WE ARE DENVER BOUND!!
We fly out soon and everyone is so stoked! It is always fun to look back at things and see God's fingerprints all over your life.
Back in August we had to decide which NFL game we wanted to attend. (Some clients were getting us tickets and gave us 6 options, based on our 2 favorite teams.) I contacted 2 huge football friends and they both said Broncos/Packers. So, we went with it.
God knew before we did, how much we were going to need this 4 day trip. I have been mentally and emotionally spent....life circumstances have just been heavier than usual the last 3 weeks or so. There was actually about 5 days where I was in such a fog ~ just always tired. I was forgetting and misplacing things. I even came within about 1 minute of burning down our house. (I had put something in the toaster and set the timer wrong. I walked outside for a few minutes and when I came back in, it was burning. I opened up the toaster and of course that fanned the flames, which started a few pieces of paper on fire. Benjamin jumped up and asked if he should call the fire department. I said no and was able to carry everything over to the sink).
Needless to say, I am very excited that this trip is coming at this season of my life. Plus, both teams are undefeated so it should be a great game. The weather is suppose to be really nice and we happen to be in Denver the same time there are 'free' days at the zoo and children's museum ~ bonus, free entertainment!!!
We boarded Bree. It was just easier to do that than try to juggle leaving her at the house. She sure is a sweet dog. Everyone that meets her comments on her coloring or her temperment. I had to take her to the vet before boarding her for a shot. The vet said she is a mini australian shepherd/collie mix. So, she is pretty much full grown. The perfect size. Her back is just below my knee!
I have been taking her to a local dog park and we both enjoy it. She gets tons of dog socialization and exercise and I have quiet time to solve all the worlds problems! Win win for both of us.
That's it for now...will have pictures to post soon!
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Fall is here and time is slipping away. Only more Fridays until Christmas ~ Eek! Not that I do lots of shopping between now and then, but another year will be over! Wow.
Things have been pretty quiet around here.
This is the last week for football for Jacob. One more game on Saturday morning and we will close this chapter. Joseph is still enjoying gymnastics on Monday afternoons. He has speech on Tuesday mornings. We all have Awana Wednesday afternoon/evenings and we have just started a Thursday evening Bible Study. A very manageable schedule. At this point, not sure that Benjamin will be doing a 4H project ~ not that he doesn't want to but there is not anything that currently meets that interests him. (The things he was interested in did not have a volunteer leader step up to 'lead' them.)
Benjamin continues to plug along with homeschooling. It does not matter how organized or scheduled I tend to be, life happens and things always have to be juggled. He is enjoying the tutoring ~ a really cool college age kid who has a lot of the same interests as Benjamin.
Jacob recently got his top and bottom expanders for his mouth. His one front tooth has finally dropped in (after being MIA for about 8 months) and it is no where close to where it should be! He still has only lost 4 teeth, so they are all slow losing them. Joseph is 6 and still has not lost one and does not even have a loose tooth yet!
This next weekend is when we head to Denver for the big game! Really excited!
(I started this a few days ago and just not finishing it up. We had Jacob's last football game today and he scored his third touchdown! Another grab the ball and go.
Things have been pretty quiet around here.
This is the last week for football for Jacob. One more game on Saturday morning and we will close this chapter. Joseph is still enjoying gymnastics on Monday afternoons. He has speech on Tuesday mornings. We all have Awana Wednesday afternoon/evenings and we have just started a Thursday evening Bible Study. A very manageable schedule. At this point, not sure that Benjamin will be doing a 4H project ~ not that he doesn't want to but there is not anything that currently meets that interests him. (The things he was interested in did not have a volunteer leader step up to 'lead' them.)
Benjamin continues to plug along with homeschooling. It does not matter how organized or scheduled I tend to be, life happens and things always have to be juggled. He is enjoying the tutoring ~ a really cool college age kid who has a lot of the same interests as Benjamin.
Jacob recently got his top and bottom expanders for his mouth. His one front tooth has finally dropped in (after being MIA for about 8 months) and it is no where close to where it should be! He still has only lost 4 teeth, so they are all slow losing them. Joseph is 6 and still has not lost one and does not even have a loose tooth yet!
This next weekend is when we head to Denver for the big game! Really excited!
(I started this a few days ago and just not finishing it up. We had Jacob's last football game today and he scored his third touchdown! Another grab the ball and go.
Friday, October 16, 2015
I am bummed the only picture I have of Joseph with one of his speech therapists is blurry. Oh well, here she is with her dog Stella. I think I recently posted that she had dismissed Joseph from speech. She started working with him when he was 2 years, 7 months and quit when he was 6 years, 2 months...that is 3 1/2 years!!! Awesome work! I like what his shirt happened to say on his last day of speech with Ms. Betsy.
Lots of football pics from the game last Saturday. Jacob took the hand off and ran.
He ran towards me...yay!
And ran......
He did score a TD!!! Coming back for the congratulatory high five!
He got the ball again....
But the last defender got him....
He also had a game this past Wednesday. He had 2 great runs and almost had a breakaway both times. He did have an interception, which he loved.
The boys are out of school Thursday and Friday of this week...state wide teacher workshops. Not much planned, just enjoying some great fall weather.
Lots of football pics from the game last Saturday. Jacob took the hand off and ran.
He ran towards me...yay!
And ran......
He did score a TD!!! Coming back for the congratulatory high five!
He got the ball again....
But the last defender got him....
He also had a game this past Wednesday. He had 2 great runs and almost had a breakaway both times. He did have an interception, which he loved.
The boys are out of school Thursday and Friday of this week...state wide teacher workshops. Not much planned, just enjoying some great fall weather.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Got some more photos of a sunset....These were all taken in the same evening. I just love how the sky explodes with color; the heavens and earth declare the glory of God!
This photo was in the east.
These were in the west
I finally told the boys were we were headed the end of October.
One of Jose's clients has a connection for tickets to pro sporting events so they were gracious enough to get us these. We are so excited. This is a bucket list item for us! I was able to find really cheap airline tickets (to where it was only about $50 cheaper to drive than fly, so we are saving the driving time and hitting the air!) We will fly out Halloween night, which excited me because I don't really enjoy Halloween anyway! For the cheap airline tickets, our trip will be 4 nights. I don't know that I have ever been in a non familial city for 4 days to go and play and explore. Usually we just pass through Denver...this time we have time to play and explore more!
I don't consider myself a huge political person. I follow politics just enough to know the issues but not really enough to have a strong opinion about most things. Recently, I have had 2 incidents at the kids' school where I am seeing the over reach of the government mandating things. I don't know about other states, but it is now (as of Oct 1) a Montana law that if your child has not been immunized for Varicella (aka Chicken Pox) they cannot attend school. I guess I have always understood some of those other life threatening diseases and immunizations for them, but chicken pox. I don't agree. I can of course sign a form stating that my religious beliefs interfere with that, but it doesn't, so in good conscious, I can't sign it. So, my child is either given the chicken pox shot or he does not attend school. I had held out on Joseph, because I really would rather have him gotten the chicken pox than the vaccine. However, that is no longer an option for me. Jacob never had the vaccine, but he did end up getting the chicken pox from Benjamin. However, since I never took Jacob to a doctor (cause it just was the chicken pox) there was no record of Jacob having them. So, Jacob had to have blood drawn to show he has the chicken pox antibodies in his system. (When I asked at the school why the new law, they weren't real sure. Two possible reasons is they are hoping to cut down on shingles or because of convenience. Now a days, a stay at home mom is pretty rare and it would be too burdensome for a family to miss 5 days of work to stay home with a child who has chicken pox.)
The other area where the government mandates are overreaching, in my opinion, is in the lunchroom. Because of the childhood obesity problem (which I get) the government mandates how much a child can eat in the cafeteria lunch line. Whenever my boys choose to eat in the cafeteria, versus take their lunch, if they are still hungry they are not allowed to have seconds. So, my very active, athletic, 8 year old is being grouped together with every other child and told he cannot have extra food. Therefore, he leaves lunch hungry! (There was actually a nearby school that was losing money on their lunch program because according to the gov't standards, they were only allowed to serve like 6 ounces of protein to a high schooler, kids weren't getting filled up and were no longer eating in the cafeteria, so the school district was losing money. I think the school ended up saying, who cares about the government money, we are going to feed these kids and lose the government subsidy by not obeying.
Rant over.
Speaking of political stuff...it seems that every year our school board wants to put another bond on the ballot. Being a tax payer, I finally decided it was time to get a little more educated. I am sure it is this way in lots of areas, but our area really struggles to keep up. We are finding lots moving to the area due to jobs or because they want to escape the rat race and land someplace slower. I went to a community meeting that was discussing future plans. I learned more of how difficult it is to plan. After the meeting, a school board member introduced himself and asked if I might be interested in attending a strategic planning meeting. I said sure. We talked further. One of the things we talked about was expansion of the high school. There are currently 850 kids and there are plans to build fro 1500, 1800 or 2400. (When the current 5th-8th grade classes get there, provided the numbers stay the same, we will have 1200.) The board member started questioning the wisdom of spending too much money and building fro 2400. He said that who knows what things will look like in 10 years..will there even be a need for large high schools. I was totally struck by this and the truth that is in it. With technology, who knows what things will look like then and the trends high schools might move towards ~ online classes? dividing groups up and kids going 2 days a week? who knows. It was just an eye opening conversation to me about the times we live in and how quickly things change.
Quiet week this week. My computer crashed but is now up and running. I lost most everything, except JR's business files ~ which really is the most important. I did save some files but over a year ago
This photo was in the east.
These were in the west
I finally told the boys were we were headed the end of October.
One of Jose's clients has a connection for tickets to pro sporting events so they were gracious enough to get us these. We are so excited. This is a bucket list item for us! I was able to find really cheap airline tickets (to where it was only about $50 cheaper to drive than fly, so we are saving the driving time and hitting the air!) We will fly out Halloween night, which excited me because I don't really enjoy Halloween anyway! For the cheap airline tickets, our trip will be 4 nights. I don't know that I have ever been in a non familial city for 4 days to go and play and explore. Usually we just pass through Denver...this time we have time to play and explore more!
I don't consider myself a huge political person. I follow politics just enough to know the issues but not really enough to have a strong opinion about most things. Recently, I have had 2 incidents at the kids' school where I am seeing the over reach of the government mandating things. I don't know about other states, but it is now (as of Oct 1) a Montana law that if your child has not been immunized for Varicella (aka Chicken Pox) they cannot attend school. I guess I have always understood some of those other life threatening diseases and immunizations for them, but chicken pox. I don't agree. I can of course sign a form stating that my religious beliefs interfere with that, but it doesn't, so in good conscious, I can't sign it. So, my child is either given the chicken pox shot or he does not attend school. I had held out on Joseph, because I really would rather have him gotten the chicken pox than the vaccine. However, that is no longer an option for me. Jacob never had the vaccine, but he did end up getting the chicken pox from Benjamin. However, since I never took Jacob to a doctor (cause it just was the chicken pox) there was no record of Jacob having them. So, Jacob had to have blood drawn to show he has the chicken pox antibodies in his system. (When I asked at the school why the new law, they weren't real sure. Two possible reasons is they are hoping to cut down on shingles or because of convenience. Now a days, a stay at home mom is pretty rare and it would be too burdensome for a family to miss 5 days of work to stay home with a child who has chicken pox.)
The other area where the government mandates are overreaching, in my opinion, is in the lunchroom. Because of the childhood obesity problem (which I get) the government mandates how much a child can eat in the cafeteria lunch line. Whenever my boys choose to eat in the cafeteria, versus take their lunch, if they are still hungry they are not allowed to have seconds. So, my very active, athletic, 8 year old is being grouped together with every other child and told he cannot have extra food. Therefore, he leaves lunch hungry! (There was actually a nearby school that was losing money on their lunch program because according to the gov't standards, they were only allowed to serve like 6 ounces of protein to a high schooler, kids weren't getting filled up and were no longer eating in the cafeteria, so the school district was losing money. I think the school ended up saying, who cares about the government money, we are going to feed these kids and lose the government subsidy by not obeying.
Rant over.
Speaking of political stuff...it seems that every year our school board wants to put another bond on the ballot. Being a tax payer, I finally decided it was time to get a little more educated. I am sure it is this way in lots of areas, but our area really struggles to keep up. We are finding lots moving to the area due to jobs or because they want to escape the rat race and land someplace slower. I went to a community meeting that was discussing future plans. I learned more of how difficult it is to plan. After the meeting, a school board member introduced himself and asked if I might be interested in attending a strategic planning meeting. I said sure. We talked further. One of the things we talked about was expansion of the high school. There are currently 850 kids and there are plans to build fro 1500, 1800 or 2400. (When the current 5th-8th grade classes get there, provided the numbers stay the same, we will have 1200.) The board member started questioning the wisdom of spending too much money and building fro 2400. He said that who knows what things will look like in 10 years..will there even be a need for large high schools. I was totally struck by this and the truth that is in it. With technology, who knows what things will look like then and the trends high schools might move towards ~ online classes? dividing groups up and kids going 2 days a week? who knows. It was just an eye opening conversation to me about the times we live in and how quickly things change.
Quiet week this week. My computer crashed but is now up and running. I lost most everything, except JR's business files ~ which really is the most important. I did save some files but over a year ago
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
These were taken by Joseph's teacher at school.
Jacob's class got to read with Joseph's class and I was very excited to see the two boys paired up together ~ or maybe they chose to be together.
One of the girls in Joseph's class is deaf so this girl always has an interpreter in her class. (Yes, we think/talk of you often JC). It is so cool how Joseph is picking up sign language. Just yesterday he came home excited that he now knew 2 signs for Halloween and 1 for witch. His enthusiasm is awesome, as I hear it is for the other kids in the class too. One of the staff even said she has seen other kids in the class start 'talking' with her in sign too.
Joseph has been discharged by another speech therapist ~ actually insurance felt like he did not need services twice a week. The therapist had talked like she would discharge him the end of October, so perfect timing. His speech is awesome! We are starting to see some possible reading issues coming up though....trying to get some resources together to help him at home ~ hopefully he will work hard for me (as he does for therapists, but that has not been my experience :-))
Last weekend Jacob had another football game. He ran a touchdown in. He was so excited! It of course was rainy and windy so I did not bring my camera! At least it happened on the far side of the field and I would not have been able to get a good picture anyway!!
The weather is cooling off. Beautiful days and almost cold nights! Not ready for the snow but it will be here soon!
Jacob's class got to read with Joseph's class and I was very excited to see the two boys paired up together ~ or maybe they chose to be together.
One of the girls in Joseph's class is deaf so this girl always has an interpreter in her class. (Yes, we think/talk of you often JC). It is so cool how Joseph is picking up sign language. Just yesterday he came home excited that he now knew 2 signs for Halloween and 1 for witch. His enthusiasm is awesome, as I hear it is for the other kids in the class too. One of the staff even said she has seen other kids in the class start 'talking' with her in sign too.
Joseph has been discharged by another speech therapist ~ actually insurance felt like he did not need services twice a week. The therapist had talked like she would discharge him the end of October, so perfect timing. His speech is awesome! We are starting to see some possible reading issues coming up though....trying to get some resources together to help him at home ~ hopefully he will work hard for me (as he does for therapists, but that has not been my experience :-))
Last weekend Jacob had another football game. He ran a touchdown in. He was so excited! It of course was rainy and windy so I did not bring my camera! At least it happened on the far side of the field and I would not have been able to get a good picture anyway!!
The weather is cooling off. Beautiful days and almost cold nights! Not ready for the snow but it will be here soon!
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Some random pictures from our day!!!
Jacob and a friend had a blast recently. Not sure why they had never tried this before with sleds. They have always sledded sitting on coats but never actual sleds. They made a crash pad at the bottom of the stairs with dog bed and pillows.
Had our recent local fair. Benjamin carried the AWANA flag that went in front of the float. Joseph walked in the parade with all the local Kindergartners (but I was at Jacob's fball game, so didn't get his picture.)
The boys got a wild hair recently and wanted to sell something.
Yep, they crushed up rock to make homemade sand. They made almost $20. I am pretty sure most of that was made from the lemonade and brownies. Although we found out the brownies were raw. Our neighbor had bought them all, so we ended up making him another batch. Not a bad day for impromptu idea.
Jacob had his first visit with the orthodontist. Impressions have been made and he will get both an upper and lower expander. Sounds like it is going to be quite the mouthful. His front tooth, which has been missing for about 8 months is close to breaking through but not yet. Hopefully, when everything it opened up, his teeth will quickly drop into place!
Jacob and a friend had a blast recently. Not sure why they had never tried this before with sleds. They have always sledded sitting on coats but never actual sleds. They made a crash pad at the bottom of the stairs with dog bed and pillows.
Had our recent local fair. Benjamin carried the AWANA flag that went in front of the float. Joseph walked in the parade with all the local Kindergartners (but I was at Jacob's fball game, so didn't get his picture.)
The boys got a wild hair recently and wanted to sell something.
Yep, they crushed up rock to make homemade sand. They made almost $20. I am pretty sure most of that was made from the lemonade and brownies. Although we found out the brownies were raw. Our neighbor had bought them all, so we ended up making him another batch. Not a bad day for impromptu idea.
Jacob had his first visit with the orthodontist. Impressions have been made and he will get both an upper and lower expander. Sounds like it is going to be quite the mouthful. His front tooth, which has been missing for about 8 months is close to breaking through but not yet. Hopefully, when everything it opened up, his teeth will quickly drop into place!
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