Kindergarten Check-up

Today was the long-awaited kindergarten check-up for Jared and Kamryn. They've been talking about it for weeks and weeks. Their friends turned 5 long before they did so they heard all about going to the doctor and getting SHOTS!

Jared and Kamryn were both very good patients and the nurse and the doctor were both very impressed with how smart they are.

I'll had to add to this post tomorrow about their stats. The nurse had to fill out all the paperwork after we left and I still need to go back and pick it up.



Kamryn passed the eye test and has 20/20 vision. The nurse was impressed that she could do the eye chart with all the letters instead of the shapes.

Jared really struggled with the eye test and eventually "failed." It was hard to not help him on it. He's 20/40 in one eye and 20/50 in the other. Now we need to take him to a pediatric opthomologist and have a real eye exam. I would really struggle with the idea of him starting to wear glasses at such a young age if I hadn't already been through this once with Brooke. It could still be that he just was nervous during the test but I have a feeling that he's going to be the youngest in our family to get glasses.

The kids were so funny when the doctor was asking them questions. Kamryn's favorite food is ice cream and Jared told the doctor his favorite food is fruit by the foot. He's certainly wondering what I feed my children. When he was talking to them about strangers he asked them if you talk to strangers and they both said YES!

Then came time for the SHOTS! The nurse was amazingly fast with them. They each got 4 shots in their legs. Kamryn went first and didn't cry at all! I was shocked!! Then Jared went and he didn't cry at all either! They were both SO BRAVE and I was so proud of them.

Greatest Fear

Today's prompt:

"What is your greatest fear?"

I've thought about this prompt all day and have decided I have many fears. The greatest one though is of Paul dying young.

Post Edit
I just had a minute when I quickly put this post up. I think I'll add to it now. I've asked this question to some of my family and these were their responses:
Brooke's greatest fear is drowning. I concur with that fear but its not as real to me because I avoid situations where I might drown.
When I told Taylor about this prompt he told me he has lots of fears. I was kind of surprised by that and need to talk to him more about that. The one fear he did mention is that he's afraid of roller coasters. Sad. But he says he doesn't care about them so its okay.
My sisters comment is about her children dying young. I also worry about that. I'm not sure what would be worse, my husband dying too soon or my children too young.
I am also afraid of mice and the dark.

Superpower

Today's prompt:

"What's your superpower?"

My husband would say it is my ability to have fun and party :)

I'll tell you what I wish it was. When I'd just had the twins I would frequently be holding both of them on the couch or on my recliner chair and needed to get something for them. The movie,
The Incredibles, often came to my mind. I wanted to be Elastigirl. For a mom that would be the greatest superpower ever!

Best Bands

Today's prompt:

"What are the five best bands you've seen play live?"

When I first read this prompt my first reaction is I won't have to list 5 "best" because that's about all the concerts I've ever been to. Then I started remembering the concerts I've been to and its maybe more than 5.

Here's the ones I can remember:

• Michael Buble
  
• Heart
• Rush
• Thompson Twins
• Moody Blues (several times with Paul)
• John Denver
• Diamond Rio

There may be more but that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Of those, Michale Buble was definitely the best ( and most recent and easy to remember it) and a big part of that was the awesome seats - 2nd row!
At our house we watch a lot of concerts on DVD. Paul would rather do that than watch movies and he's gathering quite a collection of concerts. Our all time favorite is Sade and now that she's got a new album out we keep hoping she tours again so we can go and see her live.

Double Rainbow

This is the most amazing double rainbow I've ever seen. The picture doesn't show it but the bottom rainbow repeated about 7 times. It was so cool.
This was last Sunday evening. We'd been over to the park and looked out to the west and could see a storm coming in so we went home and watched the storm blow in. It was a monsoon type storm with lots of thunder and lightning before the rain. Our whole family sat out on our front porch for about an hour enjoying the storm.

Good Day

Its been a good day, in fact, its been a really good week.
This morning we went to the Salt Lake Temple to go on a session with the Campbells from our ward. They were in the temple prep class Paul and I just finished teaching and they were going through for the first time. We thought since it was a Saturday it would be really busy but it wasn't - it was the smallest session I'd ever been on at Salt Lake.
Paul and I were asked to be the witness couple which made the session even more meaningful. It sure makes it easier to stay awake. Its always interesting to go on a session with a couple who are going through for the first time - it brings back the first time I went and all those different feelings and emotions.
After the session those of us that were there with the Campbells went to the Lion House pantry for lunch. It was nice to visit.
Tonight we went to my sister's house for a family dinner. We were supposed to play baseball but the weather did not cooperate. We had a good time visiting and watching my dad's video of their recent trip to Atlanta to visit my brother and his family.

First Kiss

Today's prompt:

"Tell us about your first kiss"

When I first read this prompt I really wasn't excited to write about my actual "first" kiss. It was in a car with a guy i never should have kissed. Not a good experience for sure.
So, instead I'll tell you about my first kiss that really counted - the first time Paul kissed me.
We'd been on our 2nd date, which was to the zoo. We had a good time and somewhere near the lions he started holding my hand, which I was glad about.
After the zoo I invited him back to my house where all of my Shingleton relatives were over for a BBQ. He was a good sport about being there with that many relatives.
When he was leaving we were on the front porch and he told me he'd a good time and then gave me a quick kiss before leaving. I was kind of surprised he kissed me on our 2nd date but I was glad :)

Happy 16th Birthday Brooke!

Sign at the high school.

Brooke with her friend Emma. They both turned 16 today.
They played volleyball on the same club team this season.
One of the times we were driving to a tournament we found out that
Brooke and Emma have the very same birthday.

All week Brooke has been attending volleyball camp at the high school.
These are all the girls she has been working with,
along with one boy and her coach.
Since 2 of the girls had their birthday today, and it was the last day of the camp,
the coach told everyone to bring treats to celebrate.
It was a great little impromptu party.

Emma and Brooke with their birthday balloons.

After camp, we all went out to dinner to celebrate. Brooke wanted to go to a sit down Mexican restaurant and we were adventurous and tried a new place that had a good review online. It was a small, hole-in-the-wall type place and we were the only ones there. The grandparents joined us and we had a nice dinner.
After dinner Brooke was nice enough to go to Taylor's soccer game on her birthday. After the game we came home and opened presents. And then she crashed from working so hard all week at volleyball camp.
Brooke is a wonderful daughter and we are truly lucky to have such a great person as part of our family. She's not the typical teenager and we are grateful for that. She does really well in school and even got a 4.0 2 out of the 3 trimesters this year. She plays the piano beautifully and is a really great volleyball player. She's very well rounded and easy to be around. She is a great help around the house. She is anxious to get her license and will be spending all next week in drivers ed.
I love you Brooke!
Happy Birthday!

16 again

today's prompt:

"If you could go back in time and meet your 16-year-old self,
what three things would you tell yourself?"

What an interesting question, especially considering today is my oldest daughter's 16th birthday (pictures and post about that to come later).
There is so much I would tell my young teen self and some of that cannot be posted in public :)
But the things I could post go as follows:

• Be involved at school. Try out for the volleyball team. Join more clubs.
• don't have a job during high school
• Don't buy that car!!!
• boys are not that great. don't pine away for them. They need to do a lot of growing up and even then they are mostly not worth the fretting and worrying.
• you are SKINNY, not FAT!
• You have the greatest group of friends a girl could ever have (I do think my 16 year old self knew at least that at that time)
• when you grow up you will want to be a nurse so start working towards that now.

That's more than 3 but that's okay.

1000 sit-ups

Today's prompt:

Japanese lore suggests that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, your wish will come true. What would your wish be, and what would you be willing to do 1,000 times to get it?

I think this is a rather strange prompt. It would probably be pretty easy to fold 1000 paper cranes, if I knew how. It would just take time. So what's something that isn't difficult but would take time? Hmmm.
OK, I would do 1000 situps. And I would benefit by doing those 1000 sit-ups. I could do 50 in the morning and 50 at night so thats 100 a day. That would take me 10 days. That's not too bad.
So, my wish, hmmm. I would wish to be skinny!

A Million

Today's prompt:

You've just been given a million dollars. You are not allowed to keep it or give it to anyone you know personally. What do you do with it and why?

I've thought about this prompt all day and have actually thought many times what I would do with a million dollars if I won the lottery or something like that (not that I buy lottery tickets).
Of course this is complicated by the conditions of not giving it to anyone you know or keeping it. I've always thought if I somehow suddenly had a million dollars I would share most of it anyway.
So, to answer the prompt, this is what I would do:

• first of all, I would want the million in $100 bills
• the first place i would go is on a walk of downtown and give out a $100 bill to every homeless person I passed. In fact, I would search them out.
• I would also like to surprise people at random places, like Lagoon, movie theaters, the zoo and restaurants. I would pay for admission for different families I picked out and then pay restaurant bills for families out to dinner.
• I would go to some of the hospitals in the valley and give $100 bills to patients and nurses.
• It would be really fun to stand outside any grocery story and just hand people a $100 bill when they were walking in.
• I would donate a lot of it (this is hard to keep track of how much I've given away already) to the church via the humantarian fund and the perpetual education fund.
• Some would be donated to breast cancer research in honor of my mother.
• I would create a fund for families who don't have any money to pay funeral expenses for an unexpected death of a child.

There are so many ways to use up a million dollars that I don't think it would be a difficult task. I would truly enjoy the experience.

Apology

Today's prompt:

Do you owe an apology to anyone? Why?

What an interesting question - I'm sure there are many people that I owe an apology to, from way back to now. Why is it that saying sorry is so hard sometimes? I probably need to and should say sorry every day for something or another.

Dancing Princess

Kamryn's spring recital was this last Friday. Her dance teacher is so creative and always does such a fun recital. This recital was a Disney theme with all the classes doing 2 dances to a Disney song.
Kamryn's class did a dance to Hi Ho from Snow White and You've Got a Friend in Me from Toy Story. Kamryn was really cute up there and got a little shy at times.

The finale was really cute - all the lights were off and all of the dance girls came in like a parade to the Disney light parade music. They all had glow necklaces and bracelets all over them to light them up. Its amazing to see that many girls on the stage (170) and think Liz teaches all of those girls.

Soccer Saturday

It was another soccer filled Saturday. Its that time of year where we have summer AYSO soccer tournaments. Taylor and Justin were both supposed to play in this one up in Brigham City but Justin's portion of the tournament was canceled because they were the only team to sign up. So Justin tells us his team is the champions of the tournament.

Taylor's team doing their victory dance. They took 1st place again. They out-scored their opponents in this tournament 37 - 2. Its actually very painful to watch in a way. In their first game on Thur night they were playing the B team from our own region and at half time it was 9 to 0. The team gets penalized if they score more than 10 over the other team so then they basically play keep away the rest of the game.
I got to the the game Thur night late and right when I was walking in I noticed they had moved Taylor to mid (he usually plays last defender) and he scored a goal. Perfect timing for me and him!

The winning team in Brigham City

Victory pose

My Dad

"What's the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of your father?"

I think of the word "tremendous." That is my dad's highest ranking for something, kind of like 5 stars. So if we get a "tremendous" we've done the best we can do and we are always striving for that ranking.
Like just this last Monday, Memorial day, we had a family gathering at my house. It was kind of a last minute idea I had to have a BBQ in our back yard. I put out an email to my siblings to see who wanted to come and they all did. Everyone brought food for the dinner and then we had a great evening. Good food and lots of fun. All of the cousins had fun playing together while the "men" played basketball. It was Paul, Taylor and Camren against Dale, Jadon and Parry. It was fun just to watch them all have such a good time. The only sad thing was Justin couldn't be here because he had to work. It was great to visit and be outside and finally enjoy some good weather. My dad enjoyed just sitting in his chair watching everyone and then Kierra asked him if he wanted to play a game. So they set up a table outside in the backyard and he, Kierra and Brooke played domino's. (I'm really sad there are no pictures of the event. My camera's battery was dead).
When my dad was leaving he was very appreciative of the efforts made to get together and then he said "its been TREMENDOUS!"

Freedom

Today's prompt:

Define "freedom."

Freedom for me is many things. Its:

• living in the United States of America
• being able to choose which school my children are going to attend
• being able to go to church where I choose
• being able to stay home and take care of my family
• being able to help my children decide what activities they are going to be involved in - sports, music, classes, jobs
• reading whatever book I want to read
• traveling where I want to travel
• watching what I want to watch on TV
• just doing what I want to do.

All of these things come at a price and its said that freedom is never free. Others are always involved in providing our freedom - my family, my husband, my country, my forefathers and to them I am very grateful. Thank you.

Poetry

The writing prompt for today:

"What's your favorite poem? (And if you don't have one, why?)"

I don't have a favorite poem and why? I don't really read poetry very often. I'm sure I've read many poems in the past and thought "that was nice" but nothing has ever really stuck with me. Another reason I don't have a favorite poem is I've never been able to memorize things very easily and I would think if you had a favorite poem you'd have it memorized. This prompt does make me want to read some poetry and find a favorite. I'll let you know if I do.
Do you have a favorite poem? If so, please share.

A MOM

I've occasionally done the NaBloPoMo thing where I post every day and sometimes I've used the theme they provide. This month's theme is NOW. That's a pretty easy one. The other new thing they are doing is providing a writing prompt each day, M-F. Today's prompt is:

"When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

This is actually going to be a short answer because I really have no memories of that. The sad thing is I remember very little of when I was younger. I have select yet specific memories of grade school. My earliest memory is of getting in trouble in kindergarten. I had to stand at a table by myself to do my work. I have no idea what I did to get in trouble.
My earliest memory of wanting to do anything was as a young teenager I told people I wanted to be a truck driver, you know long distance, cross country, semi driver. Mostly I told people this for shock value I think but in my young teen mind I saw it as a way of seeing the country and traveling.
Another thing I remember wanting to do as an older teen working at different part time jobs I decided I wanted to be a caterer and/or operate a reception center. My sister and I wanted to do this together. I still think that would be fun but would take so much work and I'm too old for that now.
In college I took a travel/tourism course and wanted to go into the travel business. I even worked for a travel agency as a courier. I still would love to do this in some way but not really work for a travel agency. One of my ideas is to be the travel person for Layton Construction. I do Paul's travel for work but most upper level guys do their own travel. My idea is to do all the travel and thus save Layton money.
My real desire for what I wanted to be came from an experience on my mission. My comp, Nina, hurt her leg jumping out of a swing on a p-day and ended up having to have surgery. I took care of her for several weeks and in that time I discovered that I really enjoyed it and decided I wanted to be a nurse. When I got home from my mission I went back to school with a purpose (finally) and started on the pre-reqs for nursing.
To complicate matters, I met Paul and fell in love and wanted to get married. When we got engaged we discussed our schooling and decided that one of us in school was enough and I worked full time while he finished up. And then I got pregnant much more easily than we expected and had Justin a little earlier than we had planned but that was ok. I finally realized what I wanted to be when I grew up - a MOM!! It is the greatest "job" ever and involves all of the things I wanted to be growing up - I plan our travel, I do the catering, I've had plenty of nursing opportunities plus so much more. I'm thrilled with what I've chosen to do as I've grown up.

Super Soccer

This is one of my favorite pictures of Taylor.
He played GREAT today.
His coach really relies on Taylor running the defense
and hates it if Taylor needs to sub out for any reason.

Today was a great soccer day!
First of all it was great weather - finally!

Taylor's team went into the first game this morning in first place with 18 points.
The red team they were playing had 17 points.

In the game this morning Taylor's team won 6 - 1.

Then the same 2 teams ended up playing each other again for the championship.

I LOVE this shot of Taylor.

Taylor's team won the championship game 5 - 1.
* * 1st place * *
What a great way to start the summer soccer tournament season.
This is great pay off for all those early years of watching soccer.

Memorial Day

Paul and his kids at Wasatch Lawn where his mother is buried.
We decided to do our visiting on Sunday when we could all go as a family.

Me with our kids.

Making our own markers at Carolyn's grave because
her marker has not been installed yet.

We got the idea from a nearby grave to make these hearts with the pinecones.

This is Ziggy,
Paul's sister's grandson

Just hanging out at the cemetery with Paul's dad and sister.

Justin looking lost and Kamryn watching him.
Justin had gone to the van to get his Sudoku book because we'd been there a little too long.

After going to Wasatch Lawn we went up to the Salt Lake City cemetery
to find the gravesites of my ancestors.
The easiest one to find is of my mother's parents. I wasn't exactly sure where it was so I told the kids whoever found the marker first got a prize. Justin found it first, along with the rest of the markers we were looking for.

I had to put both of these in just to notice the difference in the kids from one picture to the other. Mostly Paul was trying to get Brooke to really smile. For some reason at about this point she got in a bad mood and wasn't into our little outing.

Paul took this picture just for the view of the U and Mt Olympus.

Me with my mother's maternal grandparents gravesite.

Me with my dad's paternal grandparents gravesite.

Me and the kids at my grandfather's (my dad's dad) gravesite.

It must have been a long and tiring afternoon - Jared and Kamryn crashed out in the backseat.

On Saturday Paul went with his dad to place flowers at the graves of his ancestors. They left at 4:30 am and drove to Panguitch where Paul's dad's grandparents and great-grandparents are buried. From there they went to St George where Paul's maternal grandparents are buried. They then drove to Delta where Paul's dad's parents are buried. They got back home about 5:00 pm. I told Paul he was a saint to do all the driving in one day but he enjoyed it and was glad to spend the time with his dad.

Wasatch Classic Soccer

Just got back from the first half of the Wasatch Classic Soccer Tournament in Kaysville. Taylor is on the U-12 Summer Select team for our AYSO region. This team was formed last fall and has been playing together ever since. They are a great group of boys and a really fun team to watch play together. Their coach is Todd Sullivan and he does such a great job with the boys and they actually listen to him!
Their first game was this morning at 8:00 am which meant we had to leave at 6:30 to get there in time for warm-ups. It was pouring on the way there but stopped just as we got to the field and didn't rain again, thank goodness. They won that game 4-2 and played great for the most part. Taylor did AWESOME and played the best I've even seen him. Their coach gave them a B grade on that game.
We had 2 hours before having to be at the next game so I got Taylor some breakfast and then we went to the mall. He needed new shoes and we went to Sports Authority and spent a bundle on soccer related stuff!
The 2nd game was at noon and it was sunny but still pretty chilly for most of the game. Before the game started Taylor's knee was bothering him so he sat for the first part of the first half and then went in. He again played GREAT and his team won 5 - 1. The coach of the oppposing team told our team that this was the most unselfish and disciplined team he'd ever seen. Quite a compliment!
We head back up there Monday morning to play again at 8:00 and then hopefully into the championship at noon.

Preschool Program

Jared singing "The Wheels on the Bus" at his preschool program.

Jared was the witch for the song "He's a Mean Old Witch"

Jared also played the part of George Washington

Here's "George Washington" and "Abraham Lincoln"

Kamryn was a "toothbug" with her friend Olivia

Jared with his teacher, Miss Carol, getting his graduation certificate.

Kamryn with her teacher, Miss Carol, getting her graduation certificate.

Kamryn at the end of her program with her graduation cerfiticate and present from her teacher.
It was a pencil box with a box of new crayons - a perfect thing for her.

Dad and Mom with the preschool graduates -
or new kindergarteners!

Kamryn and Jared checking out the fish pond in their teachers backyard.

Jared and Kamryn with the world's greatest preschool teacher!!!

Yesterday was Jared and Kamryn's year-end preschool program. Luckily I got there early and was able to sit in the front row. Paul even made it for the program.
It was such a cute program and all the kids in the class did a great job. They all had speaking parts and sang a lot of cute songs.
Jared's part was:
"I liked visiting the land of dinosaurs. We learned about pteradactyl and brontosaurus and even got chased by a T-rex. We had to run fast to get back to the time machine before the dinosaurs caught us."
Kamryn's part was:
"We liked playing farmed in the dirt most of all. We planted seeds and grew food. We even planted people that grew grass for hair."

It was bittersweet watching this program knowing that my babies are growing up and I won't have any more kids get to go to the Rainbow School. Carol Wilkinson is the greatest teacher and we just love her. The only good part about preschool being over is never have to pay preschool tuition again :) Of course, college tuition is going to take over soon and I would rather pay the preschool tuition.