"Camping", Science Fair, and Other Happenings

A couple weeks ago, Breck and Braydon took the tent that Grandma Carol made them a long time ago outside to "camp." I put out a big blanket and we put the tent on it. Then, they proceeded to bring out the entire contents of their rooms to "camp." They had their big floor pillows that Grandma Carol made for them, blankets, books, stuffed animals, and flashlights, just to name a few things. As you can see, the tent is not that big, but it all fit and so did they. Breck and Braydon both said that they fell asleep for a little while. It was so cute!

Last Friday night was the annual Science Fair at school. The kids both wanted to participate so we got busy with the project. Breck made an anemometer to measure the wind and did her project on wind. We put a picture of our smashed up car on her project board to show what wind can do as our own little joke! Braydon made a model of a Maglev train. A Maglev (magnetic leviation) is a train that works with magnets. When you make the track with the north pole up and put the north pole facing down on the train car, they repel each other and the train floats! He was so excited when we got it to work.

Breck is now in her third week of Girls on the Run. She got a shoe charm today because she ran/walked 3.1 miles this afternoon! I am so proud of her. I was not sure if she would enjoy running, but she is loving it! It is good training for softball which started this week. She is getting pretty good at throwing, catching and fielding ground balls. We can't wait for games to start!

I, as always, have a Braydon anecdote to share with you. He was swinging in both swings yesterday, with his top half on one swing and his bottom half on the other. Of course, that couldn't work well for long. He fell out and bumped his head. He was crying and I asked him if he was ok. He said, still crying, "Yeah, I just hope I didn't bump any memories out of my head!" Where does he get this stuff? He came home today with the following math problems that his teacher gave him to do:

80+60-12+30+40=198

10-5+20-15+40-20=30

There were a couple others, but I won't bore you with anymore! I may be biased, but I think he is amazing!

Starlet: The Amazing Dog by Breck Weekly

Starlet was just a puppy when the first dog show was ever shown. Her owner seen a commercial of it. Her owner signed her up. She was practicing tricks. She also likes it. She gets alot of exercise. Finally, it was the time of her life. The dog show was today. She practiced everything! She also did everything! Her owner was so excited! So was she. She was the last one to do everything! After they were done they were one of the top three. They were in first place! Both of them were so excited. The owner burst in to tears and the dog started to howl. It was the best day of their lives.

Exciting Afternoon!

I know it has been awhile since I wrote again, but at least I am doing it now! As some of you know, we had some pretty nasty weather this afternoon around here. And it is only March! But we live in Nebraska. Anyways, Breck started Girls on the Run at school last week. They get together every Monday and Wednesday and the girls run, obviously, but also learn about self-esteem and just have fun together. So, they stay after school and get picked up at 4:30. At 4:20 this afternoon, the sirens in town start going off. I watch the news and we are right in the middle of a tornado warning. I decide to go to school and get Breck so she isn't scared to death. Maybe not the best decision, but I didn't want her freaking out without me. So, Braydon and I walk in the school and someone tells we need to get to the office. I ask where the girls are and I am told they are in the Fourth Grade pod. We go down there to wait it out with Breck and the other girls. The coaches have the girls lying on their back on the floor doing some relaxation breathing and some yoga to keep them all calm. Some of them are crying anyway. I find Breck and see she is actually doing OK, so I let her be. Meanwhile, the wind is howling like crazy and the rain and hail are pounding against the building. The coach is reading of colors to picture in their minds and what they mean. She comes to the color red and says, "You are safe and strong." Braydon is behind me and whispers in my ear, "I am not safe or strong." And then he asks, "Can I cry?" I tell him we are in a safe spot. For about an hour the coaches keep the girls occupied and about 5:30 we get the all clear. We go outside to the car and it is still raining pretty hard, so we are all wet. I notice a big water tank leaning up against the school, so I point it out to the kids and say, "Look at what the wind did. It blew that big tank up against the school building." When we get in the car, Braydon says, "I don't care if I am wet, I am just glad to be alive!" Leave it to Braydon. We drive home past a couple blown over sheds and mailboxes. I see there are a couple of branches blown into the street, so I pull into the garage and go out to get the branches. When I go past the back of my car, my driver's side taillight is pretty much gone and I have a ginormous dent in my quater panel! Apparently that big water tank blew across the whole parking lot and hit my car on the way to the school! As you see from the pictures, it was quite a big tank and quite a dent! But as Braydon would say, I didn't care about the dent, I was just glad to be alive!

Breck told me when we got home that she was scared and "some tears came to my eyes." She also said her heart was pounding really fast. She looked so calm and in control. Poor little girl! When Josh got home, we went back to school to take pictures of the tank (in case we needed them for insurance) and found the pieces of the taillight all over the yard of the school! It was definitely an exciting afternoon!

Guitar Hero!

Last Friday night, we got together with our lifegroup and played Wii. We had a great time and I finally talked Josh into playing Guitar Hero. For some reason, he has refused to touch the game and (because of my secret ambition to learn to play guitar), I LOVE playing it at Jon and Mandi's house. So, up until Friday night, Josh had not played a note of Guitar Hero. He picked up the guitar on Friday and loved it just like I told him he would. To make a long story short, we went to Game Stop on Sunday after church and bought a guitar and the game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. The entire family spent the rest of the day rockin' out in our basement.

Now, part of the reason I was really excited to get this game was because I thought I may finally be better at a video game than my six year old son. When we play at Mandi's house, Guitar Hero is usually for the adults and Braydon maybe played a couple of times. On Sunday, when I finally let him play, he sat down and beat the first song he played! Not to worry, I did that also! Then, he beat a song with more points than I ever got and he earned $175 and four our of five star rating (that would be $100 and one star more than I earned)! I should have known better. I don't think Braydon is allowed to play mommy's game anymore!

Braydon, The Worrier

Yesterday, Braydon came home from school and scolded me. You see, at school they have to wear snow boots to go on certain parts of the playground when it is snowy. You also have to bring other shoes to change into, otherwise there is snow tracked all over the room. So, yesterday morning before school, I put his shoes in his backpack while he was in the bathroom getting ready. He got off the bus after school, came in the door and said, "You have to tell me when you give me shoes, so I don't worry about it!" This incident brought to mind a few other times when he seemed to agonize over seemingly trivial things.

While we were eating lunch with Grandpa Mike and Grandma Brenda at Quiznos one Sunday, Braydon spilled some of his drink. Grandpa and Braydon cleaned up the table and Braydon started to clean up the floor with some napkins. Grandpa told him not worry about it and that the employees would clean it up. Braydon just replied, "Oh, I'm gonna worry!" and he continued cleaning it up.

And while watching TV one day, Braydon saw a commercial for a drug that treats Restless Leg Syndrome. He watched intently and listened to all the symptoms. Then he said to me, "I think that's what I have." I looked up and saw the commercial and said, "What, Restless Leg Syndrome?" He said, completely serious, "Yep, that is why I keep waking up at night!"

These are just a few examples of the things my kindergartener worries about! I never have to worry about anything because Braydon does all the worrying for me!

25 Random Things About Me

For those of you who do not have a Facebook, "25 Random Things" is all the rage these days! You are suppose to write down 25 random things about yourself and then send it to 25 of your friends to do the same. You learn alot about each other! So, I decided to cheat and also post it on my blog and count it as a "new" entry! I love copy and paste!

1. I hate bananas...I mean it...with a passion! I did not even feed my kids banana baby food.
2. I talk and laugh REALLY loud. People have mistakenly thought I was wearing a microphone!
3. I can probably quote the entire movie Sweet Home Alabama.
4. I do not really trust ANYONE with my kids. I sometimes have panic attacks after I put them on the bus thinking of all the things that could happen to them.
5. My husband Josh is my best friend and I have recently come to the realization that that is probably why I don't have a best girl friend (that and I don't like drama and I get uncomfortable when people cry).
6. I don't cry.
7. Don't ask me to talk about my feelings...I won't.
8. I am a perfect mix of my mom and my dad.
9. I stop talking when I get mad.
10. I get mad when my daughter stops talking when she gets mad.
11. I was not going to have kids until AT LEAST 2 years after I got married, if at all, and I told that to everyone who would listern. 10 months later we had Breck.
12. On a related note, sometimes I get cocky and run my mouth.
13. I really want to learn how to play the guitar. I have a secret desire to be like Lindsay Lohan in Freaky Friday and be in an all girl rock band! I love that movie!
14. 14 is my new favorite number because it is the number of Tony Stewart's new car!
15. I love NASCAR and yes...I am a redneck.
16. My mom is my hero and is the reason I chose to be a stay at home mom.
17. My dad is my other hero and I am always quoting him (It's not anger, it's passion! If that is what you think Jesus would do. etc. etc.) and why Josh is always calling me "Chuck".
18. I owned a 1985 Z-28 Iroc Camaro with t-tops that I loved! I took a whole roll of pictures of it when I sold it and that is one time I cried.
19. A friend (you know who you are Amy) in high school once started a list of "Stupid Jaime Tricks" because I can be an airhead.
20. This is the 2nd time I have written this list because I just had an airhead moment and hit the wrong button after I had just finished it!
21. I was painfully shy when I was younger...huh, go figure!
22. When I was little, I went to church looking like Rudolph after I had leaned down to the bottom bunk of our bunk bed and my sister bit my nose.
23. In 3rd grade, the person I most wanted to be my neighbor was Lee Greenwood. I know all of the words to God Bless the USA.
24. The Oak Ridge Boys and the song Elvira will always hold a special place in my heart. I was country when country was uncool!
25. My priorities 1)God 2)Josh 3) Breck and Braydon.

I know, I know!

It has been awhile again, hasn't it! This two job thing is kicking my butt! It is not the hours that is killing me, but having no set schedule really messes with my head! I know, I know, that is not an adequate excuse and I will try to do better. I am now hanging my head in shame :(!

Well, the Weeklys had a great Christmas and school break. The kids got Nintendo DS's for Christmas, so they kept busy playing those. Breck was so funny! When she opened hers, she started screaming and told me, "I couldn't feel my legs I was so excited!" Because they would not share, Josh and I bought ourselves a Christmas present...our own DS. I got Brain Age II, and just in case you didn't already know, my mind does not work that well. Josh has been playing his James Bond game and regularly getting a lower Brain Age than me which does not aggravate me at all. On an unrelated note, I learned from one of my Brain Age tips that getting angry at the drop of a hat is a sign of deteriorating brain function.

Now, we are all trying to get back into the swing of things. The kids are back in school and I am back to work (at one place or another). Josh really did not get too much time off this year. Usually he takes off the whole week, but he was needed on the job site.

Breck has been typing stories on my computer the last couple nights, so I told her I would post them on my blog. You may notice in the first story that I taught her how to use the Thesaurus function. Here they are completely unedited.

My Nightmare
Last night I had a extreme nightmare. I was a wizard. Well to be exact my family was. It was so spine-chilling! I had it more than once! I think that was a bad nightmare cause I hate it! We went to a hideous restaurant. Enthusiasm isn’t in my nightmare. Once I went for a walk at night with my brother in my nightmare. Every time I dreamed my nightmare it was different. Once someone was off of the little mermaid. She is awfully cruel. I hope you like my story. Bye.


Today was …well I don’t know exactly know. I started a story in class. It’s about me getting my D.S. It’s called The Night Before Christmas Eve. We usually open presents on Christmas Eve, but not this year! I was so happy. My brother did too. First we opened the stuff that wasn’t as interesting as the D.S. After I saw my D.S. I screamed. I started playing my D.S. right away. I got a game named Nintendogs. My first dog I ever got was a golden retriever. It’s name is Daisy. I have seven other dogs. My favorite is Daisy. Nintendogs is the only game I have. I love my D.S. Bye