From Tiaras to Timeouts

Our New House!

2011-04-21T11:15:00.004-04:00

We have had a very busy spring around here! We have been contemplating the pros and cons of building a new house vs. buying, and have really been pondering the options for over a year. We are so lucky to have land from B's family that we can build on if we want it. This winter, we got pretty serious about looking at house plans and had even discussed clearing our land and slowly starting the building process.

But, all that has changed! In early March, we stumbled upon the PERFECT house... in a fabulous neighborhood, in our school district, at the end of a great cul-de-sac, with a fantastic FLAT yard, with plenty of room for us now and room to grow in the future. So needless to say, we quickly put in an offer and were ecstatic that it was accepted (after a couple of rounds of countering)!! Thankfully, we already had a buyer lined up for our house, and the best part is that we can stay here in our old house until school is out in June and we don't have to move during the crazy busy end of the school year!

We are slowly trying to de-clutter and I'm having a great time looking at fabrics and making decorating decisions. The girls are thrilled that the new house has "stairs"! I'm excited about the fabulous kitchen (I might actually decide to enjoy cooking something) and the great open spaces for entertaining. B can't wait to get in the huge yard and "play" with all the guys in the neighborhood. He's already been recruited for a volleyball team and a Texas Hold Em group. HA!

We are all a little sad to think about leaving this house... both girls came home from the hospital here and we are so fortunate to be able to see both Grammy's and Nana's houses from our street. But, the new house is only 15 minutes away and we are so excited about the new memories we will make in it!!

So sad to see it go...

2010-08-17T22:49:00.002-04:00

Our summer is over :(

I have been The Worst Blogger Ever, but I have plenty of good excuses. I've spent the last 2 months with 2 precious girls who are growing up WAY too fast!!! We spent almost every day at the pool and lots of lazy mornings at home in our p's and j's... it doesn't get much better than that.

S turned 8 and somehow became a big kid over the course of the summer... she sang a solo at musical theater camp, joined the swim team & kicked some serious butt in the pool, and got her ears pierced. Mommy cried :(

R has turned 5 and is even more of a diva than she already was. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she won't be the kindergarten playground drama queen.

Tomorrow is the first official teacher workday and I'm just sad. I can't even think about not being with my girls every minute. I passed up a girlfriends' movie night tonight so I could stay home for bedtime. I keep reminding myself that at least we get to be in the same building every day, since both girls will be at school with me this year, but I just want to hold on to the easy, lazy days a little longer!! Maybe someday I will post some pics of our summer fun :)

I spy with my little eye...

2010-04-01T22:59:00.005-04:00

SPRING BREAK!!

We have been loving our week off! We hung out at home on Monday and Tuesday, bought Easter dresses on ebay, played with friends, took naps, and just rested. We stayed up late and slept late. Did you know that a 4 year old can sleep until 9:40am and a 7 year old can sleep until 9:55am? Of course mommy gets up a little earlier than the girls, around 9:15-ish :) Wednesday and Thursday were our shopping days. The weather was sunny and 80+ degrees... perfect!!!

The girls @ Friendly taking advantage of the gorgeous weather...

They picked out their own outfits today and were super excited to break out the flip flops :)

We all really need a tan!!!

We have a standing tradition of lunch at Cafe Carolina with Kristen, one of my bff's since preschool, whenever we are in GBO during a school break!

The pollen is kicking mine and Riley's booties right now... we both have nasty red eyes and she's been working the inhaler daily. And while I love, love, LOVE being home with my girls, it almost feels like spring break is nothing but a big old tease. Monday morning will be right back to reality with alarm clock at 5am, and it's such a LOOOONG time until school gets out on June 15... we will SO enjoy our 3 more mornings of sleeping late!!

Tea for 12!!

2010-03-29T22:17:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, R went to a birthday tea party for one of her best little friends, Savannah. The party was here and she had a fabulous time!! All the little girls played dress up, had an ettiquette lesson, listened to a teapot story, and enjoyed their tea (pink lemonade)! They had sandwiches and of course teapot cupcakes. It was the cutest and girliest party ever!!

R with her friends Aspen & Gracie

CHEERS!!

Such a little lady!

Does it get any cuter than this??

Bubbles were in the goody bags!

Now that party season is here, we are working on the party plans for S and R's bdays. We start early... their birthdays aren't until July!! R wants a Pink Paris Diva Day (nails, hair, tutu skirts, and Eiffel Towers). S can't decide between a nail/cupcake outing, a pottery painting party, or a slumber party. I'm trying to talk her out of the slumber party... At least we have plenty of time to decide!!

Think Pink

2010-03-06T10:55:00.002-05:00

We have had a crazy week!! Everyone has been sick with assorted germs- B had a sinus infection, both girls have been congested, I had the stomach virus. Both girls have had mini versions of the stomach bug and B has passed his sinus mess to me now. YUCK!! We need warm weather so we can go outside and get some fresh air! Thank goodness temps are supposed to be in the 60's in a few days!!!

Added to all the germs, I had a scary dr. visit last week as well. At my annual ob/gyn appt, I pointed out a tender lumpy area near my armpit. Dr. did not like the way it was different from the other side and scheduled me for a mammogram/ultrasound. I went on Tuesday to have it checked out and thankfully, everything was fine! Hormonal changes are most likely the culprit, but it was scary to think about what it could have been. I'm super glad that the radiologist said I don't have to go back for another m-gram for 7 more years- it was NOT fun!!! On the positive side, at least it's nice to know that everything in there is how it's supposed to be :)

The girls have been hilarious as usual. At children's church last week, S had to draw pictures of something that made her happy and something that made her sad. Her "sad" picture was of me telling her to make her bed, which is funny b/c she never complains about making her bed b/c she earns quarters for doing it!! Her "happy" picture was of her sitting on the couch beside God watching Little Miss Perfect. I'm not so sure God watches LMP, but apparently she thinks so!!

R is having picture day at preschool this week, so she had to try on some dresses this a.m. and have a fashion show...

We decided to go with the silver sweater dress. She is all kinds of cute in it!!

Finally, here's our newest addition- Flipperz the Second...

Happy Weekend!!!!

Empire State of Mind

2010-02-16T22:15:00.002-05:00

I am a huge SATC fan, and I know it's really early, but I can NOT wait to get "carrie"d away!!!

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKQ5yRFkBnE

SO exciting!!!

Valentine's Day & a funeral

2010-02-15T21:36:00.004-05:00

We had a LOVE-ly Valentine's weekend full of family and friends!! Here's R on her way to preschool for her V-day party Thursday...

Friday night we ate dinner at my grandparents with the whole family. Valentine's day is my Grandpa's favorite holiday, so we always have Togetherness (his word for family time). On Saturday, B and I went to a wine tasting at the country club and had a GREAT time!! Lots of great food, wine, beer, and friends! The girls stayed with Nana during the afternoon and also spent the night, so we had dinner out and stood in line for 30 min. for some HOT NOW Krispy Kreme doughnuts... so yummy and so nice to have over 18 hours of quiet!!

We stayed home Sunday and were lazy, which was perfectly fine with all of us. As you can see, some of us had fun being lazy...

You'd laugh if your sister wore her Valentine gift bag for a hat at the dinner table!!

I bet this breakfast for dinner would make you smile with it's pink heart pancakes and pink milk... We LOVE pink!!!

After our LOVE-ly weekend, we had a sad Monday... we came home to find a lifeless fish :(

We were not surprised by this news. The fish had not eaten in days and had been lying around on the rocks at the bottom of the bowl. S handled it well, but drama queen R put on a show worthy of an Oscar! She needs to be on Broadway some day, the girl can cry, wail, moan, etc. on command. We gave Flippers a proper burial at sea and the girls drew pictures of him. I did not take a picture of the dead fish (you're welcome!), but here's one of the girls admiring him back when he was healthy...

We are hoping for a sunnier day tomorrow!!!

What we do on Snow Days

2010-02-02T11:30:00.007-05:00

We were excited to wake up on Saturday morning to another snow fall... around 8 inches this time. Unfortunately, our town decided not to scrape the roads until yesterday (Monday) afternoon, and we are now getting a lovely coating of freezing rain, so we have been IN THE HOUSE for 4 days now!!! To say we need to get out is an understatement. I love being home with my girls more than anything, but we have run out of things to do! We couldn't even print out some Groundhog Day activities b/c we need a new ink cartridge! I am checking the temps constantly to see if there is any hope of driving on the roads today. So, here's what the Tiaras do on snow days...

Snuggle in bed watching cartoons...

Paint pictures of sea shells using Daddy's Theta Chi shot glass for the paint water...

Eat...

Have play dates with bff Lily Grayce...

Check out the sledding conditions in the back yard...

Clean off the swing set slide...

Make snow angels...

Look cute in the snow...

Practice our Angelina Jolie face...

Go to the pool (to sled on the parking lot) with Anna...

Jump & shovel on the trampoline...

Smile in the snow...!!!

Why I run...

2010-01-08T09:29:00.002-05:00

I've been so good lately, trying to go out and run at least 3 times a week. So far I'm up to about a mile and a half. When I went out my door the other day in the windy, 30 degrees, I had to ask myself why I am doing this??? It didn't take more than about a block for me to remember why I run...

the quiet! I don't listen to anything but the cars and the trees and I love it!! Alone time is SO important!

the satisfaction! I know that this is something that I can do, but it just takes getting out there and actually doing it.

my health! I've never worried about myself until this past year. Lots of little health things have made me realize that I have to work on this. I've always just focused on taking care of everyone else. I'm realizing that I do a much better job at taking care of everyone else when I've taken care of myself first!

Fitting into skinny jeans is also motivating, along with knowing that pool season is just not that far away... :)

Christmas fun!!

2009-12-28T14:37:00.005-05:00

Our Christmas started in the best possible way... SNOW on the last day of school before vacation!! We got out of school early and had time for a play date with S's sweet friend A-M before the snow got too deep...

The girls were thrilled beyond words with the 7 inches we got! That's a lot around here!!

We also enjoyed a Snow Fun birthday party that weekend for R's buddy D...

We spent our first few days of vacation visiting with great old and new friends on the 23rd and getting our house ready for company... B's entire family was here for lunch on Christmas Eve (16 people!!) and we still had major work to do to get everything put away from the remodeling projects. Lunch was successful and it was great to have the whole family together!! This was the first Christmas in many years that EVERYONE was here and B said it was just like he remembered as a little boy- craziness and people everywhere!!

One of S's first gifts... not exactly her favorite of the day, but so cute!! I need to remember to do this sometimes myself...!!

R's pride and joy... her dollhouse from Nana!! This was a gift of sanity for Mommy and also a gift of peace & quiet for S... S has had her own similar dollhouse for a couple of years and we often have major drama over R rearranging S's Barbies. Now (hopefully) there will be no more arguing!!!

Christmas Eve ended with tracking Santa on the NORAD site and sprinkling reindeer food in the snow!! Our first white Christmas!!!

Christmas morning brought gifts from Santa and Mommy & Daddy... the favorites were a Nintendo DS for S and a Leapster for R. We headed to my Grandma & Grandpa's for breakfast and more presents, then home for a rest before dinnner at my parents (Grammy & Bumpy).

Here's R opening her 5th Eiffel Tower related gift of the holiday... she's obsessed with the Eiffel Tower!!! I love her style!!

S was so excited about her PINK razor scooter!! Such a girlie girl- love that, too!!!

Both girls got an American Girl doll from Grammy & Bumpy... Kit for S and her bff Ruthie for R. They were thrilled!!

At the end of the day, the girls wanted to sing happy birthday to Jesus. I was proud that they were able to remember the real reason for the season! We also got to visit with our NYC friends who dropped by after the girls were in bed- so great to see them again!!

We hope you had a holly jolly Christmas!!!

ebay Alert!

2009-12-20T09:56:00.003-05:00

I am getting myself motivated and trying to start listing some outgrown little girl clothes on ebay. Most are 3T or close to it. Check us out- the seller id name is benmere415. Happy week before Christmas!!

SO excited about this...

2009-12-13T21:18:00.005-05:00

... We have a new bathroom!!! We have been in the process of having our master bath remodeled since about Halloween, so I am beyond excited to have it DONE, finally!! The previous owners of our house did a pretty crappy job of putting in a teeny corner shower, peel n stick floor "tile", brass lights and fixtures, etc... There was water damage behind the shower wall and in the floor, so it all had to be taken out and started over from scratch!

Here's a Before shot...

And another... with the shower doors already removed and a bunch of B's work stuff inside...

And here's a picture of the lovely During process... nothing but studs and plywood...

With one wall and a Hollywood light fixture left behind...

During all the work, B and I moved into the girls' bathroom. It was a little tight with 4 people and all our stuff!

We also moved out of our bedroom during Thanksgiving in order to take up the carpet and have hardwoods put down. Here are B and his bff E working hard on the floor...

The bedroom with new floors, but still without furniture...

We had to put our bed mattress on top of the sleeper sofa mattress in the living room and have been sleeping there for 3 weeks! Our bedroom furniture is scattered throughout the living room and office/computer room...

Imagine how cozy we all were in our living/bed room over Thanksgiving when some old friends who now live in NYC dropped by to catch up!! Where to sit??

I have had a really hard time with the displacement of all this. We couldn't get to our Christmas stuff to decorate because of all the furniture and everything else scattered everywhere. We finally now have our tree up and the house somewhat decorated, but I am still not in the Christmas spirit like I usually am when my house is a wreck and only halfway decorated!!

Here is what the bathroom looked like about a week ago...

Ready to see the After photos???

TA DA...

LOVE my giraffe towels- thank you, TJMaxx!!! Still need to go back for some accessories...

This picture does not do the shower justice- it is huge!! We have 2 shower sprayers in there so you are never cold!! The shower door is ordered and should be here the 21st. We also have ordered a new bed that should be here by Tuesday. Hopefully by Christmas we will be back to normal!!

Yes, I am...

2009-04-30T21:16:00.004-04:00

Still here and breathing and all of that. I have just been taking a little bloggy break. I still come and lurk around reading what people are up to and comment here and there occasionally, but just haven't felt the NEED to post. Since the last post, we have driven from NC to Kansas and back, survived a 3 day mountain trip with S's first grade, wrote a grant, did placements and paperwork for 60 K-2nd graders in my program, and opened the pool (part of the way). I have also gained about 8 pounds and when you are 5'4" that is A LOT. I should be getting on the elliptical right now so off I go! Maybe I will put some trip pictures on soon, but I doubt there is anyone actually reading this anyway!!!!! Hope the pollen doesn't get you!

Important

2009-03-15T22:06:00.002-04:00

This is what I learned today:

My 3 year old can tell time on a REAL clock (learned this while helping the oldest with her math homework).

My 6 year old understands what w-i-n-e spells- BUSTED!

It is pointless to wash the insides of the Crocs with the fur. They come out just as gray and mulch-covered as when they went in.

The dirty Croc insides are worth it when your daughters sing this song: She had the baggy purple pants, Crocs with the fur, the whole playground was lookin at her... nice little ladies, huh?

What did you learn this weekend?

I love...

2009-03-06T22:32:00.002-05:00

Saw this on one of your blogs...

List 7 things I love:

1. sleeping

2. eating (if I didn't cook)

3. dvr'd tv shows that I can fast forward through the commercials

4. compliments about my children

5. sweet hugs and kisses from the girls

6. hearing the garage door opening when B gets home from work

7. finding the perfect shopping item

There are way too many more that I could list.
Now I tag:

OurMoments

TheRoopGroup

and any other 5 of you who are actually reading (if there are really that many???).
Happy Friday!

Hello snow

2009-03-01T15:33:00.002-05:00

This is what has happened in our yard in the last 36 minutes. I'm thinking we will not be celebrating Dr. Suess's birthday at school tomorrow. Works for me!

Wishful Thinking

2009-02-28T11:59:00.002-05:00

Right now it is 40 degrees outside, windy, and raining. We are under a winter storm watch for 4 inches of snow tomorrow.

Right now my girls are running around the house in their bathing suits. They are playing "pool"- jumping into a pretend swimming pool, blowing the pretend lifeguard's whistle, and buying pretend popsicles.

Do you think they are ready for spring?

A little bit fabulous

2009-02-22T22:15:00.003-05:00

Tonight before bedtime, the girls and I settled in on the couch for a little star gazing. At the Oscars, that is. Yes, I exposed my innocent little darlings to Hollywood's finest and they loved it. They really just wanted to see Zac Effron and Vanessa Hudgens. I enjoyed their well-timed fashion comments... Why is her dress so big? (Anne Hathaway). Mommy, look at all those bracelets!! (Heidi Klum). After they were tucked in, I watched the end of the red carpet and a little bit of the awards. However, as soon as SJP came on stage to present, I had an over whelming urge to watch Sex and the City. I really miss the 11pm nightly episodes on TBS. So I popped the dvd in, poured some merlot, and here I sit enjoying the fabulosity. How weird would it be to move the family to NYC for a year or so??? Just kidding, I think...

Valentine's Day...from a teacher's perspective

2009-02-13T13:14:00.004-05:00

If you ask around at any school, you will find some teachers who HATE holidays and special days, and then you will find those like myself who LOVE them. The haters have a hard time dealing with their schedule being uprooted, their students being hyper, and their classroom being cluttered. They must be those type-A personalities. Those who are like me, a spontaneous type who enjoys diversion from the ordinary, enjoy the holidays/special days for the simple joy of getting to experience these days like a kid again. I LOVE the cupcakes, Valentine cards, and shows of "love" between classmates. When you force every kid to bring a Valentine for every kid in the class, you actually end up with them being nice to each other, even if it's just for a little while. How sweet!!! Now that I do not have my own classroom anymore, I get to go up the hall to S's class and help with their parties. I get to be THE room mom- how fun is that? And that's where I'm heading right now- to eat a cupcake with my girl! Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Busy little Bs

2009-02-08T21:05:00.010-05:00

That's what we have been lately in the Tiaras house. We are working hard on our home overhaul every spare minute we get. We are slowly making decorating decisions for the family room (pillows and artwork purchased this week, curtains to come). Our back door entrance is complete. It (from garage to kitchen) has gone from this...

To this...
I am in LOVE with these hooks and cubbies!!! My wonderful hubby and his dad did this all by themselves. I also adore the new green walls.

A couple of weeks ago, R went to a birthday tea party for one of her best little friends. Keep in mind that they are 3, turning 4, so there was an ettiquette lesson, finger sandwiches, Cinderella story time, dress up, etc... R enjoyed herself!

S had her first real sleepover at our house that same weekend with her sweet friend, also S. These two get along famously and there was not a bit of the dreaded girl drama. A very easy night for mommy...

****For some reason, Blogger will not allow me to put spaces between the paragraphs, so I apologize for the rumbled up mess below...****

This past week was just like any other: Busy. I've been very addicted to Facebook lately, which explains the blogging break. We've all been uploading the most hilarious and incriminating old photos we can find- college, high school, middle school, and beyond. It is truly the best way to catch up and the best waste of time!

Monday was a regular day- I work at my *other* school and rely on a friend to bring S home. She is always WILD when I pick her up after playing with my friend's 2 daughters.

Tuesday, school was closed for a snow day. This sounds fantastic, except that our part of the county had no snow. Not even a flake! But, a day off is a day off and I enjoyed every minute.

Wednesday, we had a teacher meeting after school in my old classroom. It is now inhabited by Meg, who took my place in the 5th grade team. I dearly love her, and we are very much alike in our teaching style and tv show choices (Sex and the City) but we are as different in some ways as night and day. Take this for example... In my former classroom, which used to be totally organized, of course kid friendly, but also decorated all in lime green with splashes of pink, there is now a lizard and a corn snake! If you know me, you know I am a poster child for The Indoor Girl. No snakes were ever allowed into that room when it was mine! Part of our staff meeting was getting to take a look at Meg's room, and she showed us a video of her corn snake eating a live mouse. Gross!!! After the meeting, I hightailed it out of there and we made it just in time for S's gymnastics. S is still doing great in the gym and loving her coach, which makes me so glad that she has found her *thing*. She is best on the balance beam, of all things, and taught herself a round off the other day. Back handspring buildups are next!

Thursday is R's gymnastics day. She is taking lessons here in town at the local (ie: po-dunk) YMCA. Her teacher is one of the cheerleaders at the high school who also goes to our church- very sweet, but not much of a teacher. It is more like exercise for the 3 year olds, but R has perfected her consecutive forward rolls, and is working on cartwheels and backward rolls. She loves it, but it's just another place for me to be each week...

Friday I had the day off!!!!! I took S to a dr's appointment that morning (more on that in another post, but we are working on getting to the bottom of her attention issues). We ate lunch with one of my oldest and dearest friends (Kristen) and spent the afternoon shopping. It was a really great day, and so nice for me to be able to spend some quality time with S. She needs it!

Saturday we were pretty lazy in the a.m. I did about 10 loads of laundry and just picked up around the house. The girls spent Sat. night with my parents, so B & I had date night with some friends. We saw the movie Taken- it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time- I would highly recommend it. If you watch 24, it was kind of like Jack Bauer Goes to Paris. Great film! Dinner followed, Japanese, which was of course delish! I had the fillet and shrimp, yum!

Today, we did make it to church, and then I took the girls to a cheerleading competition. One of my favorite former cheerleaders was competing with her all star gym. Her mom works with me at school and is one of my lunch buddies. The girls (well, S) were really in awe of the cheerleaders. R watched about the first 20 minutes and then spent the rest of the time climbing up and down the bleachers. S said it looked like fun and she would like to try it. I said, we'll see! All stars could be the answer to our yearly dance/gymnastics delimma, since it combines both aspects, but it is so time consuming, not to mention expensive. Tryouts are not until May, so we have time to ponder it...

Tonight, B (aka Project King) helped S with her 100th day project. She decided to make a giant goldfish out of 100 Goldfish crackers. Cute!

This week will be just as crazy as ever, though without the snow day. It was 69 degrees here today and I was loving it- bring on the spring!!!! Tomorrow night I have my teacher sorority meeting, which is always a great, fattening meal. Tuesday after school I am attending an information session with a nearby university that is offering a cohort for a Masters in Reading Specialist. I am seriously considering it, if only for the pay increase. Wed, S's gymnastics. Thurs, R's gymnastics. It never seems to end! As for now, I'll just continue to enjoy my little snack of Cold Stone cake batter ice cream and chardonnay~ nice combo, right?

25 Random Things

2009-01-27T22:07:00.001-05:00

I was tagged for this on Facebook, so thought I would post 25 random things about me here...

1. I plan to go to bed at 10 every night but really don't get there until 11. I am tired a lot!

2. I hit the snooze button at least 4 times every morning before getting up at 5:47.

3. I am always late and I know this is not a good thing. I *think* about being on time but it never happens. I *should* get up at 5:37.

4. I went to the grocery store earlier for baby wipes, wine, and ice cream. Important stuff.

5. I am still friends with the people I went to preschool with!

6. I have uncooperative hair.

7. I love reality tv. I do not like stressful tv shows like B watches (24, CSI, PrisonBreak). I prefer crap like Girls Next Door, Real Housewives, The Bachelor, etc.

8. I love to look at houses and house plans. I used to want to be an architect, but I am not artistic enough. I would like to be a real estate agent or senator (to fix education) when I grow up.

9. I am really good at getting children to behave, all except for my own!

10. I really like my car (Pacifica)!

11. I have a serious addiction to caffeine- coffee and Coke Zero are almost all I drink. I can drink it at bedtime and still sleep like a log.

12. I LOVE to travel, except for the packing. My favorite place in the world is Washington, DC.

13. My family eats at El Corona about once a week. The waiters know our first names, birthdays, and we get automatic drinks. My children ask for leche instead of milk and cucharra instead of a spoon.

14. I have bunjee jumped twice (at Myrtle Beach senior week) and have ridden in an airplane being flown by my husband.

15. My favorite restaurants are Harper's (at Friendly, not the car wash) and Carmine's.

16. I love little girls with big hair bows. I know this will not last forever so I'm enjoying it now.

17. I had tubes in my ears twice as a child and two c-sections as an adult. The first one was a scary emergency, the second was planned ahead and really easy.

18. I like the beach, but I do not like the sand, salt water, or sunscreen. I prefer pools.

19. I would love to live in a huge city just once, for a while. I would also like to live somewhere REALLY cold and snowy just once. I wouldn't mind living in Florida. Obviously, I am open-minded!

20. I have learned the importance of sunscreen- I had a freckle removed from my lip that was not cancerous, but could have been. Wear sunscreen, people!!!!!

21. I married my best friend.

22. Besides my husband, dad, and brother, my Grandpa is my hero. I married a man who is just like him.

23. I do not like to plan meals. I would rather eat out than make the decision, or clean up instead of cook.

24. I have a shopping problem. I am creating a mini-shop-aholic (R).

25. I do not like to call people on the phone, but I will talk to you all day if you call me!

Your turn.

Paint colors- please help!!!

2009-01-24T11:01:00.003-05:00

I need suggestions... I'm trying to pick out a wall color for our family room. B and I cannot agree at this point- he wants brown, just brown. I want something with a little more color. We both want something that will "go" with our new light wood floors, dark white couches (yes, with little kids in the house), and espresso-ish dark brown tables and tv console. Right now the walls are a light taupe shade that is way too blah. There is a big window so the room gets pretty good light. Any suggestions???

Funny little kids

2009-01-21T09:37:00.002-05:00

In honor of yesterday's inauguration, I thought I should share this little story with you...

Last week, our music teacher was teaching a first grade class about different musical instruments. She held up some maracas and asked the students to tell her what they were called.

The little boy who raised his hand said it was a "Marack Obama".

Scenes from a (sort of) snow day

2009-01-20T16:30:00.007-05:00

We had a "dusting" - at least that's what the weather guys called it- of snow here in NC today, and of course school was called off. I was more than happy to stay home and clean up from the floor fiasco of the weekend (more on that later). I guess we'll be back to reality tomorrow...

On another note, I had not been terribly excited in the days leading up to today about watching the inauguration, just because I did not think I would be able to while teaching other teachers' classes. So the snow day also gave me a chance to sit down and watch a little history with my girls. B is a total republican and still a little bitter about McCain losing, so he was avoiding watching at all costs, but I think I (who should probably be registered as an independent) made a very valid point when I said to him, Today is a huge day no matter who you voted for- that doesn't really matter anymore. As they say in High School Musical, we're all in this together.

Snow?

2009-01-19T22:42:00.001-05:00

Right now I am doing a little snow dance- it's starting to fall a little but we only have a Winter Weather Advisory. That doesn't usually amount to much in NC! I could really use another day off- we put in hardwood floors this weekend and accomplished NOTHING but hardwood floors. I need a snow day!!

Almost (a little bit) famous

2009-01-16T12:06:00.002-05:00

I received a message the other day via Facebook from a girl who went to my same high school (a few years younger). She works at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History and helped me plan our visit when I went to DC with the 5th grade back in November. The Smithsonian is getting ready to create new promotional materials for the museums (brocures, I guess?) and needs a teacher to be featured with a picture and quote. Guess who they asked to do it? I'm sure none of you will be reading any Smithsonian brocures any time soon, but someone will and there I'll be!

We are looking forward to a fun weekend in the Tiaras house. B's bff from Orlando is coming in tonight with his fabulous wife and their 2 year old boy. They are the ones we stay with every year when we take the girls to Disney and are some of our favorite people. They are honestly just so easy to be around and don't mind at all when my girls pretend to be little Nicolas's moms. I'm sure he will be dressed in poufy skirts, princess heels, and tiaras at some point this weekend. Jeff and B will be stripping up the carpet and putting down hardwoods in our family room while Jodi and I entertain the kids. Did I mention the temps are supposed to be in the low 30s all weekend? We'll be thinking of ways to entertain the kids INDOORS.

Happy (long) weekend!!

Accuweather

2009-01-14T13:07:00.002-05:00

This is a site I check almost daily, but today they are not my friend. The forecasted low for tomorrow morning here in North Carolina is projected to be 10. Yes, 10 degrees. And what will I be doing tomorrow morning while it's 10 degrees outside? Standing on a concrete sidewalk for 30 minutes opening car doors for children who are fully capable of opening their own doors. My 3 year old can do it if the child locks are off, but I will be ensuring the safety of 400 5 - 11 year olds in the frigid-ness tomorrow morning. And Friday? Not much better. The low is supposed to be 12. Want to switch jobs with me tomorrow?

Slumber party hangover

2009-01-11T15:33:00.003-05:00

Who doesn't remember the major drama of sleepovers? S had a big night last night- she went to a birthday party for one of her best little friends. They had makeovers at Libby Lu, dinner at Longhorn, and spent the night at the birthday girl's house. I was a little worried about possible girl drama and here's why. There were only 5 girls total and S gets along great with all but 1 of them. The 1 that is a bit of a problem (I'll call her Drama Girl) plays with S all the time- her mom is also a teacher at our school so the 2 of them hang out in the afternoons while waiting to go home. They want to play together every day but end up not being able to get along. They have been in the same class for the last 2 years and are "friends" but they fuss and fight like crazy. All week this week S has been telling me that Drama Girl has been mean to her on the playground, saying "you can't play with me, I'm not your friend..."

My mom's advice to me about these things was always to Kill Them With Kindness, so I keep telling S to just make sure she is always the nicest person in the room. She usually has no problem getting along, so I know that Drama Girl is probably the source of most of the problems- it's mostly the "you're not my friend, are you my friend" crap- S is just not into that stuff yet. Last night was apparently no exception. Birthday girl's mom had to separate S and Drama Girl at bedtime b/c Drama Girl kept whining, complaining, and being difficult, while S and the others were doing great. They were up past midnight so I have a cranky girl who will be going to bed early. I just can't believe that it is starting this early- I know there was no drama like this in my life at age 6 1/2~ I think we were at least 9 or 10!

Hooked on Fridays: mindless TV

2009-01-09T13:02:00.002-05:00

Before you read this, let me explain that I really am an intelligent person.

Now, let me explain what I am hooked on: mindless reality TV.

I'm not sure exactly why I so love the Real Housewives, the Girls Next Door, and the like. Maybe I would like to experience some of their private jets and huge bling? Maybe not. I really do like my life most of the time.

One of my new favorites this week is the Bachelor. Jason was my choice from last season on the Bachelorette and think it is ridiculous that they let DeAnna come back this season- she made her bed and now she should have to lay in it!!! Right now I would love for him to choose Melissa (loved her on Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team) or Stephanie (mature single mom). I also watched True Beauty, which came on after the Bachelor Monday night. This was mindless-ness at its finest. 10 people who think they are the most beautiful people on the planet all wanting to win a spot in People magazine's Most Beautiful issue. They are actually being judged on their inner beauty. Yeah, right.

I know I should expand my mind and watch more CSI or CNN. I do watch Grey's Anatomy, so maybe the medical terms could count as educational? I spend all day involved in education so when I have time to actually sit and watch something on TV I do not want to be stressed out while watching!!

Randomness

2009-01-06T10:29:00.002-05:00

Here's what is going on this week:

~ I could NOT sleep Sunday night but the first day back yesterday was not bad. Just getting up and getting there on time was the biggest challenge.

~ S is sick today with a sore throat, so we are home today and going to the dr. in a little while for a strep test. Yuck. Just when I had trained my brain to the idea of working again...

~ R was very clingy last night. I think she missed me yesterday :)

~ B has been working super hard in our house. He has painted the kitchen and the girls' hallway, hung a new light over the kitchen table, and moved furniture in the bedroom. The contractor is coming this week to start working on our bed/bath transformation. NOT looking forward to the dust and mess.

~ It is raining and 40 degrees today. Why could it not be just 8 degrees lower? Snow days are so much more fun than sick days.

~ I am in love with my new Wii Fit. It really really works. I'm convinced that I will have killer abs by summer if I just keep at it...

More later!

Procrastination

2009-01-04T16:25:00.002-05:00

I've been putting off going back to work for as long as possible, but tomorrow is the day. I think the back to school after Christmas dread is why New Year's is my least favorite holiday. I prolonged my vacation an extra day by taking annual leave on Friday instead of going in for the teacher workday. I made extra sure that I was ready for this week when I left school before Christmas.

It really won't be that bad- Monday's are actually nice this year. I work at my "other" school and share a room with one of my good friends. The children are sweet and the classes go by fast. The hardest part will be the getting up at 5:30 am when I've been sleeping until 8:30 or 9 for the past 2 weeks (I've been blessed with late sleeping children). Oh, and I'll really miss my girls, too. I've been searching online for higher paying jobs for B so I can be a stay at home mom... anyone know someone who needs an experienced loan officer/bank manager??

Hooked on Fridays: Shark

2009-01-02T15:37:00.001-05:00

I picked up this little idea from Julia at Hooked on Houses- Hooked on Fridays. Right now I am totally hooked on this Shark 2 in 1 Stick Vacuum. I got mine on Black Friday for $10 at Target, and picked one up for part of my mom's Christmas for $20. I promise that I really use it every day. My cleaning used to consist of DustBusting every day and vacuuming every week with the huge Rainbow (how I hate, hate, hate dumping that water). No more dying charges or nasty water with the Shark.

The other day we made chocolate dipped peanut butter crackers and let R decorate the tops with left over Christmas cookie sprinkles. The Shark picked up every one of the million or so sprinkles that ended up on my kitchen floor and I was pretty happy that I did not have to get down there with the broom and dust pan. If you have messy children or husbands, get yourself hooked on the Shark!!

New Year's Wish

2008-12-31T22:15:00.003-05:00

This is not my whoo-hoo New Year's typical post. We are so low key tonight- had some friends and their kids over for family Wii playing, dinner at Tiano's (how quickly I forgot my stomach bug while eating ALMOST all of the greasy but so delicious stromboli, and now I'm regretting it) and a quick muy frio jump on the trampoline. The girls are in bed and we are recording the Happy New Year for them to watch tomorrow. However, B did just sneak S out of bed to see Taylor Swift in Times Square.

My New Year's wish is for my neighbor Amber. She is 29, married to an attorney, and full time mom to Jackson (3) and Emily (almost 1). Last April she was diagnosed with colon cancer and since then has found cancer in her liver, both lungs, and now possibly her stomach. She has been through one round of chemo, several surgeries, and now on chemo again. She is still a great mom and wife. The family went to Disney a few weeks ago. Our neighborhood has a rotation set up where someone takes them a meal every Tuesday and last night was my night. Amber had her chemo line put in yesterday (goes back tomorrow to have it taken out- this is every other week) and she was just as normal as you or me, except for the fanny pack around her waist and port on her collarbone.

I guess the reason I'm posting about this is because her situation seems pretty hopeless to someone on the outside, but she just keeps on going. She has such a strong faith that she has said more than once that she is not afraid of what will happen to herself, she is just worried about her children. And who wouldn't be? When you are faced with knowing that your children may not remember you or may end up being raised by other people, I'm not sure how I would be able to go on every day. Somehow she does with a totally postitive attitude. Amazing.

So my New Year's wish is for a miracle for Amber and for her cancer to disappear. If I had to make a wish for myself it would be to remember her when I feel like fussing at my kids for annoying little things and cherish every day with them. What's your wish?

60 years

2008-12-29T22:17:00.006-05:00

Today is my grandparents' 60th anniversary. Anyone who knows me well knows that Grandpa and Grandma mean the world to me. I have wonderful amazing parents, but these are my heroes. Grandpa is stubborn, hard headed, but a total softie. He still calls me his sugarlump and is hopelessly devoted to Grandma. She is the total balance to him- sweet, quiet, but totally puts her foot down when needed. They were married in the pouring rain on December 29, 1948. Grandma was quite the Southern belle and her daddy was not too happy about her marrying this boy from Massachusetts only a few months after they met. It also rained on my wedding day and my parents' wedding day, so I think that's a good sign. They are a perfect couple and role models- today I told them thank you for showing us how to build a marriage and a family.

Now as I wipe up the tears, a few more Christmas photos:

B, me, and the girls...

Santa's #1 gift (a really tacky bow and a really bad picture)...

S, R, and cousin J...

Notice the hole in S's mouth. I'll have to tell you the story about Santa and the Tooth Fairy coming to our house on the same night...

A bad, bad thing

2008-12-27T13:42:00.002-05:00

The stomach bug, that is. Yesterday I felt a lot like death. Today I'm feeling better- eating ritz and drinking diet coke- but I'm still laying low. Thankfully B is picking up my slack and taking good care of the girls. S was pretty much perfect yesterday (wonder if she is getting sick?). The house? Not so much. There are a thousand new clothes that need washing, presents unpacked and put away, and just stuff everywhere. I guess it can all wait one more day. I'll be back...

Merry Christmas to All...

2008-12-24T21:03:00.007-05:00

I am currently waiting for the Tiaras to fall asleep so Santa can get busy. I remember those Christmas Eve nights so well, lying awake for what seemed like hours and hours. B is out in the garage working on the trampoline and I should probably be helping but it is so COLD out there. I'd rather sit here in my warm computer chair, watching 24 hours of A Christmas Story, posting these fun Christmas Eve pictures for you all.

This is S with our advent calendar. My mom's sister made it for me before B and I got married. Everyone in our family has one. It has an ornament to put on the tree for December 1-24. S was SO excited yesterday to be putting up the last one before Santa...

The grandchildren at B's family Christmas this afternoon. His brother has 2 children, age 21 and 20 (not shown), and 3 new stepchildren, age 10, 7, 4. Needless to say, it was wild and crazy at Nana's house today...

R playing under Nana's tree while waiting for presents...

R, S, and C playing with C's new tool set. B was so proud of the girls for wanting to be Miss Fix It...

Cookies for Santa!! Notice that R, my cheese freak, has left a slice of Kraft processed American cheese product for him...

The girls are STILL awake (9:32), so it's time to go lay the smack down...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

Cookies

2008-12-22T22:42:00.004-05:00

It seems that lately, I have not eaten very many real meals, but I have eaten my weight in cookies. Yesterday I ate about 5 cookies of various types while fixing lunch, and 2 more after lunch. Later during the course of catching up on my blog reading I probably ate 3 more.

So late yesterday afternoon, I decided I needed some exercise. That is a bad word in my dictionary. I am an inside girl. But I used to be a runner, so every once in a while I feel the urge to get back out there. I can not and will not run in heat or humidity, but yesterday it was 40 and windy. Perfect, in my book.

My run (which was actually a half-walk, half-run) took me on a little scenic tour of why I'm glad I still live in this little town where I grew up. I turned right out of our road, which led me past my mother in law's neighborhood and up to the road where Alice's parents still live. Then I turned left and ran/walked past my grandparents' house, parents' house, and could have kept going past my oldest friend Kristen's house where she grew up, but I was pooped. Coming home I had a perfect view of Hanging Rock, where my family spent a couple of weeks in the mountains every summer growing up, in the sunset. It was a beautiful reminder of why I really do love this sleepy little town!!

Today the girls and I spent the afternoon at my mom's house baking cookies with mom, my sister in law, and nephew Jack.

Candy cane cookies- the recipe was from my grandma's sister, Aunt Marilyn. No one in our family makes these like she did, but we try and they are GOOD...

The girls decorated the tree cookies- made possible by the trusty Pampered Chef cookie press...

Little Jack practicing pulling up and looking snazzy in S's Santa hat...

Tomorrow I'll be picking up a last minute gift for B and trying to locate a Wake Forest car magnet for my uncle that we have still not been able to find. Other than that, all the presents are wrapped and ready. And I just ate another cookie while writing this, so I guess I'll have to fit in another run/walk onto my schedule...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2008-12-21T16:44:00.005-05:00

That is one of my favorite Christmas songs, and now that school is out I am SO in the holiday mood!

Last night, we finished our shopping, all but the last little stocking stuffers. We also finally stopped in to see Santa at Friendly Center. He is a really great Santa, with his own white beard and long hair, and a really old strand of jingle bells from "his sleigh" that the kids can shake and marvel over.

B dropped us off and went over to the jewelry store across the street to pick up something my Grandpa had ordered for Grandma's anniversary present. They will be married for 60 years next week! The line was short, only 4 people in front of us. When it was our turn, S pranced right over to the big man and jumped up on his lap. R proceeded to scream, cry, and pull my arm to get away from him. She did decide after watching big sis survive the visit, that he must be OK and took her turn on the lap. Cute picture!!

After we were done talking, the girls wanted to write letters to put in the Santa's Mailbox, so we did that while waiting for B to pick us up. And apparently, my girls don't think that Santa can see them in the same room with him if he has other children on his knee, because they were running around, crawling on the floor, unhooking the red velvet line ropes, and just generally being heathens.

I did learn a little parenting lesson from this. Seems I did not tell them ahead of time that they are not allowed to run around in the Santa Spot. Just telling them to stop does not work, so I guess I need to do a better job with telling them the rules ahead of time. Good lesson!!

After Santa, we had dinner at Mimi's Cafe. The spinach and artichoke dip is fantastic and I had a deeee-licious crab quiche with some much deserved pinot grigio.

The girls after church today...

S, the drama queen

R, the diva

Happy Holidays!!!

Hallelujah

2008-12-18T21:34:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow is the last day of school~ Christmas vacation, here I come!!! I'll be celebrating with Mexican and a Movie night. That's mexican food from Corona and a movie from Brewer's for you natives.

The school children have been bananas pretty much since the calendar turned from November to December. So that's about 18 days of insanity so far. I have never been so glad to not be teaching in a regular classroom. I can do my fun little brain games, get em all worked up for 30 minutes, and then LEAVE! I have consumed far less wine than I normally would during December because of this job!

Children at my house are no different. Until yesterday, S was literally bouncing off the walls, floors, furniture, etc. Seriously. I thought the child would end up in an emergency room by Christmas for sure. Miraculously, she finally got the message that her life was in danger and calmed down. Yesterday and today have been entirely manageable. We are still pondering the other issues with her, and I appreciate all the comments, advice, and support.

Little R has also had her issues this week. She is a bit of a hypochondriac. She loves the attention, extra snuggles, and chewable Tylenol she gets when she doesn't feel good. So for the last 2 days she has complained of her head, stomach, throat, legs, ears, and chin hurting. She has also had a small fever. I stayed home with her most of the day today. By lunch time she was FINE, so we went to school for S's class party, where R had a fabulous time. We then went to our local Y for her to observe a gymnastics class, where she ended up totally participating, so I signed her up to begin in January. By the time we got home she was fussy, whiny, and fevery again. Tomorrow's an early release day so we may be heading to the pediatrician after school.

Right now, B is painting our kitchen a fantastic shade of baby-poop green. Sounds pretty? I promise it will be. Next on the painting list are the hall by the girls' room, our bedroom, the family room, and later our bathroom (which might all end up in some shade of green). We also had to have a new motor installed in our garage door opener today and someone is coming to install crown molding in the girls' bedrooms tomorrow. Fun times!!

To start your weekend off right, here are a few festive pics from the Polar Express party the other week...

OK, blogger is having some image loading difficulties, so I'll try again with the pics later.

Happy last day of school!!

Conflicted

2008-12-14T15:02:00.002-05:00

I've decided to follow Alice's advice and just refer to my girls by their first initial here in the blog. It will make it easier on me and still keep them safe. So my oldest will hereafter be referred to as S, and the little one is R.

**Disclaimer** The following post will probably contain a certain amount of complaining, horn-tooting, and pity party-ing. Run on sentences and TMI possible...

I'm sure I have alluded several times in posts as to the struggles that we sometimes have with S, age 6. I am at a point where I need to vent a little, so I'll use the blog as an outlet. Let me start by saying that my daughter is one of my 3 favorite people on earth and a beautiful child, inside and out. She is smart, funny, and adventurous. Academically, she is at the top of her class. Her math and spelling averages are both over 100 and she reads on a high-3rd grade level (in first grade!). To say I'm proud is an understatement! She is amazing at gymnastics, particularly on balance beam which takes so much concentration. She sings, dances, cheers, and was the star of her school play last month. She is amazingly kind and caring, a natural helper, and is a friend to all. She is a wonderful child and I can't wait to see what she will become as she grows up.

While she is all of these wonderful things, she also has a very hard time focusing at home and at school. I find myself fussing, yelling, at her every day to follow directions, listen, hurry up, do what I said, etc... At school, she needs constant redirection to get things done. She is always trying to help the children around her, instead of doing her own work. Several times she has had to stay in from playtime to get her work done because she is too distracted during work time. Paying attention, focusing, and concentrating are very hard for her. She is also extremely impulsive, VERY energetic, and just plain wiggly. In teacher terms, she is not a behavior problem, but very high maintenance. According to the pediatrician, she shows many symptoms and tendencies toward ADHD, but he thinks she is too young for a diagnosis or medication. As a teacher, I totally agree and wouldn't hesitate to say that she is totally ADHD.

Here is my frustration: At work, I have it all together. I'm really good at what I do. I've been teacher of the year for my school, finalist teacher of the year for my school system, nominated for national teacher awards twice, curriculum lead teacher at my school (where I had to teach other teachers and did not enjoy it), principal's advisory council, school improvement team, etc.... You get the idea. I have always hated the planning part, but the discipline and classroom management part has always come so easily. I can walk into a room full of 1st graders and have them eating out of my hand. 5th graders love me. My 2nd and 3rd graders cheer when I come to get them. I know I am in the right profession, although I wish it did pay more. At school, I am wonder woman.

At home, not so much. If I am such a great teacher, why can I not control my own child? I have tried every trick in the book with S. Nothing works. I know it is not her fault that she can't focus, but I am on edge every day from the minute we walk in the door until the kids are in bed and I'm just tired of it. I want my children to remember happy mommy, not fussy mommy, and I'm always fussy mommy. Being a teacher makes me even more uptight about my girls' behavior b/c I see kids at school that I do NOT want them to become. I said to B the other day that I think either S needs to be put on medicine or I do. Seriously. I've seen so many children benefit from medication for ADHD, and I would like to try it with S, but he is very sceptical. He's afraid of the long term effects on her body, which does worry me too. I've also heard of children like S benefitting from alternative methods to medication, such as massage therapy and diet changes. I'm totally willing to try whatever it takes and what hyper kid wouldn't calm down from massages?

I guess we are at a point where we've got to make some decisions. Right now is such a crazy time of year and no child can behave in December, so I think we'd be better off waiting until after the holidays when things settle down a little. The bottom line for me is that I want my children to be happy. I do not want S to feel like she is in trouble every day, for her to feel like we are always dumping on her (which we do), for her to think that we don't love her as much as her non-ADHD sister, or for her to just feel somehow not good enough. I want her to know how awesome she is and I want to be able to enjoy her personality every day. I want to feel as good about my parenting skills as I do about my teaching skills, because being a parent is a much more important job in my opinion.

Just plain busy

2008-12-11T16:09:00.003-05:00

Slack, slack, slack. That is what kind of blogger I am, apparently. Or maybe I'm just plain busy? So far, my week has looked like this:

Monday night- teacher sorority meeting/social.

Tuesday night- flew home from school to put together a REAL dinner. No, not for the Tiaras, for my neighbors. Mrs. Neighbor has just come home from a hospital stay for appendixitis and Mr. Neighbor doesn't cook. After that, another neighbor and I put together a dvd of all the cheerleading pictures I have taken this season. I'll get B to burn copies this weekend and give it to my cheerleaders next week at our Christmas party.

Wednesday night- tackled Target on the way to gymnastics. After arriving home at 8pm, cooked another dinner not for the Tiaras. This one was for a school friend who just had a baby. Then I addressed 60 Christmas cards.

Today- I am about to leave for the school staff Christmas dinner.

Tomorrow night- we have a cookie swap for a preschool friend, then my Grandparent's house for White Christmas movie-watching and ice cream eating.

Saturday- my mom is taking the girls and I to see Annie -my absolute favorite musical as a child (no, Alice. I won't be buying any souvenir Annie glasses!!). After that, B and I plan to FINISH the shopping.

Sunday- my mother in law is taking them to see A Christmas Carol. Maybe I'll take a nap while they're gone?

TAG

2008-12-08T21:34:00.003-05:00

My lip is almost all better, thank goodness!! I really don't like not being able to wear my Burt's Bees lip shine.

Our Polar Express party Friday was fun for all involved, minis and their parents. We had about 10 minis and 7 adults. The kids sat still for about the first 15 minutes of the movie, then scattered to drag out every toy they could find and trash my girls' rooms! We brought them back for cookie decorating and hot chocolate, and later made them watch the last 15 or so minutes so they would understand the bell part. If you have not seen the Polar Express, Santa gives a bell to the little boy at the end of the movie. Only those who truly believe can hear it ring. Of course, he finally hears it at the end. I had a little red box for each child with their name on it and a bell inside. They were so cute at the end when they opened their boxes, rang their bells, and all shouted, "I hear it!!!" We will definitely do the party again next year, but we are thinking about changing our movie each year. Any suggestions for what to show next? My camera battery is dead tonight, so I'll post pics tomorrow.

I was tagged by Stephanie for this meme. I love Christmas and love to talk about myself, so of course I had to play along...

1. What is your favorite Christmas Movie? it's a tie: White Christmas and Home Alone- we watch both all year round at our house.

2. Favorite Christmas Song? White Christmas, because I've always dreamed of one and never gotten it :(

3. Favorite Holiday Memory? Christmas Eve service at Grandma's church when I was 7 or 8 and my little brother was 1 or 2- we were sitting in the front row and he threw his Pound Puppy INTO the christmas tree.

4. What kind of cookie/treat do you like to make? funfetti cookies

5. Have you ever made an igloo? No…I live in North Carolina.

6. Do you love Starbucks? LOVE.

7. What makes the perfect Snowman? Well, probably snow, but I wouldn't really know.

8. Best gift you have ever received? Barbie house and a boom box.

9. What is the snowman's name on Rudolph? Ok, I am so going to copy Reynie’s answer…Sam.

10.Silver or Gold? Silver

11. What is your favorite Christmas decoration? Lights on houses

12. What's your Christmas decorating style? I try to use only the cutest of the mix matched gifts from students past. I rarely have to buy my own decorations.

13. Do you hang stockings? Yes, four of them, personalized.

14. How many days do you celebrate Christmas? Usually from the week after Thanksgiving to New Year's.

15. What was your favorite ornament on the tree as a child? the not at all tacky (I promise) sparkly sliver disco ball that twirled. I also remember trying to lick the dough ornaments (gross) so I must have liked those a lot.

16. Where will you be spending this Christmas? at home as much as possible!

17. What was your favorite holiday tradition as a child? Christmas Eve- after church we would ride all over town looking at the lights and decorations, and then watching the Santa Tracker on tv. I would hide in the backseat floorboard b/c I was afraid Santa would know that I was still awake!

18. What's your favorite Christmas food? Grandma's cheese grits

19. Do you like colored lights or white lights on your Christmas tree? white.

My question: How many Christmases do you celebrate each year? Usually we have 2 on Christmas Eve and 2 on Christmas Day- this year we're working on narrowing it down to just 1 on the 24th and 2 on the 25th.

And I'll pass it on to these unsuspecting fellow bloggers…
TheRoopGroup
OurMoments
40PinkPiggies

If you've already done this one, I apologize!!
Have fun!

Baby names, OUCH, & a party

2008-12-04T21:50:00.002-05:00

Baby names- No, I am not pregnant- I am just still thinking about what to call my girls here on the blog. Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions. Maybe I should try one of the trackers before I decide?

OUCH- Today I went to the dermatologist for the annual skin check. I'm fairly fair skinned, being a red head and all, so I go every year to get the freckles looked at. I have had a big freckle on my bottom lip for a couple of years that is beginning to get bigger and darker. It's really the only thing I wanted to have looked at. The dr. decided to take a biopsy and sent it off to be checked out. It's relatively tiny, this freckle, but needles and I do NOT get along so of course I had to lie down forever drinking a juice box and feeling ridiculous afterward. They numbed the lip and then shaved off most of the freckle with a razor blade thing. The results are NOT cute, let me tell you. The numbing lasted all of about 30 minutes, right up until I was in the Harris Teeter on the way home. I was trying to avoid looking at people thinking they wouldn't see my fat and bloody lip that way. Yeah, right. It is still pretty gross looking but at least the freckle is mostly gone now and I won't have to worry about it... Use this as a lesson, don't forget your sunscreen, chapstick doesn't cut it!

& a party- Tomorrow night we are having our first annual Polar Express party. The girls have each invited a few best friends to watch the movie in their pajamas, drink hot chocolate, decorate cookies, etc. I hope we will do this every year until they go to college- think of the extra cute pictures we will have from every year! I'll be sure to share pics later!

1 more DO

2008-12-02T12:26:00.002-05:00

To add to my previous list...

Do pick up a $10 Shark 2 in 1 dust buster/vacuum at Target. This is my favorite new friend- especially with construction in the house. It really sucks, in a good way!

Also, a question- I'm getting tired of using "fake" names for my girls in my blog posts. I know it is for their safety and I never know who is reading this, but I would like to just use their real names. I see both real and false names in different blogs. How do you feel about this?

Do's and Don'ts

2008-11-30T21:28:00.002-05:00

Although it will be 362 days before anyone will need any of this, here are a few lessons I learned while shopping on black Friday...

1. Don't expect to hear your alarm clock at 4am. You will sleep through it and wake up with an Oh Crap at 4:48.

2. Do take your makeup with you to put on in the car. If you have to be at Walmart with the maniacs, at least look good.

3. Don't expect to get a parking space when you roll up into the Walmart lot at 5:10am. All those maniacs have been there for hours already.

4. Do look out for 50 inch tv boxes coming toward you in the aisles. The buggy drivers can't see around them.

5. Don't leave your trampoline unattended in the aisle for longer than 2 minutes and 59 seconds. Do understand that Tiaras will trade your trampoline with the semi-cute blue mat for her boring beige one.

6. Do check out at the jewelry counter even if they do not have bags to put your stuff in. You will get out of there approximately 32 minutes faster than if you had waited in the regular checkout lines.

7. Don't worry when you set off the door alarm with your paid for but not bagged Hannah Montana guitar and HSM3 dolls. Nobody's checking receipts at the door today.

8. Do go to Kohls even if you weren't planning to. Its true that every single item in the store is on sale.

9. Do tell hubby to look out for the posts that hold up the line chains because he will have so much Kohls crap in his hands that he will not see the post under his feet, and he will trip and fall in front of everyone in the line.

10. Do check out the Dollar Spot on your way into Targay but Don't expect everything in the store to be on sale here.

11. Don't expect the caffeine from your 6:30am latte to last past 10am. You will fall asleep on the way home.

12. Do take a nap later.

13. Don't be surprised when the waitress at the Mexican restaurant the next day asks hubby if he got hurt when he fell at Kohls.

I do not plan to do this black Friday ever again. Unless we need another big item and find another ridiculously low price. Then I guess it could be worth it, but I am still tired...

The rest of Friday and all day Saturday were spent listening to B and his dad hammer and saw away at our new mudroom. It just needs painting now and it is the bomb!!! Last night we went to H's house with a new group of friends and had a great time. My stomach was not happy with me later, which I blamed on the Mexican food I had for dinner. B said it was probably more like something that starts with V and ends with -odka. Today we went to the Carolina craftsmen's show at the coliseum. I do not enjoy the woodcarving or embroidered tree ornaments. I go for the food samples and hair bows. Tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner and I'm ready to get in bed and watch the Girls Next Door. Only 14 1/2 school days until another vacation!!!!

Tidbits

2008-11-29T11:56:00.003-05:00

We've had a busy few days here in the Tiaras house. Here's a *little* update...

1. There was no school the day before Tgiving, but BigG did have gymnastics. Her level 1 class was combined with a level 2 b/c so many girls were absent. Her teacher came to me afterward and said BigG was able to do all of the level 2 skills with no problems so she is going to push her harder from now on. I was proud!!

2. Thanksgiving day was surprisingly easy. In an earlier post I complained about trying to simplify the holidays. Turns out that B's brother and sister in law could only do Tgiving dinner at the same time as my grandma's dinner, which I will NOT miss. I don't know how many more holidays I will have with my grandparents who are in their 80's. So we compromised and had the inlaws over Thursday morning for brunch and parade watching and it was actually really nice. I fixed an egg/bacon casserole, grits, muffins, fruit salad and coffee. B is not a coffee drinker so he had kahlua & cream instead. The girls enjoyed having nana and papa to themselves without the other cousins to compete with. I was proud of the inlaws for coming over together with no issues. We spent the afternoon at home and went to grandma's about 5:30 for turkey and stuffing ourselves. Very good day!

3. The girls spent the night with my parents Thursday night so we could brave the black friday shopping the next morning. We NEVER do this and always wonder why people who do are so stupid? Well, we were among the maniacs at Wal-mart (my LEAST favorite store on earth) at 5:10am yesterday morning. We then added more stupidness to our morning by going to Kohls, Targay, and later Lowe's. More post on that later, but we did get everything we needed and saved a bundle!

4. Since we are not selling our house right now, we have decided to really upgrade the current crib. In addition to the bathroom work that will begin in January, B has decided to build me the mudroom of my dreams. Sounds dreamy, right? In all the new houses we have toured in the last 7 months, a mudroom is the new thing. Cubbies, hooks, benches, etc... provide a place to contain all of your bookbags, coats, shoes, keys, etc... here's an example. He and his dad started working on it yesterday afternoon and it is going to be awesome! Pictures coming soon.

5. Today we are just chilling at home, doing laundry, listening to B and his dad hammer and saw. The girls are going to see Madagascar 2 with the mother in law later and B and I will be partying tonight at the home of one of my oldest friends who is now my hair stylist. H and I go back to middle school and beyond and never get to hang together. We have to take drinkable gifts for dirty santa so it should be loads of fun!

Look for my black friday do's and dont's tomorrow!

Christmas cards

2008-11-24T22:08:00.004-05:00

For your day before Thanksgiving enjoyment lets narrow down the Christmas card photo choices. I uploaded these the other day but obviously am just today getting it posted. Busy much? Here are a few faves from our family photo shoot a few weeks ago...

I couldn't resist adding one of my cutie nephew J...
He is 6 months old now and crawling like crazy... look out!

Hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving!

People watching

2008-11-24T21:22:00.002-05:00

A few sightings from my DC trip...

Cute must be one of the criteria for the guards at Arlington ...

B almost gagged on this one but I couldn't resist ...

(no, he was not really standing in a gift shop)

Colin Powell at the museum opening ...

(yes, that really is him)

This is what teacher icicles look like (see the windy flags) ...

On a different note, my new favorite website is blackfriday.com - you can sign up for updates that will let you know the best deals coming your way this Friday. I got really excited today when I saw iPods, Barbie jeeps, trampolines, HSM3 dolls, Hannah Montana guitars, Wii games, etc... everything we are looking for all at fantastic prices. The only catch is that you have to be there at the crack of dawn (or earlier). Check it out!

Made it back!

2008-11-23T20:48:00.003-05:00

I did make it back from DC without losing any fingers or toes to frostbite. It was pretty cold, with a wind blowing most of the time. But the kids were fantastic and the parents even were good, so it was a great trip!

We did accomplish everything planned for Wednesday (see below), pretty much on schedule for once. Thursday morning we got up and headed down the street to Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte (yum!!). The hotel was in Chinatown, which was a first for us, but a neat cultural experience and not at all scary.

Thursday's stops included World War II memorial (1 of my faves), Air & Space museum (not such a favorite), White House picture stop, and freaking freezing Arlington cemetery. The only thing that got me up that hill in the wind and 30 degrees was the thought of those cutie cute guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Dinner was Pentagon City mall, but us teachers snuck across the street for mexican at Chevy's. I had a dee-licious shrimp and crab quesadilla (another yum!!).

Friday started with more pumpkin spice latte. Seriously, I could live anywhere if I had Starbucks 2 blocks away. Our 1st stop was supposed to be the Washington monument, but the elevator was broken. No one was too excited about going up in it after hearing that news so we trekked across the street to the American History museum. This was the opening day after 2 years of being closed for renovations, and as we walked up we could hear the ribbon cutting ceremony going on outside. Imagine our surprise as they introduced the next speaker, Colin Powell. I dont' care who you support, it was pretty neat for a bunch of 5th graders from the country to see him live and in person! After he read the Gettysburg Address (which I just read with my 5th graders a couple of weeks ago), they cut the ribbon and we were among the first 1812 people inside so we got a cute little smithsonian bag thingie.

After american history we went next door to Natural History, ate a horribly overpriced lunch, and then went across the street to the National Archives. Seeing the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution is a big deal when you're 10.

After that we got on the bus and headed back to NC. Seven hours and 3 movies later, we were home. I was pretty exhausted but glad they let me tag along. This was my first year going without my own class- I rode along with the teacher who took my place last year and her class, who adopted me like I was theirs and they were mine. It was nice to feel a little less stress, pressure, and responsibility- definitely a good trip!

Now I'm looking forward to a 2 day school week and then 5 days off for Thanksgiving!!!

Heading out

2008-11-18T16:19:00.003-05:00

Bright and early tomorrow morning I'll be heading for my favorite city. That's right- I'm helping take 75 5th graders and their 75 parents to Washington DC for the next 3 days. I must have bumped my head, right?

Morning temps for here in NC at 6:30am while I'm loading luggage, coolers, and doughnuts on the bus? A balmy 22 with a wind chill of 14. Awesome.

The forecast for the next 3 days in DC looks like this:

Wednesday: Mostly sunny, High 38(!!), Low 32

Thursday: Partly cloudy, High 48(heat wave), Low 31

Friday: Flurries, High 41, Low 28

At least it will warm up a little before we get to DC. 1st stop is the Pentagon with a tour scheduled for 1pm. We have been inside the last couple of years but I have not seen the new 9/11 memorial park (outside of course). After that we go to the FDR memorial (outside), walk around the path on the tidal basin to the Jefferson memorial (outside), and then head over to see Lincoln, Einstein, Vietnam, and Korean memorials (all outside). A nice warm dinner at Union Station will be followed by my even warmer bed!!!

Think warm thoughts for me please!!!!

House tour part 2

2008-11-17T21:42:00.004-05:00

Before we go over to BabyGirl's room, let's stop by the girls' potty. We had this room totally remodeled 2 summers ago- new walls, tile, tub, potty, etc...

The new sink area:

I wanted them to have a girly bathroom- the shower curtain fabric is Dress Up Frogs from Kelly b. Rightsell. Pink and green are everywhere of course!

Here's the turtle stool (BabyGirl took this picture).

BabyG herself playing hide & seek.

The floor tile is the same as the shower. This was a huge improvement from the 1963 pink square tiles!

Important words to remember...

Next door is BabyGirl's room. It was the nursery when BigGirl was born. B and I stenciled the flower garden around the bottom of the walls when I was 9 months pregnant so I can't bear the idea of painting over it. You can't really tell here, but she LOVES her FancyNancy prints above the bed.

Flowers, bugs, and toys everywhere!!!

See the hair bow holder? BigG has one too and we'd be lost without it.

Books, toys, books, toys...

Come back later for more rooms!

Home Tour part 1

2008-11-16T22:06:00.004-05:00

I thought I'd start the tour in my favorite rooms- the girls! This is not where you would go first when you enter the house, but it is the most fun area by far.

Today it's BigGirl's room. The color is Disney TinkerBell. She picked it out herself at age 3. It was excessively bright at first but it has grown on me.

She is still into the princesses, but I was NOT the one who hung those posters or princess prints in her room. DaddyB does not understand my rules of decorating. Alice knows I have a problem with licensed characters- the only clothes with Dora or the like that you will see my children wear are NOT bought by me or approved by me for wearing. You will NEVER see Disney or Nickelodeon bedding in my house. I'm such a mean mommy! I've considered staging a midnight raid to remove the princesses.

Here's her desk, but she does not do homework there. It is more like a stuff holder.

DaddyB made the toy box for her. However there are still toys EVERYWHERE. We need to clean house in here to make room for Christmas.

I know we will never find rooms this big in a new house.

Lots of tea parties and CandyLand at this table. Notice the massive doll house on the right. Another reason we need more space!!!

We'll go next door to BabyGirl's room tomorrow!

DVR

2008-11-14T09:19:00.003-05:00

I think I am becoming addicted to the dvr. I never have time to watch my shows in real time so I have to dvr it and watch it later. Whenever I do watch something in real time and can't fast forward commercials I get agitated. Is this a bad thing?

We have Grey's Anatomy on the record-it list. We sat down and started watching it about 15 min after it started, so we were recording it and watching it at the same time. Don't you just love technology?

After Grey's, B was flipping through the recorded list and found a CMT Crossroads concert of Def Leppard and Taylor Swift playing together that he had not watched. If you are like me and have never watched crossroads, you need to check it out. DL and Taylor together sounds like a train wreck but it was awesome!!! They played a mixture of their old songs and her current ones with their bands playing together and her singing with the old DL guy (don't know his name). Taylor Swift singing pour some sugar on me and Def Leppard singing I hate that stupid old pickup truck~ like I said, awesome!!!

What really matters the most

2008-11-10T21:26:00.007-05:00

Weekend lesson learned:

Bathroom remodel: $10,000
HDtv: $1300
Trip to Atlanta for T's wedding: $400
Credit card bill at J.Crew on Saturday: $70
Starbucks frappachino while shopping: $4
Unconditional love of 7 best friends all together again for the first time in 4 years: Priceless

What matters more than new bathroom tile, TVs, or clothes is these awesome friends that I have known since preschool and who are a major reason why I am who I am. They love me in spite of me, and I am so blessed to have them in my life!!!

Yes, that cabernet in my hand was well enjoyed. More wedding pics and post later...

Help Wanted

2008-11-05T11:58:00.003-05:00

First, let me start off by saying that I am SO happy the election is over!!! I have mixed feelings about the results- I did not make up my mind until last week who I would vote for. I have always been one of those on the fence types about many issues. I was one of the undecideds everyone was talking about last week! I am looking forward to seeing IF all this change makes a noticable difference in the H household. Stay tuned for that one...

On to the help needed! I have many perplexing topics on the brain today...

1. We are probably going to take our house off the market. We may or may not put it back on in the spring. We have decided to totally redo our master bath, which will make a difference if we do. The contractor is coming over tonight to give us a quote! I'm excited about getting my (hopefully) spa-ish bath that I want, but not excited about tearing out walls, dust, and general unsettlement in the house. Reynie has inspired me to do a home tour, so you all can give me advice on the rest of the house coming soon!

2. The holidays are quickly approaching. We always have multiple family events to attend on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and are looking for a way to scale it down. Here's our delimma: B's parents are divorced and have not holiday-ed together once in the past 20 years. I would like to say, time to suck it up and move on, but that might not be polite! We usually do one holiday gathering with his brother's family at his dad's house, and then another gathering with the same exact people at his mom's house (minus the dad of course). Usually one parent has to settle for not having the holiday get together on the actual holiday, usually his dad, who in my opinion is the easier of the 2 to get along with!

I have not even mentioned my own family. My mom HAS to see us on the actual day. There is no negotiating. We go to my grandparents for Thanksgiving supper and Christmas breakfast, and then to her house later in the day on Christmas. Throw in the in-laws, and that's a whole lot of running around. We all live in the same town, but my children never get to be in our own home on Christmas day. Add to that the fact that there is MAJOR competition betweeen my mom and my mother in law for the children's affection. I also have to factor in my brother and his wife's family's multiple gatherings.

My question- how can we combine/simplify? Make the divorced inlaws get together for 2 hours and deal with their differences (they do see each other at birthdays and such and are civil with each other)? Make the mom and MIL celebrate together? Tell everyone if they want to see us they have to come to us and end up cooking multiple holiday dinners for all the gatherings? And did I mention that I really don't enjoy cooking? I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.

3. Atlanta area readers- this is for you!! I'll be in ATL this weekend for the wedding of one of my best childhood friends! We went to preschool together, he and B were bff's in high school, and he was the best man in our wedding. We are staying here and the wedding will be here. I'm pretty excited about it- Atlanta is one of my favorite places and we'll have all day Saturday to do whatever- the wedding starts at 5:30pm. I've done the World of Coke and all of the downtown attractions. This time I'm looking for some shopping places! Any good outlets I could find easily? Thanks in advance if you can help!

OK- lots for you to ponder. If you can offer ANY ideas, please feel free!

Halloween happenings

2008-11-03T16:36:00.007-05:00

Here's a few pics from last week's fun...

Carving our girlie pumpkin- she had a carved in hairbow and a real one!

BigGirl had fun taking a picture of BabyGirl and me

Tinkerbell (AKA BigGirl) at gymnastics costume day

Fancy Nancy (aka BabyGirl) singing a solo at her preschool party (she's a little shy, so she had a little help from some friends)

BigGirl's 1st grade parade (she's the ballerina princess on the left)

Sleeping Beauty and Fancy Nancy on the big night!

Staying after school

2008-10-31T14:03:00.011-04:00

I'm probably one of the only bloggers out there who is not posting about Halloween today, but this is what's on my mind, so this is what it's about today!

If you ever stayed after school with me on a Thursday, chances are you were here for cheerleading practice. Yesterday was most likely our last practice this year. The regular season is over and we are starting playoff games this weekend. Tomorrow we play against a team who killed us, 30-something to 0 when we played them before, so I'm not planning on us winning this time, either.

Yesterday's practice was a LITTLE crazy, to say the least. Out of 23 girls, I had 9 show up for the majority of the time. 4th and 2nd grade were on field trips, and the 6th graders rolled in about 3:40 from the middle school bus. So from 2:45 to 3:30, those 9 wrote on my white board, read cheer magazines, and played. They were crazy wound up from Crazy Hat day of Red Ribbon week and classroom Halloween parties. Here they are with S crowning each one Queen of whatever they wanted to be Queen of...

Apparently, S already thinks she is Queen of the Nile...
Then, we headed down to the gym to work on our half time cheer for Sat.'s game.

We also worked on our stunts, but trying to connect a pyramid with only 9 girls is a little tough.

Yes, that's my BigGirl on top of the elevator in her princess costume!

I was a little sad to say goodbye to my "seniors" after practice. These are my oldest girls who will be trying out at the middle school in a few months. They are in charge if I can't be there and really are super leaders for the younger ones. You can tell they were having fun with the crazy hat day...

D, on the far left, was super shy before she started cheering with me 3 years ago. Now she is obviously as far from shy as it gets and loves being in front of the crowd. M, in the middle, has cheered 2 years and is my sophisticated diva. She informed me on day 1 of practice that she only came back to cheer again this year because it was fun and she wanted to see the football players. She does not plan to try out for middle school cheer because it might be too much like work! M, on the far right, has also cheered 2 years and wowed everyone on her first day last year with her super tight arm motions and how she could pop right up into a stunt without ever cheering before. She is also the best booty shaker!

Second from the left and second from the right are C and C (same name, different spelling). These are my favorites, although I'm not supposed to have favorites. Both of them have cheered with me for 5 years and are really special to me. C on the left is silly, funny, loud, and the only other red head besides me. She once played the role of me in a school play! She has been so much fun to cheer with. C on the right is my most motivated cheerleader. She has been taking stunting and tumbling classes for over a year now and is the sweetest thing. She and I always make sure to watch the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Making the Team reality show and compare notes on who gets kicked off. She cried at the end of practice yesterday. I will probably miss her the most. I love these girls to pieces!

And here is what BigGirl did back in my classroom after practice...

Yep, that's a bubble map of US presidents. I did tell her some of the names, but not all. I was not really paying attention to what she was doing, so when I turned around and saw this I was pretty impressed! Here's a close up...

That's called inventive spelling, folks! Pretty good for 1st grade!

Halloween pics and post tomorrow, I promise!!

It is October 28

2008-10-28T12:30:00.004-04:00

It is October 28. Our contract with our realtor runs out today. Our house has been on the market for exactly 6 months and we have probably only had about that many showings. We had 2 open houses that we asked the realtor to arrange. The last one was in August and she has not mentioned having another one. The questions we are pondering at this point: Change realtors? Take it off the market until spring?

It is October 28. This morning as I was opening doors for the car riders at school I wore a scarf, my warmest playground-ready coat, gloves, and my hood was up because of the wind. It was 31 degrees!! I live in North Carolina! It is October 28, not January!!

Its Sunday night

2008-10-26T20:57:00.006-04:00

And I'm sitting here in my cozy pants with some chardonnay, so it's time for a post! Watch out, this one might be a big one!

I never did post about last weekend's wedding. We had a LARGE time, too crazy for my current state of being. Bars on Friday night after the rehearsal dinner, clubbing on Saturday night after the wedding. I'm too old for that crap. There was champagne before the wedding, wine during cocktail hour and dinner, shots at the club, and beer later. Sunday was NOT a good day. Here's some pics...

OK, Blogger is doing some weird things with my pictures, so you'll have to see them above! There's the hotel- very modern and clean (YAY), us girls with the groom (see the evidence of the drinks in my half closed eyes?), and the group of us (B's fraternity brothers and wives) before the damage.

This Wednesday, B went with BigGirl on her first grade field trip to the local Natural Science Center. They have a zoo area and all kinds of animal exhibits that went along with their current Science unit on animals. Lucky for B, BigG's teacher put him in charge of D, the craziest little boy in the class. He definitely needed a daddy figure for the day. B said that at lunch, D cut a flip over a railing and landed on his head on the concrete sidewalk. He cried his eyes out but never bled. B said he was watching him all afternoon for blood coming from the ears or throwing up because he was sure there had to be some head trauma. Somehow, he was fine. He also said that D was much quieter after that. When he hit the sidewalk, he broke the rock keychain he had bought at the gift shop so Daddy B took him back and bought him a new one. How sweet!

BabyGirl had to put in her humor on the trip. Before B dropped her off that morning she said, "Play with the monkeys, Daddy!" When they got home that afternoon, she asked him if he saw a purple cat, blue horse, white dog, or black sheep at the zoo. Guess we've read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See a few times too many...

Well, its almost time for my guilty pleasures Desparate Housewives, the Girls Next Door, and Kimora. Have a great week! I promise not to be such a slacker blogger this week.

Here's what I did yesterday...

2008-10-22T13:06:00.002-04:00

1. Overslept by almost an hour (whoops).

2. Took BigGirl to the pediatrician with a croupy, wheezy cough and had inhaler prescription refilled.

3. Took 2 items back to Tar-gay, picked up a Market Pantry PB&J for BigG and a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice latte for me.

4. Back to school - taught 2nd grade and 4th grade.

5. Teacher meeting about progress monitoring (zzzzzz....)

6. Parent/teacher conference with BigG's teacher- the BEST conference I have ever had as a parent. Everything she said was positive and my girl is doing awesome things in first grade. I'm SO proud of her!!!

7. Picked up BabyGirl from the sitter and new inhaler from CVS.

8. Made omelets for dinner and egg salad for lunches.

9. Ran dishwasher and a load of clothes.

10. 2 baths, 2 books, 2 girls in the bed.

11. Facebooked awhile and went to bed myself!!!

Who says moms don't do it all???

Busy= sustaining much activity

2008-10-17T09:27:00.002-04:00

At least that's what answers.com calls it. This weekend is the first of the two weddings that correspond with the two bachelor weekends B went on last month. This wedding is for K, who was one of B's best friends in college. They were big brother/little brother in their fraternity and roommates for 2 years. My first impression of him was not a good one- he was screaming at a ball game on tv and I hate that! We ended up being really good friends and I remember many nights of me, B, and K going out to dinner and parties together. He dated one of my college roommates for about a year, so there were lots of double dates too.

The wedding will be here. Last week I read in Southern Living that this is the greenest hotel in America right now. It's only about 30 minutes from our house, but we decided to go ahead and stay at the hotel both nights since most everyone else attending is from out of town and we don't want to miss the fun stuff! K's fiance is a buyer for a major department store so it should all be very chic! Tonight the rehearsal dinner will be here so I'll have to do some elliptical-ing next week to work it all off!

I'll still have to come home tomorrow morning for the football game. We also rescheduled the huge family photo shoot for Sunday afternoon after cheer pictures. Busy, busy!! What are your plans for the weekend?

As promised

2008-10-16T11:45:00.003-04:00

Here are a few pictures from the weekend...

Homecoming at the high school...

BigGirl's stunt group... she LOVES flying...

Sometimes its hard to be mom and coach at the same time but it sure is fun...

The girls slumber partying with cutie pie R...

I'm really not a slacker...

2008-10-14T11:19:00.003-04:00

I've just got a lot going on!! I think about posting a lot more than I do the posting... I want to do better, really I do.

You know you live in small town North Carolina when a high school football game is your idea of Friday night fun! It was homecoming for the high school that my students feed into and where the girls will probably end up attending. Note that this is a rival school of where B and I went. Several of my former students were on homecoming court (including Kylie from 9/11), so we went to give support. BigG's friend C and his little sister H were also the crown bearers, so we had to see that! It was too cute.

After BigG's football game Saturday morning (great picture coming soon) we went to Raleigh to help give a cookout/shower for a great childhood friend who is FINALLY getting married. He is the one we thought would never do it. Or he might be 40 by the time he found the perfect girl. Yes, he is a little bit picky. Maybe I should call him particular, but I guess that is a positive quality b/c he has finally found a great wife to be. We had to celebrate!

The fam and I stayed with theRups and had a great time! Camping out on the playroom floor with R's GIANT fish pillows was the highlight for the girls- I'll attach the picture later. On the way home Sunday we stopped at SuperTarget (AKA heaven) and picked up a GPS for the car. Supposedly, you just hook it up and go. For us, notsomuch. It could not find a satellite so it had no idea where our current location was. Not gonna be able to get us to the house 2 hours away if you don't know where the current location is! We went back to our local Tar-gay last night and exchanged it for a smarter system that does know where we are and works like a charm! I can't wait to tell it to find a Starbucks!

We also stopped off in Durham to say hi to my "little" (read 10 years younger but 4 inches taller) cousin E. She was my maid of honor and might as well be my little sister. She graduated in June from Wake Forest and is now working for the Durham convention and visitor's bureau. She loves her important new job and her cute batchelorette pad!

Yesterday was B's dad's birthday, so we took him here for dinner. Food was good, but not worth the $75 bill for my family of 4. Merlot was the best part in my opinion!

This week we have meetings today in the afternoon and evening for me along with another family birthday, after school meeting and gymnastics tomorrow, BigG dr. appointment Thursday after school, and a wedding weekend Friday and Saturday. More on that excitement later!

A little late

2008-10-09T12:20:00.003-04:00

For some reason, I have had 9/11 on the brain this week. Maybe it was the debates the other night?

In any case, I remember where I was when I heard the news very well. I was teaching 5th grade Reading when the principal walked in and told us what had happened. Talk about a teachable moment. We got out the globe, talked about terrorism ( a little ) and tried not to speculate too much. What I remember most is the looks on the children's faces. They were 10, so they were old enough to be afraid, but not mature enough to understand. A teacher friend's daughter, Kylie was sitting in the middle seat, front row, and she told me a few weeks ago that she always thinks of the LOOK she and I exchanged when she remembers 9/11. I totally agree with her, it's something I will never forget.

Where were you?

The Fab Lane

2008-10-07T16:15:00.003-04:00

I'm a little ashamed to admit that I watch Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane on a sometimes-regular basis. Some of the things she says really crack me up. I regularly use her "bring in the next child" line when one of mine is being difficult. But she is way too over the top for real world people like me. What I get out of watching it? The wish for an entourage like hers. I could really deal with having a chef, hair person, makeup person, full time cleaning staff at the house, and an assistant to plan every detail of my child's birthday party in a week's time. Apparently she works really hard at her multiple jobs, but don't we all? I don't want my kids not to understand the difference between wants and needs, but I wouldn't mind having that bedroom-size closet, either. What is your celebrity wish?

My first and 16 years of B

2008-10-03T15:36:00.004-04:00

I saw this meme on another blog and thought it would be appropriate to post since my BigGirl is growing into such a fabulous little lady...

Me and My First Baby

1. Were you married at the time? Yes, we had been married for a little over 2 years.

2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? Excited, Scared, Nervous, Happy all in one

3. How old were you? She was born 2 days before my 26th birthday.

4. How did you find out you were pregnant? We had been trying for about 3 months and our good friends/neighbors at the time were also trying. Heather (neighbor) bought herself a package of 2 tests and gave me the extra one. Hers was positive, mine looked negative. We went to the dr. and they said yes, we were pregnant.

5. Who did you tell first? Same neighbors and other friends- told our parents the next day (in person)

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes

7. Due date: July 23

8. Did you deliver early or late? 3 weeks early

9. Did you have morning sickness? Just a little from about 8-12 weeks. I felt worst when my stomach was empty.

10. What did you crave? CHEESE. Also, any potato foods and Arby's roast beef & curly fries.

11. Who irritated you the most? There was one particularly difficult (read: psycho) parent in my class that year. She did not care if I was pregnant or not. Her focus in life was to give me a hard time and tell me daily what horrible children I had in my class (not hers), when I really had a fantastic group that year.

12. What was your first child’s sex? Female

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 35

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? I wouldn't call major itching for a few weeks in January a complication, just an annoyance.

15. Where did you give birth? Women's Hospital of Greensboro, NC

16. How many hours were you in labor? 11- water broke at 8:00am, delivery at 7:00pm.

17. Who drove you to the hospital? Ben

18. Who watched? B was the only one allowed in the room.

19. Was it vaginal or c-section? Emergency c-section. Her heart rate dropped from around 150 to 60 after the epidural, came back up, and dropped again to 33 after the pitocin a couple hours later. I will never forget the sound of that 33 heart rate on the monitor. Talk about scary. On the way to the OR the nurse pushing the bed kept telling me to get my hands inside, but I was holding onto the rails for dear life! We knocked over a trash can!

20. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? Epidural- had to be turned up when we got to OR (heart rate had stabilized by then). I kept feeling the test pricks and they kept turning it up. I was so numb it took almost 4 hours in recovery (1-2 is supposed to be average) before I could move the legs.

21. How much did your child weigh? 6 lbs, 10 oz

22. What did you name him/her? Sydney Taylor. We thought of Sydney while watching the 2000 Sydney olympics- just loved the name and did not know any other Sydney's at the time. Taylor was after B's grandpa who was battling cancer when she was born. He passed away 2 months later.

23. How old is your first born today? 6 years, 3 months, going on 16!

Different topic- today is the 16th anniversary of my first date with B. That means I have been attached to this man in one way or another for exactly half of my life! Apparently, he is a keeper. Our life has some type of drama every day, but I wouldn't want to spend it with anyone else!

He is going to Raleigh for bachelor weekend #2. He'll be drinking, tailgating, going to the NC State game, and eating at really good restaurants. The girls and I will be doing cheerleading pictures and game in the morning, shopping (!!) in the afternoon, and movie night later. Wonder who will have the most fun?

Personality dis-order

2008-10-02T13:14:00.003-04:00

This is the unit that I am finishing up with my 4th and 5th graders. They had to take several surveys to figure out their learning style and personality style and then devise a way to present themselves to the group. It involved them learning something about themselves and tons of big vocabulary words (go me).

I did the surveys along with them and confirmed that I have a verbal/linguistic and visual/spatial learning style, meaning I learn best from reading and seeing information. My personality style turned out to be a combination of Adventurer and Peacemaker. This is not new information. I have bungee jumped twice and am a procrastinating, impulsive, go with the flow type, not a plan ahead person. I am not one of those teachers who writes down every little thing I will say or do in the plan book. I also don't enjoy arguing and would rather say what I think you want to hear sometimes than offend you. I guess this is the peacemaker in me.

Which brings me to my question: why do some people insist on telling the whole truth, nothing but the truth, when they know that it will pi** people off? I can't stand it when someone thinks they are better than me because they always tell it exactly like it is. I do not consider myself a "fake" person, you know where you stand with me, I just don't like confrontation. Wouldn't the world be a more peaceful place if we all followed the If You Can't Say Something Nice... rule? Wouldn't we all get along better if we were all peacemakers?

In the circle

2008-09-30T09:58:00.003-04:00

This is BabyGirl's new thing. Don't ask me how she came up with this, but she is my sense of humor child for sure. The last few nights when I'm tucking her in, she'll say "Get in my circle!" Apparently her "circle" is her teeny tiny little arms choking my neck in a bear hug! So far she has only done this to me, but DaddyB is going to ask for the "circle" tonight. I think he's a little jealous...

In other news, I survived weekend #1 as a single parent. B went to a bachelor weekend at the beach for one of his old fraternity brothers who is getting married next month. BigGirl was VERY upset that he was away, and accordingly acted pretty obnoxious most of the weekend. We had fall festival at school all day Saturday, of which she was voted Princess from her class. This meant she had to dress up and be introduced on stage for all to see. Of course, she chose that day to pitch a holy terror fit about the dress she wanted to wear. It was a hand me down from some friends and something I would NEVER buy (read: UGLY blue crepe-y material with blue flowers and a zipper that would not stay zipped), but of course that was all she wanted to wear. I had a very cute, very stylie brown dress with pink ribbon tie in the front that WOULD have been much better but she was not having any of that. So we compromised. I said she could wear her heinous dress for the five minutes she was on stage and then immediately march herself to my classroom to change into her jeans. OR, she could wear my pick with her really cute matching brown and pink sandals all day and be a princess ALL DAY. Of course, she went with her choice, and yes, changed clothes immediately, and no, I will not be posting a picture of her in that dress!! That was just a build up to the struggles of the rest of the weekend, so we were all glad when DaddyB got home Sunday night and could be our mediator!

Next weekend, he is off to Raleigh for bachelor weekend #2... his bff from childhood, the last of our high school friends is getting married in November. He knows he owes me BIG TIME. I see some shopping in my future.

At least I'm still in BabyG's circle.

6 Random Things

2008-09-20T18:06:00.002-04:00

Someone sent out this meme, so here's my version:

1. I have an obsession with white shirts. I have them in all styles, for all seasons, in all fabrics. I LOVE white shirts with jeans.

2. I am really anal about making the bed, to the point that DaddyB puts sheets on the bed himself to avoid my obsessive straitening.

3. I am a total procrastinator. Obviously, since I'm posting this right now when I should be working...

4. My grandpa is my hero. I have wonderful supportive parents, but my grandpa is probably my favorite person on earth. I am so lucky to have him still realatively healthy at age 81!

5. I'm a bad eater. I could live on Diet Coke and birthday cake. I try to feed my children better than I feed myself.

6. I need to lose 5 pounds so my winter clothes will fit. That does not sound like a lot, but when you're 5'4" and smallish-ly built, it is. I usually gain a few pounds over the summer and then lose it back as soon as school starts, but not so far this year... Maybe I should work on #5 and also get on the elliptical tonight? That might help...

So now I tag anyone who wants to play along and hasn't yet...

Saturdays are SUPPOSED to be easy

2008-09-20T17:45:00.002-04:00

Here's a recap of my day today:

8:30- awakened by someone small coughing in my face as she stared over the edge of the bed at me. Got up, showered, dressed, and out the door.

10:15- arrived at birthday party (15 min late, we're never on time anywhere) which was 30 min. from our house. Cute Speedracer party where the kids decorated "racecars" (boxes) to race later, raced matchbox cars on a PVC pipe track, and decorated mini car cakes. B went to the UPS place during party to mail our video camera to Sony for repairs, but did not make it to Old Navy to pick up a hoodie for me to get embroidered with team logo (I did ask nicely).

11:45- left the party and headed home (5 min. behind schedule).

12:15- arrived home, grabbed cheer stuff, left for football game. BigG went with me, BabyG stayed home w/ DaddyB to nap.

12:35- arrived at game (5 min late), practiced stunts, held sign for players to run through, coached my cheerleaders and yelled really loud but our team still lost 31-8 (hey, this week they actually scored- whoo hoo!).

2:30- watched a really mad mom yell bad words at football coach and tried to sneak away before getting caught up in the parent gossip (not good when you have to teach their kids on Monday).

3:15- arrived home, cheered really loud for NC State's win in OT over East Carolina (!!!), picked up crazy amounts of STUFF sitting everywhere in the house, did 2 loads of laundry (1 more to go), made cute decorated jars to collect "donations" for BigG's Fall Festival Princess contest -she was voted Princess for her class- if you collect the most $, you become the school-wide Princess.

Now- reading all of your updates, listening to BigG getting mad at her new Wii game, and getting ready to go eat and pick up a movie. Still need to find that hoodie before Monday... No, I am NOT cooking tonight! It's Saturday you know...

DC and me

2008-09-17T22:22:00.003-04:00

If you have ever sent me one of those Get To Know Your Friends emails, or a meme as I think it is called on Blogger, you know my response to the Where Would You Want to Retire question is always the Washington, DC area. Not your typical retirement, I know, but it is absolutely my very favorite place in the world. I taught fifth grade for 10 years, and took my students to DC every year. My husband and I also have family and friends there that we try to visit, so I have spent a lot of time in the District. Last year I went on the fifth grade DC trip even though I was not teaching 5th anymore because it was only a week after I started my new job and the new teacher knew nothing. It would have been hard for her to be in charge of her 25 kids and their parents when she did not even know their names, in a city that she had only been to once! So this year I was not sure if I would get to go on the trip in November, since I teach everyone, kindergarten to 5th, but I"m not really a "Real" teacher anymore. Today I found out I get to go and I am SO excited!!!

Don't ask me what it is I love about this trip, because it truly is exhausting. We go for 3 days/2 nights, 5am on day 1 until 11pm on day 3, with about 150 people, kids/parents, who have mostly never been out of our little bitty Southern county. We (the teachers) plan every detail of the trip and act as the tour guides, usually having to get the bus drivers from place A to place B because driving in DC is so confusing. We have been at all times of the year, and have seen all kinds of weather. We have lost a grandpa in the Capitol, a dad at ESPN Zone (which was NOT a scheduled stop on the itinerary!), left behind a family at Air & Space, ran all over Pentagon City looking for the same ESPN dad, rescued our principal from an irate homeless woman, almost got arrested on the METRO for holding the door open for our slowpoke parents, etc..... It is ALWAYS eventful, and I ALWAYS wish for a big drink at the end of day 1!!! Don't even get me started on the parents who are more trouble sometimes than their kids!!!

But if you DID ask me why I love this trip, here is what I would say... I LOVE seeing college kids dressed up as Dorothy and Tinkerbell on the METRO on their way to a Halloween party. I LOVE seeing Ted Kennedy giving a Veteran's Day speech to veterans in front of the Vietnam wall. I LOVE that I have stood in the snow watching the lighting of the national Christmas tree on the White House lawn. I LOVE seeing 5th grade boys taking pictures of the PINK trees during the Cherry Blossom Festival. I LOVE that I have sat on the mall with half a million people watching 4th of July fireworks in front of the Washington monument. I LOVE that 10 year olds can actually shut their mouths and be respectful during the changing of the guard at Arlington cemetery. I LOVE the excitement on the bus when they can finally see the top of the Washington Monument and Capitol while we're still in Virginia, and that they know that DC is not in either Virginia or Maryland! I LOVE that I have stood inside the Pentagon in the exact spot that the plane hit on 9/11. I LOVE the family photos in the East hall of the White House and the 50 pound gingerbread house in the dining room in December. I LOVE walking around the tidal basin from the FDR memorial to the Jefferson memorial and seeing nuns eating their lunch. I LOVE the symbolism of the 4000 stars on the wall at the World War II memorial (for the 400,000 American lives lost). I LOVE the Greek place at the back of the Old Post Office food court and the Johnny Rockets at Union Station. I LOVE reliving every crazy moment with my great teacher buddies in the hotel room each night over Diet Cokes and Sex & the City reruns. But most of all, I LOVE giving the children a chance to visit a place where everything has such important meaning to who they are now and who they will one day be. I guess that's the teacher in me! Call me a big dork, but I can't wait to go to DC!!

Why I'm Happy

2008-09-14T21:34:00.012-04:00

A few things that make me smile...

BabyGirl with her bf LG on the first day of preschool...

A husband who doesn't mind reading Fancy Nancy at bedtime...

BigGirl cheering at her first game...

With her bf S...

Teaching baby cousin Jack how to roll...

Playing dress up (hee hee)...

A toothless grin!!!

Photo Queen

2008-09-10T21:31:00.003-04:00

I love pictures of my girls, although I am never very good at taking them. A couple friends of mine have had their kids' photos taken by the amazing Alisha Schwanke. Her shots are always so beautiful~ looks like models in a magazine even though it is usually just ordinary kids! My entire family is doing a huge outdoor group shot this weekend with a different photographer, but I have gotten a lot of ideas from her blog. Check her out and book a shoot for your own gorgeous kids!

MyTunes

2008-09-07T16:48:00.004-04:00

My husband B has lots of talents, including making some really diverse mix cd's with probably illegal tunes he downloads. The latest has 77 songs, ranging from Miley Cyrus to Limp Bizkit. So here is what I was listening to, all alone in the car (!!), the other night on the way home from girls' night...

1. Crank Dat (Soulja Boy): NOT at all appropriate for the kids to listen to, and yes, I know the dance, but they do not!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpocrqvP2Yg

2. Cinderella (Steven Curtis Chapman): The perfect Daddy/Daughter dance! We will keep this on the list for the weddings we will be planning in 20 years or so...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN7_qbOpuWs

3. Buy U A Drank/Shawty Snappin (T-Pain): A little too clubby for me now a days, but makes me start snappin every time...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy-nqyfR_w4

4. Our Song (Taylor Swift): SO much fun to sing along- a favorite of all us girls in the Pacifica! Even the little ones know all the words...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7N_BPX4uXI

5. My Girl (Temptations): This was BigG's ballet dance for her dance recital this year. It was also the Daddy/Daughter dance at my wedding (my daddy used to play it for me when I was a little girl)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltRwmgYEUr8

6. Love Song (Tesla): Back to the 90's for some high school lovin' (yes, B and I were high school sweethearts). This was playing when I pulled into the driveway, home sweet home!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_2w4vl9mt8

So that's what I listen to sometimes in those rare moments where I"m alone in the car. On a normal day you'll find us jamming with the girls' Hannah Montana (you should hear the 3 year old voice singing, "Chillin out, take it slow, then you rock out the show", and I have to admit that I really love her "Who said I can't be president? I say you aint seen nothing yet") and HSM soundtrack, but not this time! Such a sweet moment!! Thanks, B!!

90210 moments

2008-09-03T20:54:00.003-04:00

Reading every one's blogs today it sounds like there were a lot of us watching 90210 last night... We DVR'ed it but have not had time to sit down and watch it yet. 90210 was the Thursday night ritual in high school and when they moved it to Wednesdays in college. I remember being so upset when I was trying out for dance team my freshman year in college and I found out we would have practice on Wednesday nights during 90210!! That was way before the magic of TiVo and DVR. I also still remember all the girls on my hall crammed into my dorm room (my awesome roomie had the best tv on our hall) crying our eyes out when Dylan's wife Noxema Girl was shot by his dad's hit man. And who could forget Donna & David's sweet wedding/reception??

What's your favorite/most memorable 90210 moment???

Cleaning Lady

2008-08-30T14:40:00.002-04:00

I have a really great husband who is helpful, supportive, hard working, and also pretty hot! So imagine my diappointment today when I observed him laying on the bed watching College GameDay while the cleaning lady vacuumed the entire house with no help. And did I mention that our cleaning lady moved to SC and we have not bothered to replace her yet, so that cleaning lady now would be me!!! I HATE to clean, so vacuuming the whole house (and our house is not that huge) is like torture to me. After a couple of dirty looks, he just smiled and went to clean the potties... Did I mention I love him??

Happy weekend!!!

2008-08-29T16:08:00.003-04:00

Week 1 is over, and so far, so good!

BigGirl LOVES her teacher and everyday has said that school is great. This is a huge improvement over her attitude toward school last year. She had a wonderful kindergarten teacher, but it was just not the same. Being a teacher here, I can pretty much choose her teacher, so I'm thinking we made a good decision... I'm just happy she's happy!

BabyGirl has been missing us a lot, and showing out because of it, I think. She is usually the easy one, but has been a PAIN this week. I think she misses having sister around to argue with during the day and has a whole day's worth of arguing to get out in the 4 hours they have together between school and bedtime. That is not fun for Mommy, let me tell ya...

I did not teach any classes this week, but if anybody walking past my classroom thought I was not busy, they can think again! I did not even eat lunch today until almost 1pm and most days barely even sat down long enough to check my email before lunch. On top of getting multiple pieces of paperwork sent home for 55+ kids in my 4th/5th grade gifted program, and planning lessons for 1st - 5th grade, cheerleading uniforms came in on Tuesday. So I was sorting, inventory-ing, sending home, and re-ordering uniforms for 45 girls!! Note to any of my cheer parents who may or may not be reading~ PLEASE listen to the coach who says to MEASURE your child before you pick a uniform size to avoid someone, that would be me- the coach, having to re-order a uniform for you because you did not measure your child!!! I had to put all the reorders on my credit card and Banker B might be calling your house come credit card statement time!

Ready for a weekend, can you tell??? I'm so glad it's a long one, I need it! I don't know about you, but I could really go for 4 10-hour days of work each week if it meant every weekend was a 3-day!!! Think of all the gas we'd save not running the school busses on the 5th day, heating/cooling bills for the schools, cafeteria costs, etc... Maybe I'll suggest that when I become a senator one day, but that's another post!!

Have a great weekend!

Day 1

2008-08-25T21:52:00.005-04:00

The First Day of School... words that bring fear/relief/worry/anxiety/elation/optimism/etc.....

I have been the student on the FDoS 17 times. I have now been the teacher on the FDoS 11 times. I still get nervous~ what's up with that???

BigGirl did GREAT today~ I was so proud of her. She got right out of bed at 6:30 with no complaints, got dressed, did her OWN hair (?!), ate breakfast (with help- she is The Slowest Eater Alive), and was ready to go at 7:15. Mondays are usually my only day at the different school, and B will be taking her, but I dropped her off on my way today. She did let me walk her up the hall, but I just hugged and left and she was fine. One of her bff's from last year is in her class and they discovered that they had both brought Clorox wipes and High School Musical Kleenex, so she was dandy after that!! I headed off to my other school with only a small tear!!

I got lots accomplished today, so I was pretty proud of me too. Got my freaking ridiculously difficult schedule figured out and emailed to the lead teacher, paperwork prepared to be sent home by classroom teachers, parent meeting planned, and spreadsheets updated. Tomorrow thru Friday I'm at my base (aka: favorite) school doing the same thing!

BigGirl's report on her day~ it was great. Teacher~ nice. Teacher assistant~ great. The best part~ not having to miss out on any playtime because she did not get in trouble. AMEN!! She did say that she talked a lot, but apparently not too much!

You know those *watch me grow* pictures that you're supposed to do every year on the child's birthday (like in your wedding gown or daddy's football jersey or something). Here's our version on the bench in front of school every FDoS. Here's Kindergarten vs. 1st grade:

The bench already looks a little smaller...

1 day down, 179 to go til summer!!!

M.I.A. (AKA Back to School)

2008-08-24T21:00:00.004-04:00

Yes, I am still here, only work started back for me last Monday, so I have been a LITTLE busy!!! Teacher workdays sound like they would be such easy, laid back days, but it is so the opposite. There are meetings after meetings, a room to arrange/decorate/make kid-ready, lessons to plan, and new for me this year, a schedule to arrange that includes visiting all 23 classrooms every week. I teach 4 days at my base school, and 1 day at another. The one day at the other school is giving me a really hard time with scheduling, so it's a good thing I don't have to actually start teaching for another week. The kids do start back tomorrow, so I will be working with the teachers but not really teaching any classes until after Labor Day~ OK with me!!

Tomorrow is also the first day of school for my BigGirl, who is now really a big girl at school. I can't believe she is going into first grade~ she seems so grown. She pulled her own tooth last week (one of the top front so she now has a HUGE gaping hole), has been starting to take her own shower and wash her own hair (no more bath with baby sis), make her own lunch, etc.... It makes me a little sad. I don't want to think about what lies ahead~ leg shaving, boyfriends, and the horrible girl drama! Maybe we still have a couple more years of sweet little girl?

Last night we took the girls to see the Wiggles Live~ I'm sure you all are SO jealous, right? It was actually really good! BabyGirl LOVES the Wiggles right now, so she was truly in heaven, dancing her little heart out. BigGirl had a pretty good time, although she is getting a little big for the Wiggly Party! Even Daddy B got up and did the Point Your Fingers and do the Twist bit! Getting BabyGirl to smile with out saying CHEEEEEEEEESE and tilting her chin way up is somewhat of a challenge right now...

I'm watching the end of the Olympics and really enjoying their replays of some of the more memorable moments. They just showed Nastia's floor exercise for the all-around gymnastics gold. My girls are really sad that the gymnastics is over~ they were amazed by the talent of these girls! I also enjoyed the swimming (who didn't enjoy looking at the US men's relay teams???) although I agree with Bela Karolyi that the judging was a real "reep off" at times...

Off to finish the laundry and make sure the bookbag is packed~ hers and mine!!

Growing up fast!

2008-08-16T22:26:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I forget that my children are not babies anymore... Take today for instance...

One of BigGirl's best school friends had a bowling party for her birthday. It was so hilarious to watch all the little 5 and 6 year olds carrying those big ole balls around! BigGirl had never bowled before, but she actually threw one (accidental) strike and came in 2nd on her lane. After that, she and 2 other girls went to a movie and home with the birthday girl for a slumber party. This is her first slumber party and she was SO excited. I on the other hand, was NOT so excited! You just never know how they will behave at someone else's house, with so many little girls and the drama that brings. I know she is a good kid, but she definitely has her share of drama! I did OK until about 8pm when I started wondering what they were doing, was she remembering her manners, were they all getting along, etc... The birthday girl is one that was in BigGirl's class last year, they take gymnastics together, and her mom is also a teacher at our school, so they play together every afternoon during the school year. They do NOT always get along- both are the oldest child, and the other girl gets her feelings hurt at nothing. I'm glad there are 2 others there tonight to buffer these 2! I'm not looking forward to the slumber party hangover tomorrow, either...

BabyGirl loves all the attention she gets when her sister is away She DEMANDED that we had to eat Mexican tonight (2nd time this week, but I'm not counting) and loved getting all the attention from all the little workers there. She said to one of the guys when we were leaving, "[Leo]Nardo, can I work wiff you when I grow up?" B's answer~ NO, you cannot~ we grabbed some gum and got out of there!! She is SO funny sometimes. Yesterday we went to see B at the bank... She picked up one of his business cards from his desk and said, "Daddy, is dis a gift card??" Then she tried to *swipe* it through his adding machine. She is 3~ she knows TOO much!

Too cute monogrammed giveaway!

2008-08-14T07:28:00.003-04:00

If you are into monogrammed gifts, go here and leave a comment on the Wacky Wednesday giveaway~ you'll be entered to win one of their adorable monogrammed notepads! These are perfect teacher gifts, (remember I'm a teacher)~ show up with one of these babies the first week of school and viola! Teacher's pet!! And don't forget to tell them Tiaras sent you so we can both win!!!

Open house?

2008-08-10T23:20:00.003-04:00

So, our house has been for sale since the first of May (we want to move closer to mine and BigGirl's awesome school) and we have had a total of ONE showings since then. Today we held our second Open House and had our FIRST bit of OH traffic (no warm bodies at the first OH). Our realtor is young and new, but really enthusiastic (or so they say) about listing our house, but I'm beginning to think I might could do a better job with my elementary ed. degree/zero real estate experience. Last OH she put the signs out the day before~ this time we asked her to put them out earlier and she did it 2 days before. We have a busy road nearby, which could pick up lots of traffic. Wouldn't you think more people would see the sign if it were out more days in advance? I also asked her to please look into getting us on the MLS Listingbook website and she said she would check into it. Wouldn't you think she would come up with that herself? Our house is the only one she has listed and I don't think she makes any $$ until she sells it, so looks like time to get busy here! She did say that we had *a few* people stop by today, but she wasn't sure how serious they were. Wouldn't that be the realtor's job to figure out if they were serious buyers and somehow make them want to be? I know that is not realistic, but we're ready to get going here! I've always said I wanted to go into real estate when I quit teaching... For sale by owner, maybe??

On a different note, only one more week of summer, better enjoy it while it lasts :( No more no bedtime, no get up time, pool anytime, eat anytime, nap anytime, tv anytime, etc..... I'm sad already :(

She DOES listen!!

2008-08-06T22:50:00.002-04:00

It's no secret around here that BigGirl has a serious issue with listening and following directions. At school, she is super smart, but very inattentive at times, and often does not get her work done because she is too busy paying attention to what all is going on around her. We are actually going to talk to the pediatrician when she has her checkup next week about attention management options for this school year. A lot of days, it seems like most of what I say to her goes in one ear and out the other... BabyGirl, so far does not show any of this, thank goodness!

So, imagine my surprise today, when after a long ride in the car with the girls talking and giggling in the back seat, we pull up to the gymnastics gym. My non listenting child jumps out of the car, hits a pose in the middle of the parking lot, and starts this booty shakin, hips swayin dance, while singing "Girl how you shake it, got a playa like WHOO" at the top of her lungs (the name of this song is Sexy Can I, if you needed help- not exactly 6-year old appropriate- bad mommy). I had no idea she was even listening to what was on the radio b/c she was so busy playing mommy in the backseat. So there we have it, proof that her ears DO work!

Weekend recap

2008-08-05T16:49:00.010-04:00

Hold on to your seats, here comes a long post... !

We started the weekend with family night at the pool. This basically just means that they are open until 10pm instead of 8 and the kids get to swim with the lights on~ how cool is that when you're 3 and 6? We waited til B got home from the bank and then swung through the McD's drive thru on the way, really only intending to stay long enough to get a little swim time in after the lights came on. But of course when we got there we discovered the place was packed and we ended up staying until 10! The girls had a great time swimming with Daddy while I got to socialize for once! Our great next door neighbors were there with their 2 kids Claire(8) and Clark(5), and another pair of good friends with their 2 girls Madelyn(9) and Sophie(6). Clark is BigGirl's so-called "boyfriend" (OMG, already??), and Sophie is her BFF, so she had a blast. Their moms and I finally made a dance decision- YAY- we are going to the better studio with the longer drive, and carpooling. It feels good to decide!

Saturday we got up and BigGirl and I headed out to do some shopping. North Carolina has tax free weekend the first of August every year, so she got some school shoes for PE days and cheerleading, and both girls got some cute clothes- all tax free! Then we went over to my mother in law's house for dinner- sounds SO exciting, right? Well, she has some really crazy and fun friends, so we had a GREAT time (there was a lot of wine, so that helped, too). One of the couples brought their 2 girls Winslow (11) and Maitland (9), so my girls had a great time hanging out with the big girls. Win and Maitie were awesome babysitters/entertainers! The girls slept over at the MIL's house and went to church with her Sun. morning, so we got to sleep all night, for once (BabyGirl has been waking up lately :( ).

Here's Win and Maitie teaching BigGirl how to use her Webkins that she got for her birthday last month... BabyGirl is supervising...

Sunday, I hosted a baby shower with my great childhood friend Alice for another friend of ours, Heather, who has a baby girl on the way. I made some yummy pimento cheese and we had some great little goodies. Our thank you gift was these cute monogrammed towel wraps!

The kids at the shower, A, big brother D, Alice's cutie pie R, BigGirl, & BabyGirl...

And check out the monogrammed cake for little miss Emily...

These adorable ponytail holders came in the mail yesterday- so excited! Too bad BigGirl's monogram looks a little like a bad word...

We went out shopping Sun. night again, this time looking for a new video camera but did not pick one yet. Ours died earlier this summer and we had only had it about 3 years. It was a Sony Handycam, and it was really easy to use, but it was so hard to get the videos into a format that was quick and easy to view. If my grandpa can't come to the dance recital, I want to be able to get the video out of the camera and onto a dvd or something that he can watch without a lot of hassle. So that is what we are looking for next- maybe one that records onto the teeny dvd disk, or a bigger memory stick? Just not the mini-dv again- those are really video tapes anyway. Anyone have any suggestions?

Yesterday, it was back to the pool...

Gettin her float on...

SO big!

Popscicles are the best part!

Today is my mom's birthday, so we are heading out in a little bit for some more yummy Mexican food! Happy Birthday Grammy!

BTW, Harold & Kumar Guantanamo Bay was a little disappointing. If you've seen it, you might disagree, but I just thought the first one had a LOT more funny moments. I did enjoy Neil Patrick Harris's repeat performance, except for his exit!! Overall, good for a laugh or two, but if you really want to crack up, rent the first one again.

Lookie what I got!!

2008-08-04T21:19:00.004-04:00

Happy Monday! Just a quick post ~ B and I are about to watch Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay! We've just finished a great fun filled weekend over here, which I will post about later... I'll just say there was lots of good friends, good times, and good wine!! :)

I'm pretty new to the bloggy world, but I know enough to get excited about receiving a blogger award and I was so proud to read that Reynie has awarded me the Colors of Friendship award!! She has the cutest blog over at Southern Girl Rambling~ check her out! Thanks, Reynie! That made my day!!

**THANKS, MonogramChick, for the uploading help! I am figuring this blogging out, slowly but surely :)

Embarassing...

2008-07-30T21:15:00.002-04:00

Here's the tag of the 5 songs you're embarassed to say you like...

1. What Time is It? from High School Musical 2... Oh, all right, I really like almost ALL of the songs on this cd, and since my girls have to listen to it EVERY time we're in the car, I know all the words. Sad, I know. But it is just so much fun to sing along, and I love how it says, What time is it? Summertime! It's our vacation!!

2. Bust a Move by YoungMC... SOOO old school!! It takes me right back to the huge seventh/eighth grade parties where we thought we were so cool doing the Roger Rabbitt and the MCHammer! Fun times...

3. Let's Go to the Movies from Annie... That was my favorite movie as a child (Alice, shut your mouth about the glasses!!), and the girls just watched it the other day and loved it. I will sometimes just break out in this song and change the words, Let's go to the Bathtub, Target, whereever...

4. The Polar Express theme... Another cd that we listened to over and over at Christmas time. It is just really a cute song and fun to sing to. Really, any Christmas song is tops on my list.

5. Rockstar by Nickleback... Yeah, right, I want a bathroom you could play baseball in and big black jet with a bedroom in it? Maybe in my next life, but it's fun to dream, right?

OK, now I tag The Rups, Moments that take our breath, and anyone else who wants to play along...
Have fun!!

Dance delimma

2008-07-28T17:38:00.002-04:00

With little girls in the house, there is dance on the agenda. For the past 2 years, BigGirl has been taking dance at a really great studio~ totally professional, awesome talent in the teacher (who I took dance with growing up), staff, and the older girls, and lots of potential if BigGirl wants to get serious about it one day. She was so excited to find out that she can graduate from beginner ballet/tap to intermediate ballet/tap/jazz this year! Well, the other day we get a letter in the mail saying that they have to close their studio in our (small) town due to budget issues! They will offer a tuition discount to any of us who want to drive 30 minutes to their other studio, but I'm really not sure it is worth it. BabyGirl also can start this year, since she's 3 now, but her class will be on a different day of the week. I really don't want to quit dance altogether b/c I think she is really pretty good at it (even better when she pays attention, but that's another long story...), and it was something that I totally loved and was a huge part of my life growing up- I danced from kindergarten through college. So here are the options:

* Drive 30 minutes for high quality dance at a discounted price- BigGirl's class would be Thursday evening after she's already had an hour of cheerleading practice and BabyGirl would be another day- 2 days of driving and an exhausted Thursday night/Friday morning.

* Stay in town and get so-so quality dance at a little cheaper price- both girls could take and it wouldn't matter if they were on different days- I've heard the classes are on Wednesdays (I have teacher meetings) or Thursdays (again cheerleading day- remember I'm the coach- we have to be there).

* Drop dance altogether and do gymnastics- also 30 minutes away and much more expensive tuition, but no recital costumes to buy. This would only be for BigGirl- she has been going in the summers for the past 2 years and loved it- would BabyGirl just sit out another year?

* Do a combo class at the gymnastics gym- Dancenastics- 30 min.of jazz and 30 min. of gymnastics, but this is also on Wednesdays and I have teacher meetings and it would be really hard to get there in time without walking out of my meetings- not something I want to do week after week- no class available for BabyGirl's age.

AAGGHH! Maybe we'll just find a new activity???

If it's not nailed down, monogram it!

2008-07-26T16:53:00.004-04:00

I've been told I have a problem... I am a sucker for all things monogrammed. While searching preppy monogrammy blogs, I found this awesome giveaway. Monogram Chick will award one lucky reader with a monogrammed backpack and lunchbox! All you have to do is check out her website at http://www.monogramchick.com/ and pick out the style you like. Then leave her a comment on her blog http://monogramchick.blogspot.com and let her know which one you choose. Also let her know that I sent you and maybe we'll both win!! Happy monogramming!

PS Anyone who knows how to attach one of those cute little "here" links that you click on and there is the blog/site you're referring to, how do I do that??

What's going on

2008-07-24T16:01:00.004-04:00

Well, its about time to do some posting, I guess, now that I have this page looking good! Summer is in full swing around here and we are loving it!! Being home is the best part~ no schedule, no bedtime, no worries. Only a little over 3 weeks left for me, so I better enjoy it...

Yesterday and Tuesday was cheer camp for my mini cheerleaders. BigGirl gets to cheer this year and was SO excited to be there learning cheers, stunting, and dancing to Fergalicious with the high school cheerleaders!! She could be pretty good if she would just pay attention better, but that's another long story. BabyGirl got to go with us yesterday and got in on the fun with a little stunt action herself. She will be the one with the talent b/c right now she is the only child of mine who can follow directions. I see an expensive future here...

Bible school is this week. We have a new christian education director who comes up with some pretty out there stuff sometimes. Like this bible school, the whole family is "encouraged to participate together". Well, I'm all about some family time, but we get plenty of it being together all day every day during the summer. Does it sound like too much to ask that I just can drop them off and not feel guilty about it? We have achieved just that each night so far, but I have a feeling tonight will be the night I somehow get roped into staying and "participating". Is it too much to ask that B and I get one week during the year where we can have adult conversation during dinner without any screaming or scrambling going on?? We did go to the El Corona last night after sneaking out the bible school back door and I may or may not have had a NICE margarita sans children. Don't get me wrong, I truly love my children. On the other hand, I have done my time on the bible school committee and I'd like to be able to opt out this year, take a break, have some quiet time, etc... But, I'm just saying...

Trying this out...

2008-02-01T12:15:00.001-05:00

OK... I've been reading these blogs for over a month now and have finally decided to make my own. I have no idea what I am doing! I'm a married mom of two girls, ages 2 1/2 and 5 1/2, and currently working as an elementary teacher of gifted students in grades K - 5. I move around between 3 different schools each week, which keeps my head spinning. I've just started this position (called AIG) a couple of months ago; until then I taught 5th grade. So, I'm still figuring out all the in's and out's of being one of the "special" teachers. I love teaching, but hate getting up in the morning... if I could stay home with the girls, I would! My husband B works for a credit union, which makes him our money manager. We've been married for almost 8 years, but have known each other since we were 8 years old! He was a troublemaker as a child and I did not like him. Funny how things change... We love to travel, eat out, and I love to shop!

My daughters are beautiful, awesome, and amazing, but so energetic!!! There is never a dull moment. BigGirl is in kindergarten and amazes me every day with how much she knows and can do at age 5.5!!! She picked up reading during the first month of school and is reading on her own. I think she gets that from me!! She is my strong willed child, always high energy, a little hard to handle at times, but genuinely very sweet and loving. She has issues at school with staying in her seat!!! I think she gets that from her dad!! BabyGirl is my two year old sweetheart. She has been laid back and easy since day one, and is the teacher's pet in her preschool class because she always does what she is supposed to do! How crazy that my children can be so different!! She has an amazing vocabulary and picks up on EVERYTHING. I often wonder if we will have problems in the future with child #2 out- accomplishing child #1?? Right now they are the best of friends, so I hope that will continue.

Enjoy reading about me... I'm looking forward to meeting people whose lives are as insane as mine...!