Jump Rope for the Heart!

Macy's school is doing a jump rope fundraiser for the American Heart Association in honor of Mrs. Wepler. As some of you know, Mrs. Wepler was Macy's librarian who passed away in late November from a heart condition; the same heart condition that killed her son (a student at LHS) almost excatly a year before, and the same heart condition her daughter currently has. Her death has really touched Macy, and she came home asking to do this jump rope activity to give money in honor of Mrs. Wepler. I was touched by her compassion!

In fact, Macy had a friend spend the night (more on that in a minute) and Paige prayed that God help Mrs. Wepler. Macy said, "He will help her because she is in heaven with him."

Of course, to our family, the American Heart Association has more meaning than just Mrs. Wepler. My father has serious heart problems, and has a pacemaker right now. My brother is going in on Monday for a catherization to determine course of action for his heart. Any breakthroughs done by the American Heart Association are greatly appreciated by our family.

Macy would like to raise at least $30 for the cause so she can get a new jump rope (ahh, the selfish side does come out!). If you feel so inclined, she would appreciate any donations. There doesn't appear to be a due date on the form, but the jump rope event is Feb. 8th, so I would imagine that's a good due date. All checks need to be made out to the American Heart Association, and can be mailed to us. Thanks in advance for your help. Macy will be thrilled to give money in honor of Mrs. Wepler.

As I mentioned, Macy had a friend spend the night. Paige is a very sweet, very shy child who doesn't mind my very bossy daughter telling her what to do all the time, and who until recently has been an only child. Macy, Kaylin and Paige played better than I could have hoped for all night. In fact, I was able to run the dishwasher, do two loads of laundry, tons of work on the computer, grade a set of quizzes, and almost finish a book. Paige is terrified of dogs, though, and we have two large ones. Kobe and Gabe spent the evening either outside or downstairs, and both are mad at me now.

And now I must go break up a pillow fight. It's 11:15, children, go to sleep!!!

New blogs!

In the next column, I put a list of my newspaper kids' blogs. We are in the process of creating a new website, but it isn't put together as of yet. We're getting there, and I'll post that link when it is ready. The new Bell website will be interactive: surveys, crosswords, stories the kids have written, pictures of the day, and these blogs.

In the meantime until the website is ready, check out the links for these 8 blogs. They range in ideas, but I think they will impress you with their thoughts.

You know you are a parent when...

You know you are a parent when you open the refrigerator and find a pair of Dora underwear.

And that's why I love my dogs...

When Bobby took the job at Kearney, many of you know the hardest part for me was being alone at night when he was on his 24 hour shifts. Kobe, our black lab, is a good dog, but would lick anyone who tried to break in. Gabe, our American Eskimo, is the opposite. He's not quite as loving as Kobe, but boy, can he bark and protect. They make a good pair.

Last night Bobby was at the fire station. About 1:00 the dogs went nuts--barking their heads off. Woke up me and Macy. I grabbed my cell phone (because if someone was trying to break in, they would cut the phone lines, right? :) ) and looked out the window. I see the ambulance(Bobby driving) and the fire truck, and cop cars. Apparently they had a drunk diabetic that had an altercation with his brother. Gabe would not stop barking until they left. In fact, a neighbor came and stood in our driveway to watch. Gabe went even more nuts until the guy left. I know the guy could hear him.

And I went back to bed feeling safer. While it was just the fire truck and ambulance, the dogs didn't know that and definitely alerted me to what was going on.

Interesting Christmas presents

Bobby's grandmother gave the girls two books for Christmas, along with the obligatory singing stuffed animals whose batteries mysteriously quit working. I'm sure she has no idea what she passed along in these books!

The first book was called "Little Monster's Word Book", and was published in 1977. Not all that exciting, but still a neat old book. Here's the cover:



And here's a page out of the book.



This second book is called "Chicken Little:Count to ten" and was published in 1965. The original edition was in 1946; wish we had that edition!!



Here's the first page:

Both books have held up really well, and are in pretty good shape. I wouldn't say mint condition, but no pages are ripped, no writing on the pages, the cover is solid. Both books were from the Salem Public School Library, and were withdrawn at some point. I have no idea how Grandma Velma got them.

It's interesting to me that the concepts of the books are the same as brand new books Macy and Kaylin have. The monster word book has pictures of different scenes, such as moving day,holidays, wintertime, along with the words next to them. The girls have many books like that, but with Barbie, Dora, Berenstein Bears, etc. The Chicken Little is a count to ten book, and tells a story with one cow, two elephants, three camels, etc. We also have many books with that same concept too. Interesting that while the characters and some situations might change through time, concepts stay strong for 30+ years.

Better than chocolate...

If you are ever in need of quick pick-me-up, or morale booster, bring McDonalds to a kindergartner and eat it with him/her at lunchtime. Suddenly you are the most famous person on the planet, as is the lucky kindergartner. The other kids smile ear to ear, waving like fiends trying to get your attention, and everyone wants to sit by You, the magical person who brings McDonalds at lunchtime. You even hear phrases like, "Macy's mom gave ME a hug!" It is truly a feel-good moment. You can borrow my kindergartner anytime to experience this for yourself.

Happy New Year!!

We had a couple families over last night for New Year's Eve. There were 9 kids, ranging in age from 2 months to 8 years old. Most were girls. Poor Drew (8 years old) bored quickly of having the girls chase him, so he turned on cartoons downstairs and escaped. Below is a picture of the kids (minus Drew, and minus Tucker, 2 months) after they have put on make-up, done their nails, put on dress up clothes, and put blue and pink streaks in their hair. Even Anderson, the only boy in the picture, has a bright blue streak in his hair. No makeup for him, though.

While the kids played as hard as they could, the adults played games. We started with Catch Phrase, and ended up with a riveting game of Loaded Questions that ended at 1:30 am with Jennifer D as the winner. Yours truly was horrible at the game, and ended up in last place. I kept getting my husband's answers confused with our friend Nate's. Below is Nate jamming out on Macy's Hannah Montana guitar.

We lost Anderson and Tucker, and Drew was asleep downstairs, so when midnight rolled around, it was all girls. We had a slight issue, in that there were 4 masks, 4 hats, 4 streamers, and 4 blow things, but 5 little girls. As it was midnight, that didn't go over well. Luckily I didn't give them each bags of confetti. We'd would have been picking it out of the carpet next New Year's. They really enjoyed counting down and yelling "Happy New Year!" Seeing Miley Cyrus on Ryan Seacrest's countdown didn't hurt, either.

The kids really hung in there--everyone left at 1:30, and for the most part, all was well. My mom has a theory that 2 or 4 girls playing together is fine, but 3 just doesn't work. That theory held pretty true--as the oldest girls, and the ones used to getting their own way, Macy, Allie and Jessica fought a little, but diversionary tactics worked to save the night.

Our girls slept until 10 today, waking in time to watch the Tigers beat the Razorbacks 38-7. Great way to end the season.

Have a wonderful 2008; thanks for checking my blog these last 6 months or so. Hopefully it's not too boring for you. :) I've enjoyed updating it.