Our Christmas this year

This is the painting that I got Robin. I paid Robin's sister to paint it. The painting is of the grist mill at Babcock State Park in West Virginia. Robin and I stayed in a cabin nearby on our honeymoon, so I thought this would be something really nice for our house. Now... if only we can get it back to Utah in one piece.







Garrett is playing with his new race track.

Olivia is wearning one of her new dress-up outfits and listening to Barbie movie songs on her new CD player.

Olivia and Garrett decorated cookies at Grandma Brunner's house. Actually, Garrett was the only one who decorated them. Olivia spent most of the time laying on the couch complaining that her stomach hurt. About 40 minutes later she was throwing up in the bathroom. We're not sure how she pulled off such a cute smile in this picture.

Garrett got a road map for his toy cars. In this last picture we just opened stockings. Merry Christmas and thank you everyone!

Babysitter Woes Again

I have not had the opportunity to be a stay at home mom. I am lucky that I have a job that I enjoy most of the times. I love that I get to work half time and then get to come home and spend the rest of the day with my wonderful children. One of the hardest things is finding a reliable babysitter that you trust. I have had 7 sitters so far. (to me that is alot) Some have been good some not so great. The one I have now we have really liked up until now.
She first decided to raise her rates. I was ok with this and went up to the higher price because I liked her and she was doing a good job. Part of our agreement was that she would provide lunch for the kids. She has now decided that she doesn't want to provide lunch for them that she wants me to provide any food that they eat while at her house. I wasn't really happy about this but I decided that I would do this too.
Her child got Croop. This is the 2nd time that he has had it this year. The first time he got he gave it to Garrett. She called and told me he had croop so I decided to keep my kids home to be on the safe side. This was friday. On Monday I took the kids back to her house. By this tme my kids had developed colds. (That they probably got from her kids) I took them again on Tuesday. Garrett's cold had gotten worse I had taken him to the doctor but they said that it was just a cold.
She called me at 9 o'clock at night and told me that since Garrett had a cold that she did not want him at her house. I told her that he was feeling better and that he had been happy she still didn't want him. She then said her kids were getting sick too often so when my kids had colds that I couldn't bring them. I told her that I can't take off work everytime one of my kids gets the sniffles. She then told me that I just wasn't as concerned about them.
This really hurt my feelings. I am concerned about my children but I also have a job that I have to have to help my family. I had to find another person to watch them for that day. This isn't easy. This makes the 4th time this month that I have had to find someone else to watch them for one reason or other.
I was so upset. I am still upset.
Now I am thinking that I need to find a new sitter. But I don't have someone to ask. I tried one lady I know but she is already full. I don't want to take them to big daycare center. I just don't know what to do.
Babysitter problems are the worst!!!!

I just needed to vent and then maybe a solution would come to my mind.

Christmas Lights

Last night, the Crapo family came down to our house. They came for pizza and then we went to Thanksgiving Point and drove around there and saw their light display. It was really fun. The lights were interesting. When we first entered the area we didn't see Christmas lights we saw Halloween lights and to make it look like Christmas they would have a skeleton next to a present or the headless horseman next to a Christmas tree. It was quite comical. Then the lights went to the normal Christmas theme stuff. Garrett and Olivia really enjoyed seeing the lights. Especially ones that looked like Santa. At the end of the drive there were Nativity things and poems that you could read. We like that it ended that way.
Afterwards we came home and ate cookies. It was a fun evening. Even if we did have to see a dancing jack-o-latern lights. : ) Then we had gifts for each other. It is nice to do things with your friends. This is the 2nd year in a row that we have gone and looked at lights with the Crapos. Last year we went to Temple Square.

Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

Garrett loves his milk. He can not get enough of it. We were downstairs and he came up by himself. I said to myself I should go up with him. Instead I waited about 10 minutes. MY MISTAKE! When I got up stairs he had pushed a chair over to the cabinet and got a cup. He went to the fridge, opened it, pulled out the milk, took off the lid, TRIED to pour himself a cup. He didn't quite succeed. He ended up pouring about 1/2 the milk on the floor. (Lucky for us it was only half full). When I did come upstairs to get him I had a huge mess to clean up. He just stood there with us cup and kept saying milk, milk, milk.

Now every time we are in the kitchen he wants to get the milk out of the fridge himself. We can't keep him out of the fridge, away from the milkl, out of the toothpaste, or keep him from messing with the dial on the dishwasher. He is a very busy boy and get into mischief quite easily. He is just so cute about it.

When Olivia grows up

Olivia wants to grow up so fast. She asks us if we will teach her drive, she talks about being married in the temple and have babies of her own. She has names picked out and everything. She says she wants to be a doctor, a firefighter, and she wants to teach the gospel. She makes us smile. : ) I didn't realize that 5 year olds think about all of these things.

Now that I am a grown up it made me think what do I want to do next with my life. It is something to think on.

Decorating The Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving, we put up our Christmas tree. It is a fake tree that is about 7 1/2 feet tall. The kids really loved putting it up. Garrett now just stares at it and points and says, "Star." Livvy's job is to turn on the Christmas lights every day. I love Christmas time. It is so festive.

New Thanksgiving Traditions

1st Tradition We made turkeys out of oranges and dum dum suckers. For every "feather" we added we had to say something we were thankful for. Then we gave the three "turkeys" to people were thankful for. It was a fun family home evening.

2nd Tradition The night before Thanksgiving, I knew we would not be baking a turkey so I decideded to make my own turkey. I made two cakes. 2 round and 1 9 by 13. Then I used the cakes to make the "Turkey". Olivia helped me put the icing on. Jeremy helped me put it togehter. Garrett helped by eating as much frosting as he could. : ) It was a big hit after we ate Turkey for dinner we ate Turkey for dessert! I might continue to do this each year now.

Thanksgiving Day

We went to the Crapo's (Our friends who live in Salt Lake). We had dinner around 5 o'clock. It was just our two families. Marianne did the turkey, potatoes, gravy, and stuffing. I did the rolls, and pies. We both did a jello salad. Plus I made a turkey shaped cake and brought apple cider. She cooked the stuffing in her crock pot. I am not a big stuffing fan but this was pretty good. It was quite the feast. We got a bit carried away with the amount of food that we made. She baked a 18 pound turkey, enough potatoes for at least 4 more familes. I made four pies. We definitely had enough food. (We both have enough leftovers for a couple of days.And she is going to have a lot of turkey to put into her freezer. And we both kept 2 pies.)
The kids liked eating the turkey cake and the adults ate pie. Oh it was all so good. I got full way too fast.
It was a fun evening. After dinner Jeremy and Nathan played x-box, the kids played, and Marianne and I got to just chat. We thought about scrapbooking but decided against it. It was a nice relaxing day. We ate dinner around 5 o'clock. Which is later then what my family usaully does but I liked eating it then.

The Turkey shot out of the oven

I use this poem with my class and it is pretty funny. Thought everyone could use a laugh. I use it for visualizing and have the kids draw pictures of what they see.

The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven
by: Jack Prelutsky

The turkey shot out of the oven
and rocketed into the air.
It knocked every plate off the table
and partly demolished a chair.

It ricocheted into a corner
and burst with a deafening boom,
then splattered all over the kitchen,
completely obscuring the room.

It stuck to the walls and the windows,
it totally coated the floor.
There was turkey attached to the ceiling,
where there’d never been any before.

It blanketed every appliance.
It smeared every saucer and bowl.
There wasn’t a way I could stop it.
That turkey was out of control!

I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,
and thought with chagrin as I mopped,
that I’d never again stuff a turkey
with popcorn that hadn’t been popped.

Garrett this Evening

I made Ministroni soup for dinner. I dipped it into the bowls to cool then we said the prayer. While Olivia was saying the prayer Garrett climbs on the table and sits next to my soup bowl and starts blowing it. Then when the prayer was over he said, " Hot" and blew on it some more. It was really a funny sight.

Olivia this morning

So I gave the kids a bath this morning to get ready for church. Olivia put her dress on afterwards and as she came walking down the hall with her wet hair she said,
"Daddy, I still need to brush my hair before it gets dangerous." Hehehe

Books and movies

I love a good book and a good movie. I don't always know which books and movies are good. I love reading children's books. (Maybe because I teach 3rd grade) Some books that I have read recently that I have enjoyed are : Eragon, Eldest, Charlie Bone Series, Dragon Rider, Thief Lord, Platform 13, Beauty, View from Saturday, A teacher's Funeral, and InkHeart. I love to read. I try to teach my students to love to read too. Thanks Earl for letting me borrow so many of your books. If you have any good suggestions I am always looking.

I also love movies: I just watched The sisterhood of the traveling pants. It is rated PG and it is a really good movie. At first Jeremy said that it was to much of a girl movie, but he watched it with me and even seemed to like it. I would recommend that you see it.

So if you have any good movies or good books to recommend let me know. I am looking for books that are not scary and books that don't have inappropritate things in them.

Thank You

We appreciate that we got to see all of you for Olivia's birthday. Thank you so much for the gifts that everyone brought for her. She had a wonderful time. I keep meaning to write Thank you cards ( and I will soon) . In the meantime I wanted you to know that we are grateful. She loved the book on tape from Emily. She enjoyed all the pony things from Nate, Krisit, and Sariah. She really likes the TV camera microphone from Grandma and Grandpa Brunner. Both Olivia and Garrett love performing in front of it. She also really loves the art kit that Grandma and Grandpa Doolittle got her. I can't believe that she is 5. She is so grown up and she is so creative and fun.
Thank you again.

Thomas

My brother, Thomas, is now in Kuwait. He will be there for about 3 weeks then he will go on to Iraq. It is still a little unbelievable that he is over there. He is really the first person I have known personally to go over there. It is hard to believe that they said that we won the war but that we are still sending lots of troops over there. I never thought about it much until someone close to me went over. I know that supporting democracy in other countries is important and that my brother is giving a great service to our country. Keep him in your prayers.

New Family Photo

Here we are. Ain't we cute?

She's not kidding

So, we're grading papers. To give you an example of the kind of letters Robin has to reply to, we're posting one from one of her students.

Here you go (If you've got a Urim and Thumim, you might figure it out):
Der. mes. B Im
red the dlak
codren it a dod
book i wes
you can red
it. I jav it
The pot i jave is
wen there o most
mak evol nits
Tnatare ded.
seseire Charles

Most don't look this bad.

Reading Letters

I read a book called Guided Reading and Writing for grades 3-6. (Well not all of it but some of it) It is a really good book to help with teaching reading. One of the suggestions is that you have your students write you a letter about what they are reading and then as the teacher you write them a letter back. I decided to try this. Now each week as one of their centers they write me a letter about any book that they are currently reading. They have some interesting letters and it helps me see what they are reading and what they think about the books. However this causes quite a problem for me because NOW each week I have to write each student a letter back. That is 21 different letters each week, I THINK I AM CRAZY! I do this on top of all the other grading, planning, and getting lessons ready that I have to do. The question of the day is Why do I make myself so crazy.

Happy Birthday to Olivia, Cha-cha-cha

We had a party today for Olivia. She turns 5 next week. We had 7 friends show up for the party. Olivia pretty much planned the whole thing. First, they played with balloons. Then they played with ribbons attached to sticks. Then they made necklaces and drew Halloween pictures. We ate cake and ice cream sandwiches. Then they played "Find the monster" (Pretty much like an Easter egg hunt but with little soft monsters). We opened presents. Then we played "Monster, monster, where's your bone?" We had a few minutes left before parents showed up so we took the kids to the basement and had a ball war with the balls from our ball pit. Here are some pictures. Everyone seemed to have a good time and was ready to go after a couple of hours.

Basement update

I thought I'd add a little bit of what I've been doing in the basement. We're off for UEA this weekend (no school Thu & Fri) so teachers who want to can go to training (Hahahaha). I keep thinking that we're almost done with the basement, but we keep finding more things to do. In the last two days we've put in doorknobs, installed phone jacks, ethernet jacks, and cable TV jacks in every room. We've finished some electrical work and installed light fixtures. We also moved down a sofa bed, a queen sized mattress, a coffee table, and two end tables down stairs. Thanks to the Crapos for the great furniture!

No pictures this time, but you are free to come see for yourself next week ;)

Mom and Dad in Town

My mom and dad arrived yesterday from WV. They arrived but their luggage didn't. The airline delivered it at 1:00 am this morning. The guy was supposed to be here no later than 11:30 pm. I think the guy wanted a tip for delivering it but I wasn't going to give him a tip for being late.
After we picked them up from the airport we took them to one of our favorite places to eat: Cafe Rio. Any excuse we have to go there we do. We just love the food there. I always order the chili roast beef salad.
Soon after we got home my Dad and Jeremy went to work. They put up all the doors in the basement. They had to trim the bottom of the doors because the carpet was thick. It was nice to have Dad here to help Jere with the doors. We just love our basement!!!!

Carpet's In

The carpet is finally in. It took them two days instead of one and did a pretty good job. We like it because it is really really soft. Now all we have left is putting the final electrical plates where the outlets and cable things go.

In WV

I am in WV. Yesterday we had a family cookout for my brother Thomas. He will be leaving for Iraq on Nov. 1. It was a fun day. It was nice to see my brother and other members of my family. My sister Emily put photos on her blog as well as a link to view other pictures. To see the pictures go to her blog.
I was reading Betsy's blog about the campout and we were doing a similar thing here. We went up to my Dad's lake in the rain and made a camp fire and roasted s'mores. It was a blast.
We gave the kids flashlights and they had the best time. Garrett especially had a good time. Olivia would have loved it too but she didn't get to come on this trip. She is staying home with dad.
I will be here until the 12th. Then I am flying back. I took off three days of work to come. It still seems unreal that my brother will be going to Iraq and will be gone for a whole year.
I just hope that he stays safe.

Olivia's B-Day

Olivia's B-Day is Oct. 27th. We know a lot of the cousins will here at this time for Hester's Wedding on the 28th. We are wanting to have a B-Day party on Saturday 29th for all of the cousins who will be here. We would love for everyone to come.
On the 29th our ward is also having a Trunk or Treat and we thought that that would be fun to do as part of the party. So if you can when you come up this way bring Halloween Costumes to wear to this. We think it would be a lot of fun. Then after Trunk or Treating we could come back to our house and have dinner with cake and ice cream.
Let me know what you think.

Saw this on a billboard

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who can read binary and those who can't.

I thought it was quite clever.

Our Other Sweetie

Here is our other sweetie!

Our sweetie

And here's our sweetie.

Tile

Here's my first attempt of installing ceramic floor tile. It still needs grout. That's tomorrow's project.

Bathroom

This one didn't turn out that well since the light was on so I adjusted the colors. It's supposed to be a nicer shade of blue.

Like the view?

I did take them at night so the colors may be a little off, but don't you like the view out the window?

Basement photos

Jere here. Dad mailed us a new digital camera and I took some photos of the basement. Consider it a small preview to all of you who will be staying here next month. The carpet should be coming soon.

72 hour kit

Well, I finally did it. I went and made 72 hour kits for each of us. Recent events got me motivated to do it. I had a list of things needed and we got what we could at home and then we went shopping for the rest. We are keeping them in the car. Two in Jeremy's car and two in my car. Now in case of of an emergency we will be a little more ready. We did this for Family Home Evening on Monday and turned it into a hunt with Olivia. We would name something on the list and she would see if she could find it to put it in her bag. She had a great time and now we each a 72 hour kit. We are slowly working on getting a year's supply of food. We probably have 4 months worth of food stored.
If you want a copy of the items to go in the 72 hour kit or how to get a year's supply of food by buying a little each week let me know and I will send you the copy I have.

Cooking

My friend Marianne showed me how to make freezer meals and how to make them last in the freezer. I love this way of cooking because then I get two meals and only have cook once. I just take a meal like Lasagna and either double the recipe or put it into two smaller containers. I buy the alumunim pans at Warmart for 3 for .99 and I put half of the meal in it. Then I wrap it with plastic wrap, then wrap it with alumunim foil. Then I put it in the freezer with the name of the meal and directions for cooking on it. This saves me so much time and believe it or not money. As a working Mom this is really nice because there are times when you come home and you just don't want to cook, and you know you shouldn't go out. Plus with our small family it is hard to eat 9 by 13 pan of anything. And rarely do all the left over get eaten. But by freezing dinners you aren't eating leftovers. The food is as good as if you just fixed it that day.
Here are some of the meals that I freeze. If you want a recipe just let me know. If you have a good recipe that you know can be frozen I am always looking for more recipes.
*Lasagna
*Baked Ziti
*Manicotti
*Chili
*Calizones
*Chicken Soup
*Chicken Enchiladas
*Chicken Pot Pie
*Chicken King Ranch Casserole
*Beef Stroganoff

Trip to WV

We have bought two sets of tickets to go to WV.
I will be going on Oct. 7th and coming back Oct 12. I am taking this trip to see my brother, Thomas, before he leaves for Iraq. He is in the Army and is now stationed at Ft. Hood Texas. Garrett will be going with me and Olivia will be staying here with Jeremy.

We also bought tickets today to go back to WV for Christmas. We will be leaving from VEGAS on the 24th of Dec. and coming back on the 31st of Dec. We like flying out of Vegas so that way we can see both families.
We are excited to see everyone!

Ignore this:

Preschool Songs

Livvy came home singing some songs from preschool. She taught them to us and each song had hand motions. She is so smart and she loves preschool. We think it is amazing that she remembers them when she gets home. Here are how three of the songs goes

Turtle
I have a little turtle
His name his Tiny Tim
I put him in the bath tub
to see if he could swim
He drank all the water
and ate a bar of soap
Now he is sick in bed
with a bubble in his throat.
Bubble Bubble Bubble
Bubble Bubble POP

Five Speckled Frogs
Five Little Speckled Frogs
Sitting on a speckled log
eating delicious bugs. YUM YUM
One jumped into the pool
where it was nice and cool GLUB GLUB
Now there are four speckled frogs.
etc.

Days of the week (Sung to Oh my Darling and your repeat as much as your want.)
Sunday, Monday
Tuesday, Wedndesday
Thursday, Friday
Saturday

Calling

We got called into the Bishop's office today. We both got released from the activites committee and I got called to be the Assistant Communication Chair Person. They said that I would be doing the Newsletter and working with this other lady. I looked at him kind of funny and said, "I've already been doing the newsletter since March." So now I guess it is official that I do the ward newsletter. I thought the whole thing was comical. Jeremy didn't get a new calling. But when we got the call to go and see the bishop we were dreading a call to the nursery. : ) We were glad I just got called to do something that I was already doing.

Mystery Bag

Olivia got to bring home the mystery bag to take a show-n-tell in. She finally decided to take the pink train that my dad made for her. She was so proud to take in the train with her name on it. She got to put the train in the bag and then we helped her come up with 3 clues for others in the class to guess what was in the bag. Then we had her practice telling the clues. She acted like such a little teacher. She said, " Sit on your pockets and raise your hand so I can call on you" and then she wouldn't call on us unless we were doing the way her teacher had shown her. It was really cute and funny.

Winn Dixie

We rented the movie Winn Dixie. We choose this movie because the author of book is Kate DiCamillo and I a have read other books by this author and enjoyed the books. 2nd it looked like a really cute family movie and 3rd several of my third graders thought the movie was great. Anyway we LOVED the movie. It was so good. Olivia enjoyed it too even though it was not a cartoon. She even asked to watch it again. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes a good family movie with good values. This might even be one that we buy. It is about a girl who's dad is a preacher and they move to a new town and she wants a friend and finds a dog who helps her meet other people in the town. I now want to go and get the book and read the book.

Basement, Preschool, Croup, Teaching

We finally started a blog because everyone else is doing it. We don't have a good digital camera so we won't be able to put alot of pictures on here.

Basement:
So you want to know what is going on with us. First we finished painting all of the basement and we had a guy come and do measurments to give us an estimate for carpet. We are so excited to be almost done. We should ge the bid on Tuesday. Then hopefully by next Saturday we will be able to buy the carpet. Then it will take another couple of weeks to get it installed. We want it to be done before everyone shows up here in October so people will have a place to stay.Jeremy says he is excited because this is the first big project he has really completed. My friend Marianne gave us a couch, some end tables and a mattress so when it is finished we will have a some furniture down there.

Preschool:
Livvy started Preschool this week. She was so excited. She will go two days a week for 2 1/2 hours each day. We bought her a little purple backpack. She is so ready to be going to school. The first day went well and she said they read a story about a frog that blows bubbles and that it was funny. I couldn't think of what story the teacher could have read to her. We talked to my nephew Zach and he said that in his class his teacher read a similar story. My sister and I think it is the same book. She also got choosen to bring home the mystery bag and put a show in tell in for next time. She wants to take everything in her room. I can't believe she is so grown up and going to school.

Croup:
Garrett has croup. He has had it for about a week and is starting to get a little better now. We were really worried because he was weezing and coughing pretty bad. He had to have a breathing treatment and got a steroid shot. He still sounds raspy but we think the worst is over.

Robin Teaching:
This year is great! I still work part time which I love and this year for the first time I only have 20 students. In the past I have had around 28. I didn't realize having 8 less kids in my class would make such a difference. They are a really good bunch of kids and teaching is fun so far this year. Also grading papers seems alot more do-able with less kids. Next year I will have a big class again so I just want to enjoy this year. Even if some of the parents make my life hard, it just nicer this year. The only hard thing was at the beginning of the year I had to find a new babysitter. That was really stressful but I found a lady in the neighborhood who wanted to watch 2 kids. She lives right next to the park. She is really great and I feel blessed that I was able to find her and leave my kids with a trustworthy person.

Principal Jeremy:
This year Jeremy is a full time Vice Princpal at a different school then the one he was at last year. He seems to really enjoy what he is doing and says he doesn't miss planning lessons and grading papers. The principal keeps him busy with (well I'm not really sure what he does all day) But he always says he was really busy and tired. He still claims he wants to be a principal next year. He will start applying again around November. I really hope he gets it.