Do You Trust Your Friend?

So today I was sick of my hair, feeling very frumpy and old. I missed my A-line haircut. I feel pretty cute with it, I don't know why I went for a change.
As I was driving around with my girlfriend Katie, I told her she needed to take me to her house and cut my hair. She immediately said no, since she has never been trained in cutting hair, but I assured her that she did a fine job with her daughter's hair, so she would be fine with me. She was still hesitant, but I persisted until she agreed.
I have to say, she did a pretty dang good job and I think free is a terrific price.

Girls Camp Ideas

This summer I'm going to be a 4th year unit leader at girls camp. I am very excited, I really loved it last time I went.
The theme this year is fruit. I know, fruit? What do I do with that? We are tossing out ideas to come up with our group name. Here are a few.

The Apple Dumplings
The Sugar Plum Fairies
The Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruities
The Boys-n-berries

Any other ideas? We can use all the help we can get.

Bipolar?

First laughing then throwing the camera. Is this kid bipolar?



I just think he's cute!

Memorial Weekend

Yesterday was Memorial day. We usually go and visit the cemetery and visit all the family laid to rest, but this time we decided not to make the trip and enjoy a quiet and productive Memorial weekend.
Saturday we purchased a gas powered weed whacker. I know, gas and the environment, but we have a huge yard and need all the power we can get. Andrew got everything cut down, then we sprayed weed killer everywhere. It is good we finally did this. It was becoming a jungle in our backyard. I was worried the kids would get lost on the way to the trampoline. Scary.
That night, Andrew and I went to Lori Bliss's wedding. I was asked to sing at it, and it went OK. It was nice to see old friends. It has been a few years since Andrew has seen his best friends. They live in California.
After the wedding we all went to see Iron Man. GREAT movie. I was so surprised I liked it. And what a treat to have the whole afternoon and evening without the kids.
Sunday was business as usual, but we were very tired since we were out the night before till 1:00am.
Monday we took the kids to see Indiana Jones. I wouldn't recommend this movie. Especially for kids. My kids were pretty bored, and I was kinda rolling my eyes at how far fetched the movie was. So disappointing, especially since I was so looking forward to it.

So that's it. Our pretty boring weekend. Not too exciting to read about, but we enjoyed how uneventful it was.

The "Real" New Car

On Monday I posted a picture of the car I thought we were going to go get that day. Well that didn't happen so I removed the post. We needed to sit on it for a bit and see if this is really what we wanted to do. We reached a decision and last night I got my new car. This one is blue with cream interior. So nice and pretty. Having this car will save us $150 a month. Crazy. The Excursion, "the beast", takes way too much money to fill. This is like a quarter of the cost to fill and gets 35 miles to the gallon on the highway. Exciting.

Crazy Hair

Thursday at school was crazy hair day. I didn't want to put color in Ellie's hair so we had to get creative. This is what we came up with. Crazy!

It's Red

I know you've been waiting with bated breath to see Jackson's cast. Sorry it took me so long to get it up. I've been lazy and stuck with a sinus infection that makes me grumpy. Forgive me please.

Jackson is doing great. He seems to figure out how to do just about anything he wants to. He does get sad when the kids run through the sprinkler or go swimming, but he can put his feet in.

Only 2 and a half more weeks with this cast on. Then they will take a x-ray and decide if he needs more time in a cast and will put on a half cast that is WATERPROOF!!! That is pretty good news.

Surgery Update

Today Jackson had his surgery, and he did great. I think he thought is was a fun adventure. The hospital where it was at is really catered to kids. A great play room with Nintendo to keep them busy while they wait to be wheeled down to surgery.
He was so cute when he was doped up with the "relaxing" drug. He was sitting on the floor, playing with a toy, and I asked him if he felt the medicine working yet, but he said no. So I said he better get up and into bed before it starts to work. He goes to stand up, and falls flat on his face. Oh yeah, the medicine was working.
He is a bit upset about the size of his cast. I know I told him before that his cast would go above the elbow, but he must have not heard. It goes almost to his shoulder and he hates it. It took him a good hour of crying about it before he calmed down. Now I think he kinda thinks it's cool.
Right now the cast is temporary until Friday when they will put on the colorful fiberglass cast. I think he wants blue.

My Mother's Day

Mother's day was a good one this year. Dispite Gavin starting our morning by taking a bite out of an exlax bar and us calling poison control, everything else went great.
Andrew took me to pick out a new king mattress the day before. Our whole marriage we've been in a queen and have been coveting a larger bed. Sleeping in it is heavenly. So much room and I don't get so hot now that we aren't crammed next to each other.
After shopping for the bed, he got me a beautiful flower arrangement. So pretty.
My kids got me the sweetest presents too. I was a very happy and blessed mom.

Break Update

Tomorrow morning we are taking Jackson in to have surgery. They need to put him under so they can reset the bone in his arm. Once that is done they will put on a temporary cast to allow the swelling to go down. Then on Friday we take him in for his hard fiberglass cast. The doctor said that the cast has to go above the elbow to limit rotation. That really sucks. This whole time I've been imagining a small cast around his wrist, but this break is really in the arm, the ulna to be exact. I hope tomorrow will go smoothly and Jackson wont be so dramatic. He's been a pretty good trooper this weekend. He isn't looking forward to the cast for 6 weeks, so we keep telling him he will look really cool!

10 Virgins

Today our stake put on a performance of the 10 Virgins. It is a wonderful play and very spiritual.
I was one of the virgins. My name was Jessa, and I am sad and upset because my lamp breaks. I have a pretty emotional speech and song.

I feel very blessed to be able to share my talents and feel the spirit so strongly while I do it. I left today feeling very uplifted and grateful.

If your stake puts this on, make sure you go, or be a part of it. It is great.

Progress

Today we went by to see how our house is coming along. So exciting. They are working on the second story and I assume the roof will go up Monday. Sitting there all by it's self, it looks so big. Pretty crazy.

A Bad Break

We had a little drama around here today. Around 5:00 pm, Ellie comes running in to tell me Jackson fell off the swing in the greenway and needed me to come help. Now, Andrew wasn't home, so I had to drag the baby with me and head into the slick, muddy forest. Once we found Jackson, he was crying very hard and saying his hands hurt. If you know Jackson, you know he has a flair for the dramatic, so you don't know how bad things are with him. I got him to get up and walk on his own, thankfully, since I didn't know how to carry him and the baby. Once I got him home, I cleaned him up and examined him to see if he could move his hands. He could, but he was crying so hard. He was inconsolable. I called the doc and brought him in. I still wasn't sure if it was broken since he could move it, but I needed to be sure.
The doctor checked it out and thought his wrist was definitely broken. He sent us for x-rays to see the extent of the break. I saw the x-ray and I could tell it was broken. They say it is off 20%, what ever that means. But we have to see a bone doc on Monday so they can realign the bones and cast him. I don't look forward to that.
Poor Jack. I feel like I wasn't too sympathetic to him. I guess he really was in a lot of pain. You just never know with him.

Freedom

Last week I finally did it. I don't know what took me so long, especially since it is working out so well. I finally moved Gavin into Ellie's room!
I can't believe how well it worked. He transfered so easily and sleeps like always, through the night.
I worried that Ellie would be woken up, and the first few mornings, she would wake up as early as him in the morning, but that has worn off and now she sleeps in.
I can't tell you the freedom I feel having him out of my room. The first thing I did that night was watch TV in bed. Then I kept my lights on and picked up a little. Something I could never do at night. Then I read in bed, and had a normal voiced conversation with my husband. It was so nice. I didn't realize how much I would miss those things.

Baptism

Saturday was Jackson's baptism. It was such a great occasion. My grandma came with my Aunt Janet and Uncle David, along with their two daughters. They live 2 hours north, but still made the trip for Jackson. I love that our family is so supportive.

We ended up with a pretty large crowd. Many families from church came. I was so happy. We have a lot of people who love us and support us.

Jackson was so cute. He was so giddy and excited. He kept swinging his legs and hopping around.
After the service, my parents gave him and journal. He has already filled 4 pages. He is very serious about it.

Favorite Toy

Gavin found Ellie's vacuum, and let me tell you, it's a hit. He never plays with his toys, except to empty them from the toy basket. That's why I'm thrilled he finally found something he likes. Once he found the vacuum, he is cleaning the whole house, and cries when someone tries to take it from him. I thought I was gonna have to put him to bed with it the other night. He loves it so much. Maybe I'm gonna have a clean child. I know, wishful thinking.

The Beast

When you imagine the car I would be driving, what comes to mind. Probably a mini van. But you have it wrong. I drive this gigantic beast. Now, I can say that my rig is very roomy, it seats 8, and it has nice leather and I feel very safe in it. But it is too large. It is a headache to park, it is a major gas guzzler, and it is mean looking. I am a happy person, and I think my car should look happy too. But just look at the grill. It is so mean looking. Some of the ward have nicknamed my car the Death Star cause it is so huge and scary. I'd have to agree. This is a mans car, not me.
Now you ask, why do you have it, or pick it. Well I didn't pick it. I was on bedrest and thinking about my cute Ford Explorer (I loved that car), worrying about if the stroller would fit in the back. It had no trunk space. Well Andrew said he saw an Excursion on the lot down the street and he would check it out. I said, what ever. A few hours later, we owned it.