Tuesday, September 2, 2014

August 24 - August 30

Sunday August 24: After church, we met some friends from Fort Worth for a fun afternoon in Uptown at the trolley, the splashpad, and the Dallas Museum of Art.

















Monday August 25: First day of school for me! It was a simple 2 hour elective class first thing int he morning, and then I spent the rest of the day on campus getting organized. That night, Jamie’s school held their annual ice cream social to meet the teachers and to explore the school. We met Jamie’s pre-K teacher, Ms. Seiffort, who is so cute; Jamie was so excited to learn that she would be in Ms. Seiffort’s class because she had already bonded with her at the pre-K evaluation last spring J





Tuesday, August 26: McKay had a super busy day off. He started it off with a parent teacher conference with Jamie’s new teacher, and then ran many, many errands to get all the last minute things for Jamie: a clothing boutique, a uniform store, and Target twice were among the stops. He even arranged childcare for Jamie after school because my crazy first week of school had me staying in class until five on most days this first week. What an excellent man I married J I had my first Women’s Health lab all morning, basically just orientation and meeting the faculty who will be taking us through Parkland. That night McKay gave Jamie a start of school blessing, which was awfully sweet. She was pretty excited because she had seen Tyler get his a few weeks earlier.  

Wednesday, August 27: Jamie’s first day of school! She looked so darling in her full uniform.





Here is our morning schedule: we are up by 6:00, leave the house by 7:00 (to beat the traffic and the school zones that wake up at 7:15), arrive at Jamie’s school by 7:15 and Tyler’s by 7:30 (so they both have time to eat breakfast at school because they never eat the toast I make them here), and then I am on my way to my school by 7:40, hopefully arriving in time for my 8:00 class to start. This is all ideal of course, and doesn’t take into account any mishaps or any little boys who pull the covers back over their heads when I turn on his bedroom lamp (by the way, is he six or sixteen??). I had Adult Health in the morning and then Womens Health lecture in the afternoon. We learned some cool birthing techniques, and practiced giving massages, and all were pleased.



Thursday, August 28: Today was sort of awful at school. We had Adult lab topics all day, in uniform with our skills bag, just sitting in the auditorium for eight hours. We were so grumpy. Add to the mix that the lecturers seemed pretty disorganized, and changed all the notes that morning, after we had all been studying the OLD notes for days…there may have been audible dismay by the end.

Friday, August 29: I had a fun skills labs for adult lab, learning IV piggy back, IV push, and central line dressing changes. I couldn’t believe how laid back the whole thing was. J1 skill check offs were about the most stressful thing I’ve ever been through, and was expecting this to be round 2, but the professors were super chill. They taught the skill, then read through the instructions as we performed each step as a group, and that was it! They signed us off right there and then. It was actually fun, and I feel like I just might retain the skills since my mind didn’t go blank with terror during it J

Saturday, August 30: The kids and I spent the morning in Plano at Joshua’s super hero birthday party.






We visited a few Labor Day sales, Bath and Body Works, and Macey’s. McKay and I went on a date night, out to eat at Cane Rosso while Tyler Hokenson watched the kids. It was a lovely Deep Ellum evening, but I was so sleepy from my crazy week that I was practically falling asleep in my Neopolitan pizza J


Funny Things:

Tyler and Jamie were playing with army guys together: "Jamie, you’re an army guy."  "I’m not! I'm an angry girl!"

When I try to make Jamie say thank you or hi to anyone, she pulls a face at me and says "Mom, you're making me weird!" This must mean shy??


We have some odd turkey-ducks that live in our neighborhood that have no regard for traffic laws :) 
Tyler often stays up late past his bedtime getting into mischief. One night he stayed up late barricading his door with a sign that says "You can come in" :)

Sunday, August 24, 2014

August 17 - August 23

Sunday, August 17: We took the kids to the Klyde-Warren splash pad after church to blow off some steam from a very grumpy morning, and after the kids went to sleep McKay and I started to paint bookshelves while watching Cosmos, an amazing show to feel very, very small!


Monday, August 18: Jamie and I worked all day to finish painting the bookshelves, the last big project of summer.
I love how it makes all the furniture cohesive, the room feels bright in every corner, and the blue box pictures really pop. I still need to trim them, but that will have to wait a while now that school is here (dun dun dun). Our wonderful neighbors brought over some amazing carne asada and tres leches cake after the kids went to sleep, and it was SO GOOD.


Tuesday, August 19: McKay was home, and was game to accompany me to Denton to get last few immunizations done.

These were the Hep B Titer and the new TB screening for this year. The nurse did a pretty awful job of drawing blood for the titer, I was swollen and sore for days afterwards, with a pretty spectacular 2 inch by 1 inch bruise in the crook of my elbow.
Remind me to be a skilled phlebotomist when I’m a real nurse! McKay and Tyler went geocaching while I was being stabbed, and then I took McKay to one of my favorite little cafĂ©’s in Denton that my study group tends to hang out at, The Jupiter House.

Denton is a funky little town with a cool hippie vibe. People even call it the little Austin J

Wednesday, August 20: A trip to the McDonald’s play place was in order after picking up Tyler. He spent a good part of the afternoon working on his homework to get as much done since we were going to Legoland the next day. Tyler did great finishing a bunch of his packet, though I had to resort to ridiculous antics at the end. For each problem he finished, I made a different funny face. Towards the end, Mrs. Napkin came out (shout out to all the Holiday fans!).


Jamie and I went to mutual that night at Goar Park, the girls are filming a “Mormon Kids Say The Darndest Things” movie to enter into our Stake Film Festival. Jamie sang the whole first verse of “Let It Go” in response to the question “What are you thankful for?”



Thursday, August 21: Jamie and I spent a lot of the morning puttering around. Is summer over yet?? I moan about school starting again, but it seriously could not come sooner. These kids are ready for structure, and I am ready for a break. Did you catch that? Nursing school is a step down in stress in my world. We went to lunch with McKay, and then after we picked up Tyler we drove to Grapevine to visit Legoland, and also to the Sealife Aquarium across the hall from Legoland.























The kids had a really fun time exploring. There was a ten question quiz with scratch off answers as you traveled through the aquarium, with all the questions about marine life. There were also prizes for the completed questionnaire.
Winners! A short visit to Legoland, then off to home; everyone was exhausted!

Friday, August 22: Jamie and I had a crazy, crazy morning. After we dropped Tyler off we zoomed up to Denton to get my TB screening looked at (it’s a 48 hour process), then back down to Dallas to try to make it to Tyler’s Literary Luncheon at 10am (who has a luncheon at 10am??). We made it for about the last three minutes L Tyler was completely unfazed, he just danced around telling me how he had been telling all his friends about the aquarium. We took the kids to Milko and Eve’s for a sleepover, and then headed off into the sunset for a quick overnight trip to Fort Worth with Cajun food, a comedy show, and a dueling piano club.









Saturday, August 23: McKay and I slept in luxuriously until 11. After a quick brunch, we picked up the kids and headed over to the other side of Plano for Edison’s birthday party, which was way fun.



















































And finally, finally came home. We were all so tired, we called it an early night for everyone. 

Funny Things:
  • Tyler: "One time in first grade..." (he is currently in first grade, and has only been for about two weeks.)
  • Jamie: "I'm too old for dinner."
  • Tyler (after I had to brake quickly at a stop light): "Brain check!"
  • Jamie (waiting at a stoplight): "Come on, you old people!"
  • Jamie: "I wish all the stop signs could be go signs."
  • Tyler: "What are marshmallows? Are they kind of like flat smarsh-mallows?"