Sometimes There's Just Not Enough Chocolate...

Today was a rough day at preschool. They pulled my assistant (while Carrie is out on maternity leave, I'm the lead teacher and they brought in an assistant for me) so I was alone all day today with 12 4 and 5 year olds. That in itself is not that big a deal...the big deal is that I was alone with them 2 days in a row. And even that in itself is not a big deal...the big problem is that when I'm alone, I can't leave the kids. Not for a second. Not for a bathroom break, to run to the resource room. not at all. And I have to rely on other people to get things for me. I hate that. But the 2 teachers that are in the room closest to mine have been *so* helpful. They checked on me several times during the last 2 days and that's been nice. They're the ones that I've relied on to get the things that I needed when I couldn't leave the room. I really love my job, but today was stressful.

And today was a little bit sad for me, too. There's this one kid in the class that has become my favorite. I know teachers aren't supposed to have favorites, but we do. This little boy stole my heart in about 15 seconds on the first day of school. I love them all, but this one is just precious to me. Today was his last day. His mom is returning to work full time, and he has to go into full-time care. I'm sure going to miss him...and his Lightning McQueen baseball cap. : (

I woke up with a headache thanks to the overcast sky. My back hurts, too, and I'm tired. Yeah, and whiny, too, I know. After school we went to Sonic and I treated myself to a Sweetheart Blast. Pretty good stuff. It would be better without the cherry flavoring they put on it (chocolate would have been my choice, but it always is), but it was still pretty tasty. I felt that I deserved a treat. Oh, and I heard "The Final Countdown" while I was waiting at Sonic. Remember that song? For those of you that know about my thing for guitar picks...the first one I ever got was at a Europe concert. Yes, I went to see Europe in concert - I was probably 14 or 15 and they were good. I can admit it! ; )

Now I think I deserve a nap. I'm going to go lie down in my warm bed and watch The Golden Girls.

Life is Good.

Yesterday was a good day. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the weather was cool...it was a perfect day to go to the park. So we did.

Cole was at the baseball field watching tryouts. After Brendan's basketball game, I took the kids to eat lunch at McDonald's, then we went to Game Crazy so that Brendan could spend his birthday money, and then we went to the park. I had no idea what a great day it was going to be. First the kids played on the playscape...sliding and swinging. Collin always giggles when he first gets on a swing...it's hilarious. They played Hide and Seek around the playscape. And they did it without fighting! It was amazing.

So then we walked down to the lake. I had never been by this particular lake, but it was very peaceful. Brendan decided he would skip rocks...so Kaelin and Collin decided they would, too. Then they picked up some sort of long grassy vegetation, and decided they were fishing poles. According to Brendan, he caught kelp with his fishing pole. I took pictures of them while they skipped rocks and fished. They are some of the best pictures I've ever gotten of them. I couldn't decide which ones to put on here, so I made a slideshow. Enjoy!



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Rest Time Trouble

Today at preschool, Collin made his first visit to the director's office. Actually he saw Ms. Rebecca, but it's the same idea. Apparently he had a little too much energy during rest time, and was wiggling and not resting, and probably keeping the kids around him from resting.

He is the first of my kids to have to go to the director's office. This really doesn't surprise me. That's just Collin's personality.

But isn't he cute??

Snow Fun!

The snow and ice are gone...it all melted away yesterday. I'm kind of sad to see it go. Brendan and Kaelin went back to school yesterday. I'm so glad they did! It was getting kind of crazy around here with 3 kids who couldn't go outside.

Here are some pictures of the snow (ice really)...

Fun in the Snow

For fun, Cole and the kids went to the house next door and used a piece of laminated posterboard as a sled. They slid down the driveway onto the street. That laminated posterboard moved pretty fast!








Gotta get the kids ready for school (Yay!!)...pictures coming later. : )

Snow in Texas

Two days ago, we had snow in Texas!! It wasn't much snow, and mostly we just had a lot of ice, but it snowed for about 2 hours and it was a welcome sight. I'm posting a video I took from our front door while it was snowing. It's a very light snow, and I know many people probably don't even consider it to have been snowing, but for us it was a rare thing. Hopefully the video will work.

Weekend in Shreveport, Part 2

Who knew Shreveport, Louisiana, could be so much fun?? Bari, Jamie, and I had a wonderful time. It was more the company that made it fun than the city. We could have fun together no matter where we are...even, say, Lubbock, Texas. ; )

We didn't do anything that most people would really call fun. We just spent time together and with Geof Barkley, which was a big deal to Bari, which made both Jamie and me very happy. And we spent quite a bit of time in the Starbuck's in Bossier City (BC and Shreveport are very close neighbors). We went to Starbuck's for the second time on Sunday after church, and we met the funniest guy working behind the counter. We had so much fun with him that we all had to get a picture with him. His name was Brian. Here is Bari, Jamie, and me with our favorite Starbuck's guy, Brian.

And some pics with each other...

Our buddy, Brian, took a picture of all 3 of us:

If you ever find yourself in Shreveport, take a trip to the Boardwalk. It's an open air mall on the river and it's pretty cool. Or you could always gamble...there's plenty of that there, too. ; )

Bari and Jamie...thanks for another fun weekend. The time spent with you is always great, and the memories stay in my heart forever. You 2 are just so much fun! 3 words - the whole package!! : ) Can't wait for the next adventure! : )

Home Safe and Sound

For those who were wondering, Jamie and I made it out of Dallas yesterday afternoon. She was able to drive to her mom's house in Oklahoma, and my flight was not cancelled. It was a little too stressful (almost as bad as driving through the Everglades with the gas light on), but we made it home.

And I learned something about air travel - if you take an earlier flight, your suitcase may not. Just something to remember.

Here's the current doppler from weather.com:

There's a lot of pink on that map. Cold days are ahead of me...and probably at least a 5 day weekend!! : )

Weekend in Shreveport

I'm spending my weekend in Shreveport, LA. Why am I spending my weekend in Shreveport, LA, you might wonder. That's where we decided to meet. It's been a fun weekend so far. Especially for Bari.

You see, Bari has a good friend that lives in Shreveport. We didn't think we were going to see her friend, but we ended up spending the afternoon with him. Yes, Bari is happy! And I'm happy for her.

Here's a picture of Bari, her son, and her friend...Geof Barkley. This picture was not taken this weekend, btw.

I had never met Geof before today. He's a sweet guy. He bought Jamie and me lunch. : ) Geof used to play keyboard for Third Day. Some of us wish he still did.

Oh, and did I mention that today was his birthday? Hopefully it was a happy one!! : )

Coming tomorrow...Jamie and I are driving to Dallas. My plane leaves at 4:30 - hopefully. We've been watching the Weather Channel and it's not looking good. We might get to spend another day together, which would be cool. I'll post an update when I get home...I'm sure there will be some kind of adventure tomorrow - there usually is!!

Here Comes Trouble!!

Tomorrow I'm heading out for a weekend of fun with Bari and Jamie. Anything can happen (and usually does) and I'm so excited to see both of them. I'm sure we will laugh the whole time...then we'll cry on Sunday when it's time to come home.

Here we are on a previous adventure...

Can't wait to see what the weekend holds!! : )

Meet Hannah

Kaelin's new favorite toy is a Cabbage Patch newborn named Hannah. My friend, Jamie, sent it to her for Christmas and the doll hasn't left her side since the day we took Hannah out of the box. Kaelin sleeps with Hannah, feeds Hannah, and takes her wherever we go. Hannah was even going to kindergarten with Kaelin after Christmas break. She stayed in Kaelin's backpack until rest time. After a few days of that, Kaelin's teacher said she can only have stuffed animals at rest time. So Hannah no longer gets to go to kindergarten.


Yesterday was the first day they were apart. Kaelin was so happy to see Hannah after school! She picked her up and hugged her and said, "I missed you!"



This morning I was given instructions to feed Hannah lunch. I said I would and the first thing Kaelin said to me after school was, "Did you feed Hannah?"

Wonder what she'll think of next!

Did You Hear...

about the dead birds in Austin a couple of days ago? Bizarre story - 63 dead birds were found in downtown Austin so they shut parts of the city down to try and find out what happened to the birds. I haven't heard if they know what caused the birds to die.

Here's a link to the story...there is a photo gallery over to the left.

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=5904817

Weird stuff.

Happy New Year, Seattle Seahawks!

My Cowboys gave the Seahawks the best present ever last night when they handed them the NFC Wildcard Playoff game in the 4th quarter. I have never seen anything like it...it was unbelievable. They were winning the game when I tuned in at the beginning of the second half. Then it all went downhill. I shudder when I think about that 4th quarter. It was a simple field goal. It's been done a million times. Why could my Cowboys not handle a simple field goal last night??

It has been a couple of years since Dallas made it to the playoffs. I had high hopes for them this year. But then they decided to give the Seahawks that game and let them in the playoffs rather than taking a shot at the Super Bowl themselves. How nice of them.

The Tree is Down

I thought those of you who had been concerned about my tree being decorated in time for Christmas would like to know that it is now un-decorated for Christmas!! I took the decorations off of it last night while listening to the cool sounds of The Killers, Snow Patrol, and KT Tunstall (these are new to my iPod courtesy of the very generous iTunes gift certificate that my sweet friend, Bari, sent me for Christmas). Incidentally the naked Christmas tree is sitting to the left of me because Cole has yet to take it apart and put it in its box, but, for the record, my job is DONE!! There are still a few Christmas decorations on the mantle, but I will take care of those tonight.

I am looking forward to having the Christmas tree out of my scrapbook room so that I can get my scrapbooking stuff back out and get some scrappin' done!! : )

Happy 2007!!!

Here we are at the beginning of another year. As always it's hard to believe a year has passed by so quickly. I like to celebrate New Year's with friends. Usually we go out and do something, but this year the social events coordinator for our group (me) was sick for a week before Christmas and didn't get anything planned. So at the last minute we decided to have the celebration at our house. We invited our wonderful friends, Jay & Wendy, Grant & April, and Keith & Angie over for some New Year's fun. Unfortunately Keith and Angie were having flight issues and didn't get home until late and April had to go to the youth lock-in at church, so our normal group was reduced by half. We missed y'all, by the way.



We played 80's Trivial Pursuit. The first game was girls against guys. Wendy and I started out strong, but Cole and Jay came back and beat us. I hate losing. If I play I want to win. But we watched the ball drop in New York City and I got over our defeat. I love watching the ball drop in NYC...I don't know why, but I always have.


So onto 80's Trivial Pursuit Round 2. By this time Grant had arrived and he was on our team. We were Tenderheart Bear, in case you were wondering. We had been the Trapper Keeper in the first game but we decided we would change our game piece for the second game. Cole & Jay remained the computer...they thought it represented their intelligence. Keep in mind this is a Commodore 64 computer or something like that. ; ) Over the course of this game we had questions like:


-What comedienne was the most frequent "center square" on Hollywood Squares, during the John Davidson era? My teammates disagreed on this answer...Wendy said Joan Rivers and Grant said Phyllis Diller. I didn't have a clue so we went with Phyllis Diller. Anyone know the correct answer without using Google??


-What game-show hostess reflected: "As a child, when I was having that alphabet soup, I never thought it would pay off"? Seriously, Vanna, I just wouldn't have said that.


-What nation edged out the U.S. men's basketball team in the 1988 Olympic semifinals? I would just like to say that I didn't know this, but I threw out a guess and it was correct. However, our real answer was something else, so we got the question wrong.


-What band with a name derived from a Chinese term for "perfect pitch" commanded listeners with Everybody Have Fun Tonight? Yes, I knew this answer.


You might be wondering who won Round 2 of 80's Trivial Pursuit. Well, let me show you the Care Bear and the computer.


Here's Tenderheart Bear (notice all the little colored pieces at his feet):




And here's the computer (something seems to be missing):


Yes, I'm gloating. : )