Nature Girl!

As I have blogged before, our home is a zoo (two cats, a bird, a hamster, a lizard and a frog!). Almost literally. Paige is our nature girl and cannot seem to pass up any animal. She loves them all equally and never hesitates to interact with whatever mother nature puts in her path. Mark is generally no help as he is constantly bringing something in from the yard and showing Paige, who then in turn looks at me as if to say "Can I?" (as in 'keep it')....the creature Mark brought in today brought a resounding NO from me and Paige spent quite some time with it outside before it slithered away.....kids (small AND big ones!)...


Paige has never hesitated to hold an animal...and snakes are no exception!





Here it is up close....



Hugs to all,
Jaye

Awanas Fair

Our day yesterday started with a T-ball game at 9:30. The game was over at 10:45 and we headed home to change and I took Paige to her Cheer meeting. After that was over, we scooted to base where I dropped her off at the theater to see a double feature with Lilly while I went to the commissary.

Yesterday was also the Awanas fair. Awanas is a Christian based kids activity group that the kids go to each Wednesday. Many of their friends from school go as well so they really have a good time socializing with everyone while learning bible stories etc. Once a year, the Awanas program has a fair to raise funds for the upcoming year-Awanas starts in September and just had their last session last week, with the summer off. Paige was at the movies with Lilly, so Mark and I took Ben. The plan was to stay for an hour, but two hours later we headed home. Ben had $20 worth of tickets and it took him that long to spend them all! What a great time we had!


Ben spent two tickets on the 'spin art' craft. A piece of paper is put on a spinner while you drizzle paint on it-hence the name 'spin art', pretty clever hey? :)




Another activity to do was the horse ride, which cost all of six tickets (tickets were 25cents each). Ben saved this till last as he wanted to make sure he had enough tickets to do everything else. Once he had done everything else twice AND had bought his fair share of cupcakes, he decided to do the horse ride. It was NOT his favorite thing to do!

Here he is climbing onto the horse...




Starting out..




On our way back because we are NOT too happy at this point...





Are we done yet? Get me off!...




After we got home, Paul and Ami brought Paige and Lilly back to our house and we had a bonfire, the first of the season! What a relaxing (albeit busy!) day it was!

Hugs to all,
Jaye

Beautiful Girl...

This is a picture I took at the frog pond (see previous post) of Paige getting tadpoles. I loved it so much I wanted it to have a post all it's own! :)
She is so darn cute...takes after her mother! hehehe..

Hugs to all,
Jaye

Tadpoles are FINALLY hatching!

Paige and Twila (daycare child) hunt for frogs at the pond...



The past few weeks in Daycare we have been doing the life cycle of the frog. We have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of tadpoles so that we can watch them morph from tadpoles to froglets to frogs! Unfortunately, due to the bizarre weather, everything from flowers to tadpoles has been unusually late this year. We have checked the frog pond on our road every few days for the past few weeks fully expecting the tadpoles to be there. It was only this past Friday that we FINALLY found nine tadpoles! By this time of the year, the pond is usually bursting with very large tadpoles and catching enough is never an issue.....this year was a different story. We hunted and searched and scanned the waters, and found only NINE very small tadpoles....but nine is better than none right? :)
So now we have two containers with tadpoles in them and we will observe their change as they slowly turn into full blown frogs!


Hugs to all,
Jaye

Happy Belated Birthday Marky!

Marks birthday is on the 11th of April, but he was away on a business trip so we postponed his celebration until he returned. He got home on Friday afternoon and opened his gifts right away (big surprise!). We bought him three new computer games and a 'One fish Two fish Red fish Blue fish' t -shirt (he read this book EVERY night to Paige from the time I was three weeks pregnant). He also received a gift of money from his Mom and Dad and some coupons from Dan and Laura (thanks guys...we'll all be his slaves for the next while! haha). Yesterday (Saturday) I baked him a wonderfully delicious three layer coconut cake! It has coconut milk in the batter and as you can see, it is also completely covered in coconut...I have to say, thanks to Paula Deen on food network, we have found a NEW birthday tradition for Mark! YUMMO! After church today we had his birthday luncheon-grilled steaks and lamb chops, Italian salad (tomatoes,kosher salt,basil,olive oil,fresh mozzarella and prosciutto) and baked potatoes with all the fixings! All this was followed by the above described and below pictured Three Layer Coconut Cake. Dad, I promise to bring the recipe with me next time I visit and make it for YOU, as I know you'd LOVE it! :)


Here it is in all its glory!




And here it is with candles on it! It doesn't look like this now though! There is a fair amount of it gone! lol....




Hugs to all,
Jaye

Paiges Gifted Private School!

In January, the school district here tested Paige for the gifted program. On Thursday, we got the results......she was admitted to the gifted program!! We are soooo happy for her as FINALLY she will get the education that she needs. While her teachers thus far have gone above and beyond the call of duty to keep her challenged, it really isn't enough. In first grade she was reading at a 5th grade level and now in third grade, she is reading at a 7th grade level. She excels at all she does and gets straight A's (in this school district, it's actually all 4's as they grade on a scale from 1-4). So while I really hate labeling children, I am glad that Paige finally has this 'label' on her as this means the district now has to step up (taking the load off of Paige's already overworked and underpaid teachers!) and keep Paige on a level that she is capable of doing. It means that she will be taking the bus every day (starting in September) to another school about a half hour away, but the education she will get is well worth it. ALL the teachers have their masters in their subjects, so for example, the art teacher has a masters in Art and the kids don't do 'crafts', they learn how to draw and sculpt etc! Paige is nervous of course, and not wanting to lose touch with her friends so we are making plans to keep play dates and weekends open for her and to make this a positive thing for her! What this means for Mark and I is that Paige gets a private school education at no cost to us, and for this we are so grateful as we could never afford to send her to this kind of school on our own, and she really should be there! So Praises to the powers above that helped this to come about!

Here is a picture of the front of her new school, Emerald Heights Elementary. It is the 'flagship' school of the district, meaning when any dignitaries come to the area, THIS is the school they are shown, so this school is always the first to get funding! We just can't wait for Paige to start!

Hugs to all,
Jaye

First T-Ball game of the Season!

The first game of the season was on Thursday and what a game! The kids play for an hour, so sometimes we have three innings, sometimes more, sometimes less. They ALL run for the ball all at the same time, they ALL run around the bases (even if it's not their turn!) and they all go home winners! If you haven't seen a t-ball game lately, I recommend hunting one down at your local park and watching, it has got to be the FUNNIEST thing in the world to watch!!!


Who's on first? Ben's on first!





Yah...My people will call your people and we'll set something up...in the meantime, leave the dugout sister!



Hugs to all,
Jaye

Random Pictures and things....

While Mark was away on his trip the kids and I were busy busy....so we didn't have a whole lot of time to miss him....Paige had cheer, Ben had T ball, I had daycare and DivorceCare and volunteering at the kids school and running the house etc....you can see in the picture below that I just wore Paige out one day! (sassy too!)





I asked Ben to go and wash his hands before dinner one night and he came out like this!! Nothing is more fun to a 6 year old than water and soap bubbles!




Hugs to all,
Jaye

T Ball Opening Day!

T ball opening season was last Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny day, and actually reached almost 80 degrees! (and today it has SNOWED off and on...go figure!). The day started with the introduction of the Executive Board for West Central Little League (the league Ben plays for), then the teams were all introduced starting with the oldest kids down to the youngest (our Tballers!). There was the raising of the flag, singing of the National Anthem and the ceremonial First pitch! It was a great day and the Red Racers are ready to PLAY BALL!!



Ben in his T ball uniform. Last year they were in blue and white.





Here is Bens team. He has the same coaches as last year (they are AWESOME!) and many of the same kids which is nice because Ben does NOT do well with Change!


Hugs to all,
Jaye

Alone...but not sad!

So here I sit...in a quiet house..the kids are back to school after spring break THANK YOU LORD! Love my children, but it IS nice to be back into a routine. I had my morning daycare children here and they are always such a great group..I truly do love my job! Mark is away as you all know...so I don't have him around to distract me at night (with you KNOW what!) so my house is getting VERY tidy. I am sorting out closets and cupboards and generally doing all those things I don't do (because I am doing something else!) when Mark is home....
The next while there will be no pictures on my blog as Mark has my laptop with him...which means unless I figure out how to download pics onto this computer (which seems like alot of work to me!) then I will have pictureless bloggings for a bit....so deal with it!
I have spent the morning catching up on all those loose ends (ie phone calls) that needed to be done over spring break that I never did and generally just taking the day to enjoy being responsible for ME and ME alone! :)
I have our DivorceCare class to teach tonight...Sam owes me money so we have worked out a babysitting arrangement...works for everyone! The rest of the week gets MUCH busier so I am going to enjoy the relative calm (and I do mean relative as I DO have daycare and kids to pick up from school etc today!) before the storm!

Hugs to you all...
Jaye

I'm leaving on a jet plane.....

It's 3:37 am and I'm about to head to bed..I just got back from taking Mark to base to meet the duty van that will take him to the airport. He'll be gone a few weeks on a business trip which means several things: I'll miss him, I'll get the WHOLE bed to myself, I'll miss him, the fan won't be on in our room every night (THANK YOU GOD!), and I'll miss him! :)

I have plenty to keep me busy that's for sure. School starts back tomorrow (I almost said "on Monday" then realized that it was already Sunday!), Ben has t-ball practice twice a week, Paige has cheer practice once a week, I have our divorce care class to teach on Mondays (Mark and I usually do this together but I'll be doing it on my own for the next while), I am in Bens class on Wednesday afternoons, Paige's class on Thursday mornings, I work out on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays at the gym on base and oh yeah...I run a daycare business as well....I may not have TIME to miss him!

He took my laptop with him so he can get emails and play pogo online with everyone.....

Hugs to all,
Jaye

Spring Break continues....

Well, Shelby flew home this past Sunday and Sam flew out to his Grandmothers for a week the same day. Shelbys visit with us was the best one we've had yet! She gave Mark her cell phone number (prior to this she kept it a secret although I already knew what it was!), she thanked Mark for her birthday gift (we've NEVER had a thank you from her for anything!) and she was just a joy to have around. As the other kids were still in school the week she was here, she and I were able to spend time doing things together and had a great time shopping and going out for lunch. Sam is spending his spring break at his grandmothers, and I am hoping his father shows up for more than a few days.....
So now THIS week, our other kids (Sam,Paige and Ben) are on their spring break! We've gone to the movies on base twice this week (free matinees all week) and are headed to see Nancy Drew as soon as I get this blog done!
Sam flies home on Sunday and Mark flies out for parts unknown. He is going on a business related trip for two weeks. This will be the first time in about three years that he has been gone (drydock etc so no going out to sea!) and we will miss him greatly! He has somehow conned me into taking MY laptop with him so that we can email each other and that we can all play pogo together in the evenings....I SUPPOSE it's worth giving up my little baby for two weeks so I can have contact with him everyday! :)
Off to the movies we go!
Hugs to all,
Jaye