Bikes, Trikes, and a clever little joke that I'm sure you haven't heard before (is this title too long?)

It has been a while since the last post. Let me get you caught up to speed: Jenny and I have both been doing some college courses. Jenny has been doing Biology I, I have been doing College Writing I, and we have both been doing Psychology and Intro to Algebra (a.k.a. high school math) together. Three classes for the both of us.

Jenny has been working about twenty hours per week, watching the kids, and doing these classes all summer. Needless to say, she has been a busy little bee.

I have been doing those three classes and working my fitness consulting business full-time from home, which is going well. I'm waiting to hear back from the Minnetonka School District to see if I can get some more work there this coming school year. I'm also planning on getting a job for the weekends to get us back in the swing of things financially speaking.

The boys have been growing up quickly. Their favorite thing to do is ride their bikes/trikes outside. My favorite thing for them to do is play catch with me in the backyard, but they are not the biggest fans. (Why not?!)

Liam got a new tricycle today and he's been learning how to pedal (not peddle, which is to sell something that was stolen).

Yes, that is duct tape on his feet. He kept taking them off so I thought this was a clever way to help him figure it out. He did a pretty good job.

Allow me to share one of Liam's most recent jokes. I would categorize it as a classic "knock-knock" joke. If you choose not to allow me and are using a PC, feel free to hold ALT and press F4 or hold CTRL and press Q. If you are a Mac user, that's Command + W or Command + Q. For those of you who still have their internet open: Ahem... check check one two one two. Okay, here goes:

Liam: "Knock, knock"

Me: (or you, if that helps) "Who's there?"

Liam: "Levi"

Me/You: "Levi who?"

Liam: "Levi who?" (At this point Levi and Liam laugh uproariously.)

Feel free to share that one with as many people as you want as long as you give credit to my two year old.

Until next time!

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Summer Courses & Chimpanzees

When I came back from work, Jenny had the whole upstairs all cleaned up and tidy for me. She's an amazing wife. :)

We immediately went to our college to buy some of the textbooks we'll be needing for our classes. This coming summer, Jenny and I are taking classes at North Hennepin Community College. Jenny and I have two classes in common: Introduction to Algebra (we've forgotten it since high school, which is crazy because I use Algebra ALL the time. sarcasm) and Psychology. I have a class on my own which is the Freshman Writing class and Jenny will be taking a Biology class. We're very excited to learn and get one step closer to getting the degrees we need to pursue the jobs we are passionate about.

When we got home, our family pretended to be chimpanzees, fighting and climbing on each other. Then Levi started making zebra noises which was out of place, but funny.

We had some pizza for dinner and ended the night with a solid workout.

2/13/2012

I got up at about 6:45 and made sure pancakes were ready for the family when they woke up. Jenny, of course, was already awake, doing her study thing that she does. The boys were down at 7:00 sharp and we all had breakfast together.

Jenny has MOPS on Mondays, so she brought the boys to church with her while I studied Chinese and read. I'm reading Simply Jesus by N.T. Wright. I'm not far in the book yet, but I can tell it's going to be good.

After nap time, we played a little game where I hid under the comforter and attempted to consume all children and then regurgitate them. It was pretty intense. I feel like I won, though no official winner was determined.

Later, Levi and I did some of his homeschool/preschool work.

I got a call asking if I could come in and do some para sub work over at the Chinese immersion school. This will be my fourth day there since last week. I've loved working there and having a day filled with Chinese! Oh. I guess I never mentioned that I'm doing that kind of work. I've been helping out at Scenic Heights Elementary School in Minnetonka. I help out in their Chinese immersion classes. So far I've worked with Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade. It's been absolutely wonderful to work there. I'll share more as time goes on.

Consequences

Jenny has been out with her friend, Kate.


The boys and I are shooting each other with darts while she's away. Just now, I shot him from across the room.  He got off the couch, said "consequences!" and ran and tickled me. It was hilarious.


For dinner, we had macaroni and cheese. (Ron made four or five boxes of it) and now we're upstairs to get that last-minute play time between the boys and me. Usually after dinner, we only have less than a couple more hours to get our time together.

11/25/2011

It is great to have Friday off. I feel that I don't get much time with the boys so a morning with them outside the usual is fun. We played with some cars before breakfast.

When we finished eating, I went upstairs. Just me and the boys. All alone, I thought it'd be a great time to re-decorate the apartment. Thus:

Now, I can hear all the gasps yet, faintly, I can also hear the sound of applause. See the chair below? Useless! Goodbye sitting! You've been overtaken by your counterpart, standing! See how the height is just perfect for me? I know my wife is going to hate LOVE this. But, in my defense, SHE'S the one who left me alone without supervision.

Now I have to figure out what to do with a few lamps and picture frames which were once lonely atop a couple of end tables...

The boys watched a bit of Cars 2. I finished reading The Great Gatsby as a part of my attempt at reading 100 Must-Read books for men.

The boys and I played a type of monster game (I was the monster, who ate small nearby children. I just put a blanket over my head, which transforms me into a monster, for those of you who didn't know.) After that, we wrestled and threw pillows at each other. Then we ate.

Jenny got home from work at 1:00pm. Liam was napping and Levi was getting ready to go outside to play some baseball with his grandma. I cracked into Emotional Intelligence a bit, and found this interesting information from the subtitled section, "The Anatomy of Rage": When you get cut off by someone while driving down the road, do you jump to anger (or conclusions, rather) or do you try to assume the best in the situation i.e. "Perhaps he has an emergency?" If you allow yourself that initial bit of anger in the first place, it can get out of hand much quicker, but if you prevent and guard your mind from those initial angry thoughts, you can move on from the potential day-ruiner. The book quoted Benjamin Franklin as saying "Anger is never without a reason, but seldom a good one." Well said. They also mention in the book how perhaps the best way to stopping anger from rising is by stopping the negative thought process (or as they put it, "Undermine the convictions that are fueling anger in the first place). Tim Sanders seemed to echo this in his book I just finished reading.

After that, Jenny and I went on a date. We were going to go to see The Descendants but ended up seeing Hugo because the former movie was sold out when we got there. Hugo was pretty good! It was great to get some time with the wife.

Got home and played some video games with Aaron while Jenny slept. It was a good day!

11/19/2011 - Guys Morning

This morning, the boys and I went to Jenny's workplace to get some breakfast. She was so happy to see us and the boys enjoyed going as well because they have a little play area with toys and a chalkboard.


When the boys and I got home, we listened to some music and then watched a movie.


We were planning on going to Linder's for their grand opening night, but the snow was too much. We were slipping around while driving so we just stopped for some dinner then went home.


When we got back in the car to get home, one of our headlights was out, so Ron and I were working on fixing that while the boys, Aaron, and Jenny had a little snowball fight in the dark on the driveway. They had a great time and Liam kept coming up to me in the garage to throw a little pinch of snow at me.


We had our popcorn and movie night tonight so the movie tonight was Home Alone. We had a great day!

11/17/2011 - Date Night

I got up today and spent a lot of time making a to-do list. This list will keep me motivated to achieve my goals and will keep me from wasting my time on things that don't matter. This to-do list was a part of the Chalene 30 Day Challenge - I'm enjoying it so far!


It was a good day at work. We are almost done finishing up a project we are working on which is going on down in Iowa. After that, we have another big window project we are starting up.


When I got back from work, we spent some time working on our budget and then went downstairs to get dinner for the boys.


Jenny and I then left the boys at home with my mom while Jenny and I went on a date to Chili's. We had a lot of laughs and smiles. She's wonderful and a lot of fun to be around. For the record, I got free chips and salsa by installing Foursquare and checking in at Chili's. I recommend doing this next time you go.


Got home, hung out a bit with Levi, showered, then went to bed. It was a good day!

11/16/2011 - Awana

Another wonderful morning, I got up and read The Likeability Factor. Info for the day from said book comes from a study done from Redford B. Williams, who studied 1,368 heart disease patients for more than nine years. He said "...just being married or having a good friend was a predictor of who lived and who died after a heart attack. Those patients with neither a spouse or a friend were three times more likely to die than those involved in a caring relationship." (emphasis added) Interesting, eh?


Jenny had work at the same time I did, so on these wonderful mornings we have the morning together.


When I got home, I was in some pretty bad arthritis pain, so Jenny took over our AWANA group tonight while I stayed home with Liam.

Waking up at 5, I immediately began reading The Likeability Factor by Tim Sanders again. Did you know that while most parents insist they don't show favoritism, they frequently do, and it is their more highly likeable children who end up getting extra attention? This was revealed in a 2000 interview with Dr. Vera Rabie-Azoori. I will, as expected, assert that I do not show favoritism. After reading, I had some breakfast and got ready for work.


We had homemade chicken fettuccine Alfredo (thank you, Jenny!) for dinner. 


We went upstairs and I read the boys a few books we got from the library. I'll recommend one: Carolinda Clatter. It's really good. Super creative and different.


Jenny and I went through a course in Financial Peace University which was on credit sharks. Info of the day from FPU: Do you not like junk mail? Go to optoutprescreen.com! Do you not like telemarketers? Go to donotcall.gov!


Tomorrow is AWANA. We are looking forward to it!

11/14/2011

Today I got up at 5:00am to do my morning routine i.e. eat, read, read more, get ready. It's really good to give yourself tons of time before work. It's no good running jumping out of bed, slamming your alarm, and booking it out to your car where you begin speeding to work before you are even fully awake.


After I went to work, Jenny took the kids to run some errands while I stayed home and worked on two self-improvement courses I'm doing, which are Chalene Johnson's 30 Day Challenge and The Art of Manliness's 30 Days to a Better Man course. I highly recommend the former for those that want to get more organized on tackling their goals and the latter for those guys out there that want to be a... well... better man.


We had some Taco Bell for dinner and then went upstairs to hang out with the family then watch the Vikings play the Packers. After a sad first half, I went to bed.

Yes, I'd like to borrow 100 children's books, please.

After eating some Rhodes Caramel Rolls and watching some Word World, I hopped on Gmail Chat to talk to my brother (who is still in China). After that, we went to Plymouth Covenant Church to get our worship on.


The sermon was on King Uzziah and how his life was squandered by pride. Two phrases that may be a sign of pride are "I got this" and "I'm above the law". Pride can be so destructive; for the person and for those around him or her. 


After church we went home and watched some football while enjoying Solo's Pizza leftovers.


Jenny and Levi went to the library and got tons of books for the boys. Apparently you can rent 100 books at a time. Who has time for that, really? I also rented The Like Ability Factor by Tim Sanders, which I'm looking forward to. Tim Sanders is a really good author - I highly recommend his books to anyone out there reading this. My quote of the day from the book is:

"All in all, it became clear that unlikeable characteristics are a primary reason for failure, whereas improvements in likeability offer excellent explanations for breakthrough successes."

Also, did you know? (From the same book)

"A 2000 study by Yale University and the Center for Socialization and Development-Berlin concluded that 'people, unlike animals, gain success not by being aggressive but by being nice.'" 

Last, but not least... (From the same book)

"Easygoing, likeable people have one-half the divorce rate of the general population."

More football...


I played some Modern Warfare 3 with Aaron and his buddy, Josh.


After that, we had some dinner then the boys and I played some Super Mario Sluggers on the Wii. 


Levi cleaned up his room then the boys went to bed!


Jenny and I spent our time learning about Dumping Debt from Financial Peace University/Dave Ramsey. My truth from the day from Dave Ramsey is:

"When you use plastic instead of cash, you spend 12-18% more because spending cash hurts."

After that, Jenny and I watched a King of Queens marathon, which is a family favorite.


It was a good day. Tomorrow Jenny is working at 4am (at Caribou Coffee) and I'm heading to work at 6:30am.

March 16, 2011 Video Blog

Hello everyone! We have another video blog! Enjoy!

If for some reason you are seeing this message on Facebook or in your email and you can not see the video, you can see it on our blog by clicking here.
Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

March 9th 2011 Video Blog!

Enjoy!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Avery

Today we got the incredible opportunity to take care of a foster child for an evening!

 

As some of you know, Jenny has been volunteering her time at a local foster home. Well Jenny has grown attached to a cute little girl named Avery. She’s around Liam’s age and was found incredibly malnourished at an orphanage. This foster home took her in, and is taking wonderful care of her now. She’s still very skinny, but she’s getting better and better!

 

This foster home allows you to help out by taking the kids from the foster home to go out and play, etc. This helps the people at the foster home because they work there 24/7 with the children and this helps the children so they don’t get cooped up in a house all day and they also get more familiar with foreigners.

 

We got to take care of little Avery from 2:30-6:30. Jenny brought her home as I was waking up the kids from their naps. When she got home, Levi immediately fell in love with her. He went up and cuddled with her and said, “She’s so cute. I love her so much!”

 

It was great taking care of her. We hope to continue to take care of her as time goes on. Maybe once a week? We’ll have to see. :)

 

We took some pictures, but we are not clear as to whether or not we are allowed to post them here on a public website. If we get permission, we’ll put up pictures as soon as we can!

 

Until next time,

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

First day of school!

Today was Levi’s first day of school!

 

Jenny put up decorations and made him a cute crown and gave us all name plates at our spots for breakfast.

We had some pancakes, some eggs, and Levi got some pink milk (one of his favorites). After breakfast, we brought him outside for some pictures and then sent him off to school!

After two hours, Jenny picked him up and I stayed back with little Liam who was still sleeping.

 

Levi had such a blast! They taught him how to do arts and crafts, they read him a story, and Levi played a little soccer as well! He was super tuckered out and asked to go down for a nap after his lunch. The teacher said he did great (no tears, no problems) and that he learned fast. We are so grateful for this little school and we are very glad he’s such a good little guy.

 

Until next time,

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Jenny’s 24th birthday

So because we were busy making Levi’s birthday video, we didn’t get a chance to talk about Jenny’s birthday! We’ll rewind a few days and tell you about it now.

 

We have a helper that comes and watches our kids and teaches them Chinese. We’ve had a helper that has come for almost half a year now, and we really trust her with our kids so we let her watch them while we went out to have a nice breakfast at Starbucks. Luckily for me, it’s next-door to a McDonald’s, so I snagged some breakfast there and we sat in Starbucks enjoying each other’s company.

 

We came home and spent time with our kids and then in when dinner time came around, we went on a double-date with our friends and got some nice Italian food. (Pizza)

 

Tomorrow is a big day for us because Levi is going to be starting his FIRST day of preschool! We can’t wait and we’ll tell you all how that went when we get a chance.

 

In other news, the school semester has started up once again! I started today off teaching 3rd grade students. I had only two classes. I will return there tomorrow and next week I start teaching at the kindergarten. Can’t wait! So many kids, so much craziness, so little time.

 

Until next time,

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Nerf Guns

Levi and I took on the Failla Boys (father & son) on at some Nerf Gun wars.

It was awesome. Levi and I had a little fort on one side of the Failla’s apartment while the Failla boys took the other side and it was an all-out battle to the bitter end! Most of the time, Levi didn’t take cover, and took a lot of free shots from our enemies since he didn’t quite catch the concept of hiding and avoiding gunfire. He would just stand up (way out in the open) and load his gun, slowly but surely. As soon and he got them loaded up, he’d immediately fire one off in some random direction, then start the process over again. He would get nailed in the head and just keep loading as if he was all alone in this world; just him and his gun. Fun times!

 

Our summer is coming to a close soon. I will be starting up work again and once we figure out my work schedule, Jenny is really hoping to volunteer her time on a weekly basis at a nearby center for foster children. While there, she will be around to hold the little babies and play with them and help in any other way she can.

 

Until next time!

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Jenny at the village

There is a famous restaurant in the area called “The Village”. It’s famous because it serves decent western food; our dining there is not rare. :)

However, this is not the village Jenny went to. She went to an actual village. This was a little while back while I was out of town working at a camp for two weeks. She was crazy/incredible enough to take our two small boys there! It’s an hour-long bus ride each way.

You can see a video of it here! If you are not on our site, you can come watch the video by clicking here.

Hope you got a good idea of what a village looks like here in the Xi’An, China region!

Until next time,

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Chinese Checkers

My friend also taught us how to play some game (I don’t know what it’s called) which is probably most related to Tic-Tac-Toe.

 

 

The only difference is you place your marker on the line intersections and you need to connect five in a row as opposed to three in a row. It was really fun! Jenny played him a couple times and then he gave us the game because he saw we liked it so much. He’s a great guy. :) Now, Jenny and I play it quite a bit.

 

800 and some other updates

Yesterday marked the day where I passed 800 Chinese characters learned. It's been a difficult attempt at 2400 by 2011, but I'm going to press on! (Due to falling behind by our trip to Hong Kong and other factors, I'm behind my goal by 400!!!!!! (I know, I know!) I'm going to continue on, though! Really, four hundred spanned out among six months means I only have to learn an extra 60-70 per week. Not too bad compared to the overall goal.

Levi has been so active! We have gone swimming at a local indoor pool a couple times now. It's really fun! The water is heated (almost to a fault), so it feels like a warm bath. We bought some floaties for the boys here for about $2-$5, so they really enjoy feeling safe and independent in the pool. Even Liam :) Levi also really enjoys helping vacuum, which is ironic because it's actually much more difficult when he's "helping", haha.

Liam has been SO attached to his mommy lately. No matter who plays with him, he will always cry if Jenny walks past him and he remembers she's not holding or playing with him. On the plus side, he's been sleeping and eating a lot! We're thinking he might be hitting a growth spurt.

The Dragon Boat Festival is coming up, so I have a couple days off of work this coming week. It's been great teaching those kids. My largest class is 62 first graders... Can you believe it?! It can get out of hand really easily, haha!

That's all for now... Have a great day!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam