No Title

Every once in a while, I can't think of an appropriate title. This really isn't about any one thing so I guess it could be titled Monday through Wednesday or even the more exciting School, Church, Grocery, Meetings, Volunteer Going Ons.

I've been doing T-Tapp everyday. Sister-in-law Bekki called me and invited me to Florida November 16th-19th to participate in her certification class in front of the Teresa Tapp. It's a workout I've been doing off and on for several years now that is great and especially good for backs so I couldn't have become gung-ho at a better time. I'm doing a bootcamp, which means I am going to do the workout 14 days in a row and then every other day until Florida. I'm very excited and once again, Jay will be watching the boys while I go. I am married to such a great guy.

As far as housework goes, I'm still way behind. I've been thinking a lot about it and I think it's a lot like debt, or using a credit card. It's not a bad thing as long as you can get it cleaned up (paid off) regularly so as not to incur interest. It can be a thing of convenience (you know...I'll let the vacuuming go for a couple of days because I have bookgroup on Thursday and will just have to do it again then) but if you let it go too long...you really struggle to get control of it again. To illustrate, I feel like I have thousands of dollars of debt with an APR of like 80%. Even making an effort to get stuff done, the interest (3 little boys, a busy husband and my own slovenly habits) is accruing faster than my measly payments pay it off. Might be time to call in some professionals! (Help me Dave Ramsey! Help me Oprah! Help me Merry Maids!)

Monday, Jay had the day off because he was post call and it had been a long time (I think since July) that he'd been home on a weekday. It was great except we hardly saw eachother. He went in to have lunch with Seth (which totally made Seth's day) and then he had a ton of cubscout things to do to get ready for pack meeting on Wednesday. We had FHE that night and Seth taught the lesson. He taught about Lehi and Nephi in prison and I seriously was like, "what? when?" until I realized he was talking about Helaman's sons and then kind of vaguely remembered it. I've got the beginning of the Book of Mormon down but some of that middle stuff doesn't get read all that frequently:) (for those wondering where Seth gets his information if not from his wise and all-knowing mother...it's called a fantastic "Book of Mormon Stories" DVD) Just another area of my life that needs work.

Tuesday, the boys got haircuts. Picture day at school was on Wednesday and Seth needed grooming. So off to Fantastic Sams we went. I really like how they cut the boys hair.

This picture cracks me up because I was having such a hard time getting Sammy to look at me. They have those huge wall mirrors and his own good looks was just too hard to pass up!

I have had some miserable experiences with Great Clips and equally bad dos given by my own uneven hand so happily join the older ladies at Fantastic Sams getting perms.

Can you count how many ladies are in there getting perms in the background? Three!

Afterwards in the car. Both boys are being so.....them.

I feel bad not really mentioning Henry at all. he's just as cute as ever and really a good baby. He loves grabbing things. Like my hair.

We had turkey burgers for dinner and then I was off for a Stake Meeting. I am not a big fan of meetings. They are usually not run efficiently and I have realized why people with "busy" callings are gone from their families so often. They are trapped in poorly managed meetings that really could take half the amount of time they usually take. This was a Stake Activity Meeting and first we had to go over Evening of the Arts and critique it. Painful. Everyone was happy with how it turned out and giving themselves a huge old pat on the back and I was thinking, "why are you so jolly holiday about it? All you did was buy the cake!" My suggestion was for more delegating next year. That seemed to confuse them so I said, "for instance...we had a light guy but all the light guy did was move the spotlight from person to person during the show. How about the "light guy" actually worry about the need for a second spotlight, renting and picking it up, setting it up and being there when we needed spotlights on during rehearsals. Taking them down afterwards and returning the rental." Just for example. I'm truly not bitter even though I realize I'm totally sounding like it. Maybe it was too fresh for me a mere 3 days later but it the conversation was over a half hour long and I felt like screaming "Let's move on!" Then a lot of time was given for the Creche activity, which is a great activity, but it turned into a creche planning meeting which was NOT the purpose of the meeting. The purpose was to report. I don't personally need to be involved in a discussion who will give the best price for printing or who is decorating trees and what's going on at the ward level. I just kept thinking of poor Jay, struggling at home getting all the boys to bed by himself and how much easier it was just sitting in that meeting. I felt anxious looking at the clock but I bet a lot of men don't really mind sitting there, feeling busy and important with a legitimate excuse to not help out brushing teeth and getting pajamas on. Much less getting dinner cleaned up. I guess not just men...that's not really fair, but a lot of the time it is men who have to go to these meetings that seem to take place so often for so many hours. Ward correlation meeting was the same when I had to go to that. I didn't intend for this to become such a bashing but I guess I just have these feelings.

Yesterday was volunteer day again which is nice. I like seeing Seth in his classroom and Sammy has a blast playing with Reese and Alec all day. I went with them to library time and watched the class listen to a great book that is really entertaining and the new librarian seems like a gem.

The librarian right before she started reading "Sweet Tooth" to the kids. They really enjoyed it.

Seth's teacher, Mrs. Harvey, is really into math so we went as a family to her Math Night where she demonstrated some of the math that they do as a class.

Seth is finding cards that add up to 10 and then covering them with new cards until he lays down the entire deck of cards.

Seth is very excited about math right now and came home on Monday with a blue ribbon for winning a flashcard contest. He was proud as a peacock and calling himself a mathematician and I love that he is excited about math. It's weird for me to see so much emphasis on competition after spending so many years in primary where there is pretty much a no-competition clause. And yet, I remember it being a huge motivator for me in school. Is competition a bad thing for kids? I feel lucky that Seth enjoyed the positive end of winning the competition but what about the kids who didn't? Does losing in that kind of environment harm them? (because it's a lot different than losing a game of candyland against your brother) I know, I know...Jay....I'm sounding like a communist where all things have to be equal but still, how else could the same thing be accomplished? I just want the kids who came in dead last to run home and shout out to his mom that he is also a mathematician. Because he understood it even if he wasn't the fastest. And for the poor kid who can't claim either...then I wish him all the help in the world.

That's it. No rhyme or reason, no plot or point...just a meander through the past few days in Luciville. Hey....there was my title!