An educational experience...

Our time here is LA with 6 high schoolers has been quite the experience for me! (Krista) I'm learning a lot from these 4 boys and 2 girls and thanking God every day that we have girls. But also a little anxious as I learn what 17 yr old boys talk about. They are much quieter now after I had a little talk with them about how to get a girlfriend (b/c MANY conversations include girls) which included getting rid of the "potty mouth". Their talk was much better after that! They really are great kids, they are just in high school and I remember having teenage brothers once....and remember being a teenager too.
I'm beginning to learn their "text talk" language...for example...they shorten all their words so I have to think about what they are saying before I get it sometimes. For example....convo=conversation, mans and peds=manicures and pedicures, whatev=whatever, and so on...
The boys started the trip playing "Sorry Ms. Jackson, Oooh" on the IPOD deck on the plane, REALLY early in the morning...I knew at that point it was going to be a fun trip, ha!! We have been laughing a WHOLE lot and it has been a REALLY great trip! When we rented our SUV one of the kids made a comment, "Look, we are a family and you two are like the mom & dad".....we are hoping they couldn't see that we were both having an anxiety attack, ha!!

This VERY intoxicated lady kept yelling at people and as we were waiting for our limo to go on our tour, she had quite the conversation with the kids and ended it with flashing them. She was then carried off by the police that were everywhere!!

Superman & someone off the street praying together for Michael Jackson's family....

One of the boys...he wanted to make sure we all knew that this picture was taken by Chuck Norris' star after he got killed by him...yes, we were embracing the creativity!

posing by our limo...we got to ride in this for 2 hours throughout Hollywood on a tour...SO FUN!

Jared & I on Rodeo Drive!!

Michael Jackson Madness

It was interesting to be in LA when the death of Michael Jackson occurred. It has dominated every local channel here non stop for the last few days. On Friday, the day after his death, we went into LA to see the sights. We started on the Hollywood Walk of Fame where Jackson has a star. That star had been covered up by a movie premiere on Thursday night so it was uncovered when we were down on Hollywood Blvd. There were huge lines of people and paparazzi taking in the scene. From there we took a limo tour of the Beverly Hills area. They had the street he was living on blocked from people, so we were only able to get pictures from the street. People had music playing and there were signs and flowers all around. The photos don't do justice for the amount of people that were everywhere.

Welcome to California

We are enjoying ourselves in Los Angeles, California on the national FBLA trip. Yesterday was a packed day with seeing Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and then going to the beach for dinner and the sunset. The best thing about California is the weather. It has been so pleasant with 60's in the morning and warming up to mid 80's by the afternoon. No humidity and a gentle breeze off the Pacific makes it wonderful. I can see why millions of people want to live in this area. The worst part of California is that the millions of people all own cars and want to drive the exact same place we want to go. Yesterday it took us close to 2 hours to drive the 30 miles from LA to Anaheim. 2 hours driving 10 mph with 6 tired high school students is not what I would call a vacation. More posts to follow with pictures of students and some of the Michael Jackson madness.

Daddy's Little Girls...

God REALLY blessed me when he chose Jared just for me and then for the girls too. When I get to see him be a daddy to my girls, I fall in love with him all over again.

When people ask me how many kids I have and I respond with "3 girls", I frequently hear, "oh, your poor husband". As I try to restrain myself from wanting to respond back with something not so nice, I kindly respond..."He loves his girls and he is so perfect for them". And this is true. He is patient (more-so than me most days!)

And he understands that a close relationship with them now, will have a HUGE impact on their relationship in the years to come (especially the more-difficult years!)

He is a great "stay-at-home dad" in the summer and is doing a wonderful job with the girls. They love him and have every one of their fingers wrapped tightly around his heart.

 

Thank you Jared for being the best daddy to the 3 precious princesses we have been blessed with! Happy Father's Day!

Tomorrow's Generation

 

This is a typical sight around our house. The girls love to play on mom's and dad's laptops. They are quite good at navigating around and can find their favorite internet sites. Ellie loves to watch Cailou (a PBS show) on youtube and Emma is usually on disney or starfall (a great educational site). As a computer teacher I wonder what I will be teaching these kids in 10 more years.

Edamame...

This is the new food of the week at our house! Our whole family has LOVED eating this little soybean and the girls frequently ask for "eat a mama"...such a healthy snack and SO good!

 

 

 

Congrats new mamas!

Ok, it's me, Krista...had to come back briefly and talk about the baby shower b/c Jared didn't think he was capable, ha!! Anyway, in the midst of our busy weekend with friends, the girls found a little spot in the lobby of the hotel Sunday morning and got to celebrate the arrival of miss Lily (congrats Katie and Kiley....she is beautiful!!) and the upcoming arrival of baby boy Ellis! We are so excited for you and we are praying for you as you begin the glorious adventure of parenthood! (We are convinced they think parenting is glorious after spending the weekend with the 15+ kids, ha!!)

 

 

 

Priceless...

$40 at the Royals game, $100 for a hotel where the girls stay up WAY too late and wake up way too early, $60 at the water park. Quiet sleeping girls on the way home plus 3 hour naps....PRICELESS!

Coco Key Resort...

 

 

 

 

More Royals Pics

 

 

 

Weekend with the TKE's...

We had a fun weekend getting together with some of my college friends and their families. There were 30+ plus in attendance counting all the kids. We went to the Royals game on Saturday night and then stayed the night at the hotel/indoor water park across from the stadium. The Jackson crew only made it until the 6th inning before returning to the hotel. This was our 2nd game this year and our girls already knew all the fun things to do besides watching baseball.