Nutshell

I haven't had internet access for over a week and a half.  It has definitely been an eye opener to how much I rely on the internet.  I'm sure I'd survive without it just fine, but I sure hope I never have to.  SO much has happened, I'm not really sure how to get caught up.  There are a lot of BIG DEAL things that have happened that probably deserve their own posts but I think I'll just get overwhelmed and give up on it all if I try to do that.  And I'm sure you all don't really care how it's posted, it's just me and my obsessive compulsive blog posting that will suffer.  So anyway- here's the last week and a half in a nutshell.  A really big, long and drawn out nutshell.

- Tuesday, 11-9-10 we went to Parent Teacher Conferences.  It was strange that we happened to have it exactly one year from when we had it last year (that sounds funny :) ).... basically we had Parent Teacher conferences the day before I went in to give birth to my 6th child and that stuck out to me :)  So this year it was funny to do it the day before Erika's birthday again.  Just a coincidence.... anyway.  I LOVE Parent Teacher Conferences!!!!!  I hope I always do, but I am savoring every moment of the constant compliments and praise of my children :)  I feel very blessed to be their Mom.  Charity is the fastest reader and typer in her class.  She seems to be Mrs. Rice's favorite.  I like that she gets teachers who understand her and "get her".  She's way ahead of the class in her reading level, I think she said it was above a 6th grade reading level but that the tests didn't go higher.  That makes me proud of her.  She's a smart girl.  We decided to work on focusing and paying attention to what she's doing as our goal.  And for my goal I am going to quiz her on her times tables.  She did need a little improvement in that area.  I love hearing how helpful and what a good friend she is.  Kelly's teacher kinda bugged me in that she focused more on the few little negative things than the millions of positives that she mentioned, but didn't say a lot about.  Kelly is apparently "too fast" at doing her work and finishes with too much time.  Her teacher wants her to slow down.  I agree that some things were done hurriedly, but that's Kelly.  She's a busy little girl.  Got stories to write and pictures to draw.  Her teacher showed us a few of Kelly's stories and I just have to say, I LOVE how this girl writes.  She's so creative and so full of ideas.  Her teacher agreed.  Her teacher's biggest complaint though was that Kelly gets hurt too much.  Apparently she's needing an ice pack after every recess.  This is kind of cute to me, but she's going to work on being more careful outside and being a little tougher.  It's tough because I know how dramatic she can be, but I've also seen how tough she can be when she breaks an arm and has to have it reset.  I know that sometimes she actually is hurt but it's hard to tell with all the other stuff I guess.  Anyway, I think her teacher needs to relax :)  Kelly is the fastest reader, she's at the highest level in reading, she's taught all of her classmates how to make books and she shares hers with her class regularly.  She's amazing at her math and of course writing.  I love that she is known as the class mother, she takes care of everyone.  She is helpful too of course for the teacher.  I'm glad Kelly loves school so much, I think it's a great place for her to nurture that.  This was our first Parent Teacher conference for Brad.  I will admit I was nervous for his.  But boy were we ever surprised!!!!  His teacher absolutely loves him!!!  (or she's good at faking it :) )  She said he is very helpful in class and that he's the one she thinks of to do the big things she needs help with.  She said that he is right where he needs to be with reading (phew!) and writing, and that his math and pattern skills are way off the charts.  She showed us a bunch of tests where he just excelled in the math sections.  Makes me wonder if the whole Baby Einstein movies helping with Math and logic is real, he loved that show as a baby (as embarrassing as that is).  I was really proud of him though!!!  It's fun to see him doing so well at school especially with how much I worried.  And not that the teacher needed to say anything, but finding out that he was doing okay socially too was a nice relief :)  I worried about that for some reason.  I think it's because I compare him to 2 girls.  I need to stop doing that.  I asked about his "r" and "l" sounds problem and she said not to worry about it until next year but to work on them and try to help him focus on fixing them.  That was good to hear too.  That he's not "supposed" to be able to say those until 8, so that was nice.  We've been practicing.  So anyway, the kids did great!  The night was a success and they all got to pick out a book at the Book Fair.

- Thursday, 11-11-10 was Grandparents and Goodies at school.  Grandpa so willingly took the girls and had goodies with them.  They were in the Book Fair picking out books when the bell was ringing and hadn't made selections (Grandpa spoils them) so he just handed them a $20 and told them they could pick something out after school.  They were so funny with their choices of books.  I feel bad because I laughed a little when I saw Kelly's but it's a book that she REALLY wanted and I had talked her out of it the few nights before at Parent Teacher Conference.  Kelly got a IM lingo book.  So now she can say things in code.  She loves it :)  And it makes me smile :)  She won't tell grandpa what she picked.  That's probably my fault.  Charity picked the book number 2 of the book she had picked out before (and finished, I might add, in 2 days!). They were very grateful for Grandpa's generosity and I was glad that they got to have that time with him since they were both a little sad to be moving out of his house.

- Friday was my big packing day, which looking back, I did a terrible job.  We had been so worried that things would fall through for some reason, that I hardly packed at all.  I just got too excited to be out I think too, that it was hard to pull myself together.  I regret that. 

- Saturday was Charity's big day!  The Hoop Shoot Contest at Viewmont!  She had been practicing all morning and a few days before.  She did SO WELL!!!  We were so proud of her.  If you'll remember she only made the one shot at the first one at her school, so her 14 out of 28 at this one was PRETTY IMPRESSIVE to all of us!!  (The first three were "practice shots" and she made all three of them, so I count them in the 14 :) )  She was really only judged on the 11 out of 25 though.  That's still WAY better than the other girl did (there was only one other girl her age)  The other girl kept stepping across the line or missing.  It was kinda sad for her, but Charity still made more shots than her anyway.  The whole thing was put on by the Elks Club.  I had no idea, I thought it was a school thing, but they invited us all to Cafe Alicia afterward for a little awards ceremony and hamburgers and hotdogs.  It was such a neat thing to be a part of!!  Charity was so excited to get her own trophee!  She will now move on to the Northern Region (whatever that is) and will compete in Tooele on January 22nd.  We're really excited for her.  She's all pumped to keep practicin and getting even better.... she's SURE she's going to move on to State and be able to travel "and stay in a hotel!"..... I"m hopeful!  She is really good!!  The rest of us were just along for the ride.

- Saturday night Nate loaded up a lot of the boxes we had packed, and brought them to the new house!  It was really happening!!!  That was good!

- Sunday we said goodbye to our amazing ward.  I really do miss that ward.  Everyone was so awesome and welcoming.  No matter how many ups and downs we had with thoughts of moving and several false alarms, they still treated us like we were going to be there forever and that was huge for me.  I loved feeling like we belonged there.  We also went up to Nate's Parents' house for the Family Meeting.  My kids drove me nuts, and I thought I was going to scream, but I did win the candy jar full of chocolate, so all was well.  It's hard to go to that without Nate.  I hate that he has to work on Sundays.

- Monday we went and got the moving truck, and slowly (well, I was slow, I don't know what's happened to me, but I was just dragging the whole time, I think I was sick) loaded up all of our crap and moved into our new home!!!!  This is of course temporary, we only signed a 7 month lease, but we're VERY happy to be in our own space, and have our own place.  We wanted the kids to be able to finish out the school year here, and also Kelly's baptism (thinking ahead may get me in trouble, but I assume she will be baptized the 4th of June, so we will be here with people she knows).  Since we assume we will be buying a house in Stansbury Park before this lease is over.  That's all assumption, and we all know what assuming does..... (ask if you need clarification).  I canNOT tell you all how happy I am to have so much room again!!!  This house is amazing!!!  I LOVE all the storage space!!  There is a place for E V E R Y T H I N G, and THAT is PRICELESS!!!!  I really have had fun unpacking things and putting everything away.  I know that's probably cheesy, but hey, that's life.  We've enjoyed the house immensely so far!

- I should have mentioned all of the false alarms with Nate's Check ride.  For the week before and the first week after moving, Nate's Superviser kept scheduling with him to be checked out, but then changing it.  It was VERY nerve racking for Nate, and would have been without all of the move stuff going on!  Wednesday the 18th, after pulling off a huge 8 person family move, and after months of his trainer saying he was ready, he got his checkride from his Supervisor-Nate was FINALLY checked out!  What a huge sigh of relief!!!!  And then another huge deep breath :)  He can now control airspace in areas 15 and 16 all on his own!!!!!  On the D-side.  This is not the end of course.  People keep asking if he is now certified, and even though it's a bummer to say, no, he is not.  This is just the first big step and we are NOW where we were supposed to be a year and a half ago :)  So this is now uncharted territory and just VERY exciting for Nate.  I don't think many people could understand how thrilled we are to be at this stage.  Just because it's not the end, doesn't mean it's not awesome :)  So anyway, if you see Nate, you'll have to congratulate him, this was big.  I'm so proud of him!  We can now say he's a controller without feeling like we're jumping to conclusions :)  Even though he's been one since July 11th, 2008 it hasn't felt this real.

-  My kids all said really funny things this week, but I can't think of what they were now.  Nate will remind me.  I'll leave this spot for them.

- Thursday, 11-19-10 was Bradley's big Thanksgiving Feast with the Kindergarteners.  I decided that it would be a fun thing for just he and I (and somewhere I didn't want to be juggling lots of littles) so I asked Sarah to watch the rest of the kids, but then when Brad heard that his brothers weren't coming he was bummed.  So I ended up compromising and bring Luke :)  It was a fun time for both of them and I.  Good food too!  I was impressed!  I don't remember school lunch tasting so good!  Brad got to show off his feather hat and necklace that Charity had helped him make the week before (she gets to go help out in his class a lot, which I think is awesome!).  He was cute, showing us around even though he wasn't really sure where he was going in the lunch room :)  He was happy to show off his brother.  I loved that they both made sure to "save room for their cookies" that they had seen at the end of the line :)   Cute, CUTE kids. 

- Wednesday and Thursday were the first days I allowed the girls to walk to school from our new house.  It's actually closer to the school eventhough we are not really in the boundaries anymore.  I was happy to find out that the ward is split down the middle with the boundaries so there are a few people in all of the kids' classes that go to the same school.  It works out nicely if you ask me.  Anyway, I let the girls walk, equipped with a map and everything, and about 15 minutes after leaving, they were back on the doorstep, crying and confused about where they were supposed to go.  Charity had known and been right, but Kelly didn't think she was.  It was sad, but we drove and everything was fine :)  They all walked home okay, and then walked TO the next day and did fine.  It was kind of scary for me again to let them go.  I know it's good for them though, so I try to be tough about it :)  I do love the fact that i can stay in my jamjams a little longer (guiltfree). 

- I forgot to mention that the RS president came buy as we were moving in and got our info.  Then throughout the week we had visits from more of the presidency.  One in particular has been so amazing and welcoming.  I hope to be like her someday.  She brought over a list of all the kids, my kids' ages who live nearby.  So thoughtful.  She's been a good friend.  Feels good to say that I have a friend nearby.  She has a son in Brad's class so they've been total buds too. 

- Friday night the girls, Nate and I got to go see The Nutcracker!  It was a pretty cute version (simplified of course) of the Nutcracker.  My cousin's little girl was in it as a "cookie" so we were lucky enough to hear about it and get tickets.  It was up at Weber.  I loved taking just the girls out.  Gives me a taste of what it will be like without the little LITTLE ones someday (not that I want them to grow up, just pointing out that there are benefits.... no strollers, crying, diaper blow outs!.... you know what I mean, just big kids that enjoy what they're out doing and have smiles on their faces :) ).  I'm not sure it was really Nate's thing, but he enjoyed it :)  (and the Jazz game specs from his phone during intermission :) ).  Charity and Kelly liked it.  It was a good evening.  Thanks to my Mom for watching the kids even though Simon was ill.

- Sunday was interesting.  I loved meeting the ward, they are awesome!  Lots of elderly people, SO FUN!!  And lots of kids too, which is a change, a good one.  THey were all VERY welcoming.  Sacrament meeting left much to be desired.  My kids were horrible.  We ended up in the foyer of course, and then left early because I couldn't take any more of the obnoxious comments from the guy sitting on the chair across from us.  Really people, if someone has six kids, reminding them of it and commenting on how crazy that is while they are freaking out all over the building, is not really helpful, or polite in any way, shape, or form.  I have no idea who he was, but he bugged.  I'll be happy when the shock of our family's size wears off of these people too :) that's for sure.  It's normal, and we go through it quite often, but yeah, I'm sick of it.  It's funny because the people who lived in this house before us had ELEVEN kids!!!!  (don't ask me how they fit in here.  It's only3 bedrooms!)  So 6 should seem like nothing right??  I guess the 20 or so years since they lived here have erased some memories.  So anyway, I will be happy when the new year starts and we go to 9:00 church.  I'm tired of Nate having to go to work during Sunday  School, right before Sacrament meeting!  It's nuts.