I Love To See The Temple

 

I had today off.  Most of it was spent running errands.  One of those many errands was to the Distribution Center at the Temple.  I had my stuff packed and ready - just in case I thought I had enough time for a session.  I knew I wouldn't, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to be prepared.  I did have enough time to walk the grounds.  I even sat and reflected for a few minutes and said a prayer.  If every Friday could start like that, there would be no troubles in the world. 

T-I-M-E!

I love Sundays... I really do.  They are just so peaceful.  Usually, the Sunday before school starts kills me.  Not this time.  Jess had already started school.  Jonathan's school supplies were safely tucked away in his locker.  The only prep work I did was to hang his clothes on his door and to make lunches the night before.

The rest of the night was spent enjoying a couple of rounds of Apples to Apples and a most interesting Family Home Evening.  Jonathan chose the topic - spending more time as a family.  The message came from President Uchtdorf and the For the Strength of the Youth pamphlet.  Then we brainstormed activities that we could do as a family, which is completely reminiscent of a FHE that we had at the beginning of the summer.  I think our problem is compromise!  We don't all enjoy the same activities.  I suggested a family bike ride.  Everyone remembered the off-road trail ride that we took and in unison declared, "NO!"  Jonathan wanted a board game and Jess said, No, but relented and we had a good time playing Apples to Apples for the rest of the evening.

No matter what activity you come up with, the message we came away with is that love is spelled T-I-M-E!  I just love that quote from President Uchtdorf.

Last Day of Summer

Saturday was Jonathan's last day of summer vacation.  I bet you can't guess what he spent his time doing? 

Yep, swimming, his favorite activity.  I'm sure he'll get some more swimming in on Labor Day weekend, before the pool closes.  It was hot, too.  I came home with a sunburn, but I'm glad Jonathan got to spend some more time in the pool.  That kid loves the pool.

Sweet 16

Our Gracie celebrated her 16th birthday on Sunday.  We got her when our little Jessie was just a year old.  Jonathan was excited when I announced that it was her birthday.  For whatever reason, that has always been my goal for Gracie.  I wanted her to live to see her 16th birthday.  The first thing Jonathan asked was if we thought she would see her 17th birthday and what about her 18th birthday.  We just told him it was unlikely she would make it to her 18th birthday and that we would have to wait and see on her 17th birthday.

Who knows how long our girl has left.  She is small and frail and not as spry as she once was, but she is happy and healthy and that is what counts!

Big Man On Campus

Jonathan headed out the door for 8th grade today.  It is hard to believe!  He didn't really want to make time for 1st day of school pictures.  They really aren't his thing.

He thought I was torturing him or something.  Good grief.  He got his stuff together and jumped on his bike and away he went.  I wanted to yell out to him that he needed to be careful, because all of the crazy moms were going to be on the road this morning.  Instead, I calmly told him that he needed to give himself plenty of time, because there would be extra traffic.  He replied, "I know, Mom.  It's the first day of school."  I guess he knows everything now.  He's in 8th grade!

He has some nice outfits, I promise.  He just chooses to wear t-shirts and basketball shorts.  I asked him about wearing something nicer for his first day of school.  He said he couldn't.  It is too hard for him to ride his bike in his nice shorts.  "And, besides, I'd better save those for picture day."  That is the reasoning of a 13 year old boy.  Better save those nice clothes for picture day, because you can only wear them one time in your life!

You gotta love those brand new teenage boys.  I don't think all their brain cells work.

Bucket List - Crawfish Cuisine

I told Fred that I really wanted to try crawfish this summer. While Jessie was on a date, the boys and I went to Dodies.  I have to admit that I wimped out and ordered my crawfish fried, because everything tastes better fried.  That comment brought a reply from Mr. Technical (aka Jonathan), "Oh yeah, would you want a fried orange?" 

Next time, I will try it boiled.  I had to start out easy.  I was too scared to jump in with both feet. I'm pretty sure I gained about 4 pounds after that meal.  I guess that is a good thing since I got suckered into joining the biggest loser contest at work. I'll have an extra 4 pounds I can work on.

Flashback Friday: Jessie's First Day of Kindergarten

Jessie's first day of kindergarten!  She looked half scared and half excited.  Her hair was cut in a bob, because just a week earlier she cut it herself.  She tried to cut her hair like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's!  It didn't work out so well and we had to seek professional advise.  I wanted to cry.

I don't know if you can see her backpack, but it was a Sea World backpack with a dolphin on it.  Jess loved anything with dolphins, whales, seals and sea lions.  She wanted to be Shamu's trainer when she grew up.

One of my favorite things about this picture is her cute little tan.  She loved to be outside playing and swimming at all times.  Now, she is as pale as I am - we can hardly get her outside.

What a cutie she was.  She looks just like her daddy!

My Senior

I am excited to report that Jess had a great day of school.  She is taking Psychology this year and is very excited about that.  There is a career class that all the seniors are taking that will help them prepare for life after school.  Other than that, she is taking core classes and finishing her last credit of German.  I am so excited for this precious girl!

Jessie's Last First Day of School

Today marks the first day of Jessie's Senior year at The St. Anthony School!

I am a excited for her and a little sad for me.

Most of all, I am proud of our courageous and strong girl!

I hope you have a wonderful year, Jess!

He Keeps Me On My Toes

I love this kid!  He knows how to make me feel really good about myself. 

Not too long ago, I bought a pair of men's basketball shorts to workout in (and be lazy in).  Much to my surprise, I discovered that Jonathan and I wear the same size.  Jonathan's stomach is thicker than mine, but as you might have guessed, I have the thicker caboose.  Jonathan has one pair of shorts that he hates.   They are Nike basketball shorts, so I'm not sure why they don't fit right.  He complains each time  he wears them.  I told him to bring me his shorts and I would donate them.  Jonathan replied, "Yeah, these really pinch my stomach."  He brought them to me and I was inspecting them.  I mentioned that we wear the same size and I might try them on.  Jonathan chuckled, rolled his eyes and sarcastically said, "Go ahead and try them if you want, but I don't think they'll work."  Good grief!  Way to make me feel good about me myself.

Turns out, I got him back just a few short days later.  My little Asperger boy that I worry will never marry... will probably never marry, now.  I was in my bathroom taking  shower.  I hear muffled words.  I can tell someone is talking to me, but I can't hear them.  I really don't understand why I still can't take a shower.  I open the shower door, and call out for the person to repeat their question to me.  Turns out it was Jonathan addressing me and he was in my bedroom looking into my bathroom.  When I opened the shower door, he received a full frontal view of his mother.  He covered his eyes, crumpled to the floor and exclaimed, "Ohhh, Ohhh!"  He decided that his question wasn't that important after all and I haven't had visitors during my shower since.  And, that my friends, is how I scarred my son for life and why I might never have daughter-in-law or little Fortenberry grandchildren.

Everyone needs a kid like Jonathan.  He keeps you on your toes.

We Are Family

We Are Family!

And, apparently, we are a bunch of dorks, too!

My Little Whovian

My Jessica is a Whovian, which is some crazy term that they call fanatical fans of Dr. Who.  She has spent the summer watching all of the episodes on Netflix.  It seemed like an impossible task at first, but she set her mind to watching them all and she did it, so now she has started over.

She is sucked her little brother into the show and every day I come home and hear some trivial fact about Dr. Who.  She loves geeky movies and shows.  I just don't know what happened to my little girl who loved all things princess and pink.  Where did she go?

I wondered onto Amazon and ordered lots of Dr. Who crap (I don't know what else to call it) for Jessie's birthday.  A few things didn't make it here on time, so she'll have more surprises this week.  I think she is ordering a few more things from Thinkgeek.com.  

I guess this is better than when she was crazy over Twilight, right?

Jessie's Birthday Week

Jessie turned 17 yesterday (Sunday, August 11th).  It is hard to believe!  I really shouldn't make this about me, but gosh that really makes me feel old.  I was just a baby when she was born.  And, now she is 17.  It just doesn't seem right.

Jess believes in celebrating her birthday, let me tell ya.  Her Grandma and PawPaw Larry came in to town on Thursday night.  They were just staying one night to drop their dog off and get some sleep before heading to California.  I had planned to fix dinner for them, but we ended up with a birthday celebration at Chili's (Jess likes their black bean burger).

We went out again on Saturday to Giovanni's.  It is a hole-in-the-wall kind of place in Frisco.  I'm pretty sure that it has been here as long as we have. They serve Italian food and Jess loves their house dressing.  We enjoyed a simple dinner with good friends and sweet cousins.  We missed our dear friends, the Garstka's, but we were so glad that Ally was there.  I had my camera, but forgot to take pictures.  I have gotten so bad about that lately!

Last night, was her actual birthday, so we celebrated with a small dinner after church.  We had my parents over and a sweet family from Jessie's school.  We grilled burgers and hot dogs (a tofu burger for the birthday girl - yuck).  I told you that she can celebrate!

Jess enjoyed her Dr. Who birthday presents and a fun Mickey Mouse watch from Patrick.  And, of course, she loved all the money.  As her Great Grandma would say, it is her favorite color.

We were so glad that Patrick and his family could join us for dinner.  Patrick graduated in May and I know that Jess is going to miss him at St. Anthony's.  They live in Frisco, so we are going to try to make sure that they can hang out.

We want to thank everyone for making Jess feel so special.  I'm sorry for not being a better picture taker.  We love you all and I will vow to do better next year!

Roy Orbison

My eyesight is poor, it is true.  I am super near-sighted.  It has been said that my prescription is probably the worst at my office (-9.75 in one eye and a -9.50 in the other + I have an astigmatism).  It makes picking out frames hard, because the bigger the frame the thicker the lens.  We have really cute sunglasses that are Rxable... for everyone, but me.  They just won't hold my prescription.  So, I have to buy regular frames and put a sun lens in it.  And, it is always hard to envision a regular frame as my sunglasses.  Also, I have a hard face to fit with frames.  One of the girls in our product department helped me pick out this boy's wayfarer frame for my sunglasses.  I think it makes me look like Roy Orbison.  It isn't very girly, but it looks as close to sunglasses as I'm ever going to get.  All of you people who get to where real sunglasses, be thankful and enjoy your cute sunglasses.  Otherwise, you could be walking down the street looking like Roy Oribson with people expecting you to break into "Pretty Woman!"

Backside of 40

I remember being 22 and thinking that I was never going to be old!  Now, I'm on the backside of 40 (that is code for 41) and feeling almost every one of those 41 years.  I have swollen ankles, migraines, some sort of planters wart or callous thing on the bottom of my foot and all sorts of other other issues that need to be medically treated.

I recently went to my doctor and he told me that I should come back in for a follow-up visit.  Not wanting to go on medicine, I researched my ailment.  I decided that I should eat healthier, exercise and get more sleep.  I keep asking Fred to walk with with me at night, but he keeps saying that it is too hot.  So, I walk alone. Adding more blisters and callouses to my old lady feet.

By the way, did I mention that I'm fairly certain that I'm getting that extra padding that old women get around their middle!

To Market We Go

Our Saturday adventure included a trip to the Frisco Farmers Market, Trader Joe's and Walmart's produce section.  If you haven't been to Trader Joe's, it is worth the trip.  Jess found lots of vegetarian goodness and Fred and I bought lots of non-vegetarian food.  All for a great price.

We have enjoyed peach cobbler, freshly squeezed lemonade, summer squash, cucumber and tomato salad, guacamole and fresh corn (my children love corn-on-the-cob).

We weren't impressed with the farmer's market.  It was mostly peddler's selling their wares rather than fresh fruits and vegetables.  I did buy locally grown squash and cucumbers.  I made sure to support farmers from Nevada (Texas).  Fred laughed at me, but I thought I should help out my hometown peeps.

I don't recommend making your own lemonade. It was delicious, but took a bazillion lemons.  We bought them at Walmart where they were 40 cents each.  They were 19 cents at Trader Joe's, but I didn't think to buy them there.  It took a lot of lemons to make 2 cups of lemon juice.  I'm just saying.  It was so good and we drank it so fast.

I love the summer... summer activities and summer foods.  Can it always be summer?

Adventure

Dear Weekend,

Thank you so much for finally showing yourself!  I really need to clean my house.  But, I'm secretly hoping you will bring fun and adventure.  Whatever you bring, thank you for finally getting here.

Yours truly,
Donna

Arkansas Weekend

Last weekend we made a quick trip to Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas to see Fred's family.  We headed that way for a memorial service for Fred's Grandpa.  We left Frisco at 5:00 a.m. on Friday and rolled into Horseshoe Bend just in time to drop the dog off and change for the service.  We cut it just as close as you can.  I was scared we were going to miss it, but we said a prayer before we left and Heavenly Father watched over us the entire trip.  There was some rain, but no severe weather or traffic issues.  Thank goodness.

The memorial service was beautiful and we had a wonderful time visiting with family.

We were excited to visit with Dawn, Cody and Matthew for just a short time before they left for Branson.  They were kind enough to rearrange their morning and leave later on their trip, so that we could have breakfast together.  We hadn't expected that and we were grateful.  The kids enjoy each other and we love Dawn.

We had a great time at Grandma and PawPaw Larry's.  I had technical difficulties with my camera and didn't take any pictures - other than a few with my phone.  The kids fed the miniature horses.  We bowled in a tournament that benefited an animal shelter.  We went for a boat ride and fished.  So much fun and I didn't capture any of it.  That is so unlike me!