Can't forget these

I did a whole post on Landon's first day of school and forgot the all important "front yard" pictures...what a horrible mom I am!

Matching backpacks....such fun brothers:) (There were 2 different styles at the store, but they had to have the same one. Needless to say they are marked well:)




The cool preschooler is all ready!
More of the twinners:)

Current issues and random thoughts

Since I don't really have a regular journal these days, I wanted to put some of my personal thoughts in the blog to get them down. I haven't figured out how to have a journal and a blog-hard to keep up with both.

So, I have a list of what I call "current issues" and random thoughts to go through. Feel free to read if you want, skim, or skip completely:) I'll put pictures in the next post. Not that I really know who even reads blogs much anymore since Facebook seems to be preferred.

These are in no particular order.

Cancer scares me. I didn't realize how much until the other day. I was in line at the grocery store the other day in the process of checking out. A lady got in line behind me talking in an ear piece. You know how when you hear someone speak into thin air, you turn and look-especially when you see the person is alone. Those head pieces are strange to me. Anyhow I heard her talking and turned. Not that I was on purpose listening in, but I heard her say "we just left the doctor. He's in the car. It's stage 4." She continued on that they have to go back, etc. I felt horrible. She looked very emotionally spent. I paid for my groceries and left the store with that on my mind.

I got to the van and saw in the car next to me a gal looking so distraught. She was telling what seemed to be her father to close the door because I would be getting in. I don't know why, but it came to my mind "that's the guy. He's the one with stage 4." Well, I saw him walking toward a lady with a cart, and sure enough it was the lady who was in line behind me. I felt such a sense of sadness for this family. I just wanted to say something, but what do you say? Who am I to them-some strange lady at the grocery store. I just felt horrible for them.

So I thought about it all the way home. I know family members who have died from cancer, I had a mission companion who had gone home and had cancer taken care of and returned to the mission. BUT I have never been through it with a very close person to me. I can't imagine the pain and agony of going through it. I know people get strength and there are many many survivors, but it still scares me.

Next.....

Bullying. It's big in the news. There have been some recent suicides in the news of gay teens and young adults who were bullied and ended up committing suicide. I read lots of stuff about it online. There is a huge celebrity outcry at the moment. There's lots of websites for gay kids are bullied, etc. It seems to be Hollywood's cause of choice at the moment.

Well, it got me thinking. Why is there all of a sudden such an outcry about bullies, etc. Not to sound insensitive, but kids have been bullied and teased and committing suicide for years-all kinds of kids. But we have never seen the suicide of a fat kid televised. Where are all the celebrities when other kids are bullied? The geeks, nerds, etc. Labeling the different groups sounds so bad as I write this, but I just feel like there are other kinds of kids who are suffering and where are all the websites and public service announcements for them?

I was bullied relentlessly my whole school years. I was chubby and there was group of boys from 5th to 9th grade that did not leave me alone. I remember walking down the hall and hearing "fatty fatty two by four, couldn't get through the bathroom door" and many others like that. It stays with you for years.

Continuing on...

I hate election years. Do any politicians tell the truth? And living in Virginia, we not only have Virginia politics in all the media outlets, but Maryland and the District. It is relentless. Commercials, ads, flyers. How do you decipher who is telling the truth? The all say the other one is lying. They accuse each other of using foreign money. The president gets involved then sends the first lady to campaign. I am often wondering how much of a democracy we have. It's all just a game of numbers. Republican rule a while, then democrats, now the Tea Party wants control. Can't we just all get along?

Observations and judgements

I judged a lady the other day and am now feeling bad. I was leaving Landon's preschool and it was raining. Not monsoon rain, but it was coming down pretty good. I saw a lady in the distance with a little girl and I thought she was holding what looked like her little girl's doll. When I got closer I realized it was a baby!!! The baby was tiny-I suspect not any older than 3 months. The mom had no umbrella and the baby was not covered up at all. I couldn't believe it. I offered my umbrella but she said they were fine and turned me down.

I confess I was appalled. How on earth could she carry such a tiny baby and not at least even drape a baby blanket over her-it was raining, after all!! I wondered why she just didn't keep the baby in infant seat. I thought about it for a couple hours, then realized how horribly I was judging this mother. I have no idea what was going on with this mom in the moments just before I saw her. Maybe the baby had been screaming in the car, or maybe the older girl was having a tantrum. Maybe it wasn't raining that bad when she left her house. She could have had a horrible morning for all I know.

I felt really bad and wished I did something more. I also felt bad after because I worried that I had made her feel bad by offering to walk with her with my umbrella. I know at times when things have been stressful with the kids, I may have done things some other moms would not approve of. Goodness, I let my kids do some things that I think are normal that other moms wouldn't do.

Moral-don't judge other moms if you don't know the situation.

On a happier note....

I am need to give myself a big pat on the back. I have been trying so hard lately to keep up with the house cleaning. We decided that since the kids are in school, including Landon 2 days a week that we would only have the cleaning lady come once a month. So I have taken Tuesdays when Landon is in school and spent the 4 hours cleaning the house. Well, it's about 3.5 hours by the time I get home, then go get Lanny. I've also tried to do better every night after dinner-not leaving dishes in the sink, etc. And in the mornings after the kids have been picked up, I clean up the kitchen and dining room before I take Landon to school. I have about 20 minutes at that time.

Today I spent a long time on the downstairs cleaning and organizing. If felt good to get things cleaned up and looking nice. I forget how much dust piles up. Yikes....I'm wishing I could start getting things packed up for when we need to get ready to sell the house. It will be nice to clean less stuff, but I'm also worried about keeping the house clean when we need to show it; but that is a whole other story.

And I have been pretty productive in other areas. I have settled into a good schedule for the week:
Monday-Music class with Landon, then Brownies after school.
Tuesdays-cleaning
Wednesdays-teach classes at RECenter
Thursday-errands, help at kids school
Friday-catch up, Costco when needed, grocery shopping, etc. Hang out and play with Landon. Lately he's very into puzzles.

The weeks go by so quickly when you have so much going on. I'm enjoying all of it, too!! The Brownies are so cute. It's been a little crazy getting the paperwork done and get going, but doing the actual meetings with the girls is really fun. I have some fun things planned and am really looking to camping with the troop in the spring. My friend Carla Price is really helping me a lot, and I'm so thankful for her help. She was leader of the troop when her girls were in and her ideas have been soooo helpful. I'm also thankful that Bishop is letting us use the church. It is really the best place to have the meetings-so much space and lots of options.

I love helping at the school. The kids get excited when they see me come. The teachers are so happy to have work done for them. Yesterday I learned the tricks to the copy machine-so I could staple and colate. Woo Hoo. I'm also learning all the names of the kids in the classes. Well, I know most of Jordan's, but I'm learning Spencer's. It's fun to put the names together from the stories Spencer tells when he gets home from school.

My little tumbling classes are going really well, too, I think. I am enjoying it, but am tired when my 3 hours are over!! I have some pretty cute kids and nice parents. There are a couple kids who are hard to get to participate, but overall I have good classes. I do have one little girl I'm trying to get to separate from her mother, but I don't know how to do it. I want to tell the mom to wait outside, but I think the girl would just about have a nervous breakdown. I'm excited for the next session when I'll get to teach classes in the soft play room.

Whew-that's a lot. I'll stop for now.

Super Busy Saturday

Whew!!

That's how I describe our Saturday. It was a whirlwind of fun!! We started at about
10:15ish and got home at around 5:00 or so. Yup. WHEW!!

We started by going to a community picnic at a church down the hill from our house. I guess a bunch of churches got together and planned a big activity to bring the community together. The best part was that it was totally FREE!!

The kids started by jumping in a bouncy castle. I was so excited because Jordan actually jumped a while. The kids would have stayed in there all day, but some little kids wanted in so they got out.

Next stop:

painting pumpkins!!

There were lots of little carnival games. The kids loved the fishing game. Jordan got a little fake make up kit, so she was thrilled. The got lots of trinkets and candy, so they were so happy.
They had a fun little petting zoo as well. Spencer loved holding the snake!!

We did laugh a bit because there was a llama to pet and the lady who was in charged had the buck teeth to go with the llama. Perfect example of pet resembling owner!!

Inside the tent there were some bunnies, ducks, chickes, a turtle. The boys loved it.

They even had free hot dots and chips!! It was really well done. The one funny part was when the pastor from the church across the street introduced himself to us and asked if we attended a church. We said yes, we attended across the street. His reaction was none so thrilled. He quickly said "well, nice to have you" and walked away!!

After the community party, we went over to the Fire Station for an open house. The kids had a blast!! They knew it was coming for a few days and kept asking when we were going.

The kids crawled through a door to "stop drop & roll" to get a little hat. They got tattoos, got in the trucks to "drive," ate lots of popcorn, cookies and cake.
I did learn something new at the fire station. I saw these big yellow hoses with black thing on them. I asked a fireman and he said that they put them on the exhaust when they park the fire engines so that when they have to leave and start up the trucks fast the exhaust goes out of the building instead of inside where they would have to breathe it in. Smart!!



After the fire station, we drove down to Dumfires to a party thrown by a couple who used to be in our ward but moved. They wanted to say "thanks" for everyone in the ward. The moved to a nice beautiful huge house. The kids had fun doing crafts, and running around in the huge empty basement.

Darin and I had fun talking to friends in our ward. It was nice to sit and chat. We had a nice time and then went home. Shortly after getting home Darin was asleep on the couch.

I made the kids some mac and cheese for the kids so they decided they would have their own "restaurant" on all the Costco boxes. Funny kids!!

Not to be left out!

We are starting something new this year that we haven't had to do for the past 4 years....we are now paying for preschool:( I was very sad about the fact that Landon would not be able to go to Rose Hill for preschool. I think I was actually in denial for a while. I kept waiting for someone to tell me it was all a joke. They are not doing the model children any more. It is a huge crock, really. They said it was because of ratios, but all the preschool classes have only have 4-5 kids. But that's a soapbox for another day. I just miss that preschool so much.

So I was very late in signing Lanny up for a preschool. Oh and a couple of the sign up days were when Darin was TDY, so I couldn't leave the house at 5am to get in line. So I ended up on the wait-list at 2 schools. One a co-op, where you have to go work to get the reduced tuition, and one at the local RECenter. The second being my preference. Well, just at the end of the school year, I was hired on at the RECenter to teach classes this fall. So I was put on the wait list. They called in August to tell me they had an opening. The other place called a few days later, but we choose the RECenter. It is more expensive, but the facility is fabulous. The classrooms are huge, and they get to use the facility-a huge gym-there's a PE teacher who comes once week, the soft play room, a great playground, etc. I was super excited. It is where I would have wanted the other 2 to go if they hadn't gone to Rose Hill.

We had an open house the day before school started. We found out there is a little girl we know in Landon's class so that is good. It is funny because she will run up to him and give him a hug and he will stand there with a look like "what the heck are you doing. " It's funny how at only 3 they are so "boy" and "girl." Lanny seemed to like the classroom, but I don't think he really knew what was going on.

Here he is at "circle" when his teacher was reading a book. The little girl with the flowery dress in front of him is the one we know.

Hmmm, we'll have to work on sitting in circle time!

Walking up to the RECenter the first day of school. Every day he walks, well actually runs, on the stones, not the sidewalk.
Here's Landon finding his name. He is in the "Dolphin" class. Every day there are small dolphins on the table that the kids have to find and put in a basket. So they can recognize what they're name looks like. Landon finds his pretty quickly. Landon had some funny faces his first day. I don't think he really know what was going on.

What the heck is going on here?
I'm a Dolphin? (all the classes have names so you know which class people are talking about-specific teachers, days and times.)
Hanging up his backpack by his name.

Landon kept asking me to stay, but once he hung up his backpack and sat down at the table to play with the puzzles, he was fine. It was weird to walk away with out him. He has been my little buddy for 3 years. It was weird to be alone for the 4 hours he was at school. I ran some errands. did some shopping, went to lunch by myself....very different for me.

When I picked him up, the first thing out of his mouth was "I wasn't crying." So cute. It was fun to hear how his day was. He is liking school, I think. Tuesdays are harder since he has 4 days with no school, but as soon as we get there he is fine. We don't usually have a problem on Thursday. Some days he asks me to stay, but he is fine when I drop him off. I really like his teacher and the assistant as well. A friend of mine's little girl was in the Dolphin class and she really loved the teachers. It is a great preschool, so I'm pretty excited. The facility is great! They get to use the gym, playground, and they have already been able to play in the soft play room, which was awesome for Landon -he loves that place.

Landon is going to have a great year!

getting Jordan dressed.....

is going to do me in.

I mean it.

I seriously mean it. I went to put up a post on Facebook about this problem, but there's just too much to say.

We had a big fight this morning about what she was going to wear. It is chilly today so I figured she could wear this really adorable jean skirt and tights. I got her these cute tights, brand new, at the consignment sale. They have horses on the bottom, but she was mad they didn't have horses all up and down the whole leg. Ugh. I thought they would go really well with the cute jean skirt, which she agreed with yesterday. But today it was a serious problem-she and I were thinking of different skirts. The one I picked wouldn't work because:

Too long and no shorts under it.

At least she liked the shirt I picked-pink with 2 little dogs on the front.

She kept going on about the other jean skirt, meanwhile it is getting later and later. I find the one I think she is talking about, which is too short and doesn't fit, and was in a box to send to cousins. She keeps talking about a different one. I can't take it any longer so I tell her just to get dressed and I'm going downstairs. Then she starts screaming for me and makes no progress until I go back. She's still on this other skirt.

So I turn into the worst mother ever. Lecture about how she has a dresser full of perfectly fine clothes and she wants a skirt that isn't there, yada, yada, yada. I tell her I don't care what she wears, just GET DRESSED and go on and on about what I/we have to get done before our ride for school comes. UGH....how do you stop that when you get going? I HATE myself after. Really, hate it and regret most of things I say. Mostly I my heart aches when I see her sweet face look at me with such a sad look.

I just don't know how to handle this. Today was just a sampling of this happening-not to this extent, though. I just HAVE to figure out how to change this.

Another problem is that she'll pick something in the store that she likes, but when we get home, she won't wear it. I told her I'm going to give her 2 outfits she absolutely loves to rotate every other day, then her friends will wonder why she doesn't have more clothes.

Really, did I really say that? Not winning any mother of the year prizes today. Maybe I would have been better with all boys. Well, except that Spencer does express his opinion about his clothes more often-Landon, too. But luckily not the same extent as their sister.

The other issue I have is that we are in a carpool with a family down the street. My friend wants to pick the kids up earlier than I would leave if I were taking them myself. It stresses me out. I HATE making people wait for me and half the time she is sitting in her car waiting for us. I like being in a carpool, but am wondering if the stress of it all is worth it for me. Well, the problem is that I feel obligated to do it. She got into the Spanish Immersion just before school started. She was on the fence about it, but then said we could carpool. I said sure, so she put her daughter in. Some mornings I wish I could just only worry about getting out the door with just my kids in our own time. (My part of the carpool so far has been to bring all the kids home from school.)

Ok, rant over. I'll get over it eventually, but any advice about dressing picky little girls would be most welcome.!!!

Ducks and Swans

Another Boston post! It had rained so many days in a row, we finally had a day with some sun!! We decided to go into town and ride the swan boats and play in the Boston Commons. We found a great parking spot right off the Public Gardens. This is a place where I could go over and over again. I never get sick of it. It is so beautiful and serene. Ya know, one of those places where you are just happy? I love it.

The first thing we saw was the Make Way For Ducklings statue. The kids have been before and really like it. There's usually a big crowd.



The kids can't help but sit on mama duck!

We continued along to the pond when we left the ducklings. There are lots of ducks and also a couple swans in the pond. The swans are Romeo and Juliet, I think.

The kids try to feed the ducks. One of my favorite parts about the pond is all the weeping willow trees that surround it. The reflections are so cool, it is simply beautiful.


The Swan Boats have been in the Public Gardens forever. I like this sign on one of the boats. The kiddos waiting in line to go on a swan boat.

I tried hard to get a close up of each kiddo on the boat. Here's what we got.

Landon looking pretty serious.
Happy Spencer:)
Can you tell Spencer was more cooperative? Plus I was sitting by him so he was a perfect subject.

Sweet Jordan
Here's a view of the boat from the back. The guys pedal it like a bike. They must be so buff by the end of the summer. It is really such a calm and relaxing ride. We loved to see the little duckies swim along side the boat. We also look for turtles at the little island in the middle of the pond.


We loved seeing the swans. And you can see what the boats look like. It's just a bench you sit on. A very relaxing ride.

Nantasket Beach

So it rained and rained most of the time we were in Boston back in August-yes I am still catching up from summer. I was very sad every day it rained since I really wanted to spend a day at my favorite beach-Nantasket Beach. We spent the day there for Spencer's first birthday, so the plan was to go back for the day on his 5th birthday. Since it was pouring on his birthday, it didn't quite work out that way.

So there was one day that the sun finally showed itself-the day before we left. We went into Boston for the day time, then since my friends were going to a concert Thursday night. After they left, we did an evening rip to the beach. We had a BLAST!! It made me a bit bummed that we hadn't spent the day there after seeing the glee on the childrens faces during our quick visit. Ah well...next time!!

Darin and the kids heading to the water.
Spencer absolutely LOVED the water. He loved running in and out of the surf. He would jump up and down and just laugh and laugh. Once a wave knocked him over and he thought that was awesome; so eventually he was soaked, but thoroughly happy! And he looks so dang cute with his "swim shirts" as we call them, or "rash guards" as surfers call them. He and Lanny both look like little surfers.


Jordan on the other hand is a bit more hesitant in how far she goes into the surf. She and Spencer would run in, then run back out when a big wave was coming. She would rather wander around the beach looking for treasures to fill up her bucket.



Spencer having a blast. Soooo cute!!!

loved the reflection on this one.



Jordan found a little pool just the right size for her bum. Jordan could wander around the beach searching for treasures and playing in the sand all day. The nice thing about going in the evening was that we didn't have to worry about sunscreen and could just wander all over the beach. It was so nice.



Brothers having fun on the beach.





There are lots of rocks and little pools all over the beach. It was fun to see the kids wander around and look for treasures. We found some really cool shells and fun pebbles.



Nice rock, Landon. He wanted to bring it home with us!


When I was a nanny, I would go here all the time. I would walk the whole beach when I needed to think. Our singles group would come here a lot. We would see who would go in the water when it was cold-we were crazy in those days!!