Sunday Thoughts

This week I had stuff to drop off at the Thrift Store.  You will be pleased to know that I brought home significantly less than I left there!   Be doubly impressed, because it turned out it was their monthly half off everything sale.

I stood in line with my few items behind 2 other ladies.  The one at the register finished getting rung up and paid in cash.  Except she was $1.12 short.

Now this place is crazy.  It is full of people from all walks of life and might occasionally be considered a bit of a low-income place.  I immediately thought, "I think I have $2 in cash in my wallet."  But then I wondered if she would be offended at the offer. I wondered if she would think me rude or presumptuous.  While I was debating with myself, and in all honesty, I was leaning towards not saying anything, the lady in front of me offered to cover the difference.  The first lady graciously accepted and thanked her and we moved on.

Except I felt like a shmuck.  I had the ability to help this lady.  The thought was there. The money was there. But I didn't do it.  I psyched myself out.  I talked myself out of an opportunity to do something nice for someone else.  Sure, it was $1.12.  But I couldn't even make myself do that. If I can't even do $1.12 for someone, how many other opportunities am I missing out on because I'm afraid?

Last Drops of Summer

Yesterday was Labor Day.  The kids were excited to have the day off, as was Dan.  I still had to get up early because it is too stinking hot here to run once the sun is up, so I was hitting pavement at 6:30.  Please, be impressed, I ran 7 miles.  But only because I ran with my friend Andie, who is gearing up for a half marathon.

The kids had a good day.  Dan took the 3 older ones to see the movie Planes.  I thought the movie was aimed for little-little kids, but they all liked it.  In the afternoon, I took the girls to the pool.  It is the only time we made it to the pool all summer!  I know how on earth did that happen?!  It was the very last day the pool would be open till next summer.  We headed over about 3:30, but they said there was inclement weather and no swimming for 45 minutes.  The kids were cross with me.  I took them home and we went back 45 minutes later.  They got a good hour and a half at the pool and had a marvelous time.  We stayed till 6, when they closed it all down.  It really was nice to go to the pool.  I was not enthusiastic about going and taking a passel of kids, but they had fun and weren't a lot of trouble, so it was a good time for all.

Delaney was awesome and can paddle all over like nobody's business.

Rylee had her puddle jumper on and floated all over the place.  She did not want assistance.  And she did a fine job kicking herself wherever she wanted to go. 

I'm not even sure what Marian did  She went out and did her own thing and had fun.  She hung out in the deep end a lot and I didn't see her much.

Callie was on to my sneaky across-the-pool-with-the-zoom picture taking and worked really hard to keep me from getting any good shots.  So this one, with Delaney is all I have.  I was impressed with Callie's endurance at swimming and treading water in the deep end. 

Rylee and Delaney having a good time together. 

And me.  The only time I managed to get to the pool in 2013.  Document it.

School Blues

School has started and while some things of interest have happened (Joshua's trip to the dentist, Delaney's doctor visit about pink eye where they said she was fat, Rylee's preschool orientation....) but mostly, nothing occurred that was worth taking pictures of.  Or maybe I'm just becoming apathetic.  Either way, I know the grandparents really just want to see the little darlings, so I did download what I had on the camera for their viewing pleasure.

Callie needed to decorate her notebook for school.  She wanted pictures of her with Levi to put on it. 

And she thought it would be fun to have him jump on the mini-trampoline with her. 

Tough to get a good photo of kids in motion! Surprisingly, Levi was happy to bounce with her.  Funny dog!

Oh yeah.  I took Rylee to the Mommy and Me on base.  It tends to be full of younger moms who are already friends so we don't usually go unless we're really bored or really need to get out of the house. 

We went because I did have a friend going so it was fun.  AND, Rylee got to paint.  So it was a win all around. 

Keeping Up

It is Sunday, so I ought to keep up with the blog.  Sadly, I have zero interest in blogging, but the alternative is to go to bed, so here I am.

1.  The first few days of school went well.  The kids all say they like their teachers and that school is good.  Callie said her teacher is mean, but only to the bad kids, so she's okay.  So far so good for all of them.  Fingers crossed that it continues.

2. I was motivated and finally cleaned off the bookshelf and it is neat and clutter free for now!  I also have been going through stuff and I have a box and 6 bags to haul to the thrift store.  Of course, they are all sitting in the hallway cluttering up that area.  I don't know if I should take them away now, and plan on more trips later, or if I should just keep collecting stuff and make one trip.

3. We went to the Temple yesterday.  It was the first time in months (possibly years!) that I have not had a hard time staying awake.  Loved it.

4.  After the Temple, since we were near the mall, I took the kids there while Dan was in his session.  I took Rylee to the Build-a-bear to get rid of her binkies.  I told her she could make a binkey-bear who would hold all her binkies for her.  She chose a cute dog, we stuffed her binkies inside it with all the fluff and viola!  No more binkies for my girl!  And it has gone much better than I ever imagined.  She LOVED her binky.  LOVED it.  So I had anticipated some difficulty when she no longer had one.  Rylee has transitioned beautifully.  Of course, it has been less than 36 hours, so it may just be the calm before the storm.

5. I have plantar fascitis. I do not like it.

6. I realized today that I do like one thing about being the Sunday School teacher.  Oh. Yes, they actually called me to teach the grown up Sunday School class last year.  Trust me, I was way more incredulous than you when they called me.  But, I digress.  I realized I like that I can decide what happens.  I like discussion in my class. No one wants to just hear me, so I judge the success of class on how much talking I do vs. class participation.  And I know when I am sitting in a class, I want to know why I'm learning whatever it is.  Why is that particular thing important and how does it relate to ME?  So that is how I try to go about teaching.  I don't know how my class feels about it, but I'm the teacher, so we do it my way!  Today we were waaay off topic, but it was okay.  I figured, if they had questions and we could answer them, then that was what the class was for.  It made me happy.

7.  Joshua chipped his tooth tonight.  I'm not thrilled about having to pull him out of school (probably twice) to get it taken care of.

8.  The musical "The Book of Mormon" is coming to New Orleans.  Our stake has been challenged to read the Book of Mormon through, before the show opens.  I have accepted the challenge, but yikes!  Its hard.  I have till Oct 12 to do it.

9. I had chocolate pudding for dinner.

10. I'm tired.  I'm going to bed.

Life at our house

Life has been moving along and they days have passed, despite the lack of productivity I achieved.  We did have a few things happen that I felt were worth remembering.

Rylee woke up Sunday morning with this!  Yikes!  I guess that's what I get for letting her go to bed with wet hair.  Sigh.  It was a project to get it suitable for church. 

Our couch has served us well for 8 years.  It is comfortable and the brown hides a lot.  Sadly, you can see that the seams have ripped on the cushions.  You cannot see that the back of the couch has issues where it repeatedly bonked into the wall, and you can't see the lovely "art" that was put on with permanent marker.  I'm sure you can see that it's time has come.  Or perhaps it's time has passed?  Either way, it was time for it to go.

This was my lovely recliner.  It also has been with us for over 8 years.  It also is falling apart, but has been doing so for a lot longer. The arm has been duct taped for a number of years.  One of my darling children attacked it with scissors when it was still really new.  It has been a great chair for us, but it was well passed time for it to go!  

We acquired a "new" couch and love seat on craigslist.  Dan took the old couch out to the road for easier loading for disposal.  The kids were thrilled to have permission to jump to their heart's content on it.  Never mind that it was pouring rain!! 

They had a marvelous time.  I'm not sure if the couch made the rain more fun, or if the rain made the couch more fun.  But fun they had! 

I love these girls! 

And I really love my new-to-me couch!  It is soft and squishy in all the right places. 

And it has a matching love seat.  So comfy and so nice!  I feel like an actual grown up with an couch that is actually NICE! 

And, Happy First Day of School!  The kids went back to school this week.  Aren't they cute?! 

They were great and they all said they had a really good first day of school.  They all agreed that they had nice teachers this year and they were excited.  I love these kids!