Can I see your Braille menu?

That's the exact question Jonathan asked when going through the drive thru at McDonald's.  Key word... drive thru!  We were on our way to church last Sunday morning.... so of course we have our sunglasses on.  Can you picture us driving in Jonathan's white truck?

Ok.... so after Jonathan asked for the menu, I proceed to freak out because we are late.... and they left us at the order box thing to go look for a Braille menu....  Finally we pull up to the payment window without ordering first.  At the window are the little 16 year old girl who is taking orders, and a manager, who claim they can't find the menu.  Jonathan tells them never mind... that I read the menu to him... and that we are ready to order.  So, we order.... then after we pay, the manager walks away and the girl says, "Can I ask you a question?  Like, how do you drive if you can't see?"  ?!@#$*&.... What!!  Poor thing... still thinks Jonathan is blind.  I immediately look out my window so I don't have to see her because I would have lost it, and Jonathan answers, "Well... I just look for big shapes and then my wife tells me when to stop."  The look on her face... priceless.  I snorted.

When we get to the next window, Jonathan decides to milk it....  There are about two people at the window, and by now some have heard that there's some blind guy going through the drive thru.  When the employee tries to hand Jonathan his drink, he puts his hand in the wrong place like he doesn't know where it is...a few different times, while the employee is going, "Ohh... sorry!  Ohh...!!"  Then, when they go to give him the bag of McDonald's healthy goodness, he pretends he has no idea they are hanging it out the window....  "Sir, excuse me... here's your food."  Again, he pretends not to see it and starts grabbing thin air.

There are now 5 people staring out the window at the blind guy, and one wife in the white truck with supposed blind guy who looks like she's having some kind of seizure.  The next drink comes and... well you know.  Finally, we have all our stuff and Jonathan says, "Ok Honey... let's go.  How far till I have to turn?"

We cried and laughed and snorted all the way to church.  Great way to start a morning... and I had an iced coffee!

101 in 1001 catchup!

Some of the accomplished.....

#6 - Read the bible every day with my T-Group -- Using CCV's plan on youversion.  Half way there!!

#7 - Keep growing my hair! -- To me it seems longer than it looks, but... at least it's only been trimmed.  Pony tales are niiiice in the summer.

#10 - Get Zoe's ears pierced.  (You can just barely see them.... ) We actually took her on her 5th birthday, because that's ALL she talked about.  When we got there, it was a huge epic fail.  She cried that it would hurt, and then cried that we would leave... We actually had to pry her fingers from the chair and carry her over Jonathan's shoulders to the car with her wailing and screaming.  Awe.some.  Then, a few months later out of the blue, she tells my mom and me that she wants them pierced.  We take her and she does fine.  Cries, but it's a huge improvement over last time.  However, they did one too high so we had to take her back the next day to do it again!  But, she did great again.

#35 - Take Jonathan Skydiving - Father's Day with his friend Kenny!

#58, 59 - Hang shelves in Hayden's room.

#69, 70 - Get new mattresses for the kids.  Rooms are somewhat arranged differently now and no swag... looks much better.

Anyone else out there want to do the list!??  Haha....

My List!!

Me, myself and I – personal goals:

1. make and finish 101 list
2. put my goals in some kind of order
3. create a mini list of this list and laminate
4. persuade someone else to do a list
5. finish the Bible
6. read the Bible every day for a month (track on youversion.com) - **starting AGAIN with my "T-Group" (accountability group)...as of 1-2-11
7. keep growing hair – only get it trimmed when cut --- OOPS - FAIL - totally cut it in July...trying again as of 1-1-11
8. host a friend Christmas party  - Staff Christmas Party 12-10-10
9. start a Christmas pj tradition - Gma Collard totally got the kiddos and their cousins some matching PJ's! 12-10
10. get Zoe’s ears pierced (eek!)  - her 6th birthday! (updated 10/10 since first try went horribly wrong)
11. blog 2x/week for 4 weeks
12. get a different TLP… other than math - Got Team Lead to go along with it... I'm counting it!
13. get my grandma’s piano -- umm, found out my cousin confiscated it first, so will try in the future...
14. sign Zoe up for piano lessons
15. write a letter to myself, with predictions, to be opened on my 40^th bday
16. learn to play chess
17. take the 202 class at church - NOPE... changed churches so I need to take the first class at CCV!
18. send Christmas cards… real ones… not “green”
19. go to a concert
20. watch 26 movies I’ve never seen, starting with each letter in the alphabet. 
1. Avatar
2. Big Stan (totally lame and didn't finish because)
3. Cats and Dogs 2, Charlie St. Cloud
4. Date Night
5. Grownups
6. How To Train Your Dragon
7. Kung Fu Panda 2
8. Iron Giant
9. Letters to Juliet
10. Megamind
11. New Moon
12. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Theif
13. Remember Me
14. Shutter Island
15. Tooth Fairy, The
16. Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Narnia)
17. When in Rome
18. Yogi Bear
19. Zoo Keeper

Very important but secret (for now) mission:

21. **family aspiration**
22. raise/save money for #18

Do unto others….:

23. volunteer at the food bank
24. adopt a family for Christmas in lieu of more gifts for us
25. do something secretly nice for someone on my birthday
26. call my grandma 2x/month for 3 months
27. throw a surprise party
28. say only positive things to Jonathan for 1 week (yikes! Hee hee)
29. surprise someone with a gift just because

Places to go… People to see….:

30. visit the Tibbett’s in their new location - ITALY!!
31. go to the dunes with Jonathan
32. go on a girls' trip
33. visit Disneyland again --- maybe December!
34. take Jonathan skydiving
35. take a wine tour
36. take the fam to a hockey game
37. take Zoe to a play (Little Mermaid, 3-14-10) & (Alice in Wonderland 4-9-10)
38. have a Red Hat tea
39. have a fancy picnic
40. attend Eclipse midnight showing w/ my girlfriends (stolen from Kim)
41. go camping with the family
42. take an educational road trip with family
43. go to the beach
44. go to an outdoor/drive-in movie
45. see the Nutcracker at Christmas time

Make Martha Stuart proud:

46. try one new recipe per week for 4 weeks
47. make homemade granola
48. figure out how to make Grandma’s noodles
49. make Grandma’s noodles and serve them!
50. make a fancy bday cake for Hayden or Zoe
51. make a dress for Zoe
52. make the stocking from my grandma
53. organize tupperwear cabinet
54. clean/wipe inside kitchen cabinets – 2x
55. make my own cash budget wallet

DIY home projects:

56. hang curtain rods in Zoe’s room for art work
57. put up vinyl saying in kitchen  1-2-10
58. get shelves for Hayden’s room
59. hang shelves in Hayden’s room
60. paint office bathroom
61. clean the fans in my house
62. paint base trim in bedroom
63. get Jonathan to build a shelf for the kitchen
64. put up shelf in kitchen and decorate
65. brick the fireplace
66. organize pantry - better
67. hang pictures in bedroom hallway
68. hang Jonathan’s pictures 11-10
69. get Hayden a new matress
70. get Zoe a new matress
71. purchase rug for Hayden's room
72. fix or buy new vacuum cleaners
73. wash my car 1x/month for 3 months (February....)
74. organize cabinet above coffee maker
75. organize spice cabinet
76. organize kitchen drawers
77. shelf paper in pantry
78. shelf paper in bathroom drawers

Rollin’ in the dough:

79. start college savings funds for both kids
80. use cash envelope system successfully for 1 month (Feb. 2010) 
81. use cash envelope system successfully for 3 months
82. pay off Jonathan’s truck
83. pay off Jonathan's student loan (neva gonna happen....) 
84. make an extra mortgage payment 
    
85. a month of free – spend one month doing only things that are free (with family)
86. double our emergency savings
87. pay off garage door opener
88. save for and purchase new tires for Jonathan
89. pay for Jonathan’s root canal/crown (ugg!)

Make mama sexy:

90. take a Zumba class
91. try the yogilates dvd
92. take vitamins everyday for a month
93. go a week without coffee
94. run in 5k
95. work out at least 3x per week for 4 weeks
96. use teeth whitener
97. do a diabetes walk in honor of my dad and MIL
98. have something that resembles a tan (tan lines!)
99. get a pedicure
100. eat suggested veg/fruit servings every day for a week

101. place holder for the one thing I’m sure I’ve missed

Hayden Needs Sleep

Ok... so I'm trying to get back on the wagon again with a story that I could NOT skip sharing....

Disclaimer:  Since I am not a writer, there is no way that I could actually tell the story so that you experience how funny it was in real life.  As they say, you had to be there.  But, I'll try...

Some background on Hayden and his sleeping issues.  He has night terrors occasionally.  He used to have more when he was younger, but now if he doesn't get enough sleep he will have one... maybe 2 or 3 a year.  If you've never seen one, it's rather odd.... he will shuffle/jog around the house, tell us "they" are looking at him, he can see "their" eyes, cries, tells us he loves us over and over, and even once went out the front door and started walking down the street.  He looks totally awake, but is no where near consciousness.  We usually just put him back to bed because trying to talk to him or wake him up is impossible.  In the morning, he never remembers anything.  Weird!

Last night he spent the night at his friends' house down the street.  We assumed they would stay up late playing video games... what middle school boy wouldn't?  He came home around noon, then took a shower to go appliance shopping with us (ps, we are broke now... but have a kick ass fridge and dishwasher!).

When we first got there, Jonathan offered to give the kids money to get ice cream next door.... but Hayden had fallen asleep in the back seat on the very SHORT drive from Target... which is right across the street.  Sad... no ice cream since he didn't answer.  So, with my nook in Zoe's hands, and Hayden with his ipod, we put them in some chairs and started browsing.  We took about 20-30 minutes from start to finish, and the whole time Zoe played angry birds while Hayden played his ipod... slept.

As I'm signing the paperwork (and Jonathan's off at the other end of the store) Hayden's head pops up with a panicked look on his face - classic night terror/I.am.sleep.deprived look.  He then proceeds to dump a HUGE bowl of candy out onto the checkout counter.  I ask, "What are you looking for Hayden?".... he just keeps dumping.  Then, he brings the bowl over to me, still looking panicked and out of it.  I think to myself, must be some kind of huge bug in there.....  I look.  It's emp.ty.  EMPTY.  Homeboy is freaking out now....  So, I say..."Hayden it's fine.  Go put the bowl back."  He then, still without talking, turns to go behind the checkout counter to show the employees his empty bowl.  I'm starting to fall apart because I'm laughing so hard... at the same time trying to direct him from behind the counter and call Jonathan who is sill across the store.  "JONATHAN!"....  giggle, snort.... and hoping by golly that other people are miraculously missing his behavior.

Then, Hayden speaks: "I feel funny."  Proceeds to give me a hug and starts to cry.  "JONATHAN!"  Hayden then starts walking toward Jonathan and hugs him, crying.  Jonathan is completely confused because he didn't see the whole candy bowl episode - which, is still sitting empty because I'm still holding it.  After signing, I get all the candy back in the bowl, we get our kids out (leaving my coveted Nook - which we did recover later), and get in the car to throw Hayden in bed.

On the way home, we ask Hayden how much sleep he got.... his answer consisted of how many toy bins he needs.  Out.of.it!  Translation: I stayed up all night.  So.... we put him in bed around 2:00pm.... and then tried waking him up every 15 minutes or so since about 4:30 so that he would be tired enough to go to bed.  Around 5:30 I gave up and went swimming with Zoe while Jonathan went and ran errands.  He brought home a Happy Meal for Hayden, who finally got out of bed around 6:30.  When Jonathan tried to give him his cheeseburger, Hayden snapped - "Why would I eat a cheeseburger at 6:30 in the morning!?"

The Piano

In my 101 in 1001 I stated I was going to get my Grandma's piano..... and I did!

So, Zoe and Hayden both love to tinker on it.  Occasionally I'll ask Zoe if she's interested in taking piano lessons.  Every time she answers that she already knows how to play the piano.....  The last time I asked her, I thought I would take a different approach and ask if she wanted to learn how to read music.  Then she could play even better!  She still had a come back... she not only showed me that she could read music, but can write her own as well.... and then play it!

101 in 1001

Disclaimer

Jaime + Blog = FAIL!

Day 24

A picture of something you wish you could change:

I wish people, especially Americans, would realize that so many of the things we are doing are ruining the earth...slowly killing our planet.  I think help in small ways... I'm a stickler at my house for recycling, I use reusable shopping bags when I grocery shop, I freak out about too much water use.... but I'm sure there are so many other ways that I could help.

Day 23

ok... so I'm a little behind on this...

A picture of your favorite book:

Wow... this is a tough one because I have so MANY favorite books.  I read all the time... and rarely watch tv.  I'm pretty consistent with Grey's, but that's about it...

So, here are a few of my favorites in no particular order... (I'm probably copying Kim)...

I just finished this one.  I LOVED it... and hated it!  Seriously... this is a must read.  It's about a society that thinks love - and basically all emotions - are a sickness.  A procedure is required when you turn 18 to "fix" the problem.  However, there are those who resist... the Invalids.  Ahhh!

This is book 1 in a serious.... #2 is The Dead Tossed Waves, and #3 The Dark and Hollow Places  just came out which I have NOT read yet!