Autumn Catch-Up, Part 2

Every October our licensing agency throws a party for their families. They don't call it a Halloween party because some foster families don't celebrate holidays. Instead they call it a Fall Party and encourage kids to dress up if they want. The highlight of this party for me is the quilts! A local quilting group donates small quilts to be given to foster families to use with their kids. This year they gave our big family two quilts. The one pictured in the background below and another one that is shades of green. 

Miss Nita, the princess vampire 

Prof. X as a red ninja, Joe as a Cub Scout (he had a scout meeting right after the party)

Anne as a devil, Miss S trying to get out of the shot, Rose as little red riding hood

Miss S  as a party girl, Cakes as a white ninja

I just have to record two little notes about Miss S. 


1) She completely dislikes having her picture taken. As soon as she sees a camera pointed in her direction, she will turn her head or walk away. I have lots of pictures of the back of her head and her rump as a result. This picture is another example. As her foster Mom, I am required to keep a memory book together for her. Do you think if I filled it with all the shots I have of her backside she might finally give in and let me take a shot of her face???


2) Her costume is a dress she wore to her friend's quinceanera. I insisted she have sleeves on the dress. It is a standard in our home (and in the LDS church) that sleeves be worn. It didn't even occur to me to talk about the skirt length. Haha! She had told me that she only liked to wear long dresses, so I thought we were alright with that dress standard and didn't give her the lecture on modest dress length.  Turns out we have different ideas about what constitutes a "long" dress.

Jim loved this game which involves throwing balls to knock things down. He played

for about fifteen minutes straight...until some other kids showed up and wanted a turn.

The little boy pitched a fit! He did not want to give up his turn. 

Cakes manning the water spout. I have no idea what the purpose of this water spout 

(which only sprays downward) is or who thought it was a good idea to put it in the middle 

of a sandy playground, but Cakes (and every other child who comes across it) use it 

in a kind of King-of-the-Mountain way, spraying anyone who dares come close!

Hubby watching Jim knock things down.

In the midst of the October fun, my dear friend moved away. Something about wanting to live in a place that had "four seasons". Pssh! Who needs four seasons? They obviously don't realize that four seasons means snow, sleet, ice, and hail. Yuck. The dear woman was actually looking forward to all that cold. Poor woman, she has obviously lost her mind. ;)

Joe and Cakes adored her children. And my friend was Cakes preschool teacher last year. Cakes loves her! He will do anything she says. Because of her, Cakes began saying "Excuse Me" after his huge, on-purpose burps. 

The night before they moved, we went over to say goodbye and take a few pictures. 

Joe saying goodbye to his buddy.

Cakes playing with the E girls one more time.

The very next day, Joe was baptized!!!  But I think that warrants its very own post. :)

Autumn Catch-Up, Part 1

Autumn is drawing to a close and I am feeling motivated to catch-up this blog.  So be prepared for picture overload in:

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Blast Off!!!

 Prof. X guarding the tubes

Hubby has wanted to do a "float down" on the Colorado River since we moved to town in 2008. We go to the river frequently to play and swim, but never just float down. It took a bit of work for Hubby to convince me that all ten members of our family should participate. 

A gal from Hubby's office loaned us a bunch of tubes. We went the last Friday of September, leaving as soon as Hubby got home from work. 

Joe, Miss Nita, Prof. X, Anne (love that pose!) & Cakes 

Long story short: It is a dumb idea to start a float down at 6:30 pm with kids who are afraid of the dark. Factor in that water gets colder as it gets darker and that river-bank-trees look super-spooky in the moonlight and yeah...it was not the best idea. :(  

But look how happy we were to start. Haha!

 Missionaries scarfing lunch

We signed up to feed the missionaries on the Saturday of General Conference. They asked if they could come for lunch instead. We said sure. We decided to make fancy sandwiches. Saturday morning the missionaries called, asking if they could bring another pair with them. We said sure. They called back a few minutes later, could they bring another pair? Sure! we said. We ended up with eight missionaries for lunch. It was hilarious! I jokingly told them they were lucky we are used to feeding so many people. The Sisters gave us this note of apology.  Hilarious!!!

Autumn brought new bikes for a few family members. Since I broke my tailbone twice in the last few years, I had decided not to ride a bike again. I gave my fantastic bike to Rose as soon as she was tall enough to ride it. She was thrilled to get that bike. She has been eyeing it since she was six! I have been happily walking since. 


Hubby decided a year ago that I needed to get over it and start riding again. I told him the desire to not ride a bike ever again was not out of fear. This was not a "fall off the horse and get right back on" situation. It was a physical thing. My tailbone did not like me riding a bike. 


Well, we celebrated out 14th anniversary this year and Hubby bought me a bike. He justified it by the fact that I was finally able to sit through our whole church meeting without my tailbone dying. He said that proved my rump was healed. :P~~ to him!  Haha! It is a very pretty bike though and it begged me to ride it and you can't tell a bike that is begging you to ride it that you will not, in fact, be riding it because that will make your pretty new bike cry. True story. The bike cried until I rode it. And it turns out Hubby was right. My tailbone is doing better. Of course, the padded seat helped quite a bit.


Hubby took us to the park for a family bike ride at the conclusion of General Conference. 

Miss S, Miss Nita, and Me! 

Anne has grown several inches over the last year and a half. Her old bike was a few sizes to small for her. She was thrilled to pick out her a new bike. She chose a beach cruiser. FUN!

Anne cruising around on her new bike

Joe's bike was too small too! It is crazy how much my kids have been growing lately. They have all experienced amazing growth spurts this year.

Joe posing on his new bike 

After riding bikes, we played! 

Jim enjoying the swings. He insisted on sitting in this giant swing. He was quite offended when Hubby placed him in a baby swing. Goofy kid. :) 

Cakes and Joe posing on top of a giant rock 

Jim trying to fly a plane 

Prof. X, Miss Nita, & Anne trying to see who barfs first 

Our ward had a kickball-picnic party in early October. One of the ward buildings in town has a softball field, so we headed down there for an evening of fun. There were several families who came to participate. 

Anne climbing an outfield tree 

Running for the ball 

The very next day, Joe turned EIGHT!!! How exciting! Since we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this meant two things for the dear boy...Baptism & Cub Scouts.  Hooray!

Joe-It's Great to be Eight! 

Close up of my darling boy 

On your birthday you get to pick your favorite foods for breakfast, dinner, and dessert. These were Joe's requests:


Breakfast = French toast, sausage, milk
Dinner = Green chili chicken enchiladas, salad, refried beans
Dessert = Cheesecake and sherbert


The dessert choice was hilarious. Joe is expanding his horizons and trying new things. Instead of choosing his favorite dessert, he chose cheesecake and sherbert because he had never had them before! He told me he wanted to start out this year trying new things. That's fine by me. I l-o-v-e cheesecake!

Joe's birthday dessert 

The following Wednesday, Joe started Cub Scouts. Now, anyone who knows me well knows that I adore the Cub Scout program. It is one of my favorite places to serve, if not THE favorite.  I am so excited that my little guy gets to participate in this great program. 


I couldn't decide which picture of my boy in his uniform I liked better, so I put them both in. Mother's prerogative. ;)

Joe in his spiffy uniform   

This picture makes me happy and sad at the same time!

Happy because look how adorable my boy is.

Sad because look how big he has gotten! My little boy is growing up so fast!!!

And as you may have noticed, Joe got braces. Anne got some too. That's right people...I have two kids in braces at the same time. 

Joe started out with spacers to make room for an RPI. Rose had one when she was about his age, but that orthodontist called it "an appliance".

Joe's Spacey Smile

An inside peak at his spacers

The orthodontist only kept the RPI in for a few weeks. Then he put braces on my boy. He is using the Damon System which uses wires and braces to stretch and reform the mouth in a more natural way. I watched a video on the process. It is quite amazing! I'm sure glad that my kids won't have to go through an orthodontic ordeal like their Dad did. For a look at Joe in his braces, see the above Cub Scout pictures.

The orthodontist started Anne out with braces. He's using the Damon System with her too. Poor Anne's teeth are trying to grow in sideways (facing her tongue) instead of straight down. The orthodontist started with braces on the upper teeth only. He is going to add lower braces in a couple of weeks.

Head shot of Anne's braces

 Close-up of Anne's braces

See how her teeth are turning in? Our lovely orthodontist is going to fix that.

Look for Autumn Catch-Up, Part 2 in the near future. :)

Finding the Good in All Things...

One of my favorite books is "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom. It is an excellent story. I especially appreciate the message to be grateful for all the things that come into your life, no matter how horrible they may seem.

I have been a foster parent for several years now. I have had wonderful experiences and terrible experiences. But today, I experienced a first.

Today we discovered that Miss Nita had lice.

Now, with Corrie ten Boom's story in mind, I am trying really hard to find something to be grateful in regards to the lice. This is what I've got so far:

I am grateful that only Miss Nita had lice. I checked and double-checked every person's head in my household. Then I triple-checked using a magnifying glass that came in the little Get-Rid-of-Lice Kit I had just purchased.  The rest of us are lice and lice-egg free.

I am grateful that Wal-greens is so close to my house. And I am extremely grateful that they had seven boxes of the all-in-one kits in stock.

I am grateful that five of the ten people in my house are males with short, short hair. They will be so much easier to de-lice!

I am grateful that only three of the five females in this house have excessively long hair. I am grateful that I am one of those three, so Hubby is stuck doing my hair, which means I only have to de-lice four gals!

I am grateful that the de-licing of nine out of ten family members is purely precautionary and not because they have lice. The pharmacist and my mother concur that if one person in the house has lice, everyone has to get the treatment...just in case. That is fine by me. I am always happier being extra precautionary.

I am grateful that my family jumped into action to help sanitize the bedding, stuffed animals, towels, and so forth.

I am grateful that my new washer and dryer have built in Sanitize functions that will blast any hiding bugs to smithereens.

I am grateful my friend who watched Miss Nita, Cakes, and Baby Jim this morning so I could get some teacher observation hours in didn't yell at me or call me any bad names when I called to tell her that Miss Nita had lice. 

I am grateful that Hubby only freaked out for five minutes.

I have been wanting some time to just focus on cleaning my house. But other things always get in the way. Kids need to be taken places, homework assignments have to be completed, Baby Jim was sick for a few days and just wanted to be held, and so forth. My house has not had a truly deep and thorough cleaning in quite a while. I am grateful that cleaning the house now gets to be a first priority and my kids support that.

I am grateful that Miss Nita won't have to go to preschool for a few days. I'm pretty sure they won't want her back for a while after I tell them she had lice. And I am absolutely certain that I don't want her there since that is where I think she must have gotten the lice from in the first place. I mean really...the only places she goes without us is to preschool and visits with her parents.

I am grateful that Miss Nita's Mom noticed the lice at their visit today. I thought Miss Nita just had dandruff. When the weather starts getting cold, myself, Hubby, and a couple of our kids get dry scalps for a couple of weeks. Using Head and Shoulders always fixes the problem promptly, so I don't usually think much of it. I am grateful that Miss Nita's Mom recognized the little bugs for what they really were.

Well, I think that is enough to be grateful for now.  Hubby just got back from de-bugging the vehicles, which means it's my hair's turn to be de-liced.

Wish us luck!!!

Baby-Proof?

I haven't been able to upload any pictures to my blog for a while. It has been quite annoying. I think I've got the problem fixed now. It just required me to switch from internet explorer to google chrome. So now that it is working, I am going to post a ton of pictures that I've been saving. Starting with Baby Jim!

This kid is really testing my baby-proofing skills. One day during the summer, my neighbor rang my bell to return the boy to me. She told me he was standing by our mailbox, waving to her as she drove past. Key word = DROVE!  She quickly stopped her car, scooped him up, and returned him to his befuddled mother. Sheesh. I figured that one of the kids must have forgotten to lock the front door. I admonished everyone to remember to lock the door!

Then a few days later I saw this.  I took this picture on July 22, 2011. Baby Jim just shy of being fifteen months. Can you believe it?! I sure couldn't. The little rat was jiggling the locks and actually managed to undo one before I caught him. For heaven's sake! I obviously cannot go to the bathroom anymore. Or blink. :S

Differing World Views

Miss Nita is always asking questions. The darling girl has an insatiable curiosity. This fact, coupled with her life experiences, however, make for some interesting conversations. I want to record some of her world views here so that I will always remember.

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Hubby and I celebrated our anniversary earlier this month. My kids always enjoy looking through our wedding album on our anniversary. They think it is hilarious that Hubby and I look "so different" now...since we are obviously super-old. ;)

As Miss Nita was looking at our wedding pictures, she asked "Where are Rose and Anne?" I explained that they aren't in the picture because they weren't born yet.

Miss Nita said, "What!? You got married before you had kids? Why would you do that?"

I started to explain, but only got one word out before Miss Nita continued...

"I think you should have waited until after you had your kids because then they could have seen your wedding. Didn't you want your kids to get to see you get married!?"

She went on to lament the fact that my poor kids did not get to see my wedding and how I had deprived them of that experience.

Hubby and I were doing our best not to laugh.

I explained that Hubby and I met before we had kids. I told her that it's okay for people to get married before they have kids and that some people prefer to do things that way.

She was not happy with that explanation.

I tried to console her by pointing out that my kids could always look at the pictures. She guessed that was alright.

Hubby had to leave the room at that point because his laughter was about to erupt.

Just for the record, my children really don't mind that they missed attending their parents wedding. They are content just looking at the pictures. ;)

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A few days ago, I was at the computer working on homework while Cakes and Miss Nita were coloring. Out of the blue, Miss Nita asked me if Hubby and I were best friends or if we were husband and wife. Without looking up, I told her we were both.

She gasped!

Loudly.

I looked up from the computer and was met with a completely appalled and disgusted Miss Nita. Seriously! It was the funniest face I have seen in a few months.

Anyways, Miss Nita, still looking disgusted with me, informed me that you cannot be both. She confidently stated that you can be best friends OR you can be husband and wife, but you can't be both.

Trying to hold in my laughter (again), I explained that the best kind of marriages are when you marry your best friend. I told her that Hubby is, in fact, both my husband and my best friend.

She just stared at me. And stared. And stared some more.

Finally, she shook her head, gave an exasperated sigh, and went back to coloring.

Hilarious!

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I almost forgot this last one! 

During Miss Nita's first week with me, while Hubby was at work, she asked me if Hubby was my boyfriend. I told her no, Hubby was my husband.

She said, oh. And went back to playing.

A few minutes later, she asked me if Hubby was my husband. I told her yes. We were married and he was my husband.

She responded by asking, "If Hubby is your husband, then who is your boyfriend?"

I told her I didn't have one.

She told me I needed to get one.

I told her that I was married to Hubby. I explained that when you are married that you don't have boyfriends anymore.

She informed me that her Mommy had a boyfriend when she was married so she knows that you are supposed to have boyfriends.

She told me, again, that I needed to get a boyfriend.

I told her I would think about it.

I told Hubby about this conversation when he returned home that night, including my acquiesence to Miss Nita. He just stared at me. And stared. And stared.

Then he informed me that he would be my boyfriend and my husband.

I told him I would think about it. ;)

Regular Visiting Teaching

I got a new visiting teaching route this month. I have a new companion and new gals to visit. Of the three gals assigned, two had phone numbers listed. Of those numbers, one actually worked. I left a message for that sister. Didn't hear back.


I searched for phone numbers for the other two sisters, but came up empty handed.


So...My new companion and I decided to do scouting visits.


I typed up the message for the month, put a nice "Hello" message at the top along with mine and my companion's phone numbers, and printed it on bright green paper. Bright green paper is lots easier to see than plain old white paper. I figured if no one was home, I'd tape the message to their front door. And once I knew where they lived, I could come back at different times to try and meet each sister.


My new companion picked me up about 9:15 this morning. We stopped at a bakery on our way out and bought a cinnamon roll far each lady. Why? Because Baked Goodies have magical, mystical powers. Some gals do not like surprise visits from church ladies. Some gals find it rude and decide that they do not like you and will never like you and further more they now do not like the church even more. BUT, if those church ladies come to a gal's house bearing baked goodies, they are usually forgiven for their surprise attack and welcomed into the gal's home. As I said, baked goodies are magic!


We got to the first gal's house and had quite an eye-opening experience. I won't go into the details here for obvious reasons. (In case you don't know what the obvious reason is, I will spell it out for you...p-r-i-v-a-c-y.) The thing I will share here is that this gal seems to not have had visiting teachers for YEARS.


The second gal we visited wasn't home. As I was debating whether to tape my message to her garage door or stick it under the windshield wiper of her guy's work truck, a neighbor came to see what we were doing. I explained that I was looking for the gal. He informed me that the truck was his. He was parking it at her house to make it look like someone was still living there. The gal herself had moved out several months earlier. She was now living in a town four hours away. 


This gal had only been baptized a year earlier. She should have had super-visiting teachers coming to see her for a year after her baptism to help her with the transition. I don't know what happened there. What I do know is that she has been gone for several months and her visiting teachers failed to report that. Which most likely means that her visiting teachers were not visiting her.


I couldn't believe that these two gals, who so obviously needed the love and support of visiting teachers, were passed over. I expressed my disappointment to my companion. She told me that she really hadn't had visiting teachers the whole time she has lived in this town either. She told me there was one lady who came to see her every so often (not the regular monthly visiting teaching), but that lady (I know for a fact) moved out of our ward over a year ago. This means that my companion hasn't had visiting teachers for over a year! And she is another one who could have really used the love and support of a visiting teacher.

We got to the third gal's house at that point. She was home and invited us in. We had a nice visit. She was so happy to have us in her home. And she was glad to see the treat, but even more excited to see the little handout I had made with our phone numbers on it. She seemed delighted when we told her to call us anytime she needed help.

Since returning home, I have been thinking long and hard about visiting teaching in my life. I try so hard to visit my ladies. I have since I was eighteen years old and was first given the calling of visiting teacher.

The first two years I lived in this ward, I had the same companion, Sister S. She and I tried to do an in-home visit every month. Sister S was kind of shy, so I was the one who usually made the appointments. If the gals we visited weren't available for an in-home visit, I asked them when was a good time for me to call back and just chat. I let them know that I was interested in them and their lives.


Sister S and I had one gal who just wouldn't commit to visits, so we surprise visited her more often than not, bearing baked goodies of course! We would only stay for a few minutes, but we CAME! We did our best to show her that she was important to us.

My companion was moved to a different route during the third year. I was on my own for a few months, but continued to contact my sisters every month. Now there were a couple of times when I was only able to call them because our schedules were crazy, but I contacted them one way or another every month! I can't same the same of the gals who were assigned to visit me. I can probably count on my fingers the number of times a visiting teacher has actually come to my home to visit me or purposely called to visit with me. This is kind of sad considering that I have lived in this same ward for three years. I'm not writing this because I'm mad or feel left out or anything. I know life gets busy. I'm not trying to judge.

I just wonder...what has become of Visiting Teaching?


And what will become of the women who are forgotten and overlooked in my little town?

What's In A Name?

My sweet Baby Jim is a PUNK!

At the young age of 13 months, he knew that I was "Momma" and Hubby was "Dadda". He called us that for about two weeks.

Then he started calling me "Dadda" and Hubby "Momma". At first I thought he was just confused. Then the boy called me "Dadda" again and started laughing like crazy.

He knew what he was doing. He was calling us the wrong names on purpose. At the tender age of 14 months, he was already developing a sense of humor. He continued, for the next two months, calling me "Dadda" and Hubby "Momma" and laughing every time. He thought he was so clever. You could see it in his eyes.

At 15 months, Miss Nita and Prof. X joined our family. They call me "Sarah". For the last two months, Baby Jim has heard them calling me "Sarah".

Last week, Baby Jim and I were playing. I had looked away for some reason. Baby Jim called to me, "Momma". I was so happy! For an instant I thought, Finally, that boy is going to start calling me "Momma" again. I turned back to look at him. With a mischevious glint in his eyes, the boy then said to me "Sa-ah" and erupted into laughter. That rat has been calling me "Sa-ah" all week and laughing everytime he says it.

In other news, he has gone back to calling Hubby "Dadda". :P