All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

December 7,2008

Monday: I had to work and Marisa had school, but the rest of the kids had the day off. Trimester grades were due and I was able to get them done pretty quickly. Then I was in meetings to differentiate instruction according to NWEA scores. When I got home, the younger kids had cleaned the house, made brownie cupcakes, and made jello-beans! I was so touched!!

Tuesday: The morning started out with a knock-out…literally. The kids were playing “Kung-Fu” after watching Kung Fu Panda. Kayla karate chopped and hit Alaynas mouth, partially knocking out her already very loose tooth. I was able to help it out the rest of the way.
Then Kayla, Tyler, and Alayna came and helped me get new bulletin boards up, reorganize my room, make a new check out table and outline a beehive. Well here is how the day went:
I woke up, Alayna got the tooth knocked out, we went to my classroom to work for over an hour, ran and got my eyebrows waxed, dropped Tyler off at Hunter’s for Lego League research (competition is in a few weeks), did the dishes while I ate my lunch, grabbed 30 minutes nap, picked up Tyler, took kids across town for flu shots, went to learning ladder for school stuff, came home and gave kids Tylenol. Ran Alayna to gymnastics, and then Bob and I finished all the food shopping. As you can imagine, I was out cold by bedtime!!

*I started this newsletter before Thanksgiving and never got it done! So, now I have to go by memory. Yikes!

Bob’s Birthday: Happy 40th to Bob!! We celebrated by dragging him to Twilight (which he liked!)and then went to Happy Joes (his traditional birthday dinner). Grandma Hart arrived in time to go see Twilight with us and Grandpa Hart was sweet and took Alayna to see “Bolt”.

Thanksgiving: Debbie and family arrived in the morning. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! In the afternoon, they even played a “turkey bowl” in the backyard.
I don’t remember much about the rest of the weekend. It was just an enjoyable relaxing weekend that I think we all needed! I also finished reading “Midnight Sun”. Now I am frantically reading through all the books for Battle of the Books!

Saturday: Bob and his dad decided they could fix the washing machine on their own. They ordered the part they needed and put in on Saturday. They actually seemed like they knew what they were doing. Now it works just like new.

This Week:
Kayla took home the “baby” for her Family and Consumer Science class. These babies are AMAZINGLY advanced compared to the silly egg I had to bring home!! She had a bracelet that had some kind of computer chip in it. It recorded every time she got near the baby. Sometimes when she went near it, it cooed. When it cried she had to try and change the baby (it had a sensor), try to feed it (lips and bottle have a sensor) or rock it (again could sense it). She had to try whatever she could do to make it stop crying and do it until the baby cooed. She had a VERY long night (She was up around 10 times). She was almost in tears by morning- brought back some sweet baby memories for me. Dang glad we have moved past that stage!

Monday night we had our annual put-up-the-Christmas-decorations- along-to-Christmas-music night. Our house is all decked up and ready to go. Now if Bob and I could get our act in gear and buy some presents, we may actually be ready for Christmas!!

Tyler had his first basketball game. He should hop on here and let you know how it went. He is excited to play basketball this year.

Alayna has been taking gymnastics and can do some really cool stuff. I took some pics I will include.

We finally got a quiet family night at home last night! We all worked real hard yesterday cleaning, grocery shopping, lesson plans, etc. Bob made this incredible pioneer bean/ham soup from scratch, honey wheat bread from scratch and some chocolate covered peanut butter balls (again from scratch) He and the kids rocked!!! Then we cozied up in pajamas and blankets, put the fire on, and watched “Prince Caspian”. I love quiet nights at home! They are my very favorite!!

Our first massive snow storm hit this past week and we have another one headed in tomorrow. Today it was 1 degree. Yep, you heard me right, 1 degree. The snow flakes were so huge you could see the individual design on each one. It was incredible! Not loving the slick roads with the ice, but I guess we have to hunker down and accept that winter has most definitely begun!!

Coming up this week:
Marisa’ orchestra concert
Tyler’s Lego League robotics competition
Tyler’s choir concert
Marisa’s chamber concert
Marisa’s bowling meet
The ward Christmas party.