Halloween cartoon

I'll be so glad when this election stuff is over....but this was too funny to pass up! Happy Halloween! I'll post pictures of the kids in their costumes later.

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First Snow in Three Years!!

This took too long to post, but if you remember (or read the post We're Still Alive)...the weather couldn't decide what it wanted to do, and I didn't want to know if the snow was going to stick. Well, Saturday morning, WE HAD SNOW!! It wasn't very much at all, but it was enough to build a snowman, and have a snowball fight. The kids had a ball! It snowed on Saturday night as well, so they got to play in it again. Monday morning, it was in the 40's and had been raining all night, so the snow was all gone, and hasn't been back.

Speaking of raining......


Juneau has set a record for rain this month. This article was in the paper yesterday...and it rained a lot yesterday...so the total days is up to 33 at least.

Capital gets wet for 32 straight days

Juneau Empire

JUNEAU - Alaska's capital has posted a precipitation record.

The National Weather Service said Juneau has received measurable precipitation 32 straight days, dating to Sept. 26. That tops the previous record of 31 days, set in 1991.

Measurable precipitation is anything equal to or greater than one-one-hundredth of an inch. It's tracked at the city's airport.

Meteorologist Aaron Jacobs said the city has received 61.52 inches of precipitation since Jan. 1. That's nearly 15 inches above the annual average and does not include Tuesday's total.

The city has until Dec. 31 to reach the 1991 record of 85.15 inches.

Jacobs said the short-term forecast calls for more rain.

Picture Tag (thanks Lila!)

RULES: You have to post the 4th picture in the 4th folder in your pictures folder. Then give a brief description before you tag a few others

Normally, this would be a picture from years ago...but since my computer crashed right before we moved, this is the 4th picture, in the 4th folder on my computer.

This is my best friend Elena and I at our last get together before I moved. We went to her sisters house to have a kind of good-bye party for me. There was probably one or two pictures where we were both smiling for the camera. This was not one of those... =) I can't remember what exactly we were laughing about for this particular picture, but I laughed so hard that I spit my hot chocolate out (luckily back in the cup) and couldn't breathe for a minute. I miss her dearly, and actually tried to call her earlier tonight, but I didn't have a signal inside the school during Caleb's soccer practice. She is an amazing person, mother, sister, and friend. I'm so glad I met her and we could make each other laugh so often. =)

Now I will tag the following people... AJ, Emily, Heidi, Jen, and Shaneen

We are still alive... =)

Hi All,

I have no excuses...I've just been completely lazy! Sorry!

It looks like the last time I posted was the 11th of Oct. On the 11th, the boys had their first indoor soccer games. I was proud of Isaiah...he chased the ball the whole time he was out on the court. I like the indoor games better than the outdoor games, because there is less for Isaiah to look at, and he pays a lot more attention to the ball! Caleb is doing really well too. They have played two games each (both teams won both games...except they don't actually keep score) and tomorrow we have their third games.

Notice the kid in front of Caleb isn't on his feet anymore...that is because of Caleb! hehehe!


Here he is as goalie.

Isaiah is a good goalie also. He does dance a bit, but he's only let one go by him!

On Sunday the 12th, we had our friends, the Daltons, over for Sunday dinner. We had a ton of fun playing Apples to Apples with them.

Tuesday the 14th, we had our homestudy for adoption done. Mark from the Washington office came up and was in our home for about an hour and a half. I was not nearly as nervous this time around as when we did the first one. We have to redo a lot of our paperwork, so we can transfer our adoption stuff from Hawaii to Alaska. We had to be refingerprinted, all of us had to go get a new health checkup, we have to have a new approval letter from our bishop, four new reference letters (from people who have actually stepped foot in our new home here), a new application, and of course new fees...it is $500 for the homestudy update, and we had to pay $50 a piece for the fingerprinting and background check. I called our worker, Nickie, today, and she went over our Dear Birthmother letter with me, and then gave me instructions on how to update everything on the web. She said she got all of the papers we sent her, and that our reference request letters and bishops letter request were sent out yesterday from her office. Hopefully this won't take too long!

Friday the 17th, I had to give an informative speech at school. This is how I started it... "I bet many of you didn't know that I was expecting. I've been an expectant mother four times before this, but this one has been very different. I have lost 10 pounds, I have no due date, and I am 18 months along." Most of the class was very comfused, until I told them I was going to speak about my experiences on getting approved to adopt an infant in the United States. I got an A- on the speech, because I didn't do the outline like she wanted me to, but she really liked everything else. Also on Friday, Darwin, Brooklin and Caleb installed a new mailbox for the house. The other one was really wobbly, so they put up a new snow plow proof one.

On Sunday the 19th, we had another family from our ward over for dinner. They are a couple we knew from before. They have a new baby...I think she is 4 months old, and the kids just loved her! They all were fighting for a turn to hold her, and even Darwin stole her from me once! She is a little dolly! Caleb had a ball with their son. He is 2?? and Caleb played with him the whole time they were here.

To add to our little list of Smarties...London came home with the Extended Learning letter this week! I found out it is only for math in elementary school, but it is exciting to have kids who are doing well in school, and that other people notice it. None of my kids went to organized preschool, and when I went to meet London's kindergarten teacher for the first time, (a few years ago) she actually made a comment about how she couldn't believe that I'd never sent her to preschool, and made a note something like she would be one of the "not so smart" kids in the class because of it....and gave me that look, like wow, you don't really care about your child's early education...!!! WELL HA! I proved them wrong! Staying home and teaching your children in your own home works just as well as dumb preschool! I think even better, but that is my opinion. I think more moms should try it! Ok....venting over... =)

Today, the weather couldn't decide what it wanted to do. It hailed 4 or 5 times, rained inbetween, and it snowed a little two or three times.! It was even clear and sunny once today! Nothing stuck, but it may by in the morning. Right now it is 35 degrees and my desktop weather station says it is snowing, but it is too dark for me to tell if it really is or not, and I kind of don't want to look.

Ok, I will try not to go this long again without posting, unless I have a really good reason. I have enjoyed reading all of your blogs...thanks for not being as lazy as me!

She couldn't wait

Brooklin didn't have school on Thursday and Friday for parent teacher conferences, so Thursday, she went to school with me (my teacher really tried hard not to curse, but slipped up once and after class, Brooklin told me she liked my teacher and that she was funny), and Friday, Darwin took her fishing and then hiking up Thunder Mountain. They hiked up to the snow line, and Brooklin made a snowman. He said she was so excited to be in the snow, she was wiggling all over! It took them two and a half hours to hike up, but said it was totally worth it. It hasn't snowed down here yet...just rained a lot.

Adoption Poster

Wow! Three posts in one morning! I am just working on my informative speech for communications, and have decided to speak about my experiences with getting approved for adoption. I have been researching a lot online, and came across this website for birthmothers. It had a media download kit...which was this picture, another picture, the website logo, and a screen shot of the website...so I used my killer photoshop skills to make this poster. =) If you would like to help us promote adoption in your area, please save this poster to your computer, print it off, and hang it up somewhere in your community. I added the itsaboutlove.org, and parentprofiles.com links to the bottom, because they also have lots of good information for birthmothers as well. The poster should print out to be 8x10. Thanks for helping! Now I really have to leave and go to Math class! =)

Keeping warm...hehe!

Didn't mean to post twice this morning, but this was funny (more so in person). As we were walking to school this morning, the kids said, "Mom! Look at Isaiah!" He had his coat zipped up to his ears, and his hat pulled down over his eyes! All we could see of him was his little nose! The coat is a bit big on him, and it was just funny...he walked the whole way (like 2 blocks) to school that way!

Temp update

Last night it was 46 degrees, and completely clear. We all decided to have family night in the hot tub... =)

This morning it is 27 degrees! and clear. No snow, but the frost is thick on the ground. I've decided to change out of the short sleeved shirt I'm wearing and into something much warmer.

My two smarties.

Last thursday, Brooklin's teacher called me. She was pretty funny (to me) on the phone. She said something like...I took Brooklin's writing portfolio home, and I am pretty sure she is in the wrong language arts class. She is way beyond the rest of the class in her writing skills. She wrote about a scuba diving trip and it was really descriptive and I felt like I was there... I kind of laughed; Brooklin is an amazing writer (to me). She has a way with putting words on paper. She was in AP Language Arts (BTW...WHY?? can't they just call it English???) in Hawaii and did really well, and I guess they just didn't see that on her transfer paperwork. The more shocking thing, was the teacher also wanted to put her in the AP Math class! Brooklin hates math. That is the only class she carried a "C" in the whole year last year, but she did tell me that it was because she didn't do very well on the tests. Here, they get to have "redo's" or whatever they call them, but she can rework the problems she gets wrong (even on tests) and get full credit if she does them right the second time. The teacher said she would talk to Brooklin, and let her choose before placing her in the AP Math course. She chose to try the AP Math, so we will see how it goes.

Now to my second smartie...Caleb. He handed me a note this morning from one of the teachers asking my permission to put him in the Extended Learners Program. He was too smart for his britches also! He gets to go to another room and have more challenging lessons in Math and Science (I believe) for an hour each day.

We are so proud of our two smarties!

Wild buffalos falling from the sky!

I asked Darwin what to call this post, and that is what he sang back to me. Actually, there aren't any buffalos in this post...just a fire pit. We bought the bricks for it yesterday, and today we got to roast hot dogs and marshmallows for s'mores! I asked him about the two bricks in the second picture, and he said they were like that because there was a huge rock in the way, and he didn't want to move the hole or dig out the giant rock, so that is just how it goes. We are going to get some big rocks to line the edge with, so nothing falls into the hole from the sides...including people. We are very excited to have a fire pit.

Saturday

We went out today after the morning session of General Conference. The boys started soccer today, and neither of them still fit in their shoes from last season...which doesn't really matter, since they are going to play indoor soccer this year, and need totally different shoes...but anyway... We stopped at Home Depot to get some bricks to line the fire pit we want to construct, and some lumber to fix the gate, and it was kid's build something day at Home Depot, so the kids all built a goal post. Here is them with their creations.

Other than that, we missed the afternoon session of General Conference (we TIVO'd it so we can still watch it later) so we could take the boys to their soccer practices. It is mixed teams (boys and girls) and they practice in the gym with these balls that look and feel like giant tennis balls. I took Isaiah, and his coach really doesn't know what to do. The other team was doing jumping jacks, running laps, and basically looked organized. Isaiah's team just kind of hap-hazardly kicked balls into the goal, until one of the other parents couldn't stand to watch anymore, and went over and helped without taking over. She did great...I hope she is there next time too.

That's about all we really did today. Can't wait for Conference tomorrow! I loved L. Tom Perry's talk, and my kids liked the one about what they were supposed to be doing during sacrament meeting. Darwin said the priesthood session was really good to.

Blog ya later!
MeJ

Oh!! And for my blogging friends who have no idea what half of this blog is about...twice a year, our church has a worldwide conference where the prophet (leader of our church), Thomas S. Monson and other church leaders address us. It is broadcast from Salt Lake City, UT by satellite to every LDS (mormon) church building in the world, and can also be seen on TV and the internet (and in some places also on the radio). We get to watch it at home on BYUTV, which I enjoy. You're all welcome to watch or listen...it is pretty good. I love hearing the prophet speak! Anyway, you can see it by clicking here and it is on at 10am and 2 pm Mountain Daylight time.

From 10th, to 9th, to ....

8th!

Brooklin had her last cross country meet last night. They had an extreamly short season...only three meets...because there just aren't that many schools to compete with here. There are two middle schools here, and then yesterday they raced with Sitka. They would have had another meet, but school started really late this year (due to the new high school not being done on time), so they didn't even get to travel this year. B. was kind of bummed. She had fun, but I think she likes running the shorter distances from track better. I'm glad she went for it and improved each time.

Rub a dub dub....

....Five Jensens in a tub.

I came home the other night to find Darwin and the kids playing in the hot tub. They were having a ball.