A Rare Education

Well, things have been a little hectic and busy here.  I will try to catch up here on everything that has been going on.

My parents are doing well from what I understand.  I spent a few days up there to help get things ready for them, and then I stayed to help for another couple once they got home.  I haven’t been up there for just over a week now, but I understand that everyone is improving.  I’ll be up there again this coming week and I can help out some more then.

We came home in time to get ready to teach our lesson on Sunday, prepare our talks for Sacrament meeting, and to get the house ready for our company that we were expecting to come Sunday, and who were planning on staying for a few days.  The talks went well, at least that is what we keep hearing.  The lesson went well, and we have enjoyed quite a time with Sione’s sister and her family who came to stay for 3 days.  We went to Cedar Breaks where the kids were able to become Jr. Rangers through a program they have there.  It was free, and they had booklets that had the kids learn about different things to become a Jr. Ranger.  When they completed the booklet they each got a badge.  We went on a few little hikes and had a picnic while we were out.  We also stopped in Parowan to visit Sione’s Grandma’s grave, and her home where my father-in-law grew up.  The next day Sione had to leave pretty early in the morning to get to Salt Lake for the week.  The rest of us went to the Old Iron Town Ruins, and then we had a picnic at the park.  After we let the kids get soaking wet in the little stream that runs through the park we went to the Iron Mission State Museum.  They had a program there that was $1 a booklet where the kids could become Jr. Curators and earn another badge.  We did that, too, so now my children are walking around with two badges on their clothes.  :)  I’m glad they like them so much.  I also like how involved it got them in looking and learning as we were out and about.  Our guests left on the 3rd, and then a little later Sione got back. 

I had hardly given a thought to the 4th or what we would do for it.  We have spent the 4th with the Hydes for years now, and missed them a lot this year.  I was pretty worn out, I guess, and I slept in so we missed going to get a pancake breakfast that Sione had been hoping for.  We also missed the parade downtown.  I still feel pretty badly about that.  The paper I got that explained the celebrations said there would be a festival at the Main Street Park with a kiddie festival, booths, and hamburgers and hotdogs from 10am to 1pm.  We showed up at about 11 or so, and enjoyed having the kids do a few bouncy things, and a few booths.  At 1:20 as we sat enjoying a sno cone, we looked around and realized that the fair was from 10-1, not just the hamburgers and hotdogs.  Most of the people had already left, and there were a lot of the booths in the process of being taken down.  Sione and I looked at each other and thought of what we would be doing from 1:30 to 10pm when the fireworks would start.  We went to see a movie as a family.  We watched Kung Fu Panda, which was pretty cute and funny.  T-Bone was laughing his head off next to me, and he never got antsy at all.  Then we went home and relaxed for a while.  We thought we would be able to watch the fireworks from our deck, but they were going off on the other side of the hill, so we only got to see the glow on the horizon when they went off.  We could see Enoch’s fireworks from afar, and there was someone doing some pretty nice illegal fireworks somewhere nearby that we enjoyed watching.  I decided I needed to plan out Pioneer Day a little better. 

Losahina’s birthday was the 5th, and so now our little princess is 2 years old.  I did forget to wish Julie a Happy 13th Birthday on here, and I will take this opportunity to do that.  She has been growing into quite the young woman.  I am so grateful that she hasn’t been growing into a nightmare teenager.  I have seen her work on being a young adult, and I am so glad.  And not just because it makes it so much nicer at home.  I have to admit part of me is glad because of all the times people have said to me “Wait until you have teenagers” and I responded “I’m not having teenagers.  I am raising young adults.”  I know she is only just 13, but I see what she is becoming, and barring some drastic change that would need to originate from an outside source, imo, she is not headed that way.  We talk about it, and she knows the differences and wants to be a young adult.  She doesn’t want to be a teenager anymore than I want her to be one.  Anyhow, back to Losahina’s birthday.  Sione and I went on a date for her birthday, lol.  Thankfully 2 year olds don’t care if their birthday includes being left at home with her siblings while their mom and dad get away for a few hours.  Our oven went out on Tuesday, and as I am still waiting for a maintenance guy to come and fix it, we had to buy Losahina’s birthday cake.  We tried an ice cream cake, which we believed would be part ice cream and part cake.  We were wrong.  It was all ice cream.  lol.  It was still good.  She got a ball, two books, some coloring books and crayons, and some hair stuff.  She loved it.  This girl LOVES to do her hair, and anyone else who will sit still long enough to let her.  I got her a brush with plenty of headbands and elastics in a carry case.  She has been in heaven making her hair pretty.  On Sunday I had a bit of a job getting her to let me take out the 5 headbands she wanted to wear to church.  :)  And that was over the barrettes I had already put in. 

At church I remembered that Tevita was supposed to give a talk in Primary.  I wrote it in Sacrament, and when it was time I helped pull out the little steps they have for the little kids to reach the microphone.  Tevita climbed the steps, pulled the microphone close to his mouth, and before I could whisper the first words for him to say he used his tongue to flop over his mouth and say “blulblublbubl” which of course brought quite the laugh from the other primary children.  And some of the adults.  Including my husband and myself, if I am going to be honest.  I brought him back down the steps, straightened my face and told him that was not appropriate, and we couldn’t do that in primary.  He said ok, and we proceeded with his talk.  Of course once you get a room full of primary children laughing, it is hard to get them to stop.  There were giggles all through his talk, which is what I think prompted him to do it again after he said “Amen” and was climbing off the steps.  He loves to be funny.  He loves to make people laugh.  I need to work with him more on when it is appropriate and when it isn’t.

I have been typing up semester outlines for Liberty Girls so we can put them on the ayli.org website for people to use if they want.  When I finished with that I started working on the lesson plans and curriculum for the coming year.  So far I have done it for Losahina and Tevita.  Only 4 more kids to go.  And the group one for kid school.  That worked so well for me this last year, I decided to do it again. 

Our guests stopped in today for a rest on their return trip home.  They had a family reunion in California that we were the midway stopping point for.  They just left a litte while ago, taking my husband with them on their drive.  I always miss Sione when he leaves.  I will be glad when he doesn’t have to do this midweek commute anymore.

Well, I’m off to work on more lesson plans and the Liberty Girl chapter start up packet needs updating. 

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Last Friday my parents and my brother Donald were in a car accident.  While on a trip to California for a family reunion my dad drifted off the road while he was driving.  He can’t remember if he was reaching for a drink of water that was awkward to reach for, or if he fell asleep.  My sister Ginger who was driving in the car behind could only watch helplessly as it happened.  She tried honking her horn, but my dad didn’t hear it.  From what I understand Donald has a fat lip, and possibly a bruised hand, along with other minor bruising.  My dad has a bruise from the seat belt, and possibly some cracked or broken ribs, and other minor bruising.  My mom has a concussion, a chipped ankle bone, she bit her lip, cheek, and tongue, and has other cuts and bruises.  When the accident happened she lost consciousness.  My sister Ginger pulled over right away, and she and her husband Marcio, and my sister Heather ran down to the car.  My mom couldn’t breathe because she was unconscious and the seat belt was choking her.  Marcio kicked, smashed and tore at the windshield with his hands until he was able to reach her and lift her up enough to let her breathe.  By the time he was able to get to her she had turned blue, then purple, then grey.  We figure he saved her life.  They had to use the jaws of life to get my mom out of the car (it was on it’s side leaning against two trees), and they life flighted her to the hospital in Reno.  She is still in the hospital.  The last I heard she is still dealing with memory and confusion problems due to the concussion, and she is having some problems with mobility.  Heather re-injured her ankle when she ran down to the car, and Marcio does have minor cuts from his hero work.  My dad said he hadn’t even felt tired.  That he felt completely alert, and remembers checking his mirrors and thinking what a nice trip it was.  The next thing he knew he was waking up as the soft shoulder grabbed the tires of the car and he slid down the steep embankment.  At that point there was nothing he could do.  I am so grateful that they were wearing seat belts, and the airbags deployed properly.  I am grateful that with everything that happened it wasn’t more serious. 

I had been up in Salt Lake when this happened because of the Liberty Girl Retreat.  I was packed and I was just waiting for Collin to come back upstairs and we were going to go, when I got the first call that told me what had happened.  We stayed an extra night, but then felt we should come home, as I didn’t know what more we could do up there, and the reports were sounding like it was all turning out ok.  We are going back up today to help get my parents home ready for my mom if they release her.  She has a hospital bed in a spare room, but it needs to be cleaned off, and we will need to see about getting a ramp in place so she won’t have any stairs to climb.  Things like that. 

A couple of hours before this all happened, I did something I have never done before.  I found out what we are having this pregnancy.  Tamra took me to Fetal Studios, and I was told by the ultrasound technician that she is 300% sure we are having a girl.  I have a boys name, but no girls names.  Any ideas? 

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Ahh!  My sweet Tevita is has turned 4 years old today.  We celebrated his birthday with Sione’s since we weren’t sure Sione would be home today.  We are still doing a cake and giving him one more present today.  He has been pretty cute about it, although I couldn’t figure out how to give him a mustache like he asked for.  I know, I know, there are costumes, but it isn’t October and they are not easy to find….if I had the time to really look beyond Walmart.  I keep thinking Target may have it, but that is down in St. George, and I have to admit that I like how little I have to gas up as I run my few errands around our little town.  Tevita has also not wanted to admit he is 4 now.  He didn’t agree to being 3 before, so I can’t say I am very surprised.  He has told me he is 2 and 50 and 9.  Why he picked 2 or 50 I have no idea.  I think the 9 is because Collin is 9.  I really think the main reason is because he is my little Peter Pan.  He just does not want to grow up.  He keeps telling me he isn’t a big boy, he’s still a baby.  I want to start singing that song I learned in elementary school for our Peter Pan play.  “I won’t grow up, I don’t want to go to school.  Just to learn to be a parrot, and recite a silly rule!”  Yup, that’s my boy. 

We went to the park again today.  I really love how often we have been getting out.  Even though it means I have gotten too much sun twice now, LOL.  Today I got my face, one arm, and one of my legs (I was wearing capris).  My leg is complaining.  Probably because I never let my legs see sunlight, lol.  I got these capris one or two pregnancies ago with the intent to wear them semi-frequently, but I can count on one hand how often I did.  The reason I am wearing them more often now is because I have only found part of my maternity wardrobe.  In other words, I have 2 pair of pants I can wear at the moment, and one pair are these capris.  Hopefully I haven’t been blinding people, and I can find my other clothes before my legs become as red as lobsters.  I know I could put on sunscreen, but that would require forethought.  Maybe I will learn my lesson and I will think of that before I leave the house.  We’ll see. 

I know that I always seem to add more to my plate than I mean to.  I am working on not doing that down here, although I am finding it hard to not just jump in.  As people meet me and find out how many children we have (in the ward, I haven’t really come across that with the homeschoolers) more often than not I hear “Boy, you have your hands full!” or “I bet that keeps you busy!”  And it has put me to thinking.  Aren’t we told to be anxiously engaged in a good cause?  And what cause is better than our family?  It is the only eternal unit, right?  I may me busy, but I love my busy.  I am anxiously engaged in a divinely eternal cause, which I know should be my number one priority.  I know that I have plenty of times when I have gotten a little side tracked doing a good or a better and not the best, as Elder Oaks put it in General Conference, but I am working on it.  I have to say that I was born, like Nephi, to goodly parents, who showed my by example that of all the things in the world to spend your time and money on, your family is the best and can bring you the most joy.  Thanks Mom and Dad. 

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My sweet husband is celebrating his birthday today.  He asked for new shoes, and we picked them up for him yesterday as we went on a date to the new Indiana Jones movie.  Yesterday he also woke me up playing the 2 Michael Buble cds he bought for me while I was up in Salt Lake this week.  :)  What a sweet husband!  I have to admit, though, that I think Julie is getting more enjoyment out of the cds than I am.  I can say that since after that first listen up in my room she has confiscated them and has been listening to them in the kitchen practically nonstop ever since.  LOL.

Losahina has been talking up a storm lately!  If I ask or tell her to do something she doesn’t want to do she looks at me with her eyebrows drawn down and tells me very sternly “I tan’t!”  And if I send her to get something and she doesn’t want to go get it she just looks at me with a helpless expression and tells me “Tan’t fine it!”  It makes it pretty hard not to laugh and smile while I work on this latest development.  She has been using pretty big sentences really well.  Maybe they just seem that way because I think she is more understandable than T-Bone sometimes.  The other day she had my cell phone and was looking at a picture of herself on it.  This happens to be one of her favorite past times, but one I don’t let her do very often.  She was between Sione and myself, and she was telling us about the baby in the picture and then she said “iss mine!”  I told Sione that everything was hers according to her, and Sione asked her “Is everything yours?” to which Losahina replied “Yes!  Mine!”  Sione got a kick out of that.  She is quite the character.  She fits right in here, I guess.

Yesterday for our date we also stopped at the DI to see if we could get some tennis rackets for a good price.  Sione only found one racket, and it wasn’t in good enough shape to buy, but I found books.  :)  We bought Future Shock by Alvin Toffler, The Borrowers, The Railway Children, the 5th Anne of Green Gables book, Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey, Charlie’s Monument, a You Be The Detective book for the kids, and some books for Sione.   All for only just over $6!   Gotta love that!

T-Bone’s birthday is coming up on Wednesday, and I was asking him what he wanted for his birthday.  His answer was a mustache.  This is the boy who was very upset with me the last time I cut his hair because I cut off his “sideburns.”  I haven’t cut his hair again because I am trying to figure out how to cut his hair while leaving him some sideburns without it looking ridiculous.  Now he wants a mustache.  We tried asking him if he wanted a chocolate milk mustache, or a chocolate shake mustache, but no those won’t do.  And then he told me he wanted it to be blue.  I’m afraid he will be disappointed this birthday. 

Julie returned from Con-Con a little emotional this year.  She was part of a small group of youth at the simulation who were trying for a monarchy.  Now I was rather surprised at this, and I am planning a government course this year for her as well as Tarina where I can cover things that I haven’t covered yet.  The group was confused as to what a monarchy was, which surprised me.  As I talked with Julie on the way back what they wanted was not a monarchy.  They didn’t even have a king, they had a president.  And the president was voted in.  And there were still the house and senate, from what I understand.  In fact they didn’t have just 3 branches of government for checks and balances, they had four.  But because they constantly and frequently called for a monarchy their ideas were not very welcomed by the rest of the group.  I had to have a discussion with Julie on the way back about what a monarchy was.  She kept saying a “true monarchy” had checks and balances and was almost exactly like a republic.  And I would say no, a monarchy was a king or a queen ruling.  She would declare that to be a tyranny.  I would explain that tyranny was how someone ruled, not how the government was set up.  I would use King Benjamin, and Kind Noah and his priests (which I pointed out might have been like having a senate or something).  I brought up the point that King George had a House of Commons as well as a Parliamentary, and they still ruled tyrannically over the colonies.  Finally my brain kicked in a little better and I was able to tell her that the root words of monarchy were one ruling.  So this year we will be discussing the latin/greek roots of the different governmental terms, as well as how those governments are set up and how they run.  I think she still mainly had a good time, and more importantly that she learned a lot, and learned that she also still has a lot to learn.

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Not that I have anything coming up that brings me hope of getting any of these, but I have been building one in my mind as I unpack.

Michael Buble CDs (That’s right.  He is currently my favorite music artist.  Here is his channel at youtube to check out his stuff.  We like all of his videos here.  I can’t embed any of his videos or I would share one of them now.)

A Blender.  I just never seem to pick one up.

Some new homeschool books.  Actually I will be getting some of these, I just need to finalize my wish list on this one.

A new haircut.

Some new mascara and lip balm from Mary Kay.  Oh, and some eye makeup remover.

A new computer, or at least some memory sticks that I can save all of my info on.

Time.

A clone of myself.

Some new pregnancy clothes.  I was unpacking what I have and some of them are warn out, darn it.  Well what do I expect when they were hand-me-downs in the first place.  :)  They have been good to me.

Another bookcase.  Actually When we were unloading the books my husband said one of the sweetest sounding sentences to me.  “It looks like we need another bookcase.”  Aaahhhh! music to my ears! 

Well, I guess that does it for now.  Although Sione was feeling underarmed as the Elders Quorum discussed an upcoming activity Sunday.  I guess they are going to the shooting range and they were asking everyone what firearms they had.  My husband felt that what we have is inadequate.  LOL.  I guess that is something we will be looking at. 

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Boy, does time fly when you have too much to do!  LOL!  With just over 2 weeks before the Liberty Girl Retreat I still have plenty I need to be getting done for that.  I am also still trying to unpack dishes and clothes.  One of my bookshelves had a bit of a break down during the move, but Sione is planning on nailing it back together this Saturday.  Once he gets that done I can finish unpacking my books.  The other 3 bookshelves are all unpacked very nicely.  Because of course books come before clothing and dishes….haha.  To be honest I have been working on the clothing and the dishes longer.  The books were just more fun, and helped me reach the others easier without having heavy boxes of books in the way.  I have to admit it was a little hard deciding which of my books would have to stay in boxes for a little longer.  It was like deciding which friends could come out of storage and which would have to stay behind.  At least they will all be out in the fresh air by Sunday.

Our new fridge has a door in need of help.  It won’t stay closed.  I don’t particularly care for warm milk, so it bothers me.  We figured out that by pushing the kitchen garbage can in front of the fridge door that it will stay closed.  I thought of duct tape first, but I don’t know where any is.  :P 

After about 4 or 5 trips to the post office I think we have it worked out so our mail will be delivered to our community box that I have a key to open.  I hope.  I really don’t want to keep going back.  Not that the postal employees seem like anything but nice, I just am not a big fan of lines.  I don’t have the patience for it usually.  Lines are something that I consider a waste of time, unless I have something to do, something to read, or someone to talk to while I wait. 

Tevita has got me wondering if he has a future in gymnastics.  He loves to jump off of things and land with both hands in the air and say “yes!”  Even if the jump is just off of the bottom stair.  It seems like he is “sticking the landing” and doing that little salute gymnasts do.  We did catch about 5 minutes of a gymnastics meet on TV the other day.  That is probably where he got it.  It is just so funny to see.

Losahina’s vocabulary has just exploded.  It is so fun to talk to her.  Listening to her answers gives me the feeling that she is going to be quite the competition for Alena as she gets older.  As long as they don’t get upset that the other is taking their “air time” I think they will get along really well. 

I am getting used to having a gas range again.  It has been a long time.  Over 9 years now.  There is always a smell of gas when the oven or a stove burner start up, and I always worry that the oven didn’t light.  I have to keep checking until I feel heat to make sure that everything is ok. 

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Here we are in our new home.  It has been a completely new experience for me, moving so far from family, friends, and those I know.  The neighborhood is very quiet, since this is mainly a retirement area, apparently.  Not a lot of kids around.  The neighbors are very nice and welcoming, though.  One of them came over and was telling me how there were a few homes in the neighborhood that were owned by people who live in California and only come here for a couple of weeks out of the year and what a quiet neighborhood it was.  I laughed and told her it wouldn’t be so quiet anymore.  I’m not sure how she felt about that.  Not that my kids really are that loud….usually.  But they are kids.  :)  I need to find where I packed the camera, and I will work at getting some pictures of our home, and the wonderful view we have as soon as I can. 

Gotta go, we have movies due back at the library today, and I need to visit the post office to see if we can get our key yet.  Yes, I found the library within the first few days and I already have a card.  Who can survive without books?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD_ibxy270Q 

I tried e-mailing it to people, but I apparently don’t have updated info in my address book for some of the folks I was trying to send it to, so if you didn’t get it maybe you were one of them.  Sorry.

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I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  I hope it isn’t just a flashlight someone dropped.  LOL.  I am by no means as done with packing as I had hoped to be at this point, but I still feel like we will be able to finish packing without it being me throwing everything in boxes as people load them onto the moving van.  I also feel like my morning sickness is on its way out for this pregnancy.  I don’t have an appetite, but that is normal for me and lasts the whole pregnancy.  My constant nausea is not so constant anymore, though, which is what gives me hope.  In fact as I write this I don’t feel sick to my stomach.  Yay!  I am hoping this is not just a heaven sent reprieve to help with the move, and that the morning sickness will pick up again once it is done.  If it is, though, I will be forever grateful for the reprieve. 

I had better go pack some more boxes.

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Yesterday Collin turned 9.  It’s hard to believe that just nine years ago I held him so new in my arms.  Our first boy, he has always been very fun.  He always has a huge smile, and loves to be rough-housing around.  He loves babies.  Whenever he gets a chance he will hold and walk a baby around.  When Alena was born he would love her so much that we needed to rescue her sometimes.  I was going through some of Alena’s baby pictures with her the other day, and we have a couple where Collin was pretending to be sleeping with her during one of her naps.  He was laying next to her with his arm around her and his eyes are closed.  You can tell he is pretending because he still has a huge grin on his face.  When he was about 2 years old he started following his dad around when he was home.  If Sione was out fixing a sprinkler head in the front yard, Collin was right there with him trying to be like his dad.  His first pictures that he drew were of Uncle Dave, Dad and Collin changing the oil in the van.  When he got his first tool set he was so excited.  Now I think he has more tools than his dad, and whenever anyone needs a tool we call for Collin and ask him to get us what we need.  He almost always knows exactly where it is and will bring it on the run.  Now he loves to draw his own comic books.  He draws Spiderman comics, and makes up his own scenarios where Spiderman is battling the evil villains.  He has also always been very generous.  When he would get a treat he has always been good about sharing it evenly with everyone without even being asked to do so.  He just likes to share.  He is such a great boy and brings so much to our family.  I am so grateful for him, and for being blessed to be his mom.  Happy Birthday Collin!

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