Weekend Wrap

So we had some snow last night....not a whole lot but enough to make the ground white this morning when we woke up. It is mostly melted now.

We participated in 2 trivia nights again this weekend. Friday was the first annual one at B2's school. It was very well organized and they had a lot of silent auction items, many of which were very nice. The trivia questions were a bit too hard in our (and many other's) opinions. But overall, a great night with friends. We placed 5th out of 25 teams, thanks to Michelle, who knew all of the music questions. I won 2 silent auction items, one of which was the Pampered Chef trifle bowl. It only cost me $20! It also came with a $15 gift certificate to be used with a certain Pampered Chef consultant. I looked up the price of the bowl in the catalog and it normally sells for $39. I think I got a steal!

Last night we did trivia in Alton with some friends. There were 51 tables at this one and we came in 7th I believe. There were a couple of guys on our team who were amazing with some TV trivia! Wow. If not for them, we certainly would not have faired so well.

Another full week of school looms ahead of me. It is finally the last week of our 3rd quarter and therefore, finals week for all of the students. They take finals this Friday (4/3) and the following Monday (4/6). Those make for nice days for us teachers.....just sit and watch your students take tests all day long! And finally then, we will be on the last quarter of this year.

Hope you all have a great week. I'll try to check back in in a few days!

Weight Frustration

Well, I really don't have much to write about. Our life has been pretty boring as of late, which I guess is good. I know that I HATE trying to lose weight. Why can't I just have good metabolism? Seriously. My brother and I came from the same 2 parents and he is the one who gets to be skinny. Why? Not fair. There have been 3 times in my past when I have lost pretty significant amounts of weight (30 lbs, 40 lbs, and 45 lbs) only to gain it and some more back over the following year. Augh. At school now, we are doing this "Biggest Loser" thing. I have lost 19 pounds so far but still don't really feel any different. I think this time my strategy is going to be to lose it maybe a bit more slowly but to KEEP IT OFF this time. We'll see how that works out. I do realize though that it simply needs to be a lifestyle change. I don't have to monitor every single bite that goes into my mouth, but I do need to make exercise and activity a bigger part of my life. I have been doing pretty good with that; I just need to keep it up.....forever! Tomorrow is weigh-in day and I sure hope I've lost at least something since last week. I am keeping my fingers crossed!

High School Musical

Here is a picture of B2 tonight after she performed during intermission at Triad's musical, "High School Musical." I did take several pictures of her while she sang and danced on the stage with several other kids. When I went to review them on my camera, it said "no card in camera." Ugh. Stupid me! So this is the best I could do. She did a great job and looked awfully cute!
It amazes me every year when I watch the musical at my school what talent there is among our student body. The finale tonight brought tears to my eyes!

Successful Weekend

Here are the pages I scrapbooked this weekend. I got 22 of them done! It was a very nice, relaxing weekend spent with myself! I arrived at the conference center around 9am Saturday morning and immediately began scrapbooking. I only left the building once, to go across the way to the hotel and check in. I ate lunch and dinner from the buffet of food that everyone had brought. Yummy! I used my Cricut that I received for Christmas a lot this weekend to cut out letters and other decorations for my pages. I stayed there scrapbooking until 2am on Saturday night / Sunday morning and then went to my hotel room. I didn't turn out the lights until 3am. Then I slept until 10:30am the following morning! I got cleaned up, drove to McDonald's to get a salad, and then took it to the coference center to eat it for lunch. Then I began scrapbooking again and stayed until the very end.....5:30pm. Bruce and the girls met me in Highland for dinner a little after 6pm. It was a great weekend and I feel like I got a lot done.

The quality of these pictures isn't the greatest. If you want to see any of them closer, just click on the actual picture and it will enlarge for you.
I did a 4-page spread of the tearing down of our elementary school, which took place last summer.

Then I did a 2-page spread for each of the girls of pictures taken at last summer's swimming lessons.

B1's pizza-making from last summer

The girls riding on the float at the St. Jacob Homecoming

The "Last Blast" Party we had in August

B1's first middle school dance

B1's Braces

Some misc. pictures of B2

Some old misc. pictures of both girls

The girls carving pumpkins and our Halloween pictures

And that's about it! I think I am finally ready to tackle the Disney 2008 pictures! That project will take me FOREVER!

Happy Pi Day!

Update on B2: She did have strep throat as I thought and she didn't need glasses. She stayed home from school on Monday and Tuesday and by Wednesday, we were back to "normal." I guess Shinza enjoyed having someone home here with her for a week straight!

I am very happy it's Friday! We are having pizza burgers for dinner tonight and I am then going to pack for my scrapbooking weekend! Tomorrow is Pi Day (3/14) so celebrate by eating something round (and remember that it's diameter would go around the outside of it just over 3 times!).

That's about it for now. Oh, do you like my new profile picture? "The Silence of the Lambs" is my favorite movie of all time. I just love Anthony Hopkins in that straitjacket! Happy Weekend Everyone!

Sick Family and Facebook

B1 missed 3 days of school last week. This is the most she has ever missed. She has now missed 6 days this year so far! I hate that, especially with Bruce and me both being teachers. She had swimmer's ear. Yep, swimmer's ear in March when she has not been in a pool since her birthday party back in December. And she had it in BOTH ears, which is really weird. She is definitely on the mend now though. We ended up going to an ear, nose, and throat specialist who cleaned out her worst ear and inserted a wick into it. The wick will absorb the medication and heal her. It certainly seems to be working. She has to go have it removed (assuming it doesn't fall out on its own) next Wednesday.

B2 started getting sick yesterday, just after I was (sort of) bragging that she hasn't missed any school year this year. I should have kept my mouth shut. Hers is way different though. Sore throat and headache. She has been complaining of headaches a lot lately. She has done so since 1st grade, off and on. I took her for an eye exam the summer after 1st grade and she was fine. I took her again last summer (after 2nd grade) and still she didn't need glasses, but I don't think her vision was perfect. I am now thinking it's going to be time. I am not going to wait until the end of the school year this time; we're going to go back to the eye doctor soon.....after she gets over this throat thing.....maybe even tomorrow depending on if they can get us in and how she feels.

I joined Facebook yesterday. I have no idea really what I am doing there, but it seems like the thing "to do." I haven't even downloaded a picture yet and I'm not sure I'm going to other than my profile picture. Right now I'm skeptical about it but maybe my tune will change as time goes on.

I am looking forward to next weekend because I am once again going on a scrapbooking getaway. I'm going by myself this time. I am still looking forward to it even though I wish Michelle was going too (Mike, can't she please just join me for one day?). I plan to get a lot done. I need to catch up with my everyday pictures and finally get to the point where I can scrapbook the pictures from our Vegas trip last February and our Disney trip last summer.

That's about it for now. I'll keep you posted on B2's condition.

Vacation Plans 2009

Well, yesterday was it. No more days off for us teachers until Good Friday now. Not sure if I'll be able to make it! Ha ha! Yeah, some districts get off more days at Easter, but this year we only get Good Friday. This again is because we started so late. My last day (assuming there are no more snow days) will be June 10. The last day for my (high school) students who don't have to take any final exams will be June 4. We are currently studying 3 options for next year's calendar, any of which will have us starting school in the the middle of August. Yeah, it will be a short summer. But that's OK; I'll survive.

Vacation plans for this summer include a 5-day trip back to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio in June. It takes about 10 hours to get there so we will drive one day, visit the amusement park for 2 days, visit the water park for 1 day, and then drive back home the last day. While there (60 miles west of Cleveland), I also want to go to the Christmas Story Museum in Cleveland. I just love that movie! Then about the 3rd week of July, we plan to go to South Dakota. We will see Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower (in northeast Wyoming), the Black Hills, Deadwood, the Corn Palace, Wall Drug, and also go to DeSmet (a "Little House" site where Laura Ingalls Wilder once lived). I am excited about this trip because it's been many years since I've seen Mt. Rushmore and also because we are not making any reservations for this one. We don't even know for sure which day we will leave. And we won't know either, until we just go. We are just going to wait for B2's ball season to end and then probably leave the following day or 2 days later. I'm not sure I've ever taken a vacation like that (not knowing when we are going to leave????) but I know it will be fine, and fun!