"Get in loser. We're going shopping."

I think it's pretty useless to talk about future professions to anyone under 16 because most girls want to be marine biologists and most boys a stuntman. Kidding about the stuntman but that's seriously what Ryan wanted to be as a kid. We talk in generalities about what the girls might like to be. I tell Hanna she should be a physician's assistant which sounds super cool to a 12 year old. The other day Hanna "vaguebooked" something on FB about her "dreams being crushed." I didn't see it until later at night but it was driving me nuts not knowing what she was talking about, so I went into her room and woke her up. She was quite upset and didn't want to tell me but finally admitted that she just realized she couldn't do what she wanted when she grew up. I asked her what that was and she answered, "a model." Um, say what sister? I'm 5' tall and you are looking like you will follow in my footsteps, height-wise. Honestly, the first thing that came to my mind and what I said was, "Oh Hanna, you are too smart to be a model." Then I told her that only a handful of models actually make a living at it. Where does this kid get these ideas? Cheerleader? Model? We don't really promote these things in our home. I do feel badly for her. I remember when I finally realized I wasn't going to be that tall. My parents had given me false hope because I had really big feet when I was about 12 and they told me that meant I might be as tall as my Grandma Wilde (who was 6'). That didn't happen. Instead I inherited Grandpa Wilde's 5'3" genes. Maybe she can be a hand model.

Say hello to my little pink friend
My dad bought the girls a pink Daisy BB gun. This is something I love about my dad. Surprises. What is more fun than getting something in the mail you weren't expecting? My girls were really not expecting a gun. Ryan might be a police but we aren't a hunting/shooting family. Ryan gets really stressed out when he is around people using guns. I think it's because he's had so much safety training that he picks up on every little thing people do wrong and it makes him nervous. He is a good person to train your kids on gun safety. So yes, not a real gun that the girls got but it could still "shoot your eye out" if you're not careful. They had a good time shooting and only put one dent in our fence. No chickens were harmed as far as we know.

Carsoup
I took Hanna and a friend to the mall on Friday night for the first time. Oh man, remember when there was nothing cooler than going to the Park Place Mall in Lethbridge on a weekend? That's for my Southern Alberta homies. I grew up in a town of 1500 so, obviously, there was no mall. Your parents had to drive you 20 minutes into "town" and drop you off at the mall. I'm sure the people who worked at the mall hated us. Anyway, I'm kind of a loser who can't find anyone to come with me to the mall on Friday so I went alone. I decided it would be too much of a blow for my fragile self-esteem to walk the mall alone so I dropped them off and left. Plus, Hanna made it clear that she didn't really want to be seen with me. Sob. I was hungry but nothing really sounded good. I eventually got soup which, now that I think about it, seems like a poor choice for car eating. I parked in a random parking lot and ate my sad carsoup. Don't cry for me. I'm sure I'll get used to carsoup in the teenage years to come.

Hey. Listen to me talk about my wacky eating habits. No?
I have a hypo-active thyroid (thyroid don't work so good)and lately it's been really messing with me. I won't go into too many details but one unpleasant thing is that my digestive system has pretty much stopped. Gross. This is a total tangent but I was listening to NPR on Sunday and they were talking about Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain. Apparently, Twain was forever indebted to Tesla because he cured his constipation by running an electric current through him. Then they played with Tesla's "x-ray gun", pointing it at each others heads, etc. Oh Tesla and Twain, BFF's foreva. Because of my problems I decided to stop eating gluten (I did research duh.) which isn't easy because gluten is in a lot of what I eat. I already don't eat sugar so I'm now, officially, one of those people that other people don't want to talk to. I promise, I won't talk about it unless you ask. I'm getting to my point which is, I ate in my car again this weekend but it was an In-N-Out burger "protein style" which means no bun, which is gluten free! It was pretty good. Ryan and I also bought a juicer but I also won't bore you with that. Let's just say, we drink a lot of freaking juice.
*I'm wearing my new sunglasses which were my birthday present. I got the Kate Spade "franca" cat eye sunglasses which I highly recommend. I'm geeking out on them.

All Halloween wants to do is give you a big hug you with that knife.

I will forever be grateful that when my girls were little, they were pretty easy. I had friends who seemed like their kids were always keeping them on their toes with mischievous doings. I'm sure other people have a lot of stories but the best one I can think of was when Grace was a baby and smeared poop all over her crib and walls. This week, I finally had one of those moments that I'm sure most parents have when their kids are toddler. One of my children called me at school last Monday to tell me that the cat had opened my bedside table drawer "too far" and a bottle of nail polish had fallen and spilled on the carpet. I'm sure right now you are thinking, "How did the cat open the drawer?" That is you should be thinking and what I immediately thought. We had a cat once that could open our front door so I could see the possibility was there but something with this story that wasn't sitting right with me. Oh, and while I'm trying to process how the cat opened the draw I'm also thinking, "There is @#$@# nail polish on my carpet!" I tell this child who called that I'm not buying this "cat" story at all. She continues to stick to her story. Fortunately school was over so I get ready to go home. On my way home, I get a text from this child admitting that it wasn't the cat, it was her and she is sorry she lied. Hmmm...really? It wasn't the cat, eh? So basically replace "cat" with "girl" and you get the full story. I walk into a house that reeks of nail polish and in the middle of my bedroom floor an entire bottle of blue nail polish has been emptied. I swore and got to work. Due to my amazing cleaning skills and the magic of acetone, I was able to get most of the stain out. I can't fault this child too much. I remember being terrified of getting in trouble when I was her age. I was playing with an old TV antenna when I was about 7 and bent it. I'm sure it was garbage but I didn't know that and all I could think of was the horrible trouble would get into if anyone found out about it. So I hid it in our unfinished basement and got to work worrying about being found out. I was really good at worrying. I think it was eventually found and probably thrown away. Not like you could hide a huge blue stain in the middle of the floor but I probably would have tried to think up some sort of story. I might not have been smart enough to blame it on the cat.

Smooth operator
Hanna went to her third school dance after school today. This is her THIRD and she had yet to dance with an actual boy. Today the curse was broken and a real boy asked her to dance. She told me she didn't like this boy but said yes to be nice. She was also mortified that it was a slow dance. As they were dancing a couple of ninth graders dancing nearby made fun of them and told Hanna and her real boy that, "They danced like sevies." I had to explain to Ryan that this is a slang term for seventh graders. Hanna's partner then said to her, "Can I pull you closer?" Oh man! This made me laugh out loud! Can I pull you closer? Good one buddy. Doesn't he know you need to be a Bible, Book of Mormon and dictionary apart? Hanna told him that she was fine as they were. I thought it was interesting when we came home and told this story to Ryan. He immediately sympathized with the boy, while Hanna and I had been mocking him mercilessly. Girls are so cruel.

Thank you Buddah!
Remember when I blogged a few years about about not getting "Booed" at Halloween? Of course you don't. On Saturday we were "Booed"(now I just wish people would leave us alone because I'm older and lazier). The girls weren't home but saw the treats later. Grace asked where the treats were from. I said, "We got booed." Grace replied, "Buddah brought it?" Oh sweet Grace. Yes, Buddah brought us pumpkin cookies. Praise Buddah!

"Watch out! Halloween is trying to hug you with that knife!"
Ryan and I complain to each other that neither appreciates how funny the other is. This past weekend we watched a lot of old horror movies on Netflix and I have to admit Ryan has a funny bit. He calls Michael Myers "Halloween". Then makes comments the entire movie like, "Look behind you! Halloween is going to get stabby with that knife!" I find this really funny and makes watching horror movies much more bearable.
Here are our costumes. I went all out with Grace's "The Birds" costume. I don't think her classmates appreciated it. What? Your 10 year old hasn't seen "The Birds"? For shame.



Mrs. Iverson? Is that you?
I had to give Shari a hard time today about her costume. I'm not freaked out by clowns unless they are evil clowns but it was the doll that got to me. We also had to laugh when she came out to recess with her "circle clown" (Holiday gas station) drink cup. Clown all the way! I loves me some Shari but that doll has gots to go.

"I wish we could all get along like we used to in elementary school. I wish that I could bake a cake made out of rainbows and smiles."

Hanna graduated from elementary school on Friday. I thought I would get emotional but I only got a little teary when our principal talked about his love for the education profession. Hanna and I went shopping for dresses the week before and, after we got past her initial picks that involved zebra print and polyester, (jr. prostitute?) we found a very nice dress and cardigan. I thought she looked exceptionally cute. I'm excited for her but sad she won't be with me anymore. Fly away little bird! ;)

Hanna with her teacher and principal


Cat wins award for most annoying pet
Last night as we were all getting ready for bed, I noticed that the cat was missing. Usually it's pretty underfoot, so we started looking for her around the house. None of our usual cat enticing tricks worked and that got me a little concerned. Hanna immediately started crying because she and the cat have a weird connection/they wish they could get married. Ryan went outside looking for her on the off chance that she somehow snuck outside. Did I mention it was pouring rain? I was getting pretty annoyed at this point because I have a cold and I'd just taken my last meth-cooking-have-to-get-behind-the-counter decongestant and some Niquil setting myself up for a good nights sleep. The good nights sleep never came for anyone because both Ryan and I kept waking up worried about the cat. Yes, we like our cat. She's the best pet the Van Fleets have ever had. If our first cat, Simon, had run away I would have done a happy dance. I used to pray for our dog to disappear but I like Lucy. We got up at 6 a.m. to look outside for her some more. I had this feeling that she couldn't be outside and so I started another search of the house. I went into Grace's room and in a moment of desperation, looked in her dresser drawers. As I was closing the last drawer Grace yelled, "Wait! I see a paw!" I open it back up and sure enough, the damn cat had jumped in an open drawer (not a rare thing in Grace's room) and then crawled back behind the drawers. We figure she had been in there since about 8 p.m. the night before. Why did the cat not meow or make any sort of noise? There was much relief on all our parts and I took a 2 hour nap after church to catch up on lost sleep.

Deep fried wack with a side of control slaw
I just started my 4th week without sugar. Well, I eat things that have sugar occurring in them naturally but I can't eat any "treats". You can totally skip this part if you hate people talking about their wacky eating habits. I know I'm usually irritated when I see it on Facebook or whatnot but since this is my blog, I'm going to talk about it. It hasn't been that bad. There are times when I feel super weak. Like when a student brings in glazed donuts for their birthday. I'm like Homer Simpson for donuts. The other day a teacher brought us a piece of chocolate cake that normally I wouldn't even like but I wanted to lick the icing off it. One thing I have realized is how much sugar/treats are incorporated into our daily lives. I really have to say, "No thank-you" a lot. Truvia and liquid stevia have become my new best friends. So far, I like the results I'm seeing. I'm not staying off sugar for the rest of my life. I've already told Ryan that I will be eating a coke slurpee with soft ice-cream when we are in Magrath this summer. The eating/exercise plan I'm doing is called Kristi Appro*ed (that's a "V" I took out because I don't want my blog showing up when people google the name). I won't go into it, you can check it out if you want. I haven't eaten anything I'm not supposed to in 3 weeks. My goal, 6 pack abs and the hope of inviting people to "the gun show".

"Once on a band trip..."

Hanna went to Beaumont Jr. High orientation today. I'm going to skip the part where I lament the fact that I have a child going into Jr. High and how I'll probably cry for a month next year because she won't be a the school with me. I saw her at lunch and she was acting extra sassy. Thinking she was all that since she now had a locker buddy (Orion) and wasn't that just so "whatever". In the staff room I got talking to a sub who also has a daughter going into grade seven and she has a ninth grader so she's kind of a pro on the whole thing. I'm not. She told me they had a really good band teacher which made my band geek self pretty happy. I haven't told a lot of people this but there was a time in my life where I seriously considered being a band teacher. I loved marching band and my high school band teacher encouraged me to try out for the BYU marching band. The problem was, by the time I was graduating from high school, I was so over anything high school that I wasn't about to continue with band. I haven't really played my trumpet since except for taking it out a few times over the years to see if I could still play a scale. It's probably a good thing because judging from my stellar (and I mean STELLAR) freshman year GPA, I don't think I would have handled the commitment of marching band very well. Oh yeah, so back to being a band teacher. I thought it would be cool to teach marching band but I didn't want to teach orchestra or jazz band or all those other band things. Plus, I'm not super musical. That doesn't mean I haven't dreamed of living through my children. When we moved to Beaumont I was hoping we had actually moved into the boundaries of another city which would put my kids in a High School I had competed against in marching band. I knew they had a serious program with a lot of parent support but it wasn't meant to be. I found out today though, that Beaumont marching band took first in their division last year! The new band teacher is fantastic and so is the jr. high teacher. It was finally going to happen! I was going to be that band booster I'd always wanted to be. My children would carry on the legacy. All my dreams were dashed today when Hanna informed me that she in no way, was going to be in band. She didn't want to learn how to play an instrument. I wanted to say, "Oh yes you will." but I have decided that forcing children to do something because you want it, isn't going to work out in the long run. Even though I pleaded and, I'm ashamed to say it, begged. She was not budging. She wasn't even swayed but me telling her how cool band really is! Grace came into the room at the end of our conversation and Hanna said, "Grace will be in band. She'll be the good child. Right Grace?" I asked Grace if she wanted to be in band and she said, "Yes! I want to play an instrument." Haha! Grace in, Hanna out. Hope is alive and I will, I mean Grace will, be in marching band.

Probably my least favorite photo of me. I was forced into this. I'm thinking I was 12.

Post performance high. What kid wouldn't want to do this?

Band girls are hot in Pocatello!


We are wee
Hanna has been feeling picked on lately because of her stature. That being wee. I was similarly disadvantaged but I don't remember it affecting me this much. I think it was because I grew up in a smaller school with friends I'd had since I was 8. She's still the new kid in a huge school. It is becoming hard to find her clothes that fit her that aren't little girl clothes. She wants to look "tweenish" but that isn't easy when you still wear a size 7 in jeans. Plus, apparently she is a "nerd" because she's going into the advance placement program. I keep telling her that I was small but look how cool I am. When I was looking for band photos I found these pictures of me at her age. She really doesn't have much hope so I can only wish that she learns to embrace her smallness. It really isn't that bad except it's hard to find jeans you don't have to hem.

At least I don't cut her hair like a boys and give her a home perm!

Look! I was still riding a tricycle I was so small.

So tiny and cute

I wish you didn't have the devil's curly hair

When Ryan graduated from University of Wyoming in 1996, we decided to move back to Utah so I could finish my education. He sent out resumes to a few companies in Utah and got a couple of interviews. He wanted a haircut before he went and since we were so poor we were eating bread and peas regularly for supper, he asked me to cut his hair. He had been doing it himself so I don't know what led up to me being asked to do it. Why we didn't take some of the extra money we had and get him a haircut at Supercuts, I'll never know. The whole situation seems doomed from the beginning now that I think about it. Maybe Ryan has a different slant on the story? I started to cut his hair with the clippers and almost immediately lost control, making a fine bald spot on the side of his head. I started to cry and ask, "Why did you make me do this?" So yeah, Ryan finished cutting the rest of his hair and I felt horrible about him going to interviews with a bald spot. I told him I would never cut his hair again and I never have. He did a pretty good job of cutting it himself for years, mainly because he hates getting his hair cut. Like how some people hate getting bit by monkeys, Ryan hates getting his hair cut. He's almost never happy with it and I have to admit, he's had some bad haircuts. This seems strange to me since he's always had pretty short hair. How hard is it? I finally convinced him to go to my stylist last year. I told him, "Wouldn't you rather pay twice as much as a stupid chain place and actually be happy with your cut?" What? I was right? Imagine that. Chad cuts his hair now and Ryan is always happy. This Saturday Ryan and the girls all had haircuts at Chad's salon. The girls go to a junior stylist whom I really like and is really good with kids. She talks to Hanna and Grace like they are teenagers and they eat that up. Hanna is going into grade six and because she thinks she is all that/queen of the school, she wanted to get a "style" with "layers". I have a thing about kids who get adult haircuts but can't style them, or can't get help styling them because their mom is a bad, bad working mom, so they just end up looking like crap. I convinced her to just get bangs and keep the rest pretty much the same. Amanda curled it for her after and Hanna was in LOVE with the end result. She kept looking in the mirror and doing little poses. I'm glad that it's helping her feel good about going back to school. I think she's a little anxious about it. Grace got a cute bob, that will be easy to take care of. I'm hoping that someday Grace will have the desire to grow her hair out again and take care of it. She has the most lovely head of hair that would make angels weep and double rainbows pale in comparison (for you Becky) but since she seems to be allergic to the brush, it tends to look like a rat's nest.

What?! You mean a baby is going to come out of there?

Hanna turns 11 today and it's blowing my mind. Maybe it's that she's the size of a 6 year old that makes it hard for me to wrap my brain around her being this old. She's a great kid who was funny from birth. Not so funny when crying 24/7 the first few weeks, nor when not sleeping the first 10 months. In between crying, not sleeping, and nursing like a monkey with ADHD, she was a riot. I might not have been in love with motherhood those first few months, but I was for sure in love with Hanna. Hanna is an everyday example to me of how I should be living my life. She amazes me! Happy Birthday Boo!

She still loves being naked

Ryan's favourite picture of Hanna

One of my favourite pictures

Hanna at her 11th birthday dinner riding the saddle

"No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks"
I've officially survived my first year of teaching first grade. It's been a wild ride but I've learned so much. I had a great class and a great team to work with. Now it's on to fun, fun fun! After a day of deep depression where I didn't know what I was to do with all this spare time, I've found my groove. I took a deep breath and told myself to relax. It sort of worked. I've started taking early morning classes at the rec center. My favourite thing about this is that even though I have to get up at 5:30, I can come home and go back to bed! In my mind, this is heaven. If you haven't tried it, you should. After a hard workout sleep is really the best. Anyway, this is a picture one of my students drew for me. I especially like it because she has put me in one of my favourite winter outfits, black turtleneck, brown corduroy skirt, tights and brown boots. I must have worn this a lot.

Where Ryan faces his fears and tries not falling to his death
When starting a project, I like to get all the correct tools together/purchased and then begin. Ryan, likes to just begin, hoping he has tools that can be jerry rigged to worked. As you can imagine, Ryan's projects usually end up peppered with a lot of foul language. So it went when staining the wood on the front of the house. Ryan is afraid of heights, so it made the day even more sweary. He had to crawl on the roof to paint the top beams. He was using a paint roller I dug out of the kid's craft supplies. Near the end of the project, I finally went over to Lowe's and bought him the proper roller for the job to which he exclaimed,"This would have gone much better if I had this to start with." Sigh.
Before


After (planting/yard word is still a work in progress)

I'll be painting the front door on my own.

she was one frozen entree away from a nervous breakdown

I hit a wall this weekend in regards to winter. We got a taste of nice weather this week and I had high hopes for the weekend. It wasn't to be and instead it snowed and blew most of the weekend. This morning I got up in the nasty mood. I went online and caught up on some blog type reading that only left me in a worse mood. Now that I'm working in public education I'm very sensitive to people who criticize it. Do they realize that some days I start crying in class after reading with a group of children because I worry about their reading abilities? That I spend my free time finding resources that will challenge my students who are above grade level? Or that I dream at night about students who are struggling because they are in my thoughts so much? Does that sound like I only care about test scores, rote memorization and churning out worksheets? I know I shouldn't let others opinions bother me but teachers and public education are attacked so often that it's hard to ignore all the time. I know the system is not perfect by any means but most teachers try to give your child the best education they can.

Whew! That rant is over. Back to the horrible weather that gives me a huge case of the sads. I haven't been running (my Nike Mini mocks me) and only made it to one spin class this week. For me exercise=good mental health and without it, things go downhill fast. I ate so badly this weekend that my body violently revolted. My muffin top is turning into a whole loaf of bread. Mmmm...bread. I'm not being a great parent as evidenced by my lack of empathy when child #2 told me she would be sleeping on the floor in her room because she didn't have lunch. Well, lunch was provided but it wasn't up to her standards. I know things in my life are good, I really do. That is how depression works, life can be great but you still feel bad. I was told when I was younger that journal writing isn't supposed to be all happy puppies and sunshine because that's not how life really is. It is time though, to get out of this funk and do something about it. So this week I'm determined to be and do better. Spring will come, the sun will shine, spring break will start and I'll be happy, full of positive-rainbow-kitten-filled thoughts, Shea again.

What a difference some sun makes
It's been a couple of sun filled days since I wrote the first part of this post. I'm feeling much better. Spring is in the air and life seems good again. No, I'm not bi-polar but the weather affects me a lot. Yesterday I had the privilige of going with Hanna to her fifth grade maturation program. Things like that are the reason I'm very happy I'll still be in the same school with them. They've come a long way since the dated film strip that was shown when I was in fifth grade but it's basically the same facts, minus the belted pads. I told Hanna that if she is anything like me, she doesn't need to worry about this for another 4-5 years. I'm looking over at all 54lbs of her when they started talking about wearing a bra and wanted to say, "I'm sorry sister but odds are, you won't need one of those for years." I'll probably get her some sort of cami/sports bra thing for next year because I remember Sandra Stevenson and I making a pact that we would wear a bra on the first day of grade six. I don't think Sandra or I need them yet. Hanna's cool though. She knew all this stuff and more before. I highly recommend "The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls" which is published by American Girl. Honestly, it's hard for me to wrap my brain around Hanna being almost 11. It doesn't help that she's built like a 7 year old either. I remember a lot of her baby-hood very vividly because it was such a life changing time. Some days I wish I could transport myself back in time and hold that little baby again but I'm really happy with the person she is turning out to be.
My "mature" girl

E.T. is not going to let you anywhere near those paper towels

We had parent teacher conferences two weeks ago which Ryan went to because I was doing my own and couldn't get away. Apparently both girls have straight A's which is great but then I started thinking that they'd only been in school 30+ days. Hanna has been bringing home some story problems that are giving me flashbacks to being in grade five and hating story problems. I usually tell her I can't figure it out and then Ryan does it in about five seconds while giving me a look that says to me, "Seriously? This isn't the brain buster you thought it was."

Ryan needed a roll of paper towels today and asked Grace is she would run downstairs and get him some out of the storage room. She said she'd have to get Hanna to go down with her because she was afraid. Long story short, she won't go into the basement alone because she is afraid of E.T. Yep, that beloved alien that both Ryan and I had stuffed dolls of as children, terrifies Grace. Apparently she thinks E.T. might pop out from around a corner in our basement. She started crying and so we pushed her into the basement and locked the door. Haha! No, we let it go but told her she'd probably have to learn to like the basement since she would have a room down there someday.
Grace: "With Hanna?"
Me: "No. With E.T."
I thought that was pretty funny but it just made her cry again and made Ryan give me a nasty look.

See Grace, Michael Jackson isn't afraid.

Ryan checked Hanna out of school early yesterday because she had to get a spacer/retainer thing put in so her mutant teeth don't get more mutanty. He sent me this picture from the dentist and all I could think was, "JAWS!"

Ryan doesn't like the bangs. He keeps making little comments about how he likes the, "brushed to the side." He's just not on the cutting edge like I am and has a thing where he wants me to look like I did when we met in bowling class 16 years ago. I found this picture of me the last time I had full bangs. I must have been about seven and going through a Little House phase.

MC Robot

Hanna turned 10 today and one of her presents was a super awesome keyboard. We needed one because our piano was borrowed from Ryan's mom so we decided not to move it. Ryan set the keyboard up and what followed had me almost peeing my pants. Ryan has two things he can do that make me laugh to crying and one is the MC (mentally challenged) Robot. He broke that our and I was fortunate enough to have my camera in hand to capture it. I had to do a lot of convincing for him to let me put this on here so be gentle.

MC ROBOT from Shea Van Fleet on Vimeo.

Hanna on her first birthday

Hanna turning 10. That's right, she asked for a Bitty Baby. Do you have a problem with that?

I guess they're okay

I got a phone call on Sunday from a woman we go to church with basically telling me that my kids are great. She sat behind Grace at the church's Primary Program (children's Sunday School) and told me that all the other kids in Grace's class were being "little monkeys" but that Grace was "an angel". She then went on for a bit telling me how great my girls were. It made me happy because what parent doesn't want to hear from a relative stranger that their kids are fabulous? Ryan and I often wonder what we have done to make our kids, well, good. I've come to the conclusion that it's just how they were made. I don't think I'm that great of a parent. For the most part I just stumble along hoping I'm doing something right.

My kids have been extra adorable lately, each doing things that make me think I'll keep them around for good. We're taking care of Nana's dogs while she is in Dallas. Hanna loves the dogs and she loves being responsible for them. I don't like the dogs and don't want to be responsible for them, so it's perfect! Yesterday morning Hanna was over feeding them and when she came home she said, "Melly had an accident but don't worry, I cleaned it up." Melly, the 200lb Golden Retriever, pooped on the floor and my nine year old cleaned it up! Without being asked! Jealous?

Today Grace was the spotlight kid in her second grade class. She was allowed to bring a baby picture plus two things that are special to her to show the class. Her blankie and her ukulele were what she chose to bring. Grace practiced in her room off and on Saturday and Sunday so she'd be ready to "play" her ukulele. Since I work across the hall from her room I was able to secretly watch her while she performed for her class. What is cuter than a little girl singing "I Loved My Rooster" while playing the ukulele? Nothing.

Am I that kind of parent?

Hanna has been having a hard time with school. She has a teacher this year that she just isn't clicking with and this is making it hard for her to be excited about school. Hanna's such a good kid it's almost abnormal. She wants to please and hates getting in trouble. Yesterday Hanna came home very upset because her teacher "yelled" at her. I can't think of anything this child would ever do to warrant being yelled at, so I'm already a bit worked up. I start to question her about it and she breaks down sobbing while trying to get her feelings out. She feels "uncomfortable around new teachers" and just doesn't know this teacher well enough. I finally get that Hanna is scared of this teacher. I think she is a good teacher but she and Hanna just don't work well together. I didn't request anyone this year because I knew they were all good and don't really want to be one of those parents. Hanna had Mr. Craig last year and they are kindred spirits. In fact I know Hanna has a crush on him and once heard her telling Grace she was going to marry him. He's married so I told her it would never work unless she was willing to break up a marriage. I don't know why, but I thought it would be good for her to experience a different teacher and therefor left it up to chance. I'm obviously an idiot. Today I went in early and talked to Mr. Craig and the principal (I cried. Nice.) and Hanna will be transferring to Mr. Craig's class tomorrow. We told her tonight and I could tell she was very happy about this. I'm still worried if I did the right thing. I don't want to be one of those parents who fixes everything for their kids but I know Hanna and I can tell when she is hurting. Being a parent is hard.

Hanna doing a back bend

No, Hanna is not the child who took gymnastics for a year. Poor inflexible Gracie.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Everything is coming up Van Fleet!

The Utah Highway Patrol Association banquet was on Wednesday and Ryan and I always like to go. It's usually good food but the main draw is the door prizes at the end. Of course they put them at the end of the program so no one leaves because we all think we're going to win the $1000 Sig Sauer pistol. Unfortunately Ryan and I usually win the $10 cloth cooler, the Highway Patrol DVD (whaa?) or nothing. Ryan's mom once won a night in Cedar City and tickets to the Shakespearean Festival which she kindly gave to us but that doesn't really count because we didn't win it. This years banquet was extra boring and long so I was really hoping we would win something that would make the evening worthwhile. They always start with the lame prizes (golf balls etc) and then work their way up the the good ones. I had my eye on a weed whacker but it came and went without my number being called. We were down to the last three prizes and Ryan and I had won nothing. Let me set this up for you. Usually when your number gets called, you raise your hand quietly and someone brings you your prize. It's all very civilized for a cop party. They announce that they are now drawing for a $300 shotgun from Cabela's but I'm feeling pretty pessimistic about the whole thing so I'm not even really listening. They then read "621" and I realized this is Ryan's number. Both Ryan and I jump up, yell "YES!" and then I yell "THE VAN FLEET CURSE IS FINALLY BROKEN!" So we livened things up a bit and the long, boring night was saved. Ryan found out that we could use the gift card for anything at Cabela's and since he already has a nice shotgun, he used it to buy a tent and a GPS system for our car. So happy Father's Day to Ryan.

Our new tent that will actually fit all of us. Ryan and the girls slept out in the backyard last night and liked it. Dad your order wasn't there yet. Also Dad we don't have any pads to sleep on. *hint hint*

Hanna is into making collages and these are two she made today. I find the Heath Ledger as "The Joker" one kind of disturbing. Strange kid but she just may be an artistic genius.

Hanna's birthday

Hanna turned nine yesterday and brought with it many changes. She told me she felt more "mature" now and that was helped by her new purse. Apparently having a purse makes her feel "like a woman." We took her to The Brick Oven for pizza because she knew she'd be sung to and get free ice-cream. How could the offspring of Ryan and I want to be sung to in a restaurant? Her birthday ended with a sleep over although two of the three girls couldn't sleep over. I got this weird vibe from them that maybe they weren't allowed to sleep over at our house. Whatever. Because one kid is a lot easier than three. Anyway, Hanna is a really special kid. She was as super hard baby and I don't think anyone in the house had a full night sleep until she was over a year old and by then I was pregnant with Grace. How we had the energy to get pregnant with Grace is a miracle in itself. She was "fussy" but also a lot of fun. When she was happy she was very happy and had a great laugh. She never wanted to be still which is why I think sleep was just a hassle for her. You can't move when you're sleeping! Now she has turned into this fun, albeit sassy kid who seems to belong to another family if it weren't for the unmistakable family sarcasm. I'm glad she is a part of our family because she definitely keeps things lively.

This was at Hanna's first birthday. She cried after we sang Happy Birthday to her. How things have changed.

Hanna can be very naughty. She blamed it on Sock Monkey.

But she is very willing to help and likes to clean.

Hanna likes to be silly and she likes her dad.

Hanna loves Grace and is a good big sister. She also likes to be in the water.

She has big blue eyes and is happy most of the time.

She slept the first week or so and then the fun began. A rare moment of peacefulness captured. She now sleeps like a champ.

Hanna liked to put things on her head but she especially loved this bucket. We called her "buckethead."

Hanna on her ninth birthday. She's still a very happy kid but oh so silly.

I have two kids and no money. Why can't I have no kids and two money?

The title of this entry has nothing to do with what I'm going to write about. I heard it on The Simpson's last night and it made me laugh.

Yesterday we met with our realtor and I'm looking forward to working with her. She suggested we price our house at $239,900 which I think might be high but you never know. Of course I think our house is worth that but I'm obviously biased. We're not in a rush so we'll wait and see if anyone bites. We have been cleaning a lot and I'm so sick of it. I wish we could just back a dumpster up the the basement and load it all in.

I "volunteered" at field day today and was assigned to the blow-up bouncy slide. It was hot (93) and I had already been roped into subbing 2nd grade yesterday where they took a walking field trip to the park. So basically in the last two days I have spent 8 hours telling/yelling at kids to "stop that!" Is this why I majored in education? I'm working the rest of the week which is going to make leaving for Mexico even sweeter.

Hanna told us today that her teacher had the test results for the state math test and Hanna received the highest mark, 47/48. This is awesome because I was always intimidated by math and I'd love it if Hanna and Grace didn't have that issue.

Time to end this post because I'm heading to the church for Enrichment (women's night) where they are going to show us how to make food out of our (nonexistent) food storage. Wheat chili! Brownies made out of beans! I'll be there! I'm thinking a trip after it's over to a store that supplies real food might be necessary.

ETA: We left enrichment after the first half hour and went home to watch American Idol. Eeevol!

This one's trouble

Yesterday in primary (kids Sunday school) they were doing a lesson where the kids had to decide whether the word they picked out of the pile was the responsibility of children, parents or both. I'm in there because I teach the eleven year old girls. Hanna was called up because she was being so reverent and picked the word "clothe" out of the pile. She correctly put it under the "parents" and then one of the leaders asked her to give an example of how her parents clothe her. Hanna paused and I could just feel the little gears in her devious brain working.

"My mom goes shopping every day." she said with a smirk on her face.

The adults in the room start to laugh and look back at me. I give Hanna "the look", roll my eyes and mouth, "that's right." For the next few minutes she keeps looking over at and me and mouthing "what?" with a big smile on her face. So funny.

Hanna's emergency kit

Hanna told me the other day that she was taking an "emergency kit" to school with her. I assumed it had a bandage in it and that's about all. Okay, honestly, I just didn't care that much to really think about it. That's the kind of attentive mom I am. Yesterday night Ryan lifted up her backpack to get her lunch box out and he was surprised by how heavy it was. He questioned Hanna about it and she told him it was her "emergency kit" that was making it so heavy. I was in the living room when I hear Ryan telling her that "she is too small to carry a backpack that heavy." Then I hear Hanna start to cry. They were in there for a while talking and Hanna eventually stopped crying. Ryan came out and started to tell me what was going on, except he couldn't talk because he kept laughing. Apparently this was what was in Hanna's "emergency kit":

craft wire
pieced of felt
mirror
(this is where Ryan started to laugh)
three hats
several pairs of gloves "because she might take us with her"
two children's quiz books
pens
picture frame
Montana highway map (apparently our "emergency" involves us driving through Montana)

When Ryan asked her why she needed an "emergency kit", she told him, "because she thought it would be a fun experience." Oh Hanna.

She's no Larry Bird

I signed both girls up for the town basketball program this year. Grace is just in a clinic but Hanna actually has practices and games. I don't know what I was thinking because except for them messing around with the half deflated basketball in our possession, they haven't had much exposure to the game. Both Ryan and I can play basketball and I actually played until grade 11 but my high school had less than 200 people so it wasn't like I had a lot of competition to make the team. I wasn't horrible though and think I did a decent job as a point guard. I'm also quite competitive and can get aggressive when playing contact sports. I remember doing my fair share of pushing back or first. Hanna has inherited the passive Van Fleet gene and I've yet to see a competitive side.

Today was her first game and while it's hard to say this about my own offspring, she is HORRIBLE. Not only is she unskilled but she seems to be terrified of the ball itself. She visibly cringes when the ball comes near her and when a rebound came near her she covered her head with her hands and crouched down on the floor. After the first two minutes of play Ryan and I were scouting the gym for exits. I thought I could maybe make a very long trip to the bathroom so that I didn't have to watch. It was, in a word, painful. Not all the girls were good but Hanna was by far the worst. She has no concept of the game or what she should be doing. I don't know what they've been doing at practice but it obviously isn't sinking in. Her couch is a volunteer woman from the neighborhood and I have no idea if she even knows much about basketball. But she volunteered to coach which I wasn't willing to do so I'm not going to bad-mouth her here. Plus she seems to genuinely like the girls. Anyway, I turned to Ryan halfway through and said, "I'm blaming this on you." He is now motivated to work with her and help her improve her game. This is going to be a long season if she continues to be this bad, so that is great incentive to get working. They did win the game and Hanna was sure to tell everyone that. She's happy to play on the team and likes to run up and down the court which is what I have to remember when I'm watching her turn away and cringe when a teammate passes her the ball. I told Ryan, "Maybe we should have invested in drama classes instead." Ryan said, "At least she's cute and smart."

Hanna's activity days talent show

Hanna had to display a talent she had for activity days (church girls program) and she chose to play the piano. I had to miss it due to partying it up and outlet shopping in Park City with friends. That makes me sound like a fabulous mother but we had this planned before the talent show was planned. Ryan took Hanna and Grace and was able to reenact the "good" parts for me at home. Apparently there was unicycle riding and unicycle dancing with the unicycle as a prop by one of the leaders. I'm sorry that didn't get taped but Ryan did a good job of acting it out for my amusement. Hanna did a great job and I was amazed with her ability to turn the page and then continue to play. She's only been playing for a year and I'm mainly happy that she seems to like doing it.
*for some reason it's playing the video twice*

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Hanna got a haircut

We were trying to grow it out but she has the type of hair that gets stringy when it's long. So she and I decided to get it cut. We drove to Amanda's in Heber today and she gave us both lovely haircuts. Hanna thinks she looks fabulous and so do I.