Fingers crossed...

hoping the weathermen are actually right this time...

She never makes it

to the end of the movie. Last Sunday I rented Kung Fu Panda for us to watch as kind of a little slumber party thing since neither me nor the girls had school on Monday. We started watching the movie at 8:00 and before it was even half over, Hannah was out like a light.




She was even snoring at one point.




I've never seen a child more ruled by routine than this one. When it hits 8:00, she's ready for bed, and she's been that way since before she could walk. But, the cute thing about her is that she almost always, without fail, wakes with a smile on her face.


I just hope that as she gets older, she never loses her early to bed, early to rise happy attitude!

I spent my weekend

tackling this pile:

and it was no small feat, I tell you! It took me the entire weekend grading non-stop to get all of this graded and recorded. And, unlike many other end-of-semester-grading I've done, this mountain of crap was not a result of procrastination. It's just the result of 2 weeks' worth of teaching.

Let me just say, summer can't come soon enough!

Dressin' Up

Emily has enjoyed dressing up since she was old enough to know how. She finds comical ways to combine clothes, and today has to be the most creative. She used a straw skirt as hair and topped it off with her pink hat.



Her missing 2 front teeth ties the entire ensemble together!

There are many days where she absolutely tries my patience, but then there are moments like these where I just want to hit the pause button and keep her just like she is right now!

Love you kiddo!

Some Quick Pages

First, what a sad day to realize I only have 3 loyal readers. I just happened to look at my account and found that most of my family as well as Ray's family hasn't used the link I sent to look at my blog. ***Sigh*** Oh well, I do really do this for me (and for my 3 loyal readers!) ;-) Eventually, I'm going to have this blog printed into a book, so I see this as kind of a scrapbook...

But, I made 3 quick scrapbook pages using premade digital layouts. It's the first time I've done that. Not much creativity involved on my part, but I got 3 pages made in less than 20 minutes and they were free to boot!

Not bad, huh? :-)

"Weatherman"

has now become a bad word in my house.

"1-2 inches of snow," they predicted.

Not a flake to be seen when I peered out my window this morning.

Jerks.

What makes me happy today

Since my day started with a student declaring that she wanted to bash my head in (a very feeble threat, mind you, but enough to make my blood boil--my whole hallway heard me yell at her), I thought I would focus my energy on things that make me happy.

My new crockpot. I just got it on Friday and today I had homemade vegetable soup ready and waiting when I got home from work.

Not new, but I love my bread machine. Ray's mom and dad gave it to me for Christmas many years ago, but I love baking bread for my girls--much healthier than the store bought kind.

A hot, steamy bowl of vegetable soup and a slice of buttered home-made bread! YUM!

Hannah doing her homework independently...something that doesn't happen very often...

Emily reading. It amazes me how good she is! And yes, I still have my Christmas Tree up!

The girls playing together...

And of course,

the possibility of a snow-day or delay always makes me happy (until the weather men show how stupid they are and not one flake hits the ground...)

So, although my time spent with students today was rocky, I do have lots to make me happy, content, and just plain lucky.

Do you have eyes in the back of your head?

Emily thinks I do.

One day, she was goofing off behind me in the kitchen and I could see her in the reflection of the oven. I scolded her. She froze. "How did you know I was doing that?"

"I have eyes in the back of my head." I mean, isn't that what all parents tell their children? She was silent for a few minutes so I went about my business. The next thing I hear is a gasp. I turn to face a wide-eyed little girl.

"So it is true????"

"What are you talking about?" I asked completely forgetting that I just told Emily that I had eyes in the back of my head.

"Ms. Bill and Ms. Gatio (1st grade teachers at her school) told us that they have eyes in the back of their heads too! So they really do?" I stood there looking at her, not sure if she was joking or not, but I played on and said that all moms and teachers have eyes in the back of their heads to keep an eye on the kids. She bought the story since I'm both a mom and a teacher.

I kinda forgot about all of this until last night when I took the girls to Target. They were sneaking around behind me as if I couldn't see them. I'd pretend that I was stopping to see stuff and bump into them and act like I didn't know they were there.

When I was giving Emily a kiss good night she asked, "Why didn't you see us in the store? We were testing your eyes and you didn't see us."

It was hard for me not to laugh. "I did see you Emily. I purposely bumped into you; I knew you were there. I was only acting like I couldn't see you."

She stared. "Are your eyes always open?"

"Nope, only if I need them."

"Will I ever have eyes in the back of my head?"

"When you become a mom."

It just goes to show how sweet and innocent and trusting she can be. She is a kid who has a deep trust in people and she believes. She believes in Santa and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny and that moms and teachers have eyes in the back of their heads and that one day she will too. I only hope she carries her deep convictions with her always and I hope she always believes.

Snow tubing pics

New Year's Eve

This year none of the Durbins came over as they have done for the past 9 or 10 years (or even more!), so we invited some friends to come hang out. Valerie (from soccer) and her family came with their PlayStation Guitar Hero. We spent most of the night stumming the guitar...

And then Jo Ann and Brian came with Shannon and his wife...

Emily, for some reason, spent most of the night on her own playing her DS

And the boys were pretty quiet doing the same...

At midnight, Jo Ann resurrected a long forgotten tradition of banging pots and pans at Midnight

and when the kids came in from banging the pots and pans, they warmed their frosty toes in front of the fire.

Shortly after midnight, I snapped pictures of those around me (except Valerie and Charles snuck away)...

Overall, we had a very enjoyable evening of eating, drinking, playing games, and just hanging out.

Here's hoping 2009 bring lots of good things our way!

Happy New Year!

Here's another one

Last night I was looking through the old pictures again and found these of Ray and Mike sitting/standing by a lake.





I have had so much fun making these scrapbook pages about Ray's childhood that I've decided to start making him a scrapbook. Not sure what I will call it, but it will be about all of these almost forgotten memories!

Oh, and don't forget to click on the scrapbook page itself to see the pictures close up.