I'm baaaaaack!

It has been six months since the last time I wrote on here. Is that insane or what?!!! I seriously don't know how people keep up with these things. So I will try to update a little on here.

Tyler turned 15 in April. Erica was selected as one of three students from Arizona to go to Nationals for FBLA in June. That was quite an honor.

Recently three of us had birthdays. Erica turned 17 on 9/28. I turned 39 (yikes!) on 10/11 and Alex turned twelve yesterday (10/14).

We started a new school year in August. The kids are in the following grades: Erica (12), Tyler (10), Alex (6), Jared (4), Nathan (2), and Zachary (1). I started out teaching kindergarten this year, but recently moved to the third grade. We had very large class sizes for third grade and very small ones for kindergarten. Since I had experience teaching third grade (for one year about twelve years ago), I said I would be willing to switch grades if they needed me to. They needed me to. I had to switch rooms as well. I really miss my little kindergartners, but I love my third graders. They are great kids.

I've had a few interesting challenges lately. One is the impending foreclosure of my house. I was originally scheduled for July and then was postponed to August, September, and finally to October 16th. It is not being postponed again to the best of my knowledge. So that is tomorrow. I'm not sure when I have to be out, but I guess they will let me know at some point; probably sooner than later. How did I even get in this situation? Well, be careful about companies who are supposed to help with loan modifications. They just pocketed my money for months and didn't help at all. Moral of the story: Checking with the Better Business Bureau doesn't always guarantee that a company is what it claims to be. So #1 challenge....no home.

#2 challenge....My minivan "threw a rod". I'm not sure what all this entails, but I do know that it means I need a new engine at the cost of $3000. Yeah, I don't make that much in a month. So our car for the moment is my daughter's little car that seats a maximum of five, but not very comfortably. The problem with that would be that there are seven of us. I just don't think that it is a good thing that the little boys are always wanting me to let them ride in the trunk. So #2 challenge...no car large enough for the family to ride in.

#3 challenge....my deep freezer went out. It was full of meat. I say was because the way we discovered it stopped working was from the smell. Imagine several cubic feet packed full of rotting meat. Yuck! That was a gross (plus an expensive loss). Alex was my hero and emptied the meat out. Tyler helped some too. It was not a pretty job. We wheeled the freezer outside first, but you could smell the horrific odor emanating from it from a distance of about 15 feet away with the wind blowing away from you.

Those are some not cool things right now. Then there were a few annoying things such as some little turkey deciding it would be fun to break one of the large side windows on the already broken down van. There was also the whole issue of me having a broken window in my bedroom that I can't afford to replace. The plastic I taped over it doesn't help much as far as insulation is concerned which I am noticing more now that it is getting colder at night. Then on Monday, my doorknob to the house quit working and we were literally trapped inside for a while until I could get it off. The knob came of pretty easily, but the middle part was really stuck. I did buy a new doorknob, but it needs to be returned since the screws it came with won't loosen. We now are just using the deadbolt and have an interesting hole in the front door where the doorknob used to be. On the bright side, I always wanted to install a peep hole. Well, now I have one. I can even use both eyes at the same time if I want to. Pretty fancy-schmancy. Plus, the boys have invented a new game of, "see what you can throw through the hole in the door".

Oh yeah, and everyone has been sicker than a dog over the last several weeks with a real nasty flu. (You know the one...it's been on the news a lot lately). My turn began last week and I am now mostly better. I am still pretty tired and I haven't quite figured out why I am so dizzy, but I am definitely doing much better. The kids have all pretty well recovered with the exception of Jared, but that is because he was the last kid in the family to get it...so he is still in the recovering stages as well.

Now, everything is not all doom and gloom. There are several positive things to consider as well. For one, I probably don't need to worry about replacing my bedroom window since I won't be living here anyway. Heck, I could probably even just leave the custom peephole for the bank as well. I'm sure they would be impressed. Not many people have a peephole like mine. I am also eating less fast food (can you say Little Caesar's $5 pizzas?). When you can't take your family very far, you tend to just make do with what you have and make less trips out and about. Also, I don't have to worry about my car breaking down in the middle of nowhere now since it already did that and is now resting in peace in front of my house. Another thing we don't have to worry about is getting the swine flu. Woo-hoo! One less thing to worry about. So all-in all, I guess things aren't that bad.

I do need to try to find a place to rent. There are many empty houses, but not as many rentals. It is challenging to find a place to rent that is large enough for the five boys, my daughter, and myself that I can afford on my salary. I don't think the two bedroom apartments for $700 a month are going to cut it. There is also the whole issue of security deposits and first and last month's rent. Also, I really need to get a different minivan; preferably a working one so I can haul the afore-mentioned children around.

Well, I guess I should go to bed sometime soon since it is now almost 1:30 a.m. I hope that I am able to write again on here before another six months go by. It will be interesting to see the changes that occur between now and then. Goodnight for now. :)

Are you kidding me?!!!!

I mentioned in my last post what was going on at my school. Apparently that post was so horrible and offensive that I am going to have a formal reprimand placed in my personnel file at school. Apparently I am not allowed to feel sad about a major life change and even more importantly, I am certainly not allowed to tell my friends how I am feeling about it regardless of whether they have specifically asked about it, or so I have been told.

The same day I wrote my last entry, I was called in by my principal to ask about the very information I wrote about. I told him that what he had heard was true. He proceeded to lecture me about it. That very day, my power was shut off and I also had to take Alex to the doctor. Not a good day.

The next day, (Tuesday) my would-be principal came to my room to also lecture me about being sad and especially about talking to my friends about it. Again, I admitted that I had told friends about it. He asked why I hadn't said anything to him. Well, quite frankly, he didn't ask. When he did ask, I told him AND I was honest about it. I also told him that I had said nothing negative about anybody because I did not feel badly about anyone. I further told him that I would work for him and I would do a good job, but that I just needed some time to adjust to the shock of the entire situation. He mentioned something in there about being insubordinate. Maybe he was worried I would be insubordinate, but I thought that my comment about working for him and doing a good job would reassure him that things would be okay.

Apparently, I was wrong. Two days later, he met with my current principal and they decided that I would stay where I am and they would instead move another teacher. On Friday morning, I was informed about the decision. I asked him to not do that. The other teacher is (or maybe was now thanks to this change) a friend of mine that I love. He said he would not change his mind and that I would be getting a formal reprimand placed in my file.

Are you ready for the irony of the whole thing? By Monday afternoon (before I was called in the principal's office), I was starting to feel a little better about the change and making plans for next year. As I had mentioned, I just needed some time to be okay with things. So it took me about five days to adjust to a major life change. Never did I say I wasn't going. Never did I say ANYTHING bad about anyone involved. Do you think it is only going to take five days for my principal to forgive me for telling the truth and being sad? I doubt it. I am pretty sure this will make him biased against me for a long time; years possibly. Maybe I should have lied, but I have a hard time with that.

Also ironic is that I have heard from several sources that many others (including people higher up than myself) have been complaining about having to move to the other school. I guess maybe since I don't have any family here or perhaps I am not related to anyone important I am not allowed to feel sad. Maybe I'm allowed to feel sad, but I am certainly not allowed my first amendment right to express that sadness. I can certainly see why I would be written up if I had been insubordinate and refused to change schools, but I didn't. I could understand being written up if I had said something negative about my colleagues or administrators, but I didn't do that either. I don't envy the position they are in and I actually do support them, in spite of all this ugliness.

Perhaps I shouldn't have told my friends how I felt, but I thought that's kind of what friends were for. I know that I listen to my friends when they are upset or have problems. On the other hand, maybe I should have been allowed a little time to process things and to adjust. Instead, I feel a little like the proverbial injured animal. Instead of being allowed a little time to heal, I got to be pecked at repeatedly by the buzzards. Now there will be lasting scars. My friendship with the other teacher will probably never be the same and I never even suggested that she be moved. That was not my doing, but I will reap the blame. We are supposed to allow kids time to adjust to major changes. I just wish I would have been granted that same courtesy.

Sometimes I think it would just be easier to be hit by a bus.

Hmmm.....

I can't help but notice that I have attempted to put my friends' blog links back on here only to have them not show up on my page. I guess I will have to figure out exactly what I did to mess this up. Ugh! I am very much not a technology person.

This weekend was the junior prom. Erica went and had a nice time. Too bad I can't put any pictures on here. That would require knowing where the cord is to connect my camera to the computer. I found two different cords, but they apparently are for old/different cameras. So it will just have to suffice for me to say that she looked beautiful.

My recent news is that I am being switched to a different school next year, but none of my close friends are. Also, the school I am moving to is not the one my kids will be attending. The reason for this is because our district is doing away with the intermediate school (4-6) and instead is having two K-5 schools, a 6-8 school, and the high school. It is a rather lengthy explanation to give all the details as to why they are doing this, but it will save the district a lot of money. Due to budget cuts, this has become necessary. I get that. What I don't get is why I have to be one of those being moved when I will have three of my children attending the other school. There is the option of taking my kids to my school, but I don't think that would be in their best interest. For one, the bus will not pick up/drop off kids from this side of town for that school. They could ride to school with me; no big deal. Having three little boys hang out in my classroom after school every day for hours while I try to get my work done wouldn't work out so well. Plus, there's always the problem of how they would get to and from school if I were to get sick or end up in the hospital for a week or two again. Also, ALL of the kids my children go to church with will be at the other school. Did I mention the fact that my current school is within walking distance of my home? When the weather is nice, I often will walk to work. That won't be happening next year. Needless to say, I am not very happy about this change. It is better than not having a job, though. I have to keep repeating that to myself again and again. Hopefully, that will sink in and I will start to feel that way. Right now I just feel like I am losing my friends and going to be missing out on all of my kids' programs at school.

Well, it's almost 5:00 a.m. and I haven't been to sleep yet. I did try to go to sleep, but to no avail. On the bright side, I should be so exhausted by the end of the day that I should go right to sleep after I get home. I am signing off until next time.

ack!

Hmmm...when I added the new page layout, all of my friends' blog links disappeared! Yikes! I don't know where they went or how to find them again. So, if you are reading this, please feel free to post your link so I can try to add it back on here. Also, if you have any idea how I can find other people's blogs on blogspot, that would be good information to have as well. Thanks.

Six weeks later....

It is so bad that I hardly ever write on here.

Let's see...the best thing recently would have to have been spring break. I went to stay at my parents' house for a few days just to visit. It was very nice. The boys got in the pool! The water was a little too cold for my liking in March. I got to spend a day with my sister and her kids. We went to the air show at Luke Air force Base and had a great time. It was our (kids' & I) first air show and it was pretty cool. We came back home Tuesday night because Tyler had an appointment on Wednesday. On Thursday, we went to Joseph City to visit my brother Chris & his family. Katherine put sleeves on Erica's prom dress so it would not be a slutty one anymore. She is an amazing seamstress. It looks like the dress came that way! On Friday, I went to Safford and stayed overnight at Keith's house. It was nice to get to see him, Charlotte, and the kids. I also got to see two of my dear friends, Connie and Jeanette, while we were there as well. I was so happy to get to see my parents, ALL of my siblings and their families, and even some friends. I don't get to see them often enough.

The pictures above are from spring break. I used my parent's camera because Erica borrowed mine and it disappeared for a couple of weeks. Picture #1 is of my kids and dad at Hole in the Rock. Pictures #2 & #3 are of the kids and me at hole in the rock. Picture #4 is of the kids inside a huge tanker at the air show. Picture #5 is of my sister and her son, Robbie. (He was very excited to get to ride on a school bus from the parking lot over to LAFB for the air show.)

Another big and exciting thing that has happened recently (this week) has to do with Erica. In the fall she attended a regional FBLA leadership conference. On Mon.-Wed. of this week, she went to the state level. She was one of three students selected in the state, in her area of competition, to go on to the National level! This is a huge privilege and honor for her. It will be great for a resume and offer her opportunities for scholarships. The bad part is that the school is able to pay for about $800 of it at this point, but that leaves another $600 to come up with by April 20th. That's a week from Monday. They don't give you much time for that. We are going to see if anyone from the chamber of commerce will donate some money to help out. She is also babysitting this Saturday during the day and then helping clean a friend's house on Monday. I sent an email at work asking if anyone needed some odd jobs done to help her earn some money. I am hoping that she will be able to go. First, we will focus on getting the $600 she needs by April 2oth. Then, we will focus on her earning spending money for meals, etcetera later. The conference is in California at the end of June. We have plenty of time to worry about the spending money part later.

Yesterday, Alex broke his tooth off on the trampoline after school at about 5:00. He REALLY broke it off. It was near the gum line with about 2-3 millimeters left of it. Needless to say, all of the nerves were exposed and it was bleeding. We couldn't find the part that had broken off, but apparently they can't reattach that anyway. The whole story about putting it in a cup of water or cold milk is apparently an old wives tale. Our dentist is in Snowflake (yes there are many other dentists closer to us, but ours is excellent). He had a meeting to go to, but he said he could fix his tooth afterwards at 8:30 so we went then. He was done by 10:00 and we were back home by 10:30. I am SOOOO thankful that he was willing to do that for us. That was very nice of him. Alex's gums are very bruised and swollen from the trauma of his accident, but otherwise, the tooth looks great again.

Tonight I am taking the kids to Mesa to watch the Easter pageant. It is supposed to snow up here, so I imagine it will be raining there. We'll see. We will just make sure to take our coats with hoods. If they cancel it, I guess we can see if my parents would mind if we stopped in for a visit or we can go to the mall if they are busy. I really don't think they will cancel it, though. We have to come back home tonight because, as I mentioned above, Erica is babysitting tomorrow. That will mean quite a bit of driving in one day, but I really enjoy going to the Easter pageant and the kids do as well.

Well, I guess that is all for now. It is actually almost time for me to be getting up for the day. It should be a fun day.

How time flies!

Okay, the last time I wrote on here, Alex ended up breaking his elbow later on the same day. It is actually just a hairline fracture right at the end of the humerus and he has a splint as opposed to a cast. He hit a crack in the sidewalk while riding his scooter and launched forward, breaking the fall with his elbow. I did inform him that there was more than one reason for the phrase, "Say no to crack." The pinewood derby was that night, so he just had to wait a little while to get it x-rayed.

The pinewood derby was fun. Jared's car wasn't very fast, but it won an award for the design. It was awesome. Jared wasn't upset about losing the speed part, mainly because I assured him ahead of time that if he did, I probably wouldn't let him get his driver's license when he turns 16...no speeding is allowed. I think I mentioned that my younger brother, Chris, helped with his car this year. He and the kids came to the pinewood derby. I was glad they were able to come.

Let's see...I've also made a couple of trips to the valley and was able to visit with my parents some. Erica also got a prom dress that will have to be altered. All of the dresses were either strapless (like hers) or had thin, spaghetti straps. You would think that for all the money they charge for those things, they could afford to add some kind of sleeves on them so they aren't falling out of the top. They don't have to be hideous sleeves, just something to give the dress a little less of the slut look. Anyway, it is a beautiful dress. It will just need a little tweaking.

Alex had his tonsils & adenoids removed last Monday (2/9). He has eaten very little since then and had to go back to the hospital for IV fluids. He's gone from weighing 98 lbs down to 82.5 lbs in eight days. He goes back for his follow up appointment tomorrow. I'm sure the doctor will be impressed. The kid just refuses to eat; not even the popsicles he picked out. I really had hoped he would not be hurting as much by now. His surgery marked surgery #17 for my children. (They are officially ahead of me by one. I don't plan on catching up.)

My kids and I were invited to go to Disneyland with a guy I know. The kids were disappointed when I declined the invitation. He even had reservations for a nice family suite, but the dates were for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I would have loved to have gone, but I would have had to have taken off most of this week. It's probably good we didn't go. Alex still feels terrible and spends most of his time sleeping. We had a delayed start today because of snow (again). It probably wouldn't have been very warm. Maybe we can do something fun this summer, like go to the beach...when there is no more stupid SNOW!

There was a bit of bad news at school. It looks very much like the state legislature is not going to fund full-day kindergarten next year. (This would be state-wide, of course.) This is bad for a lot of people, but it is especially bad for me since I happen to teach full day kindergarten. They have to make cuts everywhere, but I was really hoping that somehow I would not get the ax. Some of the representatives (Pearce for one) is saying it's just babysitting. Whatever. Maybe he should try it for one day.

I'm sure there is more I am forgetting, but I am pretty fried right now. My brother stopped by for a while tonight and we visited. It was nice. I guess it is time for bed. Goodnight until next time. :)

Always busy

Do you remember telling your parents the famous phrase when you were young, "I'm bored."? I sure would love to have a day of boredom.

Last year, I found out about the Free Tax Act. You can do your federal and state taxes online and even itemize everything for free. You can print off the return and mail it or you can efile. There is a small fee for that, but it is still WAY less expensive than Turbo Tax or Tax Cut from H&R Block. I have used those in the past and this is FAR better. You can find it by typing in "Tax Act 2008" in google. I believe that it is the first link that comes up when you hit enter. Mine are all taken care of and it only took about half an hour to do it.

I can't say that I have had anything really exciting going on; just time consuming stuff. Tonight is Jared's pinewood derby for scouts. He's very excited. Last Thursday, we drove to my brother and sister-in-law's house in Joseph City. Chris helped Jared make a pretty cool car and I just got to do the fun stuff....visit. It was great!

On Sunday, I was one of the speakers at church. Yikes! I knew I was supposed to be speaking, but once again, I did not prepare a talk until 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning. I left the house shortly after 7:30 to pick Tyler up from his dad's house to go to church. I don't know that I would say it was one of my better talks, but it was okay. The good thing is that I should be off the hook on that one for a while.

School keeps me fairly busy. Parent-teacher conferences are in a couple of weeks, so I will be trying to schedule those pretty soon. That should be interesting because I didn't realize that was the week of conferences when I made appointments. Tyler has an orthodontist appointment that Thursday and Alex his having surgery that Monday. Somehow, I will need to schedule my 21 students' conferences and also go to my own six children's conferences around those two things. Hmmmm...that's always a bit challenging.

Speaking of challenging, that is how Tyler has been lately. Teenagers can always make life interesting, but it is especially interesting when one of them happens to be bipolar and have a personality disorder. On Monday, I got a call in my classroom asking if I could come to the high school. (Oh, sure, let me just leave my class full of five year olds while I hurry right over there to chat. Why don't I just leave them a box of matches and some malt liquor to keep themselves entertained until I get back?) Long story short, Tyler is suspended for three days. I have a wonderful friend who has allowed Tyler to go to her school (she is the director there) and do manual labor (for free) the entire time he has been suspended. He thought he would just get to stay home, sleep in, etc. I am surprised he doesn't know me better than that by now.

That night I came home by 6:00 only to have to leave again. One of Erica's friends was kicked out of her house, so she is now living here for a while. She is actually not a bad kid or anything, she's just almost seventeen and is feeling like she does not need to listen to or get along with her parents at the moment. I visited with her mom a little before I brought her home (to our home, that is). That's going okay. What's one more kid when you already have six? The adult to child ratio here is fairy off balance regardless.

There is one more thing I would like to add if anyone reads this. My good friend, Laura, is having a really rough time right now. She is a single mother and was recently diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. Then her mother passed away and her fiance of three years dumped her because he "couldn't handle the stress". This has all been just in 2009. (Keep in mind that it is still January.) She is still coming to work (while doing chemo) and is amazingly upbeat and concerned about others. I honestly don't know how she is able to handle all of that. Any one of those things would be extremely difficult for most people. Please keep her in your prayers. She is a kind, wonderful, amazing person and I love her as everyone who knows her does.

Well, that's it for now. I have been up since about 4:00 this morning and actually was able to get some laundry done. There is always a positive side to insomnia.

2009, Birthdays, & Work

Happy New Year! My dad and brother have birthdays in early January. Keith turned 41 on the 3rd and dad turned 63 on the 5th. I'm not sure how mom managed having two birthdays so close together and right after Christmas all of these years. As with the rest of my family, my dad and older brother are amazing. Now, Keith was a little ornery while we were growing up...what with the chasing us around the house with a baseball bat when my parents weren't home at times and locking us outside in the cold frequently. But I have to say that he grew out of that very nicely and is so kind, thoughtful, and caring now. He also tends to be a bit of a dork, but I mean that in the good way. He is very funny and likes to do goofy things that make us laugh. He is a good example for his kids and mine and he is a great dad, just like our dad is. Dad, my daddy...I get very emotional these days when I think of my parents. My dad has always put his family before himself. Growing up, I just thought that was how fathers were. After getting married, I was shocked to find out that isn't always the case. I don't know how I was so blessed to get my dad for my father. One thing that always sticks out in my mind is that my dad has always treated people the same. He shows the same respect for people I would consider scary or possibly crazy (and not in a good way) as he did for distinguished people. I miss being able to see him everyday like I did growing up. Once every couple of months just doesn't quite measure up.

Speaking of birthdays, I have two in January as well, but mine are a little later in the month. As I type this, Nathan and Zachary are both six. They like to call themselves twins during this little overlap in their ages each year. Zachary (my baby) turned six on Tuesday (1/13). Nathan will turn seven on Monday (1/19). Nathan and Zachary really are similar to twins in a lot of ways and people mistake them for twins all the time. They have always had this extremely close bond that I can't quite explain. I love to watch them when they are asleep. Often they are lying there with their arms around each other. It is so cute! I will miss that when they get older. Zachary is the bigger of the two which is funny since he was a preemie. He used to be this tiny, fragile, little thing who had an extended stay in the hospital after he was born. Now he is one big kid. It is hard to believe that my babies are all growing up so fast.

Work. Hmmm....well, one of my New Year's resolutions this year was to be home from work no later than 7:00 p.m. each night. So far, I have done that (but just barely). I really love teaching my little kindergarteners. They are the cutest little things and I love them all. That said, teaching kindergarten is a lot of work. I have taught language arts at the junior high level and self contained classes for grades 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and K and have found that the amount of work involved increases exponentially the lower the grade is that I teach. However, it is worth it just to know you have touched their lives for the better and to watch them grow. Yesterday was one of my little girl's last day in my class. Her dad doesn't have a job (stupid recession) and they have to move away to Globe to live with relatives. She is just the sweetest little girl! I will miss her so much! Yesterday she was telling me how her feet were hurting her and I told her to take off her shoe so I could see. I thought she had hurt her foot. Her shoes were just too small and they were cutting into the back of her feet. She has very nice parents and she is well cared for and happy, but with no job, I know that they are not able to buy her shoes. I told one of my teacher friends about her and she pitched in some money to help with my plan. After school, I ran to Kmart and picked up a new pair of shoes for her. It was meant to be! She LOVES Hannah Montana. They had Hannah Montana tennis shoes AND they were on sale at an amazing price with one pair left that would fit her. I was so excited! I dropped them off at her house and she was really happy, but she started crying when I went to leave. Ugh! It was hard for me not to cry. I have a friend from high school who teaches kindergarten in Globe and she is a very nice lady. I hope my little sweetie is in her class.

Well, I guess I better get myself ready to get going here today. Erica, her friend Cassie, and I have a day trip planned today and we need to get going. It should be fun.

The last few weeks

I am not doing so great at keeping this thing up. I will briefly write about what has been going on here the last few weeks. Like everyone else, the holiday season is just a busy time here. I did get to do some fun things.

12/10-I met with some friends for lunch. They are friends from my old (maybe former is operative word here) doctor's office. We had a nice time laughing and visiting. I am still really sad about my doctor leaving, but I am happy that I will still get to see the others from time to time.

12/19-The last day of school for this year. We had our kindergarten Christmas program. My little part (aside from practicing every day) was to model the sign language for Silent Night for them. They did great and were so cute. After school let out that day, the kids and I went to Tempe and stayed at my parents' house. I took the kids to look at Christmas lights at the temple and to Bahama Bucks (yum!!!) afterwards.

It was nice to see my parents, but we were all very worried because my dad was notified that his entire department was being eliminated at his job. After working for them for 40 years, it came as quite a shock. He was not planning on retiring for at least four more years, but the company has been laying people off right and left. They gave him until Dec. 31st, but then they extended it until the end of January. This economy is horrible.

12/20-The kids and I went to the zoo with my friend and her kids. I had never taken the kids to the zoo and hadn't been there myself since I was in kindergarten. It was perfect weather and we all had a nice time.

12/21-I met most of my family (except for my sister's family) for dinner in Miami and to exchange gifts. We had a nice time enjoying one another's company and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins. It was nice to get together. I also got to see my aunt and uncles and visit with them a little bit.

12/24-25-Christmas Eve & Christmas Day!!! Need I say more? It is a tradition of ours to drive around Christmas Eve night and look at Christmas lights. Sometimes this tires the kids out and they go to bed more easily. That wasn't the case this year, but we still enjoyed looking at the lights. We always read the Christmas story from the New Testament in Luke 2:1-14 and then the kids hang their stockings and go to bed. Erica stays up with me and we watch, "It's a Wonderful Life". I love that movie, plus it is about two hours long; enough time for the other kids to fall asleep. When the movie is over, we turn out the lights and go to bed so Santa can come. On Christmas morning, now that the youngest child is five, the kids have to wait until it is starting to get light outside to wake me up. At about 7:30-8:00, I lined the kids up on the stairs (youngest to oldest) and then they got to go in the living room to see what Santa had brought. With six kids, by the time we are all done, it looks like a tornado has struck the living room. The kids had a nice Christmas. I made eggs with ham, cheese, and mushrooms for breakfast. They played with toys for a while and then we went to my younger brother's house in Joseph City for my nephew's birthday. Kevin is a Christmas baby and he turned seven this year. We all had a nice time at their house.

12/29-My older brother and his family were coming home from his mother-in-law's house and took us to dinner. My 15 year old nephew, Michael, stayed with us. He and Tyler enjoy getting to spend time together. It is nice to have him with us for a while.

12/30-I went to lunch with some of my other friends. We stayed at the restaurant for about 2 & 1/2 hours just visiting. I really enjoyed it. It seems like we all get so busy with our everyday lives, that we often do not get to spend as much time with our friends. I was happy to get to do that.

12/31-(Today) I am going over to my friend's house for New Year's Eve soon. Single people usually do not get invited to parties, dinners, etc...because most people invite couples. My friend also falls into the single category so we are going to just get together, watch movies, and play board games. The kids are coming along too. It will be a quiet celebration, but that is okay. As far as I'm concerned, the best way to celebrate is to spend time with people you care about.

Mom's birthday-December 7, 2008

Since I wrote about Jared's birthday, I thought I should mention my mom's birthday as well. I actually did not get to see my mom on her birthday, but I understand that she had a nice time. I will not mentoin her age since this is the internet, but I have to say that she looks quite young for her age. Anyway, happy birthday, Mom! I love you!

Jared's 10th birthday-December 2, 2008

Since I am writing this almost two weeks AFTER Jared's birthday, I thought I should specify the actual date of his birthday.

For Jared's birthday, he had a party of sorts in my classroom. He had four friends come to my classroom right after school. They had red velvet cupcakes, watched Clone Wars, opened presents, and ate $5 pizzas. He had a great time with his friends.

I do not make Jared a birthday cake because he has this very extreme dislike for icing. This caused problems when he did not want icing on his cake and everybody else did. Thus the cupcake solution. The kids get to frost their own cupcakes.

After the party, I gave the four boys rides home. I was a little surprised to discover that third graders do not always know how to get to their home from the school. We did a lot of driving around trying to find one house. I had an address, but it was not an address I was familiar with. When I asked what (landmark) his house was near, he had no clue. It was very interesting. After lots of driving around, we finally got all of the kids home.

When we arrived home, Jared got to talk to both of his grandparents on the phone. It was nice for him to get to visit with them. All in all, Jared had a great day.

Almost December!

Wow! This year has flown by. I guess it's true what they say about time going more quickly as you get older.

Thanksgiving was nice. I enjoyed spending time with my family.

I have three weeks of school left before Christmas break. They are going to be busy ones. I need to make sure my class is ready for our Christmas program.

I recently found out that my doctor is leaving her practice. I am really upset about this because she is wonderful and she is my friend. I tentatively have a new doctor, but I am already unimpressed. Her first available appointment isn't for two months AND she does not leave any appointments open for acute illnesses. So if you get sick, too bad, so sad. You have to go to the walk-in clinic, I guess. It's a little weird. I thought that part of being a doctor was treating your patients when they are ill.

I am the new Webelos leader for cub scouts. I guess when you have five boys, you are bound to be doing scouting things at some point. Jared turns ten on Tuesday and will be a Webelos scout. Hmmmm....this might be a good time to have a good doctor with all of the carving and knife handling.

This weekend I took the kids to see Twilight. I was afraid I would not like it since the book is always better, but we really enjoyed it. After reading all of the books, it seemed like a long time to have to wait until the movie came out. They are working on the second one now. I will have to find out when it will be released. Maybe by the time it comes out, I can afford another trip to the theater with the six kids.

Well, I guess it's time to stop and finish dinner. I really should have this done before 8:30 at night. I guess that's one of the hazards of being a night person.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The tenor of my last entry here was not very pleasant, so I thought today would be a good day to write one with a better attitude.

I love Thanksgiving! It's not just all of the eating (although, I do love that). It is because I get to spend time with a lot of my extended family. Today the kids and I are driving to Miami to see my family. I am so blessed to have the family I have. My parents are wonderful and supportive. They have always put the rest of their family first. For that matter, they put other people's needs in general before their own. It has always been that way. My brothers, sister, and their families are also wonderful. They are all kind, thoughtful, and fun to be around. I love to spend time with each of them. I often hear about families that do not get along with one another or do not speak to each other. I feel so bad for them because they sure are missing out on some of the greatest joys in life. Some people are not able to get along with their in-laws. Mine are all amazing. I love them as though they are my natural siblings. (Actually, I also always got along with Eric's family as well. I miss his parents and his sister & her family. I still love them, too.) I will also get to see my Aunt Kay, Uncle Kent, their son Kasey, and his daughter today as well. I am excited about that, too. I love them and do not get to see them enough. I really wish I could see all of my extended family. I have not seen some of them for years and I miss them. Perhaps I should arrange some kind of family reunion so we could all get together.

Aside from my family, I am also thankful that I am so rich. I realize that I make a small enough amount money that my kids qualify for free lunches at school, but I am still rich when compared with so many other people in the world. My kids get free lunch at school. They do not have to worry about going to bed with an empty stomach. There are children starving every day all over the world. They have a home. It is not what most people would consider large enough for a family of our size, but they sleep in a warm place each night and have shelter from the elements. We have clothing that fits and keeps us warm. We have clean water in our home. A huge amount of people in the world do not have that We live in America; the best country in the world...recession or no recession. Our government may not be perfect, but it is way better than circumstances in many, many other countries. I can't even imagine having to live in a third world country or a country in which being female is a bad thing. We have freedom here; many people do not. I also have amazing friends. I am not sure how I have been so blessed to have them in my life, but they are wonderful and I love them all.

I am going to try to keep all of this in mind as we go into the holiday season. That seems to be a bit of a stressful time for a lot of people so I am in good company with that one. I really am blessed and live a great life. I'm glad that Thanksgiving comes along this time of year. It helps me to take a little time to focus on how many great things I have going for me in my life. I hope everyone out there has a great Thanksgiving today and is able to remember the things they are thankful for.

The Angry, Ex-husband, Vent Post

This post is mainly so I can vent. It is not a happy, cheerful post so you may want to skip over this one if you are looking for warm fuzzies.

I have recently (within the last 6 months) discovered that my ex-husband opened up credit cards in my name, maxxed them out, and then quit making payments on them. I found out about one back in April or May when they called and wanted me to pay "my" bill. I honestly had no idea what they were talking about. After a couple of months, my ex FINALLY took responsibility and started making minimum payments on it. It is still in my name (I did close the account) and my credit rating is lower than I thought was humanly possible.

Well, a couple of months ago, I got a call from a collection agency wanting me to pay for my credit card. I assured them that the payments were being taken automatically out of my ex's checking account every month. That was when I found out that there was ANOTHER credit card that he did the same thing with. He is not taking care of this one and we (the collection agency and I) have been going back and forth about this for a while. I told them to look at the signatures and they will see that NONE of them are mine. They don't really care. He opened the accounts when we were married (without my knowledge) and put me as the primary card holder. That makes me responsible. They told me that the only way I could get out of it is to file fraud charges against him and that he will serve time in prison for a felony. I actually already knew that from dealing with the other credit card company that he defaulted on.

I am so mad I just want to hit him! He does not seem concerned at all. I guess he doesn't need to be concerned. After all, HE isn't the one who will be sued and have to pay the credit cards off, attorney's fees for the company, and court costs. I don't know why he can't just get a loan from the bank for the $6000 for the two cards, pay them off, and then pay the loan off. It seems like a loan would have a lower interest rate. I suggested this, but he does not want to do that either.

I do not want to file fraud charges against him. In spite of everything he has done to me and the kids, he is still their father. I don't want to send their dad to prison, but I certainly do not think it is right for me to have to pay off debts that I did not incur. As it is, I am supposed to receive over $1000 a month for child support and I signed an agreement stating that I would take only $400 so he would not be financially decimated. Then he does this! $400 does not really cover that much considering that it is supposed to support six children. He does not pay for insurance for them. He doesn't pay for any of their medical expenses (even though he is supposed to pay half). He does not help pay for dental or anything (two of them have braces). He will not chip in for presents from Santa (although he does buy them a gift from himself). That really irritates me because my little kids will ask why daddy buys them a present, but I don't. Maybe because I am scraping every penny I have to try and make sure that they get something from Santa. I can't say that, though. Ugh!!! It is so frustrating!

He is leaving for China for an extended stay (1-2 months) on November 10th. I'm not quite clear on how he can afford another trip to China this year when he is not able to meet his current financial obligations.

Okay, there is my vent. I really don't know that it did much good. I still do not have any answers. The few people I have talked to about this say I should file fraud charges. If it only affected him, I probably would. I just don't want to do that to the kids. They love their dad regardless and they would just be angry with me if he went to prison.

October 26, 2008

Wow! How is it that more than a month has gone by since the last time I wrote?!!! I admire the people who are able to post on these more often.

So....the last month in our family:

Erica turned 16 on September 28th. I got together with a couple of her friends and we planned a little surprise party for her. Their job was to get her out of the house while I set things up. She had no idea that we were planning it. She was very surprised and happy.

On October 9th, I went down to the valley for a little surgery at the Mayo Hospital in Phoenix the following day. That was our fall break. We didn't have school on Friday the 10th or Monday the 13th. The surgery was on the 10th and I was released on the 11th (which happened to be my 38th birthday).

I spent my birthday at my parents' house in Tempe. It was great! I had an actual birthday with a cake. I need to mention that this was no ordinary cake, either. It was Godiva chocolate cheesecake. YUM!!!

I stayed through Sunday night, but came home after that. The kids had dentist and orthodontist appointments the next day. The two older kids had to have their braces tightened and then three kids needed fillings. Alex also got to go to Wal Mart and pick out a bike for his birthday. That was pretty much how we spent the day on the 13th.

Alex's 11th birthday was on the 14th. I wasn't feeling very well. It was probably a result of too much activity shortly after the surgery. A nice thing was that I did not need to fix dinner. Alex wanted Taco Bell for his birthday dinner and Erica made his birthday cake when she got home from school that day. He had a nice birthday. He got some tools that he thought were great and proceeded to use them to take things apart.

That was about two weeks ago. I have just been doing normal things since then, but they are things that keep me busy. Alex did have another appointment with the pediatric cardiologist this past Tuesday and things looked pretty good. He said that he thought Alex's chest pain might be a result of pleurisy and instructed us on how to treat that.

Today was the kids' primary program at church. The four younger kids all had parts and they all did a great job! We had practiced during the week and they said each part perfectly.

This week we will be busy with Halloween activities. Our school has a family reading night that is open to the public on Thursday night (Spooktacular Reading Night). I need to come up with something fun to do for that before then. I promised Zachary that we would make homemade ice cream sometime soon and that he could help me so I am thinking that would be good for family home evening tomorrow. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, Tyler has counseling on Wednesday, Erica and Tyler have mutual Wednesday night, Thursday is the reading night thing, and Friday (of course) is Halloween. The kids are excited for this week. Sometime in there we will have to carve their pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch last week.

My brother and his family moved about an hour away from our house. I'm thinking that maybe I'll see if they want to bring their kids to go trick or treating with mine on Friday. I'm so excited that they live close by now! Maybe we can go visit on Saturday if they cant come on Friday.

Well, I'm signing off for who knows how long. Maybe it will be Thanksgiving the next time I write. Who knows? For those of you who read this, I hope things are going well in your lives.

We're all still alive

I have some serious commitment issues with this blog of mine. It's just that I rarely get on the computer these days and on the occasions when I do, it is usually to update my other blog about pancreatitis.

Yesterday and today I am home from work due to strep throat. I can go back tomorrow when I'm not contagious any more. Alex was the first one to get strep throat this time so he has been home as well. Last year, the ENT mentioned that if he got strep again he would need his tonsils out. I think she meant that if he got it again the same year.

Anyway, YEAH strep! Not that I enjoy feeling kind of bad, but I am catching up a little on here at least. Who knows when I will write again? For now I will try to briefly catch you up on the last several weeks in my family.

Everyone is back in school. Zachary started kindergarten this year. Woo-hoo! People ask if I am sad that my baby has started school and I look at them as if they are insane. Maybe they fail to make the connection that I am not a stay at home mom who spends every waking moment with my children. The truth of the matter is I actually see him MORE now that he’s in school since he attends the school I teach at. I also do not have to pay daycare anymore. That is nice as well. So, I have Jared, Nathan, and Zachary at my school this year.

I decided that since I don’t have to drop anyone off at day care anymore, we should walk to school as often as possible for exercise and to save money on gas. After a week or so of doing this, Alex informed me that his chest hurt when he walked. Alex is not one to complain so I set up an appointment with our doctor. She did an EKG (why do they call it that? Electrocardiogram SHOULD be ECG) and it was abnormal. Next was a visit to Flagstaff to see the pediatric cardiologist. He did an ultrasound and there were no abnormalities in the structure of his heart. There COULD be an arrhythmia but we have to keep a record of episodes of chest pain first. My father and older brother both have arrhythmias. They can be treated with medications, so it’s all good.

Jared received a letter because they want to test him for the gifted program at school. I’m pretty sure he’s not gifted, but they can test. It will help his self esteem if nothing else.

Tyler is a freshman this year. He spends a good part of his time trying to drive me insane. It works a lot of the time, too. He is getting braces this week on Thursday. It was supposed to be on October 13th, but they moved the day up. Now he and Erica will both be “metallica” as I like to refer to them.

Erica is a junior. She will turn 16 this Sunday (9/28). I’m still not sure how that happened so fast. She finally got around to getting her driver’s permit yesterday and I had her drive (much to my terror) a little bit yesterday. She actually is not that bad, but she did almost run into another driver while changing lanes. I informed her of the need to turn and look before changing lanes as opposed to just using the mirrors. I also talked to her about blind spots when driving a van and to use EXTREME caution when backing up. It’s better to drive like an old lady then to plow some unsuspecting person over.

As for me, things have been pretty much business as usual. The three older boys have scouts every week (at different times, of course) that I have to take them and pick them up from. Then there are counseling and orthodontist appointments. Usually there are some other extra activities as well such as parent teacher conferences or birthday parties. I always have a minimum of 24 parent teacher conferences to attend. (After all, I am the teacher and a parent.) It is interesting trying to accommodate all of the different schedules (parents, my kids’ teachers, etc..) when setting up conferences. It would be so nice if the parents could just make arrangements for their conference. After all, they’re only twice a year. I was a little infuriated when I had some parents who did not bother to show up for their times, but then showed up later when I was supposed to be attending my own children’s conferences and expected me to just drop them.. (Which, of course, I did.) I just had to cancel my appointments and reschedule because their time MUST be much more valuable than my time. Ugh! Anyway, I’m glad those are done. I also had to go take one of those terrible, expensive tests to renew my certification that wastes your entire Saturday. I am a little concerned that I did not pass it since I was finished in a little under two hours. The writing portion was fairly interesting since I wasn’t quite clear on what they wanted me to write about.

I guess I will go rest for a little bit. There are so many things I should be getting done right now, but I am so tired. I guess that my body needs a little down time to heal. Maybe I will take a little power nap and then get some things done. Until next time…

It is now a little before five a.m. and here I am. I have been awake for about an hour and finally decided that I should just get up since I am obviously not going to be able to go back to sleep.

I had a busy day yesterday. The morning was just the usual stuff; get up and get the kids ready and off to school. Then I picked up my good friend and her daughter and we went to work. (She is the one who is having stress right now. Her car broke down last week and her oldest daughter just got married.) Yesterday the students had early release and went home a little before two. At two I had a grade level meeting that was still ongoing when I left a little before three to take Jared to scouts. I came back and went immediately to another meeting for ELL (English Language Learners) teachers. After that, I went back down the hall to the first meeting that was still not quite over. Then I hurried and picked Jared up from scouts, dropped him off at home, and went back to the school. After that, I made some copies of papers for my parents for open house and typed a letter for them which I printed out in English and then Spanish. At 4:30, I took Tyler to his counseling appointment and dropped him off and went back to the school for open house that started at 5:00. After the open house, I went and picked him up, bought a couple of pizzas, and headed back to the school to pick up my friend. (Alex normally has scouts at 6:00, but it was cancelled this week.) Then I went to my Alex's open house at his school and left there a little before 7:00. Next, I dropped the pizzas off at the house for the kids to eat and my friend and I (and three of the boys) went to Heber to pick up her car. It was kind of relaxing to just drive and visit. I don't get to visit with my friends as much as I would like to, so it was a nice chance to get to just unwind and talk. I have always enjoyed driving, but don't do it as often as I used to since the gas prices have gone up so much the past couple of years. We got back into town around 9:30ish. I got the kids off to bed and was actually in bed myself by a little after 11:00.

The exciting news I found out yesterday is that my younger brother, Chris, and his family are moving from Bullhead City to Winslow!! I can't wait! That is only about a 90 minute drive from here. I will get to see them more often. He called and talked to Erica. This is great!

Well, it is a little before six. I better get busy and start getting ready for the day.

July-August 2008; Summer fun!

Wow! I have been busy! I did have my nephew come and visit for a week. He and Tyler had a nice time and got along with each other most of the time. I took them to Holbrook to see the dinosaurs and the trains and we did a bunch of other stuff as well. When Michael went home, I went to my 20 year high school reunion. It was nice and I was happy to get to see people I hadn't seen for such a long time. I did end up in the hospital there with pancreatitis, but that is another story. After that I went to the Mayo Clinic for an appointment about that very thing. I have surgery scheduled for October 10th...the day before my birthday. Maybe that will turn out to be a great present if it will stop these attacks. I was in the hospital here after that, but my enzyme levels were not high. I still felt horrible, though. A fun thing I did was take my six kids to Big Surf. That was both fun and horrible at the same time. Mostly, it was fun, but the horrible part was that I had to cram myself into a swimsuit in public. That was not a pretty sight. The good thing about that is that you can always find someone who looks worse than you. I saw a lady wearing a bikini with the whole, "I've had a bunch of kids" look going on. I know that look, because I see it every day. However, I do have the presence of mind to not display such a gross sight to the whole world. Ewwww!!! Need I say more? So...yes, I did try to hang around in close proximity to her. Somehow, only Tyler and I got really sunburned. We all used sunblock, too. Tyler's was pretty bad, but I actually had blisters from mine. Nothing like cultivating the ol' skin cancer. I actually felt sick from my sunburn for a couple of days. I took a few pictures and sometime I will have to figure out how to get them on here. They loved all of the water slides, but I think the wave pool was everyone's favorite part. The waves are big enough that you can actually surf on them or just ride them in to the shore. Zachary (my five year old) was a natural at that. He caught every single wave and rode them all the way to the shore. We had a great time.

Update on the last couple of weeks

Wow...have I been busy since the last time I wrote! I can't believe that school starts in less than a month! I believe that the last time I wrote about something I was actually doing was when I was visiting my parents for a week. I enjoyed that visit quite a bit. On the way home, I met my older brother and his family in Miami. I picked up my two nieces, Sarah and Amanda, so they could come and stay with us for a while. We had a nice time visiting. They stayed until the following Saturday, June 28th. I really enjoyed having them here. I am hoping to have their older brother, Michael, come visit in a couple of weeks. I have enjoyed having my siblings children visit. My younger brother has three children as well, but most of his children are too young to visit on their own yet. Kevin is six, so he would probably be okay for a visit. I do not see Chris and his family very often because they live in Bullhead City. For those of you not familiar with Arizona, it is on the western border of the state. Show Low is on the eastern border of the state. I was wanting to go visit this summer, but it may have to wait until some weekend in the fall.

After my nieces left, we came home and I mostly rested. I wasn't feeling very well. In fact, my pancreas had been hurting some during my nieces' visit. It wasn't horrible or anything, but it was hurting more than usual. I was able to patch the holes in the wall. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for that. I am not exactly the most handy person, but I am slowly learning more things. I started painting the living room, but I have not finished it yet. That job is on hiatus at the moment because we are going to try to see if we can get things ready for a yard sale. I was thinking it would be nice if we could have one this Friday or Saturday, but we may have to do it at another time. I almost forgot to mention that my chest freezer somehow got unplugged. Unfortunately, I did not notice it soon enough and my food was ruined and had to be thrown away. It made me sick to have to throw away hundreds of dollars worth of food. On the bright side, I did get the freezer cleaned out.

This week I have been doing a little mystery shopping. I went to a sub shop first and either today or tomorrow I am doing an oil change shop. I kind of like getting free products or services. I just have to fill out a form when I'm done. Not bad.

Today I need to get some sewing done. I have been telling the kids I would make them new blankets for a while now, but haven't done it. I also need to make some new curtains for the dining room and a shirt/dress. I need to go to the store, the post office, pay a bunch of bills, and get some forms filled out for Alex. I also need to remember to send my money for my high school reunion. Yikes!! How can it be twenty years since I was in high school?!!! Okay, I'm off for now. Who knows when I will write again.

Threes
I got this one from my sister. I don't know that anyone actually reads this, but it will be fun to do. I'm supposed to list: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, and 3 random surprising facts about myself.

THREE JOYS
1. My children
2. My extended family (including the one in which I was born)
3. My friends

THREE FEARS
1. Okay, I know I'm a dork, but...spiders.
2. losing a child
3. dying alone

THREE GOALS
1. Get my house (the mother of all messes) cleaned
2. lose weight (realistically, that won't be happening due to lack of effort)
3. get some scrapbooking done

THREE CURRENT OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS
1. woot.com I always check it at 10:00 p.m. every night, even though I seldom buy it.
2. half price Sonic drinks (not helping with the previous #2)
3. ebay-I can get everything WAY cheaper on there and I do love a deal.

THREE RANDOM SURPRISING FACTS
1. I do not have television. I have A television, but no cable or satellite.
2. I can walk on stilts and am pretty good at it.
3. When I was little, I wanted to be a trapeze artist in a circus. Now, I sometimes feel like I live in a circus which alternates with times I want to run away to the circus, so it's all good. :)

I'm supposed to tag five people... But I won't tag anyone. If you don't complete this, you will have bad luck for fifteen years. All of your hair will fall out, you will get boils, someone will poison your dog and/or cat, the IRS will demand that you pay back the economic stimulus check, you will rip your pants in public, and AOL IS TRACKING THIS AND WILL DEMAND THAT YOU PAY 15 CENTS EVERY TIME YOU DON'T FORWORD IT. I guess that's all for now, but I will let you know if I think of more.