Happy Birthday to a Thousand People!!!!!

On Monday we went to Jordan's school to celebrate all of the summer birthdays in the class. There were quite a few!! Jordan has a really good, quirky teacher. And I say that very respectfully. Mrs. Skillman has been teaching school longer than I have been alive, and she loves her job. She is so good with those kindergarteners, and she has several this year that will give many a run for their money! Anyway, Mrs. Skillman has this little ritual she does to celebrate all of the birthdays. The videos contain a couple. And she insisted on Jordan and me telling the class about Chris's job. Fortunately many of these kids have already seen some Broadway shows like "The Lion King" and "Mary Poppins", so they understood how neat it was that Jordan's daddy is in a Broadway show. I took a book about the "Phantom" and showed them a bunch of pictures. And I also showed them some pictures of Chris with his costumes and in front of the chandelier. They thought it was so cool! And best of all, Jordan just beamed. She was so proud to tell her class about her daddy's job. So, at the birthday party Mrs. Skillman again insisted that Chris sing for the class. Hence the last video. He sang "What You'd Call a Dream" from the Off-Broadway revue Diamonds. Enjoy!!!!!!

Summer Time is Fun Time!!!

Spiderman to the rescue!!!!! (Ignore the pink floaties!)
Spidey pounces on his unsuspecting prey...
What's wrong with this web?
Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, and his cute little tummy!!




I love the summer. I always have. As a kid I loved it because we went swimming every day. As an adult I have enjoyed it because I was off work and got to play with my kids. Last year we wore out the Slip and Slide. This year we are going to wear out the pool at our apartment complex. It opened about 2 weeks ago, and we have been half a dozen times or more. We just can't stay away!!! On a hot day, it is just too tempting. We usually go around 11:00 in the morning or 5:00 in the afternoon. That way it is not too terribly hot, and the kids aren't out when the sun's rays are at it's most damaging. (I know, I know...I am weird!) My sister is probably laughing at me right now. She was, and still is the sun queen. I have always tried to shield my skin from the harmful UVA and UVB rays, but I still enjoy swimming...immensely!!!!

Neither one of the kids have ever taken swimming lessons. So, the first time Chris got to go to the pool with us, he got to witness Jaron jump in the pool and take off. He had floaties on, but he kicked and paddled all over the pool. Now there's no stopping him!!! Jordan is a little more cautious, so we got her a boogie board and she is getting much better at kicking around the pool holding on to it. They LOVE going to the pool to swim and play with their friends. It's a blast!!

One more thing that is awesome about the pool........packing a lunch. Nothing tastes better after swimming for a while than a ham and cheese sandwich, a pickle and some goldfish. That has been our lunch of late. Some people at the table next to us today packed some kind of pasta. It looked and smell really good!!!!!!! Anyway, enjoy these great pictures of the kiddos. We love ya'll!!!!!

Extra, Extra! Read All About It!

Jaron and his new friend Emily. She is 3 years old and her mother speaks fluent German because she grew up in Austria. They are very nice people, and very fun to be with.
Jordan and some of her cute classmates. Shivani always hugs me when she sees me, Kaitlyn is always in trouble with Mrs. Skillman and Aashika is just precious.
Jordan is dressed up for "Beach Day" at school. Isn't she adorable!

Now that I have your attention, there is no exciting news around here! Sorry!! We have had a good week, but not much has happened. We have been to the pool a few times, and we always see some of our new friends there. It is always so fun to go and hang out with everyone. Chris was able to go to the pool with us for a little bit on Monday afternoon before he left for the show. He is so funny. He always thinks he doesn't need sunscreen, but then he always ends up getting burned. So on Monday he got burned on half of his torso! Whatever!!! Jaron has made a new friend and they are so cute together. Her name is Emily, but Jaron thinks she's a boy. I cannot seem to convince him that she is a she! She has 3 brothers, though, and I think she wears their hand-me-downs, so she always has a Power Rangers T-shirt or something like that on. And she can talk action heroes with the best of them!! She is a little younger than Jaron, and she follows him around copying everything he does. If he screams like Venom, so does she. If he acts like a T-Rex, so does she. It is really cute!

We all went to Jordan's new school this morning for "Pastries with the Principal". All of the kids in our apartment complex will be going to Dutch Neck School instead of Maurice Hawk next year. They are doing it to help with the over enrollment at Hawk. Jordan will be in a smaller class next year, which is always good, and the school is one of the best elementary schools in the state of New Jersey. She really enjoyed the visit to Dutch Neck. It is an old school, and has a very colonial facade. I will try to post a picture later. At the meeting, one of the first people we met was one of the PTA officers. She was setting up the pastries, and she and I were doing a little small talk. Guess what I found out? She is from Lubbock!!!!! I almost fell over! Most people that are in Jersey think Dallas is the only city in Texas, so to actually meet someone from Lubbock is soooooo cool. Unfortunately she went to Coronado, but I won't hold that against her!


Today was rainy and very humid. I am going to have to get used to this humidity. Sometimes it's so bad I feel like I can't breathe! So today we chose to stay in and just relax. Jordan of course went to school for the afternoon, but other than that we were the laziest people on the planet. And I am watching Pride and Prejudice for the jillionth time! I love that movie. You gals out there need to check it out if you already haven't. It is so good. I am going to read the book again. I read it back at MHS, but I was so naive that I had no idea what was going on. Now that I am a bit more "manure" (mature), I actually understand what the story is about.

My crazy friend in Lubbock, Peggy Brown, always said manure instead of mature because she is just crazy!!! She kept me in stitches when we worked at Wheatley together. One day she came to work with the biggest jar of olives and one of baby dill pickles that I have ever seen. We ate olives and pickles everyday with our lunch, and now I can't eat them without thinking of her. The other day I called her and told her I now have a crazy New Jersey friend. Her name is Maria and every time I see her she tells me about somebody else's trash she has picked up off the side of the road. She always takes it home and uses it for crafts for her kids and stuff. Guess what Peggy said! "Oh boy, arts and crap!!" Everyone needs to have a crazy friend. Do you have a crazy friend?

Well, I will bore you no longer. Call us and we will sit out by the pool together on the phone!!!!!

J-A-R-O-N

We are so incredibly proud of our little dude. Jaron had absolutely no help in writing his name on his Spiderman board today or yesterday. What makes this achievement so wonderful is that just 2 years ago we thought he was showing some signs of autism. We took him to his pediatrician who referred us to a pediatric neurologist who ran a few tests and sent us to a child therapist. Meanwhile we did the only thing we knew to do; we prayed. And within just a few days, Jaron became a new child. The tests results were all normal and the therapist said Jaron did not act like a child with autism at all. We were cleared from the possible diagnosis, and Jaron continues to amaze us with the wonderful things he is learning. He is so cool!!!!! And we are so thankful to our God for his "coolness"!!!

Tales from the Train

When we first moved to Jersey, I thought the train that Chris rode to work everyday was sooooo cool. I couldn't wait to let the kids ride it, and I had visions of riding the train into the city every weekend to "bash" around. Well, it didn't take long to discover that the New Jersey Transit is just that: transit for the masses, and I mean MASSES! The train is very often crowded and noisy, and I try really hard to not worry about the cleanliness of it. I just try to make sure the kids don't touch anything. It also didn't take me long to find out that's an impossibility as well!!!

Anyway, Chris told me a story this morning that was just so hilarious, I had to share it with all of you. He was on the train after the show last night and there were a few kids on the train, too. He said they were up and down, talking to people, teaching people hand clapping games like "Miss Mary Mack", and just being silly kids. So this one little girl who was in the second grade was sitting with a group of women talking to them. She told them she was half Puerto Rican and half Dominican Republic. She obviously noticed the color of the lady's skin, because she kept asking them where they were from. The ladies were being silly and giving this little girl a hard time, and they finally told her they were Indians, as in from the eastern country of India. So this little girl, being an intelligent second grader says, "Where's your feather?"

Enough said!!!!

Point Pleasant Beach

Last Saturday we took a last minute trip to Point Pleasant Beach. It took us about 45 minutes to get there, and they have a fun board walk right on the beach. We, however, spent all of our time on the beach playing in the sand and running from the waves. Be sure and check out the photo album over on the left hand side of the blog. I am adding pictures to it almost daily, so check it often!!! Meanwhile, enjoy these videos of the kiddos and their first beach experience.

Tex-Mex Fix

In order to remedy our Tex-Mex problem, I made chalupas at home. I went to the grocery store and got fat-free refried beans, iceberg lettuce, roma tomatoes, shredded chesses, avacados and corn tortillas. I ran into a bit of a problem, though. I could not find any chalupa tortillas at the store (surprise, surprise). So I just bought regular corn tortillas and fried them up myself. I used canola oil, and they turned out really well!!! In fact we enjoyed the chalupas so much that we have eaten them 3 times just this week! And I still have another can of refried beans. Guess what's on the menu for next week?!