Raising Teenagers is Like Nailing Jello to a Tree!

Raising teenagers is like nailing Jello to a tree…

But I shall keep hammering away until I succeed. So, if you drive by our house and see a rainbow assortment of jello sliding down our tree, you will know its just me practicing. However, my analogy is ruined because in Iowa the Jello would be frozen and therefore, the difficulty would be obsolete.

You will never guess what we got this week…Ice storm!

I bet you all guessed snow, right? Well, haha, we ended up with an ice storm. School was cancelled and I slept forever. It was heaven (well, my idea of heaven without the chocolate). The kids, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to use the massively sloping ice rink that our driveway has become. I can’t tell you how many times the kids have slipped and fallen on the ice. I am surprised we don’t have any broken bones around here. I heard a great quote on Gilmore girls the other day: “Snow is nothing but annoying icy frozen water stuff that falls out of the sky at inconvenient times”. Amen! Have you ever seen ice covered raspberry bushes? Its quite stunning. If it hadn’t been 95 degrees below zero, I would have ventured outside to capture its beauty. Speaking of things that bedazzle…

Awards that Bedazzle and sparkle:

In staff meeting this week, I was awarded a “bedazzled” coffee mug for winning the staff NWEA tutorial competition. It even has sparkling crowns on it! I Know! I feel so special. I am also currently in 3^rd place in our school fitness challenge. First place is the PE teacher who is young, newly married, and no kids! I firmly believe that amount of children, age, and amount of “issues” people have should be calculated into our totals. I would be winning by a long shot!

Bitten by the “Lightening Thief” bug:

Ok, so here is how the conversation has gone the past 2 weeks. “Mom you HAVE to read Lightening Thief” “Ok, I will!”…Next Day: “Mom, what page are you on?” “I’m on page 1” “Mom! You HAVE to read this book!” Next Day: “Mom, what page are you on?” “I’m on page 2” “Mom! You HAVE to read this book!!” etc. I FINALLY gave in and started reading and now I am totally hooked! Its so exciting and well written and we are SO excited for the movie coming out! If you like an easy read and mythology, this series is totally for you! Should we have a contest to see who can read them all first?

Tyler and the Basketball magnet

I got to go to Tyler’s basketball game yesterday and was amazed at how much he has improved since last year. Getting rebounds is definitely his thing. I also discovered that I am indeed a basketball magnet. I got hit 3 times and had 3 serious near misses! One time the ref said that ball was mine and I should’ve taken it down the court. Now THAT would have been something to see. Those who were fortunate enough to see me in my basketball career are relieved that my camping chair sinks so low that popping out of it, and racing down the court like a lunatic, would have been impossible.

Pure awesomeness:

As I was trying to take a picture of Bob today, I commented that my camera wouldn’t focus correctly. Then Bob matter-of-factly stated, “That’s because cameras can’t capture awesomeness.” Enough said.

Don’t forget to listen for the universal scream of joy:

My pre-observation (along with the 7 page paper that accompanied it) went great on Friday. He will observe me M/T/W and the post-observation is Thursday. If you are lucky I will tape my jig of joy for you and post it. It will come in handy if you are ever sad and need something to mock.

PS-Apology:

I apologize that all newsletters are from my point of view and my point of view only. My descendants keep choosing not to update their blogs. So, I said maybe I will just have to keep doing silly jokes about the challenges of raising teenagers until they do. As you can see, the jokes are still coming your way.