Huh?

Busy

Sometimes I just wonder when things will slow down. But I know the answer is never, or maybe in 17 years. The beginning of the school year seems to have brought nothing but chaos. Organized chaos. With soccer now 2 days a week. Ainsley's long school day, preschool, and a baby I feel like I'm always running and playing catch-up. While I'm liking our days being more scheduled than they were during the summer, I feel like I need a 3 day weekend every week to catch-up. We just seem to have more of a packed schedule than we've ever had. I guess it comes with older kids. Because it seems like just a couple years ago we were bored and home a lot more.


For example:
(FYI this will be way too detailed for about 98% of the readers of this blog...so feel free to skip :)


John was out of town for a week and now 4 days later it seems like I still haven't seen him. He got home Thursday night and the minute he got home we were out the door. Literally. We loaded the kids in the car and headed to the open house at Ainsley's school. I left from there to go to my concert. Got home after John had gone to bed. Then on Friday the minute John got home from work we were off to a friends birthday party, where we didn't seem to spend too much time together (I guess we're just both really good at mingling).


Saturday we woke up early and I headed to out primary program practice. Then he and I shuffled and traded kids to try to have them both at soccer and the program practice simultaneously. We cleaned up the party, had a couple hours at home and then headed to Emmie's best friends first birthday. Technically they aren't best friends yet, but they will be!


We got to bed early in order to get up and to work early on Sunday. Sunday, a day of rest? Ya, right! We don't have church until 1:00 and I don't think I sat down for more than 2 minutes from the time that I got up to the time we left for church. Because I woke up and put together 100 bags of popcorn for the kids...but they turned out cute didn't they?


I also made thank you's for our teachers, chorister, and pianist. 30 teachers Rx bottles. I think they turned out cute too. Not to toot my own horn or anything. But I'm totally tooting my own horn. Especially since I got the whole thing online.

And to top off the morning Ains lost another tooth. It was really sad because for some reason the Tooth Fairy didn't stop by last night. Ains and I are thinking it might be because I was up late and maybe the Tooth Fairy thought we weren't asleep so she didn't stop. I'm sure she'll do better tonight!

After a crazy day at church (the program and my sharing time went well) we headed over to my parents for my dad's birthday. 3 birthdays in one weekend!

And then we came home, put the kids to bed, and I started working on sharing time for next week. And today I've been either at Ainsley's school or watching kids since noon while trying simultaneously to start canning my salsa. I'm a wreck and babysitting until 6:00. But I'm managing to type this. So I guess technically I can handle more!

And there you have it.................more than you ever wanted to know about our weekend!

Night Out!

Last night I went to a concert. I went to see these guys ^. Although I didn't take a camera. And somehow no one I went with took a camera. I feel okay using this picture because the band used the exact same set-up last night. My friend, we'll call her Brooke, is a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan and so her husband decided to get her a ticket for the concert for her birthday and then invited me and my friend Lisa to join her so that she wouldn't have to go alone. Because that would be lame.

So, the three of us went. Approximately 1/3 of us were big Pumpkin fans. Sure I knew their big hits from highschool...but that was about it. And after last night, I think I know why they peaked when I was in highschool! But the night was still a blast!



Here are the memorable moments from the night:



1. Billy Corgan playing the guitar with his teeth. (BTW, I just learned his name last night.)



2. The bass players sparkly leggings (kind of made me want a pair)



3. The 4 year old that was there....what the what?!



4. The drunk mustache guy that tried to strike up a conversation with me.
His mustache looked kind of like this guys....except his was a little less bushy around the mouth and a little pointier on the ends.
(When he first spoke I couldn't understand him because of the noise and I was transfixed by his scraggly teeth. So I said, "What?" and then he spoke again. But I still couldn't get over his teeth. So even though I didn't hear him that time I smiled and nodded. But I guess he really wanted to get his message across to me, so later when things quieted down (a bit) he tried again, explaining to me the scene in Fight club where the people are transfixed like cattle and he then related this to the people on the floor during the previous song. It was very intriguing. I wonder if he always has such thoughts or if it requires the 8 beers he had had that night?)


5. Hanging out and becoming personal friends with the opening bands lead singer and his family.


(When we got to the Knitting Factory the opening band was playing. They were terrible. Like crazy heavy metal, John might have loved it. The performance had several lows, using the mic stand as an electric guitar, swearing and using the F word like it was going out of style, the bleached white wavy hair of the lead singer, etc. But I think the true low came when the lead singer announced to the crowd that it was so hot he had to take off his shirt! Oh, yes he did! When they finally left the stage the crowd did a sigh of relief. Seriously, I heard people sigh. Then 5 minutes later who should show up where we were standing....the lead singer! He was there with his dad, girlfriend, and step mom. I hope his family didn't hear us complaining and making fun of their son. Chances of that are pretty good since you had to yell directly in someones ear for them to hear you. Brooke went out of her way to befriend them to try to take over their seats. We learned all sorts of interesting info about this band from Chicago. And then they left. But for some reason I couldn't help but stare for the entire hour or 2 that they were with us.)


7. Almost missing the concert due to lost tickets.


8. Hair extensions worn by Brooke. (This is why I'm really kicking myself for not having a camera)


9. Being grateful we ditched the floor crowd to hang out with the calmer balcony crowd when the beer went flying.


10. Hanging out with good friends. It was definitely a memorable night!

Gross

I have had to deal with a few gross things this week.

(Please do not continue to read if you don't want to hear about it.........John)

baby poop

goose poop

kid poop

dog poop

and today paper in Emmies poopy diaper. The only reason I noticed it was that there was a word written on it. it said "open". it was weird.

a centipede (technically I yelled at John and made him deal with this one)

spiders

baby puke (which is not at gross as normal puke, but still gross)

bugs in my oatmeal (good thing I noticed them at the end of the container so we were able to get some extra protein)

My life is so glamorous!!!!

Soccer

We signed the kids up for soccer this year. Ains has had a couple of practices thus far. But Saturday was Owen's first day and Ainsley's first game.

Owen didn't make the age cut off for regular soccer so we signed him up for a program that is basically soccer drills directed by a coach and you play with your parent. Each kid gets a shirt and a ball. Owen thought it was great.

Until it ended and he had to watch Ainsley's game. My favorite part of Owen's "soccer" was about half way through when a dad marched off the field with his daughter that did not want to be there and said, "We have to be here because your mom says we have to be here!" I'm not sure where they went, but they never came back.

Ains did great at her game. I must say that I was very impressed with her. Unfortunately she inherited her parents coordination. At her practices she has been a great little cheerleader. So much so that I thought I had signed her up for the wrong sport. We had to have a talk after her first practice about not trying to coach your team while your coach is coaching your team. And about not cheering while your coach is talking.

Here is Ains demonstrating her signature thumbs up pose. A classic. Ains did surprisingly well. She made a goal right off the bat and got in there and played hard. She played 3 quarters and ran the whole time. We could tell she was tired and had a side ache but she kept playing. She volunteered to be the person that watched the goal (there is no goalie) and I think that threw her off a little. She kept feeling like she had to be in the back of the field. So even if she had the ball she would only run to a certain point on the field.

I was very proud of her! Such a little go getter during her first soccer game ever!

Walker...

As of today I officially consider Emmie a walker. Up until now she would only take a couple of steps at a time and then fall. It's like she was trying to run. And unfortunately her legs just wouldn't move that fast. But today she really got her balance.

And what's really cool is that yesterday at church she figured how to stand up without holding on to anything. It was pretty cool. The guy behind me at church was watching her try to figure it out and when she finally stood up in the middle of the isle I think he might have been more excited than I was! And she figured out how to turn while walking today too. I'm pretty sure she's some sort of physical genius.

(Also, I'm pretty sure John is cursing my name right now for the blurriness of the pictures. But you don't know what I had to go through to get them!)

Having a first grader is stressing me out! (And causing me to have lengthy rants!)

I have had a hard time watching Ains this past week. She has become slowly deflated in her enthusiasm as she climbs in the car after school day after day. Last week she was bursting with energy, but every day she comes home a little saggier. If that makes any sense. I know she's adjusting to a full day of school. She is legitimately tired at the end of the day. She comes home and wants to eat and watch TV. Which I let her do, because I can tell she's exhausted.

I try not to pry too much or transpose my nervousness on to her, but I'm nervous for her! It's just my own insecurities and memories of elementary school that are resurfacing. I know this because she seems completely okay with every thing I fret about.

Everyday when she gets in the car we start talking about her day. We talk about class, friends, lunch, etc. She never plays with kids from her class at recess, just friends from last year. At lunch she rarely sits by kids from her class. She has to wait for her friends classes to show up. And it broke my heart when she told me she ate lunch all by herself because the table she wanted to sit at was already full by the time she got there. And then she couldn't open some of her lunch containers and so she threw away most of her lunch even though she was still hungry.

And I know this makes me sound like the most awful mother on the planet, but I'm going to say it anyways. Ains is a girl who looks out for others. She finds the lost soul and befriends them. So her friends are often a little odd. And then some kids don't want to play with Ains because of who she plays with. I love this quality about my daughter, but I don't want her to struggle making new friends either. So there you have it, I worry that Ains might one day get picked on because of some of her friends. I probably worry too much.

But, I am also seeing that Ainsley will be good at choosing good friends. I quit hearing about the girl she met on the first day of school, Hannah. I was encouraging Ains to continue playing with her because I wanted Ains to have some friends in her classroom. But after some discussion I found out that Ains wasn't playing with her anymore because Hannah only liked to have one friend at a time and wouldn't let other kids play with them. And she didn't play, she just walked around. I was so proud of Ainsley for recognizing that this wasn't the type of person that made a good friend.

I'm also having a hard time with Ainsley's teacher this year. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude, despite what I've been told about her. But I was completely annoyed on Friday when i got her first teacher correspondence. Her teacher wrote, "Good week. Ainsley and Cassidy struggle to get along. We are working on not tattling." Normally I wouldn't have been so annoyed because Ainsley can be a huge tattle. But I know Cassidy from her class last year. And she is obnoxious!!!! I asked Ains what she had been tattling about and it was things like, Cassidy rubbing glue all over Ainsley's arm and refusing to stop, Cassidy taking away Ainsley's chair, Cassidy taking all the pencils on the table so no one had one and refusing to give them back. I'm just wondering at what point the teacher considers it appropriate for someone to tattle. Because I don't think I would expect a first grader to handle those situation with anything other than asking the offender to please stop. Which Ainsley did. And I'm also guessing that if Ains did more than that she would get in trouble. John made me not write back a snotty retort to the teacher, so Ains doesn't start the year with a target on her back. But you can bet that I'll be in the classroom watching her teacher like a hawk this year.

Having a first grader is throwing me back into elementary school and it's making me uncomfortable. I just want Ains to have a positive experience. I should count my blessings that I don't have to worry at all about her academics. She has already been told by her teacher that she will get to go to a special reading group. She is the only one from her class that gets to go. Way to go Ains!

Even though I'm a nervous wreck Ains seems completely fine and happy (albeit tired). Which I guess means I'm doing a good job of hiding my feeling and just being positive and excited for her. Now if I could just get myself to worry less about her social life I might be a little happier.

The Budding Photographer

John has had several photo shoots the last little while. And not to brag or anything, but I think the shots he got were really good!

He took pictures of the kids to match the family picture we took a while ago.

(These pictures are strait out of the camera. So with a few edits they'll look even better! )

(It's killing me that I didn't notice her skewompus strap until after we were home...arghh!)

He also took some baby pictures for my sisters neighbor. He was a cute baby and John got some great shots. These have been edited. And I think they turned out really well. Hopefully the family of the baby does too!

Last night we went to the park again and John took some pictures of Kortney's family.

And in less than 300 shots I think there were a few keepers.

(These need a few edits too, but they look pretty good as is.)

John is the photographer and I am the assistant. I try to position people and take care of the minor adjustments, like hand positions or a weird hair.

For amateurs we do okay, and hopefully with some more practice we'll get even better.

So who else wants their picture taken????

Another Preschooler!

I sent Owen off to preschool for the first time yesterday. It was a different experience than sending Ains off. Owen is a little more shy and cautious, but he was still soooo excited for preschool. Especially since he got to wear his super hero shirt. He is also so independent that I wasn't even allowed to walk him in and take a picture of him in his classroom on his first day. He informed me that he could do it himself. Although it made me smile as he was walking down the driveway into Mrs. B's house and he turned to ask if he had to knock or just walk in. He was a little hesitant, still wouldn't let me come with him, and then turned back and continued walking.

He had a great first day and I'm really excited for him to be in this school. He will go 2 days a week for 2 and 1/2 hours to a woman in our stake. She is only teaching preschool this year because her youngest is a preschooler this year. I think she'll be a great teacher. And she lives on a mini farm in the middle of the city. She has horses, chickens, and bunnies.

Owen was so excited that on his first day of school he got to feed a horse, get an egg from the chicken coop, and play on the monkey bars. He loved it!

My only concern was when I asked him if he made any friends or played with anyone he said he didn't because he didn't know who to play with. It made me nervous for him. But he will be in a playgroup with 3 other boys in his preschool so hopefully he will make friends he feels comfortable with soon.