Back Blogging - Things Not to be Forgotten

Here's some goings on from the Manwaring household.

The boys in our ward know Jarom will let them borrow his Mustang for date nights. Above is Clayn and his cute little date. Jarom's loaned it out for a few boys now. I'll admit, I was a little worried the first time he let it go, but the boys always seem to respect the holy powers of a "muscle car" and return it in better shape than when they took it.

One boy in particular, Michael, had a true love for the Mustang. He took it out several times, and each time he would come get it in time to detail and wash it before his date. (A bonus for us!) His mom told us he would stand in the garage and just stare at it. Michael would generously leave us his vehicle to use while he had our car.

Behold "The Twinkie", Michael's truck. My kids would get so excited every time The Twinkie was our's to use. They thought it was awesome! Michael is now serving a mission for our church, but he wanted to take the Mustang one last time before he left for 2 years. So the big yellow truck was our's again for a time.

And my kids were in heaven for a few spins around the block in the back of The Twinkie. What cracks ups!

Carter's teacher, Mrs. Ball, won a grant last year for a whole bunch of iPads to use in the classroom. They have recently been using them to study space. The class put on a "Night at the Space Museum" where each child had to represent something from space. Carter chose to be the star constellation Orion. He had a little speech memorized and everything. He did a great job, as did all the kids in the class. What a fun project.

Halle has decided she hates ballet. This is an ongoing battle in our home right now. It's highly frustrating and I don't know what to do as the parent. The ballet school she's been going to is intense; 3 days a week, 2 hours a time, plus Saturday practices if you want to be in Nutcracker. A LOT....I know. To make matters worse, those 2 hours are full of intense workouts. You don't go to ballet school to learn routines and just dance, you go to gain strength and proper technique. So basically....not fun unless your heart is REALLY REALLY into it.

After many, MANY tears and fights in this house, we have decided to let Halle take jazz/clogging from a once a week studio, and then her ballet teacher is letting her come just once a week right now to keep some of her strength up. I was really hoping this would help her find the love of dancing again, but so far it doesn't seem to be working. Because her body isn't consistently working out anymore, she's coming home tired and sore from ballet. Also, the other girls in her class are moving on without her. They all got fitted for toe shoes, while she didn't. And while I understand completely why, I'm still sad about it a little bit. I just wish we could find a less intense school, with good technique. But that seems impossible.

I don't know if this is just a hard little hump Halle needs to get over and will say in the future, "Thanks for pushing me through that Mom," or if she really just hates ballet and will say in the future, " I hated ballet! Why were you so mean to me?". I see so much talent in her and would hate for her to not develop it and regret it in the future. But at the same time, I don't see her becoming a professional dancer, so if she doesn't want to dance, why am I making her? What to do as a parent, what. to. do?

I've been babysitting my adorable little niece, Josie, a few hours a week.

We have a great time loving on her!

However, I don't think she is having as much fun as we are. She's lately recognized that her mama's gone. If I make eye contact with her, this is the face she makes at me. It totally cracks me up, but breaks my heart too. Hopefully here soon, she'll realize that I love her and she'll let me be her friend. Cute little toot anyway.

And just for kicks and giggles, let's end with some kid funnies. We had Chinese for dinner a while back. Carter's fortune cookie said, "Prepare for the unexpected." He asked what that meant and Jarom said, "It means to be sure you always have clean underwear on." Carter's response was, "I'm DOOMED!" LOL! Funny, funny boy.

The girls have been fun doing their nails lately. They learned a new technique where you paint your nail, let it dry, then dip it in rubbing alcohol, press a piece of newspaper to it, and voila, you have news print letters on your fingernails. Anyway, they were doing this and Kate got really excited about it, went running to Carter and said, "Carter! All you have to do is put your finger in that kind of coffee!" (Meaning alcohol.)