My sister Angie has tagged me to post seven things about myself that you may or may not know about me. Oh boy...this could be scary or at least TMI for sure!
1) I love to teach. Not just anything though...I love teaching the gospel. I have taught Young Womens for the longest time. I have also taught Primay and currently I teach once every couple of months as a RS Presidency member. I love the process though. I get to pick what I teach about and I love searching for a topic, praying to know if that is what the sisters need and no matter how nervous I get while teaching, I actually love the feeling of teaching. I feel closer to Heavenly Father teaching than I do most anything else.
2) I served a mission in The Philippines. I learned Tagalog and I loved loved loved my mission. What's funny though is I have been back for 10 years and don't have that many opportunities to speak the language but I often dream in Tagalog. It's usually completely out of the blue and mixed in with English but seems totally normal to me at the time.
3) In my other life I would be a spy...you know for the good guys. Maybe that's why I loved the ALIAS series. I don't know what it is but anything to do with that kind of work totally intrigues me. I love how they speak so many different languages, and get to travel so much. I'm a people watcher too and I think it would be fun to be involved in surveillance.
4) My mom is an amazing cleaner. She cleans everything to perfection and tried to teach her 5 daughters to do the same. I don't know how my other sisters do in that department but I will confess that I'm a great surface cleaner. If I know someone is coming over I can make my house "look" clean from top to bottom. Unfortunately I have yet to inherit the drive it takes to keep things orderly and clean like my mom. I guess just knowing that someone is in the other room messing something up, makes me lose my will. Maybe I will get there one day....maybe.
5) I am the middle child of five girls. All of my other sisters seemed to have a love for reading. It was a joke that we would all get new books for Christmas and they could read their HUGE books and finish them way before I ever finished my smaller book. I just didn't have the love for it. In recent years though, I have become a reader. Some of my best moments of the day are when I sneak into my room gather the pillows around me and dive into my book. Right now I'm reading John Grisham's The Partner(which I'm sure most of you have read years ago....I'm slow I know!)
6) The DVR device was made for me. I get such a thrill at knowing that my favorite shows are taping for me while I'm off running errands and taking care of the kids cause it allows me to watch my favorite shows when I want to and fast forward the commercials. I love love love it!! I don't know what I would do with out it. (I know go get a real life but hey that isn't any fun!)
7) I am a crazy list maker. Two things you can find in my pocket most days are my chapstick (of course!!) and my list for the day. I don't know why but I love being able to cross things off my list. I have gone up to bed and tried to get some sleep only to be making my list for the next day in my head. I find that if I don't run downstairs and write everything down on paper in a list, I won't be able to get to sleep that night. I have been amazed at how much I can accomplish in a day simply because I did things for the pure joy of crossing them off my list.
Okay that's all for me. Now I get to do the tagging....I tag Erika, Kristen, Cherilyn and April. Go for it girls!
March 28, 2008
March 27, 2008
March 11, 2008
Not Eligible
In most cases, I think if I were to hear those words "not eligible", I would be frustrated, mad or sad. It would mean someone in my family didn't make the cut some how. I never like that feeling....being told you don't fit in.
This morning I took my youngest son in for an evaluation. This was a 3 hour long test to check him out on all kinds of levels. There were actually three different experts of different fields watching him, talking to him, and playing with him. They would ask me questions too to see how he was doing at home. They watched to see if he could run and play, if he could put blocks in the right place, if he could feed the doll, if he knew where his body parts were, and if he could understand them and communicate his needs too.....all kinds of stuff. The whole time I kept thinking that at least at the end of the three hours I would know if there was a problem.
What prompted the visit you might ask?....I guess I was just concerned that he wasn't talking nearly as much as my two older boys had at this age. I wanted to rule out that there was anything wrong with his hearing before he got much older. I have a great pediatrician who said he thought my son was doing fine but that the evaluation could only help and not hurt so I went ahead and made an appointment. (Come to find out, most pediatricians wait way too long to recommend the evaluation and the child ends up needing a lot more help in the long run.)
After each test, they gave me an estimation of what age level they think he is. Every single test came back that he was right on his age level and some even showed he was a little advanced. When I asked why it seemed that he wasn't talking as much as I remembered the other boys, they said maybe the other boys talked way early and this son is actually more on time and normal. Huh...never thought of that.
What was great was hearing the words..."Your son is not eligible for our program". At first my heart stopped a bit thinking that was a bad thing. Then it quickly occurred to me, that this statement meant that he was fine and doing great and didn't need their help. Yea!!! I will take that "not eligible" any day. And so will my pocket book cause that program was not cheap!!
This morning I took my youngest son in for an evaluation. This was a 3 hour long test to check him out on all kinds of levels. There were actually three different experts of different fields watching him, talking to him, and playing with him. They would ask me questions too to see how he was doing at home. They watched to see if he could run and play, if he could put blocks in the right place, if he could feed the doll, if he knew where his body parts were, and if he could understand them and communicate his needs too.....all kinds of stuff. The whole time I kept thinking that at least at the end of the three hours I would know if there was a problem.
What prompted the visit you might ask?....I guess I was just concerned that he wasn't talking nearly as much as my two older boys had at this age. I wanted to rule out that there was anything wrong with his hearing before he got much older. I have a great pediatrician who said he thought my son was doing fine but that the evaluation could only help and not hurt so I went ahead and made an appointment. (Come to find out, most pediatricians wait way too long to recommend the evaluation and the child ends up needing a lot more help in the long run.)
After each test, they gave me an estimation of what age level they think he is. Every single test came back that he was right on his age level and some even showed he was a little advanced. When I asked why it seemed that he wasn't talking as much as I remembered the other boys, they said maybe the other boys talked way early and this son is actually more on time and normal. Huh...never thought of that.
What was great was hearing the words..."Your son is not eligible for our program". At first my heart stopped a bit thinking that was a bad thing. Then it quickly occurred to me, that this statement meant that he was fine and doing great and didn't need their help. Yea!!! I will take that "not eligible" any day. And so will my pocket book cause that program was not cheap!!
March 5, 2008
Genetics
Genetics is a funny thing. We always want our children to get the very best attributes that we have to offer and none of the bad stuff like bad teeth, bad eyes, thin hair, etc. But I guess most of the time they inherit the good with the bad.
About a month ago my oldest son mentioned that he was having a hard time seeing the board at school. I immediately wrote to his teacher to have him moved to the front of the class and made an appointment for the eye doctor. My husband thought maybe just maybe T just wanted to get glasses because he had some friends get some.
Alas, we took him in for his appointment and found out that he actually has pretty bad eyesight for such a young kid and it will most likely get worse over time. Lovely....just lovely. He got my eyes.
I will say that he seemed pretty excited about the whole thing. I however couldn't stop thinking about the year I got my glasses (3rd grade). It wasn't that anyone really made fun of me, but I do remember becoming much more shy and I seemed to worry a lot more about what people thought of me. T seems to be totally thrilled about having glasses and being able to see so much more. I hope it stays that way. Kids can be mean sometimes and so far he has been able to let any of that stuff roll off his back.
I guess I won't be shocked when my other boys end up needing glasses or braces or any other variety of stuff. I will say that even if I'm their mom, I do think my boys are pretty stinkin cute and some braces and glasses here and there will just add some character......and that my friends is genetics!
March 3, 2008
Spring Cleaning!!
Okay, so it's a beautiful day outside and I so want to play but something else is making me stay inside (with the windows open of course!!) I have spring cleaning fever way bad!! I have a desperate need to walk around my house with a trash bag and just start throwing away everything I can get my hands on. My children are pack rats and tend to keep every little piece of paper they ever get. Some days I let all the mess just roll off my back but I have actually started to dream about how I will clean.
This is my problem. I get WAY too distracted (as you can see I'm blogging instead of cleaning!) I start out in one room and then I end up taking things to other rooms to put away. That is when I see that this new room that I have just walked into needs help too. I start cleaning in that room and it all becomes a vicious cycle. I end up with semi clean rooms all over the house but there is never one room totally clean. I never get that great feeling of accomplishing something because it's all just half done.
I had to laugh cause Reese Witherspoon was on the Ellen show the other day talking about her need to put everything in the trash too. She even talked about running out of space in the trash can. I totally agree cause there have been days when I would have LOVED to have one of those giant trash cans that you see behind stores. Reese mentioned putting on boots and jumping in the trash to try and fit more (okay I'm not saying I actually believe she does this but it did paint a picture). She also talked about waiting until the middle of the night to see if her neighbors had more room in their trash cans so that she could put her trash in their cans. I laughed out loud...I haven't gone that far. I just line the road by my mailbox with bags of trash and hope the neighbors don't complain too much.
This is the funny thing...or maybe not so funny thing. Paper...it is always being sent to us one way or another. I go to get the mail and there is more paper to figure out a place for it or throw it in the trash. I pick up my kids from school and there is always more paper in their folders whether it's notes from the school, PTO and the endless supply of worksheets they have done. For the most part I toss the junk mail, and keep only the extra special school projects they have done. I guess I'm tired of feeling that no matter how much I throw away during the day, there is always, always more on it's way.
So I will get back to my spring cleaning spree and maybe I won't go get the mail today just to make myself feel better!
This is my problem. I get WAY too distracted (as you can see I'm blogging instead of cleaning!) I start out in one room and then I end up taking things to other rooms to put away. That is when I see that this new room that I have just walked into needs help too. I start cleaning in that room and it all becomes a vicious cycle. I end up with semi clean rooms all over the house but there is never one room totally clean. I never get that great feeling of accomplishing something because it's all just half done.
I had to laugh cause Reese Witherspoon was on the Ellen show the other day talking about her need to put everything in the trash too. She even talked about running out of space in the trash can. I totally agree cause there have been days when I would have LOVED to have one of those giant trash cans that you see behind stores. Reese mentioned putting on boots and jumping in the trash to try and fit more (okay I'm not saying I actually believe she does this but it did paint a picture). She also talked about waiting until the middle of the night to see if her neighbors had more room in their trash cans so that she could put her trash in their cans. I laughed out loud...I haven't gone that far. I just line the road by my mailbox with bags of trash and hope the neighbors don't complain too much.
This is the funny thing...or maybe not so funny thing. Paper...it is always being sent to us one way or another. I go to get the mail and there is more paper to figure out a place for it or throw it in the trash. I pick up my kids from school and there is always more paper in their folders whether it's notes from the school, PTO and the endless supply of worksheets they have done. For the most part I toss the junk mail, and keep only the extra special school projects they have done. I guess I'm tired of feeling that no matter how much I throw away during the day, there is always, always more on it's way.
So I will get back to my spring cleaning spree and maybe I won't go get the mail today just to make myself feel better!
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