Jazz game

I took Olivia and Garrett to a Jazz game tonight. When we bought the Tran-Siberian Orchestra tickets we got the Jazz tickets for free. They weren't very good seats but the kids still had a blast. And the Jazz won by like 20 points. Here are a few highlights from the night:
After sitting there for a few minutes Garrett looked sad. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I thought I was going to get to play." He told me at least three other times during the game that he could join in and play. He was wearing his Jazz shirt and has been playing basketball at school so I really think he thought at any minute someone might come and ask him to join in and play.
During a bathroom break we were waiting for Olivia to finish and Garrett saw two other fans walking toward us wearing Jazz jerseys. Garrett asked me, "Can I talk to those Jazz players?"
Olivia was funny too. I told her that the Jazz were playing the Milwaukee Bucks. She thought for a second and asked, "Do they speak English?"

Christmas Tree

So we have spent the day getting ready for putting up the Christmas Tree. We cleaned, moved furniture, etc. We try to put our tree up soon after Thanksgiving. We love Christmas and we really enjoy having the tree up.

The kids were really excited. When we told them we were going to put up the Christmas tree. Devin claps his hands and says, "Yes, Yes, Yes" which is kind of funny because we don't know if he remembers Christmas from last year or not.
One of our traditions is that each year the kids get ornaments from us, from grandparents, plus we make ornaments. Then when it is time to put the tree away we put each kids ornaments in their own box. So When Christmas comes again they get to open their box and look at their ornaments and put them on the tree. It is fun watching and listening to them do this because they have some fond memories of some of the ornaments. They especially love the ones that have their picture in it or that they made.
Here are Devin's ornaments. I couldn't get him to pose for a picture.
Garrett is holding up an ornament that he made last year that is in the shape of a G.
This year the kids "helped" put the tree together.


And of course they helped decorate it.


So let the holiday festivities and traditions began.

Thanksgiving Ghost

Thanksgiving Ghost

The last piece of apple pie is gone;
How did it disappear?
The bowl of delicious stuffing
Has also vanished, I fear.

It happens each Thanksgiving,
When leftover goodies flee,
And each of us knows the responsible one
Couldn’t be you or me.

The only way it could happen
Is readily diagnosed;
It must be the crafty, incredibly sneaky,
Still hungry Thanksgiving ghost.
By Karl F.

Found this funny poem.
Who will be the Thanksgiving Ghost at your house?

Beep, Beep, Vroom, Vroom

It is fun watching Devin playing. He was lining up his cars and playing so nicely.

As I watched him play, it reminded me of this book that I read to my first graders about patterns. It is about a boy who lines up his cars in a pattern, and his sister plays with his cars and has to get them back in the same pattern as her brother.
I wonder if Devin would notice if I changed the way he lined up his cars.

I enjoy having Mondays off. It gives me a chance to spend some one on one time with Devin.

What are These?

Yep, these are the last two glass cups left in the house. We got new glasses for Christmas last year. Well slowly but surely we have broken them. Devin broke one this morning. So we are down to two. Thank goodness for those kids plastic cups you get at places like Olive Garden or we wouldn't have any cups at all.

Interesting Place to Sleep

Found Olivia sleeping like this yesterday. Silly Girl! It can't be comfortable. She woke up with a stiff neck.

News

Today Jeremy got released from his bishopric church calling he has had now for over 2 years. It came as a surprise. I am glad to have my husband back for Sundays and having him sitting with me once again. I think Jeremy has mixed feelings, I think he enjoyed being involved and I think he will enjoy being able to spend more time with us.

We are grateful for what we have learned doing this time and the blessings we have received.

So that is our news.

How much Have I taken?

So in July when I got off blood thinners I was able to start taking Ibuprofen and Aleve to help with the pain. Well today I ran out of the 500 pill bottle that I bought. That is a lot of ibuprofen! I guess you go though it pretty fast when you take 4 pills (800 mg) at a time 2 or 3 times a day. Of course we went and bought more. I still have pain every day and some days are worse than others. So I will continue to take Ibruprofen, Aleve, and Tylenol.

I have no idea how much medication I have actually taken but I have been taking a lot lately. But Since October I have not been on any narcotics. Before then I had been on Octicodin and Valium,then Percocet,then Loratab, and then Darvocet. I have a few left in case I have a bad day, and even though they help with the pain more than the ibuprofen and aleve I am glad not to still be on them. They make me drowsy and loopy and I definitely don't want to get addicted.

Olivia's Programs

Olivia had two performances this week. On Wednesday she had a 4th grade tribute to Utah. They dressed up in pioneer clothes, sang, and square danced.


On Friday she had a choir and a Spanish Immersion performance. She did a great job!

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Yesterday we left work a little early to go to the early showing of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. We took Olivia with us. It was fantastic. They are really great. The light show was awesome. It was a lot of fun being there.

The steps were a hard to go up and down, but Jeremy helped me out a lot. We got lucky and no one sat in front of us so I was able to prop up my leg. We are so glad that we went to the concert. Plus we got a great deal on the tickets!

Criminal

So Jeremy got a speeding ticket on Oct. 29th. He had two weeks to either go to traffic school or pay the fine. Well today he pulls out his ticket and realizes that he has never done anything about his ticket. So Technically he could be a wanted a criminal and could end up like this: in handcuffs.

Luckily he paid the fine today!

Relief

We contacted our insurance and they said that the hospital bill was going under another board of reviews since the hospital bill was so much. Not to pay anything yet. Anyway we contacted them again and they said that the insurance would cover the bill. We will still have to pay some but phew. What a huge relief!!!!

We are so grateful.

It's in the genes

Devin's got his father's looks...

And his mother's sense of style...

What do you get?

What do you get when you mix frozen apple juiceand frozen grape juice?

Grandpa JUICE!

Thanks Dad. My kids love your special drink and want it all the time. Garrett even learned how to make it himself. I love that they have fond memories of being in West Virginia.

Love This

Devin and Olivia under blanket reading together.

Jenn's Birthday

Jenn's birthday was on Wednesday. We took her out to dinner at Olive Garden and then to Cold Stone for dessert. When we got home she opened her present. The kids made her really cute cards and bracelets from Olivia's birthday present a week ago.
No, Birthday is complete without a hug from Devin that strangles you.
The kids "helping" opening the presents.

Yes, we got Jenn a massage table. She is getting a new apartment, she will have 2 rooms and wanted to make one into a massage room.
Since Jenn has been so helpful with the kids and too me with my leg these past six months. We really wanted to do something nice for her.
So Happy Birthday, Jenn. We love you, we are thankful that you live so close.

Pain Pain Go away

I have been doing pretty good lately. I use the Cane most of the time. I don't even use my crutches in the school anymore. Well today, I woke up in tremendous amount of pain. I still tried to use the cane. I finally got to the point where I couldn't tolerate to walk at all. I asked the librarian at my school to go out and get my crutches for me. Even on the crutches I was in a lot of pain. The librarian told the 6th grade teachers that I was in a lot of pain, so they sent in some 6th grades to help me so I could sit and they would walk around and help the kids. It was so nice to have the help. I am so glad I work with such great people who are so willing to help me. I need to just remember that it is okay to ask to help. I am not very good at doing that.

So I am back on the crutches for today. So now I am home from work, have my leg propped up took some pain pills and I am hooked to the tens unit. I just wonder how long I am going to be dealing with pain.

Technology!

Today I got an ELMO in my classroom from my principal.
Not This:

But this:

It is super cool. You can take a a book or a piece of paper and put under it and it will project it on the wall from your projector or you can use it like a scanner to and get an image on your computer. SUPER COOL!

Also I got a Mimio machine which is like a smart board that allows you to interact with the computer on the whiteboard. So students could come to the board and write on what is projected and the computer would respond. I am so excited. I have never used either of these things before, I have heard of them, I have seen others use them. Now I am excited that I get the chance to learn how to use them.



There is one small problem. Where my projector wires are located, is nowhere close to the the front of the class where the the white board is. I am looking into getting a wireless adapter.

Facebook Gone

I asked myself the other day while on Facebook "Why I am on here?" "Do I really care if someone just got out of bed?" I noticed I was hiding more and more things that irked me. So I deactivated my facebook account. I was spending too much time on it and it is something that really isn't that important to me. I decided that I update my blog enough and rarely update facebook and my friends on facebook whom really care can keep tabs on my blog.