Dejavu

There's a picture floating around somewhere of Joycelyn and I when we were younger: we were sitting at the counter in the kitchen and painting together. I took these pictures tonight all the while remembering the photo of my sister and I.

My dreaded month

It's coming. As of Friday I'm going to be officially miserable. What does Friday signify? September 1st. Why do I dread September? It's because I'll engage in a MONTH long battle with allergies. To me, September means 30 days of pink eye--itchy, scratchy, puffy, sore. Literally. And with that I'll have a stuffed up, runny nose which will cause me to lose any sense of smell and taste. I'll end up carrying around my own roll of toilet paper--and go through one roll a day for my nose. The strongest prescription out there for eyes hardly begins to help (Patonal). And the Zyrtec doesn't help much either. But at least I can sort of taste when I take that. Clariton, Benadryl, ect don't do a thing.
What brought this on? I never had allergies as a kid or even in highschool or college. Yet, ever since I had Julia I have battled this every September (sometimes into October). I've heard that having kids can change a woman's body and bring out allergies. Way uncool.
It looks like I won't be suffering alone this year. My poor little Marcus has pink eye at the moment. I noticed one of his eyes looking deeply bloodshot last night and he couldn't stop rubbing it. It was also watering like crazy. I wondered if maybe he just got something in it. But when he woke up this morning and it was still the same...well a quick call was placed to the doctor for some medicine. I'm really hoping that he has better luck with the medicine than I do. I don't wish this upon anybody.
I was actually on the phone with Tiffanie explaining Marcus's health today when we joked about the upcoming Friday. I've been feeling pretty good all day and so I joked that perhaps it won't hit me this year. Well, at dinner tonight I couldn't stop sneezing. It was to the point that Julia kept asking what was wrong. My nose is all itchy and a bit runny. Looks like the joke is on me.

First day of school!

Actually, school started last Thursday and Julia and Jacob couldn't wait to get out the door. Well, Julia was the only one allowed to go. The flu decided sweep through our house and stay and play for a week or so. :( Jacob had a fever that wouldn't go away for 5 days. Evelyn actually had it the prievous week (stomach flu) and then it went on to Jacob. Marcus is just now getting over it. Needless to say, Jacob was heartbroken that he couldn't attend his first couple days of school. He sooooo wanted to go to his class and be with Mrs. Minkler (Julia's old kindergarden teacher). And he was really looking forward to using his new spiderman lunch box. But now that he's in he's absolutely loving it!

Here we have Julia on her first day and looking so cute and grown up!


And here's Jacob yesterday all ready to go for his first day.


Julia and Jacob attend Boyd with their cousins. Here's Nathan walking Jacob to the car and making sure that his little cousin doesn't get lost in the crowd. It's so awesome to know that his older cousins are looking out for him.
Now I have to share a funny story that happened today in the lunch room (McMom, this should ring a bell with you concerning your son!). So Jacob finished the lunch which I packed for him (lunchmeat (he doesn't do sandwiches), fruit punch, peach cup, fruit snacks, and a small handful of m&ms). That's all he would let me put in his lunch this morning. Well, he got to the lunchroom and finished it all and decided he was still hungry. So he asked the teacher's aid if he could go and help himself to the school lunch--they let him of course. So he got a plate full of chicken strips, carrots, more peaches, a roll, and some chocolate milk. !!!!! My little endless pit! I just had to laugh at this...reminds me of a certain story I once heard about Ryan.....:)

Bull's Eye

Last night was a back-to-school bash at the park for Boyd Elementary (the school which Julia and Jacob will be attending this year). Food, games, prizes--it goes on every year and it's so much fun. All sorts of sponsors come out and have activities for the kids (Springfield police and fire department, for instance, gave out stickers, tatoos, pins, cups, and gave tours of the fire truck). There was one activity where school officials (like James) sat in a booth above water and the kids got to throw a ball at a target. If they hit the bull's eye, then the person in the seat falls into the water. Last night I found out just how good Jacob is with his eye/hand coordination. I've always known he can throw a ball (and that he has excellent form too), but now I know he can aim. :) He dunked every time he threw that ball-and each kid only had one turn each time they were up. There were no "practice shots". Guess we'll be putting him in softball when he's old enough?
Next week school starts. Julia's already met with her teacher to talk about her summer and go over her reading/listening/comprehension skills. Normally teachers access each student when school first starts. Her awesome teacher has been meeting with the kids this past week and getting it done so that it doesn't take up time during the actual school year. Julia was so excited be able to meet Mrs. Roy and pick out where she wants to sit in the classroom. This year she and her cousin, Ben, will finally be in the same room together. Bless their teacher! James (principal and uncle) decided against having them together for the first two years....they needed to branch out individually (and it just wouldn't have been fair to the poor teacher if they'd have been together).
We aren't sure who Jacob's teacher is yet. I think we'll find out on Tuesday during the "meet your teacher" night. I'm a bit nervous sending Jacob to "the big school". I think it's because of his speech--or maybe because he's so different from Julia. Julia raced into school without a single glance back when she was old enough. Jacob's personality is so much different. Or maybe I'm having some serious "cut the apron string" issues. :)
Many people have been asking me "So what are you going to do with only two kids at home?". Well, I was offered to be trained as an aerobics instructor once school starts. !!!!!! :):):) I'm quite looking forward to that. Very nervous--it'll be nerve racking for me to be up there in front of everyone. My shyness is itching to come back in full force when I think about it. But then I think, you know, every Sunday I'm up there in front of primary kids, teachers, my presidency, and sometimes the stake primary leaders teaching. Surely I can handle being in front of 15-20 women? Of course, with them we'll be listening to blaring music while I'll be counting beats in my head and trying to give out cues in the right beat. Oh help me! Honestly, I really am excited about it. So that's what I'll be doing with my free time. Practicing at home, enjoying some alone time with my younger kiddos, and seeing if I'll ever get my calling under control (pardon that last one, I'm just stressing cause the program is coming up and I'm putting the finishing touches on the outline of it).
Oh, I almost forgot! Here's another accomplishment this week! It seems forever ago that Ryan and I took the training wheels off of Jacob's bike--only to find out that he changed his mind and didn't want to learn to ride without them (tough luck that we threw the training wheels away). He's been bikeless for a few months now. Well, Monday I'd had enough of that. It was time for him to learn already. So I put him on his bike (of course he was wailing for the entire neighborhood to hear) and sent him down the drive way. He swerved into the grass and was off! What do you know? He can ride! He was all smiles and wanted to keep going (and going and going and going....). He can now officially get on, get started, and stop all by himself. I even got a video of him. I tried to post it, but it's too large (and when I try to cut it down my computer locks up). It was of him riding around (when he just learned) and when he tried to stop he totally smashed into Ryan's car. !!!! He popped right back up and kept going though.

Family pix at the end

And what do we always do before leaving a family reunion? Take family pictures of course! Here we all are:


All the cousins together...it's the best shot we could do. It was seriously hot back in Joycelyn's place...everyone was sweaty but we were having a great time.

I missed getting the family shot of Carlo and Roya...if you want to see a better pic you'll have to look at Jason, Joycelyn, or Roya's blogs. Sorry.




Marcus is always fussy when he's hot...and we couldn't get him cooled down so we finally just stripped him down to his diaper. It helped a bit. :)

The beach

The main thing that we planned to do while down in Louisiana was to go to the beach. We went to Toledo Bend the last time we visited and so we thought we'd make a tradition out of it. Oh the water felt so good!




Jason and Karen were quite prepared for the water. They brought this raft and a ton of floating devices. Karen took Julia for a ride in the raft. Julia had a blast in there.


Mr. Marcus was just chilling in his floaty with Randy.


A bit beyond the shore was this huge trampoline in the water. Jason, Julia, Ryan, Randy, and Evelyn had a go on it.

Roya's house for good food and good company

So here was one cool reunion--we met up with Jason, Karen, and Grant over at Carlo and Roya's house. Those of you who don't know--Jason is my brother and Carlo is my cousin. I don't remember the last time we were all together. Joycelyn and I made a huge dinner that night: pancit, lumpia, eggrolls, adobo with rice, ect. It was some good eating.

For a while we were just sitting around the table and reminiscing (Jason about us not being at the airport when he got home for his mission--oops! sorry!) or swapping stories about our old high school friends and what they're up too. Lots of laughter filled that table that night. (Ryan and Randy aren't in the pic--after Ryan took this pic he and Randy went to see Bourne Ulitmatim together--I can't wait to see it!)


I gotta say, it is hotter than hot in that blasted area down south. And apparently the army doesn't consider air conditioning a necessity. Joycelyn's house doesn't have it...it has a swamp cooler of some sort that only allows the house to get ten degrees below whatever the temp is outside. Fat lot of good that does when it's stinking 100 degrees outside! Carlo and Roya's place was better...but all the cooking we did over there didn't help. Joycelyn came prepared with one of the pools she bought from Walmart. So the kiddos headed outside in their swimsuits and had a ton of fun jumping around in the water and playing with the hose.


Normally this late at night (past 8 o'clock) it would be way too cold to be spraying water on kids...but no, it was so hot that the water was coming out warm. We had fun with it anyway...the kids loved being sprayed. I got them as they ran around the backyard.

Family Reunion....again!

We just got back last night from a nice trip down to Fort Polk to see Randy and Joycelyn. Randy still had to work the first couple of days that we were there, so we took off to Alexandria (civiliazation) with Joycelyn and Katie and hit Chuck E. Cheese. It was a 10 hour drive just to get to Joycelyn's so the kids welcomed the idea of going to a place to play. Joycelyn had printed off some sweet coupons so we were set with pizza, entertainment, and over 200 tokens. !!! Each game/activity only requires one token. You do the math. :)

I turn my back for one moment and look what happens......

"But look! He likes being a princess! He's having fun!" is what Julia tries telling me and Ryan.


How could we argue? He's too young to know the difference. :)


Well, I wasn't about the let them have all the fun!


This girl is so photogenic! So pretty!

Happy Birthday Evelyn!

Our gift was this cute pink purse that Evelyn was playing with in Kohl's months ago. I was getting Julia some pj's at the time and Evelyn and Jacob found a whole rack of purses to play with while I was busy. So I put the one she liked the most in the cart and she was none the wiser. And of course I wasn't about to give her an empty purse--it was filled with three huge tubes of mini-m&ms! Yummy!


Yeah, she's not about to let go of her new purse--nor the goodies in it!


For a long time we've been asking Evelyn what kind of birthday she wanted and reply was simply "Pink". Well, then she added princess in there too. Hence her princess birthday cake.


Blowing out all of the candles. She did a rather good job too (cheered on by her sister in the background!).


Ryan's parents had the biggest gift I have ever seen--and so beautifully wrapped too! All the pink ribbon was saved--my girls use it as shawls when they're dressing up.


The complete princess package! Evelyn was giving her high pitched squeal at this point. A cinderella dress, shoes, tiara, and wand?! She was in heaven!


And then there was this gift from Mom--OH MY GOSH! It had four different colored tiaras, diff colored feathered shawls, wands, and lighted microphone looking wands. Everyone digged into that box!


She really was a beautiful princess that day (and every day afterwards...McMom, she slept in that for days! We could hardly get the dress off of her).

There was plenty to go around and so we had quite a few princesses.:)


Jacob wasn't about to let the girls have all the fun!

This and that

Has it really been so long since I've blogged? Time flies when you're having fun right? Well, Mom came and stayed with us for about a week at the beginning of the month. We had fun just hanging out--we went to the zoo and spent quite a bit of time with Uncle Mike. Mom was also here visiting a friend who is sick. I think Mom was able to visit her almost every day. She ended up getting sick for a couple of days, but was recouperated by the time she left. :) We think Mom got heat sick. It was pretty hot when we went to the zoo. And then the next day we waited an hour and a half at Lamberts (which has absolutely no air conditioning in the waiting area).

At the zoo and looking over the edge at a big hippo (not in view).


Yeah, Julia looks all cute and innocent here, but I will testify that she chased this poor peacock all over the zoo shrieking at it to see what would happen.



This little area outside the snake house (which Mom refused to step foot in) was a lifesaver in the heat. There are little holes all over the ground and they shoot out balls of water. Everyone had a fun time catching the water or smacking it at each other. By the time everyone had their fill of the place, they were completely soaked.




For some groovy reason Evelyn was insisting that I needed to take a picture of her hands. They look normal to me!