Crappy Day

So Saturday morning we woke up to this. Our poor excursion has just been beaten up and battered in the last few years. Evidently some local teens decided to have some "fun" by smashing in car windows. Nothing was taken, but now we have to figure out how much it will cost to replace.  It was disheartening in a time when money is very tight.  Oh well, what can you do?

Angry

As many of you know I am a part time teacher.  I love being a teacher, but I love being a mother more and, since Ben's birth have tried to focus on things at home more than things at work. As money is tight for many these days, Brent and I have been looking for ways to cut back and find where our money is exactly going. I have been scrutinizing our paychecks to see if there are things we can re-arrange (insurance especially) to see if we can save some money. 

It quickly came to my attention that I have been paying $40 a month to the California Teachers Association.  Although I appreciate everything that is done on a local level, I have strong negative feelings of the organization at the state level and don't want a penny of my money going to it.  I inquired at my district if I could opt out of paying my dues. Their response was no. I could give it to 1 of 3 charities, or I could fill out paper work to maybe get some back at the end of the year.  What infuriates me though is that MY money is going to an organization that helps to elect people and push political agendas that I myself don't agree with. It should be my right as a citizen to choose where my money goes.  Instead, if you want to be a teacher, you are automatically a member of the club whether you want to or not.    The definition of taking something without asking is called stealing.  It seems to me that the CTA is doing a lot of taking that it shouldn't.  Doesn't feel very "American" to me.

I am a good mommy sometimes!

Yesterday was a very ruff day. The kids fought a lot and I got nothing done because I was constantly breaking up this fight or that fight. At the end of the night I was telling Brent how I didn't feel like a good mom because our kids fought so much. He laughed and said that I was a great mom (2 points for Brent), and that that is just what siblings do.  I also explained that I was PMSing, started working out again, and felt hungry all day from trying to "eat healthy".  I'm sure that my attitude didn't help anything.

 Well today after work, I put Ben down for a nap and worked out, then didn't have enough time to shower before picking up Dani.  I decided to grab our swimming suits and after picking up the girls from school, headed out to my mom's to swim. We had a great time and because I rarely swim EVER, the kids had fun jumping to me, swimming from me to the steps, and showing me how they can "dive" (which is more like a bad belly flop). The girls and I even tried to play Marco Polo.  We had a great afternoon, no fighting, and I was crowned "the best Mommy ever!"  At least for today...

A very fun day

Dani's birthday party Saturday was very fun. I invited 10 of her friends to come swim at my mom's from 2-4.  They swam for an  hour, had cupcakes, opened presents, and had another 20 minutes to swim. It was easy, inexpensive, and just the right amount of kids. 

Dani with kindergarten friends Sahar, Cameron, and John

Her $12 birthday cupcakes.  She picked them out herself. I thought the flower was very cute!

Ben and Hannah enjoying cupcakes.

My favorite part about the party was that I had put in the invitation that Dani wanted a Littlest Pet Shop House, but didn't have any Pet Shop animals. Almost all of her friends purchased the little animals for her. It was a great gift because two animals cost $5.  We let her open all of her animals from her friends first, then she opened our gift (the House) last. She was so excited she made everyone sit in their seats while she walked and showed each friend her new toy.  Now we have everything we need for Pet Shops and not a ton of different toys that we aren't going to play with!  Yay!!!

Ben! That's a no-no!

Ben has been doing very 2 year old BOY things.  Today he picked up a glass of water from the counter, filled it up at the refrigerator and then dumped it on the ground.

I made him clean it up (as best as he could).

Not one minute later, you see him looking at the glass again. Oh no you don't!

A light at the end of the mess...

So here is the final product.  We like it so far, except Danielle has very good Ben receptors and wakes up every time Ben makes a noise.  The kids all like sleeping together and Ben is actually the easiest to put to bed.  I was able to fit all of their clothes into one closest thanks to some shelving that was on one side. All that is in this room is beds, clothes, and a dresser. 

Thursday morning I woke up with a horrible stomach ache and realized it was probably from the stress of having stuff everywhere. I worked in the playroom for 3 hours straight, moving toys, vacuuming, and organizing. I also did about 5-6 loads of laundry (and still have two more).  Here is how it turned out.  I still have to organize the closet and will most likely need to use it for their off season clothes (that used to be in the trundle that Ben now uses).  

We have a small 13 inch TV and DVD/VCR player in the room if the kids want to watch a movie when friends are over.  We set up their little couches and chairs like their own little movie seating area. The kids love it and I think will really like the new arrangement. Hopefully it will contain the toy messes a little more.  

Oi Vey

Tuesday of this week Brent had taken the day off to watch the kids and get some work done around the house. He called and asked me what he should do and I just said things like: vacuum, clean up the kitchen, maybe sweep the backyard.  Stuff like that.  So that evening we had dinner with my mom and dad for Danielle's birthday and Brent passed saying he was really busy cleaning up. I'm thinking to myself, this is great!  The whole house will be clean when I get home and I'll have no worries. Well, I came home to this.

My loving husband, although having very good intentions, had literally trashed the house. Now, you'd think I'd be mad, but the first thing I did was grab my camera to take pictures of the chaos. Then he went on to explain that because of the ant problem, the exterminators had suggested moving and vacuuming under the furniture and giving the house a good cleaning. Ok, I thought, what was he doing? Brent decided that he had had enough of the toys laying around and decided to put all of the kids in one bedroom. Ben could sleep in the girls trundle bed.  But because Ben's room was bigger, he moved the bunk beds into Ben's room and was throwing all of the toys in the girls room. He promised me he would clean it up, so I went to bed. It didn't happen right away because I still had quite a mess on my hands in the hallway and the back bedroom. But he did clean up the kitchen so we could survive. 

Updates to come...

Danielle

Our beautiful Dani has turned 6.  She was always such a good girl, always searching for approval from anyone around her.  

When her baby sister came alone, she was every bit the mother hen.  She always wanted Hannah to be happy and tried to give her anything to make her smile.

Danielle loves her daddy so much and always wanted to be with him. Even doing silly things to be cool like him.

As she grew older she became our little model. Always giving the perfect smile for the camera.

But although she could give that smile, she was anything but a girlie - girl.  Dani is very athletic and loves to try daredevil like stunts with her dad.

She has learned to love animals, but horses especially and will accept anything with a horse on it. She says when she grows up she wants to train horses like her Auntie Traci.

Danielle loves sports. She had a blast playing softball this last summer and loved watching basketball and volleyball during the Olympics. Her favorite was the beach volleyball because it would be fun to play in the sand.

We love you Dani!  You have grown into a smart, loving girl.  We love that you like to try new things and are so athletic.  You are our beautiful big girl. Happy Sixth Birthday!

Where has Laura gone?

Some of you may be wondering what the heck happened to me. Well, I have begrudgingly gone back to work. After a whirl wind reunion (pics to com), I started back to work for TUSD this week. I really like my partner. She and I have very similar teaching styles and are good at opposite things. She came down from 5th grade and I up from first. We are not teaching 3rd together and hoping to figure it out. Today was our first day of school and it went well. I'm excited for the year and am hopeful that it will work out better this time. It's been hard because I have to work every day and I remember why I quit teaching full time. Especially on days like today when I got home to find a sink full of dirty dishes covered in ants. GROSS!

I have also just finished re-reading the entire Twilight series, including the 4th book. I LOVED IT! I couldn't put it down and with Brent handing it over late Sunday evening and then having to go back to work, I've been spending every extra minute reading (including staying up one night until 2am. What was I thinking!)

So, I'll try to catch up in the next few days. Ben is terrible twoing his way to a blistered butt at the rate he is going. I think he is acting out because I've been gone all week. Tonight he dumped an entire water bottle on the floor, got Dani's homework wet, and decided it would be a good idea to put a stool on his mattress to try to jump off of (which pushed his mattress out from under him and he ended up head butting the wall.) His new favorite tings to do is torment Hannah and he is often in time out for kicking, hitting, and pulling her hair. How do I channel that boys energy?

Dani is doing well in first grade as far as I know. Besides breaking into tears over her wet homework, she seems to be doing fine. I get no details.
Hannah started preschool (pics to come) and loves it. We are trying to figure out naps though because she has been awfully tired the days she has school.

Brent we hardly ever see. He often stays late to work at the store and has had home teaching and church stuff many other nights. I understand and am trying to be supportive. Eventually I hope I won't consider myself completely and utterly poor, but for now thats just how it is. The sooner the store gets up and running, the sooner we can get out of debt and move on. And then I can have my husband back!

Hannah off to school!

Hannah has started her second year of preschool! I can't believe that next year, she too will be off to Elementary School with Dani. She absolutely loves school, but not for the learning part, more for the friends part. She is definetly my social butterfly!

Hannah at school working on writing her name.

Tour guides

Sunday it was asked that each family be tour guides and offer different excursions for the South Dakota family. My cousins took people jet skiing up by Sonora, some went to Lodi to visit more family, and we offered to take people to the Giants game in San Fran. We normally don't do things on Sundays, but because it was a special occasion, we made an acception. My cousin Katie was the only person who wanted to go with us. So we took BART over into the city.

My cousin Katie with Hannah

It was a beautiful day in the city. We arrived early because it was hat day.

Someone saw the kids and they got to get autographs from this guy. If anyone knows who he is, let us know!

The Giants were playing the Dodgers. They beat them in the bottom of the 9th.
Dani's favorite part was yelling "Beat LA!"

Ben, being two and not understanding what we were doing, needed to take a few walks. He did really good though for his first MLB game.

After the game we took BART back and caught up with everyone to discuss what they had done through out the day and to get dinner. It was really a very fun weekend and we can't wait for the next one!

Reunion day 2

The second day of the reunion was very fun. Everyone went out to my mom and dad's house and the kids immediately jumped in the pool. All the adults visited, while we 'Reich's' fixed lunch and made sure everyone was having a good time.
After lunch, the majority of the adults went on the Goehring Great Race. It's tradition. This year it was a poker race where we had to figure out clues and go to 7 different locations in town to get an envelope containing a card. The person with the best hand at the end was the winner. There were also prizes for the first team to get back, the oldest player, and the best team hand. Each car had to have someone that weren't in your immediate family. Lee came with me anyway! Of course my dad and uncles couldn't make it easy, so we went from my dad's pharmacy downtown, to Dr. Power's park, the golf club, the outlet mall, the ace train, city hall, and finally the mall. When I got back after driving my Excursion around town for 2+ hours my dad graciously said he would help me out with gas. Everyone had a great time and my team got back first!!! (I won't tell you fast I was driving. But hey I was safe!)
After the game it was back to swimming. The kids had played a few games with a couple of adults who had stayed behind and then watched a movie. We all had dinner and then they handed out prizes for the game and talked about the book that I'm trying to put together of old stories and pictures. It was then decided that the next reunion would be in Colorado, which we are really hoping to go to. All in all a very fun day.

Reunion

Every two years, my grandmother's family has a reunion in South Dakota. Well, after the last one, it was decided to have the reunion in 08 out here in sunny California. We had about 60 people fly in from out of state and stay at one of the hotels out by the mall. This included my sister Christie and her husband Lee. We get to see Christie every few months, but Lee maybe twice a year. The kids were so excited to see them. Friday night there was a dinner at my uncle's house where everyone got together for dinner and socializing.

Lee and Christie My Grandmother's brothers, my aunt Trish, and my uncles.
Notice the funny old man hats??

Big Ben

Ben has since moved to his mattress on the floor following the collapse of his crib.  

He is doing very well and will go to his bed when he is told. Now, he doesn't always stay in it and we often hear the creek of the door as we are watching TV, but he has been falling asleep ok. We often have to get up in the middle of the night because we hear him crying or wandering around the house. It's finally time to admit, he's not my baby anymore!

First time in his bed. He was a little nervous, but fell asleep in about 20 minutes.

Oh Well!

We knew the last time we moved (the fourth time within two years) that our crib was on it's last stand. Brent had fixed it twice and today as I was changing Ben's bed the front finally gave out. Brent said it isn't worth fixing again and is worried that it isn't safe for Ben to be in. So, Ben will be sleeping on his mattress, but on the floor for a while. I was hoping it would hold out until January when we were hoping to get him a big boy bed. Our other problem too is that we aren't finished having kids. I'm not sure it's worth purchasing a $250+ crib for one more child. ( I know that sounds awful, but money is irritatingly a major issue right now). Tonight will be interesting. Will he sleep on his new sleeping quarters? We shall see.

Ben's Crib. The right hand side won't attach any longer.

Ben taking his afternoon nap in my bed. I hope there isn't a repeat tonight!

Ben also had a fun time playing with dog food at my mom's house. I think he thinks it looks like cereal. He loves to feed my mom's dog Nicki by hand. What a boy!

First Day of First Grade

My biggest girl is off to first grade. She'll be at school all day forever now until she's off to college. A little depressing isn't it? Well, Dani was anything but depressed Monday when she started First Grade at Kelly School. We had talked about her new schedule with her Sunday evening and Brent gave her a Father's blessing. After, he had to give Hannah one too, which she giggled throughout the entire thing. Danielle was so excited that she walked into by bedroom at 7am dressed and wanting her hair brushed. This is the same girl usually have to drag out of bed at about 8:30. Hopefully she'll keep up the enthusiasm!

Ready to go.

One last kiss from Daddy.

Cute picture of Ben outside Dani's class

Danielle at her desk (notice Brent looking bored!)

Saying the pledge of allegiance with her class.

With her old preschool friends Payton, Michael, Maya, and Joey.
Because we switched from Yellow track to Blue track Dani was a little nervous she wouldn't know anyone. She was excited that she would know people the first day of school.