That's My Girl!

Last night at the supper table, we were discussing what classes C1 is going to take next year.

I asked if she was going to take French as her foreign language, hoping she would follow in my footsteps.

But, she has decided to take American Sign Language, which I think is a great idea.

So, we sit there for a while and she says, "How do you write in Sign Language?"

Needless to say, we all got a good laugh...

That's my girl!

But, Mom...

As you all know, C1 is a runner.

Sometime during the season for Cross Country last fall, she started to have some pain in her knee.

After practice, she would ice it and the pain would get better.

When the season ended, the pain pretty much went away. But, she still has Dance, so every now and again, it does reappear.

"Mom, I need to go the doctor before Track starts." she has been saying.

So, this morning, we went. The doctor twisted her legs, bent her legs, and pushed on her knees. The whole time asking if it hurt. At one point, she did say it hurt, but then changed her mind and told him it wasn't that bad.

He makes his diagnosis and recommends Physical Therapy. We ask if she should wear a brace while running, but he feels that it's not necessary.

We get out to the car and she says, "It really did hurt when he pressed on my kneecap but he acted surprised when I said that so I told him it wasn't that bad."

Are.you.kidding.me!?!

Three months of practicly begging to go to the doctor, and you tell him it's not bad because he acted surprised??

Next time, I'll just schedule an amputation.

"Stand Back!" Said the Elephant...

When C1 says, "I feel like I'm going to sneeze", I always reply with...

"'Stand back!' said the elephant. 'I'm going to sneeze!'"

She asked me once why I said that.

I asked her if she had ever read that book.

She thought I was crazy. I thought that it was crazy that one of my favorite stories to read and to have read to me in grade school, was not being read anymore.

I continued to say it everytime she sneezed or thought she was going to.

"You are so weird!" she would say!

Well, earlier this week while working in the KG classroom, the teacher calls the kids to the carpet to read a book.

You guessed it!

"Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!"


I borrowed that book and brought it home to share with my kids.

I only wish they were as excited about it as I was...

Just Wanted to Say...

Christmas at Our House

This year on Christmas morning, we had an addition.

B's girlfriend came over early to spend the morning with us...


She came at 8am. We had to set our alarms to be up when she came. With the kids being older now, we have become slackers on Christmas morning. We just don't get up as early as we used to. No more 5am knocks at the bedroom door asking, "Can we get up now?". Now, we usually end up waking them up!

We did pretty good this year. With three kids, it's sometimes hard to make everyone totally satisfied, but this year, I think we did it!

B's main gift was a punching bag.

We all have joked that we will be taking our frustrations to the garage from now on.


C1 got a digital camera.

It had to be PINK!


Now, C2 being the youngest, he had quite the list that he had been perfecting since June.

He got everything on his list, but this one, I think was his favorite...


Let me explain...

When B was little, M and I were much younger and completely against guns. We were even leery about water guns. But, in our old age, we have mellowed out, and bought not only a gun, but one of the biggest ones they had!

Let me also explain this...

Knowing C2, we knew the gun would not be shot very often.

He's too paranoid about losing the bullets.

We were right.

What!?!

C1 just got back from the Eighth Grade Trip to Washington, DC.

She has lots of good pictures that hopefully I'll get on here soon.

Right now, this is the one that I'm most concerned about...


On Sunday, they went on a dinner cruise. The kids dressed up, had dinner, and there was a DJ. That is where this picture was taken.

By the way, that's N, her BOYFRIEND!!!

I think it's time to lock her up!

Tornado Warning!!!

If you read my previous post, you saw that we had a beautiful evening for the Halloween Parade.

Little did we know what was in store for the following day...

The day started out partly cloudy and they were calling for severe thunderstorms in the afternoon. OK...probably have indoor recess, was my thought.

I left the school at 11:00am for lunch. On my drive back to the school, they came over the radio and announced a thunderstorm warning for the counties north of us.

When I walked in the school, all the kids and staff were in the hallway, sitting.

Oh...

I passed the Principal on my way in and he said, "Fun times!"

They had received a call from the police chief to get everyone in the halls and prepare for the worst.

When I passed the cafeteria, it was completely deserted, with all the lunches left on the tables. It was kind of eerie...

I got to the Kindergarten Hallway, and there they all were. All three Kindergarten classes, the Pre-first class, the LD class, and the MD Unit. The kids were just sitting along the walls and a teacher was reading a book to them. After the book, we sang songs.

Then the announcement came that we were to get in tornado position. The kids all turned around on their hands and knees and covered their heads with their hands.

This.was.for.real.

The adults kept singing, and watching...

The wind picked up and it started to rain. Luckily, all we could see was out the door at the end of the hallway. I know, that if I could have seen more, I probably would have lost it...

Then, you could hear it. And the lights went out.

You always hear that a tornado sounds just like a freight train...IT DOES!!!

The good news, it was over as fast as it began.

The kids stayed down another ten minutes, and they were all great! What a good bunch of troopers. Sure, a few cried. But I think it was more out of frustration from sitting the way they had to, than really being too scared. As soon as we got the OK to let the kids turn around, they all got Jolly Ranchers!

Soon, we were released to go back to the classrooms and proceed with the day.

Of course, every adult had a cell phone out and the reports of what had happened in town started to come in.

When my kids were all home safely, we went for a walk to see the damage for ourselves.

This house is the worst hit. The roof completely blew off, hit the neighbor's house across the street and threw it off it's foundation. Both of these houses will be demolished and rebuilt.



This is an old gymnasium that was used for storage.


These trees were completely uprooted.


This is the temporary fencing that was placed around our old school building.

We are so blessed that we were not in this building when this happened. It was right in the path of destruction.


We had walked down the main street and saw a lot of debris. There were pieces of siding, roofing, insulation and wood everywhere. Lots of places were taped off with security tape.

We passed one house that was taped off. C2 asked what was wrong with that house. To look at it, you could see no damage.

Then, when you looked up, in the tree in the front yard, was this...


A WHOLE FREAKING GARAGE DOOR WRAPPED AROUND THE TOP OF THE TREE!

This was when I knew how lucky we all really were.

All this damage, and not one injury...

God is so good!