The Importance of Being Gina

One of my first blog posts I wrote was about my name. So my family's always called me by my middle name, Rochelle but since elementary school I've been Gina everywhere else. To confuse matters more I took the name to college met my husband and went from Rochelle Cannon to Gina Steed. I've been Gina Steed for quite some time now and many people know me by no other name. With each move and transition in my life I consider how I might fix the problem, change the name with a fresh crowd. When we moved to Texas the only people we knew were my SIL's family and being a family connection they knew me by Rochelle and introduced me at Jamie's work as Rochelle. So when the ward showed up to help us unpack we decided on a whim to introduce me as Rochelle. Oddly enough there's another Rachelle in the ward and she's got quintuplets so everyone knows her and her kids are my kids ages (by the way there's also another 5-yr-old Weston and a couple Jamesons in the ward but no Emmas- weird huh?). Then our records arrive at church and they ask me to say the prayer in sacrament and they put me in the program as Gina, the name on my records. Then the ward's like, "who are you?" and I'm like "I don't know!" And I try to send e-mails to Texas people through my gina account and I sign papers Gina but tell people I'm Rochelle (because all legal stuff and bank accounts are under Gina). I'm living a lie! It's like I'm in the witness protection program but I'm really lousy at covering my bases. So I guess it's time to pack up and move to another state (just kidding Angie).

Fun Fourth with Family

We weren't ready for the 23- hour drive up to the Cannon Ranch for all the family festivities I love so we took a shorter drive to Jesse's to enjoy there company, good food and our own rodeo/olympics. Thanks for hosting the holiday guys!

Went to the park for their ward breakfast and slip n' sliding. I like the pic of Jamie bowling with Andrew. Go see Jesse and Deborah's blog for Jesse's video of the fun activities (they're way cooler than me).

And it was nice to see fireworks which we wouldn't have got back in Austin with the burn ban still in place.

More Summer Fun

Weston is in the "why?" stage. He wonders about things and asks a lot of questions. I've got some questions:

Why is Weston on the floor in his closet pumping air into his forehead?

Why does my husband find me an equal to pizza?

Why is Ender's whisper louder than a yell?

Why is my best eater my youngest child?

Why is my thumb doing this(It's swollen and red at the joint and it hurts and I can't bend it but I didn't do anything to it)?

Why does Weston scream like a girl?

Why does Andrew always put his pants on backwards and his sandals on the wrong feet?

Why is my seven-year-old an insomniac?

Why does Emma cough all the time?

......3 Dr. visits, 2 chest x-rays, 1 TB test, 1 RAST test, 2 allergy medications, 12 breathing treatments, 2 rounds of antibiotics, 1 nebulizer, 1 inhaler, and several doses of Tylenol Flu later and I still don't have the answer to those questions. But at least her pneumonia and acute bronchitis are gone, for now. Poor girl but she's a trooper!

Summer Fun

Oh what do we do in the summertime?

When we moved here Emma had to be home a couple days before starting at her new school. She was getting tired of brothers and the loss of school routine and anxious to jump back in. I started worrying about how summer would be and feeling motivated to raise my game. I'm usually content just being home covering the basic cleaning, shopping and cooking duties but I knew we needed more fun and learning time to keep the fights to a minimum.

So I mentioned a couple posts ago that I had some scrap wood. In the collection I have this long laminate board. Such a useful piece of wood it has proven to be. Makes a great slide and car ramp and marble ramp

This was my saving grace to get the kids out of the way to make dinner one night. Entertained them for an hour.

Also great as a hard backing for extra big coloring pages. Thanks for the fun pages Jeff and Steph, another dinner prep saver.

Emma is a serious artist

Sometimes you just gotta get down in your work.

We also propped the board between two chairs for a great craft table for Emma's preschool. Emma has been filling in her need for school structure and schedule by teaching Andrew preschool. She brings him up to the playroom and has him sing songs and recite the pledge and do crafts. And the amazing part is, he totally obeys her. What a great match they are, she loves to be in charge and he loves to follow. I will miss that girl when she goes back to school and I've giggled as I listened to her teacher mannerisms. Oh my lil mini-me.

More preschool projects

Many complex tracks have been built over the weeks

Lots of reading. Signed up for the summer reading program over at the library and taking advantage of their shows and prizes.

And sometimes we just unhook the brain and veg out in front of a movie. We also like going to the library and $1 movies. One of my favorite things is checking out audio books to listen to in the car together and then going to the movie when we finish the book.

The boys took a swim class together. A little early and cold for Weston's liking. He looks like he's swallowed an entire person except the foot

Andrew spent the first week of class on this step.

But I think they had fun. Emma's taking her turn now and is upset that her mean teacher makes her put her face in the water.

Second week Andrew is happily in the water

I also love taking the kids to play in the splash pads so they can have fun and get wet without me stressing about drowning children

Bats and Pizza...

...not to be confused with bats on pizza, that would be awful.

Nate and Angie (my bro and SIL) were feeling saintly so they volunteered to babysit the kids so we could go out. We decided to go check out the largest urban bat colony as they take their night flight from Congress bridge downtown.

Yikes, look at that neck, I'm a giraffe. That's where I get most my height. And I think Jamie used to have a neck.

Waiting...

Me, the bat bridge and downtown Austin. Like how I'm sporting UT orange? This place is starting to tap my subconscious. See all those people gathering on the bridge? Mass suicide...

And they're off (the bats, sicko!)

Then we crossed the bridge to go eat at a pizza joint. Only turns out the pizza joint wasn't on that side of the bridge. Our first clue was when the street ended. No matter, we got in some good walking and got to see some of downtown. And it was a good thing we got that exercise because that was some serious pizza, seriously good and heavy. Home Slice, very much a college town joint and we were looking old and boring and overly modest, but good New York style pizza.

I like it when Jamie stands next to really big things. It makes him look a bit smaller. He could use that.

p.s. this post was co-written by Jamie and Gina (in other words, Gina wrote the post then boogerboy stole the laptop and made me look mean). But maybe you can make a game of it and see how well you know us by guessing who wrote what parts.

Witte Museum

Our closest temple is in San Antonio, almost two hours away. So without grandparents in town and unwilling to pay for an eight hour babysitter we opted to take the kids for a day trip and tag-team sessions. I found a Groupon for the Witte musuem so Jamie and I took turns doing sessions at the temple and playing with the kids.

The museum had a special amazon exhibit we had passes to. They brought in this live boa for the kids to touch. I don't like snakes but my kids were all over that thing.

The sloth was cool though.

Emma riding the skybike at the science treehouse

Being so high up made her a little nervous.

It was a pretty cool museum and the area is really pretty. I like San Antonio!

And now for something completely different-

These are a couple cards Emma made for Father's Day. I love her cards, they make me smile. I also love the Dads, they make me smile!

Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without

A couple weeks ago my mom was asking how we were settling into the new house. Then she asked what projects I'd been working on...uh, I unpacked the boxes. So mom, I did some projects. Be proud of me :o)

I had some scrap wood I acquired (never you mind how, all you need to know is that it was legal) so I built a much desired shelf for our shoes to fulfill Jamie's dream of a shoeless house. I was pretty pleased with myself even if one of the boards turned out to be shorter than the others and I had to improvise a shortcut. Weston was so happy to have his own shelf row that he has been extremely diligent about putting his shoes up. Don't worry I'm not so silly to believe I will make my own bookshelves for my empty living room. I'm perfectly aware my skills won't hold up past the weight of shoes.

Hung some hooks up in the same closet for hats and jackets and scripture bags. And it should please you mother to see those 72 hour kits back there. Just don't ask me how my food storage is coming yet.

Hung a bow organizer in my bathroom for Emma and stashed supplies in a basket in lieu of the medicine cabinet. See my cool metal jewelry man Rich made me?

"Remember" this table mom?

I found this beauty on the curb and Jamie groaned when I threw it on the moving van. But...

...a little dusting, plywood and paint and it's as good as new. I used the extra paint to paint our old end table my mom handed down many years ago. And those blankets and pillows are strategically placed to cover holes in the couch cover which is placed to cover our old hand-me-down couch. And I've gotten good use out of the sewing machine you gave me mom as I mend and modestfy clothes and bedding. Thanks for passing on that resourceful gene it may make my poor husband groan but it has saved us many a dollar over the years.