Ten Years Old



Watching Madeline



Must read all the cards before opening the presents.  There is an order to birthday things.



Note the pink cupcakes.  This was part of her dream birthday celebration.



Manicures in every color and with bling!



The manicure station



Waiting (anxiously) for guests to arrive.  She wanted to stand outside in front of the door to make sure her guests didn't go to the wrong house.



PInk cupcakes, black and pink wrapped table.



Each guest was presented with the Crepe Cafe menu (Thanks to the Seal Bark for doing them up for me).



Decorations included balloons supplied by her brothers



The brothers also willingly helped decorate everything else.



The Love Magnet on her 10th birthday.

Ten most incredible things about The Love Magnet

1.  This girl LOVES to dance.  Hip hop, ballet, modern, hula........she has moves.

2.  Everyone is her best friend.  If she just met you, you are her new best friend.  She doesn't discriminate.  Feel the love.

3.  She will thank you.  Gratitude abounds with this one.  Often she will also throw in a "my darling" along with the thank you.

4.  The Love Magnet has finally discovered the joys of fashion, nail polish, accessories, and bling.  Just like any typical preteen.

5.  She loves to read.  Chapter books, cooking magazines, scriptures, or over my shoulder looking at blogs. 

6.  This girl loves to be in the kitchen, especially to make breakfast.  She is a foodie.

7.  The Love Magnet believes that everyone deserves to be happy.  If you are down, she is the one who can cheer you up.

8.  Her heroes are her brothers.

9.  She loves school and wishes it were year round.

10.  No grudges.  She forgives completely.  How many of us can say we have that ability?

Love Magnet speaks up. Watch out.

Pensacola Beach, Florida, January 2012

The Love Magnet has been harder to understand this year.  Her speech is somewhat garbled.  I think there must be a disconnect somewhere - is her brain running faster than she is able to express?  Or is it that she hears her peers speaking faster and tries to match their speed at the expense of being understood.  Whatever the reason, I've tried to work more with her on articulation.  It has been an interesting journey.  Mainly due to the reason that I can't be caught at being the teacher - rebellion would ensue.

The boys have picked up on the articulation models I have been using and started using them as well.  when The Love Magnet attempts to articulated /s/, they will point out that they can see her tongue.  "Hide your tongue!  I see your tongue, put it back in your mouth".  Alternately, when she attempts a /th/ sound, she ends up substituting with a /d/.  The boys will model where her tongue goes and then tell her it is her turn.  She complies with much more enthusiasm for them than she shows for me. When her entire sentence is unintelligible, they will let her know.  "Whoa, I didn't understand that.  Say it again, but this time slow down."  She is very willing to clarify to them, particularly if she is requesting something.

I love that the boys have picked up on this without me requesting it of them.  They are also learning to be more careful of what words they say and how they say them.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  Heavenly Father sent The Love Magnet to our house to show us how we sound to each other.  She can mimic tone and inflection in speech with absolute clarity.  It is very obvious who she is mimicking and the offensive party ducks their head in shame when they recognize that they are the ones being imitated.  Worse, she picks up new words with lightning speed, particularly words we don't want her to repeat.  We've discovered that it is more than twice as hard to train her out of a bad word than it was to get my boys to stop saying a new word they learned on the school playground.  Read this post.  It was the most mild of words we didn't want her to say.  It took all the next year to train her out of it.

Here I raise my glass (of water) to old words said with more clarity and new words that aren't offensive.  And most of all to the power of the examples of sibling and friends.

My daughter is watching and listening to you.  Please be kind to each other.

Grad school: community screenings, time crunch, random thoughts

Tonight I was signed up to do community screenings.  I headed to the school to pick up an audiometer, print a map, and off to the other side of town.

The building was set up with all the disciplines the school provides: Nursing, Pharmacy, Dietitian, Counseling, SLP/Audiology, and Dental.  There were tables for vital signs, HIV screenings, nutrition, Rx check, lab work, dental checks, and hearing screenings. 

The hearing screenings were difficult due to the noises in the room from the HVAC, refrigeration system (there was a commercial kitchen in there), and the conversation from the other tables.  But we made do. Otoscopes for visual check of the ear canal and ear drum.  Tympanometer to check flexibility of ear drum, and hearing screenings.  Raise your hand when you hear the beep and say Hallelujia!  (No, not really.  Raising your hand is just fine.)

The screenings were for anyone, but mainly aimed at those in the community who couldn't afford health care.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a turnout.  I'm not sure if it was due to location or how well the community was informed.  The volunteers mainly sat around, or went to the other tables to check out the other disciplines.  My classmate and I had great conversations with counseling and dietitians.  Pharmacy came over to our table for screenings.  There were tables full of pamphlets on everything from immunizations to additional service referrals. 

The more I work in community screenings, the more I work in elementary school screenings, the more I work in clinic, the more I love this job.  The only drawback - there are days when I don't get to see my children much.  Twice a week, I get home just after dinner. I miss my family.  At least I know that this schedule won't be forever.  Once I graduate, I can work my schedule to fit theirs and be home when they get home from school.  In the meantime, when I am home, I am home.  I am theirs.  I crack open my books after the youngest ones go to bed.  I shut my laptop when the older ones want to tell me about their day.

I can do hard.  2 1/2 semesters, 1 internship, and 1 externship to go.  Can I see the light at the end of the tunnel?  I dare say I do.



Thanksgiving 2011

I know, blogging hit the wayside.  A victim of grad school.  But here are the Thanksgiving Day pictures.  Amazing fun with two incredible families.  The biggest turkey I have ever roasted.  Wii Just Dance 3 competitions. Secondborn's famouse Baconator Deviled Eggs. Perfect, perfect Gratitude Day.

Buddy Walk 2012

The Buddy Walk happened in October.  The Love Magnet had the opportunity to dance her little hip-hop heart out with a great dance troupe.  Huge thanks to all of those who made this day incredible.

The video is the practice the day before the Buddy Walk.

HONK if you are a LOVE MAGNET!

Update to Swimming to the Surface

I just scored a very decent A- on my huge project #1 for Language Development. Feeling like I am going to survive grad school after all. At least this week.

Excuse me while I do a happy dance. Feel free to dance with me. Pat me on the back. Give me a woot-woot. Its all good.

Swimming my way back to the surface

Overwhelming. That pretty much sums up the first half of my first grad school semester.I'm still not caught up with all the reading, but then all of my classmates have admitted to the same thing. I love clinic - absolutely love it. The paperwork threw me for a loop. I believe I have the worlds best clinic supervisor because she has been beyond patient with me. My grades aren't stellar. I still have a chance to pull them up.

Finding my balance of school and home has been hard, too. The kids have been patient. The older help the younger with homework. Mr. Wonderful has also gone above and beyond to help this home run. Sometimes we see each other coming and going. At least we still make sure we have date night. We don't even sit by each other in church anymore. I'm at the organ. Since there is always a rest hymn and no special musical number, I stay up by the organ so the transitions are smooth.

We did celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness Month at the Buddy Walk. This year was more special than others. The Love Magnet danced a hip-hop number with a local dance group. She loved it. The best news (and still makes me teary whenever I think of it) is that this particular dance company has asked if she would join them. She'll be put in dance classes with typical kids. We're signing up in November. We had to wait a few weeks because -

The Love Magnet had a tonsilectomy/adenoidectomy. Her tonsils were huge and stinky and starting to cause bad breath. If was a rough first week. I called for help and angels came in the form of my parents and Grandmother. These three angels made it possible for me to make it to clinic while they stayed home with The Love Magnet. They did my laundry, reorganized my pantry, vacuumed, cleaned my kitchen, and spent time with my children. I felt loved and cared for.

I think I will make it through grad school after all. I had my doubts.

First Day of School

Remember this school picture from 2010?

Check out how much taller they are now. 5th grade and 3rd grade.

This one just won't quit growing. He is in 9th grade and it was his first day of high school. According to Secondborn, it was also the worst first day ever. New school and none of his friends went to this school. (It is an advanced, invitation only high school.) Thank heavens the second day was better. He likes most of his teachers; loves Chinese, Geometry, and American History; still has few friends, but getting them through early morning Seminary and the fact that his classmates are learning his name. His high school shares the same building as my university, so he eats lunch with me if he doesn't have anyone else to eat with (I told him that a cute girl inviting him to sit with her constitutes a better deal than eating with mom). So far, I've only had two lunches with him.

Firstborn is just working and starting his mission papers. They should be turned in by Thanksgiving and hopefully he will have a call soon after that.

No back to school pic of me. I was too stressed to think to snap a pic.

Countdown to grad school

Titres, skin tests, CPR certification. All the stuff I didn't know I needed to have before grad school is now messing up my trip-to-Utah plans before school starts. Grad school also wants my immunization records. As another 40-something classmate has also found out, we can't get those records because they no longer exist. I've had a few booster shots in the past two years that will count, but it looks like I will need a few more.

I've spent over $500 on textbooks for this upcoming semester, including 5 books for neurology alone. I love neurology but I will admit to some apprehension of the seeming insurmountable workload from that class alone. I need to pay tuition this week, too, and give information on my insurance for my SHIP waiver.

Kids school supplies have been purchased as well as most of the school clothes they will need. Still waiting anxiously for information on meet-the-teacher night as I still don't know who they will be.

Slowly things are being checked off my to-do list. I will admit to a small bit of anxiety in the realm of "Can I really do this?" But I know that this goal of grad school is a righteous goal and I will have all the help I need to accomplish it. God is great. He will not leave me alone.

I've been marveling at all the huge milestones our family will see during my two years of grad school:

* Firstborn has an interview this Sunday to be ordained an elder after which we will start marking off the checklist of everything to be done before his mission. He can turn in his papers in November. He'll leave for his mission sometime in February. He is hoping to serve in Africa like his grandparents.

*Secondborn will turn 16, be ordained a Priest which will allow him to bless the Sacrament. He will also start driving and dating (in my church, dating doesn't start until you turn 16). If you ask him which one he is more excited for between driving and dating, he will certainly tell you driving.

* Thirdborn will turn 12 and be ordained a deacon, which will allow him to pass the Sacrament. This is a big deal and he is so excited at the thought.

These are huge milestones in my church and my kids are really looking forward to them. Here is to the next two years. They will be monumental.

Camping at Horsethief Reservoir

We went camping up at Horsethief Reservoir. It was too overcrowded. We were lucky to get the last spot available. Since Mr. Wonderful and Firstborn were coming up later, Uncle Nate supervised Secondborn and Thirdborn in the making of fire. They tried flint and steel. Then they tried matches. Thirdborn spilled matches everywhere. It took a lot of tries but they finally got a decent fire burning.

Uncle Nate was so patient with the young pyromaniacs. He deserved a gold medal.

The boys ran to the lake to try to catch fish for dinner while Nate, Eliza, The Love Magnet and I waited back at camp.

Thirdborn came running back to camp with a huge fish. We were surprised he caught one so quickly. He told us he did not catch it, but that he found it. He thought a boat must have hit it. He wanted so badly to cook it for dinner. Mr. Wonderful and Uncle Nate had to point out that the coloring was off and that it would probably make him very sick if he tried eating it. Thirdborn was so disappointed. He really wanted to have trout for dinner. No way. Not this fish.

Finally it was time to cook brats (my back-up plan for dinner) and s'mores for dessert.

Thirdborn LOVED s'mores!

The Love Magnet loved s'mores!

Did Secondborn like s'mores? Not sure.

We kept the fire going pretty late. It was fun to sit around, watching the stars.

Three of the four tents we had between the eight of us. Plenty of room.

The morning was cold. Good thing we had three Eagle Scouts (Mr. Wonderful, Uncle Nate, and Firstborn) who knew how to build fires.

No, Thirdborn did not have a black eye. That was dirt all over his face. He slept with that all night and claimed he had just washed it.

After Mr. Wonderful's fabulous dutch oven Mountain Man breakfast, it was time to go fishing.

Mr. Wonderful bought a pink and yellow little kid's tube for The Love Magnet to play with. Secondborn decided to commandeer the apparatus for the more worthy pursuit of fishing.

Secondborn got pretty far out on that little tube. No fish were biting, though.

Thirdborn had great fun rescuing dragonflies from the water. When I asked him why he was doing that, he replied so he could use them to bait his fishhook. No fish were caught and we had to head home.

We stopped at Fisher Park in Cascade to see if we could catch something. By this time most of the campers looked like they were ready to head home to hot showers.

I just had to compare height between Firstborn and Secondborn. Yep, Secondborn has almost completely caught up to his bigger brother.

The Love Magnet fully monopolized Aunt Eliza. Poor Uncle Nate was trumped by his more popular wife.

Thirdborn had to try one last time. No fish were biting, not even in a small, fully stocked pond. *sigh* Maybe next time.