Hmmm...

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...

An Historical Day

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.

Another First Day of School

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!

Weekend Update

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!

Another January Highlight

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

Thank You Nintendo!

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.

Daily December: Day Twenty Three

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 One

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 Thirteen

Today was Jackson's 3rd grade musical performance at school--A Penguin Christmas.


That's alot of elves, reindeer, and penguins!

Meet Penguin #9.

Happy 4th and other stuff

It's been a wet July here in Texas so far. I think I read in the paper that it's rained the last 23 days in a row...yuck. This year, the 4th of July was on a Wednesday...weird to have it in the middle of the week. It was overcast in the a.m. but we decided to go to the Kingwood parade anyway. It started drizzling about halfway through but we were sitting under some trees so we didn't get too wet. The kids don't seem to mind the rain.






We had just planned a cookout with some of our neighbors and luckily we have a porte cochere--a covered area over part of our driveway--on our house (never even heard of this until we moved to Texas but now wouldn't want to live without it). We grilled under there and set up tables to eat. The rain actually held out for most of the evening and the guys were able to set off all the fireworks they had purchased (probably $300 or $400 worth combined!).

On Thursday Jordan had a sleepover with her two good friends on the street, Madison and Kristina. She's been dying to have a sleepover since we moved back into the house but with early morning summer swim practices/meets we didn't have one until now. The girls all braided their hair, watched a movie, ate popcorn, listened to music, talked and stayed up late. Typical sleepover stuff. Luckily, Jackson was asked to spend the night at his friend Austin's house the same night so no little brother around to bug them.



On Friday we had the Kellers over for dinner. They have the distinction of being our first dinner guests since we've moved back in. I've hosted girls' night and some of the neighborhood friends have ended up eating over here after grilling out but this was the first time we've cooked for others since we've been back. It was a fun time!



This week (July 2nd) also marked the two year anniversary of our fire. We are so happy to be back in our house but things are far from over. We're still dealing with the arbitration case against our contractor and our Ford lawsuit hasn't even started yet. Currently our trial date is set for November, but our neighbor's insurance company just intervened in the suit so that will probably mean another delay. We have lost so much financially and emotionally that some days it seems like we will never recover.




On a happier note, this week also marked the first time in two years that we've had kids swimming in our pool. That was a good day! The kids have all grown so much in the past 2 years that our pool suddenly seems really small but at least it's ours and it's up and running.

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Dear Jackson,

I'm writing this letter one month past your 8th birthday...time has such a way of flying by. Your birthday falls at the end of school every year (this year the last day of school was 5/25 and your birthday was 2 days later) and that is always such a crazy time. Plus this year, we moved back into our house just two weeks before your birthday. Now one month later we are getting settled into our home and into our summer routine.

You had an up and down year I would say, but mostly up and you definitely finished strong. You started off your 8th year with a broken arm which was not a good way to start the summer. That meant no swim team last summer but you did swim this year and had a pretty good time, I think. You even made it to the All Star meet for breast stroke. That's pretty darn good after missing all of last season.





Other than swimming, you also played baseball this year. You were part of a great team and had so much fun. You really improved over the season and your team ended up going to the championship game. Your lost and it was heartbreaking but it was so exciting to watch!



This was your first year of Cub Scouts and I think you really enjoyed it...campouts, archery, bb gun shooting, what's not to love! I'm hoping that you'll want to do it again next year.




You had an up and down year at school. You are such a bright, energetic kid and you really excel at math. But there are some subjects you don't love and those don't get your full attention (spelling, writing, penmanship). You ended up getting two Cs one marking period and daddy and I got pretty upset with you. But you worked hard the rest of the year and ended up getting mostly Bs with an A in math. Daddy and I were very proud of you at the end of the year. I'm really hoping that you find your groove with school...maybe 3rd grade will be the year. You have so many years of schooling ahead of you and I just wish you enjoyed it more.



Another big accomplishment this year was making your First Communion. We were so proud of you.



This was the year that you finally started losing some teeth. This is such a great snaggl-tooth photo. I love it! And for some reason this year you decided to start growing your hair out. For years you've had your hair cut super short--"a number 2 all over." I definitely like the longer locks but I think you were a little disappointed at first. I think you thought it was going to grow out straight and you kept trying to plaster it down with gel and other products. It is definitely not straight and I think you've decided to go with it. I think it is just so darn cute!





I love you Jackson. You keep my on my toes and brighten my days.

Love,
Mom