Jimmy's Guitar

My mom bought Jimmy a guitar for Christmas.

He has been getting a few lessons from one of the guys at church and practicing a lot on his own. It's hard work but he has been practicing and hopefully will pick it up and be able to play a few songs.

It would be great to have him get together with other people who can play and make music. I am one of the few people in the family that has zero musical ability.

Oh, wait - I could play the recorder in grammer school if that counts for anything :0)

star wars party prep

i wasn't at the lock-in, it must have been for cool jr. high kids only, but i did get to see the pooch beg for a treat and make the cupcakes.

Blackhawks Parade

BLACKHAWKS PARADE

we took the kids out of school (shhh!) and jumped on the train to see the Blackhawks, the mighty Blackhawks, travel down Washington Ave. in celebration of winning the Stanley Cup.


the anticipation was immense



commit to the cup, B


find a light post and climb up so you can see



celebrate till you can't stand it anymore.

... thanks Hawks.

baseball 2010

 a small sample of the fun of the season

Halloween Pictures

we had a class party for the 6th graders.

Need I mention I CANNOT BELIEVE MY CHILD IS IN SIXTH GRADE!!! ?

and yes, half these children are taller than me. ha.

they played games but only because it involved food.

the fairy liked it though.

as did the dinosaur. roar!

i think this is an indication of an OD on sugar.

the pop corn race was a hit with the little ones too.

What happened to all the 6th graders?

Are they really too cool to play silly games at Halloween?

one day they will see you should never grow to old to play silly games.

and the final wrap up of the Halloween whirlwind was trick or treating. this is a cool house huh?

It was cold and windy for trick or treat and Rea succembed to be a bee again.

Here it is a week later and the candy is almost gone.

Touchdown Soup Night

Every year the football team has touchdown soup. Each child brings a can of Campbell's soup (not cream style) and they mix all the different kinds into a large pot. When practice is over, they get a cup of soup and a cup of hot chocolate. Surprisingly, the soup tasted good and all the kids had a nice big, warm cup.

jimmy enjoying soup

payton loves his soup too!

reagan, payton and devyn

serving the soup

pine trail was fun last

pine trail was fun last year. jimmy got to shoot a bow and arrow and zachs finger was numb. ben rode in a canoe, the canoe almost tipped over. the night games were fun and mission impossible was awesome. go to pine trail camp!
(-this post was written by jimmy and zach)

jimmy got a ball!

jim just said reed johnson is gonna throw it to me in the9th! he was right.

just a scare

on sunday we had a bit of a scare. I guess it started on saturday when larry a came in to town and helped jimmy all day cut pyramids for his history project. all the work left his back hurting and very tired. so on sunday, i guess he was very sore and took a pain pill to get moving and get to church, which left him with no appitite and no desire to eat breakfast.

so during the service toward the end of pastors message, larry was not feeling well and stood up to leave the sanctuary, but instead of standing up and walking out, he stood up and fell! he actually blacked out and hit his head on the pew! ouch. praise the Lord for all the loving and supportive people in our church. Immediaetly pastor called everyone to pray for larry and people began gathering in groups and praying for the Lords guidence and will to be done.

a few of the decons helped larry into the washroom and others called 911. within minutes they arrived and larry ended up going to the hospital.

it turns out he had his medicine changed a few days before and his bp usually runs low. that, combined without eating food caused him to black out. after hours of tests at the hospital, he is ok, he was stable and kept for observation overnight. so thank the Lord that larry is ok. he and mom took off today for AZ. hopefully it will be an 'uneventful' trip.

here is a pic of the pyramids: don't they look great?

Kdg Orientation and the 1st day of school

Paton went to his kindergarten orientation on Thursday. It was a great was to get introduced to the school , teachers and kids. He brought all of his supplies and got to sit at his new desk. He seemed happy, but he usually isn't overly emotional, so I couldn't really tell. In this first picture, he looks a bit nervous.

Here are the 3 musketeers on the first day, Tuesday, September 2nd. It was a big day for everyone and we were all up early and excited. For Jimmy it was his first day at the new Edison and his first day taking a bus to school.

For Payton, it was his first day of kindergarten, enough said.

And for Rea, it was her first day with out her boys after a whole summer with them, and her first day without Payton, after a 3 yer lifespan. I think she cried harder than all of them when it was time to go :0(

Payton's day went well, again, not overly excited, but he enjoyed his day and was happy to show us his homework and tell us about a few things they did. Here is a picture of Jim getting Payton from "the box" on the first day.

Now poor Jimmy, this was probably one of the most messed up days the poor kid has experienced! The "fun" (said in a VERY sarcastic tone) began at 6:50 am when he got to the bus stop. This is where he (we) waited, and waited and waited and waited, for a bus that NEVER showed up!!!

Jimmy ended up spending the first day of 5th grade with tthe 5th graders at Thorp. He was so calm and good natured about it, but I knew where he would have rather been.

It was a good learning experience for him though, and he made new friends that might live in our neighborhood.

So the 2nd day rolls around and the bus fails to show for day 2. Today we decide that Jim will drive him to school and so Jimmy gets to class in the middle of 1st period. At least he made it! Jim picked him up on Wednesday since the bus didn't show at the school for over an hour.

By this morning, not being hopeful the bus was coming, it was a pleasent surprise to hear it picked Jimmy up and even better to hear that it was a new company and they were driving the route with an Edison parent and plan to make this work.

So after a few frustrating days, it looks like there is a little light at the end of the tunnel and we are going to continue to chug along.

my boy is back

i had to be patient. they say pick your battles wisely.

eventually, i (hoped) he would decide to cut his hair.

WooHoo! That day is here and my boy is back.

It's so nice to see Jimmy's smiling face and beautiful eyes.

You be the judge.