Almost a First....

Sunday afternoon we were sitting in Sacrament Meeting minding our own business...ok I lied...we were sitting in Sacrament Meeting trying to not be the noisiest family there. I've decided that as long as there is one other family noisier than us the day is a success. Just Kidding, we really are trying to teach them to be reverent...often it's just flat out a losing battle...

Anyway, we were sitting there and the whole Young Women presidency and most of the advisers were released. I kinda took note of that, as we were still trying to get the critters settled. The next thing I hear is Sister "Human" (Gabriel's new teacher of less than 3 months) get called to the Young Women. First I thought, "No Way! Seriously??" The look I shot to Stephen and his reply confirmed I'd heard right. Then I hear, "any opposed?"

I honestly started to raise my hand, in the split second before it went up I caught it....barely. The idea of doing that has never even crossed my mind before. I really really wanted to raise it and shout, "NO WAY, YOU STINKY OL' TEENAGERS CAN'T HAVE SISTER "HUMAN", SHE'S TAKEN, AND LOVED BY LITTLE ONES THAT NEED HER MORE!!" Selfish? YES!

Gabriel's class is BIG.....and uh....WILD. Some Sundays there are other kids his age being naughtier than him. It's evil, but I'm relieved on those days that it's not always my kid in trouble. Several months ago they split his class into two classes, fantastic idea. Nearly 10 wild 5 year year olds will take even the toughest teacher out. For another couple months he had a sub every week while they waited to get a permanent teacher called. I apologize to all the subs, these kids didn't make it easy. One of the subs told me later that she won't sub in the 5 year old class anymore....not that I blame her. Finally, Sister "Human" (Gabriel's mispronunciation of her last name, and such a cute mispronunciation) was called as the permanent teacher. I was SO excited! I knew she'd be able to love those wild kids into behaving and reverent-ish-ly learning important lessons each Sunday. It's been less than 3 months and the change in that class has been amazing. They don't even look like the same class anymore. Gabriel and his wild little buddy are quieter, even if they're moving, it's quiet moving. When they come back during the last 15 minutes of Primary they walk in instead of pushing and running to be the first to sit down. The best part is I can see Gabriel get corrected when he's making bad choices and usually take it pretty well; such an important skill to have for life. He loved to sit on Sister "Human's" lap, making bad choices often got him on her lap, but I could see him physically relax and calm down once he was in her arms. She sent a really cute picture to the kids one week with their picture and "Jesus Loves Me" under it. It's proudly displayed on his wall now. He had such a happy smile....I love it.

I believe when asked to take a calling the answer should be yes, I guess that means when asked to support a change in callings my answer should still be yes....even if I want to say No Way Jose. Oh, how I hope and pray the Lord has someone in mind that can love these wild yahoos as much as their parents, and He does.

You will be hugely missed Sister "Human"!

~Side note Garrett's class has 13, yes you read right, 13 Sunbeams coming up in January. I am going to have SO many years of apologizing to teachers for the insanity they have to endure on behalf of serving my kiddos.~

B O O !

*~* BOO!! *~*

Ha, Ha, I scared ya!

I just thought this was a cute picture. Gabriel's school had a fundraiser at Burger King; the restaurant was passing out crowns for all the kids. We had to catch a picture before he realized it was on his head and started eating it.

National SIDS/ Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Day

Yesterday was the National SIDS/ Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Day. I saw a post on a friend's blog that talked about lighting candles for all the Angels that are no longer with us, so I did. The big candle is for my 6 brothers and sisters we're still waiting to meet. It's humbling to know that you're related to so many that were so righteous they only needed a body for such a short time. It's a good tool for keeping pride in check...I'm here with a body still being tested. All the other candles have names. The Mommies and Daddies of these other candles come to my mind daily; I hope they can feel the hug and love that I send them everyday when I think about them.

It's Here!!

Bountiful Baskets finally has a site set up on the Northwest side. The first distribution day will be this Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. I know it's EARLY, but don't worry we all look like we rolled out of bed and came down....except for those people that always look good and make the rest of us envious. I will need help with the actual passing out of the produce, sooo, if you have nothing else to do 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning come on down and help.

The deadline to contribute online is TONIGHT by 10:00p.m.

The website is www.bountifulbaskets.org (Stephen isn't home so I'm not able to post the link, sorry) You can contribute there at the website. The site is not that clear or user friendly, so sign up for the email for the next round in two weeks. That way you don't have to try to figure out the site each cycle, just wait for the email and click on the link in that email when it's time to order again.

I STINK!

So, in order to maintain my interpreting certification I'm required to earn CEU's (one hour of work equals .1 CEU; Yeah, it takes forever to get 8). If you take certain types of classes they can count toward Professional CEU's rather than the General ones. Professional CEU's are much more difficult to find workshops to satisfy. This semester I had the grand idea to take ASL Linguistics again. This is a class I had to take during the Interpreting Training Program several years ago. The teacher is SO precise in her language use. I knew it would be a good refresher and hopefully help me in better understanding the nuances in the language. It's working I'm seeing more and remembering some of the aspects of the language I'd forgotten. The first time I took the class I ended up with a B, and have NEVER in my life been so happy about, or worked so hard for a B. All the tests are essay tests, like the kind that you fill the allotted space and continue on the back, if you want any chance of full credit. She also counts off for spelling, grammatical, and punctuation mistakes. Trying to write 100 miles an hour with none of those mistakes is difficult for a tired, only half working, brain to do.

Today I got my first test from this year back. I suck. I got a dang 81% on it. Their were two questions that I lost a lot of points on, and I know why, I just flat out ran out of time. The darn class is only an hour and a half. I couldn't write any faster and had to leave information out of a couple of my answers just to make it to the end of the test. One other question she just didn't like the answer I came up with; although, I've used similar answers out in the real world and they've worked fine. There is always room for improvement though.

~**~Note to self: You stink and need to find another profession. ~**~

I think I might keep retaking the class every 2-3 years till I learn and remember enough to earn an A. I was telling Stephen about it, and explaining exactly why my grade was so low, he agrees I might need to find another profession. On a positive note, back in 1999 I got a 71% on my first test, so I'm up 10 percentage points! That means the next time I retake the class I should get a 90%....uh....maybe.

Next hurdle....a research paper, not just any research paper, a linguistics paper containing an in depth analysis of one aspect of ASL. I've got my topic approved, now I better get my butt in gear before I blow that one too. My teacher is not only a master of ASL, but of English too. That means all the mistakes that show up in my blog posts CANNOT show up in that paper.

My long term hope is that this class, in combination with some other activities, will help me prepare for the new certification test they just set up. Yippee!

Well, it's been two hours...Lincoln is summoning me.

Gotta' Work Smarter, Not Harder

Stephen's life motto is: "You have to work smarter, not harder."

I was peeling peaches today for jam, and complaining about how long it takes to get all the dang skins off. Stephen came in and looked at the minuscule pieces I was getting with my fingers and paring knife and innocently asked, "Oh, the peeler doesn't work??" I said, "What peeler??" To which he answered, (with that 'I gotcha' twinkle in his eye) "The one you use for carrots and potatoes." Hmmmm, why is it always him that has the GREAT ideas?!? I pulled out that ol' peeler and by dang it worked like a charm!! Seriously, for eons of time, women have been doubling the time it takes to prep peaches for canning, burning the tips off their fingers trying to pull the HOT skins off, and making a much huger mess than needed. I WILL NEVER BURN MY FINGERS, WASTE EXTRA TIME, OR MAKE THE MONSTROUS PEACH PEEL MESS AGAIN. I had those things ready to pulverize into jam in no time.

At least he's nice about all the ideas he has that are WAY smarter than harder. {=-P Now, that this is out in cyber-space, when ya'll see this handy little tip in a How-To canning book remember they stole it from me, well actually from Stephen. I'm thinking I could re-work a peeler, put a cute peach doo-dad on top and call it the "Amazing Peach Skin Removal System" and get my retirement in place. I'm calling the Patton office now...

Just a phase....I hope

This cute little thing HATES food...well, except tomato soup and melted ice cream. Tomato soup gives him yucky poo, and melted ice cream is just flat out not healthy. He's growing very fast and and gets hungry....constantly! Since he hates food that means that he's back to nursing every 2 hours. I think I'm gonna go a little crazy.

He's also very busy doing things like pulling to the standing position anywhere he can. This would be fine if he'd developed the balance for crawling already, but he hasn't. Don't get me wrong he's VERY mobile...via a weird looking frog jump. So, he frog jumps to to something, then climbs up to stand. If we're not right there soon he falls straight backwards...SCARY. I hope he soon figures out how to balance on his knees so he can then balance on those feet of his.

"Wrestling" with Daddy and Gabriel are fast becoming favorite activities! The other day Stephen got on the floor to play with him and he frog jumped away as fast as he could. Stephen "caught" up to him and he frog jumped away again. I didn't know 7 month olds played tag. Probably means he's a genius. {;-D ha ha

Some things, like Garrett's bed, are easier to stand next to than others.

After a long day of so much excitement a little guy gets all tired out.
**EXCEPT**
He doesn't sleep at night anymore. He wakes up at least 3 times a night, most nights it's 4, and on occasion, when we're really lucky, it's 5 times. I'm going crazy!! I had been just nursing him quickly so he'd go back to sleep and I could "sleep" (lay there with my eyes closed waiting for him to wake up again) too. Recently we've started letting him fuss back to sleep so he learns how to settle himself. He's still in our room so nights are not a whole lot of fun these days, which in turn, makes work not a whole lot of fun. I feel like I'm clawing through every job I get. I'm always exhausted so thinking I'm more tired is nothing new. However, the morning Stephen got up and said, "Man! I'm tired, that Lincoln needs to sleep more." I knew it was getting bad. Stephen neither needs nor tends to sleep for many hours a day, so when he's getting tired you know something's gotta change. I keep thinking he's just hungry so some nights we fight with him till he eats actual real food thinking he'll sleep better. Nope doesn't do a darn bit of good. His cuteness during the day usually makes up for it, so we'll just keep enjoying that....and maybe start sleeping on the family room couches so he doesn't wake us up.

Garrett-ism

"Cars and dirt are pa-tas-tic!!"
Translation: "Cars and dirt are fantastic!!

He's learning new words and trying them out....as long as he keeps it to cool words like pa-tas-tic, not the naughty words, we'll be alright.

"I went pee in the POT!" We're not sure when or why it changed from potty to pot, makes him sound a little uncouth.

"Winken is crying, poor wittle feh-wa". Right after he gets done laying on top of him or poking his eye. Gee, I wonder why he's crying.

This kid is an early riser! He's usually already awake and talking in his room when Stephen leaves to play basketball at 5:30 a.m. I know, insanity on both their parts. Each morning when we go in to get him he asks, "Do I have pre-school today?" If we say yes he throws his little fist up in the air and yells, "YEESS!! I love pre-school!" On the days we say no he asks if he can go to kindergarten yet. Poor kid is going to be so sad next year when he's still not old enough for kindergarten and has to do another whole year of pre-school. Although, he may never get to go to kindergarten if he doesn't start using that "POT" regularly and for nasty poop too. He now gets to clean his own poopy rear end up. As long as he's not wearing a pull-up to his high school prom I guess we'll be ok. Stubborn kid makes his stubborn momma look like a docile, compliant, push-over.

"Mommy/Daddy cuddle me". Us: "Ok come over here". Thump, smack, jab with a sharp elbow, flop one way, flop the other, "Mommy I love you so so much", thump, smack, kick...I'm thinking, "Ummm, we're supposed to be cuddling right now". Then, he jumps down and says, "Ok I'm all done cuddling now".

After sneaking a drink of my Dr. Pepper, "Whoa yours juice is SPICY!"

Gotta love it!