Justin's head is getting better it seems. I made him go to Spokane again last Monday for the Dr.s office to look at it again because it was still oozing and swollen in places that had previously been fine. They said it looks really good and the new swelling is from the skin trying to stretch back to where it used to be. They thought it to be expected, as well as the oozing. They did however, decide to wait until the 17th to take the staples out, which is 2 days later than originally planned. We just want it to be healed up nicely. That will be a good day.
Hadley lost a tooth today. She lost a tooth around the first of the month and it took the tooth fairy a good week to come visit her. Can you believe it? We figure she's pretty busy these days and needs to hire more help. Kale has his first loose tooth. He's pretty excited about it although he doesn't want to wiggle it because it hurts.
Seila got to go to her first Jr. High dance on Wednesday. She and Tanner waltzed to one song. She had a good time she said. There was a Stake dance in Moses Lake scheduled for Saturday but it got postponed and she was not happy about that.
Tonight we had leftover soup for dinner. I actually tried making homemade rolls again. They looked fine but had no flavor at all. We all thought that they tasted like nothing. I guess I won't use that recipe again.
We used the rest of the bread dough to make scones and then we all watched the beginning of the Olympics together. It was a nice evening at home together as a family.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
It's about time I update you!
This is long overdue! Sometimes I just can't believe how fast the time flies, and not necessarily when you're having fun. The last several weeks have had a lot of fun though. Time really flies when I am so busy that I don't have time to think about it, which defines the last few weeks of our lives. In fact, I have to look at the calendar to remember what even happened.
Our Friday night dance classes are now complete. We actually ended up with only 5 weeks instead of 6 but we crammed in the full 6 hours of instruction! The kids had a great time and really did well at learning all the steps. We spent 3 weeks learning the waltz and 2 weeks learning the swing. Justin would get bored (because we already know everything, just ask us!) and then he would become entertaining. I still laugh every time I think of some of the facial expressions and postures he would do to keep us having fun. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I'm sure that the instructors thought we were rude but Justin didn't care and I was laughing too hard to worry about it. Seila and Kai started to follow our example though and we had to stop. We actually traded partners so that I was dancing with Kai and Seila with Justin. He helped her learn to follow better (he is a really good lead) and I helped Kai learn to lead. Kai did a pretty good job!! I was very proud of him. I guess we're going to have to crank it up here at home so that they don't get rusty!
The 8th grade girls basketball team that Seila is on is making great improvements in their skills and team work. The margin by which they are defeated seems to get smaller with every game. They only have 3 games left in the season but they are very hopeful! Seila said one day, one of the coaches asked her if her mom knew how to play basketball. She had to tell him no. I was very glad that she was truthful.
Kai has done well in wrestling this year, considering the fact that he hasn't really wrestled for 3 or 4 years now. He has won several matches and has held off opponents who have more experience that he does. In fact, his last match last Thursday with a kid who pinned him the last time that they wrestled each other, should have ended in a tie but, some missing points mysteriously showed up in favor of the other kid. Oh well, that's how the game goes sometimes. He was pretty proud of himself and Justin was proud of him too. Justin saw the match and said Kai did a great job.
Hadley has decided that she doesn't want to be smarter than her friends so, she is slowing down in her school work. I'm not sure how to fix this problem. Maybe I should lie to her and tell her that her friends are doing Algebra at school and she'd better kick it up a notch if she wants to keep up with them. Really though, she is doing a great job and sometimes she is even self-motivated! I love those days. I really need to reward her more for those, in hopes that she'll keep it up. She loves to come to basketball with Seila and I three times a week so that she can babysit the little kids while the moms play. She is a good babysitter and loves little kids. She had the chance to help at Mrs. Becky's preschool last week and she was in heaven!
Kale is definitely the youngest child. It seems that every day I notice more and more how spoiled he is. I finally had to lay down the law about whining today. I can't stand it anymore! I shouldn't have any whining anymore. There are no toddlers here. His favorite time to whine is at bed time. He whines that he doesn't want to go to bed (I'm sure it is hard to go to bed when everyone else is still up). He whines that he is thirsty. He whines that he is hungry. He whines that he didn't get dessert, even when we don't have any dessert. Tonight I told him that if he whines at bed time, the next night he'll go to bed 15 minutes earlier. That seemed to work, tonight anyway. He knows we'll stick him to it. I hate him being gone all day at Kindergarten and I love it when he comes home for lunch. I don't get to see him enough so I am rearranging my piano lessons to have more free time after school when he is home. So, now that I have rescheduled several piano lessons, he doesn't want to be with me but with his friends playing. He never wants to play with his friends after school. He always wants my attention. But now that he can have my attention, he wants to play with his friends. Ugh!
Thanks to our newly-moved-to-the-Royal-slope family (they kept our kids), Justin and I were able to get away for a few days with some friends. We went to Las Vegas. We were hoping to get a little bit warmer weather but all we got was rain. Rain, rain, rain. We had a great time anyway. We went to the temple one day. We went shopping the other days. We saw a few shows at night (thanks again Allie!): Blue Man group, "O", and Phantom of the Opera. We plenty of great food and we got to meet Miss Washington, who was eating at the same buffet as we were, along with the other Miss America pagent contestants. Our best meal was at Bobby Flay's restaurant. When we got home from Vegas, Justin used the Internet to find some of the recipes that we ate and then he recreated some of them! He did a great job and we again had great food!
When we got back from Vegas, we scheduled Justin's surgery with the Dr. in Spokane. On Thursday Justin and I drove up and had the procedure done to remove the rest of the carcinoma that was on his scalp. They told us to plan on 2 - 4 hours but it took them 4 1/2 hours to complete the procedure. The extra time was because he is tough-skinned, literally. They had a hard time getting his skin numbed up again when it was time to close his new wound. They told him he had tough skin. Once they got him all numb, they started cutting again. Yes, the reconstruction was worse than the initial skin cancer. They had to cut a larger flap of skin to cover the hole that they had just created. He walked out with 18 staples and at least 2 stitches in his head (I say 2 stitches because I can only see 2 but he insists that there are more). He's got a little Frankenstein thing going on now. I do have pictures but I'll spare our weak-stomached friends. If you want to see it, just email me.
Our Friday night dance classes are now complete. We actually ended up with only 5 weeks instead of 6 but we crammed in the full 6 hours of instruction! The kids had a great time and really did well at learning all the steps. We spent 3 weeks learning the waltz and 2 weeks learning the swing. Justin would get bored (because we already know everything, just ask us!) and then he would become entertaining. I still laugh every time I think of some of the facial expressions and postures he would do to keep us having fun. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I'm sure that the instructors thought we were rude but Justin didn't care and I was laughing too hard to worry about it. Seila and Kai started to follow our example though and we had to stop. We actually traded partners so that I was dancing with Kai and Seila with Justin. He helped her learn to follow better (he is a really good lead) and I helped Kai learn to lead. Kai did a pretty good job!! I was very proud of him. I guess we're going to have to crank it up here at home so that they don't get rusty!
The 8th grade girls basketball team that Seila is on is making great improvements in their skills and team work. The margin by which they are defeated seems to get smaller with every game. They only have 3 games left in the season but they are very hopeful! Seila said one day, one of the coaches asked her if her mom knew how to play basketball. She had to tell him no. I was very glad that she was truthful.
Kai has done well in wrestling this year, considering the fact that he hasn't really wrestled for 3 or 4 years now. He has won several matches and has held off opponents who have more experience that he does. In fact, his last match last Thursday with a kid who pinned him the last time that they wrestled each other, should have ended in a tie but, some missing points mysteriously showed up in favor of the other kid. Oh well, that's how the game goes sometimes. He was pretty proud of himself and Justin was proud of him too. Justin saw the match and said Kai did a great job.
Hadley has decided that she doesn't want to be smarter than her friends so, she is slowing down in her school work. I'm not sure how to fix this problem. Maybe I should lie to her and tell her that her friends are doing Algebra at school and she'd better kick it up a notch if she wants to keep up with them. Really though, she is doing a great job and sometimes she is even self-motivated! I love those days. I really need to reward her more for those, in hopes that she'll keep it up. She loves to come to basketball with Seila and I three times a week so that she can babysit the little kids while the moms play. She is a good babysitter and loves little kids. She had the chance to help at Mrs. Becky's preschool last week and she was in heaven!
Kale is definitely the youngest child. It seems that every day I notice more and more how spoiled he is. I finally had to lay down the law about whining today. I can't stand it anymore! I shouldn't have any whining anymore. There are no toddlers here. His favorite time to whine is at bed time. He whines that he doesn't want to go to bed (I'm sure it is hard to go to bed when everyone else is still up). He whines that he is thirsty. He whines that he is hungry. He whines that he didn't get dessert, even when we don't have any dessert. Tonight I told him that if he whines at bed time, the next night he'll go to bed 15 minutes earlier. That seemed to work, tonight anyway. He knows we'll stick him to it. I hate him being gone all day at Kindergarten and I love it when he comes home for lunch. I don't get to see him enough so I am rearranging my piano lessons to have more free time after school when he is home. So, now that I have rescheduled several piano lessons, he doesn't want to be with me but with his friends playing. He never wants to play with his friends after school. He always wants my attention. But now that he can have my attention, he wants to play with his friends. Ugh!
Thanks to our newly-moved-to-the-Royal-slope family (they kept our kids), Justin and I were able to get away for a few days with some friends. We went to Las Vegas. We were hoping to get a little bit warmer weather but all we got was rain. Rain, rain, rain. We had a great time anyway. We went to the temple one day. We went shopping the other days. We saw a few shows at night (thanks again Allie!): Blue Man group, "O", and Phantom of the Opera. We plenty of great food and we got to meet Miss Washington, who was eating at the same buffet as we were, along with the other Miss America pagent contestants. Our best meal was at Bobby Flay's restaurant. When we got home from Vegas, Justin used the Internet to find some of the recipes that we ate and then he recreated some of them! He did a great job and we again had great food!
When we got back from Vegas, we scheduled Justin's surgery with the Dr. in Spokane. On Thursday Justin and I drove up and had the procedure done to remove the rest of the carcinoma that was on his scalp. They told us to plan on 2 - 4 hours but it took them 4 1/2 hours to complete the procedure. The extra time was because he is tough-skinned, literally. They had a hard time getting his skin numbed up again when it was time to close his new wound. They told him he had tough skin. Once they got him all numb, they started cutting again. Yes, the reconstruction was worse than the initial skin cancer. They had to cut a larger flap of skin to cover the hole that they had just created. He walked out with 18 staples and at least 2 stitches in his head (I say 2 stitches because I can only see 2 but he insists that there are more). He's got a little Frankenstein thing going on now. I do have pictures but I'll spare our weak-stomached friends. If you want to see it, just email me.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Jon Schmidt concert
The piano concert was fun last night. We all enjoyed it very much. Jon Schmidt is very entertaining and so creative and talented. Kale couldn't stop talking about it on the way home. The rest of the kids fell asleep or at least pretended to but not Kale. He went on and on and kept asking if our new CD had "the broccoli song". It doesn't. If you haven't seen his work, you can catch him on YouTube. Here is one of Kale's other favorites call "Dumb Song". Jon said he was inspired by a tuna fish commercial.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Mercy
I've been meaning to post this excerpt from "True to the Faith" for a while now and I'm just getting around to it.
pg. 103:
"Speaking to His disciples, the Savior commanded: "Be ye . . . merciful, as your Father also is merciful" (Luke 6:36). You can follow your Heavenly Father's example of mercy in your relationships with others. Strive to rid your life of arrogance, pride, and conceit. Seek ways to be compassionate, respectful, forgiving, gentle, and patient, even when you are aware of others' shortcomings. As you do so, your example will lead others to be more merciful, and you will have greater claim on the mercy of God."
This is something that I have kept on my bathroom mirror for at least a year, maybe more. It has helped me remember who I am and who I should be when I have come upon a situation where I am tempted to judge someone else. (I don't think it's any secret that I can be very judgemental and opinionated and no, it wasn't you that I had a problem with.) Sometimes it might be Justin or my kids. It might be a friend, loved-one, a sibling, a parent whose kid is on my kid's team. I have learned that I am the one at fault, not the other person, no matter who they are. It is the Savior's job to judge, not mine. I am expected to love others and that's all. I have discovered that there is greater peace in finding something to love than in finding fault.
Maybe I sound a bit like a hypocrite. Well, I am only sharing what I have discovered to be true, not what I have perfected. I'm working on it.
pg. 103:
"Speaking to His disciples, the Savior commanded: "Be ye . . . merciful, as your Father also is merciful" (Luke 6:36). You can follow your Heavenly Father's example of mercy in your relationships with others. Strive to rid your life of arrogance, pride, and conceit. Seek ways to be compassionate, respectful, forgiving, gentle, and patient, even when you are aware of others' shortcomings. As you do so, your example will lead others to be more merciful, and you will have greater claim on the mercy of God."
This is something that I have kept on my bathroom mirror for at least a year, maybe more. It has helped me remember who I am and who I should be when I have come upon a situation where I am tempted to judge someone else. (I don't think it's any secret that I can be very judgemental and opinionated and no, it wasn't you that I had a problem with.) Sometimes it might be Justin or my kids. It might be a friend, loved-one, a sibling, a parent whose kid is on my kid's team. I have learned that I am the one at fault, not the other person, no matter who they are. It is the Savior's job to judge, not mine. I am expected to love others and that's all. I have discovered that there is greater peace in finding something to love than in finding fault.
Maybe I sound a bit like a hypocrite. Well, I am only sharing what I have discovered to be true, not what I have perfected. I'm working on it.
We started off this week with some startling news from the doctor. The pathology report came back on the "wart" that was cut out of Justin's scalp. It was a carcinoma, not a wart. So, we spent a day on the internet, studying, and a day waiting for an appt with a Dermatologist. It seems to be a pretty simple and common thing to take care of. We just need to have the Dermatologist cut more out and then we're done. Well, we'll have to watch every spot that shows up from now on. Really though, we're only a little bit worried, not a lot.
Thursday was my birthday and I really didn't expect anyone to even remember. I was surprised by all the phone calls and birthday wishes from friends. Justin surprised me with lunch at our favorite local restaurant. We had a Relief Society meeting that night. It was a great meeting with plenty of uplifting ideas and thoughts for me to take in. I felt the Spirity touch my heart several times and I will try to remember the things that he taught me. I think the most important thing that I walked away with was that I need to rely on Heavenly Father more fully. My life has felt quite chaotic with the kids at home with their schooling. It has been very stressful for me. I tend to expect high school work from my middle schoolers and middle school work from my 4-th grader. So, I get frustrated very easily. The Spirit told me that night at our Relief Society meeting that I need to share it all with Heavenly Father instead of trying to do it on my own. I really need to just do all that I can and then let him take care of the rest. I know that. Why I need to be reminded of that? I wonder how many times He'll have to tell me again after this. It was a great meeting and a great ending to a really nice day.
Last night we started dance lessons. Our friend found a dance instructor who was willing to come to Royal for us. We have two other friends who have kids the same age as Seila and Kai and so we all decided to have the kids take lessons as well. Seila and Kai did pretty good at the first lesson last night. We learned the waltz. All the kids did a good job. It was fun to watch them dancing with each other and learning that the boys are always left and the girls are always right! It's a great thing to learn at such an early age.
Tonight is a Jon Schmidt concert in Moses Lake. Our family is going as a birthday present to me. We are very excited to see him in concert. We watched s little bit on YouTube and the kids were very impressed. They saw him use his elbow to play part of the song. None of us have ever seen him in concert and I have only heard a little bit about him. I have one of his piano books but have never seen him. It should be really fun.
Thursday was my birthday and I really didn't expect anyone to even remember. I was surprised by all the phone calls and birthday wishes from friends. Justin surprised me with lunch at our favorite local restaurant. We had a Relief Society meeting that night. It was a great meeting with plenty of uplifting ideas and thoughts for me to take in. I felt the Spirity touch my heart several times and I will try to remember the things that he taught me. I think the most important thing that I walked away with was that I need to rely on Heavenly Father more fully. My life has felt quite chaotic with the kids at home with their schooling. It has been very stressful for me. I tend to expect high school work from my middle schoolers and middle school work from my 4-th grader. So, I get frustrated very easily. The Spirit told me that night at our Relief Society meeting that I need to share it all with Heavenly Father instead of trying to do it on my own. I really need to just do all that I can and then let him take care of the rest. I know that. Why I need to be reminded of that? I wonder how many times He'll have to tell me again after this. It was a great meeting and a great ending to a really nice day.
Last night we started dance lessons. Our friend found a dance instructor who was willing to come to Royal for us. We have two other friends who have kids the same age as Seila and Kai and so we all decided to have the kids take lessons as well. Seila and Kai did pretty good at the first lesson last night. We learned the waltz. All the kids did a good job. It was fun to watch them dancing with each other and learning that the boys are always left and the girls are always right! It's a great thing to learn at such an early age.
Tonight is a Jon Schmidt concert in Moses Lake. Our family is going as a birthday present to me. We are very excited to see him in concert. We watched s little bit on YouTube and the kids were very impressed. They saw him use his elbow to play part of the song. None of us have ever seen him in concert and I have only heard a little bit about him. I have one of his piano books but have never seen him. It should be really fun.
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