Easter Sunday

So, while some people celebrate Easter with chocolate bunnies, colored hard-boiled eggs for the kiddies to find and Easter baskets full of other candy, this is not the true meaning of Easter. Consider me guilty of this childish pleasure, because I have a 7 year old who loves to hunt for the eggs the "Easter Bunny" has hidden for her. Easter is celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ after being nailed to the cross on what we now know as Good Friday.

I grew up in a Christian household where I learned that Easter was a time for hunting Easter eggs and then going to church to learn about Jesus' resurrection. Every year from the time I was a toddler and into teen-age and early adulthood (although the Easter Bunny stopped visiting my house when I was about 12). Hence, beginning today, we are now engaging our daughter in the same way.

Yes, we let her hunt said Easter eggs - as I said in the beginning of my blog. But, we also purchased 'The Passion of the Christ' to watch later today - since we are waiting on some things before we start attending the church we've decided on becoming members.

I love Easter, bunny, chocolate candies and Jesus Christ.

God Bless!

Back to work and school

It's nice to finally be back to work and having Carli back in school and learning. The week of Spring Break was wonderful and busy, but that was a nice change from Spring Breaks of past. I have Carli signed up for Summer School in June, and will turn in the application at work tomorrow. So nice being able to work at her school and get the same vacations as she does. Every parents dream - or nightmare if you have ill-behaved children! Ok, only kidding -all kids are well-behaved, right?!

I was sick with a cold/bronchitis during Spring Break and my first week back to work. I'm still sick, but feeling better. Sort of. I'm not sure if I have bronchitis or a cold. Oh well, whatever it is I will manage somehow.

Four more weeks of regular learning and then three weeks of DIBELS. I am going to be busy, busy, busy, but that's ok. What I'm most interested in finding out is if I'll be getting my contract renewed for the 2010-11 school year. I hope I find out soon!

First Full Day of Spring!

Well, Spring may have started yesterday at 1:32 p.m. Universal Time (whatever that means!), but today is the first Full Day of Spring! - How wonderful it is to be having Spring in Arizona -that's where I live. And I love it here. There is no place I'd rather be honestly, because everywhere else it is still cold and rainy and/or snowy, except maybe in Florida - but there its a wet heat where one feels like they just stepped out of the shower into another shower (I hate that feeling!)

Here in Arizona, however, the heat is dry and if there ever is any snow (yeah, like there'd ever be snow in Phoenix), it would probably last two or three minutes, unless the weather was perfect for snow remaining on the ground for a little while longer than that. Thank goodness, though, there is never any snow here in Phoenix and for that I am grateful and happy. That's why I moved to Arizona - to get out of the rain, snow and generally cold weather that seems to last forever when you are stuck somewhere you really don't want to be.

Now, I've been in Arizona for nearly 10 years now and I don't regret my decision to move down here and start my life over. The previous 10 years I'd lived in Kennewick, WA married to a cop and three stepdaughters who completely and totally hated my guts - I don't know why, I'm not a bad person - maybe someday I'll ask them why. Or, maybe I don't care anymore, because I've moved on. I have a third daughter of my own now and wouldn't change it for anything, no really, I wouldn't.

Things haven't always gone smoothly for us, but for the most part life is good and I can't wait to see what the next 10 years brings us.

Babysitting all done!

Well, I am finished babysitting Sierra. It was a lot of fun and and great learning experience for me. Carli and Sierra got along pretty good, but not as good as they could have. I guess after being in such close proximity for as long as they were I would have to say they did okay.

Yesterday (Friday) was the culmination of it all. Sierra spent Thursday night - apparently she's an expert at spending the night away from home. As a result, there were no crying episodes, no "I miss mom!" Which was good. I hope Carli learned from it - since she's never slept over anywhere before. I'm not so sure I'd like her in someone else's house for the night, ya know? But, I suppose if it were Alice's house, I'd be okay with it...even though I'd probably check on her at least 5 or 6 times via textmessaging until I fall asleep exhausted with worry. Sorry...it's the mom in me and I can't stand being away from my baby girl.

I don't mind her going down the street to play with the neighbor children because I can pop in anytime I want and it's all good because I know where she is and who she's with. I know the kids and they all know me. I like it that way because then I know who I'm letting my child be friends with. They are all very respectful and behave themselves accordingly. And that's good, because then they know they won't get in any trouble. Yay for children who act like good little boys and girls!

Spring Break is almost over. Tomorrow is the last official day and then there are a couple of months until school is out for summer. It's hard to believe another school year has come and gone so quickly.

I'm signing Carli up for summer school and pray that we get the scholarship so she can attend. It's four-week, 4 days a week, 4 hours a day school and although she really doesn't need to go for grades or any kind of serious help in anything, just going and being around other kids, being exposed to learning will keep her occupied long enough to not be bored! I'm also considering signing her up for Summer Day Camp through the UofA Cooperative Extension office which is only 5 days after Summer School is over...I hope that Summer Day Camp works out. I'd really like for Carli to be a whole part of that experience again, especially since she had such a great time last year.

Final Day of Babysitting Sierra

Like I'd said in an earlier post, 'babysitting' is quite an unflattering term, especially when it comes to watching an 8 year old girl who's in Second Grade.

Anyway, today was supposed to have been really fun for the girls, we were supposed to go back to Tempe Marketplace and play in the water and take more pictures of the girls. But alas, it was not to be. Carli decided instead of staying with me at the store she would wander off and look at something else by one of the registers without telling me she was leaving (which is a store rule no-no!). I was going to buy the girls another treat today, but when I didn't see Carli and then discovered where she was, the trip was OVER!

I immediately starting walking out of the store with Sierra following close behind and Carli dragging her feet. We headed toward the orbit - the same one we'd barely left, and as we were walking up to it, I tapped her on the behind and told her to get her little behind on the bus - NOW!

I was not happy and neither were either one of the girls...I took Sierra aside and apologized to her, letting her know I was sorry her outing had been scrapped, thanks to Carli's misadventure at the store. I'm sure she was disappointed, but if she was, she didn't let on.

I wasn't going to let Sierra spend tonight because the girls had been fighting and bickering almost like sisters...it was disheartening because I was hoping they'd get along better, considering they hadn't seen each other in a very long time. Anyway, they managed to pull it together long enough to be decent to one another, especially after the disastrous day they'd had by not getting to go to Tempe Marketplace.

Now, here they sit, on the livingroom floor watching a movie together and actually watching it without talking or playing. I'm surprised at how good and quiet they can be. As soon as the movie is over they are heading to bed for the night. I hope they sleep well and late tomorrow.

I can't believe how fast the week has gone, but I suppose being busy every day this week has been good and what made the week fly by. I've been able to get some really good pictures of the girls playing with each other and with other neighbor kids. All in all, they did really well.

Spring Break Outing 3.17.2010

Yesterday Carli, Sierra and I went to downtown Tempe to walk around and see the sights. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed frozen yogurt at MoJos, where the girls shared a bowl with lots of sprinkles and other fun toppings and I had my own with some peanuts and almonds on top - it was delicious! After we finished our yogurts we took a walk to the pharmacy (Carli had to use the restroom and it was the closest) I bought a small bag of cheetos (you know the single serving kind?) and we split them three ways...and a pack of gum. When we finished our treat, we climbed about the orbit and headed to the transit center to catch another orbit to Tempe Marketplace. When we got there (about 35 minutes or so later), we went to Target and walked around(for a little while. On our way out we stopped at the Nutrition aisle and picked out three different nutrition bars (99 cents each) and went outside to eat them. YUM! When we were done, the girls were not ready to go home, so we walked over to the District part of the marketplace and low and behold we found a little water play place. The girls were not prepared to get wet, but I let them anyway. I watched them play for 45 minutes - maybe an hour jumping in the water and the got absolutely soaked from head to toe! I took pictures of them playing in the water. They had so much fun. We are going back today, and this time the girls are prepared to get wet!
****UPDATE****
We were all set to return today and even nearly arrived at our final destination - but, Carli couldn't keep it together long enough for us to walk over to the water. We stopped at Target to get a snack and while Sierra and I were looking at the food choices, Carli decided to walk over near a checkout stand to look at an Ariel doll, without telling me first. When I couldn't find her I was terrified. When I finally turned around and discovered where she was, I was livid! I started to walk out of the store and Sierra obediently followed me, whereas Carli did not, at least not right away. When she saw that I was serious, she began to walk with us. She begged and pleaded that she'd stay with me and behave, but by then it was too late. Once she walks away, it's all over. She knows store rules well enough that she shouldn't have walked away without first telling me. Fortunately for us the orbit we'd ridden to TMP was still there. I spanked her little behind and told her to get on the bus, then I apologized to Sierra for having the day be a bust. They were both grounded for a little while and then I let them play. Now they are at Anna's house, and I will have to go get them very soon. Still not sure if I should let Sierra spend the night or not, although they have been getting along better today. We'll see.

Going back through older posts...

So, I went back through some of my older posts just to see what I'd talked about in the past. I found a post on tofu and how much I thought I didn't like it. I remember trying tofu a long time ago and not liking it very much. But, more recently, my husband used tofu in a recipe with chicken and he chopped it so fine I never even noticed it. So, I guess I like it now, especially if it's chopped really fine.

Another interesting topic I'd discussed was meeting biological family members and getting to know them. During all of this, my relationship with my father has not changed. I haven't spoken with him very much, I'm not sure why. And to me, that's sad. I miss him, and don't want him living there anymore. I want to get to know him better, have a real father-daughter relationship with him, and that's hard to do long distance - which anybody would understand. So, over the past couple of weeks I have been discussing the subject with my husband, wondering if he'd be open to the possibility of having my father move in with us for the duration - essentially the rest of my father's natural life.

He hasn't exactly said 'yes' to the idea, but he hasn't said 'no' either. So I still need to find out if having Harry move here is a viable option. We are certainly NOT moving to Libby, MT. We like where we are, James is about ready to start his job w/the post office, I'm a teacher's aide at my daughters school and she will be entering the third grade come August of this year. I already have her teacher decided on, she knows she'll finally be upstairs and is looking forward to staying with all of her friends and classmates. I'd hate to disappoint her by picking up and moving to what I would consider a 'foreign' town . It's windy, cold and snowy for long periods of time in MT and I am (after 10 years in a very sunshiny state) not willing to go back into the deep freeze. Not now, not ever.

That being said, this post has been concluded.