Daddy coming home

We've been very busy since Travis got home from Iraq, but we are very happy to have him home. Sorry, not too many pictures, but I did get a few. Travis' flight was getting in May 4th at 1am in the morning. So I put the kids to bed, and told them I was going to wake them up in time to go pick up Daddy from off his airplane. I tried to get a little sleep, but I was too excited, finally at midnight I woke up the kids and we drove to the airstrip on ft. bliss where his plane was coming in. When we got there, his plane was early and had just landed, so we quickly found a parking spot, and the kids and I rushed in the building, and then out the other side, to watch all the soilders walk from the plane to their part of the building. We couldn't really tell which one was Travis, because they were too far away, but we waved and showed off our sign anyway. Once all the soilders were inside, we had to go back inside and wait for them to be released. They had all sorts of activities for the kids, and lots of free snacks, so they had fun running around in the pajamas, playing and eating. Finally it was time for the soilders to come out, and they had dramatic music, and dry ice going, and all the soilders walked in, in formation and then were quickly released to their families. There were a lot of people to squeeze through to get to Travis, but we managed to get to him, and give him lots of hugs. We managed to get home by 2am, and put everybody back to bed. We let the kids sleep in, and took them late to school the next day. We love having Daddy home!

My little missionary

I knew Betsy's teacher liked her a lot, by the way her face lit up as she talked about her in Parent/Teacher conferences, but I didn't realize how much Betsy had affected her until today. I didn't even realize Betsy had invited her teacher to church, until Betsy came home with this card in her backpack from her teacher. This is what the letter said: "Betsy, Thankyou for inviting me to your church. I'm sorry I won't be able to go. It was so very sweet of you to think of me. I might have made a small difference in your young life, but you have made a big impact on mine. Your quiet ways, and how you stand up for yourself have taught me! Thankyou, Mrs. Rivera" I am so proud of my little girl, and tonight for FHE we had the lesson about setting an example, and I used Betsy as the example, and she was beaming throughout the entire lesson. I love those good moments in life.

The Garage Sale

I've been really busy the last few weeks getting ready for the garage sale yesterday. It is the post-wide yard sale, and there is tons of people that come to them, so Travis wanted me to sell most of our furniture, so he wouldn't have to move it to Utah. Then when we get to Utah, we'll go D.I. shopping so we fit the "starving students" persona. The process was stressful, and I only did it because I love my husband so much, but if he asks me to do it myself again, I will say "no". For a bake sale I made homemade carmels Wednesday night, and dipped them in chocolate Thursday, and made Oreo cookies, and Friday I made 6 loaves of my artisan bread. Saturday morning I made cinnamon struesel muffins. Friday night Joseph helped me move the game table, couches, and table and chairs, bean bag, stools, dresser, nightstands, bed, exc... out to the garage, and it was packed. It was a lot of work, but Joseph was a big help, but I was sure sore afterward. So I wake up at 3am Saturday morning, and start getting stuff ready to go, as soon as the sunlight started coming about 6am, I opened my garage, and right away all these Hispanics start coming in, and going through the stuff in the garage, and the hordes of people didn't stop until noon, I had one little break about 11:15am, and started pulling stuff in, then got swamped with people again, until noon. It was very stressful trying to make deals with 3-4 people at the same time, and have the kids causing trouble at the same time. The did watch cartoons some of the time, but being outside was much more interesting. I had a lot of things stolen when I wasn't looking, and a lot of dishonest people come through, that took advantage of the fact that I couldn't watch everyone like a hawk at the same time. Samuel's bike that we gave him for his birthday was stolen, and a lot of electronics, and toys, and clothes, and even a weight bench. Most people were very nice, but there had to be a few rotten ones in the mix to ruin the experience. One thing I should mention is that the wind was blowing like crazy, and it was cold.... so I only pulled the big furniture out to the driveway, and most of the stuff was inside the garage, so people would rummage through things not for sale and take those too. I was supposed to teach a gardening lesson at a relief society meeting at noon, and I really tried to make it, but things were crazy and I couldn't get away in time and missed it, I felt really bad about it. But I finally got the couches, game table, rocking chair, and dresser back inside, and closed up the garage, and went in the house, and since there was nothing to sit on, I went into my room and laid down on my bed. Man....was I ever exhausted and sore, we didn't do anything the rest of the day, but be lazy, I was too tired. But, we did make a lot of money on the stuff we did sale. Joseph and I dragged in the love seat so we could sit in the living room, and were sitting at a folding table and chairs to eat. The kids love having tons of space to run around and play in the living room.

If you let Samuel wear underwear to bed

If you let Samuel wear underwear to bed (inspired by last nights adventure)
by Kayley Kirkman

If you let Samuel wear underwear to bed, he will wet the bed. He'll wake you up at 3 in the morning and cry that he is wet. Now that he is wet he'll want you to change his clothes. You'll pull off his wet, stinky clothes and take them to the laundry room, and come back and put clean pajamas on him. Now he'll want you to tuck him back in bed. You get a clean blanket and cover him up. The blanket is too small, he says, so you go and get another blanket. You say goodnight and shut the door, and climb back into bed. "Mom," he says, "I need a kiss." You climb out of bed and kiss that little boy, and as you walk out the door, you hear "I still need a hug." You turn around and give him a hug, and then climb back to your bed. As you begin to drift in to unconsciousness you hear "Mom," you ignore it, hoping you were hearing things, but it comes again "mom". You climb out of bed and go see what he wants. He says he needs a drink of water, so you go and bring him one. He spills his drink, and you change his clothes and blanket once again, you tuck him back in, and head back to sleep. Once again, the little one calls you out of bed, this time he is hungry. Tired of giving in, you say he can eat when the sun comes up. He asks when it will come up, and you tell him in a few hours. Next he asks for you to turn on his music, and you tuck him in once again. As you are once again falling asleep, you hear the call for "mom" once more, but decide to ignore it. The calls for "mom" become for insistent and finally you get up and go to him before he wakes up the rest of the house. This time he said he heard a beep in the kitchen and he wanted you to check it out, you leave the room, and find nothing amiss, you come back and give the boy one last kiss. You climb back in bed, with the thought that you will not get out again. The call for mom comes once more, you ignore it, and do not give in. Finally the little boy comes into your room, very distressed and sad, he says he was scared when you did not come. You give him a hug, and tell him to go back to bed, he says he can't, he is too scared, the ghosts will get him. You sigh a great sigh, and climb out of your warm covers, and once again take that little boy back to bed. The little boy says he is not tired, he wants to watch some T.V. You tell him to go to sleep, or he won't get to watch any T.V. You go back to your room and climb into bed, and silently prayer to keep that boy in bed. You finally fall asleep until 30 minutes later the sun comes up...... (the moral of the story......don't let Samuel wear underwear to bed)

Unique Saturday Morning

So this morning Austin woke up throwing up, and by the time it was time for us to go on our 2-mile walk that we signed up for and easter egg hunt at Kelly Park, she still wasn't doing to well. I was planning to fore go our plans due to Austin's sickness, but she insisted we still go, and we could just put her into the stroller, and she would stay there with her throw-up bowl. She was being so sweet, she didn't want everyone else to miss out on the easter festivities. We arrived at the Park, and signed in, and got our T-shirts, we put them all on, and got ready for the walk. Austin was in the stroller with her throw-up bowl, bag of saltine crackers, gatorade, and 7up, hand sanitizer, and anti-bacterial wipes for cleaning up throw-up and garbage bag. We got all ready, and warmed up and the walk started. I tried to keep everyone together, but Joseph wanted to be first, and Samuel and Betsy wouldn't go fast enough to catch up to Joseph and he wouldn't wait. So by the end of the 2-miles, Samuel, Betsy, Austin and I were dead last. Samuel and Betsy took turns refusing to walk, so I ended up with Samuel on my shoulders, holding Betsy, and pushing the stroller with one hand. When we reached the end, my friend, Chelsie, told me Joseph finished first, and that he was with them. So we got everybody together again, and Joseph was really excited that he finished first, he told me they took his picture and it might be in the newspaper. So we got ready for the Easter Egg Hunt next. Austin decided she was well enough to pick up a few eggs, so we parked the stroller on the side of the field, and got ready to get the eggs. All the kids ran everywhere, and since all the kids were wearing the same T-shirts (all from the walk) it was impossible to keep track of all the kids. I managed to stay with Samuel, but once all the eggs were gone, I couldn't see any of the other kids. We made our way back to the stroller and found Joseph, but still no girls. Just then, I heard an announcement "will the parent of Betsy please come to the stage", so we headed quickly over to the stage, and Austin heard the announcement too, because she was there when we got over to Betsy. Poor Betsy had been crying, she had only been able to get 2 eggs before the other kids snatched them all up, and then she couldn't find me (I was wearing the same t-shirt as all the other parents too). The ladies that found her, said she was very good at the "no talking to strangers" Betsy wouldn't say a word to anyone, and even ran away from them. The lady said she had to chase her across the park, before she would stop. I wonder how they even got her to tell them her name....So anyway I was very happy to have all the kids together again, and have decided next time I don't care if they are giving away free t-shirts, we are not going to wear them, it's too hard to keep track of everyone. So Austin told me she was feeling really sick again, and I was tired of trying to keep all the kids together, so we left. On the way home I stopped at the shopette, we really needing some 7up and saltine crackers for Austin. I pulled in front of the store, and Austin started throwing up, and Samuel peed his pants, so I gave Joseph money and instructions, and sent him inside to get the things we needed, and I cleaned up Austin, and Samuel's messes. Joseph returned with the 7up and my change, they didn't have any Saltine crackers, and we went home. I was upset when I realized my DVR had not recorded the morning session of conference, but at least I can watch it later online. So Samuel and Austin fell asleep, and I dipped strawberries in chocolate....yummy. We built our blanket tent for Conference. We watched the afternoon session of conference, although I'm not sure how much I got, because Betsy would ask me about every 30 seconds, what a word meant. Austin felt better after her nap, and we played the rest of the afternoon.

Highlights

Well I tried writing every day, but obviously that didn't last long. Oh well, I just do my best. So the highlights of the past 5 days include

Monday morning the girls woke up coughing worse then before, and feeling miserable, and I was feeling horrible: achy, nauseous, coughing up green stuff, headache, and chest hurting. So I called the tel-a-nurse and she told us we probably all had upper respiratory infections, and told us to go to urgent care. I kept the girls home from school, and my friend Laurie took Joseph to school. We went to the Dr. office, and got all checked out. Samuel decided he was going to be cranky, throw tantrums, and scream and cry the entire hour and a half. It was miserable. The only time he didn't throw a fit, was when the Dr. checked him out, he laughed because it tickled..crazy boy. Anyway the Dr. said we just all had seasonal allergies, and gave us a handful of prescriptions. We headed over to the hospital to get the prescriptions filled at the out-patient pharmacy, which thankfully was not busy, so we got in right away. I took my allergy stuff that night, and was asleep by 8:30pm. Unfortunately the girls weren't asleep when I fell asleep, and watched movies, so they were extremely difficult to wake up the next morning. But everybody went to school, and Samuel and I cleaned like crazy, because we had an Easter themed playgroup at our house at 10am. We got the living room, kitchen, and backyard mostly cleaned by 10am. Our playgroup friends arrived and we had fun. I did an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids in the backyard, and then we had finger foods for lunch. Everyone brought something, and I had made little loaves of bread, and cut up cucumbers, and carrots and olives. It was a good little lunch. And all the kids had a good time, and got lots of candy. We made Reeses Peanut Butter Egg Cookies, for an after school snack for the kids and took them to the park with us and shared with all our friends there, they were yummy. Samuel was looking for his shoes so we could go to the park, and he couldn't find them. I told him Betsy had put them on the floor for him,and he said "Oh, that's mantic", confused, I said "what?" He said "That was mantic of her", and I said "you mean, romantic?" "yeah" I started laughing, and Samuel looked at me and said "is that funny?" I told him that he was just cute, and that romantic is something between a husband and wife, and what Betsy had done was nice, but not romantic. Wednesday, my friend Chelsie came over and we did our Slim in 6 workout. Then I had Shakeology for breakfast. The kids had a half day at school, and then I had Parent Teacher Conferences and a bunch of errands to run, so I made reservations to put the kids in child care. I was working in the garden when the school called. Joseph had been suspended. He punched another kid in the stomach. I worried about this for a while, then We picked the kids up and dropped them off at childcare. I faxed a few documents at ACS and went over to the school. I hadn't had lunch yet, and I my stomach felt unsettled, but I had to go to PT Conferences, so I didn't worry about it. I went to Austin's first, and her teacher said she was a good student, and doesn't have any problems, by the end of her conference I was feeling worse, but I headed over to Joseph's conference. The teacher told me all the situations with Joseph, and how his behaviors are a problem, but that he is extremely intelligent. She also thinks he has dyslexia since he has such trouble writing and spelling. He reads extremely well, but she says that's only because he is so smart he fills in the blanks and comprehends what he is reading. He can read faster then me, and I'm a really fast reader, and he comprehends what he is reading (of course this is on fiction). Anyway we discussed his problems, and by the end I was feeling really sick. I had to practically run to the bathroom, and but my head between my legs and breath slowly. I was white as a ghost, and sweating, but still had to stop by the vice principals to sign the suspension form, and go to Betsy's parent teacher conference, so I took a deep breath, and went to the vice principals. I signed the form, and told him I would talk more with him later, but I wasn't feeling well, and went to Betsy's conference. Her teacher sang her praises, and said she is quite the little writer,and is very proud of how she is doing. She says she is a little on the quiet side, and will occasionally show her stubborn streak, but is doing very well. Thankfully it went by quickly, and even though I had a bunch of errands to run, and drove home, and laid on the couch, until I had to pick the kids up from childcare. I figured I probably had a reaction to eating the shakeology on an empty stomach, and then never eating anything else. I had a few crackers for dinner, and then put the kids to sleep, and went to bed. Thursday I was feeling a little better, so I got the girls off to school (Joseph's suspended) and Joseph and Samuel and I walked to the shopette (I wanted bananas and 7up). The bananas looked horrible, so I just got the 7up, and some doughnuts for the boys. Next we walked over to the travel office, and picked up some documents I was going to get yesterday, then over to the ACEP (army center for enhanced performance) and got Joseph some appointments for using the bio-feedback chair for relaxation techniques. I took him once before and he liked it and seemed to help him relax. After that we finished walking my walking loop, and stopped at the library to check out some books then went home. By the time we got home I was exhausted. We'd been walking around for 3 hours. Anyway, we had brunch. I talked to Joseph during our walk about controlling his anger, and gospel related principals. After we had our brunch, and Samuel went down for a nap, Joseph and I went to work in the garden, Joseph was in charge of pulling out weeds, and I helped too, and made sure he didn't get off track. When we were done, Joseph had to write a letter to the boy he hit, and Samuel and I read books, and I tried to teach him how to ride his little two-wheeler, he did a good job, but not quite there yet. By that time, we got the girls from school. Today the kids didn't have any school so I took them to chuck-e-cheese and they used their report cards to get free tokens, and I bought some more and they had a good time for about an hour and a half. Tonight we went to a ward activity at a park, and had fun chasing kids around two hours, and having BBQ and talking to other adults. It got pretty cold toward the end of the night, but we had a good time.

Sunday "food for thought"

The best part about Sunday is the spiritual upliftment I receive from sunday school and relief society. I felt the spirit really strong today, and it was nourishing to my soul, and gave me strength for the upcoming week. During Sunday School our teacher asked soul searching questions, like "where are you on the spectrum of righteous" one end of the spectrum being righteous, and the other end not so righteous. Then he also talked about a "situational spectrum" so whether good things are happening to you vs. not so good things going on in your life. And asked us to place ourselves on this 2-D graph/spectrum. He also asked whether or not our righteousness changed depending on what our current situation was. During this lesson, I started writing my thoughts down, and also had an image brought to my mind of Satan constantly laying out threads right in front of us, so many that I couldn't count them, the threads being temptations. And these weren't big temptations, subtle things, like talking about inappropriate things, or unpure thoughts, or watching T.V. instead of reading scriptures, or playing on the computer instead of other more righteous endeavors and on and on. Satan and his followers were laying out these threads in front of us, just waiting for us to accept one, or give in and take one, and then slowly ever so slowly pulling us off the path of righteousness, and the threads gradually gaining strength, and we are gradually doing things that aren't big sins, but just aren't the best use of are time, are not seeking after good things. We slowly ever so slowly are lead away. It made me think "what "threads" are being placed before me? And am I accepting, or giving in or holding onto these "threads"? I thought of the scripture in Mosiah 4:30 But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. I also thought of the 13th article of faith which states: We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.