Lefty

Remember that really scary show called "Watcher in the Woods" or something like that back in the 80's? Ya know, the one where the girl keeps writing "Karen" on the window and backwards it spelled the name of something scary, but I can't even remember who "Nerak" was or what it was. Anyway...that brings me to my hypothesis.

Mikayla is smart; I mean, she's not a genius, but she's smart. So, when she kept insisting on writing her name perfectly "alyakiM" I tried to not be concerned, but really I was. She started on the right and moved perfectly to the left. When she was little, she picked up a book and turned the pages backwards. When she pretends to read, she moves her finger from right to left. I knew it wasn't dyslexia because she doesn't mix up letters in the middle of the word, she just does it all backwards.

I started thinking about the little girl I have tutored for almost five years now. When she started with me, she was only in third grade and was learning cursive. I had to exercise true patience, because she is so smart, but she seriously could not move from left to right and make the curls and everything that cursive requires. Then I realized that she's left-handed and as she was writing, she was covering up what she had written and would have to pick up her hand to continue, which kind of defeats the purpose of cursive.

Fast forward four years: We have worked on some tough stuff, as a matter of fact, it came to a point with functions and probability that I really thought it might need to be my last year tutoring because her algebra was getting too hard. However, she is smart and I can always look back in her text to figure out how to do it before I teach her. THEN, we were solving inequalities with squared numbers. Ya know, the ones where you have to take the square root of both sides, flip the sign and do both the positive and negative on the other side? Well, she was so stuck on negative numbers, and that was the easiest part of the equation. So, I went back and drew a number line and had her practice adding super easy stuff like, -4 + 7. She would come up with 11, -11 or even -3. It was like her brain did not see that starting on the left of the zero and adding is still moving right up the line..and subtracting is still moving left.

There's a lot more to it than that, but I realized that it is A LEFTY THING. I really believe it. Her brain doesn't see numbers and letters in a left to right fashion like the rest of us righties do. To her, moving left is natural, so to throw negative numbers in there and tell her to move right is just a whole "brain=retrain" thing.

Does this make sense to anyone? Has anyone read anything professionally about this? Are any of you lefties that can understand any of this. Meanwhile, I have a lefty and I want to be prepared for all of this. I've already got the name straightened out, but I swear it was retraining her brain, and I think it's going to take her longer to read and do cursive and all the things that we righties take for granted. Do you agree or am I looking into this too much?

Consumer Report

I have messy, dirty kids. Amelia is the kindergarten kid who actually uses that change of clothes that you send in at the beginning of the year. Monday I pulled her shirt out of her bag that she had to change, only to find it COVERED in purple frosting. I mean seriously, how did she get it on the hood in the back? And not just a little bit, it was the whole darn shirt!!!

So, the cheap laundry detergent doesn't end up being so cheap when I have to use two or three times as much to get the stains out. My answer? GAIN. It's better than Tide and anything else I've tried. It's so good that I usually don't even use Spray and Wash on the stains before I wash!

The Bad, the Good, and the Oh So Cute

The Bad,
The Good

and the Oh, So Cute!

Reasons to be Grateful

Okay, so I won't lie: Life sucks right now. When I say "right now" I mean literally at this minute because in a couple hours I'll be okay with the move, and then something happens and I'll be sad again. However, RIGHT NOW, I'm sad. When we got back from Preschool Graduation, the sign was in the yard, and I guess it just became too real. So here's some stuff to be grateful for:

1. My baby graduated from preschool. "Mom, now I just get to go to BIG SCHOOL!" And she didn't cry on stage, as a matter of fact, she loved it! I was so proud of her that I cried! My shy little girl did great!

She even added dance moves!

I'm grateful that the day before graduation, a box shows up on my doorstep with two of the cutest dresses I've ever seen. In all the craziness, I actually forgot about buying Mik a new dress for graduation, but my sister randomly sent two just for fun...and right on time!
Oh, and I'm grateful for new Hannah Montana outfits too (thanks Chell) because when your kids go to school looking and feeling this "fashion," it's hard to not smile.

And I'm oh, so grateful for frilly tutus and ballet recitals.

The Adentures of Moving

I feel like I am on a roller coaster that never ends...sometimes it's all uphill, but then I have moments where I really do feel okay. After my horrible breakdown, I was doing alright until I went to the Daisy sleepover on Friday. There were 12 Daisies and 10 moms and as we were all laying there going to sleep, I just got so sad. I thought of these sweet girls and their moms and how different we all are, but what a fun year we've had, and it was just one of the many things I'm leaving.I have spent countless hours going through every corner, cabinet, closet, and counter throwing out stuff, donating stuff and packing up personal stuff that makes my house to "personal" or "cluttery" for potential buyers. It's crazy. I'm not a pack-rat. I take at least two bags to Goodwill a month, usually more. However, I just don't want to move with anything that I don't need/want. It was great to unload, but I just couldn't believe the junk we had. Seriously, if you think you might move at anytime in your life, start unloading now. I mean, I had FOUR CRATES of college papers, folders and text books that haven't been opened since 1996. Why was I hanging on to them?...and that's just one example. Here is my garage. I have a pick-up scheduled for Friday. Meanwhile, we can't even get a car into the garage. This doesn't count the overflowing garbage and nine bags full of garbage. I didn't even dare get rid of the grill or college crates this week...it's just too much junk for those poor garbage men to unload in one week.

I didn't even know what a "stager" was until one came to my house. I think I want that job. She walks around and takes down things and moves things and then tells you all the big stuff you need to do before she comes back. The major thing? The playroom. She said, "I know it's organized. I can see baskets for each item...HOWEVER, the walls are bright pink and blue and there is SO MUCH STUFF in there that it simply needs to be unloaded, painted and the guest bedroom needs to be moved in there instead. Choose a few toys to put in the old guest bedroom, but show off the big room as a guest room/home office.

So, this is how I spent Mother's Day. Man, it was so much work. However, I took Christy's advice (the expert on moving cousin of mine whose husband is in the military) and tried to make it fun for the kids. I mean, that has to be a little traumatic...painting over their beloved playroom walls. The girls did a great job with the primer. However, as I was washing out the primer brushes to get going on the color, they had gone back and fingerpainted their names in the wall. Dave had to sand it down...what a mess. They were banned from the playroom after that.

And this was the result...a big difference. I wish you could have seen it before, but I didn't take photos.

And another lesson learned...I got rid of 3/4 of their toys...probably 1/4 of that was donated and the rest is stored in a crawl space for the move. However, they spent every second up there from the time Amelia got home from school until it was time to go to GS tonight. They didn't get so overwhelmed with having so much to play with. They found things that I don't think they even knew they had. Now I don't even want to move with anything in the crawl space!

So this is hard, really hard, but the house is almost ready to go...the computer needs to move up to the bonus room for a "home office" instead of the easy-access location in the sitting room by the kitchen. Apparently, this area had become a "catch-all" according to the stager. Then I need to move the piano to the other wall and move in a chair and ottoman and lamp, and we're done.

Now, if only the house will sell...and this roller coaster will come to an end.

News from Our Clan

Okay, we're doing it...the Marsh Fam is moving to Charlotte. Dave was offered a job that we just can't refuse, and after a lot of thought, prayers and tears, we've decided to go.

It's crazy. I love it here. I can't even express how much I love it. I love the school, and everyone knows my kids. I was the PTA treasurer (actually, after learning my job duties, I'm happy to give up that one), and the GS leader. BUT, I already found a replacement for GS and I'm not going to worry about PTA. The house goes up for sale on Monday, but we will be gone by July so the kids can get settled before school starts.

The schools are great there (we are actually going to live in South Carolina) and the houses are too, and I guess we just have to go for it. I dropped my kids off at their schools yesterday and cried all day long. I called my friend Jen and cried some more, but even through the tears, I know it's the right thing to do. I remember leaving Utah and thinking it might be the end of the world, but I knew that was the right thing to do too...and it was... This will be the same.

Amelia's teachers told me she has been very sad at school for the last two days and it breaks my heart. I just told her today that I'm sad too, but it's also very exciting. I told her she could paint her room in any color (she chose purple with a Hannah Montana border) and then she was all excited. I need to remember how young they are...as long as the four of us are together, that's really all that matters.

On a side note...I can't believe I've been married to Dave for almost 13 years....we've had our ups and our downs, but we've done it together. I'd follow him anywhere...just like 15 years ago when I followed him to the U instead of BYU where I had been accepted. I'd even follow him to Fargo, or Anchorage. He's a good man, and I choose to stick by his side!!!!

Wish me luck, and please say a little prayer for my kids. This is a big deal...the sign goes up Monday and we have to look at it. The realtor told us last night that we need to be in the mindset that this house is no longer ours. Anyone can come through and look anytime. I hate it. I raised my babies here. We made it a home, but I guess that's not what's important.

Girls

Girl Scout Camporee a couple of weekends ago

I love my tough girls!! We had a great family weekend in Charlotte staying at a hotel, eating out and swimming and laying out! It was good to focus on the family and just relax together.

I don't have much else to say...I was just thinking about how Amelia started a bug collection and loves to dig for worms and how tough they both are, and how glad I am about that. Amelia told us that she doesn't want to be an astronaut anymore and has changed to a vet. Mikayla wants to be Hannah Montana and a mom.

Have a great week!