Adventures in Parenting

This was my Facebook status this morning----The power of silence: I love how profound and amazing my children are. Last night Marlayna said this, "You can teach the world without a sound. That means you can share the gospel by being an example. You don’t have to say any words at all. Just by knowing you people will know Jesus." She's such a shining example of greatness and a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

My daughter IS amazing. She is every good descriptive word out there. And I am truly truly honored and blessed to be her mom. Sadly, like with most good things, she comes with some less than glamorous characteristics. Along with all her wonderful greatness, she also has 'a dark side'. An ' I'm too smart for my own good' side. One that makes me wish we could just stick with her insightful awesomeness.

I received a call from the school today, which I always assume is them calling about a sick child and I need to hurry over there to pick them up, but it never is. So far this school year I've received over 4 phone calls from the school- Can Marlayna please be in a special peer assisting group helping struggling students, did you know Mark J has broken his glasses 3 times and they've been super glued by the office, did you know James is color blind. Are you aware..... Did you know.....   Apparently my children are higher maintenance than most and I need to get over the only reason the school calls is because of illness.

Today's call was from Marlayna's reading teacher. Marlayna is in the 99th percentile nation wide and in the highest reading and math group in her grade. Mrs. W called to inform me that today was another difficult day.  During parent-teacher conferences last week we learned that Marlayna, along with her numerous good qualities, has a sarcastic, stubborn side (WHAT?!??!  I KNOW!! It's SUCH a shock for anyone who knows EITHER of her parents). Her teacher showed us an example of one of her 'refuse to conform' assignments. The question was "what is the setting of the story?" Originally Marlayna answered, "The setting is bad bad bad bad bad." but erased it and wrote instead, "I will not answer this."

Today's incident was similar. She had written no no no no no no no no no no no no no to fill the spaces given for the first question and then blah blah blah blah blah  blah blah blah for the second. Given a second chance she wrote one word answers. Her teacher told me that she then asked Marlayna to provide more detail in her explanations and she retorted, "Is this READING group or WRITING group?" Trying to encourage in-depth, thought required answers her teacher then said, "How 'bout we pretend I've never read this story and you're giving me details of it so I can know what the story is about." Miss Marlayna shot back, "If you're so interested in knowing what the story is about why don't you just read it yourself?!"  (INSERT ENORMOUSLY WIDE EYES AND SHOCKED SPEAKLESS EXPRESSION) I asked over the phone how she was able to restrain herself from slapping my daughter! She replied that it was a rather intelligent response and pretty funny when you think about it. (This woman is a saint for not considering backhanding my snot-faced kid! She deserves a medal for her dedication to educating children like mine)

Ay yai yai!!

At a complete loss as to what to do for this child to make it sink in and change her attitude. We've talked to her about needing to do what's asked at school in order to move on to more challenging work since she finds the tasks so boring. And needing to be respectful and obedient to her teachers. And being a good example to her classmates. And constructively communicating with her teachers. And......And......And......And...... But seriously I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!

For starters this kid is baking a giant 'I'm so sorry I treated you like that' cake and writing an EXTRA wordy apology card. 

BOO to you Mr. Snow

Haven't "winterized" the yard yet.

 So many facebookers have been posting "Yay, our first REAL snow!" and "So happy winter in here!"  and "Isn't it great!"  Well, actually no, no it is not! So BAH to you all! Bah, Bah Bah, and DOUBLE BAH!     Wet puddled floors, soggy mittens and socks,  freezing hands, feet and cheeks, having to warm the car 10 minutes before going anywhere, scraping off the snow every time you want to leave the driveway,  (Yes that could be solved IF I'd clean and organized the garage!), idiots who don't know how to drive in the snow, needing 9 layers of clothes just to check the mail. Where's the joy?!?     On the plus side, hot cocoa is an acceptable beverage at ANY moment of the day, warm fuzzy blankets are an indoor luxury no matter what you're doing, and the kids enjoy shoving off the porch (for the moment, I'm sure it will wear off in a week or less).  To sum up-nope, this much snow in OCTOBER is too much and no, I am not looking forward to months and months AND MONTHS of this. (I will be happy about it during the week of Christmas and that is all!)

Such a great big helper!

His ever-so-noticeable, yet quite adorable James ears!
I LOVE how they poke out of his hat and how the one is tucked
in on itself. SOO stinkin' CUTE!

Yesterday as James and I were walking home from his preschool I was starting to get frustrated that he was taking forever. He kept walking off the snow cleared sidewalk and up on the snow piles and along the neighbors' yards. I asked him, "What are you doing?!" He replied, "I have my boots on. I'm using them." Now there's logic! He was right, if you've got boots on you better be using them to stomp through the snow and making fresh boot prints instead of sticking to the clear and dry LAME sidewalks!

Yesterday was an amazingly fun day of firsts! I was able to go with Marlayna and the entire kindergarten class on a field trip to a pumpkin patch in Fort Collins. She'd never been to a pumpkin patch.  We went on a hayride, picked out "the perfect pumpkin", ventured through a corn maze, laughed (as other kids screamed) at chickens and ducks trying to share our picnic lunches, and had fun sitting together on the bus and playing games. It had snowed the night before and I feared that it would be a cold miserable day. Though it certainly wasn't warm by any means, it didn't rain or snow again until we arrived back at the school after the field trip. Marlayna's such a great little girl and I was glad I was able to share her school day with her. (And I thought that it was also her first bus ride, but she reminded me that she rode a bus when we were out on Vashon Island a couple summers ago).  I also LOVED listening to Marlayna sing Primary songs all day, even changing the words to fit the situation.  When we were walking in the corn maze in small groups she starting singing ♫Follow the Leader, Follow the Leader, Follow the Leader, Don't Go Astray♫ And sang the song "Stand For the Right" almost the entire day. What a super example she is to me!

Yesterday was our "first real snow" (as the last few storms melted off quickly). I, for one, and NOT at all excited about it as this is what we have to look forward to for the next several months. Throw in with the snow the "never ceases to stop" wind Laramie is known for, and that's the glorious-ness that is called winter I have to look forward to! Yay me!  James more than made up for my lack of enthusiasm with his overly abundant excitement for the white stuff. He had gone to test the snow, I thought he had returned and was in his room, but 20 minutes later I found him in the back yard digging.  He had a blast and was a bit disappointed to have to come in for dinner.

 Last night was the first concert Mark and I have been to since having kids. A friend from out of town was wanting to come down but wasn't able to make it because of work conflicts.  Not finding a way to sell the extra ticket and not wanting to waste it, we decided to take Mark J. with us to his FIRST EVER ROCK CONCERT!!  (The last time any of us had been to one was for my birthday when I was pregnant with Mark J).  He was way pumped to go!  There were 3 bands playing at the University of Wyoming- Parachute, Boys Like Girls, and All American Rejects. Mark J only lasted through the first band and then slept the rest of the concert! (He had earplugs in, in case anyone was wondering). It was fun, however it made me realize how old I've become--I was not at all impressed by some of the language and "humor" used by one particular band (I was really glad Mark J was asleep during all that-would have walked out for sure) and rocking it from 7:30-11:45pm is too long for this old mom (can we all say LAME!?! I know right!). We all decided we'll wait a few more years before taking Mark J to his next concert--want to make sure he can stay awake to enjoy it!

Terrible Cell Phone Photos-just "proof" that we were there!

Indeed, yesterday was an eventful SUPER FUN day!

Over the weekend the kids and I headed to my parents' to celebrate my dad's birthday. We live a bit closer to them than we have in the past; it was nice to take advantage of that fact. I only make it home once a year and with the kids being out of school Monday I decided to jump on the chance to travel before snow falls and winter sets in.

The kids were very excited to celebrate Papa's birthday, but were just a tad disappointed that none of the cousins, aunts, and uncles were there also. It was a quiet, splendid, and (as always) not long enough weekend.

Papa taking Marlayna for her first motorcycle ride.

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Card Marlayna made for Papa

I never in a million years thought I'd come to this....starting my own blog. With all the numerous social media sites why in the world would someone add blogging to the list?! Welp, here I am. Tired of Facebook and wanting to move on to something bigger and better. Guess we'll see how it goes!