Writing to Remember

On Wednesday, our temperature was 78 degrees!  It was glorious.

I was a little warm running errands!

And now it's Friday and we are currently 32 degrees but really feels like 21 (according to my weather app!).  Brrrr!  

School was canceled yesterday even before a drop of rain fell!  I was looking forward to sleeping in but wouldn't you know that both Jax and Julianne didn't sleep in one bit!  Seriously.

So now we are kicking back, enjoying a cup of tea, and watching the Winter Weather Coverage. 

Since we are having winter weather, it's only fitting that I share this photo of Julie and the "Santa" she likes to visit when we run errands.  She loves to touch his beard and loves that he's basically the same size as her!

Thanksgiving was fun.  Since we had so many people coming, we had it at a local church.  Which has an indoor play area with a ball pit!

We had some great food and had a good time.  We brought clam dip which most people told us that they never had it before.  And asked if it was a Pacific Northwest thing.  I dunno.  I guess I never thought about it like that.  We just always had clam dip at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It was a must-have food!

We came home and I finished up painting Julie's room.  I was bold and decided to go with pink.  And let me tell you, that room is PINK!

When she first saw it on the walls, she said, "oh my gosh.  It is cool!"  Where in the world did she learn "Oh my gosh?" And to say it dramatically?  I'm a little worried for her teen years...

Meanwhile, Jax asked me when I was going to paint his room.  His room is such a nice gray color that fits perfectly with his Star Wars theme.  So I asked him again what color he would like to paint it and he told me black.  Nope.  Not going to happen.

Justin and did some yard work today.  These stupid vines are taking over our yard and need to be tamed.  It took a while, but we finally had a spot free. 

I think I'm going to go ahead and give up on the leaf battle.  I work so hard to clean them up and more appear each day.  Why does it take so long for the leaves to fall?!?

After all the hard yard work, I came inside and put up our Christmas trees.

Our family tree is on the left.  Jax's tabletop tree is blue and Julie chose pink.  Of course.  I had fun decorating them.  A girl can never have too much Deco Mesh!

I've sure enjoyed having this time off to get some stuff done around the house!

It's been around a month since we moved to Arkansas.  And I'm thankful we aren't back to a month ago when we were hauling our stuff across two states!  Whew!  That was a whole lot of work.

We seem to be getting into some sort of routine.  Justin and Jaxson head off to school.  Julie and I have lots of bonding time during the day. 

Usually when Jaxson gets home from school, they both play dress up.

Or draw pictures.  Or play outside when it's nice.  

Grocery shopping is always an adventure down here.  Remember when I found the smoked turkey necks by the collard greens?  Well, I've had other fun food finds too.

Pickled Pigs feet.  Huh.

Can I tempt you with hog jowl or hock?  What is hock?!

Larry the Cable Guy has his own line of chips. 

But with every weird (to me!) food that I find, I can name off many foods that I love.  Shrimp Po'boys, crawdads, and Golden Flake Dill Pickle chips are just a few.

Jaxson is doing real good in school.  He struggled with math when we first got here but he just brought home this test. 

Yay!  I was very proud of his A+.  He worked hard for it.

And the weather here is crazy too.  It's gone from 80 degrees to in the low 20's in just one week.  Tonight we may get some snow fall, but it won't stick.  And then by Thanksgiving it will warm back up again.

Which is good.  These leaves are not going to rake themselves up!

I've been working hard in my yard to get the leaves picked up just so another windstorm can blown more back in!

Goal check up for October!

Financial

Buy a 2nd car.  (Done in February.  I did not think we would accomplish this one so fast!)  

Buy a new (to us) reliable car for the family.  (Done.  Cute 2009 Ford Focus.)

School

Tot School is on hold indefinitely until we are settled in our new house.

Home Management

Use Little Green Notebook's cleaning schedule and stick to it!  (This is working great.)

Weekly:

Vacuum

Mop

Clean bathrooms

Monthly

Dust

Clean oven/microwave

Spot clean walls and carpets

Personal

Books

Here is the list I want to read.  I'm shooting under the table because if I finish this list, I can ADD MORE. 

Erasing Hell by Francis Chan (Done in August.  I was surprised that it was such an easy read for such a heavy topic.)

The Fitting Room by Kelly Minter (Finished in September.  Meh.)

Gods and Kings by Lynn Austin (Read in March.  It was so good!)

Holy Parenting by Benjamen Kerns

Is the Bible True?:  How Modern Debates and Discoveries Affirm the Essence of the Scriptures by Jeffrey L. Sheler (Read in February.  This was super interesting!)

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Michal: A Novel by Jill Eileen Smith (Finished in May.  It was pretty good.  An easy read for sure.)

Sticky Faith by Kara Powell

A Taste of Heaven by R.C. Sproul

Tell Your Time by Amy Lynn Andrews (I read this in about 1/2 hour.  It had practically ideas about goal setting, but much of it I had already heard of before.)

Understanding Your Young Teen by Mark Oestreicher

The Year of Living Biblically:  One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs (Read in January.  This was really funny!) 

Books read at Book Club:

Life of the Beloved:  Spritual Living in a Secular World by Henri J. M. Nouwen  (Read in January.  This was ok.)

A Hole in the Gospel:  What does God Expect From Us?  The Answer That Changed My Life and Just Might Change the World by Richard Sterns  (I actually read this last year!  I think it will bring some great discussion.)  I didn't read it this time around.

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott (read in March)

Books I've added:

Unglued by Lysa Terkeurst (Read in May.  I really liked this book.  There were some really excellent points to it.)

Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst (Read in June.  I really enjoyed it.  I like her style of writing.)

Star Wars:  The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks (Jaxson is asking me all sorts of questions about the 1st three movies of Star Wars.  Time to brush up on my Star Wars knowledge!) (Read in July.  Still wasn't a fan of this 1st movie/book storyline.)

Star Wars:  Attack of the Clones by R.A. Salvatore (Read in July.  Love it, of course.) 

Star Wars:  Revenge of the Jedi by Matthew Stover (Read in July.  Eh, I didn't like this author as much. Too much focus on the battle scenes.  Not enough on character development.  Maybe the movie is that way as well.)

Bible Study time

Memorize the entire book of James.  (I've memorized to 5:17.)

Study the book of Luke with the Mars Hill podcasts. (Done.  January-March)

Watch Doctrine series with Mars Hill podcasts. (Done.  April)

Watch Redeeming Ruth with Mars Hill podcasts.  (Done. April)

Watch Nehemiah with Mars Hill podcasts.  (Done. May)

Watch Ephesians with Mars Hill podcasts. (Done. May.)

Watch Trial (1 and 2 Peter) with Mars Hill podcasts. (Done.  June.)

Watch Acts with Mars Hill podcasts.  (Started in October.)

She knows how to get her way.  She will clasp her hands together in front of her chest and give you the puppy dog eyes and say "peeeeeeeze?"  How can I resist?

Speaking of getting what she wants, she roped Justin into a tea party one day.  I'm impressed! 

Julie is now telling whoopers.  Once she had a bug bite and she told me that a mean "woof" (aka dog) had done that to her.  One day she had a dirty diaper and I told her we needed to change her.  She look at me in all seriousness and told me that her dirty diaper was all gone.  She worked so hard to convince me that was true.

Julie got her a princess cell phone the other day while we were shopping at Walmart.  She has talked a lot to Belle and Ariel.  And I have to admit-so have I.  You can't turn away a two year old when they hand you the phone and tell you to talk!

Julianne was a hard little worker on moving day.  She would go up and down the ramp carrying her toys into the truck.  She sure didn't want to leave anything behind!  Of course, she also liked running up and down the ramp-many, many times!

Since we moved she loves our new house.  She calls it "new house".  When I tell her we are going home she will correct me and say, "No, new house."  She associates "home" with our old house in Raleigh.  I wonder how long we will be calling this our new house?

One day I sneezed and Julianne responded, "You're welcome!"  I had a good laugh over that one.

Oh, Julianne.  You sure are a character.  Happy 32 months!

You know what's a nice surprise?  Going to the supermarket and when looking for cucumbers you notice that right next to the collard greens is a weird looking item.  Upon further inspection,I realized that they were smoked necks.  In the vegetable area?  When I asked Justin about this when he got home from work, he told me that you make collared greens with the smoked necks.  His exact words were, "just like putting a ham bone in beans."  Now, I'm a girl from the Pacific Northwest and I'm pretty sure that is not the same thing.

Julie and I ventured to Walmart by our selves today.  I got a little over confident and decided not to use my GPS on my phone.  I ended up passing the Walmart exit and taking a nice scenic route to get back around.  Poor Julie thought it was taking forever to get there.  Note to self: It's ok to use GPS if you aren't sure exactly where a place is located.

Living in a tiny town has it's benefits.  I didn't realize that it's pretty much ingrained in me to look out around my surroundings at all times when I am out and about.  And always made sure my purse was close to me at all times.  Living in a big city, people (especially at some Walmarts) would steal wallets out of purses and I don't feel like I have to worry about that here.  It's very friendly town and a lot of people talked to me today while I was shopping at Walmart.  The cashier was even telling me all about her grandchildren while I was checking out. 

Jaxson is loving school.  After his first day I asked him what his favorite part is.  He said everything.  Then I asked him what his not so favorite part is and he said, "Mom, I said EVERYTHING was my favorite."  Oh sorry!  His teacher is so sweet and has helped his transition to a new school go smoothly.  He loves PE the best.  He also told me yesterday that his PE teacher told the class that they need to go to a church Harvest Festival for Halloween and then go trick or treating.  So he came home telling me that we had to go to church first.  Which was our plan to begin with, but funny how a teacher saying that makes it so much more important. (But a teacher could have never told a class that in a big city school...)

The house is coming along.  Most of the boxes are out of here now and I can find most things.  I still have some more work to do and work on it daily.  And of course, I'm already thinking of house projects...painting Julie's room is top priority now!

Julie has loved to help me out.  She thought sweeping with the broom was the BEST thing ever.

Julie has helped me decorate.  Which really means that she has undecorated what I have already worked on.  And I think her wearing the cleaning gloves is a nice touch.  I'm not sure why she thought she needed cleaning gloves to move my picture frames!

In all each day we get a bit more settled into everyday life.  Who knows?  I may be purchasing some smoked necks to go in my collard greens-you know-just like a ham bone!

I'm officially in the deep(er) south now.  And let me tell you, my accent is giving me away that I am not from here.

First, when we were traveling from in the longest state ever (aka Tennessee) the lady at the gas station stated, "You aren't from here..are you?"  Once I said no, she said that my accent gave me away.  My accent?!  I don't have an accent-ha!

When we registered Jax for school on Friday and the lady in the office told us that his teacher was Ms. Lallllll.  I felt dumb asking her to repeat it so I figured I would look it up on his papers when I got in the car.  Again, the whole accent thing is getting in the way.  His teacher's name is spelled Ms. Lyle which I would pronounce LY-ul.  But down here is Lallll.  

Which is funny because this brought me back to the time when I was dating Justin and we were talking and he said the word "ollll."  Even based on the conversation topic, I still couldn't figure out what he was talking about.  I finally had to tell him I had no idea what he was saying.  To which is he described it as "what you put in the car engine."  Finally, it clicked.  He meant "oil."  Which us Washingtonians would say OY-ul.  

Clearly, I'm on an accent learning curve here and it's really entertaining me.  I wonder how long it's going to take for the kids and me to start picking it up! (I think Justin's already eased back into it!)

Tuesday October 8

Today Jaxson's class went to the fire station.  He loved every minute of it.  He learned that you call 911 in an emergency and to stop, drop, and roll!

Wednesday October 9

Julie had a minor problem.  Her Princess Sofia necklace's batteries died.  So we had to replace them.  She was so happy that her necklace finally worked again!

Thursday October 10

I hate packing.

Friday October 11

Julie saw I was wearing a scarf and needed one too!  I found a smaller one for her to wear.  She is such a fashionista!

Saturday October 12

Technically, this isn't a picture.  But Jaxson decided to set up his Angry Bird Star Wars Death Star and then yell, "Millennium Falcon!" really loud and run crash into it.  Never a dull moment....

Sunday October 13

No picture.

Monday October 14

Since the next couple of weeks are going to CRAZY, I thought I would start documenting more PL on my blog.  That way, I can go back and fill out my Project Life Album.  Seriously, my week has been all about this:

Tuesday October 1

This was the day I played Minnie Mouse with Julie for a LONG time.

Wednesday October 2

I'm not sure where she learned this, but I cannot resist little Julie when she comes up to me and pleads, "pweeeze?"

Thursday October 3

No picture.

Friday October 4

I took the kids to the doctor to get their flu shots.  Jax was brave and told me he would just say "Ow."  And that's what he did.  I thought Julie would cry.  But she copied Jax and just said "ow" too!

Anyways, Julie loves the fish tank in the waiting room!

Saturday October 5

No picture.

Sunday October 6

I don't have a picture, but I do have a funny story!  Jaxson was talking to Pap (Justin's dad) on FaceTime and Jax told him that he wanted to paint a Star Wars room.  Pap asked what it would look like and Jax said it would look black.  We all had a good laugh.  He is NOT painting his room black!

Monday October 7

No pictures today.  I did boring things, like going and getting my flu shot!

Julianne loves to wear dresses.  She gets very upset when I pull out an outfit that is shorts or pants.  She is such a girly girl.

But even though she loves dresses, she hates hair bows.  Go figure. 

She is a chatter box.  We went to Target one morning and she talked the whole entire time we were shopping.  That wore me out a bit.  But she sure is a good shopping partner.  I can ask her what she likes better and she will give me her opinion.  If I ask Justin or Jaxson, they just shrug and ask if we are done yet. 

Her favorite colors are pink and purple.  Princess Ariel is her favorite Disney princess.  We watched The Little Mermaid together and she loved it.  She recently started watching "A Goofy Movie."  (My sister loved that when she was little!)  She will watched that movie 3 times in one day. 

She LOVES her sweet tea.  I don't give it to her very often because you know, caffeine and sugar rush!  But she sure enjoys it when I make it for her.

Now that Alma has treated her to nail polish and make up, I went ahead and painted her nails one night.  Pink nail polish with purple sparkles...Julie was so happy!

She loves the big iPod (iPad) and now that Jaxson is at school, she gets to play with it some.  I saw this in our photo stream the other day:

I'm guessing she was painting nails in this art app.  Too funny!

Julianne is a determined little girl and pretty much gets what she wants.  (within reason!)  One day, Julie somehow roped Justin into playing some sort of beauty shop.  He would comb her hair.  And then she would comb his hair.  It went on for a while.  The whole time Julianne was just having so much fun!

Poor Justin!  I just had to laugh!

Happy 31 Months Julianne!