Lemon Creme Sandwich Cookies

Just a quick post before bed.

My son is just the sweetest most generous person that I know.

Today while we were talking about what he chose for lunch (more on that later) we talked about the two lemon creme sandwich cookies that I put in his lunch the day before as a little surprise. That's when he told me that he gave his second cookie to his new friend Justin, because Justin's Mommy hadn't given him a dessert. I just love that he is so caring of others and his faith in fairness not only governs others, but himself.

I love this kid!

President Obama and My Issues with the Grand Canyon

President Obama visited Arizona this last weekend. Not only did he stop by, but he took the family up to the Grand Canyon for a little trailblazing.

I've been to the Grand Canyon...A LOT!

You see when we moved to Arizona in 1979 all the visits from friends and family since then centered on seeing three tourist locations.

The first is Mexico, and I’m sorry, I’ve never been impressed there. I know we have only visited border towns and that makes a HUGE difference, but I hate it there. It probably started the first time we went to Mexico when I was a little girl and a strange Mexican man grabbed my wrist and put a bracelet on me as we were walking. I’m surprised I didn’t pee my pants as much as I freaked out. And, let’s face it; it’s certainly not the most sanitary environment to sight-see in.

The second place to visit was South Mountain. My parents liked to scare the crap out of people traveling up the side of that mountain in our huge van to watch the lights come on throughout the valley of the sun. Now, well, you don’t go there unless you’re packing and you have your gang with you. That’s too bad; too, because that is the one place I did like to go. Probably because it wasn’t a 4-5 hour drive there.

Last, and certainly not least, is the Grand Canyon. Yes, it is beautiful, yes it is majestic, and yes it is a HUGE HOLE IN THE GROUND. We have taken picture after picture of this magnificent wonder, so much so that a few years ago when I went through photos with Mom, we probably threw away a hundred pictures of the Grand Canyon, the ones that were taken with no people in them. I hate the drive there, I hate the walk around, and I hate that about 10 minutes after you’ve been there you turn around and leave. It’s so boring and I must say it hasn’t really changed much in the 30 years we’ve lived here.

The following will come as a surprise to my family, as I have made it clear on many occasions that I would die happy never seeing the Grand Canyon again.

I’m very proud that our President decided to take a little family trip to the Grand Canyon. Although, even he said it hadn’t changed much since he was there at age 11, hmm, maybe we think alike.

The Grand Canyon, along with the Saguaro cactus and scorching heat are what make Arizona, Arizona. It seems like all too often Arizona is in the news for so many negative things, that I found the President’s visit refreshing and wholesome. It wasn’t a golf trip, even though I heard he’s played a round or two, it was a family outing. And, not only that, but his wife and daughters dressed appropriately in tank tops, shorts, and sandals! President Obama even wore a white polo (gulp) and what looked like Dockers, poor guy probably isn't allowed to wear shorts. They looked like a family, enjoying their time together as a family. I love that. It didn’t look like a publicity stunt, as the cameras were far away from them; it looked like they had a good time.
I know someday it will be my turn, yet again, to go to the Grand Canyon to show my children the big hole in the ground. Yes, I will fake awe and wonder, and have lots of facts about it all. Yes, I will encourage them to learn as much as they can about our time there. And, yes, I will enjoy it, because if I get lucky, it may be the last time I will have to go. Oh, and NO, I will NOT be riding the donkey down to the bottom or walking out on that new glass bridge. I don't like to tempt fate.

One Week Down and Still Organized

Last week was a blur. By the end of the week I felt like I had run a marathon. Starting school and flag football practice all in one week was a little overwhelming for me. But with our new message/calendar center and our paperwork binders everything, so far, has stayed organized.

I stole Sandy’s idea for a paperwork book for the kids. You can see her post here. The funny thing is that I had put it off for so long, trying to come up with the perfect thing to put on the front and side of the book, that I did it last minute last week. All I did was grab some scrapbook paper that coordinated with the pink and blue (these will either be black or white in the future – what was I thinking) binders. Printed the kid’s names on the paper and put some clear window pages inside it and stuck the books up on our entertainment shelves. I’m so happy I didn’t over-complicate them. They turned out fine and now they’re done and ready to hold so many memories. On Sunday we filed all the art and paperwork from the week before, and now we’re ready for a new week.

I also updated our calendar through the school year, so I have all those important dates already ready to go.

Joe's First Day of Kindergarten

I'm sure there are about 5 billion posts today about the first day of school out there in the blogesphere. But, I don't care, here's one more...

My handsome son started his first day of school in Kindergarten today. We were all really excited, except for Joci. She had a really rough time with Joe starting school. She threw a couple of fits, had to pack her own backpack, wanted to got to her dance class, and was generally mopey the entire day. Even tonight before bed all she wanted was to be held and cuddled. I think they both missed each other terribly.

Apparently Joe did an amazing job today. He made one friend so far, but forgot what her name was. He had five (?) recesses, and got to read a book about a racoon's first day of school and made a cute racoon and handprint page to go with it. You know how much he loves crafts, so I think that was right up his alley. He even got a little favor pack with his favorite treat in it...a tootsie roll pop.
Many people asked me today how I was doing. I surprised myself, yet again, for being stronger than I thought I would be. I didn't cry, in fact, I wasn't sad at all. I was so excited that Joe was starting this big new step for himself and that he was excited to try something new. I was excited to hear all about his day. I pretty much sped through my day, constantly wondering what he was doing at that time and if he liked the lunch that he made himself. I couldn't wait to pick him up so we could talk about his day.
What a fun time in our lives this is. I'm so proud of my sweet son, and so proud of myself for handling a huge change so well.

Headboard Dream!

Love, love, love this idea that 'Be Different, Act Normal' found.

I have been looking for some headboard ideas for quite a while and just love this idea! Man I wish I had an old sign just laying around.

Spontaneous Family Fun

Even though we were all exhausted yesterday our little family had such a fun night.

Jon made dinner, which both of the kids really liked. He ran into a little prep emergency and actually asked my opinion about what he should do. We came up with the solution together…aw teamwork! He made chicken alfredo with lots of cheese. It was very yummy and filling.

Next we all relaxed in the Living Room. Jon and I catching up on our day’s events and the kids started playing hide and seek. Joe is the fastest counter in the country; we had to slow him down a little so Joci would have enough time to hide. We started to help both kids hide because, I’ll be honest here, they are certainly not the best at this.

After awhile we ran out of hiding spaces and switched to Eye Spy (with my little eye)… Joci wasn’t really interested in this one, but Joe started to understand the concept quickly. Of course, when you started getting close to answering his riddle, he would switch them around. Either that or he would look right at the object before declaring the color. He got better, though, as we went.

When we were gamed out we relaxed for a bit watching a magic program on TV. I loved listening to Joe wonder out loud “How’d they do that?”, and Joci sat in her favorite place, right in front of me so we can snuggle. We let them stay up for a little while to finish the magic show. Jocelyn had a hard time wanting to head up to bed, but once up there she was out cold.

I love these moments. Those unscripted, times as a family where we all connect and laugh and snuggle and love on each other, without it being a huge effort or a big event. Those are the times that I cherish and hold in my heart, hoping that I will remember them forever.