GOODBYE KINDERGARTEN!

Goodbye classroom!
Goodbye Teach!
You can find me at the beach...
Or in the park or at the pool
Or any place that isn’t school.

Hallelujah school is over just in time to sit around and be lazy for 2 weeks before the babies come. We can't believe it's over already, we totally remember all the drama from the first day of school and I am sure all you loyal fans of my blog remember it too :) ha ha. Ms. Mackuse and Emma

Chayla, Emma and Jade. Her friends in her class.

My sister-in-law has requested that I update my fatikusness so here it is, me and all my glory! Old boyfriends; count your blessings that you aren't married to me :) I am 36 weeks (full term for twins) and I have gained 39 pounds and my belly is 15 inches fatter.
So Emma just said to me, "mom, I hope you don't die early, don't you?"
my response: "ya"
Emma: "cause sometimes fat people die early you know!" ...I wonder what she is hinting at :)

"HERE MR. JENSEN!"

I've always thought teachers were under-paid and under-appreciated and now I know I am totally right! Chandler Schools participates in a program called Junior Achievement; it's comprised of parent volunteers going into the classroom for the whole day and teaching a series of lessons including several activities. Most of it is prepared for us ahead of time and the teacher stays in the room to discipline kids if needed. This allows the teacher work on end-of-the-year stuff. I have to say Jared did a great job. He did everything and all I had to do was read the stories and help get their attention so he could tell them something while they worked on their activities. Emma of course was in heaven having her parents in the room and teaching her class. Lunch time...here's a good question for ya...why did we have to pay $3 for this lunch and Emma only had to pay $2 for it when we got the same nasty nacho cheese, bag of chips, fake chocolate tasting chocolate chip cookie, carrots (that have probably been sitting out all week) and juice. I avoided the milk because I remember back in elementary school when sometimes it would be green at the bottom - yuck. My favorite part of the whole day was when Jared was telling the kids what he did for a living and I told him to ask a little girl what her mom does because she also works at Intel and her reply to Jared was, "um, my mom makes lists so she can help me with my pink birthday party on saturday and it's going to be really fun" (and then a bunch of other ramblings which I cant remember).

FAMILY UPDATE!

I am sorry I havent posted in a while, nothing exciting going on over here I guess. So here is a family update on each of us.

Jared: I am so proud of him. He has worked so hard and he is finally finished. He beat Mario Kart on Nintendo Wii, Congratulations honey, I couldn't be more proud. (that is a picture of his character in the middle and I hope you can tell I am being sarcastic).

Carol: Our family has been blessed tremedously with the upcoming arrival of our twins. We had a few friends loan us things like; a swing, crib, infant carrier, twin newborn boy clothes, etc and then on top of that my ward gave me a shower and my prettiest cousins gave me a shower so we are so truly grateful for all the things we have recieved to help ease the upcoming arrival of our boys. Thank you everyone for everything from car seats, to diapers and wipes, worlds smallest flip flops, bean bag chairs, clothes, blankets, toys, everything!!! I have to say we were amazed at all the diapers we recieved so we decided to add it up...drum roll please...4,150 diapers!

Life is pretty boring over here for me these days. I am going to 3 doctors appointments a week now. 1 regular check-up, 1 ultrasound and 1 non-stress test and can I just say that they are not allowed to be on the same day so that they can monitor the babies more often and 2 of the appointments are at Desert Sam and I live in Chandler, not so fun. Here is the most hideous picture ever at my last non-stress test appointment but I thought I would share with you all how thrilling it is to be hooked up for an hour or so each week (Jen Hess and Shelby, I am sorry you had to do this more than I did, I can only imagine you poor things.) I have gained 34 pounds and 12 1/2 inches in my big 'ol belly.

Emma: She had her Kindergarten Spring Assembly, thank you Uncle RJ and Aunt Jen for going and watching her. Here is a picture from it, I will have Jared post a video clip this weekend from the assembly its only worth watching the boy behind Emma pick his nose, classic. Other than that, Emma is just keeping busy with school, dance, her friends and playing with her brother. Here is a sneak peek at her recital costume.

Elias: We love him more and more each day, especially now that he is finally done being sick, done with ear infections and sleeping through the night again and going down for naps like the good old days, can I get a Hallelujah and a Amen please!

Tyler: He now weighs 4lbs 10oz and the ultrasound tech was super kind enough to tell us that his head has most of his weight and it is very round...my response, yikes and ouch! I have no picture of him for this week because as usual, he was uncooperative.

Tyson: He now weighs 4lbs 7oz and most of his weight is also in his head but his head is more oblong shaped, easier to come out, man I love this kid. Here is his latest picture, sorry the quality isnt that good from scanning it in but his eyes are open and he is mid yawn.

RICH PEOPLE HAVE NO FRIENDS!

Do you think rich people spend all their money on their cars and not on their friends and that's why when they have to buy a tree and drive it home from the store it has to stick out of their mercedes benz sun roof?

DAY FROM HELL!

The day from hell. Jury duty in downtown phoenix, need I say more?! well, since I am sitting here and bored to death waiting to be picked I am going to journal my thoughts.

The day didnt start out to bad. I had planned on leaving at 8:30am so I could make it downtown, park, catch a shuttle and be on time for my 10am time slot. I got
ready so fast I even had time to help Emma get ready for school and I still was in my car by 8:33am, excellent if I do say so myself. I am headed down McQueen to catch the 202 and I was enjoying my apple as I followed behind several cars all going the same speed as me. What happens next, well that's where the good day went downhill.

A freaking motor cop pulled me over, why did he pick me out of the crowd?! Was it because I was in the back of the pack, because I was the prettiest one out of the bunch or because he wanted some of my apple?! I pull over not really worried aobut anything because my odds for actually getting a ticket are 4 out of 13 (no lie, I am great at getting out of them). I hand him my stuff and he is looking like he is not going to be so cool so I give him my extra friendly smile and say "would it help if I am related to a chandler cop," well apparantly it doesnt cause after dropping a name, explaining how I am a good doobie cause I am going to jury duty, etc I still end up with the ticket. After he hands me the ticket he tells me "drive safe" and I let him know, "I will try but I have to drive fast to make it on time now." Next time the city wants me to vote in favor of upgrading cops equipment, I will have to rethink that one (just kidding).

So I make it on time to Jury duty, get checked into a full room with probably about 250 people, 50% being older men who I thought were supposed to be all full of old time charm and old school manners, I guess I was wrong. No one got up to give the pregnant lady a chair, was it because they didnt notice me or because they could care less and just wanted to make sure they had a chair or was it because jury duty had made everyone grumpy?! Finally, a nice young man gave me his seat, I was very grateful but now that I sit here and type I am not sure it was the best choice for me, the man sitting next to me talks to himself, lovely. I am sitting in a room with mostly people who are old enough to be my parents so seeing as how we are all older, can anyone tell me why the movie of choice on all the tvs is "Alvin and the Chipmunks", perhaps its because the 40 something lady behind me keeps cracking up out loud to the movie. Wow, this is going to be a long day.

Lunch time! yay, I have an hour and half to waste eating lunch, what in the crap am I going to do. Last time I had jury duty downtown my dad worked down here so he took
me to lunch at the Hyatt, now he is retired so I took myself to lunch at a combination Taco Bell/Pizza Hut, practically the same thing. Now, I know you all like pictures with your posts so here is a picture of my delicious lunch, its tempting all of you isnt it :)

After lunch at 1:30pm they finally call me into a courtroom, I must confess I am most excited because this means that as soon as I get released I am free to go home instead of sitting in the holding room until 5pm and I fully plan on getting released and not getting picked, I am thinking my pregnancy will get me out of it.
We go into the room and it is a criminal case against a man who shot at 2 cops, hmmm, even though I am totally bitter about my 61mph in a 45mph zone speeding ticket I still fully support cops and back them up. The judge explains about financial hardships and how the case will be at least 3 weeks long and asks if anyone has a problem with this, that's my cue, I raise my hand and explain I dont have any finanical problems but I am 31 weeks pregnant and next week I will measure full term so at any time I could go into labor or possibly bed rest or something along those lines so I didnt know about the 3 week time committment. He responded with a friendly, "thanks, we'll take that into consideration." Later he asks something and for the life of me I cant remember the exact question but myself and 1 other juror raised our hands and basically thats when my freaky pregnancy hormones kicked in. Sobbing (and I mean sobbing) I try to explain that "my brother and cousins are cops and I always side with them, support the cops, when cops get shot we donate money to help the surviving family members, etc so I would automatically side with the cop." Then he asked one more question and said after that we would break and he would dismiss any jurors not on the case, that's when about 15 other hands went up all saying, um ya, my friend is a cop and I take their sides too. Losers, trying to ride in on my crying coatails :) 3:30pm rolls around and I am dismissed from court, hallelujah.

Does the day stop there? Do I get to go home and enjoy my family or sit on my butt, nope. I head straight over to Emma's school so that I can attend a 2 hour meeting about how to be a Junior Achievment volunteer with Jared in the classroom for a whole day, lucky me, totally being sarcastic.

It is now 7:30pm, sorry this post was so long and boring, but now I am going to go and clean up the kitchen and go to the grocery store, I cant wait for tomorrow to come!

COST OF THE DAY:
Money earned to drive downtown and waste 8 hours - $11.00
Cost of a delicious lunch from Taco Bell - $3.65
Cost to drive to and from the courthouse - $12.92
Cost of 8 hours spent wasted at traffic school next week - $135.00
Price for all of you to read this boring blog - $priceless

BEST WEEKEND EVER!

Last weekend was the best ever and totally worth saving all my birthday/christmas presents for. It started out Friday night as the regular Jon Bon Jovi foursome headed out to his concert. Daughtry was the opening act which I didnt care about so I was fine that we were missing some of it but some of the other girls wanted to see it so since 1 of them was a cop she called her cop friend who was on duty and he came and met us and lead us through all the traffic barricades and had us park right at the front with the other cops so we basically got out of the car and walked into the concert, it was lovely. Can I just say that I am a lame concert goer these days. Check me out, I'm the only fat person sitting, there was even an old man probably in his 80's standing up and rocking out. Thanks Jon for another great concert!

Then after the concert we headed back to Randi's second home to stay the night and rest up for our big day on Saturday, even though we didnt go to sleep until 4am, sorry Jared that I can stay up late with the girls but I cant stay awake and watch a movie with you at 9pm. We got up in the morning and headed to the resort for our day of pampering and relaxation. While we waited for our spa services we hung out by the pool, yes that is my stomach, not a watermelon shoved up there, I swear I am pretty and not that fat in real life :) Can I just say I love sitting around in the robes and getting pampered. I got a facial (sorta, dont get me started on my poopy boys who ruined it for me), pedicure and manicure. Next year, the works! Jared and mom, start saving for my presents :) Finally, when we were all done we got all ready to go out to dinner at the Melting Pot but then we were so relaxed we just picked up food from Carrabbas and went home and ate it. It was the best weekend ever, the only sad part was pulling into my drive way that night at 11:30pm and realizing it was all over. Can't wait for next year and hopefully no more dead people in the spa, story for another time!

CALLED TO SERVE...

We are very excited for my sister Ashley to serve a mission. She happened to be down here from Utah this week and her letter arrived in Utah so her roommates overnighted it down here so we could open it together with everyone and have some dinner. She reports to the MTC July 23, 2008 and will be serving in the Atlanta, Georgia mission. Emma doesnt want her to go and gets sad when she thinks about her leaving. I am sure she will get over it though when she realizes her aunt will look like someone who belongs in the FLDS compound ... just kidding Ashley! Congratulations Ashley on your mission call and on graduating from BYU next week!