DARE Graduation

Thursday, September 1

Our school does a DARE program for the 5th grade classes to teach them about drugs and how to avoid them. At the end of the 2 week program they hold a graduation where the kids listen to a couple of speakers and then receive a graduation certificate and a t-shirt. The t-shirts were really cool this year and they even glow in the dark. Parents and family members are invited to come to the graduation. Here is a picture where you can see most of the back of the shirts and then a picture of Luke with the DARE car that the police department takes around to the schools.

This never happens!!

So I had to take a couple of pictures to document it:


I took these pictures on Wednesday, August 31st. I was feeding the little girls lunch while I was busy doing some other things when I realized that MJ was quieter than usual so I looked over and found her falling asleep in her high chair! (And in case you're wondering, she is sitting on a seat cushion. I have recently made a new cushion for the chair because the old plastic one was falling apart and getting gross and I still need to attach some elastic to the top of it so I can keep it in place. Now without any way to hook it, the back keeps falling down when we put MJ in the seat. One more item on my to-do list!)

Whoops!

This morning M&M was able to ride the bus for the first time in the morning. With the bus and carpooling she had to leave at about the same time everyday - around 7:20 a.m. This morning I was lying in bed kind of half awake and I heard the front door open and close around that time so I assumed it was M&M leaving for the bus stop. Then I heard Luke and Kitty downstairs eating breakfast and I went to get Blondie up to make sure she was feeling fine and able to go to school. So I was in my bedroom with MJ a few minutes later when M&M comes into my room in her pajamas and hysterical because she had just gotten up! (She claimed that her alarm didn't go off, but there have been many times when I have been downstairs and heard her alarm going off for a long time before I finally called down to her to get up and turn her alarm off!) It was around 7:45 and school starts at 7:50. I told her to stop being hysterical and to quickly get herself ready for school and I would drive her as soon as she was ready.

M&M was quite upset on the drive to school because she was late to 1st period and she wasn't sure what to do. I told her to go to the attendance office first and tell them that she slept in and missed the bus and see if there was any kind of checking in that she needed to do before she headed off to class. Hopefully M&M was able to calm down and get control of herself quickly. I keep trying to teach my kids that crying will not help you solve any of your problems. Once something has happened that you can't change, you just need to pull yourself together and carry on as best you can from that point forward. It's okay to cry every now and then, but once you're finished crying, those problems will still be there - they won't just disappear.

Hopefully in a few days M&M will be able to talk about this day and laugh about it! Our mistakes can help us if we choose to learn from them and not repeat them!

Busing woes come to an end

M&M got a bus pass today from school! She was able to ride the bus home today and will be able to ride from here on out. No more having to drive her to school and carpool! (Apparently the kids' 7th period teachers were supposed to give them out yesterday, but M&M's teacher didn't so I had to drive her this morning for the last time. We didn't know that the bus passes were given out yesterday so I drove by to pick up the kids for the carpool and none of them were there - because they were all riding the bus this morning...). It was amazing how much less traffic there was this morning with so many more kids riding the bus. It's too bad they didn't do this 3 weeks sooner.

Weekend sports addition

I just need to add that even though M&M's soccer team lost their game on Saturday, M&M scored a goal in the very last few seconds of the game. Her team was bringing the ball down the field and her teammate crossed the ball from the right side of the field into the middle in front of the goal. It passed by a few people and then M&M ran up to the ball just in time to kick it with her left foot right past the goalie and into the goal. It was a nice way to end the game!

There's nothing like...

... having a sick kid to force you to change your plans for the day...

At about 2:00 this morning I work up to the sound of someone crying/screaming hysterically. As soon as it registered in my brain that it was one of the kids making that noise I stumbled out of bed and opened the door to the hallway just in time to see Blondie there throwing up all over the carpet! I told her to get into the bathroom (which she was standing right next to) and throw up in the toilet. So she went into the bathroom and proceeded to throw up some more in the toilet. In the meantime all of the commotion woke up MJ, so I went to get her and then I tried to head downstairs to get a bowl for Blondie and encountered some more throw-up on the stairs. I asked her if she threw up on the stairs too and she said, "No, I don't think so." So I'm not sure how awake Blondie was while all of this was happening, but there was a mess everywhere and all MJ wanted was for me to feed her and then go back to bed. So I handed Blondie the bowl and asked her how she was feeling. She responded that she felt better so I sent her back to bed. After I got MJ back to bed I was finally able to start cleaning up the carpet and thought I did a pretty decent job before I headed back to bed myself.Then when I saw the carpet in the morning, it didn't look like I had cleaned anything up! I kept Blondie home from school as a precaution - even though she looks and acts fine and has been able to eat breakfast and lunch today without any problems. I was hoping to get to the grocery store today, but that will have to wait. I have had to spend the whole morning cleaning the carpet in the hallway and on the stairs (all 7 of them were hit). I also found that it was all on the wall too so I had Blondie grab a sponge and clean that up for me. Right now I have fans trying to dry the carpet before the rest of the kids get home, but it still doesn't look quite right in a couple of places so I might have to have at it again...

Now I'm just hoping that it doesn't spread to anyone else in the family...

Bust of a weekend...

...for sports in our household!!

All three kids lost their soccer games, BYU got creamed by Utah, and both of our fantasy football teams lost! Oh well, there's always next week...

M&M's first day of 8th grade

Monday, August 29th, 2011

M&M had a whole month after the other kids had started school before she had to head back. It was nice having her around to help out with the two little girls at home. The day that the class schedules were available online, M&M and her friends were calling each other to find out what classes they have together. Luckily M&M has quite a few classes with several of her friends so she was excited to find that out. We went to school a couple of days ahead of time so that she could find her classes and find and try out her locker. This year she is taking Spanish 1, Keyboarding, Honors U.S. History, Honors Language Arts, Honors Earth Science, Honors Algebra and Advanced Band. Keyboarding is the only 1/2 year class and she will have Gym the second 1/2 of the year. I think this year will definitely be a test on how well she is able to manage her time! We'll also have to see if she can maintain her 4.0 GPA from last year.

The one unfortunate thing about this year so far is that as of right now M&M is not able to ride the bus to and from school. We are technically about 3 houses from the cutoff for busing. Last year they gave out bus passes to those within the busing area and then they gave out bus passes to those that live closest to the cutoff until the bus was full. They decided this year that they would make the students who want bus passes to fill out an application for one because there were many last year that were given out to students that never used them. They also decided that they would give students the first 3 weeks of school to apply for a bus pass and then they will go through the applications and give out bus passes to those that applied, starting with those that live the farthest from the school. We are pretty confident that M&M will be given a bus pass since we are so close to the cutoff and one of the moms of a student that rides the bus said that there are about 15 kids riding the bus so far. Luckily we were able to work out a carpool with some neighbors that only has us driving the kids to school 2 times a week and never having to pickup! And so far DH has been able to drop the kids off on his way to work so it has been very nice for us! Hopefully we will find out in the next week if M&M will be able to ride the bus or not for the rest of the school year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

One last summer swim

Saturday, August 20, 2011

We were able to get in one more family swim this summer before M&M started school and soccer games started. And this time DH was able to come with us! The weather was a little overcast when we got to the pool and around the time we left to head to my parents' house for dinner it started raining with some thunder and lightning. I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures because MJ fell asleep while we were there so I was sitting out away from the pool with her asleep in my arms.

Quite the feat!

A week or so ago I was in the living room when I heard MJ coming up the stairs rather slowly and she was kind of whining. I went to the top to see what was going on and there she was trying to carry a soccer ball up the stairs! I really wanted to take a picture of it but she actually made it all the way up with the soccer ball before I had the camera out and ready to go! I was pretty impressed!