Near miss

I know I have been blog happy lately But I need to update before it gets super busy. We had a very close call tonight. It has snowed since 3pm today. THe roads were starting to get slick at 7. I was sitting at the computer and heard a loud thump. I asked Kelsea if she dropped something she came down the stairs and heard what I heard we opened the door to see Kylee on the front porch and tracks driving through our yard and the neighbors just missing the houses and 3 cars. It knocked over a really large rock in the yard(the thump) and just missed the Kia parked on the road. What was the scariest was that the girls had been playing in the yard moments before it happened and Kylee saw the car drive through the yard. THey lost control and regained it once the hit the snow. We have been here 7 years and never had anything that close happen before and I had told Lee joe hours before I wanted him to park in the lawn next to our van. It still would have been safe there. He is parked in the lawn now. And the girls are safe and have been able to play in the snow in the back. It is hard to see the yellow snow in the dark. I am counting my many many blessings. We will see how tomorrow morning goes. I get to do the cross walk with the roads in the condition they are in. I am very nervous already!

Kelsea's audition

Kelsea had a rough night. She has a really hard time speaking or playing alone in front of people and she had to do both in one night. She was fine until we saw she had closing prayer as well. She fell apart. Amber stepped in on her behalf and said the prayer. Kelsea was the 2nd one to speak and that made her uncomfortable. But she did it. Then we hightailed it off to the jr high so she would have time to practice. She practiced her audition after school with her teacher on Tuesday, all night Tues. In class and at lunch on weds. After school on weds, during lessons, after lessons and then before the audition. And then there was this asian girl practicing. She had probably been playing since she was 4 or something and she kept playing her stuff perfectly over and over. It unnerved Kelsea so badly she couldn't start practicing and then she was in tears again. I took her into the instrument room and brought her stuff to her. She composed herself somewhat but she lost all the confidence she had going in there. So she struggled. I listened to her audition for the judges and she played everything but she struggled through it. It wasn't the way she had practiced all day. She was about to cry when she came out. I was talking to her. and then we saw her Orchestra teacher and she asked how Kelsea did and then she just cried. Her Orchestra teacher knew she could do it. We will see. ANd then this mom was so strange and said weird stuff. She said "maybe it's not your thing" "you will have time to do other things" Like she failed. She didn't fail she just has severe performance anxiety. Kelsea said she was rude and she was not any help. But the Honor orchestra conductors know Amber and Mrs. varnagy-Kelsea's teacher may be able to put some pull in and if she makes it it would be ahuge confidence booster for her and if she doesn't make it-Amber didn't make it in 8th grade either(Amber had a bad cold and couldn't breathe well enough to play). Kelsea is prepared either way.They may ask Amber to play if they need 2 parts on the oboe. Then I tried to make Kelsea's day by taking her to Shopko after 9 to get a coat. She picked a nice one out and was very happy when we got home. Here is what is so weird about my girls. Amber has no problem speaking or performing in front of people. She likes to do talent shows but she won't call people on the phone hardly ever and hates approaching people in stores to buy things or ask questions. She won't approach her teachers st school. She just works harder to avoid approaching a teacher. Kelsea has no ploblem calling on the phone. Once she pretended to be Amber to find out something for Amber. She has no problem shopping or advocating for herself at school. But she has this performance thing. So I guess I have said plenty. By the way Dylan made it to school yesterday and today. He does have an issue that makes head injuries more serious. He has a malformation where part of his brain stem goes down farther than it should so head trauma is dangerous for him. He is a SUPER active boy so it will be likely that Melissa will have many scares in the future. We call Dylan Matt sometimes by accident because he looks and behaves so much like my brother did. My brother was VERY active. My brother had serious injury or illness every even year of his childhood. 2-broken nose and stitches(I was babysitting), 4- knocked out his front teeth(I was too far away but saw it happen and administered first aid again),6- appendicitis( I missed school to care for him before my mom finally took him to the Dr), we were afraid every time he hit an even year and he has hit cars while riding his bike more than once and broke a few other bones. And he his still a walking and breathing young man who has been in his share of fights and almost lost the end of his nose from a car accident. Because he is an adult I have no clue what other traumas he has had. I don't hear about everything anymore. I have to work at the school Fri, mon, tues and we will get our tree this weekend and Jared and Michelle will be back from DisneyWorld on Sat too. NOW I have said more than enough.

BRRR

We had some rain and snow monday night. It got COLD so the rain froze. Driving wasn't bad but I had to work at the school on Tuesday. Just a half day. I was outside for at least half the time I was there and my Butt was so frozen. The rest of me was OK. The kids were highly entertained with the ice on the blacktop but I had to chase them off once 20 kids were trying to slide on one small patch of ice. Nobody was hurt badly by the ice until 4th grade came out for first recess and The boys come from around the corner of the school. I was walking over and talked to a boy doing something and he randomly tells me Dylan fell. I see him walking from behind the school with a group of boys all comcerned. He was pushed on the ice over there and fell and hurt his head. He looked Ok. But he plays the tuff guy around his buddies. It didn't look awful and he played football. When he went in he looked like he was a little uncomfortable. By 11:30 when I was leaving Melissa was picking him up. He was in tears and before she got very far down the road he was throwing up. She had to take him to the pediatrician. A CT scan later he has bruised his brain but was not bleeding. He went home and slept the rest of the day but he is limited on his physical activity for 3 weeks. I don't know how many times my kids have hit their heads and been fine. And he seemed fine at first but his symptoms were typical for that kind of injury. If you looked at his head an hour after he hit it you couldn't tell where it was hit. Crazy! SO it is still very cold. I am glad I am not at the school today because it is even colder. But I will be there Friday. I think it will warm up a little by then. Tonight is crazy. It hasn't been that bad lately. But We have piano and violin-AMber and Kelsea, Activity days-Kylee and Autumn, YW in excellence-Amber and Kelsea and we have to go to of course, And then we have to run Kelsea to a Jr high school for Honor orchestra audition at 8:45. Maybe we will find some dinner. Gotta run!

Kelsea self portrait

Go Broncos!!

Bronco fever has hit Boise in a frenzy. It is pretty fun how everyone here is so into the BSU Broncos. On game days everyone wears blue and orange and all the flags on everyones cars all over town. They are something like 38-1 or 35-1 in the past 5 years. Fiesta bowl bound!Melissa is going to school there now. Lee Joe really wants the girls to go to college here. He is very funny about it. He wants them to stay here and find local boys to marry. He is afraid if they go to BYU that they will find someone that will move them away from here. But Amber got excited when she came home the other day and asked us how much we make and said that they had a speaker in her English class the other day. He was a young man from Boise that is attending Yale. He said that if your parents make less than 40,000 or 45,000 a year you can go to Yale all expenses paid. She seemed quite excited over that option. Yale is very close to my dad and all his family. We will see what she decides. Lee Joe has encouraged her to want to pursue Chemical Engineering as a major and she wants to do music as a minor. I am starting to get an onslaught of college information in the mail and e-mails for both girls. Kelsea's program focuses on getting them college bound. There are lots of scholarships for kids in the progam she is in. That is pretty awesome because I don't know where to go with that. She told me she wants to be a nurse.-new paragraph- I spent Saturday night picking up 4 extra kids to take to a SND. We got all the way there and there was no dance. So we went to Wendy's and got a frosty. What a waste of time and gas though. We figured after the last dance, a grand total of 12 people showed up, they probably figured the turn out would be worse on a holiday weekend and we must not have gotten the word on it being cancelled but I had kids from 4 wards in the car so our stake must have been left out of the loop. --Kelsea will be auditioning for the JR high Honor orchestra on Weds. She is very nervous about the audition process. She wouldn't try out last year for the elementary Honor orchestra and she had been in it the year before. Everyone hope for the best for her! Violin is very competitive

Hope Thanksgiving was happy!

So here is what we will be eating for the next month-Turkey and potatoes. I am not sure how things escalated this way but we wound up with two 20 pound turkeys and an 11 pound smoked turkey. I didn't buy any of them!! Then I did buy some potatoes at Costco and then I was given more. One of my neighbors gave us some fresh ones from a local farmer. I think it amounts to 50 pounds of turkey and maybe 30 or more pounds of potatoes. I suppose that is a lot to be thankful for. As a matter of unforeseen events we will be paying off the van in the next week so the budget will be tight for little bit so I guess we will get very creative with turkey and potatoes. Our Thanksgiving was nice. My mom, sister,David(her man) Dylan and Kailyn, my brother Matt came over. Lee Joe and Amber and Kelsea played football in the morning. Traditional church turkey bowl. David and Dylan played too. I watched the parade and prepped a turkey, and looked at the Friday ads. The guys watched the Dallas game. David was happy his Cowboys won. He is one of the BIGGEST Cowboy fans. Born and raised Texan boy. The turkey was so good we didn't have as many turkey leftovers as I expected. No burning of any of my body this year. A new phobia after the cheap aluminum pan I used one year leaked on my bare foot giving me a nice 2nd degree burn. New stainless steel pan worked beautifully. Friday Lee Joe may brave a couple of stores for me at 5am and then play basketball before he does side work. And I am hanging out at home hopefully getting Kylee and Autumn's room back together. Maybe get some Christmas out. Jared and Michelle and kids (Lee Joe's uncle about 1 year older than Lee Joe)are coming over and will park their car here and Lee Joe will drive them to the airport so they can go to Disney World. I guess I will clean the car tomorrow too. Autumn and Hannah are at Melissa's tonight and I need to take the girls to see my moms new house this weekend. A nice weekend to kick back before the frenzy begins! I hope everyone had a nice Thanks giving!

Weird dream

I have been laughing at this weird dream I had this morning. I dreamt Lee Joe was jumping his dump truck. What a sight, and he kept doing it and boy was it noisy hearing it land.

Lee Joe's turn

Lee Joe claimed he doesn't get sick or that he wouldn't get it. His throat was sore this morning. I told him he would jinx himself. He stayed home with Kylee today. I am cooking for Thanksgiving this year and my mom and sister and her family will be here. We will see what Matt decides to do. But he has been at more family things this year than in the past. All he eats is turkey and mashed potatoes. That is almost all that Melissa eats too. And the chocolate pudding pie. So they are easy to please. Last year we went to Seattle and my aunt and uncle got this massive prime rib and home grown turkey from a butcher shop. Oh! we ate so well all weekend long and had such a good time. We went to the Chihuly art glass museum and the zoo lights at a zoo in Tacoma. We went to the Pike Place market and watched them throw fish and went to the aquarium there. ! My uncle was more excited than the kids when it came to some of the fish. He has scuba dived in the bay there and just loves that stuff. Lee Joe Kylee and I tried oysters-GROSS!! Nice memories of last year-and I didn't have to cook or have the worry of burning my foot with turkey grease like a few years back. I bought a very nice turkey roasting pan yesterday so I didn't have to borrow my moms anymore. Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope Devanie comes back soon!

Doctor

A blood draw for me and a throat swab for Kylee I have come home with pills for me for stomach stuff. And Kylee and Kelsea have a prescription for penicillin. I brought Kelsea home so she doesn't share strep with the rest of the school, on the Doctor's recommendation. He is checking a bunch of stuff again with me, things he didn't check the first time. I will need another test done but that can wait until January since I don't have any infections going on.

Blog

Here is my view on Blogging. I think it sounds like the writting version of blah blah blah. I have a tendency to say a lot. It gets worse the tireder I am. SO I will randomly Blog blog blog. A blog should be as long as short as you feel and your loyal readers are welcome to read intently or tune you out as in random conversation. So I will apologize a head of time for being wordy, if I was less than that I guess then it wouldn't be me. So I shall say to my 4 or 5 or 6 loyal readers out there-please read at your own risk-that of being bored to death or fabulously entertained or just plain pressed for time to keep up with me and my ramblings. By the way, I hope that Devanie comes back soon.

nice week

To fight the blues I have exercised 2 times. It has been more than a month because of my shoulder. The chiropractor has helped my shoulder very very much. I have felt better, and then I have also been sore. Great thing though. I have been doing yoga and it helps me calm down a lot. I have Christmas shopped online and in the stores some. It has been VERY frustrating though. Everything I have in mind has become a big challenge to find-and in the price range I am looking for. I found everything fine last month and now that I am ready to get it, the things are gone and I need to rack my brain to think of all the other places I might find it. But I have had success so far and now I am almost frantic to take care of the rest of it so this doesn't continue. And Lee Joe wanted a shotgun for Christmas. He went and bought one but I will wrap it and he has to wait. He is actually very excited about it and he has made my job much easier this year. I had no appointments for 3 days in a row!! WOOHOO. But then all the kids got sick. Kylee and Autumn were home Weds. Kelsea came home sick form school and then slept for 2 hours when she got home. Kelsea and Kylee were home Thursday. I had to take Autumn to the Dr for a follow-up on her arm. Her arm was better but she has been limping on her foot for 2 weeks. They x-rayed it. She had an injury to her growth plate in her foot. They got gel cushions in the heels in her shoes and now she has stopped limping. 2 hours later we left the office. And I FINALLY got the test results of the ultrasound. I chased my dr's nurse down to get it. I do a have a cyst on my ovary. And the upper ultasound didn't find anything so my stomache pain is unexplained still. Possible gallbladder issue. So I managed to an get appt today with my doctor which never happens that quick with him. I will find out what is next. Kylee is the only one home today. It would probably help if our weather would quit fluctuating so dramatically between warm and freezing and wet and sunny. And the coolest thing so far-There is NOTHING on the calendar for Saturday. Picture a celebratory dance-picture a good one because I am not a great dancer, rather silly actually.

Winter blues

Usually I like winter well enough but I am under the onslaught of S.A.D. already. This week is so calm compared to most. I am still waiting for my doctors office to contact me on test results. UGH. I need to exercise.

Sunday

We had our program yesterday. It went well. I was impressed with how the kids sang. Our practice on Saturday had me concerned but we were missing several kids. On Sunday we had one song that was a little weak but only on the 2nd verse-the one that sounds like a prayer. My last time to lead the music, I am still sad. Holding Hands has been the favorite song this year and I teared up a few times while the kids sang. Lee Joe and I were both called to the nursery. So after the program I was in nursery. In general it was a quiet weekend. It has been a while since we had one of those. Lee Joe and I could finally go on a date on Friday!! We saw Pirates 2 at the $3 theatre. We went out to dinner. I don't have to be anywhere today until 3:15. That is strange! Maybe I will be able to do preschool with Hannah this week. It has been 2 weeks of nothing for her.

Quick recap

3 chiropractor visits, 4 parent teacher conferences (13 teachers to talk to though)with good reports, 2 trips to the ultasound department at the hospital, 2 trips to the orthodontist in Meridian, 2 trips to dance, one trip to honor choir, 2 days off from school for the little girls, one extra day off for a sick one and one day off for the jr high and high school. 7 trips to the elementary school even with the days off. Feels like the 12 days of christmas. Oh yeah,that is right around the corner isn't it? Did some shopping for that too. Today is much calmer. We had 2 appointments this morning early and now we have the rest of the day. Lee Joe and I can finally go on our long awaited date tonight. AND we can all sleep in tomorrow! Hooray!

Should the yellow van have black and white checkers on it or a big red stop sign?

What day is today?

I thought it was Tuesday for a little bit this morning. I have been so busy I don't know where I am at. Tomorrow is Thursday. Another busy day! The term "stay at home mom" does not apply to me even though I don't work full time or even have time to work the part time job I have applied for at the school. I still say my next van should be yellow.

Saturday

Sunday was spent with Grandpa and Amber playing hymns on organ and piano together. She will finally play with company around. And Thomas and Grandma played Uno with the girls.

Weekend

Talk about EXHAUSTED. Friday we entertained Grandma Leavitt and Grandma and Grandpa Lay and uncle Thomas. We had Spaghetti for dinner. Jared and Michelle and crew showed up at 10:45. We visited and got them settled it must have been 12 or 1 before we went to bed. Up early and Amber at the school at 8,us at the temple at 8:30. Jared and Michelle recommends expired so they didn't go to the wedding. Thomas and them watched kids. Creshauns boys made it before hand. There were alot of people there for the sealing. It was so nice. I forgot my camera so Lee Joe ran home and brought Thomas and Jared and Creshaun's boys and Jared's boy Jackson and 2 of my girls. We had to hustle home and then Lee Joe, Kylee and I ran to catch Amber. We parked and walked quickly to the end of the parade route to see a marching band, two boyscout troops and then Capital's marching band! After them were motorcycles and the parade was over. Amber came home and we collected a houseful of people again. With Kim and Gwen Andy and Laura came with her husband and little girl. Pizza was ordered and we were out the door again with Amber and Kelsea watching 7 extras. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant. THere were over 100 people there for that. We came back to the house after that and orchestrated a girl trip to the mall and a guy, little kid trip to Cabelas. Amber and Kelsea got a few things for babysitting for us today. Back to the house again and ready for the reception. Jackson got sick with a headache and once we were at the reception Hannah had one too. THe reception was nice, many people but not a lot of food selection with protien for fighting Hannah's headache. I decided to take her to get some food. She was awful. I was afraid she would throw-up from it-she did. All over her blanket. SHe hadn't eaten any of the food I gave her. I went into McDonald's and they were so nice they gave me a cup to get her soda since I had gotten her choclate milk. I cleaned things up the best I could and she was able to eat something I was able to get back to the reception and had to be a party pooper and tell everyone we had to go. They were starting to dance, fun fast party dancing. We got home, and had to go get some Motrin and clean up the car. Jared and Michelle came back and collected their stuff and it was after 11 again. Hannah was still sick at 7 with her headache. We gave her motrin and Thomas helped us today by hanging out with out with Hannah since we had our primary practice and Lee Joe had to teach in Nursery. She has felt better today. I have said more than enough. I have an ultasound bright and early in the morning (it is almost 11 AGAIN)so I will post pictures later.

house full

My house is full and Saturday I am sure it will be full of fun! I will try to take lots of pictures.

bad memory

I meant to take pictures last night after everyone got home and I forgot. Autumn was a pixie. Kylee was a vampire bride of some sort. Kelsea was Meg from Hercules. Amber wore her shoe on her head. Yesterday was event filled. I was still finishing up Hannah's costume. Lee Joe didn't get to Hannah's pumplin so I started carving that even though I shouldn't have-my shoulder.I had to make Pigeon Poop. It was a big hit at the kids party. I was in charge of the party in Autumn's class. We had table of horrible sounding goodies. We also had teachers eyeballs (jello jigglers with grapes) Witches fingers (carrots) apples with slime (caramel) and Troll Boogers (pretzel sticks with Cheez Whiz with green food coloring) And with that was Swamp water punch to drink (lemonade, lime sherbet and soda with gummy worms) Maybe the kids had to be a little older to really appreciate it. It was so funny how the kids were about everything. I they were afraid of the weird foods and once we convinced them it was things they liked then they were all over it. They were scared of the punch and were surprised when it was really good. Too funny. Hannah wasn't sure how to deal with the attention she got being Santa. She had a pillow case filled with her toys. One of the 6th grade girls told her she wanted a pony for Christmas and Hannah was concerned she would have to give her the pony in her bag. This morning she said she really liked being Santa. Lee Joe took the kids trick or treating and I stayed home and cleaned and gave treats out to about 7 sets of trick or treaters. The kids came home with about 3 full sized candy bars and a toothbrush with candy attached and loads of other stuff. So four people asked me for this recipe yesterday-this thing won't let me tab or make a new paragraph still so it will all run together. Pigeon Poop- 5 cups of Peanut Butter Crunch Cereal, 3 Cups of rice Krispies, 2 Cups pretzels (my family does not like the pretzels) 2 1/2 cups mini marshmallows, 2 pounds white chocolate (I used 3 bags of white Chocolate chips). Melt Chocolate in a double Boiler. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add Melted Chocolate to bowl and mix. spread on waxed paper and let cool. Once cool break into chunks and serve. I imagine a regular chocolate version of this would be quite tasty-Hmm.