Life has been pretty fast paced for me this week!  It seems like I go from one thing to another…and there is so little down time.  Kindergarten is going ok.  We are doing a lot of holiday stuff right now.  We are planning a feast for Tuesday.  We have pilgrim and indian costumes for the kids to wear.  It will be really cute!

Today Savannah came to school with me.  They had the day off for PD for their teachers.  I think she had a good time.  But I had one class that was very challenging today. They had a substitute and were having a really hard time following rules and listening.  I didn’t like how Savannah had to see me deal with that class. She was a great helper though and I appreciated her being there and the fact that she wanted to spend time with me on her day off instead of her cousins.

Jasmin is so close to walking and she has recently discovered phones…or should I say cell phones.  Actually anything with buttons on it that is that shape (remote, calculator…) she holds up to her ear and starts to talk.  It’s so super cute!  She says thank you pretty clearly.  It’s funny because sometimes she says it over and over…she has such good manners! Right. You can believe that.  I won’t tell you about when she spits out her food and tears up my report cards!

Lately she has been waking up around 4:30, 5:00 in the morning.  She won’t go back to sleep easily. Until I give her a bottle. This is not working out well for my schedule, because sometimes I don’t get to sleep till around 2am!  I fed her a bunch of oatmeal before bed, so I am hoping that might help.  I tried it when she was younger to get her to sleep through the night, but it never really worked.

I had to turn down an illustration commission that someone had contacted me about.  She said she liked my work and wanted me to illustrate some stuff for her.  I SO wanted to do it.  I put off thinking about it for a few days.  When I did, I reluctantly faced the truth that I have no time to commit to creating illustrations for someone and I was sad to have to tell her I couldn’t.  I know it would have put extra pressure on me…and I don’t know if I could handle that right now…especially with the holidays coming up!

Speaking of which.  I was just reading a friend’s blog and she already has her Christmas decorations up!!! What?  Actually…I guess I am one step ahead because our tree is still up in our Living room from last year! Actually, it’s not UP, it’s in the bag laying in the corner of the room that we don’t really use.  It’s still there  because a year has gone by and I still haven’t cleaned out the part of the basement where it is supposed to go. I know, I procrastinate big time!  We did put Elvis (our inflatable turkey) up on our porch last weekend, though.  Christmas lights are next.  I am going to need to buy some new ones, so maybe I will get them this weekend.  I really don’t think much about decorating for Christmas till Thanksgiving is over.  I like the Fall decorations and I am not ready to replace them with Christmas yet.

Anyway, I need to get over to Walmart and pick up some grips cookies for Savannah for her snack tomorrow.  She is student of the week and is supposed to bring in her favorite snack tomorrow…of which she informed me as I was parking the car for the night after church!  So off I go.  More later!

Savannah’s class at Pioneer Living Day at Ella Sharp Museum. Savannah’s in the back row fourth from the right.  Thanks to Aunt Cyndi for loaning us her pioneer dress and bonnet…and thanks Grandma for sewing it for Aunt Cyndi SO many years ago! 🙂

I just gulped down two grilled cheese sandwiches.  I didn’t eat dinner tonight…it’s now 10:00.  I had to skip dinner because I had conferences tonight (and tomorrow too) and there was no time to eat anything.  Grilled Cheese probably wasn’t the best choice, but they were really good and I was so hungry.

Conferences are going good.  I’ve only had one no show.  It’s good to talk to the parents and it gives me a better perspective of their kids.  I actually enjoy them.  Tomorrow should be a little more relaxing with conferences because I have a few more breaks than I did today.

I decided a post was long overdue because I just know you are dying to see my kids in their Halloween costumes right?  They are cute. They all wanted to be Star Wars characters this year.  It’s kind of been the in thing.  Josiah, their cousin, is really into Star Wars and we went and saw the Clone Wars this summer…so the kids always are playing Star Wars together.  Savannah of course wanted to be Princess Leia…her costume is homemade, but I think it cost more than the other three did.  Sam got the other 3 at Toys R Us.  i think they were on sale.  Max was Obi-Wan (We think we can have him be Jesus in the Easter play!), Karson – a stormtrooper and Jaz was Chewie.  So cute.

Friday Jasmin turns one.  Max was telling me tonight that he can’t believe we have had a baby for a year!  He’s so right.  It went so fast.  She is really a handful right now.  On the move and into everything she shouldn’t be.  She has destroyed so much stuff lately…she just loves to rip paper!  We are having a party here Friday night.  My mom is coming up tomorrow night to help out a little, cleaning and getting ready.  She is so great at cleaning and organizing stuff.  She can make my house look really good.  I only have half a day on Friday, so I am looking forward to being home and having time to get the house in order for guests.  We have a really big table that can seat 10 if we squish in, but we’ll also need the table from the porch and

possibly the poker table to eat at.  Feeding 22 people might be a little crazy.  But it will be fun.  It’s been a while since we had a family event here.  I think the last party was Savannah’s birthday.

I am not sure what we will give Jasmin for her birthday.  I need to go look, but I don’t really know when I will have the time.  Maybe we will just go this weekend.  I don’t know.  She’s really into unpacking bags, putting things inside of boxes and other such containers.  So maybe something along that line…of course, I could just give her a box of kleenex and she would probably think it was the best gift ever!