Not drowning, really

So, it has been mad craziness here!  I finished the winter/spring semester well, woohoo!  I had a whole week off before summer school started.  They mean business!  We're covering a week's worth everyday!  The good news is that I get to bike to school almost everyday and have lost three pounds!  We ahve to work on one fitness goal and mine was exercising thirty minutes a day five days a week.  I did six days last week and most days more than 30 minutes!  Hurray!  I love myfitnesspal.com!  Fantastic!  I get to keep track of my food intake and exercise.  So, it (sometimes) keeps me from eating the oh-so-very-yummy Light ice cream flavor-Key Lime Pie (it's a new one from Braum's)!  I really should stop buying it.  Though I have stopped buying any and all fatty snack foods, so I'm on my way to doing better.  The only problem is we can spend $30 on fruit and it's gone in less than 2 days.  I can't afford to spend $100 on fruits and veggies a week!  Yikes!  Here's hoping my husband's aquaponics works well, because we just got another $40 in plants for him to add to his kiddie pool.  I LOVE berries, so we also got some blueberry plants too.  We already had a few, but at that price ($7.49), I didn't mind getting more!  Now if I can figure out how to not drown between School,  Cub Scouts (which isn't too bad at all), Family and keeping my house clean, that will be fantastic!  Though the chore game board is working pretty well (their goal is to get to the end and then they get a movie ticket to one of the kids' summer movies)!  I really do have great kids!  I keep forgetting that theya re just kids!  I was a strangely mature kid, so I really shouldn't put that on my kids!  Either way, I only have another week after this week and then I have three weeks off!  But, then I have two hard classes at once, on my birthday.  I'm glad I chose not to celebrate this year!  I don't think I'm ready to turn 30.  Maybe next year!  On my break I had planned to have a garage sale, but decided I would rather give it away to those who need it!  Save myself time and hassle and help others-WIN-WIN-WIN!

Laura's Baptism

My sister-in-law, Laura got baptized Saturday night, so the kids and I went up to Olathe Saturday morning!  We got to spend time with family, which was fantastic!  I am very excited that Laura made this choice, all on her own, so that they could have an eternal family!  That's a great goal!  It was a very spiritual service, and we all cried as we sang, "Families Can Be Together Forever," because we can!  We can all be sealed together as a family!  What great news!  Here's one of the pictures I took beforehand. 

 With all the Missionaries that taught her

And here's my other sister-in-law, Melissa, multi-tasking (holding onto my cute little chunker).

We had a very interesting Saturday night.  Scott called as we were eating cookies and cupcakes after the baptism.  He let me know a tornado had touched down in Emporia and he was in the basement.  I can say that my heart was beating pretty fast at that!  Yikes!  So, I told him to call me when the sirens stopped going off.  About 30 minutes later he called back and all was well!  Phew!  I had decided to stay the night, because the bad weather was going right up I-35, and I really didn't want to risk my or my children's lives.  Chris and Melissa took Ben to their house, because "Sometimes you have to adapt to things."  I ended up having to take my girls all to the Basement one at a time.  There was just a little bit of hail, thankfully!  And everyone (Mandy and Kim) arrived home safely from the Singles dance!  Ben did great at Chris' house!  He slept all night and ate almost all of the bacon Chris cooked!  Wow!

We went to Laura's ward to be with her as she received the gift of the Holy Ghost and go to class with her.  That was fun, since I am in Nursery and haven't been able to go to class in awhile (which is fine)!  I love my Nursery kiddos, so I don't mind.  I just enjoyed the break from normal.  I really enjoyed seeing friends again!  I miss my friends in Olathe!  I hope we can move back there for my student teaching!

We were able to spend time with most of the family (Sam's in Idaho), which was great!  We did VZo Sam.  So we got to see her too!

We headed home after bedtime, so the kids slept.  I talked to Scott most of the way.  It helps keep me entertained!  And we made it home to start the craziness that is the kids' last days of school and me starting school today!  Aaahhh!!!!

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Spring Semester

Woohoo!  I got my grades back for today and I managed to get an A, an A-, 2 B's and a Pass.  Hurray!  The fact that I did so well with having just had a baby says a few things:  My husband and Ashli are awesome!  Usually Scott and I swap off, but there were a few times when he scheduled his appointments wrong, and Ashli helped us out!  That and the weekly Wednesday visits at her place helped me cope when I was stressed!  Thank you Ashli, you're awesome!  Scott passed all of his classes with at least a C too!  So, we should have celebrated tonight and didn't.  Maybe tomorrow (nope, Cub Scouts).  Hhhmmm...   Scott is also all signed up for BIS, so he'll be graduating in December.  I am so excited for him!  He's been in school off an on for a long time (as have I) and he's done.  I'm actually going to start working on my Master's now, so I can have my Special Ed certification (which is half of the Special Ed Master's).  Then I'll only have to do the other half after I finally get my Elementary Ed undergrad.  Then I teach for two years and I can start on my School Psych Master's or PhD.  I have a goal in sight, it's just far away!  I hope to finish that before Ben graduates high school!  Fun times!

Bows, bows, I love bows

I'm working on making some new ones.  I love this website!  It has a free tutorial every week and they're usually fantastic!  The awesome burned flowers, yep, there.  See the ones I made?

Hurray!  Now to figure out how to better these new ones I'm making.  Preferably without getting lots of callouses!

A little this and a little that

WoW!  It's been crazy at my house!  With it being the last couple weeks of school for us and the last month of school for the older kiddos, sheer madness is reigning!  Scott and I have had tons of big stuff due and then FINALS (duh duh dun)!!!  No matter what I do to destress, it's not working.  So, I'm just going with the flow as much as I can and trying to ignore the small things my kids do to irritate me (and/or everyone else in this house), the fact that this house's foundation is scary, and the miniscule budget we have to work with until the Summer semester starts.  So, barring all of those from my mind, I will skip ahead to how much I love my family (especially when they're asleep)!

 At my parents' house

So sweet!

I have felt lucky, because I won a pair of zebra bloomers and a SUPER CUTE sock money hat!  Oh my goodness do I love that hat!  I got it in the mail on Saturday afternoon and almost immediately grabbed Cecilia and we went for a photo session in the park.  This is what I got from that!

 Seriously, how cute is my baby?

 This blanket that was made for her, matches pretty well too!

 The nesting angel

The shirt I made to match her cute zebra pants.  It says, "Cecilia."  I love it too!

Anyway, that hat makes me smile a lot!  I can't wait to use it as a prop someday when I start my photography business.  I keep entering contests, because if I get enough props, I can convince my husband to help me fund the rest.  I'm dreaming big!  My little girl will be well documented if nothing else!  And now she's crying.  Another reason it's been so long.  She's so hungry!  I feel like I feed her lots and lots.  I do.  Really!  Not that you can tell by looking at her, the poor baby!  It takes a lot of calories to keep that up, you know!  Skipping over the bad stuff that happened yesterday morning/afternoon and this afternoon.  Grumble, grumble.  The good news is that I LOVE being a contributor for 3 boys and a dog!  I get to review great stuff that I get to keep!  Check it out, it's pretty cool!  We have giveaways sometimes too!  I'm also happy thanks to Danyelle letting me borrow books!  Talk about saving me money!  A good book, some strawberry ice cream (preferably with a banana in it), and a good night's rest and I feel a lot better about life and my resident needy children!  Phew!