Especially for Natalie

Grandmas sitting out of the pool talking to you on the phone.

Looking for you in the pool.

Holding a spot for you at the table.

Waving, "HELLO!" Because we miss you.

Seth throwing himself off of the highest mountain. Trying to "dive" in. It was the best event of the day... and we caught it on film.

We sure miss you and wish you were here with us.

My "EAR-isistable" Child

For Emily's seventh birthday we told her that we would allow her to get her ears pierced.  Brett told her that she would have to wait until she was 12, but since I got mine pierced when I was seven, I thought I would use the same timeline for her.

It was quite the process to get her to the mall.  Getting her dressed and then trying to put her hair up was an ordeal, especially since she is very tired due to late nights at grandma's.  When we got to the mall, we went and bought pajamas first.  Then we started the "hunt" for the store to do her ears.

We saw a place in the middle of the mall called the piercing pagota.  We thought that might be the place, but we decided to move on.  We continued to the end of the mall so that grandma could get a new battery in her watch, and then we went back to a PINK, PINK, PINK store.  Did I mention that it was very pink.  We went back to it because when we walked by it, there were little girls in there getting their hair styled.  Claire wanted a hair style, so we went back to check it out.

While we were there we noticed that they did ear piercing.  We also saw Claire's favorite store across from this one - "CLAIRE'S" and they did ear piercing.  We checked prices and decided on the pink store "CLUB LIBBY LU."  We got her all set up, and she was a champ.  She chose her earrings, sat in the chair, and didn't even flinch.  Now she has a couple of extra holes in her head.

Just a note - Claire left very disappointed... she thought she should get her ears pierced, too.  We told her that should could get her ears pierced when she was seven.  She wants to come to grandma's house and get them pierced at the same store Emily did (that will be an expensive ear piercing).

School & Sunburns

We went to Grandma Asay's class today.  We met her for lunch and then we played with the students.  Shortly after we got to the classroom for lunch, Mrs. Asay had to go and pick up her class from lunch.  When they got back, Mrs. Asay introduced Caleb, Eli, Emily, & Claire to her class.  One of the little boys in her class read the class a story, and then the class had to go to art.  We sat with grandma for a little while and then we went to the book fair.  It was a stinky library.  Not a bad stick, but a major candle stink.  When we got back to the classroom, Caleb was talking to the students about being in 6th grade.  He was answering their questions and really engaging them.  It was cute to see.  Grandma let all of the children read to her class and then we went outside for a few minutes.  When we came back in we did centers.  Claire was in charge of the magnet center, Emily was in charge of a building/estimate the number of block in your building center, Caleb was in charge of an estimation center (how many ________ in the jar), and Eli was in charge of a math facts center.  I think everyone enjoyed it.

Before we went to the school, I let the children play outside.  They were in and out of the pool & hot (cold) tub.  They were playing on a raft and trying not to get wet.  It was fun to be outside.  I was lounging on the chair working on my suntan.  I got a little bit of color, and we were only outside for 30 minutes. 

Am I a bad parent if I allow my children to go skinny dipping?  They took off their suits last night after playing in the hot tub and then jumped in the pool... =D

Cha-Ching

We made it out of the cold to the land of the NOT COLD.  Las Vegas (cha-ching) is beautiful.  We went swimming in grandma's hot tub (the pool is a little too cold right now - grandma will heat it up next week so we can swim for Thanksgiving with all of the cousins).  

Caleb asked grandma to take some pictures of him so that he could send them to some friends.  Claire decided to get in on the action.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

I wore my glasses to preschool and it took about thirty minutes before anyone said anything to me. When we got inside one of my students looked at me and said, "Mrs. Asay, you look like my dad!"

I thought, "huh?"

Then another boy said, "Yeah, you look like my mom!"

I actually knew what they were talking about, and my assistant helped clarify it for the rest of the class. She asked them if their parents wore glasses. The answer was YES.

What to Wear?

The title of this one says, "Laundry."

1. socks
2. shirts
3. pants
4. underwear
5. capris
6. tights - be careful with this one
7. skirts
8. dresses

Have fun. To see the answers, just click and drag over the list.

What's for Lunch

Another test of phonetics. Emily made another menu.

1. pizza

2. meat

3. chicken nuggets

4. lasagna

5. chicken

6. red meat

7. cheese its

8. macaroni and cheese

9. spaghetti

10. candy

11. hot chocolate

Good luck. To see the answers, just highlight the list.

For My Eyes Only

This is the style of my frames, the color on mine is slightly lighter.After 36 years, I broke down and went to the eye doctor. I actually think I went one time when I was in junior high, but that is beside the point. I have 20/30 and 20/40 vision. I also have an astigmatism in both eyes.

Hopefully this will help my headaches.

I got glasses on Saturday. I am still not sure that I like them, but I haven't had a headache.

Road Rash

One Sunday I was ready to leave church. We were missing Claire. Caleb went back into the church to find her. I was sitting in the car with Eli and Emily. They decided to take off down the edge of the parking lot and go collect nuts from a tree. They left as Caleb was coming out of church with Claire. Caleb came directly to the car while Claire went to the tree with the other monkeys. I was tired of waiting (it took me a while to get them out of the church to the car) so I decided to start driving away. Emily saw us first and started running. Eli and Claire saw us and they started running, too. I drove a little ways away, and finally let Emily in. I looked back and Eli and Claire were walking pretty slowly. When they got to the car, Claire was nursing a bloody nose as best she could without any tissues (basically letting it drip in front of her and on her as she walked to the car). Claire was crying and Eli was trying to comfort her. I let them in the car and started nursing Claire while I found out the rest of the story.

Claire was having a hard time keeping up so Eli decided to give her a piggy-back ride. BAD IDEA! He started running and fell. Claire took a tumble and landed head/face first on the ground. It gave her a bloody nose which was slightly crooked and road rash on her head. OOPS!

Everyone felt bad about what happened and we had a good discussion about choices and consequences.

Gangstas

One evening I was fixing dinner and the children were playing. I turned around and saw Claire come in wearing the shorts Eli had on for the day, a muscle shirt of Eli's, and a hat. I thought, "how cute." Then Emily came walking through the kitchen wearing a pair of Eli's shorts, a muscle shirt, and a hat. Finally, Eli came through with shorts, shirt, and hat. They were very pleased with themselves. They said they were a gang. I just thought they were funny. Silly kiddos!