Katie Rocks!

Katie figured out how to rock on our rocking horse yesterday, and today she figured out how to get up onto it by herself. Dallin found her there this afternoon, rocking away. She loves it!

Brandon Got Glasses (plus candy cane picture)

Last month, Brandon got glasses.   I think I forgot to mention it, as it was right before Thanksgiving, and then everyone got sick right after that.  Here he is, and he's holding that candy cane we made at his class holiday party.  

Wrestling Picture

Aaron found the camera, so here's that picture of Tristin's wrestling meet.  Tristin is on the back mat, and he's wearing purple.  All you can see of him are his legs, which are vertical, as he's trying to lift himself up to avoid getting pinned.  If you click on the picture, you will get a full-screen version, and you'll be able to see it better.  Unfortunately, that 9th grader on top of him was a bit too much for him to handle.  Tristin continues to work hard and do his best.  He won a match at his last middle school meet, and he made it through another match or two without getting pinned, although he lost on points.  He's getting better each week.

Dallin Lost His First Tooth

A couple of weeks ago, Dallin had a piece of yarn in his mouth, and Ben pulled on it.  Dallin felt some pain, and noticed he had a loose tooth.  Since none of our kids have lost teeth until the age of six, we figured it was loosened because of this incident.  However, yesterday I noticed that there was an adult tooth growing in behind the tooth that was loose.  So, either the body knows to push up the new tooth, or the tooth was loose before the incident with the yarn.  

Today, the tooth was getting nice and wiggly, but not quite loose enough to come out on its own.  Since the adult tooth was growing behind the baby tooth, I was a little concerned that it needed to come out to make room for it.  So, out came the dental floss.  I wrapped a slip knot around it and asked Dallin how brave he was feeling today.  He showed me with his fingers that he was only a little tiny bit brave.  So, I told him to close his eyes, and then I wrapped the floss around a couple of my left fingers, and counted, "One, two - " and then I did a miniature karate chop across the floss with my right hand, and it took Dallin a second to realize the tooth was out.  

He was a very brave boy, in my book.  Ben and William convinced me that taking the tooth out early was worth $.50 instead of $.25, and I went for that.  Dallin is feeling quite rich right now.

Brandon's Class Party

This morning, I took Dallin, Aidan and Katie with me to Brandon's class party.  I had to have them all ready to go in order to get there at the beginning of school, which starts at 8am, so we were all up pretty early today.  Brandon helped get Aidan ready, and fed Katie breakfast, as I told him when he asked if I could make it that I would only be able to do it if he helped.  As it was, we rushed out the door with only minutes to spare, and Tristin had to hustle into the school when we got there so that he would have time to get his instrument to the band room before going to his homeroom.

We did an interesting craft at the holiday party.  We brought a coat hanger and two colors of yarn, and cut the coat hanger about four inches from the bend on each side.  Then, we bent it into a candy cane shape, leaving a small hook at the bottom so the yarn doesn't fall off, which we later bent parallell to the hanger after we were done.  Next, we wrapped yarn around a 4-inch piece of cardboard, cut it, and tied a small piece of yarn around the middle of it, making what looks like a bundle of bows.  This little bundle was then inserted onto the wire, through the middle of the piece we tied onto it.  We alternated colors until the whole candy cane was full of the bows, making a colorful, fluffy candy cane.  After pinching the bottom end, we also bent and pinched a little at the hook end.

Most people made their candy canes red and white.  Some were purple and gold, which are our district's colors.  There was someone there with some blue and white, and one child had yellow and white.  I, unfortunately, did not have any red or white yarn, as I haven't been crocheting much lately, and Tristin used up our white two years ago when he did this craft, and William used up the rest of my red to make a crochet garland for our Christmas tree this month.  So, Brandon took purple and green.  I let him know I could buy some other colors, but he was fine with this.  We got a few strange looks, but if it doesn't bother Brandon, it doesn't bother me.  Besides, it looked quite a bit like the candy cane Dallin brought home from school yesterday.  He said it tasted like sour apple.  If I ever find the camera, I'll take a picture of it and post it here for you to see.  I still haven't figured out where Aaron put it after that wrestling meet.  Hahaha!!

There were Little Debbie trees for treats, and hot chocolate, as well.  I was ready to get Katie out of there by the time the treats were served, so I didn't take any, but I tasted Aidan's to see if it was too hot, and it tasted remarkably like coffee. I'm sure the thermous the hot water was in was normally used for coffee, and there wasn't enough mix in the water, so it didn't cover up the taste.  Ew.  

After that, we went to Lifetime Fitness so I could get my workout in.  I was short on time, so I didn't get through my cardio after my resistance workout.  Apparently the clock I was looking at a Lifetime was a little slow, and Aidan wasn't very cooperative at getting ready to go and getting out to the car quickly, so we were five minutes late getting Dallin to school for kindergarten (SIGH).  That's the first time I have ever gotten a child to school late.  I guess there's a first time for everything.  Well, we only had PB&J in the car, and I'm finding myself to be hungry again, and Katie needs her nap, so I will have to be done here.  Hopefully, after that I'll be able to shower, do some laundry, and get a little rest in before the kids get home at 2:50pm.  We'll see.

Detailed Dallin

Although all of our kids have been at the tops of their classes in reading, none of them caught on quickly to the idea of actually using lower case letters in their writing, nor making their handwriting legible. Until now, that is. Dallin is doing both.

Dallin made a Christmas card for his kindergarten teacher today, and I was very surprised to see how he formed his letters very carefully, and used lower case letters where they belonged, without me even reminding him to.

I have noticed that Dallin takes more time on art projects than most of his older brothers did at his age, as well. He likes adding details to his pictures, and mostly colors within the lines.

I got a surprise in the laundry room today, and it was very exciting to me. I keep all of the boys' church clothes in the laundry room closet, hanging up on a 6-slot hanger holder - the kind that allows you to save space in the closet by dropping it vertically, so that the clothes are tiered. Their shirts and pants each go on a hanger with clips for the pants, and their socks go in the pockets of their shirts. This way, there is no rush on Sunday morning when one or two of the boys realize they never threw their clothes in the wash, as I can check that they are all in place by about Thursday, and have them find any missing items that didn't make it to the laundry basket in time to wash them.

Anyway, the boys know that if their clothes are not in need of laundering when they take them off on Sunday, they are supposed to hang them up on their hanger, and if they are in need of washing, they are supposed to put them in the laundry basket in the laundry room - as opposed to on the floor of their bedroom, or a basket in their bathroom, which may or not make it up to the laundry room if I have enough laundry to keep me busy without reminding them to bring it up. Normally, I can trust Tristin to hang his clothes up (clean or dirty, unfortunately, LOL), but the rest either toss them into the laundry, or completely forget and throw them in a heap in the basement. Dallin's have been showing up in the wash pretty regularly without any help from me, but today I found them on their hanger, with a clean pair of socks in the pocket. I've got to tell you, I was stunned. I asked him if he had done it, and he told me he had.

What a nice surprise! I am frequently pleased with my sweet little Dallin. He's growing into quite the big boy.

Strep Over (knock on wood)

The last few weeks were not nice. I had to cancel so many things, due to illnesses. The most difficult day we had was the day of Brandon's choir concert. I was looking forward to it, but it was going to be a complicated evening. You see, Tristin was going to be at an away wrestling match, and Aaron had a semi-annual director's meeting, which he couldn't skip. When I say he can't skip it, it should be taken in all seriousness - the Vice President of Sales & Marketing just had vertebrae replacement surgery in his neck, and was there in a neck brace, while the corporate lawyer, who is another director, was attending via speaker phone from his hospital room, where he had just had throat surgery. Going to the choir concert just wasn't an option for him.

I woke up that morning with Strep Throat. After going to the clinic to confirm my suspicions and get antibiotics, I thought about how I would probably have to drop off Brandon at his concert. Then I realized that Tristin's instructions had been to find us at Brandon's concert after his wrestling meet, if he got home during it. This was going to be a mess. Then, I realized that maybe Merle and Reo were coming. They normally try to, so I called up Merle. Luckily, they were able to rescue me. They came by and got Brandon, bringing a cup of Eddington's Wild Rice soup with them for me (mmm....), then waited around at the school for Tristin when he didn't get back as soon as we thought he would. Aaron came home in time to relieve them, and the evening was concluded.

I was so thankful to have their help that night. I am afraid I don't always think straight when I'm not feeling well, and I probably made the whole thing more complicated than it should have been by not getting better details about when Tristin's wrestling team would return to the school, but it was a good learning experience, and it turned out as well as it could, under the circumstances.

Aaron and I have yet to attend a 5th grade choir concert, so it will be new to us when Will is in 5th grade, as Tristin just happened to have strep the night of his 5th grade choir concert, two years ago.

Stealing Emma's Picture

Emma took this great picture of Katie, giving a fashion show of her Christmas Dress. I just ripped it off her blog, figuring that some of you won't see it there.

This is an important dress. The reason it is so important is that Reo (Katie's grandpa) bought it for her in England 11 years ago, when I was pregnant with Brandon. He and I both knew that she was coming, but we had no idea it would take so long for her to get here.

Anyway, it was saved in a plastic dress bag for all these years, and it is just gorgeous. It is silk with a nylon slip, and Katie LOVES wearing it. I have put her in it for church the past two Sundays, as I figure that she only has a short while to wear it, so why not get some use out of it?

What happened to Easter?

I just realized I accidentally put this post on Pratt Family Cooking, so I changed it over to my blog, along with the comments.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

What happened to Easter?
Last night at Primary Presidency meeting, we were scheduling sharing time and who will be conducting in Primary over the first half of the year. When we got to April, we took note of General Conference, and then the Primary President told us that the next week was Stake Conference. We thought that was a little strange, having them back-to-back. Then I noticed something even more strange. That Sunday is Easter Sunday. My first thought was that it is quite rude for them to make people drive so far on Easter, which takes up most of the day for people in the outlying areas (in particular, Waseca and Mankato). Then another thought occurred to me. This time we are having a prerecorded video conference.Does this strike you as horrid, as it does me? Or is it just because I grew up in a church where the Easter services were full of lilies, scenery of the open tomb, and, especially, tons of really good music!!!??? On Easter, which is supposed to be the most important holiday, the service is going to be prerecorded????I don't often get upset about the things my church leaders ask of me. I am trying to hold back, while I hope for a little clarification about this meeting. Was the date entered wrong on the Stake Calendar (oh, please, let this be the case)? Is the service going to be geared toward Easter (I thought these prerecorded stake conferences were held on different dates)? Will there be live musical numbers (more than just a stake choir singing prelude)?In the presidency meeting, I said that nobody would show up, and they looked at me a little funny, and I said, "Well, I mean, I will, but most people don't even show up for Stake Conference as it is - this will make attendance drop even more, between people travelling and people who want to spend the day with their families, instead of driving across the state that day!" I then received a few sheepish looks from the others, who admitted that they are the ones who rarely show up for stake conferences at all. Then I changed my tune and told them all that maybe I would go to my mom's Lutheran church for Easter. They could tell I was kidding. I tried that one on Aaron last night, and I got the impression he thought I was serious. He found out about this over a month ago at the ward council's calendaring session, and never even mentioned it to me. He doesn't seem concerned. Am I just weird, or does this seem strange to anyone else?
Posted by Stef at 5:10 PM

3 comments:
MJ said...
Yeah, thats kinda strange. I love that you called out the primary presidency. That was awesome.
December 10, 2008 5:41 PM
Nancy said...
I actually had to cancel a baptism on my mission because of conference scheduled on Easter. The investigator wanted nothing to do with a church that didn't take the sacrament on Easter Sunday. I can see exactly where you are coming from... of course, the French only ever attend on Easter and Christmas, so those masses were the big sell for the local cathedral, my perspective may be skew-y. You can come to my ward that week!!!! (The drive is farther.)
December 10, 2008 7:29 PM
Keeping It Sane said...
I didn't think the conferences were shown on other dates. I thought the whole region had conference on that date, and that conference was made just for that region. I could be wrong, though.And, I'm really bummed about this. I hadn't heard. It stinks to have that drive on Easter. I mean, I'd make it to just go to mom and dad's, but to a church meeting? Ugh. I guess Easter is at Mom's house this year. I don't know why it isn't a bigger holiday. It should be.

Strep not over

Yesterday I took Ben and Katie to Lakeview Clinic for strep cultures. Ben was positive, and due to the difficulty in getting a good swab out of Katie, they are treating her, as well, since her throat looked bad and she had a little bit of a temp. (while writing this post, the clinic called, and her culture grew out positive).

Today, my throat is swollen and burning, so I'm on my way to Target Clinic for a swab. Whoo-hoo, I get a $20 Target gift card for being a new patient at the Target Clinic. We have earned $30 in gift cards for getting sick so far, and since we don't have copays for nurse only visits, and our prescriptions have been covered by insurance, we are coming out of this one ahead, financially.

That will help balance out the $35 wrestling shoes I bought Tristin last week, the $24 I spent on his shorts and t-shirt (they get the uniform and warm-ups, courtesy of Waconia Wrestling Boosters), and the $12 Aaron and I had to pay to watch our son wrestle once on Saturday, even though we were there for six hours and I worked in the concession stand for two of them. If you can believe it, $35 was clearance pricing on a price of very qood quality, however bright blue shoes. They were the only pair that were his size, and that was fortunate for me, because the other pairs cost around $170, and because none of them fit him, I didn't have to feel bad that his shoes are not black like everyone else's.

Anyway, strep is ruining my week again. I had to miss the pack committee meeting that I was supposed to lead yesterday after den meetings, as well as miss my 3rd consecutive Greek class, since Katie and Ben couldn't go to the church with us. Today I'll have to reschedule Brandon's and my chiropractor appointments (Brandon is going to treat some curvetures for just a few months), and I'll just have to drop Brandon off at his choir concert tonight by himself. Aaron has his semi-annual director's meeting today, which runs straight through dinner and into the late evening, so he can't take over.

Well, I'm off. Maybe I'll get to write a post soon that has something cheerful in it.

Tristin's first high school sport

Are you wondering whether I meant to say "high school?" Yes, I did. The 7th through 12 grades all are one team. Although the 7th and 8th graders have three of their own tournaments with the other middle schools in our conference, they also wrestle J.V., when there are openings available.

Tristin's first meet was Saturday. It consisted of three teams hosted by Waconia. Tristin got to wrestle one match for J.V. He was pinned in 25 seconds. In his defense, he was wrestling a 9th-grader who has probably been wrestling since kindergarten, and Tristin had only been wrestling for two weeks.

His second meet was on Monday. It was the first of the middle school tournaments. He wrestled four times, and lost all four times. However, he made it really close to the end of the first period each time, even scoring some points in the process, due to some escapes, before being pinned. I am really proud of him.

It was hard to watch him getting choked up at the end of each match. He went into this expecting to be behind everyone else, but it doesn't really help when you're being observed by a whole gym full of people. We have discovered that most athletes in this area actually start their sports when they start school. This has our kids at a severe disadvantage, as neither our financial situation nor our family's schedule would allow us to do that with them.

Financially, you either have to be poor or rich to be able to have your kids in activities around here. There are so many people who get their fees waived (which they get if they qualify for free or reduced lunches, or are on WIC), that everyone else has to make up for the difference, and that is really too much for our income level. But even if we could afford it, we would still be limited by our schedule; Monday night is FHE; Tuesday night Tristin has his percussion lesson and Aaron teaches piano lessons to three students; Wednesday Aaron and I have Greek class, the older boys have Scouts, and Aaron has to field appointments for the Bishop, and teaches a piano lesson after Scouts; Thursday Aaron teaches our own kids piano lessons, and I regularly have an Enrichment activity; Friday is date night; Saturday is our day to catch up and play; and Sunday we just don't do those things.

Tristin has three meets in a row now. Today after school is a Varsity/J.V. match in Annandale. Tomorrow is the second middle school match, held at Dassel/Cokato, again after school. Saturday is an invitational in Delano for Varsity/J.V. at 7am. It's sure to take all day. Our lives will be very busy for the next two months, the way the schedule is looking.

Aaron took some pictures at the first match, and I'll post them once I find the camera.

Tagged

I have never been tagged before, and didn't know what to do about it until I read Nancy's blog after she was tagged by the same tag-er. So, I guess I will be a lemming and do it, too.



Seven things to do before I die:



1. Go to Hawaii

2. Serve missions

3. Go to a mother/daughter function

4. Have grandkids

5. Find those elusive Hron and Novotny families in my genealogy

6. Visit Prague (probably required to do #5)

7. Tour Europe with Aaron



Seven things I cannot do:



1. Decorate a cake, other than smearing on frosting with a knife

2. Win at Scrabble

3. Keep my mouth shut when I'm upset

4. Keep a phone conversation under 20 minutes

5. Keep a grocery trip under $150

6. Be a broadway actress

7. Keep my house clean



Seven things that attracted me to my spouse:



1. His musical talents

2. His cello

3. His grin

4. His brains

5. His sense of adventure

6. His love of the gospel

7. His love of ice cream



Seven things I say most often:

1. How many times have I told you...

2. For Pete's Sake!

3. Ugh!

4. Do you have anything for me to sign?

5. Are your chores done?

6. Would you please...

7. Are you okay in there?



Seven books I love:



1. My Antonia

2. Anne of Green Gables (the whole series)

3. Ender's Game

4. Eragon (the whole series so far)

5. Pride and Prejudice

6. Sense and Sensibility

7. The Screwtape Letters

Report card

All the kids did really well on their report cards. Dallin's has the following written on his report card:

Term 1 Comments: We are working on having Dallin right words the way he
hears them and using some of our special rules for vowels and such.

I had to restrain myself, but I did not email him to point out the hilarity of the grammatical error.

Ugh!

I found a clinic for Aaron to visit in Chicago. It is right on the way to his hotel from the airport. However, I can't tell him that, as he left his cell phone in our bedroom. Ugh!

Strep/Scarlet Fever

We have not had a very healthy family this week. Katie is snotty, Aaron, Tristin, Brandon and William have sore throats. Dallin and I have a little congestion and runny noses. I kept the boys home from school on Monday, but none of them got a fever or headache, so I sent them back on Tuesday. This morning, Aidan had a rash all over. Of course, this falls on a Wednesday, the day my normal doctor is not in our clinic. Aidan has been falling asleep at odd times over the past couple of days, and his appetite hasn't been good, so we were pretty sure we knew what it was. Aaron checked his throat, and it looked bad, so I took him to Target Clinic this morning. He has scarlet fever. This is a bit ironic, as he doesn't actually have a fever. The rapid strep culture showed positive in only 2 minutes. The nurse practitioner looked at Dallin's throat and my throat, and said they didn't look red, so she didn't culture us. Her take on strep is that if you don't have symptoms, you don't need antibiotics, so we'll see how that works out.

Aaron is on a plane to Chicago right now. I looked at his throat before he left, and it looked pretty suspicious. He's had a headache, too, so I may have to try to find a clinic for him to drop by there. Fun stuff. As I said two weeks ago when Aaron left on his last business trip, either it snows, or people get sick. Did I mention the driveway has snow on it? We're two for two.

Darn it!

So, Aaron came home from church on Sunday (I was home with a housefull of sick kids) and said that a letter had been read directing us to get our food storage in order, have some money in savings, reduce debt, and cut expenses. I think there was some other stuff in there, too, but I don't remember. We have our year's supply, and only have debt on our house, but we could certainly stand to have more in savings. In anticipation of Microboards not thriving in this market while it tries to sell yesterday's technology, we have been trying to cut expenses.

So, on Monday, I thought about what we could cut out of our budget. Then it came to me as I was doing laundry. As I was folding laundry, I saw some socks with holes in them, and put them aside to throw away (I already have a whole bunch in the rag pile for dusting and wiping whiteboards). Then I though about it. I spend quite a bit of money on socks. They cost quite a bit, too. Then it came to me that I ought to be darning socks.

Aaron occasionally darns his own socks, but I always thought this was a waste of time. But then I realized that I could be darning while watching television at night. It takes about a half an hour to properly darn one hole, so in an evening, I should be able to fix a pair of socks.

Next, I had to figure out how to darn socks. I took out a needle and thread and started on one pair, and when I was done, it looked like I had quite a nice, lumpy seam with two uncomfortable-looking knots in it. I decided I needed instructions, so I popped on the internet and found this site: http://www.tutorials.com/06/0632/0632.asp

It gives a great tutorial, and a half an hour later, I had a comfortable, holeless, seamless, knotless sock. Yeah! I guess I can save about $7/month on not buying new socks.