Job Interview!!

Bryan has an interview with the IRS!! It was scheduled for Friday, but they have changed it to Thursday. I don't care what day or whatever, it's an interview!! He applied about a month ago for an irs agent positon and then was invited to take their online assesment test about 2 weeks ago. Everything we have heard says that it takes abt 3 to 4 weeks to hear the results, let alone be invited to interview, so we are pretty excited! I think he must have done a really good job on the assesment test, which took over 2 hours! This is a job he has always said he would love to do, so that makes me happy! I hope the interview turns into a job, he deserves it! Please send thoughts and prayers our direction this week! We will let you know what happens!

Hard work and patience pays off!

While I wish the payoff was in the form of a good job for my husband, it's not. However, I am really proud of Jonathan and wanted to share why. He worked really hard to make the Shepherd Baseball team and was told by the coach early on that he wouldn't play very much but that if he worked really hard and never gave up that he would have a chance to play sometimes. He was really discouraged by this and it was really hard for him to go back the next day. He thought about quitting, but loves baseball and doesn't want to be a quitter. He went every day and worked as hard as he could and tried to always be positive. Not much changed for a while, but slowly the coach started putting Jonathan in the games as a pinch hitter or runner. Then he let him in at 1st base towards the end for an inning or two if the team was ahead. During this, he never gave up and always tried to get better. He would get down sometimes, but he always kept trying. Tuesday during batting practice, Jonathan hit a couple of home runs (over the fence) for the first time. He was so excited! Then at yesterday's game, coach told Jonathan he was starting as 1st baseman and against his old Smith team even! He was so happy about that. Jon didn't make any errors in the field and played the first 4 of 5 innings with 2 singles and got on base with a pitch that hit him in the calf (ouch!!). Shepherd won the game 14 to 3.

I just want him to know how proud I am of him for not giving up, even when he thought things would not get better. Times have been a little rough for him lately, in life as well as baseball. He has been such an example to me of enduring through everything. Never giving up. I have been so close to giving up so many times, but I know I can't and I won't. How can I when I have 5 amazing children and my best friend (my sweet hubby!) counting on me to keep going even when I feel like things won't ever change. Someday things will begin to look up and I have to be strong until they do. Even if it takes a really long time! So, thanks to my family and friends for always being strong for me that I may follow your examples! I look at so many of you and an strengthened by your courage. You are truly good and kind people! I love you all!

Here are a few pics to for you all to see Jon at first base, although this was the game before the Smith game. We couldn't make it to the Smith game. :(

I couldn't help throwing this pic in. Bryan was focusing on the field and Alex popped up there. He is fuzzy but the face he is making makes me laugh every time I see it! So I hope you laugh too!

Have a great day, everyone!!

Culture Pass

Well, I heard about the Culture Pass that's being given out at the Library and I thought I would go and see if I could get passes to the zoo. Friday there is no school and the weather is nice so I wanted to do something fun! So I loaded up the kids and we went to the library on Tuesday morning. I had overdue books anyway, so I figured I wasn't wasting my time if they had no passes. Well, I get there and find out the passes are put out every Wed. morning as soon as they open and it is a first come first serve free for all. Sounds intimidating, but I figure I would try so that Friday would be something fun and different. I will have the kids I babysit too, so I wanted to change things up a bit and have some outside of my house fun!

Well, I get there this morning with my four boys in tow and see a pretty long line already. I am like, "Great! I hope there are plenty of passes!" Not so, I learn. One of the women in line in front of me tells me there are only 5 passes released for each place, including the zoo. Also, only one pass was allowed per card with each pass admitting 4 people. I am realizing that I am about the 30th person in line and thinking I am not going to get what I want, since I am hearing people in the front saying they are going for the zoo, too. So, I figure I am there and might as well just see what happens and then they open the doors. I grab the boys hands and tell them to stay close and don't let go! They were so awesome and stayed close and totally obeyed! They were probably a bit overwhelmed by the experience, I sure was! People just ran to the kiosk and started grabbing the passes not really looking at what they were for. The first pass I grabbed was for Cave Creek Museum and was like, "no, not even!" and went for the only one that said children anywhere! I got the Children's Museum of Phoenix. I figured that would have to do and got out of the melee! There were people grabbing 5 or 6 passes at a time and then choosing what they wanted. Kinda annoying, but I guess I don't blame them.

After you choose a pass, you have to wait in the customer service line to check the passes out that way and not in the kiosks to check out books. So then the line for that was pretty long and the boys had been good enough, so we went to the puzzle and toy section and played there until the line was gone. That was the best thing!! So I check out my pass (which is now just a small receipt looking thing) and am going to the Children's Museum of Phoenix on Friday with my friend Laurie! I am actually excited that I got this one instead of the zoo. I have never been there and some of the kids have been there on field trips and loved it. So, I will bring my camera and show you all about it! If anyone else wants to go, too, let me know! The more the merrier!
If anyone is curious about the program and what places are available to visit, I have put a link to the culture pass website at the bottom of the post.

Bye for now!

http://www.showup.com/culturepass

My hat, Pinewood Derby, Opening Day and Scrapbook Pages!!

Hi there everyone!! Such a busy week and I am finally posting pics! First off, here is a pic of my cute hat I borrowed from my sister, Jenny, to hide my stitches! Thanks, Jen!

Next is pictures of Connor's Pinewood Derby. It didn't go quite as we had hoped, but there is one more year to get it right! I love the pit passes they made for the boys. Really cute!

Connor with his good friends Nathaniel Brown and Scott Murset. (I had to work really hard to get Scott to look at the camera!! lol)My mother, Carolyn Standage, came to see Connor.The final pic!These are pics Bryan took of Opening Day Ceremonies for Red Mountain Little League. Jenna is on a team with several friends and her cousins Tyler and Ashton. Their team is the Ironbirds and the logo is really cool!

If you look behind Jenna, Ashton is the one poking his head around! Cute kid!

In the back of this picture you can see my brother, Todd Standage (who is also asst coaching) and the head coach, Rich Murset on the right holding his son, Mason.

Connor is on the Owlz, also a cool logo.

He is excited for the season to begin!

Lastly, some of my scrapbook pages I have been working on. The first 4 are from our trip to CA last year with JoAnn and Daniel and my parents. We had a blast! 2 of these pages are NOT from my scrapbook group and I made them out of my own ideas! Yeah for me!

This page is to celebrate Jonathan and his making the Regional Orchestra this year. We were so proud of him making this because very few freshman make it and he beat out a lot of older kids to earn a spot. The music that afternoon was so amazing!

The last 2 pages were all about our camping trip last month. I took a lot of pictures but I neglected to take a group shot!! Don't know what I was thinking there!! These 2 pages, as well as the one of Jon are also my own creation! I get excited when I feel creative!!
Well, back to reality! Naptime is almost over!! Have a great afternoon!

Can I have my old neighbors back?

I like this house, I really do. I like the neighborhood. I like being close to the kids Grandpa and cousins. I like the ward and I am beginning to like the school. I hate being on such a busy road and I am seriously tired of most of my neighbors. It all started with the neighbors directly behind us yelling at my kids in a really loud and hateful voice to "shut up!" or other such nice words. He would yell this a couple times a month and scare me and the kids. This would happen during the daytime at like 2pm or when the kids are just playing. However, my kids are loud and the ones I babysit tend to be screachers when they are playing. I understand his frustration and finally I had a conversation with his wife and just told them to call if they are being overly noisy and I will bring them in. He was apologetic for the way he handled it.

Before all of that, though, he (I believe) called the city and tried to get me in trouble for running an in home daycare. The city representative came out and tried to see if I was breaking the rules and such and I found out the rep didn't even know the rules himself! Stupid! So, I informed him politely that I know what the rules are and I am not in violation of any of them. So that is over and I think things are getting better. Uh huh. Not quite.

During spring break, my kids are having a koolaid sale to raise money for the book fair and they have included the kids I babysit. While we are out there, the police come by. Now, I am thinking I doubt they are stopping just to support a koolaid stand. I wish! No, one of the neighbors complained that I am not supervising my kids, that they are out alone on this busy street. My next door neighbor was outside with me at the time and we both were shocked! I was like, are you serious? I am ALWAYS oustide when my kids are, it's just too busy of a street. What the heck?!? The officer was very nice and said he could see the instant he pulled up that there was no problem and I am just thinking I dislike my neighbors! It could not have been the ones that yell at us cause there is no way they could have seen us unless they drove past and wanted to stir up more trouble. So I am thinking it's another jerky neighbor.

Then this morning, I am walking home from the bus stop when my next door neighbor, with whom we have a pretty good relationship, starts in on me about how we are not doing our fair share in the yard maintenance. He was a bit rude about it, but he had a very valid point. We hadn't been doing our fair share. In case you have never been over here, our front lawn is not divided and so we end up sharing this big expanse of lawn with them. Our sprinkler systems are even interconnected. It is weird! Keep in mind that we also have landscaping service included in our rent, but they only come every other week and apparently that is not enough for him. He told me on Monday that he wanted to have the lawn mowed and I told him we couldn't get to it until Saturday. I meant it. We have no time with 4 kids in bball, we are both gone in separate directions EVERY night. We both work and Jon is never around either. So, Saturday wasn't good enough so he did it himself. I thought it was nice but now he was a bit steamed. I understand, I really do, but I am in over my head and am just trying to hang on every day. I don't have time and my husband doesn't have time to maintain the yard to his standards. He is very particular about it's upkeep. A little bit anal. But, they are very nice people and their son has become a good friend to Connor. And he really does have a valid point, he got the lawn fertilized and even fixed our side of the sprinklers.

So I tell him I understand and will try to stay on top of it, but I don't know how I will do it. So, I tell Bryan about this and he, of course, gets a bit upset too and is frustrated by our lack of time. We did it to ourselves with allowing the kids to all play, but I felt like our kids have sacrificed so much that this was something they all really wanted to do that I would try to make it work. So, I came up with this compromise: our neighbor (who doesn't work right now, btw) would continue to maintain the lawn until baseball is finished (middle of May) and we would maintain it from that point through the summer. He thought that was a good compromise and even apologized for coming off a bit to strong. So all is good there now, but man, how am I gonna ever keep the lawn up to his standards even then?!?

At this point, we are considering moving when our lease is up at the end of July. We will see what happens between now and then! Anyway, just venting a little bit and missing my old neighborhood really bad!!

Loser Tag!

A while ago, my sister JoAnn's husband, Daniel, hit his head and got stitches in the shape of an L on his forehead. My sweet sis thought it was so funny and called it his Loser tag! Although, she meant it lovingly...she is really not mean! Anyway, I bring this up because I finlly took off my bandages last night and I have a big L on my forehead! My own Loser tag! I had to call my sister and laugh about it! I have 8 stiches on a horizontal row and the spot they biopsied is a vertical line completing the L. Now I won't be laughing if it scars into a permanent Loser tag! Lucky for Daniel, you can't see his anymore! So wish me luck on losing my Loser tag!!

Big bandages and cute hats!

Well, it is done. My forehead is clear of cancer, we think! There is a small thing they sent off to be biopsied off a new growth, but they don't think it is cancer. It took less than 4 hours so it went good. I have 8 stitches in my head and it actually hurts! A really thick bandage on my forehead which I am doing my best to cover with a super cute hat I borrowed from my sister Jenny. I won't have the stitches removed until next Friday, so I will be wearing that hat a lot! Anyway, I know a lot of people were worried/wondering how it went, so there is the update! All is as well as it's gonna be!