Mel's Ramblings

Brotherly Love

2011-10-13T06:56:00.000-07:00

Every night after we put them in bed, Josh and Zack turn on the light and goof around. Many nights we find them having fallen asleep in strange locations or in each other's beds. It's so adorable when they fall asleep together.

Zack preschool

2011-10-12T06:54:00.000-07:00

Zack started preschool at the high school. He loves it. The first day was a family day so we got to go with him and help him acclimate and get to know the teachers and classroom plan.

He adores preschool. He waited a whole month to start after his brother's started school. I think the anticipation made going that much sweeter. During the summer he would have moments of anxiety mixed in with his excitement but by time it started, he was all ready.

It's hard to believe my baby has gotten so big.

First Day of School

2011-10-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

Brandon is a 4th Grader.

Josh is in 1st Grade.

Zack is in Preschool.

Sneaking out

2011-09-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

Josh went over to the neighbor's, climbed onto her glass patio table and opened and closed its big umbrella and was back to my yard before I caught him. At least I have super nice neighbors.

Choices

2011-09-16T11:16:00.001-07:00

Whether we're on the path toward victory or defeat is determined by the very next choice we make. Not the choices from yesterday. Not the choices five minutes ago. The next choice. Our very next choice. May it be that of an overcomer.

by Lysa Terkeurst

(Borrowed from my friend Margene)

Walking

2011-09-09T10:35:00.001-07:00

I started walking with some friends in the morning a few days a week. I've gone twice now and we did about 3 miles. It feels great! It's nice to exercise and not be shlumping around the house all day.

Busy evening

2011-08-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

I got new sunglasses. They look cool! I wore them on a hike with the cub scouts this evening, but it was shadier than I expected and it didn't work so great. Oh well, at least I looked good. I kept looking down to make sure I didn't trip and then I got woozy from the view under the bottom edge. I hope that doesn't happen every time I walk or run with them on. I'll just have to look ahead instead of down. After our hike I took Brandon to soccer practice. I spent about 45 minutes chasing 3 little boys around a playground. It's been an energetic evening. It was nice to get out and see my friend.

Vacation 2011

2011-08-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

We went on vacation this summer. First we went to a family reunion in Klamath Falls.

Brandon and Cameron became friends. Brandon got a camera for his birthday and took lots of pictures. Not sure how to deal with them all just yet.

We went to Crater Lake and there was still lots of snow on the ground. So we had a snowball fight! :)

The next weekend we went to the beach in Florence with the Rayners. It was windy. So it was a little cold, but great for kites.

Then Keith and I went to Vegas while his parents watched the kids. This is where we went on the zipline. It goes through that tunnel above Fremont street.

Then when we got home Brandon and I went straight to Day Camp for a week. We had lots of fun there.

Since then I have been recovering and trying to get the house cleaned up. We start fall soccer tonight and swimming lessons in a week and a half. Summer 2011 has been great!

Ice cream trios

2011-06-16T19:49:00.001-07:00

Josh loves getting out a bucket of ice cream and a spoon and eating it. No bowl. Today he decided licking it off the trios was yummy then he kept putting more in. This is when I caught him.

Collector

2011-06-12T09:00:00.001-07:00

Brandon needed to start a collection for cub scouts. He chose to collect coins. When we started he wasn't very interested so I ordered him this kids coin collecting book and now he loves it.

License to ...

2011-06-01T07:39:00.001-07:00

If you live in Oregon and forget to renew your license, for a long time, you might have to reapply and take the tests again. Keith got to spend some time at the DMV yesterday. He passed the written test with 100%. It was interesting to discuss obscure driving related info. Like complicated intersections and freeway numbering. Then we went out on a date and I tried the new riblets at Red Robin. They are a little spicy, but pretty good, not too spicy for me to eat.

Memorial day

2011-06-01T07:33:00.001-07:00

We had a Memorial Day barbecue at my sister's house.

We played lots of badminton.

We celebrated my Dad's birthday. We called my brother Will for his birthday (he's in the Marines).

Josh had great fun climbing this tree. It was a great day. The weather cooperated and the day was relaxing. Also being in my sister's gorgeous yard added to my motivation to work on our yard.

Sunday

2011-05-30T08:41:00.001-07:00

I went to church. It seems so simple, but after being sick for a few weeks and having a husband who often works weekends, it can be a big deal. I am more motivated to do the daily things that I need to do. I run hot and cold on them so the motivation was needed.

Also they called my friend Michelle to work with me in cub scouts. That will be great. Let the scouting commence.

I am Number Four

2011-05-29T11:11:00.001-07:00

We watched I Am Number Four last night. It was great. I'd really like to see a sequel.

Executive function book

2011-05-29T11:06:00.001-07:00

I started reading this book. From what I understand, my whole family has issues with executive functioning. So I am reading more about it to make sure I understand it and how to help my kids. Maybe I will do better too.

Grocery shopping

2011-05-29T11:03:00.001-07:00

I also went grocery shopping on Saturday. I have been paying more attention to coupons and sales lately. I was able to save around $80 by matching coupons to sales for things we regularly use. Also I got a bunch of game tokens for Albertson's game. It's a lot like McDonald's Monopoly.

Unfortunately some of my game pieces were repeats, not surprising, so I'm not winning, yet. It was kinda fun to open them and put the pieces on the board. And I won a free donut!

Backyard

2011-05-29T10:58:00.001-07:00

My backyard is a jungle right now. The kids have been having fun playing outside anyway but we need to work on it, tons.

We played outside for a few hours on Saturday, until the clear sky started raining on us. When we came in I decided to sketch out a plan for what I really want to do with it so we can work towards that.

Some stuff is easy enough, but the whole plan could take years and $$.

Sewing in the afternoon

2011-05-29T10:50:00.001-07:00

My mom and I moved our weekly sewing to Friday afternoons so we can meet other obligations in the morning, or sleep in. We are currently working on this quilt from our book.

I got my fabric ironed and cut. She got her blocks sewn and laid out too, but she's faster than me. I'm very excited about my fabric selection. It was a fun evening.

Soccer party

2011-05-29T10:45:00.001-07:00

We went to Brandon's end of season soccer party. The kids had fun dancing to music...

And Brandon made a new friend that he ran around with. This is about all I saw of him when we weren't in the party room for eating and awards. (He's in the blue shirt.)

Thor

2011-05-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

For date night Keith and I went to go see the new movie Thor. It was fun. The graphics were stunning, the action was exciting, the story was a little uneven. They spent so much time on the lore/legend that they didn't have as much time as I would have liked for other things. I'd give it 4 stars.

Foundation

2011-05-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

My sisters recommended Almay foundation after I had some trouble with my old stuff. I picked it up yesterday and tried it. Epic! When I put it on it vanished into my skin perfectly matching my skin color but evening out the tone. It felt great on all day and came off clean. No breakouts today, unlike most foundations I've tried. Hooray!

New phone

2011-05-24T07:54:00.001-07:00

I finally went in and got my new phone. My old one had lasted a long time, but it was dying fast. I love the new one and hope it lasts just as long.

Last Spring Game

2011-05-23T17:55:00.000-07:00

Brandon had his last Spring Soccer game on Saturday. It was supposed to rain, but it didn't. We had a great time participating in soccer this spring.

Most of the season Brandon was not very engaged in the game. We were considering no longer doing soccer. He didn't seem to be having fun and when the ball came at him he would hide from it.

The last game was different! He made a deal with his Dad that he'd get ten cents for every time he kicked the ball during the game. He was a changed boy. Confidence and skills appeared out of some inner reserve I didn't know was there.

He played hard and well. Kicking the ball a total of....

21 times! He also really helped his team and did a great job. I'm so proud of my soccer star and look forward to seasons ahead. A performance like that earns him the opportunity to continue like he wanted.

Sewing and the park

2011-05-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

My Mom came over Friday morning for our sewing time. We finished this part of the practice sampler for our quilting lessons we are doing. The lessons are from the book Quilter's Academy Vol. 1--Freshman Year: A Skill-Building Course in Quiltmaking. Next we get to buy fabric for the first full quilt we will be making.

After that I started my afternoon kid taxi duties, interspersed with trips to the park. Zack and I stopped by my friend Erika's b-day party at the park by our house. It was fun to see the ladies. Then after Josh got out of school for the day we played by the duck pond at Nike for awhile. The kids like the little natural area they have and rolling down a grassy hill.

End of Spring Soccer

2011-05-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

Brandon's last practice was last night. He has been having a lot of fun playing soccer this spring. It was a rocky start, it seemed something made him sad every practice at first, but now he has a great time with no tears. His last game is tomorrow then we will have a soccer break until fall. We plan on practicing some as a family this summer, but nothing structured.

It was gorgeous weather at practice yesterday. Sunny but not too hot. I wish it would stay like that all summer long. I like it to be warm and sunny, but I don't like extreme heat. That's why Oregon is great for me. :)

Spring Break

2011-03-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

Spring Break is officially over. The kids are back at school and Keith is going back to work tonight. Here's some of the fun things we did:

Celebrated Josh's 6th Birthday with friends and family
Went to Eugene and visited with relatives
Worked out twice!
Helped plan a bridal shower
Went to the temple with my family, for my sister it was the first time!
Partied at the bridal shower
Played some WoW
Went on a date :)

It was fun, and I'm glad to be back to the schedule.

Busy

2011-03-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

My normal schedule of shuttling the kids to and from school is pretty hectic. Apparently it wasn't hectic enough because I've added more to it.

I took a parenting class from one of the directors of Josh's autistic school. It was included with his tuition and it was for all of the parents of their students. It was really good and it met once a week for 6 weeks.
I started taking Brandon to a psychologist to help manage his ADHD. We also are seeing a psychiatrist to find the best balance of medication to help him without too many side effects. Those appointments started once a week but are slightly less frequent now.
I got a new visiting teaching companion who is awesome! We actually go visit all our women every month. (I was kinda slacking before) Since we are so good they gave us more.
Brandon is in cub scouts and I am a cub scout leader. That's an hour a week away and much more for prep and helping him get his achievements.
Brandon starts spring soccer this week. Practice once a week and games starting after spring break.
I've been trying to have a sewing time with my Mom once a week. It would be a nice stress relief if it worked out more.

Other things that made me busy but I didn't bring on myself:

I had jury duty recently (just had to sit there for a few hours, didn't get selected)
Keith went snowboarding a few times in the last couple of months.
My brother just left for a year deployment with the Marines.
My sister is getting married next month.

Another Show

2011-02-17T11:41:00.000-08:00

After watching all of Psych, I watched all 4 seasons of Wildfire. It has been canceled and there won't be anymore, but it was a great show! I really liked it. Teen angst drama with horses wahoo!

My newest addiction

2011-02-02T07:57:00.000-08:00

I started watching back episodes of Psych recently and fell in love with the show. I was so hooked I couldn't really stop watching until I had watched it all. What a great show! Love it! Can't wait for the new season this summer.

Early bus

2011-01-27T07:05:00.001-08:00

Waiting for the bus with Josh in the dark. He's making a goofy face.

Shopping with Josh

2011-01-24T09:58:00.001-08:00

We went to Toys R Us this weekend and as usual while we were there Josh vanished. We looked and looked for him and just as I was starting to get nervous there he was driving the kiddy Cadillac in the back. One of the many reasons we don't like taking our kids anywhere.

Reader

2011-01-20T15:50:00.001-08:00

Brandon got his library card today. He was so excited! Now he is devouring his new books.

Healthy at last

2011-01-19T20:03:00.000-08:00

We are healthy, finally. After the last post we had a downturn and were sick for several more days. But now everyone is healthy and has been for 3 days. The kids have been in school and I have been able to get things done. Yay!

Now it's time to get things done. I'm off.

Better

2011-01-12T09:41:00.001-08:00

Everyone is starting to feel better. Brandon went to school today and unless he takes a turn for the worse, Josh should be able to go tomorrow. Zack is doing ok and I am feeling mostly better. I'm not sure if Keith was ever sick.

Roller Coaster

2011-01-10T23:15:00.001-08:00

My life lately has been a lot of ups and downs. We've been sick a lot. We were doing better for a few days and were able to spend a great weekend with family. Then we came home and promptly got very sick again. Then the football championship was tonight and that was a roller coaster game all by itself.

Routine

2011-01-05T06:41:00.000-08:00

I welcome it. I enjoyed the holidays, but now that the kids are back in school and Keith's weekend is over, my first day of scheduled activity. I'm so glad they are all healthy enough right now to go.

Christmas

2010-12-25T18:06:00.001-08:00

We have had a great Christmas so far. The kids are sick, so we have delayed our visit to Eugene which is a bummer, but we have been having a really good time. We decorated our tree late last night, with the older two after Zack was asleep. We just didn't get to it before that. The kids have seemed happy and well behaved. I am just a bit tired. Merry Christmas!

Football

2010-11-27T08:22:00.001-08:00

The Ducks game yesterday was great. They played well against a challenging team. Good job!

Later in the evening I turned the TV back on and it was the last 19 seconds of the Boise-Nevada game. Boy was that intense. Nevada got a touchdown tying the game. Then with 9 seconds Boise's Moore-To-Young amazing pass and timeout set up a field goal and it looks like Boise has won. Then their kicker misses and the game goes into overtime. Nevada wins the toss so Boise goes first. They move down the field end up trying for a field goal and he misses again! Let me tell you that Nevada stadium went crazy! They got the ball moved down the field and made their field goal and Boise's snotty winning streak went crashing to a halt.

Sleeping

2010-10-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

Zack won't sleep in his bed. It's been several days. He wants to sleep in his brother's beds, on the couch, even on the floor, but DEFINITELY not in his own bed. It's been causing sleeplessness for many of us because he won't stay in any of those places either.

Sick

2010-10-08T10:29:00.001-07:00

Josh is sick. He's been home from school all week. Keith and I are sick too, which has made for a really long week.

Blog contests

2010-10-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

Many blogs give away things. Most of the things they give away I'm not really interested in. But...things have changed. I won some Trios from The Diet Coke Diet a week or two ago, yay! and now my friend at Alderwood Quilts is giving away a Go! Fabric cutter. Check out her blog and enter if you're interested.

Picture time!

2010-09-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

Here are the boys on the first day of school.

Since school started we have also been busy with:

Soccer

Scouts

and of course WoW

and washing clean dishes that Zack has put in the sink, over and over and over again.

Kindergarten!

2010-09-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

Josh started kindergarten this year. He is in a special classroom for social and communication skill building for autistic kids. The class is for K-2 and the teacher seems awesome. She said that as Josh seemed ready she'd have him spend more and more time with the mainstream classes. I got this note from her today:

Today was Josh's second day mainstreaming with Kindergarten. He's mainstreaming with an assistant for reading, math and specials (that's music& PE & library). He's coming back to my classroom for snack and recess. He's doing great. A bit distracted by all the new things in the classroom. He's able to complete the work with minimal prompting.

Hooray! Josh is doing awesome!

My Camping Adventure

2010-08-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

It was a dark and stormy night... wait, back up a second, I'm getting ahead of myself.

We went camping this weekend with Keith's family. There were 10 adults and 12 kids. It was tons of fun. We got there late on the first night and had to set up our tent in the dark cause our flashlights all malfunctioned (even though we checked them before we left). The second day we played at the beach and went to a public pool (the facility was really nice). We did the traditional campfire that night. My kids don't like eating marshmallows so they just caught them on fire while the rest of us made smores. Then we had a relaxing third day with a little more swimming. That night it started to rain so we checked the the weather reports and due to LOTS of rain for the rest of our planned stay, we decided to leave. By time everyone was packed and ready to go it was....dark and stormy. We stopped on our way out of the camp to check out. As I was running across the driveway I stepped wrong and twisted my ankle. I hobbled back to the car and we all drove home. I had it checked at the doctor today and I sprained it. Yay! So I have a stretchy brace thing on it and crutches. School shopping and the first few weeks of school should be a blast!

Sometimes people rock!

2010-08-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

Josh's swimming instructor made my day. Josh is in adaptive swimming which is for kids with special needs. The ratio is 1:2 if both slots get filled. This time the other kid is so far beyond Josh in swimming skill the instructor was having a hard time meeting both their needs. Today, he got another swim instructor to work with them so they are 1:1 and he is working just with Josh for the whole time today. I didn't ask for them to do that, but I am so happy that they chose to do what is best for my kid. :)

Summer gone

2010-08-23T11:20:00.001-07:00

Here I sit at swimming lessons two weeks before school wondering how the summer went so fast. Josh did school all summer except for a week in June and next week. Combined with Keith's work schedule that meant no going anywhere and very few days with the whole family available. It's important for Josh to get the schooling now, but a part of me mourns the loss of a summer of the kids life. It doesn't help that we can't take the three of them anywhere, especially anywhere with crowds.

Busy Fun Day

2010-07-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

Keith's parents came to visit yesterday. The weather was perfect. Keith took the kids out to breakfast as a special treat. Then we went to the new park that has fountains and toys that are quite different from our regular park. The kids had lots of fun. After that we had some lunch and then went home for a little bit. Then in the afternoon we went to the park by our house and played even more. It was great to have enough adults to manage the kids and weather that was just right for playing outside and big time chunks to make it possible. We are so glad Grandma and Papa came to visit.

Our Summer So Far

2010-07-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

The week after school got out, we went to visit my sister's family in Idaho. We stayed for a week and had lots of fun with the cousins. While we were there we had a party, went to an aviation museum, went out on a boat on the reservoir, played some games, did some sewing and had a nice relaxing time.

For the fourth of July we had some family come over and we did firecrackers in the street by our house. This is our new tradition that we've been doing most years since we moved in here. Many of our neighbors do fireworks as well and some of us would rather do a short private thing than drive somewhere and wait for hours to see a big fireworks show. The rest just humor us. Most years there are some private mortars going off in town that we can see from our driveway. That was true again this year and our little event was just right.

Our next big event was Brandon's 8th birthday. He had a friend party at the pizza and play place here in town. He had a great time and was very pleased that people came to his party. We look forward to his baptism on August 7th. Since he turned 8, Brandon also started cub scouts. He went to his first den meeting and we are looking forward to day camp later this month.

Keith also had a birthday. We celebrated it this last Sunday. His parents are coming to visit for the day today and we are excited to see them.

The weather has been varied this summer. It stayed cool for quite awhile, then shortly after we got back from Idaho it got HOT for a week or two, now it is cooler again. I don't know what's going on up there.

Keith and I took Brandon to see The Last Airbender movie for his birthday. We all loved the cartoon series and were excited for the movie. Brandon liked it, but Keith and I were very disappointed. The special effects were excellent but the way they chose to tell the story was not impressive. They pronounced several names differently than in the TV show (which was annoying) and the way they focused on some things made the movie really cheesy without the humor from the characters that were supposed to be funny. The whole thing seemed confusing and awkward. I sadly discourage people from seeing it.

School's Out!

2010-06-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Today is our first day of summer vacation! We had therapy for Josh this morning, but now that we are home we have no frantic driving around for school. Fridays normally wear me out, I'm so pleased to be relaxing with the boys at home. In a day or so we will be leaving to visit my sister in Idaho and I'm sure we will have tons of fun and wear ourselves out, but for right now I'm taking it slow.

Bright Star

2010-06-16T23:01:00.001-07:00

I watched this movie tonight. It is about John Keats, the poet, and is a romance. It was good, but it made me cry. You have been warned.

Duldrums

2010-06-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

I just haven't been feeling good lately. I keep thinking I have a cold, but it never gets very bad or any better. I don't know what's going on. My kids are doing really well. My house is a disaster. I'm getting nothing done. I was doing really good at working out everyday but Sunday until a week ago and then I just lost my rhythm all together. I'm in the duldrums.

Exercise

2010-05-21T12:12:00.000-07:00

I started a new exercise program. Today is the second day and I did my workout. I'm also paying a lot more attention to what I eat. I'm trying to make more healthy choices rather than stick to specific food items that I tend to not like. The workout I'm doing is Beachbody's Power 90.

My sister-in-law is doing the P90X which is the extreme version of this for people who are already physically fit. Since I'm not, I started with the easier one and once I finish it maybe I'll move up to extreme. I must admit I'm tired and sore and I barely scratched the surface. I will have to be tough to keep this up, but that's what it will take to be healthy and fit.

Fun Crazy Weekend

2010-05-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

It all started on Friday. I went to a surprise birthday party for my friend Loradona at Olive Garden. That was a blast! It's been awhile since I've hung out with all those ladies. Then on the way home, I got pulled over. Apparently the tags on my car were expired. Then to make it worse, I didn't have my current insurance card in the car. Luckily I had an old one and the police officer said fix it and let me off. I felt so bad. So...

Early Saturday morning I took the car to DEQ and got the registration renewed. I also put the new insurance card in as well. I had missed it because they sent it in a different type of package than normal so it didn't trigger my new card alert in my head. Lame excuse, I should actually read my mail.

Then I stopped at the store, the Sunset Fred Meyer is all rearranged, wonder what they are planning.

Then I had to rush home to pick up Josh and take him to a birthday party for one of his friends at Pump It Up! in Beaverton. It was our first time there, and boy was it fun! He had a blast. So much fun, in fact, that he pulled the fire alarm. We all had to evacuate the building and the fire department came. I felt bad, but I'm sure it happens all the time. Another Mom swore her kid pulled the alarm first, but I only saw Josh do it. The kids got to meet the firefighters and sit in the truck. Cool! Then we went back in for the rest of the party. He got a silver mylar balloon which he was in love with (till he let it go outside about 30 minutes after getting home).

Then Keith went to the computer parts store and bought some pieces for the new computer he's building. Brandon's old computer had been dying, rapidly so Keith is upgrading it. He started on that, but then it was time for another party.

The whole family went over to my friend Liana's house for her son's birthday party. We hung out with lots of their family and partied hard. :) The kids had fun and it's always nice to hang with friends. After the festivities, we headed home again.

More computer building ensued. The kids watched Up for the first time while Keith tinkered. Then they went to bed and we did a WoW raid with our online friends. During the raid I started feeling a bit yucky and this morning I woke up with a bad cold. Bummer! I'm supposed to be managing a big berry order for our church group, so I feel bad that someone else is going to have to do the signups at church today since it's all due this week. Such is life a little bit of crummy mixed in with tons of great stuff!

I hope your weekends are similarly fabulous.

Hacked

2010-05-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

Keith's WoW account got hacked on Saturday. We're still not sure exactly how. He's gotten access back and we've added some more security measures, but it's never fun. It's sad that people in this world feel that it's ok to do things like that.

Pharmacy Folly

2010-05-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

Due to Brandon's inability to swallow pills, (we will keep working on it) we asked the doctor if there is another option for now. He prescribed a chewable pill that doesn't last as long but will do the same thing. Then the story gets interesting.

I took it to our normal pharmacy and she said she'd have to order it and it would take a couple of days. No problem.

Then 20 minutes later she says, sorry, our supplier doesn't carry it anymore. You'll have to try another pharmacy.

I call our old pharmacy to see if they have it, nope.

I call another pharmacy I've never even gone to, nope.

I call a smaller pharmacy in the next town over that tends to carry rarer medications. The lady on the phone looks it up and says they can order it, but I have to bring in the prescription first.

I take in the prescription and she says it will be in the next day. Since the pharmacy is in the same town as Josh's school (30 minutes away) I say I will just pick it up when I get him from school.

I go to pick it up and the sales clerk (different person) can't find it. She asks the other pharmacy workers (including yesterday's lady) and I see pure panic. It hadn't come in when they had said it would. I think they drew straws for who had to tell me. This nice man comes over and says, "bad news, it didn't come in, but it will be in tomorrow morning". I've heard that before. I ask them to call my cell when it is in and ready since I don't want to keep coming if it isn't there.

So they called and it came in, but they wanted to know if I still wanted it since it is really expensive. A one month supply is ~$80 after insurance. It just means we have one month to find another answer. I was able to go in and pick it up this afternoon and we finally have it.

What a crazy thing.

New blog

2010-05-05T16:32:00.001-07:00

So I started a new blog. It is about learning to keep my house clean, flylady style. You can check it out here http://escapefromchaos.blogspot.com. Enjoy!

Challenge quilt - I give up

2010-05-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

This is where I quit. I made the log cabin blocks and sewed them into strips for the border. When I held the border up next to the rest of the quilt, it didn't fit. Like, really didn't fit, I'm talking inches too short. I panicked and since the center was not laying flat and the borders seemed impossible I decided to quit. I only had a week before the deadline and I felt it just wasn't worth the agony to try and save this doomed quilt. I even told my mom I quit and held to that stance despite her suggestions on how to fix it.

I figured out what I did wrong. This part of the quilt is "on point" in the end and my software gave me the measurements for making the blocks if they were straight, so each block was too small. In math terms, it gave me a leg of a right triangle when I needed the hypotenuse.

A day or two passed and my panic calmed. I decided to continue on, but not tell anyone so if I decided to quit again, they'd never know. Plus wouldn't it be a nice surprise to finish it and surprise my mom at guild with a completed quilt?

I was able to salvage the borders because they were short the length of one of my too small blocks. I sewed them on and you couldn't tell that I'd flubbed it.

Blogging inspiration

2010-05-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

I watched Julie and Julia this weekend. I enjoyed it. It made me want to blog about something. I know I already have a general blog, but her cooking blog seemed so fun. I'm thinking that if I do a topic blog I would do it separate from my family blog and then this would just focus on family stuff. I've considered blogging about going through the flylady babysteps or about quilting or maybe both. Hmmm. My problem is I always want to do more than I have time, resources and motivation to do.

Challenge Quilt nine patch checkerboard

2010-05-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

The next part of my quilt is a border of nine patch blocks. Together they look like a checkerboard. There are 10 random red dots, to meet the requirement of 10 of something. They are definitely not perfect, but they fit surprisingly well for the measurements being untested.

Challenge Quilt stripes

2010-04-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

After finishing the center block, the next step was to frame it with this striped fabric and set it on point. I don't know if you can see it well enough, but the striped fabric has shiny gold stripes in it in addition to the many shades of brown and carmel. I have to admit that while this was very simple I put it off for weeks because I was doing other things than quilting. It's so exciting to see the quilt growing, I can't wait to show you the next step.

Allergies

2010-04-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Brandon from almost 5 years ago. You can see his eyes and how they get puffy during allergy season. This year all three boys and I are having horrible allergies and the younger two have this type of eye discomfort for the first time ever. We are keeping on top of the allergy meds and that is keeping it calm for now, but some years that's not enough when it gets to the height of the season so here's hoping.

Zack

2010-04-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

When my children smile their eyes squish up so it looks like they are closed. It's cute.

Zack has been unabashedly two lately. He's adorable and very loving but he also throws classic temper tantrums and struggles to communicate. He is a little speech delayed and we have an appointment for a screening in mid May. He is talking more and more every day so I'm not sure that he'll qualify for speech services, we'll have to wait and see. Some days he walks around the house with his cheeks puffed out as if he has a mouth full of food. But when I make him open his mouth there is rarely anything in it except tons of drool. He likes counting and helping cleanup and brownies. He's also discovering the joys of playing kiddie games on the computer with his brothers. He is resisting taking naps but still needs them and often ends up sleeping in the car as I drive his older brothers around in the afternoon. He's a little ray of sunshine in our lives and we are so blessed to have him in our family.

What's up

2010-04-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

I have been busy, so busy. And while business lends to interesting life stories, it doesn't leave a lot of time for making my cranky photo software yield up it's riches for your blog reading pleasure. And what's a blog entry without a picture, drivel. Here are a few things I've been working on:

my challenge quilt
parenting (of course)
a little warcraft
cub scouts
dentist appointments (yay!)

I will give you one story. I left my wallet on the cart at the grocery store on Monday. I realized it after unloading all the groceries and not being able to find it in the car. I went back and checked with the store but no one had seen it. Well, to be safe I canceled my debit card and the one credit card I carry. I also canceled our health flex spending account debit card since it could presumably be used nefariously. I checked back with the store a few days later and someone had turned it in! I was able to retrieve my wallet and all it's contents were still there. I have since received my new bank cards to replace the canceled ones and am just waiting on my flex card. Thank goodness there are honest people in the world. And what a pain in the butt it was to have no ID or way of purchasing anything for several days. (yes Keith had his wallet, but that only helps so much)

80

2010-04-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

I hit level 80 in World of Warcraft. That's the highest for now. It's pretty exciting. I know most of you don't care. It's like playing a whole new game since about half the content they design you can't access till you are 80. Here's what she looks like right now.

If you click the left and right arrows next to "Idle" it shows you what she looks like when she does different stuff in the game. Some of them are kind of amusing.

Josh at School

2010-04-07T23:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a more detailed report from Josh's school (done the same week as his birthday).

There's a lot of "therapy speak" in it, but if you read it you get a good feel for what Josh is learning and how he's doing even if you don't understand everything. If you have any questions, ask, please. I'd love to answer them. We are so proud of him!

NET means natural environment training - it's the part of school that's like a normal preschool

Initiation/ Communication
1:1 sessions: Requesting: Josh is requesting using three words (“I want ____.”), articulating the /w/ and final consonant sounds appropriately. He is now learning to use a five word request (“, I want ______, please.”).
Letter Sounds: Josh is able to identify the consonant sounds (“What sound does t make?”) He is now learning the hard and soft vowel sounds.
Sight Words: Using the Dolch sight word list, Josh is able to read the following words: a, and, away, big, I, is. Josh is currently working in the Preprimer level.
NET: Josh is using amazing language in the natural environment. He will say hello to his friends by name, ask them to move out of his way, protest appropriately when they take his toys, answer yes/no questions appropriately, and make environmental noises (choo choo for the train, vroom vroom for cars) while playing. He will ask others to join in his play, and ask to join in others’ play. He participates in book reading, following along with a story, and finishing known phrases. He loves music and will sing along with others, as well as the music played on the CD. He will answer appropriately when asked about the potty (are your pants wet or dry? Did you pee in the potty?, etc)

Discrimination/ Receptive Skills
1:1 sessions: What’s Missing: Josh is able to remember and state three missing items that has just been removed from a field of four items. He is currently learning to remember three missing items from a field of five (labels the items in front of him, closes his eyes while 2 objects are removed. He is then asked “what’s missing?”)
Expressive Categories: Josh is able to state various items that can be found in different rooms of the house. (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom).
Community Helpers: Josh is able to label a variety of community workers from photos: farmer, hair stylist, librarian, judge, nurse, pilot, teacher, mail carrier, dentist, highway worker, paramedic, pharmacist, firefighter, delivery person, bus driver, vet, soldier, mechanic.
Multi-Discrim Tasks: Josh is able to answer a “What’s happening?” question with three terms (the blue ball is behind the block). He is now learning to use four terms (the blue ball is behind the red block.)
Expressive Prepositions: Josh is able to describe where an item is using a variety of prepositions: around, through, over, in, on top, under, behind, in front, and next to. Current targets are left, right and middle.
NET: In the natural environment, Josh is able to follow multi-step instructions, put together 50+ piece puzzles, follow a written schematic to create a toy using building blocks. One of his favorite games is a game called Hullabaloo, where you have to move in a variety of ways (slither, slide, skip, jump, hop, crawl) to various pads (colors, shapes, animals, food, instruments). At the end, if you are standing on a specific pad, you’re the winner and need to do one of the following: silly dance, victory jump, take a bow. This game requires a lot of concentration in listening to the instruction and finding the correct pad. Josh is amazing at it!

Imitation/ Co-regulation
1:1 sessions: Fine/Oral Motor Imitation: Josh can imitate a variety of motor actions. He is currently improving his finger dexterity with a game using colored stickers on his fingers. We call out the colors and Josh touches that finger to his thumb. Josh has mastered this task on one hand and is now learning to coordinate both hands simultaneously.
Vocal Imitation: Josh can imitate a variety of words. He is currently working on ending consonant sounds of /l/, /n/ and /r/ to help with his articulation.
NET: Josh enjoys imitation games, especially when he is the leader. He will initiate follow the leader games, giving you items to use when following him (rhythm sticks, whistles, etc.). He also enjoys playing games like “Red Light, Green Light,” and knocking down block towers with his peers, helping them to co-regulate with him.

Joint Attention/ Referencing
1:1 sessions: Social Questions: Josh is able to answer a variety of social questions, including his full name, age, brothers’ and parents’ names. He is now learning his phone number. He is averaging 2/3 correct responses per day.
NET: Josh demonstrates great joint attention in much of his play. He enjoys singing, reading books, building towers and crashing into them, as well as interactive games like Hulabaloo, Red Light/Green Light, and Follow the Leader. He will answer basic questions about pictures in stories (where’s the ball?) and will help sing songs like Old MacDonald by picking out the next animal.

Engagement/ Reciprocity
1:1 sessions: Task Completion: Upon completing a task, Josh will get your attention and tell you “I did it!”
Listen to Simple Story: Josh can answer one who question and one what question after listening to a simple story. He is now learning to answer a where question in addition to the other wh? questions.
NET: Josh is easily engaged in the natural environment. He enjoys physical and interactive play with adults and peers. He will initiate follow the leader type games, as well as bring books over to have an adult read. There is one book that he has memorized, and he enjoys reading it to adults and peers. He has developed a great sense of humor and shows that while reading the book.

Imaginative/ Productive Play
1:1 sessions: Imaginary Play: Josh can play with a variety of toys in different situations: firefighter putting out fire and saving little people, bus taking little people to work. He is now learning to play with puppets, greeting each other, having a conversation and saying goodbye.
Interactive Games: Josh is able to play Kids on Stage, a board game involving charades. He is now learning to play Guess Who, a game that involves asking questions about physical features to guess the target person of the game.
NET: Josh enjoys many interactive games, as stated above. He will make environmental sounds while playing with certain toys (choo choo for the train, airplane noises while making the airplane fly, etc.) He has begun to pull the puppets out in the natural environment and begin to play with them as he has been practicing in 1:1.

Self-Help1:1 sessions: Handwriting: Josh is learning to write his name, write numbers, and control his pencil by practicing coloring tasks. In addition, he is solving mazes, which helps with both visual and fine motor discrimination.
Simple Addition: Josh has learned how to count numbers using the touch math dots. He is now learning simple addition, adding numbers 1 through 3, using the touch math method.
NET: Josh has been consistent in keeping his pants dry for the day at Play Connections. He typically eliminates on the toilet twice each day.

Josh at 5

2010-04-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Josh's fifth birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I've been thinking about what to write about him at five years old. He has made so much progress in the last year it is amazing. At the same time, I really hope he continues to make significant progress in the months to come so kindergarten will be a success. Some things about Josh:

He is happy most of the time.
He is very kind and loving.
He is super smart - he knows his alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, can do 25 piece puzzles independently and is learning to add and read.
He talks a lot but is still hard to understand. (His speech is not clear and he often speaks very quietly)
He loves school and attends a public early intervention preschool twice a week in the morning and a private autism preschool everyday in the afternoon.
He has friends. His social skills are still developing but he has strong friendships with some of his classmates. He's been a bit lonely lately because his best friend is gone for a month on a family trip to Ireland.
He is a technology genius. He can find an on/off switch in less than 5 seconds and can take batteries out of anything. He loves any kind of gadget, button or switch. He is also very mechanical and wants to know how everything works. We call him our little engineer.
He likes sports and physical play. He's conquered the climbing structure at the playground. He can dribble a soccer ball surprisingly well.
He behaves himself much of the time, but still struggles with communicating and paying attention.
He LOVES music. He sings with the family and at school and church, I love it!
Sometimes I wonder what he understands. He can seem so smart and connected one minute and so unreachable the next.
We are currently waiting for our placement meeting for kindergarten in the fall. That will tell us what type of class he will be in and with what type of assistance.
He has such a wide world of possibility ahead of him, I can't wait to see how he will continue to amaze me.

The Truth Shall Set You Free

2010-03-31T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today at school another student claimed Brandon had hurt them. He was taken in to the principal's office and when the teacher and the principal talked to him about it, he says he didn't do it. Because he has always been HONEST in the past they believe him. No matter how many times he's gotten in trouble in the past he's always been very truthful about what he did even if it was wrong. Today that honesty protected him from unjust punishment, because he'd established a relationship of trust with the adults at school. I'm so proud of him!

Bouncing around

2010-03-31T13:04:00.001-07:00

I saw a large, yellow, exercise ball rolling around on the side of a busy road. I wonder how it got there...who will pick it up...reminds me a bit of beach balls and carefree days of my youth.

Spring Break

2010-03-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it's almost over. It's Friday afternoon, so the days off have officially passed. Here's a few things we did:

Went to Eugene and visited some family and cousins
Went to the park
Cleaned the house (normal weekly amounts, nothing special)
Read books
Played video games
Lazed about

We had a nice, fun, relaxing time without doing anything much productive. The kids and I had a cold at the beginning of the week but we are mostly healthy now. I have mixed feelings about heading back into a mostly normal schedule next week.

Conundrum

2010-03-12T20:17:00.000-08:00

I have so much to say, many things that I feel are blog-worthy but when I sit at my desk and look at my blog, nothing seems to be the "right" thing to blog about. Either all the ideas flee at the prospect of being exposed to the outside world, or the ones remaining seem less than the glorious beings they are when I am not on the point of sharing them.

Baptism prep

2010-03-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

Our ward had a "What to Expect the Day of Your Baptism" fireside. They invited all the kids in Brandon's primary class who will be turning 8 this year and explained about what happens the day of their baptism. They showed them the changing rooms and the font and talked about the bishop's interview. Then at the end they gave them each two three ring binders. One with baptism prep information, like FHE ideas to learn about the meaning and reason for baptism and fun stuff for the kid to do. The other binder had information about cub scouts or activity days to get the kids excited about starting in those programs. (BTW there is 1 girl and about 10 boys in his class, pretty funny). I was pleasantly surprised by the fireside and that they all showed up. We look forward to Brandon's baptism this summer and his chance to start cub scouts.

Weird Weather

2010-03-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

Last night as I was driving home it suddenly started hailing. It felt like thousands of dice were being thrown at my car for about two minutes straight. Then I drove out of it into normal rain and by time I got home it was crystal clear skies again. Weird!

Challenge Quilt Center

2010-03-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

I finished the center block of my challenge quilt. It is my first foray into curved piecing and points. I'm pleased with the results.

Good news!

2010-02-19T22:28:00.001-08:00

He made it a whole week without being suspended! In fact, he didn't even get a behavior tracker at all (the bad kind).

Sleep

2010-02-17T07:10:00.000-08:00

With not needing to get children to school at 8 am for most of the last two weeks, I let my sleep schedule creep later. It felt great at the time to stay up till midnight and sleep in but now I am paying for it. I am having trouble getting to sleep earlier and the kids and school require early rising. I end up dying for a nap by time Keith wakes up and then the nap makes it so I have trouble going to sleep the next night on time. It's a vicious cycle. I will beat it just like I do after pretty much every vacation, but for now I'm soooooo tired.

Lunch

2010-02-15T10:46:00.000-08:00

My brother Will gave his missionary homecoming talk this weekend. In honor of the event we had lunch after church at my house with relatives. We decided on soups and sandwiches for the event. It was exceptionally tasty and pretty easy to prep so I thought I'd share the menu with you in case anybody needs ideas.

Soups
I'm not much of a soup eater, but it was fun to make up different soups and try something new. We had:
Homestyle chicken noodle
Creamy tomato
Vegetable
Creamy potato
Broccoli and cheese

Surprisingly to me, the broccoli and cheese soup was the most popular. I will definitely be making more of that it was tasty.

Sandwiches
We went with sub style sandwiches. We had cut up bread in soft or chewy (italian) and meats, cheeses, lettuce and tomatoes and condiments. Yum!

And of course I overbought for all the food (typical) so we have enough stuff for sandwiches for several ~~days~~ weeks and a few more cans of soup.

Challenge quilt lots of pieces

2010-02-12T17:41:00.000-08:00

The central block of my challenge quilt has 117 pieces. Here they are all cut and sorted into ziplocs.

Challenge quilt cutting

2010-02-12T14:01:00.000-08:00

I started cutting the fabric for my challenge quilt. Some of the blocks are simple and I could rotary cut strips for making them.

The center of the quilt has a more complicated block that required templates.

I worked on cutting all day when my Mom and sister were over. I need to get sewing if this is ever going to get assembled.

Meeting with the Principal

2010-02-12T10:38:00.000-08:00

It went great!

Keith and I met yesterday with the principal, the teacher and the school counselor. I came to the meeting with a list of questions and emotional armor on in case they came at us with the "bad parent" attack. That didn't happen. They all seem to think highly of my son.

The problem:
He touches other kids. He just doesn't keep his hands to himself. Sometimes it seems minor and other times it's a big deal depending on where on the other kid he made contact. Also he can't stay quiet and on task which gets him in trouble, but isn't the cause for the suspensions.

The input from those at the meeting:
Teacher: He's a great kid. She'll walk with him and have him line up separate since several of the incidents seem to be happening in line. They will beef up his positive reinforcement plan. She'll be teaching a unit on impulse control and problem solving next week. Sent us home with the parent overview video so we can supplement at home. She'll start doing an hourly progress tracker at our request. Gave us the name of a psychologist she recommends at our request.

Principal: He's very honest about what he's done and that he knows it's wrong. He shows remorse and doesn't plan on doing it again, but then it happens again. He doesn't seem to be doing it to be mean or with any ill intent. Wanted to know what works at home so they can help him be successful at school. Will never expel him and will ease up on the suspensions as we implement the new plan.

Counselor: Provided tracker sheet when we showed interest in it. Will tabulate the data from hourly tracking so we can see specifics and improvement or decline. Gave us some letters that go with the class curriculum on behavior with ideas for at home. Is doing referral to care coordinator (the cop before apparently never asked her).

Parents: We asked for the hourly tracker, which they already do with lots of other kids (4 in his grade). Willing to do anything that could help, got materials for supporting at home. Identified that 3 of the events happened in the line out of music so the teacher's plan of removing him from the group line for now is a great idea. Assured them we weren't teaching him to be a monster at home. Asked for their opinion on ADHD or other mental health stuff. "We aren't allowed to comment on that at all but if your doctor wants us to answer questionnaires we can do that." The teacher did give us a name of a psychologist she recommends when we asked.

Things that were not pursued at the meeting:
There was no mention of DHS or thinking that he was being abused. There was no talk like the cop of him being a bully who's "pushing and shoving and spitting and mistreating the other kids all the time". I did not go after them for not telling me how severe it was because I think he (the cop)was taking a snapshot and extrapolating from that.

What they said was consistent with what they'd been saying. "He's a good kid but he keeps screwing up and we need to stop it." I did mention that if our plan doesn't fix or at least improve the situation to please CALL ME as I'm happy to come in and I want this solved as much as they do. I do talk to the teacher regularly after school and get updates it's just that only one of the 8 referrals came from in her class. Now that I know who the counselor is I can also chat with her as she's out there after school every day. (We've been saying hi but I didn't know who she was.)

Here we go again

2010-02-10T18:19:00.000-08:00

He got suspended again yesterday for the rest of the week. We have a meeting with the principal tomorrow afternoon.

My sister's visit

2010-02-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

My sister and her family came to visit for the weekend. We had lots of fun. Here are some of the things that we did.

Family Dinner
Birthday party for my nephew
Video games (boys)
Chatting
Crafting and sewing (girls)
Snowboarding (boys)
Watched the kids have a lot of fun together.

And now they are gone back home. Later.

Bigger is better

2010-02-05T11:51:00.001-08:00

I've been struggling with space issues on my computer so I bought a new hard drive yesterday. After shopping around a bit, I settled on a 1.5TB Western Digital drive. I was amazed at how inexpensive it was and that we can buy hard drives that hold terrabytes now.

Cub scouts

2010-02-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

I did my first den meeting last night. We talked about the history of scouting (it's the 100th birthday celebration this month) and what was different 100 years ago and what was the same. We played a party game (balloon badminton) and made neckerchief slides that look like presents. It was straight out of the Program Helps, but for my first time it went surprisingly well. My co-den leader ran the beginning of the meeting since I wasn't sure of the routine having only been once before.

Bad boy

2010-02-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

He got suspended from school again. This time for 2 days for spitting on another kid. I'm rather frustrated. I had a chat with one of the police officers who works with the schools. He recommended we meet with a "care coordinator" who can help match us with some professional help. He mentioned anger management and the actions he described of what has been happening were much more negative than the school had been telling me before. I had been led to believe that it was just over friendly exuberance and an inability to stay quiet and keep his hands to himself. Now it looks more like willful acting out for negative attention. He told the school leaders/police officer he was misbehaving because "Nobody likes me". That just makes me so sad. When we talked to him at home, he said he spit on the kid because he didn't want to stand next to him and if he spit then he thought he'd get sent to the back of the line. Both of those discussions show a level of premeditation which is not congruent with the picture I had before. Pray for us, we need all the help we can get!

Decluttering

2010-02-01T15:23:00.000-08:00

You may be wondering why I haven't been posting for the last few days. Let me explain. Two of my sisters-in-law came to my house for the weekend and helped me declutter and organize several of the rooms. Thank you so much!! Here are the before and after pics, enjoy!!

Kitchen

Before

After

Living Room

Before

After

Another After View

Playroom

Before

Now it is Brandon's room

Boy's Bedroom

Before

After

Master Bedroom

Before

After

Closeups

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Master Closet

Before

After

Master Bathroom

Before

After

Entryway

Before

After

It might be hard to tell, but the basket is cleaned out and the shoes and backpacks are in bins now.

Obviously this was a lot of work. I'd like to add that we did it with very little sleep. I averaged 4 hours a night for the three nights of the weekend. They are planning on coming up again in a month or so to help with the other rooms, pictures will follow. Then the painting and decorating will be after that. What fun and my house looks amazing!

Walking in Memphis (or not)

2010-01-28T23:19:00.000-08:00

Another 10,000+ step day. Yay!

I did lots and lots of laundry today in anticipation of cleaning my house this weekend. Then I watched an episode of Clean House to get me in the mood. Now I'm up way too late, so off to sleep I go.

State of the Union

2010-01-28T09:26:00.001-08:00

I watched it yesterday. Obama is a great speaker, very stirring. Most of the stuff he said sounded great. Implementation is obviously not so smooth. We'll see how it goes.

iPad

2010-01-27T21:10:00.000-08:00

The iPad was announced today. It is Apple's new tablet device. You can read about it at the Apple website but I wanted to express my opinion on it. I've been waiting for them to make this for a few years now, as have many people. For the last several months it had become clear that the device would be more like an overgrown iPhone/iPod Touch than a laptop with a touch screen. That is exactly what this is. The iPad has a 9.7 inch screen and is for all intensive purposes a larger iPod Touch. It is mostly competing with the ebook readers and netbooks. Of course Apple focused more on media than the other developers have, which fits into their scheme.

Here are the pros and cons in my opinion:

Pros:

The price ranges from $499-$829 which is way cheaper than I expected, honestly.
It looks like a handy device. Many things I do on my phone would be improved with more viewing area and it could replace our in car DVD players which are dying and I could read books on it.(Not at the same time)
The case they have listed for it looks really cool and makes it seem more useful. (Keith and I believe the case should be included.)
It's pretty. Nuff said.

Cons:

Too little memory. The options are 16GB-64GB. For something that claims to be a media device that just isn't enough. My old laptop had 80GB and I was dying for space issues without movies on it.
It's too big to be convenient. I love my iPhone because it is always on me and I use it regularly. The iPad wouldn't fit in my pocket or purse and it's too big to use with one hand, but not functional enough to be a laptop replacement which would make the size more appropriate.
No included keyboard. I want the iPad on a rotating hinge attached to a laptop keyboard. I want to use it both ways depending on my task. I know they have a keyboard dock you can get for it, but that is NOT the same.

Conclusion
While it looks fun, I'm not rushing out to buy one. I might get a later generation once they increase the memory down the road. I love my current Mac laptop and iPhone.

Challenge quilt next step

2010-01-27T20:50:00.000-08:00

Here is my fabric for the challenge quilt I talked about in this post. I was going to show you what I designed, but I changed my mind so you get to watch it grow without the end picture, more interesting that way.

Some ups and some downs

2010-01-27T06:56:00.000-08:00

I broke 10,000 steps yesterday! For the first time since I got my pedometer (late Nov, early Dec) I actually walked enough!

I also got a lot done. I went grocery shopping and did some dishes and laundry and some general picking up and took out the garbage. I also took the kids to school and picked them up. Unfortunately I had to pick one of those kids up midday for misbehaving at school. Grrrr. Seriously I don't know what to do with him. He doesn't think before he does things so he constantly gets in trouble for talking at the wrong time and touching people when they don't want him to. At home I can put him in time out and take away privileges but he seriously doesn't seem to understand or appreciate the severity of why he's getting in trouble at school.

Oh and I went to my first pack meeting as a den leader. We did some science experiments. My station was turning sugar cubes colors with colored water and watching them dissolve. It was pretty fun. I still feel like I'm wandering blind with the cub scouts thing. I am sure it will all feel natural soon, but it doesn't yet.

Voting - it's fun!

2010-01-25T22:10:00.000-08:00

We voted today. In case you haven't, ballots are due Tuesday, the 26th by 8pm(that's tomorrow while I'm writing this). The only things to vote on are the two tax measures 66 and 67. As far as whether to vote yes or no on them, basically, the people who will get the money want you to vote yes and the people who have to pay the money want you to vote no. Seems kinda obvious, huh?

In other news, Keith is going snowboarding tomorrow so I will have a large chunk of time with just me and Zack. I'm contemplating all the different things I could do. Hmm...

Sewing day

2010-01-25T07:43:00.000-08:00

Saturday my Mom and I got some sewing time. We learned how to do foundation paper piecing and made some blocks. It was lots of fun. As you can see, there was a lot of childlike interest in our sewing.

Back in balance

2010-01-23T10:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry about that last post. I've been trying to post every night and that topic was overwhelming me so much that it was all I could write about. I do get down sometimes, but I get back up. I'm done with my little rant. I'd delete it, but it is a definite part of me so it's staying up.

Today my Mom is coming over to sew with me. How fun! We are working on our blocks for a quilt the whole guild is making. I know it sounds like I only sew for the guild these days, but it's getting me much more motivated to sew for myself. It's all about deadlines. I've also been hand quilting a bit on my big quilt that I've been working on for years, so I'm not leaving me out. I will keep working on projects once I get these done. I just love sewing and this is getting me to sew so it is good.

2010-01-22T22:22:00.001-08:00

I'm fat.

and that scares me.

Quilt Challenge

2010-01-22T17:21:00.000-08:00

My guild is doing a "ten" quilt challenge. Here's the info. I've designed a quilt, which I will show you in an upcoming post. For kicks, read the list and try to think of a quilt you could make with these requirements before I show you mine.

TEN

Remember all the hubbub about the year 2000? Here we are finishing 2009 and another big one is coming. Will it be two thousand ten, twenty ten, or just ’10 or maybe oh-10? It’s also the start of another decade (another 10). So the theme of the quilt challenge is TEN. We will start in 09-09 and end in 04-10, more numbers.

This is a simple challenge. There are 10 things to include in the quilt.

1. A piece of striped fabric

2. A curve somewhere in the quilt (A crooked straight seam won’t do.)

3. Must include 10 of something.

4. A nine-patch block

5. A log cabin block

6. Triangles in the border

7. A star

8. Something brown

9. A house

10. An animal

The challenge is to include all ten resulting in a perfect ’10 quilt. Think of the possibilities. One house block might include a triangle, a log cabin block, a bit of brown, a stripe, and maybe even a star in the corner. Wow, could everything go in one block for a perfect little quilt? There are lots of possibilities.

In April we will show the quilts and choose a guild favorite….and there will be a prize for that quilt.

I’ll be looking for a quilt show where we can enter the quilts later in 2010.

Happy quilting! Happy 2010!

Malaria prevention and body art

2010-01-21T21:24:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day. I got Brandon and Josh off to school then Zack and I had some sewing time. I decided the first thing I was going to sew was the net bags I signed up for so they would be done. I signed up at my quilt guild to sew these little bags out of tulle with a fabric tag in them. The idea is people fill the bags with their spare change to donate towards buying mosquito blocking bed nets for somewhere in Mali. I figured it was a worthy cause so I sewed 20 of the things today. Which took ALL of my sewing time, but that's ok, they are done. It was nice to get a chance to sit and sew even if it was for somebody else.

Later I discovered Zack had colored all over his hands and face. He does this whenever he finds markers and in this case some kind of soft crayon that showed up on skin. Luckily it was washable and came right off. I think the idea was that he likes to draw around his hand on a piece of paper and that gave him the idea to draw ON his hand. He's so cute that you can't get mad at him for it even though it's awfully messy. He colors on other stuff too, like Brandon's homework and then he's all upset because I didn't love his artwork.

Housing

2010-01-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

I have an emotional dilemma regarding housing. I'd like a bigger house. I've even picked out floor plans for a dream house I'd like to build one day. Yesterday I spent some time running the numbers trying to figure out when we would be able to afford that house. I mentioned to Keith that Brandon really wants to live in a bigger house and our current plan means we wouldn't move into it until he's moved out. Keith said he didn't care. Which got me thinking. Today I'm thinking it might be better to just stay in the house we are in. It would be a good house to retire in and it's conveniently located. It's a good size, even if I feel like I don't have quite the space I'd like, it's not as bad as I make it out. This may sound like an abrupt about face, but I go on this roller coaster of emotions regarding housing regularly.

Time wasting

2010-01-20T20:27:00.000-08:00

I survived today. The kids were good and healthy and I didn't go nuts. Unfortunately, as is my habit, I wasted tons of time and didn't get a whole lot done with the day. This has always been a problem of mine, time management is tough. Maybe I'll do better tomorrow.

Comments

2010-01-20T13:44:00.001-08:00

Just an FYI:
I opened it up so anyone can comment on this blog, but I am moderating all comments before they are published. So your comments won't show up instantly but as long as they are appropriate I will approve them. (Things I won't approve are spam, anything that would make a movie rated R, and anything else I just don't like :p)

Dancing, College and failed TV shows

2010-01-19T23:40:00.000-08:00

Today was the end of Keith's vacation. He goes back to work tomorrow night. I'll miss having him home all the time, he's really saved the last week with the kids keeping me up most nights. Here's hoping they finish getting healthy in the next 18 hours so it's not an issue while he's at work. We watched the new show Human Target. It's about a guy who protects people who are in mortal danger. (like rich dudes who get threatened by specific mean people) I thought it was fun, but it got bad reviews so we will see how long it lasts. Shows that I think are fun don't always succeed for instance, Jake 2.0, Knight Rider(recent remake), Jericho, Firefly, Dark Angel, etc.

I also watched Step Up 2 tonight for the first time. I love dance movies. This is not surprising since I've wanted to be a dancer my whole life. I've really missed dancing since I've been doing the mommy thing. I took one class after Josh was born, but with three young children it doesn't fit in the schedule. I worry that by time I can make it work schedulewise, my body won't be up to it. I also need to lose some weight before I'll be super comfortable dancing, but then dancing helps you stay slim and trim, so getting started again would help with that. I've been figuring I can take classes once I start going to school during the day since they count for PE credit and such. I've even considered a Dance minor (many times). But Keith thinks I just want to be an eternal student so anytime I suggest something else I want to take classes in he just rolls his eyes and chuckles. Unfortunately both PCC and PSU's dance class schedules are predominately afternoons and evenings which doesn't really work well with school during the day and being home with the kids when they are home plan. Well, I have a few years (3 or so) before I'll be available for school other than online so hopefully things will work out by then.

As for my student dreams... I want to be a math and computer professor so that's my double major plans. I also love dance and want to take classes in that (see above paragraph). I love learning foreign languages and if I continue to graduate level mathematics will need to have some proficiency there as well. Then I am just a general ed nut. I love pretty much everything that schools require you to learn; history, writing, science, math(as previously mentioned), sociology, literature, I just love learning and enjoy the educational setting. I want to be a teacher duh! If you've ever seen the Librarian movies (Noah Wyle) kinda low budget, I want to be that guy (23 PhDs or something like that). I also want to live a full life and not miss it by spending all my time in school so it's not that I'm hiding from the world or anything. I mean I did stop school to raise my family so you see where my priorities lie.