Give Me LIberty Award

I am so proud of Jase for taking on the challenge of earning the fifth grade "Give Me Liberty Award." It is quite a challenge. The students who earn the award are required to memorize the following:

The Pledge of Allegiance (written)
The Pledge of Allegiance (in Sign Language)
The Preamble to the Constitution (recited)
The Star Spangled Banner (recited or sung)
The names of our Presidents in the order they served (recited)
The 50 States and their capitals (named and located)
The USA and continents located on the world map
The Gettysburg Address (recited)
A line from the Declaration of Independence (recited)
The Symbols of the United States of America (recited)
The Symbols of the State of Utah (recited)
The Symbols of "Old Glory"

That is a lot of information to remember! Jase learned the names of the US Presidents by listening to the Animaniacs President's Song on the Internet. He had the the whole song down within a couple of days. He was singing it at school and his teacher came and listened and passed him off for the presidents. He said that kids kept coming up and saying, "Sing the song -- I want to hear it!" He even got to sing it for the Principal. He has finished over half of the above list including the States and Capitals. Here is a practice quiz for the US States, now we just need to get going on the Gettysburg Address. Does anyone know a good song for that one?

Depressing!

We recently decided to refinance our home to take advantage of the current low interest rates on mortgage loans. Yesterday morning the appraiser came. I had mopped the kitchen floor and cleaned the bathrooms the day before and then yesterday morning I frantically ran around making beds, clearing off counters and vacuuming floors. I was pleased with the result and felt like the house looked pretty nice overall considering having seven children and limited time. I wasn't overly stressed about it anyway since it wasn't like we were trying to sell our house or anything and I figured the appraisal would probably be mostly about measurements and comparable house prices.

Well, the appraisal came back with extremely disappointing results -- over $150,000 LESS than the last time we had our house appraised (a couple of years ago) -- and not even high enough to re-finance! We were shocked. We didn't get a choice in the appraiser and apparently this one is always low (from what we have heard after the fact). But the description and pictures of our house are depressing -- and embarrassing! I felt like they showed all of the worst aspects of our beloved home! I mean how dare he take a picture of my laundry room on laundry day! Okay, so everyday is laundry day, but that's not the point. Not only was it already messy, but in my quest to quickly clean up our living areas, I threw even more stuff in the laundry room to hide it. And he took a picture of that! Gee, thanks.

He also took a picture of the hole where Jase's feet when through the sheet-rock while mattress surfing down the stairs. We did get that hole fixed, by the way, but never got around to repainting it to match the rest of the wall. Of course he had to get a picture of our carpet stains and the broken curtains in the boys' room... and the playpen in the master bathroom.

As an aside -- we really do need new carpet -- BAD! But just haven't been willing to fork out the money yet, especially since we don't know how long it would stay looking nice with so many messy kids running around. I really would like to get some though and think it would give a tremendous face lift to our home. But, anyway, back to the appraisal -- we are going to get a second opinion but it still makes me depressed. Now everywhere I look I see stains on the carpet, drawing on the walls, dirt on the base boards, broken shutters, and smudges all over the doors. Sigh!

Pinky Promise

Our girls are either best friends, or at each other's throats. I overheard them "making up" after a fight. It was so cute!

Jaiden: "Sorry Janelle"
Janelle: "Apology accepted"
Jaiden: "Will you forgive me?"
Janelle: "Yes, I forgive you"
Jaiden: "Friends forever?"
Janelle: "Friends forever!"
Jaiden: "Pinky promise?"
Janelle: "Pinky promise!"

Gotta love these girls...

Jenna's Four Month Appt.

Yesterday I brought Jenna in for her 4 month well-check. (She will be four months in another week). She weighs 13.32 lbs (52%) and is 25.2" (89%) long. The percents are down from her last check-up but that is still BIG for one of our babies who are usually somewhere around the 5th percentile. Even our Pediatrician said, "wow, where did that come from?" (Must be all that gluten-free milk she gets from me!)

She has gotten so much easier and is really pretty mellow. She has been sleeping all through the night for several weeks now. (Even with sharing a room with a four and two year old!) Last night she slept from 8:30 p.m. until 7:30 a.m.! So for the most part we get a good night's sleep. She is exclusively nursing (and won't take a bottle which makes it a little difficult sometimes on the nights I teach my class.) Usually our babies have gone back and forth from nursing to a bottle just fine but I guess we didn't give her enough practice in the beginning and now she refuses anything else!

Secret's Out!

We have a secret. We have one of the best baby-sitters out there living right under our roof. Rick and I usually go out every Friday night. We get a much needed break from the kids and it is a time to re-connect with each other. We used to always have to hire baby-sitters, but now we have one at home. Janika baby-sits for us each weekend and doesn't seem to mind since we let her invite a friend and they have a fun time with the kids. They will have a movie or dance party and eat popcorn and treats. They do a great job and always fix dinner for the kids and clean it all up.

Well, last night a family in our ward called Janika to baby-sit. Usually she is already taken (by us) but since we didn't have any definite plans yet I told her she could go ahead and accept. Well it came as no surprise that the kids loved her (and so did the parents). She played with the kids, fixed dinner, cleaned it up, washed their dishes and put their babies to bed. She had a great time and came home a couple of hours later $20.00 richer. I thought, "On no! Now she won't want to baby-sit for us!" The mom immediately called me to rave about how wonderful she was. She said that Janika would definitely be their first pick from now on!

Maybe I'll have to schedule her a week in advance from now on...

Interpreter Workshop

I just got back from a day-long interpreting workshop. Interpreters need to have twenty hours a year of workshop hours in order to maintain certification. I always learn something new and come away with a little extra motivation to study and practice more on my own. Today's workshop was on classifiers and was taught by Val Sturm. She is extremely knowledgeable in the field and is a highly skilled interpreter and presenter. She is also quite entertaining -- we were laughing all throughout the workshop.

It is fun to be able to learn and also interact with friends, fellow interpreters, and former students. I also had the opportunity to meet other interpreters from other areas who drove or flew in for the workshop. The only drawback was that I had to bring the baby. She was pretty good but by 11:00 a.m. I had already fed her three times and changed her twice! She didn't cry at all but was still a little noisy babbling away and I worried that she might be a distraction to the others. I had plenty of offers to hold her though and she was a little better in the afternoon. At least she took a few naps (not long, but enough for a little break at least).

I came home and was mauled by the kids. You would think that they hadn't seen me in a week. Jaiden practically knocked me over! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the whole house was clean and the laundry was finished! Way to go Rick (and kids)! Wow -- I ought to get out more often!

Josh's Head Stuck in Stair Railing

Josh -- don't put your head through there or it will get....oh no! Too late! Poor Josh! It took us several minutes to get his head out. It was pretty traumatic!

Jenna's pictures

We are in the process of updating the pictures of the kids, but Jenna just won't cooperate! I tried and tried to get her to smile but all I got was this...


and this...

Apparently shaking a rattle in front of her face and saying her name over and over in that sing-songy voice just wasn't doing it for her!

Then she got bored and starting chewing her fingers...

She did get a little playful...

I finally got a LITTLE smile!

Of course right after I finished my hour long photo session and put her down she flashed the biggest, happiest smile ever --with no camera in sight. Sheeze! And why does this keep underlining everything I am typing?? I don't see a button to add or delete underlining. This is driving me crazy!

The Power is Out!

Tonight the power went off in our whole area. I remembered how excited I would get as a kid whenever the power went off. It spiced up an ordinarily boring evening. We would grab flashlights and candles and play games or tell stories (or pretend that the world was coming to an end). Tonight was the same way. The little ones were scared at first but they got over it quickly as they caught the excitement from their older siblings. Soon they were all running around with little flashlights. The little finger lights that they got from their Uncle Kyle for Christmas have really gotten a lot of use! (I also found out that they read in bed with them or use them for middle of the night trips to the bathroom!) Janika and Jase started lighting candles all over the house. Janika said that she was in charge of the "light committee." She has to have a name for everything (just like her dad). But I was a little disgruntled that she lit all of my decorative candles that I use simply for ornamentation!

How nice it was to get a little break from all of our technology (even if it interrupted Jared's home run on the Wii -- sorry Jared!) For just 26 minutes there was no television, no computer, no phone (we have Vonage and so it doesn't work without the Internet), and no stereo. We had to go outside just to look at all of the stars that were suddenly so clear without the invasion of house or street lights. It reminded me of when we lived in Ivins. There weren't any street-lights there and we lived right next to the mountains and the stars were always so bright and beautiful. We don't see that as often here. Just as we were enjoying the beautiful quiet night sky, however, our reverie was rudely disrupted by all of the lights coming back on. So we turned them all off again and ended the evening with stories by candlelight.

Atoms

Janika is learning about Atoms in her Science class. She came home from school and wanted to try a science project that she did at school. Apparently you get inside a garbage bag (not your head of course -- that would be dangerous) and then someone sucks out all of the air with a vacuum. Then you try to break yourself free -- which is difficult since there is no air inside it and all of the atoms in the air are pushing in on the bag from the outside. (At least that was the explanation she gave me).

Nice spandex, Jase! This activity kept all of the kids entertained for about an hour with all of them trying it. She tried it on her friend Madison too. Maybe they will start a new fashion trend.






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ASL Class

I started teaching American Sign Language at the college this week. I have taught ASL for about 12 years. (Three years at SLCC and nine years here). I only have time for one class which is held in the evenings. I always loved it but then decided to stop after Josh was born. I was pregnant with him the last time I taught the class and had zero energy. Every time I trudged up all those flights of stairs to my classroom I thought, "I am never doing this again!" He was born near the end of the Semester and I gave notice for the college to find a replacement for the next Fall (which they did). But now almost three years later, the other teacher moved and so I was approached again and asked if I would be interested in teaching the class. I thought this would be a great time to pick it up again. I am glad I did. I have a small class -- only five students. They are motivated and have great skills. Teaching is nice because I get a break from kids and housework a couple of nights a week. It also gives my husband the opportunity to step in and fix dinner and spend more time with the kids. Of course a little extra income is always nice too!

Janika: Reflections Council Winner!

Janika was one of the council winners for her Reflections song! After winning her local contest, she went on to the next level, which was out of all of the schools in our district (I think). They ended up with three winners overall for her age group in musical composition and she was one of them. Now she goes on to the next level and one of the three will be chosen to go Region (or State?). I am not sure how it works. Way to go Janika!

You can hear the song below!!

 

Pajama Pants

For Christmas Jani got a sewing machine -- sort of. We actually already had one, but it had problems with the tension and so we brought it in to the shop to get it up and running again. So she got that along with some sewing supplies, material, and a pattern for pajama pants. Grandma Jensen helped Janika make the PJ' pants while we were up there over Christmas Break. The pattern was a little big and so they turned out baggy, but they are cute! Maybe she can make some for the whole family now!

Happy New Year!!

Cheers to the bottom...
Cheers to the top!
If there wasn't any bottom...
There wouldn't be a drop!

(I swear, Rick does that little rhyme every single year...)

Rick likes to make fancy
hors d' oeuvres (you can bet I had to look that one up!) on New Year's Eve but the bacon wrapped asparagus and shrimp didn't go over very well...
luckily Janika made some jello -- that's always a big hit.

We wanted to do some games that everyone could play. First we did the game where everyone chooses an animal sound and you clap in a rhythm and go around the circle and take turns calling out someone's animal sound. Then that person has to hurry and do someone else's animal sound while keeping the rhythm. They did pretty well but every time we did Jaiden's "woof woof," she wouldn't name off someone else's animal sound -- instead she would start panting and running on all fours.

Then we played hide-and-go-seek. Jaiden was my partner. I made it to "safe" before Jase found me and then went back to help Jaiden get to safe. Jase heard me and not wanting to give Jaiden's hiding place away I quickly said, "It's just me!" But then Jaiden also piped up, "It's just me!"

We toasted to the New Year (at 9:00) for the younger kids and then the three oldest stayed up until midnight (playing Wii games). It was a little anti-climatic since we turned on the TV a minute too late to see "the ball drop" (our clocks must have been slow) but then we could hear some firecrackers outside -- evidence that the New Year had arrived.

I wonder what exciting things 2009 will bring???