My Hero!

Last week was a very chaotic week. Alycia's on restriction for a month, and has lost all computer and TV for her choices. So let's just say, she is going to have it pretty rough and I didn't think I was on her good side. Well, she asked me to print a picture of myself that evening for her to which I did. In morning I was getting the kids' lunches ready and looked over and saw her poster she had been working on the previous evening. In the area of "my hero", she taped a picture of me...her mom. Underneath my picture she wrote the following: "My hero is my Mom. She's the best mom ever. She's a great cook and can sew anything."

I pray that she'll continue to think great thoughts of me. She is a very thoughtful young lady and a blessing in my life.

School has started! Yippee!

Well, the kids have already started school. This summer has gone by quickly. Alycia is in the 6th grade CATS program (smarty pants class) and turns 11 in just a couple more weeks. We've already received a call from her teacher. Apparently, Alycia hasn't been finishing up her class work. Her teacher asked her why she's not finishing up her in class assignments, to which Alycia replied that she didn't bother to do the work since she already knows it and didn't want to waste her time. Arrrrrrrgggg! She did this last year with a different teacher. What are we going to do with this girl? Don't get me wrong..she's a very sweet and sensitive young lady. She's just very head strong.

Joseph is now in 3rd grade and turns 9 in a of couple weeks. No big surprises this year. Last year he decided to give me a huge scare by walking home alone and not telling anyone. I went to pick him and Alycia up at school. When I arrived, Alycia said she hadn't seen Joseph at the parent pick up area. Mind you, this school has 1500 students from K-6th. I was totally freaking out...did they put him on a bus? Is he roaming the school? Is he roaming the neighborhood? Where is he? They couldn't get a hold of his teacher and nobody's seen him. I was not a happy mom at the office. The school was paging all the teachers on their walkies to find Joseph..they were very calm and professional. I decided to check the house just in case. When I arrived, there he was, all smiles and proud of himself. I immediately called the school to inform them that he was home. Let's just say, I didn't make my face shown at the office for a couple weeks. Duh Anna? In all, Joseph's doing well with his new teacher. He does not do well with change, but has adjusted to the new routine well so far.

Due to the amount of homework and changes, we have opted to skip Taekwondo for the month of August. Joseph's bummed but Alycia's happy. The kids are still in piano and doing well. I'm now okay with them no longer using their headphones when practicing the piano. (we have a digital piano...nice..)

Right now, I'm trying to get everything at home in order before I go back to school in a couple more weeks. I'm attempting to get 3 quilts and a roman shade sewn and finished in the a couple weeks. Am I biting more than I can chew? Hmmm...we'll see. So much to do..so little time. I am currently enrolled to take a biology and algebra class this semester. My bio class is an ALL DAY Friday class. Yuck yuck. I am so not looking forward to that. Ugggg. I should be done with the nursing program in 4 years. That will be a happy day!

Sweetest daughter ever.....

A couple days ago I really needed to mow my lawn. I couldn't afford getting another letter from our HOA. It was about 9am and about 100 degrees outside. I told the kids to check on me in 15 minutes if I'm not inside. They asked why they needed to and I told them that I might pass out again. Joseph looked horrified and asked what "pass out" meant. I explained it to him and he seem content. Alycia asked if it was okay for her to dump water on me should that happen. To which I replied yes. It turns out it did take longer for me finish up the lawn work, so Alycia ran out to see if I was okay. I was drenched in sweat, but okay. She came back out with a large cup of ice water for me to drink and said "thanks for mowing mom, it looks great."

I was so proud of my little girl. She almost eleven years old and was thoughtful enough to get the water for me without me even asking. That's why she's the sweetest daughter ever.......

I want to go back to work............

Today was the second week of swim lessons. It was about 90 degrees at 8am this morning with not much of a breeze. The kids were doing well at their lessons and listening about 80% of the time. Brent took a sick day off today (Monday) and decided to join us. (He was in church meetings Sunday from 6am-1pm and had been up since 3 in the morning, needless to say, he was tired). As we were driving from swim lessons the kids decided to not be nice to one another with their books, someone got hurt and started crying. By time the instigator got in trouble, both kids were crying on the fun ride home. Brent turned to me ( I was still driving) and asked..."Does this usually happen after lessons?" I laughed and said "sometimes." He then looked forward and said....
"I want to go back to work."

I was bored........

About a month ago, Joseph came out of Primary upset that a boy in his class had written all over his white Sunday shirt with a yellow crayon. When I saw the damage, let's just say, I was very very very upset. The young boy that did this is known to be "high maintenance." After the Primary presidency was made aware of the situation, phone calls were made and parents were not happy. That same evening, the primary president called us to inform us that our little angel Joseph was the one who started the crayon war. Once we had all the facts, we confronted Joseph. We asked him why he wrote on the little boy next to him in class. His response was "I was bored." Of course he lost all his privileges for a week and had to write sentences, but this reminded me of a time in my life when I did something just as bad and dumb as what my little guy did....

I was about nine years old, living in a four story apartment building in Washington D.C. My best friend Glenda and I were in the stairwell looking out the third story window, when we saw our building manager outside. He was not the nicest man to be around, so let's just say we didn't like him much. My mom had just made us some hamburgers (that were very well done)....I ran to my apt and asked my mom to add extra ketchup and mayo to my delicious burger, which she did. Glenda and I ran back to the third story stairwell window and I just couldn't resist this perfect opportunity..I aimed my burger just right, and it landed on his head as he was opening the door to the building. We ran back to my apartment giggling at what had just happened. About two minutes later, there was pounding on our door. There stood the manager with ketchup and mayo on his head and white button up shirt. It was quite a sight. After my mom apologized to the poor man, she confronted me and asked me why in the world I did that to the manager....my response to her was......" I was bored."

So there you have it, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..

Joseph with cactus power!

Brent took this picture of Joseph while we were out hiking...It was actually cloudy and in the 70's, in MAY...we had to take advantage of the nice weather.

Brent and Anna Smith

This is one of my favorite wedding pictures...Brent was barely 20 and I was 21 when we got married....we were so young....