Happy Easter 2008!

Happy Easter!

We just got everyone down for the night after enjoying a nice Easter weekend. We had a nice visit from the Easter bunny and the kids were excited to get some fun surprises. Scottie had such a hard time falling asleep last night--he was so excited! Unfortunately, it meant it was a late night for all of us. We tried every trick we could think of, but he was so wound up he just couldn't settle down. I think it was after 1:00 am before he finally got down for the night. He even had Mason up for part of that time. We told them that the Easter bunny would pass our house if they didn't hurry and get to sleep. This really worried Mason. He was almost in tears when he told Dave he thought the Easter Bunny had already passed our house. We tried to reassure him that he would come back and try again. You should have seen the excitement this morning when he saw that the Easter bunny really did come back and didn't "pass us." Dave had to run to the store to get some rolls for today's dinner. Scottie was so worried at one point that the Easter Bunny would not be able to come because Dad was out so late. He included his worry in his prayer, "...and bless that my dad will be so long at the store that the Easter Bunny will have time to come while he is gone and when my dad gets back the Easter Bunny would have already been here!" Anyway, there was a lot of stress about not getting a visit from the Easter Bunny -- even I was worried that the E.B. might not be able to pull off a visit. But I think I heard him around 4:30 am, but he had to be quieter than ever this year. Poor E.B! I hope this isn't a sign of year's to come.
All in all, we were very blessed and everyone was very happy!

We had stake conference this morning at 10 am, so it made for a hurried morning. We made it though and enjoyed the meeting. The kids made it through about 3/4 of the meeting and did quite well. By the end, they were done and couldn't sit still any longer! The focus was on temple attendance and there were some great talks. One woman told about her husband who had died not long ago and about the impression that she and her husband had been called to serve a mission together after all. She was here to do the temple work for their deceased family members and her husband was on the other side teaching. I thought it was a neat way to think about the eternal nature of things.

I spent the week trying to do an "Easter All Week" remembrance with the kids. I had found a bookmark with the selected highlights and had challenged my primary kids to read each night. Well, I joined in the challenge and each night the boys and I would read what Christ had done on that day on that least week of his life. It was a good reminder for us of what the holiday is truly all about. We started out reading the selected excerpts right out of the New Testament. But by the end of the week we read out of the Children's Illustrated Scriptures. It made it much easier for them to relate. It was nice for me too. I think I'll try to make it a tradition to do this. Otherwise it is very easy to get focused on eggs, chocolate, and bunnies!

We ended our Easter Sunday with a nice dinner at Lynn and Dustin's. The kids had an Easter egg hunt and we all had a nice visit. Too bad it's a school night though! No days off before or after for us this year. I'll be tired tomorrow for sure!

Well, I'll go to get some beauty sleep! :-) I'll try to include some Easter pictures. Happy Easter to all!

We're alive!!!

Well, it's been almost a month since the last time I sat down to write a blog and it's been very BUSY since then!! I should be heading to bed, but I wanted to at least get something written. (Editor's note - the following would never pass Kellie's editing process. It is pretty much just a rambling of my adventures, so be prepared -- hope it makes a little bit of sense, I am tired!!)

Last I wrote Dave was in Arizona. He had a successful and safe trip and ended up being gone about 10 days. He ended up getting AmPRO certified (American Professional Racquetball Organization) as an instructor. He was able to spend time with his family in Tucson and attend a national doubles tournament taking place in Phoenix. All in all it was a good trip and we were glad to get him back.

I ran the kids to their various destinations during that time and was worn out by the time Dave returned. Our biggest adventure was on Feb. 13th. That was the day of our big "blizzard." I had finished the school day and had planned on leaving as soon as I could after I conferenced with a parent. One of the teachers had left a little early and called to tell me to leave as soon as I could, because the roads were getting bad. This is not uncommon in the winter, so I thought I knew what to expect and planned on a slow drive home. Well, I was in for a surprise. I had never seen road conditions like I did that night. It was a literal white-out. Unfortunately, I was the lead car with about 5 cars behind me, the further I got down the road. I could not see one foot in front of me and I'm sure the cars behind me were wondering why I was going so slow. I got a phone call from my friend, Amy Taylor from school, and I had Scottie take the call. She called to warn me that there was a big accident and to keep an eye out for it. I was so nervous, probably the most scared I'd ever been driving. But, there was no way out. If I pulled off the road, I was sure to cause an accident -- no one would be able to see me. We saw many stranded cars along the way, and saw one truck that had flipped upside down. I was amazed that the police had even been able to get there!

Luckily I knew the road, so I knew there were no turns or curves. Otherwise it was impossible to see anything. After some very stressful driving, I finally found a spot to pull over for a minute to let the cars behind me go ahead. I was done being the trailblazer. That made the drive much easier. A huge semi took the lead and he was as cautious as I had been and I knew why! I did appreciate having others to follow though!! Finally after it seemed that the worst of the drive was over, we got to the stop light. A policeman was there and had closed the road. Unfortunately, this is the main and only path into Lehi and we were detoured into the Ranches (near Eagle Mountain). There's not much in the Ranches and I was at a loss as to what to do. I called my friend, Amy, and asked her to guide me. (Road conditions were still bad and I didn't know this area very well.) She told me to go to our 3rd grade teacher's house and she was able to give me directions to get there the back way. I ended up getting to Linda's house and getting stuck in her driveway. I thought she had left after me, so I waited to see if she would pull in. I finally got a hold of her on her cell phone and she had left early to go to a doctor's appointment. Now she was stuck in Lehi with no way of getting home. She did call her husband, who had come home early that day, and had him come out to meet us. Now the driveway to Linda's house is very long and he had to walk down to meet us. He spent some time living in Alaska and came out into the horrible conditions in the best snow gear I've ever seen. He was able to get us out of the snow bank and drive us onto another one of their driveways. He invited us in and was so good to Scottie and me. (Mike is the bishop of the ward there and he told us this was his night off! Just what he wanted -- to spend it with us! :-) He didn't end ups gettting a whole lot of time off--he took a lot of phone calls from ward members.) The power was out, so we fixed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They had a fire place going and he and Scottie ended up roasting hot dogs over it. (Mind you that this was a very nice fireplace that is really just for looks.) Scottie had a blast and will never forget that dinner. I'm not sure if Linda would love knowing that her beautiful fireplace had been christened with hot dogs! (See picture above!) Anyway, Mike got out the blankets and flashlights and we ended up going downstairs for the night.

I really had high hopes of getting home and getting to Kim's to pick up Mason and Tanna. Poor Mike made a couple of phone calls to the sheriff's station to see if the road would open anytime soon. He even went out in his truck at one point to see if he could make his way on a back road. He returned and said cars were just parked everywhere. There was no getting home that night. I appreciated his thoughtfulness. He knew I really wanted to get home to my other babies! Well, we ended up staying on the couches that night and spending the night. Kim was kind enough to keep Mason and Tanna for the night. I know that she must have been worn out, but she was gracious enough to help me out in an emergency. Of course the first time in 11 years I get snowed in, Dave was out of town. Ah well, it makes a better story! Well, luckily the power came back on and Scottie got to watch a movie. It was a task to keep him entertained in the dark!! We finally got to sleep and woke up early the next morning to head home. Linda returned from staying at her mother's house in American Fork and said that the roads were passable. We headed home to get ready for school, gather our valentines and prepare for a busy day.

I got home, changed and grabbed clothes for Mason, as well as his valentines. I got to Kim's to get Tanna to take her to the babysitters. Mason was to stay for preschool with Kim and go later to the sitter with her girls. As I was driving home again, the radio announced that Cedar Valley, along with one other school were closed for the day. They didn't want the bus to have to travel on that road. I was so relieved. It meant I could "let my hair down" and get organized again. I spent a couple of hours shoveling the driveway and helping Calli Olsen shovel our neighbor's driveway. It was quite a job and I was tired! We then headed back to pick up Mason from preschool. By then the sun was shining and the roads were great. We ended up going and getting lunch and a movie for the kids. It was nice to spend some time together after a hectic week.

Friday, we went back to school and celebrated Valentine's Day a day late. I didn't mind at all, since I always prefer to party on Fridays and send the kids to settle down over the weekend. We heard about all of the adventures the kids had had during the storm. Lots of parents were stuck at work or in town and neighbors stepped in to help out. It was nice to get life back to normal again. Paige and Lynn split the day to take care of Mason and Tanna, Needless to say, Kim was pretty burned out on my kids (she had them all week), although she didn't say so. But I know my Tanna is a handful and she deserved a break. Paige and Lynn were sweet to take over and Mason and Tanna had a fun day with them. Lynn and Dustin picked them up from Paige's house in the afternoon and took them shopping at the mall and to Cabella's. Can you imagine 6 kids under the age of 7? I'm sure it was a handful, but they did great and spoiled them! They ended up taking us all out to dinner that night at Tepanyaki. It was a lot of fun and the boys LOVED it. It's one of those restaurants where they cook the food in front of you and put on a pretty good show. Dustin was TOO KIND and paid for our meal. He was so sweet and said he had worried about us in our blizzard adventures. One of these days I'll make it up to them, but they are very hard to keep up with!!

Anyway, we had a good 3 day weekend and survived without Dave. He ended up getting back in the middle of the night and was able to take over with the kids on Tuesday. We were all so glad to see him and I was glad to get back to a little less hectic life. Unfortunately, it didn't get any less hectic. I had report cards to prepare, papers to write for my class, and Mason's birthday (fun, but still busy!). In the meantime, laundry got very backed up and I'm still trying to catch up.

Well, I'll close for tonight, but will write about Mason's birthday and our most recent adventures at another time! For now, know that we are alive and are NOT bored! There's no time for that! :-)

Valentine Wishes!

Early Valentine wishes from our family to yours! Just thought I'd send along some of our before church pictures of my cute kids in their Valentine red. They are so sweet and will sit for a picture as long as there is a good bribe involved. Ho hum! At least the pictures are worth it!

It's late and I've still got to read a chapter for my meeting tomorrow. So, good night and stay tuned for more news (on another night!!!). :-)

Happy Valentines Day 2008!!

TGIF!

Today we had a Professional Development Day for the teachers and the kids got to stay home. It's nice to have a day to focus on teaching practices, etc., but it is hard for a group of teachers to sit still for that long. I laugh at what lousy students teachers can be. I guess there's a reason we went into teaching--to keep ourselves up and running! It was a good day and the presentation another teacher and I were in charge of (on Differentiation in Mathematics) went well. It was pretty much prepared by our district math coaches, but it still took some prep. It went well though and lasted most of the morning. It's nice to have it done.

We had hoped to go to the viewing tonight for President Hinckley, but when I got home and realized that Mason and Tanna hadn't had naps and that Dave wasn't feeling very well, we decided against it. I just couldn't imagine keeping the kids reverent for two (or more) hours while they waited in line. I'm sad we'll miss that experience, but we will watch the funeral tomorrow. I'm glad so many people are able to take advantage of the opportunity.

Well, I have parent/teacher conferences this next week, so I will be VERY busy until next weekend. I probably won't be checking in too much, but we'll see! Happy February to all!!! (I hope the Groundhog doesn't see his shadow. I'm ready for Spring!!)

Racquetball Update!

Just thought I'd better let you know the final results on Dave's tournament this weekend. He ended up getting 3rd place in the A level competition. This was out of 3 people, mind you! NO, just kidding, I couldn't resist! I think there were about 10 others playing at this level. So, he did well for being out of the racquetball "loop" for a while. He has high hopes of doing much better, but I was pretty impressed with how well he did at this point!! Hey, I'm impressed that they can hit that round, bouncy thing with the racket! And they do it over and over. A hard concept for my ability level!! Anyway-- congrats to him!

I (for those wondering) survived taking the kids down to watch. Tanna did great - strapped in her stroller! The boys loved telling everyone that Dave was their dad. They were proud and told anyone who they forced to listen. We only made it to one game, however. Dave thought it was a little distracting. Hmmm...., imagine that!! That was fine with me. I'm a much better cheerleader from home. :-)

In other news....today the power went out for the whole afternoon at school. Fun, fun, fun!! But with the light from our one window we made do and survived. Unfortunately, the snowstorm caused our main road to be closed for a period of time. This delayed the buses and meant that we got to keep the bus students after school. Anyway it was a LONG day, but the kids did pretty well considering the circumstances. They finally sent our aide in to stay with the remainder of my class. They were concerned the roads would get worse and wanted me to get home while the road was open again. We (Scottie and I) made it home safely, but it was a slow drive home.

Here's to a less exciting tomorrow!