The Elk

Travis killed his Elk on Sunday, Sept. 29th. It's an even 6 points on each side. He said it scores 365 & 1/2 (400 is record book big). He has it at the taxidermist now so this spring I'm going to officially have a dead animal on my wall. That's okay though, it's pretty cool. Besides, he can't draw out again for another 10 years. His uncle killed a 4 point on Wednesday night so all the boys were excited the hunt turned out so well.

We managed without Trav being home for 2 weeks but I'll tell you what...I don't know how single parents do it! My house is a disaster & I'm behind with school stuff!! I told Trav he probably couldn't have gone at a worse time. Caleb got shots the day before he left, I had 2 parties on the day he left, I had my monthly jewelry meeting, Sam had dance twice, & I had parent teacher conferences. I was getting over strep & then last night I threw up in the middle of one of my parent teacher conferences!!!! Not one of my finer moments in life for sure!

Anyway, we're doing good! We're almost all healthy here. OH! We have grass!!! I need to take pix now that my camera is back. Again, who knew someone could get so excited about grass!!

Elk Hunting Season

Well, widow season is here. I was going to post pix on Sunday & then realized Trav took my camera hunting with him. Guess it will have to wait until he comes home!
Trav left on Sat. (the 20th) & is planning to be gone until Oct. 3rd. Unless of course he kills something before then! I talked to him on the phone tonight & he was really excited because he found a big heard of elk with some big elk in it. I may have a dead animal on my wall after all!

School is going well. We are doing our IOWA tests this week & will be having another math test & our first science test next Monday. DIBELS is coming up...we're still trying to get enough parents to help do the testing so I hope we can round them up before our deadline arrives! Craziness!!

Caleb is growing fast. We took him in to have his 2 month well check last Friday. He's up to 11 lbs 2 oz. I think that's what Nash weighed at 2 weeks! He is growing like a weed though & loves his food - even if he does throw up a lot from his reflux.

Samantha is still loving school. She's been going to the Boys & Girls club after school until 5 and has done all kinds of fabulous things. They made a music video last week after creating their own instruments (we now have a maraca & a guitar). Today they made tin foil boats & had a compettition to see who could put the most pennies in their boat before their boat sunk. Sam got about 47 in hers. Not too shabby! She was pretty excited bout the boat & wanted to make one for Nash so I told her I'd let her do it tomorrow.

Nash is still loving preschool. They are now on letter C at school & for letter C they are talking about cowboys/cowgirls & cactus. I thought that the cactus part was kinda random but hey, he was excited.

Well, as soon as I get my camera back (& the CD my sister burned with pix from Caleb's blessing) I'll get pix posted - I promise!!

We're still alive....kinda

So, now that we're 3 weeks into the school year I've got my first sickness. Dr. said I have strep. Isn't that just fabulous? I took the kids to get new pix done on Sat. & then came home & slept most of the rest of the day. I didn't even get out of bed Sunday & then I drove an hr to work this morning just to stay for 30 min (long enough to find a sub). Tomorrow I'm only working until lunch. I wouldn't even go except it's picture day & I kinda have to be in the class picture!

Caleb has his 2 month dr. appointment this Friday. I can't believe he's already 2 months old! It's insane how much he looks like Nash. Since I have 2 jewelry shows I'm doing on Sat. I'll have to post pictures on Sunday.

Travis & his dad & our brother in law worked all day Saturday & Sunday in our backyard. We got our grass planted in the whole backyard & up both sides of the house. Yay!! Now if we can just manage to find time to water it so it will actually grow, we'll be doing good!

Travis leaves to go Elk hunting on Sat. the 20th & won't come home until Oct. 2nd. That's going to be a fabulous challenge of my mothering abilities! Guess we'll see if we can survive or not! Should be interesting, not to mention a learning experience! I don't think my house could look any more like hurricane Ike has hit!! I'm just glad we have Samantha in Boys & Girls club to go to after school is over so I don't have to be home right at 4 (I'm not even supposed to leave work until 4)!

Anyway, we are surviving & I'm sorry I don't post as often! I promise I'll update things Sunday!

Insane??

Ok - those of you that told me I was insane to teach full time & have my family at the same time, well, you weren't completely wrong!!
I have 27 students & it seems that many of them are working below grade level. That's frustrating. Especially since we're assessing all the kids right now to figure out where they are & what they need! Oh the craziness! I've had to turn into the Wicked Witch of the West at school as they apprently have forgotten how to follow directions & listen! That makes me crazy! Today they lost their entire afternoon recess & have a start on tomorrow morning's recess as well. I suppose after missing recess several times they might catch on that I'm serious!!

We will be blessing Caleb Sunday Sept. 7th. Sacrament starts at 1:00 & our church is just a few blocks south of our house. We'd love to have you & we're having lunch at our place after the blessing. So, let me know if you can make it! Sorry I didn't get paper invites out to everyone but as I'm sure you can guess I do well to sleep 5 hours a night!

Speaking of which, I'd better get busy!

Reunions, Lost Teeth & School

My brother came home to visit 2 weekends ago. He moved to Magna in July & came home to see his new nephew. My kids LOVE their Uncle Zack & were super excited to have him home for a day or two.






This last weekend we went down to Manti for the Bown family reunion. Caleb is a good little camper & even went on his first 4 wheeler ride. We've taken all our kids on the 4 wheeler since they were just tiny & they all love it (I love it b/c it knocks them out pretty quick!!)












Samantha & Nash caught fish with their dad & were quite proud of themselves.





It wouldn't have been a trip with the Bown's if we hadn't had at least a little bit of rain (downpour on Sat. night). We made flip flop photo albums (I'll take a pic of mine as soon as it's finished & post it). These are way fun & super easy. I think I might do some for Christmas presents.





We got home Sunday night about 9:30 pm (that's way early for us!) & I told Samantha I thought if she wiggled her tooth a little it would just pop right out. Of course she had trauma over this & told me no way. The next night as we were getting ready to leave, she says to me, "Mom! My tooth just fell out!" I knew that sucker was ready to come out! The toothfairy stopped by last night & left her a $1. She was pretty excited this morning & really likes showing off the new hole in her mouth!





I went down to West Haven today to meet with the other 3rd grade teachers. We finally have our occupancy permit so we can finally start putting our rooms together. I have one set of cupboards as you can see from the picture & just one 2 shelf bookshelf. I will need to be recruiting more bookshelves for my classroom b/c my class library is enormous & only getting bigger! We still don't have books in our school library, the part of the student desks that holds all their "stuff", our student textbooks, computers....pretty much a lot! All our work room has in it is a laminator that isn't hooked up & a big paper cutter!! I'm really hoping we have everything in place by the 25th, otherwise it could be an interesting start to the school year!