Busy Weekend

This Saturday was a busy one! We started out helping Kyle and JoEllen man an aide station for the Washington City Dogtown Half Marathon. It was a cold as wet morning and I thought it would be a perfect day to sell PVHS blankets. So I took Sophie (Shayne was at a Stake Youth Girls Camp sleepover) out to the Starting/Finish line at the park and set up a canopy and a little booth for her to sell them. Then I went home, grabbed the boys and went out to our aide station. We froze. We all had gloves and beanies on. But we had fun. There were around 300 runners and I was glad I wasn't one of them. Burke was and he also had 4 of his teachers running as well. The boys were excited to see him run. He does the marathon every year too.

As the runners came towards us we yelled out "water, water" so they knew what we were holding. The best part was listening to David say, "Wadda? Wadda?" It was so cute. After the last runner came by I ran back up to see how my awesome Sophie was doing and she was soaked and cold and didn't sell a single blanket. I wish I knew the secret to selling these wonderful things. I can't get rid of them. I have 10 boxes in my room, 4 in the little boys room and 5 more in the hall! There is a soccer meet this Friday so I hope that someone there needs a blanket or two to wrap up in.





Then later that night we went to Sophie's play. Seussical! She is a Tiger. If you've never seen it then it's hard to explain. But Miss Houghtaling is an amazing teacher. She has 100 students either in the play or behind the scenes being techies. Sophie loves being on stage. And we love watching her. Jan and Andy came to support her and JoEllen and Kyle are taking there kids next week. "Break a leg, Sophie!"

1st day of Preschool!

When I signed David up for kindergarten last month they tested him to see if he was ready and he knew all his colors, could count to 30, knew his shapes and could say the alphabet. But when it came to looking at a random letter and knowing what it was he was a little lacking. He knew the obvious: O, X, S, B, D, A, V & I. He needed to know 10 but the teacher said that he would be fine. She then told me that the Elementary was starting up a preschool for those kids who needed a lot of help now before Kindergarten and it was only $20! I asked if he could be in it and she said that they'd see if they had any room after they were all done with everyone else and then she'd call me. Lucky me! She called the next day. So his first day was Wednesday. He got a new backpack and was so excited. We took 1st day of school pictures and then I went and dropped him off at 9. The teacher met us out by the gate and had the kids say by and then took them all into class. We weren't allowed to come back with them. One little girl was crying so hard and the teacher said that it was better if the Mom stayed there and she picked up the girl and carried her to class. I thought that was a little harsh but David didn't care about me he was to excited. I was stoked! He was excited because his class was right across the hall from Ben's and he came with me every week to help out in Ben's class. So, I was really surprised when I came to pick him up and the PTA president, J'Neal, who was helping the class out, and is also in our ward, said that David was standing in the corner at recess crying and wouldn't talk to anyone. So, I went over and asked him what was wrong and said that he had an accident. WHAT!!! What the heck? He knew where the bathrooms where. He'd used them all the time. I went over to J'Neal and asked her what happened and wondered why no one called me to come get him. She didn't have an answer. She didn't notice and felt bad. So, when we got home and got him in the tub I asked him what happened and he said that he didn't want to talk to the teacher because he didn't know her and held it as long as he could. I wanted to cry. Then I wanted to kill that teacher. She's a young, right out of college, newlywed who doesn't have kids or experience. Later that night Joel talked to him and he said that the teacher told him that if he left then he'd miss out on something fun. Then I really wanted to kill her. He didn't want to go back to preschool and I didn't blame him. I guess J'Neal could tell I was mad and she talked to the teacher who called later that night to talk to me. I gave her an ear full and said that I will be with him for as long as he wanted me to be, in class, at school on Monday. Who then must have then told Burke about it because today when I went to pick David up, yes he went, Burke called me into his office to see how we were all doing and tell me how much he appreciated our family and how sorry he was that David had a bad first day experience. Burke is an amazing person. The kids love him and if he ran for President of the United States I'd run his campaign! He has changed the lives of so many children in all of Southern Utah. Anyway, David then came walking down the hall and had a huge smile on his face. He had a great day and didn't have any problems. GOOD! Good for him, good for me and good for that teacher. As soon as we got home he got to work on his homework - tracing his name.

Crazy Hair Day!

My best masterpiece yet!

DSC Baketball

We haven't been to a basketball game in the Burns Arena since Brian was playing almost 10 years ago. But now that Kyle works for the college they go to every home game with Jillyn and Mason and take all of there kids. At first I thought they were crazy but once we joined them I saw the method in there madness. We go in, sit down, and let the kids go crazy. They can yell and scream and they fit right in. They can even go in the hall and run around and no one says anything. It's awesome! JoEllen, Kyle, Jillyn, Mason and Joel and I get to sit and watch the entire game and the kids have a blast. Here is the proof:






The boys love to chase down the mascot and Emily is constantly trying to get autographs from the cheerleaders. It's a lot of fun.

We are thinking of new hair stlyes everyday tell me what you think of this one: Valentine Hearts
We absolutley love this blog and get a lot of ideas here.

Ben's 7th Birthday!

Well Thursday went much better than Wednesday! Ben got up and was feeling fine. He opened a few presents and got ready for school. It was my day to tend JoEllen's kids because she was in charge of a fundraiser and wasn't going to be around. So, I had Matty and Evan from 11 to 4 and then we took Matty home to Kyle, picked up Emily and George and went to meet Jan and Andy at Pirate Island Pizza. That is the perfect place to take kids. I love it. They can run around and have fun and be loud and no one cares because that's why everyone else was there. We had a Kracken Pizza which is HUGE and then opened more presents and had cupcakes. The kids all got tokens and went to the arcade to win prizes. It was a lot of fun and very needed. I am so grateful for my family who loves supports us. They are amazing. It will definitely be a birthday and day before birthday that we'll never forget.

Scariest Day In My Life So Far!

So now that I've calmed down I can blog about it.

On Monday I asked Ben what he wanted for his birthday and he said a new BMX bike. Well, we have 2 perfectly fine BMX bikes sitting in the backyard that just needed new tubes put in them. So I told him that Dad would fix one up for him. So, Joel took one to work and fixed it all up. But, this bike unlike the other ones he's ridden has hand brakes. So, Joel brought it home and showed Ben and he liked it. Josh got on it first and rode it a second and told us that the brakes were bad on it and Joel said the front ones were bad but the back ones where fine. So Ben got on it and rode around for awhile on the side of our house. Now, there is NEVER any traffic on the side of my house because there is only one house that faces that street and a cute little old couple lives there and I don't think they drive. So it is always covered with boys playing or riding around on it. On Ben's old bike he liked to get going as fast as he could on that road and then slam on his brakes right before he went into the other road to see how well he could skid out. But his old bike had the back brakes where all you had to do is push your pedals backwards and you stop. So, when he was racing down the street to try to skid out on this new bike with hand brakes he couldn't stop. He went right into traffic and my neighbor, Tonya, was driving he son to school in her suv. She tried to stop and Ben tried to stop. Ben's eyes where huge as he tried to back pedal to stop and the remembered that it has hand brake and tried them too. It didn't work. He even tried to put his feet down to stop but everything went so fast. I was standing there, Joel and Josh were standing there and none of us could do anything. It was like slow motion where you saw every detail and knew what was going to happen but couldn't do anything about it.

Ben slammed right into the passenger door when his best friend, Rayce, was sitting. Luckily Ben didn't have time to try to brace himself so he didn't brake any bones. But his stomach slammed right into his handle bars and he fell to the ground. We all raced right to him and he hopped up trying to act like nothing happened because he was embarrassed and thought he would get in trouble. I took him in the house and checked him out and made sure he wasn't bleeding and to see where he hurt. He said it was just his stomach which didn't make me feel any better. Joel's brother Jared was riding off a bike jump when they were little and crashed and they thought everything was alright but it ended up that he punctured his spleen and had to get surgery! So I was still freaking out. Ben on the other hand wanted to go to school. Joel stayed outside to talk to our neighbor and she left to take Rayce to school and then came back to check on Ben. Ben loves being at her house and is over there if they aren't over here. After a minute Ben said he wanted to go to school because they were doing Valentine's Day stuff today. Well, I let him go knowing that I was going to his class in an hour anyway to help out. But I should have made him sit and cuddle with me all day and never move. But that would have been only good for me. So he left, Josh left and Joel left and I went in my room and curled up in a ball on the floor and cried like I never have before. I couldn't stop replaying it in my mind and thinking what could have happened. I kept thinking how stupid I was for having Joel fix up an old bike when I should have just bought him a new one. No amount of money could replace one of my kids so if I needed to spend money on a new safe bike then I should have done it and not thought twice. I wanted so badly to go back to sleep and wake up having it all be a bad dream but it wasn't and all I could do is cry. David was up stairs playing on his Leapster oblivious to it all. I called Jan and then my Mom and then decided that I'd better stop crying so I could go to the school. I was so worried about Ben. I wanted him to say that he wanted to go home with me so we could curl up together and watch a movie but he didn't. When I got there his teacher wondered if he was o.k. because he hadn't said a single word to anyone and was just somber. I told her a very short version of what happened because I didn't want to cause a scene in his class and told her to have him call me if he needed anything. I asked him if he was o.k. and he said his stomach still hurt but that he wanted to stay. So I told him to call me if he wanted to come home and I'd come get him. He stayed and I went home to curl up again and see if maybe David would take pity on me and curl up with me and comfort me. But as I was pulling up to the house JoEllen pulled up with a big Diet Coke for me and when we went in Joel was home. I was so glad. I just started crying again. I couldn't talk about it without crying. I'm still tearing up right now thinking about it. Joel decided that I needed to get out so he took David and I to Cafe Rio for lunch. Which helped but as soon as we got home our other neighbor called because she heard about it and was wondering how he felt and I started crying all over again. I kept thinking that I needed to call Tonya to see how she was but I knew I would just cry and that would make her feel worse so I didn't. I also wondered how Rayce was doing and hoped that he saw Ben at school so he'd know everything was alright. After school was over Ben was fine. He said that his stomach didn't hurt and was running all over the place. That night Joel and I took him to the store so he could pick out a new bike that had back pedal brakes and a helmet. While we were there we got him a pillow pet and anything else he wanted because I felt so bad. When I went to bed I thanked the Lord for keeping Ben safe and was so emotionally drained that I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. The next day was Ben's birthday and I knew I needed my sleep.