Red hair don't care

Macy has been begging to dye her hair red for months. We've had discussions with our hairstylist about the best way to accomplish this without permanently damaging her hair or ruining it somehow. I was not about to strip her hair and bleach it, in order to dye it. So we reached a compromise- IF we could find a non-permanent red hair color at Walmart, we'd do it. She and I looked at every.single.box of hair dye. There are plenty of reds, but not wash out ones. She was not really pleased with the color we picked out- #23 medium auburn- but we bought it and headed home.

On went the dye, and i somehow got it all over her face and shoulders. She looked like an oompah loompa or like she had a really bad spray tan. But it all washed off in the shower.

She is very happy about her hair. It washes out in 28 shampoos, which I'm happy about. No permanently damaging her hair. Who knows what it will look like when it starts fading out.

I try to be a laid back mom on the things I can be laid back about- I fuss with her enough over way more important things, so it's nice to be able to let her do things like this. This is what she'll remember-"remember when I was 10 and you let me dye my hair red?" or the time I dyed her hair blue with Kool-Aid and hopefully she won't remember the fights, or all the times I had to say no. You have to pick your battles as a parent...you can't say no all the time. 

Love Languages

Bobby and I are attending a Sunday School class called Committed Couples. It's a new class that just started a couple weeks ago. We really  like the teachers, so when they said they were starting a new class, we decided to give it a try. It's not marriage counseling for couples who are struggling, but rather a class to keep your marriage strong and honor Christ at the same time. We've started with the 5 Love Languages, which has been interesting  to learn about. Of course, I don't know Bobby's Love Language because he hasn't done the quiz yet. :)

We've been talking about the 5 Love Languages for Children a little in class as well, so today I had the girls take the quiz to determine their Love Language. I had them do it on their own, away from each other, and I didn't help them other than explain the directions.

Here's Macy's results:

This tells us Macy would prefer to have Words of Affirmation (good job, I'm so proud of you, etc.) and spend Quality Time with us over Physical Touch. This is not a surprise--she does not like being touched. I was a little surprised her Receiving Gifts was so low-at this age, they are materialistic by nature, and she loves getting gifts. So with Macy, we need to work on using Words of Affirmation and Quality Time to reach her best and show her we love her.

Here's Kaylin's results:

I am SHOCKED her Physical Touch score wasn't higher. This kid loves to touch--she is always holding my hand, holding onto my arm, cuddling, climbing in my lap, willingly gives me kisses (the other day when I was dropping her off at Worlds she hopped into the front seat to give me a kiss before going), always wants to be touching me. I am not surprised at Words of Affirmation--she thrives on being told she's doing a good job, that we are proud of her.

Probably a boring post for most of you, but I found it interesting enough to record here for those in contact with my girls to see what works for them and what doesn't. And it will be interesting to see how that changes as they get older.

2011-2012 DONE

First day and last day of 2nd grade

 

First day and last day of 4th grade

Finally.

I have been crazy busy for the last week. I mean, insanely, can't think straight, not sure whether I'm coming or going, can hardly sleep busy. Grading senior portfolios, grading 85 research papers (who assigned them to be due at the very end of school? Oh, that's right I DID), working on two powerpoints for our end of the year celebration, getting newspaper stuff ready, working on a cookbook for teacher appreciation that never got handed out to the teachers (DO NOT get me started on this...my part was finished), and on and on and on and on.

But today was the last day of school. Papers are graded. PowerPoints Presented. NOTHING looming in front of me but sleeping in, getting some sun, spending time with my girls. I have a great schedule (that I had to fight for and won, thankyouverymuch) next year, and a great group of newspaper kids.

And my brother's whole family, complete with Lucy Goosey the dog, comes in town next week. What could be more perfect than THAT??

Nothing.

School Notes

School Notes

1. My students have been working on a big paper for over a week. It's due on Friday. Some people have written 3 pages, some have written 1 paragraph. I have repeated the directions so many times I want to bang my head on the desk. It's a great assignment, but uffda, my brain has clicked off for summer and so has theirs.

2. Today my phone blew up with texts during 6th hour. It was from a girl I didn't know, who was obviously having boyfriend problems. I texted back that she had had the wrong number, then read the texts to my TA. One boy heard me, and started laughing hysterically. They go to another school, and he works with them at Price Chopper, but they had been keeping their "dating" secret. Not now! Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty darn funny.

3. Seniors last day was this past Monday. It was bittersweet--three of those kids came with me from LHS and started our newspaper FROM SCRATCH. They did an awesome, awesome, awesome job the last two years at North. I'm very sad to see them go, but I know that time moves on and it's time for them to go.

4. I've got an amazing group of juniors coming up and I am looking forward to seeing what they will accomplish on newspaper.

5. I've very overwhelmed at school with these papers, portfolios, planning a lunch, etc, but I'm calling in sick tomorrow to do Field Day with the girls at school!

5. I'm dreading Friday. It's been a year.

Happy Mother's Day!

Just some PhotoBooth craziness with my two crazies before bed tonight. The girls picked me out cool new windchimes (I wanted some!) and they were so good all day. Happy Mother's Day! Love you, Mom!

Haiku's

Friday, we were looking at haiku's in Creative Writing. My brother has a blog with haiku's, so I pulled a couple of his to share with the kids. I picked the following two:

brandon's been here

strainer in the sink
alfredo jar soaking wet
scent of pasta wafts

Moose
moose in the window
patiently watching the street for
mom's arrival home 

As you may or may not remember, haiku's follow an exact 5-7-5 syllable per line rule. One very quick kid pointed out the middle line of the Moose haiku has 8 syllables. Yep, it sure does. So of course I had to email my brother to point this out to him. His response, in the form of a haiku:

Students pondering
the usage of eight   oh my
the humanity!

When they came in to class this morning, I had it written on the board. The ones who were awake chuckled, the ones who were sleep looked confused.  A couple said they were going to write back to him; we'll see if they do.

Fun times on a Monday!

Bragging on Bobby

A bug of some sort has been running through our house. First Macy last week, Kaylin over the weekend and Monday, and me the last part of this week. He has been so helpful in helping with everything, especially this week when I was down for the count. He has stayed home with the girls, since it's easier for him to work miss then me.

When the girls are sick, they always want to sleep with me. He's been nice enough to let them do that, and has been sleeping on the couch so they can sleep with me. When I was sick, he slept down there also, in theory to give me the whole bed, but in reality so he doesn't get my germs.

It was cute to see him sleeping under a pink princess blanket when I came downstairs in the morning.

Love you honey!

Itchy, red bumps

Back story: Yesterday at school there was an trip to the pond to look at bullfrogs for Earth week, and after school Kaylin was playing outside with the bullfrogs at a neighbors house.

Her GA teacher on Wednesday nights at church texted me and said, "you'd better come look at Kaylin." I was feeling under the weather but headed up there. She had red bumps all over her face and legs. We hurry to CVS to get benedryl, and everyone is sure she has poison ivy.

By the time I get her in the shower, it is all over her arms, back, shoulder, face and legs. We dose her up and put on poison ivy spray, and try to keep her from touching it.

This morning she woke up without a mark of any kind! It wasn't poison ivy, she had hives! She'd ran a fever on Sunday, and she's had hives before after a fever, but never this bad. It was all over. How strange!!