Give me a break, Give me a break!

We had a great time celebrating my nephew Bean's 8th birthday today! Way to go Bean!!

Now we are home and I've been plugging away creating a PowerPoint presentation on gender misconceptions in today's education when I have come to realize that I will not finish it within the next 26 minutes. It is due by midnight and it's 11:34pm. So I'm taking a break and will finish it tomorrow and earn a 10% penalty. But that is just fine with me right now!

Every once in a while I will check out network and cable shows on the Internet to watch. I don't always have time to catch them when they are on TV, so I treat myself to the free episodes on my computer. Which I'm doing now before bed for my break!

I saw this episode of '30 Rock' the other day and it was terribly funny!!! I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes! So take a break, here is the hilarious clip:

Great Days!

R didn't want to celebrate his birthday until his Dad got home, well Dad is home!
So last weekend we hopped the ferry to Seattle and went to the Crab Pot restaurant. So fun! They passed out bibs, put on butcher paper, gave out mallets and dumped bowls of crab, clam, muscle, sausage, potato, and corn on the middle of the table! The boys loved it!
We topped off the day with ice cream by the water, it was so nice!

Now that Dad is home, L is ready to ride! So he asked J to teach him to ride a bike with no training wheels. He did great for his 1st time, it was getting late, so the pics didn't come out very well. But my-oh-my that L is growing fast!

Yesterday we got a new addition...a Dodge! J bought us a truck and we think its so fun!

Dreams and Realities...

This week's agenda was:

Mon: FHE with R's b-day cake (easy!)
Tue: Volunteer in L's class for the wetlands walk, L's soccer, R's piano, R's scouts, YW meeting
Wed: Bank, groceries, library, volunteer in L's class and do majority of my 7 assignments
Thurs: Finish all collage assignments, L's soccer practice
Fri: Submit last of assignments, finish up house chores
Sat: Work on outside stuff with J, L's soccer game
Sun: My bros for a b-day party

I also wanted to update my blog, get in some workouts, hang out with J, watch some movies.

So far this is what happened:

Mon: L sick, nothing got done but a few chores, had cake.
Tues: Take L to dentist for lip, wetlands walk, R's piano, skip scouts, YW meeting, home by 10:20pm.
Wed: Bank, groceries, L feeling sick again, a few chores done.
Thurs: 2 1/2 assignments done, phone calls with oral surgeons, doctors office, health insurance, no soccer.
Fri: Sicky, tired, procrastination, contemplating late assignments...

I didn't do one workout, pulled a neck muscle, did get some books, didn't get to see J much, did watch 'Forbidden Kingdome (way good!) and the house got messy.

What happened?

These Boys are just Awesome!

OK, I've calmed down a bit and have become more OK with my L going to school. So now I can post his 1st day of school pic and him at the bus stop. His 1st day was last Thursday and he is Loving school! He is practicing his counting and ABC's all the time now--this is the boy who would plug his ears if we sang the ABC song! I guess he really was ready for school...





Not only is L in the world of academics, he is now in the sports world too! He's now in soccer, his very 1st sport, and does he love it! His 1st game was on Saturday and he had the time of his life!


Now on to Boy Wonder:

My wonderful R is now 9 years old!
He is just the coolest kid around! Wow, 9 years old, this morning he told me that he's
"Been waiting 9 long years for this day to happen!"
Man it was so funny, I had no idea that he was on such pins and needles for this day to get here!

The top 9 of our R:
1. He is the most loving boy we've ever met
2. He loves to learn, a lot, and is so smart
3. He has a patience that amazes me, he is always fair
4. He works hard at home and at school
5. He has a great imagination
6. He is so funny and has a great sense of humor
7. He always wakes up happy
8. His smile is infectious
9. He is a wonderful big brother and son!

Happy 9th Birthday R, we LOVE you!

H, I, ,K, L, M...I'm missing something here...

OK, this is probably going to be the biggest crybaby post out there...
(and yesterdays was so happy)

I miss that J! A lot! Like, I'm all melancholy about it.
(And a whole lot of whiny)

I sure miss him when:

- I thought that drain I 'fixed' wasn't really fixed, even after the 2nd try.
- When mowing the lawn the stupid mower either ran out of gas or broke (not sure if a wee bit of smoke coming off the thing is good or not) Now the lawn has a split personality. (embarrassing)
- When my baby went to Kindergarten today. (rip my heart out)
- When the car makes a little rattly funny noise and I'm wondering if I should be worried about it or not. (wish I had a back-up car just in case)
- When the number he gave me to fax his transcripts doesn't work. (panic)
- When I paid the bills and I'm wondering if I got them all.
- When L has soccer and I have soccer, and homework, and I can't be in 2 places (or 3 or 4 for that matter) at the same time, and the kids are hungry.
- When I'm tired and its not even 8pm.
- When the boys tell me they miss their Dad a whole lot too. (I think I'm superwoman for not tearing up in front of them)

I've missed my husbands shoulder to cry on, lean on, and whine on. I sure needed it today.
Man, looking at that list it shows me that those things aren’t even that bad, but they sure don’t feel good.

In my head I've called him a jerk all day, and thought, "Where is that stupid J when I need him, under the ocean that's where!! What good is that to me, huh?!?!?!?!?"
Then I felt really really REALLY bad about it.

I think I'm a little irrational because both my boys are now in school. (Now that is really uncool) I don't do well when my kids are gone. AND I feel like I'm playing catch up tooooo much, and I missed MY soccer game, and that's not fair!

OK, OK, enough being 3 years old and having a tantrum, I still love that J, and I'll just have to plan next week out better so I can drag myself to all the wonderful activities that the boys and I get to do.

I really am blessed, so I'll stop acting like I'm not.

A few Good Days!

The last few days have been fun...

Saturday Aunt M came over and we tried to go to the Science Center, we were up on time and caught the ferry over to Seattle, but when we got to there we found out there was this huge concert going on and so we bagged that idea! So we got L some new pants, went to Subway for lunch and then went to this beach over by Point Defiance Zoo. The boys played in the water and we headed home.

The "Whale Tales" park by the ferry, coolest place ever!

Me and my boys at the beach!

The boys enjoying the driftwood!
Climbing the sands with Aunt M!


Sunday was a great day at church, then a relaxing day at home. We saw the history of pizza on Food Network and the boys wanted to eat pizza that was made in a brick oven, so that desire gave me an idea for Monday...

Monday the boys and I ran off to the Galaxy theater to see 'Fly Me to the Moon' in 3-D, followed by lunch at Fondi Pizzeria. It is tasty brick oven Italy style pizza, yumm-o! 3-D'ed up and and ready to go!

"This is the best pizza ever Mom!"
L is ready to stuff his face!

Tuesday was soccer, piano, and scouts, And getting gear ready for today... Who's this hiding in a bag in the back seat? Why, it's L! What's he doing you wonder? Well, he's embarrassed by us and had to hide...Just kidding! The sun is shining in his window making his DS screen to hard to see, I glanced back at him and this was how he remedied the problem!

R's 1st day of 4th grade!! Boy has that kid grown! He didn't let me walk him to the bus, OR drive him to school, but I was 'allowed' to pick him up at the end of the day, what a goof! I think this is the first time in 5 years that I haven't cried when he started the new school year, my, I guess I've grown too!
It's Boy Wonder ready to conquer the world!

A bit of Class!

Today I got the results of my last 2 classes, the one class I loved and the other I hated.

Now I was pretty certain I'd do well in my Behavioral Science class, and I did:
I got a 99%, an A+!

For my classroom instruction I was sure I'd bomb it, but I didn't:
I got a 90%, an A-!

My GPA did drop a bit, from a 3.9 to a 3.89, but I can live with that!

This week was 'week 1' of my new classes, a communications class and Diversity in the classroom. So far so good. The great thing is they are my last 2, I'll be done with these in October and then I'll get my associates degree! My plans are to take the winter off and then start my bachelors in the spring.

Time to put that big brain to work!

I just got a call from the principal today...he called to talk to me about R's test scores from a test he took in May, mainly a test that looks at cognitive abilities.

Well, he scored very well and so he will be grouped with about 5 other students in his class this year that scored high as well. There will be a district worker that will come in (not sure how often) but will teach the teacher how to work with R and the other students. He told me that R would be given a lot more challenging work, that there will be much teacher/parent interaction as well. I told him good!

I told R that the principal called to tell us who his new teacher will be, I didn't let him know about the other stuff, he'll figure that out soon enough I think. There's not a lot that that R misses.

What a neat kid, and what a wonderful opportunity (and blessing!) for growth and learning he will have this school year. (there'll be no slackin' off anymore!)

Roller Coaster...

OK, on my drive home from my Bro's house I was thinking about the wonderful blessings I have in my life.
I was especially thinking how grateful I am that I got to have some wonderful "girl-time" with some really great ladies this month. I got to see the Sisterhood movie with my Sis and do some shopping, had great times w/my Momba and she really made this finals week so much more bearable for me and the boys and took me to get my fuzzy caterpillar eyebrows waxed this weekend, and my Sista M rescued me from the dreaded freeway and we got to eat too many sweet snacks stay up late and get our nails done (my 3rd time in 10 yrs!). I just love those 3 like crazy!

So then I decide to give myself a headache by checking on my classes.

Now I've been having the hardest time with my Classroom Management class, that instructor and I must just be on different worlds or something, I have had a B in this class since the beginning and that is just a killer for me.
So I created a very detailed science experiment lesson plan last week and I thought it was just awesome she gave out the grades for it today.
Yeah, I got 56 out of 70 points and she shot holes all through it. AAARRRGGGGG!!!!
I am SO glad that this class is finished, and I'm so dreading my grade for my final. I worked hard on that too, had my Mom review it and she thought it was great...too bad my Mom's not the one who gets to grade it!
Out of the 18 college instructors I've had, she is the most aggravating and frustrating I've had to deal with.
Stinkin' learning opportunities...Talk about a rollercoaster of emotions.

Pic's of family fun!

The Wetlands Walk, Zoo, Allyn waterfront park, and camping!