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!