pumpkins

We carved our pumpkin tonight. Brecken thought that was pretty neat and liked to see it, but didn't want to touch it. :) And when I tried to get a picture of him with it, he grabbed my other camera and tried taking pictures of me. Good thing we're asking Santa for a camera just for Brecken....


He is saying, "Hi, Grandma!"

trit-ereet!

We went trick-or-treating downtown today. B had a really good time! He did very good asking people, "trit-ereet!" He then would pick one piece of candy (I was glad he didn't throw fits because he wanted more than one- he somehow knew to pick the best looking ONE and move on!) and afterwards would tell them "tate-oo!" (thank you) It is WARM today- in the mid 60's, and that is weird because it always snows on Halloween, it seems!

For the first six or so stores, B would take the candy out of his bucket and say, "Here, Daddy!" I never got any. Only daddy. And the high school girl he is love with- he gave her a box of Nerds when he saw her. Shows where I rank. :)

At our realtor's office, they handed out candy, a cookie, and some punch. He told our realtor no when she asked if he wanted candy, because he was so thirsty by that point that he only wanted juice! Coming from my candy monster, this was funny!

Here are a few snapshots of the afternoon:

He said, "Dita, my sucker!"

And this is what we got when we said no more candy because we needed to eat dinner:

hot hot hot

Brecken fell asleep at 6:55 last night!  I was thinking it was great- a whole night to watch TV uninterrupted.... :) Until, that is, he woke up and when Josh went to get him, he was burning up with a fever.  The poor baby.  We brought him downstairs where it's cool, gave him some Tylenol, and cuddled for a while.  I brought him to bed with me at 9:00, and asked if he hurted.  He nodded and pointed to his belly.  He later pointed to his ear too, but then when I asked him a minute later if his ear hurt, he said no.  So I'm not sure if his belly really did hurt or not!  Sometime in the night, his fever broke, so I don't know if he was sick, or if he's getting molars, or what the deal is.  We're going to try daycare today and if he doesn't feel good, Amy can call one of us to come get him.

Trick-or-treat downtown is today.  Brecken has been practicing ("trit-ereet! Nandy!") and loves his monkey costume, so hopefully he feels well enough to go do that this afternoon!  Josh gets to come with us this year, because he doesn't have football practice.  That's one nice thing about not making the playoffs- 3 weeks of him coming home after school before basketball practice starts!!

Speaking of basketball, Josh and Amy had a basketball meeting after school yesterday.  Amy just brought B with her to the meeting so Josh could bring him home with him.  (I got 40 minutes to myself after school!  Yay!) When they came home, B came walking into the house, then saw me and ran to me and goes, "Mommy! Practice!"  He was so excited to have been at basketball "practice".  :)  He loves doing those things- he cried Tuesday when he couldn't go to football practice- he didn't understand that it's all over!!

squirt and nemo

so, so tired

I'm exhausted. It's 6:30 in the morning and I'm getting ready for work, but work is the last thing I want to do today. I had parent-teacher conferences Tuesday and Wednesday nights this week, so I was at work for 12+ hours each of those days. Not getting home until after 8:00 and having left the house a little after 7:00 that morning really, really sucks!! I am super glad we get tomorrow off. B and I will snuggle in bed while Josh goes to his doctor's appointment in Laramie by himself. :)

remember #50?

Here he is again! This guy is one of the nicest boys I've ever met. Easy going, sense of humor, and is nice to his mom!! It's been a pleasure taking his senior photos these past few weeks. We met today up in the Snowy Mountains at Mirror Lake and Lake Marie and had fun laughing at Brecken, who was calling a chipmunk a "kitty". :)

strawberry jelly and biscuits

I heard a story today that almost made me cry. Our secretary at work told me that she and her minister went to talk to the little brother of our student who was killed. To protect his identity, I'll call him Jay. So on Sunday, they went to talk to Jay. And they brought him a box full of food. (Remember, they don't have much. And right now, Dad is out of town working and who knows where step-mom was the day our secretary came over.) He looked inside and saw strawberry jelly and got SOOO excited about it. He thanked them a lot and then told them, "I knew I shouldn't have eaten all the biscuits."

How sad, that he got so excited about strawberry jelly and wished he had some biscuits. I just want him to have strawberry jelly all the time! I think about Brecken and his favorite foods, and if we're out of Cheerios Snack Mix, it's only because we can only get it at Walmart and we haven't been there in a month. But if I can get things at our store, I make sure we never run out so that he can always have it!

I think next time I'm at the store, I'll be buying strawberry jelly and making some biscuits to put in Jay's locker for him to have.

first game with a new team

Friday's game was a very emotional one.  We played Lusk, and we played HARD.  We lost, 14-10, but the boys won, too- they survived their first game without their friend and teammate, Mitch.  The first defensive play was played with only 10 people, they left Mitch's spot empty.  And wouldn't you know it, Lusk only gained 2 yards on that play.  And the team's second offensive play, they played a play that Mitch hated with a passion, and ended up scoring with it.  The boys knew Mitch was with them somehow.

Mitch's jersey on the field with the team:


Mitch's dad and little brother on the field during the moment of silence. Dad stayed on the sidelines the whole game:


BOTH teams, Saratoga AND Lusk, wore these stickers on their helmets. I thought it was super classy of Lusk to wear them, too.:

football

I had my first big job yesterday- the middle school football team!  It was freezing cold but we got it done- and made a nice profit, too!  It was fun- I hope I can do it again!!

i hate when that happens

Our internet went down on Thursday sometime.  Nobody knows how to fix it.  We FINALLY were able to get it to work by plugging the computer straight into the modem, so we are limited to using it just on my bed.  The wireless still will not work for some reason.  How frustrating.

oops

At school, I get called several names.  My little kids are always calling me their homeroom teachers' name, or Mom, or I've even been called Grandma.  And tonight, it happened with my own kid.  I gave him something, and he said, "Thank you, Amy." Then he kind of shook his head a little and looks up at me and said, "MOMMY."  :)

i'm not cut out for this

I hope that I never again have to bury one of my students.  It was one of the most awful things I've ever done.  

The funeral was nice, for a funeral anyway.  The gym was PACKED.  The family requested that everyone wear red and black, our school colors.  Saratoga brought two buses- one with the jr. high and high school football players, and the other with other students and staff that wanted to come.  I think the final count of people from Saratoga was 60.  Our science teacher (also the asst. boys basketball coach) spoke at the funeral, and the first thing out of his mouth was "I want to say how appreciative I am of how many Saratoga kids are here- and I know for a fact that Mitch would have been tickled that he got you to wear red and black."  And that's so true- I think Mitch was jumping up and down in victory up There.  :)

Heath, our head football coach spoke, too.  That's what got me crying hard.  He had Mitch's jersey with him, that the team signed.  He spoke about how at this Friday's game, the first defensive play will only have 10 people on the field.  And how he told the other team's coach that he wants them to run the play like usual- and if they get through the hole where Mitch would have been and their player trips, know that it was Mitch on the field helping out.  And then he laid the jersey on the casket and said he was getting Mitch suited up for his last game.  Here I go, crying again.

Then our FCCLA and home ec teacher spoke, as Mitch loved her.  And that was the end of the funeral.  Then we all went to the Encampment Cemetary for the burial.  A few dozen red, black, purple and gold balloons were released.  I thought it was a nice touch to include both schools' colors.

Then everyone went back to the school, where there was a carry-in meal.  TONS of fantastic food and it was good to be able to relax a little.  

But like I said- I'm not cut out for this.  I hope this can be a lesson to everyone, so we can maybe save a life in honor of Mitch.  I know that I will never again text on my phone while driving, and I hope everyone else quits too.  If we can take this death and save a life, we'll be doing OK.

in the candlelight

We had a candlelight vigil at school this evening for Mitch.  He would have been 18 years old today.  People came and shared stories about Mitch and had hot chocolate, which was good because it's COLD tonight!!  I was doing alright, until we sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  Then I lost it.  One of the hardest things about this whole situation is seeing my students hurt so bad.  To see a "tough guy" cry his eyes out kills me.  I feel so bad for them- they are way too young to have to go through this.  And as hard as tonight was, tomorrow will be even harder.... I better stop and buy a couple boxes of Kleenex on my way to the funeral.

something exciting's going on....

on Beth's blog!!

tragedy

It rained this afteroon, which was only fitting since it matched all our tears.

One of Josh's favorite football players from his team, which also happens to be one of my students, died in a car accident. The pager went off at 7:10 this morning as I was leaving for work. They said it was a rollover accident. Right after I left, Josh heard that it was too late for whoever it was in the car. I followed the ambulance out (it happened about 1 mile away from our house, on the way to Encampment) and couldn't even see the car, it was so far down in a ditch. By the time I got to school, Josh was calling for me and I had to hear the awful news that it was Mitch. Josh was crying, I was crying, our secretary wanted to know who it was so I told her and she was crying, and we were sending kids out of the office as fast as we could. And of all days, our principal was late today. His son had got a deer this morning and they were hurrying, but would be late. Our secretary, through her tears, called his cell phone and said to hurry up. Our counselor didn't want to wait for him, so we had an assembly at 8:05 this morning to tell the kids. They are all really shaken up over this. Mitch was a huge part of our school. And he came from NOTHING. His mom abandoned him, his dad lives in Alaska, and he lived with his half-brother's dad. (along with half-brother, who is a delinquent 8th grader.) The "dad" is never home and works in Rock Springs and is only home once in a while. Mitch really did rise above all the problems and was the neatest kid in the world. His 18th birthday would have been this coming Monday. And to make things even worse, his real dad had flown in to Denver last night so he could be at Mitch's game today.

Obviously, today's game was cancelled. The Saratoga football boys were gathered together and were brought up to Encampment to be with our football boys. We had counselors available, but most everyone just went home. Probably on Monday, there will be a lot of kids ready to talk. I hope they are, anyway- how horrible to keep it inside.

And what's killing me, is he was on his way into Saratoga last night when he wrecked- it was about 9:00 according to the last text he sent anyone. He didn't have his seatbelt on and he was ejected from the car- I'm praying to God that Mitch died fast, since he wasn't found until 7:00 this morning. I cannot stomach the though of him laying outside all night long, knowing what was going on and wondering why nobody had found him yet.

And how horrible to come from a home where nobody realizes you didn't come home at night, so they could go look for you.

So, if you are parents, hug your kids hard today. And EVERYONE call their parents tonight and tell them "thank you for caring about me." Josh feels like he lost a son, and our school feels the same way.

i think i just got called a poop head.

I had made some soup tonight. Brecken calls it poop- he can't figure out the ssss sound at the beginning. B wanted a taste of the soup, but couldn't figure out how to get the broth off the spoon. So I was showing him how to suck it up. I told him to try, and instead of sucking in, he blew out. Soup all over my face. B laughed hysterically and said, "Mama. Poop. Head."

2 years old and calling his mom a poop head. :)

better late than never...

I realized the other day that I had pictures and movies on my little camera that I never downloaded! So I took some off- here's some images from B's birthday.

Riding his new 4-wheeler: It rained hard all day long on B's birthday, but there was a small break in the clouds that evening so he was able to go out and ride for a few minutes:


First day of pre-school, Sept. 12:

At his birthday party on Sept. 13: