Missionaries to dinner

On September 10th, we had the missionaries over for dinner. Since we finally got the missionary meal calendar in Primary I thought I better sign up because who knows when I will see it next. Almost two months later and haven't seen it again. Anyway, why is this such a big deal and worth noting. Well about 1 hour before the missionaries were to come over Jon gets a phone call from them asking if we had room for one more. Of course we said we did. I just made up a mess of Chili and cornbread and fruit and of course desert so there was plenty. Then we find out who it is yeah it's the mission president. I guess they had a zone conference that day and the pres was going to be hanging out with them the rest of the evening. Yikes. All I have to say is thanks for only telling me one hour in advance because any more notice and I would have been a touch bit more nervous. Luckily the kids well I mean Hayden only said poop a couple times at the dinner table the others were well behaved for them. It was a neat experience.

Preschool

I wasn't going to put Hayden into preschool this year. I was just going to do what I did with Payton, Kennedy, and Talmage and have them start school with Pre K a year before they start Kindergarten. Well that would be next year for Hayden. Last year wasn't bad at all because Talmage was in all day Pre K so it was just me and Hayden so I figured I would do the same thing as last year until I was approached by so ladies in my ward at church. They were interested in starting Joy School. Joy school is a preschool where the parents of the preschoolers rotate and teach the kids in their home. Our ward did this a few years back and someone held onto the lessons they ordered from the Mother Goose preschool series. So out of 9 three year olds in our ward, four of us have come together and are doing this. Of other 5 who didn't join in, one of the moms just had a baby, one mom works full time, one is already in preschool at a church, one doesn't live in our ward boundaries but comes to church with his Grandma, and one just turned 3 so the mom thought she might be a little to young.

We have 3 boys and 1 girl. Luckily the little girl has 3 brothers and no sisters so she feels right at home. We started on Tuesday September 8th and are having school every Tues. and Fridays. So with four of us in our group, we will be teaching one week a month. We are going from 9:30 am-12:30 pm with the kids bringing a lunch. Hayden really enjoys helping me pack his lunch to bring to school. So we have been doing this for 2 month now and I have been really pleased with it. When it is not my week to teach, I get to enjoy 6 hours each week to myself. So far I have had a great time with it. I try and keep the activities as short as possible and have a variety of them. The great thing about reusing the old Mother Goose preschool manuals is the amount of $$ we are saving because they are pretty pricey to purchase new ones. The not so great thing is you don't have all the craft materials because they have already been used up. So we do a lot of improvising and getting the items relatively close. Luckily, the month has lessons for Mon-Friday. So when it is our week, we get to pick and choose from 5 lessons because we only teach twice a week.

I have so far taught 2 weeks. One of the weeks worked out perfect because for 2 weeks the lessons focused on fire safety and since we live one house down and across the street to a fire station we were able to go over and have the fire chief talk to the kids and turned on the firetruck lights and sounded the siren. They kids loved it. They got a color book but no plastic fire hats these had to get cut from their budget.

Flu Shots

1 1/2 months ago everyone but Jon went to the Dr for a flu shot. This is the second time we have done this since the flu shots have been available. I have mixed feelings on them. The last time was about 4 years ago and all the kids were supposed to go back a month later to get another shot because this was their first time. Yeah, that didn't happen. So this year We did the flu mist. Let me tell you this is one of the best decisions I have ever made as a mom. Flu shot vs flu mist. Whinning crying kids vs. happy kids. The kids did awesome at snuffing that stuff up and didn't cry or complain at all. In fact Payton the worst of the all said that was it? They all agreed as well as I that all the shots should be made available in mist form. I would be the first one to sign them up. And this time the 3 that had to go back for a second mist (you have to be over 9 to only get one dose the first time)were happy to go. Since we didn't complete the 2 doses the first time they had to have 2 doses this time. I hope they keep bringing the mist back then maybe we will do it every year. As of right now, I will not be waiting in any long lines to for the N1H1 shot or mist.

Labor Day

This Labor day weekend we didn't have anything special planned. Brenton and Jon had to set up flags Monday morning and take them down again in the evening for a Scout fundraiser. How quickly things changed. As of Friday morning, we had no plans for the weekend. Then Jon's parents called and told us most of Thomas' family was either sick, just getting over being sick and Melanie was the only one who hasn't gotten sick yet and they were thinking she would be sick any day now. So they weren't going to be able to go to Callaway Gardens with them that weekend and asked if we wanted to come. They rented a cabin for Jon's parents and brothers family. They asked if we could join them for a day but since our passes just expired the week before we declined. So Saturday morning, Jon, his parents, Brenton, Payton, Kennedy, and Talmage took our big beast Yukon and headed down to Callaway Gardens. I stayed home with Connor and Hayden. It was a quiet peaceful day. I enjoyed every minute of it. Then Sunday morning, I drove Jon's parents car with Connor and Hayden to meet up with them. When we got there, we headed straight over to the bird show. We haven't seen the bird show in over a year since we usually go in the summer and the bird show is out in the open with no shade. It was still pretty sunny and hot during the show, but much more bearable than in the middle of summer.

ugly Vulture


Owl

Gretta

Grandpa Hansen

After the show, we headed back to the cabin and grabbed some lunch and our swim stuff and headed out to the pool. Jon's mom didn't get a good night sleep last night so we grabbed stuff and quietly left so we wouldn't wake her up. We ate lunch by the pool and then swam for a long time. After an early dinner (3:30 pm), we went to the Vegetable garden.

Connor, Payton, Hayden, and Talmage

Connor, Brenton, Kennedy, and Hayden

After the vegetable garden, the kids weren't quiet ready to head home so we went to the butterfly garden. Then we said our goodbyes. They still had one more day but we had to get back because Brenton had flags to do early the next morning. It was a fun day. Since Morgan was leaving for college the next day, we decided to celebrate her birthday 2 weeks early on Monday. She wanted to go one last time to the neighborhood pool and then to Steak N Shake for dinner. So our dull boring Labor day weekend ended up being fun and busy.

Four Eyes

Brenton has been complaining the last few weeks of not being able to see the overhead in Spanish class. He said he always has to move way up close to see it every time. So after a few weeks of complaints I decided to make an eye appointment for him. On September 1st, I took him in and sure enough he is near sighted (he can't see things far away). I am near sighted too and was a little older than him when I got my first pair of glasses. He had to wait a week before picking them up. He tried on all kinds of glasses. The silver and gold frames didn't look good on him. He looked much better in the darker frames. It was between the dark green and charcoal frames. He wanted wire frames not plastic. He went with the charcoal ones. They look real good on him. They don't look weird but very natural. He is excited to see clearly. He doesn't wear them all the time mainly in class. He has been taking excellent care of them so far. I think we may look into contacts in the summer. Sorry I don't have a picture of him in glasses yet because he doesn't wear them all the time.

Bowlopolis

About a month ago, I got a post card in the mail for a free bowling, pizza, and ice cream for your kids. So I called right away and signed my kids up. I also told my sister about this. So on Saturday August 29 from 9-11 we went bowling for freeeeee. The whole bowling center was reserved for this free party. After a while, they would call you by lane and you would go to a room and eat pizza and drink. They had a table set up with all their fall league info. It seemed like pretty good deals. I remember I was in a bowling league in middle and some of high school and had so much fun. Unfortunately, we don't have any extra $$ laying around or I would probably sign up one or two of the kids. The kids were able to bowl almost 2 games in the two hours. They got chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Brenton wasn't able to go. He was at a merit badge fair put on by another church nearby. We all had a great time and the kids loved every bit of it and mom loved that it was free.

Hayden
Talmage

Kennedy

Payton

Court of Honor

August 26th was a Scout Court of Honor. This is the first time Brenton got merit badges at the Court of Honor. The past year he passed off three ranks but none of those required merit badges. Now in order for him to move up he has to do some eagle required badges and some elective badges as well as service hours. Brenton along with the other deacons got lots of merit badges due to scout camp. These are the merit badges he got today. First aid, Law, American labor, Public speaking, basketry, art, space exploration, and leatherwork. Our goal is next Court of Honor he will get his star ranking. He is almost there he only has to finish up 2 more eagle required merit badges. They have been started so it shouldn't take to long.

Our goal is to have him done with his eagle before he turns 15.