Solo Conferences

Ah, parent teacher conferences. Usually we divvy up the conferences and Corey does the older kids and I do the elementary and middle school. But Corey is gone, as we are all well aware, so guess where I got to go? Back to High School! Oh boy, I had to gear myself up to leave the house again... I've like had to leave the house every day the past week,which I'm not used to doing. So last night Joseph and Ethan were gone at Voodoo in Corey's car, and Angela had borrowed the van, so I wanted to bail out and say I couldn't go in the busted car, but fortunately (though unfortunately for me and my desire to get out of PTCs at this moment) it's still driveable. So off I went. I left Mel and Hyrum in charge and headed over in car with the busted bumper. Daniel fell asleep on the way, woke him up and strapped him on. Got a full bottle, here we go

Walking past the seal from the great class of '94!

I saw some teachers that I took classes from 22 years ago (AP Art history teacher Woods, Health teacher Hymas) and a friend of mine from the class of' '94 was there for conferences for her kids too and we said hi (Allison Hampshire - she hadn't aged a bit, the only difference was she had shorter hair) So it went well at conferences. Mel is quiet, they both have a few grades they need to try to get up. I felt like I totally had to go to Conferences cause we skipped them in September cause we were busy with Daniel being born, and we didn't catch that Mel was struggling and that term didn't go so great for her. So, even with Corey gone, I did it, go me. Positive mindset: I can do this! I went to Churchill after but the empty parking lot clued me in that there weren't conferences going on tonight. Doh, that meant that today was gonna be busy, and it was. I couldn't do conferences tomorrow cause I'm going to be in San Diego with Corey. Blah this is a lot to manage... my brain is kinda used to managing it but not doing all of it. Here we go

I already had conferences with Abi and Lily scheduled for tonight, so first this evening was heading over to the elementary for them at 4:45 and 5. Then to the book fair cause I promised them we'd do it today since I missed books and bagels yesterday morning (that whole "can't do it cause I'm flying solo" thing again...) so after the book fair we headed home to check the status of Owen and Daniel, who I'd left with Mel (Hyrum, Eth, and Joseph gone at band). Owen was ready for a change of scenery so I took him with me for the rest of the evening. Stoller in the back. First to Albion. Wesley wanted me to see like 5 of his teachers. Wasn't too bad, lines were okay, was there for like 45 minutes. Then over to Churchill to finish off the evening. Stroller out of the van, kid out of the van, hoof it up the hill from the parking lot. It was 6:40. There weren't a lot of people there. I walked around, long line for a teacher to see for Ethan, which was the first name I recognized, so I went to say hi to Mr. Arnell since there was no line. I didn't have any concerns with Hyrum in his class, but wanted to introduce myself and tell him that my kids absolutely love having him as a teacher. Mr. Arnell is the teacher I heard all the kids say really positive things about. He also comes from a family of 10 kids so we talked about that for a bit and visited. I like Mr. Arnell and am grateful there are great teachers like that. He was one of the deciding factors to Wes deciding to go to Churchill. Hyrum and Ethan and Mel were all like "You have to go to Churchill or you'll never have Arnell!" Then after that the line for Eth's teacher was down to one so I jumped over. That was also the time that I realized almost all the teachers were leaving. Oh, this ends at 7? Doh. That was a quick visit, then over to Ethan's one request: Peterson. Someone was still there talking his ear off so I waited for a few minutes then talked to him. We were the last ones in the room. Then we were done. I guess that will have to do, I did my best. Now it's time to get home and pack and get ready for tomorrow. Hope I don't lose these notes and papers in my absence before I can go over them with the kids. 

School House Rock

Yesterday was a crazy busy day. First I had a Visting Teaching meeting here 10 - 11:30, then we had to end that cause Hyrum had an Orthodontist appt at 11:45. Those are usually fairly quick but we didn't leave until 1:30 cause they accidentally broke a bracket off as they put in the new wire. And... since we had to wait longer for them to fix that, and since they weren't busy, I decided to get myself a consultation. I never had braces but do have a little area of my teeth that bugs me and a few other small things I wouldn't mind having fixed. So now I know what that would require if we ever have the money to do that (I'd like Invisalign, which is pricier, so we gotta wait a bit for that, we're still recovering from paying for the Fiesta to get fixed...) SO, after that was done we rushed home cause Abi had her School House Rock play at 2, and cause I had to take Mel to the bus at 2 for her flute lesson downtown by the U. I went home, grabbed Angela and her girls to go with Hyrum, dropped them off at the school, came back for Mel, and was just going to drop her off and then head to the performance, but she missed the bus and was now going to be late if she waited for the next bus, so I took her to the U. I decided I could go to her play today (which I did). As I came back from taking Mel, Hyrum called that the play was done, so straight to the school to pick them up, then home to shove some food in my mouth, wait for Ethan to come back from his party, take him to his lesson with Ray, home from that at 7, take Wes to a concert at Brighton, home for a bite of food, then off to pick up Wes at Brighton and pick up Mel to Special Needs Mutual and yay, I was finally home at 9 pm and felt like I'd run myself ragged. I was spent!

So this morning I was able to go do my parent duty and watch Abi's school performance of School House Rock. I usually struggle a bit in my attitude when it comes to school plays and performances, (sorry children). (But your Dad does too.... he just couldn't bring himself to sit through the whole Halloween concert at Churchill this year. Sometimes you can only watch the exact same show for 3 years in a row before ya start going insane,) But we hadn't been to School House Rock since 2013, so we were ready to do it again. Luckily the older kids were already out of school for spring break, so it was nice that I didn't have to bring all my toddlers with me. I took Daniel, Corey came and joined us and saw Abi's debut singing "Three is a Magic Number" and then he had to leave. But I got a video of the other songs she was in (on top of the box for Conjunction Junction here holding a gree train car with the word AND on it)

Abi did a good job. I'd upload the videos but I can't get on youtube anymore. Another thing Corey messed up in his tampering with the router. I'll request he try to fix that so I can upload and embed videos again. I'm also hoping Corey has some better pictures on his phone that I can post - will update later!

The Pleasing Judgement Bar

Yes, I'm taking a picture while I'm driving... "Don't get another ticket, Tiff!"

Yesterday on my way to pay my ticket, I was please that only felt like pulling my hair out and screaming once as I couldn't figure out which direction I was going and couldn't get on the main road. Then I decided to relax and say a calm prayer instead of scream, and shortly thereafter I was on my way. Phew!

The drive to Curacavi wasn't bad at all - got to their little town okay, turned in to what seemed like their city hall - saw a sign that said "Municipalidad" so hoped I was in the right place... I asked the guy at information for where to go, he showed me the cashier where I could pay the fine, I said I'd like to appeal though, so then he started rambling instructions to me and I was just stared at him blankly, he explained again, still didn't have a clue as to where he was telling me to go, and then an angel of a man said he was going that way and I could follow him. Thank you kind sir! He saved me and also stopped my emotions from causing me to cry as I stared at the information guy. I could feel the tears about to surface.


So I followed his public works truck over to the judge's office - went in, and stood in line for a few minutes, gave the lady at the window my ticket, she found their copy of my citation, put them together, then said to wait till they call my name. Waited for about 20 minutes, then was called into a room with 3 other guys there to face the judge. I went in, the Judge looked like a good guy, I was saying a prayer for him to please waive the entire fine. I told him what I was there for - didn't have my lights on, didn't know it was a rule, just got here in Chile, etc. Last night we had gone over to Angela's house, she worked at the Church office with Corey when he was here as a missionary, we enjoyed dinner and visiting and went to a park, and before we left she and Corey went to her computer and typed up an appeal letter for me. I gave that paper to the judge, he read it over, he sneezed, I said "Salud", he said thank you, then he said "Ok, wait outside and they will return you your license." "Gracias" I said and I left the room. Waited for another 15 minutes, got called to the window, signed something that I didn't know what it was, got my license back, asked "ya?" and she said "ya." so I was all done! No fine to pay!! Thank you dear Lord! So the ticket learning experience cost me a little bit of worrying over the past month, 3 hours of time yesterday, $6 in the $3 toll each way to get to Curacavi, and that was it. I was home by 11 and made breakfast for everyone - they all slept in and Corey turned on a movie for them when they woke up, so no one had eaten, and they didn't even know I was gone. :)

Now I can relax now that I'm clear with the law. Glad that's over!

Thanksgiving Point

We have a membership to Thanksgiving Point that I haven't taken advantage of since October when we took Angela to see the gardens.  It expires next month, and with the new baby soon to be here, I don't see myself using it much during the last trimester or during the first year, so I don't think we'll renew it yet.  Luckily we've got it now and so we'll be going either this weekend or next to the Tulip Festival.  Love the gardens.  The kids like the play areas and the farm, so I'm trying to take advantage of it this last month.  It's a great deal though, with our brood I only have to go two times to make the year long membership a bargain for us, sweet!  I took Hyrum and the girls there for a field trip, they had a good time.

Lily was afraid of all the dinosaur bones and was reluctant to go anywhere or do anything, so we spent most of the time in the sand pit digging for fossils and a little while at the water table / land erosion area.
Didn't get pictures of the water table place cause I was holding Sophia up to it the whole time.  Fun stuff.

Sucker Sharing Sisters

Sophia loved the suckers that Angela sent us. 

The other kids... not so much. And since they didn't want their suckers, they bequeathed them to Sophi.

Sophi was very kind and shared her sucker licks with her little sister. 

"I get a lick, you get a lick."  Then jump jump on the trampoline.

Natalie seemed like a little hummingbird, who would get her little lick of sugar then go hurry and burn it off.

...then open her mouth for more.

Lick-lick - Jump. 

Lick-lick, slobber, jump

It seemed most of the time that Natalie was just minding her own business, and then her sister would come shove the big ball of sucker in her mouth. Seemed to barely fit in, she had to open wide!

But she didn't mind. 

Lighting of the Y

Last night we went down to BYU to celebrate homecoming week by hiking up Y mountain for the "Lighting of the Y".  We left later than we'd wanted, so weren't on the road until 6:40, got to the trail head at 7:45, and saw the Y light up from the bottom of the trail.  Still, we were undeterred and wouldn't give up until we had touched the Y, so we set off.  Angela didn't want to have a heart attack, so after her best effort we let her call it good and enjoy the rest of the night from a bench at the 2nd switchback.

As we continued up, we enjoyed a surprise visit by Cosmo the Cougar.  We moved to the side of the trail so he could pass on his way down, and he reached out his hand to give the kids high fives, but Wesley wasn't fast enough and was left saying "Nooo!!!" as he reached for Cosmo driving away down the trail.  But like all true BYU Cougars, Cosmo is as good as they get, and hopped off of the moving atv and ran back up the trail to us where he gave Wes and hug.

Highlight of Wesley's little evening right there. 

At each switch back I kept saying "I think this is the last one..." until the kids stopped believing me.  But we did finally reach the Y.  Luckily there was still a person there who hadn't left who took a quick picture for us.  :)

So, Hyrum, are you glad you came?

 "Hmm.  Kinda, I guess..."  (not very convincing)

Well, it's a memory, and it's also my October tradition, I'm hiking Y mountain for the lighting of the Y every year that I can, if I'm not pregnant or don't have a newborn.

Wesley shined he flashlight on the Y and said "Look!  The Y looks like Antarctica!"

Glad I didn't tote Sophia along.  These four semi-independent children were "out of their element" enough that I almost did have four dependents hanging on to me the whole time.

It was great though.  We'll do it again next year, but we're gonna leave earlier so we're not hiking in the dark.

Twinners

It's nice having 11:30 church. Actually, today, I thought it was at 11, so I was calling kids to head to the car at 10:40 and Wes wondered why I was going so early. Oh, that's right, it starts at 11 thirty! So then Corey and I both cleaned around the kitchen a bit and the kids played outside. I had gotten Peter dressed in a plaid shirt, but then he wanted a tie on, which didn't look quite right, so Wes helped him change and ended up dressing him as his little twin. Down to them both wearing white socks! 

Corey said says that's a fashion no-no, but they pulled it off pretty good.

Posing for the camera. 

Abi was wearing a black and white dress, and they kinda looked like they were ready for a school dance. I took a picture of them, but her eyes were closed and they both didn't like how they looked so they deleted it. As the Johnsonfiles says, when it comes to photos, everyone is only looking at themselves, right? Sophi and I and Natalie were wearing black and white too, and I said that we were going to the black and white ball, and then Abi got the song "Cruella Devil" stuck in her head.

One of our highlights after church is having Peter come show us the picture he colored. He is our favorite little man, and yes Peter, Heavenly Father does have a plan for you!! 

After church, Abi wanted to watch My Fair Lady, so we did and that was fun. Then at 4, our friend Gabriel came by with his daughter Valentina (3rd to last pic) and Valentina's husband Michael. Gabriel is Angela's husband, our friends from Chile, who saved us when we were trying to fly home in 2011. That is one of many fun memories with their family (and this is one of my personal favorites). Gabriel was here to drop off his daughter up at BYU Idaho last week, exciting for her! So it was nice to have them here. After dinner was in full swing, I snuck upstairs to rest for a little bit. When I woke up, the kitchen was cleaned up and the house was pretty quiet. I asked Corey where the kids were, and they were playing "Try Not To Laugh" and watching old family videos. Mel has been working on getting all of our family pictures and videos together on one shared online album that we can all access. It was pretty funny watching those old videos! Joseph had come up for dinner too and was laughing at the videos of his youth. We remember that life when Joseph, Mel, and Ethan were the ones in junior high, and Abi and Lily were the toddlers. A few thoughts we had: Time sure goes by quickly! And also that Corey and I have been doing this raising children thing for a long time! And here we still are, about to add one more kid and start all over again with her. It's a good way to spend our time, and there's no one else I'd rather do it with than Corey. We're only missing two kids tonight. It's fun when as many of them are here as possible. We talked about family, and encouraged them to think about the life that they want in the future, cause pretty soon, right NOW will be the "remember when" of the videos we'll be watching, cause time keeps marching on. The semester just ended for Joseph at BYU, but he is going Spring Term and that starts up again on Tuesday. Last night he taught the kids a game called "Animal Sounds ~ 

I came to film it for a minute, and then I went to bed. 

They weren't too loud, and I'm glad that they are all friends and enjoy spending time together. I have a busy week of carpool, taking every day to cover for a friend who covered for me when we were in Florida. I might take advantage of it being my birthday soon to see if I can get my helpers to help out. Corey is taking Lily to jazz band and Joseph said he'll take the jr. high carpool for me, so that is nice. 

Campinas to Florida to Utah

On Wednesday night, our friend Zeb's flight left first around 8, so Corey took him to the airport around 5 and took our luggage with hopes that he'd be able to check it in early. They wouldn't let him, so a friend stayed there and watched it while he came back to pick all of us up. We left around 8. First task - return the cars.

We loaded the kids into the van while Corey talked to the rental people, doing whatever they needed to do for 30 minutes. (Things just take longer here!)

The kids kept getting drinks of water and eating their complimentary candies, and finally they were done and we got in the shuttle to head to the airport. Natalie fell asleep on the drive to the airport, so we carefully placed her in her carseat into the shuttle, then onto the smartcart - she was able to keep sleeping until we had to check her carseat.

We said goodbye to our friends, they all helped us out so much, Thank you! We will miss you!

And now the moment is here, we're on the plane headed home! How does it feel, kids? I think they're excited.

The stewardess' brought around some i-pad type things and the kids watched movies and played games. We enjoyed a nice dinner at 1 a.m, except Abi and Lily were already asleep. Then we told the other kids it's would be good for them to try to go to sleep too. Are you comfortable Wes?

I think all the kids slept pretty well, although Ethan told me later how terrible it was cause he asked for a drink of Guarana but they gave him CocaCola, and then he fell asleep and it spilled all over his shorts and soaked his socks, so he had a miserable night cause he felt sticky and wet. I think he had it better than Corey or I though. I knew it would be bad, so I wasn't surprised, but boy, my ankles got so swollen. I think they're gonna need a few days of elevation to recover. And as for Corey, he saved my life, cause Natalie had a little bit of Coke for dinner when we were at Angela and Felipe's house... and that might not have been a good idea, cause she was seriously awake and full of energy until 3 a.m. Maybe it was the little power nap she had in the drive to the airport, I don't know, but she was on one. There was like no leg room and I would have died if I had to hold her still during the whole night with my pregnant self. Corey saved my life by taking both her and Sophia for our un-restful night's sleep on the plane. Sophi slept on the floor when Natalie was on her high energy kick climbing all over the chair. She finally gave in, but we were going to be getting up early - we landed at 7:30 Florida time / 8:30 Brazil time. That's just five and a half hours of sleep for Natalie - and that's not good.

After we landed, we went though customs and that wasn't bad at all. Although it always makes me laugh to see Corey hand over a 10 pile stack of passports. "School trip?" he was asked. Nope, just our family. After going through there, Corey and the older kids went to check in our luggage for our next flight... but that wasn't until 5:30... yes, this is going to be a long layover. How will we cope? Corey was able to check in the luggage (thanks Delta!) while I stayed with little kids who made a big mess with crackers and drawing papers. And when he returned, he said "Grab your stuff, I got us a room!" What? A hotel room? Wow, brilliant! Yes, there is a Hyatt hotel right there in the Orlando airport.

The view from our room - I love seeing that flag!!

Corey got two pizzas for the kids and they watched tv and Corey and I, well we got to go lay down and sleep!! This was the best idea ever! Natalie didn't eat any pizza, she was too cranky and tired. I went and got her from the kids room and she fell asleep right away.

The kids were thirsty - and were happy when I reminded them that we were in the US now, and you can drink water from the tap here! Drink up!!

After a good nap, we got ready to go catch our final flight.

Unfortunately it said it was delayed for 2 hours. Doh. Wish we hadn't checked out of the hotel yet, but we're not going through security again. So time to sit and wait kiddos.

They did pretty good (with the help of some hamburgers, fries, and chocolate milk). Nice crown Hyrum. Zeb forgot his hat at our friends house, so Wes was in charge of keeping that for him.

Ethan really liked the eye masks from the Azul airline.

The delay turned out to be just 50 minutes, not 2 hours, so that was good. We were on the plane at 6 and soon in the air. Natalie was once again full of high energy. It was a long 4 1/2 hours...

She was just constantly moving - She kicked me out of my chair (wanted equal treatment) so luckily Sophi was willing to sit on Corey's lap and I scooted over by him. Natalie wanted the window seat (open - close - open - close...)

Playing peek-a-boo with Abi in the chair in front of her.

I didn't know if the plane would be landing from the south or coming from the north. But figured it out when I saw the Y on the mountain!

 Kids! There's BYU! We're almost home! 

There is our home! Little Cottonwood Canyon! Although Abi was disappointed she couldn't see her school or our house.

On the planes' decent - that was when Natalie decided to fall asleep. She crashed hard, face down in the seat. Sleep child, sleep.

My parents and Corey's parents and his sister were all there ready to help us load our baggage and transport the kids home. My little sister had decorated our driveway - so nice for America to welcome us back!

We walked in the door and after ooh-ing and aah-ing about the house and how it felt the same as before (it is the same!) they went straight for the Lego room. This chalk writing on the driveway spoke truth - "Home is where the Legos are!"

As they played, we reminded them that it was late, not just for Utah time - but it's like 2 am in Brazil... Aren't you guys tired? Let's go to bed! I'm glad we have a day to recover tomorrow before the 4th of July festivities.