Merry Christmas!

We've enjoyed a nice, relaxing holiday around here.  Santa came the night before last because he knew Megan would be here the next morning.  We opened gifts and just had a low-key day.  In the afternoon we went to see Eris Sessions (Pelletier)'s Christmas Village that she does each year.  It was really neat!  Then we walked over to Scott and Missy's to invite them over for dinner that night.  That afternoon, Mom Cooper came over for a little while, and then Scott, Missy, Jonas, Haley, Brigham, Jesie and Grace came over for supper.  We had a great time just visiting, while Dan did all the work:-)  He made ham, potatoes, corn, peas, and rolls.  I made chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon for dessert.   Scott and Missy are always fun to hang out with.  Scott is such a riot.  My stomach hurt after a while because I was laughing so hard.  He cracks me up. 

This morning, we slept in.  Well, I slept in, I should say.  We went down to Mom and Dad's around 4:00 for presents and supper with Mike, Hilda, and the girls.  We had a really nice time.  Everyone seemed to really like their presents.  I made a lot of mine this year, and I was anxious to see how everyone liked them.  I think the one that was most excited was my mom wtih her frog blanket.  I bought some really cute, soft frog material, and then just put binding around it.  She loved it.  After we ate, we all sat around and visited while Felicia and Nathan put his new Lego set together.  My mom and dad gave him a set from the Monster Fighters series and he was so excited! I love the presents my mom bought for me.  She gave me a new 31 purse, 2 muffin tins, and stuff for Project Life!  

I've been thinking about New Year's Resolutions lately.  I've been doing a lot of work recently on my Personal Progress since I'm in the YW presidency in our ward.  I never earned it when I was a youth because it was a lot different back then.  You used to have to make up your own goals and I was always setting the same ones, and failing.  I think the program is set up so much better now.  As a leader, we only have to do 3 projects, including Virtue, and all the required value experiences, which total 25.  I've recently completed two projects (one was to memorize "The Living Christ" and the other was to make all my Christmas presents).  I've done about 5 or 6 value experiences, so I just need to do about 20 more.  Okay, so here's my list of resolutions that I've thought of so far:

• Earn the YW medallion
• Pay my mom back $200 per month for my Masters'
• Do my visiting teaching each month
• Do a better job of planning healthy meals and sticking to the menu
• Talk more with Amber and Ashley
• Exercise regularly

 

Great quote

This is a quote that President Call used in a talk he gave in our ward recently.  I loved it, and asked about it, so he gave me his copy:-)

"If the veil were rolled back and you could just see one glimpse of God's great eternal plan concerning you and who you are, it would not be hard for you to love Him, keep His commandments, and live to be worthy of every blessing that He has had for you since before the foundations of the world were laid."
                                     -LeGrand Richards

So inspiring!

Two snow days!

We've had two snow days in a row!  It's been really nice just being able to get stuff done around the house.  I've done a few hours of work for school, too.  Nathan has had a blast playing with Branson and Kacie.  I finally made him do some homework tonight because he hadn't done anything for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, he got sick shortly afterwards (hope it wasn't the homework:-)  He's hanging out on the couch right now watching A Flintstones' Christmas Carol and playing with his iTouch.  In a little bit I'm going to read to him.  We've been reading a book lately that contains short Christmas stories, so we read one or two every day.  Then we read a chapter or two of a Titanic book that he wanted to hear again. 

Dan surprised me this afternoon by buying me a new stove!  I am super excited because I've been wanting a new stove for ages.  I hate the one we have, which has the old coils that are impossible to keep totally clean.  Anyway, I'm so happy!  It's going to be delivered on the 28th.  I can't wait!

Last night, Nathan and I had Family Home Evening just the two of us because Dan was out shoveling the roof.  We have a little poster from the Friend magazine that has little spaces on it.  In each present-shaped space is a scripture and a suggestion for an act of service you can do.  Nathan read the one for last night, which was to "Secretly do a service for a family member"  He left out the "secretly" and asked me what I wanted.  I said, "A stove."  He said, "No, I mean tonight."  Then, he thought of something, which was a massage.  Evidently, Megan and Taylor taught him to do massages, complete with lotion.  So I sat in my rocking chair and he put lotion on my bakc, arms, hands, feet, and my legs (from my knees down).  It was the cutest thing ever. 

I can't stop thinking about those sweet little children from Newtown, Connecticut and the staff members, too.  When I heard about it on Friday, I almost felt sick to my stomach, thinking of the parents of those little children, and how devastated they must be.  My heart goes out to them and the family members of the adults who died, also.  They sounded just like people in my school, people who love children and would put them first in an emergency.    

YW Handout

This is a cute handout I made for my Young Women last week.  I just love the owl!  Isn't he adorable? And I just love this quote.

Christmas

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Definitely hot chocolate.  My hubby would pick egg nog
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps them, of course!
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? We have blue lights and blue lights only. 
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, I thought that was just in the movies.
5. When do you put your decorations up? We (or Dan, I should say) puts up the tree on Thanksgiving.  The rest of the decorations varies.  This year, we put them up on Thanksgiving day. 
6. What is your favorite holiday dish?  Oh, man.  Where do I start?  I have to say clam dip and meat pie (not together).  They are two dishes from my mom's side of the fam. 
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Getting a doll every year from my LaFlamme grandparents 
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?  Another child on the bus told me.  As soon as I got home, I asked my mom if it was true. 
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We do all of our presents on Christmas Eve because that's the day we have Megan.  Santa comes one night early around here.  Of course, Nathan doesn't mind.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?  My husband puts up the tree every year, the same way every year, with the same decorations every year...blue lights, blue candy canes, red bows, gold bells, gold balls, and gold garland. It's actually beautiful, and he does all the work, so I really shouldn't complain. I'm ready to try something new, though.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?  I love it until February or so, then I'm ready for Spring.
12. Can you ice skate? No, I remember going once when I was a child, and really enjoying it, but I think that's about it.  I did learn to roller skate when I was a teenager, though.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?  My favorite gift, other than the dolls when I was young, was probably my violin case when I was 16 or 17.  I wanted that case so badly.  I loved it!
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?  Seeing the excitement in the kids' faces when they open their gifts.  I love watching them.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?  Hmmm, I don't know.  Anything chocolatey, I guess.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Dan and I started giving gifts to a needy family each year.  This is our fourth year doing it. 
17. What tops your tree? An angel
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Definitely giving.  This year I made a whole bunch of my gifts, so I'm extra excited to see how people like them. 
19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yum!  I've always loved peppermint candy. 
20. Favorite Christmas show?  It's a Wonderful Life
21. Saddest Christmas Song? I have no idea.  Are there any sad ones?
22. What is your favorite Christmas song?Away in a Manger (the one in the hymnbook) because of the harmony

Christmas season

Boy, I have really got to write more often on this blog.  I realized I did really well until October.  I was writing 3 or 4 posts per month all year up until then, but then I slacked off.  Ugh!

We've been enjoying the Christmas season so far.  Dan put our tree up on Thanksgiving, so we've been basking in the blue lights since then.  We have all of our presents wrapped and under the tree (Santa will bring a few others on Christmas Eve, of course).  We've had a few holiday gatherings so far, which have been really fun.  We had our Cooper family party this weekend and Dan and I went to his company dinner at Marco's Restaurant last night.  At church, the RS had a Cocoa, Cards, and Cookies activity and the First Presidency Christmas Devotional was last Sunday.   We've also had lots of other activities that are not Christmas related.  Yesterday, I went to a baby shower for Eliza Tufts and a housewarming party for Olivia and Chris.  It was a really busy day, but fun, too.

Nathan got a model of the Titanic to put together when we were at the Cooper party.  He's done as much as he can on his own, and he's been so anxious for me to help him do the rest.  I promised him we'd work on it tomorrow.  He was so fascinated with the Titanic for such a big part of his second grade year.  I saw the model in Walmart, and thought it would be a perfect present, even though he hasn't been talking much about it recently.  He was really excited about it, so I guess I made the right choice.  For Cub Scouts, he started a collection of Titanic books.  We collected them throughout the year last year, and he ended up with about 10.

Speaking of Cub Scouts, Nathan is part way through his Wolf book.  They had a pack meeting on Wednesday night, where they had pizza and cupcakes.  They also made a Christmas ornament and a compass (with a needle, some cork and a magnet.)  I just love the Scouting progrm because it teaches them so much.  Sister Lilly, the cub scout leader, made a group on Facebook called, "Eagle Scouts Here we Come!"  We have so many little boys in our ward right now, and we're hoping they will all become Eagle Scouts!  I'm so glad Nathan has a chance to be in a group with lots of other little boys from church.  That doesn't happen often in little towns in Maine!

We celebrated Megan's 14th birthday today!  Her birthday is actually on December 16th, but we won't see her again until after that.  We just had my mom, and gram up  because we had just gotten together with the Cooper side on Friday night.  We didn't plan ahead much, so we kept it small.  She got several things that she was really excited about, so it was a success.  She got Justin Bieber perfume (which was her favorite), a Justin Bieber book, a poster book of baby animals, a YW cd, and a big package of Mentos.         

Currently

Happy Fall Y'all!

I've really got to write more often on this blog!  I basically haven't written all fall.  Oh, my goodness. Well, let me try to catch you up.

For Halloween, Nathan was a ninja.  He loved his costume, except for the part that covers his mouth.  He decided to not wear that part.  He looked really cool, though.  I was so glad he didn't want to be anything gory or yucky.  On Halloween night the Atwaters came over with pizza from Pizza Hut and we ate a quick supper and then went trick-or-treating.  We just went to my mom and dad's, Felicia's, and then several houses down in the village.  We parked in the old woolen mill parking lot and walked up and down King Street and the side streets.  The kids got plenty of candy, and everyone had a good time. 

At school, I just recently moved back upstairs to my old classroom.  I'm so happy!  I love it so much better than that small, windowless room downstairs.  I've been so happy all week every time I walk into my room.  I feel like I have room to breathe.

Nathan is doing well in school lately.  He is really becoming a good reader.  I love to hear him read.  He's also been doing well in math, too.  I bought a subscription for a website called dreambox learning.  It's full of math activities and lessons that gradually get more difficult.  It's awesome, but the best thing is that Nathan loves it.  He actually asks me if I can turn it on for him.  Spelling continues to be the hardest subject for him.  Hopefully, he'll get better over time, but I don't think it will ever be his favorite.

I've been working on a lot of Christmas presents lately.  I've been crocheting some kittens for Gram, Aunt Diane, and Emily.  Then today, I made some coasters with tiles and scrapbooking paper for Olivia, Felicia, and Hilda.  I love how they turned out.  I have a few more kittens to crochet and a blanket to make for my mom.  Then I think I'll be done.  It's been fun making stuff this year.  Oh, and I also got some of my scrapbook pages printed out and put in an album for Mom Cooper.  I love how that turned out, too.

Today, we went out to breakfast at Daddy-O's.  We brought Gram with us, so that Mom could go to the DECA fair and not have to worry about whether Gram was tired or not.  Gram ended up hanging out with us until 3:00.  I didn't mind, but I think she was getting kind of bored.  She's getting pretty confused at times.  She asked me where we were, who my parents were, how she got here, who she lives with, etc.  She wasn't like that the whole time, though.  She mostly kept me company while I worked on my coasters project.

We had Thanksgiving dinner on the Cooper side last weekend when Matt and Margaret and Ann Marie were here.  It was fun to see them, and the food was delicious!  We made the mashed potatoes, a pie (green jello salad in a graham cracker crust), and sugar cookies in the shape of leaves, decorated with marbled icing. Matt and Margaret had come for the New York marathon, which ended up getting cancelled.

We went to a youth fireside in Topsham on Tuesday night.  One of the members of the quorum of the seventy was there.  He and his wife both spoke.  Afterwards, he opened it up for questions from the youth, which was really neat.  I love getting to go to these kinds of things now that I'm in YW again.  I've been to the temple twice already, too.

Well, I guess that's all the news for now.       

TOFW

This past weekend I went to Time Out for Women with Kristen and Sue.  There were several other people that went to, from Auburn, Oxford, Farmington.  What an inspiring weekend!  It was so awesome!  We heard from several authors and musicians for three hours on Friday night, and then on Saturday for about six hours.  We heard Michael McLean, Michael Wilcox, Brad Wilcox, Chris Williams, Mercy River, DeAnne Flynn, Emily Freeman and Julie deAzevedo Hanks.  They all had such great messages, but the most powerful was that of Chris Williams.  He lost his wife and two of his four children in a horrific car accident.  The amazing thing is that he reached out to the teenage boy who caused the accident and forgave him.  Another message I loved was from DeAnne Flynn.  She said, "Listen, Look forward, Laugh often, and Love deeply."  She talked about each one, and gave examples and stories.  On Friday night, we went to find our hotel, but the road was unmarked, and our GPS kept saying to turn into a parking lot.  That didn't seem right, so we kept going past it.  Anyway, we finally found it, and stayed in a room with Siiri Stinson.   It was so fun to catch up with her.  We talked and stayed up way too late, but it was so fun.  On the way home from the conference, Sue, Kristen, and I stopped at Olive Garden for supper, which was the perfect ending to a great weekend. 
     

Currently

Tomorrow is the first student day!  We teachers had a couple of days of workshops on Thursday and Friday, but tomorrow is the first day for students.  Nathan is not very excited about it, although he does like his teacher and he's excited to see his friends.

Emily taught the lesson today in Young Women's.  I was so proud of her.  She did such a good job.  Then, after church, they had a seminary kick-off, which she went to.  This is her senior year, and she has three years of seminary under her belt.  Luckily for her, she has three other kids this year, unlike previous years, when she has been the only one at time!  This year she'll have Courtney, Rebekah, and Taylor.  I'm just so proud of her for going to seminary and church. 

I'm kind of excited for school now, although it took me a while.  I felt better about everything as I got my room ready and started planning.  I'm also not as upset about moving rooms now that I'm all settled in. 

I'm really enjoying my new calling at church.  I also am enjoying going to Sunday School.   I haven't been able to go for about 10 years, so it feels really nice to study the scriptures again, and be able to just listen and learn instead of teaching all of the time. 

As is tradition, I'm going to list all of the things I was able to do this summer so I feel like I've done a lot:

• Swimming a lot at Mom & Dad's
• Blueberry picking with the Atwaters
• Vacation to Florida with Dan, Nathan, Megan, Ashley, Emily, and Mom
• Made bookmarks with sisters at church (owls and kimonos)
• Had a game night with Mom, Aunt Diane, and Kathy (we played 63) at Kathy's house
• Made three receiving blankets for project at church
• Lost 25 pounds!  And kept it off!
• Spent lots of time with Emily while she had a couple of weeks off work
• Saw a few movies (The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Paranorman,  Brave, and Ice Age: Continental Drift )
• Got a pedicure done by Emily
• Went to a tri-stake Young Women's Conference in Exeter
• Met Sister Dalton!
• Read lots of books, both on my own and to Nathan
• Had Nathan do lots of math, spelling, and reading
• Caught up on all my scrapbooks
• Went to Range Pond with Dan, Megan and Nathan
• Gave a talk at church
• Had Steven and Lil over for supper and played Farkle
• Had Joseph and Ephraim for a sleepover
• Had Maddi and Sydni over for a sleepover
• Attempted an Anne of Green Gables marathon with Mom, Emily, Gram, and Megan (we only made it through part of one)
• Brought Nathan to two LOOK classes (Tribots and Stuffed Animal Monsters)
• Participated in the Norway Library summer reading program
• Got called into Young Women
• Had Ashley here for about a week and a half
• Had a Cooper get-together for Ashley, and celebrated Mackenzie's 5th birthday
• Went out to eat at Daddy-O's with Nathan, Mom, and Gram
• Went out to Cole Farms with Nathan, Mom, Olivia, Felicia, and Emily
• Got my hair dyed for the first time
• Went to Ephraim's birthday party
• Went to BYU-I Dance Alliance show with Mom and Gram
• Organized my scrapbook room
• Temple trip with Dan and the youth
• Did visiting teaching both months!
• RS pool party at Mom's
• Mini-golf and gokarts with Nathan and Emily
• Went to Nick and Coti's wedding
• Went to a shower for Jenny and Lee's new little girl
• Celebrated Olivia and Felicia's birthday
• Went kayaking with Mom and Marianne Zukowski

Sister Dalton

This past weekend I chaperoned a Tri-stake Young Women's Conference in Exeter, New Hampshire.  We only had two girls that went, but it was such a great experience.  I'm so glad I went.  Shannon and I both went and she drove, which made the trip much nicer for me.  We brought Courtney and Bekah and they were as perfect as you can get.  They are such nice girls.  I just love them already and I've only been in Young Women's for a couple weeks.  Anyway, we drove to New Hampshire, dropped Harper off at Shannon's friend's house, picked up her two girls, and drove to the conference.  The conference included workshops and service projects  (making first aid kits, no sew blankets, and trya cards) and speakers.  We heard President and Sister Wood, Elder Matthew Eyring, and ..........SISTER DALTON!  That was the highlight of the conference.  It was so neat to hear her speak in person.  We also got to meet her, and she gave me a hug!  Her talk was amazing.  The part that stood out to me was when she was talking to the girls about their valiance in the pre-existence.   She said, "You were not average in the pre-existence... and you're not average now."  That was a powerful statement because I'm always comparing myself to others, and wondering if I'm average in certain areas or below average, etc.   It was just a great experience.  We stayed at Shannon's friend's house on Friday night.  We cooked a big breakfast in the morning for her and her family and the girls.  It was so delicious.  She took care of Harper for Shannon during the day.  She and her family reminded me of myself when it comes to books!  They had bookshelf after bookshelf of books throughout the whole house.  She had a basket of books she was going to donate and told us we could take anything we wanted for our kids.  I ended up coming home with about 30 books for Nathan and 11 more that I'm borrowing for myself.  Courtney and Bekah were so nice to the other girls we brought with us.  They are not snobby in the least bit, which is no nice to see.  (The last time I was in YW, the group I had was known for their snobbishness.)  These girls are as sweet as can be. To top the weekend off, on the way home on Saturday we stopped at Wild Willy's in Rochester and had burgers.  Yum!

Last week, I was doing church stuff for four nights in a row.  I had YW on Wednesdays, a RS bookmark and card making activity on Thursday, and the YW conference on Friday and Saturday.  Oh, and of course, Sunday was regular church.  So actually, 5 days in a row.  I'm sure most weeks won't be like that. 

Dan and Nathan and I went to school tonight and moved all my furniture around.  I had to move downstairs, but nothing was arranged yet.  I'm feeling more positive about school now.  I hope it continues.

I'm reading a Titanic series by Gordon Korman to Nathan right now.  Now he has 12 books he's collected over the last year that are about the Titanic.  He's still pretty interested in it.  He's going to use his collection for cub scouts because they are supposed to start a collection of something.  I said, "Hey, you collect Titanic books.  You should use those."

    

Only a couple more weeks

I am starting to feel really stressed out.  I thought maybe I'd feel better about going back to school after I'd had a break, but I'm just as worried and anxious as I was in the spring.  I'm going to stop into school tomorrow and take a look at my room.  I had to move to a room downstairs, so I'll need to rearrange everything.  Maybe after I start getting ready for the first day I'll feel better.  I don't know.

This past week was nice.  Nathan and I spent a day with Gram, we went out to eat with Mom and Gram at DaddyO's, went out to eat at Cole Farms with Olivia, Felicia, Emily, Mom, Nathan, and I, went to Ephraim's birthday party this morning (at the bowling alley), went to my first Young Women's Wednesday night activity (basketball), read Charly by Jack Weyland, attended a shower, went to a BYU-I Dance Alliance show, saw the new Ice Age movie at the theatres with Dan and Nathan, and got lots of things done around the house.  This afternoon I organized my scrapbook room, which desperately needed it.  Now I just need to keep it that way.   Also, last week we went blueberry picking with the Atwaters, and got haircuts.  I dyed my hair for the first time.  I was getting pretty gray, and I'd been putting off dying it for a long time.  I like how it came out.  Hardly anyone has noticed it because it's my natural color.  Oh, well.  I guess that's a good thing because I wanted it to look natural. 

On Saturday,  Gram and Mom and I went to a shower for my cousin Jenny Morin and her husband Lee, who just adopted a four year old girl.  I think it was probably my favorite shower I've ever attended.  Addy loved everything, and was just so excited and appreciative of all her gifts.  It was so fun watching her open her presents.  What a sweet little girl!  I'm super excited for them.

I got to go to Sunday School on Sunday, which I haven't been able to do in a long time.  It was great.  I'd read the lesson ahead of time, and just was able to participate.  In the past few years, if I got to go to SS it was a last minute thing, so this was nice.   This week I'm going to be teaching the Young Women lesson for the first time.  I'm feeling kind of excited and nervous at the same time.

Home Sweet Home

Aaaaahhhh!  It's nice to be home.  We had a lot of fun, but it's nice to be back home.  For one thing, the weather here is much more enjoyable.  I just don't think human beings are meant to live in Florida in the summer.  It's just not right:-)  We did have a great time, though.  We spent six days having fun.  We did Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Blizzard Beach, Magic Kingdom, and Sea World (in that order).  Everybody had a great time, although we were really hot.  Most of the kids liked Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios the best.  We were worried that Emily would get a lot of headaches, but she actually only had one on the first day or two.  After that, she didn't even get any headaches, so we were so glad.   Our whole party consisted of me, Dan, Ashley, Megan, Nathan, Mom, and Emily. I only took 222 pictures the whole week!  I bought a photo album while I was there, and I'll print out the best 200 and put them in.   

Ashley had to fly back to Texas today.  Her entire visit was only a week and a half.  She had to get back to work on Tuesday, so Dan changed her ticket.  What a bummer.  It was such a short visit.  It was fun, though, to spend time with her.   She and Megan spent a lot of time together, even after we got home.  Megan asked her mom if she could stay until Ashley went home so she stayed until today.  We had to bring Ashley to the airport for 5:15.  Then I had to go back to Westbrook to bring Megan to her mom for 12:30.  Lots of driving today.  Ugh.   It's worth it to have the girls, though.  

Yesterday we had a get together with the Cooper side so that they could see Ashley before she went back.  We also celebrated Mackenzie's birthday.  It was a fun evening with lots of good food and company.  I always love Cooper get-togethers. 
I picked up Zip today from the Atwaters.  They watched him for us while we were gone.  The boys and even Sophie had a great time with him.  Sophie liked pushing his cage around the kitchen like a walker.  The boys liked giving him carrots.  As a thank you gift, I got the boys some little sea animals in a little case from SeaWorld.  It's the Atwaters' anniversary tonight, so I offered to watch the boys while they go out.  They are going to spend the night, so they're all snuggled into their sleeping bags right now, watching Cars 2.
I got called into the Young Women program yesterday!  I've been in Primary forever, so I'm ready for a change.  I love my Primary kids, though, and I'll miss them a lot.  I have Ephraim and Noah each week.  Last year, I had Coy, Wyatt, Noah, and Joseph.  I also play the piano in Primary, so I'll miss hearing the kids sing.  I'm excited about being in Young Womens again, though.  We have a nice group of YW, so it will be fun.  Wednesday nights will be busy, but that's okay.  Nathan will have Scouts every other Wednesday anyway.

Disney, here we come!

Dan is on the way home with Ashley right now.  I'm so excited to see her.  We'll only have her for a week and a half this time, but that is better than nothing.  Nathan is super excited, too, and keeps asking, "When is Ashley going to be here?"  I'm sure Megan is excited, too, although she's not here yet.  We're picking her up tomorrow night.

We leave for Disney the day after tomorrow.  We are all so excited!  I made Nathan a countdown when we had about 14 days left.  I put several Mickey and Minnie brads onto a red strip of paper.  He takes one off every night.  I really think kids need to have things to look forward to, and a big piece of the fun of things is usually the anitcipation. 

Dan started his new job this week.  So far he's enjoying it.  He has a lot to get used to, like the new computer system, but he seems to be happy so far. 

I made the cutest bookmark the other day.  It looks like a Japanese princess in a long kimono.  Emily and I were going to make a whole bunch of them today, but we're going to do it after Disney.  She has too much to do.  I've been able to spend quite a bit of time with Emily this summer so far because she has not been working for the last couple of weeks.  We did some cards, played minigolf and gokarting, went to the movies, and went swimming.  It's been really nice spending so much time with her.  Oh, we also had an Anne of Green Gables marathon with Megan, Gram, and Mom.  Fun times!

Nathan is taking two LOOK classes this week.  He is loving both of them.  He's taking Tribots and Stuffed Animal Monsters.  He loves the kind of classes where he can make lots of stuff.   Last year he took four classes, but this year we'll only be doing classes this week.  Next week is the other LOOK week, but we'll be in Florida. 

Sunday afternoon

I got a new camera on Friday!  I'm so excited about it.  I wanted a new camera for our trip to Florida because my camera is kind of big and old (six years).  I noticed at Walmart that they had Kodak Easy Share cameras for only 99 dollars, so I used 50 dollars from Mom for my birthday and 50 from Dan.  Anyway, it's tiny and pink and I just love it.  I took some pictures down at Mom and Dad's the other day and they came out great. 

Megan is here this weekend.  Nathan is totally in heaven when she's here.  Right now, they are playing in his room, and I'm sure she'll sleep there tonight too.  She always sleeps on his top bunk or even with him sometimes unless she has a friend with her or Ashley is here.

Steve and Lil came over this afternoon and stayed for supper.  We had ham, mashed potato, green beans and corn.  Megan made chocolate chip cookies this afternoon, too, so we had those for dessert.  They were so heavenly!  She is a good little cook.  It was nice to visit with Steve and Lil.  We haven't visited with them in so long.  We caught up on all the family news and got to see pictures from their trip to Wyoming for Taya's blessing.  We also played a couple games of Farkle, which was really fun. 

Mr. Guinea gave me a big scare yesterday.  I put him outside in his portable cage, and went inside.  Later, Nathan and Megan and I were going to see the movie Brave and Dan was leaving for the drag races, so I went to get Zip to bring him back inside.  I walked up to his cage, and stopped in my tracks.  He was gone!  I have no idea how he got out of there.  It's just as tall as his cage that he has inside, and he's never gotten out of it.  I yelled to the kids, and they came running.  We were all just standing there, astonished and bewildered.  What could have happened?  I ran inside to tell Dan.  I said, "Something took the guinea pig!"  He stared back at me, and then said, "We'll never see him again."  What a comfort he is.  Anyway, I ran back outside.  I had no desire to go to the movies when Mr. Guinzey was missing.  I could just imagine a big owl swooping down to snatch him up and eat him.  I thought, maybe he escaped somehow and is still around.  I had the kids check under the shed.  Nope.  Then under the porch steps.  Bingo.  There he was.  I was so relieved.  Megan and I spent several minutes trying to get him to come out from under the porch and finally caught him.  I still have no idea how he got out of that cage. 

Mom and Dad bought us lobster and clams on Friday night.  Yum!  It was so delicious. There were several of us there:  Emily, Megan, Nathan, Dan, me, Great Gram, Mom, and Dad. 

Yesterday I took Megan and Nathan swimming down at Mom and Dad's.  Emily came over too, and then they all came up to our house to watch Anne of Green Gables.  That is one of my all time favorite movies.  I made a big batch of Tapioca pudding (Megan's request), and we put the movie in.  We watched part of the first movie, but we didn't all last through the whole thing.  It's three hours long, so Mom and Gram and Emily went home to go to bed about two hours into it.  Seeing that movie made me want to read the books again. 

Brave

Olivia, Felicia, Emmy, Nathan and I went to see Brave.  We just got back from the 2:15 showing.  We all really liked it.  It's a great movie.  I also loved the Scottish accents. 

I'm on day 28 of my diet.  I've lost 24 pounds in 28 days!  I've never done that before.  When I think about this past month I am in awe that I stuck with it.  To tell you the truth, the only reason I stuck with it was because the program cost so much.  But, hey, if that's what it takes.  I can't believe I just spent 28 days doing a 500 calories a day diet.  I've never done that in my life.  It also made me really appreciate regular food, though.  I'm going to have to be very careful in the next few weeks that I don't slip back into old habits.  I plan on exercising (I'm actually looking forward to it, believe it or not) and eating low carb for the next three weeks, then count Weight Watchers points.  I'm super excited about my progress.

Nathan has a horrible sunburn from Friday.  He went swimming down at my mom's for a few hours.  My mom and I are both blaming ourselves for his burn, and we both feel horrible!  He's always worn a rashguard, so I've never really worried about sunburns.  He decided not to wear it on Friday, though, and Mom thought she put lotion on him a couple of times.  But he says she only put it on once.  She also had a couple of other little boys there, too, that she was watching, and she remembers putting sunblock on them a couple of times.  Anyway, I should have put some on him before I left.

Patricia and I went to Lewiston on Friday.  That's why my mom had all three of the boys.  We went to a dentist appointment for Patricia and I watched Sophie for her and then we went to Petco and a consignment shop that had lots of children's clothes.  It was so fun looking at clothes for Sophie!  She ended up getting her lots of cute little dresses.

We're heading down to Mom's for supper now.  I asked if we could start going down on Monday's when Mike and the girls go so we could see everybody.  We don't have Sunday dinners anymore, so I feel like I hardly ever see Mike and Olivia.  I see Emily and Felicia more often because they are less busy.  Anyway,  it's fun to visit with everybody. 
 

Enjoying summer

Vacation has been relaxing so far and I'm loving it.  We've just been hanging out with very few planned events and activities.  That's the way I like it. 

Mom and Dad finally opened the pool a few days ago, but it's been so rainy that we haven't been able to use it.  We did go down to the lake last weekend with the Atwaters after Joseph's piano lesson.  Kristen and Scott met us down there with the girls and after they went swimming we kept Maddi and Sydney overnight.  They are such fun, cute girls.  I love having them over.  Megan was here, too, and she loves to do things with them.  She's such a mother hen.

Megan and Dan went on a temple trip on Friday.  I'm so glad Megan got to go.  With only going to church every couple of weeks she needs all the spiritual experiences she can. 

I've lost 25 1/2 pounds so far!  I'm so excited!  I lost three and a half pounds on my own, then I started the bodiPath program.  It's a 40 day program and I'm on day 22.  I've lost 22 pounds during that time!  I'm hoping to lose another 14 and a half during the next 18 days.  I'll feel so much better for our Florida trip.  After I do this first 40 days I'm going to try to lose the next 80 by counting Weight Watcher points and excercising.  I love that I'm losing weight fast, but the diet is really restrictive.  There is not much that is allowed, so when we go anywhere I can't eat anything.   The hardest part has been going to dinner at Mom and Dad's and even cooking meals for the family.  I hate having to cook stuff that I know I can't eat.  It's so hard.   There have been days so far that were so hard that I would have given up if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't want to waste my money.  The program is so expensive that I didn't want to waste the money I spent.  It wasn't cheap.  I've never been tempted so badly in my life without giving in.  The other day I cooked lunch for the family, told Dan it was ready and that he needed to serve it because I couldn't handle looking at it, and then went in my room and just cried and cried.  I couldn't handle it that day.  But,  I didn't give in.  I kept going, which is an amazing accomplishment for me.  I think this is just what I needed to get me going.

The other day Emily called me from Mom's and said she had just given Mom a pedicure and foot rub and asked me if I wanted one.  Heck, yeah!  I went right down to Mom's and Emily had everything all set up.  What girl at that age does stuff like that for her family?  She's so awesome.  She also gave Gram one and Nathan.  She is just so sweet.  Last week we got together and did her last few assignments for seminary so she could get credit for this year.  She had nine days to make up, so we sat on the couch and did nine days worth of assignments.  I'm so proud of her for doing three years of seminary so far.  She's basically done it with no support from her family, other than my mom.  Also, I think her sisters might have brought her a couple of times, but seriously, when a girl is from an inactive family, there's not much chance of going to seminary.  But, she did it!  And for a long time she was the only student going, which would make it even harder.  She's so awesome!

My hip has been bothering me so much lately.   If I sit down, especially on hard surfaces, it starts hurting really badly.  The other day I was so sick of it, I called my doctor's office.  He wasn't in, but I got to see the nurse practitioner.  She thinks it might be arthritis.  Ugh!  That would be horrible because there is basically no cure for that.  Anyway, I have to start physical therapy and see if that helps.  I thought losing weight might help, but it hasn't so far.   Hopefully it will get better because the end of the school year was really difficult. 

School's Out!

School's out!  I'm so excited!  Nathan is, too.  I'm looking forward to many relaxing days with no plans.  Also, the last half of the year was very stressful, for a variety of reasons.  I'm disappointed and disillusioned.  I used to love my job.  Now, I'm not so happy with it.  Just thinking about the fall makes my stomach twist a little.  Hopefully, the break will do me enough good so that I can handle it in the fall. 

Well, the last week of school was kind of crazy with all the field trips goin on.   I chaperoned a trip to the West Auburn Schoolhouse with Nathan.  That was a really fun day.  The kids got to experience an authentic morning of school in the 1850's.  Nathan's favorite part was writing with a quill pen.  I tried it, too, and it was actually quite hard.  I also chaperoned a day at Range Pond for the 4-6 kids. 

Dan wasn't able to go to the annual Donuts for Dad at school with Nathan this year.  His boss was on vacation, and he can't take time off if his boss is out.  He was going to chaperone Nathan's field trip to Roberts Farm, but it got rained out.  So he just spent a day at school with Nathan, too.  His classmates loved it, and so did Mrs. Stevens.  She thought it was really helpful having another adult in the room.  Dan brought them donuts, which the kids loved.  He's such a good dad to spend the whole day in a second grade classroom.  Nathan was in heaven.

I've lost almost twenty pounds now.  I'm so excited!  I started a program called bodiPath 12 days ago.  It's working great.  I've already lost 16 pounds in only 12 days and I had lost about 3 1/2 before that.  I have 31 more days of the really limited diet, and then it gets a little more lax.  I'm feeling so much better, but it's really hard making food for the family without eating it myself.  It's also super hard when I see food like brownies, Fritos, ice cream, candy, etc.  because I want to eat it so badly!  I'm determined to get healthy, though.  I'll feel so much better if I can just do this.

Dan picked up Megan on Friday.  We hadn't seen her in three weeks.  We've caught up on all the Dance Moms episodes she missed, watched a movie, gone to Range Pond yesterday, and went to Walmart (she got nail polish and a hair straightener because the one we had was just too old:-).   Today, we're celebrating Father's Day with Dan and my dad.

Nathan won a bike at school on Friday.  I was so excited for him.  TD Bank and the PTA got together to do this.  The kids had to read 10 books and if they did, they could bring the form to the bank and open an account.  The bank would put $10 in their account, plus their name would be entered in a drawing for a free bike.  Unfortunately, Nathan didn't hear his name called so it was a while before he came down to the gym.  By the time he got there, most kids had already chosen their bike.  He had to take a little preschool sized bike, and exchange it at Walmart.  It worked out great, though, because he picked out one that he really liked. 

 I had to give a talk today in church.  It actually turned out better than I originally thought it would.  I read a couple of stories that were really touching.   I always feel so relieved when it's done, though.

        

Nathan's baptism

Last Sunday, May 27th, Nathan was baptized!  All the family came from Auburn, plus Grammy & Grampa Record, Great-Gram, Felicia and Emily came from my side.  There were also several ward members who came.  Logan Reynolds was baptized, too, so both of the boys picked one song, one prayer, and one speaker.  Nathan chose "I Am a Child of God" for the song, Uncle Steve for the prayer, and Grammy for a speaker.  A few days before the baptism, we went over to Crystal's and she took pictures of Nathan and Logan together for the program.  She got some great pictures.  I lvoe how the program turned out.  Nathan did a great job, and looked so proud to be getting baptized.  Logan had a hard time because he's scared of getting water on his face, but eventually he did it, and he looked so happy, too.  It was neat to share the baptism with them because Nathan and Logan were born only 2 days apart.  We were in the hospital at the same time.     

 I'm so proud of my boy!

 Afterwards, we had all the family come over to our house and celebrate Nathan's and Mom Cooper's birthdays.  I spent the day before making this cake.  It has little candy Lego men all along the side and some on top shaped like an N.  I made each of the little men with a mold.

  

 I also made this plate of cookies.  Between the Lego men and these cookies, it took hours and hours!  It was worth it, though, for my little boy. 

More birthday pics

 I made this snake to go with the Ninjago theme.  The Ninja have to fight the serpentine on the show,so I thought that would be perfect.  Also, we had violetberry soup (grape soda) to drink.

 We had three games.  This one started out as limbo, but became a jumping game by the end.  We had another game where the kids had to team up and find all four weapons of Spinjitsu hidden in a container of rice.  The third game was a Ninjago vs. Snakes tag game.

 

 I love this picture!  These two Ninja had been knocked down, so Nathan just picked them up and brought them up on the porch.  It made a good photo op!

Blowing out the candle!

Happy birthday Nathan!

 Nathan's party was a lot of fun.  Eleven kids came, so there were twelve counting him.  We had Branson, Kaedon, Tannon, Hayden, Coy, Grady, Brigham, Kacie, Spencer (from school), Joseph, and Ephraim.

 These were my favorite decorations.  They are actually beach balls with tissue paper wrapped around it.  I drew the eyes on with permanent marker.  In case you're not familiar with Ninjago, they are Cole, Zane, Kai, and Jay.  Nathan loved these.   The only problem was that people thought they were pinatas so they started hitting them, but they were only hung up with fishing wire.  Oh, well.  They were really cool.

 I love how the cake turned out.  The cupcakes have little white chocolate lego men on them.  I found a mold online.  They were so cool.  I wish we could have done them in different colors, but they only had white and brown at Walmart.  I still think they turned out cute. 

Here is Nathan on his actual birthday.  I let him open a present before he went to school.   He loved this Ninjago sticker book.  At his party, we gave him some Ninjago pajamas.  

Zip!

 Introducing Zip!  We got him earlier this month.  He is so cute and sweet!  I've always loved guinea pigs and had them off and on throughout my life.  It's fun to have one again.  He's gotten more and more friendly over the past few weeks. We just love him!

 Here he is, meeting my mom's kitten.  It cracks me up that they are about the same size.

On a different topic,  our school's drama club put on the musical, Annie Jr.  It was absolutely fantastic.  The little girl that played Annie was just fabulous.  I made these cookies for them to sell during intermission.  They liked them so much they decided to sell them for a dollar each.  Cool!

I made this birthday party invitation last night for Nathan.  I love how it came out.  This will be his first "friend" party.  We've always done a family party every year, but this time we're going all out.  We've been talking about it for weeks.  He's getting baptized the next day, which is exciting, too.  It will be a full weekend, with the baptism, his party, and another family party for him and Grammy Cooper. 

Well, I'm a little stressed  because I can't find my itouch.  I hope it will turn up somewhere.  Soon.

Mom, Gram and I went to Women's Conference today in Topsham.  It was so uplifting.  The classes I took were great.  I took one by Jena Merriman about nurturing our youth, another one by Nancy Thomas about uplifting our family spiritually.  Those were such great classes.  I also took another one by a police officer on Family Safety, which was informative.  I wasn't really feeling like going to the conference, especially when I had to get up early this morning, but I was so glad I went. 

On the way home, we stopped at Petco in Topsham to see what they had for Guinea Pigs.  I already got a male on Tuesday of last week at the Petco in Auburn, but he needs a friend.  Anyway, we didn't find him a friend, but I did buy a harness so I can take him outside.  Well, I was all excited to try it out when I got home, but I could only get one part of it on him.  I took him outside and asked Dan to help me get the second buckle done, but as we were trying to do that, the guinea pig jumped out of our hands and ran into the woods.  We tried chasing him for a while, but he ran under a pile of brush.  Plus, the chasing wasn't going to work.  He was way too fast.  I had no idea how I was going to catch him, and Dan was super annoyed with me that I brought him outside without the harness done securely.  I ended up calling Felicia (who was at the barn), and she and mom came over to help.  Felicia and I moved a whole bunch of the brush and then she started taking some of the next layer off and she saw him!  This pile was huge, so it was amazing that she picked the right place to start.  She was able to get ahold of him and I moved some more brush away and picked him up.  He was so terrified.  I felt so bad for him.  He was traumatized, poor little guy.  I'm so relieved that we were able to catch him. 

Last weekend, my mom and Patricia Atwater and Sophie went to Manchester, New Hampshire, for a Creating Keepsakes Convention.  It was so much fun!   We stopped at a couple of great places to eat.  We stopped at Loco Coco's Tacos in Kittery on the way down.  They have fabulous Mexican food.  On the way home we stopped at a place in Wells and Mom and I got jumbo lobster rolls.  Yummy!  Anyway, back to the conference.  First of all, we couldn't find the right hotel, so we were driving around Manchester looking for it.  It was so funny.  We finally got the right hotel, and we went inside.  Our room was right next to an indoor baseball stadium, which was cool.  We saw some guys practicing and then they had some awesome fireworks right outside our window!  It was so awesome!  They were better than the ones you see around here.  Then we went down to the pool and hot tub.  The pool was really little, but the hot tub felt great.  It was outside, so we felt the breeze on our faces, which cooled us off, but the water was nice and hot.  Aaaaahhhhh!  The next day, the conference was great.   We shopped for a long time, and then I took a digital scrapbooking class for a couple of hours.  It was a great class and I learned so much!  If only I didn't have to wait another whole year for the next conference.        

 

Peanut

My mom's cat, Princess, had two kittens almost a week ago.  One of them was a lot smaller than the other, and was not gaining weight.  Mom started feeding it with a syringe and eye dropper, and it was hanging on.  It even seemed to be getting a little stronger.  She named him/her Peanut. Today, I was down there, and Mom and I started feeding it with an eye dropper.  It started acting really weird, though, and it slowly stopped moving and breathing.  It was so sad.  Mom was trying so hard to save it.  She was blowing in it's face and rubbing it.  It was just so sad.  We all had tears in our eyes, and Nathan started crying and Gram started crying, too.  She gets upset when any animals or people die.  It was Nathan's first time dealing with the death of an animal. 

This afternoon, I went with my Mom to help dress a sister in our ward, Phyllis Pelletier, that passed away.  She was a really sweet sister, and I was honored to help and do that bit of service for her.  It was the first time I'd ever helped dress someone that's passed away.  It was difficult in a way, but it was touching to see how sweet her daughter-in-law, Missy, loved her.  She treated her with so much love and respect, even in death.

I've been doing tons of scrapbooking this week.  I worked on my Project Life album, my baby announcement album (I had three babies to add), and Nathan's album.  I did 8 pages for his album, which almost catches me up.  I just have to do Valentine's day and then his birthday and baptism.    

Herbert Arthur Cooper

My father-in-law, Herbert Arthur Cooper, passed away on April 11, 2012.  He was 76 years old.  We found out almost 8 weeks before that he had cancer.  Unfortunately, it was already stage 4 and it quickly weakened him.  We were able to go over several times during that 7 weeks and visit with him and Pam.  It was a really emotional and spiritual time for everybody.  He will definitely be missed.

Here he is, reading the Christmas story from Luke 2 at our family Christmas party in 2004.  This is a family tradition. 

 Another tradition was the reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

 Holding Nathan at the hospital.

Pics

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown!

Things are getting really busy the past couple of weeks. Last weekend was General Conference weekend, which I love! I love the talks and the music. We watched each session. Before the first Sunday session we went over to Dad Cooper's. The whole family came over, even Matt, Margaret, Kacie, and Ryan (Matt's son), flew in from Utah. Hannah flew in from Wyoming and Bekka and Mike were here with their boys, from Ohio. We all had pictures taken together with Dad, and his five sons gave him a blessing. It was a really emotional time for everybody. Luckily, we had Megan and I was really glad she could be there. It's something she will always remember.

On Saturday night, Nathan, Megan and I went to see Mirror, Mirror and then I brought Nathan down to Mom's and Megan and I went back to see The Hunger Games. We enjoyed both movies, but I loved The Hunger Games! This was Megan's third time seeing it in theatres. It was fun doing something with Megan.

Last night, we went to see JJ in a musical at Poland High School. He had the lead in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown! He did a fabulous job, and all the other kids did, too. Sally and Lucy and Snoopy were super good. It was so good, I might go see it again tonight with my mom.

Things are getting really busy at work. I have several IEP meetings before the end of the year and I have to test several kids, write up the reports, etc. It will be a busy several weeks. There are actually only 9 weeks of school left, not counting vacation week. I'm really looking forward to April vacation!

Nathan and I have done a couple of Easter projects this past week. We dyed Easter eggs and we made sugar cookies in the shape of eggs, rabbits, and ducks. The cookies turned out so cute! Nathan and I had a great time cutting them out and decorating them. I brought them to work with me the next day, and I gave them to my students and ed techs and we also gave one to Nathan's teacher and Shea's aunt. Everybody loved them. I'll post pics sometime soon.

Games and Horses

It's been a really relaxing weekend. Last night, I went down to Mom's and we played a couple games of Rummikub. Then we went and fed the horses and brushed them. They are shedding like crazy so we were both covered with fur by the time we were done. We went back to Mom's and she lent me a nightgown so I could take my furry clothes off. Then we played a couple rounds of Hand and Foot. It was just a fun night. We laughed a lot and just had a good time.

Today I played with my Cricut machine a lot. I had borrowed a few cartridges from my friend Patricia, so I wanted to cut some things out before I gave them back. It was so fun. I also made a whole bunch of bookmarks for my students with a cartridge I borrowed from Mom. Nathan even got into it, and made a fishbowl with three fish swimming around, a helicopter, and a train. He loves art.

This morning I brought Nathan to karate class in Casco. He had missed his class on Tuesday for a doctor's appointment, so I wanted him to make it up. He loved it. He said it was a lot quicker than his regular class. He tends to get silly and not pay attention in class, but he did much better this time. I was proud of him.

Mom and I booked a room for the Creating Keepsakes Convention for April 27th and 28th in Manchester. I'm so excited for it. I also registered today for a class that I'm going to take there. It's a digital scrapbooking class for intermediate digital scrapbookers. I'm also excited for the vendor fair because I still use traditional paper products, too. I can't wait!

I can't believe there are only 11 weeks of school left if you don't count vacation week. This year is really flying by. Holy cow.

Moolah!

I've decided that I'm going to get my credit card payed off this year, no matter what. It seems like we get close to getting it payed off and then something happens - car repair, doctor bills, dentist bills, etc. Ugh! Anyway, I'm determined to pay it off. If I stay on track, I should have make my last payment in December. Then maybe I won't feel so guilty if I travel a little bit! Here are some trips I'd like to take in the next few years:

April 2012 Manchester, NH for CKC (scrapbooking convention)
July 2012 Florida (This one's already paid for)
July 2012 Hill Cumorah Pageant
May 2014 Texas for Ashley's graduation

Other trips not scheduled, but want to do:
August, some year Education Week at BYU
Disney Cruise with Dan, Megan, and Nathan
Texas for Christmas some year or February vacation
Legoland in Florida
Canada with Mom, Kathy and Aunt Diane, maybe this summer


So much to do, so little time!

Yesterday we had Kristen's girls for the afternoon and evening. It was so much fun. They are so cute! We even got to keep Paige for a while. It was the first time we had her without her mom, so it was a big deal. She did great. After Kristen picked Paige up, we read some books, did a craft project, and played a lot with Nathan!

Tonight we're going to Paige's first birthday party! It should be a lot of fun. I got her a summer dress and a book yesterday. I'm so glad they live in Maine! Becca and the boys are here for a few weeks, too, which has been fun. They came to Ashley's party last week. Good times, good times.

Ashley's visit

We had a fun visit with Ashley. She flew in on a Saturday and then went home on Friday, so she was here almost a week. Dan took the week off to spend with her, but Nathan and I had to go to school. Megan got to come for the weekend, and she even stayed through Monday so that she could spend more time with Ashley. She adores Ashley and just loves spending time with her. Anyway, we did some fun things with her, but we just hung out quite a bit too. She saw a couple of movies while she was here. Dan helped her look online for a truck because she has about $6,000 from selling her horse. We had a birthday party for her with lots of family. She seemed to really enjoy that. She played some games with me in the evenings (She totally creamed me on Acquire, twice!). She went to Auburn with Dan to see the race cars in the mall. She came to school to watch Nathan's karate class (he was being so goofy, though!) We had a Family Home Evening with her and Nathan. We were going to bring her to see Grampa Cooper, but he was in Boston having some tests done, so she didn't get to see him. That was the only bad thing about the visit. She got to see both my mom and Dan's mom during the week. She spent quite a bit of time with Nathan, too, just goofing around with him. He thought it was hilarious. I think he was surprised that she plays pretty rough, though! Overall, it was probably one of the nicest visits we've had with her. She seemed happy to be here and not stressed out. It was just really nice. The day she flew back was her birthday! She's 16 years old! She was 4 when Dan and I met.

Vacation

Dan and I made corn chowder and bread bowls for supper. It smells so good. I can't wait to see how it turned out. The bread bowls are baking right now. I'd been looking for a recipe for quite a while now, ever since we had bread bowls at Old Sturbridge Village. I finally found one on Pinterest.
This has been a really nice, relaxing vacation. We didn't do anything huge, just lots of little stuff, and enjoyed the down time. I'm sad that it's ending on Monday. I want more time! Anyway, here is what we were able to do:

• Went swimming in North Conway with Rodriguezes
• Went to the Weather Discovery Center in N. Conway
• Went to Zeb's in N. Conway
• Had Megan and Taylor for the weekend
• Went bowling with Megan, Taylor, and Nathan
• Went to Karate in Casco on Thursday night (brought Mom and Gram with us)
• Had my foot x-rayed
• Went to Olive Garden for my birthday with Dan
• Did some scrapbooking with Patricia, while Nathan played with the boys
• Did some more scrapbooking on my own
• Gave Joseph a piano lesson, while Nathan played with Ephraim
• Nathan played with Branson and Kaedon
• Nathan and I painted with watercolors
• Went to the movies to see The Vow (such a good movie)
• Had a game afternoon with Aunt Diane, Kathy, Payge, and Owen (N played with Owen most of the time)
• I walked on the treadmill four times! (This is huge!)

Tomorrow we are going to celebrate my and Emily's birthdays! It should be a good ending to our vacation.

Vacation!

We're having a great vacation so far. On Saturday we went to North Conway to go swimming at our timeshare. We invited the Rodriguez's to go with us, plus Megan brought Taylor, so we there were 11 of us. We had a great time swimming and going in the hot tub. Then we went to Pizza Hut for lunch, Zeb's for lots of candy, and then the Weather Discovery Center, which is a hands-on science museum about Mount Washington. They have some really neat activities there. My favorite was a little pond with a boat in it. You have to guide the boat to a certain destination by pressing buttons that turn little fans. It was pretty tricky. The kids were able to do it faster than us adults! The kids also loved pretending they were weather reporters, and could see themselves on TV.

Today I brought Nathan, Megan, and Taylor to go bowling. Megan and I won, then Nathan came in third, and Taylor came in last. We had a lot of fun. We saw some people we knew, including a friend of Nathan's from school, so he thought that was really neat. Then we went to the Dollar Store to get some candy, then to the movies to see The Vow. It was such a great movie. We all loved it. After the movie, we went to Burger King. Needless to say, I spent way too much money today! Oh, well, I'll just have to be good for the rest of vacation.

I came down with a horrible cold last week. I'm still really congested. This is my second really bad cold this winter. I had to go on antibiotics for the last one, so hopefully I won't have to do that for this one.

Third Place

Megan had a gymnastics meet yesterday, and she came in third place overall! She came in 2nd in vault and 2nd on floor. I am so proud of her. She's awesome! Dan and Nathan went to watch. I couldn't go, but I am super excited to see the next one.

I went to a baby shower for Hannah last night. She is here for about a week, along with Becca, Mike, Mikey and Emmett. The shower was so fun. She's having a little girl, Taya! She got so many cute little girly clothes. It was also really fun seeing Becca and her family. We had never met Emmett before. He is so adorable. It was great to see him, especially with the rough start he had. He's already had two major surgeries, poor little guy. He was so smiley and cuddly, even with people he doesn't even know.

I'm looking forward to vacation next week. I would love to go someplace warm, but it's not in the budget right now. I was just looking at my budget today, and hopefully, we'll have all of our debt payed off in about 19 months! Then hopefully we'll have more money to spend on trips and things like that. We'll still owe money on Amber's hospital bill, and my car, but those are long term things. I really hope we can do this in 19 months. I'd love to just know that we're debt free and that we can have money to do some more fun stuff, especially traveling. This time of year always makes me want to travel to someplace warm.

Karate

Here's my little ninja! Nathan started karate classes in December. He goes every Tuesday afternoon right after school to the gym at OES. It works out great because I usually have meetings or work to do and then I pick him up at 4:30. I like to get down there before 4:30 though, so I can watch for a while. Nathan and Megan and I went on Saturday to watch a tournament in Casco. He didn't want to be in one quite yet, although I'm sure he could have done just as well as quite a few of the other white belts. I think he'll be willing to do the next one.

Books read

I've read quite a few books lately:

• Horses in the Garage by Bonnie Pryor I read this to Nathan. It was okay, but more for a middle school aged girl. More about the girl's life than their horses


• Causes of the Civil War by James P. Epperson I read this one because the sixth grade at school is studying the Civil War.


• Little Horse on His Own by Betsy Byars Another one I read to Nathan. A cute little story about a tiny horse


• Finding Hattie by Sally Warner This was a really interesting novel. It was based on a real person whose parents and brother die, she gets sent to a boarding school with her cousin, and learns a valuable lesson about friendship when she meets a wild and crazy classmate who the other girls don't accept


• Double Jeopardy by Steve Roos I just finished this one the other day. A suspense novel by an LDS author. I didn't want to put it down. A detective, who loses his wife, tries to solve a mystery involving dirty money.


• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo I just finished reading this to Nathan this afternoon. We both loved the story!

Loser

I've been feeling like such a loser lately. I'm discouraged about everything. I'm just a mediocre (if even that) person, wife, teacher, mother, etc. It's just really depressing.

Two snow days!

We had two snow days in a row! I love snow days and was really excited for the first one, but I actually wanted school on Friday because I had some paperwork that needed to go home with a student. Oh, well. I couldn't control it. It was nice to have all that time to get stuff done and to relax. Nathan, of course, was in heaven.

Here is another book I finished on Thursday. Red Scarf Girl, by Ji-Li Jiang. It was written by a Chinese girl and the years she was 12 to 14 and what she experienced in the Cultural Revolution. It was really interesting because I didn't know much about that time period or what happened in China. Heck, I don't even know my own country's history, let alone China:-)

Books

One thing I've really enjoyed since finishing my Masters is just time to read. I love getting pulled into a book, and reading for hours. I have no idea who Jorge Luis Borges is, but I love this quote:

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."-Jorge Luis Borges

Here are three I've read so far:

I thought I'd read a little of this before going to bed one night, but I ended up reading the whole thing. It was interesting to read about the Depression and the Dust Bowl. I didn't know much about the Dust Bowl, so I learned a lot. It made me thankful to live in this day and age.

I enjoyed this book about a Jewish family in Germany during WWII. The father escapes to America, but has to work for months in order to get enough money to send for his wife and three daughters. In the meantime, the wife and daughters go to Switzerland, where it's safer, to wait for word from the father.

I just finished reading this one to Nathan this morning. We recently watched "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" so I thought I'd get the other books from the library. We both really liked this book. What an imagination C.S. Lewis had. Also, I read once that there are many underlying messages that correlate with doctrine of the church. He wasn't LDS, but he certainly had some understandings of eternal things.