Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving today- lots of food, family, and gratitude!

The day started with the girls playing really nicely together. Audra and Claire were so excited for Thanksgiving- it was pretty cute.

 Audra insisted on dressing up like an Indian. She makes a pretty cute one!

 Ben's mom prepared a delicious feast- really, it was one of the best Thanksgiving dinners I have ever had- absolutely delicious! Thank you, Ann, for a wonderful meal!

 We asked the girls what they were grateful for, and they both said "Family." I couldn't agree more!

 Camille slept through the meal (thank goodness), but she woke up CRAZY. All she wanted to do was run around, grunt for more food, and get into things she shouldn't. For a few minutes we were able to stall her when she decided she wanted pillows stacked on top of her. The respite didn't last long, but it was sure cute.

Growing up, we always did a puzzle on Thanksgiving (or maybe it was Christmas? Or both?). I decided to continue the tradition and got a couple of puzzles for the girls to do. They are both very good at puzzles, so I think this will be a great tradition for us.

A couple of weeks ago we put together a "Thankful Tree." We had the girls draw pictures of what they are grateful for. The list included family, hair, water, turkey, and such.

 This one turned out to be the family favorite:

Ben drew a picture of being grateful for running. When I saw the picture I said, "Oh, you're grateful for big feet?" And from then on the girls continually teased him (in a nice way, of course) about being grateful for big feet.

We certainly do have a million and one things of which to be grateful. Health, a good job, family, love, Christ. Obviously, I could go on forever- and it was nice to remember to be grateful today!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Casa Bonita

Last night we took the girls to Casa Bonita. We haven't been here in a few years (since Claire was younger than Camille is now), so we thought it would be fun.

We were right.

The girls loved it.

Casa Bonita is a restaurant that is sort-of like a theme park. The food is not great, but the entertainment is. They have cliff divers, puppet shows, an arcade, a pinata, and much, much more. If you ever come visit us in  Denver, we will be sure and take you to this tourist paradise!

 And this is just for fun- the girls got dressed up today as fairies (I will really miss these days!):

No Turkey For Perkey!

Audra had a Thanksgiving play today. Her class worked super hard, and I think her teacher was more nervous than the kids. He went all out, and he had the kids prepped! All three first grade classes did the same play, and the other classes had to use a recording of the music and sing along, but not Audra's class. All the kids knew the songs perfectly. They all knew exactly what to do and where to go- it all flowed perfectly. One mom who has one kid in Audra's class, and another in another class said, "this was the shortest play because the kids knew exactly what to do!" Audra's teacher definitely runs a tight ship, and it worked out well today.

 Audra was an onion.

 She was so excited for the play. She has been singing the songs for 2 weeks straight. Last night she brought a pair of pants downstairs and asked Ben to iron them for her because they were a little too wrinkly for the play. She forgot that she wasn't even going to be wearing pants because she was going to be wearing white tights and a skirt.

 Afterwards there was a feast for the kids. It really is fun to have these "party days" once in awhile.

 Here she is with her teacher- he did a great job of pulling this together! It turned out incredibly well!

Shoes!

Camille LOVES putting on shoes. Oftentimes I can't find my shoes because she has put them on and abandoned them in unknown areas.

She also LOVES necklaces. She finds them everywhere and often has 3-4 around her neck. I don't really like it because I am worried that she will choke herself, so I try and watch her carefully. We have about a million necklaces in our house with two older sisters, so I'm not quite sure what to do.

Spotted Owl

We came home from school today, and Audra said, "Mom! There's an owl outside!"

What???

This was definitely a first. I have never seen an owl in our backyard, but today a good hour was spent watching every movement of the owl perched on our back fence:

I guess you just never know what you will find in the suburbs!

Emancipation Day

Today was a glorious day. And, I do mean GLORIOUS!!!!

Camille started nursery!

In our church, kids can't go to nursery until they are 18 months old. The period between when kids start walking and when they can attend nursery is torture. How do you get a toddler to stay quiet during Sunday School? You don't. So you mostly end up walking the halls for 6 months straight, constantly asking yourself, "Why do I even bother coming to church?"

I told Ben to enjoy the torture. As moms, we constantly get told to "Carpe Diem"- no matter what, we should enjoy every minute of poopy diapers, late night feedings, and cleaning up throw-up. So I told Ben he should just enjoy the torture of roaming the halls with Camille while he could. For all three kids, I have had a Sunday calling and couldn't be the one in charge of the toddlers. Ben had to deal with all the torture. I lucked out!

But today it ended.

Like our other two kiddos, Camille just walked right in and never looked back. It helped that the nursery leaders had put out lots of toys so she really did walk into a toy paradise. She sure looked cute!

 This was Camille after her- and our- favorite day of church!

 Audra and Claire wanted to get in on the action!

Claire's Art

Claire continues to LOVE coloring and all things art. It is something very calming for her, and she will work on one coloring page for over an hour. It is really quite impressive. Art classes will definitely be in her future!

Here's some pages she did this last week:

 Above she wrote her name. She is really big into making letters and "spelling."

For a 4-year-old she does a pretty good job of staying in the lines. Art is her happy place. Unless you try to make her stop coloring before she has finished. Then it is anything BUT happy! Just ask her primary teachers.

Game Night!

It's been a rough week, I'm not going to lie, but tonight we had some fun as a family- which was perfect!

As usual, Camille was super cute. She sat on Ben's lap and "played" with us. She would hold onto the dice and shake it and shake it. But she wouldn't let go. Ben would have to knock it out of her hand. Audra, Claire, and I would chant and clap for her, "Roll the dice! Roll the dice!" But then she would start clapping instead of rolling the dice. Eventually by the end she figured it out.

Super cute!

I Just Don't Care

We lost.

This post might be a little raw, a little emotional. I'm still processing this. I knew if we lost it would be tough, and I wasn't sure how I would handle it. Of course, I have lost many elections before. But never one so personal- one that affects so much. It pretty much sucks on every level. So I'm not quite sure where I'm at. Stunned. Sad. Angry. Disgusted.

After Saturday Night Live a pastor comes on TV each week. A couple weeks ago he talked about a lie that many people tell themselves. He said he has hundreds of people who come into his office and say things like,

"My mom abused me as a child. But I don't care."

"My son doesn't believe in God. But I don't care."

"My sister-in-law is rude and I hate her. But I don't care."

He said these people are lying to themselves when they say, "I don't care." Of course they care. But they are so tired of caring, so worn out by caring, that they simply CAN'T care anymore. It takes too much energy and effort, so they act like they don't.

That's how I feel right now. That I can't care.

I have given so much- along with thousands of others. I literally did everything I possibly could.

But big money won.

Don't believe me?

If you take out all of the outside interest money, parents and community members in our county raised over $48,000 for our candidates. How much did they raise for the other side? Under $5,000.

If outside interest money wasn't a part of this election, the parents would win hands down. It wouldn't even be a contest.

As parents, we donated thousands of hours to get rid of the outside interest groups. We banded together in a way that I have never seen before. The other side hired teenagers to come and do their bidding.

And we lost.

As a result, I have lost all faith in the electoral process. If we can't win in a simple, small, school board election- how can we win anything? Big money has now taken over every aspect of our lives. So much so that we have lost our voice on the most basic, intimate level- in the instruction of our children.

I am very angry with my community. Not the community that fought hard to protect our schools, our teachers, and our kids. But the community that was so easily duped by shiny flyers telling lies. A community that has taken the attitude, "As long as my kids are OK, screw the rest of you."

That is now becoming my mantra: "I will take care of my kids, and I don't give a $$!$! about your kids."

I have seriously considered being released from my calling in primary. I currently teach the children music. But I really don't want to do anything for somebody else's kids. Not when I live in a ward where people honestly believe that their children are better than mine because their kids go to a charter school and get to wear uniforms. And, yes, I can't tell you how many people have said something along the lines of, "Oh, well my child is gifted, so he needed to go to a charter school." Even though the charter school performs worse than Audra's school on virtually every measure.

Ben and I talked tonight about moving- and that is a very serious consideration. I hate living in a community that hates teachers and devalues education. I hate living in a ward that wants to set up a social structure based on money and prestige (which is something I have noticed about my ward for a very long time, but this election just proves it more). I hate being surrounded by people who have the most anti-Zion attitude of any people I have ever met.

That's what I call this place: The Anti-Zion. We are not a community, and we sure as heck don't care about others. We only think of ourselves here in Anti-Zion.

Pretty much, we're just incredibly unhappy here.

And with these election results, it looks like things aren't going to change any time soon.

But for now, I guess when in Rome, do as the Romans. So I'll take care of my kids, and screw everybody else.

***FYI- if you need to get a hold of me, don't do it on FB. I won't be on there for a very long time. So if you are pregnant and I don't know about it until the baby comes, it's because I didn't see the ultrasound you posted on FB.

Big Day

Tomorrow is the big day.

For those of you living under a rock, I have been quite involved in the election of a new school board.

And tomorrow night the votes will be counted and we will know if those efforts have paid off or not.

I have done absolutely everything I can to inform the public about what is happening in our schools. I have written essays, knocked on doors, turned my mini-van into a billboard, made phone calls, attended rallies, picketed at busy intersections, handed out hundreds of flyers, made huge banners for people who back up to busy streets, and talked, and talked, and talked about what is happening.

Oh, yeah- and annoyed people pretty bad on Facebook. I can't overlook that.

When I first moved here five years ago I started to see some crazy things happening- things that from a teacher's perspective I knew would not end well. But nobody else seemed to notice- or care.

Thankfully, I finally met a woman at Audra's school who was way more worried than I was- and who was fighting against the crazy that was happening.

We became friends. And she introduced me to hundreds of people who were just as concerned as I was. And I learned about a grassroots movement by parents against the crazy things that were happening. I joined.

I started to get more informed and more involved- and what I learned was not good.

I made a very conscientious decision three months ago.

I decided that I would fight for my kids and their teachers and their schools. I knew that I would probably lose friends, but I decided it was worth it.

Sometimes you have to fight, regardless of the costs.

People have sent me hate mail. People have called me some pretty nasty names and accused me of some bad things. I have been flipped off and yelled at. And I have lost some friends.

But I also believe that we might just win this thing.

I have great hope that tomorrow will be a victorious night.

But I also have great anxiety and great fear. What if our efforts aren't enough? What if Big Money is too big to fight? What if parents really do no longer have a say in the education of their children?

I have decided that regardless of the outcome tomorrow night, I am going to take a rather long Facebook hiatus (and there was much rejoicing!). If we lose, I plan on sinking into a deep, dark, depression and going into hiding for about 6 months while I regroup, pray a lot, and focus on my kids. If we win, I still need a break from the noise.

So if you don't live in the area but are interested  in the results tomorrow night, don't look to Facebook- I will post them here on this blog when they come in.

Tomorrow night happens to be Enrichment night (a craft night with the ladies from church). I decided not to attend, but instead to go to a "Celebration Party" for one of our candidates. Win or lose, I need to be surrounded by people who think like me- either to mourn or rejoice.

I am glad the election is almost over. But I am also scared that the results might not go our way. The next 32 hours are not going to be fun!

I'll let you know how it goes.