New pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are two preview pictures of some new photos that we just had taken by Ken's cousin Jeni. We are very excited, and can't wait to get them printed!

My post about Shaelynne

Shaelynne is doing wonderful in her new class. She has a great teacher and she has made so many new friends. School does not come easy for her and she has to work extra hard to understand things but she loves her teacher and wants to please her so she puts everything she has into doing the best she can. I am so proud of her.

She gave up her very best friend in the whole world to move over to this new school. I think she misses her a ton. They spent all weekend together last weekend. They are so much alike. This weekend they switched their clothes around and changed their hair up. Then they stood with their backs to me and asked me who was who.

Yeah, I can totally tell my daughter from someone else's. I didn't have a clue who was who. In fact they made me guess and I guessed completely wrong. They loved it. I thought they were silly.

I should have taken a picture and let you see if you are smarter than me. Maybe next time she comes over I'll have them switch again and take a picture just to prove I'm not crazy.

It's fun to watch her grow up. I can't believe she turns 11 this year. She gets to go to girl's camp next summer. WOAH!!!

I need to bottle her up somehow and force her to never grow up! Actually, I can't wait to see what kind of woman she grows up to become. She is amazing and I am so thankful I get to be her mother.

STRESSED OUT!

I went to campus today to buy a couple of books that had to be ordered in. I found out my financial aid had been canceled. AHHHH!!!!!

I didn't have time for that! I had thirty minutes left before I needed to get the girls from school, Ken (who was with me, and helping me)had to be to work in 45 minutes, and I couldn't leave until I spoke with a counselor. I also had to fill out some paperwork, meet with financial aid, and then finish buying my books.

I have too many credits!!! CSI is a two year school and I have more than enough credits needed to graduate. Problem is, many of those credits were from 15 years ago when I didn't have clue what I wanted to major in. I found out that I have to take at least 12 credits in my major in order to get financial aid. Okay, that's not a problem. I have plenty of classes I can still take.

Wait, I don't have enough classes left in my major to get full financial aid next semester. HUH???? I have taken extra classes in Special Education, but since CSI does not offer minors financial aid won't recognize any of those classes. I only have two classes left for my major so do I finish that program while focusing on elementary education? I can, but I have to take those classes in the 12-18 credit range because those are free credits. My first twelve classes have to be towards my declared major.

Long story, short....The girls waited at the school for a half hour!! Ken was 15 minutes late to work!!!! One of my books was still not in.... and I am now taking 7 classes for a total of 18 credits so that I can graduate in two semesters and still qualify for financial aid. Here is my schedule to prove it.

Your Schedule (Registered)

EDUA 245 C02W Special Ed Policies & Procedures
EDUA 280 C01W Intro to Teaching Children's Lit
EDUC 290 C01W Education Exit Seminar
MATH 157 C02W Math for Elementary Teachers 1
MUSI 233 C01 Music Methods for Elementary Tchrs
POLS 101 C03W American National Government
SOCY 101 C06W Introduction to Sociology

That is SO many classes!! I also have to take 18 credits next fall!!! I have a husband and six kids who all have a life, need fed, cleaned, and talked to occasionally!!! I usually average 15 credits and that about kicks my trash. I am so burned out on classes right now. I miss my normal "mommy" world.

Now the pressure is on...I used to have a life beyond college...I think I'm going to die!!!!

Good Friends

This story is the polar opposite of the previous post.

My little Alexys has struggled with anxiety this entire school year. Sunday evenings as she would begin to lay out her clothes for school and pack her lunch for Monday morning she would begin to cry. She would cry all evening, all night, all the next morning, all the way to school, and most of the day. She would arrive home Monday evening with swollen eyes but a smile on her face. She would drink her Chamomile tea each night so she could relax and sleep and then Sunday we would start the ordeal over again.

We prayed for answers, we talked to her counselor, we looked for the cause of her anxiety till we were blue in the face... :)

When the boys decided on Sunday night, Jan. 3, that they were for sure changing schools, Alexys announced that she too would be changing schools. I told her she was not! She was in a good school with a teacher we loved and good friends. No discuss. End of story.

Then the tears began. She laid her clothes out for school, and cried. She packed her lunch, and cried harder. She couldn't fall asleep because she was crying so hard.

FINE! You can change schools. She fell asleep instantly with a smile on her face.

I'm such a sucker!!!!

She has loved her new school. She is in a class where the teacher challenges her. She is performing on a fourth grade level. She has so many silly friends that make her so happy. AND...we have had no Sunday night anxiety attacks and she has not had her tea even once since she has changed schools.

So, she has a new friend named Claire whom she loves to death. We knew Claire when Alexys was 3 years old, they were in the same sing group but they don't remember each other. But Claire's mother remembered Alexys and asked a boy named Zach to introduce Claire and Alexys because Zach is in Alexys' school class this year and Claire is in another class but knows Zach from church. Did that make any sense?

So after this funniest story of how he introduced these two girls, they have been inseparable since.

Okay, I'll share the funny story. Claire was too shy to meet Alexys and Alexys was too shy to meet Claire. Zach kept getting into trouble from Claire's mother, Sister Jones because he had not introduced them yet. Finally, Zach told Alexys he would talk to Claire like it was no big deal. When she did not suspect anything, he would motion to Alexys to come say "Hi". Then his assignment would be complete. (Remember, these are 8 year old kids)

So, Zach is talking to Claire and he motions behind her back to Alexys to come over. Alexys suddenly feels silly and starts to laugh. Zach gets frustrated with these two silly girls who won't let him do his job. He yells to Alexys, "This is your sign. Come over now!" because maybe Claire won't have a clue what he's talking about, right? Alexys is already giggling, Claire is confused. Alexys taps Claire on the shoulder, she turns around, Alexys giggling says "Hi, I'm Alexys" and does a big wave. Claire starts to laugh, says "Hi, I'm Claire" and waves back and Zach falls to the ground exclaiming, "Finally, it's done. Now Sister Jones will leave me alone!" And the two giggling girls became instant best friends.

I found out yesterday more of Claire's story. All of Claire's friends from last year and church transferred over to the charter school this year. Claire did not. She has been unable to make a new friend this year. She has cried herself to sleep each night praying for a new friend to make her happy. When little children cry themselves to sleep, mothers cry themselves to sleep as well. So, Sister Jones too was praying for a new friend for Claire. When she heard Alexys was new to the school, she knew Alexys would also need a new friend. She remembered Alexys from many years ago and felt like this might be an answer to her prayers.

I think it was an answer to two little girls prayers,...and two mother's prayers!

Heavenly Father loves each one of us. He knows the righteous desires of our hearts and he answers our prayers.

Bad Friends

This week has been an emotional one for me. On Monday, Zach told Ken and I that a boy had showed him a bag of weed and some papers to roll it in and asked him if he wanted to smoke with him. Zach said he didn't and the kid told him not to tell anyone he had it because he would go to jail and get kicked out of school. Zach also had a friend tell him that the boys he is hanging out with have made it a goal to get him to smoke weed before the school year is up. On Tuesday Zach told us that his new good friend Kyle is headed to "juvi" for the rest of the year because he violated his probation. This is a bummer because now Kyle will have to repeat 8th grade AGAIN! But the day turned out okay because he and his other friends helped Kyle calm down so he didn't get in a fight with a kid he hates.

Can you say.....THIS MOTHER IS FREAKING OUT!!!!!!

This is my sweet baby boy. What is Satan trying to do to him?

Both Justyn and Zach have struggled making new friends. They are trying to convince me that EVERYBODY swears and EVERYBODY is only focused on sex and drugs! I refuse to believe them. They love it when I say, "I know two boys who don't!" as I point to them. They role their eyes and remind me that 6th and 8th grade are hard and that I just don't have a clue!

For Family Home Evening we talked about Holding On to our testimonies. The night before Justyn and Zach had attended the Stake Youth Fireside and our stake president had told them about Joseph and Potipher's wife and explained to them that they needed to FLEE!!!! from sin. It was such a spiritual evening and we all went to bed with new hope and goals to set our standards higher and to flee from sin.

Tuesday, Justyn came home and told me he sat with a boy he knew from another wards scout troop. I made a phone call to find out more about this young man. Justyn successfully found one more boy besides himself that does not swear. YES!!! He also has a friend in P.E. that comes from a very good family. It's amazing to me how important good friends are. If we have enough families on this side of town to have one full stake and half of another attend this one junior high, then surely there are parents out there who have taught and EXPECT their children to have high standards. So why do our children feel so alone in their beliefs?

Zach on the other hand has not done a thing to try to change his situation. Ken went in to the school and spoke with the school resource officer. She is a friend of Ken's and we were curious as to just how big the drug problem really is in this school. She had Zach visit with her and show her who the kids were that were offering him drugs. She then told him that he was hanging out with a very rough crowd and he needed to make better choices or he would find himself in a lot of trouble.

Hello!!!!

Still no change!

I have found myself on my hands and knees pleading with the Lord to please guide me in what I say to Zach and to please protect him until he figures it out. I feel so helpless. These years are so critical, and he's still innocent at this point!!!

It's like, when I was pregnant with Kate and my water had broke. My water had merconium in it so we knew she was stressed. I was dilated to a...0...with no contractions at all. Her heart dropped to 25 and everyone started to panic. It was 11:30 at night and the on-call doctor and nurses had gone home for the night and were at least 20 minutes away. As her little heart rate was unresponsive to the things they were trying to do to get it back up, I pleaded with them to save her life. They commented that it would take a few moments to get me numb enough before they could cut, there was no anesthesiologist in the hospital at that hour so we needed to wait,.... I kept telling them that she was alive right now, take her out. She may not be alive by the time everyone arrived. I would have given my life in that moment if it would have meant it would save hers. It seemed like an eternity and I was totally helpless. I could only watch the monitor and pray! Obviously it all turned out okay. I will never forget how helpless I felt. Her life was not in my control. I only had the power to pray!

Fast forward a few years....Once again I only have the power to pray. I told Zach last night I would put him in the other junior high if he did not change his friends by the end of the week. He told me it's just so hard. These friends have welcomed him into their group. One of the girls goes to church with us so they must be good kids, right? We talked about his future goals. He has set his standards high. We talked about his mission, college, his future family. He has a strong testimony of his beliefs. We talked about what true courage is. We talked about how you can't play in the mud with filthy pigs without getting filth on you(great visual, eh!); you can't rub up against a dirty shoulder without getting dirt on your shoulder. I asked him about a girl we knew from one of our previous wards. He said she sits alone and has no friends. He has never seen her talk to anyone. She is beautiful but very strange. I remember this girl. She was beautiful many years ago with an amazing testimony of the church. I told him that she was an example of true courage. She chooses to stand alone rather than smear herself with filth! We discusses how sad it is that she is alone in her beliefs. Why is she the minority and not the majority. Where are all the good LDS kids? We came up with some mock conversations he could have with his friends about his standards and how he will only surround himself with things that will uplift his spirit. I then sent him to bed and I found myself once again pleading for divine intervention.

On Sunday a speaker in Sacrament meeting discussed how the song "I am a Child of God" is actually a prayer if you change a few words. As I prayed last night the thought ran through my head:
Zach is Thy child, and Thou hast sent him here,
Please, Father, Lead him, Guide him, Walk beside him,
Help him find Thy way,
Help him know what he must do,
To live with Thee some day.

I know our prayers are heard and answered by a loving Heavenly Father.

Now we wait...

Weekly Catch-up Post

The last week has been intense. The newness of the new schools has worn off a little and we have dealt with a few new experiences.

-Zachary was in a class and a girl passed him a note and asked him he smoked weed. He said no. She asked him if he wanted to. He said no, he was a mormon and they don't do things like that. No big deal...(agghh!)

-Justyn had a friend from his old school tell some friends at his new school that he was gay and to stay away from him because he was such a freak. Kids can be cruel.... :(

-This has nothing to do with the new school but Kate was on the top bunk and the ceiling fan hit her face and knocked her to the floor. She looks pretty beat up and thought she was going to die. She came down the stairs pleading "please God, don't let me die, please God, I don't want to die." Needless to say Ken's attempt to be funny as he rushed in from work with his emergency gear bag from his patrol car and threw her on the couch and started to do CPR while exclaiming "she's going to die!" did not do much to sooth her fears as she let out a scream of shear terror. It was so funny but very traumatic for a little girl. Mean daddy!

-I finished my intersession class today. HOORAY!!! It was a 16 week class crammed into 4 weeks over Christmas break. My head hurts but I finished! Now three days to relax until I start my new semester of 15 credits on Tuesday.

-Shaelynne and Alexys are still loving their new classes and have made some really great friends.

-The boys are struggling a little more with making good friends but through prayer and patience, we know they will be blessed.

-Henry was discharged from developmental therapy on Tuesday. Yipee!!! Now just speech therapy twice a week. (and he starts preschool at the end of the month for two days a week).

-Ken's schedule changed from days to evenings. He is now working 4 p.m. to 2:45 a.m. four days a week. This new schedule will take some getting used to.

-After many, many years of playing the piano in Primary, I was released on Sunday. What will I do with myself?

-Ken and I also had to speak on Sunday in Sacrament meeting. Our topic was Family Home Evening, Family Scripture Study, Family Prayers, and Family Councils. We now have some new goals we are working towards. And we are glad that we won't have to speak again for a couple more years.

Top Ten Things We Like About Public School

10. no more riding the bus for the girls, the boys get to ride with all their friends from the neighborhood

9. having Ken's cousin work in the same school the girls go to so she can keep an eye on them, especially Alexys. No tears so far!! Cross your fingers for Monday though!.

8. P.E. and a real library that they can actually check books out of!

7. an extra recess at the elementary school (and actual toys on the playground instead of just playing on grass or pavement)

6. having all the kids on the same school schedule now!

5. finding old friends from previous wards and school classes

4. hot lunch and breakfast if they choose!

3. sleeping in an extra hour in the morning for the girls and half hour for the boys.

2. No more uniforms!

1. No more packing cold lunches in the morning before school!!! My grocery bill just decreased by $50+ a month!!