Parties, Resolutions, Cookies and more....

What a great weekend! Jarett spent most of the day on Saturday helping our friends move. He then went to school for a few hours and then came home to help me get dinner going. Why?? Because I needed to have the kids fed for our babysitter. That's right. We had a babysitter - watching ALL 4 kids so that Jarett and I could go out to an MBA get together. It was SO weird to be out without the baby, but we had SO much fun. Everyone was blown away by Jarett singing to Rock Band. They were all laughing about how he has all these hidden talents. He was also dancing to Dance, Dance Revolution and then he busted out his laughing without smiling (if you haven't seen this, you need to). Everyone was laughing their heads off and saying that Jarett was holding out on them. Remember that they were all drunk and so it probably seemed all the funnier. We stayed out until 1 am. I can't believe we DID that. I can't remember the last time I stayed out after 12 (I know, I'm a total dead beat). Here's a clip of the evening....



Sunday was wonderful. We were both SO tired, I was only in bed for 5 hours and, of course, that was interrupted sleep. We got to church on time!! I was released - officially. I'm SO sad that I was released, but I totally needed it. It was just too hard to make it to ward conferences etc. when some of the wards in our stake are 3 hours away. I'm going to miss YW's though. I especially loved meeting people throughout the stake. Now I'm back to my ward boundaries to meet people (which is actually a huge ward). Sigh. What my next calling will be.....

We had Leavitt's over for dinner (since they had moved the day before, we figured they might want to eat....). It was so much fun to see them again. It had been too long. Our girls play SO well together and the guys have so much history together that it's guaranteed to be a good time. We crashed in bed at 8:30 or so and almost got caught up in sleep.

Monday, I decided I was going to resolve this blasted school issue. I walked up to the doors with all my kids in tow....and they had brought the kids to the front door again. I was SO confused. I asked the aid if this is what was going to happen now. Her response was to pick them up at the back and if I had a concern, talk to my teacher. So, since I had already brought my kids IN the school, I thought I'd just go back to the room and talk through this with the teacher.

After a thorough talk, I discovered that she was just the messenger. It was the other teachers that were having a problem. Apparently they were just bugged that they had to bring the kids all the way to the car and open the door for them and everything. WHAT THE HECK?? I had never said that they needed to do that. They thought I didn't get out of the car because I expected them to do that. They didn't know that Kaia is actually able to open the car door ALL BY HERSELF.

Another concern was that I had been late a couple times (due to feeding Jaymeson or waking him up from naps etc.) and they had to bring the kids to the office to wait for me. Once I pointed out that even if I WAS late (which I would try my darndest not to be EVER again) it's no harder for them to take them to the office from the front of the school than the back, she realized that I had a point and she was willing to fight my case with the principal if necessary. Apparently it's school policy that kids can't be trusted to walk around a school by themselves, so you have to appeal to the principal.

After this LONG talk (during which she said that she really felt bad that I had to haul all these kids through the school), I walked outside to go talk to the principal (to discuss changing the school policy so that Kaia could just come to the front of the school by herself) and the teachers aid asks, "how did it go?" I told her what we had discussed and she says, "Well, if you can just meet the kids at the front of the school and for sure be on time, we can totally bring them up there...." WHY DON'T THEY JUST SAY THAT??? Why do they have to go crazy and completely cut you off instead of just saying that we might have to make a happy medium. Grrrr. Anyway, it's all solved and today's pick up went like clock-work. Thank you all for your concern and advice.

Yesterday, we did the Valentine's Sugar Cookies for FHE. We talked about the Greatest Commandment which is to love the Lord and then to Love One Another. Then we made the cookies. Unfortunately, we didn't have a heart cookie cutter, so our creative juices kicked in and we made circles. Jarett talked about how Heavenly Fathers love never ends - just like a circle. So we cut them out and put pink icing on them. They were yummy just the same.


Today was madness, I taught 3 piano lessons that I had crammed together so I could make it to enrichment. Then the missionaries came for dinner at 6, were gone at 7 and then I made it to the church for 7:30. We made some awesome Rice Krispies Squares dipped in chocolate and decorated with coconut, almonds or other candies. It was really fun to get out and chat with some ladies. I'm excited to have a Girls Night tomorrow night at my house too. It's just awesome to have some time to be with other girls. There's a quote from Sister Hinckley that said, "Sisters NEED eachother" and I have never heard a greater truth. I'm truly grateful for good friends and the opportunity I have to be able to have that girl bonding time. It truly allows me to remain sane.

Anyway, this is reading more like a journal entry. Thank heaven for blogs, or I wouldn't be able to remember anything that happens in my life. Thank you to all of you who read this and leave comments. It really picks me up to know that there are people out there caring about what goes on in my life. I love you all and hope you have a MARVELOUS Valentine's Day.

Oh, and I thought I'd throw in a little video of the girls doing Turbo Jam. I've started to do Pilates and Turbo Jam every day and the girls always want to do it with me. So, I finally got a video of just them doing it. Watch Saryn especially in this one. I think they're all pretty awesome....