What We've Been Up To

*Bryan was lucky enough to be off for Memorial Day, so he grilled some burgers for dinner. It was the best burger I have ever eaten!! It was perfectly seasoned and cooked, then topped with blue cheese, caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, bacon, and homemade barbecue sauce. Sarah just wanted bacon and colby-jack cheese on hers, (she thought about trying the blue cheese, but then smelled it and immediately changed her mind!), and she said it was so good, it could be served in a restaurant for $100!! Jackson didn't have any of the cheeseburgers, but he did enjoy some plain pasta from the pasta salad and a big scoop of banana pudding!

*Jackson has really come around to drinking milk over the last several days. It's still not his favorite you can tell, but he'll drink the majority of his cup now. After 11 months, I nursed him for the last time on Saturday night. I was worried how he would react, but he's been doing great without it! And he's slept through the night for the past 5 nights! That's the first stretch of days in a row I've slept through the night since the last trimester of my pregnancy with him. It's weird and wonderful all at the same time!! : )

*Sarah competed in a Spelling Bee this morning at school with about 30 other second grade students. For a little over a week now, we've practiced from a list of 299 words that was sent home. The classes had mock spelling bees last week, and the top 5 students from each class went on to the real one. After 3 rounds, the teachers decided to switch to harder words that the kids had not prepared for--because they were not told to. After attempting to spell words such as "sprinkled" and "enormous," the students started dropping like flies. It was so sad, and in my opinion, unfair. When the words were called, the few parents who were there would just look at each other in disbelief, and when the kids spelled the new words incorrectly, most of them sat down crying. Sarah got knocked out after an hour and 20 minutes on the 2nd round of the hard words--she spelled "curious" without the "u." She was so disappointed. After I gave her lots of hugs and talked to her, she was better. We are SO proud of her!! While at the spelling bee, Jackson behaved really well! He even participated and clapped--sometimes after a student was eliminated after working so hard and sometimes in the middle of a word being spelled!

*The other night after tucking both kids in bed, Bryan and I played on the XBOX and had so much fun! We began with bowling. About half way through the game, I was winning by 29 points. Then, by the end, I lost by double that. I am still convinced he cheated somehow! Next, we moved on to various track and field events. I actually set the world record in one event...until it was Bryan's turn to go again! And although he threw a javelin so far out of range that it hit one of the bystanders, he still ended up winning the whole thing. I don't understand why he was not eliminated on the spot after severely injuring someone, but whatever!!