Celebrating Six!

As I made this little album of Ben's first years I realized once again what a blessing he is to our family. He can be so crazy, but he has such a soft heart and is an amazing big brother. We have had such fun with him. And this year, especially, I am blessed to be near him at school. It has brought us closer together. He comes to see me a couple times a day at school to "check on" me. It is so sweet. We just love him so much. Happy Birthday Benny Boy!!!

I'm Here, I'm There, I'm Everywhere

That's how I have felt the last few weeks. My brain has been on major overload. At least the anxiety is letting up now that school has actually started. I have 6 kids in my class so far. All of them are manageable. . . except one girl who I am having trouble with. My class assistant is named Norma. She is great and worked in a behavior unit in the high school for about 8 years. She just does whatever. I never have to tell her that this or that needs to be done. I really like her and I am thankful to have her.
Anyway, give me a month and I will hopefully have the class working well. Until then I continue to arrive early and stay late. Poor Nate.

Speaking of the stay at home daddy Nathan. I have to say that he has been incredible. He has taken over a lot of my previous duties and the girls are loving being with their daddy. He takes them out everyday and makes sure they stay happy.

I did have to laugh today though. When I got home there was a bottle with milk in it on the counter. I called up to Nathan and asked what was up? His reply. "That's what Emily wanted today." The thing is, we took Emily's bottle away about 9 months ago. He seemed to think it was no big deal but to me, I simply couldn't believe he would give her a baba. In fact, she saw it and asked me for it just a few minutes later. When I said no she threw a tantrum and would have nothing to do with me for a while afterward. I promptly threw all the bottles in the garbage. She won't be getting one of those again.

Benjamin is liking the new school and it is a lot of fun to see him there. I try to keep my distance but I love it when I get to watch him on the playground. He comes to my classroom after school and helps me get ready to go home. I am really proud of him. He is just a good kid.

In other news, we changed around the kids sleeping situation. Benjamin now has his own bedroom upstairs and Emily has moved downstairs with Rachel. Everyone is struggling to adjust. Ben, who didn't worry at all about the dark downstairs, is suddenly afraid of it. Rachel also gets scared now that she is the biggest kid in the room. Emily simply can't get used to having someone in the room with her when she is going to bed. She just wants to play. Crazy days.

Last but not least, I had a mission reunion last weekend. It was really neat to see that once a close mission always a close mission. And, the old mission President was still amazing. Even Nate, who dreaded the whole event, was impressed. Juliet, one of my closest friends and old companions came to sleep over that night. We stayed up late talking. I enjoyed having her at my house so much. Thanks for coming Juliet. It was so much fun.

That's it for now. If you made it to the end of this novel then you must truly care about my life. Ciao!

Just for the "Twilight" Fans

Here is a little humor for you "Twilight" fans. I thought it was funny, but it's possible I am just really bored.

Don't Be Jealous

Ok now, don't get all jealous, but I am currently on vacation. No, I am not in Hawaii or California. I am at home while Nathan and the kids camp for 3 days. Yes, I have three whole days to myself. I started some teacher training this week so I was forced (I could just cry buckets of tears) to stay home while the rest of my clan went to Payson Lakes. Now, Payson Lakes would have been fun, but when you compare it to the option of being alone and not worrying about kids for three days. . . frankly, there is no comparison.
Maybe you are wondering what I will do with my free time. Well, I am cleaning up all of the annoying piles of junk around my house and filling Nathan's truck with stuff for DI all while I watch as many chick flicks as possible. I started with the BBC version of Sense and Sensibility last night. I know, it may seem like I could have thought of something better to do, but to be honest, I have been wishing someone would take away my kids for quite some time so that I could seriously spring clean. So, I am happy.
It would have been nice though, if some of you lovely ladies lived near by. We could have done a ladies night. Oh well. Maybe someday.

Logan, Still Part of Home

This week I packed up the kids for a day trip to Logan. We lived there for three years and had great friends that I really miss. Myself and these other two women, Korby and Medina, lived in the same condo area for a couple of years. We got together frequently to just hang out and talk about whatever came to mind. When we got together this week, even though its been a while since we've seen each other, it was like we had never parted. In fact, we had such a good time catching up that the afternoon passed away like a minute and suddenly four hours had gone by. We were all surprised. Thanks for the good time ladies. Let's do it again soon.