Wherein Joseph sets goals for himself

 

 

I am impressed with Joseph everyday.  This picture is one he took when I signed us up for a photowalk.  I did help him edit it in Photoshop, but he captured the image on his camera and chose how he wanted it to look.  Joseph is curious about a lot of things, so it is no surprise that he asks questions and thinks about things.  At school he is a great student and he constantly strives to do well.  Anyways, the school has a system for reaffirming positive behavior.  There is a clip reward system.  You can move your clip up based on good behaviors.  The highest you can go is outstanding.  Joseph had received 4 outstandings and needed 1 more to get in the Hall of Fame in his classroom.  He set the goal for himself to be the first in his class to get in the Hall of Fame.  Everyday he reports how his day was and each day he said he got up to Great Job, but he was still working for the Outstanding.  Yesterday I picked him up from school and asked how his day was.  His response, with a big smile on his face that he was trying to hide, "Outstanding."  It was one word but it spoke volumes.  It made me smile.  He is also trying to get a certain number of AR reading points.  He is such a great kid and we love him so much. 

Reflections on childhood

We have been living in my home area for the past few months.  There are lots of memories tied to this area, but most of them are little things that I had forgotten.  The sounds are definitely a kick back to the past.  The gulls, the cicadas, and other sounds remind me of being a kid.  Being in the ward building where I grew to know the church has also been good for me.  I realize that my ward family is there for me.  It is hard to explain how it is different, but it is.  I think part of it is that I feel the love of the members in ways that I haven't in a long time.  Being here has reminded me of a lot of the lessons I learned and have forgotten or have not been at the forefront of my mind.  A lot has changed but there are things that have not changed at all.  I am grateful to have a chance to have lived here and am glad that my boys have seen where I grew up. 

I have seen family that I have not seen in years.  I have seen my uncles and they are old men.  I remember them in their younger years.  It has been nearly 20 years since I have been around them.  The same for my other family.  One day I ran into an old high school friend.  She looked the same, but I know times and experiences have impacted all of us.  There are so many memories and so many questions that I have, but for now I get to experience my hometown and have shared experiences and memories with my boys. 

Busy, busy, busy

I guess the definition of life entails being busy.  Joseph has started second grade.  He got into gifted and talented and is loving it.  He is also a prolific reader.  Samuel is learning to write more each day.  He is a little chatter box and loves the attention he receives being the only one home.  We went to Lake Jackson Plantation Day.  It was storming before we went, but it slowed down enough that we risked going and took an umbrella.  It was hot and super humid, but it was worth it.  I had never been to the plantation.  It is a pile of rubble, but on plantation day they have activities and people in period dress.  I felt bad for them in long sleeves, long skirts or pants, shawls, and bonnets.  I was sweating in my t-shirt and shorts.  The boys were able to make a find it jar, play with old style toys, hear rifles and cannons being shot (they didn't want to actually see them), sew a little, paint and draw.  They had a load of fun and they got free hot dogs, chips and drinks on top of everything else.  Joseph and Samuel enjoyed touching the snakes and alligators they had to show people.  The smallest alligator was 10 days old.  They also touched a 2 year old alligator and a 4 year old alligator.  They also had turtles that the boys enjoyed touching and picking up. 

We went to the Brazoria Nature Reserve.  It was fairly close, but it was about to rain, so we only got down a couple of times.  The mosquitos were insane.  The boys were excited to see a mommy alligator with 3 babies in their natural habitat.  Mommy stared us down.  Yesterday we went to the San Bernard Nature Refuge.  We didn't see much but we get swarmed by millions of mosquitos as we walked the boardwalk next to the slough and wetlands.  I guess I saw a baby frog, but we couldn't find it to show the boys because it disappeared.  We also went to the beach towards sunset.  It was fun and the sand was soft.  Well, life is crazy busy, but I would rather be busy than be bored. 

Just another day for you and me in paradise

Okay.  Just to clarify, this is not necessarily paradise.  It is hot and sometimes it storms, but paradise it is not.  :)  Life has been busy.  Joseph had Kid's Kollege (I hate it when they purposely misspell words like this).  He learned how to cook, all about animals, how to use tools and about weird science.  He had a lot of fun.  Samuel and I kept busy by unpacking.  We also went to the library a ton last week for their activities.  Target came for story time and gave the kids pencils, stickers, and coloring books.  We went to the Mini Coastal event where the kids learned about beaches, shells and how to cast fishing lines.  They also did crafts.  Joseph reached his 15 hours of reading for the summer reading program and he got a medal.  Samuel still needs 5 hours, so I need to get busy helping him reach that.  On Thursday, we went and did a tie-dye creepy crawly craft with markers at the library.  The boys had fun with that.  On Saturday I started dividing the Legos.  We have a lot and the boys tend to fight over them, so I have been splitting them up as evenly as possible. 

I also started going through my memory boxes to purge my plethora of stuff.  I am trying to get it to one bin, but it is taking a lot of work.  I need to start scanning pictures.  Speaking of pictures, our external hard drive with all of our pictures and videos crashed.  It is at a data retrieval company right now.  It makes me sad to think that I didn't get around to printing all of the pictures or even most of the pictures.  I am grateful I made picture books for the boys at Christmas.   Hopefully we will recover some, if not all, of our pictures and videos. 

Life is good.  We miss Pennsylvania and the East Coast, but maybe it will be in our futures one day.  Till then, we will beat the heat at home in the AC and when it gets cooler, we will start working on the yard again. 

Lizards, and Geckos, and Toads...oh my

The boys love trying to catch all of the above.  We usually let them keep them overnight and then they have to release them.  We did have 2 toads, 1 green anole, and 1 gecko in 1 tank for a few weeks.  We bought lots of crickets to supplement their diet.  We then let them all go.  The boys are hankering to have pet any of the above now.  We cleared out a rotten log pile in our back yard and the boys caught 3 geckos and 1 toad.  There were also grub worms (nasty looking creatures) and lots of giant cockroaches in the pile.  We saw 1 salamander, but it was too quick for us.  Yesterday I was clearing out boxes in front of our garage and there was a salamander.  Joseph managed to catch it.  Today the boys were playing outside and they saw a baby toad.  Samuel caught it.  Now the boys really want to keep them.  I told them we would have to see.  We do have 2 terrariums, but I don't know if I want them to have more pets.  We already have 2 guppies that won't die.  Joseph's 1st grade teacher gave them to him.  Anyways.  I guess as long as they don't sneak them into the house and put them in a dollhouse which then gets knocked over by grandma as she cleans thus causing about 30 toads and frogs to escape into the house, then we are okay.

Rain blizzard

Last Sunday we went to stake conference in Bay City.  It is about a 45 minute drive from where we live.  It was overcast, but it did not seem like it would rain.  Conference was nice and we started to drive home.  As we drove, the closer we got to Brazoria, the more we saw lightning.  We were having fun watching the lightning and driving.  We were driving towards the turn off to Lake Jackson and I could see that it was raining a lot, but I had no idea what we were in for.  I had forgotten that sometimes it rains so much that there is no visibility.  That happened on FM 2004.  It was raining so hard that I could not see out the window in front of me, even with the wipers going at full blast.  It was anxiety inducing to say the least.  I had to calm myself down as I drove because I could not see at all and we were driving 30 mph on a road that is 65 mph.  The worse parts of the drive were driving over the bridges because they are narrow and there were cars driving the opposite direction that I could not see until we were driving by them.  At least I quelled the anxiety attack and we made it home safely.  I love thunderstorms and rain, but I hate to drive when they are happening because it is stressful.  When it rains it pours is an understatement. 

Wherein Joseph makes the A Honor Roll

Joseph's last day of 1st grade was Thursday.  He had an activity day and we went and ate lunch with him.  His teacher gave us his report card.  He really wanted to open it, but I made him wait till we got home.  This is his first report card with grades.  His first school, Pine View in Brookville, PA had grades, but he was only there for 1 month.  His second first grade class had no grades.  Here at Beutel, he was graded on his work.  We didn't see the ribbon because there were certificates and other things in with his report card.  When the ribbon fell out, he looked at it.  I told him that he got high grades and that is why he got the ribbon.  He was soooooooooo excited.  His teacher here in LJ was super great.  She recommended that we try and get him in SEARCH classes (gifted and talented).  He was tested but doesn't know what it was for.  I didn't want him to be nervous.  We will see if he gets admitted to the program.  He is just excited that next year he has a chance to get 4 A Honor Roll ribbons.  He is reading at a 4th grade level.  We have created quite the little book reading monster.  I guess it is a good thing that we signed him up for the summer reading program at the library.  We also registered him for Kid's Kollege (I hate when they do this kind of thing) at the local community college.  It is for 1 week in July.  He is excited.  Now I just need to sign my boys up for swimming lessons.

Catching up...kind of

 

It has been a crazy couple of months.  We moved from Pennsylvania to Texas mid-April.  We are now back in my hometown and it is crazy to think that a year ago, we were getting ready to move from Utah to Pennsylvania and here we are today in a completely different locale.  The boys are enjoying their time here.  I forgot how much of a small town feel there is here.  Of course, it is a small town.  We are in a different ward than when I grew up, but so many of the people that I knew growing up are here.  Joseph and Samuel are excited about the prospect of fishing and crabbing now that we are in the area.  This picture was taken at Galveston Island State Park.  They were both enjoying the outdoors.  I forgot about how bad mosquitos can get. 

 

The weekend before, we went to Corpus Christi.  The boys got to meet their one living great grandparent, my grandma Juarez.  They also really wanted to go to the beach.  We took them to Padre Island.  The past summer we went to the beach in New Jersey and both boys refused to go in the water.  Joseph stared at it for a bit and then started to wade and run.  Slowly he got to the point where he was playing Frisbee and venturing deeper and deeper into the water.

Samuel was a different story.  I was able to get him to stand about this point in the water.  It took work and I had to be patient with him, but his face says it all.  Afterwards he said that he was proud of me for helping him get in the water.  The next time we go to the beach, hopefully I can coax him to play some more. 

 

There is a sea center close by and we have taken the boys a few times.  They love it.  They love the touch tank and can spend a long time there.  There is also a nice boardwalk along the marsh.  Joseph really wants to volunteer there.  Friday was 1st grades dress up for "What you want to be when you grow up."  Joseph really wanted to be a beekeeper.  He came home one day from school talking about how amazing bees are and that he wants to keep some when he gets older.  I knew I couldn't pull together a beekeeper costume for him, so I asked him if he still wanted to be a video game designer.  He said that he knew beekeeping was a hobby and that he wanted to be so many things, but that would be a good job.  So on Friday we put on his Plants vs. Zombies t-shirt, some pants, and I made him a video game console out of a box.  I drew a video game picture to tape on it and Joe attached a controller.  His teacher liked it. 

 

Samuel has been working on his letters.  He likes to count to ten now and can get to fifteen without much coaxing.  We have been practicing his alphabet a lot, but it is a work in progress.  He loves the outdoors and nature.  Samuel has also gotten better about cleaning up his room.  He does get frustrated when things don't work out the way he wants to, but we have tried working on getting him to be more patient.  He is especially interested in volcanoes and likes to talk about Krakatoa and Mt. St. Helen's.  He also likes to talk about geysers and Gettysburg.  I asked him if he wanted to play with a little neighbor girl that is in our ward and he said, "No.  She is a baby." 

 

As for Joe and I, we are trying to find a house.  It is weird to be looking for a home here.  The market is crazy.  If the house is in decent shape, it goes under contract the day it is listed.  Joe and I have found one that we think is a winner, but we have to see if the appraisal is okay, plus we have to fix some plumbing issues.  It is a big enough house for our family and backs onto a park.  Our ward had a tragedy occur.  One of our bishopric member's, who I knew growing up, little boy who was 22 months old passed away a week ago.  He drowned in his grandparents backyard.  The funeral was beautiful.  Not only was the chapel full, but the gym was full as well.  I hurt for the family because I can only imagine the longing they feel to hold their little boy.   Through it all, they have been so strong.  I have seen so many familiar faces and they are so welcoming.  It is nice.  Summer means that we will get to explore the town I grew up in.  :) 

Samuel prayers

Samuel has taken a huge step backwards when it comes to sleeping at night.  It all began when Grandma Rankin took Samuel to her laptop to play games.  She pulled up a Halloween tic tac toe and played.  At the end of the game, she didn't realize that a screaming scary face would pop up.  Samuel screamed bloody murder.  He was shaking and clinging to me.  He started calling for his daddy because his daddy could keep him safe.  I felt bad for him.  He was traumatized.

At night now he is really scared to sleep without a lot of light.  He wants someone to stay in the room with him.  We have been saying prayers a lot to help him feel better.  He has asked that he won't see the scary face when he closes his eyes.  We pray that he will feel safe and that he will think of happy things when he sleeps.  Most nights, we say a prayer together and I have to come in another time for one more prayer. 

One night in his prayers, I felt his arm reach out and pat my back.  He said "I am thankful for mommy being here."  It was adorable.  He fell asleep tonight without a lot of fighting.  Hopefully he will continue to get better at not being afraid. 

The stars at night are big and bright...

deep in the heart of Texas.  BIG news alert.  We are moving to Texas...to my hometown to be precise.  Joe got a job at a bank there and we are moving in about 3 weeks. 

Growing mountains and trees

When we go outside, Samuel likes to collect twigs, branches, rocks and pretty much anything else he can find.  One day he found a toy flower with a long stem stuck in the bushes outside our apartment.  We washed it a few times and now he has a permanent flower.  I digress.  Yesterday as we were waiting for Joseph at the bus stop, he got some rocks and started putting them in ground.  He was explaining that "I planted the rocks so that it will grow a mountain when it rains."  He then planted sticks to grow trees in our yard.  I will have to explain to him tectonic processes that actually contribute to orogenesis, but for a little longer I will let him maintain his misconception. 

The power of mishearing

Samuel wanted a snack, so daddy walked with him to the pantry.  Daddy asked, "Do you want some Doritos?"  Samuel shook his head with a look of disgust.  Daddy then pulled out the bag of Doritos and Samuel's eyes lit up.  Samuel said to daddy, "I thought you said dirty toes," and then took the bag of Doritos to eat.

Wherein Joseph psychoanalyzes his motivation

Yesterday morning I was cooking breakfast for Joseph and Samuel.  We were getting Joseph ready for school and out of the blue, he starts to talk about something that must have been pressing on his mind.  I have dropped Joseph off at school a few times.  Each time it has been rough because he starts to cry and won't stop.  It has been frustrating, to say the least, and I didn't understand why he could go from being happy to being so upset, especially because he is fine when he leaves on the bus.  Well, back to the breakfast table.  Joseph stated out of the blue, "I know why I cry when you drop me off at school.  It is because I feel like you are leaving me, but when I take the bus, it is like I am leaving you."  I guess the thought of me leaving him hurts him, so it is better when he does the leaving on the bus. 

Joseph quote

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Rankin last weekend.  We were eating dinner on Sunday before we came home.  We were talking about church and what we learned.  At church Samuel was being fussy, so I took him to the mother's lounge to sit with him towards the end of sacrament.  I guess after I left sacrament meeting, Grandpa and Joseph were giggling at pictures that they were drawing together.  They were drawing pictures of family members and when it came time to draw Aunt Chrissy, Joseph drew an actual ant and said "Ant Chrissy."  They were having a grand ole time.  Anyways, back to dinner.  Before prayer Grandpa was telling Joseph that they needed to repent because they should have been more reverent in sacrament meeting.  Joseph had been learning about the steps for baptism during his class.  Well when Grandpa said they needed to repent, Joseph said, "No I don't.  I am not 8 yet."  Everyone at the table started to laugh.  It was funny because technically he is right.  Grandpa laughed the loudest.  :)

Multiply life by the power of 2

Happy 10th anniversary to my wonderful and handsome husband!!

10 years together is a crazy thought. 
10 years of ups and downs and crazy turns.
10 years of adventures both bad and good.
10 + moves under our belts.
10 years ago we became husband and wife.
10 years, 2 kids, 1 family together forever. 

I love you Joe.  :)

About Samuel

Samuel is almost 4 years old.  He is such a fun and challenging little boy.  He likes to talk a lot.  He is really good at sentences but still struggles with his L sound.  So he says things like "wegs (legs)", "fawing (falling)", "I wike (like)", "siwwy (silly)" and other things.  He will grab books and sit down and look at the pictures.  He knows his colors and shapes and can count to 11 (random number) by himself, but with help he can get to 20.  Samuel also loves to dance and sing.  He dances a lot.  I will catch him randomly singing made up songs.

He is a great builder.  He loves to build with blocks and makes some pretty impressive structures.  Samuel uses both his right hand and his left hand to do things, though he favors his left hand.  Sometimes he will color or draw with both hands at the same time.  We have practiced some letters and he likes to mark them off once he has drawn them.  He doesn't always recognize them, so we are working on that. 

Samuel loves the outdoors.  Yesterday he told me, "I love nature mommy."  He does.  He loves plants and trees.  He is deathly afraid of animals on the loose.  I guess that means mostly dogs and cats that he sees around the neighborhood. 

He loves little toys.  If it is small he likes it.  He got the Angry Birds Star Wars At-At Attack for Christmas and loves that the figures you shoot are smaller than his hand.  He loves his trash pack toys. 

Samuel loves his big brother.  It bothers Joseph sometimes because Samuel wants to be on the top bunk with him.  Whatever Joseph has, Samuel wants it too.  We have duplicate toys because we know that if Joseph gets it, Samuel will want it as well.  He is getting super excited to turn 4. 

Samuel also likes to challenge what he is told.  We have mostly broken the spitting fit habit he had, but sometimes when he is super mad, he will drool in his mouth excessively and let a little bit wander dangerously close to outside of his mouth.  He needs naps, but if he has one, he won't sleep till late and will get out of bed a number of times.  I think he also has night terrors on occasion.  He will wake up crying, shaking, and sweating.  He will ask me to pray that he won't have any dreams. 

The other night he woke up scared.  We had prayed that he wouldn't have any dreams or good dreams if he did dream.  He said, "Heavenly Father didn't give me good dreams."  I explained that Heavenly Father woke him up from his bad dream so that it would stop.  We then sang some songs and I said another prayer with him for better dreams.  I also talked to him about thinking about things that made him happy as he fell asleep.  When he woke up the other night from a bad dream he said, "Heavenly Father woke me up." 

Some of his favorite foods are:
Spinach with white (ranch) dressing
Broccoli
Hot dogs
Bologna
Nuggets
Pistachios
Almonds
Pears
Red Apples
Green Apples
Red apples
Gum

His favorite color is bwack (black) and rainbow.

His favorite show is Funniest Home Videos and Shaun the Sheep.

He loves to play with little people (my old toys). 

We love Samuel.  It is hard to believe that my baby is going to be 4. 

Samuel quote

As we went over a hill that tickled our bellies:

"My stomach squeezed my heart."