Our Family – Page 134 – Andelin Adventures

Sisters Retreat

This weekend our ward had a sisters retreat. And Kyle was sweet enough to get the night off and make the necessary arrangements so that I could go. 🙂

It was a wonderful weekend. I left the house just before 1 in the afternoon, and headed down the street with my pillow, my sleeping bag, my camping chair, my jug of water and my backpack to load up my stuff on the trailer in front of my ride’s house. The drive to the Heber Valley Camp was beautiful. This was the PERFECT time of year to go, there was no snow although the weather is cooling off (so it wasn’t HOT either), and all the leaves are changing colors. The campground that we had was REALLY nice. There were three cabins (each had 16 bunks), 2 bathrooms (with flush toilets), 2 showers, and our own pavilion, which had storage closets to store our food, and there were even a couple of refrigerators. There was also a fire pit, with logs positioned all around it for sitting on. We didn’t get to have a campfire though. 🙁 The day had been considered a ‘no burn day’ issued by the State of Utah (so there were no campfires statewide). Oh well. We had a great time anyways. There weren’t any planned activities, so that everyone could just sit and do whatever. We could chat and visit, and get to know other sisters. There were a few baby quilts to tie and all but one of them got done. A few brethren from the ward came up to do the cooking, so that none of us sisters would have to cook or clean anything, which was just so nice. They made Navajo tacos (scone base, topped with chili, onions, olives, cheese, sour cream….), since there was so much scone dough left over from the Stake Harvest Festival that had been canceled (they made a whole bunch of scones for the impromptu ward activity that night but obviously they still had tons of dough left!). There was also watermelon, and also some honey butter for the scones.

After dinner there was a guest speaker, Sister Elmer who is a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that lives right here in Eagle Mountain. She talked about her life and how being in the choir has supported her though the difficult situations in her life, and she told us all about how Heavenly Father speaks to her through good music. She talked of her travels with the Tabernacle Choir, and she told us how the audition process works. She has been in the Choir for 17 years now, which is just amazing. A comment that she made during her talk caught my attention. She said “Nothing is impossible with the Lord”. Now I KNOW I’ve heard that before, but that really caught my attention right then. Lately I’ve been feeling so overwhelmed. Kyle works two jobs five days a week, and so he’s never home to help with the kids or the house, or really anything, so everything is left to ME. I’ve been really tired lately, and I’m finding things are slipping. I’ve just been letting things go because I’m tired, or just don’t have the energy to keep up. I’ve been TRYING to get the kids involved with cleanup more, just to help myself out a bit. After all, I am mortal, and I am not perfect, and therefore I physically can NOT do everything for everyone. Some days I feel like what is required of me is simply ‘impossible’. So when she said “Nothing is impossible with the Lord” that really caught my attention. It reminded me of when I was a child, I remember my mom had this saying that she would quote every time we said something was impossible, she would say “Nothing’s impossible, except the impossible. But that’s impossible, because NOTHING’S impossible.” She drove us nuts saying that, but thinking of that reminds me of something my dad always said: “Whiners aren’t winners”. Which I totally and completely believe. If you are too busy whining, you aren’t doing what it takes to be a winner. So all of this just tells me that I need to rely more on my Heavenly Father, so that when things seem impossible I can continue on and be a winner. 🙂

After our main speaker, our ward’s high council member spoke for a few minutes, and then our bishop spoke for a few minutes, and after that our Relief Society president, opened the time up for testimonies. WOW! That was just awesome, we sat there and had a 3 1/2 hour testimony meeting. It was just so awesome to sit there and listen to everyone’s stories, and really get to know each other better. It was simply wonderful. And of course, since we were all women, there were times when we were all crying with each other, and other times when we were all laughing with each other.

We didn’t get back to our cabins until about 1 in the morning. And I don’t know about the other cabin full of women but our cabin didn’t stop talking and turn lights out until 3 something!

I woke up about 8 in the morning, and breakfast was supposed to be at 9 so I was excited that I hadn’t woken up WAY to early (when I get super hungry I start to just feel sick). Bishop and his buddies, made pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast. There was also honeydew melon, oranges, hot chocolate and orange juice.

After breakfast we had a morning devotional, where a couple of sisters spoke, and we raised the flag on the flag pole that our campsite had. We said the pledge of allegiance, a few of the sisters sang a beautiful song about being a daughter of God, and our Relief Society President spoke to us a bit.

It was a great retreat, and I got home between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. Everybody missed me, but things went back to normal soon after that….. 🙂

Preschool

Jeremy was really sad that he wouldn’t get to be going to kindergarten this year, but he missed the cut-off by about 3 months. So I wanted to do SOMETHING with him. I heard about a group of moms in our ward that were planning on having a little preschool for their kids and I asked if Jeremy could join and they said yes! So it’s a group of 8 kids and they meet on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s and each mom takes a week to teach, and we just rotate through everyone. And there is another sister that just loves to teach preschool so there are nine teachers and that means I only have to teach one week out of every nine, which comes to I think a total of 4 weeks out of the whole school year. I can handle that! 🙂

Jeremy was just SO excited to hear that he gets to go to ‘preschool’ he’s been wearing his backpack every morning when we take Ethan and Tyra to school. Today was the first day, and it was only a half day but he was so excited just the same.

After I picked him up from preschool and he was telling me that he got to use ‘his’ crayons (I put supplies in his backpack for him to use at preschool), but he was sad that he didn’t get to use his scissors or his pencil. I told him, that’s ok, you’ll be going back to preschool and you’ll get to do different things each time. Later I heard him trying to since the ABC’s. I say ‘trying’ because he fumbled a bit, but that was more of the ABC’s than I’ve heard him sing before. So cute.

A Nice Break

Ever since Ethan started kindergarten, Kyle has always taken the first day of school off of work. That way he can be with the family to walk the school kids to school and say goodbye, and so that he could be home when it was time to pick up the kids from school. THIS year, Kyle decided to take the whole week off, so that he could be home for the first day of school, but also so that he could spend some time with the family, and get some things done around the house. 🙂

So Monday we just spent the day around the house hanging out, and trying to keep the house clean. Monday evening we got to go to the school to meet Tyra’s first grade teacher. That was when we found out that her teacher was NOT going to be the teacher that was posted on the window at the front of the school. The school had decided the Saturday, just two days previous that they were going to switch the teacher listed on the class list out front, with Mrs Jaque. Tyra didn’t skip a beat, she didn’t whine about what happened to the other teacher she was just totally excited to be meeting her new teacher!

After our field trip to the school we made a run to wal mart to buy a griddle. When we decided to say goodbye to Ihop we also decided that we would buy a griddle so that we can make our own pancakes, and make them faster than just with the frying pan. So it’s official, Ihop is history!

Tuesday, Kyle was SUPPOSED to go the home depot to get supplies for some shelves that we wanted built in the garage. But he ended up on the phone Tuesday morning. He had applied for a better position at Symantec, and someone was calling for a preliminary phone interview, and when she was done asking him questions she set up an appointment for the official phone interview later that afternoon. So when Kyle got off the phone he spent the rest of the morning adding LOTS of details, of his experience at all of his different employers over the years, to his resume. Then he spent a good chunk of the afternoon on his phone interview.

We also got to go renew our temple recommends with a member of our bishopric. 🙂

Wednesday was the big day! The first day of school! After getting Ethan and Tyra off to their classes, we came home and I had a meeting to go to, then Kyle went to Home Depot for shelf supplies.

Thursday, Kyle worked on the shelves most of the day and I went out to help when he needed a second set of hands. And after school we went to “Back to School Night” to meet Ethan’s teacher, and check out his classroom, then we got to go see what Tyra had been up to in her class the first two days of school.

Then we got to go have a member of the stake presidency sign our temple recommends. I’m SOOOO glad that we were able to take care of getting those renewed while Kyle was home this week, otherwise I just don’t know when we would have been able to do it.

Friday morning I went to the dentist to start work on crown #8. How stinky is that. I’m not even 28 years old yet and I already have SEVEN crowns and am in the process of having the 8th crowned! It really stinks to have crummy genetics when it comes to teeth! Kyle decided to take our three little kids and join with me at the dentist. His reason being that he couldn’t work on the shelves with me gone anyways, and the house would stay cleaner if they just came with me, than if they stayed home and waited for me to come back. After the dentist we did a bit of grocery shopping, while I was totally miserable because I couldn’t feel my face. I couldn’t even drink water without it spraying out the numb side of my mouth…. I think all the numbness wore off my 2 or 3 that afternoon. And my appointment was at 9:30 that morning and they numbed me first thing! So I was numb for about 5 hours or so! Ugh.

Friday, Kyle finished building the shelves! Then it was my turn to do some work and fill them! 😉 Actually I haven’t finished filling them yet. I did put all of our holiday stuff on them (minus the Christmas tree and Christmas dishes). I still need to sort and pack up all of the clothes that the kids have outgrown or are too big for them and then those buckets will be stacked up on the shelves too.

Garage Before:

Garage After:

So now we can ALMOST park Kyle’s car in the garage. We just need to clean up the other side of the garage enough to get the trash cans over there then Kyle will be able to park in the garage! How exciting!

Saturday we didn’t really have anything planned aside from make a big pot of chili and some form of dessert to take to the Stake Harvest Festival (which was to be an outdoor activity). But about 2 or 3 in the afternoon we got a call from someone in our ward saying that the Harvest Festival was being canceled due to the weather (it was REALLY windy and there was dirt blowing everywhere outside). BUT our ward decided to have an impromptu activity at the church building instead and that we should just bring our chili and dessert to that. So Ethan was REALLY upset that we weren’t going to the Stake Harvest Festival, because he had heard that there were to be bounce houses and other fun things there, but we packed up the kids and the food and went to the church. There was plenty of chili and rolls and chips & salsa. The dessert table was somewhat lacking and because of that the 3 dozen cupcakes that I made were gone before we even got through the line for food. The bishopric did have a couple of guys outside making scones for dessert too, since that was one of the booths that our ward was going to have at the festival. I felt bad for the guys that had to stand outside in the super windy weather and make scones for everyone else that was sitting in the church eating a yummy dinner.

There was also face painting, which was to be the booth at the festival that the young women were in charge of. Now I have to say that I highly disapprove of face painting. Why you may ask? Well I disapprove of face painting, writing on our bodies, tattoos (even those cheap washable tattoos that look like stickers) and anything of that nature. Shoot I don’t even wear make up! As close to make up as I get is chapstick and nail polish. Our bodies are temples! They are the temples that house our spirits. Now you wouldn’t walk up to the temple and paint it, or write on it in any way, so therefore you shouldn’t be doing anything like that to your body. So I have tried to teach my kids this. I don’t want them scribbling on themselves. So my sweet daughter Tyra, walked into the room where they were doing face painting and blurted out, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear “Our bodies are temples!” Then she gave into peer pressure and had her face painted. I guess the lesson on peer pressure will be coming up soon in our family home evenings. 😉

I actually wasn’t in there when this happened, but a sister that Kyle home teaches was in there and told him about it when he was visiting their family. I’m glad to know that she did learn that our bodies are temples and that that lesson didn’t just go in one ear and out the other.

It was really nice to have Kyle home all week. Actually with the weekends on both sides of the week he was home for a total of nine days! But now we’re back to the normal routine of him being gone working two jobs, 5 days a week. He has an in person interview scheduled for this Thursday. I’m really hoping he gets the job, because it most likely means a higher income (I’m not sure how much higher), but that would mean that he would be able to quit the second job sooner, than we were thinking. So here’s to hoping.

First Day of School!

Ethan and Tyra are both in school all day now! Ethan was SO grumpy to be going back to school. The picture I got of them before leaving the house he refused to smile. He was still mad at me for agreeing to switch his class. He REALLY didn’t want to go to the new class. I just had to keep reminding him that I asked HIM if he wanted to be in that class, and he said ok.

Tyra was so excited. Just excited to be going back to school, and be with her teacher, Mrs Jaque. Excited to get to eat lunch at school. Excited to get to play on the ‘big kid’ playground. And she was excited to get to wear the dress she picked out for the first day of school, and the bows that I made to match the dress.

It was so quiet through the day with two missing children. But it was nice. 🙂 Dinah and Jeremy seemed to have a good day too, except when Dinah was determined to be grumpy (but I think that was just because I have to wake the kids up at 6:30 am to get them ready for school at 8).

After school, Ethan was telling me that Mrs Washburn’s class is so much fun! So I asked him if he was done being mad at me for switching his class, and he said yes. 🙂 I’m SO relieved that his anxiety over the class switch is over, and that he is happy with his class, and his new teacher.

Tyra lost her sandwich box today. First day of school and already she’s lost it. Hopefully we’ll find it soon. But other than that she had a great first day in first grade.

Second/Third Grade

I got a phone call today from Mrs Webb, the second grade teacher that was to have Ethan in her class. I couldn’t imagine why she would be calling me personally before school starts, but she had some news of an exciting opportunity for Ethan. The principal, Mr Conley, had decided to hire two more teachers, one of which was to teach a second and third grade combined class. And they had a meeting with the kids first grade teachers from last year, to pick which kids would be good candidates for the 2nd graders in this class. Ethan was chosen, and they were calling me to see if this is something that we would want him to be a part of. I spoke to Ethan about it for a moment and he said that he’d like to do it. So I told her that he’s fine with being in the class, and I asked if this would mean that if Ethan gets bored with the second grade work would the teacher just give him some third grade work to stretch him? She wasn’t sure, since she has never taught a combined grades class before, but she said she was sure some intermixing of the grade work would end up happening, considering there would be second graders and third graders in the class at the same time. It’s not like the teacher can teach something third grade level and have the second graders NOT hear it….

I’m excited about it though, because Ethan was quite bored with first grade work. His poor teacher was at her wits end trying to figure out how to make it fun for him, but really I think it was just too easy and therefore, he saw no point in doing the work. At one of our parent/teacher conferences, Mrs Peterson was telling us about a math assignment she handed out for the kids to do during class. Ethan sat there for literally half an hour and only got the first line done. She had to keep him from going to music time to finish his assignment, and he still just sat there. Until, she went out into the hallway to sharpen a pencil. She wasn’t gone more than a minute, two minutes TOPS and in the time that she was gone Ethan had finished the assignment. And it’s not like he just slapped some numbers on the page to call it done either, the answers were all RIGHT! So I really think the work was boring to him because it wasn’t a challenge at all.

My only real concern with this class is, if second grade work comes easy to him and he gets bored and spends the majority of the year doing third grade work, would he be in third grade next year? Or would they allow him to skip to fourth? I really don’t want him to end up doing a lot of third grade work this year, then be stuck doing it again next year….we’d then end up with the same problem we had last year with him being completely bored…. So that’s something that Kyle and I will have to talk to his new teacher about.

After I got off the phone with Mrs Webb, Ethan suddenly cried to me that he had changed his mind. And now he is really upset about the upcoming change in his class. Ethan has been one that has never liked change. I’m glad this change happened now, and not AFTER school had started, because he has the next 4 days to warm up to the idea! He keeps telling me that he doesn’t want to do it. Is it bad that I’m more excited than he is????

I’m SURE that he will warm up to the idea and that it will be good for him. I’m so excited that he will be pushed and stretched this year, after all you just can’t learn if it’s too easy. 😉