Wed., Oct. 3

Do you want to hear from me when nothing notable has happened??? Since Monday, we have just been doing our normal life. Hannah went to school and walked all the way inside by herself. She doesn't like to do that, but she can. Yesterday when we were waiting to pick up Halee she asked Ms. Tammy where she has been. Today she was there to meet Hannah at the bus. Hannah seems to have better days if Tammy walks her in. Tuesday, Halee went to school and Hannah and I did some shopping. Nana had sent the girls gift cards at Target for their birthdays. Hannah is quite the shopper and has to really look at everything and decide what to get. She finally decided on a new Barbie movie (the Nutcrakcer) and a little purse with lip gloss in it. We went to Ross also and got a couple of new shirts for her. She has to wear collared shirts to school and those are hard to come by in her size! We also had swim lessons yesterday afternoon. Halee loves to jump in and put her head under the water. Hannah isn't quite there yet, but she was putting all her face under to find the rings. Hannah did a great job kicking her legs instead of walking ( the pool is so shallow she can just walk while her teacher pulls her instead of kicking). Today, Hannah is at school and Halee and I went to Target to spend her gift card. She wanted to buy a shirt. So, we found a cute sweatshirt and sweatpant outfit for her to buy. Now we are at home and I need to work on Bible class material for tonight. Then off to the bus barn to answer phones for a couple of hours and then drive the bus. Then home for dinner and bible class. That is our exciting lives!

The weekend, Sept. 30

As I stated earlier, there was a church lectureship this weekend. Ed did attend all of it. I, however, only made it to one lesson. I was going to go Saturday morning, but Hannah has slept until 8:00. So by the time she got up and such, it was really too late to be there by 8:30. Plus it was raining outside. It was just a good day to stay at home. We just hung out for a while and then we cleaned their bedrooms and playroom. During nap time Hannah and I made some cookies. I got dinner made (hamburger soup) and then we went to hear a lesson on having a positive attitude. After the lesson, we went over to visit Mallory, Adam, Kailen and Riley for a while. We went home, had our dinner, and then the girls and I were off to the hospital to see the new baby, Ayden Gage.

Today we went to church services. After rest time, we had a school project to work on. Hannah brought home this knobby potato and she had to make it anything she wanted to. At first she said that it looked like a frog, but when the actual time came to work on it, she decided on an airplane. She started painting it and dad started on the control tower. I think everyone involved had a good time. I also gave Halee a potato to paint and her was a helicopter. My job was to get all the supplies and wash the paint brushes out. I think we all had fun. It was a great family project!

First they had to give the potato a bath.



Then they started painting their potato.



Dad started in on making the control tower while Hannah painted the grass.



Dad and the control tower.

Then, of course, the control tower had to be painted.

Lastly, she made flowers on the grass.

Dad also made a propellor for Halee's helicopter.

While we were working on the project, we were listening to the Eagles. Halee decided to take a break and dance a bit. So, I've tried downloading the video for you to watch. Hope it works out okay!

Ed also worked on getting the garage organized. This is really the first time he's worked on it since we've moved in. That was our weekend!

Friday, Sept. 28

This week has flown by. I'm definately ready for things to settle down and for us to get into a routine. That may never happen, but I can wish . . .

Most of my week has been helping out Gage and Jenny. She has had some recent complications in her pregancy (super high blood pressure) which pretty much put her on bed rest. So, I've completely cleaned their condo (with Tisha's help) that they moved out of several weeks ago. The rest of the week was spent with her on the phone after various dr appt and such. Then today it was decided that she needed to spend the night in the hospital to get her ready to be induced tomorrow. So I ran some errands for her and then ended up taking her to the hospital tonight. Tomorrow, there will be a new baby!

Hannah's week at school has been better. She had gotten off the bus every day happy. Today she was a bit apprehensive because Tammy was not there to meet her. But she did walk all the way to the door by herself (Tammy did come out and follow her). She was a bit sad today, her teacher said, but no crying. So, things have been looking up and we'll just see how things continue to progress.

I noticed that I haven't said much about Halee lately. She just generally follows Hannah around and does what Hannah tells her to do. So it is interesting when Hannah is not around. Today she got out her computer (leap pad) and did that for a while. She's still a bit young for it, so she doesn't stick with it for too long. For lunch today she wanted a pancake. She was sitting on the counter helping me cook it. I had taken the pancake out of the pan and was getting it ready to eat and Halee decided to touch the pan. So all afternoon we had to deal with her burned fingers. She held an ice pack and that seemed to work well. Tonight she has mostly forgotten about it.

This weekend is a big church lecturship that Ed is attending. I will try and attend a class or two, but it will depend on how much the girls are up for it. Plus I'll visit Darci who is caring for Jenny's kids and help her out. And we'll have to visit Jenny and the new baby! So, Monday will be here soon!

Tues, Sept 25

Yesterday Hannah had a great day at school. She got off the bus without crying. When she met Tammy (Tammy works at the daycare and she meets Hannah at the bus and takes her into school for me) she started skipping to the daycare to get Alex (who goes to the daycare and is also in her kindergarten class). Tammy took her into school, read her a story and was off. So I guess all that crying part was her just getting used to change. Whew!


Last night when we got home and had dinner, Hannah wanted to go to the park. I told them to just play in the sand box as I needed to do some staining on the porch (time is starting to run out!). They were okay with that idea and got to playing. Well, the previous day or two it had been rainy. Plus it is fall here in Montana. So that made for some cold wet sand. After a few minutes, Hannah decided they needed some gloves. This is what they came outside looking like.




This morning Halee was at school. I was in the office paying bills and such. Hannah wanted to play a game. We have this bible called "The Princess Devotional Bible." Several weeks ago we read the story about how the lady didn't have enough oil and Elisha told her to get as many jars as she could and start pouring oil until all the jars were full. In this Bible, they wrote a play to illustrate the story and had us get jars (cups) and a pitcher of water and act it out. So we did. Well, that is the game Hannah wanted to play this morning. Okay. Water and cups is easily cleaned up. I would check on her now and again and things seemed to be going okay. Then she wanted to "make" something and asked if she could have a couple of scoops of flour. Okay, a couple would be fine. That went good. Then she wanted a couple of scoops of sugar. Can you see where this is going? A couple of scoops turned into the rest of the container which turned into sugar water all over the dining room. That wasn't okay! So she tried to get that cleaned up, but it just wasnt' working out for her. Mom helped and got it cleaned up. We both learned valuable lessons today. I don't think that will happen again!

Mammoth

As the week went on, things started looking better. It was still crazy, but at least we were all happy. Hannah still has been crying as she gets off the bus, but once inside she does fine. So, we have decided to continue her in school there. We had the "young adults" (or college kids) over for dinner on Thursday. Then on Friday, we headed for Yellowstone National Park.

Every year, the 3rd weekend in September, us, the Stahly's and a few others tend to head for Mammoth. We go to see the elk and listen to them bugle during mating season. This year it was just us and the Stahly's. We didn't leave until Friday afternoon, so the Mammoth campground was already full. So, we stayed in a campground by Gardiner. The girls enjoyed playing in the super fine black dirt. We were glad to leave that dirt behind!


Then Saturday morning, we drove down to Mammoth and secured a camping spot. We went back to Gardiner, got our campers and then headed back down. We didn't want to pull the campers the first time because if we didn't find a spot, . . . . Anyway, once we got back to Mammoth it was lunch time. The weather was real windy and rainy, so we decided to go on a drive. We stopped at Mammoth hot springs and walked the loop.

After that hike, we just drove a loop around the park and ended back back at Mammoth. That is where the elk hang out. So we did a little elk watching. This elk, who we have named Ramy because he likes to ram cars, is the one we watched the most. He was a bit fisty and we got to watch him chase the cows and do some mating. That is the first time the girls have seen or heard about that. So, Dan (who brought that up) got to try and explain mating. Briley was really the only one who had some idea about it. Dan was surprised that she had not heard about the birds and the bees before!

It was nice to get away for the weekend. We only got to go camping one other time this summer. We went to Bible camp 3 times in our camper, but that's not really camping! We got up early this morning and headed back to Belgrade just in time for worship. When we got home, we got the camper all cleaned up for the winter. Ed still has to winterize it, but today the weather is rainy. He'll have to do it soon though!

Monday, Sept. 17th

We had a good and productive weekend. Ed the got the outside of the house mostly caulked up (he ran out of caulk). I finished staining the porch columns and got half the back porch ceiling stained. Ed started working on organizing the garage. I got some tulip and iris bulbs planted in the flower bed. On Sunday I wiped the whole kitchen down with bleach water, made homemade rolls and soup for kids night. I felt that overall, we got a lot accomplished!

This school thing with Hannah is about the get the best of me. I'm really trying hard to tell her that she has to go to kindergarten and it's not a choice and be tough about it (and positive). And not show her my emotions. But sending her off the bus crying is the hardest thing I have ever done! Also, yesterday she was crying in Bible class (which is something that is not new and she has done all her life) and was crying during worship. She can't pinpoint why she is crying, just something maker her cry. I say it's STRESS! This is totally out of character for her. She's had days that have been like that, but not weeks. I've prayed and prayed about this. I've talked to friends about it. And today I've decided to do something about it. I talked with the administrator at the school about taking her out and trying again next year. He really wants me to make sure that is the right thing. He doesn't want to see me do that and then the same thing happens next year. Hannah is not real specific about what makes her cry and he wants to know specificially. I've asked Hannah lots of questions tonight and haven't really gotten to the bottom of it. She says it's hard to follow all the rules. She says that she hasn't really gotten in "trouble" for not following the rules, but I feel that she is afraid of failure. She told me this morning it isn't fun. Tonight when I asked her what her favorite part about school she told me it was the 3 times they go to recess. So, to make the long story shorter, we are going to see how this week goes. I'm also going to explore what some other options are for her for this year. The hard part about that is school in swing already and most places are full. Then this weekend we can decide what we feel is best. So, please keep us in your prayers.

interesting week

I can hardly believe it is Friday already. This has been interesting week. Monday Hannah came home from school saying that she was sad and cried some at school. Tuesday her teacher called to tell me about it. Wednesday I told Hannah I would come and eat lunch with her. When I got there her teacher said that she had cried most of the morning. When I picked her up that afternoon, she had had a good afternoon. So, we talked about it and set up a smiley/sad face system for her. Today she got off the bus crying. So, I dropped my kids off at school and went back to see her. They were just heading into chapel (that was interesting - it's an evangelical school). She was still crying. She did fine thru chapel but when I went to leave was really sobbing. Oh, how that tears a mom's heart up! But when I picked her up this afternoon, she was fine and had a good afternoon. Hopefully this will end soon. I don't know if I can handle much more of it!

On top of that all of us have had the stomach flu this week. Hannah started by having in Labor Day. So, now we've all been thru that. YUCK! Hopefully we're done. This is the first time we have all gotten that together.

So, after all that bad news, here's some good news! On Wednesday Hannah wanted to help with dinner. So she peeled the potatoes for me. This was her first time doing that. I was quite proud of her. She got most of the peels off. We had yummy mashed potatoes and swiss steak.