Mothers

I know that it is past Mother's Day but I think that Mother's deserve our tribute every day.  I just came across this song and just had to share it. I am grateful for my mother and all other women who helped me become the woman and mother I am today.

Fun in the Sun

Yesterday I had the chance to look after my sister Rita's kids. We played outside in the sun. We picked up Mady and Bodi on our way to the house and they joined in the fun. What a fun day. We had pizza for dinner before Quinn picked up his kids. Here are some pictures. I promise Abby wasn't burned. I think it is the reflection from her bathing suit.

Avengers

Saturday afternoon I decided that my Mother's Day gift would be to take the whole family to see the Avengers.  Collin was so surprised.  Emily was proud of herself for keeping a secret.  We took the kids to the matinee as it is much cheaper.  Collin was a little restless through the middle of the movie.  He kept peering over the chairs to the people sitting below us.  They both LOVED the movie.  I loved the movie too.  Lots of fun.  Collin kept naming all the characters and impersonating them.  Very cute. 

Emily and her "new" bike

Saturday we went to Rita's house for a Scentsy party.  While we were there I received a phone call from my friend Marjanna who offered to give us a bike for Emily.  We picked it up on our walk home.  Emily was SOOOO excited.  She has wanted one for awhile.  It even came with training wheels.  She practiced for hours on Saturday in from of our house.  She doesn't have a helmet yet so that is all she is allowed to do.  She wanted Grandma Hull to see her new bike (because she was talking to her about it on the phone) so we quickly snapped these pictures Sunday and emailed them to her.  Emily was so excited to show Grandma how she can turn.  She said, "Grandma will be so proud of my turn."  I love it.  She was sad that there is no bike riding on the Sabbath but she had a count down till when she could take the bike out on Monday.  Rita has one for Collin so now we will just need to figure out how to get them for Landon and I on our limited budget.  :)  (Don't mind the missing doors that go in from of our laundry machines.  I had to take them off to paint the kitchen and haven't gotten around to putting them back up.)  Another great thing about these pictures is the dress Emily is wearing.  She wore it for Christmas when she was two.  It is a 4T.  It went down to her ankles.  She has gotten bigger but still loves her polka dot dress.  In another month or two it won't fit.  :)

Mother's Day 2012

Here are some pictures taken on Mother's Day.  I love my kids but Mother's Day does not have the greatest track record for us.  This year Collin decided to be extra sensitive so it was an interesting day.  :)  But overall I love my kids and the blessings they are to me.  :)I was using Collin's umbrella for an object lesson in my primary class so he decided to be Penguin in the picture.  He also chose his outfit.  Love the tie. :)

We walked by to say Happy Mother's day to Rita and I had Landon take a picture of us on my new to me phone I got for Mother's Day from my husband.

Fun Picture

Here is a picture of the "new" me.  :)  Landon took this last night and I thought I would post it.  I love being comfortable in my own body!

New family tradition

When I graduated from Utah State University my Grandma Knoll gave me a "graduation" owl. He wears a graduation cap that says 2002 on it. Emily found it the other day and has been carrying it around with her. She told me that it is her graduation owl and she thanked me for giving it to her. She had "graduation" pictures on Tuesday for preschool. She has a matching cap at school and wants the owl to go with her to her graduation ceremony next Friday. I told her how I had gotten it and she was excited that it was being passed on to her. Not that I had much choice. I told her when Landon graduates then she can pass it on to him. She looked at me and said, "dad already graduated. That is why he is a grownup and not a little boy." I love my daughter. Thanks Grandma for a great keepsake to pass around our family.

Funny kids

Emily says last night: "Mom remember how Grandma and Grandpa in Powell River have a farm."
A little confused I reminded her they didn't have a farm.
Emily replied the way you answer a person who has a hard time understanding someone, "MOM, they have a barn." (talking to me like I am and idiot.)
So mom and dad you have a farm because you have a barn.

During the regional broadcast Collin was looking at the screen and he says very excitedly, "Look it's Grandpa Palmer."
It took a minute for me to realize that the man had a round face and hairline like my father in law. Collin was a little sad when I said it wasn't grandpa. So Mel, Collin thinks you are a general authority. It was so cute how excited he was that Grandpa was on the screen. :)

Beautiful Spring Weekend

What a fabulous weekend!
Friday night we hung out at home as a family. It rained so the kids went out and jumped in mud puddles. Collin does not have rain boots so he was soaked. We went out and bought him some (and picked up needed groceries.) Emily and I potted a few pots for the front of the house. Just a laid back night.
Saturday we all slept in and the cleaned the house. It took a couple of hours but the house looked fabulous. I spent some time this week weeding out baby toys and unplayed with toys. The toy room feels much bigger. Emily and I mowed the lawn while Landon went to the store to get the gas and oil needed for our weed eater. Our lawn mower refuses to start so my friend Alicia was nice enough to let us use hers. Emily kept showing her muscles as she helped me push the mower. It was hilarious. When we took the mower back Alicia wasn't home so we just left it in the garage. Emily asked me if she could go in their house because she had never been inside before. She seemed confused when I told her that wasn't appropriate. We headed over to our friends Kim and Jason's beautiful home for a BBQ. They invited over some other families and we enjoyed good food and fun times. We had to run just before 7 because of the adult session of stake conference. We met our babysitter at our house and headed out. My sister Rita gave a beautiful talk. We sat with our friends Shane and Amber. Good company and fabulous talks. It doesn't get much better.
Sunday we slept in and went to the regional broadcast at the stake center. More wonderful talks. I love the spirit that comes from listening to general authorities. We were home by noon so I decided to make homemade chicken pot pie. I rebought my favorite cookbook (Pioneer Woman Cooks) as Naomi Inherited it when she got married. There is a great recipe in it for pot pie. I also made her recipe for chocolate sheet cake. So good. My mom called and we visited while I cooked. We decided to go out for a walk after dinner as we were more than stuffed. Rita let us borrow her jogging stroller so went went for a long walk. I wanted to drop off my friend Delilah's baby gift and she invited us to visit with them in their back yard. Her two youngest are Emily and Collin's age so they had a blast and it was fun to get to know her husband Dustin more.
They shared with us how excited they are for their baby boy Jasper to join their family in just a few weeks. They had been told that she would be unable to become pregnant and so they started fostering children. They have adopted 3 beautiful children all within two years. A miraculous story when you listen to them. Their youngest adopted child was two years old when she found out she was pregnant. She had a one percent chance of caring full term. Now they are two weeks away. Dustin shared with us how exciting it is that this will be the first child that they can love right away because he is theirs right away. He said that as hey have adopted their other children they loved them but tried not to get attached because they knew that until the papers are signed that the children could be taken. I had never thought about that before. It was wonderful to watch them interact as a family.
After leaving them we stopped by to say "congrats" to our friend Elizabeth who graduated this weekend from ISU. We ended up visiting with them for an hour while our kids played. It was a lot of fun. Collin fell asleep on the way home do Emily and I dropped Landon and Collin off before heading back to Rita's to drop off the stroller. A perfect spring evening. Only three more weeks until school is out and we can do this more often. So excited!

Finally!

I bought a cute pair of jeans from Buckle 1 year after I married Landon. I loved them. But by the time I had Emily they fit a little tight. Then after I had Emily I gave up ever fitting in them again. I was going to send them to the second hand store but a part of me just couldn't bear to do it. So they were packed away in a box. I didn't look at them again until we moved to Idaho. By that time I had Collin and I couldn't get them over my thighs. My sister, sister in laws, and good friends all seemed to lose their baby weight while mine seemed desperate to stay. Every January I dig out my exercise videos, drop a few pounds and think I am going to beat it this time. This last January was different. My friend Suzie had made me promise that after she had her son I would go to the exercise classes up at ISU with her. When she reminded me in December about my promise I was less than enthusiastic. But true to my word I went. Our friend Lorilee joined in and now I felt like I had to go because people were counting on me. After a doctor's appointment I had a goal weight set which was attainable and healthy. I started out strong as I was also having to report to my school nurse my progress due to a school district competition. By February I was a little discouraged as I had only lost 2 pounds. This was the smallest weight loss I have ever gotten in a month even though I was working out a 100 times harder, spent many sore days and was eating healthier. By the end of February I had not lost any more than those two pounds but I had gone down one pant size. March didn't see Any changes. By April I was discouraged. Then I went to see my little sister and she and my mom couldn't believe the changes. Everything had been gradual so I hadn't noticed losing the second pant size. No weight loss but I will take losing pant sizes. In the month of April I was able to lose 4 pounds due to cutting sugar out of my diet during the week. I am now 8 pounds from my goal. So tonight I decided to chance the pants from my past. They fit! My belly may hang over more than I'd like but they fit without me having to suck in, lay down, etc. It has been a long journey but because I have worked hard and it has been gradual with no dieting I hope thatI can maintain this. I just had to share because lately positive thoughts have had a hard time getting through the daily stresses. I am close to my goal and hope to meet it by the time I see my family in July. No pictures yet but soon we will get new family pictures and then I will post them. A big thanks tithe family and friends who have noticed the subtle changes and encouraged me not to give up. Thanks!

I picked up the book "Fearless" by Tim Lott at our school book fair.  It sounded like it would have an interesting storyline.  The book was predictable but thought provoking.  It was an easy read but left me thinking.  I found parallels to what is going on in the world today.  I cried through the ending. It reminded me of the innocent confidence our children place on us.  I highly recommend this book.  I am glad that I added it to my personal library.

Kids are so funny

We have had a great Easter weekend. I will write more about it later. I just wanted to record some funny things the kids said this weekend. Collin climbed in our bed this morning and said that a red spider was going to bite him and he would become spiderman. And then he told me Emily was going to bitten by a pink spider and she would become pink spiderman. And they would fight bad guys together. After watching the movie Hop Collin told us the Easter Bunnies poop jellybeans and pee frosting. We just laughed and laughed.
When got home from work on Friday Emily asked me to come and watch her exercise. She loves to watch me run on the elliptical or do sit ups etc. for 15 minutes she went through her version of my exercises plus a few of her own. (such as hanging upside down on the elliptical.) At the end she was panting and told me that now she was strong. It was really cute. I loved that she exercises to be strong. I try hard not to talk about wanting to lose weight in front of her. I always tell her that exercising makes me feel strong and healthy. I loved that she wanted to show me how she is getting strong.

Easter Tree

My mom used to read a book about an Easter Tree when I was just a kid. From that book she cooked the cookie in the story that had an egg in it and taught us how to hollow out eggs and paint them. Some of my favourite memories. I found the book the other day at Barnes and Noble's website. I bought it. It arrived yesterday. I had forgotten how beautiful the pictures are. I didn't remember that it talks about Dutch Easter traditions. Emily wanted me to read it to her right away! She loved the story and at the end she wanted to make our own Easter Tree. We went to Joann's to pick up a "tree" and some smaller decorative eggs so that I wouldn't have to paint too many. Emily stood next to me and directed me to what I was to paint. They are definitely not professional and not as nice as my moms but Emily declared them all beautiful and was so happy in the end. That just makes the whole thing worth it! Can you find the "C" and "E" eggs? They were Emily's idea. She painted the E herself with glitter paint so it is a little hard to read.

(The photo was taken on "my" new ipad. Our principal got them for us and I get to use it as long as I am employed here. :) It has been fun and my students are loving it today because I found some fun math apps.)

Techno Whiz?

If you want a picture of my son you better want to have a picture of the ipod or DS as well. He is a little addicted. We've started weaning him this week because we feel kind of bad about it. But it is so cute to hear him talk about the games he is playing. :) I downloaded cake and candy maker apps and Collin makes treats and then shares them with me. :)

(Do you like the Thor poster in the back I made for Collin's birthday? It stayed up for the rest of the month because Collin liked having it there and I was too lazy to take it down. It finally came down this last weekend. Oh and soon after this picture Collin finally got his hair cut. It was needed!)

New Books

I received a list of 21 fiction and non-fiction YA books from the Middle Level Conference. I have read a few books off of the list and I have not been disappointed. I thought I would put them in this blog to share them with my friends and families. The first three are the ones I have read. I have another two sitting by my bed. I put beside them if they are fiction and non-fiction. It is because of this list that I ended up reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik. Awesome book.

1. Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin - Fabulous book! Will be reading this with my students to help them have a better grasp on what it was like for people during Stalin's reign.
2. Under the Mesquite by Guadelupe Garcia McCall - The book was written in prose and I found it an emotional read. It is semi-autobiographical.
3. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys - All I can say is WOW! This is a part of history that I sadly must say I did not know much about. That will be changing. So powerful.
4. Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (semi autobiographical) Excited because I really like his other books.
5. Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (semi-autobiographical)
6. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (so excited to read this because I loved her other books.) (fiction)
7. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznik (fiction)
8. The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen (fiction) -this won an award for fiction that moves forward the cause for special needs teens
9. Soldier Bear by Bibi Duman Tak - Fiction, Based on a true story from WWII
10. Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck by Margarita Engle (Nonfiction in verse) She is from Cuba and all of her books are about Cuba's history
11. Heart & Soul: The Story of American and African Americans by Kadir Nelson (Non Fiction with beautiful paintings also done by the author)
12. Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka (So excited for this picture book. The pictures are adorable the the Haikus are hilarious)
13. Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Pupeteer of Macy's Parade by Melissa Sweet (Non Fiction Picture Book)
14. Black & White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene 'Bull' Connor by Lary Dane Brimmmer Excited to read this and his other "Birmingham Sunday"
15. Drawing From memory by Allen Say (Memoir/auto biographical) Picture Book
16. The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Advendture, Heroism & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin (Non Fiction written in the style of a Fiction book) The woman who recommended this book says that she and her husband couldn't put it down.
17. Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed their World by Allan Drummond (Non - Fiction Picture book)
18. Fatty Legs: A True Story by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Polikiak Fenton (Non Fiction story about Margaret Pokiak-Fenton's experience in a church run school in Aklavik, Canada)
19. Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science by Marc Aronson & Marina Budhos (Non Fiction)
20. Wheels of Change: How Women rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) by Sue Macy (Non Fiction) SO EXCITED!
21. Ubiquitous by Joyce Sidman (Non Fiction, picture book of poems about nature, organisms, plants and animals) Perfect book for boys.

The majority of these books are at the local public library so I will be able to borrow them. The others I will track down eventually. Since the first three books I have read and the two books I have read by authors mentioned here have been awesome I am excited to make my way through this list. I will let you know how Scorpio Races goes. :) Happy Reading!

Our Baton Girl

A month ago Emily was able to pick a treasure from the treasure chest at preschool for her good behavior. She picked out a baton. It was glittery and all that goodness. She has LOVED it. Somehow she and her friend caused a crack in the handle and so it leaks water and glitter. I have been unable to find the tape to close it up so the baton has been up so that I don't worry about the mess. Tonight I came home from the crazy day trip to Boise to find both of my kids asleep. Emily was in her supergirl costume from Halloween. As I moved her upstairs she woke a little and started talking in her sleep. She asked for her baton. Since it still doesn't have tape on it I was worried about what to do. Luckily Emily fell right back asleep. But I glanced at her sparkly pink supergirl outfit and at the glittery baton and I thought what a funny girl she is. She will be able to twirl her baton in her glittery pink outfit. So funny!

Dinner Invitations

It is the running joke in our ward to see how long you can go before getting an invite to dinner at the Palmer house. :) I don't mind. I do like inviting people over. I took advice from my mom when I first moved here. If I wanted to have friends I would have to make the first move. I couldn't sit around and wait for people to initiate. I needed to be the first. It was hard the first year. I felt I spent a lot of time inviting but many didn't come and there wasn't much reciprocation. Then Lorilee moved into my ward last August. By the end of September we were good friends. I had met alot of people in the ward but it wasn't until Lorilee moved in that I started to make friendships. I don't know if it was the security of her friendship or just timing but things began to change. I had stopped inviting people over as often after we got back from Canada. I was just too tired and overwhelmed. But starting in October I started up again. Landon was a wonderful supportive husband who allowed me to invite random people over all the time. And I have now had two people say the same thing after I have invited them over. One was after I had invited Sara, her husband and her adorable son Charlie over for dinner. (Think Ice Age baby and you know what Charlie looks like.) As they were leaving that night she said, "Now I feel like we are apart of the ward. We have friends." Today I invited the Kavans over for dinner. They sit in front of us in primary. Today I thought she might be pregnant but didn't want to ask. I did ask a member of the primary presidency and she didn't know. We laugh all the time with them. I have been meaning to ask them over for awhile. After primary I mentioned that I was sorry the invitation was coming after being in the ward for so long but I was wondering if they wanted to come for dinner. (They moved into the ward in June right after they got married. He is just finishing his counselling degree and she is finishing her social worker internship.) Heidi is usually really quiet but she quickly said, "Yes! What can I bring?" I explained that Landon was leaving after church for three days but what day after Wednesday would work for them. They said next Sunday so we set the date. He then said, "Do you guys actually want to be friends with us? Its felt like all people do is call and ask us to do something and we don't know anyone. We thought that Heidi being pregnant would get us an in since everyone is pregnant." They hadn't had anyone in the ward to share their news with. And she is almost 20 weeks along! I assured them we did really want to be there friends and they will find that lots of other do to. I am so glad that I took my mom's advice and reached out first. I have made many friends and have helped others make connections and friendships. I am not saying this because I think I am better than others I am far from perfect at this. I just want to make sure that I can remember the advice when I start to feel lonely and to pass it on to my kids. The next family on my list is a new family to our ward that is a blended family with 8 kids. Both came to the marriage with 4 kids each (between the ages of 11 and 3). They both have custody so it makes for a full house. His name is Jon so Landon always forgets her name because he wants to call her Kate. Landon even agreed to me inviting them over. Now that is a miracle. :)

Friday and Saturday

On Friday I headed to Idaho Falls for the Idaho Middle Level Conference. It was AWESOME! It was probably one of the best conferences I have ever gone to. I am a better educator because of what I learned. Lots of laughter and lots of great ideas. Not going to bore anyone but it was a lot of fun. Jack Berkemeyer was the keynote and he had me laughing the whole time. He really helped put into perspective what it is to be a middle level teacher. I found out about a great site called whole brain teaching. It has been around for awhile but I wish I had known about it 10 years ago when I first started teaching. It is awesome. Rita was fabulous and took our kids for Friday night so Landon could come stay with me in Idaho Falls. He was leaving for the annual three day fishing trip with his dad and brother on Sunday so it was nice to get some time together before he left. We got some shopping done and had a great dinner together. I am so grateful he is my husband. The conference ended on Saturday at 11:30. We headed back to Pocatello, picked up the kids, bathed the kids, did some grocery shopping, and watched Hugo after a brilliant dinner made by Landon. We will miss him while he is gone but it was a really nice weekend.

Our Little Man

I picked up some new church clothes for Collin. He was loving them this morning. Landon took the pictures on his phone. He forgot to send me the one of Collin playing on the ipod touch. It was priceless. Check out our little man! (I am setting up a hair appointment for Collin as his hair has gotten out of control!)

Mel Hammel

(I swiped the above picture from his daughter's facebook page. I hope that is okay Sally. I just loved how he is singing and smiling. Just the way I will always remember him.)
My Great Uncle, Melvin Charles Hammel passed away today at the age of 88. My dad called me today to let me know. I am so glad I picked up my phone even if it meant I had to leave a meeting. To hear my dad give me the news was the strength I needed to make it through the rest of the day. Uncle Mel became a surrogate grandfather to me after both of my grandfathers passed away when I was 4. He told me a couple of years ago that he felt that the best gift he could give to his best friend Ray (my dad's father) was to look after his family. And he did. Uncle Mel and Aunt Rita are in many of my childhood memories. They came up from California to visit us in BC and Alberta. They even visited me when I was at Utah State University. They were welcoming to my husband at every family reunion. Landon loved sitting and listening to Mel tell stories. I will always remember his voice when he sang. I could listen to him sing for hours or just tell stories. This last November on Veterans Day I felt strongly to write him a letter thanking him for the service he gave during WWII. I talked about what a great influence he was in my life and that I would pass that knowledge on to my children. My parents were able to visit with Mel and Rita a few weeks ago. They went down and spent a week with them. I talked to my dad after the visit and he talked about how wonderful the trip was. How Mel and Rita sat and told stories about my grandparents, their lives, the war, everything. He told me that Mel mentioned how my letter had made him happy because he worries that people will forget the sacrifices made. I am grateful my parents were able to make it down to spend time making a few more memories. Life is so precious and fragile. I know that Mel is up in heaven causing havoc and singing his heart out; waiting somewhat patiently for his wife to join him. I am grateful for the knowledge that I will see him again one day. Thank-you Uncle Mel for your love, your example, and your generosity. My life is better because you have been in it.

Mel and Rita

One of the greatest Love Stories ever and its REAL