September...

First, I want to apologize for the absent entries as of late.  Our lives increased in crazy by ten fold when I started going back to teaching. I have now been in school, teaching, for almost a month. It doesn't seem possible.  When I look at my lessons, I think - I have only 5 weeks until the quarter is over... WHATTT??  At first it was rough.  I knew that my first year of teaching was going to be difficult, and it wasn't the degree of difficulty, but the fact that the gap between my expectations and what I had done (or passed to me) was very little.  I felt a lot of pressure from a lot of areas not only to do my best but to do EVERYTHING well.  I have since been find my rhythm as far as how I am teaching, grading (Standards Based Grading).  I need to thank my awesome family - mom, dad, Jeremiah and Gideon for being sooo amazing and understanding.  They bend over backwards to help make my life easier.   My schedule, although somewhat consistent, is all over the place.  Some mornings I have early early meetings, some nights I"m there till 5:30 working.  But, in the end it will all get done and I know I will do my best.  God is my rock and he has graciously given me a great support team. 

Jeremiah is taking Calculus, Chemistry and Psychology!  BLAH.    He's been doing really well with classes so far and then comes home to take care of Gideon so my mom can have some time to do her own thing.   We recently traded some of his music equipment around so he's getting back into that. He does worship music at our small group and that has been very enjoyable.  I have loved watching him and Gideon bond with each other.  At times I'd get jealous because I couldn't get Gideon to laugh like Jeremiah could.  

Please keep my grandparents, Lois and Dewey, in your thoughts and prayers - Happy Grandparents Day!  They are both in and out of the hospital - Lois just got done with chemo/radiation treatments for cancer.  They mean so much to both me and my mother.  It's hard to watch loved ones get older.  yet it is a joy when they are young.  

Sorry for the pictures being out of order.   

Gideon and I at my parents.  Toys are more fun in the basket. 

Gideon's knew favorite - eating everything.  At least he loves numbers like his mommy! He is six months old! 

Again, loves to eat - and music too! 

How can you not love this face!?!

Boxes are pretty neat toys! 

Going to great grandparents here soon!  Rockin' the monkey shoes! 

Playing bongos at guitar center. 

Gideon likes to play with James - telling secrets. 

Some of the greats came to visit us.  Jeremiah was taking the picture. 

Super baby! He steals my heart. 

I am very lucky for my little family. 

This pictures just makes me laugh.  Don't worry, we stopped him before he actually ate anything. 

If I don't get back on here during September, have a great month.  I am so excited that the temperature is dropping.  I love fall.  It is by far one of my favorite seasons.  If it could be October - December on a regular basis I would be a very happy camper.   Well off I go.  

It's August....5 month's old

We are in the 8th month of the year.  That means it is 2/3 the way done.  WHAT>!>!>!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful mom and Gideon's amazing Grandma!  we are so lucky to have you in our lives! We love you very much and sorry we didn't do anything at all for it =[

Biggest news - Gideon has a tooth!  Our five month old is getting teeth.... oh boy!

These are a little out of order!:

Gideon got to meet the spectacular Heather!  We had a great lunch and catching up.  I told Jeremiah that if we have the money we are going to Florida next summer to see her (and the beach!).

This is 3 month old Mason, one of Gideon's friends!  

Gideon playing with Megan (she's almost 4!)  she's the middle kiddo!  

Here's Emma playing "Mommy."  She wanted to pick up Gideon and take him everywhere.  She's so strong, Gideon is almost 20 pounds I think!  She was so helpful with the kiddos.  

At the end of July we started cereal.  He really really liked it!  What a happy baby we have! 

Mid July Andrea and I hosted an open house for Rebecca and baby girl Elise (and brother Connor).  She's such a doll.  She's now a month old!  What a cutie. 

close to the end of July we took a little trip south to see some family.  Here's my cousin Grace, her son Milam, my great Aunt Sherry is feeding Gideon. 

While we swam Jeremiah got to do lots of golfing!

I went out once to be his caddy, and I was darn good at it too. 

Gideon showing off his swimming skills.  

Grace and Milam!  Love them. 

Cousin Stacy (she let us all stay with them, and cooked us so many yummy meals).  

Gideon loves to put everything in his mouth.  What a fun stage. 

Jeremiah and Gideon, just hanging out in this hot weather. 

We went to the drive-in!  We got to see Brave and The Avengers.  Gideon stayed awake for almost the entire movie Brave!  Silly guy.  Never fussed once.  

Before the drive-in, Grandma got him a new book to read/eat.  

We were working in my classroom and he had a lot of fun playing with the blanket.  Peek-aboo

Here's mom (Happy Birthday again!) With sleeping chunk and beautiful new baby Elise.

My parents hosted 2 international students for a summer camp.  Maria and Basak were a joy to be around and very much loved Gideon.

At Third Thursday - Gideon got to see a drum-line.  It was super fun. 

So, It is August.  What does that mean for the Jones' family?  I start going back to school/orientation TOMORROW!  Gideon will be with Jeremiah mostly, unless he has to work and then my mom will be watching him.  Jeremiah is still working at Walgreens, he would like to start giving guitar lessons again and possibly apply for a 'ranch' that helps troubled teens.  He starts school August 20th, Chemistry, Calculus, and Psychology.  Poor guy will have a very rough semester for sure.  Gideon is going to be crawling soon (he does it in his sleep) and gets frustrated when he can't get to where he's going.  He will have more teeth soon and I'm sure we'll start some new vegetables here as well.

Hope everyone had a great summer!  Fall and Winter will be here before we know it.

25 years old...

Tomorrow I turn 25.  Or as one of my friends puts it "at least 25% done"!  It's crazy to think that I'm a 1/4 century old.  But I am.

Today has been a great day so far.  Gideon has been acting well (he's been supppper fussy the past few days).  I got to see one of my great friends, Heather.  We haven't seen each other in 4 years - she was excited to meet Gideon as well.

We also got our book today for Gideon the one that I created the other day.  It looks great and I'm super happy!

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

I was really excited to see it on our doorsteps as we got home today from visiting with Heather!

Tomorrow, not for sure our plans but it's my birthday.

Thursday I get to see two of my best friends, Amanda (and her new son Mason and two daughters Emma and Megan) as well as my friend Rebecca and her two children Elise and Connor!

I'm surely blessed!

Gideon enjoying his book, turning pages and drooling! 

ABC

I completed a Pin today from Pinterest...

I create Gideon his very own personal ABC book.  All of the images are of him doing something or with the person.  On the back of the book I put a picture of the ABC asl version to sign to!

Got this for less than $9.00!!!  Way to be Mrs. Frugal!   Now, I can not wait for it to get here, a new book for us to read!

A is for your Adorable Awesome Aunt Amanda
B is for Beautiful Baby Boy in hi Blue Bathtub.
C is for the Cute Cool Cuddly Clever Cousins.
D is for playing Drums with your Darling Daring Daddy!
E is for Enjoying your first Entertaining Exciting Easter.
F is For Fun Funky Friends.
G is for  Gideon. You are loved by Grandma, Grandpa and all the Greats
H is for being Handsom, Healthy and Happy.
I is for International Intrigue and I Love you!
J is for Joyous uncle Jacob Jones,
K is for aunt Kendra Kisses and Kittens
L is for your Lovable Little Laugh.
M is for March when Mommy Met her little Monkey
N is for Never being a Noisy Newborn
O is for all Of Our Outdoor Outings.
P is for Precious Pirate Playtime
Q is for your Quaint Quiet Quilts.
R is for  Rolling while listening to Rock and Roll.
S is for Sweet Summer Sleeping and Special Spring Swinging.
T is for Tiny Teething Toys To Treasure.
U is for your Unique Unusual Understanding Uncle cliff.
V is for Very Vital Vacations.
W is for the Wonderful Wiggling Water baby.
X is for Xavier
Y is for Young Yawns
Z is for Zoos that we will Zip to.

First (and maybe only) post in July!

Where have I been!?!?
Sleeping?
Reading?
Playing with Gideon?
Decorating my classroom?
Feeling overwhelmed with my upcoming teaching year?
Running?
Pinterest?
T.V.?
Baby shower planning?
Running around doing errands?

Or all of the above?

If you picked all of the above you know how busy I have been!  The sad thing is, I don't feel like I'm that busy, I just don't use my time as I should (I should be spending more time working on classroom stuff than on pinterest for example).

Gideon is doing very well.  He had his 4 month check up about a week ago.  He is 16 pounds, 24.25 inches, and his head has a circumference of 17.5 inches.  He's very healthy!
He has found his feet, can roll (like across the room), doesn't talk as much, sometimes growls/grunts, eats more, stands with support, sits with support, laughs a little, gives kisses (all in my head), and likes having his teeth brushed (new development).  He plays well on his own and can hardly sit still.

Jeremiah has about two more weeks of school left.  He's going to a magic the gathering tournament this weekend.  It will be strange being alone.

I am doing well.  Just trying to get my life organized and school organized.  But I can make it!

We had a great 4th of July.  Had small group over to grill.  Gideon slept through all of it - the night before we tried to watch, he freaked out and was hard to calm down... so we didn't even attempt it.  the neighbors booms were too loud.

Even longer ago we had my grandfather's 80th surprise birthday party (the same day as Michelle's baby shower, Rebecca has those pictures).

Grandpa and his cake! 

Gideon was interested in the cake, grandpa actually stuck his nose in it!  He smiled, so we then put icing on Grandpas nose!  Too cute! 

My great Aunt Sherry could not wait to see him.  So she snuggled as much as possible. 

This group of beautiful kiddos go to my Grandparents church.  Their 7th sibling was only a week or so old!  All under 8 or 9! 

Gideon got to first encounter balloons.  He really enjoyed them and played with them for days after (until I was afraid he was going to pop them in his mouth). 

All smiles! 

Our family! Four generations! 

Please continue to pray for my Grandma (pictured above in the pink, but not my mom holding Gideon) she is battling cancer and is currently going through chemo and radiation treatments.  Also be with my mom as she helps out her family and prepares to take care of our kiddo.  I know that I'm stressed and hope I'm not stressing her out.  She is currently helping with the Lion's international camp (and next week will be hosting two girls for a week).  We are just very busy and need to keep positive! 

Everyone have a great weekend!

Up a head for us:

Rebecca's "Welcome Elise" shower is Sunday

Jeremiah is gone all weekend

Going to the drive-in with students (hopefully if all goes well)

Art walk with international students

Finish my classroom

Get my car's tags renewed

Get lesson plans done

Going to see Aunt Sherry and her daughter for the weekend (our cousin Grace and family is coming over too!)

My 25th birthday (getting so old!)

Getting to see my dearest friend Heather... it has been a little over 4 years.  

Fifth sunday at church (picnic lunch)

Hopefully some swimming! 

Continue weight loss

Make calendar of meals for when school starts?!?

August will be here before we know it! 

Babies and more Babies!

I want to congratulate two amazing people in my lives:  Heather B. (like grade school) got a teaching job for 7th grade... we both will be in the same "twilight zone"  emotions and germs on legs.  =]   And then my dear friend Rebecca had her baby girl yesterday!  (Gideon has another beautiful girl to choose from in about 20+ years!).

This is the most adorable child I know.  OKay, I'm a bit bias... but I can't help myself!

Playing drums with daddy - or trying to shove the drum stick in his mouth... 

went swimming, and this time he enjoyed it!  He played for over an hour! 

Daddy and baby swimming! 

Pretty much he's the coolest.  

The kiddos from small group:

Sam = 1 month, Gideon = 4 months, Zoey = 7 months, John = 10 months, Zach = 28 months, and James = 35 months!  We love our small group family! 

That's about it for the update.  I'm going to go work on stuff for my classroom!  Hope everyone has a good evening.  Also, on youtube I've started a channel to upload videos (because I can't do it on facebook anymore/takes too long).   I'm gideonsmom12   

Oops - forgot the salt!

Gideon is 16 weeks old, as of last Friday.  I still can't believe at how quickly time passes when you have a little one.   I am sitting here thinking that I'll be teaching soon and how unprepared I feel.  Everyone tells me that I'll do great, that I'm going to be an awesome teacher, they gave me a job - didn't they.  I know I'll be okay, just a very crazy adventure.

Tonight I tried this recipe (from about a month ago, I wanted to do this from our dinner planning blog).  We just are now getting around to it.

Mini Mexi Bites. 

I forgot the salt and the cliantro.  I didn't use a red pepper but a green... and I just used what onions we have.  I used "block" cheese that I chopped up... not shredded.  Soooo.. we'll see how this taste.  However, I only used one pie crust (made 12 "quiches").  And that took up the whole mixture....  so we'll see.

I think I might serve them with a salad.  I don't really know what they will go with.. some fruit for sure.  We need some salsa to serve with it.     They will be ready in about 13 minutes.  So, for now I'm going to go read and hang out with Gideon (he's been playing on his own nicely).

Have a great start to the week!  

UPDATE:
the mini mexi bites were pretty good (not as filling as I would have hoped).  Jeremiah said that he wanted meat with it (so maybe great breakfast with meat and fruit).   By the time the baked Gideon and I were able to finish 6 books!  He likes to read.

Because we were still hungry I wanted a salad, but that didn't sound good so I decided to do this "health" smoothie.

Green Smoothie   I was very sneaky.  At the end it just says fruit + green + water = awesome healthy smoothie.

I did two banana, 1 cup blackbeeries and a little over 1 cup blue berries, a few ice cubes, a little water and two great big handfulls of spinach.  It was really yummy.  I could taste the bananas and the blackberries made it a bit gritty. But over all so good and it was really fast... and not to mention how HEALTHY it was.

OKay, now off I go!  Goodnight Moon.  

J's Low Carb

Jeremiah is trying to eat very few carbs.  It's personally probably going to be the death of me!  =]  I love my breads and noodles and cookies!

So I'm on a mission to find quick, simple, affordable low carb meals (specifically something that can be in the crock pot).  Here is what I've come up with so far.

Zucchini Lasagna

Italian Vegetable Soup

Or I think I might just come up with something of my own!  Just throw in a bunch of ingredients we already have in the house, those make the best soups!

Megan's Amazing Beef and Vegetable Soup:

Ingredients:
Roast - we had left over roast from crock-pot roast and veggies.  So I diced up the left overs (about 2+ cups full)
Carrots - I used the left over carrots from the roast as well.  Chopped them.  2 cups
Celery - two celery stalks diced/thinly sliced
Corn - one can
rotel - one can
onion - half of a yellow onion diced
green beans - fresh from my mom's garden, cleaned about 2 cups
northern light beans - one can
tomato sauce - one can
chicken broth - about two cups
water - enough to make soup
spices - cayenne pepper, basil, oregano, and pepper

Put everything in the crock pot/slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  Stir every few hours, add water if you need to make it "more soupy"

Note: We didn't add potatoes for Jeremiah is trying to watch his carb/eating healthy.  I just went through my pantry/refrigerator and added vegetables we liked.  Though about using peas instead of the beans, you could use probably any kind of bean of your choice (to make it heartier).  Add as little or as much vegetables or sauce to taste.  Although Jeremiah really enjoyed this soup the possibilities are endless!

The same day I made the soup (Thursday) we also made omelets for lunch!  YUMMY!!  We put sliced ham and green peppers in ours.  We cooked the peppers and ham together.  Such a cheap idea!

Gideon is 15 weeks, and then some.

Our little guy is not so little anymore.    Every baby we have encountered so far seems tiny next to Gideon.  Okay, he's healthy... but it's not really his cute cheeks or his round tummy... it's the fact his head is HUGE.  We have a doc appointment in a few weeks, and we will surely know then if it's all good.  He's such a goober though.

He's still trying to sit up.  His head is hard to keep up though (too large we think).  But everyday is better than the first.  He no longer coos, but "speaks".  I tell him to use his words and he moves his mouth and tries... usually comes out in clicks, spits, and gurgles now.  Still darling.   He has been developing a laugh and I hope that one day he know why he's laughing!

We had a great time visiting family in OK last week!  All the above pictures are Gideon with some of his 2nd or 3rd cousins.  We really aren't for sure how they are related!  =]   Their momma's are my second cousins...so go with that!  It was a very lovely day!

The last four pictures were of Father's Day!  They day started out wonderfully.  We were on our way to a picnic up north of us about 1.5 hours away to see my mom's side of the family.  About half way there, Jeremiah's car started shaking like crazy!  HORRIBLE SHAKE.  So we pulled off at the next little town, checked the oil and went on our way.  Still shook, so we drove reallly really really slow.    Come to find out, it was his tires... we had to drive all the way home on a donut.   Our trip turned an extra hour long!    Monday, we dropped almost a grand on getting everything fixed up.  =[  very not happy day.    BUT fathers day went well.  Got to see my almost 80 year old grandpa.  Got to see my grandma (she's the one going through cancer) and of course other great family.  

I hope you can view the video.... it was Gideon and I's gift to Jeremiah (very last minute and tossed together).

Well, I have lots to do right now.  So off I go!  Gideon says hi!