pics

Amber B-day, Kylee violin solo, Kylee singing solo, Hannah Playing Guitar Hero afer dance, Kelsea b-day, Kylee 3rd on top, Autumn 1st on bottom in honor choir, Autumn's birthday.

Our new thing

Since PBS was playing the Complete Jane Austen on Masterpiece theatre that is our new thing we are saturating ourselves with. Amber and Kelsea got Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice for Easter and we have watched the PBS versions and have been renting other DVDs from Netflix. I guess now we really need to read the books.

Look what amber did

Amber chopped her locks. We are sending her hair to locks of love. Kylee and Autumn have about an inch to go. We are waiting till the first of june anyway so we can put their hair in a bun for their dance recital.

Easter's over!

I guess the bright side is I am kind off in April from birthday parties-not really-Autumn's friend party has to happen in April. And Easter is over already. I never got the Easter decor out but I think I have only put the Happy Easter outdoor thing out for the past 3 years. We did eggs Saturday night-like close to 9 and I need to remember to do them at least on Friday because the girls go to church with dyed fingers. They enjoyed their baskets and they looked for eggs from the Easter bunny early Sunday. Church is at 9 and Amber and Kelsea were playing oboe and violin in sacrament and all of the rest of us but Hannah were singing in the choir.

We went to my mom's house after my nap and the oldest 2 played again at the senior home. My mom made a fantastic dinner for us all. We watched Enchanted.

Oh yeah, Friday was Autumn's big day. I volunteered at the school and saw Kylee get her award for the solo she did and Autumn and Kylee were recognized for being in honor choir. We went to Build a Bear after school and she picked out two outfits at the Children's Store. We took it easy until everyone came at 7 for her family party. She got a bunch of tinkerbell stuff and a really pretty dress from my mom, a game for her nintendo gameboy and a movie from my sister. She enjoyed her birthday a bunch.

And the dryer is working again. It is still kind of unknown if the dryer is tempermental or if there are fuse issues. We are taking it super easy today since it is raining and it is not necessary to over do anything anyway. I don't mind the kids being home. I like not having a tight schedule.

I did change my blog so it didn't take up so much of the page since I like to say so much when I blog. And because it was time but I am not sure if I am super happy with it yet.

Happy Birthday Autumn!

It's Autumn's birthday she is the big one ohh. 10. We are going to PAR TAY since Autumn and Kylee get out of school early.

I am screaming

SHRIEK!!! My dryer isn't working!! That amounts to mountains of laundry disaster in my home. And the dryer isn't that old. I hope it is just a fuse. We have an ancient fuse box so it is not easy to find out. Washer works though so I don't know.........

No blog from me

That was funny. I accidentally pubished the title with no blog so it was for real. Anyways, it has been more than a week since I blogged. Some sort of absent record without a trip involved. I didn't feel like blogging in my grumpy voice. But I think I am a little grumpy still.

Amber went to Lewiston last weekend. It rained a lot. But she got to play mixed doubles 3 times on Friday with a boy she doesn't know. Won 2 lost 1. She played on Sat. Won 1 lost 1. Being on varsity gets her name in the paper but they didn't spell her name right. She was Amber Lacy.

Kelsea had her birthday. She had friends over Friday night and some slept over. We had our family party Sat afternoon. She only wanted a new TV. She had my old ancient one from my teenager days and needed pliers to change the channel. I told her that TV is so retro now. She said yeah right. Everyone pitched in and she got one. And she got a DVD player too. She thought the big box was a joke and maybe had duct tape inside. But it was for real. HAHA. Lee Joe wasn't working but somehow blew it and was not home when everyone else was here for her birthday. My mom, sister her family and my brother and his daughter even showed up. We waited and hour and he wasn't even close to back so he wasn't here. I was furious and Kelsea was hurt. That doesn't help their occasionally bumpy relationship. He realizes there was no good reason for him to do that after he asked me like 10 times the plan for Saturday and was not home for anything I told him I needed him there for. There was time after her party for him to do what he did. More issues to work on. He did go to the little girls Honor Choir concert that night. He realizes he has only been to like 2 or 3 of those concerts in like 7 or 8 years of honor concerts. He came this week to the kids math night. He has helped with dinner a few times.

Kelsea has had issues with electronics lately. She had her phone stolen and I got $65 in charges reversed on my phone bill and she still has no phone. Then later Saturday-her birthday-she pulled her camera out of her backpack and the screen was shattered. So I have to send it in to get it fixed and she is taking a photography class so that is a pain. She is using one of my cameras right now but one of my cameras is tempermental(it might work it might not) and the other one is really hard to take decent pictures with.

Seminary is such a pain. We have a car pool. One of the moms is a nurse and works in the mornings and her son is not the best at letting anyone know if he is going to seminary or not. Yesterday Amber went to pick him up and she watched them pull out of the driveway when she got there. I asked him last night if his mom was driving today and he said yes. It was after 6:30am when we realized she wasn't coming. Seminary starts at 6:30. So we call the boy and he said his mom is working. So we all frantically get the cars defrosted. The rain froze on the windshield. And it froze the doors shut. I got Kelsea and our other girls to seminary really late and Lee Joe picked up the boy and Amber got him to seminary even later. They already have 11 tardies. There is construction at the intersection now and that is the most direct route from the other girls house. Then we have to get the kids to school by 7:35. With the price of gas it is pain. I am so glad spring break is next week.

The weather has been depressing and wet. Today it is finally sunny. I am glad. Amber may get to have her tennis match after school today. Kelsea has her first AAU basketball practice. And Lee Joe is working.

Autumn will be 10 tomorrow! We will probably go to Build-a -Bear after school tomorrow. The little girls get out early. We have to wait until after Spring break for her friend party.

I am SOOO looking forward to next week. If I get a ton done that would be great but just being home and not running around is a true vacation for me. HOORAY!! And Amber has a drivers license so if she gets an itch go somewhere I don't have to do it!!

Another B-day week

I am still recovering. Just full of snot now. Like you wanted to know that. I can breathe now. I had a chest pain and had hard time cimbing stairs without being seriously out of breath. The pain is gone in my chest along with the short of breath thing. It is all sinus now which has become the norm for me. I am still a little run down but able to do what I need to.

I haven't done much this week. I think I spent my whole day yesterday in the car. I have so much to do. Kelsea is having a friend party on Friday night. The girls have the activity day leaders and girls coming to visit their rooms and have snack thing today. It was great incentive for bedroom cleaning but I need to get busy on the rest of the house. There is stake YW standards night tonight and Amber is leaving tomorrow for Lewiston for a Tennis tournament.

We have had some success with guppy breeding. We have 1 full grown male and 2 full grown females. We have 2 babies that are getting bigger. We had a ton of new babies this weekend. But fewer now. Lee Joe and Autumn watched one of the females give birth and then watched her eat several of her just born babies. Who knew guppies were cannibalistic. I think we know now where some of the babies went.

I am putting off the inevitable yet again. I am all for the self cleaning house.

I just found out that Kelsea made the AAU team!! AAU stands for Amateur Athletic union. It has the potential to get Kelsea on the higher level teams at Capital. It is so competitive. More busy though. 2 practices a week and 2 games on Saturdays for about 5 weeks.

sick

Well I won't complain too much because I am no where near how Janika and her babies have been. Our prayers are with them. But I am having my turn of being sick and have done nothing for 3 days. It is slow going this morning but I may accomplish something today. Unless I don't get off the computer.

Kelsea tried out for AAU basketball on Saturday and she did pretty well. But her sick crud hit her on the 5 on 5 thing and she struggled with chest pains during it and felt real sick the rest of the day. Our Stake president is the assistant coach and wanted her to try out really bad. We will know by Weds if she made it. I think she did though. We had a conflict a couple weeks ago between her and the Young Mens pres. It has caused quite a stir. Actually the Young mens pres is really physical with many of the youth and too much so with the girls. He is really rough. Kelsea fights back but ran home from church that day in tears. He has apologized. And the bishop is involved. He is a great guy, just too touchy.

Amber is still on the varsity tennis team, she is in the top 9 girls. What is crazy is she has only played tennis since 9th grade and there are some girls she beat out that have had years of lessons. She was taught how to give a mean serve and was so excited about it. She hates playing doubles though. But her admirer is on JV so I am sure he is bummed. Kelsea is going to try tennis herself for sure now. Amber spent all day Saturday at an ACT prep class.

Kylee and Autumn are having another big choir weekend. Kelsea is going to be 15 on Saturday. The next Friday is Autumn's birthday. Why is Easter so early this year?

Hannah hurt her ankle really bad jumping off the swing yesterday. She can walk on it OK today but with quite a limp. I was afraid I was headed back to the doctor's office and the x-ray tech would get to know ANOTHER one of my kids. I got through my whole childhood without ever getting stitches or spraining or breaking anything. I never went to the ER-oh yeah once when I was 4. I fell head first down a firemens pole and chipped my tooth and hurt my forehead. The worse thing that happened was I lost my both my toenails in highschool to weird accidents. That was excruciating though. My kids are driving me nuts with this accident prone thing. Shesh.

Much better.

I feel much better today. I had so much accomplished yesterday and I found the floor again in the office today and traded a desk for a table and cleaned all the dust out from my CPU. Kelsea has a place for her computer now in her room besides the floor. But I still have giant stacks of papers I have been going through continuously. It just multiplies faster than I can file anything. It has been so sunny and it is slowly warming up that the spring cleaning thing is goin on I think. WOO HOO! But I just don't even want to start on the yard yet and Lee Joe has accumulated so much junk it is starting to look like a junk yard in the back.

Hannah got her new glasses today. They look so cute on her and she likes them a lot. I need to get pictures of her in them.

UGH!

So, I am mad at so many things at the moment today that I need to change my attitude so things will go more smoothly and one thing that is making me mad is how stupid my computer is acting. There are too many things to rant about so I won't.

Kylee may get her braces off in a few months. She has not had them on for very long either so that was good news.

I worked the past 2 days and last night Kylee and Autumn had a choir concert. It was a good concert. Kylee sang her solo on Saturday. She sang "Scarbourough Fair" She did a beautiful job. The music teacher told me how proud she was of Kylee because that was the best she sang it.

Amber kind of made varsity on tennis but they put too many kids on varsity she she may get bumped down to JV but she doesn't care. Either way works for her.

I need to get my clean laundry out of the bathroom so we can walk in there again. I am starting to find the clean surfaces in my house. I need to distract my anger elsewhere before I call my cell phone company about all the charges whoever stole Kelsea's phone charged to my phone. It was about $70 in charges.

Day off!

I am so glad I don't work full time but I have had plenty to drag me down in the mud besides working. I felt like I had the flu last night and this morning. I feel better now though like I can get something done but I am not. I have been super stessed but trying to tell myself things will be OK and things did get better today. I have worked so much this month I should have a nice paycheck when birthdays hit again in March.


This week Amber started Tennis. There went my afterschool driver but that didn't matter too much because I was already at the school 2 out of 3 days. But I don't have worry about getting Amber home from practice. Kelsea is debating whether or she is playing tennis or doing track. She is practicing Tennis to see if she is going to like it but she will start in a few weeks. I kind of liked the little girl I helped. I got to help her again Weds morning. She did really well except at recess she was hitting and didn't come in until I went out and got her. I wasn't out there during recess and the kid she was hitting was my own little kindergartner. How sad. Those people that work with the special needs kids really have a tough job. It is exhausting to work with kids that are not like all the others. I count my blessings after I work with those kids. But I like so many of the kids that are in the ERR at the school has but boy can they have some super bad moments.


Hannah went back to the eye doctor. She was seeing too well through the plastic cover they put over the lens on her glassses over her good eye so they gave her one that obscures her good eye more. That eye sees exceptionally well. She is getting new glasses. They are purple. She is very excited about them. I talked to a first grade teacher and her kindergarten teacher about having Hannah tested for GATE for next year. Her kindergarten teacher thinks she should be tested so I think that could happen later in March or early April.


Kylee had a rough week with friends. She was getting excluded and she was sad about it. She has talked to her teacher and we hope things are improving for her. Kylee performed a solo on violin on Saturday and played very well. I was impressed, I didn't think she was going to do as well as she did and she sounded better than many of the other kids in her group. She has a singing solo this Sat. Autumn has her typical drama that goes on with her friends again. A couple of girls like to stir the pot and cause lots of fights and divisions between their friend group. Aren't girls fun. Ugh. Kelsea ran home from YW last night because of something that happened between her and the Ymens president. He is kind of rough physically and something happened between them and it upset Kelsea a bunch. That is not the first time that has happened. So we will probably have to address that. Amber is fine and I can't drag stuff out of her so much since she isn't captive in a car anymore with me after school. I get tiny bits and pieces about her life. According to Amber it is very uneventful. I suppose no news is good news right? She probably just forgot about it. She did have her birthday party on Friday. It was a nice party and so easy! Teenagers do a good job of taking care of themselves unless they get too loud. Which happened during Catch Phrase. And the 3 youngest all went to someone else's house and Kelsea was so tired she kept to herself and went to bed early.


The weather is holding up. Lee Joe is working more. YAY! Gets him out of the house and earning money. Oh yeah, he is healthy again too.

Working

I worked at the school again. This time I was suppose to help the new little down syndrome girl adjust to her first days at the school in the first grade. It was an interesting day. Lots of ups and downs. Today they moved me to the ERR and the little girl had rough day (But I wouldn't say her first day was breezy either). I couldn't stay all day. Maybe if I could have stayed they would have left me there. I will be there half a day tomorrow.

WHAT!!!

Ok, I had hoped or thought we were done with it but it is @#@$#^@#%@%$@&^#$*&#$ Snowing AGAIN! Big pretty fat flakes and sticking in places. I am ready for spring darn it.

Socks before and after

One of the dozens of pictures Lee Joe took on our plane ride home

Hannah's party. Her little boyfriend is standing beside her.

City Championship game. Announcing the starting line up.

Snow hill!!

Kinda weird!

So the last 3 days are full of interesting events we have witnessed and maybe observed(?) On Tuesday morning Amber and Kelsea and the seminary kids witnessed the big flash of light. It was a meteor that the whole Northwest saw. Weds night the 3 youngest watched the lunar eclipse. They thought that was pretty cool. This morning our big chimes in the family room were swinging and chiming for no reason and then we noticed the plants were swinging too. We didn't feel it but we saw the effect. Kylee has fairy in her room that hangs and she saw it swinging too. There was an earthquake in Wells Nv this morning.

Autumn was still sick today. I went to the Doctor with her and they checked her for strep. She is negative. I wanted to rule that out. So she has a virus. But we were late getting to Hannah.

Yesterday was nice. I picked up Hannah and wound up bringing Kylee home. Then we hung out. I didn't have to be anywhere. I cancelled piano. And I organized Lee Joe's mess some. His paper business stuff. And I worked on my office again. It is a never ending pile of stuff. I think it multiplies so fast. We can see the floor again. And pieces of desk and table. I did a lot but there is still so much more. I am almost caught up on laundry. I am trying to get the house ready for Amber's birthday party. I guess I better give it some more thought. It is tomorrow.

It's back!

Lee Joe and Autumn are home today sick. Kylee will probably come home early. I made her go at least the morning for orchestra. They have sore throats and colds. I guess we have sick quota to fill that we haven't filled yet.

I had a day and a half of quiet over the weekend. Amber and Kelsea decided to come home early on Sat. Saturday night we went out to Nampa to see my cousin Siena play basketball against Northwest Nazarene University. She plays for Central Washington University. Siena's team lost but it was fun watching her play. She is 5ft 3. The shortest person on both teams and she was rebounding and taking charge.

Sunday got nuts. One of those days where everything seems to show up on one day. Kylee and Autumn sang with some other girls at a retirement center. We went to my moms for an Ashlee and Grandma Lane B-day party. Then we had a convert baptism to go to. Then we went back to my moms. At least there was no school on Mon. On Monday I went visiting teaching and the 3 youngest went to my visiting teaching companion's house. Then afterwards their girls came here. We cleaned house and the yard-which hasn't been touched since fall and with a horse of a dog that can be quite disgusting. Amber took all the girls to the park. Amber and Kelsea played tennis. Kelsea and Kylee fought and Kylee Autumn and Hannah at some point played together. Kelsea tried to play dodge the tennis balls while Amber and her friends were playing tennis. But I think Kylee was the one who tagged Kelsea in the forehead with one-hence the fight.

I worked at the school yesterday. Nothing crazy but the phone ringing nonstop so it was fine. I got the car washed! That was an accomplishment. I barely got home and the school called me about Autumn so I had to go back and bring her home. Kylee came home not feeling well so all their Tuesday stuff didn't happen. But Kylee broke a string on the violin so I had to go get it fixed. Kelsea had her intro to the high school last night at the open house. So it was a very busy day. Lee Joe had also invited some of the young scouts to our house to play bowling on our Wii. He wasn't here and neither was I for very long so Amber was in charge. She did a good job with the 8 little boys and their 2 leaders.

Sorry-no pictures yet.

Valentines and a quiet house

At this moment the kids are having a 4 day weekend and only the 2 youngest are home with me right now. Really quiet and super low key. Kylee is at a friends, she stayed the night and Amber and Kelsea were off this morning for an overnight snowmobiling trip with our YW and YM.

Earlier this week Kylee went to the Doctor. She was diagnosed with exercised induced asthma. The x-ray tech saw me come in with Kylee and she hasn't seen Kylee. But she has seen 3 of the girls. She said she didn't recognize who I walked in with. I opened my big mouth and even said that I shouldn't say anything but she has been less accident prone than the 3 she has seen. The next day I got a call from the school nurse about Kylee. She had fallen off the highest bar that the kids flip around on. Some boys decided to shake the bar to see of she could balance. She couldn't and fell really hard. The duty wouldn't let her get up. The nurse came out with the wheelchair once they could see that she could move fine they wheeled her into the nurses office. Anyways she hit her rear really hard and her head. She had a bad headache and couldn't move real well or sit on her rear comfortably. We kept a really close eye on her. She stayed home from choir and dance on Tuesday and stayed home Weds morning. I subbed in the afternoon and the PE teacher asked how she was and several other people and they said it was really scary. She was hurt bad but mostly from the impact, mainly sore muscles.. She didn't show dangerous signs of head trauma so I didn't take her to the doctor. She went on her field trip Weds and as soon as she got back her head hurt a little worse but by evening she was much better and the next morning some pain but she was doing tremendously better.

So Amber's boy saga continues. Amber played piano for a stake fireside on Sunday. And THE boy led the music. He got to sit by her then the whole fireside. He gave her a chocolate flower on her birthday-I know I said this already- and he gave her tulips in the evening. On Weds he hid some carnations in her backpack when she took him and another girl home. And for the school fundraiser valentine thing she got a carnation with a note from him. She won't let me see what she got from her seminary valentines bag. She played tennis with some friends and him on Thursday afternoon and those two played longer than anyone else. She gave him and her 3 best friends a Symphony bar with a handmade cover. They were all the same with individual stickers for each friend. I asked her why she wasn't giving him the one with a music stand sticker on it and she said it was because the wrapper job wasn't as nice. So she gave him the nicer candy bar. He e-mailed her the sweetest and most complimentary message and the poor boy is worse off than he was before. He was going to do something else after school but his mom wouldn't let him because of all the attention he had already given her. She is like so in the middle of the road about it all. I have no idea what is going on in her head over it. There is the slightest hint of a little like back. Perhaps for Amber that is actually a tremendous showing of emotion. I like the boy that likes Amber and they are still going nowhere. They held hands for 2 seconds during a game and she gave him a brief hug for the flowers. He is supposedly going to ask her out to prom. It is in May. Amber's friend has an inability to keep secrets. We decided to shop for a dress when we had time, whether or not she gets asked but that was before we knew how far away prom really was. We found one. Modest dresses are hard to find. And we are about to get super busy again. So the friend spilled the beans on the dress back to her admirer telling him he had to ask her now. And it got to his mom and she mentioned the dress to me. Super awkward! Amber's friend learned her lesson too I think.

And as it is Valentines week the realization of being a mother of 5 girls and as we are being thrust into the world of awakening boys. Oh my. Kelsea still has a 7th grade admirer. His last name is Day. So we teased her that if she liked her last name she could marry him and only change one letter in her last name. He has liked her for a long time now in jr high terms. He was teasing Amber's admirer for liking her. Kelsea was re-enacting her own admirer's glances at her during the fireside in the most exagerated manner which had Amber and I laughing. THEN during a scout meeting(same day) that Lee Joe had, he cracked a joke and had a bunch of the other ladies there laughing and one of the ladies-she has a son that is a sophmore and another one that is a freshman and she said "no wonder my boys like your daughters so much". It is a compliment to have admired daughters but it is overwhelming. Kelsea, I think I have said has had many such admirers and she is only bothered by too much staring or when it becomes negative attention. There is a boy that Kelsea considers a friend but he seems to like her a lot. I haven't really met him yet but he made me something for valentines day. It said "to Kelsea's mommy" It was hilarious to me anyways. But the younger girls are there already too. Kylee has a boy like her for several years and Hannah had a boy ask her to be his girlfriend. He is the MOST adorable little guy. She said she would but there was no kissing-good girl.

In spite of the onslaught of school valentines-all 5 this year. It was mellow day. Lee Joe and I are probably going out tonight but he did get me a sapphire bracelet. It is very pretty.

So this blog was probably more than you ever needed to know, but the kids are home or gone and I have a messy house and a 4 day weekend. So why not procrastinate a little longer. Maybe I will even post some pics this weekend.

Guitar Hero

The girls are Guitar Hero addicted. Lee Joe and I are annoyed by most of the music. I have played it though. Amber and Kelsea could play it on and on. Amber and Kelsea woke up seriously late this morning. Kelsea had to write off seminary so she played Guitar Hero before school. Hannah can play it. She cracks us up. She actually gets to the end of the songs. She is so little it is funny to watch her play it. Autumn says it is too hard so she is the only one with no interest.

I feel like crap again today. My shoulders are going out at least once a week. I didn't use the fancy neti pot yesterday and at bedtime I had a headache. I had it all night and have had one all morning. It is all sinus. So freaking annoying, I can't stand it. So I have had to use the thing today twice and it is slowly easing up. Medicine doesn't work at all. I didn't have to be at the school today. Thank goodness. It just feels like the day is a waste. I don't have anything else I want to complain about so have great day-Hey it hasn't snowed since last Thursday. It is weird. And it above 40. That is weird too.

Whew

I am so glad it is Friday. I think this week has kicked my butt. yes another one of those weeks. I subbed 3 days just the 3 hour block and I volonteered on one of the days I was off. The only day I wasn't at school was Thursday and it was get ready for the b-day day and Of course I would get sick in the midst of it. There have been things after school. Concerts and dance and YW. Lee Joe helped get Kelsea to something at the High school last night because I was too sick to go. But I got AMber's presents wrapped and a cake made for Amber before I really hit the floor-or really the bed- and Kelsea made the 2nd cake for me and the rest of the girls stepped up and cleaned. Poor Amber had a visit from Aunt Flo so she was bedridden too. We all recovered well enough for the party. I was able to eat dinner and frost the cakes. My mom and sister and her family came over. They helped me get Amber Guitar Hero for the Wii. She got a shirt, shoes, some ear rings, Pirates wii game and covers for the front seats of the Kia that she has been driving. The boy that likes her gave her a chocolate rose in the morning and then stopped by last night and gave her a bouquet of tulips. SHE GAVE HIM A HUG! Now we should all fall on the floor now in shock. Anyways in spite of sickness and cramps we had a nice party for Amber.
Yesterday I had some sort of illness related to my sinuses again. But I am trying something to help it. Today I was surprised I didn't have any residual pain. I bought something called a neti pot. You mix a saline solution in it and it irrigates your sinuses. I think it has helped a lot. But I need to try it more consistently and see if I can kick a bunch of these headaches and other pain. It has become a chronic issue. Because I have been outside a lot it makes my problems worse.

It feels like Spring in Alaska right now. All the snow is melting and there has been tons of it so everything on the playground is chunks of ice and giant puddles full of slush. We got another 4 inches Wednesday and 1 inch on Thursday. Kylee is wearing out the snow boots we have had for several years because she needs to wear them everyday. Time for water boots.
I need to catch up on laundry now.