Family Christmas Letter 2010

Greetings to all,

This year has been a rather eventful one in the Rogers household. We finally bought our first home, the one we had been renting for the past four years. Sierra turned eight and was baptized and confirmed as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. Seth and Misty had their tenth anniversary (spending a “second honeymoon” in Breckenridge CO during the off season-very nice). We added a new addition to the family, a wonderful, black, male cat names Kasper. Bailey officially started school. Blake moved up into “the big kids bed”. And, saving the best news for last, everyone in the house is now toilet trained.

As far as individuals go, Seth’s practice is going along at a good clip. It keeps him busy most of the time. During his “down time” he has continued his work on interfaith dialogue through bloging and fielding email questions about the LDS Church for FAIR. He is also currently serving as the ward’s executive secretary and singing baritone in the ward choir.

Misty has been busy this year. She has tiled the main bathroom floor, resurfaced and painted the bathroom walls, painted the exterior of the house, learned the sopranino, soprano, and alto recorders, started learning the clarinet, typing, and Latin, and continued in her endeavors to homeschool the kids. She was finally released from teaching in the ward and is now on the Enrichment Committee for a short rest. Misty has once again picked up jogging and continues to read, crochet, walk, and plan.

Sierra (8) is now in 3^rd grade and in her second year at Options (a once a week public school for the homeschooled child) where she is taking Computer Skills, Piano 2, Art, Math, PE, and Drama. At home she is learning Math (including multiplication, decimals, and very soon, division), Grammar, Typing, Spelling, Cursive, Dictation, Chemistry, Latin, and Renaissance History as well as reading some abridged classics including Gulliver’s Travels and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In her spare time, she has also started to learn the soprano recorder, and she really wants to learn to play the guitar. Sierra continues to be very artistic, using everything from tin foil and plastic grocery bags to cardboard and watercolors for her projects. She is a very happy, responsible, creative, obedient, and social child, though she still has some problems when confronted with anything new.

Bailey (6) is now officially in Kindergarten, though she is doing a lot of first grade work. She is thrilled to finally be able to go to Options where she is learning Reading Skills, Math, Music, PE, Art, and Science. At home, she is doing Reading at a second grade level, Math, Handwriting, and Spelling at a first grade level, and Chemistry, Latin, and Renaissance History along with Sierra. She continues to be interested in whatever Sierra is doing, a quick learner (especially in anything language oriented), attentive to detail, stubborn, astute, manipulative, charming, and cute as a button. Things are never boring when she is around.

Blake (4) is starting to learn his colors and ABCs. He loves watching Leap Frog’s Letter Factory whenever the girls go off to Options. He has also started drawing (on everything, including the couch and walls), cutting (luckily on mostly paper and cardboard), putting puzzles together, and creating things from Legos, bristle comb blocks, and Trios. He is surprisingly good at looking at the pictures and building what he sees. He also likes sword fighting, posturing, grunting, and all of those other boy things. Blake knows what he wants and is very capable and independent for a four year old. He also keeps the cleanest room in the house. Go figure. Logical, methodical, pragmatic, perfectionistic, independent, and sweet. That’s our boy.

Kasper (8 months), our furry black cat, is a bundle of fun. He loves the outdoors, staying out as much as possible. He is also a very social kitty. He will say “hi” to anyone he sees: the mail lady, kids walking home from school, random guys walking by. Anyone. He’ll even search out our kids to play with, even when they aren’t so nice. His favorite places to sleep are on Seth’s office chair, Seth and Misty’s bed, and snuggled up with a sleeping Bailey. We’re really glad to have him.

It’s been a good year, though stressful at times. We hope all of yours have been good too. Best wishes to all, and Merry Christmas!

Lots of Love,

The Rogers Family

Oh Tanenbam

We went up into the mountains again this year to cut down our Christmas tree. Sure, we don't get the best looking tree possible, and when you factor in gas, the cost is about the same as buying one in town. But the memories are so worth it.

On the drive there:

At Read Feather Lakes National Forest Just north of Fort Collins Colorado:

We found our tree

and cut it down.

Then we had to take it to the car.

Getting ready to head home:

Time to decorate:

Not too shabby, ehh?

Blake is 4

Happy 4th Birthday Blake!

He had owl cupcakes. Blake was so excited.



The girls helped him make them. All I did was bake the cupcakes and make the frosting. The kids did all the rest. Not bad, huh?

Cat Fight

Well our cat, Kasper, has come home with his first set of war wounds. He's got a nice scratch across the "whites" of his left eye. It's not across the retina, so he should be OK. But we still have to watch it to make sure it doesn't get infected. Poor kitty.

Bailey and the Nickel

A couple mornings ago, Bailey found a nickel while cleaning. She was so proud of it. She showed it to me, and I told her she could keep it. Grins from ear to ear. How cute!

Ten minutes later, she was wailing.

She'd swallowed it.

I wasn't too panicked. My brother had swallowed a 2 inch quilting pin when we were kids, and the doctor had told my mom to simply check his stools for the next few days and wait for it to come out. I figured we'd have to do the same.

I went down stairs to tell my husband, then came back up to calm Bailey down and try calling Grandpa (a family doctor). No luck there, and I didn't have his pager number. Sigh.

Seth came up stairs and told me he had googled "my daughter swallowed a nickel". His answer was right there at the top. Google's amazing! Anyway, it said the same thing that my mom's doctor had told her all those years ago. Check the pooh.

So we did.

I am happy to report that this morning, two days later, it finally came out. Hooray!

Lesson: don't put nickels in your mouth.

Bailey is 6!

Bailey had her 6th birthday recently. Her and Sierra decided what her "cake" would be, and they helped make it. They decorated the cup cakes and made the mice. I made the cat on top. Cute huh?

Happy Birthday Bailey!

Trick or Treat

Sierra is a black cat.

Blake is Link from Zelda's Wind Waker.

Bailey is my little witch.

Realization

I have come to the unavoidable conclusion that my house would be, and remain, a lot cleaner if my kids went to school every day.

School for Me!

My kids aren't the only ones doing school this year. When they started learning Latin, I said "Me too!". When Sierra brought home a typing program, I said "Me too!" again. Oh, and I've also started teaching myself the clarinet (I played the oboe for 6 years, but I don't have an oboe. I have my husband's old clarinet instead, so I figured, why not make use of it?)

So now, while my kids are doing their school work, I happily busy myself for 10-15 minutes learning to type correctly. I never actually learned before, and while I can easily type 20+ words per minute, I'm not very efficient and have to continually look at my hands.

After typing, I go off to my room and practice the clarinet while the girls continue their school work. (They come and find me if they need me, but this way I don't distract them.) Since I have prior band experience, I'm flying through the lessons. It's somewhat nostalgic to see those old songs that I used to have problems with in junior high. I can easily whip through them now on a new instrument because all I'm really learning are the different fingerings and ambusher (mouth positioning). I don't have to learn all of the mechanics over again. Makes me want to try other instruments once I have the clarinet down. (I'm seriously looking at relearning the piano-I only played it for 2 years-and eventually want to learn at least the trumpet and flute).

Later, typically toward the end of morning school or while the girls are having down time, I get back on the computer and do Rosetta Stone Latin. So far, so good. It's interesting how many English words are Latin based, making it easier on me in the long run. Feline, canine, elephant, aquatics, ambulatory, etc are all very similar to the Latin root.

It's kinda' fun learning along with my kids. Now, hopefully, I keep it up.

1st Day Success

The girls got to go to their first day of Options (a once a week public school for home schoolers) yesterday.

Sierra set her alarm clock to go off at 7 am just to make sure they wouldn't be late, and when the girls got up, they quickly ate breakfast, got dressed, helped put their lunches together, double checked to make sure they had everything (Bailey's water bottle was missing so she borrowed mine), and declared themselves ready to go ten minutes early. Needless to say, the girls were excited.

As for the last ten minutes before leaving, I took out Sierra's class schedule, drew a map on the bottom half with room numbers, etc., and went over her room changes a few times before we packed up into the car (we had also gone over the rooms in order during orientation a couple weeks ago, so I hoped it would be enough).

This year, instead of driving all the way up to Loveland (a 20 minute drive), we only had to travel about a mile (3 minutes) to get to school. Nice!

We showed up at about 8:10. School assembly starts at 8:15, so everything was going well. We sat on the bleachers in the gym, taking pictures and saying "Hi" to friends until we had announcements. Then the girls were off to their classes. Bailey lined up with her kindergarden class and teacher to go up stairs, and I took Blake and Sierra up stairs to Sierra's first classroom (math). I once again reminded her to follow the map and schedule that she had and to ask an adult if she needed any help.

Honestly, I found it amusing/interesting that I was making such a fuss about Sierra when it was Bailey's first time ever going to school. Really, it's because Bailey is so easygoing, and Sierra, who still has anxiety attacks and freaks out about things on occasion, had such a terrible first day last year. It's not hard to understand, but I had to wonder what Bailey's Kindergarden teacher thought as she watched me simply smile and wave goodbye at Bailey while acting like an overly protective, anxious mother toward my 3rd grader.

After dropping Sierra off, Blake and I headed back down the stairs to drop supplies off and pick up the Latin curriculum that we had checked out for the year. Then we were off.

Mondays are typically cleaning and grocery days, and yesterday was no exception. Blake happily played by himself putting together and pulling apart his new Toy Story puzzle while I cleaned the house. I guess I'm odd, but I had forgotten how much I liked cleaning by myself. I'm such a "fairness fairy" that I can't stand cleaning up while others sit around and do nothing, but it's so annoying having to ride herd on my kids to keep cleaning until they're done. Anyway, after cleaning, showering, going to the library, and three stores, I ended up with only about an hour to chill before heading out to pick up the girls.

I got there a few minutes early and was able to talk to some friends before the kids got out. Bailey had a huge grin on her face and promptly showed me the picture she had made during art, told me that she had three teachers (Kindergarden, Art and PE), and pranced around as we waited for Sierra who had to come all the way from the other side of the building to meet us.

To my relief, when Sierra found us she was smiling, though she looked a little uncertain. She found all of her classes and had fun, but she was still a bit tense. I think she'll be more relaxed next week now that she knows exactly what to expect.

And when we got home, we all chilled.

All in all, a very good day.

Our Schedule, So Far

Here's what our days look like so far this year (including what we plan on adding when Options starts):

Monday:
Options from 8:15-3:15
Sierra: PE, Drama, Science, Computer Skills, Piano, and Art
Bailey: K program combining Science, Art, Reading, Math, PE, etc.

Tuesday-Friday Mornings:
starting around 9am and going from one subject to another until complete, usually in this order
Sierra: Cleaning, Piano, Math, Handwriting, Dictation, Spelling, Grammar, Computer Work
Bailey: Cleaning, Math, Handwriting, Spelling, Copy Work, Reading

Tuesday Afternoon:
Together: Latin
Sierra: 30 minutes reading

Wednesday Afternoon:
Together: Latin and History
Sierra: 30 minutes reading

Thursday Afternoon:
Together: Latin and Science
Sierra: 30 minutes reading

Friday Afternoon:
Homeschool Playgroup

Boulder County Fair

A day to remember. The kids got all day passes on the rides, and were loving it. We did see the animals, art exhibits, equestrian competitions, and such, but the rides are what the kids loved most. No surprises there.

Believe it or not, Sierra actually went on this ride and loved it!

Bailey was too short to go on the older kids rides. She was so bummed. She still had fun anyway.

Blake was scared and practically cried the first time he went on the pirate ship. He got over it though and it became his favorite.

Daddy had fun too.

Sierra got to go on a lot of the older kid rides with one of her friends. They had a lot of fun together.

Back to Normal-FINALY!

We started school this week.

It's really nice to have a semblance of routine to our days again. I didn't realize before how much I appreciated that. Really.

These last few weeks have been listless blahs. Cleaning, shopping, cooking-they all went haphazard. Oh, there were fun days too, like when we went to the fair, but most of it was spent sitting around being very unproductive. Reading binges, anime binges, playing at the pool. . .it all gets boring after a while.

Don't get me wrong. Vacation is very nice. I've just realized that there can be too much of it too.

I'm thinking next summer we'll only take one month off. Two, while nice, was way to long.

Let's Get Organized

Our summer vacation time is swiftly coming to a close, and we're starting to get exited.

Yesterday morning, the kids and I went to the store and got all of our school supplies; binders, crayons, pencil boxes, pencils, paper, etc. They were so excited by it all that we were soon pulling packaging apart, putting school boxes together, coloring binder labels, and having a grand old time. I even went so far as to put together their math and language arts binders, an activity which involved pulling apart a number of 100+ page workbooks, hole punching them, and organizing them with deviders. I even made and printed out and hole punched a bunch of experiment pages for science. It took me a good few hours. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner!

I still have to get History ready, which involves pulling apart another workbook, scanning the pages, making a disk, printing them out, and hole punching them all. We also need to finalize our daily and year-long schedules, but there's still time.

We start school the second week in August.

We're almost there.

Vacation is nice, but we're getting ready for life to be normal again.

Kasper

Every time we go out to visit my family, I ask if I can have my brother's cat, never really expecting them to give him to me. Oh, I pout, act cute, and eventually grin when they don't take me seriously. But seriously, I love my brother's cat! He's one of the best kitties I've ever met; social, good with kids, laid back, doesn't bite or scratch, and isn't needy.

So, I got a surprise when I asked if I could take him home with me this time.

Turns out, a friend of my niece found a stray kitten and asked my niece if she could take care of him until the girl convinced her mom to let her keep him. Well, my sister consented, but then the girl wasn't allowed to keep him after all. Unfortunately, my sister already had three cats, the maximum allowed by city ordinances, and couldn't keep him either.

So, with us being in town and knowing my adoration of my brother's cat (who the kitten resembles in personality), they asked if we would take him.

Long story short, we now have a kitten. His name is Kasper. We don't know exactly, but I think he's somewhere around two to three months old.

It's almost strange how naturally he has fir into our house. Seth and I both grew up with cats, so having one seems so, well, natural. He's good natured too. He loves to play, explore, go outside, be around us, and sleep in the window sill in the basement and on Bailey's bed. He gets along well with the kids too and even our rats (though we have to be careful when they "play").

I like having a cat. I like it a lot, and it's a decision that I seriously doubt we'll regret.

Mint.com

After deciding to get my finances in better order, I started to look for a program to keep track of my spending. I've used Quicken before, so I went to their on-line sight first. Turns out they have a free on-line financial tracker called Mint. It acts similar to the old pre-2004 Quicken programs, which is what I used before, plus the added on-line capabilities. Very basic, but very useful.

Pros:

It's FREE

Easy access from any internet linked computer

Works with my Mac

Quicken style program

Create budgets

See data in chart and graph forms

Track your spending/income/net worth

Automatically downloads bank info

Info/advertising for other financial opportunities without being obnoxious

Cons:

No immediate downloads of transaction data (this may just be my bank)

Transaction data can take a few days to download

Information is all on the internet

It is only a basic program without all of the bells and whistles

Anyway, I like it. It covers all my basic needs and then some. Very nice.

I definitely think it's worth checking out.

Dry Night

Blake, for the last few nights, had been insisting on taking his diaper off to go pee in the toilet. Very annoying for us, because we had to then put it back on and deal with his whining.

Well, after a bit of debate (we're leaving for vacation in less then a week), we decided to let him sleep in underwear. He loved the idea. And what's more, this morning, he woke up dry!

I guess he was ready.

Now lets hope that vacation doesn't ruin it.

The Money Book

My husband, who is self-employed, came across a book on a financial blog geared toward those of our kind. It's called The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed: The Only Personal Finance System for People with Not so Regular Jobs.

Since I am the one who does the finances in our house, I had already come to realize that the traditional methods of saving weren't the ideal method for us. When your income flow is unpredictable, it's hard to save x amount predictably. So, I was interested, and, after reading the reviews, decided to get it.

I must say, I like it. It's easy to read and understand, and the authors use civilized humor which makes the reading enjoyable as well.

The plan works off of percentages instead of flat sums, really, really, really emphasizes prioritizing emergency savings, taxes, and retirement as well as paying off debt, and helps you find ways of prioritizing and saving for other things you want. It does all of this while understanding where the self-employed, etc are coming from (a non-stable income flow, business taxes/deductions, lack of good/any medical coverage, absence of a 401K, etc.).

Also, being a homeschooling mom, I thought about how I would like my kids to know these things. After all, don't most high school/college students fit into this category? Babysitting? Working at McDonalds? Lifeguarding over the summers? These aren't exactly stable, benefits producing jobs, but they can learn how to save according to their earnings. And, what's more, the percentage of people who fit into this category is growing rapidly. The odds are that our kids will be faced with this kind of work at some time or other in their adult careers.

In any case, especially if you fit this category of employment and even if you do not, I think it is a very enlightening and helpful read.

Summer Project

I'm almost done. Almost. Just a bit of touching up here and there. . . .

Here's the before:

Three weeks, 13 tubes of caulk, 8 rolls of blue tape, 6 gallons of paint, 1 gallon of primer, and over 50 man hours later, I've got this:

Big difference.