Is It Naptime Yet

1. Killer Ant Bait….I found what my bug man uses and we’ll see if it works since I’ve only had it 20 minutes, because it’s not exactly what he uses, but it is the same brand. They were gone and now they’re just starting to trickle back. Darn ants.
2. Glasses. I’d be blind and useless without them.
3. How Eden tickles. She likes to use her hair and she’ll tickle inanimate objects like Jon’s laptop.
4. Lilah and how she always tries to surprise me. One day I walked to the mail box then there was a light touch on my arm and I jumped because I hadn’t notice her follow me outside. She thought it was hilarious, and it was the first time she truly completely surprised me.
5. Jon and his willingness to work hard and help me. He did the dishes recently and I’m so thankful he did, even though I’ve resigned to him not doing any of my chores while he’s in school.

A while back a friend from one of my home schooling groups mentioned a co-op she’s a part of. I decided to look it up and it looked rather interesting, so we’re giving it a try and today was the first day.

Each mom is suppose to volunteer about two hours during the day, or 4 classes. I’m assisting in two of Lilah’s classes and one of Eden’s and teaching one of Eden’s classes.  Lilah will be learning how to play the recorder so this will be a lesson on patience for me. Lilah’s classes are Book Club,  Art, Recorder, and P.E. They also teach Zoology, but since this particular class is based on creationism we’ve taken her out of that class and instead she joins the other group her age and takes Recitation.

Eden has Art, Storytime/lesson, which I teach, Snack, Recitaton and free play, but one of the moms is looking at doing a P.E. type class for that age group because the nursery is rather small and it gets rather loud when we’re in there with the other littler kids during free play.

Their age group is there for just the first half of the day, whereas they have the older groups there till four. Some of those classes include Latin, Spanish, Chemistry, Free reading and Art, among other things.  They also have a paid Orchestra and Choir instructor come in to teach, though that costs those parents a little extra.

Everyone pays a small fee since we have the co-op at a private school and need to pay rent. They don’t use the building on Mondays so it works well for us.

Lilah seemed to really enjoy today. There are a lot of boys in her age group, but that doesn’t faze her. Eden was very quiet and very reserved, especially when I was the teacher. I’m hoping she gets over this as time goes on, but only time will tell.

As I was talking with my MIL this afternoon about home schooling one of her primary concerns was socialization, which is most people’s concern. She related a story of a family who had their children go to school for just the P.E. portion. One of their children was painfully shy and wouldn’t even look other children or adults in the eye. All of a sudden I had a realization and shared it with her.

We diagnose adults with social anxiety, why can’t children have that too? Who’s to say he’s painfully shy just because he’s home schooled? A child can be painfully shy even while attending public school, they just have to deal with it on a daily basis, and the parents can say they’re just shy and no one thinks twice, but if you have a shy child that is home schooled they’re shy because they’re home schooled.  Recently someone told us about their painfully shy child and only recently while he’s been tutoring other children in math has he become more interactive with others, and he’s in public school.

I guess I worry about this because Eden has a tendency to be very shy with other people and even when I’m around, I dare say she’s even shyer when I’m around. I wouldn’t home school her just because she’s shy, but I know that she’s more interactive with me at home, one on one, then she is in a classroom setting. I hope she grows out of this, but I also hope other people can respect my decision to home school my child and not blame any anti-social behavior on the fact that they are home schooled. They may not be spending 6 hours a day with other peers, buy we do try to have them in social settings with other children and people, because I want my girls to relate to people, not just their peers.  Eden might “grow out of it” sooner if in a public school setting, but as a parent I don’t really care how fast she grows out of it. My goal is to create an enriching environment where my children can be themselves and to bring them to other environments where they have me to lean on and where they don’t. As time goes on I hope she doesn’t avoid situations just because she’s shy, but I can encourage her to try new things and overcome it. Right now I love her and her shy ways and hope she knows I don’t want her to be anyone but herself.

This weekend was Greenopolis at our local girl scout building. The whole family went and we registered Lilah to be a Daisy Scout.

There are no troops in our local area so Jon and I, gulp, are looking at becoming troop leaders, double gulp. A troop needs at least two female leaders so my friend Sam is looking at becoming a leader with me. Since she has a child that is still regularly attached to her breast, she may or may not  be able to be a leader due to time constraints, though we could just be independent girl scouts together and have our girls do things together on a more whenever we have time basis because being the leaders of a troop would be a lot, but we both want our girls in girl scouts. Jon wants to also be a leader, but has warned that I would be doing the majority of it, because he’s working 40 plus hours and going to school. (40 plus hours because they’re entering the testing and actual implementing stage of the computer system they’re switching over to. He may not be taking a class next semester due to the higher and more intense workload, which does not make me happy.)

A part of me really wants to be a leader for Lilah’s troop if it means helping her meet other girls, though I don’t really like teaching kids or think that I would be a good leader. I have a tendency to sit back and watch and not get messy. I’m not sure if I’m cut out to be a leader to a troop of possibly rowdy and messy girls.

One reason I want to be a troop leader is I’ll be helping other children and our community. I’ve had people tell me I should have the girls in public school so I can be really involved in the PTA and help other kids whose parents don’t care. Well, my responsibility is to my own child when it comes to her education, so that’s who I put first. Since this is an extracurricular and not education specific, I think it’s an excellent way to give back, without putting my child in a situation that I think is less than desirable so I can help other people’s kids.

We’re still exploring the possibility, but as Sam and I discussed it would be out of our comfort zone and a hopefully a good experience for us and our girls. I admit I wish I could screen kids to see if any are crazy, but that’s life and hopefully our girls can meet new friends and gain a different perspective on life and I can learn from them.

Each year we have an invasion of ants. It’s not fun and I was just thinking, “Hey we haven’t had any ants, good thing because I don’t have time to clean every part of my house.” that’s why it looks the way it does and why they were attracted to the crumbs and very old banana chip underneath my couch.

This evening Jon said how he’s had a couple of ant crawl on him. I immediately knew to pull the couch out from the wall. It’s against an outside wall, and the spot we had ants coming from 4 years ago when we moved in. I was nursing Eden on the couch at like 3 am and felt something crawling on me. I swiped it away and then I felt another one and looked down to see an ant in the dim light crawling up my arm and on the burp cloth. They loved the breast milk apparently and the crumbs in the couch. With Eden being just a  few weeks old we tried to avoid having a bug man come and spray. In the end I relented because they were everywhere. The girls room, my kitchen, and the living room. I was going crazy fighting them by mopping and vacuuming them up and then after I had the bug man come they were gone completely in about 2 days. He sprayed and set down liquid traps that I wish I could purchase for myself, but I’ve never found and they’re the only reason I pay $40 to have them come out last minute since we don’t have a monthly need for a bug man. (We only ever have had ant problems. I might find a bug here or there, but they’re not so many that I worry or need to.)

Now each year we get invaded at least once by the pesky ants. It usually between July and October. I’ve cleaned and set down some of my own ant traps that are suppose to kill the colony. I’m hoping we can take care of it ourselves.

One thing the ants always helps with is getting me to really clean every area of my house at once. I can’t stand them, and I can’t stand a cluttered house when the bug guy comes to spray.

Time will tell if I’ll have another graveyard on my hands.

Sam invited the girls and I to accompany her and her daughters to Pine Valley over Labor Day weekend. Sam loves Pine Valley, but she does not love the constant need to play or entertain Britta, so bringing friends was the perfect solution, and she was right. The girls played with one another the whole time, and Grandpa Gary also helped to entertain them too.

We traveled up Saturday morning in separate cars with me following Sam.  Lilah  was asking if we were there yet before we even hit Valley of Fire so I told her once we got through Mesquite we would be half-way there and I had her keep an eye out for it and color while we drove. It worked and the girls were very well behaved the whole drive.

Once at the cabin the girls immediately found the swings and began swinging. They also started looking at the apples on the ground to eat them. Once Sam’s in-laws were there they began helping to pick up the apples off the ground and for the whole weekend that would be their task. They would hear the apples fall, and then put them in the apple bucket that Gary was collecting them in.

Gary, Sam’s FIL, was very attentive to the girls. He had them helping with the apples, feeding the coy in the fish pond, helping to pick the blackberries, four wheeling around the yard, and just listening as he sat on the swing with Matilda. (Eden was talking his ear off has he held Matilda and was sitting on one swing and she was on the other one.)

Saturday night the girls wanted to sleep outside in a tent. Sam has found an unused kids pup-tent at a thrift store and Britta was dying to try it out. While Sam and I set that tent up Gary and Jackie set up a 4 man tent, about the size of our tent. Britta was so mad that Grandpa had done that. He also brought out an old box spring that was put under the the tent and used to sleep on.

The girls played in them, and Britta wanted all three of them to sleep in the pup tent, but they all three would not fit so Lilah decided to be in the big tent. Gary didn’t think any of them would go through with sleeping in a tent all night, least of all Britta, but since my girls have gone camping I thought they’d be fine. As night fell they still wanted to sleep outside and Gary set up his cot in between the tents so as to help the girls in the night. We got them settled in, with Eden and Britta in the pup tent and Lilah in the other. Later that night Jackie looked outside and said the girls were wandering the yard. I thought Gary had fallen asleep, so I went  outside to wrangle them up and put them back into the tents, this was around 10 pm or later. I found out Gary was awake and just letting them wander the yard. I got them into the tents and Eden decided she was cold and wanted to sleep inside, I didn’t bring up our sleeping bags and the ones Gary got out weren’t the nice ones since he thought they would go inside for the night. With Eden out of the pup tent Britta joined Lilah in the “big” tent with the more comfortable than ground box spring and they went to sleep.

With the girls settled Sam and I stayed up part of the night talking. We had to get up at 6:30am Vegas time for church, but we still didn’t get to bed till around 12:30 or 1 am.

Around 2 am I was woken by Lilah. She had to go to the bathroom. I noticed that she still had her coat on and that she looked like she might have been sweating so I tried to ask if she was too hot. She said she was, then she said she was cold when we were outside. As I zipped her up in her jacket her skin got caught, something that sometime happens, and being the tired girl she was she decided to come up stairs to sleep. So my two daughters, who I thought would sleep outside, came inside and Britta, who we thought would not stay outside did for the whole night.

Sunday it was an overflowing house at church. I think nearly everyone with a cabin must have come up to enjoy the last three day weekend before it gets cold, and most who own cabins up there are Mormon. We stayed the whole block and ran into the wife of an old bishop and her DIL. Sam and I knew both of them because she was in the Vegas Manor ward before we moved in, and she was in a sorority with the DIL before either were married. I knew them because her husband was the bishop while we were in the ward and her DIL knew Jon before we were married and she got married to the son while we lived in that ward and they moved into the ward after they were married. ( I find it funny that Sam and I went to the same ward before we both moved to where we are now, but they moved out just a few months before we were put in that ward due to a redrawing of ward boundaries.)

After church we had lunch then Gary decided to take the girls on a short four-wheeler drive around the yard. When he proposed it I warned him that they may not ride because they’re afraid of loud noises. I then hear him yell my name from outside and I thought something was wrong, only to find Gary with Eden on the four-wheeler and him saying “What about you scaredy cat daughter now.” I got the camera and came out to find Lilah and Britta “pushing” the four-wheeler around the yard.

He took the girls up the mountain to visit his nephew’s cabin and we shortly followed in the car once we realized they were gone.

That evening we had the girls all in one room inside the cabin. Gary had been bitten by some mosquito’s so we didn’t want them attempting to sleep outside again. We had them in one room  upstairs with Sam, Matilda and I in the other.

Sam and I stayed up talking till 1 am again. Their really is something so nice about being able to talk without little ears listening.

Monday was the day we traveled back home. The girls played outside while we packed things up. Lilah that morning said she was sad to leave the cabin and then about half an hour later decided she was homesick.

We stopped in St. George for lunch and to pick up scones at the Great Harvest there. I guess they’re made differently than what you get here in Vegas, and are a lot better. I ate like three out of the six, not in one day, but they are really good and I now want to find a good scone recipe.

We had so much fun at the cabin and Grandpa Gary did a lot of fun things with the girls. I hope were able to visit again next summer and let the girls enjoy the outdoors even more. I know if Jon had been there they would have gone hiking and exploring, where as I was just happy to be inside talking with Sam and letting the girls play outside.

As a thank you gift to two of Jon’s co-workers, or two co-workers he works the most with and helps, I made some chocolate covered strawberries. I also made some for Sam’s in-laws for watching my girls and as a pre- thank you to letting us come up to the cabin with them.

I took a couple quick photos of the boxes before I sent them off with Jon, but that was it.

I kept the ribbon off of the two so you could see the strawberries a little better. Little did I know his co-worker would take nicer pictures of the ones she received.

I found the boxes at JoAnn’s. They’re actually to package brownies. I found them when I needed a box to package some strawberries for the bride and groom from the wedding so they could take some to the hotel that night after the reception. The box went so well with their colors. I tried to replicate the ones I did for the wedding, but the accent color came out more green than I liked, but it still worked well with the box.

I had woken up at 6:30 am to make them and gone to bed around 12:30 am after I prepared everything. (I washed and dried them the night before, got all the materials out and ready, and folded the boxes so I could make and package them quickly.) Jon had a doctor’s appointment that morning so I had a little extra time before I had to have them ready. In total it took me about an hour and a half to dip and package and a little over an hour to prepare the 36 strawberries and everything else the night before. The three boxes only held 10 strawberries each so we were able to enjoy some too.

Jon’s co-worker Daly took some wonderful and more artistic photo’s of the strawberries and sent them to me.  She said they were just as delicious as they were beautiful and couldn’t help but take some pictures.

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We spent the Fourth of July at my parents house. I guess it’s just tradition since we celebrate my nieces birthday, have a BBQ, and enjoy fireworks that my dad buys, though this year I actually bought fireworks for the first time since the young woman in our church had a fireworks booth.

After we ate, I’m sure something delicious that my father barbecued, we entertained ourselves by having the kids practice baseball, only with a wiffle ball. Jon and I have a t-ball bat his parents gave us and wiffle balls, so we supplied the materials while we made Carolyn’s husband Derek do the work of pitching. It was for quality bonding time since the kids mostly play with one another and the adults just chat when we get together. We also brought the bat because the last time we were at my parents house Derek was playing “baseball” with Lilah but they were using a hand rake as a bat and I was worried that she might swing it too hard and impale herself. That would have been a terrible memory for all.  The hand rake looked like this, and lets face it, any way you hold it is dangerous if you’re swinging it around.

The kids had lots of fun and the wiffle ball only went over the back fence twice, and luckily the neighbors were swimming and pretty good sports about getting it for us, and telling us when Eden was climbing on a chair and nearly about to climb over the balcony railing, or was it Lilah that almost went over?

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Lilah was able to hit the ball about half the time.

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Carolyn helping Addrienne. Notice Carolyn’s blue shirt? She was also wearing khaki pants like me and Jon joked that when looking at the camera screen if our heads weren’t in the picture he wasn’t sure which sister he was looking at.  For a while there we were constantly wearing the same colored shirts whenever we saw one another.  In fact we both wore green the day we drove up to Ely and I could have worn the same colored shirt another day we were there.

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Kaitlyn up to bat.

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Howie waiting for the pitch.

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Lilah on the balcony.

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After some time playing we went inside and celebrated both Kaitlyn’s and Lilah’s birthday, since we had yet to celebrate it with my family.

Kristi made the birthday cake while I just brought cupcakes.

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We forgot candles so we did what we could with what my mom had. 5+2= 7 and Lilah still likes Dora.

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Lilah likes to read the cards. Also, that’s a picture of her as a baby on the far left.

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Then it was time for fireworks. Lilah and Howie were the only kids outside, Eden was OK, but a really loud one was set off at the beginning and ruined her for the night. Lilah held out but only by plugging her ears the whole time.

A little unsure of the sparkler, but she wanted to try it.

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Liking it a little more.

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Having fun with the sparkler, though this might have been the second one.

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Jon and Lilah enjoying the fireworks, though enjoying is relative term in this case.

While in June we visited The Old Mormon Fort. I believe it was Friday June 19th that we went. Jon had taken time off for part of the play and since he needed to, and that Friday we didn’t perform due to the library the theater was in being closed.

The Mormon Fort was our first official stop on our State Parks tour. After we were at Cathedral Gorge Jon and I decided that it would be fun to visit all/ as many as we get to, Nevada State Parks. I think it’ll be fun and hopefully we can accomplish most of them over time.

We mostly just walked around and then we sat and ate our lunch. The workers started turning up soil in the stream so it started to smell terrible around there. We did get to enjoy the pond a little bit before we finally headed over to the  Natural History Museum for just a quick visit.

One worker asked if he could take a family picture and we said we were OK. Then a little bit later another one offered, though his hands were covered with the smelly soil, so we opted out of that one too.

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So I’m getting around to picture posts again. I guess not being able to talk from a sore throat and having two sick girls who are just watching TV helps.

Lilah’s birthday fell on family night, or our first performance with an audience, during the play. With all the craziness we opted not to give her a birthday party, plus we like to give only one big birthday party a year and it was Eden’s turn this year.

For her birthday we went to Chuck E’ Cheese, something we do every year for each girl. Lilah wore her curlers while there and I think she was pretty dang cute. (Funny thing: This night we were not being feed, so we stopped by McDonald’s on our way to the theater and the attendant who gave us our food smiled when she saw Lilah in her curlers.)

Lilah’s friend Britta and her mom Sam joined us, as well as Auntie Carolyn.

We had a fun morning just playing games and eating.

That night the women of the play sang Happy Birthday to her while we were getting ready. (I still think she was the cutest munchkin, though I  am highly bias.)

I forgot our camera, but Carolyn brought one from work and we snapped just a few pictures.

Lilah and Britta playing air hockey.
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Lilah with her cupcakes.
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Lilah decorating her cupcake.

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Lilah also opened her presents earlier that morning. Jon didn’t use the flash so they’re slightly fuzzy.

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It’s so weird to look back and see her with long hair, or is that just me?

Also Lilah has wanted a certain kind of bug catcher from Target for like two years. She’s received around three or four other kinds, but not this one, so she was so happy to finally get it.

Somehow we got a bug at Pine Valley. Sam’s daughters have had runny or stuffy noses, and Lilah and I have sore throats and Eden’s developed a fever today. 🙁

Today is my errand day, but since we’re all a little under the weather the television has been on a lot. I am trying to keep it educational, like we’re watching our The Best of The Electric Company and later it will be PBS, but like Word Girl and other educational shows, not the ones on feelings and how to treat people, though those are useful too I guess.

Today Lilah and I watched the President’s address to students. I’m not sure what all the craziness was about and why I’ve seen parents compare the speech to sex education. Such as, “Talk to my kids in my presence. They have to have a signed permission slip to show a movie or talk about sex in class, but not for this? Whatever! My children will not be present.”  This comment is a total fallacy and I can’t list all the things wrong with it.

We aren’t in our children’s presence constantly so we can’t monitor everything that is said to them, but hey it’s a recorded speech and if a parent was worried about the president indoctrinating their child and making them a socialist then they can discuss the speech with them, not shield them from every kind of thinking that is against their own. I saw it as a very positive motivational speech that any person might give to our students and most would aggree with on the whole.

I do agree that we are entitled to having a say in what our children are taught or exposed to, one reason I homeschool, but sometimes I think opposing something positive that someone has to say just because we do not agree with other areas of thought they have is ridiculous. Are they afraid Obama might become a role model and their child might emulate him by working hard at school and going to great colleges?

Anyways, I thought it was a wonderful speech and I hope that those who don’t agree with the presidents politics can agree that going to school and getting an education is a good thing for both the individual and the country.