The Kids' New Clubhouse (sort of)

The kids have this little space in the trees behind our house that's pretty well hidden, but really neat when you walk back in there. The people who lived here before layed down some plywood for their kids to play on, which has rotted, and then, their kids (I assume) drug a bunch of junk back there as well. There was even a little plastic wagon that some genius spray painted the word "pimp" on the back of (pimp-wagon - nice for the kids, huh?). So, the kids have been begging Andy to make them a club house out there, and a couple of weekends ago he got started on it. We cleared out the area a little bit, and then he started building. Here's a picture of him making the floor. He moved it back into the woods the other day and got one wall up and put it up on 4x4 posts so it won't rot. He has all these elaborate plans to make it really neat for them, and there's no telling how long it will actually take to get it done because t-ball and softball seasons have started, so we have very little free time any more. But, we're all excited about it!

Hair Styles

Tonight the girls decided to do each other's hair. Alli did Drew's, and while it was odd, it didn't compare the the crazy 'do that Drew did for Alli. They're so funny!

How depressed can I make you?

Today is the beginning of a new week, but yesterday was the end of a very difficult, very sad week for me. And, today started off pretty rough as well. Due to the economy, Hall county, the school system I work for, has laid off around 100 employees. I found out Friday that I am one of those because of my lack of seniority, and I've known it was coming for days. It was just hanging there over my head, with no definite news and everyone looking at me and the others that got the same news like we had a terminal illness. I get to finish out the school year, and I draw a paycheck until Aug 31, and my benefits run through September -- a definite best case senario for someone being laid off. But, my contract will not be renewed as of right now. I was sad on Friday, but fairly quickly came to grips with it. Life must go on. This morning, our phone woke us up, and we were told that our preacher died suddenly of a heart attack early this morning. It was completely unexpected. Anyone who knows me knows I have not been happy at our church for a while now, but it was still really sad news. Even now, Andy and I keep repeating that we just can't believe it's happened. In the car, on the way to and from church today, the kids were watching Mr. Magorium's Wonder Imporium, which is, to me, one of the absolute best movies of all time. I love it, and I get choked up every time I see it. The batteries in Alli's headphones were dead, so we all listened to it in the car. For any of you who haven't seen it, I'm about to ruin a big part of the movie, but here goes. We were at the part when Mr. Magorium "departs" and Molly Mahoney, the girl who he's leaving his store to, is completely upset about it, and Mr. Magorium gives her this little speech:

Mr. Magorium: When King Lear dies in Act V, do you know what Shakespeare has written? He's written "He dies." That's all, nothing more. No fanfare, no metaphor, no brilliant final words. The culmination of the most influential work of dramatic literature is "He dies." It takes Shakespeare, a genius, to come up with "He dies." And yet every time I read those two words, I find myself overwhelmed with dysphoria. And I know it's only natural to be sad, but not because of the words "He dies." but because of the life we saw prior to the words. I've lived all five of my acts, Mahoney, and I am not asking you to be happy that I must go. I'm only asking that you turn the page, continue reading... and let the next story begin. And if anyone asks what became of me, you relate my life in all its wonder, and end it with a simple and modest "He died."
Molly Mahoney: [starting to sob] I love you.
Mr. Magorium: I love you, too. Your life is an occasion. Rise to it.

I could listen to it over and over again. I'm not trying to be really deep or overly dramatic here, but, as sad as the past several days have been, the best thing to do is turn the page. That's what I'm trying to tell myself as I return to my job tomorrow that I can't help but wonder if is a waste of my time at this point, and if anyone appreciates. But, there's now the hope of something different. And, while I was not very close to our preacher, I can't help but think about his family and what they're feeling right now, and how turning the page must seem near impossible. I don't generally blog when I feel this way, and I may regret sharing all of this and delete it tomorrow, but for some reason I feel like sharing right now. So that's me today.

Dinner at Maggiano's

As much as I would love for Evan's picture to represent my blog for at least the next 4 years, and would love to go on and on about why, I've decided it's time for a non-political update. Last night my parents took us all out to dinner at Maggiano's, this really yummy Italian restaurant. My cousin, Meagan, was in town from Florida, so she joined us as well. We had a nice night, and then went to Erin's house afterward and hung out. Here are some pictures of the night:

Here's Mom with Alli.And Alli with Meagan.

A not so great picture of me and Andy.

Here's Drew and Erin.

And Mom with Evan.

Here's Alli wearing Dad's reading glasses.

Drew and Jose goofing off.

Alli and Stephanie goofing off.

Erin and Lee.

And, me, Mom, Evan, and Alli.

You have the option of eating family style at this restaurant, and it's all you can eat, which includes appetizers and dessert, so I was miserably stuffed by the end of the night. It was so good, though, and so nice to be with everyone!

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

Although Andy and I disagree with Obama and didn't vote for him and the kids know this, we've still tried to instill in them respect for his office and our country. Evan's class is learning about presidents because of February and Presidents' Day, and out of pure innocence, just because he wanted to color a clown at school today, this is what I found in his book bag:

Hilarious!

Drew's Program

A couple of weeks ago, 3rd grade had their night to perform at the PTO meeting. Their program mostly focused on the upcoming physical fitness test in P.E. The P.E. teacher chose an elite few to demonstrate the different tasks you have to complete and how many you have to do to receive the red patch or the blue patch (blue patch is the highest you can get and red is just under that). Well, have you ever felt yourself absolutely beaming - the kind of beaming where you know you're grinning from ear to ear in your own little world of beamingness and you just don't care who sees you. It sort of makes me think of those crazy stage moms who are in the audience singing along with their child and doing the choreography with them. (This is what my children bring out in me -- I am the worst, worst, worst mother lion when it comes to protecting them, and I act like a wacko at their programs.) The night of the PTO program, I was absolutely beaming. Drew was picked to demonstrate pull-ups (this is where you can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing there was no way on Earth that I was mirroring her - about the only things I can pull up are my socks and my pants). All she had to do to show that she could earn a blue patch was 2 pull-ups, and she was able to do 5! She was told ahead of time that she was going to be picked and she was so nervous about it, but she did great. I was just so proud. Unfortunatley, I didn't do very well with the camera and didn't actually get a shot of her pulling up, and all the video of this part was taken with the other camera. After that they sang a couple of funny little music-teacher songs to end the program and all got to play an instrument. Drew got to play the triangle (yes, still beaming). I found the song with the instruments to be hilarious. I know the music teacher was trying to get a lot of stuff coordinated in the song, but it just makes me laugh. It's just so typical of what I remember from music class when I was a kid.

Update

There's nothing much to speak of around here. Just the ridiculous amount of the same old stuff. I've been so tired lately and my neck has really been bothering me. I went to the doctor for it, and he gave me a muscle relaxer. So far, all that's done is make me drunk as a skunk, but with continued neck pain, so that's no good. I also have this virus called pityriasis rosea, which causes this hideous rash but doesn't hurt or itch, and I'm absolutely covered in it on my trunk, arms, and upper legs. They claim it's not contageous, and they don't know how people get it. Who knows. Too bad it's not somewhere that I can photograph and show off, because it's kind of breathtaking. Thank goodness it's winter and I can cover it. Everyone keeps telling me it's stress, especially the neck pain. I feel like Joan Cusack's character on Sixteen Candles every time I try to do anything, although I think she had some major orthodontic issues, rather than neck problems.

MLK Weekend

We had quite a big MLK weekend this year. My parents got all new, much needed appliances in their kitchen right before Christmas. But, their cabinets and counter tops were just really dated, and somewhat unattractive. So, me and my sisters and all our hubbies had the brilliant idea to send them off for MLK weekend and camp out at their house and re-d0 their kitchen. We have been so excited about it since before Christmas, and my parents had no idea. We worked our tails off, but we actually had a really good time. We painted all of their 36 cabinets and 9 drawers, painted all the hardware, replaced the backsplash (we spray painted the back side of plexiglass and hung it, which, if you can find reasonably priced plexiglass, is a fairly cheap and really nice looking backsplash), changed out the light fixtures, and replaced the counter tops. The cabinets all got sanded, primed, sanded again, and then got a coat of paint on the back and 2 on the front, which took what felt like forever. By the end of the first night, we had countertops off, all doors off, and everything sanded and primed. Of course, it was 3:00 in the morning before we went to bed. Here are some pictures of all the hard work.

Here are a few before and after shots of what we started with and how it all turned out. I forgot to take a before picture until after we'd already done a few things.

Like I said, mom and dad had no clue, and their reaction was awesome. They were so surprised. Mom even cried. It was great. We were all really proud of ourselves, too.

Losing My Mind

We started back to school yesterday and I have made the biggest idiot mistake that a teacher can make in a small town where everyone knows each other and talks to everyone. I forgot to send report cards home today! Ugh!!! My assistant principal very nicely and sweetly told me that it was no big deal, but that I needed to call every parent and let them know what happened. One issue that we have at our school is a ridiculous amount lunch charges. The cafeteria won't refuse to feed a kid because they don't have money, but the students all have accounts that they charge lunches to. The new policy is that we can't send the report card home until all their lunch charges are paid. I don't know how I feel about the new policy because I have one student who owes $240, and his sister also owes this much, so that's almost $500 that his family owes the school, and they're not wealthy people. He's brought his lunch every day this year, so all the charges are from previous years, but he hasn't received a report card yet this year. Of course, I usually cheat and let him look at it before I send it to the office. So, all that was to say that I had 5 kids who wouldn't have gotten their report cards today anyway, and I have 6 who I e-mail things to, so I only had to call 11 parents, but it was still a pain. So far I haven't gotten any ugly e-mails, and I guess I'll find out in the morning how many mad parents I had that called the school. But, I didn't leave today until around 4:30 because Wednesday is our grade level planning day, and I hadn't heard anything at that point, so maybe no one will bother me about it. This is the price I pay for having too many irons in the fire. My classes start back Monday, but I've been sick with some nasty throat virus - the kind that makes my whole body twist when I swallow. I have gross white spots all over the back of my throat and this stupid lady at school (yes, she really is stupid) very rudely said to me, "Why are you here? You probably have strep throat. You're going to make me sick." I wasn't even talking to her. Unfortunately, I teach her son (equally stupid), so I have to keep a civil relationship with her. I made sure I breathed nice and heavy on her kid today. I'm kidding. I try not to get that close to him. :)

The Rest of Christmas

So, here I am, 5 days late on my Christmas post. Of course, I've been busy as usual (I know you're all sick of hearing me repeat that over and over again) putting Christmas away, and I'm happy to report, all traces of Christmas are boxed up and gone. I know, that's sad that I would say I'm happy about it, but when the tree goes up before Thanksgiving, the 26th is long enough for me. We had our big Clark Christmas party on the 24th, which was lots of fun, except that Andy started feeling bad that night. They always have tons of gag gifts, which are always hilarious. Here's a picture of all the women in the family. After that, we went to Andy's dad's to open presents. Here are the kids getting presents there. The next day we had our regular Christmas at home with all our Santa gifts. I didn't take any pictures that morning. We usually just set the camera on the tri-pod and take video. It's just more fun for us all that way. Nobody has to worry about anything but opening presents and giving gifts. But, the kids racked up this year. Evan got an electric race track, which he has really enjoyed. Him and Andy sit in the play room and race the cars around and around. It has a loop and a bridge and everything, which is really neat. Alli and Drew got a kitchen set, which is pretty nice -- something I would have been so excited about when I was little. They got metal pots and pans to go with it, a "working" microwave (meaning that it has a little spinning tray inside it and dings when it's done), a tea pot, dishes, pot holders, and pretend food. They also got a Wii, which we've all really enjoyed. I haven't had as much fun playing video games since we got our first Nintendo forever ago and I became obsessed with Super Mario Brothers. The most hilarious part of the Wii is that Andy's Mii (character) looks exactly like him. I think I may take a picture of it off the TV so everyone can see. It's amazing. Andy also got me the Wii Fit, which is great. I've done it a few times and my muscles are so sore today. I mentioned that I was going to cook a big breakfast for us Christmas morning, and I did. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrown casserole, and biscuits. I attempted to make gravy for the biscuits, but it turned out like what I would imagine engine sludge to look like. It was pretty nasty, but the rest of the breakfast was outstanding if I do say so myself. Here's a picture of that. But, would it really be a post from me without some crazy thing happening to make it not so perfect? On Christmas Eve, some horrific virus infiltrated our house. I don't know if it was the flu or what, but it was bad. Andy and Drew were the only ones that go it (so far!), but it involved a terribly high fever (Andy and Drew both got up to 103) and hallucinagenic nightmares. At 3:00 in the morning, Andy layed in the floor in front of the space heater wearing a T-shirt, under a long sleeved shirt, under a fleece pull-over, under an electric blanket, and shivered and talked to somebody, and when I asked him what he was talking about, he just responded with a really confused, "what?" Then, when Drew got it, we had her sleep in our room, and she woke up in the middle of the night and went upstairs to the play room. I got up to see where she went and asked her where she was, and she said she was in my room (even though she was sitting in the play room), so I went and got her and put her back in our room, and then she layed there whimpering and making weird noises, so Andy layed down with her and she told him she was scared that the Wii was going to get her. The next morning she didn't remember any of it. Between the 2 of them, we had 4 really long nights. So, thank goodness it's all over and nobody else has gotten it. I sure have prayed hard that it would go away without getting the rest of us! Christmas was great, and me and the kids are now enjoying a free week before we go back to school. Even though my job gets stressful at times, the vacation perks are really nice!

Christmases 1 & 2

We started all of our Christmas events this past weekend. Usually, Christmas is jam packed into a steady and constant 3 days, but this year it's much more spread out. Now that Stephanie and Erin are married, and they have family obligations with their husbands, we had to shift our plans a little, which worked out just as well. Friday night, the 19th, we went to my parents and decorated 90-something Christmas cookies. The kids absolutely loved it, and really stuck with it long after the adults were over it. Here are some pictures of the kids decorating.

Here's one of Alli working extra hard. Look at the concentration on her face!Here's a picture of several of the finished products.We spent the night there and then got up early and opened presents the next morning, and then cooked a big lunch of finger foods and pretty much grazed all day while playing a marathon game of Mexican Train. I actually didn't play for most of it. I just don't have the attention span any more to sit still for that long. I did jump in on the last 2 rounds and played on Drew's team, though, and she ended up winning (not just because of me, and definitely not because they let her win, either), so it was nice to get in on the tail end of a victory. Here's a picture of the huge mess of paper from the present opening. Tonight, Andy's mom and grandmother came over and had dinner with us and brought gifts for the kids to open. We had a nice dinner, and the kids got some much needed clothes. Here are a couple of pictures of that. So, it's been a great start to all the festivities, and tomorrow night we have our party with the Clark's, and then Big Red himself comes to visit. We're trying to start some of our own family traditions since so far, our plans have just consisted of carrying on the same old traditions from when we were kids, which is great -- I hope to continue that for a long, long time. But, we also want our kids to have something of their own, so I'm planning on cooking a big breakfast just for our family Christmas morning, and then I'm sure that will be followed by hours of playing with gifts from Santa.

Birthdays, Haircuts, and Christmas

I mentioned in my last post that I got an awesome new camera for my birthday, but didn't mention any other events related to it, so here are some details. On Monday night, Andy couldn't hold it anymore and gave me my present early. On Wednesday, my actual birthday, Drew, being the precious child that she is, talked to my class and got them to sing to me in the cafeteria. So, my whole class of 23 kids sang loudly in the lunchroom, and when 23 kids sing in unison, people tend to look, so for 45 seconds, all eyes were on me in the cafeteria. While I love attention from one or two people at a time, that much attention causes weird sensations in my stomach and I generally break out in hives, but I kept my cool and thought it was precious. Today, we went to lunch at my mom and dad's house with the whole family, and it was such a nice day. They got me a really cute cake and gave me some great gifts, including money, which my dad was so kind to watch the kids while my mom and I went to spend it. I also got my hair cut pretty short this weekend, which I was super nervous about, but really love. This picture is purely for vanity reasons, although my face looks goofy because I was swallowing. But, it's another angle of my hair, which I know you're all dying to further check out. At mom's we ate delicious grilled steaks and baked potatoes and a big salad and yummy bread, and then just sat around and did a lot of talking and laughing while everyone played with the kids, and they adore the attention (Erin is torturing Evan with tickling in this picture). And, also in my last post I think I mentioned putting up the Christmas tree, so here's a picture of that and the stockings that I made several years ago when my life was so completely different than it is now. I can't imagine doing something like that right now (sigh....).

Overdue Thanksgiving

I know everyone's probably over this by now, but we had a really great Thanksgiving. We spent Thursday with the Clark's and had a huge meal with Andy's dad and step-mom and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. Then we went and spent the night at my parents house with Steph and Erin and their hubbies, which was so much fun. It's been forever since me and my sisters spent the night together in that house. Then the next day we had another huge Thanksgiving. We had around 20 people at my parents' house, 8 of which were kids, so it was very noisy and rowdy, but fun. Besides my family & parents & sisters and their husbands, my cousin and her family were there along with some friends from church and their kids, a friend of my mom's, and my friend Bethany and her little boy Hayden. I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend more than I've enjoyed Thanksgiving in a long time. It makes me excited about how great Christmas will be. Of course, I forgot my camera at both places, so here's a picture of the family that Steph and Jose had. We now have our Christmas tree up, and I got a super awesome amazing fabulous outstanding great camera for my birthday from Andy - a Nikon D90, so I plan on taking lots of great pictures of the kids in front of the tree for the blog and our Christmas card, so stay tuned for some super awesome amazing fabulous outstanding great pictures!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A couple of weeks ago Evan and Alli had a Thanksgiving program at school. At our school, all the grade-level programs are incorporated into the PTO meetings to try to get more involvement. I have to go to all of them since I work there, and, I'm not sure what the deal is with the parents at our school, but the 5th grade turn out was pitiful. Well, the kindergarten crowd was the complete opposite. The gym was busting at the seams, and the camera flashes and video cameras were out of control. I was standing in the middle of the gym taking video, thinking I was probably infuriating everyone by standing, but not knowing what else to do because I couldn't get a good shot. Then I turned around and everyone else was doing the same. At the end of the program they had the kids stand there for a few minutes so parents could come up and take pictures, and it was like the most insane paparazzi you've ever seen. It sure was fun, though, and it made me happy because I wasn't at all embarrassed about being that crazy camera happy mom, since everyone else was just as crazy. Evan was an Indian boy, which I was surprised was still an acceptable title what with the P.C. world we live in now. Of course, it is Lula. Alli was a turkey, and she was her typical self. In one of the videos, it's hard to see her because the girl in front of her was blocking her, but it shows the little battle she had with her beak. You can hear Drew and Andy laughing in the background. By the end of the whole thing, she was wearing her beak on top of her head. You may have to look to pick them out of the crowd, but here are some pictures and videos. For the first part of the program, and the reason for the costumes, a teacher read a story about the first thanksgiving and each time she said "Indian Boy," or "Turkey," or "Pilgrim," etc., the kids had a line. The Indian boys said "Big and Brave," and the turkeys said, "Gobble, Gobble."

Another Crazy Weekend

For those of you who don't know, Andy bought a car on e-bay 5 or 6 years ago. It was a Geo Metro, and a wonderful car for gas mileage. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world or the greatest smelling car, and the radio antenna never worked, but it did have a CD player. Also, if you wanted to run the air conditioner or heater, the only level that worked was full blast. But, at least it had air conditioning and heat. A couple of weeks ago, the Geo died. We were all sad about it, except Drew. So, we were in need of a small non-gas-guzzler. I drive a Yukon XL, which is quite a beast of a vehicle, and Andy's old truck is good for hauling things, but terrible on the gas. So, Andy went back to e-bay and found a 2002 Dodge Neon in Gloucester, VA. I have to admit, I'm much more excited about driving the Neon than I was the Geo (although I feel a little guilty about that - cars tend to take on human characteristics for me for some reason). It, like the Geo, needs a little minor body work, which Andy feels we can get taken care of pretty cheaply, but other than that it should be a nice, reliable, cheap-on-gas car. So, we tossed around all the options for actually getting the car in our possession, and decided that the best thing to do was to take a trip as a family up to VA, visit some friends, and spend Saturday in Washington D.C. Andy had never been (for shame!), and neither had the kids, so it was a pretty exciting trip for all of us. We had great weather (around 70 degrees) with just a little rain. Here are some pictures of the trip:

Here are the kids in front of the Capital Building.

Here are Andy, Drew, and Evan at the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space, which was pretty awesome. The kids got a little bored with this one, but Andy could've spent all day there.

Here are the kids at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in front of a bunch of dinosaur bones. They liked this one more than the Air and Space museum, but Andy and I could've spent a lot more time there reading about all the little things. The kids were impressed with the big, exciting stuff, but things like gems and mouse skeletons weren't quite as exciting to them.

This is as close as we got to the White House. We only had one day, so looking at it from a block away had to do this time.

Here are the kids in front of the Washington Monument. We were pretty close to it, so they're pretty tiny in the picture.

And, here they are in front of the Lincoln Memorial. We really enjoyed the weekend, and it was great to see old friends, too. We were a little tired today, since we got home around 9:00 last night and had to go to work and school this morning, but it was worth it. And, Andy drove the new car to work today, and thinks it'll be a good car. So, we got a lot of good stuff done in a very short time.