October 15th

Wow, what busy times these are....

First of all, October 15th is when all personal extensions expire for our tax clients.  As of this morning, we had 31 (THIRTY ONE???) clients that thought they were going to give us the info we needed to complete their returns.  Neil is going to take tomorrow off, but then we jump right back into quarterly payroll filings.  Now, I do most of those, and since it's not year-end reports yet, it will only take me a couple solid days at the office.

Ben is doing great in the Chinese Immersion program.  On the english side of learning, he had his first spelling pretest, words like "fix", "in", "it", etc and since he got 100% on it, they sent him home with extra words to be tested on, like "suffix", "quick", "into", and "appendix."  He said he got 100% on the real test yesterday. :)
We asked his Chinese teacher for extra/harder math homework (I can't handle the simple math he is working on....) but since they learn the math AND math lingo in Chinese, she didn't think it was a good idea.  She suggested he do extra math at home in English and also explain his homework to me in Chinese.  He said he couldn't explain HOW to do it, but he was able to say "7-4=3" all in Chinese, so that was great!

Tristan is doing great too - we opted not to do preschool because he can already read and do simple math.  I do need to have him practice his writing more, because he wants to write questions for me to answer but he doesn't know how to form the numbers very well.  I also need to get him signed up for tumbling!  He would be great at it :)

Ruth is as mobile as ever and likes to empty whatever she finds - tupperware cabinets, silverware from the dishwasher, toys from the bath, shoes from the basket....  you name it.  She is adorable and super fat.  She is 13 months old but has to wear 24 month clothes because not even 18 month stuff will fit, for the most part....

Neil and I have been working on a health challenge for a while, and while I'm not very good at the "no sweets" part of it, I have made sure to be more consistent about exercising, eating better, drinking more water, and reading scriptures.  Unfortunately, Neil hasn't been as good about it, and now we're both paying the price.  He was over his weight at his PT test in September, and they said they wanted him to lose 3-8 lbs between then and Oct 26th.  It wouldn't have been a big deal if he had kept up with it, but now he's up 6 lbs from that Sept weight, and he has 13 days to lose 9 lbs.  I made him a list of things he should do to make sure he's keeping weight down, and hopefully that will help him.  Going to bed by 10, eating slowly, only a small (as in, 5 peanut M&Ms or a mini candy bar) treat per day, exercising 2x day, more water, etc....  I told him I didn't know that I could commit to cutting back that far on treats, and I wouldn't exercise at night with him, but otherwise I'd do everything else.  I'm sure it will be good for me in the long run, I do have plenty of weight to lose....  But no one ever likes making those kinds of changes!

80 lbs of chicken bottled!!  Ok, so a bit of it was put into some freezer crock pot meals...  But wow!

Sometimes when you read the bible, you get really confused.  What is Genesis 38 all about??  They didn't put that in the musical!!  Good thing tho, it's not for kids, or anyone else for that matter...  I shall have to do more digging to see if I can understand it!

On another note, the mobile baby got herself into this situation today.  She was not at all thrilled.

She also 'fell' ie climbed out of the tub today.  She is too big!

Arrow of Light

Back when we lived in AF and we were joint Cubmasters, I found this idea somewhere online and had my bestie Jess design it for me.  I have probably made about 15 since then!  The boys could probably care less but the parents LOVE them :)  We had 4 boys receive their Arrow of Light tonight and it was great!

Primary Program

It's always fun when the primary kids do their program.  I always wish I could just sit and watch, but I think I have played piano for every program I can remember!!

The program was wonderful, and the only thing I would change would be that the chorister had a poster for EVERY song, even the ones the kids obviously knew.  I was a little disappointed about that, but the kids did great with their parts and music was great too!

Hungry again

Sorry Ben, you had dinner and 2 cookies, you don't need anything else...

But then I'll be so hungry I'll eat 65 bowls of cereal!

Ok, sounds good!

Wait, that will take forever.  Maybe 6 bowls...

I love his logic :)

Mobile blogging

Today I was talking to my mom on the phone and she said she wished I could do blog posts easily from my phone.  I installed the Blogger app, so here is what you want- a pic and a little text!  Now it's sleepy time!

Health challenge day 2

Now, before you get spoiled thinking I'm going to make a blog post every day for 60 days, think again!  I am also going to start working on a journal of spiritual things for my kids.  I'll be sorting through my journals and seeing if there were any experiences I would want my kids to be sure to read.  I think I'd like my spiritual journal to be left out where my kids can read it all the time...

For today's funny:
After dinner we ran a couple errands and on the way back, Ben said he was hungry.  They hadn't behaved well at the store so I told him he already had dinner and he'd have to just wait until morning.  He said "Ugh!  I'll be SUPER hungry by morning.  I'll have to eat SIX BOWLS of cereal!" in his best 'angry' voice.  Sometimes it's hard not to laugh at the things your kids say.

60 Day Health & Wellness challenge

I just started a 60 day challenge with not only my husband and my best friend, but a whole bunch of other people that she knows.  It's not just about losing weight - it's a point-based system with 10 points per day available:

1. No sweets

2. No junk food (chips, etc - or fast food!)

3. You have to stop eating at least 2 hours before you go to bed

4. You have to get enough sleep - 8 hours recommended but 6.5 is enough for the point

5. Regular exercise

6. Write in your journal, blog, etc 

7. Read something wholesome (scriptures?)

8. Drink enough water (72 oz for women, 96 for men)

9. Eat 2C fruits and 2.5C veggies each day

10. Make your own goal

Today wasn't so bad - Neil and I are already part-way through a 5 day inferno with meal plans and exercise routines that came with my TurboFire DVDs I bought a few years ago.  We've made some substitutions or repeated some of the meals though, because who would honestly have 8 oz cottage cheese and 2 pineapple rings as your breakfast??  Instead, we had 2 pieces of toast, an egg, and a slice of turkey bacon.

So, all I've needed to add in is reading & writing!  So here's today's blog post :)

Other highlights of today: doctor appts with all 3 kids.  Regular checkups on Ruth & Tristan, and Ben "hurt his heart" (tweaked his chest and made some cartilege sore) when we were in OR.  He will just keep feeling better - apparently it's like when you get a bad cough and your chest starts to hurt, but it will fade over time.  He also chose to get a flu SHOT instead of a nose squirt because he REALLY wanted to earn $1 for not crying when getting a shot.  Tristan opted for the nose squirt :P

Lastly - during scriptures tonight, Tristan was reading.  There are some long words, like "according" or "therefore" that we help him sound out.  I didn't even let him try to sound out "Lachoneus", I just said it for him, which prompted him to say "I already KNOW that one!"  My bad...  I suppose we have been reading about Lachoneus for the last couple days so he probably really did recognize the word.  He was able to say it again in a later verse with no parental help.