Time To Play Catch Up

Wow, life has gotten rather busy this school year and I have been a complete slacker in regards to this blog.  I wish I could excuse it with stories of working too hard and too much and our lives are so exciting that I just never found a moment and I posted things on FB anyway.  But that would be inaccurate and lame, since it isn't true.  Mostly I just forgot.  Like I said.  Lame.  So anyway, I will try to remember and share things that I took pictures, as there are many things that we have going, about which should be shared.

Halloween

Cadence was a Goth Chick for Halloween and Serenity was dressed as Alice(from Twilight).  I think Cadence was somewhat inspired by my Abbie(from NCIS) costume from last year.  But she wanted to take it even farther than I was able to do.  Serenity had just finished reading all four of the Twilight books and she had recently cut her hair short so it was fun to go with a cute Alice costume for her.

New Goals and Accomplishments

Be forewarned these next sections contain a lot of proud momma bragging.




Cadence started taking tumbling classes last autumn.  She is quite the natural at it.   It has been a joy to watch her progress in the classes and to see her get stronger and her confidence grow as her skills improved.  I must admit as well that it is fun to sit with the other parents and to have them comment in awe of Cadence and her control and grace.  I am one proud mama.

Here is the video I took with a camera, so I couldn't zoom and such, of Cadence's routine at her Tumbling Showcase on March 24, 2012.

The judges comments: Great job!  Very smooth routine!  Your bridges, handstands, cartwheels and rolls were awesome!  Great Splits! :-)

Cadence has great coaches, Miss Tiffany and  Brandon

Serenity has continued this school year with the clarinet and as of January she had added piano lessons.  Her school schedule won't allow many electives and so instead of chorus at school, she has joined the choir at church with me and grandpa as well.  I love that she has pursued her interest in music and going to her band performances has been a validation for me that moving back here was a positive thing in regards to those pursuits.  

March Zuma, Serenity's favorite of the songs they performed during their spring concert.  Serenity is the little blue spot I centered on the screen, but with my little camera that means you are only seeing half of the band.

These are the two songs that Serenity and her teacher (Jane Calder) performed at her very first piano recital.

Cadence had fun with an awesome project for her 3rd grade science fair a few months ago as well.  We found the idea on Pinterest, but Cadence really did well learning the procedure for the experiment so I didn't feel like she needed to display it as "My science project that my mom took over".  She could show the experiment and explain the meaning of the scientific process it produced.

Cadence is ready to show off her mad scientist skills with her Elephant Toothpaste experiment

We are all so proud

Serenity excelled academically as well this year, not that that is anything new.  She was selected as 7th grade female student of the month for March by her teachers and got to go to Cafe Rio for lunch with the principle along with the others selected for 8th and 9th grade.  No, being sent to the principle is not always a bad thing.  She also received an award for Excellence in Science Academic Achievement which is basically the same award she got last year in New York.  She was in High Honor Roll again this year and got to go to two fun parties as reward.

Teachers Pet

I'm a proud momma again.

Fun together

One of the other fun things that we did recently was to participate in the Festival of Colors.  We didn't even really know anything about it until seeing a video from and pictures of other friends and family that went to the festival in Spanish Fork, and it looked so incredibly fun.  When we found out that there would be another here in Salt Lake we knew that was something we definitely had to try.  We had a blast, although I learned something I hadn't really realized consciously about Serenity.  She is not a fan or crowds.  

Before

After

Fun

Pensive

Cheeky

Then there is Me

I suppose after all that proud mama stuff I should also give a little update on what I am doing as of late.  I have been not feeling well, suffering from mild but annoying health issues for the past few years.  Issues like sore joints, chronic headaches, hair loss, tummy troubles, depression, low energy, I gained about 30 lds. in the last 5 years.  Well, two months ago I started going to a chiropractors clinic specialising in problems with the endocrine system and they put me on an anti-inflammatory diet for three weeks and since then I have been adding different foods to that diet to try and find out if any foods are triggering my issues.  I am also trying to get my hormones and body systems back in balance with vitamins and supplements.  It has really made such a huge difference for me.  I feel so vastly improved in every one of the areas I was struggling with.  I am now feeling like me again and I feel like I LOOK like me again.  It is a pretty strict diet still after two months and I still am barely and slowly starting back on carbs and dairy and I am still off of sugar.  I am worth the investment and I can be a better mom since I actually feel good.  I am really excited about this.

The other thing that is new with me is that I am taking a College Algebra course online.  It is one step on my pursuit of a bachelors degree.  It is not my strongest subject but I have to take it, so my cousin Sunny is tutoring me and I am so grateful to her for helping me feel like I will get through this even if it is slower than I want it to be.

So, that should do it for the playing catch up.  I will really try to do better.