For the record

I would like to state for the record that today is January 30. We wore t-shirts, the girls rode bikes outside after school for almost two hours, and Bobby grilled hamburgers on the grill. It was 65 degrees on January 30.

That is all.

SOC--Girl Scout Lock-in

Last night my good friend Amy took 8 Junior Girl Scouts to a lock-in with 1000 of our closest Girl Scout friends. It was insane. I'd heard from others about how organized it was, and it was crazy how smoothly everything went. I'm sure there were problems behind the scenes, but they hid them well. It was a well-oiled machine. You'd have to be if you had 1000 Girl Scouts (yes, you read that number correctly) overnight!

Here's the girls when we arrived at 8:30 pm, so ready to get started.

There were games galore in both gyms, tables with crafts set up in the cafeteria area, and a massive concession stand. Girls had a little green card with pictures of what they could eat and crafts to do, and then the pictures were crossed off. Games were unlimited amount of time.

Then came swimming...from 11-12. Let me tell you, these girls were crazy over the swimming.

The girls had to pass a swimming test in order to go in the deep end, which 5 did with ease. It was fun watching them try the rock wall, the slide, the diving board. There were at least 8 lifeguards in the pool area too.

After swimming, the girls went back to the crafts/games/food until 3. From 2-3 Amy and I had guard duty at one of the doors. It was incredibly boring, and I started getting tired at this point. (On a side note, my sister's "job" was to guard the hospitality room. How fair is that??)

At 3 they brought out popsiccles, shut down the crafts/games, and did Bingo, movies, dance/running around like mad people, and jump rope. Our girls were wearing down at this point. I don't think any of them had ever stayed up all night, and it showed about 5 am. They were walking zombies.

In a nutshell, it was an amazing experience for the girls. I'm thankful to be able to do these things with the girls--I've known all of them for 5 years, and many are like daughters to me. When I told others what I was doing, I heard lots of "I could never do that!" or "You are crazy!"

Yep. I am crazy. But fun.

And I'm sure I went over my 5 minutes. Shoot me. I've had 4 hours of sleep and my brain is mush.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Link up your post below.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Hair cuts and other random details

It's been, again, a busy week. I know, I know, I keep saying that. Because it's true. This extra class is killing me, along with planning for my other ones. It should get easier in the next few weeks--hopefully.

All in all, while it was a busy week, it was a good week.

Kaylin has been growing her hair out for Locks of Love, and today we finally ventured to the hair salon to get it cut.  Here's the back of her hair before it was cut:

And here is the cutie patootie after her 11 inch hair cut.

She looks super cute with her hair short like this. I'm always amazed how cute it looks. She basically hadn't been combing her hair the last few weeks; just putting it in a ponytail. I'm excited for her to not look like a ragmuffin all the time.

Not much else to say right now...Macy's being a difficult 10-year-old much of the time. The hair stylist (a good friend of ours) said 4th and 5th grades were the worst. We are 1/2 way through 4th, so only 1 1/2 years to go! HA!

Two more basketball games tomorrow, then Macy and I (along with 1000 other Girl Scouts) are doing a lock-in at the community center. Our swimming time is 11-12. Should make for an interesting Sunday!

Stream of Conciousness Sunday

5 minutes of writing... I can't figure out why this is in italics. I tried to change it and it won't. Italics annoys me.

I've been super busy at work, and throw in an after-holiday party (that I was in charge of planning), a deadline night for newspaper, a trip to the ER/hospital stay for my dad, along with the usual homelife stress, and I haven't had 2 seconds for myself this week. Plus I have a stack of grading I haven't even touched. Plus there is a huge pile of laundry over running the upstairs, and the girls' rooms are a mess.


I'm very frustrated/sad/upset about some things, and have no one to talk to. That makes the frustration/sadness/upsetness (is that a word?) worse. 


On a positive note, after the above downers, these beautiful little girls spent the afternoon with us. From left to right: Aly, Ava, Kaylin, Kiersten and Laney. All the same age, in the same Sunday school class, in the same church choir, in the same GA class on Wednesday night. I'm so thankful that Kaylin (and Macy too) have girls their own age at church. I never had much of that, and I'm so thankful they will have each other as they grow up and encounter all the drama and difficulties that come with being a teenager and growing up. 

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Link up your post below.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Now…
1. Grab the button

(it’s over at Fadra's place)

2. Write your post.
3. Link up there.

Things overheard at Kaylin's birthday party

Right now there are 8 little 7 and 8 year olds running around my house screaming bloody murder, having a pillow fight with pillow pets, and oohing and ahhing over the dogs. Since I'll be on my laptop most of the night working on things, thought it might be funny to keep a running list of funny things I overhear from these crazy girls tonight.

1. Kaylin, your room is messy. My room is spotless. I can't even have a sock on the floor without getting in trouble.
2. Do NOT give me apples. Apples make me hyper.
3. There's a DOG in the bathroom!
4. Can we watch the Justin Bieber movie? (screams)NOOOOOOOOOO!!
5. My mom lets me eat cookies straight out of the oven. She doesn't care if I burn my mouth.
6. Can I lick the cookie sheet?
7. This is my first sleepover. (said about 75 times)
8. My mom told me not to eat all your food. She thinks I eat a lot.
9. Is that your dad upstairs in bed with your mom? (said in the morning when Bobby came from fire station)
10. Can I have coke with my breakfast?

Updated: The birthday girl did not have such a great birthday party. All was fine until about 10, when she began running a slight fever and didn't feel well. Of course we were out of Tylenlol, so with a great sigh, Bobby brought some from the fire station. She fell asleep on the couch shortly after. It was too late to call parents, so I did my best to keep her contained. I figured at that point they were already exposed anyway. So everyone else ate chips, played, and watched movies while she slept on the couch. Not the way she wanted that party to happen!


Newest update: Kaylin is feeling better this morning, but definitely not up to par. She has moved off the couch and is attempting to hang out with her friends.

Priceless story

Priceless story for this Friday evening:

One of my senior boys apparently went to Walmart last night with a stolen credit card. Purchased a few items, then went back again and was caught this time on security camera. His face was plastered all over the news last night, and the other students turned him in. He was arrested. His mom had to bail him out of jail this morning because his girlfriend was going into labor.

You can't make this stuff up.

Happy Friday!

Basketball season is back again

Oh, how I love my Saturday's in January, February, March--running from one basketball game to the next, keeping track of water bottles, basketball shoes, uniforms, etc.

Today started with just one game, thankfully. Macy had her first game. Bobby is again her coach, along with his BFF Andy (today they coached with their MU and KU shirts on, respectively).  They played their "rival" team, and we were really hoping to pull off the win. Instead we ended up with a tie. But Macy played great--if you've read here before, you'll know that Macy has the skills and the height and the knowledge, but sometimes lacks the want-to and desire. Today, all was there. She missed a few shots and is normally a pretty good shooter, but that's okay. She was playing hard and trying, and we can't ask for better than that.

Here's my beautiful 5'1" girl--yes, she's ONE inch shorter than me. ONE inch.

Hello there

Just checking in, so I can stay in the habit of writing again, but I don't have much time or much to say.

School started back up again, and I'm busy. I picked up an new class, and lost a prep hour. The unit I'm teaching in my Junior English class is one I've never done before, so of course that requires extra work too.

Macy's got something going on with her eye, so she's going to doctor tomorrow. She has her first game on Saturday. Kaylin starts bball practice next week.

That's it for now!

Running goals for 2012

Just went back to December of 2010 in the blog archives and found my running goals for 2011. Here's the entry:

Setting goals

I'm thinking that by writing this down, in front of everyone, that it will force me to follow through with this.

Last summer, I had built my way up to running 4 miles, then some things happened and my running fell way off. Okay, my running stopped altogether. I am fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it) to be in a Sunday School class full of runners who talk about it all the time and make you want to run as well. So one of those friends and I decided to do the following runs this next year.

5k on January 30: Groundhog Day Run 
This 5k is all underground, in the caves of KC.

10k on April 2: Rock the Parkway
This 10k winds around Ward Parkway.

 Half-marathon on June 4: Hospital Hill
This is the GrandDaddy of all races. 

Now, dear readers, hold me to this. Make me do it. For the sake of my genetically high blood pressure and (slightly) high cholesterol, make me do it.

That was from December 2010. Now in January 2012, here's my update.

I really didn't do too bad--I actually did better than this. Here's my running history from 2011:

April 2 was my first ever 5k, Rock the Parkway. Heres's the blog entry for it.
May 21 was the Girls On the Run 5k, Macy's 1st 5k too! Here's the blog entry for it.
June 5 was the Hospital Hill 5k. Didn't quite make the half I had planned on, but here's the entry
August was the Susan G. Komen 5k. Apparently this one didn't rate a blog entry.
October 15 was my first half marathon! Man, can't believe I did that. Here's the blog entry

So ended the year with 4 5k's and a half marathon. Not bad for this non-runner.

Here's my running goals for 2012: Again, written down to force me to do it. (hopefully)
1. Keep track of my running miles so I can total them up as the year goes on.
2. Lose about 10 pounds to make running easier.
3. Add cross training/weights to make core stronger.
4. Try to run faster as the year goes on. 

Here's the races I want to run. Not picking the distances yet in some cases to see how the year goes.
 I will be in Seattle and can't do Rock the Parkway, which makes me sad. I liked that one.

February 5--Trail Run 5k
April 21--Oz race, distance TBD
May 8--Mother's Day 5k
June 2--Hospital Hill, distance TBD
October 20--Waddell and Reed half marathon

That's my plan. We'll see what happens. Need to consult with my running friends to see what they are doing. A HUGE part of my motivation is having someone to run with, even if it's only at the starting line and finish. Anyone want to run with me?????

New Year's Eve

I grew up spending NYE at Junior and Ellen's (Hi, Ellen!). Adults would play Pitch for hours, kids would run around playing, lots of good food. Ellen would make sure to have treats for the kids, and  the TV would come on about 11:45 to watch the ball drop. Midnight would come, and we'd pack up and be home by 12:30.  Great memories I will always have with me.

We hosted NYE last night again. We've done it for a few years, not sure how many. Bobby has managed to be off somehow (except for one year). Same events at our house. Adults play games, kids run around playing, some crazy dancing on Just Dance 3 on the Wii, lots of good food. TV on at 11:55 last night (cutting it close) to watch the ball drop. Several left right away, some stayed, and some stayed until 2 am.

It makes me sad when I see people post on Facebook how they put their kids to bed at a normal hour and watched movies. One friend said they set all the clocks forward and pretended 8:00 was 12:00 so they could put their kids to bed early. 

If you've read here for any length of time, you know creating memories and traditions for my kids is huge for me. I want my kids to remember how Mom and Dad let them stay up until 2 am hanging out with friends one night a year. I want my kids to remember our house as a welcoming place where friends would come over. I want my kids to remember NYE as a fun time.

Welcome to 2012!