February 12 on the 12th....or 13th...or whenever

Due to Heather posting hers I figured I better get on the ball so here's my 12 on the 12th. Although I actually forgot on the 12th so these pics were mostly taken on the 13th.


* 4:24. That's a.m. people. This is Jim's alarm clock that went off at that time. The only problem was that Jim was out of town so I had to climb across the bed at this ungodly hour and shut the thing off.

* My alarm went off at 5:15. Crazy.

* I went to school early to help Jordan collect data for her science fair project--who has better balance, boys or girls?

* Our house as it is today.

* Filled up the Suburban today. I think the gas was $2.02 / gallon.

* Been spending a lot of time at Home Depot lately. I think Wal-Mart is getting jealous.

* The roses Jim got me for Valentine's day. He had to leave town Monday afternoon (V-day was wednesday and he was still going to be out of town). So thoughtful of him to get me flowers in advance.

* As I said, Jim left Monday to go to Chicago. Today (Tues.) he was flying to Toronto, Canada. He forgot that you now need a passport to travel to Canada. He found out that they'll let him into Canada without it; but he won't be able to get back into the States without it. I had to find his passport and Fed Ex it to him in Toronto. Since I'm writing this after the fact I can say that the passport got stopped in immigration and I was very nervous that he wouldn't make his flight back to the States on Friday (not normally a big deal but we were having Jensen's birthday party on Saturday). He was able to pick up his passport and make his flight in time thank goodness. So happy to have him home.

* The door to our temporary apartment. I can't wait for the time when I'll never have to see this door again.

* Jackson writing out his Valentine's for the class party tomorrow.

* 130 sugar cookies that I picked up for the 4th grade class for the Valentine's parties tomorrow.

* My last task of the day was to put together gift bags for the 3 Js for Valentine's day. They each got a giant Hershey Kiss, some other candy and a dvd---Jordan got Flicka, Jackson got Open Season, and Jensen got Cinderella III.

Some more photos with my new lens

These are from Jackson's cub scout Blue and Gold banquet last Thursday. The first is Jackson's centerpiece he made. He named it Bob.

The next is just Jackson. So cute.

January 12 on the 12th

I'm ready to post February, but thought I better get January done first so here goes:

January 12th was a Friday.

1. I usually start my day here...at the computer. Checking e-mail, reading the news and weather, etc. It's my morning quiet time with my coffee and cookies. Can't start my day without it.

2./3./4. I went up to Shadow Forest for some volunteer work. While I was there I checked out Jackson's piece in the Writing Gallery. This was big for him since he's doesn't much care for writing. His story was cute and very inventive...The Evil Kangaroo.

5./6. Pictures Jensen took of Jim and I.

7. The tile work in our master bathroom is almost done and I love it!!

8. Our house as it is today.

9. School pick up. Gave Madison a ride home today.

10. New York Pizzeria. Picked up a large Greek pizza to take to Jen's for girl's night out. Love the Greek pizza. Love the girls.

11. Heather and her new fancy pants Donna Downey camera bag.

12. A toast with the girls. Tried a new drink...an Italian cocktail with champagne, vodka, lemon, mint. Some of my favorite things, but the drink was just so-so. Toasting with the girls was awesome though! Love them, need them, so glad I have them.

Running Water!

First electricity, and now this

This was the first picture taken with my new camera lens--a 50mm f/1.4. Thanks to Heather for the enabling. And thanks to Jim for the purchasing!

Bridgefest

Jordan ran in a 1 mile kid's race on Saturday sponsored by our local YMCA. Look at her. She looks so happy. You'd never know it was 8:30 in the morning and only 35 degrees.

Catching Up

Since it's almost Feb. 12th, I figured I'd better post my December 12 on the 12th. The problem with waiting this long to do it is you forget why you took a lot of the pictures! Here goes, to the best of my recollection.

This was a Tuesday and we had a parent/child book club meeting at Shadow Forest. We meet at 7:30 a.m. before school starts. Jordan and I read the book The Lemonade Trick. The 3rd picture shows the room at school where we house all the books for the bookclub. This year, I chair the PTA Literacy Committee and the Book Club is one of the things I'm in charge of so I'm in this little room quite a bit.

Since it was a Tuesday, it was also a day I volunteer in the Library. the first picture in the second row shows Jordan's class lining up to go back to their classroom after their library time. It was "crazy hat" day and most of the kids were wearing Santa hats. I volunteer in the library every Tuesday--one week I'm there for Jordan's library time, the next week I'm there for Jackson's. I like this volunteer job because it's short and sweet. You are in and out in 30 minutes and the kids get to see you there and they love it. I check their books in, shelve the books, help them find new books, then check their books out. You get to meet and greet all the kids in the class and they get to know who you are.

This was the last week of school before Christmas vacation and class parties were going to be held on Friday. I head up the 4th grade room moms and we got together this day to put together the supplies for the party on Friday. The next picture shows all the goody bags we assembled for the 4th grade. The funny thing is the main activity we had for the class was for them to play Bunco. It was so easy and the kids loved it!

This was a school volunteer intensive week. Most weeks I am not at school this much.

If you look closely at the picture of my rearview mirror, you'll see that the temperature reads 75 degrees. On December 12th it was 75 degrees! Pretty cool how I can see myself with my camera in the mirror.

Off to Wal-Mart for some power Christmas shopping.

Next stop is Pier One for some ornaments to give as teacher gifts, hostess gifts, etc. Plus one for each of the kids and one for me. I love the Le Bien ornaments they have there that are hand painted ON THE INSIDE of the ornament. I've bought one for each of the kids the last two years to start a collection for them that I'll give to them when they have their first tree on their own. I had started this collection before our fire but have since had to start over. I hope they continue to make these ornaments for a long time.

The next picture shows the Le Bien ornament I bought for myself last year. This year I bought another heart ornament for myself.

Next is our little Christmas tree in the apartment. It's actually the tree that we bought the kids to have up in their playroom. It was the right size and fit the bill as our main tree this year.

Ahhhhh, love this picture. This was an early Christmas present from Jim. A beautiful new Coach bag that I absolutely love.

Our house in it's current state.

Let There Be Light

For a brief shining time last week lights were actually on in my house. This is the first time in over a year and a half that lights have been illuminated at the house. It was a very exciting moment. Currently the house is just hooked up to the temporary electric pole in the yard. The electrician still needs to run a permanent cable from the transformer to our house. This requires 2 or 3 days of no rain in order for them to dig the trench (this has to be 3 feet deep), lay the cable, have an inspector come out to look at it, and then bury the cable. I'm not sure when this will be but hopefully soon. In the meantime...light definitely brings hope.

Happy Birthday Jensen!

Happy #4! Wow, what a year you have had. You've grown so much...definitely not a baby anymore and not even really a toddler, but a full-fledged kid. And one with a king-sized personality to boot. You definitely rule the roost around here and don't take any guff from anyone. Being around Jackson and Jordan, you've really learned to stand up for yourself and the things you want. Your pre-school teachers always say to me, "We know who runs your house." I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing, but it's just the way it is.
You're in pre-K 3 and attend school three days per week. Most days you love it but for some reason you really detest "circle time." All I can get out of you is that it's "boring." This may be something you've picked up from Jackson but whatever the reason, you don't like it. Other than that minor detail, you like school and have fun when you're there. You are still a girly-girl prefering to wear dresses or skirts rather than pants. You love "nake-up" as you call it and are always in there when I'm putting mine on. It finally got to the point that I bought you a few of your own make-up items and some brushes so that you can have your own and use them at the same time I'm putting my make-up on. You always ask for nail polish and I even took you to the nail salon once with me for a mani/pedi! You love to play dress up and do "hair styles." You love your babies, Barbies, and stuffed animals. And I love watching you play with all these things.
You've recently started playing on the "compuga." I think you finally got tired of watching from the sidelines while Jordan and Jackson were doing things on the computer. Your favorite websites to visit are barbie.com and disney.com. I've really got to investigate some more educational sites for you to go to.

You've been through so much upheaval over the past year and a half but hopefully not a lot of it will become part of your permanent memory. Daddy and I have really tried to make life as normal for you as possible after our fire and I pray that we have done an okay job of it. Our house is getting closer to being completed and us being able to move back in. I hope when I'm writing this letter to you next year that you are happily ensconced in your own room filled with things you love.

I love you, Jensen Marie.
Mom

The rest of the week...

was mostly taken up with Jackson's boy scout Pinewood Derby (his car is the red one). This was his first year doing this and boy did he learn a hard lesson. He and Jim worked on the car for about two weeks doing research, buying supplies, etc. The car turned out great. Jackson, of course, was convinced that his car would win. This boy is lacking nothing in the self-confidence department. Well, as you can probably guess, his car failed to cross the finish line...it jumped the track for some reason. Jackson ended up placing last in his rank...an absolutely crushing blow to him. He declared that he was done with cub scouts; that it just wasn't any fun whatsoever. At the end of the night the track was still set up and the boys that were still hanging around got to race their cars again. And, guess what? Jackson's car won every time! Go figure. The evening was saved and he is already looking forward to next year's car.

Legal yucky stuff and crazy weather

This past week was filled with all kinds of things that weren't particularly pleasant. On Monday we had the re-scheduled conference call with the arbitrator in our case against our contractor. Basically the arbitrator was just setting the schedule of how things would go. The date for our hearing is April 24th! I'm learning one thing about the legal system...it moves at a snail's pace. It was also Martin Luther King day so no school...double whammy. To kill some time I took the kids to Mudpie to use the gift certificates Heather gave them for Christmas. I also started a cute project but didn't get it finished. I'll post pics of all projects once we have them back.

The weather this week was forcasted to be pretty nasty. The words "ice storm" and "winter storm warning" were heard over and over again on the news. I haven't heard those words in the entire 6 years we've lived here. Monday night I watched the news to see if school would be closed (even though the weather wasn't really doing anything but being cold). Lo and behold I see our school district name scroll across the bottom of the screen saying that school would be closed Tuesday AND Wednesday. WEDNESDAY??? What? It's Monday night and the weather's not even doing anything yet. At the very end of the newscast, the reporter came on and said that our district WAS having school after all and that a mistake had been made. "Whew!" was all I could say.

I woke up Tuesday morning to an e-mail from our school secretary explaining that someone sent a fake notice to the news stations making it look like it had come from the district public information office that school would be closed. Not a nice prank but kind of funny and pretty inventive.

I was glad there was school b/c we had a meeting with our attorney scheduled for Tuesday to prepare for our deposition in our Ford case that was scheduled for Wednesday. The preparation went okay but I did have to look at all the photos from the fire. I hadn't looked at those in a long time.

Wednesday a.m. we woke to more cold weather and rain. The kids were anxiously watching the news to see if our district would be closed. Thankfully, we dodged another bullet and our district remained open but most of the ones around us closed including Houston ISD. The temps in our area hovered around 33 - 34. Just one more degree lower and who knows...

Again, I was thankful that school was on so we wouldn't have to re-schedule our deposition. I really wanted to get that overwith. With that said, though, it was definitely one of the worst things I've ever had to do. I spent a grueling and emotional 5 hours being grilled by two different attorneys with only a 30 minute break for lunch. Then Jim spent another 3 hours being grilled himself by the same two guys. During a bathroom break I called one of my girlfriends to make sure she could pick Jensen up from school. She could tell I was emotional and had been crying so she gave me a pep talk I really needed. She said "Don't take any shit! They burned your house down!" I did much better after that. These are some of the photos I had too look at during the day. It really reminded me what the true cause of all this is. The first photo is my un-recognizable white 2002 Ford Expedition. The next photos are the remnants of

my house. The last photo is my house today. It's not done, but there is hope. I'll update the rest of the week later.

The Conference

Over the course of the past week, I got to speak to the counselor on the phone. She made me feel really comfortable about the whole thing and told me not to worry too much. She reminded me of a couple of truths about Jackson...he's the middle child, he's a boy, he has to follow in Jordan's footsteps at school, our family has been through a lot. All of this is true and eased my mind somewhat.

We set up a conference with Jackson's teacher for Friday afternoon. The counselor sat in on it too. I feel really comfortable that Jackson's teacher knows him pretty well and is trying a variety of strategies with him to get the best out of him. Our school has sort of an alternative style in a lot of respects compared to other schools in our district...it is known as the "hippie" school. Some of the things they try in the classrooms crack me up. One of them is they have a cassette player with headphones that they rotate to different kids in the class. Most of the time the earphones are silent, but every once in a while a voice comes on that says "keep working." How weird is that? Apparently, they think it works. The other day, though, a kid yelled out "I am!" to the voice in his head. Hmmmm.

The long and short of it is, that Jackson does everything at a very fast pace. He doesn't sit still for very long, and he always needs to be doing something with his hands. The teacher suggested getting him one of those stress balls to bring to class to hold onto. She said he never sits down at his desk, his chair is always pushed under and he does his work standing up. We asked about ADD and neither the counselor nor his teacher think we need to test him for that but they are going to do a test where they evaluate how long he can stay on task. Not sure what that entails but I guess we'll find out.

What I really wanted was to go into the meeting and someone tell me "go home and do this, this, and this and everything will be okay." Of course, they didn't say that so I'm still left scratching my head a little. But at least I know there are caring people at school who are trying to help him succeed. That's really all I want.

On another note...today I got tickets for 4 of my girlfriends and their daughters to go see the Cheetah Girls and Hannah Montana when they come to Houston in March. The tickets went on sale this morning and I was so nervous because they're about the hottest tickets in town right now. This will be Jordan's first concert and she's so excited!

It's been over a week now and I feel like I really should blog but I just don't know what about. There's so much and so little all at the same time.

I've been writing a Christmas Review post for about a week now but still don't have it done.

Plus, I never really said Happy New Year. So, you know....happy new year.

Today the thing that most consumed me was my son...report cards came home last Friday and he got 2 Cs. We kind of knew this was coming from his progress report and he new what was coming if he actually got a C...no computer and no video games until the next report card...9 long weeks.

Since Friday it's been a little tense around our place and it got a little out of control on the way to school this morning. Jackson and I got into a heated argument about him taking responsibility for himself, his happiness, his actions and his belongings (yeah, I know he's only 7 but still...). Some harsh words were said including "you're the worst mom ever" and "I hate you." And according to Jackson, I told him he was the "worst child ever." I don't remember saying such a thing, but I'm not going to totally deny it since I has pretty mad and Jackson is adamant about me saying it.

I dropped the kids off at school, told Jackson I loved him anyway even if I was mad at him, and I wished him a good day. I went about my day feeling guilty and like I was actually the "worst mom ever." When I picked the kids up from school a mere 7 hours later Jackson promptly tells me that he went to see the counselor. "Mrs. Mayfield?" I asked. "Why?" "Because of the fight we had in the car this morning," he said. What!!? He's in second grade and he went to see the counselor?? Now the whole school knows I'm the worst mom ever.

This afternoon we did manage to make up and we'll see how the rest of the week goes. I'm definitely making an appointment to see the counselor myself. We really need some advice on what to do about this boy and his total dislike of school. If anyone out there has some advice for me, please share. I don't want to be the "worst mom ever" forever.

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 16th anniversary. Starting December 29, 1990 we've had 16 wedded years, 8 moves, 3 kids, 1 ferret, 1 bird, 1 dog, 1 cat, 1 hamster, countless trips and vacations, untold holidays and birthdays, a few bumps along the way, some sadness and goodbyes to people we love and through it all we have always had each other and always will. I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

Coming Home

A beautiful sunset on Christmas Day in Houston. As much as I love traveling, I always love coming home.

Merry Christmas Eve

Well, our week here in Michigan is just about over and we're heading back to Texas tomorrow. We had a great visit with everyone and our usual chaotic, fun, loud, hectic Fuja family gathering on Saturday. There were 21 people in attendance and it was really great to see everyone.

The 3 Js are wondering if Santa is going to make a stop at Grandma's house or just leave any gifts for them back in Texas. We shall see. And tonight Jordan lost yet another tooth. Does the tooth fairy even work on Christmas Eve? Seems like there might be some conflict over air space.

I'll catch up more once we get back, but just wanted to wish everyone a happy, peaceful Christmas day spent with family and friends you love.

Cool weather...finally!

Of course, we had to travel for about 8 hours and 2,000 miles to get it. After a week of temps close to 80 in Texas, we arrived in Michigan where it was about 40. Loved it! But I know that after a week of cold weather I'll be happy to get back to the mild conditions at home.

To the Michigan boodles that read my blog...I'm sorry I didn't give you advance notice of my trip. I would have loved to get together with all of you again but with being out of town so much lately I just wasn't able to plan anything. Plus, I thought this week right before Christmas would be so crazy busy for everyone that I didn't want to impose. I'll definitely want to see you guys when I'm here next. In the meantime, I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas.
'

Cruise in Review

We were in desperate need of a vacation so decided kind of at the last minute to go on a cruise out of Galveston. We've been wanting to try this since it is so close and we got a pretty good deal. So, here are the details.

Day 1 - Departure
Sunday, Dec. 3rd


It was a pretty chilly day (by southeast texas standards) when we boarded Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas at about 1:00 p.m. The ship was scheduled to depart at 5:00 p.m. The first thing we did was inspect our cabin. It was actually pretty spacious by ship standards. We had an oceanview Family Stateroom. It had a separate curtained off area with bunk beds and a closet; a pull-out sofa (more of a glorified futon) and a window in the main area; and a curtained off sleeping area with a king size bed, a closet, and a vanity. With all curtains, it got pretty dark in there. It was awesome when the kids slept until 9:00 a.m. some mornings. That is virtually unheard of! That alone was worth the price of the vacation!

The next thing we had to do was participate in the emergency drill. We had to don lifejackets and go on deck to our "muster station." Like I said it was very chilly and windy that day and we were out there for quite some time while everyone on the ship was counted.

After the drill, the ship departed. We got the kids signed up for the kid's club. We went to our dinner seating at 8:30. By this time, the seas were pretty rough in the gulf of mexico. I typically get seasick so I took some medicine as soon as I got on board. Before dinner even started though, Jackson said he wasn't feeling well. So he and I went back up to the room. Jim and Jordan finished out a nice dinner in the dining room.

Day 2 - At Sea
Monday, Dec. 4th

By far, the worst day of the cruise. The seas that day continued to be rough with 8 - 12 ft. swells. By the morning Jackson, Jensen and I were all sick. We spent the day in bed while Jim and Jordan explored the ship.

By the late afternoon, we were all feeling better. The kids all decided they wanted to go to the kid's club that night rather than have a late dinner in the dining room. That worked out great for them...and for us! I finally got to meet our tablemates--Ricardo and Nayra Rodriguez. They are a newlywed couple from Monterrey, Mexico. At first I wondered what the cruise line was thinking seating newlyweds with a family with 3 kids, but it ended up working out great. They were very funny and nice and very sweet to the kids when they ate with us. Ricardo celebrated his 30th birthday on the cruise. We bought them a bottle of wine one night to celebrate that and their wedding. On the last night they gave us very thoughtful gifts...a caribbean christmas ornament and a t-shirt from the ship. I had been meaning to get a Christmas ornament as a souvenir so it was perfect!

Day 3 - Key West
Tuesday, Dec. 5th

We weren't scheduled to arrive in Key West until 3:00 p.m. so that left a big chunk of the day on the ship. In the morning the girls wanted to go to the kids club and Jackson decided to play family bingo with Jim and I. Good thing he did too since he won $87!! He was soooo happy!

After lunch the kids wanted to swim even though it was still pretty chilly. However, they had drained the pool due to the rough weather (they use sea water for the pools, did you know that?) so all that was available were the hot tubs.

Once we docked in Key West, we departed for our excursion to Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. This is something I never care to do again. Jordan and Jackson both say they liked it but Jensen was mostly just scared of all the weird stuff. After the museum we walked around and did a little souvenir shopping. This was all Jackson cared about in any port we were in. He always wanted to make sure that we were going to have time for souvenir shopping.

We took the kids back to the ship for dinner and the late night kid's club. Jim and I went back into Key West and had a really great dinner at a restaurant called Mangoe's on Duval Street. It was a nice get-away for us.

Day 4 - At Sea
Wednesday, Dec. 6th

We left Key West around midnight on our way to Grand Cayman. We had this day at sea and the weather finally started to warm up. We spent this day very leisurely...totally on vacation. The kids went to the kids club for a while and Jim and I went to pool. After lunch, we kind of all hung out by the pool. Jackson joined a "sexy legs" contest by the pool and ended up winning a medal! He was in his glory!

Jackson ended up coming to dinner with us that night while the girls went to the kids' club. He entertained the table with his goofiness.

Day 5 - Grand Cayman
Thursday, Dec. 7th

This was a great day! The weather was beautiful when we docked in Grand Cayman. We had planned to just go to the beach for the day. We went to Seven Mile beach and played in the beautiful sand and water for several hours. We had lunch at a beachside hotel then got in the requisite souvenir shopping before heading back to the ship.

I tortured the kids a little by trying to get a potential Christmas card photo. I made Jackson try to build a snowman out of sand. This proved to be virtually impossible, but at least it kept him busy for a while.

Back on the ship for dinner it was one of our formal dining nights. None of the kids wanted to come to dinner with us, but I made them dress up anyway in order to get a family picture taken. Every night, they had photographers taking portraits with different cheesy backgrounds and I was determined to get one of the 5 of us together. We ended up getting a decent one and I happily sent the 3 Js off to the kids' club while Jim and I enjoyed a nice dinner all dressed up.

Day 6 - Cozumel
Friday, Dec. 8th

I was most looking forward to this day the whole trip. We had decided that we would do "swim with the dolphins" excursion and I was so excited. The day we were in Cozumel, the weather wasn't that great. It was overcast and windy. We went to a national park called Chakanaab. It had all been virtually rebuilt in the past 2 years since hurricane Wilma. They had a beautiful dolphin habitat. We were able to get in the water standing on a platform in water about chest high. Jensen really didn't want to do it, but we made her get in the water. She loves animals and I really thought she would love being so up close with the dolphins. However, she was terrified and screamed to get out. I think the main problem was how rough the water was. Since she wanted to get out, one of us had to get out with her and Jim volunteered. Next to go was Jackson. He tried to stick it out, but was just too cold in the rough water. He did manage to get one kiss from the dolphin before he got out. That left just Jordan and I in the water. I know I loved the whole experience and I think Jordan did too. She was a trooper and I hope she remembers that experience for a lifetime.

Once our time with the dolphins was over and we had spent a small fortune on the photos and dvd, we had to make our way into town for souvenir shopping and lunch. We ate at Carlos and Charlies. It was loud and fun and we all enjoyed it. We sort of separated to conquer all the souvenir shops and Jackson and I got back to the ship on the last tender.

That's one thing that I didn't really like about Grand Cayman or Cozumel. Our ship couldn't pull into an actual dock due to the shallowness of the water but instead had to anchor a ways off shore. We had to take a small boat into the island. This was a really slow process and meant that you couldn't just come and go off the ship as you pleased. I'll definitely look into this more if we take another cruise.

Day 7 - At Sea
Saturday, Dec. 9th

This was our last day on the ship. The weather started to get rougher as we entered the gulf of mexico and I was worried that we would get sick again, but we held tough. We played bingo again the last day but didn't have any luck. Both Jackson and Jordan had made friends on the ship with a brother and sister from Round Rock, TX. We had arranged to have lunch with their family that day. After lunch the kids wanted to climb the rock roll on the top deck of the ship. I spent a big chunk of the afternoon packing up all our stuff!

We all ate dinner together in the dining room that night although the kids really wanted to go to the kid's club.

Back in Texas

The next morning we docked in Galveston early and had to be out of our cabins by 8:00 a.m. We were actually allowed to depart the ship around 9:30 and by the time we got our luggage, went through customs, and got our car it was about 11:00 by the time we were on the road headed to Kingwood. All in all, it was a pretty successful family vacation that had a little something for everyone.

And an added bonus of the whole thing was that compared to the cabin on the ship, our 2 bedroom apartment actually looked spacious when we returned!