Update of last two weeks

Man, I can't believe that its been two weeks since I've been on here. The kids are approaching the end of the first six weeks of school. They all seem to be doing well. I've been trying to work with Zach on reading. I have lots of reference materials and we just aren't getting very far at all. Six weeks and we have 3 letter sounds. He's learning at school and was so excited to get "homework" of practicing writing his name. I offered to print him some papers where he could trace words and letters and I was informed that mine wouldn't be as good as the ones from school. Brian says that he may just be an average student and that I am going to have to learn to live with it. Well, I think, not. He's very obstinate, but I refuse to accept that he's average.

I mentioned before, but I love our produce coop. They are trying to expand to provide chicken beef etc and they have different kinds of classes and get togethers like nutrition classes, bread baking classes and in october they are having a family day with different organic and free range vendors with sausages, raw milk ice cream, cheeses, apples and a pumpkin patch. THis sounds like fun, and I'm kind of sad we can't go because its my parent's 35th wedding anniversary. Not that I'm into any of that stuff yet, but a chance to sample it all sounds fun.

In November, Brian arranged for my mom to watch the kids for a couple of days and we are going to a cabin in Wimberly. We stayed there for our 10th wedding anniversary, and I'm excited about it. Each cabin has its own above ground pool and hot tub. Brian loves the hills. I hope the coffee shop is still open. They had amazing homemade granola bars. Frankly, I need a couple of days away.

Into my second week of class and its going better than expected. I admit it is hard to budget the time away from family etc to work on it, but I could have really benefited from a class like this my first go round in college, although I doubt English 1302 was taught this way then. So far, I have 100's on my first three quizzes and a 100 on my first assignment. Not too shabby for a mom of five trying to juggle family and a full time job. But I'm not ready to get cocky yet. My paper at the end is a big chunk of my grade.

Last weekend we went to Inks Lake and camped. It had its good and bad moments. The first two days were good. Brian was there to help me with the kids. After that was difficult, and I ended up coming home. Its hard. Sometimes its like having two families. The oldest three can and want to do things the youngest two can't, and when I'm by myself neither group gets to do what they want. I've vowed to start finding ways to improve this. I want my kids to have fond memories of growing up in a ginormous family, not memories of never being able to do things because of the babies etc. Will try to get some pics up later.

Still working the dave ramsey plan. Will have to post as we make real progress. Paid off a credit card in September. Two to go. Not sure how far we get this month. WE are replacing our 15 yr old dryer and having the house leveled.

Missed our bible study this week because I was at work. Its Anointed Transformed Redeemed: the story of david. It is so good. I'm telling you they are talking right to me. I can't wait to go next week.

Well,this blog is mostly focused on the kids, well because they are my focus, but I do have a couple things to put in here.

First we are loving our organic produce coop. I'm thankful for a supportive husband that doesnt mind going to pick it up every two weeks, and we have been very pleased with the amount and quality of stuff. The coop has message boards so people are kind enough to post recipes for things that I have no idea what to do with. I just want us eating more fruits and veggies and if its here I'm so cheap its not going to go to waste. Plus there are things that I just don't normally buy, like raspberries, but the three youngest kids sat down and ate the whole carton.

We started taking the kids to Pam's church on Wednesdays for TEAM kids. Its been a bit rocky, but I think we are going to stick with it. Its at a baptist church, one place Brian and I never saw ourselves. Last week they had the kickoff at the park. The kids played for about ten minutes and they said lets gather around and say the blessing and then we'll walk up and have hotdogs. well we gathered around and the skies opened up on us. It was kind of funny. SO, they broght the food to us and the rain whipped into the covered pavillion.

My kids huddled up together shivering and eating their dogs. SO, this week, we dropped them off at the church gym and went to take Aiden and Emi to the nursery. Brian was upset that we just left Zach so he went to check on him and he was just fine. So, the nursery was pretty rocky. Keep in mind Aiden and Emi have been with no one except us, my sisters and my parents. So, Pam snuck out, I snuck out and Brian snuck out last. They said Aiden adjusted pretty quick and the lady actually does a "class" for their age. You know bible songs and such. They said Emi never got used to them, she was holding a baby a blanket an elmo and something else and she kept trying to get Aiden to hold her. We all went to I think it was a "women's" bible study since there were two men, but Brian didn't seem to mind.

The lesson they are doing now is awesome. I'll have to post more about that later. But they were talking straight to me. Let me tell you all the inadequacies I feel we laid before me.

Today I volunteered for a couple of hours at the kids school. Yesterday they gave me orientation of the copy machine. Don't laugh, but that thing is complicated. So, today I made copies then I went to the first grade class and worked one on one with a little boy on reading. Then they went to recess and I went to a second grade class (not Tony's) and helped read AR questions and helped a little girl with reading. I'm loving it. Hopefully I make a difference, plus I get to see my kids and the teachers etc.

Well, time to go get Zach and then off to the library to return some late books.

Grandparents day at school

So, today was grandparents day at school. Grandparents were invited to come up and have lunch with the kids and they had a huge cake for them. Angie called and asked my dad to come and originally he said he couldn't but between her and my mom he was kind of guilted into it. So, he had lunch with Zach and then stayed and had lunch with Angie and Tony. I signed up to be a parent volunteer, so I was at the school filling out the paper work to get my criminal background check (not that I'm worried, I am a nurse so its part of the job) and decided to stop in for a picture.
They went with class shirts this year. Each class is a different color and they wear them Fridays and field trip days.

Man, I love my dad!

Dance

Yesterday Angie started dance. We took last year off for a couple of reasons. Her old dance teacher retired to take care of her husband who was diagnosed with MS and sold her studio. The girl who bought it is very young so I wanted to give her a year to figure things out, plus we weren't sure how Brian's health was going to do. She didn't seem to miss it at first, but this year she asked if she could do it again. She said she wanted to take a year away from gymnastics to see if she missed it or not. She said that since its something she's always done (since age three)she didn't know if she really liked it or was just doing it because she always had. She really wanted to take ballet, so she's taking ballet I on thursdays, and the children's broadway class after. We have to drive all the way to brownwood so I figure we should make it worth our while. Most of the girls are a year younger than her and seem to go to the same school. You can tell all the moms know each other and have that competitive thing going on with each other.

Angie's teacher is young and kind of strict, but I think I'm going to really like her. She wants to teach them from the beginning correct posture and she has to tell them frequently backs straight, butts in. It's so funny to watch these girls, some of them get really caught up with checking themselves out in the mirrors. Miss Amy said that Angie was a good student, and she is. She listens well and picks up on the steps quickly. After she said that her feet hurt, but she really liked it.

Here's some old recital pics as well. She took tap (that's the sailor outfit). That recital dance was super cute. They had this sailor music, and started out swabbing the deck with mops. The red outfit was a jazz routine to rockin robin. Not as cute, but it was so funny watching angie at the recital. She kept trying to get the girls next to her to do the steps right.

Happy 5th King Zach

Zachary Has been talking about his birthday for at least two weeks now, and today you would have thought he was a king. Brian let him pick what he wanted for dinner and he said "cake". Well, Brian told him no and his response was "well you did say "anything". So Brian asked him what he wanted with his cake and he chose homemade pizza. This really is one of Brian's specialties. Then we sang happy birthday, opened presents, and THEN had cake all in the order Zach chose.

When we had one kid she would get about 25 presents for her birthday, now that we have five, they get about 5 per birthday. But it really doesn't matter, I am always so proud of how appreciative my kids are. I think he showed the most interest in the five dollar slinky.

Brian picked up a powerwheels truck for 20$. Its a little banged up and dirty, but I really need to get a picture on here of him driving it. Aiden wont ride with him because he goes too fast and drives all crazy, but Emi gets in and he wraps his arm around her and takes off and she has about a 1000 watt smile.

Just for kicks I thought I'd post a couple of his first birthday photos too.

Happy 5th Birthday Zachary