Conference so we get to spend the weekend watching conference online. Always nice to hear the Prophet, and this time, since we have a new Prophet, it'll be interesting. Always a new, but nice experience.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
After the tour guide was done, one of Milw Rep named Peggy ? spoke to us about her job. She is democrat, but that's ok, she was still nice. A bit over zealous of her job, but oh well. I'd say the one thing that really annoyed me was her constant trying to get the kids to sing. Argh!!
After our tour was over, the younger kids group went over to the museum. It was a nice museum, but they included a tour of the place and the kids at this time were just wanting to play. Thankfully, it was over quickly and the kids then got to roam around. Finally around 1 we headed back over to the capital to meet with the older kids group. They actually got to hear a case from the state supreme court. Apparently very boring, showed the kids that real court isn't like tv lol.
Once everyone was done, we called our friends who live in Madison to let them know we were done and the dh didn't have to go into work. That was a relief. We arrived at their home around 3:15 and didn't leave until 10:30pm. It was a very nice visit. It turns out, they were having a late birthday party for their oldest child with 2 of his friends, so we had homemade pizza (YUMMMMY!!) and ice cream sandwiches and donuts. Then spent the rest of the time just chatting. They also homeschool and the mom was homeschooled so they're on a 2nd generation of this.
Later on in the evening, the boy, who's birthday it was, asked if R could go miniature golfing with them. So R went with him, his friends, and the dad. Apparently they had a good time. Once they got home, we just chatted. Very nice since they have the same political, and religious views that we have. They are reall good friends and I'm glad we have stayed in touch when they moved about 5yrs ago.
When we arrived home, it was almost midnight. We then proceeded to unload a carful of very sleepy kids. Long, but very nice day. This weekend it General Conference so we get to spend the weekend watching conference online. Always nice to hear the Prophet, and this time, since we have a new Prophet, it'll be interesting. Always a new, but nice experience.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Friday, April 4, 2008
Long night
Today is the day we leave early for our field trip, and wouldn't you know it, S would havea hard time staying asleep during the night. She woke up around 12 and for the next 1 1/2 hrs struggled and fussed. I finally figured at one point that she might be getting fever and just wasn't feeling well. When I felt her, she was fine. Not sure why she was fussy, but this morning when I got up to wake R for seminary, she appeared in my doorway lol. So we came downstairs together and found R already up and on the computer. That's because when he gets home he'll have to eat breakfast quickly and then we head west for our field trip.
N told me yesterday, she's excited about this trip because it means we don't have to do school. I'm not going to tell her that we are, we're just not doing worksheet school. lol It should be interesting to see the capital and all that is around. I'm also hoping that we can visit with our friends who live out in Madison, but dh tells me that because of work commitments after the field trip, tha we might not. So I'm not holding my breathe. It would be nice to see them again, but in this case, work come first. It's funny the last time we visited them was around the end of Sept and dh got paged around 2pm. He as still on the phone with work by 7:30 when his phone died, so his work gave him an hr to get home so he'd have better phone coverage. That was an interesting day. We had gone out for a baptism which started at 9am, we got stuck in traffic for about 20 min. Finally got there just as the baptism was starting. We were going to leave around 2 when dh got paged, so lucky for us we stayed. Had we been home, the kids would have been stuck either in front room or upstairs to play. This way they had a whole house to play in and didn't bother dh too much.
Well that's about all I have on mind. I'm tired, but thankfully we have an hr ride so maybe I can snooze. lol
Karie
www.kariesplace.robert.city.com
N told me yesterday, she's excited about this trip because it means we don't have to do school. I'm not going to tell her that we are, we're just not doing worksheet school. lol It should be interesting to see the capital and all that is around. I'm also hoping that we can visit with our friends who live out in Madison, but dh tells me that because of work commitments after the field trip, tha we might not. So I'm not holding my breathe. It would be nice to see them again, but in this case, work come first. It's funny the last time we visited them was around the end of Sept and dh got paged around 2pm. He as still on the phone with work by 7:30 when his phone died, so his work gave him an hr to get home so he'd have better phone coverage. That was an interesting day. We had gone out for a baptism which started at 9am, we got stuck in traffic for about 20 min. Finally got there just as the baptism was starting. We were going to leave around 2 when dh got paged, so lucky for us we stayed. Had we been home, the kids would have been stuck either in front room or upstairs to play. This way they had a whole house to play in and didn't bother dh too much.
Well that's about all I have on mind. I'm tired, but thankfully we have an hr ride so maybe I can snooze. lol
Karie
www.kariesplace.robert.city.com
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Just another day
Yesterday, we had a nice day. It took a bit of time to convince them they needed to do school, but they eventually did. I think the weather has had something to do with not wanting to do our studies. I know for me it has. I'm usually more movitved, but lately I've not wanted to do anything. Luckily I've made myself get up from the computer and do things. Especially with S who wants N to play with her, but N has school. I try and give S suggestions for things she can do, but she just wants N to play. So I make the suggestion that N can play for 20 min after the devotional, then math for 30 min then play for 20. That way S can still have her fun, but school does get done. Occassionally, even R plays with S so that N gets a break.
We also had laundry and trash day, so after cleaning up a bit, the kids each did their duty. I was cooking Garfield's favorite dish, which is the kids' favorite as well. Actually we all kind of like the dish since it's different from what I usually have made. I had been in a funk lately with dinner time menu, and finally found the energy to make some other things, and the family has been appreciative of it. It's nice when the family finally likes what is being dished out.
I was going to do scripture reading starting this week, but Mon we got started with FHE too late so I choose not to. Then Tues we got the call from neighbors needing help with their computer, so Tues kind of went. Last night I considered it, but figured we've already passed 2 days, we'll just try for next week. I need to stand firm on this because we really do need to read them. We stopped doing it on a regular basis when dh went back to his Mon-Fri schedule. It just makes it more of a challenege is all. We will succeed.
Today, we were going to attend a zoo class, but my friend whom we were going to go with, isn't feeling too well with a cold and alergies, so I choose to not attend. R is happy, but N was wanting to go. S didn't really care since she's not really sure what it is anyway. N says she wants to be a veterinarian (hence the reason for being sad not going)because she's been watching a show called "Vets in Practice" on PBS each evening. I have no problem with that, but it seems she wants it only because she can then be on tv. lol I'll let her figure that out on her own. She's a pretty bright young woman when she wants to be.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
We also had laundry and trash day, so after cleaning up a bit, the kids each did their duty. I was cooking Garfield's favorite dish, which is the kids' favorite as well. Actually we all kind of like the dish since it's different from what I usually have made. I had been in a funk lately with dinner time menu, and finally found the energy to make some other things, and the family has been appreciative of it. It's nice when the family finally likes what is being dished out.
I was going to do scripture reading starting this week, but Mon we got started with FHE too late so I choose not to. Then Tues we got the call from neighbors needing help with their computer, so Tues kind of went. Last night I considered it, but figured we've already passed 2 days, we'll just try for next week. I need to stand firm on this because we really do need to read them. We stopped doing it on a regular basis when dh went back to his Mon-Fri schedule. It just makes it more of a challenege is all. We will succeed.
Today, we were going to attend a zoo class, but my friend whom we were going to go with, isn't feeling too well with a cold and alergies, so I choose to not attend. R is happy, but N was wanting to go. S didn't really care since she's not really sure what it is anyway. N says she wants to be a veterinarian (hence the reason for being sad not going)because she's been watching a show called "Vets in Practice" on PBS each evening. I have no problem with that, but it seems she wants it only because she can then be on tv. lol I'll let her figure that out on her own. She's a pretty bright young woman when she wants to be.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Helping our neighbor
Yesterday we did our normal schedule of school and art/gym classes. Then off to pick up dh from work around 5. We arrived home around 5:30 to have a message from our close neighbor that his computer wasn't working right. He was unable to get online so could one of my computer guys come help out. Well I asked dh and he said he would go fix it as long as I came along for company. That's fine, I love this couple. Very sweet. So around 6:30 dh, the girls and I walked over to their home. Dh then went about looking to see what was wrong, while the girls and I went and chatted with the wife(B). They are a very nice couple. She took us downstairs to find a rocking chair for S to sit on, and we ended up just all of us girls downstairs chatting and watching S play with some houses and glass people. We haven't really talked to this couple in awhile due to all the snow storms and bad weather we've had this winter, so lots to catch up on.
Dh finally found the problem, and showed the man how to fix it the next time. So this meant our conversation got cut short. But it was such a lovely visit. I told the B that she was lucky this happened to be our one Tues evening that the kids didn't have meetings due to the church being cleaned. Her dh was very appreciative of dh's help.
The earlier part of the day was nice. When it was time for S's art class, I took N with me since she and R don't always get along without supervision. S's art class was fun for the kids. They received dough (similar to bread dough) that they rolled out into a circle of sorts, then a second small ball also rolled out, but with designs on it using straws, took picks and a craft stick. Interesting. Then we took the smaller of the cirlces and put it on top of the bigger circle and pinched the sides and bottom, leaving the top part open at the pocket. S loves her art class and is doing well at doing things on her own mostly. It's fun to see how much imagination the kids have.
The rest of the afternoon was the older kids' classes and picking up dh. It was a pleasant evening. Today we're home doing serious school work. Thurs the kids have zoo classes so we're off again for the day.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Dh finally found the problem, and showed the man how to fix it the next time. So this meant our conversation got cut short. But it was such a lovely visit. I told the B that she was lucky this happened to be our one Tues evening that the kids didn't have meetings due to the church being cleaned. Her dh was very appreciative of dh's help.
The earlier part of the day was nice. When it was time for S's art class, I took N with me since she and R don't always get along without supervision. S's art class was fun for the kids. They received dough (similar to bread dough) that they rolled out into a circle of sorts, then a second small ball also rolled out, but with designs on it using straws, took picks and a craft stick. Interesting. Then we took the smaller of the cirlces and put it on top of the bigger circle and pinched the sides and bottom, leaving the top part open at the pocket. S loves her art class and is doing well at doing things on her own mostly. It's fun to see how much imagination the kids have.
The rest of the afternoon was the older kids' classes and picking up dh. It was a pleasant evening. Today we're home doing serious school work. Thurs the kids have zoo classes so we're off again for the day.
Karie
www.kariesplace.robertcity.com
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Yucky weather
Well it's definitely spring weather. Yesterday we woke to lots of rain and some light thunderstorms. Then when we took dh to work, it was rather foggy. It wasn't a horrible day, but it was grey and cloudy and made the day seem blah. To top it off, our new computer fell asleep and I wasn't sure what to do to wake it up. So I had to go all afternoon without using it. Oh well, I did get the dishes done and the most of the laundry folded and put away. We also took our weekly trip to the library and while there heard some pretty loud thunder. Luckily the girls had ear phones on doing computer stuff so they didn't hear it.
Today the kids go back to art and gym and the week is once again a bit busy. Which after last week, I'm going to try and enjoy. Last week, by Thurs, I was getting ansty to do something. It's always nice to have a break and stay home, but after a big you just need to get out. This week library on Mon, art/gym on Tues, no church meetings due to the church being cleaned thoroughly inside. Then Wed we're just home getting school work done. Thurs I was just reminded that we have a zoo class so I'll need the car for that. Then Fri we're off to Madison for a tour of the capital building and some other stuff. So the week is going to be filled with lots to do.
On a side note, my brothers and I have been dealing with insurance issues since the death of our dad last New Year's Eve. I don't much about it because it's still hard to deal with. There was some kind of issue between 2 claims that my dad had filled out. One with my mom on it and one without. We had to assure the insurance company that my mom was fine with how it was. So that means each of us siblings had to write a letter to the insurance company, along with our aunt who takes care of the financial issues of my mom due to her being in a nursing home and unable to take care of that, so that the insurance company would finally settle dad's acct. My oldest brother needs to pay off the morturary, and I'm guessing they are getting antsy. So we're hoping that with these letters, we can finally get the insurance taken care of. Let's hope.
One last item, with today being April 1st(April fools day) we're all on the lookout for tricks being played. For the last 2 yrs dh has put an elastic band on the sprayer in the kitchen and both times someone has been gotten lol. This yr my 2 oldest, R-ds and N-dd, are trying to find tricks to play. Should be interesting.
Karie
http://www.kariesplace.robertcity.com/
Today the kids go back to art and gym and the week is once again a bit busy. Which after last week, I'm going to try and enjoy. Last week, by Thurs, I was getting ansty to do something. It's always nice to have a break and stay home, but after a big you just need to get out. This week library on Mon, art/gym on Tues, no church meetings due to the church being cleaned thoroughly inside. Then Wed we're just home getting school work done. Thurs I was just reminded that we have a zoo class so I'll need the car for that. Then Fri we're off to Madison for a tour of the capital building and some other stuff. So the week is going to be filled with lots to do.
On a side note, my brothers and I have been dealing with insurance issues since the death of our dad last New Year's Eve. I don't much about it because it's still hard to deal with. There was some kind of issue between 2 claims that my dad had filled out. One with my mom on it and one without. We had to assure the insurance company that my mom was fine with how it was. So that means each of us siblings had to write a letter to the insurance company, along with our aunt who takes care of the financial issues of my mom due to her being in a nursing home and unable to take care of that, so that the insurance company would finally settle dad's acct. My oldest brother needs to pay off the morturary, and I'm guessing they are getting antsy. So we're hoping that with these letters, we can finally get the insurance taken care of. Let's hope.
One last item, with today being April 1st(April fools day) we're all on the lookout for tricks being played. For the last 2 yrs dh has put an elastic band on the sprayer in the kitchen and both times someone has been gotten lol. This yr my 2 oldest, R-ds and N-dd, are trying to find tricks to play. Should be interesting.
Karie
http://www.kariesplace.robertcity.com/
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