Truant

Is it still considered truant if the kids in question are being taken out of school by their parents? So far this school year, our kids have missed over three weeks of school. Not here a day, there a day, but two weeks here, another week there, and soon to be, another three weeks all over the place.

Good thing it's just preschool, right?

In the fall when Megan starts kindergarten, we won't be doing this. That is what we keep telling ourselves, anyway. We missed those first two weeks because I really missed my family in Texas, in particular, my sister. We went for two weeks, because one week just really isn't enough time to make the airfare worth it. Then, last week we went to Salt Lake City. I had a writing conference (which will be in a different post) in Provo and my in-laws were wonderful enough to host us until that started and saintly enough to watch my kids while I was at the conference. Now we will be heading back to Salt Lake for my sister in-law's wedding. It's Nathan's youngest sibling getting married and of course we have to be there. Plus, his other sister will have just had a baby--bonus!

So, pictures will be coming soon. Because I'm lazy like that. The camera is upstairs and I'm downstairs and I have to go get Megan from school (she actually attending this week!) in a few minutes.

Photo Shoot in Kirtland

I had the kids' pictures taken on Monday. I think they turned out really cute. Here are just a few.

(Obviously we need to discuss looking at the camera. Apparently, they understand that cameras have eyes and since all three have trouble making eye contact, it was similarly uncomfortable for them to look directly at the camera.)




Thank you, Katie! I love the pictures!

I'm Tired of Finding Tooth Marks in My Deodorant

Emma has an obsession. She loves deodorant. She will often go to the upstairs bathroom, hoping that a sibling or father has left the door open. Quietly, ever so quietly, she will open all the drawers and rifle through them. Once she has found her treasure she opens it. If her treasure came out of Nathan's drawer, she tries to put it on. Her attempts are typically aimed on her neck and sometimes underarms. If her treasure came out of my drawer, she bites it. It looks like this time though, after getting a little taste, she painted the bathroom counter with it.

So far today she has

run away to our neighbor's house 2x
escaped the house numerous times
refused lunch and demanded candy
stood on my laptop
stood on me
thrown dirt all over the driveway
thrown gardening bagged dirt on Jeremy and a boy I was babysitting
brought ants into the house
spat milk out all over herself
stuck light brites up her nose
stolen toys away from every sibling and child I've babysat
drawn on one of my books
thrown crayons all over our computer room
made a mess in the basement after I cleaned it up
took all the books off her bookshelf after I put them all away

and now, ate my deodorant and drew all over the bathroom counter with it.

I can hear her up there again, so please excuse me.

Easter Eve Excitement and Easter Day

Easter Eve Nathan was at Church for a meeting and I was putting the kids to bed and thinking about ice cream. Emma wasn't staying in bed very well (as usual) and I didn't want to get any ice cream out until the kids were all asleep. Jeremy kept playing with the shadows on his wall and putting his legs up straight in the air--entertaining Emma.I finally got to a point where I thought it would be safe to get the ice cream out and when I opened it I saw slush. Nasty melted ice cream soup. I checked the juice--melted; chicken--thawed; ice--water; sausage--mushy; breaded okra--just sad, sad, sad.

I opened the fridge: milk--warm.

Great.

I called Nathan at church, luckily his meeting hadn't started yet, and told him what happened. So I got on the Lowe's website and found the fridge we'd been thinking about getting. We knew we were going to buy a more efficient fridge, we just weren't sure when--now we knew for certain when that purchase would take place--in half an hour.

I ran upstairs, got the kids out of bed (still not asleep), slapped some flip flops on them, and took them to Lowe's--pajamas and all.

We found the fridge, paid, left for the grocery store to buy four bags of ice to try to salvage what we could, and went home.On the bright side--Emma fell asleep in the car and Megan, Jeremy, and I had milk and Oreos together before they easily went to bed.

So now we have this wonderful new machine. Please don't look at the messiness on the side and the fact that the cupboards behind the fridge don't have doors. Nathan had to take them off and saw the wood under them to make the fridge fit. Our house was built before the now standard size fridges.It sticks out more than the last one, but the room inside it is worth it.

Lowe's was kind enough to delivery it on Easter, since it was an emergency and they usually guarantee next day delivery anyway. I felt really bad making people work on Easter Sunday--but I didn't know what else to do. The guys that delivered it seemed more worried about missing the Cav's game though. So I guess it wasn't a big deal to them.

Now on Easter Sunday (and actually Saturday before the dead refrigerator) we watched General Conference. Most of you who read my blog already know what that is, but some of you don't, so I'll explain.(This is the Conference Center)

Twice a year on Saturday and Sunday our Church holds a General Conference, once in April, and once six months later in October. At these meetings (which we watch over the internet) we get to hear from the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and the apostles, as well as other leaders of our Church, including sisters who preside over the Relief Society (which is the largest nonprofit women's organization in the world) and the Children's Primary. It's a great opportunity to feel the spirit of the Lord and be reminded of what's important. This conference was especially great since it happened to fall on Easter Sunday.

If you want to know more about it you can follow the link above. You'll also get to hear The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing!
This might look a little more familiar to those of you who are only a little familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That's actually Nathan and me on our wedding day.

Those of you who aren't familiar with our Church or maybe hear something and have questions, feel free to ask me anything and I'll answer anything you've got.

Of course we did Easter baskets for the kids, too. We don't have a picture of Jeremy finding his, because Emma was too excited and brought it out of its hiding spot in the fireplace as soon as she saw him coming down the stairs. She ran it over to him, too excited to let him find it. I'll get pictures of kids in their Easter clothes later, too. I still need to find Jeremy a new tie. . . .

Emma's basket was hiding behind her diaper box

Megan's basket was hiding in the pantry


Sorry for the incredibly long post. It was just such an exciting weekend!

Tips?

Do any of you have any good suggestions for getting a kid to sleep in her own bed? Emma likes my bed. Emma likes to sleep only in my bed. This means I don't get to sleep. The last few nights have been terrible, so last night I told her she had to sleep in her bed. I took her from my room back to her room until 1:30AM. She screamed bloody murder the entire time.

Usually Jeremy can sleep through her crying and banging on the door, but last night was so bad he woke up about 5 times because of her.

At 7AM she came into our bed again and I was too tired to fight it. A few minutes later, Megan came into my bed. Megan has not come into bed with us for over a year. According to her, she was "cold." My body heat isn't good for anything, so I know I didn't warm her up.

Then five minutes later, Jeremy came into bed me. By this point, Nathan was up and getting ready to leave for school. Jeremy hasn't come into our bed in months. Last night was supposed to be a kid-free sleep.

I woke up pretty upset and it just got worse and worse. Jeremy and Emma fought over who could lay next to me (Megan had the edge of the bed, there was no making her move), and Megan kept telling me she was hungry. We keep Pop Tarts where she can reach them for just such an occasion as me not wanting to get out of bed yet. Jeremy and Emma like to kick me when they are in bed with me (which was our main reason for not letting Jeremy be in our bed anymore. Emma likes to play with my hair as she falls asleep, which is oh-so-cute when it's in the rocking chair, but quickly loses its cuteness when I'm trying to fall asleep and it begins to feel more like she's pulling my hair out instead of twirling it.

I need help. I hate books and Super Nanny (who I usually love) when they say to keep taking the child back to their bed and they'll get the message, so please don't offer that advice. They don't get it. And if they do, they don't care about the message. Emma didn't used to have a little rasp to her voice--she got that from screaming for FOREVER one day. She's fine with screaming for hours, she doesn't care. So I need some advice for how to get an almost 2 year old to sleep in her own bed that doesn't include the unhelpful, "just keep putting her in her own bed."

PLEASE!

So, If You Haven't Heard . . . .

Nathan called Thursday at 1:30PM to tell me he was in the E.R. He hasn't been feeling well since last weekend and it's just gotten worse and worse with fever, back aches, severe head aches, and more that I won't mention now. He went to the student health clinic to see his doctor and tell her the last round of antibiotic she gave him didn't work and that he was feeling worse. She took his temp and he was over 103. She sent him to the E.R. and there he called me.

Very kindly, a friend came over to be with the kids while I met him at the E.R. a couple hours later (Thank you Claudia! We totally owe you dinner!). I got there in time for some testing, cultures and a CT scan.

Turns out he has a kidney infection from a previous infection he had that didn't get resolved on his first round of medicine. So now he's on a stronger antibiotic that he'll take for two weeks and that should clear it up.

We were finally able to leave the hospital sometime after 8PM. I'm happy to have him home and somewhat healthy.

Love you, Nathan! Get Better!

Book Review, Alcatraz Vs. The Knights of Crystallia

Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia by Brandon Sanderson


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Nathan and I read these books together. We both really like this author and find these books to be very entertaining. Sanderson is really funny and has a very creative magic system in this series. I like how the storyline got more complicated in this book.

Alcatraz is a kid who has the magical talent of breaking things. It's true. His grandfather has the magical talent of being late. That would so bug me. But in the books, it's great. In this installment, Alcatraz is finally home and trying to figure out life outside of librarian controlled lands when he discovers the librarians are about to takeover one of the last of the free kingdoms.

The book was fast paced, hilarious, and is littered with fun characters that are easy to see in my head. I love that this book introduces a "recovering librarian."

My one big complaint in it would be the title. I guess it fits, but it still bugs me. Alcatraz is up against multiple Knights at only one time and it isn't in a way that fits the rest of the books, Alcatraz Vs. The Evil Librarians and Alcatraz Vs. the Scrivners Bones. In the end, he's really up against one knight and doesn't even fight the knight himself, as you can see on the cover.

Over all, it was a great, fun story and it's a series that I can't wait for Jeremy to be old enough to appreciate!

View all my reviews >>

Saturday is a Special Day, It's the Day we do Something Crazy!

We did something kinda crazy yesterday (Saturday). Our friends, Mark and Jess, called us saying they were flying from Utah to Virginia and volunteered to be bumped off a connecting flight from Cincinnati to Virginia. They were compensated with a hotel room and food vouchers. When they called they asked us if we wanted to drive down and stay at their hotel and eat dinner with them. Even though we had a ton of stuff to do, we thought it would be fun to see them. We hadn't seen them since we moved from Logan two years ago and we used to see them almost every day. We played games with them just about every night.

So we quickly packed up the kids, grabbed some pajamas and toothbrushes, and headed out for the four hour drive. And what did we learn? We need a portable DVD player before we make the even longer drive to Salt Lake this spring. And check the weather report before saying you'll drive for four hours in it.

Still, it was great seeing Mark and Jess, getting to play games with them and eating pizza--just like old times! I took the camera, but forgot to take pictures, so the only picture I've got is the one I stole from their blog.

Megan and Jess decided they are best friends forever, Emma warmed up quickly to both Jess and Mark, having only ever seen them as a newborn, and Jeremy was just as crazy with them as he is with everyone else.

We couldn't get the kids to go to sleep until we went to sleep, so they were up quite late, and the time change last night didn't help, either. We ended up having to get up really early so we could get to church on time (barely a minute late). And it's a good thing we did because apparently, we were assigned the opening and closing prayers. Nathan forgot to tell me, so when there was a lull after the opening song, and he looked up to see one of the bishop's councilors looking at him, he poked me and said in a loud whisper, "Kellie, get up there and pray!" And of course I thought he was kidding. I looked up and saw the councilor nodding to me so I shot up, took my coat off (we'd just barely walked in at this point), shook Jeremy off me, and walked up to the pulpit to pray.

I felt pretty stupid, but it was funny. Then at the end of the meeting, Nathan forgot he was supposed to say the closing prayer and I got to poke and whisper at him.

We are all pretty tired now and grateful that we could put the kids down early with the time change. Now we are going to go put ourselves down!

I Won!

I won! I'm so excited! Do you remember me blogging and FB and actually opening a Twitter account (you probably didn't know that last one) just so I could get more entries in the contest for the free copy of Love Your Body by Brooke Parker? Well, I did all those things and more to win this book. And I did!

I'll let y'all know how it is when I get it. I'm sure it will be great. One of the things I had to do for entries in the contest was read all the blogs that were reviewing it and leave comments on the blog. All the reviews raved about the book and how helpful it was.

I love that it is a diet free approach to eating. It isn't starve yourself, or eat only x times a day, or eat only such and such. I can't wait for this book to arrive in my mailbox!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy, MOM!!!

We love you!

***The pictures associated with the description below have disappeared off the blog. I'm still trying to find them. I put these two up until I can find the ones I want.***



I kind of surprised my mom with an impromptu photo shoot today. She wasn't happy about getting in front of the camera, but I think she looks gorgeous, just like always. I won't tell you how old she is, because she isn't old. . .and because I'd like to not be kicked out of her house a day before going back to Ohio.

Anyway, thanks for taking another day off work to be with us, Mom. We loved spending time with you and hope you had fun, even if the kids did give you a headache:)