Halloween Eve

Macy and her "Jaw cancer survivor" that didn't make it so well. SHe was a car hop this year--reusing her dance costume from April. For various events, she has worn that outfit about 6 times--making the $70 we spent worthwhile.

Kaylin and her pumpkin from the other night. She's Gabriella this year, reusing Macy's Halloween costume from last year. We're all about recycling this year.

Girls and their cousin Hannah, a pretty witch this year. We always go up to the downtown area, where the businesses hand out candy.

It was verrryyy windy and pretty chilly. Here's the girls jumping around to keep warm while in line.


Arriving at Grandma and Papa's house for a treat and birthday celebration.



Tonight as I put them to bed:
Kaylin: I love you.
Me: I love you.
Kaylin: You're supposed to say I love you too!

Up next: pictures from trick or treating and jumping in the leaves!

Parent Teacher Conferences

Good round of parent/teacher conferences last night.

Macy was up first. Her teacher only had good things to say about her--organized, helps other kids, not a problem, and she wishes she had 20 other Macy's in the class! Love to hear that. She's reading above grade average, which she has been for a while now.

She had been going to speech twice a week for her "th" sound. We met with the speech teacher, and she feels Macy has conquered that in just a few weeks, so she was dismissed. The speech teacher said she thought about holding on to Macy for another quarter since she is such a good role model for the other kids.

Kaylin was up then. I was worried about this one, as Kaylin can be fiery little thing. Her teacher only had good things to say also. She needs to learn to tie her shoes, and not rush through her work quickly, but that she is a kind and sweet girl who is a joy to have in class. Her reading level hasn't been determined yet, but she has hit all the milestones with sounds, recogzing letters, knows her address and phone number, and behaves well in class.

No concerns regarding the girls. I'm so thankful they at least behave themselves at school, since they don't at home. :)

And once again, as I've mentioned before, the reason they are so far ahead of their classmates is the wonderful preschool education they received.

Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger...been crazy busy at work and at home lately.

Friday I took 4 little girls to a friend's pumpkin carving party by myself--felt like SuperMom for a bit, until we actually started carving the pumpkins. :)

Here's Macy with her "goo" from her pumpkin. She wasn't bothered at all.

Kaylin and her "goo"--she didn't really like it, and kept wiping her hands on a towel.

Macy and the pumpkin she named Mike. Her pumpkin was rotting through on the bottom (that's what I get for a free pumpkin, huh Jesse?) so she cut a huge mouth and then made a monster with one eyeball. She really did a good job--I was proud of her.

I didn't get a very good picture of Kaylin's pumpkin, but I carved it myself--the first one I've done! It was hard work-her pumpkin was huge, and it was cold in the garage. But it got done, with the help of my friend Amy on the kitty's tail.


Tomorrow is the Halloween-- ahem, excuse me, Fall Festival party. I'm sure I'll have interesting pictures of that!

And Wednesday is Parent/Teacher Conferences...can't wait to hear how they are doing!

I'll try to be better this week. Things have calmed down, thankfully.

Sleepwalker, Part 352

Kaylin is the sleepwalker at our house, as I know I've mentioned before. We've found in her some strange places, and seen her do weird things while she's asleep.

Tonight she was super tired for some reason, and fell asleep absurdly easy for her. About an hour later, I took a shower, and was sitting at the kitchen table researching how to rescue a cell phone that went through the washing machine (yes, I know. I'm not even going to write about it.) when something caught my eye. Here's what I saw:

Guess she wanted to lay on the couch! She cracks me up--she's such a spirited, funny child that is a contradiction: she is independent and needy all at the same time, and outgoing and shy at the same time. She's the best of both worlds. (he, he. Get it?)

I just pray she doesn't injure herself one of these days while sleepwalking.

48 inches

Kaylin had a big day yesterday. After years of waiting, and countless times of measuring, she is finally 48 inches. Barely. And I mean barely. And the rolls of tape from First Aid in the bottom of her shoe didn't hurt, either. :)

And if you don't know what 48 inches means, then you haven't been around our house much. :)

A windy trip to WOF was in order. Here's our big girl on the Mamba. She rode with Bobby, and she has been so excited about riding this for two years now. For those of you who don't know, it kinda tricks you at the top--you don't go straight down. Bobby said she had her hands up, yelling, on that trick part, then when we started down, she just stopped yelling and stared. It was extremely windy yesterday, and I was even blown away going down the hill. She says she loved it. Judging from her grin and the round of high-fives, I would say she did.

Macy and Kaylin in line for the Timber Wolf.              Here's the girls on the Timber Wolf. I am so thankful KK can now ride it, because I hope to never sit foot on that thing again.                            Little snake outside Spinning Dragons.

                                               Kaylin getting ready to get on the Prowler. We rode this one twice. This one is my favorite--Bobby and Macy both love the Mamba. Hopefully KK likes this one better, so she and I can ride it together. We rode this one first, and she just grinned and grinned.

All in all, it was a special day for Kaylin. She has been begging to ride these rides since Macy could two years ago, but was really bad this year. And she watched friends ride with Macy. She got measured at the front gate and got a wristband, so she never got measured at the gates. She was tickled pink. I bet she slept well last night.

My baby's growing up.

Next stop: Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Home to 17 roller coasters.

Recap

Recap of the last few days:

Thursday brought many a counseling session with a senior whose parents kicked her out the night before, because she had been texting during the school day. Now, they've had that rule for the two years I've had this student, and she's been consistently breaking it. I have no idea what happened in that house, but I sure hope it was something other than just that she'd been texting during the day. I can't imagine kicking the girls out of my house for something like that. At the end of the day, she left with her mom after an hour in the guidance department. All appears well.

Monday and Thursday were parent/teacher conferences. I usually only see the parents whose kids have A's. Funny thing--the kids who are flunking  and reading way below grade average have parents who don't ever come to conferences. Direct correlation? I think so.

There's an interesting age difference at conferences. The students are between 15-18. Since I have a low turn out, I usually parent-watch. I see young parents--in their thirties, who had their kids young. Sometimes these parents also have a baby or toddler. Then I see the older parents--in their fourties/fifties, who had their kids  in their twenties/thirties. These parents usually look tired.

On my day off yesterday, I decided to go for a run. I haven't ran in several weeks. I cranked out 3 miles, every step painful. Today is even more painful. I was just happy that after not running, I could pick up pretty much where I left off.

I ate lunch with the girls yesterday. Kaylin wanted me to bring McDonalds, and I had a great time listening to the kindergartners yabber. I don't know her friends as well as I do Macy's, so it was nice to see them in action. I'm not sure how much longer it will be "cool" for me to eat with Macy. She didn't want me to bring food, so she could buy her lunch and sit by her friends. Because I've known many of these kids for two years, I hear choruses of "Hi Macy's Mom!" every time I go in. Somehow I always end up sitting across from this boy Landon, who was in Macy's kindergarten class. He talks my ear off everytime.

Are you still reading this mammoth post? Yeah for you!!!

Introductions

Yesterday my dad surprised both girls by showing up to eat lunch at school with them. They were extremely excited to tell me about it. Later, when talking to my mom, I got another detail.

Apparently Kaylin introduced her friends to Grandpa, but then said, "And this is Calvin Newberry." Not, this is my Grandpa, but this is Calvin Newberry.

Too cute!

FYI--Yesterday's post with the excited faces was Number 400.

I <3 faces!

This Monday at I ♥ Faces, the theme is EXCITED! All photos entered this week need to feature a person in them that is clearly excited and enthusiastic about something. The emotion should be easily conveyed when viewing the photo. Click here  to see more examples!



As I write this, it is raining outside and cold. Looking at this picture of Macy and her cousin Josh while at the beach this summer warms me up! This was the last day we were at the beach, and the kids had the best time they'd had all week, sitting at the edge of the water on a boogie board, waiting for a wave to crash into them. Good times, great memories.

You know when..

You know you are from a small town when...
your daughter falls and cuts her lip during pe, and you immediately get a text from a friend, and your husband immediately gets a phone call from a fireman friend. The two of them determine she doesn't need stitches, wipe away the blood, hug her, and send her back to class.

You know you have good friends when....
you aren't feeling well, and they fix enough food for your family so you don't have to grocery shop for a week.

You know it must be cold when...
your husband actually admits he was cold at work.

You know it is Homecoming week when...
your students do not want to do anything, and say constantly "It's Homecoming! We shouldn't have to do work!" They also dress in weird outfits all week, and you are visually offended by the pep rally.

You know you are tired when...
you put your kids to bed, and promptly go to bed too. And you possibly fall asleep before they do.

Skating party

The girls had a roller skating birthday party on Sunday. Macy had only been one other time, and Kaylin has never been. It was funny to say the least!

I also skated with the girls, and no amount of prodding would get Bobby to put on skates. We had a great time, but I was sore for a couple days.

Kaylin crawled under the limbo stick when it got too low...

Thank you letters

Dearest Kaylin,
Thank you for not peeing on the Dora chair that was left accidently in the bathroom. I know how it is easy to get confused between a Dora chair and a toilet when you are sleepwalking. It was cute to find you sitting on the Dora chair, pants and underwear at your ankles, and your eyes shut. I'm glad I was able to find you in time, and reposition you on the toilet.

Love, your momma who is happy to not have to clean up pee


Dear Crazy Nurse,
Thank you for making my blood draw quite entertaining. I enjoyed the story of other patient who almost passed out while you were taking her blood, all the while I was trying not to pass out. Thank you for putting your face just mere inches from mine and saying loudly, "What is that on your lip?" when it was obvious it was a cold sore. You really helped me take my mind off it. Finally, thank you for taking blood from the edge of my elbow, and I love the bruises that now run up my arm to my bicep, and down to my forearm.

Sincerly, A woman who does not like having blood drawn


Dear Skating Rink Floor,
Thank you for providing a place for me to land when I wiped out Sunday while roller skating at an eight-year-old's birthday party. I felt just like a kid again as I sprawled out on the floor.

From someone who was pulled down from behind by her daughter

How many years do I left to worry about this?

I have begun to worry about my two little girls becoming teenagers in a short amount of time. It seems like  books and magazine articles about how to hopefully raise them correctly keep popping up in front of me. I'm worried because there is a fine line that parents walk between being too strict and being too loose. I see examples of that every day at my high school. I see girls every day that I think, "Oh, what did their parents do right?" or "Oh, they had better not end up like that!" I see girls get in situations and I wonder "If their parents had done X, would things have been different?"

Three times now I've observed a situation that scares me a tad. In my neighborhood, the bus picks up the high schoolers about the time I leave for school. There is a stop sign where about 8 or 9 kids gather to wait for the bus. Three times now I have been behind a black Explorer that pulls up to the stop sign, and a girl who HAS to be a freshman or sophomore leaves the pack of girls and jumps into the backseat of the Explorer. Tires squealing, Explorer peels off. The other girls longingly watch the Explorer speed away.

Now, it could be a totally innocent situation. But it might not be either. And that poor momma thinks her sweet little daughter is riding the bus to school, and instead she is riding with who know who, and doing who knows what. What option does that poor momma have? Drive her teenager to school everyday? That's where you walk that fine line between being too strict and being too loose--driving a high schooler to school is the highest form of humilation for a teenager.

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." That's all I can do-set the foundation now, and hope it stays strong through the next turbulent ten years.

Deep thoughts from my heart on a Friday.

Maybe I won a battle...

Macy got off the bus yesterday with crumpled instructions written in marker by a 7-year-old for what she was to wear to school today for Twin Day. She was pretty excited, so I asked about Decade Day, and listened intently as she rattled off what everyone was wearing. Then she looked up at me.

"And Jessa was wearing a poodle skirt." (Jessa being Kaylin's current BFF.) Pause. "I wish I had worn the poodle skirt."

Aha! Success.

And on another note, Tuesday was my dad's dad's birthday. I never met him--he died when my dad was young. The story goes that he was walking in the field, checking on the cows, and fell over dead of a heart attack. Dad told me he would have been 113 on Tuesday. That's a crazy thing to think about! I wish I'd had the opportunity to meet him.