How Do You Spell POTTY?

Well, the past few weeks have been exciting at the Hale house. Jason started Joy School, which he absolutely loves (though he hates waking up for it - it starts at 8:30 AM! Yikes!). There are four other adorable little boys in his class: Jake, Alex, Elijah, and Braeden. He's really enjoying making new friends. I enjoy having a couple hours alone every Tuesday and Thursday. It's amazing the things you can get done when you're NOT chasing a 3-year-old. Jason's also all about SPELLING these days. He wants to know how to spell just about everything. Every other sentence out of his mouth is "How do you spell THOMAS?" or "How do you spell WHISTLE?", etc. He CAN spell a few words on his own now, including his name, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Papa (what he calls Jared's dad), Nonna (what he calls my mom), Pappy (what he calls my dad), Doug (my brother), Tracy (my sister), and Jenn (my sister). We've also been working real hard on potty-training the last few days, and I think he's finally getting the hang of it. We've been having him run around in his "Big Boy Pants" all day, and setting a timer, so that every 30 minutes, he has to sit on the toilet. It's gotten to the point where I don't even have to go in the bathroom with him anymore. When that timer goes off, I say, "Jason, it's time to go potty!" And away he goes. I'm just hoping that he'll start telling me when he NEEDS to go. We've definitely had more than our share of accidents, some more unpleasant than others.

Jared's been a barrel of fun since starting his MBA program a couple of weeks ago. That is, when he's around. His latest was while preparing for a quiz this weekend. The brand new computer he was given by the school CRASHED. Lovely. And poor Jared, the boy has no head for crisis. But eventually he realized that we still had TWO other computers in the house, and that yes, he'd have to start over, but at least he could get his work done. I have no idea whatsoever how he came to this conclusion! :)

My brother, Doug, moved in with us a few weeks ago as well. He just graduated high school in June, so he decided to try being away from home for awhile. So, he's started school at West Valley, and has gotten himself a low-paying job. Wow. I do NOT miss those days at all! But it's been great to have him around. I doubt I've helped diminish any of his homesickness, but he sure has helped to ease mine. And we'll be heading down to Mom & Dad's this weekend, so we're both looking forward to that. We both wanted to visit the family, especially Tracy, who is heading back to London at the end of the month. We'll miss you, Tracy! Doug's also been very helpful with taking care of Jason. He even got my little monster to eat dinner with us a few nights in a row! That's something I haven't accomplished since... um... never. Thanks, Doug!

As for me, I've been channeling Martha Stewart, apparently. After finding the instructions for the bread machine my mother gave me years ago, I've been baking my own bread nearly every day (it's amazing the rate at which Jared goes through a loaf!). I've also been learning how to quilt. This past week, my friend Ruth came over to help me work on my first quilt. We were both excited to use my brand new sewing machine Jared bought me, only to discover IT DIDN'T WORK! Luckily, Ruth knows just about everything about quilting, sewing, and where to go for all things of that nature. So she took me to a spot where we could have the machine repaired. It sure puts a damper on all my sewing aspirations for the next month. I'd been hoping to be able to sew all of our Halloween costumes this year. Jared's got his heart set on being Dumbledore, so we were going with a whole Harry Potter theme. So hopefully I'll get my machine back in time to finish them all.

Well, just for fun, I thought I'd start adding a Jared story of the week/month/whatever. So here's today's tidbit:
The missionaries from church were coming to dinner on Sunday night, so I went to the store on Saturday to get everything I'd need to make enchiladas. Sunday arrived, and as I'm doing my thing in the kitchen, I realize I have no cheese. Frantic, I approach Jared and tell him of my predicament, begging him to just this once, run and pick some up. He looks at me, shakes his head and says, "Why don't you just make some?" Right, Jared. I'll get right on that.