First Day of Middle School! And Second First day of Kinder for Kaylee :)

I am such a nervous wreck this morning!!  This whole junior high thing is insane…I am just worried for my little boy, who isn’t little any more.  By now he is sitting in his second class already, but I really am hoping he got his locker opened and found his way around without getting teary.  He absolutely did NOT want me to walk him in, which I couldn’t have anyway because of Audrie needing to be dropped off at the carpool, so he is clearly WAY more independent than I was at that age.  I have a VERY vague recollection of that day, but  really it’s so fuzzy I don’t remember much (Cam, you remember way more than I do!).  Tyler has a lot of responsibility this year on top of the new Junior high, seven class schedule, because he has to pick up Kaylee from school MWF while I pick up the carpool with Audrie.  I hope it all works out ok.  Today of course is was raining when I dropped Kaylee off which means they may have a severe weather pickup this afternoon…which would make things a lot more complicated for Tyler, so we are praying it won’t rain/storm for pickup on the first day! (See attached pic of Tyler practicing opening his locker)

Kaylee has been going through some serious separation anxiety lately.  I don’t know if something happened at church a month or so ago, but she DOES  NOT want to go to sharing time or her primary class.  She is absolutely and sincerely petrified to go the class.  I don’t know if something happened with the teacher or what, but she does not want to go.  I sat with her yesterday and then left her in tears with the substitute teacher.  But when she found me in YW’s after church she seemed as happy and normal as could be, so hopefully it was a positive experience.  I have been concerned that dropping her off at Kinder was going to be an issue because of this.  She held it together pretty good, but you can see in the picture attached that she was just about to burst into tears, watery eyes, quivering lip and everything!  I don’t know what’s going on??  Anyway, I hope she has a fabulous day and realizes how smart she is especially compared to the new kindergarteners J

Sam is STILL sleeping.  She is not going to get used to this schedule very easily.  But I can really get some good stuff done today!  Audrie’s ipod has been missing for about a week now, so I need to clean and see if I can find it.

Audrie's First Day at Briarwood :)

We have had a busy week this past week, mostly with Audrie and her new school.  She started Weds and she seems to be doing well, although it is a long day due to the driving, but I hope she will adjust.  She hasn’t dove into the real school work yet although they have done a few worksheets.  The best news is she came home one day and said how she finished her work first and how she felt like she was super smart compared to her classmates (ha!)…this is good.  Very good.  We need her to build confidence and recognize how smart she really is!! I feel like I drove more than I ever have in my life though!  Commuting to and from Audrie’s new school is going to be the death of me….but fortunately my carpool efforts and prayers have not been in vain!!  I have found two ladies who are going to carpool with us and have gotten a schedule together and everything.  I am just waiting on one lady to approve the schedule!  I am on the verge of celebration, but want to make sure lady #3 is on board.  Prayers are being answered!!  (See Audrie’s first day of school pic attached, also another Diva pic of Audrie). 

So this week we celebrated Andy’s birthday J  In fact the Ford’s came down to celebrate with us (after all it was Brinly’s birthday too!) which is SO FUN.  I am just loving having them close…I think every day, “maybe we can go see Cami today…” and then realize I have responsibilities to take care of.  So Cam, know that you are filling a void that I have had for a very long time!  (AH!  Tears).  Family close by is such a blessing.  (BTW Sorry about the traumatic event at the pool!  I have never witnessed a drowning before.  Hope the kids weren’t too traumatized by it.)  Cami already reported on the swimming incident, so I won’t elaborate but the police asked me to write up a report for them since I witnessed it.  My adrenalin was pumping for a good while afterwards!  And just FYI they did resuscitate the boy and he seemed like he would be fine.

Last week before everyone else starts school!  I’m excited for more structure, but dreading the craziness of it all.  It’s all wonderful though J

ANNIVERSARY!!! Times 12 Years :)

What a great week it has been.  Full, FULL week getting ready for Audrie’s school to start (weds), but I think we are mostly ready.

Yesterday we had stake conference, which was nice, but is always difficult with our kiddos.  There were several things said that I really felt strongly about.  One of them was how we need to make our home a mini MTC to prepare our kids for the MTC since the age change has taken place.  I’m hoping to make some changes so that the older two can learn to read scriptures on their own instead of simply reading with us in family scriptures.  Hopefully I can be successful.  I also had the thought how important it is to teach them independence as well.  If they do decide to go on a mission at the earliest age possible (especially Tyler) then they need to learn independence BEFORE they leave the home.  Things such as laundry, money management, time management, etc.  Things that some don’t learn until they are on their own.  The other thing that hit me was how we live in a day and age of instant gratification.  Everything we need, what or desire can be right at our fingertips in a matter of seconds and the art of studying is being lost.  This particular speaker talked about how we need to remember during our scripture study that we need to take the time to study and do it in depth, that is takes work to get answers and effort to get all that we need out of them.  A reminder I needed as I have become quite casual in my personal scripture study.

Andy and I celebrated our TWELFTH anniversary!  Can you believe we’ve been married that long?!?!  It’s crazy.  I did a play on “a dozen” for our anniversary and put many  “dozens” of things all over our bed, plus a dozen balloons with a dozen pictures of us throughout the years, and a very juvenile poem I wrote (not exactly my forte!).  Hahaha…there were several misspellings, but that is what I get for being so last minute. (see pic)  Love him from here to Dover….hahahaha…yes that was a line in my poem.  We have no connection to Dover at all, it just simply rhymed  J  Love you Andydala!

Tyler has a big junior high event this morning that I think he a little nervous about.  This whole junior high thing has me excited, but kind of nervous too!  We went and picked up his percussion supplies last week (OH MY EXPENSIVE!! Over $250 AHHHH) and despite the price we are excited for him.  The music attendant we worked with from the store was a young fellow that had a real “cool” vibe about him and he kept pumping Tyler up saying how awesome it would be if he got on drumline in highschool and how much fun he was going to have playing percussion.  It was really one of the best things that could have happened.  That guy will never know how much influence he can have on an 11 year old, slightly insecure little boy.  His positive attitude was quite infectious and it got Andy and I excited too!  One of the many instruments he is going to get to play is called the Marimba, which we have to rent and he get to practice at home.  (see pic)  It is a pretty awesome instrument as it’s not very loud, since the keys are made of wood!  Kind of a muted sound.  Thank heavens…and for the snare drum he uses a practice pad…so not much noise there either.  SO far so good on noise level J  We will see how long that lasts.

Wicked and Katie!

We had a wonderful time with the Ford's and Katie.  What a whirlwind the last week was!  We met the Ford's plus Katie on Thursday early afternoon after they closed on their home and helped unpack as long as we could.  Then we took Katie home with us, went back up the next day and helped as long as we could.  The cousins were in HEAVEN!  I think the girls were in Barbie heaven the entire time...it brought back memories!  I'm not sure we made much of a dent in the actual unpacking process, but we did our best.  Andy even brought his bathroom cleaning "tool belt".  A tool belt full of all the cleaning supplies needed for a bathroom...wish I had a picture, but it is quite awesome.  He thoroughly cleaned a couple of the bathrooms while we unpacked on Friday. 

Thursday evening we went from unpacking to picking up the babysitter and heading out to the musical Wicked!  We were even able to find an extra ticket for Katie to come with us (which seated her right behind us)!!  It was awesome.  Tyler and Audrie also came with us so we all went out to eat right before the show began.  We were singing wicked while unpacking for a good part Friday!

Sunday was a big day for me.  I have been preparing a lesson for Sunday on the Law of Chastity for quite some time and have been really nervous about it.  I was a sweaty mess afterwards, but I think it came across well.  The idea came to me to talk about choices and use a talk by Pres Monson in 2010 Oct conference called the “Three ‘R’s of Choice”.  I had three boxes that I threaded a rope through and inside each one were one of the three ‘R’s, The right to choose, the responsibility to choose and the result of choice.  We opened each “gift” and talked about each one.  Then I had a separate gift bag with the gift of repentance.  We talked about how once a choice is made the responsibility of the that choice and the result of that choice are directly connected.  And when making that choice the choose the consequence.  Then we went into chastity from there, likening to the gift of choice and then talking about how repentance is there for us to use, but has to be something we choose to use.

We sent Katie home yesterday morning!  She made it ok and I was impressed with how much she’s grown up since the last time I saw her.  She seemed so much more mature in so many ways!  Katie, you don’t seem so  little any more J  Bittersweet!  Although I do have to tell you, I  sent her to the grocery with Tyler to get a few things while I finished something up Sat morning before we headed up to Conroe again…and Tyler and her both came home with a bag full of twinkies, fruit snacks and a few other gems for their own consumption (bought each with their own money).  Tyler also had a very large lego set that he brought home.  I’m sure they had a great time!  They did get what I had on my list as well, but I think they both went with alternative motives J

Andy and I will celebrate our 12^th anniversary this Sunday!  CRAZY eh?  It is amazing that we have shared that much time together.  And to think we have eternity to go!  Love you babe.

Oh and I took my children TPing for the first time…my first time in 17 years and we had a blast.  One of the YW leaders got our house good for my birthday, so we had to payback for her birthday.  We took a couple of YW as well. And just FYI we used crepe paper instead, it is SOOO much easier to clean up J  What a great example I am.