Road Trip!

I took a little trip to Idaho Falls with the kids to see my mom, my brother and my Grandpa this week! I even got to spend my Birthday with them! It was a blast. I'm actually sad to leave tomorrow...

Earlier this week I drove to Blackfoot and got to hang out with my dear friend Jenny, who I hadn't seen in a few years... We talked until about two-thirty in the am. I don't know about her, but it was way worth the lack of sleep!

I had a blast, but tomorrow morning I have to get up early and drive the long drive back home.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

Things are rough all over for so many of us these days. I was talking to a friend today and she told me of her personal struggles... The largest of her burdens was that she needed to get shoes and clothes for her children... As a mother and fellow Christian, my heart went out to her...

Not that long ago we were struggling so much that we were having to scramble just to keep the water on. We shared our burdens and were blessed with the generosity of others. God provides.

My heart was tugging from the moment she mentioned her burden to me, I decided that I could help, and made the decision to do so. I sent her a text, asking her to go shopping with me this afternoon. She was reluctant and told me she didn't feel comfortable having me help her. It's a pride thing, I get it, but I told her she had to let me.

She did. And she thanked me numerous times. I wanted to buy more than what she let me, but at least she let me help a little. It made me feel great to help, I feel that I was supposed to. But yet I feel bad too. I don't want her to feel obligated or ashamed or any other negative feelings about it...

I know in my heart I did the right thing... Is it possible that I hurt our friendship by doing it though?

Wonderful Adventures in Teaching!

I have been having such a blast teaching!

I have decided that middle school is not really for me, but oh how I love the little ones! Kindergarten is hard, but first through fifth rocks! High school isn't too bad, but it's actually kind of boring...

I have had so many great days. On Friday I taught at a wonderful school! Everyone was SO nice and helpful! I had a class of 32 fourth and fifth graders and they were awesome! Then today I had a fifth grade class that was just too much fun! The kids were great!

I LOVE MY JOB!

What a Weekend!

We've never really been opposed to spontaneity or anything, but most weekends we have as a family are pretty routine. Fridays we do Pizza and a movie stay up late and then have a lazy Saturday. Sunday we go to church and clean up to prepare for the next week of work and school. This weekend however, was turned on its head!

We had an extra day off from school and work because, amazingly enough, there were no snow days this school year, so we got to use the day reserved as a make-up day as a vacation day! On Friday we didn't do our usual Pizza and a movie night because Gage was invited to go over to his friend Brady's house. So I took Kyra to dinner and out for ice cream. At 7 I picked Gage up from Brady's house, but they were having so much fun it took us an hour to actually leave.

On Saturday we had planned to actually go play at the YMCA, but we ended up just bumming around the house instead. Nothing real productive, but the kids played very well together, and went to bed somewhat early.

On Sunday morning the kids and I decided, since it was so lovely out, that we would pack a lunch and have a picnic at the park. My friend Stephanie and her two kids (her son is only a few months older than Gage and her daughter is a few months younger than Kyra) asked if they could join us. So we sat and ate and watched the kids play as we talked and I fried in the sun (no joke. I have wicked burn). We packed it in when it started to rain a bit, and the kids and I came home.

About an hour later I went and picked both of those kids up to watch them for Steph for a bit. Turns out our friend Lysh had an extra ticket to Bill Cosby, so I agreed to watch the kids. Which was a whole mess to begin with. I thought I had told Stephanie earlier that I would watch them, and apparently I never actually said it out loud. So to give her more time to get ready I went and picked them up. She paid for the kids to have pizza and so we went and picked out a huge cheese Pizza from Papa Murphy's and then came home and cooked it. We watched the second "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie and the boys devoured the pizza! So I guess we got our pizza and a movie night back :) However, We didn't get to church.

I decided to just keep the kids overnight to give Stephanie a real night to herself and to just keep them until after she got off of work, that way she wouldn't have to pay for daycare and her son could enjoy his day off school a bit more.

The night went pretty well. The boys went down first. Actually they made the decision to go to bed on their own. The girls were playing strong, but eventually my daughter went down. So then there was one. All of a sudden at about midnight I had a very sleepy little girl who was all alone. She started to get upset, but I calmed her down with the power of Disney. We sat and watched "UP" together and after I convinced her to try and sleep, even though she swore she wasn't tired at all. I ended up having to move my son and put her in bed next to her brother. It is sweet how well these two get along...

In the morning I fed the kids breakfast and hung out with them when they got up today. I slept in for a bit. When I awoke I found my home looking like a tornado touched down in it. I am so used to only accommodating two children that I had to make some modifications to accommodate four of them. So I can't help but wonder how the parents I know who have four and six children do it!

Later.... The kids cut out paper weapons and then went outside to play with them. I fed them lunch and then sent them to pick up rooms. Yeah right! The four of them are so hyper! They are in the back of the house hootin' and a hollerin'! I doubt any of it will get picked up today. But at least they had fun!

School Pictures (didn't we do this before?)

These are the ones the Lifetouch took. I like mine better! Not to say that these are awful. But I really think that mine are nicer. What do you think?

Happy Easter!!

Today is Easter.

This is the first Easter I have with my children in five years! It was a wonderful day and I enjoyed every minute I have gotten to spend with my family today!

We didn't dye eggs, because no one in this house will eat them. Instead we filled plastic colored eggs with candy.

Because the weather was awful I hid the little eggs through out the hallways and the main rooms of the house.

My Mother sent presents and ten packages of Peeps that arrived a couple of days ago, so last night I took the presents in their adorable Easter egg gift bags and placed them outside of each one of their bedroom doors. I filled their Easter baskets with Peeps and a chocolate bunny and placed them next to the gift bags from my Mom, that way they would be the first things they would see when they opened their doors this morning.

So this morning I awoke to the sound of crinkling tissue paper, as the kids dug to the bottom of their newly discovered Easter treasures. My son got three "How to Train Your Dragon" books and my daughter got three boxes of sparkled Easter themed craft stickers (Oh the possibilities of what we can make with them), and they each got a cute little stuffed brown bunny.

While the kids hunted the house, I started making our big Easter brunch. We thought that it would be better to have ham for breakfast instead of dinner and then dress up and go to evening services.

Thank God for this wonderful day with my family!

Gage Turns Eight!

My son turned eight today!

Gage wanted a Transformer themed Birthday party, he wanted to go in search of the Allspark, and a chocolate cake... Well, I gave it to him! It turned out great too!

I made up invitations with Optimus Prime on them, with a mission (if they should choose to accept it) to help the Autobots retrieve the Allspark from the Decepticons. If they chose to accept their mission they were to call Gage's mom and arrive at our home at 1 today.

I put a lot of work into this. First there was the Allspark. I had a wooden box made and then painted it silver. This box was hidden in the house after being filled with copious amounts of candy, then I invented some Decepticons, and kept with some of the old, to use as clue keepers. We printed off the Decepticon logos and taped them to the different household item that would serve as the Decepticons (I used the fridge, the toaster, a cell phone, digital camera, and a boombox, just to name a few).

My Mom and I made a HUGE chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and Oreo cookie crumbs on top. Then we put Transformer toys on top of the cake (Thank you Mom for springing for all the extras!). We also made Jell-O Jigglers and called them "Energon" (the food of Transformers) for the kids to eat and get the energy to find the Allspark.

It was so much fun! We had a decent turn out of kids, Gage had a blast hanging out with his friends, finding the Allspark, and opening all those presents! I'm so glad he had a great day!!!