Just because

Today I subbed for 1st grade

If you can't say anything nice...then don't say anything at all.

I guess that is all I can say about my day. Oh yeah, and I am going back for more on Tuesday. Maybe it will be like having a baby and by Tuesday morning I will have forgotten the pain until it it too late and I am in the middle of the day. :)

Busy days trying not to fullfill the deductable

I have not done too good about posting something everyday. I am sure I have had things happen blog worthy, I am just busy.

I did a half day sub job on Monday - I like those. I have not quite graduated from 1st grade (except for the one half day 4th grade - and one half day kindergarten). I am really liking 1st grade. There are three teachers from the same school that call me at least once a week. It is nice to have that one day out. I am still always nervous driving to the school, but once I am there I fall into the routine and all goes well. This week I will also be in on Friday and then Tuesday and Friday next week. I really like having the days planned in advance.

So... girls are in basketball. They love it. Allynn says there is much more running involved than she expected. (6th grade girls are playing the full court). Sydney has only had a practice so far. Not as much running yet. They are both having fun! Both girls were asked to play nice and not get hurt.

While taking Allynn to basketball practice today Kelsey informed me that she needed a ballet class where I could "drop her off... Not basketball...ballet". I guess I will be looking into 3 year old (almost 4) classes in ballet.

I posted previously about a sledding trip we took. Austin crashed into the post of a backstop. Anyway... He got a bruise and then seemed to be fine on Monday when it was time to go to school. He does not complain about any pain so we thought he was fine. Well, now he does not walk right. The Dad decided it was time to go to the doctor to make sure there is not any damage to his body we cannot see. The Dad goes to an Osteopath (for lack of a better description chiropractor/MD). This doctor did a great job of asking Austin questions about what hurts and what doesn't.

A problem we have with Austin is that he seems to remember everything we talk about - but not always in a good way. The dad and I have been talking about Austin's gait for a few days. We can see there is a slight crookedness to the way Austin is walking. We tried not to talk about it when his ears are listening because then a limp is added to the walk. The doctor had Austin do a few things which helped to determine if there was anything wrong. I am not sure if Austin walking back and forth in the small exam room gave the doctor all the information he needed, but I felt like it was a thorough exam. Then we were sent to get X-rays of his pelvis, left hip, and left knee. We should know more tomorrow.

All this brings me to the mail we got two days ago. In the envelope was the Year End EOB (Explanation of Benefits). Between The Dad and Allynn we hit the family deductible. Why couldn't Austin have had all this done before the 31st of December. I am really hoping we do not fulfill anymore maximum deductibles this year! (But if we have to... lets hit the mark by April so the rest of the year is paid for).

Let's Give'em Something to Blog about...

I am searching through pictures to find one of me that I know exists. I looked through my curtain bag. Tomorrow I will look through Julie's curtain bag. I looked through the left over pictures my mom has. I did not find the picture I was looking for, Buuuuut, I did find some lovely pictures of family and friends that would be fun to post.

Aunt Kathy posted one of me and my two sisters. I found some fun ones of her wedding. Some cute ones of Noelle and Andrea. I am starting to get overwhelmed I don't know where to start. None of them really have stories, they were just cute fun pictures. And I like to look at pictures.

Food

I actually went to Costco today - got everything on my list - and only spent $36.00.

I got...
4 gallons of milk
1 bag of 5 stalks of Romain Lettuce
1 bag of colorful bell peppers
1 large bag of broccoli
2 25lb bags of flour

I was so shocked at the register. I am resolved to make a menu and keep my food costs down.

Tomorrow night for dinner we are having Sloppy Joe's on homemade buns with salad and broccoli. It sounds good to me. I know Kelsey will eat the broccoli, Austin will eat the meat and bun, Sydney might eat the bun with or without meat, Allynn will eat all of it. The dad eats what I fix. Grandma and Grandpa... I hope they like it.

Basketball

This last fall Austin played 2nd grade basketball through the American Fork Rec. Center. He loved it. It was so nice to see him be active and make new friends. The biggest bummer of the season was that we missed the phone call about what time team pictures were, so we don't have a team picture. But we do have a picture of him in is uniform. He was number 4.

We had so much fun with Austin playing BBall that the girls wanted in on the fun. They both start this week. Allynn will have practices on Tuesdays with games on Saturday. Sydney will have a practice/game on Saturdays. I hope we have not over scheduled ourselves. Especially Allynn. Her Tuesdays will be busy - school all day till 3:30pm, then Strings from 4:00 to 4:40, then Basketball practice from 5:00 - 6:00, then Young Women's from 7:00 to 8:30.

I guess we are in the beginnings of very busy teens. But we may have found the family sport.

The New Sunbeam

I can hardly believe it but little miss Kelsey went to Sunbeams today. Last week she said goodbye to the nursery. She talked all week about going to Sunbeams. She knew the name of her teacher - Sister Schmidt. She new that Grandma Alger was going to be the substitute for this first Sunday. She woke up this morning talking about going to Sunbeams.

In the middle of Sacrament meeting, she told me she wanted to go the Nursery - not Primary. Then when it came time to go to Primary she still did not want to go. I should have taken her down the other hallway, but I didn't think walking past the Nursery would cause any trouble.

She was devastated. Huge tears as she walked by the Nursery door. And one of the teachers was in the hall greeting the other children. Kelsey and I kept walking. We got the to Primary room door and she would not go in. None of the other kidlets had a hard time going from Nursery to Primary. This was a new experience for me. I also needed to go in to sit with my class.

Sister Brown saw that she was in distress and lovingly helped her to her class. This is why we have a Primary Presidency to love and care for our children.

Once we started singing the opening song, she was fine. She even raised her hand to participate in Sharing Time, only her comment had nothing to do with the lesson. She just needed to make sure everyone knew her birthday was on purple.

Now that's the Kelsey I know. :)

Cleaning, shopping, crashing

Today we put away all the Christmas stuff. Kelsey was pretty upset when she came upstairs to find the tree put away. She got over it pretty quickly when we told her we were going to go sledding when we were done working. In fact, that got all the kidlets moving to get their jobs done. They worked quickly and efficiently to get their rooms picked up so we could go play in the snow.

Once everyone was done, we piled into the van to take all the Christmas boxes back to the storage unit and then to Costco to get a sled. Tuesday when Austin and I went to Costco they had lots of sleds. We talked about getting one at that time, but I wasn't sure if I had enough money. So we decided to come back another day. Well, today was the "another day" and all the sleds were GONE! We totally missed out. Next we went to Wal-mart since we had seen tons of sleds there, too. NOPE! All gone. Grandma Alger had already called a tire place to see if they had inner tubes, but they didn't. So our last chance was Cal-Ranch. I would consider Cal-
Ranch to be a country feed store with sections for automotive and hardware. We like the store. We find fun things there sometimes. We thought for sure they would have sleds. NOPE. The sleds were gone there too. So we looked around to see if we could find something else we could sled with.

Sure enough we found something. They were made for sledding, but they were just a flat piece of blue plastic with a hole in one end for a handle. The kidlets didn't care. They thought it would be fun.

We left the store and headed out to find some hills. We went to a park our cousins had told us about. And it was fun. Until Austin crashed. They all went down a few times. The blue plastic was harder to use than they thought it would be, but it was sure fast once they got the hang of it.

They started on the small hill and kept moving over until they were with the other kids going down a pretty long hill. Allynn, Sydney and Austin were having a great time. Kelsey didn't like the blue plastic so she found some little people around her age and bummed one of their disk sleds. That hill was much more of a gentle slop which was her right speed.

I didn't see what happened, but all of a sudden Sydney was coming over to us to say that Austin was hurt. I didn't want to have to trek over to where he was just for him to get up and want to go down again. Then we saw another parent looking down at him and felt the need to go check it out. Austin had gone down the hill and crashed into the poll of the fence at the bottom of the hill. He has a nice bruise on his left hip, and is limping around the house. I think he will be alright.

It was fun while it lasted. And we are glad we didn't end up at the ER with broken bones.

New day, New Month, New Year

I am looking forward to this new year. 2007, 2008, and 2009 were TOO hard where life is concerned. The end of 2008 was better when Jason got a job. 2009 got better when we moved and got even BETTER when I finished school. (My diploma came in the mail the other day!!)

I am looking forward to new opportunities and new adventures in 2010. I hope for more days of substitute teaching. The girls are starting basketball this month. I am looking forward to being busy with happy, uplifting things. I am looking forward to a new group of children to teach in Primary. Hopefully they will be more attentive than my own son was for me.

I am looking forward to the economy getting better, little by little. We certainly did our part during Christmas and New Years by having big FOOD parties.

I am looking forward to joining the Rec Center and have set a goal to use it everyday. (There is an indoor track. I think I can push myself to go walk around with Kelsey.) The Rec Center also has a pool and I would like to look into the Water Aerobics. I just want to feel better with less aches and pains and better breathing.

I am looking forward to the days getting longer. I am tired of the night and the cold. I have a nice sweater, so I am working on not being cold, but I would like the sun to be out more!

The one resolution I have for myself is to make sure I read the scriptures with my kidlets EVERYDAY! We have family prayer down pat. So much so that on Monday, the kids didn't have school so The Dad didn't wake them up at the usual 6:45 am. I thought they would appreciate the ability to sleep in. NOPE.

Austin: "Where's Dad?"
MOM: "He had to go to work."
Austin: "Dad couldn't have gone to work today."
Mom: "Why?"
Kelsey: "Because he didn't get me for famy payer"

So... for the rest of the week, they were woken up early - we said family prayer - and they all went back to bed. No grumbling at all.

So... Happy New Year to all. This will be a great one! I just know it!!!!