On Our Way...

I have to do another post because I can't stand the site of that spider. I figure if I write a long enough post and add a picture or two, I won't have to look at it again.

First, check out my mom and dad's blog if you haven't yet. They went on a fun trip and wrote about it on their blog.



We are on our way to Disneyland tomorrow. Hooray! I'll write about it when we get back. Aaron shared a great website with me called RideMax. You plug in what day you'll be in the park and which rides you want to go on, and it plans out your day to minimize waiting in line. It uses data from years past to guess how busy the park will be. We are going to Disney for 3 days, the beach for one day, and I'm not sure what we'll do on Sunday.

Lovely Spiders

So here's a picture (from the internet) of the lovely spider I found in my laundry basket yesterday. The laundry basket with clean clothes in it that had been sitting on my bedroom floor for three days. (I know most of you out there probably put your laundry away as soon as it's finished, but I'm doing 9-10 loads of laundry a week people. I hardly get one weeks laundry done before it's Monday and time to start the next weeks.)


Back to the spider. I had just hung up a pair of pants and turned around to pick up the next pair and found a black widow on them. I'm usually ok with bugs, snakes, and creepy crawly things, but I draw the line at black widows in my house! I didn't want to squish it because it was HUGE so I took the chicken way out and caught it in a mason jar. Those spiders are so freaky looking. You just know they're evil by looking at them. I had the heebie jeebies for the next few minutes, so I called MeLynda. She has a great exterminator that she has come every fall so she called him and set up appointments for both of us.

The exterminator just came by and treated the inside and outside of the house. I've never had an exterminator before. I usually just deal with those unwanted creatures, but this is war.

Anna followed the man from room to room with a running commentary and tour of our house. I ran downstairs to move some more stuff away from the walls. As Dan came down stairs he informed me of some of the things Anna had told him. One conversation went like this, "My mom's name is Jody, but you can call her honey." He told Anna that he'd just stick with "Jody". Nice.

Hooray!

I just found out I won an online contest. I haven't really done much paper scrapping lately and I haven't made cards in ages, but it's always fun to win. :) Here's a picture of the prize.

So if you get a super cute card for Halloween from me, you can thank the Scrap N' Art eZine team! Actually, with the way things are going it will probably be next Halloween before I get any cards made!

Onto another matter... I didn't want to devote a whole post to this, so I'll just mention it. Andrew couldn't stand to see all those big juicy tomatoes just sitting on the counter. It wasn't too long until he figured out how fun it is to throw those big juicy tomatoes on the floor and watch them explode. Anna thought it was hilarious. I knew I was in trouble when I heard them both laughing maniacally. I put both kids into time out for that one, but they didn't seem to mind. They just moved the mess making into their rooms while I scrubbed tomato guts off the kitchen floor.

Garden Fun

I know it's shocking that I'm writing again so soon, but I wanted to share these pictures. One of the kids favorite activity lately is going out to the garden to pick the produce. They love it! The neighbor kids even come over every other day to help. The last time Robin was here she begged to take home some squash and zucchini. I had to call her mom and ask if it would be ok - I know some people dread being given zucchini this time of year. Anyway, here is what these two kids came up with today.


I'm sure you can tell what most of it is, but I'm going to list it anyway. Left to right - Anaheim peppers, green and red peppers, yellow squash, onions, zucchini, green beans, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Hooray for gardens!

We started out with a yard full of 3 feet high weeds. The previous owners had let the back yard go to weed a few years back. Bret spent hundreds of hours out there weeding, mulching, plowing, and getting the ground ready. When it came time to plant, we all helped out. We let each of the kids choose one plant at the store. Anna and Addison each chose a strawberry plant, Sarah chose a Mr. Stripey tomato plant (which grew to be HUGE - 8 feet tall), and I'll have to ask Jenna what she chose. I'm always amazed at the difference a summer makes with a garden. Here are the kids in the bean plant rows.

Well, my time is up. Anna is calling for me to come and get Andrew - he's dumping my camera case. I'll have to detail a few of his escapades another day. He's a busy kid.

Soccer Kids

You might think from this picture that Anna loved soccer, but you would be wrong. I think she liked getting her picture taken more than anything else. This has been quite a soccer season. Anna decided at the first game that she hated soccer and she has let us know that at every practice and game since. I've started telling her she never has to play soccer again, after she finishes this season. The little blond next to her in the picture lives across the street from us. Robin is a year older and a head shorter than Anna. Robin is really aggressive and loves playing soccer and we thought Anna would like to play with her. Not so. I did get a cute picture that looks like Anna's about to kick the ball, but it's just creative photo taking. She's pretty careful to not let the ball touch her. She's had once or twice when she couldn't get out of the way and the ball did actually touch her, but those times are rare.


Most of the time she's either on the sidelines, or being encouraged by her coach to stay on the soccer field for more than two minutes.

Addison on the other hand, loves soccer. He's playing with the neighbor boy from across the street. He and Alex are the best on the team, actually I think they are the only ones on the team that have played soccer before. Alex's dad is the coach and Bret is the assistant coach. It's been a frustrating season for them since they have so many kids who haven't played before. A few parents decided it would be easier to have younger siblings play with the older kids and only have one team to worry about, so they have 2 five year old kids on the 1st-2nd grade team. Most of their games have ended up 12-1 which is pretty discouraging.


That's it for the soccer info. I had no idea how hard it was for you bloggers out there to keep posting week after week. I sit at my computer and stare wondering what to write. I'll sign off until I can think of something interesting to post...

"DOZENS of Prayers!"

I wanted to share something funny that happened at church on Sunday. I'm now in primary and teach the 4 year old class, but not Anna's class. The theme during sharing time on Sunday was prayers. The woman doing sharing time told stories about having her prayers answered when she lost something as a little girl, then she called 3 kids up who she had asked ahead of the meeting to share a story about prayers being answered. They also told stories about losing something, praying and finding it. The woman then asked if anyone else wanted to come up and share an experience they'd had with prayer. One of Addison's friends, Sammie, got up and was close to crying. He said, "I lost my two dogs a few weeks ago. They were my favorite stuffed animals. I looked and looked for them. I have said DOZENS of prayers and I STILL haven't found them. My prayers weren't answered. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Two of the women were trying to reassure him to keep praying and have faith. I was trying hard not to burst out laughing. But it only took a moment for me to realize how often I feel like Sammie. I probably haven't said dozens of prayers, but there are definitely times when we each feel like our prayers aren't answered, or at least not answered as quickly or in the manner we would like them to be.

I've been smiling all week each time I think about him. I'll let you know if he finds the dogs.

It's sad when your own child doesn't recognize you...

Last week I got a haircut. In June Jenna donated 10 inches of her hair to Locks of Love and I decided I wanted to follow in her footsteps. I wanted to be sure my hair was long enough so I waited for a couple of months. My cousin MeLynda recommended a place called Visions and I really liked the gal there that cut my hair. I told her to take off enough for the Locks of Love and then cut it however she wanted to. She was very thorough and spent an hour on my hair. I'm happy with the results, even if it was a little difficult to get used to.


The reason I wanted to write about this was to tell of a funny/sad thing that happened with Andrew after my haircut. That evening I took him with us to Sarah's back to school night. He was so difficult. He whined and cried the entire night. Finally when we got to the van he started screaming and throwing a terrible tantrum. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. He's usually a pretty even tempered child. He screamed out of control all the way to my parent's home. After we got there I got him out of the car and he ran to my mom and jumped into her arms. He was immediately happy and grinning. I told her I didn't know what was going on and that he had been screaming for the last 30 minutes. Sarah jokingly replied that he didn't know who I was with my new haircut. My mom asked him, "Where's Mama?" He did this "I don't know" action and looked all over. His eyes passed right over me as he kept looking and not finding "mama". It was so sad for me. My mom thought it was pretty funny. It took him a day or two to warm up to me but I think he realizes I'm "mama" now.

Andrew's "I don't know" pose.

In other news, the kids started back to school last week on Monday. They are enjoying it and I'm a little relieved to start back into our school year routine. Sarah started middle school and is in 7th grade. I really like this middle school and the teachers we've met there so far. Jenna is in 4th grade and according to a few different neighbors, she has the best teacher in the school. Addison is in 2nd grade and seems to also have a great teacher. Anna starts preschool tomorrow at Miss Margaret's school in our old WJ neighborhood. We are going to do that for the two months until her preschool at the local high school starts at the end of October.

First Day of School

The last thing I wanted to mention was that my parents are now officially English professors in China. They will be there for 10 months teaching at the university. The arrived safely and are trying to get their tiny apartment set up. I believe it's 400 sq. ft. total. They are living in a coastal resort type town on the Yellow Sea across from Korea. Here's where it is on the map.


I think they will really enjoy it there. I'll add some pictures once they are able to send them to us. I'm not sure how to end this blog entry. I've come close to putting "Take care," or "Love, Jody". Funny. I guess I'll just end it now.