Yesterday Jo Jo and I went to Walmart for a couple of things. They had a sample stand with the oddest combo of free samples. They had carrots with dip, ginger snaps, and salt and pepper flavored cashews. So we got one of each. He had the cookie and when we were in the checkout line quite awhile later he said, "That cookie was scrumptious." I was cracking up. I couldn't figure out where the heck he heard that until I was telling the other boys later and JP said that they say it on the "Blues Clues" video that he watches over and over in the car.

I also really wish someone would write a book titled, "How to Get Your Kids to NOT Kill Each Other Everyday." They've been attacking each other and screaming at each other since Sat. It's odd because they'll have a couple of moments where they're friends and then it all comes crashing down and the screaming and punching starts. Maybe we should turn the playroom into an octagon and let them go at it for three rounds and they'll get it all out of their systems.

Bye Bye Curls

This is really it!


Still a little wave.


So I'm pretty sad today. Last night was finally the big night. The night that we completely cut off my baby's curls. He looks very handsome, but also too much like a big boy for me, and I really miss his curls. I had to admit that it was defintely time since the last time we trimmed it, it pretty much just made some wave in the back and it wasn't curly curly like it had been anyway. So it was looking pretty shaggy. But it doesn't mean I can't be sad about it. Sigh. It actually still has a little wave on top so at least some of it is still there. And he still has some blond. We were worried that would all come off.

And finally my new favorite saying as quoted by Peanut, "Cheese a wheeze." Instead of "Jeez Louise."

Chalk Fest

So very proud!


I'm not sure if you can see the pink chalk on his cheeky.

I just realized I never posted pictures of Jo Jo when he and Peanut decided to draw in the backyard with chalk one afternoon. It will teach me not to leave them alone with chalk anymore. Needless to say, I carried him under the armpits straight upstairs to the tub and undressed him in the tub. His entire body was covered.

Okay, so Janet I'm not sure if I can be friends with you anymore. Just kidding, but really you should definitely find time (yeah right) to read the Twilight series. They are for sure one of my all time favorite series, maybe even my number one. Anyway, I'm not going to the movie tonight after all because I didn't realize we have pack meeting and even though all JP is getting is a bead, I feel like I should go. I realized that Eclipse is still at the cheap theater that's close to my house so if I really want to see it, they have $1 Tuesdays. I've seen it twice, but it's my favorite one so far so I've been wanting to see it again. (I know I'm a cheeseball, but I think it's my Star Wars).

Speaking of Eclipse, for some reason I never thought about the fact that the soundtrack should be out because I never saw anything about it. I finally looked it up and it came out back in June when the movie did so I went and got it. I LOVE it! Actually I love the music from all of the movies. So I added two of my faves onto my playlist (the last two songs on the list). The one by The Bravery is mine and Bubba's song. I crank it when it comes on and we sing as loud as we can. I LOVE that he loves the same music I do. He even knows all of the words to "Forever Young" and I don't even know them. :) He has such a nice singing voice too.

So the other night when I was putting Peanut to bed he said, "I wish dad was a dentist." I asked why and he said, "Because then we would know him." I reminded him that our dentist is our neighbor and we DO know him. It was the most random out of the blue thing.

B got home last night from Vegas. All of the boys got their "prizes" after he got home from work tonight. He always gets tons of stuff for free during the tradeshow. Like light up keychains, notebooks, highlighters, and Bubba even got a giant rubber band ball. They all have a pile of loot on the floor. He got to hear a speech by Rudy Ruettiger. He's the guy that the movie "Rudy" was about. He got each of the boys an autographed picture. As a matter of fact, they're watching it right now because they've never seen it. Bubba is really into watching football movies lately especially since they're all based on true stories.

I can't figure out why I keep volunteering for stuff. I'm bringing a dozen cupcakes to our school fall festival Fri. night. Each class is also putting together a basket to be auctioned off. I offered to put together the one for Peanut's class. One other mom and I opted to do a Christmas themed basket and she works so she was able to get a couple of things, but I pretty much bought everything for the basket today. And then she wanted me to come over to her house to put the basket together. So tell me if this makes sense. She had three things for it. I had the basket and everything else. Shouldn't she just have given me the things she got and I could've put it together myself? She also lives pretty far from me. Oh well. I'm also in charge of Bubba's class Halloween party. We got tons of moms to help though so really I'll only have to assign everything out. But still I keep wondering why I always volunteer to help. I guess I'm always afraid that no one else will.

Tomorrow night I'm going to see "Eclipse" with my sister for $1 at the university. I'm so excited. I've really wanted to see it again, but it doesn't come out on video until Dec.

I really don't know why I wait so long to post because then it takes longer and it becomes a novella. So I'll try to keep it short while updating to the present. Then I'll be better at posting more often (easier said than done).

My mom had Fall break starting Thurs. so she drove up to see us and help me Sat. night and Sun. because B left for Vegas baby Vegas on Sat. afternoon. He went to a tradeshow/conference thingy to stay informed in the real estate world.

Friday we went to the mall and then I met B over at the ATT store so we could add me to his plan. I got a new phone. I was kind of a brat because I really wanted this cute pink phone. I didn't care that it opened with a full keyboard for texting. I suck at texting and didn't have it on my other carrier. But apparently unless I wanted a phone that looked like it belonged from 1994 I had to add some kind of plan for an extra $20 a month. It either had to be unlimited texting or internet or something else like that. I kept insisting that I would just take the ugly phone, but B knew how annoyed I was and insisted I get the cute pink princess phone. He's way too good to me. So I ended up with unlimited texting figuring if someone texted me I'd have it to text back. Anyway, I've been playing with it ever since. I think I sent two or three texts that night just to do it. I can actually do it pretty well since it's a full keyboard. I know, I'm lame. So my mom got to see Bubba's last football practice Fri. night and hear the nice things the coaches said about the team. They got beanies instead of trophies and they're way cooler. I'll have to post a picture later.


Bubba and his buddy Nick doing the chains at JP's game.


Bubba is #76 right in the middle of the huddle.


JP is all the way on the left next to the boy with the long black socks.

Sat. was sadly our last day of football games. And I'm not being sarcastic. I absolutely love to go to games and watch my boys. Driving around to practices all week not so much, so I won't miss that. Bubba's game was in the morning and we won. Actually we completely creamed them- 42-0. We won our last two games after our one and only loss in two seasons. We went home after to change out of our warm clothes and so B could get ready to leave. My sister came over and we ran back out the door to make it to JP's game. They won their first game last weekend and I missed it because I was watching the 2nd half of Bubba's (since they were both at the same time). It was a great game! Then won 8-6. And JP got a flag and stopped them! His shots seem to be helping. He hasn't been in pain as much and the swelling seems to be staying down. The sticker thing worked! I made a chart and he sat in the bathroom on my stool and looked at B and held his hands. B let him do a practice squeeze and realized he needed to take his ring off. He told him he could squeeze as hard as he wanted but he had to relax his leg. I got it right in on the first try this time! He squealed a little, but no hysterical crying and thrashing. So he earned two stickers. I still have to determine how many he needs to earn and he needs to decide what he wants. We had his end of season party at a pizza buffet place and it was great. They have several to choose from and you can keep going back and they have salad bar and dessert pizzas. They each got a dogtag with the team name, year and their name on it. They're really cool and also better than a trophy I think. The coach said something nice about each player before handing them out and I got really misty eyed when he talked about JP and my mom had been at the salad bar and didn't hear and I couldn't even repeat it to her. My sister had to. He basically said that this kid played all year in pain. He was really concerned about his team and came out to every practice and kept playing even though he was in pain. It really touched me that he would recognize that. We've worked out a plan for PE that he will play whatever they're doing and if he starts to hurt then he can stop. I'm so grateful for great teachers that are supportive and willing to help out with all of this.

My mom had to leave today because she starts work again tomorrow. I'm so sad. I love when she comes and not just because she does my sewing and laundry ;) I'll be alone until tomorrow night at 11 ish, so hopefully I'll survive tonight because Jo Jo does NOT like when dad is gone and he doesn't have BOTH of us to put him to bed, so it generally becomes an hour long battle of me going up and down the stairs nine times. Plus, he's been in my bed the last couple of nights because he keeps waking up. Last night he woke up screaming. He must have had a nightmare. Anyway, I was so out of it that I don't even remember bringing him in my bed, just wrestling him while he screamed bloody murder for 10 min. I have no idea what was going on. I must have been really tired.

So I wasn't successful at keeping this short. I plan to try to post more often, though now that football is over it won't be as exciting around here until March when baseball starts.

So I Already Posted Today But...

I just thought of some funny things that have happened recently.

Peanut taught Jo Jo the song "Bingo" and they haven't stopped singing it much to the dismay of Bubba. And they sing it loud because he yells at them to stop. Jo Jo can even sing the spelling part-B-I-N-G-O. He also sings all the words to the bedtime songs I sing to them. I know I mentioned the alphabet and "Twinkle Twinkle", but can't remember if I mentioned that he knows all the words to "I Am a Child of God" now as well. He and Peanut are also learning the words to "When Jesus Christ Was Baptized" and "I Love to See the Temple."

Jo Jo says his own prayers now. He started last week when B was putting them to bed. Butch said he just about cried. He'll say, "Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for my blessings. Thank you Braden could go to scouts amorrow(our non-member neighbor that went with JP last week). Thank you for my famwee. Bless Uncle Todd on his mission a find people to cheech. Thank you for my church. Bless me for my school (he's obsessed with going to school now that everyone but him is going). Bless Bubba a go to practice amorrow. Name a Jejus Christ, Amen." He changes it up a little each time, but you get the idea. It's pretty sweet.

This and That

Not much going on other than football lately. JP's team won their first game Sat. We had two 8:30 am (Yikes) games so B watched the first half of Bubba's and I watched JP's first half and then we swapped so I missed the win. Bubba's team won. They had their first loss the Sat. before. They were undefeated last year and had won every game up until then so it was really hard for some of the boys. It was a SUPER intense game! It was so exciting. We ended up losing by 2 points in the last 15 sec. of the game. Bubba had two GREAT tackles! One was even by himself. After the game he told us that the reason he grabbed the kid by the shirt instead of fully tackling him (it was right on the sideline) was because there was a little girl sitting right there on the ground. I was amazed that he could see that and also get a tackle at the same time! He was one of the kids that took the loss pretty hard. He's VERY competitive and sometimes very sensitive.

I had to give JP his first shot Sat. That did NOT go well. He's terrified of needles. Even though he knew all week that it was coming B had to practically sit on him. I had to clean the area three times before I finally just reached in under B's arm and get him before he knew what was happening. The nurse said they're not painful shots (you know how some medicines hurt going in). We have a friend from our old ward that has a son with JRA (juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) and I emailed her for advice and to update her on his condition. She was so helpful and even asked her son to give JP advice. He said RELAXING is key. She also told me about a sticker chart they created when he was first starting shots. He got one for every time he took 10 min. to do one and two stickers for every time he could do it 5 min. So JP is very excited about this idea. When our friend's boy earned however many stickers he got a prize-he chose an MP3 player. So we'll have to get started on this next Sat. We're sad because there's an event at our science center from
1-3 pm next Sat., but we have football at 1:30 and won't be done until about 2:30 and then JP has his end of season party. He was really looking forward to it. Hopefully there will be more events. I checked out the website and they will have an awareness walk some time next June. It's amazing how many kids this affects and yet I had never heard of it until he was diagnosed.

Well time to get them from school. Busy last week of football. I'm sad the games will be over, but not sad that practices every night will be!

JP Update

So we found a new doctor for JP. We thought it was weird that the doctor didn't want to follow up with us or anything and his ankle and knee have stayed swollen, so we wanted to make sure everything was okay. I looked up doctors online and found a practice that specializes in arthritis, sports injuries, etc. Oh, let me back up. This past Mon. night during football practice he popped his knee several times, so this made me want to act now to find a doctor. We were trying to find the doctor that Jo Jo had gone to when he broke his arm because we really liked the doctor and the office. So that's the practice I happened to find right away. I called to schedule and we got in right away on Wed. and it was even with the same doctor we'd had and I didn't even request him. He was great! He was so knowledgeable and nice. They took x-rays and there isn't anything wrong with the bones. The doctor was really concerned by how big the swelling was. He has the ankle, knee, his right ring finger, and some of his toes on his right foot that are all swollen. They also have a doctor that is the only pediatric rheumatologist in the area. So the doctor decided to call him for a consultation. Well, it was worse than we thought I guess because he got us an appt. right away for today (Fri.) Apparently there's a 6-7 mth. waiting list for this doctor so we were happy but a little worried because clearly it's bad enough that we needed to see him.

So I picked up a prescription for a mild sedative for him to take this morning before seeing the doctor because they wanted to give him two cortizone shots-one in the ankle and one in the knee. For lack of a better term, it makes them drunk. He was falling over and at one point I went to help him and he went forward to the point that he fell on the tile right on his face and ended up with a goose egg in the center of his forehead. I learned my lesson and decided to have him lean on me to get to the car and into the doctor's office. He also said the most random things. He even started humming the Star Wars theme. The doctor was great! We LOVED him! He was so friendly and very concerned about JP. We told him that the first doctor told us he would most likely grow out of it and that we shouldn't worry and just to give him ibuprofen. Dr. Knibbe couldn't believe it. He was really annoyed. It's not something that will go away unfortunately. He wants to be very aggressive with treatment. So he decided that he needs to be on a certain medication with a long name that I can't remember. Unfortunately for poor JP it's a weekly injection. So he got the two cortizone shots and then a shot today of the new medication. It's something that I'll do at home each week and it has nausea as a side effect so we'll do it on the weekends. Then...he also had to get blood drawn. That was the last straw for him. So to back up juvenile arthritis can cause major eye problems so after his original diagnosis they sent us to a pediatric opthamologist for an eye exam. Everything looked great so we wouldn't need to go back for a year. Dr. Shea (the one we saw Wed.) told us that it could even cause blindness if it's not treated and checked often. That almost made me cry. Well...I guess when they did the original blood work in the ER back in Feb. they didn't do what they needed to determine how often he'll need to see the eye doctor, so that's why he had to have blood drawn today. Was that long enough?

So he got to go to Walmart and pick out some "prizes" for being so brave today. He HATES needles (but who doesn't?). He picked out two packs of silly bands-which if you don't know what those are you either don't have kids old enough or you've been living under a rock. They're the new rage-pretty much jelly bracelets like we used to wear in the 80s, but in shapes. He also chose a really small Lego car (the $5 ones) that you can build. He missed almost the whole day of school so he liked that part, but had to come home and ice it and rest. We'll see the doctor again in 4 weeks. We all liked him very much, including JP. There's going to be a juvenile arthritis celebration at the science center here in a couple of weeks with food and exhibits and our doctor will be there, so we'll try to go after football. He's still going to go to his game tomorrow in his uniform and sit on the sidelines to support his team.

Bubba has a big game tomorrow against the other undefeated team so it's a HUGE deal. The whole league has been watching us and we're supposed to have as many people wearing green tomorrow that we can get there. I think our boys are ready and will come out with the win!