House Progress

This is the latest update on our house. They should be pouring the cement Wednesday or Thursday.

Hidden Talents

Today was the gym competition at the kid's school. This means gymnastics and they have class, group and solo competitions. Apparantly Jackson signed up a while ago and then forgot about it. They called his name up today and he had nothing - no music, no routine - nothing. He just put in a cd someone else brought and made up his routine as he went. Somehow he then walked away with the bronze medal. A girl got the gold, then his friend Gabriel won silver and he won the bronze. Out of the entire year 6 - about 30 kids - and he wins bronze? Apparantly I need to get this kid signed up for gymnastics because we might have another Peter Vidmar on our hands. HAHA.

What's Your Motivation?

We were cleaning the house today because our landlord is selling the place and someone was coming to look at it. This was a family job but I figured I would give the children some motivation. We have just started paying the children for a few small chores now and then so I thought that might help today. I told Jared if he wanted his allowance then he needed to get cleaning. He went upstairs and while he was cleaning up the bathroom I heard him ask Jackson "what's an allowance?" I found it pretty funny he was willing to do his job in hopes of receiving an "allowance" when he didn't even know what that was. I should have hurried upstairs and told him it was a box of rocks - but with that boy that would probably be better than money.

So, topic of the day - do you give your kids an allowance? Are there chores involved? My sister in law's children all have jobs -chores - around the house. They are not given an allowance but if they need money for anything the chore chart is looked at and then the money for the activity is given. My brother in law gives an allowance every week. The children stand in line with their hands out waiting for the cash yet I have never seen them lift a finger. What do you do?

I'm Old

I have evidence that I am old. While some of you will deny the fact it is still true. For one, I had a birthday in March and it moved me up an age bracket. You know, when you fill out a survey and it asks you to fill in your age: 19-14, 25-34, then the next one. Yep I've moved up to the next one. Well, I've come to terms with the age bracket thing but then yesterday happened. Yesterday was Family Fun Day at the kid's school. I remember when I was a kid I could run around all day, climb on stuff, play games all that stuff kids do. In fact - all the things my kids did yesterday. They had a fantastic time on the bouncy castles, climbing walls, trampoline bungee and the tug of war. Oh right, the tug of war. This is the reason I am old. I was in bed last night and I just could not get comfortable. Trying to pinpoint the problem I realize my arms ache. What could I have done that would cause my arms to ache? Oh, tug of war! Do you know that 40 elementary school children can beat 25 moms at tug of war? I can also bet that none of those 40 kids had achy arms when they went to bed. I am old!

Oh - and I have to tell you about this climbing wall. I think I posted last summer a picture of Jordan on a climbing wall at Knotts Berry Farm. She scaled the wall like a pro. I think I need to print the picture out and put it in my wallet. We went over to the climbing wall with money in hand ready for her to climb. The man took one look at her and said she was too little and that she wouldn't be able to reach. There was a boy in her class doing his best to climb the wall and I know he is not much taller than her. I just had this thought that had she been a boy he would have let her try. I complained to a friend and she said "well obviously they don't know Jordan". Luckily I distracted her with the bungee trampoline again where she perfected the double flip. Take that Wall Climbing Man!

----Amazed - I'll work in your request or if you have a great way of blogging it let me know!