"R" and 4 "J"s

Jordan at 14

2011-05-23T21:26:00.004-05:00

On her actual birthday we didn't do too much...it was a wednesday so she had homework to do. She didn't realize I was taking this photo.

Then she heard the 'click' and looked up and smiled...becuase she's so good like that.

Then she thought I was done and went back to her work. 'Click.'

Then she growled at me. 'Click.'

Then she said, "really?" 'Click.'

Then I was done.

Jensen's First Communion

2011-05-23T20:48:00.003-05:00

I just thought I'd put a quick thing up here with the few photos I have from Jensen's first communion. Kaity took most of the photos of the day but these are a couple I had on my camera.

It was a beautiful day and we were so happy that Denise and Kaity were here to share it all with us.

Spring Break 2011

2011-03-28T17:59:00.016-05:00

We had a busy week of travel to Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas. We did a ton and had a great time!

I'm going to start out this post with the absolute best photo of the week:

This next one might be our Christmas card photo for this year:

We flew from Houston to Phoenix on Monday night...usually we take early morning flights, but because we used miles we had limited selection and ended up with a flight at 8:00 p.m. I have to say I loved it! I had the whole day to get things packed up, Bella to the kennel, house cleaned up, etc. I was a lot less stressed than I usually am the night before one of our 7:00 a.m. flights! Might do it this way more often.

There are times when I'm grateful for personal electronic devices. Waiting for a flight is one of them.

We stayed at a cool hotel in Phoenix, The Buttes Marriott. Part of it was built into the side of a hill. This was our view:

Surprise! On Tuesday, we were able to have lunch with Tom and Cindi!

After lunch, we went to a spring training baseball game...Texas Rangers vs. LA Dodgers. We figured there's only a few places you can see a spring training game, so we should do it while we're there. Let me just say this...it was hot. Mid march and already 90 degrees.

Don't they look happy?

Lemonade and daddy's sunglasses makes it all better.

Funny story...when we checked into the marriott Monday night they had messed up our reservation. With the kids getting bigger it's harder for us all to fit in one hotel room so we had reserved two rooms and requested them connecting or at the least, next to each other. Well, they didn't even have two rooms on the same floor to give us. They told us to come back down the next morning and they'd get it set up how it should be. The next morning they offered us several options, one being the Presidential Suite. This was basically a huge living room area with several sofas, chairs, large dining table, etc. plus one bedroom with king bed and one bathroom. They were going to put roll away beds in the living room area for the kids. All this would have been fine except for the huge wall of windows that faced east that had no curtains or shades. The morning sun just blasted in. In addition, only one bathroom means longer lines for the shower. So, basically I turned that option down and we ended up with a Junior suite for the kids and a regular room for jim and I. Which was still better than any room the kids had stayed in up to that point. Well, Jim decided to tell the kids that they could have stayed in the Presidential Suite but mom said "no." Jackson was mad about that the rest of the stay! So, to commemmorate the story here's a photo of sad Jackson standing outside the doors of the Presidential Suite.

We were able to see my mom both nights we were in Phoenix. One night we went to Rawhide (faux) Western Town. They had gun fight shows, a stagecoach to ride, a mechanical bull, and a steakhouse to eat dinner. It was a little hokey but they kids enjoyed it.

The weather was so nice in Phoenix we spent one afternoon just hanging around the pool at the hotel.

On Thursday morning we left Phoenix early and headed toward the Grand Canyon. We stopped about halfway in Sedona and took an off road jeep tour on Tom and Cindi's recommendation. The kids loved it!

Some friends of ours from Kingwood were also "spring breaking" in the area so we met them for lunch. This was especially fun for Jensen since their daughter is one of her good friends.

After our day in Sedona we continued on up to the Grand Canyon and checked into our lodge in the park. That night we couldn't see or do much becuase we got there so late but we got up early the next morning for a scenic airplane flight over the canyon. This was really an awesome experience. I'm glad we did this first thing since it really gave you more of an idea of the scope of the canyon. Of course, 10 minutes into the flight Jensen was curled up in a ball fast asleep. $100 down the drain...

After our flight we decided to do a little hiking. I don't know if you know this, but there are no railings, or safety measures of any kind really, on the hiking trails down into the canyon. This was not good for me. Because have you met Jackson? Or Jordan? Or Jensen? So after a brief stint as a family hiking down the Bright Angel trail, which was still littered with ice in many places, and watching three people, one of whom was Jordan, slip and fall on the ice mere inches from the edge of certain death, the girls and I turned back and left the boys to their own devices.

Do you see how the sign says "icy trail, crampons recommended"? We didn't have crampons...whatever they are.

The girls and I decided to walk along the Rim Trail instead. This trail is about 7 miles in length and we walked about 3 miles of it. When we got tired (which was at about mile 1 for Jensen but Jordan and I kept pulling her along) we hopped on a shuttle bus back to our starting point. Jim and Jackson hiked down about 1 1/2 miles and then back up so I say we're even.

That night we tried to go view a famous grand canyon sunset but it was a little cloudy and sun was totally blocked out at the horizon. Oh well...maybe next time.

The next morning we realized we hadn't gotten any photos of the 5 of us together at the grand canyon so we headed out to find someone to take one for us.

After that we started on our drive to Vegas, baby!

We stayed at a new hotel called The Cosmopolitan. It was modern and very nice. I really liked it, but I think the kids would have preferred one of the theme hotels like new york, new york or Treasure Island.

The first night we saw The Blue Man Group. All three kids really liked it.

The next day we met another friend of ours from Kingwood for brunch at our hotel. the brunch buffet was awesome and we all stuffed ourselves...they had everything from typical brunch food to fried chicken to sushi...

After brunch we walked around the strip visiting some of the more kid-friendly attractions...the M&Ms store, the lion habitat at MGM Grand, the roller coaster at New York, New York with the last stop being the Stratosphere to ride some crazy contraption called X-Scream. At the top of a 107 story observation tower there is this ride where you get in the car and it basically dangles you over the side of the tower. Here's a photo from the web...I didn't take one.

The girls and I said "no thanks," but Jim and Jackson bought a ticket. We got up there and it was extremely windy and cold. At the last minute Jackson came to his senses and told Jim he changed his mind and didn't want to ride. So that was the end of that.

We made it back to our hotel and got ready to go to dinner and see David Copperfield. That show was pretty good and the kids particularly enjoyed when I was part of a group of audience members that he made disappear.

Here is the nightime view of the strip from our hotel room.

The next morning we had to be on the road early for our 5 hour drive back to phoenix to catch our flight home.

It was a great week!

2010 Recap Part 2 - San Diego

2011-01-27T21:50:00.007-06:00

When we go on a trip I take a T-O-N of pictures. And I have a hard time consolidating these down for my chronological highlights folders so I keep my trip/vacation pictures in their own seperate folders and upload and print those seprately. In March we went to San Diego for spring break. Jim had to be there that week for work so the kids and I hopped a plane and met him out there. He had to work the first daybut after that he was on vacation. I had never been and I loved it! It was unbelievably sunny and beautiful every single day we were there. The only time we encountered clouds even was one late afternoon we went out to Coronado Island and it was overcast and windy. Other than that, sun and blue skies.

We did every touristy thing we could think of while we were there. Here's the photographic recap.

First stop Hard Rock Cafe for lunch while Jim worked.

The next day Jim was done with his work stuff so the vacationing started in earnest. We decided to tour the aircraft carrier USS Midway. I really thought we'd be there an hour tops...that the 3Js would get bored and we'd go do something else. Well, it turns out they loved it and didn't want to leave. We were there at least 3 or 4 hours...long past the time I was ready to go!

When we had seen all we could see we decided to go on a harbor cruise. We got this shot of the Midway from the harbor.

And this shot of the 3Js.

The next day we headed out to the world famous San Diego Zoo.

We loved the whole zoo but one of the coolest things was being able to see the Giant Pandas. We waited in line for a while because they limit the number of people going through the exhibit at any one time. They asked that you be quiet as you walk through so as not to disturb them too much. There was a baby panda asleep in a hammock. The mom walked out of her interior space straight toward us then proceeded to sit down with her back to us and munch on some bamboo. She sat that way the rest of the time we were in the exhibit.

The zoo was huge and we explored every inch of it. There are lots of elevated walkways so you can see down into exhibits. I haven't been to another zoo quite like this one. We loved it and had a great day!

After the zoo, we decided to take a drive over to Coronado Island. As you can tell from the above photo it was nice and sunny when we left the zoo, but by the time we got over to the island it had clouded over and was cool and windy. The kids played around on the beach for a little bit and I snapped a few photos but got too cold and went to wait in the car for them. This was the only bit of inclement weather we had on our entire trip.

I'll recap the rest of our trip in another post...not sure how many photos I can include in one post. I feel I might be stretching the boundaries with this one.

First 2 Weeks of 2011

2011-01-18T13:07:00.007-06:00

One of the reasons I want to try to keep up with my blog this year is to help make it easier to complete a "Project Life" album...similar to Project 365 (which is an album with a picture a day) but without the stress of having to take a picture a day. So, with that said, I thought I'd post about the events of the first two weeks of this year.

We started out 2011 celebrating the new year with a great group of friends at the Hyler's new house.

I finally got my christmas cards sent out on January 5th!

A new thing I did this year was to put all the photos we had gotten in Christmas cards on the back door leading out to the garage. I love being able to see all these smiling faces of friends and family every time we leave the house. I still have them all up...love it so much I don't want to take it down!

Here's Bella enjoying one of the blankets Tom and Cindi sent the kids for
Christmas. Don't worry...the kids have enjoyed them too!

On January 8th the kids and I drove to Austin so we could watch Jordan's Blue Tide team mates swim at a swim meet at the University of Texas. Jordan was supposed to be swimming as well, but due to her injured back/kidney she wasn't able to swim. She was so dissapointed about not being able to swim that we decided to go anyway so she could watch. Jim didn't come with us because he had been out of town and didn't get home until about 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning and had to be on a flight back out on Sunday afternoon.

Jordan took those pictures of us on the car ride. Jensen is comfy in the back with her new American Girl doll she got for Christmas and enjoying the new iPad. That thing is awesome! Judging by Jackson's hair he looks like he just woke up from a little nap. We were on the road pretty early and the kids all immediately fell asleep when we got in the car!

The natatorium at UT was pretty impressive. They have three 25 meter pools. They were running events in two of them simultaneously and using the third for warm up and warm down laps.

These are some of Jordan's swim buddies...Haley Harper and Chloe Hoover. We went to the team lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse on Saturday after the girls got done swimming.

No road trip would be complete without a stop at Bucees. We picked up a pound of beef jerky and some Beaver Nuggets and were back on the road to home as happy as could be!

Jim was on his way back to Toronto before we got home Sunday. Later in the week he emailed us this picture of what he was enduring way up north.

The week ended on a sad note. Jackson had a boy scout campout this past weekend and Jim went as well as a volunteer.

The campsite was not too far, only about an hour drive away. They left early Saturday morning, around 5:30 because the younger scouts had to go on a 5 mile hike as a requirement for their next rank advancement and the hike was to start at 7:00 a.m. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but it was rainy that morning and continued to rain and be miserable all weekend. One of the older scouts was to lead the boys on the hike. He was a junior in high school and driving himself to the campout when he lost control of his car and hit a fence. A board from the fence went through his windshield and killed him.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about that boys' parents. They probably never dreamed as they were sending him off on a wholesome activity like a boy scout campout, that that would be the last time they would see him. I keep thinking if it had been me, I'd have been grateful that my child could drive himself up there while I stayed snuggled in my bed on an early, rainy saturday morning. Life as we know it could change at any instant.

Jim, Jordan, Jackson, Jensen I love each of you. I keep this blog for myself, but also for all of you so that if life as we know it ever changed you would know how much you mean to me.

2010 Recap - part 1

2011-01-05T21:03:00.005-06:00

Over the course of 2010 I uploaded 3500 photos to my computer. Wow. That's a lot of photos. Every quarter I go through the last three months' worth of photos, pare down, and save some into "chronological highlights" folders. These are the photos I upload to an online photo processing place and eventually print. For 2010 I had almost 800 "highlights" photos. That's still a lot. So since I didn't really post anything here in 2010 I thought I'd try to pare down even further and share a few photos from each quarter of the year that were my favorites or represented something we did.

Here we go with Part 1
January - March

We started out the year with a belated anniversary celebration - 19 years - with dinner at a steak house downtown. I think one of the kids must have taken this photo...notice the tree all un-decorated. I think this was Saturday, Jan. 2nd.

Over the course of the year, there were several visits from the tooth fairy for this little girl.

Jackson participated in his last Pinewood Derby. That looks like an award winning paint job to me!

Jordan auditioned for, and made, the Region Orchestra. She was selected for the top Symphonic orchestra as a 7th grader...there weren't very many 7th graders in this orchestra and the music was very hard. There were two long days of rehearsals and a concert. Jordan dubbed it the "worst experience of her life." It was so bad that she refused to try out again this year in 8th grade. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can just make Jordan out. She's slightly left of center in front of two girls in green jackets.

Jensen turned 7 and all she wanted was to have a sleepover party so that's what we did...7 little girls sleeping over! Jordan and her friend Haley (in the front) helped supervise the little girls while they decorated pillow cases.

Jim and Jensen attended the Adventure Princesses Father/Daughter Dance...the highlight of the A.P. social season!

Jensen FINALLY learned to ride her bike!

Jackson's cub scout Arrow of Light ceremony where they were officially turned over to the Boy Scouts. It was a very cool ceremony with a huge bonfire and fireworks.

More Scenes of Christmas

2010-12-28T22:05:00.014-06:00

These are just a few photos I took over the month of December

This is our elf, Jolly Bob Toph. He appears on December 1st and keeps an eye on the 3 Js and reports back to Santa each night. Each morning he's in a new place in the house and it's always a game to see who is the first one to spot his new location.

Jensen left a note and a snack for his arrival.

Jordan had her first basketball game of the season on Dec. 2nd. RMS crushed Crosby 42 - 2!

My Christmas village has really grown. We got our first piece as a wedding gift TWENTY YEARS AGO and now it spreads around my dining room. I love each and every piece and would be so disappointed if the 3 Js didn't go pick out a new one for me for Christmas. This year I got the Historic Chicago Water Tower.

The kids' tree upstairs in the game room.

A sleeping child...there's nothing cuter.

I found this in Jackson's room one afternoon. It cracked me up!

A Christmas craft.

Jensen got to open a present early when a package arrived from Grandma Fuja that contained two live frogs and an aquarium to set up for them.

Goofing around with my camera.

Jackson played in his first middle school band concert. He's the little one in the santa hat.

These are friends Ethan and Haley Harper who are also in the band. Ethan is Jackson's age and Haley is Jordan's age.

Everything is wrapped and ready.

Making cookies for Santa on Christmas eve. Who puts cashews on the sugar cookie? A Fuja that's who.

All I wanted to do was take a nice picture of the kids and this is what I get.

I caught our mischievous elf playing around on our gingerbread house before his departure back to the north pole until next year.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T21:24:00.006-06:00

It was mostly a techno christmas around here.

Jordan got a laptop from Santa. I don't suppose we'll see much of her anymore.

Santa brought THE FAMILY an iPad...not Jackson...THE FAMILY.

And now Jensen has the iPad and Jackson can't bother to look up for the picture because he's busy playing on another gadget he got...a PSP.

Then there was this little bright spot of non electronic gadgetry.

And this one.

And then there was the clean up.

Thank you to everyone that shopped for, wrapped, and shipped gifts to Jim and I and the 3 Js. Everything was perfect and very much appreciated. Especially the $15 I won on one of the scratch off lottery tickets Jean sent! Were there any other big winners at the Fuja family get-together? Kaity, did you take pictures? We'd love to see them if you did.

A special thanks to my dad and Dyann for traveling here to spend Christmas with us. I'm kicking myself, but I didn't take even one picture while they were here. :-(

Merry Christams to all and to all a good night.

Hmmm...

2010-11-15T19:44:00.005-06:00

This past weekend I was contacted by my freshman (and sophmore) college roommate, Lori Kaizawa. I had not been in contact with Lori since we graduated 23 years ago. It was great to hear from her, but also daunting trying to encapsulate the last 23 years of your life in an email. I remembered this blog that I had abandonded earlier in the year and looked it up to give her the link as a way to give her a glimpse into my life now. I started reading some of my previous posts and it struck me how much I loved reading it. I'm so glad I have these everyday things preserved to go back and read any time I want. I went back to my first post in 2006 and read all of them from that year. The kids look so young!! And it wasn't that long ago. It made me want to try to start blogging again. So here goes.

The most recent events of note around here were halloween and the end of kfl football. I have already sent these pictures to Jean but thought I'd post them here for everyone to see.

Halloween night Jackson's football team had their 2nd playoff game at 6:00 p.m. That meant that we couldn't really trick or treat that night...which was not that great for Jensen. So, we sent her with a friend and she had a really great time. It also meant I didn't get many pictures. I took a couple of her at the house before we left...she looked scaaaaarrrry!

The football game did not go the way of the good guys. You can tell by the expression on the boys' faces. It is the end of KFL for most of those boys...next year they move on to middle school football. Coaches were crying, boys were crying, parents were crying. It was quite something to see.

We got home about 8:30 and Jackson got the dregs of the candy that was left on our street. He wasn't much in the mood for trick or treating anyway...

Jordan did dress up this year, as a nerd, and went trick or treating with a few of her friends but I didn't get any pictures of her.

Another interesting halloween weekend has passed...

Project 365 Week 29

2010-01-22T18:22:00.005-06:00

199/365

Met some friends at the Children's Museum in Houston. They've recently expanded it so it's a little better than it used to be. All the kids found parts of it they liked. Jensen loved pretending to be a vet in the "animal hospital." Went to Spaghetti Warehouse for lunch afterwards.

200/365

Jackson's going to give KFL football a try. The tryouts were today. They had a series of drills they had to do, they had to get weighed (official weight: 63 lbs.), and they had to fill out a questionnaire. One of the questions asked which other sports you play and Jackson put lacrosse. The coaches all stand around and evaluate the kids and ask them some questions. One of them asked Jackson which position he played in lacrosse and he said "attack." The coach said, "I don't know what that is but I like the sound of it!"

201/365

This is the book Jackson is reading this week.

202/365

Starting to gather the football equipment we need. He's holding onto the helmet because it won't fit over his hair. You think it might be time for a haircut?

No photo for Friday

203/365

Jim and Jensen went on a father/daughter date to the Mudpie and they picked their projects up today. Wish I could have been there to see Jim painting his mug...

204/365

I bought this pineapple today to add to our kabobs we were having for dinner. It was sooooo juicy and good. The kids didn't like it nearly as much as I thought they would...but I sure enjoyed it.

This explains exactly how I feel

2010-01-21T20:45:00.002-06:00

"Life can be overwhelming and absolutely crazy, but it’s OK. I wield a camera. I freeze time, so I can play it back S-L-O-W-L-Y and better appreciate the moments of complete bliss that are plentiful and so very good."

I read this today on another blog (Stacy Julian for those of you who know of her) and it immediately hit a chord.

project 365 Week 28

2010-01-13T22:53:00.009-06:00

This is Mom/Kid Beach Week! I hope you enjoy the photos half as much as we enjoyed the week!

186/365

3 moms hit the beach!

187/365

We're back at the Beach Club for the second year in a row...nearly a year after hurricane Ike and things look pretty good.

188/365

Unfortunately for us the elevators to the 2nd and 3rd floors of the condos still aren't repaired (we got our workouts unloading and re-loading the cars) and they're still working on fixing the dune walkovers...but we managed okay.

189/365

We spent the week doing things like playing board games...

190/365

Playing Wii...

191/365

Chillaxin'...

192/365

Chillaxin' in our own special way...

193/365

And frolicking on the beach.

194/365

Have you ever seen such great beach hair??

195/365

Nothin' better than falling asleep when and wherever you want!

196/365

We ended the week with lunch at the Rainforest Cafe on the way out of town...

197/365

...and had this special dessert.

198/365

I arrived back home to find these back-to-school catalogs in the mail from the week. I was soooo not ready for back-to-school.

Project 365 Week 27

2010-01-10T12:15:00.007-06:00

This week was mainly marked by the 4th of July...I don't have a picture for every day but I picked seven from the week to share.

178/365

Denise is leaving today and I want to get a picture of her and the kids together. However, it's virtually impossible to get all three Js to cooperate for any given photo. There's always one who's in a mood.

179/365

This is Spinach Bread...a recipe we made up and have been making for YEARS...since the days we lived in Boston. It's basically like a stromboli. Store bought pizza dough rolled into a rectangle. Layer mozzarella and parmesan cheese, spinach, pepperoni and some spices. Roll up, bake and slice. Yummy appetizer or even dinner sometimes.

Fourth of July

180/365

Jordan helped decorate the swim team float and walked in the parade handing out candy.

181/365

Jackson and Jim helped decorate the cub scout pack float and also walked/rode in the parade.

182/365

That left Jensen and I to watch the parade on our own.

183/365

184/365

This boy LOVES fireworks!

185/365

Three people going to play golf.

Project 365 Week 26

2010-01-04T09:17:00.007-06:00

171/365

Handstands in the pool...a classic.

172/365

I'm very thankful for twice per week trash pick up.

173/365

Denise arrived today! She's going to stay with the kids while we get away to napa for a long weekend with friends. I'm very thankful for her too.

174/365

Remember how hot I said it was last week? 62 in San Fransisco feels like heaven!

175/365

Chateau Montelena.

176/365

Cain.

177/365

Packing up to head home after a fun wine-filled weekend. See those boxes on the cart? All wine. Plus two more boxes you can't see in the picture.

Project 365 Week 25

2010-01-03T20:36:00.005-06:00

164/365

Your guess is as good as mine. I found this picture on my camera. Maybe summer boredom at it's best?

165/365

Dang, it's hot.

166/365

Jackson and Austin off to morning swim practice.

167/365

A little swim team bonding at the Mudpie.

168/365

I took the kids to see the movie Up in 3D. My arm isn't long enough to get all of us in a self portrait photo.

169/365

She's going to give lacrosse a try.

170/365

Father's day dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

The outtakes. They're a laugh riot.

Project 365 Week 24

2009-12-29T13:56:00.006-06:00

The only photos I have for this week are from the swim meet so here you go:

157/365

That's our gator...as in Greentree/Riverchase Gators.

158/365

Breaststroke

159/365

Getting ready for backstroke

160/365

Breaststroke

161/365

Butterfly...isn't that beautiful??

162/365

There's lots of down time at swim meets...thank goodness for personal, portable electronics.

163/365

A little backyard silliness.

Project 365 Week 23

2009-12-28T12:37:00.008-06:00

This week was marked by the last day of school (June 3rd) and a swim meet... so, not a photo every day but I still came up with seven to share.

150/365

Jackson and his teacher Rebecca Easterby...a great teacher and a family friend to boot!

151/365

The kids in Jackson's class had each done interviews and written a biography of one other kid in their class. They read them out loud on the last day.

152/365

Jensen and her teacher Mrs. Clift...Jensen had a great year in her class

153/365

Woo hoo! School's out for summer! On to swim season!

154/365

The kids all draw on each other with sharpies at the swim meets...trying to get that all off later drives me crazy.

155/365

156/365

Project 365 Week 22

2009-10-07T21:08:00.008-05:00

Not that anyone cares what we were doing way back at the end of May, but this is where I left off so it's where I'll pick back up...

142/365

A pretty bad allergy/asthma flare up for one kid and swimmer's ear (even though it's only May) for another.

143/365

This is what three 4th grade boys who know that school is almost out for summer look like. I went in for Jackson's distribution of his birthday treats--our school district has a rule that you can't bring in any outside treats for birthdays but you can buy things from the cafeteria to distribute to the class. The cafeteria has a decent assortment of ice cream cups, sorbet, popsicles, etc. so it was fudgesicles all around!

144/365

Happy 10th birthday to Jackson! Jim had to leave on a flight out of town later that morning and wouldn't be there later in the day so we had an early morning family birthday celebration. Jackson opened his gift...an iPod touch...and we had birthday cake for breakfast. An awesome start to the day!

145/365

Tonight was our last Cub Scout pack meeting of the year where the boys all move up in rank. These boys are now all Sr. Webelos.

146/365

We went out for Jackson's birthday dinner. He picked Ling's, a new Chinese buffet place near us. Buffets and Chinese food...neither my favorite, but it wasn't my birthday now was it? Jackson had a blast, loved the food, and even saw one of his good buddies there. It doesn't get much better!

147/365

This is a bonus photo for Friday. The Riverwood awards ceremony was today and Jordan got several awards...straight As for the year, two special class awards in RELA and Social Studies, and the one I'm most impressed by, the Presidential Physical Fitness award (the photo is of her receiving that award). Out of about 300 6th graders only 15 earned this award. Like I've said before...a scholar and an athlete...and an all around great person. Love her.

148/365

It's Saturday so we must be at a swim meet. See that blue star on the back of her shirt? That means she earned the team target time for one of her strokes...freestyle in this case.

149/365

On Sunday, my friend Nancy's oldest son graduated from Kingwood High School. We attended their celebration dinner at a great Italian restaurant downtown.

Project 365 Week 21

2009-07-23T11:43:00.007-05:00

this week all the pictures I took were from Saturday...swim meet and then Jordan's sleepover birthday party. I decided to go with what I have...

134/365

Jensen and her good friend Samantha at today's swim meet. Samantha is on a different team and we swam against them today. Jensen had a blast!

135/365
Jordan's birthday sleepover started with a scavenger hunt planned by Jim. The girls divided into two teams. I chaperoned one and Jim the other while they roamed the neighborhood knocking on doors asking for random household items. At the end of the designated time, Jim tallied the scores and declared a winner...Mom's team won!!

136/365
The kids were all hot and sweaty from running around the neighborhood so they took a dip in our teeny, tiny pool.

137/365
We had pizza and then cookie cake.

138/365

139/365
Opened presents...

140/365
and then swam some more.

141/365
Happy birthday, Jordan!

Project 365 Week 20

2009-07-20T07:24:00.011-05:00

128/365

Jordan's 12th birthday dinner. She chose Asian City Japanese Hibachi. Twelve?? Wow. Love her so much and couldn't be prouder of her.

129/365

RMS beginner orchestra spring concert. They sounded great! They've made incredible progress since that first concert of the year. Jordan is in the middle of the back row.

130/365

This is how Bella looks after one of our 3 mile walks. Her legs are a lot shorter than mine so she has to walk a lot faster...although she does have four of them...

131/365

Another one of Jensen's friends.

No picture for Friday

132/365

Another swim meet. That's Jensen in the middle. I love how she looks like she's going to take off and fly rather than swim.

133/365

Jordan's NCL class got together for a bowling "getting to know you" party. They were supposed to bring "crazy" socks to give to their secret sister. It seems like a pretty good group of girls.

Project 365 - Week 19

2009-07-05T10:48:00.006-05:00

Just got back from our mom/kid vacation at the beach. Had a great time and wished we could have stayed longer. Eventually some of the photos will make it here, but if you can't wait the two months it will apparently take me, you can view them all here

On to week 19:

121/365

A big new purchase--both Jackson and Jordan got the new DSi--and the best part is, they only had to each lay out about $20. Game Stop had an awesome deal where they were offering $70 for their old DS lites plus a 30% bonus on any games turned in. Mom and Dad are happy with very little cash outlay. Kids are happy with a new gadget to play with.

122/365

New haircuts for both girls. Just a trim for Jensen, but quite a big change for Jordan. The stylist blew it dry plus used a flat iron! We'll probably never see it look like this again, so good thing we got a picture!

123/365

Rosemary Roasted Potatoes--a staple side dish around here. Red potatoes cut into wedges; kosher salt; rosemary; olive oil. Toss together and roast in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Super simple and super good.

124/365

6th grade field day at RMS. They spelled her name wrong on her shirt...if only I had a dollar for every time someone spelled our name that way... Look at the cute, short pony tail!

125/365

We found a turtle in the back yard. Of course, Jensen wanted to keep it. We told her she could keep it for one day and then we had to let it go in the bayou. Surprisingly she acquiesced without too much fuss.

126/365

First swim meet for a rookie Gator. It was just the time trials, no opposing team, but still a big deal--first events on her hand, first cheers, first heat--all accomplished without a hitch.

127/365

Mother's Day--look at how lucky I am. Got served breakfast in bed; off to church; then a nice, fancy brunch at Fleming's.

Project 365 - Week 18

2009-06-19T08:03:00.007-05:00

114/365

This girl loves doing hairstyles on her dolls. Today she asked Jordan to do this hairstyle on her. And then she asked me to take a picture of it. Seriously.

115/365

I was struck by the swim bag and goggles on the edge of the table and Jordan practicing her violin in the background. And this was after she'd already been to gymnastics practice and done her homework. An athlete and a scholar. She never ceases to amaze me.

116/365

Here is a member of our household that I don't think I've ever photographed before. Meet Jasmine. Or Alexandria. Or Alicia. Not sure of her current name...it changes often.

117/365

Freshly showered and building legos. At almost 10 he still likes to build things with his legos. An architect or engineer in the making I think.

118/365

They love each other. And I love that.

119/365

Packed up for another cub scout campout. He's got it down to a science.

Poked in the eye with a stick. I'm sure this type of thing has happened way more often than I care to think about.

120/365

Some of Jim's Jr. Webelos.

Project 365 - Week 17

2009-06-14T11:22:00.007-05:00

What? Another new post? I may just get less than a month behind at this rate!

107/365

I can't believe it's time for another Gators summer swim season to start! Rookie camp starts today and this is what a rookie Gator looks like.

108/365

Our first dinner al fresco with our new patio furniture. Not sure what the thumbs down from Jensen is all about but it probably had something to do with the dinner selection. Jordan missed our first outdoor dinner due to gymnastics...

And this photo, just because she's cute.

109/365

This is how I keep my photos organized on my computer...and I have a lot of photos. Over 11,000 according to my adobe album organizer...and that's just since 2005. Is that too many?

110/365

Because black converse sneakers aren't pretty enough all on their own, she had to add yellow fluorescent laces. As well as adding funky laces to all her other shoes.

111/365

I really wish I had smell-o-vision so you could experience how incredible the jasmine smells right now...

112/365

We had the Enochs and Kimberlins over for dinner to do some planning for our Napa trip. Not sure how much planning we got done, but we sampled lots of wine so that's something right? I made strawberry shortcake for dessert. My mom used to make this all the time when I was a kid. I made it the same way using Bisquick to make crumbly biscuits topped with macerated strawberries and cool whip...so yummy.

113/365

My friend Heather started a "cooking club." There's 4 of us in it and we plan to get together once a month to make meals for the freezer. Today was our first session. It took 4 hours and we each went home with 7 meals for under $60! And it was fun!

Project 365 - Week 16

2009-06-14T11:15:00.006-05:00

Two updates in the span of less than a week??

100/365

Wow! This is my 100th photo of the year...well, I've taken waaaay more than 100 photos, but you know what I mean.

I realized that I forgot to take a picture of the eggs we colored for Easter, so here they are today...luckily we hadn't eaten any yet.

101/365

I've been trying to walk at least 3 days a week with Bella. It's not much but at least it's some exercise for the two of us. I love this app from my iPhone. It's a pedometer that tells how fast and how far I've walked. It also tells me how many calories I've supposedly burned...usually just enough to cover my morning coffee and cookie...

102/365

The sunrise out my back door...

103/365

Finally found new patio furniture that we liked. A 60" round table is not that easy to find...who knew?

104/365

The torrential rain we had today is not easily captured in a photograph. It rained a ridiculous crazy amount. Jim and Jensen were scheduled to leave for their last Adventure Princess campout. I begged them not to go, but there are some die hard dads in Jim's group so off they went. They were going away from the rain, so the weekend ended up to not be that bad although they did sleep in the back of the Suburban briefly Friday night...

105/365

Homemade Nestle Tollhouse Cookies...yummmm

106/365

Weekly food photo...we have Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls on weekends pretty often. I've never made homemade cinnamon rolls, but with these around, why would you?

Project 365 - Week 15

2009-06-11T17:20:00.010-05:00

It's been over a month since I've updated my Project 365...can you say "B-E-H-I-N-D?"

93/365

Jensen helped read the announcements at school today. Her portion was the lunch menu...the choices were some form of chicken nuggets or turkey sandwich...

94/365

So cold that we need the fire...in April???

95/365

Bruce Springsteen in concert with Little Steven and Max Weinberg. Every time Jim gets tickets to see Bruce I think, "Really? Do we really need to see him again?" And every time I love it!

And just because I know you've missed 'em...a "date night" photo

96/365
Happy Birthday to me...

An awesome night out with friends to celebrate #44 (gasp!). A limo, dinner out, dueling pianos...perfect!

97/365

Me and Jensen and her "Spring" party at school.

98/365

Today we had our little family birthday celebration. Look at all the gorgeous cupcakes the kids and Jim made for me.

99/365

Easter Sunday. Traditional mass at St. Martha's. Followed by non-traditional gospel brunch at House of Blues. It was awesome!

Week 14

2009-05-06T15:19:00.007-05:00

This week will be easy to update since I didn't do such a good job with the whole picture-a-day thing...

89/365

"What is this a photo of?" you might ask. Well, this is me trying to open the garage door to get out after Jim has parked the Suburban in the garage. It's a precision parking job and he just doesn't quite have the hang of it...

90/365

Happy April Fool's Day! The kids decided to TP Jim's office since he was working at his company's office today. They used 3 whole rolls of TP.

Partners in crime.

91/365

It was our neighborhood Easter egg hunt today. Jensen was the only one of the 3 Js that participated and she had fun.

92/365

Jordan and I dressed up for the NCL (National Charity League) Chapter Tea. This is an organization where "daughters along with their mothers participate in a 6-year educational program of philanthropic work, leadership training, educational activities and cultural events." Jordan and I just joined and the Chapter Tea is where all the new members are introduced to the rest of the chapter. It was a nice event and I'm looking forward to us doing some philanthropy work together over the summer.

Week 13

2009-04-30T20:59:00.004-05:00

82/365

We all missed Bella while we were on spring break. She missed Jim.

83/365
This is a disaster waiting to happen.

84/365

The Airplane Sandwich Story
Jackson, for as long as I have known him, has hated sandwiches. It's not such a big deal when they are young and at home, you can always make them whatever they want. It does become a problem when they are school age...what do they take for lunch if they don't like sandwiches? For several years, every day, Jackson has taken a Lunchable for lunch. Works for me...it's very easy to prepare his lunch every day. Until one day out of the blue, he says he can't stand Lunchables any more, can't stomach eating another one. I don't blame him, but there's still the problem of what he's going to take for lunch so I say, "if you don't want a lunchable and don't like sandwiches, what are you going to take for lunch?" He says, "I like sandwiches." I say, "Really? What kind of sandwiches do you like?" He says, "the kind they serve on airplanes." "Seriously? The sandwiches made with stale rolls, one see-through, wafer thin slice of ham and one wilted piece of lettuce? THAT'S the kind of sandwich you like? Fine." Hence, the Airplane Sandwich was born. Mind you, my Airplane Sandwiches are made with fresh rolls, two, sometimes three, slices of ham, and crisp lettuce, but it's the best facsimile I could come up with.

85/365

This is Jensen telling me the story of the Little Red Hen who makes the bread and asks all her friends to help. None of them want to help make the bread but they all want to help eat it. Too cute!

86/365

Jensen has a penchant for lining up her toys. I walked into the playroom today and found all these Barbies (Dang, we've got a lot of Barbies!) lined up in rows on the floor. Weird.

87/365

This was a day I was dreading. Jordan and I had an event to go to (the NCL Chapter Tea...more about that next week) where appropriate dress was required. And by "appropriate" I mean something other than basketball shorts and oversized t-shirts. So, we had scheduled a shopping day. Hard to say who was dreading it more...me or her. Well, from my perspective anyway, it turned out to be not so bad. Jordan found an outfit appropriate for the tea along with several more things along the way that weren't basketball shorts or oversized t-shirts. And I got to go shopping with my daughter!

88/365

I take a lot of pictures of food...sorry about that. This is Irish Eggs Benedict. I don't remember where we first had this...it was long ago, way before kids, when we actually went out for leisurely brunches. If Jim were here right now I'd ask him and I'm sure he'd remember the restaurant. Me, I don't remember. We loved it so much, we make it at home whenever we're craving a hearty, filling Sunday morning breakfast. The recipe: english muffins, corned beef hash (yum!), poached eggs, hollandaise sauce. Mmmmmm.

Week 12

2009-04-17T15:32:00.009-05:00

Am I caught up yet? Nope, not yet, but still working on it. This was spring break week and while we weren't gone the whole week, I decided to highlight my seven favorite photos from the trip.

75/365

Jim was so happy that he got to cross something off his bucket list!

76/365

Jordan bought this hat as one of her souvenirs of the trip. I love how great she looks in this photo.

77/365

It was love at first site between Jensen and the horses at the ranch. She has big plans to return someday and purchase this one.

78/365

This was our last trail ride of the trip. That's Jensen on the biggest horse (Big 'Un) right behind the trail boss; then Jackson is behind her on Peanut; and that's Jordan at the end right in front of me taking the picture.

79/365

After the dude ranch, we went to New Braunfels and visited the Wildlife Safari Ranch, a place where you drive your car through and there are all kinds of animals that come right up to the car windows so you can pet and feed them. This was my favorite thing of the trip...when have you gotten to pet a zebra??

80/365

This was Jackson's favorite thing of the trip...ziplining at the Natural Bridge Caverns

81/365

A family photo in the caverns. You can tell it was humid down there by how flat my hair is and how big Jackson's hair is.

Really great trip!

Week 11

2009-04-14T06:36:00.005-05:00

68/365
I'm missing a picture for Monday...

69/365
Don't really have a photo for Tuesday either, so I'll stick this shot of myself in..

70/365

71/365

Kindergarten field trip day...off to the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show. The weather was cold and rainy but Jensen was in heaven with all the animals around.

72/365

It's been so cold and rainy this week we actually lit the fireplace...a rare ocurrence in March.

73/365

Busy packing for our spring break trip...

74/365

Project 365 Week 10

2009-03-29T19:07:00.004-05:00

61/365

Pick a card, any card...ever since the cub scout banquet where we had a magician for the entertainment, Jackson has been teaching himself card tricks off the internet. Some of them are actually pretty good.

62/365

This is the sunset we saw at the end of our street tonight.

63/365

Look what came home from school today. Another sign that the school year will be over soon.

64/365

The second violin mishap of the year. Thank goodness for that insurance on the rental instruments!

65/365

A little hot tub relaxation...one of Jim's favorite things to do on a cool evening.

66/365

Adventure Princesses campout at Brazos Bend State Park. They were allowed to bring a guest so Jensen brought Jordan.

67/365

Another lax game and it's still going good.

Project 365 Week 9

2009-03-14T16:06:00.008-05:00

Packing up today for our dude ranch spring break adventure starting tomorrow. Should have lots of interesting photos when i return. Until then...

54/365

Evidence of an obsession.

55/365

This is what 500 orchestra students looks like. Jordan played in the Zone Concert tonight. Orchestras from Riverwood Middle School, Creekwood Middle School and Kingwood High School performed together. Each orchestra performed 2 pieces separately and then a grand finale piece all together. This year the finale was the Toureadour song from the opera Carmen.

56/365

This was a total mistake. I was walking by the side door and saw some birds in my neighbor's yard gathering stuff and flying up to a tree so they could build a nest. I thought that would be a cool picture...to get a shot of a bird carrying something in it's beak...a "sign of spring" kind of photo. I grabbed my camera and went outside as quitely as I could. Of course, the birds heard me and scattered. I stood there for a while waiting for them to resume their work, but I lost patience before they came back. I saw a cardinal sitting in the tree and snapped this shot. Unfortunately, the settings on my camera were all wrong and this is what I ended up with. Good thing I never got the shot I wanted becuase it wouldn't have turned out and I would have been mad. Instead, even though this shot was a total mistake, I still thought it was cool.

57/365

Everything's better with bacon.

58/365

59/365

Photo #1 - "Hey, look at that open wound gushing blood!"
Photo #2 - "Dude. That looks like it really hurts. I wonder what we should do?"
Photo #3 - "Let's all put on surgical gloves and wrap it in toilet paper. That should do the trick."

I don't think they took 1st place in the First Aid competition.

60/365

The girls and I got to spend some crafty time together.

Project 365 Week 8

2009-03-08T23:44:00.007-05:00

47/365

The text on the photo tells the tale. Really disturbing and just sad.

48/365

My valentine roses still looking good several days later...

49/365

Here's my little basil plant I mentioned last week. Isn't it cute?

50/365

This is Jordan's after school snack almost every day--a mozzarella and pepperoni panini--otherwise known as a "pizza sandwich." A little more hearty than Jensen's ice cream cone...mainly due to the fact that after consuming this sandwich, Jordan does three hours of rigorous gymnastics training...

51/365
No photo for Friday. I looked at my calendar for this day and one of the things I did was have lunch with Heather. I remember we went to New York Pizzeria and sat outside in the sunshine with beautiful Miss Megan. I should have taken a picture...

52/365

Jordan's first orchestra solo & ensemble competiton. Everyone in the beginning orchestra at Riverwood scored a "1" for both their solo and ensemble pieces. That's the first time that's happened in 4 years. Here are some comments the judge made on her score sheet:

Tone: "Very clean start; nice straight bow path; good job with pitch; make sure violin is in tune."

Technique: "Nice work with articulation; make dolce smoother."

Musicianship: "get instrument a little higher -- parallel to floor."

"Keep up the hard work!"

I was very impressed with the detailed comments the judge gave her...especially since he had to sit and listen to beginning orchestra students... play the same piece... all day long.

53/365

Today was our Cub Scout pack's annual Blue and Gold Banquet. Jim's den was in charge of planning the whole thing--catering, decorations, entertainment, etc.--for 200 people. It was a lot of work, but turned out great. The entertainment was a magician (a local high school student) who did an awesome job keeping the boys enthralled and entertained. Glad it's over...

Project 365 Week 7

2009-02-22T11:04:00.005-06:00

40/365

Chocolate ice cream cone after school. Every day.

41/365

A 100 on a spelling test?? That is a rare (actually, never before achieved) accomplishment. He was so proud. And so were we.

42/365

Bella.

43/365

Our printer has been dying a slow death for the past several months. It finally gave up the ghost the other day so we got a new one. Seems a shame since it was only 3 years old, but Jean says that's how long those kind of things seem to last these days so...I'm happy though becuase it's wireless so I can finally print from my laptop in the kitchen.

44/365

Valentine class parties at school today. Those are the valentine's Jensen gave to her class mates. They needed a mirror to read who it was from...cracks me up. Jensen and her buddy Samantha being sassy. Jackson and his cronies playing a game at their class party.

45/365

End of the flag football season. We had two games this last day and then had our team party. We had a fun parent/child football game...I even played for a few possessions and then claimed I had to be the "team photographer." :-)

46/365

The photo says it all. That's the story of Jackson's life.

Project 365 Week 6

2009-02-17T19:49:00.006-06:00

Still behind but trying to get caught up...

33/365

Notice any resemblance? This is the portrait of Jim Jensen did to hang up at the Kindergarten Dance with Dads. They weren't able to go to the dance since Jensen was sick, but she brought it home from school today. The hairline is pretty accurate. Not sure about the blue ears though...

34/365

I bought this basil today at the grocery story. I thought it was cool that it had a root ball that was in water. I actually was able to use it for about a week before it croaked. I'm growing my own basil but I started it from seed and it's taking FOREVER to grow. Maybe by the summer I'll be able to plant it outside and have fresh basil whenever I want.

35/365

I volunteered in the workroom at Shadow Forest today. Mainly what I do in there is copy things for teachers...sometimes I sharpen pencils, or die cut things...all very mentally taxing things but I think it does help the teachers out. As I was leaving at the end of my shift I walked through the library and there were Jensen and Jackson! Jensen's class was having their regular weekly library time and Jackson was sitting out his recess time due to his asthma flare up. They weren't actually sitting like this...I made them pose, in case you were wondering.

36/365

A meal that I created years ago...pasta with tomatoes, kalamata olives and feta cheese. Some nights, like tonight, we add sauteed shrimp. These are staples that I almost always have on hand in the pantry and freezer so it's something I can make when I have no other plans...or when what I planned goes wrong...like tonight when I opened the package of pork tenderloin that I was planning to cook and it smelled really bad. Yuck.

37/365

The end of a long week...

38/365

Good thing she rested up last night because tonight is the Adventure Princesses Father/Daughter Dinner Dance. She got to get all dressed up and go out with Jim. I even made an appointment to get her hair done. She smiled ear-to-ear the entire time the girl was working on her hair.

39/365

Lacrosse is going well so far. Had their first scrimmage this week.

Not even one picture of Jordan this week. I guess that's not too weird since we really don't see her all that much.

Project 365 Week 5

2009-02-09T20:48:00.004-06:00

A week behind already!! Aaaaggghhh!

26/365

27/365

Freshly manicured toes. Getting ready for my girls' weekend away. Sharing a hotel room means your toes must look pretty.

28/365

Poor guy. We had to resort to the nebulizer this week. He doesn't like to do it, but it really does help when the coughing gets bad. He also had to miss p.e. and recess this week...might as well put a knife through his heart.

29/365

That's a lot of kitties. Poor Jensen finally sucumbed to the bug that's been going around. I got a call from the nurse this morning at about 9:40 that she had a fever and needed to come home. Unfortunately, tonight was also the kindergarten Dance with Dads and she had to miss it. Hopefully all these kitties provided a little comfort.

30/365

I'm not in many of the pictures here I realized, so I thought on the days like today, when I need some filler, I'll take a photo of myself...

31/365

Girls' weekend to Canton! First time at Trade Days and what an experience! It's huge, confusing, out in the middle of nowhere, but we still managed to fill the back of the Suburban!

32/365

Super Bowl Sunday! Got back in town just in time to head to a party to watch the game. Only stayed until halftime--it was a school night--but I still managed to win the second quarter in the pool and left with $60 in my pocket!

Project 365 Week 4

2009-01-26T06:38:00.004-06:00

19/365

A much anticipated order from Barnes and Noble arrived today courtesy of gift cards recieved for Christmas. Can you guess which books belong to which kid? Today was Martin Luther King day and no school. We went bowling with some friends...Kellers and Harpers. A fun day but looking forward to school tomorrow!

20/365

Inauguration day. Wow. Only time will tell how he will be as president, but I'm happy that I witnessed this day. From TV Guide to the Wall Street Journal, we've got the story covered!

21/365

One sick kid, one kid trying hard to be sick so he can miss school (doesn't he look pathetic?), and one kid whose birthday is this week so there's no way she's getting sick!

22/365

The pinewood derby weigh-in is tonight. It looks pretty sleek and fast doesn't it??

23/365

Pinewood Derby night and the third time's the charm! Jackson's car made it to the finals. Out of about 50 cars racing, 16 made it to the finals. It must have been all that skin super glued to the car that made the difference. :-)

24/365

Happy 6th Birthday, Jensen! Today was her actual birthday and her party as well. 20+ kids at a pottery painting party at the Mudpie. Too much fun!

25/365

Jensen is starting to read to us at bedtime now. It's so great to see her reading skills growing by leaps and bounds.

Project 365 Week 3

2009-01-20T20:45:00.005-06:00

My goal is to get these posted every Monday. I even put it on my calendar! Didn't quite happen this week but I blame that on MLK. Hopefully next week will be on time. In the meantime, enjoy the little snippets of our life last week.

12/365

Taking a look at the full moon through the cool new telescope the kids got for Christmas from Uncle Tom and Aunt Cindi.

13/365

This pile represents 3 years of change collecting (by Jim), one industrial strength digital coin sorter received as a Christmas present from the kids so they wouldn't have to roll the change, two hours of actual change sorting, and, voila! $600 dollars in the bank!

14/365

Almost done.

15/365

A bathtime photo and the countdown begins...

16/365

Jackson has decided to give lacrosse a try.
$275 for the registration fee.
$170 for the equiptment...so far.
3 hours of practice every Saturday.
I hope he likes it.

17/365

Coach Drew giving the boys a piece of his mind. They suffered their first defeat. It came on the last play of the game. Definitely a bummer.

18/365

It might not look like much now, but come Friday it'll be a lean, mean Pinewood Derby running machine.

Project 365 - Week 2

2009-01-12T08:35:00.004-06:00

5/365

Monday was the day we left Michigan to return to Houston. We always get a final picture of Jean with the kids right before we leave.

6/365

It was back to school today after two weeks off. Everyone was tired since our flight didn't get in until about 9:00 the night before. Jordan brought home a boat load of homework.

7/365

Practicing the violin should be a daily occurrence. She tries, but doesn't get to it every day.

8/365

Finally getting around to taking down all the Christmas stuff!

9/365

Friday, Jim and Jensen left for her first Adventure Princesses campout at Camp Cullen. Jordan and I had a get-together to go to at Kim Harper's. Barb and Ellie Hyler were visiting from Chicago so Kim got all the moms and daughters together at her house. Jordan has known these girls since she was three! They are now 11 and looking so grown up. In the picture are Jordan, Sydney, Ellie, Haley and Sophie. Jackson got to spend the night at Matthew Wemyss' with Ethan Harper so he was happy.

10/365

Saturday night all the moms and daughters came to our house for make-your-own pizzas. I had meant to get a photo of all 5 moms to go with the photo of the girls, but totally forgot. I had taken a picture of the full moon earlier in the evening so I guess that will have to be my photo for this day.

11/365

Since Jim and Jensen were still on their campout, Jordan and Jackson both wanted to sleep in the bed with me. We were all so tired after two nights being up late with friends. It was great to sleep in and not have to go anywere!

Project 365

2009-01-11T21:08:00.004-06:00

Starting with January 1st, I embarked on a year-long scrapbook project where I plan to take a photo a day, write a little bit about it, and stick it in a photo sleeve in an album. The goal is at the end of the year, I'll have a pretty good representation of our day-to-day lives around here.

Once per week I'm going to aim to post the photos and notes for the week. I'm sure I'll get behind, skip weeks altogther, etc. but hopefully it'll all add up to something pretty cool in the end.

Here's week 1

1/365

On January 1st we were in Michigan having just arrived 2 days before. It snowed the night before and Jim was out early clearing off the driveway. This is his once yearly ritual. He puts on his dad's old hunting jacket, his mom's gloves, and his not-made-for-snow boots and gets to work.

2/365

January 2nd was the Fuja family holiday gathering. There 20 of us for dinner! My sister was also in town from North Carolina and came to the Fuja's as well. It was great to spend a couple of days with her.

3/365

On January 3rd, Jordan and I met my sister and some extended family (Loralee Johnson, her daughters Christa and Michelle and grand-daughter, Hunter) for lunch at Somerset Collection mall. I was bummed that I had not brought my camera. It was great to see all of them for the first time in several years. On the way out, Jordan and I bought a couple of these yummy gourmet carmel apples. I took a picture of them once we got back to Jean's.

4/365

The snow softened up enough to make snowmen! This one looks much better than the puny, little one we were able to make in Kingwood.

Since this was just a partial week, that's it for this post. Here's to a great 365!

December '08 part 2

2009-01-05T07:50:00.009-06:00

December 18

Jensen and I were invited to a Mother/Daughter cookie exchange. I was struck by how lady-like she looked sitting there eating her snack. It didn't last long before she was up and running wild with the other girls.

December 19

This was the last day of school before winter break and it was class party day. Jordan had a half day at Riverwood so she came up to Shadow Forest with me. She spent a little time at Jensen's party then roamed the school with other Shadow Forest alums...saying hi to former teachers and generally basking in the glory of being middle schoolers.

December 21

The treat for today in the kids' advent calendar was to go ice skating in The Woodlands. They all did awesome! Jensen looks like she's about to fall in the photo but she really did an amazing job! I was impressed with how gung ho and fearless she was although I shouldn't have been. She approached ice skating just like she does roller skating in the drive way...all caution to the wind!

December 22

The kids and I were invited to another cookie exchange at Heather's. It was a blast as usual. I brought those peppermint cookies. Very cute, but very labor intensive. Probably won't make those again. Came home with enough cookies to give to several neighbors plus mail carrier.

December 24

Not sure why I took this picture. Jordan got these converse tennis shoes as an early Christmas present. They arrived a day or so before and she couldn't wait to wear them!

We had a nice, quiet Christmas eve. We had make-your-own pizzas for dinner for the second year in a row and tried to get everyone to bed early. Jim and I made it to bed around midnight only to be woken up at 5:45 a.m. ...

December 25

Merry Christmas!

December 26

Date Night # ? I'm not sure of the number but it's close to 25. We went to Vic & Anthony's steak house downtown. Also celebrated anniversary #18. Delicious meal and a fun night! A great end to a memorable Year of 25 Dates.

December 28

Scrapbook room nearing completion.

December 29

Getting packed up for our trip to Michigan tomorrow.

December 30

Jackson and I enjoying our seats in first class.

December 31
No pictures today but we had a nice new year's eve in Durand with Jean and the kids. Jackson and Jordan made it up 'til past midnight. Jensen tried but fell asleep around 11:00. Shhh...don't tell her. Happy New Year!

December '08

2009-01-04T13:48:00.012-06:00

Last year (and by "last year" I mean '07) I gave myself a challenge to post every day during the month of December. I didn't post quite every day, but close, and I really enjoyed looking back over the month.

This year, I didn't do quite as good a job. I did manage to take pictures quite a few of the days but I didn't post even one entry during the month of December '08. I thought I'd get caught up now, on January 4th, with a review of December. As I looked back over my posts from last December, it's pretty funny, how many things happened exactly the same this December. That's both comforting, and a little disturbing.

December 1

I took this photo to illustrate that I still had my fall decorations up on December 1st. Thanksgiving was late this year, November 27th. December 1st was just the Monday after Thanksgiving...and I'm not ready to put up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving.

December 3

Wednesday I made a trip out to Ikea for the last of the things needed to finish up the cabinets in my scrapbook room. I can't wait to start out '09 in a newly organized scrapbook studio!

December 4

I had to take Jackson to Kingwood Medical Center for an x-ray on his foot. He had hurt it the week before and it was still bothering him. We thought we should have it looked at to rule out a fracture. It turned out not to be broken.

While we were at the hospital, we happened upon this display of Christmas trees in the lobby. I think they were going to be auctioned off to raise money. They were decorated in all different themes and there were some really cool ones.

December 6

Jordan had a community orchestra concert at a local church to play a few Christmas songs during an exhibit of nativity scenes the church has and opens to the public. They had over 400 different nativities from around the world. Certainly not something I had ever seen before.

December 7

This Sunday was our neighborhood "Santa Stroll." Santa arrived in Riverchase on a fire engine and drove around the neighborhood before heading to our pool house to receive visitors. We took Jackson and Jensen but Jordan opted to stay home. She had been at a sleepover the night before and had just gotten home and was a little tired, to say the least. Jackson asked for a cell phone (!) and Jensen asked for "American Girl doll stuff."

December 8

Finally got the tree up and started decorating.

December 10

Jordan's second orchestra concert of the year. In addition to the 6th grade beginner orchestra, we also got to see the intermediate and advanced orchestras. Gave us a little hope for the future. :-) Although, I have to say, the beginners have improved a ton just in the month or so since their first concert.

December 11

Snow! In Houston! And not just flurries...actual accumulation. What a fun night!

December 14

Another season of flag football has started.

December 15

An outing on the Polar Express! This was an Adventure Princess outing but the whole family went along. It was great, and would have been really great if we had lived about two hours closer to the place. It took us 3 solid hours to get to Rusk, TX to board the train. The ride was just over an hour and we drove 3 solid hours home. Even though it was short, they did an awesome job. The train steamed into the station just like it does in the movie in front of the boy's house. There were waiters on board that served hot chocolate and danced in the aisles. We rode to the "north pole" where Santa boarded the train and handed out bells to each child that still believed. A conductor crazily punched our tickets for the return journey. And we sang Christmas songs on the way back. It was fun and memorable but a very long drive...

Two weeks down and two more to go. But the rest will have to wait until I can get the remaining photos downloaded from my camera.

End of Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-11-30T19:00:00.005-06:00

Since Thanksgiving is all about family, food, and feeling thankful for both, here are a few photos of our day that hopefully express my gratitude for all that I have.

The day before Thanksgiving Jordan helped me make an apple pie. She also made banana bread all on her own from start to finish (I guess that job of mine can now pass down to her!).

Earlier that day, Jensen helped me make sugared pecans that we took to some of our friends and neighbors. Those are a traditionally southern thing that I now love. I didn't have my camera out that early in the morning so I missed the shot of her in her apron...so cute!

In goes the turkey on the big day itself.

The whole feast.

The boys that I love.

And the girls that I love too!

I've lost track of how many of these hand turkeys I've received over the years, but I love each and every one.

The Day Before Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T18:30:00.005-06:00

It's the day before the big feast and the girls and I have been cooking already. More info and photos when I post about Thanksgiving later in the weekend. First, an update since my last post.

Jordan had her first ever middle school orchestra concert. She is playing the violin. The concert was on Nov. 11th. School started on August 29th or something like that. We missed two weeks of school due to the hurricane. So that means that these kids have only been playing these instruments for two months. A concert? Really?

At the start of it, the orchestra director said to us that even if our kids go on to be in the high school orchestra and are playing mozart and beethoven, that no concert would be more beautiful than the one we would hear tonight. And I think she was right. These kids had never even seen these instruments before two months ago and here they were playing songs that we actually could recongnize. Now, granted, they were simple songs, but I recognized them. I was duly impressed.

At the end they did a funny thing. They had been playing Twinkle, Twinkle (like I said, simple songs) and one kid piped up and said that the song was so easy that they could play it hopping on one foot. And they did! Very cute. I wasn't prepared so I didn't have my camera ready, but I quickly took it out.

Next, another kid yelled out that the song was so simple they could play it with one hand tied behind their back. Half of the kids set down their instruments and used their bows to play a neighbor's instrument. Funny.

Lastly, someone called out that the song was so easy that they could play it in their sleep! All the kids in the orchestra laid down, all the while playing the song perfectly.

It was a fantastic ending to a really great performance! Jordan might continue on in orchestra and if she does I bet this is the concert that I will remember most.

So proud of this girl...

2008-11-10T22:37:00.004-06:00

Jordan's last meet of the season was yesterday. She has worked incredibly hard for the past year and yesterday had her best competition yet. She received her highest scores ever in all four events and her highest all around score. Go Jojo!

Don't they look like they're ready to kick some butt?

Look at those legs!

I totally skipped over Halloween

2008-11-10T22:28:00.003-06:00

The election kind of took over but we did celebrate Halloween and had a great time.

The elementary school kids had early release that day and got out at 11:30. I hosted a mom/kid get-together and rented a moonbouce. We had lunch, a drink or two, and watched the kids play. The weather was absolutely perfect. Everyone went home around 3:00 or 4:00 and by 6:00 we were at another neighbor's house for a cook-out before our two hours of trick or treating. It really was a fun night. I love when Halloween falls on a Friday!

An Historical Day

2008-11-04T14:30:00.007-06:00

Jim and I both voted early but I spent the day at an election anyway...the Shadow Forest Election. Over the past week students have made campaign posters, the 5th graders "registered" all the other students in the school and explained the process to them, all students have been talking about the candidates in their classes and today it was time to cast their votes. The school computer lab was turned into the polling location for this special event. I was even one of the "Election Officials." And better yet, I think both Jackson and Jensen voted for Barack Obama (it took a little persuading for Jackson but I was relentless...the kids in his class have a lot of influence...everyday he'd come home from school and I'd have to start all over with my speech).

Jackson carefully studying the ballot

Happy he made the right choice :-)

A little persuasion trying to go on here...the "official" helping Jensen asked her which picture she "liked better" (huh?). I had never even shown her pictures of the candidates, we had just discussed names. Jensen pointed to John McCain. I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Jensen, who do you want to vote for?" She said, "Rock Obama." Good thing I was there.

The Shadow Forest election will go overwhelmingly to McCain. I'm hopeful the national election will have a different result. It'll be interesting watching the results come in tonight and in the morning we'll wake up to a new leader who will shape the future for these two.

Big Honkin' Update!

2008-10-13T14:07:00.009-05:00

Here it is...everything that's been going on with us the past few months.

In the waning days of summer before school started, we made a last trip to the beach for the day. After the devastation in Galveston due to Hurrican Ike, I'm not sure when we'll be going back. I'm glad we had this last day...

Trying to keep Jackson busy those last few days before school started, we went out and got a Lego kit. I thought he would work on this over a couple of days, but instead he worked on it for several hours straight and finished it that same afternoon! I just love this picture of him...it totally represents how he looked at the end of a great summer...tanned, bleached hair, happy.

The week before school started Jordan got braces put on. I took this "before" picture on the way to the orthodontist, but forgot to take an "after" picture. Eleven years old, getting braces, starting middle school, growing up...*sigh*

We celebrated Jim's 44th birthday by going out with a group of friends to a fun wine bar and then to dinner at Del Frisco's steak house.

Labor Day weekend we rented two boats on Lake Conroe with a few friends. This time we rented a pontoon boat, like we usually do, and a speed boat so the kids could go tubing. The kids had a blast!

Another competitive gymnastics season got under way. This is Jordan's whole team and her with her two best friends on the team, Jayda and Hannah, all looking cute in their rock star warm-ups!

So far we've had 3 meets with 3 more to go...Jordan is improving her scores with each meet. I continue to be so impressed with her attitude and work ethic...she has to work hard at gymnastics, it doesn't come easy...but she loves it and won't think of giving it up. She sacrifices a lot of social time to be in this sport and sometimes I wonder if she's making the right choice, but for now it's what she really wants to do so we let her do it.

Jensen has entered the world of soccer. The jury is still out on whether she likes it or not, but she sure is cute!

And there you have it.

Hurricane Ike

2008-10-06T17:15:00.003-05:00

Wow! I can't believe it's been more than a month since I've posted here. Promise to do a little better but before I get to what's been going on since the start of school, I thought I'd post my hurricane update. Most people who read this blog will have already read about this in e-mail but I wanted to post it here also so I have a record of it.

Well, two weeks to the day after hurricane Ike hit Glaveston/Houston and points north, I can finally report that we are back on our feet and fully functional. It’s been a long two weeks. The storm itself was something that I don’t ever want to experience again. The kids and I will leave town next time if at all possible.

We lost power on Friday, Sept 12th about midnight and it did not come on again until this past Thursday, Sept. 25th…12 ½ days later! I don’t think anyone dreamed the power would be out that long but with 2 million people without power and the amount of damage there was I guess that’s just how long it takes. Since the power came back on Thursday I’ve been doing nothing but cleaning and doing laundry! You would not believe the amount of laundry after two weeks of not doing any. Luckily I had done every stitch of laundry the day before the storm so we had enough things to last us but it was starting to get pretty gross around here.

We were very lucky and didn’t sustain any damage to our house except for a small tree that got uprooted in the backyard. Three houses on our street had trees go through the roof and one house had a tree go through their fence. Here are a few pictures of some of the damage on our street.

Those first few days after the storm we lived with flashlights. We did have our gas cooktop that worked so we could cook and we had running water so we could wash dishes, etc. and shower. Two families on our street had generators and they let us put a few things in their fridge that they were keeping running but for the most part we salvaged what food we could to ice chests and ate the pricier cuts of meat people had in their freezers. I had gotten about 5 bags of ice the day before the storm but by the day after it was starting to melt and we needed to find more ice. Searching for ice became my main job in those first few days. This is southeast Houston and even though we had a cold front come through after the storm, temps were still in the mid 80s so ice did not last long. By Monday after the storm there was one grocery store up and running. I had to wait in line for about an hour to get into the store and they were rationing out ice to 5 bags per family. That was the story for the next few days… more stores opened up but they were mostly using generators for power and couldn’t keep things cold. When they got a delivery of ice it was gone almost immediately. I’d have to go to 5 or 6 different places to find one that had ice and then often they would only let you buy 2, 3 or maybe 5 bags if you were lucky. Whoever in the neighborhood went out for ice tried to get some for everyone or would call and tell us where they found ice. This went on for about a week for us. Our neighbor directly next door got a generator delivered from his company on about Tues or Wed and they let us run an extension cord from it. We could turn on a lamp (that was heaven!!) and power a fan but we couldn’t hook up a refrigerator.

After a week of no power Jim went out and bought a generator. I was never so happy for a purchase in my whole life! With the generator we were able to hook up a refrigerator and stop living out of coolers. We also hooked up a couple of lamps and another fan. I could actually run the vacuum once in a while and blow dry my hair!! Now instead of foraging for ice I had to make daily runs to the gas station for gas. It took about 8-10 gallons a day to keep the generator running. By this time, getting gas was not a problem but in the beginning people had to wait in lines for 2 or 3 hours to fill up cans for their generators. There were only a couple of gas stations that were open and had gas. Next time I’ll have to stock up on a few days’ worth of gas before a storm hits. Also on my hurricane preparedness list for next time is a window air conditioning unit and an HD antenna for the tv.

The kids have fared very well…two weeks off of school (not sure yet how they’re going to make that up), playing with their friends all day everyday and staying up late. They really didn’t complain about not having tv, computers or video games. It’s going to be hard to get back to our routine when school starts back up on Monday.

Once again, like after our fire, we were reminded how lucky we are to have friends and neighbors that care for and look out for each other. With no family near by to lean on, this is extremely important for us and we’re so grateful. Now, back to our regularly scheduled lives…

Another First Day of School

2008-08-25T20:51:00.005-05:00

A kindergartner (gasp!) a fourth grader (gasp!) and a middle schooler (gasp, gasp!). Jackson's face tells his whole story...not excited to be going to school. Jordan looks pretty happy and actually did seem pretty excited about today. Jensen has kind of a pained expression on her face but in actuality she was very excited to be heading off to Shadow Forest. She has her fisher price camera in her hands and asked if she could take it to school today to take a few pictures. Of course!! Girl after my own heart. Here are a couple of her photos:

Here's Jackson with his new bike he just got yesterday:

A couple of classroom photos and Jensen's new teacher, Mrs. Clift:

This was the moment of the day that pained me the most. Dropping Jordan off at middle school. When I took Jackson and Jensen I got to walk them into the school, go into the classroom, meet their teachers, see the other kids in the class. With Jordan going to 6th grade you get none of that. You drive them up, drop them off, and say goodbye. I don't know all the kids in her classes anymore, I don't know her teachers. I don't love that, I have to say, but I have to come to grips with it.

At the end of the day, all the kids seemed to be okay. Jensen had a great day and really seemed to like being at Shadow Forest. She's already scheduled a play date for tomorrow!

Everything seemed to go well for Jordan too. She got to all her classes okay, sat with friends at lunch and made it through the crazy, free-for-all dismissal process that's so unlike the orderly, sane elementary school dismissal.

Jackson had his typical first day..."horrible" was his exact word when he got home today. But that's okay. I've come to realize that Jackson does not transition easily from summer to school. It's hard for him and takes a good couple of weeks to get in the groove. I feel comfortable, though, with his teacher and his class. I think he'll end up having a good year even though he completely disagrees right now!

A new use for SU paper

2008-08-17T09:29:00.008-05:00

Last Thursday was registration day for Jordan at Riverwood Middle school along with about 300 other incoming 6th graders. We stood in various lines to get her schedule, put money in her lunch account, get her textbooks, purchase a planner and a t-shirt, and the most exciting thing of all...get her locker assignment.

With that many people there at once it was a little nutty but also exciting to see so many faces that we knew. We found Jordan's locker (an upper one which is a bonus) and practiced her combination. At RMS they sell "locker shelves" which are basically 6 pieces of raw wood cut to fit inside the locker to stack on top of each other to form two shelves. Our neighbor is an 8th grade teacher at RMS and had given Jordan a set of the shelves at the beginning of the summer. She informed us that most of the girls do something cute with the shelves--paint them, cover them in fabric, etc.--and most of the boys leave them plain. We were at a little bit of a loss as to what to do with Jordan's shelves over the summer so we did nothing.

That day at registration you should have seen the production of mom's strewn all over the hallway floors frantically trying to cutely cover their daughters' locker shelves. We saw everything from fabric to different colors of duct tape being wrapped around the shelves to scrapbook paper. BINGO! I have tons of scrapbook paper that doesn't get used for scrapbooking so that was the perfect solution for us.

I found out that all the frantic preparations weren't really necessary that day since the school would be open everyday until school started so we could go back anytime and organize her locker. That day we went home and picked out some paper from my stash that Jordan liked. I went and bought a roll of clear contact paper and then got busy. We got the shelves covered and the next day (after Jordan got her braces put on...that's another topic), when it was much calmer, went back to put the finishing touches on her locker and put her supplies in.

These pictures are likely to be the only ones you see of Jordan at school this year and she really didn't want me to take these but since there was not another soul around to see her mom being a geek I didn't leave her any choice.

Doesn't this place look huge??

The olympics are killing me

2008-08-15T21:39:00.002-05:00

Seriously. I can't keep up this pace of staying up until midnight every night and getting up at 7:00 a.m. At my age. One or two nights a week, maybe. But every night? The swimming and the gymnastics have just been so awesome. I don't get tired of watching it. Jordan and I have been the diehards...every night. Jim goes to bed and there we are on the couch glued to the t.v. The difference is, she sleeps in until 10:00 the next morning. Luckily for me, I'm not quite so interested in track and field so next week I should be able to get caught up on my sleep.

It's a Mystery

2008-07-31T07:43:00.003-05:00

When Jackson opened the door the other morning to go out to play, this is what we found on the mat:

On the day before the last day of school, Jackson forgot his lunch box at school. I figured it was just gone and I'd be buying him a new one for this year. Nearly two months later, it shows up on our door step. No knock on the door; no note saying who dropped it off. Just the ice pack and the note that I had written him on that day were inside.

While I'm very grateful to whoever returned his lunch box, I am going BONKERS trying to think who it might have been. His teacher? A neighbor who might have picked it up on that day, thrown it in the back of their car and forgotten about it until now? A friend? Or maybe it was a sign from God to Jackson just to remind him that school is coming...soon. :-)

Lazy Days...

2008-07-28T08:49:00.003-05:00

I've been urged to update and I suppose it has been a while since I've posted, but there's really been nothing much to report. Since we got back from the beach, we've kind of been on coast mode.

Jackson has had some excitement, though. Last week he and Jim went on a camping/river rafting trip with some other dads and sons (and a couple of moms too) from their cub scout den. They camped right on the bank of the river and spent two days floating down the river then coming back up and floating down the river again.

They came home exhausted, stinky and crabby. But I think they had a good time.

Seriously, other than that, we got nothin'.

I hope you're enjoying the dog days of summer.

Wii controllers found!

2008-07-22T20:10:00.002-05:00

I got an e-mail from the owner of the condo saying that they actually found our Wii remotes in the couch cushions right where we left them. My faith in the honesty of humanity has been restored.

Date Night #?

2008-07-20T19:08:00.003-05:00

I've lost track of how many dates we've been on in our year of 25 dates. I'm sure if Jim were here right now I could ask him and he would pull out his spread sheet and let me know, but unfortunately he's not here so we'll just have to leave it blank.

Last night we went out to dinner at one of my favorite places, and Jim tolerates it too,...Chili's! I love those little Slider hamburgers and have always loved their fajita nachos so that's exactly what we had. Along with a presidente margarita which I've also always loved.

After dinner we went to a comedy club which is something we haven't done in a while. We've been watching Last Comic Standing lately and it inspired us. Before we went in to the show we were trying to take a picture of ourselves in the parking lot and get the club name in the background. Not an easy task. Someone walking by asked if they could take a picture for us, but we felt like the biggest dorks alive so we just said, "no thanks," and gave up and went inside.

We tried again after the show and finally ended up with this as the best shot of the night.

Lost Wii Controllers

2008-07-19T17:21:00.003-05:00

When we went to the beach I had the brilliant idea to take the Wii for the kids, and the moms too, to play during their down time. It was a great idea I thought. We got back from the beach on Wednesday and today, Saturday, I just got around to unpacking the Wii and hooking it back up to our tv at home. All the parts to the Wii were in the box, except the two controllers. Somehow they got left behind. And this is going to drive me crazy for the rest of my days.

We have always traveled alot because we've always lived away from our family so I'm a pretty good packer, traveler person. And I pride myself on never (or very rarely) leaving anything behind. Ask Jim's mom...she'll tell you that with all the crap we bring to her house, we hardly ever forget anything when we leave. Jim will say it's because of his obsessive checking of the drawers, under the beds, etc., ten times before we leave. But in reality, it's due to my uncanny, superb packing skills. Nevertheless, we are somehow without two Wii controllers...on my packing duty...there's no way I can blame Jim for this one. At least, I haven't figured out yet how it's his fault.

I did e-mail the owner of the condo and she said she'd check, but there have been renters there since we checked out so I'm sure if the cleaning people didn't take them, those people scooped them up. Maybe humanity will surprise me and they'll still be sitting right where we left them. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll be obsessing over how I could have possibly overlooked them.

Back from the Beach

2008-07-18T20:50:00.006-05:00

I was a tad bit apprehensive about taking a mom/kid vacation to the beach with 6 kids and only 3 parents (Brandy with Dylan, Heather with Cameron and Megan and Me with the 3 Js) but it actually turned out better than I expected. We stayed 3 nights/4 days and I left wishing we had one more day to spend there. We rented a condo on the far west end of Galveston island. It was a little remote, but very peaceful, uncrowded and a fairly nice beach by Galveston standards. It's not Gulf Shores but it's also not a 10 hour drive away.

The kids and moms thoroughly enjoyed themselves...ate too much (the moms not the kids), played an unending game of Phase 10, had lots of yummy frozen drinks (again, the moms not the kids), played the Wii, read, slept, sunned, dug holes in the sand, found seashells, tried to fly kites, snorkled in the muddy water, argued, made up, did I say ate too much?, snuggled under blankets, got close to nature (jelly fish, crabs and snails), watched the sunset, swam, watched movies, cemented their bond, oh, and did I say ate too much? :-) I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

We're Back!

2008-07-07T06:58:00.006-05:00

First, we had a great 4th of July day. We had just gotten back from Michigan the night before. We got up and went to the parade in the morning, then barbecued with neighbors in the afternoon, then set off tons of fireworks in the evening. At 4th of July parades, I'm always struck by the crowd and how so many people are wearing coordinating outfits. You don't see this for any other holiday and it cracks me up. I'm usually one of the few not wearing red, white or blue. On this holiday I'm always looking for something to wear but I just don't buy those colors for myself. Now, if brown suddenly became the color of choice for the 4th I'd be all set!

Our trip to Michigan and Indiana was great! We had awesome weather which gave us a break from our heat down here. Temps were in the 70s and 80s and while the kids were "freezing" most of the time, Jim and I were in heaven!

After spending the first couple of days with my dad, we headed up to stay with Jim's mom for a few days. The kids had a great time doing the usual stuff we do in Durand...go to the farm, climb trees, fish, play in the basement (continues to be a thrill for them), see some movies--Wall-E (thumbs down), Kung Fu Panda (thumbs up) and Kit Kittredge (big thumbs up) and generally just relax.

We then went down to Granger, Indiana to see the Tom Fujas and attend our nephew Ben's open house celebrating his graduation from high school. Ben has turned into a great person and he has a really bright future ahead of him. We're proud to be his God parents as well as aunt and uncle.

The party was great with all the Fujas except two in attendance. Our niece, Christine, introduced her fiance, Ben, to the whole family at the party...poor guy. They're planning a wedding in Chicago for the fall of 2009.

We spent the night in Granger to spend more time with Tom, Cindi, Kaity and Ben. The next day we headed to Notre Dame for a tour. It really is a beautiful campus...very peaceful. As of this moment (when she's 11) Jordan is saying that's where she'd like to go to college. It would certainly be a different college experience for her than the one I had. Notre Dame only has about 8,000 undergrads versus the 25,000 or so that were at Michigan when I was there. It seemed strange walking around the campus with her now and thinking that she could be back here as a student seven years from now. Suddenly, seven years didn't seem like very much time.

After the tour, we headed to New Buffalo, Michigan which is a cute beach town on Lake Michigan. We had a great lunch at a hamburger institution called Redamak's then went to the beach to walk around. The kids were bummed that we hadn't brought bathing suits, but after putting their toes in the freezing water, they were fine with keeping their clothes on! We weren't there very long before a storm rolled in across the lake and we had to head back to the car but not before we got a few great pictures (most of the good ones, taken by Kaity...she's a great photographer!).

After wearing out our welcome in Indiana :-) we headed back up to Michigan for a few last days with Jim's mom. We had a great trip and as always, it was sad when it was time to say good-bye.

Now, we're back in Texas and having a low-key week before the kids and I head to the beach for a few days of mom/kid vacation.

Summer Activities

2008-06-20T18:31:00.004-05:00

These first two weeks of summer, I've kept the kids busy, busy, busy. I do this, not because I like to go through many gallons of gas (at $3.89 a gallon) driving around Kingwood, but because if I didn't this is what they'd do all day...

Thanks to Aunt Denise sending us her extra computer, we now have the coolest computer set-up on the block!

So, other than playing on the computer, this is what they've been doing.

Last week, Jackson went to a baseball camp put on by the Kingwood High School baseball coaches and players. He complained about it every morning, and I admit, it was hot (95 degrees or so) but he persevered.

That's Jackson in the red hat. If you could see the picture better, you'd see that he's smiling from ear to ear. I think he had a good time. You'll notice that he's one of the few kids in shorts. The rest are in baseball pants. Every morning I tried to get him to wear his baseball pants. He'd say, "Mom, it's so hot, I'm not wearing pants." I'd say, "But most of the other kids are wearing pants." He'd say, "But Mom, the coaches all wear shorts." True. Point taken.

Our local community college offers lots of classes for kids throughout the summer. This is something that's right up Jordan's alley, but her gymnastics schedule leaves little time for other things. Last week was the one week that her gymnastics school was closed and before her summer training schedule started. She wanted to do a class at the college and had four different classes to choose from. She chose "Wacky Weaving." Hmmmm. Over the course of the week, she made all kinds of woven projects using paper, fabric, yarn, string, even pipe cleaners. Most of all, I think she really enjoyed it. Too bad I got in a fender bender dropping her off one morning.

Jensen was also busy last week participating in a cheerleading camp for three days at The Little Gym. I have no pictures, but next time you see Jensen she can demonstrate the move where she was standing on a "real" cheerleader's hands and he dropped her and caught her in his arms. She thought that was the best!

This week, Jordan started her summer gymnastics schedule. She's at the gym four days a week for a total of 14.5 hours. Can you feel the pain? The exciting news, is that her hard earned grips finally arrived today. These are strips of leather strapped to your hands to use on the uneven bars to prevent blisters and rips in the skin on your hands, but the girls aren't allowed to use them until they have mastered the kip. I've heard that this skill is one of the hardest to learn in gymnastics. Jordan has worked very hard to learn this, sometimes coming home from practice with her hands literally bleeding. I'm so proud of Jordan and her attitude about gymnastics. It's really something that she loves to do, but it doesn't come easy. She works hard yet she rarely complains. I'm often in awe.

Jordan took a break from gymnastics one day to go bowling with the swim team. It was a perfect activity for a blistering hot day.

Jackson spent this week at cub scout twilight camp. Again, he complained every day about having to go but came home every night raving about it. What's not to love? BB gun shooting, paint ball shooting, archery shooting, water gun shooting. You get the idea. This is a liberal, gun hating mom's dream come true. What can I say? It kept him off the computer and he had fun.

Jensen's week was spent in more heavenly pursuits. She attended vacation bible school at Christ the King Lutheran Church. This is the church our friends the Kellers attend. Just like Jackson, she complained every day about having to go, but raved about it when she got home.

Well, that's what we've been doing so far this summer. Next week we're off to Michigan and Indiana for family togetherness. Our nephew, Ben, graduated high school and his open house is next Saturday. He's off to Notre Dame in the fall. Awesome. We can't wait to see everyone. We get home July 3rd. Will we be as busy in July? We'll see.

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T08:36:00.003-05:00

To the man who brings the fun, the faith, the focus to our family. We love you.

Date Night #11

2008-06-13T07:03:00.004-05:00

We're still plugging away on our 25 dates for the year and just had #11...right on track! We've done the gamut of things from simple dinner and a movie (21) to seeing Bruce Springsteen in concert. This time, we went to an Astros game with Heather and Brent.

Brent has season tickets and they invited us to go along. The game was against the Milwaukee Brewers, but unfortunately the Astros lost. We still had a great time though!

The Little Gym

2008-06-10T19:07:00.007-05:00

This past year Jensen started taking a combination dance/gymnastics class at a new place that opened near our house called The Little Gym. I thought it would be perfect...give her a chance to try dance (which I thought she'd really like) combined with gymnastics. After spending about $70 on ballet shoes, tap shoes and a cute bag to carry them all in (at Payless mind you; how you spend $70 at Payless I don't know), Jensen declared that she didn't like the dance part. When I asked her why she said that it "took too long". "But it's only 30 minutes," I said. After a couple of weeks of her crying before the dance part I finally figured out that all she really wanted to do was the gymnastics part so, of course, the dance part was too long. I relented and let her switch to a class that was just gymnastics. She had her last class last Friday and got her first medal. If anyone is in need of barely used, size 11, ballet or tap shoes please let me know.

She actually got a medal for these moves:

Weekend Update

2008-06-09T07:00:00.005-05:00

Our weekends this time of year tend to revolve around swim meets and this week was no exception. We had our last home meet of the season which means I am now done with my volunteer duty. My job this year (and last) was to prepare the condiments (lettuce, tomatoes, onions) for our concession stand and to slice and bag watermelon to sell. It's an awesome job because I can do it in the air conditioned comfort of my home the day before the meet and be done with it. This last week was easier than usual due to the salmonella scare...no tomatoes to chop.

Jackson and Jordan have done pretty well swimming this year and have steadily improved their times since the season started. This year, they both moved up to a new age group. The age cut off is the end of May and since both their birthdays are in May they are among the youngest kids in their groups. Next year should be a better year for them competition-wise. They're still having fun though which is the whole point.

This year is our swim team's 20th anniversary and our coaches put on a show for the kids the morning of the meet last weekend. Even though the team started in 1988, their attire seems to be from '68 or at the very latest '78. But since I don't think any of them were actually alive in 1988 I'll cut them some slack. I think they would have looked just as great in leg warmers and oversized t-shirts knotted at the side and sliding off one shoulder. Too bad they didn't ask me for wardrobe advice. I have to say, though, that our coaches always go out of their way to make the whole swim team experience fun for the kids. And none of our kids know the difference between 60's attire and 80's attire anyway. It's all just old to them.

Every year I feel so grateful for our neighborhood swim team. I never had anything like that when I was growing up out in the country. It provides exercise, structure, teamwork, friendships, entertainment and so much more to summer days that could otherwise just waste away. Go Gators!

Happy Summer

2008-06-04T07:48:00.009-05:00

Holy cow! Three months (nearly) since I've posted here. I'm a little mad at myself for that but I guess it goes to show that life is busy and full around here. Today is the first day of summer vacation and I pledge to post a little something every day (nearly) for the summer. I pledge to keep my camera handy and take a photo a day. I did this in December leading up to Christmas and I loved the little nuggets of everyday life that were recorded here. Let's catch up a little and then move on.

A quick weekend trip to Dallas during spring break to visit our friends the Allen's and go to the Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor water park/hotel

Easter brunch at the Spindletop restaurant

Another baseball season come and gone

We caught lizards and raised butterflies

Went on field trips

Peformed in the district-wide 5th grade honors choir

Went on dates

Went to Disney World--WOW!!

Started another swim season

Had birthdays...this is Jordan riding in the front seat of the car which she was allowed to do once she turned 11. If you look closely you'll see a cell phone in her hand. This was her main birthday present. It has changed her life a little but my life a lot.

Preformed in the 5th grade musical as an Andrew Sister singing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

Graduated pre-school

Advanced from cub scout bear to webelos

Graduated 5th grade...on to middle school!

School's out for summer...

Happy summer y'all!

Rat Terrier vs. Rat

2008-03-11T15:29:00.005-05:00

As my dear, sweet friend Heather pointed out, it's March and i guess I haven't posted in a while so here's one for everyone to enjoy.

This past Sunday morning while I was getting dressed, Jensen ran into the bathroom and yelled, "Mom, Bella is fighting with a rat!" I said, "No, it must be something else" but went to look out the window anyway. That tail is unmistakable. It was definitely a rat. And Bella had it cornered in the shrubbery. After a few minutes of her going after the rat, she grabbed it and actually flung it into our pool! The rat was still alive at this point and furiously paddling around my pool. Bleeding into it by the way. I didn't know what to do so called Jim who wasn't home at the time. He, wisely, told me to "call someone." By the time I got off the phone with him, the rat had clearly expired. Still bleeding into my pool though. I called my lovely neighbor, Richard, who I knew had experience fishing rats out of pools (it's actually a pretty common occurance in our little corner of paradise). He came down the street with his pool skimmer and fished it out for me, bagged it up, and hauled it to the dumpster. Thanks, Richard!

Rat Terrier 1
Rat 0

My American Girls

2008-02-23T18:12:00.005-06:00

As part of Jensen's 5th birthday celebration, the girls and I planned a pilgrimmage to the new American Girl store in Dallas. I have a friend from Colorado who lives there now and we've talked since she moved there about getting together since she's so close now, but we never had. This was the time!

Jordan, Jensen and I along with 3 dolls left Kingwood on a Friday afternoon for the 5 hour drive to Kim's house north of Dallas. We got there safe and sound and had a nice evening just hanging out and the kids getting acquainted. They have a daughter, Megan, who is just 2 days younger than Jordan. They were best friends when we lived in Colorado. They really didn't remember each other, but re-connected just like that! They got along great and have already planned to spend their next birthdays doing something together.

On Saturday, all the girls headed to the Galleria Mall where the American Girl store is. We spent about an hour and a half looking at all the dolls and doll stuff and picking out things for Jensen to spend her birthday money on.

We were able to get a reservation for lunch in the little restaurant where they have seats and menus for the dolls!

After lunch, Jensen made her final selections (and didn't have a meltdown like some other girls in the store when she found out she couldn't buy everything that she wanted...I was proud of her because that place is very overwhelming and difficult to get out of without spending an absolute fortune).

Saturday night we had a great dinner back at the Allens. The kids made s'mores on the fire pit in the backyard and got in the hot tub. Us adults had a relaxing evening just talking and catching up.

Sunday when it was time to leave, neither girl wanted to go...I was dragging them back to Kingwood kicking and screaming. That's the sign of a good trip!

25 Dates

2008-02-20T21:46:00.004-06:00

Most of you who read this blog already know the story, but I'll recount it here for posterity. Jim's New Year's resolution for this year was for us to go on 25 dates (it started out at 30, but quickly went down to 25). I'm not sure why he made this resolution (although I have my theories) but I decided to take it as a very nice gesture and to just go with it.

It's mid February and we've been on four dates so far. I thought it'd be fun to document them in pictures and here on my blog. I missed getting a photo of the first one. It was Jan. 3rd while we were in Michigan. We went out for a bite to eat and to see a movie (Juno).

Our next date was back here in Houston on Jan. 26th. Jim had wanted to go see the broadway musical, The Jersey Boys, but I rolled my eyes at that. Instead he got tickets for us to see Love, Janis, a musical about Janis Joplin. We really should have seen The Jersey Boys. Live and learn. He already told me that if we were going to get 25 dates in I would have to stop being so picky about what we did.

Date number 3 was actually with another couple. We had a long discussion about whether it counted as a date if we were with other people. I was definitely voting for it counting. Jim relented once he realized that if we didn't count evenings out with other people we would never get the 25 dates accomplished. And our monthly babysitting tab would equal our mortgage payment. We ended up with one criteria for a date. We have to actually leave our neighborhood.

Date number 4 was Feb. 15th to celebrate Valentine's Day. We went to dinner at the Melting Pot. This was my pick but didn't end up to be one of our favorites. You'd think I'd realize this by now, but I don't actually enjoy going out to dinner and cooking my own food. It's sort of the same concept with salad bars. I really don't want to get up and go make my own salad when I'm out for dinner. I know this about myself, yet I insisted we go to a fondue place where we have to prepare all of our own food. One of these days I'll learn to listen to Jim. One of these days...

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T21:00:00.003-06:00

50 store bought valentine's (for Jordan and Jackson's class mates), 18 homemade valentines (for Jensen's classmates), 7 homemade teacher gifts (for all the kids' teachers) filled with pretzel hugs, chocolate hearts, and starbucks gift cards = one happy valentine's day.

Topped off with class parties, little gifts, and dinner together, it was a LOVE-ly day!

Middle School Already?

2008-02-11T18:56:00.001-06:00

How did that happen? I can so clearly remember Jordan's first day of 3 year old preschool when we moved here to Kingwood. Can she really be headed to Middle School already? I better embrace it because it's coming whether I want it to or not.

Last week, we had parent orientation night at Riverwood Middle School. I have to say that I was extremely impressed with everything about the place. The band, the orchestra and the choir each did two songs and the orchestra, in particular, was really good. At the orientation, the principal told us that the orchestra director was named "Best String Educator" in the Houston area which is pretty impressive. Jordan has decided that she wants to take orchestra as her elective and to give the violin a try. She's even asked to start taking violin lessons this summer...how do you say no to that?

As for the classes, we're in a bit of a dilemma. We have the choice of taking the 4 major courses either "on level" or "honors." I'm sure she'll qualify for honors for all 4 but I've heard some parents say that the homework level is pretty crazy...4 hours per night...for a 6th grader! She's already said she definitely wants to take honors math and science and I think she should take honors reading/language arts. That leaves social studies as perhaps an on level class. I'm worried she won't have time for any sports (gymnastics or otherwise) if she takes all 4 honors classes. I guess we'll see. We still have a little time to decide. Any way you look at it, it's pretty exciting...especially for her. I'm nervous, but excited for her at the same time. It's really a great school and she's going to have the opportunity to explore a lot of different things before she gets to high school. And if she stays on the honors track she'll even have a few high school classes out of the way before she even gets there.

I just keep wondering...where did the time go?

Another January Highlight

2008-02-07T06:19:00.000-06:00

One of our big events in January, other than Jensen's birthday, is the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Jim and Jackson worked hard on Jackson's car.

It turned out great and was a big style improvement over last year. Last year was their first year and they really didn't know what they were doing. Plus we were living in the apartment and they had to sit on the balcony for work space and had virtually no tools to work with.

This year however, they researched cars on the internet, downloaded plans for the car Jackson picked out, used fancy tools to cut the shape out of a block of wood, weren't used to the tools and had to go buy another block of wood, finally got it all sanded, weighted, painted and varnished and ready for the big race. The main goal was for the car to stay on the track since last year's did not. They succeeded and the car came in about 6th place out of 12 in the Bear dens. Jim and Jackson both studied the cars that did well in the race so I'm sure next year there will be big design improvements. I can't wait!

2008 Model Year

2007 Model Year

Jensen's Birthday Week Recap

2008-01-29T12:43:00.000-06:00

I think all in all Jensen had a good 5th birthday...the celebrating lasted 3 days so I hope she had a good time. Her actual birthday was a Thursday and we started a tradition a few years ago that we let the kids pick somewhere to have dinner on the night of their birthday. All week leading up to Thursday she had said she was going to pick Chik-fil-A. Fine. On Thursday morning she suddenly changed her mind and said she wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Ugh. I actually thought Chuck E. Cheese might not be open for dinner during the week. After all, I'd only ever been there a few times for lunch during the week or for parties on the weekend. I mean who goes to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner? Well, apparently quite a few people. The place was just as packed and loud as ever. There was even a birthday party going on. At least our local Chuck E. Cheese was recently remodeled so it was a tad cleaner than it used to be.

After dinner we came home for cake and family gifts.

One thing Jensen has been asking for for a while now is to get her ears pierced. I've been all for it but it took us a while to convince Jim that 5 wasn't too young for earrings. He finally relented and I took Jensen in to get her ears pierced on Saturday. She was such a trooper! She did not shed one tear. Her eyes welled up when it was over but no tears spilled out. Luckily we went to a place where they pierce both ears at the same time so it was over very quickly. She picked out a cute pair of pink CZs on 14k gold posts. She looked so adorable with them!

Everything went just a little too smoothly so I should have known something would happen. That night Jim and I were out and the kids were with a babysitter. We got a call from the sitter that one of Jensen's earrings had fallen out and she didn't want the sitter to try to put it back in. We were downtown in the middle of a play and couldn't get back home right then. Once we got home I tried to put the earring back in while Jensen was asleep but the hole had already started to close up and I couldn't get it through the back. I took her back to the store the next day, but they said we'd have to wait a week or two for the ear to completely heal closed and then have it pierced again. Poor Jensen. I don't know if she'll be quite as brave the next time now that she knows what to expect.

And, finally, on Sunday we had her birthday bash. We had it at The Little Gym where Jensen is taking gymnastics and dance classes. There were almost 20 kids there running around like crazy and having a good time. You can view all the pictures here if you're so inclined. Here's a few highlights.

Thank You Nintendo!

2008-01-28T22:09:00.000-06:00

The kids got a Wii earlier in the year, May, for doing so great in school last year. For Christmas they got several new games that they were dying for...mainly Guitar Hero. On Christmas day our Wii decided it didn't want to play Guitar Hero, or any other games, and died. Jackson just about died along with it. We sent it off to Nintendo for repair and it finally came back home today! Jackson could not get that thing hooked up and the game inserted fast enough. Luckily he's been practicing on all the neighbor kids' Wiis since Christmas. And as the machine said, Jackson, "You Rock!"

Long hair? Check. No shirt? Check. Skinny arms? Check. Rock star? Check.

Happy Birthday Jenny 'Rie

2008-01-24T06:24:00.000-06:00

FIVE!! You are turning 5 today! I just can't believe it. In honor of this momentous occasion here are five things I love about you.

1. I love how eager you are to be able to do things. You taught yourself to roller skate and you practiced and practiced until you were able to do it. You really go at it with no fear and lots of determination. You make me cringe every time you take off down the driveway, but each time you fall you just get back up and keep on going. You want to be able to skateboard and ride your bike without training wheels next.

2. I love the way you say some words. compuga = computer; cause = pause (as in "Can you cause the movie?"); wis = with. I think these words are so cute that I never correct you. You'll figure that out on your own soon enough.

3. I love that you enjoy spending so much time coloring, drawing, painting and all things crafty!

4. I love how you run down the hall to greet me when I pick you up after school. This always just makes my day!

5. I love your smile and your sassy attitude. You learned to snap your fingers recently and you do an awesome "Oh no you didn't." It makes me smile every time.

In short, I love you, little one and can't wait to see what the year of being 5 brings you.

Love,
Mom

From Christmas to Today: Part 1

2008-01-20T08:05:00.000-06:00

That posting everyday in December business really took a lot out of me. And I didn't even make it through the whole month. But I made it to Christmas, which was really the point anyway.

Since Christmas, we've actually done quite a bit so here's the round-up of what's been going on since then.

On December 28th, I had to take Jordan to the orthopedic doctor to look at her foot. She was playing tackle football with kids on the street, with no shoes on, and someone stepped on her foot. This actually happened on Dec. 23rd. Her foot turned pretty black and blue, but we figured it would go back to normal after a couple of days. By the day after Christmas her whole foot was bruised and it was still pretty painful so I made an appointment to take her in but couldn't get her in until Friday. It turns out she had three hairline factures. Her first broken bone(s). They gave her a boot to wear instead of a cast, which is great because she can take it off for showers etc. They said it would take about 4-6 weeks to heal. When we got home, Jim wanted to know if the doctor asked why we waited so long to bring her in. I was definitely feeling a little like a bad parent at that moment!

We took her in for a follow-up after about three weeks and the doc said to wear the boot for two more weeks and come back in. It hasn't really slowed her down much except in gymnastics where she really can't do much of anything except her conditioning. She's only been going to the gym for about an hour each time instead of the usual two hours.

On December 29th, which was mine and Jim's 17th anniversary, we left for a week in Michigan. We had a great visit and the kids got to see tons of snow which they loved and I don't mind if it's only for one week per year! The picture that is in the header of my blog was taken in Jim's mom's backyard. Beautiful.

We had our Christmas get-together with Jim's family on the 30th which was a great time. All but one niece was there...about 18 people in all. My niece, Kaity, gave me an awesome gift. My whole blog up to that point printed out in a book...with photos and everything! She had it done at blurb.com. It's so awesome and I'm going to do this every year with my blog. Thank you Kaity!!

During the rest of our visit we got together with two of Jim’s friends and their families and all went bowling; saw my mother…she’s apparently going to be moving to Phoenix at the end of February. None of us left in Michigan and she’s ready for warmer weather I guess; I took Jordan and my niece Kaity to Somerset Mall one day for a girls’ day of shopping; we took the kids to see National Treasure 2 one evening; we spent a nice New year’s eve with Jean and Jim’s brother Tom’s family. We all played games and watched the ball drop then Jean made us go to bed at 12:05 so she could get some sleep! Jim and I even got out for one night alone and went to dinner and a movie. We saw Juno which was okay as far as the writing and acting went but I was a little disturbed by the story…a 16 year old girl gets pregnant and everything goes so easily and smoothly for her. Wouldn’t want my teenage daughter to see that movie. Our flights to and from Detroit were uneventful which is always good and we even got 2 first class upgrades on the way home. I put a few photos from the trip below and you can see the rest of the pictures here.

This brings us up to about January 6th. :-)

Daily December: Day Twenty Five

2007-12-25T20:41:00.000-06:00

Christmas Day and I didn't take one picture!! I've read so many people say, "I actually liked that I didn't take any photos and just lived in the moment." Not me. I really don't like the fact that I don't have any photos from the day. I feel something is missing. I think the reason I didn't take any is because I was just so out of it. The kids woke up at 5:30. A.M. After Jim and I had just gone to bed a mear 4 hours earlier. When Jackson came into our room and woke us up I was in a very deep sleep...the kind where you don't just jump out of bed. I was in a fog the whole morning.

From what I can remember (without photographic evidence) the kids seemed to enjoy all their gifts from Santa--especially their Nintendo DSs and the basketball goal out in the driveway. Jensen's favorite was her new American Girl doll and the enormous doll house she got.

I got some great things as well. Jim took the kids out one day to pick out charms for my pandora charm bracelet. Jordan picked out a present, Jackson picked out a Christmas tree, and Jensen picked out a bible! They also all picked out some new things for my Christmas village. Jackson picked out the biggest, tallest building there is...the Flatiron building.

And the girls picked out some items that belong to the dockside scene...a lobster stand and a dock worker. They reminded me of Boston which is where we lived when I started my village collection.

Thanks to the early start, we were finished opening gifts, finished with breakfast and on our way to church by about 11:00. After church, we spent the rest of the day laying around and getting ready for dinner. We had cornish hens for our holiday meal along with the requisite mashed potatoes and green beans.

The next couple of days will be spent cleaning up the chaos and getting ready for our trip to Michigan.

I have really enjoyed documenting each day on the road to Christmas. I didn't get every post published on the correct day, however it made me take note of things and to get out my camera more than I would have. Next year, I just have to remember to get that camera ready for Christmas morning!

Daily December: Day Twenty Four

2007-12-24T08:32:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve!! We spent part of the day finishing up our cookies for Santa. We had baked them a day or so ago but still had the decorating to do.

The kids' advent treat for the day was to open one special gift. I had always given them pjs on Christmas eve and they usually got an ornament in their stocking. This year, I put the pjs and the ornament together and gave each child a Christmas book. I realized that after the fire we no longer had very many Christmas-themed books so I think I'll do this for the next few years. Before you know it we'll have a nice library of Christmas books that the kids can take with them along with their ornaments.

After opening the gifts and putting on the pjs we had make-your-own pizzas for dinner. It was a fun, easy dinner and the pizzas turned out pretty good.

After dinner we watched the movie A Christmas Story and about 9:30 it was off to bed for the kids to wait for Santa.

Daily December: Day Twenty Three

2007-12-23T22:46:00.000-06:00

Last night amidst all the girly gift exchanging, Jackson lost a tooth. I wasn't sure if the tooth fairy was working this close to Christmas, but apparently she was. She left Jackson $3.00 and he has this beautiful new smile.

Daily December: Day Twenty Two

2007-12-22T22:30:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, the kids' advent calendar treat was to drive around and look at Christmas lights. We picked Jordan up from her gymnastics team party at 7:00 and headed to a neighborhood in Atascocita that Heather had told us had good light displays. She did not steer us wrong. We saw some awesome displays and had a great time.

We then headed over to Heather and Brent's to see them and the kids one last time before the holidays and exchange gifts. They gave us this beautiful James Avery Christmas Dove ornament.

Heather told me that the dove represents peace and that that is what she wishes for our family. I'm so blessed to have her for a friend.

Tonight, I got together with two other good friends, Jennifer and Nancy, to exchange gifts. We had cocktails, laughs, and presents. It doesn't get much better than that. I can't tell you how lucky I feel to have so many people in my life that mean so much to me.

Daily December: Day Twenty One

2007-12-21T21:51:00.000-06:00

Friday. The last day of school for Jackson and Jordan before a two week + break. The day Jackson has been waiting for for weeks. Here at last. :-)

Jensen and I went to the kids' class parties at Shadow Forest. So much fun.

Daily December: Day Twenty

2007-12-20T13:48:00.000-06:00

Today is Jensen's last day of school before the winter break (and hence, my last shopping day).

I put together an album for each of her two teachers using this great template I downloaded from Jessica Sprague.

It really was pretty easy to do and turned out to be a gift that the teachers really enjoyed. I gave each kid in the class one page for each teacher. All they had to do was stick a picture of themselves on and handwrite their names directly on the page. There were two questions on the page that I asked the parents to ask the kids then write their answers word-for-word on the page. The questions were "I hope Mrs. Snyder gets _________________ for Christmas" and "Mrs. Snyder is a good teacher because _____________________." There were a lot of cute answers. Lots of wishes for the teachers to get bikes, puppies, etc. One girl hopes the teacher gets a new car! Jensen thinks Mrs. Snyder is a good teacher because "she lets us do crafts." That's my girl!

Once I got all the pages back from the kids I put a few simple embellishments on each page, created a title page, then stuck them in an album. Simple.

Daily December: Day Nineteen

2007-12-19T13:19:00.000-06:00

I picked up the cookie plates the kids made at the Mudpie last week. They turned out cute!

On a sad note, Jim is in Michigan today attending the funeral of his best childhood friend, Ron Defever's, mother. Louise and her husband Roger were like second parents to Jim growing up. She passed away over the weekend from a heart attack after battling cancer. She died at home in Roger's arms. Louise and Roger emigrated here from Belgium and built a beautiful farm in Durand. I have taken many pictures of their barn over the years. It's just such a picturesque building. Our kids always say that one of the highlights of any trip to Michigan is a visit to the Defever farm. They love seeing all the animals and playing in the hay loft of the barn. And Louise always had a sweet treat for them afterwards. She had a great smile and laugh. She was a very fun, happy, unique person and our visits to the farm won't be the same without her.

Daily December: Day Eighteen

2007-12-18T13:09:00.000-06:00

One week to go....can you say "panic?"

Daily December: Day Seventeen

2007-12-17T08:05:00.000-06:00

These are my favorite new decorations that I added this year. I've been looking at these stockings for two Christmases now and finally decided this year to go ahead and buy them. I love them!

Daily December: Day Sixteen

2007-12-16T08:37:00.000-06:00

The kids' advent calendar treat for today was a Gingerbread House kit. We had never built a gingerbread house before, mainly because I always thought it would be too hard, too messy, etc. I have really been depriving my kids all these years because it really wasn't that bad and they had a great time doing it. I built the house for them earlier in the day and then set them loose, along with some of the neighbor kids, for the decorating.

Jensen had actually fallen asleep on the couch that day and missed the main part of the decorating (she was soooo tired after her sleepover at Cameron's during our party). But the other kids made sure to save some of the frosting and candies for her to use after she woke up.

It turned out really cute. But they keep asking me when they can eat it.

Daily December: Days Fourteen and Fifteen

2007-12-15T20:22:00.000-06:00

Friday was spent mostly cleaning and getting ready for our Holiday Wine Tasting party that we held on Saturday.

Once we decided to go to Michigan over New Year's and realized we weren't going to be here for parties with neighbors and friends, we decided to host one so we could get together with everyone at least once during the holidays.

My friend Nancy had hosted a party like this a few years ago and everyone had a great time so we decided to do it again. Ten couples attended and each couple had to bring one bottle of wine under $12 and one bottle over $15 in their assigned category (i.e. Merlot, Zinfandel, etc.). I made score cards for each person and throughout the evening we tasted wines and scored them 1-10.

At the end of the night Jim tallied the scores to determine the best bottle under $12, best bottle overall, and worst bottle. We even had prizes for the winners.

In case you're looking for a bottle of wine to serve with your holiday meals the winners are pictured above. The best bottle under $12 was the Castle Rock Pinot Noir. At our local store it was $11.82 but I just found it at World Market for $12.99 (still not a bad price). The best bottle overall was the Cline Ancient Vines Zinfandel. It was around $16 at our local store but was on sale at World Market for $14.99. The bottle voted the worst was the Buena Vista Chardonnay and it was just so bad that I actually think maybe the wine had turned somehow. I actually think I might try this one again just to see if it's really that bad.

Each couple also brought an appetizer so we had tons of great food! We were all trading recipes the next week.

My friend Heather took all the fantastic pictures. I'm always so grateful that she totes her camera everywhere!

Can't wait to do this again!