SLC- day 3

I'm sorry, I have tried to get pics up and running, but I was having issues, so I promise to have them ASAP.

So today, I helped wash Uncle Bart's big truck. It was fun as we talked, and vacuumed, and sprayed. Afterwards we went to lunch at Arby's, and we talked a little bit about this summer. He had to go to work, which left Grandma and I to work on the signs for our big yard alse we are having on saturday.

We worked a bit on those, taping words where they needed to go, and getting them all organized and finished. For the yard sale, I think it is to help raise money for Mothers Without Borders (http://www.motherswithoutborders.org/). I am going to help by selling muffins, cookies, and things like that. It is going to be so fun!

After that, we went SHOPPING! I was sooooo excited about this today. We got new shirts/blouses, pants/shorts/capris, tank tops, and shoes, and shoes, and shoes! I am sorry, but this was really fun! We found some really cute stuff. I think I will have Gma take pics of me, and I can post some on the blog! It was at least 3 hours, but we had some other errands to do too. But it was mostly for the shopping.

Later Aunt Charisse and Gma took me to a play called Charley's Aunt. It was a really funny comdy-type play, and I was laughing a lot. You should read about it, its really super funny. They have some really good actors. The whole thing was in a British accent.

We have been listening to the music from the Broadway shows Wicked and Les Miserables. The music is awesome. It makes me want to go see them. I mostly recognize some of the songs because the Boyacks sing them a lot. Also, a lot of the ones from Les Miserables were sung at the concert that I went to on Tuesday. Gma has been telling me about the stories that go along wit the music. I love Broadway!

Pics are coming soon...I hope...

Happy Sammich

DISCOURAGED AND DISHEARTENED

We have been in the midst of great turmoil about the kids' education choices in this last week.

Our current legislature has a bill in process that would pretty much close all virtual/charter schools in the state, as early as next spring or when school charters expire.

Today I went to the capitol to be part of a team of teachers, administrators and parents to sit in on a committee hearing. They postponed the meeting, and then convened and dismissed it in about 5 seconds flat - never holding the hearing at all, and not giving info of when it would re-convene.

I was so blown away by what happened (after seeing it done mult times in our current district) that apparently what I was thinking actually came out of my mouth. After the dismissal, the one rep that is fighting against the bill with us invited those of us who had come (many from hours away) to join her to talk and answer ????
As I listened I became even more disheartened, esp when she couldnt/wouldnt answer any direct questions from me. I know that I am very new to this situation, and no nothing about the process or people, but it seemed to be that I was the only one who became emotional about what is happening and what happened today.

The rep who talked to us pretty much seemed to indicate that the chance of the bill being opposed or vetoed was slim to zero. My understanding about what is happening and what looks like will happen is this:
1) The OEA, and other organizations like it are working through the Senate/House to ultimately close ALL virtual/charter schools and homeschool programs and force families back into their own individual district schools
2) If any of the ammendments are approved and passed that they will cap current enrollment of the school we are pursuing as of May 1 - 6 WEEKS ago.
3) School will be held through the next school year, but when the charter expires, a 2 year moratorium could be put on the school to close it for that 2 year time, and most likely forever
4) If by some chance the school is allowed to renew its charter that the enrollment will be allowed to siblings of current students only - no new enrollment will be allowed now or in the future

All of these things, choices made by other people who think they have the right to make decisions for and about my children, will take away our opportunity for the kids to pursue a high quality education, have a valid graduation diploma, or be schooled in a safe, appropriate learning environment where their needs will come before $$$. All these choices by wicked, selfish leaders will leave me to continue in battle mode within our district, to probably still be ignored and watch the children suffer great losses as they have this last year.

I was very emotional at the capitol, and probably didnt give a very good impression, but I dont understand how I can NOT be emotional when it comes to the wellbeing, education and future of my children. I have shed many tears today and continue to as I watch this "too good to be true" opportunity really turn out that way. Preston continues to be strong as he writes more letters and is in contact with the school weblinks and other parents/teachers. I have probably shed enough tears for both of us in the last few days.

I am not sure what the Fall will hold for us. I have been in touch with the kids' principals concerning the changes and the kids' probable placement in classrooms in the district. They have been positive and encouraging, but I often wonder if they are just seeing the dollar signs too....guess we will just have to wait and see. I am so sad to know that most likely instead of looking forward to school starting in August that I, and the kids, will be dreading it. I guess we just wait until then, and see what happens.

Salt Lake Ctiy- Day 2

Today was a little more eventful. Grandma and I got b-fast, and then we went to pick Uncle Neil up from Trax. We talked in the car about Wii Fit, and all the things I hadn't tried at that point in time. When we got back to the house I decided to walk Lizzy, our grandparent's Golden Retriever. I think she is the best dog not counting my dogs. She is a good people dog, and she loves to be around them. Anyway, we went out for a walk, and when I got back, Grandma, Uncle Neil, and I played on the Wii Fit. They showed me a bunch of different things, and I got really good at some of them. I can't wait to show you guys! We were on it for about 45 min. We had lunch and then we went on errands. Just me and Grandma. It was about 102 degrees today, and we had to make a lot of stops. Pics will follow. I'm working on it. One of my fav places that I went today was Young Living, where my Uncle Steve works. It is this whole big company that gets natural oils from all over the world, and they help with different things. It is really cool. Here is a website...
http://www.youngliving.us/index.asp
It was pretty cool we got to go in and smell a bunch of different things.
At 6:00, my grandparent's ward was having a Primary(church, younger kids) party, and the theme was pirates. One guy in the ward had built this pirate ship that he pulled around on his 4-wheeler. I know, I know, I took lots of pics, and they are still on my camera. We even got to ride in it! I helped the other Mia Maids help the younger kids with some crafts and things. When Grandma and I got home, Neil and Brittney and Ben walked in the door, and we decided to sit down and play Hand and Foot. It's a reall cool card game, kind of like Canasta. There are some different rules, but its mostly the same. After we were done (oh, by the way dad, we were just playing for fun, but Neil and Brittney did go out first, but we were safe), we got out the Wii Fit again, and everybody had a turn! Neil and Brittney showed us even more stuff, and it was just great! So, its 11:30 here, and I am going to bed soon.
I am going to a play with Aunt Charisse and Grandma tomorrow, and we are going to do more prep for the HUGE YARD SALE on saturday. The Salt Lake Valley is so pretty at night. So, that was my day, I will try and get pics in tomorrow. Bye for now
Happy Sammich

My first day in SLC

So, I am hoping to get pics on here soon, but not this post. I promise they are coming though!
Dad drove us to the airport, and we stopped for lunch at Wendy's. I flew to Salt Lake City, Utah with Erin Mathews (some of you know her, some of you don't) from Portland at 1:35pm Pacific Time. It was my first time flying that I can actually remember, and it was without family. I have been flying before, but it was when i was really little. Anyway, we flew out, and I tried to take some pics out the window. (coming soon)We landed at 4:20 MST. Grandpa picked me up, with some confusion, but it all worked out in the end. We had to stop over and run some errands, and when we got to my grandparent's house, I was ther for about 30min and my aunt Charisse offered to take me to a concert with her. It was being held in Brigham Young Historic Park (mom, where you took Ben). A bunch of her friends were singing, so we went. There was 10 people, and they each took turns singing songs from Broadway shows. These include Fiddler on the Roof (If I were a rich man), Phantom of the Opera (Wishing you were somehow here again), Wicked (Defying Gravity), The Secret Garden (Lily's Eyes), and others that were really cool. That was awesome.

Then I came home (wow, did I just say that?) and blogged. As you have just finished reading. I promise pics are soming soon!

I love and miss you!
Happy Sammich (aka Ceana)

A FUNNY FIND

The other night Preston and I came home from an activity (about 10pm), hoping to find everyone in bed....except instead we found:

1) Ky face down, flopped across the couch in the TV room, totally zonked

2) Colton face up, flopped on the floor in the TV room, backwards from the TV, totally zonked

3) Kels WIDE AWAKE, sitting in her high chair, in front of the TV that was playing a movie intro over and over...

4) No big girls anywhere to be seen

This was very unexpected because I had already put Kels to bed before we had left and had tried to leave Kaeli in charge since the little boys were going to still be up for awhile (she & ceana both came home exhausted from YW camp - ceana fell asleep early in her room and never moved a muscle even when we checked on her, Kaeli was at least in the same room with the boys)

Preston started to gather up the boys to take them to bed, and I went hunting for the girls. I didnt realize I had walked right past Kaeli in the library until Preston found her there under a blanket.
I tried to wake her and ask her how Kels ended up in the TV room all alone, did she know that Kels was in the TV room all alone? Her half conscious reply was "Well, that shouldn't have happened." and then still more asleep than awake she wobbled her way up the stairs to her room.
Knowing that both the boys, and Kels, were none the worse for wear, I had to laugh at Kaeli's reply. Somewhere in her brain, even being mostly asleep, she knew that Kels needed help. It was funny enough to hear her reply and see her so asleep that I knew she wouldnt remember me talking to her or taking herself upstairs. (A Baxter family gene that all the kids seemed to have inheirited)
It was the little bit of humor I tried to find that prob kept me from crying or becoming too distressed at the "what if's"....all was well, and if there was humor too, that was ok

TENDER MERCIES

This last week has been VERY hard, and filled with much difficulty and tears. In between the tears there have been angels nearby and small glimmers of light. I havent been able to always see them myself, so I am grateful to others who have helped me find them. I wanted to be sure to write them down so I would remember them on days that again may difficult in the future.

1) A loaf of warm, delicious, homemade bread brought "just because" from a sweet new friend

2) Soup & Stew - a blessing of a hot meal in the midst of our chaos

3) 4 hours of uninterrupted time with my husband

4) A daughter willing to babysit during those 4 hours

5) Finding humor in the unexpected (see another post about a recent event)

6) A husband who is kind, PATIENT, forgiving, and never gives up on me

7) A friend who I can sob hysterically in front of

8) A friend who also never gives up on me - esp/even when I am sobbing

9) A box of kleenex left on the floor in the library

10) the opportunity to visit with a far away friend

11) the opportunity to serve that far away friend through lots of baby things

12) Knowing that Ceana wont be flying (for the first time) alone after all

13) Being able to trust in priesthood blessings, esp when they are for the kiddos

14) Being able to let go, even if it is just a little bit, as my daughter leaves for 9 straight weeks

15) Leftovers from wonderful meals that good friends have brought to us in the last couple of weeks

16) Watching the breeze blow the colorful, ruffled tablecloths at a wedding

17) Email & blogs (so we can keep in touch while ceana is gone)

18) A VERY patient, kind pediatrician who has also become a good friend

19) Homemade bracelets and cards from my daughter

20) Sweats & comfy clothes

21) Sunshine & blue skies

YW GIRLS' CAMP - CEANA

Hey! Ceana here. So, girls camp. First, we met at the church to load up all of our stuff. it too 3 whole trucks to transport 9 girls and 3 leaders worth of stuff!

This is the name of the camp that we went to. It is a dedicated place. It is sacred, and it is very easy to feel the Spirit there. Our camp name this year was Camp V.I.R.T.U.E. "Valiant In Righteousness, True Unto Eternity".

This is our certification flag- we were the 3rd years. This was my 3rd year of Girls Camp already! Our color was blue, so we decided to show our spirit in interesting ways. This pic is kind of sideways, but it says "With a Valiant Heart, Nothing is Impossible". That was our camp motto, I guess you could say. We also had all of our girl put their name around the edge, and hand print on the front and back.

This is me and another girl that I met at camp. For flag one morning, in order to earn extra points, our leader decided that we could paint ourselves blue. Some girls had done all the way up their arms, and covered their face, neck, and hands! I just went with a simple one, but I was the only one who wore it on our hike. It was a lot of fun!

This is most of our certification group-go 3rd years!- and some of our SYLs. We just had a blast!

This is just one of the many fun things we did at camp. I decided to post about this one because it was one of the more exciting things we did for certification (I considered it part of certification). :) It was a wonderful experience! Can't wait for next year!

That was my first post! YAY!!!!!

SO RIDICULOUS, IT IS ALMOST FUNNY

Ever have that feeling that all you are doing is running in circles, and that if you add one more thing to the already overflowing plate that you will go crazy?

I think I hit that point today when we were AGAIN at the doctor's office. It is prob about the 10th visit and 10 millionth phone call in the last 6 weeks! I am going to just name the few I can remember/most recent - I know there are prob more that I am forgetting, maybe just as well....

Let me backtrack a little, and you will know what I mean....

Oct - December - everyone had already been struggling with allergies/colds/flu/colton had ruptured another eardrum

December - March- everyone took turns being very sick and missing school because of flu and other viruses that kept kiddos home from school

April - May - colton ruptured BOTH eardrums 1 month apart and spent those weeks on antibiotic eardrops (with us having to literally pin him down to give the drops). Kids developed a virus with a fever that left both Ky and Kels covered in odd rashes. We now know that Kels probably had strep and we didnt know it (symptoms indicated Roseola because there was no vomiting). The girls ended up in the local ER Easter Sunday thinking they both had strep (low grade fevers, swollen glands, sore throats) - when really it was a virus that acted like strep - I didnt understand then why the dr kept asking us about fever/rash/throwing up....I do now

May - June - Colton got a fever/throw up thing - and then 2 days later got an odd rash on the trunk of his body. Two days after that I spent a full 24 hours with ky throwing up and found that 2 days after his fever he was covered in a full body rash. We hadnt been able to get Colton into the dr but did get Ky in that following Mon and I was totally floored when we found out that both the boys had severe strep - no complaints of sore throats at all - but all the other symptoms and throat cultures that definately were positive for strep. We have spent the last almost 10 days with all the kiddos on antibiotics.

Over the weekend Kels had what looked like bug/spider bites. They continued to show up until Sunday I finally called the on call nurse line to try to see what we should do - in the meantime totally freaking out that she has been possibly poisoned by the several spiders we have killed in the house this last week. We had the help nurse totally stumped. The "bites" looked better and so I downshifted my fears and casually brought it up to our regular nurse today when I called about something totally different - only to be told that it was very important to bring Kels in to be looked at because it sounded like something much more serious....

Well, it is - Kels has impetigo - a bacterial infection that has invaded her bloodstream (hence the continued sores on her skin). Is it contagious? - YES, of course it is! Though our dr was much more kind and patient than I was, and it is not serious or life threatening, I was a hysterical mess. I was not ready to take on one more thing and now have to also watch the rest of the kids for any sores. It will mean another 10 days of a more potent antibiotic as well as a topical ointment to try to get in her/on her 2x/day.

I think the thing that blows me away the most is that all the illnesses (but the 2 scheduled well child check ups) have all happened over the weekend - kiddos getting sick and barely making it to the dr on a late friday or having to get in on a Monday. We have literally spent MONTHS with someone sick or in the dr office. I continue to be so amazed that our wonderful dr and the sweet nurses in the office continue to be kind, patient, understanding, and know when to laugh with us even when we prob shouldnt be laughing. They have been so wonderful through every phone call and every office visit, esp on days like today when they squeezed us in because of a last minute concern.
One funny thing today though, as we left our dr told me we were "banned" from coming back to the office for at least a month - and that he hopes we get back on our feet soon. He is so kind, I just dont know what we would ever do without him or the sweet nurses in the office. We will keep our fingers crossed that we have a very uneventful couple of months until Kaeli/Caiden have their birthday check ups in August....here's hoping....wish us luck

BIG FAMILIES: THE TRUTH

This article hit VERY close to home. (I grew up in family of six kids, and now I've got six of my own.) The author lists some "Top Ten" things about big families that were just as true then as they are now. For those who are from, have or know big families, hope you get a laugh out of this one. I sure did.

Preston

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

Well, photo contest announcement dates have come and gone.....oh well.

Just wanted to say a great big THANK YOU to all of you who took the time to look at and vote on the picts I submitted.

As promised, I did a drawing and picked out 2 names - one for each contest - AND THE WINNERS ARE -

KIM HODSON

JULIE HESS

Congrats. Be sure to let me know which print you might like. You can look back at my MAY ARCHIVES here on the family blog or at my photo blog in any of the FINE ART - or if you have something special in mind I can do for you LMK -k-

Thanx again to everyone for your help and support