1st Day of 1st Grade

How do I have a 1st grader? Where does the time go?!?! Maci needed no coaxing or bribing to have a bright and shining face for the 1st day of school. She was so excited and counting down the days. She started on the 19th. Her teacher is fabulous and Maci knows a couple of the girls in her class that were in her kindergarten class. She is excited that she gets to play on the "big kid" playground this year, and even has TESTS!

"So what has been your favorite part of school so far"-Mom

"Every Part! I love school" - Maci

There you have it, that's my Maci for ya! Her favorite subject is Art, I have no idea where she gets that from ;-D but she enjoys it all. She is also wanting to eat school lunch a couple times a week. As long as she'll actually eat the food, I'm ok with that. We'll see how that goes. I'm sure she's going to have a terrific year!




We have attempted to get Gavin signed up for Head Start preschool, which would be every day from about 8:30-12:30. It's kind of a need based program, and unfortunately I'm not sure we're needy enough! We are in the $ department, seeing as they don't even count our student loan money as income, but they also go by if you're a single parent, if Gavin has disabilities, which he doesn't, if there's been trouble at home, the list goes on. And we don't have any of those other things (which is a blessing, I know)! So we'll see if some people in front of us on the wait list drop out, but I'm betting that we won't get in this year. Next year he might have a shot, they also go on age and since he's not officially 4 till the 30th, on their charts he's a 3 year old. Another strike against us! Oh well, I'll enjoy my little Gavy sidekick for another year. Even part day preschool here is 100-200$ a month. Crazy!!

I'm also struggling with balancing PTA stuff already. Our President is moving to Houston and 2 of the VPs have balled out already, so I'm next in line for Pres. This would be fine if I had any idea how to be a PTA president. I DON'T!! But it looks like I'll be filling in for now. The principal is super sweet and has done her best to help me get my bearings, but I'm very nervous about how much time it's going to take and having angry parents because I'm not doing something right. I have 3 other great ladies helping me out, but none of us have ever done PTA before. SCARY!! I'm really liking the work we've done so far, I'm just swamped as it is. So it's going to be a very busy year. We may have to scrap some of the small stuff and just try and focus on survival and a couple fund raisers. I'm sure I'll be complaining, I mean journaling, about all my PTA experiences this year ;-D

Hope your first week of school was as eventful as ours was!

8 Years and Counting

Yesterday was our 8th Anniversary! I generally don't get too sappy on the blog, but it IS our anniversary after all. So I'm going to jog down memory lane a bit, more just to have it on record somewhere than for the benefit of those of you who may read this blog.

It's fun to get married in the summer, but we've found that the middle of August is generally a pretty hectic time! The past 8 August 15ths have included such things as 2 Boren Family camping trips, 1 Trip to St. George, 1 trip to Cedar City, and last years most exciting anniversary ever, moving to Springfield MO! Even though it's a busy time of year, I love having one day a year that we can focus on all the happy memories that we've shared together, and the wonderful life we've built for ourselves and our kids.

I've known Chris for almost 13 years now. He has always been the person that could cheer me up when I'm down, be my wall when I'm crumbling, give me a break when I need it, make me laugh more than anyone I know, be the BEST dad to my kids, be a wonderful provider even when he didn't like what he was doing, shows our kids that education is important and sticking in there till the end, be a worthy priesthood holder in our home, and all that other mushy stuff that wives love to say about their husbands. He is my best friend and I can completely be my true self whenever he is around.

Thank you Babe, for always being there for me and for being a TERRIFIC husband! I love you, and hope we have 68 more wonderful August 15ths to celebrate.

(yes I know I'm a day late in posting this ;-D )

Oh What do you do in the Summer TIme?

I've been a horrible blogger this summer. I blame some of it on the fact that I spilled O.J. on our nice camera and had to say goodbye to it, and we haven't had the cash to purchase a new one. Luckily we still had our older, but much larger, camera that works fine. It's just much bigger and not easily put into a purse or pocket to take cute pics everywhere we go. Excuse #2 is that we've been really busy!! With what, I cannot pinpoint, but this summer has just flown by. So here's a miniature version of our last 2 months.

We've been swimming, A LOT! We got a 3 month pass to our local community center that has an indoor pool, the local outdoor one is usually very crowded and has lots of unruly teenagers at it wearing skimpy clothing. So we opted for the much less crowded indoor variety. We've been there LOTS and have definitely gotten our money's worth out of it. The kids also took swimming lessons, which they really enjoyed. They both learned a lot, including jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder, even Gavin can do this now without floaties or help! Maci is working on her strokes and is becoming a very good little swimmer.


We had a great 4th of July with some friends, the Eckersley's. Their parents own a cabin down on Table Rock Lake, they were at the time on a mission but are now home. They were gracious enough to let us crash at their pad for a couple days, swimming in the lake, watching movies, and generally bumming around for the 4th. We did some fireworks down on the lake, they have cool ones here that shoot up in the air, the kids really enjoyed that. It was a really fun weekend.


Chris still had a full load at school, and worked 24 hrs. a week. He just finished finals this week and has a couple weeks off before school starts up again. He's doing terrific, and so far has 2 A's, one class he still doesn't have the verdict yet. I'm so proud of how hard he's working, while still holding down a part time job. He's really enjoying school for the most part, and is excited to start practicum this next year and get to observe and speak with clients at the school's clinic they have in Springfield. Keep up the great work babe!

We've been to Silver Dollar City several times this summer. We bought a season pass at the beginning of the year, and have put it to good use. It's nice that every time we go, we know we don't have to do EVERYTHING because we can always come again. I think we'll go quite a bit in the fall when it cools down and gets less crowded. It's open till Jan 1st, so we still have plenty of time to use it. Maci's favorite ride is Thunderation, which is a pretty good knock off of Thunder Mountain at Disney Land. Gavin's favorite is the carnival swings that go up off the ground and then around and around. I personally LOVE that one, (barf) It's a fun little park. Chris and I haven't ventured on any of the big roller coasters yet, I'm not a huge fan of those anyway.


Chris had his 30th Birthday!! We celebrated with dinner and a movie I believe. His birthday was on a Sunday, so we went out on Saturday. We made his favorite dinner on Sunday, Swiss Steak I think? and Peach Cobbler for dessert. He got a new pair of Arnett Sunglasses for Father's Day that kind of counted for birthday too, and a few new t-shirts. He bought a new motorcycle jacket ( a winter jacket I'm told) with money from his mom and my parents. His dad got him a set of videos that he loves about a motorcycle documentary type thing. I know it sounds boring but it's really good actually. It's called the Long Way Down and Long Way Round series, if you like motorcycle trips (and Ewan McGreggor) you'd like these.

The last couple weeks here we've just been squeezing in lots of playing with friends, swimming some more, and getting ready for school to start. Maci starts on the 19th. I'm working on getting Gavin into Head Start here, it would be 5 days a week for 4 hrs. or so. He really misses Maci during the day and I think it'd be good for him. If we qualify (if we're poor enough ;-) I think we'll do it. He's excited about the prospect of getting to go to school too.

On a more personal note, we've also been working on some fertility issues. We've been trying for a while now and with no luck, which wasn't really a suprise if you know my past history, but I was just hoping that I'd get pregnant easily like I had luckily with my other two. Well, no such luck. I've been diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and will probably need to go on Chlomid. I've decided to wait one more month before we go ahead with the pills, hopefully once we do it won't take too long before we're expecting baby #3. It's been a kind of rough process, it's just no fun to try and find out what's wrong with you, and then even once you know, to process it all and decide what to do from there. Anyway, we feel good about where we're headed and hope it won't take too long.

We're looking forward to a night out for our 8th anniversary on the 15th. I did get a new calling, 2nd Counselor in the Primary. I'm excited for a change and looking forward to working with the other ladies in the Presidency. That's a wrap! of Summer 09.

Posting

I haven't posted for a while, not much going on! We've been doing a lot of swimming, running in the sprinklers, staying in the AC inside, and generally bumming away the summer!! It's HOT here, 105+ with the humidity, and we've been trying to keep cool and keep busy. Pictures will follow in the coming days, hopefully :)
Off to soak in a cold tub. . .

I'm ON Vacation!

So we've been MIA for 3 weeks now, and MAN have we had a ball here in Utah. We've done so many things and seen so many people, we've found that when you don't have a major holiday in the works, i.e. Christmas, you have a lot more "free" time to do fun things! So here's a sampling of what we've done on our vacation to the Beehive State. (This is more for my benefit in the future than for all of you, so if you just look at the pictures, I won't be offended!)

2 Movies-Up and Night at the Museum
Hogle Zoo
Dinosaur Museum
Miniature Golfing
Boondocks
Chuck E Cheese
Going up AF canyon for a cook-out
Oquirrh Mtn. Temple Open House
Went to the Church Office Building and saw Mom and Dad's Office and Temple Square
Had several BBQ's with different groups of friends
Went swimming twice
Thanksgiving Pt. Animal Farm
Went shopping to ALL my favorite stores, I don't think I missed ONE that I had my mind on going to
Ate WAY too much good food
Did not clean, cook, or do much laundry for 3 weeks, Ahhhhhhh
Had a Boren Family Carnival
Got Gavin's hair buzzed by Grandpa
Read books and snuggled
Had lots of fun jumping on the tramp with the sprinklers and sliding on the slip and slide
Spent plenty of quality time with all the cousins
Kids had 3 sleepovers! which meant 3 nights to myself :)
Missed Daddy lots while he was back in MO
Went to the "Wood Park"
Learned how to sew a bag
Bought food storage that you just can't find easily in MO
Watched the rain and thunderstorms for a week straight?! I came here for dry HEAT, not rain?!

Had an overall fabulous time with friends and family, and can't wait to do it all again next summer!!

Thanks to all those who we had a chance to catch up with, we had a GREAT time!!

And we're looking forward to being back in MO with all our friends out there, and getting back to a regular schedule and being productive members of society! :)


Busy Bees

Time flies when you're having fun, or over extended beyond imagine! We've had a little bit of both the last couple weeks. Here's a rundown of the highlights:

• went to a Kindergarten "Celebration" not Graduation! ('It's a ceremony' - 'It's psychotic!')
• went to a PTA meeting with the principal
• watched Maci play in her last soccer game of the season
• babysat several different families of kids several different times
• survived finals week part 2, Chris finished everything with flying colors
• Spent 4 hours at the Dr.'s office trying to get Gavin to poop, 3 enema's, 2 suppositories, lots of patience, and 12 hrs. later at home, POOP!
• Spent another 2 hrs. in the ER last night with Gavin because of breathing problems, croup. He got 2 steroid shots and a breathing treatment, but is doing fine now. He's on prednizone for 5 more days. He gets croup often when he gets a cold, it was just really bad this time!
• Sent out about 15 orders, business picked back up!
• Did a craft night for my ward, 25 ladies participated, it was a success
• Watched a tooth go from loose to dangling in a matter of days, to OUT tonight!
• Did 20 loads of laundry and countless number of dishes
• Did some work for my other "side" job for Chris's boss, data entry stuff at home
• Tried to get the house somewhat scoured before we leave on Thursday for UT! I hate coming home to a dirty house
• Made it through 2 tornado days, none touched down REALLY close to us, but close enough?! and crazy thunder and lightning, sheets of rain.
• Made it through the first real heat of the summer, I think we're in for a rude awakening! Give me some dry heat PLEASE!
• Had a lovely Mother's Day where I got to do whatever I wanted, which was go for a beautiful country drive with my family, and didn't have to teach primary :)

So that's been our last 2 weeks in a nut shell. We're anxiously baby stepping to Thursday when Maci gets out of school and we'll head that day to UT. We'll probably arrive on Friday late, that's the plan. We're excited to see those of you in UT and will miss those of you here in MO!

They got these bears and autographed each others' bears.

PTA Conference

I was asked to be on the PTA committee, more out of no one else signing up than anything else I'm pretty sure, but I said yes (I have a hard time saying no to things, I need Chris to help me work through my issues.) So I'm the VP over Fundraising and Reflections. I have no idea what I'm doing, and no one else on our board has ever done PTA before either, so it should be a fun learning experience for all of us! We went to a conference in Independence this weekend. 3 of them drove up together, but I was scared to go with 3 people I didn't know, so I roped Chris and the kids in to going with me. We left yesterday afternoon, arrived just in time for the kids to go swimming and for me to go to a "rally" where we chanted PTA over and over for 2 hours. Well, not quite, but something like that. I did win a t-shirt in a raffle :)
I went to workshops this morning for about 5 hours, and tried to soak in as much as we could. Chris and the kids went to a great park our friends told us about. They got to ride horses, feed baby goats, and trapse around the park having a great time. I wish I could have joined them, or at least snatched a picture but we forgot the camera on this trip.
They picked me up this afternoon and headed for the Independence Visitor's Center. We hadn't been since Heritage Tours after our Senior Year in HS, and it's been remodeled recently. It was a fun visit and we all learned a little more about the period of time the saints spent in MO. I love the spirit you can feel in all the LDS visitor's centers. There's nothing else like it! We had to get some KC BBQ while we were there, so we went to Arthur Bryan's, one of the best BBQ places around. It was really good, but I kind of felt like I was at Cafe Rio and not knowing the lingo and how to order stuff. Then we headed home.
It was a fun little trip. I was amazed at how many volunteers on the state level there are in PTA. These ladies spend countless hours, probably close to a full time job, helping in every aspect of the PTA for no pay. They simply want to make a difference in MO kids' lives. It was pretty inspiring actually. I really hope to get a Reflections program going in our school, they didn't do it this year and I'm not sure if they've ever done it. We don't have a strong PTA right now at all, so we're hoping to get it going this year and make it fun for all involved. So if you're not a member of your school's PTA, JOIN!! there's people behind the scenes working hard for your kids. (stepped off soapbox now)

3 weeks and counting till we convoy out to UT!!!!