Back To Nursery I Went Today

No it isn’t permanent, just a one day escape back to my old calling!!  Oh how I miss nursery!  I spent 3 years as one of the coordinators before being released and going on to Primary for 9-months and then to Relief Society.  With that being said it’s been 18months since I was back “home”!!  I jumped at the chance to go back for one day!

Most of the kids that are now in the nursery weren’t in when I was, except for a couple of kids.  My favorite Ella Bella and Miss Ellie.  These two little girls were itty-bitty when I left – just barely 18-months old.  Ellie and I had a special bond, I was the first one to finally get her to stop crying and stay in nursery!  This was no easy task, I might add.  It took a lot of work on both my part and Ellie’s to get to that point.

Poor Ellie had such stranger anxiety that she would make herself physically sick.  I’m sure her poor gullet had to be burning from the acid coming from her stomach.  I felt awful for her, but kept in her in nursery anyway.  I knew (and her mom agreed), that the best way for her to conquer this fear would be to ride it out!  We finally were successful (you can read my blog back from that day when I had Success In Nursery with Ellie), and I am excited to announce the Ellie is now a proud nursery go-er!

I miss my nursery calling and working with the little kids, but I got lots of “oh we missed you’s” and “Relief Society wasn’t the same without you, don’t leave us again!”  It felt great to feel missed and needed!

 

 

 

Be sure to check out my QOTD on BlogFrog on your blogging!!  How long have you been blogging?  What made you begin?  What's your favorite part about it?!

This post is the first time I am participating in a linked blog game and am sooooo excited to do so!!  I’m participating in a new word game, Word Up, Yo! hosted by Liz of A Belle, A Bean, & A Chicago Dog, and some blogging friends of hers.  Each Sunday they’ll post a new WOW! (Word Of Week) to be used in a blog post the following week.  This is the first week, and as you probably figured out the WOW! is gullet.  Come join us for some word fun!!  Okay….let’s see if I can do this correctly…..

“Built on the Rock: A Book of Mormon Musical”

This past weekend Alex participated in the Redmond Stake Youth Conference production of “Built on the Rock: A Book of Mormon Musical” a new musical based on the stories of the Book of Mormon.  The musical was actually written by a woman in our stake, Dana B. Cardon and her sister, Karen R. Bryce for the youth of the Redmond, Washington Stake!  How cool is that!?!

"Built on the Rock" is a new musical created for the youth of the Redmond Washington Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The musical follows the story of one teenager's journey as he begins to understand how he can come to Jesus Christ. Stories from the Book of Mormon highlight Christ's central role in gaining a testimony. The prophets of the Book of Mormon show us the way by teaching us how to gain faith, become converted, build on the rock of our Redeemer, have a mighty change of heart, repent, be true at all times, invite us to come to the light, which is Christ, and recommend that we "seek this Jesus" (Ether 12:41).  (Taken from Redmond Stake Youth Conference 2010 webpage)

Like morons, my family forgot to bring a camera to take pictures.  It probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because there was no flash photography, so the photos wouldn’t have come out.  However, their was on photographer there who took some fantastic photos and was nice enough to share with Alex & for me to post on my blog.  So a big thank you to Margie Mueller of Margie Mueller Photography for letting me ‘steal’ some photos!  I really appreciate it!

Extra points for those of you who can spot ALEX in two of these photos!  Post a comment if you can spot her!  Good luck!! 

Adorable Dress

Emma went with Alex & I to church today, while Zak & Jaime celebrated their anniversary and Madison & Brandi went to a movie.

Alex & I had fun showing her off, and she looked adorable today!  I got her this outfit this summer after seeing this outfit on a baby on the Today Show!  I tracked it down and bought it for Em!  Jaime had a cute brown bow that matched the outfit perfectly to top of the outfit!

 

Poor Emma fell asleep on the ride home – doesn’t that look so uncomfortable?

 

 

 

 

We tried to take some pictures of her when we got home, but she was really tired and not happy!  So these were the best ones we could get!

  She is also fighting a nasty cold, so her nose is so red :-(

Alex & I had fun with her today, she was a lot of fun to take with us!  Amazingly she was very quiet and well-behaved until the last 20 minutes when she was overtired and ready to go home!

People, People, Everywhere!

On Wednesday night, we hosted the Relief Society Christmas Party!There was about 37 ladies who attended and celebrated the Christmas season with us! 

But with that many people, and not to mention the amount of food that was there, it was hard to find a quiet area to talk!  Alisha W. did a great job planning and putting this event together!  The Christmas spirit was definitely present!!

Table of Food
mini quiches, cookies, cheese cake, fruit & veggies!

Enjoying yummy food and great company!

After we chit-chatted and chowed, there was a short program.  Tiffany S. shared stories about the Christmas she spent in Japan during her mission.  Jeni A. then shared experiences that her family had while they lived in Germany.  It was really awesome to hear different Christmas stories and traditions others have!  There also was Christmas songs and a gift exchange!Like I said….there was people everywhere, including sitting on the stairs because we ran out of room!!

It was a great evening, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!  It’s hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner!  I’m ready!!  

Blogging Rut

Yes, I am in a blogging rut!  Nothing fun has gone on in the last couple of days!  I've just been working, cleaning, decorating and studying.  Did I mention my final is on THURSDAY!  Yipppee!!  Then I'm off until mid-March, after the cruise!

I have decided to try and visit Eryn and family in Texas in January, so that will be something fun!  Now I just need to find airfare, hopefully I will be able to use some of my milage points and get free flights!!  

RS Christmas "meeting" is here tomorrow night, so between studying for my final and finishing preparing for the activity tomorrow night, I'll be nice and busy!  I'm excited, it should be fun!  

Excited for my new calling

I was just called as the Relief Society Secretary!!  I'm so excited to be working with Lucy M., Alisha W. and Jen L. again!  We had our first presidency meeting tonight and it was really interesting to hear all that actually goes on behind the scenes!  I'm definitely excitedfor this calling!  I get to do a lot of list making and organization...2 of my favorite things!!  Do I mention I'm excited?

Testimony & Adoption

This morning it was just me from my family at church (Alex went to the Big Rock Ward, where her friend was getting confirmed and my parents are out of town), so I happily was seated just listening and thinking about my pending lesson when I felt the need to bear my testimony. It had been awhile, and I tried to ignore the feeling - but the more I tried the harder it was. I knew I had to get up and say something about what is going on up in Camano with the baby and adoption. (I don't feel comfortable going into detail here right now...maybe later).

I finally got the courage to get up (luckily the new ward is much smaller so it was so intimidating!) and do it. I told the sped up version of the last 2 years and what's going on now, how thankful I am for families, my family, prayer and hope. Felt like I just babbled, but I hope I didn't! When I was done, I sat down and felt much better! Immediately after me someone got up and said "I was that baby". She had been adopted when she was a baby and went onto bear her testimony on adoption and family. It was concluded by one more lady getting up who is trying to adopt right now. The theme for me turned out to be "hope and miracles" - it was a beautiful testimony meeting and I felt the spirit so strongly.

I continue to just pray and send good vibes both to Eastern Washington and up north that what's meant to happen will - that everyone will have peace, and will keep the baby in mind. Rational thoughts and choices will be made and not led by being scared. I hope she can make that choice and do what she knows she needs to do.

Let Them Eat Cake & Split Ward

Yesterday afternoon we celebrated the triplets 2nd birthday!  It was a small party, their extended family and a handful of close friends.  The weather held out and we hung out on the patio by the pool!!  The kids did really well and played hard!  In typical Jack fashion, he freaked out while we sang Happy Birthday and they blew out their candle.  But as soon as the paparazzi left him alone he happily ate cake! 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

These two pictures I thought were toooo cute!!  Jack & Nate playing in the playhouse!  They look just so happy, so I had to throw them in!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Split Ward

Last night there was a special fireside where the Stake Presidency announced the splitting of the Duvall & Carnation Wards to form a third ward…the Big Rock Ward.  The new boundary lines fall right along the Stillwater Elementary boundary lines and along 150th.  We ‘lost’ a lot of awesome families (May’s, Cattin’s, Bye’s and Smith’s who have been in our Ward for years!  Plus many more who I missed) into the new Big Rock Ward.  It is very sad, but hopefully in the end it will be worth it and for the best! 

The ‘old’ Duvall Ward had 500 members in it and 200 primary kids.  They pretty evenly split the wards and the ‘new’ Duvall Ward has about 300 families and 120 primary kids.  Alex is really bummed because Gwenaelle & Brooke are both in the Big Rock Ward.  We (Duvall Ward) now will meet in the Union Hill Building, with the Big Rock Ward meeting in the Carnation Building.  Majority of Duvall Ward members kept their callings, but I’m sure lots of changes will occur this Sunday.  We kept Bishop Lee and the new Big Rock Bishop, is Bob Richey! 

It has been really interesting to see (read) people’s thoughts and opinions to the changes.  Reading people’s statuses on Facebook and comments/posts on the Sisters Of Duvall site has been interesting.  As hard as it is to split, we all knew it was coming and this is SOOOO much easier then when we split from Redmond where for the most part we never saw people again.  We will see these people all the time, they still are our neighbors and friends.

Sunday should be really interesting!

Lake Chelan Video & Mom's AWESOME Talk

Okay I got it done ... here is our Lake Chelan trip ... don't forget volume!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My mom also gave an AMAZING talk in church today...kudos for her!! She had to speak in front of the entire congregation for 15minutes! She did awesome, and the rest of the day I was stopped by people saying what a great job she did! Way to go MOM!!

Saturday Ramblings

Nothing really exciting to say - so doing more of a 'journal' post of my day...

This morning I slept in and it felt really great! I think the yoga last night helped a lot in relaxing me and being able to shut off my brain!! I went to bed at a reasonable time and got up about 10:30! Made for a much happier Cori today!

This morning Allie, Erin and I went to Oasis. They got pedi's, and I got a new set put on. I feel human again to have my nails back! I broke my pinky nail early last week and then yesterday broke the thumb nail. After the thumb nail completely cracked I popped the rest off (yes, very painful!). But I feel better now! They are a little longer then I normally get, but I'm happy!

After Oasis, Erin & I met up Brandi, Jaime & the girls at the mall to do some shopping. I was good today and didn't buy anything (I have a big shopping addiction)! But I had fun wandering around and looking with everyone else. We went to Costco after and it was a mad house in the parking lot. Plus we had HAIL and were getting pelted as we ran inside. Madison LOVED the hail and kept eating the hail balls from off Erin's coat! Gross but funny!

After Costco, Erin had to go to work but the rest of us headed back to my house in the snow for "Nacho Bar" night. Yes, I said SNOW...we got a couple of inches this evening, but it looks like the roads are pretty clear, its just mostly on the grass. Anyway...Zak met up with us at my house where my parents set up a 'make your own nachos' bar - with all the fixin's. It was so good, each one of us got our own tray and made up our own gourmet nachos! They were delicious!! It's always fun to get to make your own just how you like it!

After everyone headed home I worked on my lesson for tomorrow on Repentance. Seems like a fun lesson - so I hope the kids are good and willing to listen and participate! Last week was my first real week of doing my star chart (see my post on it from January 31st on Preparing for Church). I ended up modifying my idea, because I soon realized that if I didn't I'd be throwing ice cream parties every month! I love my 6-year-olds...but not that much! LOL! So I decided to keep how they can earn stars ....

• attending church
• being good during sharing time (keeping their CTR shield - they have a shield to hold, if I have to take the shield away - no sticker)
• being good during lesson time (keeping all the CTR letters - aka they get 3 warnings before no sticker!)

but instead of having it based off of how many stars they get in a month - I will throw them an ice cream party once they get 200 stickers on the chart! It worked wonders last week, so hopefully it works again this week!!

Okay I think I have rambled on long enough...have a good evening...we'll see if the snow continues and what happens tomorrow! Until then....Ciao!

Flemmer Family Fast & Success in Primary!

My Grandma Plane (aka my mom's mom Grandma Flemmer), last week was diagnosed with some type of cancer in the blood. The doctors think they caught it early enough and are positive that it should be easily removed. She has to undergo chemo, and if I'm right in the form of a pill? She went in for tests last week and we should have more information on Wednesday. Yesterday, was fast Sunday and our whole extended family had a fast to pray for Grandma. I hope that everything is okay and that she can beat the cancer quickly and with very little pain.

Yesterday, i debuted my Star Chart for my primary class and I have t say it was a success! Those kids will do anything for an Ice Cream Party...I think at the end of the month I may need to make it harder to get stars or maybe they'll have to wait longer (like 2 or 3 months instead of just 1), because at this rate if I don't, I'll be throwing parties for them every month! They got a total of 18 stars yesterday and were proud of themselves!!

I had very little talking and fidgeting during class time, since we have sharing time first, I couldn't really penalize them for being loud/destructing during it, so they all got stars but starting next week...

Sharing Time: I will give each of them a CTR shield at the beginning of sharing time, and I will take the shield from them if they need reminding to be reverent. When we get to class if they still have their shield I'll give them a star

Class Time: They each get CTR written by their name on the board, if they get warned for being loud, distracted, etc. I'll erase one letter. If all 3 letters are gone by the end of the class time, they won't get a sticker. If they still have letters left they can have a sticker. I only had 1 child lose 1 letter...and boy were they well behaved! We did watch a movie, so maybe that had something to do with it!

I'm excited to see how next Sunday goes, and if this week was just a fluke or if it will work from now on! It definitely was easier to teach without them being so wiggly!!!

Preparing for Church....

I just finished my lesson for tomorrow and I also came up with a 'rewards chart' - so I am hoping it helps with the lack of reverence and non-stop talking during class time! I am sure it won't go perfectly, but I still can hope!! So here's what I did ...



Along the left is each child's name and then a square for each day of the month. Each Sunday they get up to 5 chances to get stickers for that day. At the end of the month the number of stickers they have determines their reward!! Since food isn't allowed it was hard to come up with rewards! But here's what I did ...

Rewards: *there is a chance to get 80 stickers/month*
75+: Ice Cream Party (outside of church)
70-74: Watch a church movie during class time
60-69: Class Game
50-59: Stickers
40-49: Sit on the floor during class time
39 or less: Take a walk outside

How can they earn stickers?
- Being there
- Saying the opening prayer
- Good listener during sharing time
- Good listener during class time
- Saying the closing prayer

We'll see how it goes this month...I'm not sure if I'm giving out to many stickers but last week one of my kids asked "do I get a sticker for saying the opening prayer?". So I figured more is better then less in this case! I'll check back in in a month and let you all know how it went!

Wish me luck!

Sunday, Sunday

Today was another ordinary Sunday. My mom and dad were visiting Grace & Leslie in Olympia and helping them move into their new house, so it was just me and Alex going to church. It's nice that we once again have the 9:00am time, so that means up early, but also done early!

I got released from nursery a couple weeks ago, after serving in it for over 3 years, and immediately went into the intermediate primary. Our ward (not including nursery, I'm pretty sure) has 190 kids, so we have it split between nursery, junior, intermediate and senior primary. I was assigned to the 3rd CTR 6 class, and have 6 very active kids...4 boys and 2 girls. I hate to admit it but I think nursery is easier!

I'm struggling to figure out how to bring reverence into the classroom when all the kids want to do is chit-chat, climb on the chairs, climb under the chairs on and off the window sill, etc. So my goal for the week is work on some sort of reward system (and we aren't allowed treats, so there goes that great bribe!). It's definitely a fun age and a great class, just not something I'm used to, so I'm working on figuring out how best to serve these kids!

After church, Alex and I went home, she baked cookies for us while I started my homework (btw it is now 11pm and I still have homework to do...luckily I'm almost done). Alex, Brandi, Erin & I had "Christmas with the Elkins" this afternoon and brought our cookies and presents over to the triplets house to exchange gifts. Because of the snow, flooding and then the flu we had to keep postponing our get-together. We had a nice little celebration, I got more gifts (yay!) and we just talked! It was fun to be together!

After that I came back to...Jaime and the girls stopped by to join myself, Alex, Brandi, Erin & Kelly for dinner. I made everyone sloppy-Joe's (Yummmmmy!) all by myself and everyone was impressed. We hung out for awhile and then back to homework I went. Except for a brief break, I have been working away at my homework.

Are you getting the gist of my day ... basically all I did today was HOMEWORK. Ick! And tomorrow starts another week...WEEK 4 though, that means I'm 1/3 of the way through the quarter!! But tomorrow also is my long day! I need to finish up my homework so I can go to bed and won't have to do it in the morning!! I plan on sleeping in!!

EDIT: At 11:52 I finished ALL my homework now I can sleep in, in the morning! YAHOOO!!

17 three year olds + Small Room = BIG HEADACHE

Today at church all of the leaders for the Senior Nursery were gone, so I pinch-hit and was the only 'real' nursery leader in the class today. So it was me, my three subs and 17 three year olds that I hardly know (since I'm normally in the Junior Room) as we try to survive the two hours together!

The 1.5hours went fine - playtime and snack went fairly smoothly - but we ran into problems when snack was over and we were reading books. A few kids started going crazy which then escalated to more and more. We then had to split them up for Lesson & Music and at that point we just lost control!! I had the lesson today (found out about 11am this morning) so I quickly through together a lesson to teach. The first group I had was just crazy, they wouldn't sit still, kept running around, talking, hitting, crawling under the tables, etc. I tried to keep their attention but it was hard! The second group was a bit calmer and it was a little bit easier to keep their attention. After that time it was already a few minutes to 4pm, so we had them color and then prayed that their parents would be there on time!

I LOVE being in nursery, but days like today make me just want to go home and go to sleep!! It definitely is a work out, but very worth it!

Success in Nursery!!!

Today was an AWESOME day in nursery....I single-handedly was able to get Ellie to stop crying and almost participate in nursery! It started out a little bit better then normal. Her dad came in with her and sat her in the front row for our 'welcome time' and she actually sat there without crying and looked at the book and smiled When we were moving on to our activity time her dad said 'she's going to be upset whenever I leave, so I just need to go' and he said he'd wait outside the door and we could grab him if we needed too.

I was the lucky one to get to pick her up. She screamed bloody murder (even with her binky shoved in her mouth). I quickly remembered last week she was okay for awhile with Dawn when she was humming Primary Songs to her. So I quickly started humming and signing I Am A Child of God and her screaming became more of a wimper as she listened to the song. I quickly ran out of songs, so I turned out the CD player we had and hummed along with the songs on it. And she continued to stay calm (still wimpering from time to time). Barb, Brian & Jen were impressed, but didn't dare look at us, because everytime someone would Ellie would lose it.

We sat at the table during snack time (she didn't eat, but at least was quiet), and then we got out puzzles. She really enjoyed the puzzles and began to interact a little bit more with me (other then just glaring or wimpering). I was even able to put her down and she stood infront of me while working on the puzzle She was happier (still not screaming ) when we had music time with Brother Hunt. Then was the big test....
We had to change rooms and go down to the big nursery room for toy & free playtime. My fear was she was going to freak (or her parents would be in the hall) during this transition. She did get worked up a bit during the move, but I was able to calm her down fairly quickly. When we made it to the big room, we colored and played with stencils. Then Samantha brought her a baby doll which she happily held and played with, I even saw her smile!! We also got down on the floor and played with the toys, and she didn't even get upset when other parents started to come! However, when her mom showed up she lost it...Go figure she had to show her mom how awful nursery had been. Her mom of course knew otherwise since she saw her happily playing!!

Should be interesting to see how next week goes!! I have to admit I do have a headache right now, but now I have some tricks of what may help Ellie next week! I know that ... Ellie LOVES music, puzzles and baby dolls! So I will keep that knowledge in my mind for next week, when I'm sure we will get to start all over again!! But each week will be a little bit easier! I was so happy when her mom showed up to PICK HER UP, opposed to us always taking Ellie to her! Big step for both Ellie and myself!! YAY ME!!

Comments:
Erin: SUPER NANNY :)
Originally Posted on Myspace Blog

*Name changed for privacy*

Nancy Drew & Laundry...Fun Sunday!

Alex got the new Nancy Drew Mystery computer game on Friday night and Erin & I have spent all weekend trying to beat it...still can't. I have never beat a Nancy Drew game (and there are like 15 of them). Alex & Erin have beat all but 2...so I'm determined to finish at least this one!! They are fun...and really addicting! Erin left so I guess I'm doing playing for the day...could play another one I suppose

This afternoon I decided to make a run to the laundrymat. Yes, we own a washer and dryer but because I LOATHE doing laundry so much I had tons to do and knew I'd never get it done at home. So I bribed Erin with Ixtapa (went 2x today ) and dragged her with me to do my laundry. It cost me $20 (well spent I must add) and now ALL my laundry is clean and just needs to be put away

We had a record number of nursery kids today...13...with only 4 adults. Definitely a crazy day, but like always we survived and the time flew by! So I can't complain!

Okay...I better get my laundry put away before I get distracted!!

Originally Posted on Myspace Blog

Long Weekend is Over

Okay this is the 3rd time now I have typed this post; apparently my touchpad on my laptop is way too sensitive and keeps deleting everything . So now I am going to try typing in word first and copy/pasting it over! Here I go again….

Slept in the late this morning, it felt really nice. I haven't gone to bed before 3am all weekend. By the time I get in bed I have been playing this horribly addicting stupid game Diner Dash II. If you haven't played it, it is actually quite enjoyable yet stressful and for a person like me with OCD it's hard not to complete each level! I have been stuck on level 14 for a day now – I just cannot beat it and it is driving me crazy!! Anyway…. I awoke to realize I had missed 8 calls from Julia (never good since I know she'll be annoyed ) called her back and she just wanted to know the songs I wanted for my page. I can never come up with songs I like out of thin air. So I finally remembered they had my iPod (left in van after Spokane) and to just pick songs for me. I think she did a great job picking songs for my page – I totally would have picked the same ones! Great variety!

Sunday brought another day of nursery at church!! We only had 9 kids (granted they are all between the ages of 18m and 24m), so it was really manageable! We even were able to go out for a walk and get some fresh air! We even had very little whining and crying ! That made the day that much more enjoyable!

Got home and took a nice long nap and then had to tackle cleaning my room. Ugh it was such a mess – clothes, clothes, clothes everywhere. I LOATHE doing laundry, I would much rather (and do most of the time) just go buy new clothes then wash the ones I have. Got my room clean and 2 loads of laundry done, and now only 3 loads to go

Tomorrow is back to reality, the long vacation is over! I can't complain I am probably the only person on earth who LOVES her job! For those of you who don't know I nanny for 14mo triplets Gabrielle, Nate & Jack, plus their 6yo sister Sophia. They have an in ground BEAUTIFUL swimming pool and air conditioning! So there are lots of perks to the job! I already have a nice tan for here in Seattle thanks to the countless hours spent outside in the pool with the kids! Plus they don't mind if my friends come over while I work and swim to! It is awesome! Tomorrow and this week's weather are going to be nice high 70's so that means LOTS of swimming!!

Have a good evening!

Comments:
Julia: OK - you are such a weirdo!!! All this post proves is how lazy you are! ha ha ha Mostly weird though! Copying and Pasting your blog!lol Sleeping in everyday, shopping for clothes instead of washing them oh - not to mention that tough job you have!!!!! That is right across the street from where you live! lol You always crack me up Cori! Gotta love you! xoxo

Originally Posted on Myspace Blog