Oh my, things have been so busy! The boys are back in school, Lidia is working full time, Cory is working and taking an online class, Aiden has hours of dance class twice a week and he is working as a zombie at Nightmare acres three nights a week, we just had all of our parent teacher conferences, and I am working subbing at the schools and subbing as a crossing guard several days a week and I am still YW president. Cory was released from EQ presidency. They called all new people. He doesn't have a new calling yet and I am fine with that. A couple of my people were called to other callings and I wasn't happy about that to begin with but I love the ladies I have now so it's all worked out well. We still have lots of dr appts managing physical therapy, hormones, ADD, braces, teeth etc. This weekend of conference is greatly welcomed! lol Lidia submitted her mission papers a while ago. We are waiting on bishop to do his part of her paper work. She's pretty busy working at Walmart and happy to chill at home on her days off. She likes reading emails from her friends who are already serving. We are proud of Lidia for passing her driving test and now Aiden wants to but I told him to wait until Lidia goes on her mission. I don't want to pay insurance for more than one kid at a time. It's pricey and I hear boys are especially expensive.
Older kids cost so much more. I need to work to help out and it's good for me to have somewhere to go and to feel needed and boy do the schools need it. It's not a ton of money but it's the only job I can do that works with our family needs. The conditions of our schools is kind of insane. How can kids learn with 40 kids in some classes and many of those kids don't behave? Some classes are better than others but much improvement could be made. Subbing at Avery's school is much better than the public schools. The school is more organized and unified and the children are better behaved. Subbing at the Jr High and High school totally depends on the class. If the kids want to be there and want to learn it goes well, if you have a class full of kids that hate school it's really pointless. Those kids should be in a tech school or apprenticeship. It's like torture to make them sit and read and write about things they don't care about. Well mainly, they are old enough that you can't make them do anything so they just waste your time and theirs. There needs to be a better connection between education and jobs. This applies in high school as well as college. I sub a lot for FACS teachers and most of those kids actually like learning about sewing and cooking and such. Some take it because they think it's easy but they are wrong. You still have to work. It's interesting to go into different schools and see how they operate differently and to meet so many different kids and teachers. There are some classes you'd love to keep subbing for and others that you never want to go back to. lol
Being a crossing guard is so easy and I enjoy it. I like being outside. The kids are nice and we haven't been hit yet. lol It's just not very many hours. I was doing makeup as a sub out at the haunted acres where Aiden is working but it wasn't working out with my schedule. 4-7 on a Thursday is really bad timing for this mom, especially if I subbed that day. It really feels like life is going so fast right now and I am just working hard to keep up but they are all things I need to do. My family is top priority and I need to support them all that I can so they can grow up righteously and responsibly in this world we live in. I feel like I don't have much time left!
Aiden and Tristan love seminary and I am so thankful for this wonderful program and for righteous leaders at church and school. As busy as we are we work really hard to have family scripture and prayer everyday, family home evening, discussions etc. I think my kids know much more about the scriptures and the gospel than I did at their age. They have their struggles but they know they can overcome them through the Lord.
It's kinda nice that Max has Millie or he might be very lonely during the day. We love them to pieces though and the kids play with them a lot when we are home. I love watching the bonds between the kids and the dogs. I think it's something every child needs.
Tristan's leg is slowly recovering. I don't think we realized what a long ordeal this would be but he is progressing and I think in the long run will be very glad he did this. He's not very diligent about PT. We need to figure out a way to motivate him. He is doing pretty well in school.
Between conference sessions yesterday, Cory sealed the concrete on the driveway. We are trying to help it last. We need to fill cracks now. We also need to work on building new back steps with a small deck. We put the pool in storage in the garage. Today Cory made cinnamon rolls and took Avery and Tristan to the park. Aiden is sick but trying to get homework done and Lidia has to go to work later. She changed her availability hours at work so hopefully they won't schedule her many Sundays anymore and she will be off Tuesday nights for mission prep class. She doesn't like going to the singles ward on Sundays. She prefers our ward. Aiden should start going with her to mission prep. Oh my! I can't even wrap my head around him going out soon too! We are still not sure when he will go. We will deal with that later.
I am trying to live by this quote right now: "Life by the inch is a cinch, Life by the yard is hard!"
Two of my sweet nieces are being baptized next Saturday. I wish we could be there at both but it's too far to get there and back in so little time. I wanted to take a road trip in August and go visit Kelsey in CO and my family back in AL this summer but there just wasn't the time or money to do it. I look back at our time in England and feel very grateful for those many experiences we enjoyed as a family and the lack of financial pressures during that time. We all have many cherished memories. We are glad to be home but it's almost like we are having to catch up for kind of pausing parts of life for three years. I think part of Cory wants to go back overseas. Probably because life was more relaxing but whether we are here or there it will not stop our kids from growing up and having to take on new challenges and the bad part of living overseas is being so far from everyone.
It is fun to have Micah land family living nearby. I've rarely lived in the same town as any of my extended family. Oliver is cute and fun to watch learn new things. He is crawling around and pulling up on everything, starting to let go sometimes. He will be walking and into everything soon. My kids like to play with him. I can just pop over for a few mins here and there to visit them instead of a big trip to see my other family far away. Micah starts his new job at TJMaxx this week. I hope it works out well. It's really close and a less stressful business model and no crazy hours. He will not miss the commute to SLC. He may work on his MBA at Weber.
