I love you because....

I love you Courtney.
I love the way you smile your sweet smile.
I love your want to be good.
I love how you have grown up to be responsible.
I love how you take charge of the other kids when mom has just had enough. then you come over and put your hand on mine and give me a look like, Mom everything will be okay.
I love when I go to pick you up for school you greet me with a hug
I love your long strawberry blond hair and freckles
I love that you try to be modest in everything that you wear
I love how silly you are
Courtney you are truly a blessing in my life. the lord knew that I needed you here on earth with me.
I love you.
mom

100 things about me

A few weeks ago my sister Liz posted a blog titled 100 things about me. I was so suprised how little I knew about her and her husband! She then asked me to do it....so here it goes.
1. My name is Jennifer Fae Ritchie
2. My favorite color is black
3. I don't like bananas, pudding, oatmeal, cold cereal, or icecream
4. I am married to my best friend Scott
5. This is my second marriage.
6. We have 2 children together and I have 2 from my previous marriage
7. I am a stay at home mom
8. I feel like I yell and chase kids all day long
9. I wouldn't change it for the world
10. I love to spend money, not on myself but on my kids
11. My husband dosen't trust me with the finances
12. My favorite food is the popcorn bag...yes, I love to lick all the butter off.
13. I enjoyed high school
14. I didn't do homework
15. I barely graduated
16. I have a testimony that the church is true
17. I have been in police custody twice
18. I am not proud of it.
19. I hate being suprised
20. I am an easy going person
21. My husband calls it lazy (he is a bit ocd)
22. I have a hard time doing something if someone tells me to do it
23. I don't know why
24. I want to be like my mom
25. I am far from it
26. I played the alto saxaphone for 7 years
27. I was a band geek...Jazz band, marching band, and pep band
28. I worked at Subway for 4 years
29. I still love eating there
30. I have never been in a fist fight
31. Someday I want to go to Figi and sleep in a grass hut
32. I have only flown in an airplane once.
33. I admire my husband
34. he makes me want to be a better person
35. I could fill up the rest of this with phobias I have
36. Woods, volcanos, water that you can't see the bottom, huge rocks, and my head being too close to the corner of the couch, to name a few
37. I hate getting my head wet, unless its in the shower
38. I HATE swimming suits
39. I clam up when I am in big groups of people
40. I once gave a talk on mothers day and got so nervous that 7 mins into it I said amen and sat down.
41. I hardly have any leg hair
42. I only shave every 5-6 months
43. I like to quilt even though I am not very good at it
44. I like taking pictures of my kids and people I know
45. I hate having my picture taken
46. I like angry rock music
47. I like to listen to it loud
48. When I was little I wanted braces so every night I would push on my teeth to make them crooked
49. I still have crooked teeth.
50. I have a horriable memory
51. this makes me terriable at fighting with my husband
52. I truly love my husbands family
53. I thankful that I only had sisters growing up
54. I love them and consider them some of my best friends
55. I compare my dad to Macgyver
56. he once fixed my saxaphone with a rubberband
57. I think his talent is amazing
58. I am a type 1 diabetic
59. I also have psoriasis
60. The only books I have read all the way through have been about Elvis
61. I love Elvis Presley
63. I am not an animal person
64. I once had a hamster named Sammy
65. I forgot to give him water and he died
66. I consider myself a loyal friend
67. I don't like horror movies
68. I don't like stories or movies about aliens
69. I don't watch rated R movies
70. I love washing the laundry
71. I hate folding the whites
72. I also hate the hang ups
73. I hate when people lie
74. I love leather, including the smell
75. My front two teeth are fake
76. I can do the wave with my tounge
77. I love when my husband holds my hand
78. my favorite cartoon is Gem and the Holograms from the 80's
79. I love diet pop for breakfast
80. It has been 10 years since I have drank milk
81. I hate how milky it is
82. I rarely feel stressed
83. I hope my kids have a testimony and stick by it throughout their lives
84. Money dosen't mean a whole lot to me
85. I live in my own little world
86. I have no interest in sports
87. I didn't know that an almond joy has almonds in it and a mounds dosen't until last year. ( It just never clicked)
88. I am horriable at writing thank you cards
89. I am always cold
90. Someday I want to go back to school and have a carrer
91. I will go on a mission with my husband
92. Someday I will own a house
93. I dream in color
94. I am proud of who I am
95. I have learned from my mistakes
96. I am suprised I found this many things about myself to talk about
97. My favorite flower is stargazer lily
98. I have the best life
99. I have the best family
100. I couldn't ask for more. ")
Well...there it is 100 things about me. you should all do it. It would be fun.

The other night....

The other night Scott went in to check on the girls before we went to bed and this is how Hazel looked...all peaceful in her bed. She is too funny!!

I survived my first week

Well my first week is over an I am still standing. The Lord had blessed me so much in this position. Typically when a new teacher comes in they are basically told, "There's your class, go to it!" I have been able to have the long-term sub who has been working with the kids, stick around and show me the ropes (or at least what she has been up to)before throwing me into the deep end. Tomorrow is her last day so on Monday I will start running solo. I am excited, however I realize now that I do not have any little filler activities (like number bingo, or little books w/worksheets, etc) decorations for the class (an alphabet, number lines, shape posters, color posters, etc), and things like crayons, glue sticks, pencils, or little snack cracker things. My classroom is pretty bare bones. I do however have about $500 that I get to spend at the end of the year for next year; so next year I should be sitting pretty. All in all I am excited and have a crap load of work ahead of me.

A not gay male Kindergarten Teacher

Well it's official, I am a kindergarten teacher. I can honestly say that this is not my dream job, it will do until I get into the the desired grade level. I am fairly confident that I did not get this job all on my own (as strange as that may seem; I am a wonderful/talented/desirable person to employ.) I believe that my cooperating teacher had a lot of influence with her continuous lobbying through the months of October and November. In addition I believe the awesome references I received played a big part in solidifying their decision to hire me. Thanks to all who have helped me!

The Proof!

Well here is the proof that I am competent. My Bachelor's Certificate and my Teaching Permit came this past week. By the way, my GPA was a 3.66; so hell ya I am boasting! I am excited becuase this means that I can finally start making money working for people who dont want to. I still havent heard from Warden, however at the same time, I am not so sure how excited the Principal is to hire someone. Well actually excited isn't the right word, MOTIVATED is a much better choice of lexicon. I do have a video of Myles crawling, however I can not figure out how to load it. Any help would be had. All our love.

Damn it....Crabs!!!

So our new year has started off fan-freaking-tastic! From the title, I will let you surmise how it is going. If you feel so inclined you can keep reading and I will further explain! So we are sitting around this morning watching a little Strawberry Shortcake before school. It was skipping a little here and there, plus the kids were more interested in the movie than finishing their breakfast; so I shut it off. I left to take Court and Meg to school and Hazel turned it back on. Of course the movie keeps skipping and pausing to which Hazel blurts out, "Damn it mommy, my movie's not working!" Jen - "HAZEL!" Hazel asks "Is that a bad word?" Jenn - "Yes." Hazel corrects "I mean darn it mommy, my movie is not working!" This kid is too funny. Later in the morning I decided to go ahead and start a deep cleaning of the girls room. I started cleaning up around dresser, emptying their clean laundry baskets, the finally cleaning under the bed. I grab pieces of garbage, wrappers, socks, pj's, and a crab. Now here's why it's funny. For Christmas I got the kids a fish tank, (well actually it was given to us by my fabulous sister KayDe) and filled it with 6 Tiger Barbs, a scum sucker fish, a snail, and a crab. Over a little time, the first crab died. I replaced it with 3 new ones (thinking it died lonely of a broken heart!) When I put them in I noticed one decided he was going escape by climbing up the water heater and out the tank. I never thought one could actually climb out though. I told Jenny that one of the crabs tried to climb out and wouldnt it be funny if we found it under the dresser dead. I cleaned out the tank this past week trying to get my chemical levels balanced so my fish would stop dying, and I noticed I could only see two crabs in the tank. I thought maybe one got buried in the rocks or something. Well not so much. I found my missing crab under the bed dried and black. I also noticed my fish were looking a little "moldy." So I call Pet Town USA in Moses to find out what sick fungus is eating my fish. I am told to get some medicine and treat the fish today. Part of the procedure to medicate my fish is the removal of the charcoal filter so the medicine doesn't get filtered out. I pull my filter out and a freaking crab is stuck in the bottom of the filters mesh! Damn Crabs! If you remember I said I put three crabs in the tank; I am sad to say I have not seen the last crab in the tank for a couple of days. I can honestly say I have never been so disappointed to get rid of my crabs! I have not yet received my certificate so I am not subbing yet (which is bitter sweet.) I have really enjoyed being home every day and spending time with Myles and Hazel and Jenny. I have been able to get a lot of things done, however I still need money to meet bills. Hopefully by the end of this week or mid next week my certificate will be here so I will be able to get some money to help pay bills this month. Myles was diagnosed (sort of) with pnomonia today, so he is on all sorts of drugs to help combat that. Also he is finally crawling. I still need to edit a video or shoot a better one to prove it/brag on line. Check back later! All in all our year has started out really well, All our love.