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!

Did Ya Hear Me Scream??

I found THAT in my shower this morning!!! The brown bottle is my shampoo which this not-so-little guy was wrapped around. I reached for it and luckily saw that it looked a little peculiar so I picked it up by the corner for closer examination. At first I thought that Mike (Mike number two) had put it there as a joke. I didn't think it was real. Then it moved. So, I'm wondering if you heard me screaming this morning? I'm not scared of bugs and stuff, but this caught me off gaurd. You just don't expect a slug the size of a baby snake to be in your shower in the morning! Now that I've calmed down I'm wondering how he got in there. Had to be from the drain but HOW?

I sent the picture to Mike at work...he, of course, thought it was hysterical. Probably wishing he DID put it there so he could take credit for it. He will go under the house after work to see whats going on under there. I put the slug out back and went back to finish my shower...hope he deosnt' find his way back in!

He is 6!

We had a SpongeBob theme for Jayke's birthday this year. The party was held at the YMCA and his entire kindergarten class was invited. We were very pleased that most of the boys showed up and a couple of the girls too. They played games in the gym and got to play the Wii, ping pong, and ski ball.


Here is Jayke with his friends Kara, Parker, and Ian.

Arrrghhhh!!!

Here's my little pirate. I'm so glad HE chose to be a pirate this year because his years of wearing "cute" costumes is coming to an end. I didn't want to have to MAKE him be a pirate. He will no doubt want to be something scary, bloody, and disgusting before long and I was determined to have a pirate picture for my Halloween album.

We went trick-or-treating last night with Mike, who drove up for the weekend. We first went over to Oma and Opa's house where he not only got candy but legos as well. He wasn't having any visiting though we had to get moving. There was candy with his name on it! We came back home and went around our neighborhood then headed over to the neighboring hood. Farmington is HUGE! We made it about half way through before Mike suggested we start heading back towards our house. Good thing he did because shortly after turning for home Jayke no longer wanted to trick-or-treat. Mike thought as long as we were heading for the house he could hit all the houses along the way. He went willingly at first but soon was yelling at us, "I DON'T WANT TO TRICK-OR-TREAT ANYMORE! I WILL NOT GO TO ONE MORE HOUSE! MY FEET HURT!"

When we got back to the house we had to "inspect" his candy. This is just what parents tell the kids so they can pick out the pieces they want. Jayke was kind enough to give Mike and me each a Reese's cup, which is both of our favorites. They left shortly after to go back to Mike's parent's house where Jayke could trick-or-treat...and hopefully get more Reese's cups.

Today I had to load the pirate up and take him over to my dad's to trick-or-treat. Halloween turned out to be just like Christmas...never ending. We had already gone trick-or-treating at the nursing home on Thursday. Grammy got to see Jayke in his costume, of course she didn't know who he was until she saw my mom and me standing over to the side. I would say total he got about 4 buckets of candy. I think I will be hauling some of it in to work to fill my candy bowl in my office. God knows I don't need 4 buckets of candy sittin' around my house waiting to make it's way to my butt and thighs! Jayke certaing won't miss it either!

Fun on The Farm

It was field trip time a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping next year we will go someplace different. Not that I don't like One Fun Farm, I actually really like it a lot, but we went there for his field trip last year in preschool too. At least this year they got to do a few new things that they missed out on last year.

One of those was jumping on this HUGE trampoline...

(Jayke is the fourth kid from the left...it's hard to tell because all the kindergarteners wear orange shirts when on field trips.)



It was funny to watch all those kids bouncing but then one brave dad joined them along with Mr. Logan, the cadet teacher, and the two kindergarten teachers. The kids all immediately went into attack mode and had the two guys down on the tramp. There were so many kids on top of them you couldn't even see the poor guys. I was shocked no one got hurt. There wasn't any crying at all which amazed me.

Since I passed my criminal background check...snicker...I was permitted to supervise Jaykeb and his friend Ben while on the farm. I think in the future I may request to NOT be in charge of my own kid. They all have told me how well behaved he is but as soon as I show up he looses his mind! I was about to ask that the teacher have him pull a behavior card. Ben, on the other hand, was extremely well behaved. I'm sure if his mother had been there it would have been a different story for him too. Mothers seem to bring out the worst in their kids.



I tried to get a picture of the whole class but trying to get all those kids to hold still is difficult. Not to mention that I got out there and discovered that my battery on my Nikon was dead. I had to rely on the cell phone camera again. Jayke is sitting up on the straw bales next to Mr. Logan, their cadet teacher from Delta High School.




We got to eat lunch there and before leaving all the kids got to go into the pumpkin patch and select a pumpkin to bring home. Jayke brought his straight home and colored it black. We had perfect weather for our trip and I think aside from Jayke's grouchiness at times, we all had a good time.

This week is Red Ribbon Week. They are wearing bracelets everyday, Wednesday is Red day, Thursday is Jersey day, and Friday is crazy tie day. Oma made Jayke a lovely little tie to wear. They also have a skating party Thursday and fall party on Friday. I hope I can keep track of all this!

Meet Jack

We carved our pumpkin last night. I decided to just do a face this year instead of some intricate design that takes forever. Jayke picked the face out of a book of patterns.



As you can see, we had plenty of help. Luna was right in there eating the pumpkin guts as we pulled them out and put them in a bow.







Jayke got to go to a Halloween party at the YMCA tonight with Opa too. They had a magician there and now he is interested in magic. They bounced in a huge bounce house, played bowling, and got a small pumpkin and treat bag. He is counting down the days until Halloween. Mike is going trick or treating with us and Jaykeb is very excited about that.






We went on our field trip the other day. I have a coupld pictures that I will put up tomorrow. Jayke also got his school pictures back, finished up another season of soccer, and got his first report card. His report card was very good. Pluses in everything. She says he is the quietest most well behaved kid in the class. He is an excellant role model for the other boys who all like him. He does all his work and is right where he should be. They all want to take him home every night. Nothing shocking about that!

Meow

Oh suuuuure she looks sweet here but in reality she is a flying ball of fur and teeny tiny claws! It has been a long time since I have had a kitten and I had forgotten what they are like when they are really little and before they can get their claws removed. I have tiny claw marks covering my arms, hands, legs, and feet. The worst part though was when I woke up the other night and Luna was standing on my face. I reached to move her and it must have scared her because she tried to run, digging her claws into my face. I hesitantly got up to look at the damage in the mirror and was shocked! I looked like a vampire! Blood all over my hands and face. She is lucky she lived through that night.

I am not the only one being abused by little Lunatic...the dogs are being tormented on a regular basis. They walk through the house with a kitty hanging from their tail. My accessories are being rearranged and my floor lamp with the paper shade took a hit the other night. It sits next to the couch and apparently caught her eye for the first time because she all of a sudden leaped from the couch to the lamp, landing almost at the very top. She hung there motionless as the lamp slowly began to fall over. I could read her mind by the way her eyes were bulging from her head and her ears were laying straight back. She was thinking, "Oh sh*t! What have I done?!" I caught both cat and lamp as they made their way to the ground saving them both because Luna would have been in big trouble had she ruined my lamp. I had to carefully extract her tiny claws from the paper shade. She sat there afterwards looking at me as if I had ruined all her fun.

Jaykeb is particularly careful with the little terror. He hasn't managed to avoid her completely though. She barely caught him on the thumb with her tiny claw the other day and the drama that insued was oscar worthy. First there was a lot of screaming for a bandaid. From the racket I thought she had bitten his thumb clear off and was surely sitting in the corner munching on it. Upon inspection, I found a very small hint of blood on his thumb but proceeded to bandage it as if it were the traumatic injury he thought it was. After we tended to his wound he turned his attention back to Luna. "I HATE LUNA!!!! I WISH SHE HAD NEVER COME HERE!!!" This went on for probably 45 minutes. I finally threatened to give her back to Holly and this slowed him down a little but not completely. My child is the king of drama and isn't afraid to show it.

Only 4 more months until we can get her claws removed...please pray for her that she makes it!