Bullseye and other Funnies

I should have posted this before Bullseye Rides Again. This is another email I sent family and friends, dated April 25, 2005.

Hey everybody,

I thought I'd send a mass email to update you all on our family. This past week has been especially entertaining for us, hopefully you'll enjoy it too!

First of all, our son, Travis, is almost 3. He has a new horse, it is brownish and it's name is Bullseye. It's make believe of course. Anyway, he holds onto the reins with his fists clinched tightly and gallops around the house on a regular basis. Sometimes he tells us to be quiet because his horse is asleep or he opens the front door to let Bullseye out to go eat. He's informed us that he now has 4 horses. Whenever we find him playing with other toys we ask, "Where's your horse?" He'll say, "Oh, he's tied up in his trailer." We like to encourage his imagination. So, this past Thursday, we had gone out with Johnny to one of his appointments (AFLAC at the time). Travis brought two horses with him, and left the other two at home. After the appointment, we stopped by Wal-Mart and, of course, Travis galloped through the store. On a side note- we found black felt cowboy hats clearanced for $3. They're real cowboy hats, not the toy kind. So Katherine and Travis are now a cowboy and cowgirl. Anyway, we got home and Travis had gotten a birthday invitation that he was so excited about. He carried it around, even when Johnny took him to the bathroom. I was busy putting things away when I had a funny idea. I said, "Travis!" (He's finishing up in the bathroom) "While we were gone, you're horse pooped on the floor in my room!" "Can you believe that?!" Johnny started laughing, but Travis just got frustrated with his horse. He walks to our room with a frown on his face saying, "Ughhh!" He reaches down to the floor with his birthday card and sweeps it. Katherine is catching on to all of this and says, with a gasp, "Ohhh! Travis's card has poop on it!" Now Travis is really frustrated and heads back to the bathroom to wash off his card. This whole time Johnny is cracking up. I help Travis wipe his card off with a dry washcloth and just say, "Man! Travis, can you believe that?!" He quickly took his horse outside! Everyday, he rides his imaginary horses and takes them "out to pasture" and helps them take naps. Too cute!

Now for Katherine. I was sitting here at the computer typing something and Katherine was on a beanbag next to me. I looked over at her staring at the floor and asked what was wrong. She replied, "I'm just thinking." "About what?" I asked. "My life." "Really, tell me about it." "I'm just thinking about my life and the Spirit." "The Spirit? The Holy Ghost?" "Yeah." "What do you mean?" "I'm just thinking about stuff." She didn't really want to talk about it. So later I told Johnny about it and when he got a chance he asked her about it. He said, "Mommy tells me you were thinking about the Holy Ghost, do you want to tell me about it?" She said, "Yeah, I was thinking about the Holy Ghost and he wants us to be nice to people, and love them." We were so proud of her and grateful that she's actually getting it, already!

Then, on Saturday, I went for a walk with the kids, Olivia was in the stroller, Katherine was beside me helping push and Travis was galloping ahead of us on his trusty steed, Bullseye. He was motioning with one hand and holding the reins with the other, saying, "Come on! Follow me!" Katherine quickly replied, "No Travis! We're not going to follow you! We follow Jesus!" He was a little confused and said it again, "Follow me!" She was frustrated and said, "No Travis! We will follow Jesus, not you!" I explained to her that Travis means, Come on, this way!, not for us to actually follow him. She said, "Oh."

Ok, now for Olivia. I fixed her hair in a whale spout two days in a row. When Sunday came, yesterday, I decided to put pigtails on top of her head. That's really the only hair long enough to fix. So, she either had horns or antennas- however you want to look at it. It was cute, nonetheless. Yesterday night we were taking pictures of her cute hair. Lately she's been pulling up to things and letting go. So last night she took her first 2 steps!! Very exciting! She is quickly catching up to her very funny siblings!

(Just now, Travis was running through the house with a toy screwdriver, pretending it's a sword, yelling, "It's payback time!" I love to watch him!)

All our love,

Johnny, Jill, Katherine, Travis, and Olivia


Such fun memories! The story of Samuel cleaning up his mess of yucky candy is what prompted this post- it's a lot like Travis wiping the floor with his birthday invitation. Haha!

Firsts

Samuel woke up this morning a little more clingy than usual. Actually, most mornings he jumps out of bed and is ready to go go go! Today, not so much. I enjoyed holding him and cuddling, until he began to dry heave. And then it came out. Yep- a stomach virus. Thankfully it was just water- the little bit he had to drink this morning, which means he digested the chicken stir-fry he devoured last night.

Katherine ran bath water for him. He cried as I bathed him. He's never been sick before. He has had a fever and runny nose- so maybe he's had a cold, but never a stomach virus.

He threw up again just before I left to take the kids to school. Now he's just lying on the couch, surrounded by his burp rags and blanket. Bryn is whisper-singing to him and making sure he's comfortable.

Today we'll be doing a lot of cuddling and holding. Hopefully, Samuel will be doing a lot of resting.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"I just like smiling. Smiling's my favorite!" 

By far, one of the best movie lines- and a great mantra. 

Today I'm smiling because of these people:

Quick update: Johnny supposedly has lupus. "Early, mild" to be exact. I say supposedly because he has been working the night-shift for so long that his circadian rhythm is practically non-existent. That messes you up big time. Good news: He's switched jobs and now works in the ICU at Medical Center (same town, different hospital) on the DAY SHIFT! Our lives have changed dramatically. He loves his job. He loves his coworkers. He even loves his boss! Yeah- that's pretty amazing. And now that he has switched, he is becoming a normal person. He's getting used to sleeping through the night (that is, if Samuel does- no I do not make Johnny get up with the baby, but if the baby gets up, it's inevitable that he'll hear him.). He doesn't have the aches/pains anymore and his entire attitude/temperament is positive. He can't wait to start online classes later this month for his RN-BSN. In 2 years, we'll be moving away for CRNA school.- Johnny's ultimate dream job. We hope to come back here after it's all said and done. 

Anyway- back to the health concern. Since switching jobs we are without insurance for 30 days. Our hope/plan is for Johnny to live a normal life- sleep 8 hours each night, eat healthy, exercise for a month or so, then go back and have lab work done to check his ANA level. His Dr. told him this morning, in passing, that he thinks Johnny should go back in 6 mos and that stress/sleep deprivation could be what raised his ANA levels to start with. Nice!

It's amazing what a difference it's made in him switching jobs. We have discussed why the timing has been what it's been- remember when we prayed and were told not to switch jobs? For whatever reason, the timing has been good for us now and we feel that it has a lot to do with him starting school. Before, when we prayed about it, it was a job change for money and school wasn't a priority. Now it is and we're making it happen. 

It feels good to know that we are where we should be, doing what we should be doing with the people we should be with. That's enough to make anyone smile.

Chew on this!

Ahhh, it's Friday... the end of the school week- the FIRST school week of the FIRST home-school year. I bet you're anxious to see how it went. I guess I might as well fess up. It turns out, I don't exactly know what I'm doing. Shocking, huh? (As if my last couple of related posts didn't give it away.)

Here's a play by play: 

Tuesday morning, I was ready to go! The kids had breakfast and things were on track for starting by 9 a.m. (That's not too late, is it?) Johnny didn't have to go to bed until lunchtime, so he was up working on an application (job related). He needed a little help, so we worked on it together and school started late. No biggie- it's the first day and I don't want to burn out, so I don't stress about it. By late afternoon (3ish I think), the kids' lessons were winding down and I was mentally exhausted. But I did manage to make meatloaf for supper and everyone liked it! (Score!)

Wednesday: School started around 9:30. It was hard to pace the kids lessons- they did too many Language Arts lessons on Tuesday and were now behind on other subjects, so we tried to catch up with those. I told myself, "It's okay, we're just getting started and we have to find our rhythm." Really, I was losing my confidence and motivation, but chocked it up to fatigue. (Are you having trouble going to bed early?)

Thursday: School started late again. (Can't help it- Johnny gets home from work in the mornings, so that's our time to catch up on things.) I sat the kids down and explained how school needed to change and we made a board outlining the lessons for each day:

While Olivia, Travis & Katherine worked on the computers, I folded laundry in the den. (A week's worth at least. *sigh*) I watched them do their lessons and after I finished, I checked to see how they did. Poor Olivia didn't understand and did the best she could, but had to do her lessons all over again- with my help. She was frustrated, I was frustrated and I couldn't help but wonder if it was going to ever come together? I began to mourn the time I would be spending with Bryn and Samuel and worried I was robbing from them somehow. Second guessing everything all over again and finding no answers, I took a nap. A much needed nap. I decided it was too early to quit and too late to change my mind.

After a few hours, I was ready to hit it again. I jumped online and began to reorganize and prepared to print lots more pages of lesson plans- to work as a check-off system. I still felt like we were just checking boxes though and wondered if the kids were "mastering" anything. Anyway, I thought I might find some support through Time4Learning's forum- to see if there were other's in my area using that curriculum. There weren't, but I did find something better! Someone had posted a link to a free online curriculum (there were actually several, but this one far surpasses them all!). I followed the link and was amazed!

The site is called FreeWorldU.org. It's an accredited pre-K through 12 online curriculum. It is free, unless you want to track your child's/student's progress with reports and get a high school diploma, then it's $90/mo. You can change to the pay option at any time and they have support for everyone. They have researched every aspect of education! Did you know that there are approximately 2 million homeschoolers in the K-12 range and that this number is growing at the rate of 30% annually? (direct quote) That's amazing to me! The biggest problem I have with public school is that they are only teaching kids how to pass a test- there's no retention of knowledge. FreeWorldU addresses this, they call it "teach to the test". There are so many aspects that really caught my attention- "Superlearning", the kids can work at their own pace- and different grade levels (like 6th grade Social Studies and 3rd grade math, if needed). There are classes like "Character Development", "Manners", "Study Skills" and "Social Issues" in elementary school! :) Sounds like a winner, huh?

Needless to say, I promptly cancelled my membership with Time4Learning (no offense to them or anyone who uses them) and signed up ALL of my kids (except Samuel of course) with Free World U. It felt right- I don't feel so worried about how I'm going to make sure they're mastering everything and having time for fun. Since we can go at our own pace, I feel like we might do year-round school and take breaks as needed. (A friend at church does that and says it's great for them- there's no "first day of school/last day of school"- they just go with the flow and her kids learn at a good pace.)

This probably makes me sound wishy-washy, but I can't help it. I wasn't "sold" on Time4Learning, but I didn't know where else to start. Hopefully I won't come back and tell you that I changed my mind again. Haha! ;) Keep checking in... you never know! 

BUT- that's still not as impressive as Ella losing her first tooth! She announced this morning that it was loose. When I checked, it was VERY loose- I don't know how we missed it all this time (even through the brushing and flossing)? All day she asked questions like, "Mom, can I eat this Ravioli? I don't want it to hurt my loose tooth." & "I can't drink out of a cup, I need a sipper cup or a straw because I have a loose tooth." I explained to her that she had a loose tooth, not a broken arm, and she would be able to do everything like normal. Silly girl!

Katherine offered to pull it for her tonight. 

Ella excitedly accepted and said it didn't even hurt! 

 Katherine is a great photographer. 

 See the little pearly white in the bag?

She's all ready for the Tooth Fairy! (I hope she doesn't forget.)

Say cheese!

 I love Samuel's smile in this picture.
Did you know he has 6 teeth? 

Four on top and two on bottom.

And did you know he just turned 10 months old?

For the longest time he was "army crawling" and dragging his big little belly across the tile floor.

In the last week and a half, he is crawling on all fours! I don't have a picture or video yet- I really ought to learn how to take moving pictures that don't blur. Hmmm...

I love this picture of Johnny with Samuel. Oh- did you notice Johnny shaves his head now? He got tired of my joke. Oh! I didn't tell you yet? Well, here goes... "Do you want to know the 'real' reason Johnny doesn't have any hair? It's because I'm too vain to pull my own hair out!" Yeah, I thought it was pretty funny too. I guess he heard it too many times and decided to shave it all off- maybe he thought it would help me manage stress better. We'll see.

 Sweet Travis! He has glasses now. I think he looks so smart- like a little genius. Travis is always so helpful and gives the best hugs and tells me he loves me, several times throughout the day...makes my heart swell. Out of all the kids, he is the most vocal about how he feels about homeschooling this year. He wants it to start yesterday! Maybe he is a genius?

 Olivia is growing up so much. She's so helpful with Samuel and is becoming more and more responsible. She's 7 already! That means next year she will be baptized! Yikes. She's super excited to start homeschooling next month. I love her eagerness and excitement about life. She is a good example for me because she is more easy going- a trait I've always admired and tried to emulate.

 My Bryn. Look at those beautiful brown eyes! She has so much energy and the cutest little voice. I love the way she communicates and explains things to me. Since she got to be the baby for the longest, she and I have our own way to communicate. For example, I sometimes kiss her cheeks over and over and she'll kiss mine and I'll say, "Hey! Give me back my sugars!" and she'll have to kiss me again. Or I'll say, "Bryn, I need sugars so I can be sweet." and she'll give me kisses.
She is adorable!

Katherine doesn't normally wear makeup. This picture is from our last visit to Vidor. My sister, Rachel, dolled her up- doesn't she look beautiful? She's always beautiful. Being the oldest, Katherine is always willing to do whatever needs to be done and works very hard at getting along with her siblings. I appreciate her so much for being her. She's going into the 5th grade. She is excited about homeschool starting too. She is interested in so many things and can't wait to learn about it all- like all things Australia, crocheting, sewing, music, art, having a book published... amazing things! She's becoming very task-oriented like her mom.

Ella has the best laugh! Her sense of humor is so surprising sometimes. She's also very inquisitive. Some of the questions she asks are surprising. Lately, the questions have had a lot to do with following Jesus Christ or following Satan and the differences between our Church and other churches. For example, she asked me, "Mom, what are people called if they're not called Mormons?" See what I mean? She'll be starting kindergarten this year, which means she may never go to public school. Our first child to do that! I love that Ella is a good friend. She plays well with all of her siblings and is usually willing to share. When we were in Vidor, she was jumping off the diving board more than anyone-wearing floaties of course. Such a brave girl!

Motivate Me Monday: Losing Weight without the Workout!

Since I last posted, I have worked out maybe twice. But I'm not apologizing or even asking for more encouragement, because I have lost, like 3-4 lbs!

That's pretty amazing, right?! Last Tuesday morning I had a great workout! I did Turbo Sculpt and was able to push myself more than I had in a long time.

That afternoon I felt sore. I love feeling sore after a workout! But I did think it was odd that I would feel sore so soon.

The next day I knew I had a sinus infection and maybe a virus. My legs and joints ached and my sinuses burned, but no fever. Shoulda known the soreness wasn't from the workout.

*sigh*

On top of that, all week I was running errands and didn't get to nurse Samuel as often as usual. Ella had dental surgery on Friday, so I was away for several hours. (She had some cavities worked on. I'll blog about it soon.)

By Saturday night I had full blown mastitis. 102.3° fever, aches, chills, miserable. My aches and pains from earlier in the week were still there, only worse. So I'm still not sure if I had 1 or 2 sicknesses. ??

Today I still feel weak and sick, but no fever. I've been nursing exclusively. Poor Samuel. He was really liking his baby food. Also, I'm about to start an antibiotic (once I pick it up)- or should I if I'm not running a fever anymore?

Once I'm able to workout again, I'm really going to hit the weights hard! I don't want to lose muscle from being sick. Plus it's my favorite way to workout ;)

I have to say, my kids have been amazing! Not only was I sick, but Johnny has been sick since last Tuesday (or maybe before that) with a low-grade fever, and Travis has had a fever since Sunday. Katherine has been an angel babysitting for me and helping around the house. Olivia and Bryn have been super helpful and Ella too, when she could. Samuel is all smiles all the time. He had a fever last night, but seems okay today.

I couldn't ask for more.

♥

Our Variety Show commercial!!

For our annual Sellers Family Variety Show this year,

we made a commercial... enjoy!

{The video quality is terrible. We're working on remedying that for next year. ;) }

She's 9!

Yesterday was Katherine's 9th birthday!!

Can you believe it?

On Saturday, the kids and I went to Vidor. Olivia went to Lia's birthday party and Travis played with her brother, Brandon. Katherine, Ella, Bryn and I went to my sister Melissa's house where I learned to make homemade bread with my own wheat! {You'll have to read about that on my other blog...later. I know, suspense!}

Everyone made Katherine feel so special that day... she got lots of presents, including $ {she's a collector ;)}

For breakfast Sunday morning, she requested "Egg in the Middle".

I used a pumpkin cutout...very festive!

We had a busy day, even though it was Katherine's birthday.  It was our Branch Conference and

also, her cousin, Hyrum's baptism in Jasper.  We didn't make it to the baptism, but we

did go to his house for the party {which he technically shared with Katherine. Sweet.}.

When I asked Katherine what kind of cake she wanted, she said, "I'm not a big cake fan."  So we went with the favorite "cookie cake"- homemade of course. {I used the chocolate chip cookie recipe from my new fav cookbook, Deceptively Delicious. And it was ;) }

My free-hand wasn't great, but it is legible. I had some difficulty with the 

icing bag- brand new too :(

Hyrum's cake...made by a friend of theirs. 

Isn't it cute? I wonder which kid touched the icing? lol

The proud papa.

Such a good picture of the beautiful K'Leigh. She's very photogenic.

"Sweet" Olivia. She's gotten great at posing for pictures ;)

I wish I would've gotten a better picture of Hyrum... I'll preview next time.

Beautiful fall picture of Ella.

Round 1- sack races.

Aunt Amy is taking Bryn to line up for Round 2 of the Sack Race. Don't you love Bryn's face?!

Introducing her to the pillowcase...

She's in and she's holding on tight.

Ready, set...

Go! I love the spectators in the background watching her :)

Handsome boy. I had to stop him to get his picture. 
Travis keeps up with the guys and is hard to catch.

Look at all of the kids! Actually, this isn't all of them- ha!

Katherine wanted to open her presents there.

Just about everyone was oblivious...but she liked her presents. I wish we would've waited

to open them at home. I think it would've felt more like her birthday. Oh well, we know now.

Yes, one of her gifts was her very own box of Whales. :) Cheap and it's what she likes!  

She also got 

Monsters vs. Aliens on DVD,

a Fancy Nancy book,

a Kit Kittredge cookbook, 

earrings and a Princess Mulan doll.

It was a cold but fun day.

She is such a beautiful girl and we love her so much.

We're going to celebrate this week too {until my birthday on Saturday!!}.

Here are 9 things we love about Katherine...

1. She is genuine.
2. She is caring.
3. She is generous.
4. She is an excellent artist/poet/crafter... she's very creative.
5. She is extremely honest.
6. She is willing...she'll help with anything and everything
that needs to be done, even if she doesn't really want to.
7. She loves her family.
8. She has a great sense of humor- and a great laugh!
9. She is obedient.

Happy 9th Birthday Katherine... we love you!