SNOWWWWW!!!

Well, the weather people weren't as incorrect as I figured they would be. We did actually get enough snow for the kids to be able to play in it. Jayke has been out playing with Bea, Hunter, and Nolan. This is Nolan with Jaykeb just getting ready to go back out.

My entry way has been littered with gloves, boots, and other random articles of cold wet clothing all day! The kids come in and it takes about 10 minutes to remove them from their gear, all the while snow flying every where. My feet were wet several times from stepping in the little puddles left by a random boot here and there. They managed to stay in for an entire 34 minutes before we were stuffing them back in their wet clothes for another romp through all the neighbors yards. About 20 minutes later Jayke was back and we were doing it all over again. So not worth the trouble. I remember my grandpa used to say that when I was a kid and I went out I didn't get cold! I would stay out there forever. Not my kid...he, apparently, has a 20 minute limit. Need to toughen him up a little!

Mason's Birthday

Jaykeb and I went to a party at Chuck E Cheese's for Mason's 6th birthday yesterday. I think I will have Jaykeb's party there this year. Everyone is now forewarned!

Here's the birthday boy with his Daddy!

First Big Snow

We are supposed to be getting our first big snow tonight and all day tomorrow!! We aren't going to get too excited yet. The weather people seem to always get this wrong. Predict 3-5 inches and we get under an inch almost every time. Jayke did a little artwork in anticipation of our potential blizzard.

A Mini Me in the Making

I turned the tree over to Jaykeb this year. I know it's hard to believe but I did. I barely helped him at all. He did a pretty good job! I have tried to explain to him not to hang similar ornaments next to each other and to try not to leave empty spaces. He has the art of "tucking" ornaments down! I was pretty impressed with his tucking abilities. He didn't even have to be told this trick. I think he remembered from last year. He is a mini me in the making! Tree decorator extraordinaire! I was glad to see him grab up his basketball and start practicing spinning it on his finger tip after the tree was done. Don't want too much decorating in his blood if you know what I mean!

Now comes the hard part. I have to refrain from jumping up and rearranging things. Filling in empty spaces. I may not have to though because Luna is doing a fine job of moving things around herself! I give it a day before I have to redo the whole thing.

Jaykeb's November Writing Journal

Jaykeb writes a journal every month in school. Here are November's entries. (Typed exactly as written)

11/1/10-- I'm thankful for my cat lunu. She is a lunutic.
11/2/10--I'm thankful for my turtl. My turtl has bumps on his face he is very cote. His name is fish.
11/3/10--I'm thankful for my littleist dog lany. She is really good but win she gose outside it is so hard to get her back in the house.
11/4/10--I'm thankful for my biggest dog simien. He can run verey fast. He is really big.
11/4/10--I'm thankful for my frind Hunter. He is my best frind. Hunter and me wint back in to the woods. My naber came over to tell my gradma that thairs a wolf den.
11/5/10--I'm thankful for my frind Nolin. He is really fun to play with Nolin is my frind.
11/6/10--I'm thankful for the sun. It makes it hot. I like it becuse it makes it so I can play with my frinds.
11/7/10--I'm thankful for my mommy. She lets me get my lingkin logs out. She lets me play with my frinds.
11/8/10--I'm thankful for my gradma. She helps me stay alive becuse her dog Jackson always tris to bite me.
11/9/10--I'm thankful for Ben. He is my best frind.
11/16/10--I'm thankful for my toy cars.
11/17/10--I'm thanful for Jared. He is kinda crazy. Jared and me like to play tag.
11/18/10--I'm thankful for Eli. He is my bestist frind.
11/19/10--I'm thankful for rabbits. They can run and hop. They can get killed by wolfs thats the bad part.
11/23/10--This is how you make pumpkin pie. I think you have to put a littel water in the pumpkin pie. You have't to cook the pumpkin pie.
11/24/10--If you had a feast what would you have. I would have turkey. I would have puttose.
11/29/10--On thanksgiving I whent to see my daddy and I went to my Gradmals houes.
11/20/10--When I get angry I should scish a scweacky toy. It really helps me.

My favorite is the November 19th entry. I think I will start putting more of his writing assignments on here. Some of them are pretty funny.

Pilgrims

Play Date

Jayke had a play date the other night. Mason, a friend from school, (and I'm friends with his dad) rode the bus home with him. This was a first. They had a blast together, as you can see from the pictures in this post. I know you are all still trying to get past the fact that I let these two rowdy boys jump on my FABULOUS white bed...forget that and try to focus. You can go back and admire my boudoir in a minute.




When I got home from work they were quietly trading silly bands and drawing matching pictures on Jayke's easel. Jayke was very considerate of his friends feelings and wants. He was extremely agreeable and was sharing all his things with his friend. He even let Mason put stickers in his prized Lego sticker book! I was wondering when the pod people came down and replaced my son with this child who was bouncing around my house. Jayke is always a great kid but he usually isn't as agreeable about everything.

The boys took a vote and decide they wanted to go to McDonalds and eat INSIDE for dinner. I agreed and we were off. As soon as we walked in I realized what a huge mistake I had made. They were every where! Climbing on the seats and jumping off. Running around. Laughing like little maniacs. I was unable to respond for a minute. This was my first experience with more than one kid. Two kids together is a whole different ball game! Why didn't someone warn me? My mother probably purposely didn't say anything so she cold enjoy the blog entry that would follow about my horror at how these kids behaved.

I didn't want to be that mom you see (and hear) yelling at her kids across the restaurant as she stood and tried to place their order with the poor cashier who couldn't hear. (Literally, she had to turn her good ear to me every time I spoke) I resorted to flailing my arms wildly at them to try to direct them into their seats. This, I'm sure, made me look like I was suffering from some kind of condition. The boys obviously didn't understand my gesturing because they continued to climb and carry on as if I weren't even there. That is what I'm going with because I'd hate to think that my cherub was purposely ignoring his poor distraught mother!

When I finally made my way to our area of the restaurant (Yes, we had an area because clearly no one was brave enough to sit near us) Jayke decided that he HAD to have his own table. Fine, whatever...as long as he would sit down and put food in his mouth. I was all for it. Anything to turn the noise level down a decibel. Mason and I sat together. I was afraid for a minute he would require his own table as well and I would have to move away to my own booth down the aisle. I think he felt sorry for me and allowed me to join him. They ate their food in like 2 minutes flat and were back to terrorizing the fine patrons of our local Mickey Ds. Once I saw that it was starting again I inhaled my own cheeseburger and got the little angels into the car as fast as I could.

The rest of the evening went pretty well. It was starting to get late, later than I would normally have kids up, but Mason's dad was at a business meeting in Marion so I knew this was going to be the case. Their were starting to be signs of grouchiness but nothing to serious...until...I went to take a 10 minute phone call in my bedroom. The boys were in the living room and they were very quiet. They had the video game they had been playing paused and I didn't hear a thing. I finished up my call and went to see what was going on. Apparently they were having a very quiet fight which included threats of never playing with each other again. Only 20 minutes shy of the end of our night together and it all went awry. Tears were being fought back and the threats were flying. Once again, this is something I have never dealt with. I was busy trying to diffuse the situation when Mason's dad showed up. As soon as he walked in the door all was well again. Whew!! Off the hook! Good thing because I wasn't real sure how I was going to handle that.

All in all, it was a good evening. I feel like it was a learning experience for me, an only child raising an only child. (step-sisters excluded) We will definitely invite Mason back. The next day everything was fine...I'm sure the little disagreement was just a result of them both being tired. I know I was exhausted!

1st Grade

Watch out blog...I learned how to use my scanner! (finally, lol) I may stay up for days posting pictures on here!

My Kid the Rock Star

Today was parent lunch day at school. I was pleased to learn that one of the menu selections was school pizza. Haven't had a school pizza...well, since I was in school! We won't count how many years ago that was. I had really built my hopes up for this little rectangular piece of pie. I remember how pizza days were always my favorite. I liked the school pizza so well that my dad, who was a teacher, even used to buy slabs of them for us to eat on the weekends. I couldn't wait to enjoy my lunch with The Boy.

I got to the shool plenty early...Jayke tends to start to worry if I'm not there waiting for him when I'm supposed to be. The class comes by and each child picks up their parent as they pass through the lobby. This was our first awkward moment as I immediately, and obviously thoughtlessly, reached for and took his hand in line. He looked at me like I was an alien. I let go right away and then there was a moment where we both just looked at each other, not really knowing what to do next. He relunctantly took my hand with this look on his face that told me he was going to do this but ONLY for my benefit.

Our second awkward moment was when I accidentally stepped too far forward in the line and he felt I was cutting the boys in front of us. My bad. I figured I better just let him lead the way the rest of the time so I didn't get in any more trouble. He instructed me the rest of the way on how to take my tray, where the utensils were, and where we were going to sit.

When we entered the cafeteria I thought for a moment I was with a rock star! Little girls screaming his name. Boys waving him to the spot next to them at their table. Jayke just walking as if it were a normal everyday happening. I listened after that to see if any other kids got that kind of reception and no one did. He must be quiet popular. LOL

We found a seat and finally, my little square pizza was in front of me and I was about to take a trip down memory lane. Ha! Man was I disappointed! School pizzas have either gotten way worse than when I was a kid or I have developed much better taste as an adult. I'm going with the latter. The flavor was pretty much the same it's just that I've had so many other kinds to compare it to that now it just wasn't as wonderful. They also apparently care more now about your health and/or weight because the french fries that we used to get with our pizza were now replaced with about two tablespoons of salad. Still had the same ol chocolate milk though and it was just as I remembered. The school chocolate milk is just a little different than what you get at the store...at least I always felt (and still feel) that way.

After lunch Jayke promptly directed me to the trash cans and showed me where to put my tray. I think he enjoyed taking on the roll of teacher. I left him in his classroom diligently working on his vocab worksheets. Tonight he had a friend ride the bus home with him for the first time. Gotta go take them to eat INSIDE McDonalds right now. Maybe I will have a post about his play date tomorrow.

Cub Scout Cake Update

He didn't come home with his own cake but he did come home with a cake. Jayke's cake sold for $7.00...five of which Oma paid (Oma took him because Opa had a meeting) and then she bought him a different cake for $6.00. Soooo...all together she has about $41.00 invested and we ended up with a cake we could have baked for probably $5.00. I know, I know it's not about that. He had fun and the pack made some money. And now we have a big cake just sitting there calling to me...Weennnnnnnnnddddddyyyyyy...come get me! Bad cake.

Do I Hear Ten Dollars?

Here is the cake that Jayke and my mom made for his Cub Scout cake auction tomorrow night. The Boy doesn't want to part with it, of course. We have to make the starting bid of $5 so we may end up with it anyway. I'm not saying it's not worth $5 but everyone will have to bid on their own so I doubt there will be any other bids. Kinda a weird system if you ask me. My mom has spent at least $25 dollars already making the crazy thing! She has declared that she will now make a cake of some sort with the mold for every holiday. All of this was said after a near nervous breakdown and while still wearing green icing on her face.

I'm just glad that Opa takes him to scouts and not me. He will get to deal with the fit that will ensue if that cake doesn't come home with them tomorrow! Sitting quietly, chuckling to myself.

It's like a Catalog!

Thanks to my Aunt Karen, I got my blog printed and made into a book. It's more like a catalog! At least that is how big it is. This is only the first year of entries. I still have three more years to print. The next three won't be nearly this big, as I got a little lax in my blogging since moving back to Indiana. Anyway, my aunt told my mom about the website Blog2print.com where they will transfer everything for you, print it, and ship it to you. I couldn't wait to get mine done. So there it is...on the ottomon with The Boy staring at it. He was in a bad mood and I was forcing him to take pictures with a BOOK!

After he got over his crankiness and I made sure his hands were spotlessly clean I let him browse the book that is ALL about him. Now it is his favorite book, of course. He sits and reads it and cracks up. Sometimes he looks at me and says, I CAN'T beeeeeelieve you wrote that about me!" with disgust in his eyes. Believe it boy! I write it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly stories about potty training! He will appreciate it more when he is like 35. I will point out to him that not too many moms spent that much time, energy, and money on their kids baby books.

I have sat and read much of it myself and I must say it may be the best book I've every read! I laughed, I cried...and then I began to blog...again. So thank you Aunt Karen for motivating me! I will try to keep up with it.




Note to self for future blog book orders...Find a better picture for the cover and leave off the 22 (out of 356) pages of table of contents.

Why? What's Up??

This was posted on my Facebook wall by my niece, AJ, today. LOVE it!!! Love her!!


Wendy Who? Wendy "Wendoline" Willmann...I guess I have to still say Howell Wendy? Cutie Patootie, kids say the darndest things Jaykeb's mommie Wendy? Always wearing sunglasses on her head Wendy? Has the longest Christmas Lists in history Wendy? I left my baby neice on the windowsill Wendy? Use to play Target in the family room Wendy? Crushed hard on Joey Bowman Wendy? If it involves sweating, I think I'll pass Wendy? Snips Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Wendy? Floral designing diva Wendy? Elegant Accents Wendy? Whole family was drunk at my wedding (except AJ) Wendy? Always wanted a zoo in the backyard Wendy? Yeah, why?!? She's my aunt...more like my cousin and I love her mucho and that's what's up!!!

We Went to The Beach

We went to the beach today to remember Nate. It seemed weird to go to the beach and carry on as if life were normal. It was a good thing though. We all were thinking about him, but today they were happy memories not tears and overwhelming heartache like yesterday. Today we laughed again. We wrote his name in the sand and watched the sun light break through the clouds and shine down on us. We knew he was there with us.

Heaven Gained an Angel

Death leaves a heart ache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.

The Little Mummy

Jaykeb was a MUMMY this year for Halloween. I went as the Mummy's Mommie. This was a compromise...he wanted to be a werewolf with a big hot rubber mask that I knew he wouldn't wear. I wanted him to be a skeleton. We couldn't agree so the next choice was this mummy costume. I had planned to paint his face to make him scarier but with all the craziness of the evening I didn't manage to get that done.

We went over to my friend, Angi's house to trick or treat with her kids and a huge group of their friends. Also with another friend, Bob and his kids. Here is Bob's son, Mason, and Jaykeb. The Ninja and and Mummy...



Jayke and Mason get along really well. Mason is in Kindergarten at the same school as Jayke and they play soccer together.



This is Freddy Kruegar, aka Matthew Pickering and The Mummy. There were a lot of other kids there but they wouldn't hold still long enough to get good pictures. We had a good time. We trick or treated, Angi made a huge pot of chili and hot dogs for after trick or treating. We ended up hanging out at the house until late just watching the kids play...other wise known as terrorizing the neighborhood...and talking. Jayke and Mason played the whole time. Going to Ang's house is his new favorite thing. I'm glad we had lots of kids for him to have a good time with this year.

Straight As AND a Couple of Goals...No Problem!

I had my parent/teacher conference the other day with Jaykeb's teacher. Yawn. As expected my child is getting straight As and is exceptionally well behaved. Now I'm not complaining or anything but she really seemed like she didn't have much to say about him. He is really good at everything and never gets in trouble. She did finally say that he can get a little wound up...I started to get excited...but then she threw in that it is only when the other kids are and he settles down immediately when told. Sigh. I told her I was actually happy to hear this, that last year I was told he was very quiet and kinda just sat back and watched everything going on. She then said, "Well THAT is NOT the Jaykeb I see!" Yes! Here it comes something that will tell me how he interacts in the classroom. Silence. I guess that is all she had to say on that.

We went through the rest of the information she had for me pretty quickly. He did the first grade testing they give them and scored at the highest level on everything. She gave me his measurements from the nurse and a permission slip for their upcoming field trip and then just looked at me. I guess we were done. I didn't have anything to ask her either. Apparently this is the kind of parent/teacher conference all parents want to have. Excellent report and in and out in 15 minutes. The drive out to the school took longer. Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic about the level of his genius...I just thought there would be more to it. She could have shot me an email with the same info. I guess I just have to get used to everyone telling me how perfect my child is...even though I already know!

On to the soccer tournament update...which had WAY more excitement than the conference! Jaykeb played 3 tournament games this year at the end of our season. This was something new for us. Normally it is strictly a rec league and we never keep score or have referees. They decided to try something different this year with our age group. 3 games played against the west side DCFC teams. I was looking forward to it since it would be his first competitive games. I understood why they were doing it, to give the kids experience with timed halves and a referee and going by the rules more strictly than we normally do. I was not, however, thrilled with the organization of the whole mess.

I was thrilled with Jaykeb's play in two out of the 3 games though! He played defense in the first game and was great! The other team had this little girl who was something else. She had scored all of their points up to the point where they put Jaykeb in. He stopped her. Not only did he stop her but I think he may have hurt her. She ran into him on one of her drives to the goal and bounced off like she had hit a wall. LOL! Never would have thought I would say that about my kid. He is not big by any means, but he can hold his ground! She did not score the second half. He was so proud of himself too. He would stop her and then turn and wave at us...grinning like a fool. I would have to yell to remind him he was still playing. This went on the entire half. Stop the ball...turn and wave. Stop the ball...turn and wave. By the end all our team's parents were cracking up, as were Oma, Opa and I.

P'pa came to the second game but I'm afraid he didn't get to see much action. It was a pretty dull game. We tied...0 to 0. Jayke didn't play that same position as last time but there was still a lot of waving going on. I'm glad my dad came even though it wasn't the best game.

Game 3 was by far the best. Not only did the little waver score a goal but he scored TWO goals, one of which was on a penalty kick! It was a great kick too. After he scored he came tearing out of there and down the sideline to high five me. I thought for a second he was going to tear his shirt off and yell GOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLLL!!!!!! We won that game 4 to 0 but it didn't matter overall. We knew going into this game there was no way we could win the tournament. No one cared though after that last game where everyone on our team played so well and had fun doing it. Opa was there to see him score his goals which he was excited about too. Hopefully next year they will be a little more organized.

I think we may do some indoor clinics this winter but for now The Boy will only have Cub Scouts on Mondays with Opa. I'm sure there will be a Cub Scout post coming eventually. I'm trying to ease back into this blogging thing but most people who know me know I don't EASE into anything...I tend to get obsessed with whatever I'm into at the moment. I'm trying to contain the urge to post obsessively. Facebook helps me with that. :)

Just Almost

Jayke walked in on my mom in the shower the other day...something that I will address with The Boy later...but when she turned to grab a towel he said, "Oma, you shouldn't turn around like that 'cause I'm almost public." Really? Well maybe he should take his "almost public" butt out of her bathroom!

Still Have All Ten!

Here is this year's offering. The one on the right is the one we carved. I've decided that whoever came up with carving a pumpkin must have been crazy. It is DANGEROUS! I started carving and had to stop for a minute to refresh Jayke on how to unlock my phone and dial 911. Just in case I managed to remove a digit from one of my paws while slicing up this oversized vegetable. I'm pretty sure if that happened I would be unconscious on the floor in a pool of blood and it would be up to The Boy to save his uncoordinated mother.

Needless to say...since I'm still able to type this post....that did not happen. The dangerous task was completed without incident. The cat came close to having her whiskers shaved off once but other than that we were all good!



Jake cleaned the pumpkin out this year all by himself. He didn't even flip out about his hands being messy and sticky like last year. Luna got right in there as always. It never fails that my cat likes pumpkin. I had a kitten once that sat and ate the pumpkin guts like it was cat chow. I tend to have weird animals.



Even though I managed to not REMOVE a finger...or hand while carving the pumpkin, I did burn the crap out of myself trying to light the candle. I need to get back to being organized and over-prepared Mommy like I used to be. Maybe if I had planned ahead I would have gotten a pumpkin light and not had to go old school with the candle causing me to roast my hand like a marshmallow! Next up...trick-or-treating. There was a whole costume fiasco that I now think I have solved but I will save that for another post. Facebook is calling!

Meet Jackson. My...uh...Brother?

My mom has been threatening...er, uh...saying she is going to get a dog for several years now and she finally did! His name is Jackson. He is a Havanese, which is Cuban. Here he is patiently waiting to be taken out to do his business. This is a rare photo because normally this dog is running around stealing any shoe that is left laying around, stealing any paper he can shred and make a mess with, running after my child trying to ruin his shirts by grabbing ahold and swinging from Jayke's waste, table surfing, and barking non-stop to have you throw his ball for him!

He is the cutest dog ever and probably could have been a really good dog but SOMEONE is ruining him. When you have to buy a DVD to tell you how to train your dog I think something is wrong! I offered to do it for free, would have only taken a couple of days. I trained The Pack...all 7 of them basically by myself. I don't have behavioral issues with my two I have now, but she didn't trust me not to "spank" her dog. Uh huh...now...they have a dog who bites. I'm not talking about play biting either. I'm talking about I'm gonna rip your hand off biting. Stellar training! That DVD was money well spent! Her excuse is that he is still a puppy and still learning. What is he learning how to control his owner and turn her hand into a chew toy?

I think I have come to realize that I do NOT like dogs. Not really. Puppies are okay, I love cute lil puppies but I'm not a fan of the licking and barking, the bouncing around and having to take them outside all the time. I like a low maintenance animal. A quiet animal. One who may stop by for a quick rub then go on its way and leave you alone. One you can put food down for and leave over night. One who doesn't go outside...EVER. Kinda like me! LOL. Yep, I like cats. I'm a cat person. Dogs are not my thing.

Jim says that they train all their kids the same. Ha ha! So basically the spoiling and lack of discipline started with me and is still trickling down. I guess I can't argue with THAT!

Hanging out...

Jaykeb's Halloween Post

Jaykeb's blog entry about his costume. (Typed as written by The Boy)

My costume is scary. My cat is not afrad of any thing. But she frecs out win she sees it. It is a werd looking mummy.

Appropriately Named

Turns out that I could not have picked a more appropriate name for my cat. Luna...short for Lunatic...is all grown up now and crazier than ever!

Someone Put Bubbles in my Fountain!

Couple of Soccer Pictures

Jaykeb has his first soccer tournament coming up next week. I don't know how this is going to go. They get so little practice and I'm not really sure they even really understand what will be different when they go to this tournament. I guess we will find out on Monday. He went to a soccer clinic this summer with the British soccer guys that really seemed to help. I'm ready for him to get some good coaching though instead of parent volunteers who are just there to supervise them for an hour.

Mosaic Pumpkin...By Jayke

Indy Zoo

Meemaw took Jaykeb, AJ, and me to the zoo. Jaykeb got to feed the giraffes. Of course he ran up there and gave them the food before I could get there so the picture I got was good of the giraffes...not so good of The Boy...

He finally went in and pet the goats. He was really afraid of them but luckily these goats didn't move much...more like at all.




The bear who was confused...he just kept going in and out of his cave. In and out, in and out...

The zoo has cheetahs right now for some Tony Stewart promotion thing. I took this picture for my Dads who are Tony Stewart fans. Surprised my camera didn't break. :)

Jayke and I both pet the sharks. It was really hard for Jayke to reach them and if you look in the corner of the picture Meemaw had a hold of him so he didn't go for a swim. They felt like rubber.

These seals were having a disagreement. They were the first thing we came to and I didn't think we were going to get Jayke to move on. He liked the seals. They were probably the most active of all the animals we saw all day.

My favorite part, and I think everyone else's too, was the dolphin show. I don't have any pictures of it because we were too far up and the lighting was bad but it was really good. I can't remember ever going to a dolphin show, although I'm sure I have since I have been to Sea World. It is something I would like to go back to. Next time I will make sure we get there early though so Jayke can sit down in the front and get splashed!

Out of the Mouths...

The Boy says funny stuff every day but here are few things he has said lately that cracked me up...

Jayke, talking to my mom on the phone...Well, my Mommy is all worked up about her minutes so I have to go!

Jaykeb walks into the living room the other night, Mommy, I have angina...I'm going to take a bath. I asked him if he even knew what angina was. He said yes, chest pain and kept on walking as if I were the biggest idiot on the planet for even asking!

A couple of days ago my mother called me to inform me that my son attempted to hire her as our "maid" for $50 a week. He had an entire list of things for her to do. Now I have two concerns about this...one is the fact that he thinks we need a "maid" and the other is that he is conducting business transactions without my knowledge. My mom can be concerned about what he thinks she is worth.

I glanced at my adorable son the other day and he replied, "What are YOU looking at you evil little elf?

Sunflowers--By Jayke

This is actually a lot bigger than what is pictured. I'm going to frame this and hang it some where in the house. One of my favorites.

First Day of 1st Grade!!

Jayke's first day of 1st grade went very well. He likes his teacher and we were very happy to learn that two of his best friends from last year, Ben and Parker are in his class again this year. He also found out that they changed the bus routes so his very best friend, Ian, now rides his bus as well. Such a difference from the end of kindergarten when he was turning up "sick" every Thursday. I finally figured out that he didn't like computer lab and that was the reason for his mystery illnesses. So far so good this year...it is only day one but at least I didn't have to fight with him to go.

Collection--By Jayke

Three art projects Jayke did in kindergarten.

Cluck, Cluck!

Jaykeb came in the house today with THIS on his head...





It seems his little friend, Beatrice, from down the road won this for him in one of those crane machines. She has a matching one. His first gift from a girl. He was quite proud of it!

Workers

After spending a couple of weeks watching Mike and Chad put a new roof on Mike's house I'm now watching him and Gunner reside my dad's barn. I don't think we could have picked a hotter day to do it either! Good thing the pool is there for them to jump in when they are finished. Mom grilled for us too so after the barn building was finished for the day, there was swimming, and dinner with my parents. I feel a little bad because Jaykeb really wanted to come with us when they were doing this but he is with his dad for the weekend. I think he will get to come back with us next time because they are going to have to come back to finish it another day. It looks so much better though. Mike and Gunner are doing a great job!

Comedians

We have an Employee of the Month at my place of work. It really has nothing to do with job performance since they draw your name out of a hat, but it is a treat. It is a way for our boss to reward us through out the year. You get balloons for your office, fresh flowers delivered, small gifts given to you randomly through out the month, a prime parking spot at the front door, and at the end of the month you get a lunch in your honor. Of course, lunch is paid for and brought in from a restaurant of your choosing.

I have been there going on 3 years and had yet to win the Employee of the Month honors. My supervisor even went and checked to make sure my name was in the "hat" because we couldn't believe that it hadn't been pulled yet. It had become sort of a joke around the office because my name was never announced. I really was convinced that I was not meant to win it when one month I wasn't present for the drawing (you have to be there to win) and they DID pull my name. Since I wasn't there they had to draw another name and it ended up being Holly, my best friend at work. THAT made it even better for them all. I got a phone call immediately after to fill me in on my "loss"...and her "win".

This month...I FINALLY won!! Woohoo for me! I'm already trying to decide where I want my lunch to come from and can't wait to get my flowers tomorrow. I did receive my balloons though and placed them in the corner of my office where I can see them. I should have known the "funny" people I work with would not pass up an opportunity to continue to tease me about this though. When I came in to work this morning this is what I found...





That would be my seahorse balloon 'working' at my desk. There was also a sign that read, "We found your replacement!" They are real comedians. It was pretty funny though. I plan to enjoy my reign as Employee of the Month regardless of their jokes. Ha!