Bawden's in Review

So I know it has been an eternity since I posted anything. I make no promises this time. I know I'm horrible at remembering to post but a good friend reminded me today so I thought- what the heck! (Thanks Katie!) It was a crazy, fun summer. It always is for us. Bailey finished pre school, Bradford 1st grade and Natalia 4th grade. Even Isaac had a half year of pre school. Right after school ended, Natalia went to Texas for 2 weeks! She saved up money and paid for everything herself. That was awesome. Little did we know how home sick she would get! She had a blast staying and playing with her Aunt Sheesh and Uncle Scott, but apparently 2 weeks when you're 10 is a long time! Regardless, she still loved it. Camp started at about the same time and this year seemed even more crazy. Maybe that was because I had 2 jobs this time. Maybe it was because it rained for 3 weeks straight. Whatever it was, it was a tough beginning but we still had a blast, as usual! Not to mention, camp itself was extremely successful! When we got home we didn't have a whole lot of time to recover before school started! Shaun and I celebrated our 12th anniversary, Bradford turned 8, and we went to Lagoon all in that time! Speaking of Bradford- he was baptised yesterday and it was wonderful. He is such a special boy. So- hopefully I will keep up better on this blog. But until next time, here are some pictures of Bradford's baptism day!

What? I'm still alive?

OK- Nobody pass out. So I know it's been FOOOREEEVERRR (imagine The Sandlot) since I posted but I guess nobody's perfect. I guess the truth is-I just haven't learned to prioritize my time well or to say no to anyone or anything that comes my way. October proved to be one of the most stressful months of my entire life with all of the PTO stuff going on at the school. And then one month goes by, then another, and then you find yourself smack dab in the middle of Christmas. How did it all happen so fast? So this year I am starting over. I don't want to be a slacker! I am going to make an honest effort to keep up with this thing! With that being said- we did have a great Christmas and New Year's (and Halloween and Thanksgiving for that matter!) Of course I gained a ton of weight and hope to somehow get it off this year. I have resolutions but I'm afraid to say any weight related ones since it seems so stereotypical. The rest of my life will be a goal to gt to or stay a certain weight. It's inevitable! Today is Isaac's birthday! He is 3 years old! I can't hardly believe it. This week we found out that he qualifies for the early intervention preschool in our school district. We are very grateful because he will be able to receive some therapies there which is important since he has lost the funding for his other therapies through the state because he is 3. That really stinks! I have so many other things that have happened in our lives but as you can imagine- I don't have all that long to sit here and write stuff. So I'll have to do more later! It's good to be back!

The week from . . .

OK- so it hasn't been a great week. Not like it has been awful but just not very good. On Monday morning I couldn't sleep well because I kept thinking about PTO stuff. Then I went to the school and found that there was stuff going on the same night as my PTO meeting (that has been planned for a month). I was a little frustrated. Then that morning we found out that a guy that has been on KLCE ( a radio show) forever, died this last weekend. It was so sad. It's not like I knew him personally but we would listen to him every morning and then all day they played sad music. It was a downer of a day. Tuesday I just laid in bed all day. I'm not even exaggerating. I felt like the biggest, laziest loser. That night we went to the honey farm with the scouts. That was pretty fun for the kids. Well, they pretty much didn't pay attention until they got honey combs! They thought that was pretty nifty. Today was a crazy day. I went and donated plasma at 6:00 this morning, came home and got the kids off to school, then had to go to a PTO president's meeting with the Superintendent. I came home and got the kids lunch, then had to go to a meeting at Apple. Then I came home and finished my book "The Sea of Monsters" (Percy Jackson). It was good. Then I had to go run the PTO meeting at the school and I feel like everyone must be thinking I'm such an idiot. They are probably all wondering why I'm the president. Anyway, right after that I had to go to ANOTHER meeting at Apple. Poor Jenny had to pick up the slack at home. Bradford and Bailey had to stay home instead of going to the Family Fun Night because they didn't get homework and chores done. How sad! Anyway, Shaun had a meeting that he didn't know about until this afternoon so Jenny had to babysit while we were at meetings. Thank goodness she was here! They were even all in bed when I got home. Well, Shaun and I are watching "Music and Lyrics" now so I'm going to go enjoy that now!

My Week In Review!

Gosh it's amazing how time can really slip away from you! It' been a fairly busy week but mostly I am just a slacker. I have been busy doings scouting stuff an I did a lot of stuff with Bonnie this week to get AR stuff going at our school. I found out even though thought I was a laminating queen- I am not. We wee laminating a bunch of ball die cuts for a bulletin board and I was feeding them into the laminator really fast and laughing because Bonnie could not get the tape off fast enough but then at the end thy were all laminated on top of each other. Oops! Of course then Bonnie made fun of me (which I guess she had every right). It was good times! I had to work at Apple on Thursday and then I started going to Love and Logic classes again that night. My poor kids. Well, I think they are lucky but they might feel like they are picked on- being held responsible for things and all that. On Wednesday morning they missed the bus. It's not like they aren't ready. They just wait until they see the bus coming and then they try to put on their shoes an get their bags and everything. So the bus driver left them. That day the bus driver sent home a paper with policies for the bus with the part hi lighted that says kids should be at the bus stop 5 minutes early. The thing that bothered me the most was that she put at the top "To the parents of Natalia and Bradford." I guess it bugged the love and logic parent in me because I thought- now it isn't MY responsibility to get them to the bus on time- it's their own. They did have to pay me 75 cents each to have me take them to school. It goes up to $1 next time. I wrote a thank you letter to the bus driver for helping me emphasize to the kids how important it is to be on time. Is that snotty? I don't know, but maybe. Friday I ran out of gas. That was a bummer. I knew I needed gas but of course I wasn't thinking about it until I ran out. The bad thing was, I was on my way to a pot luck at Apple and I had just gone to pay a bill for my cell phone because it had been turned off for an amount we owed to Edge Wireless. (It was a confusing mix up with the switch to AT&T.) Anyway, my phone was not turned on so I could not call Shaun and no one was stopping to help me until I got out of the car and started trying to push it myself. Then about 4 people hurried and stopped. Thank goodness! My friend picked me up on her way to Apple and then eventually I got my phones back on (it took way longer than the 10 minutes the guy said it would take!) I had to call AT&T and get it worked out from Apple. I got in touch with Shaun and he came and got me. I mowed the lawn on Friday night and it was a good thing because it rained like crazy today! I had Super Saturday today and made some cute magnet boards and Natalia and Jenny made some stitchery things. The are way cute. Then Bradford and I had to go to Walmart for a Show and Sell for the popcorn fundraiser for his pack. The first 2 hours were fine weather wise, but then it started to pour. It wasn't too much fun. He was so cute though. I don't know how anyone resisted when those cute little tiger cubs said, "Would you like to buy some popcorn?" And if the people said "No thanks" they would say, "OK- have a nice day!" It was so cute and some people came back and bought some because they felt bad for saying no to those cute little boys. It was pretty fun. Anyway, I suppose I should go to bed. Until next time. . .

It's not a Monday?

Actually, today hasn't been too bad of a day- until right at the end and then everyone starts breaking down. Tonight Bailey wanted to kneel on Shaun's back instead of the floor for family prayer and we told her she had to kneel on the floor or go out of the room. Of course she wasn't listening so I took her out of the room and she started throwing herself around and her head hit my shin and it seriously brought me to the floor it hurt so bad. It is where I always get sore on my shins when I am running (like shin splints). Anyway, it was hard to breathe for a bit. So Bailey was crying uncontrollably and then Isaac started freaking out for who knows what reason and now they are all in bed. Let's hope they stay! Last night was funny. Jenny came grocery shopping with me and when we were leaving she said "can I drive home?" For those of you who don't know- Jenny is an exchange student from Denmark and she does not have a drivers license nor has she EVER driven a real car. So I said we will pull over in the church parking lot and try it out! It was so hilarious. I tried to tell her to only use her right foot to operate he pedals but she kept trying to use her left. She says she is left footed! Anyway, she started riving and



started going faster and faster. I said "brake, brake!" So she used the brake and all the groceries flew forward off the back seat. We were laughing so hard we were crying. You can't see the tears but she is crying (in a good way) in this picture! Bonnie and I went walking this morning. Crazy that just walking can you make you sore, but it does! It was nice and invigorating! Jake and Bailey rode their bikes by us and they were so cute. They crack me up. Well- I guess I will get off to bed. I have started reading a new series- Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It's pretty good so far! I'm going to go continue it.

Twilight hits- Again

I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to read the partial portion of "Midnight Sun" that was illegally posted on the internet before the actual book was released, but I couldn't resist. I did it long enough. I justified it because Stephenie Meyer posted a link on her site so people didn't have to feel guilty about searching around for it. Anyway, It was like 264 pages of the book and I couldn't stop reading it. Now I feel like a lazy bum- again. And of course now I'm disappointed that there isn't more to read! I read most of it last night and finished it this morning. I was going to go run this morning with my friend who had to do a 20 miler today. I was only going to go 6 miles or so with her. (She's training for St. George.) But just as I was getting ready to leave, Isaac woke up- of course. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal except that Shaun is in Island Park and Natalia was sleeping over at a friend's house. I didn't want to wake Jenny up just so she could watch Isaac. So I told my friend I might try to find her mid way through her run if Natalia got home soon enough. Of course, I was reading the rest of my addiction- I mean the book and Natalia was going to a friends house. What a bust. Hopefully I can talk Bonnie into going on a walk with me tonight. I need to get something done around here first though. It's a nice day so I should mow my lawn! Yesterday we went and watched Ben, Jordan and Tyler run at the Tiger-Grizz Invitational. It was fun to watch and they all did so well. I envy that kind of energy! Well, speaking of energy- I'm going to try and go muster some up to clean my room!

Yea for the Internet!

Today I am so happy that we got a new internet provider and a new modem. For the last week or so we have been fighting the stinking internet just to get it up and running. We would have to unplug the internet connection then plug it back in and hope that it worked. Finally I called QWest and ordered their internet. I got it hooked up today and it is so much better. I am so excited. The last couple of days I have been fighting of some kind of illness or allergies. I'm not sure what it is. But I have been soooo tired. On Tuesday and today I just laid in bed while my poor kids watched tv. I'm such a crappy mom. They didn't seem to mind too much but I still feel bad. I was suppose to work at Apple last night but when I got there I found out that I didn't need to because she had scheduled too many people! I was so happy! However, when I was at home, my kids started arguing with each other and so I said "Uh Oh" (love and logic), "looks like it's time to put this stuff away because you guys are hassling my ears." Seriously, you would have thought I killed their puppy. Natalia in particular knows how to put on a show. She was screaming soooo loud it was ridiculous. I put her in her room and she kept trying to come out so I had to close the door so she would stay in. She started pounding on the door and kicking it and screaming, "I'm so scared. Seriously mom you don't know how scared I am. There's something in here." But it wasn't like a little scream. You would have thought someone was attacking her because she was screaming bloody murder. I was so mad. It's a good thing there was a door between us. Finally she gave up and fell asleep. Of course, Shaun was gone during the whole fiasco. How does that always happen? Oh well. Natalia has been such a great helper these last few weeks, I couldn't believe she acted like that. She even scared Bailey and Bradford half to death. Anyway, tonight Bradford and his Tiger Cub Den did the flag ceremony at Roundtable. It was so cute. I thought I would post a few pictures. He called for the flag ceremony. You can tell he has seen a few himself! He also received his Bobcat Badge. Pretty exciting stuff! Well, I'm out for tonight.