Getting the heck out of dodge

As much as I love my children and my husband, I am flying the coop this weekend and VERY much looking forward to it. Girls' weekend in Branson with a ton of women from my church. Five friends who have become very good friends over the last couple years and I have an awesome suite, and we are doing some shopping, some faith-building workshops, good old laughing and having fun.

I get to put the girls on the bus in the morning, which I NEVER get to do, then it's time to hit the road!

Sneaky peaky

This child....

is quite devious. She knows how to work the system, and she quietly watches her sister and her friends, and just soaks it all in.

A couple weeks ago, Macy was "sick". Bobby let her stay home. I told him to send her to school, but he didn't. Kaylin observed this quietly.

Monday night, she stood at the top of the steps at 9:30, telling me she didn't want to go to school. I replied, Sorry, child, you have to. Her response? Macy didn't have to that one time! My response? Sorry, you're going to school.

Next morning, I left for work and our babysitter arrived. She's a sweet girl of about 20. She called Bobby and said Kaylin was crying and said she thought she was going to throw up. He called my mom, and Kaylin ended up over there. Once I go the text, I immediately called my mom.

Sneaky little girl was up be-bopping around, playing games, convincing Grandpa to fix her a pancake. She totally worked the system, knowing I couldn't stay home with her, so she worked that to her advantage to end up at Grandma's. Mom put Kaylin on the phone, and she knew right away she was caught and started crying. Mom took Kaylin back to school.

What am I going to do when this child is 16? Heaven help me.

The Girls and Pumpkins

Been a while since pictures have appeared...here's my pretty girls.

KK and her pumpkin...

And after the carving party...

Macy is all into this-take my picture not smiling and looking serious--thing, so that's the explanation for the first two.

Macy and her pumpkin after the carving party.

And the pretty girls together...

School Days

I can't believe I forgot to blog about Parent/Teacher Conferences! Actually, I can believe it, b/c they were very painless.

Macy is a great student, as usual, never gets in trouble, reads above average and math is below average (just like her momma) Same thing every year. Love that girl. She always tries so hard, without us "making" her, and she does well.

Kaylin. Well, if you've read my tweets, you know that she has been getting into trouble. So I was apprehensive about this one a little. Turns out all is fine. She's a little talkative (just like her momma) and has been getting just warnings. Bobby and I both thought it was more serious than that, and the teacher reassured us it wasn't and that Kaylin was a delight to have in class. She's friends with everyone, always has a smile on her face, always making others laugh and have fun. She's also always concerned that others are going to tattle on her. That's my Kaylin.

Macy is my shy child, and that really seems to be getting worse. I have to admit it is bothering me, and won't get into everything here right now. But last week she came home and said she wanted to run for Student Council, and that she needed a speech for the next day. After Kaylin was in bed, I helped her write a speech, and she practiced it over and over. Of course, she didn't use many of my suggestions. :) Here's her speech:

"Hello! My name is Macy Higgins and I would like you to vote for me for our classes student counsal. Here are some reasons you should vote for me for student counsal. I recycle, so I am helping the environment and I love all animals and I am a very outgoing person so I am not afraid to meet new people. So that is why you should vote for me."

Too cute! She didn't win, and that's fine. I was sooooo proud of her for getting up and reading the speech---only 5 did, and I was so very proud of her. I was irritated that the teacher put tally marks next to their names on the board, and she saw that only one person voted for her....grrrrrr...... But she came home not sad at bit, so all is well.

Do you love these random ones? I do.

First newspaper deadline night was last night. My staff is very young, and they went from not knowing how to draw a text box or place a picture to designing a full 16-page newsmagazine. Very proud of them. I was excited as well to see how the staff came together and bonded.

United Way is this week, and until the students raise $2000, 45 seconds of Justin Bieber's "Baby" is playing throughout the school speakers, every passing period (7 times a day) before and after school. At first it was highly obnoxious, but now it just blends in like white noise. At lunch today one of the other teacher's just randomly started humming the song. I caught myself singing it yesterday. It's now just engrained in my memory.

I think it's been a long time since I've put pictures of the girls on here. Need to do that soon.

4 Reasons

Reasons I love my girls:

1.  At the T-rex restaurant Friday afternoon, Macy said "I want to work here when I grow up." I said, "what happened with wanting to be a vet?" She replied, "Not anymore. I want to work here." Ahhh, to be young and think that working at the T-Rex restaurant will pay your bills.
2. We tried a new yogurt place where it was .39 an ounce. The girls went crazy with toppings, and Bobby and I didn't say a word. Afterwards, they both admitted they had too many toppings and they should have gotten less. Love it when they learn lessons on their own!
3. Friday night was a rarity, and I love it when it happens. Kaylin asked to sleep in Macy's room, and for two hours they played quietly in her room. When Bobby and I got ready to go to bed, they were still quietly playing. I think we were asleep before they were.
4. Almost every night, at some point during the night, they come into our room with pillows and blankets and sleep on our floor. I usually don't even know they are there until I wake up in the morning and find an obstacle course of children and dogs on our floor.

Thursday Delightfullness

I'm sitting here at parent teacher conferences, overjoyed with excitement. It's slow tonight, compared to Monday night, so I'm going to entertain myself, keep myself busy,and possibly you,  by jotting down some random thoughts.

• I did not see any of the miners be pulled out this week. When Bobby is working, I just don't turn on the TV, so I didn't know anything was going until I woke up the next morning and was checking Twitter. I'm stealing this comment from someone else, but when I realized I missed it, I kinda felt like I'd missed the moon landing or the OJ chase. 
• Our whole family, all 4 of us, have off the next three days. Woo-hoo--mark that on the calendar, because when has that EVER happened. Lots of fun family time. Come Monday, I'll probably be talking about how much we annoyed each other, but for now, looking forward to time together. 
• Looks like I might be getting a student teacher in the spring--excited about that. I've met her once, and she seems on top of things. Student teachers can be a good thing or a bad thing. I've had two; one was exceptional and one was so-so. Either way, it is a treat to get some time "off".
• The girls are going to start doing chores and receiving an allowance. They will be required to give a portion to church each week. I thought they would fight me on that part, but they really didn't.

Is it time to go home yet? Only 1 1/2 hours left. 

Oh, boy.

I emailed many of you this story, but in case you didn't get my email, here's my funny story from yesterday:


My juniors read story from  the Puritan time period called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The story  is full of excellent, descriptive imagery, so to do something different, I had  them pick 5 elements and draw them together in a picture. A boy turned his in, and there was a picture of a raft. Here’s our conversation:

Me:  “Why is there a raft on here?”

Boy: “You know, God’s raft”

Me:  “What? There is no raft in the story.”

Boy: “Yes, there is. God’s  raft.”

****Lightbulb goes off in my head*******

Me: “Oh, you  mean God’s WRATH.”

Boy: “Yes, God’s raft.”

Shirt sizes

I ordered shirts for my newspaper staff last night, and here were the sizes:

10 Smalls
3 Mediums,
5 Larges

It just strikes me funny that there were so many smalls, and I couldn't get one side of my body into a small! That's the joy of teaching 15-16 year-olds.

Nothing really

As usual, it's been a busy week. As usual, Bobby has been working a lot and I haven't seen him but an hour or two since Tuesday. I'm thankful that in this economy he has a job (or three!) but good grief. It feels like I'm a single parent when this happens, and being a single parent sucks.

Kaylin got in trouble at school on Thursday, for the 3rd time. She was grounded this weekend and had all her silly bands (all 100 of them) taken away until Monday. Today we went to a little festival with some friends, and she won 2 silly bands. She promptly handed them to me to wear, telling me she was grounded from them. Then when we got home, she took them and put them with her other silly bands.

Macy had a great grade-check on Friday; really proud of how well she is doing in school. Hopefully it continues. She was quite a bit moody at Girl Scouts on Thursday, which drives me nuts. One little comment can set her off, and she decides that no one likes her. I reminded her later that I am the Brownie troop leader because of HER, not the other girls, and if she didn't straighten up, we'd quit at the end of the year. She seemed to understand my point. Basketball sign-ups are this weekend, and she is excited about that. She's also asked to play volleyball next year.

Funny story from GS Thursday night. We have a new girl  whose parents are missionaires in China. They are back in the states until Christmas time, then they are going back to China. The girls were asking her questions about China, and one girl (not my daughter!) says, "Can you say something in Spanish?" Ummm....no. Then another girl (again, not my daughter!) says, "Well, can you say something in Mexican?" Maybe we need to work on our cultures a little bit.

Parent Teacher Conferences are this week coming up, always a fun time. I will see a big increase in the amount of parents I see, because of the new class I am teaching.

Wordless Wednesday...Or Fun with PhotoBooth

Split Allegiances

I teach at a district just 10 miles away from our town, where Bobby works and the girls go to school. Houses are cheaper in our small town, while the pay is better in my district. 

But the girls are growing up with a split allegiance. My students are constantly asking me if I am coming to their games, and we do go to quite a few. I love being able to tell the quarterback, "Awesome touchdown pass in the last 5 minutes" or tell the volleyball player "what a great game!". I think it helps build relationships with them as well. The girls tag along with me, and love all things my school as much as their own school.

Thursday night my school had a festival of sorts, and then Friday night was the Homecoming Football game. We met a new friend:

and had a great time. Of course, however, we missed the girls' Homecoming football game to go to mine. To show the split allegiance the girls are feeling, Kaylin brought this art project home Friday night:

One sleeve says "Go Bulldogs" and the other sleeve says "Go Eagles!" I laughed when I saw this--nice job Kaylin of accurately depicting both schools.

I don't want to move, and have to pull the girls away from their friends, and I don't want to take a pay cut to move to their district. Looks like we'll be dealing with this for a while.

Still here

Just checking in to say that yes, I am alive. It's coming close to being a week since I blogged last, so I figured I'd better say something, lest all my loyal readers stop reading.

I've been a bit puny today, and Bobby was at work. Thank goodness for good friends who can help out in a pinch with the girls. And the girls were wonderful all day for me too, thank goodness. I spent the day either in bed or on the couch.

Last week was Homecoming-the first ever! Of course, no one was really "coming home", but that's ok. It was very heartening to see so many kids dressed up for spirit days! At the "classic" high school, so few kids or teachers dressed up and it was sad. This was a great change!

Remember me talking about Gabe's late night wanderings in the backyard? We may have figured out what is going on. Friday night Bobby was working late. I put Kobe outside, then apparently fell asleep and left her out there. When Bobby came home at 1, he went to bring her inside and she was freaking out. There was a possum in the tree by the deck!

That's it for now. As if I haven't slept all day, I'm going to bed now.