Category: Uncategorized (Page 114 of 118)

Ok, I guess this is what you get when you try to take a picture of your kids in the morning–facing east. Great, huh?


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Bang. “Ow” with a little laugh.

Bang. “Ow” with a little laugh.

Bang. “OW” with an even littler laugh.

Bang. “OW, John. Stop bonking me with that car!”

That’s what’s going on in our house this morning.

Monday was the first day of school!

The kids were excited to start the new school year, with Cole going into 6th grade, Megan into 4th grade and Natalie starting 1st grade. No kindergarteners this year will make my life easier, that’s for sure. Jenna will start pre-school in September.

We had a neighborhood back to school breakfast, where we meet at the bus stop with muffins, fruit and juice and everyone has breakfast and waits for the bus to come. It’s a fun little tradition. The kids all enjoyed the first day and were happy to go again today!

Happy Anniversary, Ryan and Paige!

Ok, I failed to mention that yesterday was our anniversary. 13 years and counting! I must say I’m married to the best man there is. Ryan is so patient and kind and helpful to others. He’s really awesome and I love him! After 13 years and 5 kids I still think he’s the best guy I could have married, and I’m so thankful for all he does.

OK, today I’m totally sore. Blah. That’s why people don’t exercise. It’s not fun when you do it, and then it hurts for days afterward. What is the benefit of that?

John is playing here right now and he turns the cars upside down and they go to sleep. “Seep Cars”, he says, and then makes snoring noises (for the cars) until he turns them over again and they wake up. Like I said, he likes cars. (He just kissed the red barbie car and he’s talking about it’s seat belt).

The weather today is absolutely perfect. If I weren’t so dang sore, I’d think about going outside to seed in my flowerbeds, but I doubt that will happen, as–did I mention that I’m sore? It’s probably only in the high 70’s–maybe low 80’s. Nice. I always like that end of summer, before fall cooling in the air. It makes me happy to be outside.

Yesterday I took Megan shopping. My task? To spend $100 and get the most outfits for her with that $100. Tomorrow morning (early) I am supposed to take the clothes, the child, and the reciepts to the radio station and we’ll see which of the two moms got the most for their money. I think I did pretty well. I got her 6 outfits (pants and shirts or skirts and shirts) and a jacket for $101. Ok, so I went over by a dollar. Big deal. The radio station will give me the hundred dollars to cover the shopping. I still think we did well. I’ve never spent that much all on one child for clothes before, so it was kind of different. But at least with Megan, she can wear the clothes this year, and Natalie can wear them next year (I got mostly size 7/8, so she could actually wear them this year, as the girls are about the same size, but I don’t think Megan would allow that). I don’t know if there’s an additional prize for the one of us who got the most outfits, but either way, we had a nice time, and got quite a few fun clothes. Where did I shop? Kohls and Target. We looked at Kohls first, but their clearance racks were pretty picked over and all the shorts and skirts were so SHORT, that we only got one outfit there–but cheap. $7.50 for a t-shirt and a skort (that Megan promises me she will wear to school). The rest were from Target. My kind of store. It was kind of a drag that I couldn’t look for anything for myself, but really I just went “school shopping” last week and got plenty of new stuff for me, so I’m set. Megan’s set. We’re all set! Now if only school would start.

Isn’t it funny how kids are born prewired with likes and dislikes? For example, Cole was reading at an early age and really loves to read. He’s said that he would like to be a librarian when he grows up (we said, “maybe an editor?). Megan loves to draw, and every paper that comes home from school has little drawings of animals on the back. Natalie likes all things girly and barbie-ish. In fact, she ordered a free DVD from myscene.com without letting us know, as I recall (pretty computer savy for a 6 year old). Jenna also loves dolls and animals and has from the beginning. But John…John loves cars. I think he dreams about cars. He looks at books and points out the cars before the animals, and makes the “beep beep, vroom vroom” noises for them. He drives his cars around the coffee table and parks them on the couch. He really really LOVES cars! He’ll probably grow up to be a mechanic. Or maybe he could be a cool car collector. We’ll just have to see. At least I know what to get him for his birthday, right?

Tickets are now available online for the Bells on Temple Sqare Concert in September. Click here for details.

Well, it’s been a fun and exciting 8 weeks, but the summer of Robin has come to an end. We really enjoyed having Robin and her kids here. She’s a great houseguest and she helped me out a lot. Yes, she babysat, made dinners occasionally, and brought friends for my kids to play with. I think the kids are now going to expect live in friends to come every summer–just to entertain them! She passed her classes, too! We had fun going to Yellowstone, Lagoon, Thanksgiving Point, many parks, and many neighborhood and family parties. I wish her well with her endeavors once she gets home–the pile of mail that never arrived here that’s hopefully waiting for her there, her kids starting school immediately, a stove that doesn’t work, and a whole bunch of stuff to sell on ebay are just a few of the things she said she wasn’t so excited to deal with once she retuns.

I now need to get Cole moved back into his room (he’s been generous to give up his room and sleep in the basement for 2 months), clean the basement that he’s taken over, and generally get things back in order. I’ll also have to do my own grocery shopping and errand pick up because I won’t have someone going to Provo twice a week who does those things for me. But we’ll have far less phone calls from people we don’t know asking for Robin.

I went to my first PTA meeting of the school year yesterday, and got the most fun object lesson. I’m going to share it here because it could be used for other things, not jut PTA. First she passed around a platter from Subway with those half sandwiches on it (food is always appreciated, right?), and then handed out the following:

A PTA Sandwich

Do you ever get the feeling that it is too hard to SANDWICH in PTA between everything else? And most of the time it turns out to be a JAM sandwich? Let’s make a sandwich together and see what it takes to turn a sandwich into a real picnic!

Bread (2 slices)–First you need a strong foundation. What is expected of you?
Butter–Spread yourself around. Get to know others, be receptive to learning more.
Mustard–Be Prepared. Muster up the courage to ask questions or make comments.
Miracle Whip–When you praise others for their effors, it acts like a miracle.
Meat–Help get to the meat of responsibilities, share the load, finish on time.
Cheese–We all need to feel like the big cheese once in a while. Let’s remember to cheer each other on.
Lettuce–Lettuce make sure we delegate or we may feel overwhelmed.
Tomato–Don’t sling tomatoes at others’ efforts. Always use tact and good judgement.

And you can’t have a picnic without a few extras…
Chips–Everyone needs to chip in and help our PTA be the best we can be.
Drink–Don’t forget to add some sparkle!!
Ants–Don’t be bugged by criticism or things that don’t go as planned. Try to be patient, learn from your experiences.
*******

Cute, isn’t it? After my meeting I went and did some “back to school shopping”. I spent about 80 dollars on clothes for the kids, and about that much —okay, maybe a little bit more–on clothes for me. Whoops? Well, nobody said the clothes were only for the kids who were going back to school, did they?