First Day of school, Baseball, and Daddy

Elijah's first day of school and every day there after has been great. His school, McKenny Elementary is so wonderful. He has just excelled in reading and all his subjects throughout these last few months. He just started reading Harry Potter, knows every word except 3 every two pages, and actually understands what he's reading. He's fun to listen to because he's so expressive when he reads. He just started more complicated addition and subtraction, and basic MULTIPLICATION. I just can't believe this kid. It really is a blast.

Seth has been in preschool and that has been fun. He is at a high school preschool where he always has a high school age buddy work with him. He loves it, but sometimes gets in trouble for his elaborate and expressive storytelling. The story's wouldn't be so bad, except he insists that he's in charge and he knows 'the truth of everything'. He went into class today and started yelling at a student because, 'You're mom locked the school down and won't even let me see our class scarecrow!' The true story follows. We showed up, the school doors were locked, a fellow mom let me know that they are doing a surprise lock-down drill and they will open up in 5 minutes. Seth asked if I wanted to see his class scarecrow and I said I would love to once the doors are opened. He's so great! The boys did play baseball this fall with the YMCA program. It is just fun to see Seth actually focus and have fun with a sport.

Eli takes things quite a bit more serious, but he also insists on learning how to throw and hit with proper form. He is in action throwing to first base in this picture. It has been fun.

Shane has been working in Texas since last December. He's been gone a lot. His schedule is six weeks on location then eight days home. The company covers the flights there and back and all expenses paid for him while he's gone. He got a job with Vestas, American Wind Technology last October. He had training in November 2008 in Portland, OR, then went off to test and repair wind turbines in Corpus Christi, TX. We have been working it out, but it is hard not seeing daddy. Shane's site just finished their setting up of a new site down there in Corpus, and he was told his next location is Okoboji, IA. he moved from a condo on the beach in hot Corpus Christi to a resort on a lake with an indoor water play area and lazy river in freezing Okoboji. He just got there on Monday, and we won't see him until Thanksgiving. He works long hours, and he's far from home, and his boys love him and miss him dearly. I am the one who's a big baby....so lonely. Well, this is us right now in a nutshell, oh right also I am expecting a new baby March 24th, 2010.

Before and After .... the Haircut!

We finally did it. Jacob's first haircut. We figured he was turning two soon and it's about time. Goodbye blonde, goodbye curls, goodbye baby hair. Jacob really looks grown up now. I will miss his wonderful hair, but he doesn't seem to mind at all.

I'll post a better picture soon.

What a Bummer Ending to a Fun Time...Houston's Johnson Space Center

Who oh why do people have to suck? We had the best day on Saturday going to Johnson Space Center in Houston. We got up crazy early and drove for 4 hours. We got to the Space Center and the kids absolutely loved it. They had a whole area dedicated to George Lucas and his movies, the boys loved it because they had a lot of Indiana Jones and Star Wars movie props. They had a huge indoor climbing toy, and Indiana Jones escape from the Temple of Doom jump house obstacle course, a Clone Wars Blaster target practice Tent, and an Indiana Jones safety line obstacle course. We also went and saw the training center for Astronauts, Saturn Rocket Park, and a presentation of what is currently happening with NASA. Now on to the reason why we will never have memories captured with photographs. Don't get me wrong, we brought our camera.

You see, people suck!
We stayed the night at Staybridge Suites and when we woke up we relaxed and ate a yummy breakfast. Then I went to get the boys in the car while Shane checked us out. I got the boys in the car and noticed a bag in the wrong place. Weird! I said, "Eli, did you or Seth knock down that bag and not tell me?" Eli said no. I buckled Jacob in and Eli and Seth were sitting down then Eli said, "Mom, the bag was in the wrong spot, but I think somethings wrong with the DVD player. The wires are hanging down." Sure enough, the screen was gone, our GPS was gone, our driver's door lock was busted, and of course our camera was gone. No pictures. Luckily, it was our point and shoot and not our Nikon D50. Oh well, we will survive.

I keep thinking, if those jerks knew us, they wouldn't have done that. If they just saw my boys and how sweet they are, then those punks wouldn't have touched our car. Living in Laie made it so nice not to have to worry as much about these type of things. Even in Olympia there are lots of problems with theft and break ins. The world is so beautiful, the people in it are so lost.

So, if I had our pictures I would shown you these two of all the pictures. These are sad quick drawings to give you the idea. So, Eli wanted to do that Indiana Jones Ropes Course where you have a harness, you are 20 feet up, and you had 6 different courses you had to go through, there was a rope attached to the rope above you and you walked across this wide open course. Eli did a great job, but he was scared. The last of the six parts looked about like that picture. There were no ropes to hold on to except your own while you watched across these very wobbly boards like a old broken up bridge. Eli's face was priceless! He looked like he was going to cry, ans Seth said Eli was soo sad. The worst part is, my face looked about as scared just with my frown turned upside down. I really was about as scared as he was. We can always remember that it happened, even though we won't be able to see it.

So, we're looking at a building on this amazing tour of the NASA lot and training center and Seth has something to say about EVERYTHING. Shane humored him and said, " So, what is that building used for?" He said, "I know that's where they bring all the weapons. They turn all the weapons into skunks in that building. Then they use those tanks to freeze all the skunk farts.......They freeze the farts then put them up into space and let the farts go." He learned that liquid nitrogen was very very VERY cold about five minutes before and all the liquid nitrogen was stored in the same exact tanks. It was soo funny.

The other response of his that must be shared happened when we got in the car after the police had left this morning. Seth says, "I know who stole our GPS!! I know who did it. It was a friend of mine.....he's from my class....at my church in Corpus Christi!" Kids say the funniest things, but Seth sure is a storyteller. Well, the drive home was a little crazy with no GPS. We ran into a couple toll roads until we stopped to get a map. We made it back the old fashioned way. Also, we sang a LOT of songs. Not having a DVD player is a lot of work. I am not really looking forward to our long, 5 day drive home. I am looking forward to seeing all our friends, but I'm not looking forward to the hours it will take to get there. Well, five more days until take off. 5...4...3...2...1...blastoff!

Black Eyes & The Aquarium

Eli has had his fare share of black eyes. The culprit this time was Seth. The suspect, Seth the cowboy, was seen swinging a lasso (belt) waiting for the buffallo to run by. The victim, Elijah, then walked into the belt buckle on the end of the lasso. Who knew? The victim then began crying and proceeded to tell me that his eye had been popped and bleeding everywhere. So he's a little overdramatic. there was one pinprick size cut with one dew drop sized speck of blood. At the sight of blood all his color leaves his face and he starts to feel like he's going to throw up. He looked at the speck of blood on the paper towel and said, "Mommy, I feel like sick cuz I think my broken eye makes me feel like that." What a dramatic yesterday.
The first time I remember Elijah getting a black eye was Eli's first day of preschool over at Laie Head Start. It was all my fault that morning. I was trying so hard to pull apart two cups that had suctioned together that I didn't notice little Eli right behind me. I did, however, feel him with my elbow as it smacked right into the corner of his little eye as I managed to finally seperate those two stubborn cups. I was so afraid of all the question and answers that were going to happen on Eli's first day of school. I could picture it now: Q-"What happened to your eye Elijah?" A-"My mom hit me." Q-"Are you okay?" A-"She gave me a black eye. She just said sorry and she was sad."
Needless to say, everything turned out well.

Today was a blast! We went to the Texas State Aquarium with a family that we know from church. They had a membership and were able to get us in for free. Free is always good. We saw alligators, a porcupine, a dolphin show, a bird show, the otters, the sea turtles, and the jellyfish among many other fish. The boys were well behaved and NO ONE THREW A FIT!!!! It was a miracle and a blessing.

Seth used to be my most photogenic child, but as of late he has been the most difficult. I need to get him out of this awkward stage and back to fashion model Seth.

They had the coolest Stingray Petting Area. Jacob thought they were crazy, but Seth and Eli loved touching the rays.

Sooo Busy, but I need to take the time.

Jacob is making a stew with leaves, flower petals, and egg yolk brewed in dog dish water.

Elijah is taking a walk in the middle of Grandmama's garden.

Seth is really excited posing at The Hooks game in Corpus Christi, TX

Elijah took this pic down below in the USS Lexington.

So, this brings me to my matter of bussiness. I want to start blogging again. I need to start blogging again. I am going to start blogging again. I have been going through excuses of how busy I am, but journals are important. I feel like I haven't been a true friend to all of my good friends who are blogging during their busy lives. I am sorry I haven't been reading, commenting, or updating you all. I love you all and I am going to make more of an effort from now on.