Uh! Thanks for the tip West Forsyth School District, I never would have thought of that!

I haven't given my opinion lately and most of you are probably glad. But I couldn't pass this one up. Ever since my children started attending government schools (aka public schools) I have noticed the trend of the schools thinking they know what is best for my child more than I do. I am grateful that they teach my children to learn to read and write, how to do math and science, and teach them social studies. All very important but what they don't need to do is tell me what I should put in my children's lunches, they don't need to give them lunch (that I later get a bill for) when they forget their lunch (I'd rather have them go hungry so the next day they will DEFINITELY remember). They don't need to have special events for the moms and dads to come have donuts with their kids because they are concerned I don't spend enough time with them. They don't need to tell me that I need to make sure that my child gets enough rest the night before a placement test and to eat a healthy breakfast that morning - FYI, I do that EVERY night and EVERY morning. I know they want the best for these kids but let ME be the parent. The reason for these thoughts is the other night the school district called to inform me that it was going to be record temperatures that next morning and that the school buses might have a hard time starting so they may be a little late. All well and good, if my kids rode the bus I would actually care and be glad for this information. That wasn't the importance of the message though. They wanted to let me know that since the kids might have to stand outside a little longer waiting for the bus, I need to make sure to dress my kids in warm clothes. WHAT?!? Do they think every parent was planning on sending their kids to school in shorts and tank tops? PLEASE! What a waste of a phone call and I am more disappointed that I answered it and interupted our dinner we were having - which was healthy and we were eating all together as a family - spending quality time together, just before the girls went to bed early to get a good nights rest to wake in the morning to eat a healthy breakfast. Good thing we have West Forsyth School District, who KNOWS what kind of parent I would be.

Alexa's 5K Run

Here we are getting ready to go early saturday morning for Alexa's big run. Of course, McKenna looks as cute as ever.

Here Alexa and I are before the race. I was really having regrets that I didn't sign up to run. I did ask Alexa earlier if she wanted me to run with her and her comment was (as polite as she could sound), "Do I have to run with you the WHOLE time?" Yes, she is becoming a tweeny. Luckily she's a sweet girl. She did feel bad for saying that but I plan on holding it over her head for a while. Next time I am totally doing it.

Alexa and Liria (pronounced Lidia)
This is Alexa's dear friend from church and they are lucky enough to be in the same school class also. They ran together. These girls trained with all the kids in their school that were involved every Monday after school with just a little complaining.
Here they all are stretching before the big race. I think Alexa is more "posing" than she is stretching. What a girl.

Southwest Elementary kids!

Starting the race

"The Bystanders"
Maya

The babe - McKenna

The Finish Line!
We had to laugh because as we watched everyone cross the finish line many people would race at the very end across the finish line. (notice the boys in the front racing each other.) Not these girls. Alexa and her little friends all decided that they would run across holding hands. (Can you say "Kum By Ya"?)

Here they are after the race. We were so impressed. That's a good run for a girl that had never run a race before.

Alexa - with her medal

A Brief Update

It's been a while since I've posted. Life has been unbelievably crazy lately. So here is just a short summary of what to look forward to:

Alexa's 5k Run
Olivia's Baptism
Thanksgiving
Maya's Birthday
Christmas
Trip to Arkansas

Check back and SOMETHING should be posted hopefully soon.

Around the house comments:

New Year's Resolution:
Alexa: My new year's resolution is to eat more and read less.
(I don't think I've ever heard that one before.)

Tongith was family night. A friend of mine here in NC told me about how they did Spotlight at FHE when her kids were little. One person would be the spotlight, they would go around the room and each family member had to say something that they loved about the person being spotlighted. She said it was great when someone was upset with a sibling or parent and they had to say something they loved about them - it helped turn around their attitude pretty quickly.

We decided to start doing that and have really enjoyed it. (We did have to explain to Maya that we got to pick what we wanted to say about her - she wanted to tell us what we could say.) Tonight it was my turn. Maya said, "I love mommy because she always picks us up from school and always has a smile on her face." I loved that she recognized such a small thing that I do and that she appreciates it - for the smiling part I think she's giving me a little more credit but I'll definitely make sure tomorrow that it's there.

Around the House . . .

Life has been crazy these past few weeks, as I'm sure it has been for everyone. I have been terrible about posting. I should be going to bed as I have yet to get a full nights sleep but since I have been doing RS stuff for the past 2 hours, I thought I'd take a break and relax before going to bed. Here are just some everyday pictures of our family around the house.

When I am busy on the computer, McKenna loves to get a book or magazine and sit on the edge of the treadmill and read. (It lasts for about 1 min.)

The newest addition to the household: We painted chalkboard paint in the playroom. The girls were so excited. The first day they could write all over it they played school with Daddy. (I would have had pictures but it was Sunday afternoon and I was taking my Sunday nap that I don't get very often anymore.)
Alexa

Just a regular night around the dinner table.

Maya

Liv

Yummy

What a mess!

McKenna does this new thing when you go to take her picture she squats down like this.

Brenden - Couldn' resist adding this picture.

Time to Relax!

It's official. We have a child old enough to mow the lawn. One less job for us to do. Now we can sit back and relax. Actually, we'll just have more time to do MORE jobs.

Does she look like a pro, or what?

This was her first time and her mom that gets a little "OCD about the direction of how the long gets cut was pretty impressed with how straight her lines were, not to mention they were going all the same direction.

My Sweet Olivia is 8!

8 years ago our dear sweet "Little Lady" was born. She took a while to come but we were so happy when she did. This precious girl does things her own way. No matter how hard we tried to get her to talk she wouldn't do it. We would get an occasional Mama or Dadda but that was it. Finally when she was around 2 she decided to start talking. The first thing she said was, "I wanna watch a show." From then on she never stopped.

Olivia has always been so easy going. She is just content with whatever is going on. But she can have somewhat of a temper if you aren't careful. We are just grateful it is few and far between.

Although she is one of four girls she is as different as can be from them. Olivia is the only one with blue eyes, the only one with blond hair and the only one who is left handed like her mommy.

Although she can be shy at times she loves to be goofy with her friends and sisters.

Olivia is so fun to have around. Like I said, she is just easy going. If there is something she wants to do and her sisters want to do something different she is the one to go along with what they want to do without any arguments or upsets.

Olivia has become such a good student. She loves science and is doing so well at math. She is in a group that gets an extra math homework sheet to try at home called Super Star Math. She is loving that and I think it is building her confidence in knowing just how capable she is. Everyday after school she goes straight to her room and does her homework without even being told. She is taking after her big sister and LOVES to read. Olivia also has a quirky side to her. She's not like all kids when it comes to food. She isn't one to like fruit snacks or fish sticks. She likes the real stuff, especially her daddy's cooking. She wants the real Mahi Mahi. She likes tomatoes and doesn't want the Ranch dressing - she likes the vinegrates or anything new. She is willing to try any type of food and really takes her time tasting it to see if she likes it. She is a good big sister and is always trying to do her best.

Here she is on the big day. She wanted to wear her Red Sox shirt to school and when she got there, found out that her good friend, Drew was wearing his also. That made her day.

Since we always have so many birthdays this time of year, we get a little tired of the traditional cake. This year we did a GREAT thing that I hope will become a tradition for her birthday. We took a graham cracker pie crust and 1/2 gallon of ice cream. We put the ice cream in a bowl to soften enough to be able to mix it. Then we took the girls halloween candy bars and broke them all up and stirred them in the ice cream. Then we put it all in the pie crust and back in the freezer to harden. We also added some choc. cookies crumbled on the top. It was a win, win situation. We got rid of Halloween candy and didn't have any cake or ice cream left over.

Since Livie's old scooter got "lost" in the move, she got a new one for her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Olivia. We sure love you and are so glad that you are a part of our family.

Prop 8 Demonstration

I am sure that you all have seen a lot of news about the protesting of Prop 8 in CA. I just saw this on another blog and thought I'd post it. It is amazing to me that those that want tolerance have so little of it. These people are so hateful. I'm sure not everyone that voted No is this way but with all the protesting going on, it makes me wonder.

I'm not a feminist but. . .

The one thing that I have noticed and don't like about the south is that there are a few men who are a little chauvinistic. I noticed it in AR and I notice it here. Don't get me wrong, I think men and women definitely have different roles in this world. I feel like my role is to be a wife and mother and to take care of our home and raise my children the best I can. Tim's role is to "bring home the bacon." and fix things I can't around the house. And treat all us ladies like the ladies that we are. There are just some jobs that I don't think women should do i.e. sports announcing, construction (The house that was being built behind us was framed by 2 women and it took almost 3 months to do.) President of the United States (although in 4 years I might have to change my mind depending on who's running.) just like I think their are jobs men shouldn't do. (preschool teacher, hair dresser, President of the Women's Republican Committee.) I guess some would call me chauvinistic. The reason I bring all this up is that although I may be a woman, a stay at home mom at that, doesn't mean I don't know anything.

The other day our 3 hall lights that are hooked up to a 3 way switch stopped working. Tim and I tried the switches and concluded that there was something wrong. I called the electrician who wired the house and told him that our hall lights weren't working. Here's how the conversation went:

Casey: Hi! We live in **** and you did the electrical work for our house. Our upstairs hall lights aren't working.

Elec Guy: Did you check the light bulbs?

Casey's thoughts: Are you really asking me that? Do you think I'm an idiot?

Casey: No, but I don't think that all 3 light bulbs would go out at the EXACT same time.

Elec. Guy: Did you check the breaker switch because sometimes the switch might trip.

Duh! Like I don't know that's a possibility.

Casey: No, because wouldn't there be other rooms or lights attached to that same switch and wouldn't those not be working either? Everything else works.

Elec. Guy: Not necessarily. I don't know if there are other rooms attached to that breaker.

Casey: Well, I'll go check just to make sure. (To my NOT surprise, it wasn't tripped) There are 3 other rooms attached to it and no it's not tripped.

Elec. Guy: Is there a GFCI switch in the hall bathroom upstairs by the hallway?

Casey: I don't know, I'll go check.

Casey's thoughts: You are making me go all the way upstairs to check the GFCI switch in the bathroom where everything works. Of course, it's no the switch because the only thing not working is THE HALL LIGHTS!!!!

Casey: No, there is no GFCI switch in this bathroom.

Elec. Guy: Oh! Ok. Well, let's see, we'll have to schedule an appt. to come out.

Casey's thoughts: I could have told you that 5 minutes ago before you made me hike all through the house checking everything.

Elec. Guy: When did you close on your house? Is it still under warranty.

Casey: Yes, Dec. 27.

Casey's thoughts: Would I even be calling you if it wasn't under warranty. I'd fix it myself.

Conclusion: Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I don't have any common sense.

Thanks Livie, for your "Random" questions!

I want to hurry and get this down before I forget. I want my girls to remember this. Tim has been out of town, McKenna has been sick, I've been trying to catch up and figure out my new calling and we have 50 people coming to our house for an EQ social on Saturday night. Needless to say, I almost skipped out on reading scriptures with the girls. I was busy getting some work done and was about to tell Livie to brush her teeth and go to bed when out of my mouth came, "go get the scriptures and why don't you guys read to me while I am finishing this up?" So that's what we did. I finished my task and then sat down with them to finish reading. We were reading in Doctine and Covenants. The girls had read about three verses and I have to admit I wasn't paying close attention. When I sat down I tried to hurry and read through what was read to "catch up" with them in case they had any questions. During the short pause Livie started asking me a question. Now, if you know Livie, her questions could be about anything. And usually not what we are talking about. I listened impatiently ready to push the question aside. She asked, "Do you HAVE to go to Achievement days?" Here we go, I thought. Let's just get on with this so you can go to bed and I can get back to work. But instead I said, "Why do you ask?" (It's amazing how the spirit can guide me to be a kinder, gentler mother when the impatient one is right inside.) She proceeded to tell me how her friend that will be turning 8 was asking and saying that she didn't really want to go. I told her, "No, she doesn't HAVE to. We don't HAVE to do anything. We DO those things because we have a testimony of them and we love our Heavenly Father so we DESIRE to do the things that are asked of us. We don't HAVE to go to church, but we do because we love the Lord and we want to choose the right." Alexa pipes in, "So we don't HAVE to go to school if we don't want to?" DING DING DING!!! All of a sudden everything became clear. All the things that we had been trying to explain about the election and trying to undo what they had been told at school about the election, all related to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Since socialism as been such a big topic in this election we were using so many examples and trying to teach all of this to the kids. So as we sat there, We discussed what Satan's plan was to make everyone be righteous, no choices at all. Then we talked about the Saviors plan that he would suffer for our sins so that we could make our own choices and make mistakes and then Livie pipes in, "and then we can repent." (They do listen.) I told them that the Government makes laws and we HAVE to follow them. We HAVE to pay taxes, we HAVE to stop at the stop lights, etc. I told them that is how socialism is, the Government makes all the decisions for us and we don't get a choice. I explained that when we have faith and we have a testimony of the Savior and the Atonement, we WANT to do the right thing and we WANT to go to church. We WANT to go to Achievement days. After a few minutes of this we started reading again. And as we read I realized the chapter we were reading was all about AGENCY. Every verse we read led us right back to what we had been talking about. So not only did we have a great discussion but as we sat there, we had the scriptures to testify to us all that we were talking about. Thanks to Livie and her "random" question and the Spirit keeping me from being impatient it was one of the best teaching moments a parent could have. They seemed to really get it. And yes, they got to bed 1/2 hour late and I am again behind on my chores.

HAPPY ELECTION DAY!

Did you get out and vote yet? We sure did - at 6AM. Can you tell? Lucky Tim took the picture so he doesn't have to be in it. Dave thinks I'm a little blog crazy but you know he loves to be documented on here.
Even thought this election has been so stressful and frustrating I still love the feeling I get when I walk up, sign my name, get my ballot and start voting. I get butterflies in my stomach and love the feeling that I am a part of something big - that my opinion counts for something. I actually feel patriotic (even more so than when I pay taxes.)