Janae a.k.a Jack-o-Lantern

Janae has lost 3 teeth in one week! The last one to go was a doozy. It was hanging by one little corner and would just not let go. We tried a couple of times throughout the day. And when I say we, I mean me. Apparently Ben couldn't even watch. Who knew? All these years and I just finally noticed him rush out of the room today. I said incredulously, "You couldn't even watch." And he sheepishly replied, "It's only with teeth." And I thought he could do everything. :) That explains why he wasn't offering back up. Janae was getting upset with me because I just couldn't get it out and she was whining about it hurting. (I was tempted to bring up giving birth to her, but I was good and kept it to myself.) And I was getting frustrated because the tooth was hanging all weird in her mouth and causing problems when she ate. So I finally said, "Fine. I'm done. I won't pull it out. Dad will have to do it." Well you see now that wasn't going to happen. And the whole time Janae kept saying, "Let's call John. Let's call John." And I'm like, "Sweetie, I know Uncle John is a dentist but he can't do anything from Sullivan. It's not gonna help to call." But apparently talking to a dentist did help. We talked to Brother Wehrmeister at church today and he suggested using Anbesol. Wow! Why didn't we think of that! And long story short . . . it worked. Tooth is out and she can eat, but not speak. :) So these are a few before and after pictures. Oh! And her glasses broke this weekend, which is why she looks "different" in her after picture.

And since this post is all about Janae, here are some photos of Janae being mauled by our friend, Iris Anderson. :) Janae loves babies.

Midwest Autumns

My favorite season is autumn. I can't explain it. I don't have the words or the pictures to share that will adequately communicate the experience. Much like the first time Ben took me flying. It's just a part of me. But here are some words that will do:

Change of Seasons

by Dean L. Larsen

This morning,

Autumn coyly peered through crimson leaves,

Reached forth her russet hand in soft caress;

And Summer,

In a mellow mood,

Promptly yielded to her touch.

Daila's Such a Helper . . . (yeah right)

So I think I'm begining to get the hang of this blogging thing. I gotta keep them short and frequent. (It makes it more fun to catch up on friends when it doesn't take all day.) And pictures are always nice, but not necessary.

So here is a short one on Daila. She got into the cabinet under the sink the other day and pulled out some disposable gloves. She put them on her hands, all by herself, and found the old bottle brush. Now she was all set! So she began to scrub down the cabinets in the kitchen. This was very entertaining to us, and we are grateful she didn't decide to add water or cleaning supplies to the project. Not so bad . . . this time. Her usual antics wind up a little messier and rarely leave mommy feeling like pulling out a camera to catch the moment. Good job, Daila.

Scary Faces

The girls' elementary school has a really cool website where all their artwork is posted in galleries. So I thought it would be fun to share Anna's Spooky Silhouette and Janae's Pumpkin Patch in Secondary Colors.

And here are a few pictures from our Halloween haunting. Our street has a block party and everyone on the block (well one block over from ours) decorates their houses to the max! Fake fences and dead branches as trees, inflatable haunted houses and hearses, skulls, webs, life size skeletons and witches . . . and not just in the yard. There are windows blacked out and cracked and broken shutters and ghouls looming overhead from the eaves . . . . and I promise I don't live in a run down neighborhood either. They actually go to that extent to decorate their homes. But it makes for a great Halloween experience.

Unfortunately, as I have stated before, I am not always great at taking my camera along for the ride. So here are a few favorites that we have taken before and after Halloween and you will just have to imagine all the action from that night.

Anna was Frankenstein. One guy said she can't be Frankenstein because she was a girl, so he dubbed her "Frankenstina". She was pleased that her costume was unique. Even though Frankenstein is a well known character, we didn't see any other "Frankys" out there.

Janae was a ghost. Very spooky indeed. My favorite part, of course, is that she is wearing glasses. How many ghosts do you know wear glasses? We did try to go without them at the Trunk-or-Treat, but it didn't go so well.

Daila was a scary witch. Whenever she would actually wear her hat, she would come up to you and put her hands out like claws and say, "Boo!" But then the hat came off and she was back to scavenging for candy. You know what? She actually woke up (or talked in her sleep) at 6 o'clock in the morning on Nov. 1st and whined one word . . . "Candy . . . ." Yikes. We are going to have to hide 2/3 of her hoard while she is sleeping tonight. This isn't going to be pretty.

And my personal favorite scary face of this Halloween season . . . my own. Daila got pink eye from her sitter's house (my dear friend, April. Thanks a lot. lol) Then passed it along to Janae, who then passed it along to me. Oh happy days. So this picture is kinda dark, but one eye is slightly smaller because it is swollen, dry, itchy, and goopy. So the blessing in disguise is I didn't even have to dress up or wear make up to scare people away on Halloween.

Killing Two Birds

I received an e-mail from my wonderful cousin, Chris, asking a few questions and I thought I would kill two birds with one stone by pasting my response here for my updated post.

How are your classes going? OVER!!!! Yay! It sucked. I hated it. My instructor wasn't really present. She never posted much and always late. So I basically taught myself. Basically. I got an A though. And she praised me on my final project. It was definitely an interesting learning experience. And, like all trials, not so bad when looking back at it.

Are you surviving everything okay? Barely. :) Better now that the class is over.
Are you keeping busy subbing? YES! 4-5 days a week. Sometimes half days. But always exhausting.

Did you get that long-term job? yes . . . . I have taught that class twice so far and they are demons! I taught it yesterday and two kids were absent (suspended) and it really should have been easier without them there, but it was still a hellish sort of day. (I actually screamed at one of the boys in the hall . . . . not so professional of me.) I will need to get some ideas together for when I will teach them long term.
How's Ben's piloting? Good. He's going at a steady pace. Still doing lessons. He flies in the simulator now since he is going for the "big" plane flying now

How are the girls? Good. Parent/Teacher conferences are in two weeks. Anna lost a tooth. Usually when that happens, Ben and I have to scrounge around for some cash. We hardly ever have cash on hand. They always get $1.25. So this time we had a REAL hard time finding change and I thought we were going to have to raid the 50 States quarter collection book. But Ben had 3 quarters in his car and I found a couple nickles in my purse and the rest was in his night stand and dresser drawer. So it all worked out. (Pretty lame tooth fairy . . . can't even find 5 quarters.) When I went to put the money in the box, I found a note. That was a surprise. Anna didn't mention wanting to leave a note. I opened it up skeptically (afraid she was going to request something other than the usual $1.25 and I already had a hard enough time with that!) The note said, "Dear Tooth Fairy, Could you please send Miss Yeager (her teacher) a fake tooth. Because she has a space. Your Friend, Anna." I wrote a note in reply: "Dear Anna, How kind of you to think of your friend. Unfortunately I do not keep fake teeth for adults. However, with a such a good friend like you, I am sure she will find many reasons to keep smiling. Your Friend, The Tooth Fairy." But I decided not to leave it after all. I kept both notes and will share them with her when she is ready. Anna had a friend over and they were playing Barbies. Her friend said, "Don't you wish you had a dress like this?" And Anna said, "No I can't wear it because it isn't modest." (It was sleeveless.) Her friend told her, "You can wear it when you move out of the house." (Gee thanks for the positive example.) She came to me later and said, "Mom can I wear sleeveless things when I grow up and move out?" I asked her why and she told me the story. I said, "When you move out, you will have to start making all your own decisions. But you know what is modest and appropriate for the temple. You know how Heavenly Father wants you to treat yourself. What do you think you will do?" She said, "I won't wear sleeveless things, even when I move out, because it's not modest." I told her that the answer may be different for her friend because her friend's values may be different from her mom's values. "But," I said, "I hope you and I will find that we have the same values."

Everyone doing well? Yep. Everyone is great. Daila turned 3 last Monday. She is our mascot. We love everything (well except for the tantrums and potty-training accidents) she says and does. It's not so much what she says as how she says it. I love to hear her sing "Happy Derday do you" or try a turn at the hula hoop. She moves her hips back and forth really well . . . even though the hula hoop has been on the ground for a minute now.

Well, I just got a call. The YM need to borrow my ironing board for the court of honor tonight. Someone put the patches on wrong. I guess I better go save the boy scouts.

Voelkel News in a Flash

So here is what we have been up to:

Ben is still working in tech-support at Express-Scripts. He is doing great there and enjoys what he does. He is in the Elders' Quorum Presidency at church. He recently earned his private pilot's license, and is continuing to study to obtain his instrument rating on his way to becoming a commercial pilot. He has been working out, lowering his percentage of body fat, lifting weights, and he is looking good (if I do say so myself). He will be starting a part-time job at Sprint (soon we think), and manages to keep everything operating in top form at home.

Linda is substituting for the Ritenour and Pattonville School Districts about 4 days a week. She is taking 4 graduate credits online through Missouri Baptist University. In about 4 weeks, she will have active teaching certification for Missouri. She is lined up to take on a long term sub position for a 4th grade teacher's maternity leave at the beginning of 2009. She is continuing her Polynesian dance lessons and has 4 luau performances under her belt so far. She is back in the Young Women's Presidency at church and busy raising 3 beautiful, strong, young women of her own.

Anna, Janae, and Daila are doing great. They aren't nearly as busy as their parents (or we would all go crazy!). They are so unique in personality and so fun to watch grow up. Anna and Janae are old enough, now, to stand up for what they think is right. (But that doesn't mean they are always right.) I will share more stories about each of them as time goes on. I am very proud of them. We are entering a new stage of parenting with them and we are adapting to new problems: instead of "not sharing" and "oops I spilled", we must face "why can't we wear bikinis" and "why were those teenagers kissing in the field". What's more, they know the answers--they want to know why that's the answer. And Daila is just a firecracker! She is so quiet and reserved away from home, but on her terf . . . baby, watch out. She is a lot like Ben in the way she teases. And when she does something naughty, she comes to get me, wearing a look that is a mixture of humor and timidity, to show me what she did--like she is proud of it, but knows it's wrong! So what's up with that? Boy she's got spunk, I tell ya.

Well, not much of a flash, but that's the Voelkel News.

NOT a Scrapbooking Ninja

Yeah, ok. So here's the story. Everyone seems to have a blog these days. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading my friends posts and looking at the photos. Ben caught wind of how great blogging is and so he thought it was time for us to blog. Ok, great. But I'm the chatter box, communicator, social ninja of the marriage duo. So that leaves me the task of updating the blogspot. Problem 1: I am so not good at scrapbooking. I forget to take my camera along with me to events. If I do bring it, I forget to take pictures. I haven't figured out how to make my blogspot look all cute and scrapbook-y, like all of yours. And I don't have a whole lote of extra time to play around with it. :( Feel sorry for me yet? Problem 2: I am also not so hot on journaling. Ok, yeah. So what is a blogspot? Cuz to me it is a journaling scrapbooking experience on the web. See my dilemma?

So I think I prefer Facebooking over blogging so far. I mean, the jury is still out. I'm gonna give blogging a fair trial run. But I like how the network on Facebook allows you to type just a sentence or two to update everyone. You can easily make quick, but sincere, comments to your friends to let them know you are thinking of them. And if no one is online with you, you can play a quick game to pass the time and unwind from the hectic day. All conveniently from the same website.

So I guess wish me luck with this blogging stuff. I know I will get the hang of it sooner or later. So stay-tuned . . . you never know when it will finally all click and then . . . WaTcH OuT! There will be exciting stuff happening at benlindavoelkel.blogspot.com!

(Ok. So this photo has nothing to do with this post. But it is a pretty cool pic of my parent's house from the sky--taken by Ben--while flying--and turning--with my babies in the back seat. Ahhhh! :D lol)