Change and a Camping Trip

I was released as Primary President yesterday and after a good cry I'm doing better. I had a strong feeling that I would be released soon. I just reached the two year mark, one of my counselors is moving, and Kevin recently was called to be the Elders Quorum President. I wasn't surprised but I was a little sad. I loved being in primary and I LOVE the kids! I'm hoping they will ask me to sub a class soon. I was called to be the Cub Committee Chair. I have somewhat of an idea of what to do but tomorrow night there is training for cub leaders at the church, yay! I just want to make sure I know exactly what I need to do. I'm excited for a new calling and I'm also excited to go to Relief Society and Sunday School. I was called to be Primary President right after Breanna died and I truly feel that Heavenly Father blessed me and my family greatly by giving me that calling at that time, I will be forever grateful for all that I have learned and the wonderful people I have had the opportunity to work with. Now I am off to a whole new world with Cubs, wish me luck!

Today in OCS I had three kids. One left because he had some sort of itchy rash all over his body and another left because he threw up and was not feeling well. I'm hoping that neither one of them was contagious!!! Kids carry so many cooties!

We went camping for a night during Spring Break. We went to Cedar Hill State Park which is about 15 minutes away. The weather was beautiful and we had so much fun!

Jacob and Kevin setting up the tent.

Can you tell Jacob likes Mario and Luigi. He wears the Mario and Luigi hats that Kevin and him wore for Halloween two years ago. Isn't Daisy so cute?

Fishing the first day, no luck but it was still fun.

Skipping rocks in the lake.

These were taken during our hike that we took on the first day.

Jacob thought these cactus' were pretty cool.

My two favorite guys!

Waking up in the morning not wanting to get out of my covers! Kevin and Jacob eating breakfast off of a cutting board. Let's just say I didn't do the best job remembering to bring everything. I brought only enough paper plates for dinner I didn't think about breakfast.

Fishing the second day. Kevin caught 3 fish! I had a few bites but I never actually caught one, and poor Jacob didn't catch one either. As you can see he wanted to stay in his Sponge Bob PJ bottoms. Maybe because his mom forgot to bring him jeans for the next day. I need to make a list next time we go camping so that I make sure I have everything.
We can't wait to go camping again!

What does a 7 year old do while you are in the shower?

Update on Who's In My Garage

OK after being sufficiently scared the next morning it happened again!!! I call 911 immediately because I am sure that someone is hanging out in my garage. The dispatch lady was really sweet and offered for someone to come out but there was really no need seeing as the garage door boogie man disappeared too fast. She also suggested that it my be a short in the garage door opener and that is why it was opening and closing on its own. I thought that could be a possibility but why was it only happening in the early morning and at no other time. Before Kevin left for work he backed my car into the drive way and we shut the garage door and unplugged it. Me with my wild imagination had myself so worked up that I called my mom and she came to my house after seminary and hung out while I got ready for school. On Saturday after returning from Costco we left the garage open because we were going right back out. All of the sudden we hear it closing on its own by this time we are no longer scared just annoyed. Later that day Kevin changed the code on the garage door and the openers and the neighbor boy unscrewed the opener that is attached to the wall and made sure the wires were right. We thought that if it was a short we fixed that and if someone was on the same frequency as us we fixed that too. It happened again later that night and so we have resorted to unplugging the stupid thing. So I am now convinced (even though on Wednesday night I would have sworn that there was somebody in there) that there was never anyone in our garage. Sorry to freak everyone out...including myself!!! Now we have to figure out how to fix it. It might even have to do with the plug itself...who knows! I'm sure this will all be funny to me some day!

OK I found this blog through another friends blog...it is seriously hilarious. On the right hand side of the blog you can click on categories to see different types of photos. Click on bow tie and check out Chad, lol!!!

http://www.sexypeople-blog.com

Who was in my garage?

OK I think I have a new most embarrassing moment! I'll start from the beginning, sorry if it is kind of long the embarrassing part will come towards the end. Rewind to last night at about 9:30 pm. Kevin comes home from being out of town for two days on a business trip. After a while he sets the alarm and we go to bed. At 4:00 am Daisy (our dog) jumps up out of bed, barks, and runs to the garage door. Kevin then lets Daisy out back and he realizes that he did not lock the back door. He then goes to the garage and sees that he did not close the garage door last night and he also did not lock the door from the garage to the house. He lets Daisy in and then we decide to let her into the garage to sniff out anyone. Right inside the garage is a pile where we keep the garbage she starts sniffing that and we call her in real quick because if there is someone in there we don't really want to see them. So Kevin locks all the doors and sets the alarm. Back to bed we go. A few minutes later I hear what I convince myself is the heater kicking on...thinking that there is no way it could be the garage door. Finally after a while I go back to sleep. This morning as we were getting ready to leave Jacob opened the garage door to get his shoes and he says, "mom why is the garage door opened?" Sure enough Kevin goes to check it out and the garage is open. I ask him if he heard the garage door open last night and he said yes and I asked him if he convinced himself that it was the heater and he said yes. So we both heard it and we both convinced ourselves that it was the heater when all along it was the garage door. So when Kevin closed the door at 4 in the morning there was somebody in our garage and then they let themselves out!!! Last night I was so thankful that we had a house alarm, whoever was in our garage could have walked right in and we wouldn't have known because the door was unlocked. Before I left for work I had Kevin check the attic (the door to it is in the garage) just to make sure there was nobody in there. Fast forward now to school. I was telling some friends at work and they suggested that I call the police to report it just so that they have record of it and I could ask for extra patrolling. So I go into a friends office and we look up the Arlington PD number to call because I don't want to call 911 because it is not an emergency. The recording on that number says to call 911 for emergency and non emergency calls. Well little did I know that because I called from the school phone a call is automatically sent out to have the police come to the school. So I am on the phone with the lady from dispatch and in the office it flashes that someone from the extension that I am using is calling 911. The assistant principle comes in and I am so embarrassed. I finish up with the lady from 911, she basically tells me because nothing was stolen I can't report a burglary but I can call from my home number and request extra patrol during non emergency times. After I finish the call I go into the office where the AP is calling the school board offices and the police department to cancel the call to have the police come out. I apologize a million times over! She was so good about it and was very understanding. It's funny now but when it was happening I felt so bad. Needless to say I was so embarrassed.

I am really thankful that Daisy got up and barked when she heard whoever it was. Just yesterday I woke up to what I thought was pee on my carpet upon further inspection it was diarrhea. Yes that is right my dog covered a lot of my carpet it poo! I spent the first 20 minutes yesterday scrubbing the carpet. When I got home from school there was more. I went to my mom's house and borrowed her steam cleaner (thanks mom!). I was so mad at her yesterday for that but I think she redeemed herself last night. When I came home today the poo smell was gone and there was no more, yay!!!

Random Thoughts

Well it's been another busy week! I am subbing in a 5th grade social studies class for 6 days, yesterday was day 3. I really enjoy subbing the upper grades.
So on Wednesday and Friday I went walking/jogging with some friends from work after school. I am so sore! It was really hard, I'm hoping that this week it will be easier.
How can it already be March...time goes by so fast. Only 11 weeks left of school! Only one week until spring break! We are going camping over spring break for a night or two...I can't wait. We bought a Texas state park pass so we can camp in any state park. I'm looking forward to us doing some more camping.
Jacob is continuing to grow at what I think is too fast of a rate! His baptism in on May 2nd and I am so excited for him.
I have been going to see a chiropractor and I'm looking forward to hopefully having less back pain. I'm obviously just typing whatever comes to my mind.
Why did my mother not teach me that on boxes of foil and saran wrap there are little tabs that you are supposed to push in to make them easier to roll. I read or heard this from somewhere and I couldn't believe it. Needless to say my foil and saran wrap using have become much easier. Even the generic brands have them!
Last night I went out with three of my bestest buddies. We spent 3 1/2 hours talking and there was never a quiet moment or dull one we pretty much talked about everything! I have so much fun with them! Love you girls.
I have been wondering who from Pennsylvania visits my blog. On my live traffic feed it often says Pennsylvania. I am happy that you are visiting I just wonder who you are. Maybe one of my friends lives there and I do not realize it. If you read this and you are from Penn. would you leave me a comment? Thanks...I'm just being curious.
The weather is supposed to be in the high 70's low 80's for the next several days. I'm getting excited for it to warm up. I wore shorts and flip flops today and it made me happy.
Well I guess that is enough randomness for today.

Me and my girls last night!

What did he say to my son?

I typed this at school but could not post it until I got home.

So I'm in the cafeteria with my one OCS student and I had just visited Jacob at his table. After my student got his lunch I was about to walk out of the cafeteria and I look over at Jacob and he waves for me to come over. He then asks me, "mom what does f**k mean?" I say what did you say and sure enough he repeats it. I immediately ask him who said that to him (although by the two boys sitting close to him I know which one it was) he says the boys name and I am livid. I was in mom mode and I looked at that boy and said, "why did you teach my son that word?" He of course lies and said Jacob said it first and that he did not say it. OK you picked the wrong kid, not only has Jacob never heard that word he has no idea that it even exists. This is the same kid who a few months ago was talking about sex and when he got caught blamed Jacob. The art teacher knew better and knew the kid was lying. Jacob has no idea what sex is. Now I'm not saying that Jacob is an angel and doesn't make bad choices sometimes but he certainly has never heard the F word (until now of course) and was not talking about sex. So after getting extremely upset I told the lunch monitor that I needed to get out of mom mode and into teacher mode. So I was about to go and get their teacher and the lunch monitor said that she would take him to the office. I talked to the kid about how that was an inappropriate word to be said especially at school and how he was to never say it again, ya like that is going to happen. I then went and talked to Jacob's teacher, I am so glad that I am friends with her, she is such an amazing teacher. So now he is sitting in OCS with me. Jacob just kept asking me what it means and I wish at the time I would not have over reacted so much but I told him that we would talk about it later. When I talk to him about it after school I will make sure he understands that we don't use language like that but I need to do it in a way that is not too big of a deal I don't want him to be any more curious. I knew the day would come when he would come home asking what things were but I was hoping it would wait until maybe 3rd grade.

The other day Jacob saw an advertisement on TV for a movie. He said to me that the movie had a love scene. I questioned him about it and asked him was it a love scene because the boy and girl were kissing. He said no they fall in love in the movie. So to him a love scene is when two people in a movie fall in love. I thought that was kind of funny. Jacob has always used "big" words and not always known what they mean. It is so funny sometimes to hear him say them Kevin and I just look at each other and laugh. He also uses little phrases that he hears on TV that make me laugh too.

Another funny: today on the way home he is telling me all about the Jump Rope For Heart program the school is doing. I asked him why they are doing it and he says, "to help people with heart burn." I didn't correct him and tell him it was for people with serious heart problems.

Once again I am playing catch up with my blogging. The weather here in Texas is crazy. It can be 35 degrees one day and the next 70 (I'm not exaggerating!). Well two weeks ago we had an ice day. That's right people an ice day, no school and all. Hey I'm not complaining I loved having the day off but in most places in the country a little ice would not shut down an entire metroplex. Anyways, it was fun while it lasted that morning because by noon most of it had melted. Here are some pictures of us tubing down the street and down drive ways. We had a blast.

Kevin pulling Jacob down the street.

Jacob and me.

Kevin trying to use a wheel-less skateboard, I'm thankful that did not end in a trip to the ER.


Actual proof that it was cold enough for icicles on our house.

I was called a couple of weeks ago by the stake and asked to go to girls camp, yay!!! I'm so excited. I am the leader over the YCL's (youth camp leaders) basically the 5th and 6th year girls. We are going to a new camp this year and the bathrooms are inside our cabins, wahooooo! No more walking across a dark field to a toilet. Many of you may know that I have a problem with going to the bathroom. The problem basically consists of not being able to go without a toilet to sit on. I literally cannot go outside so I am thankful that the cabins are equipped with a bathroom and air conditioning. I know it doesn't sound much like camp but we are making our own food this year where in the past we just went to the mess hall and it was ready. So spoiled I know!

I feel sometimes life is just too busy. I guess I should be thankful for all that I am involved in but at times it feels overwhelming. I really need to be better with time management and doing a little each day. I think sometimes how am I going to do it all but my Heavenly Father continues to bless me and my family and some how all turns out well. I've been subbing in a different class every day which I love because I get to teach but I'm kind of wanting to go back to OCS for a few days to get a break, next week I think I will be back in OCS that is if nobody asks me to sub for them. I feel blessed to work at such a wonderful school with such amazing people. I love that Jacob and I go to school together and come home together. I go almost everyday and visit him while he is eating lunch and I often see him in the hallways, right now he thinks it's great to have me there that won't last forever. A few weeks ago he told me that he was embarrassed when I gave him a hug and a kiss in front of his class in the morning so now we do that outside before we go in the building. He still wants loves from his mom just not in front of everyone, my baby is growing up.

Pay It Forward

I'm participating in a Pay It Forward Exchange. Who wants to play? I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward Exchange. You will receive your gift within a month from leaving your comment. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. I signed up for this fun exchange on my friend Tara's blog. (She was one of my closest friends in Las Vegas, love her!) She made me the cutest apron. I can't guarantee my gift will be anything amazing, but who cares if it is FREE! Remember, you have to have a blog to participate and must Pay it Forward on your site as well. Who's ready to play?

Things on my mind...

OK I am going to take a second to ramble on about some things I have been thinking about the last few days. First of all last night my mom, Jacob, and I went to the movies to see Mall Cop (stupid but funny) as I am walking up to hand the guy my ticket I realize the people in front of me, a family with two young children, a girl probably around 5 or 6 and a boy I would guess to be 8 or 9, were walking (as a family) into see Notorious! What the crap are they thinking taking their children to see this movie. Seriously that should be considered child abuse! And people wonder why their kids end up the way they do. Who takes your kid to see a rated R movie about a rapper who was shot dead because of the life that he led...anyway, it took everything in me to just walk right by and not say anything. Now I am going to ramble about our new president! Seriously the thought of Obama makes me want to vomit in my mouth! As most of you know I am not fond of him in any way. Figuring that he is our president I told myself I better get used to the fact that he is going to be around for a while. So I watched the inauguration and tried to find the positive in him. He seems to be a nice guy, has a great family, and can public speak really well. Well that is where my fondness of him stops. Already in his first week in office he is planning on signing the Freedom of Choice Act. This act will allow all forms of abortion, including late term abortions. This literally makes me ill. How is it ok to allow women to have an abortion when the child they are aborting could survive if given proper medical care. This is called murder people! How about we teach more about not getting yourself pregnant in the first place. I could go on and on about this one but I should stop I can feel myself getting really angry. So with that said as Bill O'Reilly would say people need to stop "drinking the koolaid," and realize what kind of person they have elected to be our president. He is a creep and he makes me sick!!! This is the land of the free so I can say that right?

Jacob Opening His Wii

OK I finally got this video to load. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, probably not but here it is anyway:

Here are a couple of pictures of Breanna's grave last Saturday. Jacob picked out the flowers in the vase. He has designated himself as the ONLY one who can pick out the flowers that go in the vase. The pink roses laying down are from the Koenigs and the yellow ones are from Wendy, Dave, and family. My Dad, Cheryl, and Derrick sent the pink standing roses, they were absolutely beautiful. The bees were loving the roses. Most of the flowers around the baby land area are fake so having some real ones attracted a lot of bees. Jacob was not too fond of them. It was a very cold and windy day, but not as cold as it was that day 2 years ago. We had unusally low temperatures that year with a lot of freezing rain and snow. I'm thankful that we were able to go and spend time with eachother and with family.

This Saturday will be 2 years since our sweet little girl Breanna died. I can't believe it has already been that long. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about her. I think about what age she would be and what she would look like. My heart still aches for her and I wish every day that I had our baby girl here with us. I still do not understand completely why she was not able to live here on this earth but one day I will. One of the hardest parts of everything that has happened is wanting so desperately for Jacob to have a sibling to play with and to watch them interact. While Serene and Brandon were here visiting Jacob loved playing with their 15 month old Sydney. He was so good with her and loved to make her laugh. I pray that someday we will be able to have more children. It is still hard for me when almost everyone around me is able to get pregnant and have children whenever they feel like it. I have to tell myself that Heavenly Father has a plan for our family and although I don't know what that plan is I must do my part to stay faithful and follow His way. I am thankful that this year in primary the theme is "My Eternal Family," how thankful I am that we are an eternal family. Although Breanna is not here with us now we will all be together again someday and that brings me peace and joy.

Mavs and Mario

Tuesday night Brandon, Serene, Kevin and I went to a Mavs game. We had a lot of fun, thanks BJ for the tickets!

Kevin, Me, Serene, and Brandon

The Mavs beat the Clippers!

I got an email today from Birthday Express advertising Super Mario Bros. birthday decorations....whatever!!! Jacob had a Mario birthday last year and at that time there was NO decoration of any kind made by any company. I had to make all of my own stuff and be really creative instead of just buying it from someone...o'well. Just a little frustrating.

Maybe we will have another Mario birthday this year.

How can it be 2009 already? December was definitely a busy month but it was filled with so much fun! Jacob had a Christmas program at school and we loved watching him sing with all the 2nd graders. We made smores in the fire place and we also made a gingerbread house.

Eating yummy, messy smores.

Our beautiful gingerbread house creation.

This is Jacob during his performance all of the pictures turned out really dark he's in the front row in the middle.

We had Christmas Eve with my family at our house.

Nice smiles BJ (my brother) and Brandon(my brother in law).

My nieces Abbie with Melissa (BJ's wife) and Sydney opening gifts.

Jacob with the remote control cars he got from Grandma and Grandpa Quinn. Jacob with Grandma, she is opening the ring Jacob got her at the school Christmas store.

Christmas Morning

Santa brought Jacob a race track where the cars are Mario and Wario, he was so excited. Jacob with dad, Kevin is holding the eagle bank Jacob bought him at the school store. I've decided that the school Christmas store is a complete rip off. Basically kids pick out things that they could have gotten at the dollar store and pay way too much for them. Of course I give Jacob money every year to shop there because he loves picking out the gifts all on his own. I got a giant "diamond" that says mom on it, Jacob was so excited to give us the gifts that he picked out for us he was sure that we would love them and we did.

Me with my new slippers in all my no make up glory. Our living room after opening all the gifts. Jacob was shocked to say the least when he opened his Wii. We had pretty much convinced him that there would be no Wii. Grandma and Grandpa Frainee bought us Rock Band and Grandma Peterson and Jarrett bought Mario Kart. Needless to say there has been many hours spent in the last week playing the Wii. We have so much fun as a family playing it. Kevin and I were so excited for him to open it, when he did we both got a little teary eyed. It is so much fun watching his reaction. One of the best parts of Chrismtas was watching him open all of his gifts.

(There is supposed to be a video of Jacob here opening his Wii but it will not load! Maybe later.)


Many of you know that every year Grandpa Quinn hides somewhere in the house and the kids can't open the gifts until they find him. If he isn't found by 9 am he wins. I think he has only won one time. This year Olya and Toli found him at 8:15 am. He was in the roof! Crazy man! This picture is of Brandon, Grandpa, Toli, and BJ after they pulled Grandpa out of the space he was in. Once again the kids won!!!

New Years

Jacob and Daisy. Serene, Jacob, and Brandon playing Rock Band on New Year's Eve.

I guess that is it for now, another long post from me. I am going to try to update more often so that when I do my posts won't be so long. We'll see if that happens or not.
Happy New Year!!!

I think it has been a couple of weeks since the last time I posted so here goes...
We had a great Thanksgiving. Kevin's brother Ken and his family came down from Tennessee. Jacob was so excited to see his cousins! We met them Tuesday for dinner at Kevin's store and then we drove out to McKinney to visit with everyone on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday was a lot of fun we went to the park and fed the ducks and then played kickball on the softball field. It was a lot of fun and Jacob enjoyed getting dirty.

Jacob, Kelcie, Kendyl, Kaitlyn, Addyson, Kensey, and Ethan

Ken being gross after a bird pooped on him. Feeding the birds and the ducks.

Thursday morning we went to the Turkey Bowl and I am happy to report no broken ribs for Kevin this year. He played QB most of the time so he didn't have as great of a chance of getting hurt. I was the ONLY wife who showed up, what's up with that? I love playing football and I had so much fun.

After that we went to Kevin's work for a couple of hours. Some of his employees met there and had a Mexican style Thanksgiving dinner, it was really good. After that we went to Kevin's moms and hung out their and ate and ate and ate. We played bingo and just hung out, the kids had so much fun playing together.

Friday and Saturday we decorated the house for Christmas. I was telling my neighbor that I would like to buy a fake Christmas tree (which I never thought I would say) and she asked me what kind I wanted. I told her like a 6 or 7 ft noble fir. She said that her brother had given her a tree and that they already had one so she gave it to us!!! I was so excited. It was a 7 1/2 ft tall noble fir, it had pine cones on it that I was not too fond of so I clipped them all off and now we have a beautiful FREE Christmas tree. I was so thankful to her!

This week is the big nativity display that our Stake does. For the last 3 years I have done the bulletins boards. I was up at the church for about 10 hours on Wednesday and was completely exhausted when I got home but I finished and here they are:

Last night a whole bunch of us met up there to walk through together. We had the cutest picture of all of our kiddos taken.

Beckam, Brinley, Jacob, Jordyn, Cara, Ashlyn, Camden, Kade, Mason, and Landon
I love this picture!!!
After that Brittany, Courtney, Hilary, Britt's mom, and I all went out for dessert at Red Robin, it was way yummy. We had so much fun like always and I think even a little extra fun because Britt's mom is so funny she makes me almost pee my pants. When we were dropping off Courtney I drove by a house that had this in the yard:

Along with all the other Christmas decorations at this house was a large cut out of the lamp from the movie "A Christmas Story," we love that movie.

Well I guess that is enough writing and picture posting for now. I will end with a video I took this morning that is so funny. Jacob thinks it is so funny to throw water on his daddy and Kevin hates cold water especially in the shower. So while Kevin was in the shower this morning Jacob and I got a big glass of cold water from the fridge and this is what we did (ignore the gigantic pile of clean laundry on the floor):