Maysen's 17th Birthday

Turns out Maysen was very, very happy with her water dragon. Adorable.

Mike, Maysen, (Jorja & Stockton)

We gave her the water dragon this morning.  Thought she would love to know it was waiting for her when she came home from school.

She has named him Ezekiel.  Although we have no idea if it is a he or a she.  I asked the lady at the pet store, but they had already but him/her in the box.  She said he/she would be too skittish to check for a few weeks.  We will just assume it is male.

Ezekiel

 Or Zeke

 So happy!

Jorja and Preston had the day off.  Maysen was jealous.  We went to Sonic for lunch and picked up some food for Maysen.  We met her at lunch.  Maysen couldn't remember if I was going to bring her something.  We had kind of talked about it, but when I dropped her off at school I forgot to remind her.  She glanced in the cafeteria and saw Preston in his bright orange clothes.  That came in handy!

Scoop and Cori came over and gave Maysen a present.  They gave her a straightening iron, 2 brushes and hair clippy things.  Like to keep your hair out of your face while you are using the straightening iron.  Scoop also threw in a pack of cards into the gift bag.  We played Hearts with him for awhile before they had to leave.  That was really fun.

Maysen wasn't really hungry, so she asked Mike if we could do the crepes for breakfast tomorrow.  We had cake for dinner today.  Maysen picked out a Cold Stone cake batter cake.  It was really good! I am not a cake batter fan, but in the cake it actually made sense!

 Maysen

Next were presents.  She got more than just the water dragon.  Spoiled little child.

 Jorja gave her a opossum Webkinz

 Maysen & Jorja

 Preston gave her Monster Manor on her ds

Preston & Maysen

 Kit-Kats from Stockton

 Preston, Stockton, Maysen, Jorja

Maysen also got a cell phone.  Her old one was starting not to work well.  Also, it wouldn't support Instagram and other such things.  Mike and I try to encourage her to do anything social, so we want her to be able to Instagram when she would like to.

Maysen & Jorja

 Sisters.  Love it!

All in all, I think Maysen would consider her birthday a success!  We sure love that (not so little anymore) girl!

Speaking Chinese

I have now finished parent-teacher conference.  Jorja's was yesterday. Student led conferences that I think are a waste of time.  Preston's was today.  Jorja had to fill out a paper with three goals, how she will accomplish them and what her parents could do to help.  One of the goals was to work on her Chinese speaking.  She can accomplish that by helping Preston learn to speak Chinese.  The way I could help was to, "stay out of the room or I won't talk at all."  Yep.  Sounds about right. Preston's Chinese teacher says she wants Preston to get 100% every time on his Chinese tests.  She said that math comes easy to him and he doesn't have to work hard at that or any other aspect at school.  There is no reason he can't work to get 100% every time on the Chinese tests. These Chinese tests are hard!  She told me she expects more of Preston because she knows he is capable of more.  I agree.  It is nice to have a teacher realize that he has greater potential.  Even though he has already reached his second grade benchmarks, she wants him to keep working.  That's awesome.  Mrs. Chung also told me she wants Preston to learn three knew Chinese words a day.  He doesn't need to learn how to write or recognize these words, but she wants him to get a bigger vocabulary.  Especially since they are now no longer to speak any English at all in the classroom.  Mrs. Chung wants Preston and Jorja to speak 5 minutes every day to each other.  I think this will be great!

Mike had a big day at work today.  There were people flying in to meet with Mike and the team he is on at work.  The only problem was, Mike started to show signs of a migraine this morning.  Mike always got really bad migraine when he was growing up.  Then he went years without them.  They have started coming back.  The last time he had one he couldn't even think or talk right.  It was so scary and I was worried he was having a stroke.  Not good timing to have the same thing happen today.  Mike said he prayed and prayed that he would be able to think straight.  Luckily he didn't lose his ability to speak or think today.  I hurried down and gave him some medicine, he said that helped a lot.

I have been really hard to try and have a different snack when the kids come home from school.  Today I decided to make something my mom made quite often while we were growing up.  Homemade Reece's.  They were as delicious as I remember.  Jorja loved them.  The other kids tolerated eating one and that was enough for them.  They are extremely rich, but so delicious.

I picked Mike up at work today because we weren't sure if he could drive home.  Jorja came with me.  We went to the pet store and picked out a present for Maysen.  We got her a water dragon.  I think she will love it.  Mike talked me into it.  I am very anti-pets.  He told me it would be good for Maysen to have something to take care of.  We also could have Maysen drive to the pet store with Jorja to get crickets.  He thought the girls could bond doing that.  He also said, "For a girl who has no friends, what better gift could we give her?"  He is right.  She needs this.

I can't believe all of the paraphernalia that comes with the water dragon!  The cage, the water bowl, the lights, the dirt, the plants, the rock, the food......wow!  Luckily there was a large cage on sale for $40. It was normally $115 I think.  Jorja absolutely loved helping pick everything out.  Mike and Jorja got everything set up in the closet behind Mike's workshop.  No one goes down there.  I can't wait to see how surprised Maysen is.  She will never suspect this!