McGuire Family Pictures 2008

Hey guys here are the pictures we took for Judy's Christmas and Pa-Pa's Christmas. They were so good and so much fun to take. Amy (my BFF) took them and her daughter Audrey was our helper monkey! She did a great job. They are taken at our local visitors center. It's really a great place to take pictures!

Christmas Newletter for 2008

Merry Christmas from the McGuire's

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope this letter finds you all well and blessed this this holiday season. We are doing great and have had a very active year. Those of you who know me well know that I don't do well with Christmas cards. I always buy them and sometimes even address them but, I rarely ever get them all the way to be mailbox. So as in years past, I have taken to e-mailing our holiday newsletter and greetings. I love email and I don't know what I ever did without it. For those of you who don't know, I have also taken up the hobby of blogging. Blogging is simply a website created by me that I post pictures, notes, and video's to, in hopes that my friends and family can keep up with our wild and crazy lives. All you have to do it click on the link :
http://mythreesons-mythreesons.blogspot.com/ and read away. You can also leave messages on this site for me by clicking on comment. It's a great way to say in touch! I usually post new things on there at least once a week.
Brian had a pretty good year. He is still with Tom Green County working as a supervisor in the Maintenance Department. They keep adding more and more buildings to the County for them to upkeep so his department is pretty large now. He is currently taking applications so if you know anyone send him Brian's way. He keeps busy with work and being Caleb's full time tutor. He grades Math homework every night and can't wait to have Caleb graduate! He is currently volunteering in our youth department at church with our new full time youth pastor, Brother John Edwards. He signed up with help this fall and is really enjoying it. We had so far had several parties and a lock in which required us to stay up ALL night long with the youth group. I am happy to report that we made it all night long without falling asleep. Brian did end up breaking his cell phone and jamming his finger while playing dodge ball! We are getting old!
I am doing great! I am currently working at St. Luke Christian Child Development Center as a Pre-K teacher. I have 12 kids in my class and am having a blast! I get to glitter, glue, cut, color and play with playdoh. What more can you ask for in a job? I really do love it and love working with a great group of women. I also still keep busy at Hillcrest working in the Children's Ministry. I tell the children's story time, work in AWANA's, plan Children's Camp, and do VBS. Not to mention all the other swim parties, golf parties, and fun stuff we do all year. The children's ministry is growing every year and kids are accepting Jesus every year. I also keep busy with my own little rug rats. Caleb, Jared and Aaron keep me hopping!
Caleb is 12 and doing well this year also. Although, if you ask him he would rather drop the whole school thing and stay home. He is doing well with school this year and actually made a 100 on his Reading TAKS this spring. Because of this score, he has been invited to participate in the Duke University TIP's program. What is boils down to is that he was invited to take the SAT or ACT test to gauge his talent. Based on those results, he will find out the next step. So, in January he will take the ACT test with high school kids! It will be a hoot! He is currently enjoying basketball season with the Upward league and is playing in the junior high band. He plays Alto Sax and was able to play at a high school game and march in his first parade this year. On top of all this his braces are looking great and his is ahead of schedule and will get them off sooner. He also got his first contacts this year! He is currently working with the drama club at school and will be performing in a play this next year.
Jared is now 8 years old and is in the 3rd grade. He is also in Upward basketball this year and loves it. He is really good at sports and is still as thin as ever. He is loving 3rd grade and is getting ready for his first TAKS test. He made a 100 in Reading and missed one in Math on his first practice test so he was really happy. He is currently working on multiplication facts and can't wait until they are over! He is such a great kid and talks non stop about everything you can imagine. His teacher says it's like talking to another adult!
Aaron is 7 years old and is ruling over 1st grade. The little toot is reading at a 3rd grade level and is cracking his teacher up. He is a little smarty and can read anything you put in front of him including the Christmas list I had written with all of his gifts listed on it. But, at least I had a streak of genius and had written it in code. He did figure out a couple of things though. The little sneak! He also reads signs in the grocery store and loudly asks if we need anything on the "Cold Beer" aisle. He yelled it out to me 3 times before I could get a word in! He is also preparing for his first year in Upward basketball.
Well, that is the run down of our family. I hope each and every one of you are happy and healthy this holiday season. You are in our prayers and thoughts. Drop us a line sometime and may God bless you in 2009!

Love,
The McGuire's











I

Cold Weather, Warm Soup

Good afternoon! I'm sitting here with a cup of hot coffee and soup bubbling on the stove. How are you guys? It's cold out there! Texas weather has been nuts this year. The only great thing about it is the fact that it's been cold enough to kill everything. However, with each cold front we start coughing, sneezing, and wheezing. Caleb is the last victim. He started feeling so bad at church today that I took him home after the children's story time that I do. He is currently in his P.J.'s drinking hot chocolate and coughing up a lung. I think it's just a cold really. He is just a very dramatic sick person. I don't have a clue where he gets the drama!
Well, our first semester tests are over. This is the first year Caleb has had to take them. Through much prayer, studing, whining, tears, and drama he did pretty well. He made a 100 on his Sciece test and passed everything else. I've learned that the studying wasn't the worst part it was the "review" sheets that came home that were nuts! Here are a 100 questions to guess at and here is your book, get ready GO! On the up side though, Brian and I can tell you anything you need to know about Texas history now! I would hate to be a military family that moves around a lot! The kids would have to learn history from every state! Yuck! At least Texas history has good stuff like the Alamo, Indians, and guys running around trying to free Texas. It's pretty interesting really.
I finished up school Thursday and Friday with two half days. The kids were dismissed early both days. The Christmas party went well. I had set aside 1 hour for it but was pushing to finish it up. I don't have a clue why really. The kids really took forever to eat, I think. I got lots of goodies from my kids. They are really sweet. I love opening presents! I got a gift card to Chili's, ornaments, a Willow tree angel, and a lot of other little things. We made bean crosses (you mainly pick out pretty beans and mix them regular white glue, and then spoon them on a cross. Then seal them with a craft sealer to make them shiney) for their parents gifts this year. I hope and pray the stayed together! I had to hot glue them like crazy! I figured out I didn't have the glue wet enough and it dried too quickly. If the glue dries quickly it makes them brittle and they crack! Nightmare! Next year I'll know better. Live and learn! I've also learned that when you do a test craft you must do the actual project the same way. I had made one cross for a test and it turned out perfect! However when I did the "real" project, I mixed a "BIG" batch and tried to do them all at once. Have you ever watched a 4 year old spoon beans on a cross? It takes them FOREVER!~!!!!!!. No wonder the glue dried before they got done!
One last note about my boys. They are so sweet. Yesterday, we had a family get together with our cousins from Abilene. Aaron and Jared went out early with Brian to help get everything set up at Me-Maw's. When I got out there, they were outside picking dead grass and putting it in a large holiday tub. They said they were making their own manger scene. When then got inside they had made a Baby Jesus from brown construction paper, tape and markers (it was so ugly it was cute!) and wrapped him in a dish towel. Aaron had written John 3:16 on a piece of construction paper and had made Me-Maw roll in up like a scroll and put it in Baby Jesus' bed. He had it spelled Jhon 3:16 and had written on it ...whosoever blevin him shall not parish but have everlasting life. It was so cute! I know he thinks "believe in" is one word. I think it's the Texas accent! So this holiday season, I hope you "blevin" Jesus Christ and that you are living each day looking forward to his return. I love each of you!

JJ

Tis the Season

Ho Ho Ho and Merry Christmas season! It's less than two weeks away from Christmas and every time I change the little chalk board at school and mark off another day I hyperventilate! I can't believe the time is flying by! I remember as a kid that I thought Christmas took forever to get here! Now as an adult I wish I had a "stop time" invention that could help me get ahead a little. If I hear another person on the radio tell me to stop and take time to relax during this busy time of year I am seriously going to put my foot through it! Naw, it's really not that bad. I'm just relaxing after a wild day. It started off with brunch at Wendy's house, she is our pastor's wife. It was filled with great food and 5 lbs. added to my waist! All the lady's brought their favorite holiday dish. I had a lot of great stuff. My favorite, I think, was the Martha Washington candy. I forgot that Mom used to make this type of candy at Christmas. I wish I had all of her old recipes that I remember from my childhood. I remember the fudge and peanut brittle but not any of the others. After the brunch, I met up with Brian and the boys and did a little Christmas shopping. We wandered around Wal-Mart and made at least 5 laps around the store. (Will that help take off the 5 lbs. of sugar I gained at Wendy's????) We ended up getting a couple more gifts crossed off the list. The list is still wildly long at this point though! After the Wal-Mart shopping trip we regrouped at home for about 30 minutes and headed out for choir practice for the boys. They are singing tomorrow night at our Christmas program. I'm not this year. After the St. Luke 2 month, child induced, running cold I had from September to mid November, I ended up missing most of the rehearsals so I'm sitting out this year. After, choir we headed home and crashed for the rest of the day. Jared is still trying to get over the cough he had last week and Aaron stayed home from school on Friday with a fever and sore throat. The doctor called in some antibiotics for him and today he is feeling much better already.
Next week is a full week again. We have a Pajama party for the Polar Express on Thursday. We get to wear PJ's to school. (Joy, Joy, That 5 lbs is going to look great under my pink penguin PJ's) Hee Hee:) Then on Friday we will have our blow out, all out Christmas Party. This is my first official Christmas Party as a teacher and I am half looking forward to it and half dreading it. You would think by the talk from some people that it's the social event of the year. If you have nothing they are not happy, if you have too much they are not happy, so hopefully I have hit it just right. However, I don't think they will ever tell me what they really think, I will just listen to the grapevine to see what I need to tweak for next year. I have a great class and great parents so this year is going to be a piece of cake for the most part.
Factor in all that plus, Caleb having his first ever semester tests, Jared's party with 2 dozen cookies, Aaron's party with send $5 and they are getting it all, and Caleb's party with us bring Cheesecake and this week should fly right by. Oh don't forget the basketball practices which are in full swing.

My feet hurt!

OK I spent all day in the mall (well really about 5 hours but, it seemed like all day) and I only have two presents to show for it! What's up with that?! Hey guys how have you been? Sorry I haven't posted in such a long time. I don't know what I have been doing really except over committing, running around like a chicken with my head cut off, and shopping til I drop! Let's see where do I start?

Thanksgiving was great. I spent time with my brothers and sister in laws and had a great time. I didn't see my kids most of the day because they were busy playing outside with cousins. They ran, played, and explored all over the country. They really love being out in the country.
After Thanksgiving Amy and I did our traditional door buster shopping on Black Friday. She picked me up at about 4:20 a.m. and we hit the doors at Wal-Mart this year at 4:35 a.m. The madness started at 5:00 when the employees cut the plastic holding all the specials. I stood by a $25 pre-lit Christmas tree for my room at school. Then piled on about $75 more dollars worth of items (for the life of me I can't remember hardly anything I have now) and waited in line to checkout for about 35 minutes. I have NEVER had to stand in line at Wal-Mart before. What I realized throughout the day is that since the economy is doing such a nose dive, we were now fighting the crowds of people for the good deals. In the years past, all the rich people would stay home because they could afford not to fight and bleed with the door buster crowd. I think this year the rich people were shopping and some of them ain't so nice! Naw, just kidding but the crowds were nuts this year. We got caught in line at Office Max and I thought I was going to have to shoot the little "happy" guy sales person. He was WAY WAY WAY to cheerful for that early in the morning and kept suckering people into buying the extending warranty. Yes, Amy was put into a trance by the "happy" man and ended up with $2 warranties on all her stuff. I'm sure he made employee of the month or something but I wanted to scream "put my stuff in the bag, take my stupid money, stop talking, and no one gets hurt"! After that, the lines everywhere else seems pleasant!
After Thanksgiving week was over, the real world showed up and it took me forever last weekend decorating my room at school, cutting stuff out and getting ready for the three weeks before Christmas. The boys didn't want to go back to school at all. I think they would stay home forever if I would let them.
This week went fast. The kids got back into the homework routine but now we have started basketball practice. Aaron's is Tuesday, Jared's is Thursday, and Caleb's is on Friday night. It's going to get old fast! They are all going to have a blast doing it. Brian got suckered/volunteered to help with Aaron's team. He said at one point he told them to get a drink and they all took off in different directions. He was just glad they came back! I think he is having flashbacks of T-Ball! They will start the season in January.
Last night, I hosted my first bunco game. If you are the hostess you get everything together food, players, and bunco stuff. I made lasagna, homemade bread, salad and Judy made a wonderful banana sour cream cake! It was good and we had a lot of fun. I really like just showing up though. It was stressful getting everything together! I counted the bunco prizes when I was wrapping them about 2 hours before the thing started and figured out I was one short! Judy just happened to call me about 5 minutes later to see what I was up to and she was at the mall! I had her pick up the last prize for me. I promise you I am starting to LOOSE MY MIND! I have lost a bag of crackers somewhere that I had at school the other day and I have still NOT found them. I wonder sometimes if someone is just moving my stuff around to make me NUTS but, if they are then they are following me home!
Next week is full with St. Luke Christmas pageants, basketball practice and Caleb's band Christmas concert, plus AWANA's and who know what else. Maybe, I can rest after school gets out for Christmas holidays! I'm not going to hold my breath though! Hope you all have a great week!

Love ya,
JJ

Sure I'll stay up all night long......

Hey guys! How is your world? Ours is great! NO MORE HOMEWORK, NO MORE BOOKS, NO MORE TEACHER having to cut out 55 pieces of fruit to stuff a cornucopia!!!! I love my new song! OK it doesn't rhyme but it's music to my tired ears. This is the first Sunday that I have spent doing nothing related to Pre K. Yahoo!!!!!!! I love having this next week off. This is one of the reasons I have taken this job. When the boys are out of school, Mom is off too! I love it!
OK about the title of my blog. Last week, during a very high fever or a total lapse in sanity I found myself uttering words to our youth director that sounded like this,
"do you need help with the youth group lock in? OK Brian and I could work it around and come be sponsors. Sure, I'll be OK with staying up ALL NIGHT LONG!?" Sometimes even before the whole sentence is out of your mouth your "old" brain is screaming "shut up, shut up, shut up"! Honestly, even in high school, collage, or as a youth married couple I don't think I ever stayed up ALL NIGHT LONG! Oh yes, I remember I did too, it was the last time I had a lock in at church when I was about 16! What's up with not sleeping at church. Half the world gets their best sleep at church! Hee Hee :)))). OK so those of you who have read my blog in the past remember a post that I had a couple of weeks back about all the babies and baby showers happening around our church. I commented that I just giggle because they don't have a clue what they are getting into! Move STAYING UP ALL NIGHT LONG with your 12 year old and sponsoring 18 kids at a lock in to the top of the list of what they don't realize they will be doing! We really had a blast! The kids started off the night playing bunco and eating pizza. Then moved into dodge ball, watching Wallie, playing pool, playing ping pong, and a number of various goofy games. Add all of it up and you get 11 hours of non stop blurring fun!Really it was all a blur. After about 2:00 a.m. I couldn't tell you what we did. I think my brain went on sleep mode. It was like I was there but the screen was blank! I know I made a mistake of sitting on one of the comfy couches in the youth room about 4:00 and passed out for about for 15 minutes. I was just happy to say no one took a marker to me to decorate my sleeping face. Which, is what we did to the other poor souls that passed out. The kids were really great and did a great job of keeping themselves in line. We didn't have too many emotional roller coasters or cat fights. Caleb had 3 of his friends from school come with him. They had a lot of fun I think. I couldn't tell when they left. They all had glazed and dazed looks on their faces. Needless to say we came home at 7:00 a.m. and were all in bed by 7:30 a.m.. Aaron spent the night with Memaw and Jared had a birthday sleepover for his best friend. They stayed up until about 3:00 a.m. themselves. So when Jared came home at 12:00 noon he crawled on the couch and slept until 5:00 p.m.! Saturday we spent sleeping and watching Texas Tech self implode. I can't believe they got stomped so bad. I haven't a clue what happened.
Well, I have to run. We are about the head out the door for church. I hope your Thanksgiving is filled with happy memories and lots of laughter!

Love to all
JJ

Happy 7th Birthday little boy!


A new Webkins outfit!


Hello to all! I'm great how are you guys. I love days like today. We slept in late, did some house cleaning, took it easy, cooked a roast, potatoes and carrots, and had a movie night. This is my perfect day. I even liked the house work when everyone pitches in and you can SEE the difference after you are finished. The dust around here had become so piled up you could write your name in it. After the wind came through yesterday the dust just got higher. Today we knocked it back into submission and cleaned the boys room. They gave away a huge box of toys they don't want anymore and threw away two boxes full of broken stuff. They worked hard and had a lot of fun finding "lost" treasures in the bottom of the toy box.
Thursday was Aaron's 7th birthday. We celebrated by buying $14.00 worth of cupcakes to send to his class at school. (By the way, when did a dozen cupcakes go up to $7.00! Give me a break! I would have made them but you can only bring in store bought stuff!) After school, we ripped through homework at a record pace and took him to see Madagascar 2. It was really good. We went to see the 5:20 movie and were out by 7:00! It was great. We took him to eat and he opened his new basketball. Now he doesn't have to fight Caleb for his! On Friday, we had his "real" party. (The whole family thing wasn't the "real" one) He decided to have a bowling party and had a great time bowling, eating pizza, and opening presents. He got several Webkins, a webkins backpack, a sword, money, and other great stuff that I can't remember. He had a blast and loved every minute of it.
The week went fast and I can't help but look forward to having one more week before Thanksgiving break. I can't wait to be out for ONE whole week! I lost one of the little girls in my class and now the spot has been filled. She will start after Thanksgiving. I think she will do great really. She seems really nice. I have my first ever Native American Day on Friday. I have to set up a station where the kids come by and learn to make "thumb print" clay pots. The kids rotate between several stations and learn about Native Americans. It should be fun for the kids and work for me! However, everything that is fun for the kids is WORK for me! Hee Hee!
Well, I had better run! Have a great week! Happy birthday by the way to my big brother Bill! His birthday was the day after Aaron's! If I had just held off one more day they would have shared the day! Hope your day was great big brother. I love ya!
JJ

Finally a brief moment of relaxation!

My two Ninjas and a convict for Halloween!


Hey blogger family! I can't believe how long it's been since I checked in. Life is moving along at incredible rapid pace. I can't believe it's so close to Thanksgiving! What happened to the year? What happened to the last few months? The job at St. Luke is going great but it makes time fly! I'm jumping from one project to another and never stopping long enough to breath! We have made pumpkins out of a pair of girl tights, bats from Koolaide bottles, and turkeys from straw hats and that's only a few of the projects. Throw in a Trike a thon for St. Jude, a trunk or treat,and parent share/open house and it's been crazy. It's so much fun and I love it! The kids are doing great and I really have a great class. I lost one of my little girls today because she had to drop out and one of my little boys will have to move in a couple of months. Right now I have 11 but will soon go to 10. I don't have a clue if I will get any new ones or not.
The boys are doing great. Caleb played with the high school band on Friday night during half time. His middle school and another one from town all were out of the field. Of course, they just went out and stood on the yard lines and played but they did such a good job. We sat in the stands cheering and freezing to death. The game was so sad. The football team didn't win a game this year! We even went and bought a pair of binoculars to see him better. Then on Saturday, he marched in his first ever parade. I asked him on Wednesday if they had practiced marching around the school. He said yes they had. Now keep in mind, they just started practicing how to "walk and play" on Wednesday and the parade is SATURDAY! I asked him how the first practice went and he said, "not good mom! At one point I was the only alto sax even playing"! It turns out it's hard to walk and play! Duh! I think I could have figured that one out. However, they did so well at the parade. They were loud and stayed in a semi straight line! Brian walked beside the band as a sponsor the whole way. He had to pick up drum sticks, pick up music 3 times, and help a small kid with his baritone which was so heavy he could hardly carry it and play! Caleb was glad his instrument has a neck strap!
Jared is doing great. He is continuing to work on his times tables. I HATED the times tables! He is much better than I am at it though. He is very disappointed when he doesn't pass each section in a couple of days. He is working hard at school and can't wait until Upward basketball starts. All the boys will be playing this year. I think they will have a blast and will love to play this year.
Aaron is as goofy as ever. They are really into games, tongue twisters, and riddles. This is the main part of our conversations in the car when we are driving around. The other day they were making up riddles. Caleb asked what was Abraham Lincoln's middle name? Aaron piped up from the back seat and yelled "Ham". I asked why he thought that....he said it's "Aber" "Ham" right?????? I laughed so hard at him! He is so smart and is always saying things that make us roll. Right now he is sitting beside me and reading everything I've written. He is correcting my mistakes and telling me the right way to write things. Can you believe this kid? He's in the first grade! Sometimes it's not such a great thing with his reading ability. He asked in the middle of Wal-mart tonight if we needed "cold beer" because he was reading the signs above the aisles. He is really looking forward to his 7th birthday Thursday night. He has decided that he wants to see a movie that night and then have a bowling party on Friday night for his party. We are also taking cupcakes to school for his class. Do you remember when a birthday party was a special cake and just your brother/sisters and cousins who came over? What ever happened to those days??? Hee Hee!
Well, I had better run. I need to finished about a thousand projects around the house and the little reader boy needs to get into the bathtub. He is laughing right now after reading this. It really is so funny to have him reading over my shoulder. You should come over one of these days and have time read to you. It will astound you!
Here are some pictures of the kids in action over the last couple of weeks.

Wow! What a life!

One of the things I find very humorous lately is baby showers. I have been to a few of them lately and can't help but sit in the back shaking my head and laughing. I laugh because I know that these sweet innocent couples have NOT A CLUE what they are getting in to! The homework, the illnesses, the late nights doing last minute projects, going back to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, grade and beyond, and all the rest of the craziness! They are all just focused on "the baby" and how sweet and cute they will be. Don't get me wrong I love "the baby" stage. But, as I get older and grayer I have realized that "the baby" is only a very small part of the picture. It's the blink of an eye stage of raising kids. You only have to blink and you have missed it. I just think that someone should tell these poor cute couples that this is a wild ride and not for the faint of heart!
O.K. as for our house. We continue to plug right along through this wild ride. Caleb is doing fine and has enjoyed playing the sax at his fall concert. He is really enjoying being a part of our new youth group. We have recently hired a new youth pastor and he is great. He has the kids really excited about bible study, coming to church, and going on youth trips. Caleb is eating this up. He loves it. One Sunday, I was feeling horrible and had decided to stay home on Sunday night from church. Brian was already at the church for a meeting. Caleb begged me to take him up to church and drop him off. A month before this and he would have thanked me for not MAKING him go. Now he is begging to go! I love it!
Jared is doing great and is really loving singing in the kid's choir at church. He loves to sing and has a great tune. We are currently trying to fill out gifted and talented paperwork for Jared and Aaron. We have to answer questions like "does he set high standards for himself", "does he choose difficult problems over simple ones", "is he able to laugh at himself". and 50 other ones like that. These are HARD questions. Give me a break! I would love to know how much my answers really matter on these things. I wonder if anyone really ever reads them. Jared is still taking his anitbotics for his strep throat. Hopefully, he won't get it again or we will be heading to have his tonsils out.
Aaron is a hoot! He is reading books on a 3rd grade level and thinks he is hot stuff! He and Jared were reading to Me-Maw the other night and Aaron told Jared that word is "adventerous" encase you don't know it. He takes pride in reading books that Jared can read. His teacher told us that we could "try" the higher level books but if his AR tests were lower then he would have to go down a level. So far he is making all 100's and 80's. He is doing great and having a blast at school. He is really cuter than a bed bug.
I am still however, being asked about my "twins". At Caleb's last football game I took Aaron to get a snack from the consession stand. He bounced up and ordered a Sprite and some Skittles (or SKEETales as he calls them) The lady talked to him and took his money and laughed at his happiness. I then went back and had to make another visit with Jared for his turn. (Don't ask me why I didn't take them at the same time. I can't remember!) Jared also bounced up and ordered a Sprite and some Starburst. The lady had such a strange look on her face and asked him,"didn't you just get the SKEETales." He said no! She looked at me to see if he was telling the truth or not. I laughed and told her that it was his brother. She smiled and exclaimed, "Oh their twins". I told her no but that everyone thinks that they are. She then starts questioning me and really thinks I am just fooling her. She wouldn't let it go! It was so funny! She just kept saying "but they look so much alike. I would swear it was the same kid!" I still don't think I convinced her!
Oh will I guess I had better get in bed. We have finished the Gifted and Talented forms and will put them in the mail for what they are worth! I'll keep you posted.
If you live close come by our church Wednesday night for our fall festival. It's free and we have lots of candy and prizes to win! It will be a blast!

Love to all!
JJ

The week at our house.

Hi everyone! How are you guys? I am sitting in my dark living room watching the rain come down! I LOVE the rain. Also, I am giving spelling tests, doing flashcards, and listening to the dog whine because Brian is out of her sight and she doesn't like it! She always thinks that Brian is having a grand old time without her if she can't see him. Caleb's pictures came back from school today. Historically, I have always hated the boys school pictures. They are forced smiles against blue backgrounds. But, this year Caleb's picture looks pretty good. He is growing up so much now and it's the first picture without his glasses and with his braces.
Let's see what have we been up to??? Last week was pretty slow. We didn't end up doing too much. Wednesday night was AWANA's. The boys are doing pretty well this year. They are funny about memorizing their scripture this year. Jared is doing well, but is now in the harder T&T group. It's taking him a little while to get up and going. Aaron is doing great but is having a hard time saying the verses when he gets there. He told me he needs peace and quiet to say his verses. He is so funny! Like there is EVER peace and quiet around my house!!!! He is coming a long though and is getting it. OH did I tell you??? His reading level test came back and he is reading at an average of 3.2! That is equal to a third grader in the 2 month of school and he is only in the first grade. He is such a smart little guy.
Friday night we went to eat with some friends and had a relaxing night. Saturday morning I woke up early (yuck) and went to a seminar about "centers in your classroom". I have to have continuing education hours each year for my job and this seminar landed me 7 hours that I can use. It was also a really great one to go to. I have lots of great ideas and copies of great stuff too! Some of those seminars you end up wanting to poke your eye out with a pencil by the time it's over but this one was great! The only draw back was that I missed the Texas/OU game on TV. They gave us the score throughout the day though so it was great. At the end of the day, we finished early so I had some time to spend with the kids. I took them to see a movie and then we walked around the mall. They love the mall! We spent about 30 or 45 minutes reading books in the book store! Sunday was a great lazy day. We went to church and had great time of worship. Caleb sat with the youth group for the first time and did OK. I threatened him with the fact that I WOULD get up and go over and make him sit with his Mommy if he talked. He seemed to do OK. We had a great lazy day and watched the Cowboys get beat. I tell you if someone doesn't teach Romo how to fall down and no loose the ball, I am going to scream! How many times are you going to loose it in one game/season?
This week looks pretty full. Caleb is playing with the band on Tuesday night at 6:00 at the LV stadium. Come out and watch him and listen to the music. Last time we didn't have to pay to go in the game but, I don't have a clue about this stadium. It's not near the amount of money for the high school games at all. He also will get to play with the CHS band on November 7 and march in the Veterans Day parade the next day. I can't wait to see him try and walk and play. It should be a blast. I wonder if he is going to die having to walk that whole parade route?! I better make him go and march around the back yard and play for a while. That should make the neighbors happy.
I have Firefighters coming to school on Wednesday and then my first field trip on Friday to the pumpkin patch. It should be a wild week and thankfully we are doing just a review of the vowels. Brian and I were both off today for Columbus day. We didn't get much done though. I slept late, went for a doctor check up, and went to eat lunch with Brian. We ran errands and did a whole bunch of nothing until it was time to pick up the kids. All in all a perfect day off work! Well, I had better run. I need to find somthing for supper and finish up pumpkins to paint for tomorrow. Have a blessed week!
Much love!
JJ

Hey Everyone

Hi guys and girls! How is everyone????? I'm on the mend for the most part. I have been on antibiotics since Monday and maybe they are going to work. I had a headache and felt pretty bad at church this morning but after a long nap and with the fact the Cowboys just scored, I might feel a tiny bit better. Sorry I have been missing in action so much lately. I have been pretty much just doing what I need to do and resting the rest of the time. Yesterday, I watch Texas Tech and Texas win their games while cutting out 911 twelve 911 telephones, and 12 ostriches. It's letter "o" week and fire safety week. I am going to teach them how to dial 911 on a phone they make and go over what an "emergency" is. However, last year when they "went over" what an emergency was it prompted Amy's twins to start calling 911. They wanted a friend of theirs to come over to play and they knew his dad was a police officer. So they dialed 911 SEVERAL times over the coming weeks. I hope not to repeat that this year and I hope my kids won't dial 911 for real at home! We will see!
Last week was fast and furious. After Caleb's big game on Tuesday night, we had AWANA's on Wednesday and a band meeting on Thursday night. On Friday, Brian abandoned us and went on a camping trip with the guys at church. They went out to one of the guys family ranch and spent the night shooting skeet, riding motorcycles, cooking chili, and shooting the breeze or maybe tooting the breeze with all that chili. I love it when he gets to do these things! I think all guys need to be able to get away once in a while and be a "guy". He had a great time and road dirt bikes until he couldn't ride anymore. Of course, now he wants a dirt bike and a place to go riding. I really would mind him having one really. As long as he stays in the dirt on trails. I can't stand thinking about him driving in San Angelo on one. These drivers are nuts!
Caleb spent the night with his best friend Eli on Friday night and then called begging to stay on Saturday night also. We let him of course. He doesn't get to spend the night away very often. He had a blast and always comes home loving and happy to see us. Jared and Aaron got stuck with mom this weekend. We watched TV and movies on Friday night and went to get hamburgers at Burger King. At about 9:00 we decided to make a grocery store run to get stuff for breakfast. I ended up wandering around Albertson's and buying all kinds of great stuff. Band aids, two water color books and various other weird things came home with us. We slept in late on Saturday and spent the day letting Daddy recover from his camping trip.
Well, I need to wash dishes and clothes and get ready for next week. Hope you all are well and staying healthy. One of these days I will be able to hear out of BOTH ears and stop blowing my nose! Needless to say, I can't wait for the first freeze!!!!!

Love to all!
JJ

Caleb's First Football Game!

Hey guys here are some pictures hot off the camera of Caleb playing the sax at his first football game. He was great and had a great time. We really enjoyed getting to watch the football game and see him around all his friend. Jared has decided he is going to play football instead of the band. He had the best time watching the guys play. The funniest thing to watch with Caleb was the band director trying to teach the band how to do all the cheers. If you are in the band... you play.. and you cheer. That's your job. He had the drums start banging when they were getting ready to kickoff and then the band was suppose to yell when the ball was kicked. The first time the kids didn't have a CLUE what he was talking about. They finally got it by the end of the game though. He also had to direct them on how to do the old "I've got spirit, yes I do, I've go spirit how 'bout you" cheer. They were so funny!!!!!! Anyway, we had a blast and can't wait to get to do more things with the band. I know he will get to play at one Central game this year with the high school band and will get to in a parade at some point. I'll let you know when the dates are so everyone can come see him!

Praising Time!!!!

HI to everyone! I can't believe it's been so long since I sat at the computer. If you had a peek into my life right now you would see why I haven't been still for long. Life is wild and crazy right now with brief pit stops every once in a while. As I write you this on Sunday night, I have stayed home all day long (really all weekend long) with a terrible sore throat and sinus junk. Let me be the first to say....what's the DEAL! OK all my teacher friend out there.... I have a question! "How do you keep from getting every sore throat, cough, and cold that comes into your classroom?" I am open to suggestions! I have hand sanitizer that I use on a constant basis and I spray the tables with a germicide spray that the state requires us to use and I'm still getting sick! I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired:)!!!!! Anyway, I'll just keep plugging along and surly I will be able to overcome this junk.
O.K. it's praising time. You know my thoughts and feeling about school right????? Caleb is a challenge but does great and keeps trying and trying. Jared is a breeze but his homework is a pain and is getting longer. Aaron is a mess and likes to "do" his homework his own way! OK so guess what....based on Caleb's 100 on the 6th grade reading TAKS test last year he has been asked to participate in the Duke University Talent Identification Program! Basically because of his above average performance they would like to test him to see how gifted he is! This means that in January or February of next year he would be eligible to take the ACT or SAT test with college bound kids! Isn't that the funniest thing you have ever heard! He will walk into the testing room with 17 and 18 year old kids and take the test as a 12 year old! His best friend Emily was also invited to take the test. Based on our ACT scores then they will invite you to participate in various camps and stuff offered by Duke. The website said that most kids who take the test should know little to no information asked on the test but they are looking for kids who have not been challenged at this level. It also says that most of the 12 year olds taking the test do as well as the 18 year olds. Anyway, we have left it up to Caleb on whether he would like to take the test and he wants to. I'll let you know as time gets closer how things go. One of the main reasons to let him take it is so that we won't freak out about it when he takes it at 18. He will just think "hey I took this test when I was 12. It's no big deal!"
Now about the little one....Aaron. We went to open house last week and met his teacher. She showed us this first reading TPRI test. On the bottom of the form it says..."Aaron read story #5 at 65 words per minute. He has already passed his goal for reading in the first grade. We will keep pushing him to read at a high level. Wow! What a smart kid!" The little smartie!!!! I knew he was reading well but I didn't really think he would have been that far ahead. He can pick up most any book and start reading it. I asked her to give him a STAR test next week to see what level he is reading at right now. So far he is able to read Jared's 2.1-2.9 books from last year and not have to even sound anything out! His teacher told us a funny story about how she held up a rectangle to the class and asked the class if they could tell her the name of the shape. Aaron's head snapped around and looked at her board above her desk and read to her "Rectangular prism". She said she just started laughing because she never thought about having the answers on the walls before because no one else would be able to read them. He is loving every minute of being able to read Jared's books and she said she would work with him on taking AR tests soon.
Jared got a great report also from his teacher (who was Caleb's 3rd grade teacher also). She said she feels that she is talking to an adult sometimes when she talks to Jared. He raised his hand one day and reported to her that "I don't know if you have been informed by our previous teacher, but that child has had anger management issues in the past". She said I just had to laugh because I felt like I was talking to the school councilor instead of an 8 year old. He is continuing to show no signs of slowing down with above 95 grades in every class. He is however, not impressed with having to do all the extra steps in Math to get ready for the TAKS test. It takes him 15 minutes to do math instead of the usual 5 minutes. Bless his heart.
Anyway, I thought I would take time to tell you how great the kids are doing in school. Even though I HATE the homework and all the drama that comes with it. Caleb is excited to get to play with the band at his first football game this Tuesday night. I don't think they will get out of the stands but they will get to sit up there and play with the 8th graders. He is getting so big! OH and also he went to his first dance Friday night. He had a great time and had a picture made with all his friends. I was OK with him going because they could leave and come back in plus they had a police officer working it. Isn't this world crazy?????!!!!! But, he wouldn't have gone unless they had one on duty! Well, I had better run.
This is getting VERY long. Thanks for hanging in there with me!!!!

Love to all.
JJ

Cough, cough, hack, hack

OK enough is enough! I have had a cold now for the last week and a half! It started as a head cold and then would fool me into thinking it had gone away. Then the sneaky little virus would turn up again and make me feel bad. Now it has the nerve to show up in my chest and make me cough and hack my way through the day. Today at school I almost lost my voice and sounded like a frog most of the day. I hate this! I even went to BED before the COWBOYS finished playing last night!!!!! You can tell I don't feel well when I miss my Cowboys play. However, they were making me nuts and I kept yelling at the screen so it's probablly better that I went ahead and went to bed. Come on Romo, fall on the ball don't be a hero and give them the touchdown in the end zone!!!!! Anyway, I'm still coughing and hacking now but I do feel better than last night. Yesterday I came home from work and told the boys, "wake me up to when it's time to pick up Caleb. I'm going to lay down!" Thank goodness that I woke up!
The boys are doing great. Aaron caught my virus but he seems to be doing OK. He has a stuffy nose but not a cough yet. Caleb bounced back from a sore throat very quickly. I think it was a virus also because a lot of kids from school had the same thing. They are doing good in school too. Aaron had one green smiley face from school. It means he was warned to stop doing something. I asked him what he was doing and he said goofing off in centers. Jared, of course, is breezing right along and now has a manditory AR weekly points total he has to get. He has to have 3.5 AR points a week to meet his goal. That equals to reading one book and testing on it each week. It shouldn't be too hard for him. I remember Caleb really had to work at meeting the goal. It took him so much longer to read than Jared. Jared's only real problem is that he doesn't really like to read as much as Caleb does. He can take it or leave it. Caleb would read and read and read. Jared reads for about 5 minutes and then wants to know how much time he has left to read. Anway, he is doing great and maybe this will force him to enjoy reading. Caleb is doing pretty well. He has his moments of "scream and pull your hair out" with homework. Some nights it's just overwhelming and other nights it's just dandy. They are cutting the tutor unless he starts to fail. Which, is not surprising I don't guess. Also, he can either be in the dyslexia "dump" class (dumped in front of the DVD player) or not get any help at all. I guess we will pick the no help at all. He could do it after school with the dyslexia foundation here but, I hate to do that to him. It would be working with a lady after school and then coming home to tackle an hour or two of homework. It would mean a lot of work and I don't think he would put enough effort into it to do him any good. Anyway, let me know if anyone has any other ideas! I am sooooo open to suggestions!
My class is still breezing right along. The kids are falling into the routine of things and doing great. It really is amazing how fast the catch on and learn new things. It also surprises me at the different levels of intelligence that I see in my kids. Some are so smart but can't hold a pencil. Some can count to 20 but can't pick out 5 bears from a basket. It's so interesting to see. I can't wait to see where they end up at the end of the year. Most of them are really having a hard time using scissors. OK here is a note to all my friends with small kids............let them cut stuff up! The kids have a blast just cutting paper. My kids sit at the writing station cutting paper up and glueing it down to another cut up piece of paper. That is because no one lets them do it a home! Now......don't just give them the scissors any time they want them with supervision. I won't pay for haircuts they give themselves or their brothers and sisters! But, seriously let them use the scissors ever once in a while. It's 30 mintues or more worth of busy work that they will have a blast doing!
Ok well, the coughing has started and I have to call everyone's spelling words out. We are spelling, advocate, animostiy, lethargic, alibi, cap, lap, flag, piece, leave and comma. I will let you guess which words go with which child. Of course that is just a partial list of the words. So have a G R E A T day. Talk to you soon!

The Pre K Cult- Part 2

Hi guys! OK, I am fully involved in the Pre K cult from sun up until sundown. If I'm not in the pre-k cult then I am in the 7th grade, the 3rd grade or the 1st grade cult! I have NEVER done so much school work in my life! This includes when I was in school! I am positive I never worked this hard in school! Aaron started his homework routine today. He has to read out loud for 10 minutes, memorize addition facts, and work on spelling words. Jared has the same thing only having to read 20 minutes, do 2math papers and do various weird activites with his spelling words. (I wish they would drop the whole sort, blind sort, look for words in books and all the other junk they have him do and just let him work on them the way he likes too!)Now Caleb of course is a whole other ball game. He has pretty much passed my Math abilities by about 3 years so thank goodness Brian can do Math! That's one great way to pick a husband right????? (Can you do Math because I am good in English, so our kids will be well rounded?) Anyway, Caleb's homework is never ending and also full of weird activities. He has so far created a science poster about a kid who drank acid in class, made a family crest in Literature, and has done several other off the wall "fun" projects that fill his nights completely. Tack saxaphone practice on to his load of fun and his TV time is now about 30 minutes a night with time off only to eat! He is holding up well though and is excited about trying out for the drama club. It meets every Wednesday afternoon and they will work on different plays to perform at school. I asked him to try and find something that he could do that would give him a positive reason and attitude for school. He picked drama. I think he will do great! We will see.
The Pre-K cult I have entered is going very well. My kids are awesome! I have only had one cry for Daddy when being dropped off. She stopped quickly and got involved with the morning work and was fine. I have a couple who test my patience but they are all very good overall. I have prayed over this group all summer long and I know God answers prayer. I seriously under estimated how much time it takes to get things ready however. I have to write their name on every paper in highlighter so they can trace it everyday. This chore alone takes a lot of time. Plus setting up stations and cutting out patterns and the planning for the next week takes forever. I am having a blast though and most everything can be done from my bedroom while I am watching the Cowboys play football! I cut out 13 tepee patterns Sunday while they played and bagged 13 bags of M&M for color graphs. It was a wild old time!!!!!! Well, it's time to get the little munchkins in bed! Hope you all are having a great school year. Drop us a line and let us know how you are!

My new teacher hair and 1st day of school!

Hey guys how is everyone??? I am in full swing of the Pre K teacher cult! Last week I ate, slept, and breathed Pre-K! I think my room is finally finished and we met all the kids at "Meet the Teacher" on Thursday night. I think that I will have a great class. They all seemed very nice and ready to come to school. There are a few of them that might have a hard time letting go of Mom and Dad but, I think they will do fine. I officially will start on Tuesday with a full class of 13 kids! I am nervous and excited all at the same time. I really can't wait to get the first week behind me and get into a routine! Lift me in prayer as you go about your week! I'll need all the help I can get!

The boys had great first weeks of school! Jared missed the first day while still recovering from strep throat but was able to make it the second day. Aaron had a great week and has such a cute teacher! He reported that, "there sure are a lot of rules in the 1st grade!" Apparently, he forgot he had rules last year also! He came home with two treats from the prize box for good behavior and something else, so he had a great week. Jared hit the ground running in third grade and had a spelling test on Friday. He also had homework almost every night but he is always so good at getting it done. The main thing is to get him started and make sure he doesn't take any detours. He could do everything in 10 minutes but wanders around and goofs off for about 45 minutes. Caleb had an OK week. He likes band and team leadership but could really do without everything else. We are still fighting and waiting to see what type of tutoring or dyslexia training the school system will provide this year. I pray they let his tutor come back. Everyone else is going to be dumped into a video class that teaches the dyslexia program. We are fighting and trying to make the case that Caleb would be bored and would not gain anything from it. I so want the school to just let him keep what he did last year. It helped him so much!



Brian is working and is in the middle of hiring a youth minister for our church. He is on a committee that makes the selection and brings them in front of the church. They really have been praying and search for God's will. He is doing a great job and we just pray that the committee comes to the man God has for the job. He has really been burdened and seeking God face about this. It just means so much to us to have the right man for the job since Caleb will move to the youth group this year.

Well that is our update for the week. It's not earth shattering. On Monday we had a swimming party for my work to meet all my kids. On Tuesday we had a night off. On Wednesday we had ANOTHER swimming party for our church to celebrate back to school. On Thursday, I had meet the teacher at St. Luke and Brian got called into work at 8:30 p.m. and didn't make it home until 4:00 a.m.. Then he had to go to work at the next day and had to wake up at 6:00 a.m. On Friday night, we had family night and watched movies, made speggitti and brownies! The boys love our family nights! I do too! It's one of my favorite times! On Saturday we had two funerals to attend and then crashed!

Well, I had better get up and get to bed. Pray for Wayne and Judy they are in San Antonio with the Baptist Men feeding truck, cooking for the evacuies from New Orleans. They hope to be home by Friday.

Much love to all!
JJ

It's Mommy Time!

Hey guys I'm back from Women of Faith! OK maybe you had no idea I was gone but I was!I, along with 25 other ladies from our church went to the big city of Dallas and attended the women of faith conference. It was a blast! I got to hear live concerts from Nicole C Mullen, Natlie Grant and Sandi Patti! The music was OVER THE TOP this year! It was so good! The speakers were as good as ever. We cried, we laughed (in fact I laugh so hard I cried!) and we were blessed. We were also challenged in our walk with Jesus. There was a lady who does skits there (I can't for the life of me remember her name! I think I've lost my mind again! That was one of her skits!) that did a skit about how distructive your words can be. She compared them to a roaring fire burning out of control. They destroy and tear down and leave destruction behind. It really left an impression on me. One of my biggest struggles of the flesh is keeping my temper under control. I have to constantly be on guard and ask God to help me keep it in check. I try very hard to avoid the triggers that cause my temper to explode (mainly it's running late and trying to get the kids out the door) but everyone knows that it's impossible to control everything. Anyway, she really opened my eyes on how one mispoken phrase could tear down a child or spouse and how it could break the trust built between you. The word of God says in Ephesians 4:29 "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it my impart grace to the hearer" OH LORD this is my prayer! Let me edify and build up my husband and children. Let me not tear down my own house with my harsh words and careless temper!
Well, we are home from church with Jared this morning. He started running a 102 fever last night. I think it's strep throat. I hope he doesn't have to miss the first day of school but it looks like he might have to. I start back to work tomorrow with inservice days. I have them every day this week and then will work in my room and with my coworker to do lesson plans. Pray for me! I'm really nervous starting out without a clue of what to do. I have all the material and have gone over in my mind how it will go. However, you know that the best laid plans don't always work out. I have faith that God will lead me through it all though and have prayed over my class of kids. I know He has exactly who He wants in my class and now it just up to me to do my part.
OH yeah I forgot to tell everyone that we bought a new van!!!! It's a 2005 Nissan Quest with about 54,000 miles on it. God is so good and worked out all the details. We went and looked in Dallas on vaction but they were way out of our price range. However, we knew that Jim Bass had one that we liked. The only problem was the fact that they gave us a very low trade in for our van. It wouldn't even have paid it off. Anyway, Brian knows a guys who has a dad who works for them and he gave him a call. (Have you ever noticed how Brian "knows a guy" for everything????? Is that all men or just him????) Anyway, we take it back to them and they went from a $1700 trade in value to a $4,000 trade it value. Which paid the old van off with money to spare. Then they came off the sticker price a couple of thousand dollars. On top of that, we took the van for a test drive and ran it past Greg at Goodyear. He told us it needed 4 new tires which are $100 each for it. When we "made the deal" we asked them to replace the tires but, they said they had already come off the price too much. We still felt that we wanted the van so we made the deal and resigned ourselves to having to pay for new tires. However, when we went back to pick up the van they had put 4 brand new tires on it for us!!!!!!! We were stunned and just praised God right there! Anyway, when you see a BRIGHT orange/red Nissan Quest running around town honk at us!

Vacation 2008!

Everyone should have a wild hair!!!! We had a blast~:))))))

We had a blast in Grapevine this weekend! Everyone should have a wild hair and put together a vacation in a day and a half! We loved getting away and just spending some time together. We drove down on Friday and got to Grapevine at about 2:00 p.m. We hit the mall and ate a quick lunch in the food court before we headed to check into our hotel. It was a great little hotel that had a small pool and a hot tub. It's really hard to find a hotel now that has a pool anymore. It was the only one in that area with a pool! When we got to our room Aaron exclaimed, "Wow so this is what a hotel looks like! I've never been in one!" I got to thinking about it and really he hasn't been in one that he could remember. Last year we skipped the vacation all together and the past couple of years before that we went to Evie and Cathy's house and crashed there for vacation. Aaron was so excited to get to be in a hotel! After checking in, we really HIT the mall and closed it down for the night! The boys had a blast at the two story video game place and played games until the couldn't stand up anymore. They were really cool games where you could sit in a car and it would react the way a REAL car would. It would lift them off the ground and shake them all around. Caleb played one game that was a tank game and the whole game rotated 360 degrees. We stayed there for about 2 hours I think. They also each took a turn on the bungee cord trampoline in the middle of the mall. They hook you up to big bungee cords and lift you in the air a little. Then you jump up and down on the trampoline. The guys who work there would grab your feet and pull hard sending you up to the roof of the mall. They had a blast. I thought Jared was about to pass out at one point. Aaron just screamed the entire time and yelled, "get me off of this thing!" All the while, he was laughing and having a great time. Caleb had fun on his turn but had a MONDO wedgie by the time it was over. After all the fun in the games we did a little shopping and bought the boys new shoes. We then headed to the Rainforest Cafe and had a blast eating dinner. They loved watching the monkey's, the elephants and all the other animals coming to life during dinner. We sat by a large fish tank and had a great time watching all the different fish. The boys really had a great first day and we went back to the hotel pooped and sat in the hot tub!
On Saturday, we decided to hunt for a new car. I know it was vacation but we really had the kids blessing to do this. However after looking at about a million car lots, each with vans way out of our range we decided to just wait and forget it for now! We want a Nissan Quest van and will just keep looking until we find on in our price range. It has so much room in the trunk and for leg room with the backseat for Caleb. Caleb is now about 5 foot something??? I can't remember, but he is getting too big for our van now and hit knees are constantly in my back. Anyway, we looked for van that morning and then took the kids to Bass Pro Shop. It was cool but I could have left after about 30 minutes. I just had to keep telling myself that I dragged my husband through the mall for 6 1/2 hours and so I would NOT tell him how bored I was! He even admitted that it was way over priced and not as great as he thought. We did a little more van shopping and then headed over to the pool at the hotel. The kids really had a great time in the hot tub and kept going back and forth getting cold and then hot! It really does help my tired feet feel much better too! After the pool, we headed to try our hand at ice skating. The boys did so good at it. Jared and Caleb picked it up very quickly and had a blast. Aaron couldn't figure out how to get back up after falling down so he gave up after about 20 minutes. Caleb lasted for about 45 minutes until he popped a blister on his foot where his skates rubbed a hole in him. Jared lasted a full hour and at one point even started giving girls on the ice advice on how to do turns! He cracks me up! He has been skating a whole 30 minutes but now he is a teacher and stopping total strangers to tell them how to skate! He only stopped because he was cold and wet! Oh did I mention, we are such hicks! We marched over to the ice skating rink to skate and dressed our kids in shorts, short socks, and Jared had a sleeve less shirt on. The REST of the sane world had pants, jackets, and gloves on while skating. Oh well, what can I say we are from west Texas we don't have a clue what ice is and how cold it is! Brian and I didn't chose not to tempt fate and try to skate. Our luck we would have broken vital bones and would have spent the rest of the vacation in the hospital. After skating, the kids were spent! We ended up getting a pizza and hitting the hotel at about 9:00 and watching Speed Racer on pay per view. They were tired and we were too.
Sunday dawned and we decided that we were ready for home. We missed an exit on the interstate and ended up going about 1 1/2 hours out of the way. Oh well, we saw some really pretty country and got home anyway. We ran into the rain that had been pouring in our area for the last two days coming home and that made coming home very slow. We ended up at home about 6:00 on Sunday. Well, this week is working on my room some more and getting things ready for school to start. I don't want to go back! The summer has been too much fun and I still LOVE having my kids home with me! Talk to you soon!

A wild Hair!

OK, so Brian and I were talking last night and the conversation revolved around the fact that we didn't do a family vacation this year. We have done a ton of church trips and had a great time doing things with our church family but haven't been anywhere as a family. We had pretty much decided to just stay home with gas prices being so high. Anyway, after talking for a while we got a wild hair and have decided to pack up and hit the road this weekend. We really only have one good weekend left before school starts so it's now or never. We got online and decided to try Grapevine for the weekend. The kids are really all into the "mall" thing this year. The perfect evidence is Caleb's birthday mall madness party. We decided to try the Grapevine Mills mall and let the kids try ice skating. They also have so many cool shops and the Rainforest Cafe there to try out. I know the kids will find so much to do and then they can swim at the hotel. We thought about doing a train ride to the Fort Worth Stockyards but it's 1 1/2 hours long with no air conditioning. It's been 100 degrees lately and the thought of being on a train for 3 hours round trip in this heat is not what I call fun. So, I think we will scrap that idea. We asked the kids if they would want to do Fiesta Texas or something like that but they still remember standing in line for 4 hours to ride rides at Six Flags during Spring Break. They wanted to go anywhere that you didn't have to "wait"! So we are headed out the door this weekend and taking some much needed time off.
I have been working very hard on my room at St. Luke and I think I have just about got everything up. I don't have a clue how many staples have gone into the walls there but I know if my room were hit by a tornado that my stuff would still be there! It's been a lot of fun decorating and putting everything up. I have had to work a lot more on it than I expected though. However, next year I won't have to put up anything hardly at all. I'll try and remember to take some pictures of it. It's so cute and BRIGHT! The walls are yellow (sunshine yellow), the bookcases and toy shelves are blue (bright blue), the ones we painted are apple red, and I have a birthday bulletin board, a giant tree and all kinds of other fun things on the walls. It's all coming together very nicely. I'll keep you updated!
Well, I had better run off to bed and get in some sleep before packing and getting ready tomorrow! I'll take lots of pictures from our trip! Love to all!

What we have been up to!

Hey guys just wanted to update you with the goings on around our house. We have been in full blown school is starting panic around the house. I have been trying to get my new room set up at St. Luke. In my mind it should have taken one week to get everything done. Now one and 1/2 weeks into it I'm still working on it. Actually, it looks like a bomb went off in the room right now. I'm going through toys, throwing away things beyond repair and have rearranged furniture at least 5 or 6 times. It will be great when I get finished but the process is taking a looooooooong time! On top of that we have been doing a mission VBS in the big town of Eola. Eola has a population of 215 people and has more dogs than people there usually. We busted into the little 5 Sunday school room church and decorated anything that would hold still on Saturday. Then we loaded our bus with 26 kids and adults and took off to lead VBS. We we arrived the new pastor and his wife, I think, went into shock. I'm not sure they had ever seen so many people in that little place. The room that I am in is actually the storage room for the kitchen. I tried to decorate the rolls of paper towels and toilet paper with leis but decided to move them into a storage room instead. Some things just look out of place on Outrigger Island. Oh, yeah I forgot to mention the fact that the only air conditioners are in the Sanctuary and Fellowship hall. I literally had sweat dripping from my forehead while teaching about the parting of the Red Sea. (There is a joke in there somewhere!) We have had a blast though. We have some of our 5th and 6th graders and youth working with us and they are having so much fun. They do recreation, crafts and music with the adults and they are really doing a great job. We had had about 16 or 17 kids each night and some from our church to make about 25 kids in VBS. Our prayer is that we continue to grow more every night and that lives would be changed for Jesus. I'll keep you updated on our progress.
We also have been getting all the health care stuff out of the way this summer. Jared had sealants put on his back teeth, Aaron had 4 cavities filled, and Caleb's braces are coming along great and his teeth look completely straight already. Caleb also just bought his contacts on Monday. He has worked and saved all summer for them and finally got enough birthday money to pay for his share. It took him about 10 minutes in the doctor's office to put them in and take them out. He did really great and is really enjoying them. The first thing he bought was a new pair of sunglasses! That is really what we wanted more than anything. Now he can wear shades! He is soooooooo cool!!! Hee Hee! Thursday and Friday we have to do check up's. I know the boys are going to have to have shots this time around. I'm not looking forward to it at all.

Well, I had better get busy. Love you all!

Happy Birthday Caleb!!!!!

Hi guys how is everyone??? We are doing fine. We finished up VBS last week and had an average of 92 kids a day! I had about 19 in my 3rd and 4th grade class all week. I was great and wild all at the same time. The kids had a blast and did great when they performed for the church. It struck me in the middle of the program when I was watching Caleb and Emily on stage singing that this is their last year of VBS. Next year they will be workers. I remember them holding hands on stage and singing when they were little bitty 2 or 3 year olds. They were so cute! Now they are the tallest ones up there holding hands and still singing. I can't believe how time goes by so quickly.
Speaking of time flying...here are pictures of Caleb's 12th birthday. We had a Mall Madness Birthday Bash this year. The kids met at the mall and had sodas and cake at the food court. Then we broke up into girls and boys teams and did a mall scavenger hunt. They had 30 minutes to buy all the things on the list. The team who spent the least amount of money were the winners and got more tokens to spend in the mall arcade. Each team got $25. The girls won and brought back $18 the boys lost but brought back $17. One of the things they had to buy was the cheapest thing they could find at Sears. The girls talked to all the employees in the store to find the cheapest thing and finally found a manager who went to the back and brought out a Christmas door buster cup and saucer set and let them buy it for 1 penny! That is the reason they won! The kids had a blast and Caleb had a lot of fun. He had a friend who spend the night and had a great birthday.
Other than birthday parties we have had a great relaxing week. Several times this week we have had not much to do and it was great. I'm getting geared up for my job next year and really need to get up and start setting up my room. I plan to tackle that next week. I hate trying to figure out where everything is going to go and working out the details. I just want to start putting things up and finding what I have left to set up my room.
Aaron and Jared both had dentist appointments this week. Jared had sealants put on his back teeth to prevent cavities. Aaron had 4 caps put on and his cavities taken care of with his baby teeth. Don't ask me why they both have teeth problems. Caleb has never had a cavity in his life. I thought I might have to use a straight jacket for Aaron but he was soooooooooo good. He waved good bye and went with the nurse. He came out about 45 minutes later a little groggy from the laughing gas but feeling fine. He didn't like the numb feeling at all but after that wore off he was good to go. We promised him a new Webkinz stuffed animal if he was brave so that might have helped him get through the procedure.
Well, I had better start picking up the house and washing dishes. Hope your summer is going great and you are all staying healthy.

Love to all,
JJ
Caleb looking great at American Eagle before they told me to stop taking pictures. Apparently you can't use a camera in the store. What do they have top secret shades????

Here is the birthday party on the kiddie rides. Caleb is the half head in the left corner. As you can see Aaron is totally not paying attention and doing things he is not suppose to!

The birthday party by the water. This was part of the photo scavenger hunt. They had to pose as a group in places around the mall.

12 year old tweenager! Caleb is posing before the party started!

VBS 2008

Aaron is having a blast at VBS this year! He is really enjoying everything and loves his class.

Jared is having a lot of fun too! He is not wearing his glasses in this picture because they made sunglasses during crafts and he had them on.

I love it when a plan comes together!!!!!! Hee Hee! This is my room. You can see me in the middle of the picture. I thought and worked and planned on making my "tiki hut" for weeks. I used four carpet rolls and craft paper and a grass table skirt to set it up in the middle of my room. It looks great!

Caleb was selected the student of the day for helping paint the VBS scenes. As his reward, he got his hair spray painted and a goodie bag!

Caleb is ready for VBS in his 5th and 6th grade room!

Wow, wow and I'll say it again WOW! God is good and really blesses your socks off sometimes. We started VBS on Monday and we had 87 kids show up! I had 22 in my 3rd and 4th grade room. I have never had more than 10 kids before! It was more than doubled! Needless to say we praised God and scrambled to find more stuff. It was wild! We needed more crafts, more snacks, more pencils, more paper and MORE sanity! Today I had 19 in my class and we had a great time. The kids are having a blast this year and are ALL into it. They jump out of bed, jump out of the van and I don't see them until I drag them out of the church. They are having so much fun learning about God and being with their friends. We are so blessed to have a church who loves and cares for our kids. Well, I have to get to bed and store up energy for tomorrow! The boys may have no problem getting up and out the door but Mom is getting old and has had to take a nap the last two days. I'll keep you posted on all of our great fun. If your close to us come drop off your kids. What's one or two more????? We would love to have them!!!!

Our first official week of summer!

Hey guys, I just thought I would report on our first official week of summer. This last week was the first one we have had that we didn't have to work, go to camp or do anything at all much. I really loved it. We have been driving to Miles to watch the house and do chores for Wayne and Judy. They are hard at work in Iowa helping with the flood relief efforts. They are working with the Southern Baptist Men's disaster relief team. They are assigned and trained on the cooking team. They have been making 52,000 meals three times a day for the Red Cross to take out and give out off the trucks. They are sleeping on cots and staying at a Baptist Church. They went down with a team from San Angelo and drove in the First Baptist Church bus. They will be gone a total of 10 days. They are going to start back home on Monday. Judy decided to "pay" the boys to do chores at her house while they were gone. We have been going out and feeding the chickens, watering the flowers and checking on the house. I have decided that since she and Wayne do sooooooooo much for us that I'm going to clean her house while she is gone. I'm not too sure she will notice though because it was pretty clean when she left. I did get to wash down the kitchen cabinets and do some other things that might help her out. Brian mowed the lawn and we have been doing odds and ends around the place. Anyway, that was our week. Boring huh???? I LOVE boring!!!!!! Yee haw! Thank you Jesus for the boring times! I needed the rest really! I don't really have a clue what we will do this week. I have to get my stuff ready for VBS though. That will take some doing. I don't have a clue what all I need yet and how much I need to make.
We had a great 4th of July and watched a ton of fireworks this year. The pops concert on the river was great. We thought we were going to get hit with a massive storms but it broke up before it got to us. We had a blast (or at least I did, Brian is a toss up) sitting and visiting with friend from church and watching the fireworks to live music. I love the music! It really makes the fireworks special. The next day we went to Pam and Gregs and had a cookout and watched the fireworks at the lake. They were really great this year too. I find it wild that they can keep coming up with different ones every year. The boys had fun but really wanted to pop their own. We did our own at Me Maw's house last year. They really like that too.
Well, I had better run and get back to relaxing and doing nothing! After the busy weekend I need to rest! Hee Hee

Love to all!

PS This is a special shout out to our McKinney Family Members. Kim and Dave we hope to got moved in OK and that you have finally have stopped living out of cardboard boxes. I LOVED the house on the Internet! It is sooooooo cool!!!! God bless you sister!

What a week!

Wow what a week! We had a great last week of Camp St. Luke. Caleb worked very hard and earned a $10 gift card, a $5 gift card and $50 from mom. He went from teacher to teacher and asked if they needed help in their rooms. He worked mainly with recreation and in my room. He even lead boys in music! He did great! The other boys had fun and did a great job at their end of camp performance. Aaron sang two songs with his group and Jared sang, did a party line dance song, and did a square dance! He was sooooooooo funny. If I had known it he was going to do all that I would have taken the camera and invited more people. I of course didn't have a clue. After the performance, I tore down my room. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in a room in a year. I had to take everything down and bag it up to move to MY NEW ROOM! Did I tell you guys that I have a new teaching job for next year????? I am one of the PRE-K teachers at St. Luke next year. This means I will have up to 12 four year olds in my room. I'm teaching using the A Beka system and will have to spend a lot of time getting used to everything and getting my room ready. I'm on the lookout for new rugs, bookcases, table toys, dress up stuff, and loads of things to put in my room. Of course it has some things in there but, I some of it needs to be trashed! I can't wait to get in there and start work! However, I think I will take a little time off to sleep late and enjoy the summer. I'll just collect the stuff and then go up sometime the end of July to start working on my room.
I've also been busy working at Amy's helping her repaint her laundry room and trying to figure out what we will do with her living room. A couple of years ago we repainted her dining room and it turned out great. Better than we could have hoped for really. Now, the living room is being difficult and not wanting to work out as easy. We have loads of ideas but, so far nothing has really hit a home run. Meanwhile, our kids (she has 4 and I have 3) are swimming, jumping on the trampoline, playing in the fort and watching Spongebob. They are really doing pretty good entertaining themselves and not wanting to "help" us paint. One thing that has helped is the fact that we don't get Spongebob on our cable anymore so my boys have had serious withdrawals and are now getting their Spongebob "fix" at Amy's.
Soon my attention has to focus on VBS. We are doing Outrigger Island this year and I'm on the hunt for Surf boards, lawn chairs and beach umbrellas. I wish I had one of those pop up cabanas that I could decorate as a tiki hut. Oh well, maybe I could make one from carpet rolls and brown paper. I can be very creative when I want to be. In my mind anyway!!!!
Well, the dinner bell is calling! I hope you have all had a great week! Enjoy what is left of the summer!