First Day of School - August 31, 2015

Monday - August 31st

Today was the first day of school!  The kids had mixed feelings about it.  They were excited, but they had no idea what to expect, since they've never been to a charter school, so they were a little nervous too.  Here they are all ready to go.

They all had a good day.  Parker's day was a little bit rough.  He said he had a tummy ache.  His teacher called in the middle of the day to say that he wanted her to call me and let me know he was sick.  I figured that it was just nerves and she thought the same.  Also, I was in Logan, so I couldn't pick him up.  We decided that she would call me if she really thought he was sick.  After that, he had lunch and he felt better.  The rest of the day was a lot better for him.

When I picked the kids up after school, Parker was so happy.  He was standing outside with his friend, Damien.  He was so excited that Damien was in his class!  Parker and Damien met about 5 years ago, when I babysat him and his younger brother Conner.  Parker and Damien have kept in touch since then.  We lived close to them in 2012 for about 6 months.  They loved that.  But then, Damien moved and we moved shortly after that.

The kids all told me about their day when we got home.  The girls were really excited and super talkative, but Parker said he wasn't feeling well, so he went in the living room to lay down.  After I listened to the girls, I went to check on Parker and realized that he had a fever.  I gave him some medicine and he fell asleep.  The girls loved their classes.  Brinley made a new friend, Chloe.  She was so happy to have a new friend.  She thought that her and Taylor would become could friends again (they were best friends in Kindergarten), but she said she hardly talked to Taylor because Taylor had another friend.  Then she met Chloe and her day got a lot better.

Alissa said that her first day reminded her of kindergarten.  They made crafts and did some get to know you type activities.  I thought it was funny the way she said that, because every year, she always says, "I wish it was like kindergarten again, where everything was easy and fun."  She liked her class and her teacher.  She loved that this school is nothing like the intermediate school.  She loved that she didn't have to rush from one class to another.  She had a water bottle with her the whole time, so she drank more water than she is normally able to.  She liked it a lot.

They also loved how, they get to leave to school later than the kids that live around here and they get home an hour earlier than the other kids.  When Malaiyah came home from school, she told us about her day.  She had stories of scary, intimidating 9th graders.  Hearing about her day, made me feel a lot better about my choice to send the kids to the charter school.

Parker was still asleep and feeling sick, so he couldn't go to the back to school night at his school.  Roger stayed home with him.  Roger was kind of fussy and frustrated, because he was trying to work things out for us to get homeowners insurance.  We are getting renters insurance through Geico.  He got a quote from them for homeowners insurance and it was really expensive.  When he talked to his mom about it and she told him how much she was paying, he got really frustrated.  They want to charge us double the amount that his mom pays.  He is just frustrated that now, we have to spend time shopping around to find the place that will give us the best, most affordable homeowners insurance.  Buying a house is stressing Roger out a lot.  I don't like it when he is stressed.  It's a bummer.

Back-to-school night went well.  Their teachers were nice.  I was impressed with everything I saw.  I was able to talk to Parker's teachers.  I think Parker is going to do so well this year.  His teachers are perfect for him.  One of them used to be a special ed teacher.  She understood Parker's issues and how he has a hard time dealing with things when it get too loud and crazy in the classroom.  She has some head phones with music and different ideas to help him have a way to get away from the crazy, calm down, and be able to focus again.  I'm so happy that she is so understanding about that.  I think this year will be really good.

Parker woke up from his nap feeling a lot better.  His fever went away.  I am so exhausted tonight.  We are all tired.  Our bodies are having a hard time adjusting to our new schedule.  Goodnight.

blah - August 30, 2015

Sunday - August 30th

That title reflects how the first half of our day went.  There was a thunderstorm in the night and it scared the kids.  So,  we didn't get a lot of sleep.  Then,  Roger and I got woken up around 9:00am to a text message from the search and rescue.  It said,  "accident off road.  Meet at building. " So,  Roger jumped up and hurried to get ready.  I got up to help him.  It wasn't how I had imagined my Sunday. I was really looking forward to going to church with Roger today.  He got home sometime around 2:00pm.  He said some guys in a truck had taken a trail up by the "I" on the mountain in Brigham city and they drove off a cliff.  It happened last night,  but they weren't able to get help until the morning.  The search and rescue was called in because one guy was missing and they needed help getting all of the guys off the mountain. 

It didn't take them too long,  but since they had all their equipment out,  the commander decided they should do a little more training. 

Malaiyah came home from her dad's last night.  The kids were excited to see her today.  They got to see her for a little bit before we left to church.  She was planning to come to church also,  so we saved room on a bench for her and her family.  Sacrament meeting was good until half way through when parker started to feel tired.  He gets really grumpy and fussy.  He stated to get mad at the thought of having to sit in his class after the meeting.  He doesn't like his class because they are all so loud.  He just got more and more upset the more he tought about it. I took him home right after the meeting. Then went back to be with Alissa and Brinley.  Roger was home by this point so parker want alone.  Parker just gets so angry and then he starts being mean to me. I have a hard time dealing with it.  It makes me feel like a bad parent.  I feel like,  "what am I doing wrong?  Is it my fault he behaves like this? "  I don't treat him bad when I'm angry.  We don't model the angry behavior that we see from him.  It's just really frustrating.  Any way,  when I dropped parker up,  I had had it. I was feeling bad and frustrated and I just didn't know how to handle it all.  I talked to Roger and he tried to comfort me,  but it just made it worse.  I went back to church and still didn't feel better.  After church,  I relaxed and did a puzzle.  I was fussy about everything with parker and how I was feeling and I kind of ignored Roger.  I want very nice to him.  By the time I stated to feel better,  I had done a pretty good job at making Roger feel unhappy.  Then I had to fix that. 

 It was just a blah day until around 6:00ish, after Roger and I had a chance to talk about things so we were both feeling better. We are stressed out about the house.  Roger is worried that the underwriters won't approve our loan.  I know we'll be fine and the house will be ours.  And Roger is worried about being able to afford our house payment.  I'm going to start the process of getting licensed to do daycare tomorrow.  Hopefully,  I can start babysitting shortly after we move.  That will ease the financial burden. 

Tonight,  the kids got their uniforms ready,  we packed our lunches, and got ready for a new school year to start tomorrow.  Roger gave the kids a father's blessing to help them through out the year.  We are excited.  Also,  we discussed what our new morning and evening routines will be.  We are going to wake up early and go jogging together.  All of the kids really want to,  so we'll see how it goes.

I am so excited about our new house.  I love it soo much!  I was remembering today how frustrated I was getting when I was house hunting.  There was one time that came back to my mind today.  It was the first time I saw our house.  I loved everything about it and I knew Roger would love it to.  I knew that house would be perfect for us.  I could picture us sitting out on the front lawn and playing basketball in the driveway. I knew that we couldn't afford that house,  so I tried to forget about it,  but I did show it to Roger,  just because.  I knew he'd love it and he did.  We were both bummed that it wasn't in our price range. I was really frustrated about one thing as my house hunting continued.  I couldn't understand why I could picture us in this house so clearly,  but I couldn't in any of the other houses.  I kept thinking,  it wasn't fair.  I convinced myself that maybe or house just want on the market yet and the reason I could picture is in this house was just because I wanted the house so bad.   It's funny to think how I knew but didn't know that this would be our house.  I'm so happy that Heavenly Father gave us this miracle. Everything had to line up perfectly in order for us to get this house and Heavenly Father made it happen. 

Another Night at the Fair - August 29, 2015

Saturday - August 29th

I spent the morning packing.  I'm super excited to move! I can't wait! 

Teirnynn came over and was here playing for most of the day.  

Roger had to go to the fair as part of his job in the search and rescue.  They had him man one of the entrances to the rodeo.  He said it was a lot of fun.  Before he left,  Brian and Keri came over on their way to the fair. Keri works for West Liberty Foods and she brought an order form for us so we could get a good deal on some lunch meat.  I ordered 10 lbs of ham for $8.75.  That's a good deal!  I'm glad they came.  We planned to look for them at the fair so Delany and Brinley could go on some rides together. 

Alissa was really sad before we left to the fair.  Her friend Erin had been planning on going ands had planned to buy a ride bracelet for Alissa and herself.  Alissa couldn't wait.  She was so excited!  But Erin canceled on her tonight.  She was so upset.   It took her a while to calm down.  When she finally calmed down and her and I talked for a while,  we went and picked up her friend Sydney and went to the fair. 

It was really crowded.  I had thought Wednesday was the most crowded night,  but I was way wrong!  Saturday was crazy crowded at the fair.  I didn't like that.  We went in and found Roger.  I made the kids and him pose for a picture.



Then we went to use up our remaining tickets.  While Alissa and Sydney were debating what ride they wanted to go on, we ran into the young women's president.  We visited with her for a little while.  It was hard to hear her and I could tell she couldn't hear is very well.  She was asking about Alissa's Friend Malaiyah. Malaiyah is coming home tonight and the missionaries can't wait to finish meeting with her and ask her to be baptized.  While we were taking to her,  Shahaley and her dad walked over to us.  I haven't seen them in a really long time.  I babysat Shahaley when she was 5 years old.  It was weird seeing her all grown up.  She's in ninth grade this year.  Her dad said that she is in the color guard.  Alissa really wants to be in the color guard.  She can't wait to be able to try out in the spring.  It was fun to see her again. 

 While we talked,  Alissa and Sydney decided what ride they would go on.  They decided to go on the spaceship,  spinney ride.  I can't remember the name.  They had fun.  They were a little dizzy afterward,  but they loved it.

After that,  we went to the restrooms.  On the way we ran into Brian and Keri. We arranged for then to meet us at the big slide so Brinley and Delany could go oh that together.  First,  Parker and Alissa went on the dragon roller coaster.







Brian and Keri met us at the Dragon Roller Coaster. Then we went to the slide.

Roger got to have a short break,  so he met us at the slide.  We walked with him to go get some food.   On the way,  we speed to try and decide what to get.  While we were stopped, Sydney saw a family she knew.  She ran over to them and brought them to meet us.  She told them that we were moving into their ward.  It turns out that the father in that family is the bishop in the 10th ward.  We visited with them for a little while.  They were very nice. 

Roger decided it was too crowded and he didn't know what he wanted,  so he want going to get anything and he needed to go back to where he was working.  The kids wanted to go home.  Brinley was scared because she could see lightening.  So,  we found Roger,  noticed a better spot to get him food,  got his food,  visited with him for a little bit,  then left.

 We went to McDonald's to get some food,  since it was cheaper than the fair.  We each had $2.00 to spend.  I got me 2 ice cream cones, Brinley got 2 bags of cookies,  and parker,  Alissa,  and Sydney got a soda and a cheese burger.  We relaxed and enjoyed our tummy food.

While we were there,  a girl walked by and pointed it that her and Brinley had the same shoes.  I said,  "nice!  You guys are shoe twins. "  The girl looked really familiar, but I couldn't figure out his we knew her.  I asked the kids and they couldn't figure it out either.  The girl walked by one more time and by the way she looked at us,  I could tell she was trying to figure out how she knew us. It finally clicked on my brain when we got home.  The little girl was Tabitha.  Brinley's friend from when we lived by Meadow Park.  She moved to Ogden,  so we didn't see here anymore. Brinley thought that was so crazy that she hadn't remembered her friend right away. 

After we finished at McDonald's, we took Sydney home then came home and the kids went to bed.  I had to stay up,  so I could pick Roger up from the fair when he finished.  There was a ton of traffic leaving the fair.  It was scary.  I don't like driving in all the crowded craziness.  I picked Roger up at the maverick to make thing easier.  I made him drive us home because of the traffic.

It was a fun day. 

They accepted our offer! - August 28, 2015

Friday - August 28th

They accepted our offer on the house!  I'm so excited!  I love this house so much!  We will close on October 7th.  I really hope everything goes smoothly.  I'm just so excited!  I just sent a bunch of text messages out to all my friends and family.  Yay!!!
I spent the night looking for decorating ideas on Pinterest.  I'm so excited to make our home beautiful.  Yay for having a home!

We made an offer on a house - August 27, 2015

Thursday - August 27th

Well,  we saw the house today and loved it!  The Francoms were very nice and fun to talk with.  After walking through it,  Roger's mom wrote up the offer and gave it to the sellers.  They looked it over then invited us in to discuss it.  They told us that they really want to sell their house to us. On our offer, it says they have until tomorrow at 6:00pm to let us know if they accept or not.  They invited us to come back over tomorrow at 4:00pm to talk about things and they will let us know if they accept our not.  They told us to bring the kids with us,  so the kids could look around and see if they love the house also.  I'm feeling really positive that they will accept or offer.  I'm so excited that this is actually a possibility!  I kept looking back at the pictures of the house and wishing that it was selling for less.  I thought there was no way we could get a loan for the price they were asking.  I'm so surprised that things are working out so well and so excited about it.  I really love this house! 

The Fair and A Chance to Get The House I Love - August 26, 2015

Wednesday - August 26th

We went to the fair tonight.  It was such a fun night. Before I get in to the fair stuff I have to tell you what happened before we went to the fair.

So, the house that I love, that is out of our price range (I posted about it a while ago).  I kept hoping for something to change and for us to be able to get it, but I knew it was very unlikely.  Yesterday, Roger's mom came and we went and saw 2 houses.  Neither of them were the house for us.  We came back home and talked for a little while about what our plans for finding a house would be.  We decided that we would keep looking, but Joyce won't keep coming every week to look at houses with us.  She would come if we found something or she will come again in 3 to 4 weeks.  Joyce said she had a pretty good idea of what we are looking for, but she asked me to tell her what I liked the most about all of the houses we had seen to give her a better idea of what we wanted.  I told her that I could just show her a picture of what I want.  I explained that there is a house on the market right now that is exactly what I want, but it is out of our price range.  I pulled up the listing on my phone for her to see.  That opened up a conversation about if there was a way that we could get a loan for the price they were asking.  Joyce called Raymond (the guy doing our loan) and asked him to look into all of our options and see if there is a different kind of loan that we could get that would give us more.  He said that he would work on that when he went into the office today.  We discussed it a little more and ended with that it wasn't very likely, but we'll wait and see what Raymond finds out.  Not last night, but the night before, I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help us out with this house hunting.  I explained how I was feeling and I asked him to help us to know when we go house hunting what is the right house for us.  I felt really good after that prayer and I felt sure that Heavenly Father will inspire us and help us know what is good for us.  So, when we went house hunting yesterday, we really loved that Fielding house, but Heavenly Father helped us to know it wasn't the house for us.  Last night, I told Heavenly Father about the house that I wanted that was out of our price range.  I asked that if it was right, will he somehow make it work for us and help us get into that house.  If it's not right, I asked that he help us find a house that is similar to that one and of course help me be patient while we wait for it to come on the market.

This morning I messaged the owner of the house I want on Facebook.  I sent her a message before, because Alissa's friend, Sydney had told her about us and how we couldn't afford to pay what they were asking but we were interested.  Anyway, she was very nice and offered a suggestion of somebody who might help us get a bigger loan.  In the message I sent her this morning, I thanked her for being so kind to her response to me and I explained that we were working with a friend of the family to get a loan and he was going to see what he could do.  I just read her response a little before typing this up.  She said that I was sweet and now she likes me even more and she hopes I can work something out.  So, that's good!

An hour before it was time to go to the Fair Parade, I got a message from Raymond saying that he can get us a loan for $173,000 (the price they are asking).  I was so excited that it could actually be a possibility.  We called Roger's mom and she scheduled for us to go and walk through their house tomorrow.  Then we will give them our offer.  I really hope they will accept it.  I'm really excited at the possibility that this could work out.

Okay, back to the Fair stuff. Brinley was excited to wear her new school shoes while we went out and about today.  She thinks they make her look like a hip hop dancer, so this is the outfit she chose to wear with them.  She is a cute girl.  She loves to put together outfits.

Roger had to work, so he didn't get to come and enjoy the fair stuff with us today.
We parked at Sydney's house and walked to the parade.  Sydney's dad drove us a little bit of the way so we wouldn't have as far to walk.  Maryann had reserved an area for us to sit, by leaving her chairs there overnight.  That was nice.  Nobody had taken our spot, so we had a good place to sit.  The parade was fun, but hot.

When it was over, we walked back to Maryann's house.  We all got something to drink and the kids jumped on the trampoline for a little while.  After that, Sydney came home with us.  We couldn't decide if we were going to go to the fair tonight or not.  Alissa got a hold of Erin and she wanted to go.  The weather wasn't looking too bad, so we decided to go.  We ended up having so much fun!

It was the night when all the rides only cost one ticket, so we got to go on a lot of the rides.  When we first walked in, we couldn't decide what to do.
Parker decided to be brave and try one of the bigger scarier rides.  We ran into Heather, so the kids went on the ride with her.  I sat and watched with Brinley and Sydney.  Brinley didn't want to try any of the bigger rides and she was starting to feel overwhelmed.  Right at first, she kept saying she wanted to go home, but after she went on her first little ride, she wanted to stay and do more.

Parker was hilarious on the bigger scarier ride.  He was so nervous and trying so hard to be brave and strong.  His face went from being terrified, to looking like he was going to barf, to trying to be brave and tough and act like he liked it, back to being terrified and looking like he was going to barf.  Alissa was on one side of him and Heather was on the other.  The noticed how scared he was and both tried to get him to be happy about being on the ride.  Those were the times he acted brave, but as soon as they quit talking to him, he went right back to being terrified.  It was just really funny to watch and I was laughing so hard.  I'm glad that he tried it.  He came off of the ride claiming to have loved it.  He's a funny kid.

After that ride, we went to the restroom, then walked through and looked at the things people had entered in the fair.  Heather had entered somethings and her kids had too.  It was fun to see the things they did.  They did a good job.  My little ones were jealous that we hadn't entered anything.  I just never think about it, but I will try really hard to remember next year.
I love this picture that somebody entered in the fair.  I think it is such a good idea!  I took a picture so I won't forget.  I really want to make my own of these.

After looking at stuff, Heather went to rides more rides with her kids, Alissa and Erin went to go on some rides, and Sydney, Parker, Brinley stayed with me.  We went on a few of the smaller rides.  Parker and Brinley loved it.  They all had fun on the merry-go-round.

But, Parker didn't love going on the dragon ride without getting to sit next to someone he knows.  Brinley and Sydney sat in the front seats and Parker was in one of the middle seats.





They loved the dragon roller coaster and the big slide.  I knew they'd love those.  Every year I try to get them to go on those, but they are always too scared.  This year we had Sydney with us, so they toughened up and went on them with her.  They loved it!

We took a break from rides and and got some treats.  Alissa and Erin went back to riding the rides.

Then we headed over to the book mobile (per Sydney's request) and bought some books.  We actually had a lot of fun buying books in there.  They were all on sale for under $.50!  The kids found a lot of $.10 books that they wanted.  It was a lot of fun (except for the fact that we had to carry the bag of books around with us through the rest of the fair).

We found Alissa and Erin as they were starting to shut down the rides.  Erin headed home with her family and after saying good-bye, we headed home too.



We had a fun night at the fair.

Search and Rescue and More House Hunting - August 25, 2015

Tuesday - August 25th

Last night around 6:00ish, Roger got a call from the search and rescue that a guy had fallen 40 feet.  He had his friend, Brian over to watch football, so he quickly told Brian what was going on, ran upstairs gathered all of his stuff and was out the door in no time.  He's fast when he gets those calls.  It turns out it was a 16 year old boy that had fallen.  Him and his friend were hiking in an area that they had been warned not to, when he fell.  Roger said it was a really dangerous area to be hiking.  They got over to the kid, stabilized him, then hiked out with him in a basket stretcher thingy.  Life Flight came and gave Roger and the other rescuers rides over to a closer spot on the mountain, so they didn't have as far to hike to get him, but they had to hike all the way out.  Roger said the helicopter saved them 3 hours of hiking.  Roger didn't get home until 3:30am.  He was exhausted and had a bunch of cuts and scrapes on his arms from the hike.

The boy survived so that was good.  Before they headed out to get him, the guy in charge of the search and rescue warned them that it didn't look good and the kid would probably not make it, so brace yourselves.  He also warned them to be prepared to spend the night on the mountain.

It was a rough rescue and a miracle that the boy survived.  Here's a link to the story on KSL News.

Yesterday we went to a doctor in Ogden to have him look at Roger's tonsils.  Roger keeps getting strep throat and he wants to get his tonsils removed.  The doctor looked in his throat and said that Roger's tonsils are swollen and still have white marks on them from the last time he had strep.  He said that removing them was a good idea.  So, he got the paper work started with the insurance company so we can call and schedule the surgery anytime.  We are going to wait until January, so Roger will have enough vacation time to cover a week off of work and that will give us time to save up the money necessary to get it done.

After Roger's appointment, we did a little back to school shopping.  The kids are excited about the new shoes they got and they are excited to go back to school on Monday.  I'm excited about the charter school.  I think it will be a really good thing for the kids.  The public schools computer keeps calling with a message from the school, then it hangs up on me or says that my student is not enrolled for school this year, please come to the office to pay the fees and get them enrolled.  It's a relief to not have to do that.  The fees for middle school are expensive.  Luckily the charter school doesn't do that.

I've been feeling sick, so we all went to bed early last night and I'm about ready for bed tonight.  My body is tired.
I have packed a lot of our stuff, because I am so impatient to move out of this place.  I have used Alissa's room to store a lot of things I've packed.  Alissa really doesn't like that.  I moved some of the stuff out and Alissa cleaned her room.  She is super happy to have a clean, organized room.

We went house hunting this evening with Roger's mom.  We went and looked at a house in Fielding.  We really loved it, but it didn't feel like the right house for us.  For one thing, everything was short.  Roger could barely stand up straight downstairs and he had to bend over quite a bit to was his hands in the sink.  It was a really big property and it was right across the street from the school.  We loved that about it, but it just didn't feel right.

The house we saw after that, wasn't bad and it had a really nice yard, but the neighborhood looked horrible.  We would have considered it a little more had it been in a nicer neighborhood.
I thought I had saved pictures of all the houses that we looked at, but for some reason, I forgot to get pictures of this one.  That's okay though, since we really didn't like it.

The other houses we had planned on seeing were either under contract already, a HUD home, or just taken off the market.  Here are the pictures of the houses that we wanted to see but couldn't.
698 w. 860 s. for $159,900
3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, built in 1997, 2176 sq ft., .23 acres.

 1030 s. 350 w. in Garland.  $163,000
4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, built in 1998, 1803 sq ft.  .22 acres

7995 n. 12400 w. in Thatcher.  $150,000
4 bedrooms, 1.75 bathrooms, built in 1956, 1938 sq ft.   1.02 acres

 582 n. 100 e.   $121,000
5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3413 sq ft.  built in 1948, .29 acres

There really aren't anymore houses to see right now.  We decided that we'll just keep looking.  If there is something that comes up and we really love it, we'll call Roger's mom to come see it right away, but if not, we'll wait and go house hunting again in a month.  I really hope things get better and it gets easier to find a house.