Bigger than

Can I just complain one little small bit?

(as if I don't do that all the time anyway.)

I must say that I think the only women who were bigger than I, today at the pool were the pregnant moms. And they have a right to be that way.

Hello jr high feelings of inadequacy. Ugghh.

First day of swim lessons.

We have signed up for our annual swim lessons. It is something I look forward to as much or more than my little brood. I start dreaming of fishy kids about March and am not fully satisfied until I see their names written on the blank like that lull me to happiness by stating "pre-3" and "level 2" above their names.

This event is a highlight of my summer. Gone are the days when I tried and failed to evenly tan my Scottish heritage skin. Hello Guppy swimmer! (and I relish it, I might add). That just states how I have matured as a person ( if you define matured as having no life)

There they were, without sunscreen because I am that idiot, in the pool flopping around. Wesie, the ever fearless, was doing flips in the water and showing his little white tush above his too big army print trunks. He could have cared less. I laughed and laughed. However, I stopped laughing when I was told to go sit under the Ramada- no one was allowed to stand at the fence to watch.


are you kidding me?

It is the first day of swim lessons and we can't watch over our kids to make sure they are ok? If the Ramada didn't have the pool office in the way it would be ok, but there is no real way to watch over you kids unless you sit out in the sun on the outside of the pool area.

I so wanted to say something but I am a chicken like that to slink away glowering silently at being forced to follow a rule that I didn't agree with that wasn't even posted anywhere.

sigh, oh well what are you going to do?

My oldest guppy was put in the survival skills class which she was so nervous about. Until I told her that if she backed out she would be in the same class as her brother. Nerves of steel she acquired very quickly-steely nerves that even helped her jump off the low dive and swim in the deep end on her first day.

Way to Go! sis! Nothing like a little sibling competition to help her be all that she can be!

A day in church; AKA a long blog

OK, I will try to cut this in sections as a long blog is also known as a boring blog to read.

I was sitting sacrament meeting (church services) and someone mentioned that we need to record the moments of our lives because in 1 or 2 generations your stories, and triumphs and trials that would help others are lost.

I know I have a life oh so ordinary, but I do think that I should record our family's happenings and insights. But that talk really got me to thinking about when I have blogged last and what I record.

Therefore, HAPPY TO BE TYPING!! I have had that class hanging over my head like the pit and the pendulum, getting closer and closer to chopping me in half. ( it wasn't really that bad, I exaggerate for effect)

This weekend we received rain in town, but not much at our house. I guess that says something about our lack of spirituality and paying of tithing. And I thought I was doing better at that

We went roping- like what else would we do? We are a roping family. It rained and rained; I cleaned and cleaned mud and water from the trailer, yet grateful that we have a trailer to be in, however small that it is for our family now.

We decided to take the kids fishing and to eat in the mountains after church. I got the food ready, the baby ready, and packed all the junk that comes with a baby- I think to the dismay of Scott. We drove up to our family reunion camp site to eat.

First a hint of rain, then smatterings of drops, then bigger drops. So what we thought, we can cook burgers anywhere- rain makes them taste better. As we tried to get the mini grill going, the kids see-sawed on their homemade seesaw, happy that no one had cut it for firewood yet.

The grill was sputtering and not firing. Uhg. Could we eat kibby style burgers (raw)? Could we make a fire and use the grill thing to cook over a fire?
You bet,
I have a true outdoors man on my hands.
Soon we were all gathering twigs and such for the fire and after a lot of blowing and then the bright idea to squirt of diesel fuel additive, Wooosh, We had FIRE. The burgers were great as they always are in the mountains.

Scott and the kids had a balancing contest on a fallen tree. They would run down the tree and see who could make it the farthest. As they were more adept at balancing, they would add levels of difficulty. I think it was a confidence builder for Kennedy, who struggles with that so much. It was so good to see him play with our kids. I hope that day was a memory they have for a long time instead of the spankings they tend to get.

After I cleaned up, Scott discovered that he forgot the tackle box. We decided to just drive. I love a good drive and to keep the kids from getting killed we thought up a game for them. We would think of what thing they had to spy and the first one got a point. The one to 10 would win. Besides the variety of cars, trucks and camptrailers that were on the list, we saw quite a few cow elk, but no big horned sheep. That on was worth 10 points alone in our game.

Lurking

Two days after we had the bat incident, I had stopped waiving my hat into the next room before I entered it ( I know how this works; I have seen old Westerns and cowboys who did this)...





My life was back to what ever we call normal.








"Hey, Ginee`, come look at all the flies in the bathroom!", yells Mr. S from the back of the house. He knows I like to kill flies ( instead of people, I guess). As it had gotten warmer that first week, Millions of flies appeared in the bathroom. I killed them every Chance I got.





I went down there, surprised that he let me use the swatter. He says I wreck it by squeezing the handle to hard when I hit.



As I went into Kennedy's bedroom, Scott generously told me he would hold the baby. I agreed, with no suspicion or guile.

After all these years, I still trust him implicitly.

A strong hand pushed me into the bathroom. Black fluttered around my head, I ducked, screamed, pinched his leg and swore.

I scrambled out of there as fast as I could, leaving 3 people laughing at my screams. "Hah, mom's afraid of a bat!", sweaked on kid - "yea, a bat..." echoed the small one.

Yea, a bat, ha,,, haha.

Just wait until ....



Nothing,

I won't really do anything to them.

My list of things to do before Iget to blog

Classes
babies
Prom
Prom clean up
essays
projects
working out
making finals
cleaning house
end of school clean up
cleaning my yard.

Yea, I have to get these other things off my plate. I have been blogging as I think and those stories and ideas need a home. They won't be homeless for long.

There are bats in my BELFRY!

When we moved into our house a few years ago we knew we bought an "AS IS" house. For starters, it had 5 bedrooms and an office, but none of them could hold even a queen bed and a dresser. The previous owners decided to have a split floor plan, but the master was a mystery. Instead of a nice master, they had 2 small bedrooms and a jack/jill set up for themselves.

And yet, they had like 7 boys, so I always wondered what they did for sleeping arrangements.


We decided to give our kids those bedrooms, and knock walls out on the other end of the house. We ended up with a nice sized master, closet and bath, with a nursery next door.

During that process of remodeling, we had the ceilings torn out; little sparrows could be found in the house from time to time, as well as little droppings as evidence of where they had been in the house. They were disturbing, (picture me screaming, kids screaming, chasing a bird so small it could fly under my pantry door,) but manageable with a broom. We didn't have them after the ceiling was fixed.

Fast forward to the other night when Mr S was working late and I was trying to stay awake. I wanted to hang out with him and have some adult time with no kids playing "who touch who last" to get in our way.

He came home and we were talking and setting down for the night when something dark caught my eye. It could have been a kid coming in to say there was pee in a bed, throw-up on the floor or vague headaches.

BUT

NO

There was this HUGE fluttering through the door and then it was gone. That was immediately followed by screaming on my part and sneering at my screaming on Mr. S's part.

"It's just a BIRdd," he said, his voice dripping with annoyance, and no amusement. He then tried to roll over and go to sleep.

I was not satisfied with that explanation. It could have been a ghost, ya know. or a robber. The wing span on it was as long as BoTH of my Arms! I crept down the hall, looking around apprehensively "just in case it attacked me".

I

Found

A


BAT!!

hanging on a ledge in my family room. UGGhh. I shut the doors to the kids room and jumped back in bed, leaving our door open so I could hear kids cry.

As I was falling asleep in the dark house, cuddled next to Mr. S for protection., my head was under the covers, in case it came back in and got tangled in my hair.

I have seen Indiana Jones, I know how creepy bugs and things can come after you. ( well me) I could hear its creepy sonar sounding as it tried to find its way in the dark... "uggghh,rabies and germs" was one of the last thoughts I had before I fell asleep.

Later,

I was awakened by a plastic sounding ThUmP.

In the morning, the bat was no where to be found. But Mr S said that it had flown back into our room and fluttered around his head a few times.

(Ha, I say. and I told you)

He said he threw a plastic hair thing of mine at where he thought it might have flown.

Disturbed at not finding it, after careful inspection of all the rooms, I decided it had flown out of an air return that was loose in our hallway...


or


maybe it was still lurking in my house...

SEI class- a waste of time or?

In order to keep my teaching certificate, I am taking a class to teach non-native speakers in the classroom. I am not sure yet if it is giving me any skills that are relevant to my room, but it is keeping my certificate.

I remember a white roommate in collage who lived 2 summers with an LDS family in Mexico. In exchange for room and board and conversational Spanish, she did all the house keeping, baby-sitting etc for the two summers.

She was fairly fluent after those 2 summers- enough to pass the exit exams for 16 credits of Spanish. She then went on to minor in Spanish.

She didn't have one teacher who had the skills I am learning transition her from English to Spanish.


I am just saying.



I will be very busy with my 10 hours turned 15 hours of studying till later. Don't forget me. I will be dreaming of you while I am learning how to make a word wall for my classroom.

Ginee