NBA here he comes!

Russ and I are always shocked when we watch William play ball. He has always been skilled for his age, but he just keeps getting better and better. If we say "awesome" after he makes a shot he tries not to smile, but just can't help it. He is just too pleased with himself. He makes more than he misses.

I miss my friends.

That is pretty much it. Don't get me wrong, I love it here and I keep myself pretty busy. But every now and then I stop and wish I had a friend close by. Not that there are not people here, I have met some nice people, but to be honest it would take the whole time I am here to build the kind of relationships that I have with my friends, and family. I miss you guys.

Russ just came in and started reading this and said, "I'm a friend." It's true, too bad I can't spend more time with him.

Devil child + stupid mom = angry Debbie

Oh, I am so mad.
I just got back from the Library with William and there was this girl there who is at least a year older than William. I noticed she was kinda weird, like she would talk funny and ignore everything her mom said. I saw her go over to William and put a spoon over one of his eyes. He smiled at first, but he tried to move and she wouldn't let him and he started crying. Even still she was persistent on keeping the spoon on his eye, and she started mimicking his cry. I try not to make a big deal about stuff like this because I don't want him to cry every time a kid touches him. So I went and got him and tried to get him to calm down. The little girl's mom came and said, in an unbelievably calm voice, "we can't do that", or something stupid like that. Then later while he was playing some more she came up to him and shoved a toy spatula on his eye. He started crying again and I picked him up and took him to play with the puzzle and her mom came and got her and got up and left. "Yes!", I thought, "now he can play in peace." A little while later I saw another mom that was there try to warn me (in Spanish) that the devil girl was running back, full speed towards William. Lucky for her, she went to the toys instead. He came over to sit on my lap and I was prepared to make sure she didn't touch him again, because I was quite sure that she enjoyed making him cry. So Russ calls me and I am on the phone and she comes over and grabs his hand and I have to sick my fingers underneath her to get her to let go. She does this a couple of times and then tries to grab his shirt. Then she starts yelling in William's face, "the rinosaurus was ANGRY!" While she gritted her teeth. Scary huh? Keep in mind that her mom is sitting 2 yards away chatting with a friend. She would put her face right up on William's and he smiled and said kiss, even though she was not giving him a kiss. She did this a couple of times and the next thing I know she has her claws in his eye! I pushed her back and said in a rather loud voice for the library, "Hey!, No!" Her mom then came over and got her and I hung up with Russ and tried to comfort William. When "Mom of the Year" saw the claw marks on William's face she said, "oh are those scratches? Lordy May, I need to cut her finger nails."
Can you believe that?! What I wish I would have said is, 'Some discipline probably would't hurt either.' We ended up leaving, because William said, "go" in a very sad voice after that.
Now I am the most non-confrontational person since I didn't say anything, but I plan on working on it and being able to tell people what they need to hear. That mom needs to be sent to Dr. Phil or something so that he can tell her, "you are bigger than your daughter and you are responsible for teaching her how to act." Sorry for writing so much, but people like that really make me mad.

I got a job!

I almost forgot to write that I got a job at Michaels teaching scrapbooking. If you know me, you know that I am unbelievably excited to be able to have a job doing something I love. It can be a little overwhemlming, but I think that is just because this is the begining and I have a lot of display stuff to make and classes to come up with. Not to mention trying to get people to come to the classes. But it is really nice because I choose when the classes are (once a week, at night when Russ is home) and come in to work on my stuff whenever is convenient for me. It doesn't pay great unless people come to the class, but right now anything will help. So that is that! I love my new job, at least right now.

BOOTS!

William got a new pair of Buzz Lightyear (he does not know who that is, by the way) snow boots. We are just preparing early for the snow. Anyway he loves them. He asks to wear them, but will take them off if we need to go somewhere. The funniest thing is to see him walk in them. He lifts his feet really high and then stomps them down really hard.

William sleeping

Every night and nap William sleeps with Elmo and a little baby(not a doll). The baby is under Elmo.

Up on Mt. Elden

On Sunday we drove up Mt. Elden and made it for the sunset. We had a picnic and William loved jumping off the rocks. One time he was stepping over a stick and I heard him say, "hee-mee sick" which of course means "excuse me, stick. "



















It was pretty cold up there. I was okay except my nose and my hands. Look at his little red nose.

These are pretty sunset pictures.

Stormy weather

The other morning I woke up and this is what I saw outside when usually...

















I see this.




















It also hailed twice that day. Lluckily Russ' friend gave him a ride home from school.

Losing his britches

Here is William in his new chair. I was organizing all the baby stuff and had this sitting on the floor and he quickly came over to have a seat.
















The other day William was playing in the other room. When he came into the office where I was and sat in the chair I notices some "crack" showing. When he got up his pants would not stay up at all.

More of Weekend Fun

Connie, Alexis, and Russ all mooned the Grand Canyon. Let's just say that there was more than one canyon there that day.

Our trip to Dippin' Dots. Yummmm.

The Grand Canyon

On Sunday we all went to the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful, but it is something that you just can't get from pictures, even though the pics are awesome.

William just kept saying 'ooh mountian"and by the end of the trip and the next couple of days he would say, 'mountain...fall...owie." Thats how we kept him from the edge, or even fifty feet from the edge.
I love this picture of my boys.

Look at how nervous Connie and Alexis are. They are holding on to eachother for dear life.

Check out these awesome sunset pictures.


Oh man, these are awesomely romantic!

Weekend of Fun! - Playing at the Park

My sister, Connie and our friend Alexis came to spend Labor Day Weekend with us. Man, did William love having those girls around. They play with him and love on him all he wants. This is when we went to the park. It was a lot of fun.



















Whose having more fun here?

















Russ, I don't think that's how you do it.



















This is William's favorite toy at the park.

More of Connie's birthday

Here we are breaking the pinata. Connie hit it first and then our friend Brad got a turn, only he wanted to use his fist. He punched the top right off and it fell to the ground. Then our phantom friend Peter pitched it to Connie and we all got the candy. It was load of fun.

First Day of School

Here is Russ on his first day of P.T. school. Things are going great. It is a little overwhelming and a lot of reading but luckily it is all pretty familiar and interesting to him. His schedule is not that bad so I am happy, but the bike ride here is pretty challenging, especialy when you've been living in the flat Valley. But that should get easier. Last night (Thursday) we had a BBQ with all of his class and the 2nd year students. It was fun. There were a lot of poeple with kids and a lot of people with dogs, so William had a blast. There was a girl who had 2 dogs and the hair of one of the dogs was the same as William's. He loved that dog, by far, the most. He cried when he left. There were other dogs, like a cute beagle puppy and ginormous great dane puppy, but that one was his favorite. The great dane puppy was taller than William by a few inches so he might have been a tad bit intimidated.
Russ here: I just wanted to add my two cents. It is great here, except when I have to ride my bike. I love being so close to the mountains and forest. It really is beautiful. School is great and exciting. Yes it is overwhelming but it's all stuff that I like learning about. My teachers are great and very knowlegeable. I look forward to the next three years.
I just wanted to point out a couple of things in the above picture. It's pretty horrible but my varicose veins are getting pretty bad and are quite visible there on my right leg. Also I just wanted to point out my awesome Jack Bauer bag. It holds all of cool goodies just like the things that Jack Bauer would need in his day, like pencils, pens, highlighters, 3-ring binder, and physical therapy textbooks.
I gotta get going because there is mucho studying to do. Peace out.

Someone LOVES ketchup (pronounced: ch - chuch)