Hoop Shoot District Level!

I can't believe I haven't posted this til now!  It's been WEEKS!!  I finally got my camera down here and uploaded pictures and now I'm feeling even more behind on my blogging :).... 

Anyway!

This was back on 11/12/11.  Charity's District level Hoop Shoot.  We got there a little early and ended up sitting in the car for about a half hour 'til the Elk's Club got there, and then we sat in the hallway for another half hour.... so much for being early.  While we were waiting in the car, the girls got in my Mom and Simon's car and played around and the other kids and I played in our car.  Erika got her finger smashed in the door... it was horrible.

The kids got a LOT of time to practice shoot.  I was worried because I really didn't want her getting tired.  It's funny how small she looks still.  And this year she was in the next level up because her birthday is in March and the deadline was April.  So because she turns 10 a month before the LAST round of the competition, she is in the 10-12 year age group.  Kind of a bummer. Charity was lucky to have a pretty big fan club there.  Grandma Hatch, Simon, Grandpa Hatch, Pam, Me, Kelly, Bradley, Luke, Noah and Erika were all there, cheering her on!!! (and talking on phones, and playing with iPads, and climbing all over the bleachers, and eating fishy crackers even though they said now outside food or drink, and taking bathroom breaks.... I'm pretty sure we were the most disruptive group there, thanks to Pam and the littles.... fun stuff.) 

She did pretty good!  I was impressed, because along with the older age group comes the line that is further back!  We kind of lost count of her shots and the other 2 girls she was against, so we weren't sure if she had won or not.  (Kelly booed quietly for Sasha- the girl she lost to at the school level one :) she's so funny)

They always do a special little lunch for all the competitors at the Elk's Club.  It's so nice of them to put that whole thing on!!  I am still just so impressed with the whole thing.  We were a little late to it because I had had to take the 2 little ones to my Mom's (they were done sitting still after the hour and a half Hoop Shoot).  But we got there in time for Charity to go up and accept her 3rd place trophy.  She was really thrilled to still get a trophy, and frankly I think that's really all that mattered at that point :).  

Here's the crappiest view ever of the contestants.  (for some reason nobody would move so that I could get a decent picture)  The girl next to Charity therein the Jazz Jersey, was one of the girls she was up against... you can see how much taller she was than Charity.... not that I'm trying to make excuses or anything :).... just a little one sided is all.... 

So that was that.  Hoop Shoot over.  We were all a little bummed, but Charity did her best and that's all that matters!!  Better luck next year!  For everyone!  And Bradley should be old enough to participate, so that will be fun!

Future Memories

- Sunday was my first day as the First Counselor in the Primary.  It was pretty uneventful minus some hangups with the puzzles in the nursery.  Someone had dumped all of the puzzle pieces into a bag, so all of our cute elderly Nursery teachers were frantically trying to put them all back together since that is the main, attention grabbing activity that MOST of the kids will fall for when their parents drop them off.  I helped them with that for a few minutes, so that was exciting ;).  I did enjoy seeing the Senior Primary.  It's been about 6 years since the last time I was in a split primary.  So anyway, I think I'm gonna like my new calling.

- Sunday night was our SWEDISH NIGHT!  We had planned to have it at our house, but Grandma Hatch wasn't feeling good enough so we switched it to her house at the last minute.  This was a fun activity.  It took a lot of planning and recipe searching :) but it was worth it.  We had a whole shmorgasborg (I'll look up how to spell that later) of food.  I learned how to make some Swedish meatballs and Semlor for this activity.  It was really fun to try the Semlor!  And I loved Nate's reaction to it ;).  He said they tasted just like he remembered them and took him back.  Love that :).  Sarah made a delicious Princess Torte, which tasted a lot better than I thought it would taste based on my observation of the recipes.  It's kinda fun to try new things.  My brother and Nate both served their missions in Sweden so it's fun to capitalize on that idea and make up excuses to get together with it :).  The food is pretty good as far as I'm concerned so it's fine with me.  I wonder what we'll make for next year?

- Nate's been feeling like crap for 2 days so we've had the pleasure of having him home from work.  It's been so nice :)  I love having him here.  He's not like most guys who are completely useless when they're sick.  He's been shopping with me tons, and we've sat around talking.... it's been a blast for me :).  Hopefully he gets feeling better soon so he can go back to work and get back on his training hours, but until then.... I'll be living it up :).  11-30-11

-The kids earned like $159 altogether between the 4 of them in the last 2 weeks!  Granted they don't keep all of that because they have to pay me for the jobs they didn't do, but WOW!  It was a big chunk of money!  Hopefully we can get this family economy thing back on track now!  I'm excited!  11-30-11

- Wednesday, Nate, Noah, Erika and I got to go take a tour of the Tower!  Nate's friend Chris Bakke works in the tower and scheduled a tour for us.  It was really cool!!  I can't believe how high up it felt!  The planes look so small!  I wish the day had been less smoggy, but it was still pretty cool to see.  11-30-11

Future Memories

- Tuesday, we went and bought my "new toy", as I keep calling it to the kids :), a giant WHITE BOARD!!!!  I'm sure I sound crazy, but I've wanted one of these F O R E V E R (go ahead and read that with the same drawn out tone that the kid has on Sand Lot).  It has been a dream come true!  I can put everything on there that I need the kids to think about and see, everything I need to think about and see, it's just really fantastic for my cramped brain!!  I feel like it's already helping me to get more organized which is something I have been needing to do for a while.  Here's to not waiting for the next stage in life to get on with things! 11-15-11


- Oh boy... I have left out a lot of days!!  I will try to catch up, but all in good time.

- Monday morning I had my first meeting with the Primary President as her first counselor.  She gave me my binder and a run down of my responsibilities.  I'm really excited about my new calling.  I will miss Bradley, but I think he needed a break from me too :).  I'm glad I"m still in the Primary at least.  11-21-11

- Monday 11-21-11 we announced to the kids at FHE that we have FINALLY filled the trampoline jar... kind of anticlimatic since it's too cold to put one up, but come Spring!!... and now we are going to start a new jar, a much larger one of course, to save up and earn a trip to CALIFORNIA!!!  Particularly Disneyland, but Sea World and Universal too!!  I can't believe how exciting this was!!  The kids all cheered and screamed and bounced around!!  SO FUN!  We are not big travelers (yet :) ), but if it's always this exciting, I think we'll be doing a lot more of it in the future :).... I say that like we're going soon ;).... We project that we will be going in September sometime... that's the "plan"... we'll see.  I'm happy that the kids reacted so well.

-Tuesday was a crazy day, I worked in Brad's class, ran around like a crazy person getting Luke and Carter, then taking my Mom to the doctor, going out to Lunch with Nate, my Mom and the littles, then going to the school again to pick Kelly up (hoping I wouldn't have to take her to the Doctor) because she had fallen and hit her face against a wall.  Sometimes I just don't know how to react.  I try to remain calm most of the time, until I know exactly what's happened to my kid, but I just wish the school wouldn't downplay the bad stuff, or exaggerate the not so bad stuff.  She was totally fine.  They had me worried.  After we got the big kids from school, we made our way to McD's for ice cream and to hang out with Christy and her kids.  That was nice!  Such a relaxing time compared to the rest of my day.  And Christy and I were able to catch up a little.  I respect her so much.  She's done so much with her schooling and has such an impressive position.  It's neat!  Moms who can do work and Momming at the same time and end up with such good kids, I gotta hand it to them!  11-22-11

- Wednesday was a lot of fun!  Since the kids were off and Nate had the morning off we decided to take advantage of that and went to see a movie!  We saw Arthur Christmas.  It was a pretty cute show.  Not sure how I felt about the outlook on the Santa, but the kids didn't seem to mind ;).  I think Nate's mom has given me a new perspective on Santa, and it creates this... almost reverence for him... which I think is cool.  It's not weird or anything, obviously Christmas isn't about Santa, it's about our Savior, but when you can find the relationship, or the similarities between the two, it's really neat.  Nate's mom is so good at that!  Fun times.  11-23-11

- Friday we spent the WHOLE DAY cleaning house!  I like to do my Spring cleaning in the Fall.  The girls and I spent a good 3 hours on their room, it looks SO good now!  And the boys and I did their room for about an hour.  It was surprisingly not as dirty as the girls.... go figure.  We always rearrange the layout of their rooms when we clean, just for a fresh new look.  It's fun.  I love making our home a place where the Spirit can be.  After the kids' rooms, I did the office and the toy room (which Kelly totally helped me with and talked with me while we were doing it, that was a lot of fun!).  Felt so good to purge ourselves of 3 large garbage bags of trash, and then another 2 of stuff to take to the D.I.  Love that!  We still need to get rid of a bunch of the toys though.... that's coming up!  That night I couldn't sleep for some reason, then Erika came down and couldn't sleep either, so we stayed up all night (and I mean ALL night!) watching Tangled.  I finally got to my bed at 5:08 am.  It's been a while since I pulled one of those... but not too bad.  11-24-11

- Saturday was our "lazy day" as Brad and I called it.  I didn't nag :).  It was nice.  The kids actually had a lot of fun, AND got their jobs done!  And I enjoyed it as well!  It was nice.  Bradley did need to get out about halfway through the day though, so he and Erika and I went to run some errands for my Mom and got some of the things we needed for our Swedish food.  It was good time with my boy and his little sis.  I enjoy that.  Thankfully Nate let me take a nap when he got home.... I was in desperate need.  Then he fixed dinner for the kids and everything! Nate and I looked through some of his mission stuff after we got the kids in bed.  SO FUN!!  I feel a real closeness with Sweden and the people.  I did spend a good 2 years praying for them and the missionaries there, so I feel that may be the cause.  It's neat that Nate was with Brent.  I read Nate's journal, a couple months' worth and just fell in love with that sweet 19 year old boy!!  What a neat missionary he was!!  I have so much more respect for what he (and other missionaries) did and went through.  I can't believe the Lord requires that of 19 year old boys!  And yet after reading his journal, I can see why!!!  They are Spiritual powerhouses!!  Nate is just amazing.  I love readin git.... I think that will be my new form of Spiritual enlightenment!  11-26-11

Talk Talk Talk

Noah said this to me the other day after wiping away a few tears, with a very depressed tone, "Everyone keeps calling me cute."  I reassured him that I would stop calling him that and that I would talk to everyone else, and he quickly said, "It's okay if you say it, just not everyone else!"  Awwwwwww!

Noah's latest:  "Erika did it!"

Me:  Noah, did you do your job today?
Noah:  Yep.
Me:  You did?
Noah: Yep.
Me:  Really?  What was it?
Noah:  I don't know.
Me:  But you know you did it?
Noah: Yep.
(he was so confident and sounded so sure of himself.  I really couldn't even argue with him :))


Me:  Noah, it's your turn to get your hair cut!
Noah:  Why do I have to get my hair cut?
Me:  Because you love your Mother.
Noah:  Mom, I really do like you the most, but I do NOT want to get my hair cut!


Noah:  Kelly, I'm going to throw lots of snowballs at you because you are the nicest sister on the WHOLE Earth!!

Erika keeps talking about her experiences the day we went down to Heidi's house.  It's SO CUTE!!  She starts with the dog we played with for a few seconds outside saying, "Dog. Kwime. on. my. shirt!"  and then I remind about the dog licking her face and she smiles and says, "Yeah."  Which is totally cute!  She goes from being all offended to happy in a matter of seconds.  Then she remembers why we were there, "Hi-ee."  And that Heidi gave her a "Bunny."  How she remembers those little details is beyond me.  But she'll go through this whole thing at least once a day :)  It's adorable.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Yesterday was Parent Teacher Conferences for us!  I managed to sign up for all four kids on the same day, one right after each other!  I was so proud of myself :).  Course then Bradley's teacher had to reschedule his because of a family emergency, so that stinks, and we will have his on Thursday, but I wanted to document everyone else's while it was fresh in my mind (as fresh as a day old can be :) ).
Kelly was first.  Mrs. Ashliman had THE NICEST things to say about her!!  I LOVE that woman, she is so full of energy (even though she's 47!!! ---couldn't believe THAT!), and so full of love for the class and for teaching.  It's so impressive to me how organized and fun she can be at the same time!  And I'm SO grateful that Kelly got her this year!  She really is a breath of fresh air from last year's Mrs. Rafferty blah.  No offense to Mrs. Rafferty, she's just different.  Anyway, Kelly is extremely high on the reading scale, she's doing great in Math, science, art.  She had all 3's except typing which her teacher said is to be expected at the first of the year.  We've got to bring her 3 wpm up to 10 by the end of the school year :).... hopefully she'll practice a little more now that we've made that our goal.  It's really nice to see her doing so well and enjoying 3rd grade so much!

Charity was next.  Mrs. Davis is a sweetheart, and SO organized as well!  I love that!  And I love the fact that I taught her kid swimming lessons :).  She is such a great teacher!  And I can tell that she loves Charity and her ability to stay on task.  That's really nice.  Charity is one of the best readers, at a 7.5 grade reading level!  She is typing 26 wpm which is way more than the 20 she needs to have it at by the end of the school year.  She's doing well in all of her subjects for that matter, all 3's on her report card.  It's really nice to hear how much she benefits her class and how much of an asset she is.  I love that people recognize that about her.  She is going to work on making her bed and cleaning her room!  Great goal for a teacher to suggest :).

Luke was last.  Mrs. Savage is one of my favorite teachers... all three of these are actually.... in the school.  We're so blessed to have such good ones this year!  She helped us figure out a way to get Luke interested in reading since that was one of the things he had a lower score on with his report card.  And when we got home we tried it and amazingly it worked!  But she showed us a lot of his work, how his handwriting has progressed, and how great he is at figuring out and finishing patterns.  Which is really fun to see :).  She told us he is a good boy in class and she doesn't have to get after him at all.  I was SO happy to hear that!  I know he can focus, but I also know he can sometimes not :) So I'm glad he does at school.  He loves it and that's all that REALLY matters to me at this point :). 

We finally went to Bradley's.  His was just as fun as the others :).  He's doing well in so many areas!!  It's tough with the way they do the grading, if they miss one question on one piece of paper, they can end up with a 2.75 or a 2.5 instead of a 3.  Kinda weird.  But either way.  He's one of 3 of the top readers in his class, and he has made so much progress, she's recommended him to go to SEM (which is just the funnest thing in the world according to the girls) so he's really excited about that.  His two best friends get to go to SEM, and now he will too!  So we're proud of him!  He has excellent math skills.  I still can't help but wonder if that comes from all the Baby Einstein he watched as a kid :).... I wonder.  The only area we could even think to set a goal in for Bradley was his handwriting.  He does pretty good, and she said she wasn't worried about his handwriting, she just wanted to challenge him to get even better at it.  I liked that.  She's not my favorite teacher- I love her as a person, she's really fun to talk to and we have lots in common, so that's fun- but as a teacher, I feel like she's still learning.  She's fairly new.  I do wish she was just a teensy bit more cheerful.... but then again, who am I to request something like that out of someone right!  Hopefully Brad doesn't notice it like I do when I'm in there.  Anyway.  It's been a good first quarter for Bradley!  I hope he can keep it up!  I'm so proud of him and the progress he is making and I think my favorite thing that she told us was that he is a good helper, good friend, and "SO POPULAR!  Everyone knows Bradley and looks up to him."  Yep.  That's my boy.  He is amazing. 

I just LOVE that my kids are good at school.  They're not perfect by any means, but this is one thing I don't dread, and I enjoy praising them and rewarding them for being such good students.  What a relief it is!