Life with the Higgins Fam

Hair cuts and other random details

2012-01-27T19:29:00.000-06:00

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

2012-01-22T20:14:00.001-06:00

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

2012-01-15T00:25:00.001-06:00

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

2012-01-13T22:11:00.000-06:00

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

2012-01-07T23:00:00.000-06:00

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

2012-01-05T21:23:00.000-06:00

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

2012-01-02T17:00:00.000-06:00

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

2012-01-01T21:49:00.000-06:00

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!

fun on break

2011-12-29T16:50:00.000-06:00

I love making the most of our Christmas break. Fun mixed with REST. I haven't set my alarm for a week, and don't plan to until Tuesday morning.

So yesterday's agenda was roller skating with a group from church. We cleaned the living room in the morning, then headed out. Macy got her skates and was off--didn't see her much for the next two hours. I stayed with Kaylin. We hadn't even made halfway around when she fell, grabbing me and pulling me down in the process. She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. I forced to finish the loop; can't exactly stop on a skating rink. She sat down on a table and cried. After a bit, this mean mom forced her to go back out, and she cried through another loop. Eventually she settled down and went around a couple times by herself. Later Bobby mentioned that she might have gotten a concussion due to the size of the knot on the back of her head. Felt a little guilty when he said that, but oh well.

Today was a beautiful day for December 29, and we went hiking with my sister and niece. Went farther than we had intended, but it was fine. Kaylin stopped frequently for "pretzel breaks", but it was a beautiful day and a nice hike.

Tomorrow's agenda? Not sure. Macy wants to go fishing on Saturday with the new fishing pole Santa brought.

I'm still here!

2011-12-27T15:36:00.000-06:00

Well, well, well. Who was going to be a better blogger? Oh, that's right, me.

How do you catch up on the last month where you have basically not blogged at all? You really can't. But I will try a bulleted list, in no particular chronological order.

1. Macy was a reindeer in her drama club play. Cutest little reindeer.
2. Girls had a choir performance at church. Macy had a solo. She has a sweet little voice.
3. Bobby's been working a lot, between the winery and the fire station.
4. Bobby surprised me with the newest iPhone for Christmas. I am in love with it--old one was soooooo slow and updated. Love this super fast new one!
5. Girls had a great Christmas. Spending time with family is so important, and we did a lot of it!
6. Basketball practice has started for Macy. Yeah.
7. Basketball practice for Kaylin has not started yet. Yeah.
8. New Year's Eve is at our house again. I'm thinking of just making things from Pinterest.
9. I haven't ran since the half-marathon. Time to get back on the wagon!

That's it for now. Once again, setting a goal to keep this updated. See, my students found this for a bit, and that was awkward. But they have short memories, and have moved on. Also, I like to tell funny stories about the girls. However, they are getting old enough that they recognize this, and I respect their privacy. We'll see what happens as we move forward.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T09:09:00.000-06:00

Getting our Christmas tree

2011-12-08T11:17:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite family traditions is going to the tree farm to chop down our tree. Even though Bobby wanders all over and takes 20 hours to find the tree, it's fun. This year, though, we found it quickly and were in and out fast.

The girls and Santa. The same Santa has been there for the 7 years we've been coming here.

Lots of horsing around while picking the tree

Macy and Bobby on the hayride up to the field

Me and Kaylin on the hayride

Even though we found the tree quickly, and it is outwardly pretty, it has been my least favorite tree. Something is different with the branches, and the ornaments keep sliding off and won't stay on. We keep finding ornaments at the bottom of the tree. Oh well, it's still pretty, and I would take it and the experience over a store-bought tree anyday!

Thanksgiving Day...way late

2011-12-03T10:25:00.000-06:00

Here's Macy with the shot I get every Thanksgiving--- watching HER parade.

We spent the day with my parents. While it was quiet and I usually like busy, it was a nice, relaxing day and I think grandparents and grandchildren both enjoyed spending time together. Here's my mom instrcuting Macy about the parts of a turkey.

Showing her some part of the turkey...

Macy picking out the innards of the turkey. Yes, that bag with turkey innards is still in our freezer.

Kaylin had a nice round of basketball with my dad in the driveway. It was so nice to see him able to go out and play with her outside.

Macy showing Grandpa the bag with turkey guts..

Macy and the turkey heart

Kaylin and Papa planting a tree in a flowerpot.

Kaylin and Papa planted this tree when it was tiny, and so was Kaylin.

It was a great day!

Thankful for a nice relaxing weekend

2011-11-27T21:40:00.000-06:00

Bobby worked overtime on Saturday and his regular day today, so the girls and I were on our own this weekend. We did pretty much nothing--cleaned up around the house, decorated for Christmas, and just chilled. They had friends over last night and I graded papers. Today we went to church (I got to hold a 3-week-baby for 1.5 hours in the nursery! Ahhh for a my baby fix!), I took a nap, and we hung out. They didn't hardly fight at all. It was a great weekend with nothing pressing so we could hang out. I'm so thankful for time with my two girls!

Thankful for the trip to MN!

2011-11-26T23:11:00.001-06:00

Long overdue pictures from Kaylin's trip to Minnesota!

With her wings from her very first flight. After the flight attendant handed them to her, she said, "Oh. I thought they would be pieces of the actual wing." Oh, Kaylin. You crack me up.

Me and Kaylin overlooking the falls on the Mississippi River. During the summer you can do rafting trips on it. How cool would that be????

My newspaper kids and Kaylin, before we started riding the rides.

They had 2 of these gigantic trees inside the Mall of America. Can you spot Kaylin? She's pretty small compared to the tree!

I couldn't ride this one with her--it was like a giant seesaw, and those circles on the surfboard turned. Barf city for me, much excitement for Kaylin. She rode it about 6 times in a row.

And this roller coaster...can you tell from the picture it goes STRAIGHT UP? Yeah, it does. Then flips upside down over and over. I rode this with her a couple times, then my head couldn't take it anymore. Anyone remember how the old Orient Express at Worlds of Fun would bang your head around? That's what this one did. She rode it 15 times probably total, and EIGHT in a row. Sheesh.

She has been begging for fake glasses, so I finally caved and bought her some.

Me and Kaylin in front of that giant tree.

Our first trip to IKEA!

Kaylin and her buddy Savana; poor Savana. I owe her some special for putting up with Kaylin the whole trip. All I've heard since we've been home is "I miss Savana!" They are in one of the skywalks that Minnesota has--love those things! You can see the snow on the ground.

Saturday we had to go to the awards ceremony. It was over 2 hours long, and she sat perfectly still playing on her DS for over 2 hours. Love it!

Mary Tyler Moore statue, with snow coming down. We had to explain to the kids who Mary Tyler Moore was!

On the way home, the pilot let her sit in the cockpit!! So cool!

It was a fun trip and I'm very thankful I was able to take her with me. That said, I'm also very thankful that both girls have been on journalism trips with me and that I don't have to take them anymore.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T17:45:00.000-06:00

Today I'm thankful for a nice Thanksgiving dinner with my parents. Bobby was working, my sister's in-laws were in town, and my brother's family was in Atlanta. Mom cooked like the whole family was still there, and the girls and I had a great time hanging out with Mom and Dad. Mom and Macy washed dishes, and she instructed Macy on the different parts of the turkey. (Side note--My crazy daughter now has a ziplock bag in the freezer with a turkey tail, neck, innards, and a heart.) Dad and Kaylin played basketball in the driveway for a bit, then planted a little tree in a pot. I took a nap and Mom took the girls to the park. It was a beautiful day! Thankful for time with my Mom and Dad!

Now...only 4 hours until we depart for Black Friday craziness!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful for 3 days off!

2011-11-22T17:39:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite things about teaching are the days off. Like three days at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas, a week off for spring break, and the glorious summer off. I LOVE teaching, love inspiring students, love being there for them, but ohhhhh are the three days off worth it.

Three days of rest, three days of time with family, three days of sleeping in.... can't wait!

Thankful for an awesome work environment.

2011-11-21T22:11:00.000-06:00

Tonight I'm thankful for some amazing co-workers. Oh, sure, we have our fair share of bad ones, but who doesn't? They don't count. Since we are a relatively small school, we have a small staff. That makes it easier to get to know one another, and makes it easier to get to know one another. I work with some amazing teachers, who try really hard for their students. That makes for a wonderful teaching environment. I also work with about 5 or 6 teachers on a committee whose sole purpose is to bring fun and positive vibes to the faculty and staff. We are currently planning some Random Acts of Kindness for the month of December, and it's been fun to plan together. When you work with fun people, it just makes the day so much better. It's also great when they have your back and are there for you when you need them.

Thankful for home

2011-11-20T20:48:00.002-06:00

Tonight I'm thankful for a safe flight home, a great trip with great students, and the peace that comes with being at home.

Thankful for a soft hotel bed

2011-11-18T21:50:00.000-06:00

Thankful for a soft hotel bed, a dark room, and a sweet 7-year-old snuggled up against me for a good night's sleep. Yesterday and today were long days...lots of time at Mall of America, then took 3 girls to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn, then presented a session this morning, plus another one tomorrow. Having fun in Minneapolis, but boy, am I thankful for this soft hotel bed, a dark room, and my sweet 7-year-old

Thankful for brave kids

2011-11-17T20:36:00.000-06:00

Spent a great day at the Mall of America. Day started with a lockdown drill--are we at school still????-- then shopped, rode rides, ate lunch, went to the aquarium, rode more rides, came back to hotel. I've seen about 1/8 of the Mall of America, and that's generous. Tomorrow night we're going back for some "serious shopping," according to the girls. Wonder what that will look like, since what they were doing today looked pretty serious to me.

Today, I'm thankful that my KK (and Macy too, but I'm talking about KK here) is not afraid of things. She rocks on the light rail, then did not think twice about any of the rides. There were some pretty extreme one, and she didn't bat an eye. One roller coaster went STRAIGHT UP, flipped up over and over and over and over, and she rode it EIGHT times in row. Ran straight from exit to entrance to ride again. She also can make friends with a brick wall, and started talking to a little girl. They rode a bunch of times together.

I'm so thankful that KK is not afraid of much.

2011-11-16T21:39:00.000-06:00

Tonight I am thankful for:

a safe flight
13 miles of skyway to avoid walking in the cold
Uggs to keep my feet warm
free hot chocolate in the hotel
awesome high school students to travel with
free wireless internet at the hotel
being able to text Macy at home

Thankful for trips

2011-11-15T22:21:00.000-06:00

As I take a break from packing to update this, I am thankful for the opportunity to travel. In case you didn't know, I love-love-love to go-go-go. Rare is a night when we stay home--we are always going somewhere. And I love to get away for the weekend! We can't afford to travel as much as I would like, but that's okay. That's one reason I love my job--2 times a year I get to take high school students on fun trips--a mixture of journalism convention and sight-seeing. Tonight, I am thankful for the opportunity to take Kaylin on this trip to Minneapolis with me.

I am thankful that 2 years ago, I took Macy to Washington D.C. with me. I had her keep track of our adventures in a journal, and tonight I pulled it out to read some. Here are my excerpts--not edited by me, keep in mind she's 7 at the time.

"We went on a tooer of the capatl and it was boring. Then we got to see the wight hous! We saw the lencin mumorel. The stachu is hewmongs! We saw the reflecshin pool. It is longer than I thot."

"We went to teh Washington Munumant. It was cool because I tuched it!"

" We saw the toom of the on knowed sulger."

So thankful for that trip with Macy, the memories we made, and the memories forever captured in her journal. Hopeful the trip with Kaylin is just as great!

Back to packing...

Thankful for my momma

2011-11-14T19:55:00.001-06:00

Today I'm thankful for my mom. She's always there to help me--whether that's to sew something (because I can't), patch my daughter's jeans (because I can't), tell me exactly where in Walmart some cooking item is (because I can't find it), pick up my kids because I'm sick/busy/out of town/working, drive my kids somewhere because I'm sick/busy/out of town/working, or fix me something special (just because I'm hungry), she's always there for me. She raised me to care about others, to be honest, kind and caring, and to love Jesus. Especially when working with high school kids whose mothers are less than stellar, I'm thankful my childhood was "normal" and that my mom raised me right.

On another note, we had a "real" fire situation at school--nothing ended up happening--but we were outside for a while. My newspaper kids were taking pictures of the fire trucks arriving and tweeting it out. Love those kids!

We're watching Kali and Giselle tonight--it's been a while since my kids were that little, and it's funny how quickly you forget what it's like to have little ones. And I love watching Macy and Kaylin with the little ones. They are so good with them.

Thankful for church

2011-11-13T14:07:00.001-06:00

Today, I am thankful for an awesome church community. I love that I WANT to go to church, not HAVE to go to church. I love our small (but growing!) Sunday School class. I know if we needed anything, they'd be there for us. I love having a class to go to every Sunday morning. Our church is big, and I for sure don't know everyone, but that's okay. I love that the girls have a place where we fit in--they do church choir on Sunday evenings, GA (Girls in Action) on Wednesday nights, and numerous other fun activities where they are able to be with their friends while strengthening their faith at the same time. We just hired a new youth pastor, and I can't wait to see him develop the youth group even more. I love feeling refreshed when I leave church, like water on a parched soul, and I am thankful for time to spend studying God's word.

Countdown to Minneapolis--3 days. We leave Wednesday morning. So, so, so excited.

Thankful for provisions

2011-11-12T21:41:00.000-06:00

Today I'm thankful for a house that keeps us protected, two cars that allow us to drive to work and drive our kids around, that we can provide food for our family, and that we have love.

Thankful for many things

2011-11-11T22:11:00.000-06:00

Tonight I'm just going to make a list.

I'm thankful for all the veterans who have served our country in the past or are currently.
I'm thankful my dad is finally feeling better. It was so nice to see him laughing and horsing around with the girls tonight.
I'm thankful I have great students. A few bad apples in the bunch, but mostly good kids.
I'm thankful my newspaper kids have embraced writing for the web and are doing awesome at updating our website every day.
I'm thankful for finding 2 neat dresses that Macy actually likes.
I'm thankful I was able to take Macy to D.C. two years ago, and Kaylin to Minneapolis this year.
I'm thankful selling Girl Scout cookies has been easier this year.

Today, we were in 4th hour at 11:11. We stopped what we were doing, and all made a wish. Some of the kids took it pretty seriously...looked like they were praying with their eyes closed and heads bowed. I was glad I took the time to stop...this was such a once in a lifetime opportunity, and they will always remember that we stopped to wish, even after they have forgotten my name.

Thankful for opportunities

2011-11-10T22:23:00.000-06:00

Tonight I am thankful for opportunities. The girls have had amazing opportunities to be involved in so many things--both are in Girl Scouts, both have done dance and soccer, and both are involved in GA's (church group for girls) and church choir. Macy has done basketball for 5 years, played volleyball this year, and is involved in Drama Club and is a Library Assistant, and took guitar lessons. Kaylin has done cheerleading and karate, and is playing basketball this year. I am thankful not only that we can afford to do this for them, but also thankful that their community, school and church offer these opportunities. The girls are forging life long friendships with girls in their community, developing social skills, increasing their self esteem, and having fun at the same time. Both are discovering what they like and are good at, and that will help them as they get older. I'm thankful they will look back at their childhood and realize we let them try lots of different things, instead of limiting them.

Thankful for friends and good technology

2011-11-09T22:39:00.000-06:00

Tonight (and last night and today during the day) I spent an insane amount of hours trying to jailbreak and unlock an iPhone for a good friend of mine. This friend does a lot for me, is always there if I need her, always helping out with my kids, and I am very thankful for that. She needed help, and I was willing to help. I'm so thankful for great friends.

I managed to get her iPhone jailbroken (able to add renegade apps, etc.) but couldn't get it unlocked (hacked so she can use TMobile instead of AT&T). I was proud of myself for getting it jailbroken--wasn't easy to do. Wish I had been able to get unlocked for her. I don't want to brag, but I'm pretty good with technology and am able to do a lot of things others can't. Some of that comes with teaching high school, some of that comes with just being good with computers. Either way, I'm thankful I can be the one people turn to when they need help, and that I can help. I'm thankful I'm able to keep up to date with technology and not confused by it.

Thankful through frustrations

2011-11-08T22:04:00.000-06:00

Here it is again, almost 10:00 pm and my eyes are tired and I realize I haven't done a thankful post or a daily post. I start racking my brain for what I'm thankful for....things should come to my mind easier than they do. I know there are a million things I am thankful for, should be thankful for, but once I start typing, all of them fly right out of my head and all I can think about is the blank computer screen.

Tonight I'm aggravated that our school vote didn't pass. Failed by 280 votes. Now I'm stuck in my stupid temporary room where things don't work right, I don't get to move into my new journalism room, and freshman won't be at the high school, solving some major curriculum problems. We will continue to play Jewell an ungodly amount of money to play football. Classes will become overcrowded. As I sit here and fume about the vote failing, I remember...

I am thankful for the right to vote and express our opinions, even when those opinions differ from mine.
I am thankful for a great job in a fantastic school district, regardless of overcrowding and silly room arrangements.
I am thankful for wonderful students, even if I have significantly more in my class from now on.

Thankful for rain

2011-11-07T21:31:00.000-06:00

Thankful for the rain God has sent. While I HATE being cold and wet out in the rain, it is much needed. Nothing better than listening to the rain hitting the windows, creating a great sleeping environment and taking care of the drought.

Now, off to sleep to enjoy the gentle rain!

Thankful for my dogs

2011-11-06T21:55:00.000-06:00

I know it sounds silly, and that there are more important things to be thankful for, but hey, I still have 24 more days!

Kobe is our sweet black lab we got in April 2000, before we had kids. So she's coming up on 12 years...and it's showing. She's losing weight, her spine is sticking out, her legs aren't sturdy, she has sores and bumps on her body. We've started calling her "old lady." Yesterday she slipped on the hard wood floor and couldn't get her footing. She sleeps a lot. But I'm very thankful for her...she was the first dog I ever had. I taught her all sorts of tricks when she was a puppy, and she will still (begrudgingly) do them. When I was put on bed rest with Macy (for a MONTH) I laid in bed and read, and she would lay next to me. I talked to her, and she kept sane while I was slowly going crazy from laying on my left side for a MONTH. She's a sweet, sweet dog and I'm thankful for her company.

Gabe is our hyper American Eskimo we got a few years ago. It was just after Bobby had started at the fire station, and him being gone at night was causing me stress. I couldn't sleep. Enter Gabe: the barking dog. I knew if anyone tried to get in our house, that dog would bark his head and let me know. He brought me piece of mind, and I'm thankful for that. He follows me around, and is never far from me. One of my favorite things to do is leave a room and go downstairs with Gabe following, then go right back in that room, just to make him follow me. I'm thankful for the piece of mind he has given me.

I'm also thankful for the joy these two dogs have brought the girls. Watching the girls interact with my two other babies is a joy.

You non-dog people won't understand the above post, and that's okay. You dog-people will. And I have 24 more thankful days to talk about the deep stuff.

Thankful for extra sleep

2011-11-05T22:20:00.000-05:00

Tonight I'm thankful for the extra hour of sleep I will get. Seems like I can't get caught up on sleep, can't take naps during the middle of the day, so I'm looking forward to this extra hour. The girls had friends over last night, so they stayed up late and woke up early.

Good night! Enjoy your extra hour of sleep!

Thankful for health

2011-11-04T20:44:00.000-05:00

Tonight, as I listen to the girls and their friends run, scream, jump, laugh, fake barf and fake seizures, I am so thankful they are healthy. They rarely get sick (I just tempted fate, didn't I?) and if they do, rebound quickly. I believe very strongly this because we are not germaphobes. They are healthy, strong, well-cared for and I'm thankful for that.

Thankful for my sweet Macy

2011-11-03T22:10:00.001-05:00

As Macy gets older, her bedtime is getting later. Gone are the days when I could send them to bed at 8 and watch TV/grade papers/have computer time. Kaylin will fall asleep relatively quickly, but Macy struggles. On the nights Bobby is at the fire station, she will sometimes stay up with me until 10 or 11. I'll take my computer or papers upstairs, and she'll lay in bed with me and read.

I'm so thankful for the special time I have with her--sometimes I have to remind myself not to get antsy and get mad at her for staying up late, but to be thankful that she wants to be with me and wants to talk. She can be snotty all.the.blessed.day.long, but those tender moments at night when it's just me and her, with her feet pushed up against mine, she'll let me know what is bothering her, what happened at school, what she's looking forward to, or just read to me funny parts from her book.Not a snotty word out of her mouth when it's just me and her like this. One of these days she won't want to do that anymore, so I'm relishing the time I have with her, and am thankful for those precious stolen moments.

Thankful for caring students

2011-11-02T19:54:00.001-05:00

In addition to blogging every day to get myself out of this blogging rut, I'll be posting something I am thankful for. It's killing two birds with one stone, and I'm all about doing two things at one time to save time. And I'm all about old vague aphorisms like "killing two birds with one stone" and "the early bird gets the worm" and such.

Today was my birthday, It was nice day. Bobby sent me roses, several co-workers gave me treats, and we had dinner together as a family. I'm thankful for that. I'm also thankful for the wonderful students I have. One reason I enjoy teaching is the close connection I get with the students. While most people can't stand teenagers, I (for the most part) get along really well with them and have a lot of fun together. Today they really made my day special.

A student texted me at 6:01 am to say she was going to QT before school and would bring me a Coke for my birthday.

My newspaper kids had a surprise party for me, complete with cookies, brownies, a chocolate sheet cake, a homemade card they all signed, and a gift certificate for $70 to Dick's Sporting Goods.

I received tons of emails, cards, and tweets from them, and all day anytime a current or former student saw me, they told me happy birthday, complete with yelling it down the hallway in front of everyone.

7th hour sang to me about 4 times, loudly, off key, and more of a round than a normal song.

I'm thankful for such wonderful, caring students who care about an old teacher like me.

Trick or Treat!

2011-11-01T09:00:00.009-05:00

Here's my Black-Eyed Pea and Hermonine, Halloween 2011.

And here's the crew that went trick or treating together. It was awesome having such a big group--kids got to be with their friends, it was easier to keep track of the kids, and parents had someone to talk to. I LOVE that we have so many kids in our neighborhood about the same age--there were many that weren't in this picture.

Happy Halloween!

SOC--October 30

2011-10-30T21:05:00.000-05:00

Could we have packed more in this weekend?

Friday, school parties and trick or treating downtown, dinner at fire station with Bobby and his dad

Saturday, Boo at the Zoo with Bobby's dad and 1000 of our closest friends, dinner with Bobby's dad, sister and her family, then took them to winery to see Bobby hard at work

Sunday, girls baptized at church, lunch at Chili's, a surprise party at the winery, Macy's volleyball dinner at CiCi's, grocery shopping at Walmart.

Whew. I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.

Amazingly, our football team made the playoffs for the first time EVER (of course, our school is only 2 years old :) ) so I'm anticipating a crazy hyper week from the kids.

I noticed it has been a week between posts again...think I'm going to have to do the blogging every day in November thing again to get me back in the groove. I've done it the last two years.

Is it too early to go to bed? My 5 minutes are 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 only.
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 in the sidebar)

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

Busy weekend!

2011-10-23T20:21:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy weekend!

Friday: Dad was admitted to the hospital for some tests. He'd been in pain since his gallbladder surgery 2 weeks ago. My sister had taken the girls to CoCo Keys since they were out of school, we met at the hospital for the exchange. Then I took the girls to the winery to work with Bobby, and I headed to Zona for a much-needed Girls Night Out.

Saturday: Macy had her last volleyball game. They won their first match! The improvement the girls made from start to finish was INCREDIBLE. So proud of her and her teammates. She really likes volleyball, which is good. Basketball evaluations are coming up soon, though, so time to switch gears. After her game, we went to the hospital to find out Dad was being discharged with physical therapy starting next week. We came home for a bit, then got all dressed up for Rachel and Kyle's wedding. You could not have asked for better weather in October for an outdoor wedding! Bobby was a working guest. We stayed until 11:15 when the bride and groom left. Kaylin, just like at my niece's wedding, followed the bride around. Always about 10 steps behind her. Poor Rachel. :)

Sunday: I did my once-a-month work in the nursery at church. We had several visitors, and we had 11 babies!! The girls stayed and helped with some of the older babies. After lunch was our mandatory Sunday afternoon nap, then we headed over to the Mulkey's for a pumpkin carving party. She's done this for the last 3 or 4 years, and the number of kids has grown quite a bit. Always a good time! I carved my first pumpkin, a ghost for Kaylin.

This week doesn't look to be much calmer! Life is busy with 2 kids. Couldn't imagine having 4 or 5!

SOC Sunday--5 minutes to myself

2011-10-16T17:50:00.000-05:00

I have 5 minutes till I need to pick up the girls at choir...5 blessed minutes to myself. When does that ever happen? Never.

I'm pretty sore from yesterday's half marathon. Mainly when I stand up and start to walk, but after I've been walking for a bit, I loosen up. It's my calves and hamstrings, and my right shoulder. I am still in shock that I trained for and ran a half-marathon. Sorry that is all I have talked about this week. People have asked if I am going to do another one, and I think so. Verdict is still out on which one and if I really will. I have really enjoyed running so far, and running a race like that is exciting.

Last week with my student teacher, and next week I'm back to teaching.

That's it for today...like I said, sorry my half-marathon has monopolized so much time this week. Moving forward, I will focus on something else now.

My first half

2011-10-15T20:32:00.000-05:00

The alarm went off at 4:40. I got up and went about my routine to get ready. Only hangup--something happened to my big toenail and we had no bandaids, so I wrapped a paper towel around it and taped it. Makeshift bandaid.

Kathleen picked me up at 5:30 and we headed downtown. Met up with Jody. It was COLD and dark--lots of shivering while we waited. We visited the bathrooms twice, met up with my running buddies Marsha and Gynetta, and waited. Kathleen and Jody are faster than us, so they moved up a little. We'd meet up at the end. I tried to ignore the nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. I ate a few energy chews--more on that later.

Race started...it was awesome. Such a cool feeling...all 8,000 of your closest friends all running down the streets of downtown.

Miles 1-2: great. Cruising right along. Running at a pretty fast pace (for me at least). Enjoying the brisk cool morning air. This stretch was through Power and Light.

Miles 3-4: Holy Hills Batman. Two pretty steep ones around the Liberty Memorial. Tried my arm pulling the rope thing and it didn't work so well. Gynetta and I would yell when we got to the top--felt good to yell. Even with the hills, still moving at a good pace. Feeling good.

Miles 5-6: Sun coming out now, warming up. Legs feeling pretty good, no shin or ankle pain. Bobby and the girls had come down with Kathleen's family, and they were somewhere between 5-6. It was so neat to see their signs and hear them cheer for us! This stretch was through Westport. About this time my stomach started hurting..won't go into details, but it did not feel good. I think it was the energy chews.

Miles 7-8: Rolling through the Plaza. Legs still feeling good, stomach still not feeling well. A friend from college of mine and Gynetta's was along this stretch. It was good to see friends cheering! A former student was supposed to be along here, but she got confused and sat over by the full marathoners, waiting for me to run along. Oops. Gynetta pulled away a tad from me and Marsha at the end of 8. This was a nice stretch.

Mile 9: Bobby, the girls and Kathleen's family had moved over somewhere along this stretch. Legs still good, stomach still not good. I had to walk at the end of 9, and Marsha pulled ahead a little. I was on my own. Hyde Park was this area, an area of town I've never been to.

Mile 10: Was a big blur. I remember one really, really long gradual hill. That's about it. It was not a pleasant mile.

Mile 11: Really cool DJ at mile 11 marker who was strangely inspirational. Somewhere at the beginning of mile 11 I was passed by the full marathon leader. Yep, I was passed by someone running 26 miles while I was running 13. That really helped the spirits. NOT. Somewhere along here Eric ran with me a tad. He had already finished his half (1:27--seriously!!) and was going back to walk with his dad.

Mile 12: mostly downhill. Made up a little time from the horrid mile 10. Legs slowing down, but still not in pain. Stomach still hurting. This stretch ran through the Paseo...yikes.

Mile 13: I swear this mile was actually 3 miles long. Seemed like I'd never reach the finish!! It was mostly flat with a slight uphill by the finish. Bobby and the girls had moved over by the finish, and again, it was SOOO nice to see them cheering. I think Macy yelled "Faster" but I couldn't move any faster.

Afterward, got water and food, visited the port a potty, took pictures, cheered on Eric and his dad, Bobby got us lost in the parking garage trying to find the car. Got my official time: 2:42. A personal record since this was my first half marathon. My goal had been 2:45, so I was 3 minutes ahead of that!

I was pretty pleased with my first effort. I had been worried about shin and ankle pain, and I had NONE. I am kicking myself for eating those energy chews--really think they were the root of my stomach pain. Marsha finished just 2 minutes ahead of time; wish I could have caught up with her.

What a fun, fun experience. Can't believe that at age 35, I just ran my first half-marathon.

Here's me, Marsha and Gynetta before the race. Not the best pic.

Here's me, Jody and Kathleen after. I wish I'd gotten a picture of
Marsha and Gynetta too. At that point, I just wanted to get in the car and get food.

It's here.

2011-10-14T21:33:00.000-05:00

On the kitchen table right now:

Freshly washed socks
Shoes
GU energy chews
Cliff energy bar for breakfast
timing chip
headphones (after MUCH searching and angst)
bib (number 4523!)
safety pins
Sunscreen
anti-chafe gel
super-grip ponytail holders
phone with recently updated playlist

In the fridge right now:

2 water bottles, one for breakfast and one for the car ride

In the bathroom right now:

Pants
Shirt
Sports bra

I seriously NEVER thought I would be doing this. Even after doing the 5k in April, I laughed at the thought of doing a half-marathon. But you know what? I'm doing it. I registered June 15. I followed a training schedule all summer and fall. I pulled myself out of bed at 5:15 to run while it was somewhat cool during the heat wave, and I have gotten babysitters to watch the girls so I can run while Bobby was working. I'm ready.

And scared to death.

It's here.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-12T14:43:00.000-05:00

This was on the kitchen table when I came downstairs this morning:

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

2011-10-10T11:04:00.001-05:00

how's that for a little alliteration?

On the tractor-pulled-barrel-ride

Macy and her pumpkin named "Antsy"

KK and her pumpking, to be named later

Slingshot-ing with Dad. KK didn't like it.

On the hayride!

Ah, puppy love. This is EXCATLY what Kobe looked like, almost 12 years ago.

Rubber ducky races

Searching for a pumpkin. Look at that blue sky!

It was a fun day.

Stream of Conciousness Sunday

2011-10-09T21:31:00.001-05:00

5 minutes of writing...go.

Today we went to a local pumpkin patch. Had a great time--picked pumpkins, had slingshot competitions, did a hayride, rubber ducky races, and had a great time. Spent a lot of time together as a family this weekend, which is unusual and very welcomed.

Macy is still awake and won't go to sleep. Bobby is doctoring Kobe with some flea stuff; poor dog has been itching like crazy. Gabe is barking outside and I don't want to get up to let him in.

We have parent/teacher conferences this week, so no school on Friday. That's nice with the half marathon on Saturday. It's weird that I have really have no idea how some of my students are doing, since the student teacher has been teaching. She's on her final two weeks, then I'm back on.

I've been interrupted about 4 times in this 5 minute of writing, but that's the story of my life. Bobby is wanting the computer and I need to pick up a little for the babysitter tomorrow.

Recap

2011-10-04T11:16:00.000-05:00

Since I haven't been blogging as much lately, I thought I'd offer a little recap as to what is going on in our lives.

Bobby is currently in Wisconsin, doing training on the new fire truck and then driving it home. Yes, driving home a fire truck from Appleton, Wisconsin. It's governed at 72. Should be fun for him and the other 2 drivers. He was supposed to run the half marathon with our group on 10/15, and didn't train for it. I'm a little annoyed with him about that. :) He's still busy at the fire station, and working quite a bit out at the winery. He'll be coaching both girls basketball teams this winter.

I have another student teacher, so I've been spending my days doing errands for other people (hey, you're not teaching so you can help) and planning for a new class I'm teaching in the spring. I'm training for a half marathon on 10/15 with several people, and am alternating between scared to death and excited. I'm in the tapering portion of my training, so I'm only doing short runs this week and next. I'm sort-of still leading Macy's Girl Scout troop.

Macy is loving 4th grade and her teacher. She has straight A's, and is involved in Library Assistant's Club and Drama club at school. Loves both. She's having drama with Anna again (long time readers will know this comes up from time to time) Macy is trying this volleyball this year, and really likes it. She had 2 serves go over the net last night, and she was so excited but had to act cool, you know. She is also singing in the children's choir at church and in a Junior Girl Scout Troop. She's my emotional girl--one minute happy, one minute upset. Today she is dressed as a very stylish Alex Russo for Homecoming.

Kaylin is in 2nd grade, has a student teacher, and loves both of them. She makes good grades too (no letter grades yet). No clubs at school for her to be involved with yet, but she's looking forward to Drama Club next year. She's in a Girl Scout troop, and wants to try basketball instead of cheerleading this winter. I'm looking forward to watching her; she's definately improved her dribbling skills since this summer. She is dressed as Taylor Swift today and we did big ringlet curls in her hair.

Kobe and Gabe are still with us, but both are slowing down. We've been prepping the girls for their death, but it's more for me then them.Gabe still likes to eat toilet paper, and Kobe tries to get into the trash every chance she can get.

That's it for now...I am making a vow to update more often than I have been!

The Theft

2011-09-29T22:13:00.000-05:00

Today I came back to my room after lunch to discover that the super soft, huge green chair in my classroom was missing. In its place was a note on my blue construction paper: "I have flown back to the nest."

People. This chair is HUGE. And it was taken out of my classroom!

I was amazed, interrogated people in the lab, then finally followed the scratch on the door and the scuff marks on the floor to find it hidden in the Eagle's Nest, our little atrium area on the 2nd hour. I made the culprits drag it back to my classroom.

The war has started. Now I just have to figure out a way to get them back!

TSwift review

2011-09-27T21:27:00.000-05:00

Written for my free-lance gig...

I’m not ashamed to admit my first concert was New Kids on the Block at the Missouri State Fair. I can’t remember much about that night, but I have grown to love concerts. My two daughters, ages nine and seven, have watched me for years get ready for concerts, and have begged to go with me. When I first heard that Taylor Swift would be coming to Kansas City, I knew immediately: this would be their first concert. Tickets were purchased in February, and the girls flipped out when we gave them the tickets. All through the spring and summer, talk of the concert would creep into our conversations. ”I wonder what songs she is going to sing” or “I wonder what Taylor is going to wear” was frequently heard. Her latest CD, “Speak Now,” was purchased, and listened to repeatedly on our family road trip, and even my husband knew all the lyrics by the time we returned home.

Finally, Saturday, September 24 arrived. Weather was perfect for an outdoor concert at Arrowhead. Our group of seven girls and four moms met for some pictures and a quick dinner, then headed out. When got out of the car, the littlest ones began screaming in excitement, and didn’t stop for quite a while. I had not planned on buying shirts for my girls, but the other five purchased shirts, so I shelled out the $50 for two. We headed up the ramp—up and up and up the spiral, concrete ramp to the upper level of Arrowhead. When we walked through the concourse to the seats, the look on the girls’ face, to see all of Arrowhead in front of them, was enough to make ticket price worth it.

Through the opening acts, we took pictures, ate cotton candy, talked with friends, and waited anxiously for Taylor Swift to come out on stage. It was worth the wait when Swift came out in a gold dress, fringes spinning as she sang “Sparks Fly” At this point, my daughters were standing on their seats, screaming and singing as loud as they could.

Swift’s show was not just her and her guitar—she brought a whole crew of dancers and actors so there was always something to look at. The girls were mesmerized by the dancers hanging suspended in air, by the wedding dress of the bride in “Speak Now”, and by the giant bells that popped up from below the stage then slowly raised to the ceiling for “Haunted”. Their favorite part was the mime on stage, pushing a broom and making lights turn on before she performed “Mine.” My daughters noted every costume change; there were 10 during her 17 songs. All of the “side shows” did not detract from Swift’s performance but added a visual element to keep the audience entertained.

As this was Swift’s first stadium tour, she seemed to be in awe of the crowd. Several times throughout the night, Swift repeated “I can’t believe 50,000 people paid to see me sing,” and she also appeared to have tears in her eyes as she looked around the stadium. Call me naïve, but Swift appeared to be genuinely shell-shocked at her success in selling out a stadium. Most of the 50,000 fans were young girls and their mom’s (with a few dads, boyfriends, or little brothers scattered throughout) and they sang along with her on every song for two hours and fifteen minutes.

Swift ended the show with two favorites. “Fifteen” was performed in a large cream-colored ball gown from a velvet couch, and for the crowd-favorite “Love Story,” she was carried over the audience in a balcony. My girls did not take their eyes off her while she floated over the crowd. It was a stunning finale to a show full of story-telling songs.

Like Swift, my daughters seemed in awe by the stadium and the entire atmosphere of a big name concert. Just judging from this one experience, I would say they are hooked as well. In the middle of the concert, my seven-year-old suddenly gave me a huge hug and said, “Mom, thank you for the tickets and the t-shirt.” She also did not take her t-shirt off for three days.

Pictures until I can gather my thoughts

2011-09-25T20:05:00.000-05:00

Last night was the girls first real concert experience. If you've read here for a while, you know I am a concert-lover. Last night we went to Arrowhead for the Taylor Swift concert. I'm too tired to put into words the night, so for now, enjoy these pictures with minimal commentary and tomorrow I'll fill in the gaps.

All the girls met at my house for pictures, and went to Rancho for dinner. They all look very unhappy here, but I promise you they were excited.

My sister and niece. Her first concert and trip to Arrowhead too.

Me and the girls. This picture showed me two things--I need a haircut and Macy is seriously almost as tall as me.

Macy pretending to fall off the upper level of Arrowhead. Our seats were in the 7th row of the upper deck. Really, not bad at all for the cheapest tickets. (Cheapest being $57 apiece. Yowsers.)

All 5 girls doing the "heart" symbol

Macy and Kaylee

Me and Amy (Kaylee's mom) This was the 3rd try. Apparently I like closing my eyes in pictures.

My sister and niece on the complete opposite side of Arrowhead. She's on the phone with me. :) Amy was pretty impressed with her camera's ability to zoom that far.

Macy, Kaylee and Tess.

Taylor's encore...she flew over the audience in this balcony thing. Pretty cool.

I think this was "Mean"

Hannah and Macy in parking lot

These two (and Hannah) screamed from the moment they got out of the car until the concert started.

Macy's first visit to Arrowhead.

Me and Kaylin. She literally has thanked me about 25 times for the tickets and the shirt. She is so sweet.

Me and Macy.

Enjoying her cotton candy immensely.

That's our night in pictures. Tomorrow, I promise, I'll tell the details.

A girl and her dog

2011-09-13T10:55:00.000-05:00

Macy had her first volleyball practice last night. She LOVED it, and was teasing her dad that volleyball might be her sport instead of basketball. She was proud of her knee pads (given to her by one of my students, a high school volleyball player! Instant coolness factor!)

She came home and took her Gabey-Gabe for a little walk. A good night.

At the Circus!

2011-09-12T18:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we headed down to the circus. The magazine I write for passed along free tickets, so that made it even better. None of us had ever been, and weren't sure what to expect. The line to get into Sprint security was LONG and it was warm outside. But I'm thankful they were taking security measures seriously, especially considering the day. The girls had never been to the Sprint Center and were excited about seeing it.

We didn't make it in time to attend the pre-circus festivities. You can see all the people down on the floor

The night before, Kaylin had spent the night with a friend, and was apparently VERY tired. She kept falling asleep during the 1st half--yes, falling asleep during the circus!! Who does that? I kept poking her, talking to her, and finally made her sit on my lap and not lean back. That seemed to do the trick.

Well, that and the massive amount of sugar in a bag we bought during intermission. Hey, it came with a hat too!

If you haven't been to the circus, I highly recommend it. We had a fabulous time (Kaylin did after she woke up). I always ask what their favorite part was, to the point where they know the question is coming as soon as we get in the car.

Bobby--the motorcycles inside the big dome
Me--the elephants and the trapzee artists
Macy--the tigers
Kaylin-- the tightrope walkers and motorcycle guy on tightrope

I didn't take any other pictures inside, but I can assure you it was awesome.

The big purchase

2011-09-06T21:01:00.000-05:00

Macy has been watering our neighbor's flowers for over a month. She's been waking up at 6:30 on school days and on days off, and I haven't had to drag her out of bed once. She hasn't complained at all.

Because she had one goal in mind-- an iPod Touch.

Thanks to Pauly's extra generosity this week, she had $230 cold, hard cash in her hands and we had to make a trip to the store. We looked several places, but they were the same price no matter where you went, and Walmart has the best return/exchange policy. We managed to eat lunch before the big purchase, then we were off.

I took a few pictures, but she was getting annoyed/embarrassed/giggly. I only put a couple on here.

And here she is with the big purchase... her very own iPod Touch, paid for 100% by her.

Words cannot express how proud I am of this little girl.

Happy birthday Bobby!

2011-09-01T13:04:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday to my love... the champion of our family.

the hardest worker of our family

the most adventurous one of our family

the one who hates having his picture taken...believe it or not.

the one who has the most patience in our family

I love you, my dear. Have a great birthday!!

In a blogging rut...

2011-08-23T18:57:00.001-05:00

I've been in a blogging rut for a couple months now. Finding it hard to find the time, motivation, and drive to keep up. At the risk of sounding whiny, no one even reads what I'm writing, so that's a big part of it.

So...I'll get out of the blogging rut soon. Thanks for hanging in there.

First day 11-12

2011-08-19T08:50:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was the girls' first day--yes, I know this is 4 days late. I've been busy and so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Oh my word...how can she be 7??

And this sweetheart...almost 10!! She will pass me in height this school year, and you'll hear about it, I'm sure, in great detail.

Macy and her teacher, Mrs. Gustusfon. Macy was head over heels with excitement that she doesn't have a "real" desk, but a table with a computer on it.

Kaylee, Jessica and Macy

Macy and Paige

Kaylin and her teacher, Mrs. Jacobsen. Not sure her teacher could be any sweeter. Had a class picnic before the year started, and has called to make sure all the kids had a good couple days of school.

Kaylin and Hannah

Working Girls (but not that kind)

2011-08-11T20:04:00.000-05:00

Macy has her first official job. She has been recruited by our next door neighbor--a big burly concrete worker who has a ton of flowers--to water his flowers every morning for him. His wife won't do it, and he's tired of being late to work because he's watering the flowers. So he asked her to water them every morning, before the sun gets hot, for $10 a day. She is seriously seeing dollar signs in her head, and has done the math a million times to see how long it will take her to save for the iPod touch (30 days) that I won't buy her.

We'll see how it goes. He even offered Kaylin $2 a day to come help, but it is Macy's gig. She's been asking for a savings account, so when she gets her first weekly paycheck, I'll take her to the bank and start an account.

I started back today too. The first day is an accomplish nothing day, but I did make some to-do lists for tomorrow! I have ANOTHER student teacher, so I'll only be teaching the first two weeks, then picking back up in early November.

Back from camp!

2011-08-03T18:15:00.000-05:00

Macy has returned from her first ever church camp. I was up there some to help, so she wasn't entirely alone. She would have been fine without me, I'm positive. She's pretty independent.

One of the things I did up at camp was take massive amounts of pictures and upload to a private Facebook page for parents to check. From what I've heard, it eased quite a few parents minds to be able to see their kid while they were at camp, and to see them having a great time.

Here's Macy at lunch on Monday. There's a really good group of girls her age at our church...Hannah, Maquel, Paige, Becca, Makyala, Desi. I'm so pleased she has such a good group of friends at church. I never had that, and feel I missed out on a lot.

We had to cancel all of the outdoor activities due to the heat wave we are in, and had to move inside. Here's some of the giggly girls watching Kung Fu Panda.

This is to show you the awesome water slide at camp. The owners of the camp bought it from a community pool in Iowa and brought it down on flatbeds. It was incredible, and such a hit with all the kids. It was pretty fun; I was "forced" to try it by Macy.

Here's Macy coming off the water slide. She went down it, oh, 500 times or so.

And you don't know these people--well, I guess you could know Dustin and his daughter Maquel--but I am in love with this picture--because I took it and how awesome it is--and if it wasn't weird, I would frame it.

She also learned to shoot a BB gun. Didn't want to at first, but we made all the kids try it at least once, and she ended up doing it twice. She's always been afraid of noise, and was worried it would be too loud. Once she figured out it wasn't loud, she was all set.

And then she returned home this afternoon. Full of stories, full of inspiration, full of God's word, full of crankiness from going on no sleep.

She's already talking about "next year", and Kaylin's already talking about "in 2 years." So thankful for our church family and the leadership that worked hard all year to pull this together.

Off to camp!

2011-07-31T22:43:00.000-05:00

Macy left this afternoon for church camp for 4 days. Let me tell you, she was beyond excited. Here is she with her friend Paige and Becca right before they left. BTW, Paige and Becca are both on their tip-toes trying to be as tall as Macy. That's why they are laughing. :)

She won't be alone long, though. I'll be going up tomorrow to help for a couple days. I'll make sure to stay out of her way, though. :)

We had probably a 20 minute discussion last night about taking stuffed animals or the pillow pet. She was worried the others would make fun of her. She ended up NOT taking any stuffed animals or the pillow pet. I had suggested she hide her stuffed animal inside her sleeping bag, but no go. I also told her others would be bringing their pillow pets, but no go.

So today everyone was meeting to leave. Paige told Macy her stuffed animal was hidden inside her sleeping bag. Ha! Score one for Mom.

THEN...everyone was loaded onto the bus. I saw Macy frantically waving me over. She mouthed to me through the bus window: "bring my pillow pet when you come up tomorrow" Ha! Score two for Mom.

Good news, bad news

2011-07-30T10:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Kaylin met with her orthopedic surgeon. We've been with the same doctor since she was 1.5 years old, and it's been so nice to have him remember us, remember her condition, remember what is going on.

We did the usual x-rays. Kaylin used to smile when they'd x-ray her hips, but not anymore. She now realizes they aren't really taking her picture. The same x-ray tech was there, "move your biscuits over a little"--super sweet lady.

Then we waited over an hour in the same small exam room. Ever been in a super small exam room with 2 kids, with no toys or TV? Not fun. It was all I could to keep them from climbing the walls. They read a couple baby books and generally annoyed me and each other.

The surgeon came in and met with us about the x-rays. Long story short, it was good news, bad news. The hip itself, in the socket where he fixed it a long 6 years ago, is healing nicely with cartilage forming around it like it's supposed to. It doesn't seem to cause her pain or restrict her range of motion. He was pleased with that. He's not pleased with the the way the top of the bone is forming around the top of the ball socket. It appears to be curving up instead of laying flat. He showed me on the x-rays where over the last 4 years, it has made that progression. He said several times "no surgery, but..."

So we wait another 2 years to see what that bone will do. He's not a rush into anything doctor, which I appreciate. We'll wait 2 years to see if it has flattened out or still continuing to curve. I'm guessing at that time, some sort of decision will have to be made. I couldn't get a sense of what that decision was going to be--surgery? Meds? No idea. I'm praying it will not be surgery and another spica cast. The spica cast was hard enough to handle when she was 1.5 years old; cannot imagine her being 9 in one.

So...we wait.

The one where we went to a concert and sweated to death

2011-07-27T22:36:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a much anticipated day--the Big Time Rush concert at Worlds of Fun. We'd bought our tickets over a month ago--since we have season passes, we only had to get tickets to the concert. We went with Kaylee and Joseph and their mom, and then their friend Mallory went with us as well.

Thursday night everyone came over to make t-shirts. We totally winged it, but I think they turned out pretty cool. Good old spray paint--Amy and I were starting to get a little high from the fumes in the garage :)

We arrived at Worlds around 4, and rode a few rides while we waited. Here's all the kids when we first got there. From left to right: Joseph, Kaylin, Kaylee, Macy, Mallory. Would like to point out that Mallory is the same age as Macy; look at how much taller Macy is. And Kaylin is 2 years younger than Mallory, yet they are about the same height.

We had to wait A LOT ALOT...they had about 4 or 5 opening acts, then played music for about 30 minutes between EACH opening act. It was over 100 degrees, and we were sweating like pigs, and drinking water like it was going out of style. The girls were champs...didn't hardly complain. Enjoyed the opening acts, even though we didn't know any of them.

The heat got to Kaylin a few times...poor girl. She never threw up, but she didn't feel good for part of the day. Luckily she felt better by the time BTR came out.

Here's BTR...finally came out at 9:30. I couldn't believe how late they came out on stage. BTR is a boy band of 4 boys, and I gotta say...even though I'm 35, I think they are pretty cute (for youngen's). Their music is pretty catchy, and we listen to it a lot in the car. They sang for about 30 minutes, and did all their ones we knew from the CD. I had to hold Kaylin for some of it, for her to be able to see the stage.

After the concert, we were walking out. The security people were trying to move us out of the way because the van with the boys inside was driving by. The girls were THIS CLOSE to touching the van as they drove by. You can image the scene...van inching along slowly, hundreds of girls right up next to the van screaming bloody murder. Pretty funny stuff.

The girls kept saying over and over "This was the best night ever!!" Very thankful to have the opportunity to take the girls to things like this, and even though it was so dreadfully hot, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

And I think I'm turning the girls into concert-goers like me. :)

South Dakota, Part IV...Alpine Slide

2011-07-24T22:01:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite stories from the trip...the alpine slide.

After Mt. Rushmore, we ate a picnic lunch (we did this everyday...found parks, picnic areas next to streams, etc. Beautiful!) then headed to the alpine slide. I was so excited when I found this this alpine slide. We took Macy on an alpine slide when she was 6 months old in Winter Park, and it makes for a great story. The girls were excited to do the alpine slide.

We rode the chair lift up to the top.

We could see Mt. Rushmore from the top, which was cool.

Then we went to get in line. The alpine slide is a track that goes down the mountain. You don't steer, but you can accelerate and brake. There is a fast track and a slow track. The line was long for the fast track, so we all went on the slow track. I went first, then Kaylin, then Macy, then Bobby. We made poor decisions in that order.

I went pretty fast,got to the bottom and waited...waited. And waited. And waited. AND WAITED. Finally, I see Kaylin coming. And I HEAR Macy. Apparently, Kaylin went so slow that Macy and Bobby both caught up with her. I honestly don't think she knew she was going that slow. Macy was TICKED because she didn't get to go fast. And we heard about it loudly.

Bobby decided to do the slide again, for Macy's sake. She really didn't have a good time, and we felt bad.

So Wednesday, we went again. We had talked with Kaylin about going fast for 2 days. When we got to the top this time, there was no line. Bobby and I went first--he was in the fast lane, I went next to him in the slow lane. But he had a head start, so there was no racing. He beat me, and he got to go fast, unlike the first time. We waited at the bottom for the girls anxiously, waiting to see who was first.

It was Kaylin.

Bobby and I looked at each other. What just happened? Maybe Kaylin went first...

Nope. Macy went first, and Kaylin PASSED HER. Unbelievable. Kaylin, who made Macy and Bobby go soooooo slow the first time, started after her sister and PASSED HER.

I so wish I'd had a camera for the look on Kaylin's face. I'll never forget it.

And, I'm proud of Macy for not crying or getting upset that her sister had just beaten her. :)

South Dakota, Part III...Mount Rushmore!!

2011-07-21T09:53:00.001-05:00

Monday was a beautiful day, and we went to Mt. Rushmore. As I mentioned earlier, Macy had been anxiously waiting. She'd done a book report at school about Mt. Rushmore, so she had all the facts for us and was very excited. She was also annoyed with her sister, who kept calling it Mountain Rushmore.

This is one Macy took with my little red camera.

All four boys...Georgie, Abe, Teddy and Tommy.

First picture with Mt. Rushmore.

We bought the girls these hats when we got there, and you'll see them in many more pictures. They wore them almost the entire time we were in SD!! They loved those hats. I love this picture of my KK.

Macy taking a picture of Mt. Rushmore.

Love this family shot! We'd had another one taken by a guy who had no clue how to work the digital SLR, and it was a crappy picture. Later I saw a guy with his own digital SLR, so he obviously knew how to work the thing and this was the end result. Much better.

Monday was also Bobby and I's 13th wedding anniversary..crazy to think we've been married 13 years!! I made sure to get a picture of us and Mt. Rushmore for our wedding anniversary.

And that was our trip to Mt. Rushmore. I took about 800 pictures (I know you're surprised,right?) but only put my faves on here.

South Dakota, Part II

2011-07-19T20:28:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning the girls woke up begging to go climbing. We headed to the Badlands, found a trail and started up. And kept going up and up and up. It was rough climbing...the rocks were sharp, lots of loose gravel to slide on. And the trail at times was STEEP. I mean steep. Mr. Rock-Climber-Bobby had no problems, but the girls and I had trouble at times. You can see from this picture how steep it was.

Bobby and the girls almost to the top, taking a break. Then we climbed a little higher.

We got to the bottom finally--lots of sliding from me and the girls--gulped down water, and then I looked up the trail in the trail guide. Yep, it was marked "strenuous." Choices were easy, moderate, and strenuous. We had picked the strenuous trail. That's why I love my girls... climbing up strenuous trails with hardly a complaint (well, there was one after KK fell and scrapped her arm, but she rebounded quickly)

We headed out of the Badlands, stopping to take a few pictures along the way.

We headed over to Wall Drug next. It is apparently one of the must see's of South Dakota. We ate lunch here, and I had a nice buffalo burger. Yum, yum, yum. Couldn't go to South Dakota and not have fresh buffalo!

Macy had been so excited about visiting Mr. Rushmore in the weeks/months before the trip. We told her we wouldn't see Mt. Rushmore until Monday, and she was okay with that. Then Sunday afternoon as we driving, we turned a corner and I saw it through the break in the trees. I started yelling for Bobby to pull over. No one could figure out what I had seen. But quickly Macy figured it out...

Love that girl. Love her!!

Then we headed to Custer State Park to camp for the night.

South Dakota, Part I

2011-07-18T16:43:00.000-05:00

Where to start with stories on our trip to South Dakota??? One of the primary reasons I do this blog is for history--as the girls get older and older, they have a record of what we did.

Saturday we headed out. Had lots of detours to make us cranky. Saw lots of flooding--crazy stuff. Stopped in Sioux Falls to visit Falls Park. I could have stayed here all day!

The park was gorgeous! We headed across South Dakota at that point, and it was a looooonnggg drive. Nothing to see across South Dakota. We didn't have reservations, so I started looking for places to stay. I had an interesting encounter at a hotel--the creepy man running it still lived there with his mom, and I felt very dirty after visiting the lobby. I told Bobby, "no way are we staying here!" when I got back in the car. We were trying to find a place reasonably priced with a pool. Either the hotel was outrageously priced, or the pool was closing in 10 minutes. Finally found a place where the pool was open until 8:30, so we started racing to get there.

Then we entered the Badlands National Forest and saw this:

The girls start begging: Can we get out and climb??? I said, that's fine, but the pool will close. They said okay, so we parked and started walking, climbing, jumping for over an hour until it was too dark to see anything.

Then we headed off to the land of mosquito's...

Uses for my iPhone on vacation

2011-07-14T22:48:00.002-05:00

You know I love,love, love my iPhone. Here are some ways I used mine this week on vacation:
1. As a GPS/map countless times. I would put in "current location" to show me where we were and how far it was to where we were going. Helped with the girls constantly asking "how much longer?"
2. To find the local Walmart to buy groceries
3. To find the nearest Red Box to return and pick up movies
4. To order Red Box movies with the Red Box app
5. To find lodging when we decided to stay another night
6. To take pictures
7. To upload pictures to Facebook and Twitter
8. To email pictures to my mom and sister, who are not on FB and twitter.
9. As a flashlight to find my shoes in the dark tent, and as I walked to the bathroom at 2 am.
10. To calculate gas mileage (not pretty)
11. To play Words With Friends in my sleeping bag at 3 am when I couldn't sleep because of the rain
12. To keep me from going crazy on our 12+ drive home
13. To look up times and prices to things we wanted to go to
14. To upload pictures to Flickr
15. To make a grocery list for what we needed
16. As an alarm clock- the girls liked the duck sound best
17. As a stopwatch as the girls raced their bikes to the bathroom and back
18. To type this blog post as we drive down 1-35, listening to Taylor Swift for the 100th time

Summer is...

2011-07-08T16:21:00.000-05:00

staying up way late
sleeping in
lots of family time
missing friends from school
eating popsicles like they are going out of style
pool, pool, and more pool time
flip flops only
sunscreen
friends, friends and more friends
air conditioning
packing for vacations
no time to blog because I'm being lazy

Weekend

2011-06-27T15:42:00.001-05:00

Had a nice little weekend getaway with my husband and two other couples this weekend.This is our third trip doing this. Here's the blog entries of the other two if you are interested:

Two years ago: Don't rock the boat
Three years ago: Macy's Arm, Part III

We tried to go to Lamberts for a late lunch, but couldn't even get in the parking lot! Dropped off the girls at Bobby's sister's, then we were on our way. We went to a different campsite this year, and while the bathroom/shower situation was less than desirable, it was still a very nice quiet campsite. We canoed the same river I did growing up, but hadn't been in many years. One man kept asking me, "How much longer?" and I'd reply, "I don't know! I haven't been here in 15 years!"

The men did the usual crazy jumping off cliffs into ice cold springs again, and the women did the crazy "let's float down the river without a canoe, just us, and get beat up by rocks!" thing again.

I sooooooo treasure this time with my friends, time with just my husband and no kids, and I know they enjoyed their weekend with Aunt Carmen and Uncle Kelly. One of these days the girls will be out of the house on their own, and it's important for Bobby and I to spend time together, as well as the girls learn some independence being away from us.

Here's the view from our campsite!

Until next year!

New blog!

2011-06-27T15:02:00.000-05:00

I started a new blog detailing my journey to training for a half marathon. I imagine it will be pretty boring, as I will just keep track of my running. But I wanted to tell you about in case you were interested. The link is here: My journey to the Half

Catchin' up

2011-06-22T18:39:00.000-05:00

Just noticed it's been almost 2 weeks since I've blogged...nothing terribly exciting going on, just life.

Last week Macy had a volleyball camp in the morning, and then both girls did basketball camp in the afternoon. It was a busy week of shuttling kids back and forth!

We've spent some time with good friends at Worlds of Fun, and it's always funny to watch the girls be tour guides. They know every inch of that park and aren't afraid to tell people.

We spent an evening with good friends from college, and it was fun to watch all our kids play together. We've all came a long way in the last 15 years!

I signed up to run a half-marathon in October...apparently I have lost my mind. But I'm going to do it, and I've got some amazing support from friends!

We've done a lot of Oceans too, even though the water is brr brrr brrrrrrr cold.

Two funny stories from the girls this week:

We were in the drive-thru at Wendy's, and Kaylin's window was down. She leaned up, held up her QT Freezoni, and yelled to the worker, "I have a Freezoni!" The Wendy's worker looked at her like she was crazy. Maybe you had to be there, but all 4 of us laughed until we had tears coming out her eyes.

Then a couple nights ago, a movie was on Disney with the daughter moving away to college. I said something about crying my eyes out when the girls left for college, and Macy mutters, "Unless you're dead!" Gee, thanks, Macy. Killing me off already?

That's it for now.

A night in the aquarium

2011-06-10T15:19:00.000-05:00

Oh, my. What a trip to Omaha. Both girls and I set off on Tuesday afternoon for Omaha. Both girls Girl Scout troops were spending the night in the aquaurium with their cookie money.

First stop was the pedestrian bridge that overlooks the Missouri River. It was a little windy. This is all of Macy's troop, minus one.It was a little ahem interesting finding the bridge due to some incorrect mapquest directions. Let's just say that it's a good thing I'm the homing pigeon and awesome with directions/maps/finding my way around.

Here's Macy and her cousin Hannah. Hannah and my sister came with us on the zoo troop too, and I'm so glad they came! See the wind? It was crazy! See the Mighty Mo in the background? Yeah, it's flooding out of its banks.

Standing with one foot in Iowa and one foot in Nebraska.

We then went to the zoo, got to drive into the employee parking, did some zoo orientation activities, and had an AWESOME guided tour through part of the zoo. The tour guide is a high school biology teacher, and was very knowledgeable.

Here he is showing us Ivan, the cockatiel (don't know if that's right, it was a bird) that I've walked by a million times and didn't ever see. He "cries" like a baby, talks, and at TJ's command, will "stand up" and ruffle his feathers. Pretty cool.

Then we loaded all our crap into the aquarium. We got to sleep in the aquarium tunnel, and it was AMAZING. here's all our stuff. We had 31 people total between Kaylin and Macy's troops.

Here's a little better picture that is lighter.

Lights at were at midnight. Even then, it wasn't terribly dark because of the lights in the tunnel. I had a really hard time falling asleep--kept watching the fish and sharks swimming. I would start to doze off, then this same stingray kept coming right by my head and it would startle me. Eventually all the girls fell asleep and I did too.

Morning came early, 6 am. We packed up, ate breakfast, loaded cars, then did another guided tour of the zoo. Seriously, this guy was so cool. He told us tons of behind-the-scene info we wouldn't have otherwise gotten.

Our final stop of the morning was a look upstairs, behind-the-scenes of the aquarium. We got to see the top of that tunnel we slept under, and the top of the jellyfish cylinder where they feed the jellyfish with an IV-looking thing. It was really neat seeing things from that perspective.

Then we did a quick tour of the zoo and headed home. It was a whirlwind 24 hours, but a really, really, really (did I say really?) neat trip. Once in a lifetime, truly, to sleep in an aquarium underneath the tunnel with fish, sharks, stingrays, and sea turtles swimming all around you.

I wasn't with Kaylin much of the time; she was with her troop, but did sleep next to me in the tunnel. So here's proof she was on the trip:

I survived!

2011-06-05T14:36:00.001-05:00

Remember a mere 2 months ago, when I ran my first 5k?

Yesterday, my good friend Jenn and I met at 6:00 am to go do to the "grandfather" of all races, the Hospital Hill race. If you've lived in KC long, you've heard about the HH race. Or rather, you've heard of the 3 h's--heat, hills and humidity. All three were present yesterday, even at 6:00 am. The hills were as bad as they said..only a little bit was downhill!

We met the other 7500 people at Crown Center, snapped this picture before we started.

We stayed together through the whole race. It was nice to have someone to talk to, to make fun of people we saw on the sidelines or racing, etc. I've trained a tad more than Jenn and probably could have gone faster, but I'm glad I didn't. With the heat and hills, I probably would have ended up with heat exhaustion from running too fast.

When we got close to the finish, she tried to stop and walk. I literally grabbed her by the arm and forced her to run across the finish. I said, "You can't walk the finish! We've ran 3 miles, let's go!" She said later people on the sidelines were laughing at us.

Here we are after the race, after 2 water bottles, a banana (for her) and a cheese stick (for me) and some rest on the steps. We then went and got our free flip flops, skipped the free beer and free bbq, and headed home.

I can now say that I've done the biggest race in Kansas City, the Hospital Hill run. Will I do it again? Probably. Depends on the weather. 85 degrees at 7:00 am (race time) isn't fun...a crazy high humidity percentage isn't fun either.

Last night I reserved some books on running from the library, and am thinking about training for a 1/2 marathon in October. Verdict is still out on if I'll actually do it. Got a couple 5k's I want to do between now and then.

Either way, I have grudgingly began to enjoy running.

Macy's pictures

2011-06-01T11:27:00.001-05:00

If you know me, you know I love photography. I would fill my house with cool shots if I could. And if you know me, you know I don't like to brag on myself. But I am moderately gifted at photography; not saying I could do it for a living, but I can get some awesome shots, and am usually asked to take pictures at events for others. I've done 2 weddings, mainly bc the bride/groom couldn't pay anyone else, but I've done them.

Imagine then, how proud I was, when Macy got these shots. We were at Kaylin's bridging ceremony, waiting for it to start. She had the super nice camera (which is a HUGE part of getting nice pics) around her neck and just went nuts taking pictures. There were some very random ones--trash in the trash can, the inside of my mouth,etc. These are the ones that stood out to me, though. If you know anything about photography, you'll see what I mean.

Girl's got an eye. When I told her that, she said her career plans were no longer to be a vet, but to be a pet photographer.

In Honor of Memorial Day

2011-05-30T20:21:00.000-05:00

Some of my favorite pictures from my trip with Macy to Washington D.C., in honor of Memorial Day.

Vietnam Memorial. My students used to read a story about the building of this memorial, and how people were mad when it was built because it wasn't as tall or huge like others, but let me tell you, it's pretty impressive.

Arlington National Cemetery. I must have taken at least 200 pictures of those beautiful white tombstones.

The World War II Memorial at night, looking over at the Washington Monument. The WWII one was pretty cool.

Macy, with the Washington Monument behind her and the reflecting pool.

Macy standing in the same spot Martin Luther King made his "I have a dream speech".

Thank you to all our veterans for keeping our country safe.

Busy week

2011-05-29T22:30:00.002-05:00

It's been about a week since I blogged...it was an insanely busy week. Here's a short recap.

This beautiful girl had a bridging ceremony for Girl Scouts and bridged from Brownies to Juniors. There are no pictures of the actual ceremony because I was in charge, and someone (no names to protect the guilty) "didn't know he was supposed to take pictures."

Kaylin also bridged this week, from Daisy's to a Brownie. She did not appreciate the jokes about eating her now that she was a Brownie. Here she is reading her part in a poem at the ceremony.

My beautiful girl and her certificate. Her troop is huge and rowdy, but she loves Girl Scouts.

The girls also had a ceremony at church for the group they are with on Wednesday nights. They had to research a country, prepare a food from that country, and find a game. Then throughout the year, they studied missionaries from those countries. Macy was paired up with Lauryn, and they had Jordan. Lauryn's aunt/uncle/cousins are missionairies in Jordan, so it was easy. Kaylin was paired up with Gracie, who was adopted from China about 2 years ago, and their country was China, so that was easy too.

Wednesday the girls and I got hair cuts (bangs...eww...but I agreed bc it's their hair) and we all got feather hair extensions, all the newest rage. They were so excited to go to school on Thursday and show them off!

Friday brought our last day's of school for the summer. I was in charge of a luncheon for teachers Friday afternoon, and spent all night Thursday working on a PowerPoint--it was 118 slides. Then Friday morning I somehow managed to save over it with another Power Point--it was gone. Poof. I managed to re-do the PowerPoint in a mere hour, finishing with about 10 minutes to spare. Massive stress!!

The girls got excellent report cards and both received Reading awards at the school assembly. More important to me than the awards are the fun they had in school, and how much they enjoy it and their friends. They are both excellent students who work hard, and that's all I ask.

Finally, wrapping up our busy week, I brought home 2 dwarf hamsters on Friday for the summer. Our Gateway program, which is for students ages 18-21 with mental disabilities, have 2 dwarf hamsters who had no where to go for the summer. I made a spontaneous decision without checking with my wonderful husband, and now they are on our fireplace for the summer. The girls love them, although I can't tell you how many times we've yelled at Kaylin for trying to pick them up. I'll get a picture and update soon. Oh, and their names are Thelma and Louise. Ha!

untitled

2011-05-22T23:06:00.000-05:00

Since Wednesday night, I've been thinking about what to say, what to write, how to wrap my brain around what happened. I'm not any closer to any answers, but I'm going to try.

Wednesday night I received a phone call that one of my favorite students--a beautiful, talented, vibrant, super intelligent, gifted singer, wonderful 16-year-old--committed suicide that day after school. I sat in stunned silence, unable to process the words. I stared at the TV, not seeing anything. I talked on the phone more than I have in a long time to other teachers and friends, trying to make sense. Wednesday night was a very restless sleep.

Nothing could have prepared me for the hell that was Thursday. It was the worst day teaching I've ever had in 12 years. We had a faculty meeting before school, and I was doing okay until I saw my friend Leigh Ann. We shared this student, and shared a close bond with her. Then I had to walk upstairs, and walk into a classroom of students with a prepared statement I was supposed to read. I stood in front of 25 faces, most mirrored mine: shock, tears visible, most wearing white in her honor. Nothing in my education classes had prepared me for this moment. I crumbled up the prepared statement, threw it in the trash, and winged it. We cried together. The day didn't get much better...most hours were a repeat of 1st hour.

5th hour was the hour she was in. Her counselor was going to all of her classes, and we had more grief counseling. After she left, the kids shared with me how frustrated they were with the adults "preaching" at them about how to handle grief. We talked about her and shared some laughs.

I'd heard that several students closest to her had been working on a poster. At the end of the day, I went down to see it. Tears overwhelmed me again. It was the largest poster I'd ever seen--many pieces of white butcher paper taped together, a huge painted Eiffel tower, for her dream of making it to Paris one day, along with personal notes, pictures, etc. It was an amazing outlet for the kids to be able to express how much she meant to them.

Today was the memorial. Probably 300 people filled a barn on her family farm in 90 degree heat, sweat mixing with tears. It was a nice memorial, as those things go. I wish she could have seen how loved she was.

Things I've been wrestling with internally: how did I not see anything. I talked to this girl every.single.day, about lots of stuff. She drew me pictures for my bulletin board, told me about her weekend, things she was looking forward to, invited me to choir concerts, we discussed books and love and boys and work and families...never once did she let on that something was terribly wrong. How did I not see it? How did none of us see it? How could she have thought that breaking up with a boy, a fight with a friend, a fight with her mom was so terrible to warrant taking her own life? That those problems are minor in the grand scheme of things? Did reading the Great Gatsby, which ends with a man killing himself, put the idea in her head? We were reading it at the exact same time. How could she think her friends didn't like her?

She may not have been family, may have been *just* a student, but she was a student I talked to every day, more than I do my own family. Just because she was *just* a student doesn't mean it hurts any less. Most teachers, well, most good teachers, build relationships with students, and that was the case with her. She and I had a bond, and it hurts that she is gone, and that I did nothing to help when I was supposed to be there for her.

They played two songs at her memorial today: If I die young by Band Perry, and Why by Rascal Flatts. Both were right to the heart of the matter. Since this is already the world's longest post, I won't put the full lyrics, just a few key phrases.

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song

Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors
Oh, and life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no
Ain't even gray, but she buries her baby

And maybe then you'll hear the words I been singing
Funny, when you're dead how people start listening

Why...

You must have been in a place so dark, you couldn't feel the light
Reachin' for you through that stormy cloud
Now here we are gathered in our little home town
This can't be the way you meant to draw a crowd

Oh, why?
That's what I keep askin'
Was there anything I could have said or done?
Oh, I had no clue you were maskin' a troubled soul
God only knows what went wrong
And why you would leave the stage in the middle of a song

Girls on the Run

2011-05-21T21:24:00.000-05:00

My niece Hannah has been doing an after-school program called Girls on the Run--focuses not only on physical activity, but social and physical development as well. The end result is a 5k. My sister wasn't going to be able to run due to an injury, and Hannah needed some motivation, so I told her I'd run with her. Then Macy said she wanted to, then my friend Jenn said she'd do it too, so the four of us ran a 5k this morning! We had quite a cheering section, and had a fabulous time.

Here's the 4 of us before the race started.

Just getting started!

This is Macy and Hannah crossing the red finish line. Jenn and I are behind them, and thankfully Bobby saved you all by not taking our picture..

Macy and Hannah after the race. They did great! We most definitely didn't run the whole 5k, took some walk breaks when they wanted to, but they didn't grown or complain.

Here's the group Hannah has been training with.

Here's the four of us post-race. Not as lovely as the before picture, but hey, we just did a 5k!

Me and my beautiful daughter and niece. So very proud of them!

Dance 2011

2011-05-16T21:26:00.000-05:00

Saturday brought another round of dance recitals. For the first time, the girls were in different shows. We've lucked out in the past and they've been in the same one, but not this year. We had to sit through 2 2-hour shows in which our daughters danced for 3 minutes. At one point I told Bobby, I'm really sorry you didn't have boys and have to suffer through this.

Here's our Macy. She's taking hip hop this year. She's been taking dance since she was 3, and I think this might be the last year. She did a dance to Ridin' Solo, and it was cute.

Here's Kaylin. She's in a dance combo class, and they did a jazz dance to Life is a Fairytale, a song I've never heard. She had a small "solo" of sorts in this one, and it was neat to see her in that role.

Macy was giving Kaylin tips before Kaylin's show, and she said, "I've been on stage so many times from dance competitions to recitals to drama club performances, and I'm not nervous anymore. I know what to do." I smiled to myself, because that child is still very shy. But if she thinks she's not nervous, then I'm not going to tell her!

School Tidbits...

2011-05-11T15:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday a student thought it would be smart to plug in his phone with a charger that was in pieces, wires sticking out all over, and it shocked him. He seemed surprised. Strangely enough, he had a scab on his elbow, and the scab came off and blood started coming out his arm. I asked him about 900 times if he was okay or did he need to go to the nurse, and he said he was fine. It made for a great story the rest of the day. And left a blood splot on the floor.

A student was making a poster, used a black permanent marker, and it bled onto the tile floor below. You could read the words on the tile. She was mortified. The custodian laughed.

Answers on Chapter 7 of Great Gatsby Quiz...funny, but funnier if you've read GG.

Gatsby is sharpening his ax at the end of the chapter because he is going to brutally murder Tom and Daisy.
Why did Myrtle probably run out into the road? Because she needed to get to the other side.
Who killed Myrtle? The butler in the kitchen with a wrench.
Who killed Myrtle? The chicken she was following kicked him and made him fall.

This is the time of the year when kids realize their grades aren't what they want, and start begging for extra credit, asking for extra work when they've slacked off all year long. Makes me cranky with them.

Apparently I'm getting a student teacher again next fall? Sign me up.

It starts.

2011-05-07T17:02:00.000-05:00

This afternoon Macy, Kaylin and their friends Kaylee and Joseph set up a "sale" in the driveway. Their product? Bowls of cereal mixed with dried cranberries and cups of water for .20 cents. Only customer was Kaylee and Joseph's dad. I wonder why? Anywho, back to the original story.

The loco boys showed up--nicknamed this by Macy because they are crazy. They are neighborhood boys a year or two older--or could be same grade. I've never really talked to the loco boys but have seen them riding their bikes. They stayed for about a half hour, and I watched the drama unfold through the windows as I was picking up the house. At one point I took this picture through Macy's bedroom window--boys climbing our tree, girls watching.

Lots and lots of "flirting" going on...you know, kid flirting where you pretend the other annoys you, but secretly you are loving the attention. The girls were blaring Justin Bieber on the radio, the boys pretended to hate it, stole the CD and the girls chased them around to get it, the boys stole the girls' bikes and the girls chased them to get them back, the girls tried to spray the boys with the water hose, the boys helped them sell their cereal and cups of water by yelling at cars driving by.

The whole time I was inside, laughing to myself and texting Kaylee's mom and Bobby of the drama unfolding. It was hysterical to watch the grade school flirting, and just proved the girls are growing up. Soon it will be the real deal.

Oh goodness, I'm not ready.

To be a princess...

2011-05-02T21:19:00.000-05:00

I've always been fascinated with the Royal Family in England. Really any Royal families...I remember being infatuated with the Romanov dynasty in Russia for a while. I love the Kennedy's, American's version of royalty.

It should come as no surprise then that I was excited about the Royal Wedding between William and Kate. I mentioned to the girls that the wedding was on Friday morning, and did they want to get up at super early to watch it with me? They did.

I set the alarm for 4:45--the wedding was to start at 5:00 am. At 4:15, my phone rang. After finally figuring out that it was my phone that was making that strange sound, I called my mom back in a panic. My dad has heart problems, and any early morning call sends me into nervousness.

I could tell right away my dad was fine. Mom sounded giddy. "Are you watching? Have you seen their hats? What do the girls think? Are you up? It's getting ready to start!" I mumbled something about waking up the girls and hustled them downstairs.

Maybe it was the fact that they were still half asleep, but the girls were mesmerized. They were glued to the screen, asking questions and making comments. They were puzzled a few times at things in the ceremony, but were in awe of everything.

In honor of the British, we ate English muffins for breakfast. :)

Kaylin fell asleep on the floor in front of the TV, and Macy and I dozed a little, Macy really loved when they were riding around in the carriage.

While I was pretty tired the next day, I think the girls will always remember getting up before the sun to watch the Royal Wedding. I know I will always remember watching with them, and that's what it's all about.

Easter, Part III

2011-04-27T09:24:00.000-05:00

The Easter Bunny came!

Kobe is yawning...this picture cracks me up!

Once we got to Mom's, the photo shoots began.

Kaylin's sensitive eyes had a hard time adjusting to the bright sunlight.

But I got a better one of her later.

Easter, Part II

2011-04-26T16:49:00.000-05:00

Mr. Purrs, Hannah's cat. Inside cat kicked outside, wanting very much to be inside again.

My sister put together a cool scavenger hunt for the girls. Here they are running to the lettuce garden, for it's time to "lettuce" get started. :)

Here's Bobby helping Hannah get some treats from up high.

My beautiful niece Hannah.

Getting money from "Grandmother Bunny"

And all three girls after the egg scavenger hunt. Love how close they are in age and hope they will always continue to be close!

Easter, Part I

2011-04-25T15:02:00.000-05:00

The winery held its First Ever Egg Hunt on Saturday. We went out early to help distribute the 5500 eggs over the grounds, and the girls were first to get their picture with the Easter Bunny.

We waited, and people started arriving. And they just kept on coming. There was an insane amount of people there, all from Facebook invites and word of mouth. It was crazy. Bobby got to direct traffic.

The girls passed the time with friends, being silly.

And they passed the time by "practicing" how to get a head start. Then when the actual thing started, Tess cheated and jumped on "Three" instead of zero. The others brought that up to her repeatedly afterwards.

This picture cracks me up. Look at Macy's face! When Jesse reached zero, it was mass chaos. Those 5500 eggs were gone in about 3 minutes, tops.

This is Jane, who is mildly obsessed with Bobby. She walked up to him, showed him her empty egg. When he said, "where's your candy?" She opened her mouth like this to show him. Love that Janey Jane.

Family picture with the winery in the background.

Part One of Easter complete. Parts II and III coming up.

Cali Trip, Part 1

2011-04-19T21:41:00.000-05:00

After the previously mentioned crazy flight situation, this Hummer limo picked us up and took us to Huntington Beach. Kids were very impressed, and I was too.

Me in Huntington Beach...I LOVE palm trees and always take my picture with them.

Lunch was on the pier in Huntington Beach, and I had Pacific Halibut. Very good!! I love fresh seafood, and being landlocked in Missouri limits those fresh opportunities.

Thursday brought Disneyland. We were there a LONG time. Lines weren't terrible, but they weren't short either, and it was HOT. We had a fantastic time, though. Indiana Jones ride was our favorite. Riding rides at 11:15 at night is fun too.

That's it for Cali Update #1. More to come when I have time!

Home!

2011-04-18T08:46:00.002-05:00

Home from beautiful and sunny Anaheim. Lots of stories to share later, but that'll have to wait!

Trainwreck of a day...

2011-04-14T10:22:00.000-05:00

Bobby said I needed yesterday's trip written down in a book, but I don't have a book, so I'll blog about it.

Dad drove me to airport at 5:15 am
Met 21 other students, so excited to get to Cali
Fuel leak on plane
Stand at ticket counter for 1.5 hours to re-book 21 people
3 goats in pet carriers in ticketing line
What a complete hassle that was
End up on 2 different flights, 2 different airlines
Fly to Denver with 6 others, luggage still in KC
Brake problem on that plane
Man went into diabetic shock
Land in Denver
Find out the other 14 didn't leave KC when supposed to
Fly to Orange County
No luggage
No issues on that plane but my contact fell out
Two dogs on that plane
White Hummer Limo picked us up
Drove through Orange County dancing and singing in the Hummer Limo
Ate dinner on the pier at Huntington Beach, surrounded by Pacific Ocean. Beautiful.
Ran through sand, dipped toes in the FREEZING cold water
Shopped in Huntington Beach
Drove in White Hummer Limo to hotel
Checked in
Relaxed for 3.5 minutes
Rode transit bus to Downtown Disney
Ate dinner, shopped at Downtown Disney
At 8:45 pm, other crew arrived with our luggage in the White Hummer Limo
That was 10:45 CST, so they had been at the airport/in air for 17 hours

Off to Disney today!

Cali, here I come

2011-04-12T21:40:00.000-05:00

My alarm is set for 4:30 am, quite a bit earlier than I like to wake up. Tomorrow I fly to Anaheim with 16 high school students and 3 other advisers for our semi-annual journalism trip.

This trip has required more planning/scheduling then usual--Bobby is currently in Wisconsin for work, meaning we will both be out of state. THANK GOODNESS for grandparents to shuttle kids around here and there.

The day I come home is also picture day for dance, and there is no way Bobby can handle full make-up, hair in bun, costumes for the girls. THANK GOODNESS for two friends who have stepped in and are taking care of that for us.

Tomorrow is a full day--flights, the beach, Downtown Disney. The kids are going to die when they see the transportation I've arranged--a 30-passenger party bus, complete with full bar (pop only) to pick us up and take us to the beach. I've kept it a secret so I can see the looks on their faces!

I did ask the company to take out the stripper pole, though.

The dresser crash

2011-04-10T21:23:00.000-05:00

I was just thinking how peaceful the morning had been...both girls had gotten themselves dressed for church, we were well ahead of schedule for a Sunday morning. Then I heard the crash. Then I heard the crying.

Kaylin managed to pull her dresser over--not on top of her, but it knocked her in the head, and everything came crashing into the floor. Macy's lava lamp. Kaylin's bowl of seashells from our trip to the beach almost three years ago, and a whole plethora of junk that had accumulated on the top of her dresser. Seashells covered the floor.

I rocked Kaylin on my lap, checking her head for cuts and watching her for signs of a concussion. She was fine.

I guess that was God's way of telling me to clean off her dresser more, huh?

That's mud alright.

2011-04-09T21:21:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's mud.

Tonight we went to a BBQ for a 40th birthday party. It was a Woodstock/hippie theme. How appropriate that the kids found a big mud hole and the end result is the picture above.

Bobby and I are pretty laid-back parents, and neither of us freaked when we saw Kaylin with a little bit of mud on her feet. I told her to keep it on just her hands and feet, which she did not do, but that's okay. The other parents were fine too--no one freaking out. The little girl on the left in green did get her shoes completely covered, and that mom's jaw hit the floor when the daughter said, "Someone got my shoes dirty!" Her dad replied, "I think you are that someone!" A water hose came out at the end of the night, and kids were hosed down. Kaylin did ride home with no pants on to protect her car seat from the mud all over the back of her shorts.

Good times with friends, just hanging out in the mud. Being young. They're only young once.

Rite of passage

2011-04-05T21:03:00.000-05:00

My baby girl Kaylin has learned to ride a bike without training wheels. Still not so good on the turning part, but good on the straightway. We'd tried last summer, but it wasn't successful. She learned in about 10 minutes with Bobby the other night. Guess she just needed to be ready!

My first 5k

2011-04-02T15:30:00.000-05:00

Well, I did it. I ran my first 5k. I have been running 3 miles the last couple weeks, so I wasn't terribly worried about not being able to finish it. I was nervous about the unknowns--what was it like to run a race with 6000 other people, etc.

A teacher friend, Kimberly, and I parked at another teacher friend, Leigh Anne's, house, then walked to the start line. This was Kimberly and I's first 5k, Leigh Anne's 5th. We got there about 20 minutes before the race...visited one of the 9000 port-a-pottys, stretched a little, people watched. Then it was go-time.

Leigh Anne is faster than us, so we didn't really run with her at all. Kimberly and I stayed together about a 1.5, then I dropped back a little and then lost her. I finished in 36 minutes, Kimberly in 35, and Leigh Anne in 30. It was a testament to how many people were running that I was only 1 minute behind Kimberly, but I couldn't see her. It was neat to hear my name when I cross the finish line, thanks to the chip on my shoe!

Bobby and the girls were on the left side of the road when I passed them first, then moved down by the finish so I saw them again when I was almost finished. Macy had been whiny about going, and it was sooooooooo nice to see them! After sitting through countless dance recitals, basketball games, soccer games, choir concerts, etc., it was nice for them to watch ME for a change! Bobby cheered me on with an inspirational "Almost finished! Push it!"

Some wrap up thoughts:
1. Some people should not wear Spandex. Do they not look in the mirror before they leave the house?
2. This was my first race, but it wasn't hard to figure out what to do. Don't cut in front of people so close that they almost trip.
3. Lady in black tights? I think something was supposed to go OVER those tights. I did not enjoy looking at your underwear through the tights.
4. Some people take this running thing VERY seriously.
5. After mile 2, the 5k merged with the 10k. Those people were zooming by.
6. This race thing is addictive. I've spent the last hour looking at races! Might try the doozy of all, the infamous Hospital Hill.

The three of us...Leigh Anne in pink, me in middle, Kimberly in black

Here's to our first 5k!

Gravy train is over

2011-04-01T08:20:00.000-05:00

Monday I have to start teaching again. It's been a nice 2 months in which I have really done nothing during the school day, but time to get to work again. I have really missed being in a routine...I keep forgetting to do things, keep losing things, etc. Another reason I couldn't be a stay at home mom without a routine!

Saturday is the big race. Well, not really big to most people, but it's big for me. Last night we went and picked up the race packet and looked at the course. A little gradual hill for the first 1.5 miles, then a gradual downhill for the last 1.5 miles. Looks to be about 45 at race time, so a tad chilly. I woke up this morning with my right side of my body all funky--hoping I just slept wrong on my right side. Hoping it wears off soon. Ready to do this race tomorrow!

As Macy told me, "Mom, you know you're not going to win, right?" I just hope to finish and come in middle of the pack.

Cannot handle the tears

2011-03-29T10:23:00.002-05:00

Cannot handle it when high school boys cry. Seriously. Girls? Bring it on.

But when a 17-year-old boy breaks down in front of me crying, I just cannot handle it.

Dinnertime

2011-03-29T08:08:00.000-05:00

We typically don't eat together as a family. (GASP. The HORROR.)

We just have funky schedules at night, and most of the time the girls just eat in front of the TV (GASP) and we (or just me, if Bobby is at the station) eat in the kitchen.

So last night I thought we'd try eating together as a family. I know it's important, blah, blah, blah. I cleared off the kitchen table. We had exactly 15 minutes to eat together, before the evening activities of Girl Scouts and dance started. Bobby had thrown chicken and potatoes in the crock pot in the morning, so the whole house smelled yummy.

The girls and I sit down, Bobby is doing something in the kitchen, probably taking his time sitting down at the table. Macy has a major scowl on her face, and is just picking at her food with a fork, slumped down in her seat. Kaylin is doing the same, but making little whiny noises from time to time.

"So, Macy, how was your day?" I said, very cheerful.

"Fine." She didn't even look up.

"Kaylin, how was your day?" I try the other daughter.

"Fine." Insert whiny noise after.

"Bobby, how was your day?" He has joined us by this time.

"Fine." He says, big grin on his face. He knows how painful this is.

"Mooooooooommmmmm, this is gross!" Macy whines.
"Mommmmmm, I can't eat this!" Kaylin says.

It didn't get a whole lot better from there. Macy ate a Lunchable, Kaylin ate 2 hot dogs, but they did talk a little more.

Roughest 15 minutes of my life.

Boring post about our weekend

2011-03-28T08:39:00.000-05:00

Friday afternoon we sent the girls off to Chillicothe for a church retreat with the group of girls they meet with on Wednesday nights. No tears, just hugs and see you tomorrow! I'm so glad we have no issues in that area.

Saturday Bobby and I worked at the winery all day while they were having an auction. I handed out cup after cup after cup after cup of hot chocolate or coffee, plate after plate after plate after plate of hot dogs and hamburgers, and then went to pick the girls at 5 from their retreat.

They had a great time and it was good to have them home!

I eat losers for breakfast...

2011-03-25T09:02:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time, Macy was obsessed with the movie Cars. We watched it over and over and over and over and over. She had a Cars birthday theme for her 5th birthday where we watched the movie, ate popcorn, and made Cars keychains. So when I heard that the actual cars from the movie would be town yesterday only, I started scrambling to figure out a way to take them. I found out about noon, and it closed at 6. Lots of juggling, but we arrived at 5:55. I was watching Jesse's two girls last night, and the Mulkey family came with us.

Here they are with Lightning McQueen himself.

And Tow Mater. My favorite line of his from the movie? "I'm as happy as a tornado in a trailer park!"

And my favorite car...Sally the sweet-talking Porsche.

It was all over by 6:15 and we were back inside Crown Center where we played around for a while then headed home. It was crazy by the cars--see the black rope in front of the cars? Obviously there for a reason. I was shocked to see little kids moving the black rope, and leaning on the cars, hitting them, etc. Seriously? What kind of parent lets that happen?

It was a crazy thing to do on a weeknight when I had 2 extra kids in tow, just for a 10 minute photo opp with cars, but I love building memories with the girls. Surely this is one they will remember!

**Excuse the picture quality...I was carrying Giselle and didn't want to lug the big camera, so I used my phone. My arms are sore today!

I ran with Cheryl

2011-03-22T09:18:00.000-05:00

There's a trail .5 miles from our house. I usually walk to the trail, run 1 mile, turn around and run 1 mile back, then walk home. It works well. Total mileage=3 miles

Last night I got the brilliant idea to NOT turn around, but do the whole trail. The whole trail is 3.75 miles, plus the walk to/from the trail. I didn't think about the trail being longer than what I usually do.

No biggie--I was doing fine. I had ran more than usual, but that was okay. Had about 1 mile left to run when I see my friend Cheryl waving at me. Then she turned around and said, "Care if I run with you?" See, I'm a slow runner. Cheryl is not. She has ran SIX half-marathons and is FAST. I said, "Sure, if you don't mind me slowing you down." She laughed, "oh, you won't slow me down."

That last mile went by in a blur. I kept up with her, running at a pace I have NEVER done before. She was just getting started, I was on the tail end of my run She was carrying on a conversation, I would get a few breathy words out to contribute to the conversation. She bounced along, I felt like I had on iron shoes. She was all-fresh-faced, I felt like my face was on fire.

But I did it. I survived and walked home. Total mileage 4.75. Bobby took one look at me and said, "How did your run go?"

"I ran with Cheryl" is all I needed to say.

Staycation

2011-03-19T13:10:00.000-05:00

We were supposed to go to Atlanta this week and didn't. Instead, we've been hanging around town, having fun just being together.

Wednesday,
Went to a nature sanctuary for a hike
Drove around looking at campsites
Took a friend to the ER with a potential broken ankle

Thursday
Ran 2.5 miles (goooooo me!)
Went to the zoo with friends
Went camping
Almost froze to death

Friday
Went to Kaleidoscope with my sister and niece
Toured the winery with them too
Ate way too much at Texas Roadhouse

Today (so far)
Ran 2.5 miles
Cleaned out garage
Cleaned out closet

More than you really wanted to know about my week, I'm sure.

First 5k

2011-03-15T11:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I signed up for my first 5k, Rock the Parkway .

I've said before that I was going to run, and just never have. Been too scared, too nervous, whatever to actually do it. With Bobby's strange schedule, it's hard to train. I can't follow training schedules found online, and he'll suddenly work overtime and can't run for three days in a row. It's getting easier though--the girls can stay home by themselves for a short time, and I'm making more of an effort to force myself. The training is going pretty well, so I felt comfortable paying money and signing up.

I'm running with 2 others I work with, so we talk about it at school, and I'm getting excited! It may be miserable and I may hate it and never do it again, but that's okay.

I've blogged about this before, but it's something I feel strongly about. It's important for the girls to see that I do things outside of taking care of them. So many parents are wrapped up 100% in their children and don't take time for themselves. One of these days those kids are going to grow up, and what has the parent done for themselves? What goals has the parent showed the child they can achieve?

Running a 5k is something that I hope the girls can see me do and appreciate that I am taking time for myself.

Luck o' the Irish

2011-03-14T14:16:00.000-05:00

Who am I kidding? I have no luck. Anyway, pictures from Saturday's Snake Saturday parade.

Kaylin and her super-cool shamrock glasses

Macy and her super-cool shamrock glasses, doing her super-cool gangsta look.

Macy and her BFF Kaylee, gangsta style

Me and the girls, along with part of Joseph's head. No idea what Macy's deal was on Saturday with the pictures!