The funny stuff he says.....

1. Okay, when we were at Lou's classroom the other night for family night, Lou was talking about his students. He was calling them "my kids" and I kept looking at Jackson because he had a funny look on his face...Finally he said, "Dad, do they call you dad and stuff?"


2. This morning we were getting ready for school (note: kindergarten started on Monday...4 days ago), and Jackson says, "Do you hear Simon crying?" Simon was whining all morning for some reason. I said, 'Yes." Jackson says, "Can you call and cancel kindergarten today, because I don't think he wants me to leave?" - Do you think he already hates school?

3. Jackson's step-sister (at his mom's house) went to the same Elementary school that Jackson goes to now. It hasn't been more than a couple of years since she went there...I don't think. When we found out what teacher Jackson had for kindergarten, they looked her up in the yearbook that Karrie had from a few years back. I was asking Jackson how he liked his teacher the day after school started and he said he liked her alot, but then he said this: "She is several years older than she looks in the book." Yes, he said several. Lou explained to him that he shouldn't tell his teacher that. We had to explain to him that people don't like it when you talk about how old they are. Then we had the whole "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all" conversation.

Jackson is so funny these days. He is really processing everything we say. Even if the radio is on in the car, the windows are down and I'm spelling things to Lou, Jackson still manages to jump right in to our conversation. He hears everything right now. He says the most grown up stuff these days. I can't believe it sometimes...I have been reminding myself lately that when I met Lou, Jackson was just turning 2 and didn't even talk yet. I can't beleive how fast he is growing up.

Family Night - Welcome to School.

Jackson started kindergarten this year, and he was pretty nervous. He told us, "I'm not excited, I'm anxious." So to try to help him get over his fears about school and kindergarten we did a Welcome to School family night this past weekend...just before school started. Since Lou had just about finished getting his classroom in order, we got to have our family night there (perk to having a teacher husband).

We had hot lunch (dinner) at our desks. We had an after school snack (dessert)...with a napkin note. We had our very own pencil hunt. Jackson is counting them out. I bought him a few workbooks for kindergartners that he has been working in and LOVES.
After a few games and some talk about kindergarten we decided to drive over to Jackson's school and find his classroom. He's going to the same school Lou went to, so Lou gave him a tour of the school. Peeking into Jackson's classroom. He's in K2...Miss Kelps class.
We played a little hopscotch and a few other made up games.
Overall...it was a pretty simple night. We all had fun!

To see more Family Nights...check out Whittaker Woman...she's got awesome ideas.

King Sugar/Monkey Show (8/22/08)

What a fun night! We haven't had a night out like this in a LONG time. One of our favorite bands, Monkey, came to Fresno to play a show with Lou's band, King Sugar, last night. These two bands are both Awesome...and I'm not just saying that because my husband's the singer. Really, they are great! We danced the night away last night...I think we got home some time around 1:30-2:00ish. It was great to have so many of our friends come out last night! We had a fun time dancing and visiting with all of you. (There are quite a few pictures...so I'll keep the text short.)

Here is King Sugar. Sounded great last night guys!

Lou is realling getting into it here...

Monkey...

Curt has an amazing voice. This band has an awesome sound.

We had so much fun dancing and singing along to all our favorite songs. What a great set they did.

Me and my sister Brittany.

Brittnay and Bobby. We love to take pictures...can you tell? Overall, we had a very fun night. Sadly, King Sugar doesn't play again until December (unless we can talk them into another show sooner)...That was ton's of fun. We need to do this more often.

Beautiful Canvas.

I tell most people that I hate to read. But the truth is, I don't hate reading. I don't really ever get into novels, and I definitely don't like text books, reference books, or even poetry books. What I do love to read are true stories. Biographies, memoirs, news articles, and especially blogs. I do enjoy blogging myself, but what I love more is finding a blog that truly captivates me.

Today, thanks to Whittaker Woman, I found a beautiful blog. I cried, I laughed, I smiled so big, and I felt so much love for this family. I read almost all the posts on their website. This family is amazing. You must read Beautiful Canvas, and meet Carmen & Lauren. I love the relationship that these two sisters have.

May 2007

August 2008

H, thanks for introducing me to Lana, Dave, Lauren & Carmen. What a beautiful family.

What blogs do you love reading?

Hot Hot Hot

Okay, so it's been a while since Lou and I tried to go out of town. I say tried because this is what happened about an hour away from home...

It was right after our anniversary and we decided it take a trip up to Napa. We were about 20 miles north of Madera when the passenger side window just shattered. Glass went everywhere. Luckily, we were not hurt, but we were pretty shaken up and so we came back home and got a new window.

So needless to say, we were a little hesitant to take a trip out of town after that. Anyway, back to the story...we decided that since Lou was getting ready to start his first big year, and since we hadn't seen the ocean since July 2007, we would head over to Pismo for the day. We had no plans at all except to RELAX, not worry about a thing, and have fun.

We took an ice chest, sat in the sand, watched people, walked on the pier, looked in shops, and ate lunch. We started to get a little tired so we decided after about 5-6 hours at the coast we would head home so that we could have the evening to just unwind and get ready for Monday. Plus, we had left our dogs at home and even though we really were not worried about them, we felt like we should get home and make sure they were okay.

Well, we got home at about 6:30pm and as soon as we walked in the door we realized that something had gone WRONG....It was so hot in our house. 91 degrees!!! Our poor dogs were panting terribly. I tried to get them to drink water, but they wouldn't really drink too much.

After our landlord came over and checked things out (luckily, he used to work on AC's), we tried to get the house as cool as possible and prepare ourselves and out pups for a hot night. It was Sunday night, and unfortunately the problem could not be fixed until the next day.

We put Simon and Benji in the shower. They didn't really like it at first, but they didn't fight us once they realized how cool it felt. We have a big fan htat Lou turned on and after a few minutes of being wet...Simon found that if you stand in front of it it feels great. Here are some pictures of him in front of the fan...

Here it is at 10:00pm...I'm going to bed. It was rough. Thankfully, it is fixed today and we are sleeping in a nice cool house.

King Sugar Show...Friday August 22nd!

For those of you who do not know...my husband, Lou, sings in a ska/rocksteady band called King Sugar. They are really good and a ton of fun to see. They are playing with Monkey (from San Jose) this FRIDAY, August 22nd in Fresno at Club Fred. Lou had Monkey play at our wedding as a surprise to me. We love this band and I especially love it when they all get together.

If you can make it out...you totally should. This will be a great show.

To hear a little bit of Monkey or King Sugar visit their myspaces...

Monkey's page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=7753831

King Sugar's page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=50895302

Uncle Bobby

My brother is quite the uncle. He just loves playing with Jackson's toys. Haha! Love you Bob!

Art at Grandma's House

For those of you who don't know...My mom (aka: Grandma Donna) is an artist. For those of you who have been to our house, you've seen her art on our walls. We are big time fans of her art. For those of you who have been lucky enough to go to Grandma Donna's house...you've definitely seen her art...It's like her own personal gallery.

Here are a few pictures I took at her house.

Anyway, it occured to me the other day that we might not have told Jackson who painted all of these pictures in Grandma's house. I'm sure we've told him that he has her paintings in his room, but I wasn't too sure if he knew that she painted all those paintings in her house.

I have always wanted to just let Jackson paint his own picture. He is pretty critical of his own drawings and paintings...I thought that painting with my mom might actually be really good for him. My mom went digging through her supplies and found a small canvas and some paints for Jackson. Before I knew he was having his own art lesson.

Here is what they came up with. Mom helped of course, but Jackson came up with the idea. If you can't tell...That's a dragon.

Jackson was so excited to bring it home and show Lou. We found the perfect place to hang it - In Jackson's room right next to another picture that Grandma painted for him.

Remembering Chris

I will probably never have another birthday without thinking of my cousin, Chris. My birthday is in two days (August 8th), and more importantly...Today is Christopher's birthday. He would have been 31 years old today. For so many years, growing up, we had our birthday parties together. At my grandma's house. We often shared a cake...half whatever he wanted and half whatever I wanted, and as far as I can remember, we didn't mind it that way. We shared our last birthday together (Chris turned 30 and I turned 28) in the same way we shared many birthday parties so long ago. At Grandma's house, swimming, BBQ-ing, sharing a cake, and enjoying our family. My cousin, Christopher, died on September 24th, 2007. He was driving home very late at night and fell asleep at the wheel. Luckily, his was the only vehicle involved, but unfortunately, we lost Chris. Our family had never experienced something so sad. Our family will never be the same.

Chris, was the oldest of our 16 cousins. This picutre (above) is of us back in the day...it was just the three of us for so long. I have so many special special memories of my Chris and Jill. Some of the best years were spent with them by my side. Below is us...quite a while later. Remembering the "Good Ol' Days."

We miss you, Chris. Every single one of us. Even those who didn't know you well, knew you meant so much to all of us. Even though I am sad today that you are not here to have a party with me. I want you to know that I celebrate you. I am sitting here writing this with tears streaming down both cheeks and I am picturing us getting ready to blow the candles out on our cake...I can remember so many of them...Kermet on your half, Miss Piggy on mine. He-Man on your half, and She-ra on mine. My Little Pony on my half and Transformers on yours. We had some fun birthdays together. This year...I'll mis you. I'll have to blow all of the candles out.

Happy Birthday Chris! Today we celebrate you.