Class Picture

Dawson got his daycare class picture taken a few weeks ago. I got a little nervous because I couldn’t be there to make sure he smiled, his nose was booger free, etc…

I went to visit him over my lunch break after his picture has been taken. The daycare director came up to me and told that pictures were being taken in the gym and while the toddler class was waiting for their turn, Dawson was running circles around the gym and the equipment! So she went and grabbed him and had them get his picture first because she was afraid he was going to fall and have a bloody nose or goose-egg on his head for his picture. Thanks Jan!

My first glance at this picture caused me to laugh out loud. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Dawson’s mouth. He’s biting his lip! I wanted to have the picture retaken but he’s such a cutie head and really, this picture is adorable and memorable. But he looks so big!

 This is Dawson’s class picture. Last night Jason held it up to Dawson and said “Dawson, where’s Evan?” And Dawson pointed to Evan (he’s his best friend in class). Then he said “Where’s Graceson” and Dawson pointed to her. He identified each toddler in his class! Maybe he’’ll be a salesman someday.

Food, Festivities & Fun -Part II

Friday morning my sisters and I attempted another black Friday "death by shopping" morning out. Only, we were a little disappointed. Kendallville was dead to the world. l guess all of the extreme shoppers were in Ft Wayne. Standing in long lines. Fighting. None of them shopping for me...

Who would pass up the Kendallville WalMart??

We ate at Applebee's and laughed and shared heart-to-heart talks. I love my sisters.

Once I finished all 7 courses of my meal and asked for another round of Welcome Willy Dip, I had to hurry home because Goria, Dawson and I were headed to Cleveland to spend the weekend with the Conrad's and the Janke's. Cleveland is where Gloria grew up and her sister Diana and brother Gil still live there. So we were off to visit them.

Here's Kirsten helping Dawson with his shoes.

We stayed with the Conrad's and spend most of the weekend eating. WE visited Westside Market, B.A. Sweetie's, Rito's and Jack Frost doughnuts., not to mention the fact that Diana and Jeff spent most of their time cooking in the kitchen when weren't eating pre-fabricated items. Staying with them was like being on a cruise. you want it, you got it.

Dawson had a wonderful time with his cousins Kirsten, Kelsey and Briana. I helped Briana start her own blog and I added a link to her site with the rest of my links over to the right. It's "Princess Bri". I can't figure out why we don't have any pictures with Briana and Kelsey in them. Briana has some pictures of her own posted so if you go visit her blog, you'll see them. Dawson spent most of his time running back and forth between the girls' rooms. He found a German hat in Briana's room and he kept it on! It was too cute. So I made him take a picture with me.

We celebrated Briana's birthday while were there even though it was early. Ragelle brought Lydia over to play. Of course, she's holding Dawson in this picture.

But here are some cute pics of Aunty Gloria with Lydia.

Probably one of the main highlights of this time with family had to be watching Dawson and Lydia interact. The Conrad's have this thing called a sit-n-spin, which neither toddler could control. but when Kirsten got them spinning, they were having screaming matches. The whole room erupted in laughter. I have a video clip of it so you can watch it yourself.

Aunt Diana tried teaching me how to crotchet. (I know that looks like the word crotch-it but it's not). I'm terrible at it and I can't even get a chain to look like a chain. I'll keep trying. But don't expect a handmade scarf, hat or pashmina for Christmas. If you really do want something though, I can send you a crooked chain.

One night Jeff and Diana pulled out some old cassette tapes they had that had voice recordings of Grandpa Janke on it. (Gloria's dad). One of the tapes ahd Jason's cousin Gib talking on it when was really little. I'd say he was maybe 5. On the tape Aunt Diana was asking him what he wanted to name his little brother or sister that was due soon so he said a few names and then he had an "aha" moment where he figured out what he really wanted the baby to be named. He says "I know! Name it Jason.. Jason Wilkins". We all busted up laughing. Jason had quite an impression on his young cousin in those days.

And now Jason has proof of the impact he had on his special cousin. When we headed out to leave on Sunday morning, Jason found this:

Jason still hasn't washed it off yet.. ugh. However, we did get some honks and waves on the drive home. What did you use Gib? White-Out? It rained and it wouldn't budge! Gib and his wife Jenessa are expecting their first baby. Jenessa is a cutie pregnant girl!

 We were trying to give them practice and make them take care of two at once.

Just before leaving Cleveland the Conrad girls wanted us to take Dawson to the mall so that he could ride the train. I wondered how he would do since he has to ride it by himself. But when he saw the train coming around the tracks for the first time, he just about jumped out of my arms right onto the tracks. Guess he wanted to ride.

View form the side of the train tracks of the neat Christmas display that was set up.

Once the train ride was over, he wanted to ride again. So we had to bribe him with food.

Fun times in Cleveland! Thank you to the Conrads and Janke's for sharing quality time with us.

And now I leave you with: The Sit-N-Spin:

Food, Festivities & Welcome Willy Dip

Ahhh... Thanksgiving! How I love you. Let me count the ways.. 1.2.3. Food.

Well Thanksgiving started early for us. Jason's mom, Gloria, got to fly out to be with us this year. She flew in last Monday and she is flying back this afternoon. We are sad to see her go. She's like having a live-in nanny.

For Thanksgiving dinner this year, we all met at my sister Bobbie's house. She's got plenty of room to house us all and still have place for the food. Now I'd like to take a minute to show off my sister's creative abilities. Not only did she have a big portion of the meal that she cooked for us, let us invade her house, but take a look at these extraordinary centerpieces she made!:



She tucked old family pictures around the fruit pieces and had candles burning and sitting inside. She should be on "Lifestyles of Creative Geniuses".

Before the festivities began we needed the kids to get their energy channeled through another source so they decided to keekle keekle as Dawson says it (tickle, tickle) each other.

Let's talk about food. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs and the highlight: Welcome Willy Dip. How many families get that for Thanksgiving? I'm going to venture around the none category. Here's the story:

When my sister Anita and her friend Jose arrived, they brought an appetizer. At this time, the rest of the family was gathered in the kitchen sampling various food items. Mom and I were talking and Nita set her food down on the table. Mom asked "oh what's this?" and Jose told her but I don't think she could hear him very well with all of us girls jabbering, mouths full and carrying on. So I hear mom say "Oh now isn't that nice? He named the dish he brought". I kept quiet because I didn't hear Jose tell mom anything. I could hear mom mumbling about the dish and the name he gave it, so I finally asked "mom, what did Jose call it?" Ans she said "Welcome Willy dip". And Nita came trouncing right over and said "Mom, it's GUACOMOLE dip". I laughed about that all afternoon.

I have to tell about the appetizer my sister Karen brought along. It's cracked pepper and olive triscuits with sliced muenster cheese on top drizzled with a dollop of pesto. Positively yummy.

After the large intake of food, we had set aside time for drama. A poem read by my mother and performed by the children.

 I cannot remember the title of the poem, but it was very patriotic-a tribute to soldiers (played by Corbin and Kadan). Kazlan was the keeper of the American flag and Dawson was.... a little patriotic boy with good intentions of keeping his bandana on but..it didn't work out. The drama concluded with the adults singing a rousing rendition of the National Anthem.

 

Right after the drama we did our DePew annual "draw for names". That's not a very clever title for it, is it? If you can think of a better one, than good for you. Mom, each of us girls and our husbands, fill out wish lists and put them in a hat. Then we each draw and see whose name we got for Christmas. This part of our Thanksgiving tradition takes FOREVER for all of my family members except for my sister Karen, and myself. We come fully prepared. We start the Christmas wish list process sometime in July. Complete with prices, pictures of the items and coupons if we have any. The worst part is.. we have to condense our 200 list of items down to a half sheet of paper to match the others. What the heck? How do we do that? Well, we write small like this: oooh,I really hope I get an official Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time! Otherwise, we'd be doomed to take things off the list. our husband's lists... they look like this: gloves. knife. That makes the rest of us grumble.

When all wish list making was over we gathered around for family pictures. I saw Dawson running around the kitchen with a piece of ham. Corbin and his dad were sitting on the steps and Dawson headed their way. Corbin said "what does Dawson have?" I told him he had a piece of ham and Corbin looked at his dad and said "Daddy, do I like ham?" 

As Thanksgiving was drawing to a close, Bobbie asked if anyone wanted to play Yahtzee. Several minutes went by before anyone responded and an impatient Kazlan declared "I want to play Tootsie!". Gloria won. She and my mom both rolled 2 yahtzees during the course of the game and I pouted.

PEPSI vs coke

I have no idea what made me think of this. I LOVE PEPSI. But way back in the day, when Jason and I first started dating I would email him these crazy pepsi commercials that I had made up. I had printed off some of them hoping someday I could turn them in and they'd use one and I'd be famous. I am famous. It's just that none of you know it yet.

Here is my very first one ever written.

1. (cue Peter Pan and Tinkerbell flying) (enter stage left-Captain Hook, who is looking rather sick as he just drank a coke instead of pepsi). Peter Pan and Tinkerbell are dying of thirst. (flying will do that to ya). *cue sound of pepsi can opening. Peter pan takes one refreshing drink before sharing with Tinkerbell and commercial concludes by him singing "bah bah bah bah... the joy of pepsi"

This one was written the day after Jason met my dad for the first time and dad offered Jason a beer. (right after learning he worked for Youth for Christ). Jason took the beer because he was afraid of my dad. I didn't know any of that had happened and I found the beer in Jason's cup holder in the Jeep as we were about to leave. I ran the beer up to my dad who laughed so hard he was nearly crying.

1. camera pans night club with a very HOT pianist in a tux playing softly at the front. *editors note: the name Jason comes to mind for this pianist but we don't need names for this commercial.

-Enter: an attractive 24 year old girl with her dad. The dad walks vicariously up to the piano. -cue background poker game, laughter and glasses clinking.

Dialogue:

Dad: "hey son, would like a beer?" ...pianist nods and continues to play softly so the dad puts the beer in his tip cup. The very irate yet attractive young girl with a crush on the pianist runs to the piano to grab the beer but trips over a pepsi. *editors note: this girl is not klutzy, but the script writer's are going on strike and had to get this commercial out before pepsi ratings started to fall) The pepsi rolls to the piano and the pianist picks it up. -cue: pop can opening. The dad, satisfied, removes his beer from the tip cup and heads to a poker game. The girl now very happy but still on the floor sings "bah bah bah..joy of pepsi" -fade out.

This one was written before CSI became a hit show!

1. It's late at night. The only noise to be heard is the gently hum of tress blowing in the wind. The solitary light for the path is the small sliver of moon surrounded by myriads of clouds haunting the distance so that you do not know where to turn. Suddenly, you hear twigs breaking behind you and you realize you are being followed. you violently grasp your way through trees and brush trying to find even a glimpse of hope that you will find a safe haven until daybreak. Then it happens. There's a clearing where you come upon an old abandoned house. Quietly but briskly you go inside trying to erase all evidence of your presence from the person following you. You look around you and amidst the dirt and rubbish you find a REFRIGERATOR! The one thing in the whole place that works. You open it and there inside is an ice cold can of refreshing PEPSI. You check the expiration date on the bottom, it's still good. The sound of the can opening alerts you to other sounds around you. The person following you knows where you are. He must be a coke lover. The culprit see you with the now empty pepsi can and with great dismay returns form when he came.. *cue lighting which illuminates an old abandoned house with a pepsi having the only color in the shot.

This one came from the part of my brain that though it missed college.

1. Ahhh yes... it's that time of year again. (cue: picture of Bethel college fade in) Classes are about to commence, as high spirited freshman run around campus trying to make friends. The fountain is up and running, (cue sound of rushing water) and the squirrels are making headlines as they bite and cause rabies. Homecoming is the spark of life as alumni prepare for their big return.

Enter: sexy young man with dark hair in white T-shirt and jeans drinking a pepsi.

Enter: sexy young female with brown hair and highlights wearing a cute red dress looking for a sexy young man who just might be drinking a pepsi. (in a can is her favorite).. guy walks up to girl who is now sitting under a tree studying. She is obviously parched from thirst.

Dialogue:

Guy: I thought you might like something to drink.

Girl: (cue big smile, as cheeks blush she runs fingers through her hair) Oh, thank you.

*Picture of Bethel College - fade out. Pepsi music playing softly in background.

This is the final one and it's just random. I'm getting really thirsty.

1. Well, it's that time of year again. The corn is knee high and the sound of children laughing filters through the air (cue: sound of lawn mower and breeze blowing through trees)

Enter: 2 sweaty boys who just finished a rough round of basketball.

Enter: man delivering Pepsi to a Pepsi machine, who kindly hands both boys a nice cold Pepsi in a can. *cue boy on the left: "Thanks mister". (fade out). What better way to refresh your thirst after a long hot day than with an ice cold PEPSI?

Look who follows my lead...



525,000 minutes

Jason and I are trying to come up with ideas for painting/decorating Dawson's room before his 2nd birthday. The poor boy needs some COLOR. I was looking through some old pictures and I found a picture of the "dream" nursery I had wanted for Dawson. Seeing as how we were in a one bedroom apartment and his crib was in the living room, I gave up hope for a nursery. But now he has his own room and we want to decorate. If you have any good ideas, leave a comment and let me know. Here are the pictures I had scanned in of the original nursery that I liked.

Poopy Doo-Doo

Jason called me this morning to tell me his proudest moment. He was changing Dawson and out from nowhere Dawson yells "poopy doo-doo"!

 

OH Boy.

 

I wanted to tell a cute story from Sunday night. Jason and I try and take a little time each night for family time. Just to focus on Dawson and play with him. Well, Sunday night Dawson had dug his shape sorter out. It's the same one as this:

Jason and I were sitting on the couch and Dawson brought the shape sorter over to us. He has learned the circle and rectangle. But he has little patience for the other shapes so each time he had inserted the circle or rectangle, he'd hand the box to one of us and say "help". We realized he mean the wanted us to  open the lid so he could get his two shapes back out again. So we did this over and over and over (you do things over an over a lot in toddler world, I've noticed).

He has finally busted the binding off his book I Love Trucks if that says anything.

Anyway, he pointed at the raised  circles on the side of the shape sorter box and said "bubble". I thought that was quite clever. He finished playing his and was off.. the next thing we know he comes back with a square refrigerator magnet. He uses that magnet as a phone. He holds it up to his ear and walks around and talks. S he's talking on his magnet-phone and comes walking over to us.  I said "Dawson, who are you talking to?" He says "Jesus". I'm not kidding. I asked if I could talk to Jesus and Dawson walked away still chatting. (apparently it was a private phone call).

 

After this we played hide-n-go-seek. I kept Dawson in the living room while Jason went to hide.Then Jason yells Dawson's name-"Dawson.. Dawson.." and Dawson goes tearing down the hallway to find him. Once Dawson gets real close whoever is hiding whispers his name and when he finds us we jump out and congratulate him on a job well done. Well Dawson had just found one of us. After he finds us he usually runs back to the living room for another round. This time he went to the bedroom and pulled the door close to him so that he was hidden (this is how Jason and I hide a lot, behind the bedroom doors) then he started saying "Dawson, Dawson".. so Jason and I said "where's Dawson" and he came out clapping. How cute is that?!

Funny boy.



I have a hangnail.

Have I ever talked about my nephew Mikey? I don't believe I have. I don't get to see him that often. I've been thinking about him lately. So here he is! I'm posting him in my blog.

Mikey was the first born of all my nieces/nephews. Born to my sister Anita as Michael Robert but I've called him Mikey since he was born. So Mikey he will forever be! Just like I will forever be Joy Dawn, or JD to those who called me that growing up. Lovely. Mikey was born when I was 10 and sporting big blue glasses and a mullet. Have a look. That's Karen on the left and Bobbie in the middle holding him.

I remember getting to stay the night with Nita after he was born. She was changing his diaper on the couch and he peed on her face. Oh I laughed and laughed. Here's a pic with him and Felicia.

 Here's the whole gang. Mikey, Felicia, Shadow and that's my brother-in-law's daughter, Erica, in the back. That was a lot of comma's.

School days!

And now he's all grown up. He just had his 20th birthday a couple of weeks ago. Augh! Welp Mikey, if you get a chance to read this... HI!

While I'm at it, here's Shadow when she was a tiny tot. Isn't she cute?

And here's dad talking to her on the phone. That's a big phone.

She came over a couple of weekends ago and stayed the weekend with us.

We went shopping and played monopoly. I won! And she watched Dawson for us so we could go out for dinner with some friends.

Let's see...

Jason decided to swaddle Dawson. Dawson didn't like it.

And I was folding clothes and Dawson took the basket away and decided to sit in and watch tv.

 Hmm..

I told Jason to pull me on the ghetto sled but Dawson wanted to go too.

This post is purely random