It's been a while

Hi everyone. I was just catching up on blog reading and realized I haven't posted in a long time. Okay, I've never really been good at posting. I do read it all the time though and like hearing from you so I figured I'd get on top of it here.

We had a great time in Utah last week and loved seeing everyone. Thanks for going out of your way to hang out with us. It was such a quick trip. Jak loved it and is still obsessed with airplanes. Yesterday in kind of a forlorn tone he said "maybe we will fly in an airplane again." He is still obsessed with airplanes and really anything that flies or that he can make fly--cars, play dough,food, paper, pictures of birds etc. Everything is a blue angel (sad note--did you hear a blue angel pilot crashed this week in a show?). We found a blue angels show on youtube and it is now a favorite video. Airplane obsession was definately the legacy of this last trip.

Jak finally had a breakthrough in his artistic development. We brought home a leaf the other day and did the project where you put paper over the leaf and rub a crayon on top so you can see the leaf. He LOVED it. The first thing he said the next morning (yesterday) was "I want to color leaf." So we went outside and gathered many more leaves and he sat at the table most of the day scribbling and glueing. It was great to see because he usually won't do art that long. Thanks also to Agata for the art box. He uses the crayons and pencils that it came with and we also added to it some glue and kid scissors and paper and stickers and we leave it where he can get at it anytime. Now he does art stuff a lot more and it is really growing on him.

Other artistic development is taking place on the musical front as well. We have started playing the "Watch me sing" CD which is a goody from my childhood (as well as the Currit's I hear) and he can't get enough. Between that and They Might be Giants he will sing and dance around the apartment for a long time. He also sings to himself now while he is doing other things. My favorite yesterday was to watch him glue while dancing and singing in his chair to the music that was playing. He has so much personality.

He is also very conversational. Yesterday when it got a little quiet and I was doing my own thing on the couch and he was, yes, still coloring, without stopping what he was doing he casually said, "so, mom what did you do today?" It was very cute. Add that to his other conversation starters: "Sooo, I have a question." and "Mom, did you have good dreams last night?". He is really a fun person to hang out with all day.

Wow, are you sick of the ramblings of a mother yet? I'll move on to other things now (although I could go on about Jak I'm sure). We planted our garden on Saturday. I'll leave the details to Danny since really he did most of the work. We are very excited for fresh food although we are a little skeptical that those little seeds really can make us food. We'll let you know if it really works or if it is a big scam.

I'm keeping quite busy. We're trying to get everything ready for the baby. Only one more month and we'll be a real family--2 parents, 2 kids! Wow. Kind of scary, but we're very excited. There really isn't that much to do, but we are trying to get the house more organized and I want to get ahead on my primary calling and managing etc. I am also busy tutoring. I still really love doing that. I'm trying an experiment this summer. I want to do a summer camp just before school starts to help my high school students get pumped to do math again. Sounds ambitious, eh? We'll see if anyone signs up. It would be three mornings in a row--about 10 hours. More details later. Send any ideas if you have any.

Life is good here in Seattle. Sunny weather on the horizon. We had a picnic Friday night at the lake that got us very excited for summer. We also can't wait to have Travis and Agata here in the fall. Yay!

Well, that's enough for now.
Have a great week everyone!
Jenni

stronge urge to fly

hello from Poland, its been a while since I blogged. here everything is going pretty normal, I work like a dog and I'm really tired. Guess I need a break in order to not to kill my innocent cute little students. Next week is a holiday week in Poland, as we have a holiday for the 1st and 3rd May , somebody smart and lazy gave three more holiday days between those national holidays to children and to teachers ( oh boy that sentence was a world record in permanent using of a word "holiday"). YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEE!!! so I was planning to go to Germany to visit one of my best friends, but apparently she wont have time, as she has to finish her Masters Thesis. But , as my strong urge to fly, to go somewhere increases I have another crazy idea to go to Lithuania for 4 days and to see Vilnius, which Ive always wanted to do. So I woke up at 8 o clock and Im trying to book a hostel etc. Well see if it works. I hope so, that would be so good for me and for my students too to have a relaxed, happy teacher.

A fond fairwell

Helloo!
Hey, hopefully people still read this dilly oh! Well, I'm done with finals and now am off to Escalante, and then over to St. George for a few days. It should be good times and i will hopefully have some good pictures to bring back. Wish me luck and pray for sunny skies!
Tommy

Weird Jello Recipes

Here's a note from today's paper: Weird Jello Recipes

1. Sauerkraut Jell-O
2. Apricot-Zucchini Jell-O Jam
3. Pineapple cucumber Lime Jell-O
4. Lemon Jell-O Whip with Prunes
5. Crab Jell-O Salad

And they didn't even mention "Prune Jigglers". It probably would have made the list.

Another food thought: the recipe in Jenni's family cookbook for Chicken Rice Soup is simple and good. I made it with brown rice and it worked great. For once the brown rice was completely cooked and fluffy.

I think the baby will be here in five weeks. That's soon! And he appears to be in the right position. That's huge news.

We enjoyed last weekend a lot with all of the beds in the house full of family. There hasn't been a day as beautiful weather-wise as last Sunday was. The first barbecue!

Hope Agata is doing well. Travis is very busy with end-of-the-whole-four-years business. Announcements should be arriving soon. Congratulations, Travis !!

Jenni and Jak's Visit

April 12, 2007

No mail from Alex yet. Maybe tonight. Last time this happened the under-ocean fiberoptic cable had snapped in a typhoon.

Jak is so fun to watch play. He is busy with the castle and pirate ship and all of the model cars. He fed a carrot to the bunny and had wheel barrow rides (powered by G-Pa). Jenni is a delight to talk to . She spent the day in Provo with her Mom and sister then ate lunch with Tommy. Travis is working at the U of U at the writing center. I'm sure a lot of papers are coming due this time of the year.

We're going to eat lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant tomorrow with Tyler. We hope to drive by the downtown "destruction" and see what it looks like. I suspect we won't really be able to drive by, at least on South Temple.

All the trees are in bloom. Jenni said we will have to have a blossom party. Hopefully we can do that on Sunday with a barbecue.

Travis has his cap and gown and graduation announcements ready. We're really proud of the extensive work and publishing he has done. He certainly has good writing skills. Congratulations on finishing two undergraduate degrees!

Time to go play with trains.

Mom

gosseberry and broken computers

I dont quite know what gooseberry is. But I dont thiink we have it in Poland. I would love to try.
My computer is broken so now Im usisng this old and s_l _oooooooooooooo_w one and it takes ages to send a message on it.
My whole famili is preparing Easter in a hurry and panic ( typical for Polish holiday, everyone runs like "a cat with a sick bladder " - Polish idiom and buys tones of food). Im baking cakes today.
Hope I will manage to send one more message before Easter but who knows with this computer. So, just in cases: Happy Easter, have a nice time with each other, enjoy this time and rest.

Gooseberry Jam

I made gooseberry jam today at the cannery, and what I want to know is, is there gooseberry jam in Poland? I bought some made in Switzerland.

Tuesday in April

I wonder if it's the second or the third of April? Travis presented his history paper today. He was poised and interested. He talked directly to the audience and told about his research. His power point didn't work until he last half of his presentation, but he was entertaining and informative without it. It was a very interesting morning. They didn't necessarily match similiar topics together. It was an intense, random sort of experience listening to all of the research that had been done. The best part, or course, was Travis' informative analysis after on the way home. He knew some of the presenters and was familiar with the research topics.

Agata's computer is broken. Hopefully she can get it fixed soon. Skyping is such a great connection. She sent me some amber earrings from Poland. I have always liked amber (even before "Jurassiac Park"). They are the perfect dangly length and I really like them. I've never owned any amber. Thanks!

Alex emails tonight. Soon we see Jak, Jenni, Danny and maybe we can watch the baby tumble in Jenni's tummy. Does anybody else but me wonder what his name will be?

Take care. We love you!

Mom