Change Of Plans

Yesterday we were out of school for teacher's meetings.

I spent the day getting small things done around the house. I had planned on spending the evening getting caught up on my PTO things and Band Boosters project.

My mom called and said she had made a pot of spaghetti and we could all go to my grandma's to eat.

Cool! I won't have to fix supper.

So, we went, we ate, we visited, and the kids played.

This was something we had not done "spur of the moment" in quite awhile.

I didn't realize how much I had missed it.

The girls did cheers



and then we all watched a movie.


Needless to say, I did not get my things done, but the time was better spent.

A nice change.

Beautiful

This morning I had to go to the Middle School for the Band Booster project I am working on.

On my way home, the sky looked like this.



Beautiful!

Birthday Wishes

Today is a BIG birthday day for us!

We have a lot of them today.

First I want to say Happy Birthday to my sister in law V. (I could not find a picture of her in my limited amount of time)

My BFF since fifth grade has a birthday today.

Happy B-day A!!!


My cousin T has a birthday!


A big shout out to K who has a b-day!


Last but not least, our cat Esther has a birthday!


I also happen to know that the little girl across the street has a birthday.

Whew!

Happy Birthday to all of you!!!

Have You Ever Been Around A Hungry Cat?

Try four of them!!!

We are on our way out the door to Walmart because if I hear one more "I'm hungry" meow, I will scream!

Oh! The Drama!

Tonight is the homecoming football game.

C1 invited a friend, L, to go with us. A different L from last week.

Last night we made all the arrangements. I told C1 this morning that no one else could go with us. Last week we had three girls and as always with three, there were problems. I was NOT doing that again.

So, from.the.bus. she calls me. Can K get a ride home from the game with us if her mom brings her? Well, that is pretty stupid. K lives across the street! I'm supposed to let her mom drive her all the way to the game so she can hang with C1 and L? No. I suppose K can just ride with us.

Fast forward to after school. C1 comes in and tells me first thing that she really doesn't want K to go to the game.

Are you freaking kidding me!?!

Now she is crying because K will be mad if she tells her she can't go. But she really just wants L to go.

I can see this is going to be a long game.

Goundbreaking For Our New School

Yesterday was a VERY special day for our school district.

We broke ground for two new Elementary Schools. One will be built here in our small village, and the other in the larger city. The grades will remain the same. We will have Kindergarten through fourth grade at the Elementary Schools, fifth through seventh at the Middle School, and eight through twelve at the High School. The Middle School and High School will also receive some renovations.

This is a 67 million dollar project with the State of Ohio providing 35 million. Can't beat that!

Yesterday's morning ceremony was centered around the kids. After all, isn't what this is all about?

We started out with everyone saying our school mission statement!!!


Each grade got up and did a cheer that they had learned.

Here comes C2 after their cheer.

"Mortar and brick! Build it quick!"


M really enjoys talking to our Principal.

This is what our new building will look like.


Every student received a shovel to dig with.


C2 just filled his vial with dirt. Everyone got to fill one to keep as a memento.


The evening ceremony was more formal.

The band played. B loves when I take his picture!


My mom and grandma came too!



During the invocation at the other site, the Reverend Greg Roberts said, "A former student in this school system walked on the moon. Lord, only you know what heights our students can reach."

AMEN!

Must Be The Febreze!

Once a week I wash Copper's bed. Sometimes more depending on the weather and how dirty he is.

I use Tide and Downy with Febreze. I started using them with Febreze because of M's clothes. You can not believe how bad restaurant clothes smell! The Febreze really makes a difference.

Just ask Copper.

After every washing, he has to smell the.whole.thing.

For.ten.minutes.



I guess those commercials are right! You can smell the freshness!

Homework?...check

My friend T is out of town. Her grandma passed away yesterday, and my prayers are with her.

Because she is gone, her daughter H came home from school with C2 and I today.

She was only here for about an hour, but it was pretty nice.

Since she didn't complain about doing homework, neither did C2.



I just set them up with a drink and snack, and let them go at it. I was right there if anyone had a question, but not intruding.

They were soooo cute together. H kept encouraging C2 to catch up with her. She really kept him on his toes. She even offered to help him if he needed it. (Of course, he told her he didn't.)



Then they had a BIG discussion about how the teacher has to hide the calendars and other things so that no one can cheat on the spelling tests. Too cute.

By 3:20pm we had all homework done. All we have is evening reading. Wow!!!

I think I'm going to bring her home with us more often!

11 Year Old Drama

If you followed me on Twitter Friday night, you may have noticed that I stopped posting at half time.

Why, you ask?

Let me tell you.

Let's go back to the beginning of the evening.

C1 wanted her friend L to go to the game with us. She was trying desperately to get ahold of L, but was not having any luck. In the meantime, K called and wanted to know if she could go with us. Oh! Was C1 in a tizzy. She really wanted L to go, but in case L couldn't then she would want K to go. Being the most wonderful mom in the world, I suggested that both friends go. Wow! Two friends could go to the game? Really? Cool!

So it turned out that she did get ahold of L and she was allowed to go.

We headed off to the game, and everything was GREAT!

For.the.first.quarter.

At the end of the first quarter, L ran into another friend and wanted to run around with her. C1 and K didn't so they came and sat with me and C2. Soon, L sends a text to C1 wanting to know where they were and why they were not with her. They text back and forth until L finally says "whatever" and will not answer C1's texts anymore.

During half time, they all get back together and I am thinking that everything is OK.

Wrong.

Now it is the third quarter, and L still wants to sit with her other friend, and C1 and K want to sit in the front and watch the cheerleaders.

L starts to text them again.

C1's phone battery dies.

She comes to get mine so she can text L and tell her that her phone died so she won't be mad.

So she won't be mad!!! We brought her! You are the one that should be mad!

"Oh yeah", C1 says. "But I have to tell her my phone died."

So or the rest of the game, C1 had my phone. I got to read through all the messages later that night. Oh, my. The drama! You can not believe!

After the game, we had to take everyone home. L did not speak the WHOLE way home.

She did call Saturday to talk to C1, but she was out running around with another girl, M, from school. I told L where she was and who she was with.

All she said was oh.

I hope she's not mad about it. She sounded kind of mad.

Maybe I should text her.

Fun With Post Its

This is pretty awesome. I know I was amazed, but then that is not too hard somtimes.


via videosift.com

It makes you want to open a new pack and try doesn't it?


edit: I was just about to click on "publish post" when our power went off for a few minutes. Thank you Blogger for auto saving!

Late Night Jokes

How did the musician keep his sousaphone clean???



With a tuba toothpaste!!!

Sorry! It's late, everyone is asleep, and I have nothing else to say.

That really is B's sousa by the way!

Escapees

Tonight someone did not get the screen door closed all the way.

C2 was coming down the stairs and saw this




Yeah. They are very quick to sneak out, but being indoor cats, they have no idea what to do once they get out.

They lay in the windows and watch all the neighborhood cats just roaming around. They want to be like the other cats, but once they are out, it's just too intimidating!

Better just stay inside and play with the cat nip mouse.

BOYS!!!

Right after M clipped his toenails tonight, this conversation took place:

M: Here C2. Do you want these? (joking about his clippings)
C2: No. I already have a collection of ones I find around places.
C1: Ooh! C2 that is gross!
C2: What? I keep them under your bed.

Why are boys so gross!?!

Priceless

I love this!!!



Reminds me of some of our Kindergartners!

See What Happens...

when the weather cools off? When I am cool enough in the evenings and do not need to put a headband in my hair to keep it off my face, I wake up in the morning with much better looking hair.

That is what happened this morning.

After taking C2 to school, I looked in the mirror and thought my hair looked just fine. There really was no need to wash it and fix it again, so I brushed through it, sprayed it, and I was done.

I finished getting ready and realized I had a lot of extra time. I could go to McDonald's for breakfast.

So I did.

I ordered my usual, a number 12 breakfast meal with a bottled water. (number 12 by the way is a steak and egg bagel )

I ate my breakfast while driving. I finished the last bite as I was turning the corner to the school.

If you have ever had a number 12 breakfast meal, you know that they can be greasy. Not always, but sometimes. This one was. I thought I was being very careful. I even wrapped a napkin around the wrapper to catch any drippings.

That wasn't good enough.

When I parked the car and looked down I saw this


and this.


OMG!!! What am I going to do!!! I don't have time to change! Besides that, I just washed this ONE outfit to wear today!

So, I placed my ID badge over the biggest spot on my shirt and hoped that no one would notice the others.

The only thing...

I smelled like a number 12 breakfast meal.

I really need to get my act together.

18 Years

Eighteen years ago, we did this,


and we had this.


Tonight we were surprised by this,


and had this!


Life is good!!!

Caught Doing Nothing

Tomorrow night is Open House at the Elementary School where C2 goes. This is also the school where I work.

Today everyone was busy to get things done for Open House.

The teacher I work with needed some papers laminated so I went down to the work room to do this for. Usually, the laminator takes 15 - 20 minutes to warm up. There was another aide there that had just turned it off so I didn't think it would take too long to warm up. The other aide left and I sat down to wait. I was sitting there watching the light on the laminator blink when the principal walked in.

He chuckled and asked if I was sitting there watching the laminator warm up. I admitted that yes, I was.

When I got back to the classroom, he was there sitting at the teacher's desk.

I just went about my business.

Before he leaves the room, he hands the teacher a note.

It said "I don't want to tattle, but Mrs. M was watching the laminator warm up."

She got a good laugh from it.

As I was leaving for the day, he stopped me to see what had happened with the note.

His reasoning for writing it? To give me something to blog about!

By the way, this post was his idea too!

Maybe you need your own blog D!

Hurricane Ike?

This afternoon we received the remaining winds from the eye of hurricane Ike. Never in my life do I remember getting this much from a hurricane that has traveled clear across the country. Usually by the time they get to us, we just get a few sprinkles. We might get a thunderstorm or two.

Never anything like this:



The howl of the wind sounded just like a freight train. I have never heard the wind sound like that.

This evening we drove around the community to survey the damage. There are a lot of limbs down. There even are a few trees that came down.

It makes you realize how fortunate we are that we don't get the full force of these storms.

Maybe Ohio's not so bad after all.

At The Pool With C2

Are you seeing the pattern here yet?

These are the last in the pool series.

C2 enjoys the pool as much as I do. The only problem? He wants me to be right.beside.him.the.whole.time. He doesn't go in the water unless I am in the water. I try to get C1 to play with him, but as I said, she is busy socializing. She does not have time for her little brother, so I am the one to get in and play with him. This is fine usually, but when I have a book with me that is calling my name? He becomes quite annoying.

Here he is probably whining because I am not in the pool.



Another thing about C2, he loves his goggles.





I just can't convince him to wear them right side up.

He says they feel better this way.

At The Pool With C1

I found some pictures of C1 at the pool too!

One of her favorite things was the big water slide. She did this over and over!

Another reason for C1 to go to the pool was to socialize. Because when you are going into 6th grade and all your friends are at the pool? OMG!!! How much fun is that!?!





The only problem I have with C1 at the pool? Her hair!


I wish she would let me pull it back!

At The Pool With B

I hate to admit it but summer is almost over. Technically we have one more week left. The weather has started to cool, especially at night. The leaves are starting to change and the robins are gone. Why? Why must the robins leave? I hate it when the robins leave.

Anyways, in all this thinking of summer gone, I went through some pictures I had taken at the pool. (Oh how I would LOVE to be at the pool right now.)

I found these that I had taken of B.

He didn't go to the pool with us too many times. You know, that is just not cool. Hanging out with your mom, brother, and sister? Not cool.

This is him going off the high dive. Don't ask what he was trying to do. When I asked why he went off like that, he told me it was to make a big splash. OK. Never mind the pain you are causing yourself. He got really mad after doing it twice and I asked him to do it again to see if I could get a better picture. He pretty much told me where I could go. (in a nice way of course)

B has on the brown shorts by the way.





Here he comes all happy. This must have been the first time he did that "fancy" trick because I don't remember him smiling that much afterwards.


Did I mention how sad I am summer is almost over?

Can These Children Really Be Mine?

Last night M was home and we decided to go down to a local park and walk some of the trails through the woods there.

This park is the beginning of a bike path into the city. It's maybe 3 to 4 miles to the city limits. We decided to walk part of this path and turn around at a certain point. On the way back, we cut across a field to the Dairy Queen. We all enjoyed an ice cream cone and then we had to head back. It was late and the sun was getting low.

As we were walking back, C1 starts to tell M about this book she is reading. Something about an Indian attacking this young boy. The boy, in an attempt to get away, bites off the Indian's ear. The two of them then fall into a large body of water, and the boy swallows some water along with the Indian's ear.

She was completely disgusted by reading about this.

M told her it was a good thing she wasn't watching it in a movie. That would be even more disgusting.

C2 thinks a second and then says, "But that wouldn't be a very long movie."

We all laughed at his thought and kept walking to the play area in the park.

Almost two minutes later, C1 starts to laugh. "I just got what C2 said!" she says.



Oh! Her poor little head! Sometimes I really wonder how she makes it through the day.

Inappropriate Kindergarten Crafts

This week in Kindergarten we are working on making paper dolls. The idea is for the students to make the doll look like themselves.

We have different paper clothes they can put on. We have different colored hair to put on. And the most fun part for the kids is the embellishments we have. We have small foam shapes, sequins, and other little foil shapes to add. The girls always seem to better with these. They like to make buttons or earrings, necklaces, or other jewelry. The boys, well, they just like to put them where ever.

Today, I had two little guys up at the table working with me and they really got into the embellishments. They kept adding and adding until I finally had to tell them they had enough.

This is what they ended up with.


Notice the nice gold circles on the left? He even asked me if that looked like a boy.

And the white oval on the pants on the right? I wasn't quite sure what to say.

But don't worry, the teacher and I fixed them.

These are going out in the hall you know!

My 100th Post

OK. Here it is. My 100th post.

For my 100th post, I decided to list 100 things I did today.

1. Hit the snooze 5 times on alarm clock.
2. Woke up C1. Told her to hurry, we were late.
3. Woke up B. Told him the same.
4. Got C1's breakfast. (cereal)
5. Fed the dog.
6. Ironed B's shirt and C1's shorts.
7. Checked online for everyone's lunch money balances. Everyone is OK.
8. Checked blog (quickly)
9. Yelled up the stairs for B to get.out.of.bed.
10. Put dog outside.
11. Kiss B and C1 goodbye. Shoved them out the door.
12. Scooped the cat box.
13. Got myself a cup of coffee.
14. Watched the first 15 min. of Today.
15. Wake up C2. Convinced him it was not too early to get up. It was his regular time.
16. Got C2 his breakfast. (yummy cereal again)
17. Yelled in at C2 to stop talking to himself in the mirror and brush his teeth!
18. Convinced M to drive C2 to school.
19. Put some clothes in washer/dryer.
20. Got in shower.
21. Fixed my breakfast. (turkey sandwich on wheat toast)
22. Left for the school thinking I was early for a change.
23. Got to the school to realize I was too late to sell skating party tickets for PTO.
24. Chatted with principal/boss.
25. Chatted with school secretary.
26. Watched video of secretary's daughter cheering at football game. (too cute)
27. Went down to Kindergarten room.
28. Painted with kindergartners.
29. Took kindergartners to recess.
30. Did a craft project with kindergartners.
31. Walked kindergartners to lunch.
32. Left the school for the morning.
33. Dropped prescriptions off at the pharmacy to be picked up later.
34. Got home and checked blog.
35. Fixed myself some lunch. (leftover spaghetti)
36. Put more clothes in washer/dryer.
37. Put folded clothes away.
38. Watched half of Big Brother on DVR from last night.
39. Took small nap.
40. Woke up and realized what time it was.
41. Drove to pharmacy to pick up prescription.
42. Went to school to pick up C2.
43. Dropped off skating check for PTO.
44. Chatted with secretary and PTO president.
45. Watched video of secretary's daughter cheering at football game. (again)(still too cute)
46. Noticed the kids were dismissed. Hurried down to get C2.
47. Drove home listening to C2's day.
48. Checked blog and e-mail.
49. Explained to C2 why we must rinse grapes off before eating them.
50. Greeted B and C1 as they came in from school.
51. Hurried to answer phone before C1 to tell her friend that she can not come over until homework is done.
52. Sat at table to do homework with C2.
53. Listened to C1 cry and say how mean I am.
54. Convinced her to just sit down and get started, then she could go outside.
55. Told C2 to stop poking around and get busy. (5 times)
56. Put the sweet potatoes in microwave.
57. Helped C1 with Social Studies homework.
58. Found crayons for C2's homework,
59. Checked C2's homework and put it away.
60. Sliced sweet potatoes and put in oven with brown sugar and butter.
61. Boiled noodles
62. Cleaned up Kool-Aid C1 spilled all over table.
63. Mixed up tuna &noodles and put in oven.
64. Boiled green beans
65. Set the table. Asked B to get the napkins.
66. Put more clothes in washer/dryer.
67. Told kids to turn off TV and come eat.
68. Listened to C2 complain about what we were having for supper until I made him a hot dog.
69. Cleaned up kitchen.
70. Checked blog
71. Told B to get changed for work.
72. Told C2 to go upstairs and get a clean shirt on.
73. Ran upstairs to get different shirt for C2. (I didn't approve of the one he picked out)
74. Drove B to work.
75. Chatted with M for a few minutes.
76. Went to Middle School for C1's open house.
77. Tried to run over school secretary. (she jumped in front of my car)
78. Checked out book fair.
79. Saw C1's locker. Not as messy as I thought it would be.
80. Went to all C1's classrooms and met her teachers.
81. Checked out Band Room. Waved to band director (he was busy with a VERY chatty mom)
82. Went back to C1's locker to measure for posters she wants to make.
83. Spotted High School Crush. Gave a little wave.
84. Drove home while explaining why it was too late to go to the skating party.
85. Checked blog
86. Changed into comfy clothes.
87. Finished up dishes from supper.
88. Scooped the cat box.
89. Put more clothes into dryer.
90. Got C2 into the tub. He wanted to know if he could have candles. (what does that mean?)
91. Told C1 to get off the computer for 57th time.
92. Helped C2 wash hair and got him out of the tub.
93. Argued with C2 about picking his things up in the living room.
94. Argued with C1 about studying for Social Studies test.
95. Read with C2.
96. Took C2 up to bed and tucked him in.
97. Went over C1's Social Studies with her.
98. Tucked C1 into bed.
99. Made this list
100. Posted 100th post!!!

(I will not do this again)

Anyone? Anyone?

Name that 80's movie!

We Didn't Miss Church Today!

If you read here regularly, you know that last week we did not go to church. Also that we have been VERY bad about going to church all summer.

What you don't know is that I had even put some thought into changing churches. I have not been too happy with the youth program at our church in the last year, and I wanted to find something closer to home also.

Well, after being there today, I know there is no way right now I could switch. As soon as we walked in, we felt at home. We were greeted with hugs, handshakes, and smiles. We were told how much we were missed over the summer. This is our church.


The most wonderful part of this church is the beauty.

Our church is well over one hundred years old. The windows are gorgeous. They are the kind of windows that you just don't see in any of the newer churches. At one point today, the sun shone through and the whole sanctuary lit up.


This is my favorite one. This window is right above the altar. This window always warms my heart and welcomes me into the church. I was baptized, confirmed, and married in front of this window. My babies were baptized in front of this window. B was confirmed here. My grandad and uncle's funerals were in front of this window.

This window is so much a part of my and my family's history, how do we leave it?


When Christ is saying I'm here for you, just come to Me. How do you leave that?

You don't. We're staying!

Ughh! Blogger!

Why can't I get a video to load!

I've been trying for two days now!

First Home Game

If you followed me on Twitter last night, you know we went to the football game.

I can not explain to you the flood of memories and emotions that came to me. This is corny, but I always felt so much pride in being a part of the High School Band. When we would march into the stadium and everyone would stand up for us? Wow! That really made us feel good. We were always taught to hold our heads high while marching, because we.were.the.best. We believed this and therefore always put everything we had into a performance. We had confidence and belief in ourselves, that for me, also carried over into my personal life. Being a part of the band was the best thing for me when I was in High School.

Now, it's B's turn. He tries to act like he doesn't like it, but after everything they do, he is excited. I know he is having fun. The fact that he wore his uniform pants into McDonald's before the game and into The Comfort Zone after tells me that he is beginning to feel that pride. The pride that he is in the band. His face shone after a lady at The Comfort Zone came up and told him how much she enjoyed the show. I'm glad she did that.

I took a lot of pictures last night. (Of the band, of course) I just couldn't get enough!

Here's the band marching into the stadium. I LOVE this! The band is less than half the size it used to be, but they still march with pride and they are GOOD.

(I think this may the greenest patch of grass in the county)


As they marched by the stands playing the Fight Song, I got goosebumps.


This is B marching onto the field for the Pre-Game Show. His sousaphone is more gold that brass colored so he is pretty easy to spot.


This is the other band at halftime. Do you see what is different in this?


During the fourth quarter, there seemed to be a "Battle of the Bands" going on. They were getting closer and closer to each other while playing louder and louder until they became one big blob of band. They were all mixed together talking and still playing. B said this was awesome!


The awesome part was watching it. They were mingling about, having a good time. B said they tried out each others sousaphones. The other band had ten sousas compared to our four. But, theirs were lighter and it took ten to make the sound of our four he said.

It was really neat to see these kids come together and share what they had in common. Again, I'm corny, but it brought a tear to my eye to see the camaraderie that was going on. They got past the fact that their schools were competing on the football field, and just did what comes natural to kids.

They made friends.