Haha Haha!

Seth is currently standing in the middle of the hall saying, "It's awake time cockadoodledoo!"

My IQ test

I did my IQ test this week too. I told Seth that I was going to do the same kinds of tests that he did last time. He told me that I need to hold very still and not wiggle.

It was very interesting too. Some of it was problem solving and some of it was General Knowledge. I enjoyed doing the problem solving ones. There were some that were very fun like trying to identify what was missing in a picture or putting pictures together in my head to figure out what it was of. Other things that I did not like like ordering numbers and letters in my head. They would give me 6 or 7 numbers and letters and tell me to put them in alphabetical and numerical order starting with numbers and ending with letters. I could get four or five but six or seven was really hard. There were some things that I realize that I answered wrong after the fact. Like he asks the boiling point of water and I said 32 degrees which is the freezing point of water but I was just answering to be done at this point. It was a four hour test. There was another one that I thought was really funny after the fact. He asked me to name the continents. I named seven and then insisted that there was two more that I could not remember. Jer commented to me afterwards that there are just seven continents. He said I was one of three people that he's ever tested the new that Goethe wrote Faust. So even if I didn't know the boiling point water I did know that.

I am both excited and a little nervous to get my results. I've always been pretty mediocre in most things. I do well enough to feel good about what I've done but never really excelling. I think as long as it's a mediocre score I'll be happy. The next test I'm going to do is a 90 minute MRI. What they're going to do after that is compared the MRIs and the test results between the control group and those with autism. I think any more information we can gather is a good thing.

Ada's Bellatrix

Jeremy's Halloween work party

Jeremy's work had a Halloween party. We can find Seth's costume so he decided to use Sam's old Harry Potter costume. He was cute sitting in the car saying expecto patronum over and over again. Ada was Bellatrix and very proud of it. Evelyn was Professor McGonagall and Sam was Link from the Legends of Zelda. His work didn't do the spook alley kind of thing like they usually do but there was some cute little setups. My favorite was it people put together a Fix-It Felix room. Very fitting for the people who are always fixing.

Ada

Donut seller

Krispy Kremes offers free donuts for good grades. Our kids got there report cards and we went and got donuts. Evelyn says that she looks like a donut seller.

Brother Seth

My brother Seth, not only DM's Dungeons & Dragons groups but he also Paints the mini figures. He's very talented and it's very calming for his depression. He's been very nice and we've been painting them together. Ada's loving it. I'm too much of a perfectionist to be able to paint them very quickly. But Ada loves to paint all the little people.

Evelyn's imagination

Sam scouts

On Tuesday we went to pack meeting. It was a very busy day but I felt like it was important to go. Sam received his wolf and 5 bear belt loops. He was very proud of himself and I am very happy for him. After I watched him receive those I had to leave and as I walked out the door our neighbor and her two daughters were there receiving their baptismal interviews for their baptism on Saturday. My friend Jenny was talking to her and I realize that she was explaining about doubts and fear. She called me over and we explained about feeling the Holy Ghost and that we're always progressing. We also told her that if she needed more time before her baptism that we could help her prepare for a later date. She went into her interview and came out smiling. I'm going to her and her daughter's baptism today. I'm very happy for her I'm very proud that she's listening to the Holy Ghost.

Seth and trains

To reward him for such a great job I took Seth with our new Zoo passes to ride on the train at the zoo. He loves it and I love seeing the baby animals. After this we rushed down to help Cristina find a new apartment. After 4 days of searching we were able to find something that works for them. We cleaned it Wednesday and have been trying to move their stuff over ever since.

Autism research

In our world there is Big need for research on autism. The U of U is currently doing a study on autism. They needed volunteers to be the control group. I volunteered our family. Only Seth and I qualified. I qualified because I don't have any blood relations with autism. Seth qualified for a second study on how to get small children to sit still through an MRI. Last week setting IQ test with their psychologist. That was a lot of fun and I didn't know that he knew a lot of what he said. It was hard not to step in and answer certain questions or help him with certain puzzles. By the end he was done. It was a two and a half hour study. Tuesday he was scheduled for his MRI. I explained to him that they were taking pictures of his brain and that they would try to get him to hold still. He was kind of excited. This picture was them showing him on a fake MRI what he would be doing. He had sit still for 35 minutes. He did all of it except for wiggled through one of their test and had to do an extra 7 Minute test. He did very well. They let him watch a Netflix for part of it, just explain things for part of it, and had him watch a digital aquarium for part of it. He likes Netflix but he held still better through the aquarium. MRIs are very loud but he did just fine. The tech said said that most four-year-olds don't hold that still very well.

They are paying $150 to him and $150 to me for our participation.

Monday

Monday Jeremy took off work. We were going to go on a bike ride but decided that we would go to the zoo because they were having a special. We realized when we got there that the special had expired so instead of paying full price we bought the family pass. While we were there it started raining and while it was cold it was pretty fun. Everybody else left and we watch the sea lions go crazy in the rain. The rhinoceros is in the elephant's rather liked it too. They had a bunch of new baby animals this year. A baby giraffe, baby zebra, two baby leopards, and a bunch of little Wildcat babies.

Seth's legos

I found this setup courtesy of Seth on our stairs. As far as I can tell it is a pirate dressed as a hotdog that got stranded in a dinghy.

Orthotics

So we got Evelyn's feet molded for custom orthotics. That was fun for her. It was a little bit of a struggle to keep her from wiggling her toes.

Secret Agent Man

Bucket truck

Bomb squad

Ecstatic

Family

Tractor

Police car

Ambulance

FBI

FBI comand center

Fall Break Saturday

On Saturday we had arranged have a game day with our neighbors. So we pick up the kids from Janelle's house and ran them to the touch of truck event before coming home and cleaning the house for our neighbors to come. The touch of truck was really neat. They got to sit in a police transport wagon, and FBI Command Center, a fire truck, and ambulance, a tractor, a police car, a bucket truck and a garbage compactor. They saw the vacuum truck and the street sweeper too. All the kids loved it but Seth and Evelyn asked if they could come again.

They had free hotdogs and we saw our Bartholomew neighbors there. We rarely get to see them so it was nice to chat. 

This picture is the prisoner transport. The police officer was saying it was a timeout truck. So we put all of our kids in time out.

Harry Potter night

Fall Break

This Fall Break we ended up babysitting. It's nice to have the option. My friend does day care from her home for $20 a kid per day. When she's not available she sends people my way. This Fall Break I earned $80 for letting kids play with my kids. Thursday we used our pass and went to the farm country. One of the ponies kept biting everything it coul reach. It even bit Ada in the bum after this picture. The kids played cops and robbers and rode the ponies. We arranged to meet my friend Beth and her kids. That was fun.

Friday we stayed home. My cousin had back surgery so I watched her almost 3 year old. I didn't realize that we should keep the bathrooms shut and I ended up needing to bath him, change him, clean two bathrooms and pull toys out of two toilets. Now I know. Total between everyone, I ended up with 10 kids all day.  That night Janelle hosted us for a Harry Potter themed night. We played Hogwarts Battle, Bean boozled, drank butterbeer and watched Harry Potter. Then the kids slept over and we went home and cleaned the dishes. Ada particularly loved it.

Latest development

Evelyn has been complaining about pain in her feet and legs for about a year. We were told that it was probably from growing. She would be running or playing and just stop in her tracks to kneel down and say her feet hurt. I couldn't see anything so I took her in to the doctor when Seth was going in for a check up. They thought it was high arches. They referred her to a podiatrist. The podiatrist took one look, said she neede xrays and took some. Apparently she has a deformity in her feet called skewed foot. Her tendons pull one way and a bone in her ankle is too long and pushes her bones the other way. As she gets older, it will spread out more and hurt worse. Luckily they're not talking about surgery.... Apparently surgery for this is fairly involved... Cutting bones and tendons shorter.... Pinning them.... Thigh high casts for 3 months and learning how to walk on new feet. I've read that a lot of people have pain for years while they recover. They are recommending custom orthotics for her though. $400 a pair... And she's still growing so it will be pricey. I will still count ourselves lucky because with early intervention you can prevent a lot of problems later in her life with her feet, her knees and her hips.

As a side note, notice where Seth is standing in the picture. All my kids and my mom commented on how Seth is getting his nose picked with Evelyn's feet.

Saturday

I have to say that my husband is amazing.  My friend Cristina just received her recommend and wanted me to go to the temple with her.  She was nervous, it was her first time in almost 10 years, it was in English.  I'm more than happy to go, so we took her husband and went to the temple.  My husband stayed with the kids, took them to soccer games, did chores with them and even did his own chores.  We planned on going to the 8 am Spanish endowment session. I texted to make sure that they were running on time (Ecuadorians are notorious for running 20 minutes late).  They were running late, then their car had some problem, then the husband's recommend wouldn't scan and they got all nervous thinking that they'd get in trouble for something.  I had to translate everything so that they were calm.  Then we had missed the Spanish session so had to figure out where to get headphones for her and her husband.  We got up to the chapel and somehow her husband had made it out of the dressing room without a name and his headphones.  We got that sorted out and had missed another session.  I had gotten to the temple at 7:30 and left at noon.  It was quite exciting, but I didn't mind one bit.  The spirit was very strong.  These two are working towards being sealed together and I took them on a short walk down the middle of the top floor with the sealing rooms in it.  We got into the Celestial Room and I just had to hug her.  I'm very joyful of all the things that she's overcome and accomplished in a short year.  I'm joyful to be able to see it from up close and I'm joyful that they have plans to continue. 

On a more temporal level, we were able to get their whole family's ITIN numbers, file their taxes and got them studying for their drivers tests.  They're getting so close to being independent I can taste it.  The next big hurdle is finding a good apartment for them.  Everywhere that we've tried has had some requirement they couldn't meet... like having a credit card or a current drivers license.  She very much wants to be a family unit with no one else running their life.  I try to stay back and let them figure things out, but occasionally they call me for help on an application or questions like how to get a license or file taxes.

Last week

Last week we took a drive up alpine loop to see the leaves.  We went a little early, but we were afraid that it would snow and we wouldn't get the chance. 

The kids are surprised that it's turning cold... but it definitely is.  It's been in the upper 40s and 50s. 

After this drive we had Ada throwing up and Seth had a fever.  I don't know if it was the flu or if Ada was carsick and Seth had something unrelated.  No one else got sick, so I was happy.

Janelle and Seth brought the beautiful cake that Sharon made down for Ada.  After she was feeling better we sang happy birthday and ate it.  I can't believe she's really 11.  One more year and she'll join me in Young Womens. 

This week

We told Ada this year that we weren't going to throw a big party but she'd be allowed to invite a friend to do something with her.  She said that she wanted all 5 of her best friends to come and that she would pay for it.  She did brownie sales and babysitting to pay $32 so that all her friends could got roller skating with her.  She was so sweet and very determined.  I love seeing my kids working towards a goal that they've set for themselves.

It was so cute.  Sam and Evelyn had never roller bladed before.  They took turns helping each other out and just had fun.

Ada enjoyed having Frankie, Laurel, Brenden and Luke there.  I call them her pack.  I invited Frankie's mom and sister.

Sam has been in a Chinese club.  He LOVES it.  Unfortunately he can't do it again until after Christmas.  The club likes to rotate who attends.  We downloaded Duolingo and he's been practicing on it, but I think he likes better having a human teacher.  I want to see how we can keep him going. 

Marg and her kids made a surprise Fall Break visit.  It was fun to see them and play games.  I really just like to chat and miss all my dear Sister in laws often. 

Since we were going to be super busy on Ada's actual birthday, we did cheesecake and presents on Tuesday with Tarkingtons.  They're all growing up so fast!

Sharon came down on Friday and we got to take the kids to the All Around Playground.  Sam's friend Martin was there too, so he was ecstatic.  (Right after this we took them to see the Tarkingtons... we didn't tell them they were coming and Sam was especially surprised.)  Her new pregnancy is going very well and I couldn't be happier for her. 

For Mutual this week, the Priests organized an escape room center in Peace in Christ.  It was so fun!  We did have one Laurel come, though I think that all would have loved it if they had come. 

My lesson today went fairly well.  We talked about living in a spirit of gratitude instead of just giving thanks for things.  The YW that was going to team teach with me thought it was next week... Opps.  I guess we'll teach again next week.  I love being in YW's.  It makes me happy to see these girls turn into women and learning the gospel as they go.

Thursday was very busy.  My brother, Seth, came to Evelyn's class in the morning.  They're learning how to address people with handshakes, use their names and look them in the eye.  The teacher has been having people come in and teach them greetings in different languages and then they practice them all throughout the day as they talk to each other.  I taught them ASL and Swahili.  Seth taught them in Arabic, Turkish, and the Pakistani dialect that he speaks.  They practiced all of them and decided to use Turkish for the day.  It was adorable and Evelyn had to hang on to Seth everywhere he went.  After that, Seth went to bed for the day and Sam, baby Seth and I went on Sam's fieldtrip to the UofU Natural History Museum.  It was amazing!  It's a fun museum and my Mom used to live right up close to it.  She and her siblings would wander the museum.  I thought that was a fun connection.  Thursday night, my brother Seth came to our house and we painted the mini figures that he gave them for Christmas for their D&D game.  Ada got really into painting them.  I on the other hand had a tiny Seth jumping up and down on me so I didn't paint well or very much.

This week, they had the soccer game make ups for the ones cancelled because of the smoke.  They didn't tell us until Monday and we had two games on Tuesday.  I almost decided not to take them, but we did anyways.  It was soooo cold, but the kids did great and I got to talk to all the soccer moms on the sideline.  No matter how busy I get, when I get to talk with women it always makes me happier.

Sam very rarely ties his shoe laces.  The other day he tripped and hit his elbows hard.... yet here he is running around a soccer field.  After the very cold game, Sam said that his legs were numb.  My toes were so I could imagine that his would be too.    They even called the game early because the temperature dipped so much.

Seth was wagging his finger in the players face telling him no.

Sam and his friend Wesley from church.

Yesterday was my parent's 40th anniversary.  That's quite the fun marker to remember.  I love how my mom told it in her email.  They met 52 years ago in the 2nd grade and they are happier more and more.