Mistakes

I make plenty of mistakes, but I have this friend who thinks I do it all, all of the time. She obviously doesn't live here :)

Yesterday I had a lot of things on my plate, and a lot of girls that showed up for our activity...nine girls total, mostly eight years old. Things were a bit crazy as we were learning and making bread that I did something I have never done before. I left out the yeast. Who leaves out the yeast? Apparently I had other things on my mind. I was totally doing to take a picture and post it, but my kind husband disposed of it for me before I got the camera out. I could hardly believe how dense that bread was. Hopefully I won't make that mistake again, but anything can happen :)

Crazy Day

This has seriously been a packed day, but I haven't blogged in a few and I have a few spare minutes...literally.

We were scheduled to go on a preschool field trip today, but did not have enough parents who were willing to go, so it was canceled and normal classes were held. In my morning class (4-5 yr olds) during play time one student discovered that by rubbing blocks together it was make an elk or goose call. I was impressed that she knew what those sounded like. My afternoon class was filled with meltdowns at random points because of things like: "don't look at me", "don't touch me", "she won't share a train", "I don't want to sit by ___". Most of those comments coming from a student that usually doesn't have issues. Maybe it was a rough morning??

Next I have 5-10 eight and nine year old girls coming over for an activity, learning how to make bread, and tying blankets to donate to Primary Children's Hospital. My kitchen needs to be clean (nothing too major :)) before that happens.

Finally our evening is ending with family meeting a new friend of ours, visiting, playing games, eating food :)

I have work to do :)

the day after

I honestly feel like the day after Thanksgiving is a wasted work day. Brett's company lets them use vacation time if they would like it off. He would have liked it off, but he (and a few others on the project) had a Monday 8 am deadline. So, I dropped him off for work, hit up the new outlet stores (lots of fun, cute places), then finished up with some online Christmas shopping.

Brett only worked until 1, then we headed to a lunch with all my extended family. It was so good for so many of us to be together. There were relatives I hadn't seen in years (and we are only talking my grandparents and their posterity). There were people that Brett had never met. We helped with set up, ate a great meal together, and enjoyed visiting for a while.

On the way home that evening Brett and I decided to go see The Rise of the Guardians. We really hadn't heard much about it. We barely made it to the theater by show time, then waited 45 minutes while the theater tried to get the projector to work....it failed and lots of people were unhappy. There was another showing in a theater they owned close by that we were able to get into :) It was a fantastic way to end our day, and a movie we would both recommend. I loved the little lessons it taught. As we were leaving I told Brett is made my heart happy....just what we needed!

Thanks

I really try to be a grateful person. I feel like all too much there are children that are (or feel they are) entitled to certain things just because they are them. I want my children to realize the value of work, how to work for something, and that things aren't just handed out for free. I had a conversation with an 11 year old the other day and she was talking about going to sixth grade camp and taking her ipod (which is really an iphone 3 she inherited from her mom when her mom upgraded, there just isn't phone service on it). I told her that I had worked at camps and that things can get lost or stolen or broken and it likely wasn't a good idea. I was amazed when she looked at me and said, "It doesn't matter. It didn't cost anything." Which is when we had a little conversation about even though she didn't pay for it, someone did, and is wasn't free.

So, I am thankful for parents who taught me (and my husband, and his parents) to work. I earned money to buy things I wanted. I knew the value because I work for things.

I am so grateful for family. We will have around 60 people together today with my grandparents to have a family dinner together.

I am grateful for a great husband who works hard to provide for our family. He is such a great person and always has such a positive outlook on life.

I am grateful for good neighbors who look out for and care for each other.

I an grateful for Christmas time. I truly think it is "the most wonderful time of the year". I have been listening to Christmas music for a while now because it just makes me happy.

There are so many things in this life to be thankful for. I'm glad to be reminded at this time of the year what so many of them are!

Thanksgiving Break

As soon as I finished preschool for Thanksgiving break I headed out the door to deliver gifts to people in our ward area for Christmas. We have a lot of condos in our area. I did 96 flights of stairs yesterday. Needless to say my legs have been a bit sore. We just shared a Christmas story of service with an ornament a friend help me paint (we had 150 to do).

I typically try to get up with Brett and be able to spend some time with him. I was up around 6:30 the other day. Brett and I had breakfast together, and I got his lunch ready so he could head out the door a bit quicker. I did a workout which was a bit hard with how sore my legs were from yesterday. A little later we (friend and twins), headed out to outlets that just opened about 15 minutes away. Its a really nice new place, with lots of great stores. Hopefully there will be some good holiday shopping!

These Two

These two can often be found at our house. They always act nice for us, and they really make us smile. Their mom went home to get dinner ready for dad (who works crazy and awful hours).  We kept them with us, had dinner with them, and shared a little treat. I was getting ready to host book club at our house that night and had to finish making our desert. I made Pumpkin Pie Cake. We did homemade whipped cream to go with it. The girls were here while we made the whipped cream, and we opted to give them beaters. I love how much they loved it! They curled up with Brett afterwards for a story. They love books :)

Project Time

Two of my sisters wanted to learn how to make mitered blankets for their babies, nieces, or nephews. One sister was watching another sister's kids, plus I invited a friend to add to the madness. We ended up with one 4 year old, and five 2 and under :) There was fun had with blocks, trains, and stories! Below are just some fun pictures of all the playing that happened. Sadly, no pictures of their finished projects....we were a bit occupied.

Bribes

I got a text from a friend Friday night that she had used my husband as a bribe to get her 2 year olds to go to bed...and hoped it was ok for them to come visit in the morning. I sent her a text when we got up that they were welcome to come join us for dinosaur pancakes. They loved them. Lillian requested a snake one for her second. They both ate quite well, and we got to play with trains after :)

Kids are Funny

Preschool is my "day in and day out" activity. There have been lots of funny things said by them recently, and thought you might get a good laugh from them as well.

Last week we were learning the word do. I usually use the words we are learning in a sentence so they will know what we are really talking about. After giving them an example one boy said, "I know, Ms. Jenny, like (sang) 'I will go I will do the things the Lord commands.'" I told him that was exactly the right way to use that word.

Often kids sing songs as they work. On Friday, while working, I hear one little girl singing "We will never, ever, ever get back together." It made me laugh a little inside thinking of a five year old singing about never getting back together. I asked her if she liked that song to which she replied, "Yes, but my sister really does." Then I asked her if she knew who sang that song. She looked at me in thought and said, "No...wait. Taylor Swift, I think." I told her that she was right. I wonder if Taylor realizes that 5 year olds know who she is.

One little boy totally brightens my morning. I really enjoy his happiness and enthusiasm for life. He comes to preschool from about 5 homes away. Every morning as soon as he can see me he starts yelling, "Good morning, Ms. Jenny" until he can hear my response. One morning he had been pretending about being on a boat before preschool. That morning my greeting was "Ahoy, Ms. Jenny." I sure love him!