The Poppinga Brothers!

Last week I received a desperate phone call from Carsten while he was at school. "Mom I need you to bring my football jersey to school right now!" I couldn't understand why it was so important that I come RIGHT NOW with his jersey. "Carsten, why do you need your jersey?" "Some BYU football players are coming and I want them to sign it!" "Well are they coming right now?" "I don't know!" "Carsten ask your teacher when they will be there." He put the phone down and asked his teacher and lucky for Carsten they wouldn't be coming for several more hours. I told him that as soon as I was finished with my doctors appointment I would go home, get his jersey and bring it to the school.

When I got to the school the SPECIAL 3rd grade assembly was just starting. I walked into the gym and decided to stay. I was curious about who theseBYU football players were.

One of the cute little 3rd grade boys started off the assembly by introducing the 3 speakers. First to speak would be his dad Casey. Casey played football for USU and BYU and then went on to play in the NFL having the opportunity of going to the Super Bowl. The next speaker would be his Uncle Kelly. Kelly played football for BYU, played in the NFL and also went to the Super Bowl. Kelly is now a BYU football coach. And last to speak would be his Uncle Brady. Brady played football for USU and BYU, he currently plays for the Green bay Packers and had the opportunity of going to the Super Bowl just a few weeks ago! All three brothers played for BYU. All three brothers have played in the NFL. And all three brothers have played in the Super Bowl! Wow! How often does that happen? And they were all raised in a small town in Wyoming! And did I mention that their dad, this cute little 3rd graders grandfather, back in his day played football for BYU too!

It was a lot of fun listening to each of them speak. They talked about having dreams, setting goals and working hard to achieve them. They told the kids to never listen to anyone who says they can't reach or achieve their goals. We can do anything we set our mind to! They talked about the importance of staying in school and gaining a good education. They talked about making good choices and about how everyday we have important choices to make.

My most favorite story was told by Brady Poppinga who currently playes for Green bay. He told the kids about playing against a guy named Larry. Larry was huge and scary! He referred to him as being BURLY! He was afraid of Larry and really afraid of playing against him. He told the kids that he had a choice to make. He could either go ahead and play against Larry even though he was huge and scary or he could run away from Larry. He goes on to tell a very comical story about going up against Larry. He learned that he was capable of a lot more than he thought possible. He told the kids that they will all have "Larry's" in their lives. They will all have huge, difficult, BURLY things to do and decisions to make in their lives. The question is, what are they going to do with "their Larry"? Are they going to face their problems head on? Or are they going to run away from them? He promised the kids that if they face their "Larry's" head on, they will learn more about themselves and realize they are capable of much more than they ever thought possible.

After they all spoke they gave each of the kids autographed pictures of themselves as gifts. Carsten along with a few other boys had them sign their football jerseys. After school when Carsten got home from school he couldn't quit talking about the Poppinga brothers. He was most impressed with Kelly because Kelly played for the Arizona Cardinals. I guess that just goes to show that you can take the boy out of Arizona but you can't take Arizona out of the boy!

So in the end, even though when Carsten called asking me to race down to the school to bring him his jersey I was a little less than thrilled to do it... I sure am glad that Carsten called! Listening to those brothers was a real treat and well worth my time! Now I just hope that Carsten can remembers some of the messages that were shared because they were all so good!

One year older and wiser too!

In a very quiet nonchalant kind of way, David celebrated his 41st birthday. There was no frills, no fluff, no big party, there was just about no nothing... just the way David likes it! Just the way David thinks birthdays ought to be!

Contrary to Davids liking, every year I try to do something special to celebrate his birthday. I guess in a way it has always really been all about me! I like to party! And the single thought of not making a big fuss over the one and only day of the year you can celebrate YOU just about kills me! I say live it up! Milk it for all you can! If there is any chance you can extend your birthday celebrating out all week, go for it! Heck my sister has an entire birthday MONTH! David on the other hand gets embarrassed over the whole thing!

So we started off the day with a trip to the Springville Cannery. We took our three oldest kids, Ethan, Bradon, and Carsten. It's actually a pretty fun family activity to go and do. The kids like it and we always come away feeling like we have done something right.

We filled the guts of our day pretty well doing a lot of nothing which is so NOT typical for David. He's a get up and go go go kind of guy and idol time seems to irritate him for the most part. But not on his birthday! I really felt sort bad that I hadn't planned anything. I kept asking him, "So what do you want to go do?" Finally we decided to go to Costco for a few things. Reagan and Talan wanted to go too so we decided to take them since they missed out on the exciting Cannery trip earlier that morning. However David and I were both quickly reminded why we try not to take Talan with us ANYWHERE if we don't have to! That kid is nonstop all over the place busy testing his limits EXHAUSTING!

That night we took the kids to the dollar movies to see Gulliver's Travels and then back home for David's new favorite dessert, Orange Cake with Strawberries and Cream!

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to buy David as a birthday gift since he literally asked for NOTHING! David tends to buy himself the things he wants when he wants them and so gift giving can become difficult. And David don't roll your eyes at me saying this because you know that it's true! Anyways I finally bought him {a few days late} a scout shirt to go with his new Scoutmaster calling. A scout shirt is just one of those things you know you need, yet you have NO desire to spend your money on.
And can I just say... Scout CRAP is expensive! Seriously that's the #1 most annoying thing about scouting!
As soon as I got home from buying the shirt I got out my sewing machine and sewed on all the necessary patches! Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a typical procrastinator and so even though this was a LATE present and sewing the patches on immediately was still in a sense LATE... sewing the patches on immediately was a sign of my LOVE! So I hope this gift was worth the expense and that the love I was trying to convey was felt!

Happy Birthday David!
I love you!

Oh, I'm a Gummy Bear!

Oh, I'm a Gummy Bear
Yes, I'm a Gummy Bear!
Oh, I'm a Yummy, Chummy, Funny, Lucky Gummy Bear.
I'm a Jelly bear, Cuz I'm a Gummy bear,
Oh I'm a movin', groovin', Jammin', Singin' Gummy Bear

Oh Yeah!

Carsten is one kid that goes from one obsession to another.
And his current obsession just happens to be...
Gummy Bears!

Gummy Bears? Why Gummy Bears?
Honestly, I don't understand it.
But heck, who doesn't like Gummy Bears?

The lyrics above are to the Gummy Bear song he listens to on his ipod. And all of these fabulous Gummy Bear pictures I found downloaded onto his ipod.

Who knew there was such great
Gummy Bear ART!Carsten comes to me with his ipod to show me his latest downloads.
"Mom, isn't this a cool picture?"
Oh yeah, that's awesome!

And of course this one is right up any 3rd grade boys ally!
"gummy bears scare me"

The Gummy Bear line up!

Oh and what could these ones possibly be... Tropical Gummies?

Currently this is Carsten's ipod background picture!
I have to admit, Gummy Bears are pretty cute!

"The costume one"

5th Grade is the year of the Big Science Project!
Bradon has put so much thought into what he wanted to do for his project this year. He turned one idea in after another, yet ALL of his ideas were shot down! I sat down with Bradon to to try to figure this out. It turns out that EVERY idea he had turned into his teacher had something to do with FIREARMS or FLAMES! Well no wonder these ideas were being shot down!

Myth Busters is one of my kids favorite T.V. show. This last summer they were total Myth Buster junkies! Yes Myth Buster does have some really cool experiment ideas but not all of them are 5th grade friendly if you know what I mean. Bradon was determined to do something really cool for his project, something that was his own idea and NOT his mothers! But as time ticked away and all his project ideas got shot down, finally in a moment of desperation a couple of days before the experiment part of the project had to be turned in he said, "Fine, we'll just do your idea!" "Oh, and which idea is that?" "The costume one."

So the costume one it was!

We quickly whipped up a sign and headed out the door to stand on street corners.
The first day Bradon went wearing plain clothes. We hit 3 different intersections, holding the sign for exactly 15 minutes at each location, recording how many honks we got.
On the second day we repeated this. Same intersections, same times and the same duration, except this time Bradon dressed up in this cute Winnie the Pooh costume!

The question is: When standing on the corner of an intersection advertising for your business by way of holding a sign for people to read, do more people read your sign when you are dressed in a costume?

The answer to this is YES!
Now we feel like we would need to do this experiment several more times to get a more accurate percentage, but it's roughly 18%-25% of an increase while dressed in a costume.

So since TODAY was the day that the final project was due we OF COURSE stayed up till all hours in the night finishing it up!

Bradon was a very active participant in this project. In fact he quite enjoyed using the paper cutter to cut everything out for his poster. We used whatever paper we had around the house and I think it turned out pretty cute! Only time will tell how his teacher and the judges felt about his project, but I can tell you right now I'M GLAD IT'S FINISHED!
One more down and 3 more to go!

"I'm not yours BABE!"

I didn't even realize that I call Talan
"BABE" all the time!
Over the last few week whenever I refer to him as my babe, he quickly corrects me! I'll say, "Come here babe." And he responds with an I'm so sick of this you annoy me tone of voice,
"I'm not yours babe!"
I tell him, "Oh but Talan you are my babe! Because you are my baby. You will always be my babe! All my kids are my babes!" And he says, "Naa Ahh!
I'm not yours babe!"
So we have had a discussion about what it is I'm to call him. And according to Talan, "Talan babe" is okay but "babe" all by itself is unacceptable!
Sometimes when he tells me that he isn't my babe I ask him, "Well then who is my babe?" He'll look around the room and pick one of the other kids, "Carsten's yours babe!"
Even though I know this bugs Talan I just can't seem to stop myself. It's like a habit that who knows how long I've been saying. I'll say, "Hey babe!" "Come get your pajamas on babe." "Come here babe." And every time without fail he says, "I'm not yours babe!" Even when he's hurt and crying I'll say, "Oh, come here babe!" And with tears in his eyes, "I'm not yours babe!"
It's become pretty comical! Now I'll say it on purpose just to see if he'll remember to protest my saying it! And so far he's NEVER forgotten!

Last night I came home after being gone for a few hours. The whole entire family was here. Everyone was sitting at the kitchen table working on homework or just hanging out. Talan was in the family room playing by himself. As soon as Talan heard me walk into the room he threw his hands in the air, he was beaming with joy and filled with excitement that his mom was home!
He said,"Mom's home!" As he ran to greet me! And all the while everyone else in the house continued with whatever it was they were doing. I don't think that any of the others weren't necessarily happy to see me, it's just that that overjoyed outward excitement fades as people get older. And that's when it hit me,
Talan IS MY BABE!
He's my last one! And this isn't going to last forever! I'm not going to be the superhero mom for much longer, and so I had better enjoy it! I've got to convince Talan that it's good to be the babe! I've got to get him to want to be the babe! Because really and truly, I don't want to lose MY BABE!

Talan,
YOU ARE MY BABE!

Geo Trax!

Talan has a TRAIN obsession!
For Christmas all he could talk about was the train Santa was going to bring him. And when Santa actually came through bringing him the Toy Story 3 train he was thrilled! And then when we got him some wooden train tracks for his birthday to go with his Thomas The Trains stuff, he was doubly thrilled!
However my friend Shari had Talan over one day and apparently she has the train set of all train sets! Talan seriously couldn't quit thinking about Shari's train. Everyday Talan would ask, "Shari's house. We go Shari's house? I play Shari's train?" I hadn't ever seen Shari's train set before and had no idea what he was so obsessed about. It turns out that it's the Geo Trax train set that IS the train set of all train sets!
So the other day I took Talan to Target to spend his Birthday gift card he got from Grandma and Grandpa Haws. And what do you know, Target carries Geo Trax! Oh My Gosh! This was so exciting! Talan could hardly wait to get home and rip the box open to play with it!
Look at that grin!
And then to top off the awesomeness of getting a Geo Trax, it came with a DVD! Now when Talan isn't playing with his Geo Trax, he can be watching Geo Trax on T.V.!
I don't think life gets any better than this for a train obsessed little 3 year old boy!

My Baby Cub!

My good friend Shari put it best when she said,
"Don't get between a Mama Bear and her Cub!"

Last Friday I got a phone call from Carsten saying that he had fallen at recess and wanted me to bring him a change of clothes because his were all wet. I told him that I was in the middle of something but I would come as soon as I could. When I arrived at the school I realized that the "Early Birds" were just about to get out of school and Carsten is an early bird! I thought, "Oh my gosh! What a waste of my time! Carsten can just come home on the bus and get changed!" Then I thought, "Well I'm here! I'll just run in, have him change, and then take him home." So I ran to his classroom with a change of clothes in hand.

I opened his classroom door apologizing for my interruption. His teacher looked at me, giving me "The Look", she motioned her pointer finger for me to COME HERE and then pulled out a little chair for me to sit down. As I walked to her I said, "Well this can't be good!"

So let me give you a little background before I go too far... My little Carsten has ADHD. His teacher has taught Ethan and Bradon in previous years. She knows me well! Our relationship hasn't always been lovely but it has blossomed. In fact when Ethan had her I didn't like her at all! When Bradon got her I went to the principal to talk to him about getting Bradon switched out of her class. We decided that Ethan and Bradon were very different and that maybe, Bradon would have a good year with her. And it turned out to be a fantastic year! She helped me to realize that Bradon was attention deficit which was a life changing discovery for our entire family. She took Bradon under her wing, took him from being her lowest reader to the top! I was pleasantly surprised! And I had a new found faith in second chances. So this year Carsten wanted her as a teacher. Both of his older brothers had her and now it was going to be his turn! And so we requested her!

Early in the year Carsten's teacher expressed her concern about Carsten's behavior. She assured me that she loves him but expressed to me how she had 5 or 6 kids in the class that were extremely active making her job hard. I let her know early on that I was on her side and that I would do anything I could to make sure Carsten wasn't a problem for her. In fact I told her and Carsten both that if Carsten was a continued problem, I would be going to the principal and asking him what class would be better suited for Carsten and I would switch him right out of her class! She protested that idea and assured me that she loves Carsten and wouldn't want for him to be taken from her class. Carsten also protested. I told the both of them, "Then Carsten had better figure out how to be good and not cause any trouble." We switched Carsten from being a "Later Gator" to an "Early Bird" to ease her burden of having so many ACTIVE kids as later gators in her class. Which means that every morning I drive to the school twice. Once to take Carsten and then an hour an fifteen minutes later to take Bradon and Reagan. And I have been okay with this because I am on her side! Whatever it takes! I said so myself! Not to mention it has turned out to be helpful separating my two attention deficit children during the morning "get ready process."

Everything has seemed peachy keen! No complains from Carsten, and no complaints from his teacher! Up until I showed up on Friday unannounced and got the pointer finger motioning me to SIT, I thought everything was okay!

I took a seat and then the unthinkable began!
A conversation took place that was absolutely mind boggling, disturbing, WRONG on so many levels! I kept my cool trying to calm the situation. I tried to be reasonable and rational. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt! And then I realized that she wasn't okay! She wasn't thinking straight! She had absolutely lost her mind!

She told me that Carsten's medication had quit working. She told me that she wanted me to bring his medication to the school so that she could distribute them to him personally. She said that that way if his meds weren't working she could "take a handful of them and cram them down his throat!" {Are you kidding me?} She told me that she has told Carsten that if his behavior continued "she was going to KILL HIM and send him home in a coffin!" SHE SERIOUSLY TOLD ME THIS! {If she thinks this is a cute way to joke around about this... I don't think this is funny!} At one point as the class {whom was still in the classroom during this sweet little conversation and if sitting close enough could listen to every word} got too loud... they were getting up and down moving about the classroom as they saw fit... She stood up and yelled at the class, "SIT DOWN! If you don't sit down right now I'm going to slap you so hard that your great great grand kids will be born with dizzy heads!" followed up with a "But I love you!" sang in a sweet voice. I COULDN'T BELIEVE MY EARS! I assured the teacher that I would take care of Carsten, I would make an appointment with the pediatrician making sure his meds are right for him. I promised her that I would personally make sure that his medication was swallowed each day, I being a witness to it! During this conversation she told me that she has had to call 5 sets of parents just that week because the kids in the class were so naughty. And just as I saw that this conversation wasn't going anywhere nor did it have any chance of going anywhere she began to CACKLE like a witch. She repeated herself over and over, "His meds wear off before he even gets to school!" "His meds aren't working!" As she cackled louder and louder. She covered her mouth with her hand and then uncovered her mouth just long enough to say, "I feel sorry for you!" as she began to cackle again! To tell you the truth at this point I was seriously disturbed! I had fear in my heart! I knew that this lady had been pushed over the edge and it wasn't necessarily all of Carsten's fault. I stood up, walked backwards to the door motioning Carsten to grab his backpack and to follow me. We left the room and all the while she continued to CACKLE!

I walked straight to my friend Shari's classroom and quietly told her that Carsten's teacher had LOST IT! The bell rang and the chaos of the early birds leaving began. I went to my car to head home. The school Principal was standing outside waving to all the parents as they drove by. I pulled my car right up to the curb he was standing on, I rolled down my window and said, "I have something I need to talk to you about! I am going to drive home right now and then I am going to call you! It's about something that just happened!" With a look of surprise on his face he said, "Okay! I'll be going back to my office in just a few minutes. I'll be waiting!"

I drove home trying to gather my thoughts together, trying to hold back tears until I couldn't hold them back anymore. I got things situated at home so that I could have a quiet environment for this conversation with the Principal to take place. I went into our spare bedroom and dialed the phone. The Principal was waiting for my call just as he had promised. I gave him a quick background letting him know all that had been done leading up to this day and then gave him a play by play of everything that had just took place, everything that had been said. I let him know that I knew that she was a good teacher but she had more on her plate than she could handle. I told him that whatever discipline strategy she was using wasn't working! She has totally lost it! I told him about my threat earlier in the year and told him that I wasn't going to let my child be the one to throw her over the edge. It was time for Carsten to switch classes. It's time for him to suffer the consequence for making his teachers life/job hard.

The Principal was very nice! We had a nice conversation and he told me that not only was he going to move Carsten but he was going to talk with the teacher, find out who the other 5 kids were and possibly move them too. He said he would do whatever it took to make her class more manageable for her. As for what he is going to do to disipline the teacher... I have no idea! I don't even know if he will do anything about it. I would hope so, but I guess it's really none of my business. I've taken care of my end of the situation and it's his job to take care of his.

OH MY GOSH! I am so happy that I made that threat! I don't think that this is all of Carsten's fault but I do think he was a contributing factor. I do think his teacher is a little bit crazy and I don't want him to be subjected to her craziness! I am so glad that I was able to blame my demands of a teacher change on me and my need to follow through as a parent. And I DO think it was time for me to follow through! There are no hard feelings between his teacher and myself. And I am thrilled with the new teacher the Principal selected for Carsten.

On the morning of Carsten's first day in his new class Carsten and I met with his new teacher out in the hall. His new teacher couldn't have been sweeter about the whole situation. Carsten stood there with his head hung down. I have no idea what he was thinking. My heart broke for him and this entire situation! It was one big dose of tough love. And I'll tell you it WAS TOUGH! And I hope that Carsten realizes that I did it because I love him! He's got to know that enough is enough! And really and truly, he deserves the best! And he deserves someone who will help bring out his best! Carsten is a GOOD kid! Yes he thinks he's funny and yes he feeds off some of the other boys in the class and yes he's not perfect, BUT HE'S A GOOD KID! After we talked for a bit Carsten's new teacher said, "So Carsten are you ready for this? Are you ready to meet your new classmates? Come on, let's do this!" Carsten walked beside his new teacher with his head STILL hung down. As I walked away I couldn't help but to cry! It seriously broke my heart!

As I told my friend Shari about what had happened she said, "Everyone knows not to get between a Mama bear and her Cub. Stephanie, She got between you and your Cub! She threatened your Cub!"

Oh how true this is! It's amazing how those Mama bear instincts kick in! And now that it's all said and done and I can joke about it. I would like to say, "I hope that everyone down at that school got my message loud and clear! Don't mess with MRS. ADAIR or any of her precious Cubs! And Carsten.... When I say straighten up or I'll pull you, I'm serious! You had better listen to your Mama! And I'm the Mama Bear!"