Harry Potter

We got out our halloween box the other day to decorate and Jarod discovered that there are a whole bunch more costumes in that box he could have been wearing all this time. (For anyone who doesn't know Jarod, he is ALWAYS wearing one costume or another. Not sure why I even by him clothes). I thought this was cute. He put on the Harry Potter costume, glasses and all, to do his homework. Now that is a look of concentration! I missed the tongue, though. His tongue is always hanging out if he is concentrating.

Too funny!!

Last night Dean picked me up straight from work to go to Jarod's football practice at the Magna Rec Center. We start walking through the park and I am seeing people that look a little familiar. Suddenly we come up on this big sign that says "Cyprus Class of 1989 Welcome to your 20 Year Reunion!" 1989 . . . Oh my gosh that's me!! Have I really been out of high school for 20 years!?!? Crap I'm old. And if I'm old, then mom and dad you are REALLY old!! : )

Apparently I have moved SO FAR from my former home that they couldn't find me to invite me to the reunion. Oh well. That kind of fits in with high school for me . . . never invited to the party!! But like I said, I had just come straight from chasing 25 six year olds around all day, I was sweaty and it's casual Friday so I was wearing my jeans and school shirt, AND I still had my ID around my neck. Not exactly how you dress for a 20 year reunion. So I had to kind of hide so no one would see me. Of course, Jarod's practice was RIGHT NEXT to the pavillion where they were having the reunion! Man, what a day.

By the way, if you graduate from Cyprus, that is your 20 year reunion - hot dogs at Magna park!!

SNOW?!?!

We took a road trip up the canyon again today. This time it was to take pictures of the pretty fall leaves for DJ's Reflections entry. There are some awesome reds, yellows and oranges up there right now. It was a stormy/rainy day (of course, it's conference weekend) and as we got further up the canyon we found the rain turning quickly to SNOW!!
Didn't take long for the kids to start singing Christmas carols!
Here we are in front of our "Christmas tree" just dusted with snow. Everything smelled so good up there. It smelled . . . well. . . like CHRISTMAS! (Pine trees and cold).
We actually dragged Lindsie out of the car for this picture.

Catching snow on my tongue!!

Here we were at the peak. Well, as close as we dared go anyway. The roads started getting pretty bad at this point so we turned around and went back down. Before we left Jarod HAD to make a snowball to throw at mom. Notice he has FLIP FLOPS on his feet!!

On our way back down the mountain, this guy jumped out in front of our car (good thing we were down lower where the roads weren't too slick). He wouldn't get out of the road -- just kept walking in front of our car as we drove behind him. Finally he ducked off to the side and down the hill.

It was an AWESOME day!!

Poor, Poor Julie

This is my "pity me" post, so you have to give me lots of pity. This is my schedule for the next six weeks:
Monday: Jarod and DJ have 2 hour football practice
Tuesday: Jarod's football games
Wednesday: Dean's baseball games
Thursday: DJ's football games
Friday: Jarod's 2nd 2 hour football practice
Saturday: Jarod and DJ have football games
And I still have to work 9 hour days!!!!

Not really sure what my house looks like anymore. I hope someone cleans it once in a while. Pretty sure I'm going to run out of clean underwear soon. And the last time we had a real dinner . . . I don't know. Last week I never had time to get to the grocery store, so even on Sunday we had a frozen pizza.

How do people do this? :)

What a difference a year makes

Remember last year?

Now look at this boy play basketball!!
(Sorry about the quality of the video. He likes to shoot in the evening because it's cooler, so the video is dark)

He is out there almost everyday working on his shot. A lot of improvement, huh! Watch out Michael Jordan - Here comes Jarod Michael! He even has the tongue thing going if you look close!

He gets DJ out there practicing, too. They are both getting pretty good!

Ladies man

I was out on recess duty today and just had to take this picture. I will never tell Jarod about this blog because he would kill me, but it was too cute not to blog.

This is what my adorable son does every recess - plays jump rope with the girls. They sure like him! I have a hard time supervising 150 kids outside on recess when I only want to watch one!

First Day of School

Ok, so I'm a few days behind posting this one. Going back to work full time has kept me very busy, but I'm loving it. I just wish I didn't come home so completely exhausted every night!

JarodJarod also started school full time this year. He is in Mrs. Bayles' class (which is right next to my class). He has loved his class so far and gets to do lots of fun stuff. The best part about first grade - eating lunch at school and having THREE WHOLE RECESSES!! Jarod is taller than most of the kids in his class. He has grown so much over the summer. I had to buy new church clothes for him THREE times just since June (he just wore shorts the other days of the week).

DJ

DJ is in sixth grade - king of the school. His teacher is Mrs. Graham - same teacher Lindsie had (and loved) in sixth grade. His class will be reading buddies for mom's class this year. He is on safety patrol, student council and cyber corps. The worst thing about 6th grade - AN HOUR of homework every night. This is the year he gets braces. He has already started the process of having his jaw expanded to make room for his teeth. And he would like to grow taller like his little brother. He still fits in all his pants from last year!

Lindsie

Good heavens, here is my "baby" in ninth grade! Soon she drives, dates and goes to high school. She is on the Improv team, academic team, choir and before long will be involved in the school play. This year she gets to go to seminary, which so far she absolutely loves. Her teacher is Brother Zito, whose younger brother teaches at my school. She wants to be a wildlife biologist, so since her classes this year count toward high school, she is taking extra science classes. She is a whiz at anything animal and can spout of facts about just about any creature. And she NEVER stops talking!!

So far everyone is doing well. We have a pretty good after school routine going. We have a dinner rotation going so each night one person cooks, someone else sets the table, someone clears table and the last person does the dishes (one person gets the night off). I was worried they would all complain when I gave out the assignments, but they LOVE it. They love to cook (even Jarod), especially they get to choose what they cook. It's not so bad to do dishes when it's only once a week! The best part - mom doesn't have to do everything and the kids are learning how to cook basic meals.

After dinner we have 1/2 hour of homework/reading time that we all do together. It's a nice quiet time that we just get to spend together and it settles everyone down for bed.

We are off to a great start!