Pics-finally!

The graduate! One of many ceremonies to come.

Hamming it up as only ClaireBeth can do.

ClaireBeth and one of the best teachers ever, Marcia Toyama

ClaireBeth turns six!

At Gee's house with her build-a-leopard from Uncle John and Aunt Julie

Three Gorgeous Girls!

WWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Vee's in bed early tonight. I know it won't teach her anything, but it keeps her from being beat or marinated for tomorrow's dinner (almost entirely kidding, she wouldn't fit in the crock pot). She is definitely no longer a baby, no matter how hard I try to ignore the fact. Right now she is having a full blown temper tantrum that no baby would be able to pull off. The fact that I can understand some of the words she's yelling doesn't help. I'm also pretty glad I can't understand some of the others.

So listening to her is making me miss my babies. While I'm not planning on having anymore, I do wish my little ones could go back. I got to hold 2 1/2-week-old Miss JaneAnne (actually she was tossed to me so Mama Sarah could check the sling and keep the yellow off of her white shirt) and change her diaper, which included all of her clothes after a wipee bath. Mama Sarah's not a big fan of diapers, and I don't mind them so I didn't mind giving her a break. But JaneAnne was so sweet and little and calm, at least until she got hungry. Even my littlest hits and screams and thinks she has to have her own way. I guess this is just the way it goes and it's hitting me so hard because I kind of missed it with Ziggy and Vee's the last one. And anything that comes after this is just going to be more of a challenge!

Jess the critic

Okay, so I broke down and went to Blockbuster. I'm trying this month to not spend anything more than necessary. We're still working on it. I don't rent movies that often, but we do borrow them from the library, except lately there's nothing new that I would like to watch or is in watchable condition. So off we went to Blockbuster. I got Penelope and Nim's Island and the girls got My Little Pony (like from when I was little) and Dora.

Penelope is adorable. A large part of the problem with watching movies is being a Christian. If I didn't follow God, I could watch whatever I wanted. Not so much if you are a Christian. So for Penelope, there is magic. She's under a curse. Concerning sex there are no scenes or allusions to it concerning the main characters. I don't know if they got married at the end but they are obviously a couple in a non-PDA sort of way. Two side characters we are told do have pre-marital or extra-marital affairs. One is somewhat necessary to the plot and the other is unnecessary. There are two innuendos, one very blatant and you just wonder where it came from. The other isn't as obvious and while you know what it means, you just wonder why. Penelope is trying to guess what instrument Max plays while her parents watch. Her mother asks what they're doing and the father replies "She's trying to find his instrument." to which her mother asks isn't the man supposed to do that. The is a good bit of beer drinking but no drunen acts of stupidity. There is also a glossed over suicide/feticide that prompts the curse. Of course, it being a secular movie, the Lord's name is used inappropriately a few times and there are a small handful of damns and hells, probably like 4 or 5. There is a scary drawing. But over all it is a really cute adult movie (though I did let the girls watch it knowing that right now it will go over their heads and that they had missed a good bit of it, though if I buy it I won't generally let them; mainly I was watching it and didn't want to turn it off). Unfortunately this is what movies include and this is a pretty clean movie. There just aren't that many really good, cute Christian films. I'm a little tired of 1800 West stories. It can be a little off pace at times, a little jumpy. But I probably will buy it. That plus, I hate to admit it, James McAvoy is pretty cool and I've liked the roles he's done that I've seen. And Christina Ricci is a nostalgia piece to me. I remember watching Addams Family when I was little (I have no clue what my parents where thinking).

As to Nim's Island, it was okay. It is a child's movie, but that's usually what I end up watching since they're usually cleaner than adult movies. Nim is a bit disrespectful to her father, but it's more like she's used to being equal with him. I have kind of been there and so can understand. It's not acceptable, but it is better than her being openly rude and defiant. At one point Jack says thank you to Mother Nature. There are misuses of the Lord's name and again a few cuss words. I just think it's odd that two movies with the same rating (they're both PG) can have such a varied content. Penelope I would have put as PG13 with the infidelity/pregnancy implications, but I also don't want my 13-year-old to think that situations like that are acceptable, even if they are now normal.

My Little Pony wasn't that good, and Dora was Dora. I f you see the movies or have seen them let me know what you think.

ClaireBeth

Somedays she totally amazes me.
Today it was a lego tennis court!
The creator and her art!

Aerial view. The bleachers are on the right, the
parking lot is on the left with two red cars. The
players are blue and the scoreboard is by the bleachers.


Side view. The green things over the players
are telling them who's winning (I have no clue).

In reality

Okay, so I was going to watch a movie Eric didn't like and clean my room. In reality I played Wii Playground. I'm horrible at video games.

Later today

When Michelle and Cecil came to pick up their girls, I was a little frustrated. Lacy cried almost the whole time, no matter what I did. I got nothing done and the big girls were tired of being stuck in one room. Lunch was late and a little skimpy. So instead of cleaning, I went and laid down and read a book. Then it was time to go to parent orientation for Ziggy's school. We saw her teacher. We didn't really meet her since she stood in front and talked but didn't mingle. I had another 30 pages of paperwork to fill out (most of which I had already done) and of course my girls were the loudest and most ill-behaved. Of course, why wouldn't they be? They are Eric's after all.

After that we went school shopping, where Ziggy and ClaireBeth each got a new dress for the first day of school. ClaireBeth had no shoes to go with it, so we got to go shoe shopping too! Yea! Lucky me! Somehow the girls picked the same dress. So we're walking through Ross and Target (of course we have to take the dresses with us to make sure our new shoes match!) and everyone's like "Oh how cute, you're dressing them alike for school!" I'm very quick to reassure them that this was in no way my doing.

Home we come to make Eric and his team some dinner. The first few nights of the cycle I take dinner to the whole team. It started out five cycles ago we were supposed to trade off, the other wives and myself. Somehow between then and three cycles ago I ended up doing it. Which I don't get since I can't cook. Go figure. I can do a few things good enough for Eric, one of which is calzones which has become his customary first night dinner. I can bake though, so the guys always get a good dessert. Tonight was brownies, a new recipe that turned out very well. Tomorrow is pot roast and Eric's apple pie. It has a cheddar cheese crust. I also have two parties and a potluck. So for the whole weekend I have brownies, one apple pie, one cake (boxed but that's what the person wanted-I'll never understand), one batch of cookies, one key lime pie and two batches of cake balls not including dinner for the guys and whatever I take to the potluck. And of course I ran out of sugar.

Well, I've rambled enough. I have more to vent about, like Eric's work's get-togethers and laundry, but I'm sure I've bored you enough already. It's officially chick flick night since he's not here to complain about the English accents in Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility! Have a great night, I know I will.

Kiddos

I'm watching my friend Michelle's kids so she and her husband Cecil can volunteer at a school with our church. Right now two of the three are crying. We're doing good today. One is 2 and is very attached to daddy. She's starting to calm down, thank goodness for ponies and train tracks. Lacy is almost 10 months and does not want to go down for a nap. I might have to go fix her. I should only have them until 12 or so, and they're down the road at Cabrillo Elementary which is like 2.5 miles away. And now Kate is crying because she's in time out because she beat Vee on the head a few times. Fun. And now since Lacy got up, Vee's crying because I'm holding someone new. The joys of swapping kids.

Quirks

So my friend Beth, http://thiscrazythingcalledmotherhood.blogspot.com/, tagged me, which means I get to post 6 unspectacular quirks about myself. I'm supposed to tag and link and I'm just lost, so I'll just post, with a side tip to suggest doing the same thing on yours.

1. I would rather (and do) read 4 books in three days than clean my house.

2. I am extremely uptight. Which leads to being critical.

3. I am horrible at decorating because everything has to match. Same with clothes. Love ya Sarah! Thanks for trying to get me out of my box.

4. ClaireBeth has to empty the dishwasher because I pretty much flat out refuse to do it.

5. I have 4 or 5 calendars around the house and never use any of them.

6. I could live off of smoothies and meat. All I want is fruit and a dead animal. With a side of chocolate occasionally thrown in.

Back to normal

So Eric finished his last cycle on the 22nd. He went back to work today and gets new kids on the 29th. You gotta love summer when all of the high school seniors are going to boot camp. Eric's a Senior Drill Instructor this cycle, but his J (#2) was a 4th hat on his first full cycle last time and his 3rd hat has only been a DI for 3 weeks! We'll see how it goes!

As for us girls, we're getting ready to go back to school. We had two play dates with Auntie Sarah and our cousins Nehemiah, Haylie, Jake and JoJo. We love playing with them. Mama and Auntie Sarah get to talk big girl stuff, and go shopping if a daddy's around, and the kids get to drive each other nuts. They live about 45 minutes north. It's not that bad, but we just never seem to get a chance to get together.

Eric and I went to a Padres game last night with friends Michelle and Cecil. Cecil leaves for IA duty in Africa soon. We even went kid-less, which is nice since we both have three girls.

I still haven't written about camp. Okay, the speakers were Mike Erre and John Erwin. Both fantastic. I know Erre puts his sermons from Rock Harbor church in Costa Mesa online. The girls and I are going back in Nov for a weekend. If you're military, the cost is $50 per adult and kids are free. Go to foresthome.org. If you're not military, it's more expensive but it's still an awesome experience. At nap time Monday I was just praying we'd make it to lunch Wednesday, but God is awesome and gave all of us the strength and patience, not to mention a few families that really helped take care of us, to make it all the way through. I definitely needed it. I realized why I hadn't been doing anything around the house or with the girls. I was really feeling angry and resentful and discontented. Since I didn't want to be mad at myself and it wasn't really Eric's fault, I put most of those feelings toward God. He was probably sitting there trying not to laugh because he loves me so much like I do when Vee has a temper tantrum or Ziggy tries to get her own way and it doesn't work. So I came home and thought that everything would be all peachy because of my realization. Nope. I still actually have to work on my relationship with God. No freebies here.

So we're back to normal with Eric gone and my doing house/wife type stuff, which today means 12 loads of laundry (no exaggerations!). This time next week I'll have two kids in school. Very cool.

Wii Mii?

This is what Eric does most of the time. He says the chicks are harder to fight 'cause they keep getting back up. Go figure, the girls aren't as big babies as the guys.

So while I was at camp (I'll write about that more later) Eric bought a Wii. I'm okay with it, though we try to ask each other about big purchases. He says he tried to call, but he knew I had NO reception up the mountain. I'm okay with it mainly since they're so hard to find. He went to the exchange here at MCRD and they were just sitting on the counter. They said they'd just got them in a few minutes before. His friend was with him and he even called his wife who said she didn't mind, but he didn't get one. I have no clue why, but he's regretting it.

Part of it I guess is you have to hear Eric's reasoning behind getting it. Recently we'd started doing crossword puzzles together. Come to find out, we suck at them. Majorly. The Wii was his solution to finding something else we'd both enjoy doing together. He also got it for the girls. So at least he rationalized it well, right?

Now if you're totally jealous and would like to get a Wii (yeah right!) I know that Sam's club in College Grove had at least two on Monday for $250.

Welcome JaneAnne Marie

JaneAnne Marie was born last Thursday weighing in at 6 pounds, 2 ounces. Yea, we're so excited! Also, happy birthday to her big brother Trey who turned 6 on July 24th. We're a little behind but it doesn't mean we don't care!

We're off again

So we're off to family camp today. I'm excited, but I'm also a little tired of packing. We've been home since Tues and I didn't get anything put away. Plus all the clothes that were clean but left out before we went to Ohio are all over Ziggy's room because she just wanted to be a spoiled little brat and pull them all down. Ugh. Some days I am so over having any kids. I've got a 2 hour drive one way, but it doesn't seem as daunting as it once did. I drove almost 1000 miles while in Ohio and spent about 16 hours on the road. People aren't as rude there though, that helped a good bit. They also knew where they were going, as opposed to most drivers in Cali.
So we're off. No computer, no phone time (if there's even reception), so no contact. Hope you have a great week! I'm sure I will!