Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A long lag again

Oh my. It appears as though I haven't updated for almost a week and a half. Guess I should get busy, huh?

Bulleted list update:
1. Macy's basketball team wrapped up their season with a 2nd place in the tournament. It was a fun game to watch. She really enjoys basketball. Sometimes that shows and sometimes it doesn't.  The dad's are getting a team together to play in another league in Liberty, and she is very excited about that. Very excited that one girl in particular will now be on her team, and she won't have to be guarding her.

2. Kaylin's still chugging along at basketball. She has two more games. She adores basketball, adores that her dad is her coach, and tries really hard. We'll leave it at that.

3. We're in the middle of interviews for my newspaper staff next year. I'm blessed to have almost all my staff returning, and many new people applying. It's a great problem to have--but I don't know where I'm going to put them all! I'll take that problem anyday, however. I have a really great staff, and they are producing (in my opinion) some awesome stuff online and in print. They are pushing themselves this month and producing EIGHT more print pages in our April issue. So proud of how hard they work, while having fun and enjoying themselves as well.

4. Somehow I got involved in this Joplin prom dress drive. Long story short, there is a drive to provide prom dresses for the Joplin students so they can enjoy a 100% free Prom. The results have been amazing! I have so many dresses in my room I had to go to the theater teacher and borrow one of his rolling racks that he uses for costumes! Some are ahem older dresses and might not ahem appeal to high school students, but it's the thought that counts.

5. Still praying over this New York mission trip I'm thinking of taking in July. I told the organizer I was needing a major lightening bolt from God to strike me saying, "GO! DO IT".  But I have major mom guilt about spending the money. That lightening bolt needs to hit soon--almost all the spots are full.

6. Girls and I went to IHOP for National Pancake Day today. They were giving away a short stack--three pancakes each! Walked right in, one of my favorite former students was our waitress, and she slipped in some chocolate chips in our free pancakes. Awesome! 

I think that's good enough for now. Maybe I can update sooner than once every two weeks. :)

Sunday, February 19, 2012

How the other half lives

Wednesday night Bobby and I had an amazing opportunity--free tickets--in a suite, no less--to our beloved Missouri Tigers basketball game. My wonderful parents said they'd watch the girls overnight so we could go (8:00 start time) so we headed down to Columbia. We pulled in the special private parking lot, and we wondered how our Ford Taurus would blend in with the other fancy cars.

There was a special private entrance, since we were in the suite section. We made our way to the suite, and were shown the coat closet, the free food, free drinks in the fridge, nice padded seats.

We learned that Governor Nixon was on one side of us, Gary Pinkel's was on the other.

All in all, it was like seeing how the other half lives. You know, the non-teacher/firefighter side. The ones who can afford suites like that. It was an amazing game, a blow-out for Missouri, and we had a fantastic time. Arriving home at 1:00 and having to teach the next day was NOT awesome, however.

I would not trade my experiences at William Jewell for anything, but wonder what life would have been like in a big university. Experiencing games at Hearnes (now Mizzou Arena) would have been amazing. Hoping the girls have a chance to experience something like that for their college experience.

Here's Bobby and I at the game:

It was a very fun date night!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had a simply lovely Valentine's Day. Bobby came home from the fire station with Valentine donuts for the girls, a dozen roses for me, and a single rose for each of the girls. They were so proud to put their roses in a vase!

I played hooky today. Took a nap after putting the girls on the bus, went to Walmart to get the stuff for their parties (seriously...this "no peanut/tree nut/coconut" thing really limits what you can buy),  took lunch out to the winery to eat with Bobby, scored free Mizzou tickets for tomorrow night, went to the girls parties,  gave each girl their Valentine presents, and fixed a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner. Whew.

Back to the grind tomorrow. After two days off, I'm bound to be tired. An 8:00 game in Columbia isn't going to help that either. Oh well. All for a good cause. :)

Monday, February 13, 2012

Finally!

We finally got a snow day! After 8 or 9 last year, I was beginning to get a little desperate. Don't get me wrong--I am loving this warm weather this winter, but was craving a little snow.

No idea why schools canceled--there really wasn't much on the roads. But I'm not complaining!

We did our usual that we do EVERY snow day--snow ice cream for breakfast, lounge around in pj's all morning, eat mac and cheese for lunch, sledding in the afternoon with friends, come home and have hot chocolate and popcorn for a snack. This is our snow day. Every time. Love it!

One of these days I'm going to have to stop sledding with them. I'm going to break something. But for now, I love it as much as they do. Up and down the hill, over and over. Today a friend had a snowboard thing with a handle, and that was a lot of fun. Fell hard on my butt a few times, flipped over on the sled a few times, but a great time.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Saturday night tidbits

1. Last week was Courtwarming week at school, so lots of dress-up days. Apparently superhero day means girls wearing men's underwear with tights underneath. Even some of my fave kids did it. Hated to tell them how tacky it looked. :(

2. Conferences coming up this week, so lots of long hours. No school Friday will make up for it, though!


3. I've been dying for snow, and it looks like we'll finally get some on Monday. Will it be enough for a snow day? Who knows. I'm glad I don't have to listen to the kids at school getting all worked up in excitement.

4. My traveling partner in crime and I made a big boo-boo. We are going to Seattle in April, and made airline reservations over two or three weeks ago. Just realized on Thursday that we made the reservations for 7:30 PM instead of 7:30 AM. Oops. We've half- fixed the mistake; will have to wait a week or two to see if we can fix the other half of the mistake. Regardless, I am so excited about Seattle. Cannot wait!!

5. I'm considering going on a church mission trip to New York City in July. Doing lots of praying, and waiting to see if it will work out, and if it's God's will that I go on the trip.

Happy Saturday night!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Happy Monday!

It's Monday!

The Tigers won.

The Giants won.

I won our little Super Bowl betting system (full of random things like what color gatorade will be thrown on the winnng coach, will the injury cart be brought onto the field, who would call the first time-out, and which of our kids would cry first.) No money involved, but I can brag until next year.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Sad day

I knew this day was coming. And Sarah, do not feel bad or guilty. I knew it was coming.

I've blogged before about the girls' sleeping habits. When Bobby's at the fire station, 9 times out of 10 they fall asleep either in our bed, or in their "special spots" on our floor. They've done this for YEARS. Sometimes it's aggravating when I want to be alone, but as I've said before, I knew it would stop one day and I embraced it while I could. Macy and I butt heads all day long, and it's so nice to have quiet time with just her. She lets her guard down, and lets me in, which she won't do during the day.

Tonight we picked up Tess from basketball and took her home. She was FREAKING out about catching whatever sickness her sister Kate had. She was telling me in the car that she didn't want to sleep in the same room as Kate.

Me: Well, you could sleep with Jane.
Tess: No way!
Me: You could sleep on the couch.
Tess: No way!
Me: You could sleep with your mom, since Andy's at the station.
Tess: (big laugh) Yeah right. Why would I sleep with my mom?
Me: Sometimes the girls sleep with me. (I knew to tread carefully here)
Kaylin: We do!
Macy: in a quiet, defensive voice Yeah, like when I was 7 or when I was sick

I knew I had to quickly change the conversation, so I started rambling about who knows what, to save Macy from the embarrassment I knew she would be feeling

When we started getting ready for bed, I asked her if she was going to sleep with me or in her own bed. I received a very short, very curt reply "My own bed."

I went in to tuck her in, and gave her a light kiss on the cheek. "You are welcome to sleep with me anytime, and I won't tell anyone," I whispered before I left. She pretended not to hear me.

My baby girl is growing up.