Dance Recital

This will be a very short note this evening. It is past midnight and I still have the kitchen and Marie's art area to clean before I can go to bed.

The recital was great. Marie did a wonderful job. I wished everyone could have been there to see her dance. She really gets better every year. It was so sad for me to think that this is the last year she will dance here in Norman. You will see she was a little sad also in the pictures with the studio owner and then with her teacher. Rockie, the studio owner, has been such a wonderful teacher to Marie during the three years we have been here. She told Marie that it was like seeing one of her seniors graduate having to say goodbye to Marie. So here are a bunch of pictures for all to see.

Love to all.

Talent Show!

Hello All...I just wanted to write a brief update on what is going on around here. Some of you already know the stress we have been enduring about the talent show, but for those of you who do not here is the story.

Marie decided she wanted to be in the talent show. She wanted to do her dance from Dallas Cowboy camp this past summer. Of course she does not remember most of the dance. I agree to learn it myself and then teach it to her. Well that lasted about a weekend. I learned the dance, but she was not in any mood to learn. She we gave that up and decided to learn a song. The song we picked out was Then He Kissed Me by the Crystals. The song can be seen at the beginning of the movie Adventures in Babysitting. Anyway so we go on a trek to learn this song in the three days before tryouts. Then the night before tryouts she decides that she does not want to tryout. Then the day of tryouts we go back and forth about wanting to and not wanting to tryout. By lunch time I have decided that she must try out.

Now let me give everyone reading this my reasons behind forcing her to tryout. At this point she is taking the easy way out. She pretty much knows the song and gets to try out using the song with the words. She is trying out in front of teachers that she already knows and feels comfortable with. So after some fighting she relents and decides what is really going to happen if she just tries. I also have to remind her that she might not even get asked to be in the talent show. You see there were about 60 people or so trying out and they try to only have about 35-40. So what really are her chances.

So she tries out. She does a great job and we move on. I know as a mother I should be saying I really hope she gets into the talent show, but deep down I just hope we can use this audition as a learning experience and move on and not have to go through this again. She has by this point informed me that even if she gets in she is not going to do the Talent Show. I agree because honestly I don't think she will get in. This is actually the first year they have even let kids in kindergarten try out.

Well guess what name is on the list?! She is the only person in kindergarten asked to be in the talent show. Everyone wants her to be in the show so I give it my best shot to convince her to be in it. I was fighting a loosing battle so I decide to have the girls at her gym work on her. I have to agree to take her, Talia, and Jasmine to lunch for a girls afternoon. Talia and Jasmine are two of her friends that are in 4th grade and both got into the talent show. I am good friends with both of their mothers.

So we have decided to be in the talent show and I thought things would settle down. Guess who was wrong?! She did not want to practice so again we went back and forth. It would have been easier at this point to just pull her out, but by now she wanted to be in the show.

Yesterday I was so proud of her. Other than having a break down in the morning because she did not want to tuck her shirt in we had a great morning. I was working at the school so I gave her a kiss and left her in her classroom. We were all packed into the cafeteria for the talent show. I was told that is was expected to run 2 1/2 hours and Marie was close to the end. I was of course worried about how the audience was going to be by the time she got up to perform.

They were great and she was great. She had a lot of support from all the kids in the school. She remembered the words and even when she messed up she just got back into the song and kept going. I don't think I breathed the entire time she was on stage and I honestly almost started crying. All the stress and problems that being in this talent show had caused literally melted away when I saw her up there. At no moment during her performance did she look nervous. She was just up there singing to her entire school and parents! I believe she was very proud of herself also.

So the day went along and I was stuck up in middle school with the wild kids for the day. I actually did not have any classes, but I had visitors stay with me during the elective times. During the second elective they called me down because Marie had flowers delivered. Luckily I had her favorite 8th grader with me and he and I went down to deliver her the flowers. Her daddy sent her some beautiful flowers. She was so happy to get them and even happier that Mr. JV brought them to her.

So we left school and headed out to her dance recital dress rehearsal. That went great also!

Well I must close now and add some pictures of our day. This last picture with the curly hair is from today. We are getting ready for the dance recital which will be at 7pm. I will attempt to blog about that tomorrow, but it might not happen for a few days. We have an open house tomorrow so I am taking her to see Shrek the Third in the theater while the open house is going on. Please pray that the house goes under contract soon. We are ready to get started on our move to Texas.

Love to all.

Question: Can you ever really finish the laundry?

Answer...No because there is always something hidden. Well Mother's day has got much better as the sun came up. Marie was awake watching me when I opened up my eyes. She was ready for me to open my other mother's day present. So I did. I got some really nice pairs of earrings. They were buy 1 get 1 free. Such a bargain shopper. We decided to go out for breakfast since she was feeling better. So off to Golden Corral for the all you can eat breakfast buffet.

Well it started off ok. We were eating and enjoying each others company. Then the itching started and I discovered that the rash was spreading. It was then on her cheek and neck. The rest of the meal was not as nice as the beginning because we rushed to finish so we could get home and get a bath and some more lotion on.

So we got home and put Roman out back for a little while. Today was the first day in I can't even tell you how long that it has not rained so we all went out back to pull a few weeds before Marie got in the shower. Well I decided to wash off the back porch while we were out there. With all the rain Roman has been using it as his potty. So I pulled the hose out and Marie got it in her mind that she wanted to get wet. So I sprayed her down and she ran around a little bit. It was nice to be outside and having a fun time while I sun was out. She kept screaming that she was having more fun that she had at her birthday party.

Note to self...skip all the planning, snowcone machine, slip and slide etc. and just pull out water hose.

So she got in the shower while I got to work cleaning the house. By the way by this time the rash has spread to her legs. I guess after work tomorrow we will be headed to the doctor.

I spent the rest of the day picking up and putting away and getting the house ready for an open house this Tuesday and then Sunday. I am really ready for the house to be sold. I know that in the right timing it will sell, but it is getting really stressful keeping this house up and running with all the stuff going on. I would just like for it to go under contract so that I can stop stressing over every last detail.

Anyway so I have been working on the dreaded laundry. I will honestly say that I never quite finish the laundry in one day. I don't know how two people can go through so many clothes, but it happens. There always seems to be something that needs cleaning. So I made it my goal today to get the laundry washed, dried, and at least folded. I was not sure if I would get it put away, but that can wait until tomorrow. So now at 11:55 pm I have fallen short of my goal. The last load is in the washer with one in the dryer. If I had not decided to wash my sheets tonight then I would be finishing up, but after having Marie in my bed last night I decided I wanted clean sheets.

So I was all proud of myself even putting the clothes off my back in the washer before running through the house to jump in the shower. I wanted everything to be washed. So I took my shower and got into some nice clean jammies. Then I went to put my bed back in order and needed to get my comforter that was still in the bathroom. You will never guess what was in the tub under the comforter?! The pants Marie was wearing last night when she had her accident.

So no you can never finish the laundry. It is seriously impossible.

Have a happy mother's day one and all. I am off to dry my hair. I am working in Kindergarten tomorrow so please pray for me. I NEVER agree to work in the lower grades unless they are desperate. Well they were desperate.

Oh and don't even begin to ask me what I found out is going on at Disney while we are there....Ugh....Yeah the washer just finished. Lets see if my towels are dry...Ahhhh the life....

Love to all....

And and Happy Mother's Day to You....

If you check the time of this post you will discover that we are in the wee hours of the morning. I was all set to head to bed after a pretty relaxing day...minus a little stress...stuff happens and now I am not tired so I will post instead.


So Marie spent most of the day over at a friends house which was really nice. I had the day to myself! She came back and insisted on me opening one of my mother's day presents because she wanted me to wear it for mother's day. While she was in my lap opening the package up for me I noticed her arms. Well they are covered in a rash of sorts. So I freak out and end up calling her doctors office. They believe it is only hives (from what we cannot figure out) so we went off to Wal-Mart to get some cream and Benadryl. So I creamed her up and gave her some medicine and some ice packs to put on her arms and put her in my bed with a movie. So she falls asleep and I keep working on her teachers end of the year gifts. In case anyone wants to know I made them quilts with all the kids names in a different square. Thankfully they are finished. So I spent a little time reading my new trash magazine (US weekly) and decided I would finish it up in my bed.

So I go to move her from my bed and when I go to pick her up I notice that something is wet. Now mind you we have not had any accidents since we got out of the pull ups at least two years ago. I guess the mixture of the hives making her feel bad and the medicine made her have an accident. So I wake her up and she does not believe me that she is wet and goes potty and then I have to make her change out of her wet clothes. So we do this, I check the arms, and put her back to bed with a little more medicine. Then I move on to my bed. She had to be sleeping with MY satin blanket under her. So this dry clean only queen size blanket had to be wet down and is now hanging to dry. To make matters worse and a little more gross when I wet the blanket down I saw into the center and there are some nasty dark looking stuff in the filler. I think now is the time for someone to purchase me a new satin blanket. So then I have to take my comforter and try to wet it down and get it a little clean. Luckily my satin blanket absorbed most of the wetness. So now I will be heading to bed in a little while with just a sheet because I put most of my other favorite blankets in storage. If I was a bad mom I would take her satin blanket and make her sleep with something else, but I do feel bad for her because of the rash.

So here we are a little over an hour into mother's day and I already have this?! Oh boy what does the rest of the day have in store for me?! I guess everyone will have to wait to find out....

Love to all...

Jamie Needs a Break!!

Ok I am in serious need of a break so I will type out my frustrations! It has been 24 days since my last message and that is because honestly I do not think I have stopped since then.

First and best news of all I have a nephew named Edward William. He was born on Good Friday, April 6th. He was 7 pounds 12 ounces. My sister went through so much to bring this little boy into the world, but what an angel he is! Marie and I got down there on Thursday. They had already been to the hospital early that morning after having a night of labor. Unfortunately they did not have a very nice or caring nurse and she sent them home. We spent Thursday evening walking my sister as I like to put it around the blocks. We had pizza and went to bed. I was positive that they would have me up in the middle of the night rushing to the hospital. The next morning after a horrible night for them they went back to the hospital.

An angel seemed to be on duty that morning because they were admitted to the hospital. Marie and I went up to the hospital around lunch time and she was still in labor and in a lot of pain. She got the epidural and was finally resting a little. Baby Eddie however was doing something with his cord because every time Carmen changed positions Eddie's heart rate dropped dramatically. A cesarean was finally done and little Eddie made his way into the world.

How did Marie respond to this little one you may be asking?! Not so good in the beginning, but by Sunday she seemed to have warmed up to him. You see her Kiki and Uncle Eddie are her two favorite people next to JJ and I and for once she did not have their undivided attention. That was a lot for a 6 year old to understand. Plus with the other stuff that as a reader you know about it was a VERY difficult trip.

We stayed until Monday and got to see Eddie come home from the hospital and then we made our way back here to Norman to get back to our normal life.

Normal life?! Ha!!!! Today is the half way point of the thing that is going on in my life. IS IT ONLY HALF WAY OVER?! From the way I feel it has gone on for months and months and months. We did great in the beginning, but now OH MY GOODNESS!! Everything is a challenge. Just getting her up in the morning is like pulling teeth. I had to use every ounce of my strength during homework tonight not to jump off the deep end. I finally did loose it when she was working on her sight words and let me preface by saying WE KNOW our sight words. She looked at the word "into" and said she had never seen it before. Mind you not five minutes earlier she had read it in her book. Out of the 30 or so sight words she must know by the middle of next month she was able to say 3 of them. 3 OF THEM!!! At one point not so far in the past we knew them all. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Perhaps I expect too much out of her, but I don't want an argument after every request. I also don't want to be yelled at. BY NO MEANS should I be yelled at. This has been happening when I get her in the car to go home from school. I handle it by telling her she does not yell at me, telling her why it is not ok to yell at me, and then telling her that we will not talk until she can calm down. I get a quick I'm sorry which I tell her I am tired of hearing that she is sorry and that she needs to prove it and then she pouts. By the way the last thing I need to hear is how this is a thing and that she will out grow it. I know she will out grow it and I know I did the same thing, BUT it is driving me CRAZY!

Thank goodness Grey's Anatomy is on tonight. If she will get in bed and stay in bed before 8:00 I will be able to watch it without interruptions. Record it you might say...well it conflicts with CSI and I am recording that because it is not shown again. Grey's Anatomy on the other hand repeats and will be recorded tomorrow night, but I am working tomorrow and some of the middle school studentstalk with me about the show and I don't want to hear about something I have not watched.

And another thing....I bring this on myself, but we need the money. I am working SO many days. It is like a full time job, but I am paid next to nothing. If I did not love the kids and the school it would not be worth all the headaches. But I do love the kids and the school. Also right now I am about the only substitute that is available to work. Plus I have this little feeling of guilt if a teacher asks for me by name I always take the job. If they take the time to ask for me then the least I can do is take their place for the day. I guess I am doing something right because I keep getting more jobs!

Well it is getting late...I have not eaten dinner...Marie is still up...Grey's starts in less than a half hour. Love to all.

Prayer Request

Hello All! I need to ask for some prayers for my sister this evening. Her baby is due tomorrow and they went to the doctor today and she is only 1cm dilated. I know that by this point she could be much further along, but I would still like to ask everyone to pray for her. They are scheduled to induce her on Monday and I know she does not want to have to get to that point.

Please pray that God will bring this baby safely and naturally into this world. Please also pass the word along to any praying friends you may have. If we can just lift her up in prayer I think that regardless of what happens she can have some peace with it. I would just like to take as much stress and worry off of her mind that we can.

We are headed down there on Thursday so we will be together for Easter. I wish we could head down there right now, but that is just not possible. I want to thank everyone who will lift her up in the next few days. As soon as the baby is born I will post some pictures of my Godchild.

Love to all.

Pink Party

Tonight Marie and I got to attend a pink party in her honor. It was so much fun. Two of my friends from bible study threw it and as they put on the invitation we were celebrating all things pink. We had pink lemonade, pink Alfredo sauce, pink cupcakes, strawberries etc etc etc. The girls all took a bubble bath in the jacuzzi tub and watched Barbie Princess and the Pauper. My friend Diana made them t-shirts that said "Pink Party" had all the girls names and then said "Celebrating all things pink." Marie is tucked in her bed with her shirt on. There were so many pictures that I took I have uploaded them to an album that you can see. I did not take any of them out because I think they are so cute. It was so nice to just get away for the night and think of girl things and let the girls run around and play. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures. By the way if you don't remember how to get to my online albums you just go to picasaweb.google.com/jamielyn

Love to all.

Question: Can a day get any worse?

Answer: Yes! Ok so if you read the last posting you will know that Thursday night was not good. Friday started out ok however rainy it was. We had a swamp in the front and back yards because it rained ALL day long. So after picking Marie up from school we decided to stay home for the rest of the night. I checked my voice mail and there was a message from our Realtors office saying that they had scheduled a showing for Saturday between 3:30-4:30.

Happy to have a showing I realized I needed to get the entire house back in order after having the carpet cleaned and also get the house smelling more like a house. So I have some carpet sprinkle and got to work. I had most of the living room carpet vacuumed and started working on the rug. Now mind you at this point I have the rest of the house left to vacuum. Well the motor on the vacuum decides to quit working. So I am stuck with and entire house that I have sprinkled powder on and no vacuum to clean it with.

Luckily we have good neighbors who were able to loan me their vacuum. So now I sit in a pretty clean house. I still have to make up my bed and finish cleaning my office. As I clean my office Marie is in here messing it up so hopefully I will be able to gt it clean in time for the showing.

So today, Saturday, is going better. I have to say the one high point of my day yesterday happened while I was trying to close my eyes for an hour. Someone rung the doorbell and I ignored it because the last thing I wanted to do was deal with any people. Well when I went to leave to pick Marie up from school there were a dozen roses on the front porch. I could not for the life of me think why I would be getting flowers. Well I have to say I have the best husband in the world. He remembers things that for the life of me I could never remember. Ten years ago yesterday JJ and I started dating. I know he remembers these things, but I never expected roses. It was the one big thing of my day however I cried the entire way to pick Marie up because I have such a wonderful husband.

Well I must get going and attempt to get this office cleaned. Hopefully today will be better than the past few. If anything the sun is shining so that is a start.

Love to all.

The Worst Night

Ok I am living on so little sleep right now that I am not sure how I will make it through bible study this morning. Let me tell everyone the story of why I am about to fall asleep.

As my readers will know I had the carpet cleaned yesterday. Now unless you watch the weather channel you would not know that we had rain storms all day yesterday except of course when they were here to clean the carpets which was a blessing. Anyway they did a wonderful job on the carpet. They even got out the one stain from the night we moved into the house and I dropped a cherry limeade on the carpet. Well along with a great job they had to use a lot more solution than normal. I finally placed what the carpet smell that was all over the house. It was a mix of formaldehyde and old Windex window cleaner. Not a good mix. Plus the carpet was still wet. So in my office I sat with this window open. I could not get to the window in the living room to get it open because the living room was REALLY wet. When I was able to get into my bedroom I opened those windows, but discovered the rain was blowing and got our bedroom wet again. So I lived through the smell and wetness until I went to get Marie from school.

So after school we went to the mall. Ok I hate shopping with a child who now has an opinion on what she wants to wear. Almost two hours later we decided on a few outfits. As a side note most of them are being returned because when we got home and she was picking out an outfit for today she mentioned that she did not want to wear this one or that one because it was a little itchy. Well in the two hours of trying on these clothes do you not think there was a good idea to tell me any of this!!!!!!! Ok so we came home and some of the carpet was still wet. The smell was just as bad or in my opinion worse because the house had been closed up for four hours.

Following JJ's advice we were to sleep in my office with the window open. So I inflated the aerobed and put Marie to bed in here and I found a way to leap on to the couch and get that window open in the living room. I also put the air on about 60 to get some air flowing. So I laid on the couch freezing my nose off with two huge candles lit. Marie would not fall asleep so at almost 10 I went to lay with her. The smell was in my office because she had closed the window. I opened the window back up and went to fall asleep. This was when the fun started....

The cat was not happy about us being in here on the aerobed so she kept coming in and walking on me. I tried closing her out, but then she cried and scratched on the doors. Ok at about 1145 I woke up because I felt like I was laying on the floor. Well apparently our aerobed has a small hole in it. So I re inflated and went to lay in the lay-z-boy that is still in my office. That not being the comfort that I wanted and at this point the headache I was working on all day had become so bad that all I wanted to do was curl up in a little ball. So I went to lay back down and found the Marie had taken up the entire bed. I moved her over and laid back down. For the rest of the night I would fall asleep for a little while and then wake right back up when I had hit the floor. So to complain a little my back hurts, my neck hurts, I am grumpy, I still have a headache, and my aerobed has a hole somewhere or it is leaking air somewhere.

Through all this you will never guess who had a good night sleep?! You guessed right Marie.

I will close with the smell has subsided somewhat and the carpet is dry.

Love to all.

I found a better way

Hello All! I have to admit that today I am typing in the most comfortable way possible so this could be long. I must start with a a little background and then I will get into why I am so comfy! Since the house has been on sale there have been a lot of comments about the carpet needing to be cleaned. So I made the appointment for today to get the carpet cleaned. I found out I did not have to move the big pieces of furniture, but did need to move the smaller things. So I spent most of yesterday moving some stuff around. Since I will not be able to walk on the carpet for a few hours after they clean it I decided I would want to be comfortable so I moved my lay-z-boy chair into my office. So as I was sitting in it I discovered that if I moved it closer to my desk I could sit with my feet up and type! Maple is sitting in the doorway wondering what is about to happen. I already put her in the bathroom, but I needed something out of it and she ran out. She now will not go near the bathroom. In a little while I will have to force her in there.

Roman you may be asking is at doggy day camp. Doggy day camp you may ask...Well with the house on the market there have been some times when he needs to be out of the house for the day. I found this place called Camp Bow Wow in Moore where they have day camp and overnight camp. I just love this place. The animals get to play all day together, the little ones in one area and the bigger ones in the other. They can play inside and outside. Once it gets warmer they will have little pools they can splash in. They get put in a cabin at lunch time for a little rest time. He always comes home and sleeps the next day. When we pull up he about jumps out of the car. Whenever we travel he is going to stay at Camp. Last time we went out of town and boarded him at a vet. I felt so bad because he was in a little cage and only got put out twice a day. At Camp Bow Wow he plays all day and then gets a bigger place with a fleece blanket and a campfire treat o sleep. During the night they have classical music playing so they don't feel lonely. To top everything off they have online web cams so we can watch and make sure he is doing ok. Plus each time I call and make him an appointment they always tell me how much they love him. Anyway enough about Roman.

Marie is still doing great. We get her report card today so we shall see how she does. She has done great all the other times so I am not too worried. She had a week off from gymnastics so she is slowly getting back into the swing of things. She is very excited about going to an Easter egg hunt on Wednesday. There is a chapter of my college sorority here and I am a member of the alumni group. The college chapter is having an Easter egg hunt for the kids of the alumni. She is very excited about getting to go to a sorority house for the first time. She watches Legally Blonde all the time and the main girl lives in a sorority house in the beginning. Marie also asked that I let everyone know she has a dance recital on May 19th at 7pm. She really would like anyone that wants to visit us to come that weekend. She will be doing ballet, tap, and jazz at this recital. She seems more excited about this recital than the others so it should be a good one.

Other than this nothing more is going on around here. Tomorrow is uniform break day, crazy hat, and ice cream sundae day. She is very excited about the day. They should have been off school tomorrow, but are using the day to make up for a snow day we had earlier in the year. So the principal wants it to be a fun day. She got a pink cowboy hat that has a crown on it. I am not sure if she wants to put anything else on it because she really likes the hat the way it is. I don't care one way or another. I will make sure that I take a picture of her tomorrow so everyone can see how cute she looks. Let us hear from everyone when you get a chance.

Love to all.

I have the worlds craziest dog...

Ok crazy or stupid would be a good word for Roman this morning. We have been having issues since well... everyone knows. He has been peeing inside the house which he never does. So I figured maybe he is just bored or something so my plan was to start taking him on walks. When we left the house this morning I brought him in the car to drop off Marie at school. It was not raining when we left the house, but when we returned it was raining so I was not going to take him on a walk. Well he decided different. So with umbrella I took him on a walk around the block. He got nice and wet, but went potty while we were out so maybe that is what he needed. Now hopefully he will settle down in his room. That is if Maple will stop pacing in front of the baby gate. She likes to torture him!

We are still having sleeping problems in our house, but last night I curled up with her in my bed and had her asleep by 10. I put her back in her bed at that point and I actually went to bed. It was nice to be in bed asleep before 1 or 2. She did pretty good at gym having been off for a week. She almost has her headstand and has started working on one hand cartwheels. It is so nice to see how much she has learned in the 7 months that she has been training with Steve. Before we started she could barely do a cartwheel, could not do a backward roll, and was too afraid of the balance beam to get on it. That has all changed. We are so thankful that the Nunnos opened their gym when they did. Now if we move she has a great base to take with her where ever we may move.

Not that anyone really cares, but we had another one of our meals last night. It was gourmet macaroni and cheese. I was not sure what you could do to mac and cheese to make it gourmet, but they sure found a way. I cut up some turkey to put in it and boy was it good. Marie had two bowls full. It was so yummy! I feel so fortunate to have this stuff in our freezer to turn to.

Well I am going to go and take a little nap. I think I deserve a few minutes of quiet time before I have to really start my day. We have another open house on Sunday so I will spend the rest of the week and Friday night cleaning up the house to get it show ready. Our bible study pink party has been moved to Saturday night instead of Friday so we will go to church on Sunday this week. Roman will head off to Camp Bow Wow for Sunday to get him out of the house. He loves playing there to it will be a nice treat for him.

Love to all...

Jr. Zookeeper Continued...

Hello All. What an eventful day we had today. I learned something today when I dropped Marie off at the Little River Zoo this morning. First off I must preface by saying I got dressed this morning in my khaki's, brown shirt, and my cute little leopard shoes (Target $9.99). So I went to drop her off. They have us walk into the zoo and bring the kids to a little picnic area. Now mind you this zoo has some animals roaming around such as big ducks. Well they are not the nicest ducks. So after I told her goodbye I started to walk back to my car. Well one of the ducks chased after me pecking at my shoes. I had to make a run for my car. Need-less-to-say I do not like ducks.

Marie had a great time again today. Her teacher out there told me that she is the biggest helper she has had. She also said that no matter what needed to be done Marie did not complain once. I guess this goes to show me that when she likes what she is doing she does not complain! Her big thing the past two days has been she got to make the rabbit her salad and bring it to the rabbit. I have some pictures of her from the day that I have put on a web album for all to see. The site address is http://picasaweb.google.com/jamielyn I will try to keep putting up pictures there as I get them. I found that this service through Google makes sharing my pictures so much easier. I have yet to try to order prints, but if I do I will let everyone know what is was like.

I must also share the horrible night I had last night. I put Marie to bed about 7:30 and was waiting for her to fall asleep. If she does not have school the next day I let her sleep in the room with me. Ok so around 10 she comes in and tells me that she saw an ant on my side table and one on the floor. Stressed I ran into my bedroom and found the one ant on my side table. Then I go and look next to the bed she is sleeping on. I notice a few ants near the trash can so I figure there were a few in there. Well in the corner was Marie's chewy sweet tarts that I thought she had finished two days earlier when I found the empty wrapper. Well you could barely tell that the candy was yellow. First off I HATE ANTS! Second it took me about an hour to get them all cleaned up. For the rest of the night I felt like I had ants crawling on me. I took a very hot shower, but still felt them. So now we have ant traps in our bedroom and Marie got in quite a bit of trouble.

Well I guess that is all that has happened the past few days. We had plans to go to Stations of the Cross tonight, as we have been doing most of Lent, but she was so dirty that it took quite a while to get her cleaned up. I guess we will not go any more this Lent. Next Friday some friends from bible study are throwing a "Spa" party for Marie and I. We are going to dress in pink PJs (thanks for the Valentine present honey!) and have pedicures and the kiddos are going to watch Barbie princess movies while the moms chat. It should be a lot of fun. I just love my bible study. They have been so good to me giving me Barnes and Noble, Michael's, and Sonic gift cards as well as this party. Most of us have been together for two years and when we leave I will miss them so much!!

Love to all.

Jr. Zookeeper

Greetings from Norman. In my quest to keep this blog up to date I will give everyone a brief over view of what went on today.

Marie started Jr. Zookeeper at the Little River Zoo here in Norman. She has done this two other times. The main point of this program is to teach children about how to take care of animals and how to respect them. This zoo is unique because all of their animals have been abandoned or were rescued. Each animal has a story about how they got to where they are today. What I love about this zoo is that when you visit everyone gets a tour guide who takes you around and tells you all about the animals.

Marie herself has so many different stories to tell about these animals. The one I got to hear about today was the animal named Toby. It is so named because its mom pulled off two of its toes. What I also love about this experience is that Marie is worked very hard. They have them doing the jobs that a zookeeper would do. They clean out cages (poop and all), they feed the animals, and they have special little places they go in the zoo to rest and relax. During the summer when she went she actually was on the news being a pooper scooper girl. We will have to make that DVD available for everyone to see.

When I picked her up from the zoo she looked beat and had a bird feather sticking out of her braid. We got home and played fetch with Roman. Actually I threw the toys and she chashed after them for about 30 minutes. Roman and I had a nice time watching her! I have her well trained. She is in the shower now and dinner will be ready as soon as she is done. In case anyone is wondering we are having sweet and sour meatballs with rice and then probably strawberries and grapes and maybe some carrots.

I have to tell everyone about where we got the dinner we are having. There is a place here called Dish it up. You go and prepare the food and then freeze it. We decided to try it this month since JJ is normally the main cook. The food is really good and many of the things like our meatballs can just be thrown in the crock pot. On Monday and Wednesday when we are at the gym until after 6 these make an easy meal to come home to. I know most cities have some sort of place like this. They offered a discount to teachers (since I sub I got to have it) and they actually delivered the food to my school. It is worth trying. Makes our life a lot easier. I also think this would be a fun business to have. Something think about in the future.

Ok I need to go and hurry her up. Love to all! I will try to take some pictures of the tired and dirty girl tomorrow. If I don't get any tomorrow then at her graduation on Saturday I will get some.

Love to all.

My oh my....

I did not realize it had been as long as it has since I last updated this thing. Actually I don't think there is anyone really watching this thing, but in case there are still people out there here is an update and some pictures.

So Marie is still doing great in school. She loves gymnastics and ballet and just had another gymnastics meet last Friday. She got a 1st place in Vault and Beam and a 2nd place in Bars and Floor. She would have gotten a 1st in Floor if she had not forgotten a handstand during the routine. I think she was just so happy that she had done everything else great. She did a great job regardless of what ribbons she got. Here is a picture of her and her coach. If we end up moving to Texas we are going to really miss this gym and all the coaches.

JJ is doing well. He is enjoying his job, but I think is looking forward to getting out the Air Force. Hopefully he will have a job lined up soon so we will know where we are living. JJ and Marie went to the Daddy Daughter dance at the beginning of February. They seemed to have a great time. I felt really bad because as they were getting ready I was passing a kidney stone. I did however get a beautiful picture of the two of them before they headed off. I have used this picture as the picture on my checks so where ever I go I can see the two of them. Ok I guess I will share the picture. In my opinion I have the most beautiful little girl in the world.

I am still working at the school. I really enjoy being up there with all the kiddos and am learning a lot about myself and the patience I have (or lack there of...)

The house is still on the market. We have only had two people come and look at the house which is a little depressing. However we do not really want the house to sell until school gets out. We put it on the market early because houses in our area take about 100 days before they sell. I am going to miss this house when we leave however I will be happy to move on hopefully closer to family.

I really cannot think of anything else to report. I can tell everyone two things I have discovered I do not like to do. #1 put my hand into the sink disposal to pull things out that fell in and got stuck and #2 take out the trash. For those of you who know me you will know why I am forced to do these things now and for those of you who have not figured it out email me privately and I will let you in on the information.

Well I have started reading Pride and Prejudice and am really into it so I would like to go and read some more. Next blog post I will tell everyone about the trip we are planning to Florida at the end of school year and what we have scheduled! Love to all.

Long time coming...

I did not realize how long it has been since I posted. So I am guessing this might be a long one. Sit back, relax, and I will try and figure out what we have been doing for the past month.

First off JJ did not get the job with google. While we are very upset he did not get the job we are not so upset about not moving to New York. Plus, JJ got to see New York for a little while so now he can say he has been. The entire trip was filled with delayed flights and I think he was happy when he finally made it home. The experience was great, but I firmly believe God has a different plan for our family. Now we are putting all of our efforts into finding a job either here in Norman or in Texas. So we could still use all the prayers possible while we work through this high stress time in our life.

I have been quite sick for a few weeks and thought I was feeling better. Now I am not so sure. I went to the doctor two weeks ago and was diagnosed with bronchitis. I finished my medicine and started to feel better, but yesterday and today the sore throat and stuffiness has set back in. To be gross I have started to hack up some nasty stuff. I think I might have to make my way back to the doctor next week and make sure this has not progressed to something else. I had a birthday since last time I wrote and was actually sick for the day. I did get out and go for Japanese food with JJ and Marie. While we lived in Indonesia my dad took me most years to a Japanese restaurant where they cooked the food in front of you. I always loved doing that so I am starting a new birthday tradition for myself. So next year everyone will know where to find me for my birthday! I got some great presents and spent most of the day resting. I finished my last bible study yesterday as a facilitator. I have been facilitating some sort of bible study for a year and a half and am taking a break next semester. We still have our ladies brunch that I am planning and then my work is done. We did a book called courageous Women by Stacy Mitch. It looked at all the important women in the bible. It was an ok book, but the group was what made it great. We had a group of about 20 ladies and were very diverse so there were some lively conversations. I do however look forward to taking a little time off, but I will more than likely join a study as a participant.

Now on to my pride and joy...Marie! She has grown up so much since she started school. We are forever sounding out words and learning so much. I found the other day when we went grocery shopping that I must write neater because she was trying to follow the list and could not read my handwriting. I spent most of the time telling her what the word was supposed to be and she kept questioning why I was writing it wrong. I have however learned my lesson. She loves school and loves her teachers. They are always telling me how caring and compassionate she is to her fellow classmates and to her teachers. I love hearing these things! We are still doing dance and gymnastics. She asked to quit Pom class and we let her. She is really in love with gymnastics and she had her first meet yesterday. Now before people go up in arms about her being to young to compete this was a fun meet. Every child got some sort of ribbon as long as they tried. If they were able to do their entire routine with no mistakes and no help they got a blue one, if they had some help they got a red one, and then if they were helped pretty much the entire time they got either a white or a pink. With that said Marie got the following ribbons: floor routine - blue, vault - blue, uneven bars - red, beam - blue. We are so proud of her that I cannot even put it into words. She has been practicing very hard and loves doing her gymnastics. If we would let her she would probably live at the gym. She is training under Steve Nunno who just opened up a new gym here in Norman. He is the former coach of Shannon Miller (Olympic gold medalist) and former OU girls gymnastics coach. We know Steve because his three kids go to the same school Marie goes to. He is just such a wonderful coach and has hired some great people to work with the kiddos. Marie used to be so afraid of doing some gymnastics things, but some how Steve can get her to do the things and then once she does it she loves them! We feel so blessed to have her in his program and would love to be able to stay here and let her keep training under him.

We are heading to Austin this week for Thanksgiving. We are actually going to drive to Austin and then grab my sister and brother-in-law and head to Houston for Thanksgiving day with my mother. Mom has to work so we are going to eat at the restaurant with her. Then we are heading back to Austin to spend a little time with family. Just a short trip because JJ is trying to save up his vacation time for when he gets close to getting out of the Air Force and also for interview time. While in Austin we will probably spend a little time looking at houses and neighborhoods and also make a drive by some of the schools we are interested in.

For Christmas we are spending our time here at home as usual. JJ and Marie (and perhaps me) will go to Baton Rouge for JJ's brothers PhD graduation. Richie graduates on the 21st of December. Marie will have to miss her last couple of days of school in order to go to the graduation. The reason I am not sure about me yet is because of music practice at church. Graduation is so close to Christmas that I am not sure if I will be able to miss the practices. I have committed to playing flute for two masses on the 24th and then mass on the 25th. We have practice scheduled for the 20th. As it gets closer to the time I will figure out how things are going and then we will make the decision as to who will travel. They will drive back on the 22nd because Marie and I have tickets to see the Nutcracker. We are going to Tulsa to see the ballet and then at that performance they have a special thing where you pay a little extra and the kids get to go on stage and have snacks with dancers, goodies, and their picture taken with a dancer in costume. She is very excited about going and I am excited about taking her for her first time! We used to go as kids every Christmas so I hope to have this become a tradition for us.

I think that is all the information I have to pass along to everyone. I will close now and post some pictures. These are from last night at the gymnastics meet. Love to all!

Just a quick one...

Hello All! We are on our way out for a celebration lunch today. Why you may ask?! Two reasons. JJ has been asked to do a 4th interview with Google and his official date to leave the Air Force has been approved. His last day in will be September 29, 2007. Google will be flying him to New York on Tuesday night and he will be doing his interview on Wednesday and then flying back home. Please, please, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he travels and then during his interviews. They will take place on Wednesday from 1-5 eastern time zone. He will not know anything when he gets back, but as soon as we know anything I will post it here.

Love to all...

Third Interview...

Just wanted to let everyone know that JJ has been asked to do a third interview with Google! It will be another phone interview and should take place within the next two weeks. We are SO excited! Please pray that this one goes as great as his other two.

Everything else is going great around here. Love to all!

What to say...

Well it has been over a month since my last update and so much has happened I do not even know where to begin. I guess I will just start with the good stuff.

Marie performed at Texas Stadium on the 31st. I was actually scared that when she got there and saw how big it was and how many people were watching that she would get scared and not want to do it. Well she went off and went through the tunnel and did her dance. She was of course excellent. We had a great time at the game. Our friend Kelly from here and Norman and her boyfriend came to the game as did our old across the street neighbors. They moved to Dallas over Christmas so it was nice to see them again at the game. We had a great time and Marie danced and cheered the entire game. Now the game went into overtime because it was a tie so we stayed. If someone had told me that if neither team scored they would leave a preseason game in a tie we would have left earlier. So need-less-to-say we stayed a really long time for a game to end in a tie! Oh well we had a great time.

Marie is enjoying kindergarten. She does not like the homework, but is working through this. She has been promoted in gymnastics which means we go to class twice a week for two hours instead of twice a week for one hour. Now at least I can go and do something while she is at the gym, but she is really tired when we get home. We are also still doing ballet, tap, and jazz, but I think she wants to quit pom class. I don't really mind if she quits because it is on Friday afternoons and we are just all really tired come Friday afternoon. If it were any other day we would probably stay in, but I am not going to push.

I am busy working hard. They are keeping me busy substitute teaching. I have spent all of my time in the middle school which I like much more than the elementary. There are some kids that I want to just strangle, but overall they are a good bunch. I had a little scare for a few weeks that now that it has passed I will share. I had a mamogram two weeks ago and they found something that looked abnormal. It had not been there six months before when I had a mammogram so they wanted to investigate. Well I had a biopsy on Friday and got the results on Saturday. Praise God it is only calcified scar tissue. It was a difficult few weeks, but we worked through it and are so thankful for the good results.

Well I guess I have saved the biggest news for last. JJ has decided to get out of the Air Force. The Air Force is trying to reduce the number of people in so they are offering an incentive plan to get out. Well we considered it for a very long time and decided it was our time to get out. He has turned in all the paperwork and gotten about a million signatures (not really!) and we are just waiting on the final OK. He has requested to get out next September. So we still have a while to figure out what we are going to do. With all of his vacation time he has saved up he will actually be starting his vacation at the beginning of July. That way hopefully he will have another job lined up and we will pull in two salaries for a few months! So now we are looking for him a new job. We would like to move to Texas or Louisiana to be closer to family, but would love to stay here also. Overall we are just going to go where God gives us work. We really believe God is directing us on our new journey. JJ had a phone interview on Wednesday with Google. He has his next phone interview tomorrow I believe. If he passes this interview there is one last phone interview before they fly him to New York. Google would be such a fun place for him to work so please keep him in your prayers. Also if he works at Google I want to get a job there also. We just LOVE google.

Well I think that is all I have to report. I have to start getting ready to sub in literature. I will be there for the rest of the week. I hope everyone is doing well. Love to all.

First Day...

Well I have just dropped Marie off at her first day of Kindergarden. All went well and there were no tears and she didn't hang on and want me to stay. I think the reason was her best friend Emma is in her class again this year. Here are pictures I took this morning. Enjoy and I will update once I know how the day went. Love to all.

102, 101, 101, 102, 105, 106, 107, 107...

I know this may seem like an odd way to start a post, but I just thought everyone would like to see what our temperatures have been for the past eight days. These are just the normal temperatures not even with the heat index. It is very hot around here so we have not been doing much of anything except trying to stay cool.

Well we had Marie's birthday party on Saturday and even though it was hot we had a good time. It was a Luau and we had a wonderful girl who came and did a hula dance and then taught the kids a little dance. I know the kids at the party had a fun time during the hula dance, but I am not so sure about Marie. She says she had a good time, but during the lesson she just sat there and watched. Oh well at least her friends had a good time. She got lots of great presents and she has been having fun playing with them all week. Even though it has been extremely hot she has been going on the back porch and playing with her sidewalk paint. That stuff is the best stuff we have ever come across. I only wish we had a cover over our driveway so she could have a larger area to paint. Oh well at least we have a covered back porch.

Other than the party we have not been doing much at all here. JJ has been in his room busy studying and working. I have not been busy doing much of anything. I am working on some cards, but mostly just having a lazy few weeks. Planning the party took a lot out of me so I am taking a break. However I need to get started on thank you cards! Well I am not sure what else to write so I will close....Love to all!