Thursday, October 29, 2009

"I Don't Have a Rememberer!"

I had what I call a "mommy moment" a few days ago. I was sitting at the dinning room table listening to Rachel read; the bright sunlight was filtering through the sliding glass door blinds just lighting up Rachel's beautiful face and I just felt so grateful to be able to be the one to teach her to read and be able to look at her beautiful face so close and to have the luxury to spend so much time with her.


Then she started whining because she couldn't figure out a word and popped my little bubble of mommy joy but it was wonderful while it lasted!
We have been doing a reading program called "Five in a Row". You read a book together five times and talk about different aspects of the book. The latest book we have been reading has the main character coming from Poland and one of the things FIAR does to teach geography is to review where the characters live. On our fifth day of reading the book and the fifth time I had asked Rachel on what continent Poland was on she still could not remember it was on the European continent. When I said, "Rachel, you need to try to remember the things we talk about in our books." She said back in an exasperated voice, "Mom, I don't have a rememberer!"

Saturday, October 17, 2009

October Saturday Morning

David picking a few strawberries this morning for a breakfast snack.
Rachel helped me clean the pool this morning. There were a few rocks in the pool that she jumped in and helped me get out. (Her reward was a few pieces of gum). Once she was in and used to the water she had fun swimming around and jumping off the diving platform... She kept saying, "I forgot how fun it was to swim!" (It's been a whole two weeks since she last swam!)


Jared went to work with Sheldon today. Sheldon told him to go put on one of his Farmers shirts... It was at least two sizes too big but Jared didn't seem to care, except for the shirt collar he actually liked it. Sheldon and I were talking on the phone today and I asked him, "How many 13 year old boys do you know that want to emulate what their Dad's do and even want to wear what their Dad's are wearing?" We agreed we needed to appreciate and enjoy this about Jared and pray it would last! Sometimes my darling son drives me crazy but when I count my blessings he is definitely up at the top of my list!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Friday, October 9, 2009

The Taekwondo Kid

Jared had belt testing tonight for Taekwondo. It's taken him two years to get this far...only one more year until black if he stays on track! Good Job my Taekwondo Boy!!!

All the boards broken at testing and belts earned!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Favorites of Brandon's Mission

Brandon served a mission in Venezuela from Aug 2003 to Aug 2005; here are some of my favorite pictures he sent home.








Monday, October 5, 2009


It felt good to get outside today in the cool fall air. David started not feeling very well last Wednesday, complaining of a headache, his eyes hurting and telling me, "If I don't drink some water, I'm going to die!" By that night I tried to give him some baby Motrin for his headache, it wasn't in his tummy for five minutes when everything from lunch and dinner came back up...yuk, eww, yuk! I hadn't felt that great all day either, not turning on the air conditioner- the thermometer reading 82 in the house, yet I was cold, that's just not normal for me. I usually put the thermostat at 78 and I'm still hot and everyone else is just right or cold. I thought I was going to "lose it" myself trying to clean up. Luckily Julia took pity on me and helped me clean up the mess on the carpet. Thursday morning Rachel woke up and was deathly pale and complaining of a headache and her tummy hurting. I canceled piano/singing lessons for the girls and tried to prepare myself for a week of stomache flu. David only got sick that once and Rachel never did throw up. So far so good, no one else in the house seems to be getting sick...


Jared earned some video game time by taking out a bush for me in the front yard. It took him about an hour to do it but he really felt like he accomplished something by the time he was done.

Julia had fun riding her bike around the block. (I'm trying to not be so paranoid about letting her out of my sight).


Little Miss Rachel has to do whatever her big sister is doing...It drove her nuts Julia got to ride around the block when she had to stay on the side walk in front of our house, just up and down our street. We cut her hair shorter; those pigtail braids are just too cute.


David also had fun riding his little Diego Scooter up and down the street...this was the best picture I could get of him, he wouldn't ever stop moving!