Our Memorial Weekend
So, this last weekend was the memorial for my Dad, and even though it was a sad event for us all, anytime we all get together, we can't help but have a little laughter as well. The cousins played and goofed off, the sisters laughed with each other and with Mom, there were some pretty sad times as well, but we were able to get through it ok. The above photo is of Lee and Tina's kids and ours. Now for some reason, every once in a while I take a cool photo where the focal point just kind of jumps out at you. I took a similar photo many years ago of Tina's family for their Christmas card. The composition just seems to be just right. I love the above photo because of this. All the kids seemed joined together in one happy moment. No one seems to be left out of the joke. So, if laughter is the best medicine then this is a healing photo! The other photo is of my dad's photo we had at the memorial and all the flowers that my mom received. Many are from family and friends and neighbors. They were all lovely. Thank you to all who attended and/or prayed for our family at this time. We are grateful and we love you for it!

A Great Man... October 7, 1927 - May 16th, 2008

This weekend I am going up to Canada with my family to celebrate the life of my father, Wolfgand Max Vetter. He passed away last Friday and the memorial will be this Saturday the 24th. We will all miss him and we cherish the time that we were able to spend with him. This is my contribution to the memorial. It will be printed on the Program/leaflet that will be passed out to the attendees of his memorial.

Poem for My Father

A father's love is seldom seen, but through a daughter's eyes,

We know that he is always there, should any need arise

He helps us with school projects, he always does his part,

His loving hands help to create, wonderful works of art

His hands so big and strong, hold ours when we are small,

And later uses skills to make jewels for one and all

The times I have him to myself when it is just us two,

To Disneyland and Walt Disney World, alas they are too few,

A man of many talents some sprinkled down to those

The daughters that are here, in us his talents flow,

In my life there will never be a wish for something better

My Papi was the world to me, this man...Wolfgand Vetter.

Please keep our family in your prayers during this difficult time.

For those of you who know us best, you know that all of us "Vetter girls" are very emotional, so yes, this weekend will be a cryfest!

Recorder Concert

Ok, we have all been in third grade, but I never had to do this. They have been learning to play the recorder in Kaleigh's class and this is the end result after about 3 weeks of practicing...Ok, so it isn't Mozart, but hey it's a start!

God is so Good!
This is too awesome to not mention. Those who do not believe, need not read. We have our own built in censorship, use it!
I was stressing a lot about a lot of things, most things were not under my control, so I deal with it. I am not always a good dealer. My dad's condition worsening is not something I can control. Our tuition going up at the school the kids go to is not something I can control. A mentally challenged child going into my class next year is not something I can control-except for going into my boss and laying my job on the line...that is under my control. I don't like confrontation and I really like working at the school, but I know my limits. As Tina can attest to, I don't do well teaching children that are mentally or physically challenged. Now there are exceptions, Connor is not challenged in the way I can't handle, at least in the capacity that I see him as my nephew, who is so full of joy and life, you can't help but love him even if he ISN'T your nephew! I don't think I would be a good teacher to him, however, because I am not skilled in a way that would be beneficial to him. The school I work for doesn't have special needs helpers or anything else remotely like that. You have to "teach them where they are". Not good for me, the student or the other students. So my dilemma was that I was the only 2 day 4 yr old teacher at our school, thus the child, we call her "R" would automatically be in my class. The church the school belongs to is sponsoring R and will most likely only sponsor 2 days a week. So, what do I do? I sit in my family room for about 20 minutes before driving to school to talk to my boss. What am I doing during that time? Praying my heart out that somehow someway, I will not have this child in my class, I will not have to lose my job and that my boss won't brush me off! I literally prayed for something to change so that I would come out of this better off than I was. Another pin in the cushion would be that all hiring right now has stopped because enrollment is down and people are losing their jobs, mostly in the elementary levels. So I didn't think I had a very good chance and was just hoping I could salvage something!
So here is where the story gets interesting....I go on Monday to talk to my boss. The first words out of my mouth are basically, "I need to talk to you, and you may not like what I have to say." Very brave of me I know! But instead of her looking at me and saying, "go on". She looks at me and says, "Oh, I am so glad you stopped in, I meant to call you, I need to talk to you about next year." Uh-oh. But then she says, " I am dropping the 2 day 4 yr old class and adding a 4th M-W-F fours class. Mine was T-Th. Hmmm....then she asks me, "Are you interested in working 3 days a week?" I say with a smile, "sure!" I guess during registration she noticed that of all 10 kids that enrolled in the T-Th class 8 were on the waiting list for the mwf class! Only 2 actually WANTED T-TH (this of course included "R"!) So to fill the need for the parents, she decided, quite smartly I might add, to switch stuff around. So instead of my 2 days a week with 20% discount, I will now be working 3 days a week with a 30% discount! Wheee! Happy me! I am so sure that my prayers helped the situation, because quite recently someone asked why we don't have another mwf class and our boss just brushed it off saying that we couldn't accomodate another class, no room. So against all that I know to be true in the situation, the Lord switched it all around, covered all the stress and fixed everything that I couldn't on my own. For the doubters, yes, it COULD have been a coincidence, but I don't think so....I am not one for blindly thinking that all my prayers will be answered and "sometimes I thank God, for unanswered prayers" (Garth Brooks) because I have a lot to be thankful for whether it was a good thing or a trial in my life. I pray hard and specifically and most of the time, there is an answer. It isn't always the one I expect but what do I know? I don't have the big picture, God does!

Happy Mother's Day, Mami!
Ok, if Trevor can do it so can I!
There once was a daughter named Carolyn,
she ....oh never mind nothing rhymes with Carolyn!
Hope your mom's day was happy anyway! Love you!

Happy Mother's Day!

Lot's of mother's here! After church we headed to Carl's sister's house for chicken and fish tacos and a Mother's day celebration! It was very nice sharing time with these other mothers. We all wished each other Happy Mother's day and the kids had fun playing with their cousins! The weather was nice too and we were all pretty relaxed, which for me was important!

So to all other mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!

Open House - 2008
Well, Open House has come and gone, thank goodness! So much preparation and for what? Just a 45 minute whirlwind of parents, students and siblings! It went well. Kaleigh and Cole hung out with me before their dad came so they acted a little goofy and I got a photo. The other picture is of my classroom with the whole " pondlife and insects and stuff all around. The kids loved the decorations and the parents loved the memory books I made. They are not quite done so they were not able to take them home. But we did do a board that they took home with the kids info on it. All in all, everything worked out. There was one weird thing, my boss came in with a family, and then left! I have no idea who these people were and they were looking around and making comments and then the lady asked me for the handout that I was giving out to the parents in my class! All very strange! I am assuming that their child will be joining us next school year, but I don't care for the way she demanded one of the few flyers I had! She basically just walked up and said, "What's that?" and took one! I am struggling with my assignment for next year and I may have to make some changes! Wish me luck!

Yeah, you're on my Blog now, Nae!
Hope you don't mind me calling you Nae! Anywhoo, we all enjoyed meeting you and we hope to visit again soon. Carl does not show excitement at all so you can be sure he was jumping for joy when you mentioned the tour, but he won't show it! Inside he was doing a major "happy dance"!
We wished we could have stayed for the lovely lounge part of the visit but the kids were wiped by the time we got home and we had no arguement about bedtime! They were pooped! For those of you reading this who don't know who "Nae" is, she is Diana's friend and she is in the Navy! We visited her while Tina and Diana took a trip to San Diego. It was fun! We took in Horton Plaza and heard (but did not see, sorry Carl) the planes that were in the Air Race down there. All in all a nice impromptu day trip!
Fun fun! See you all soon!