Housework Makes You Ugly...

My poor house has been terribly neglected this past couple of weeks. I have had so little time to tend to it. Wanna come help me? I really just want to take a nap. I am EXHAUSTED. But the kids are only at White's for another two hours and I need to get some of it cleaned before they get back. Mopping is a sure fire way to end up with a broken leg or two. They cant remember how slick those floors are and someone always forgets it is wet and down they go....

I have a midterm on Monday (a week early for some reason). I am glad at this point I am only down to two classes. I think I would have lost my sanity by now.

It snowed last night, just a skiff. The kids are so excited, just walking in it brings them joy! Awe, its the little things in life, isn't it?

What an artist...

I have always kept as many drawings the kids have done as I can. I cant keep them all. Especially this one. Bethanie drew this tonight for me when I made my brief stint at HFPE. I loved it. It is on a marker board, so for me to save it meant I had to take a picture. LOL! She is so much like me at this age. I loved and loved to color (still do). She is constantly doing these things!

Jeff and I were off today, TOGETHER! So, we went out to lunch together. Where did we go? We went to the elementary school and ate lunch with our two oldest children. It was NICE! We dumped the baby at "White's" and then we came home and took a much needed nap. It was very nice. Sometimes being unconscious is a GOOD thing! I am just exhausted from this week. We have been going through a lot of emotional things, but I see tender mercies all around me. This picture that Bethie drew for me has I LOVE YOU written all over it. I especially love the part on the lower right were it says, "your child luves you". It makes it all seem worth it knowing that our children do love us. Sometimes it seems like we get so caught up with life and how difficult it can be and we forget those tender mercies, this really reminded me what it is all for, what it is all about.

Ballerina Girl...

Tonight Bethie danced at the High School. They were putting on a program that her dance group was invited to attend called, "Night of 1000 dances". She was in it last year too. Here are some pictures of her and a video clip (hopefully). She was so beautiful! It never ceases to amaze me how shy she is, but really enjoys performing! She is amazing! The song they performed to is called, "The wee small hours". Here is a small video clip of it...

Bethanie is the one on the far right in pink.

I really thought their costumes were pretty this year! She LOVES the tutu's!

Jessica (L), Lydia (M), Bethanie (R)

There are only five on their team. Two were not there yet.

They are tiptoeing in the wee small hours


This is the end pose.



So much fun! I just love that she enjoys doing this!

a better day...

Today was a better day. Tomorrow I will have NOTHING to do, no where to go, no one to bug me (I hope). I look forward to our tensions to leave us.

My sweet baby...

isn't a baby anymore! he just turned ten, and I cant account well for the time! It seems like yesterday when I was just holding him for the very first time. It was just last week when we were teaching him how to walk! A month ago, it seems like he started Kindergarten. I cant believe that he is ten.

We had a fun birthday party for him at a tween club in our town. We invited his class mates and I thought he really had a good time with them, and they seemed to have fun, too!

His mouth is full of doughnuts...

Bethanie and Kerrigan, her dear friend! No, Bethanie does not actually wear glasses, she is going through a phase where she thinks she needs them. We found this cute pink pair at Claire's. LOL!

I snuck a picture of my mom while she was trying to sneak pictures of others!

Madison would NOT look at me for any thing. I caught her playing this video game where you drive and she refused to look at the camera. Stinker! That is how it is when you are TWO!

Three of my girlies!

This club is really neat because it even has its own theatre. We had The Incredibles playing. The kids enjoyed taking a break and going in there to watch some of the movie.

Here is Bethie (a.k.a. May) SHE isn't afraid to pose...she is ALWAYS posing!

Heather came, and she got to play Guitar Hero. She is really pretty good with it!

Here is Jeff. He is still a kid at heart. Yes, that is ME in the background.

Here is Matthew with his class mates opening gifts (we requested there be no gifts but most of the kids brought cards with money). It was so nice of them to be here to support Matthew, even though most of them were a part of his difficult week. It meant a lot to us that he was able to have this kind of peer support!

Here are two of my guys. My dad is there supporting Matthew. He just wants to be close to him. I loved it!

Birthday week for Matthew has always been a struggle because he gets really excited. Even though he has rough patches, I think he still had a good time, and felt special. I love him. I cant believe that Heavenly Father felt we were the family for him! He has taught us so much through the past ten years, and I thank Father in Heaven daily for him blessing us with a son. I cant imagine my life with out our son, or any of our children. It is so interesting because once they are here, it feels like they have been with us forever. . . and truly they have and we just didn't know it until they came to us here. My sweet boy is growing up! *SNIFF*

It's Official...

I dropped Blah Blah Blah. No more of it. My instructor was very nice about it. He is going to paint my seat gold and put a permanent "WET PAINT" sign on it so no one can sit there. He also said there will be a dim glow in the room where I once sat. ROFLOL! Anyway, he agreed with me that it would be very difficult in keeping up with this class at this point. I missed every day last week (not of my choice).

I talked with my Human Growth & Development instructor after class today. I was worried about my grade, and because I have missed so much class, thinking it might be best to drop it if it would be too hard to get back what I have lost. I didn't realize it, but on Monday next week, we have our MID TERM!!! She assured me that I am doing very well. I got an A on my make up test on Thursday (my mind was so distracted) and she said that if I cant come to class some times, she would allow me to do an independent study where I don't have to go, but just do the work. She said she trusted me and thought that if it came to that, we could do it. WHAT A RELIEF!!!

I talked with my English Comp. II instructor about some of the issues of last week. He has also been very understanding with my situation. I was 20 minutes or so late for class today because we were busy causing heads to roll at the elementary school and board office. But he said that he gave a small quiz to the class this morning before I got there. He said I didn't have to make it up, and it would NOT affect my grade. WAHOOOOO!!!!! Can I say, the pressure cooker feeling is going away?!?!

Another POSITIVE: Matthew had a GREAT day at school, at least so he says.


Another Positive: (can you tell I am focusing on the positive?) When I got home from picking up kids from school, the college had called and said that they received some scholarship info from me but they need my High School transcripts. Who knows, maybe I will have some scholarships coming to me that I CAN accept. That would be nice if that happened.

Anyway...there you have it.

Oh, by the way, it isn't the nice fun post I had promised earlier. That is still to come...