happy new year

Happy 6th, Jojo.

conference room

Jolon and Kellan were pretty excited to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas, but Esme wasn't falling for it.

Kellan's Christmas program

getting ready for christmas

Thanksgiving tradition: writing what you're thankful for on construction paper turkeys.

Picture of Mom

I miss my school; I wonder if Kellan misis his school (Jipan....Nakayoshee)

awwww. Nakayoshi is the name of Jolon's school in Hiroshima.

end of the year

It's been an emotional few months. Just as we were about to move into our house, Dad passed away. It felt and feels devastating to have to move on with him not around to share everything with. Adjusting to life without him has been hard. But with Mom leading the way and showing us how to do it, we're all moving on, and in fact often laughing about what he'd be doing or saying if he were here. Just a week or so before he died, I pulled up the blog on my phone and showed him the pictures of him and the kids on the hayride. So many of you have called, written, sent gifts, etc. Thank you for helping me through this tough time. Your support has been a huge help.

the story about king midass

Once ther was a king who liket gold and one day king midass wishet that evrething he touchet was gold. and it becam true and one day he startet to touch things that he did not want to touch so he wisht again that it becam same again so it came true.

halloween

We went to several great parties, ate way too much candy, and had lots of fun choosing different costumes for different parties. People take Halloween very seriously around here. We even had a policeman sitting in his car offer us candy on Sunday night!

Jolon after the fun run, Kellan after Fire Safety Day at his school, Esme shopping and talking

Jolon's first Fun Run

Click to Play

Jolon did seem to have fun and he ran just over 2 miles in 30 minutes.

To Ohisama gumi at your overnight camp

Jolon and Kellan say konnichiwa. We all miss you SO much!

"hayride"

This is for you, Auntie Erin

Happy Halloween

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

esme loves allie

jolon and kellan love her too! It was fun yesterday to get the family together for Nate's birthday and completely, in good conscience, ignore the kids and chat with my brothers and sisters-in-law while the cousins played together. Happy Birthday, Big boy Nate!!

emergency room

Jolon complained of a chigger bite 3 nights ago so we gave him some anti-itching gel and didn't think much more about it. Then last night he suddenly couldn't walk and when he showed us his foot it was red, swollen and looking way worse than it was Jan picked him up at school. When we saw the red streaks going up his leg, we jumped in the car and headed for the emergency room. Turns out it was probably a cut or possibly a bite that got infected. The fact that it was on the bottom of his foot made it difficult to keep out dirt and germs and led to the infection. If we had noticed sooner that it was looking bad (he was scratching it a lot and picking at it pretty often) we might could have stopped it with some antibiotic cream and bandaids. But we thought it was just a bite and attributed the itching to that, rather than an infection. Anyway, the nurses and doctor were very nice and we got seen as soon as we walked through the doors of the emergency room ( and we were still there for 3 hours). But it was very hard on poor Jolon. 2 nurses gave him simultaneous antibiotic shots in the thighs while we held him down. That was bad enough but the huge needle full of the deadening drug had to be shot directly into the wound while 3 nurses and Jan held him down. He knew it was coming and knew it was going to be painful........and he howled, but he was absolutely as brave as any child could be in that situation. Jan talked to him during the next bit when the doctor gauged his foot with another needle and then scissors to let the pus drain out. Of course he wasn't feeling that part but I was watching and it was a brutal "operation." He's now left with a small hole in his foot which I peeked at tonight (48 hours after it all happened) and it's clean but it looks like it's going to take awhile to heal. Meanwhile he's pretty funny on the codeine and in good spirits. Hopping around hasn't seemed to bother him too much and he's spent the day with a pencil, crayons and a basket full of books.

The tent

Click to Play

This is an excellent example of what it's like to talk to 3 year old, Kellan, these days.

Self-portrait

we went to school today for Jolon's (letter) t-party and saw this on the wall outside of his room.