CrAzY Week, Glitter Slime, Improvables, Morning With Moms, Career Night, Nativity

What a CraZy week I have had!!  It started out when Aaron found out he was going out of town on a business trip last minute.  BOO!  The bad thing was I had to work three shifts while he was going to be gone which wasn't a good thing since my kids would be left unsupervised for too long.  He left Monday morning to go back to LA since he hadn't gotten enough of California from our trip a few weeks ago--haha!  He actually just flew in to LAX and then drove out to China Lake for business.  Of course it snowed like crazy that whole day.  Monday morning I had to take Aaron to the airport and then come back and volunteer in school.  Then I had to leave to go to work back down in Salt Lake from 2pm to 10 pm.  Both trips were pretty crazy since it was snowing hard most of the day.  Ugh.  I really like the snow as long as I don't have to drive in it, but it is not as nice when I do have to drive in it.  Anyway, seeing as I didn't want to leave my kids unsupervised for all afternoon/evening Grandpa T was kind enough to come and referee things from 6:30pm to 8:00pm just to make sure everyone got fed dinner, took their medication and make sure everyone got ready for bed without too much fighting.  I didn't even want to try refereeing from afar so I was really grateful Grandpa T could come and help me out.  It is nice having some older boys, too, since they were able to shovel the driveway and sidewalk for me before it froze over.  I didn't get home until 11pm and I was so glad I didn't have to wait and shovel it then.  It was a crazy day.  The next morning Daniel told me that all the kids had started fighting when Grandpa T clearly told them to stop in a bit louder voice.  Since they don't ever hear Grandpa raise his voice they all immediately stopped and were good kids the rest of the night.  I might need to borrow Grandpa T a bit more often because they kids don't listen to me like that--haha!

The next day I had to volunteer again and then that afternoon I had to help Sarah make her Economics Fair project since they were having the Economics Fair the next day.  Her project was actually due Tuesday morning, but since I wasn't home all Monday night we weren't able to make it until Tuesday afternoon. Sarah wanted to make Glitter Slime.  I tried a few different suggestions like making bracelets or necklaces, etc. but she had her heart set on making slime just like Josh and Daniel did when they had their Economics Fair.  She picked the colors green and blue to dye the slime and we also added in glitter to make it a bit different from all the other slimes that would be sold.  Here is Sarah, Noah and myself making the slime Tuesday night:

 Wednesday I had to work the morning shift from 5:45 am to 2 pm.  That meant I had to get up at 4 am so I could get their by 5:30am so I could orient myself to the facility before the CNA students got there.  Ugh--that's early!!  Anyway, since Aaron was gone I had to have everyone get their stuff out and ready for the next day Tuesday night to make sure they knew where everything was since I wasn't going to be around at all the next morning when they got ready for the day.  Luckily, they seemed to get to school ok--meaning I didn't get any calls from the school which is a good sign--haha!

I got home at afternoon at 2:45 pm and things were a bit crazy.  I had to get homework done, feed the kids dinner and then I had a meeting for Young Women at 5:45 pm which went until our activity started at 7 pm.  I just so happened to be in charge of that activity that night as well.  We had another career night where we had three guest speakers come and talk to the girls about being a realtor, a financial planner and an interior designer.  All three did an amazing job and we all learned a lot.  The young men had a court of honor, but since I couldn't be in two places at once we put off getting the boys' awards until next court of honor so Aaron and I could both be there to see them receive their awards.  That meant all 5 kids were home alone together throughout my meeting and activity.  I threatened them to not call unless it was a major emergency.  Josh interpreted that as meaning please text mom with any problems.  I got regular texts about every 20 minutes the whole night about kids tattling on each other--ugh!!  I was really missing Aaron at this point. Anyway I got home and got everyone in to bed including me.  I was running on fumes at this point.

The next morning was Morning with Mom at the elementary school.  I got Josh and Matthew off to school and then I was trying to get the younger three ready early so we could enjoy the morning together at the school.  As we were trying to get out the door Noah couldn't find his shoes and a light bulb fell out of Sarah's bathroom socket and shattered all over the vanity top.  DOH!  Come to find out Noah had crawled up on the vanity and had been playing with the light bulbs and that's why one fell out and shattered.  Good thing I love that kid because I was about at the end of my rope by that morning.  I got it all cleaned up and we were able to find Noah's shoes.  We did finally make it to Morning with Mom for a few minutes.  It was long enough for the kids to all get a donut so they were all happy.

 That morning it was the Economics Fair for the 3rd grade.  The entire 3rd grade makes different projects to sell.  The rest of the school is invited to come and browse/buy any projects they think are interesting or would be good Christmas presents.  Sarah even made her own sign without any help from me.  I was pretty impressed after she was done with it.  Here's my cute entrepreneur:

 She sold all of her slime.  I had to buy some and Noah and Daniel were nice brothers and bought some from her, too.  It is a fun experience for the 3rd graders and a great fund raiser for the school at the same time.

Since I was running on fumes by Thursday I was overjoyed to go and pick Aaron up from the airport that afternoon.  As soon as we got home I told him I was on break and took a little quiet time for myself.  That's when I came across some candid pictures that were taken by the Epilepsy Day at Disneyland photographer.  It reminded me that we really did have a fun time in Disneyland while we were there.

 Here's our group photo.  We are on the right side towards the back, but are really almost impossible to see.  We are in the picture, though!

 Thursday afternoon Daniel had an orthodontic appointment.  I had to call ahead and warn the staff that Daniel's spring had fallen off his braces and he had somehow swallowed it.  When I told them that they were really quiet on the phone and just said that they would make a note of it.  Sigh.  Our kids keep us on our toes!!  Luckily, they had a spare spring they were able to replace it with.  I now keep asking Daniel what he would like for dinner and if I could interest him in eating a spring--haha!  He doesn't think I am very funny, though.  Anyway that afternoon Josh brought home his finished pillowcase that he made in his FACS class.  He picked out the Star Wars fabric and sewed the whole thing himself.  Wahoo, Josh!

The next morning was completely bizarre.  I had to work the day shift while Aaron had the day off since it was his Friday off.  It was so weird!!  Aaron didn't quite know what to do with himself since he never has time just by himself.  Luckily, Josh had an appointment to get his braces off later that morning so it gave Aaron something to do.  Josh had been waiting patiently for a few weeks to get his braces off so he was excited to get checked out of school for this appointment.  They showed Aaron his before and after X-rays.  You can really see how Josh's bite has changed!

 You can see how much the teeth have moved in this X-ray, too:

 Here's my handsome teenager's before and after pictures.  It only took 32 months of braces to get straight teeth.

Hopefully he will remember to wear his retainers so we can keep those teeth straight!!

Since the 3rd graders earned tickets for selling their Economics Fair projects they had an auction Friday afternoon for prizes.  Sarah picked out a cute Santa headband:

She also picked out a Star Wars puzzle which we have been working on:

Friday night I got a call from my friend Erin.  She told me she had won a ticket to the Improvables and wanted to know if I wanted to go along with her.  Since I had had such a crazy week I really needed and wanted to get out of the house for a bit so it worked out perfectly.  The Improvables is a comedy group that works like the old show Whose Line is it Anyways where they improv according to different games and suggestions from the audience.  It was a funny show up until they called me out of the audience to be a guest on the stage.  They asked me a BUNCH of questions about my life so they could sing about it.  It was crazy, but funny.  Here's two small clips from the question asking session that Erin recorded:

Then they sang about a 5 minute parody about my day to day life.  It was pretty funny.  I only have about a minute clip of it, but it was hilarious.

After the crazy week I had had it was a fun break with a friend that I really needed!  Thanks for inviting me Erin!!  I really love the Improvables!  They are a family friendly comedy group.  I hadn't seen them for a while, but they were just as funny this time as they were last time.  I loved it!

The next day we had a bit of a lazy Saturday.  Saturday afternoon we did head out to see the Weber County multicultural display Holiday Festival.  It is where they have all kinds of nativity scenes as well as different holiday displays.  Here's just a small glimpse of the many displays they had:

 Aaron saw a BYU Santa which he was pretty excited about:

 They had one display that you had to use a magnifying glass to see all the sections.  One section had a nativity using grains of rice for Mary, Joseph, the Baby Jesus, Wise Men, etc.  It was crazy!

 They also had a really neat display of Temple Square decorated for the holidays:

 At the end the kids got to see Santa.  Matthew went to town on his requests and requests for Sophie.  We finally had to stop him so the other kids could get a chance with Santa.

 Noah:

 Daniel:

 Sarah:

 Josh was too cool to sit on Santa's lap, but he did allow us to get a family picture with Santa:

 We also got to dress up and be part of the Nativity Scene:

 At the end they had a Christmas Village you could walk through.

It was a fun night and good ending for such a crazy week!!