Where to start?

I wait too long to update my blog. It's pretty sad actually. I finally changed my blog title and picture. Even though it's a terrible one of Emma Lee, at least it is somewhat current. :) What do ya'll think?
There's been loads going on. Here's a few little recaps/ summaries:

*Homeschooling is going great!
I am using "The Story of the World" for history and really love that each lesson has mapwork, coloring or activity pages, as well as many hands on crafts or projects. The kids love it too. My SIL lives next door and homeschools her kids too. But, she is ultra sick in her 1st trimester so I bring her kids over for history, grammar, and handwriting. They love this history curriculum too!

Gabe and Hannah's attempt at the  recreating Egypt, the Nile River and the Delta Nile.

Zech and William's attempt

Our mummification of apple slices science/history project.

Hannah's Great Pyramid

 Grammar is "First language lessons" I love it, the kids are ok with it. They don't understand just how good of a program it is. I am a grammar girl. I mean, I lived for diagramming sentences! Guess what? My oldest just started diagramming!!! YAY! (I know, I'm a dork) We have handwriting, spelling, and math. Confession: I just bought Zech's math curriculum. GASP!!! Why? B/c I couldn't decide on which one to use!!! I'm not great at math. I am using Saxon with Gabriel and hate, hate, HATE it! UGH! It is painstaking! Most people love it, I hate it! Did I say that already...I HATE IT!!!
:)
Anyways, I finally decided on Teaching Textbooks for Zechariah. He loves it! He actually does 3-4 lessons a day. Right now it's still reviewing what he learned last yr. So he might slow down when he starts new concepts. I love that he does his lesson on the computer and I just have to check his work. It rocks!

*My schedule is hectic right now:

Mondays we have school then go to gymnastics. I swear, its like taking a alcoholic to a bar for Zechariah. He is "exuberant" as the \teacher says. That is putting it very nicely. My nieces and nephew go too...Oh my GOSH! Together they are all sooo bad! if just Sarah's kids are there, they are good. If just mine are there, they are good. Together=#$%@!
Tuesday is piano 1st thing in the morning. Gabe started this year and really likes it alot! Zechariah is getting so much better! It's fun to watch them learn. We go to the library (well, not to that one anymore!) and then come home and do school.
Wednesday is now Co-Op day. I'm sooo excited for this. It's on Andrews Air Force Base and they use the Children's Center facilities which are amazing! The kids get to take PE and Art and Ammon goes to PreK. I just got an email saying that dance opened up some more slots so Ammon and Eli can start ballet and Zech and Gabe can start tap. Gabriel threw a HUGE fit when I told him. He says it's dumb. (sigh!) Whatever, they are going even if it kills them (and me!) Since I'm already on Andrew's, I try to take in the commissary too-if I am not already spent! :)
Thursday is a regular school day
Friday is either a regular school day or field trip day.
Saturday is clean the house and play day
Sunday-church, choir practice, nap?, and spend time with the family. Lately it has also been help Gary get through his last and FINAL class. He is quite the procrastinator and we usually submit his papers at 11:56pm since they are due at 12am. UGH! All I care about is him finishing his degree.

Git 'er done!!!

*Premier Designs is picking up steam!

I now have 5 jewelers under me. (The 2 blondes on the left hand side are not my jewelers. We just asked them for help since we had no idea what to expect.) My girls are all so great! I am booking parties and vendor shows. One of my jewelers just sponsored someone!!! I just got done with the Army 10 miler Health and Fitness Expo. One of my jewelers and I rented a booth, hence the above picture. The exposure was enormous! I am still trying to follow up with contacts and book shows with them.

*I've met my match.

He's so stinkin' cute!

I felt comfortable with 4 kids. That was until Eli turned 2. He is insane! Oh my gosh! Plus now I have a newborn baby on top of Eli, 2, and Ammon, 4. They are either getting into mischief or knocking the junk out of each other! Plus, sickness has been running through my house and I am exhausted with the constant cleaning, laundry, and sad/whining kids. However, I am so happy to have my kids home. I am thankful for the opportunity to teach them.

*I don't know what the future has in store.
You all know what this does to me. Gary and I have decided that he will not take his next promotion and get out of the Army instead. As we were praying we felt that we are to pursue opening our own performing arts studio. I am SUPER excited about us having our business together. This has been our dream ever since I worked here. I loved working there. I learned so much. Over the last 10 years, I have taught dance, drama, and musical theater every place that we have lived. It's what I love to do. There are just tons of unknowns right now. Where are we supposed to do this? We have an idea, just need confirmation. When are we supposed to do this? Again, I have a plan, just need confirmation from Heavenly Father. What about our house? Will it sell? When should we put it on the market? Should we take a financial loss on it or rent it out?  Questions, questions, questions...

Ok, that's all for this post. Isn't that enough? I still have to blog about the Renaissance festival, Ammon's birthday, and other random thoughts and musings.

This is my sweet, beautiful girl. I am absolutely in love with her. She is perfect in everyway.

If you read this then you love me and I just want you guys to know, I love you too! :)

I am one of THOSE Moms!

That's what I am, at least according to the ladies at the public library.

You know one of these moms don't you? The moms who come in with loud, bratty kids and she is oblivious to the fact that they are running around, screaming their heads off, tearing books off the shelves, etc, etc. 

Tuesday after piano lessons we went to the public library to get some graded readers and some supplement books for our history and science lessons. I knew with 5 children I had limited time to get what I wanted and get out before mayhem ensued. I was relieved that there was a little computer set aside for children to play on so I could search for the books I wanted. My 3 youngest boys started to play on that while Zech grabbed his own books and me and Emma shopped for the rest.  They argued about who got to play and I quietly told them to knock it off. 10 mins went by and I heard them get loud again so I went over there just as one of the library workers told them they were done and she was turning it off. She was NOT nice about it! She didn't look at me but was exuding this really frustrated air. I couldn't just not say anything so I asked her what happened and were they fighting. She said, "Yes, and I have already told them several times to stop!" She totally yell-whispered at me! Ok. Why not talk to me after the 1st time or the 2nd? Why yell at me and get pissed off? 

Guess what? There was nothing going on. They were not yelling! They were arguing and pushing the other off the chair and stuff but I could barely hear them from the other side of a bookcase! They were quiet about their little fight. Isn't that the #1 rule in the library? Quiet? 

OH MY GOSH! This was not the 1st time I have gotten rudeness and flack from this place. This summer I tried to sign the kids up for summer reading program and to say that they were not helpful is being very nice! Anyways, I asked to speak to the woman in charge. I told her that I felt the library was a very important place to take my children and that I know sometimes they can be noisier than I want but that the attitudes of the workers that I have gotten the many times that I had been there were not positive and made me very sad. I told her that children need to learn how to act by coming often but the workers there did not seem to like or want children there b/c they have often gotten upset and snappy with them. Seriously, that was exactly what I said! Her reply? (rewind: during my conversation with her Gabriel had been hopping up to see over the check out counter) This is what manager lady said, "Well, like this is completely unacceptable behavior but I see you doing nothing to correct it". 

EXCUSE ME??? 1st of all, I have the car seat with Emma over my right arm and Eli on my left hip what was I gonna do? Secondly, he wasn't on top of the counter, he wasn't even putting his feet on it to climb up! Believe me lady, it could've been worse! Should I have said no, get down? Sure! But I was having a conversation and trying not to make a scene so she wouldn't be embarrassed! Plus, this is a PUBLIC library! As long as he is not streaking, cussing, or drunk, he is not breaking the law! I was PISSED to say the very least! I was also sad/embarrassed that she thought of me as one of "those" Moms. I've never been one and never wanted to be. 

I try hard to teach and train my kids to be kind, respectful, obedient, etc. But at the end of the day here it is: I cannot control their every move! They were put on this earth with agency and boy do they use it!  They are not bad kids! They are kids! My husband told me I should have said, "Don't worry lady, you don't pay for these kids but my taxes do help pay your salary". The nerve! I was so upset! Later that day, I had lunch with my girlfriend Salena who has 6 of her own kids. She helped me embrace my reality: 

I am one of those Moms. 

I am not oblivious, I know what is going on most all the time but sometimes I have to choose to ignore it just to keep my sanity.

So there it is in all its glory. 

The End.

Heavenly Homeschool

When I homeschooled Zechariah for K, he came up with this name for our homeschool. Check it out here. Since our purpose is to return and live with our Heavenly Father again some day, it is fitting. Since Monday was a holiday, our first day of Heavenly Homeschool was Tuesday. It consisted of piano lessons, a trip to Manassas, VA to meet with a LDS homeschool group, then to a friend's house to play while I took Elijah to get his stitches out, then home for math, chores, and dinner. It was busy and I did not feel like I had started school at all. Wednesday came and I was ready. It was amazing! I believe in "let sleeping dogs lie" so I let the boys wake up whenever they wanted. Gabriel and Ammon were up first. I made them breakfast and Gabe did his math, handwriting, grammar, and practiced piano before Zech finally got up at 9am!!! It sure made it easy for me. Ammon and Elijah enjoyed hanging around and playing with teddy bear counters and ABC blocks. I am kinda shocked that Gabriel is proving to be harder than the rest right now. He is kinda whiny and picks on his younger brothers a lot.I think he just needs some attention right now. I dunno-we'll figure it out.  Today was great fun too. I really love the curriculum I chose for the boys. We are using "History of the World" from The Well Trained Mind and their Grammar program , "First Language Lessons". Gabriel is on Saxon 1 Math. I am still debating Zech's math curriculum. Right now I am working on his math facts as I find his instant recall and memorization of the multiplication tables are lacking. They both use Handwriting without tears for handwriting and I have a spelling workbook. The only thing I do not have a set curriculum for is science. But we have TONS of books and I am trying to get better about experiments. (I hate the mess!)Anyhoo, I took a pic of my boys all working together at the table today. I posted it to facebook and said "I've never been happier!" It truly is a blessing to be able to be at home with my children. I am in love with them. Even though there are times I feel like there is not enough of me to go around, I still enjoy where I we are as a family.

A whole new world

Remember that song from Disney's Alladin? Emma Lee has been here for 3 weeks now and already things are very different. There is more color in our lives. Girls' clothes are so much more bright and cheery than little boys. She doesn't just wear onesies and shorts or pants like my other kids did. She wears dresses with cute little diaper covers that match! My boys are softer. They know she is different and treat her as such. My sweet husband is different. He marvels at Emma. He is head over heels in love with this little girl. The best and probably craziest thing I've ever done is get out of the hospital on Wednesday and a couple hours later, board a plane for TX. You see, I had a National Rally convention for my home based business, Premier Designs Jewelry. Gary and I both went and he took care of Emma  while I was in conference. What as great bonding experience it was for him. He fed her sometimes, he changed her, he put her to sleep, and he held her-constantly. Thanks to a friend of ours, we were able to use a Moby wrap for the 1st time. Gary LOVED it as he could be hands free but still be carrying Emma. He was adorable as was my little princess. :)

So why the post? I have always been "one of the boys". I loved it. It made me special and unique. I have 4 brothers, 4 brother in laws, I had loads of guy friends growing up and loved every minute of it. Now I have Emma Lee and my life will never be the same. I am embarking on a whole new world. Our family dynamics just changed dramatically. My heart has completely changed as well. I look forward to all the new joys, differences, and brillance that having this little girl will bring.

pictures to be added at a future date that is not naptime :)    

Welcome to the World Emma Lee!

Wow! I am crazy behind in blogging but right now I don't care. I'm just going to tell you about our beautiful new addition to the family:

Emma Lee Rose Griesmyer 

 was born July 11, 2011 at 6:10pm. 

It was kind of a weird story so here it goes: You see, the doctor's and I had a disagreement on my due date. The conception wheel said July 7th, the ultrasound said July 17th. That's a big difference in my book! I talked the Dr (the 2nd one cause I fired the 1st) to induce me at 39 weeks due to my history of huge babies and them distressing during labor. So the date was set for July 11th. I figured I would start trying to induce myself on July 7th. I tried-nothing happened. I tried again the next day, nothing. No progressive contractions or anything! I was shocked! My OBGYN visit revealed that the ole cervix was 100% rock solid and I was only about 1.5 cm dialated. UGH!!! So Monday Gary and I went to the hospital to be induced for the 3rd time. Zech was the 1st, Elijah the 2nd, and now Emma. They finally hooked me up to PIT around 9am. We waited, the nurse eased me in and at about 2pm, we opted for an epidural. Not b/c the pain was bad, but b/c I have a history of not progressing without one. I'm weird, I know. But after 5 hours on PIT, I was still only 1.5 cms! I got the epi and got to a 4. Then around 4pm, I started having SERIOUS pain. I mean, BAD!!! I mean, what's the point of the epidural if I'm going to be in that much pain? I worked through it for about an hour with Gary's help until it got so bad that I asked for the nurse. She came in and found that Emma was sunny side up and that is why the pain was so bad. (And the epi wasn't working?) She got the anesthesiologist who came and gave me a little bit of pain meds  and they left. Bad idea. Remember when I said that the only way for me to progress in labor is to have an epidural well that really means that I need to be pain free. wouldn't that be nice? :) Anyways, as soon as I got the pain meds I started asking Gary what was going on. He said nothing. I said, no, she's ready, check for her head. He said he didn't see her. The nurse came in and said she couldn't find Emma's heartbeat on the monitor. She moved it around and still couldn't find it so she flipped me over to my right side-nothing. She flipped me over to my left side and still couldn't find the heartbeat. She then checked me and I was 100% complete and ready to go. So, she left to get the Dr. It was hilarious. He walked in with my nurse and another  nurse. My nurse and  Dr. went to the monitor to read all the stats but the other nurse had come over to me, looked down and said, "I need a suction!" Yep, Emma's head was already out. The Dr. didn't even have time to put on his jacket. He slapped on the closest gloves and told me to push and out she came! Just like that. He then took his sunglasses off his shirt and put all his other gear on for the rest of the procedure. Emma was immediately put on my chest and took to nursing like a champ! I gotta say, she is practically perfect in every way. I am still in shock and awe that we have our girl. 

What a blessing from heaven she is!

 Here are my boys decked out in their "Big Brother" t-shirts that Grandma got them to come see their baby sister.

 Introducing Emma Lee to her band of brothers.

 My mom, AKA Grandma,  was SOOO excited. I am truly thankful to her for caring for my boys during all this. I love you Mom!

 Ammon and Eli clung to their Dad-they really needed some love and attention.

 Kisses from Zechariah

 Here is our attempt to get all the boys lined up for a picture with Emma. It was OK. :)

Gabriel has turned into Emma's protector. He loves her, adores her, and barely leaves her side. He is first to help whenever I need something.

I've got loads more pictures but they will have to wait for the next post. I'll just close by saying that my life will never be the same and I am  excited for the new adventure!

Good vs Best

For a while now I have been contemplating homeschooling my children. I home schooled Zechariah when he was in Kindergarten and it went pretty well. I researched the heck out of it, set my toy room up into centers, had a great schedule and found good curriculum too. I felt accomplished after that 1st year and happy with both his and my progress. I was pleased that when we moved to MD and he went to public school, he was WAY above his peers in reading and math. Our elementary school is great. It has wonderful teachers and I really like their curriculum choices. Zech recently got assessed and picked up for TAG and Gabriel is on a 2nd grade reading level already and his teachers call him a wiz at math. I can toot my own horn about Zech's success b/c I taught him how to read and his basics with math but I can't do that with Gabriel. His teachers and school are truly wonderful. So, I vacillated. Why take them out? It's a good school. They are doing so well! I'm about to have another baby!!! Which means I'd have 3 at home, why not 2 more? I'm so tired of not seeing my boys.

When pondering about decisions like this, I typically feel strongly one way or another. My feelings on this issue (to home school or not) was that they were both "good" choices. In May, I even went to the LDS homeschool conference with my SIL. I had still not made my decision but was interested in finding inspiration. I didn't. There wasn't that lightening bolt I was looking for or the "YES!" declaration in my mind and heart. I became frustrated at not receiving a prompting one way or another and not being able to say a definitive "YES! I will homeschool" or "YES! they will go to their elementary school next year". After praying for inspiration for a few days, I woke up one morning hurting-I'm kinda big at this point in my pregnancy :) I decided to take a hot bath. I typically like to read whenever I do this so I picked up the Oct conference ensign and flipped through the talks. I rested on one by Dieter F. Uchtdorf entitled, Of Things That Matter Most. It was a good read and I was enjoying his thoughts on simplifying our lives and such when I read this quote that hit me like a ton of bricks:

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, in a recent general conference, taught, “We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.” ² 

Well, my friends there you have it. After reading that I knew that homeschooling was "best" for my children and my family. I took it to prayer and He agreed. Wish me luck b/c we have begun a very important journey.

Elijah turns 2!

 My sweet baby boy turned 2 May 28th. Since he loves all sports that deal with balls, I decided to have a sports party for him. There has been so much going on that I didn't even know if I could pull it off but b/w my 4 boys, our 4 cousins next door, and Jordyn-who is here visiting from Utah, we had quite the turn out by ourselves! Being my 4th son, there was little I thought he needed and we didn't have. I have always wanted to get a little tykes basketball hoop and set out to find one. I went to Goodwill first and found a perfect one for $5! SCORE! I set up 3 stations: Soccer, Basketball, and T-ball. The kids were divided into groups of 3 and rotated through the stations. Afterwards we had cupcakes and presents!

 Baby boy Batter Up!

It was really hot so Gary decided to cool them off with a little spray from the water hose.