Are you a deleter?

For all you TiVo fanatics out there, of which I'm one, when you've watched a program that's recorded do you immediately delete it or not? In our house we call Jim "the deleter" because he just randomly and arbitrarily deletes programs without any regard to whether everyone who may have wanted to watch that program has had a chance to do so or not. Can you tell I'm bitter?

I, on the other hand, can't stand to press that delete button. What if I want to watch that same show at some other time in the future? Much better for the TiVo brain to decide for me when it should be deleted.

On another TiVo topic, what do you have on your To Do list? Just for tomorrow, Thursday, we have 17 shows that are set to record!!! Because I know you're dying to know here's the list: Project Runway, Dora the Explorer, The Wonder Pets, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 30 Minute Meals, Full House (twice), Arthur, Cyberchase, 30 Minute Meals (again and again...that's 3 times in one day), The Most Extreme (a weird Animal Planet show that Jackson likes), Survivor (of course), Grey's Anatomy (of course!), ER (why? I don't know), The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, $40 a Day (Rachel Ray gets way too much of my TiVo time). What's on your To Do List? I wanna know.

Second Gymnastics Meet...4 More to Go

Jordan's second meet was last Sunday. Her session started at 4:00 p.m. at a gym that was about an hour away. The meet ended at about 8:00 and the coaches and some team members and their parents wanted to get something to eat after...and Jordan wanted to go too. That meant that we didn't get home until after 10:00 p.m....on a school night!! Jordan had a great time which is what the whole thing is about. She did fairly well in two events...vault and bars. She still needs to work a little on her floor and beam routines but she's a hard worker so I know it'll come with time. I'm proud of you Jordan!

For anyone who cares, here's the rest of the pictures.

Must Blog More

I just can't seem to get the hang of keeping a journal...electronic or otherwise. I seem to have it in my head that I should only record the bigger events here when in actuality the whole reason I started this darn thing was to capture the everyday moments to help me remember those down the road. I'm more likely to remember the bigger things without writing them down. The little things are the ones I'm going to need help recalling.

So in that vein...here's two mundane things from yesterday:

1. 30 Minute Meals was TiVoing and Jensen was standing in front of the tv watching very intently. After a few minutes I asked her, "What's Rachel making?" Jensen thought for a few minutes then finally said, "water and leaves." Cracked me up.

2. Chicken Bryan is my favorite thing to order at Carrabba's and I wanted to try to make it at home. I found this recipe online and gave it a try last night for dinner. It was awesome! Tasted just like the meal in the restaurant. Had a nice bottle of wine with it and saved ourselves quite a bit of money.

Someone please remind me to blog more...

CKU

Back from CKU! I really tried to set up a flickr account to share the photos but flickr just doesn't like me for some reason. I kept going around in circles with them saying I had to use my yahoo id but when I did that it wanted me to associate my flickr account with my yahoo account but it wouldn't ever let me log into my flickr account. And around and around. I finally gave up and just put the photos on the yahoo photos thing. Here they are...and they're not all that exciting.

I agree with Heather that I really liked CKU-Albums that we went to last year much better. This year, I just didn't really learn much of anything new. I made a few cute pages that I'll definitely use and I did get quite a few handy tips from the two photography-related classes, but I don't think those things were worth the tuition. Plus, I feel like we got quite a bit less product this time around. All that said, I still had a great time with 3 great girls and I'd spend a partying weekend at the Galleria with them anytime!

As usual, Jim did a great job with the kids while I was gone. It makes it so much better to go away for the weekend when I know I don't have to worry about anything at home. It's almost like they don't really need me...hmmmm. Anyway, I missed them all but I'm glad that Jim gets to spend alone time with the kids as well. They do all kinds of fun things with him that they don't do with me so I know they enjoy it too.

And to top off a great weekend, guess what I won at my local Randall's grocery store last night when I went in to pick up something for dinner? This!! Our store was having some sort of grand re-opening celebration this past weekend where they had all sorts of promotions going on. Of course, I didn't really know anything about it since I was gone all weekend. The cashier rang up my stuff and it popped up on her screen that I was an instant ipod winner! Jordan's been wanting an ipod forever but we've resisted (I mean, she's only 9!). But I'm taking this as a sign and we're going to give it to her for Christmas. She'll be soooo happy!

12 on the 12th...September 2006

I wanted to get this posted closer to the actual date, but just didn't get to it. Here it is now.

1. This photo was taken at about 6:20 a.m. as Jim was leaving for the airport. Not an unusual scene by any stretch.

2. The never ending pile of laundry awaiting me.

3. Jordan on the way to school. Today was picture day. We had "words" about her hair. I spritzed her with hairspray and that apparently ruined her whole day.

4. Jensen insists on carrying her own backpack. She looks so little.

5. I volunteer in the library at SFE every Tuesday. Today was Jackson's class's library time. He checked out a Star Wars book.

6. These are the gates into the apartment complex we are currently living in. I go in an out of these gates about 10 or 12 times per day. They are loud and creaky when they work. Quite a few days they are just stuck open.

7. The end of the school day. Jackson and Andrew, crazy and wound up as usual.

8. Off to drop Jordan off at gymnastics practice at R/B. I'll be back to pick her up at 6:30 p.m.

9. This was my haul from about 2 hours of shopping this afternoon. I got 3 shirts and 2 pairs of earrings at Chico's. I think these are the only clothing items I've ever purchased in there. Generally not my style...don't know what happened today. I always find jewelry in there though. I love the fabric pouches they put all your jewelry purchases in. I'm all about the cute packaging. Also found a cute bag at Ann Taylor Loft. However, it's already been returned. I loved the look of it, but once I got my stuff in there it didn't look as cute. Hmmm. Maybe I need to carry less stuff.

10. Finally! Windows where there were no windows for so long.

11. Jackson's new watch. He actually got this a few days ago. He knew exactly what he wanted...a metal band with actual numbers and hands, not a "diginal" watch. His whole motivation for this purchase is so he can keep an eye on the time while we're in church. I hate to tell him that watching the clock doesn't make the time go any faster.

12. The new bag I ordered for CKU arrived today. I'm actually leaving for CKU in two days! And I'm totally not ready!

9/11

I wonder how many people are going to write about this today. Shortly after the attacks happened in 2001, I had written down all my thoughts about it, but I've since lost my notes in our fire. So I thought I'd take this opportunity on the 5 year anniversary to write about it again. I know I won't remember a lot of the details about how I felt that day and the days after but I guess some info is better than none.

That morning, I had Jackson and Jordan home...we were getting ready for school. Jordan was in preschool and Jackson in MDO. They were eating breakfast and we were watching tv. I don't remember what station it was but it was not a local channel. Probably something like nick jr or disney. Jim called from work. He was working at Enron at the time and had been at work for a while already. They had tvs everywhere in his building always turned to cnn or the financial news network. He asked if I was watching the news. Of course, I wasn't. I was probably watching Dora the Explorer or something equally innocent.

I just couldn't believe what I was seeing on the tv screen. Initially I kept thinking it had been some sort of terrible airline mistake...that had to be it. Until we saw the second airplane hit. That is when everyone knew it was being done on purpose. What kind of people would do such a thing? All this time later I still don't comprehend the motivation behind such an act.

When it was time to take the kids to school I wasn't sure what to do. I went ahead and got them in the car, and drove to Holy Comforter. I remember feeling so weird on the car ride over...like it just wasn't right to be taking them to school that day...but I felt like we should stick to our routine. All the other moms at drop off were feeling the same way but we reluctantly left our children and started to go about our day.

I had a few errands planned that morning and I remember the first place I went...Joann Fabrics. How weird is that. I remember being in the store shopping for my mundane craft items and feeling all the time that this just wasn't right. I left the store, drove back to school and picked up Jackson and Jordan right then. I just really needed them with me, in my sight.

The rest of the morning I was glued to the tv like the rest of the nation. Jim's building downtown was evacuated and everyone sent home thinking that other big buildings in large cities might be targeted. I was relieved when he finally got home. I just wanted us all to be together in the same room.

The rest of that day and evening we had the news on non-stop. I remember we were all sitting at the dinner table and Jordan asked why the tv was still on while we were eating. We weren't really sure how much to tell her about what happened (she was only 4) or how appropriate it was for her to be watching the news coverage that day. I can't remember if we turned the tv off or not...or the exact words we used to try to explain the horrible thing that had happened that day. I'm sure it wasn't adequate but we always try our best to explain things to the kids and at the same time make sure they still feel safe and protected.

Five years later I still find myself looking up at airplanes I hear passing overhead to make sure they're going to keep on going like they're supposed to. And five years later, after all the time and money the u.s. government has spent on the "war on terror" and all the military personnel that have died, I don't feel any safer than I did right after 9/11. I still feel like a similar attack could happen again at any moment in any location and it'd just be the luck of the draw if it wasn't in my city.

Gymnastics

Last week I wrote these notes:

I'm sitting at Rowland Ballard watching Jordan take a private gymnastics lesson trying to nail down her round off back handspring before her first meet next weekend. I'm so proud of her. Her coach always tells me she's one of the hardest working kids on the team. And I know that about her. She goes to gym practice 3x/week for a total of 7.5 hours and often asks to go to the extra open gym times. She (almost) never asks to skip practice and really loves it. And they are tough workouts...I could never do the conditioning she does let alone the actually gymnastics skills. I don't know (or care) how far she'll go in gymnastics, I just want her to keep on enjoying it like she does now.

After her doing gymnastics since she was 5 I can't wait for her to experience her first meet. I'm so nervous for her but she doesn't seem to be at all. No matter how it goes, I know it'll be something I'll never forget.

Well, today was the first meet. And as it turns out, she was nervous. It was a long, tiring day (much like swim meets...a lot of sitting around for very little actual competition). Jordan said at the end that she felt she didn't do well, but I was proud of her and know that she'll only improve with each meet.

The toughest aspect from my point of view was the hair! I knew it would be a fight so I started prepping Jordan a week ago about it. She would have to wear her hair in a tight bun, high on her head. If it's not a loose, low ponytail Jordan doesn't want to do it. And to top it off...we had to use gel...and of all the horrors...HAIRSPRAY! We had a few tears, and a few words, this morning while we were doing it. She felt like she looked like a dork but as it turns out, she looked exactly like all the other girls. And they were all beautiful.

I didn't get any really good pictures. Flash photography was not allowed plus I didn't bring my digi rebel...only felt like lugging my little canon elph along with the video camera...seemed like a better video event anyway rather than still photos.

The next meet is in two weeks. Can't wait to see how it goes.

I had a couple more pictures to add but blogger is just not cooperating.

End of Summer

It's here. One of the biggest signs for me is when the littlest one starts school...our preschool starts about 2 weeks after the other kids start school. Since our elementary starts in the middle of Aug...it's definitely still summer here. But now, Jensen has started and it's after Labor Day so summer is winding down.

At first I was just wishing she could start right when the other kids did...I was ready for some kid-free time...but I actually really enjoyed those two weeks with just her. Each one of the kids is totally different when they're by themselves than when they're with any of the others. No one to fight with I guess.

Jensen is my girl-y girl...loves my "nake-up" and always wants nail polish on her fingers and toes. So, one day we went to the nail salon together. I really wish I had had my camera with me. She was soooo cute! I got a pedicure and she got her fingers and toes painted and sat there so good just waiting for it all to dry. Everyone in the salon couldn't believe how good she was.

We also got our hair cut together one day and she got such a cute cut!! I wish my hair could do this.

I finally got my salon buddy! I'm sure I'll be paying for highlights and facials by the time she's 12 so I might be regretting this introduction to the salon world. But, I'll be saving money on Jordan since I have to drag her kicking and screaming into a salon just to get her hair trimmed once a year.


The other sign that summer is over...our last trip to the beach. Although this was my first trip this year (I really don't love the beaches here in southeast texas) Jim and the kids have gone a few times. I have to admit...I had a great time even though the sand here should really just be called mud.

Happy Birthday, Jim!

Jim's birthday was last Saturday, August 26th. He turned 42 and is a virgo. I have always found it interesting that his birthday is the same date as my best friend from childhood. Anyway, I didn't do too much to plan the day since my mind has been on getting moved to this apartment and the kids starting school. None of my babysitters were available Saturday night so we were looking for something to do. We decided to go to the evening lift-off at the ballunar festival at the Johnson Space center. Jim is big on family outings (I call it FFF or Forced Family Fun :-) ) but he seems to really enjoy it. It wasn't very exciting but still a nice way to spend a birthday.

Jackson and School

My son just doesn't like school. Ever since the days of mom's day out and preschool, Jackson just didn't like it. He'd wake up every morning and ask "Do I have to go to school today?" The answer was always yes. He went and he always seemed to be fine when I picked him up, but the next day, the same question.

Once he started kindergarten, I didn't hear that question again. Jackson seemed to love going to school, although he still wasn't a fan of the "work" part of school. Jackson is very social and has a lot of confidence...he'll talk to anyone. So, the social part of school was what he liked. He did fine in 1st grade as well, didn't mind going although he occasionally got notices sent home that he "couldn't control his talking" or "wasn't focusing on his work." To combat those issues, for this year I kind of requested that he be separated from his good buddies. I thought this would help him concentrate better in class. After the first two weeks of school, I thought I had made a mistake. Jackson again was asking every morning why he had to go to school and even crying because he had to go. He said he didn't have any friends in his class and no one would talk to him. I felt so bad. Like I had really made a mistake as a parent. I was talking to my mom about it and she told me that my little brother was always the same way...even all the way through college! Good grief. Do I have that many more years of this to look forward to?

Well, today, I stopped feeling bad. Jackson got his first weekly behavior report from school today. The two categories marked as "needs improvement" were...drum roll please..."controlling excessive talking" and "following directions." Sheesh! I asked him, "if you don't have any friends in class and no one will talk to you...why can't you control your excessive talking!?!" His answer..."I made a friend."

12 on the 12th

Except I was only able to do 9 on the 12th this month. But, I figure since it's my first time I'm allowed a little leeway. Not only that but it took me about SIX HOURS to get this collage figured out on pse. If it doesn't get easier next time, I won't be doing this again. On Saturday, August 12, 2006 this is what we were doing:

(1.) We had our meet the teacher event at Shadow Forest at 9:00 a.m. This is the first year they've done it on Saturday. Not sure if I like it or not. Both Jackson and Jordan's teachers are new to the school so we'll have to reserve judgement for now.
(2.) We also took a few loads of things over to the storage unit. Why you ask? Well, we have to move out of our rental house and into a 2 bedroom apartment. Why you ask?
(3.) Because our house is not yet done!!
(4.) While we were moving boxes, Jim folded my rear seat down and somehow the upholstery got ripped. Life just keeps gettin' better.
(5.) My famous (at least in my mind) queso and these awesome chips always makes me feel better.
(6.) And a little retail therapy never hurts.
(7.) Jackson decided to escape the madness and spent the night at Andrew Morrison's house. The last sleepover of the summer.
(8. & 9.) Since Jackson was gone for the evening we decided to go to dinner at Carrabba's and invited Madison Enochs to go with us.

Okay, Okay

I realize the post below is long so I've learned a lesson not to go a week without posting something. I also tried to add some pics to break it up a little and make it a little less boring, but the site wasn't letting me for some reason. I still don't really know what I'm doing with this whole blog thing.

Here are a few pics I would have added. The first is the kids on the first day of school. Jensen so wanted to be going to school that day but she has to wait another week.

The second pic is Jackson with his missing tooth. He used to be a really cute kid...now he kind of looks like a criminal. :-)


Jim took Jackson and Jordan to the Museum of Natural History on Saturday to see the Body Worlds 3 exhibit. Jackson didn't quite get the concept and kept asking how all these people died like this. The exhibit was apparently insanely crowded but it was very quiet. Jim said most of the people were using the audio cassette things and, hence, weren't really talking. One of the parts of the exhibit showed a guy with an artificial hip. Jim's brother has an artificial hip so he was trying to make a connection with the kids and told them that their Uncle Steve broke his hip in a jet ski accident and had to have it replaced. Jackson looked up at him and asked "So, does that mean he can, like, take his leg off?" Jim just burst out laughing...in this room full of really quiet people. He said about 100 very serious museum goers turned and gave them a dirty look.

Life is What you Make It

I'm not off to such a good start keeping up with my blog, but man we've had a busy week or two! First off, we've had to move from our very comfortable rental house that we've been in for the past year while we're re-building our house, to a teeny-tiny TWO BEDROOM apartment. I'm talking going from 3200 sq. ft. to about 900 sq. ft. And there's 5 of us...in a TWO BEDROOM apartment! However, we've decided to set an example for the kids and make the best of it. There's actually quite a few good things about it...not the least of which is that we can keep the air as low as we want since utilities are included in the rent. We've been sleeping great at night now that we keep the temp set at about 72!! This was the first weekend morning we've woken up in a long time not having to worry about doing any yard work or property maintenance whatsoever. So...we may be in cramped quarters, but it's not all bad. And, I may have guilty feelings about one of the kids having to sleep on an air mattress, but they all think it's great! Every night it's a big fight over who gets to sleep on the air mattress. We've had to set up a rotating system. So long as I don't have to sleep on it, it's all good.

During the weekend of the move, we used the u-haul type truck that the storage place provided. Jim and Jackson went to pick it up and Jackson got in the front seat and yelled to Jim, "Hey, Dad, look at how the windows roll down!" Turns out they roll down by using a crank handle, which my sheltered son had never seen. So, at the very least, we're broadening their horizons a little.

While we are in the midst of this move we also had our meet-the-teacher event at school last Saturday. Our school is growing tremendously and we have tons of new teachers this year. Well, both Jordan and Jackson got teachers new to the school so this year is going to be one big experiment on our part. At first glance, both teachers seem great. Jordan's 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Cape, comes from Pine Forest and has tons of experience. Jordan really clicked with her and i liked her too. And, the best part is that Jordan's friend Susan Xu is in the class with her. They've been hoping for that every year since kindergarten.

Jackson's teacher is new too. She's young and has 4 kids age 4 and under!! No wonder she wants to get out of the house...even if it means being with other kids! Her classroom looked great, however, and she seems very organized.

Following meet-the-teacher on Saturday, we had the first day of school on Monday! The kids were excited (well, mostly Jordan) and got ready in plenty of time for me to take a few pics on the front porch. Jackson had an attitude, but that's par for the course these days. I was at least able to talk him into a picture with his teacher, but not Jordan. I guess it's just no longer cool in 4th grade.

The second day of school, however, Jackson came down with some mysterious illness which involved a one-time vomit in the early morning hours. No other symptoms but vomit is vomit so I let him stay home. This happens every year. He gets sick during the first week of school. Last year he had to go see the nurse on the FIRST DAY of school. It's crazy but Jim and I think it must be nerves or a the change in schedule or something. So he stayed home Tuesday and proceeded to drive me crazy as I was trying to unpack boxes and find any nook and cranny to store stuff.

He got bored enough, I think, that he spent most of the day wiggling his loose front top tooth. He wiggled it so much, that it finally came out Tuesday evening. The tooth fairy left him $3.00 so he was in heaven!

The rest of the school week went by uneventfully and we're adjusting to our new living space. Next week Jim is going out of town and this is one of the first times I'm actually looking forward to it...one less body in this apartment!

(Just found out that Jackson's teacher is Heather's sister-in-law's sister! How weird is that?)

ARRRGGHH! Pictures

I'm having a tough time posting pictures. Heather gave me some tips and I read the help section here but I'm still not getting it. I can add a picture, but when I try to move it around within my post it ends up being copied and I can't seem to get rid of the extra copy within my post. I'm going to try again now.

These are some of my favorite pictures from our trip to michigan. I love visiting Jim's mom's house. I love that there is so much room for the kids to run around, love that there's trees they can actually climb, love that there is a farm around the corner for them to visit, love that they can take hikes through the woods to the pond. And at my mom's house there's the lake right down the street. Love to visit, but wouldn't want to live there. I grew up out in the country like this but couldn't imagine myself living there now. I like shopping and eating out way too much.

Comments

Carmen kindly mentioned that I needed to change my comments settings to allow anonymous people to make comments. Not that there is interesting to comment about but you never know...so all you non-blog people feel free to comment!

Blogging and Packing

Yay! I think I got the profile part figured out...thanks to Heather. Next to conquer...adding pictures to my posts. However, what I really should be doing is packing. No, not to move back into my house because it's still not done...that's another story. But to move out of this rental house into (gasp) a 2 bedroom apartment! The people who own this house have had it on the market all summer and it hasn't sold yet. They're really getting nervous and want to do some things to the inside to spruce it up...and I guess they need us out to do that. The only short-term furnished rental we can find nearby is a 2 bedroom apartment! So I've been busy boxing up everything except the bare necessities to put in storage...luckily we haven't actually taken delivery of any big things yet so we don't have a ton of stuff to move. And luckily, the kids start school on Monday so they'll be out of my hair most of the time. And luckily, I have a really great husband who is doing his best to help out and to cheer me up and help me see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's been one hell of a year and I can't wait for it to be over.

It's a Heat Wave!

OMG was it hot here in Michigan the last few days. So hot that the power went out at Dad's house last night due to capacity overload. There was a weird dimming of the lights at 8:00 last night then, boom, they were out. It was close to 100 degrees when it happened so within minutes it got dang hot in the house. There was a recording when we called the power company saying the power could be out for 5 hours or possibly more or possibly less (way to pin it down...turns out it was more...go figure).

We played cards (Phase 10...love that game...thank you Denise for introducing us to it) until we couldn't see anymore then tried to go to bed. There was more heat lightening than I had seen in a long time. And it rained. I was up every hour or two until about 7:00 when I finally just got up. Still no power. Jensen couldn't understand why we couldn't turn the tv on. She kept saying "just use the remote." Like we were idiots or something. We were contemplating a whole day with no power in 90+ degree weather so we decided to go to McDs for breakfast (yum) so the kids could run around the play area in the ac. When we got back from breakfast around 10:00, the power was back on! You can't believe how quickly 6 crabby people cheered up!

I was particularly happy b/c I thought I was going to miss my boodle meeting if the power wasn't back on (didn't think I could leave 3 very restless, unhappy kids with their grandparents while I went out and enjoyed great company and shopping with plenty of a/c). I was able to make the boodle meeting and was happy to see Krystn, Carmen, Laura and Monica again. We shopped, talked and drank margaritas and had a great time. Can't wait until I'm back again.

Michigan

Okay, this is my first blog post. Never, ever thought I would have a blog. I didn't really understand the need to put your life out there for everyone, but thanks to Heather I see the positive side...you actually are writing things down for yourself...not for others. I want to record daily events better to use in my scrapbooks and Heather is doing an awesome job at that. Thanks for the inspiration, Heather.

Currently we are in Michigan on our semi-annual trip. The kids and I are actually here for almost 2 weeks so it's a much more relaxing pace than it usually is. We arrived on tues. July 25th and headed to Durand. Jim and his brothers and other male family members went on their annual fishing trip in Port Austin on Thursday and Friday. I took the kids up to Lexington to see my mom. Jim got tons of fish. I sat on the rocky beach and spent the night in my mom's claustraphobic house. She seemed happy to see us though.

On Saturday, Jensen came down with a fever and was vomiting all day. Which was a bummer since that was the day the entire Fuja family was getting together at Susan's. We muddled through. Jensen must have liked the attention from being sick as she milked it for about two days afterwards by randomly saying her stomach hurt and she thought she was going to throw up. Way to keep us on our toes.

Jim flew back to Houston on Monday...he'll have a nice quiet week at home...you need that once in a while. On Tuesday (today) I took the kids back up to Lexington (2 hour drive by the way) to see Gilbert. He was out of town last week when we were there. We had a nice lunch then took the kids back to the lake. It was hot, hot, hot today (like home) so the lake felt good. Of course the kids think it's soooooo cold. Welcome to my childhood.