Jake's Summer Vacation Interview Part 2: Day 32..Seriously? Where is the Summer going???

Me: How is your summer going?
Jake: Fantastic!

Me: Can you explain the following pictures please?
Jake: Me in a tent in the Sunroom.
Me: Why is the tent in the Sunroom?
Jake: Because we were having a slumber party.

Playing with Bionicles.
That's my answer for the next picture too. (I am playing too see my hand?)
Mommy's squished face.
My squished face. (Looks like Scabbers-or Peter Petigrew for any of you Harry Potter fans like us.)
That's us smiling.
Me: Smiling?
Jake: Yeah remember crazy smiling.
Sad faces.
Super Hero pose
Mommy's super hero pose.
Me running in.
Me in the tent in my room.
Showing my set up.
Me and Daddy.

Me: So, would you say I am the coolest Mom ever for letting you have a tent in your room?
Jake:Yep!

Me: Okay, just a couple more pictures to explain.
Jake: Rock Band (we are borrowing Matt and Erin's Rock Band stuff while they are gone for the summer and we rented Beatles Rock Band)
Warning stinky trash! MUST PLUG NOSE! P.U.! I throw away!
Me: What are you looking forward to for the rest of the summer?
Jake: CAMP! (We are going to Vermont in a couple of weeks and can't wait!!!! More on that later)

Biggest Loser Week One Results

I feel bloated and my feet are swollen so I am happy to have lost 1 pound...I wish it were more but it is better than nothing. I battle with water retention every day-last night my fingers looked so unswollen (I know that is not a word) because I drank so much water yesterday. My feet in the summer are a whole other issue. I wear flip flops to church because I have to-there are no other options. I have a picture (somewhere...I will have to find it) of me when I was a totally skinny teenager at Camp (Vermont family lake cabin) in the summer and you can see my Barney Rubble swollen feet. When I wake up in the morning they are less swollen. When I was 12 and running summer track my leg swelled all the way up to my knee and they thought I had a stress fracture. Nope turned out to just be water retention. One of my doctors called it "Primary Lymphodema (sp)". I even took prescribed diuretics for years (it only helped temporarily) until I heard how it really isn't good for you. I knew I was pregnant with Jake literally 3 days in, because my fingers started swelling and I had a hard time wearing my wedding ring. Seriously-I was 3 days pregnant and I started swelling. Lucky me. :) Cute strappy sandals are a no go for my swollen feet. Okay...am I making excuses? Maybe....Moving on!!! I worked hard but not hard enough I guess. I am looking for a big number next week because I am going to bump up my cardio. I am going to walk and do little jogs to get my heart rate up and I am going to stop being a wimp. Aaron said Jillian (from the Biggest Loser) would have me crying within 20 seconds. To that I say-that is why I would choose Bob to be my trainer!

The Hutcheon's Visit

Dean, Laura, and Riley Hutcheon came back to NC for a wedding and they flew into Charlotte! They are our great friends and next door neighbors from Fletcher. They moved back to Utah a few months before we moved back to the Charlotte area and we were so excited to get to see them again! Riley has grown so much! She is one of the sweet girls I babysat in Fletcher. Jake always called her Miss Smiley because she is always happy and smiling. We had fun hanging out with them just like the old times. We are so glad we got to see you guys!

Their luggage didn't make it to Charlotte when they did...But at about 8:30 that evening (Aaron and Dean were at the church playing basketball and us girls were getting ready to watch "When in Rome" after Jake headed to bed) it was delivered to our house, so they had no clothes to change into. They flew during the night so Riley was in her PJ's. How cute is she? We walked down to Family Video because Jake was dying to rent a racing game.


Jake and Laura playing Sonic Racing
The guys hanging out
And a couple of quick pictures as they were heading out the next day!

Jake's Summer Fun Box

When I was babysitting we created a "Jake's summer fun box". We got a rubber maid and used Sharpies to decorate summer pictures on it. I filled it up with things like a new box of crayons, sidewalk chalk, small toys I found on sale through out the year or a new book. Basically lots of little cheap things that are treats you don't get every day! One day a week he could pick out something from the box. It was my way of making up for the guilt I felt for not being able to do all the fun stuff we wanted to do because we had to work around multiple naps (it is okay to let your own child miss a nap, but I felt guilty having the girls I watched miss a nap and then sending them home tired and cranky to their parents who had missed them all day...). This summer I didn't really prepare anything because if I am not home, Aaron is. Then one day Aaron mentioned he was feeling guilty (that doesn't happen as much to Dad's as it does to Mom's) that when I was at work Jake spent most of the time watching TV or playing the Wii (he does have to read for one hour while I am gone) because Aaron had to do his homework. The summer semesters are short so they cram a lot into 5 weeks, which means lots of homework. So, the box was reborn...sort of. It is still in his closet holding his winter clothes but we are making it work with another basket...Any way long story short I write some things on pieces of paper like: read for one hour, watch one show, see what you can build with legos in 20 minutes, Daddy's choice, draw a picture to send to Nee and Papa (still haven't mailed it yet but it will be on its way soon!), do one of your daily chores, read my favorite scripture story and draw me a picture to carry in my scriptures of it...etc. Jake draws one of the papers out of a bowl and has to do what ever is on the paper. Daddy is the keeper of the basket of things that Jake will need to accomplish the task. He was so excited to start it the first day when I was getting ready to leave for work (not last week but the week before that...why am I always playing catch up?). He was even more excited that the first one he drew was watch a show for 30 minutes while you eat popcorn and M&M's. I was lucky enough to catch a picture of the moment he read what it said....
When I called them during my break to see how they were doing Jake was so excited to tell me all he had done already. He had already drawn the picture for Nee and Papa, made several cool lego vehicles, done 2 chores, and Daddy's choice (which was to let him play the Wii for 30 minutes-what a nice Daddy). Now neither of us have to feel guilty and Jake is having a ball!

The 4th of July!

I love the 4th of July! I had to work a few hours yesterday and today so Aaron and Jake made a quick trip to Spartanburg to visit Nana and Papa. I got off work at 4:30 and they got home not too long after that. We had an awesome time watching the fireworks and playing with sparklers. Aaron the party pooper (why is spell check telling me I didn't spell that right...how do you spell it?) and didn't have his Old Navy shirt on. Actually they are a little cheaper quality this year compared to others and his shrunk in the dryer...He doesn't know how to stretch them back out like I do. You know: put it on and then sit down on the floor, with your legs bent up and pull the shirt up and over your knees. It works like a charm!

My Biggest Loser Returns (and Eclipse...)

I literally just wrung sweat out of my pony tail...and it feels so good! I just walked not quite 2 miles and did my Wii Biggest Loser for 40 minutes. I restarted last week and only did it for that day. So, I really started it today. For real this time. It started on a good note because I lost 2 pounds since last week without doing anything! I could say I am restarting but doing something off and on for a couple weeks (more like days...) really isn't doing it. No more "wishing" and "hoping". This time I will be "doing". I have no excuses for being a slacker, I just am. No more looking back, just forward. I realized I when I am skinny I am going to want to tell people how much I weigh and how much I lost. Simple math will then let them add it all together to figure out how much I weighed. On the Biggest Loser show the world knows how much they weigh and I am sure that is part of the motivation. And lets face it you all know I am fat! So, you might as well know how fat and then it is all out there. I will have some major motivation to make the number go down because all 3 or 4 of you that actually read my blog will know...And I will know you know...You know what I mean? So, I am cringing while typing this but here is the starting number as of today: 268....Ok...It is out there and I can't take it back. I am fat-and I have already lost 18 pounds....So, really I am not as fat as I used to be! I am skinnier! That sounds so much better than saying I am fat...Thursday is my weigh in day for any body who actually reads this. :)

...Now on to Eclipse. To quote Elizabeth "it was AMAZING!"! I agree 100%!!!!!!! It was SO much better than Twilight and New Moon. Bella must of gotten some acting lessons because she didn't go crossed-eyed at all. Have you ever noticed that before? In the very important close up to eachothers faces scenes she always went crossed eyed! She had the Bella look but not the acting to back it up in the first two movies. She did so much better! And Edward...Ahhh Edward...He got a hair cut and his lipstick and white makeup weren't so obvious this time. And they acutally acted happy around eachother and smiled like you do when you love some one! I am now excitedly anticipating the next one instead of wondering how cheesy it will be! ****Let me be clear: even though I thought the others were cheesy I still love them, own them, and have watched them multiple times.**** When I made (yes MADE) Aaron watch the first two I would always cringe knowing that a scene that he would pick on was coming up. The "cheese" is gone folks! I think he will actually tolerate this one. It is a MUST SEE AGAIN ASAP kind of movie. And Elizabeth I am challenging you to actually READ the books so you can be a true Twihard. :)

Random thoughts..

1. It was awesome to see the Hutcheon's and I have some pictures to prove it! (more later...)

2. This is a big movie week in our house:
a. "Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief" came out on DVD. We rented it and it was only okay. Not enough like the book for me and Jake. Thumbs half way up and half way down is what Jake said.
b. We also rented "Karate Dog"...I feel asleep, but Jake said it was good. (We have an awesome video store that we walk to that must be trying to compete with Redbox so it rents new movies for $1.50 and you get another family video for free. You also get a free rental with every A on report cards. Jake got straight A's so that is 5 free we haven't used yet. And Aaron got a 94 in he Calculus class (nerd) so that is another free one. AWESOME!)
c. "ECLIPSE" IS OUT!!!!! Elizabeth and I are going to see it tonight!!! We will give you all a review later...We watched "Twilight" and "New Moon" (again) on Saturday to get ready for it.
d. Thanks to Sara (our niece who just graduated) we are "Airbender" (the real Avatar, as I like to call it) JUNKIES and are SOOOO excited to see the movie that came out today! We are going to see it in 3D...at some point. I am considering raiding the change jar for it. I have never seen a movie in 3D...I can't wait!
e. Laura and I (actually Jake-he owed me a couple of bucks and wanted to rent Sonic racing-which HE has to pay for. So, he rented the movie for us and we called it even...he got the better deal, but it was fun to think he was paying for it. He even let the cashier keep the 4 cents change she owed him as a tip...What a little flirt...sorry...rambling) rented "When in Rome". We give it a thumbs up for a funny and cute chick flick.
f. I want to rent "Letters to Juliet" next...Any one seen it?
g. We never go see movies and here we are faced with 2 awesome choices coming out in one week...But there really was no choice. It's Eclipse people! No choice at all.

3. We can know breath when we open the door. I think the Hutcheon's brought the Utah weather with them. We have had temperatures up to 104 already!!! To that I say booooo. To cooler weather I say ahhh...

4. Aaron was just looking at the tickets I printed off Fandango for "Eclipse" tonight and he said: "this is for tomorrow-it says July 2nd."...Picture me reaching for the paper as I cry out "WHAT!?!?!?". Then he laughs...Hahaha...