Jared's News

Jared was called to be Scout Master of our ward last week! He's a little overwhelmed but pretty excited for this new challenging calling. He is still the Cub master as well, and he did the funniest pack meeting being "Billy Bob" and demonstrating everything you are not supposed to do when your camping, like littering and burning your trash outside of a pit. I have a picture to post of his get-up, he really didn't want me to post this by the way, but it does bring out his eyes.



Jared and Justin's office building is still coming along! It is framed and visible from State street and Orem Boulevard. They even have some prospective tenants to lease to (half of the building is for Home Basics, the other half is being leased out). Jared was saying he has "a years supply" of listings, because it is a Buyers market right now. Hopefully the spring will bring an influx of buyers!

Of course Jared is itching to go fishing. He has only been ONCE in 3 weeks and just can't wait for the good weather to make the fishing better. For now he has to settle for watching "Planet Earth" and tying a few flies. Jared is great at being very helpful to me, letting me get out a lot, I may encourage him to enter the Iron Man competition coming up.

Heather's News

HEATHER SCHAUERS
(WEB)INTRO TO THE FIELD OF SOCIAL WORK
Lesson 1 M1 M2 M3 F G
Grade A A- B A A- A-
Percent 100 93 83 97 90 94
Date 03/04/08 02/06/08 02/22/08 02/29/08 03/17/08 03/17/08

My first independent study course went well. I finished it in two months and got an A- overall grade. My next class I'm half way through is Sociology or Current Social Problems, it is proving a bit tougher than Intro to Social Work. So far I've pulled an A- on a quiz, a B+ on a midterm, and a C on a 4 page paper. Yes, I am a little rusty on writing college essays (and the TA that graded it was a monster!). I think I have tried to take it to fast, so I am slowing it down and putting a little more effort into it, and now I know what the instructor expects a lot more, so I am optimistic about the 2nd half of the course.
This past week I have been trying to "hit the gym" and lose some weight before I go to Cancun and have to sport a swimming suit. My sister in law Amy ran with me three evenings and of course Yoga with Stacy on Wednesday, so I hope another two weeks of this will give me some results. Of course our resort is all inclusive (with 4 restaraunts) so odds are I'll put it all back on!
I am keeping busy with my choir leader, music chair person, relief society teacher and Reading Group leader callings. Jared and I decided to be Emergency Preparedness Block Captains, and speaking of being prepared I single-handedly replaced the water in our 50 gallon barrell and filled a 2nd barrell we just purchased. I trimmed our front roses and weeded/raked the flowers, and then we got 3-4 inches of snow today. *sigh* I need to start taking it easy, or I may just drop dead like the girl in a whirl.

Girl in a Whirl

The Girl in a Whirl by 'Dr. Sue' (a.k. A.. Vickie Gunther)

Look at me, look at me, look at me now!
You could do what I do if you only knew how.
I study the scriptures one hour each day;
I bake, I upholster, I scrub, and I pray.
I always keep all the commandments completely;
I speak to my little ones gently and sweetly.
I help in their classrooms! I sew all they wear!
I drive them to practice! I cut all their hair!
I memorize names of the General Authorities;
I focus on things to be done by priorities.
I play the piano! I bless with my talents!
My toilets all sparkle! My checkbooks all balance!
Each week every child gets a one-on-one date;
I attend all my meetings (on time! Never late!)
I'm taking a class on the teachings of Paul,
But that is not all! Oh, no. That is not all,
I track my bad habits 'til each is abolished;
Our t-shirts are ironed! My toenails are polished!
Our family home evenings are always delightful;
The lessons I give are both fun and insightful.
I do genealogy faithfully, too.It's easy to do all the things that I do!
I rise each day early, refreshed and awake;
I know all the names of each youth in my stake!
I read to my children! I help all my neighbors!
I bless the community, too, with my labors.
I exercise and I cook menus gourmet;
My visiting teaching is done the first day!
(I also go do it for someone who missed hers.
It's the least I can do for my cherished ward sisters.)
I chart resolutions and check off each goal;
I seek each 'lost lamb' on my Primary roll.
I can home-grown produce each summer and fall.
But that is not all! Oh, no. That is not all,
I write in my journal! I sing in the choir!
Each day, I write 'thank you's' to those I admire.
My sons were all Eagles when they were fourteen!
My kids get straight A's! And their bedrooms are clean!
I have a home business to help make some money;
I always look beautif ully groomed for my honey.
I go to the temple at least once a week;
I change the car's tires! I fix the sink's leak!
I grind my own wheat and I bake all our bread;
I have all our meals planned out six months ahead.
I make sure I rotate our two-years' supply;
My shopping for Christmas is done by July!
These things are not hard; 'tis good if you do them;
You can if you try! Just set goals and pursue them!
It's easy to do all the things that I do!
If you plan and work smart, you can do them all, too!

It's easy!' she said and then she dropped dead.

The Friend

Savanna had a photo shoot with LDS studios last year for her picture to be in an article in the Friend Magazine. I had no idea when it would appear, so I subscribed to the magazine and looked through every month wondering if the 3 1/2 hour studio experience was fruitful. Today I got April's Friend in the mail and on page 11 there she was! My beautiful Savanna. She was very excited to see her picture there. How fun! If you don't get the Friend, her picture was to illustrate a story of a girl who woke up scared in the night and heard her mom singing and felt better. You can read the story on line here: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=2b131b9fc3ce8110VgnVCM100000176f620a____ And here is the cute picture!

Easter

The kids had fun celebrating Easter on Saturday! Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Neil called Saturday morning and offered to take the kids to the UVU (UVSC) Easter egg hunt and party, they did crafts, got lots of eggs, and met the easter bunny! They had so much fun. Then we took the kids to Grandma and Grandpa Barretts to color boiled eggs and have a hunt there. Great Grandma Rappleye came with us and colored eggs too! We stayed there and had a yummy feast and watched movies. Sunday we toned down the celebrating and remembered the Resurrection, Shawna Schauers came to our ward and sang "Christ and His little ones" with me in our Sacrament Meeting. It was a wonderful experience, I was very moved and received many compliments. We has another family feast, this time at Wendy and Keith Snows and enjoyed their company that evening. We sure love our family and had a wonderful Easter holiday being with so many of them.

Gymnastics

I received a call the other day that Savanna has advanced from Level 1 to Level 2 in gymnastics, finally. All the girls in her level 1 class are 5, and she'll be 7 in May. She has taken it at a slow pace but I still believe it has been wonderful for her development--large motor and spatial skills, and overcoming fears. Fiora is a might quicker, she was ready for level one the day she turned five but as I had her enrolled in the preschool which only teaches gym rompers I did not advance her. However, with Savanna moving up, that left an opening in level one so I made a spur of the moment decision to pull Fiora out of preschool and place her in Savanna's old class. It was a good decision, Fiora all but outdid all the girls already in the class, so Jared and I have decided to have her evaluated to see if she might move up to the advanced class. That would mean 3 hours a week of gymnastics for Fiora, but we'd love to see her develop that talent (she is coordinated, flexible, and attentive). We'll have to see. Here are some pictures of the girls doing their handstands.





You can kind of see the difference in technique the girls use, Savanna has a harder time with form but Fiora has a harder time getting all the way up there.



A straddle demo from Fiora (she can do better but didn't want to split her jeans):

A bridge demo from Savanna:

This morning Fiora was yelling "Mom come here I am so closer! I am really closer!" I thought, closer to what? When I came to see she was arching back into a bridge, meaning she was closer to doing a bridge from a standing position. I spotted her doing a back walkover and she did very well.

Supersuit

Weston has some definite androgen differences from his sisters. One is his love for superhero movies (especially Spiderman and Superman), action figures, and his batman pajamas. Jared and I have tried for four weeks to get him to take off his batman pajamas, and if we succeed, it is only while we are out, as soon as we get home the pajamas are back on. "Its taking my cape off" is what he says to tell us his cape is slipping from the velcro that attaches it to his back. On Sundays, it is particularly difficult to get him in his church clothes. One Sunday Jared had the brilliant idea of putting his church clothes over his pajamas and telling him it was just like "Superman's secret identity." This worked great until he kept unbottoning his shirt and revealing his batman logo in Sunday school class. His teacher told him not to show anyone his supersuit, and he was continually complaining of being hot but refused to take off the supersuit underneath then or the following 4 weeks of church that followed.


His most recent favorite action movie is "The Three Amigos" (if you can call them superheros) and he quickly picked up the theme song and the the Three Amigo "sign" of crosing arms across the chest, then on the hips, and strangely coughing. I bet he would love a sombraro too.

Winter Swimming

When we go to Gunnison to visit Grandma and Grandpa Schauers, one of our family fun activities is swimming in the local pool. It's the nicest public facility in that small town, and it is indoor so we can swim winter or summer! Savanna is getting to be quite an excellent swimmer, she worked on diving to retrieve swim rings and did pretty well. And of course she and Jared love to dive off the diving board.

Fiora and Savanna love to play dress up there too. Grandma had a new dress Fiora was tempted to take home with her she loved it so much.

Jared and I went to the Manti temple, it was a choice experience. There is a special spirit in that rural community temple. And as always, we were treated to a special dinner from Grandmas kitchen. Thanks for the fun day Grandma and Grandpa!

Highschool friends Party

Peggy Haubert, a dear friend of mine from about 9th grade through 12th grade who has so diligently kept in contact with me for ten years, invited me to a dinner with 4 other friends from Pleasant Grove High School for a mini-reunion. We were celebrating that we were/are all turning 30 this 07-08 year. It was really fun! It was good to catch up with those friends and see how they've grown yet stayed so much the same. Very funny! We all brought a gift to exchange for each others' birthdays. Thank you Peggy for making the effort to get us back together for a friend night, sans kids.

Schauers (24) Hours

Jared thought we could do a great episode of 24 in our family. Like getting ready for church in the morning, one hour of intense interrogation (where did you put your shoes, think!), locating the perpetrator (you can hide but you can't get out of going to church!) accomplishing our design by trickery or force (scene 1 Weston in a black chair and Jared letting him in on the secret, "superheros wear their supersuits underneath their church clothes," cut to scene two Heather holding down the girls and brushing their hair), and brainwashing (you LIKE church, you WILL GO to church, you get treats for good behavior at church). Our version of 24 would get a mild G rating, except for maybe the part when Weston was forced to take a bath which got a little scary for sensitive viewers.

Or how about the getting ready for bed routine? Yikes. No matter how bad they don't want a bath in the morning, at bedtime it is a great stall method. Savanna actually fell into the toilet in order to get a bath (it was actually an accident, she sat on the toilet to use it and didn't know the seat was up, but it was so perfectly timed). Wish granted. How do we cure Weston of his need to have a movie to fall asleep? The girls routine takes about as long as a movie--jammies, brush teeth, where's my dolly? I need a drink, ok now I need a story, now another story, a song, one more drink of water, help me say prayers, why can't we watch a movie? I want you to lay by me............AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Savanna got a free ticket to the circus from some money-making schemer that works at her school but must really work for the circus. Jared and I won't be falling for THAT again. It cost us $32 just for me and Jared to get in (Stacy gave us her boys' free tickets for Weston and Fiora, Stacy was smart enough not to fall for the "free ticket" to the money-sucking circus). Jared warned the kids that he was spending enough money to get IN so he wasn't going to buy snacks. Despite the warning the kids barely glanced at the horses, camels, acrobats, and clowns -- all they could see was snow cones($3) cotton candy ($6) and light sabers ($10) that the conniving venders kept flashing in our faces. They moaned and complained and finally all fell asleep, until the 30 minute intermission where you could ride a pony or get your face painted ($6). We thought the kids would for sure like this family outing better than the gymnastics meet, but Savanna was very clear that that circus was very boring, (because we didn't spend $100 so she could have something sweet, fun, or cool while watching the boring show that Jared and I thought was pretty exciting and amazing).

So we didn't take any pictures at the circus, but here's a picture of a clown.

Bangs

I'm not very photogenic, but here is a picture of my with bangs.
I've had some questions about why I don't like the bangs...I like them. It's just that I already look 9 years younger than I am and giving myself bangs only added to that problem. And they never go the way I envisioned or imagined. But it is nice to have a change.