Some odds and ends

Well it's busy around here - as always.  Ben has been super busy at work these past few months - working every Monday (pretty much) at the hospital assisting Dr. Singh, and then just long days at the surgery center.  I think everyone's deductibles are spent and so they are doing whatever surgery they need - for "free."  :)

I ended up working three nights this week.  Blah.  It was a lot.  I don't sleep great during the days - getting about 5 hours of sleep.  Oh, except for Thursday when I was supposed to get up earlier, but set my alarm for 11:30 PM instead of AM - thus I overslept (I woke up at 2!) and missed my kids' flu-shot appointments.  Awesome.

I'm glad to be done with work for a few days . . . and, actually, Ben got the day off today (!) and Monday (!).  We rode Miles to school and then went to the swimming pool and . . . swam.  :)  Then, on our way home, we stopped off at Main St. to check out a new little market store that's opening soon - and some guy inside saw us peeking in and invited us in and gave us a little preview of the store.  :)

Here are a few random pictures from the week:

 I just took this one morning.  The girls dressed themselves as sort-of twins.  Cute, cute.

 So there was a Cub Scout Pack meeting this week.  I had to work and so Ben got to be pinned with the "mother's" pins.  Nice.  :)

 We were told nothing about Jonas getting his Arrow of Light until that day.  He isn't quite finished with everything and so I wasn't expecting it (he will finish by his birthday).  I was totally bummed that he was getting that award that night as I had to work and miss it.  Super sad.  But oh well - congrats to Jonas!  This picture is his "crossing-over" - going from Cub Scouts to Scouts.

I might have overslept and missed the kids' flu-shots, but we made it in time for Emmy's hair-cut appointment.  Good thing because I think Emmy would have been super sad.  I actually took this picture so Emmy could see the back of her hair.  She loves it.  And, yes, I need to get a front shot of her!

So no pictures of Miles.  So I'll just brag about his mid-term report card:  straight A's (with maybe an A-).  He's rocking it!  Go Miles!

With me working next week, Ben decided to put the kids in charge of some of the Thanksgiving food.  Awesome.  Miles has been making pumpkin pie in his "Life Skills" class and so that is his assignment.  :)

That's it for now!

October 2016 and some Irony

October was as good month!  Fun stuff happened and it always ends on a good note with Halloween!

So for some irony:  I was supposed to have 2 weeks off.  But last week, due to some very unfortunate family crisis of our manager's, I was scheduled for 2 nights.  Luckily, I only had to work one, but it still threw off my schedule as I was planning on 2 nights, etc.  This week I am truly "off."  Off from my nursing job, that is.

Today, Monday, I babysat Wren.  Tomorrow, Tuesday, I have a primary presidency meeting.  Wednesday is pretty empty - although I will be getting dinner ready for the missionaries, taking Lucy to music, etc.  On Thursday I will be going on a field-trip, as I organized it (it was a prize for the read-a-thon winners.  Luckily all three of my elementary kids will be going as well).  Later I will be going in to the classrooms.

Then Friday.  Get this:  Miles is OFF!  Ha!  It's this totally random day off for just his middle school.  Soooo classic for my week "off," right?!

I'm not totally complaining.  I mean, I don't think I'd know what to do, really, if I actually did have a week off.  :)

Jonas' first swim meet

Jonas has been doing the swim team for about 2 months now.  His team had a little "beginner's" meet this past Saturday and so we signed Jonas up.  I actually signed him up for 2 events, but then the coaches signed him up for 3 more.  :)  He only did 25-meter races as he was a little nervous about his flip-turn.  But it was such a low-key race that some of the kids who did the 50-meter races didn't do an official flip-turn (but perhaps they got DQ'd - disqualified . . . I"m not sure).  Anyways, Jonas did the 25-meter race in backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, free, and then was a part of a relay and did the freestyle for that as well.  He told me he didn't really know how to do the butterfly and that he wasn't good at the breaststroke.  But he tried them and finished them both - albeit last in his heat.  Apparently he did something wrong (perhaps the stroke itself) and was DQ'd in the butterfly and breaststroke.

But his first race was the backstroke and he took first in his heat.  That was a fun way to start!  :)  He ended up getting 3rd (out of 5) in the backstroke, 6th (out of 7) in the freestyle, and 9th (out of 14) in the relay.  So we've got lots of room for improvement.  But now he has some race-times that he can work on beating.

He had a fun, fun time and loved it - so it was totally a success!

Pictures:

 This was Jonas after his first race.  He was soooo excited to see his lane number with a "1" (1st) by it.  :)

 The boys were all enthralled by one kids' game - which, amazingly, was not on an electronic device!  It was some miniature golf game/book.  Funny.

 This is a picture of Jonas in the relay race.

The girls got to hang out with me as we watched and waited for Jonas' races.  (Ben and Miles were on a temple trip.)  The girls weren't super excited about it, but hung in and did well.  :)  They were definitely Jonas' cutest fans.  :)

Go Jonas!

Halloween, 2016

 Lucy at her first school Halloween parade.  I mean, she's been to plenty.  But this year she was actually in it!

 There goes Emmy!

 Last but not least, Jonas.

 I hung out in Lucy's classroom for the "party."  They basically just ate food.  Kindergartners are pretty darn cute. - especially when dressed up.

 Miles dressed up Brigham as himself.  :)  I think he looked awesome!

After dinner we got ready to go trick-or-treating:

 Lucy, the beautiful pirate.

 Jonas as Michael Phelps.

 Lucy loves the pumpkin she carved.  :)

 Miles didn't really go as anything.  He just wore a cool brain-cap that we made.

 Emmy, the cute Mummy.

 Emmy, the dead Mummy.

 Our gang:  a pirate, a mummy, a brain, and Michael Phelps.

 How they really are.

 We went with Magdi and her two twins.  Magdi is from Hungary and is friends with Csilla.  Csilla is in Mexico and Magdi doesn't know anyone else and so she asked if they could come with us (we went camping together in Moab).  Of course!  The twins are 2 months younger than Jonas.  :)

 We trick-or-treated around our neighborhood and it wasn't so grand.  Hardly anyone was out and there were lots of homes not participating.  :(  Patty and Ivan had hooked up with us and Patty told us about a Haunted House in her neighborhood.

 So we finished up a few more houses in our neighborhood and then headed to the Haunted House.  It was pretty cool - what little I saw!  I had to turn around and go back - per Lucy's order.  :)  The other kids really liked it.

We went to a couple of teachers' houses in the area and then called it good.  The kids didn't do as much trick-or-treating as Miles would have liked, but they did have an awesome time and got plenty of candy.  :)

 The girls and their loot.

 Our pumpkins.

Happy Halloween!

Family Halloween Party

So the girls decided on their own to host/throw a Halloween party for our family.  Emmy made "Family Letter" signs and posted them throughout the house.  So on Saturday night we had our little party.  I had helped the girls with coming up with the games and activities and treat.  We played Halloween charades, Pin the Spider on the Web, and Halloween Scattergories.  It was fun.  Then the activity was blind-folding people and taking them in to the cellar (the party was held in the basement) to feel bits and pieces of a zombie/monster/thing that the girls had caught and destroyed.  There were bat ears (prunes), zombie brains (spaghetti), monster eyes (peeled grapes), mummy teeth (corn kernels), witches' fingers (sliced carrots), and the best/worst according to everyone:  werewolf tongue (sliced bananas).  That activity was a hit and the boys really enjoyed it!  We had pandora playing a fun Halloween station for our music.  Then we had a fruit-pizza done in a "Day of the Dead" decor.  I made the cookie and frosted it; the girls decorated it all on their own.  It was a fun evening.  Even Jonas, who thought it was going to be lame, said that it was fun and much better than he thought.  :)

I only got a few good pictures:

 The girls had fun cutting up fruit and decorating the sugar-skull cookie.  :)

Cute, cute and yum, yum!

2016-17 School Pictures

So I let my kids pick what they wanted to wear for their school pictures . . . kind of.  But it was a mess because 1.  my kids don't really have a sense of "style" and what would look good for pictures and 2.  apparently I was behind on the laundry because my girls had hardly anything to choose from.  Ha!  So Ben and I did give them some gentle guidance . . .

My girls are practically twins in their pictures.  It's what they picked!  And Jonas, wait for this:

 Lucy, Kindergarten, Mrs. Arrechea.

 Emmy, 3rd grade, Mrs. Latham.

 Jonas, 5th grade, Mrs. Kohout.  Yes, that is Jonas' coat.  No, that's not what he picked to wear.  It's just that he forgot to take it off for pictures!  What a goof.  (I'm not blaming the photographer, but really?  He could have said something . . . :)  Jonas told me that day that he had forgotten to take off his coat and I told him he could buy his re-takes.  But then I thought about it and thought it would just be funny.  And, as Jonas said when he got his pictures, "I look good!"  He's right.  Coat and all.  :)

Miles, 7th grade, lots of teachers.

Moms in Moab (with their kids)

So the kids had a "fall break" of sorts from school and I decided to take advantage of it and take the kids camping.  My friend Csilla wanted to go and she invited her Hungarian friend, "Mog-duh" (that's how I pronounce it . . .).  Csilla's friend has two kids - twin boy and girl - that go to Northside.  They are in the 4th grade and speak very little English - but they are learning!  It was a good group to go with.

Overall, it was a great trip!  But that didn't mean I didn't have to deal with Miles on multiple occassions as he constantly pushed his boundaries (literal and physical boundaries) and led the whole group of kids away from camp.  One time that we finally found them was a little scary - 10 more minutes and it would have been dark and not-fun searching for a group of kids.  That boy.  Then I had to deal with Jonas on multiple occassions as well - he was more of the grump who complained every time he had to "help."  My kids were expected to help set up camp, help with meals, help pack up, etc.  Jonas, of course, was more interested in playing with his friends and let me know it.  We had some talks.  I also had to deal with some crying and gnashing of teeth when Emmy realized she had forgotten her "boo."  We were still in the car heading out and weren't super-far from home.  But it was far enough to not make the turn-around for it.  Emmy was beyond sad and mad.  She couldn't control herself for about 30 minutes in the car.  Then she focused on some coloring and that was that!  Lucy, sometimes not very happily, would "share" her boo with Emmy.  Emmy survived!  And Lucy?  Truthfully, she was practially perfect.  Go Lucy.

Anyways . . . 

We got to our campground by 11:30 on Monday and set-up camp.  We had lunch, the kids ran around, and then we headed off to hike Negro Bill canyon.

 This was our turn-around point - I told the kids we would hike until we could see Morning Glory Bridge.  It's about 2 miles to this point.  All the kids did great.

 There are tons of water-crossings and such and you can pretty much just walk down the entire stream as well.  Which the kids did on and off.  Here is Levi, Jonas, and Emmy.

 As Lucy told me when she saw this picture, "I'm strong!"

 My kids are super crazy.  Amazingly, Emmy dried off by the time we got back to the car!

We drove back to camp and the boys got a fire going and we all started cooking our dinners.  We ate and then the kids went exploring.

 We called our camp, Camp Chocolate River.  The stream looked like chocolate to the kids.  Emmy and Lucy came to get me to check it out - and then the search for the other kids began as the girls told me Miles had gone way off and that the others had followed.  After lots of searching and yelling, we were finally able to make contact and the kids came back.  Sigh.

We enjoyed the evening with another fire and then played "Murder."  Emmy suggested it - I had told her about it once - and everyone enjoyed it and had fun!  (You hand out as many cards as you have players - whoever gets the "Ace" is the murderer and whoever gets the "Jack" is "Jack the Detective."  The murderer kills by winking at people - who then make ghastly noises and "dies."  Jack tries to figure out who the murderer is.  Fun stuff.  :)

The kids also shared "scary" stories around the fire.  My favorite were the Hungarian kids who had to tell their stories in Hungarian and their mother translated.  Very cool.

 The girls sharing Lucy's boo as they get ready for sleep.

 Sillies!

 Bedtime went great.  I turned out the big light and was able to read my book for 20 minutes - in silence.  My kids must have been good and tired - not a peep from them all night!  They slept good.  I slept until 1am and then was up pretty much every hour after that.  That's how I sleep when I camp.  I'm getting old!

We packed up camp, ate breakfast, and then headed to our next hike - Corona Arch.  (I did these same 2 hikes with my kids a couple years back.  They are good, little hikes - for good, little kids.)

 Cool, you get to climb a ladder on this hike!

 Corona Arch is beautiful!  But it's got nothing on my two girls!

 Jonas at Bowtie Arch - this is right before you get to Corona.

 Here is our group sitting under Corona Arch eating some snacks.  Csilla took the picture and so she's not in it.

 I love this picture of a happy girl climbing some rocks!

 Lucy wanted to compare her size to that of the arch's.  Crazy!  Last time we came to this arch, there were people rope/bungee jumping off of it.  Stupid!

All the kids hanging on to the cable on our way back.  There is Jonas, Kyle, Lexi, Christof, Sonja, Lucy, Emmy, Levi, and Miles.

We got back from the hike, ate lunch next to the big river, and then headed back home.  We got home in time to unload the car and then take Lucy to gymnastics.  Then later Emmy to gymnastics.  Then Jonas to swimming.  Back to real life!

My New Life

So my "new" life, sans kids during the day, is not quite what I had imagined. . .

I thought I would have so much time . . . time to organize a cleaning schedule and do some cleaning project every day or at least every week, time to ride my bike to all my errands (except my monstrous grocery-trips), time to do a craft or two, time to hike and play.

Hahahahaha.  

Real life has not worked out that way, sadly.

I have worked all but two weeks that my kids have been in school.  And one of those weeks the kids were off for a day, so it wasn't even a full-week of sans kids.  This week will be my third week off and, alas, the kids have Monday and Tuesday off.  Funny.

So when I work, I feel like three of my five days are full.  Even though I work two night-shifts.  Tuesdays I go in to Lucy's classroom in the morning, and then I nap in the afternoon.  I get my kids and then am running the girls to gymnastics, helping with homework, and making dinner.  Then I'm off to my "other" job.  All night long.

On Wednesdays I come back from work and make my kids' lunches and then get them up and ready and out for school.  I then sleep from about 8-2.  I go and get my kids and then I take Lucy to her music class.  I run with Brigham while Lucy is in class, and then we come home and I'm still running - just in the house as I shower, get dinner made, help with homework, etc., etc.  It's busy.  And then I get to go to work all night again.

On Thursdays I do the same thing in the morning - lunches, kids off to school.  I sleep for just a few hours and then I'm up.  I go for a bike ride and then come back and get ready to go to school.  I go to Emmy's and Jonas' classes and then it's time for the kids to come home from school.

(Last week was even more crazier as I had to get up earlier on Wednesday to help set-up/get ready a dinner for the teachers.  Then Thursday I had to take Brigham to the vet - super bad ear infection - and go to an assembly to see Emmy get an award, and, to top it off, it was short day so the kids were home at noon.  And then I had the entire afternoon basically full of parent-teacher conferences.  In 31 hours, I got 1 hour and 45 minutes of sleep.  Not that fun.)

So, on those weeks that I work, I really only have Monday and Friday "off."  Sure, I have done a hike and a fun bike ride - but that's about it for the "fun stuff."  Mondays and Fridays are usually my catch-up days - lots of banking/accounting stuff, grocery list-making (takes forever!) and grocery shopping, working on PAC stuff for school, church calling, laundry, possibly picking up the house or mopping, etc.

I'm not totally complaining.  It's just been not quite what I wanted or expected for this phase of my life.  But it's also okay and probably good in the long run. . .