Daddy Daughter Dance 2013

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This Week at Our House # 8

1. John spent a lot of time finishing the floor. John hates house projects. He really doesn't like anything that takes him out of his usual routine and he especially hates staying up late at night doing manual labor. John hasn't complained once during this big project. He hasn't said that there are other things he would rather be doing, he has just done it. We still have all of the transitions and a little more trimming to finish. But the floor is completely usable and we can now get all of the furniture in place.
2. I spent a lot of time on the floor this week too, but not as much as John. I took it pretty easy exercise wise this week and will be picking up full speed starting tomorrow morning. The half marathon is in 12 to 13 weeks from now and I will be starting on a pretty intense training schedule. I am nervous about this, but I have prepared. I have run 5 miles now, even though it took a full hour. Actually, I really pushed it in the end to make sure I got 5 miles in an hour. If I keep that up, I think I can plan on 2.5 hours for a half marathon time. My only goal is to run the whole way. The rest of my week I spent playing with little kids, helping with homework, cleaning and cleaning and cleaning some more, and running errands-- such is the life of a mom of many.
3. Ruth focused on homework and grades, and resting this week. Ruth cares about sleep a lot now. She comes home from school and immediately puts her pajamas on. If she has to go back out, she will change back. This amuses me because in kindergarten she came home and stripped down to her underwear. Once she turned 6, we told her she had to stay clothed.
4. I just love having Kate home with me. Every now and then I wonder if I should have sent her to school the last two years rather than homeschooling her, but I wouldn't give back these two years of having a lot of time getting to know and hanging out with my Kate. She's one amazing girl. I love watching her interact with her younger siblings. They all love her. Kate was one of Joshua's first words and she deserved that honor.
5. Johnny plunged along all week in his school work. Some days he gets everything finished in a couple of hours and some days he stretches it out until 5 pm. Johnny is my best kid on the piano. I think he has talent here and I am glad that he so willing practices.
6. Adam is off track, so he did not have any school this week. I told him that I would pay him $5 at the end of his vacation if he reads one hour every week day. He's been very honorable about it. The weather is still on and and off and Adam, not being able to spend much time outside, seems to prefer to spend his free time picking on Rachel and Anya. I wish he'd choose to focus on another talent. Yes, he's pretty good at annoying girls, but I don't think this will help him with future career and family.
7. Rachel has the same "read one hour/earn $5" deal. And, wow! By Friday, Rachel's reading had improved 100%. By Friday, Rachel was enjoying reading and spent extra time reading books to the younger kids and John.
8. Anya loves our little neighbor, Gracie. She asks to play with Gracie everyday. Unfortunately, Gracie was either sick or not home everyday this past week. Hopefully, Gracie will be around more this next week. Anya has definitely gotten to the point in her life where friends are important.
9. Joseph had a better week. I think it had something to do with the fact that he actually could go outside some. As far as I know, Joseph didn't break anything besides other kids lego creations and that would be a record for this winter. That boy has a lot of curiosity and energy. I have been reading things to help me take care of him and be more patient with him.
10. Josh is at the stage where he doesn't eat anymore. It always surprises me when the piggy little one year old turns two and quits eating. Three weeks ago, Josh ate more than Ruth. Now all Josh wants right now is milk and apples. I suppose if that is what he wants to survive on, I should be happy.
11. Arwen turned 7 months this last week. She is still not crawling, nor does she seem interested in doing so. She does mimic our sounds, and she now has two top teeth and two bottom teeth. Arwen is still our contented, happy little ball of sunshine. I am ever grateful, we got our lucky number 9. I never expected to have more than 8 children, and now I cannot imagine life without my perfect little daughter, Arwen.

This weeks pictures

This is Adam wrapped up in an air compressor, telling Anya not to play with the wood.

 And just for comparison: Here is the old floor

Removing Carpet and Laying Laminate

 First we moved out all of the furniture. This is where the couch was. I promise, I clean out from under my couch, I just have too many kids who put things under the couch as a way to "clean up".

 Next we removed all of the carpet and pad. We cut the carpet out in small pieces to make it easy to take to the dump. We removed the carpet and pad, put it in the back of the van, and drove it to the dump. I saved a few remnants for the garage.

 Once the carpet was removed we got to see the condition of our slab foundation. There was this large red spot. I joked that someone was killed there during construction. John didn't like the joke and told the kids someone spilt fruit punch. Really, we have no idea, but it did look gross.

 We stacked all of our furniture neatly in the kitchen. You can tell we have moved a lot because John didn;t have to think twice about how to stack a room full of furniture in a very small area.

 We cleaned the cement and filled in the cracks before putting in the foam underlaying.

 John is filling in the holes made by the carpet nail strips.

 Putting in the underlaying was trickier then we expected. It bubbled and moved too easily. When we started laying the floor, we had to be careful to offset all of the seams in the boards like bricks. We had to put things in for spacers or the entire floor would move as we pounded together more boards.

 We set the table saw up in the garage and good thing too. I couldn't believe how much saw dust a few cuts make.

Some parts around corners and such were tricky. We had to make patterns and trace them on the boards before cutting.

We ran short by about a box of wood. So we will buy a couple more boxes tomorrow and finish the project. I did not realize there would be so much waste from fitting the pieces in so the seams were not next to each other. Next time, I will know better and buy enough wood to begin with. We will finish laying tomorrow and trimming on Tuesday. I look forward to getting my kitchen back from our furniture and not having to fret when something spills. I think the floor looks good and I am so glad to get rid of the carpeting on our main floor.

This Week at Our House #7

1. John had a busy week-- again. But seriously, does anyone ever not have a busy week??? However, this week happened to be busier than the average because we ripped out the living room carpet and began replacing it with a laminate floor. This "get rid of carpet and replace it with wood" was completely my idea. I bought all of the supplies and said I was doing it. My dear husband, who hates house and yard projects, did the bulk of the work and he did it with a smile. We went to bed with about 98% of the laminate laid and after we ran out of boards at 5am Sunday morning. John is a hero. Oh, and on the way home from picking up a table saw, we got caught in a blizzard, slipped off the road and burst a tire on the curb. "Eventful" is an understatement for our week.
2. My week began a little rough with sick kids, and ended with a bang of a house project. Thankfully, John's parents, brother and sister in law came to help. They even changed our tire, and they are coming one more time to help us with the finishing touches. Between sick kids, furniture moving, carpet removal, school volunteering, parent conference thingy, floor laying, and Ruth and Kate's musical performance, I did not exercise at all the whole week. Ah well, I will try to do better this week.
3. Ruth played an orphan in the school musical "Annie". She looked lovely on stage. I really enjoyed watching Ruth sing and dance on stage. I think Ruth had fun doing the show. I know Ruth is glad the show is over because she missed her free time. 
4. Kate played an orphan in the school musical "Annie". She looked adorable on stage. The main reason Kate did the musical was to help her make friends before returning to public school next school year. Mission accomplished. Kate had a ton of fun, and made lots of friends.
5. Johnny was one of the sick kids this week. He actually enjoyed being sick and taking time off from school work. By Friday Johnny felt well again and helped a lot with the floor. On Saturday, Johnny helped put in the floor until about 11:30pm when he begged to be sent to bed. Hmmm... is that how you get kids to go to bed?-- tell them to work until they are begging to go????
6. I volunteered to do an art project in Adam's second grade class this week, and then I stayed for lunch. I took Anya along. When Adam saw Anya he picked her up, spun her around, and introduced her to his friends. Adam showed Anya an empty desk near him, and helped her. At lunch, Adam found Rachel and gave her a big hug. Adam ate lunch with Anya and a bunch of girls because all the girls thought Anya was cute and wanted to sit with her and Anya. Saturday, Adam eagerly helped lay the floor. He excitedly learned how to do it and about all of the tools. He was downright excited and energized about the whole thing.
7. I ate lunch at school with Rachel and then went to recess with her. She keeps asking me to come again. I liked seeing Rachel in her school environment. I really like that parents can eat lunch at school with their kids. Rachel excitedly told me on Wednesday that she finally made it to the "B group" for reading. She said that she had to work really hard for a long time to get there. Yay Rachel! Rachel, Anya, and their cousin trashed the upstairs of our house while the floor was being layed. Ugghhh...that is why I don't like big house projects.
8. Anya played the adorable little angel when I took her to school. She quietly soaked up all the attention with absolute bliss.
9. Joseph had a crazy toddler boy week. He didn't wet his pants at all but he purposely ran into his brother's puke, stood in the toilet bowl, played with the toilet fixtures in the back of the toilet, wrestled hard enough to get a big bruise on his cheek, played in the snow in boots and underwear only, and put makeup all over his face. Joseph really tries my patience and punishment doesn't work for him at all. I have to keep reminding myself that he is just curious, not malicious and that "this too, shall pass".
10. Josh was sick this week and as a result super, extra cuddlely. He wanted to be held all day everyday. That is tough to do. I hate turning my babies down for cuddles, but I have to do other things besides sit and hold a fussy baby.
11. Arwen is really getting around now by scooting on her belly. I wasn't quite prepared for this, so Arwen got away and touched the burning hot gas fireplace. She cried in pain for about three hours. After that she was fine. She has several blisters, but is healing well. I having been keeping her hand smothered in neosporin with a sock over it. 

This Week's Pictures

 

Marriage blah, blah, blah

I'm guessing because of Valentine's Day, there has been a lot to read about marriages-- how to save them, what an uphill battle it is, what to do and how to behave, etc. I have never felt like marriage is uphill or a battle or hard. I know that life is an uphill battle, and often hard. But marriage, well I feel like marriage is what makes the battle through life better. I wouldn't want to climb those steep hills without my companion--partner--bff--spouse-- climbing right there beside me. Sure, sometimes we want to climb in different directions, but hey, sometimes I can't even agree with myself which direction is best. I just wouldn't want life without my spouse. He makes everything feel better.

This Week at Our House #6

1. John is a romantic at heart. He loves Valentine's Day now as much as he hated it when he was single. We celebrate Valentine's Day every year. This year we went on a nice date. We enjoyed the quiet time to talk that we rarely have theses days.
2. I had a very busy week. I am trying real hard to keep my heart rate up  while I exercise. Instead of feeling great and having endorphins, I just feel pregnant afterwards-- tired and kind of dizzy. I am still not loosing any weight. Hmmm...maybe once I'm finished nursing the baby. I am hoping to run outdoors this week. It is warmer and the snow has melted a lot. That scares me to think that the neighbors will be watching me. But, I guess a whole lot of people will be watching me when I run the race in June.
3. Monday morning, Ruth testified in front of a senate committee meeting in favor of a bill that would put the sex education program online and to give parents an option to teach sex-ed at home. Ruth was embarrassed to find that she was quoted in the papers here and here. John and I were very proud of her given that she did a good enough job to be quoted in the news. On Valentine's Day, Ruth got a mystery flower from someone at school. She also had to give a presentation with the infamous Rob, who has become a regular household name for us. While giving the presentation a lot of boys teased Ruth that she liked Rob. Poor Ruth. I sure hope she really is being nice to him. He lives in our stake boundaries. Last Sunday Ruth found out that she will be going to a Trek Youth Conference with Rob.
4. Kate testified at the senate committee meeting on Monday too. Brave Kate, agreed to be interviewed by a few news stations after the meeting. She was on the afternoon and evening news, Monday. You can watch her here and here. Kate enjoyed a lot of musical practice the rest of the week. She had a lot of fun with friends at the Jr. High all week. Kate has made friends and feels slightly more ready to re-enter public school in August.
5. Johnny helped and served all week. Johnny babysat while I took the girls to the capitol. Friday, Adam was sick and Johnny spent all of his free time reading, playing with, or helping Adam.
6. Pretty much every day that Adam walks home from school he brings home a large icicle. When Adam came home on Valentine's Day with a bag full of candy, he divided all of his candy up equally and shared with everyone. He even got Rachel to do the same.
7. Rachel is as equally a romantic as her father. She spent all week making Valentines and talking about love. She excitedly picked out her Valentine's cards for school and filled them out without any help. On Valentine's Day, Rachel dressed in all pink. In the beginning of the school year, Rachel said she had a crush on this boy named Riley. The crush wore off and I asked her why. She said it was because she could not spend everyday with him.
8. On Wednesday, Anya snuck out in the morning, went to neighbor's house and asked if her friend could play. I didn't even know she was gone until she came home with her friend. That was quite frightening. Fortunately, the neighbor she went to is the one I trust the most. 
9. Joseph quit peeing in the toilet in the day and he started wetting the bed at night. Ughh!!! I hate it when I have to re-potty train. But, obviously, I did. I simply grounded him from pants until he quits wetting them. He hasn't had an accident and only wet the bed once, except the one day I let him wear pants. I wonder if he doesn't go in time to get his pants down. Because he is perfect when he just wears underwear.
10. Josh is the most adored little two year old. Everyone loves him and thinks he is cute. When we want Josh to come, we just start saying, "cars, cars, cars". Sure enough Josh will come. If we call Josh's name, he just runs the other way.
11. Arwen popped a top tooth, and started scooting around on her belly. She is growing so fast.I'll miss her baby stage when it is over.

This Weeks Pictures

 

My Experience and Opinion With Vaccinations

I was asked about my take on vaccination on a Facebook forum. Here it is:

When I had my first little baby, I had someone sit me down and tell me all of the evils of vaccinations and why I should not vaccinate. At that time there was no correlation to autism. Her objections where all rare side effects and government conspiracies. I thought about it for a while and decided her fears where completely unfounded;there is risk in everything and vaccinations are saving way more lives than they are taking. I decided then and there that vaccinations are knowledge from God and got them on schedule for my first two kids.

When I had my 3rd child,  a trusted friend and child occupational therapist told me how the MMR was correlating to a rise in autism especially in boys. She was a trustworthy source and was even working with the kids that were normal until they received the MMR. I prayed about it and felt certain that I should wait longer to get my baby son the MMR. He got it at 2.5. I was really glad for that warning and the guidance of the spirit because this particular child does have a few autistic traits.

However, I still held strong to my belief that vaccines are good and worth the risk. That was confirmed to me when one church member I knew had a child spend months in the hospital with hbv. Her daughter nearly died.

My next 3 kids got their vaccinations on schedule. I trusted my pediatrician with her knowledge and got all the recommended vaccinations.

When my oldest was 11, our pediatrician told me to get her the HPV or human papillomavirus. She said it would prevent cervical cancer. I got her the vaccination. Later, I found out one of the side effects was infertility and that it is only for STD's and is recommended to gay men. I was not happy at all. I felt ashamed that I just let the doctor inject something into my child with no knowledge of what it was and what it truly prevented. From that point on I decided I would not get my kids any vaccinations that I had not done the research on myself.

Two years later, I found out that cell line of several vaccinations are derived from aborted fetuses. (Think stem cell research). Along with that I found out that every single vaccination that has viruses grown frown aborted human fetal tissue has a 100% correlation with a rise in autism-- each year one of these new vaccinations were introduced, cases of autism rose.
By this time, my 7th child had delayed vaccinations because of moving and unemployment, and I had just given birth to my 8th child. I prayed about what to do, felt like he would be fine if I got his vaccinations on schedule. So I did.

With my 9th child, a little girl, my and husband and I separately felt like we should not get her vaccinated on schedule and we should not bring her into the doctors office. We have learned from sad experience not to ignore any promptings. She is 6 months. She received her 2 months vaccinations all of which are not derived from human fetuses. We will get her vaccinated when the Spirit tells us it is okay to proceed.

I still feel like vaccinations are good and knowledge from God. I am grateful for vaccinations and antibiotics. These two things have made the death of children a rare occurrence. I am not sure I have an ancestor that did not lose a child. Vaccinations are good,but not something to just accept without knowledge.