Poem

This is a poem Dara wrote in school:

Dara
Smart, curious, helpful, nice
Daughter of Kelly and Lisa
Love of sharks, books and computers
Who feels nervous when I'm on the lake,
happy when I started school and
angry when I broke my arms
Who fears hot ovens, deep parts of any
water and my mom cleaning my room
Who would like to see Cirque de Soleil, the
Great Wall of Chine and Europe
Resident of Waconia, MN
Amott

I like her fears the best.

Christmas is coming too fast. The year is ending too soon. A slippery slope that I am sliding on.

My house always seems full of people. Brannon's friends, elders, us. Sometimes Dara's friends. Brannon friends are just all so tall and all boy.

Thanksgiving was nice. We ate at someone else's house and then came back to our house and played games. Of course, we had to play Tripoly, the traditional game of Thanksgiving. I actually won.

I am trying to keep my house somewhat clean and organized daily. HA HA HA.

My women's group is doing Christmas for two families. One of the families has....11 children!!!! WHAT THE ****?!!!???

My kids are getting new beds for Christmas. Whoo Hoo! They are excited.

The lunch lady who takes the money at the middle school is a Bitchy McBitcherson. Ornery!!! I smile at her and am nice, but she is crabby.

Left Elders

Because I am the owner of the house the Elder's live in, I can drive them places without anyone else being in the car. I am like their mother.

The other set of Elders live with a family also and the same rule applies to them. They can be in the house with only the "mother" home, etc.

Today I drove my Elders over to pick up the other Elders to go to District Meeting. I was following them so they could drive to another town, drop their car off and then I would drive them on to their meeting. One of the other Elders is the District Leader. The meeting was to be held 40 minutes away from Waconia at 10:30.

We left Waconia at 9:30. Got to other Elders' home at 9:50. Waited for one Elder for over 20 minutes. I called his companion after we had been there about ten minutes. I gave them 5 minutes to be outside. After the 5 minutes, I went into the house and told them we were leaving right then.

I walked outside, counted to 20 REALLY slow, told my Elders to put their car keys in their car, get in my car and that we were leaving. We did. We drove away.

After about 10 minutes, the phone rang and other Elder was asking who was in the car with my Elders. He was getting upset because my Elders MAY have been in a car illegally with a woman. OOOOH.

Without making our scheduled stop in the other town to drop the car off, I got my Elders to the meeting spot exactly at 10:30.

Was I wrong to leave the hokie pokie Elders? Actually, it is just one of them. He takes longer than I do getting ready. Apparently, this one Elder is ALWAYS an hour behind. The other Elders are always waiting for him.

Stoopid story. Just had to get it off my brain. I may just be a stay at home mom, but I do have a life and it is not waiting around for pokies.

Thanks to my sister, Julie, for the comment about how I look 28. I will accept 30, but, hello, you look 19 years old. It must be those Schow genes. I just wish I got the tall and thin. Maybe my spirit is tall. My legs behind is too close to the floor. Oh, well. I should get used to it after all these years.

I think my parents should come back for a visit. We miss them. My ward misses them. One of the members, a wonderful, black woman from Chicago, misses them and each week asks how they are doing.

November has been absolutely wonderful. I am really not ready to bundle up for the negative numbers of winter.

In our ward boundaries,we have four school districts. Just seems strange coming from Utah where the wards and schools are compacted into little areas.

I am unsubscribing from e-mail lists. What a waste of time...but so needed. I am now down to 30 spams a day instead of 75. AHHHHH!!!!!

New Elder is Elder Smith. No relationship to THE Smiths. He is very nice also. We have been lucky with our 4 elders so far.

The Steves have been very active getting ready for winter.

The Dara has been getting a bit more dramatic as the days go on. PMS?

The Brannon is just a big barrel of teenage angst....wonderful one minute, complete idiot the next. But we love them both.

The Kelly is working hard or hardly working...depending on the day.

The Lisa...well, I am just weird old me. I did get an eye cream so maybe I will look a little younger around the eyes.

Leaving

One of our missionaries is being transferred. He came here brand-spankin' new. A deer caught in the headlights. We will miss Elder Ahlander. He has grown so much and is such a wonderful young man.

Appreciate My Healthy Children

Substituting as a para has really helped me appreciate my healthy children and also appreciate the parents and teachers of kids who are not quite "normal."

Vikings

Kelly got to go to the Minnesota Vikings practice arena on Friday. He got his picture taken in front of Brett Favre's locker and got to throw their official practice balls around. There were two speakers who were really good. One of them is a member of our church. He also works for the Vikings. The other is another coach. Totally Awesome!!

Our weather is very Octoberish. Love it!!! But because it has warmed up we have box elder bugs and japanese beetles everywhere. They are attempting to come in the house and take over. It is like a scary movie.

My friend who tried to commit suicide is doing okay. She got to go home on Friday from her safe house. I just hope her daughter recovers from this.

Friend

A friend of mine apparently tried to commit suicide over the weekend. Her 11 year old daughter found her passed out on the bathroom floor. I am angry at her, glad she is alive, worried. It is like having another child to worry about, except she is an adult. I am a bundle of confusion about how I feel. But she is back on her medication. We shall see how things go. It sucks to be her.

I substituted at the middle school today. I was manhandled by a little girl with Down's syndrome, yelled at by a very large 7th grader who was made about a hockey game in gym, and told by a 6th grader that I was his arch enemy. What a really fun day.

And my laundry is still on the floor in baskets NOT FOLDED.