September 2008

Good times at Sea World Posted Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 9:04 AM, CDT by Dawn Well it has been a while since I posted. We were busy with Alyssa’s birthday weekend. We had a small family party on Saturday. I put up decorations as always and we bought an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. She loved all her gifts but the digital camera was her favorite. She has taken so many pictures. Hank made her a file in our family photo album so you all could see. We took her to Sea World on Sunday. We got there when they opened at 10am and stayed until they closed at 6pm. We all got in free thanks to the Solute to the Heroes program. We had such a wonderful time. It was the kids and my first time at Sea World. We saw everything and even rode some rides. The Shamu show was my favorite. When they made Shamu sing it brought tears to my eyes. What a beautiful creature. We sat up front for all the shows, so we got wet. What is the fun in staying dry? We fed the dolphins and Hank touched them. I think that was his favorite part. We also fed the Sea lions. It is the off season so the park wasn’t really crowded. The kids loved everything. We even caught Jordan having a good time. We rented a double stroller. It was big enough to hold all of our stuff and Ashlyn and Amiyah. Ashlyn rode in it a lot. We were glad we had it because she didn’t whine the entire day about being tired. We were able to bring in Juice, water and snacks so we only bought lunch at the park. I had dinner in the crock pot so we had pulled pork sandwiches as soon as we got home. It was a great day and nobody got sunburned. Hank had worked a night shift the night before and he made it through the entire day. What a wonderful dad he is. Because we all got in free we let each kid get something small at the gift shop. Alyssa was able to get a stuffed Shamu. It was her birthday trip so we let her have something a little more expensive than the other 3 kids. I think she may want to be an animal trainer at Sea World when she grows up. I have to say the fact that the animals were in captivity made me a little sad. I then realized that Sea World does do a lot of research. They also do a lot of preservation of all the sea life. I think when people see these fantastic creatures they will be more aware and maybe care a little more about them. Yesterday Amiyah told me “eat” when she was hungry for lunch. She then told me “joosh” when she was thirsty. We bought her a squeaky dolphin at Sea World and she has carried it around for a couple days. She has also developed a fear of glow worm. When she sees it she cries. I went to MOPS again yesterday. They had a guest speaker who talked about power cooking. She basically showed you how to make meals ready to cook and freeze them. I liked the ideas though I will have to put my own spin on them. We decorated aprons. Amiyah did really well in child care. She is such a great baby. All my children are great. The school is trying to nickel and dime us to death. It is school picture time. They are also doing a fall sales thing to raise money for the PTSO. You can buy stuff online so I will post a link. Alyssa will be my only child selling since Ashlyn is already selling peanuts for Girl Scouts. We are not doing school pictures because I am planning to take the kids to JC Penny in the next month or so to get a portrait done. Ashlyn brought home book orders. We will let her get a couple of inexpensive books. Well I am off to start my day. I need to get some cleaning done and get something for dinner. Ashlyn has Girl Scouts tonight. Alyssa starts Art Club tomorrow. She will go every other Wed after school.

We made a paper Ashlyn and got 2 new hamsters. Posted Thursday, September 25, 2008, 10:44 AM, CDT by Dawn Ashlyn’s teacher sent home an outline of Ashlyn on a huge sheet of paper for us to color and make it to look like her as much as possible. Hank drew her face, hair and all her clothes. He did a really good job. When he was done we all colored it. We bought Alyssa a hamster cage and all the trimmings for her birthday. We gave it to her early because Hank is working on Saturday. So we put it in her room yesterday and surprised her when she got home from school. She was so excited and looked for the hamster inside the cage for about 5 minutes. Then we told her she is going right now to pick out her own hamster. We went to Petsmart and got her a male dwarf hamster. I asked the lady who works there if you can put to males together. She said only if they are from the same litter. If you put some unknown male in there later they will fight. Since dwarf hamsters do better with a friend we got a second male. They are adorable. Alyssa is SOOOOOOO excited. We are looking forward to the weekend and celebrating Alyssa’s birthday. I sent frosted cookies to school for her class this morning. I think we may let her open a gift every day until her birthday. Just small gifts. We usually do it this way for her and Ashlyn. Amiyah is to young to care and Jordan’s gifts cost more so he gets fewer. If I gave him a gift a day for a few days he would be out of gifts by the time his birthday rolled around. UE, I got Alyssa’s card in the mail last night. I will give it to her when she gets home. Well I am off to do some cleaning, and have lunch. Oh, Alyssa named her hamsters Hamtaro and Chubby Cheeks. I wanted to name one Jumpy McTaco but she said no.

Ashlyn is doing better. Amiyah pooped in the tub again, but she slept through the night. Posted Sunday, September 21, 2008, 10:03 AM, CDT by Dawn The Doc said Ashlyn had a boarder line UTI. The Lab said she did not. We have the antibiotics and if her symptoms return and worsen we will give the meds to her. So far the UTI seems to have gone away as quickly as it appeared. The Lab is doing a culture on her urine and we will have the results on Monday. I am guessing that it will be clean also. So it seems we have a happy ending. Ashlyn was in a rotten mood the last few mornings. I am making sure she gets enough sleep, but she is still moody sometimes. I make her go to her room until she can treat people kindly. This morning she was in her room for 20 minutes before she would come out and be nice. I tell her that she can be in a bad mood but she can’t be nasty to others. She is in a much better mood now. I talked with her and told her to tell us when she is feeling mean and grumpy and then she can be alone in her room for a while. Amiyah slept in her own crib all night. She didn’t have a middle of the night feeding. She could have dropped the night time feeding a while ago but I didn’t want to fight that battle with her until we moved and got settled. After we unpacked she was teething for about 6 weeks. Her gums even bleed when we brushed her teeth. After we went to see Brad and Tonia the baby wouldn’t sleep in her crib. She went through this for about a month. This issue overlapped with the teething so we think the two problems were related. We got her napping and going to bed in her crib again a few weeks ago. Last night I fed her before I went to bed and then she slept until about 6:30am. I put her in my bed and she slept in with me until 8am. I am so happy to have gotten a good nights sleep. Hank is working a day shift so I got up with him for a while before he left at 6:30am. I got some major cleaning done yesterday. Hank came home from work and gave the girls a bath in the evening. The baby had an encore performance of pooping in the bath tub. I think I will start bathing her in the morning or wait until she poops in the evening. I told Hank he must have that affect on her. She is so happy and relaxed that she poops. I was upstairs cleaning the bathrooms and Amiyah’s room. So I was able to jump in and help him with the girls while he cleaned up the mess. The school had a get together on Friday morning called (Second Cup of Coffee). It was in the library. They talked about all the websites that we have access to through the school. I have to say that this is by far the nicest school library I have ever seen. It was so big, bright, open and new. I guess because they win a lot of awards they get a lot of extra money. Anyway they do this parent meeting once a month. The topics change though. Alyssa’s B-day is coming up fast. She will be 9 on the 27th. She is so big. She is looking forward to Sea World. Hank and I are giving her our old digital camera for one of her gifts. The camera is not worth a whole lot now, but it is in good condition and it takes ok pictures. She will love it. That is her big gift. I love all of your comments and hearing about what you are all doing. I am very blessed to have each of you in my life. I am happy to have elders who are wise and loving. You all put things in perspective and you put me at ease about my life. Thank you for taking the time to keep in contact with me.

Tantrums and a Christmas revelation. Posted Friday, September 19, 2008, 12:17 PM, CDT by Dawn Hank and I had to pick up Ashlyn from school early yesterday. She may have a UTI. I am not sure though she had some of the symptoms and then today she feels a lot better. I am taking her to see the doc this afternoon to be on the safe side. Amiyah is going through the negative toddler faze. She will yell “NO” to you if you ask her a question or try to guide her where you want her to go. All of our kids went through this at about this age. She can throw a wicked temper tantrum now. She will squirm and yell “NO NO NO NO, BOP!” Bop is stop by the way. This usually happens if she is doing something and we have to pick her up to leave whatever it is she is doing. If she is really mad or overtired the no-no’s will be fallowed up by her smacking her teeth together over and over and then taking a couple wacks at you. This may then be accompanied by a head but. I have become wise to her so I hold her in a position where she can’t physically hurt me. Of coarse I tell her not to hit. She will learn. This is a hard age because they don’t understand why they can’t have or do something. They can’t verbalize well so they get frustrated. They also want to assert their independence. Amiyah loves to get down in public but wants to run off or get into things so we then have to carry her or put her in a cart or stroller. Hank is pretty good at distracting her for a little bit. Sometimes she just gets fed up with us and looses her temper. I know it is a faze so I am probably a little more light hearted about her tantrums than some moms may be. Obviously there are times when I get flustered. We bought Ashlyn a new bike yesterday. Though money is tight we owed her one. The movers broke hers. She is so excited to ride it all over the cul-de-sac. Thanks for posting about Christmas. As I was reading the posts I realized we don’t have to be a slave to expensive gifts. Alyssa is not getting an electric scooter. Jordan is probably not getting a cell phone this year. Next year when he turns 16 and can get a part time job, he may get one. Also he will most likely be learning to drive and such so a cell phone will serve a purpose. Right now it is more of a status symbol. Ashlyn will get a Gameboy but for her 6th birthday in Feb. She already has an old hand me down from Alyssa. I figure they were all about 6 when they got one. I think we will focus on the season and do some fun things. We haven’t spent a Christmas in the USA in a long time. I like the clothes idea for gifts. My kids don’t have a lot of winter clothes and they all love new clothes. We have never really done clothes for gifts but we will this year. I love the stockings idea. We haven’t really had the kids get gifts for each other. They can easily do stocking stuffer gifts. Alyssa still believes in Santa. Jordan figured it out the year he was 9. He asked me straight out and I told him the truth and then he said “what about the Easter Bunny?” I then had to spill the truth about that. Then he said “OMG I bet the Tooth Fairy isn’t real either?” I felt so bad. He was upset for a moment and then went about life. I think it helped that he gets to play along with us for his sisters. I am wondering if this is the year that Alyssa figures it out? She is very smart. I wonder if she already knows but plays along for us? I guess we will find out sooner or later. Well I have to take Ashlyn to her apt. I will post again to let you all know how she is.

Bummed about Bible study. Poop surprise at bath time. Posted Thursday, September 18, 2008, 10:27 AM, CDT by Dawn We went to Bible study last night. They have dinner before the study. Hank and I were so uncomfortable we all left before the study. We loved our chapel family in Guam. The chapel here isn’t as nice. People here are not as friendly or helpful. Usually when people realize you are new they are welcoming and try to draw you in. The people here could have cared less. Now MOPS is at the chapel and they were all very nice. But Sunday school and Bible study have been hit and miss for us. We will have to see how future attempts go. Hank gave the girls a bath last night and Amiyah pooped in the bath tub. At least she waited until Ashlyn got out and the water was mostly drained. She was oblivious to how gross it was. Hank and I thought it was funny. I think most kids do this at least once in babyhood. Hank took Alyssa to get her allergy shot before he took her to school. She only has to go once a month. The shots have helped a lot. She hardly has any allergy symptoms anymore. She will have to take them once a month for the next 4 to 5 years. She has dust mite allergies and was on medication for a few years. Now she rarely takes meds. Aunt Mary, I was wondering how in the world you budgeted Christmas with 5 kids? What special inexpensive things did you do to make it special? We have a tighter budget this year. We usually start buying gifts already so we can spread it out. We don’t spend much on the baby since she doesn’t know the difference and would rather play with the boxes anyway. Did you set a limit per kid? We have kind of done that, though the limit will be lower this year. Our issue is that what Jordan, Alyssa and Ashlyn want would cost almost their entire limit. Jordan wants a cell phone and Alyssa wants an electric scooter. Ashlyn wants a Gameboy DS. Oh how times have changed. I like lots of gifts under the tree. If I buy them what they want they will have maybe one big gift and a couple little ones. That is why I was wondering what Aunt Mary has done in the past? Well gotta go run errands. Love you all so very much.

Another week has begun, but my garage is clean Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 12:57 PM, CDT by Dawn Hello all, we had a nice weekend. Hank and I cleaned out the garage. We put all of the recycling and bulk trash from our move out on the curb. Now we can open our garage and not be embarrassed. We are having some minor financial issues so I have been working on that. Nothing serious, just annoying. We are having some growing pains with our transition from overseas. The weather has been awesome. The girls wore their jean jackets to school this morning. It was cool and crisp outside. It will get up into the 80’s this afternoon. I had Ashlyn were jeans to school. She didn’t like them. She whined that they were to snug. I checked and the pants were actually a little loose. I told her that she has been an island girl and is not used to wearing pants. I told her she would get used to them. Alyssa is getting really good grades so far. She has choir practice after school. I went to MOPS “Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers” yesterday. Amiyah went to child care for an hour and a half. She did really well. They have the meeting twice a month. There is a different guest speaker each time and they have door prizes and a craft. I liked it a lot. Even though Amiyah went to child care she was only 50ft away. Well I love you all. I have house cleaning to do.

NEW PICTURES! Posted Saturday, September 13, 2008, 1:44 PM, CDT by Dawn Hank posted a couple hundred new pictures. They go all the way back to May. Not much going on here. Hank’s back is feeling better. I am not going to post a long blog today due to all the new pictures. You will all have plenty to look at. Alyssa has a new hairstyle. Amiyah is adorable and much more. Enjoy!

Hurricane Ike, and Jordan's World History test Posted Thursday, September 11, 2008, 7:15 AM, CDT by Dawn UE, I don’t know the exact score I got on my test. I didn’t ask when the counselor called. If I choose to attend WGU I will ask. I am most likely going to attend a local school. I will surely have bigger tests to fry. Aunt Jean, I thought you would have a ton of animals. I remember you having a lot. I had forgot how much time has passed since we met. Hurricane Ike is causing trouble. Though we won’t get hit hard, people are still acting like the world is coming to an end. Hank and I have dealt with several typhoons so we know how bad it can really be. I know that people in the US don’t build their houses as well as people in the Pacific do. Anyway, it looks like it will be a rainy, windy weekend. I don’t know how well Jordan did on his math test. We will find out in a couple of days. He did fail his World History test. This brought his grade in that class down to a C. He said he didn’t study for it much because he was working so much in math. Hank and I know he is a poor time manager. We will talk to him more about it later. I was kind of mad last night so I told him to go to his room. I knew I was not in the right frame of mind to deal with him at that time. Not to say that I am always so logical in my parenting. I had a sane moment. Amiyah has a well baby apt this morning. I think blogging helps me remember stuff that I have to do. It kind of puts in my brain for the day. I haven’t missed anything since I started doing this again.

Math test, Joosh, bee-bee, and Alyssa's reading group. Posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 10:09 AM, CDT by Dawn Not much going on today. Jordan has a math test. He has studied for. Hank gave him a practice test and he got a 77%. We will see how he does with the real one. Alyssa was placed in a reading group. She was said to be at grade level. Hank and I are a little skeptical because she has always been way above grade level. Her previous schools in the pacific used the Lexile system. Here the school uses SFA (Success For All). Anyway, we emailed the reading teacher to get details. Amiyah seems to be feeling better from her shots. She has a well baby appointment tomorrow. She is not a big fan of doctors. Amiyah says juice now but it comes out sounding like joosh. She also says puppy a lot when she sees or hears a dog. Puppy sounds like boppy. When I change her diaper she says poop and pee-pee, In Amiyah speak they are boo-boo and bee-bee. Once in a while she will say stop, which comes out OP! I love it. She says a ton of other words but those are the ones that jumped out to me today. Ashlyn was happy to go to kindergarten this morning. UE, I am glad to hear your trip went wonderfully. How was the show? Aunt Mary, How is retirement going? I am happy to hear there are other lefties in our family. There are none on my side that I know of. Do you know anything about Lexile and SFA? I hope you all keep posting. I love seeing new comments. Aunt Jean, I hope you enjoy your visit with UE and UF. How is Bob and all your animals?

My little lefty lou. andJordan's math woes Posted Monday, September 8, 2008, 8:45 PM, CDT by Dawn We had a nice weekend. Last night we took the girls to the park. When we got home I made ice cream sundaes. Hank hurt his back yesterday morning. He pulled a muscle when he sneezed. He is feeling better, though he is still sore. Hank and I took Amiyah to get her shots today. I think this is the worst age to get shots for. They are too young to understand why mommy and daddy are holding them down so a nurse can jab them with needles. They are too old to forget it 10 minutes later like an infant does. She spent the rest of the day rubbing at the band aides on either thigh saying “owie.” She pointed at the pans on the stove this evening and said “hot.” I said “yes it’s hot and it will give you an owie.” Alyssa has her first choir practice tomorrow after school. I have to go to the parent meeting for Girl Scouts. Ashlyn is going to be in Daisy troop. I am still waiting to here back from Alyssa’s troop. Hank is helping Jordan study for his math test on Wednesday. Jordan is doing better in school but math is still a thorn in his side. He is not doing well on his quizzes. Hank is giving him a lot of help and he is staying after school tomorrow to get some help from his math teacher. I passed the test to attend WGU. I am looking into other colleges though. I guess the visually impaired living in Texas can get their tuition paid for. You have to attend a college in the state of Texas though. I am looking into online schools. Ashlyn’s teacher called. She said Ashlyn is a joy to have in her class. She also said Ashlyn is very smart for a little girl who never went to pre-school. Ashlyn has been writing things in mirror image. The teacher said she saw her do it today. It made her smile to see Ashlyn do it because her son is left handed also and used to write backwards when he was younger. Ashlyn will grow out of it. My little left handed child. Well I am going to get Ashlyn to bed. The baby is out already.

Butterfly update. Posted Friday, September 5, 2008, 4:15 PM, CDT by Dawn When Alyssa got home she went to check on her butterfly. When she opened the lid to her bug house the butterfly flew away. The girls were so happy that they healed it. I was really surprised. I guess a couple days of TLC and rest was all it needed. Alyssa is joining choir. She is excited. The choir is for 3rd through 6th graders. They meet once a week on Tuesdays after school. I have got to go finish my floors.

Nursing a butterfly Posted Friday, September 5, 2008, 8:48 AM, CDT by Dawn Alyssa and Ashlyn found an injured butterfly with a torn wing. They have been taking care of it. I looked up how to care for one on Google. If the butterfly is still alive when they get home from school, I will help them feed it. If it still alive when Hank gets home from work I will have him tape it’s wing. My girls are so motherly especially Alyssa. She checked on it before she did anything else this morning. I got the girls to bed on time again last night. Ashlyn had a better attitude about school. I had a long chat with her yesterday after school. She misunderstood something I had told her a while back. I had told both girls that they can’t invite themselves into peoples yards or homes. Ashlyn took this to mean that you can’t join anyone’s games or activities unless you are invited. She wasn’t playing with kids at school unless they asked her first. I explained the difference to her. I told her to be brave and ask to join people’s games. She seemed to feel better. She was also concerned that no body tells her she is pretty. I told her that is me and daddy’s job. I guess Alyssa counseled Ashlyn last night. Alyssa told her that when she doesn’t feel like going to school to say to herself “I am going to do it anyway because I have to.” Hank is back to work on day shifts. He had 3 days off but spent a lot of them at work on and off. His schedule will hopefully improve when he takes over. He will then work office days some of the time. Office days are good because he can get miscellanies things done during the work day instead of coming in on his days off.

Ashlyn doesn't like Kindergarten Comments (903) Posted Thursday, September 4, 2008, 9:12 AM, CDT by Dawn I haven’t heard back on my test yet. I have been looking into tuition assistants. I have also been looking into other colleges and career options. I will let you all know what I decide to do. I am already 32 so a few more months won’t matter. Ashlyn is already starting to complain about school. She didn’t want to go this morning. Usually she will feel better and get excited during the walk to school. This morning she pouted all the way there. She said she doesn’t like Kindergarten because it is boring. When I asked her why she thinks that, she said it was because she can’t do what she wants. This doesn’t surprise me at all. As UE knows Ashlyn is very stubborn. I pulled the teacher aside when I dropped her off and told her Ashlyn is having a bad morning. I told the teacher what she had said and the teacher said she has a whole class full of kids that feel that way. I suppose she will get used to going to school, eventually. I wish Kindergarten was half days, like it was for Jordan. I took the baby to the park on the way home from dropping the girls off at school. She had fun. It is nice here first thing in the morning but then it gets to hot. Amiyah is really blossoming. She is starting to fallow directions. She had a rough patch of not wanting to go to bed in her crib but we have made leaps forward and now she is back to going night-night in her own bed. We went to Alyssa’s 4th grade orientation yesterday. Hank and I like her teacher. We think Alyssa is going to have a great school year. We are able to check their grades online. Hank has been checking Jordan’s daily. Jordan seems to have matured over the summer. He has a good attitude about school so far. He is even doing his homework without us having to nag him. We had a good evening last night. The kids got their homework done and then we had dinner. I was able to get the girls bathed and in bed by 8pm. Ashlyn and Amiyah were down before 7:30. Ashlyn needs her inner beauty sleep. Well I’m off to get a cup of coffee while Amiyah watches Clifford the Big Red Dog. I noticed that Clifford lives with his family on an island. I wonder what they do with his poop. They don’t cover that in the show, ha ha.