Spring

Snow melting
People going for walks
Red shorts
Icicles falling
No heavy coats
Green grass

Macy Higgins, age 8

Working hard

Funny and interesting stories are happening around our house, but I don't have time to blog about it, or upload the photos.

I was "volunteered" to work on the program book for the fire convention coming up next month. That was a year ago. It needs to be finished by Saturday. I'm still getting ads, still getting info, so it is very hard to pull it together and figure out how many more pages I'll need it, etc. Many of the ads have been the wrong size, or need to be designed completely, or just flat-out re-designed entirely. Much of the writing has to be re-written. I'm working on this every spare second I have, including today while my students are having a reading day. I should be reading with them, but...

I will be burning the midnight oil to get this done.

Dance Competition

Yesterday my beautiful Macy got all dolled up for a dance competition, complete with fake eyelashes and full makeup again. A few of these pictures are from the "dress rehearsal" a few weeks ago, but she looked the exact same.

Look at that smile! Love her crooked little smile.

Macy and her friend Lacey.

This is most of the group, missing two. I have no idea why they are doing this pose.

Getting nervous before going onstage...

This is an accident picture, but I think it turned out pretty cool.

The girls did really well, winning a Gold. It's the equivelent of winning 3rd place. Then they won 2nd place in some other category. She loved it, and wants to do it again! The verdict is still out on if she will be in the competitive side or just taking regular dance classes in the fall.

And I finished my Jodi Picoult today, so life can return to normal.

Tidbits

Tidbits...

Bobby would like to request people to stop doing stupid things in the middle of the night so he can get some sleep, instead of no calls during the day and then being blasted all night. Thank you for your consideration. He appreciates it.

Macy has a dance competition in the morning. More fake eyelashes!

After a busy couple days at work, things are starting to calm down.

Kaylin came home yesterday asking to go to Hayden's house to play after school. She asked several times. She said, "I like him. But don't tell anyone." Ha! I just told the whole web.
I made a crucial error in judgement a couple days ago, ((No, I didn't run into the garage door again.) and started the new Jodi Picoult book. Why is this a crucial error? Because I have other things to do, and all I want to do is sit around and read this book!
So ready for summer break! And warm weather!

Scream

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There, I feel better now. Screaming helps, doesn't it?

Brag Time

From Macy's report card:

"Macy is doing an excellent job. She is a very hard worker and is popular with her peers. She needs a little practice regrouping and making change for a $1.00." [She is her mother's daughter on the math part, what can I say?]

From Kaylin's report card:

"Kaylin has had a great 3rd quarter! She enjoys school and is always eager to learn and do her work. Kaylin is doing very well with her readin . Keep reading everyday at home! She needs to work on learning how to tie her shoes." [Now if we can get her teacher to stop calling her Kay Lin, we'll be all set!]

Conversations

Tonight I took 8 little Brownie's to a PJ Party. 5 in my car, 3 in another. Here are some conversations I overhead between the 5 girls. I enjoyed just listening. I'm jotting them down now before I forget.

Hey, listen to this. It's cool. Did you know they put Jesus on the cross when he was alive and he died 35 minutes later? He just died up there. He was born on Easter and died on Christmas. No, that's not right. He was born on Christmas and died on Easter. Oh, okay. But what about Hanukkah? You get gifts for like 2 weeks. That's pretty cool!

Wouldn't it be weird if you fell down and broke your booby? But I don't think you have a bone in your booby to break. You could only rip it in half. What if men had boobies? Some men do have boobies when they get fat.
Milk squirts out boobies. (much giggling) That's so the mom can feed the baby. That's why we have belly buttons too, so the mom can feed us while in tummies. What if your belly button was as big as the whole world? You'd have a lot to eat.

I just smiled to myself. How could I not?

Lunch Order

McDonald's is so yesterday. No one who is cool at school has McDonald's. Sheesh. Only babies get McDonald's.

Mr. Goodscents is so much cooler. Here, Mom, let me write down what I want in case you forget when you get there, because you are so old.

Originally uploaded by jenhiggins11

And please, Mom, don't embarrass me like you did last time. Don't talk to my friends. They don't want to talk to you. Just bring me Mr. Goodscents, sit quietly, and don't talk to anyone.

Upward Picture Blow-out

We finished the Upward season on Saturday. It will be so nice to have our Saturday's back again! Here's our little cheerleader Kaylin. She missed one game when she was sick, but she cheered all the other games and LOVED it! Her little group was so loud!

Here she is starting the cheer at halftime. "Mom, it's called calling. Not starting." Oh, so sorry, Kaylin. By the way, I've now been demoted to being called Mom, not Mommy, by both of them.

Pretty cheerleader!

Our little basketball player! Well, not little. She's dangerously close to catching me in height soon. She loves practices and games, but does not care for Dad's "encouragment" from the sideline. As much as it pains me to say this, and probably more for Bobby to hear it, I don't think basketball will be her thing.

Part of the problem may have been that we played the same team every week, and a good friend of her's was on the other team. That's her below. Macy ended up guarding her most of the time, and that was not a good combination.

How big she is!

Bobby was her coach. He did a GREAT job with those girls. Every last one of them had a really fun time, while learning about basketball and Jesus. Bobby is great with kids--he really should have been a teacher.

Bobby and Macy, with Andy and Tess. Andy assisted Bobby, and they work together at the fire station.They are BFFs, even if Andy is a KU Fan.

And what picture blow-out would be complete without this picture? And I'm sure this will end up in the firefighter banquet slideshow next December.

Spring Break Update

Two days in to spring break, and I'm enjoying myself a great deal by doing a whole lot of nothing.

Saturday was busy with the girls' last basketball and cheerleading games, then Bobby played in a coaches/referre game that night also. We were officially all basketball-ed out!

Sunday was a great morning at church, then we had their celebration for basketball/cheerleading. A magician performed, and let me tell you he was FANTASTIC!!! His humor was as good as his magic act. I totally enjoyed myself!

Monday Bobby put the girls on the bus and let me sleep in, and then he and I took a nice brisk 4 mile walk around Watkins Mill Lake. Little chilly, but not bad once we got moving. It was so nice to spend time with him just talking! We don't do enough of that.

Last night, two words: Bon. Jovi. Our seats were incredible--we were so close we could see the sweat on his face. He sweated through three shirts--he also ripped off his shirt right in front of us to change into the third shirt, so for about 2 seconds, before he ran backstage,I saw Jon Bon Jovi with his shirt off. Yum. He had a nice mix of old and new stuff, and sang for three hours straight. Great performance!

Today I had lunch on the Plaza with a friend, then drove through The Hood to the Girl Scout store to buy some patches for the girls.

Good times, good times!

Heaven on earth

5...4...3...2...1...GO

Begin week-long spring break!!

My kids still have school, so it's a week of me laying around the house, reading, watching movies, and taking naps.

Ahhhhh...heaven on earth.

Picture tour of new high school

This morning I got to tour the new high school where I will be next year. It was a quick tour during my plan. Some parts of the building are coming along nicely, and others are still lacking walls. My area is pretty much ready to go--I could go in and teach tomorrow. Minus computer and projector, etc.

My two classrooms next year: on the left is the computer lab, and on the right is the main classroom. I will share this with another teacher. We currently have a door connecting our lab and classroom, and it will be strange next year without that door.

Here's our tiny closet.

This is what will be our computer lab.

This is what will be the main classroom.

And this is a staircase to nothing...there's a door at the top, but the door goes nowhere.

Me, the yearbook adviser and our tech guy Curt with our hard hats.

This is the curved staircase in the front entry way.

And this is what will be the front entrance

It's coming along nicely! I'm exited to get in there. I will be lost for a while--the layout is so completely different. I'm closer to the front office than I currently am, but farther away from the cafetaria.

So ready for a change and a new challenge!

Summoned

I received notice in the mail yesterday that I have been called for jury duty the first week of April. I am remotely excited about it, but it comes at a very bad time. I have a field trip that Wednesday, and our big dodgeball tournament is that Thursday. Plus my brother's family is coming in town...

Ideal situation: I go that Monday and Tuesday, then they are finished with me and I can make the field trip on Wednesday.

Then the next week I'll be in Portland... April is going to FLY by.

Pics

Some of you might remember my 365 project...to take a picture for every day of 2010. Well, I have failed. I did really well until the end of February, then two days of being away from my kids and two more days of p/t conferences killed the project. It was hard. Harder than I thought it would be.

I also realized that it's been a long time since I've put pictures of the girls on here. So here are some of my favorite's from my 365 project...before I was a loser and failed.


I looked outside and this is what I saw... standing on the porch railing to reach an icicile.

One of my favorites--I took this of myself when I got my cool new glasses. Took about 150 to get this one that I liked.

Grandma snuggling with Kaylin

Bobby and his girls...one a cheerleader, one a basketball player

And Kayling snuggling with Grandpa early in the morning.

That's it for now! I'll try to to be better at posting pictures. I've kind of been in a slump lately!

Busy weekend!

Very fun and busy day yesterday!

Basketball and cheerleading games in the morning--next week is the final week. I'm ready to have my Saturday's back!

Then our house was flooded with 13 KU fans to watch the MU/KU game. We were vastly outnumbered, and they were quiet obnoxious with their yelling, as most KU fans are. :) It was fun regardless.

Right after that, Bobby's shift headed over to Em Chamas, the Brazilian Steakhouse. FANTASTIC food--it was incredible, to say the least. The gourmet bar was to-die-for, and the 15 different kinds of meat were mouth-watering. If you leave that place hungry, you are crazy. Or a vegetarian. Here's the link if you want to check it out. You want to be hungry when you go there.

Now Macy is at a friend's house, and Kaylin has a friend over. Bobby is at work and I'm enjoying relaxing.

One more week until spring break!

Still here

I'm still alive and here. Just busy!

I'm recovering from pink eye. Still can't wear make-up or my contacts. Bobby's been sick for a couple days and is finally feeling better. Kaylin and Macy have been sick in the last week. I've been fighting if off, and (knock on wood) I think I've made it.

We are doing interviews for newspaper staff for next year, which feels weird because I won't be there with them. I'm very excited about going to the new school, but it will be bittersweet at the same time to leave this school and these kids.

I went to a conference today. It's always good to get out of the classroom and learn new skills. I left my cell phone in my car when I got in a friends car to ride together, and I realized how dependent I was on my phone when I didn't have it all day. I couldn't check my email, or my Facebook, or my Twitter, or my Words with Friends Games, or my Whirly Word Games. But it was nice at the same time to be separated from the world for a break.

Only 7 school days until a whole week off!