A new adventure

Last week I accepted a new job! I had interviewed earlier in the week and they said they'd let me know by Friday. Since I interviewed on Tue. I figured that since I hadn't heard from them by Thursday morning that I hadn't gotten the job. Stupid since they had told me I'd know by Friday. But, I figured they'd want the person to start asap so they'd probably let them know on Wednesday. Not long after I talked to Laura, my girlfriend that does my daycare, & told her I'd probably be going back to South Cache to work, I got a phone call offering me the job!

I will be teaching the Gifted & Talented program for Cache District. They hired 4 of us, so I'm thinking I'll be visiting the schools from Mendon to Nibley. I will be at a different school every day Monday-Thursday. On Friday I will be out at the district office doing prep. I will work 4 hours a day. The hours I work will depend on the administration at each school I visit. So, I could work from 9-1 one day & 10-2 the next. Who knows?! The kids I will be working with were identified as Gifted or Talented last spring and are in 3rd-5th grade. This job is also a pay increase from my ESL aide position at South Cache.

I am really excited about taking this job. It not only gets my foot a little further in the door at the district office, but also at 4 different elementary schools in the district. It also gives me the opportunity to get my license renewed. I don't think I posted about the license upgrade stress I'm having. To put it briefly - my license expired, I need to upgrade, Ogden won't upgrade me, I have to get an extension for a year to teach on, the district I teach with under my extension can recommend me for an upgrade after I teach there for a year. I'm also excited about this job because since it's only 4 hours a day, I will still be able to get Sam to dance & piano. I won't have all the stress that goes with a "regular" teaching job either. One lesson will last me an entire week! The only kink this job will potentially throw my way is getting Caleb to & from preschool. Fortunately my mother & her bff love me & are willing to help me out!

In other news....

Today I take Caleb to his open house at pre school. I can't believe he's starting already! Before I know it Sam will be driving & Brooke will be going to school all day! I never thought the days would fly by so quickly when I was 10 years old. It seems that every year the days go by faster and faster. How do you manage to hold onto your sanity? Not to mention all the things you want to do before it's too late? Caleb has been so excited to start pre school. Every day that we take the big kids to school he has to take his "pack pack" and wants to know where HIS lunch is. I've tried to explain he isn't going to need a lunch even when he does start going. I think I might have to buy another lunch box though!

Sam has been loving school. I think she's glad she finally gets a break from her brothers again! She was excited when she came home after the first day of school because she had learned to write a cursive i and cursive t. I am excited for her. Third grade is my favorite grade to teach. They learn so many new things & by the end of the year they are no longer little kids! She started back in piano last week. I can't believe how good she's getting. Her teacher said she could tell I made her practice every day over the break. We also went back to dance yesterday. This year she's in Jr. Company. This is the 4th-6th graders. Yes, older girls than her. I had asked her dance teacher which class to register her for at the end of summer session & she said she wanted to try her in the older girls class because she had been doing so well. After class last night I asked her if it was going to be too hard or not. She said there was only 1 song that was too fast & she was having a hard time with. I told her not to worry, it was only the first day back and she'll get it soon. I was happy to see they have the entire performing schedule posted. Looks like Disneyland & California Adventure will be the last few days of March. Who wants to keep my monsters then? :P

Nash has been liking school but I think he mostly just tolerated it yesterday. Apparently they were outside most of the day learning the playground rules, etc. The whole school did it. I know how he feels though because the school I taught at in Ogden did the same thing and it was tiring & made for a very long day!

We are getting ready for the girls' baptism/blessing day. We are doing it on Sat. Sept. 10th @ 10 am. I've bought Sam's dress & my mom is working on Brooke's. I'm excited to see them together. They are going to match so well! So far I've invited over 100 people. We'll see how many show up! We are doing lunch at our place afterward. If I've skipped you with an invite, please let me know! Everyone is welcome!

Phone Dump

This week I have an interesting variety of photos on my phone.

This is where Trav has been working. He said he's been working on the crane side & the crane is about 110 ft tall. At least he didn't send me a pic of him playing with explosives. He sent me this pic because Caleb is always asking where dad is and what it looks like where dad is at. This week he tells me dad is working in the forest, on the mountain, with the bears....not quite buddy, but good guess!

This was on our way home from Lake Powell. There's a rainbow in there between the horizon & the cloud.

This is also on our way home from Lake Powell. See that spot? Yeah, that's BIRD GUTS. A bird flew into the windshield!

While I was cleaning awhile ago I found one of Trav's pocket knives. This isn't a small pocket knife. This knife gives me the heebie jeebies to open, use & try to close. Most of the time I can't close it. My brilliant husband decided Nash could have the knife. Nash very much wants his own pocket knife. Look what happened when he was trying to open a new box of Legos. Thanks Dear. PS - this was BEFORE he sat the box on his LAP and started cutting toward himself. I think he needs to revisit the rules of using pocket knives with his dad!

B looks pretty awesome in her new shades.

B has had some sadness due to teeth trying to come in. I'm afraid she's going to be a finger sucker despite my many, many attempts to keep her fingers out of her mouth. Dang it.

Little sister is become quite the DIVA.

The 1st day of school picture we sent to dad.

This would be what Caleb put in Brooke's MOUTH today while we were waiting for the big kids to come out of school. It was ALL the way in B's mouth, toward the back of her mouth. Luckily for me, it was bottom side toward the top of her mouth so I could get it out easily. Brooke was crying & Caleb didn't like that. So, he tried to get her to be quiet by putting this in her mouth. First thing on the to-do list tomorrow: move Caleb's carseat further away from Brooke's.

My babies are growing up!

Where have the last 8 1/2 years gone? How is it that my baby girl is starting 3rd grade? Is she really that old? I thought that just yesterday she was eating mush & wearing tiny piggy tails. She is growing up more and more each day. We are learning to be friends as well as mother/daughter. I think it is going to be a great journey. She was sooooo excited to begin 3rd grade. She had an hourly count down yesterday (a bit like her mother?). She even did her own hair this morning because it had to be just right. I'm afraid the next 8 1/2 years are going to go by just as quickly as the last ones. Oh dear....

When did this little man grow up? In his new wranglers and boots he looks just like his father. It makes me smile that the belts he picked out are totally and completely punk rocker. Uncle Zack would be proud to know he's corrupted this one just a smidge. He was excited to start school as well. Not quite as excited as his sister, but still excited. I think he's mostly excited to get a break from his little brother following him around.

This one...boy the things I could say about this one. This one tries my patience and my sanity every waking moment. He IS his mother's child. Thank you mother for cursing me that I'd have a child just like me one day. Cute as he is, he's still a little stinker. Can't you just see it on his face? He was so excited for school today too. I think he was a bit bummed out when I didn't drop him off at Miss Shannon's house. He wanted to pick out his own shirt this morning too - apparently the one mom picked out wasn't the right one. As soon as he was dressed he was hunting down his back pack & slipped it right on. Last night when I was making lunch for the other two, he insisted on knowing where his lunch was. He wasn't too excited when I told him I'd make him lunch at lunch time today. I think I might have to invest in a 3rd lunch box very soon.

Little sister...oh little sister. She is growing so fast I can't believe it! I'm surprised her two front bottom teeth aren't through yet. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised because it took Caleb from the time he was 2 months until he was 6 months old for his first two teeth to break through. Here's to hoping she's a bit quicker. I took this photo while I was waiting for the big kids to position themselves for school photos - we couldn't leave her out!

I found little sister some sweet new shades this week while getting last minute school items. She isn't too fond of wearing them yet. I think it's because the strap that keeps them on is a bit big so they tend to fall down easily. Hopefully she'll get to like them. Wishing I would have had them last week while we were at Lake Powell.

Bob started eating oatmeal this week. She likes it quite a bit. I think she'd like it even more if I could get her dang fingers out of her mouth for more than two seconds at a time! I think it's helped that I don't feed it to her until she's really, really hungry. I know it's mean to make her wait, but I want to make sure she is hungry so she doesn't turn her little nose up at it because it isn't what she wants. She's eaten the entire bowl that I've made both times that I've given it to her, which surprised me. Guess she was extra hungry or really ready for mush!

Lake Powell

We left home on Sunday afternoon & headed to Manti. We figured it would be a good way to break up the 6-7 hr trip & we wanted to see Grandma & Grandpa Bown. I was happy to see how good Grandpa was doing. He has a walking cast for his broken ankle and a regular walker that he's using. They released him from home health & Grandma told me he's been sneaking out on the 4 wheeler without telling her & she finds his abandoned walker & the missing 4 wheeler out front! I had seen these photos on my mother in law's camera, but had to get some for myself. I'm sure glad Grandpa fought as hard as he did so he didn't end up like his boots.

We headed for Lake Powell after a visit with Grandma & Grandpa Whitlock on Monday. Everyone was fairly happy once we were on the road.

Not too far down the road I turned around to see this...(it made for an awful quiet 3-4 hours!)

The kids were so excited when we got there they could hardly wait to get in the water!

Even dad joined in fairly quickly.

Brooke was a trooper through all the heat, lake water, life jackets & sun screen.

Travis took my dad's little kid water skis with the intention of getting Nash up on skis. That kid tried his hardest for about an hour to get up. Travis said once he was actually up but he thinks Nash got scared & let go. We're going to get the knee board out because we're pretty sure he could do that really easy. We're quite certain he will be able to get up on these skis next summer!

We had floatie wars:

And good ol' "bobbing" on floaties:

There was riding of floaties across the lake to the cliff where there was also cliff jumping (not too high off the water mind you):

Caleb tested Brooke's floatie...it works well!

We went up to Forgotten Canyon to see the ruins (we stayed in Hansen Creek this year)

I love the view down there

Out of 188 pictures, this is the ONLY one I am in!

There were many, many boat naps taken:

There was much bobbing in the water. Brooke did NOT like the lake water at all, no matter how many times we put her in! This is a quick lull in the scream fest!

Daddies make great sea horses:

Like I said, little sister was a trooper!

The Captain & his daddy:

Little sister was so happy the entire week!

The mud was as much fun to play in as the water:

Nash is getting quite good at riding the little jet ski:

Floatie Queen in training:

I thought for sure Brooke would roll over this week. She gets to 1 side & then either stays there or flops back onto her back! I think she'll have it before her daddy comes home in 2 weeks.

See what I mean about not liking the lake water?

She liked the boat though:

Sam was a good little babysitter to cousin Jaxton. She was feeding him Air Head here:

Nash did lots and lots of tubing & had lots of fun playing with Clayton:

Another quick lull in the scream fest:

All 3 boys are asleep here:

Can you spot Brooke in this picture?

I was really glad I took the bouncy chair with us. It was great for keeping her from spinning herself into the fan!

Caleb eventually ventured out into the deep water all by himself! I was shocked because it has taken him all summer to get to where he'll get in my mom's pool & go around the edge hanging on to it for dear life!

The boys filled up countless buckets of water to throw down the slide before they went down so they didn't burn their bums:

The ducks were frequent visitors & were only pests when we were fishing. They liked poking at our bobbers & kept trying to eat our worms! We had to shoot them with water guns to leave us alone while we were fishing!

We had surf & turf on Friday night thanks to all our fishing skills:

Mom even caught fish too!

Sister liked riding in the back of the boat, laying down in the shade more than riding up front with a towel over her to keep the sun off.

Travis rode the tube with all 3 kids - one right after the other- one day. I think his arms are like 3 inches longer now from holding onto the kids & holding himself onto the tube!

Sam thought it was funny to push Uncle Robbie in the lake. She didn't think it was so funny when he grabbed her and threw her in the lake. We all thought it was funny when Nash snuck up behind Robbie & pushed him in the lake as retaliation for throwing his sister in the lake! Sam cried when she came up but her dad got her to laugh.

Sam still sure does love that Aunt Jamie of hers:

Travis did lots of wake boarding & skiing. I got some good pictures of Travis jumping the wake on the wake board.

Brooke got some sweet sparkly blue toes thanks to Aunt Jamie watching her while Travis & I went on the big jet ski!

We all got tattoos on Friday while we were waiting for our surf & turf dinner:

Friday night Travis caught 3 toads on the shore by the houseboat. Nash was thrilled & soooo wanted to bring them home. Luckily for me, we convinced him to let them go so they didn't die!

We had a great trip - the best trip yet in my opinion. The kids were really great in the truck & even listened pretty well while we were at the lake. Everyone but Brooke is sun burned. Sam's lips are so dry & sun burned they are cracking open & bleeding. Nash's face is peeling & he looks like he has spots like Grandma Kris. We counted Caleb's bug bites and he has 14 of them! Sam has 2 on her neck that look like a vampire got her! Despite not wanting to go, I had a great time & am looking forward to next time. It was a great way to spend the last week of summer vacation!