kids

In preschool the kids are starting to learn their letters. Every week the learn a new letter and have show and tell bringing a small item that starts with the letter. Jessie informed me yesterday that they were starting it but no note was sent home so I didn't really give it much thought. I was trying to decide if I should give in to paying a dollar for PJ day. (more about that in a minute). Anyway I forgot all about it. This morning Jessie wakes up and asks me if smile begins with the letter S (the letter of the week) I said yes it does and she said that is what she is bringing for show and tell, her smile. I can't think of a better one can you?
The school has pajama day as a spirit thing every year. This year they decided to charge a $1.00 for every student to wear them. If you don't bring a dollar and you wear pjs you get a trip to the principal's office and a call to your parents. I gave in because Jessie was so excited even though I don't think that is right but Brandon decided not to do it.
Speaking of Brandon, my son is so full of empathy it literally hurts him sometimes. He cries when they have the commercials for the abused animals and now they are doing a fundraiser for St. Judes hospital. Yesterday they brought in a video to show the classes and are doing a math a thon fundaiser. Brandon came home all excited but I thought it was because of the prizes. The problem is we don't have the money for another fundraiser, I told him that and he said he understood but then he couldn't focus on homework which is nothing unusual so I didn't give it much thought. But then I started seeing the signs. He almost cried when I lectured him about staying focused during homework which is a daily lecture, and when Scott came home Brandon showed him the fundraiser but said he didn't care about helping stupid cancer kids. That is when I realized what was bothering him. When he started crying he said he just really wanted to help them out. I told him we would try and find a way to donate somehow but the fundraiser looks like they want a minimum of $10 pledges. How do I help keep his ability to want to help and his passion for it when we can barely help ourselves right now? I try to show him everything is good with us but then I turn around and say we can't give $10 dollars. He is getting confused and I don't know how to help him. I am trying to think of other things he can do to help but its hard to find things for an eight year old to volunteer and everything costs money anymore. I feel like I am letting both kids down.

state fair

We went to the state fair on Labor Day weekend. The kids got free tickets for back to school day although Jessie is free anyway. Mom gets discounted tickets through work also. This year since the food is so expensive and Scott doesn't get off work until 4:30 we decided to pick up some chicken sandwiches from Wendy's and eat before we left which worked out well. When we got to the fair, we did the usual wandering around. There weren't a lot of shows the kids wanted to see by the time we got there. There was one with dogs that did competition water sports that we watched for a few but people kept standing in front of us. People have no respect for anyone any more, especially to stand in front of little kids. Anyway they watched a poor puppy whose owners were trying to train to get into water before the show started and the poor puppy was not happy. It was a German Shepard and shepards do not usually like water. Once the show finally started, the kids got bored of course. We went to the petting zoo and they rode the ponies, a tradition. We wandered around the booths and then we went to look at the tractors and sheds. They also had a manufactured house you could check out. I think the kids had more fun in that area than anything else. Brandon had to sit on every tractor, Jessie for some reason was scared to, and they went in every shed. There was one that was almost the size of the kid's room and looked like an adobe house. The manufactured home was pretty cool also. Scott took the kids in first while mom and I stayed with the wagon and then the kids took us on a tour. Brandon should be a salesman. It was really nice, a little smaller than ours but I really liked the master bath and closet, they took up almost one side of the house. The kids got some light up souveniours and then we went to head home. We were taking the shuttle to the parking lot where our car was parked and standing in line and the people from the back of the line jumped on first so we had to wait for the next one. When the next one came, the kids jumped on and we almost didn't get on with them. Mom had to yell at some people to leave us room. The couple behind us commented that they didn't think we were going to make it and schools must not be teaching people how to wait in line anymore. (Most of those line cutters were adults sad to say) Brandon started to talk to them and said we were on a space shuttle heading to Mars and the couple could push us when we got there. Then the lady said something about driving home and Brandon told they had better not have had too much to drink. She told him no they only drank Gatorade so they were okay. They were getting a kick out of him. Chris and Rachel were going the next day so I called him Sat night and told him to make sure they went to see the house. That night I got a call from Chris and he told me I stank. I asked him what I did and he said they fell in love with the house and were mad at me for making them see it. (Not really mad but they did fall in love with the house.)
any way that was our adventure for a while.

Here are some Jessie sayings that I thought were cute:
She fell asleep on the bus coming home from school but she said she wasn't sleeping just her eyes were. They got tired and needed to close for a while but she was wide awake.

Jessie:" Grandma if I got married will you come to my wedding?" "Yes of course I will" "Will you wear the dress you wore to Chris' wedding?" "Sure if you want me to" "Well you know you will need to wash it first!"

Chris and Rachel's Wedding

Chris and Rachel's wedding went pretty well considering the minor problems they had getting everything together. Thursday night we had dinner at Chris's house with just our side of the family, Rachel's side went to her mom's house for dinner. It was nice getting to visit with Pat and Jim and Rebecca and Mary before it got too hectic. Mary has sure grown up since the last time I saw her. The kids all got along great. On Friday we went to the mountains with both sides of the families. It was a lot of fun and then everyone had fun playing in the water and wandering around. Some of the family went to Bishop's castle after but we took Mary back to our house so the kids could have some quiet time before the rehearsal dinner. They played play doh and tried to see who could outdo themselves in the gross category by making pizza with nasty stuff on top. At night we went to Country Buffet for the rehearsal dinner and then to the church for the rehearsal. The rehearsal was certainly interesting due to Carmen (Rachel's mother) wanting to make sure everything was perfect. Brandon and Jessie felt better learning what was expected of them as ring bearer (barrel as Brandon calls it) and flower girl. Mom and I reminded Jessie she would have petals in her basket tomorrow at the wedding and she said, "Oh year, I'm supposed to throw them at the people in the benches." We had to do some fast explaining of what she was really supposed to do with the petals. I took the kids home and the rest went to decorate the hall.

The wedding went really well and it was a beautiful ceremony. The kids looked so cute and did great standing up there the whole time. They only started getting a little upset after taking tons of pictures after and Chris finally told Jessie she didn't have to do anymore when she looked up at him with her big blue eyes and pleaded with him to make them stop. Brandon said that Chris owed him one, which Chris will happily repay given that they did so well. I took the kids over to GG's after the wedding while they did a few more pictures at the park. They at least got a little rest before going to the reception.

The reception hall was decorated really nicely, Chris did a good job with the center pieces. The food was a little spicy so some of us couldn't eat very much and Chris and Rachel forgot to get plates and forks for the cake. Some things always have to go wrong at a wedding, it's tradition. When they were called up to cut the cake, the DJ was supposed to stop the music and announce the cutting but for some reason he didn't so they just did it anyway and not everyone got to see it. They will laugh about it one day. Jessie was upset for a little while because she didn't catch the bouquet but Brandon was upset because he did catch the garter and when Joey, the best man, told Brandon that he was next to get married, Brandon marched right back up to Chris and gave it back. Chris wore it on his arm the rest of the night. We took the kids home shortly after because they were just getting too tired to go on. Mom and dad stayed there to help clean up once everything was over. All in all it was good and Chris and Rachel had a great wedding and everyone is happy.