NewI Years "RESOLUTIONS"

When I was in the 10th grade, I had a world history teacher that taught me about new years resolutions. He said ... don't make them! Yes, January 1 is a great time to reevaluate your life and priorities and make a change. BUT ... how many new years resolutions are actually kept. I mean there is a reason the gym is packed in January and empty by March! He told us instead to make a list of things that we want to accomplish in the year. A massive "TO DO" list. THEN, work as hard as we can to accomplish them. It could be anything from doing something nice to someone else to reading a book, hiking a mountain, or going to the temple.

The point is, by making a list of things you check off, if you don't do it one day, you haven't broken your resolutions. PLUS, you have a list of activities that you like/want to do to keep your mind and actions focused for the year.

I have decided that each month I would like to make up a list of 15 to 20 things that I need to accomplish for the month. I guess I'm making a resolution to do this .... I hope it will last. There are a lot of things I want done, and I know that if I don't focus on them, I will be no further along than I am now. I will keep this list on the sidebar of my blog, and hopefully comment, or blog, when I have completed my tasks.

SO ... Here are January's "resolutions:

1) Go to the doctor and get help with my infertility problem

2) Be under 175 pounds (SO that I can earn my body bugg!)

3) Try a new style of exercise

4) Buy the food of the person behind me in the fast food (OR SUBWAY) lane.

5) Gut my master bathroom

6) Finish my Spiral Quilt

7) Send someone a gift who might need it

8) Read Harry Potter 1 and watch the corresponding movie

9) Try a new food that I think I currently don't like

10) Write a thank you note to someone that has served me

11) Sift Through Jace's toys -- put away old -- throw out lame -- organize good!

12) Scrapbook Jace's baby pictures ... birth to one month!

13) Drink my body weight in water (that's just over 21 gallons)

14) Clean out and vacuum both cars

15) Ponder my trials, then read my patriarchal blessing to search for an answer.

Dear Jo

Last year SJMS started reading a school wide book to teach character development skills. The book was ok, but most had read it before in the 6th grade, and found it quite juvenile. I tried to read it myself, and never could quite make it to the end. I guess I should probably pick it up and finish it .... I was so close to the end. THEN maybe I'll figure out why the counseling department thought it was so wonderful.

The book, by the way, was called Stargirl.

This year, they decided to do a school wide read again,

but chose to read a different book. Dear Jo. They gave a copy to each member of the school, kids and teachers both, and had them read it during their TA class. I heard from several old colleagues that the book was phenomenal! A friend of mine had a student who threw out the book and gave it to me to read. I couldn't put it down.

The text is quite easy, and is in the form of a Journal (Jo). It's about 2 girls who get caught up in online chat rooms and find themselves in a big BIG mess.

If you have a teenager in your home, you should read this book. THEY should read this book. The Internet is not safe, and there are a lot of scary people out there ....

Read it! You can borrow my copy if you'd like.

The Rollercoaster

Weight loss has always been such a roller coaster for me. Currently, I'm not obese, but I'm not at a healthy weight either. My problem is that I have a hard time being motivated to buckle down, drop the cafe rio .... *YUM* and lose the weight.

Luckily, I'm a mathematician, and good with patterns :)

Joe and I are getting the "baby hungry" itch again. Well, I've had the itch for a little while ... but we have decided that now is the time to start looking into it again. As many of you know, getting pregnant is not like ordering pizza for our family. Joe and I have been married for almost 10 years and our son is only 1. It's trial ... but here is where my "good with patterns" trait comes into play. EVERY time I've gotten pregnant (all 3 times) I've been in the middle of losing weight. The first baby, I had lost about 20 lbs, with Jace, it was about 10, and with baby #3 ... probably in the 15 range. I was eating healthier and exercising. Perhaps these two things contributed to my hormones being more under control ... and thus easier to get pregnant. Maybe the fact that I have lost 5-10% of my body weight helps too. Maybe a combo of both.

Regardless of the WHY .... it has been a consistent pattern with my pregnancies.

I guess I found my motivation to lose the weight.

SO ... starting today .... I'm going straight.

Because there is another boucher baby up there waiting to come down.

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning was awesome this year. Jace was SO much fun ... and got pretty darned spoiled if you ask me.

Joe and I are very impressed and excited that we were able to pull off Christmas this year with a pretty low budget ... but made it feel like we were getting spoiled. If you calculate the worth of everything we got ... we probably would have spent more than $700 ... but we didn't come anywhere near that.

Here are some photos of this morning's FUN! :)

Sandman Jammies ... he even got a lightning mcqueen car to go with it!

Look what Santa brought!
Once he saw his little chair, he was SO excited to go and sit in it. Santa sure did an awesome job!
Look .... there's buzz!!
AND WOODY!
He finally got Toy Story 3 for Christmas. He is super excited to watch it.
Thank You Mom!!
His big learning toy
AHHHH ... look at the haul

Merry Christmas!

Here Comes Santa Claus ....

Isn't he the cutest kid EVER?

Oh, and Santa's pretty cute too!

... and the stockings were hung

For our first Christmas together as a couple, Joe and I made fun matching stockings. These stockings have lasted 9 great Christmases and we have loved them very much! I love knowing that Joe had a hand in making these little decorations.

last year we had Jace and wanted to make HIM a matching stocking too. We never got around to it, so the task was postponed to this year.

I was about to buy the felt to create his and remembered a tutorial I saw on how to make stockings. In the back of my mind, I have been itching to put our stockings through a fashion update and have debated on whether or not to do it. I really like our cute little stockings, but at the same time, I want my stockings to match the rest of my decor. Our tree has always been quite elegant. Simple. And I wanted more elegant stockings to match -- while maintaining the fun of them. The deciding point was that I wanted my stocking to say MOM.

I rushed to Joanns and bought 3 coordinating fabrics (that weren't even remotely by each other ... so proud!) and got to work. I also picked up 2 colors of felt that matched pretty close.

It wasn't too hard, and didn't take too much time ... and I LOVE how they turned out! Each stocking will have a different Christmas symbol on it. I figured these were the 3 basic (and easiest to do when you only have red and green to choose from ...)

The Fly

I just had a friend remind me of a funny school story that I dont' want to ever forget. Maybe as I remember my silly stories I'll just blog about them.

Last year I had a 7th grader named Roberto. One day near the end of class, I hear this strange buzzing sound. I look up to see Roberto in some sort of a dazed state ... and the kids around him just looking at him funny. Roberto was BUZZING!!

Me: Roberto what are you doing?
Roberto: buzzzzzzzz zzzz zzz zz
Me: ?
Roberto: buzzzzzzzz
...
Roberto: Oh, I was just seeing what it would be like to be a fly.

The bell then rang and out he went.

My New Job

Last January, I got a phone message from a good friend who I used to work with. She had moved to Denver with her husband while he worked on his degree. She had called to ask me a question about a math problem that she was too tired to figure out on her own, (oh gosh do I know how that goes!) Once Joe and I had completed the problem, I asked her where she is working and ... how I could be involved.

It's called Step to Success. It's an online learning program. She and I both contacted the director of the program to try to get me started! The site was still hugely in the developmental stage and I was told that they were very interested in working with me, but alas, I had to wait. From the get go, I felt awesome about this program. That this program would greatly help me in my goal to stay home with my son. I waited the summer and early fall out ... and finally I got to start at the beginning of November!

I love it! Right now, I'm tutoring reading to 2nd and 3rd graders in Denver. It's a government grant that helps these kids read. You may be thinking what I was thinking .... how do you tutor reading over the Internet? Basically, what we do is go to a meeting center where we are able to both work on my desktop. We play online games that tracks their progress. Several times throughout the 21 session program we give them assessments to see how much they have progressed. After 10 sessions, all of my students have gained at least a 1/2 grade level in their reading. Some even gained more than a full year!

Soon, I hope, I'll be able to work with more math students, but for now ... I feel like I'm helping to make a difference in some of these kid's lives. And I'm having a great time doing it. We are about 75% done with the first batch of kids, and I'm going to be sad to see them go!!