A Snakey Situation

One of the things I really do NOT like - it is snakes. The slithering, sliding, tongue flicking, tail rattling, curled up, looking menacing, snakes really gross me out. So of course, because snakes really creep me out, I get to have not one, but TWO encounters with them this week.

First, our school counselor came by to let me know that the local natural animal habititat is here to visit and brought some creatures for the kids. They come every year and it is really cool. Normally they bring lizards, turtles, millipedes, etc. This year they brought - a snake. Now of course, I have to be cool and not freak out, because all the kids are looking at me for my reaction. Long, black snake. Curled up around the handlers arm, tongue flicking. I prayed a LOT for strength and for my face to please not show the fear that was beating in my heart. I did okay. Didn't touch it, the kids did, but they didn't seem to notice. I guess it helped that I was snapping lots of pictures of them.

Since Mom and Dad are gone for a few days, we decided to take a mini family trip to their house (all 20 minutes down the road!). Hey, they got a gorgeous house that is like a resort and sometimes it is fun to just get out of your own house for a couple days. AND they have a pool and hot tub! So today we were out there swimming and Caroline decided to check the skimmers to look for frogs (another of God's creatures I really don't like). All of a sudden she screeches and jumps back about 3 feet - "A SNAKE!!! THERE'S A SNAKE". James came over and he was trying to get the snake out, when it disappeared! Oh MY! I am not thinking, I am freaking out - we are so out of here! Forget swimming, forget family time, forget bonding, forget relaxing because you can't relax with a wild snake on the loose! We are going home!

Jack is mad saying "We have got to call Maw Maw (my mom). Why is there a snake here, they are supposed to be at the lake with her!"

Finally, James spots the snake out in the pool. Slithering around - freaking me out! I was too scared to get close, but Caroline went and snapped a picture for me. "Momma, we got to get a picture for the blog - you have to title it 'A Snakey Situation'." Here is the killer snake.
Okay, so maybe it isn't such a scary thing. Only about a foot long. James got it out with the net and threw it over the fence.

We did enjoy the rest of the day swimming. Got a bit too much sun. But we're all good and tired and ready for bed!~ Too much adventure for one day!

Shiner!

Anyone who knows Jack, knows he is all boy, all the time. Why walk, when you can run. Why sit, when you can stand. And is there ever a reason to not climb things and jump off? Not in Jack's world. With that being said, he has never had a serious injury. And even when he does get hurt, he hardly cries, with an incredible threshhold for pain. (more than just about any child I've ever seen or taught). Well I present you with his first Shiner!

This is what happens when Daddy just gets home from work, Jack is excited and takes off running through the house to get to his daddy for a big ol hug! (Daddy should feel so honored - I never get that kind of reception!) This is also what happens when Jack forgets to look out for corners on cabinets and clips himself in the eye.

Jack cried for all of about 2 minutes. Then when I told him he was going to have a black eye his comment was, "Ah Man! Now I'm going to be like a black-eyed pea!" Caroline fussed and fawned over him and he soaked every minute of it up.

Today at school he walked up to every teacher he knew and said, "Hey, Look! I got a black eye!" He was very proud of it! Hopefully his injuries will never be any worse than this!

Oh My Goodness! It's the Jonas Brothers!

Caroline's greatest dream came true this week. (At least it is her greatest dream to date). She and her two cousins, Allie and Katie went to see the Jonas Brothers in concert. Who are the Jonas Brothers? The latest incarnation of the boy band. Back in my day it was the Osmond Brothers, New Kids on the Block and more recently 'nSync and Backstreet Boys. Now it is the Jonas Brothers. Cute boys, wholesome, good family and moral values. I don't mind so much her liking them, but the screams do get a bit high pitched at times!

Allie received tickets for her birthday that included a ticket for Caroline and one for Katie in the gift. Here is Caroline with Allie and Katie getting her ticket. Here are the girls dressed and ready to go to the concert. Caroline and Katie donned shirts of their favorite Jonas Brother. Allie decided to dress ala Jonas. Cute girls! Waiting for the concert to start! Here they are at the concert with Allie's friend, Savannah. Singing along with one of their favorite songs. If asked Caroline will confess that she did shed some tears at the concert! (how is this possible? I was never THAT bad!) She will also tell you it is the absolute best thing she has ever seen on a stage. Beating out the likes of Lord of the Dance, Wizard of Oz, Nutcracker and Annie. I guess if you don't have a really CUTE boy in it. Can't compete!

I'm glad they made such a great memory with each other (and thousands of other girls!)

Wacky Wednesday

Here is a glimpse in the window of our very wacky and wild ways~

What is it about bubble wrap? Can't resist it. Nothing makes you happier than to pop those little bubbles. And the ones with BIG bubbles! Oh the joy of it! Dancing on bubble wrap! Got to try it! Who knew such happiness could be found in a little circle of air!
I haven't introduced you to our furry friend, Hallie. She is a good cat with some really wacky idiosyncricies. Such as climbing the back door to let us know she wants in. And staring at us until we let her in. She also refuses to drink out of water bowl, instead wanting running water to lap up. Thinks she is a dog and will follow us on our neighborhood walks or playtime at the park.
Finally, a look into my classroom. This one was just too cute to not share. I have a child in my class (4 years old) who shared with me that her grandfather had passed away and was now in Heaven. When I asked if he was having a party up there, she said, "Oh, no, he is singing "Hunka Hunka Burning Love" with Elvis!"

Have a great and wacky Wednesday!

The Beginning of a New Era - Private School

Caroline, after having a couple extra weeks of summer vacation, started school today. She has begun a new school adventure by starting private school. We were not very happy with her school experience last year and decided to bite the bullet and become poor church mice as we make tuition payments (hey, I guess it's good practice for paying college tuition!). We are looking forward to her being in a Christian environment and being challenged a bit more educationally.

Caroline looked so cute today when she went to school. She was very nervous about making friends as she didn't know anyone at her new school. But I am happy to report she made two new friends today, Molly and Olivia. I am really praying that she makes some lifelong friends this year. She said her teacher Ms. Lehmann is really nice and she loves to hear her talk (she is from South Africa).

She said her favorite part of the day was finding out that if she makes a 100% on her spelling pretest, she doesn't have to take the test on Friday. (Pretty funny what makes them excited!)

The worst part of the day she said was definitely having to get up super early. (after a summer of late nights and later mornings, 5:45am comes pretty early!) Early mornings aren't all bad, Caroline did enjoy breakfast at Chick-fil-a with James this morning.

Of course Jack was thrilled that Caroline was home and having to get up with him and go to school too! Can I just tell you that uniforms totally rock! So easy in the mornings. And so much cheaper!!!!

5 down - 175 to go - A Week in Review!

Five days down - 175 to go! We successfully made it through our first week of school. (well Jack and I did ~ Caroline got to enjoy one more week of vacation). First week went really well. My class is really good and is picking up routines and procedure much quicker than any class I've had before. I think it helps that many of them are older. I also said many prayers as I would really like to possibly loop up with this class and teach them kindergarten next year if my principal would let me. So it is awesome that they seem to be such a good class. Have several of the required names I can't pronounce. (Sidebar - why do parents want to give their children names that will be a struggle to ever be pronounced correctly the first time - strange spellings and the like - I am sure it makes the world more interesting - but not easy the first day of school! - And why do so many names have apostrophes in them nowadays ~ they're not contractions or being possessive! Back to the regular programming).

Jack had a good week and for the most part did really well behavior wise. We're still working on a few issues, but he is loving every minute of kindergarten and enjoys his class and teachers a lot.

Our school went to uniforms this year and it has made such a difference. I would say 85 - 90% of the student population is in uniform and it is wonderful. This has been by far the easiest first week of school that my school has experienced since I've been there. Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come.

Our school is also part of a school cluster (elementary, middle and high schools in a specific area) that is the first cluster in the nation to go completely sugar-free. No more bakesales, ice cream, syrup in the mornings, donuts, cokes, chips, etc. Everything brought into the school or served from the cafeteria must be healthy, natural, non-fried and have no high-fructose corn syrup. I have the honor, privilege and challenge of being the Wellness Committee Chairperson for the school and my committee is spearheading the whole movement for our school. It is a very exciting thing to be a part of and I am so happy to see the parents, students and faculty embracing this movement! (of course it is also a great motivator to me to help keep me on my own weight loss program!)

We finally had our garage sale this morning. (I've only scheduled it no less than 12 times and have put it off for a year.) Of course when I had the WHOLE SUMMER to have one - I was too busy! So let's wait until the week school starts to have one! When I'm getting a sinus infection no less! Sounds like the perfect time. We did really well and actually have more to sell and will pull more stuff out in a couple of weeks when our neighborhood has their annual neighborhood garage sale! James was supposed to go help out at church but got there too late. Might have been a good thing, because he was able to come home and help me.

Jack further proved he was going to grow up to be a salesman (hopefully not a used car salesman - but with his hard sell tactics, who knows). Everyone who came to the garage sale was told, "Hi, we're selling stuff. Let me show this, it is super cool." "Look at this game it is lots of fun, you should buy it.". We finally had to tell him to lay off his sales pitch. The garage is finally almost to the point of being able to house a car again! Progress!

Caroline had fun at the lake with my parents and sisters' families this past week. I was really sad James, Jack and I couldn't go! Total bummer when work gets in the way of play! She's been tubing for several years and decided she wanted to try knee boarding. Got up on the first try and did well with it she said. She said it was so much fun - can't wait to see her do it!

Went out to eat on some of our garage sale earnings. James and I were craving some sushi. We went to the local restaurant that also serves Chinese food for the kids to eat. Jack decided he wanted to try my sushi! Out of my 8 California rolls, Jack ate 3 1/2 (used chopsticks and everything) - Caroline ate 1 1/2 - Mommy only 3. Next time we'll get two orders. (and is it just me or is a 5 year old chowing down on sushi just a bit weird?)

Have a happy Sunday!

My Baby heads to Kindergarten

I don't know how it is possible that my sweet baby boy is old enough to be a kindergartener. I am not at all sure that I like this! But, he was so excited this morning. He insisted when he got in the shower that he use his Daddy's shampoo and soap so he could "smell good like Daddy". He woke up excited and happy.

All ready to go in the new school uniform. Everyone had them on and looked so nice today.

As we drove to school he was pretty quiet. As we got closer to school, he wanted to pray like we do every morning on our way to school. His prayer was so sweet. Something along the lines of, "Lord Jesus, thank you that I can go to kindergarten today. Help me make only good choices and not make bad ones. Let it be a lots of fun. And let me use my smart brain and learn."

Jack was excited when we got to school and was so grown as he went up to all the teachers he knew from last year and said "Good Morning" and gave them lots of hugs.

Here is with his teacher Ms. Poe

He had a great first day. Enjoyed going on a hunt for the "Gingerbread Man". He said it was lots of fun singing Tooty Ta. "I like it when we sing it like this with our tongue out". He stayed on "purple" all day (the best level) and earned his first sticker on his "Purple Day" behavior chart on our fridge. (for every 5 purple days - he earns a dollar).

Jack said this is his first day funny pose. He has done it the last two years. (did the same pose without any prompting from me!)

First day of Pre-K 2007

First day of Kindergarten 2008

Look how he has grown. I am really excited about what this year holds for him. I think he has a great teacher that really works well with active boys. One day down 179 to go!