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Sunday, September 25, 2011

Ten on Sunday

1. I caught Logan reading his scriptures all by himself during sacrament meeting. I couldn't be more prouder of my little guy. His reading skills are really improving, the past of couple of weeks we have seen big changes. Tonight, after dinner Logan even asked if he could read more verses. Talk about shock, my son use to hate to even try to read one little verse is asking for more which makes my heart want to melt.

2. Logan also did a really good job during the Primary program. Last year, he refused to say anything but this year he did it. He needed help from his teacher reading his
part but he did it! His teacher came up to me after the program and she told me how proud she was of him. His teacher promised him if he got up to the stand and read his part he would receive an extra treat. So, Logan managed to walk away with three extra treats.

3. All three kids took part of the primary program; I was sitting way in the back and I could barely see any of my kids. Poor Leah kept trying to move to the side to get a peck of me from the stand. She did an awesome job, I couldn't hear her very well when she was up at the stand reading her part but she did it and that's all that matters. She did a really good job singing as well.

4. Landon yesterday at his baseball game suffered an injury but he managed to stuck it up and kept right on playing. I'm so proud of him. He was up at the base getting ready to hit a baseball when it some how managed to hit him in the arm. He teared up but he kept right on playing. He even managed to make a run and score a point for his team.

5. Leah and Logan had soccer games as well. I managed to spend three hours at the soccer field and two hours at the baseball field. Talk about long hours supporting my children's interests in sports. Leah's really good at soccer but she tires out easily. She managed to kick the ball into the goal and score a point for her team. She almost had another point but the ball stop right in front on the goal. She didn't realize the ball wasn't all the way in to count for a point. She just stood their waiting for everyone to cheer and was confused it didn't count. The other team managed to steal the ball back and they scored a point. Logan still thinks soccer is boring but he did join in every time and played really hard. He almost scored a goal a couple of times but at least his trying.

6. I managed to finish up a lot of little projects around the house. I finally got around mailing off a ton of thank you and birthday cards. I'm almost done sewing a pinafore apron but I messed up the shoulder strap and I need to fix it. I'm working on knitting up another scarf. I have lots of time on my hands watching all of those games.


7. Leroy pick me up a car to drive. The van is costing me way too much money in fuel. I'm driving the kids around to three different games and practices. Plus, it's just me and Leah during the day. I don't need a van when it's just the two of us. It's a VW Jetta TDI diesel but it's also a standard. It's very different than during a Honda which is what I'm use to driving. I finally got behind the wheel on the way to church. I have it worked out but it's going to take some time getting us to plus I can't wait to start saving some serious money on fuel.

8. I'm currently working on building up some miles in my running. I managed to log in 17 miles this week alone. I'm really hoping to run in a half marathon sometime this Fall. This week, the kids will not be at school Mon or Tue this will be throwing off my week. I might not be able to get in that many miles but we will see how things go.

9. The sunroom/porch is coming along nicely. They will be putting in the windows in this week.

10. General Conference is coming up this weekend, I can't believe it's already time for conference. Where has all the time gone!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Ten on Sunday

1. This weekend turned out to be nice and relaxing. A series of thunderstorms rolled into our area which was a nice surprise. I need to pay more attention to the weather forecast. All three kids games were canceled due to the "wet" conditions. So, this weekend turned out to be great for me! The kids didn't seem to mind, either! All the running around; has left everyone exhausted.

2. Friday night, my friend "V' offered to take the kids to Fayetteville to the mall for a special Razorback Fest. The only one that wanted to go to the event was Landon. Let's just say that Logan was super jealous that he didn't go with them. Landon came back with a ton of free razorback products plus pizza and candy. He managed to drink two cans of Coke which he realized he might get in trouble for drinking some much Coke in one night. So, he decided to have a Diet Coke, instead! Yikes, he was so hyper that I didn't think we would ever get him to go to bed. Landon also was able to get everyone from soccer, gymnastics, baseball, and basketball autographed all of his posters. Next year, we will all go together.

3. Our freezer stop working again, this happened over the summer. I thought maybe it was related to the hot weather but it did it again. I had to cram all of the food from the deep freeze to the fridge/freezer in the kitchen. I could barely get the door on the freezer to stay closed. Luckily, a friend of ours called me the next day and offered us their deep freezer because they will be moving overseas and they wouldn't be able to take it with them. Well, managed to get the freezer to our house and Leroy informed me that our freezer was working again. So, I'm going to craigslist it and hopefully someone will take it. I will not trust it again.

4. Let me back track a little bit, Leah and I went shopping at Aldi's. We picked up a big tub of ice cream and we hurried to get it inside the freezer in the garage. As soon as I opened the freezer, I knew something wasn't right. The food in the freezer was about half thawed out. All of my fruit that I picked over the summer was somewhat thawed out. I thought that my only option would be to throw all of the fruit out but it seemed wasteful. I decided not to put it back into the indoor freezer due to lack of space plus all of the fruit would just clump together into a big mess. So, I did the only thing I could think of which would be to canned the fruit. So, I manged to make close to 11 pints and 12 half pints of strawberry blueberry jam. We know have about 100 jars of jam and jelly but that's okay! Hopefully, we wouldn't have to can any more jelly for a couple of years...lol!

5. Monday night, all three kids had something going on sports wise and at three different locations. I wasn't sure how I could possibly get everyone where they needed to be but it all worked out at the end. I was really surprised to learned the next day that my best friend tried to call me because she saw my post on facebook about the transportation challenges and she wanted to offer to drive some of the kids for me. Talk about friendship, she's awesome. Luckily, Leroy was able to meet me at the ball field and it all worked out. It's so nice, to have people that are willing to help you out just for the sake of being friends.

6. The house remodel is coming along nicely. The deck's roof is on and Leroy will be doing the electric wiring of the deck and sun room. We had a guy come out and give us an estimate. Let's just say it was crazy expensive...the guy wanted $900 and we already priced out all of the materials. It's only like $150 for the materials. It's just wiring a ceiling fan and three outlets. Luckily, Leroy's uncle is going to help me with the job and we will save some money. How hard can it really be?

7. We're also planning on replacing the carpets in the house. We found two super nice remnant pieces for the kids rooms but nothing for our bedroom. It's way too big of a room and they don't carry remnants in the size we need. Too bad, it's going to cost a lot more money then we wanted to spend but we will have to keep our eyes out for some good deals. I don't want to go the cheap route. I want some high quality carpet that will last a long time. Plus, we found a remnant piece for the sun room. It's a high quality commercial outdoor carpet. It's a little bit more then what we budgeted for but it's way to nice of a deal to pass up.

8. I finally decided to learn how to make tutu's. It's amazing all of the things you can learn from You tube. I already made two tutus. One for my niece and one for my daughter. I'm going to make Savannah my niece a little ghost outfit with a matching black and white tutu. Leah's tutu is multi colored tutu and I'm going to make her a nice watch outfit. Seriously, the no sew tutu's are super easy to make. I'm talking less than 30 minutes you can have a completely finished project. Pictures will be coming...in the future.

9. Logan sold a grand total of 18 coupon books. I'm so proud of him, he would get on his bike after school and go door to door selling the books.

10. I still didn't make the grape juice. I ended up getting distracted with the fruit jam maybe if they still have grapes I might make some homemade grape juices but I'm worried it might be too late. If it's too late, I might go ahead and buy a bushel of peaches. Freeze some peach slices. I really like using frozen fruit in my fruit smoothies.

11. The rest of the week, I will be driving the kids around and working on cleaning up the house. I'm just trying to finish up all of my unfinished projects and working on finishing up some books that I checked out from the library. 

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

A is for Apple

Once again, Blogger.com will not allow me to move the pictures around. So, they are completely messed up and not in order. I don't have the time to try to fix it so bear with me.

Leah's growing up way too fast, plus she's bored at home without her BFF Kailyn. The girls used to play all day long together but that all changed a couple of weeks ago when her BFF started fulltime preschool. Leah's having a hard time adjusting. She's not use to having to play by herself which isn't a good thing for me because I can't seem to get anything done around the house when she's home from school.

Leah asked if we could play school this morning which I decided to just give up any hope of getting the house clean and set up preschool at home for her. When the boys were home, I used to always have school time with the boys with lots of crafts and science projects. I think part of the problem is I kinda got bored with it but I'm really ready now to do it again with Leah. This should help her with her boredom and help us create some wonderful memories.

So, we started off with the letter "A"! I pulled out my Melissa & Doug Alphabet puzzle and we worked our way thru it. Leah knows a lot of her letters but not all of them. The next thing we did was read a book called "More Pies" by Robert Munsch which is one of my boys favorite children's author. If you haven't listen to his audio tapes your missing out. The stories are so good and funny. The boys still enjoy listening to them. After reading the book we made an apple pie.

While the pie was baking in the oven. We read another book about the letter "A" where the little boy goes around filling his box of things that start with the letter "A". So, we found our own box and we went around the house filling our box with goodies that started with the letter "A". Leah loved it!

We still had time before the pie would be done, so Leah work on a handwriting sheet. She did a really good job plus she recognized the letter "A" is in her name.

On Thursday, we will work on counting using apples and animal crackers!











Sunday, September 11, 2011

Ten on Sunday (pics)


















Ten on Sunday

1. A couple of weeks ago, they changed the time we attend church to the afternoon session. Church now starts at 1:00pm and we don't get back home until almost 4:30pm. Let me just make it know that I hate this schedule. I'm a morning person, I like to wake up nice and early get things done. Waiting around all morning long is torture. I'm sleepy by the time church starts that I'm getting nothing out of it. Each Sunday feels weird and I HATE IT! It's going be a couple of weeks but its not working for me! Especially, when we get back so late in the afternoon. Each Sunday, I'm using my crock-pot. The kids are starving by the time they get back from church. I'm making Apricot Chicken in the crock-pot served with fluffy white rice. So, to make up some of the time wasted waiting for church. I'm going to strive to write up my weekly list of events on Sunday mornings. So, I'm going to have to come up with a way to enjoy my Sunday's plus make them efficient.

2. This morning, we decided to sleep in. The kids were up and being super quiet. We knew they had to be up to something. They were way too quiet. Sure enough, we found them in the bathroom trying to give the poor cat a bath. Luckily, we came to the cat's rescue just in time. Who knows how much longer the cat would of tolerated the kids.

3. The weather is starting to cool off. I'm back to knitting. I already finished two scarfs. I purchased a ton of Alpaca wool to knit with and I hated it. I didn't realize at the time, you need to use knitting patterns that call for Alpaca. So, I found a super easy pattern and I already have it memorized. I finish to scarfs in less than a week. I will post pictures at a later time. Plus, I have all three kids signed up for sports. It's a lot of time, just sitting around watching them play and practice. Knittings a great way to pass the time plus feel like I'm more than a chauffeur.

4. I already finished Leah's costume. I decided that I don't want to feel stressed out about the up coming holidays. I have come a long way with my sewing skills. I managed to read the pattern, cut it the pieces, plus sew it together all by myself. Okay, I had a little bit of help but it was very minimal. So, I completed the costume 95% by myself. The boys have decided yet what they would like to be for Halloween yet. I need them to make a decision so I can start to work on their costume.

5. Talking about Halloween, I'm hoping the remodel will be done soon. I'm really wanting to throw a huge Halloween party for the family. I figured if the remodel is done we could have a bunch of friends over to celebrate. I always wanted to throw a big Halloween Bash for the kids friends but I was worried that know one would come. I'm so lame at times. I always have a huge turnout when I throw parties. So, I need to feel less insecure and just do it. The ward Halloween parties are always lame. I'm tried of going to them. So, if the sunroom/deck is completed in time then it will be party time. I'm really thinking if I have enough time, I might just go ahead and sew myself a costume to wear, as well.

6. Landon didn't get elected as Vice President of student council. I'm still really proud of him even if he didn't win the election. Landon was up against six other students and competition was fierce. Landon wrote his own speech and he got up in front of the whole 3rd and 4th student body. I'm always amazed when my kids do things that I never expected them to do. Landon's going to try for an office position next year. Plus, Landon will still be serving on the student council.

7. Weight loss, I hate to bring this up but since the boys birthday I have continually put on weight.You would think because I work out six days a week that my weight wouldn't be an issue. I think it all started with the party, yes sugar or known as "ugar" at our house. Logan couldn't pronounce his "s" sound for the longest time. He can say it correctly now but we still call it "Ugar" at our house. Yes, sugar is what caused my problems. I stop eating sugar on Tuesday and I cut back on my carbs. I'm now down two pounds! I'm hoping to drop another two or three pounds.

8. Logan really impressed me this week with selling Harps Coupon Books for the school fund raiser. He came home and took off going door to door selling the books without even telling me. He came home with a five dollar bill and a huge smile on his face. Logan has sold a total of 13 books to our neighbors. He has to sell 3 more books in order to have lunch with the school principal. I'm not sure how that's a reward but Logan really wants it! His goal is to sell $200 of coupon books. One of our neighbors loved the coupon books so much she's going to take her book to her quilting group and take orders. Hopefully, she will get a big enough order that Logan will be able to exceed his goal. I love my neighborhood, all of my neighbors are AWESOME!!!!!!

9. Last weekend, I ended up canning over 15 quarts of crushed tomatoes, 9 pints of pizza sauce, and 4 quarts of Firery Hot crushed tomatoes. I'm going to try to pick up Grapes this week and get busy canning some grape juice.

10. Sports update: I signed up Logan and Leah for soccer. Yesterday, Logan refused to join in. He told me that soccers boring and he doesn't want to do it anymore. He does this with every single sport that I sign him up for...why does he does this! I finally had to reward "bribe" him to join the team. I told him if he join in and played that I would take him to the Indian Museum afterwards to look at arrowheads. Logan is just like his Grandpa Nichols. So, as soon as the game was over we headed over to the museum. We might have to go to the Indian Museum a lot this soccer season. Logan's first game is this Monday night but it's in Bentonville and Leah's practice is Monday night in Centerton. I'm not sure how I'm going to get them in two different locations at the same time. Plus, Landon playing Fall Ball. He will be attending all of the practices but he will be missing a majority of the games. The games are scheduled on Sundays because they don't want the games to interfere with Razorback home games. LAME OH, I hate football and now even more.

11. I'm still running but my knee is a little bit sore. On Labor Day, I ran in a 10k supporting the Children's Shelter in our area. My legs felt tired and stiff. I managed to come in 58:53 which is almost five minutes off my time from last year but it's not my fastest time. I managed to keep a pace of 9:30 minute mile. Landon managed to run on the same day but at a different race. He did the free 5k sponsored by our church and he came in at 29 minutes which is his fastest time ever. I feel bad not being able to run with him but it couldn't be help. I hope the committee moves it back to Saturday not on Labor Day.

12. Labor Day we spent the afternoon over at my visiting teacher's house for a party. A perfect way to end summer vacation. Her house is located right on the lake plus a pool. The kids had a complete blast swimming in the lake and pool. Plus, the kids managed to take out the kayaks. Logan spent literally hours on the lake kayaking around the lake all by himself. We might try to see if we can purchase a couple of these kids size kayaks for the boys.

Anyways, I'm hoping to get back in the habit and start writing my Ten on Sundays to help keep everyone up to do with the families happenings.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Campaign Manager

When Landon came home over a week ago he told me he wanted to join the Student Council and run for Vice President! I didn't realize how complicated the whole process. Each class in 3rd and 4th grade had to nominate and elect one boy and one girl. Landon was nominated plus two other boys. Landon's class mates voted for him to be their class Representative for the student council. Now, Landon is able to run for an office.
He decided he wanted to be Vice President. The process hasn't been easy. I worked really hard all week to come up with some cute catchy slogans but Landon didn't like any of them. He didn't want any thing that would be tooo embarrassing. So, I came up with the "Vote 4 Landon Scheele" slogan. Landon was really happy about the new slogan. I decided it would be a good idea to include a Name Poem that way the other students could learn a little bit about home. Unfortunately, I ended up completing most of the poster but Landon added the stickers. Landon loves how the posters turned out.
I'm so proud of my son. I'm always surprised how much my boys continue to surprised me with all of their new adventures. I'm not sure if Landon will win the election or not but that's not the point. The little guy is setting goals and trying new things. The last thing, Landon needs to do is write a minute long speech about why students should vote for him. Landon will have to give the speech in front of the whole 3rd and 4th grades. I never would of done anything like this as a child but I'm glad my son will have this opportunity.