A New Skirt--for me this time

I've got some fabric from a friend [Thanks Kim](a long while back) and finally got around to making something with it. Orginally, I was going to make a skirt for Kate, but in the end I made something for me. (Kate can borrow it if she wants.)

Sidnie's foot

Wednesday night I was gone to my Relief Society Presidency meeting. Spencer and Sidnie were playing outside and at some point they came in with Sidnie crying. According to Spencer, "Sidnie fell off the ground." James never could figure out what was hurt and she eventually calmed down. Well on Thursday I noticed she was limping and she kept saying her leg hurt. I could see nothing wrong with her leg though. Kammie came home from school and Sidnie was so excited to have someone to play with. She wanted Kammie to come build a lego house with her. Kammie noticed that Sidnie's foot was all swollen and asked me what happened. I didn't know. When James got home a few minutes later, he told us what had happened the night before, but that still didn't explain what happened. She walks on her foot and has even tried to run to keep up with her brothers, but it's always with the limp. We figure it's not broken, because she can walk on it, but who knows what really happened. Maybe she fell off the teeter/totter and had her foot smashed by it. We hope she gets better soon. She sure has missed her siblings all day while they are away at school.
It's her right foot (the one on your left) that is hurt. You may not be able to tell from the picture, but it is purple and swollen on top. There is also a line of brusing across the top in one spot.
Another view.

First full week of school and early morning seminary

We made it through the first full week of school. Kate also had early morning seminary, starting at 6 am and so it was fun getting up earlier to get her up. She gets picked up by a fellow seminary student and that is nice. (It has been nice to run with my hubby while she is gone. We even had slightly cool weather one morning. It was so nice. But, when it's winter, and cold and dark, I'm not sure I'll like exercising that early.) After seminary, Kate then hurries home to catch her bus. Ms. Kim has faithfully come to pick up Kate everyday, despite bus trouble with her battery and the bus shooting sparks. There have been problems with other buses as well. Jordan's comes early and Kammie and Zack's has come late. I'm still adjusting to getting everyone off on their respective buses and since it's not a set in stone thing, we are going to continue adjusting. On Monday and Tuesday, I picked up Kam and Zack (or a friend did on Tuesday), but their bus came by much earlier, so we had them take the bus home after school again. Spencer had one "sick" day this week. His teacher called to have me come get him, because his tummy hurt. But by the next day he was fine.

I'm very happy to say that a judge ruled this week in favor of the teachers union and Pulaski County Special School District has agreed to take the extra 40 minutes a day out of the elementary school day by September 13th. So, we don't know if that means they'll just go back to the old schedule from last year or if they'll come up with something new. But since the buses are shared between the High/Middle schools and the Elementary schools, they'll have to have different end times then all getting out at the same time. So, we won't be able to get into a set routine for a while. And with everyone getting up and leaving at different times, we need to do better on family scripture study. We'll keep pluggin' away.

New Jumper dress for Sidnie

Now that the kids are back in school, a friend of mine and I got together to sew yesterday. Amy is very talented and can figure out how to make things just from seeing the picture. I picked out the fabric and this is what we (she) came up with.

Sidnie showing off her new dress.
What a cheesy smile for the camera...
A view from the back--it looks a bit off centered, but it's mostly the picture.

First Day of School

Thursday, August 19th, 2010 (this past week) was the first day of school. It wasn't cool to take pictures of the older girls, but they are in 7th (Jordan at Maumelle Middle school)and 9th grades (Kate is at Oak Grove High School as a Freshmen). And this was the beautiful sunrise that greeted us while we were waiting at 6:40 a.m.for the bus to pick up Kate, that never came.
"Oh how lovely was the morning, Radiant beamed the sun above..."

Spencer's very first day of school--off to Pre-K with Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Beasley (the same teacher's Zack had 3 years ago).
Zack, my 2nd grader.
Kammie, our 4th grader.
All the elementary school kids together, ready to go.


Too bad they all don't go to the same school. Kam and Zack go to Pine Forest Elementary School, but they don't offer Pre-K, so Spencer goes to Crystal Hills Elementary Magnet School. I have 5 children at 4 different schools.

So far the new system and schedule that the superindentent has come up with is a mess. Kammie and Zack's bus has taken them until 5:15pm and 5pm to get them home because the driver is behind on his middle school bus route and doesn't even get to the elementary school by the time he is supposed to pick them up. I've decided I'll have my kids ride the bus to school in the morning, and then I'll pick Spencer up early from his school and then hustle to get Kam and Zack at their school. I won't have my children having a 45 hour "work" week going to school. It's just too long.

Sweetpotato Vine and Vincas

At the beginning of the summer, I planted some sweetpotato vine that seemed to take forever to settle in and then it finally started branching out. But shortly thereafter, deer began eating it at night and I thought it was all a lost cause. Eventually the deer left it alone and it has finally blossomed quite nicely. (You can't even seen the Aztec Violets that were in that flower bed as well.)
April 23, 2010

August 19, 2010 - From the front

From the back

My Vinca's April 2, 2010 (You can barely see the Vinca's in front of all those Azalea blossoms.)

August 18, 2010

Apple Trees

Two summers ago, we planted two apple trees and a peach tree in our side yard. The peach tree didn't last long at all. And the two apple trees have grown differently. The closer to the front yard the trees are/were along the side of our house, the better they've done. (The peach tree was the farthest back.) I don't know if it's a water thing or not.
Our Granny Smith apple tree is not large, but started out with several apples on it. Then slowly, apples dropped off and it had three. Those dwindled down to one. That apple was so big, that we decided to pick it last week.
Kammie helping...
Showing off our ONE beautiful apple. I know it's not quite time for apple season, but it was so big, that we thought we'd get it before any other critters got to it. It tasted very good. We hope for more in the future.

Here is Kammie by the Red Delicious tree, so you can see the difference in size. The Red Delicious apple tree is closest to the front yard and has gotten pretty big. It seems to have had some sort of blite and we've trimmed off those branches and hope it will be o.k. It has several apples on it and some have been attacked by birds or bugs, but we hope to get some apples off the tree later in the fall.

Another lost tooth

Kammie lost another tooth this past week (on Thursday the 12th of August). Here's a shot of her grin with the missing tooth...

Greek goddesses or Muslims?

My kids are already looking forward to Halloween. They dress up and get their little sister involved too.
Sidnie on her royal chair...
Sidnie dressed as a greek goddess.
Sidnie and Jordan looking more like muslim women...

It's nice that they play well together MOST of the time.

A Gymnastics Team Performance

Jordan's gymnastics team had a performance at the Charter School's block party on Saturday. Here are some shots of her tumbling.
Waiting her turn...

Back walk over...
farther along...
coming up...
Taking a bow with the team--She's the on fith one on the right, looking to the left at her coach take a bow.

Our toaster oven bit the dust...

Our old toaster oven decided to not really work consistently anymore. There was some sort of short in the knob you would turn to set the toast time. It might come on at first, but then turn off a few seconds later. Even holding it in place didn't really work. So, we went to Target and picked out the least expensive one they sold. The kids are most excited about the little tray. Now they can cook just a few cookies at a time and they think that's GREAT!

Zack's Birthday

Zack was very excited for his Birthday. He wanted to open presents first thing in the moring, but we made him wait until after dinner (partly because we didn't have them wrapped yet) and we wanted Dad to be home from work and after kids (Zack included) were back from TaeKwonDo. It's hard to wait, but don't good things come to those who do?

Here's Zack in his TaeKwonDo uniform, with all his gifts.
Zack, Spencer, Sidnie and Kammie

Zack is Seven.
He's thrilled with this preparing for baptism book by George Durrant, now that he's 7.
New shoes for school (a practical gift).
Star Wars Legos--more exciting!
And he's really excited about this spinning and electronic light saber set.
Candles on the cake...












Singing Happy Birthday...
Blowing out the candles...











Of course we had to go get batteries that would fit his new toy, but here are some action shots...
Spinning the sabers in the dark...
a shot blocking his face...

Zack's birthday cake

Zack drew a picture of the castle type cake he wanted and we did our best to design it. We maybe didn't do the best job, but he enoyed it anyway. Here is the drawing of what he wanted, followed by the actual cake.
A good plan to work from...

Our's didn't work quite like the drawing. Our bottom layer was thin, so you can't really tell it's there, or that it's a different color. It is indeed blue and then the green towers are on top.

Things turned up-side-down

Life is interesting and keeps you on your toes.

Gymnastics
Jordan made the (community) gymnastics team at the end of the last school year. We were up front about not being able to participate in meets on Sundays and they were fine with that. Last year the team had practice on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. So I also told them that she would probably not be able to make Wednesday practice regularly because she would have Youth church activities that night (Young Women's). They were fine with all that. Well, we just got the Fall practice schedule and it's and LDS nightmare--Mondays (FHE), Wednesdays (YW) and Sundays. We talked about things and explained as nicely as we could, that Jordan would have to withdraw from the team, because she can't keep that practice schedule. They said they would discuss things and let us know. So, things are up in the air right now. I'd like to know one way or the other, so we can move on if we need to and find something else for her to participate in.

School
Last year the school board nullified the teachers union, and thus their contracts. There are more details than that, but it's been a mess since. The teachers used to have to choose to prep 40 minutes before or after school. After the teachers union was nullified, the decision was made to make the school day 40 minutes longer for the elementary kids, so that the teachers could prep during the day. They keep saying that the kids will get more Math and Literacy instruction, but I don't buy that and think the school day was already long enough, especially for my littler ones. Well, late this last week, the school board decided to flip school times on their heads and make the High school and Middle schools start at 7:30 and the Elementary schools start later at 8:30. I think it's good to let the little ones not have to wake up at the crack of dawn, and not be waiting for the bus in the dark, but they are still trying to build that 40 minutes into the school day. I HATE that! School was already long enough and I don't need my kid there for 40 hours a week. There are child labor laws and I think it should apply to school and learning. That's too much time in the classroom. Plus, parents are all up in arms about the time change because those who work, which is the majority, can't get their kids to school and then to work. And who knows what time it's going to make early morning seminary start for Kate. School starts Thursday and bus schedules are still in question, among other things. I've heard the teachers won't strike, but I still hate the 40 minutes longer. They'll be going to school from 8:30am until 4pm. YUCK!

Sickness
Out of the blue, Kate began a fever on Thursday of 102 or more. I took her to an after hours clinic at our Dr.'s office and luckily our pediatrician was the one on call. The strep test was negative, but she has some other swollen lymph nodes, and her blood count indicated infection, so she is on a Z-pack for the next few days. Hopefully she'll get better quickly with school starting next week and no one else will get sick.

Hail storm--thankfully not on our new roof

James had a work meeting up on Mount Magazine (the highest point here in AR) and was able to take Jordan and Kammie along for some fun. (Kate was off to girls camp.) Kammie and Jordan "hiked" to the highest point with our friend, Nancy Goddard, while James and Wally were in meetings and then spent time at the pool. Later there was a big Hail storm. Here are a couple of shots from James' cell phone...

Good bye to the crib and rearranging Bedrooms

We moved Sidnie to sleep in a big bed since we got home from our vacation in Florida last month. She's done great. The best thing is she never gets out of bed, just calls for "Mom" when she's "awake now." With school starting in a couple of weeks, we decided it was time to the bedroom switch-a-roo. Kate and Jordan are in the front bedroom (Sid's old room) with the bunk beds and Kammie and Sidnie now share the middle room. We spent ALL day taking apart the day bed, the bunk beds and the crib and began switching bedrooms. And we are not done yet, so I don't have nice finished pictures. The mess flows freely out of both rooms into the family room. A work in progress, that for now is on hold as it is a day of rest...

Kate on the bottom bunk, Jordan on the top.

A shot of the room so far.

Sidnie's (day) bed in her new room.

A couple of shots or Kammie's bed complete with dust catcher, or rather Dream Catcher and the huge mess on the floor outside the closet.