May 30

We're in Visalia right now. We came Friday night. The weather has been great. Yesterday we went to Rotary playland and storybook land in Fresno. The kids all loved it. And they've been playing in the backyard most of the rest of the time. We'll stay until tomorrow afternoon.

I went to LDS Family Services on thursday. I made an appointment to get some help with Aaron. Some days he's ok, but some days are so bad. I just wanted to get some new ideas for things to do to help. I met with Paula Wood. I think she'll be very helpful. She gave me a great idea for a system to work with all the kids to help them get along better. And it'll help with the tantrums. We'll intruduce the system Tuesday night when we get back. It's great timing too because school gets out this week and I hope it'll help with fights and arguments while we're all home together. Then Wednesday I have another appointment to take Aaron to. She's going to talk to him about his tantrums and help him work on them too. I hope he's interested in talking to her. And I hope she can help without having to go too many times. I don't want to take Aaron to counseling really, I just want some advice for us. Plus it's quite expensive.

Here's the system. Each kid gets a bucket. Then every couple of hours when there's been no fighting or tantrums or anything, they each get to put in a blue chip or marble or something. If they tantrum or fight, they get a red one. Then whenever they want me to do something for them or they want a snack, they'll pick a chip out of their bucket and if it's blue they can have it, but red means no. So they have an incentive to have more blues in their bucket. And then I think when they all get a certain amount of blues in their bucket we'll go to the park or to ice cream or something. It seems like a good system. Kind of a lot of work for me, but if it works, it'll be worth it.

Aaron finished preschool and t-ball this week. Danny has a few more games left. Danny and Rachel have a day and a half left of school and then they're done too.

Bob got another job this week. He's doing some programming for a company in Henderson. He'll work there on Fridays. We're hoping after a little while they'll let him just work from home. He thinks he'll like the work. And it'll help us save up money faster. I can't believe how blessed we are with opportunities. Just a couple of years ago, money was soooo tight and stressfull. We had zero savings. But now we've both been able to work extra and we've been budgeting really well. It's not like money has just appeared, we've had to work for it, but we actually have a chance to buy another house sometime in the near future; one with a bigger backyard and a little more space for 5 kids.

I think I felt the baby kick this week. I have another appointment in a week and a half and from there I get to schedule the ultrasound. The kids were asking about it the other day. Danny wanted to know if they could go. I said I think it might be a little crowded but we'd show him pictures. Aaron said he wanted to go when I lay on the table and see the baby. I couldn't believe he remembered that. We took him with us to Seth's ultrasound. He was so little. That's when Bob and I both thought it was a girl and Aaron was absolutely sure it was a boy. Aaron wasn't surprised when he was right. So we might let them go if they still want to when the time comes. I think we'll just get a babysitter for Seth because he'd be the only one that would be difficult in that little room.