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.

Tee Ball

The day started early (5am) with Jenny and I doing our workouts. Jenny does Insanity and I do Tai Cheng, which is a Tai Chi program.

We both worked today. Jenny pulled a nine hour shift. (brutal!)

After work, I went to the Chiropracter to help with some lower back pain I've been having. He was really great and was pleased to hear I've been doing Yoga and Tai Chi.

We went to Levi's Tee Ball practice after all this. He was super cute. This was my first practice I've been to. All the dads and the coaches are super encouraging. It made me so proud to see him swing at the ball (even when he did a 360 degree miss). He was adorable and super happy. It encouraged me to start playing some more catch with him in the backyard.

Rain!

We started the morning out by giving Levi his first shower ever. I turned it on, shoved him in there, and all I hear was joy-squealing with shouts of "rain!". It was adorable. I'm not fully confident he properly washed himself, but he had fun and enjoyed the experience. Our boy is growing up quickly.

While talking about son milestones, Liam asked to stop wearing his diaper at night times. So far, he's been sleeping at nap time and at night time sans-diaper and we've had no accidents. It's a wonderful milestone. I'm not a fan of diaper changing, though I'm not sure anyone is.

We then spent some time organizing the apartment.

Jenny took Levi to the store to get some ingredients for tonight's dinner: Meatballs, mashed potatoes, buttery rosemary skillet rolls, and home made red velvet cake for dessert! (YUM!)

During the time she was away, I was spending some time planning our anniversary which is coming up on the 2nd of June! It'll be our sixth anniversary.

I did my Tai Chi workout for the day while Jenny took a well-needed rest upstairs.

The Last Ten Seconds

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.

2/12/2012

It's been a while!

I made Jenny some eggs for breakfast. I thought they looked like they were dug out of the garbage can, but Jenny insisted they were good. I guess we'll never know the truth.

I went to see "Safe House" with Aaron and Ron. It was a pretty good movie! Denzel is quite the actor.

We had some Culver's for lunch and when I got back, I took over watching the boys so Jenny and my mom could go see "The Vow". Since I "vowed" to not see it (har har), my mom was gracious to take Jenny.

I studied a lot of Chinese today. I'm trying my best to speak it at home with the boys. Oh, on that note: We are getting Levi into a Chinese immersion kindergarten. We are very, VERY excited about it. It'll be the most familiar type of school to him, since he's spent most school time in China.

Levi and I did some homeschooling for a solid hour and a half or something like that. Today he was learning about liquids and gases and how to figure out which is which and also about police men i.e. what their role is in our society. It was hard explaining how police dogs chase people down yet aren't the ones that take the crooks to jail.

We finished up with some dinner and bed!

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!

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.

Five Years Old!

My marriage to Jenny is officially five years old on the 2nd of June, but we celebrated it today because on our actual anniversary date, I’ll be back at the orphanage for a few days. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, there is an orphanage that is pretty far away that has a little over 10 disabled orphans and for the most part, there is just one woman who watches them all, 24/7. I’m going with some friends to help out where I can. I’ll be there for three days. I’m looking forward to it, even though (to be honest) doing that sort of thing isn’t always natural or comfortable to me.

For our anniversary date, we went out to H&M to treat ourselves to a new outfit. We haven’t really bought clothes in over a year for various reasons so we both got a new outfit for ourselves and one new one for Levi. After that, we went out for some Indian food. (We can’t resist!)

A funny story about presenting Levi’s gift to him. First of all, we bought him a Mater shirt. For those who don’t know Mater, (how big is the cave you live in?) Mater is Lightning McQueen’s friend in the movie Cars; Levi is a HUGE fan. Not only that, but the shirt is a really good blue color which will match his glasses and eyes really well… blah blah blah, we were really excited to give it to him.

We bring the shirt home, make him close his eyes, pull the shirt out, he opens his eyes and says, “Where’s Lightning McQueen?” I haven’t had any near death experiences, but emotionally, I just did.

This was a great moment for us though. We are learning just how sweet this boy is. I was honest with Levi and said, “You know, buddy, I was bummed when you reacted that way.” He spent the rest of the night telling me how much he liked the shirt, which made us really proud. He’s at the point where he can feel sympathy and regret for things he says and he also attempts to right his wrongs. We were so proud of him and his sweetness.

That’s all for now!

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

April 5, 2011 Video Blog

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

Levi’s check up

Hello everyone!

We just wanted everyone to know that Levi and I are back from Beijing. The doctor said his eyes are much better than she had expected! He did well on the eye exam, and she said we don’t have to come back for another three months. Perhaps after that, we’ll just have to come back every six months! Please keep thinking of him!

In other news, we’re heading off to Thailand in two days. We’ll be there until the 24th, and we’re not sure how the internet situation will work out. We’ll keep you guys updated as often as we can, though!

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

Levi’s new eyes

Hello everyone! We have held off on all this information for a bit, so here it all is in its entirety. Levi’s right eye started crossing in towards his nose. His left eye would be fine, but his right eye would move in independently. We were concerned about this, so an Australian doctor here told us it’d be best to go to Beijing to get him seen by a specialist. We were initially concerned with the rare chance (although still possible) that he’d have some sort of brain tumor which would cause this. Most likely, we knew it was just a vision thing though.

We went to Beijing several days ago and got him seen at the Beijing United Family Hospital. The hospital was very nice and everyone spoke English. We had some eye tests done on Levi and found that he’s both nearsighted and farsighted, which apparently is normal for children his age, but his is slightly worse to a point where we want to correct it before it causes permanent eye crossing, etc.

We got some glasses made for him to correct it. We’ll need to keep them on him except when he’s showering or sleeping and we’ll need to go back to Beijing once a month for the next three months. After those three months, we’ll need to go back once every three months for the next two years. We need these checkups to make sure the glasses are correcting the problem correctly. If they aren’t, we may need to put an eye patch on one eye or maybe even outpatient surgery. Since those are last resorts at this point, we’re just going to make sure we’re keeping a close eye on his… eyes.

We just got his glasses in the mail; super cute! Here are some pictures of the occasion:

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

Our awesome boys

Here’s just a quick post with some pictures of our two boys hanging out.

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

Dressing Up

You'd think that by his smile he's uncomfortable, but he actually really enjoys his cousin's dress-up clothes.

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

Levi’s Got Moves

We were listening to music over at Matt & Heather’s house, and I caught some video footage of Levi’s dancing. Enjoy!

Levi busts out his best moves while listening to B.O.B.

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

To T.V. Repairmen Everywhere

Once we moved into our new place, the TV wasn’t working; Levi couldn’t watch his shows. He reminded us of this often.

The moment I got the TV working, Levi shouted, “Yay! The TV is working! Daddy, you’re such a good man!”

He’s a natural encourager.

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

Aurora

Today we had Levi’s teacher, Aurora, come over for dinner. We had some homemade (thank you, Jenny!) chicken pot pie with some homemade (thank you more, Jenny!) brownies.

Levi was SO excited that she was coming over. Of course, when she got here, he was incredibly shy (like you would be if your teacher wasn’t in school, where you probably assume she lives when you are three years old).

She LOVED the food and couldn’t get enough of it.

She’s super nice and Levi loves her. It makes the decision of spending some extra money for Levi’s school much easier.

Some of you may be curious about Beijing. Beijing was incredible, but I’m waiting to share more details about the course until I find out if I’m certified or not. I’ll get final word in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned for that!

We have some more pictures up on our Shutterfly site. Click here to see them!

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

Levi the Sailor Dog

So for those of you who are familiar with The Sailor Dog, the famous classic Golden Book, you may appreciate this story on a different level than others, but Levi made a pretty ingenious connection lately that I wanted to share with you all.

Just this morning, my wife went to a friend’s house to drop off some homemade pumpkin bread (what a sweetheart, right?) and while there, Levi noticed a little spyglass he loved. Our friend gave it to him and he was elated. We think we found out why…
Levi found something Scuppers also had! The forsaken spyglass…
At the end of the book, there is a little song that is included. It goes a little something like this:

I am Scuppers the Sailor Dog-
I’m Scuppers the Sailor Dog-
I can sail in a gale
right over a whale
under full sail
in a fog.

I am Scuppers the Sailor Dog-
I’m Scuppers the Sailor Dog-
with a shake and a snort
I can sail into port
under full sail
in a fog.

Levi was singing this very song on the way home from our friend’s house. Jenny was super confused, but when she got home, I told her that’s the song from the book we read to him! We finally understood. It was epic.

Isn’t it crazy what kids remember???

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