Introducing...JOJO!

Since they are also an important part of our family, I thought I'd introduce the animals one by one. I'll start with Jojo. Don't know why. He rivals Lucky as the most annoying animal in the house. But, he cracks us up.

JOJO SLEEPING POSITION #1

We got Jojo from our friends, Karin & Sid Sharma. They had taken in a stray cat and as luck would have it, she was pregnant. They were looking for homes for the kittens and we were actually looking for a new cat. I didn't really want a tabby cat, but I decided to do my good deed to society and take one of the kittens. Karin said she was a girl, so we named her Jojo. Well, after about 4 months two little round things dropped and we realized Jojo was really Joe. But we kept his name Jojo anyways.

JOJO SLEEPING POSITION #2

Jojo is big and tough. He's mean to Mina (the other cat), he chases the dogs and they chase him, he hides behind corners and attacks your ankles as you walk by, and he likes to wake us up at 5:30am by running his paws through the window blinds making an aweful racket. We sometimes lock him in the back room at night for a peaceful nights sleep.

But we love him because he's Jojo. He likes to sleep on our bed sometimes, he likes to go out and play in the backyard like a dog and he likes to curl upon our lap and watch some mindless tv. He's got cool stripes down his back and circles on the side. All in all, he's a cool cat.

(Jojo on my freshly laundered clothes)

The Weekend

What a weekend it was! We went from extremely busy to extremely lazy. Here's how it unfolded:

SATURDAY - In the morning I took the dogs to our monthly frisbee playday. It's a chance for them to run and stretch their legs a bit. Jeremy and Jaden chilled out at home and had breakfast. I got home by 11am, took a quick shower and Jaden and I headed out to meet his friends for a playday at an indoor play center. We stayed there for about an hour and then we all went to have lunch at Campisi's (pizza). After we left there, Jaden and I drove all the way down to downtown Dallas to go to the Crow Collection Museum in the arts district. It was opening day for their Asian art collection, but more importantly, there were Tibetian Buddhist monks working on a mandala (sand painting). Depeneding on the size of the mandala, this could take days or weeks. Next Saturday they destroy the finished painting in a closing type ceremony. I found a website that has a pretty good link and description of a sand mandala:

http://community.berea.edu/galleryv/mandala.HTML

To quote from this website:

Traditionally most sand mandalas are destroyed shortly after their completion. This is done as a metaphor of the impermanence of life. The sands are swept up and placed in an urn; to fulfill the function of healing, half is distributed to the audience at the closing ceremony, while the remainder is carried to a nearby body of water, where it is deposited. The waters then carry the healing blessing to the ocean, and from there it spreads throughout the world for planetary healing.

They had some arts and crafts for the kids at the museum. Jaden got to make his own mandala (with elmer's glue and colored sand) and he also make a bracelet of Buddhist prayer beads. It was a fun day and a cool experience. Here is a picture of Jaden sharing his mandala. Like the statue I had him stand in front of?

After a quick break at home we went to a social party at a friend's house for the dog frisbee club (sans the dogs). Jaden was the only kid there, but he had a blast playing with their 5 dogs! Needless to say, by the time we went home (10 PM) he was out! Good thing we brought his PJs!

SUNDAY - We took Jaden to the park so he could ride his bike and play on the play ground. Other than that, we did absolutely NOTHING! We were so lazy! Oh well, I guess we needed a break.

An Adventure?

Okay, so I gotta tell you the story about our Labor Day holiday. So, we drove back to Carrollton that morning from visiting my parents in Victoria. We got home at 2 PM. Unloaded the car, reloaded the car with kayaks and bikes, Diana came over, loaded her bike and we all went to Isle de Bois State Park (you'll hear a lot about this park as we are there 2-3 times a month and it's right across the street from our land). Jeremy went on a mtn bike ride first and Diana, Jaden and I took the tandem kayak out for a cruise.

Not more than 30 minutes later, dark clouds quickly roll in and it starts to sprinkle rain. We turn the kayak around as quickly as we could and paddle as fast as we can (well, as fast as we can go in a zig-zag pattern). It starts to rain. Hard. And as we round a bend the wind and rain are blowing straight in our face and pushing us backwards. We are going nowhere fast and Jaden is starting to get scared. Next, we see a large lightening bolt in the distance followed by the usual thunder. Yikes! Time to get out! We paddle over to the closest piece of land and get out quickly. There were a ton of people picnicing and everyone is scrambling to gather their stuff and shove it in their cars. Unfortunately, our truck is not nearby. We drag the kayak 100 yards to the parking lot and Diana stays with Jaden while I run about a quarter of a mile to the truck. I get there at the same time Jeremy comes rolling in on his bike. We load up quickly, drive over to Jaden and Diana, load the kayak quickly and get the heck out of there. Course, by the time we pulled out of the state park, the rain had stopped.

My car smelled musty for days...

A picture of Jaden

Here is a picture of Jaden (although it's his back) on July 14 at the Japanese garden in Fort Worth. He's feeding the koi fish with his friend, Henley Sewell:

Testing...1..2..3

Okay, this is my first attempt at creating and starting a blog for our family. I've been inspired by Karin Sharma. There were many times I wanted to share a quick thought with friends or family and this provides a portal for those thoughts. So, we'll see how it goes. We'll see if we actually keep up with the posts! We had a website for Jaden once, but i think we stopped after a few months. It was too hard to keep up with!

On that note, i do have a funny thing to share about Jaden. We have an off-road race Playstation 2 game that he loves to watch Jeremy play. The music in the background of the game is rock or metal and one of the songs is called Fuel, by Metallica. Jaden has taken a liking to that song. He calls it the Monster Truck song. He was so surprised to find out that we have it on a CD. On our roadtrip down south this past weekend he (and we) listened to Fuel over and over and over and over again. He even knows the opening lyrics..."give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which i desire, ugh!" Hmmm, maybe not the best, but if it ever encourages him to play a guitar, he can listen all he wants....