Jeremy's First Day of Kindergarten :(

First day of Kindergarten for my youngest son! I cried my eyes out (after I dropped him off, of course). He was crying and holding me so tight, like a little monkey. I couldn’t let go of him. It really was breaking my heart. Thank goodness for kissing hands (from a children’s story), and teachers who can take your child’s hand from yours when you can’t let go yourself. I had to speak to the new Kindergarten parents at the New Parent Breakfast (as the School Community Council Chair) within minutes of letting my last son go. My heart was pounding and I was on the verge of tears. I wasn’t sure that I could speak publicly and help these parents feel okay leaving their children for the first day when I was struggling so hard to leave my own. I pulled it off somehow, not as well as I could have, but I did it. The best part of the day was picking him up two and a half hours later. His teacher said “see you tomorrow” and he stopped and told her, “No, No, I only take half days.” I was grinning from ear to ear to have him back in my arms.

going home :)

Monday, Sept. 4, 2006

We head home today. I am missing my other children and Brian. I can’t wait to see them. It is always a great time visiting my sister and always hard to leave. The good things today are going home and knowing that I will be coming back soon enough (November!!!)

catching up....maybe

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Today our schedule is CRAZY…school, piano, soccer, scouts, young men’s activity, my niece sleeping over; Gavin (12) has a bar-b-que to be to at 5 pm. I think I will be lucky to “get-er-done”. The dog ran away. Positive thing, companion animal recovery called and she was found, just around the block. At 9:30 pm I had to take all 5 kids in their pajamas to pick Emma, the dog, up. The lady’s home and life is in worse disarray then mine. After listening to her open up to me about her problems, I am thankful for mine. Positively thankful!

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Today was definitely better. I still didn’t accomplish much in light of all that needs to be done, but I was able to at least have a different perspective. Positive thing: perspective.


Friday, September 1, 2006

Today I woke up feeling really ill….not normal sickness symptoms. I had a full day planned, class, PTA meeting, pick up kids from school, clean and pack, fly to Arizona with my oldest son. I ended up in a doctor’s appointment and found that I have a tumor growing. The positive thing I guess is that it wasn’t all the other scary things that I was worrying about and I can still go to Arizona for the weekend.


Saturday, Sept. 2, 2006

The weather is hot and beautiful. I spent the day visiting an old friend who moved to Mesa. She is expecting her fourth child, and her first little girl. It was an amazing day to visit and took my mind off my worries for a bit. My son is staying in their home for the weekend and I am heading back to my sisters house in Phoenix. It is so hot, 110 degrees. Not very comfortable for Utah people, or anybody. It is beautiful here and the sunsets are amazing. I am not really fond of the desert scene, however I expect to look for something beautiful in it while I am here.

Sunday, Sept.3, 2006

We got out of Phoenix for the weekend and are staying in Flagstaff, actually right out of Flagstaff 20 minutes, at my sisters husbands family cabin. It is much cooler and very beautiful. Mountains and the pine trees. I am enjoying it. The quiet time is much needed for me right now. I have reflected quite a bit on the things that I am doing and the opportunities that I have. My responsibilities are so great to my kids and husband that I feel overwhelmed much of the time trying to do much else. This has been a good opportunity for me. I plan to walk quite a bit. Took a walk in the desert and found some really beautiful flowers. I made me realize that while something is baren and dry looking, it can have such hidden beauty.

my daughter thinks she hates me

Didn’t do so well on the English, that’s what I get for waiting, not reading the assignments carefully and rushing to accomplish. I did the work for the whole week, misunderstanding on my part. Positive note; I have the assignments for Thursday in the bag. Had a breakdown with my daughter today, she decided that she “hates me”, thankfully changing her mind and talking to me about her problem after being given time to think in her room. Maybe that is what I need, more time alone to think in my room.

a house of order???

I have positive feelings that we will get our house in order this week. Looking ahead, if we all stay on task, we should be living in some semblance of order by Friday. I finished my math assignments and so far am getting it. Family night tonight, Brian planned the lesson, cool!!! I have writing assignments to do for English, waited till the last minute.

Sunday

Spent some alone time with Samuel while the rest of the family went to church. He has really been needing one on one. We played Monopoly. After church we watched a family movie. I got a quick nap, which felt great, and nobody noticed.

Saturday is a special day....

Didn’t get around to much of the housework today, but the kids smiled and played, and we did get time to work on their new point system for the school year, which they understand and seems to be motivating them to stay on a schedule and on task. Positive thing: I actually slept better on Clarissa’s floor than I have in a week in my own room listening to Sam’s cough (from West Nile Virus, Sam is 7 and has not felt well for over a week) and having up to two kids in bed with us and one on the floor. Maybe her room is the perfect hideout for me.

on-time

Today was a bit better for the running. Kids have a half day of school. They were on time, so was I. We had to be to the school by 8 am for Jeremy’s kindergarten appointment and we made it. I got to class on time, had lunch with a friend, picked the kids up, avoided housework, tried to figure out my assignments for this class, to no avail, will work on it more this weekend. The journal thing is all I have figured out so far, so I am doing it diligently. The kids are picking up on it and doing better on their journals as well, positive. I am having a sleepover with my 9 year old daughter in her room tonight. Tomorrows positive thing will depend on the amount of sleep we get on her tiny couch folded onto the floor watching movies and eating way too much junk food.

10-minutes late

Today I was 10 minutes late to my English course. The positive thing in this was that parking was not the problem (which every student knows is usually the trouble with the Redwood Road campus) but that I went to the wrong building, twice. I kept thinking that I had in my memory what building and room that I was suppose to be in, but I was wrong. After wishing that I would wake from my apparent nightmare and then checking to be sure that I had put clothes on (not showing up to school the first day in you underwear nightmare). I looked in my bag at my hand scribbled schedule and ran to the right building, correct classroom, and looked into the face of my teacher for the quarter, who I have had for a previous course, and called attention to me being late, which brought on some discussion as to why I was late and then his introduction of his expectations and that being on time is pretty much required. I knew it wasn’t a really big deal, but I am a compulsive perfectionist and for me it seemed to really blow my personal expectations. On the positive side, I had found a great parking space, and I made it on time for the rest of the days events, i.e. picking kids up from school, soccer, piano, the usual stuff for Thursday. (I just realized that I wrote Tuesday as the day, Tuesday after Wednesday, only part of my brain is functioning right now, so I will leave that alone as well as yesterday’s grammatical blunders.)

on-line journaling

Just a quick note as I begin this course at Salt Lake Community College. I read the little intro to the course in the class schedule book and thought that it would be interesting to take and learn more about myself, potentially to work on some of the things that need improvement in my life and to better understand why I am who I am and in the long run become the person I want to be, or at least be headed in that direction. (That was a really long sentence, which I won’t correct because this is my journal and this is the process of my thinking). Today I got my kids all off to their first day of class on time and I was only 5 minutes late to my first Math class. Not bad, pretty positive when you consider what I have to work with.

June 5, 2006 - Assembly of Champtions, Nagoya, Japan

Congratulations to Brian for being the United States representative at the Toyota's Assembly of Champtions in Japan. This was such an honor, and priviledge to share with Brian. Being the US rep, with people there from more than 50 other countries. Great work Brian. You deserve all that comes with winning this.
Notice the running man sign above the door. These are all over Japan.

On the very long plane ride back home to the states.