Fork & Shoe

Yesterday morning Blake successfully brought pancake pieces to his mouth via the usage of a fork. The other kids and I clapped and congratulated him. Youngest kids have quite the audience! Trying to use that for the good. (i.e. encouraging good behavior)

Yesterday when we went to pick up Hayley from school, Seth put his shoes on all by himself! He did it all on his own, no one told him to or was even around. I didn't have the heart to tell him they were on the wrong feet though, he was so cute acting like he put on his shoes every day, no big deal. I still told him I was proud of him though!

Pics from 6/11/13. Blake just recently started smiling for the camera, I love it! It is bursting with cuteness and yet so hilarious at the same time! 

Random June Post: School's Out!

A week or two ago this came to me: "Let every step have purpose."

God gives great nudges in the right direction, doesn't He!

To me, this meant that everywhere I go, whether it be to the kitchen or to church, I should be using my time wisely to the best of my ability.

Also, that I make wise choices where my steps take me.

Thirdly in a more literal sense, it's a good thing to think about while jogging! Reminding me of my goals.

And so, blog title change! After almost 7 years of blogging, I'm switching from 'tsbjf' to this. My name can still be 'tsbjf', so it's in the good.

Sorry family that I've been bad at blogging lately.

Things I should have covered:

-Ada started riding her bike without training wheels right after Hayley did.
-Blake has been walking since 11 months, he's going strong and gets around pretty quickly these days.
-He turned one, and we went to the SF Zoo.
-Today is Hayley's last day of first grade! I'll let myself off the hook on this one, you're getting current info right here.
-Monday I gave some haircuts. Seth no longer has his beautiful locks; I was hoping to keep his longer cut, but realized the longest attachment I have to the hair clipper is the one I use on Jeremy--not exactly long enough for what I was hoping to do. But, I went with it. Easier summer cut, right? Not sure I'll ever have the scissor skills necessary to execute what I visualize, so this may be the trend for him. Short cut, grow out while trimming around ears, buzz again.

I do not think I always have purposeful steps, that is why I'm putting it as my title to remind me to use my time wisely. Word. As Leman says (and I'm sure others do too): priorities, Priorities, PRIORITIES.

Just finished Stopping Stress before It Stops You: A Game Plan for Every Mom, it was a good little read. I've read a few of his books, and Birth Order Book, The: Why You Are the Way You Are was pretty good. But my two favorites of his for this time in my life so far have been 7 Things He'll Never Tell You: . . . But You Need to Know and Making Children Mind without Losing Yours.

The kids one was really helpful to me, and I feel like I have a better relationship with a certain child because of it. 

The 7 things one was helpful in that I could get into the male mind a little more, but surprisingly I learned a lot about myself in it too! So that makes it my favorite marriage book for the wife to read, because it had a lot of practical tips, plus I felt like I had a better understanding of where I was coming from and how I could work with that. 

I don't know if you other women are like me or not, but whenever I am reading a book about marriage and how I can change, I have different moments in the book. When I start, it's always like, this is so cool, so exciting. Then I have at least one day in the middle where I'm fighting the flesh, and my flesh wants to be selfish and not work on anything, and I take a couple steps back in my attitude & action. "The bad day". Then by the end I'm absorbing, and whatever I remember after finishing is the good I took away from the book. 

With the 7 book, I definitely had my bad day, but I also definitely took away some good points that I have put into practice that have really helped us out! 

Just a few more wedding/anniversary memories.

First off, I can't believe I forgot to mention Cottage of Sweets!! If you ever go to Carmel, make sure you go there and try their fudge. Delicious. We actually went there both days because we had to try more! 

And now for your viewing pleasure, a few pics from our wedding. I am not sure who to credit for taking these pictures. We had set out disposable cameras, but didn't think to put instructions on them, so a lot of people just took them with. A few were kind and sent doubles of their prints, so those are the ones I have in my scrapbook. 

10th Wedding Anniversary!

Wow, hard to believe that May 31st, 2003 was already ten years ago. 

We've been in CA for over 7 years now.

We've got four kids.

Time flies! 

I really wanted to do something special for our tenth, like spend a night away from the kids, as I had never done that before! For the past almost seven years we've had a kid and then I've either been pregnant or nursing, so it never seemed like a good time, and I guess we weren't that motivated to "get away" for an overnighter. 

We've gone on dates here and there, but I am really glad we put in the extra work it took to get away for this trip, as it was so worth it. I weaned Blake earlier so that wouldn't be an issue (I can get things done when there is a goal!), and we hired a wonderful college-age babysitter from church. She did awesome! 

It was kinda hard deciding where we wanted to travel to since there are so many scenic places around here, but we finally settled on Carmel. Lots of things to do there that we could enjoy more together sans-kids. Browsing shops, eating out, jacuzzi & swimming, to name a few. 

How flexible and relaxing time is by ourselves! It was nice to go where we wanted when we wanted, do what we wanted to do. We had a great time, and it really was everything we had hoped it'd be. 

May 31st, dressed up for our nice dinner out:

Saturday morning, walk to the beach:

We stopped in Monterey on the way home to ride bikes along the coast, which was so fun! 

I don't have too many pictures from our trip, but we ate at several good places, visited a nice cheese shop, looked at art (so much of that in downtown Carmel), and walked around a lot in Carmel and Monterey. A very nice way to step back and enjoy time together, just us. Team Jeremy & Joanne! 

Sex & Old Technology: a true story.

Yesterday I was reading


and I was inspired to leave Jeremy a little message on his answering machine at work.

Giving him some "anticipation", if you will, of what I wanted to do to him that night.


After dinner in the evening, we let the older three watch a show and Blake fell asleep on me while Jeremy and I conversed at the table.

In the middle of our conversation time, he mentions how he got my message...

Let's just say, everyone else around him heard it too.

He explained how his phone is really old and loud, and the answering machine does not delete a message, no matter how many times you push the delete button, until the full message has played.

I laughed until I cried. How embarrassing!!

He said it's ok, everyone thinks he's a weirdo anyway because he does pushups in his cubicle.

I said, well, I guess it's not a bad thing to be known as the guy who's getting some.

He replied that they already know that from the pictures in his cubicle. (All the kids.)

Two things I'm thankful for: my message was short, and I can't visit him at his office because I don't have security clearance. Finally a reason to appreciate that!

May Day

Happy May Day everyone!

This morning the girls went out to distribute their May Day baskets they had made. Some were decorated cans, some were scrapbooking cardstock shaped into a cone. Hayley took one around the corner, and then ran back to escort Ada across the street.

I don't usually let them cross the street alone, but I figured Hayley was old enough to learn to look both ways, and we live on a quiet street.

She held Ada's hand and ran her across, too fast though, and once they reached the driveway Ada took a spill, basket and paper flowers flying. Tears were flowing along with a loud outburst of sadness at the hurt knee and equally as much for the damaged basket.

I called them back over and handed them one I had made as a replacement, and they tried again, this time with success.

At this point Hayley was done as she had seen a couple of neighbors out and about; you know how oldest children are about rules. Supposed to sneak these baskets over before the neighbors awake was the objective. Ada still wanted to take the remaining four, so I had Hayley go with. Ada was carrying three of them, but got caught up in them and one or two started coming apart, and everything pretty much unraveled there.

We called game over. Had to continue getting ready for school as that time was fast approaching, and we did not have time to fix things and regroup at the moment. So, two neighbors got lucky! We'll hopefully try again next year. And I'm planning on reworking the sturdiness of the baskets to withstand hardships. Basically what was failing was the ribbon attachment to the can or paper; I had used packaging tape and it seemed to be hardy enough, but apparently not when tossed about. Lesson learned.

Last week I had a little May Day basket making party with a few friends, it was fun craziness with all the kids busily crafting away. They were all into it, it was cool!

Score for bringing the tradition back. Planting seeds, yo. May the May Day basket practice live on!

Funny 'cause most of my friends here had never even heard of it, so I guess for them it was an introduction. My mom made them with us as kids, and at least once we made them at school. It's a fun thing.

Bike rider & baby steppin

To answer your question, Tabitha, about how the camera does in low light, I took these pics of Seth sleeping on March 31st. One w/o flash, and one with.

Vid is comprised of clips I took on Monday and today.

Monday Hayley could ride her bike! Yay! Probably about a month ago she had practiced on Owen and/or Noah's bikes and started getting the hang of it. We don't get out bike riding too often, so this was the next time we had gone.

Last week Blake started attempting a step. Yesterday he got two steps, although Hayley said she saw him take three at one point. Today he upped his record to four, then more, and more, and more, till in this video I believe I counted 11 steps. Granted he stopped now and then, but he stayed upright through them all! He's pretty proud of himself.