autumn? nope. crazy season.

I'm not sure this past weekend will fit into one blog post, but I'm going to give it a whirl!

Friday night, thanks to my mom being here to oversee what's here of the collective, Joe and I went to the Switchfoot concert. Despite the fact that they are my favorite band ever, this was only the second Switchfoot concert I'd ever been to. And it was fabulous! It was just Switchfoot, no openers. They played the new album ("Hello Hurricane") in its entirety then they played some older stuff. The concert was at Warehouse Live, which is a pretty good venue. I'm not sure I'd willingly attend a standing room only concert for just any band, but with this concert it actually worked. And here's a picture of Jon Foreman when he came out into the crowd and stood with the guy directly in front of us to sing a chorus of one song.


Saturday was Jared's birthday party. He had requested a Thomas (the Tank Engine) cake for his birthday party. And this is why it is useful to marry an engineer (among other reasons):


I also had train engine shapes for the kids to color and then I would assemble them with shoulder straps so they could be trains on the train tracks. Well, that didn't pan out. Instead, after Jared opened his presents, which were literally *all* trucks, with a few clothes thrown in for good measure, he took to driving his trucks around on the tracks. So it all worked out.


Sunday was Ashlee's 5th anniversary at our church. She got a golf cart for a gift. That didn't really have anything to do with us, nor did it add to the craziness of my weekend. I just thought I'd share.


Today, I implemented plan A of the "get Jadyn to stop chewing on her fingernails" attempt. This consisted of painting her fingernails (and her toenails, just for kicks). She chose red glitter polish - one of my personal favorites for the Christmas season. So I painted my toenails too. Her toes look cute, and so do mine! Hooray for having daughters!

I talked to Alaina today...she's doing well. I am really looking forward to seeing her pictures!

This is the conversation I had with Jared this evening. He decided that one of his little cars - a school bus - also had ice cream in it. So he offered me some.

Jared: "Here's your ice cream!"
me: "Thanks!"
pause
Jared: "Give me a money!"

A little later, he offered me some more ice cream.
me: "I don't have any money."
Jared: "Get some!"

hooray technology!

Check this out! Clearly she's tired, but my dad told me today that she's doing really well and having a lot of fun.


She told me that she hadn't written in her journal yet, but that she was going to do that tonight before she went to bed. She also has a black and white (her favorite colors) punjabi, and she has chosen punjabi material for Jadyn that will "look like a pretty princess dress."

So far, so good. /whew!

Thanks to my cousin Dev for posting pictures on Facebook! Isn't technology amazing? :)

boys are special, reason #111 and #112

So I'm driving home from the Galleria area at 6:00pm tonight. (Enough said, right? It gets better.) I was picking up my sister's and daughter's passports which had been freshly approved and stamped with visas to India. I had Jared and A.J. with me. (Told you it was better.)

Determined to suck it up and deal the best I could, we made it out of the visa office without a trip outside/to the bathroom/wherever for some, um, more stringent discipline. Anyway, we're in the car, sitting in traffic, and Jared is alternating between entertaining me and telling me which way I should be driving. At one point, he starts singing "Twinkle Twinkle," and asks me to sing along. So I do. Then he asks me to sing the Doxology (we've started singing that at bedtime also...long story), so we sang that together too. As soon as we finish, he says, "Okay, time to go to bed now! Going to sleep in the car!" He then closed his eyes and leaned against his headrest, feigning sleep.

Of course I had to play along. "Jared, are you sleeping?"

Without blinking, "Yes!"

A few seconds later, in his delightful yelling voice, "Wake up time!"

After about 30 minutes and 10 miles, I asked him about one of his classmates at Mother's Day Out. I had been tipped off about this particular classmate from my informant.

"Jared, was Aubrey in your class today?"

"No."

Knowing otherwise, I persisted. "Jared, was Aubrey in class today?"

Unintelligible mutterings, then, "Yeah."

Different tactic. "Jared, is Aubrey your friend?"

Without hesitation, "Aubrey's a girl."

Clearly, being a girl disqualifies one from friendship status in Jared's world.

Ask for pink state of Texas cookies...



get pink state of Texas cookies!

I would give you one, but they're for Azina's going-away party. She's moving to my house next weekend!

the dawn of understanding

You may have heard the tales of Jared's naptime and bedtime exploits.

So I have taken to locking the door to the bathroom and putting up the gate in his doorway so that he cannot get out or relocate the bathroom accessories to his bedroom.

This afternoon, I did as usual, first locking the door to the bathroom.

"Mommy, you lock the door?"

"Yep. So you can't get in and make a mess."

I put up the gate in his doorway.

"Mommy, now I'm stuck in here!"

"Yep."

Hysterics ensue.

old fashioned sing-along

(to the tune of "Frere Jacques," emphatically and at the top of your lungs)

R-E-D red
R-E-D red
That spells red
That spells red
Fire trucks are red
Stop signs are red too
R-E-D
That spells red

(take a breath, then continue, same tune)

I am special
I am special
Look at me
You will see
Someone very special
Someone very special
It is me
It is me

Go ahead, try to get that out of your head now.

Uh-huh. That's what I thought.

You're welcome.

firsts, part ii

And the winner of the first package? A tie! Jadyn's shoes and my anniversary present arrived at the same time on Tuesday. The curriculum arrived the next day.

I love this plate! And it was engraved by the artist.

But never fear! There are more exciting firsts to report!

Last night I made the first new recipe I've tried in my new kitchen - my mom's beef and noodles (homemade noodles!), except I made it with venison. The noodles were fabulous, and I'm told the venison was good, too.

(Curious what the last new recipe I tried in the old house was? Molten chocolate lava cakes. Definitely a high note to go out on!)

The most recent first? Today, right before naptime, was the first time the girls locked everyone out of the rooms. Their bedroom and the boys' bedroom connects via a bathroom, and they locked all the doors and pulled them shut behind them. Awesome. Consequently, I took apart a doorknob for the first time for a reason besides painting! Time to take those Lois Lane lock-picking classes...