Christmas...

Here's some pics from Christmas morning...

Just being Jackson...

playing with his new ipod

Christmas was good around here, busy as usual, but fun. On the baby front, things are going well too. Jackson has been able to start feeling her move lately, which excites him and he is definately softening up to the idea of a baby sister. I have to go in for the icky blood glucose test before school starts back, which I am definately not looking forward to, but hopefully that will go well.

I hope everyone had a really wonderful Christmas!

Playing catch up...

Ok, so here's to playing catch up from the past few days/weeks.

About 2 weeks ago, Jackson had his winter concert at school. The kids did a great job, although I could seriously live without the cheesy smile!



This weekend we took Jackson to his first Blues game. This seems like an off thing to me, since Josh and I spent so much of our childhood and formative years bonding over hockey, and yet our son has never been to a game. Oh well, the only thing he wanted all night long was a foam finger, so dad gave in and bought him one before the first period was over! The Blues won and Jackson had a great time!




Last night was the kids Christmas play at church. Jackson got to be Joseph and he took his job SO seriously. All weekend long he kept reminding me that his play was Sunday night and worrying about whether or not he would miss it or mess up. He did fantastic and was super cute in the process. Way to go Jackson!




Well, I'm off to finish preparing for the madness that is Christmas in our family. We have dropped a celebration with one group of family members this year which means we are down to only 5 Christmas celebrations in a 36 hour period!!!!

The view from up here...a picture post

There's a reason I married a tall man...even if he is a grinch! One of my 2 weekend goals complete! The rest of the house might not be Christmas ready, but the tree is up!

Oh yeah, and I seem to have lost my feet somewhere!

Not me Monday...

Ok I am following Nicole's adventure into "not me Mondays" here goes...

This week -
*I didn't secretly gloat that I knew I was having a girl all along, even though my husband kept saying I was wrong.
*I didn't secretly rejoice today that a problematic student was again absent from school.
*I didn't send Jackson to bed with spaghetti all over his pajamas last night because I was to tired to notice.
*I didn't guilt my husband into getting up to go to my parents house 2 extra hours early on Thanksgiving for no real reason.
*I wasn't more unfocused last Tuesday than my 5th graders because I was just as excited as they were for the the 5 day break.
*I didn't secretely wish we would have a snow day this early in the year.
*I wasn't so focused on the somersaults inside my belly and my lack of sleep that I completely skipped teaching a subject area today and tried to drop my kids off at lunch an hour early!!!

- no not, me!

So, what did you NOT do this week?

It's a...

GIRL! Here's some pics of our new baby girl...





All appears healthy and at this point she is measuring a little bit big. I have a regular appointment in 2 weeks, so we will see how things go then! Yeah!!!!!!!

Advent Conspiracy

Stole this from Lisa A's page...it was worth the thievery

A

For Nicole...

Baby update...Things are going well. I'm 19 weeks this week and we find out if it's a boy or girl soon!!! I actually am planning to call my doctor tomorrow or so because I'm feeling lots of pressure really low, like down near my hips and below. When my mom was pregnant with me I dropped into the birth canal at 3 months and stayed there, and I'm kind of worried that this could be something similar. I would hate to have to go on bedrest, but we will see. Because I'm not really feeling any pain or any other bad stuff, I'm just gonna call and see if my doctor says anything. I'm expecting she will just want me to wait until my ultrasound, but we will see. I'm feeling the bebe move more though, which is fun! Alright Nicole (and everyone else), now you know!

SERIOUSLY???

This weekend was a grading extravaganzaa for me. Every trimester when report cards roll around I promise to get better about not letting things pile up, and every trimester it happens again. Anyway, I stumbled upon some test answers today that made my family laugh hilariously and may do the same for yours. Remember please that teachers try their very best to reach every student, however we are not genie's. Sometimes we just have to take a private moment and laugh...

Question: Your scientific name is made by combining the names from which classification groups?
Real Student Answer: My cat's name is Rock. He is a mammal that lives in my house with his girl cat and their two kittens.

Question: What is the only mammal that flies?
Answer: Flamingo
Answer: a dino
Answer: Ostrich (this one is doubly funny because in the previous question, the student correctly answered that the penguin and ostrich are different from other birds because they can't fly)

Question: Penguins and ostriches are they only birds that don't do what?
Answer: Fly with their wings (I found this funny, because I really wanted to know what else they might be capable of flying with!)

Question: What is the difference betwen venomous and poisonous?
Answer: Venomous might kill you; poisonous will give you a hole

Question: Why do you think scientists needed to classify living organisms?
Answer: To help the dumb people
Answer: So the animals wouldn't be confused
Answer: So they could tell the difference between a lion and a frog (true, but comical)
Answer: To help the animals out
Answer: To help the world

Question: What does "classification" mean?
Answer: To put out

I am SO PROUD!
:/

In case you haven't heard...

I'm having a baby! Yep, I'm pregnant. We were not expecting this, but we are definately excited! I'm due in April and am looking forward to a spring baby! We told Jackson last week on his birthday, and he's excited now that it is sinking in! Here's how he found out...


It says "I love my big brother" in case you can't read it...

Birthdays and Stuff

So the day before Jackson's birthday we went to Six Flags to celebrate. The placed was PACKED, so he didn't get to ride everything he wanted, but he still had a blast. We had his actual party last night with a bunch of family at my mom's house. It was a Halloween/Star Wars party and it turned out really well. My mom went all Martha Stewart and made Halloween themed everything snacks. I got my hands in adn made these cute Franken-pops. I didn't eat one because I was sure I would go into shock due to all of the sugar, but they turned out pretty and I heard from a few that they tasted good. Here's some pics...

Cupcakes and birthdays

Jackson and I made Halloween cupcakes last night for fun. He did a good job and had fun, but for some odd reason insisted on being almost naked while baking...????


He was breaking an egg in this one...





The slippers were my day early birthday present from Jackson tonight!!

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we went to Rombach's Farm to visit the Pumpkin Patch. We tried our best to have a good time, but there is definately something lacking in the idea of going to the pumpkin patch when it is 84 degrees out! When will it feel like fall????

Josh said this is what would happen to his face if we made him go on the hayride!



Jackson took these pics...

Birthday Pictures

My mom took Jackson to get birthday pictures taken tonight and I can not believe Little Man is already 7!!!!! (Well technically not for like 12 days) Anyway, along with the new age comes...cheesy smiles!

Taylor

Hey all September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and in order to spread awareness I'm posting a video of my cousin Taylor's fight with Leukemia. Keep Taylor and all of the other children dealing with cancer in your prayers.



(Well, for some reason it isn't posting but here is the link anyway. It is definately worth your time to watch!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXqdUXUR3SA

Good Weekend

This weekend we got together with my mom's family to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday. Jackson and I decided to stay the night out at Aunt Judy's night so Josh could go home early and sleep because his allergies have been crazy lately. The next day Jackson went to BounceU with Mark and Emma's foster son Izaih, who has lots of extra energy to release. The boys had a great time and it gave Emma and I a chance to catch up.

The pictures are from BounceU, one is Jackson and Tiffany from church with her 3 week old daughter Miracle and the other is from way back in August at a concert that Jackson spent 3 months looking forward to, and then fell asleep 20 minutes into!

That's what she said...

So, I'm posting one of those great stories of my classroom others have posted, although this one isn't 100% funny...
We were playing charades today to review for our vocab test and 2 students were acting out the word composure. One student pretended to hit another student and that student remained calm and in control, this demonstrating the word. Well, about 10 seconds after it happened from the back of the class one of my kids yelled out..."man, you just got pimp slapped".
Needless to say it took 5th grade a while to recover

But a funnier one from last week...we were walking through the bus line one afternoon and a student announces..."some day I'm gonna be in a band and I'm gonna have more ladies, than Jay-Z has mercedes" Knowing the student he's probably right too!

One of those days...

So, its just been one of those days. The battery on the car died as we were trying to leave work today. Josh's dad came and gave us a jump and I hoped that was it. I needed to go grocery shopping and Josh wanted to go get the battery tested to see if the actual battery was the problem or if it was the connector things (I'm sure there is a more technical word for it), so he dropped Jackson and I off to hopefully kill 2 birds with one stone. As I was getting out of the car however I remembered that I didn't have my debit card. So Josh ran home, got the card adn headed to Auto Zone while Jackson and I decided to take our time at the store. My husband however showed up at the grocery store rather quickly to say that the only two people working at thh auto zone were 2 women who had no idea how to check our battery or take it out (it has this weird mount thing on it. ) So here's hoping we make it to work tomorrow. We were planning on spaghetti for dinner tonight, nothing complicated, so Josh started some water to boil and started cleaning up some things while I did a load of dishes. After a long while I noticed that the water wasn't boiling and then found that my husband had left the water on low by accident. As the night wore on, Josh and I convinced Jackson to clean his room up, which was quite the frightful sight. Following in my procrastinating foot steps he decided to 'organize' more than 'clean'. He reorganized the corner in front of his closet into a "reading corner" (no idea how we are supposed to get in that closet now), complete with a stack of books, 2 chairs, space for a snack and a blanket in case he gets cold. He turned the little table that he has in his room into some sort of "private" fort area, while another blanket draped over it and a stash of toys underneath. The best part though was when he came into the kitchen to explain his re-organization...he looked at me and said "you know mom, I think its good for me to have a quiet area. You know, a spot for me to kick back, hang out, chill, relax, you know, just have a good time" I laughed on the inside but kept my supportive mommy face on the outside. I just love that kid!


Sorry, the camera is at work, but I'll take some pictures of his newly organized space.

First day

First Day of 1st Grade...pretty emotional, but not as emotional as last year. Lets pray for another good one!

Florida

Due to technical difficulties I wasn't able to post any more pictures during out trip to Florida, sorry. All things considered, we had a really great trip and it was awesome to get the chance to just spend a week together without work and all that stuff. Here are some pictures from our last few days



Helping Jackson cool off...

Things are getting back to normal here I guess. I went into work a few days this week and painted my room and started getting things organized, and I'm looking forward to getting started again. I officially report back to school next week, so I am trying to spend the rest of this week cleaning, organizing and hanging out with Jackson.