New Class

Well, now that Rylee has switched classrooms, we have seen tons of improvement. Especially in her behavior. Silly girl. But I am so excited and relieved that she was able to be switched and she is doing much better!

The Dentist

Today we tried to get Rylee into the dentist and to be looked at to see what is going on inside her mouth. Also she needed a cleaning. We have been through 4 dentists already that couldnt work on her. So today started pretty good. She went and sat in the chair and was talking to the assistant and even asked where the thing was that she had to bit down on to take a picture of her teeth. Just as soon as she got the camera positioned where it needed to be, Rylee jumped off and said she wasnt going to have any pictures taken of her teeth. She wanted Dr. Gailey in there to do this. And we kept telling her that he coulnt come in until she has pictures taken and her teeth cleaned. She kept screaming and running away. We held her down long enough for the assistant to actually polish her teeth. This was actually something to be very proud of, since she was the first to ever do that for Rylee! We had to hold her down so that Dr. Gailey could get his mirror in her mouth and see what was going on in her mouth and he found them. He was excited that her teeth werent as bad as he thought. He thought he was going to have to pull them but they can be saved, yay! He gave us a referal to a friend of his, Dr. Quackenbush. sp? We are excited for this because our sister in law takes her kids to him. He can knock the kids out without having to use an IV which I loved hearing this. I really would try to do it without using an iv on her. But kudos to Dr. Gailey and his office! You guys are great sports!!!

Changing Teachers

This year Rylee was put in a normal ed class. Well as the first couple of weeks of school started, her teacher realized that there was something up with Rylee. I had a feeling we were going to have this problem. She was wandering around the classroom and laying on the floor and just not doing so well. We were wanting her to be in the intergrated kindergarten program because of this problem. So this past weekend I get this phone call from the "IK" teacher and says that she is getting Rylee moved into her class where she needed to be in the first place and that she was going to get her occupational therapy! And even the OT does not go through she will work with her and of course we will work with her at home. Rylee has to develope muscles in her arms and hands that are underdeveloped. It was such a blessing to hear from Ms. Hatmann!! I was worrying this whole time about Rylee's behavior and we get to have an IEP meeting to hopefully put these behaviors on her IEP. Oh my gosh what an answer to prayers!! Its going to be sad to have Rylee leave her friends and go to a new classroom but it will be for her benefit!! yay!! I talked to the teacher and it sounds like its going to go through soon woohoo!

All Day Sphagetti Sauce

Ingredients
10 ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 cup Burgundy wine
1 bay leaf
2 stalks celery
2 tablespoons tomato paste


1.Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds. Chop 8 tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor. Chop remaining two tomatoes and set aside.
2.In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes. Stir in chopped tomato, basil, Italian seasoning and wine. Place bay leaf and whole celery stalks in pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours. Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours. Discard bay leaf and celery and serve.

When you do sauces that simmer all day they have this wonderful texture and richeness that cant be achieved by a 15 min sauce! I do an all day but not this intricate. I will post mine in a while. But I wanted to put this one because its an awesome one!

The First Day Of School

The First day of school went off without a hitch. My kids kids could not wait for school to start! It has been fun to have them both in school all day. I was able to get some stuff done. I was able to help the Librarian at the school organize some of the shelves of books. I plan on going in there weekly to help her with that. She hasnt had an assistant in forever. It was fun though! Also, I have been taking a boy to school and picking him up from school for his parents. It has been so much fun for the kids to do this. So far he is a good kid! *keeping my fingers crossed!!

Fish, Fish and More Fish

We went to SeaLife Aquarium in Tempe. It was so much fun. Even though we really didn't go far we did have a little get away from the heat. The sea life was so amazing. The sting rays were so cute and wanted to come up to you and almost want to cuddle. Many of the sharks did the same thing. They would come right up to you against the glass!

Customize a digital scrapbook

Scrubbing Those Books Clean

This morning we got to go to Connor and Rylee's school. The reason for this was that a boy in our stake was doing his Eagle Scout project. This project included scrubbing off books and and shelves. Also some were vacuuming the shelves as well. The kids had so much fun helping scrub down the books. I think they were into it because it was their school. The librarian was having so much fun that people were in there cleaning. She hasn't had an assistant in forever. This whole project put a big smile on her face. We ran into some employees who were scrubbing the building that know us and it was fun to see them and chat. We ended up staying the whole time. We thought we would leave early but we were one of the last few to leave. I had so much fun and my arms had a wonderful work out but it was all worth it. I talked with the librarian and asked her if she needed help (volunteer help) in the morning and afternoon and she said yes she would! But she doesnt want to over work me. And I said dont worry about it cause all the kids will be in school and I have to drop them off and pick them up anyway everyday and so I can come in and help before and after school!

Messing Around With Pictures

I combined 2 pictures. One of my grandpa in the Navy and my Dad as an Airbourne in the Army. I wish my dad's pic was bigger.

Distractions

Today in relief society our President had the lesson. She talked about distractions and things that keep us from the Lord. In other words idols. You know like the internet and television and so forth. Hahah as I am blogging on the internet. But we talked about activities that are getting in the way and taking away from time with the family. The number of dinners that families actually sit and eat together have decreased as the years go by. WE ARE SO DISTRACTED. And now with the texting and facebook and things like that, we are more withdrawn and our communication skills are horrible. We need to take advantage of the little moments since we are such a busy society. My favorite was Nets. Now this is a definition that Sister Carter gave for them. Nets: Anything that entices or prevents us from following the call from Christ. And then she said one more thing that stood out. She asked, "Where are we in Lehi's vision of the tree of life?" When then were given the challenge each month to find something that keeps us in the world and come out of it. This is to help us not be distracted!

Photo Editing

As you can see I am playing around with photo editing. I don't have a fancy editing program like photoshop. I use a free one called splashup. If you go to splashup.com you can use it! You can tell I am getting used to it still, the photo looks cheesy. I still need to play around with it a bit. Wish me luck lol!

What's For Dinner?

Tonight when I got home I really didn't want to make anything that would take too long. Actually I really did not want to cook. I have been dragging all day. So I assessed what I had in my pantry and freezer. I look in the freezer and I had some left over turkey bacon. Then I looked in the pantry, and I have these little 4 oz packets of instant mashed potatoes. And I had broccoli that needed to be eaten and I had cheese. So I decided to cook the bacon until it was really crisp. Then I threw that in another pan because the bottom of the other one got too burned. Then I took my broccoli that I chopped up and put it in a measuring cup and put some of my instant hot water from my water cooler. That steamed it, I then threw that in the pan with the bacon. I shredded 1/2c of cheese and threw that in. Then I measured out 4 cups of my instant hot water and dumped my instant mashed potatoes in and presto! I had instant potato soup. I combined that with the other ingredients and bam I had a soup in a few minutes! The kids loved it and went back for thirds. That is why I say it serves only 4 hahah because my kids ate it up and kept eating it. And the upside its a little heathier than most things that are instant :)

Walk Now For Autism Year 2!

So, this year we are doing walk now for autism with autism speaks again! Its going to be so much fun! We were wondering if there were any of you who would like to join our team or donate! Any little bit helps

Wow Its Been Almost A Year

Ok, so there have been a few people who have said I haven't written in my blog in a while. I checked and its been almost a year. How sad is that. So I am writing in my blog. Well, alot of things have happened in a year. Don't know where to begin. I am excited to be doing coupons to buy groceries that is always so much fun to get either freebies or to see how much I save! I had a blast doing an interview for the Beehive, one of the church newspapers. We got a new ghetto car that gets better gas milage. Its been a bit beaten up. I would have to thank Jason and Crystal Mabb for that car. It was much needed! School is starting real soon and Connor will be in 2nd grade and Rylee will be in Kindergarten! I can not believe she will be going. It is all day too. It's going to be strange having her gone all day. But that means I can go to the temple now! I wonder if there is a day I can volunteer every week :) Its sad to see them grow up so fast!