Julie’s Journal

…when your kids have the camera and the baby in another room!

photo by Savannah (who also happens to be the one squeezing Jasmin’s cheeks)!

It’s been crazy around here the past two weeks.  Here’s a recap of our life lately.

We pulled Karson out of Young Fives and moved him to Kindergarten at Max and Savannah’s school.  Now we have both the boys in Kindergarten right next door to each other.  Anyway, he’s happy and we are happy and it solved our day care issue with him, since it’s all day K.  Now we only have to pay for Jasmin…it cuts our childcare costs in half.

Kindergarten is going better.  The first day was awful, but each day it gets easier.  I’m figuring stuff out and enjoying it more.  The afternoon goes by so fast, it’s crazy.  One thing about half day kindergarten…I don’t know how you are supposed to fit everything in!  I really like my class.  They are a good group of kids.  We have fun, and I think maybe most of them love me.  One little boy gives me a hug and tells me he loves me everyday.  So cute!

Here’s a picture of my class and their flags that they made last week.

Our camper is still sitting in our driveway after four weeks!  I have barely touched it except to get things we needed out.  Though tonight, I did clean out the refrigerator because we unplugged it for a while this afternoon.

I totally forgot until Thursday that today is Karson’s birthday.  What kind of mom forgets to plan a party for their kid’s 5th birthday!?  I feel terrible.  It is going to be very hard to have a party now anytime close to his birthday because our family has so much going on this week.  Luckily he doesn’t really care that much.  I was going to plan a party at Fun For all Kids.  We did Max’s party there and it was so easy.  But he just wants it at home.  Last year we had a big party with an army theme, so I guess this year would be his year for just a family party anyway.  I think we are kind of planning for Thursday night.

Tuesday is Penny’s memorial service.  I am kind of looking forward to it, but then kind of anxious to get past it.  It’s been kind of strange having so much time pass between her death and her memorial service.  Sam has been working on putting together a slideshow of her, but we wish we had more pictures of her…we don’t even have enough for a whole song.  That was the thing about Penny.  She was always helping behind the scenes, serving people and ministering to them…it seems that she avoided the camera at most of our family celebrations because of that.

This weekend we took Pirate Island out to flavor fruit farms.  My nephew Josiah wanted it for his birthday and so we had the party out there.  Because we came out there for free, Meckley’s gave us all the perks of a party…free hayride, doughnuts and cider, walk through the corn maze and free tickets for the inflatable.  The kids had a blast and our shows were really fun.  It was a beautiful day and the kids were all great.  We were tired though and Sam is sick this weekend, so it was a lot more work for me tearing down.  We pulled out right as Laura the elephant was pulling in to our spot.  Perfect timing.

I’m writing this at 2 in the morning.  When we got home I took the kids upstairs and gave them all baths/showers…but trying to get them in bed was challenging. You know how kids love to stall…and I just had no patience…so I came down and asked Sam to finish putting them to bed and Jaz and I layed on the couch with a bottle and fell asleep for a few hours.  So now I am wide awake.  I put the roast in the crockpot and got it cooking for lunch and did some laundry, wrote some emails and updated my school’s website.  Now I think I am ready to go back to sleep.  I don’t know if we’ll go to church tomorrow…it’s always weird going without Sam.  He’s staying home and hoping to get some extra rest.

Today was a tough day. I went out to the show to touch up some outlining that had to wait till the two parts came together and found that the paint on the bottom edge of the marquee was peeling. You can see from the picture how the marquee has a strip of aluminum all around the edge framing it. I just painted directly on it. The enamel paint should have no problem bonding to it. I painted it 2 weeks ago! So I get there and the paint just on the bottom of the marquee all along that strip of aluminum was peeling. There was actually moisture under the paint…which of course caused it to peel. I don’t really understand how the moisture got there. Last night was the first night it was exposed to the elements…and it had to be from the dew I guess. The only thing I can think of is where the edge of the aluminum strip and the panel come together there may have been spots that didn’t get filled in with the paint allowing a spot for the moisture to collect and seep in under the paint. I am not really all that smart about how paint works but that can be the only way I see that this could have happened. I was really frustrated because we have a bit of a time crunch now…and I have to clear coat it tomorrow. I am praying that it will be fine and I won’t have another situation like that to deal with tomorrow. So what did I do about it…well, I decided to scrape the entire strip (about 1 inch) and then paint kilz primer on it. I wasn’t really sure that it would fix it for good…but that’s what I did. Then I painted over it and fixed up all the touch ups and now it’s done. It looks pretty good. I was pretty happy about how it came together. I had to paint the two pieces separately and so I used a tape measure to measure the points when one part of the ship or tree would end on the trailer so I would know where it would be on the marquee, but then I had to measure 15 inches in, because as you can see the marquee is shorter than the trailer. It will be fine, because we are going to mount some jolly roger flags on either side of the marquee and then all along the top as well. I think it will look pretty cool. The thing that made today frustrating was that I had taken the kids with me. I didn’t really think this would be a problem because it should have only taken me about 20 minutes to touch it up. But it turned into more like 2 hours. I hadn’t brought any snacks and the boys were fighting (irritating each other) which they rarely do. Jasmin was actually less maintenance than those two. And I don’t know what was wrong with Karson today, but it was bad. He whined and screamed and complained SO much today. I had had it by this evening and after dinner put all the kids right to bed. They were all asleep by 8:30. I think he was mostly just really tired, but there wasn’t an opportunity for a nap today. Tonight Sam left to go be with his mom and sisters. His mom is not doing any better. It’s hard. I was sad that he had to go tonight.

I have to get the show finished by Friday. Jasmin can only watch the kids for me during the day today…the rest of the week she is hoping to spend finishing painting the outside of her house. But I told her if the weather is bad, call me and she can come over and work while I go paint. I really don’t have much more to do. The biggest challenge ahead of me is the lettering. It’s really important that it looks professional for something like this.

Today I painted in the scroll…I think it looks pretty sweet (check it out in my flickr pictures)…exactly how I imagined it would. Then I put another coat of paint in the sky on the marquee and painted the clouds and then high-lighted them with white. They look pretty cool. I spilled paint on the floor 3 times today. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but seriously it seemed like every time I turned around I was knocking over a cup of paint. See, I mix a lot of colors. The colors I have to use a large amount of get their own paint can…the others just sit in a cup, and usually by the time I get done using that color, it’s dried up or gone anyway. I also use the cups because they are easy to hold on to…I can even hold two at a time if I need to. And when I am doing stuff like the clouds and the scroll that has a lot of blending…I have one cup of the main color and usually white and a darker shade. It’s maybe not the way the professional painters do things…but it works for me, unless I have an accident prone day like today! I got it all cleaned up, though, it just was a pain…and I think my toenails are still golden-yellow.

Anyway…I felt like I got a lot accomplished today. After painting I went to Economy to pick up some One Shot (sign paint). I decided I will use it to outline because I know it works and it will cover the paint…I will not have the issue I have been having with the latex enamel. But when I got there, they were out of black. But I found some in my old paint stash that might work. I am not sure if it will be enough, but I can use it till it’s gone anyway. So I will work on that tomorrow and hopefully the fact that the paint was sitting in my garage for a couple of years will not have affected the way the paint works. It looks fine to me…but I will have to test it out.

I have to finish by Friday because Saturday I am taking the kids and our (new) camper out to Somerset Beach for a week of Family Camp. (Sam has to work, but it’s close by and he will be able to join us some of the evenings). We are all so looking forward to it. It is really a lot of fun. We have gone for 4 or 5 years. We don’t have that great of a spot. It’s way in the back and no shade…but it’s not that big of a deal. And they have tram rides before and after the services. The kids have a program like VBS in the morning and they also get to go to the kid’s church during the evening services. We spend the afternoons at the beach…though I am not very excited about getting in a swimsuit these days. My friend Cary camps with us with her two kids, Jake and Abby. I love it because Cary is really organized…and it works out good for us. I am really excited this year about the camper. There is so much more room in it, and I think the kids will really enjoy it. Last year we were pretty crowded with our other camper…but it was our own so I didn’t really mind it. The biggest challenge is probably going to be baby Jasmin. She still cries when she goes to sleep, so I am hoping that she doesn’t keep the kids awake and stuff. She is almost ready to crawl…but I am kind of hoping that she holds off on that till summer is over, because having her crawling around and putting everything in her mouth could be difficult to patrol in a camping setting. Right now we basically clear out a 3 foot circle around her and then set her down…and she never leaves that spot. I plan to take the pack-n-play and the super saucer and a booster seat with a tray for feeding her…and I think I should be good with that.

Tonight after dinner, we all went out to the camper. It was really the first time we had spent any time in there. Sam turned on the air. We played with the slide. We checked out all the storage areas and cupboards and we cleaned some stuff. After the kids went to bed, I ran up to Walmart and picked up a few things…some groceries we needed and some 3M hooks, and a couple of other things for the camper. I am thinking I still need to get one of these though. There isn’t a lot of storage area for food in there. I will also miss my tall closet. We have a shorter one in the wardrobe in the kid’s room. I remember that Sandy & BJ (our friends who camped in it last year) said that she would probably have bought a drawer unit like that if they were going to keep it. I can see why, because as I was spending time in there, I could see there just wasn’t many places for storing food. Our old camper had storage all around the ceiling in the whole kitchen and dinette area, plus above the refrigerator. That was one thing I really loved about that camper. This one has more storage underneath though, so that could be a good thing if I can figure out how to best utilize it.

Anyway, it was a good bonding time for me. It sounds weird to you probably, but I just need to spend some time out there getting to know it and love it. I miss the old camper, only because I knew everything about it and we spent like 6 weeks in it or more last summer…and made a lot of great memories. This one I am sure I will love too…it is just going to take some time to get to know it. (Sounds like I am talking about a person…

Karson On Rainbow Rock

Karson absolutely loves the Rainbow Rock – it is his favorite ride in the entire world – he went on it like 10 times yesterday and all he could say was “I wuv wainbo wock”

This morning we discovered it. It just poked through.

Yesterday we slept in and when we got up, we were tossing around the idea of going over to Muskegon for the day to the Muskegon Summer Celebration. We went to that fair last summer with the Octopus Show. Sam’s Aunt and Uncle and cousins work that fair with their food concessions and it’s always fun to see them. So we decided to head over there around noon. Sam has a GPS unit that we tried to use. Only it doesn’t always take you the most convenient route. We ended up putting it away and going our own way. Anyway, we ended up getting over there around 3:30. We stopped up at the fairgrounds to get passes and the campground pass and key from Aunt Suzy so we could go let out Betsy’s dog, Oreo at the campground. We drove over there and did that first and then we went back over to the fairgrounds. The great thing about being carnys is that we can usually get into the fair without having to pay. We actually were at the fair all day and never paid anything! Joyce gave us armbands for the rides and Aunt Suzy hooked us up with food. We really appreciate that…because going to the fair can be so expensive! The kids went on lots of rides. They have a lot of kids rides at that fair and they had such a great time. They were all the same rides as they had last year. Savannah got me to go on the Cliffhanger with her. It was a little faster than I was expecting, and we screamed a lot. I also went on the bumper cars with the kids…I loved that. Later, I took Karson down the big slide…we went so fast. We ended our adventure with a ride on the carousel, it was baby Jasmin’s first carnival ride. She so loved it! It was really cute. We left around 8:00 and decided to go get something to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings near Grand Rapids on the way home. When we got done eating it was just about dark and as we drove home we saw fireworks everywhere from the highway. It was kind of fun looking for them as we were riding in the car. Anyway, we got home about 12:30. It was a late night especially for the kids, but we had a great time.

Tonight we took the kids over to Cascades Park to see the fireworks. They were awesome! It was perfect weather…no bugs! Mimi even met us there and joined the kids on our blanket. Sam got us all treats from the concessions trailers…caramel apples, cotton candy and popcorn. It was baby Jasmin’s first fireworks show. She actually watched them, the noise didn’t even bother her. Karson spent most of the fireworks show under his blanket with his ears covered.

Karson woke me up at 6:45 this morning…I was planning on sleeping in…but most likely I would have been up anyway because I feel a little sick this morning.  I am sure it was probably something I ate that is bothering me.  I haven’t actually been eating very well the past few days.

Last  night I helped out at the 5th grade girls lock in.  It was fun.  There were four other teachers.  The girls were  crazy, like 5th graders can be, and they were getting each other freaked out about someone dressed in black outside…something I am sure was made up by one of them to scare the others.  Anyway, we ate, made crafts…the girls did a scavenger hunt and we played dodge-ball.  I seriously have not played that since I was in elementary school!  It was fun.  I wasn’t very good at it…but I had a great time.  We had some kind of vinyl or leather covered foam balls…they didn’t hurt.  When I was a kid we played with those red gym balls…you know what kind of balls I am talking about, don’t you?  Those babies hurt!

While I was at the lock in, Sam took Karson and Jasmin to his sister, Shelly’s house to hang out.  Almost every time I go away, he ends up going over there with the kids.  I am sure Shelly helps out with the baby, so that probably makes it easier for  him.  Savannah and Max went with their Aunt Sherry for the weekend.  I guess they are going to a dog show today.  Anyway, while Karson was at Aunt Bean’s (Shelly), she gave him a McFlurry maker.  Apparently it had gotten picked up by Sam’s dad at a garage sale or something…she didn’t want it, so Karson brought it home.  Only it’s missing the directions – and the mix.  Karson assures me that when he was a baby he saw the McFlurry mix at Walmart, though.  So we may head over there later to see what we can find.  I googled it and found this hilarious review on the McFlurry maker. I probably can reproduce the mix…since it’s most likely just sugar or something.  And if I can figure out how to put it together, I might be able to do it…it’s just a mini (and I mean mini) ice cream maker.  So anyway, apparently even though Karson went to sleep after 11:00 last night, he was up early because he was thinking about his “new” McFlurry maker.  He doesn’t even want breakfast.  He’s a strange kid.  So I told him I’d go up and take my shower and the two of us plus baby Jasmin would go up to Walmart and see what we could find.  Then we’d go over to my friend’s neighborhood garage sales and then  come back home and we’ll see about making the ice cream.

Later on today, we have a graduation open house to go to, and then Jasmin (Mimi) is coming over to be with the kids while we go to the Lugnuts game.  One of my pricipals is retiring and wanted an event not a party, so we chartered a bus with Jackson Trippers and we are all going up to hang out at the Lugnuts game.  It will be fun, I am sure.  It looks like it will turn out to be a pretty nice day too.  Plus, there are fireworks after the game!

Well, I didn’t draw today…or yesterday. But tonight, Max and I made a book. Max has been having some difficulties learning some of his sight words, particularly his color words. I really want him to be able to get them learned before the end of school…so I have made up some flash cards and found some good worksheets for practice online. I really want his practice and learning to be meaningful to him, so I thought of making a book together. We decided on a color (blue) and went on a treasure hunt with the camera searching for blue things. He said the words, and I wrote them in later. This is the book we made. We plan to make one for all the colors. Our first book is called Blue. I want to get it printed, laminated and spiral bound.

You can click on the title to see it. I will probably make a couple of changes…Sam said I shouldn’t have the text in Comic Sans…he just showed me bancomicsans.com…too funny, but it really probably is the most over-used font, so I will probably change it.