A Century of Sucking!

The sign is back. I absolutely love it!


So today I wore this shirt to school. I ordered it from the site you can see on the shirt, thanks to Dan D. forwarding it to me. I didn't get the shirt until about 3 weeks ago and I am so excited to wear it to a Cardinal/Cub game next year!
I waited for 2 of my students today who are Cubs fans. Actually, they were my students last year. One of them is a senior boy and has math first hour 2 doors down from my room. I seriously almost felt bad for harassing him when I saw the look on his face. I thought he was about ready to shed a tear. Really. Then the other student is a girl who has math 2nd hour right across the hall from my room. She can "take" a bit more than the boy. So I sat in her seat, waiting for her to show up. The teacher threw a blue dry erase marker at me to write "Cubs Suck" on her desktop (dry erase marker comes up easily when you use the cleaner). So I did. Then when she came in and came over to me, I put my hands to my throat and pretended I was choking.

I hope I never see the Cubs win a World Series in my lifetime. I know that the reason I feel so strongly about this is because I attended Eastern Illinois University and probably 2 of every 3 students there were from Chicago or its subarbs. I formed an attitude towards Chicago people within the first few hours of being at college. For real. I love visiting Chicago but I HATE all sports teams from there, simply because from my experience, people from there seem to think they are better than us southerners and tend to think that anything south of Kankakee is "southern Illinois." I got really tired of hearing things like "You don't know where Elmhurst is????" or "You've never eaten at Ed Debevic's???" Get a clue, people. There really is life beyond Chicago. No, I don't hold grudges.....

More Spirit Week Pics

Alrighty then, yes, this is me on the left! Yesterday's dress-up day was called "Theatrical Thursday" and we took that to mean we could dress up like anyone from a play or movie. So here I am dressed like a combination of the nerds from the movie "Revenge of the Nerds." Alongside me is one of my students.....a cute little pixie dressed as Tinkerbell. Unfortunately, that is all my stomach you see there, no pillow or extra fluff stuck in my pants. Yuck. I had many students who came in to my room and says something like "Oh my God, Mrs. Frank.....I thought you were a sub!" I also had people (students) who I don't even have in class walk down the hall and look at me and just start laughing. And even funnier is that in college, these were my real glasses. And I seriously thought they looked good then! Here's a picture taken today, Spirit Day, of me and our best running back. You can read about him here from an article that appeared in the Belleville News Democrat. I had JJ in class last year and he is a very respectful young man.....one who it is easy to tell comes from a great family.

When I came out to my car today after school, here is what I found. Stuff like this is what makes what we do every day so worth it.

The "BTS" supposedly stands for "Brotherhood Through Sacrafice" and is something that our football team chants before and after games.

AS ALWAYS....."GO KNIGHTS!!!"

Best Friends

Tonight is B1's first middle school dance! Here is a picture of her and her best friend outside our house before they left. Her mom was taking them and I am going to pick them up later. They sure grow up fast!


And here is a picture of me with one of my best friends. She also teaches math at Triad. We are wearing Eastern Illinois University alumni T-shirts. We are both very proud of the fact that we are EIU graduates! Today was twin day at school.

Gym Decorations

Here is a picture of the main decorations in the gym on Saturday night. As I said, the theme was Mardi Gras and I think the decorations turned out beautifully. This picture reminds me of something you might see in Vegas! The colors were awesome. Try to look closely to see it all or click on the picture to enlarge it.

Spirit Week

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. I can say I have been busy (which is true) but aren't we all? The days fly by and before I know it, I need to get in bed. I'm not one of those people who can stay up until 12:00 or 1:00 on a school night. I must get at least 6.5 hours of sleep each night, and I try to shoot for more.

This week at school will be crazy. It's Homecoming Spirit Week. We have a Mardi Gras theme going this year and tomorrow is "Mardi Gras Monday." I don't really have anything very exciting to wear tomorrow other than a green shirt and some beads. Tuesday is "Twos Day" so one of my best friends and I are dressing in college alumni shirts (she and I attended the same college but not at the same time). We will also both wear similar pants and shoes. Wednesday is "Wake Up and Go" day and it's one of my favorites. I am seriously thinking about doing just that.....waking up and going. No shower, no make-up, glasses instead of my contacts, just brush my hair and my teeth and of course put on a bra! Otherwise, it's off to school in PJ pants I go! Thursday is "Theatrical Thursday" and I think I'm going to reprise my role as one of the nerds from "Revenge of the Nerds." I dressed in this costume several years ago and it was a pretty good one. I'll wear old dark rimmed glasses, part my hair on the side and gel it down, a plaid shirt with my pants hiked up high and either a nerdy looking belt or suspenders. Also a pen protector in my pocket and some kind of nerdy looking shoes. Then Friday of course is spirit day and I will be decked out in total Triad garb. I'll try to post some pictures this week!

Happy almost-Monday!

Dogsitting and Good Food!

My mom's health is improving all the time now and she is back to work this school year. She still has to take a lot of medication but thanks to the doctors at Barnes, her life is slowly getting back to normal. So.......my parents got a new puppy the day after Labor Day. Their previous dog died back in May, during a time when my mom was at a low with her health. His name was Oscar and he was 13 years old. He had a good life but it's still hard to say goodbye to a great pet. The new puppy's name is Rusty. Both are miniature dachshunds. We got to babysit Rusty this past weekend while my parents were away for 2 days/1 night. What a cutie he is! We just love him! This little face is just irresistable!

On Saturday night, I ate dinner at the Top of the St. Louis Riverfront (Millennium Hotel) with three girlfriends. We had been planning this dinner for quite a while now and it was really nice. We were there for 3.5 hours and the time went by quickly. It gave each course time to settle before the next arrived and it gave us good, quality time to visit with each other. We are all moms of young children and a night like that is certainly welcome once in a while! We rotated a little over 2 times so we got to see the entire St. Louis skyline from all 360 degrees. I had goat cheese and mushroom strudel as an appetizer, field greens for my salad, a steak with garlic butter sauce for my dinner, and the three of us shared black and white cheesecake for dessert. Yumm-O!

The St. Louis Riverfront is under water right now because of Hurricane Ike. If you are not familiar with St. Louis, you may not know what you are looking at here, but this is the south leg of the Gateway Arch and as you can see, the water is pretty high on the trees in the background.....almost to the leaves! The road that runs along the riverfront is completely under water right now, for the 3rd time this season.

You Find Out Who Your Friends Are

You find out who your friends are
Somebody's gonna drop everything
Run out and crank up their car
Hit the gas, get there fast
Never stop to think 'what's in it for me?' or 'it's way too far'
They just show on up with their big old heart
You find out who your friends are
(lyrics from a Tracy Lawrence song)

Well, we certainly found out who our friends are this past weekend.

Hurricane Ike made its way up into the midwest and on Sunday morning, we got some pretty HEAVY rain. I was in the basement showering and when I was done, I noticed that the shower water was not draining as fast as usual. Then, a minute or two later, I heard the toilet make some weird kind of "bloop" sound and no one had used it! Then I noticed water seeping UP through the drain in the middle of the floor. Not good. I yell for Hubby to come downstairs and I guess he could tell by my voice that something was wrong so he came running......

He decided to plunge the drain in the floor and raw sewage pretty much came flooding out of it. Yeah. So B1 and B2 scrambled around the room taking things out and as far away from the drain as possible. Hubby got the shop vac and began cleaning up that mess while I drove the girls to Sunday School (right down the road). I came back, and just a few minutes later, the alarm was going off near the sump pump, indicating that the water level in there was too high. So Hubby and I went into pretty much full "panic" mode. He started shop vac-ing, I started scrambling for something to pour the shop vac water into because we couldn't pour it back down the drain (which still wasn't draining). We both got on our phones and began calling people for help.

As it turned out, eight other friends and family came rushing over to our house. We carried buckets and buckets of water from the sump pump (ground water by now, no more sewage) up the stairs and out the door, dumping it down the driveway. Finally, we got a little smarter and did an assembly line type of thing so everyone wouldn't have to continue going up and down the stairs. Hubby manned the shop vac with one other person helping him, friend Mike ran to a nearby town to get some equipment he thought would help, and brother-in-law Randy brought some kind of machine that we eventually got set up outside which pumped the water from the sump pump up through a tube and out into the ditch. Whew.

We were all seriously dripping with sweat by the time the water slowed down. The problem is that our basement has been waterproofed. This means that any water that comes in through the walls is channeled through little tunnels in the floor and all towards the sump pump. The problem was that with all that rain, the sump pump couldn't handle all that water. This happened to us once before but we didn't catch it that time until all the damage was done. This time, we got lucky. We are now in the market for a second sump pump to hopefully alleviate this problem if it arises again!

Thank goodness for good friends!

Friday Night and Food

First, a few pics from last night's football game. We lost to Mt. Vernon, 28-7. It wasn't a fun game to watch.The team and poms lined up during the National Anthem.

Poms with their "THS" letters - I always think this looks so cool!

B1 with a friend standing along the fence watching the game.

B2 in the bleachers.

And now.....I got this list from Casa Christy. It's a list of random strange foods. The ones highlighted are the ones I've eaten/tried. Looking at this list, I am not a very worldly taster I guess!

1. Venison

2. Nettle Tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding - One of my very favorite things, ever.

7. Cheese fondue - at The Melting Pot

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho --Grand

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo Gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart - in Washington DC

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn, or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters - just to make my dad happy!

29. Baklava

30. Bagna Cauda - OMG I love this stuff at the Collinsville Italianfest every year! And that is coming up next weekend!!!! YAY!!!

31. Wasabi peas - these things are a pretty darn good snack! I just got turned onto them last year from a fellow teacher.

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - no but one of my favorite meals to purchase at school is French onion soup in the bread bowl. It's seriously better than Bread Co.'s! For real!

33. Salted Lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float -and coke floats, and all that jazz

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted cream tea

38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects - yeah, but not on purpose!

43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle - not yet but I want to have some in the Germany pavillion on my next trip to WDW!

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV - I HATE beer!

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Beef Tongue - no, but my grandmother would make this often. She loved tongue sandwiches.

70. Chitterlings

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail - at a restaurant in Quebec City, Canada when I was 19 years old

79. Lapsang souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom Yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. Shark

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo Chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole Poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

7 Years

As some of you know, I am a sucker for "meme" posts.....you know, the kind where I answer a bunch of questions about ME. One of those questions often asked is something like "What TV show/movie could you watch over and over?" Around this time of the year, there are many documentaries on TV about 9/11 and when I see one of those, my eyes are glued.

I found one the other night while channel surfing. It was a play-by-play of every minute of that morning, beginning with the times when the terrorists most likely entered the airports. I can't imagine what it was like being on one of those planes. They interviewed a flight attendant and her voice was amazingly calm. I couldn't believe it. How sad listening to her voice on the recording, knowing what was going to happen to her in a matter of minutes.

As always, tomorrow I will proudly wear red, white and blue to school. I will encourage my children to do the same and saying the pledge tomorrow morning will probably choke me up a bit. 9/11/01.....WE WILL REMEMBER.

It's Podcast Day!

Today is the day that Bruce and I are featured on "Be Our Guest Podcast." We discussed the Disney Cruise. If you are interested in listening to what we had to say, go here and click on "Listen NOW!" We are episode #51 (today's episode). Click on the grey arrow. The actual podcast is 36.31 minutes long.

We are planning another cruise for the end of July, 2011. As of now, I believe that some friends of ours who live in Florida, my cousin, her family, and her parents (my aunt and uncle), and my parents are going to go too. We are hoping that some more of our friends choose to come along also. It would be so neat if we knew many people on the ship!

7th Hour Prep! Yippeeeee!!!

Alrighty then.....another school year has finally officially started! I am teaching 3 sections of Algebra 1B this year and 2 sections of Geometry. I have taught both classes in the past, but it's been about 5 years since I've taught Geometry. There are certain chapters in the book that I really enjoy teaching (quadrilaterals, circles, and trig functions with right triangles for sure). I almost always end up really liking the Algebra 1B classes as well even though they are a bit higher maintenance than Geometry. I got lucky this year and my schedule includes 7th hour prep! My schedule is: 1st hour Geometry, 2nd hour Algebra 1B, 3rd hour Algebra 1B, 4A lunch, 4B homeroom (study hall), 5th hour Geometry, 6th hour Algebra 1B, 7th hour prep (free hour). I have NEVER had my prep during 7th hour in the past. I have always wanted that prep time but never been lucky enough to get it. Until this year. I am very happy with my schedule. Tomorrow is our first home football game of the season, against Collinsville. We lost last Friday to Chatham Glenwood. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better outcome. Happy weekend!

Vacation Days 17, 18, 19 (The End)

Before I post what I wrote on the last 3 days of our vacation, I want to bring your attention to a new blog I have recently begun reading. It's Called "It's a Disney World After All." If you aren't big into the Disney stuff, you probably won't care about this blog, but if you are at all interested or are planning an upcoming trip, you may want to check it out! I love reading the updates about what is going on in the Disney Community. Also, I am still a big fan of a podcast called "Be Our Guest." Bruce and I will be on the show one week from tomorrow discussing the cruise leg of our recent vacation. You'll have to tune in! I will remind you then. Anyway, for now, here are the last pics from our vacation (finally!). The above picture is of course B1 and B2 with the Cat in the Hat. These pictures were taken at Universal's Islands of Adventure.The Grinch and me at some store in Seuss Landing, which was a very cool place!

This picture was taken in the morning, before we went to the park. We did a character breakfast at the Nickelodeon Hotel. That's Bruce and Little Bill!

Our family with Spongebob Squarepants!

The girls and Dora the Explorer. B2 claims she no longer likes Dora, but I think she really does still just a little bit!

August 5, 2008: The alarm went off this morning at 7:00 and we got up, showered, dressed, and down to the Nick Toons Café to eat lunch with the characters at 8:00am. The meal was a buffet and was pretty good. The characters in attendance were Spongebob Squarepants, Dora the Explorer, Wanda and Cosmo from the Fairly Oddparents, and Little Bill. The girls got their pictures taken with all of them and we got a family picture taken with Spongebob. We took a shuttle today from our hotel to Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure. We arrived there about 10:30am. We covered pretty much the entire park, starting with Seuss Landing and heading around counterclockwise. I liked this park better than Universal Studios. It had more thrill rides and seemed more like an actual amusement park. We did get B2 to ride a ride where they take you 15 stories in the air and then drop you. We all rode it twice! We ate lunch in the Jurassic Park section of the park at a burger place and ate dinner outside the park in the City Walk area at a pizza place. We bought some final souvenirs before boarding the bus back to our hotel at 7:15. Once back, we came up to the room and packed as much as we could tonight. Bruce and the girls took things to the car and at 9:30, we attended a family game show type of thing in the Nick Studio. It only lasted about 30 minutes. Bruce and the girls finished off their arcade card while I came back to the room to type this! It’s about 11:00pm right now and just about time for bed. Tomorrow begins the drive home. I am ready to get there and see Shinza. I am not ready for the unpacking process!

August 6, 2008: We got up at 8:00 this morning, showered, finished packing a few things, ate the rest of the Cinnabon rolls (and B1 had a pop tart) for breakfast, checked out of the Nick Hotel, and got on the road. Before we actually got on the highway, Bruce decided he “needed” to have a Chic-Fil-A breakfast sandwich so we went through their drive-thru. Bruce drove the first 200 miles, to the Florida/Georgia border and then I took over for about 275 miles. We stopped for gas and snacks once and it happened to be at one of the same gas stations we stopped at on the way down to Florida over two weeks ago. Small world. Anyway, I drove through Atlanta during rush hour. We took the bypass but it was still full of traffic. Just on the other side, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner, which tasted good since we love Mexican food and haven’t eaten it in over two weeks now! So we drove for awhile after dinner and we were about 20 miles from the Tennessee border when we hear this loud noise coming from the back driver’s side tire. We pulled over on the interstate and checked it and found that the first layer of tread had completely torn off. Bruce said he saw it fly out the back side of the van through the rearview mirror. At first, we thought we ran over one left on the road from a semi truck. So we then drove slowly to the next exit (the tire wasn’t flat but still did not look good) and found a Wal-Mart with an automotive center but it had closed at 7:00pm and it was now 8:07pm. We ended up at a Sears automotive store that closed at 9:00. We called and asked them to stay late for us, which they did, and we didn’t leave there until 9:48. We gave both the guys working a pretty nice tip for helping us out. So anyway, then we drove for maybe 45 more minutes. We are now in Chattanooga, TN staying at a Country Inn and Suites. This is a very nice room, probably the biggest so far on the vacation! Bruce and B2 decided they are hungry and went to the Waffle House on the other side of the parking lot! Gees! We will be going to bed shortly.

August 7, 2008: Today we had breakfast at the hotel. It was a pretty nice little spread that came with the cost of the room. We then got on the road towards home. The first time we stopped for gas was in Kentucky and we discovered that there is a problem with the hose (tube) that carries the gas from the side of the van to the actual tank. We think it is some sort of complication that happened with the tire last night. We were able to finagle and got the gas into the tank, but had to leak maybe half a gallon onto the pavement at the gas station. We informed the attendant there and they took care of the spill. What a mess. We got a snack at that gas station and then kept driving. When we reached Mt. Vernon, IL at about 3:00pm, we stopped at Taco Bell for a small meal. We picked up Shinza from the animal hospital (she's not sick, that's just where she boarded while we were gone) about 4:30pm and headed for home! We drove around town and saw some big changes at the school that took place while we were gone. Mom and Dad came over to visit for a short while and we worked the rest of the evening on laundry, unpacking, etc. We drove a total of 2220 miles on this vacation. It is good to be home!

Side note: After we got home, we had the van inspected by a friend and family member. They believe that the problem with the gas tank happened when the tire tread flew around the tire and smacked into this hose (tube), causing it to come loose. Together, they were able to fix it at no cost to us! Thank goodness we know some people who know something about cars!

Another Stolen Meme

This time I stole it from Carmen over at Live, Laugh, Love Everyday. Like I've said before, I just love these things!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 9:30am (it's the LAST day of summer vacation for me, so I took advantage!)

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Swing Vote

4. What is your favorite TV show? Grey's Anatomy and reruns of FRIENDS

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? a cereal bar or trail mix cookie

6. What is your middle name? Ann

7. What food do you dislike? good question.....I'm not sure I've met one yet, but I have never tried beets for fear that I won't like them

8. What is on your ipod at the moment? 80's, country, and stuff that is often played on Radio Disney

9. What kind of car do you drive? 1998 Ford Windstar (yeah, it's old and I'm excited to get a new one.....but for now, this one is worth soooo much more to us than anyone else and since it's paid off, I am going to drive it into the ground.....I'm hoping to get another year out of it)

10. Favorite sandwich? Jimmy John's Big John

11. What characteristic do you despise? people who think they are better than others

12.Favorite item of clothing? hoodies in the winter

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? I love, love, love vacations and love going to places I have never been. I really don't care where it is, if it's vacation, I'm gonna love it!

14. Favorite brand of clothing? Cato and Fashion Bug

15. Where would you retire? close to wherever my kids are at that time

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? my 40th, this past May. I spent an entire weekend partying it up! Read about it here.

17.Favorite sport to watch? Baseball

18. Favorite TV show when you were a child? Little House on the Prairie

19. Pets? Shiba Inu named Shinza. I'd have more dogs if Bruce would allow it. But we LOVE the one we have!

20.When is your birthday? May 30

21.What is your shoe size? 10

22.Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Not really. School starts for the kids on Tuesday.

23. What did you want to be when you were little? A nurse. I changed to a teacher during my high school years.

24. How are you today? Fine, thank you.

25. What is your favorite candy? Katherine Beich caramel bars

26. What is your favorite flower? Tulips.

27. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Friday.....the first "Football Friday" of the season!

28. Do you get along with your parents? Yes, very well. Thank goodness for them in my life!

29. What are you listening to right now? B2 and a friend down the hall trying to make animal noises (really!)

30. What was the last thing you ate? a bowl of corn/wheat chex for breakfast

31. Do you wish on stars? No, maybe I should though.

32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Red.

33. How is the weather right now? Pretty nice for the midwest in August. I think the high today is supposed to be 87.

34. Favorite Restaurants? Talayna's, Cheesecake Factory, Spaghetti Factory, Lion's Choice, Taco Bell

35. Favorite soft drink: Coke

36. Real hair color? Brown.

37. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbies

38. Summer or winter? summer

39. Hugs or kisses? Hugs

40. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate except for ice cream

41. Coffee or tea? yuck.....neither!

42. Any little known talents? I can sometimes tie a cherry stem into a knot with my tongue!

43. When was the last time you cried? I teared up on July 27 when we boarded the Disney Wonder and they announced our family's name as if we were royalty.

44. What is under your bed? boxes of cards and drawing from the girls as well as some old pictures.

45. What did you do last night? Cooked dinner and went to B2's brand new school for a "getting to know you" sort of evening. The building is beautiful!

46. What are you afraid of? snakes

47. Salty or sweet? bitter or hot? salty, sweet, and somewhat hot

48. How many keys on your key ring? 5

49. How many years at your current job? This will be my 11th year

50. Favorite day of the week? Friday

51. How many towns have you lived? 4

52. Do you make friends easily? Yes

The Last Blast

Warning: lots of pictures coming!!! We hosted a scavenger hunt and pool party for several of B1 and B2's friends last night. I think a good time was had by all. We decided to call it "The Last Blast" (before school begins). The party began at 3:00pm and by 3:15, everyone was here except one girl who had a soccer game and arrived later. There were 23 girls so we grouped them into 4 teams of 6 each (one team had only 5). We had 4 "coaches" who were the adults that followed along and each team had a list of 44 items they had to try to go find. Between all the teams, we probably knocked on the doors of just about every house in our little town! We gave the teams a 1.5 hour time limit. If they weren't back within the required time, they were disqualified.

Here is a picture of B2 and a friend filling up water balloons earlier in the day. These are the teams with their "coach."

Below is the team that ended up winning. They were very competitive and found ALL of the items on the list! According to their coach, the girls pretty much ran for the entire 1.5 hours!

Ths list of items included:

1. 1993 penny
2. blue ribbon
3. empty Mountain Dew can
4. piece of sidewalk chalk
5. green button
6. red ink pen
7. stuffed animal (cat)
8. Werther’s original candy
9. red Dairy Queen plastic spoon
10. yellow highlighter
11. baseball card
12. clean baby diaper
13. artificial rose
14. chocolate tootsie pop
15. purple pencil
16. 8-track tape
17. pair of pink socks
18. 9-volt battery
19. play money
20. Reader’s Digest magazine
21. bow tie
22. orange hair clip

Below, B1 is in this picture

23. Christmas napkin
24. white glove
25. #7 birthday candle
26. matchbox car
27. some Cheerios in a baggie
28. Pizza Hut coupon
29. Hawaiian lei
30. picture of a boat
31. Monopoly hotel
32. clothespin
33. pipe cleaner (any color)
34. lid from a plastic Pepsi bottle
35. comic book
36. small plastic army man
37. popsicle stick
38. child’s wooden block
39. seashell
40. bendable straw
41. 2005 calendar
42. used airline ticket
43. red plastic ruler

44. picture of a boat

Below, this was my team. B2 is in this picture also.

While we were out scouring the town, Hubby was back at home setting up an obstacle course. It included shooting a basketball, jumping over some "hurdles," running with a balloon between your legs, sliding down our slip-n-slide, dribbling with a ball, soccer style, through some upside down buckets, swinging over a mud pit (we had a buy a cheap blow-up swimming pool just for this purpose!), sliding down the slide on the swingset, and then crab walking backwards until you crossed a line spraypainted in the grass. Below is a picture of the winner of the "4th grade and under" category.

Below here is a picture of the "5th grade and up" category. They are both very athletic young ladies.

These gals have already completed the obstacle course and are now watching their friends!

Oops! Although I regret not getting a good picture of the mud pit itself, here is one of its casulties!

After the winners were declared on the obstacle course, we had dinner! I chose to serve kid-friendly food which included hot dogs, corn, mac-n-cheese, various kinds of chips, and friendship bread. B1 requested the friendship bread a couple of weeks ago specifically for this party, so I had to go online and find a starter recipe. The bread was definitely a hit and both loaves I had baked earlier in the day were devoured. Later in the evening, we also had ice cream bars.

After dinner, we also did a water balloon toss. I was participating in this, so didn't get any pictures!

Finally, it was swimming time. The weather was so humid yesterday and into the evening that I'm sure the pool felt wonderful. I didn't get in myself. Later in the evening, the hot tub was a hit as well. Here is a picture of my friend's son, who is 3, hanging out with all the girls. I told her that someday when he turns 16, we should have this picture printed in the local newspaper!

We gave out prizes of $5 (whoo-hoo, dont' try to spend it all at once, huh?!) Wal-Mart gift cards to the winners of the scavenger hunt, obstacle course, and water balloon toss. The ages of the girls here ranged from 7 to 15 and it appeared that everyone enjoyed themselves!

These Last Few Weeks

I am thoroughly enjoying these last days of summer. In the district where I teach (and where my kids attend school), we are at the end of a construction phase for 3 new buildings. The work on these buildings began close to 2 years ago and is now finally almost complete. But, because of said construction, last school year began very early and ended very early. This school year starts very late. The reason for all of this calendar confusion is so that this summer (2008) could be as long as possible in order to get old buildings torn down and parking lots built in their place.

So.....many of my teacher friends and neighboring districts began school either last week or this week. Not me. I don't go back until next Thursday and my students won't show up until the day after Labor Day. Therefore, my daughters and I will have 3 weeks more of summer vacation than my husband. Never mind the fact that come May, he will be done waaaaaay before we are but like I said, for now, I am enjoying this! It seems that every year, the girls' ball season begins around Mother's Day. The season ends about the 3rd week in July. We have always planned family vacations for the last week of July and first week of August. We did the same this year. Then we get home from vacation, get unpacked, and usually shortly thereafter, start school. However, this year I have been given a little extra time to just unwind. No ball games at night to rush to, no quickie meals that must be eaten by 4:30 so that the food has time to settle before the game, etc. Just us and a leisurly 3 weeks off between the end of vacation and the school year beginning! It's been nice.

I am, however, getting into a really bad rut of staying up way too late and sleeping in. Today, I seriously didn't get out of bed until 10:50am! Well, I did get up and go exercise with a friend at 5:00. I didn't go to bed last night until 1:15am either. So I went back to bed this morning at 6:30 and slept until 10:50. I have got to get my schedule adjusted back to a "normal" bedtime. I just love the nights though! Everyone else is in bed (like right now) and it's "my" time. I love this time and when I don't feel tired, I like to stay up!

I have also fallen into a rut of not fixing my hair or putting on much make-up. I have actually gotten a couple of compliments on my hair too! Weird. I've just been washing it, putting in some gel, and letting it air dry while I brush it a couple more times. The other day, I had no make-up on at all. We went to lunch at Dairy Queen. I also had my glasses on (didn't put in my contacts that day) and when I went into the restroom and glanced at myself in the mirror, I decided I really did look rather scary! The sun has given my skin enough color though that I don't really need much make-up on my face. My eyes look bad without at least something though.

I've enjoyed staying up late watching the Olympics too. Those Jamaicans sure can run, can't they? Wow. Alright, well, it's 11:35. I am off to bed. I promised myself that I would be in bed tonight before midnight. Tomorrow maybe I'll make it 11:30, and so forth. I gotta get back into a school sort of routine! Goodnight!

Fundraiser for Theo

Friday night, I worked at a fundraiser for my student Theo. I blogged about him earlier this summer after I found out he has cancer. Along with marking items for the silent auction and counting 50/50 tickets, I worked the beer table at the fundraiser! I have seriously not worked with a keg of beer since college. I had some problems with the foam and when it looked like an "experienced" beer drinker was the customer, I asked them if they wanted to use the tap themselves and get their own beer. That way, if the foam was HUGE, it wouldn't be my fault! Ha ha! It all worked out. We didn't make much money on beer though. The 50/50 drawing went great. The person who won had written on their ticket "donate back" so the family got all the $$$ from that. B2 went along with me and convinced me to purchase a little fountain/lawn decoration sort of thing from the silent auction. We still need to find a place to put it. I saw some of my favorite students from last year and it sort of put me in the mood to get back to school. I will still say though, I am sooooo not ready to get up early! Oh my gosh, I do love my sleep. But I am ready to get back into a routine with myself and my daughters, and I am ready for "Football Fridays," as is B1.

As far as Theo's prognosis, he looks great and seems to be doing well. I am told that his kind of cancer is 80-90% curable, especially when diagnosed young like he is. It looks as if he is going to have to be home-bound at the beginning of the school year but hopefully will be back in the halls of THS soon.

Vacation Days 14, 15, 16

Bruce and me posing for a picture in Mickey's Toon Town Fair.

Tigger!

B2 wtih all the ketchup bottles at the Whispering Canyon Cafe!

With Shrek at Universal Studios.

This was in the New York section of Universal. I loved how everything looked so real!

The girls' Fairly Oddparents room at the Nickelodeon Hotel

The main pool at the Nickelodeon Hotel.

Wow! They are actually holding hands! ha ha!

The bucket of slime (really just green water) being dumped!

B1 after she got hit by the "slime."

August 2, 2008: We got up about 8:30 today and took showers, etc. We headed up to the food court and ate a late breakfast and then waited for the Vincents to arrive. They met us up front in the main building near the gift shop at about 11:00 and we all headed to the Magic Kingdom. Their son, Hayden, who is 3 years old, wanted to see Pooh and Mickey Mouse. (Last night, after they had told us what they wanted to do today, I went to the front desk at our hotel to add another day to our current park tickets (because we were out of theme park days). Guess how much it cost? $3 per person! Yeah! Really!!! How cool is that?) We rode the train to Mickey’s Toontown Fair and got pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie. We then rode the Winnie the Pooh ride and waited to meet Pooh and Tigger. We also went to see Mickey’s Philharmagic show. We then headed over to Space Mountain and Bruce, Patrick, B1, B2, and I all rode the ride. We left the park a little after 4:00pm because we had dinner reservations at the Wilderness Lodge at a restaurant called Whispering Canyon Café. We took the boat from the Magic Kingdom to get there. It was a pretty neat place. The servers are sort of rude but in a fun way. Once, Bailey was across the room playing in a little play area and our waitress yelled across the restaurant for her to come to dinner! Very funny! Also, when they bring the napkins and straws to the table, they just throw them all in a big heap at you! And the funniest part: when someone asks for ketchup, your server yells across the restaurant that ketchup is needed at a particular table. Then everyone in the restaurant who has a bottle of ketchup at their table brings it to you! We had 16 bottles of ketchup at our table at one point! After dinner, we all came back here to our hotel and Bruce, B1, B2, Patrick, and Hayden all swam in the pool near our room (there are 3 pools here). I did some laundry and LeAnne fed Lilly and then just hung out by the pool with me. They left at about 9:15pm to head back home. Right now, it is 11:30pm and Bruce and the girls are at the arcade but I believe are headed back here soon. Tomorrow we check out of Disney. L

August 3, 2008: We woke up at 8:30 today, got ready, and left Walt Disney World. I was actually ready to leave. I think we’ve seen and done just about everything I could want to do for now. There will always be more things to experience in the future (more restaurants to try, new rides, new Disney adventures). We went to McDonald’s for breakfast and I actually had lunch. This McDonald’s was nothing like we have ever seen. Not only did they have the normal menu, but also a gourmet menu and hard ice cream as well as a HUGE game room. Supposedly, it was the biggest McDonald’s in the world. We then headed for Universal Studios. The cost to get in there was totally crazy. I am not going to say how much it was but I have never paid that much for an amusement park before. We got 2-day passes (so we can go to Islands of Adventure either tomorrow or Wednesday) and we also got the special pass where you can go in the “fast” line for every ride, sort of like Disney’s FastPass. Having that pass turned out to be pretty worthwhile. We rode pretty much everything. The Mummy ride was the favorite but honestly, I wasn’t real impressed with the whole place. Maybe it was because the movies and TV shows they featured were some that I wasn’t really interested in. I am glad we went, but it won’t be a place I feel that I need to return to. After leaving the park around 8:00pm, we walked through Universal’s City Walk (between the two amusement parks) and chose to eat dinner at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Co. We had never eaten at one of those restaurants and it was pretty yummy! We stopped at Walgreen’s to get some medicine for B1 because she has somehow picked up a cold in the past 2 days and then finally, arrived at the Nickelodeon Hotel. The girls have been looking forward to this hotel for quite awhile now. Our suite has a living room, small kitchenette, bathroom, master bedroom with a queen bed, and a kid’s room with 2 twin beds. There are 3 TVs too! I don’t know for sure what we are going to do tomorrow yet but I do know that the bed will feel good tonight!
August 4, 2008: We slept LATE today. B2 didn’t wake up until like 11am! But she needed it. We had bought some Cinnabon rolls last night while at Universal’s City Walk and had those for breakfast, which were yummy! Then we headed for the pool. We went first to the large pool, which is a little further away from our room. We found a chair on which to put our towels, etc. and then got into the water. We relaxed and swam until about 1:30 when we came inside to the food court for lunch at Subway. Then it was back to the pool for the afternoon. At 4:45, they fill the big bucket above the play area with green “slime” (really just green water) and the kids stand under it, waiting to be “slimed.” Bruce stood with B2 a little too far back so they did not get any slime on them but B1 did get some. I took pictures and got 3 pretty good ones of the water splashing out of the bucket. Then I took a close-up of B1 but you have to look pretty close to see the green water droplets on her face. We then opted to head for the smaller pool, closer to our room. Around 7:00, we again went inside and ate dinner at the food court, this time purchasing food from Pizza Hut. Then we played a little while in the game room before coming up to the room about 9:00. It was nice just lounging around the room, watching TV, and relaxing. We all went to bed about 11:00