STRIKE!

So, Monday nights are "cheap nights" at Pinnacle Bowling Lanes. It only costs $2 a person and shoe rental is free. And since we have five kids between the tow of us, Mike and I decided to meet on Mondays for a night of bowling with everyone.
Jonathan gets a bit frustrated because he tends to get a pretty low score each time we bowl. But he keeps at it and really is starting to improve.

Sammy uses the gutter guards so that she has a better chance of hitting some pins. She and Chance take turns bowling and actually do pretty well. Sammy actually kneels down on the ground and shoves her ball down the lane. It makes me laugh, but it works for her.

Mike always amazes me because he bowls using only his two fingers. He doesn't use the thumb hole. And his ball spins and almost falls into the gutter but at the last minute will curve and hit all the pins down!

My high score is usually somewhere in the low 80's, but I am working on throwing the ball straighter and have been doing better. Mostly, we just enjoy hanging out together and having fun!

Another one bites the dust...

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone who is celebrating today...

I'm trying to think positively about this holiday.

Valentine's Day (in the past) has been kind of crummy, but today ended up being pretty good. I had a party at school, got some fun text messages from friends, surprised my kids with little goodies, and now I'm going to go work out for the first time in months.

Does working out tonight counteract the cookies I just gobbled down while I checked my email?

Snow (?) Days

I really don't think I can stand it much longer. We are on day 4 1/2 of snow days this week! That's right... I have taught for a grand total of five hours this week. I am in withdrawl. And worse yet, I have had to spend the week cooped up in my house with my two teenagers! Here is a picture of the snow outside our house.... About 4 inches. And here is a picture of the snow at Mom's house in Rockford, IL.And here is a picture of the snow at Heidi's house in Wisconsin - where they didn't cancel school until there was about 20 inches on the ground! Now, that's a snow storm worthy of a snow day. Yes, we are pansies here in Tennessee. But while I have the time "off" I'll try to enjoy it and not go completely stir crazy.

What to look for...

I love this quote:

Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot
Who calls you back when you hang up on him
Who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat
Or will stay awake just to watch you sleep.
Wait for the guy who kisses your forehead
Who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats
Who holds your hand in front of his friends
Who thinks you're just as pretty without makeup.
One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you.
The one who turns to his friends and says, "That's her."

Yeah, I'm a romantic at heart...

Like a pebble on the lake...

First, a disclaimer...
I am not a complete klutz. I know how to walk and even run pretty well. I generally stay on two feet and don't often injure myself. And I turn beet red when I am embarrassed.

Okay, on to the story...
NOTE: I really wish I had a picture (or better yet, a video) to accompany this post, but you'll have to just try to visualize this the nest you can without visual aids.

So, tonight was game night at Amanda's house. A bunch of girls from church and a few from other places (lol) get together to play board games and card games on Friday nights. Tonight was lots of fun - we played UNO MadDog...and I lost. But I always lose, so that is not the best part of the story.

Well, since I had brought the kids along with me, I couldn't stay too late. Around 11pm we said our goodbyes and headed out to the car. Jonathan asked if he could drive home, and I figured that if I got to the car first I would be the driver. So I started running to the car to beat him there.

Amanda's front yard has a pretty decent hill that angles toward the street and ends with a small ditch right by the road. Well, as I ran down the hill, I somehow tripped over my own feet and fell to my knees in the wet, muddy grass. But that is not the end of our sad tale. As soon as my knees hit the ground, I started to fall forward. My keys and the box of Oreo balls flew out of my hands and slid into the middle of the street. I tried to brace myself with my hands and ended up bouncing along the grass on my stomach like a pebble skips across the lake. I slid to a stop on the pavement behind my car.

OUCH!
My first reaction was shock and pain. I started to cry. By the time Jonathan reached me and asked if I was okay, I had moved on to laughing. I couldn't help myself. I must have looked so ridiculous falling and bouncing like that. I couldn't stop laughing - even as I headed back into Amanda's house to wash the blood and gravel off my hands.

Everyone got a good laugh at me, and that's okay since I was laughing the hardest of everyone anyway. After I got cleaned up and Amanda put a band aid on my hand, we left..again. This time I was careful to walk slowly and Amanda even supervised my trip to the car. A very embarrassing situation, but such a great story!

Happy Birthday, Sammy!

We kept things kind of simple for Sammy's birthday this year.
Nothing too complicated...except for the cake!
Sammy wanted a dog cake (big surprise, right?) so I worked on making one that was 3-D. It took me forever and the silly tail gave me fits, but it ended up looking pretty cute!
Sammy got lots of fun presents, but her absolute favorite was a Justin Bieber CD. She was such a nut tonight. Quite the cheeseball. But we love her! I still can't believe she is fourteen!

Special Visitor

Life has been really hard lately. I have been super lonely and very stressed out. One afternoon I broke down and called Mom and asked her to come stay with me for a while. I just needed the emotional support.
She wasn't too sure about such a long trip at first, but ultimately agreed to stay for a whole week. It was so nice having someone to talk to and help with the kids.

The greatest son on earth...

I can't even begin to count the number of times that people come up to me and tell me how awesome Jonathan is. Seriously. At least once a week at church.
I have to agree with them. Jonathan is such a kind, smart, caring, responsible, friendly, mature kid. I would love to take some of the credit for his amazing personality, but he came to earth that way! I just have the privilege of taking care of him. :)

The effects of gravity

At school I have been teaching about gravity and its effect on falling objects. My students conducted an experiment where they dropped various objects (paper, feather, tennis ball, golf ball) and recorded which object fell the fastest. The results were as expected...the paper took teh longest every time.

After that experiment, I challenged my students to find a way to make the tennis ball and the paper fall to the ground at the same rate. It was interesting to see what they tried...dropping it sideways, dropping it with the ball on top, dropping it from a different height....

When they had been given a few minutes to complete the task, I showed them another option. I took a piece of paper and crunched in into a ball. When I dropped the crumpled paper and the tennis ball this time, they hit the ground at the same time. This got the kids' attention.

I next asked them to try to explain why the crumpled paper fell faster than the flat paper. I assumed they would talk about the shape and air resistance. What surprised me was that many of the students actually suggested that the crumpled paper weighed more than the flat one! It was at this point that I knew I had to address this misconception.

I tried relating it to something more familiar. I asked the students if I would weigh more on a bathroom scale if I crouched down than if I stood up straight. Most of them said that I would. Hmmmmm. They needed proof.

So.....

Today I actually brought in a bathroom scale and weighed myself...that's right...in front of my students. I stood up straight, I crouched down into a ball, I stood on one leg. They were surprised to discover that I weighed the same no matter what position I stood. Finally! They began to understand that an object (like me) did not change mass or weight just because it changes shape.

Unfortunately, now my students all know how much I weigh...and I am sure that by tomorrow so will half the parents! Oh well, all in the name of science education!

Bad Hair Day

Jon came into my room this morning and told me I just HAD to take a picture of him. That he was having a bad hair day.
Uh, yeah. It was a bad hair day alright. About the BEST bad hair day I have ever seen!

Added "security"

Over Christmas break someone broke into our house and stole most of our valuable items. They took our big screen TV, our desktop computer, our Wii and all the games, our DVD/VHS player, our smaller TV, our fancy laser printer, my school issued laptop, my Scrabble game (I know, weird, right?), and almost all of our movies. All of these things can be replaced...it will be expensive, but they can be replaced eventually. What cannot be replaced is the sense of security that was taken away from me and the kids.

Sammy has always had a fear that someone would break into our house and rob us. I always told her that she didn't need to worry and that we were safe because we locked our doors. Now what can I tell her???

When we got home from our trip, Sammy was so terrified to go into our house that she was curled up in a ball under her blanket in the front seat of the car. It took Mike carrying her into the house and walking room to room with her to reassure her that it was okay. Even still, she was so scared that she didn't want to be left in a room alone. So, while I unpacked and tried to deal with what needed to be done, Mike laid on the ground in the living room with Sammy and watched two of her movies with her so that she didn't have to be alone. Then at bedtime when she was still scared, he agreed to sleep on our couch so that she would feel safer. (It helped me to feel more secure as well.)

NOTE: I love this picture of Sammy with Mike. They are so cute together!

Headbanded

While we were in West Virginia, we had to find clever ways to entertain ourselves. We played a lot of games. This one was called "Headbanded" and was pretty funny. Each player had to wear a headband with a card on it. By asking yes/no questions, each person had to try to guess what they were.

Some of the funniest questions came from Uncle Paul. At one point (while he was wearing a picture of a tomato) he asked "Do people keep me as a pet?" It was hard not to laugh at that one!

Personalized T-shirts

For Christmas this year, Uncle Pete created t-shirts for the kids. Jonathan's is a Harry Potter Puppet Pals shirt. He loves it! And Sammy's is a special creation - a shirt for "Sammy's Dog Walking Service". Rainbow colored, of course.
Probably the best compliment Pete could have received was the comment Jonathan made. He told me, "Mom, just so you know, I'm gonna wear this shirt every week!" Such a fun and creative gift!

Christmas with Grandma Miller

We had a great time visiting Grandma before Christmas. She even put up a Christmas tree for the first time in years. We stayed up late talking, went shopping at the mall, and went out to eat at Red Robin. YUM!
It was a fun visit and we hope to get back out there again soon.
NOTE: Again, thank you to Jonathan for his willingness to snap photos with me in the shot. Proof that I was actually a participant in the event for a change.

Messy fun

While we were in Virginia, I had the chance to visit my good friend, Lamar, and his kids. He made ribs on the grill (while standing in the freezing snow) and the best potato salad I have ever had! (I still need to get that recipe...)After dinner, we decorated a bunch of sugar cookies I had brought with me. His kids. Derek and Abbie are such cute kids. We really had a good time. And I don't think we ended up making too much of a mess...

Road Trip Buddies

Whenever we take a road trip, Sammy kind of takes over the front seat. Jonathan says he doesn't mind too much since it gives him the whole back seat to stretch out in. When she begins to get bored (and a little slap happy), Sammy starts pretending her feet have personalities.

She named one Fred and one Bob. They "talk" to each other and play on the dashboard. She's such a silly thing! At least she can entertain herself...

NOTE: Thanks to Jonathan for the fun pictures!

My talented sister...

About a month ago, I found a really cool quote. It was on a sign at the apple orchard we went to in Rockford. It was such a fun quote, but I didn't want to spend the money for the sign (which wasn't all that great anyway) so I wrote the quote down and sent it to April with a special request. That she design a sign using the quote.

She did, and it was AMAZING!!! She is super creative and did such a good job. While I was in Ohio visiting over Thanksgiving break, April painted the sign for me to hang in my living room. It was such a big sign and it took a while, but it turned out really nice.
I now have this sign hanging on my living room wall. Everyone who comes over always comments on it. They love the quote and the sign too! I brag on April all the time. I love having such a talented sister!

Black Friday

I visited April's family for Thanksgiving this year...

It was an absolute blast!

One of my favorite things was going shopping on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). April and I headed to Kohl's at 3am! That's right...that's pretty early. It was amazing how many people were out there at that time of the day.

We spent almost three hours shopping at Kohl's. It was so much fun. And we got some incredible deals.

The line to check out was ridiculously long, but if we agreed to apply for a Kohl's charge card they would let us check out at customer service. The line there was tiny, so of course we agreed. And got an extra 15% off as well. Can't beat that!

Reverse french braids with a flip...

I love doing little girls' hair.
I have come up with a lot of fun ways to do Sammy's hair lately, and while I was at April's I offered to do Kate's hair up in one of my favorite styles. Reverse french braids with a flip.

Kate did such a good job sitting still while I worked. What I loved about this style on a three-year-old (verses a 14-year-old) was that when she ran around the flips would bounce up and down. Super cute!!!

"BOINK"

I had forgotten about three-year-olds.

I had forgotten about their unlimited energy.

I had forgotten that once you get them wound up it is nearly impossible to calm them back down.
Tonight I was playing with Kate. She was being so silly. We kept making faces and silly noises. Every time she popped down from the couch, I would shout "boink" and we would laugh and laugh. (Nothing like a three-year-old to make you feel like a regular comedian.)

Well, in an attempt to help April, I tried to get Kate ready for bed. She was so wiggly. I struggled to get her diapar changed. I know it was completely my fault for trying to be silly and serious at the same time. We cleaned her room, got her pajamas on, and read a book. Still no chance that she was going to settle down. I tried sitting on the floor of her bedroom and just waiting for her to get tired. HA! Not gonna happen. Finally, April came in and took over.

Whew!

Kate is the most adorable ball of energy I have ever seen. But, boy, does she wear me out! The funniest thing was the next morning when April discovered that I had put Kate's diapar on backwards! I guess it's been a long time since I changed one.

Trip to Rockford

Over Fall Break, we drove up to visit Mom and Stan in Rockford. It wasn't too bad of a drive (especially since we took a pit-stop in Bloomington on the way there).
Some of the highlights from our trip?
* hanging out with Grandma's pets, Maggie and Sophie
* visiting with Calvin and Aunt Heidi
* playing games (Scrabble and Sorry)
* going to the apple orchard
* searching for pumpkins in the fields
One of the biggest helps on this trip was the fact that Jonathan was able to do some of the driving. Even though I still ahd to be awake and alert, at least I could shift position and be more comfortable...

Baking Challenges

Sandwich cookies are one of my all-time favorites. I consider them to be "Christmas cookies" because I only bake them at Christmas-time. They also happen to be Tracey's favorite cookies that I make. So, when when we decided to stay at her house for a couple days over fall break, Tracey asked if I would be wiling to teach her to make these yummy cookies.

Of course, I agreed...
They turned out delicious, as always. I made the dough and baked the cookies while Tracey wrote down the recipe and all of my little baking tricks. When it was time to assemble the cookies, Tracey decided to help out. Her first attempts were pretty hilarious! Take a look...

In case you wondered, hers is the broken one loaded with too much chocolate!

Eventually she got the hang of dipping the cookies into the melted chocolate and sprinkles. Now she can recreate these cookies whenever she wants - in theory.

It's Official!

Well, today was the big day! Jonathan got his learner's permit. I'm so excited for him and at the same time pretty nervous for me... I mean, having him behind the wheel of my car has me worried. I know he will be a good driver after having enough practice, but it's the practicing part that scares me.
Getting the permit was the first step in the process, though. We showed up in time to get a number and wait for over an hour. After waiting, Jonathan took his "written" test. He passed on his first try. This did not surprise me at all. He had studied and always does well on tests.

Jonathan hated his picture. He thought he looked like Justin Beeber. (He kinda did.) Welcome to the world of horrible photos on licenses, Jonathan.

He's 15 now...

The big deal with turning 15 in Tennessee is that you are old enough to get your driver's permit. We had planned it all out. I would leave work a little early and rush home so that we could go to the license branch to get Jon's permit. BUT when I checked online to be sure I had all the necessary paperwork, I discovered that it was closed on Mondays. Of course! So Jonathan has to wait another day before the "big day".

Despite this sad news, we had fun celebrating Jonathan's birthday. I made him a car shaped birthday cake. Since I didn't have 15 candles, I stuck several candles in the "tailpipes" and coming out of the "hood" so that it looked like a car that was on fire.

Sammy and I got kind of silly when wrapping presents for Jonathan last night. We ended up wrapping "empty presents" as well as real ones with funny messages on them. It was nice to celebrate in a low-key, family way.

Boots

Today I was laying on my bed trying to rest when Sammy opened the door to my room and said that the neighbor was at our house and wanted to talk to me. I admit that I was half asleep, but when I opened my eyes, I realized that Sammy was standing in my doorway holding a puppy! Well, that woke me up pretty quickly!

It turns out that Sammy had walked over to the neighbor's house and asked if she could walk their dogs. Our neighbors are so nice and agreed that Sammy could bring this little puppy home for about 30 minutes to visit while they had lunch.

I have to admit that the guy was pretty cute - especially the way he crawled right into Sammy's lap and stayed there the whole time he was at our house. I'm sure he was unsure of where he was and probably a little scared too. Sammy loved having him visit and did her best to convince me to keep him.
Sammy LOVES animals - especially dogs - but since we are renting, we can't have any pets. Although the neighbors are trying to find homes for their adorable puppies, we will not be adopting one at this time...