Sunday News

I got to go to the General YW broadcast yesterday. It was amazing being in that huge building. We had very decent seats too, on the second level. I didn't even get motion sick (don't ask)

Besides that we are doing fine. We submitted the Art City Elementary Yearbook for publication on Friday. I'm pretty excited about that. I hope it turns out well. It looked good on the computer software. It's the first year that the school has done this and we thought that it was a steal of a deal at $8.50 a book, 40 pages with all color pictures. So now I have to wait until the end of May to see the final product. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wednesday update

Good news for us. Eric and I both lost another pound last week. The good news is about Eric's cholesterol. Two years ago, his level was at 228. Pretty scary. So, under our doctor's advice, he started taking a niacin supplement. This plus the weight loss equals a level of 177. He lost 10 pounds last year and 15 since January. Good for him!

I haven't had my cholesterol taken, but I should. I have lost 19 pounds since the beginning of January.

Great Movie

Eric and I had a date last Saturday. We went to dinner at the Olive Garden and then caught a $1 movie. We saw "August Rush", which was amazing. I highly recommend it.

St. Paddy's Day 2008 and good news

As is traditional, the Ferrin family had green eggs and ham for St. Patrick's day (also honoring Dr. Seuss's birthday on March 2nd). We were all decked out in our green, but Braden and Adam had matching St. Patrick's day T-shirts. That was cute. Here's the pictures of our holiday breakfast.


I almost didn't get to download these pictures because my new cell phone about died. I left it charging on the bathroom counter last night, and about 4:30 this morning, it started making the weirdest noises. When we checked on it, I realized that I had splashed water on it last night while washing my face. The most embarrassing part is that I have to admit to the destruction myself. I finally got the thing turned off (a very long story), and the battery out, and I used my blow dryer on the cool setting. With that treatment and then sitting on my dresser upstairs where it was nice and warm, the phone decided not to die. That is nice for me since to replace it would cost me $199. OUCH!

Adam's Education

So Adam had an IEP (individual educational plan) yesterday, with the current team of preschool educators working with him and the transitional kindergarten team for next year. I was so frustrated listening to the speech pathologist talk about what he is and isn't able to do. She told me that I should only try teaching him the sounds of the letters without attaching them to the letters themselves. I was surprised to hear that he wasn't "capable" of learning it the other way since I know that he could sound out the letters. So this morning I sat down with him and some alphabet flash cards. He only struggled with about 5 letters and the majority of the problem is the the speech problem. He really struggles to make some sounds correctly. So not only could he identify the letter itself, but also the sound of the letter, and he could tell me a word that began with the sound. *sigh* So I'm going to have a talk with the new team, since I'm already inclined to be impressed with them, just by their interaction with him yesterday. I have never felt really impressed by the team working with Adam now, but I can't deny that he has made amazing progress. I'm also concerned with the fact that his teachers now want him to be evaluated for ADHD. I know that he's a busy child, no one knows that fact better, but all of the kids have been that way. I'm wondering if they aren't a little prejudiced. The good news is that even though he is a busy kid, he isn't a behavior problem. One thing I did have to point out to them is that when Adam is trying to be funny, he'll intentionally answer questions wrong. The speech therapist's answer to that was, "Well, he wouldn't do that away from home." I couldn't believe she would say that. Why would she think that that behavior would be restricted to home? He's going to have a wonderful time in school, especially during testing time. *voice dripping with sarcasm*

My Guilty Secret

I have to admit it. I'm obsessed with Stephenie Meyer's TWILIGHT series. *Sigh* I was reading a blog written by Eric's cousin's daughter and she had uploaded a picture from the movie which is slated to come out in December. I was worse that a 14 year old in the fact that I am 33 years old and the mother of 4. I did refrain from screaming, but my heart beat faster and I wanted to jump up and down. :)

www.stepheniemeyer.com

Yes, I love it.

Day of the Pi

Today is 3-14.... Pi is 3.14 - so today at Eric's school is Pi day. Students is certain classes get extra credit for bringing in a pie to share with their fellow classmates. The extra pies go home with the teachers. So in celebration, the Ferrin Family had pizza pie and chocolate pie. WOO-HOO!

Sly Mommy and the Squishy Squashy Mac and Cheese

One thing that I've noticed about toddlers, especially those about 2 is that the more they like a food, the more the food covers their face. I think that they are in such a hurry to stuff the food into their mouth that they can't help but get it everywhere. Today was no exception.

My favorite part about today's lunch was my own slyness. Jon-Jon hates veggies. He'll eat some fruit, but vegetables never cross his lips. So a couple of weeks ago, I started getting sneaky. I would put squash in the macaroni and cheese. Today I pureed a whole bunch of squash, then added about 1 1/2 cups of the pureed squash into the mac and cheese. Then to make it even better, I added a cup of shredded mozzarella. I tried it, and it be truthful, I couldn't taste the squash over the powdered cheese flavoring. Jon couldn't eat it fast enough. He ate 3 helpings of the stuff. The first bowl, he ate with his spoon, but the 2 and 3rd helpings he just crammed in with his hands. Adam also enjoyed his, but not to the same extent. Unfortunately, the pictures don't do justice to the amount of squishy squashy mac and cheese that was all over Jon-Jon's face.

Oh, on a completely different note.... It's snowing again. *sigh*

Abigail squared

When my sister Heidi came into town, Eric's sister Rachel came over. They both named their daughters Abigail... so I had to take this cute picture. They were so excited. I had a hard time keeping them from bouncing up and down. Abi (Rachel) is on the left, and Abby (Heidi) is on the right.

RADkids

The kids' school does a personal safety program with the kids called RADkids. It is the largest national-wide childrens' safety program. They learn about good people/bad people instead of strangers, about household safety, and on and on. They also learn basic self defense. Last night, Braden's class had their simulation. They demonstrated their newly learned skills and actually practiced the escape moves on a real adult. The adult (in body armor) tries to "abduct" the child and they practice escaping. It was amazing. I would recommend this program to anyone. Here are some of the pictures I took.

Abi's here

I'm writing this narrative for Rachel so that she can have an update about her daughter without having to spend a lot of time on the phone.

Abi got here at 8:30 am and she screamed until 9:10 am. Yeah, that was fun. But then she calmed down. We've only had 2 "moments", once when I asked her to choose whether to change her shirt or comb her hair. I ended up choosing hair combing. Daddy had gotten her most of the way dressed this morning. I guess there was some attachment to the pajama top. Abi and Jon-Jon helped Adam get on the school bus this morning. Jon is getting happier with getting on and then coming right back off, which is an improvement from the last couple of week were I had to drag him off, kicking and screaming. After the school bus, we went to Wal-mart to buy milk and some other things. Both Abi and Jon-Jon were very well behaved. The second moment was at lunch, she wanted to get down and I told her she had to finish a square of her sandwich. She asked for more grapes and said that she would finish that square if she could have more grapes. I was OK with her eating more food to get down. It worked. She ate more grapes and finished half a sandwich. I put Jon-Jon down for his nap, then Abi and I read books and she laid down in Emma's room for a nap. I told her up front that she could choose 5 books and then it was resting time. She thought that was great. So we read, "The Monster at the End of the Book", "Go, Dog Go", "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus", "Another Monster at the End of the Book", and "Emma's Pet." After the book reading she said that she would love to have a rest in Emma's bed, where she went very willingly. Now the house is very quiet, I'll check on her later.

Brandon called during lunch to get phone numbers and asked if I thought he should come here for lunch. He was worried that it would upset her. I told him not to worry about it.

So that was our morning. Abi is a doll and it was very touching how she snuggled up with me during her crying jag as well as during our reading. Have a great time in Wisconsin!

More Wednesday news

This mornings weight in was great. I lost 3 pounds last week. Eric lost one. So I'm down 17 and he's down 13. We've lost 30 pounds together. The problem I'm discovering now is that when I do push-ups or crunches my c-section scar tissue really hurts. I should probably talk with a doctor about that.

Braden is home with a horrible cough this morning. It's the same cough that Adam had last week, so I'm scared that it will be making the rounds in our family.

Oh, I did have my hair cut. 6+ inches shorter now!

Baby's growing up

I decided that it was time that Jon-Jon actually had pants that fit, so out go the 24 month clothes, in come the 2T. It's hard to believe that he'll be two at the end of the month. The sad part was that while I was sorting the new clothes, I came across the outfit that my Grandma Davis bought him as a new baby gift. I don't think that she even considered that she would never be able to see him in it. It's hard to believe that all of my grandparents have passed away in a space of about 2 1/2 years.

In happier news, I am going for a haircut today. I plan to cut off about 6-8 inches and to have it thinned out. I imagine that I will lose about 2 pounds extra tomorrow from all of the hair loss. :)

I hope you are having a great day. Our day is lovely here. The temperature is supposed to be in the high 50s..

Wednesday Update

Good morning!

Eric and I both lost a pound last week. I have now lost 14 pounds and Eric is at a loss of 12 in 9 weeks. My sister bought a bunch of clothes in my new size that she got on clearance. I LOVE having new/new to me clothes that fit. It was getting silly to keep hiking up my pants.

We had a great time with Heidi and her family. They are going back home today. Emma cried last night because she was so sad to see Abby go. Braden tried to console her with "Don't worry Emma. We are going to Idaho and we'll get to play their Wii then." Yes, it was a classic man/woman miscommunication. Braden, as noted, really enjoyed the Wii that they brought with them. Yesterday, we went to IKEA. I think Heidi is hooked. She thought that the prices would be much more expensive than they really are. I think it's a good thing that IKEA is more than 30 minutes away or I would be there more often. Last night, we went to Los Hermanos for dinner and we went to Jumpin Jacks after that. The kids all had a great time. Adam even convinced me to go on some of the inflatables with him.

I am trying to stay home this morning. There is a great sale at Albertson's this morning, and I'm going to go to it, but our new computer parts are arriving some time today, so I need to stay close to home.

Emma says

Emma says that it's about time to have a blog just about her. So here goes:


Hello! It's great to see you. It's been a wonderful time at school. My teacher is Mrs. Roylance. I am in second grade. I'm a big girl now. Today I learned about shapes. We learned about how small shapes can make big shapes. Isn't that cool? Well, it is, to me. We had computers and RADkids. It was very nice. Today at RADkids, I had 10 things and I got a treat. My treat was a long string of LaffyTaffy. It was so good. It was strawberry. I shared with my friends. My cousin is coming today and I'm so excited! Her name is Abby. Today is her birthday. She's sleeping at a hotel, but she was going to sleep at our house. But it's OK. We'll probably go to Jumpin Jacks and play on the inflatables. They are so fun.
My Mom has to go, so I hope I'll be back.
Emma

Adam amuses and Visitors

You might have noticed a funny thing about Adam's hair in the last post. Adam started wearing Emma's headbands around the house. I was curious so I asked him why he was wearing Emma's headband.. His answer was "I'm Nephi." (For those of you who aren't LDS, Nephi is a Book of Mormon prophet who lived on the American continent around 600 BC.) OK, so even though Eric is a little disturbed by the headband, I guess I'm not going to discourage my son from wanting to imitate a prophet of God.

In other news, my sister Heidi and her family will be arriving this afternoon. My children are really excited because we usually only see the Davis cousins when we go to Idaho. It will be fun to have them on our turf. She will be bringing her husband Justin, her daughter Abby (who's birthday is today) and her new daughter Daphne. This will be the first time that we get to meet little Daphne.