Long day.

Today is one of the kids' long day at college. Meaning they get there at 8am, and stay till they catch the 4:20 bus back to the kitsap mall where grandma and grandpa are picking them up to drop them off at home. Thanks mom and dad!

So since the kids are gone all day. I don't get to see them cause I leave for work before they get home. So I wanted to start meeting them at the college during their lunch break, on wednesdays, to visit with them and stuff. Last Wednesday I made sandwiches and brought them to them and we ate. Today we ate at the cafeteria on campus. But I didn't bring my camera. But people, technology is amazing.

I used Jade's phone to take a picture (my phone is NOT a camera phone) of them after we ate, the campus is pretty nice and it was a gorgeous day. Then she sent the picture to me on my phone. Then I came home and took a picture of the picture on my phone- Jade and Kent's phone actually has a memory card to skip that last step but my cell phone is a dinosaur- and here they are. Quality is not the greatest but even though I didn't bring my camera here is a picture to enjoy...

Gotta get ready for work. I just keep thinking in a few short years the kids are going to be moving on and having busy lives of their own so I'm trying to take advantage of all the free time they have now and monopolize it while I can! I'll share with you tho mom LOL!!!

LOVE THOSE KIDS!

Also there are 2 birthday today.

My dad is 68 today: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

And the kids' paternal grandma is 58 today: HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA CLAIRE!

Good news!

I'm going to make a FULL RECOVERY! I know the cooler Schoolers were really concerned about my whole finger thing, but I'm going to be all right. Cause as you guys know this is my worst injury to date. LOL!!! No, seriously- it is!

So I know this will gross alot of people out, and if it was anyone else's finger (besides my kids) I would be grossed out at the different staged of healing, but since it's my own finger I am fascinated at how God made our bodies to heal them selves. This first picture is the worst...

This is about a week out...And this was last night- 2 full weeks after the "INCIDENT"...

So, also yesterday, my kids road the city bus for the first time. Thanks for your info Miranda! I appreciate your words of encouragement ("I know you're a freak") to let me know they would be ok, and what bus to take and how the whole transfer thing works. It really saves alot of time and only costs a dollar per kid to get to from the college to the mall- sweet! Thanks again Miranda for giving me the little push I needed!

So today is Kent's short day. So when I picked him up from school I surprised him by taking him out to the Olive Garden, he had been wanting to go there. Have a mentioned how proud of him I am??? NO?? Well let me tell ya....

I AM SOO PROUD OF KENT!!!

Here he is enjoying his soup and fancy drink...He likes that seafood pasta dish... My son and me. It was kinda weird. I was joking with Kent that we should wear name tags, mine saying "mom" and his saying "son". We got some weird looks from some people trying to figure us out. Lame. Wow - we both really have that tired eye thing going on! Still cute tho!

Finally sunday night...

And I can finally post our fun busy weekend!

The fun actually started Friday night with cousin Kelsey's 2nd birthday party! Here's Jade holding Kelsey's wrapped presents. I like to wrap, but Jade's a professional wrapper now as well!

Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Lee picked my kids up to take them to the party cause both Jeromy and I were at work. My mom took a TON of pictures, I tried to copy them into my blog but they are mini size... oh well, here's one of Kelsey at her party... that's alot of presents!!The kids spent the night at Grandma's house and Denny came, too, which was cool cause Kent was wanting Denny and Mason to come over. I think Mason had football practice tho.

Also, Friday night after work, Jeromy went to go get Aurora. It's their special time together. He usually takes her out to dinner just the 2 of them. He called me and said Aurora wanted to go to the Outback... funny.... she gets to pick the restaurant which is always Red Robin, but now they were conveniently going to Jeromy's favorite LOL!

So Saturday morning... my parents dropped off the kids for me which was nice- thanks mom and dad. We had an appt at JCPenney's for Kent and Aurora's school pictures! I know, you're saying "but what about Jade?" I know I know- but she's graduated people! She doesn't GET school pictures any more! Ok, well I did find a way to sneak a picture of her in there. You may remember I got Jade and Kent "Olympic College" sweatshirts. Well after Kent's pictures were taken, he put on his hoodie, Jade had hers on and I got a pic of them together- so cute! I'll post those of all 3 kids when I get them back! So that was alot of fun.

Ok, onto event 2 for Saturday. We were starting back up our family fellowship nights thru church. Every other weekend. We were having it at our house tonight, I was looking forward to it cause it's a time I can look forward to just visiting with friends and relaxing! It turned out to be a beautiful day so Jeromy and Aurora went out to clear a way thur all the spiderwebs... and the spiders- YUCK!!While he did that, I was cutting up some yummy salad food! We also made a fruit bowl and some fried rice with chicken and eggs, and Jade made more brownies.Here's some cool teenagers: Jade, Julia and Hannah...Some more kids eating...Some of the same kids playing in Aurora's room

Hers's Alison, Miranda and Jeremy (J2). After we eat dinner and visit awhile, we all gather around and have a mini devotional from the Bible. J2 usually does it. But starting this year he asked J3- my Jeromy- to take it over. So that was kind of exciting for him. He picks the songs to play and a topic to talk about. He was great. We all talk about it after about how it affects or applies to our lives... lots of interesting/informative information. (Hey pretty cool black and white pics in the background huh??) Iana was taking pictures for a while... she was sitting in the middle of the couch. So serious...That's a little better...To her left was her fabulous mom Michelle....And to her right was ME!Here's Alison again with her youngest daughter Hannah. Crazy guys.... there's Jeremy with Alison's son Philip, he's a pretty amazing young man. He's a seriously fast runner, and he's also going thru the running start program like Kent, going to college while still in high school!And you know that adorable baby face: NATALIE! Man I don't know how many times I kissed those cheeks. Such a cute baby! Thanks again Miranda for letting me snag her as soon as you walked thru the door... is saying "thank you" the right thing to say when I just rip her out of your arms with out asking? :o) I can't help it, just look at those cheeks, she is the happiest baby!Ok, onto to Sunday. Sooooooo, Sunday morning not so great. I woke up not feeling well, so Jeromy took all 3 kids to church without me. I slept for a few more hours. I had to perk up tho cause the Trigs were coming over for a bit. We don't see the Trigs much any more cause they go to a different church, so seeing them twice in one weekend was great! Ok, I don't see them much any more, Jeromy sees them every week cause he tutors them :o) Austin is 17 today, and Tae' and Nadia were turning 12 in a couple of days so we had presents for them! Happy Birthday you guys!Ok, we were off again. Speaking of birthdays we were heading to a potluck for August/September birthdays with Jeromy's side of the family. Here's Aurora and cousin JL ...Here's Grandma Jo with all the grandkids...

This was cute, the kids were playing "Red light, Green light" outside...

Singing happy birthday to the August/September people!

Our family. Blessed by God. I know I take them for granted sometimes, ok a-LOT, but I am so thankful for what God has provided for me.

Time for bed!

One week down...

11 weeks left of Jade and Kent's fall quarter of college.

Kids have had a great first week, we have been trying to work out all the traveling arrangements. I think we got it all figured out.

Was too busy to take pictures tho... :o( but we have Aurora this weekend :o) and alot of stuff planned so I'm sure there will be lots of pictures taken. Stay tuned...

LATER GATORS!!!!!!!!!

First day of college!

This morning we all woke up bright and early.

Kent needed a little help waking up cause his alarm clock isn't working. Kids got breakfast, made their lunches and here they are heading out the door. I was driving them to school this morning. Not every day is the same cause some of their classes are daily and some are every other day or just twice a week, but Mondays are a long day for both kids. They start at 8am and their last class gets out at 3:50PM. That's a long day for someone who was home schooled for part of the day and spent a couple hours at school! I don't think I slept much last night just thinking about them being worried/excited/nervous for them. Mostly Kent cause this is his first time and he's only 16!! Jade has a couple of quarters under her belt and she's 18 now.... so weird!I talked to the kids once during the day. Jade sounded fine. Kent said he was still a little nervous but he was ok. I got the day off today cause I wanted to hear all about their first day and take them out to dinner to celebrate!

Please don't laugh... this is me waiting out side their class room... hey, I can hear you laughing Maranda! Man, it's like their first day of kindergarden or something!

Here's my babies... um... I mean my big kids.... I mean my young adult children.... ahhhh, that's too weird- HERE'S MY BABIES!!!!!That's Jeromy walking in front of them...Off to celebrate at Famous Dave's... the kids were hungry! So were we!

Here's the kids listening to Jeromy explain an important life lesson: why it's important to have a bedtime, the importance of getting a good night sleep. Kent wasn't too happy about hearing 9:30. Jade, since she's 18, can have what ever bedtime she thinks is decent... unless her grades fall.

This is what YOU see.... Kent and Jade...This is what I see... Kent and Jade...

Ok, back to the ribs... Jeromy loves his ribs! Trust me this picture is alot better than the first one I took LOL!!!After everybody was full, we had some errands to run. Extra school supplies that the kids needed that was on their syllabus'. They both needed USB drives... Costco it is! We also stopped at Target. Jade got a pretty cool planner, and some other essentials. Kent got a new alarm clock and a nice new back pack that also holds his laptop so he doesn't have to hold 2 bags, like Jade's cool back pack. It was so nice Jeromy got one, too. Everyone in this family has a laptop but me... maybe someday, just don't see the need for it now!

Like I said earlier, Kent wasn't too happy about his new bed time after being able to stay up till midnight or later all summer long. We tried to reason with him, I guess he needs proof...

After a full day of school, and a nice big dinner, this boy could not keep his eyes open. We kept telling him he was so tired and that's proof he needs at least 8 hours of sleep- AT LEAST! He still wasn't happy about it, but he knows it's for his own good, look how tired those eyes are.... Back home and the kids are doing some reading assignments and getting their stuff all organized. Jade and Kent have one class together: Digital Media, Intro to Flash. It's a digital animation class. Both kids are excited about it. Jade told me that when the teacher did roll call she said "Jade S." and then of course right after that she said "Kent S." and then the teacher looked up seeing both kids sitting next to each other and asked if their was any relation and another student asked if they were twins, and Jade said "NO- I'm older!" I love that they have a class together.

Here's Jade getting her stuff all together.... this is the Jade YOU see...

This is what I see...

Here's Kent getting some homework done... this is what YOU see...

This is what I see...

I know I know people, I need help.

Some of my friends at work are already taking up a collection to help me "cut the cord", and let Jade and Kent grow up! LOL, it's so hard tho!

Some sunday fun stuff!

We were scattered all over today.

I sat in church all by myself. Ok, not actually, Tonya and her fab family sat next to me. And I think there were some Cooler Schoolers behind me. Jade was in the other part of the building with the Sunday school kids, she volunteers once a month or so. Kent sits in the back of the congregation with the video/sound guys. It's pretty cool, they needed somebody to help make the master copy of the service each Sunday and then to make multiple copies for people- the guy who did it before just went off to college. So it takes about a half hour after church for him to do that. Kent's pretty good with a computer and a fast learner so he's the man now.

Where was Jeromy you ask? Well his amazing little girl was showing her goat again, but this time at the Puyallup Fair. He thought it was Saturday morning, but it was actually this morning. So he was in Puyallup all morning. Here's Aurora and her sister Blonca who also showed a goat...

There's Blonca, Aurora and some other kid...

They had a question/answer time during the competition, that's the back of Aurora raising her hand cause she knows the answer...

Aurora's goat had just given birth so she was a little hyper wanting to get back to her kids. Here's a video. Aurora didn't place this time, there was alot of competition Jeromy said.

Since I have 3 days off I wanted to try a recipe or 2 out of my really cool running magazine called "Runner's World"... for some reason I look like I have a black eye in this picture :o(

Got all my ingredients listed for the store, I'm also going to try some blended drinks- more on that tomorrow!

Yummy!

Jade had to help me mash up the whole tomatoes cause of my injury on my finger still being an open wound- that would have just been gross. Thanks Jade... the little monkey DID manage to squeeze tomato juice all the way across the counter and onto the table. That was kinda funny... hahaha... not!

Come on tho... how cute is she??? You can tell she's still laughing in this picture.

Here's all the ingredients cooking! It has to simmer for 45 minutes. For a large percentage of people over the age of 30, after seeing something like this pot of pasta sauce....

You'll want to see this... right dad? You pickin' up what I'm puttin' down? You shakin' what I'm bakin'? I HATE heartburn! So I LOVE Zantac!

Yummy, when the pasta sauce was close to being done, I also boiled some whole wheat pasta noodles, and cooked up some chicken breast cut into bite size pieces. I also bought some Parmesan cheese- YUM! But I forgot to get garlic bread, so we made do with bread with butter.

So Jeromy's been teaching the kids 'drawing' as part of their schooling... "Trig's in Training" so cute. I think Jeromy's enjoying the step by step drawing. I heard him ask Kent if he could borrow his special inking pens to work on practicing drawing eyes.

He drew that little dude, too. Pretty good I say.Just a couple other pictures of Jeromy teaching the Trigs. Here they are doing an experiment...And this great picture of Beriah! She cracks me up...Now we are going to make some pop corn and watch a cool documentary IMAX Under The Sea!