Routine

The last thing I want to do lately is write more, but I know if I don't write this down, my 2011 blog book will be skimpy. So here goes.
January has been uneventful and routine.
The End.

Ha ha, just kidding. But yes, there hasn't been much exciting going on. The routine is
6:00 AM Heather gets up to read scriptures (except on exercise days when she gets up at 5:30)
7:00 Heather gets ready to go to school/prison
7:30 Savanna, Fiora, Weston get up and eat breakfast. And it takes the entire half hour to do this for some reason. Jared usually gets up around this time also, its too noisy to sleep with the kids up anyway.
8:00 Family Prayer, Karli arrives, Jared and Heather leave, kids supposedly get ready for school (aka mess around)
8:30 Kids practice the piano/violin
9:00 Kids go out the door to school with Xander who is in Weston's class and faithfully walks to school with them every day.
9:30-2:30 Everyone at school or work, learning and working, unless Savanna or Weston have an accident and call me in the middle of class because they need clean pants, which happened two Tuesdays in a row during the same class. Karli had to come to the rescue both times. Or if Weston gets sick and needs to be checked out, which has happened twice, Karli got him the first time, and I got him yesterday. The whole routine really gets thrown off when kids get sick and have accidents, but thats life.
3:00 (Mondays early out day) Savanna has violin lessons
3:30 Kids come home from school and go immediately to the computer which is more a habit than anything because we cancelled Netflix due to kids having too much TV distraction. Jared also eliminated the temptation to watch several episodes of several shows late into the night.
4:30 Heather returns home, kids are usually doing something on the computer, and its time to cattle prod them into their reading and homework duties.
5:00 Heather makes dinner, except Thursdays which are my late day so I am in class until 7:00, Jared makes dinner if I haven't thrown together a crock pot meal.
5:30 Eat dinner as a family if Jared manages to make it home by then, which is often the case in the winter.
6:00 (Wednesday) Weston has gymnastics, Heather takes him and goes walking, or on other days Jared and Heather try to talk about the day while hushing the kids so we can hear each other.
7:00 Down time, or reading, or baths, or flashcards
7:30 Scriptures and family prayer (ideally, sometimes its closer to 8 when this happens)
8:00 Kids in bed, Jared and Heather in hot tub
9:00 Heather in bed, Jared has his slick deals.net, ksl classified, and news on the computer time, or basketball, or bowflex, its just Jared's "time"
10,11,12 somtime around there, Jared finally goes to bed

Weekends are different of course. We had cousin Lucy over for two days and two nights this past weekend, which the kids loved. Savanna turned Weston and Lucy into zombies, and used an oil based lip gloss for the blood which took a lot of scrubbing to get off. Lucy and Weston were not thrilled with the scrubbing. They all got along pretty well, and had a lot of fun, I'm used to more bickering when Lucy's here, so it was nice! Maybe they're growing up.

Update

LILLIAN

Lillian's would-have-been 4th birthday was the 15th. We took Lilies to her grave and sang happy birthday. We had cupcakes later. I just have to thank Stacy Hanks and Heidi Carpenter for remembering her every year and sending us a thinking-of-you text!

WESTON

Weston went to the dentist to see about his teeth grinding issue. We learned bruxism isnt diagnosable until you are 18, and that teeth grinding is common among children who are growing. He gave no teeth guard, but he did put in 4 sealants which boosted the bill. Weston feels at ease now to sleep without a mouth guard, although he may still grind those teeth.
Weston is continuing on as a very bright first grader. He likes to go to school on pizza day. In fact, he came home from school sick today and is hoping tomorrow he is better because its pizza day. Weston is still doing gymnastics, and likes to get in the hot tub and practice the piano and read. Its so fun to see my kids when that reading-ability light really turns on, he kind of struggled at the beginning of the school year but now is doing great.

FIORA


Fiora is doing well. She is an extraordinary speller, she always gets 100% on her spelling tests. She quit gymnastics, mostly because it was on a night I couldn't take her, but partly because its hard for her. We are looking for another hobby to enroll her in, but for now she is taking a break from extracurricular activites. At least until mom graduates. Fiora is already thinking about her birthday party, and the subsequent baptism that will occur this year.

SAVANNA



Savanna had her 4th grade program last week, she sang an Indian song called "The Indian Tribes of Utah" and did an excellent job. She also did a great square dance with a boy named Brigham--woo woo. She went to that boy's house after school once, and I didn't even know where his house was, and had to track her down. She is becoming a very independent woman. Savanna is still doing violin lessons, and enjoys activity days with her primary class and drawing pictures on her homework instead of doing the problems.

Jared and myself are doing well. Jared took the kids down to visit grandpa in Gunnison so I could write a paper. They had a very fun time playing in the snow and eating pizza and ice cream with Grandpa. Time is going by very quickly, I am trying to enjoy my children and school and be grateful for all the wonderful things in my life that are speeding by.

Come on in, 2011

I'm excieted for 2011, this year brings the end of a very long road of going back to school, which involved volunteering, prerequisites, building a reference list, and then the MSW program itself full of research projects, 15-19 credits every semester, internships, and TONS of reading. I am grateful for the experience, but will be glad to cross that finish line at last.

The New Year celebration was fun, we had a good break from school. The kids got to play with their cousins from Montana, which is something they always enjoy! They have loved showing off their gerbils. We went to a couple movies with Chad and Robin and their kids, and Bailey and Justin of course.




I enjoyed relaxing over the break, I might ahve done a bit too much of that as Jared was getting a little restless the last couple days of the break. But I had to recuperate! I'm not sure if I'm quite done recuperating, but oh well, back to work!
I still find time to regenerate in the hot tub.





We've been trying to spend a little extra time with Gabe and Heidi Carpenter because Gabe reports for duty next week and will be out of state for a good part of this year. We had a dinner and game night and last night was Lucy's birthday so the kids got to go to a party in Eagle Mountain and then Pirate Island! They didn't come home til 9:30! On a school night! I was trying not to let my OCD work me up over that, I was in class that evening and didn't have a lot of control over where they were. In retrospect, Jared and I should have driven to PI after my class, but we didn't realize they were goin gto be there that long! The kids had a blast. Now I need to get on their backs about their homework...
Happy 2011!