Anyone know a good cleaning lady?

You know, when you are away from home more than in your home, wouldn't you think it would stay cleaner.  Not so.  You come home dump your stuff, grab new stuff, and off you go again.  This week was spent running, and today was no different.  Except, today I ran to (mostly) fun stuff and got to relax when I was there.

I had a baby shower in the morning, and a candle party in the afternoon.  I left the house at 10:15, and got home about 12 hours later.  Crazy.  The baby shower was nice because I got to see a lot of friends who go to other churches.  It's funny how we as adults don't change too much, but the kids, they look sooo different.  They grow up.  I'm not big on any home-type party.  I usually try to bow out gracefully, or come up with a really good, and mostly legit excuse.  But because I love you, Holly, I said I would come.  And I am so glad I did.  I'm not into candles, but they make great gifts.  The one I chose to by for my friend for her birthday smells so good, I am tempted to get one for myself.  Who knew that pineapple and cilantro would even go together?  We ended up crashed on the hostesses couch just chillin' for the whole afternoon.   My girls were along for the ride, and enjoyed playing with Cheeks, the bull dog.  He is a huge dog!  Alisha had a good buddy from school there to play with, and it was a beautiful day.  We enjoyed each other's company, talked and laughed the afternoon away.  My friend's daughter, Joy, even sat on my lap and fell asleep in my arms.  Oh, how I miss having little ones to cuddle with!  Tweens are not so cuddly. 

For the end of our day, I decided (because I am really dumb like this sometimes) to go shopping for shorts for Bekah and sandals for me.  At 8:00 Saturday night.  The stores were blessedly empty, but that's because all sane people were home in their jammies getting ready for bed.  A note to parents of small children:  when taking them to Target at 9:30pm, and they cry through the whole store, the whole time, it's not their fault!  They are tired.  Put them to bed.  I did manage to get some sandals though.  I don't love them, but I really needed some, so they will do.  Bekah got a few pairs of shorts that fit nicely and were long enough to be modest.  I'm glad Bermuda shorts are in!  My girls were ridiculous though.  Running through the store, poking at each other, and just being goofy.  Shopping with kids is really not fun, just necessary.  I am so glad to be home!

Why I do what I do.

After class I was cleaning up the classroom, and found that someone had forgotten to erase their work on the art easel.  I am so glad she did!   

It's Almost Over

I know I've been absent from blogging lately, but hey, are you guys still out there?  Where are all the comments?  Anyone, anyone? 

Well, since I blog at least to keep my Mom and Aunt up to date, here's what's up:  I am tired.  Wow, that's nothing new.  The problem is the tired is turning into complete exhaustion, on the verge of collapse.  I am taking a break right now, and thought I'd check in, but now that I'm sitting here, I'm afraid I'll fall asleep.  Too many late nights, and too many things to wrap up before the end of school.  Five days to go!!  Three with students, one in meetings, and one to clean out my classroom.  

This evening finds me frantically putting together a scrapbook which I will photocopy, and bind for each of my students.  It needs to be done by tomorrow, and I still have six student's pages left to finish.  Fifteen kids, two pages each, four pages for field trip pictures, and one for the class picture.  Times that by fifteen copies.  Yikes!  Well, looking at the bright side, I'm over half way done with the book. 

Back to work.  

Wordless Wednesday: Roller Coaster Project

Rebekah and  Henry display their model roller coaster after the school program last night. 

Memorial Day

You know you needed sleep badly when you sleep soundly through a storm that knocks your power out for hours.  I woke up this morning and it was so quiet and peaceful.  I thought it must still be pretty early.  One look at the clock showed nothing.  No glowing numbers.  It was 9:00 according to my cell.  I lounged for a while longer.  Then the thoughts, "How long has the power been out?  Did it storm?  If it doesn't come on soon, will we have to go get ice for the food?"  Forget sleeping any more. 

Fast forward a couple hours later.  The power came back on the second, and I mean the second, my husband walked in the house after making a run to Dunkin' Donuts for coffee.  I can deal without electricity as long as I can have coffee.  Yes, I know I'm an addict, and I'm ok with that.  At least when we go camping I can run the coffee pot by plugging it into the car.  If the Dunkin' Donuts had lost power too, that was plan B. 

The caffeine is kicking in, and I'm starting to feel somewhat awake.  My only plans for the day are laundry, and meeting up with a friend who is in town.  It's actually pretty neat that she called.  I met her when I was the teacher in the infant room at the daycare center.  I had two babies who were with me every day, all day.  Hailey and A.J.  Their mom's became friends, and I had many conversations with them when they would drop off the babies, or come to nurse them on lunch breaks.  Around the time they were turning one and going to move up to the next class, Hailey and her family moved to Alaska.  We kept in touch off and on through e-mail.  A.J. is still in the school, and I get to see him and his Mom all the time.  I haven't seen Hailey, except in pictures, since they moved.  But, today we are all meeting at a playground for a reunion!  I just hope the rain holds off. 

Enjoy your Memorial Day, and remember to thank God for all the men and women who have, and are, sacrificing their lives to keep us free to enjoy days like this. 

Dumb Things and Dangerous Foods

The other morning as I was washing my hair, I grabbed the conditioner and started rubbing it in my hair.  To my surprise it was bubbly.  It's not supposed to lather!  What the heck?  I rinse and repeat.  Yep, still lathering.  It smells really good too, but what is wrong with this stuff?  I glance at the bottle.  Yep, right shape.  Right color.  I'll try again.  Still soapy.  Finally, out of frustration I read the label.  It's the body wash.  And this my friends, is why I do not consider myself a morning person.  At 6am my brain is unable to distinguish blue from purple, or the fact that if it wasn't right the first time, it won't be any different the third!

This week I haven't had nearly the amount of sleep I need, and it's starting to show.  Like when I call the kids (at home and at school) by every other name but theirs.  If you have more than one child, you know how that goes.  Try that with 15 kids.  I usually end up doing the "Mom-snap" to get their attention, and then just telling them what I want them to do. 

This morning for breakfast I made pancakes.  I like blueberries in mine, and so I added a bunch.  Costco has really good blueberries right now!  I'm on my second container.  Anyway, I was sitting there and letting my family know how much I had to get done today and how I would appreciate having some help.  Any help.  I cut into my pancake, and a blueberry exploded.  Right on my shirt, in the middle of my chest.  It looked like I'd been shot, and was bleeding blueberry juice.  My family thought this was hysterical.   And I got very little help.

Sweet Dreams

I only make one thing really, really well.  Caramel corn.  I'm kinda famous for it.  At least among my friends.  So, in an effort to help Marissa gather some funds for her trip, I made 4 batches of caramel corn this afternoon. Ok, it really took all afternoon, and most of the evening.  We were bagging the stuff up on our way out the door to church.  The hardest part was the math.  I am not good with numbers.  Figuring our how much the supplies cost, how much it costs to make 1 batch, and then how much to sell it for to make a profit.   I didn't want to rip people off, but making a quarter off each bag when I put 4 hours of work into this stuff wouldn't be good either. 

I'm happy to tell you, we sold out.  People were asking if I'd be bringing more on Sunday.  Guess what I'll be doing Saturday night?  That's the thing about caramel corn, it has to be fresh.  Marissa just stood in one spot and people were coming to find her.  It was pretty neat.

God is just so good!  This week I have had a few of my ideas that worked.  I feel like for so long my ideas bombed, or people didn't like them, and I took that as rejection of me.  Wrong, I know, but that's how it felt.  Now, this week, many things I've done or ideas I've had, have been put into practice and things worked out.  The biggest one is going be a whole post, tomorrow I hope!  So, here's to sweet dreams of caramel corn!

Slide to the left

It's only Wednesday!?  This week has already been so full.  Today was fun though.  We had two program practices, and worked out a some technical problems we've been having, and some problems with just not knowing the words to the songs. 

I had pitched an idea to the other teachers this morning, and they actually thought it was a good one!  So, in the middle of our afternoon practice I had the kids come down off the stage, and told them to find some space to stand in.  All I told them was that we all needed a break, and we were going to do something fun.  The older kids started grumbling that they knew I was going to make them do jumping jacks or toe touches or something.  Well, imagine their shock when the Casper Slide (otherwise known as the Cha-Cha Slide) started playing.  Yes, right there in the sanctuary, with 50 kids, we had a party goin' on.  Good times!  Getting those 50 kids back under control and on the stage in their places was a challenge I would not like to face again anytime soon.  But, my cool factor went way up!

Currently I am soaking up the peace that is my house.  Phil took the girls to their favorite restaurant (Ponder-grossa), and I opted for left-overs and peace and quiet.  This week I just don't seem to be handling the extra busy-ness and noise well.  I got to the point today where I just wanted to shout, "Everybody shut up!"  I didn't say it (because that's a bad word, you know), but boy, did I think it.  So much talking, and so much noise!  You can only ask people (I mean the one's that are under 4 feet tall) to use their "inside voices" so many times, before you lose yours. 

The good news is that all 9 poodle skirts are done, the riverboat is coming along nicely, and the props are pretty near finished.  The teachers all stayed late today.   We got a lot done, and had way too much fun doing it.  It was so good to laugh and have fun with them.  All day we have to be so "teacher-ish" and not be the silly ones.  So, it was fun to be silly and work on the props for the program.  Less than a week to go!  Next Tuesday night is the big event.  Today we practiced probably the most difficult part of the evening.  Shaking hands, and receiving your award.  At the same time.  Forget the same time, they had trouble with just the hand-shaking part.  One of the teachers even has to pretend to be Pastor for practice.  They are supposed to walk up, shake "his" hand with their right hand, take the paper with their left hand, and say "thank you."  Then shake the principal's hand and say "thank you."  Too many steps.  Oh, and then they literally have to walk up steps.   Oh boy, it wasn't pretty.   They always manage just fine the night of the program.

A Wordsmith I am Not

It's Saturday night and I am agonizing over words.  What words exactly?  The words I'm trying to type into a mission support letter for Marissa.  I could go the route Rebekah suggested, "I'm going to Mexico this summer.  I need money because I'm not good at selling candy."  Yeah...ok.  That's why the parents write the letters.  While that pretty much sums it up, I'm sure there is a better way to present this.   I've received many of these letters over the years, and they pretty much all sound the same.  I just don't like to be "typical" in anything I do.  Maybe I should let her write it and I'll just fix the spelling errors.  At least it would be real and honest. 

Today was a beautiful day, and I didn't accomplish many things that I can check off my never-ending list.  The big meeting I was stressing over was this morning.  People said it went well, and that they understood what I said.  Maybe the five page outline helped clarify what I was saying.  We were also invited to our new neighbor's birthday party.  Little Marcus turned 5, and he is a trip!  It was definitely a step outside of my comfort zone to spend the afternoon hanging out with people I don't know at all.  They were really nice though.  The girls had fun, and some of Marcus' cousins came over to play with my girls on the trampoline after the party was over.  Alisha was covered in dirt by the end of the day.  Her feet were black!  She was filthy, but she sure had fun.  At one point as I was trying to type the letter I heard a voice at the back door, and there was the little, birthday boy trying to come in my house. 

I must explain that there is a hole in the fence between our yards large enough for their yorkie, named Yankee, or a small child to get through.  Yorkie has made frequent visits to our yard which my girls love, but his visits leave Patches cowering in the house.  Patches is afraid of all other animals.  Squirrels, rabbits, cats, and especially other dogs.  Marcus must have crawled through the fence, and decided to come visit me.  He opened the door, and after he was in the house, asked if he could come in.   He's just so stinkin' cute though!  Of course I had to send him home to ask mom if he could play in our yard. 

Just to update you, my eyes are still cracked (bloodshot), and I am still way overly tired.  I really need to make sleep a priority this week.  So, on that note...goodnight!

A conversation with a 2 yr. old

2 yr. old: "Your eye is cracked."

Me: "Yep, it is."

2 yr. old: "Why your eye is cracked?"

Me: "Because I'm so tired."

2 yr. old: "My eye will get cracked?"

Me: "No, only tired Mommies get cracked eyes."

I think I need to invest in some Visine!