Arrrrr maytee

Marcus had an update appt with his opthamologist this past week. I explained to the doctor that his eye wasn't staying put even with the glasses on. She checked his prescription and his eyes and told me that there isn't a stronger prescription out there and that we should try the patch for 1-2 hours each day. He's to wear it preferably while watching tv, playing a game, or really concentrating on something. And he's to wear his glasses over it. (FYI, the patch goes on his good eye to make the weaker one work and strengthen up).

Well, we're on day three of this, and Marcus really is NOT impressed with having to wear what he thinks is a sticker on his eye. He'd rather hold the "sticker" in his hand or put it on his arm. I'm still convincing him that it's for his eye and to please leave it alone.

We're going to try this out for about 8 weeks. We go back to the doc in the beginning of January to see how his eye is doing. If it's better, then awesome. Keep up the good work (and I'm not sure what else--if we keep doing the patch or what). If his eye is not improving, then we move onto doing the surgery (which, thanks to friends who have shared their stories with this, doesn't scare me anymore. In fact, I wish we could just skip the glasses/patch thingy and just do the surgery, but I was told by the doc that we really have to try these methods first. Darn.).

Here's a couple pics of Marcus on his first day. These are samples of the kind which I ordered--hypoallergenic ones that don't rip off the skin when you try to take them off. And they come with about 5 different designs which Marcus loves (sports, spaceships, camoflauge, ect).

The Aloha Warriors

Kind of an oxymoron, that title, but that's what Julia's class has named themselves (it's all part of a big Hawaiian studies which is part of their grade). The class had to come up with and vote on names for themselves. They also had to create money, a flag, and things to sell. Everyone came up with a flag and then voted which one would represent the class--Julia's won 20-3 votes. :) Isn't she an awesome, creative artist?
The little flag wasn't going to cut it--her teacher had her duplicate it on a much larger scale.

Aside from the flag, she is also putting together sea shell wind chimes to "sell" in her class. I love how creative she gets. She put one together (and I thought it looked like a darn good wind chime) but she wasn't happy with it because it didn't make the appropriate sounds in the wind. So she's on a mission to tweak it so that it sounds pleasant to the ears. I'm not quite sure how she's going to do it, but I'm definitely posting pix of the finished products (yeah, that's an s at the end cause she's going to produce about 20 of these bad boys).

On a side note, has anyone else noticed her smile? I'm thinking I like this new one--where she's actually showing her pearly whites. She confided in me that she didn't like showing them before because her top teeth weren't quite straight. She looks good to me!

No, these aren't vampire wounds (though they kinda look like 'em, huh?). I got a call from the school nurse this afternoon (just like I do each week for one of my kids...they fell down on their head-Evelyn, they have a bloody nose-Julia, ect). It was about Jacob. The poor nurse was trying so hard not to laugh during this call:

"Jacob's Mom? (She can't pronounce our last name and doesn't want to butcher it) I have Jacob in my office. He was chasing the girls at recess *chuckle* and he caught one. *more chuckling* But apparently, the girl he caught turned around and clawed his neck!"

At this point, I'm trying so hard not to laugh. I can just picture my son chasing the girls (it's the classic school game which I've seen continue after school, only it's usually the girls ganging up on him to chase him all the way home). But this time, apparently one of the girls had enough. Everyone knows it was an accident--but it was just so darn funny!

Swallow my laugh "Uh, ok. Can I talk to him?"

"Sure."

"Jacob?"

"Yeah."

"Were you chasing the girls today?"

"Yeah."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah."

"You do know that they have cooties, right?"

*silence*

"Love you, Jacob. See you after school."

"Love you, Mom."

The bandaids came off as soon as we walked through the front door and he's about as good as new. We'll know tomorrow if he's learned his lesson...

Guhla-guhla-guhla-guhla B!

Here's a couple of funny videos that I'd taped a couple months ago while Marcus was learning to sing his ABC's. Mind you, he has a speech delay and so we were just so happy that he was even trying to sing a song. His interpretation of "L-M-N-O-P" absolutely cracked us up.

Halloween pix

Julia hanging out with her friend, Tahina, at the Trunk or Treat.

Julia showing off her new short hair. I was really worried when she told me how much she wanted chopped--but it's beautiful and so much more easier to manage! Everyone loves it.

My unicorn princess--well, just a princess this time. She said it was too hot to put the horse part of the costume on.

Julia borrowed one of Jacob's new costumes (thanks Nana!). She was some white ninja off of GI Joe.

Here's Evelyn showing off her princess dress--all the kindergarteners had a parade during the last 20 min of school. They put their costumes on and walked all over campus to show the whole school. Mind you, there's like, at least 10 kindergarten classes with 20 kids per class. This was one long procession.

Jacob and Julia LOVING their new costumes (again, thanks Nana! Jacob absolutely flipped when he saw both of them).

Did you really think we'd be anything else? ;) Funny story about my costume--I borrowed the HP tie from Ryan, the white shirt is Jacob's Sunday shirt (it was a tight squeeze), and then a cool $4 skirt from Old Navy. Lol. I also had my Hogwarts robe, but took it off whenever it got too hot.





And here's Marcus--he wore his batman costume for about two weeks straight. Then, the day of Halloween he decided that he was done with it and didn't want to wear it anymore. Not even the cape (which he refused to go ANYWHERE without it during those two weeks). That's a 2 year old for you! But he was all about going trunk or treating. So I took him around all the cars--that is til his basket was almost halfway full and he decided it was too heavy. He just looked at me after a few cars and said "Mommy, (lifts up his basket) too heavy. I'm done." Ok then! I escorted him back to our van where he made himself comfortable in one of our chairs and he enjoyed himself a good ole lolipop.

Edible Art

We are addictied to the Food Network. Absolutely, no doubt whatsoever. Ryan, Julia and I LOVE watching "Chopped", "The Next Iron Chef", and "Man vs Food". With the first two mentioned, it's the thrill of beating the clock and making something wonderfully delicious. With Man vs Food, dude--what's not to like? Well, except maybe the fact that it makes a person extremely hungry and totally brings out any craving you may be having (and of course that craving is whatever Adam Richman is sampling).

Julia took our obsessesion to another level last week at dinner. We were having tacos and she decided to pretend she was on one of the shows. Presentation is a significant part of each dish. She tried her hand at making a soft taco look pretty and inviting. Not bad, eh?

The funnies

Funny: Julia's shining moment of fame--she's officially on a cereal box (at least it's not a milk carton!)

I made rice crispies tonight for our fhe dessert and Julia was reading the back of the cereal box. It had all sorts of interesting facts about hurricanes. It also has the list of the names of hurricanes for the past couple of years and what the names will be for next year. Apparently in 2010, one of the hurricanes will be named "Julia". Her reaction when she read that?

"Hurray! My name is on a cereal box! Next year will be my lucky year cause I'm going to be a hurricane!"

I wonder how she'll feel about that hurricane if it comes through our way? ;)


Funnier: Shoo fly, don't bother me....or especially Marcus.

A couple weeks ago we had the missionaries over for dinner and a random fly found its way into our dining room. Marcus absolutely F-L-I-P-P-E-D out. And not out of happiness either! Right as we were about to bless the food, he noticed the fly and started screaming and crying all while trying to climb up Ryan and I for protection. The missionaries, Ryan and I were trying so hard not to laugh. My poor little son is scared spitless of flies! We're trying to teach him that flies are really our friends--but he still started to cry when he noticed a fly at dinner tonight.


Funniest: Girl Cooties--the revenge

We all know that in our junior years of elementary school, it's a well known rule that boys and girls have cooties. If you get touched by one of the opposite sex, you have to go home and detoxify yourself.
So Julia is now if fourth grade. It's not considered the junior part of elementary (in fact, 6th graders attend the middle school now so she only has a couple years left there!). Apparently she's quite over "cooties" and the belief that she's going to shrivel up and die or catch something if she touches a boy's school work or whatever. However, tonight she told me that there's a certain boy in her class that has fits whenever girls touch his papers. He swears up and down that he gets cooties from the girls and that his hands positively BURN from having to touch the same papers as them. Julia thinks this is quite humorous...so humorous that she volunteers to pass out the papers for her teacher and she always rubs her hands ALL OVER this certain boy's paper before handing it to him just so that she can see him writhe in pain. :) LOL. That's my girl!!!

Pie Fundraiser

*Inviting music begins in background*...Pie fundraiser....sounds yummy! Keylime pie? Dude, count me in. I'll buy one. Apple? Definitely.


*A turn in the tempo--the music picks up and you're getting a new twist*...But now, what if, let's say, that instead of buying that pie to eat it, you have to choose someone and throw it in their face? Hehe--ok, this could be fun. Hmmmmm, who's been getting on my nerves lately and needs to be brought back down a couple notches? ;) Yeah, this could really be fun now! Let the fundraising begin!!!!!


Oh wait! I forgot--the military is involved in this. *Music comes to a screeching halt* So instead of just saying "Hey! I'll pay $5 for that key lime to throw at him!", it's now become THIS:

"I'll pay $5 to throw a pie at B!" says A. Now the raising is between just A and B.

"Fine, I'll pay $10 to throw that said pie at A" says B.


This goes on til one of them doesn't/can't bid anymore. Funny, eh? Now, let's remember that this is the military and A is probably a Joe while B is his Platoon Leader or Company Commander (for those who don't speak military, it's like the worker who gets to throw the pie at his boss). Let's also revamp those pies....cause who wouldn't mind a chocolate pie in their face? Dude, if someone were bidding one against me, I'd let them bid the highest just so that I could eat the remnants off of my face! Why waste, right? Well, seeing as this is the military--here's what was in THOSE pies......


*DISCLAIMER*--NOT FOR THE WEAK STOMACH!!!!!! You've been warned....

How about some curdled milk, rotten eggs, sardines, olives, rotten bananas, and anything else that can go really nasty?

So friends, now the question is: How much would you pay to NOT get one of those lovely pies shoved in your face? Cause that was the question a lot of these guys, including Ryan, were asking themselves a couple weeks ago. :) If "A" said to you, I'll pay $100 to throw this pie into your face", are you going to let them? Do you have the stomach to let them? Or will you start digging into your checkbook and make darn sure that that reeking pie doesn't touch you? (And I guarantee that those things were absolutely N-A-S-T-Y).

So here was our fundraiser--and boy was it a successful one! I heard that some of those pies went for as much as $250! Hahahahahaha.

I believe this is the new First Sergeant aquainting himself with the Company Commander via pie in the face.

I felt so bad for him--it actually got up his nose and he had to be very careful NOT to breathe through it or he was going to start retching in front of his company.

Needless to say, it was quite a bit of fun (in a sick, twisted way) and it was quite successful. The unfortunate pie-in-the-face guys were able to hose down just on the other side of the building.

So here's another part of this story--what do you do when your 9 year old is attending this lovely fundraiser and is quite excited that pies are going to be tossed (not knowing what kind of pies they are). She so excited that she's going around and asking everyone to please bid on her dad so that she can see him get a pie.....

Yeah, Ryan's platoon likes him so he face remained clean. :)

This hot magma...

Julia's grade performed a couple of songs for all the parents and this one just really cracked me up. It's to the tune of "This Ol Man".

And heaven forbid someone come along (ahem, Evelyn) and try and steal her thunder. ;)