Jarren

Jarren....where do I start with my sweet little guy? Jarren has had a very tough year. Things weren't too bad in Kindergarten, but then he started 1st grade. He went from going to school in the afternoons, so going all day long and it was hard!! He is often in "Jarrenland" instead of focusing on his work. After working with the teacher a lot and spending a lot of time on homework each day, we still weren't seeing a lot of improvement. He also started falling behind in reading and a little in math. He has a speech problem and the school speech person wasn't wanting to work with him. So...back in January, I took him to the pediatrician, hoping that if we got him officially diagnosed, that by law they would have to help him with his speech. I turned in all the forms and still things weren't happening. So I called the school district to ask about having him tested and they called the school and the school immediately called me. We went through weeks of testing with him and filled out forms and everything. Finally....we got some help and some answers. Jarren is smart, even though he feels like he's not. His IQ is just fine. But...he has a slow processing time. He gets information and it takes him longer than normal to process what he's supposed to do with that information. He was also diagnosed with having ADD (attention deficit disorder). He's not always hyperactive though--at least he never is at school, but is more at home. He just cannot stay focused. After a lot of thought and prayer, we decided to try medicating him to see if it can help him so he feels better about himself and about learning. My heart breaks for my little guy. He is so fun and so sweet, but I hate seeing him go through this. And I also blame myself--maybe if I did this or didn't do that, then he wouldn't have to deal with this.

Kristen's Science Fair

Back in December, when Kendall was working on his science fair project, Kristen decided that she wanted to do hers. So she started working on it, even though we had no information about it. Come to find out, it was OPTIONAL, but she wanted to do one anyway. She got extra credit for doing it and took 2nd place AND went on to the district level. The district fair was yesterday and I have NO idea how she did. She wasn't going to go because the set up time was the exact same time as her mandatory dance class and the judging and awards were the exact same time as our church's mother/daughter dinner and activity. But we worked it out so that I set it up for her and then got an early judging time. But...we missed the awards.She decided to plant 4 flower seeds (zinnias) and watered them with 4 different liquids to see which seeds would sprout and grow. She used water, lemonade, sprite, and orange juice. The lemonade sprouted a few days before the water, but never grew past the sprout. The water one grew really tall. The sprite never sprouted and the orange juice just turned the soil to mold--no sprouts either. She found out that liquids with sugar in them don't allow the plant to use the nutrients it needs to grow, so water really is the best thing. She had a lot of fun doing it and it was a great experience for her.

San Diego *Part III*

The last full day in San Diego was spent in Legoland, but...my family took Jenna with them to the zoo. Jarren was in HEAVEN!!!! I bet there were millions of Legos in that park! It was misting/drizzling most of the morning, but cleared up in the afternoon--but it was still cool. We had to rush through some parts, because there just wasn't enough time for Jarren to soak everything in. We all had a lot of fun!There were these cool little cars that kids 6-13 could actually drive! It was fun to watch the serious concentration the kids had on their faces.
This elephant is actually made out of Legos!

So are these dinosaurs!Jarren wanted to go on this boat ride where you shoot water out at the crowd and they shoot water at you. It was cool and breezy enough that Kristen and I didn't want to get wet, but Jarren sure did!There was a fun play area with a lot of water things for the kids to do.Jarren didn't get too wet--the water went out around him, but jumping in and out of it was tricky. When you jumped on the yellow circle, the water would turn on. When you jumped on it again, it would turn off.Jarren got to pan for gold!!! He found quite a bit of gold and crystals and then he had to turn them in and got a fake gold medallion. He loved it!The mini Lego towns were soooooooo much fun!! Kristen wandered all over, but Jarren was pretty much glued to the Treasure Island pirate ships cannonballing each other (Las Vegas area).Jenna and her lion from the zoo. That girl LOVES animals!!!

San Diego *Part II*

We all decided to go to Sea World for a day. It was foggy/cloudy and cool when we got there and we immediately went on the Atlantis ride and got soaking wet!! It took forever to dry off because there was no sun for quite awhile. It was fun looking at all the big sea animals and seeing some of the shows. After lunch, we decided to go to the Arctic Exhibit and see the penguins, polar bears, beluga whales, etc. They have a flight simulator there and Jenna and my niece weren't tall enough, so my parents and brother and sister took Jarren and I took the girls straight to the exhibit. My other brother and his family met up with those guys in the exhibit later. After we went through, we came up into the gift shop and Jenna was showing me all of the animals she wanted (stuffed, of course), when all of the sudden, things started shaking--I felt like I was bouncing (not jumping) on a trampoline. My first thought was that the flight ride was making things shake, but then I quickly realized that I hadn't felt that at all before. Kristen started asking what was going on and I told her I thought it was an earthquake. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. The workers started yelling, "Earthquake!!" and shooing everyone out the door and into the park. I was frantically trying to remember what to do in an earthquake--get under a table? Get in a doorway? The funny thing is, when we got to the hotel on Friday and got into the elevator, I noticed that they didn't have information on what to do in an earthquake like they do in San Jose. I had earthquakes on my mind and then one happened. I was just trying to think of how to keep calm and keep everyone safe and wondering where the rest of the family was--especially Jarren. Kristen was screaming, "PRAY!! PRAY!!" She was crying and was really worried about a tsunami. Later, my mom told her that if an earthquake happened on land, it would probably send the tsunami out to sea. But...at that point, we didn't know if it happened in the ocean or on land. Anyway...the rest of our group was told to exit out the emergency exits quickly. Everyone was standing around in the middle of the park wondering what was going on--there was a lot of talking and everyone was on their cell phones. I was scared because I had no idea if it was a smaller one before a big one hit and where the epicenter was. We found out it was about 140 miles southeast of where we were. We were all safe and we did feel quite a few aftershocks over the next few days. Crazy!!

San Diego *Part I*

San Diego....Here's the background on the trip. Kendall and Jon have been going on bird trips for the last couple of years. To make it fair, I would usually take Kristen and either Jarren OR Jenna and we would go visit my sister in Northern California. But...she moved back in December 2008. Jon and Kendall are going to North Carolina on a trip next month, so the plan was for one of us to take Kristen and Jarren to San Diego, since we asked them where they wanted to go and Jarren said Legoland and Kristen said Sea World--we just didn't know when we were going to go. One day, my mom told me that they were able to get their time share in San Diego over spring break, so we decided to go then and take Jenna along, since I would have a little help. They (my parents, youngest brother and sister, and another brother and his wife and daughter) decided to drive and I didn't want to do that with 3 kids by myself, so we used some sky miles and flew. We both left on Friday, but we got there 2 hours later and they got there the next day. :) Another complication was that our school district had spring break from April 1-5 and they had spring break from April 5-9. We overlapped the weekend and Monday and Tuesday, but then I had to get the kids back to school.I took the kids to Moonlight Beach State Park on Saturday while we waited for everyone to get there. It had bathrooms, snack shop, a fun playground, and lots and lots of soft sand. We were there for about 5 hours. I am such a good mom--NOT! I read that most Americans are low in vitamin D and the best way to get that is sunlight--without sunscreen. So...I thought I'd let the kids run around on the beach without sunscreen for 15 minutes, but when I put it on, Jarren and Kristen were kind of wet from wading the ocean and so it didn't go on very well and they burned on their arms and legs. Then I didn't want to get too close to their eyes, so Jarren especially burned right around his eyes--he looked like a raccoon!! You could see every spot I missed--weird little spots on their backs or shoulders. Jarren played in the surf for about 2 hours straight!! We girls were a little more wimpy--it was pretty cold! You can kind of see the burn around his eyes--poor boy!

Easter--Coloring Eggs

I was a little worried about this Easter because Kristen, Jarren, Jenna, and I were going to be in San Diego, CA for spring break. So...the Easter Bunny wrote the kids a note and told them to color their eggs on April Fools Day and then he would hide the eggs on Friday morning, before we flew out. They were soooo excited! And it all worked out great! Jenna wanted to color more, so Kendall went and got an egg out of the fridge for her. He didn't realize that they were all hard-boiled, so we had to go through them all to find the one that wasn't.

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