Glamour Girl...in Glasses!

Saturday was Julia's eye exam. The eye doctor couldn't make a good determination after the initial testing so she had to dilate her eyes. That burned Julia's eyes at first but she was a champ letting them put in the drops and adjusted well after. The girls were paranoid that this twist in events was going to jeopardize their seeing "Monster's University" with Grandma later, but Julia did well and took a short nap that afternoon so we were able to go that evening. The theater was packed so Jared sat alone, the girls sat with Grandma, and Jeremy and I sat together (although Julia came to sit on my lap at some point and stayed there the rest of the movie).

She looks so grown up. 

Anyway. Back to the eye exam. We learned that Julia is farsighted, the opposite of Jared, who is nearsighted. I'm glad that we've caught this fairly early as Jared was ending second grade before his teacher mentioned that he didn't seem to see the board very well. I had never noticed and felt bad when I realized the poor child was practically blind (seriously at his last eye exam, I could nearly contain my astonishment when he was reading the letters on the chart - and got NONE of them right). I feel like the trouble Julia has been having with learning to read and learning her numbers, and keeping focused, is likely attributed at least in part to this (she had a bit of trouble last week with 12 and 21 while working with Sam - makes sense if she can't see very well). I'm hopeful once she gets her glasses that we'll see more improvement. Speaking of glasses, she picked these out and isn't she the cutest thing ever? We'll get them in a couple of weeks.

Adorable!

To start out, she'll only need to wear them for reading, writing, school work, computer, etc. That will be nice not to have to worry about them when she's playing or swimming. She'll be reevaluated in October and we'll see if she has to move to full-time then.

Side note, before the eye exam I whipped out my first-ever french braid, in just a matter of minutes too. I've tried a time or two with the girls but it never ended well. I may never be able to do it again, but I was rather proud of my braid. :-)

Julia had her last game Tuesday night. I think she had a lot of fun this year but was also ready to be done. Here she is receiving her medal from Coach Feeney:

Turns out that her team played Jake Bohon's team that night (and her friend Ella Seedorf's) and I snapped a quick shot of these two cousins:

Jake and Julia after sharing the field for their last game.

After Julia's game, I finally got Jenna to the batting cages. She's wanted to try them for a while now. It took her a few swings to catch on and warm up, but then she was hitting them fairly consistently. We also watched some of the big kids play for a while, so it was a late night for us (Jeremy working out of town again). The next night Jenna had a make-up game and is done now except for tournament play. I let Jenna do the batting cages again a couple of times before we headed home. It was a pretty hot night but Grandma Bea came to the game which was really sweet. I helped her get her lawn chair to the field and we actually got her a spot under a shade tree that had a pretty good breeze. She stayed the whole game; Grandma and Grandpa were there too. Dad had missed Jenna's game on Monday and I'd gotten the following text from him: 

"Jenna I was mowing and forgot your game...I'm sorry...see your game Wednesday..." I thought that was pretty cute. Dad was always good about pitching to Jenna when she was younger and he really is a great fan of hers. He is signing her up for a theater camp in July at Maples Repertory Theater in Macon that he thought would be a good confidence-builder. 

Yesterday we found out that we had a small leak in the gas water heater and that it wasn't venting properly. Jeremy kept saying he smelled something when someone was in a hot shower so we called the gas company to check it out. Luckily they were pretty easy fixes; since our new water heater is taller than our old one, one of the venting pipes was parallel instead of slanting upwards. Jeremy got that taken care of yesterday, and thankfully the man who came to check it out said it wasn't significant enough of a carbon monoxide leak to have affected us in the house. 

Today Jared is going swimming with his friend Ian and spending the night with him. Our weekend is shaping up rather nicely as AUNT TIFFY AND DD will be here tomorrow! The kids are SO excited, and they don't know that DD is getting to come after all, as at first he was going to have to work. I've almost slipped up a time or two but luckily so far I've kept the secret. Last night Jeremy asked, with all the kids in the room, when Tiffy would get here and I said "They're leaving Saturday morning as far as I know." He cabbaged on to that right away. "They?" So I just blew it off with a wave of my hand and shake of my head and said, "She." No one seemed to think much of it as we're used to referring to Tiffy and DD as a unit. Then I put on Jenna and Jared's chore list for today to "get rooms ready for company." Jared said "Why do I have to get my room ready?" Forgetting that he didn't know DD would be in there next week I just said, "Well you know, Aunt Tiffy's coming and I want the house to be neat." He didn't seem to think much of that either so I'm good so far. I just need to get through one more day. 

Next week will be full of swimming, BBQs, movies, a salon day for me and Mom and Tiff, 4th of July celebrating, plus a couple of doctor appointments thrown in there, and Julia will make sure Aunt Tiffy paints her and Jenna's nails per tradition. I have the whole week off - Yay! Plus, I finally ordered a new computer to replace our 10-year-old beast that has an archaic floppy disk drive. It's completely wearing down to the point that out of desperation I uninstalled everything I thought I didn't need in an effort to make more space. I inadvertently uninstalled my Microsoft Office, and I use excel to track the business income and expenses. I thought, no big deal, I'll just re-install from my disk - but the CD drive won't even open. I thought I had lost my entire spreadsheet with half a year's work on it, but luckily, even though I couldn't open it at home, I could email it to myself at work and open it there (Hallelujah!). So with a little guidance from Tiffy's friend Mike, my new system should arrive next week. I also ordered a device that is supposed to transfer video from my old video camera to the computer where I can burn them onto DVD. I hope that works as expected so we can preserve all those videos we took of the kids when they were babies, something I've wanted to do for a long time but didn't have the technology for (yay for getting a PC with an actual DVD/CD  burner!)

Finishing up with a pic of Jeremy using the new grill for the first time - we had delicious hamburgers and sliced potatoes! 

The last few weeks in pictures...

Jenna helping Julia learn how to ride without training wheels -
she's such a good and faithful big sister!

She's doing it! 

I hope these two are always as close as they are now. 

An impromptu "picnic" after a day of cleaning out the garage and riding bikes. 

Before their dance recital.

Julia on stage!

She did a great job!

Jenna's dance required a bit of attitude; this is her "you want a piece of me?" look. 

So beautiful. 

I asked Julia to read to me one evening on the porch and this is how she made herself comfortable.

As long as she's reading, I don't care how she is sitting! (Or lounging).

Jenna is patiently waiting her turn ;-)

Shooting at the Farm. 

After one of Jenna's games. I think Grandma has her wallet out because Julia hit her up for a snack. 

There's my fierce girl (and her long-legged shadow). 

Gramps and Gigi after a game. 

"Warm like fire..."

Sunday was Father's Day, so we incorporated lots of little festivities just for fun. The girls baked cupcakes Friday with Sam and we decorated them that night. 

(Leaving two plain, for Jared).

 Jeremy got home from working in Paris Friday night also, and I decided to go ahead and give him the grill so he would have time to put it together over the weekend. The girls and I made up a scavenger hunt for him. His first clue read, "This is where your two little princesses rest their pretty heads." On their pillows, he found a scrub brush and another clue that read, "This is the bedroom of the boy who made you a father." On Jared's pillow, he found tongs and a clue that read, "You'll find this by the treats your girls baked you for Father's Day," and in the kitchen he found a spatula and the last clue, which directed him to the garage, where alas he found the grill.

Heart's crown drawn by Jenna; "Baby Jared" (aka Boo Boo) drawn by Julia. 

My picture of him with the girls and the grill box didn't turn out,
so I will get one of them with it all together.
Jeremy was pretty happy with his gift :-)

 Just a snapshot from the weekend: Jenna has now started reading Harry Potter! She's on the first book and she's hooked; I love to see the kids read!

 Saturday, in addition to Jared's haircut (which he continues to hate just as much as he did when he was little) and guitar lessons, the girls and I baked Grandpa his favorite cookies (Peanut Butter) and also made a batch of chocolate chip to share with him and with Gene. The girls have been baking quite a bit with Sam and I can tell Julia is getting better with measuring and with her attention span.

She helped me measure, and added & mixed
all the ingredients herself.

Jenna is very meticulous to line up all the cookies precisely
on the cookie sheet. We worked on our multiplication facts
in relation to our cookies as we went. 

 Sunday, we met Gigi and Gramps for Father's Day lunch. It started out as a fiasco, but ended well. We first went to Wooden Nickel, stood at the door for 15-20 minutes, and then left. Even though there were empty tables everywhere and they weren't particularly busy, we were told they couldn't seat us yet because they didn't have enough servers. I think we would have been okay to wait if we'd been at least allowed to sit down, but they didn't go for that. We then went to Ruby Tuesday and the line was out the door. We were going to wait the half hour predicted for a table, but then got tired of it so we left again (not before KTVO interviewed Jared about what Father's Day means to him, which I didn't catch on the news that night. I don't think Jared knew quite what to say beyond it being a special day to spend time with his dad and grandpa). So off we went to La Fuente. There we were seated and served immediately, despite being a full house. Lunch and service was good, not to mention less expensive than either of the other two choices. Lesson learned. We gave dad his cookies and his gifts from Aunt Tiffy and Aunt Missy that they had sent to me, and then I had to go grocery shopping while the others took a bag of cookies to Gene.

Jenna's almost as tall as Gigi; Jared as tall as Gramps!
(Jared is just a hair shy of 6 feet. He's TWELVE.)

Monday, the kids, mom, and I headed to Columbia for appointments. Mom's appointment with Dr. Schermer went very well, and I feel infinitely better about him handling her care from here on out. This means we are starting back at square one, and she could need surgery again. I wish we could have started out with him, but at least we are there now. We take her back for some testing July 3, and Tiffy will be here then to go with us. We had lunch then at the Mall and did some browsing before finishing the day at Jared and Jenna's Orthodontist appointments. For some reason, we didn't bring Jenna's retainer, but they were okay as long as I brought her back in 3 months instead of the usual 4. This works out better as her next appointment will now align with one of Jared's 6-week appointments. It took us over an hour to get out of Columbia due to me going the wrong way to get to Baskin Robbins, stopping at DQ to get Julia a cheeseburger, and stopping at Taco Bell to get all of them churros. Naturally Julia had to use the restroom at 31 Flavors and Taco Bell. I think she just likes checking out the bathrooms at public places, (which I remember being accused of myself as a kid). Julia let the other two split her churro because she discovered she "only likes the ones in Florida". (Aunt Tiffy got her one when we were at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure a year and a half ago, that was so good, she still remembers it - maybe more than other things on the trip!)

Jared mostly avoids my camera now, but I got him
laughing at the Mall :-)

So this brings us to last night. Jenna had a game and just as we were leaving a big storm cloud with quite a bit of rain came through. But as quickly as it came, it went on by, and they were able to play. It actually turned out to be a pretty nice evening. After dropping her off to warm up with her team, Julia and I circled back to pick up Grandma, and Jeremy and dad joined us when the game started. Grandma sat in her lawn chair and sewed Jenna's stuffed animal (Lady) that needed stitching, along with a couple of the girls' new slipper socks that needed stitching right out of the bag. The girls won their game, and Jenna had a great night. She played first base the whole game and made five outs. She was also the lead hitter and hit all three times she was at bat, and made it home each time. She was "warm like fire!" {referencing a Julia-ism that I'll explain below ;-)} It was a good night for me to have brought my camera. I have even more pics to add later, but here are some I got edited last night. I thought Jenna's last game would be next week, but I found out that they will play in a tournament (so Aunt Tiffy might be here for a game!). After the game, Coach McLain told me, "I've found my first baseman for tournament play." :-) 

Rounding home and heading to the dugout!
Hi Grandma and Grandpa and Dad!

Here comes another out :)

We had another beautiful sunset at the ballpark. 

Jeremy headed back to Paris this morning (he worked there Monday but they sent them home that night as they were working on something different on Tuesday - which allowed him to see Jenna's game last night). When he told me goodbye, Julia was sleeping with her back to mine; we were facing away from each other, but our top arms were linked. (She's coming into our room fairly often at night, and she's even asking to be rocked before bedtime - which I do despite it taking a toll on my back when I pack her to bed. Someday she won't ask me anymore, so I snuggle her while I can; Jenna still likes to sit on me in the recliner, too.) Julia is thrilled that she has negotiated a sleepover with Grandma tomorrow night for herself and Jenna, so I was able to give Sam the day off on Friday; added to my day off Monday for appointments, I just have to pay 3 days childcare this week, which is nice (for me, maybe not as much for Sam). Friday night, Julia has a game. Saturday she has an eye exam (the school sent me home a note at the end of the year that their screenings indicated she needed tested; that her acuity seemed to be OK, but her eyes might not be working together well - so we'll see how that goes). Jared has guitar lessons again, and I hope to work on some photo thank you's for the girls' coaches, as I've been trying to get pictures of their own kids' playing, and of them in coaching-action. Another thing, I spent a good chunk of time yesterday trying to coordinate appointments for everyone and planning my schedule to allow for them - we have Ortho. appointments in August and September; Jared is seeing Dr. Cleaver July 5; all three kids' wellness exams in August; plus Jared's eye exam in August. Not to mention Jeremy is getting his B12 shots every Saturday for 2 more weeks and then will get it monthly for 5 months. Oh and Grandma's next appointment in July, which will result in more appointments, I'm sure. I also have swimming lessons on the horizon to schedule, VBS, and possibly gymnastics for the girls. Oh and Jenna has been hounding me to get a body wave in her hair. She loves for me to braid it in tiny braids when it's wet, sleep in it, and have wavy hair the next day. That's a little time-consuming, and since she asks so often, I suggested the body wave a while ago. She's been waiting for her hair to grow out long enough to do it. We were going to do it in July, but Ashley said it wouldn't be good to swim a lot afterwards, so I scheduled it August 3 (along with back-to-school haircuts for the other two, while I was at it). She may still swim some between then and school starting, but we should start winding down then, and swimming lessons will be over too. It's a little risky getting a perm, and being her first, you never know how it will turn out and hold. Hopefully it will turn out like she's expecting. So the calendar is filling up quickly and before we know it, they will be back in school. Jenna is so excited to get her hair done she is nearly wishing summer away!

Over the weekend I was able to do some photo editing, so here are some I took at one of Julia's games: 

The gang heading to the field with Coach Feeney. 

Twirling our hair in the outfield ;-)

Look at that serious little face. 

Here Julia is having a conversation with...perhaps the grass? I'm not sure.
But she's so adorable. 

Now she gets into the game! 

Good job, Julia!!

Jewels and Sophia

Yet another pretty sunset, gets me every time.
(Julia is right in the middle).

 Here's a couple of pics I took at a little "photo shoot" we had for Jenna before one of her KV games (except the first pic was taken at the game in Schuyler).
  

She loved coming up with "poses" for me
that would look realistic to a game ;-) 

Million Dollar Smile.

I'll end with a quote from Julia last week. She was asking me to sit and snuggle with her. I can't remember what I was doing, but I asked if Jenna could for a little bit while I finished something up. Her response:

"No, you're warmer, because you've had three kids. Jenna's had zero kids. You're warm like fire. Jenna's warm like a microwave."