Happy New Year!!

It is 1:30am January 1st here in England so Happy New Year to all of you. We had a small gathering at our home so now all of the food is put away, the table cloth is in the washing machine and the cranberry apple martinellis has been cleaned off the carpet. Nothing like starting the new year off with a stain on the carpet - that can't be a good sign.

We did have a good time. My friend and I were getting a bit too picky about who else to invite over mainly because I didn't want a bunch of kids running through the house trashing the place. We ended up with just one other couple whose children are 11 and 14. I thanked them for having age appropriate children to satisfy the needs of the party. LOL We ended up with 2 5 year old girls and an 8, 10, 11, 13 and 14 year old boys. The boys just watched tv and played the playstation so that was easy. The girls - I think they drank as much grape soda and ate as many brownies as they could. Somehow they tired themselves out though and even with the possibility of a sugar high all 3 of my kids are asleep.

One thing we will miss when we leave England are the fireworks. We had quite the display right from our driveway. Even the neighbors up the street were letting fireworks off in their backyard. We're talking serious up in the sky fireworks. Their house is so close at one point we could hear them yell and there was a loud bang because one of the fireworks didn't go off right. Fortunately whatever the issue was nobody was hurt and they continued with their display.

Hope you all have a fun new years as well!!!

Sunday Story!

I think we've reached the end of my Sunday Stories. After 3 1/2 years I have been released from my calling(job) in Primary so I don't get to spend my Sundays with the children at church. I actually had to go to Sunday school with the grown ups. We had a new family stand up and introduce themselves, they moved from San Antonio Texas. Then we had some visitors from Saudi Arabia. Then I stood up and said I was from the primary. LOL Maybe if I keep that up I'll still have Sunday Stories to tell. I currently am unemployed when it comes to having a church calling but I'm sure that won't last long. I had a hard time sitting still, having this overwhelming feeling that I should go check on the nursery or go see if all of the classes had teachers. I'm sure that will pass soon too.

Well, I hope you all have a Happy New Year! One more week with the kids out of school and then I might be back to some regular blogging once again.

Merry Christmas!!!

Santa is just about to stop by so I just have time for a quick Merry Christmas to you all!! Hope your holiday is wonderful!!

15 Years!

Yep, I've been married 15 years. It is hard to believe that it was 15 years ago - seriously am I that old? Nah, because I got married when I was 19!! I think mostly it's been good. We've moved 4 times, had 3 kids, bought 2 houses, driven 6 cars and we've had 4 cats. Not bad for 15 years - and no we didn't have 4 cats all at the same time.

We got married December 19th (yes I'm a day late posting) in Idaho Falls Idaho. We got married in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple - as did all of hubby's family and my parents. It snowed and my bridesmaids all had short sleeve dresses - downfall of being engaged for 8 months - when you buy dresses in June in California you aren't really thinking about December weather in Idaho. We had an open house at my mother in law's house because she was SURE nobody was going to come to a proper reception. It was in her basement and we had a line continuously down the basement steps. When the open house ended we loaded our stuff up in the car and drove to Jackson Hole Wyoming. Because it was snowing everyone tried to convince us not to go that night but we went anyway. They basically closed the road behind us - had we NOT gone that night we wouldn't have been able to go at all. We were snowed in at Jackson for 2 days before the road opened again - not that we were bothered. After our Honeymoon we spent Christmas with the inlaws and then packed up once again and headed to California where we had a wedding reception in my home town. It was everything I had ever wanted - and there was no line going down to the basement - and there were no little debbie snack cakes and blue kool aid. Oh but I digress. Anyway - it really feels like it was just a couple of years ago- not 15! Here's to another 15!

(I'll have to scan in a wedding picture later - I'm on the laptop so no access to any of that)

Yes Jordan, There is a Santa Claus

This has been the topic of much discussion at our house lately. A couple kids at church told Jordan there is no Santa. Plus there are so many movies, television shows that talk about believing or not that I'm sure the kids have it on their minds a lot. In our home we believe. If you want to receive you have got to believe. In one discussion Jared was rationalizing how there MUST be a Santa. If all of the parents stayed up that late to put presents under the tree AND they had to eat all the cookies and milk they would be really tired in the morning for Christmas and they wouldn't be hungry for breakfast either. Sounds good to me. Of course I'm wondering why he isn't thinking there is no way Santa could eat all those cookies - but then again Santa's the one with the belly like a bowl full of jelly.


-Sorry I've been absent lately from the blog world. Balancing working, kids, church and the loss of internet for 3 days I've been hard pressed to make an appearance in here.

Christmas Cards

We got a Christmas card the other day. It was addressed to Lucy and Gary. Lucy and Gary used to live in our house. We have lived in our house for 3 1/2 years and we get a LOT of mail for Lucy and Gary. We get bank statements and credit card statements. Some of the statements include their account numbers in full or even checks. We are nice and we shred them or send them back. We've gotten the usual junk mail as well. Some of it isn't surprising and some of it is just unbelievable. Well, Lucy and Gary got a Christmas card yesterday with a note written in it wishing them well this holiday season and signed with LOVE. I have to wonder how good of friends these people were with Lucy and Gary. Lucy and Gary actually divorced, sold the house and both moved. Yet 3 1/2 years later Jane and Glen are sending them a Christmas card. If there was a return address I would have sent it back instead I'm wondering how many of my "good friends" are sending cards to somewhere I haven't been in years.

Week in a glance

Ugh - I haven't been here all week. I've checked in and I've read a few blogs but I just haven't had time to sit down and blog myself. I guess it's just been a busy week. Jackson swam on the school swim team and that was a highlight. They ran races for under 8's, under 9's, under 10's and under 11's. He was an under 11 swimmer. The 8's, 9's and 10's all lost their races overall but the under 11's won!!! I don't want to brag, oh yes I do. The reason they won is because somehow Jackson is a great swimmer. He won ever race he was in giving the under 11's the win. Not enough points to win the meet but we were excited enough.

Jordan is preparing for her school Christmas play, the Grumpy Sheep. She brought home an Angel costume to be washed and sent back to school. I did just that and sent it back and THEN I realized I needed to iron it as well. Had to take it back home so that she isn't the wrinkled angel up on the stage. I'll let you know on Monday how it all went.

Jared the weird is doing just fine. Yes, Jared the Weird - sort of like Gandalph the Grey. As we were walking out to the car from school the other day this boy behind us tells his mom - that's Jared the Weird. Haha. The mom immediately told her son that wasn't nice and Jared says - it's alright I like being Jared the weird. Guess the name fits him then.

Hopefully this coming week won't be as busy but it probably will be. I'll try to come in a bit more.

The List Maker

Lately Jordan is a list maker. She has written her Christmas wish list then on to her birthday wishlist and finally a list of who she wants to invite to her birthday party. Her birthday is in February. I took a look at her invitation list and noticed most of her Sunday school class and most of her school class was on her list. There was also another name - Nathan. So, I asked her who Nathan was and she pointed to the young man sitting behind us at church. When I say young man - he is 19! She told me that she couldn't have a birthday party and not invite her boyfriend. Hahahaha. I told Nathan and he thinks it's pretty funny but he said he doesn't know if he's willing to wait 14 years for her. LOL I hope not because while it is funny to me now that she's 5 and he's 19 I am sure I will NOT think it is cute when I have a 19 year old who wants a 34 year old as a boyfriend. His mom also told me that she is NOT waiting that long for grandkids.

Busy Busy

You know they say when it rains it pours. That's pretty much the way things are here lately. I applied to be a substitute teacher at the school on the base as well as the job at the testing center. Last Thursday I was called to sub in the morning and then I went to the testing center for some training. I felt like I was back in highschool eating a bag of fritos and a coke for lunch. Hmmm wonder if that diet will put me back in a size 4? Probably not.

So, I taught at the school - Algebra 2 which is hilarious because I barely passed basic college algebra. The kids were on their own and it worked out fine. I went from there to 5th grade science. It's a small school so some of the teachers have a VERY big range of classes. 5th grade was a bit more of a challenge. 23 students instead of 6 (the juniors all went on a field trip) and they were wired. It certainly didn't help we had an unexpected assembly to top things off. We managed a bit of class time anyway and things went well, or so I thought.

On Friday I get a message from one of the teachers that shares the room with the teacher I subbed for. She wants to know why I erased a 5th grade child's name from the board for good behavior and that that is "not how things are done here". She did mention that good behavior does not excuse bad behavior from the day before and when I return her call tomorrow I will NOT give her my ideas on that comment. However, the point is that I did NOT erase any child's name. I actually discussed with the kids that even though they wouldn't have detention on Thursday they would when their teacher returned. I taught school for 3 years - I would be the last person to undermine the classroom teacher's discipline procedures and I'm actually offended that she would think I'm that stupid. I'll try to be polite when I call her in the morning but I'm pretty sure I'll decline if her name comes up for needing a sub in the future.