First Day of School......finally! :)

School started on September 3rd this year. Ben started grade 2 and Paige started grade four in her new gifted program (which she LOVES!). Sam is graduating this year, hard to believe! I don't know where the time has gone....but then Katie turned 21 this summer so I shouldn't be shocked at how fast time flies!



Here is a picture of Paige and Ben in their 'first day of school' outfits. It never matters how many things they own, they always have to have a new outfit for the first day! (Ben and Paige both actually needed all new school clothes this year, but I can't complain. They are both so tiny and grow so slow right now that it has been two years since I've had to buy all new stuff for them! I am sure this isn't a trend that will continue!). Notice Paige has on a brown top with a sweater slung over her shoulder?







Here is what that sweater looked like on. She is just like her Gramma Barbie, a real clothes horse! She tells ME what I should and should not wear....pretty sad when your 9 year old has better fashion sense than you do! hehehe






And then there is Ben in his 'uniform'....a pair of jeans and a shirt. He really took a shine to the Tony Hawke line this year, so most of his shirts are from that collection...and he was worse than Paige to shop with. EVERYTHING had to be just the right colour and shade and match everything else....can we say 'metrosexual'? lolol




Hugs to all,
Jaye

Another candidate?

I will be posting pictures this weekend of our past few adventures and events....it has been a busy month, with school starting...Ben's birthday and daycare starting up again!

Paige is doing really well in her new school. The gifted program (aka Venture Program) is the perfect fit for her. Every week for the next seven weeks they are studying Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Seven Principles To Thinking Like A Genius'. She has totally skipped 4th grade math and been put into 5th grade math. Her spelling tests are actually tests that are given on College Entrance exams! So she is being challenged...and like all challenges it has a period of adjustment. She is used to sitting down to do her homework in five minutes flat with no brain power...now she is spending a half hour or more each night and having to flex that brain muscle of hers...but she is loving it...and LOVES, with a capital L, her teacher, Mrs. Jones.

Ben is doing VERY well in second grade....and in fact, last week was tested in reading. His level? 5th grade! His math skills are OFF the charts for a second grader (ok..so in first grade he was asking his teacher if they could use negative numbers in math, so you can imagine what he is like this year! hehe). He is a bright little boy who is as curious as his older sister...

Sam is doing well also in his last year of high school- Yup...he GRADUATES this year! Yikes! He too is very smart (AP Japanese and VERY VERY fluent).

Katie too is one smart cookie...always was...she could read before she was in Kindergarden and was always asking when it would get harder! hehe....

Now my brother is a genius (literally!)....Mark is a sonar tech on a nuclear submarine....so how much of these four kids 'brains' is genetic? How much of it is nurture and environment? All four kids could read to some degree (or read well in the case of the two girls) before they hit kindergarden. We have always talked to our kids in 'grown up terms'. Never 'dumbing down' what ideas we were trying to get across. If the kids didn't know what a word meant, we would not only give them the definition, but we'd give them several other words they could use in place of. When they wanted to learn something, we'd teach them. For example, when Ben was interested in angles this summer, Mark bought him a compass and protractor and taught him all about angles (thank God he did, because as most of you know math is NOT my forte...ok..not even ON the list of things I can do! hahaha).

So I wonder...as Ben becomes obviously more and more the next candidate for the gifted program...how much of this is fluke? Can we as proud parents take any credit? Four kids...two different fathers...a whole range of genetic possibilities...and yet all four show amazing talents in different areas....Yes...Shelby is smart...but she has to work for her grades....and last year started finding subjects that she couldn't just ace...she had to struggle for that C. And NO, I am NOT intimating that it is ME that is the common thread here...Yes, I am smart. Yes, I have a keen legal mind..and Yes, I can verbally spar with the best of them...but math? Forget about it. Drawing? HA. Good one..stick men come out looking like well...not like stick men. I am talking about four kids who can pretty much master anything they attempt...Paige and Ben especially so...and with EASE. That is what gets me...the EASE with which those two can do things....

So.....just some rambling out loud about my kids brains...I want them to be kids. I want them to enjoy a carefree, stressfree childhood as much as possible. I do not want to push them too far. But at the same time, I don't want to let them stagnate either. So it is a fine line we walk in getting them the education they deserve, while not being too pushy. I don't want to do that. I have always let the kids lead the way in showing us just how much they need..and how much to let go....

Ahhhh...parenthood....it's never an easy road is it??

Hugs to all,
Jaye

Lest we Never Forget

As Alan Jacksons song goes, Where were YOU when the world stopped turning that September Day seven years ago?

I have blogged about what we were doing that day...Mark was on leave...the kids were getting ready for school...I was VERY pregnant with Ben (in fact he was born 12 days later). I have blogged about how stunned we were...how Mark got in line to give blood...how we raced to the water front to watch any homeported subs leave for parts unknown. I think we can all recall where we were and what we were doing. We can all remember the shock...the disbelief. We can all remember the outpouring of Patriotism and how many flags suddenly appeared on every car and home and store. Living in a Navy town really was interesting during that time.

But now it's seven years later. How do we feel NOW?

Are we sick of the war? I think most of us are. I try to explain to people the difference between hating the war and supporting the Troops. They are two different things. A lot of military members don't like the war either. Bring the troops home already! But we need to support the men and women who literally go in harms way to preserve our way of life. Who are willing to put their lives on the line for what they believe in. We don't have to believe the same things. We don't have to like the war. We don't have to like President Bush. But We do need to support the troops no matter our political views. As a military wife, I know only too well that it isn't just the military member who makes sacrifices for this country. The whole family does. Wives go without their husbands on Anniversaries (Mark went out to sea the day of our tenth anniversary this year...we have yet to celebrate it). Kids go without a dad or a mom at a birthday party...at school events. Many families wake up Christmas morning with one parent/spouse gone. Forget about planning anything. One never knows where you will be three months from now or if your spouse will be around to actually use that airline ticket/concert ticket/go on vacation etc. We also need to show support to the troops whenever we see them. We don't ever want another Vietnam...and sometimes our troops doubt that the rest of civilian America really cares at all. Last month I was at the airport to pick Sam up from his trip to his Dads. His flight was delayed so we spent a great deal of time at the gate waiting for him. At one point, four marines in Camis walked through the airport. One old guy in the gate area stood up and started clapping with all his heart. It took about ten seconds for everyone to figure out what was going on and to join in. You could visibly see these four Marines straighten up and get a look of pride as they walked through an airport full of clapping people. I'd like to think that I would have started the clapping if that old man hadn't, but I know I wouldn't have. I figure I do enough in MY military home. Sometimes I feel that I should get the applause. It's all about me. And that is wrong. Yes, I do sacrifice. Yes, my kids sacrifice. Yes, my husband sacrifices. But we are all healthy. We are all alive. By the Grace of God that will remain the same. But I also need to set an example, SHOW people how to 'support the troops'. The next time I am in the airport and I see men/women in uniform, I plan on leading the clapping.

Have we become apathetic? It was a great loss of life that day seven years ago. But now the price of gas is on our minds...it's 5 bucks for a gallon of milk...the kids have started a new school year...LIFE has gone on. As it should. But have we forgotten how insulted we were that someone came into our own backyard and hurt us? While we need for life to continue, for the healing to begin, we also don't want to ever forget the deep emotion we felt that day. For if we do, if we let the apathy creep back, then that day seven years ago can happen all over again. And we don't want to let anyone have that opportunity in our own backyard again.

Have we forgotten? Have we forgotten the civilian lives lost simply because they went to work that day? Have we forgotten the lives lost by people who KNEW that by going in and searching, rescuing and comforting, they too could lose their life...but they went anyways. Have we forgotten the families living with their losses from that day? Families still seeing an empty spot at a dinner table or family event that will forever remain empty? We cannot forget. To forget is to dishonor the heros. To forget is to put too small a price on the lives lost. To forget is to say 'it's ok to kill our countrymen, because after awhile even WE forget'. To forget is unforgiveable....

So take just 60 seconds today to remember. The families. The heroes. The troops. The anger and shock of that day. Take 60 seconds to remember why we love living in America and not in any other country. Take 60 seconds to remember. Just remember.

Let us never forget....

Hugs
Jaye

Chalk one up for the home team....

I have a ton of pictures to post in here....first day of school....our weekend at the beach...lots of great pics...and lots to blog about....so why haven't I done it yet?
ok....well....you'll all get a chuckle I am sure...Mark sure is having fun telling all his buddies about it!
When Mark was out to sea, my virus protection thingy...yah..you read that right...THINGY...which will let you know just how all this happened...I am NOT a computer person...Why should I be? Mark is the one with the degree! AND...my computer genius brother is just a phone call away...so when I have computer issues, I have PEOPLE....anywho...my virus scanner blocker thingy popped up saying 'your protection has expired' (which would be a GREAT feature on birth control right?) and so I clicked on it and it said 'download a new virus protection program'. Now as you all know, Mark is ANAL about computer protection. It is like living at bloody Fort Knox half the time with all the passwords and scans etc that go on on our computers......so when it said my virus protection was expired I thought 'oh crap' and thought I needed to do something...so I bought this new program...
It all went downhill from there....
Turns out I not only downloaded a HUGE virus but I PAID FOR IT!!! I DID get my money refunded from the company after threatening them with the Prosecuting Attys office along with various other agencies....but that didn't take the virus off my laptop....
But like I said, I have PEOPLE! :)
So Mark has spent the past three days (when I do something I do it well! lol) fixing my laptop. He's almost done...I have a feeling the bill won't be pleasant....maybe I can work it off! :)
So once my puter is fixed, I'll download pictures and blog about them....
You are probably asking why I don't download them onto the computer I am using in the living room....well..I am a creature of habit..and I KNOW how to download pics on my laptop..I DON'T know how to do it onto this puter...and I don't have ANY desire to learn...I have PEOPLE to do that stuff for me! :)
So...say a prayer for my poor sick laptop.....
Sigh...

Hugs to all,
Jaye

A bogging we will go....

Mark returned home from sea yesterday. It doesn't matter how many times I say that or how many years I've been saying it, it always comes out sounding like a line from a Jane Austin novel!

Aside from a soak in our spa tub, a nice hunk of fairly raw *GAG* beef, and sleeping in a big big bed with the MOST gorgeous woman (hehehe), one of the things he really wanted to do was 'get away' if just for a few days. So while he was gone I did a little research and discovered that WA state actually has Cranberry Bogs!! Who knew!? It is on the other coast, about a two and a half hour drive, but we thought well worth the trip to be able to get away from phones and the boat and the fast paced life we lead.

I have rented a two room cabin near the beach (could be a total dive but hey..we are always up for an adventure!) and right across the street from a cranberry bog! How convenient will THAT be? We plan on taking our kites and buckets and shovels...our backgammon game and our sunscreen...our camera and some warm 'beach' clothes (it gets quite windy on that side of the state!) and just spend a few days beaching and bogging and relaxing. The cabin has a full kitchen so I plan on taking breakfast and lunch items so we don't have to waste time 'eating out', and then in the evenings we will see what Grayland (the town!) has to offer in the way of fine family dining.

I am hoping that they will have been able to at least START the harvest (cranberry harvest starts around now and can go until mid to late October) so that I can purchase fresh Washington grown berries for our two Thanksgivings (Canadian and American) and for Christmas! How fun to have cranberries to eat that we actually saw growing! I am not sure who is more excited about the whole cranberry experience, the kids or me!

Anyways, I plan on being off line for a few days and that is why. I will have pictures to post and stories to tell upon our return I am sure!

Hugs to all,
Jaye