Thanksgiving Eve

The kids were out of school early this year for Thanksgiving so we got to spend a fun pre-Thanksgiving day together. The weather is beautiful today. I asked the kids if they wanted to rake leaves. Sydney was all over it. She worked with the rake while the boys piled the leaves into the bags. Why is it that raking leaves is never a chore for kids but it is for adults? Meanwhile Allie and I got busy making sides to take to Thanksgiving dinner. We made our traditional Potatoes Divine and cottage cheese jello salad. I'm going to try a new wild rice salad too.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Classes

So I did it. I finished Biology. When I first got the text book all I could do was laugh when I read it because none of it made any sense to me. I did not enjoy a single chapter. It was 2 months of suffering really. I did however get to ask Trey questions a few times, which was fun. He is currently taking AP Biology, which by the way appears to be way harder than BYU's online course. During the first few chapters about cell structure I thought I was going to explode. I just couldn't wrap my brain around much of it. So Trey sat down with me once or twice and was my teacher. He was just as good as any college professor. I found myself saying "oh, ok, now I get it!" After he finished tutoring me one night I thanked him and he said "Sure mom, it's nice that I can finally do something for you for a change." Now that's pretty cool. And, I don't know how in the world this happened but I actually got an A- in the class!!

Now my life is wonderful because I am taking a class called Food Preparation! The text book (Betty Crocker's 10th edition cookbook!) has chapters called "quick breads" and "stews, sauces, and chili" instead of "photosynthesis" and "eurokaryotic cell structure". And I'm actually learning things that I either never knew or have just forgotten. Like what the difference is between baking soda and powder. My big accomplishment so far is that I successfully, for the first time ever, made yeast bread! Seriously, this was my first time. This past year I used yeast for the first time when I made cinnamon rolls with Allie for conference weekend. But I had never made bread. I have always just been intimidated. But now I see that there was no reason to be intimidated at all! It was easy. And my honey-whole wheat bread turned out beautifully delicious. Or at least my family said so. I was like a proud mom showing off my twin loaves when they came out of the oven.

Water: So good and yet so bad

Water, why do you hate us so? About 2 weeks ago I noticed that a piece of our baseboard in the laundry room was starting to pull off the wall. Hmmm...maybe just settling with the weather change. Then about a week ago I happen to be notice the girls' toilet had a little ring of water around the metal thing connecting to the floor. I mentioned both to David and we both got busy and just kind of watched for anything more to happen. THEN, yesterday I noticed the beadboard in the laundry room had a big buckle in it and it clicked......the leaky toilet upstairs is right above spot in laundry room when baseboard and beadboard are reacting!! AHHHHH!!! Thankfully, Scott, our handy friend who did our re-build came right over and removed the affected wood and fixed the leaky toilet. The all familiar hum of a fan is running and things are drying out nicely. It shouldn't be too painful to just replace that one area of wood and be good as new.

Phone calls from school

This post is the first of mine with no picture. It's not a cute story either. I just want to record it so I'll remember to tell my kids about it when they are older.

The kids have been in school about 2 1/2 months. To date here is a pretty accurate list of calls I've gotten during a school day:

1 call from FIS nurse telling me Tanner is in the clinic with a headache
3 calls from FIS nurse telling me Sydney hit her head on the bars at recess
2 calls from FHS nurse telling me Allie is in the clinic injured with ice packs and 1 call from FHS nurse telling me Allie is in clinic complaining about coughing
At least 10 texts from Allie telling me she doesn't feel well in some way

1 call from Tanner saying he forgot his lunch
2 call from Sydney saying she forgot her lunch
4 texts from Allie saying she forgot her lunch
5-6 texts from Allie asking me if would take her out to lunch

1 call from Sydney making sure I knew the time of her fall party
5 texts from Allie telling me she forgot some misc. item, like clothes to change into after gym
There are also many random texts from Allie during the day telling me about something she has to bring to class the next day, asking me if she can go shopping for shoes that weekend, telling me she's cold, asking me what we have going on that night, etc. Oh and of course there was the phone call telling me she made the basketball team!

So pretty much when the phone rings during a school day I expect it to be from one of my kid's schools. Notice that I've not had any calls having to do with Connor or Trey. Trey has texted me before to let me know about a good test score before. Good thing I'm a stay at home mom!

Happy Halloween

No surprise on what the boys wanted to be for Halloween. Sydney however surprised me when she asked if she could be Dorthy. When I remembered that the Cruzes had been the Wizard of Oz last year I quickly told her I thought that it was a great idea! Other than the rain, it was a fun night. Least amount of time and money put into costumes to date!!

Allie is amazing

A few months ago Allie was very let down and discouraged when she did not make the high school soccer team. She worked hard all summer but it was not meant to be. We were all worried at how she would handle the disappointment. As a parent you want to take away all of your children's hurt, frustrations, and disappointments. You go through every ounce of pain with them and only pray that you are making a difference in their suffering. You wish you could take it away. But you know that they will grow in times of trial. Allie surprised me with her resilience after not making the soccer team. Her immediate reaction was to get some girls together and form an AYSO soccer team. Which she did. She also pretty quickly announced that she wanted to try out for the FHS basketball team. On the outside I encouraged her and said "that's the spirit, Allie". But on the inside, I didn't want her to tryout for another sport. I didn't want her to go through all the hard work and then not make it...again. I didn't think I could go through it with her again. So she started attending some of the pre-season strength and conditioning a few months ago with the basketball team. Monday and Tuesday night were tryouts. And she found out today that she made it! She made the JV basketball team. Allie is courageous. She was not about to let the fear of failure stand in her way of trying again. While she had our support, this was something she did on her own. She put herself out there again, opening herself up to possible defeat. I am so proud of Allie. I wish I had her courage. She is amazing.

Stylish Sydney

Sydney is a teenager. It's almost official. Between the phone talking and the fashion opinions she's pretty much there. A few weeks ago I was having her try on all of her last year's winter clothes to see what we needed to buy for this year. As she tried on all the clothes she enlightened my on her new style. First and foremost she let me know that she did not like Gymboree anymore. That store is for little kids. As I picked up one shirt after another from that very store trying to talk her into believing that they were not too little-kiddish she says: "mom, you've just got to let me grow up." What?! You are 9! Ok, deep breath... She continues on to tell me that she really wants to go shopping with me and show me the kind of clothes she likes. "you know mom, like the t-shirts with writing on them that Allie wears?" Uh Sydney, I hate to break it to you but American Eagle and Aeropostle don't carry size 8 girls in their stores! Boot cut jeans are not on her "in" list right now, only skinny jeans go on her body. She is very into the whole look: shoes, accessories. It bugs her to no end that you have to wear tennis shoes to school for safety reasons. Oh boy.