Venting

Sorry about this one.  You can skip it if you want.

Years ago I was going through a really hard time in my life, and one of my friends at the time found out what was going on.  She was, therefore, one of the only people I could talk things through with.  She then proceeded to act like she was going to be my friend through it.  She even decided to throw me a baby shower for Jill.  It was such a comfort to know I had someone who would do that and be my friend through this difficult time.  Well, right before the baby shower (like 3 days or something) she suddenly backed out, saying it was her mom's birthday (ummmm... she was the one who picked that date).  Mom and Kenzie were going to help her, but she just dumped it all on them.  There wasn't time to get the invitations passed out in Relief Society, and Mom and Kenzie decided they didn't know those people and wouldn't pass out invites, so they left that to me.  What the heck?!  I was calling people inviting them to my own baby shower.  It was lame to the extreme.

So anyway, that was a sidetrack.  After she ditched my baby shower she pretty much never talked to me again.  She decided we'd been in the stake primary together long enough and asked that we be released.  I was way sad about that.  That was one of my favorite callings that I ever had.  And she unfriended me twice on Facebook and moved to Thatcher.  Well, now we've moved to Thatcher too, so I see her now and then at the grocery store.  Every time I see her she makes a concerted effort to not look at me.  It makes me so, so mad!  I did nothing wrong!  I did nothing to her.  It feels to me like she's the kind of person who loves drama until she's in the middle of it, and then she just can't take it anymore.  What kind of person does that?!  What kind of person acts like they're going to help you through a tough time and then deserts you because of it?

Clearly, I need to get this out and forgive this person.  I'm willing.  But first I need to stop being mad.  It was not a happy situation to deal with, so I can kind of understand, but why couldn't she at least say something?  Running away clearly doesn't fix it.

Some pictures

School just wipes my Jilly out.  This particular day she fell asleep on the couch when she got home, and after an hour or two she came in the dining room and fell asleep like this. :) Ha ha! Poor girly!  She keeps telling me she wants a long break from school.  2 more weeks!  Well, technically it's 9 school days, including this one.

Henry can roll onto his side.  He LOVES being on the floor.  Sometimes when he's fussing it seems like that's all he really wants.  He kicks his legs and waves his arms and smiles big.  He can also move himself around in a circle by rolling on his side and then rolling back over and over.

Cute fella!

Here's Jeremy and some kiddos in his truck.  Looks nice, huh? :) In this particular picture Jeremy is in our driveway.  He'd hooked up a chain to the oleanders to rip them out with the truck.  Man, was that a fiasco!  What happened was one of my friends in the ward - her husband works for himself.  He does all sorts of things, cutting and selling wood in the winter and such.  Anyway, so Jeremy hired him to take out the oleanders by the driveway (He insists they're poisonous, but I'm not so sure.) and cut down the dying mulberry tree in the backyard (He's allergic to that one).  Well, he didn't want to bother me to move the van.  He's kind of the shy type.  Anyway, so he decided to yank them out with his truck by pulling straight forward.  In the process he broke off a faucet and bent the gas meter.  What in the world?!  So the water got shut off until he could fix the pipe.  We don't really need a faucet right there, so he just capped it.  Anyway, while he was gone to get the parts Jeremy moved the cars and pulled out some of the oleanders with his truck without any problem really.  The oleanders are pretty much all gone now.  There are little stumps that Jeremy's planning to pour plant killer on.  So the next day the gas people came to make sure our gas line was OK.  In the process they broke the water line again, so Safford had to come out and fix it.  Ha ha!  It's all working fine now.  And just now I got a notification that in a few minutes our power will be going off for a bit while they change out the transformer or something.  Ha ha!

Bubby likes to wedge Papa's ball between the bed and the crib and bounce up and down.  He says, "I tricky!"

Jill had her music program last week.  She's been singing the songs and driving her brothers crazy for months.  She's about in the middle of this picture, just up from the girl in the fluffy blue dress.  She did so great!  She had a short speaking part, and she said it loud and clear.  I was so proud!  The program was a collection of songs that some guy wrote.  Her favorite was the baby beluga song, but she also loves Down By the Bay.

An interesting side note: that is the back of Jacquelyn Trickey Allred's head.  It's been fun to get to know her. 

I brought Timmy with me, and he LOVED it!  I knew he would!  There was a song about shaking wiggles out, and he was dancing along. :) He was also quite happy when I finally let him take some pictures on my phone.  He took about 50 in like 1 or 2 minutes!

Here's another selfie he took.

Timmy and Jill after the show.

The oleanders all gone and the gas meter straightened out

The tree getting chopped.  It was half dead too.  He left a stump for Jeremy to sit on. That's what Jeremy asked for.  And he left some branches and lots as per Jeremy's request too.  Bubby will like that.  That is one boy who LOVES sticks!

We ordered 3 apple trees and a maple tree from Stark Bro's.  They arrived on Friday and Jeremy planted them as soon as he got home.  They came in this box, and Benji kept putting it on Jill and Timmy.  It looked funny to see that box walking around.  Ha ha!  That's Jill in there.

The trees looked like sticks when they came, but they're already getting leaves.  We also got a pear tree and a hibiscus bush.  The fruit trees are planted in the backyard, and the other two things are planted in the front.

Bubby loves Buster.  He got the scoop and was getting dog food and then holding it out for Buster to eat off of.

Jill said, "Mommy, look where I am!"  I took a picture and then said, "Now, get down before you get impaled on the fence!"

Papa in the "forest" at Home Depot

Hyrum went to an end of the year activity for Seminary on Saturday.  It was at someone's house, and they played mud volleyball. You can kind of see that there's a HUGE pudde.  It was like mid-calf deep.  They were laying in it and stuff.  Hyrum got thrown in right away.  Ha ha!  I kind of wished I could go play too. 

Bubby got a haircut on Saturday.  No more mullet! ;) It got really long!

I think Bubby took this panoramic.  He did OK. :) Timmy was sick. :(

Jill wanted a side ponytail for school yesterday.   And today she had me do it again, but on the other side.  Ha ha!  She says she's trying to be like another girl at school.  It sounds like there's already a hierarchy there and she desperately wants to fit in.  I'm glad she has some good friends, though.  There's one from our ward named Olivia.  I visit teach her mom and aunt.  Jill and Olivia share a seat on the bus every day. :)

Jill still loves her dolls Kaleelah and Sally best.  This is Kaleelah.  She likes to take care of them and feed them.

Jill made a little face on the egg box and said she wants to save it for Halloween. Uhhhh...

A bunch of pictures

I fixed my iPhone, so I was able to get photos off.  Here are a few fun ones from April and May.

Play-Doh during Conference

Michael had Cub Scout Day Camp.  I can't believe it was his last one! :( He'll be 11 in January. And we won't have anyone else doing day camp until 2019!  Timmy will turn 8 in November 2018, so he'll have to wait until the next year to go.

Anyway, Michael had a great time.  He made this catapult and a bottle rocket with a 2 liter bottle, and a few other things too. :)

One day I made Bubby a cheese tortilla for lunch, and I guess he thought it needed cooked more.  I cook them on the stove top in a frying pan, but he put it in the basket of our microwave steamer and stuck it in the oven when I wasn't looking.  So later that day when I turned on the oven...

I'm sad about this.  I loved that steamer!  It was great for fresh veggies.  We cooked a lot of asparagus in it.  It was one of those freebies from WIC, but it was sure useful!

Sometimes I think the kiddos get bored and go around looking for jobs they can give me. Ha ha!  Most of the plastic peeled right off or was easily scraped off, though, so yea for that!

Jill and Bubby on our new swing set

Henry thinkin' about stuff ;)

Bubby loves his Henry.

One day Jill came home with a homework page where she had to write a bunch of words that start with the letter Y.  Yodel was one of the ones we came up with.  She liked it, so when she made this triangle later she wrote "yodel, yodel, Burk, Burk," on it.

She also made this kite that says, "Yea! You did it!"

These are a little out of order.  This and the next one are from the day I put these things together. (The other swing set picture is missing the canopy, so you can tell it was taken later.)  Here are Bubby and Henry on the porch swing.  This is where I read my scriptures in the mornings.

Here's the swing set before the poles on the shade broke.  They were fiberglass and fitted together like tent poles.  I thought it looked kind of cool, even if it wasn't very shady.  After it broke I was taking it all down, and a piece got stuck in the weeds.  So when I pulled it stretched the elastic, and I bet you can guess what happened next.  Yep, the thing let go and shot up and whacked me in the hand.  I had fiberglass slivers all over my hand and it bruised my finger.  Darn it!  The whole thing was a crock.  But it's all properly disposed of and it's all good now.  Aren't those some cute kiddos playing on it? :D I can't wait until Bubby can get in the swing by himself, but for now it's fun to see his delight when I put him on and swing him. :) It makes him so, so happy!  I really wish I knew what happened to the baby swing Mama gave us!  It's lost itself somewhere.  I don't think we have it anymore. :(

Jill had a birthday party that she was invited to for a girl in her class one Saturday.  It was at the splash pad, and the kiddos have all been begging me to take them, so I took Michael, Jill, Timmy, and Henry.  The older ones didn't want to go, and Bubby had just fallen asleep.  They all had a great time.  I meant for just Jill to be over there at the party while the others played, but Michael wandered over there and kind of weaseled his way in.  I felt kind of bad, but I was nursing Henry (and getting scorched by the sun), so there wasn't much I could do.  He and Timmy ended up staying for cake and presents.  (Insert eyeroll here.)  Well, I'm glad they had fun.  And they got party favors too.  In the meantime, Jill's "glass slippers" were parked next to my bench.  I looked down at them and saw how beat-up they are and thought about how soon they'll be all fallen apart and she'll soon outgrow them anyway.  It's going to be a sad day.  She LOVES those shoes!  Well, I decided I'd better take a picture, so I did. :) Man!  These kiddos grow up too fast!

Here's Timmy having fun at the splash pad that day.  I tried to get good pictures, but they were all running too fast.  Ha ha!

And this one is from yesterday.  Jill came home all tired out from school.  She fell asleep on the couch for a while, and then she got up and came in the dining room where I was folding laundry and fell asleep again!  Ha ha! :) Poor girly.  All day is too long for kindergarten!   But, man, I love my girly!

Update

Jeremy brought home his new truck last week.  He had Susie drive it home while he drove the little car because the little car is stick shift and Susie can't drive it.  She stayed overnight and he took her home on the way to work the next day.  It's a pretty nice truck.  The guy took good care of it.  And he was really nice.  He even texted Jeremy to make sure he made it to Thatcher fine.  Jeremy has driven me around in it a couple times.  It runs good and has good A/C and a good stereo too.  The trailer is really nice.  The guy had it to carry his four wheelers, but he recently sold all of those too.  

Things are all done at the Globe house and the guy is all paid. I'm sure you know it took lots of paint.  The house looks a lot better.  The bathroom floor looks amazing now.  They even replaced the missing pieces of siding and fixed the cracked front steps.  It's been listed for sale now too.  I hope it sells quick!  You should go see the pictures.  It's here.  I should say - the pictures make the walls look splotchy, but they're not.  They're spotless white.

Jeremy and I graduated from high school in 1996.  That's been 20 years ago now!  I don't think either of our classes have anything planned.  I'm OK with that.  My last one was pretty much, well, lame.  Still, it's fun (if nutso) to think it's been another decade.

And it's been 17 years since I graduated from EAC.  They had their graduation the other night.  Our street was packed!  That's ok.  I thought it was fun having a place for Aaron to park right by the stadium.  We stayed home and watched a movie, but we got to see the fireworks. :)

It's also been 17 years since I married this handsome fella. :) Our anniversary was Saturday.  We went to Denny's for dinner, and it was yummy!

We were so stuffed, but we got dessert anyway.  We shared this lava cake.  It was so good!  How fancy that there's a Denny's here.  Jeremy thinks it's funny that I think Denny's is fancy. Ha ha!

Jeremy got me 2 bouquets - one for our anniversary and one for Mother's day.  I do like flowers a whole lot. :) Jill loves them too.

This weekend is Fathers and Sons.  I'm really looking forward to our little girl party! :D We'll probably have the two littlest boys with us, but we'll have fun anyway.  Gotta have a girl movie, pink ice cream, and painted nails.  I think I'll pull out my makeup too and maybe we should do masks.  That would be fun. :)

Mother's Day was nice.  I got cards and things that the kiddos brought from school.  Timmy brought a plant jar, but he insists it's his. ;) With a pink bow and his hand print. OK. :) Jill didn't want to go to her class at church.  I usually make her anyway, but yesterday I was just glad to keep her.  She was very good all through the classes and she even kind of listened.  She repeated to me something the teacher said: "Women need other women?!"  Yep.  Even after we're married. ;)

I have a whole bunch of things growing in my kitchen window. It's so fun!  Most of them are the kids' plants.  Some need to be transplanted if they're going to live.  Michael brought home a bean plant and Timmy brought home a pepper plant.  Jill brought home a sunflower, but it died.  There are a few cups of chia seeds growing into whatever it is that chia seeds grow into.  Jeremy had some chia seeds laying around, so why not, eh?  Then there's the plant that Timmy brought home that's not for Mother's Day. ;) And I just got some basil started, so that's coming up.  I'm really looking forward to having fresh basil.  And then we have a flower outside that Jill brought home from her field trip to Home Depot, and we have rosemary that was already growing outside the front door.  Some days I step outside and I can smell that rosemary, and it makes me so happy. :) I like to put it on my potatoes. and bake them cut in quarters with a little olive oil.  Yum!

And I think I mentioned that Hyrum got his permit, right?  He took the test 2 1/2 weeks ago and didn't pass the first time.  Poor guy.  Yeah, I remember talking about that.  Well, a week and a half ago he took it again and passed!  And just today he found his card in the mailbox.  Wahoo!  Jeremy's taken him out driving a few times (He'd already been doing it before.  Sneaky fella.), but I haven't yet.  To tell the truth, I'm nervous about it, and I don't want to freak out because then he'll freak out.  But he's excited to learn to drive.  It'll be good for him. :) But he still has to walk to Seminary cuz it's good for him. ;)

I almost forgot to mention that I went to the doctor and got new prescriptions for asthma.  Do not join the asthma club.  It's not fun.  Anyway, I feel like a pill popper now.  I was on just a daily allergy medicine with a rescue inhaler, but now I have a twice daily inhaler and something else that's on its way from the mail-order pharmacy. Oh, boy!  Does this mean I'm getting old?

I also took Henry to the doctor for his 4-month checkup.  He's doing great.  He's over 16 lbs. now.  He's had some issues with eczema (It took me a few times to figure out how to spell that.  Ha ha! I thought it had an x.) on his leg, but the doctor said to use cortisone (also can't spell that) on it, and it's doing a lot better.  He's gaining weight.  He naps sometimes.  He's cute as heck, although, heck probably isn't all that cute.  Gee, I guess I need another metaphor...  He's been trying to sit up, and he's been spending time on the floor, learning to shift his weight a bit.  He's great to take places because he smiles at everyone.  I keep thinking it's going to be a bummer when he's not a baby anymore because I'll have to learn to actually interact with people on my own without the icebreaker of a cute baby.  Ugh. ;)

Another little update

So I think I mentioned last week that I had a meeting about Timmy, right?  I went to that on Friday.  It actually went really well, I think.  It was interesting to me because sitting right there in that meeting I got an answer to a question I had that was totally unrelated.  And by that I mean I needed some direction from Heavenly Father, and he picked that moment to tell me.  I'm a little surprised I didn't break down and bawl like I usually do when those things happen, but I didn't.  It was a nice meeting, though.  I could tell that everyone in that room really did care and wanted what was best for Timmy.

First we went over all the things that Timmy has done during the last few months at school, and I liked that because they'd taken good notes and noticed so many things about him.  It tickles me pink when people get to know my kids on that level.  I think they're such great little (and giant) people, and maybe it's conceited of me to think so, but I do think they are a gift to the world.  ;) Anyway, that was fun.  Made me smile.  And then we moved on to talk about kindergarten.  His preschool teacher, D'Anne Lutz, thinks that he should not do Transition Kindergarten.  She pointed out that he can count to 20 or higher, he knows his whole alphabet - upper and lower case - and can match the upper to the lower, and he is reading simple words and trying his hand a spelling too.  She says you just don't see that in preschool, and she's worried that he'd get bored not being challenged in TK.  I can see her point.  And Mr. Allred, the principal from the primary school here, thinks we should put him in a regular all day kindergarten class right from the start.  They all pointed out the different arrangements we could make, and how we could change things if we get started with this and then decide it's too much.  Mr. Allred's thing is he doesn't want him to start out with a crutch, but to go in as a full-fledged kindergartner.  My concern is that he's going to be so overwhelmed he won't be able to do the work even though academically he's there.  He feels all the stuff that goes on around him.  They pointed out that there's an aide in every kindergarten classroom, and that they can take him out to decompress if he wants.  They can give him preferential seating.  They can't give him a personal aide, unfortunately.  I figure eventually he'll be in a regular classroom with pretty much no help at all, and I'm not sure what we'll do at that point.  I don't think the higher grades have aides.  I wish I could volunteer to be his.  But I can't.  I guess, though, that right now I need to think about this coming year.  One step at a time.

So anyway, I came out feeling like we could do it, that he could go to regular kindergarten and be fine.  But I knew Jeremy would disagree.  And I was right.  Sometimes I wish I could make up my own mind what I think instead of being persuaded one way or another.  But that's neither here nor there.  Jeremy doesn't want him being overwhelmed and being put in a sink or swim situation.  His question was, "Well, do we wait until he's drowning to fix it?"  Of course, he does have a good point.  He wants Timmy to keep going to the same school so he gets the help that he needs without being overwhelmed, and then we can do harder work at home and put him in first grade next year.  We can certainly give it a go.  I think that may be what we end up doing.  We'll see.  I want to see if I can get Jeremy to go talk to Mr. Allred.  I do know that the school would do everything they could to help him be happy and successful, but there's only so much they can do, you know?  I just don't know what we're going to do.  I'm worried that it'll be like with Joshua, where we were up until like 11:00 every night struggling through homework because he really needed to decompress and work through all the built-up anxiety from the whole day.  In some ways school was really good for him, but in some ways it was just so hard.  He dealt with so many things that neurotypical kids never, ever have to deal with.  I guess I just worry in general because of what we put Joshua through.  Still, Joshua's fine, you know?  He's going to be just fine.  There's just so much to consider, and I'm always afraid I'm going to make a horribly wrong choice that will hinder my children for the rest of their lives.

Yes, I have issues.  Moving on.

I've been running on the treadmill a few times a week.  I'm still doing the walk then run then walk again thing for about 35 minutes.  It feels good.  I'm having trouble with my feet, though.  My pregnancies always leave my feet hurting, and then they hurt for like years after.  I've always figured it's because of my beautiful high arches.  They need more support than they're getting.  No shoes at Wal-Mart have any type of arch support.  I guess they figure you'll buy those separately.  Such a bummer.  I bought some new shoes with my birthday money because my old ones were dying.  I like them except that my feet hurt so bad after my workout.  So I finally got some arch supports to go in there, and they do help some, but maybe I just need to wait a bit more for the pain to stop?  I don't know.  It just stinks.  And right now the pain seems to be more in my heels.  I'm hoping the gel in the heels of the arch supports will help.  We'll see.  I've never really dealt with heel pain.

Maybe I'm just feeling whiny today.  Ok, I take that back.  I KNOW I'm feeling whiny today.  I'm so dang tired!  I'm a lot more tired than I feel like I should be.  And that's another thing - I keep sleeping with monkeys and waking up with a sore back.  Thankfully, the sore back doesn't last long, but man!  And I'm not sure about the quality of sleep I'm getting either.  I know I snore, and I know it's pretty bad sometimes, especially when I have a stuffy nose, which has been the last 9 months at least, it seems like.  (Allergies are of the devil.)  I worry that I might keep Jeremy awake, because I know I have sometimes.  And I also worry because I think I have sleep apnea.  I have woken up several times choking, and once I woke up gasping for breath.  It usually only happens when I nap or when I'm not sleeping in my own bed, but it's freaky!  I hate it!  It certainly makes me more determined to lose some weight, but that can only go so far, you know?  I've got to stick around!

Henry has a new kind of schedule now where he sleeps starting around 11:00 and wakes up about 4:30.  Jeremy has his sleep cute a little short because of it.  His alarm goes off at 4:45.  That's too early!  Anyway, I miss having him sleep straight from 11:00 to 9:00.  I hope he'll do that again sometime. ;) He's sure a sweet boy.  I may whine and fuss about getting up and sleeping in the chair, but I pick him up and all is pretty much forgiven because he feels so good in my arms and he's so cute.

Speaking of the little guy, he's quite the flirt lately.  It's so cute!  I guess he's at that age.  I love him a bunch.

I dropped my phone last week.  I think I already said that.  It's not fixed yet, but I had my old phone reactivated so I could have something.  I knew I liked droid phones better than iPhones, and I'm being reminded why every day.  It makes me a little sad to get the iPhone fixed, you know?  Well, we'll have had them for 2 years at the end of the year, so we'll probably be due for an upgrade and get new ones.  We'll be glad to ditch them for droid phones again, and I doubt we'll ever look back.  We never use FaceTime anyway.

Michael had his school program today.  Teleysha is his music teacher.  She does a great job!  It sounds like she'll be moving on to the middle school next year full time and a part time person will come and teach some of the younger grades.  She had them play their recorders for part of it.  I thought it was cute.  They sang The Lion Sleeps Tonight, and they played their recorders for the o-wim-oh-weh part.  They did some patriotic songs and that fireworks song by that weird girl.  You know?  The one who is just really weird but did that one great fireworks song.  Ha ha!  Ok, I looked it up.  It's Katy Perry.  I do like that song except that when do you ever, ever say "a firework."  Nobody does.  It's fireworks, with an s!  Still, it was fun to watch Michael sing it.  I think it was during that song when he finally spotted me in the audience.  I was kind of hidden behind a guy's head.  But he saw me and his face just lit up.  It was great!  I waved, and he waved back. :) I saw him looking and looking for me before that, and finally he saw me.  It was a great little concert.  I'm so glad I could go. Next week will be Jill's, and the week after that is Benji's band concert.  Things are winding down!  It's crazy!

Another cool thing - Sister Whetten invited me to her literary club.  They meet once a month except the 3 months in the summer.  It's nothing fancy.  They take turns hosting and giving reports on books they've read.  This lady who hosted had been out of it for a few months, so she decided to host and give the report too.  There were a total of 9 of us.  We had cookies and listened to her report and asked questions.  Her book was about dragonflies and had lots of pictures.  It was kind of fun.  I'm looking forward to the next meeting and feeling a little bummed that it's not until September.  I'm pleased that she would invite me. :) I was by far the youngest there.  I think the next youngest was in her 50s.  But that's ok. :) It's going to be fun to get to know these ladies.

The lady who hosted is actually Mike McCarthy's wife.  Mike has taught biology at the college for a long, long time, and now he's retiring.  I think Aaron is getting his job, so that's kind of cool.  Mike is a nice guy.  And now he has a bunch of research projects and things he can work on.  And he's been writing some books too.  I remember watching him from a distance when I was here a long time ago.  I never took biology because I was traumatized from taking it in high school, but I kind of wish I'd taken his class.  Except then I wouldn't have taken Bonnie Briscoe's classes.  She was amazing.  Anyway, he also knows sign language, so he always interpreted for different things like EAC graduation and such.  And that's always fun to watch.  His style of sign was kind of different from the teachers I had.

And that makes me remember - after I took sign language Kimberly and I would sometimes sit and sign together.  And that summer that we were together in Salt Lake we'd go see the Legacy movie like every week, and one day we were quite early, so we sat on the floor at the head of where the line would start, and we just talked back and forth.  She taught me a few signs as we conversed about this and that in sign language.  And then a sister missionary came and asked if we needed an interpreter. :) I was pretty darn pleased with myself that day.  Ha!

Here's something cute.  Bubby calls ice "rock."  So he'll get a cup of water from the fridge's water dispenser, and then he tries to push the buttons while saying, "Rock.  Rock." :)