Clare

 I am so proud of Clare. She is doing so well. Even though she was THE LOUDEST complainer about moving to Houston she has adjusted marvelously.  She is settled into school, working hard and stepping up to the plate and getting her assignments done. She stands out as a bright student and her teachers enjoy her in class.  

Clare is taking Jazz class this year and loving that. It is Tuesday afternoon. One of my good friends has a daughter that goes to the same studio and has class right before Clare so she takes Clare each week for me. Clare hangs out with the two little brothers and the mom while little Claire is in class or works on homework. She enjoys this time out.  Clare enjoys going with Christy who is lovely inside and out. When I first asked Clare if she liked going with Christy her reply was: "yes, she is so nice. And she is soooooo beautiful. ...Way prettier than you mom."  Clare doesn't lie.


Clare is very independent and has great endurance. She can go out and do things all day and not tire. Even if she is hungry, thirsty or whatever, she will power through. It is neat. She reminds me of Dave in that way.

Recently Clare went to the BYU football game at University of Texas. It was a long day... 11am - 1am. lots of heat, walking, etc. She had a great time. Dave was going to go with just a couple of other guys but then Clare got all dressed in her BYU clothes and begged to go so Dave hopped online and got her a ticket. She was too cute to resist! Also, on Dave's day off he would have felt bad not to spend that time with family. Taking Clare out all day worked well because he got lots of good one on one time with her and talked to her about school and the move, etc. (when she was still complaining a lot about it)!

Clare loves to read and stays up reading every night. She loves Cam Jansen, A to Z  mysteries, Nancy Drew crew, Clementine...

This year we bumped Clare up from a 30 minute lesson to a 45 minute lesson on the piano. This also means she has to practice 45 min a day instead of 30. She is doing very well with this. She is making good progress too. It is noticeable to me how much she has improved even in just a month of playing. Her new teacher has her doing scales 2 and 3 octaves. It is amazing to watch her fingers move up and down the keyboard.  Since she can read and play more she can play more interesting music which I think helps her enjoy it a lot.  Her teacher is names Sergei Savaitski. He is a young man (maybe mid or upper 20's) and he comes to our house for lessons. He teaches Clare and Calvin and will soon start with Alexey as well.  We all like him very much.

 Clare loves riding bikes

thinking

This is really more for the Calvin blog but since this is private I would rather post it here.

A while back Dave had a patient die. Why? His parents missed medication ONE NIGHT and by morning he was essentially dead.  I have been thinking about this a lot.  Here are my thoughts:

#1. I have missed medication before. Calvin would be dead several times over.  I can't imagine living with that level of stress on me. Sometimes I feel like I have a lot to juggle with the very small medical needs I deal with but SERIOUSLY, there is so much worse.

#2. Those poor parents and the guilt, even though they did amazingly well and were probably hyper diligent over the years.

#3. My life is so easy compared to SO many others. I don't very often know other peoples battles but when I do I am truly humbled by mine.

#4. So thankful to have healthy children.

#5. Life is so fragile. Even for healthy children, things can change in the blink of an eye.

#6. Dave deals with a lot at work. His tough day (telling the mom that the child was dead) is waaaayyyy tougher than my regular tough day. And still even tougher than a Calvin style tough day. Love him.

Red Elementary school

Starting at  a new school was very hard for the girls. The move itself was pretty fun and felt a lot like an extended vacation until the day came that they actually had to start school in a new place.  You know how people post all those cute pictures on the first day of school? Well, I didn't post because our pictures would have looked like this:

And this:

Actually Lexey is sweet enough that I got a smile out of her! Even the first day! Alexey is sweet!

So, we tried to take school pictures a few days later.  Still grouchy! YIKES!!

Finally a got a few pics a couple of weeks into the year, on the way HOME from school. Apparently Clare is not a morning person and Lexey is not an afternoon person! haha.  I can never win.

After almost a month, the girls are doing well. We are into a new routine and the girls are generally happy to go to school. The complaints about the school are down to a few times a week instead of a few times a day so that is good! I think Clare is learning a lot and thriving in her new class. Lexey is doing well too.

We've had some struggles with the school.
#1. The school day is longer here. The hours are 8am-3:15pm every day. In PUSD it was 9-3:15 plus we had an early release day, so all in all it is about 7 hours more per week.  I hate that!  I used to have Clare do piano in the morning but we're really struggling with it now. Clare actually is doing okay with piano after dinner but it slows down bedtime so it's not my favorite.
#2. Breakfast at school. They serve breakfast at school from 7:45-8:15 so the kids get there and often eat. I feed my girls at home so it just means that when they get to school they sit around and wait for others to eat. Waste of time. I'd rather have them home an extra 30 minutes in the morning doing chores or piano.
#3. Not enough recess. The kids can't play on the playground before school or after lunch. They get one twenty minute recess period. They are indoors, sitting upright all day.  Kids need to get their wiggles out. They need to have time for creative play, for playing with other kids. There is no time for that at this school. It kills me.  Also, the need outside time...even if it is hot and icky.
#4. Lexey gets 30+ pages of homework a week. Stupid.
#5. Drop off and pick up are way lame. The kids, if they get there early go to class or to the cafeteria and SIT quietly. (So I don't usually drop off the girls 'til just as the bell rings).  For pickup the kids SIT quietly inside the building and the teachers let them out one by one as the parents drive up. The drive up line is about 45 minutes. I don't do that. I walk up so the girls can come right out. I have to be there at 3 to give them a paper with the girls name on it and then they call the girls out before they sit with the others and let them walk out right at 315. It is better.


Good things:
#1. School is close. 5 min from my house
#2. We've mastered pickup and dropoff to be as painless as possible.
#3. Clare has good teachers, is working hard and into a good routine. She also seems to have friends enough to be happy at school and is doing well. She is a very responsibile student and makes sure to get all of her work done. She has one page of math a day plus she reads 45 min a night. She is quite a reader so she would be doing that anyway.
#4. I met with Lexeys teacher today and established a few new rules which we are both on agreement: lexey will do 10 minutes of homework a night, no more, and I will check out lexey one day a week early for mom time.  Lexey's teacher is great and I would say she agrees with all of my issues with school and tries her best to help the kids do well. Hopefully it goes well. Lexey is doing well, is well liked at school.
#5. There are 4 other mormon families at school who we are friends with. They are a great group of moms and kids and will probably be our best friends for the year. They are great. So glad they are there.

bless our cat

Last night during FHE Jo was saying THE CUTEST prayer. She is so sweet. I just love her. Anyway, she often has her eyes open becuase she looks around the room as she says, "bless mommy, bless daddy, bless lexey . . .. " and looks at each person as she says their name. Last night as she was making the rounds she looked up and saw a cat in our back yard. Without missing a beat she said, "and bless our cat.." the other kids opened their eyes, popped out of their seats and ran out the door trying to catch the cat (no luck)!

So fun!

Speaking of cats and dogs. We are so missing our Tressel.  Luckily our next door neighbor, who is our good friend, has a super sweet dog named Remy so we get our dog fix daily.  We talk often of how we are going to get a dog when we go back home next year and the kids really want to take Remy! haha. So, the next best thing is to name our next dog Remy. Jo also thinks we should name our cat Remy also.

Apparently I eat food off stranger's plates .... soap chili

  So a couple of weeks ago Dave brought home some dinner after an interview dinner out. I was appreciative of him doing that. The next day I ate it for lunch and was thinking it was kind of weird that he had leftovers! He eats a ton and usually finishes my food. I don't think I've ever seen him not finish a meal. That got me a little worried about the food I had just eaten, was he sick? Was there something wrong with it? Why didn't he eat it? Of course, we only have time to talk every week or so! (fellowship is killing us both!)  Anyway, I finally got around to asking him about it a week later and he finally fessed up that it was the leftovers from SOMEONE ELSE's plate! Whaatttt!!!?? I ate some strangers food? SO GROSS!  He told me it was totally fine. She barely touched it and he totally felt fine about it since he ate her dessert that night too.  Who was she?  An applicant for fellowship. We don't even know her name. So gross. Since I control 95% of what he eats I'll think I'll have plenty of chances at creative payback!

Perhaps I already had payback. Last week we had our ward chili cookoff. I made Jen's chili which is amazing and you should try it!  Anyway, I made a big pot of chili and set aside some for Dave since he was working late and some leftovers for me for another day. Calvin had a rough afternoon and we ended up having a really hard time getting out the door. When we were about to leave the cookoff Calvin said, oh by the way I put soap in the chili.  I asked him,  How much? And he said, A little. When did you do it? I asked and he said right before we left.   Oh gosh. By now it was mostly gone anyway....too late to do much of anything about it.

I tasted the chili when I got it home and it tasted fine. It was kind of spicy so you couldn't taste soap at all, but I thought it had a soapy aftertaste. So sorry people who ate it. Hope nobody got sick.

Anyway, I had texted dave earlier in the evening with some of calvins shenaganings, which were several that night. So, when he went to get dinner I told him Calvin put the soap in right before we left so I thought his was ok! So he made a big plate of spagetti with chili on top and was about 1/2 way through the plate when he said his mouth was too soapy to eat anymore! He had to throw it all away and get something else.

Our life is a circus.

catching up

I'm so behind I don't know where to begin. I'll just start with today and then see if I have time to catch up another time. Things are so busy and crazy I don't have as much time for blogging as I used to. Things that need to be added:
-pics from the trip out here
-summer days in TX
- starting school
- each kid update
-life in TX
-dan came home
-bob and kari visit
-a few posts on Calivn's blog...I'll do those first.