Santa Shop

We went to Carmen and Kurt's last Saturday for their Christmas party. It was fine except for we didn't know anyone other than our family. The kids did well considering that they had nothing to do but they were really well behaved. Rachel felt bad that they were bored but we knew that they would be. We had a choice to go to theirs or Chris and Rachels next week and we decided to do Carmen's this year. Next year we might do Chris'.

I worked the Santa shop at the school all this week. It was fun but tiring. Jessie loved helping out for a little while when she got out of school. Next year will be easier because they will both be in all day. All the kids get into buying presents. As predicted, some of course tried to buy for themselves but for the most part they stuck to the lists. It is fun to see what they pick. Many tried to buy toys for their family members and we had to steer them clear of that. They were all pretty good bargain shoppers. I think we only had one child this year that had so many names and only like $10 to spend that he ended up being able to spend only 75 cents a person. That makes it interesting. It was so popular that we kept running out of bags to wrap the presents in. I helped Jessie with her gifts but Brandon was on his own. He did pretty good but went off his list to include the pets, which I told him not to because then he went cheaper on some of the others, namely his sister. He did however put a lot of thought into his gifts and his heart was in the right place. I think next year if I am able to work it, I am going to have them come after school and shop together so we won't have any issues hopefully. They also participated in the blanket drive for the homeless (we did get some blankets) and the food drive and the toy drive. All in all it was a good week. Next week they only have two days of actual school and Wed. is Brandon's school party in the afternoon and Jessie's in the morning. Thursday they have literacy testing so no official school. Then break for two weeks. When they come back they only have one semester to go. Where did the year go? Wasn't it just Halloween? They went to see Santa at the mall last night and we ate Subway and walked the mall and they turned in their letters to the special mailbox in the mall. Tomorrow we do Electricritters at the zoo. More on that later.

getting ready for Christmas

The Christmas holiday is upon us already. It seems like I was just at the kid's school for their Halloween parade and now to help with Christmas. Where did the time go. The kids started bugging us to put up decorations on Thanksgiving, we agreed to bring in the boxes but didn't start until the day after. Every year we have the kids buy toys for the toy drive and this year when Scott and I were at Hobby Lobby the other day we found $24.00 on the ground in the parking lot. There was no one around that it could have been. We decided for that little of money no one would look for it at the police, so we made the decision to use it for charity since it wasn't ours to begin with. Yesterday we took the kids toy shopping and they were able to buy quite a few presents for the toy drive with it. Brandon was so excited he wanted to put the bags in the box before we even paid for them. The kids are also having a food drive and a blanket drive through the school. The food goes to families in the county so it stays close to home and the blankets are going to the local homeless shelters. We didn't have any old blankets to donate so Mom put in a request at work so hopefully we can get a few at least. They also are having the yearly Santa Shoppe at school that I volunteer at. That is where the kids get to shop for their own gifts for their families. It is fun to see what the kids pick out. Sometimes we need to direct them and a lot of times to keep them from buying for themselves. They can be pretty adamant about what they want to give though. The big problem is when they have $10 and twenty people to buy for. That is next week so I should have some good stories after then. It takes up a lot of time but it is worth it. I just have to work a little harder the week after to get all of my projects done before CHristmas. We are supposed to go to Rachel's mom's for their Christmas party tonite but it is snowing really good so I don't know if we will want to chance it or not. We have lots planned over the next few weeks and I will try to post about all of it as we are doing them. I love being able to blog about our family adventures especially at Christmas it makes me feel closer to all of my extended family and that you all can be a part of our traditions as well as us a part of yours.

BJ

First things first. We finally were able to get high speed internet. Yay! They finally have service out here and we were able to get it at a discounted price through the school that ended up being the same cost as our dial up. It came just in time too because Jessie has a reading program through the school that they give access to from home and when I went to download it, it was like 487Mb. It took 30 minutes on high speed, I would probably be still downloading on dial up. Since our computer is so old, they said our speed might still be a little slower but compared to dial up, I don't notice. Now I can do more stuff during the day instead of waiting until night because I didn't want to tie up the phone line during the day.

On to BJ. He is the most sweetest loving dog with brown eyes that will melt your heart. That is the only thing keeping him alive. It is like having a hyper toddler around that you have to watch every minute. He has separation anxiety really bad so we had to get a crate for him because he was tearing things up when we left. We got a fold up metal one but we can't fold it up any longer because he was popping the latches and getting out. He managed to open the locks so we put carabiners on them. He broke the carabiners and got out. Once, we aren't even sure how he did it because we came home, he was out and the door was closed. We finally got some latches that seem to keep him in but he keeps destroying his bedding. We give him a toy that you put peanut butter in and we freeze it and he manages to eat most of that also. He is getting better but on Halloween we came home and found he somehow managed to get the mat in front of Scott's chair into the crate and chewed it up. We have to keep all the doors shut because he likes to shred stuff. I can tell when he is not getting enough exercise because that is when is starts to get destructive. The problem is lately all he wants to do is play with Fear, who is getting too old to play. I wonder if dog's can sense another animal's time is short? We are hoping Fear will last through the new year at least. He is getting better at not herding the kids, at least not nipping on them as often. We are still working on that. He is really good on a leash but when you take him off and he gets really excited, then he doesn't listen, so we are really working on that right now. Sometimes I wonder why we were supposed to have him now when our life is already chaotic enough without adding a hyper dog to the mix. I wouldn't trade him though. He has also brought a lot of happiness into our lives and he can really cheer us up. It is impossible to not love a dog who is so happy to see you, even if it was just five minutes ago. He follows me everywhere and just lays down beside me wherever I am. Makes you feel loved, but also guilty if I am moving around a lot. I guess God knew we wouldn't send him back no matter what and I am really getting good use of my mending skills.

Halloween

The kids took skating lessons for five Saturdays at Skate City to learn to roller skate. We don't have anywhere out here in the county to practice, no sidewalks etc., so they were pretty much limited to just skating at the lessons. Jessie was the smallest in the class and couldn't even see over the wall. She was funny to watch because she took such small steps that she barely went anywhere. Brandon did a little better but he looked like a robot at first. We found him some inline skates at a second hand store for $3.50 and Jessie some of those plastic skates that go over your shoes on Craigslist so they could practice on our kitchen floor. Brandon was getting good at home and then he would fall back at practice. On the last day, the 29th, they had a graduation skate and Halloween party where they could wear their costumes and parents could skate too. Jessie was content to let me pull her around. She has a princess mentality, which means she thinks everything should be done for her, including skating for her. Anyway, I helped her and Brandon was slow for a few rounds and then he just took off. You would think he had been skating a lot longer than five sessions. The school offers discount family skate nights every couple of months and they are looking forward to those skating sessions now that they know how to skate.



So Saturday they went to the Halloween skating party and then in the afternoon we took them to the children's museum where they could trick or treat around the art gallery and they had a magic show. The kids had a great time. Monday Jessie had her school Halloween party in the morning, and Brandon's was in the afternoon. In between I went to the grocery store. Then we went to GG's and Chris' and then went trick or treating. This year Jessie went as half angel half princess, although she pretty much just looked like an angel but don't tell her that. Brandon was a cowboy. We usually go to the mall to trick or treat, but last year didn't go well, they got bored, so this year we went out in the "real world" as Jessie put it. She had us make a separate bag for the safe candy that came from family etc., and a bag for the to be checked candy. They didn't actually get much of that because by the time we got going, the neighborhoods we went to didn't have that many houses that still had treats, but they just liked the experience anyway and we went to Rachel's Aunt and Uncle's house again where they do the spook house and really decorate so that was fun too. The only bad thing, besides constantly running all day, was having to crate BJ several times. If we don't, he tears things up because of his separation anxiety. More on him later. That's a whole story by itself.

Mom's Birthday

For mom's 60th birthday Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim decided to make a surprise visit. It was hard not to slip up and say something to her. They came in on Mom's birthday, on Thursday. Uncle Jim had the idea to fill up her car with balloons. She also had her office completely covered with 60 stuff. She was really mad at Dad because she thought he did the balloons but then as soon as she saw Jim she knew it was him. They all went out to dinner that night and on Friday we went to see Dolphin Tale at the movies. It was a very good movie. We all got together on Friday night for pizza. We went to the riverwalk on Saturday to see Grandpa's name on the veteran's bridge and had the birthday party on Saturday night. Unfortunately they had to go home early on Sunday but all in all it was a great visit. I am glad that we got to see Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim twice this year. If they really want crazy they should come for Christmas sometime. I think everyone had a good time and Mom had a good birthday surprise.

New Dog

We have been having disagreements over whether to get another dog before Fearless dies practically since Shane died. With Fear's semi agressive behavior I didn't think it would be a good idea, Scott felt we should get one before to make it easier for the kids especially since Fear has cancer and is 10 we have no way of knowing when his time will come. I finally told Scott that if the right dog came along and it was felt it was meant to be at the right time then that is when we would get one whether Fear was alive or not. Fast forward a few weeks ago. Scott found a puppy along the road and took it to the animal shelter. They asked him if he just wanted to keep it since they had so many but it turned out it was part Mastiff and part boxer, I said no it didn't feel right besides it was only a few months old and Jessie would love it to death. So they tried to get him to take another dog that had been returned. I said no. A week later we went down to the shelter because Brandon wanted to donate money. He sees the abuse commercials and it tears him up. And of course they wanted to look at the dogs. See where this going? They looked at the dogs and were just kinds of saying hi until they got to the last kennel. All of a sudden they both went down on their knees and started playing with a dog. They immediately asked if we could do a meet and greet. I told them to keep looking we weren't getting a dog. They didn't even hardly give some little puppies a second glance and wanted to go back to the other dog. Against my better judgement I allowed them to take him outside. They were already in love with Baja. I started thinking that if both kids agreed on this dog which never happens anymore then maybe it was meant to be. I told Scott we would consider it if he could talk them into giving him to us for free since they offered before and if Fearless got along with him. As you can see we ended up with him. We changed his name to BJ. He is a border collie/shepard mix about 7 months old. Fear is doing great with him and he is making our lives interesting. He has some obedience training but not totally and he has a tendency to nip at the kids and the cat. He also has severe separation anxiety so we have ordered a crate or he tears things up while we are gone. Our free dog is costing us but we love him and he was already returned once so we are committed. Mom who was against this for the same reasons I was is completely in love with him. He should provide us with some interesting stories.

Back to school and other news

The kids are back to school. They started August 11, went one day, then went back Monday- Thursday and then this week only went two days because they have literacy testing. Jessie is in kindergarten half day. They are offering full day with a tuition price, but we do not have the money and I don't think it is worth it for maybe an extra two hours of class time. She goes from 8:00 to 11:30 and Brandon, who is in third grade this year, goes from 8:00-3:30. Because of the buses, Jess gets home anywhere from 12 to 12:30 and Brandon gets home between 4 and 4:30. They both seem to like it so far. I worked with Brandon all summer a little each day, so hopefully that helped him. He likes his teacher and isn't giving me too much trouble about going to school so far. Jessie I knew wouldn't be a problem. I haven't gotten their results back from the testing but I think they did well. This was the first year Brandon finished his testing on time so I take that as a good sign. I think the teachers were impressed by what Jessie knew but that doesn't surprise me since she has been watching Brandon do his homework since he started school. They are already hitting us up for money. First with school supplies, which ends up being about $20- $30 per kid depending on how cheap you can go, then you have to pay a craft fee of $15 per child and then school pictures and fundraisers are the first part of September. Oh joy! Jessie's teacher said that the teachers have to supply all the classroom stuff like decorations and books out of their own pocket. So where exactly is all the education money going to? Anyway hopefully this will be a good year for all the kids in our families.

Onto other news: Chris is doing well in his job. His bosses are sending him to different plants to observe and they trade ideas about how to run the plants more efficiently. He just went on a quick trip to Nebraska with four of his bosses in a car to check out one of the plants. He wasn't exactly looking forward to being stuck in a car with his bosses for 8 hours both ways but he sees this as a good sign that they aren't looking to let him go anytime soon. He was even offered an opportunity to travel the world for 6 months visiting other plants but he had to turn that down since he is married now. Then in September he flies to Florida for 5 days to do more of the same.

Grandma was in the hospital for a few days this weekend after my birthday party. She was having trouble with some new medication so the doctor switched it but her blood pressure started spiking and going all over the place. Mom took her to the emergency room on Sunday evening and they kept her there for a few days to figure out what was going on. In the end they think the medicine that she was allergic to was not out of her system before she started taking the new meds plus her neuropathy is starting to spread to more than just her feet. The hypertension is messing up her kidneys a little so she has to go on a low sodium diet. I guess her age is finally starting to catch up on her body a little. She is doing much better now though and is back home. Nobody at the hospital could believe she was 96, they kept checking her records and asking her if she was sure she is 96? That made her feel pretty good.