Men!!

John tells me to get dressed we are going out yesterday. I was excited becuase I just got new clothes and I wanted to show them off. Fancy necklace, lacy shoes, light shawl. He told me I look Great! He still hadn'tt told me were we are going, but he is giddy so I am excited. We got in the car with the boy and headed off. And we show up at: The Man Show!

John is in the doghouse. The vendor's were outside, it was cold, windy and I was miserable.

Proud Mamma

Most of you will not understand our excitement but Scott has struggled with Math all year and has been fluctuating between a 58% (fail) and 61% (D-) today he has a 71% (C) in math with only two weeks to go. All four of us know the struggle he has gone through and are amazed at his progress. Faith gave him a sitting ovation today for such hard work. Scott I am incredibly impressed with your perseverance and proud that you kept it up with only minimally fighting. :)

Butt Chewings....Literally

I have been sick most of the weekend and so I have been regulated to the couch. However I can tell you as the brains behind the household running nobody thinks of all the things that need to be done to keep the house in order. Tired of telling people to do this or that I went outside to turn the water on the lawn myself. Needless to say I had the whole family yelling at me to get back on the couch. As Faith was chasing me down she had the dog on the leash with her. Keep in mind he is still a puppy, he heard everybody yelling at me and decided to help out. He nipped me on the butt, and let me tell you it did not feel good at all. It hurt and I was sooo mad at that dog. Once I calmed down though I was able to laugh at the irony. Morale of the story STAY ON THE COUCH when your sick. :)

I don't like the new Blogger "Streamlined" setup

Why is it that company's these days think that we all like a new streamlined page or whatever. Me personally give me all my options like before. Right now I am looking at a box and a plain white page. It does not enhance my creativity. On the other hand it does give me something to blog about since I really had nothing.

Went grocery shopping and bought chocolate chips in bulk. The bad ripped open and we had chips everywhere, including in the dogs tummy. That night the dog woke up three times to go outside and Faith still had to clean up a mess in his kennel. I have been really careful since then to make sure that all chocolate does not drop on the floor (thanks to a really messy son, the dog has learned that stuff dropped on the floor is for eating) went to through away a plastic bag today that one of the kids put in the cupboards without taking the food out and chocolate chips went flying. I grabbed all but one before that pesky dog could get them, needless to say though he is sleeping outside tonight.

School is done in a month, I can't believe it. Faith's summer is already jam packed. We have a family camping trip in June, then she goes to girls camp with her friend. July is dedicated to her Dad's family and then maybe (still working out details) it's off to my parents in August. I think I am going to miss the little bugger. :-P

Wish I could give you all more interesting stuff that we do here but we are pretty boring. :)

Loves All!

It's Spring!

We have been busy this weekend getting the yard in order. A couple of weeks a go we cut down a bushy tree that was mostly dead and wow did it open the back yard up a lot. Yesterday Scott got all the branches moved out of the yard (yes we saved them for camping) and John and I finished putting up a fence around my garden to keep the dog out. Yes that's right around the garden. John's mom planted some stuff in their last year for me and I loved it. So this year I am trying some more stuff. Pumpkins, jalapenos, corn, cilantro, watermelons (though Faith's horse riding instructor tells me those wont grow very well here), bell peppers, asparagus, and brussel sprouts. I want to do tomato's but didn't want to start those as seedlings so those we have to wait until I can purchase some bigger ones from the store. Saturday John helped me install a sprinkler system into the garden. It's not a fancy one, just one that I can drag the hose to and it waters the garden instead of having a sprinkler that I have to move around. The dog was not impressed with the work in his digging/sleeping place but alas he will deal. :)

I love spring (not as much as fall) and the best thing of all is my tulips are blooming.

Loves you!

GF Reinforcment

Scott has been feeling like he is missing out by not eating Gluten. Today I bought him an apple fritter as a reward for doing his IEP testing without fighting, anger, frustration, or attitude. Tonight he is puking and told me that he doesn't want an apple fritter Friday when we go back for more testing. :)

Another week

It's just another week around here. Nothing too speacial going on. My plants are sprouting like made and need to be planted in the garden but we have to put up some kind of barrier first becuase Enekay likes to eat plants. Faith just found out that becuase she is getting A's in her math and english class' that she will be in high school Algebra next year and high school Language Arts. Not bad for a future 8th grader. Scott is still struggling with his Algebra but we have him passing the class now at least. Last day of school is May 30th and we have ISAT's (Idaho Standard Achievemnt Tests) in the middle of April. Scott is doing his three year review for his IEP to prove to the school once again that he has Aperger's Syndrome. It's like they think we can cure him or something. Though he is getting better about recognizing social cues and facial expressions but that is becuase we work with him all the time.

That pretty much sums up whats we have on the calander and what's been running around my head.

Fine upstanding gentleman

Enekay went to the vets yesterday for his nueter. He did really well and is now home and excited to see us. He will not be a scoundral like his father.

Spring Break

I would like to say we went and did exciting things for Spring Break but alas I spent all week playing my game on the computer. I did get to sleep in all week though. Faith has been with her dad all week in Colorado. I didn't realize how much it was going to cost us to get her their and back though. We meet her dad half way in Spanish Fork and its 120$ in gas to get there and back each time (dropping off and picking up). I think next time we just pool resources with her dad and fly her it would be a lot cheaper.

The dog has been a pain all week. Scott doesn't like playing with him or taking him for walks like Faith does so he is acting out to get attention. Also Faith's cat has been sleeping with us while she has been gone. Unfortunately that means settling down on my chest and bathing her self before she goes to sleep. Which naturally wakes me up.

We did family pictures with Jenna Norwood Photography and I think they turned out awesome. You will have to go to my facebook to see them. If anybody wants a copy let me know which one and what size. But not in comments here because I screwed up my blog templates some time ago (hence the double entry's all the time) and it will not show comments to me.

That's whats been going on here.

Love you all and wish me luck in winning the 540MM Mega Millions lottery. :)

Hunger Games

Won tickets to see the Hunger Games at the midnight premier, took Faith with me. Was an awesome movie, I hadn't read the books so I was a little lost on some the less explained parts. Went home and read the first book right away. Last night I read the next two. Now I am peeved at Faith becuase she is the only other one in the house that has read them all and she isn't here to talk to about them.

Nothing new

Nothing new going on here, just living our day to day life. John came home from his training in Portland so we are a lot calmer around here right now.

Free Puppy????

Anybody ever offers you a free dog tell them NO! It's not free trust me. $75 x 3 for intial shots + $250 for nuter + $70 for Puppy Kindergarten + Food and toys and anything else you buy them.....

Miss Him

John is off to another week of "Open brain, pour in knowledge" or intensive training for his job. Please keep him in your prayers for safe travel.

Babies! Babies! Babies!

No I am not having babies, but it seems I have a lot of family and friends who are.

So far this year: two new nieces

Coming up this year: a nephew and TWIN nieces!

Plus two friends had baby girls this year, and another friend has a baby boy on the way.

Back home

Went to Salt Lake this weekend to take care of some business. I got my med check up done at the doctor's for which my family is very happy. I get kinda irratable without my meds. John met with the renters in our house down there and we are feeling much better about them being there. It looks like we do not have to sell the house after all. Though the property managment company allowed them to paint my house. My beautiful dining room that I worked so hard on is now white. Bright wonderful fall colors with a bright red trim....white. It was a major punch in the gut when John told me (I couldn't go). John fixed a couple of the issues they had with the house and they seem like good peoples. They love the house so they are taking care of it and were sad when we told them we had to sell. So this is an answer to my prayers.
Faith spent all weekend at her best friend A's house. She even took the dog over there with her for awhile and A's dog were ours out. For the first time ever our dog slept for 12 hours straight after playing.
Went to lunch with my ex-work wife. Had a ball and wonderful time. Just wish I could have seen her for longer. She told me I need to come back to work, but a three hour commute is a little much. Espically considering that I hated the 45 min commute.
On my way back to the in-laws where we were staying I ran into one of our nephews and had a wonderful chat with him while he waited for his car to be inspected. Love suprise's like that.
Say our new niece, and had a great time visiting with her parents but really I wanted to see the girl. :) Faith was exicited because she got to fee her but she was so sure about burping so I took over. John was worried I would get baby hungry but I love babies and LOVE being able to give them back when they cry.
Had a double date with the in-laws and went to one of John's and I favorite resturants then went for frozen yogurt.
Then we ended up staying an extra day so that John could make those fixes to the Utah house so we had time to ourselves and went out on a date that night by ourselves. Had Zeponies! Then went to see Act of Valor which let me tell you was soooo good.
Then home we came. It's so nice coming home and relaxing after such a crazy weekend.

Loves from Idaho!

P.S Spell check is not working sorry :(

Coming Visiting

We have some business to take care of in Utah this weekend. Call me if you want to get together. Except for Friday lunch which is always claimed by Denise. :)

Horses

Anybody who knows Faith, knows that she is a horse freak! She loves them soooo much. When we moved to Idaho we told her that we would be able to find somewhere to get her horse riding lessons. Life being what it is has prevented us from fulfilling that. Now my daughter HATES to spend her own money. If she has to buy it herself she feels that she doesn't need it. However, she has decided that the best thing to spend her money on is horse riding lessons. She is bouncing off the walls and randomly screams because she is so excited. She needed a pair of boots with heels for the lessons. They didn't necassarly have to be cowgirl boots but nothing but the best for my little girl. And yes she bought those herself also. When were at the ranch store with her to trying boots I looked at John and could tell what he was thinking. Never in his life did he think he would raise a cowboy/girl. Yet he has. She loves country music (don't mention Taylor Swift unless you have earmuffs on), she loves horses, she loves the country and yes she loves all manner of farm animals. John put it perfectly "Nothing feels better then knowing you helped make your child that happy"

Windy

The winds were 40-50 mph today. Still was nothing like the wind storm we drove out of in Centerville. Went to drop Faith off at Youth Group, and there was a notice of no services due to power outage. Another little girl was standing out side in the wind and cold becuase her babysitter dropped her off not knowing it was closed and locked. Both John and I thought we left our cell phones at home. Luckly John found his and we were able to call the girls mom. It was cold waiting with her but it didn't take her mom too long to show up. Then Faith and I are freezing becuase of waiting so we just HAD to have ice cream. :)

Anybody want a dog?

Okay John would get mad if I really gave away our puppy but he did the unthinkable today. He was found chewing on my newest knitting project. I haven't been able to knit very much lately due to the money it takes for larger projects and we managed to work a blanket into the budget because the yarn was on sell. I just started it this weekend and Scott found it in Enekay's mouth after breakfast. Luckily he only dropped about ten stichs off the knitting needle.

Weekends

I would like to be able to say that weekends around here are exiciting. Nope they are pretty much your typical suburban weekend. Saturday's are for chores and Kenpo classe. Sunday's are for church and chilling. Sometimes like today I get the urge to make something new like doughnuts. The GF ones are done and taste pretty good. Even I liked them and I usally don't like the GF stuff that Scott eats. Faith is at a friend from church's house becuase they have a mutal interest in large animals and she has horses which of course makes Faith just in heaven.

School Time

John took the day off work today, just to have a day off. However, I told him that if he was going to be home he would have to study with the kids. So the kids are doing school work and John is working on his apprenticeship workbooks. Would be a quite day if I had not gotten up with the puppy this morning at 5, I am GROUCH when tired so this day should be interesting. And girls I have NO coffee to make it better. :(

New Neice

John's brother and wife welcomed a new little girl into this world. Congrats to them! I hear she is a beautiful girl but I wont get a chance to see her until we go down to Utah at the beginning of March. Hopefully one of their older children will provide pictures soon. :)

GF

Some of you may know that Scott chose to go Gluten Free (GF) in his diet. He read a book written by another child with Asperger's Syndrome and that the kid was GF and casein free. Alex talked to his aunts about it (all of John's sister's are GF) and then asked me if he could. Once I told him that casein was yogurt and cheese, he was not having that but he still wanted to try GF. It has worked wonders for him, his attitude is so much better, he controls his mood swings better and his eczema has cleared up a lot. It has been completely worth the change in the way I cook. Now I cook a lot more potatoes instead of noodles, however when I do cook noodles WinCo has bulk GF noodles so Scott gets his own. And did you know cans of chili include wheat as a filler? Well I have gotten pretty adept at making homemade chili. :)

So how can I be sure it is really working for him? Every month we give him a cheat day. A day where he can eat gluten. Yesterday was his cheat day in addition to his birthday. He gorged himself on gluten, toast for breakfast, all you can eat Chinese for lunch, pizza for dinner, and that doesn't even count the candy, and doughnuts and what not that he ate in between. At the end of the day he puked. He told me that it was a sucky way to end a birthday. I believe it is a good object lesson on how his body doesn't like gluten that much. In addition I want to ground the boy to his room for the next week, he has major attitude problems and getting frustrated over the smallest things and he has been snappy with me.

What does this all add up to? Scott remains GF and next cheat day we will enforce moderation. Thankfully that's not for another month.

Footnote: We do normally moderate cheat days, just not on his birthday, after all you only turn 15 once.

Sweater

Some time ago I told you that my niece and nephew conviced me to try and knit a sweater. Well I did it and here are the results.