23 Weeks Pregnant!

23 weeks pregnant today.

Last Thursday I went to see Dr. Houseworth for my monthly visit.

Jack came along and got to hear the baby's heartbeat.

He thought it was to loud. We should have brought his earmuffs.

LEVEL TWO comes to an end

Jack has been in Level Two swimming lessons the past two weeks at the Newton Pool. I had high hopes for Jack in L2. He had done so well in L1 and did not need to take it again.

L2 and Jack's behavior left something to be desired. Jack just was not into it. I think I expected to much from him. Although he was about 2 years younger than almost all of the kids in the class. I tried bribery and threats, and finally, the last couple of nights he finally started to listen and participate like I knew he could.

Sadly, he did not pass L2. What was even worse was the fact that he was very aware that he did not pass. He did not deserve to pass, so it was a nice lesson for Jack to learn. Since this is the last summer for the Newton Pool I am so glad Jack got to be a part of their last session of swim lessons. I hope he remembers them and tells his kids about it!!

Jack with the teachers and other kids

from L2 & L1

High fivin' with his teacher Megan

Back float

Getting ready to do a

cannonball

Jack would not jump off the diving board.

I did not think it was that big of a deal, he was at lessons

to learn to swim, not jump off the boards.

I did want him to at least try it.

Bamp promised him that he would

take him to Chips and Sauce if he jumped off.

I the above picture he is discussing the possibility with Megan.

Checking to make sure Megan was still there.

And he did it!!

I was proud of him, he was proud of himself.

He ended up going right over to the line and

did it again!

The first thing he said as he was

climbing up the ladder

"now Bamp is going to take me

to Chips and Sauce!!"

GENIUS writes headlines

Build A Bear

After the zoo, we had lunch at a pizza place and headed to the mall where we proceeded to do some back-to-school or, actually for all of us it was first-time-to-school, shopping.

The kids were very well behaved at the mall. Amber even let RJ go with Jamee and I into the shoe store where we got to pick him out some new shoes!!

To end the day, we visited Build A Bear. Jack had never been. He does not pay much attention to stuffed animals, so I thought he would not care for it. Jack did remember seeing pictures of Cole and Ross and their Build A Bears on the Farley's blog, so if it was good enough for Cole and Ross, he thought it would be ok for him.

Jack, choosing his bear
Jack with his unstuffed, lifeless bear

RJ choose a cheetah

(or at least that is what I think it was)

Heidi got a purple sparkle bear

Emily a pink and white bear

Jack's bear getting stuffed

That's when things got a little loud for Jack.

After the "stuffing" they took their bears to the "shower"

that put out air. You could give your bear a "bath" and then brush it.

Jack REALLY got into that part.

I was pretty happy he took his hands off

of his ears.

Jack with his finished bear.

He named him JUICY BUILDY

And, what do you know, they had

bear size goggles available for purchase so,

J.B. had to get those along with his camo boxer briefs

and a brush to clean him with at home.

Jack has played with his bear more than I thought he would (which means a maybe total of 15 minutes). He did take J.B. to church with him on Sunday. Normally, I think Church is a no shoes, no shirt, no service kind of a place but God made an exception for Jack's bear.

God is pretty nice like that.

A trip to the ZOO

Last Friday Jack and I along with Amber, RJ & Heidi Lindemann, and Jamee and Emily Baltzell loaded up the van that Jason let me borrow and headed for Evansville to the Mesker Park Zoo.

We had a great time. It was pretty hot at the zoo, but there were so few people there it felt like we had the entire place to ourselves!

Jack and I had a great time. We hope the rest of the crew did as well.

Jack on the way, wearing his joggles.
Me, being the good Mother that I am, provided the kids with a nutritious treat of ring pops right before we got to the zoo.

Loaded up in their jeeps and ready for the safari to begin.

Jack in the "batman"

Jack and Emily checking out the kangaroos

Then things got a little too noisey for Jack

We should have brought his earmuffs.

The zoo was hot, but lots of fun. I think the kids really enjoyed it. If you have not been, Mesker Park Zoo is pretty small, you can do the entire thing in just a few hours which was perfect for us.

After the zoo we headed to lunch and then the mall for some shopping and Build-A-Bear!! More pics to follow.

You can check out even more pictures from our big adventure on Amber's blog.

JOGGLES

Jack got some new Goggles last week at Dollar General. He likes to call them Joggles. They only cost $1 and shockingly were broken about 1 minute after we got them out of the package. Cliff rigged them up so Jack is still able to wear them. Jack likes to wear his joggles as much as possible. He has not taken a bath without them since we brought them home. Yesterday we purchased another pair "just in case" and he picked out a matching pair for his BFF Cooper!

Could blue eyeliner be next??

Check out Katie Holmes jeans!!

GAS vs ICE

Everywhere you go, everything you read, and all of the news programs on TV talk about the high price of gas. Yes, gas is very expensive. At least there is some sort of a (what I assume) difficult process to getting the gas into its good smelling state as it comes out of the pump into your vehicle.

What you never hear anyone complain about is the high price of ice. Ice is just frozen cubes of water. Not hard at all to create yet we gladly pay $1 and up for a bag of a few pounds of it. Where is the public outcry??

WWLID (What would Laura Ingalls Do)

8:45 last night, Cliff and Jack are nestled all sung in their beds. I am enjoying the end of the POV competition on Big Brother 10 and have big plans to watch the Season Finale of Flipping Out at 9:00 when boom...it happens, the electricity went out. Not good. To make matters worse about a half of a block away Hardees had all of their lights on, like a beacon in the night, taunting me with the fact that they have television.

After a few minutes of hoping it would magically come back on, waking up my Electrician husband to make him aware of the situation (even though I knew he could do nothing), I figured I was in for the long haul.

Like other obstacles I have faced in my life, I find that one can usually come up with a good solution by asking them self this question-What would Laura Ingalls Do (or insert any other member of the Ingalls family as situation warrants)?

So, I got out my trusty oil lamp/flashlight and got down to doing it old school. Reading a book in the dark--Ingalls Style!

I have no clue when the electricity came back on. If past experience with Newton power outings are any clue, it was out for a good 3-4 hours.

If my life were really an episode of LHOP, I would have taken my lamp to read in the barn, knocked it over and started a fire. Pa would have been in town helping with whatever their version of a power outing was, and Ma would have been left to deal with the fire.