Oh my...

It has been a long time. Lets see.... first..First grade that is. Reese started first grade this week. I am not old enough to have a first grader am I? Second...Cami just had her second tooth pop through on the top. No more of the cute toothless grins. She now has four teeth. And speaking of four did you know Ryan is four? he reminds us just about every day. He also asks when he will be five. I think he thinks he will soon be catching up to Reese. He also wants to know why Reese was born before him and why he has to be the little brother. Next I will have to post some pictures but this will be all for tonight.

Not much...

...is what I have been up to lately. We went to Shreveport to visit Daddy and our Aunt Debbie this last weekend. When we were there, Reese looked at me and said, "Mom why do I have to sleep on food?" I'm thinking, On food? When did we tell her she had to sleep on food. Then she said, "You know, the crouton!!" Meaning the futon. I guess she didn't hear me correctly when I was trying to explain sleeping arrangements earlier in the day.

Ryan is just growing like a weed. Every day he will say a new word and I will think, "Did he know that word before today? If I was a good mom I would be writing all these things down on a daily basis." Oh well my kids will just have to grow up thinking they never had milestones growing up and then go through years of therapy later to fix the problems that I have so negligently placed on them.

I am excited for Christmas. It is here but it is not New York so I will be happy at that.

The absolute cuteness of a 2 year old

Let me just say that it is a good thing he is this cute. It is the one thing that keeps him alive some days.


At the circus










He thought it would be so funny to climb in the bottom of Baby Ethan's stroller.

So I just kept pushing him and he stayed in there for about an hour.

This is Ryan asleep in the bottom of the stroller. Guess he just needed a place to sit down.

Thank you all!!

Thank you to all who wrote to cheer me up. I needed it. Let's just say there were a fair amount of tears shed last week.

Now for the update. I think we have the mouse problem taken care of. We called an exterminator and he came over and put down some bait. He said it dehydrates the mice and they go else where looking for water. They start to come out of their hiding places because they are getting desperate and that is why I was seeing a whole bunch all of a sudden. Then on Friday another guy came over and sealed up the house for us. He put wire mesh in the weep holes that were too big and he sealed up the garage pretty good. He also sealed a whole in the wall of the garage which is where he thinks they were getting in to the walls and finding their way to the kitchen where there is a massive hole under the sink. So I think they are gone for good. I haven't seen any new droppings around the house in the last few days.

In the mean time I have been washing every dish in my entire house. I have been to walmart a few times to replace a few of the appliances that were under the cabinet and had mouse droppings in them and couldn't be sterilized in the dishwasher. I have cleared out every cabinet and drawer and vacuumed it out and then wiped it out with Clorox. I hope that gets rid of any and all germs lurking where mice had been.

As for Reese and the school thing we talked to just about everyone we could talk to. We called the Texas Education Agency and found out from the director of school governance (the lady who has the final say on all laws governing public schools in Texas) that the school district is right. Because of when her birthday is (October) she meets the cut off for New York which is in December and misses it for Texas. If she had finished kindergarten she would be allowed to start first grade but since she didn't finish she has to leave. I also saw a lady on the FAQ section that said they just moved from Arizona and there is only 6 weeks left of school and her daughter couldn't finish kindergarten either. It is a bummer but we will get over it. The bright side is that she will graduate from high school when she is 18 and not 17. The other thing I was thinking about is that she can have the whole winter and spring to do things we couldn't do in New York because those things weren't available. It is going to all work out for the best. I have that much faith.

Now on to Thanksgiving. I need to finish a few loads of dishes and finish cleaning the bathrooms so I can have my family over. At least I don't have to make the whole meal. I am doing the turkey and I am buying it already cooked. I deserve to cheat this year. Besides, it always turns out better when I don't cook. I will make dessert and be done with it.

It was brought to my attention that we no longer live in New York so things must be changed, Thank you Andrea.

Again, Thank you all for your words of encouragement. They were greatly needed this past week.

Oh one more thing. Reese asked me where Daddy was and I told her that he is on his way home. She said, "But where is he?" and I told her that he is in Longview. She said, "Longview? What, do they have lots and lots and lots of things that they want you to see? Is that why it's called Long View?" She is so insightful!!

I need some good news....

I am in need of some good news. I have been through the week from hell and it is only Thursday morning. Let me go through it for you...

...Sunday
Sunday was the primary program and we were supposed to be early to church. There is no big deal in that but it just seems when you can't get to church on time how are you going to get to church early? It is just stressful. Then on my way out the door I smashed my finger in it. OUCH!! It is all black and blue and I can bend it again but it still hurts. Then we get to church and Reese will not go to sit with her class on the stand. She threw a fit and made a scene and refused to go up there. Why does my child have to be painfully shy? And stubborn too? We did get her to go to class though so that was good. When we got home from church I walked downstairs and saw a mouse run across my kitchen cabinet. I screamed and made Golden go to Home Depot right then to get mouse traps. I can not live in a house with mice. Then we went to my moms for Sunday dinner, the typical thing for all family members living in the area. It was my birthday dinner and no one came. Not my two older brothers or their families. Not my younger sister and her family. No one. Except Jennifer and that's because she lives there. What a great day!!

Monday...
Golden got up and left at 4 Monday morning. I hate Mondays. Then I had to be in the house all day knowing there was a mouse in it. I was afraid to go into the kitchen and open a drawer or a cabinet. But things were still not that bad. When I picked Reese up from school we walked down to the park. We stayed out as long as we could. When we went home we had caught a mouse. It was on a mouse trap in the pantry. YEAH!!!! I couldn't make myself dispose of it so I called David Fisher and the saint that he is came over and disposed of it for me. Things are starting to look up.

Tuesday...
Tuesday was my birthday and I thought things were going better until I saw another mouse. He was in the living room just walking across the floor. Fun times. I called Golden and he called an exterminator. He came and placed a few more mouse traps and gave me a few pointers as to how they may be getting in. Oh and it was my birthday. It is hard to feel like a prisoner in your own home. When you can't even open the cabinets or the pantry in fear of seeing a mouse run at you.

Wednesday...
Got up and got Reese to school and decided to find out where the mice are coming from. Looked all around the house and found mouse droppings in every room of the house so we either have a very active mouse or we have a bigger problem than we know. After vacuuming the whole house and scrubbing everything down to prevent disease it was time to sit and eat lunch. It is hard to have to wash every dish when you pull it out of the cabinet before you can even eat. After school I get a phone call from the school and the Data clerk told me that we have to withdraw Reese from school. She has been in school for 3 and 1/2 weeks here so why didn't anyone tell me this earlier? And why did they have to do it over the phone. This is something that should have been done with a conference and not over the phone at the end of the day. After I came out of my shock and got my wits about me I tried to call the school back and of course no one answered their phones. I finally put calls into the school board and emails to the teacher and the principal and no one got back to me. How am I going to tell my 5 year old that even though she has been going to school for a year and a half now and she is half way through kindergarten that she will have to take the rest of the year off and do kindergarten again next year? How am I going to keep a child that can read already and loves school and wakes up every morning ready to go and runs to school away from it?

Oh and Golden is still out of town and I have had to deal with this all by myself. I told him last night on the phone that I would almost be ready to put up with another New York winter if it meant I didn't have to put up with this crap. Almost.

Do you see how come I need some good news. Anybody got any??

If you have never been, GO!!

In the last year and a half I have had the opportunity to go to Palmyra no less than 8 times. I have been able to walk through the sacred grove and to see where Joseph Smith and his family lived and worked. I have been able to see the hill Cumorah and the pageant that takes place there. How appropriate that I have been able to do this and had the wonderful gift of teaching the lessons from the Joseph Smith book in Relief Society. I am truly grateful to my Heavenly Father for this blessing. It amazes me that He knows just what we need and when we need it and then He finds a way to give it to us. Especially when we are humbled enough to get down on our knees and ask for it. Just another reminder of He knows what is best for us and we need not question it. I am grateful to Him for the opportunity to live in New York and to have my testimony strengthened this last 18 months.

The kids enjoying The Hill Cumorah

Running into the Sacred Grove


The Whitmer Farm House


The frame house on the Smith property


The visitors center

The chapel and visitors center at the Whitmer farm


In the Sacred Grove


Emma's parents grave markers


Josiah Stowell's house


The Aaronic Priesthood Restoration site on the Susquehanna River

Halloween

I know that it is the middle of November and I am behind on this post. When you move across the country the week before Halloween I would hope you are forgiven when you post your pictures 2 weeks late. It is not like I had any thing else going on right?

So this is what happened. We didn't get to go to the trunk or treat at church because Reese was sent home from school the morning of with a 102 degree temp. She came home and laid on the couch and didn't move from 9:30 in the morning to about 3:00 in the after noon when she rolled over to puke. The next 2 days were filled with more of the same. On Friday, Halloween, the fever finally broke but she was to weak to walk down the street. She didn't even put her Tinkerbell costume on. She sat in the stroller and went to about 5 houses before she made Daddy bring her home. This was the only picture I got of Ryan. It was an interesting week to say the least. But he was a darn cute pirate wasn't he?