Lights, camera, ACTION!!!

I have been talking a lot and not sharing many pics lately. So here are some. These have been taken in the past 2 weeks.





These are the pics from Mana's award ceremony. I had camera issues right when he got his award, how annoying. Oh well.




This is what scripture reading looks like sometimes.




Victoria on a daily basis :)














These were pics taken when we went to the park. This was during some really chilly windy weather. There are also some pics of the kids being their normal, happy, silly selves.

Answering some questions.

Yes we are looking at houses. Originally we had thought we would buy a house when Willie is permanently home. Well after some thought and consideration we have decided we would try to buy one when Willie comes home for his R&R. So Willie is looking online when he has time and I'm checking what he finds and giving a thumbs up or down or maybe. We are hoping to be in a house by march, but we shall see.

It was Quinton's birthday on Friday. He is 8 now. Willie's birthday is on the 4th of Dec. He will be 9. The kids are all just growing up so fast.

Mana like his tutoring. Although I have to say they haven't started the real work yet. Yesterday and today they are doing placement exams to see where they are and what help is needed. Mana said all the girls in his class are in tutoring but he is the only boy. hahaha. We are hoping for the best. The tutoring program continues until the end of the year so that should be really good for him to have that consistency for at least majority of the school year.

Melanie I did eat my salad hahahaha. I ate it today. I have been really iffy about dressings that are actually good for you so I have been using balsamic vinegar. I like it. It takes yummy.

I washed my truck today, inside out. I haven't done that since like May hahaha how embarrassing hahahha. I was so sick of all the crumbs in the truck. I swear I need to have a no kid eating in my truck rule hahaha. Oh the reason why it takes me so long to wash my truck is, while we were living in California in our horrid duplex, our truck got hard water on the passenger side windows and on that side of the truck. So no matter how often I wash my truck it still looks dirty and it really makes me mad when I think about it. I choose not to deal with it or I would seriously go loopy. ai have cleaning issues hahaha.
On a happy note, Victoria was so good today. She just sat by the truck singing her songs hahaha. She's been so good lately. She asked if we could go to the movies. We didn't go to the movies but we did rent movies. She wanted scooby do and I got Star Trek for myself hahhaaha. It was great.

Today was jam packed.

Today I overbooked myself. I watched a cute little girl who looks just like Miaya (seriously she does) from 9am to about 1230. I had made arrangements with my VT to go to the park. You know change of scenery and not having like a whole bunch of kids in my house. Im all for kids having fun in my house but I definitely have a limit. hahaha So we went to the park at 11am. It was great fun. Victoria and her little friend ran around and had crazy fun. I made a delicious salad for me but I forgot to bring a fork so I just stared at it and imagined how the goodness of that salad would taste hahahaha. Victoria and her friend ate their delicious crackers and bell peppers(or if you prefer paprika, capsicums hahahaha) ok so Victoria and I were the only ones eating bell peppers. I got my spiritual thought from my VT and I actually made plans to go to one of the VT house to play some more but I was already feeling a little drained of playing time so I told her I would meet up with her another time. Victoria's friends mom picked her up at the park and we headed home. I then remembered I needed to mail the boys (Willie and Quinton) birthday prezzies today so they could arrive in Florida before Thanksgiving. We went to the post office and stopped off at Mana's school because I forgot to tell him this morning he needed to stay at school for his tutoring classes. I left a note at the office for the teacher.

While I was there, there was a very upset mother yelling and her kid about money that had gone missing or something like that. I felt like I was being yelled at. I felt for the boy. But I left because at this point Victoria was staring down the lady and I didn't want her to be the next target hahahaha. I told Victoria we would run home go to the bathroom and such and take off again because there is a house Willie and I found on the internet that looked like something we would be interested in.

Because Victoria was being so good I offered some Mc Donalds to her. She accepted of course. So off to Mc Donalds we went. I got some chicken strips because I was hungry and she got chicken nuggets. We drove to the house I saw on the internet and I took some pics. There were two dogs living on either side of the house and I kept thinking the dogs were going to break free and eat me hahahaha. I know wild imagination. But they stay put, barking like mad, but staying put. It is a really nice house. It needs some cosmetic improvements here and there and a really good cleaning and a really good bug guy. Hey we live in NC, bugs are expected. It was a great house.

I got home in time to pick Mana up from tutoring and we headed home. Oh and the greatest was Victoria and I received our passports today. Yay!! It only took 2 weeks which is great. Now I am just waiting for Mana's. I am now free to visit other countries.

Oh and here's a random side note. I found a little sweater that would fit Eva (Miriam's daughter). I told Victoria we should send it to her. Well she has a friend in nursery name Eva(pronounced A-va. well you know long A sound at the beginning) She is constantly talking about that girl. She got excited because she thought I was talking about her nursery friend hahahahaha. It was like she just realized she has a cousin named Eva hahahaha.

I wish we could visit family more often so the neices and nephews could all play more often.

Im keeping it short.

Ok here's something that happened today. I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. I used a mixture of white flour and whole wheat flour. They came out pretty good. I definitely taste the whole wheat but I like it. It might not be to everyone's liking but they were good to us.
Anyway so I told the kids that in order for them to get some for dessert they would have to eat all of there dinner and not have me tell them every 5 minutes to stop messing around and eat. Well Mana ate his and I gave him some cookies. Victoria played around a little bit and made a bit of a mess but it seemed to me she had finished. I was quite pleased with my kids. I gave Victoria some cookies and all was good. After doing reading and homework it was time to bathe, put on pajamas and go to bed. I was cleaning the kitchen and puting leftovers in the fridge. Well I notice a little baggie with some food in it. I didn't think much of it because I am constantly puting baggies and containers in the fridge with some sort of food in it. I started to think of how the baggie was placed in the fridge. It was just placed differently than how I place things. I grabbed the baggie and low and behold there is a portion of tonight's dinner in the baggie. I knew immediately whose it was. I called Victoria and asked her why she put her dinner in the fridge. She said she was saving it for tomorrow. HAHAHAHA sometimes she is just too clever. She used my baggies against me. Well I thought that was just too funny to not talk about it.

Have a good night everyone.

Good day.

So it is about 12 weeks until Willie gets to come home for 1 month. We are really excited. That will mark the half way mark for Willie being away. During this time I have had to make some adjustments on how things are done at home. I have relied on Willie with a lot of different things. For instance disciplining the kids. For what ever reason they would listen to him but not me. I have to say that things have gotten better with that. For the most part my kids listen to what I tell them and they respond pretty quickly. Although they do have their days when they just want to do their own thing. Which is fine because that is life. I have become more patient, which is really good because I do have a temper. I also think these things are becoming a little bit easier because the kids are getting older and they have a better understanding of what's appropriate and what's not. But then again sometimes that flies out the window too. The joys of parenthood.

This past sunday we had a missionary farewell program during sacrament meeting. It really made me excited for my brother, who is working on his papers to go on his mission. I got teary eyed at the thought that my brother would be doing the Lord's will by going on a mission and what a great example he is for me. I would really like to be there at his farewell. If I can't make that, then I will definitely be at his homecoming.

Oh and a weird week continuing on with Mana's education... We were so excited last week because he had gotten his award for most improved. Well this week I received a note from his teacher telling me he has failed two of the most recent reading test and it's an open book test. I have been praying and wondering how I am going to help my son with his difficulties. I received a package last week for a free tutoring program offered at his school. I was worried about the long hours Mana would be spending at school. Then he got his award so I thought, Oh maybe he's fine maybe he doesn't need it and then WHAM!! I get this note from Mana's teacher. Yeah so I filled out the package and mailed it off. Looks like Mana's starting tutoring next week. I guess I need to pay closer attention to answers I receive hahahaha. I hope this tutoring program will help him. We shall see.

It's November.

I got a phone call today from Mana's teacher. She told me there is going to be an awards ceremony at his school on Friday and Mana is receiving an award for most improved. Im so proud of Mana. He has had a hard time with certain areas of learning and he works really hard to try to compensate. He doesn't know about the award yet and I won't tell him because I think it would be a great surprise. Mana has an excellent teacher who is so proactive in all of the students education. If one way of doing things isn't working out for her students she finds another way to help the students learn. She really is fantastic and I just love her. We've been blessed to have her and I know it. I have prayed for help and guidance in trying to help Mana with his difficulties and my prayers were answered with this wonderful teacher. Moving on hahaha.

Mana had a great experience tonight. Ok first off. Mana is in scouts. It is his responsibility to keep up with his uniform. I add patches and iron his shirt, but he has to hang up his shirt, neckerchief, hat and keep track of his slide.
Well tonight in his excitement about getting to church a few minutes early (that means he gets to play basketball before scouts starts) he took off running to the church and his slide fell off. Now, the slide is not very big and it was very dark outside. We used the few early minutes we had to look for the slide. We looked and looked and couldnt find it. Mana went to scouts and Victoria and I waited around for him. When Mana was done we went back outside to look some more. I know its stupid but I wanted to at least try before just giving up. Mana then said. "Mamma when we get home Im just going to pray that I can find my slide" I told him that was a great idea. We then walked to the truck. Mana shouted out "Mamma, mamma I found it!" He got into the truck and showed me his slide. He said he said a prayer and he found it. I told him now he knows that heavenly father answers our prayers no matter how simple or small me may think they are. I just loved the fact that I was allowed to be there at that moment.
I truly believe it is the small and quiet moments in our childrens lives that the Holy Ghost testifies of the truthfulness of the Gospel.

Oh and on a bit of a sad note. Victoria had another issue tonight with children calling her chocolate. She now understands that being called chocolate is not ok. She told the girl she wasn't chocolate she is brown. My poor sweet girl. I have noticed that she is now distancing herself from those who have mistreated her. If I ask her why she won't play with so and so she simply says they weren't nice to me and I don't want to play with them. That's enough for me because really it takes a lot for Victoria to not want to play with anyone. She also misses her daddy so much and it's very sad at times because she will break down and cry and just say she misses her dad. We draw pictures for daddy and we talk about him and all the things we will do when he comes home. We also look at pictures and she talks to her dad which always puts a big smile on her face. She is better now but she did say she didn't have a good night tonight.

That's about all for now. I do have a question for you guys that read this. Can you share with me a healthy snack or dish you make at home? Im looking to change up my meal routine. Thanks.
Melisa