I'm shrinking!

Yes, it's true.

I am shrinking.

I've always been 5'2", maybe 5'2 1/2 on a good day. Went to the doctor today to have my throat looked at AGAIN (apparently my right tonsil is possibly developing an abcess--lovely. More drugs to help that issue) and my insurance now requires a height check every year. I step over to the height thing, and stand as tall as possible.

"Ok, you're just a little under 5'2." The nurse writes it down on my chart.

"Seriously? I'm not 5'2"?

"Nope, you were a little under the line."

I'll blame the fact that I wasn't wearing shoes when she checked. Otherwise, I will just be depressed at the fact that I am shrinking.

Macy's prayer tonight

"Dear God, thank you for my family. And please help me run into some money so I can get a Nintendo DS. And please help me have food on my table this week. And please help my friend Paige feel better. Amen."

Please help her run into some money? If that's the case, then Lord, help me run into money too. Maybe there will be a big pile of it on the road and my car will run into it. :)

And is she really worried we won't feed her this week? Has she ever missed a meal?

Funny girl.

Relaxing weekend, dodgeball, and showers

We've truly had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Bobby didn't work either day, which was a shocker, and we just spent time all together. I didn't work any class stuff, or my thesis, or any newspaper stuff. I got my nails done today with a friend. The girls didn't fight. The only drawback was the weather yesterday, and that MU lost.

I needed my rest with the busy week I have coming up. I mentioned a while back that newspaper was doing a Dodgeball tournament to raise money so we could continue to print in color. The tournament is this Wednesday and Thursday, and I'm ready to get going! We have 42 teams. Yes, 42 teams. I was hoping for 10, and we have 42. We raised over $1000. I'm praying every thing goes off without a hitch this week!

And my thesis needs to be postmarked by next Monday. I just need to revise a few sections, but for the most part it is ready to go. It's 46 pages with works cited and appendix. And I think it's pretty good. At this point, I don't care. I'm ready to graduate.

Right now, as I type this, the girls are in the shower. Are they taking a shower?

No.

Macy was, but then she covered the drain with a washcloth and filled the shower with about an inch of water to make a swimming pool. Then Kaylin joined her, and they are sitting on the floor of the shower hitting a beach ball back and forth. I can hear their giggles all the way down here. I'm going to go rescue them before the giggles turn to screams.

Reading Lesson

I've mentioned before how good Macy is reading. According to her teacher, she's reading above average, but I also understand that is a relative term, and that she reads just as well as some others in her class.

But to me, listening to her read is the best part of my day. (Unless she doesn't want to read, and starts crying and trying to read with her fist shoved in her mouth. That's not fun.)I just sit amazed at her teachers for all the work they've done, and listen to the beautiful sound of her reading to me.

Tonight she had some hard word in her Level N book (she was at level A at the beginning of the year):
debris
tsunami
vast
energy
Kenya
crest
current
nostrils
surrounded
swift

The words aren't terribly hard, but for a seven-year-old they are! She did really well trying to figure them out. She was especially excited to recognize that the "t" in tsunami was silent, as is the "s" in debris. I was excited she noticed that!

There's your update on Macy's reading abilities. I'll try to refrain from another for a while.

Busy Saturday, and a Not Me Monday...

Macy decided to play soccer this season, after taking a break in the fall. She moved up a league, and it's a whole new ball game. Referee's, goalie, positions, it's pretty close to real soccer. She did pretty well. As usual, she needs to get more agressive. And, as usual, when I talk with her about it, she dissolves into tears. Good grief...


Her team name is Peaches, and she loves her coach. He seems to know a lot about soccer, so hopefully that will work to our advantage and she will become better.

Her team lost about 12-0 on Saturday. It wasn't pretty.



Then I had a lovely treat...Mom and Dad took the girls back to their house so I could rest (I was sick) and work on my paper while Bobby was at work. I can't tell you the last time I had five hours to myself. I worked on my paper, slept, worked on my paper, slept, worked on my paper, and slept.

You may remember last year when Bobby played in the annual firefighter vs. police department basketball game. It was Saturday night, and the firefighters lost. I didn't take as many pictures as usual, since I was feeling bad.



Here's Tommy Saunders, star football player for Mizzou, shooting free throws.


And to finish off this long post, here's a Not Me Monday. Haven't done this in a few weeks.

It wasn't me who couldn't find her own flip flops to wear to the doctor's office on Sunday, so I certainly didn't wear my 7-year-old daughter's High School Musical flip flops to see the doctor.

It wasn't me who knew she was sick, but thought she would get better and put off going to the doctor. It wasn't me who had a raging case of strep throat.

It wasn't me who went to bed with socks on, but then got hot and wanted to take the socks off. It wasn't me who just stuck them under my pillow, b/c I was too tired to get up, and I knew if I threw them down, Gabe would eat them.

It wasn't me who took five--yes, five--burning hot showers on Saturday because it was the only thing that eased the aching in my body.

And it wasn't me who wore a hat all weekend so I wouldn't have to do my hair.

That's my Not Me Monday, sick version.

Ways to stay entertained in a boring meeting

I had teacher meetings yesterday afternoon and this morning. To keep myself entertained without my laptop, I did the following:

1. Made a list of all the states I could remember. I got 41.
2. Drew pictures of flowers and trees
3. Had a contest with another teacher to see who could draw the best caterpillar. She won.
4. Colored in all the letters with circles (like a,d,o,p,etc.) on my handout
5. Tried to see how long I could sit perfectly still. (wasn't very long; I'm fidgety)

It is true--teachers are the worst audience.

Macy's 3rd quarter report card came home today, and she did very well, as usual. Four things to work on: synonyms, antonyms, r-controlled phonic sounds, and counting with coins. I can help with the first three, no problem, but she already has my math skills, so counting with coins might be Bobby's job.

In Three Months...

...this will be our view from our condo in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.



I can feel the sand beneath my toes, the sun on my face, the wind blowing my hair, the kayak paddle in my hands already. Bring it on.

Okay, okay, I need to post...

So I've been alerted that I haven't posted in 6 days. This is very true. Here's what I've been doing:

Writing a 30-page paper to be able to graduate with my master's degree
Working on another work-intensive class to graduate
Organizing a Dodge Ball Tournament for newspaper
Organizing a Bracket Challenge contest for newspaper
Researching beach houses for our beach vacation this summer
And--oh yeah--taking care of 2 girls plus a husband plus a house

That, in a nutshell, is my life in the last week. The paper is due on Monday, and I can not tell you how happy I will be to get that off my chest.

Macy had a Girl Scout meeting last night. They had previously asked me to talk about what's it like to be a teacher for their unit on authority. I got there ready to go. The police officer they had lined up didn't show up, so I called Bobby and he came and talked. We had the civil servant thing wrapped up! Macy didn't say much, but you could tell from her face she was very proud we were there.

Macy started soccer. She missed her first game on Saturday, but will play this week. She is very excited.

Kaylin is done with karate. She didn't really like it, and I didn't like how there were 30 kids in the class to one teacher. She didn't get any attention at all.

They got their dance costumes too, for their recital at the end of April. Macy's two costumes are adorable...Kaylin, not so much. MAYBE Kaylin's will be cute when there are 15 of them on the stage, all wearing the same thing. Otherwise, it doesn't look cute. :(

There, that's our life in the last week I haven't posted. I will try to be better. After this gigantic paper is done, I will feel a whole lot better.

65 days and counting...

I got my cap and gown today!

Funny comments yesterday...

The girls both said something funny yesterday.

While eating Spaghetti-o's, Kaylin asked me if that was the only bucket. "The only bucket of what?" I asked. "Is there another bucket of Spaghetti-o's for Macy, so I can eat all of this bucket?" she said in her "mom, you are so stupid" voice. "Yes, there's another can of Spaghetti-o's for Macy." "So I can eat all this bucket?"

She was determined to call the can a bucket!! I know the cans are big, but not buckets. Could you imagine a bucket of Spaghetti-o's?

Then we were walking inside, and Kaylin was already up the stairs ahead of us. Macy looked up at me, and whispered, "Sometimes she makes me want to poke out my eyes with scissors." I bit back laughter, and said, "Sometimes she makes me want to poke out my eyes with scissors too."

Appearances can be deceiving

For those of you unaware, Kaylin doesn't look like me or Bobby. Sometimes people comment on her bright blue eyes while looking at my dark brown eyes and Bobby's deep green eyes. It doesn't usually bother me, but sometimes it does. Yesterday the lady cutting their hair made a comment, and the way she said it got me thinking. So what if Kaylin doesn't look like us?

What if she was adopted and we hadn't told her? What if she was the product of an affair? What if she was just Bobby's, or just mine? There's too many what if's.

It seems rude to me to ask why she doesn't look like us. We know who she looks like--my dad, my sister, my brother. She got the Newberry genes, you just can't see the Newberry genes in me.

I had a mom sit down at parent teacher conferences years ago. She drilled me for five minutes to guess who her daughter was, because "they looked so much alike". I never did guess, and I was surprised when she said her daughter's name--they looked nothing alike! I went immediately to another teacher friend to tell the story, and guess what--the mom did the same thing to her the year before!

And my sister adopted a little girl who looks just her. She gets comments too about how much Hannah looks like her, and that has to cut like a knife too, just like it bothers me when people try to figure out why Kaylin doesn't look like us.

Appearances are deceiving.

Thursday thoughts from me...

We traveled to Columbia last night for the MU/OU game. Tigers put a pounding on the Sooners, the atmosphere was electric, and I had a fabulous barbeque sandwich. Can't get any better than that.

Bobby's basketball team actually won on Sunday night!!! First time in two years. Even better, it was against several of my high school students.

Macy's basketball season ends on Saturday, and soccer starts on Monday. Joy, joy, joy. :)

I'm in the midst of writing a 30-page paper for my master's thesis. I want to poke my eyeballs out with wooden kitchen utensils.

I love having a student teacher. I'm going to request one every semester.

I love, love, love the weather outside today.

Happy warm Thursday!

La La La La La

Last week the three first grade classes at Macy's school had a music program. It was cute to listen to them sing! And our shy little Macy did a great job of singing. I was afraid she would stand there and barely open her mouth, but she was wonderful. She stood next to the music teacher, and they did seven or eight songs.







Our "crew" of kids--this group gets together fairly regularly, and these kids all play so well together.

The three girls...Macy, Jessica and Kaylee